16th Jun

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

42

7 150 Fils

48

Indian female athlete ‘a man’, ex-lover says

Egyptians vote amid court ruling turmoil

No: 15480

RAJAB 26, 1433 AH

England oust Sweden from Euro 2012

World powers stagger as Syria violence rages Russia warns against ‘plots’; Death toll mounts

DAMASCUS: The UN observer force accused both sides in the Syrian conflict yesterday of hampering its peace mission and acknowledged its limitations in the face of escalating violence.

As the death toll from two days of violence topped 130, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which tallies casualties, said UN observers should leave the country if they are unable to stop the killings.

Major-General Robert Mood’s comments came as Russia further dug its feet in against Western pressure to topple Assad, insisting it would not discuss a post-Assad Syria. “Violence over the past 10 days has been intensified, again willingly by both parties, with losses on both sides and at significant risk to our observers,” Mood said in Damascus. “There appears to be a lack of willingness to see a peaceful transition. Instead there is a push towards advancing military positions.”

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said discussions regarding a political transformation in Syria after Assad “are not being held and cannot be held, because to decide for the Syrian people contradicts our position completely”. “We do not get involved in overthrowing regimes - neither through approval of unilateral actions by the UN Security Council nor by participation in any political plots,” he said.

His comments were a response to a remark by US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland suggesting Washington and Moscow were discussing a post-Assad strategy in Syria. Russia’s Foreign Ministry also rebutted accusations

by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton that Russia was sending attack helicopters to Syria. It said Moscow had made no new deliveries, but had at some point carried out “previously planned repairs of (helicopters), which were delivered to Syria many years ago”.

World powers are deeply divided over Syria, with Russia and China - both permanent members of the UN Security Council with veto power - blocking efforts by Western powers to condemn Assad or call for his removal after 15 months of bloodshed. Violence has surged in recent weeks after government forces and allied militia launched offensives to regain territories controlled by the opposition and rebels abandoned a ceasefire negotiated by international envoy Kofi Annan.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said his worst fears were being realized in Syria. “Our biggest fear was to reach this point that we are in today, it is almost at a state of civil war. We did what we could, unfortunately the situation is worst,” he said on Turkish-language channel CNNTurk. Britain’s UN envoy Lyall Grant said on Thursday “it is time for the Security Council to take much tougher action to enforce the Kofi Annan plan,” echoing comments on Tuesday by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who suggested the possibility of a no-fly zone.

Human Rights Watch accused Assad’s forces of using rape and other sexual violence against men, women and children during the uprising, citing interviews with victims. “Sexual violence in detention is one of many horrific weapons in the Syrian government’s torture arsenal and Syrian security forces regularly use it to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW. “The assaults are not limited to detention facilities - government forces and pro-government shabiha militia members have also sexually assaulted women and girls during home raids and residential sweeps.” — Agencies

Max 48º Min 33º

KUWAIT: A huge fire broke out at a paint factory in Amghara yesterday. Paramedics and eight ambulances were dispatched to the site where three firemen were treated for smoke inhalation and thermal fatigue. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

in the

news

Breast milk may prevent HIV

Mideast TV reporter missing

LONDON: Breast milk may protect children against the Aids virus, research suggests yesterday. Tests on mice show that even though some children acquire HIV from breastfeeding, mother’s milk has a strong anti-viral effect. Most at-risk breastfed infants do not end up with HIV despite long and repeated exposure. Scientists carried out a study of genetically modified “humanized” mice that can acquire HIV in the same way as humans. When the mice were given the virus in human breast milk, they were not infected. The findings are published in the online journal “Public Library of Science Pathogens”. Study leader Dr Victor Garcia, from the University of North Carolina in the US, said in the Journal “This study provides significant insight into the amazing ability of breast milk to destroy HIV and prevent its transmission. “No child should ever be infected with HIV because it is breastfed. Breastfeeding provides critical nutrition and protection from other infections, especially where clean water for infant formula is scarce.

MANILA: A veteran Middle Eastern TV reporter who had interviewed Osama bin Laden months before the Sept 11, 2001, attacks has disappeared with four other people on a restive southern Philippine island where Muslim militants are active, officials said yesterday. Baker Atyani, Al-Arabiya’s TV bureau chief for Southeast Asia, has not contacted authorities since Tuesday, when he was last seen on Jolo Island while on a reporting trip, said Sulu provincial police Chief Antonio Freyra. Also missing are two Manila-based TV crewmen, a local female guide and the driver of the journalists’ van, Freyra said. Authorities were trying to verify unconfirmed reports that Atyani may have traveled to Jolo’s mountainous jungles to seek an interview with Abu Sayyaf militants and some of their foreign hostages as part of a TV documentary on the southern Philippines, a military intelligence official told The Associated Press. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters. Atyani and his crew arrived Monday in Jolo, a hotbed of militants notorious for bomb attacks, kidnappings and beheadings about 950 kilometers south of Manila.

LOCAL SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

MP slams US for ‘interfering in internal affairs’ KUWAIT: A visit held by a team from the United States Department of State to monitor measures taken by Kuwait to monitor fundraising campaigns for the people of Syria is an act of interference in Kuwait’s internal affairs, a lawmaker stated in a statement recently.

“Monitoring donations collected for Syria is the sovereign right of the state,” MP Dr Waleed AlTabtabaei insisted, describing the US team’s visit as being ‘untimely.’

“While the United States demands that restrictions be placed on donations made from Kuwait, I came across an incident in Chicago where organizations affiliated to churches were holding fundraising in the street,” he argued on Thursday after attending a meeting with Mohammad Al-Kandari, Undersecretary, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL).

The Islamist MP insisted that the “horrible and catastrophic situation” in Syria called for making donations to the troubled country in Kuwait instead of being restricted to certain charity organizations.

Regarding calls made for organizing similar campaigns, Al-Tabtabaei indicated that “fundraising be authorized beforehand by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor(MSAL), and remain under the Ministry of Interior’s supervision to ensure that the donations reach their rightful destinations.”

“If the donations help provide medical and food aid to the Bahraini people, then that is fine, but if they are aimed at inciting violence and toppling the regime in Bahrain, then it violates Kuwait’s foreign policy,” he added.

In the meantime, Badr Al-Awadhi, Director of the MSAL’s Charity Organizations Department, stated that the US Department of State team “raised Kuwait’s efforts in the charity field” in aid as well as efforts to tackle money laundering and terrorism funding. “The US team found no violations committed in charitable work,” Al-Awadhi said in a statement Thursday. He announced “a workshop between the two sides next September.” —Al-Qabas

Returning expats raise health fears KUWAIT: A source warned of a potential outbreak of tuberculosis or other contagious diseases as no medical tests are performed on expatriates who return to Kuwait after spending their annual leaves in countries where such diseases are rampant.

The Ministry of Health(MoH) is reportedly planning to carry out periodic medical tests on workers employed in the private sector (Article 18) or as domestic workers (article 20) from the India, Sri Lanka and Ethiopia every time they return to Kuwait from their home countries.

According to an insider, many Kuwait families have expressed concern that domestic workers will return to their homes “without testing for diseases or viruses that could have contacted during their vacation period.”

The MOH operates an office at the Kuwait International Airport(KIA)” to carry out necessary procedures as soon as a domestic worker returns to the country.” —Al-Rai

Security breach in Parliament?

Suspicious cable wire found, probe ordered KUWAIT: Investigations are currently ongoing to reveal if a cable wire linked to a computer was used to record meetings of parliamentary committees for espionage purposes, according to a report released yesterday.

“Head of a committee grew suspicious upon noticing a cable wire connected to the computer, extending outside the meeting room in violation of the Parliament’s internal regulations,” said a source quoted in Al-Rai’s report. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the source said that similar cables linked in the same fashion were then noticed in rooms used by

committees to hold weekly meetings.

“After informing Parliament Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun about the subject, he gave immediate orders to remove all the suspicious cables,” the source said, noting that MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei also learned about the subject “and promised to investigate the issue.” The source adds that the computer devices upon which the cables were attached “bear notes that ban connecting cables, flash memory drives or any other equipment,” reported Al-Rai. In other news, MP Dr Abdulhameed Dashti revealed that Parliament sessions are often attended by people

“carrying weapons” according to testimonies received from some people in attendance. “What is the reason behind why audience carry weapons to a place where even security guards are unarmed?” Dashty told Annahar daily, arguing that cars “bearing nonKuwaiti license plates” are often seen at the Parliament’s parking lot.

“The Parliament’s building and parking lot have often become crowded in an unusual way,” the lawmaker said. “Corridors are crowded with people who could be Kuwaitis, nonKuwaitis, guests as well as people unauthorized to enter the building.” he added. —Al-Rai, Annahar

Lulu Hypermarket holds Filipino food festival

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Lulu Hypermarket is hosting a week of Filipino product promotion as they joined the Filipino people in celebrating their country’s independence day. The Filipino food products will be displayed from June 12 to 17, and many items are offered at discounted rates.

The Filipino Food Festival began with a cultural presentation by the Filipino Cultural Club, and Lulu Hypermarket Filipino staff. The inaugural event was held at the supermarket’s hallway. The Philippines’ Ambassador to Kuwait Shulan Primavera and Muhammad Haris, Lulu Regional Director and hundreds of shoppers enjoyed the performance.

Primavera was particularly overwhelmed by the welcome accorded to him, including Lulu’s interest in showcasing Filipino products introduced to celebrate their 114th independence anniversary.

“I was elated to see the wide array of Filipino products on display, but I also noticed that many of your staff are

KUWAIT: Philippine Ambassador Primavera cutting the ceremonial cake with officials of Lulu Hypermarket. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat Filipinos, happily greeting shoppers with a smile. It is a manifestation of contentment and it only means they are happy in their respective jobs,” he said.

He promised that on independence day next year, Lulu will be invited to showcase their products at the embassy’s compound during the ‘Barrio Fiesta’ event. He also lauded the initiative taken by Lulu to use Philippines’

new tourism slogan ‘It’s more Fun in the Philippines’ to attract tourists to the Philippines. “It’s really more fun to visit the Philippines. We heard the same from HH the Amir when he visited the Philippines in March. He met with our president and spoke various issues of mutual concern. He took time to visit Cebu and enjoyed our weather and beautiful sceneries,” he added.

Egypt travel advisory KUWAIT: A travel advisory has been issued to citizens advising them not to travel to Egypt for safety reasons “until the situation caused by the current political conditions stabilizes,” Kuwait’s envoy in Cairo said on Thursday.

Ambassador Dr Rashid Al-told to Al-Jarida that “citizens present in the Egyptian capital should avoid gathering and remain in their respective residences while strictly following security instructions.” Dr Rashid also called Kuwaitis “whose presence in Egypt is presently unnecessary” to leave the country. — Al-Jarida

KUWAIT: Primavera poses with Lulu Hypermarket executives and staff before the inauguration ceremony.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Cabinet, MPs seek to defuse Zour plant row KUWAIT: The Cabinet may be negotiating with the majority bloc in the Parliament to reach a compromise that pushes forward a mega power plant project that is believed to be necessary to meet local energy demand by 2014. According to reports released yesterday, Khalid Al-Sultan Deputy Speaker met Thursday with Anas Al-Saleh Minister of Commerce and Industry and AbdulAziz Al-Ibrahim Minister of Electricity and Water, State Minister of Municipality Affairs to defuse tensions over the north Zour Power Plant project.

Al-Sultan did not divulge details to reporters following the meeting, denying knowledge of any potential talks about the subject or ‘a Cabinet

team’ being sent to the Parliament’s building.

Oppositionist lawmakers led by Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun object to the project on the basis that the government allegedly failed to follow legal procedures in the tendering process to establish a shareholding company that can be used to build the plant. The Al-Saadoun-led Popular Action Bloc(PAB) argues that the Cabinet closed bidding before the Parliament passed a 2010 law that organizes the process of establishing shareholding companies to build mega projects that are included in the state’s development plan. The government fears that any delay in the north Zour project’s execution will ‘certainly hurt’

the ability to increase electricity and water production to meet rising demand in 2014, according to multiple statements made.

Following Thursday’s meeting, sources told Al-Rai daily that Al-Sultan could be playing a ‘positive role’ to mediate between the Cabinet and Parliament in order to assure that the project proceed without legal complications. “The government is open to cooperating with the Parliament to ensure that the law is enforced at the execution process,” sources said. “At the same time, there are concerns that Al-Saadoun will end up living up to his promise of grilling the prime minister if he feels the law was broken.” In

the meantime, MP Badr Al-Dahoom suggested that the Cabinet send a work team to meet with the Parliament’s public facilities’ committee “and explain the government’s point of view in an attempt to convince MPs that the project’s procedures are safe.”

In other news, MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabae told Al-Rai that the Cabinet does not have plans to resign “according to information received by the majority bloc,” despite rumors suggesting otherwise. Al-Tabtabae was commenting on earlier statements made by Al-Sultan. He said that a Cabinet resignation at this point is ‘unnecessary.’ —Al-Rai

local SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

iPhones blamed for rise in exam cheating

Ministry closes Sultan Centre in Salwa KUWAIT: The Sultan Centre in Salwa was closed. A sticker at the entrance of the supermarket read: “Closed by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for violating the Commercial Fraud Law #62.” No further information was immediately available with regards to the closure. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

Infant’s corpse found near Farwaniya clinic

KUWAIT: The level of frustration is at an all-time high at the Ministry of Education after cheating incidents detected during the first week of high school final examinations broke all records.

According to statistics released by Annahar daily yesterday, 276 students were barred from appearing in remaining exams after they were caught cheating during the first three exams in science and arts, reported Annahar. While supervisors are said to be “carrying out the ministry’s anti-cheating regulations strictly” this year, MoE insiders told Al-Qabas that the abnormal rise in cheating incidents is attributed to “students smuggling their iPhones into the examination hall.”

According to the ministry’s regulations, no cell phones or smart phones are allowed inside examination halls. A student caught with a phone in his possession is held for violating anti-cheating regulations under which they are banned from appearing for the remaining tests. According to sources, 70 such incidents were detected on Thursday where students were taking Arabic language exam, reported Al-Qabas. In other news, MoE departments were asked to take stock of the number of staff who have been serving for at least 30 consecutive years, and are required to file for retirement as per Civil Service Commission(CSC) regulations. The reports will eventually be sent to the Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf “who seeks to nominate younger, more rejuvenated staff in MoE departments especially in supervisory posts,” reported Al-Jarida.

Female suspect in arson case caught

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

‘Drug addict’ in police uniform arrested KUWAIT: Investigations are ongoing to identify the parents of a baby that was found dead near a clinic in Farwaniya where it was abandoned. A security guard working at the dental clinic found the infant in an unconscious state and rushed it to the emergency clinic. Criminal investigators were called after medical staff pronounced the infant dead.

Police are searching for the baby’s parents as they wait for the autopsy report which will determine the cause of death.

Father accuses children of theft Police are seeking to arrest two siblings who are accused of stealing KD 40,000 from their father. Al-Faihaa police station officers filed a case recently after being approached by a citizen who reported that KD 40,000 in cash was stolen from his safe. The man accused his young son and daughter of breaking the safe and stealing his money, after which warrants were issued to summon them for investigations.

Smartphone theft Mubarak Al-Kabeer police arrested a female resident for stealing her sister’s smart phone, while she is expected to be interrogated later by the State Security Service after her mother pressed charges.

The girl initially denied stealing her younger sister’s iPhone as her mother claimed when she reported the theft on Wednesday at the Mubarak Al-Kabeer police station. The mother based her claims on a previous incident where the girl had admitted to stealing her jewelry and giving the money obtained from selling them to her boyfriend. The mother had withdrawn charges afterwards.

Eventually, the girl confessed to stealing the phone, which was later sold, and the money given to her new boyfriend. In addition to the theft charges, the mother told police that her daughter often insults senior government officials, leading to a state security charge to be pressed.

Death Investigations are ongoing to reveal the mystery behind the death of an Asian man in Farwaniya. The victim was pronounced dead by paramedics in his apartment. The body was found by his roommates who informed police. The body was referred to the Forensic Department and investigators found no evidence of foul play. A case was filed at the area’s police station. An autopsy report is pending to determine the time and cause of death.

Coworkers’ row A man was hospitalized after suffering a serious head injury. He reportedly fought with a workmate in Al-Mutlaa recently, while police arrested the perpetrator.

Paramedics and police rushed to the scene of a construction project after receiving a report about an Asian worker that was injured during a fight. The man was rushed

to Al-Jahra Hospital suffering a concussion after being struck with a metal object on the head. His coworker-turned-foe was taken in custody to the nearest police station after being charged with physical assault, reported Al-Rai. Cheating student beats up teacher Police are on the hunt for a high school student who physically assaulted a teacher that caught him cheating during his final exam. The incident took place in Jahra on Thursday after the student waited outside after being barred from appearing for the exam. The suspect reportedly attacked the teacher and fled the scene. The teacher reported the incident to local police afterwards and a case was filed.

‘Officer’ arrested A man was arrested after a car chase. He was reportedly driving while being under the influence of drugs, wearing a combined police-military suit. Patrol officers pursued the suspect after he ignored orders to pull over in Mubarak Al-Kabeer. The man was eventually forced to halt in Sabah Al-Salem, where police found out that he was wearing a police uniform’s shirt and a military uniform’s pants. After identifying him, the police revealed that he is wanted in connection with a previous drug-related case. He was referred to higher authorities to face charges. —Al-Watan, Al-Rai, Al-Shahed

KUWAIT: Sulaibiya detectives arrested a female suspect who set fire to a number of cars. The woman reportedly filled jerry cans with gasoline obtained from several gas stations to commit crimes. The woman initially resisted arrest and started screaming and shouting for help. She later admitted to burning five cars. Detectives found paper wraps with stones inside as well as knives and axes that she reportedly kept for self defense. The woman refused to disclose the reason why she committed arson.

Kuwait launches e-correspondence KUWAIT: Kuwait launched Thursday a new system for electronic correspondence to save citizens’ time and fight red-tape in government agencies. In press statements following the launching, Kuwait Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Planning and Development, Dr Fadel Safar said the new system will eliminate much of the red-tape and bureaucratic procedures in government work. Safar added that the system launch is part of state development plan and the expanding Kuwait’s e-government project. He explained that the system will include correspondence with regulatory agencies and the Central Tenders Committee and applying for planning permissions.

For his part, Abdullatif Al-Sarea, director general of the Central Agency for Information Technology which runs the new system and Kuwait e-gate, said the system put an end to the slow correspondence and other costs borne by the government due to handby-hand correspondence. He added that the rapid correspondence system is run by the CAIT and operates through Kuwait Information Network which connects 52 state government bodies to each other allowing quick transfer and exchange of information and documents. —KUNA

Fire breaks out in Amghara again

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

Firefighters combat a blaze that broke out at an Amghara carpenter’s showroom.

KUWAIT: A fire broke out at an Amghara carpenter’s shop. Firefighters from Jahra, Jleeb, Mubarak Al-Kabeer and Amghara fire centers responded to the fire. The fire gutted the shop and destroyed wooden furniture. Firemen tried to contain the fire and prevent it from

spreading to a nearby chemical factory.

Brigadier Yousuf Al-Ansari, Deputy Director General for Fire Fighting and Human Resources Development, Brigadier Khalid AlMikradm Deputy Director General and Colonel Mohammad Al-Shatti Jahra Fire Director along with Public Relations Director Lt Colonel Khalil Al-Amir were present at the site.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

KUWAIT: In this file photo traders work on the floor of the Kuwait Stock Exchange on a busy trading day. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Marketing the markets Oxford Business Group report KUWAIT: The Kuwait Stock Exchange (KSE) is in the midst of what has been described as the largest overhaul of its trading system in almost 20 years, and measures to privatize the bourse, streamline procedures and strengthen transparency all aim to raise the market’s profile and appeal as an investment destination.

The widely anticipated developments are expected to reinvigorate the bourse, which has underperformed since the financial crisis of 2008.

The Kuwaiti market reacted like most others, falling as the world’s financial underpinnings unraveled amid uncertainty and the prospect of losses. Critics have also pointed to a lack of transparency keeping investors away.

The market is working to overcome these challenges, however. On May 13, the KSE launched XSteam, its new NASDAQ OMX-powered trading platform. The adoption of the advanced trading and surveillance technology was seen as a crucial step toward facilitating new exchange-traded products and services, as well as bringing the KSE in line with international standards and industry best practices.

X-Steam has been described as a multi-asset system capable of handling equities, commodities, debt, exchange-traded funds, futures, options, swaps and derivatives on a single platform. Each of the 220 firms currently listed on the KSE have been categorized and divided into 15 new sectors on the boards, and the 15 largest listings, including eight of the country’s nine commercial banks, are grouped together in a separate index. The Kuwait15, as it is known, is the benchmark index on the KSE, with the blue-chip listings estimated to have a combined value of almost $70bn, around twothirds of the market’s total worth.

According to Issam Alusaimi, the head of the KSE’s projects management office, the new platform will help develop the country’s capital market, as well as reach its objective of transforming Kuwait into a leading regional financial centre.

“We look forward to building on this base to bring further positive and major developments in our marketplace for the benefit of investors, listed

companies, market participants and the Kuwaiti economy as a whole,” Alusaimi said at the launch of X-Stream.

One of the major components of X-Stream is a complex surveillance system that collects and analyses real-time data, monitoring for any signs of illegal or questionable practices in trades. This measure, which includes faster and more accurate trades, along with tighter controls, should go a long way to reassure investors about the transparency of the KSE, which has in the past been a cause of concern.

announced it has contracted HSBC Holdings to prepare studies on the privatization of the exchange and on the creation of a new company to own and operate the market.

Plans currently include a provision that 50% of the shares in the KSE’s new management firm will be reserved for Kuwaiti citizens through an initial public offering, while the remainder will be made available to companies listed on the exchange, up to a maximum of 5% of the bourse per firm.

International law firm DLA Piper has been brought in to provide legal advice to the CMA.

X-Steam has been described as a multi-asset system capable of handling equities, commodities, debt, exchange-traded funds, futures, options, swaps and derivatives on a single platform.

Another sign that the KSE is determined to bolster its image for transparency and efficiency came in mid-May, when the exchange suspended trading on 31 firms that had not met the deadline for tabling their financial statements for the first quarter of the year. The move has been seen by many as a clear indication that authorities are serious about ensuring investors are provided with all necessary information for trading purposes and reinforces the need for listed companies to meet all the requirements of the upgraded exchange’s operational regime.

The next reform of the KSE is the privatization of the market itself. Though first mooted several years ago, the plan to take the KSE public has gained pace over the past six months. At the end of January 2012, the Capital Markets Authority (CMA) - the state agency that regulates the KSE -

No final date has been set for the privatization, though the management company is due to be set up in the second half of this year, thus setting the stage for the KSE to emerge stronger from its period of reform as a more appealing prospect for investors in the long term. — Oxford Business Group

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

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ALEXANDRIA: An Egyptian protester chants slogans against presidential candidate Ahmed Safiq during a demonstration against the Supreme Constitutional Court rulings in Alexandria, Egypt yesterday.—AP

Egypt’s Brotherhood pins hopes on presidency Shafiq faces Morsi in run-off elections CAIRO: On the eve of Egypt’s presidential run-off, the Muslim Brotherhood tried yesterday to salvage its hopes for leadership, urging voters to turn out to back its candidate in the race, after it lost its political stronghold with the dissolving of parliament.

Instead of calling for mass protests, the Brotherhood urged action through votes. “Isolate the representative of the former regime through the ballot box,” a Brotherhood statement said yesterday, referring to presidential candidate Ahmed Shafiq who was Hosni Mubarak’s last prime minister.

Shafiq faces the Brotherhood’s candidate Mohammed Morsi in today’s and tomorrow’s runoff, which pits a senior Mubarak-era figure against the Islamists his regime once oppressed and jailed.

With the Brotherhood eyeing the election as a final hope for retaining leadership after the uprising that toppled Mubarak last year, Morsi reassured that he would work closely with the country’s military rulers and keep the interests of the military close to his heart. “As president, they will be in my heart and will get my attention....they will never do anything to harm the nation,” he said. The Brotherhood became

the biggest party in parliament last year after elections that were seen as Egypt’s first democratic balloting in generations, but Thursday’s court decision dissolved that power base and leaves the country without a legislature. It is unclear how Thursday’s dissolution of parliament will affect the race. It could bolster the Brotherhood’s Morsi who represents for many the only option left to challenge decades of military power. It could also bolster Shafiq, who is believed to be the military’s preferred candidate and who some voters see as the only hope for a secular state.

The decision was made by the Supreme Constitutional Court, which upheld a decision by a lower court that ruled a law governing the parliamentary elections was unconstitutional because it breached the principle of equality when it allowed party members to contest a third of the seats set aside for independents. It also deemed unconstitutional a law passed by parliament that would have banned Shafiq from the election for his senior ties to the former regime.

The Brotherhood reacted in its statement, saying

progress made since Mubarak was ousted on Feb. 11, 2011, was being “wiped out and overturned.”

The country is facing a situation that is “even more dangerous than that in the final days of Mubarak’s rule,” the Brotherhood said. Power is now concentrated even more firmly in the hands of the generals who took over from Mubarak. In addition, this week the ruling generals’-appointed government agreed to extend the powers of military police and intelligence agents to allow them to arrest civilians for a wide range of offenses.

After Egypt’s constitution was suspended with the overthrow of Mubarak, the incoming president’s powers were not known. The ruling generals are expected to release in the next few days what the authorities of the incoming president will be. The Islamist-backed parliament was fresh off the heels of a second attempt at forming a panel to write the constitution, which would have outlined the powers of the executive. The dissolution of parliament now raises the possibility that the military council could appoint the panel writing the constitution, a step that would fuel accusations that it is hijacking the

process and intends to meddle beyond the July 1 deadline they announced for handing power over to a civilian president.

Activists who engineered Egypt’s uprising have long accused the generals of trying to cling to power, explaining that after 60 years as the nation’s single most dominant institution, the military would be reluctant to surrender its authority or leave its economic empire to civilian scrutiny. One of the youth groups, the April 6 movement, which has thrown its support behind Morsi, planned a march to Cairo’s Tahrir Square yesterday afternoon dubbed “No to the military’s soft coup.” The Brotherhood did not call on its members to participate.

Just a few hundred people gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square after the rulings to denounce the action and rally against Shafiq. In his interview late Thursday, Morsi said he does not see the court rulings as a military coup against the revolution, despite a statement by a senior Brotherhood member earlier. Instead he said, “We are going to the ballot boxes to say no to the losers, the killers, the criminals.” —AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Iran and world powers seek Moscow miracle MOSCOW: Russia will try to shield its ally Iran from the looming threat of military strikes while seeking an elusive commitment on its nuclear program when it hosts showdown talks on the crisis next week. A skilled balancing act would put a rare feather in Moscow’s diplomatic cap and support its arguments in an increasingly confrontational standoff with the West over Iran’s strife-torn partner Syria. But failure may only further erode Russia’s slipping Middle East standing while creating even more uncertainties about how to address building concerns about the military aspects of Iran’s purportedly peaceful nuclear drive.

The stakes could thus hardly be higher when two days of talks between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany begin Monday under the watchful eye of President Vladimir Putin-a strongman who expects results.

“The Iranians are coming under a lot of pressure from Russia not to screw this up on their watch,” said one Western official familiar with the situation.

“Russia’s position will get firmer if Iran refuses to negotiate,” added Andrei Baklitsky of the PIR Centre for non-proliferation studies. “That would be a diplomatic slap in Russia’s face.” The urgency for Iran is being compounded by the July 1 deadline the European Union has slapped on a full oil embargo and the June 28 rollout of tough US sanctions

Jewish settlers won’t go quietly as eviction looms BEIT EL: The clock is ticking for 30 Jewish settler families in the occupied West Bank. Israel’s Supreme Court has said their homes sit on privately-owned Palestinian land and as an eviction deadline draws near, they say they will not go quietly.

“They will have to drag me out of here,” said Yoel Fattal, 28, who lives with his wife and three young children in one of the five apartment blocs the government must tear down by July 1, on the Ulpana hill in the settlement of Beit El. Fattal said news of the court ruling hit them “like a bolt of lightning on a clear day”. When he leased the flat five years ago, he had not imagined such a scenario could be possible.

“It hasn’t broken us, but it is very difficult,” he said as his wife sat beside him bouncing their 7-month-old son on her knee.

“We are at the frontline of the struggle ... our main fear is that if this goes by easily it will not stop there.”

Fattal can see the Palestinian city of Ramallah from his balcony. A military camp, where Palestinian workmen employed

by Israeli authorities are preparing mobile homes as temporary housing for the 30 families, is just down the road.

Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. They say Jewish settlements will deny them contiguous territory. Some 311,000 Israeli settlers live in the West Bank against 2.5 million Palestinians.

The United Nations deems all settlements in the West Bank to be illegal. Israel disputes this and has sanctioned 120 official settlements, most of them built on land which had no registered owner when it was seized in a 1967 war. But the anti-settlement group Peace Now says roughly 9,000 homes were built on land listed as owned by Palestinians. The fate of some of those houses is now in the hands of the Supreme Court, which is yet to rule on a number of ongoing cases.

