14 Nov 2011

CR IP TI ON BS SU

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Boeing off to flying start at Dubai airshow

Oprah receives Oscar for humanitarian work

40 PAGES

NO: 15268

150 FILS

21

www.kuwaittimes.net

THULHIJJA 18, 1432 AH

Pacquiao edges Marquez on tight decision

Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi GP for mum

38

20

20

2 Kuwaitis detained for ‘spying’ in Iran Bahrain links busted cell to Iran • GCC urged to be on guard

Oppn pulls PM grilling, to file another

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The Opposition Bloc, an alliance of most opposition groups and MPs, decided at a meeting yesterday to withdraw a grilling filed last June against the prime minister in order to file another quiz over bribes allegedly given to a number of MPs. Speaking after the meeting, MP Mubarak Al-Waalan said that the lawmakers decided to file the new grilling against Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah tomorrow. The move came to allow a thorough debate of the planned grilling against the premier over the alleged corruption scandal involving about 16 MPs on claims that part of the responsibility should be shouldered by the prime minister and the government.

Opposition MPs have repeatedly accused the government, particularly the Central Bank and the finance ministry, of failure to take adequate actions regarding the so-called illegal bank deposits into the accounts of 16 mostly pro-government MPs. The previous grilling, filed in June by MPs Faisal Al-Mislem, Musallam AlBarrak and Khaled Al-Tahous, alleges widespread corruption and administrative irregularities at various ministries, holding the premier responsible.

It will be the first grilling against the prime minister following last month’s ruling by the constitutional court that the prime minister cannot be grilled for violations committed in any of his ministries and should be questioned only on general policies of the government besides on issues directly under his authority. A second grilling filed earlier by MPs Ahmad Al-Saadoun and Abdulrahman Al-Anjari will not be immediately withdrawn because it lies at the center of a controversy over the constitutional court ruling.

The government says that the new ruling makes the grilling redundant and accordingly should be taken off the agenda of the Assembly, while opposition MPs insist that it must be debated because the court’s ruling does not have any impact on it. The issue is expected to come under heated debate in the National Assembly tomorrow. As a result of the ruling, the new grilling may be blocked by the government on the pretext that it does not come under the prime minister’s authority, especially since the government and its supporters in Continued on Page 13

DAMASCUS: Pro-Syrian regime protesters carry a giant Syrian flag during a demonstration against the Arab League’s decision to suspend Syria yesterday. — AP

Isolation, pressure piles on Syria after Arab snub

Max 31º Min 15º Low Tide 08:05 & 19:57 High Tide 00:25 & 15:05

TEHRAN: Two Kuwaitis have been arrested in Abadan, southwest Iran, on suspicion of spying and illegal entry, a television channel reported yesterday. “Two Kuwaitis have been arrested in possession of spying materials,” said a local official in the town, Bahram Ilkhaszadeh, quoted by Iran’s Arabic-language satellite channel AlAlam. An MP for Abadan, Abdollah Kaabi, also quoted

by Al-Alam, said the pair were “arrested two days ago and they entered Iran illegally”, without giving other details.

Ties between the two Gulf neighbours were strained after a Kuwaiti court in March sentenced three people to death and two others to life in prison after convicting them of being members of an Iranian spy ring. The case led to a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats but ambassadors and diplomats returned to the two capitals following a visit to Kuwait City by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on May 11.

Kuwait and the other Sunni-ruled Arab monarchies of the Gulf have repeatedly accused mainly Shiite Iran of meddling in their internal affairs and of inciting Shiite-led protests which rocked Bahrain earlier this year. Manama crushed the pro-democracy protests in mid-March with the help of troops from other Arab states in the region, prompting condemnation by Iran.

Separately, the Bahraini judiciary yesterday linked a busted “terrorist” cell to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, a day after announcing the arrest of five Bahrainis planning attacks in the Arab kingdom. The five men are accused of belonging to a “terrorist group” with ties to the intelligence services of a foreign state, a judiciary spokesman said, quoted by state news agency BNA. Continued on Page 13

Syrians protest vote • embassies attacked BEIRUT: Syria’s embattled regime called for an urgent Arab summit yesterday as it faced growing isolation not only by the West but by its neighbors - amid mounting pressure to end its bloody crackdown against an eight-month uprising. The crisis threatened to raise regional tensions, with Turkey summoning a Syrian diplomat in protest and sending a plane to evacuate nonessential personnel after a night of attacks on several foreign embassies by government supporters angry over the Arab League decision to suspend their country’s membership.

The 22-member bloc’s rare, near unanimous vote -

only Lebanon, Yemen and Syria were opposed - put Damascus in direct confrontation with other Arab powerhouses, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who were pushing for the suspension and constitutes a major boost to the country’s opposition. Tens of thousands of government supporters poured into the streets of Damascus and other cities - a turnout helped by the closure of businesses and schools. “You Arab leaders are the tails of Obama,” read a banner held at a massive pro-regime rally in Damascus accusing the Arab League of bowing to pressure from the US president.

Continued on Page 13

Police wrest control of Rio’s largest slum

RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazilian navy armored vehicles move into Rocinha shantytown yesterday. — AP

RIO DE JANEIRO: Security forces backed by armor and helicopters peacefully seized control of Rio’s largest favela early yesterday in a major assault to expel narcotraffickers who had been ruling the area for 30 years. At 4:10 am (0610 GMT), hundreds of police special forces and 200 navy commandos punched their way into the Rocinha shantytown as well as into the smaller Vidigal favela. “I have the pleasure to inform you that Rocinha and Vidigal are under our control. There were no incidents and no shots were fired. We don’t have any information on arrests or

weapons seized,” Alberto Pinheiro Neto, chief of the military police, told a press conference. Security forces also occupied a third smaller shantytown, Chacara do Ceu, according to television reports.

The high-profile operation in a city with one of the highest murder rates in the country is part of an official campaign since 2008 to restore security in Rio ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympics, which Brazil will host. Television pictures showed police displaying a variety of rifles with Continued on Page 13

MALKIYA, Bahrain: A man passes a wall painting yesterday depicting Redha Buhmeid, a protestor who allegedly died in past unrest. Protests continue across Bahrain.— AP

in the

news Kuwait oil output exceeds 3m bpd

KUWAIT: Kuwait has boosted its oil output to above three million barrels per day, the oil minister said yesterday and warned that any cut in crude production would send world prices soaring. “Our oil production yesterday (Saturday) hit 3.067 million barrels and the previous day we produced 3.054 million barrels,” Mohammad Al-Busairi said. In September and October, Kuwait produced 2.9 million bpd, high above its OPEC quota of 2.2 million bpd, making it the group’s third largest crude producer. Busairi said Kuwait boosted its production to compensate for a shortage in the market, adding that the world would still need additional supplies of between 1.0 million and 1.5 million bpd until the end of 2011. The minister said Kuwait would call on OPEC, which meets next month, to raise output to meet increasing demand. “Any cut in production will trigger a big increase in prices which will not alleviate the economic crises in Europe and the United States and will leave a negative impact on producers and consumers,” the minister said. Busairi said that if OPEC decides to raise output at the meeting in Vienna, Kuwait will demand an increase to its production quota.

Iranian hardliner’s son dies in Dubai DUBAI: The son of a prominent Iranian conservative who ran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 has died in a Dubai hotel in an apparent suicide, a Dubai police official and an Iranian website said yesterday. The police official said the body, with a slit left wrist, was found late Friday by hotel staff in an 18th floor room. There was no evidence of an attack and the death is being investigated as a suicide, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media. Dubai police did not provide further details on the man’s identity, but the Iranian website Tabnak, which is close to conservative Mohsen Rezaei, said that the politician’s son Ahmad Rezaei died in Dubai’s Gloria Hotel. It called the death “suspicious,” but offered no other details. Prior to his return to Iran in 2005, Ahmad Rezaei had lived in the United States and openly criticized Tehran’s rulers. This put his father, a conservative closely associated with clerical hard-liners, in an awkward political position. Mohsen Rezaei is secretary of Iran’s powerful Expediency Council, an advisory body to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

UAE-held activists begin hunger strike ABU DHABI: Five activists facing trial in the United Arab Emirates for allegedly insulting top officials began a hunger strike yesterday to pressure authorities to release them. “They began a hunger strike to get their voices through to UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, and not to challenge authorities,” said Wedad Al-Muhairi, the wife of one of the detainees, Nasser bin Gaith. In a joint statement on Friday, the activists said that “we find ourselves compelled to declare an open-ended hunger strike starting on November 13”. They said their decision came “after all our efforts have been thwarted, after we have knocked on every door and exhausted all possible means of redress, after we have lost all hope of a fair trial and even civilised, humane treatment... and after we were illegally targeted in prison by both guards and prisoners”. “Nasser’s brother visited him yesterday and he looked very tired. It seems like his health is deteriorating and I’m worried of the consequences the hunger strike might have on his health,” said Muhairi. “Our household is living in tragedy. I’m so worried,” a tearful Muhairi said, adding her husband already suffers from hypertension.

2

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

LOCAL

Cabinet to request cancellation of grilling debate: Ashour Immunity through Constitutional Court ruling

KUWAIT: Flipino Ambassador to Kuwait Shulan Primavera hosted a number of Filipino community leaders, embassy officials to watch the boxing duel between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez yestrday.

Filipinos in Kuwait question boxing match result

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Filipinos in Kuwait should have been celebrating after Filipino boxing pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao won the match yesterday.

However, most compatriots here questioned a controversial decision. “The decision to award the WBO Welterweight crown to Manny Pacquiao through a majority vote was a flawed one and should not be accepted by Filipinos,” said a Filipino community leader who requested anonymity. He said Marquez, [the Mexican boxing hero] was the rightful winner and deserved to win the crown. “Marquez obviously won the crown, but I don’t know what miracle takes place behind the scenes. I have always supported Manny Pacquiao. In this case, I am convinced he didn’t deserve the belt,” he added.

Some Filipino community leaders and embassy officials gathered at the Philippine Ambassador’s residence in Shaab yesterday to watch live telecasts of the match aired over the pay-perview channel from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, USA. Shulan Primavera, Filipino Ambassodor to Kuwait and Vice Consul Rea Oreta watched the match from round 1 to 12, refused to comment. Pacquiao won with the help of a majority but controversial

decision. The three judges had marked him using the following scores : 114-114, and 115-113 and 116-112. He was dwarfed by Marquez’s brilliant performance. “He shouldn’t accept the title because it is obvious he did not win.

Marquez dominated most of the rounds.

If no politics is played, the winner should have been Marquez not Manny,” he reiterated.

Another female boxing fan who watched live coverage with her husband said, “It’s unfair for Marquez and the Mexican people as a whole to be robbed of the crown, and it’s shameful for us Filipinos. I am for Manny whether he wins or loses the match. I continue to be his number one fan but I would want to see him as a gentleman who returns the crown to the rightful winner,” she said. Many Filipinos from Kuwait City to Fahaheel, Jahra and Hawally expressed the same opinion. Many were surprised at the judge’s decision. “I think it was money that played a great role in declaring Manny the winner. It can affect boxing as an institution,” Tony said. “I’ll be happy if Manny refuses the belt. We don’t know the politics taking place inside the boxing organization. Maybe they have their own reasons, whatever they are. Countries should not be engaged in this. All we ever want to see is an honest match,” he said.

KUWAIT: A lawmaker believes that the Cabinet will place a request during a parliamentary session held tomorrow, to cancel interpellation motions filed against HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah. It may argue that complete blame has not been placed on the premier in a particular case, which was also highlighted in a recent Constitutional Court ruling. “The Cabinet would be making a phenomenal mistake if HH the PM faces the debate after gaining immunity through the Constitutional Court’s ruling,” said MP Saleh Ashour, indicating in a recent statement that tomorrow’s (Tuesday) session may be ‘extremely sensitive.’

Yesterday, oppositionist blocs agreed to suspend a grilling motion previously submitted by MPs Musallam Al-Barrak, Khalid AlTahous and Dr Faisal Al-Mislem, to allow the Popular Action Bloc(PAB) and Development and Reform Bloc(DRB) to file a highly anticipated grilling motion against the prime minister over the graft scandal. Tomorrow’s ses-

sion will feature debate over the grilling motion filed by MPs Ahmad Al-Saadoun and Abdurrahman Al-Anjari over misappropriation allegations, reported Al-Qabas.

MP Falah Al-Sawagh warned the government against making attempts to foil the debate of Al-Saadoun and Al-Anjari’s grilling motion, hinting that this would prompt the opposition to “expose governmental manipulation during a mass rally held at Iradah Square on Wednesday.”

MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabae said that the Cabinet would come up with tactics with to foil debates, adding that the oppositionist blocs would retaliate with a counter-tactic by submitting a grilling motion. Meanwhile, MP Al-Anjari reiterated accusations of ‘sponsoring corruption,’ urging the need to address what he called “the crisis to buy MPs’ allegiances.” In the meantime, Secretary General of the National Democratic Alliance, Khalid Al-Khalid insisted that “Kuwait is dying for the only solution - to dissolve the Cabinet.” While labeling the graft scandal as “an unprece-

dented crisis that country faces,” Al-Khalid applauded former Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr Mohammad AlSabah’s decision to resign, urging “all ministers to follow suit.”

In another development, MP Dr Maasouma Al-Mubarak , rapporteur of a parliamentary committee tasked with probing suspected irregularities in a deal inked between the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation(KPC) and oil giant Shell, explained that KPC officials gave conflicting statements during previous meetings regarding the agent representing Shell in Kuwait. Meanwhile, a source familiar with the ongoing probe added that the panel was informed about two different agents , one certified by the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and the other by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. Committee Chairman MP Dr Ali Al-Omair indicated that KOC Chairman Sami Al-Rasheed, Vice Chairman Mohammad Hussein have attended previous meetings, reported Al-Rai.

Japanese designer to present fusion kimonos

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: On the occasion of 50th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between Kuwait and Japan, famous Japanese fashion designer and producer Eiko Kobayashi is visiting Kuwait to participate in a new kimono-themed fashion show entitled ‘TENKUU.’ Her tradition-inspired designs will be displayed on the ramp.

The Embassy of Japan in cooperation with the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters(NCCAL) will host the event, which will combine fashion, dance and music. It will be held on two days today at 7:30 pm (for invitees only) and tomorrow at 7:30 pm (for public) at the Abdul Aziz Hussein Cultural Center Theater, Mishref.

This is Eiko Kobayashi’s first visit to Kuwait. She is currently a freelance stylist for TV programs and magazines. Eiko was inspired by distinctive Japanese kimonos from the past and launched many creative

KUWAIT: Eiko Kobayashi talking to the Kuwait Times. collections incorporating these designs. She tries to create a new Kimono culture by infusing traditional patterns. She generally holds two fashion shows per year. She plans to showcase special designs for this occasion. “I will present 43 different designs made from kimono textile to express and show the Japanese beauty. I also have prepared some special models (abaya) that will suit Kuwaiti culture, which I designed for the first time,” Eiko told the Kuwait Times.

Eiko is also responsible for designing the show’s stage decor.

“Previously, Kuwait was a mystery to me because I didn’t know anything about this country. Then I read and searched and decided to combine the motifs of a mosque from Kuwait

KUWAIT: Two Japanese models wearing Eiko’s designs.

—Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat and a Japanese temple. I also mixed cultural elements from both countries in my dress designs by using natural sceneries,” she added. Last year, the 150th anniversary of the Japanese-Turkish diplomatic relationship was celebrated , and Eiko presented a fashion show that was appreciated by more than 1,300 people. “I was happy with the attendance and I hope that the Kuwaiti audience will enjoy my show that expresses Japanese beauty,” she pointed out. Eiko is the chairperson of the fashion group BE JAPON. It will present a number of trendy kimonos rich in colors, design, tex-

ture, and sewing accompanied by Japanese music and dance. The entire collection is inspired by the majestic kimonos worn during Meiji and Taisho periods of Japanese history. BE JAPON is a non-profit organization that was established in 1989 concerning fashion. The group interacts with the cultures of various countries and presents fusion designs by organizing shows.

It is a good opportunity to get in touch with Japanese culture, heart and soul. It comes up with other cultural activities to mark the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations shared between Japan and Kuwait.

Health Ministry offers nuclear, radiation emergency training

KUWAIT: Some of the participants of the training course.

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A training course on facing nuclear and radiation emergencies was announced here yesterday by the Ministry of Health, in cooperation with the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA).

On this occasion, Assistant Undersecretary for Technical Affairs Dr Khalid Al-Sahlawi said this is considered the first course of its kind. It includes workshops and seminars on the basic precautionary measures related to such disasters, he stated. EAEA experts will lecture the participants, representing a large number of departments in the Ministry of Health and other related bodies, he added. The special geographical location of Kuwait makes it prone to nuclear and radiation threat caused by the many nuclear plants in the region, he said.

The official remarked that this creates a need for training courses in this field, and the second such course would launch in March in cooperation with the United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC).

Some 40 candidates are taking part in this course from the Ministry of Health, Fire Services Department, Ministry of Interior, Kuwait National Guard, National Security Apparatus, Kuwait International Airport, Ministry of Oil, Kuwait General Administration of Customs, the General Administration of Kuwaiti Civil Aviation, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), and Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences (KFAS). This course is held virtue of an agreement signed with Egypt in May, 2011. — KUNA

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

local

Kuwait could face water shortage crisis Attack on Iran inevitable?

KUWAIT: A senior Kuwaiti analyst said on Saturday that a military strike against Iran in the near future is “inevitable” since “now is the best time for such action to take place before Iran’s nuclear program is completed within the next two years.” Dr Sami AlFaraj, the chairman of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies, called upon all the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations, including Kuwait, to prepare for violent retaliation from Iran in the event of any attack by Israel or other nations, since the Iranian administration “would accuse the GCC of allowing Israeli warplanes to pass through their airspace.” Dr Al-Faraj further suggested that adopting nuclear power would be the best way for the GCC nations to counter the threat from Iran.

Meanwhile, a Ministry of Electricity and Water insider warned that Kuwait could face a serious water shortage crisis as a result of massive oil leaks from any retaliatory strikes carried out by Iran against oil tankers in the Arabian Gulf if its nuclear facilities were hit by airstrikes by Israel or other nations. Kuwait depends almost solely on desalinat-

ed water from the Gulf for all its water supplies.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the MEW official said that the ministry has made little or no preparation and has no emergency plans in place for any crisis, such as the probable scenarios if Iran were hit by a military strike. “Kuwait’s strategic water reserve covers demand for only six days,” the insider said, explaining that it currently holds 2,332 million imperial gallons, with daily consumption rates reaching an average of around 348 million gallons.

“The MEW must act as soon as possible to boost the strategic reserve to cover demand for [emergency] periods sufficient to allow for the time taken to regain stability following emergency incidents,” the official asserted.

The insider also revealed another alarming fact, indicating that the MEW has absolutely no plans in place to deal with a lack of production of desalinated water in the event that the strategic reserve is used up, leaving Kuwait facing a major crisis in any such situation.

Concern has been increasing in Kuwait and

KUWAIT: Personnel from the General Department of Drug Control arrested a citizen with possession of 100 grams of heroin in capsule form. Several quantities of the contraband was seized from his place of residence.

The arrest was made after being tipped off on the man’s activities. A thorough investigation was also made into the case. In another case, The GDDC also arrested four Asians in connection with drugs peddling. They reportedly sold with 40 grams of the drug known as ICE. —Photo by Hanan Al-Saadoun

Four injured in road accidents

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A 56-year-old Indian man was rushed to Sabah Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit after suffering serious head injuries when he was hit by a car near Al-Razi Hospital. In a separate incident, a 28-year-old Egyptian man suffered suspected fractures to his right shoulder, whilst a 34-year-old compatriot sustained several lacerations in a car crash on the Sixth Ring Road. Both were taken to Farwaniya Hospital.

Meanwhile, a 27-year old Egyptian man was taken to Farwaniya Hospital after he broke his left ankle when he tripped and fell whilst getting off a bus at the Sulaibiya depot.

Fight club A 38-year-old Egyptian man was taken to Farwaniya Hospital after suffering lacerations to his left arm during a fight in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh near the local police station.

Chef flambeed A 38-year-old Egyptian chef was taken to Mubarak Hospital after sustaining first degree burns to both hands whilst attempting to put out a fire at the restaurant where he works in Salmiya. The fire was safely extinguished.

Steps to promote social activism KUWAIT: en.v, a leading Kuwait-based organization dedicated to social responsibility in the Arab world, and The Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) yesterday announced a one-year program to promote social activism in Kuwait entitled ‘Voice for Success.’

The program seeks to strengthen civil society in Kuwait through the promotion of innovative initiatives by Kuwaiti youth in the fields of social responsibility, empowerment, and development. Over a 12 month period, en.v will identify a total of 36 committed youth and document their initiatives through a series of short films, photographic reports and articles. en.v will then publish this content on its online news portal and promote it to the general public. en.v will also embark on a tour of schools and universities around Kuwait with the aim of educating students on key social issues and inspiring them to proactively address them.

“The US State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative’s (MEPI) mission is to create vibrant partnerships between America and the citizens of the Middle East and North Africa to empower them to build more pluralistic, participatory, and prosperous societies throughout the region. en.v’s project, Voice for Success, is an excellent example of how a MEPI grantee can use digital media to increase the civic participation of Kuwaiti youth,” said Deborah Hart-Serafini, Coordinator for MEPI in Kuwait.

In addition to participants (and their respective efforts) being promoted through an educational roadshow, social media platforms, and select media channels, they will automatically be entered into an online competition. Voted for by the public, the three candidates with the highest number of votes will receive prizes upon completion of the program.

“Voice For Success is truly a one of a kind initiative which aims to involve the young minds in Kuwait to participate in making a positive difference.” said Zahed Sultan, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer. “Through the introduction of this program, MEPI has paved the way for members of society to share their individual initiatives and ideas, thereby contributing to exploring more opportunities and open more doors for social responsibility programs.”

The Voice for Success program aspires to create a platform for Kuwait’s young role models to promote their causes and share their know-how with fellow citizens at a national level. The program will ignite dialogue amongst the most promising advocates for social progress and give them a boost to reach greater numbers of people - becoming a source of inspiration for all.

across the Gulf region ever since worldwide news agencies began running an increasing number of article suggesting potential Israeli airstrikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities in recent weeks, followed by the latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which expressed “serious concern” over possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear program.

The chairman of Kuwait’s parliamentary environment committee, MP Dr. Ali Al-Omair, announced on Saturday that he is to invite fellow lawmakers and representatives of environmental organizations to an upcoming meeting to discuss the threats of a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. Dr. AlOmair indicated that the country’s defense minister, Sheikh Mubarak Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, who is also the First Deputy Minister, would also be invited to attend the meeting “in order to verify the state’s preparations for any possible scenarios.” Members of other parliamentary committees, such as the interior, defense and foreign affairs committees, are also expected to attend the meeting.

One of the main concerns in Kuwait arises from the possible dangers posed by an attack on the Bushehr nuclear power plant which sits on the Iraqi coastline roughly 270 miles from the Kuwaiti coast.

According to one local safety expert, however, the distance, as well as the safety procedures adopted at the Bushehr plant, mean that the actual risk of any radiation leak from the plant in the event of an attack would be limited.

“The Bushehr nuclear plant is one of 450 safest nuclear plants worldwide”, said Mustafa Ghloom, a Kuwaiti expert on Iranian nuclear issues. Ghloom indicated that any radiation resulting from damage to the Bushehr reactors would spread to a limited area of 100 kilometers according to IAEA estimates “The reactor is fortified with a strong system that prevents its core from being damaged in case of internal or external collapses”, he explained.

Ghloom further undermined the exchanged threats between Iran and Israel, which he described as “a media war to gauge international reactions.”

Whilst urging the Kuwaiti government to take every

precaution regardless of the seriousness of any actual threats, Ghloom still called upon the government to “avoid giving attention to claims that blow the situation way out of proportion.” The scientific expert also hinted that the current developments could be a strategy to encourage the governments of the region to “sign military deals with the west to solve Europe’s financial woes.”

A senior Ministry of Health (MoH) official also affirmed that the risks of radiation damage from any attack on the Bushehr plant would be limited, adding that the real threat to Kuwait from any such attack would be the scenarios that followed it. Samir Al-Asfour, the MoH Assistant Undersecretary for Public Services, who is also a qualified nuclear engineer, further reiterated that the Bushehr plant is used solely for peaceful means as a power generating facility. The Ministry of Health yesterday (Sunday) began a five-day course for forty personnel from various state bodies on how to cope in the event of any radiation leak in the country. — AlQabas, Annahar, Al-Shahed, Al-Watan & Al-Rai

A

y

e niv rsar n

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Years

local

Hasna, Sabiha Vbed, Kiran Avain, Aziza Khan, Sita — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Thuraya Al-Baqsami, Hanan Al-Mutawa

Mohammed Al-Dhubaib

IWG holds monthly meeting

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The International Women’s Group (IWG) held its monthly breakfast yesterday morning at the Radisson Blu Hotel. This meeting was attended by about 120 members of the group.

The IWG members meet regularly for various events and activities, with the president of the group, Sebella Van Tonder, the wife of the South African Ambassador to Kuwait, giving the opening address during yesterday’s meeting in which she talked about the group’s upcoming events.

Following the meeting, IWG member Narjis Al-Shatti told the Kuwait Times that the IWG Kuwait chapter is a branch of the

Denmark-based International Women’s Association, which has branches worldwide, all of which organize similar programs and activities. “The activities this year will include visits to traditional venues such as museums, the Arab Fund headquar ters, and Bayt Lothan, in addition to other cultural activities such as those presented by the diplomats’ wives about their home countries,” she said, adding, “As a part of its activities, the group is also organizing English language courses for the non-English speaking wives of ambassa-

dors starting from the beginning of this month.”

Yesterday’s meeting also included a presentation by young Kuwaiti restaurateur Mohammed Al-Dhubaib, who spoke about his culinary experience and his restaurant, Melenzane, in Al-Bidaa. During his presentation, Al-Dhubaib spoke about how he set up in business, what drove him to specialize in Italian, specifically Sicilian, cuisine, and talked about his training in Italy under Chef Nino Trapini.

Nazeeha Al-Hajaj, Mutee’a Al-Muhana, Maiko

Ghanim Al-Sharhan, Hirokd

Sebella Van Tonder

Takako, Narjes Al-Shatti, Julie

y

A

6

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

LOCAL

kuwait digest

kuwait digest

The govt encourages people to travel!

A black hole in the White House!

By Ahmed Bodostor

T

By Sherida Al-Maosherji

T

he streets of Kuwait are usually empty during each Eid holiday and every official vacation as people flock to leave the country, racing to buy their tickets for flights overseas and refusing to spend vacations in Kuwait. I don’t know how to describe this behavior; has the yearning to travel become an unavoidable social habit? Or is it the result of people’s need to have some breathing space away from the usual routine and work stress?

Anyway, let’s not focus on what to call it. Instead, I believe state officials should study this phenomena that has become a rule, with every other sort of behavior being the exception. Whenever you meet somebody after returning from a vacation you are asked where you spent it and you usually see invisible exclamation signs in their expression whenever you say that you spent it in Kuwait.

This was exactly what I said to a friend who is used to spending vacations in Kuwait the other day.

He was sure about the cause of this trend: “Do you really want the government to study a phenomenon it had created?” he asked. “It’s the government that usually extends vacation periods without due reason.

It’s as if the government were providing people with more temptations to desert the country for other countries that have been dedicating all their potential to attract more tourists.”

My friend asked, quite reasonably, why Kuwait, which was at one time considered an attractive destination for tourists from across the GCC, had not launched any new tourism initiatives in years. “Stop dreaming, my brother, and don’t ask an incapable person to do anything for you!”, added my friend noting that as long as oil prices continue to rise, government officials won’t think of anything except how to face the grilling motions filed against them all the time.

On a separate issue, Italian premier Silvio Berlusconi has recently faced several political crises because of sexual and corruption scandals that found their way to the press, TV channels and courtrooms.

He is also set to step down following his government’s failure to resolve Italy’s economic problems, which have become a threat to the whole European Union, leading the opposition to demand and achieve a ‘No-trust Vote’ in his cabinet several times; somehow, previously he always managed to survive each time, albeit by only one or two votes.

Despite this, however, the leaders of the Italian opposition did not harness public opinion and unconstitutionally provoke the people into demanding his immediate departure! — Al-Jarida

kuwait digest

The great escape

By Dr Mubarak Al-Therwa

P

eople in Kuwait are adept at escaping from reality on a daily basis. It is an art that children study in schools, finds a mention in books frequently read by young, political activists. This art helps those who practice it to vent their frustration.

In true artistic fashion, we often criticize, insult, stage protests and support grilling motions until we get rid of all the negative energy, what is otherwise known as ‘emotional discharge.’

Why do citizens support a grilling motion? It helps them vent frustration at the government’s performance. Nothing more, nothing less. The reason I say this is because I believe this is our way of escaping reality - by criticizing and insulting the Cabinet and MPs without necessarily doing anything to change the situation.

Today, we criticize MPs who have been accused of accepting bribes. I believe that all lawmakers are guilty of corruption, even those who didn’t accept

bribes. That is because we want it to remain that way.

Let’s be honest about diagnosing our problems aren’t we the ones who encourage lawmakers to break the law by placing pressure on them to help us obtain certain privileges like jobs and overseas treatment illegally? When an MP mediates for a person to obtain a privilege from the government, how can that be considered okay? The answer is, it can’t. But that’s not a problem as long as citizens obtain privileges through mutual benefit with MPs who make use of their support. The country will have to pay the price. Therefore, we are responsible for the crime that drives Kuwait into the abyss. Why should we even pretend otherwise? Of course, responsibility for problems differ from one person to another. That doesn’t mean that any problem , no matter how small it is, can be ignored. Therefore, we must act to implement changes that save Kuwait from the crimes committed against it. —Al-Rai

kuwait digest

Are we against greenery?

By Yousuf Al-Enaizi

D

ear Maj Gen Mohammad Al-Bader, this letter is written on behalf of a citizen who appreciates your efforts in serving the country. I wish there were more people like you in many fields, especially in the Traffic Department so that laws will be strictly implemented. Despite that, I would like to mention two incidents that took place with me. You can pass a judgment on it. The first took place when I represented my country in Holland. I was residing at the premises of the head of the mission. It has a large garden with old trees that were over 100 years old. When a storm hit Holland once, one gigantic tree fell and partially blocked the entrance way.

We called up a company to remove the tree, but it refused to chop it down without obtaining permission from the local council of Fisnar, where the place of residence is located. The embassy wrote a memo to the Dutch Foreign Ministry seeking approval from the local council, which sent a committee to make sure that the tree was uprooted because of the storm, and was not a deliberate act. After receiving written approval from the council, the company removed the tree. This happened in Holland where the land is not as arid like Kuwait.

The second incident took place in Kuwait. My house is located at a corner where a power transformer is situated.

It is only in Kuwait that I have seen power transformers placed between homes despite the dangers they pose.

Anyway, I planted a garden in front of my house, and was asked to diversify the types of trees and flowers grown. I brought mango trees from Venezuela, pomegranates from Yemen, grapes from Greece and Cyprus, olives from Jordan, and may be my most prized passion is a rare species of tree called ‘Eyas,’ a rare one from Yemen. It is a tree that looks amazing and produces beautiful white flowers. One day, we woke up to the sound of bulldozers, looked outside the window and saw two police cars, two yellow jeeps from the Municipality and two small bulldozers, along with several employees who walked around arrogantly. Some kicked the trees and flowers as if wreaking vengeances on it. An hour later, the beautiful garden was transformed into a picture of destruction.

When I asked about the reason, they said the trees and flowers block the view of that ‘magnificent transformer.’

We support the encroachment removal committee’s decisions because it is performing its duty toward the country. No one casts aspersions on its sincerity and keenness on implementing the law. But, why do they target trees? Why do they target gardens that the citizen plants? Everyone feels a tinge of sorrow to witness huge trucks carrying timber. Workers are armed to attack greenery here. One carries a pair of shears, another carries a saw and a third carries an axe. Everyone struggles with trees, cutting and trimming them. May be we are not harming anyone when we say that the recent years witnessed unprecedented negligence. The colors disappeared from trees. We only see black pipes laid out. May Allah protect Kuwait, its leadership and people from all harm. — Aljarida

he late Egyptian poet, Salah Jaheen once described regional peace as mere ‘talk’ in a quatrain: “Peace, peace, peace, peace.

Talk, talk, talk and talk Shake papers thus my friend, You’ll get peace talks and false peace!”

An old Egyptian saying goes as ‘Nothing is perfect’ which applies to US foreign policy practiced in the region. It is full of dead ends on some issues and is bright in others. The US has solved many issues while it appears unable to solve others. This is because American policies have been drawn up in accordance with interests rather than principles. That’s why it’s very tiring to deal with the US. Our famous veteran singer, Hussein Jassim sang, “Tawni Araftek Zain, Tel’ab Ala Al-Hablain” ( Now I realized you are playing a double game). This is typical in US Middle East policies where the US resorts to double standards, it is playing a double game. There are many examples of such political hypocrisy on the US government’s part, forming a black hole in the beautiful image of the White House, as a breach in the credibility of the host of the Statue of Liberty, Human Rights, Justice and respect for people’s right to self-determination. The issue that exposes this ugly face of the US most is the Palestinian dilemma, where the US not only takes Israel’s side but also defends it as if it were the 51st American state. Israel’s security is an integral part of that of the US; both countries are same sides of a coin. The US has gone that extra mile in supporting Israel. This took place when it stopped paying its share in the UNESCO budget (22 per cent of the total budget equals $70 million) as punishment of UNESCO’s acceptance of Palestinian membership, a first step towards accepting Palestine as a UN member state. It is strongly opposed by the US who threatened to veto the vote. As long as US and Israel remain in the same boat, Middle East peace will remain mere talk, which is very stupid of America compared to the volume of its mutual interests with the Arab world. It is the Jewish lobby that is very influential in the US and formulates its policies. However, as Chairman, Mahmoud Abbas recently said, Arab leaders should be blamed for the loss of Palestine when they refused to accept the UN’s Resolution number 181 in 1947 that divided Palestine into two states.

The second issue that really exposes US’ unscrupulous practices is the relations it shares with Iran. There is a strange sort of relation that claims hostility in the open while both countries agree on certain issues behind the scenes such as cooperating to get rid of the Taliban and Saddam Hussein regimes. These were Iran’s fiercest enemies. Speaking about the Iranian nuclear reactor, the US seems to be giving Iran unlimited chances and ‘ultimatums’ in a frivolous manner. The most recent ‘hidden cooperation’ was the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq leaving it open for more Iranian influence, in complete contrast to recent US threats to strike Iran. I see it is as an attempt to blackmail and force Iran to abandon its strategies in Syria.

The third example of this is the US attitude towards military interference in Syria despite identical resemblance with the Libyan case. Both regimes are of oppressive nature, killing innocent civilians demanding freedom and change of regime. US credibility is at stake now, especially after the failure of the Arab League’s initiative. It seems like US is still hesitant for two reasons; Syria is not an oil producing country and , at the same time, shares secure borders with Israel across which shooting or hostilities were never witnessed between both sides!

So, Middle East peace can never be achieved as long as the US keeps supporting Israel with a nuclear arsenal, as long as Iran supports terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah and Hamas and keeps interfering in Iraq and GCC states’ affairs. Tyrannical regimes oppress and kill its own people. So as to remove the black hole or stain in the White House, the US has to force Israel to accept the foundation of a Palestinian state and also accept changing regimes in Iran, Syria and Yemen. — Al-Watan

kuwait digest

No tolerance for dissent

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

K

uwait has always been a safe haven for the weak and those oppressed in their home countries by their governments. Kuwait has sheltered numerous oppositionists from Saudi Arabia and rebels from Bahrain, while giving a permanent home and citizenship status to Syrian oppositionists in the early sixties, as well as a safe place to Qatari tribes seeking refuge following disputes with their ruler.

All that happened before Kuwait signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights which protects people’s right to seek political asylum, even before Kuwait adopted the democratic system which protects individual freedom. It also took place before the adoption of the Constitution fifty years ago.

The Constitution prohibits extraditing political refugees to their respective countries.

Today, certain MPs ask the government to ban some Arab opposition groups from entering the country, and threaten to file a grilling motion against the Interior Ministry if they fail to ban some individuals’ opposing views.

These lawmakers argue that the Interior Minister allows oppositionist Bahraini MP to enter Kuwait despite a ban issued against him, which they claim is still active.

While they argue that the minister violated regulations, MPs ignore the fact that making decisions is the sole authority of the interior minister. They have the sole authority to revoke the ban in accordance with his personal assessment.

MPs calling for a ban on Bahraini lawmaker’s entrance, are similar to those that previously called for shutting down certain newspapers and TV channels that published differing opinions. They are the same MPs who call for a new government that follows the approach they impose on the country.

While opposition groups from other countries complain against visits paid by intelligence personnel to their home countries, we find that the opposition here in Kuwait behave arbitrarily for twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. —Al-Qabas

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Rival Libyan militias clash near army base

Republicans promise to stop Iranian nuclear bomb Page 10

Page 8

Monti set to head ‘technocratic’ govt Berlusconi resignation greeted with cheers, boos ROME: Economist Mario Monti won pledges of support yesterday to lead a new technocratic government to try to rescue Italy from financial disaster, including from Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative party. But Berlusconi’s ally, the Northern League, said it would become an opposition party rather than back Monti. After days of being pummeled by international investors skittish about Italy’s massive debts, Italy faces severe pressure from financial markets to have a new government before Asian markets open.

President Giorgio Napolitano was talking yesterday with all party leaders and could tap Monti as soon as yesterday evening, just 24 hours after Berlusconi reluctantly resigned from the premiership due to a loss of faith in his leadership.

But even if Monti is chosen, he would still have to assemble a cabinet, present his rescue strategy to Parliament, and then seek a confidence vote after a debate. All that could take a few days. The man Berlusconi chose to be his political heir, Angelino Alfano, said the conservative People of Freedom party would “give the OK to Monti’s being tapped. “ “Then we’ll see and will talk with Monti about his program, and if it suits us well, we will support him,” Alfano told state TV. Whoever leads Italy faces a monumental task: an Italian default could tear apart the coalition of 17 countries that use the euro and

wallop Europe and the US, which are trying to avoid new recessions.

Italy’s economy is hampered by high wage costs, low productivity, fat government payrolls, excessive taxes, choking bureaucracy, and an educational system that produces one of the lowest levels of college graduates among rich countries.

In addition, as the third-largest economy in the eurozone, Italy is considered too big for Europe to bail out like it did Greece, Portugal and Ireland. The next Italian government needs to push through even more painful reforms and austerity measures to deal with euro1.9 trillion ($2.6 trillion) in debt - about 120 percent of the country’s economic output. And many of those debts are coming due soon - Italy has to roll over more than euro300 billion ($410 billion) of its debts next year alone.

Most centrists and center-left par ties in the opposition have pledged support for a Monti government, saying the former European Union competition commissioner has the moral authority and economic know-how to get Italy to pass long-delayed structural economic reforms. “Italian parties are at fork in the road. Either they speculate on the situation, hoping that they can get some campaign capital from it, or they take up their responsibilities to save the countr y,” said centrist opposition leader Pier Ferdinanco Casini, expressing hope that a new

government could last until elections are scheduled for spring 2013.

But Umber to Bossi said his Northern League party won’t back any Monti-led government “for now.” Bossi said he told Napolitano that his party, whose support kept Berlusconi’s conservative coalition in power for years, will be a “vigilant” opposition to any Monti government until the economist spells out his plans.

“For now, we said, ‘no.’ Then we’ll see the program and decide, time by time” whether to support specific legislation, Bossi said. “In any case, we won’t give him any blank check.” Bossi’s par ty has been demanding early elections instead.

He also has opposed one key remedy, a pension reform that raises the retirement age for women.

Roberto Maroni, a founder of the Northern League, said he personally esteems Monti but won’t back him. “Parliament must have the guarantee of an opposition,” Maroni told Italy’s Sky TG24 TV. “Otherwise it won’t be a democratic parliament.” Pressured for days by the markets, the 75-yearold Berlusconi stepped down Saturday night after new austerity measures won approval in Parliament. He slipped out of the presidential palace through a side door after handing in his resignation, as a hecklers jeered in the square outside the main entrance.

Even those new austerity measures

are not enough to revive the dormant Italian economy. They raised the retirement age to 67, but not until 2026. They called for the sale of state property and privatizing some services but contained no painful labor reforms. Maroni said he spoke with Berlusconi Saturday night and found him “very tried, physically tired. But he is always a great fighter.”

“I t was an ugly show to see.

People spitting, throwing” objects, Maroni said. “This phase is over, a blank page is being opened,” Maroni said, holding out hope that the League and Berlusconi’s forces might again join in a future political coalition. Berlusconi’s longtime nemesis, former anti-corruption prosecutor Antonio Di Pietro, said his small Italy of Values Party would be willing to back a strictly “technocrat” government with no politicians in the cabinet “to respond to the (economic) emergency and give back this country its credibility.” Without mentioning Monti by name, Di Pietro insisted that elections must be held as soon as possible.

But, he acknowledged, “in these hours of emergency, it’s very hard” to carry out an electoral campaign.

Monti was reserved yestrday as he and his wife headed to church in Rome. Asked whether he was excited at the prospect of being Italy’s next premier, he responded: “Have you noticed what a beautiful day it is?” — AP

ROME: Former EU commissioner Mario Monti leaves his hotel yesterday. —AFP

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

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

Liberia ruling party rejects call for polls MONROVIA: Liberia’s ruling party yesterday rejected calls by the failed presidential challenger Winston Tubman for fresh elections as the war-scarred nation braced for a fresh opposition rally. Tubman, who pulled out of last week’s presidential run-off citing fraud, on Saturday called for President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s victory to be annuled.

Pick-up trucks roamed the streets of the crumbling seaside capital late Saturday with loudspeakers blaring Congress for Democratic Change party songs, and party workers handing out flyers calling for a mass rally today.

Leaflets handed out in the street showed pictures of the bodies of three

opposition demonstrators killed in a protest on the eve of last Tuesday’s election. The flyers carried the headline “Nobel Peace Prize bloodied”, a reference to Sirleaf’s being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize a week before the election. Police fired live rounds at an unauthorized march by Tubman’s supporters last Monday to disperse stonethrowers. Four people were reported killed. Tubman said Sirleaf’s re-election was “a political farce of the highest order and must not be allowed to stand.”

“As we speak our lawyers are busy working on all our legal options,” he told reporters on Saturday, reading

from a prepared statement. “We believe everything that flows from Tuesday’s elections must be annulled and a new round of elections scheduled in a month. We will not recognize the so-called win of Mrs Sirleaf,” he added. The secretary general of Sirleaf’s Unity Party, Wilmot Paye dismissed Tubman’s statements as “sheer madness”. “They want to gain relevance but we will not give it to them,” he told AFP yesterday.

The west African nation’s secondpost war poll had failed to cement its fragile democracy eight years after the end of a 14-year conflict that killed 250,000. Tubman pulled out of the

presidential run-off claiming last month’s first round was rigged, but his boycott won him little sympathy abroad. On Friday, Tubman had said that while his party would not recognize the results he was “prepared to heal the wounds of this country and to unite our country. “Since Mrs Sirleaf will now claim she is the president and is recognized by the international community, we have to find a way to work with her and I believe it is not beyond our ability to find a way for that to happen,” he said. In an apparent U-turn on Saturday, however, he slammed Sirleaf’s Unity Party as “election hijackers” and called for fresh protests. Sirleaf

on Friday called for national reconciliation and announced an independent commission would probe Monday’s shooting. Tubman said the commission was full of “partisans and friends of the president.”Sirleaf also named fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, women’s right activist Leymah Gbowee, to lead a new peace and reconciliation initiative.

The National Electoral Commission confirmed Sirleaf the landslide winner in polls with 90 percent of votes to Tubman’s 9.4 percent.

However Tubman pointed to the low turnout of 38 percent-which he attributed to the boycott and fears of further violence. — AFP

Rival Libyan militias clash near army base ‘We think we are getting to some stability’

HAUT UELE: In this photo, a local operator reports security information into the Early Warning Radio Network supported by Invisible Children in Haut Uele, Congo. — AP

Tension grows in Congo opposition heartlands MBUJI-MAYI: Perched on the border with Angola, Congo’s two southern Kasai provinces have been relative havens of peace in a country dogged by insecurity eight years after a war that claimed five million lives. But with local hero Etienne Tshisekedi emerging as the main rival to President Joseph Kabila in a Nov. 28 poll which already has triggered violent clashes, the local calm is at threat. The 78-year-old Tshisekedi, who returned from selfimposed exile abroad late last year, ratcheted up tensions last week by unilaterally declaring himself president and calling for attacks on prisons to release people he says are political detainees.

The comments were labeled as treasonous by the government in Kinshasa and drew a sharp rebuke from the African Union, which is trying to keep a lid on confrontation ahead of voting. The United Nations and the European Union joined those warning against bloodshed. The International Criminal Court also vowed last week to investigate perpetrators of election-related crimes, as it is doing in Kenya and Ivory Coast. Yet Mbuji-Mayi, capital of eastern Kasai, has seen outbreaks of trouble in past weeks. Persistent street rumours-hotly denied by authorities-that the vote will be rigged in Kabila’s favour are fanning the flames of discontent.

“Mainly people here are calm, but when they rise up they don’t give up,” said Arthur Padingayi of local rights group ASADHO. Alongside neighboring Katanga, Kasai sought in 1960 to secede, sparking fierce battles with government forces. In a country where politicians often are seen as serving their own interests, Tshisekedi can claim democratic credentials.

Brought up in western Kasai, he was arrested several times in the 1980s under former dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, set up Congo’s first opposition party in 1982 and opposed Kabila’s father Laurent after he seized power in 1997. He boycotted the first post-war polls in 2006, saying the process was flawed. He spent several years abroad before returning last year to launch his challenge, drawing thousands onto the streets of Kinshasa, where he also is popular. His UDPS party says he sought treatment in Belgium for an unspecified medical

condition but adds he is in good health now.

Ethnic faultlines His Kasai bastions of more than five million voters-a sixth of the electorate-are home to Congo’s richest diamond fields.

But their fortunes plummeted as mismanagement and graft pushed the formal mining sector into collapse three years ago.

Mbuji-Mayi is now dilapidated, lacking running water and electricity much of the time. Abandoned tanks, reminders of Congo’s bloody past, lie by the side of potholed roads.

“He doesn’t have personal interests ...

We have to have elections so that the old man can bring democracy,” said Mako Nkongolo, part of a crowd gathered on a street corner to heap adoration on a man they call “Mandela of Congo”. The atmosphere here has deteriorated as local civic rights groups have accused pro-Kabila agents of buying up voter cards at $2 each in a bid to limit the damage in a region that voted heavily against him in 2006.

Alphonse Ngoyi Kasanji, the governor of eastern Kasai and a leading member of Kabila’s PPRD party, denied those charges and accused the rival camp of fomenting trouble. “They’re preparing their supporters for an uprising, they’re probably going to be defeated ... We must take preventative measures,” he said without elaborating.

The presidential bid of Tshisekedi, who like most Kasaians is from the Luba people, also risks exposing ethnic faultlines. That could play out most clearly in the torrid local politics of neighbouring Katanga, the copper-rich province which is still home to thousands of Kasaians despite a series of pogroms and mass expulsions in the 1990s.

Gabriel Kyungu wa Kumwanza, governor at the time and now head of the provincial assembly, was quoted by New York-based Human Rights Watch as saying this year “there are too many mosquitoes in the room, now is the time to apply insecticide”.

While he denied to Reuters making that comment, he is firm in his view that Katanga should be ruled by its local ethnic groups.

Clashes last weekend between his UNAFEC party and supporters of Tshisekedi’s UDPS, already left 15 injured. — Reuters

Kenya’s Mau Mau war victims seek redress from Britain NYERI: Almost 60 years have passed since British colonial forces beat Wambugu Wa Nyingi and left him for dead, but neither the dark scars from years shackled in chains nor his tramautic memories have faded.

“They told us to dig our own graves,” Nyingi recalled in a low voice of being held without charge for nine years in British-run labor camps during Kenya’s 1950’s Mau Mau uprising. “When we refused, they beat us so hard that my skin was stripped off my back,” the white-haired grandfather added.

Now, aged 84, he is calling for an apology and a victims’ welfare fund from the British government in an ongoing court case in London with three other Kenyans who suffered in the bloody uprising.

The four say their brutal treatment included systematic abuse, torture, castration, rape and hard labour. But time is running out for the octogenarian victims.

“Every day, week and month that goes by without the resolution of the claims, there is the worry that whatever happens our clients will not still be alive to see the outcome,” said their solicitor Martyn Day. More than 10,000 people were killed in the 19521960 Mau Mau uprising-with some esti-

mates even higher. Britain contends it is not legally liable for the alleged abuses saying responsibility was transferred to the Kenyan government upon independence in 1963. “Once they counted 12 bodies of people they had beaten to death, but they were wrong, because one of the bodies was mine,” Nyingi said, adding he had never carried a gun, but had only campaigned for independence and land rights. “I would like the British government to compensate us, so that we don’t see every white person as a devil,” he said.

The rolling green hills and lush forests of central Kenya here-once dubbed the “white highlands”-were specially prized by colonial settlers, sparking bitter resentment from the ethnic Kikuyu people forced off the land. “They took our land from us,” said Elizabeth Wamaitha, 79, detained in a labor camp for three years with her baby after her husband joined the Mau Mau forces in the sprawling forests in the foothills of snowcapped Mount Kenya.

Arrested without warning as she carried her three-month old son on her back, she was not allowed time to collect her fouryear old son left at home. — AFP

TRIPOLI: Despite continued gunfire and explosions near Tripoli yesterday, Libyan officials and fighters said a bloody local dispute that has strained nerves in the city for three days was being resolved.

Compared to exchanges of rockets and machinegun fire on Saturday, in which medics said at least seven fighters were killed, clashes were limited-a result, officials said, of a deal among leaders from the capital and rival communities from the town of Zawiyah and clan leaders of the Wershifanna tribe.

“We think that we are getting to some kind of stability,” Mustafa Abdul Jalil, chairman of the National Transitional Council (NTC) said, blaming “irresponsible” former rebels for violence which has fanned fears that thousands of fighters who helped topple Muammar Gaddafi may turn on each other. “We are working on this and we hope to achieve something soon,” said Abdul Jalil, who NTC members said personally took part in lengthy negotiations since Friday to try to end the clashes between men from Zawiyah and the neighboring tribe. “There are many accusations from both sides. We don’t know how many of the accusations are true,” he told a news conference, referring notably to accusations from Zawiyah, strenuously denied by the Wershifanna, that Gaddafi loyalists had attacked NTC fighters around the Imaya military base. At Imaya, Reuters journalists found the compound, a key component of Tripoli’s defenses under Gaddafi, occupied by an organized force from the NTC that is the closest Libya has to a national security service until it forms a government that can set about establishing a new army and other defense forces. NTC troops were also in charge of a bridge over the main road that runs from Tripoli to Zawiyah and west to Tunisia. The bridge has been a bone of contention since Thursday, when rival groups clashed over rights to man checkpoints on the highway.

“All brothers” Mohammed Al-Wershifanni, a

TRIPOLI: Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby gestures at a press conference yesterday. — AP tribal sheikh of the Wershifanna in the area, told Reuters both sides had agreed to pull back from the bridge and from the military base and to allow in a peacekeeping force sent by the NTC in Tripoli.

Speaking to Reuters nearby, dressed in traditional robes and skullcap, Wershifanni said: “We are all brothers ... All the attention on this will only cause trouble.”

At the military base, NTC fighter Ibrahim Al-Ftasi, dressed in military fatigues and carrying credentials from the NTC’s 17th February Brigade, said: “There’s been an agreement between the Wershifanna and Zawiyah.” He blamed continued firing on a “fifth column” of Gaddafi loyalists. But NTC troops kept reporters away from the area of the shooting and it was not possible to determine its source.

In a mark of the embarrassment the NTC has felt over the violence, as it seeks to reassure its international backers that it can form a government this month and establish order, an officer in

the NTC force at Imaya told journalists he would “make trouble” if they published photographs of the clashes. The fighting has caused a surge in comment on social media sites, with critics of the NATO-backed rebellion quick to see it as proof that Gaddafi’s enemies were allowing anarchy and supporters of the uprising blaming it on pro-Gaddafi diehards.

In central Tripoli overnight, residents appeared more reluctant than of late to drive around.

Among other signs of tension as the country waits for prime minister-designate Abdurrahim El-Keib to form a government- within the week, according to Abdul Jalildoctors at Tripoli Central Hospital said hundreds of colleagues had stayed away from work since Saturday. They complained of assaults on medical staff by armed men and were demanding NTC protection.

Conflicting claims Fighters from Zawiyah, about

50 km (30 miles) west of Tripoli and an early centre of revolt against Gaddafi this year, had alleged that diehard Gaddafi supporters in the tribal lands of the Wershifanna had attacked them late on Thursday. Representatives of the Wershifanna, a major tribal grouping around the capital, said none of their people backed Gaddafi but were fighting back against encroachment on their lands by the Zawiyah brigades-a renewal of an old territorial dispute.

By several accounts, trouble flared on Thursday when men from the Wershifanna established a checkpoint on the main highway, challenging the presence there of fighters from Zawiyah.

Further clashes ensued, residents said, when both sides tried to secure control of the Imaya military base. One man from the Wershifanna, speaking to Reuters at Imaya, said: “The Zawiyans want the base. The Wershifanna want the base... They think there is still no government.” — Reuters

One killed in Egypt over fertilizer plant clashes CAIRO: One person was killed and at least 11 were wounded yesterday in clashes between the army and protesters sparked by concerns about pollution from a fertilizer plant in northern Egypt, the state news agency said.

Protesters closed off the port of the northern city of Damietta, on the Mediterranean, and roads adjacent to it, MENA said, adding that they had prevented ambulances from passing through to help those wounded in the clashes. The protests began on Tuesday as residents demanded the relocation of a nitrogen plant jointly owned by state-owned Misr Oil Processing Company (Mopco) and Canadian firm Agrium.

A security source said demonstrations in Damietta began over the plan to set up two new fertilizer plants in the area, but ended with the demonstrators demanding the original plant also be shut down. Medhat Youssef, CEO of Mopco, told MENA that the firm would comply with any decisions taken by a committee formed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf to inspect the environmental safety of the plant, and was also ready to receive committees by the World Health Organization. Youssef added that the environmental ministry and environmental inspection committees had issued reports showing the plant was safe.

The security source said at least 11 people had been injured in the clashes as the army tried to disperse protesters. A security source

CAIRO: An Egyptian painter works on election banners for a candidate to parliamentary elections yesterday. — AP said an army officer was among those wound- the source said. A medical source said the ed, blaming the injury on protesters carrying man suffered a bullet wound. The governor of arms. A witness said protesters stopped an Damietta and other employees working in the ambulance from moving to a hospital morgue building had fled before the arrival of the prothe corpse of the 21-year-old man, named testers, a source for the governor’s office said.

State news agency MENA said the army had Islam Abu-Amin, who died in the clashes.

The protesters drove the ambulance that successfully reopened the port early yesterwas carrying the corpse to the governor’s day but residents had regrouped a few hours office and chanted anti-government slogans, later to shut it down again. — Reuters

A

y

e niv rsar n

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Years

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

Spain’s right storms towards poll victory Opposition conservatives have 14-17 point lead

TSKHINVALI: Anatoly Bibilov (right) head of South Ossetia’a emergency service, and favored presidential candidate casts his ballot with his family at a polling station yesterday. — AP

Rebel South Ossetia votes for new leader TSKHINVALI: The breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia went to the polls yesterday to elect a new leader for the first time since Russia recognized its independence after Moscow’s 2008 war with Tbilisi.

A wide array of 11 candidates, ranging from a cabinet minister to the boss of a bread factory, are vying to become the president of the self-declared statelet of just 70,000 people in the Caucasus mountains. Whoever succeeds Eduard Kokoitythe former wrestling champion who has dominated South Ossetia for a decade-will be seen as illegitimate by most of the world as its independence is recognised only by Russia and a handful of far-flung states.

Meanwhile Dzhambolat Tedeyev-the main opposition figure in South Ossetia and the trainer of the Russian freestyle wrestling team-was controversially barred from running on the grounds he had been absent from the region too long. The nominal favourite is the current minister of emergency situations Anatoly Bibilov, whose candidacy is openly backed by the Kremlin. Moscow has also suppor ted Kokoity, who is not allowed to stand for another term. Polls opened at 0400 GMT and are due to close at 1600 GMT with initial results expected in the evening.

Turnout in the first three hours of voting was just over seven percent, the head of the election commission Bella Pliyeva said.

An AFP correspondent in the main town Tskhinvali said the early voting had gone peacefully although polling stations remained quiet with most voters expected

in the afternoon. However, moving about Tskhinvali even on foot was difficult due to a heavy snowfall that had not been cleared-and the failure of the authorities to clean up the ramshackle rebel capital is a major election issue. The outcome of the election, which will go to a second round if there is no overall winner in the first, remains in doubt with several other candidates in with a chance of overcoming Bibilov.

These include the leader of the social democratic party Dmitry Tasoyev, information minister Georgy Kabisov, bread factory chief Vadim Tskhovrebov and former education minister Alla Dzhioyeva. The bitter campaign was out of all proportion to South Ossetia’s tiny size. One presidential hopeful, Alan Kochiyev, is spending election day in jail after being charged with beating up a deputy. “The election campaign has been waged with a lot of black PR, especially on the Internet,” Bibilov said ahead of the vote.

Whoever wins will inherit a litany of problems besides the lack of recognition for South Ossetia. Observers say that much of the funding provided by Moscow to rebuild South Ossetia after the 2008 war was siphoned off by corrupt officials, and Tskhinvali has still not been fully rebuilt after the damage sustained in the conflict.

Tbilisi lost control of South Ossetia in the 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union and failed to retake control over the region in the 2008 war with Russia when most of the remaining ethnic Georgian population was driven out. —AFP

MADRID: Spain’s right-leaning opposition will thrash the ruling Socialists in November 20 elections, polls showed yesterday, as anger over an economic crisis spilled into the streets. The conservative Popular Party, led by 56-year-old Mariano Rajoy, is set for a record parliamentary majority, surveys said. The Socialists, whose standard bearer is 60-year-old Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, faced their greatest defeat since Spain returned to democracy after the 1975 death of General Francisco Franco, the polls said.

Hundreds of Spain’s “indignant” protesters meanwhile poured into the streets of Madrid to protest spending cuts, high unemployment and political corruption, exactly a week before a general election.

“Change the Model Now!” declared a huge banner at the march. Spain’s government is paying the price of an economy that stalled in the third quarter with zero growth and unemployment that soared to 21.52 percent in the same period, the highest in the industrialized world.

In the only televised debate of the campaign, on November 7, Rubalcaba tried to skewer the Popular Party leader, accusing him of hiding plans to cut jobless benefits and financing for healthcare and education. But Rajoy hammered the government’s economic and jobs record, arguing that the best way to protect social welfare was to create jobs and increase tax revenues.

A total 45.4 percent of voters back the Popular Party compared to just 30.9 percent for the Socialists, said a survey of 9,675 people by Metroscopia published yesterday in the centre-left daily El Pais. That would they give the Popular Party 192-196 lawmakers, an absolute majority of the 350-seat lower ouse Congress of Deputies. A poll by Sigma for rival centre-right daily El Mundo was even grimmer for the government, giving 47.6 percent support to the Popular Party and 29.8 percent to the Socialists. Such

BERLIN: German police yesterday arrested a suspected accomplice of a group of far right extremists who are believed to be responsible for killing 10 people, prosecutors said. The 37year-old German was arrested on suspicion of belonging to the right-wing terrorist organization calling itself “National Socialist Underground.” Germany’s Federal Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement they are also investigating whether the suspect was directly involved in the group’s killings.

The suspect, identified only as Holger G in line with German privacy laws, is believed to have helped the group’s other three known members by providing them with documents

LONDON: Queen Elizabeth II and other senior members of the royal family yesterday led a tribute to Britain’s war dead at the annual Remembrance Day ceremony in central London yesterday. The solemn memorial at the Cenotaph, held under rare sunny skies on a warmish November day, is a focal point of national observances to honor the nation’s war dead. Similar ceremonies were held in dozens of towns and cities throughout Britain.

The queen, wearing a black outfit and hat, was joined by her husband, Prince Philip, along with Prince Charles and Prince William in laying wreaths at the Cenotaph in central London. The queen, walking steadily, placed the first wreath, then bowed in front of the Cenotaph, with its inscription honoring “The Glorious Dead.”

For the first time, the events took place without a veteran of World War I. The nationwide remembrance services were held as British troops continue to face hazardous operations in Afghanistan. Ceremonies were also held at British bases in that country. The queen was joined by Prime Minister David Cameron and opposition party leaders and several former prime ministers, including Tony Blair and John Major. Thousands of veterans, many wearing campaign ribbons and medals, marched past the Cenotaph as well-wishers watched, most wearing poppies in their lapels as a show of support for those who have lost their lives in conflicts. Britain observed two minutes’ silence Friday to mark Armistice Day, and the English soccer team Saturday wore poppies on special armbands to show support. International soccer authorities allowed the poppies to be worn only after intervention by Cameron and Prince William, who argued that the poppies were not political symbols. — AP

Guineans vote in referendum MALABO: Equatorial Guineans voted yesterday in a referendum on a new constitution-condemned by the opposition as a charade-that would limit presidential terms to two. While billed as a move to strengthen the small oil state’s democracy, the text does not make clear whether President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, Africa’s longest-serving leader, will have to step down when his term ends in

a result would deliver 198 seats to the Popular Party.

If the surveys are proved right on election day, the Popular Party would smash its previous record win in 2000 when Jose Maria Aznar took 44.52 percent of the electorate. Adding to the humiliation, the surveys showed the right winning in the southern region Andalusia, a Socialist bastion for 30 years but among the hardest hit by the crisis. Spain’s Socialists have been in power since 2004 under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who has decided not to run again, and they now enjoy 169 seats in the lower house compared to 154 for the Popular Party.

Catalan nationalist party Covergence and Union would remain the third force in the parliament after

the election, surveys showed, likely increasing their presence from 10 seats to 14. United Left, a coalition of left-wing socialists and greens, would snatch seven seats compared to just two now, the polls showed. The party is widely believed to have benefited from the “indignant” protest movement, which says ordinary people are suffering from a crisis caused by big corporations, bankers and corrupt politicians. The protest movement was born on May 15 when a rally in Puerta del Sol sparked a protest that spread internationally. The “indignants” rallied tens of thousands in the square on the eve of Spain’s May 22 local elections, in which the ruling Socialists were crushed by the Popular Party. — AFP

New arrest in alleged far-right killings

Queen leads ceremony honoring war deceased

LONDON: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II stands by a cross bearing a poppy during a service of remembrance at the Cenotaph. — AP

BARCELONA: Men and women line up as they wait to receive donated food from a distribution site yesterday. — AP

2016. Obiang, who currently chairs the African Union (AU), is on an offensive to win himself a clean bill of health on the international scene and reverse his country’s reputation as one of Africa’s most corrupt and autocratic.

“Obiang wants his country, long ignored or despised, to acquire a diplomatic status that matches its new financial weight,” said one diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity. Equatorial Guinea, which has a population of around 700,000, struck oil off its Atlantic coast in the early 1990s and has become sub-Saharan Africa’s third biggest producer. Obiang has in part used oil revenues to bankroll a series of infrastructure projects, including the construction of a new conference centre used to host a June AU summit.

Equatorial Guinea will also co-host, with neighbouring Gabon, the 2012 African Cup of Nations football tournament, the continent’s most prestigious sporting event.

Obiang, 69, is currently serving his fourth seven-year term since he seized power in 1979, having won a first presidential vote in 1989. During the coup he had his uncle, the former Spanish colony’s first president, executed by firing squad. The regime says the new constitution would also create a position of vice president, impose more checks and balances on the executive, improve the judicial system and ensure better protection of civic rights.

“This is a democratic milestone,” Information Minister Jeronimo Osa Osa Ecoro said ahead of the vote. “President Obiang is carrying out reforms to bring sounder economic policies and more democracy to the country’s governance.”

But opposition leader Placido Mico has decried a lack of consultation ahead of the vote. —AFP

and vehicles, one of which was apparently used in the killing of a police officer, prosecutors said.

Two of the other group members are dead while the third turned herself in to police. The group is suspected of having murdered eight people of Turkish origin and one Greek in several German cities between September 2000 and April 2006, as well as killing the police officer in the southwestern city of Heilbronn in April 2007.

The nine civilian victims were businessmen including a flower wholesaler, a tailor and a kebab stall owner - who were shot at their workplaces. The Heilbronn killing also has long been a mystery. The 22-year-old policewoman

was fatally shot in the head in a park and a fellow officer was seriously wounded by gunshots.

Last week, both officers’ service weapons were found in a burning mobile home in central Germany where two men were found dead, in what police have said was an apparent suicide.

Prosecutors said they then found the pistol used in the earlier killings at the men’s apartment in the eastern city of Zwickau, which also burned out last week following an explosion.

The two men, identified only as Uwe B and Uwe M, are believed to have had links to far-right circles at the end of the 1990s - along with a female acquaintance, identified as Beate Z, who turned herself in to police on Tuesday. —AP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

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

Republicans promise to stop Iranian nuke bomb Pakistan aid an issue

MORELIA: In this photo, Luisa Maria Calderon (center) the National Action Party’s (PAN) gubernatorial candidate in the state of Michoacan, holds hands with supporters during a campaign rally. — AP

Mexican president’s sister eyes governorship in 2012 MORELIA: Whatever voters decide in yesterday’s election in the drug violenceplagued state of Michoacan, the party that wins is likely to call it a sign of Mexico’s presidential politics to come in 2012. Luisa Maria “Cocoa” Calderon is running for governor in her family’s home state, where her brother, President Felipe Calderon, launched his attack on drug cartels in late 2006. She promised to advance his offensive and led in most opinion polls going into the election, the last state vote until the presidential contest in July. A victory would boost the morale of her National Action Party, or PAN, which is widely predicted to lose the presidency after a 12-year hold on the post because of voter fatigue with drug violence. The party has yet to win a governorship in Michoacan, where federal offices and the presidential vote have been dominated by the leftist Revolutionary Democratic Party, or PRD, since 2000. Local offices have been a toss-up between the PRD and the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Calderon faces PRD candidate Silvano Aureoles Conejo and Morelia Mayor Fausto Vallejo Figueroa of the PRI. The PRI seeks a victory to build momentum for regaining the presidency next year. It lost the presidency to the PAN in 2000 after 71 years of single-party rule. The PRI so far is fielding the most popular precandidate in the presidential race, former Mexico state Gov. Enrique Pena Nieto.

“Whoever wins, their party will claim it helps for 2012, especially the current underdogs - PAN and PRD,” said Shannon O’Neil, a Latin America expert for the USbased think tank the Council on Foreign Relations. The once-dominant PRD is trailing the other two major parties in the Michoacan governor’s race, according to the polls. As Michoacan’s governing party for a decade, it has been criti-

cized for failing to quell the state’s drug violence and some of its legislative candidates are accused of having close ties to drug cartels. More than 40,000 people have died in drug violence across Mexico during the federal government’s fiveyear offensive, according to many estimates. Calderon’s administration hasn’t released official figures since nearly a year ago, when it counted 35,000.

While many of Mexico’s 32 states have been penetrated by narco-politics, nowhere is that influence as overt as in Michoacan, where the electoral season so far has featured the kidnapping of nine polling firm workers, the gunning down of a mayor, and the withdrawal of at least a dozen candidates frightened off the campaign trail by organized crime. Julio Cesar Godoy Toscano of the PRD in Michoacan was elected to Congress in 2009 only to turn fugitive after being charged with aiding drug trafficking and money laundering. Also in 2009, prosecutors ordered the arrest of 12 Michoacan mayors and 23 other state and local officials on allegations they protected the Michoacan-based La Familia cartel. Most were from the PRD. But by April of this year, every one of them had been acquitted. Prosecutors filed a complaint against one judge for improperly acquitting the officials, but mayors say the charges were weak and often based on a single informant.

Michoacan politicians also have worried that violence might mar yesterday’s elections following the slaying of Ricardo Guzman, the well-liked mayor of the city of La Piedad. Guzman was shot dead Nov 2 when he was handing out leaflets for several PAN candidates, including Luisa Maria Calderon. In addition to picking a governor, Michoacan’s voters are electing 40 state legislators and 112 mayors, who have been the target of dozens of drugrelated attacks the last two years. — AP

Iowa holds key to Romney’s dreams WASHINGTON: Iowa, host to the opening act of the White House race, will offer Republican Mitt Romney a golden opportunity to quash his rivals early, but a repeat of his 2008 defeat there would be a serious setback. In the wake of major missteps by his two biggest opponents, the former governor of Massachusetts is further burnishing his Republican frontrunner credentials ahead of the November 2012 presidential elections. “ The oppor tunity is so great and the prospect of winning is so high that I think he almost has to make an effort,” and run more aggressively in Iowa, said Cary Covington of the University of Iowa.

A victory in this small yet crucial Midwestern state, which on January 3 will host the first caucuses that kick off the voting for the Republican presidential nomination, would be decisive for Romney. It could fur ther his chances of scoring a one-two punch with a win there and in the New Hampshire primaries January 10, for which he is already tipped to secure a significant advantage, and pave the way to score the nomination that eluded him last time around.

If Romney sweeps both Iowa and New Hampshire, as well as Nevada’s first in the West caucuses on February 4, he “begins to look inevitable,” prompting further media attention and donors to shift money away from other candidates, said Covington.

Such a streak would also settle the Republican nominating contest early, allowing the nominee to focus attention on squaring off against President Barack Obama, a Democrat. The meteoric rise of former pizza executive Herman Cain has been threatened by a sexual harassment scandal that could swallow his campaign, while Texas Governor Rick Perry appeared to put the final nail in his campaign coffin with a cringe-worthy debate blunder and brain freeze this week.

“It’s an enormous opportunity, but by the same token it ’s a big risk,” Covington said of Romney’s chances in

Iowa, where he poured campaign funds and spent endless hours of campaigning only to lose in 2008 to evangelical Christian favorite Mike Huckabee and the nomination to Senator John McCain. This time,

TROY: Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney speaks to supporters during a rally at the American Polish Cultural Center. — AFP Romney has chosen to take a more low-key approach to the largely agricultural state, making few public campaign appearances. Officially, “there is no change in our Iowa strategy,” said Romney spokesman Ryan Williams.

“We are running a 50-state campaign and competing in every nominating contest.”

The candidate’s longtime Iowa strategist David Kochel insisted that with the caucuses just nine weeks away, “an increase of activity is going to expected out of all the candidates.”“It’s not necessarily because of what is happening with the rest of the field and what the other candidates are doing,” he added. “When you’re well known like governor Romney is, and having spent so much time here in the state four years ago, we just didn’t have to do as much work on the ground in Iowa early on getting introduced to people.” — AFP

SPARTANBURG: Republican candidates vowed on Saturday to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb if they became president but differed over how to do it in a debate that tested their knowledge of world hotspots. The US economy has been the No. 1 issue for the 2012 campaign, so the CBS News/National Journal debate was a rare opportunity to hear the candidates explain how they would handle the job as commander in chief.

The candidates made no major stumbles at the 90-minute gathering, but their deep differences were reflected, such as how quickly to bring US troops home from Afghanistan, whether Pakistan deserves U.S. assistance, and if waterboarding should be brought back for terrorism suspects. None of the eight candidates has much foreign policy experience, save for former US Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, but they all criticized Democratic President Barack Obama, whom they want to replace in the 2012 election.

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney laid out in stark terms what he would do about Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons. Romney said he would pursue tough economic sanctions and make clear the United States would be willing to go to war to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

“Look, one thing you can know and that is if we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. And if we elect Mitt Romney, if you elect me as the next president, they will not have a nuclear weapon,” he said.

The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, reported on Tuesday that Iran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic bomb and may still be conducting secret research related to building such weapons. Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to peaceful electricity generation. Businessman Herman Cain, happy to be talking about something other than sexual harassment allegations that have dogged him recently, said the only way to stop Iran from a nuclear weapon was through economic means, squeezing Tehran through sanctions and boosting Iran’s opposition movement.

Former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, who came to Spartanburg riding a new wave of support as

the conservative alternative to the more moderate Romney, declared he would launch covert operations within Iran in order to be able to deny them later. Texas Governor Rick Perry might have been the biggest winner at the Wofford College debate simply by surviving it with no major stumbles, after he famously forgot one of the three government agencies he would eliminate at the previous debate on Wednesday. When CBS News moderator Scott Pelley said he had thought a lot

country,” Perry said. While Gingrich said the idea “makes perfect sense,” longshot candidate Rick Santorum, a former US senator, was adamantly opposed. “Pakistan is a nuclear power,” Santorum said. “We cannot be indecisive about whether Pakistan is our friend. They must be a friend.” On Afghanistan, Romney quibbled with Obama’s decision to bring thousands of US troops home from Afghanistan next September instead of December 2012, while Huntsman said flatly it was time to bring

SPARTANBURG: Republician presidential hopefuls (from left to right), Jon Huntsman, Michele Bachmann, Ron Paul, Herman Cain, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum participate in the South Carolina Presidential Debate at Wofford College, sponsored by SCGOP, CBS News and the National Journal. — AP about Perry’s answer that night, Perry drew laughs from the audience with the droll reply, “I have too.”

Pakistan aid Perry was asked how he would handle nuclear-armed Pakistan, a rebellious US ally angered by the secret mission that killed AlQaeda leader Osama bin Laden last May. Perry said he would look at whether to eliminate US aid to Pakistan. “They don’t deserve our foreign aid that they’re getting, because they’re not being honest with us. American soldiers’ lives are being put at jeopardy because of that

Despite title, Supreme Court not the last word WASHINGTON: Nothing about the Supreme Court - not its magnificent building atop Capitol Hill nor its very title - suggests that its word is anything other than final.

Yet federal appellate judges and even state court judges sometimes find ways to insist on an outcome the Supreme Court has rejected. Just last week, the justices rebuked judges on the federal appeals court in San Francisco in the tragic case of a Los Angeles-area grandmother who was convicted of shaking her 7-week-old grandson to death. The appeals court overturned the conviction three times and twice, the justices ordered the appellate judges to try again. The third time around, the justices ended the case, pointedly upholding the conviction.

“Each time, the panel persisted in its course, reinstating its judgment without seriously confronting the significance of the cases called to its attention,” the high court said in an unsigned opinion. “Its refusal to do so necessitates this court’s action today.” But the nation’s court of last resort does not always get the last word.

The appeals court in Washington where four Supreme Court justices trained, the Oregon Supreme Court, and occasionally even the San Francisco-based federal appeals court given its come-uppance last week, have in recent years won battles with the justices. The lower court judges have managed to limit the rights of terrorism suspects detained at Guantanamo, uphold awards of large punitive damages against companies and rule in favor of criminal defendants, despite the Supreme Court’s disapproval.

The efforts bring complaints from lawyers on the losing end of these cases and from some scholars that the judges are “thumbing their noses” at the Supreme Court, although those complaints usually are expressed in the more polite legalese of the courtroom. That’s why an appeal asking the high court to throw out a punitive damages award calls an Oregon Supreme Court decision upholding the award “yet another attempt by that court to thwart federal due process protections.”

Some federal appeals court judges in the nation’s capital have been unusually direct in criticizing Supreme Court rulings that gave detainees at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the right to contest their imprisonment in federal court. And the appeals court has so far blunted the impact of the high court’s decisions by limiting the detainees’ ability to challenge the government’s evidence justifying their continued imprisonment.

Circuit Judge A. Raymond Randolph, reversed three times by the Supreme Court in detainee cases, has said the court was “profoundly mistaken” and made a “mess” of the situation. Stephen Vladeck, an American University law professor who has represented Guantanamo detainees, said there has been nothing subtle about the appeals court’s rulings and some comments, especially from Randolph and his circuit colleague Judge Laurence Silberman. “One does not have to look hard to see fairly outright challenges to the Supreme Court’s authority, which to me only makes it that much more surprising that the Supreme Court has seen fit to do nothing,” Vladeck said. The justices have so far declined to hear appeals arguing that the appeals court just blocks away at the foot of Capitol Hill has undermined the high court’s guarantee, in 2008, of limited constitutional rights for Guantanamo detainees. In the area of punitive damages, the Oregon Supreme Court upheld an $80 million award from Phillip Morris USA to a smoker’s widow three times. — AP

them home now in order to use the money to rebuild the US economy.

“I don’t want to be nation building in Afghanistan when this nation so desperately needs to be built,” Huntsman said. There was a split over whether to reinstitute the use on terrorism suspects of waterboarding, a stimulated drowning technique that critics call torture.

Romney, US Representative Michele Bachmann and others said they would support waterboarding because they believed it had elicited valuable intelligence in the past, while Huntsman and Representative Ron Paul called it counterproductive and immoral. — Reuters

Chinese-American mayor of SF harbors high hopes SAN FRANCISCO: Bowing deeply and shaking hands with shopkeepers along the streets of Chinatown, San Francisco’s newly elected mayor understands the significance: These are the people who put him in office, the people for whom he fought when he was an activist attorney, and the people who expect more of him than any other mayor who came before. “The community has been waiting for this kind of historic opportunity for many, many decades,” Mayor Ed Lee said Thursday as he performed his first duty as the city’s first elected ChineseAmerican head of City Hall. “There have been a lot of sacrifices.” Those sacrifices are steeped in San Francisco history.

Chinese- and Japanese-American families have reared generations of assimilated and successful children, but many of their grandparents and great grandparents were once outcast or interned.

Though Asians comprise a third of the city’s population, they have traditionally been underrepresented in politics and economics. Beyond the kitsch and chaos of touristy Chinatown, look deeper down the alleys of one of the nation’s mostly densely populated neighborhoods and you’ll find tenement housing, elderly poor and struggling family businesses. Lee, who as interim mayor closed a $380 million deficit to balance the city budget this year, pledged during his campaign to invest $5 million in the coming year to help small businesses like those scattered across Chinatown and other distressed neighborhoods.

He’s also vowed to keep on track the first subway line through the heart of congested Chinatown. Sandy Tan, owner of An An Hair Salon on Stockton Street, is one of those counting on Lee to keep his

promises.

“We think he’s the one to revitalize the entire city,” she said. “Business is very slow; we are putting all our hopes on him.” She was thrilled when Lee ducked into her beauty salon to wave at astonished women in their curlers and concoctions. “We’re so very proud,” said Tan. “It’s like he’s part of the family; one of our own.” Lee is part of the family. He is a member of the politically powerful Lee Family Association, the largest benevolent society in Chinatown, established in the mid-1800s to help other immigrant Lees from China’s southern Guangdong province.

And that family helped to seal Lee’s victory with high voter turnout last Tuesday. “It’s a milestone; as significant as Obama’s election was for AfricanAmericans,” said David Lee, director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee.

“The only difference is that ChineseAmericans in San Francisco put Ed Lee into office with their votes and their money.” He noted that just over half of Tuesday’s vote was by mail-in ballot.

Though voter turnout citywide was low, at about 39 percent, nearly 80 percent of the mail-in ballots requested from Chinatown residents were returned.

“So his victory is the community’s victory,” David Lee said. “You have to realize that Chinatown and the Chinese community have been among the most ostracized and marginalized in the nation. All the Chinese-Americans really want is somebody in City Hall that listens to the community.” Californians welcomed the first Chinese during the Gold Rush that began in 1848, as they stayed to help build railroads and bridges. — AP

SAN FRANCISCO: San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (center) speaks at a news conference next to his wife Anita (right) and his daughter Brianna (left) outside of his office at City Hall. — AP

y

A

11

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

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

US sorry for frisking Ex-Indian president India disapproves dignitaries undergoing security checks

KABUL: Dr Abdullah Abdullah (right), a former foreign minister and President Karzai’s rival in the 2004 elections looks on during a gathering of his “Change and Hope” coalition yesterday. —AFP

Afghanistan president’s rival to shun assembly KABUL: The main challenger to the Afghan president said yesterday he would boycott a traditional leaders’ assembly to discuss peace moves and ties with the United States, calling it illegal and unconstitutional. President Hamid Karzai has convened the assembly, or loya jirga, this week to discuss strategies for trying to broker peace with Taleban insurgents and long-term relations with the United States after combat troops leave. Abdullah Abdullah, rival to Karzai in the runoff round of the 2009 presidential election, told a news conference in Kabul: “I won’t participate in the upcoming traditional loya jirga. Holding this... doesn’t have any legal base, and it is contrary to Afghanistan’s constitution.” He did not rule out attendance of the assembly, to be held from November 16, by members of the opposition Change and Hope Coalition, which he heads. The loya jirga follows the September assassination of Karzai’s chief peace negotiator Burhanuddin Rabbani by a bomber who purported to be a peace envoy for the Taleban, amid government attempts to negotiate with the insurgents.

Abdullah also denounced vagueness surrounding the future of Afghanistan’s part-

nership with the US-which led the 2001 invasion that ousted the Taleban from government-after the planned withdrawal of its combat troops by the end of 2014.

“I have not seen any documents” on the future partnership, said Abdullah, who also served as foreign minister under Karzai from 2001 to 2006. A deal still under negotiation with the Americans will govern the longer-term presence of US troops in Afghanistan, a highly sensitive issue in Afghanistan and the wider region.

The loya jirga, which brings together representatives from Afghan provinces, tribes, ethnic groups and civil society, is held on rare occasions to discuss major policy decisions. Another coalition recently created around two former warlords, Abdul Rashid Dostum and Haji Mohammad Mohaqeq, has also denounced the planned assembly.

Lawmakers had voiced concern it would be used to bypass their powers, but a spokeswoman for the assembly said Saturday its decisions would not be binding and parliament would have the final say. More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the meeting in a giant tent in Kabul. —AFP

6 dead in Pakistan donkey cart blast PESHAWAR: Six people were killed and four wounded when a bomb planted in a donkey cart exploded in a remote town in northwest Pakistan’s tribal Khyber district yesterday, officials said. A donkey cart carrying sand was left unattended in the market area of Mastak town near the Afghan border, they said. “The explosives concealed in the sand loaded onto the cart was detonated with the help of a remote controlled device,” local administration official Syed Ahmed Jan told AFP by telephone.

Another senior official Mutahir Zaib confirmed the incident and the casualties.

He said the injured were out of danger. No group has claimed responsibility. Officials

have blamed previous such attacks on Taleban and Islamist militants. At least 12 people were killed in two separate militant attacks in the troubled Khyber district on Saturday. Some 18,000 people fled their homes in Khyber last month amid fears of a fresh onslaught of fighting between the army and Islamist militants tied to the Pakistani Taleban.

Pakistan’s army has previously launched a series of offensives targeting the the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI), a Talebanallied militant group waging a local insurgency. Pakistan’s seven tribal districts near the Afghan border are rife with a homegrown insurgency and are strongholds of Taleban and Al-Qaeda operatives. —AFP

NEW DELHI: The United States yesterday apologized to former Indian president Abdul Kalam after the New Delhi government complained that he had been frisked at a New York airport. India is sensitive about its dignitaries undergoing routine security checks and Nirupama Rao, its ambassador to the US, was ordered to lodge a letter outlining how Kalam had allegedly been poorly treated. The Press Trust of India news agency said security personnel entered the passenger aircraft before it took off, frisked Kalam and briefly took away his jacket and shoes as he had not gone through checks before boarding the plane. “The United States government extended its apology that appropriate procedures for expedited screening of dignitaries had not been followed,” a statement from the US embassy in Delhi said.

“We deeply regret the inconvenience that resulted for him,” it added, saying the incident took place on September 29 at the John F Kennedy airport. Kalam, 80, is a Muslim who served as a popular president of India from 2002-07. He was previously the country’s chief military scientist. A similar diplomatic incident erupted in April 2009 when Kalam was questioned in New Delhi before boarding a flight to the US. Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan claimed in the same month that he was detained for questioning at a US airport because of his Muslim name. —AFP

Sri Lankan nationalization law criticized COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s new law to nationalize “underutilized” private firms could shatter investor confidence and push the country into authoritarian rule, the opposition and press said yesterday. The main opposition United National Party (UNP) said the controversial law that came into effect from Friday would discourage investors in a country that is recovering from decades of ethnic war. “Any foreign investor with a modicum of intelligence will re-think of investing in Sri Lanka for fear of their ventures being arbitrarily appropriated,” UNP deputy leader Karu Jayasuriya said in a statement.

Under the new law, the government earmarked 37 companies for takeover, including several owned by businessmen suppor ting the opposition.

Japanese, Singaporean and United States investments are at stake, but the government is yet to spell out how they would be compensated. Lawmakers voted 122 to 46 in favour of the “Revival of Underperforming Enterprises and Under-utilised Assets Act” on Wednesday. The bill was signed into law on Friday by parliamentary Speaker Chamal Rajapakse, the eldest brother of President Mahinda Rajapakse.

The president, who is also the minister of finance, has defended the act saying it targeted companies which had received state land or tax breaks but which had failed to live up to expectations. The local Sunday Times warned that businesses supporting the opposition was in danger of being taken over by the government. “This Act, we believe, smacks of a heavy dose of political vindictiveness and carries the venom to weaken opposition parties and may drag the country to a virtual one-party state,” the Sunday Times said. Sri Lanka’s decades-long civil war between government forces and Tamil Tiger rebels ended in 2009 with a military offensive that wiped out the guerrillas. —AFP

Occupy protesters head for showdown PORTLAND: Anti-Wall Street protesters in Portland headed for a police showdown over orders to abandon a city park encampment and authorities elsewhere stepped up pressure against the demonstrators, arresting nearly two dozen. Tensions increased early yesterday in Portland, where as many as 200 protesters ignored a midnight deadline to abandon an encampment or face possible arrest. Occupy Portland protesters dismantled large sections of their encampment amid a heavy police presence on Saturday, but dozens of tents remained after midnight. Mayor Sam Adams ordered the camp shut down, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment’s attraction of drug users and thieves. Demonstrators rallied Saturday evening as organizers said they hope radical elements don’t use violence to overshadow the movement’s message of peaceful resistance to income inequality and what they see

as corporate greed.

But police prepared for a possible clash, warning that dozens of anarchists may be planning a confrontation with authorities. Officers seized pieces of cement blocks Friday, saying they were told some demonstrators had plans to use them as weapons against police. They said they believe some demonstrators are building shields and trying to collect gas masks. About 1,000 supports and bystanders were nearby but many of them moved from the parks to sidewalks at midnight, where it was legal to congregate.

Clusters of police with nightsticks and helmets were positioned on area corners but there were no signs of any action directed toward the campers.

For the second time in as many days, Oakland city officials warned protesters Saturday that they do not have the right to camp in the plaza in front of City Hall and face immediate arrest.

The eviction notices come as officials across the country urged an end to similar gatherings in the wake of three deaths in different cities, including two by gunfire. Demands for Oakland protesters to pack up increased after a man was shot and killed Thursday near the encampment site.

“Your activities are injurious to health, obstruct the free use of property, interfering with the comfortable enjoyment of (Frank Ogawa Plaza), and unlawfully obstruct the free passage or use of a public park or square,” the notice read. Oakland officials first issued the eviction notice Friday after first pleading with protesters to leave the encampment. Police officials have said a preliminary investigation suggested the shooting resulted from a fight between two groups of men at or near the encampment. Investigators do not know if the men in the fight were associated with Occupy Oakland,

PORTLAND: Joseph Gibson takes down a pop-up tent at the Occupy Portland encampment November 12, 2011. —AP

but protesters said there was no connection between the shooting and the camp.

The shooting occurred the same day a 35-year-old military veteran apparently committed suicide in a tent at a Burlington, Vt., Occupy encampment. Police said a preliminary investigation showed the veteran fatally shot himself in the head. They said the death raised questions about whether the protest would be allowed to continue. In Salt Lake City, police arrested 19 people Saturday when protesters refused to leave a park a day after a man was found dead inside his tent at the encampment. The arrests came after police moved into the park early in the evening where protesters had been ordered to leave by the end of the day. About 150 people had been living in the camp there for weeks.

Authorities in Denver forced protesters to leave a downtown encampment and arrested four people for interfering with officers who removed illegally pitched tents, said police spokesman Sonny Jackson. Jackson said police had advised protesters since Wednesday that their tents in Civic Center Park and on a nearby sidewalk were illegal. Violence marked the protest in San Francisco Saturday where police said two demonstrators attacked two police officers in separate incidents during a march. Police spokesman Carlos Manfredi said a protester slashed an officer’s hand with a pen knife while another protester shoved an officer, causing facial cuts.

He said neither officer was seriously hurt, and the assailants couldn’t be located. Meanwhile, in Southern California a small group of protesters braved soggy weather on Saturday to gather for the first time under the banner of Occupy Inland Empire. Members of Occupy movements in Fontana, Redlands, Riverside, and other nearby towns marched past banks and in front of San Bernardino City Hall in what they called a “visibility action,” The Sun newspaper reported. —AP

AHMEDABAD: Former Indian President, APJ Abdul Kalam gestures during hisvisit to the LD Institute. —AFP

Three Swiss to avoid trial in nuclear case BERN: Swiss prosecutors will opt to avoid a public trial for three Swiss men suspected of giving nuclear weapons technology and supplies to a rogue network in Pakistan, a newspaper reported yesterday. The case is politically sensitive for Switzerland and the United States because of alleged national security implications, the men’s alleged CIA ties, and repeated instances of evidence being destroyed. It involves charges of violating Swiss nonproliferation laws. The Federal Prosecutors Office in Bern was quoted as saying it plans to use a shortened procedure to require a penalty but no trial if the nation’s top criminal court doesn’t object and the men plead guilty, the Zurich weekly newspaper SonntagsZeitung reported. Bern prosecutors’ office did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich have been under investigation by Swiss authorities for almost a decade for supplying equipment and technical know-how to an international smuggling ring led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

Urs Tinner was released in December 2008 after almost five years in investigative detention without being charged. As the creator of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, Khan sold the centrifuges for secret nuclear weapons programs in countries that included Libya and Iran before his operation was disrupted in 2003.

A spokeswoman for the federal prosecutors, Walburga Bur, has previously told AP that a shortened procedure was possible under which the Swiss engineers admit the

basic charges against them but face no more than five years imprisonment. Normally, anyone who breaks Swiss laws banning the export of nuclear material faces up to 10 years imprisonment. Urs Tinner, who like his brother and father has been released on bail pending charges, claimed in an 2009 interview with Swiss TV station SF1 that he had worked with U.S. intelligence. He said he had tipped off the CIA about a delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya’s nuclear weapons program. The CIA has declined to comment on the case.

The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in 2003, which forced Libya to admit and eventually renounce its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, and helped expose Khan’s smuggling ring.

The case against the Tinners sparked a political outcry in Switzerland after it was revealed that the Swiss government repeatedly ordered evidence destroyed, allegedly under pressure from senior U.S. officials. The Swiss government cited national security concerns, but a parliamentary investigation found there had been no immediate danger to Switzerland’s security.

A Swiss investigating magistrate, Andreas Mueller, who oversaw the last three years of a six year federal probe against the Tinners, recommended last December that the government bring charges against the three men.

Mueller said his recommendation, contained in a confidential report to federal prosecutors, was based on an exhaustive probe. He said the Tinners had worked for the CIA since June 2003 and did not deny also working for the Khan network. —AP

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

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

China police blocks visit to blind lawyer BEIJING: More than 40 people who travelled hundreds of kilometers to visit blind Chinese lawyer-activist Chen Guangcheng amid a push to free him from house arrest were sent back by police, supporters said yesterday.

Chen is renowned for revealing forced sterilizations and late-term abortions affecting thousands of women in the eastern province of Shandong as part of measures to enforce China’s population control policy. The 44 supporters-

who come from all over the country but now live in Beijing to petition authorities for various grievanceshired a bus and drove to Shandong on Saturday to see Chen on his 40th birthday.

They were blocked by police before they could get to his village and 13 were briefly detained before the entire group was driven back in a police convoy more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) to the northern city of Tianjin,

near Beijing. “We didn’t get to see Chen Guangcheng, but we will try to see him again another time. We won’t give up,” Deng Zhibin, a petitioner who was part of the group, told AFP. Activists organised through the Internet have been flocking to Chen’s village in Linyi district as part of a growing online campaign to free the self-taught lawyer and rights campaigner, who has been blind since childhood. But campaigners say thugs

have beaten up many of those who were able to come close to the home of the lawyer, who has been under house arrest since he completed a four-year jail sentence last year.

Deng told AFP he and dozens of other petitioners had returned to Beijing and were now gathered near one of the city’s railway stations to mark Chen’s birthday with songs and banners-a meeting likely to anger authorities. “Dozens of us are singing

happy birthday to Chen Guangcheng.

We have birthday cakes and banners reading ‘Rights Defenders from China celebrate Chen Guangcheng’s birthday’,” he said yesterday. Foreign journalists who have tried to visit Chen since his release from prison have been roughed up or harassed and barred from gaining access to the village. Chen himself and his wife Yuan Weijing have reportedly been severely beaten and threatened. — AFP

Thailand flooding leaves ancient capital in ruins More Bangkok residents advised to flee

QUJING: In this photo, the body of a miner killed after a gas leak at the Sizhuang Coal Mine lies on the ground in Shizong county of city. — AP

China mine blast toll rises to 34 BEIJING: The death toll from a blast at a coal mine in China has risen to 34, an official said yesterday, as rescuers continue to search for workers still trapped underground amid fading hopes of finding survivors. The mine in the southwestern province of Yunnan was hit Thursday by a “coal and gas outburst”-a sudden and violent ejection of coal, gas and rock from a coal face -trapping 43 workers underground. Nine are still missing. The news comes as a separate accident hit the northwestern province of Gansu early yesterday, when a flood at a coal mine trapped seven workers underground and triggered another rescue operation, the official Xinhua news agency said.

In Yunnan’s Shizong county, meanwhile, rescuers have been taking turns heading down the pit to search for survivors and at least 240 tonnes of coal dust have been removed. “It’s very dangerous for rescuers because the gas is still very condensed,” an official at the provincial work safety administration told AFP, adding 34 bodies had been found so far. “And in closed conditions, the ventilation doesn’t work well,” said the official, who refused to be named.

The provincial rescue headquarters said on Saturday that the air was thin in the shaft and “the chances of survival for the trapped miners are slim.” The chief of China’s work safety watchdog, Luo Lin,

described the mine’s safety measures as “very poor” and blamed lax supervision by local authorities. The bosses of the minewhich was operating without a licence after its permit was revoked a year ago, according to Xinhua-have been detained and an investigation is under way.

Coal mine accidents are common in China, where work safety is often neglected by bosses seeking a quick profit.Last year, 2,433 people died in coal mining accidents in the country, according to official statistics-a rate of more than six workers per daybut labour rights groups say the true figure may be much higher. The accident in Yunnan comes days after a rock blast in a coal mine in the central province of Henan trapped dozens of workers underground.

Most were eventually pulled out after a 40hour rescue operation, though 10 were killed.

Last month, a gas explosion at a stateowned coal mine in neighbouring Hunan province left 29 miners dead. And earlier in October, blasts at mines in the southwestern city of Chongqing and the northern province of Shaanxi killed 13 and 11 miners respectively. China’s Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang was quoted as saying by Xinhua that “the latest coal mine accidents ring the alarm, warning us that accident prevention is a complex, difficult, and urgent task.” —AFP

Myanmar to free more political prisoners soon YANGON: Myanmar ’s government is preparing to release prisoners under an amnesty, for the second time in just over a month, “very soon” and more political detainees should be among them, a senior official said yesterday. Details of the amnesty would become clear within two days, the official at the interior ministry told Reuters, and political detainees, sometimes called “prisoners of conscience”, would be included. “Of course, those referred to as prisoners of conscience will be released very, very soon and the rest of them will be moved to the detention centers close to their families,” said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“Just wait for a day or two to see the details,”, he added, declining to say whether prominent activists would be among those who are freed. Myanmar new civilian government, which took office on March 30, freed about 230 political detainees in a general amnesty on Oct 12, a move welcomed by the West as sign that the former generals in charge might start to ease their strict control of the country after five decades of military rule. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday there were signs that Myanmar was making “real changes” and if all political prisoners were freed and reforms introduced, the United States was willing to become its “partner”.

Summit approaching If the amnesty goes ahead in the next two days, it would coincide with the start of an Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit on the Indonesian island of Bali. It would strengthen Myanmar’s case for taking the rotating ASEAN presidency in 2014, two years ahead of schedule.

Analysts say hosting the summit would help to satisfy the government’s craving for legitimacy and help it present a case for concrete assistance from international financial institutions to overhaul the resource-rich country’s long-stagnant economy. It also comes as an open letter to President Thein Sein was published in state-controlled newspapers yesterday, calling for political prisoners to be freed.

Such newspapers are tightly controlled by the government and have for decades served as mouthpieces for the military junta. The letter, from the chairman of the Myanmar National Human Rights Commission, Win Mra, said that there were about 500 political prisoners who should all be freed. Those who could not be released should be transferred to facilities close to their families, he said.

Recent overtures by the government have included calls for peace with ethnic minority rebel groups, some tolerance of criticism in the media and direct contact between Thein Sein and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who was released last year from 15 years of house arrest. The United States, Europe and Australia have made the release of political prisoners a key condition before they would consider lifting sanctions imposed on the pariah nation. — Reuters

YANGON: File photo shows Lieutenant General Thein Sein, then chairman of the National Convention, opening the National Convention for constitutional talks. — AFP

AYUTTHAYA: Water fowl, monitor lizards and stray dogs have replaced the throngs of tourists at one of Thailand’s greatest historical sites.

Record flooding has turned Ayutthaya’s ancient temples into islands, and a giant statue of the reclining Buddha appears to float miraculously on the lapping water.

Experts fear that at least half of the more than 200 waterlogged monasteries, fortresses and other monuments in the one-time royal capital have been damaged. “Imagine a thousand tons of brick and stone resting on soft foundations, with no modern-style pilings. We are very worried,” said Chaiyanand Busayarat, director of the Ayutthaya Historic Park.

And as flood waters recede, some experts are proposing a radical change to prevent similar disasters in the future: Turn back the clock about four centuries to emulate the city’s urban planners and engineers of that time. “We can’t prevent flooding so we have to learn to live with water again, like those who created Ayutthaya. Let’s take out the old city maps,” said Anek Sihamat, deputy director-general of the Thai government’s Fine Arts Department. He recommended digging up old canals that have been paved over for roads and curbing the urban sprawl and industrial parks that block the natural runoff of water.

Capital of a powerful state for 417 years, seat of 33 kings, Ayutthaya has been described as one of the greatest cities on water ever, with a canal network that measured more than 85 miles (140 kilometers). Built on the flood plain of central Thailand at the confluence of three rivers, it was inundated annually, but its citizens lived in stilt-raised houses and used boats for transport.