“No one wants a fight,” Fattal’s wife, Yiska, said. “It is difficult for us and it is difficult for them too,” she said, referring to the Israeli policemen or soldiers who may be assigned to carry out the eviction order. Ulpana is a political headache for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The settlers are a traditional support base for him, but the pending eviction has left them feeling betrayed. “People definitely feel cheated and he (Netanyahu) probably cannot follow through on all the promises he has made,” Yoel Fattal said. In an effort to appease the settlers, Netanyahu has pledged to build 851 new homes for them in the West Bank, angering Palestinians and drawing international condemnation.

Treading through a political minefield, Netanyahu last week won a parliamentary battle against an attempt to legalise all Israeli settler homes on private Palestinian land.

Talks are ongoing between officials and settler leaders to try and avoid any violence at Ulpana. — Reuters

against a host of world countries that buy Iranian oil.

Yet divisions within Iran itself and a bruising second round of talks in Baghdad last month leave some observers thinking that Moscow will need to work a minor miracle to keep the talks alive.

The sceptics particularly cite this month’s failed meeting with the IAEA nuclear watchdog and the difficulty US President Barack Obama will have in making any concessions with elections approaching in November. “Of course there is a certain time limit,” said a senior European diplomat. “If there is a collective assessment that it is not going anywhere, we will have to say no to talks for talks’ sake.” Russia’s Kommersant daily said the threat of the process falling apart forced Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to decide last weekend to pay a flash visit to Tehran on Wednesday for a meeting with chief negotiator Saeed Jalili.

Iran followed that announcement by quickly saying it was now willing to discuss the same package proposal it had found unacceptable in Baghdad. The deal would see the Islamic Republic stop enriching uranium to 20 percent-seen as being just steps away from weapons-grade-and ship out its existing stock while also shuttering its forbidden Fordo bunker. The tough terms would not lead to the quick lifting of sanctions but instead see the West extend some forms of peaceful nuclear energy cooperation and

provide assistance for Iran’s battered aircraft industry.

Europe would also help Iran export oil to key client Asia by easing an EU tanker insurance ban. The plan is in line with the “step by step” approach promoted by Moscow and underscores the periodic suspicions that have clouded relations since the 1829 murder by a Tehran mob of the tsar’s ambassador to the Persian Empire. Putin pointedly stressed during the brief public portion of his meeting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Beijing last week that “we are very strong supporters of the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons.”

Russia has seemingly tried to play down expectation by noting last weekend that “we obviously understand that the sides will not be able to agree on all issues in Moscow. “But we proceed on the assumption that the negotiating process must by all means continue after the Moscow round,” the Russian foreign ministry said. Analysts said the question of whether this happens depends mostly on the extent to which Iran feels it can still count on Russia once the full range of oil sanctions sets in.“I generally avoid using the expression ‘last chance’ meeting, but the Moscow one may be turning into a showdown given the July 1 sanctions deadline,” said Bruno Tertrais of the Paris-based Foundation for Strategic Research. — AFP

Yemen army seizes third city after Qaeda pullout Advancing troops kill 27 militants in firefights SANAA: Yemeni troops took control of the southern city of Shuqra yesterday after AlQaeda militants pulled out of the third jihadist bastion to fall in a week, a military official said. “The army has taken control of Shuqra,” said a military official, adding that “troops have taken positions in the centre” of the coastal city. He said advancing troops killed 27 militants in firefights overnight, after state media reported at least 48 people, including 40 militants, killed on Thursday.

A local official told AFP Al-Qaeda fighters “pulled out towards Azzan” in Shabwa province, some 110 kilometres (70 miles) to the northeast, and a stronghold of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The official said militants fled after the army “tightened the noose from three fronts.” In an indication that government appears set to hunt down the militants, witnesses said air forces struck the Saqah mountains between the towns of Rawdah and Hawta, which are also Al-Qaeda bastions near Azzan. They said that militants have hideouts in the mountains. Shuqra was the last major AQAP stronghold in Abyan province to fall to government forces, which launched an all-out offensive last month that has already resulted in the recapture of the towns of Jaar and Zinjibar. The militants remain in control of the smaller town of Al-Mahfad. The defence ministry news website 26Sep.net confirmed Shuqra’s recapture, adding that units from several brigades, the elite Republican Guard and local anti-Qaeda militiamen took part.

General Mohammed Labuza, deputy chief of staff for armament, said the “terrorists received painful blows,” adding that air forces were “dealing with criminal elements on the run.” The official Saba news agency said warplanes had launched around 100 raids against militants in Shuqra. On Tuesday, the military drove the jihadists out

ZINJIBAR: Yemeni army soldiers and tribesmen loyal to the army are seen on a tank on a road in the city of Zinjibar, Yemen after they retook the city from AlQaeda militants, Thursday. —AP of provincial capital Zinjibar and Jaar. Taking advantage of the weakening of central government control by an Arab Spring-inspired uprising last year, the militants had overrun most of Abyan, seizing Zinjibar, Jaar, Shuqra and several villages. On May 12, the army began its offensive to recapture territory lost to the jihadists. A total of 567 people have died in the campaign — 429 Al-Qaeda militants, 78 soldiers, 26 militiamen and 34 civilians-according to an AFP tally compiled from various sources. In Shuqra, hundreds of soldiers and local militiamen, known as the Popular Coordination Committees, set up checkpoints as residents took to the streets to welcome government forces.

“Now our problems are finished. The extremists were the reason for all the trouble,” resident Ali al-Abyani said by tele-

phone. He said people welcomed the army with national chants, as some fired guns in celebration. Saba said that deputy parliament speaker Mohammed al-Shadadi and several army commanders took part in the celebrations.

Tuesday’s recapture of Jaar and Zinjibar came just hours before the UN Security Council unanimously passed a resolution threatening sanctions against groups seen as undermining Yemen’s political transition.

The main targets of Resolution 2051 were the family and supporters of ousted president Ali Abdullah Saleh, although they were not named in the text, diplomats said. Saleh has been accused by his opponents of allowing Al-Qaeda to take hold of large swathes of south and east Yemen and of meddling in the new government’s affairs. —AFP

international SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Latin American immigrants leave crisit-hit Spain in droves MADRID: Patricia Herrera, her husband and two children move slowly in a check-in line at Madrid airport with their ten suitcases and dog-the belongings built up during their life in Spain which the crisis has ended. “I became unemployed, my husband is without work for two years and, with two children, the situation was very difficult, so we decided to return,” the 30-year-old said as she prepared to board a flight back to her native Ecuador.

“We are leaving here very sad. It really pains me, and especially my son, because he has grown up here,” added Herrera as her two-year-old daughter Desire scampered around her. Her son Alexis could not hide his disappointment as he helped his parents with the suitcases for a return trip being made by tens of thousands of other Latin Americans in Spain. “I understand but I don’t want to go,” said the 15-year-old, who barely knows Ecuador. “My place is in Spain, I have spent my entire life here. Yesterday I was with my friends, they were crying and on social networking sites I have received many

messages that say ‘We will miss you’. It is really hard.”

Herrera’s husband Fabian Cordoba, 32, arrived in Spain 13 years ago and quickly found work as a house painter in a country going through a property boom. A year later she joined her husband. Two years later Alexis joined them in Spain with his grandmother.

“There was a lot of work, there was work for everyone, there was work left over, instead of the eight hours per day that the law requires you work, you could work 14 hours per day and if you wanted, even more,” said Cordoba.

“You could earn a lot of money and life was great,” he added. But in 2008 Spain’s housing boom ground to an abrupt halt, sending the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy into a tailspin.

The unemployment rate has soared to a record 24.4 percent, the highest rate in Europe. The jobless rate for immigrants is even higher, at around 35 percent. “If for Spaniards things have gone badly, for us it is even worse,” said Herrera. The housing boom drew millions of immigrants to Spain, a nation of

News

in brief

Swiss probe of fatal bus crash narrows to driver GENEVA: Swiss authorities say they are narrowing their focus to the bus driver in a probe of a March 13 crash that killed 28 people, most of them children. Twenty-two students returning from a ski holiday and six adults died when the bus crashed inside a tunnel in southern Switzerland on its journey back to Belgium. The 32-year-old driver was among the dead. Prosecutors in the canton (state) of Valais said yesterday their investigation has excluded the possibility another vehicle was involved, or that the road or tunnel were defective. They also excluded speeding, alcohol or a technical problem with the bus as possible causes. Chief prosecutor Olivier Elsig said in a statement that “from now the investigation is concentrating on causes linked to the driver of the bus.”

UK hacking suspect will fight extradition to US LONDON: The lawyer for a British hacking suspect says she’ll fight any moves to extradite him to the United States.

A US federal indictment filed Tuesday alleged that the 20year-old hacked into sites for the talent competition “The XFactor,” “PBS NewsHour,” Sony Pictures and others. Ryan Cleary already faces British charges that he and others hacked the Serious Organized Crime Agency and various UK music sites - all while he was still a teenager. In a statement, his lawyer Karen Todner says that any move to extradite Cleary to the US would be “fiercely contested.” Todner said yesterday that Cleary suffers from Asperger’s Syndrome and that his removal to America was “totally undesirable.”

4 Bosnian Serbs sentenced for Srebrenica killings SARAJEVO: Bosnia’s war crimes court has jailed four former Bosnian Serb soldiers for a total of 142 years for participating in the execution of Srebrenica Muslims during the country’s 1992-95 war. Yesterday, the court sentenced Franc Kos and Zoran Goronja to 40 years in jail, Stanko Kojic to 43 years, and Vlastimir Golijan to 19 years for killing some 800 captured Muslim Bosniaks during what became known as the 1995 Srebrenica massacre. The judge said the killings took five hours, during which time the soldiers even found time for a lunch break. Over 8,000 Bosniak men and boys from Srebrenica were killed after the town was overrun by Bosnian Serb forces in July 1995.

47 million people, mostly from outside the European Union.

The number of foreigners living in the country ballooned from around 500,000 in 1996 to roughly five million a decade later. Now immigrants are leaving in droves. The number of foreigners in the country fell by 40,447 last year over the previous year to 5.77 million, according to national statistics institute figures. The biggest decline of any nationality was registered by Ecuadoreans, whose numbers fell by 15.1 percent to 360,710.

The number of Colombians dropped 10.4 percent, the number of Argentinians by 10.2 percent, the number of Peruvians 8.1 percent and the number of Bolivians by 7.2 percent.

Herrera’s family received help to return to Ecuador from Ruminahui, a group which represents Ecuadoreans living in Spain. The organisation provided them with plane tickets and a check of 1,800 euros ($2,270) which was covered by funds provided to Ruminahui by the Spanish government.

“We have a very long list of people

who are very desperate, who want to return to their countries because they have lost everything here,” said Ruminahui president Vladimir Paspuel.

Herrera said things started to go wrong for her family after they bought their own apartment in Torrejon de Ardoz, a Madrid suburb, for 224,000 euros. The mortgage had a variable rate and it rose from 800 to 1,500 euros per month. “Our salaries were completely gobbled up by the mortgage,” she said.

When she lost her job as a cleaning lady, the mortgage payments stopped and the bank seized their flat.

Now they must start from scratch in Alamor, a small town in southern Ecuador where they will live with Herrera’s parents-in-law. “We are going without knowing what we are going to do,” she said as she put her eightmonth-old Shar Pei dog named Roger into a cage for the flight to Quito. Her husband said he is convinced that in Ecuador “we can live better.” “I have many friends who have returned and they are doing much better than they were here,” he added. —AFP

Curtain rod scandal fans Greek voter anger Ex-minister casts corruption shadow over election ATHENS: Scandalous details of the lavish life of a former minister who spent 20,000 euros on curtain rods while cash-strapped Greeks buckled under tax hikes and wage cuts have driven anger against the establishment to boiling point before tomorrow’s election.

Akis Tsohatzopoulos, 72, a once-powerful Socialist arrested on charges of taking bribes and evading taxes, has become a symbol of the corruption that has bedevilled Greece in the 38 years of rule by the Socialist PASOK and the conservative New Democracy, the two parties backing the country’s bailout by international lenders.

The affair has become a symbol of the injustice felt by ordinary Greeks, who have seen pensions cut and wages plunge by a quarter last year while their wealthy compatriots still enjoy their yachts and fancy restaurants, seemingly immune to the cuts that have pushed many into poverty and even suicide. Anger stoked by the Tsohatzopoulos affair runs so deep that many Greeks are willing to accept the risk of an election victory by anti-bailout leftists that might lead the country out of the euro, just to punish an entrenched and out of touch political class.

“I lost all my money while people like Tsohatzopoulos were taking bribes and evading taxes, and you’re asking me if I’ll vote for them?” said Dimitrios Panagiotou, 71, a retired civil servant whose pension has been slashed by a third. A wave of suicides triggered by financial despair over the past month stands in stark contrast to the reported luxury of the Tsohatzopoulos household from his younger, second wife spending 20,000 euros, or $25,000, on curtain rods, to their lavish wedding night in the Four Seasons George V hotel in Paris eight years ago.

Tsohatzopoulos, who is accused of money laundering and using offshore companies to

buy a luxurious mansion in Athens, is in jail pending trial. He last served as a minister in 2004. Law-abiding Greeks, mostly low- and middle-income employees, have their tax deducted monthly from their salaries while rich businessmen, doctors or lawyers notoriously underdeclare income or bribe tax offi-

and lowered the tax free threshold from 12,000 ($15,000) to 5,000 euros ($9,500).

In contrast, shipping income from Greekflagged vessels is taxed in the low-single digits while Greek shipping companies enjoy generous tax exemptions. Rich shipowners buying up property and football clubs are

ATHENS: A shopkeeper sets out hammocks in preparations of the day ahead in the Plaka tourist district in central Athens yesterday.

Greece faces crucial national elections tomorrow, that could ultimately determine whether the debt-saddled, recession bound country remains in the eurozone. —AP cials. Annual tax evasion is estimated at 45 billion euros ($55 billion) - one fifth of the 215 billion euro ($270 billion) economy. Most middle-class Greeks are taxed at between 25 and 40 percent of their annual income, with the tax burden rising sharply after the government imposed a string of one-off levies

taxed abroad, if at all. “My parents have paid taxes all their life and have nothing to show for it - but the rich always find loopholes to escape,” said Niki Argyriou, a 19-year-old language student who voted on May 6 for the first time. “There’s no way I will vote for either New Democracy or PASOK.” —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

House pulls Nigeria lawmaker from probe Lawan detained over bribe allegations

MOGADISHU: In this photo taken Thursday, June 7, 2012, a tank of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force drives on the outskirts of Mogadishu, Somalia Thursday, June 7, 2012. —AP

Militants defecting to Somali side after losses ELASHA BIYAHA: Evil laughter pealed out of the mobile phone.

Abshir Ali Mohamed, an Al-Shabab defector now wearing a Somali military uniform, had asked his former commander to join him. The commander, an Al-Shabab judge known for ordering amputations, said he would instead kill Mohamed. Somali military and government leaders say Mohamed’s defection is an example of a trend growing in their favor, with the East African country’s most notorious militant group losing manpower and ground. The 24-year-old former insurgent left al-Shabab less than two weeks ago and now wears a bright blue patch with a white star - the Somali flag - on the shoulder of his government uniform.

“Al-Shabab is no longer. It’s going to end soon,” Mohamed said last week at freshly dug Ugandan-Somali military base on the outskirts of Mogadishu. The base was set up after African Union troops kicked militants out of the towns of Elasha Biyaha and Afgoye. “Al-Shabab is changing sides because of heavy losses. Those who still fight with them are running away in small groups. They’ve lost weapons. They’ve lost personnel,” he continued. More are looking to flee, he said.

Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman said Thursday that some 500 Al-Shabab fighters have defected to the government side. “The defections have been increasing day by day since our forces captured Afgoye town. That put huge pressure on them,” Osman said. The spokesman for the African Union military force said AU commanders are seeing more defections than ever. “It’s a sign Al-Shabab is losing cohesion, losing command and control,” Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda said.

Col. Kayanja Muhanga is the Ugandan commander in charge of Battle Group 8, the fighting force that cleared Al-Shabab out of Afgoye. He estimates his troops killed more than 60 insurgents during the three days of fighting last month, a battle that extended the African Union fighting force’s reach outside of Mogadishu for the first time since their 2007 deployment to Mogadishu.

A commander in that battle, Burundian Lt. Col. Gregory Ndikumazambo, said Al-Shabab fights courageously. “They fight but they’re badly organized,” he said. The strength of Al-Shabab is not precisely known. Mohamed - a four-year veteran of AlShabab until this month’s defection - estimated that the insurgents have 7,000 to 8,000 fighters. Ankunda put the figure at 4,000 to 6,000. The African Union now has a UN mandate to field a force of about 17,000 troops across Somalia.

Many of Al-Shabab’s troops are reported to have fled into northern Somalia over the last year following their pullout from Mogadishu last August. Fighters are also flocking to Kismayo, the last major city Al-Shabab controls. Ankunda said foreign fighters including American, British and Ugandans who fight with AlShabab and its affiliated al-Qaida arm, have fled to Kismayo in recent days.

Kismayo’s Indian Ocean port is al-Shabab’s last major moneymaker. The militants levy taxes on incoming goods, much as they did at Mogadishu’s largest market until losing control of it last year. The loss of Bakara market cost al-Shabab millions of dollars in annual revenue, Ankunda said, one reason they cannot afford to lose Kismayo. Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga promised this week that Kenyan troops would take control of Kismayo by August. “The information we have is that the Shabab will try to defend Kismayo. The information we have is indeed that they are preparing for a fight,” Ankunda said.

Mohamed’s former Al-Shabab commander, Sheik Mustaf, called the defector last week just as Mohamed was speaking with a few reporters. He put the call on speakerphone as an interpreter translated the conversation. —AP

ABUJA: Nigeria’s House of Representatives voted yesterday to remove a lawmaker from a probe into the country’s mismanaged fuel subsidy program over allegations that he took a bribe from an oil company. Rep. Farouk Lawan of the country’s ruling People’s Democratic Party missed the hearing in Nigeria’s capital, as police detained him the night before for questioning over an alleged $620,000 bribe paid by an oil company owner who has ties to President Goodluck Jonathan.

Lawmakers unanimously voted to suspend Lawan from the probe and begin investigations into the actions of a legislative staffer.

The probe uncovered that the fuel subsidy program wasted billions of dollars. Lawan remains a lawmaker in the House, the lower legislative body of the country’s National Assembly. He could not be immediately reached for comment yesterday. House Speaker Aminu Tambuwal told lawmakers during the nationally televised hearing that the accusations should not taint the probe’s discovery of “monumental fraud.” The probe called for $6.7 billion to be repaid by importers, the state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. and other agencies.

“We reject in totality insinuations ... that the effect of the allegations have eroded the integrity or recommendations of the report,” Tambuwal said. Confusion still surrounds the bribery allegations, which involve billionaire Femi Otedola, who runs Zenon Petroleum & Gas Ltd. and was an ardent supporter of Jonathan during the 2011 presidential campaign.

Lawmakers did not discuss details of the allegations during their emergency session yesterday.

Frank Mba, a federal police spokesman, said yesterday that Lawan appeared at police headquarters in Abuja for questioning Thursday afternoon and had been detained overnight. Mba said police took the allegations seriously. The investigation by lawmakers began as a response to the national strikes and protests that paralyzed Africa’s most populous nation in January following the removal of popular subsidies on gasoline that kept prices low.

On the orders of Jonathan’s administration, prices at the pump jumped Jan. 1 from 45 cents per liter ($1.70 per gallon) to at least 94 cents per liter ($3.50 per gallon).

Jonathan later announced a new, partially subsidized price of 60 cents a liter ($2.27 a gallon) to stop the six-day nation-

al strike. The president also deployed soldiers into Lagos and other cities in the country who blocked demonstrators and at times fired live ammunition and tear gas. The subsidies, in theory, keep prices artificially low for buyers while paying companies for bringing in refined gasoline at a loss against the world market price.

Nigeria, despite producing about 2.4 million barrels of oil a day, has decrepit refineries unable to meet the nation’s demand for gasoline due to years of mismanagement and sabotage.

However, gasoline importation licenses became a means of patronage, as the number of companies involved jumped from six in 2006 to 140 in 2011, according to the report. In 2009, when there were 36 companies licensed to import, government officials once issued about $800 million in 128 transactions in a 24-hour period without proper documentation, the report reads.

Companies also won approval without any real oversight. In one case, two businessmen who made a pitch to handle waste management at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. instead applied to become importers and got a $12.4 million contract in 2011 for fuel it never supplied, according to the report. —AP

Dana Air: Will fly again after cleared to do so LAGOS: The Nigerian air carrier that crashed and killed more than 150 people will soon fly again, despite public concerns about its fleet of aging aircraft, a company executive said Thursday. Investigators continue to probe what caused a Dana Air MD83 to lose power in both its engines and crash June 3 in a Lagos neighborhood. Gautam Hathiramani, a member of the airline’s board of directors, told The Associated Press in an interview that the carrier has complete faith in its five remaining MD-83s as airlines across the world still fly them.

“We have no hesitation to fly them again because we’ve always had them fully serviced and they’re certified they’re airworthy before they go up in the air,” Hathiramani said. Dana Air said it will fly again only after it has been cleared to do so by all relevant authorities. Aviation authorities have halted flights by Dana Air as an investigation continues into the crash of the plane coming into Lagos from the nation’s capital, Abuja. Its pilots radioed in just before the crash to say both engines had failed.

Some members of the public are remain skeptical of the airline and authorities after the crash in Nigeria, a country that has suffered through a string of major airline crashes through the decades. The MD-83s in

its fleet are all more than 20 years old, an age not unusual among airlines, though planes often require more maintenance and attention the older they become. “It’s a tried-andtested model and it was the right size and configuration for the market,” Hathiramani said.

Dana, an airline that began flying in 2008, relies on Turkish maintenance company MyTechnic to service its aircraft. The airline once used Spanish international carrier Iberia to perform maintenance on its planes, but chose MyTechnic in 2010 as it could have technicians on the ground in Nigeria, Hathiramani said.

The airline flies the aircraft to Istanbul for heavy maintenance checks, the executive said.

Hathiramani said that Dana still consults with Iberia, now owned by International Consolidated Airlines Group. However, an Iberia spokesman told the AP that the company ended its maintenance contract with the carrier in 2010.

Hathiramani said he didn’t know whether MyTechnic offered a cheaper maintenance contract than Iberia.

Dana is a major brand in Nigeria, run by Indian families who have lived in the country for decades. Its holdings also include a plastic manufacturer, a pharmaceutical arm and other industries. However, there have

been safety concerns raised in the past about its importation of Kia automobiles in Nigeria, with some complaining the company refused to honor recall notices issued by the manufacturer. Hathiramani said he had no information about those complaints.

Since the crash, civil aviation authorities in Nigeria have come under increasing political and public pressure.

The civil aviation authority grounded Air Nigeria, the country’s secondlargest airline, for safety checks after a strike by engineers. On Thursday, its flights had resumed, as customers in a domestic terminal at Lagos’ Murtala Muhammed International Airport walked past a condolence registry and two lit white candles at the Dana Air check-in counter.

Hathiramani said Dana Air continued to call on relatives of those killed in the crash to come forward and identify themselves so bodies can be claimed and insurance payments be routed to families. He acknowledged the public anger the company now faces and said the company wanted both its officials and the public to know the cause of the crash before it begins flights again. “They have every reason to know what happened,” he said. “We’re just as equally committed to finding out the true cause of what happened here.” —AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Pentagon to mark gay pride month WASHINGTON: Last summer, gays in the US military dared not acknowledge their sexual orientation. This summer, the Pentagon will salute them, marking June as gay pride month just as it has marked other celebrations honoring racial or ethnic groups. In the latest remarkable sign of change since the military repealed its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy requiring gays and lesbians to remain silent about their sexual orientation, the Defense Department will soon hold its first event to recognize gay and lesbian troops.

It comes nine months after repeal of the policy that forced more than 13,500 service members out of the armed forces. Details are still being worked out, but officials say Defense Secretary Leon Panetta wants to honor the contributions of gay service members. “Now that we’ve repealed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ he feels it’s important to find a way this month to recognize the

service and professionalism of gay and lesbian troops,” said Navy Capt. John Kirby, a spokesman.

This month’s event will follow a long tradition at the Pentagon of recognizing diversity in America’s armed forces. Hallway displays and activities, for example, have marked Black History Month and Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month. Before the repeal, gay troops could serve but would be discharged if they revealed their orientation. At the same time, a commanding officer was prohibited from asking a service member whether he or she was gay.

Although some feared a repeal of the ban would cause problems in the ranks, officials and gay advocacy groups say no big issues have materialized - aside from what advocacy groups criticize as slow implementation of some changes, such as benefit entitlements to troops in same-sex marriages. OutServe, a once-clan-

destine professional association for gay service members, has nearly doubled in size to more than 5,500 members. It held its first national convention of gay service members in Las Vegas last fall, then a conference on family issues this year in Washington.

At West Point, the alumni gay advocacy group Knights Out was able to hold the first installment in March of what is intended to be an annual dinner in recognition of gay and lesbian graduates and Army cadets. Gay students at the US Naval Academy were able to take same-sex dates to the academy’s Ring Dance for third-year midshipmen. Panetta said last month that military leaders had concluded that repeal had not affected morale or readiness. A report to Panetta with assessments from the individual military service branches said that as of May 1 they had seen no ill effects. — AP

Obama shifts from grit to glitz in election-year contrast Republicans say president is out of touch

COLORADO: Firefighters watch as flames leap hundreds of feet in the air as the High Park wildfire fire explodes on the south side of Poudre Canyon west of Fort Collins, Colo., on Thursday.—AP

New tanker planes sought as fires rage CHEYENNE: The government is bolstering the nation’s rundown aerial firefighting fleet by taking steps to add seven large tanker planes. But the aircraft likely won’t be available soon and several other firefighting planes are grounded as destructive wildfires rage in Colorado and New Mexico. President Barack Obama signed a bill Wednesday hastening the addition of those aircraft at a cost of $24 million. The same day, two firefighting C130 military transport planes sat on a tarmac in Cheyenne, shrouded in an eye-watering haze from a Colorado wildfire just a 15-minute flight away.

In all, eight workhorse C-130s stand ready to fight destructive wildfires around the country - but all are grounded due to rules governing the use of the nation’s aerial firefighting resources, and the new purchases probably won’t be able to help firefighters for weeks, if not months. “Getting into large, multiple wildfire scenarios, there’s just not enough (aircraft) to go around in the current state,” said Chuck Bushey, past president of the International Association of Wildland Fire, a professional association of people who fight wildfires. Obama signed the bill at the urging of Colorado’s congressional delegation, which was quick to praise the move. Three planes are supposed to be ready by mid-August: Two BAe-146s from Missoula, Mont.-based Neptune Aviation Services, Inc., and one BAe-146 from Minden, Nev.-based Minden Air Corp. The BAe-146s are jet-powered. The three will bring the Forest Service fleet to 20 large tanker planes - a figure that includes the lease of eight planes on Monday from the state of California, the Canadian Interagency Fire Centre, and a private DC-10 based in California. Another 11 tankers, including the C-130s, can be called into service.

“This is a major milestone in our efforts to modernize the large air tanker fleet,” Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell said in a release about the President’s bill signing. Still, the eight Air National Guard C-130 cargo planes fitted to drop slurry sit in Wyoming, Colorado, California and North Carolina. The Forest Service says it may request the eight planes only when all private tanker planes already are fighting fires or are unavailable for use. The C-130 crews insist they’re ready to roll on 48 hours’ notice.—AP

NEW YORK: Talk about a venue change.

Fresh from giving an economic speech in America’s industrial Rust Belt, President Barack Obama headlined big-dollar campaign fundraisers at the home of “Sex and the City” actress Sarah Jessica Parker and in a landmark New York hotel. Obama has shaped his re-election message around appealing to middle-class voters, many of whom continue to struggle to find work and afford their homes years after economic recession hit. But the Democratic president, like his Republican opponent and candidates before them, is also targeting wealthy supporters to help fill his campaign coffers as he seeks to win a second White House term on Nov. 6.

The contrast was especially sharp for Obama on Thursday. In a speech at a community college in Cleveland, Ohio, he said that Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney would hollow out the middle class with his policies favoring the rich.

Hours later, he was holding court in the elegant dining room of Parker’s four-story brownstone in Manhattan’s West Village, where 50 guests including actress Meryl Streep and designer Michael Kors paid $40,000 a plate for dinner. Then he spoke to a $10,000-per-person fundraiser in a lavish ballroom of the Plaza Hotel featuring singers Mariah Carey and Alicia Keys, telling the well-heeled crowd that he was committed to ensuring economic opportunities for all Americans.

The White House said it was important for the president to connect with highrolling donors in an election year where competition for fundraising dollars is intense. “There is no question that running for president is an expensive proposition,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters on Air Force One on Thursday morning. “The president has supporters from all income groups,” he said. Obama’s campaign has prided itself on raising money from large numbers of donors giving small amounts, compared with powerful Republican donors such as billionaire Sheldon Adelson who give millions to outside groups opposing the president.

Former Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said that Obama still needed to make sure he has the resources to compete. “If he were to move in (to Sarah Jessica Parker’s house) and forget all the rest of us, that

would be something else. But the president is concerned about the middle class, that is evident in the programs he is trying to introduce,” he said. Both presidential contenders are on fundraising sprees this election year. With outside groups pledging millions, spending on each side of the aisle could top $1 billion.

At a fundraiser on Thursday in Chicago, Romney added at least $3.3 million to his campaign war chest. The former private equity executive and Massachusetts governor brought in some $77 million last month, topping Obama’s more than $60 million. Obama said in Ohio and also in New York that the Romney campaign would spend huge sums on negative ads blaming him for continued weakness in the economy, making it a close election.

“The good news is, I believe we are right,” he said at the Plaza event, laying out his vision for targeted investments to create broad-based growth and slamming Republican proposals to reduce taxes further on the very wealthy.

Parker, whose “Sex and the City” character, Carrie Bradshaw, was a style icon known for her expensive shoes, wore a dark lace dress and sparkling jewels at the

fundraiser in her home, which she co-hosted with Vogue editor Anna Wintour. The actress - married to Broadway actor Matthew Broderick - sent an email to Obama supporters in May saying the event would be “fabulous” and offering them a chance to win two seats at her dinner party if they made an online donation. The contest winner was identified on Thursday as Robin Hunt, an administrator at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore who attended the elegant meal with her mother.

The Obama campaign did not disclose how much money it raised from the raffle.

But a similar fundraiser last month at the home of Oscar winner George Clooney, where two women won tickets to attend along with their husbands, raised nearly $15 million.

Republicans have drawn attention to Obama’s celebrity hobnobbing to paint him as out of touch at a time when U.S. unemployment remains stubbornly high and growth is tepid. “Where would President Obama get an outrageous idea like ‘the private sector is doing fine?’

Perhaps from one of his many star-studded fundraisers,” Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus wrote in a column. —Reuters

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walks from Marine One to board Air Force One at John F. Kennedy International Airport yesterday, in Andrews Air Force Base, Md., en route Washington. —AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Stanford gets 110 years for role in $7B swindle HOUSTON: Former jet-setting Texas tycoon R. Allen Stanford had plenty of things to say before a federal judge sentenced him to 110 years in prison for bilking investors out of more than $7 billion over two decades. An apology was not one of them.

In a defiant, rambling statement that lasted more than 40 minutes, Stanford told the court Thursday about the injuries he suffered during a prison fight; criticized the government for its “gestapo tactics” when his companies were put in receivership and their assets sold off to pay back investors; described his financial empire as a victim of the 2008 credit collapse; and recalled riding horses with former President George W. Bush.

“I am and will always be at peace with the way I conducted myself in business,” he said before the judge handed down the sentence. Prosecutors said Stanford, 62, used the money from investors who bought certificates of deposit, or CDs, from his bank on the Caribbean island nation of Antigua to fund a string of failed businesses, bribe regulators and pay for a lavish lifestyle that included yachts, a fleet of private jets and sponsorship of cricket tournaments. The one-time billionaire was convicted in March on 13 of 14 fraud-related counts in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in US history.

Houston retiree Sandra Dorrell, who lost over $1 million in the fraud, said Stanford’s statement to the court shows the financier cares only about himself and will never admit any wrongdoing. “It would have been really nice if he had turned around and said, ‘I am sorry,’ to the victims,” said Dorrell, 59, adding that the sentence handed down by US District Judge David Hittner was “very well-deserved.”

Prosecutors had asked that Stanford be sentenced to 230 years in prison, the maximum sentence possible. Stanford’s attorneys had asked for a maximum of 41 months, a sentence he could have completed within about five months because he has been jailed since his arrest in June 2009. Stanford’s convictions on conspiracy, wire and mail fraud charges followed a seven-week trial. During Thursday’s hearing, Stanford remained defiant, insisting his business empire was legitimate and he “worked tirelessly and honestly.”

“I did not run a Ponzi scheme. I didn’t defraud anybody,” Stanford said. Prosecutor William Stellmach chastised Stanford for his lack of remorse for defrauding thousands of people of their life savings and preventing them from being able to send their kids to college or to get needed medical treatment.

“To the bitter end, he was a con man and a coward,” Stellmach told the court. Hittner allowed two people to speak on behalf of the victims during the sentencing hearing. Angela Shaw, a Dallas-area woman who founded the Stanford Victims Coalition after three generations of her family lost $4.5 million in the fraud, said the financier’s “heinous crime” has taken a “staggering toll on victims around the world.”

At the end of his statement, Jaime Escalona, a Venezuelan who lost $1.5 million and founded the Coalition of Latin American Stanford Victims, turned to face Stanford and said, “You deserve what’s coming to you. You are a dirty rotten scoundrel.” Stanford was once considered one of the richest men in the US , with an estimated net worth of more than $2 billion. His financial empire stretched from the US to Latin America and the Caribbean. But after his arrest, all of his assets were seized and he had to rely on court-appointed attorneys to defend him.

Defense attorneys portrayed Stanford as a visionary entrepreneur who made money for investors and conducted legitimate business deals. They accused the prosecution’s star witness - James M. Davis, the former chief financial officer for Stanford’s various companies - of being behind the fraud and tried to discredit him by calling him a liar and tax cheat.

Prosecutors had wanted Stanford to get a longer prison sentence than the 150-year term Bernard Madoff received for orchestrating the largest pyramid scheme in history. Madoff’s name was often mentioned during Thursday’s sentencing, with Stellmach insisting Stanford’s crimes were worse because he kept most of the fraudulent proceeds for himself, bribed regulators and targeted middle-class investors. Defense attorney Ali Fazel said that unlike Madoff, Stanford had legitimate businesses. Prosecutors declined to comment after the sentencing.

Fazel said he was disappointed. “It’s a harsh punishment. It’s tough on him,” Fazel said. “He feels like he didn’t do anything.”

In handing down the sentence, Hittner called it “one of the most egregious frauds ever presented to a trial jury in federal court.” — AP

3 dead, 1 critical after Canada campus shooting University put on lockdown EDMONTON: An early morning shooting left three armed guards dead and one in critical condition at a university campus in western Canada after an apparent robbery of an armored vehicle or vehicles, police said yesterday. Police spokesman Scott Pattison said they continue to look for the shooter or shooters. Pattison said no University of Alberta students were involved. The university was quickly put on lockdown, but that was later lifted.

G4S Cash Services spokeswoman Robin Steinberg confirmed the victims were employees of the global security company.

She did not have further details. Steinberg said they’ve never had a fatality in Canada before. “It’s horrible to lose this many,” she said. Such shootings are rare in Canada, where residents are nervous about anything that might indicate they are moving closer to their U.S. counterparts. The oil boom town of Fort McMurray, Alberta, however, often has drug-related shootings, and Vancouver often has gang shootings.

Gunfire at Toronto’s most prominent mall this month left two dead and several injured. A shooting at an Edmonton club in 2006 left three dead.

Yesterday’s shooting happened shortly after midnight in the Hub Mall area, which has student residences and shops. It’s the university’s summer session, so fewer stu-

dents are living on campus. Ian Breitzke, a student, said he was watching TV when he heard a man crying out in pain. He said when police came about 10 minutes later they broke down the door to a room behind an ATM machine and pulled out two people who looked dead.

The student said police then pulled out a man who was alive. “The university is saddened about those who lost their lives last night and we extend our condolences to their loved ones,” the university said on its website. It said the rest of the campus was operating as normal. — AP

ALBERTA: Police investigators look over the body of a shooting victim after three people were killed in an apparent attempted armed robbery at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada yesterday.— AP

Cop who downed Colombia cartels to advise Mexico MEXICO CITY: The Colombian general who helped bring down drug kingpin Pablo Escobar will turn his expertise to Mexico’s drug war if the presidential front-runner wins next month’s election. Candidate Enrique Pena Nieto announced Thursday night that he will appoint retired Gen Oscar Naranjo as an adviser, calling Colombia an example of success in drug war strategy. Naranjo told The Associated Press in an earlier interview that he had been approached by the campaign, adding Thursday that he would “have no operative role or place in the government hierarchy.”

Pena Nieto repeated his pledge to reduce violent crime affecting everyday Mexicans in a drug war that has taken more than 47,000 lives since 2006, a contrast to President Felipe Calderon’s strategy of going after drug kingpins. Analysts have said Pena Nieto’s promised strategy could mean that drug dealers who conduct their businesses discreetly will be left alone. But Naranjo, standing with Pena Nieto at a news conference, said all cartels would be treated equally.

“There can’t be inequalities in the treatment of criminals. A crimi-

MEXICO CITY: Presidential candidate Enrique Pena Nieto, right, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party and Colombian retired Gen. Oscar Naranjo attend a press conference in Mexico City, Thursday.—AP

nal is a criminal,” he said. Naranjo, 55, is widely respected in the region for playing a central role in dismantling Colombia’s major drug trafficking organizations during a 36-year police career, in close coordination with US drug and intelligence agents. He has been praised by US officials for a strategy that Washington holds up as a model for other Latin American countries’ fights against traffickers.

The appointment is seen as a move by Pena Nieto to show his commitment to battling drug cartels, even as his rivals say his party, the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, has negotiated or even colluded with crime gangs in various states and during its 71-year hold on the presidency. That includes Calderon’s National Action Party, whose candidate Josefina Vazquez is running in third in most polls.

The naming of Naranjo also sends a message that Pena Nieto will maintain a close relationship with US law enforcement that was established under Calderon, whom Pena Nieto has accused of mismanaging the drug war since he escalated the government’s attack on cartels in 2006. Naranjo, who retired Tuesday, has been working as a consultant in the region, including for the current administration of Calderon.

As Colombia’s police director since 2007, Naranjo succeeded in capturing or forcing the surrender of all but one of the country’s known drug kingpins. He long worked closely with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and has been working with senior Mexican law enforcement and judicial officials in recent years.

Naranjo is also the chief architect of Colombia’s criminal intelligence apparatus, which he has employed with considerable effectiveness against Colombia’s rebels. He was intelligence chief of the “Bloque de Busqueda,” a special police task force that eventually tracked down and killed Escobar in December 1993. His detectives also gathered key intelligence that led to the killings of two of the three senior leftist rebel leaders slain in Colombia since 2008.

Analysts say Colombia’s police have achieved far less on other fronts under Naranjo, however. Kidnapping and murder are down dramatically, but criminal bands continue to thrive in the provinces, running drugs, extorting, “taxing” illegal gold mining. Colombia also remains the world’s most deadly nation for trade union organizers.

Pena Nieto is ahead by double digits in most polls. If he wins the July 1 election, he will regain the presidency for the PRI for the first time since it was voted out in 2000.—AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Coalition names Mukherjee as presidential candidate in India Premier Singh may take finance minister post

TOKYO: People at a station in Osaka, western Japan, watch a TV screen showing an image of Katsuya Takahashi, a former Aum Shinrikyo cult member, being driven to Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department after his arrest in Tokyo yesterday. —AP

Last fugitive caught in ’95 Japan nerve gas attack TOKYO: His trail cold for years, the last fugitive suspected in a doomsday cult’s deadly nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subways in 1995 was arrested in a comic book cafe yesterday, closing a chapter on Japan’s worst terrorist attack. He had altered his appearance and reportedly used a fake name and avoided meeting people to evade arrest, but Katsuya Takahashi admitted who he was when approached by police at the cafe in downtown Tokyo.

The former bodyguard for the Aum Shinrikyo cult leader, Takahashi had been on Japan’s most wanted list for years for his suspected participation in the sarin gas attack that killed 13 people and injured about 6,000, shattering Japan’s long-held sense of safety. According to media reports, he worked for a construction company and avoided capture for years by using a fake name, wearing a surgical mask on the job and seeking assignments that didn’t involve meeting people. The manhunt heated up after the June 3 arrest of another cult fugitive, Naoko Kikuchi, who reportedly lived with Takahashi for a time and had information about him. Thousands of officers hunted for Takahashi across the capital, handing out fresh photos of him and monitoring transportation hubs to keep him from escaping. Takahashi disappeared from his job after Kikuchi’s arrest, but an employee at the comic book cafÈ where he was arrested told a TV talk show yesterday that he had visited the shop several times recently.

A cafe employee recognized Takahashi and called police, a Tokyo police spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity, citing department rules. Police arrested Takahashi on suspicion of murder, she said. TV footage showed a huge crowd outside the cafe, trying to glimpse the last cult fugitive. Public broadcaster NHK showed a thin, bespectacled Takahashi being pushed into a police car. The 54-year-old’s appearance has changed greatly - in particular, his trademark bushy eyebrows have become much thinner. So police had to wait while his fingerprints were verified. He was arrested after being taken to a nearby police station, then transferred to Tokyo police headquarters for interrogation, police said.

The manhunt was one of the longest ever in Japan.

Nobuko Shigenobu, a former Red Army extremist, was on the run for 26 years from 1974 until her arrest in 2000. The Aum cult had amassed an arsenal of chemical, biological and conventional weapons in anticipation of an apocalyptic showdown with the government. Masaki Kito, a lawyer and a long-time Aum watcher, said Takahashi’s arrest and investigation could provide a fuller picture of the Aum cult’s crimes.

“The case has never been fully resolved,” Kito said in one of the TV talk shows that were dominated by news of Takahashi’s arrest. “He was a last piece of a jigsaw puzzle.”

Nearly 200 cult members have been convicted in the 1995 attack and dozens of other crimes. Thirteen, including cult guru Shoko Asahara, are on death row. Police have been criticized for a series of bunglings in the investigation. They were aware that there was something ominous about the group, which had a highly guarded commune at the foot of Mt. Fuji, but they could not prevent the sarin attack. — AP

NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Congress party named Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as its nominee for president yesterday, capping a week of political turmoil that exposed the fragility of a coalition government that has lurched between crises as the economy sputters. Mukherjee is expected to step down by June 24, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh could take charge of his portfolio for the next several months, a source close to the finance minister told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Singh’s reputation as the architect of landmark economic reforms in 1991 that unleashed two decades of faster growth has been badly tarnished by widespread criticism of his leadership. Investors and business leaders complain that his government has favored populist policies that fail to rein in spending on subsidies and bring down stubbornly high inflation.

There is no obvious successor to Mukherjee, but analysts said filling the vacancy was less important than the government overcoming internal divi-

sions that have led to policy flip-flops on major economic reforms and scared off investors.

The government first though must work to gain the support of political parties for Mukherjee’s candidacy for the largely ceremonial post. “The UPA appeals to all political parties ... to support Pranab Mukherjee for the office of president,” Singh’s office said in a statement after a meeting of the Congress party and its allies. Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi officially nominated Mukherjee at the meeting, though one key ally, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee who rejected Mukherjee’s candidacy, did not attend the meeting.

Banerjee, who has proven an unpredictable ally, this week proposed that Singh’s name be considered, an effective vote of no-confidence in the prime minister that raised the spectre of the fragile coalition government breaking apart at a critical time for the economy. But Congress appeared confident yesterday that it had the votes for the July

19 election by federal and state legislators as several other major regional parties said they, too, would back Mukherjee.

The announcement came on the eve of Singh’s departure to Mexico where he will attend next week’s meeting of the Group of 20 leading industrial nations that is expected to be dominated by the European debt crisis. Singh’s government has largely blamed India’s economic troubles on the euro zone crisis, drawing fire from economists and business groups who say it is ignoring the political paralysis at home that has left policy-making adrift.

In the March quarter, growth in Asia’s third-largest economy skidded to a nine-year low of 5.3 percent even as inflation rose to nearly 7.6 percent in May. Wide current account and fiscal deficits have battered investor sentiment and recently sent the rupee tumbling to a record low, raising the spectre of a balance of payment crisis like the one India faced in 1991. —Reuters

Full extent of Australia defence sex abuse revealed SYDNEY: Documents released yesterday revealed “horrific” child sex assaults and brutal initiation ceremonies in the Australian military, prompting Prime Minister Julia Gillard to signal a possible public inquiry. The suggestion of a royal commission followed Defence Minister Stephen Smith denying covering up the extent of abuse, stretching from the 1950s to the present. Three months ago he made public extracts of a government-initiated review into the allegations, but the Australian Broadcasting Corporation obtained the full executive summary under freedom of information laws.

It goes into far more detail, highlighting nearly 850 cases and painting a culture of covering up, failing to punish perpetrators and hostility towards victims who complained. In particular, the report details allegations of sexual and other serious physical assaults against boys as young as 13 dating back to the 1950s, which it described as “horrific”. The minimum joining age is now 17. Smith, who commissioned the report last year following the so-called Skype scandal, when footage of a young male recruit having sex with a female classmate was streamed to a group of cadets in another room, denied a cover-up. “I released enough material to make the point that these were very serious allegations and very concerning matters,” he said, adding that the military now had “zero tolerance on all of those matters”.

“The materials released today simply serve to further underline the seriousness of the matters I’ve been dealing with for some considerable time.” Gillard called the abuse allegations “deeply distressing” and said the report was “truly disturbing reading”. “We now have to work out what’s the best way of dealing with all of this given how far back in time many of these claims go,” she told reporters.

“A royal commission for this matter or at least for some of the more serious allegations is one option.”

The report suggested paedophiles in the past joined the military to access young people in the same way they sought out positions in orphanages, schools and churches.

“There is no reason to think that such people would not have targeted relevant parts of the Australian Defence Force,” the summary said. “It is certain that many boys were subjected to serious sexual and physical assault and

other serious abuse... from the 1950s through to the 1970s and possibly into the 1980s,” it added.

Some of those assaulted later inflicted similar abuse on others, the report said, warning their ordeal could have led to mental health, or drug and alcohol problems later in life.

The report confirmed “there have been substantial levels of abuse” in the military and “very little evidence that perpetrators had been called to account”. “The culture within parts of defence at different times has strongly discouraged victims or witnesses from reporting abuse,” it said.

Some of the accused in the almost 850 known cases may now hold middle and senior management positions, it added. Peter Leahy, who was the army chief until 2008, told ABC radio the allegations needed to be “pursued to the full extent of the law”. “If they are found guilty of these allegations, I think they should be dismissed-they’ve been living a lie,” he said. The review also said “bastardisation”initiation ceremonies-was “rife” until very recently, frequently “brutal”, and was likely to be a criminal offence in civilian society.— AFP

SRINAGAR: Unidentified men comfort a wailing relative of Abdul Rahman Ganai, during his funeral procession in Srinagar, India yesterday. Abdul, a ruling National Conference worker was shot by suspected rebels from a close range near his house, according to news reports. —AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Safety fears restrict relief work after Myanmar riots Friday prayers cancelled over fears of flare-up

ABEPURA: Relatives and sympathisers pray over the dead body of Mako Tabuni, deputy chairman of secessionist West Papua National Committee (KNPB) when the body was claimed at a hospital in Abepura yesterday. —AFP

Indonesian rights groups slam police for Papua death JAYAPURA: Human rights activists yesterday slammed Indonesian police for the killing of a prominent Papuan independence leader who was allegedly involved in a series of mysterious shootings. Authorities said on Thursday that Mako Tabuni, deputy chairman of secessionist West Papua National Committee (KNPB), was armed when shot by police as he tried to escape a raid in the town of Waena near the provincial capital Jayapura. “Even if he resisted arrest and tried to escape, police should not have shot him to death. As far as we know the KNPB is not an armed group,” said Ifdhal Kasim, head of the government-backed National Human Rights Commission.

He told reporters his group, the country’s top rights body, would investigate whether police followed proper procedures before opening fire on the activist.

The incident ignited a wave of anger among residents in Waena, who set homes and cars ablaze on Thursday. “If police suspected Tabuni to be behind all the shootings they should not have killed him. They should have proven the allegations,” said Poengki Indarti of Imparsial, an independent human rights group. KNPB spokesman Warpo Wetipo said that according to witness accounts Tabuni was unarmed and police kept shooting at him even after he was down with gunshots to his leg.

Police said they had arrested four people over the past two weeks over a spate of violence in the restive province, including an incident in which a German tourist was shot and seriously wounded late last month. Among those arrested was KNPB chairman Bukhtar Tabuni, who is a cousin of the victim.

About 500 people, riding motorcycles and trucks, escorted Mako Tabuni’s body yesterday from hospital to his home in Sentani, some 45 kilometres (28 miles) away. Indonesia in 1969 took control of the Papua region-a former Dutch colony on the western half of New Guinea island-after a vote widely seen as a sham. Jakarta keeps a tight grip on Papua, with the military regularly clashing with locals. Foreign journalists are restricted from reporting freely in the region. More than 170 people are imprisoned in Indonesia for promoting separatism, most of them from Papua or the Maluku islands in eastern Indonesia, according to Human Rights Watch. — AFP

SITTWE: Armed troops patrolled the northwest Myanmar city of Sittwe yesterday after days of sectarian violence that has stoked nationalist fervour and displaced 30,000 people, with many feared dead. Heavy rain kept many residents indoors in the Rakhine state capital and police and aid groups struggled to get food to thousands of ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas displaced by communal rioting and arson that have presented a big test to Myanmar’s 15-month-old quasicivilian government.

United Nations officials told Reuters three of its staff, two from its UNHCR refugee agency and one from the World Food Programme (WFP), all Myanmar nationals, had been detained by police in the Rohingya-dominated town of Buthidaung for unknown reasons. The WFP had provided hundreds of sacks of rice to some areas, said Aye Win, spokesman for its operations in Myanmar. “We will try to get to other camps as soon as we can, when it is safe and secure. We are doing as much as we can. We will go in but security is paramount,” he added.

More than 20 houses were burned down late on Thursday in a village near Sittwe, residents said, adding to the 2,500 torched in the past week. But there were no reports of further deaths.

The violence, which the government said had killed 29 people and displaced 30,000 as of Thursday, is a major setback for a rapidly reforming Myanmar that has seen a year of dramatic political change after 49 years of oppressive military rule.

The new government has made peace and unity among Myanmar’s many ethnic groups its mantra and has struck ceasefire deals with minority Karen, Shan, Mon and Chin rebels, among others, after decades of hostilities. The Muslim community’s Friday prayers were cancelled in Sittwe and surrounding villages to avoid a repeat of riots that erupted in the town of Maungdaw a week ago and spread to other parts of Rakhine state. “Officials do not want large gatherings and want to avoid more violence. They (Muslims) will be able to pray at home,” Shwe Maung, a Muslim member of parliament for the

ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party, told Reuters.

What triggered the rampage of rockhurling, arson and machete attacks is unclear and the subject of heated debate, with protests taking place in other regions and Facebook pages and Internet web boards inundated with inflammatory comments. There is entrenched, long-standing animosity in the state bordering Bangladesh between Rakhine Buddhists and stateless Muslim Rohingyas, of whom there are an estimated 800,000, most living in abject conditions. Bangladesh, like Myanmar, does not recognise Rohingyas as citizens and the Bangladeshi authorities have turned away more than a dozen boats with Rohingyas fleeing the violence this week. The crisis has put President Thein Sein in a tight spot. His government is under pressure from rights groups and Western countries to show compassion towards the Rohingyas but if there is any change in policy towards them, it could face the wrath of the public, many of whom regard them as illegal immigrants.

A dawn-to-dusk curfew remained in place in Sittwe and many Rohingyas had been moved out by security forces, said Hla Maung, who is in charge of a camp

looking after Rakhine Buddhists, close to a near-empty Rohingya neighborhood.

On a visit to the Philippines, Myanmar Foreign Minister Wunna Wunna Maung Lwin told Reuters everything was being done to ensure the situation remained stable.

“We have taken care of everything, we give priority to the stability of the state. Sittwe is back to normal,” Wunna Maung Lwin said. Nobel laureate and opposition parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi expressed concern over the violence on Thursday. Speaking in Switzerland on the first leg of a fivecountry European tour, she sidestepped a question about whether she supported granting citizenship to Rohingyas and said resolving the Rakhine conflict required “delicacy and sensitivity”.

Relations between the two communities have always been uneasy and tension flared last month after the gang rape and murder of a Buddhist Rakhine woman that was blamed on Muslims.

That led to the killing of 10 Muslims in reprisal on June 3, when a Buddhist mob stopped a bus they were travelling on.

The passengers had no connection to the murdered woman. State media said three Muslims are on trial for the woman’s death. — Reuters

BERN: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, second right, is applauded on the balcony during her visit to the government building in Bern, Switzerland yesterday. —AP

3 officials suspended over forced abortion in china BEIJING: China suspended three officials and apologized to a woman who was forced to undergo an abortion seven months into her pregnancy in a case that sparked an uproar after graphic photos of the mother and her dead baby were circulated online. The moves appeared to be aimed at allaying public anger over a case that has triggered renewed criticism of China’s widely hated one-child limit. Designed to control the country’s exploding population, the policy has led to often violently imposed forced abortions and sterilizations as local authorities try to meet birth quotas set by Beijing.

Feng Jianmei, 23, was beaten by offi-

cials and forced to abort the baby at seven months on June 2 because her family could not afford a 40,000 yuan ($6,300) fine for having a second child, Chinese media reported this week.

Photos of Feng lying on a hospital bed with the blood-covered baby, reportedly stillborn after a chemical injection killed it, were posted online and went viral, prompting a public outpouring of sympathy and outrage.

A commentary posted on the official website China.org.cn said the forced abortion “is society’s shame.” Another said the case exposed the lack of humanity in some administrative officials. The government of Ankang city,

where Feng lives in northwest China’s Shaanxi province, said a deputy mayor visited Feng and her husband in the hospital, apologized to them and said officials would be suspended amid an investigation.

“Today, I am here on behalf of the municipal government to see you and express our sincere apology to you. I hope to get your understanding,” Deputy Mayor Du Shouping said, according to a statement on the city government’s website yesterday. Feng and her husband could not immediately be reached yesterday. A relative who answered Feng’s cellphone said the couple were in talks with city officials.

The official Xinhua News Agency said three officials would be relieved of their duties: two top local family planning officials and the head of the township government. But one expert said the officials are unlikely to be seriously punished for a problem that has existed for three decades, and that is usually a result of orders carried out to meet the central government’s population quotas. “They’re just pulling a trick to deal with the public. It’s just a pretense,” said Liang Zhongtang, a demography expert at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. “I think this case will end up being ignored and forgotten like similar cases were in the past. — AP

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Carrefour pulling out of Greek supermarket venture

18

Europe crisis spreads as Merkel resists big steps

Business SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

19

Asia stocks rise amid hopes for central bank assistance

16

Again a power in OPEC, Iraq could shift landscape

KOMOTINI: This file photo shows a rusty entrance of an abandoned factory in the industrial zone of Komotini, about 800 kilometers Northeast of Athens. Eurozone market tensions are on the rise ahead of tomorrow’s election in Greece, and European Central Bank head Mario Draghi warned EU leaders that they should not wait for more emergency help from the central bank to solve the debt crisis. — AP

Draghi: Up to politicians to fight eurozone crisis EU Central Bank head warns that leaders should not wait for help FRANKFURT, Germany: European Central Bank head Mario Draghi warned EU leaders that they should not wait for more emergency help from the central bank to solve the debt crisis rattling the region and instead make the political choices needed to strengthen the euro. Draghi said yesterday the ECB has supported banks against the ongoing debt crisis with 1 trillion ($1.26 trillion) in emergency credit to banks and that now it was the governments’ turn to act. “Political choices have become predominant over monetary policy instruments that we can use in the near future,” he said before an audience of economists and analysts at a conference in Frankfurt.

The shared currency needs “strengthened foundations” that will “imply greater transfer of powers to a supra-national level,” he added.

Draghi said the bank stood ready to keep supporting the banking system by continuing to provide credit to solvent banks. He also said there was no inflation risk in the eurozone, a statement which leaves open the chance of an interest rate cut if the bank sees the situation in the eurozone worsening. Still, his comments seemed aimed at discouraging reliance on the ECB’s monetary powers and increasing pressure

on political leaders to act at the upcoming EU summit in Brussels on June 28 -29. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has by contrast sought to lower expectations for decisive steps at the meeting.

The central bank wants stronger action from leaders so it does not have to undertake risky emergency measures such as more cheap loans to banks or direct purchases of government bonds, as some political leaders have called for.

The ECB has cut its key rate to a record low 1 percent and while there is some room to cut more, some analysts wonder whether the bank is running out of weapons to steady markets. The ECB has already opened its credit taps wide for banks, while massive bond purchases to support weak government’s ability to borrow could collide with the EU treaty’s legal prohibition on financing governments.

Some ECB officials have said its crisis loans though they calmed markets temporarily - risked easing the pressure on politicians to make tough decisions like reducing deficits or cutting bureaucracy. The bank, which is legally independent and can’t take advice from politicians, has denied it is engaged in “horse trading” with

elected officials. Eurozone market tensions are on the rise ahead of tomorrow’s election in Greece. If a new government rejects the terms of the country’s bailout loans, Greece could lose further financing and default on its debt obligations. That could in turn lead it to leave the eurozone, an event that could further shake confidence in the common currency and send shock waves through financial markets, destabilizing Spain and Italy.

Greece has for over two years been dependent on bailout loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund after bond investors would not loan it any more money at affordable rates. Draghi said that he and other top EU officials working on proposals for a revamped euro will have something “very soon” and that “all the work we are doing is in view of the upcoming summit” of EU leaders June 28-29.