Water also defended Ayutthaya, which once held as many as 1 million residents, until a brutal sacking by the Burmese in 1767 forced relocation of the capital to Bangkok, 50 miles (80 kilometers) to the south - where the same floodwaters that inundated Ayutthaya are now nearing the inner city. The surge of water from the northern highlands, which began in late July and has killed more than 520 people, is the worst since the 1940s, although Ayutthaya experiences flooding almost every monsoon season.

In coming weeks, experts will assess damage and determine what will be needed to revive and protect the city, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1991.

AYUTTHAYA: In this photo, the Grand Hall stands after heavy flooding in central Thailand. — AP Advisers from Venice and the Netherlands, two places that have grappled with the challenges of watery environments, are prepared to come, while several countries, including Germany and Japan, have provided or promised funds. Anek, the Fine Arts official, estimated that some $20 million will be needed. “Clearly what we hope for from this experience will be a more solid, more thorough flood mitigation plan,” said Tim Curtis, head of the culture unit at UNESCO’s regional office in Bangkok. He said that Amsterdam’s 19th-century waterbased defense line - another World Heritage site - and Venice may be used as models.

Witthaya Pewpong, the Ayutthaya provincial governor, said a dam has been proposed to shield the historic area while flooding would be eased by setting aside a large, constructionfree area of the nearby countryside to absorb excess water. Nevertheless, authorities “know that they will have to learn to live with water because it will always be there,” said UNESCO cultural expert Montira Horayangura Unakul. As such, urban planning should be consistent with Ayutthaya’s design as a city of water, she said. To date, Ayutthaya has not scored well on the urban management front. The city of 82,000 people is mushrooming helter-skelter and has bid to host World Expo 2020. Four years ago, amid concern in Thailand that UNESCO might take the city off its list, one Bangkok newspaper wrote that

Villagers in China riot BEIJING: Villagers carrying clubs and rocks rioted in south China over a land dispute, police said yesterday, and a newspaper reported thousands of armed police had been dispatched to quell the protest. Police in Guangdong province’s Zhongshan said on their Twitterlike weibo account that residents from a village called Yilong stormed an industrial park and “fought, smashed, looted and burnt”-words often used to describe riots. It gave no indication of how many were involved in the Saturday incident, but said that since August, some villagers had used a protracted land leasing row between two districts as an excuse to block production at the industrial park.

The Hong Kong-based Oriental Daily News said in a report that thousands of residents were involved in the riot, and they “burnt two factory workshops to vent their anger... and local authorities dispatched 3,000 armed police.” “Villagers threw petrol bombs and ignited gas cans to fight back,” it said, adding the dispute stemmed from anger over village leaders selling land for personal gain.

The report said that three people had been beaten to death.

Police in Zhongshan city, which oversees Yilong, denied anyone had died on their weibo account, adding the situation had now been brought under control. The local police station where the riot occurred refused to comment when contacted by AFP, and neither Zhongshan police nor the government were available for comment.

The unrest is the latest in a series of large-scale protests to hit China, as disenfranchised people left behind by the country’s economic boom or angry at official corruption take to the streets to air their grievances.

Last month, thousands of people clashed with police and smashed cars in the eastern province of Zhejiang after protests over taxes turned violent, a rights group said. Police have since detained 72 people over the incident. In September, hundreds of villagers-angered at the sale of land without their permissionattacked a police station and ransacked vehicles in Guangdong, leaving dozens injured, local authorities and media reports said. —AFP

the city was destroyed twice, “first by invading Burmese, and now by greedy and insensitive Thais.” Adding to its watery woes, said Curtis, are problems common to heritage sites: the looting of artifacts, inadequate waste disposal, corrosive vehicle fumes, ugly and inappropriate new construction and mass tourism.

There’s also a running battle between heritage and municipal authorities, often allied with business interests. The Fine Arts Department controls development in the core historic area of some 1.2 square miles (3 square kilometers), where no structures more than 26 feet (8 meters) are permitted. However, it exercises little power in outlying zones, which include numerous important monuments and where modern buildings have sprouted next to graceful relics of the past. Most immediately, however, heritage authorities are focused on the floods. With water up to 10 feet (3 meters) high flooding the area for weeks, there is concern that the foundations of larger structures may have been undermined, and bricks, plasterwork and murals damaged.

Visitor facilities and once grassy areas emerging as a sea of mud will need to be restored at what is one of the country’s top tourist destinations.

Also worrisome is salt residue that seeps up with the groundwater, causing damage to monuments. Park director Chaiyanand said the stupas, or Buddhist reliquary, in Ayutthaya were built with an outer core of brick.

The hollow portions inside were filled with sand. When the floods came, the water was absorbed upward into this inner chamber of sand, which became heavier. He fears the weight could cause cracks of the outer brick shell. Water that is hard to detect and remove may also remain within walls after the floodwaters recede.

Chaiyanand said he was particularly concerned about the bricks that were the key building blocks of old Ayutthaya.

“They’re like crackers,” he said, noting the mossy, water-stained bricks at the base of a stupa at the 15th-century Phra Srisanphet monastery.

“When soaked they become easy to break.” Bangkok authorities are telling more residents to leave as floodwaters threaten southwestern neighborhoods in the Thai capital.Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said people should evacuate three neighborhoods due to surging water levels. He said yesterday pumps were operating around the clock and more pumps were being added to help drain the water. Still, floodwaters are receding elsewhere.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said previously the city center would have light flooding if the water penetrated that far but western areas of Bangkok were threatened with inundation. The national death toll from floods since late July has reached 536. More than 13.1 million people - one in five Thais - are affected. — Agencies

News

in brief

China sentences 3 to death BEIJING: A court in China has handed down the death penalty to three people for setting fire to a bar which then spread to a budget hotel, killing 11 people and leaving two others injured, state media reported. The court in the northeastern province of Jilin found the three guilty of arson and sentenced them to death Saturday for setting fire to a basement bar in Tonghua city in May due to a row they had with the establishment’s owner. The fire spread to a karaoke bar and later to the guestrooms of a budget hotel chain, killing 11 hotel guests and firemen who had come to the rescue, the official Xinhua news agency said late Saturday. According to a Xinhua report on May 1, the victims died of smoke inhalation from the fire, which also caused 1.8 million yuan ($280,000) in economic losses.

Gunmen kill 5 in Philippines COTABATO: A Philippine army commander says gunmen have shot to death an entire family of five in the country’s volatile south, apparently over a land dispute. Army Brig. Gen. Rey Ardo says Jolie Fegurac, his wife and three children were asleep when several men armed with assault rifles peppered their house with gunfire early Saturday in a remote village in Sultan Kudarat province. Ardo said yesterday that Fegurac had an argument with a rival family over a long-standing land feud a few days before the attack. Army troops are hunting down the attackers, who were led by a notorious bandit. Violent family rivalries, fueled by weak law enforcement and many unlicensed weapons, are prevalent in the southern Philippines, where decades-long Muslim rebellions are also a major concern.

Van overturns in China killing 6 BEIJING: State media say at least six people were killed and 25 injured when a passenger van overturned at the end of a traffic tunnel in southwest China. Xinhua News Agency says the van crashed yesterday near a bridge at the end of a mountain tunnel in Wayao township in Yunnan province. Xinhua says two of the injured are in critical condition and the cause of accident is under investigation. Serious traffic accidents are common in China due to often overloaded vehicles and poorly trained drivers who often ignore traffic laws.

A

y

e niv rsar n

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Years

NEWS

AMMAN: A shepherd family tends its flock on the outskirts of Amman yesterday. After the end of Eid Al-Adha, shepherds start what they call the livestock fattening season. — AP

2 Kuwaitis detained for ‘spying’ in Iran

Oppn pulls PM grilling, to file another

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

He said the five were to be “sent to Iran to receive military training,” notably with the elite Revolutionary Guards.

On Saturday, the interior ministry said a cell had been broken up that was planning to attack the ministry, the Saudi embassy in Riyadh and the causeway which links the archipelago state to Saudi Arabia. Citing alleged confessions from the suspects, the judiciary spokesman said the cell had been set up by two men he named as Abderrauf AlShaieb and Ali Mashaima, living abroad, through contacts with the five accused. “ They coordinated with military structures abroad, including the Revolutionary Guards ... in Iran to train the recruits of the group in handling arms and explosives,” he said, without giving further details of the two alleged masterminds.

The spokesman said the plan was launched by sending cell members

in small groups to Iran, but it was unclear if those arrested had been the first earmarked for an Iranian trip. Four members of the cell were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, according to the interior ministry, which said the fifth Bahraini was arrested inside the country. The four arrested in Qatar had been traveling by car from Saudi Arabia. Authorities seized “documents and a computer containing information of a security nature (and) details on certain vital sites,” as well as dollars and Iranian rials,” an interior ministry spokesman said. “They then confessed that they had left Bahrain illegally at the instigation of others,” planning to travel on to Iran via Qatar and Syria, to form an “organisation to commit armed terrorist acts in Bahrain,” he added.

Meanwhile, the Gulf Cooperation Council yesterday urged member states to exercise “caution and vigilance” after Bahrain’s announcement that it has broken up a cell planning

attacks. “The condition in the region and dangers facing member states require more caution and vigilance in order to thwart criminal attempts at destabilisation,” GCC chief Abdullatif Al-Zayani said in a statement. He welcomed the security cooperation between Bahrain and Qatar that he credited with having foiled the alleged attacks.

“Security coordination and cooperation between the council members will ensure the failure of these destabilising attempts,” said Zayani.

In an apparent reference to Iran, Zayani said the alleged plot reflected “desperate attempts ... of continuous inter ference in the internal affairs of the kingdom of Bahrain and other GCC countries.” Last month, US authorities said they had broken up a plot by two men linked to Iran’s security agencies to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir. One of the two was arrested in the United States last month and the other was believed to be in Iran. — Agencies

Police wrest control of Rio’s largest slum Continued from Page 1 telescopic sights and chargers as well as grenades seized from the narcotraffickers. An unspecified quantity of marijuana was captured, according to the private television station Globo, which also said one drug trafficker was arrested. Federal police say they were counting on help from residents to locate larger caches of drugs and weapons.

Built on a steep hillside overlooking the city and located between two wealthy neighborhoods, Rocinha is home to 120,000 people while nearby Vidigal has a population of 11,000. In Rocinha, residents waved white flags while the Brazilian flag was hoisted in Vidigal as a sign that government authority had been restored. After 7:30 am (0930 GMT ), navy armor which provided support for the assault began withdrawing and public transport resumed in the area. “ The arrival of the UPP (a police unit set up to pacify the favelas) will be positive for the new generations to put an end to narcotrafficking. I want my sons to stay away from trafficking,” said 51-yearold Carlos Alberto, one of the few Rocinha residents willing to speak to the press.

Another resident applauded the police invasion. “ Tell the world

we’re not all drug traffickers! We’re working people and now they’re coming to liberate us,” a man yelled as police rolled by. But not everyone approved. A few women were seen crying. Marisa Costa da Silva, 54, who runs a small candy shop at the base of the slum, was less sure.

“Lord knows if there will be war or peace, or even if things will be better if police take this slum,” she said.

“We’ve heard they’ve been abusive to slum residents in other places they’ve taken. I have no idea what to expect.”

All access to the two favelas have been blocked since 2:30 am (0430 GMT ). Earlier yesterday, streets were deserted with only a few residents watching from their windows as the troops made their advance.

“We hope that the pacification will not be just about ejecting the drug traffickers but also to bring sanitation, education, health,” said Raimundo Benicio de Souda, a 56year-old community leader known as “Lima”.

“There are people living (here) among cockroaches, urinating and defecating in a can,” Lima told AFP, adding that for this reason “the pacification must have these people as a priority”. “We want the people to be treated with dignity, respect, that those who have been involved in crimes be jailed but not

assassinated” by police, said William de Oliveira, president of the Favelas People’s Movement, wearing a shirt with the inscription “I love Rocinha”.

Authorities estimate that some 200 criminals remained inside Rocinha following last week’s capture of local drug kingpin Antonio Francisco Bonfim Lopes, also known as Nem. Nem was caught hidden in the trunk of a car, along with several accomplices and a few corrupt policemen who were protecting them. A former model employee of a telecom company, Nem reportedly “stumbled” into organized crime after getting a loan from a former Rocinha drug baron to pay for medical care for one of his daughters. To pay back his debts, he began dealing drugs and later took over as chief of the gang which controls Rocinha.

The capture of Rocinha, the 19th favela to be pacified by police, recalled the huge operation launched in November 2010 by joint police and military forces to seize control of Rio’s Alemao favela, home to 400,000 people. Alemao was retaken after three days of clashes that left 37 people dead.

Endemic and chronic urban violence has long tarnished the image of Rio, where more than 1.5 million people live in 1,000 slums spread throughout the city. — Agencies

the Assembly have the majority to enforce any decision. The most likely scenario is that the Assembly may refer the new grilling to the Assembly’s legal and legislative affairs committee to decide whether it is constitutional to go ahead with the debate of the grilling or not. MP Al-Waalan however warned Cabinet ministers that if they take part in shielding the prime minister against grillings, the opposition will grill all of them one by one. Sources in the opposition camp said that they also discussed the possibility of filing to grill the interior minister over a variety of alleged violations.

Meanwhile, the Assembly holds a special session today to review two laws that were rejected by the government that call for increasing the salaries of Kuwaiti teachers and stipends for students. Under Kuwaiti law, the government can reject laws passed by the Assembly, which also can override the government’s rejection by a two-third majority in a fresh vote in the same term and with a simple majority in the next term.

The two laws were passed in the previous Assembly term and were rejected by the government. Now, the Assembly can override the government’s action by a simple majority and then they become mandatory on the government.

Isolation, pressure piles on Syria after ...

Continued from Page 1 Violence also continued elsewhere, with activists reporting at least 14 people killed in shootings by security forces in several parts of the country. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said seven of the deaths occurred in Hama when security forces fired on a group of opposition protesters who infiltrated a pro-government rally in the central city.

Syria’s call for an Arab summit to discuss the country’s spiraling political unrest was seen as another possible bid by President Bashar Assad to buy time as he faces snowballing punitive action over his crackdown that the UN estimates has killed more than 3,500 people since mid-March. In a thinly veiled warning, the government said it was calling for the meeting “because the fallout from the Syrian crisis could harm regional security” - an apparent effort to play on concerns that Assad’s ouster would spread chaos around the Middle East. In an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph last month, Assad warned of a regional “earthquake” if the West intervenes in his country’s uprising.

But in a significant concession, Syria also invited Arab League officials to visit before its membership suspension was to take effect on Wednesday, and said they could bring any civilian or military observers they deem appropriate to oversee implementation of an Arab League plan for ending the bloodshed. The Syrian government is usually loathe to accept anything resembling any form of foreign intervention and the open invitation signaled the government’s alarm over the Arab action.

The Nov 2 deal called for Syria to halt attacks on protesters, pull tanks out of cities and hold talks with the opposition. In voting for the suspension, the Arab League said it would meet again Wednesday in the Moroccan capital of Rabat to reconsider the decision, giving Assad some leeway to take action to prevent it. Arab League officials did not immediately respond to the Syrian invitation. Arab League Secretary General Nabil Elaraby, on a visit to Libya, demanded immediate implementation of the Arab peace initiative.

Arab nations are eager to avoid seeing another leader toppled violently, as happened to Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi last month. An Arab League decision had paved the way for the UN-mandated no-fly zone and NATO airstrikes that eventually brought down Gaddafi, but officials have stressed international intervention was not on the agenda in Syria. Unlike Gaddafi, Assad enjoys a number of powerful allies that give him the means to push back against outside pressure. A conflict in Syria would risk touching off a wider Middle East conflict with arch foes Israel and Iran in the mix. The US and its allies also have shown little appetite for intervening in another Arab nation in turmoil.

The Syrian leader asserts that extremists pushing a foreign agenda to destabilize Syria are behind the country’s unrest, rather than true reform seekers aiming to open the country’s autocratic political system. Yesterday’s demonstrators accused Arab countries of being complicit with the purported conspir-

acy. Iraq, which abstained from Saturday’s vote, warned the Arab League suspension could make matters worse. “The suspension of Syria’s membership will deprive the Arab League of any communication channel with the Syrian government and this move does not serve the interests of the Syrian people,” Iraqi government spokesman Ali Al-Dabbagh said.

Members of the Syrian opposition, meanwhile, rejoiced.

“This gives strong legitimacy to our cause,” Bassma Kodmani, a spokeswoman for the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group, told AP. We consider this decision to be a victory for the Syrian revolution.” Hours after the Arab League vote, however, pro-regime demonstrators in Syria assaulted the diplomatic offices of countries critical of the Syrian government, including break-ins at the Saudi and Qatari embassies and attacks at Turkish and French diplomatic posts across the country.

Syrian security forces confronted the attackers with batons and tear gas but were unable to stop a group from breaking into the Qatari embassy and replacing the Qatari flag with the Syrian banner. Others entered Saudi Arabia’s embassy compound, broke windows and ransacked some areas of Saudi Arabia’s embassy compound, the kingdom’s media reported.

Nobody was reported injured, but the embassy attacks were likely to stoke anger in Arab states against the regime in Damascus. Arab disapproval in itself may not seriously damage Assad’s hold on power, but if Syria further antagonizes Gulf states, it risks having them build up the Syrian opposition into a unified body that can win international recognition, as happened during Libya’s civil war this year.

Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack and said it held the Syrian authorities responsible for protecting its interests. Saudi King Abdullah, who has condemned Assad’s crackdown, had already recalled the Saudi ambassador to Syria in August. Kuwait and Bahrain have also recalled their ambassadors. Protesters also attacked the Turkish Embassy in Damascus as well as consulates in the cities of Aleppo and Latakia, according to Turkey’s state-run Anatolia news agency.

Turkey is not a member of the Arab League but has been sharply critical of Syria’s crackdown, and Turkey’s foreign minister welcomed the Arab League vote.

Turkey sent a plane to Damascus yesterday to evacuate diplomatic families as well as nonessential staff, Anatolia reported. The Foreign Ministry also summoned Syria’s charge d’affaires who was given a formal protest note demanding protection for its diplomatic missions. France also said it had summoned Syria’s ambassador to “remind” him of Syria’s international obligations, after demonstrators tried to attack an honorary French consulate in Latakia and another French office in Aleppo.

Yesterday, hundreds of baton-carrying Syrian riot police in helmets ringed the US, Qatari, Saudi and Turkish embassies all located in the capital’s upscale Abu Rummaneh district.

Three fire trucks were parked in front of the Turkish Embassy.

The Turkish and Qatari embassies were closed for the day but the Saudi Embassy was operating, an operator said. — AP

14

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

opinion

THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961

Founder and Publisher

YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief

ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait.

E MAIL :info@kuwaittimes.net Website: www.kuwaittimes.net

Issues

Brussels takes heavy hand in euro crisis

By Don Melvin he European Union, never known for its light touch, is pushing through the euro crisis with an unusually heavy hand. Surprisingly, few people seem to be complaining. Brussels - and the leaders of the EU’s two most powerful countries - have come close to ordering that a government of national unity be formed in Greece, that a national referendum there be scrapped, and that Italy accept humiliating international financial inspection of its books. But voters in those beleaguered member states seem weary for now of politics and the fine mess their elected leaders have gotten them into. They’ve looked over the precipice and seem to have decided just for the moment to forego politics, ballot-going and little quibbles over sovereignty.

The normally fiercely independent-minded people of Greece and Italy - both countries in dire trouble over their sovereign debts - seem willing to accept as their new prime ministers technocrats who are veterans of panEuropean institutions with reputations for meddling in national affairs. The new prime minister of Greece is Lucas Papademos, a 64-year-old former vice president of the European Central Bank. The expected new leader of Italy, once the flamboyant and often embarrassing Silvio Berlusconi resigns, is 68-year-old Mario Monti - a former competition commissioner for none other than the EU. It’s beyond doubt that France and Germany play a huge role in making decisions on behalf of all 27 EU nations. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel often meet in advance of EU summits to hash out a common position on the issues of the day, which they then present to the other 25 heads of government, almost as a fait accompli. These pre-summit meetings have evolved now into an informal committee called the Frankfurt Group, which also includes officials from the EU and the IMF. And though the European Union casts itself as a global supporter of democracy, some recent actions by Sarkozy, Merkel and EU officials based in Brussels could be viewed pretty much as diktats that were not particularly deferential to the rights of national voters to shape national policies. EU leaders erupted in rage at the call by George Papandreou, then Greece’s prime minister, for putting the terms of Greece’s bailout to a referendum.

After Merkel and Sarkozy summoned him to the G-20 summit in Cannes to explain himself, the referendum was duly scrapped.

Wielding the power to withhold a desperately needed euro8 billion ($11 billion) batch of bailout money, EU leaders strongly urged that Greece’s two main parties join in a government of national unity - which they did.

And EU honchos made no secret of their preference for Papademos to lead that government of national unity.

So, after four days of wrangling, the Socialists and Conservatives tapped Papademos. In Italy, EU officials imposed International Monetary Fund financial monitoring on Italy - essentially an expression of mistrust of the elected government there.

But people in Greece and Italy, feeling badly let down by the governments they elected, do not seem to be taking offense at the outside help. In Greece, where democracy was invented, recession-weary citizens seem less than keen to hurry back to the ballot box. According to a recent poll, 79 percent of them opposed Papandreou’s plan to hold the referendum on a bailout. The Alco telephone poll of 1,000 adults conducted Nov. 2-4 also found that more than half of Greek voters - 52 percent - preferred the formation of a coalition government to early general elections. No margin of error was given.

Italians are angry, but their wrath is directed more toward Berlusconi and Italian politicians in general for the mess they are in, rather than at EU headquarters in Brussels. “We’re angry with our government for its lack of action,” said Amadeo Lefevre, as he arranged the shelves in his bookshop a few blocks from Berlusconi’s residence and the Chamber of Deputies. “They have no policy, no strategy.” Adriaan Schout, an expert on European politics at the Clingendael international affairs institute in the Netherlands, said voters have reason to feel let down by what their democracies have achieved. “Politics have done great damage to the economic and monetary union,” Schout said.

Furthermore, he said, it is not the business of democracy to hold referendums on every issue that comes along, and the lack of them does not make the EU undemocratic. —AP

T

All articles appearing on these pages are the personal opinion of the writers. Kuwait Times takes no responsibility for views expressed therein. Kuwait Times invites readers to voice their opinions. Please send submissions via email to: opinion@kuwaittimes.net or via snail mail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait. The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

League tough on Syria but results unclear he Arab League’s decision to suspend Syria has further isolated President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and boosted the opposition but it may not be enough to halt the bloodshed, analysts said yesterday. Syria has become the second “Arab Spring” nation to face such a sanction this year by the Arab League - long criticised for its toothless stance against the region’s despots -following Libya’s suspension in February.

“It’s a very important decision. For the first time, Syria loses its Arab cover,” said Joseph Bahout, Syria expert at the Sciences-Po university in Paris, noting that 18 of the League’s 22 members had voted for the suspension. “When it comes to the workings of Arab political order, this is a new and unexpected decision,” he said. At an extraordinary meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo, the League decided on Saturday to suspend Syria from all its activities until Damascus implements a peace plan agreed to with the Arab body. In an angry initial reaction, Syria said the suspension spelled the end of any Arab role in resolving the dispute. The pan-Arab group’s moves “put an end to joint Arab action and show that the (League’s) administration is subjected to US and Western agendas,” said Syria’s ambassador to the organisation, Yussef Ahmad.

But the Damascus government on Sunday called for an urgent Arab summit. “Syria demands an emergency Arab summit to address the crisis and its negative consequences in the Arab world,” state television reported. A statement, read by Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, also said the League would implement “economic and political sanctions” against Damascus, without elaborating. Sheikh Hamad said the suspension would last “until the total implementation (by Syria) of the Arab plan for resolving the crisis accepted by Damascus on November 2.” The League invited “all currents in the Syrian opposition to meet at Arab League headquarters in Cairo in three days to draw up a joint vision for the coming transitional period”. “It’s the start of official recognition” of the opposition, Bahout told AFP. Despite the suspension, Syria is still a member of the Arab League, unlike Egypt which lost its seat in 1979 after signing a peace treaty with Israel. The suspension, however, is seen as a powerful move within the region that could weaken Russia and China’s support of the Syrian regime inside the UN

T

Security Council. “Now that the Arab League has taken decisive action, it is time for the UN Security Council to finally step up to the plate and deliver and effective international response to Syria’s human rights crisis,” said Philip Luther, Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa head. “The question is whether those countries who have been blocking effective international action on Syria - in particular Russia and China - will recognise how isolated they have become,” Luther said in a statement.

Under the Arab League deal, the Syrian regime had agreed to release detainees, withdraw the army from urban areas, allow free movement for observers and media and negotiate

with the opposition. Syrian envoy Ahmad denounced the move as illegal, saying Damascus had already implemented the deal and accusing the United States of ordering the suspension. “Knowing this regime, it will probably be firmer and the security option will expand,” predicted Bahout. “We will try to send civilian observers for the protection of the population, but obviously it is not sure that the Syrian government will accept, it will probably refuse,” one Arab diplomat at the League told AFP. If there is no political progress, there is also the fear of radicalisation among anti-regime protesters. “There is fear that the demonstrations ... will turn into an armed conflict,” said the diplomat who requested anonymity. — AFP

Sudan war unlikely

By Simon Martelli ies between Sudan and the newly independent south are badly strained after violence surged along their tense border and darkened the prospects of talks, but analysts say all-out war is unlikely. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir said Thursday his country would not sacrifice any more of its people in wars with the north. But he also claimed that Khartoum was looking for a pretext to invade and seize southern oil fields. “We will never allow our sovereignty to be violated by anybody,” he warned. Shortly afterwards, southern officials say the northern army carried out two cross-border air strikes, including on a refugee camp, and a deadly ground attack in the country’s oilproducing states of Unity and Upper Nile.

Khartoum strongly denied the allegations, insisting that Juba was supplying the southern-aligned SPLM-North rebels that the Sudanese armed forces (SAF) claimes to have defeated in Blue Nile state but continues to battle in South Kordofan.

Analysts warn the ongoing violence in the border area will only make it harder for Juba and Khartoum to resolve key postsecession issues, which include the division of oil revenues, the future of the disputed Abyei region, and border demarcation.

“The fighting is going to complicate the negotiations because

T

the two parties need to sit down and amicably resolve the pending issues,” said Fuad Hikmat from the International Crisis Group. “This is not a healthy situation. The African Union is trying to bring the two parties together for talks in Addis Ababa, but ... it’s getting ever more difficult,” he added.

Hikmat said the discussions on some of those issues, especially Abyei, were “extremely complicated” and required a lot of political will, which was notably absent from the language of senior officials, north and south. In a speech to mark the Eid AlAdha festival and the capture of the Blue Nile border town of Kurmuk last Sunday, President Omar Al-Bashir accused Juba of a string of betrayals and provocations. He said if the south wanted to go to war, “our army is there”.

Magdi Gazouli, Sudan analyst with the Rift Valley Institute, said “I can see a lot of rhetoric. But there’s nothing concrete to support the notion that these people are going to fight any time soon. Bashir delivered a very triumphant speech in Kurmuk, which contained a warning to the south,” he said, arguing that it was mainly for “internal consumption”.

“He was not stating the position of his government towards South Sudan. I think he was doing a propaganda stunt for the SAF, saying ‘we fought the war, we won it together, we were not defeated.’”—AFP

GOP searches for foreign policy voice

By Matt Apuzzo fter years of Republicans dominating the politics of national security, this year’s GOP presidential candidates are struggling to find a coherent national security argument against President Barack Obama. In the first debate dedicated to security and foreign policy, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney took issue with Obama’s plan for drawing down troops in Afghanistan but the dispute amounted to whether some forces should stay an extra few months. Texas Gov Rick Perry called for sanctions against the Iranian central bank. Romney and former Utah Gov Jon Huntsman debated whether the World Trade Organization should investigate Chinese currency practices.

All of the candidates offered only incremental criticism of the Democrat who has racked up a string of security successes, a stark contrast to the with-us-or-against-us politics Republicans have used since the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. If the debate made anything clear, it’s that Republicans have losttheir go-to national security talking points, with Osama bin Laden’s body somewhere in the Indian Ocean, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq drawing to a close and Obama expanding the use of unmanned spy planes to hunt terrorists. “I don’t think there’s a very strong narrative,” said Tony Fratto, who served as a White House and Treasury Department spokesman during the Bush administration.

“Is it a significant issue for a majority of Republican voters? No. It’s not.” And it’s not hard to understand why. The sluggish economy is at the top of voters’ concerns and, thus, dominating the campaign conversation.

National security and foreign policy issues have been all but absent from the Republican primary contest and, given that the 9 percent unemployment rate is showing no sign of significant improvement, it no doubt will shape the general election, as well. Unlike four and eight years ago, a GOP heavily influenced by the tea party this year has found more traction criticizing Obama for spending at home and it turns to that line of attack any chance it

A

gets.

Even Saturday during a debate, one of the lengthier exchanges was over foreign aid, which makes up about 1 percent of the federal budget but is a popular target for criticism among fiscal conservatives, particularly in the tea party movement. “I don’t believe any of them have spent much time trying to think through and understand foreign assistance,” much of which involves providing weapons, training and equipment to countries that protect our interests, Fratto said.

The candidates also veered into more familiar territory, criticizing the president’s healthcare program and spending on public broadcasting and the arts. Flashback to 2002 and 2004 when President George W Bush led the party. White House political adviser Karl Rove urged Republicans to make the war on terrorism central to congressional elections,

saying: “We can go to the country on this issue.”

Then, Bush made security the centerpiece of his re-election campaign. Domestic issues took a backseat to all else. His nominating convention was in New York City not far from where the World Trade Center towers once stood. And Bush’s team ran an advertisement against Democrat John Kerry showing a pack of wolves in the forest, with a narrator saying, “weakness attracts those who are waiting to do America harm”.

In contrast, Obama is letting his actions and his successes - on that front speak for itself and is focusing primarily on economic issues. Barring a terrorist attack against the United States, Obama will go into the general election with the upper hand on an issue matrix where Republicans used to have a strong advantae. “No matter what you criti-

(From left) Republican presidential candidates prepare to speak at the CBS News/National Journal foreign policy debate at the Benjamin Johnson Arena, Saturday in Spartanburg, South Carolina. — AP

cize him on, he can say, ‘I got bin Laden’,” said Marc Thiessen, a former Bush speechwriter.

“In the world of 30-second sound bites, there is a very good case to be made against Obama’s foreign policy, but he has a very good talking point. It’s kind of pathetic that CBS had this debate on Saturday night between two football games,” Thiessen added. “If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about how the world values a foreign policy discussion, I don’t know what does.”

Despite compiling a lengthy terrorist body count, Obama still has not laid out a clear policy on detention, interrogation and how the government will prosecute terrorists. The prison in Guantanamo Bay will remain open and there’s no indication that there will be a plan for dealing with the prisoners, many of whom have been cleared for release since the Bush administration. Part of the challenge for Republicans is that the president has an advantage on national security issues by virtue of his daily interaction with world leaders and his access to the nation’s most sensitive intelligence. During the 2004 presidential debate, when Kerry criticized Bush’s collaboration with other world leaders, Bush countered, portraying Kerry as an armchair quarterback. “I know how these people think,” Bush said. “I deal with them all the time. I sit down with the world leaders frequently and talk to them on the phone frequently.”

Today, that advantage goes to Obama. At the same time, the GOP field - made up primarily of current and former governors starts from a position of disadvantage, collectively having little foreign policy experience.

Voters also have grown tired of the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, making it harder for any other foreign policy message to resonate.

“It’s really reflective of where the voters are more than anything else,” said Fratto. Still, in the end, whoever is president in 2013 will face a number of foreign policy challenges, such as how to respond to Chinese cyber attacks and how to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons - issues that were touched on only briefly Saturday. — AP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

‘Thorpedo’ flops again TOKYO: Ian Thorpe flopped again in his comeback to competitive swimming by placing 26th in heats for the 100 metres butterfly at a World Cup meet in Tokyo yesterday.

The five-times Olympic gold medallist’s Asian World Cup series ended in more disappointment, although he shaved nearly a second off his time from his efforts in Beijing earlier this week.

Australian Thorpe clocked 53.59 seconds, way adrift of fastest qualifier Takeshi Matsuda of Japan (51.39). Thorpe, returning after a five-year absence, remained confident he was on schedule in his bid to qualify for next year’s London Olympics.

“This week has been challenging,” he told reporters. “I wish I could have done it with no one watching-but that’s unfortunately not the case.”

Thorpe, who also failed to qualify for the men’s 100 metre freestyle, added: “I am very comfortable with where I’m at.”

The lanky Australian also pulled out of the 100 metre individual medley in Tokyo after his setback in the men’s 100 metre freestyle, an event he once dominated. —Reuters

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings on Saturday.

Boston 6, Buffalo 2; Ottawa 5, Toronto 2; New Jersey 3, Washington 2 (SO); Carolina 5, Pittsburgh 3; Detroit 5, Dallas 2; Columbus 2, Winnipeg 1; Montreal 2, Nashville 1 (OT); St. Louis 3, Tampa Bay 0; Calgary 4, Colorado 3; Los Angeles 5, Minnesota 2; Phoenix 3, San Jose 0.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division Pittsburgh 10 4 3 51 40 23 NY Rangers 9 3 3 43 32 21 Philadelphia 8 4 3 57 46 19 New Jersey 8 6 1 37 41 17 NY Islanders 4 6 3 28 39 11 Northeast Division Toronto 10 6 1 51 58 21 Buffalo 10 6 0 49 40 20 Ottawa 8 9 1 53 65 17 Boston 8 7 0 52 35 16 Montreal 7 7 2 40 42 16 Southeast Division Washington 10 4 1 55 42 21 Florida 8 4 3 44 39 19 Tampa Bay 8 6 2 46 50 18 Carolina 6 8 3 43 58 15 Winnipeg 5 9 3 43 58 13 Western Conference Central Division Chicago 10 4 3 56 49 23 Detroit 9 5 1 42 33 19 Nashville 8 5 3 43 42 19 St. Louis 8 7 1 40 38 17 Columbus 3 12 1 36 60 7 Northwest Division Edmonton 9 5 2 36 32 20 Minnesota 8 5 3 36 34 19 Vancouver 8 8 1 51 50 17 Colorado 8 8 1 49 54 17 Calgary 7 8 1 35 42 15 Pacific Division Dallas 11 5 0 48 41 22 San Jose 9 5 1 44 39 19 Phoenix 8 4 3 43 39 19 Los Angeles 8 6 3 41 40 19 Anaheim 6 7 3 33 47 15 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

sp orts Warner gets Aussie call SYDNEY: David Warner will replace the injured Shaun Marsh in the Australian squad for the second and final test against South Africa, Cricket Australia (CA) said yesterday.

Marsh hurt his back in the manic Cape Town test where Australia were shot out for 47 in their second innings before being subjected to an eight-wicket thumping.

Marsh could not field on the second day because of the injury and batted at number 10 position, instead of number three, for a two-ball duck in their second innings.

“David has been in tremendous form for New South Wales in all forms of the game... We are certain that should the opportu-

nity present itself he will be ready to perform at Test level,” national selection panel chief Andrew Hilditch said in a statement.

Twenty five-year-old Warner has played 10 one day internationals and will hope to make his test debut in the Johannesburg match starting on Thursday.

Marsh would return to Australia, team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said.

“He was in considerable pain and was obviously restricted while batting in the second innings,” he said.

“He is slowly improving but will return to Australia for further investigation and treatment as he will not recover in time to play the second Test in Johannesburg.” —Reuters

Top cricket writer dies JOHANNESBURG: Renowned cricket writer Peter Roebuck committed suicide in his hotel room South African police confirmed to AFP yesterday.

England-born Roebuck, 55 and a former first class cricketer, was covering the ongoing Test series between South Africa and Australia.

Captain Frederik van Wyk, spokesman for the South African Police in the Western Cape province, confirmed that a British citizen had been found in his room having committed suicide.

“I can confirm that the incident took place at a quarter past nine on Saturday (evening),” said van Wyk. “A 55-yearold British citizen was found dead in a hotel room in Newlands, Cape Town. He was working as a cricket commentator for an Australian publication.

He committed suicide. “An inquest docket has been opened for investigation. I cannot say more at the moment.”

He wouldn’t confirm media reports that Roebuck was spoken to by local police earlier on Saturday and that people had seen him in an agitated state following that. — AFP

Devils edge Capitals in shootout WASHINGTON: David Clarkson scored in the fourth round of the shootout after Johan Hedberg made a pad save on Nicklas Backstrom as the New Jersey Devils rallied for a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Saturday night.

Zach Parise also scored for the Devils in the shootout, while Alex Ovechkin connected for Washington. New Jersey got goals from Petr Sykora and Ryan Carter in the second period to erase a 20 deficit. The Devils have won three of four games. Washington coach Bruce Boudreau was denied in his first try at his 200th NHL victory.

Brent Johnson to give the Hurricanes a 4-3 lead after they wasted a three-goal advantage. It was Staal’s fourth goal of the season. Jeff Skinner had a goal and two assists, and Tuomo Ruutu had two goals for the Hurricanes, who ended a four-game losing streak. Jordan Staal,

Blues 3, Lightning 0 In St. Louis, Brian Elliott stopped 19 shots and defenseman Kris Russell scored in his St. Louis debut to lead the Blues over Tampa Bay. Russell, acquired from the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, netted his third

Flames 4, Avalanche 3 In Denver, Miikka Kiprusoff made 36 saves as Calgar y held on to beat Colorado for the eighth straight time.

Lee Stempniak, Jarome Iginla, Paul Byron and Curtis Glencross scored to build a 4-0 lead for the Flames before the Avalanche rallied. Milan Hejduk, Matt Duchene and David Jones scored for Colorado, which has lost six of eight home games this season.

Bruins 6, Sabres 2 In Boston, Tyler Seguin scored twice and had an assist as Boston increased its season-high winning streak to five with a victory over Buffalo.

Brad Marchand had a goal and two assists and Rich Peverley and Chris Kelly had a goal and an assist each for Boston.

The Bruins have scored 30 goals during the current winning streak. They held the Sabres to 23 shots and ended Buffalo’s four-game winning streak.

Red Wings 5, Stars 2 In Detroit, Johan Franzen, Darren Helm and Brad Stuart scored in the third period to lead Detroit past Dallas. The Red Wings have won four straight, part of a streaky start to their season. They won their first five games before an 0-51 stretch preceded this run.

Loui Eriksson and Brenden Morrow scored for the Stars, who have lost two in a row after an 11-3 star t. Nik las Kronwall and Ian White added goals for Detroit.

Hurricanes 5, Penguins 3 At Raleigh, North Carolina, Eric Staal scored for the first time in a month to help Carolina hold off Pittsburgh.

Staal converted a rebound with 4:34 remaining, smacking the puck past

Shea Weber had the lone goal for the Predators in the second. It was only the third game this season the Predators have had more shots than their opponents. They have been outshot a league-high 13 times.

Coyotes 3, Sharks 0 In San Jose, California, Mike Smith made 31 saves for his 12th NHL shutout as Phoenix coasted. Radim Vrbata, Boyd Gordon and Patrick O’Sullivan all scored for Phoenix. Smith won for the sixth time in seven games and posted his first shutout since April.

LOS ANGELES: Simon Gagne No. 12 of the Los Angeles Kings skates around the net before scoring a goal on starting goaltender Josh Harding No. 37 of the Minnesota Wild in the second period at Staples Center. —AFP Eric’s brother, scored two goals for Pittsburgh.

Blue Jackets 2, Jets 1 In Columbus, Ohio, Ryan Johansen scored two goals and Steve Mason made with 35 saves to help struggling Columbus end a three -game losing skid. Johansen has scored the winning goal in all three of Columbus’ victories.

Mark Stuar t scored a shor t-handed goal for the Jets, who have lost five straight.

goal of the season late in the first period. Kevin Shattenkirk added a goal, and T.J. Oshie scored a short-handed tally.

St. Louis improved to 5-0-1 in its last six home games. Tampa Bay had a three-game winning streak broken.

Canadiens 2, Predators 1 In Nashville, Tennessee, Max Pacioretty scored 2:31 into overtime to lift Montreal over Nashville. David Desharnais also scored for Montreal and assisted on the game-winner.

Kings 5, Wild 2 In Los Angeles, Alex Martinez and Matt Greene scored on the front and back ends of a four-goal second period to lift Los Angeles past Minnesota.

Jonathan Quick made 24 saves for the win after losing his previous six starts. The Kings got the win in Terry Murray’s 1,000th regular-season game as an NHL coach.

Senators 5, Maple Leafs 2 In Toronto, Nick Foligno scored two goals and Craig Anderson made 31 saves as Ottawa ended its five-game losing streak. Sergei Gonchar, Zack Smith and Milan Michalek added goals for Ottawa. Tyler Bozak and Joffrey Lupul scored for the Maple Leafs, who dropped their third straight game at home. —AP

Team Kuwait participates in Mercedes Trophy World Final 2011 in Germany

SUNRISE BEACH: In this photo, provided by the Florida Keys News Bureau, rescue personnel (right) work on extracting offshore powerboat racers Robert M. Morgan and Jeffrey Tillman after their 46-foot catamaran was involved in an accident. —AP

Powerboat racer’s death is third at US competition MIAMI: An offshore powerboat racer has died after being critically injured in an accident at the Key West World Championship, the third racer killed during the boating competition.

Joey Gratton, 59, of Sarasota, Florida, died Saturday morning at the Ryder Trauma Center in Miami from injuries sustained Friday, said Super Boat International spokesman Roderick Cox. Gratton’s racing partner Stephen Page, of Fort Myers, was released from the hospital Saturday.

About 200 people gathered at a memorial for Gratton Saturday afternoon, including Page, who still had green bandages wrapped around one arm and hospital bracelets on his wrist.

Mourners wore Page Motorsports T-shirts and took turns hugging him after the memorial. Although the competition has claimed three lives, race officials said they will continue with Sunday’s scheduled races. “We’re racing tomorrow,” said John Carbonell, president of Super Boat International, the race’s sanctioning body. “That’s what they’re here for. They

know when they come to a race the potential of accidents.”

On Wednesday, powerboat racers Robert M. Morgan, 74, of Sunrise Beach, Missouri, and Jeffrey Tillman, 47, of Kaiser, Missouri, died when their 46-foot (14-meter) catamaran Big Thunder Marine crashed during a race inside Key West Harbor. Wednesday was the first day of racing, and a memorial gathering was held the following day.

Gratton and Page were on the final lap of Friday’s seven-lap race when their 38foot (11.6-meter) Superboat 850-class Skater catamaran rolled over twice at checkpoint 1 of the 6.5-mile (10.5-kilometer) course.

Page, 57, was able to get himself out and was taken to Lower Keys Medical Center. Gratton had to be pulled out of the water by rescue divers and was airlifted to the hospital.

At Saturday’s memorial, the Rev. Jim Black of Racing Performance Ministries said Gratton’s wife had sent word to thank everyone and given him a message to share. — AP

STUTTGART: Team Kuwait participated in the MercedesTrophy World Final in Stuttgart Germany which was held from September 28 to October 4. A total 29 teams from around the world competed in Stuttgart in one of the most prestigious and biggest tournaments in amateur golf.

The Kuwaiti team was represented by the winners of MercedesTrophy Kuwait National Final winners Ahmed AlSarawi, Dr. PM Dhar and Ali AlJazzaf who are all MercedesBenz customers along with team captain Sanjay Kaul from Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Co. MercedesTrophy Kuwait National Final was held at Sahara golf club on March 11, 2011.

This year’s National Final was the 14th edition of this tournament that was organised by Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Co. At the World Final over 100 golfing enthusiasts and Mercedes-Benz customers from 43 different countries put their driving, pitching and putting skills to the test when they met for the MercedesTrophy World Final, which is traditionally staged in the premium automotive brand’s home city.

For three days, the 29 teams played the courses at the Stuttgarter Golf Club Solitude (October 1) and Schloss Nippenburg Golf Club (October 2nd & 3rd).

Mercedes-Benz’s involvement in amateur golf dates back to 1989. The MercedesTrophy is the brand’s own series of amateur invitational tournaments for customers, with some 58,000 players competing in over 43 countries. “Once again the

MercedesTrophy World Final has proved a great success. We have seen brilliant per formances across all three days, especially from the teams of New Zealand and South Asia, “ says L¸der Fromm, Director of Global Marketing Communications for Mercedes-Benz Cars. “For our

their guests had the opportunity to drive the latest MercedesBenz models such as the SLK 350 or the CL 500 at a special Driving Experience event.

Another highlight was the presentation of the new Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG Roadster at the prize-giving cer-

brand, the tournament is an excellent platform to welcome and celebrate customers from all over the world.”

Off the course, the MercedesTrophy finalists and

emony. The car premiered only a few weeks ago at the Frankfurt Motor show. Two days before, the new ML 250 BlueTEC 4MATIC, the most fuel-efficient SUV in its class, was displayed at a func-

tion at the golfclub. A surprise guest at the event was professional golfer Adam Scott, who was announced as the new Mercedes-Benz international golf brand ambassador from 2012.

The Australian has had a superb year, including his best finish at a Major championship when he finished tied for second place at The Masters in Augusta.

He is currently ranked number 9 in the World.

Scott took part in the prizegiving ceremony as well as a “beat the star ” competition where participants had the chance to play against him at hole 10. He joins long-time brand ambassador Bernhard Langer who extended his association with Mercedes-Benz last month for another three years.

This year ’s winners of the Nations Cup were the teams from New Zealand and South Asia with 201 points each. They were closely followed by the team of UK with a total of 200 points. Team Kuwait scored a total of 176 points.

“The MercedesTrophy is a way of showing our appreciation to Mercedes-Benz customers and friends of Mercedes-Benz. This is also a solid platform to promote the sport of golf in Kuwait. We are happy to send the winners of Kuwait National final to participate in World Finals and enjoy Mercedes-Benz hospitality during the tournament.” said Michael Ruehle, General Manager Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Co. Next year, Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Co. will be holding the 15th edition of the MercedesTrophy Golf tournament in Kuwait in the spring of 2012.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

sp orts

Pagunsan in sudden-death playoff at Singapore Open

SYDNEY: Greg Chalmers of Australia poses with the Stonehaven Cup after winning the Australian Open golf tournament. —AFP

Chalmers defeats Woods to clinch Australian title SYDNEY: Local-born Greg Chalmers shot a three-under-par 69 to win his second Australian Open by one stroke yesterday as Tiger Woods came up just short in his quest to end his two-year title drought.

Chalmers was made to sweat in the clubhouse as his compatriot John Senden went close with a 35-foot birdie putt at the 18th that would have forced a playoff but ultimately his total of 13-under was enough to secure the Stonehaven Cup. A day shy of the second anniversary of his 95th and last title win at the 2009 Australian Masters, Woods came from six shots back overnight to hit an eagle and five birdies for a 67 and third place on 11-under.

“It could have been really low today, a couple of drives on the back nine cost me,” the 35-year-old Woods said. “I fought real hard all day but it looks as though I’ve come up just short.

“I’m just going to keep plugging along,” added the 14-times major winner. “It’s just nice to be playing and not on the sidelines.”

An emotional Chalmers, who first won the title in 1998, fought back tears after beating a field including eight of the world’s top 20, who had travelled to Australia to prepare for next week’s Presidents Cup in Melbourne.

“I’m just extremely excited and extremely pleased to win this tournament twice,” the 38year-old said. “You can stumble into it once but to win it again, in this field, one of the strongest we’ve had fields we’ve had in Australian golf for a long time, that does something for me, that really floats my boat.

“I think I stumbled into it when I was 26 ... I know what it takes now, it’s hard to win.” The Western Australian-based world number 215 started the day with birdies on his first two

holes and held at least a share of the lead for the remainder of his round.

The lefthander stuttered with two bogies before the turn but he sandwiched a birdie between them and two more in a flawless back nine put him in the clubhouse with a two-shot lead.

Chalmers said he had spotted Woods moving up the leaderboard and heard the roar ahead of him when the American chipped in for an eagle at the 14th hole.

“I was aware of what Tiger was doing but I also knew I had birdie holes coming up,” he said. “I thought he would have to make another eagle or birdie one of the harder holes.” Overnight leader Senden made a calamitous start with four bogeys in his first seven holes and his hopes of a second title to go along with his 2006 triumph looked all but gone at the turn.

He stormed back with four birdies over the back nine, and having missed his putt on the final green by inches, finished with a 72 to stand at 12-under for the tournament.

Defending champion Geoff Ogilvy shot the best round of the day with a 65 to take a share of fourth place on nine-under with compatriots Adam Scott (68), Jason Day (74) and Nick O’Hern (72) as well as American Nick Watney (72).

World number seven Day, seeking his first Australian Open title five years after he last played on home soil, also made a poor start, finding the water at the first and the sandy rough at the third to drop two shots. The 24year-old steadied his round with back-toback birdies at the seventh and eighth but lacked the fluency of his play on the first three days and three bogeys on the back nine put paid to his title challenge.—Reuters

SINGAPORE: Filipino Juvic Pagunsan and Spain’s Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano will return today to complete a suddendeath playoff for a Singapore Open title that the weather seems determined to wash out.

Both men finished the dramatic final round of a tournament already reduced to 54 holes tied on 14 under par yesterday, but two attempts at a sudden-death playoff failed under the leaden and stormy skies over Sentosa Golf Club.

The entire field had completed their third rounds in a five-hour window between weather warnings but the joint leaders were only able to tee off on the par-five 18th playoff hole before the threat of thunder sent them back to the clubhouse.

After a 90-minute delay, both men returned to lay up short of the green as buggies rushed them down the sodden fairway to speed up the action, but the heavens opened once more and after two hours of non-stop rain, play was abandoned for the day.

The Monday finish, the second in a row, represents a huge disappointment for the players, organisers and fans, who had finally been rewarded for their patience after three days of frustrating breaks with a nail-biting final round.

In regulation play, Pagunsan drained a 12-foot birdie putt on the last to record a four-under 67 before overnight leader Fernandez-Castano recovered to hole a similar-length putt for par after finding water off the tee.

“It was a nice putt as I saw Gonzalo’s drive was in the water,” the ever-smiling Pagunsan told reporters. “In my mind, I thought I was going to win, not in a playoff.

“But he made the putt also. I’m still here and will wait for a result

tomorrow.”

The Spaniard had held a fourstroke lead at the turn and appeared to be cruising to victory, but a dramatic collapse on the back nine led him dropping three shots as the pressure began to tell on the 31-year-old over the closing holes.

“It was a tough day out there, one of the toughest I have ever had,” the Spaniard admitted. “The heat was brutal and my game was no good. I was feeling the pressure because it’s been a long time without a victory and I want to win this one desperately.”

The 33-year-old Pagunsan had slipped under the radar in his pursuit of a first European Tour victory, playing a solid bogey-free

round to close on the leaders as one by one the contenders threatened before falling away.

“I’m really happy that I’ve saved my (Asian Tour) card for next year now,” Pagusan added. “I am hoping to win still. I’ll go back and have a good rest and get ready for the playoff.”

Should Fernandez-Castano seal victory in the $6-million cosanctioned event, it will be his fifth on the European Tour and first since 2008, when he edged out Lee Westwood in a playoff for the British Masters.

“It has been another long day waiting around but tomorrow is a new day and anything can happen,” Fernandez-Castano added.

“We are both in a good position

on the fairway.” Anthony Kim (64) and Louis Oosthuizen (65) stormed up the leaderboard to finish one behind the leading pair, with New Zealand’s Danny Lee, Dutchman Joost Luiten and Italy’s Edoardo Molinari a further shot back in a tie for fifth place.

European Tour tournament director Mike Stewart confirmed the players would return at 7.30 am local time to complete the playoff.

“We had a small window of opportunity which we tried to take. We got the players out and they hit one more shot but we had to bring them in again,” he said. “It was dangerous out there.

There was lightning flying around.”—Reuters

SINGAPORE: This handout photo released by the World Sport Group shows Juvic Pagunsan of the Philippines celebrating a birdie putt on the 18th green during day three and final round of the Singapore Open. —AFP

Asian Tour eyes late start to lure top guns SINGAPORE: The Asian Tour is considering changing its calendar to entice more top players to tournaments following demands from sponsors, executive chairman Kyi Hla Han told Reuters.

The current Asian Tour schedule runs from Januar y to December with the final months from October attracting top names from around the globe when the stronger US PGA Tour ends and the European Tour moves East to the region.

Han said sponsors were keen to capitalise on top players such as American four-times major winner Phil Mickelson being in the region and putting on more events like the $6 million Singapore Open.

“We have a lot of tournaments interested in that two month window where we get the top

players available,” Han said on the sidelines of the Singapore Open yesterday, adding the schedule change could come in 2014. “ The big sponsors are going to demand the top players and the top players are on the PGA Tour and the European Tour and they are going to finish their season so there is not that much of a window.

“We just have to see how we can keep all sponsors happy but there are a lot of sponsors who want tournaments around this time so it is a great problem.”

Han said one solution would be to start the Asian Tour calendar around August with the three -week long qualifying school in order to free up time for more events at the turn of the year. “The weather gets better from October to about March

and we have Q-school in between because of the calendar year so we kind of lose a three week stretch there in early January,” Han said.

“We have always a blank tournament (space) in June and July so in a way that would be ideal (switching). “I have been thinking about it but never really seriously discussed it with other tours. If anything happens it probably won’t start until 2014.”

Han, a former Myanmar professional, has continually pushed for more opportunities for his members to play on the bigger PGA and European Tours and increased prize money on the Asian Tour.

The Asian Tour’s successful cosanctioning with the European Tour has led to increased prize money at the Singapore Open,

next week ’s $2million Johor Open and December’s $2.75 million Hong Kong Open. There is also the $6.1 million Asia Pacific Classic, a joint US PGA Tour tournament hosted in Malaysia last month.

But there are gaps in the calendar and also a number of $300,000 events so Han believes the move of start date would be good for his members.

“I haven’t really gone through the board but I’ll have to pretty much discuss it with the other tours first and then the players,” he Han said. “I think the players would probably support it. In January that means we could fit three more tournaments in plus they are kind of sitting it out all summer and they are free to go and play wherever they want ... in Japan or the States.—Reuters

Stern: ‘Greedy’ agents are hurting NBA deal

WALES: Jari-Matti Latvala (right) and co-driver Mikka Anttila (left) of Finland celebrate as they stand on their Ford Fiesta RS Abu Dhabi WRT car after winning the Wales Rally GB. —AFP

Latvala bags final rally of season CARDIFF: Finnish driver Jari-Matti Latvala won the final rally of the season, the Wales Rally GB, here yesterday for his fifth career win but first since his home rally in 2010.

The 26-year-old led home a Ford Fiesta 12-3 after Citroen’s newly-crowned champion Sebastien Loeb exited the contest after an accident between the 18th and 19th stages.

Latvala finished more than four minutes ahead of Norwegian duo Mads Ostberg and Henning Solberg.

Loeb was forced out when his car collided head on with a car driven by a Spanish spectator, a friend of Danio Sordo, while making his way to the start of the 19th special stage.

Both he and co-driver Daniel Elena as well as the driver and passenger in the other car escaped unscathed but the Citroen was incapable of further action.

The 37-year-old — crowned world champion for the eighth time on Friday when nearest rival Mikko Hirvonen crashed out — was lying in second overall just over seven seconds adrift of Latvala.

“The radiator was damaged but we are going to try and repair the car so that it can mount the podium in Cardiff,” said a Citroen spokesperson.

Latvala’s victory was a welcome respite for Ford, who have yet to decide whether they continue in the championship next year after just three wins this term.

The win was also Latvala’s first in 18 months and he said: “The whole year I have been waiting for a victory. It has been a long long time. “It’s a great feeling, there have been very stressful and frustrating times. This is one of my great victories.”—AFP

NEW YORK: NBA Commissioner David Stern blamed “greedy” agents Saturday for trying to scuttle a new labor deal with NBA players and believes they are trying to push their clients into a “losing strategy” of disbanding their union.

Stern said neither the threat of decertification nor any request from the players’ union will change the league’s negotiating position, repeating there would be no further discussions about the revised proposal it offered Thursday. Stern said he fears the players aren’t getting the proper information about the contents of the proposal because NBA agents are worried it will cost themselves money.

“By some combination of mendacity and greed, the agents who are looking out for themselves rather than their clients are trying to scuttle the deal,” Stern said in a phone interview. “They’re engaged in what appears to be an orchestrated Twitter campaign and a series of interviews that are designed to deny the economic realities of the proposal.”

Player representatives will meet Monday to decide if they should put the latest proposal to a vote. The indication Thursday from union leaders was that they weren’t impressed with it, and a number of players have since been quoted saying they would shoot down the deal. Stern said that’s because the agents want them to, not because it’s a bad offer.

“No one talks about the rise in compensation under the deal, no one talks about the amount of money being spent,” Stern said. “I just think that the players aren’t getting the information, the true information from their agents, who are banding together, sort of the

coalition of the greedy and the mendacious, to do whatever they can not to have fewer opportunities for the agents to make money.”

The revised proposal, though still far short of what the players had in the former collective bargaining agreement, offered some improvements over the one players said Tuesday they would reject. It increased the “mini” midlevel exception for teams over the luxury tax to $3 million annually for three years, allowed taxpayers to take part in sign-

National Basketball Association commissioner David Stern

and-trades for the first two years, and added another midlevel for teams under the salary cap.

Owners are also calling for a 50-50 split of basketball-related income, which the players would consider if they get the concessions they seek on the system.

But the revised proposal still may not be good enough, and players are already discussing decertifying the union so they can file an antitrust lawsuit against the league instead.

Stern said that would not give the players the leverage they seek because it’s a lengthy process. It would also likely kill any hopes for a 2011-12 season, he said. “Yes, I am worried,” Stern said, “because they’re talking up this thing called decertification which is not a winning strategy on the one hand. On the second hand, it’ll take three months to teach them it’s not a winning strategy, which would not augur well for the season.”

Stern again said there would be no further discussion about the revised proposal.

Should players reject it, the next proposal calls for a 53-47 revenue split in favor of the owners, a flex cap with a hard ceiling and salary rollbacks.

Stern said the proposal was delivered to the union on Friday. Union leaders have been criticized for not getting the details of it out to players in time to prepare them for an educated vote. “They say they are done negotiating. If we really are at that point, the players need to see exactly what is on the table - not the Internet, not Twitter - and see exactly in writing, this is the proposal,” one agent said. Should players accept the deal, a 72-game season would start Dec. 15.—AP

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

sp orts

Dodgers seek early auction of media rights NEW YORK: The bankrupt Los Angeles Dodgers have sought court permission to auction the team’s lucrative media rights earlier than scheduled to bolster the sale of the team under a recent settlement with Major League Baseball, according to court documents filed on Saturday.

MLB previously opposed Dodgers owner Frank McCourt’s effort to solicit bids for future media rights, valued at about $3 billion, which sparked a lawsuit against the team by News Corp’s Fox subsidiary.

One person familiar with the situation said getting MLB to remain neutral on the contentious issue of a media rights sale was a major concession to get McCourt to agree to a sale of the storied team in bankruptcy court.

Fox’s Prime Ticket sports network holds the Dodgers’ media rights through 2013 and has the exclusive right of first negotiation from

November 2012 for a new deal.

The Dodgers now want an auction for the media rights to take place over the next few months as the auction for the team occurs.

“Exclusive negotiations with Fox would begin the day after entry of an order granting the amended motion, instead of October 15, 2012, as provided by the Fox contract,” said the filing in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. MLB declined to comment on Saturday.

In a statement on Saturday, Fox spokesman Chris Bellitti said, “We fully support a change in ownership of the Dodgers.”

“In that process, Fox has rights that cannot be violated, as MLB has previously stated. Those rights were negotiated and paid for by us and approved

by MLB. We will take all necessar y steps to aggressively protec t and defend those rights, including opposing the amended motion and actively

Dodgers was expected to be achieved by the April 30 deadline targeted under the agreement.

Other sports industry executives have expressed skepticism the team could be sold that quickly, particularly with the issue of the media rights unsettled.

The auction, which will be overseen by the US Bankruptcy Court in Delaware over the next several months, is expected to fetch offers of more than $1 billion for the team and related assets. The future media rights have been valued as high as $3 billion.

The Dodgers filed for bankruptcy in June after MLB Commissioner Bud Selig rejected a proposed sale of the team’s broadcast rights to generate desperately needed cash. MLB said it wanted to delay selling the rights until Fox’s exclusive negotiating period had expired.

McCourt has said the media rights sale could have raised the cash needed to hold on to the team, while MLB

argued it would only be satisfied by a sale of the team.

Among potential suitors for the Dodgers named in media reports are Ron Burkle, the investor and head of the Yucaipa Companies private equity firm, Peter O’Malley, former owner of the Dodgers, and former Dodgers star Steve Garvey.

Burkle told Reuters in an email this month, “It is one of the best brands in all of sports, and like many people, I’d be proud to be part of its future.”

McCourt bought the team in 2004 for $430 million from Fox, financing the purchase primarily with borrowed money.

Forbes magazine valued the assets at $800 million in March. The new owner would be the third since O’Malley sold the team to News Corp in 1998. The Dodgers had remained in the O’Malley family since its patriarch, Walter, moved the team to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958.—Reuters

Hornish Jr. captures first NASCAR victory

Preview

KOLKATA: West Indies wicketkeeper Carlton Baugh collects a ball during a training session ahead of the second Test cricket match against India today. —AP

India look to wrap it up with spin KOLKATA: Buoyant India will hope to dominate the West Indies again with spin as they bid to secure a series-clinching win in the second Test starting at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata today.

The latest spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha shared 16 wickets to help India cruise to a fivewicket victory in the opening contest of the three-match series in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Left-arm spinner Ojha had a six-wicket haul in the first innings and debutant off-spinner Ashwin also took six in the second innings on a low, slow turning track to trouble the West Indies batsmen.

The duo’s success came at the right time for India, who had been looking for match-winning spinners after the retirement of Anil Kumble in 2008 and Harbhajan Singh’s recent slump in form.

Ashwin, who replaced Harbhajan, did not let the selectors down with match figures of 9-128, the second-best haul by an Indian debutant after leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani’s 16-136 against the West Indies in 1988.

Ashwin, who is getting married on Sunday, was lauded by the legendary Indian off-spinner Erapalli Prasanna for his disciplined per formance which earned him the man-of-the -match award.

“I am impressed with the way Ashwin bowled in the first Test,” said Prasanna.

“His line and length was impeccable, his basics were right and he used his height well to generate spin.”

The Eden Gardens wicket has traditionally helped spin and it is unlikely to be any different this time, leaving the tourists with a tough task if they are to bounce back in the series.

India also batted well in the second innings in New Delhi when they com-

pursuing our still-pending lawsuit.”

The Dodgers had no further comment “beyond the amended motion to approve marketing procedures for licensing telecast rights it has filed today with the bankruptcy court in Delaware,” said a spokesperson for the debtor. The team and media rights sales will be run by the Dodgers’ financial adviser, Blackstone Group LP. McCourt and MLB ended their longstanding legal battle on Nov. 2 by announcing they had reached an agreement to sell the Dodgers and related assets.

Once any sale is complete, it will end a long-running saga that included the costly divorce of Frank and Jamie McCourt, whose lavish lifestyle was blamed in part for the Dodgers’ woes.

Another person familiar with the situation told Reuters on Saturday a large number of groups had expressed interest in the team and that the sale of the

fortably chased a challenging 276-run target on the difficult pitch.

Batting superstar Sachin Tendulkar, who is on the verge of an unprecedented 100th international century, showed the way with a solid 76 before Venkatsai Laxman completed the win with an unbeaten half-century.

Opener Virender Sehwag provided brisk starts with Gautam Gambhir in both the innings with a pair of half-centuries, while veteran Rahul Dravid cracked a fighting 54 in the first innings.

The West Indies had seized the early advantage when they bowled India out for 209 after posting 304 in the first innings, but failed to capitalise on it and crashed to 180 in the second innings.

Shivnarine Chanderpaul offered the main resistance, scoring 118 and 47 in the match. West Indies skipper Darren Sammy conceded his batsmen needed to solve the Indian spin puzzle soon to stay alive in the series. “ We need to find a way to score against spin. Attacking against the spinners could be an option like Chanderpaul showed in both the innings,” he said.

“We could have been more positive without being reckless. That is something we can look at for the second Test.

We will work hard at the nets to get it right.

“We were ahead for a portion of the match and we should have maintained that advantage. In many ways we see this as an opportunity missed as we let India back into the match and they took it away from us,” said Sammy.

West Indies seamers Sammy and Fidel Edwards, and leg-spinner Devendra Bishoo impressed in the last Test, but they will need to keep constant pressure on the formidable Indian batting line-up.—AFP

AVONDALE: Sam Hornish Jr. raced to his first NASCAR victory and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. took a big step toward the Nationwide Series season title when Elliott Sadler was taken out late at Phoenix International Raceway on Saturday.

Hornish, a former IndyCar star, passed Stenhouse on a restar t midway through the 200-mile race and stayed up front on several restarts to claim his first win in 141 career starts between the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series.

Stenhouse finished fifth after Sadler, the only driver with a chance to catch him, was knocked out with 25 laps left on a bump from behind by Jason Leffler.

Sadler’s crash gives Stenhouse a nearly insurmountable 41-point lead heading into the season finale at Homestead next weekend. Brad Keselowski was second and Carl Edwards third.

Hornish was one of the most accomplished American openwheel drivers in history, winning three IndyCar Series championships and the 2006 Indianapolis 500. He switched to NASCAR full time in 2008, but has had a checkered career in stock cars, his best year coming in 2009, when he had a pair of top-5 finishes.

Hornish struggled in 2010 and was relegated to a par t-time schedule on the Nationwide Series this season, earning four top-10s, including a season-best fifth at Chicago.

He was plenty familiar with Phoenix, winning two IndyCar races - including his first a decade ago - at the mile oval before announcing at the track his intention to leave open-wheel racing.

Even after PIR was repaved and reconfigured, Hornish was good again in the desert, starting fifth and staying near the front most of the way.

He made a rare pass on the outside on the new surface to overtake Stenhouse on a restart and was well ahead of Keselowski, his Team Penske teammate, as he took his first Nationwide checkers in 32 career starts.

Sadler was running close to Leffler heading into turn 1 and dropped down almost to the apron on the dogleg, before shooting back up the track in front of Leffler, who was racing next to Almirola.

Leffler misjudged Sadler ’s speed and bumped him from

behind, sending his car careening into the wall. Sadler bounced off the wall and took out both Leffler and Almirola, leaving a trail of debris across the track that brought out the red flag.

Sadler got out of the car and raised his arms at Leffler as he yelled something, then gave a sarcastic clap as he continued talking while walking away.

The first repaving in 20 years at PIR left the track slick and with one good racing line, on the inside. The drivers were wary of racing the undeveloped outside line, where it was extra slippery and anyone out there would have trouble controlling their car to keep up with those on the inside.

Their concerns became reality before the first lap was done, when Reed Sorenson got into the back of Brian Scott in turn 3 and triggered an eight-car wreck.

Danica Patrick was collected in the crash and slammed the back of her car into the wall. She was able to return to the track, but six other cars were knocked out. The longer the race went, though, the more the outside line seemed to come in. Hornish made the final pass for the lead from the outside, overtaking Stenhouse when he appeared to spin his wheels on the green flag.

Hornish spun his wheels on the restar t with 19 laps left after Sadler’s wreck, but recovered to stay in front of Keselowski.—AP

AVONDALE: Driver Sam Hornish, Jr. hoists the winner’s trophy in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Nationwide Series auto race at Phoenix International Raceway. —AP

Worsham tops Top Fuel field POMONA: Del Worsham raced to the No. 1 qualifying position in Top Fuel on Saturday as rain shortened qualifying in the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.

Matt Hagan topped the Funny Car field, Mike Edwards took the top spot in Pro Stock and Andrew Hines was the Pro Stock Motorcycle leader in the season-ending event.

Worsham powered his dragster to the No. 1 spot early Saturday with a 3.773-second run at 320.05 mph. In total, Worsham picked up eight bonus points in qualifying and took the season lead by eight points over Spencer Massey heading into the final eliminations Sunday.

Larry Dixon, Worsham’s teammate and defending world champion, qualified second for the event and was 47 points behind Worsham in the standings, while third-place

driver Antron Brown qualified seventh and was 25 points behind the leader. In Funny Car, Hagan took the top spot in the class with his run early Saturday. Hagan drove his Dodge Charger to a 4.033 at 315.27 to take his fourth No. 1 qualifier of the season and 10th of his career.

Hagan also racked up seven bonus points throughout qualifying to give himself a 12-point lead over teammate Jack Beckman.

Cruz Pedregon, who entered the event third in the Funny Car standings, qualified fifth for the event and moved within 35 points of Hagan, while fourth-place driver Mike Neff qualified third for the race and sat 40 points behind the leader.

In Pro Stock, Edwards drove his Pontiac GXP to the No. 1 spot with a run of 6.520 at 210.93. It was Edwards’ sixth No. 1 qualifier of the

season and 40th of his career. It also was his third consecutive No. 1 in the Countdown to the Championship. Jason Line has already wrapped up the Pro Stock season title.

Hines stayed in the No. 1 spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle after four rounds of qualifying. His Thursday night run of 6.820 at 197.54 on his Harley-Davidson was strong enough to give Hines his second No. 1 qualifier of the season and 30th of his career. In the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship battle, series leader Krawiec had a 69point advantage over rookie rider Hector Arana Jr. The two riders could meet in the semifinals, but if Krawiec wins the second round he will be the champion. Arana Jr. needs Krawiec to lose in the first round and then needs to win the race to take the title.—AP

Preview

Pakistan keeping it simple, says Younis

GYOR: Hungarian KC Gyori AUDI ETO player Nadine Schatzl (left) vies for the ball with Daniela de Oliveira (right) of Austrian Hypo Niederosterreich during their EHF Champions League match, in the local sports hall in Gyor. —AFP

DUBAI: Former captain Younis Khan said his team will continue to keep things simple as they look to double their series lead in the second one-day match against Sri Lanka here today.

Pakistan thrashed their rivals in the first match on Friday by eight wickets and Younis hopes the team sticks to the same plan. “We kept things simple in the Tests as well,” said Younis of the preceding three-Test series which Pakistan won 1-0.

“Now in the one-dayers we are doing the basics in a simple manner and although there is no assurance of winning we want consistency in our performance.”

Pakistan bowled Sri Lanka out for a paltry 131 in 40.3 overs on the back of 3-27 by returning allrounder Shahid Afridi, ably supported by off-spinners Mohammad Hafeez and Saeed Ajmal who took two wickets apiece.

They then chased down the

target for the loss of only two wickets to go 1-0 up in the fivematch series. Younis said Pakistan has more match winners than Sri Lanka. “This Pakistan team is one of the best I have played in,” said the 34-year-old who hit an unbeaten half-century in the first match. “Sri Lanka also have four to five match winners but we are doing well in both batting and bowling.” Younis praised former coach Waqar Younis for putting the team on the right track.

“Waqar did a wonderful job before the World Cup,” said Younis of the event where Pakistan lost in the semi-finals against eventual champions India.

“From that point Waqar stressed on our fitness and we were the only side who had no injuries during the World Cup.” Waqar quit the post after the tour of Zimbabwe in September and was replaced by an interim coach Mohsin Khan.

Younis said the Pakistan team

has been playing well since October last year, two months after the spot-fixing scandal in England which ended in jail sentences for former Test captain Salman Butt and pacemen Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer. “We were unlucky to lose the one-day series against South

Africa 3-2,” said Younis of the series played in the United Arab Emirates last year.

“Then we had series wins in New Zealand, Ireland and Zimbabwe so we have been doing well.” Younis said he wanted to be a role model for the youngsters.—AFP

DUBAI: Pakistan’s cricketer Shahid Afridi attends a practice session at the Dubai cricket stadium. —AFP

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

S P ORT S

Oregon run past Stanford STANFORD: LaMichael James ran for 146 yards and three touchdowns as No. 6 Oregon trounced No. 3 Stanford 53-30 in college football on Saturday to take a giant step toward hosting the inaugural Pac-12 championship.

James ran for scores from 1, 4 and 58 yards for the Ducks, who ended Stanford’s winning streak at 17 games - the longest current streak in the nation and in school history.

Oregon’s no-huddle, spread-option offense ended any hopes of Stanford’s first national championship. The Ducks won their ninth straight victory and first against a top-five team on the road.

Stanford’s Andrew Luck threw for 271 yards and three touchdowns with two interceptions and a fumble.

Kansas State 53, Texas A&M 50 In Manhattan, Kansas, Collin Klein scored on a sneak in the fourth overtime for his sixth touchdown of the game as Kansas State escaped with a dramatic victory over Texas A&M. Klein threw for a career-high 281 yards and added 103 yards on the ground for the Wildcats, who rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final 6 minutes of regulation to hand the Aggies their third consecutive loss.

The Aggies had the ball first in the fourth overtime and moved down to the Kansas State 3-yard line before their drive stalled.

Facing fourth-and-1, the Aggies kicked a field goal, giving Kansas State the opening it needed.

Nebraska 17, Penn State 14 In State College, Pennsylvania, Penn State nearly overcame a 17-point deficit but was stopped short on a 4th-and-1 late in the game, capping the worst week in school history.

The tumultuous week began with the arrest of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky on child sexual abuse charges and ended with Penn State losing its first game in 46 years without coach Joe Paterno, who was fired Wednesday.

Rex Burkhead ran for 121 yards and a touchdown for Nebraska before the Nittany Lions scored 14 unanswered behind two second-half touchdown runs by Stephfon Green.

But a key drive ended when Silas Redd was stopped on the fourth down with 1:49 left at

STANFORD: Stanford running back Jeremy Stewart leaps over to score a touchdown against Oregon during the fourth quarter of an NCAA college football game. — AP

the Penn State 38.

LSU 42, Western Kentucky 9 In Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Alfred Blue and Kenny Hilliard each scored two touchdowns to lead slow-starting LSU. LSU, which came in favored by nearly six touchdowns, led only 14-7 at halftime before dominating the second half. Jordan Jefferson went 8 of 14 for 168 yards, including a 59-yard

UTAH: BYU’s JD Falslev (left) is tackled by Idaho’s Aaron Grymes during the first half of an NCAA college football game at LaVell Edwards Stadium. —AP

scoring strike to Rueben Randle. Hilltoppers quarterback Kuwaun Jakes completed 11 of 24 passes for 97 yards, with one interception.

Oklahoma State 66, Texas Tech 6 In Lubbock, Texas, Brandon Weeden threw for 423 yards and five touchdowns and Joseph Randle ran for three more scores as Oklahoma State coasted to victory.

Weeden threw touchdown passes of 2, 27, 28, 48 and 66 yards, and had no interceptions before his backup came in late in the third quarter. Justin Blackmon and Josh Cooper each had more than 100 receiving yards.

It was the Red Raiders’ most lopsided loss ever. Texas Tech’s Seth Doege completed 25 of 43 passes for a season-low 169 yards and an interception.

Alabama 24, Mississippi State 7 In Starkville, Mississippi, Trent Richardson rushed for 127 yards and a touchdown and Alabama’s defense gave up just 131 total yards. Eddie Lacy rushed for 96 yards and two touchdowns for Alabama.

The Crimson Tide defense has held 11 straight opponents to 14 points or less, but the team struggled again with field goals, missing two in the first half after missing four in last week’s loss to No. 1 LSU. TCU 36, Boise State 35 In Boise, Idaho, Casey Pachall threw a 25yard touchdown pass to Brandon Carter with 1:05 left, then connected with Josh Boyce on the 2-point conversion to lead TCU to an upset victory over Boise State.

Boise State’s Dan Goodale missed a 39-yard field-goal attempt that would have won the game as time expired. Pachall threw for 473 yards and tossed long scores of 75, 74 and 69 yards in the first half. The loss ended Boise State’s 35-game home winning streak.

Arkansas 49, Tennessee 7 In Fayetteville, Arkansas, Dennis Johnson racked up 140 total yards and a pair of touchdowns as Arkansas won its sixth straight.

Johnson led Arkansas with 97 yards rushing, including a 71-yard touchdown run in the first half. He also had 43 yards receiving. Jarius Wright added five catches for 94 yards, setting the school record for career receptions with 154 total.

Clemson 31, Wake Forest 28 In Clemson, South Carolina, Chandler Catanzaro kicked a 43-yard field goal as time expired as Clemson rallied from 14-points

down in the second half for the win. Catanzaro had missed a 30-yard attempt two minutes before his game winner for the Tigers. Tajh Boyd finished with 343 yards passing, 141 of that in the final quarter during Clemson’s comeback.

Michigan State 37, Iowa 21 In Iowa City, Iowa, Kirk Cousins threw for 260 yards and three touchdowns to lead Michigan State. BJ Cunningham also caught a pair of TD passes for the Spartans, who ended a seven-game losing streak at Iowa.

Michigan State took a commanding 31-7 lead with two touchdowns in a 36-second stretch late in the second quarter.

Georgia 45, No. 24 Auburn 7 In Athens, Georgia, Aaron Murray set a new school single-season record with four touchdown passes as Georgia romped past Auburn.

The Bulldogs raced to a 35-7 halftime lead and finished with their biggest win in the series between the schools since 1946. Murray now has 27 TDs for the season, including nine in the past two weeks, breaking the previous

school mark of 25.

South Carolina 17, Florida 12 At Columbia, South Carolina, quarterback Connor Shaw ran for 88 yards and two touchdowns as South Carolina edged Florida.

South Carolina led 14-3 after Shaw’s sneak just before half. A 2-yard touchdown run by Jacoby Brissett made it 14-12, but the Gators never threatened again. Brandon Wilds also ran for 120 yards for the Gamecocks, who won despite completing just seven passes.

Wisconsin 42, Minnesota 13 At Minneapolis, Montee Ball ran for two scores and caught another to set the Big Ten’s single-season touchdown record and lead Wisconsin to victory.

Ball, who ran for 166 yards on 23 carries, has 27 total touchdowns in 10 games this season. Russell Wilson also threw a season-high four touchdown passes for Wisconsin.

Southern California 40, Washington 17 In Los Angeles, Marqise Lee caught a touchdown pass and returned a second-half kickoff 88 yards for a score to lead Southern California.

Matt Barkley had 174 yards passing and two touchdowns, and Curtis McNeal added a 79-yard TD run for the Trojans, who have won five of their last six games.

Missouri 17, Texas 5 In Columbia, Missouri, Kendial Lawrence had 106 yards rushing and a touchdown to lift Missouri to the upset victory.

Missouri’s defense kept Texas out of the end zone for the first time since 2004 to end the Tigers’ six-game losing streak in the series between the schools. James Franklin completed his first 10 passes and ran for a 2-yard score for the Tigers.

Michigan 31, Illinois 14 In Champaign, Illinois, Fitzgerald Toussaint ran for 192 yards and a touchdown to lead Michigan past Illinois. Starting quarterback Denard Robinson scored two rushing touchdowns, but didn’t play after a big third-quarter hit. The Illini, who have lost four straight, had just 30 offensive yards at halftime.

West Virginia 24, Cincinnati 21 In Cincinnati, Geno Smith threw for 372 yards and led a fourth-quarter touchdown drive that rallied West Virginia to victory.

Eain Smith blocked Tony Miliano’s 31-yard field goal attempt as time ran out to give the Mountaineers the win. The Bearcats lost starting quarterback Zach Collaros to an injury in the second quarter.

Southern Mississippi 30, Central Florida 29 In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, Danny Hrapmann kicked five field goals as Southern Miss held off Central Florida. Central Florida’s JJ Whorton caught a 25-yard touchdown pass as time expired, but Southern Miss safety Jacorious Cotton got a hand on Blake Bortles’ 2-point conversion pass to seal the win. Austin Davis threw for 366 yards and two touchdowns for Southern Miss. — AP

IDAHO: TCU’s Casey Pachall (4) rushes for a two point conversion against Boise State’s Tyrone Crawford during the second half of an NCAA college football game. — AP

Through charity, coach had access to victims STATE COLLEGE: Over the past 30 years, politicians, sports stars and community leaders heaped praise on Jerry Sandusky and the charity he founded for troubled youngsters, The Second Mile. It was a model program, and the acclaimed football coach was its driving force.

Now, prosecutors say that very success enabled Sandusky to find boys and sexually assault them.

Sandusky, 67, was charged last weekend with molesting eight boys over a 15-year period in a scandal that rocked the Penn State campus and brought down the university’s beloved football coach, Joe Paterno.

In the aftermath, some are wondering if The Second Mile can survive amid questions about its role in the alleged cover-up.

Sandusky was a star assistant coach at Penn State from the 1970s to the 1990s, and many assumed he would lead the team one day, or even head to pro football. He founded The Second Mile in 1977 for youngsters from broken homes and troubled backgrounds, building it into an organization that helped as many as 100,000 children a year through camps and fundraisers.

Among the big-time athletic figures listed as honorary directors were Cal Ripken Jr., Arnold Palmer, former Pittsburgh Steeler Franco Harris and Philadelphia Eagles coach Andy Reid. President George W. Bush praised the group as a “shining example” of charity work in a 1990 letter. (Sandusky’s reaction: “It’s about time, George! This is long overdue,” he recalled in his autobiography, “Touched.”)

But prosecutors said that running the charity

gave Sandusky “access to hundreds of boys, many of whom were vulnerable due to their social situations.”

He invited youngsters for overnight sleepovers at his home and took them to restaurants and bowl games. He wrestled in the swimming pool with kids who craved the attention. And he gave them gifts: golf clubs, sneakers, dress clothes, a computer and money, according to the indictment from the Pennsylvania attorney general.

The good-guy aura around Sandusky was so great that when some children questioned behavior that didn’t seem right, no one took the complaints seriously.

Troy Craig recalled attending a weeklong sleepaway camp run by The Second Mile on the Penn State campus in the early 1990s. He was never sexually abused, but in other ways the coach’s behavior seemed inappropriate at the time, said Craig, 33, who is now a disc jockey in State College.

Sandusky “had a way of, whether it was a hug or a hand on the leg in the car as we were driving, or just a way of putting his arm around you,” Craig said. “I said this back then to people I knew. Everybody found it hard to believe, or that I was overreacting. I remember feeling as if I was the only one that thought anything was amiss.”

Through his attorney, Sandusky has maintained his innocence. Experts on pedophiles aren’t surprised by the stories that have shocked so many people. Richard J. Gelles, dean of the school of Social Policy & Practice at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and author of several books on abuse and violence in families, said pedophiles typically

engage in a “grooming” process in which they select a potential victim and proceed to “break down the inhibitions and establish trust.” Gelles said it is no accident so many people saw a “good” Jerry Sandusky.

Sandusky “covered himself by being so beloved that nobody would think he would do something as awful as this,” Gelles said. The mother of one alleged victim told the Centre Daily Times that that disconnect enraged her. “I just lived with this for so long, and it killed me when people talked about him like he was a god, and I knew he was a monster,” said the woman, whose name has not been released.

Thomas Day was 15 when he began a Second Mile fitness program in 1996. Scrawny and not doing that well in school, he was suddenly getting one-onone encouragement from big college football players who helped run the program. Day met Sandusky only a few times but remembers him as a mythical figure around The Second Mile.

“I remember being kind of envious of kids who got to spend more time around him,” said Day, who never witnessed any abuse. Day said he has trouble sleeping this week because of the scandal.

“These guys took me in and made me into the man I am today,” Day said. He went on to work as a mentor with the program, served with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq, and is working on his second master’s degree at the University of Chicago.

Sandusky also had the support of many other powerful figures in the community. The group’s current board includes state Sen. Jake Corman, and attorneys, prominent business leaders, and commu-

nity volunteers. Corman didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.

The grand jury said that Penn State officials in 2002 told Jack Raykovitz, executive director of The Second Mile, that there had been an issue with Sandusky and a minor. But the charity took no action against Sandusky because, it said this week, Penn State did not find any wrongdoing.

And in 1998, Sandusky was investigated after he was accused of “behaving in a sexually inappropriate manner” with a boy in a shower at the football team’s facilities, the grand jury said. The report said an attorney for Second Mile who was also university counsel, Wendell Courtney, was aware of the allegations.

Phone calls seeking comment from Courtney on Saturday rang unanswered, and emails sent to him were returned as undeliverable.

The Second Mile said that Sandusky told the organization in 2008 he was being investigated, and that from then on the charity separated him from programs involving youths.

But the word about Sandusky may not have reached other youth programs he was involved with.

Sandusky held summer football camps - both at Penn State satellite campuses and at other Pennsylvania schools - for years after he was banned from taking youths onto the main campus by the school’s athletics director and senior vice president.

Both officials have now been charged with failing to tell police about a 2002 allegation that Sandusky had sexually assaulted a boy in the showers of the football building. —AP

y

A

19

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

SPORTS

Spain stars fail to shine as England upset odds LONDON: Spain’s galaxy of stars arrived at Wembley feted as the greatest international outfit since Pele led Brazil to glory in the 1970 World Cup, but for once Vicente del Bosque’s dream team failed to live up to the hype.

The reigning world and European champions were expected to dish out a footballing lesson to an England team missing a host of key players including John Terry, Wayne Rooney, Jack Wilshere, Steven Gerrard and Ashley Young.

But the usually sublime Spaniards struggled to match their elite billing as Frank Lampard’s sec-

ond-half goal in Saturday’s friendly condemned the visitors to just their second defeat in 10 matches.

Xavi and Andres Iniesta’s passing carousel, so often a disorientating ride for opponents, never got up to full speed and that lack of energy allowed England’s young stand-ins to keep Spain at arms length.

Since Iker Casillas lifted the World Cup in Johannesburg 16 months ago Spain have swept imperiously through their Euro 2012 qualifying group, winning all eight matches and scoring 26 goals in the process.

But their results in friendly fixtures have been less impressive,

with heavy defeats in Argentina and Portugal last season followed by a loss against Italy in August.

And although Spain had won their last three meetings with England, Wembley has been a less happy hunting ground, with a 2-1 success in 1981 their only victory in six visits to the English national stadium.

So it proved again as Spain produced plenty of their trademark tikitaka passing without ever turning their territorial dominance into a serious goal threat.

To England’s credit they defended well enough to prevent Spain

carving out any clear sights of goal until the 37th minute when Xabi Alonso’s perfectly-weighted pass was clipped over by Sergio Busquets.

There were few chances for either side in the first half, which meant a quiet day for Real Madrid goalkeeper Casillas, who was making his record-equalling 126th appearance for Spain.

Fittingly, Casillas, who can break Andoni Zubizarreta’s record against Costa Rica next week, had made his debut for Spain’s Under-15 team at the old Wembley 15 years ago.

He can’t have had many less

demanding matches than this in his illustrious career and didn’t have a save to make until he denied Lampard in the 32nd minute.

Casillas was one of three Spanish players taken off at half-time and his replacement Jose Reina had to pick the ball out of the net just four minutes after his introduction as Lampard headed home from closerange.

It didn’t help Spain’s cause that Iniesta, David Villa and David Silva were all liable to drop deep in a bid to influence play, leaving them without a recognised forward who could add a cutting edge to their

smooth approach play.

When Villa did stay up front he caused problems, nipping round England goalkeeper Joe Hart with a penetrating run before shooting into the side-netting.

The shock of falling seemed to rattle Spain, who responded with some misdirected defiance that saw Sergio Ramos and Cesc Fabregas booked in quick succession for a pair of crude fouls.

Del Bosque sent on Chelsea striker Fernando Torres in search of an equaliser, but it was Villa who went closest with an agile effort that hit the far post. —AFP

Federer wins Paris title PARIS: A resurgent Roger Federer swept past local favourite JoWilfried Tsonga 6-1 7-6 to clinch his maiden Paris Masters title yesterday and send a deafening warning to his rivals ahead of the ATP World Tour finals.

Swiss third seed Federer, who moved to one shy of Rafa Nadal’s record of 19 Masters titles with a stunning display of sheer brilliance, became only the second player with titles in Roland Garros and Bercy-the two men’s Paris tournaments.

“I’m very happy with my performance today,” Federer, who captured his 69th career title from 99 finals, said at the courtside. “I’m amazed by how well I play.

“I don’t think Jo played a bad match. It’s good to complete the tournament so solidly.” “I’m a bit disappointed that I have not been able to play better,” said Tsonga.

“He was better today. He was just too quick.”

Federer is now on a 12-match winning streak, after his title in Basel last week and two Davis Cup wins in September, going into the ATP World Tour finals at the O2 in London from Nov. 20-27.

Federer had been facing the prospect of failing to win either a grand slam or a Masters title for the first year since 2001.

His focused, steady attitude contrasted with Tsonga’s muttering and the former world number one’s sharp first serve proved

JAPAN: Daisuke Takahashi of Japan performs during the gala exhibition at the NHK Trophy Figure Skating in Sapporo. —AP

Takahashi defends crown SAPPORO: Japan’s Daisuke Takahashi defended his title at the NHK Trophy yesterday, finishing comfortably ahead of compatriot Takahiko Kozuka after a solid free skate.

Takahashi, first after the short program, finished with a total of 259.75 points, 24.73 points ahead of Kozuka.

Ross Miner of the United States placed third with 212.36 points.

Skating to “Blues for Klook,” Takahashi fell on his opening quadruple flip and was downgraded on two jumps late in his routine, but was strong enough overall to take the trophy for the second consecutive year.

“I had some downgrades on my jumps but I feel like I am making progress with my routine,” Takahashi said. “When I won the NHK Trophy last year I felt like I might not have deserved to win, but this year there was no question in my mind.”

American Brandon Mroz, who made skating history on Saturday by becoming the first skater to land a quadruple lutz in international competition, had a mistake-filled free skate and finished last with 184.83 points.

Even though he was downgraded on three jumps, Takahashi dominated his program components to win his fourth

NHK Trophy in six years.

The 2010 world champion and Vancouver bronze medalist appears to have returned to form after reconstructive right knee surgery forced him to sit out the 2008-09 season. With his win here and a third-place finish at Skate Canada, Takahashi qualified for the Grand Prix Final in Quebec City, Canada, next month.

Miner, who was sixth after the short program, won his first Grand Prix medal.

“It’s awesome to be on the podium,” the 20-year-old Miner said. “I wasn’t expecting it at all. This is my first Grand Prix medal and to do it here in Japan where the fans appreciate good skating is amazing.”

Kozuka, the 2011 world silver medalist, was only downgraded on one jump his opening quadruple toeloop - but couldn’t match Takahashi’s technical skill.

“I watched Takahashi skate and realized I still have a long way to go,” Kozuka said. “I tried too hard at certain points and my timing was off so I was a bit disappointed and will work hard to improve for the nationals.” Mroz struggled in the free skate, falling on his opening quad lutz and touching down on a triple axel. —AP

GAUHATI: Malaysian players in yellow, try to stop India’s Sunil Chhetri (center) from advancing during a friendly soccer match between India and Malaysia. —AP

PARIS: Swiss tennis player Roger Federer holds his trophy after defeating France’s Wilfried Tsonga in the final match of the Paris Tennis Masters tournament. —AP too much for the sixth seed to handle.

Tsonga had two break points in the first game but Federer used his first serve to hold him off. The Swiss moved 4-0 up after a return sent wide and a double fault earned him a double break as a

frustrated Tsonga struggled for ideas in front of a home crowd of 14,500.

Federer was already one set up when the clock ticked past the half-hour mark. Tsonga, however, fought back in the second, earning a break point in the fourth

game with a sizzling crosscourt passing shot, but blew his chance by sending a forehand wide.

Tsonga faced a break point in the 10th game but staved it off at the net and the contest went into a tiebreak which Federer comfortably won 7-3. —Reuters

France look for harmony against Belgium PARIS: France will use tomorrow’s friendly at home to Belgium to try to iron out flaws in a new 4-4-2 system which coach Laurent Blanc hopes will make them more potent in front of goal.

Les Bleus labored to a 1-0 win against the United States on Friday but strikers Kevin Gameiro and Karim Benzema failed to impress in a system with no proper playmaker, especially in the absence of the injured Samir Nasri.

Offensive midfielders Jeremy Menez and Franck Ribery brought

some danger but could not quite find Benzema and Gameiro.

“We’re not really used to this system. We tried to play together but it did not work out,” Real Madrid striker Benzema said.

“We need a little bit more harmony between the four players up front.” Gameiro agreed, adding: “We must continue to work. I did not get a lot of balls in front of goal.”

France, who booked their place at the Euro 2012 finals by topping their qualifying group last month,

were more used to playing in a 42-3-1 formation.

“When you have four forwards, it’s hard to find space and there is no one to make the pass,” said Blanc, who wishes to “experiment with the system again”.

“That’s the whole problem with a 4-4-2. You need one of the strikers to slip back to get and give the ball to the other.”

Benzema was not too worried as France still have time to improve before the European championship in Poland and

Ukraine next June.

“We have a significant margin of improvement,” he said, adding that France could build on a 16match unbeaten run. “It’s good for our self-confidence.”

Midfielders Yohan Cabaye and Florent Malouda, who missed Friday’s game through injury, took part in Saturday’s training session and are expected to be fit to face Belgium at the Stade the France.

France’s next friendly after that is against Germany in Bremen in February.—Reuters

Brazil look for boost against Egypt DOHA: Brazil make their third appearance in as many years here today, this time taking on ailing African giants Egypt in a friendly international being held to raise money for the people of famine-stricken Somalia.

The match is a golden opportunity for the Selecao to test some of their upcoming players for future tournaments, most notably the 2014 World Cup which Brazil are hosting.

After crashing out at the quarter-final stage of the World Cup in South Africa last year, which led to the exit of coach Dunga, Brazil are under increasing pressure from the media and fans to put together a comprehensive strategy for 2014.

Anything short of the title on home soil would be treated as a national disaster - a scenario coach Mano Menezes and the players are well aware of especially after they flopped in the Copa America this summer bowing out in the quarter-finals.

To this end, Menezes has been using friendlies to try various combinations in order to get a sense of what sort of talent he has at his disposal.

But with the Brazilian national championship in its final stages, he has been forced to rely on mostly foreign-based players both for last week’s friendly against Gabon and today’s match against the Pharaohs.

However, stars such as the Real Madrid duo of Kaka and Marcelo won’t be figuring in the team to play Egypt because of injuries.

Their 19-year-old sensation Neymar, who is being tipped to be the star of the 2014 showpiece, is also not available due to his commitments with Santos in the Brazilian championship.

Neymar, who has drawn early comparisons with Pele, has appeared in 13 of 15 Brazil matches this year scoring seven goals and his absence will deprive an expected bumper crowd in Doha a glimpse of his famed talent.

That leaves the squad with only four players

who have scored an international goal for the team - Daniel Alves who has five, Luisao who has three and Hernanes and Sandro with one each after both scored against Gabon last week.

Porto striker Hulk is also under tremendous pressure to perform, having not scored a single

pions failed to qualify for next year’s edition cohosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Before that they had failed to make the World Cup in South Africa, losing out to bitter rivals Algeria in the play-off.

But they have hired Bob Bradley as their new coach and the former United States han-

DOHA: Brazil’s players stretch during a training session in the Qatari capital Doha on the eve of their friendly soccer match against Egypt. —AP goal in six appearances for the national team, despite netting 35 for his club side last season.

“The Brazilian national team isn’t the best in the world, the results have shown us this,” said Menezes. “We’ve four teams - Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and Uruguay - ahead of us in the FIFA rankings. “We must get to that level again,” Menezes said. The Egyptians are also in a somewhat similar position as far as their recent results are concerned.

The three-time Africa Cup of Nations cham-

dler has been busy watching domestic matches in order to rebuild the Egyptian team.

“The match in Doha is the first opportunity for me to work with the players,” said Bradley. “I wish to stress the point that the game won’t be an indication of the team’s future because our preparation period has been quite short.

“O f c o u r s e , w h e n y o u p l a y a g a i n s t Brazil, you want to do your best, because they’re one of the world’s best teams,” he said. —AFP

Federer wins Paris title

Oregon run past Stanford

19

18

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Hornish Jr. captures first NASCAR victory

Page 17

LAS VEGAS: Juan Manuel Marquez (left) lands a punch against Manny Pacquiao during the fifth round of a WBO welterweight title fight. Pacquiao won by majority decision.—AP

Pacquiao escapes with a decision MANILA: Filipinos watch the live satellite broadcast of the boxing bout between Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao and Mexican challenger Juan Manuel Marquez . —AP LAS VEGAS: Manny Pacquiao was tested to the full before retaining his WBO welterweight title with a controversial majority decision over Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena Saturday.

The 32-year-old southpaw received as much punishment from his older opponent as he dished out over the 12 rounds but his superior foot and hand speed made the difference as he improved his career record to 54-3-2 with 38 knockouts.

Back in the ring for a third time since claiming a seat in his country’s national congress last year, Pacquiao won his 15th consecutive fight after earning two of the verdicts from the three judges.

Dave Moretti (115-113) and Glenn Trowbridge (116-112) awarded the fight to the Filipino while Robert Hoyle made it a 114-114 draw.

“My fans are very happy because clearly they

thought I won the fight,” Pacquiao said in a ringside interview as boos echoed around the arena from the disgruntled Mexican fans.

“We have to accept that my opponent is not easy. He is a good fighter and it’s not easy, but I won the fight. He was ready for my punches but I thought I blocked a lot of his punches.”

Asked if he would consider a fourth bout with three-division world champion Marquez who has consistently been his toughest opponent, Pacquiao replied: “Any time, any time. I am a fighter and my job is to fight in the ring.”

Marquez, who lifted his arms in triumph after the fight ended, was bitterly disappointed with the outcome after firmly believing he had been cheated of victory in his two previous meetings with Pacquiao.

“It’s hard when you’re fighting your rival and the

three judges, too,” the 38-year-old Mexican said in his dressing room, having stormed out of the ring after the decision was announced and his chance of vindication denied. “I got robbed. Honestly I don’t know what I need to do to change the mind of the judges. We won with clearer punches. I am frustrated right now, very frustrated.” The two boxers, renowned for their aggressive approach in the ring, fought to a draw in May 2004 before Marquez lost his WBC super-featherweight title to Pacquiao in a controversial one-point split decision in March 2008. Watched by a sell-out crowd of 16,368 that included former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson, Pacquiao initially focused on his lightning left jab in the opening round while Marquez relied on counter-punching. The nimble-footed Filipino, moving faster than his opponent, dictated the early pace but Marquez caught Pacquiao with a couple

of right-hand body blows in the second round.

An evenly matched third round ended after Pacquiao struck Marquez in the head with a crunching right hook and both boxers traded a flurry of telling counter punches late in the fourth.

As chants of “Marquez, Marquez, Marquez” echoed around the arena, the Mexican dominated the fifth round, catching Pacquiao with a searing left uppercut to the head and later on with a crunching right. With the intensity building, the two fighters counter-punched at every opportunity and Marquez had the better of the seventh round, landing solid lefts and rights with pinpoint accuracy and cutting Pacquiao on the lip.