The ECB chief, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy and Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs eurozone finance minister meetings, have been tasked by the continent’s leaders with coming up with new ideas aimed at strengthening the euro.

Those could include more centralized supervision of banks, whose troubles have hurt government finances; more control over individual countries’ spending at the EU level; proposals for more growth; and some form of common borrowing that would prevent defaults by one country. All those issues are complex, could take years to fully implement and raise political objections. The euro was launched in 1999 with one central bank and currency but multiple governments, each with their budgets and economic regulations. Rules against excessive deficits failed to keep some countries from running up too much debt through overspending or expensive bank bailouts. Greece, Ireland and Portugal have needed bailouts to pay their debts.

Draghi added that the goals of the bank’s emergency loans to banks in December and February “have been broadly met” and that the step avoided a worse credit crunch. But he conceded that while banks have been supplied with fresh money from the central bank “in some countries very little money reached the real economy.” The ECB has said that lending remains subdued because businesses see no reason to ask for credit in a slow economy. — AP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Zain highlights investment projects at JP Morgan conference

Z

ain Group, a pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and North Africa, has revealed that it is preparing to implement a wide range of project investments across the MENA, where it operates eight mobile networks. The Group said that these projects will focus on introducing new communication services while also reinventing current offerings. This outline was given during Zain Group’s strong presence at the first of what shall become an annual conference held by JP Morgan for the MENA and Turkey region. The conference, which took place over two days in London, saw participation from numerous international investors, companies, institutions and banks, including Zain Group.

Hisham Akbar, Zain Group’s Chief Commercial Officer, said during the intensive meetings held between the company and international investors and banks that: “Zain Group is currently focusing on maximizing the opportunities in its core markets and reinforcing its competitive edge in order to maintain growth in its financial indicators.”

Akbar continued, “The Group has many incentives that will help us achieve the targeted growth rates. Thus, our current priority is to increase the focus on developing our operations with a view to achieving the operational performance that meets our ambitions for this stage in our development.” He noted that Zain’s services portfolio, Hisham Akbar, Zain Group’s which has been rein- Chief Commercial Officer. forced recently by the signing of a number of high-profile international agreements, is set to develop the Group’s marketing and commercial operations in new areas. This will reinforce Zain’s position as one of the most technically savvy and innovative operators in the Middle East and North Africa.

Speaking at the same JP Morgan conference in London, Osama Matta, Zain Group’s Chief Financial Officer said: “Zain is in the enviable position of possessing a solid financial grounding and its current situation is stronger than ever given its debt levels are under control and loan payment obligations are not onerous. Thus the Group enjoys a good financial status with very low debt levels.” Matta continued, “The financial solvency of the Group allows for the implementation of our planned investments and the achievement of our strategic priorities and goals as a result.” JP Morgan’s MENA and Turkey investor conference is set to become one of the most prominent economic and investment forums for the bank going forward, drawing together preeminent international investors, researchers, analysts, and interested parties from around the world.

Turkish unemployment drops to 9.9 percent: Official survey ANKARA: Turkish unemployment declined to 9.9 percent of the workforce in the three months from February to April, from 10.8 percent in the same period in 2011, official data showed yesterday. The number of unemployed people fell by 201,000 to reach 2.615 million on a 12-month comparison, the statistics institute said on the basis of a survey of 97,121 people. Turkey’s economy staged a spectacular recovery from the global crisis, growing by 8.9 percent in 2010 and by 8.5 percent in 2011.

This year however, Ankara expects four-percent growth, indicating a sharp slowdown owing to the effects of the eurozone debt crisis. Unemployment remains a major challenge for the government in a country where many young people enter the workforce each year. Turkey’s jobless rate is determined through household surveys across the country which are then used to make a nationwide three-month projection.

But experts say the figures do not reflect the overall picture because of widespread undeclared or hidden unemployment, or the employment of educated, qualified people in menial jobs. — AFP

Again a power in OPEC, Iraq could shift landscape Oil production reaches 3 million barrels per day BAGHDAD: Iraq’s rapidly expanding oil production is likely to complicate OPEC’s efforts to influence world prices as the country re-emerges as a major player after 20 years on the sidelines due to sanctions and strife.

For now, Iraq is backing Iran’s push for OPEC to set lower production limits and keep prices high, but Baghdad’s own ambitious plans for expansion could cause an overall production growth that might drive down prices.

Analysts say Iraq’s new clout is shifting the power balance in the 12-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and could force it to overhaul its intricate production quota system to accommodate Baghdad’s greater output.

Iraq recently reached production of 3 million barrels per day, a level not seen since the 2003 US-led invasion that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

It is on track to become OPEC’s second-largest producer in the coming year, surpassing Iran and trailing only Saudi Arabia. “Iraq, for all intents and purposes, could double its production in next five years, could go from 3 million barrels a day to 6 million barrels a day,” said energy analyst Fadel Gheit, managing director of consultancy Oppenheimer & Co. in New York. “No other OPEC country has the ability and capacity to do that.”

Oil prices are determined by many factors, but chief among them is supply and demand. For decades, OPEC has tried to control oil prices by limiting production. Additional production from Iraq, unless offset by reductions from other cartel members, could drive oil prices down. But OPEC politics are not that straightforward. At Thursday’s OPEC meeting in Vienna, Iraq used its newfound influence to side with its political ally, Iran, against Saudi Arabia, which has been increasing output. Iran, hard hit by economic sanctions over its suspect nuclear program, wants members to cut back production to hike prices. OPEC compromised Thursday, deciding to keep its overall production target at the same level.

Sharply lower crude oil prices in recent months are spurring calls for production cutbacks within OPEC. The US benchmark sold yesterday at just below $85 a barrel, plunging from $110 in February. OPEC SecretaryGeneral Abdullah Al-Badry said yesterday that the price could go back to $110 without harming the global economy. Iraq also emphasized its comeback within OPEC by pushing its own candidate for secretary general.

Thamer al-Ghadhban, 67, led Iraq’s oil ministry during part of the US occupation and is considered a well-qualified candidate, though politics are likely to tip the balance toward an Ecuadorian nominee when it decides in December.

“It reflects the fact that Iraq is say-

BASRA: In this file photo, an Iraqi worker operates valves at the Nahran Omar oil refinery near the city of Basra, 340 miles (550 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, Iraq. Iraq’s rapidly expanding oil production is likely to complicate OPEC’s efforts to influence world prices as the country re-emerges as a major player after 20 years on the sidelines due to sanctions and strife. — AP

ing ‘Look guys, it’s changed. We’re not the permanent problem child of OPEC anymore,’” said Samuel Ciszuk, an analyst with KBC Energy Economics in London. The last time Iraq had this much voice in OPEC, Saddam Hussein was still in power and the country had just fought the 1980-88 war against Iran that killed as many as a million people on both sides. Iran and Iraq were rivals in OPEC then, bickering over who should give up more in the production quotas. Much has changed. Now, Iran’s theocratic Shiite Muslim government is one of the major allies of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who leads a secular but Shiite-dominated coalition. At OPEC this week, Iraq sided with Iran.

For now, higher prices are in Baghdad’s best interest, since 95 percent of its government revenues come from oil.

Iraq’s return to petroleum prominence was not supposed to take this long. Before the US-led invasion, officials in President George W. Bush’s administration said that the country’s oil exports, long hampered by international sanctions, would recover quickly and possibly even pay for the war.

Like much in the Iraq war, that didn’t work out as planned, and the spiraling violence that followed decimated oil production. In the last year, a rapid expansion of oil production has been a rare positive sign in a troubled democracy still facing spasms of violence. Iraqi oil exports have grown from an average 1.9 million barrels a day average in 2009 to about 2.5 mil-

lion barrels a day in May. That is about the same level that Iran was exporting last year, but Tehran now exports less than 1.8 million barrels per day now because of American sanctions, US officials estimate.

With 143.1 billion barrels of proven oil reserves - the fourth-largest in OPEC - Iraq has plenty of room to grow. Iraq’s expansion in coming years could wreak havoc with OPEC’s system of production quotas, according to analyst Ciszuk. The organization wavers between individual country quotas and the current system of an overall production limit for all countries, which it decided Thursday to keep at 30 million barrels a day. In recent decades, Iraq’s oil hasn’t figured in that system because its exports were underperforming. But once it surpasses Iran, OPEC members will likely demand that Iraq rejoin the quota system. With Iraq pumping 3 or 4 million extra barrels a day, other countries would face the choice of either cutting their own quotas to accommodate Iraq or raising the overall production level.

Its ambitious expansion goals and contracts with major oil companies such as Exxon Mobil Corp., BP PLC and Royal Dutch Shell PLC depend on pumping more and more oil, so Iraq’s own self-interest in coming years is likely to reverse its stance of pushing for production cuts - despite its political relationship with Iran. “In the end, you know, it tends to be the money that decides a lot of these things,” Ciszuk said. — AP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Carrefour pulling out of Greek supermarket venture PARIS: French retail giant Carrefour SA is selling its stake in a leading supermarket chain in Greece because of economic uncertainty in the country, which faces elections this weekend that may determine whether it falls out of the euro currency union.

Carrefour announced in a statement yesterday, just two days before the election, that Greek group Marinopoulos will buy its stake in the two companies’ joint venture, Carrefour Marinopoulos. The Carrefour

Marinopoulos supermarkets are among the most popular in Greece, with branches in most parts of Athens and other cities. But business in Greece has come under pressure as the country wallows in a fifth year of recession due to harsh government austerity cuts that have drastically reduced many Greeks’ disposable income.

Yesterday’s statement cited “the challenges of Greece’s prevailing economic environment” and said the sale will result in a charge of $220 million

to the Carrefour group. As a result of the deal, the Marinopoulos group will manage the venture’s supermarkets in Greece, Cyprus and in Balkan nations.

The president of Marinopoulos Brothers SA, Leonidas Marinopoulos, said in the statement that the sale would give the supermarket venture “the means and flexibility to refine its business model.” He didn’t elaborate, including on whether there would be store closures or job cuts. Pending authorization by antitrust authorities,

Carrefour expects the deal to be completed in the next few weeks.

Carrefour, Europe’s biggest retailer by revenue, has been growing in Latin America but is suffering in its core market in Europe. The debt crisis that started in Greece has spread to other eurozone countries, crippling sales and making consumers more cautious across the continent. A new CEO, Georges Plassat, took over at Carrefour last month as the company works on a turnaround plan. — AP

Carrefour pulling out of Greek supermarket venture PARIS: French retail giant Carrefour SA is selling its stake in a leading supermarket chain in Greece because of economic uncertainty in the country, which faces elections this weekend that may determine whether it falls out of the euro currency union. Carrefour announced in a statement yesterday, just two days before the election, that Greek group Marinopoulos will buy its stake in the two companies’ joint venture, Carrefour Marinopoulos.

The Carrefour Marinopoulos supermarkets are among the most popular in Greece, with branches in most parts of Athens and other cities. But business in Greece has come under pressure as the country wallows in a fifth year of recession due to harsh government austerity cuts that have drastically reduced many Greeks’ disposable income.

Yesterday’s statement cited “the challenges of Greece’s prevailing economic environment” and said the sale will result in a charge of $220 million to the

Carrefour group. As a result of the deal, the Marinopoulos group will manage the venture’s supermarkets in Greece, Cyprus and in Balkan nations. The president of Marinopoulos Brothers SA, Leonidas Marinopoulos, said in the statement that the sale would give the supermarket venture “the means and flexibility to refine its business model.”

He didn’t elaborate, including on whether there would be store closures or job cuts.

Pending authorization by antitrust authorities, Carrefour expects the deal to be completed in the next few weeks.

Carrefour, Europe’s biggest retailer by revenue, has been growing in Latin America but is suffering in its core market in Europe. The debt crisis that started in Greece has spread to other eurozone countries, crippling sales and making consumers more cautious across the continent. A new CEO, Georges Plassat, took over at Carrefour last month as the company works on a turnaround plan. — AP

EL ENTREGO: Miners run from tear gas fired by riot police officers as they try to defend their position inside the mine “El Soton” during clashes in El Entrego near Oviedo yesterday. Strikes, road blockades, and mine sit-ins continue as 8,000 mineworkers at over 40 coal mines in northern Spain continue their protests against government action to cut coal subsidies. — AP

AEGINA: A man walks with his bicycle among pistachio trees in the island of Aegina, Greece, on June 11, 2012.

Market stalls piled high with pistachios line the harbor of the Greek island of Aegina, where the local specialty is shielding many local farmers from a devastating crisis. Greece is the sixth biggest producer of pistachios in the world at 9,000 tons a year, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). — AFP

Greek crisis takes its toll on industry Industrial output drops by 2.2% in 2012, 10.8% in 2011 KOMOTINI: In its heyday just over a decade ago, the Komotini industrial zone in northern Greece was a hive of activity, with dozens of factories producing everything from textiles to ceramics and employing nearly 20,000 people. Hefty government and European Union subsidies gave incentives for businesses to set up in the region, bolstering the local economy and stopping the drain of people from rural areas to the cities. Now, the industrial zone nine kilometers (5.5 miles) east of Komotini town is a picture of desolation. Weeds have taken over the grass alongside formerly busy roads. Raw materials that never made it to their final destination are now collecting dust on conveyor belts that stopped when the money ran out. Wind whistles through broken windows of factories that have been abandoned and looted - right down to the wiring in the walls.

It is a stark illustration of the toll Greece’s vicious financial crisis has taken on the country’s industry. Deep spending cuts made in return for billions of euros in international rescue loans have plunged the country into a deep recession, now running into its fifth year. The latest figures make for grim reading: Gross domestic product shrank by 6.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012 compared to the same period last year. Credit has essentially dried up for businesses as Greek banks struggle and wary lenders from abroad hesitate to trust businesses with bleak futures.

Industrial output across the country fell by 2.2 percent in April compared to the same month last year, on top of a 10.8 percent drop in April 2011 compared to April 2010,

according to data from the country’s statistics agency. In the first four months of this year, industrial production shrank by 6.3 percent compared to the same period last year - which itself saw a 7 percent drop compared to 2010.

The figures are particularly alarming given that the debt-ridden country would need industry to recover if it has any hope of returning to growth. Set up in the late 1980s to attract industry away from the main urban centers of Athens and its second largest city of Thessaloniki, the industrial zone about 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of the Greek capital enjoyed subsidies of up to 60 or 70 percent of overall costs for starting up new factories, said Pantelis Magalios, head of the region’s labor union center. Up to three years ago, the industrial zone was a thriving area producing metal goods, aluminum, textiles, trash containers, bathroom fixtures, plastics, drinks and even aromatic herbs. “In 2000 about 17,000 people worked in the industrial zone. Now, there are barely 1,000,” said Giorgos Chatziathanasiou, treasurer at the labor union center. He is one of the lucky ones. The lumber company he works for, one of the largest in the area, is still operating.

“At that time we had 99 factories in the industrial zone, now there are only 15 left, and of those only five are operating at a normal rate,” said Chatziathanasiou. “The rest work only when they have an order in.” Industrial output in northern Greece has fallen by nearly 40 percent over the past two years, according to Nikos Petzos, head of the Federation of Industries of Northern Greece. —AP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Europe crisis spreads as Merkel resists big steps Merkel isolated from leaders of Spain, Italy and France

LONDON: Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King delivers his Mansion House speech during The Lord Mayor of the City of London’s annual Dinner to the Bankers and Merchants, Mansion House, London on Thursday. King said that an emergency bank lending scheme in an attempt to tackle a squeeze on credit is aimed at encouraging banks to increase their lending to the country’s businesses, amid caution sparked by fears over the fate of the eurozone. — AP

UK lending plan faces risk of low take-up LONDON: Emergency measures by the UK government and Bank of England to help banks and boost lending to businesses and families by offering up to 140 billion pounds ($217 billion) in cheap loans to lenders might have already run into difficulty, according to analysts - there might not be anyone willing to take on the risk of extra credit. Treasury chief George Osborne and Bank of England Governor Mervyn King announced the initiatives late Thursday night at a dinner for financiers in the City of London. One program will offer British banks access to cheap multiyear loans, provided they pass on the funds as loans to households and companies. The central bank will also activate a liquidity facility announced in December, so far unused, to inject about 5 billion pounds per month into the country’s financial system. The Treasury and Bank of England unveiled their measures as a way to protect the UK economy from being caught up further in Europe’s escalating debt crisis. King warned of “a large black cloud of uncertainty hanging over not only the euro area but our economy too, and indeed the world economy as a whole” that has led to businesses and households “battening down the hatches to prepare for the storms ahead.

The result is that lower spending leads to lower incomes and a self-reinforcing weaker picture for growth.” “The government, with the help of the Bank of England, will not stand on the sidelines and do nothing as the storm gathers,” Osborne said. “We are rolling up our sleeves and doing everything possible to protect British families and firms.”

The cheap loans program has been launched because, in spite of Bank of England interest rates being at an all-time low, the difference between that rate and what banks charge companies and households to borrow has remained high. Banks claim this is because their own borrowing costs are rising. What the Bank Of England aims to do with these new lower-rate loans is to reduce the banks’ costs so that the saving can be passed on to bank customers in the form of reduced rates. Shares in Britain’s big banks were higher in early trading in London: partnationalized Royal Bank of Scotland gained 6.4 percent, partnationalized Lloyds Banking Group shares were up 4.3 percent, Barclays was up 3.2 percent and HSBC was up 1.6 percent.

However, several analysts, including those who welcomed the initiatives, were skeptical about the lending plan’s chances.

“The core problem remains. Companies alarmed by the euro crisis will not be eager to borrow regardless of the cost,” said Graeme Leach, chief economist at the Institute of Directors, a leading business group. For the same reason, Mark Ostwald said “the auspices for its success are not especially good.” “With so many uncertainties about the UK, European and global economies, it is very debatable whether entrepreneurs will be rushing to load up with new debt to invest in new projects,” Ostwald said. Official data out yesterday highlighted the economy’s distress. The Office for National Statistics said the UK trade deficit in April was 4.4 billion pounds, compared to 3 billion pounds in March and the widest gap since August 2005.

Exports of goods were down 8.6 percent month-on-month. The statistics agency also said construction activity was down 13 percent in April from March, a drop influenced by the date of the Easter holiday and poor weather.—AP

MILAN: A growing number of European countries are being squeezed by a financial vise just days before a Greek election that could escalate the region’s political and economic turmoil. The rise of Italian and Spanish borrowing costs to alarming levels Thursday heaped pressure on leaders to prevent Europe’s debt crisis from engulfing its largest countries. No grand solution appears imminent. German Chancellor Angela Merkel opposes solutions that many experts are pushing that would increase costs for Berlin.

Merkel has found herself isolated from the leaders of Spain, Italy and France, who want the 17 countries in the euro currency union to move quickly to bind their governments’ finances and debt.

Such action could take the form of jointly issued debt or European-wide guarantees on bank deposits. Either step would spread the risks that individual countries bear across the eurozone. Italian Premier Mario Monti has agreed with French President Francois Hollande on the need for such measures.

But Germany, which as Europe’s largest economy bears most of the cost of bailouts, is reluctant to expose itself even more. The proposed steps are expected to dominate talks at next week’s summit of Group of 20 leaders in Mexico. Compounding the debt crisis is the fear that’s gripped European banks about lending to each other - a key element of a stable banking system.

“The European banking system is paralyzed,” said Nicolas Veron, senior fellow at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. “So many banks hold massive amounts of Spanish and Italian government bonds that are losing value. We no longer have a functioning interbank (lending) market in the eurozone.”

On Thursday, the Institute of International Finance called for some coordinated action by major central banks to address the crisis.

And Britain’s Treasury chief said the government and the Bank of England will launch an emergency bank lending plan to try to ease credit. Britain isn’t in the euro currency union, but British banks have been wary of lending in part because of worries about the fate of the eurozone.

Experts warn that the need for a solution is urgent and that European leaders must signal to investors soon that a consensus is forming around some plan. They note how fast fears about Spain have spread to Italy.

Matters could worsen this weekend, when Greece holds elections that could determine whether that country sticks to the terms of its bailout. Abandoning the bailout deal would likely require Greece to leave the currency union, bringing uncertain consequences for Europe and the global economy. “We’re at a tipping point,” said Michael Hewson, a senior analyst at CMC Markets.

“You either have to deliver or disband.”

Here’s a look at the situation in individual countries: ITALY Investors are demanding high interest rates on bonds for fear that Italy might soon need financial aid.The interest Italy must pay to raise ?3 billion ($3.76 billion) in three-year loans from financial markets jumped Thursday to 5.3 percent. That’s the highest rate since December. Italy also auctioned 10year bonds at a worryingly high rate of 6.13 percent. The rates spiked after a European deal to save Spain’s banks failed this week to

defuse worries about Spanish debt. “They mucked up Spain so badly that now it’s impacted Italy,” said Gary Jenkins of Swordfish Research, a bond research consultancy. “There’s a lot of fragility there.”

Italy has the eurozone’s third-largest economy. For now, it can finance its debt.

But the rising cost of doing so is causing pain. With the economy in a deep recession, the debt is expected to keep rising. The latest figures released Thursday showed it hit a new high of ?1.95 trillion ($2.4 trillion) in April. To lower the debt, Italy’s economy must become more competitive. Monti has admonished Italian lawmakers not to slow the passage of key reforms. Still, he recognizes that a resolution can’t happen if bond investors keep pushing up Italy’s borrowing rates over concern about the eurozone’s future.

has become the next focal point for Europe’s financial crisis. The left-wing Syriza party, which finished second in the first round of voting in May, wants to abandon the country’s international bailout terms. As a result, Greece would be cut off from loans, face bankruptcy and possibly leave the euro. In the latest official polls, the party was essentially tied with the conservative New Democracy. Still, Greece’s stock markets soared on rumors that New Democracy would win enough votes to create a coalition and keep Greece in the eurozone.

Analysts warned against taking the rumors as fact.

It isn’t clear what effect a Greek exit from the euro would have. Some experts say it would fuel fear that other countries like Portugal might leave as well, threatening to create a domino effect. Because Europe, as a

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel delivers a speech to discuss Germany’s position prior to the upcoming G20 summit at the Bundestag in Berlin on Thursday. — AP SPAIN Spain’s troubles keep growing. A ?100 billion European rescue loan for its banks was meant to help. Yet it’s raised concern that the government, which is ultimately liable for the money, will have trouble repaying it. The Moody’s ratings agency on Wednesday downgraded Spain’s sovereign debt three notches because of that. As a result, Spain’s key borrowing rate hit a fresh high Thursday. The interest rate - or yield on the country’s benchmark 10-year bonds rose to a record 6.96 percent in early trading, close to the level that many analysts say is unsustainable in the long run and the rate that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts.

Spain won’t immediately collapse if the rate hits 7 percent, Reaching that point, though, would squeeze the government next week, when it’s scheduled to auction debt. “The clock is definitely ticking,” said Michael Hewson, an analyst with CMC Markets. Details of what the bailout might look like began to emerge Thursday.

European officials are considering liquidation - selling a bank’s assets - as part of the plan to bolster Spain’s banks, a spokesman for Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said. “Liquidation is always looked at,” said Antoine Colombani. “We prefer to liquidate when it’s cheaper for the taxpayer.”

GREECE Greece’s national election this weekend

whole, is the largest economy in the world, a Greek exit would roil financial markets. It would also hurt Greece’s trade with countries from the United States to Japan.

GERMANY Any major steps to ease Europe’s debt crisis must meet Berlin’s approval. So far, Merkel has balked at anything that might heavily expose Germany to other countries’ financial weaknesses. Merkel has long favored austerity as the best way for European governments to heal their public finances. But that stance is under fire, with sentiment in Europe shifting toward seeking ways to foster growth. Merkel stressed Thursday that nations that have needed bailouts must work to restore trust and their public finances. She’s unlikely to agree to allowing greater government spending to spur growth. But she might be open to allowing some countries to slow their pace of spending cuts.

Fears that Spain or Italy cannot manage their debts could subside if a stronger country like Germany agreed to shoulder some of it. Merkel said Thursday that Germany is open to wide-ranging reforms such as eurobonds or a centralized banking authority with the power to bail out banks. But she cautioned that they’re no quick fix for the crisis. Europe’s weak governments must fix their public finances first. “Yes, Germany is strong,” she said.

“But we also know that Germany’s strength is not infinite.” — AP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Bank of Japan holds off fresh easing measures TOKYO: Japan’s central bank held off fresh easing measures yesterday, with analysts saying that policymakers were waiting to see how the weekend’s Greek election would affect the eurozone crisis. The Bank of Japan (BoJ) said it was holding key interest rates at between zero and 0.1 percent but would also leave unchanged a 70 trillion yen ($885 billion) asset purchase programme, a key monetary policy tool for the bank. The decision was likely to disappoint some Japanese lawmakers who have called on the bank to do more to kickstart the sputtering economy. Markets have also been watching for signs of further easing action by the US Federal Reserve amid signs of a worsening labour market in the United States.

After the BoJ announcement, the dollar added to its overnight losses against the Japanese currency, hitting 78.92 yen from 79.34 yen in New York

on Thursday. “It’s difficult for the BoJ to take fresh action ahead of Greece’s elections tomorrow and the US Federal Reserve’s policy meeting,” Yoshiki Shinke, chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo, told AFP. “The BoJ hopes to see developments after these events. If financial markets get upset, then it would take additional easing measures next month,” he added. Investors may flock to safehaven Japanese government bonds if Greek anti-austerity parties snatch victory tomorrow, said Chotaro Morita, chief rates strategist at Barclays Capital Japan.

“If the leftists win, the outlook will be more uncertain, and investors will pick up (Japan government bonds),” Morita said. In a statement following its twoday policy meeting, the BoJ echoed previous comments on the state of Japan’s economy, acknowledging the damaging deflation that has plagued

Denmark, China ink deals during China state visit COPENHAGEN: Danish businesses were to sign deals with Chinese partners yesterday worth 18 billion kroner (2.42 billion euros, $3.05 billion), Danish officials said as Chinese President Hu Jintao kicked off a state visit. “This is a very important day for us. The Chinese president coming here with a large delegation of senior Chinese businessmen makes this a very important day,” Thomas Bostrup, of the Confederation of Danish Industries, told AFP. “Today we will be signing several major agreements. I think this will give a lot more orders because it will be noticed in China that their president is here and will give some exposure to the competencies and technologies that we have in Denmark,” he said.

Hu arrived in the Scandinavian country late Thursday with a 200strong trade and business delegation, and signing ceremonies throughout yesterday were to highlight strengthened business Hu Jintao ties between the two countries. A strategic partnership was to be inked between Denmark’s largest private equity fund Axcel and its Chinese counterpart Fosun International Ltd, China’s leading Investment Company.

“Fosun’s unique expertise in identifying growth opportunities in China and previous investments in Europe will bring a new model of global collaboration to the world,” Fosun chief executive Liang Xinjun said in a statement.

“Strong Danish industries like life science and cleantech have already attracted Fosun’s attention, and my hope is that this new partnership will materialize in actual investments in Denmark,” Danish Trade and Investment Minister Pia Olsen Dyhr told reporters.

The world’s largest container shipping group A.P. MollerMaersk’s independent subsidiary APM Terminals was to sign an agreement to build a harbour terminal in China, and the Carlsberg brewery group is to build a new vast brewery in Yunnan province. The Danfoss engineering company and the engineering design consultants COWI are to sign an agreement to provide a district heating system for the Chinese city of Anshan in the northeastern Liaoning Province.

Denmark’s Danish Crown meat producers were also to enter into a major export agreement with the Shineway Industry Group, China’s biggest meat processor. At the same time Chinese internet technology company Jiangsu Comc was to sign an agreement to open its European headquarters in Denmark, while aigo Entrepreneur Alliance of China was to open an office for Chinese companies wanting to establish in Denmark. The aigo group is an alliance of more than 100 Chinese companies. China is currently Denmark’s eighth largest export market, and as of March this year there were 331 Danish companies doing business in China. — AFP

the nation for years and Europe’s fiscal woes. “In global financial markets, some nervousness continues to be seen, mainly due to concerns about the European debt problem,” it said.

“Particular attention should therefore be given to developments in these markets for the time being.” Later yesterday, BoJ Governor Masaaki Shirakawa reiterated that the eurozone crisis was the biggest factor threatening Japan’s economy and its fragile recovery. “The European debt problems remain the risk factor requiring the most attention,” he told a press briefing.

Recent data suggest an uptick in Japan’s economic growth, although factory output remains anemic while a strong yen has hurt the crucial export sector. And the health of the 17-nation eurozone has significant implications for Japan, which is a major exporter to Europe and holds its public debt. A flight by investors from the euro has

also helped push up the value of the yen, making Japanese goods relatively more expensive overseas. In April, the BoJ rolled out further easing measures to halt falling prices and prop up the economy, which is struggling to recover from last year’s quake-tsunami disaster and floods in Thailand.

Falling prices have a slowing effect on the economy by encouraging shoppers to put off purchases in the hope they will pay even less in the future, while firms curtail investing in capital and staff in the absence of growing demand. The BoJ, meanwhile, has also boosted a loan program amid reconstruction efforts seen as crucial to reviving the economy. The central bank has been forced to resort to unconventional measures as its ability to free up money has been limited since interest rates were cut to their record lows at the end of 2008 during the global financial crisis. — AFP

Asia stocks rise amid hopes for central bank assistance Investors looking wearily into riskier assets BANGKOK: Asian stock markets were mostly higher yesterday as investors waded back into riskier assets amid hopes that central banks in the US and elsewhere were gearing up for action to help their beleaguered economies. A US employment indicator Thursday led investors to speculate that the US Federal Reserve was preparing to pump more money into the economy to breathe life into its slackening recovery.

The Labor Department said unemployment benefit applications rose 6,000 to 386,000 last week, a sign that hiring remains slow.

“A bigger-than-expected result for unemployment claims and a benign inflation reading saw investors speculate the Fed might conduct some easing to spur growth,” Stan Shamu of IG Markets in Melbourne said in a market commentary. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index fell marginally to 8,563.46 after a higher opening. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 1.3 percent to 19,049.09 and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5 percent to 4,061. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.6 percent to 1,860.70 but benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and New Zealand rose. Analysts have said they expect the Fed might renew its “Operation Twist” program under which it sells shorterterm securities and buys longer-term bonds to keep their rates down. The current program expires at the end of June.

The Fed has also done two rounds of bond purchases to try to lower longterm interest rates and encourage borrowing and spending. Investors are on edge ahead of Greece’s election tomorrow because parties opposed to the terms of the country’s financial bailout could take control of the government. If that happens and the country leaves the euro, many fear the currency union could be torn apart and European banks could fail. The other flash point is Spain, which faces a two-pronged crisis: financially feeble banks in need of cash injections from outside, and soaring borrow-

ing rates due to investor reluctance to purchase its bonds.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has asked EU leaders to push the European Central Bank to restart a program of Spanish bond purchases that helped ease the country’s borrowing rate last fall. But the ECB has been reluctant to intervene. The bank is forbidden by treaty from taking instructions from politicians and is opposed to flooding the economy with money to push down interest rates the way the Fed has. Still, as Spanish banks and Greece’s economy teeter toward insolvency, the ECB may have little choice, according to Francis Lun, managing director of Lyncean

whose chairman and CEO resigned this week, gained 8 percent. The company is struggling to execute a turnaround amid weakness in Europe, its biggest market, and growing popularity of rival chains. South Korean high-tech shares fell. Samsung Electronics tumbled 3 percent and SK Hynix fell 2.1 percent. LG Electronics was 1.3 percent down.

Meanwhile, stocks in the US got a boost late Thursday after a Reuters report said major central banks were preparing for coordinated action if the results of Greek elections strain global financial markets. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 1.2 percent to close at 12,651.91. The Standard & Poor’s 500

SHANGHAI: In this file photo, an investor walks past the stock price monitor at a private securities company. Asia stocks rose yesterday amid hopes for central bank assistance. — AP Holdings in Hong Kong. “I think Europe will do something because they have to save Greece and Spain. If they don’t, it will be the end of Europe,” he said. “I think maybe the worst is over. I think we have reached the nadir. Finally they have been pushed to do something.”

Among Hong Kong-listed stocks, China Railway Group rose 3 percent and China Railway Construction Corp. added 2.9 percent. Battered retailer Esprit,

rose 1.2 percent to 1,329.10. The Nasdaq composite rose slightly to 2,836.33.

Benchmark oil for July delivery rose 72 cents to $84.65 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.29 cents to finish at $83.91 per barrel on the Nymex on Thursday. In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2641 from $1.2600 late Thursday in New York. The dollar fell to 78.88 yen from 79.27 yen. — AP

business SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Stock market surges following expectations of central bank help Investors on edge ahead of Greece’s election NEW YORK: A report that major central banks would be ready to pump money into the financial system after the Greek elections this weekend gave the stock market a late push higher. The Reuters report said major central banks were preparing for coordinated action if the results of Greek elections on Sunday strain global financial markets. The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 155.53 points to close at 12,651.91 Thursday. That’s a gain of 1.2 percent. The Dow jumped 100 points after the report came out then pulled back. Investors are on edge ahead of Greece’s election this weekend because parties opposed to the terms of the country’s financial bailout could take control of the government. If that happens and the country leaves the euro, many fear the currency union could be torn apart and European banks could fail.

The stock market began climbing in early trading after a tame inflation reading and another weak jobs report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve would offer more support for the US economy.

Applications for unemployment benefits rose last week, according to the latest government report.

The four-week average increased for a third straight week, another sign that the jobs market remains weak. The government’s main measure of US consumer prices fell in May by 0.3 percent, the biggest drop since December 2008. Analysts

said the slowdown in price increases could make it more likely that the Fed will announce new steps to boost the economy when it meets next week. Low inflation gives the

ing firm Joseph Gunnar. Yingst said the market could easily switch directions in the coming days.

“Traders are just following the trend one way on one day, but are per-

NEW YORK: In this file photo, Trader Michael Lervoline works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. —AP Fed more leeway to inject money into the financial system, keep interest rates low and encourage borrowing.

“The markets are higher, I think, because there are enough investors who believe that this morning’s data on prices and jobless claims increase the case for more Fed easing as soon as next week’s meeting,” said Clark Yingst, chief market analyst at the securities and bank-

Carlos Slim buys stake in recently nationalized YPF NEW YORK: Mexico’s Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, has acquired an 8.4 percent stake in YPF, the recently nationalized Argentine subsidiary of Spanish oil firm Repsol, filings show. Ratings agency Moody’s had downgraded YPF another notch on Tuesday, a month after Buenos Aires seized control of Argentina’s largest oil firm that accounts for a third of the country’s domestic production. A US Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday showed that Slim’s investment company, Domitgrupo Financiero Inbursa, had acquired almost 33 million shares in YPF, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

YPF CEO Miguel Galuccio hailed the purchase, saying it would send a “clear signal to international markets” and was a “show of confidence in Argentina and the new plans for the company.” However, Slim’s spokesman Renato Flores told AFP that his company had not purchased the shares directly but acquired them after they were posted as collateral on a loan that went into default. On Tuesday Moody’s downgraded its rating for YPF to Caa1 from B3, citing concerns over the company’s debt but saying its outlook was stable. Argentina declared YPF a public utility on April 16, with the government seizing a 51 percent stake in the Repsol subsidiary-infuriating Madrid and sparking concern in the United States and the European Union. Later the same week, it extended the move to YPF Gas, a separate company 85 percent owned by a division of Repsol. President Cristina Kirchner has argued that the expropriation was justified because YPF crude production had dropped while oil and gas imports doubled in 2011. Imports are forecast to triple by the end of the year. Slim, a 72-year-old Mexican tycoon who built his fortune in the telecoms industry, is the richest man in the world with an estimated $69 billion fortune, according to Forbes magazine. —AFP

fectly happy following it the other way the next.” The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose 14.22 points to 1,329.10. The Nasdaq composite gained 17.72 points to 2,836.33. The gains were broad. All 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 rose.

International Game Technology led the S&P with a 14.3 percent leap, following the company’s announcement that it would buy up to $1 billion of its own stock. The stock

jumped $1.90 to $15.12.

Just the whiff of another round of help from the Fed has been enough to shoot stocks higher in recent weeks, but the gains often disappear as quickly as they arrive.

Last Wednesday, the Dow posted its best day this year, surging 286 points. Comments from a Fed official that hinted at more stimulus helped launch the rally. The enthusiasm fizzled the next day, however, after Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a closely watched Congressional hearing that no new steps were being contemplated at the moment. The question of will or won’t the Fed act next week is top of mind for investors. The Fed’s latest round of bond purchases winds down at the end of this month, and market players wonder whether a third is on the way, or if the current program might be extended. By making trillions of dollars’ worth of bond purchases, the Fed helps keep interest rates ultra-low and encourages investors to put money into other assets, like stocks.

“Ultimately, all that matters for investors right now is whether these developments mean the Federal Reserve is more or less likely to ease policy in order to support what they may see as an insufficiently strong economic recovery,” said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at the brokerage BTIG, in a note to clients. In Europe, borrowing rates for Spain touched a record high Thursday after the rating agency

Moody’s cut its credit rating to one notch above junk status. Spain’s benchmark 10-year bond hit 6.96 percent before pulling back. Major stock indexes in Europe barely budged. Greek stocks were the exception. Athens’ main index surged 10 percent following rumors that elections this weekend will yield a government that can keep the country in the euro. Greek law forbids the release of new public opinion polls in the last two weeks before the election.

Among stocks making big moves: Nokia plunged 15 percent, or 44 cents, to $2.35. The cellphone maker cut its earnings forecast and announced plans to eliminate $2 billion in costs by the end of next year.

Nokia said it will close its main manufacturing plant in Finland, shutter research facilities in Germany and Canada and lay off 10,000 employees.

Kroger rose 6 percent after the grocery store chain raised its profit forecast for the year. The Cincinnatibased company, which operates Ralphs, Food 4 Less and other grocery stores, also announced it will spend $1 billion to buy back its stock. Kroger’s stock gained $1.29 to $22.58.

Winnebago Industries reported that its quarterly profit more than tripled, mainly because of higher prices for its vehicles. The results topped analysts’ expectations.

Winnebago’s stock rose 3 percent, or 23 cents, to $9.22. —AP

Oil climbs on hope for Fed move; natural gas soars NEW YORK: Hopes that the Federal Reserve will do more to support the US economy drove oil to its biggest gain in two months on Thursday. Meanwhile, natural gas rose the most since January 2010 on signs of increased use of the fuel by utilities.

Speculation that the Fed will announce new steps to boost the economy grew after government reports showed that hiring is still weak while inflation remains in check. Any boost to the economy should increase demand for oil, gasoline and diesel fuel.

MEXICO CITY: A masked member of the Mexican Coalition against the G20 takes part in a protest in front of the Bank of Mexico building on June 14, 2012 in Mexico City ahead of the June 18-20 G-20 Summit to be held in Los Cabos. —AFP

Benchmark crude rose $1.29 to finish at $83.91 per barrel Thursday in New York, the largest increase since April 11. Brent crude, which is used to price international varieties, gained 45 cents to $97.17 per barrel in London. US stock markets also rose.

Meanwhile, many investors are awaiting the outcome of a weekend election that could determine if Greece leaves the euro currency union. A report saying major central banks were preparing for coordinated action if the results of the elections on Sunday strain global financial markets gave oil and stocks an extra boost in the afternoon.

The Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet next week. Its latest round of bond purchases concludes at the end of June.

Chairman Ben Bernanke said last week that the Fed is ready to act if the financial crisis in Europe threatens the US economy but he didn’t indicate that any new steps were on the way. Europe still is searching for the best solution to its debt crisis. Spain’s borrowing costs surged Thursday after a ratings agency downgraded Its credit rating.

Italy’s borrowing costs also jumped because it could follow Spain in asking for a financial bailout. —AP

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This image shows a grilled dessert pizza topped with flaked coconut, fresh strawberries and chocolate bits. — AP

‘Vampire’ rites still have bite in Bulgaria PAGE 24

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Madonna

travels with 200 people on tour

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he 53-year-old singer’s demands for her current ‘MDNA’ run of shows - which began in May and ends in December - are said to include being accompanied by 30 bodyguards, personal chefs, an acupuncturist, a yoga instructor and an on-site dry cleaner. Additionally, the ‘Celebration’ hitmaker also requests 20 international phone lines backstage and insists on only vegan snacks. Madonna is particular about the look of her dressing room, which must be draped in a particular fabric and filled with white and pale pink roses and lillies, with the stems on each flower trimmed to exactly six inches. After her shows, the singer likes her hotel rooms to be a home-away-from home and has her own furniture shipped into the suites. A source told InTouch Weekly

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he ‘Call My Name’ singer - who divorced ex-husband Ashley Cole in 2010 amid claims he cheated on her with a string of women - still believes in the institution of marriage and thinks everyone should be entitled to enter it regardless. Speaking about the UK government’s plans to legalise same-sex marriage, Cheryl told Gaydar Radio: “Marriage is far more than a man and a woman, you know. It’s a bond for life and whether you’re gay or straight or whatever, it makes no difference to being married.

What marriage stands for is that you love that person. “You want to commit yourself to that person forever. It makes no sense to me. The same relationship, the same beliefs ... It’s crazy. I don’t understand why it’s even a big deal!” Despite her own marriage break-up, Cheryl, 28, has made no secret of the fact she would like to wed again and recently revealed she dreamt she had tied the knot with Prince Harry. Cheryl - who works alongside Harry’s father Prince Charles for his charity The Prince’s Trust - said: “I love Prince Harry. Actually, I had a dream last night I married Prince Harry and was a real-life princess. It’s true. And Charles was my father-in-law instead of my charity partner!”

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magazine: “Madonna requires all furniture be removed from the rooms and replaced with her own pieces that she has shipped in.” Among Madonna’s entourage seems to be a lookalike for her daughter Lourdes. The ‘Hung Up’ singer who has also taken on five clones for herself - took the drastic step of getting a body double for the15-year-old dancer following advice from Lourdes’ father Carlos Leon. A source said recently: “Carlos suggested hiring a Lourdes lookalike to take the pressure off the teenager.”

he ‘Fight Club’ actor - who raises six kids, Maddox, 10, Pax, nine, Zahara, seven, Shiloh, six, and three-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne, with partner Angelina Jolie - visited the HGB Motorcycles store in Ruislip, Greater London earlier this week, where he looked at small vehicles for his kids, but left only with gloves and a helmet for himself. A source close to Brad who is currently based in the UK with his family while Angelina films ‘Maleficent’ - told The Sun newspaper “Having been a rider himself for years, Brad knows his stuff. He’s interested in getting his and Angelina’s brood into motorbikes but is still unsure about actually buying small bikes for them. “Maddox goes out with him a lot on his bike but he thinks it’s better to stick with gear for himself for the time being.” Perhaps one of the reasons why Brad was unsure about the purchase is that Angelina has previously admitted Shiloh wouldn’t listen to him when he was trying to teach her how to ride a quad bike. The youngster was more interested in speed than careful handling of the four-wheeled vehicle, which the actress found “very funny”. She has said: “It’s very funny to watch Brad try to teach Shiloh because she doesn’t want to listen. She doesn’t want Dad to sit on the back. She doesn’t want to learn about the brakes. She just wants to go! It’s the combination of the two of us.”

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ospel singer BeBe Winans - who performed at the ‘I Will Always Love You’ hitmaker’s funeral in February - will release ‘The Whitney I Knew’ on July 31, with the tome including never-previously seen photographs of the pop superstar. Whitney - who had a history of substance abuse problems - was found dead in the bath of her Beverly Hills hotel room in February and BeBe has promised to use the book to reveal “heartbreaking accounts that led to her ultimate defeat.” It was recently confirmed that Whitney’s mother Cissy Houston will release a book about her daughter next February.

She has signed a multi-million dollar deal to write with “candor, honesty and respect” about her daughter, who died as a result of accidental drowning in her bath and effects of heart disease and cocaine use in February.

Gospel singer Cissy said: “When I lost my daughter Nippy [the nickname Whitney’s family gave her], the world lost

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he ‘A Walk To Remember’ star spoke about how grateful she is to have had parents who reminded her she was beautiful as an adolescent. She said: “Growing up I’m 5’10 and I sort of went through that awkward stage as a kid and was incredibly uncomfortable in my skin and felt very awkward about my height. “My mum who is 5’2 would always impress upon me how I should stand tall with my shoulders back and be proud of my height. It was something she really envied but I guess it was a reminder of the grass is always greener. I felt very lucky to have that kind of role model in my life at an early age.” The face of Dove’s new selfesteem campaign continued to explain why she is excited about representing normal women. She added: “I’ve always been a fan of Dove’s campaign around real women and the fact that they are very committed to inspiring women to reach their full potential. “What I love about having this opportunity and being able to use my voice behind movement such as this is the idea that there are so many real women out there who deserve to be famous. Through this campaign we’re beginning to highlight a different definition of what being a role model can be.”

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one of the most beautiful voices and an extraordinarily beautiful and charitable woman. “In sharing our story in this book, I hope to give her fans something to treasure, the way we all treasured Whitney. We are still receiving thousands of letters each day from her fans, and I hope reading this book will provide a deeper understanding into my daughter’s true story.” Whitney famously spiralled into drug addiction alongside her husband Bobby Brown - the father of her 19-year-old daughter Bobbi Kristina - in the 90s and Cissy will talk about the issues which this caused in her book.

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he Hills’ star and her parent appeared to have put their differences behind them after losing contact in 2010 because of disagreements over her husband Spencer Pratt.

The relatives enjoyed a wine tasting at the Demetria Estate in California’s Santa Ynez Valley this week. The two women also enjoyed a Swedish massage together in a couple’s room in the lead up to her appearance at PURE nightclub in Las Vegas, Nevada. On Mother’s Day two years ago Darlene told Us Weekly: “Heidi and I aren’t speaking to each other right now. I’ve been writing to Heidi, trying to reach her, but she’s not responding.” In past she had criticised her plastic surgery-obsessed daughter. She said on the MTV reality show: “How do I go and say that of course I thought you were more beautiful before? I

he ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ star told ‘Oprah Winfrey The Next Chapter’ that Kris Jenner is the best manager for her celebrity siblings. She said: “I think that’s so ridiculous. First of all, we have to hire a manager. So regardless, someone is going to get that [job]. “No one will fight harder for you than your own mother. She knows us. She knows all of our moods...We just get each other. We vibe. It works.” The host then asked if the Kardashians would be running an empire and enjoying the success they have today if they weren’t “good-looking kids.” Robert Kardashian said: “Well. They’re not, like, skinny women.” Khloe added: “I mean in today’s society,

thought you were younger, I thought you were fresher-looking, I thought you were healthier.

“What’s done is done, so that’s a terrible thing for me to say but, yes, that’s how I feel. I felt that you were much more beautiful before and I hope that some of this will fade away.”

yeah, to be honest, probably not. You have to have this bombshell over here [Kim] and this petite little bundle of joy [Kourtney] and this hunk next to me [Rob].” Kourtney continued: “But we are all different. We have different body types.”

Kim reasoned: “But I don’t think [our success] would’ve happened if we were all like skinny, pretty models. I think it has to do with us, the curves, the dark hair!” She also thinks that the sisters “helped broaden” the representation of Middle-Eastern women in mainstream media, giving them a niche role as they rose to fame. — Bangshowbiz

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Raw, gritty

film takes on Korea’s powerful chaebol

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wealthy and powerful company chairman swings open the steel door of his family bank vault, revealing tottering heaps of money to the dazzled eyes of his male secretary. From that beginning, the raw and gritty “The Taste of Money,” which was in competition at the recent Cannes Film Festival, offers up an unusually dark take on Korea’s chaebol, the powerful family-run conglomerates whose products dominate domestic life and are known around the world. It comes at a sensitive time for the chaebol, which include names such as Samsung and Hyundai and have ties to everything from smartphones to cars, restaurants and the film industry and are the focus of strong, unwelcome public attention in the run-up to the December presidential election.

As a result, the film, with its premise that wealth is a main determinant of power in South Korea and entrenched corruption is a way of life, almost didn’t make it onto the screen at all, said director Im Sang-soo. “I thought I might not be able to make this movie, but eventually I did. That’s a good sign,” Im told Reuters, recalling an affiliate of one of the chaebol that withdrew its funds from the movie less than a day after pledging to back it. But in a sign of how extensive the conglomerates’ reach is, Lotte Entertainment, part of the retail giant Lotte Group, is the film’s distributor, and some of the funds used to film it came from chaebol-linked firms.

Though the chaebol are usually portrayed in film and television as powerful and elegant people, under Im’s lens they live luxurious but corrupt and morally bankrupt lives. “That’s not what the audience expects. On TV dramas, the chaebol are mostly glamourised, or they just play some pranks and that’s all,” said film critic Kim Young-jin, who is also a professor at Myongji University. “But he spit on them.”

Young idealist “The Taste of Money” centers on the character Joo Young-jak, a secretary to chaebol head Yoon. Joo is an idealist who tries to fight the deceit and corruption around him but is soon lured into the chaebol’s schemes, becoming an unwitting henchman. Starkly shot and laced with profanity, the film shows members of the chaebol family engaging in parties, bribing prosecutors and even committing murder.

“I don’t think anybody from so-called (chaebol) ‘royal families’ have read my scenario.

Many Young-jaks in the middle must have been agonizing over investing in the film, worrying whether they should report this to them or not,” Im said. But public opinion has chilled towards the business groups, which are seen as the main winners in a political compact under dictator Park Chung-hee that catapulted South Korea from poverty to rich nation in a generation without giving back to society.

Park, in power from 1962 to his assassination in 1979, openly encouraged chaebol to amass economic power and near monopoly control in return for lifting Korea out of poverty.

When asked if the chaebol were moral in a recent poll by a think-tank linked to the ruling pro-business Saenuri party, 74 percent of respondents answered “negative.”—Reuters

People walk amidst decorated replica K6 kiosk telephone boxes on display in Trafalgar Square in central London yesterday. The transformed replicas of the classic red phone box were installed in London’s Trafalgar Square as part of the BT ArtBox campaign that has brought over 80 artists together to showcase their creative designs. — AFP

‘Vampire’ rites still have bite in Bulgaria

A picture shows a skeleton with an iron piece before being exposed at the National History museum in Sofia. — AFP photos

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he ancient skeleton of a man, pinned down in his grave in order not to turn into a vampire, piqued interest in Bulgaria this week, where vampire tales and rites still keep their bite even nowadays. The 700year-old skeleton-unearthed in the necropolis of a church in the Black Sea town of Sozopol earlier in June-was stabbed in the chest with an iron rod and had his teeth pulled before being put to rest. Anti-vampirism rituals were behind the find, archaeologists said, making this potential vampire and another one found at his side an instant media hit.

“These were most probably intellectuals who outgrew the moral ideas of their 14th century (...) They were feared and buried outside town walls,” their discoverer, archaeologist Dimitar Nedev, told AFP. The national history museum in Sofia displayed one of the skeletons this week as “a strange proof of the beliefs and superstitions of our ancestors,” its chief Bozhidar Dimitrov said in a statement. “A museum employee kept making the sign of the cross while washing the bones,” he winked, noting that vampire fears were still alive. Not only fears but also anti-vampirism funeral rites are still strong in Bulgaria even nowadays, ethnologist Rachko Popov confirmed. The researcher-known among his university colleagues as “the vampirologist”-described the vampire in the Bulgarian folklore tradition as a villain or somebody very old, who usually fed on domestic animals’ blood but could also attack humans. People also imagined vampires as very ugly and asymmetrical-hunchbacked, lame or one-eyed, Popov added.

Vampires were believed to fear water, and entire villages in the southeastern Strandzha mountain zone were known to have moved town to the opposite banks of rivers in order to escape, he said. Signs of various practices to prevent the dead from rising again as vampires have been discovered at different archaeological sites across Bulgaria over the years.

Vampire steak, vampire cocktail The Sozopol “vampire” was pierced through the chest with a ploughshare, while another centuries-old skeleton found in the central city of Veliko Tarnovo was tied to the ground with four iron clamps and burning embers were placed on top of his grave. Six more potential “vampires” from the 4th-5th century unearthed near the village of Debelt, near Sozopol in eastern Bulgaria, in 2004 were buried exceptionally deep and nailed down by the skulls, arms and legs, their finder, archaeologist Petar Balabanov, said. Remnants of these pagan anti-vampirism rituals can be found even nowadays in some village funeral rites in Bulgaria.

“After the death of my husband four years ago, my sister did this antivampirism thing at the grave-prodding the soil with a spindle and chanting something so that the spirit does not turn into a vampire,” said retired teacher Zara Dimitrova from the northwestern village of Novo Selo. “I remember we also had to keep mum on the way home to prevent him from following us,” she added. —AFP

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Spanish cave paintings shown as oldest in world

This undated handout photo shows the ‘Panel of Hands’, El Castillo Cave showing red disks and hand stencils made by blowing or spitting paint onto the wall. — AP

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ew tests show that crude Spanish cave paintings of a red sphere and handprints are the oldest in the world, so ancient they may not have been by modern man. Some scientists say they might have even been made by the much-maligned Neanderthals, but others disagree. Testing the coating of paintings in 11 Spanish caves, researchers found that one is at least 40,800 years old, which is at least 15,000 years older than previously thought.

That makes them older than the more famous French cave paintings by thousands of years.

Scientists dated the Spanish cave paintings by measuring the decay of uranium atoms, instead of traditional carbon-dating, according to a report released Thursday by the journal Science. The paintings were first discovered in the 1870s.

The oldest of the paintings is a red sphere from a cave called El Castillo. About 25 outlined handprints in another cave are at least 37,300 years old. Slightly younger paintings include horses. Cave paintings are “one of the most exquisite examples of human symbolic behaviour,” said study co-author Joao Zilhao, an anthropologist at the University of Barcelona. “And that, that’s what makes us human.”

There is older sculpture and other portable art.

Before the latest test, the oldest known cave paintings were those France’s Chauvet cave, considered between 32,000 and 37,000 years old. What makes the dating of the Spanish cave paintings important is that it’s around the time when modern humans first came into Europe from Africa.

Study authors say they could have been from modern man decorating their new digs or they could have been the working of the long-time former tenant of Europe: the Neanderthal. Scientists said Neanderthals were in Europe from about 250,000 years ago until about 35,000 years ago.

Modern humans arrived in Europe about 41,000 to 45,000 years ago - with some claims they moved in even earlier - and replaced Neanderthals. “There is a strong chance that these results imply Neanderthal authorship,” Zilhao said. “But I will not say we have proven it because we haven’t.”

In a telephone press conference, Zilhao said Neanderthals recently have gotten “bad press” over their abilities. They decorated their tools and bodies.

So, he said, they could have painted caves. But there’s a debate in the scientific community about Neanderthals. Other anthropologists say Zilhao is in a minority of researchers who believe in more complex abilities of Neanderthals. Eric Delson, a paleoanthropologist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and John Shea at Long Island’s Stony Brook University said the dating work in the Science paper is compelling and important, but they didn’t quite buy the theory that Neanderthals could have been the artists.—AP

tevie Nicks prefers writing a song over meeting a handsome prince. Ne-Yo claimed songwriting saved his life. And Bob Seger said writing a song is the hardest, yet most rewarding thing that he does. Converging opinions thrived at the 43rd annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction ceremony in New York where Seger, along with Canadian folk rocker Gordon Lightfoot, “Gambler” songwriter Don Schlitz, “and Jim Steinman of “Bat Out of Hell” fame became the latest members of the prestigious club. The writers of the long-running musical, “The Fantastick’s” were also inducted.

Seger opened the show with a spirited version of his 1973 classic, “Turn the Page.” He was then inducted by Valerie Simpson who performed “We’ve Got Tonight” in his honor. On the red carpet before the performance, Simpson said that steamy track has a very special power.”It’s one of the sexiest songs I know, it put more people in bed than I can imagine,” Simpson said.

Ne-Yo was honored with this year’s Hal David Starlight Award. It’s given to young artists that are making a significant impact with their original music. “To have a person who that has written a song that I look up to or that I grew up listening to tell me that I am good at it to. That means the world to me,” Ne-Yo said of Hal David, a frequent songwriting partner to Burt Bacharach.” Then he explained how writing songs saved him. “I was a pretty riled up little kid, and if not for my mom giving me the pad and the pen and telling me to take my emotions and put them there, then there was no telling then I might I have been sticking you up or something,” Ne-Yo joked. After being inducted by Swizz Beatz, Ne-Yo told the crowd of nearly 900 that he didn’t prepare a speech because he still didn’t believe he was standing there. While Nicks was not inducted, she did honor Bette Midler with the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award, and even performed “The Rose,’ the song made famous by Midler in the 1979 movie of the same name.

“People ask what is your favorite thing to do in a night? Be in a fantastic studio with a great poem and a piano and a little tape recorder. That is my idea of a great time,” Nicks said. Lightfoot known for such hits as “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” and “Sundown” performed his haunting 1970 ode to his failed marriage, “If You Could

Read My Mind.” On the red carpet he explained his motivation: “My life had been a bit of a rollercoaster. I think at that time I was going through the lower dip and sort of climbing up again.”

Over the years, artists from Barbara Streisand to Johnny Cash covered the song. One of the evening’s funniest moments came from Jim Steinman, who wrote songs for Meat Loaf on his

first two “Bat Out of Hell” albums. After Loaf and Constantine Maroulis performed an abridged version of the nearly 10-minute title track, Steinman noted: “They shortened the song so much I felt like I was watching an episode of “Glee.” The Songwriters Hall of Fame was created in 1969 by a group of established songwriters, including the legendary Jonny Mercer. The organization’s mission is to shine a spotlight on the accomplishments of songwriters. — AP

Singer Stevie Nicks (left) introduces Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Bette Midler at the 2012 Songwriters Hall of Fame induction and awards gala at the Marriott Marquis Hotel. — AP

Christie’s employee poses with John Constable’s painting ‘The Lock’ which features at Christie’s auction, London. The piece is estimated to fetch over 20 million pounds ($30,998,000 / 24,773,000 euros) in the auction which takes place on July 3. — AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

T

he crew on “Mystery Science Theater 3000” once joked that “Smokey and the Bandit” director Hal Needham’s philosophy was “Give me an old barn and a Trans Am, and I’ll give you drama.” For writer-director Lynn Shelton, making the follow-up to her indie breakout “Humpday,” she pulls it off with a guy, two girls, and a cabin in the woods.