The Filipino upped his work rate in the ninth round, peppering Marquez with a series of combinations to the body and head while varying his angle of attack with slick foot movement.

Hamilton wins Abu Dhabi GP ABU DHABI: A delighted Lewis Hamilton produced a near-flawless performance yesterday and then dedicated his spectacular victory in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix to his mother on her birthday.

Hamilton, recovered from the worst lows of a rollercoaster year, took full advantage of the early retirement of double world champion Sebastian Vettel to win with comfortable aplomb. Driving his McLaren with measured assurance and great speed, the 26-year-old Englishman dominated from the second corner of the opening lap to the finish as he claimed his third win of a troubled season and 17th of his career. Afterwards, he dedicated his victory to his mother Carmen who had flown to Abu Dhabi to support her son and celebrate her birthday.

It was his first win in eight races and Vettel’s first absence from the points this year. It was the first time in 19 races that a Red Bull driver had not been on the podium.

“It’s my mum’s birthday this weekend,” he said. “And it’s great to be able to win while she is here. I feel fantastic. It’s one of my best races. I said that to myself as I slowed down.

“Being able to hold one of the best drivers in the world [Fernando Alonso] is something that is tough to do. I was looking after tyres and managing the gap. The team did a great job with the stops.” Hamilton started second, but took the lead within a few hundred metres when 24-year-old German Vettel’s Red Bull suffered a puncture to his right-rear tyre and forced him to swerve off the Yas Marina circuit.

Vettel said: “At the exit of the first corner, everything seemed fine, but when I turned in I

tried to catch the car, but I couldn’t do it any more and I spun off.

“On the way back I damaged the suspension badly. I don’t know what happened. We lost pressure all of a sudden out of the exit of Turn One. I don’t why...”

Hamilton streaked by and took a lead he relinquished only twice briefly during the pitstops as he delivered one of the most accomplished performances of his 89 races in Formula One. It also banished his self-confessed misery at feeling trapped “in a dark place” after splitting with his long-term girlfriend and fianc�e Nicole Scherzinger last month.

Two-time champion Spaniard Fernando Alonso came home second for Ferrari, wiping away some of the memories of a nightmare race in 2010 when his title challenge was wrecked by strategic mistakes.

Alonso said: “It was fantastic for me. I had a very good start and the first lap fighting with Jenson. Then we found ourselves second and we were three to five seconds behind Lewis.

Briton Jenson Button in the second McLaren fought through to finish third ahead of Vettel’s Red Bull team-mate Australian Mark Webber and fifth-placed Brazilian Felipe Massa in the second Ferrari.

German Nico Rosberg led compatriot and Mercedes team-mate seven-time champion Michael Schumacher home in sixth and seventh places with another German Adrian Sutil finishing eighth ahead of his Force India team-mate rookie Briton Paul Di Resta.

“A mega-job, mega, as always,” said Hamilton on team radio at the end. “I want to dedicate this one to my mum on her birthday and it is

Pacquiao, who has won world titles in an unprecedented eight weight divisions, was cut above the right eye in the 10th but immediately signalled to referee Tony Weeks that he had been head-butted and went on to finish the round with a flurry of solid punches. The two fighters strived to claim a telling advantage in the last two rounds, though Pacquiao landed a crunching left to the Mexican’s head late on in the 12th. The official statistics reflected how closely Marquez challenged Pacquiao. He connected with a higher percentage of punches thrown, 138 of 436 to the 176 of 578 for the Filipino, and landed 100 power punches compared to his opponent’s 117.

Earlier on Saturday, American Timothy Bradley retained his WBO junior welterweight title by stopping Cuba’s Joel Casamayor in the eighth round of a lop-sided bout.—Reuters

Toulouse pound Gloucester

ABU DHABI: McLaren Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain kisses the trophy on the podium after the Emirates Formula One Grand Prix at the Yas Marina racetrack. —AP great having her here this weekend. Thanks for coming out here.”

Starting from a record-equalling 14th pole position of the season, Vettel made a clean start when the lights went out and pulled clear of Hamilton and into the lead. The field behind him rushed unscathed into racing order behind him. Having won both previous Grands Prix held at the Yas Marina circuit, it looked like business as usual for the 24-year-old German, but only for a few hundred metres as a puncture pitched him out of control and off the circuit as

he turned into Turn Two. The right rear tyre of Vettel’s Red Bull machine deflated rapidly and, although he was able to recover and nurse the car back to the pits, it signalled the end and his first retirement in more than a year since the Korean Grand Prix of 2010. McLaren team chief Martin Whitmarsh said: “I am thrilled for the team, for Lewis, for everyone. We knew we could win the race, Fernando is a phenomenal competitor but Lewis controlled the race and controlled the gap.” —AFP

PARIS: Australian scrum-half Luke Burgess got his European Cup experience off to a winning start when he helped Toulouse to a thrilling 21-17 victory over Gloucester yesterday.

Burgess, stepping straight off the plane into the large shoes left by former All Black Byron Kelleher, was almost on the losing side on his French debut after Henry Trinder touched down for a converted try for the English side in the 70th minute.

But four-time former champions Toulouse again showed their never-say-die spirit when it comes to European competition and hit back immediately. Some slick handling down the short side set fullback Clement Poitrenaud in for a try converted by Lionel Beauxis. “It’s a wonderful team, skilful and very welcoming,” said Burgess, who enjoyed a bit part with Australia at the Rugby World Cup behind captain Will Genia.

“The match was intense, exactly as I expected. It was very difficult, a quick match.” Toulouse, Burgess added, had a good “work ethic, good discipline, they guys support each other very well”.

“I was chomping at the bit and was really excited to get a full 80 minutes and start a match,” he said, adding that he liked pairing up with former All Black back Luke McAlister at halfback.

“It’s a great opportunity to play with an All Black. He’s a very talented guy and great person to play with.” Glasgow continued the rash of last second escapes in the opening weekend of the European Cup as they beat former winners Bath 26-21 thanks to a converted Richie Gray try. Gray’s try - converted by man of the match Duncan Weir - saw them go top of Pool 3 which also includes champions Leinster and Montpellier - the Irish province had grabbed a last second draw with the French outfit on Saturday. Leinster’s fellow two-time European champions Munster had also got out of jail on Saturday with Ronan O’Gara’s 84th minute drop goal seeing them edge last year’s finalists Northampton. “We have now won three successive home matches against English sides,” said Weir. “We had won five on the trot coming into this match so we had momentum. “We stuck in there and we ground out the win.” —AFP

Omantel Q3 net profit rises 25% Page 22

GCC seaports: In dire need to boost capacity Page 23 MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

KSE indices close in red Page 24

India warns against protectionism in debt fallout Page 25

DUBAI: The ruler of Dubai and the United Arab Emirates’ Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum (second right) visits on the opening day of the 12th Dubai Airshow yesterday in Dubai. (Right) Planes perform at the Dubai airshow.—AP

Boeing off to flying start at Airshow Emirates airline orders 50 more Boeing 777s DUBAI: Emirates Airlines launched Dubai Airshow yesterday with a record $18-billion order for 50 Boeing 777s, giving the US company a flying start on its European rival Airbus at the prestigious event. The United Arab Emirates meanwhile appeared to raise the stakes in its negotiations with France to buy Rafale fighter jets after Eurofighter said the Gulf state has invited it to make a counter offer.

Boeing’s European rival, Airbus, is at the same time expected to receive a new order from Qatar Airways, according to industry sources. But the Dubai-based Emirates ensured the biennial aviation gathering kicked off with fanfare, announcing the order for 50 Boeing 777-300ERs in a deal that brings the long-haul carrier’s order list to 90.

“Emirates has placed an order for an additional 50 Boeing 777-300ER” planes, in addi-

tion to 20 Boeing 777-300ER as an option, Emirates chairman and chief executive Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum told reporters.

“This order represents a milestone. It is the single largest dollar-value order in Boeing’s history,” the head of the largest carrier in the Middle East said at the signing ceremony. Sheikh Ahmed put the total value of the firm order and options at $26 billion. The new order alone dwarfs the value of orders announced at the last edition of the show in 2009, which stood at just over $14 billion, when the global financial crisis hit the aviation industry.

Manufacturers had chalked up orders for aircraft worth a whopping $155.5 billion at the 2007 edition of the show. Last year, Emirates, one of the world’s fastest growing carriers, placed an order for 30 Boeing 777 planes worth $9.1 billion at Britain’s Farnborough show.

The airline is the largest single operator of the twin-engined 777 planes with 95 units in service. Sheikh Ahmed said the new order affirms Emirates’ strategy to “expand our long haul destinations and continue to excel as a world leading carrier, connecting the world to Dubai and beyond.”

Emirates has a fleet of 162 wide-bodied aircraft serving 115 destinations in 67 countries.

In addition to its orders from Boeing, Emirates has 73 Airbus A380 superjumbos on order, as well as 70 Airbus A350s.

The carrier is the largest single customer of Airbus’ long-haul airliner A380 with a purchase list of 90 units. Meanwhile, the UAE made another surprise as the show opened after the European consortium producing Eurofighter Typhoon jets announced a request by the UAE to make a counter offer to France’s Rafale. The Gulf state which is in the final stages of talks

with France on the sale of the Rafale fighter jet asked Britain, which uses the Eurofighter, to provide it with information about the aircraft capacity, and that a briefing took place on October 17, according to a statement by the consortium.

“We have subsequently received a request for proposal for the potential supply of Typhoon,” Eurofighter said of its fighter jet in a statement, adding, “We are now working hard to deliver a response.” French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet said last month that Paris was in the final stages of negotiations on the Gulf state purchasing Rafale fighter jets, the pride of France’s Dassault Aviation.

Speaking to journalists at the Dubai show Sunday, Longuet appeared unfazed by the UAE’s approach of Eurofighter, saying the move seemed to be “a measure to liven up the process” of negotiations.

APEC leaders seeking firewall against crisis HONOLULU: Asia-Pacific leaders will call on countries yesterday to do what they can to prop up economic growth, rallying around the common threat from Europe’s debt crisis despite divisions over trade and currency policies. Fresh off a rare success in securing agreement on the outlines of a regional trade deal, the heads of the 21 nations that make up the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum will turn their attention to the more immediate problem of preventing contagion from Europe.

After talks on Sunday, leaders are expected to release a statement expressing concern that Europe’s unresolved debt troubles will spill over into the Asia-Pacific region.

Unlike the United States, where the Federal Reserve has already cut interest rates to near zero, many Asian economies have room to reduce benchmark borrowing costs to try to spur faster growth. Most of them also boast healthy public finances, giving them more leeway to boost government spending.

“We’re not going to see massive growth out of Europe until the problems are solved,” US President Barack Obama said. “And that will have a dampening effect on the economy. But if we can at least contain the crisis, then one of the great opportunities we have is to see the AsiaPacific region as an extraordinary engine for growth.” But that engine is slowing down and inflation-wary Asian leaders don’t necessarily want to rev it back up. China is reluctant to unleash another huge stimulus package like the one it launched in 2009 because of concern over wasteful spending.

China’s economic growth will likely dip below 9 percent next year for the first time in a decade. That would still be four times faster than the US economy is likely to grow.

Although leaders will put on a show of unity, the APEC summit revealed some growing rifts, particularly between the two biggest players, the United States and China. A senior White House official said Obama cautioned China’s President Hu Jintao that Americans were growing increasingly impatient and frustrated with the pace of change in China’s economic policy.

Obama and Hu met on Saturday, and White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama was “very direct” with the Chinese leader about the currency and trade issues during their meeting.

The United States has long complained that China

HONOLULU: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (left) meets with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the APEC summit, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit meeting in Honolulu yesterday.—AFP keeps its yuan currency artificially weak to give its exporters an advantage. China counters that the yuan should rise only gradually to avoid harming the economy and driving up unemployment, which would hurt global growth.

Hu was quoted by Chinanews.com in Beijing on Sunday as saying a big appreciation in the yuan against the dollar would not help US trade and unemployment problems. “The trade deficit and unemployment problems are not caused by the yuan exchange rate. Even a major appreciation of the yuan would not resolve the

problems facing the United States,” Hu said in comments echoed by China’s foreign ministry.

APEC corporate executives meeting in Honolulu expressed some frustration with China as well, although most said they preferred a soft approach to avoid unsettling business relationships.

“Even among friends there are sometimes disputes a n d t h e re a re m o m e n t s o f te n s i o n ,” s a i d J o h n Lechleiter, chief executive of drug company Eli Lilly. “I hope that as these things arise, they can be dealt with diplomatically.” — Reuters

He said he was confident the deal to buy 60 Rafale jets would be concluded before the end of 2011. He added the UAE side no longer required more powerful engines for the aircraft, adding that the Emiratis have seen through usage that the 7.5-tonne engines did not fail the jet in its missions of reconnaissance, combat, and ground support. Abu Dhabi had asked for an improved version fitted with a more power ful engines from Snecma of the Safran group with a thrust of nine tons, as well as a higher performing radar system from Thales.

Financing of these improvements “is one of the issues under discussion,” a top Dassault Aviation official said in February. Both the Rafale and the Typhoon were recently involved in combat action over Libya, flown respectively by the French air force and navy and the British Royal Air Force. — AFP

Gas forum readies for first summit DOHA: Energy ministers of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum met yesterday to prepare for the first ever summit of the 11-member group which will discuss fair prices and stronger coordination.

The GECF, whose members hold just under 70 percent of world’s gas reserves, have been vying to establish a mechanism to set fair prices for natural gas to reflect parity with oil. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Algerian leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika are among the heads of state who will attend the one-day summit on Tuesday in the Qatari capital Doha, organizers said.

According to the GECF, the summit will discuss the priority of long-term contracts as the basis of security for exporters and consumers of natural gas. It will also seek ways to establish a fair price for gas under a gas-to-oil indexation with the objective to overcome the disparity between crude oil and gas prices, the organizers said.

The leaders will also review cross investments and technological collaborations between GECF members who include Russia, Iran and Qatar.

Russia is the world’s largest gas producer and sits on 30 percent of global reserves, while Qatar is the largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter with a production capacity of 77 millions tons a year. Gas prices are determined either in longterm contracts between sellers and buyers, which some exporters index to oil, or on spot markets.

World gas demand dropped by 2.1 percent in 2009 due to the global economic recession, but the GECF says it rebounded last year, rising by 7.3 percent, mainly due to Japan boosting its LNG imports in the wake of the March tsunami and nuclear crisis.

The GECF group includes Algeria, Bolivia, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Libya, Nigeria, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela.

Kazakhstan, Norway and the Netherlands are observers. —AFP

y

A

22

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

business

Al Tamimi and Co sponsors MEED Kuwait Energy and Projects event

IKEA launches kitchen campaign with more added value benefits KUWAIT: IKEA Kuwait yesterday announced the launch of its new Kitchen campaign that offers contemporary modern styles to cater to a wide range of audiences.

IKEA Kuwait’s new Kitchen campaign guarantees free designing, delivery and assembly within 7 days and comes with a 15 year guarantee on its full range of kitchens. This season’s diverse range of colors and price levels are tailor made to suit every customers varied tastes, budgets and living situations.

In addition to these offerings, customers can also look forward to functional and sustainable solutions for greener living through waste management and water saving products.

The process of buying and assembling the newly purchased kitchen is made easier and simpler with the help of committed designers deployed to provide an ideal kitchen set up. IKEA Kuwait has a dedicated projects department to service projects and corporate companies as well.

support to Kuwait,” commented Alex Saleh.

Saleh presented on the strategies with respect to procurement and financing under the current Public Private Partnership (PPP) model in Kuwait, which was then followed by a question and answers session. During the discussion, Saleh noted, “I am confident once the first project is completed, we will see a many others

Company will host a brief seminar, followed by a social networking session for executives wanting to learn more about project finance for PPP’s. The event is to be held at the Courtyard Marriott Al Raya Center in Kuwait City.

Earlier last week, at the annual International Bar Association (IBA) event that was held in

Alex Saleh, Partner & Head of Kuwait office for Al-Tamimi & Company quickly follow.”

Al Tamimi & Company has quickly become known as one of the leading law service providers in Kuwait and more recently has developed a strong area of practice revolving around PPP and project finance. On November 15, 2011, the International Project Finance Association (IPFA) along with PricewaterhouseCoopers and Al Tamimi &

Dubai, Al Tamimi & Company unveiled its new logo as part of a firm wide re-branding of the company. The event was attended by more than 5000 lawyers from around the world creating the largest IBA annual event to date. This was also the first time the event was held in a Middle Eastern Country and Al Tamimi played a key role in bringing the prestigious event to the UAE.

Strong products continue driving growth as Ford’s GCC sales shoot up 55%

Omantel Q3 net profit rises 25% DUBAI: Oman Telecommunications Co (Omantel) yesterday posted a 25-percent rise in its quarterly profit as the state-owned carrier added new subscribers during the year but the results fell slightly short of analysts forecasts. The former monopoly made net profit of 28 million rials ($72.7 million) in the third quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with net profit of 22.4 million rials in the same period a year ago, it said in a bourse statement.

Analyst forecast, on average, profit of 28.9 million rials, according to a Reuters poll. Omantel, which is 70percent owned by the Omani government, said quarterly revenues rose 13 percent to 109.9 million rials, up from 97.4 million rials a year earlier. The telecom operator’s total customer base rose to 3.4 million for the nine month period ending Sept. 30, compared with 3.3 million for the same period last year.

Omantel is on the lookout for operating licenses and network building contracts abroad as competition in the sultanate’s mobile telecom sector gets tougher, its chief executive said in August.

The firm’s monopoly was broken in 2006 by Nawras, a unit of Qatar Telecommunications Co, boosting competition among mobile network operators in the country.Omantel shares are down 7.2 percent year-to-date. — Reuters

KUWAIT: Al-Tamimi & Company’s Kuwait office was the Bronze Sponsor and the only Law Firm participating in MEED’s highly publicized Kuwait Energy & Infrastructure Projects Event that was held at the Courtyard Marriott Al Raya Center in Kuwait.

Al Tamimi & Company is recognized as a leading full service law firm in Kuwait with specializations in various sectors including Public Private Partnerships (PPP) and project finance, which made the participation of Al-Tamimi a natural fit. The Al-Tamimi Kuwait team is heavily involved in the current PPP projects being tendered in Kuwait. Their knowledge and expertise within this sector has provided further depth to their practice.

The three day event, which began on 1 November, focused on the Energy & Infrastructure sectors. Prior to the event, AlTamimi hosted a Master Class on Procurement and development strategies that was lead by Alex Saleh; Partner & Head of Kuwait office for Al-Tamimi & Company, along with Dubai based Steven Hunt, Regional Head of Construction & Engineering for Al-Tamimi & Company and Ramy Shabana, Associate at Al-Tamimi & Company. The class was attended by executives from major regional and global companies looking to capitalize on the PPP work being issued by the Kuwait Government.

During day one, a surprise guest HRH the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne, visited the MEED Kuwait Energy & Infrastructure Conference as part of a tour of the Gulf state.

His presence created quite a festive atmosphere. Prince Charles’ visit to Kuwait is to mark the 50th anniversary of Kuwait’s full independence from the UK in June 1961. He met with leading figures from the Kuwait government and businesses, as well as prominent UK businesses involved with trade and investment in Kuwait.

“It was a nice surprise to see HRH the Prince of Wales showing his support. I hope this will encourage other leaders to visit and offer their

of the One Ford plan,” said Prein. “We continue to serve our customers by offering them the products and technologies that they want, while continuously working with our dealers on delivering some of the best vehicle ownership experiences in the region.

“We currently offer a strong contender in almost every segment, from the B-Car Figo thru to the Explorer mid-size SUV, and the heavy duty F-Series trucks. It’s more than evident that the models we have introduced recently are striking a chord with customers and we’re certain this trend will continue well into 2012 as customers increasingly look to Ford as a preferred option,” Prein said.

KUWAIT: Ford and Lincoln products have seen their sales in the GCC jump by 55 percent so far this year at a time when the region’s industry performance was relatively flat, according to Ford Middle East’s managing director, Larry Prein. Speaking to the media at the Dubai International Motorshow’s opening day, Prein said the company is well on its way to set another record year, thanks to its strong products, expanding dealer network and increasing customer satisfaction levels.

Ford’s continued flow of segment-leading products is more than evident on its stand inside Sheikh Saeed hall, with the regional debut of the much anticipated allnew 2012 Ford Focus and the all-new Ford Ranger 1-tonne pickup truck joining the extensive lineup of new-gen Ford models such as the all-new Ford Explorer, Edge, Taurus, Mustang, and F-Series.

“We delivered a solid performance this year and we’re very pleased with the results.

Clearly our solid product lineup is leading the way for our growth and this marks another proof point in the ongoing success

Committed to Mideast The outlook for 2012 remains positive for Ford according to Prein, thanks to continued network expansions and major regional investments to help support Ford’s growing customer base and dealerships. Ford is planning to open additional facilities in Saudi Arabia next year, with expansions also planned in Iraq and elsewhere throughout

the region. But perhaps one of the most important areas that Ford Middle East has been taking actions on this year is customer service and after sales. “As our dealer network and customer base expand, it is only natural that we increase our focus on customer service and the after sales experience,” Prein added.

“We have invested in major customer satisfaction initiatives over the past year or so, such as our increased product engineering and testing actions as well as ongoing dealer training efforts. This week we take it forward and register an important milestone in Ford Motor Company’s history in the Middle East with the opening of our Middle East Parts Distribution Center in Jebel Ali from which we will support our entire regional network and provide parts faster.”

The all-new 2012 Ford Focus When it was introduced in 1998, the original Ford Focus brought new levels of agility and responsiveness to the C segment. The next-generation Focus plans to raise the benchmark once more, targeting class-lead-

ing driving quality that blends outstanding steering precision and road feedback with significantly improved refinement and ride control.

The new Focus features an advanced Torque Vectoring Control system fitted as standard, which enhances cornering stability and agility. This technology has, up to now, typically only been available on premium sports vehicles.

Ford engineers have also retuned and enhanced the innovative suspension concepts from prior models, developing optimized new designs for the ‘Control Blade’ multilink rear suspension and the semi-isolated front subframe. The chassis design now incorporates a completely new Electric Power Assist Steering system.

The all-new 2012 Ford Ranger For nearly 20 years, Ranger has been one of Ford’s most popular pickups across the globe. It has provided millions of buyers with Ford Tough Truck capabilities - hauling heavy payloads, pulling trailers and absorbing punishment on the roughest roads.

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

.2720000 .4390000 .3750000 .3020000 .2690000 .2790000 .0040000 .0020000 .0744960 .7257960 .3810000 .0700000 .7115100 .0040000 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2744000 GB Pound/KD .4411120 Euro .3771770 Swiss francs .3047530 Canadian dollars .2711860 Danish Kroner .0506830 Swedish Kroner .0414420 Australian dlr .2819050 Hong Kong dlr .0352800 Singapore dlr .2144090 Japanese yen .0035560 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0747380 Bahraini dinars .7281410 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0731930 Omani riyals .7130050 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

3.641 5.508 3.191 2.506 3.623 216.650 35.595 3.191 6.386 8.978 0.271 0.273

.2780000 .4490000 .3840000 .3150000 .2790000 .2890000 .0072500 .0035000 .0752450 .7330900 .4010000 .0760000 .7186610 .0072000 .0530000 .27650000 .4444880 .3800630 .3070860 .2732620 .0510710 .0417590 .2840620 .0355500 .2160490 .0035830 .0055630 .0025180 .0032040 .0036380 .0753100 .7337140 .3910890 .0737530 .7184620 .0064300

GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

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

73.830 76.072 719.110 735.350 75.388

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 49.000 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.275 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.267 Tunisian Dinar 193.730 Jordanian Dinar 390.970 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 185.700 Syrian Lier 5.977 Morocco Dirham 34.379 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 276.750 Euro 384.680 Sterling Pound 449.170 Canadian dollar 278.140 Turkish lire 156.000 Swiss Franc 312.890 Australian dollar 284.220 US Dollar Buying 275.550 GOLD 330.500 165.000 85.000

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

287.400 733.110 3.730 275.600 541.400 36.600 51.400 167.800 48.070 383.000 36.180 5.890 0.032 0.223 0.240 3.660 391.220 0.187 89.890 45.900 4.240 220.300 1.786 49.700 716.000

SELL DRAFT

285.900 733.110 3.613 274.100

216.600 46.216 381.500 36.030 5.500 0.032

10 Tola

75.060 275.600

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Selling Rate

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

273.850 277.615 442.140 389.790 317.635 726.070 74.535 75.165 72.990 385.475 45.923 2.482 5.619 3.164 3.606 6.425 671.723 3.710 9.070 5.765 3.560 90.965

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 Jordanian Dinars Syrian Pounds Euro Canadian Dollars Nepali rupee

Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

287.76 277.01 311.14 382.21

447.50 3.62 3.705 5.870 2.604 4.250 3.350 75.50 733.11 48.07 391.25 719.00 76.30 73.60

275.600 3.185 5.505 2.515 3.625 6.405 75.140 73.650 732.700 46.155 448.400 3.190 1.550 391.600 5.750 384.600 278.400 3.690

Al Mulla Exchange

UAE Exchange Center WLL Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro

446.11 3.63 3.624 5.499 2.501 3.441 3.194 75.02 733.08 46.16 392.10 716.26 76.26 73.59

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 445.500 275.600

Sterling Pound US Dollar

Currency

715.820

306.500 5.500 9.150

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

390.610 0.185 89.890 3.450 218.800

3.185 6.370 75.830 73.600 216.590 37.540 2.496 445.500

GOLD 1,849.240

Rate for Transfer

Bahrain Exchange Company

3.340 6.590 76.260 73.600 216.590 37.540 2.604 447.500 42.700 310.000 5.500 9.350 198.263 75.160 276.000 1.200

287.40 275.60 310.00 383.00

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)

275.250 381.300 445.300 274.000 3.595 5.500 46.235 2.497 3.620 6.380 3.193 733.050 74.975 73.500

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

business Commodity Update

Black gold top performer amid tight supply

GCC seaports: In dire need to boost capacity MARKAZ ECONOMIC REPORT

By Ole S Hansen, Senior Manager, Saxo Bank

L

ast week the sovereign debt crisis moved up another gear with attention switching from Greece to Italy.

Disillusioned investors worried about the lack of progress sold Italian government bonds which in the process reached unsustainably high yield levels above seven percent. Italy’s government bond debt is the third largest in the world and bigger than the other four troubled euro-zone members combined which in effect means that Italy is too big to fail but also too big to save and therefore desperately needs to get their house in order.

Towards the end of the week however a little light at the end of the ‘Euro-tunnel’ emerged with Greece finally installing Papademos as head of a technocratic unity government while Italy seemed to be on the verge of appointing another technocrat, the former EU commissioner and very respected, Mario Monti to lead a new government. Italian bond yields dropped back after the European Central Bank (in a sign of support) stepped in and aggressively bought its bonds.

The dollar continued its ascent against the euro as German interest rate levels fell below the US for the first time in 11 months. Investors now receive a negative return when buying secure short-term German government bonds and it shows how capital preservation has become an overriding concern for many.

Commodities weathered the storm quite well with the Reuters Jeffries CRB index trading flat over the week with rising energy prices offsetting declines primarily in agricultural commodities and base metals.

OPEC raises demand forecast In its annual World Oil Outlook OPEC raised its medium-term forecast for oil demand expressing surprise about the economic recovery over the last two years. It did however say that the recovery has become more fragile in recent months and another recession cannot be ruled out. It also raised the reference price for this decade by $10 to a range of $85$95 a barrel acknowledging that some members need higher prices to balance their budgets as social spending has increased dramatically, especially after the Arab Spring.

The International Energy Agency, which is known for putting pressure on oil producers, warned in a report that oil prices could spike above the all-time high of 147 dollars a barrel after 2015 if the Gulf decides to cut spending on oil exploration in favor of increased social spending.

Oil in Euros near 2011 peak The spike higher in oil prices over the last month is having an adverse impact on the fragile state of the economic recovery. Measured in Euros the cost of a barrel of Brent crude is less than five percent away from the April peak, which is very unwelcome news for a region that is already heading towards recession and increased winter demand.

Despite the stronger dollar WTI crude continued its climb towards the technical target of 100 dollars per barrel while the discount to Brent crude narrowed again as Libyan oil continued to reach the market faster than expected. The weekly data on US stockpiles showed unexpectedly large draw downs in domestic crude and products while Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons carries the risk of increased geopolitical tensions.

Near-term price support Tightness in the energy products market ahead of increased winter demand combined with geopolitical tensions is causing the backwardation in the market which makes oil for prompt delivery more expensive than deferred. WTI and Brent both have the potential of another five dollars to the upside. We do not however see much value at these levels considering our continued positive outlook for the dollar plus the ongoing uncertainty concerning the outlook for global growth which carries the risk of a setback once bottlenecks and tension ease The recent rally in gold, which reached but failed to breach 1,800 dollars per ounce, has been supported by a renewed pick-up in interest for Exchange Traded Products trading gold. Total known holdings calculated by Bloomberg have risen by 66 tons from the October low to 2,310 tons which is only 20 tons from the peak seen back in August. ETP investors are generally viewed to have a much longer investment horizon as the product is non-leveraged, unlike futures which are favorites among hedge fund traders. During the 15 percent correction that hit gold back in September investments in gold ETP’s only saw a 3.7 percent reduction totalling 86 tons with investors generally not forced or inclined to pull out of what had been a very profitable trade. The ETP market therefore seems to be telling us that investors are positioning themselves for the next push higher but with so many fresh longs having been established in a relative short period of time technical traders could be tempted to drive it lower in order to check the strength of support. Look for consolidation between 1,680 and 1,802 with an eventual break in either direction setting up the next $100 move.

Industrial metals pressured The growing recession fears in Europe saw the London Metals Index drop by 3.5 percent as investors switched their focus back to the slowing demand, not least after China released a smaller than expected trade surplus. Staying with China, the news that it imported the most copper in October since May 2010 had a limited impact as it was seen primarily as a response to lower prices and the need to restock after having been absent from the market over the summer. —Saxo Bank

KUWAIT: Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” recently published the executive summary of an updated version of their GCC infrastructure series covering: Power, Airports, Seaports, Roads & Railways, ICT and Water. In this installment, Markaz tackles the GCC Seaports industry in terms of highlighting growth drivers and volume trends in addition to major projects.

The GCC countries have 35 ports in all; some of these ports are currently undergoing expansion to meet the increasing demand.

Volumes have witnessed robust growth: increasing at an estimated 8% six-year CAGR to 25 million TEUs in 2010. The UAE ports have the highest share of volume in the GCC at 59%.

Some container ports in the GCC rank favorably among their global peers. Dubai was ranked seventh in the world in 2009, handling 11.1 million TEUs. It moved down in rank to ninth in 2010 (mostly due to the growth of Chinese ports), nevertheless handling 11.6 million TEUs-a 4.5% increase.

Salalah (Oman) ranked 32 in 2010 with 3.5 million TEUs. Jeddah port (Saudi Arabia) ranked 30 with an annual throughput of 3.8 million TEUs in 2010.

There is a robust growth in investments on seaports to increase capacity. So far, the highest investments have come from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The other GCC countries are also all set to improve their ports.

The GCC is well known for its oil trade.

However, a shift in the direction (and nature) of trade is taking place between the GCC and the world. About 30 years ago, the OECD accounted for 85% of the GCC’s trade. By 2009, the emerging markets accounted for 45%. Trade growth with the emerging markets have been rising at 11% annually between 1980 and 2009, whereas the annual growth with the OECD was only 5%. The emergence of India and China has presented the GCC with substantial opportunities as hubs. Therefore, the GCC ports need to rampup capacity, not only to cater to their own increasing needs, but also to develop a hub strategy. Most of them are ideally placed as a trade platform between Asia and the Far East on one hand and the West, Central Europe,

and Africa on the other.

The GCC needs to greatly modernize and simplify its way of doing business especially in the areas of customs, immigration, and other business processes if it is to capitalize on this opportunity. Other forms of transportation upgrade are happening or being planned in air, roads, and railways. Seaports cannot lag behind.

There is some catch-up to do in terms of port development. Last year, the UAE accounted for 59% of the GCC’s throughput, compared to only 21% for Saudi Arabia, even though Riyadh’s economy is twice as big and its population five times as large as its neighbor. By compiling the list of seaport projects from Meed Projects, we arrive at a current total spending of $15 billion for the GCC. These projects are all due for completion

within the five-year period from mid-2011 to mid-2016.

Abu Dhabi has the most ambitious project, valued at $10 billion. It competes with Dubai, and this may create overcapacity.

Qatar has witnessed various delays but now shows the first signs of catch-up with its Phase I of the New Doha Port signed in March 2011. Kuwait is progressing fast on its new Bubiyan Port project. Oman, after the unrest, has started 2011 by consolidating on its past maritime success.

Dubai is the foremost GCC port by container volume and is ranked at the ninth place among the top 10 world container ports in 2010. Dubai had been ranked as high as seven in 2007 and 2009; Table 2: Container ports world ranking 2010 (TEU 000s).

The region’s favorable geographic location

provides it with a strong opportunity to establish one of the world’s most important transport and logistics hubs: not only along the Europe-Asia shipping lanes, but also for northern and central Africa. The large volume of hydrocarbon export by sea has ensured the development of ports in all the Gulf countries. The countries together have almost 38% of the world’s reserves of crude oil and approximately 22% of global natural gas reserves.

World trade was strongly affected by the crisis, showing a major dip in 2009 after a sustained period of growth in the past decade.

The GCC is heavily reliant on exports of bulk goods but needs varied heavy imports, especially “machinery”-this item includes transportation. The direction and nature of shipments are also changing. Traditionally, the region has seen two boxes imported for each exported. In 2009, the ratio reduced to a level of about 1.7, followed by a decline to 1.4 in 2010 and could go as low as 1.2 in 2011.

A recent report from global analysts EC Harris has ranked the GCC as the most attractive region in the world for investment in port developments. Spurred by mega-projects such as Khalifa Industrial Zone, Abu Dhabi (KIZAD), and Oman’s Al Duqm, the survey assessed expected FDI growth and the ease of entering and doing business across a number of markets. However, the report also quoted a lack in cross-border agreements between member states. It also mentioned that until a transport network is extended across the entire GCC, the region will not be able to fully capitalize on this investment. A clear example can be seen in Europe where the interconnected rail network has helped to open up lucrative trade routes for even the smaller member countries.

There are 35 ports in the GCC, some of which are currently undergoing expansion to meet the increasing trade demands.

A number of projects are currently under way in the respective countries to develop and expand existing ports as well as set up new ports to meet the rising cargo traffic.

Investments for port development projects are expected to be $15.3 billion during the period 2011-2016.

Jet Airways launches Sharjah to Thiruvananthapuram service DUBAI: Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, yesterday commenced daily non-stop flights from Sharjah to Thiruvananthapuram.

The airline launched its flight from Sharjah International Airport to a traditional ribbon cutting ceremony, in the presence of dignitaries including Abdulwahab Al-Roomi, Director General - Department of Civil Aviation and Ali Salim Al-Midfa, Director - Sharjah Airport Authority. Ratan Ratnakar, Vice President Market Development & Pricing, Gulf & MEA, Jet Airways and Shakir Kantawala, General Manager, Dubai and Northern Emirates, Jet Airways, were present to represent the organization.

The inbound flight from Thiruvananthapuram to Sharjah International Airport was welcomed to the traditional watercannon salute in the company of VIP’s, airport officials and media.

With Thiruvananthapuram being one of the

10 most greenest cities in India is a popular tourist destination and to serve the large community of the State of Kerala residing in the UAE, Jet Airways’ deployed its state-of-the-art Boeing 737-800 aircraft on this new route, offering 16 PremiËre (Business Class) and 138 Economy seats. Guests will be offered best-in-its-class product, which boasts of warm service, award winning in-flight entertainment, as well as delectable cuisine.

With this additional flight between Sharjah and India, guests will now take advantage of convenient day and night daily departures from Sharjah International Airport to Thiruvananthapuram and Kochi.

Sharjah’s Department of Civil Aviation and Sharjah Airport officials were unanimous in their welcome. “Our philosophy and relationship with the airlines that operate at Sharjah Airport is not one of landlord client, rather that of partners.

And as ith all good and successful partnerships, we believe in a ‘win win’ relationship. And this is well exemplified in Jet Airways presence here at Sharjah Airport. We have closely watched, nurtured and invested in the steady growth and success of Jet Airways and we are confident that the addition of Thiruvananthapuram and its connectivity out of Sharjah will not only be of good service to the people of the land, but also is a feather in the cap of this very popular carrier.

We wish Jet Airways all the very best in its ventures and look forward to being part of the development of even more routes in the future.

‘The Sharjah Aviation Services General Manager Tony Smith welcomes the expansion of Jet Airways through Sharjah International Airport. Tony says that these are exciting times for Sharjah and Jet Airways, this addition actively supports making Sharjah International the Gateway to India from the United Arab Emirates.

Sharjah now has up to 25 daily departures to India and is keen to support new routes and strategies with all airlines to promote Sharjah International; to give our customers the best possible opportunity to develop in a very difficult market.’

Ratan Ratnakar, VP - Market Development & Pricing, Gulf & MEA said, today we are proud to be India’s most trusted Airline. To stand testimony to this, adding to our numerous accolades are the three most recent prestigious awards conferred to Jet Airways at the Times Travel Honours 2011. As India’s premier airline, Jet Airways is awarded the ‘Most Trusted Airline Brand’, ‘Best Domestic Full Service Carrier and ‘Best International (Economy) Airline’. These three awards hold special significance as they are nothing short of an endorsement by our discerning customers, of our renowned international service and quality standards.

Caesars Travel launches ‘Kabayan Corner’ for Philippines overseas workers KUWAIT: Given the strength of Philippine overseas workers in Kuwait, Caesars Travel has opened its exclusive office set-up, “Kabayan Corner”, located in downtown Kuwait. P N J Kumar, Caesars Travel Group General Manager while opening the office said, “Philippines is a key market for Caesars as it has significant demand for travel options along with other value added services. To tap this growth in demand, Caesars Travel has invested for an exclusive office by naming it as “Kabayan Corner” which is a synonymous name among the Philippine nationals by giving the comfort of home in parallel to their culture and the flexibilities to choose Caesars wide range of services which will meet their satisfaction”.

Caesars Travel Group’s aggressive

expansion program has so far seen the launch of 19 offices across the country with diversified activities under the travel umbrella. With this new opening of Kabayan Corner, it is targeted to meet the travel requirements of Philippine Overseas Workers in Kuwait which is a unique marketing strategy, adopted by Caesars to cater the services to a particular country among the expatriate community in Kuwait. “We are keen to explore new markets and by opening Kabayan Corner, have the great confidence in our valued passengers who have given us the ability to find additional exposure to reach new markets. We look forward to further offering our passengers new experiences, embracing the heart of each dealings with a warm and friendly touch” PNJ Kumar concluded.

KUWAIT: Caesars Travel’s ‘Kabayan Corner’ staff along with General Manager P N J Kumar and Operation Manager Sukhvinder Singh.

DUBAI: People visit the opening day of the 12th Dubai Airshow yesterday, in Dubai.—AFP

UAE asks Eurofighter to counter Rafale offer DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates, which is in the final stages of talks with France on the sale of Rafale fighter jets, has invited Eurofighter to make a counter offer, the European consortium said yesterday.

The consortium said that the UAE had asked Britain, which uses the Eurofighter, to provide it with information about the aircraft capacity, and that a briefing took place on October 17. “We have subsequently received a request for proposal for the potential supply of Typhoon,” Eurofighter said of its fighter jet in a statement, adding, “We are now working hard to deliver a response.” Further details about the request, such as the number of aircraft required, or the timeline for a decision, have not been revealed.

French Defense Minister Gerard Longuet said last month that Paris was in

the final stages of negotiations on the Gulf state purchasing Rafale fighter jets, the pride of France’s Dassault Aviation. Both the Rafale and the Typhoon were recently involved in combat action over Libya, flown respectively by the French air force and navy and the British Royal Air Force.

The types are also in the final stage of a massive contest to meet India’s 126-unit medium multi-role combat aircraft requirement. Final bids were opened early this month, with a selection decision possible within the next few weeks. Dassault is seeking a first export buyer for its “omnirole” Rafale, while the four-nation Eurofighter consortium is hoping to build on a customer base which also includes partner nations Germany, Italy and Spain and additional users Austria and Saudi Arabia. — AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

KSE indices close in red GLOBAL DAILY MARKET REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) ended the first trading session after the extended Eid holiday in red. All its indicators ignored last weeks’ gains witnessed in the international markets. So far more than 100 companies are subject to suspension for not disclosing their 9M2011 financials by the end of the declaration period on November 15, 2011. This has negatively reflected on the investor sentiment. However, we expect a great flow of announcements to be revealed during the coming couple of days.

Global General Index (GGI) ended the day down by 0.33 percent at 183.42 point. Market capitalization was down for the day reaching KD30.03bn. On the other hand, KSE Price Index closed at 5,868.5 point, shedding 41.7 points (0.71 percent) to its previous close.

Market breadth During the session, 104 companies were traded. Market breadth was skewed towards decliners as 63 equities declined versus 16 that advanced. Total volume traded was down by 20.23 percent with 91.85mn shares changing hands at a total value of KD13.52mn (42.79 percent lower compared to November 3rd session ).

Investment sector was the volume leader, accounting for 40.28 percent of total shares exchanges.

National Industries Group (Holding) was the session’s most traded stock with 13.33mn shares exchanged. The industrial sector was the value leader, having 31.50 percent of total traded value.

In terms of top gainers, United Food Industrial Group was the top gainer for the day, adding 6.35 percent to its share value and closing at KD0.335. On the other hand, Munshaat Real Estate Projects Company shed 10.42 percent and closed at KD0.0215 making it the

biggest decliner in the market.

Sector-wise As for Global’s sector indices they all ended the day on a negative note, except for Global Insurance Index which closed unchanged during the trading session. Global Investment Index suffered a 1.23 percent decline, making it the top loser. Heavyweight Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) was the main reason for the index’s decline, down 3.08 percent to end at KD0.315. In addition, Gulf Investment House posted a 9.26 percent drop in value and closing at KD0.0245. Global Services Index was the second biggest decliner, down 0.94 percent dragged down by Zain, the largest company in the sector. The scrip ended the trading session down by 1.06 percent and closed at KD0.930. Also contributing to the index’s decline was Agility and

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

business

Sultan Center Food Products Company which ended the day down by 2.47 percent and 7.35 percent, respectively.

Global Real Estate Index came in third with a 0.91 percent loss.

Munshaat Real Estate Projects Company topped the decliners’ list for the day, shedding10.42 percent of its share value.

The Industrial sector index was down by 0.29 percent. Only two stocks within the sector closed up.

Among the decliners, ACICO Industrial Company, took the top spot with a 7.41 drop to end at KWD0.250. Furthermore, Kuwait Portland Cement Company posted a 2.94 percent decline and closed at KD0.990. The company ’s 9M2011 net profit took a big hit and declined by 96.98 percent, reaching KD0.51mn, compared to KD16.90mn in 9M2010.

Global Non-Kuwaiti Index was down by 0.85 percent dragged

down by Ahli United Bank. The scrip ended the day down by 0.99 percent and closed at KD0.200.

Gulf Finance House also contributed to the sector’s decline by posting a 2.70 percent drop in its share price to end the day at KD0.036.

Corporate news Mena Real Estate Company announced that one of its fully owned subsidiaries has sold its stake in a warehouse development project in Eastern Saudi Arabia for a total value of SAR6.6mn (KD0.484mn), realizing a profit of SAR0. 525mn (KW0.038mn), which will be reflected in the company’s financial statements for 3Q2011.

The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at $111.67pb on Thursday compared with $113.13pb the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

Iraqi Kurdistan confirms Exxon oil deal: Minister ARBIL: Iraq’s northern Kurdish region signed a deal with US oil major Exxon Mobil in mid-October for six exploration blocks in the semiautonomous area, Kurdish energy minister, Ashti Hawrami, said yesterday. The first confirmation from the Kurdistan Regional Government of the pact, which could jeopardize Exxon Mobil investments in Iraq, came two days after a KRG adviser said the deal had been completed.

Exxon has yet to comment.

Iraq’s central government, which has long-running disputes with the Kurdish region over oil and land, has said Baghdad would consider a deal between Exxon and the KRG illegal and a violation of the company’s contract to develop Iraq’s 8.7-billion-barrel West Qurna Phase One oilfield. “It is a binding contract,” Hawrami said at an oil and gas conference in the Kurdish capital, Arbil. “It was signed completely on the 18th of October 2011.”

Iraqi Kurdistan has enjoyed more stability and security in recent years than the rest of Iraq, which is still struggling with stubborn violence from insurgents and militias more than eight years after the US invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein. The KRG has signed contrac ts with a number of smaller foreign firms to develop oilfields in the region, but the contract with Exxon would be its first with a global oil major.

Baghdad disputes the validity of the contracts, saying it has the right to control development of the world’s fourth largest oil reserves.

Exxon Mobil has yet to confirm the deal with the KRG. Abdul-Mahdy alAmeedi, the director of the Iraqi oil ministry’s contracts and licensing directorate, said on Friday the government had sent three letters to Exxon Mobil warning that any deal with the KRG would be considered illegal. Ameedi said such a deal could result in the termination of Exxon’s contract to develop Iraq’s 8.7 billion barrel West Qurna Phase One field, a

deal Exxon and partner Royal Dutch Shell clinched in 2009.

In June, Deputy Prime Minister Hussain al-Shahristani said West Qurna Phase One production had hit 350,000 barrels per day and was expected to reach 400,000 bpd by year-end.

The Exxon deal could further Iraqi Kurdistan’s ambitious development plans. The chief executive of Norway’s DNO told Reuters yesterday that his company would increase crude output capacity at its Kurdish Tawke field to 100,000 bpd next year, although production would stay at 50,000 bpd.

Prime Minister Barham Salih told the oil conference yesterday that Arbil and Baghdad had agreed to boost Kurdish exports to 175,000 barrels per day next year. Iraq’s official goal is to raise its production capacity to 12 million bpd by 2017, although the OPEC producer acknowledges a goal of around 8 million bpd might be more realistic.

Current production is 2.9 million bpd, with exports of around 2.1 million. Infrastructure limitations hamper I raq’s ability to dramatically increase exports. Salih also said he had agreed with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malik i to present a new hydrocarbons law to the Iraqi parliament by the end of the year. Investors anxious for a more stable legal platform for their investments have been waiting for the new law for years.

The law would be based on a 2007 draft agreed by political blocs, apparently shunting aside a more controversial version approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would have given more power to the central government.

“We have agreed with... Maliki that we will stick to the original draft of 2007. There may be amendments needed, but these amendments need to be agreed to mutually,” Salih said.

“In case of no agreement on those amendments, the provisions with the original text will be presented to parliament (by year-end) for parliament to decide.” — Reuters

y

A

25

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

BUSINESS

After Greece, Italy in the spotlight NBK WEEKLY MONEY MARKETS REPORT KUWAIT: Political developments in Europe have been more encouraging this week. In Italy, investors welcomed the option of a Mario Monti-led government and markets exploded on Friday. In Greece, former ECB Vice President Papademos has been given the mandate to form a national unity government, which should facilitate the disbursement of the next tranche of the EU/IMF loan. These developments while positive remain not sufficient on their own to stabilize the situation in Europe. Indeed, the volatility we have witnessed in recent days suggests that the sovereign debt crisis in Europe is taking a new direction and markets are becoming extremely nervous to news flow on any development material or not. Volatility of Italian debt has been the center of attention this week with the 10 Year bond trading as high as 7.22% on Thursday.

Standard & Poors rating agency made the news on Thursday after it acknowledged reports that it has reduced France’s AAA credit rating was due to a technical error and was untrue. A lesser-known rating agency said in a Bloomberg interview that the firm sees France’s rating as vulnerable to downgrades in the months ahead should the European crisis persist. French credit default swaps consequently hit a new record of 203 bps on Thursday.

The stakes in the current crisis have become much higher now that Italy fate is in play and it is becoming increasingly clear that the only credible solution is to increase the European Central Bank monetary intervention.

On the foreign exchange level, the

Euro traded in an extremely volatile way, reaching a low of 1.3484 and a high of 1.3859. The currency ended the week at 1.3750. The Japanese Yen on the other hand soared even after bank of Japan intervention and closed the week at 77.20. The sterling pound firmly traded during the week after the Bank of England kept asset purchases at 275B. The sterling closed the week at 1.6065.

Commodities experienced tremendous volatility during the week on the back of the European crisis. Oil reached a high of 99.20 on Friday to close at 98.99. Gold experienced large swings hitting a low of $1,737 and closed the week at $1,789.

Inventories at US wholesalers slipped unexpectedly in September, for the first time since December 2009, and sales proved less robust than forecast. Wholesale inventories dipped 0.1%, below analyst estimates for a 0.5% gain. Sales growth eased more than forecast to 0.5 % from 1.0 % in August.

The US trade balance narrowed for the third consecutive month in September, as a surge in US exports helped bring the trading deficit to the slimmest gap since last December. Strong sales abroad and US made industrial supplies, consumer goods and automobiles helped boost exports 1.4% to $180.4 billion. This outpaced a 0.3% rise in imports to $223.5 billion, resulting in a trade deficit of $43.1 billion for September.

US housing starts rise US home prices fell in over 70% of metropolitan areas in Q3 as tracked

by the National Association of Realtors (NAR). The median existinghome price fell in 111 cities out of 150 vs. a year ago while rising only in 39 areas in Q3. The NAR said the national median existing single-family home price was $169,500 in Q3, down 4.7% vs. a year ago.