That kind of stripped-down approach can be unbearably earnest or stiff in the wrong hands, but the extraordinary cast of “Your Sister’s Sister” can make scenes of people talking feel completely exhilarating and exciting. It’s a testament to the sizzle that great actors can give to the least flashy of set-ups.

It’s been a year since Jack (Mark Duplass) lost his brother, and he’s spent the last 12 months in a funk of his own making. Jack’s best friend Iris (Emily Blunt) - Iris used to date the brother, but she and Jack stayed close after the breakup - decides the best thing to do is to pack Jack off to her father’s empty house on one of those schmancy islands off the coast of Washington state, where he can ride his bike, be away from the internet and get in touch with himself.

When Jack arrives at the house late one night, he discovers it’s not as empty as Iris thought; her half-sister Hannah (Rosemarie DeWitt) has camped out there, smarting over a breakup with her longtime girlfriend. After mistaking Jack for a home intruder, Hannah invites him in, and the two proceed to spend the evening nursing their broken hearts.

The awkwardness of their encounter is compounded the following day, when Iris shows up with groceries and confesses to Hannah (whom she’s surprised to see) that she’s in love with Jack. As their time in the house proceeds, all three characters reveal surprising and embarrassing truths that send each to their corners to refigure their lives and their relationships with each other.

Iris’ unannounced arrival could have been the stuff of door-slamming farce,

but Shelton wisely lets everything play out in a way that feels genuine and organic. (And still funny.) These characters are all damaged in their own ways, but they’re also capable of real happiness, so they’re lucky to be operating in a filmic universe where they aren’t just bugs on pins; Shelton’s empathy for the characters bleeds through, even at their worst moments. Duplass has made a name for himself as the co-director of films like “Cyrus” and “Jeff, Who Lives at Home,” but mainstream Hollywood appears to be catching on to his acting skills; he recently appeared in Lawrence Kasdan’s “Darling Companion,” and he’s about to co-star in “People Like Us.” Here, reteaming with his “Humpday” director, he manages that rare feat of playing a man weighed down by entropy without letting the same thing happen to his performance. Blunt and DeWitt both take advantage of these rich roles, creating individually fascinating characters who also click perfectly as sisters. An extended scene in which they spoon and whisper their conversation feels so natural and honest that it’s like they’ve been siblings all their lives.

If there’s a failing to “Your Sister’s Sister,” it’s that Shelton’s script takes the characters to emotionally naked and confrontational places, but then resolves their issues with not nearly enough muss.

The too-clean climax feels like a cheat after the rugged terrain that these three people have had to travel over the course of the story. Still, no other movie out right now offers the sheer thrill of performance offered up by these fine actors. It’s a sight to behold. — Reuters

This image shows (from left) Jim Parsons, Angela Paton, Jessica Hecht and Tracee Chimo in a scene from “Harvey,” in New York. — AP

M

uch more than a 6-foot (twometer) rabbit is invisible at the new revival of “Harvey” on Broadway. So is any real reason to see it.

A recent preview of The Roundabout Theatre Company’s dull production starring Jim Parsons triggered plenty of yawning in the audience and revealed cracks in a play that’s supposed to celebrate American individualism and lampoon social conformity. It opened Thursday at Studio 54. At “Harvey,” there is overacting and under-acting, poor sound quality and endless windups for lame payoff jokes. And it is led by an actor who seems to be completely shorn of any charisma. Parsons, who plays a hard-core physicist nerd on “The Big Bang Theory,” has merely transferred his pursed-mouth, vaguely creepy and unsocialized TV character to the stage. With no laugh track. For two hours.

Parsons steps into the big shoes of Jimmy Stewart to play Elwood P. Dawd, a far-too-pleasant man who has been left some money, spends it on booze and is accompanied by a tall white rabbit, an invisible creature only he sees called Harvey. Elwood’s embarrassing eccentricity is messing up his sister Veta’s attempt at furious social climbing.

She schemes to get him committed, gets committed herself and that’s when the mistaken-identity farce begins. The big question is: Who is really crazy? The better question is: Who really cares?

Mary Chase’s play is six decades old and creaks. It’s hard to imagine how it beat Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” for the Pulitzer Prize in 1945.

Clearly, the concept of two best friends that are not of the same species owes Chase a debt and there are quite a few lately - like the TV show “Wilfred” with Elijah Wood and the talking teddy bear in Mark Wahlberg’s new movie “Ted,” both showing that a true animal best friend is really that person’s unfiltered id.

But, in other ways, Chase’s play is stuck in 1944, especially when it comes

to how society looks at committing the mentally unwell. The romantic notion of simply opening the doors of the nation’s sanatoriums is past. As for the cast, “Harvey” director Scott Ellis hasn’t really gotten much gelling done. Larry Bryggman is great but somewhat wasted as Judge Omar Gaffney. Charles Kimbrough is perfectly cast as the blustery sanatorium owner, William R. Chumley. And Carol Kane achieves a luminous form of loopy grace in a tiny role as Chumley’s wife.

Three sanatorium employees Morgan Spector, Holley Fain and Rich Sommer - are good enough to have their own spin-off show, what with all the bickering and misunderstandings.

They’re in another play, it seems. David Rockwell’s two sets - an elegant mansion’s library with rich colors and wellappointed furniture versus the all-white, sanitized sanatorium - nicely contrast the two worlds. So much of this play rests on the shoulders of Elwood, and Parson’s aren’t broad enough. While he has flickers of likability, such as lighting up when he meets new people or brilliantly defanging a bully with just words, he’s often just an odd duck, to mix metaphors. He also makes the cardinal sin of not letting the audience really see Harvey with his half-hearted miming.

Parsons showed some gift for the stage in the recent Broadway revival of “The Normal Heart,” allowing a wry urgency to appear in his role of an anti-AIDS activist. Here, it’s just more Sheldon Cooper, if Sheldon Cooper had a poor grasp of reality. “Harvey” will make you see things, indeed. The closest exit. — AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Jurors to mull actor’s L

This combination of 2012 and 2011 file photos shows hip hop stars Chris Brown (left) and Drake. — AP

Brown, girlfriend and bodyguard injured in brawl

S

inger Chris Brown, his girlfriend and his bodyguard were injured when a dance floor showdown with members of hip-hop star Drake’s entourage turned into a bottle-hurling brawl early Thursday at a nightclub, police said.

Brown tweeted a photo of himself with a cut chin, then later removed it, as well as other messages about the fight, including epithets and taunts. A representative later released a statement saying the singer and his girlfriend, model Karrueche Tran, were victims of a “brutal attack.”

A representative for Drake said the star was on his way out of the club when the altercation began. “He did not engage in any activity which resulted in injury to person or damage to property,” according to the statement. Witnesses told police that two men approached Brown’s table and asked him whether he had a problem with Drake, and he replied he did not.

Later, as Brown was leaving the club, five men blocked his way on the dance floor and started taking off their shirts and yelling, police said.

At some point during the face-off, bottles started flying. Chief New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said it’s not clear whether the bottles were tossed by members of either entourage, or if bar patrons eager to egg on a dispute started throwing them. Five bystanders, four women and a man, also suffered cuts during the fight at the club W.i.P. in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood, police said. Brown’s bodyguard suffered a more serious cut to the head, but all the victims were released from the hospital later Thursday.

Police were looking for surveillance footage and talking to patrons who witnessed the melee. No arrests have been made and no complaints filed, and no one has identified any one person as an assailant, police said. “Chris and his party are cooperating with NY authorities who are pursuing this incident further,” Brown’s representatives said in a statement.— AP

US singer Lou Reed performs on stage at the Heineken Music Hallin Amsterdam, on June 14, 2012. — AFP

suit against Kevin Costner

awyers for actor Stephen Baldwin on Thursday rested their case against “Dances With Wolves” star Kevin Costner, who Baldwin accuses of cheating him in a multimillion-dollar deal to sell oil cleanup devices to BP Plc after the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Costner’s attorneys also concluded their case, leaving it in the hands of an eight-person jury.

The federal lawsuit brought against Costner by Baldwin and business partner Spyridon C. Contogouris claims Costner cheated them by hiding details of a deal with BP before they sold their stake in the company marketing the oilcleaning devices.

In the deal, BP agreed to make an $18 million deposit for the $52 million order for 32 oil and water separation devices. Baldwin and Contogouris claim they were duped out of part of BP’s $18 million deposit. Plaintiffs’ attorney James Cobb has repeatedly accused Costner and his business partner, Patrick Smith, of lying about the nature of his communication with BP executives before they sealed the deal. “Lies are like Lays potato chips - I bet they can’t tell just one,” said Cobb, representing Baldwin, 46, known for roles in “The Usual Suspects” and “Flyboys.” “And they told bags of them.

“Mr. Costner’s testimony was tortured, scripted and rehearsed,” Cobb said, referring to the 57-year-old actor who starred in “Field of Dreams,” “The Untouchables,” “The Bodyguard” and “Dances With Wolves,” which won him

Oscars for best picture and best director. Costner never misrepresented any information about his deal with BP, said his attorney Wayne Lee. He said Baldwin and Contogouris hoped that Costner would “roll over and give in” rather than fight the allegations.

“We’ve seen some of the effects of fame,” Lee said. “Kevin is here in part because he is famous.”

The plaintiffs seek damages of $16.8 million to $17.2 million, Cobb said. Lee has said that Baldwin and Contogouris are not entitled to any payments because they sold their shares in the company before the deal with BP was sealed.

Both actors once invested in Ocean Therapy Solutions, the company that acquired the rights to sell the oil-separating centrifuges. Baldwin said he was a major force in promoting the devices, which he hoped to showcase in a documentary about the April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the worst US offshore oil spill. BP never used the oil separators because the company sealed the blownout Macondo well before they could be delivered. — Reuters

A

n Iraq war veteran from Illinois hoping to limit tea party-backed Republican Rep. Joe Walsh to a single term in Congress was endorsed Tuesday by none other than Joe Walsh. Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, that is. The six-time Grammy-winning rocker said he’s “the real Joe Walsh” and that he’s proud to back Democrat Tammy Duckworth in her bid for the suburban Chicago congressional seat. The musician, who lived in Evanston for a few years as a child, will hold a fundraising concert for her in July, with tickets priced at $100 to $2,500.

The endorsement in one of the most closelywatched U.S. House races nationwide is a first for the Democratic musician. He held a concert for Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, but said he hasn’t endorsed anyone else.

“I sincerely believe that she is the real thing,” Walsh told The Associated Press. “I’m frustrated with Congress in that they’re not getting very much done and I’m frustrated to the point where I think people should start paying attention to who’s in Congress.”

Duckworth, who was an Army helicopter pilot, lost her legs in a 2004 rocket-propelled grenade attack in Iraq. She later served in the Obama administration. Walsh the musician said his endorsement has nothing to do with sharing the congressman’s name. He said Duckworth’s service record and sacrifices to the country show she’s the best candidate for the job.—AP

This image shows Lisa Marie Presley performing at The Gramercy Theatre in New York. — AP

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Fashion

spotlight shines on

Ferragamo’s Giornetti H

Ferragamo headquarters,” Giornetti recounted, “the diva said ‘I want to have shoes to walk with.’” That eye for comfort, stamped on the house from the beginning, was what made the shoes so famous. Salvatore Ferragamo - the founder of the house who died in 1960 even studied human anatomy to master how to make elegant shoes truly wearable. From this know-how sprang the famous wedge heel in 1936. Then later came the classic staple bestseller - the Vara Bow Pump.

Ferragamo ensured this philosophy was carried on to Giornetti, half a century

e’s come out of the shadows and into the world spotlight. But Massimiliano Giornetti, Salvatore Ferragamo’s creative director since 2010, says that he’s still a “down to earth” guy despite having tea with Meryl Streep and hanging out with Angelina Jolie. The humility is perhaps surprising considering that Giornetti, who has breathed life into the 84 year-old fashion house, made history this week with the biggest catwalk

coup in recent times: taking over the arcades of the Louvre for the 900-year-old building’s first fashion show. While the Louvre venue might be new, the Hollywood A-list has been linked for an eternity to the storied Italian brand.

“The link between Salvatore Ferragamo and Hollywood is as old as the company,” Giornetti told The Associated Press. “It was probably the first house (in the 1920’s) to create this link between fashion and celebrities.” It was patronage of actresses - such as Marilyn Monroe and Greta Garbo - that ensured Salvatore Ferragamo’s “fairytale” rise from a humble shoe repair shop in California into the leather “shoemaker of the stars.”

The ongoing Marilyn Monroe exhibit in Florence’s Museo Salvatore Ferragamo is proof enough of the brand’s star quality. It features 14 pairs of the house’s shoes once worn or purchased by the screen siren. Today, Ferragamo is one of the world’s biggest fashion empires- spanning leather goods, watches, perfumes and ready-to-wear for men and women.

Sales last year were $1.37 billion. Giornetti says Ferragamo’s a natural hit because of a simple and universal concept: beauty with functionality.

“The first time Greta Garbo visited the

Models of the Italian fashion house Salvatore Ferragamo walk the ramp at the Denon gallery at the Louvre museum in Paris. — AFP photos later. A native of Tuscany, Giornetti studied in Florence. After 10 years designing Ferragamo’s menswear, Giornetti was named creative director in 2010, giving him control of the women’s side, too.

With Ferragamo’s headquarters situated in Florence’s Palazzo Spini Feroni - a fortified medieval edifice - it’s clear that both the designer and the brand have the city

in their hearts.

Florence’s hands-on artisanal tradition has existed since the Renaissance.

Giornetti says it’s key to the house and to his own personal style, mixing aesthetics with practicality. “It’s modern teaching that started back in the past. (Ferragamo’s philosophy) is linked with the work of Leonardo da Vinci, who also studied the anatomy and the human figure.” It’s thanks to Ferragamo’s links and sponsorship of da Vinci’s restored masterpiece “The Virgin and Saint Anne,” that the Louvre granted access to Tuesday’s show - a showcase of clothes inspired by Florence’s artisanal history. In the collection, relaxed cool-colored clothes with intricate and detailed stitching were combined appealingly with Florentine leather savoir-faire.

There was a nod to couture craftsmanship in a knee-length cream dress with myriad organic looking leather appliques.

Though he just showed in one of the world’s most famous buildings, Giornetti remains unpretentious. He lives in the non-trendy part of Florence on the left bank because “it’s the most authentic and genuine part of the city, where you find the artisanal traditions: the goldsmith, the silversmith, the art of dyeing leather, the old tradition of basket weaving.” Given his roots it’s no surprise that Giornetti praises the slower and less showy side to fashion. It’s rooted in a simple, artisanal approach to clothes - devoid of ego.

The down-to-earth values of a familyrun label also appeal to him. “Working for a family business means a lot, especially when everything is becoming more global with fashion brands becoming part of enormous companies.” Despite Giornetti’s new-found fame - people now want to take photos with him in the street - he says he’s still a “very down to earth person.” Yes, he’s now able to rub shoulders with his idols like actress Angelina Jolie and Chinese film director Wong Karwai, but he says, “I still like to go to the cinema by myself.” It’s with genuine pride that he speaks of a fitting he did for actress Meryl Streep in London ahead of last year’s Academy Awards. His favorite moment with the Oscar-winner? As it rained, “sharing a cup of tea.” — AP

Sao Paulo

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Models present creations by Osklen.

Fashion Week

Models present creations by Juliana Jabour during the 2013 summer collection of the Sao Paulo Fashion Week in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on June 14, 2012. — AFP photos

A model presents a creation

by Jefferson Kulig.

technology SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

China sending first woman in space to test module Third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit JIUQUAN, China: China will send its first woman into space today along with two other astronauts to work on a temporary space station for about a week, in a key step toward becoming the only third nation to set up a permanent base in orbit.

Liu Yang, a 34-year-old air force pilot, and two male colleagues will be launched today aboard the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft, which will dock with the bus-sized Tiangong 1 space module now orbiting at 343 kilometers (213 miles) above the Earth.

“Arranging for women astronauts to fly is not only a must for the development of human spaceflight, but also the expectation of the public,” space program spokeswoman Wu Ping said. “This is a landmark event.”

Two of the astronauts will live and work inside the module to test its life-support systems while the third will remain in the capsule to deal with any unexpected emergencies.

Wu said the mission will last more than 10 days before the astronauts travel back to Earth in the capsule, landing on Western Chinese grasslands with the help of parachutes.

The rocket began fueling Friday at the Jiugquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi desert in northern China, Wu told reporters at the center. The launch is scheduled for 6:37 p.m. (1237 GMT) Saturday, she said.

Joining Liu, a major, is veteran astronaut and mission commander Jing Hai and newcomer Liu Wang, both air force senior colonels.

“You could say this mission is a combination of the old and the new and coordination between the male and female,” Wu said.

Success in docking - and in living and working aboard the Tiangong 1 - would smooth the way for more

ambitious projects, including the creation of a permanent space station and missions to the moon, and add to China’s international prestige in line with its growing economic prowess.

China is hoping to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to have sent independently

Tiangong 1 is only a prototype, and the plan is to replace it with a permanent - and bigger - space station due for completion around 2020.

The permanent station will weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA’s Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16nation International Space Station.

BEIJING: Chinese first female astronaut Liu Yang (left) chats with Jing Haipeng (right) and Liu Wang (background) as they sit in the re-entry capsule during a training in Beijing. —AP maintained space stations into orbit.

It already is in the exclusive threenation club to have launched a spacecraft with astronauts on its own.

The mission demonstrates China’s commitment to “long-term human spaceflight” and marks a test of “the technological capabilities requisite for a future permanent space station,” said Joan JohnsonFreese, an expert on the Chinese space program at the U.S. Naval War College in Rhode Island.

Still, that is some years away. The

Analysts say China’s exclusion from the ISS, largely on objections from the United States, was one of the key spurs for it to pursue an independent program 20 years ago, which reaches a high point with Saturday’s launch.

The three astronauts will perform medicals tests on the effect of weightlessness on the human body, as well as other scientific and engineering tasks on Tiangong, or Heavenly Palace, which was put into orbit in September. Wu said the capsule would first dock by remote con-

trol, then later separate and dock again manually, to prepare the technology for a permanent space station. “After we have realized both the auto and manual docking technology, we can completely master this technology,” she said.

China first launched a man into space in 2003 followed by a two-

China doesn’t say what it spends on the program.

The selection of the first female astronaut is giving the program an additional publicity boost. State media have gushed this week about Liu, pointing out that she once successfully landed her plane after a bird strike disabled one of its

GANSU, China: Chinese soldiers guard the perimeter of the Jiuquan space base, in north China’s Gansu province yesterday on the eve of the launch of the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft. —AFP man mission in 2005 and a threeman trip in 2008 that featured China’s first space walk.

In November 2011, the unmanned Shenzhou 8 successfully docked with the Tiangong 1 by remote control - twice to show the durability of the system.

While operating with limited resources, China’s space program is a source of huge national pride and enjoys top-level political and military backing. This has left it largely immune from the budgetary pressures affecting NASA, although

engines.

Shortly after Wu’s news conference, reporters were driven to a second building for a question and answer session with the astronauts, who were dressed in blue jump suits and seated behind a glass partition.

“We won’t let you down. We will work together and successfully complete this mission,” said Liu Yang, who like China’s other female astronaut candidates is married and has a child, a requirement because of fears that exposure to space radiation could affect fertility. —AP

Submersible sets new China dive record BEIJING: A manned Chinese submersible set a new record for the country’s deepest sea dive yesterday, over 6,000 meters, showing Beijing’s technological ambitions as it also readies for its first manned space docking.

The “Jiaolong” craft dived over 19,685 feet into the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, the first in a series of six dives which will plumb depths of 7,000 metres, the official Xinhua news agency said. The deep-sea dive push comes as China prepares to launch a spacecraft today to conduct its first manned space docking, as part of efforts to establish a permanent space station by 2020. The submersible, which carried three men, reached around 6,500 metres with only a technical glitch in communications, state media said.

“In our first battle, we have already reached 6,500 metres. All of our tasks have been completed,” chief commander Liu Feng told state television aboard the ship carrying the submersible. He said a piece of communications equipment on the surface of the water failed, but the team switched to a back-up system and restored communications. He did not say whether contact was completely lost with the Jiaolong.

The same vessel-named after a dragon from Chinese mythology-reached 5,188 metres in a Pacific dive last July, the nation’s previous record. Yesterday’s dive sparked outpourings of nationalism on the Internet and comparisons to the upcoming space launch.

“Three pilots will take the Jiaolong to

attempt the 7,000-metre dive, while three astronauts will take the Shenzhou9 to connect with the Heavenly Palace,” a Shanghai based blogger wrote on his microblog. “Up in the sky we can pluck the moon, down in the oceans we can catch the turtles,” said the posting on Sina’s microblog service, quoting a saying attributed to late Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Experts say China intends to use the submersible for scientific research, such as collecting samples of undersea life and studying geological structures, as well as future development of mineral resources.

But one Chinese expert on Friday described the latest dives as an “experiment” for China and said future use of submersibles for scientific research faced obstacles, such as with stability and dura-

bility of the craft. “Even after it reaches the 7,000-metre depth, it still remains a question whether it can achieve scientific purposes,” Zhou Huaiyang, professor of the School of Ocean and Earth Sciences at Shanghai’s Tongji University, told AFP. Scientists say the oceans’ floors contain rich deposits of potentially valuable minerals, but the extreme depths pose technical difficulties in harvesting them on a large scale. Earlier this year, American film director James Cameron descended almost 11,000 meters to the bottom of the Mariana Trench-the deepest place in the world. His effort is believed to have at least equalled the record for the deepest manned dive, set by a US Navy officer and a Swiss oceanographer in 1960, according to Guinness World Records. —AFP

technology SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Russia Net CEO launches robotics fund in NYC Push button inventions drive Grishin

TOKYO: A model holds a Japanese toy maker Bandai’s Smartpet robot dog attached with an iPhone on its face during the International Tokyo Toy Show in Tokyo yesterday. Upon downloading its free application, the Smartpet reacts to your touchscreen gestures with more than 100 facial expressions in addition to its basic actions, as walking forward and backward, turning around right and left and shaking its head while sitting. —AP

NEW YORK: The co-founder of a large Russian Internet company wants to invest in the types of robotics envisioned in “The Jetsons” - that 1960s cartoon portraying a family from the future, with flying cars, robot maids and all sorts of push-button inventions.

The robots that Dmitry Grishin is looking for are aimed at the mass market.

Beyond vacuum-cleaning devices, this could include robotics technologies used in transportation, entertainment or health care. He compares where the robotics industry is now to where computers were early 1980s, when companies were first bringing PCs to regular people’s desktops.

Grishin, the co-founder and chief executive of Mail.ru, believes robotics is

ripe for the same sort of revolution, but the industry needs funding. So he is putting up $25 million to start a venture fund that will invest in robotics aimed at daily life.

Grishin Robotics will be based in New York, a city trying to establish itself as a technology hub to rival Silicon Valley. He says he picked New York in part because of its central location, its status as an international financial center and Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s support of technology and innovation.

Grishin plans to announce the fund at the invitation-only f.ounders technology conference in New York on Friday. The fund will focus on companies in the early, but not the earliest stages of development. That means companies with prod-

ucts ready to be built and sold to people.

He acknowledges such investments can be risky. After all, the field is new and unproven, and it could take many years to pay off. But he says that “if you want significant progress, you need people to take the risks.”

Otherwise, he adds, we wouldn’t have electric cars, radios or space travel.

Grishin, who studied robotics and complex automation at Moscow’s State Technical University, says that over the past few years, much of the investment and innovation in technology has focused on the Internet, on smartphones and software. (Mail.ru owns a small stake in Facebook.) He hopes that this will change with venture funding for robotics startups. —AP

Departed RIM chiefs get $12m going away gift SAN FRANCISCO: BlackBerry maker Research In Motion is giving its freshly departed co-chiefs $12 million worth of parting gifts, according to paperwork filed Thursday with US regulators.

RIM co-chiefs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned in January following months of investor pressure for a change at the helm of the struggling BlackBerry maker. Chief operating officer Thorsten Heins was named president and CEO of the Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM, which has been steadily losing market share to Apple’s iPhone and handsets powered

by Google’s Android software. “Messrs Lazaridis and Balsillie revolutionized the worldwide wireless industry with the introduction of the BlackBerry and forever changed how the world communicates,” the Canadian firm said in a documents filed with the US Securities and

Exchange Commission.

With the two men sharing the helm, RIM “successfully navigated many challenges” and became a global company with sales in over 175 countries and more than 17,000 employees worldwide, according to the filing.

Lazaridis, who is vice chair of the RIM board of directors, will receive a severance bonus worth approximately Can$3.96 million (about the same amount in US dollars). He will have an office and a personal assistant for a period of two years; family health care coverage for a decade and more than Can$3 million in equity incentives.

Lazaridis will also get use of a company car and chauffeur for two years, according to SEC paperwork. Balsillie, who is gone from the company, will get a similarly valuable benefits pack-

age plus Can$4.8 million. RIM, which pioneered the smartphone, risks falling further behind the competition in the market now being dominated

by Apple’s iPhone and Android platform makers like Samsung of South Korea. The company has warned that it could report a loss in the current quarter and said it had hired investment firms to study strategic options.

A survey by research firm IDC showed smartphones powered by Google’s Android software accounted for 59 percent of the global market in the first quarter of 2012, with 23 percent for Apple’s iPhones. That left just 6.4 percent for BlackBerry, compared with 13.6 percent a year ago. RIM stock was trading at $10.40 a share on the Nasdaq exchange at the close of market on Thursday. —AFP

Apple patent bid hints at changeable iPhone lens SAN FRANCISCO: A US patent application made public on Thursday hinted that Apple may be toying with the idea of letting picture-loving iPhone users change lenses for the smartphone cameras.

Apple’s application for a “back panel for a portable electronic device with different camera lens options” included a diagram reminiscent of an opened iPhone with labeled parts.

The application described a design to let users change lenses that typically are fixed in the backs of smartphones to act as eyes for cameras. “It would be desirable to provide a structure for a compact device that allows the end user to reconfigure the optical arrangement of the device while retaining the benefits of assembling the device using a pre-assembled digital imaging subsystem,” said a copy of the patent application available online. —AFP

BERLIN: Visitors attend the opening of the BMW Guggenheim lab, a temporary forum to discuss urban architecture, technology and sustainability, on the premises of the Pfefferberg cultural complex in Berlin yesterday. The organizers of the lab, German automaker BMW and New York’s Guggenheim Museum, installed it there after irate residents of another trendy district forced them out. — AFP

Spain mobile firms see record client-bleed

LIMA: Danish Henrick Scharfe presents his android “Geminoid-DK” during the I International Technology, Computing and Communications Eexpo in Lima on Thursday. —AFP

MADRID: Spanish mobile phone operators lost a record number of clients in April, led by an exodus from Telefonica and Vodafone, as the economic crisis further eroded consumer spending, the domestic telecoms watchdog said yesterday.

Around 380,000 customers ditched their mobile phone lines in April, marking the third straight month of decline in the overall customer base in austerity-crippled Spain, where one in four people is unemployed and the government has had to accept a 100 billion euro ($125.97 billion) bailout to prevent the collapse of its banks.

“This crash for mobile phone operators has been especially notable in the prepay sector, which lost 297,984

clients,” regulator Comision del Mercado de Telecomunicaciones said in a statement.

Dominant players like Telefonica and Vodafone are losing out in an increasingly competitive domestic market to smaller rivals who have slashed prices, with Telefonica’s mobile operator Movistar losing 1.6 million customers in nine months.

Vodafone lost 367,327 clients in April, while 189,037 customers left Movistar. Orange gained 17,760 customers in April while Yoigo added 1,490 clients.

Broadband connections were a bright spot for Spain’s telecoms firms, with 25,000 new lines set up in April, which marked a 4 percent increase on the previous year. —Reuters

TV listings SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

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

Untamed & Uncut Crime Scene Wild Seven Deadly Strikes I Was Bitten Mutant Planet Animal Kingdom Animal Battlegrounds E-Vets: The Interns E-Vets: The Interns Escape To Chimp Eden Crocodile Hunter The Planet’s Funniest Animals Jeff Corwin Unleashed Jeff Corwin Unleashed The Really Wild Show Breed All About It Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild Project Puppy Cats 101 Wildlife SOS The Planet’s Funniest Animals The Planet’s Funniest Animals Wildest Arctic Wildest Arctic Great Ocean Adventures Karina: Wild On Safari Karina: Wild On Safari Up Close And Dangerous Up Close And Dangerous Whale Wars: Viking Shores Animal Cops South Africa

00:45 Indian Food Made Easy 01:15 Saturday Kitchen 2007/08 02:35 MasterChef 03:00 Living In The Sun 03:55 Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers 04:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 04:45 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 05:10 James Martin’s Champagne 05:35 Indian Food Made Easy 06:05 Living In The Sun 06:55 Saturday Kitchen 2007/08 07:25 Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers 07:50 Come Dine With Me 08:15 Come Dine With Me 11:15 Come Dine With Me 11:35 Come Dine With Me 12:00 Celebrity MasterChef 12:55 Celebrity MasterChef 13:25 Come Dine With Me 14:20 Cash In The Attic USA 14:40 Cash In The Attic USA 15:05 Gok’s Fashion Fix 15:50 Gok’s Fashion Fix 16:40 Antiques Roadshow 17:30 Antiques Roadshow 19:20 Antiques Roadshow 20:10 Antiques Roadshow 21:00 Cash In The Attic 21:30 Cash In The Attic 22:00 Bargain Hunt 22:45 Bargain Hunt 23:30 Cash In The Attic USA 23:50 Cash In The Attic USA

00:10 00:35 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:15 02:40 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:40 05:00 05:25 05:50 06:00 06:10 06:35 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 08:55 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 10:55 11:20 11:30 23:00 23:20 23:45

17:20 18:15 19:10 20:05 21:00 21:55 22:50 23:45

Duck Dodgers The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Jetsons Puppy In My Pocket Popeye Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes Scooby Doo Where Are You! Droopy: Master Detective Wacky Races The Flintstones A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Popeye Classics Wacky Races Pink Panther And Pals Dexter’s Laboratory Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies The Garfield Show The Looney Tunes Show What’s New Scooby-Doo? Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Yogi’s Treasure Hunt Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Wacky Races Dexter’s Laboratory Wacky Races Dastardly And Muttley New Yogi Bear Show

Hillbilly Handfishin’ Tornado Road Finding Bigfoot Gold Rush Deadliest Catch Hillbilly Handfishin’ When Fish Attack River Monsters: Special

00:35 Mega World 01:25 The Colony 02:15 Powering The Future 03:05 The Gadget Show 03:35 Prototype This 04:25 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 05:15 Mega World 06:05 Sci-Trek 07:00 Powering The Future 07:55 Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger 08:20 Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger 08:50 How Does That Work?

09:15 How Does That Work?

09:40 Engineered 10:30 Sport Science 11:20 Sport Science 12:10 Sport Science 13:00 Sport Science 13:50 Sport Science 14:45 Prophets Of Science Fiction 15:35 Patent Bending 16:00 Patent Bending 16:30 Future Weapons 17:20 Sci-Fi Saved My Life 18:10 Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger 18:40 Scrapheap Challenge 19:30 Mega World 20:20 Brave New World 21:10 Weird Or What?

22:00 Dark Matters 22:50 Brave New World 23:40 Prophets Of Science Fiction

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN ON OSN ACTION HD

00:30 Bakugan: New Vestroia 00:55 Bakugan: New Vestroia 01:20 Powerpuff Girls 02:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Ben 10 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Powerpuff Girls 04:40 Generator Rex 05:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:55 Angelo Rules 06:00 Casper’s Scare School 06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Powerpuff Girls 07:15 Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi 07:40 The Amazing World Of Gumball 08:05 Adventure Time 08:55 Regular Show 09:20 Evil Con Carne 09:45 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 10:05 Thundercats 10:35 Hero 108 11:00 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 11:25 Grim Adventures Of...

12:15 Courage The Cowardly Dog 13:05 Generator Rex 13:30 Powerpuff Girls 14:20 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 14:45 Thundercats 15:10 Best Ed 16:00 Fantastic Four...

16:25 Ben 10 16:50 The Amazing World Of Gumball 17:15 Adventure Time 17:40 Regular Show

18:05 18:55 19:20 19:45 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:00 22:50 23:15 23:40

00:00 00:30 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 05:45 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:15 08:30 09:00 09:15 09:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00

Powerpuff Girls Ben 10: Alien Force Ben 10: Alien Force Ed, Edd n Eddy Grim Adventures Of...

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Redakai: Conquer The Kairu Cow And Chicken Codename: Kids Next Door Ben 10 Ben 10 Chowder

Amanpour World Sport Piers Morgan Tonight World Report Anderson Cooper 360 Piers Morgan Tonight Quest Means Business CNN Marketplace Africa The Situation Room World Sport Cnngo World Report CNN Marketplace Africa Backstory World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East Business Traveller World Sport Mainsail The Best Of The Situation Room World Report Backstory The Brief Inside Africa World Report Inside The Middle East Talk Asia

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

Eco Solutions News Special Backstory International Desk African Voices CNN Marketplace Europe CNN Marketplace Africa The Brief World Sport Living Golf International Desk Inside Africa International Desk Cnngo The Best Of The Situation Room World Report News Special

00:15 00:40 01:35 Junior 02:30 03:25 04:20 05:15 05:40 06:05 07:00 07:25 08:15 09:10 10:05 10:55 11:50 12:45 13:40 14:35 15:30 16:25

Worst-Case Scenario Surviving Disaster American Chopper: Senior vs Wheeler Dealers Revisited X-Machines Surviving Disaster How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Gold Rush How It’s Made Built From Disaster Mega Builders Extreme Engineering Heart Of The Machine Man, Woman, Wild Dual Survival Ultimate Survival Ultimate Survival World’s Toughest Jobs Coal When Fish Attack

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

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

00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:20 THS 03:15 Behind The Scenes 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Bridalplasty 10:15 Giuliana & Bill 11:10 Giuliana & Bill 12:05 E! News 13:05 Scouted 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 14:35 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:00 Khloe And Lamar 15:30 Khloe And Lamar 15:55 Khloe And Lamar 16:25 Khloe And Lamar 16:55 Ice Loves Coco 17:25 Ice Loves Coco 17:55 E! News 18:55 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 19:55 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 20:55 Style Star 21:25 Fashion Police 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians

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

Ghost Lab A Haunting True CSI On The Case With Paula Zahn Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghost Lab A Haunting Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Who On Earth Did I Marry?

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

00:00 Departures 01:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 02:00 Adventure Wanted 03:00 Meet The Natives 04:00 Keeping Up With The Joneses 04:30 Keeping Up With The Joneses 05:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 06:00 First Ascent 06:30 First Ascent 07:00 Meet The Natives 08:00 Danger Men 09:00 Deadliest Journeys 09:30 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 On The Camino De Santiago 11:30 On The Camino De Santiago 12:00 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 12:30 Sahara Sprinters 13:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 14:00 First Ascent 14:30 First Ascent 15:00 Meet The Natives 16:00 Keeping Up With The Joneses 16:30 Keeping Up With The Joneses 17:00 Treks In A Wild World 18:00 Departures 19:00 One Man & His Campervan 19:30 One Man & His Campervan 20:00 Which Way To

TV listings SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Which Way To The Frankincense Trail Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy A World Apart

00:00 Departures 01:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 02:00 Adventure Wanted 03:00 Meet The Natives 04:00 Keeping Up With The Joneses 04:30 Keeping Up With The Joneses 05:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 06:00 First Ascent 06:30 First Ascent 07:00 Meet The Natives 08:00 Danger Men 09:00 Deadliest Journeys 09:30 Chasing Che: Latin America On A Motorcycle 10:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 11:00 On The Camino De Santiago 11:30 On The Camino De Santiago 12:00 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 12:30 Sahara Sprinters 13:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 14:00 First Ascent 14:30 First Ascent 15:00 Meet The Natives 16:00 Keeping Up With The Joneses 16:30 Keeping Up With The Joneses 17:00 Treks In A Wild World 18:00 Departures 19:00 One Man & His Campervan 19:30 One Man & His Campervan 20:00 Which Way To 21:00 The Frankincense Trail 22:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 23:00 A World Apart

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 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

00:00 PG15 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Puffball: The Devil’s Eyeball-

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 PG15 13:00 PG15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

True Grit-PG15 The Conspirator-PG15 The Borrowers-PG Bound By A Secret-PG15 The Conspirator-PG15 The LXD: The Uprising Begins-

Aeon Flux-PG15 Ronin-18 Friday Night Lights-PG15 Rocky III-PG15 The Warlords-PG15 Behind Enemy Lines-PG15 Rocky III-PG15 Blank Slate-PG15 Behind Enemy Lines-PG15 Gridlock’d-18 Kingdom Of Heaven-PG15

The LXD: Secrets Of The RaIce Age-FAM I Am Number Four-PG15 Burlesque-PG15 Hall Pass-18 Crazy-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 02:00 Allen Gregory 02:30 Angry Boys 03:00 New Girl 03:30 Melissa & Joey 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Til Death 06:00 Dharma And Greg

07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:30 New Girl 09:00 Til Death 09:30 30 Rock 10:00 Modern Family 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Dharma And Greg 13:00 Til Death 14:00 Melissa & Joey 14:30 Modern Family 15:00 30 Rock 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Dharma And Greg 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Parks And Recreation 18:30 Bent 19:00 The Office 19:30 Breaking In 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 23:00 Angry Boys 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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

Jane By Design Smash The Bachelor Fairly Legal Lights Out Good Morning America The Practice Castle The Martha Stewart Show The View Jane By Design Fairly Legal Castle Live Good Morning America The Practice

18:00 18:30 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. Criminal Minds C.S.I. New York Law & Order: Criminal Intent Lights Out

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

Psych The Bachelor Love Bites Jane By Design Smash C.S.I. Miami Psych The Bachelor Castle The Chicago Code Jane By Design Fairly Legal Emmerdale Coronation Street Castle Psych Emmerdale Coronation Street Body Of Proof C.S.I. Criminal Minds C.S.I. New York Law & Order: Criminal Intent Treme

01:00 03:00 05:00 PG15 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00

Child’s Play 3-18 The Collector-18 Puffball: The Devil’s EyeballX-Men-PG15 So Close-PG15 The Warrior’s Way-PG15 X2-PG

Trapped Taboo Megastructures Fight Science Hunter Hunted The Known Universe Cruise Ship Diaries Somewhere In China Trapped Taboo Megastructures Fight Science Hunter Hunted The Known Universe Cruise Ship Diaries Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy Trapped Taboo Megastructures World’s Deadliest Animals Shark Men Banged Up Abroad Light At The Edge of The World Departures

00:00 Triumph of Life 01:00 The Pack 01:55 Killer Shots 02:50 Animal Fugitives 03:45 World Wild Web 04:10 World Wild Web 04:40 Expedition Wild 05:35 Cameramen Who Dare 06:30 Monster Fish 07:25 World Wild Wed 2 07:50 World Wild Wed 2 08:20 Fairy Penguins: The Secret of Sydney Harbour 09:15 Camera Trap 09:40 Camera Trap 10:10 Lions Behaving Badly 11:05 I, Predator 12:00 Africa’s Deadliest 13:00 Wild Chronicles 13:30 Wild Chronicles 14:00 World Wild Web 14:30 Savannah 15:00 Expedition Wild 16:00 Wildlife Rescue Africa 17:00 Hunter Hunted 18:00 Shark Eden 19:00 Expedition Wild 20:00 Wildlife Rescue Africa 21:00 Hunter Hunted 22:00 Shark Eden 23:00 Africa’s Deadliest

15:15 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:30

So Close-PG15 Hurricane Season-PG15 The Grudge 3-18 Kingdom Of Heaven-PG15 Carriers-PG15

00:00 Greenberg-18 02:00 Tank Girl-PG15 04:00 The Parent Trap-PG 06:15 Garfield-PG 08:00 Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement-FAM 10:00 For Richer Or Poorer-PG 12:00 The Lightkeepers-PG15 14:00 The Dukes-PG15 16:00 For Richer Or Poorer-PG 18:00 Out Cold-PG15 20:00 The Other Guys-PG15 22:00 Rag Tale-18

02:15 04:45 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 16:45 19:00 21:00 23:15

A L’origine-PG15 I Capture The Castle-18 Return To Paradise-PG15 Good Hair-PG15 Eight Below-PG Strength And Honour-PG15 Good Hair-PG15 I Am Sam-PG15 Romeo + Juliet-PG15 The Great Debaters-PG15 Cat People-18

01:30 Elle: A Modern Cinderella TalePG15 03:15 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid-PG 05:00 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules-PG15 06:45 Another Year-PG15 09:00 Oranges And Sunshine-PG15 11:00 Just Go With It-PG15 13:00 My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend-PG15 14:30 Easy A-PG15 16:15 Oranges And Sunshine-PG15 18:00 Due Date-PG15 20:00 Battle For Terra-PG15 22:00 The American-18

00:00 Winnie The Pooh-FAM 02:00 The Lucky Dragon-PG 04:00 Adventures Of A Teenage Dragonslayer-PG 06:00 Winnie The Pooh-FAM 08:00 Olentzero Christmas Tale-FAM 10:00 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie-PG 12:00 A Venetian Rascal Goes To America-FAM 14:00 Adventures Of A Teenage Dragonslayer-PG 16:00 Gladiators: The Conspiracy-PG 18:00 The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie-PG 20:00 Snow Dogs-PG 22:00 A Venetian Rascal Goes To America-FAM

THE CONSPIRATOR ON OSN CINEMA

00:00 MSNBC Hardball W/ Chris Matthews 01:00 MSNBC Politicsnation 02:00 Live NBC Nightly News 02:30 ABC World News W/ Diane Sawyer 03:00 MSNBC The Ed Show 04:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 06:00 NBC Nightly News 06:35 ABC Nightline 07:00 ABC World News W/ Diane Sawyer 07:30 Live NBC Nightly News 08:00 MSNBC The Ed Show 09:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 10:00 MSNBC Morning Joe 13:00 MSNBC Documystery 14:00 Live NBC Saturday Today Show 16:00 MSNBC Up With Chris Hayes Saturday 17:57 Live MSNBC Hardball W/ Chris Matthews 18:38 Live MSNBC The Ed Show 19:19 Live MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 20:00 Live ABC 20/20 21:00 MSNBC Documystery 22:00 MSNBC Documystery 23:00 MSNBC Documystery

00:00 Sleeping Beauty-18 02:00 Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure-PG 04:00 Fat Albert-PG 06:00 Rat-PG15 08:00 My Last Five Girlfriends-PG15 09:45 Real Steel-PG15 12:00 Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Pt.1-PG15 14:30 Quest For Zhu-PG 16:00 My Last Five Girlfriends-PG15 18:00 The Spy Next Door-PG 20:00 Battle For Terra-PG15 22:00 The Private Lives Of Pippa LeePG15

02:00 04:30 05:30 06:00 07:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:30 12:30 13:00 15:30 17:30 20:00 20:30 23:00

AFL Premiership Volvo Ocean Race Volvo Ocean Race Highlights Trans World Sport NRL Premiership PGA European Tour Weekly Futbol Mundial Live Rugby Matchday Live International Rugby Union Live Rugby Matchday Live International Rugby Union NRL Premiership Live Rugby Matchday Live Rugby Matchday AFL Premiership Trans World Sport

01:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 10:00 10:30 12:45 21:00 21:30 23:30

WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line Trans World Sport NRL Premiership Live AFL Premiership Futbol Mundial Live NRL Premiership Live Test Cricket Rugby Match Day International Rugby Union Rugby Match Day

00:00 Ladies European Tour Highlights 01:00 ATP Tennis Aegon Championships 04:00 ATP Tennis Aegon Championships 08:30 Total Rugby 09:00 Live International Rugby Union 11:00 ATP Tennis Aegon Championships 12:30 Live NRL Premiership 14:30 PGA European Tour Weekly 15:00 Live ATP Tennis Aegon Championships 17:00 Live ATP Tennis Aegon Championships 19:00 Rugby League International Origin 21:15 Total Rugby 21:45 Live International Rugby Union

01:00 03:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 09:30 11:30 12:30 15:30 16:00 18:00 19:00 22:00

WWE Smackdown WWE Bottom Line UFC UFC Unleashed Mobil 1 The Grid V8 Supercars Extra Live V8 Supercars UAE National Race Day Series WWE Smackdown V8 Supercars Live AFL Premiership NRL Full Time Live Rugby Union Nations V8 Supercars UFC Prelims UFC

00:30 02:15 04:45 07:00 08:30 09:55 11:30 14:00 15:35 17:30 20:10 22:00

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof How The West Was Won-PG Some Came Running-PG Fury-PG The Strip-PG On The Town-FAM How The West Was Won-PG Girl Happy-FAM Escape To Victory-PG Where Eagles Dare-PG The Swan-FAM Shoot The Moon

what’s on

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Kinderheart Preschool Graduation at KNES

T

he very young children from the Kinderheart Preschool at Kuwait National English School celebrated recently their next step in education moving the next academic year into Foundation Stage. Family, staff and the School Director Chantal praised the little ones in a cheerful atmosphere and marked this very important step in the education of the very little ones at Kuwait National English School.

Celebrating 21 Years of Service to the Community Accredited by CIS (Council of International Schools) & NEASC (New England Association of Schools & Colleges)

Announcements Open House for Indian citizens

O

pen House for Indian citizens by the ambassador which is being held every alternate Wednesday has been found useful by the Indian community and the embassy. It will now be held on every Wednesday from June 2012 between 1500 hrs and 1600 hrs. in the embassy. During the month of June, 2012 the dates for the open house fall on 20th and 27th of the month. In case Wednesday is an embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day.

To ensure timely action/follow-up by the embassy, it is requested that, wherever possible, Indian citizens should exhaust the existing channels of

interaction/grievance redressal and bring their problems/issues in writing with supporting documents. It may be mentioned that embassy of Indiaís Consular Wing is providing daily service of Open House to Indian citizens on all workings days from 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1530 hrs by the Consular Officer in the Meeting Room of the Consular Hall.

For any unaddressed issues, Second Secretary (Consular) could be contacted. Furthermore, the head of the Consular Wing is also available to redress grievances. Similarly, a labour wing Help Desk functions from 0830 hrs to 1300 hrs and 1400 hrs to 1630 hrs in the Labour Hall to address the labour related issues.

There is also a 24x7 Help Line (Tel No. 25674163) to assist labourers in distress. For any unaddressed issues, the concerned attaches in the labour section and the head of the labour wing could be contacted.

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

Free Arabic course IPC is opening an Intensive Basic Arabic Course for ladies commencing from June 3 to July 8, 2012. The class will be from 5-7 pm for three days a week.

Registration is on! For information, call 22512257.

what’s on

The government of India delegation with officials of KIPCO, KAMCO and M H AlShaya.

Indian delegation addresses Kuwait, India businessmen

A

high-level delegation from Ministry of Finance, Government of India addressed the members of the Indian Business Council Kuwait at the Hotel Crowne Plaza Wednesday and briefed them about the attractive and

liberalized investment opportunities and norms in India. This was followed by a very intense and interesting questionanswer session. The Indian delegation was led by Dr. Thomas Mathew, Joint Secretary Capital Marketing, Ministry of

Finance India. The delegation from India also met senior officials of the KIPCO, KAMCO and Burgan Bank earlier during the day on Wednesday to discuss the liberalized investment opportunities and norms in India.

Birthday greetings

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

W

ishing Chrislyne a Happy 4th Birthday filled with fun and wonderful surprises. Best wishes by Appa, Amma, Kitty ‘n’ Ponnus.

Embassy Information

Indian English Academy School celebrates Thanksgiving Day

O

n May 30 and 31, Indian English Academy School, Salmiya, celebrated their 10th Annual Thanksgiving Day in all its grandeur and gaiety. The chief guest for the first day was the Indian Ambassador to Kuwait, Satish Mehta and the guest of honour was Sister M. Serena Lobo A.C. (Principal of Carmel School, Kuwait). The chief guest for the second day was Shanta Maria Gomes, Chairperson of the CBSE Gulf Council.

The programme began with the Kuwait and Indian national anthems and prayers. This was followed by a lively welcome song, followed by a welcome address rendered by Fr. Francis Kharjia, the Director of IEAS. The chief guests stated that they were impressed by the school’s and also released the school magazine which was a special edition in sync with the 10 years celebration. The magazine chronicles and highlights the literary works of the students and staff.

Fr. Lionel Braganza, the Principal of IEAS, presented the annual report which highlighted the prominent achievements of the school during the year 2011-12 in the scholastic and co-scholastic areas. The audience was taken on a colourful journey in a feast of a vibrant thanksgiving dance and a PowerPoint presentation prepared by the ex-students displaying the last 10 years of IEAS. This was followed by the felicitation of 25 staff members who completed 10 years in the school. The academic and general proficiency awards were given away by the chief guest to the students from Grade VI TO XII. The school’s annual musical was the

highlight of the evening. Annie -The Musical, a much loved favourite, charmed audiences with a display of the talent of various students. The poignant story of Annie and the orphans was portrayed with wonderful singing, acting and dancing by the cast. This year the main character of Annie was played by two stu-

“Rooster” (Kevin Mendonsa) and his incorrigibly hedonistic girlfriend “Lilly St. Regis” (Rebecca Raj) both played with the appropriate level of villainy required.

And, equally impressive, these leads were supported by one of the most musically capable choir under the guidance of their music teacher. The colourful back-

EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA Change of contacts of the Australian Visa Facilitation Service Office in Kuwait (VFS).

Client Telephone Contact: +971 4 355 1958 (AVAC) Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Australian Visa Office in Dubai) Email Contact: Info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com, Immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Australian Visa Office in Dubai) Website: www.vfs-au-gcc.com www.immi.gov.au/overseas/dubai/index.htm (Australian Visa Office) Kuwait City: Australian Visa Application Centre, 4B 1st Floor, Al Banwan Building, Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al Salem Street, Opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working Hours and Days: 09:30 - 17:30, Sunday-Thursday ■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF BRAZIL The Embassy of Brazil requests all Brazilian citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the website www.brazil.org.kw (Contact Us Form / Fale Conosco) in order to register or update contact information. The Embassy encourages all citizens to do so, including the ones who have already registered in person at the Embassy. The registration process helps the Brazilian Government to contact and assist Brazilians living abroad in case of any emergency.

■■■■■■■

EMBASSY OF CYPRUS The Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus would like to inform the public that from 3rd June 2012 the Consulate section located at the premises of the Embassy has started issuing Visas. Address: Salwa-Block 3, Al-Mutanabbi Street Building No. 35, Tel : (965)25620350, Fax: (965)25620470, Email : info@cyprus-embassy.org.kw Working hours 9:00am till 12:00pm everyday except Friday & Saturday Hence, The Honorary Consulate of Cyprus in Kuwait city will stop issuing Visas from the same date.

dents and both Annies were tiny packages of child-like sincerity. Her fellow orphans also struck an emotional chord with all present. Almost as delightful was the dog (played by a student). The characters of Warbucks (Odrick Monis) and Hannigan (Fabiola D’Souza) were meticulously portrayed. Grace Farrell (Manasi Arun) gave an elegant touch to the musical with her wonderful voice and tenderness towards Annie. In collusion with Miss Hannigan were her criminal brother

drops were painted by the art teacher. In fact, the most appealing part of the entire experience, for anyone, was that there was no single most appealing part. All cast and crew, on-stage and backstage worked harmoniously to produce a musical experience that was delightful! The musical showcased the talents of about 350 students involving Classes VI to XI. Congratulations to the IEAS management, staff and students on a magnificent and successful performance!

Embassy holidays The British Embassy will be closed on Sunday 17 June on the occasion of the Prophet’s (Peace Be Upon Him) Ascension. The Consular Section will also be closed on the same date above.

The Spain Embassy will be closed on Sunday the 17th June, on the occasion of the Prophet’s (Peace be Upon Him) Ascension and will re-open Monday, June 18.

The Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia will be closed tomorrow on the occasion of Al-Isra.

health & science SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

What kind of parent are you?

The four different styles of parenting

By Sally Ghazal

P

arents always want the best for their children. It is true that no love can match the love a parent has for his/her child. So why is it that we see so many parents using destructive methods in dealing with their children? Do parents intentionally try to punish or spoil a child they love? Parents employ parenting styles that were employed on them, or they employ parenting styles so different from the ones their parents used in the hope that their children will be happier than they were.

Psychologists have taken interest in this topic, and they have outlined four parenting styles that can include almost all parents universally. Numerous studies were conducted to show which parenting style is most successful for producing happy well adjusted children. As you read this, you may reflect on the style your parents employed with you and the style that you employ or plan to employ with your own children.

The permissive parents or indulgent parents do not set any expectations for their children. They will allow their children to ‘get away’ with behaviors as they do not discipline. These parents do not represent an authority figure to their children, and they try to be more of ‘friends’ than parents. As you can imagine, parents who adopt this style often have ‘spoiled’ children who even as they grow up do not have limits and do not accept rules.

Parents, who adopt this style, are not bad parents, in their minds they are trying to be the best parents they can be and get as much love from their children as they can. Many permissive parents become permissive to try to compensate. Many parents who grew up in very strict households try to compensate by being the exact opposite with their children. Others may just be employing

the only style they know, as they themselves grew up with permissive parents. In some cases, one would see this style that may be seen with single parents, or parents who have problems at home. Sometimes it could be that the parent himself/herself did not receive too much love and wants to make it up to his/her offspring. As the style is also known as indulgent, the parent is too involved in the child’s life, wants to be there in for them at all times. The child and his/her behaviors are highly accepted by the parent, almost never criticized, and the parent exercises little if any control over the child. Psychologists encourage independence and are always supporting parents in giving their children freedom of choice. However, we agree that children who do not get much discipline as they are growing up, will have a very hard time accepting rules as adults, and may in many occasions get in trouble that could have been avoided. Remember, the sole purpose for employing this style is to make your child happy. The shocking news is that research on individuals who grew up with permissive parents proves that these individuals rank low on happiness and have low control or regulation on their behavior.

A second parenting style is known as the disengaged or uninvolved style. In this parenting style, as the name indicates, the parent is not involved in the child’s life. Very little control is exercised and the child does not receive much attention from the parent. These children, too, get away with many behaviors, but unlike the children above, these children do not get much love or support from parents. Unfortunately, this style of parenting is becoming more common, as many parents are too busy outside the home to be there for their children or provide structured discipline and impose

rules. Many parents think that by providing a child’s basic needs and not demanding much from the children or punishing them, they are being good parents. Research has shown that these children have low self esteem and do not feel appreciated. Like the child of the permissive parents, these children also lack in their ability to control and regulate their behavior.

Sally Ghazal The above two styles of parenting exercise very little control. What about parenting styles which employ more control? The remaining two styles are characterized by parents controlling behavior. This does not mean dictating how the child behaves, rather, controlling behaviors by setting expectations and employing disciplinary measures when the child misbehaves.

This is usually done by the authoritarian parents and the authoritative parents.

The authoritarian parents are the typical ‘old fashioned’ parents. They set the rules, expect the child to follow them and then punish the child when he/she does not follow the rules or achieve what is expected.

These parents are what we commonly refer to as ‘strict’ parents. They often fail to explain to the child why these rules are in place. They come across as not accepting of the child

and they do not spend much time talking to their child or getting to know his/her needs. The child is simply expected to do what the parent asks because the parent knows better. The parent is viewed by the child as an authority figure whose rules have to be obeyed. Individuals who were raised by authoritarian parents rank low on happiness and self esteem. In many cases, they are unable to make decisions for themselves, and they are very obedient.

Finally, the authoritative or democratic parent, like the authoritative parents set rules and expect the child to follow them, but they take the time to explain why these rules are there. They show their child support and acceptance and they are usually as involved in their children’s lives as the permissive parents.

These parents explain the behaviors and consequences to their children and even involve the child in decision making. When a child fails to follow rules, the child is disciplined but the parent usually takes the time to talk to the child about his/her mistake and work on modifying behavior together. These children are happier and have more self confidence.

The child of the authoritative parents is usually successful as he/she is more capable of making decisions.

To conclude, it is apparent that psychologists suggest that authoritative style is the most effective approach. Individuals who grew up with authoritative parents find it easier to adapt both as children and adults. I believe that we all have the ability to be happy and well adjusted individuals, some of us have to struggle a bit more to achieve this balance. So when dealing with your children, keep in mind what message you want them to get and how successful you are in getting this message across.

Website: www.kaizen-kw.com Email:sghazal@kaizen-kw.com

Single hormone shot can replace daily doses in IVF

HANOVER: A newborn calf is groomed by its mother Shahni at the giraffe section of the Zoo in Hanover, western Germany on Thursday. The young Rothschild giraffe was born on June 5, 2012 weighing about 100 kg and being almost 2m tall. —AFP

NEW YORK: Women preparing for fertility treatment get a series of daily, sometimes uncomfortable, hormone shots to kick their ovaries into overdrive, but a European review of previous studies suggests that one long-acting shot may work just as well.

In an analysis of four past studies including over 2,300 women with infertility, researchers found the women were just as likely to get pregnant - and didn’t have any more complications - when they got a single, long-acting dose of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH).

For in vitro fertilization, extra FSH is used to trigger the ovaries to grow and release multiple eggs, which are then fertilized outside the body and transferred to the uterus. “Long-acting FSH (weekly injection) is a good and safe alternative to daily injections in the first week of ovarian stimulation for IVF,” said Jan Kremer from

Radboud University Nijmegen Medical Center in the Netherlands, who worked on the study.

The long-acting shot is used in Europe but not currently available in the United States, because it hasn’t been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The findings, published in The Cochrane Library, cover 2,335 women. Of that number, 987 got daily FSH shots for a week and 1,348 had one long-acting shot at a range of doses, along with the usual course of other IVF hormone injections. In studies that used the lowest dose of the long-acting hormone, between 60 and 120 micrograms - fewer women in the one-shot group got pregnant than in the daily FSH comparison group.