Fed ready to Intervene Minneapolis Fed president Kocherlakota said that the Fed should provide a policy blueprint for a range of economic scenarios. He says that the Fed’s “contingency plan” would reduce uncertainty and lay out responses to specific levels of inflation and unemployment. He also added that the Fed has tools left to lower long-term interest rates. Some of the tools include buying Treasuries or GSE-issued securities, and by extending the Fed’s prediction for how long it will keep rates low.

Jobless claims benefits fell to the lowest level in seven months, a sign the recovery in the US may be encouraging companies to limit cuts in headcount. Jobless claims fell by 10,000 to 390,000 in the week ended Nov 5. Economists called for 400,000 new claims. The number of people on unemployment benefit rolls decreased, while those getting extended payments rose.

Italy in the center-stage After a successful 1-year Italian Treasury bill auction on Thursday yielding 6.08%, well below what investors had feared, markets remain nervous ahead of Friday’s Italian Senate vote on the reform and austerity bill. Italy’s Prime Minister

Berlusconi also helped risk sentiment when he reversed his call for an early election, leaning to the idea of a technocrat-led government to administer reform in pensions and labor markets.

Former ECB commissioner Mario Monti has emerged as the front-runner to replace Berlusconi, in a move, which inspired some fresh market confidence. Greek’s leadership issue has also taken a positive step after four days of uncertainty, with former ECB vice-president Lucas Papademos appointed as the head of the interim crisis cabinet. But his brief of saving Greece from default, bankruptcy and an unceremonious exit from the Euro zone remain daunting and markets are reluctant to add more risk prior to see more positive development.

Spain positive During a two-day visit to Beijing, Spanish Minister of Economy, Elena Salgado, said on Friday that China has trust in its Spanish investments, and that Asian countries are purchasing more Spanish debt. She however declined to give specific figures on purchases of debt. “Spain has and continues to enjoy the trust of institutions and investors in this part of the world”.

The vice president did confirm that 60% of the Spanish sovereign debt is held by non-residents “and the participation of Asian countries is much higher than years ago”.

Higher German inflation Germany’s annual inflation was revised up in October. The harmonized index of consumer prices rose 2.9% year-on-year in October, correct-

ed upwards from 2.8%. On a monthly basis, inflation edged up 0.1% compared to a flat reading in September.

At the same time, consumer price inflation remained markedly above the 2% threshold. Compared with September, the consumer price index remained unchanged in October.

The United Kingdom released the industrial production index for September, where the monthly index was unchanged from the previous revised expansion of 0.3% from 0.2%, below the expected 0.1% expansion.

The annual industrial production index dropped by 0.7% from the revised previous drop of 0.9%, yet better than the expected 0.8% drop.

Moreover, the monthly manufacturing production index expanded by 0.2% from the previous drop of 0.3%, better than expectations of 1.9% expansion.

China under pressure October Chinese inflation data showed that policy tightening during the past year has been successful in keeping inflation down while achieving a stable growth. Indeed The country’s consumer price index rose 5.5% last month from a year earlier, down from 6.1% in September. The reading was slightly above expectations for a 5.4% rise, according to the forecast of 12 economists. Food prices actually fell by 0.2% from September, and the overall CPI index rose by just 0.1% from the previous month. In September, the CPI was up 0.5% from August. The producer price index on the other hand, an indicator of upstream inflation pressures, also slowed sharply. The October PPI was up 5.0% from a year earlier, down

from 6.5% in September and well below expectations for a 5.8% rise.

GCC markets The worsening debt crises in Europe is likely to put further pressure on North African economies that are already struggling to recover from their recent political turmoil. As the European Union is their main export market for North African countries, as well as the main source for their foreign tourism, slowing European growth will affect workers’ remittances and may force many to return home where their employment prospects remain even more limited.

In Egypt, the US department of State has issued a travel warning for its citizens traveling or living in Egypt suggesting demonstrations and protests may intensify during the period prior to the Elections due on November 28.

France has called for an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council ahead of the official release of an IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program. The French Foreign Minister has also said on Thursday that Tehran faces “sanctions on an unprecedented scale” if it refuses any serious cooperation with the International Community. Meanwhile Iran’s President Ahmadinejad today dismissed the report accusing it of being based on “invalid” claims, he also warned that Iran “will not pull back even a needle’s width” with its nuclear plans.

Kuwaiti Dinar at 0.27505 The USDKWD opened at 0.27505 on Sunday morning.

India minister warns against protectionism in debt fallout World grapples with sovereign debt crisis

HONG KONG: People look on towards a residential estate as they ride a cable car in Hong Kong yesterday. Hong Kong’s inflation hit 5.8 percent year-onyear in September, mainly due to higher private housing rentals, the government said on October 21. —AFP

Thailand deputy PM sees floods trimming growth HONOLULU: Catastrophic floods may cut Thailand’s 2011 growth prospects by more than half and require a cut in interest rates to help restore growth, the countr y ’s deputy prime minister said on Saturday.

Kittirat Na Ranong, who is also commerce minister, said Bangkok has yet to make a full tally of the damage from Thailand’s worst floods in half a century.

“It’s still not over, but we had expected that GDP growth this year could reach as high as 4.5 percent. In my opinion we perhaps will have to shave off some 2.5 to 3 percent for economic activities forgone,” he told Reuters.The deluge has killed more than 500 people and affected about 2 million since late July, with tens of thousands relocated or sheltering in evacuation centres after their homes and businesses were engulfed by water. “It’s a very painful process, and we have seen the water creeping down, hitting city after city, factory after factory, and flooding farmlands,” Kittirat said in an interview on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Hawaii.

The deputy premier is filling in at the annual APEC leaders’ summit for Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who stayed home to deal with the flooding. The economic damage from the flooding will not be confined to Thailand because “some (Thai) factories produce parts or materials for the global supply chain”, he said.

Thailand, Southeast Asia’s second biggest economy, is a major centre for multinational firms manufacturing cars, auto parts and electronics. Kittirat said conditions were ripe for an interest rate cut to help the economy recover from the flooding.

“Even before the flood, I kept saying the interest rate of Thailand was unnecessarily high,” he said, adding that authority over monetary policy was in the hands of the Thai central bank.

“Now with the flood, I have all the more reason to believe that the interest rate in Thailand has got to come down,” said Kittirat. Flood recovery needs, as well as a recent 50-basis-point rate hike in Indonesia, made it “likely that the central bank will act in the direction that I would like to see”, he said.

Kittirat’s comments came a day after Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul told Reuters in an interview that he saw temporary room to be flexible with interest rates because slowing growth was a bigger risk than inflation.

The flood disaster hit as Thailand was emerging from on-off political conflict that intensified following a military coup in 2006. “We are about to be ready to tell the world we are back to business,” said Kittirat, adding that he used the word “about” to reflect delays caused by the flooding. —Reuters

Jet Airways clarifies on carriage of food items In view of the ongoing incorrec t media reports, Jet Airways would like to clarify that the airline will allow carriage of food items in checked baggage that are packed dry and not prone to seepage.

However, Jet Airways has only disa l l owe d c a r r i a g e o f i m p ro p e r l y packed perishable food items, in normal ice or liquids in containers that are susceptible to spillage or

seepage. This polic y is based on guest feedback/complaints received by the airline, on account of baggage damaged due to instances of s e e p a g e c a u s e d by i m p ro p e r l y packed carriage.

This policy is in the interest of all travelling guest and that it is not against any specific community or religion. Jet Air ways regrets any inconvenience caused to its guests.

MUMBAI: India warned yesterday against protectionism as the world grapples with the sovereign debt crisis, portraying itself as a relative haven of stability in troubled economic times. Commerce minister Anand Sharma said India was an influential emerging economy and that the country “will be part of the stabilization process when it comes to what’s happening in Europe”.

But he warned: “In difficult times, the tendency to look inwards, to have protective measures... is something the G20 must reassure the world that we will not allow that to happen. “We need it (the G20) to engage more, not going for protectionism because that has happened since 2008-09,” he told delegates at the India Economic Summit in Mumbai.

“We must first put in place a multilateral trading system by completing the ongoing WTO (World Trade Organization) negotiation (and) correct historical imbalances to make this order more equitable and more accessible.”

Hundreds of international policymakers and industry leaders have converged in the financial hub for the annual summit, hoping that India can provide a rare chink of light as the global economy falters.

India emerged relatively unscathed from the last global economic downturn in 2008, largely because most of its demand for goods and services was met domestically.

Its tightly regulated banking and financial sectors were also less exposed to overseas troubles.

Prithviraj Chavan, the chief minister of Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is capital, said India was on a “high-growth trajectory going into the next decade”.

“India offers a refuge for long-term investment in pensions, insurance and banking... Emerging markets will play an increasingly important role in the stabilization of the global crisis,” he said.

India, however, is still facing a squeeze from high inflation that has hit investor confidence and also threatens government ambitions to lift millions out of poverty.

India’s stock markets have slid as much as 20 percent this year, making them among the worst performing globally, while companies have seen falling profits due to rising input costs and weak demand

MUMBAI: Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries Limited Mukesh Ambani (left), India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma (center) watch as Chanda Kochar, MD and CEO of ICICI Bank talks during the opening plenary session of the World Economic Forum - India Economic Summit in Mumbai yesterday. —AFP from the troubled euro-zone.

The central bank governor said in October that India’s economy was likely to expand by 7.6 percent in the financial year to March 2012, lower than an earlier forecast of 8.0 percent.

Local financial experts said they were still confident in India’s economic expansion, despite signs of a slowdown that has undercut hopes that it can help power global growth.

“India’s structural growth story is intact. It’s not broken, despite near-term concerns,” Sandeep Naik, co-head of private equity advisory group Apax Partners, told delegates. Udayan Sen, chief executive of Deloitte India, agreed, saying that India was “trending down but not collapsing”, with continued robust demand domestically. Business leaders at the summit called for much-needed institutional reform, as well as improvements in infrastructure spending, transparency and governance. —AFP

MUMBAI: Kapil Sibal, Indian Minister of Human Resource Development and Communications, and Information Technology speaks during a session of the World Economic Forum - India Economic Summit in Mumbai yesterday. —AFP

Citadel Capital SAE obtains approval from OPIC Board for $150m facility KUWAIT: Leading private equity firm set to accelerate growth of existing platform companies and consider new opportunities as it seeks to add nearly EGP 2 billion to its balance sheet with US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) facility and recently completed rights issue Citadel Capital SAE (CCAP.CA on the Egyptian Exchange), the leading private equity firm in the Middle East and Africa with $8.7 billion in investments under control, received formal Board approval for a new ten-year, $150 million (EGP 900 million) financing facility from the United States Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), the US Government’s development finance institution. Of the total amount, $125

million is specifically designated for investment in Egypt.

The $150 OPIC financing would, if added to the proceeds from the firm’s fully-subscribed $175.6 million (EGP 1.05 billion) rights issue, give Citadel Capital a total of $325 million (EGP 2.0 billion) of long-term capital. The firm also expects to add a further $50 million to its cash balances through a series of small divestitures (rebalancing of its portfolio) over the coming months. “Our balance sheet is now strong and liquid,” said Citadel Capital Chairman and Founder Ahmed Heikal. “These developments, coming as they do within a few weeks of each other, should put us in a robust financial position heading into the new year. As I have said before, this is oppor-

tunity capital: It gives us unprecedented flexibility to grow while simultaneously allowing us the freedom to explore new opportunities within our 19 Platform companies amid any further economic headwinds from still-unfolding regional events. We will, however, remain very cautious.” “In order to support the economic and political transformation of the Arab Spring, MENA countries need investment in vital sectors - and that’s precisely the goal of this project,” said OPIC President and CEO Elizabeth Littlefield. “It addresses the shortage of credit in Egypt, where investment in important infrastructure sectors has been stymied by political uncertainty.

We expect that this project, by catalyzing economic growth and creating jobs, will

make an important contribution to the growth of democracy in Egypt.”

This marks the second time in just over one year that OPIC has approved financing for Citadel Capital and its investment opportunities. In July 2010, the firm announced that OPIC had approved a $100 million financing facility for new investments alongside Citadel Capital and the firm’s Africa and MENA Joint Investment Funds (JIFs).

Citadel Capital reached a $140 million first close on the JIFs, its first standard institutional funds, last fall with anchor investments from leading global financial institutions. The firm also continues to raise equity on a transaction-by-transaction basis through its flexible Opportunity-Specific Funds (OSF) model.

y

A

26

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

business

Spaniards turn to home swapping as banks curb loans MADRID: When Jorge Lucero decided he needed a bigger home for his growing family, he knew it would be tough getting a loan from Spain’s riskshy banks. So instead of buying, he swapped.

Like an increasing number of Spaniards, the 36-year-old engineer short-circuited the hardpressed financial system by agreeing to swap his apartment directly with a retired couple’s house and garden. His new 260-square-metre (2,800square-foot) house in Mahon, capital of the Balearic island of Menorca, has three bedrooms, three bathrooms, a living room, kitchen and office-nearly three times the size of his old home.

It is valued at 560,000 euros ($770,000). To make up the price difference between the two properties, Lucero agreed to pay 160,000 euros on top of giving the retired couple his smaller flat in Mahon and parking space. “For a big house that is a small mortgage, which the bank had no problem granting us. The house is practically all paid for,” said Lucero, whose wife is pregnant with their second child.

“I think it is a very good option at a time when it is very difficult to buy and sell a home. I think

both sides emerged as winners.”

Lucero is part of a small but growing number of homeowners looking to swap their properties to get around having to ask for big mortgages at a time when banks are loath to issue loans.

With many homeowners reluctant to buy a new house before they can sell their old one for fear of being stuck paying two mortgages, especially in a housing market slump, swapping provides some peace of mind. In a swap, you offload your house at the same time that you take possession of another. Spain’s biggest property search website, Idealista.com, had 1,200 properties available for swapping in its listings in September, up from just 257 in the same month of 2009.

While the number of properties up for swapping represents a tiny minority of the total of 900,000 homes listed by the website that month, the increase nevertheless points to a dramatic increase in interest. Since August 2009 there is one website, “ Teapetecemicasa.com” or “Doyouwantmyhouse.com”, which only lists properties available for swapping. It has 4,800 regis-

tered users with properties listed. “At a time when people don’t have access to credit because banks are not loaning, swapping could be an option,” said Idealista.com spokesman Francisco Inareta.

The number of mortgages approved in Spain’s once booming housing sector plunged 44.2 percent from a year earlier to 46,980 in July, the lowest since the National Statistics Institute data series began in 2003. Mortgage approvals inched up in August from the previous month by 1.5 percent to 47,696. But the total was still down by 38.3 percent from a year earlier, the 16th consecutive month showing an annual decline.

Spanish banks are reluctant to give credit because their bad loan ratio has soared to a 16year-high as Spaniards, blighted an unemployment rate of 21.52 percent-the highest rate in the industrialised world-fall into arrears.

They also have far less money to loan because many are shut out of inter-bank lending and because deposits have not grown following three years of recession and sluggish growth, said Paula Papp, a financial analyst at management consultancy AFI. “Deposits in Spain are not growing

because of the macroeconomic situation. The other lever left to banks is to restrict credit,” she said. Banks are likely to tighten lending further because they have to raise billions of euros to meet higher capital demands imposed on European banks by the European Union last month, she added. Gabriel Aznar, the owner of the Aznar Inmobiliaria real estate agency which coordinated Lucero’s home swap, said exchanging homes was a good way to get around lenders’ unwillingness to give mortgages.

“It is not the same thing to ask for a mortgage for the value of 85 or 90 percent of a house as it is to ask for just 50 percent with the difference made up by the value of the property that I am swapping,” he said. “These are deals that are much easier for banks to finance because the value is lower and thus so is the risk.” Negotiations in home swaps can be fraught, with owners often struggling to reach an agreement on the fair value of their properties, but Aznar has closed 30 deals since he got into the business two years ago. “I never thought it would be this successful,” he said. — AFP

Russia tells Japan to put trade first Noda seeks fresh talks with Medvedev

HONOLULU: US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet Mexican Economy Secretary Bruno Ferrari before the APEC leaders’ dinner in Honolulu on Saturday. — AP

Wall St feels empathy, ire over ‘Occupy’ protest NEW YORK: Balanced somewhere on the scale between sympathy and exasperation about the Occupy Wall Street movement, many New York bankers and financiers say the protesters have a point but are missing the mark. “I don’t really understand what message they’re trying to convey,” sniffed Peter Cardillo, chief strategist at boutique securities firm Rockwell Global Capital. “ They are just creating havoc and interfering with people trying to work.”

Thousands of protesters have descended on the financial district in the past two months, fueling a resistance effort that galvanized into a worldwide peoplepower movement slamming corporate greed, growing income disparities and multinationals they say control the puppet strings of an unfair global economy.

Some who earn a living on Wall Street and in the surrounding canyons of lower Manhattan are more sympathetic toward the protesters who have been organizing speaker forums and gaining celebrity support as they denounce what they see as inequalities fostered by the richest one percent in the country. “Time after time there were ways in which the banks were taking enormous risks... only to be saved by the American taxpayer,” admitted Gregori Volokhine, director of financial management house Meeschaert New York. A trading manager at a major Wall Street bank, who identified himself as Jack, rued the creation of huge amounts of debt “by encouraging people to buy things they couldn’t afford, especially real estate.”

Most economic analysts say plummeting home prices following a boom in the housing market helped trigger the 20082009 financial crisis, which led to billions of dollars in losses on mortgage-backed securities and the bailouts of US mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The bosses of some major US banks, prime targets of the Occupy Wall Street

movement, have taken the appeasement tack in public. Citigroup chief executive Vikram Pandit told a press conference that protester rage was “completely understandable.”

“The economic recovery is not what we all want it to be,” Pandit said, as US President Barack Obama’s administration battles an unemployment rate that has remained at or above 9.0 percent for most of this year. “Trust has been broken between financial institutions and the citizens of the US, and... it’s Wall Street’s job to reach out to Main Street and rebuild that trust.”

Pandit’s counterpart at JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, also believed that large financial institutions left Americans in the lurch, even if he urged people not to tar all banks or politicians with the same brush. “In general, these big institutions of America let them down,” he said.

But the majority of sector employees queried by AFP said Occupy’s targets were misplaced.

For them, it is not the financial industry that’s responsible for the crisis, although many ceded that the US mortgage sector prompted a global credit crunch through risky financial products sold by the big Wall Street banks to financial institutions worldwide. “To blame Goldman Sachs for the 9.1 percent unemployment rate doesn’t make a lot of sense,” said Mace Blicksilver, a strategist at Marblehead Asset Management. “Wall Street created the structured financial products but it was government policy (that was) encouraging buying houses,” Blicksilver said. Plus, many traders “work 90 hours a week,” bringing in millions of dollars in profits for their firms, and are often “some of the most accomplished academic people in the country,” he said.

Trading manager Jack sought to cast the average Wall Street worker as a New York everyman. Protesters “think that all bankers are rich,” Jack said. —AFP

HONOLULU: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (right) meets with Chairman of the Board of VTB Bank Andrei Kostin, attending in the Business summit of the APEC meeting. — AFP

HONOLULU: Russian President Dmitr y Medvedev yesterday urged Japan to put trade before politics on a long-running island dispute as Japan’s prime minister urged him to enter new talks.

Holding talks on the sidelines of an AsiaPacific summit in Hawaii, Japan’s Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Medvedev both called for calm discussion over the Kuril island row but indicated that their positions were far apart. Medvedev, responding to a question after his talks with Noda, said that he hoped that Japan, the world’s third largest economy, would invest in the islands and in Russia’s less developed Far East despite the political impasse.

“Our position is very simple: We shouldn’t make a drama over the matter and continue calmly discussing it,” Medvedev told a forum of corporate executives from the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) bloc.

“I believe that the economy should go first and the political should follow suit. This is the correct approach in general because it’s economics that defines our life and politics makes it worse oftentimes,” Medvedev said. The two countries have never formally signed a treaty to end World War II and trade has been limited as Japan maintains its claim over four Kuril islands off its northern coast, which Tokyo calls the Northern Territories.

Soviet troops seized the islands days after Japan surrendered in 1945 and expelled its residents. A year ago, Medvedev outraged Japan when he became the first Russian leader to travel to the windswept, volcanic islands. In September, Japan accused Russia of trying to step up pressure further by flying bombers around the country. Moscow insisted that it conducted the exercises in neutral waters and informed Tokyo ahead of time.

Noda, who took office in September, said that he told Medvedev that he sought coop-

eration on a wide range of issues but that Russia needed to work to make progress on the island dispute.

“The two countries have different opinions, but Japan would like to conduct substantial discussions in a calm environment,” Noda told reporters after the talks.

Last year’s tensions with Russia came just as Japan saw a flare-up with China, which responded furiously last year when Japanese authorities arrested a Chinese trawler captain near disputed islands in the East China Sea. Noda met separately with Chinese President Hu Jintao and said that he accepted an invitation to visit China by the end of the year.

In the talks in Honolulu, Noda asked Hu to move ahead on joint development of gas fields near the islands. The two countries

HONOLULU: Russian President Dmitry Medvedev (R) meets with Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda of Japan on the sidelines of the APEC summit. — AFP

Airport desperately seeking passengers: Spanish crisis HUESCA, Spain: Not a sound in the departure hall, not a single person at the check-in counters: in the northeastern Spanish city of Huesca a ghost airport awaits its hypothetical passengers.

It is an eerie symbol of a crisis-struck countr y, of a runaway construction boom that went bust. In the 150-space parking lot, there are just a few cars in the autumn morning, all owned by the 20 or so employees still here. Within the small, seemingly new airport building, a cleaning woman polishes up the toilets while outside a machine sweeps the pavement. The main activity these days in Huesca airport, which opened in 2007, is keeping up its appearance. It is not an isolated case.

Spain, where economic growth was driven for years by a building bubble that popped in 2008, has more international airports for commercial flights than any other country in Europe: 48 public and two private. Some, like Lerida in the northeast or Cordoba in the south, handle no more than a handful of flights.

The two private airports are also in a bad way. One for the eastern city of Castellon opened in March and is still deserted.

The other in Ciudad Real, south of Madrid, opened in 2008 and may close after welcoming its last flight by budget airline Vueling in October.

In all there are some 20 airports that handle fewer than 100,000 passengers a year, well below the 500,000 they need to be profitable, according to Barcelona University economist Germa Bel. Among them, only two or three could be justified, for example to prevent islands in the Canaries from being cut off, he said.

Fifteen passengers in July, zero in August, four in September: Huesca airport scrapes by on a few private planes

announced an agreement in 2008 but there has been little progress since then. Hu appeared non-committal. He replied, “Let’s continue to communicate with each other toward a resumption of negotiations” on the gas fields, according to Noriyuki Shikata, an aide to the Japanese prime minister.

China has argued that the “joint development” is a misnomer as the area is under its sole sovereignty.

Despite the slow-moving diplomacy with Russia and China, Noda has taken a high profile at the APEC talks by announcing he would enter discussions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an emerging free trade pact.

Obama, holding his first substantive talks with Noda, said: “I have been extremely impressed already with the boldness of his vision.” — AFP

that use its strip. The last commercial flight took off in April.

For Bel, it is a shining example of Spanish public infrastructure spending gone wild. “In Huesca, there is an airport, high-speed railway and a motorway!” he said. Spain also has the world’s second longest high-speed railway system, behind China, and Europe’s biggest motorway network. “In Spain there was the property and then the public works bubbles, and after the bubbles and overinvestment comes the long period of digestion and paying the bill,” Bel said.

Originally built for the ski season, the 40million-euro ($54-million) airport suffered from the bankruptcies of local airline Pyrenair and a Chinese pilot training school Top Fly. With a total 20,000 passengers in four years, it represents an investment of 2,000 euros ($2,700) in public money for each traveller who passed through, and that is without counting the running costs.

“It was conceived without a solid business plan,” admitted Rafael Fernandez de Alarcon, head of public works for the regional government of Aragon. Its use is particularly doubtful when you consider that Huesca, population 50,000, is only 70 kilometres (40 miles) from Zaragoza airport. But “every 100 kilometres (60 miles) you need an airport for safety reasons,” and Huesca could be a base for rescue missions in the Pyrenees, Fernandez de Alarcon argued.

“It was necessary in a rich Europe like in 2000 when this airport was envisaged but now that Europe is in an economic crisis it is being thrown into doubt,” he added. “Today I would not finance it,” he admitted. —AFP

Unite or risk Fragmentation, Barroso tells EU LONDON: Europe must unite to tackle the euro zone debt crisis or risk fragmentation, decline and irrelevance, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said yesterday.

Barroso’s solidarity call, in a commentary for The Observer newspaper, seemed particularly aimed at Britain, where the euro zone debt crisis has fuelled an already strong eurosceptic strain. “As we witness fundamental changes to the economic and geopolitical order, Europe needs to advance together or risk fragmentation,” Barroso said. “The dynamic of globalization in financial and economic terms, but also in geopolitical terms, confronts Europeans with a stark choice: live together, share a common destiny and count in the world; or face the prospect of disunity and decline. In this defining moment, we either unite or face irrelevance,” he said. Barroso said he hoped that when historians looked back on these times “they will understand that we stepped back from the brink of fragmentation. I hope they will see how the UK fully engaged with fellow member states and institutional partners to ensure the stability of the European Union.”

British Prime Minister David Cameron has repeatedly called on euro-zone leaders to take urgent action to save the euro. Britain, which has clung to its pound sterling, refuses to contribute to bailout funds for stressed euro-zone countries, but at the same time fears the loss of influence that could come with being left behind in a two-speed Europe.

Cameron’s attitude earned him a rebuke from an irritated French President Nicolas Sarkozy at an EU summit last month. Cameron faced criticism at home last week from opposition Labor Party leader Ed Miliband who accused him of being dangerously complacent about the euro zone crisis and of choosing to lecture the euro zone from the sidelines instead of leading the search for answers.

Barroso said the crisis had shown that the euro area needed deeper integration of policies and governance. —Reuters

y

A

27

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

TECHNOLOGY

Kaspersky Lab protects against Duqu vulnerability in Windows KUWAIT: Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, announces that its security solutions are now detecting the vulnerability that was used for distributing all known versions of the infamous Duqu Trojan. Kaspersky Lab’s experts have successfully implemented protection against Trojan.Win32.Duqu.a as well as other malicious programs exploiting the CVE-2011-3402 vulnera-

bility. The “zero-day” type of vulnerability in question was found in the Win32k TrueType font-parsing engine; as such, the vulnerability affects various office programs. For example, a specially crafted Microsoft Word document opened on a victim’s machine can be used to elevate privileges and then run arbitrary code.

More information about the vulnerability can be found on Microsoft’s web-

site. Kaspersky Lab would like to thank Microsoft for providing it with certain technical details regarding the vulnerability, which helped speed up the process of detection. All Kaspersky Lab security solutions detect this vulnerability under the name Exploit.Win32.CVE2011-3402.a as of November 6, 2011.

Meanwhile new information about Duqu, the recently discovered Trojan that has close ties to Stuxnet “industrial”

malware, has emerged. Kaspersky Lab confirms that some of Duqu’s targets were hit as early as in April 2011, utilizing the abovementioned CVE-20113402 vulnerability. In the same month of April Iranian officials reported a cyber-attack carried out by malware called Stars. According to some reports, Stars could be an early version of Duqu.

If these reports are true, this could mean that the main purpose of Duqu is

conducting industrial espionage on Iran’s nuclear program.

In the meantime Microsoft has issued a temporary patch for the newly discovered vulnerability, with a permanent security fix to be distributed later.

Kaspersky Lab’s products are now able to block all malicious programs using this type of vulnerability, preventing other cybercriminals from exploiting the serious zero-day security hole.

British newspaper turns readers into newshounds ‘Overwhelming reaction was very positive’

VIENNA: Austrian law student Max Schrems is seen with the 1,222 pages of information he received as he speaks during an interview on November 8 in Vienna. Schrems may be just one of around 800 million Facebook users, but that hasn’t stopped him tackling the US giant behind the social networking website over its privacy policy. — AFP

Austrian student takes on Facebook VIENNA: Austrian law student Max Schrems may be just one of about 800 million Facebook users, but that hasn’t stopped him tackling the US giant behind the social networking website over its privacy policy.

The 24-year-old wasn’t sure what to expect when he requested Facebook provide him with a record of the personal data it holds on him, but he certainly wasn’t ready for the 1,222 pages of information he received. This included photos, messages and postings on his Facebook page dating back years, some of which he thought he had deleted, the times he had clicked “like” on an item, “pokes” of fellow users, and reams of other information.

“When you delete something from Facebook, all you are doing is hiding it from yourself,” Schrems told AFP in his home city of Vienna. Shocked, Schrems decided to act. Hitting a dead end in Austria, he took his complaints in August to the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) in Ireland, where Facebook has its European headquarters.

Believing that Facebook was contravening European Union law, and had more data on him that it is not releasing, Schrems has filed 22 complaints with the DPC, details of which can be found on his website: http://www.europe-v-facebook.org/. “It’s a shock of civilisations.

Americans don’t understand the concept of data protection. For them, the person with the rights is the one with the data.

In continental Europe, we don’t see things like that,” Schrems said.

“If a company wants to operate in a country it has to abide by the rules.”

Facebook, he says, has agreed in Germany to stop keeping records of users’ IP addresses-information showing where someone is connected to the

Internet-but in other European countries the practice continues. “ This is Facebook strategy. When someone gets really annoyed, they back off one step, but continue advancing in other ways,” Schrems said.

The problem is that most people don’t take the time to read the small print in Facebook’s terms and conditions, he says. “For the average citizen data protection is too complex and subtle,” he says, believing it is therefore the responsibility of the state to ensure that users’ rights are upheld. The David-versus-Goliath battle is is by no means the first time that Facebook has come under fire, with privacy campaigners saying the firm is amassing information on users’ interests in order to sell them to advertisers.

It has already been hit by complaints in the United States and other European countries and the Palo Alto, Californiabased company named a prominent US lawyer to be director of privacy in September.

In Germany, it has come under fire from the government for its popular facial recognition application that allows users to identify other people through online photos. The DPC said it aims to complete its audit on Facebook, which was planned even before Schrems filed his complaints, by the end of 2011.

If it finds Facebook to have been in the wrong, it can ask the company to mend its ways, and if the firm refuses, a court could then fine it up to 100,000 euros ($136,400). But DPC spokeswoman Lisa McGann said it was unlikely things would go so far. “Facebook is cooperating fully with the audit and we would anticipate that it will implement any necessary changes to comply with any requirements identified,” she said in an emailed statement. — AFP

Video gaming gets back to roots in Paris show PARIS: From the 1970s table-tennis game “Pong” to the fast-paced, totalimmersion of modern-day hits like “Call of Duty”, a new show retracing the fourdecade history of the video game opened Thursday in Paris.

Visitors can try their hand at some 80 titles at the show, “Game Story”, which runs until January at the capital’s Grand Palais and examines the history of gaming from its humble roots to today’s ultra-sophisticated, 3D titles.

“We are only just starting to do what was done for the film world in the 1960s,” explained Jerome Neutres, special advisor to the Grand Palais. “We are no longer throwing the copies away.

Instead we are sorting them, studying them, and beginning to get a sense of video game history.”

That history kicks off with the trailblazing “Pong”-a single bouncing dot and two white lines to replicate a tabletennis match-which made a name for the computer manufacturer Atari and kickstarted the console boom.

Throughout the early 1980s Atari rolled out a string of hits, from “Pac-Man” to “Space Invaders”, as computer gaming found its way into millions of homes. By the end of the decade, the gaming boom had sparked a proliferation of rival consoles, with the emergence of now-iconic games such as “Donkey Kong”, “Mario”, and “Sonic the Hedgehog”.

Finally, the show illustrates the revolution in gaming in the past decade, both in terms of graphics and gameplay, arriving at fully immersive games that let the player control a game with their whole body. Over time the technology has also fed off, and fed into other, older media like films or graphic art, the exhibition argues. “Videogames became part of society, and there’s always been movement in both directions,” explained Jean-Baptiste Clais, one of the show’s curators. “Videogames are influenced by cinema, cartoons and television, and in return videogames exert their own influence on those other media.” — AFP

LONDON: A British newspaper has thrown open its office doors, let the readers stride in, and invited them to peer over reporters’ shoulders-digitally, at least.

The website of the left-leaning Guardian daily is publishing its ‘newslist’ a schedule of stories its journalists are working on-and asking readers to help shape the coverage by contacting its reporters on Twitter.

In a country known for its raucous, fiercely competitive press, where tabloids have sometimes paid journalists at rival papers for access to this list, the idea seemed risky.

“The immediate reaction from other journalists was to say it seemed like insanity,” science editor James Randerson told AFP in the Guardian’s cavernous newsroom.

“Competitors are going to see what you’re doing. But we haven’t had problems with competitors stealing stories from us, or breaking embargos-we’re careful to keep exclusives and embargoed stories off the list.”

The computer screen behind him displays five grids showing the day’s domestic, foreign, sport, business and science coverage.

A link to the writer’s Twitter page accompanies every story, so readers can contact them with tip-offs or suggestions.

“The overwhelming reaction was very positive,” says Randerson. “Most people quite enjoy the voyeurism of being able to see into the workings of a paper.”

A key advantage is that editors get a better sense of what the audience wants. “There was a big health story one day and we hadn’t done enough on it,” he recalls.

“We really got a sense from Twitter that people were worried about the future of the NHS (National Health Service). So the next day, we responded with a much bigger investigation. “You’ve got to take it with a pinch of salt, because Twitter is not representative of the world at large,” he admits. “But it’s useful to have some feedback.”

The paper’s national editor Dan Roberts said that in the wake of Britain’s phone hacking scandal-which forced the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World to close down-people have a greater interest in seeing how news is made.

‘People getting involved’- “There’s a cynicism about journalism at the moment,” he says. “People no longer trust the model that goes: ‘We’ll work out in secret what we’re going to tell you, and you don’t need to know

whether we hacked someone’s phone or lied to get it, or whether we made it up’. To gain credibility, in a more transparent age, you need to show your workings.”

The Guardian admits the experiment has so far only attracted a small minority of the website’s 2.9 million daily readers.

Randerson estimates that reporters receive roughly a hundred messages a day about the newslist, of which just a handful are useful.

But Charlie Beckett, director of the Polis media think-tank, said this was to be expected-and did not mean the open newslist was a failure. “The people getting involved are the kind of people who used to write letters to the editor,” he told AFP. “They’re news nerds. Not many people are going to spend all day coming up with ideas for the Guardian. Probably only one percent of readers will ever contribute, and only one percent of their ideas will be good-but that’s better than nothing.”

The experiment is not the first of its kind; for two years Norran, a Swedish regional newspaper, has been running a chat room where readers can suggest story ideas.

The paper says this has driven traffic to the site, bringing back advertisers who fled during the recession. In Canada the Winnipeg Free Press has gone a step further, opening a

LONDON: A journalist looks at the ‘Newslist’ on the Guardian website on November 10.

The left-leaning Guardian is asking readers to help shape the paper’s coverage by contacting its reporters on Twitter. —AFP

Adding a solid state drive to computer BERLIN: If you want to give your computer a speed boost, you should think about flash drives. If you want something affordable, you need to stick with tried-and-trusted hard drives. Or you can try to have the best of both worlds and install both in your computer.

The trick is splitting the load, so the operating system and frequently accessed programs are stored on the flash solid state drive (SSD), a more modern form of drive that boosts speed by allowing all data to be accessed simultaneously, as opposed to magnetic drives, which can only give up their information as they are read front to back.

Everything else goes on that old-fashioned drive. “The speed gain through SSD is enormous,” says Christof Windeck, a hardware expert for the German computer magazine c’t.

You don’t have to be an expert to install an SSD drive into a PC. Most SSD drives are produced in a 2.5-inch format, meaning you’ll need a 3.5-inch case so it fits into the PC. Those cases usually come with any SSD drive you might order.

Laptops are a little trickier, since space is limited. You might have to decide if you can do without your optical CD/DVD drive, since that function could be provided by an external device.

If you make that plunge, you’ll have freed up space for an SSD drive, which also needs to be fitted into a special frame to fit into a laptop. “Installation is no problem,” says Wolfgang Hantz, who owns a hardware upgrade company in Germany. “Even a beginner can do it.”

Alternatively, set up the SSD as your boot-up drive, using the freed-up hard drive space for your optical drive.

An SSD with about 100 gigabytes (GB) costs about 120 euros (167 dollars) at online stores. Windeck says it doesn’t make sense to get one with less than 80 GB if you’re planning to run Windows 7 and have a slew of space-consuming applications. There are quality differ-

cafe where readers can discuss the news with journalists face-to-face.

For the Guardian’s parent company Guardian Media Group, interactive experiments like the open newslist are part of a ‘digital-first’ strategy that it hopes can reverse last year’s £33 million ($52.9 million, 38.4 million euros) operating losses.

The Guardian’s 190-year-old print edition now has a circulation of just 233,000 copies.

GMG’s chief executive Andrew Miller warns the group could run out of cash in three years, so online success is crucial.

Executives want the website, which in September launched a separate edition for US readers, to boost the group’s digital revenues from £47 million this year to £91 million by 2014/16.

Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger hopes that more participatory journalism will attract readers and therefore advertisers and Roberts believes the open newslist will be adopted by other newsrooms.

“People want professional journalism, but they also want to discuss it,” he says. “There’s a large number of people now who really engage in the news. It’s a small sub-set of the readership, but at a global level, that’s millions of people who want to be part of the news process.” — AFP

ences between different kinds of SSD. “If you can afford it, you should consider an SLC-SSD,” advises Daniel Mauerhofer, of hard drive maker Western Digital, referring to a Single Level Cell model. “These last much longer than multi-level cell drives and have better performance,” he says.

Then there’s the hybrid solution of a magnetic hard drive with an integrated SSD, like the kind Acer has built into its “ultrabook,” the Aspire S3. The 20 GB flash drive complements the 320 GB magnetic drive.

This kind of hybrid is also available for sale as an individual building block.

There’s the Momentus XT from Seagate with a capacity of between 250 and 640 GB, with the integrated 4 GB SSD drive acting as a buffer for vital data.

Even if you don’t want to check out SSD drives, you might still find yourself needing to explore the hard drive market, especially if your computer crashes.

“The hard drive market has changed,” explains Windeck. “For years it was all about performance, now there’s an eye on energy conservation.”

The fastest magnetic drives, with 10,000 to 15,000 rotations per minute, are mostly targeted at gamers, though some large companies need drives like that, says Mauerhofer. Windeck says there are advantages to slower drives: “They don’t get as hot, need less ventilation and are quieter.”

Also keep an eye on whether a drive has a modern SATA connector. Avoid a drive with the older IDE technology, advise the experts at c’t magazine. To get at your notebook’s hard drive, you usually just need a screwdriver to remove a plate on the bottom of the machine. Another option is to boost your working memory. Getting at that is also a simple operation. SDRAM memory modules with Double Data Rate (DDR3) are the most modern and, according to Windeck, usually cheaper than the older DDR2 standard. — dpa

Internet keeps govt honest: Google chief HONOLULU: Broader adoption of the Internet will keep governments on their toes as wired-up citizens exercise their newfound power to check rights abuses, Google chief Eric Schmidt said on Saturday.

“In nations and communities around the world, citizens are turning to online tools to keep their governments honest,” he told business leaders on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum in Honolulu.

“Whistleblowing has never been so easy,” he said. Schmidt cited demonstrations that toppled the leaders of Tunisia and Egypt in which activists used Facebook to schedule protests, Twitter to coordinate them and YouTube to broadcast the events to the world.

“Online citizens can find like-minded allies, they can find like-minded diasporas from a country,” he said. With 52 percent of the global population under the age of 30, the youth can have a bigger say on issues because they are the most prolific users of the Internet.

“They are the ones who are online, that’s how you reach them, that’s how they talk to each other. They share applications and proxy and circumvention tools and help magnify each others’ causes,” he said. But while governments should not ignore online protests, Schmidt also warned that they could be exaggerated.

“It’s easy in the online world to create the impression of a revolution in the form of noise.

It’s important to understand what is a legitimate protest and whether it’s just people trying to create some noise... some excitement.”

Greater adoption of the Internet will lead to the creation of two global systems-the physical sphere where the government has power over its people and a virtual world where people can have more influence, he said.

And there’s little place to hide for those who do bad. Atrocities against citizens can be documented more easily and “we can start trials against evil-doers before (their acts are) even stopped,” he said. “There are no caves online.”

With only an estimated two billion of the global population of seven billion online, there is still room for expansion, Schmidt said. — AFP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

Unlearning negative conduct with behavioural therapy BERLIN: Three -year-old Peter was afraid of furry things, including animals and bearded men. His therapist thought of a way to help him: Whenever Peter saw something furry, he received ice cream. As a result, furriness gradually developed a positive association for him.

What sounds like a cute anecdote is actually regarded as the precursor of behavioural therapy, as it were. The late American psychiatrist Mary Cover Jones tried something very similar with a little boy named Peter in the mid-1920s.

“Such were the beginnings of modern behavioural therapy,” remarked Juergen Zulley, a professor at the psychiatric clinic of Regensburg University

Hospital in Germany.

Steffen Fliegel, a trainer for the German Society for Behavioural Therapy, said: “Researchers realized long ago that via learning processes you can create fears, among other things, in children and adults and then experimentally extinguish them.” The fundamental principle of behavioural therapy is evident in the method’s genesis. In the words of psychologist Nicola Wendenburg: “We can unlearn anything we’ve learned, including undesirable and unfavourable ways of behaving that encourage fears or depression, for example. Moreover, we can learn new ways of conduct at any time.”

In behavioural therapy, according to

Fliegel, the source of a specific psychological problem is ascertained as well as what can be done to overcome it. “It’s oriented towards problems and people’s ability to solve them; it’s very goaloriented,” he said.

If a patient has trouble saying “no,” for instance, the therapist often first tries to determine why this is so, Wendenburg pointed out. Perhaps in childhood the patient’s parents would not take “no” for an answer. Perhaps the patient was criticized for expressing his or her needs, or they were judged to be unacceptable.

“Patterns of thought can arise from these negative learning experiences that are then activated whenever new

situations resemble the conditions under which the negative patterns were acquired,” Wendenburg noted.

People try to avoid these situations to protect themselves.

“The child will probably become an adult who proactively says ‘yes’ to his or her boss in order to avoid expected criticism and rejection,” Wendenburg said.

Behavioural therapy is centred on finding a solution for such problems. “We draw up a hierarchy of various situations ranging in the person’s perception from unpleasant to frightening-or which the person even avoids,” Wendenburg explained. The patient is first exposed to the situation causing the least discomfort, and then practices

coping with it in an appropriate way.

The discomfort level can be gradually increased, Wendenburg said.

“The concept of behavioural therapy has developed further, however,” Zulley said. “ Today it’s not about merely changing behaviour any longer, but thinking and feeling, too.” Patients can be conditioned, for example, to stop feeling sad in certain situations, as Zulley pointed out: “So ‘learning therapy’ would actually be a better term today.” He said that behavioural therapy is used to treat disorders including anxiety, depression and insomnia, and is in many cases extremely effective-sometimes very quickly, depending on the problem. — dpa

Intensive diabetes care cuts kidney complications US study looked at type 1 diabetics

KOLKATA: Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag gives an oral Polio vaccine to a child at a special function at The Eden Gardens in Kolkata yesterday.

The function was organised to promote UNCEF’s Bowl Out Polio campaign. — AFP

Australian man sues over surgical mistake SYDNEY: An Australian man endured seven rounds of chemotherapy and had 80 percent of his stomach removed after being told he had cancer, only to later learn it was a misdiagnosis, reports said yesterday.

Graham Lord, 59, is suing health officials over the ordeal which has left him 20 kilograms lighter and unable to eat sitting down following a 2009 biopsy taken after a reflux complaint. Lord was told that one of the areas biopsied had an aggressive cancer and he underwent seven rounds of chemotherapy before having most of his stomach removed in January 2010.

But post-surgery review of his tissues showed no sign of cancer and doctors at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital told him the initial biopsy diagnosis, made at a regional pathology laboratory, had been incorrect.

“To find out I didn’t have cancer, it was just devastating. I was numb, I just couldn’t believe it,” Lord told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

“I am still very angry.” Lord’s lawyer Anna Walsh, said he has filed a Supreme Court case against the Central Coast Health District, where the incorrect diagnosis and chemotherapy treatment occurred. “He would be seeking an apology from the hospital in terms of an admission of liability and compensation for his injuries,” Walsh told ABC Radio.

“There are nutritional issues and that leads to the need to have ongoing medical assistance as well as the need to have psychological counselling to help him get over this terrible event,” she added. The health district is yet to file its defence in the case. — AFP

Chinese angry about leaders’ air filters in polluted Beijing BEIJING: The Chinese have wondered for years why their leaders do so little to reduce the smog in Beijing, when they breathe the same air as everyone else. The answer has now come to light: those in power move primarily in purified air.

In many offices and flats of the ruling communist elite, special filters made by the Chinese company Broad Group (Yuanda) are cleaning the air. The company blog proudly advertises deliveries into the “heart of political life.”

“The air filters provide a healthy and clean environment for the leaders of our nation. That is a blessing for ordinary people,” the blog reads. That kind of a line does not go down well with Beijing’s 20 million residents, who are constantly enduring heavy smog days at the start of the hot season, which lasts from May to September.

Emergency services observe an increase in respiratory diseases and strokes, which are related to air pollution. Doctors warn against leaving the house on some days.

Many Beijingers are simply fed up with their leaders enjoying all kinds of privileges, ranging from organic produce and special hospitals to good schools for their children.

Clean air can now be included among those privileges, and that has sparked quite a bit of anger among the population. The filter-making company refused to confirm reports saying more than 200 air purifiers had been provided for meeting rooms, offices and leaders’ homes.

Some of the filters cost upwards of 2,000 euros (2,700 dollars). “Our clients include many government premises,” a company spokesman commented to dpa. But gone from the website is an advertisement saying the air filters “support the idea of a healthy life and environmental protection” in the strictly guarded government district.

Selling the air filters to communist leaders appears to have been no hard job. The company blog described the demonstration of a filter in a meeting room of the standing committee of the Politburo, the most powerful party organ. When technicians then cleaned the dirty filter, and “they saw the ink-coloured, filthy water, Yuanda air purifiers became the preferred filters of the leaders of the nation.”

Former top Trade Ministry official Long Yongtu, who allegedly even travels with his filters, said that “breathing clean air is a basic human need.” Beijingers do not disagree, but they have less means of protecting themselves from smog. “There will only be hope of a better air quality when the

leaders of the party and nation as well as their families are also eating, drinking and breathing the pollution,” one internet user wrote.

Censors blocked other critical comments. There is also a lot of anger at the Environment Ministry, which downplays heavy smog as “light pollution,” while the US embassy warns of “dangerous” air pollution posing health risks. The United States includes airborne particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers in its measurements, as is recommended by the United Nations’ World Health Organization (WHO).

Chinese environment authorities, however, leave it at 10 micrometers, accusing the US embassy of media hype. The time is not yet ripe for measuring the finest particles, Chinese journalists have been told. If that were done, most cities would dramatically exceed the prescribed air quality standards, the newspaper Xinjingbao quoted an official as saying.

“Ordinary people have the right to know the air quality in the city where they live,” the Canton newspaper Guangzhou Ribao complained. Improving the measurement system could also improve air quality, the paper said, because “satisfac tion over superficially nice-looking measurements undermines the motivation to solve the problem.”

Persistent thick smog in Beijing is causing cases of respirator y diseases and strokes to increase, media reports said. “ We saw a 13-per- cent rise in the patients who have respiratory problems from Saturday to Monday compared to the same time last week, as well as a 14-percent increase in people with strokes,” Li Jianren, a spokesman for the 120 emergency medical centre, was quoted as saying by the Global Times.

The capital’s 999 Emergency Rescue Center said cases of respiratory problems, including asthma, bronchitis, and pneumonia, had risen 30 per cent. “In such weather conditions everyone should avoid unnecessary outdoor activities,” the news report quoted Dr Tong Zhaohui of the capital’s Chaoyang Hospital as saying. There was increasing irritation on blogs as well as in the state-controlled media that the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau was describing the conditions as “slight” pollution. Experts say that the combination of fog, the start of the period when homes and offices are heated and dramatically increasing traffic have caused the smog in the city of 20 million. — dpa

CHICAGO: Early, aggressive treatment of type 1 diabetes cut the risk of kidney disease in half in a study that followed a group of diabetics since the 1980s, US researchers said yesterday. The findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, underscored the need for newly diagnosed diabetics to keep their blood sugar at near-normal levels.

The researchers followed more than 1,400 type 1 diabetics who entered the study when they were in the very earliest stages of the disease. Those who were treated intensively-at least three shots of insulin a day or using an insulin pump- were only half as likely decades later to have developed kidney disease than those who got the standard treatment, they found.

“Achieving near-normal glucose levels in type 1 diabetes can be challenging,” said Dr. Ian de Boer, a kidney specialist at the University of Washington in Seattle, who is presenting his findings at the

American Society of Nephrology’s annual meeting in Philadelphia.

“But our study provides strong evidence that reinforces the benefits of reaching the goal as early as possible to slow or prevent kidney disease and other complications,” he said in a statement.

Type 1 diabetes, formerly called juvenile diabetes, is less common than type 2 diabetes, the form of the disease linked to obesity and lack of exercise. The researchers noted that their findings apply only to type 1 diabetes, which makes up about 5 to 10 percent of the 26 million people in the United States with diabetes.

Kidney disease is a major complication of type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease in which the body destroys its own ability to make insulin, rendering sufferers unable to properly break down sugar. Insulin is a hormone that regulates movement of sugar, the body’s main source of fuel, into cells.

People with the condition must frequently monitor and take insulin to regulate blood sugar and prevent diabetic complications. An estimated 3 million Americans have type 1 diabetes, usually diagnosed in childhood or in young adults.

The findings come from a longrunning study of 1,441 people with type 1 diabetes. Originally, they were enrolled in a study from 1983 to 1989 that compared the effects of aggressive treatment that aimed at getting people to achieve nearnormal blood sugar, and a group that got usual care.

People in the study were aged 13 to 39 when they started and had no or only slight complications from the disease. Those who got conventional therapy group were advised to avoid having episodes of low or high blood sugar using one or two daily insulin injections.

When the study ended 1993, all participants were encouraged to join a follow-up study. Those who were in the conventional therapy

group were taught to do the intensive treatment. People were then put back under the care of their regular doctors.

After an average of 22 years of follow up, 46 people who had been in the conventional treatment group developed severe kidney problems and 16 had kidney failure. That compared with 24 cases of severe kidney disease among those who were in the intensive treatment group and eight cases of kidney failure.

That represents a 50 percent reduction in the risk of kidney complications, the team said. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, part of the US government’s National Institutes of Health, backed the study. “The full benefit of treatment may not be seen for decades, especially for complications of diabetes, such as kidney disease, which can progress slowly but have devastating consequences,” said institute head Dr. Griffin Rodgers. — Reuters

Malaria vaccine cuts risk WASHINGTON: A medical trial has for the first time showed an experimental vaccine that significantly cut the risk of malaria, researchers said recently. A test of a malaria vaccine known by the scientific name RTS,S showed it reduced the risk of African children being infected with the mosquito-borne illness by 56 per cent and of developing severe malaria by 47 per cent, according a study in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Those results came in a trial of 6,000 children aged 5 to 17 months in seven African countries. A total of 15,000 children received the vaccine and results for younger infants aged 6 to 12 weeks who received vaccine were expected by next year, researchers said.

A vaccine to prevent the potentially deadly illness has long been elusive and efforts have focussed on cutting infection through strategies such as providing bed nets to protect from mosquito bites.

“These data bring us to the cusp of having the world’s first malaria vaccine, which has the potential to significantly improve the outlook for children living in malaria endemic regions across Africa,” said Andrew Witty, chief executive of drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, which has worked to develop the drug. The United Nations said last month that a decade of intensive health campaign has cut new malaria infection rates by half and deaths by 38 per cent in 43 countries worst hit by the disease.

The UN said about half of the world population, about 3.5 billion, had once been at risk of malaria, a preventable and treatable disease. Malaria killed an estimated 800,000 people worldwide in 2009.

The World Health Organization could make a recommendation on the vaccine as early as 2015.

Meanwhile, the Cambodian government began handing out the first of 2.7 million insecticide-treated nets yesterday in a bid to eliminate malaria by 2025.

The distribution, Cambodia’s largest ever, is being

paid for by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. A handout of nets in western provinces in 2009 saw a near immediate drop in malaria cases, according to Dr Steven Bjorge, who heads the malaria team at the Cambodia office of the World Health Organization, which is providing technical assistance.

Bjorge said the nets would be distributed in the coming months to 4,079 villages nationwide that experts had rated as being at the highest risk. “Those areas are being covered completely,” Bjorge said, adding that he expected the number of malaria cases to drop by at least half as a result.

“In any particular area we would expect to see a drop, but it isn’t 100 per cent because some people still go to the forest without their nets and get malaria,” he said. “But the large majority are using the bed nets at home.”

The programme got underway Monday in the north-eastern province of Kratie, where villagers received the first 1,500 nets from November’s batch of 785,000. Two more shipments in December and January will see the remaining nets delivered to Cambodia and distributed.

In August, Dr Char Meng Chuor, the director of the National Center for Malaria Control, said the distribution would cost around 12 million dollars, paid for by the Global Fund.

WHO figures showed that deaths in Cambodia from the mosquito-borne disease had halved between 2009 and 2010 to around 135.

The Global Fund said malaria kills an estimated 780,000 people worldwide each year, most of them in Africa. In October, the Global Fund announced it had distributed 190 million insecticide-treated bed nets worldwide since 2003. — dpa

Use of embryonic stem cells cannot be patented LUXEMBOURG: The use of embryonic stem cells for scientific research cannot be patented, the European Union’s top court ruled, finding that an ovum is a human embryo as soon as it is fertilized and that its destruction would violate “human dignity.”

Even non-fertilized ovums that have been manipulated scientifically and are thus “capable of commencing the process of development of a human being” should be considered human embryos, the European Court of Justice found.

“The EU legislature intended to exclude any possibility of patentability where respect for human dignity could thereby be affected,” the court said in a statement.

“An invention is excluded from patentability where the implementation of the process requires either the prior destruction of human embryos or their prior use as base material,” it added. The Luxembourg-based court was asked to weigh in on the matter by Germany’s top court, before which Greenpeace is appealing a German scientist’s patent that calls for the use of embryonic stem cells to treat neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease. — dpa

Breast health advocate Evelyn Lauder dies at 75 NEW YORK: Evelyn Lauder, the daughter-inlaw of cosmetics magnate Estee Lauder who helped create the pink ribbon symbol for breast cancer awareness, died Saturday. She was 75.

Lauder died at her Manhattan home from complications of nongenetic ovarian cancer, said Estee Lauder Cos. spokeswoman Alexandra Trower. She had been diagnosed with cancer in 2007.

Lauder worked for more than 50 years for the beauty products giant, holding many positions and helping to develop its lines of skin care, makeup and fragrance. She came up with the name of its popular Clinique brand during the 1960s. Most recently, she held the title of senior corporate vice president.

But she is best known as a powerhouse champion of breast cancer research and for helping to create the pink ribbon campaign in 1992 with Self magazine editor Alexandra Penney. Those ribbons were first distributed at Estee Lauder makeup counters around the country.

In 2005, she told a New York-based cable news channel that when she first began talking about breast cancer, it was “taboo to discuss it.”

“If a woman had it, she didn’t tell anybody

except her close friends,” she told NY1. She raised money to establish the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial SloanKettering Cancer Center in New York City, which opened in 2009. Lauder was also the author of a book of photography and “In Great Taste: Fresh, Simple Recipes for Eating and Living Well.”

Born Evelyn Hausner in 1936 in Vienna, Austria, she fled Nazi-occupied Europe with her parents; they settled in the U.S. She attended public schools in New York City and Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.

As a college freshman, she met Leonard Lauder, the elder son of Estee Lauder and whose family owned what was then a small cosmetics company.

“We had five products in the line, we only had two or three colors in our lipsticks,” she told NY1 in 2005. “It was a baby company.”

The young couple married in 1959.

Leonard Lauder is now chairman emeritus of the company, whose revenue is $2.48 billion.

Estee Lauder died in 2004 at 97.

Leonard and Evelyn Lauder’s son William is executive chairman of Estee Lauder Cos. Another son, Gary, is managing director of Lauder Partners LLC, a technology investment firm. — AP

NEW YORK: Evelyn Lauder, a member of the Estee Lauder cosmetics family who helped create the pink ribbon symbol for breast cancer awareness, died on Saturday. — AP

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

H E A LT H

Health

in brief

Reading difficulties could be down to eyes MUNICH: Dyslexia is not always the underlying cause of difficulties in learning to read and write properly.

Sometimes the reason is a vision problem that can be resolved with spectacles. Children with difficulties in learning to read and write should thus always consult an eye specialist, German health officials advise. They note that a sharp image of the written word on the retina is a precondition for learning to read and write.

However, eye specialists are against prescribing prismatic glasses, as this is ineffective in countering reading and writing difficulties and could lead to a squint in some children. The causes of dyslexia remain obscure.

Experts believe that those affected have some sort of difficulty in processing speech sounds, with the result that, when they are reading, the letters of the alphabet - the building blocks of the written language - are translated only with difficulty into phonemes - the building blocks of the spoken language.

Balanced diet strengthens heart FRANKFURT: Eating a healthy diet helps protect against heart disease and circulatory ailments. The German Heart Foundation recommends that any meal should consist of three basic components. Fruit and vegetables provide vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. Whole grain foods also provide vitamins, as well as carbohydrates that make the consumer feel full and promote digestion. Dairy products furnish the body with protein and calcium. As an in-between meal for children, the foundation suggests a whole-meal sandwich with low-fat cheese.

Grapes, other fruit or slices of tomato or cucumber would round off a snack of this kind. The foundation also stresses the need for exercise and not smoking to ensure a healthy heart.

Breastfeeding good for figure BERLIN: Breastfeeding can help women to regain their figures after a pregnancy. Nursing your baby releases hormones that help the uterus shrink and thus cause the tummy to go flat again. The large amount of energy taken up in producing the milk, amounting to around 600 additional calories a day, also helps a woman to shed the additional kilos put on during pregnancy, according to the German health authorities. Contrary to popular belief, breastfeeding does not have a negative effect on the shape of the breasts. A researcher at the University of Kentucky compared the breast tissue of mothers who had breastfed with those who had not and didn’t find any difference in the firmness of the breast tissue.—dpa

Vegetable garden project helps Ethiopian women live with HIV ADDIS ABABA: A project in Ethiopia is harnessing a healthy diet as part of the battle against AIDS in the East African country. A well-balanced and vitaminrich diet is an essential component of HIV/AIDS treatment, something not normally possible for poor people living in many parts of Africa.

The project in Ethiopia is showing this does not have to be the case. Mulu Hunde stuffs fresh cabbage leaves into a jute sack as she proudly surveys the flourishing vegetable garden in front of her. “My life is much better than before,” the 50-year-old says. “I feel well and healthy.”

Mulu learned three years ago that she was HIV positive. She has had the good fortune of receiving regular antiretroviral therapy (ART) to keep the virus under control. She also participates in a programme aimed at ensuring that patients enjoy a healthy diet - an important, but often forgotten component of any medical HIV treatment.

“A well-balanced diet, especially one that contains nutritional and vitamin-rich vegetables, minerals and antioxidants, is a key element when it comes to the effectiveness of ART,” explains Tsige Teferi, head of the Urban Gardens programme in the capital Addis Ababa.

“It is essential in order to sustain the body’s immune functions,” Teferi says.

USAID (US Agency for International Development) has had the Urban Gardens programme operating in numerous parts of Ethiopia since 2008.

The project is mainly directed towards HIV-infected women. It is designed to improve their nutrition and income through urban and peri-urban agriculture, which includes gardening and raising livestock.

“We encourage our gardeners to take the harvest home to their families so that they can eat what they have grown,”

Teferi says. “If there is a surplus of vegetables, they can sell it at the market.”

Mulu tends a garden in the north-east of Addis Ababa with 62 other women.

She has produced surpluses so often that it has allowed her to buy 20 sheep. The garden is reached via a dirt track that runs through a eucalyptus wood and past green meadows offering views of the mountains in the background.

Rows of carrots, onions, beetroot, cabbage, spinach, peppers, tomatoes, salad and chards grow here, just a 20-minute drive from the hectic centre of the Ethiopian capital. “Chards are an excellent source of vitamins C, E and K as well

as minerals such as potassium, magnesium and iron,” Teferi explains.

“Vitamin K is particularly important for blood coagulation and building strong bones,” she adds.

The programme also has elements unrelated to nutrition, as many Ethiopian women living with HIV have to endure heavy physical work that further weakens the body. Mulu, for example, previously had to labour in a quarry for a living. “What I’m doing now is much better for my health. It’s much easier and I also don’t have to breathe in dust the whole time,” she says. “On top of that, we don’t feel so alone. We talk to the other gar-

Ethiopian women at an HIV Center.

deners, discuss problems and help each other,” adds another participant, Tsehay Aberra, who tested positive for HIV two years ago, at age 23. By the end of the year, USAID’s Urban Gardens programme will have reached around 20,000 Ethiopians. A total of 336 vegetable gardens have been created in 23 cities. Mulu slings the jute sack over her shoulder. It is time to cook dinner for her husband, who also has HIV. Tsehay stays on to tend the garden as the sun sets on the horizon. Both women exude confidence and hope in the future - perhaps the greatest achievement of this Ethiopian garden project. — dpa

y

A

30

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

W H AT ’ S O N

ESF goes pink!

T

he infamous blue colour which has come to symbolize The English School Fahaheel for 44 years was not as visible on a special day last week as ESF marked Breast Cancer Awareness Day along with many government and other prominent institutions in Kuwait.

The colour pink filled the play area as students donned pink ribbon badges, which they made themselves, and pink balloons to mark this special event. Students formed a pink ribbon in the play area to fur-

ther symbolize this event.

The event at ESF was organized

by Mrs Shepherd and Upper School students Charmaine Detruz, Maryam Syed and Nawaal Zuberi, who actively supported this international campaign. The Vice Chair Mrs Jasmin Shuhaiber congratulated the students on their commitment to this cause. Many other Upper School students also participated in this event.

Leading up to the event, students researched the disease and methods of prevention. They also made dis-

play boards including facts and information to help other students learn more about breast cancer.

Pink ribbon badges were made

by ESF students and sold to raise money to donate the Breast Cancer Awareness charity. At the end of this special event a balloon release took place involving many Upper school girls. One of the main student organizers Maryam Syed said of the event: Being able to initiate this campaign has broadened my vision of how I can make a difference.

Kuwait Mar Thoma Parish celebrates 48th Parish Day

K

uwait Mar Thoma Parish celebrated its 48th Parish Day on 11th November at Marina Hall, Abbasiya. The meeting was chaired by Adv John Thomas P, Vice President of the Parish.

Rev Justin Devadasan, Vicar of the CSI Tamil congregation inaugurated the function by lightening the traditional lamp. Renowned Evangelist Br. Paul Mahesh delivered the Parish Day message.

Various dignitaries along with rep-

resentatives of various Parish Organizations felicitated the Parish Day meeting.

Mathew Varghese, Parish Secretary, presented the annual programme report of the year. Top scorers of the Parish for the class 10th and 12th, during the academic year 2010-11 were presented with trophies. Inter Prayer Group Quiz Competition winners were awarded with Rolling Trophies, individual trophies and certifcates. Adv. Jacob

Varghsese, served as the convener of the programme and led the prize distribution session.

Parish Choir and Jacob George rendered melodious songs to bless the occasion. More than 2500 members attended the function and M V Varghese, Mrs Darly Varghese functioned as convener and Jt. Convener respectively for the Parish Day programme. Jacob Thomas, Sunday school head master, proposed the vote of thanks.

Galleries & Art Exhibition

Palestinian Culture Centre

T

he Palestinian Culture Center in cooperation with Bayt Lothan invite you to its fall exhibition. The exhibition aims to preserve the Palestinian handicrafts to reaffirm the Palestinian national identity as well as empowering refugee women in the camps. We display classic designs intertwined with modern uses, colors, and motifs to showcase some of the creativity of the Palestinian women. Items on sale include cushions, runners, scarves,

shawls, long traditional dresses as well as smaller items. They also have handmade ceramics from Palestine, books, music and movies. On Thursday evening there will be folklore dabble dance, children’s activities and a bake sale of traditional foods. Location: Bayt Lothan, Salmiya next to Marina Mall on Monday November 14th to Thursday November 17 from 10 am to 1:30 pm - 4:30 pm to 8:30 pm Tel: 25755866 - 25727388 - 99376608

lThe Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah (DAI) is a cultural organization based on a Kuwaiti private art collection. Since its inception in 1983, DAI has grown from a single focus organization created to manage the loan of the prestigious Al-Sabah Collection of art from the Islamic world to the State of Kuwait to become an internationally recognized cultural organization. DarMuseum.org.kw lAl Americani Cultural Centre and Administrative Offices in the Historic Americani Hospital Buildings Tel: (965) 2240 0992 Fax: (965) 2246 7770 Email: info@darmuseum.org.kw lSultan Gallery: As the first venue of its kind in Kuwait, Sultan Gallery believes in the power of art as a medium of meaningful expression. Founders Ghazi Sultan, and the late Najat Sultan, envisioned a gallery that would serve as a platform for Arab artists to showcase their most inspired work.

Empowered by the mission to forge cultural understanding and artistic appreciation in

Kuwait, Sultan Gallery has spent 40 years exhibiting both the most visionary artists and thought provoking themes. Sultan Gallery showcases artists that explore the breadth of creative expression - from the traditional painting to the contemporary audio and visual installation. Sultan Gallery enriches the Kuwaiti cultural scene with its passion for art as a vehicle of cultural understanding through visual language. Email: sultangallery@sadeer.com Location: Sabhan, Sadeer Co, Block B, Street 105, Building 168 lAl-Maidan Cultural Centre: Abdullah alSalem School, Maidan Hawally, near al-Shaab Leisure Park. Opening Hours: Sunday Thursday 9am - 5pm, until 9pm on event nights. Tel: (965) 2563 6561/ 2563 6528 Fax: (965) 2565 3006 Email: friends@darmuseum.org.kw lThe Kuwait National Museum is located on the Arabian Gulf Street between Seif Palace & the National Assembly (Parliament).

Phone: 2245-1195 or 2245-6534

lKuwait Textile Arts Association (KTAA) The Kuwait Textile Arts Association (under the auspices of Sadu House) is a non-profit multinational organization which aims to bring together individuals interested in textiles and the fibre arts including appliquÈ, embroidery, knotting carpets, quilting, silk painting and weaving. Members include a number of talented decorative artists who hold classes throughout the year. Quilt Group: q8quilter@yahoo.com Yarn & Fiber Group: q8yarnandfibregroup@yahoo.com Contact: Joan Fisher Tel: 2390-3462 (English)/22432395 (Arabic) Email: wovenpieces@yahoo.com

Shyma’s Ashkanani

F

igurative abstract and translucent acrylic colors form the subject of this exhibition. Opening Reception: November 14, 2011 @ 7 pm. Exhibition Hours: 15 - 24 November 2011 10 am - 2 pm and 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm.

Dar Al-Funoon art exhibition

D

ar Al Funoon has the pleasure to invite you to an art exhibition of works from Hamad Al-Saab & Ali Sultan titled: Connect To Disconnect To Connect When: Opening on November 14th & will continue until November 21st Where: Dar Al Funoon (Behbehani Compound, House 28, Kuwait City). Time: 7pm on opening night

Art Exhibition

D

ebut exhibition by Samira Bukhamseen. The exhibition will take place on November 14th, and it will run until the 24th. The first day will be for women only. If you’re an art lover or would like to visit, the exhibition will be held in Mishref, Block 6, Street 5, Villa 40. Daily viewing hours are from 10am 1pm & 5pm - 8pm (closed Fridays). I must say the painting above is exquisite! She is truly talented! Best of luck to her on all her future endeavors!

Upcoming events Annual holiday bazaar Bring the family and enjoy a festive day of shopping and socializing!! on Friday, November 18 from 10:30 am - 9 pm at The Salwa Sabah AlAhmed Theater and Hall, Gulf Road Entrance, just after the Hard Rock Café and before Marina Crescent. Santa will be there From 11 am - 2 pm & 5 - 7 pm.

SOS’s annual function Friends of SOS children’s villages Pakistan, Kuwait Chapter are in action once again. The much awaited ‘Annual-Function’ has been planned. It will be an evening of entertainment for a noble cause. ‘Friends’ are engaged with SOS children’s villages for the past many years.

We have Alhadulillah done a lot to support the villages in Pakistan. Our regular ‘Friends’ are well aware of the hospitality and joyful environment at the function. We are also looking forward to welcoming new friends from all communities. The venue is at GUST Auditorium, Mishref on Thursday 24th November at 7:30 pm. For details contact: Aziz Mamuji: 99837040 Ghazala Bano: 66385203.

Konkani drama Kuwait Goan Association (KGA) after presenting popular Konkani tiatrs ‘Ghor Bandlem ghorabo Modlo’ and ‘Tujea Moga Passot’, now all set to present Tragedy King Mario Menezes most popular Konkani drama “Hatachim Panch

Bottam” in Kuwait on Friday, 18th November 2011 with full troupe. Await for more details or email: kgakuwait@gmail.com Talent hunt Wesal Media Team is organizing a new concept competition for little talents in Kuwait. This competition is for children ages 6-12 years who have excellent talents in singing, dancing, drawing, etc. All interested little talents are welcome to participate. To sign-up, just visit their website and register your child. The final announcements will be published in a short event at Discovery Mall with famous singers and actors in Kuwait. For more information: 9754-7705.

Indian Lawyers’ Forum Onam Indian Lawyers’ Forum will celebrate Onam, the unique, secular, harvest festival of Kerala on 18th November, 2011 Friday 10.30 am at HiDine Restaurant Auditorium, Abbassia.

Celebrations will include traditional variety entertainments, with the grand ‘ONASADHYA’.

All Indian Lawyers & Law graduates working here in Kuwait are invited with their families.

For details contact Panicker 97203939, Pulikkal 97260159. Email: advpanicker@gmail.com Tulukoota talent hunt Tulukoota Kuwait will hold a “Talent Hunt 2011” a chance to prove an inborn trait in you that confirms your individuality, unique-

ness. For more information and registration form kindly log on to our Website: ww.tulukootakuwait.org or visit our facebook page - Tulukoota Kuwait Talent Hunt 2011.

You could also email your form request to: secretary@tulukootakuwait.org or contact our area coordinators mentioned below.

Mangaf, Fahaheel, Abuhalifa : Ronald Dsouza- 60035824, Shalini Alva- 23726164, Suma Bhatt- 97834578 Salmiya & Hawally: Swarna Shetty- 99006934, Kripa Gatty66044194 Kuwait City, Jahra, Sharq: Rekha Sachu- 65044521,97862115 Farwaniya, Abbassiya, Shuwaikh & Khaitan: Sathyanarayana- 66585077 Sanath Shetty67712409.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

31

W H AT ’ S O N

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Greetings

33K Eid visitors at Scientific Center

M

ore than thirty three thousand people visited the Scientific Center during the Eid Al-Adha holiday, during which two new movies started airing at the facility’s IMAX Theater, said Chairman of the Board and Managing Director Megbel Al-Azmi in a press release.

“Huge crowds came to watch the premier for the 3D movies, ‘Haunted Castle 3D’ and ‘Into the Deep 3D’ during the holiday”, Al-Azmi said, noting that all showings for both movies were sold-out.

Moreover, Al-Azmi noted viewings of other movies also featured high attendance, as did the center’s Aquarium and Discovery Hall “which saw record-breaking attendance.”

T

he Sahara Kuwait Resort signed an agreement of cooperation with the Burgan Bank, by which the ‘Premier Service’ customers will be able to obtain special offers for services the resort provides including Golf course and gym subscriptions, as well as villa reservations and restaurants. “We are glad to sign this agreement that which reflects the successful commercial relationship between the Sahara Resort and Burgan Bank”, said the resort’s General Manager, Hassan Bayrly, in a press statement.

T

November 18 Natyalaya Festival: Nayalaya will celebrate its 12th anniversary on Friday, 18th November from 4pm onwards at Carmel School Auditorium in Khaitan with various cultural activities. In the event, students of Natyalaya will perform “Bharatha Nattyam Arengettaom” and a Musical Drama (Ballet - A theatrical representation of a story that is performed to music by trained dancers) based on India’s Greatest Sanskrit Poet Kalidasa’s Masterpiece “Abhijnana Shakuntalam”. This venture of Natyalaya will showcase the innovative creativity of this prestigious institution and the true dedication of “Director” and “Guru” most fabulous Krishna Prakesh and Assistant Director Shajan Kuniyil. Natyalaya Krishna Prekash and his talented students will perform Kathakali Padam.

November 24 Lebanese cooking classes: Would you like to prepare Lebanese Cuisine for your family and loved ones? Its food will soon adapt to your kitchen with, and its favorite ingredients will tickle your taste buds! Ladies only. From November 24th - December 15th at TIES Center (Shuhada, Block 4, Street 413, Villa 64). For more information contact 2523-1015/6 or 9722-8860/9779-344.

Soul & Spice - Courtyard by Marriott Hotel launches business lunch offer ence coupled with the famous Marriott hospitality.

Ziad Watfi, Director of Food and Beverage said: “We continue to provide innovative approaches to offer the finest dining experience coupled with an array of value added privileges and sumptuous culinary delights. Tailored especially for business executives located near the hotel as well as in-house guests, this promotion has been designed to accommodate the needs of our niche clientele. We look forward to welcoming our guests to the Courtyard

by Marriott and hope they enjoy the Soul and Spice experience.”

Soul & Spice’s delicious new business menu includes a wide array of varieties for appetizers, main course and desserts which have been specially designed keeping the working professional in mind. The menu includes starters such as Aloo Tikki (made up of pan fried

Announcements

November 20 Aware Arabic courses: “The AWARE Management is glad to inform you that Winter 1 Arabic language courses will begin on November 20th, 2011 until January 12th, 2012.

AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. For more information or registration, call 25335260/80 ext 105/104/0 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw.”

Sahara Resort, Burgan Bank sign agreement

he Courtyard by Marriott Kuwait City Hotel recently announced the launch of a unique business lunch offer for business executives as well as for in-house guests at its renowned Soul and Spice Indian restaurant. Diners can now enjoy their lunch break or business lunch meetings as part of this special offering, which has been designed to fit a time frame of 45 minutes only. This allows guests to unwind, chat, enjoy their meal and have a cup of tea or coffee - all of this while relaxing in the soothing Indian music and tasteful ambience of the Soul and Spice.

The Soul & Spice restaurant, located on the 2nd level of the Courtyard by Marriott Kuwait City hotel, offers original Indian recipes with a unique contemporary twist. Famed for its calming ambience and delicious meals, the restaurant is a popular choice for those seeking a smart casual dining experi-

Many happy returns of the day to Bagyasri who celebrates her birthday today and also belated birthday wishes to Geethika who celebrated her birthday on Nov 12. Best wishes come from father Ramana and mother Nagalatha.

potato cake served with chickpea masala and prawns), as well as avocado salads containing prawn and avocado (dredged with lemon zest dressing and served cold). For main course, diners can chose from a set of choices such as the Murgh Kali Mirch (which is made up of tender boneless chicken pieces cooked in simmering fresh cracked pepper gravy), as well as the famous Chicken Tikka (made up of boneless chicken pieces marinated to perfection with yogurt and cooked in a clay oven) and much more.

The Marriott Executive Card offers a wide range of benefits including discounts, complimentary vouchers, complimentary hotel stays and much more.

For further inquiries about the Executive Card, guests can visit the front desk at either of the Marriott hotels in Kuwait and fill out an application form or call 99755186 for more details.

November 25 Movie Day: AWARE Centre hosts a movie day on November 25th at 3pm. Join the AWARE Center once a month as they explore the culture of the Arabs and Muslims through film. This Friday’s film is titled Cairo Time; a 2009 drama Canadian Film.

Cairo Time is a 2009 film by Canadian director Ruba Nadda. It is a romantic drama about a brief, unexpected love affair that catches two people completely off-guard.

This movie won the “Best Canadian Feature Film” at the Toronto International Film Festival 2009. Duration: 90 minutes.

Plot Synopsis Juliette (Patricia Clarkson) is a Canadian magazine editor who arrives in Cairo for a vacation with her long-time husband (Tom McCamus), a UN official working in Gaza.

Delayed, her husband asks his friend-a handsome Egyptian named Tareq (Alexander Siddig)-to watch over Juliette. Juliette finds herself falling in love not only with the city but with Tareq.

For more info: 2533-5260/80 December 9 Christmas Carol concert: The Ahmadi Music Group will be holding a fantastic Christmas Carol Concert on December 9 and 10 at New English School (NES) from 5pm both days with an adult show at 7:30pm on both days, in which Santa will be making an appearance, and the children can get involved with singing, waving jingle bells, etc. Guaranteed Christmas fun for the whole family!

Talent Hunt: Wesal Media Team is organizing a new concept competition for little talents in Kuwait. This competition is for children ages 6-12 years who have excellent talents in singing, dancing, drawing, etc. All interested little talents are welcome to participate. To sign-up, just visit their website and register your child.

The final announcements will be published in a short event at Discovery Mall with famous singers and actors in Kuwait. For more information: 9754-7705 St Andrews Ball The Kuwait Calendonians are pleased to invite you to the St Andrews Ball 2011 to be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on Thursday, December 1 from 7:30 pm. Invites will be available after Eid. BEC T10 Cricket tournament The BEC T10 Tennis Ball Cricket Tournament will be organized & played from 7th October to 11th November, 2011. The Tournament being organized by RED N BLACK CRICKET CLUB and sponsored by BEC EXCHANGE will be played out in Abu Halifa cricket grounds. For registration and other queries please mail at mail@rednblack.org or call 66820148/ 66130940/ 66841653.

Fitness program To All Filipinos In Kuwait ..” Tara Na, Mag-Excersice Na Tayo Tuwing Biernes!! The Filipino Cultural Club (FCC), coordially invites you to attend /participate in” FCC’s beach Clean-up and Physical Fitness” programme dubbed as “A Dance with the Sun by the Sea... Season -2” on 28 November, 7 am, McDonald’s Corniche, Gulf Road.

Fitness program will run for four months evry Friday 7:00 am McDonald seaside. Come, join us and tag along your family and friends in this very exciting and stimulating activity. For

details contact Bong -99530665, Maria99079341, Cynthia & Danny-99169310.

KTAA events Nov. 15: “A Century of Color: Maya Weaving and Textiles from Guatemals.”

Linda Fouke, KTAA Vice President, presenter Dec. 13: Mr. Hindi from Samovar Carpets. Location to be announced. For more info: 23903462 (English)/22432395 (Arabic) Email: wovenpieces@yahoo.com or ktaaworkshop@yahoo.com

Youth Chorus competition Youth Chorus is organizing the sixth Christian Malayalam Group Song Competition on Friday, 18th November 2011 at 6:00 p.m. at the United Indian School Auditorium, Abbasiya. The team has to present one Christian Malayalam song within seven minutes. The minimum number of members in the team should be 7 and the maximum 20, including the orchestra persons.

The first, second and third prize winners will be awarded with rolling trophies and certificates. The following prestigious trophies will be awarded to the winners.

First Prize - Youth Chorus Ever Rolling Trophy Second Prize- Omana Jose memorial Ever Rolling Trophy Third Prize- Youth Chorus Ever Rolling Trophy All the other participating teams will be awarded a Youth Chorus memento. Please register the name of your team with the conveners on or before 10th November 2011. Tel: 66853100, 6651093 or to our email address youthchorus@gmail.com

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

00:50 Untamed & Uncut 01:45 Dogs 101 02:40 Lion Feeding Frenzy 03:35 Wildest Africa 04:30 Whale Wars 05:25 Dogs 101 06:20 Animal Cops Houston 07:10 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 08:00 Monkey Life 08:25 The Really Wild Show 08:50 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 09:40 Breed All About It 10:10 America’s Cutest Pet 11:05 Dogs 101 12:00 Animal Cops Specials 2009 12:55 Pit Bulls And Parolees 13:50 Animal ER 14:45 Animal Cops Houston 15:40 Planet Earth 16:30 Monkey Life 17:00 The Really Wild Show 17:30 Natural Born Hunters 18:00 Jeff Corwin Unleashed 18:25 Dogs 101 19:20 Dogs vs. Cats 20:15 Monkey Life 20:40 Breed All About It 21:10 Dogs 101: Specials 22:05 Planet Earth 23:00 Bad Dog 23:55 Untamed & Uncut

00:25 The Fixer 01:10 Conviction 02:05 As Time Goes By 02:35 The Fixer 03:20 Emma (2009) 04:10 2 Point 4 Children 04:40 3rd & Bird: set 01 04:50 Bobinogs 05:00 Boogie Beebies: Set 4 05:15 Spot’s Musical Adventures 05:20 Me Too: Set 1 05:40 Fimbles: Set 2 06:00 3rd & Bird: set 01 06:10 Bobinogs 06:20 Boogie Beebies: Set 4 06:35 Spot’s Musical Adventures 06:40 Me Too: Set 1 07:00 Charlie & Lola: Set 2 07:10 Fimbles: Set 2 07:30 3rd & Bird: set 01 07:40 Bobinogs 07:50 Boogie Beebies: Set 4 08:05 The Adventures Of Spot 08:10 Me Too: Set 1 08:30 Charlie & Lola: Set 2 08:40 Fimbles: Set 2 09:00 3rd & Bird: set 01 09:10 Bobinogs 09:20 Boogie Beebies: Set 4 09:35 The Adventures Of Spot 09:40 Spot’s Musical Adventures 09:50 Me Too: Set 1 10:10 Charlie & Lola: Set 2 10:20 Fimbles: Set 2 10:40 2 Point 4 Children 11:40 The Weakest Link: S10: Set 2 12:30 Inspector Lynley Mysteries (8 part version) 13:20 Doctors: Set 2 13:50 As Time Goes By 14:20 Coast 15:25 2 Point 4 Children 16:25 Inspector Lynley Mysteries (8 part version) 17:15 The Weakest Link: S10: Set 2 18:05 Doctors: Set 2 18:35 As Time Goes By 19:05 Coast 20:10 Inspector Lynley Mysteries (8 part version) 21:00 The Weakest Link: S10: Set 2 21:45 Doctors: Set 2 22:15 Eastenders: set 253 22:45 Holby City: Set 1 23:40 The Fixer

00:00 BBC World News 00:30 Horizons

01:00 BBC World News 01:10 World Features 01:30 Working Lives 02:00 BBC World News 02:10 The Health Show 02:30 Asia Business Report 02:45 Sport Today 03:00 Newsday 03:30 India Business Report 04:00 Newsday 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Sport Today 05:00 Newsday 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 Newsday 06:30 Asia Business Report 06:45 Sport Today 07:00 Newsday 07:30 Hardtalk 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 World Business Report 11:45 Sport Today 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 Hardtalk 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 World Business Report 13:45 Sport Today 14:00 BBC World News 14:30 World Business Report 14:45 Sport Today 15:00 GMT With George Alagiah 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 BBC World News 19:30 World Business Report 19:45 Sport Today 20:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 21:30 World Business Report 21:45 Sport Today 22:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 23:30 World Business Report 23:45 Sport Today

00:15 Samurai Jack 00:40 Megas XLR 01:05 Robotboy 01:30 Squirrel Boy 01:55 George Of The Jungle 02:20 Cramp Twins 02:45 Chop Socky Chooks 03:10 Best Ed 03:35 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 04:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:25 Generator Rex 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 05:40 Chowder 05:55 Powerpuff Girls 06:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 06:55 I Am Weasel 07:20 Squirrel Boy 07:45 Cow & Chicken 08:00 Casper’s Scare School 08:04 Cow & Chicken 08:25 Angelo Rules 08:50 Best Ed 09:15 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 09:40 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 10:05 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 10:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 10:55 Cow & Chicken 11:20 I Am Weasel 11:35 Adventure Time 12:00 Ben 10 12:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 12:50 The Secret Saturdays 13:15 Samurai Jack 13:40 Ben 10: Alien Force 14:05 Codename: Kids Next Door 14:30 Skunk Fu! 14:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

TV PROGRAMS 15:15 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 15:40 Ed, Edd n Eddy 16:05 Camp Lazlo 16:30 Chowder 16:55 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 17:25 Cow & Chicken 17:50 Courage The Cowardly Dog 18:15 I Am Weasel 18:40 George Of The Jungle 19:05 Codename: Kids Next Door 19:30 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 19:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 20:20 Generator Rex 20:45 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 21:10 Hero 108 21:35 Star Wars: The Clone Wars 22:00 Total Drama Action 22:25 Adventure Time 22:50 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 23:00 Ben 10 23:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 23:50 The Secret Saturdays

00:20 01:10 02:00 02:45 03:35 04:25 05:15 06:00 06:20 Cody 06:45 07:05 07:30 07:55 08:20 08:35 09:00 09:15 09:25 09:35 09:50 10:15 10:30 10:50 11:15 11:35 12:00 12:25 12:45 13:10 13:30 13:55 14:20 14:55 15:20 15:45 16:00 16:10 16:35 Cody 17:00 17:25 17:50 18:15 18:45 19:35 20:00 20:25 20:50 21:28 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:15

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 04:30 05:00 09:00 10:00 11:00

Replacements Fairly Odd Parents A Kind Of Magic Stitch Kim Possible Emperor’s New School Stitch Emperor’s New School The Suite Life Of Zack And Cars Toons Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction The Hive Handy Manny Imagination Movers Phineas And Ferb Emperor’s New School Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Sonny With A Chance Good Luck Charlie Hannah Montana Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Phineas And Ferb Friends For Change Games Phineas And Ferb Shake It Up The Suite Life Of Zack And Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Emperor’s New School Fish Hooks Hannah Montana Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place

Globe Trekker Wild Camping Planet Sports American Civil War Trail Glutton For Punishment Life’s A Trip Globe Trekker People Of The Sea Planet Sports Glutton For Punishment

FROM JUSTIN TO KELLY ON OSN MOVIES HD

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

The Next Great Baker Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear Overhaulin’ How It’s Made Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Scrappers Ultimate Survival Deadliest Catch Ultimate Survival Dual Survival Swamp Brothers Cash Cab Us Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear Overhaulin’ Mythbusters Cake Boss Border Security Scrappers How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Cash Cab Us Ultimate Survival Deadliest Catch Dual Survivalv

00:40 Bang Goes The Theory 01:05 Green Wheels 01:30 Nasa’s Greatest Missions 02:20 Nextworld 06:40 Green Wheels 07:10 How The Universe Works 08:00 Thunder Races 08:50 Space Pioneer 09:40 The Tech Show 10:10 Weird Connections 10:35 The Gadget Show 11:25 The Future Of...

12:20 Sci-Fi Science 12:45 How Stuff’s Made 13:15 Build It Bigger: Rebuilding Greensburg 14:05 Space Pioneer 14:55 Stuntdawgs 15:20 Green Wheels 15:50 Mighty Ships 16:40 Weird Connections 17:05 Thunder Races 18:00 Brainiac 18:50 Sci-Fi Science 19:15 The Tech Show 19:40 Things That Move 20:30 Race To Mars 21:20 Nextworld 22:10 The Gadget Show 23:00 Things That Move 23:50 Race To Mars

00:40 World Cafe Asia 01:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 01:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:55 Unwrapped 02:45 Lidia’s Italy 03:35 Barefoot Contessa 04:25 World Cafe Middle East 05:15 Chef vs Britain 05:40 Unwrapped 06:05 Ten Dollar Dinners 06:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 06:50 Paula’s Party 07:35 Barefoot Contessa 08:00 Chopped 08:50 Guy’s Big Bite 09:15 Everyday Italian 09:40 Chef vs Britain 10:05 Ten Dollar Dinners 10:30 Paula’s Best Dishes 10:55 Barefoot Contessa 11:20 Aarti Party 11:45 Lidia’s Italy 12:10 Unwrapped 12:35 Paula’s Party 13:25 Everyday Italian 13:50 Paula’s Best Dishes 14:15 Chopped 15:05 Luke Nguyen’s Vietnam 15:30 Lidia’s Italy 15:55 Unwrapped 16:20 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 16:45 Chopped 17:35 Guy’s Big Bite 18:00 Barefoot Contessa 18:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:50 Aarti Party 19:15 World Cafe Asia 19:40 Chopped 20:30 Food Network Challenge 21:20 Paula’s Party 22:10 Food Network Challenge Special 23:00 Chopped 23:50 Kid In A Candy Store Special

00:20 Special Agent Oso 00:50 Jungle Junction 01:15 Little Einsteins 01:40 Higglytown Heroes 02:10 Jo Jo’s Circus 02:30 Special Agent Oso 03:00 Jungle Junction 03:25 Little Einsteins 03:50 Higglytown Heroes 04:20 Jo Jo’s Circus 04:40 Special Agent Oso 05:10 Jungle Junction 05:35 Little Einsteins 06:00 Higglytown Heroes 06:30 Jo Jo’s Circus 06:50 Jungle Junction 07:15 Higglytown Heroes 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 Timmy Time 10:30 Jungle Junction 10:45 The Hive 10:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 11:15 The Little Mermaid 11:45 Little Einsteins 12:10 Imagination Movers 12:30 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 12:45 Lazytown 13:10 Handy Manny 13:25 Jungle Junction 13:40 Imagination Movers 14:05 The Hive

14:15 14:25 14:50 15:15 15:40 16:05 16:30 16:40 16:55 17:20 17:45 18:00 18:20 18:30 18:55 19:25 19:50 20:04 20:05 20:25 20:50 21:20 21:30 21:55 22:20 22:35 22:50 23:15

Special Agent Oso Little Einsteins Lazytown Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Handy Manny The Hive Jake & The Neverland Pirates Imagination Movers Lazytown Jungle Junction The Hive Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Little Mermaid Special Agent Oso Animated Stories Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 101 Dalmatians Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Hive Imagination Movers Little Einsteins Jake & The Neverland Pirates Jungle Junction Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Timmy Time

00:25 Style Star 01:25 15 Unforgettable Hollywood Tragedies 03:15 E! Investigates 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Reality Hell 05:30 Wildest TV Show Moments 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 10:15 THS 12:05 Style Star 12:35 Fashion Police 13:05 Dirty Soap 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 Giuliana & Bill 15:30 THS 16:25 Behind The Scenes 16:55 Bridalplasty 17:55 Ice Loves Coco 18:55 E!es 19:55 The Dance Scene 20:55 Chelsea Lately 21:25 Dirty Soap 22:25 The Soup 22:55 Fashion Police 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Kourtney & Khloe Take Miami

00:00 Cowboy U 00:50 Singlefin Yellow 02:05 Foam to Finish: the Making of...

02:30 Final Fu 05:50 Lucas Oil Motocross Championships 2009 07:30 Ride Guide Mountainbike 2008 09:00 X Games Heroes 09:25 Cape Epic 10:15 X-Traordinary 11:55 Fantasy Factory 12:45 Eds Up 13:10 Glutton For Punishment 13:35 Untracked 14:25 Fight Girls 15:15 World Combat League 16:05 Fantasy Factory 16:55 Eds Up 17:20 Glutton For Punishment 17:45 X Games Heroes 18:10 Cape Epic 19:00 X-Traordinary 20:40 Fight Girls 21:30 Untracked 22:20 Final Fu

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

Couples Who Kill Cuff Me If You Can Nightmare Next Door I Almost Got Away With It Couples Who Kill Cuff Me If You Can On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol True Crime With Aphrodite

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

Travel Madness Madventures Food School Market Values Word of Mouth Banged Up Abroad Weird & Wonderful Hotels Travel Madness Madventures Food School Market Values Word of Mouth Banged Up Abroad Weird & Wonderful Hotels Travel Madness Madventures Banged Up Abroad Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Going Bush Deadliest Journeys

By Any Means Endurance Traveller Ultimate Traveller Banged Up Abroad Extreme Tourist Afghanistan

Disappeared Murder Shift Mystery ER Real Emergency Calls Street Patrol True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery ER Street Patrol True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared

ACROSS THE HALL ON OSN ACTION HD 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00

Going Bush Deadliest Journeys

By Any Means Endurance Traveller

00:30 02:30 04:30 06:00 08:30 10:15 PG15 12:30 14:15 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Dead Presidents-18 Assassination Tango-PG15 Altitude-PG15 Public Enemies-18 Bad Girls-PG15 The Hunt For Red October-

00:45 02:45 04:45 07:00 09:00 10:45 13:15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Triage-18 The Front-PG15 Mammoth-PG15 Parlez-Moi De LA Pluie-PG15 The Front-PG15 The Karate Kid-PG Easy A-PG15 Easy Virtue-PG15 Bustin’ Down The Door-PG15 The Devil’s Teardrop-PG15 Alabama Moon-PG15 Faster-PG15

Across The Hall-PG15 Bad Girls-PG15 Fast Lane-PG15 Across The Hall-PG15 Maximum Risk-18 Windtalkers-PG15

00:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 South Park 02:00 Saturday Night Live 03:00 Friends 03:30 Friends 04:00 According To Jim 05:30 Dharma And Greg 06:00 Weird Science 06:30 Just Shoot Me 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 According To Jim 08:30 Friends 09:00 Dharma And Greg 09:30 State Of Georgia 10:00 How I Met Your Mother 10:30 Just Shoot Me 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Weird Science 12:30 According To Jim 13:00 Friends 13:30 Dharma And Greg 14:00 Just Shoot Me 14:30 State Of Georgia 15:00 How I Met Your Mother 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Weird Science 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Friends 19:00 How I Met Your Mother 19:30 The League 20:00 Seinfeld 20:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 21:00 The Daily Show Global Edition 21:30 The Colbert Report Global Edition 22:00 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 22:30 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 23:00 South Park 23:30 Seinfeld

01:15 03:00 04:45 07:00 09:00 11:15 13:30 14:45 17:00 19:15 21:00 23:15

44 Inch Chest-18 Ninja Assassin-18 Dark Moon Rising-PG15 The Bannen Way-PG15 Spiderman 2-PG15 What Lies Beneath-PG15 No Time To Fear-PG15 Spiderman 2-PG15 King Arthur-PG15 Ong Bak 2-PG15 Windtalkers-PG15 Bad Guys-18

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

A Film With Me In It-PG15 Miami Rhapsody-PG15 Just Married-PG15 Yogi’s Great Escape-PG The Fighting Temptations-PG15 Big Fat Liar-PG I’ll Be Home For Christmas It’s A Wonderful Afterlife-PG15 A Film With Me In It-PG15 Head Over Heels-PG15 The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who...

There’s Something About Mary

01:00 The Private Lives Of Pippa Lee-PG15 03:00 From Justin To Kelly-PG 04:30 Robin Hood (2010)-PG15 07:00 A Family Thanksgiving-PG15 09:00 Delgo-FAM 11:00 Salt-PG15 13:00 Furry Vengeance-PG 15:00 Post Grad-PG15 17:00 Delgo-FAM 19:00 She’s Out Of My League-18 21:00 The 41-Year-Old Virgin Who...

23:00 A Single Man-PG15

00:00 Winner & The Gold Child: Part I-PG15 02:00 Ed-PG 04:00 Shipwrecked-PG 06:00Winner & The Gold Child: Part I 08:00 Columbus III: The New World 10:00 The Country Bears-PG 12:15 Winner & The Gold Child: Part II-PG15 14:15 Ed-PG 16:15 True Story Of Puss’n Boots-PG 18:15 The Country Bears-PG 20:30 Young Fisherman-PG 22:00 Columbus III: The New World

01:00 03:00 03:30 07:00 08:00 13:30 15:30 17:30 18:00 20:00 21:00 23:30

Rugby League 4 Nations Futbol Mundial Premier League Snooker Trans Word Sport PGA European Tour Rugby League 4 Nations Powerboats F1 World Champs Aquabike World Champs Rugby League 4 Nations UFC 139 Countdown Super League Formula Aquabikes

00:00 00:30 01:00 03:00 03:30 07:00 09:00 13:00 16:30 17:30 18:30 19:00 20:00 20:30 21:30 22:00

Futbol Mundial ICC Cricket World Rugby League 4 Nations World Hockey Premier League Snooker Rugby League 4 Nations Darts Premier League Snooker Golfing World Volvo Ocean Race ICC Cricket World Trans World Sport World Hockey Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial Live Darts

03:00 Futbol Mundial 03:30 ICC Cricket World 04:00 Rugby League 4 Nations 06:00 European Challenge Cup 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 European PGA Tour 13:30 Rugby League 4 Nations 15:30 Futbol Mundial 16:00 Darts 20:00 European PGA Tour Highlights 21:00 Rugby League 4 Nations 23:00 Golfing World

00:00 Super League Formula 02:30 UFC Total Ultimate Fighter

Season 03:30 UFC 06:30 UFC All Access 07:00 WWE Bottom Line 08:00 WWE Vintage Collection 09:00 V8 Supercars 10:30 Le Mans Cup 16:30 WWE SmackDown 18:30 V8 Supercars 20:00 UFC CountDown 21:00 UFC

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

Warriors Pawn Stars American Pickers Pawn Stars Chasing Mummies Battles B.C. Warriors Pawn Stars American Pickers Pawn Stars Chasing Mummies Battles B.C. Warriors Pawn Stars American Pickers Pawn Stars Chasing Mummies Battles B.C. How The Earth Was Made Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Lost Worlds Ice Road Truckers Ax Men

00:05 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 01:00 Open House 02:00 Videofashion Daily 02:55 Videofashion News 03:25 How Do I Look?

04:20 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

05:15 Married Away 06:10 Homes With Style 06:35 Area 07:05 Clean House 08:00 Videofashion News 09:00 Videofashion Daily 10:00 Open House 10:55 How Do I Look?

11:50 Whose Wedding Is It Anyway?

12:50 Clean House: Search For The Messiest...

13:50 Clean House 14:45 Videofashion Daily 15:45 How Do I Look?

16:40 Ruby 17:35 Jerseylicious 18:30 How Do I Look?

19:25 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 20:25 Open House 21:20 Clean House 22:15 Elements Of Style

01:25 03:05 04:50 06:30 07:55 10:05 11:40 13:20 14:35 16:55 18:40 20:20

Longtime Companion Love Is All There Is Dancehall Queen Armed Response Nicholas Nickleby Green Journey, A Gun Moll Just Another Story Irma La Douce Memories Of Me From Noon Till Three Big Stickup At Brink’s

01:10 02:45 04:25 PG 06:10 08:00 09:45 11:20 12:55 14:45 16:35 18:10 19:35 21:25 23:00

Demon Seed The Outfit Two Weeks In Another TownA Day At The Races-FAM 3 Godfathers-FAM Dream Wife-FAM Flipper’s New Adventure-FAM Meet Me In St. Louis-FAM The Glass Bottom Boat-FAM Jailhouse Rock-PG Lassie Come Home-FAM The Swan-FAM Tribute To A Bad Man-PG The Big Sleep-PG

Classifieds MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya near Integrated Indian School, Highland supermarket building, Keralite family.

Contact: 99379252.

(C 3732) 14-11-2011 Sharing accommodation available in new Riggae with Indian family in two bedroom flat C-A/C building. Contact: 66545906.

(C 3731) 13-11-2011 Sharing accommodation available for a single family with a family in two bedroom, hall, two toilet in Abbassiya, opp United Indian School.

Call: 99170268. (C 3730) 10-11-2011

Sharing accommodation available for Indian bachelors in old Riggae sector, St 1. Contact: 97525930.

(C 3728) Sharing accommodation available for Indian couple or bachelors with an Indian family in Hawally, fully furnished, central A/C room.

Contact: 97919485. (C3729) 6-11-2011

FOR SALE For sale Mitsubishi Lancer GLX 2002 (red); mileage 225K, alloy wheels, all new original parts, excellent condition. Price: KD 1,050.

Contact: 66857416 13-11-2011

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines

Arrival Flights on Monday 14/11/2011 Flt Route

Time

JZR PIA KLM JZR JZR ETH THY UAE QTR DHX MSR FDB ETD GFA KAC DHX FCX JZR JZR BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB ETD GFA KAC JZR MEA IRC MSR MSR JZR KAC GFA SYR FDB

185 205 447 267 539 620 772 853 138 370 612 67 305 211 544 170 201 503 555 157 412 206 53 352 302 284 362 855 125 132 55 301 213 344 165 404 6521 623 610 201 672 219 341 57

0:20 0:25 0:30 0:45 0:50 1:45 2:15 2:35 2:40 2:55 3:00 3:05 3:10 3:15 4:40 5:15 5:30 5:55 6:00 6:40 6:45 7:40 7:45 7:50 7:55 8:15 8:20 8:30 9:00 9:05 9:20 9:35 9:55 10:35 11:20 11:55 12:00 12:30 12:55 13:00 13:20 13:25 13:45 13:50

DUBAI LAHORE AMSTERDAM/BAHRAIN BEIRUT CAIRO ADDIS ABABA ISTANBUL DUBAI DOHA BAHRAIN CAIRO DUBAI ABU DHABI BAHRAIN CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI LUXOR ALEXANDRIA LONDON MANILA/BANGKOK ISLAMABAD DUBAI COCHIN MUMBAI DHAKA COLOMBO DUBAI SHARJAH DOHA DUBAI ABU DHABI BAHRAIN CHENNAI DUBAI BEIRUT LAMERD SOHAG CAIRO DAMASCUS DUBAI BAHRAIN DAMASCUS DUBAI

UAL OMA QTR SVA RJA KAC JZR KAC KAC QTR JZR ETD KAC GFA SVA ABY JZR RBG ALK FDB KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC KAC AIC KAC KAC FDB KAC JAI MSR DHX VOS MEA GFA QTR UAE JZR KLM TAR JZR UAL BBC DLH PIA

982 645 140 500 640 788 257 550 546 134 535 303 118 215 510 127 777 3561 227 63 542 787 786 618 674 744 975 104 774 61 552 572 618 372 81 402 217 136 859 135 445 327 239 981 43 636 239

WASHINGTON DC DULLES MUSCAT DOHA JEDDAH AMMAN JEDDAH BEIRUT SOHAG ALEXANDRIA DOHA CAIRO ABU DHABI NEW YORK BAHRAIN RIYADH SHARJAH JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA COLOMBO/DUBAI DUBAI CAIRO RIYADH JEDDAH DOHA DUBAI DAMMAM CHENNAI/GOA LONDON RIYADH DUBAI DAMASCUS MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAGHDAD BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM TUNIS AMMAN BAHRAIN DHAKA FRANKFURT SIALKOT

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

Airlines UAL AXB AIC DLH PIA KLM ETH THY FDB UAE DHX MSR ETD QTR JZR GFA JZR FDB KAC BAW KAC KAC JZR JZR KAC UAE ABY FDB QTR ETD GFA KAC KAC JZR KAC MEA IRC MSR KAC MSR GFA KAC SYR FDB

Departure Flights on Monday 14/11/2011 Flt Route 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 390 MANGALORE/KOZHIKODE 982 “AHMEDABAD/HYDERABAD/INDIA” 637 FRANKFURT 206 PESHAWER/LAHORE 447 AMSTERDAM 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 54 DUBAI 545 ALEXANDRIA 156 LONDON 549 SOHAG 671 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 534 CAIRO 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 165 ROME/PARIS 541 CAIRO 776 JEDDAH 103 LONDON 405 BEIRUT 6522 LAMERD 624 SOHAG 785 JEDDAH 611 CAIRO 220 BAHRAIN 551 DAMASCUS 342 DAMASCUS 58 DUBAI

Time 0:45 0:50 1:05 1:20 1:25 1:45 2:45 3:15 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:00 4:00 4:55 6:55 7:00 7:30 8:25 8:30 8:40 8:55 9:00 9:00 9:15 9:25 9:40 9:45 10:05 10:10 10:20 10:40 11:45 12:00 12:15 12:30 12:55 13:00 13:30 13:40 13:55 14:20 14:40 14:45 14:50

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

KAC OMA UAL RJA SVA JZR KAC KAC QTR KAC JZR ETD JZR QTR VOS GFA ABY RBG SVA JZR ALK FDB JZR KAC FDB KAC DHX KAC JAI MSR KAC DHX MEA GFA FCX QTR KAC JZR UAE KAC KLM TAR JZR KAC

673 646 982 641 501 786 617 773 141 743 238 304 538 135 82 216 128 3563 511 134 228 64 184 283 62 331 171 351 571 619 543 373 403 218 102 137 301 554 860 205 445 327 528 411

DUBAI MUSCAT BAHRAIN AMMAN JEDDAH RIYADH DOHA RIYADH DOHA DAMMAM AMMAN ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA BAGHDAD BAHRAIN SHARJAH ASSIUT RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI/COLOMBO DUBAI DUBAI DHAKA DUBAI TRIVANDRUM BAHRAIN COCHIN MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA CAIRO BAHRAIN BEIRUT BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA DUBAI ISLAMABAD BAHRAIN/AMSTERDAM DUBAI/TUNIS ASSIUT BANGKOK/MANILA

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

34

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

stars CROSSWORD 497

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) A new cycle begins for you, signaling a greater than usual interest in relationships, social connections and the arts—on a more intellectual level than in the past. Seeing both sides of an issue and figuring out resolutions to opposing views are important issues now. Work, health, diet and the other things that take care of us if we take care of them, can provide a lot of satisfaction as a new life phase begins. These things can lead to love and a new-self image if you stick with them. You really want to enjoy life now. Consider investing in a little time with a naturopathic doctor to find just what your body needs. A winter vacation appeals to you so you can just play and frolic and get away from it all. You and a loved one may spend quite a bit of time planning.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Close relationships and other ties between people become a focus for much of your energy. New partnerships are entered into; old ones are renewed or else they are left behind. You try your strength against another, learn to cooperate or seek to conquer. The power of ideas and the power they wield over people is an interesting avenue down which you may travel. Religious, cultural or philosophical controversies and crusades have a way of stirring your blood.

Travel and adventure are compelling temptations as you dare to stretch your horizons.

Later today you may find that a friend needs your help. You may have to reorganize your plans so that you can be helpful. All of this should go rather smoothly. Your stability is valuable to others now.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. An erratic deflection from an intended course.

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

10. Apparent power to perceive things that are not present to the senses.

13. To make a mistake or be incorrect.

14. United States swimmer who in 1926 became the first woman to swim the English Channel (1903- ).

15. A nucleic acid consisting of large molecules shaped like a double helix.

16. (informal) Of the highest quality.

17. A swampy arm or slow-moving outlet of a lake (term used mainly in Mississippi and Louisiana).

19. A large building at an airport where aircraft can be stored and maintained.

21. Extinct tiny nocturnal lower primates that fed on fruit and insects.

23. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

25. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or BB gun.

26. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

27. Other than what is under consideration or implied.

31. A monarchy in northwestern Europe occupying most of the British Isles.

33. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

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

40. (Zoroastrianism) Title for benevolent deities.

41. A room or establishment where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter.

43. A workplace for the conduct of scientific research.

45. A slight amount or degree of difference.

46. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

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

51. State capital and largest city of Georgia.

54. A river in southeastern Australia that flows generally northwest to join the Darling River.

58. The federal agency that insures residential mortgages.

59. Port city in the United Arab Emirates on the Persian Gulf.

62. Plant with an elongated head of broad stalked leaves resembling celery.

63. An interest followed with exaggerated zeal.

64. Large dark brown North American arboreal carnivorous mammal.

65. On or toward the lee.

66. A metal-bearing mineral valuable enough to be mined.

67. The fourth month of the Hindu calendar.

68. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

DOWN 1. Not only so, but.

2. Type genus of the family Arcidae.

3. English architect who designed more than fifty London churches (1632-1723).

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

5. The sixth month of the civil year.

6. A field covered with grass or herbage and suitable for grazing by livestock.

7. (used in combination or as a suffix) Able to withstand.

8. A white crystalline double sulfate of aluminum.

9. A ductile gray metallic element of the lanthanide series.

10. Founder of Christian Science in 1866 (1821-1910).

11. Freshwater or marine or terrestrial gastropod mollusk usually having an external enclosing spiral shell.

12. A genus of Ploceidae.

18. The act of concealing yourself and lying in wait to attack by surprise.

20. (Greek mythology) Goddess of the earth and mother of Cronus and the Titans in ancient mythology.

22. A Russian river.

24. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

28. The act of slowing down or falling behind.

29. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

30. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

32. King of Denmark and Norway who forced Edmund II to divide England with him.

34. The basic unit of money in Botswana.

35. Hungarian choreographer who developed Labanotation (1879-1958).

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

37. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

39. The father of your father or mother.

40. The sixth month of the civil year.

42. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

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

47. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

48. Half the width of an em.

49. A coffee cake flavored with orange rind and raisins and almonds.

50. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

51. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

52. Remove with or as if with a ladle.

53. The third day of the week.

55. A public area set aside as a pedestrian walk.

56. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

57. The United Nations agency concerned with atomic energy.

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

61. Antibacterial drug (trade name Nydrazid) used to treat tuberculosis.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) A cycle of planning and organizing begins now emphasizing a need for security and a sense of roots. Family, home, relatives and real estate play a bigger part in your life these days. You want to belong on a personal level . . . to be needed and to feel it is okay to have needs. A natural transformation of your values is taking place. You make decisions today, ending a time of contemplation.

You are tired of wasting your time and money on worthless projects and decide that now is the time for new professional and financial planning. The future is beginning to look more encouraging now. Marriage, contracts and partnerships are seen as keys to a positive future. Remain focused and do not be afraid to project your ideas—make those dreams real.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

NON SEQUITUR

Music is likely to play a more important role for you this morning. Some of you have the music writing talent—why not give it a try? Family members may call on you to help make decisions concerning group issues today. By giving others time to think through your ideas—positive results will happen. You have a natural sense of what others want at this time. This is also a great time to reflect and understand your own situation. You may spend some time this afternoon in fulfilling some earlier promise. You may be a mentor or coach to several young people. Your energies are directed into positive directions.

This evening is a good time to enjoy your surroundings. A small gathering of friends or family and no television equals laughter.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You are at your mental best with sharp ideas and clear thoughts. This is an excellent time to make decisions and take care of mental busy work. This afternoon you may find yourself having a good time surrounded by friends and young people. You appreciate your particular situation and enjoy support from those around you. Conversations surrounding dreams, psychic phenomena, flying saucers and the like may be fun to delve into this afternoon. This can be inspiring or it can be confusing, depending on how you are able to integrate it into your overall experience. You may find yourself creating and experimenting with colors through your art. Your artistic talents are complimented—rewards are possible.

A loved one is expressive.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Uncommon approaches to many different subjects are the usual for you today. You enjoy discussing philosophy, religion, law or politics—developments in these fields can have a big impact on you. There may be some talk about continuing your education so as to gain a better-paying or more interesting job. Higher education, publishing, broadcasting or advertising could play an unexpected role in setting new directions. Sometimes a goal takes shape in different forms that you may not have even expected—this is a good time to reevaluate just where it is you think you want to go. You enjoy obtaining and exchanging information and there are plenty of opportunities for that activity today. Neighbors or sibling(s) grab your attention this evening.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Instant gratification is one of your temptations just now: you want things and you want them this instant. This is a practical and materialistic kind of focus, one that emphasizes the making and spending of money. Someone you respect sets the example and you make wise choices for yourself. You have dreams for the future and you work to make these dreams a reality. You may find that walking around your neighborhood this afternoon will help you discover new friends or perhaps new shops that you didn’t know existed. A much sought after treasure can be secured for a bargain—perhaps a garage sale. A local attraction appeals to you and you enjoy the time spent away from home. Tonight you have time for a few chores.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) As a sensitive person, you can depend on feelings and intuition to get around in life. When loved ones have problems or decisions to make, it is your input that helps them—whether they admit it or not. Today you will have the opportunity to help family members—listen carefully to what they are really saying. Possessing common sense, you are always very practical, down-to-earth— nurturing and protective to all. Cooking, growing things and music will keep you happily busy most of this day. You may encourage a young person to enjoy his or her hobby or teach him or her a science experiment this evening. You enjoy expressing yourself originally and creatively. A love relationship will seem as if it has been touched by magic tonight.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

Yesterday’s Solution

Material things and the whole concept of value take on more importance for you. Financial security and enjoying the finer things in life take on high priority. Translating letters or being a tutor to students will help bring in some extra finances. You may find yourself in a bazaar, selling your special recipe or helping at some booth in an art show. If not, it is certainly a time for cleaning out closets and having garage sales. You are at your most practical when it comes to dealing and working with others. Lovers, children and other people or things dear to your heart are emphasized at this stage of life. You communicate with consummate skill and it is stimulating just being with you. Your ambitions go hand-in-hand with using the mind.

You seem to be involved with children most of this day. Outer circumstances are positive and it should be easy for you to push forward in all sorts of activities. Schedules and events seem to work out quite favorably.

This is a great time to get projects accomplished—for yourself or others. Ideas are flowing and could come with ease—you have lots to say and enjoy visiting with friends. This is a time of good fortune when things develop in a very natural way.

Situations present themselves in most enticing ways and yet you are focused and know just which direction you want to take. There are plenty of opportunities to experience a variety of emotional highs. This could mean a public fair, an engagement, a birth as well as first time type of experiences.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You enjoy being persuasive with others and can get into tough conversations where others might not bother. You are smart and quick to think of the perfect words for most subjects. You may find yourself teaching a class within your religious organization today. There are guidelines to follow but you will have time to quickly go through some reference material so as to make a description or a meaning more clear. Others value you for your ability to make difficult topics easy to understand. You may be called upon to help a senior or care for a small child.

There is a guardian angel or mentor to be found if you need one but it is more likely that you will play such a role for someone else. Better care for this person becomes easier or available this evening.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

Everything may be pouring in all at once and it’s all good news. Whatever project you decide to dive into today gets some encouragement from others. Life’s problems should find easy solutions. Life could assume a dreamlike stance. There is a greater appreciation for things of value now—the idea of value itself is in order. This could be a period of great material gain; it is certainly a time when material things have a great deal of importance for you. You may enjoy a good movie or book or feel like escaping from day-to-day realities for a while this afternoon. You can appreciate an imaginative approach and may value communal or futuristic ideas. This is a good time to purchase items that are needed for some celebrations.

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

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

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Kuwait Airways Jazeera Airways Jet Airways FlyDubai Qatar Airways KLM Air Slovakia Olympic Airways Royal Jordanian Reservation British Airways Air France Emirates Air India Sri Lanka Airlines Egypt Air Swiss Air Saudia Middle East Airlines Lufthansa PIA Alitalia Balkan Airlines Bangladesh Airlines Czech Airlines Indian Airlines Oman Air Turkish Airlines Aeroflot

171 177 22924455 22414400 22423888 22425747 22434940 22420002/9 22418064/5/6 22433388 22425635 22430224 22921555 22438184 22424444 22421578 22421516 22426306 22423073 22422493 22421044 22414427 22416474 22452977/8 22417901/ 2433141 22456700 22958787 22453820/1 22404838/9

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Dr. Naif Al-Mutawa, Ph.D. 2290-1677 Susannah-Joy Schuilenberg, M.A. 2290-1677

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Dr. Salem soso

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

Afghanistan Albania Algeria Andorra Angola Anguilla Antiga Argentina Armenia Australia Austria Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia Botswana Brazil Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Cape Verde Cayman Islands

0093 00355 00213 00376 00244 001264 001268 0054 00374 0061 0043 001242 00973 00880 001246 00375 0032 00501 00229 001441 00975 00591 00387 00267 0055 00673 00359 00226 00257 00855 00237 001 00238 001345

Central African Chad Chile China Colombia Comoros Congo Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Cyprus Cyprus (Northern) Czech Republic Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador England (UK) Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia

00236 00235 0056 0086 0057 00269 00242 00682 00506 00385 0053 00357 0090392 00420 0045 00246 00253 001767 001809 00593 0020 00503 0044 00240 00291 00372 00251 00500 00298 00679 00358 0033 00594 00689

y

A

36

e niv rsar n

Years

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Jovovich wants to travel with daughter illa Jovovich wants to go travelling with her daughter. The Ukrainian-born actress thinks it is important for her four-year-old daughter Ever Garbo - her child with her husband, director Paul W.S. Anderson - to experience different cultures and ways of life and has already started to plan where she wants to go with her little girl. She said: “I definitely want to take her to Mongolia and Nepal and all these incredible countries that are so different from where she lives and the normal places she sees. It’s very important for me when she gets older that she connects with a different way of life.” Although she is planning a globe-trotting trip, 35-year-old Milla wants Ever to have a settled life and is planning to put her daughter’s needs above her career so she can start school in a stable environment. The ‘Resident Evil’ star said: “Now that my daughter is getting older, I need to prioritize as she needs to settle down. “I imagine for the beginning of the next year, my daughter and I will be at home. “I will take her to school, let her acclimatize to being home and having a normal life and seeing her friends. Being a mother is the most important thing so I want to focus on that.”

M

Bennett visits New Orleans, plugs rebuilding rammy-winning jazz crooner Tony Bennett is championing a rebuilding effort to help New Orleans residents displaced by Hurricane Katrina. At the site of the 101st and final house built by Project Home Again, the 85-year-old singer said Friday that bringing people home is important to protecting the culture and traditions of New Orleans. Says Bennett: “The gospel music, the music that started in churches here that created the art form of jazz, that needs to be preserved.” He looked on as a gospel choir

G

Lautner celebrates with dessert

clapped and swayed while singing “Oh Happy Day” and “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” to commemorate the project founded by his friends, New York couple Leonard and Louise Riggio. After seeing Katrina’s devastation on their TV sets following the 2005 storm, the Riggios pledged to build homes for low- and middle-income families who were forced from their homes with little hope of returning.

aylor Lautner celebrated filming his last ‘Twilight Saga’ scene by eating dessert. The 19-year-old actor - who plays werewolf Jacob Black in the vampire movie franchise - is known for his toned and muscular physique and was delighted when he was able to finally relax his strict diet and exercise regime.

He said: “After the last shirtless scene, it was a huge celebration. I went out, had dessert for the first time in a while and took a few days off from the gym. “I’ve always been a healthy eater, so I’m not pigging out, but if I occasionally want an ice cream or something now, I can have it.” Taylor admitted he found it “tough” maintaining his buff physique for the films because it was hard to find the time to go to the gym and eat as often as he needed to. He explained: “While we were filming it was extremely important for me to maintain it and that was tough. “I was eating every two hours on set and had people shoving food in my face going, ‘Eat, Taylor!’ “Then I had to get my butt in the gym and that’s difficult because we were filming 12 to 15 hour days.”

T

Harding has checked out of rehab he Girls Aloud singer was spotted looking healthy and relaxed as she left a US facility in Utah, where she has been receiving treatment for “depression and alcohol addiction” since October following the break-up of her relationship with ex-fiance Tom Crane, who she is reportedly back together with.

A source told the Sunday Mirror newspaper: “She’s got herself together and she’s ready to get back to some sort of normal life. It’s all about taking things easy, but she’s hoping she’s conquered her demons for good.” Sarah - who previously dated Tom for four years before they called off their engagement in September is set to return to the UK next week to celebrate her belated 30th birthday with friends and family, but she is

T

reportedly unsure whether her relationship with the 31-year-old DJ will ever be the same as it was.

A friend added: “They’ve been in regular contact throughout her time away but only on the phone.

They’ve spoken most days and it seems like they could have a chance of giving it another shot. “She still loves Tommy... she’s just not sure if things can get back to where they were.” A spokesman has confirmed Sarah who was due to marry Tom next summer - has left her treatment facility.

Princess Beatrice keen on dance show ritain’s Princess Beatrice wants to appear on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’. The 23-yearold royal is a huge fan of the British celebrity ballroom contest but was upset when her father Prince Andrew banned her from being a contestant on the BBC program. She is quoted by Now magazine as saying: “I absolutely love ‘Strictly.’. The costumes, the glamour - it’s a real girly show. “If I were on it, I’d certainly give judge Craig Revel Horwood a run for his money. I mentioned it to dad but it was a stern no.” Last month, Beatrice - whose mother is Andrew’s ex-wife Sarah Ferguson visited the show and was seen socializing with contestants afterwards. Australian actress Holly Valance later revealed she had invited the princess to support her in the competition. She said: “My friend Princess B came along on Saturday. She’s on strict instructions to vote for me. That’s the only time I can boss a princess around.”

B

G

oe Saldana and her fiance Keith Britton have split up. The ‘Avatar’ actress and the entrepreneur have called time on their relationship after 11 years, but they will continue to work together on their joint business venture, fashion website My Fashion Date Base. In a statement, the 33-yearold beauty’s representative said the pair - who revealed their engagement in June 2010 - “have amicably separated after 11 years”. It continued: “Saldana and Britton remain committed business partners as co-founders of fashion resource MyFDB.com.

Respect of their privacy is appreciated during this time.” Zoe is yet to make a statement regarding the split, but she took to her twitter account to post a cryptic message. She tweeted: “‘You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, deserve your love and affection.’ - Buddha.” The brunette stunner has previously declared her love for the 35year-old businessman, pointing out one of his qualities to be his “very independent soul”. She said: “I feel like the partners that stay at home, they have their lives, but they’re the ones that are living with the real you. “I think that they need to be recognized, every now and then, every 10 years, just come out in public - put him on the spot and just say thank you. “He’s a very independent soul. He understands what I do, but this is not what he fell in love with and that’s what I love.”

Z

Middleton not wife material ippa Middleton was not regarded as “wife material”

by Alex Loudon’s family.

According to a friend of the younger sister of Britain’s Duchess of Cambridge, the former cricketer’s mother and father, James and Jane, didn’t see the pair’s relationship - which recently ended after 18 months together - lasting “long-term”. A friend told the Mail on Sunday newspaper: “Alex’s parents were welcoming but they were always somewhat lukewarm about the relationship. They didn’t see Pippa as ‘wife material’.

James and his wife Jane both come from very good families. “Pippa is very sweet but she is socially ambitious - all her friends are so ‘trophy posh’ it’s ridiculous.

“They didn’t honestly see Alex and Pippa’s relationship as a long-term thing.

James and Jane are

P

Rossdale would be an idiot to have another kid avin Rossdale will only have another baby if his wife Gwen Stefani wants one. The Bush frontman - who has two sons, Kingston, five, and three-year-old Zuma with the pop superstar - doesn’t think it is his “right” to make a decision about whether or not to expand the family, so he leaves the choice up to the blonde beauty. Gavin - who is also the father of 22-year-old model Daisy Lowe said: “Do I want more kids? You mean do I have any more plans to be an idiot? No, having more kids is down to Gwen. It’s not really the male decision, it’s just not right. I just say, ‘Sure babe, whatever you want.’ It’s always the woman’s deci-

Saldana and fiance split

sion.” The 46-year-old musician - who has been married to Gwen, 42, since September 2002 - also revealed he makes all his career decisions with his children at the front of his mind and has never been motivated by money. He exclusively told BANG Showbiz: “Everything that I do is with my kids in mind. Every single action is about setting them up for life. But I’ve never been one to connect actions to money. “Before I sold a record I just had this ridiculous pipe dream with no particular training, no particular skill but I found a way through. I’ve never done a gig based on money. Anyone who cares about money is not going to do rock music in the mid-90s.” Gavin is current on tour with Bush - who he reunited with in 2010 - and the band are set to play a handful of live dates in the UK at the end of the month. —Bang Showbiz

very old-fashioned and prefer to keep things low-key.” Alex is also thought to have disliked Pippa’s celebrity lifestyle because he “hates parities” and prefers to be out of the spotlight. Another family friend added: “Pippa sees the connection with the Royal Family as a golden opportunity but she knows she cannot afford to look vulgar. “She now gets invited to every show in town, every door is open to her but Alex hates parties. He loves his cricket and has a very close-knit circle of Old Etonian friends. Alex comes from a very well-to-do and discreet family who do not relish the spotlight. “He hated the fact they were followed by paparazzi and he avoided going out because of it. Alex is very straitlaced. He loves his family and his friends and has no time for celebrity.”

A

y

e niv rsar n

Years

37

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

LIFESTYLE M u s i c

&

M o v i e s

Muppet Kermit (bottom R) and his friends arrive for the premiere of Walt Disney Pictures’ ‘The Muppets’ at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on November 12, 2011.—AFP

Film onMarine base water comes home erry Ensminger ticks off the list of cities where he’s traveled with the documentary that tells the story of water contamination at the Camp Lejeune Marine base: Woodstock, San Diego, New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and this weekend, an emotional homecoming in Jacksonville, North Carolina. Finally, both the retired Marine master sergeant and the movie about him, “Semper Fi: Always Faithful,” are coming back to where the story began in July 1983, when his middle daughter was diagnosed with leukemia.

Both he and the filmmakers expect an emotional event when the movie is shown Sunday at Northside High School in Jacksonville. It’s one of two showings in North Carolina over the Veterans Day weekend. “The people here, they’ve been following this for all these years and have a much better understanding of the situation,” said Ensminger, whose daughter died at age 9. “Many of them were exposed to these contaminants. Many of them are having health effects or worried they may develop effects. This is a whole different ballgame here.”

The movie, which has won several major film festival awards, tells the story of contaminated wells at the sprawling Camp Lejeune base just outside of Jacksonville. Fuel leaks and other sources of pollution contaminated the wells - for decades, in some cases - before tests alerted officials to the problem. Health officials believe as many as 1 million people may have been exposed to tainted water before the wells were closed more than 20 years ago.

It also tells the personal story of Marines, sailors, civilians and their families stationed at the base, focusing on Ensminger, who lives in White Lake, North Carolina. His daughter, Janey, who was conceived at Camp Lejeune, died in

J

1985 of a rare form of leukemia.

Two other daughters - one older than Janey and another younger live in North Carolina and will

the movie, he says his crusade began with one question.

“After the shock of her diagnosis wore off, my reaction was to ques-

This September 1985 family photo shows Jerry Ensminger, Janey and Janey’s mother, Etsuko during a visit to Duke University in Durham, NC, a couple of weeks before Janey died on Sept 24, 1985. —AP attend the Jacksonville screening with their father. Ensminger has led the battle to find the cause of the contamination and to hold the Marine Corps accountable for it. In

tion why,” he says in the film. “And that nagging question of why stayed with me through her illness, through her death ... It’s something that doesn’t just go away. It never

does.” The movie, which was to be shown Saturday at the Cucalorus Film Festival in Wilmington, North Carolina, won best documentary awards at the San Diego and Woodstock film festivals. At New York’s Tribeca, it won best editing for a documentary and second place in the audience award. But a showing at a high school auditorium in Jacksonville could be the most meaningful, says co-producer and co-director Rachel Libert.

“The whole audience is going to have some connection - as a resident, an employee or a service person,” Libert said. “However they’re connected, it really is going to hit close to home for them.” Libert and Ensminger will attend both North Carolina screenings. Libert and Tony Hardmon, the other producer and director, were researching a different topic for a documentary when they met Ensminger’s sister, who told them about the contamination at Camp Lejeune.

They began the project in 2007, wondering how much could Ensminger achieve. “If he were hitting the same wall at the end (of filming) that he was hitting at the start, it would be frustrating for us and be discouraging for audience members,” Libert said. “It was really nice to see he was making headway.”

The film wrapped at the end of 2010, but Libert continues to update it as the story develops. In September, the Environmental Protection Agency classified trichloroethylene - or TCE - as a known human carcinogen. It’s one of several chemicals that mixed with the water at Camp Lejeune.

Libert noted the EPA designation in the latest version of film. “It felt good to make that change,” she said. —AP

Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath to reunite for new album, tour

ritish heavy metal legends Black Sabbath are to reunite to make a new album and tour, the original four members of the band led by Ozzy Osbourne have announced. The group, whose hits include “Paranoid” and “Iron Man,” unveiled their plans at the legendary Whisky a Go Go club on Sunset Strip, where they played their first Los Angeles gig four decades ago. “We’ve tried a reunion before, and it didn’t work, but this time, for some magical reasons... we’ve written seven or eight songs and they’re really good,” Osbourne, who after musical success became a reality TV star, said Friday.

Guitarist Tony Iommi said the group’s members had always stayed in touch but it was good to be back in the band. “It’s not that we haven’t spoken for all these years. It’s been a constant thing. It’s great that we can all actually be in a room and start playing together.” Osbourne, Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward, who are all now in their early 60s, wore the group’s signa-

B

ture black outfits at the announcement, dubbed “Reunited. 33 years in the making,” on their website.

The band, which formed in 1968, reunited for a first time in 1997 but did not produce an album. The new record-their first material together since 1978’s “Never Say Die”-will be released next year through Vertigo/Universal Republic Records. At the same time they will embark on a worldwide arena tour, including headlining the Download Festival in England next June. “It’s now or never. We are getting along great. Everything’s really good,” said Iommi, adding: “It’s like putting on an old glove. It’s fantastic.” Frontman Osbourne has been best known in recent years for his role in the eponymous reality show “The Osbournes,” about the domestic life of his family, which ran from 2002 until 2005.—AFP

Stern in talks with ‘America’s Got Talent’

merica’s Got Talent” contestants may be facing an unlikely new judge: shock jock Howard Stern.

Stern was in negotiations to replace the departing Piers Morgan on NBC’s talent show, a person close to the situation said Friday. The person lacked authority to discuss the talks while they were in progress and spoke on condition of anonymity. Stern, whose show airs on subscription service Sirius XM Radio, is a regular viewer of “America’s Got Talent,” the person said.

An email seeking comment from Stern’s File photo shows Howard Stern attending agent in New York was not immediately the Quentin Tarantino returned. It seems an offbeat match to pair the racy, freewheeling Stern with a network Friars Club Roast at the show that draws family audiences and feaNew York Hilton Hotel in tures such contestants as angelic-sounding New York. —AP child singer Jackie Evancho. The show has

“A

been a summer hit for NBC with as many as 14 million weekly viewers. In an interview with Stern film director Brett Ratner discussed his sexual exploits in graphic language. Ratner stepped down on Tuesday as producer of next year’s Academy Award ceremony after apologizing for using a gay slur at a screening of his new film “Tower Heist.”

Stern, speaking on his show Wednesday, said he’s uncomfortable with the slur but doesn’t think Ratner was gay-bashing. Stern also accused the entertainment industry of hypocrisy, citing as one example the support some in Hollywood have given director Roman Polanski in his decades-old sex crimes case. Morgan, a British journalist and TV personality, announced this week that he’s leaving “America’s Got Talent” to ease his schedule and focus on his CNN talk show,

“Piers Morgan Tonight,” and the upcoming presidential election year.

NBC isn’t facing time pressure in replacing Morgan. Although “America’s Got Talent” producers are already scouting new contestants for next season, the judges aren’t part of filming until about February.

Stern’s talks with “America’s Got Talent” were first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which cited unidentified people familiar with the situation and said Stern would get about $15 million a year to join judges Howie Mandel and Sharon Osbourne. NBC is mulling the possibility of moving the talent show to New York to accommodate Stern, who is based in the city. —AP

Photo shows the face of musician Amy Winehouse formed by hollowed out swede vegetables with candles as part of the traditional Raebechilbi light parade in Richterswil, Switzerland. —AP

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

lifestyle A W A R D S

James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave appear at the curtain call for the opening night of ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ on Broadway.

John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston

Oscar’s tumultuous week ends with Governors

A

She said receiving an Oscar for philanthropy is “unimaginable” given her humble beginnings in Mississippi.

“It’s impossible for you to even know what this journey has meant,” Winfrey said. Appearing in “The Color Purple” was “one of the greatest experiences of my life,” she said, When Quincy Jones tapped her for the role of Sofia - for which she earned an Oscar nod for supporting actress - he changed the course of her career. “I’d like to do more films, but to receive the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award means more to me than any film, any acclaim, even an Oscar, because what it says is you all get it,” Winfrey said.

“What this really means is that you all understand that what I’ve been trying to do, what I’ve been trying to say all these years, (which) is that all of us can make a difference through the life that we live.” Winfrey said she plans to keep her new Oscar front and center on her desk. “For me this Oscar will represent love from all of you,” she said. “I thank you for your vote of love and I will use it to increase the open space in my heart to continue to do the great and good work that we all have come to do.”

The film academy launched its Governors Awards three years ago to pay tribute to winners of honorary Oscars prizes previously presented during the Academy Awards telecast. Governors from its 15 branches chose Saturday’s winners. Highlights from the event will be available online at Oscars.org and included in the Academy Awards telecast in February. — AP

good.” A beaming Jones said receiving an Oscar in such a fashion is “an actor’s wet dream.” “I’m deeply honored, mighty grateful and just plain gobsmacked,” he said. Smith, the groundbreaking makeup artist who counts “The Exorcist” and “The Godfather” among his credits, was lauded for his long career and his generosity in sharing the secrets of his craft. Writer-directors JJ Abrams, Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro saluted the 91-year old.

Abrams, creator of TV’s “Lost” and “Fringe,” said Smith “was the Beatles to me” and told of how he wrote a fan letter to the makeup artist and received an “old but clean” tongue from “The Exorcist” in return. Smith said being honored by the academy was “an incredible joy, one of the greatest I’ve ever had in my whole life.” “I have loved being a makeup artist so much,” he said, “but ... to have so much kindness given to me all at once is just too much. I am so grateful.”

Winfrey was introduced by Quincy Jones, Travolta, Maria Shriver, producer Larry Gordon and a student she’d never met but whose education she funded. Travolta said “the academy got it right” when it chose the media mogul to receive its Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, calling her “the most wonderful person in the world, the most magical person in the world and the most powerful person in the world.” Winfrey cried and nuzzled into boyfriend Stedman Graham as Shriver and the others spoke of her generosity, which includes providing scholarships for 65,000 students.

Host Billy Crystal

fter a tumultuous week that saw the departure and replacement of the Oscar show’s host and producer, the film academy enjoyed a night of good vibes Saturday at its third annual Governors Awards. You might even say the force was with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Armed storm troopers ensured guests were in their seats and paying attention as Darth Vader opened the evening honoring James Earl Jones, Oprah Winfrey and makeup artist Dick Smith. Under Vader’s helmet was academy president Tom Sherak, who welcomed the audience of industry insiders with, “How was your week?” Over the past week, Oscar producer Brett Ratner and host Eddie Murphy resigned and were replaced with producer Brian Grazer and host Billy Crystal.

Saturday’s untelevised Governors Awards, though, couldn’t have been smoother, as Jones, Smith and Winfrey accepted Oscar statuettes in front of a starry crowd that included John Travolta, Alec Baldwin, Woody Harrelson, Sharon Stone, Seth Rogen, Sidney Poitier and Tyler Perry, among others. Jones, who famously voiced Vader, accepted his award by video from London’s Wyndham Theater, where he is starring in “Driving Miss Daisy” with Vanessa Redgrave. Baldwin and Glenn Close feted the actor before Sir Ben Kingsley presented him with his Oscar onstage in London. Close called Jones “a world treasure” and Kingsley said the 80-year-old actor is “always so damn

Awards

Host Brian Grazer

Oprah Winfrey received an honorary Oscar for her outstanding humanitarian work.

Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster, fellow cast members in the film “Rampart” .

James Earl Jones the veteran American actor, holds his lifetime achievement Oscar, in his dressing room at the Wyndham’s Theatre where he is starring in Driving Miss Daisy, in central London. — AP photos Photo shows Makeup artist Dick†Smith, recipient of an honorary Oscar.

James Earl Jones poses with British actor Ben Kingsley as Jones holds with lifetime achievement Oscar.

Actor Seth Rogen

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

lifestyle A W A R D S

Actress Sharon Stone

Actress Glenn Close

Actress Shailene Woodley

Actress Evan Rachel Wood

Steve McQueen director of “Shame,” and the film’s star Michael Fassbender pose together.

Screenwriter Dustin Lance Black, screenwriter of the film “J Edgar,” poses.

Actress Melissa McCarthy reacts as she arrives at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2011 Governors Awards.

From left, ‘The Help’ director Tate Taylor, cast members Octavia Spencer and Viola Davis, and co-producer Brunson Green pose together at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ 2011 Governors Awards.

Actress Rita Wilson and Maria Shriver

Actor Michael Fassbender reacts to photographers.

Oscar-nominated actor Alec Baldwin

Actress Andrea Riseborough

Actress Tilda Swinton

Actor Michael Fassbender, center, a cast member in the film ‘Shame,’ gestures to a photographer as he arrives with the film’s director Steve McQueen, right.

Actor Gary Oldman and his wife Alexandra Edenborough

A

y

e niv rsar n

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Years

LOCAL

A view of the crowd.

KUWAIT: TEC officials Omar Al-Sameraei and Hussam Al-Zawawi pose with organizers at the Fountain Park.

Eid celebrations at Fountain Park KUWAIT: The Fountain Park hosted several activities including a laser display and a Japanese folk show, as part of special programs prepared by the Touristic Enterprises Company (TEC) for

Eid Al-Adha holidays. Zain sponsored the activities. The program also featured competitions for all ages in which participants won valuable prizes and concluded with a fireworks show.

Children are seen with cartoon characters.

A competition in full swing.

The laser display.

Baby scalded in ‘revenge attack’ Burglar busted in Farwaniya KUWAIT: An Ethiopian woman is facing multiple charges after being accused of scalding a one-year-old baby with boiling water in an alleged act of revenge against the baby’s parents. The incident took place in a home in the Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorate, when the Kuwaiti householders were horrified by screams of their one-year-old son, who they had left with the maid. They rushed to the scene only to find the baby by himself writhing in agony after having had scalding hot water poured over him, with the maid having fled the scene. The baby, who was rushed to hospital, remains in a critical condition. According to news reports, the accused woman fled to her country’s embassy to seek shelter. Police are seeking to arrest her over the incident.

Fatal crashes An Indian motorist died in a head-on crash with a police patrol vehicle on the Fifth Ring Road. Emergency services personnel rushed to the accident location, with paramedics pronouncing the motorist dead at the scene. The motorist’s body was removed for autopsy and an investigation is underway into the cause of the crash. In a separate incident, an Eritrean woman died shortly after she was hit by a car on Taawoun Street. The Iranian driver of the vehicle was taken into custody to face charges, whilst the body of the woman, who was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics, was removed for autopsy.

Suicide case An Asian woman committed suicide by hanging herself in her bedroom at her employers’ home in Omariya. Emergency services personnel rushed to the scene after the traumatized homeowners reported finding the woman, who they employed as a maid, hanging from a noose in her room. The body was removed for autopsy and an investigation is underway to determine the woman’s motives for killing herself.

Burglar busted Police have arrested a thief who burgled a number of homes in the Farwaniya area in recent weeks. The burglar was apparently careful to monitor his prospective targets to ensure that the occupants were out before breaking in and stealing furniture and other items, loading his booty into a van before escaping. Detectives investigating the case covertly monitored the main suspect, a known thief, until they spotted him loading furniture stolen from a local apartment into a van before taking it to the Friday Market apparently to sell it. He was caught redhanded and taken into custody, where he admitted under questioning that he had also burgled another 12 homes in the area during the Eid Al-Adha holiday.

Royal brawl Three men suffered stab wounds in a vicious brawl at a cafe in the chalets area of southern Kuwait, with the brawlers including two members of the ruling family.

Emergency services personnel rushed to the

scene after receiving reports of a melee at the cafe, with a number of those involved being arrested after they attacked the police officers who attempted to break up the fight. Ambulances quickly took the three injured men to Adan Hospital, whilst the brawlers were taken into custody at Abdullah Port police station where two of them were discovered to be members of the ruling family. All the suspects are being held there pending legal action.

Druggie detainees An investigation is underway to determine how a quantity of hashish was smuggled in for detainees at Central Prison, after warders found 60 grams of the drug during a surprise search of prisoners’ cells. The hashish was found on the floor between two cells indicating that the prisoner who bought it had thrown it there on seeing the cell searches taking place in order to avoid being identified as the owner. A number of inmates are being questioned in connection with the drugs to determine which prisoner was responsible.

Bad date A maid’s date with her boyfriend ended abruptly with both of them being arrested.

After the woman’s employer heard an unfamiliar male voice coming from her bedroom, he locked the door from the outside before calling police to report that she was involved in an illegal relationship. Police officers were quickly at the scene, taking the woman and her boyfriend into custody in the area police station where the couple admitted that they were involved in an illicit relationship. Subsequent medical tests also showed that the woman was four months pregnant. The couple are currently in detention pending legal action.

Illegal residents Twelve illegal residents were arrested in a special operation conducted by a team of officials from the Ministries of Interior, Social Affairs and Labor, and Commerce and Industry.

Among those detained during the operation were three women working illicitly in beauty salons, who had been reported as missing by their original sponsors. The suspects are currently being processed for deportation.

Hoax caller Police are hunting for a hoaxer who wasted police time on hunting for a non-existent killer. Jahra police rushed to a home in AlOyoun on Saturday morning after the emergency services hotline received a report from the anonymous caller that a killer armed with an AK47 assault rifle had murdered nine people there. On reaching the house in question, however, the officers discovered that the home was unoccupied and there was no sign of any disturbance, leading them to conclude that the call was a hoax.

When police attempted to phone the hoaxer on the number he used to call emergency services they received no reply, leading them to file charges against the time-wasting caller. — Al-Watan, Al-Qabas, Al-Anba

The Japanese folk show.

Oscar’s tumultuous weekends with Governors Awards

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2011

Fashion Around the

Master milliner Stephen Jones

38 world A model parades during a fashion show introducing the “Prejudice” collection by French designer Philippe Guilet, at the French embassy in Bucharest, Romania, late night Thursday.

— AP photos

a pied piper of hats

File photo shows the Queen Mother’s silk tulle and lace hat beside a photo of Queen Elizabeth, Mick Jagger’s 2005 grey velvet fedora, bottom, a 1992 orange nylon tutu hat, top, and Gypsy Rose Lee’s floral straw hat, right, in the exhibit “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones,” at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. Dita von Teese is pictured, far right, wearing a 1940’s felt hat with netting. — AP

S

tephen Jones was in a London taxi when a conversation with the driver turned, inevitably, to hats. “‘People say I love hats, but I never wear them,’” the cap-wearing driver told the master milliner. “I asked him what’s that on your head and he said, “‘That, oh that’s not a real hat.’” Jones begs to differ, but that space between haute couture and the hard-working baseball cap left its mark on the radical creator - and pied piper - of headgear. After more than three decades of designing hats out of everything from Kewpie doll legs to human hair, for fashion houses and fancy clients, Jones put on a new one himself as curator of a wildly popular exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.

The 2009 “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones” drew about 100,000 visitors to the V&A and spanned 17 centuries of head adornment. It also opened millinery’s workroom doors for an inside look at inspirations and mechanics, trends and iconic fanciers. The show is now touring, with a stop through April 15 at the cozy townhouse of the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan following a trip to Queensland, Australia.

The rest of the travel schedule had not yet been firmed up. Jones put the exhibition together using the V&A’s archive, his own collection, pieces he borrowed from private owners and hats he tracked down at movie studios in Hollywood and Germany, the latter yielding a Marlene Dietrich beret she wore in the 1957 film “Witness for the Prosecution.” He also wrote a companion book covering hats through time, behind-the-scenes photos on how they’re constructed and an accounting of the two years he spent making his way through more than 3,000 pieces to select just the right 250 for the exhibition. Jones put a US spin on the show here, including the work of New York milliners Ellen Christine, Eugenia Kim and Albertus Swanepoel, along with Darth Vader’s Star Wars helmet, a green foam Statue of Liberty crown and one of Andy Warhol’s wigs.

There’s also a Babe Ruth baseball cap, Mouseketeer ears and a trilby in fur felt and peacock feathers by Rod Keenan for Brad Pitt. “Fashion is about exclusivity, but I really wanted to make an inclusive exhibition because I think that’s just the way hats are,” Jones said by telephone from London. “They’re so visible. They really

announce the person who’s wearing them.” Jones said he and just a handful of contemporaries around the world whip up creations for top runways and clients.

After helping to establish London as a contemporary hub of hat design in the 1980s, he grumbles that today’s glossy magazines fail to give hats their due among a parade of accessories.

“It irks me sometimes when fashion magazines do accessories,” he said. “There will be shoes and handbags and maybe one scarf if you’re lucky, and probably no hats.” So who’s wearing hats these days? In the US, sales in all segments of hats totaled $2.2 billion from July 2010 through August 2011, according to data from the NPD Group. Hats are hardly what they used to be since regular folk fell out of the everyday habit after the 1960s, but Jill Hammer of the Headwear Association, a Los Angeles-based industry group, said it’s nowhere near time for a death knell.

There’s a relatively stunning resurgence in fascinators, she said, since Kate Middleton became the duchess of Cambridge. The show “Mad Men” helped bring back the ‘60s, including hats, and Lady Gaga, Johnny Depp, Sarah Jessica Parker and Justin Timberlake have lent hats a hand as well. While wrangling sales data is difficult considering the scope of the trade (basically anything that lands on a head), Hammer said: “Over the past five years, the industry has experienced an uptick, partially due to the prevalence of celebrities who have started wearing hats.

We’re also seeing more designers send hats down the runway.”

The hat-loving ‘60s is when Jan Fenty and three friends met while raising their kids in suburban Washington, DC, where she still lives. One made matching felt derbies with a burst of pearls for the four on a recent trip to New York City to celebrate the 70th birthdays of all but Fenty, who’s a few years younger.

They learned of the hat exhibition while lunching nearby and headed over in their matching headwear. “They’re like our party hats,” Fenty said. “We had champagne and hats. I’m definitely an admirer of hats.”

Allegra Kochman, a New York City architect, also considers herself a hat person with a collection of about a dozen mostly functional hats. The parallels in construction of hats and buildings isn’t lost on her. —AP

A model presents a creation by French designer Irakli Nasidze during a show as part of the Lithuania Fashion festival in Vilnius late on November 12, 2011. —AFP

Bygone era of fans and gloves spotlighted in Vienna expo O

nce fashion accessories rather than tools for confronting the weather, fans and gloves as old as 700 years are getting their day in the sun with a new exhibit at Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).

“Gripping Diversity” retraces the history of both items, with rarely seen pieces dating back to the late Middle Ages and Japan’s Edo period.

The exhibit is part of a series on accessories at the MAK that started last year with handbags and will continue next year with headdresses and shoes. While an obvious draw

for women, the show has plenty on offer for male visitors, including gloves worn by men, especially priests, and Japanese fans that used to be carried by men, the museum insists.

Among the colorful and diverse objects on display are fans made of lace, straw, lacquered wood and even ivory made to look like feathers.

The exhibit also includes century-old fan leaves - painted semi-circular sheets of paper that formed a fan when attached to a support - and ornate beaded and embroidered gloves worn by clergy or royal figures.

“The MAK’s textile collection is incredibly large and rich,” said curator Barbara Karl. “The fans are really just a small part of the collection and were never exhibited until now, so that was one of the reasons to show them as part of this exposition series,” she told AFP on a guided tour.

More than just decorative, fans were used early on as advertising surfaces - a practice that has carried on today - and as dance cards for (From left) Best friends Judy Cheng Paris, of Pacific Palisades, Calif, Thea Hambright of Woodstock, NY, Katie Elsia of Grosse Point Park, Mich, and Jan Fenty of Washington DC, pose with miniature felt and pearl hats Elsia purchased for their 70th birthday celebration as the foursome visited the exhibit, “Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones,” at the Bard Graduate Center in New York. — AP

A handout pictures released by the Vienna’s Museum of Art’s shows a folding fan “The Artist in his Atelier” designed by Ferdinand Astorfer in 1740 from bones and parchment. —AFP photos

ladies at a ball.

Fan language, an allegedly popular means of silent communication between a woman and a man depending on how the object was held, was just a product of early PR however.

“A fan extends your gesture and if you use it in a certain way, it can show a certain state of mind,” Karl said.

“But fan language was first invented in the 19th century and was a marketing ploy by a manufacturer of fans,” she insisted.

The oldest pieces on display are so-called cockade (circular) fans dating back to the 14th and 15th century and used for religious purposes.

Much like fans, gloves - once an object no lady would leave the house without - have disappeared from daily life, except as means of protection and warmth.

The exhibit, which opened this week, hopes to place these “neglected” objects back in the spotlight, according to MAK. It runs until April 2012. — AFP