However, at slightly higher doses - 150 to 180 micrograms - pregnancy and birth rates didn’t suffer: 343 of every 1,000

women getting one long-acting shot had a baby, compared to 336 out of 1,000 in the daily-shot group. The long-acting shot didn’t seem to come with a higher risk of miscarriage, having twins or developing a pregnancy-related complication, including swollen ovaries. The main advantage of the single shot is convenience, said Samuel Pang, medical director at the Reproductive Science Center of New England in Lexington, Massachusetts. FSH shots are simple injections that women can give themselves, similar to insulin, but the process can still be difficult for some. “In my mind, based on the studies that have been done and based on my own experience, it is a safe and effective product,” said Pang, who wasn’t involved in the new study, to Reuters Health. “The only caveat is it really needs to be used in well-selected patients.” — Reuters

health & science SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

CLASSIFIEDS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

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couples in a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom flat near United Indian School, Abbasiya.

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Prayer timings Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:13 11:49 15:23 18:50 20:22

MATRIMONIAL Financially-sound ex-NRI parents invite proposals for their son 28/180, fair, B.Com and MBA (Finance) from a respected institution, employed in a reputed bank in Kuwait, from parents of professionally qualified, Godfearing girls, preferably MBA (Finance), M.Com or engineers. Contact: dr.matt32@gmail.com 13-6-2012

112 THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

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22545171

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24810598

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22545171

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24742838

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22434853

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22545051

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24711433

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24316983

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23927002

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information SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

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

Arrival Flights on Saturday 16/6/2012 Flt Route 185 DUBAI 148 DOHA 408 BEIRUT 441 LAHORE 620 ADDIS ABABA 239 ISLAMABAD 642 AMMAN 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 643 MUSCAT 768 ISTANBUL 370 BAHRAIN 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 503 LUXOR 770 ISTANBUL 1541 CAIRO 170 BAHRAIN 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA 529 ASSIUT 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 436 BAHRAIN 213 BAHRAIN 165 DUBAI 618 ALEXANDRIA 5066 MASHAD 325 NAJAF 610 CAIRO 672 DUBAI 219 BAHRAIN 57 DUBAI 472 JEDDAH 535 CAIRO 140 DOHA 562 AMMAN 500 JEDDAH 241 AMMAN 640 AMMAN 788 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 476 JEDDAH 134 DOHA 538 SHARM EL SHEIKH 4161 MASHAD 6791 MASHAD 118 NEW YORK 357 MASHAD 303 ABU DHABI 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 177 DUBAI 777 JEDDAH 176 GENEVA 127 SHARJAH 502 BEIRUT 144 DOHA 542 CAIRO 125 BAHRAIN 786 JEDDAH 438 BAHRAIN 104 LONDON

Time 0:15 0:20 1:00 1:30 1:45 2:05 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 2:50 2:50 2:55 3:10 3:20 3:25 3:55 4:35 4:55 5:00 6:00 6:15 6:30 6:35 6:40 7:15 7:30 7:45 7:50 8:05 8:15 8:20 8:20 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:20 9:30 9:35 10:00 11:05 11:25 11:55 12:30 13:30 13:40 13:40 13:45 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:30 14:40 14:55 15:00 15:00 15:00 15:15 15:30 15:45 15:55 16:00 16:20 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:40 17:45 17:45 18:00 18:05 18:15 18:30 18:40 18:40 18:45

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

63 6130 620 618 674 175 572 774 607 393 647 402 790 146 460 221 474 229 415 135 859 43 341 129 136 372 614 513 61 539 975 217 981 239 636 51 614 772 574

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

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 16/6/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 981 WASHINGTON DC 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 573 MUMBAI 413 AMSTERDAM 409 BEIRUT 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 621 ADDIS ABABA 240 SIALKOT 769 ISTANBUL 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 371 BAHRAIN 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 643 AMMAN 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 534 CAIRO 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 126 SHARJAH 324 AL NAJAF 240 AMMAN 561 AMMAN 671 DUBAI 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 133 DOHA 537 SHARM EL SHEIKH 101 LONDON 56 DUBAI

18:45 19:00 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:35 19:40 19:50 19:55 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:25 20:25 20:35 20:45 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:15 21:25 21:30 21:30 21:35 22:00 22:00 22:00 22:05 22:10 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:55 23:10 23:30 23:35 23:40 23:50 Time 0:05 0:25 0:30 0:35 0:50 0:55 2:00 2:15 2:30 2:45 3:20 3:40 3:45 3:50 3:55 3:55 4:05 4:20 4:50 5:40 6:50 6:55 7:05 7:10 7:30 8:25 8:25 9:00 9:05 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:35 9:40 10:00 10:00 10:00 10:05

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

107 302 437 356 214 541 165 501 776 619 785 176 5065 220 58 611 673 538 473 174 124 617 641 461 512 789 505 135 773 4162 6792 304 238 141 858 216 134 128 982 511 266 613 145 64 439 283 184 621 6131 153 571 604 331 351 648 403 477 543 222 475 171 230 415 1540 120 381 860 342 137 301 205 188 554 373 62 44 394 147 218 411

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

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

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

C R O S S W O R D 7 0 7

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. An anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions.

4. Someone unpleasantly strange or eccentric.

9. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

13. A nucleic acid consisting of large molecules shaped like a double helix.

14. Physicist honored for advances in solid state electronics (born in Japan in 1925).

15. The lean flesh of a fish similar to cod.

16. Gone by.

17. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984).

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

19. A member of a North American Indian people living east of the Sacramento river in California.

21. Of or relating to or characteristic of Hades or Tartarus.

23. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

26. English economist noted for his studies of international trade and finance (born in 1907).

29. The eleventh month of the Hindu calendar.

33. A large fleet.

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

36. Electronic equipment that provides visual images of varying electrical quantities.

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

38. A loose sleeveless outer garment made from aba cloth.

40. The month following July and preceding September.

41. Hear or try a court case anew.

44. (folklore) A corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living.

46. The compass point that is one point east (clockwise) of due north.

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

52. Scandinavian liquor usually flavored with caraway seeds.

56. An association of countries in the western hemisphere.

60. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

61. The law enforcement agency in the Justice Department.

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

63. Plaything consisting of a light frame covered with tissue paper.

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

65. A region of complete shadow resulting from total obstruction of light.

66. A blue dye obtained from plants or made synthetically.

DOWN 1. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

2. Any tree or shrub of the genus Inga having pinnate leaves and showy usually white flowers.

3. Any of a group of antidepressant drugs that inhibit the action of monoamine oxidase in the brain and so allow monoamines to accumulate.

4. Treated dishonorably.

5. A unit of pressure.

6. An implement used to propel or steer a boat.

7. A Turkish unit of weight equal to about 2.75 pounds.

8. A Bantu language spoken by the Chaga people in northern Tanzania.

9. Relative darkness caused by light rays being intercepted by an opaque body.

10. An enclosure made or wire or metal bars in which birds or animals are kept.

11. A Loloish language.

12. Any of various edible seeds of plants of the family Leguminosae.

20. An informal term for a father.

22. The residue that remains when something is burned.

24. Before noon.

25. A small cake leavened with yeast.

27. Bulky grayish-brown eagle with a short wedge-shaped white tail.

28. A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

30. A fraudulent business scheme.

31. Wild sheep of northern Africa.

32. A one-piece cloak worn by men in ancient Rome.

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

39. Speaking a Slavic language.

42. Either extremity of something that has length.

43. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

45. A state in northwestern North America.

46. How long something has existed.

47. An imaginary elephant that appears in a series of French books for children.

48. Jordan's port.

50. Open-heart surgery in which the rib cage is opened and a section of a blood vessel is grafted from the aorta to the coronary artery to bypass the blocked section of the coronary artery and improve the blood supply to the heart.

51. The largest continent with 60% of the earth's population.

53. Characteristic of false pride.

54. The basic unit of money in Peru.

55. A unit of weight used in east Asia approximately equal to 1.3 ounces.

57. A Kwa language spoken by the Yoruba people in southwestern Nigeria.

58. The 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

59. A gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number).

Yesterday始s Solution

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Mets complete sweep of Rays ST PETERSBURG: New Yorkís Kirk Nieuwenhuis hit a leadoff homer and later connected for a two-run shot as the Mets completed a three-game sweep by beating the Tampa Bay Rays 9-6 in interleague play on Thursday. Nieuwenhuis began the afternoon with a home run off Jeremy Hellickson (4-3). Nieuwenhuis homered again during a four-run fourth, helping the Mets take an 8-4 lead. It was his first career multihomer game. The Mets responded well to being swept in a three-game series by the New York Yankees last weekend, outscoring Tampa Bay 29-9 in this series.

New York starter Johan Santana (4-3) allowed six hits over five-plus innings.

Hellickson gave up a career-worst eight runs in 3 2-3 innings. The reigning AL Rookie of the Year is 0-3 over his past five starts.

than two runs for the first time in seven games. Cardinals starter Jake Westbrook (5-6) retired his first 12 batters on 41 pitches. Westbrook threw only 67 pitches in six innings. He had been 0-4 with a 7.55 ERA in his previous six outings. He also was 0-5 with a 5.87 ERA in his previous eight starts against the White Sox. Chicagoís Adam Dunn tied Texasí Josh Hamilton for the major league home run lead with his 22nd,

tying run in the ninth inning and Jarrod Dyson scored the winning run on a misguided throw across the infield, giving Kansas City a victory over Milwaukee. The wild ninth inning began when Mitch Maier reached first base while striking out on a wild pitch against Brewers closer John Axford (1-3), who blew a save for the second night running. Eric Hosmer hit a tworun homer for the Royals, who completed

ORIOLES 12, PIRATES 6 In Baltimore, Steve Pearce homered and drove in a career-high five runs to lead Baltimore past Pittsburgh, completing a three-game sweep. Matt Wieters had four hits and five RBIs for the Orioles, who built a 10-0 lead en route to their fifth straight victory. Much of the damage came against former Oriole Erik Bedard (4-7), who yielded seven runs in 3 1-3 innings. Baltimore moved 11 games over .500 and within a half-game of the first-place New York Yankees in the American League East. The Orioles outscored Pittsburgh 27-13 in their fifth series sweep of the year, already matching their total from last season.

Baltimore starter Tommy Hunter (3-3) retired his first 12 batters but ended up allowing five runs in six innings.

DIAMONDBACKS 11, RANGERS 3 In Arlington, Jason Kubel and Gerardo Parra homered in Arizonaís win over AL West-leading Texas. The Diamondbacks scored one run while losing the first two games of the series, but led for good in the finale after Kubelís two-run homer in the second off Scott Feldman (0-6). Parraís three-run shot capped a five-run sixth.

Arizona starter Daniel Hudson (3-1) struck out a season-high seven without a walk in seven innings, only six days after the shortest start in his four major league seasons.

REDS 12, INDIANS 5 In Cincinnati, Brandon Phillips hit one of Cincinnatiís three homers and drove in four more runs, leading the ailing Reds to their first three-game sweep of state rival Cleveland since 2008. Phillips went 8 for 13 with two homers and seven RBIs against his former team. The Reds had a seasonhigh 17 hits. Cincinnati starter Mike Leake went 4 1-3 innings before having to leave the game, still feeling the effects of a stomach virus that swept through the clubhouse at the start of the series. Jose Arredondo (4-1) pitched out of a threat in the fifth to take the win. Clevelandís Josh Tomlin (3-4) took the loss, giving up six runs in four innings.

CARDINALS 5, WHITE SOX 3 In St Louis, David Freese homered, doubled and drove in three runs to lead St Louis past Chicago. St Louis scored more

their first three-game sweep at home in 14 months. Tim Collins (4-0) worked the ninth and took the win. Kansas City outfielder Jeff Francoeur and manager Ned Yost were ejected.

ATHLETICS 8, ROCKIES 2 In Denver, Jarrod Parker pitched seven scoreless innings to steer Oakland past Colorado and to its first road series sweep since 2010. Parker (3-3) allowed just three singles before being lifted for a reliever after throwing an efficient 89 pitches. He struck out six and walked just one.

Oaklandís Brandon Moss has been swinging a hot bat since being brought up from the minors this month. He hit his fifth homer in eight games, a solo shot in the ninth. He also had a two-run double in the third. Alex White (2-5) surrendered four runs in four innings for Colorado.

TIGERS 5, CUBS 3 In Chicago, Justin Verlander pitched eight solid innings for his first win in a month, leading Detroit over Chicago.

Verlander (6-4) struck out eight and walked none in his overdue victory. Austin Jackson hit a tiebreaking RBI single in the seventh and a two-run homer in the ninth for the Tigers. Cubs starter Travis Wood (03) allowed three runs in 6 2-3 innings.

ARLINGTON: Mike Napoli #25 of the Texas Rangers misses the tag on Miguel Montero #26 of the Arizona Diamondbacks at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington on June 14, 2012 in Arlington. — AFP a three-run shot in the sixth. White Sox starter Gavin Floyd (4-7) dropped to 1-4 with a 10.38 ERA in his past six starts. Floyd is 0-5 in his past eight interleague starts.

ASTROS 6, GIANTS 3 In San Francisco, J D Martinez hit his first career grand slam and Houston beat San Francisco to avoid a three-game sweep.

Astros starter Wandy Rodriguez (6-4) went six innings, allowing six hits. A day after teammate Matt Cain pitched a perfect game, Giants starter Barry Zito (5-4) lasted five innings, allowing five runs.

PHILLIES 6, TWINS 1 In Minneapolis, Joe Blanton pitched his second complete game of the season to steer Philadelphia past Minnesota. Blanton (6-6) struck out seven while going the distance for the eighth time in his career, snapping an ugly string of five straight starts with at least five runs allowed. Jim Thome homered for the second day in a row for the Phillies. Twins starter Scott Diamond (5-2) gave up four runs in six innings.

ROYALS 4, BREWERS 3 In Kansas City, Brayan Pena drove in the

PADRES 6, MARINERS 2 In Seattle, Edinson Volquez pitched effectively into the seventh inning as San Diego beat skidding Seattle to notch its first series sweep of the season. Volquez (3-6) was in command all night, allowing one run in 6 2-3 innings. He struck out six while sending the Mariners to their fifth consecutive loss. Converted reliever Erasmo Ramirez (0-1) took the loss in his first start for Seattle. He pitched five innings, allowing six runs. — AP

MLB results/standings Cincinnati 12, Cleveland 5; NY Mets 9, Tampa Bay 6; Detroit 5, Chicago Cubs 3; Oakland 8, Colorado 2; Houston 6, San Francisco 3; Baltimore 12, Pittsburgh 6; Arizona 11, Texas 3; Kansas City 4, Milwaukee 3; Philadelphia 6, Minnesota 1; St. Louis 5, Chicago White Sox 3; San Diego 6, Seattle 2.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT NY Yankees 37 25 .597 Baltimore 37 26 .587 Tampa Bay 35 28 .556 Boston 31 32 .492 Toronto 31 32 .492 Central Division C’ White Sox 34 29 .540 Cleveland 32 30 .516 Detroit 30 33 .476 Kansas City 27 34 .443 Minnesota 25 37 .403 Western Division Texas 37 27 .578 LA Angels 34 30 .531 Oakland 29 35 .453 Seattle 27 38 .415

GB 0.5 2.5 6.5 6.5 1.5 4 6 8.5 3 8 10.5

National League Eastern Division Washington 38 23 .623 NY Mets 35 29 .547 Atlanta 34 29 .540 Miami 32 31 .508 Philadelphia 31 34 .477 Central Division Cincinnati 35 27 .565 Pittsburgh 32 30 .516 St. Louis 33 31 .516 Milwaukee 28 35 .444 Houston 27 36 .429 Chicago Cubs 21 42 .333 Western Division LA Dodgers 40 24 .625 San Francisco 36 28 .563 Arizona 31 32 .492 Colorado 24 38 .387 San Diego 23 41 .359

4.5 5 7 9 3 3 7.5 8.5 14.5 4 8.5 15 17

SPORTS

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Armstrong affair threatens the Tour de France order PARIS: The Tour de France roll of honor risks being turned on its head should seven-time winner Lance Armstrong be proved guilty of cheating. The Texan, who won cycling’s greatest race from 1999 to 2005 - faces new doping allegations brought by the US AntiDoping Agency this week, accusations which he vehemently denies. If eventually proved and Armstrong is punished he risks having his seven record Tour titles stripped from his CV, leaving organizers of the cycling blue riband with a major headache. Not only will they have to tackle the problem of reassigning his seven wins but also the 22 stages he claimed in the years he made the celebrated race his own. In the modern era two cyclists have been awarded the Tour de France on a disqualification.

Spain’s Oscar Pereiro was awarded the 2006 race after American winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his title for doping. Pereiro’s compatriot, Alberto Contador, also found guilty of doping, was replaced by Andy Schleck as the winner in 2010. In each of these cases the yellow jersey was handed to the runner-up over one year after the finish on the Champs Elysees - an interminable delay justified by requiring the necessary appeal procedures to run their course. During the Armstrong era the runner up on three occasions (2000, 2001 and 2003) was Jan Ullrich - the German who himself was punished for doping and who was stripped of his third place finish in the 2005 Tour.

So in the event that Armstrong did lose his titles Ullrich, the only German winner of the Tour when claiming the 1997 edition, could find himself accredited with no fewer than four Tour de France triumphs - placing him in front of champions like France’s Louison Bobet or American great Greg LeMond.

Another rider tainted by doping to benefit if Armstrong’s name is eventually etched out of Tour history is Ivan Basso. The Italian would be in line to be named the winner of the 2005 Tour. He served a ban for doping as part of the Puerto affair but was not stripped of his win in the 2006 Tour of Italy.

The other three cyclists to finish runnerup to Armstrong were Switzerland’s Alex Zulle (1999), who had just emerged that year from the shadows of a suspension from the Festina case, Spain’s Joseba Beloki (2002) and German Andreas Kloden (2004). The latest allegations against Armstrong surfaced on Wednesday. The Washington Post was among the media outlets reported that US Anti-Doping Authority (USADA) had written to Armstrong saying blood samples taken from him in 2009 and 2010 — when he came out of retirement-were “fully consistent with blood manipulation including EPO use and/or blood transfusions.”

According to the Post USADA claims it has witnesses to the fact that Armstrong and five former cycling team associates-including Italian doctor Michele Ferrari and cycling team manager Johan Bruyneel-engaged in a doping conspiracy from 1998-2011.

Armstrong, however, said the witnesses cited

by USADA were the same ones who spoke to federal investigators during a two-year probe that ended in February without any criminal charges being brought. He called the charges “baseless” and “motivated by spite,” adding that the fact that other cyclists weren’t charged demonstrates USADA’s “vendetta” against him.— AFP

Indian female athlete ‘a man’, ex-lover says KOLKATA: A female Indian athlete who won a gold medal at the 2006 Asian Games appeared in court yesterday charged with raping her former lover who has alleged that she is actually a man. Pinki Pramanik was remanded in custody for 14 days to await trial on allegations that she repeatedly raped her female live-in partner. “The court magistrate asked the authorities to constitute a medical board for determining the gender of Pinki,” Prabir Roy, who heads the police station on the outskirts of Kolkata where Pramanik was arrested said.

Pramanik, who retired in 2007, declined to take a medical examination at a governmentrun hospital when she was questioned on Thursday. “She has brought false charges against me as I refused to give her 300,000 rupees ($5,400),” Pramanik told reporters from the back of a police van before the court hearing. “Truth will prevail,” she said. Pramanik on Thursday had said she had undergone numerous medical check-ups during her running career and added, “Why should I agree to more ridiculous tests?” “Pinki poses as a woman but is actually a man,” the victim was quoted as saying in yesterday’s Calcutta Telegraph. “She would assault me regularly and raped me several times.”

She also claimed that Pramanik had promised to marry her. Pramanik, 26, won gold in the 4x400m relay at the Asian Games and a silver for the same event in the 2006 Commonwealth Games before she stopped competing the following year. She grew up as the daughter of a poor farmer in rural West Bengal state, about 140 miles from Kolkata and has worked as a ticket inspector on the Indian railways. “My daughter is innocent,” Pramanik’s mother, Puspa Pramanik, told a Bengali TV channel. “I don’t believe that she can do such a crime. I hope she will get the right judgment.”

Police said Pramanik, who had lived with her partner in Kolkata for several months, will stand trial for rape, criminal assault, cheating and criminal intimidation. “We don’t know whether it was a case of being male physically or hormonal change over a period of time which can happen,” Athletics Federation of India secretary C.K. Valson told the Press Trust of India news agency. “We have to wait for the medical report and conclusion of the case.” In 2006, Indian athlete Santhi Soundarajan failed a gender test and was stripped of the silver medal she won in the women’s 800m at the Asian Games in Doha. Santhi insisted along

with her parents and coaches that she had done nothing wrong.

Gender controversies are often caused by Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) when females have male physical characteristics or Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (AIS), when someone is genetically male but their genitals may appear to be female. South African athlete Caster Semenya won the women’s 800m world championships in 2009 but was then sidelined for 11 months during a probe into her gender. She was cleared to compete and is a gold medal prospect at the London Olympics.— AFP

KOLKATA: Police escort Former Indian athlete Pinki Pramanik (center) to the Barasat District court in Barasat around 35 Km north of Kolkata yesterday. — AFP

Media interest stuns Black Caviar squad NEWMARKET: Black Caviar’s connections had better get used to the level of media scrutiny they encountered in Newmarket yesterday. The world’s highest-rated sprinter, who is undefeated in 21 starts in Australia, is in England ahead of her bid to win the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot a week today. The six-year-old mare, who is as short as 2-7 with some bookmakers to win the Group One sprint, performed a routine piece of work on the gallops at the headquarters of British racing flanked by massed ranks of television crews, journalists and photographers.

“I don’t think we ever expected to deal with this sort of level of interest we’ve seen this morning-it’s massive,” said Jeff O’Connor, racing manager to Peter Moody, Black Caviar’s trainer. “We are seeing a lot of media crews that aren’t normally racing followers today and that’s growing and growing. “We didn’t know what to expect on that front but, seeing the turnout this morning, the interest next week is probably going to be a lot bigger than we thought,” he added.

After Royal Ascot, Black Caviar has the option of running in the July Cup at Newmarket next month ahead of a return to Australia for the lucrative and prestigious Spring Carnival in Melbourne, where O’Connor suggested her career might come to an end. “The race is there in July but this comes down to a horseman’s call,” he explained. “It is a perfect time frame-three weeks after Ascot-but Pete and his boys need to sit down and make a decision.

“We are mindful that we do want to go home and race Black Caviar in the spring.

With the trip here, there is the question mark about whether we will be able to get her back to race at Melbourne in October. “We know that we’re closer to the end than to the beginning.” Over 3,000 Black Caviar fans are reportedly flying to England in order to witness the mare’s run in front of Queen Elizabeth II in her Diamond Jubilee year and O’Connor revealed some of the horse’s syndicate owners are desperately anxious as the horse bids to preserve her unblemished record. “The owners will be so nervous. I’ve been with them for each of her wins and in

the lead-up to her races they are physically sick and just don’t sleep,” O’Connor said.

“This will be worse as they’ll be on a plane from Australia for 24 hours and all they’ll be thinking about will be, ‘are we going to be beaten?’” Black Caviar’s mission has been made significantly easier by the defection of several international challengers, who have been rerouted from the Diamond Jubilee Stakes to the King’s Stand Stakes, run on Tuesday over a furlong shorter at five furlongs.

Derek Cruz, trainer to Joy And Fun, the Hong Kong raider, was clear about the reasoning behind his horse running in the first sprint of the five-day meeting rather than the Diamond Jubilee, saying: “We are staying away from Black Caviar by going for the King’s Stand.” Fawzi Nass, the Bahraini trainer of Krypton Factor, who remains in the Diamond Jubilee Stakes, echoed Cruz’s thoughts. “Unfortunately, we have Black Caviar in our race,” he said. “I keep being reminded we are running for second spot and it will certainly take a hell of a horse to beat her.”— AFP

sports SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

IRL Preview

Emotion of quake devastation drives All Blacks CHRISTCHURCH: The emotional significance of Test rugby returning to earthquake-devastated Christchurch has provided added motivation to the All Blacks heading in to today’s second clash against Ireland. The All Blacks are looking to wrap up the three-match series with a game to spare after their comprehensive 42-10 win in the first Test in Auckland last week.

Despite the overwhelming margin, they were not satisfied with that performance and in addition to intense training through the week they also took time out to reflect on last year’s natural disaster. “We went for a drive through the town on the way here,” captain Richie McCaw said. “I think the guys, and even myself, I haven’t been through there properly. You realize the significance of what’s happened here and just a wee reminder of that was enough.” Ten of the All Blacks squad, including McCaw, are members of the Canterbury Crusaders who are based in Christchurch where a powerful a 6.3-magnitude quake in February last year killed 185 people and

Genia marked out as Welsh seek win MELBOURNE: Wallabies’ scrum-half Will Genia says he is expecting extra attention as a desperate Wales side bid to level the three-Test series against Australia in Melbourne today.

Genia was outstanding as man-of-the-match in the Wallabies’ 27-19 win in last weekend’s opener in Brisbane and he anticipates he will be a marked man as the Welsh look to close down a major driver of the Australian attack.

The team vice-captain was at the heart of Australia’s offensive, scoring a dazzling individual try and setting up another for Pat McCabe in the Wallabies’ three-tries-to-one victory. If Wales successfully shut down Genia that will place extra pressure on Berrick Barnes at fly-half to direct the Australians’ back line. “We expect them to play off their number 10 (Barnes) a lot more this week because they played off their nine (Genia) a lot last week,” Wales defense coach Shaun Edwards said yesterday.

Wales assistant coach Robin McBryde added: “Genia was obviously very active and a thorn in our side around the breakdown. We’ve obviously got to try and get our hands on him a bit more.” But Genia sees the extra attention on him as a positive for his teammates in an unchanged Australian lineup.

“I’ll just ship it early,” Genia said. “If there’s a little more attention close to the ruck, then there’ll be space elsewhere.” Wales signaled last week that they can present Australia with a real challenge after storming back from 6-20 to trail the Wallabies by just a point with 18 minutes left, only to be killed off by McCabe’s converted try.

The Welsh have been boosted by the arrival this week of their Six Nations-winning coach Warren Gatland, hobbling on crutches following the broken heels he sustained in a fall at his New Zealand home. “To see his face does give us a boost,” skipper Sam Warburton said. “Warren has had a big influence on a lot of players, particularly the younger ones in terms of giving us a chance. It’s great that he’s back in the squad. “That will lift the players and the management I am sure.” Caretaker coach Rob Howley has added more than 180 caps worth of Test experience to his forward pack among four changes to the starting side.

Scarlets hooker Matthew Rees replaces Ken Owens, Alun Wyn Jones takes over from Luke Charteris at lock and Ryan Jones comes in for injured number eight Toby Faletau (broken hand). Neath centre Ashley Beck, who gained his first cap in a substitute appearance last week, replaces Scott Williams, who gets a seat on the bench. “History has depicted, certainly over the last couple of years, that we do better after that first ‘hitout’,” Howley said.

“We’ll be looking to make sure we start better against a potent Australian side. We need to take that second half last week into our first half. “We also need to get over the gain line. We want speed of ball in the contact area and we have to be effective when we haven’t got that ball. —AFP

destroyed much of the city centre. The Crusaders home ground was rendered unplayable and the city lost the chance to host seven World Cup matches, meaning the return of rugby to a hastily built new stadium saw all 21,000 tickets sold out quickly. “It’s just great from a Cantabrians point of view to have footy here, and a Test match, and that’s what we’re looking forward to,” McCaw said. “It was nice to get under way last week but the boys are excited about playing out here and the significance of playing back here after...a couple of years, so it’s nice to be back.”

The forecast for the Test is not inviting. The icy rain that has lashed the city in recent days is expected to clear, but temperatures will stay around freezing point. They are conditions Ireland have been preparing for, focusing on a kick-andchase game to put pressure on the All Blacks keenness to counter attack. Irish midfield back Gordon D’Arcy, who will be partnering Brian O’Driscoll in the centers for the 48th time after missing the first Test, said for the plan to work

and to pressure the All Blacks they must make their first-up tackles. “From myself and Brian’s point of view, we know we’ve got our job cut out.

One of the things we’ve talked about is one-onone tackles. That’s something we’ve got to live and die by.”

The All Blacks need to tidy up their work at the breakdown where Ireland flanker Sean O’Brien caused mayhem in the first Test forcing turnovers at critical times. “We had a flow on and turned the ball over. The Irish certainly put numbers there and are quite physical there so we’re going to have to make sure we counter that,” McCaw said.

The All Blacks have made only one change to their starting line up with Adam Thomson replacing injured flanker Victor Vito, allowing uncapped 20-year-old Sam Cane to move on to the bench.

There are four changes in the Ireland side with D’Arcy, left wing Andrew Trimble, prop Mike Ross and flanker Kevin McLaughlin replacing Keith Earls, Simon Zebo, Declan Fitzpatrick and Peter O’Mahony. —AFP

Tiger back in the hunt McIlroy stumbles to 77 in US Open SAN FRANCISCO: The electricity was back as Tiger Woods moved into once familiar territory on Thursday, clawing his way into contention with a one-under-par 69 in tough scoring conditions to lie three shots off the US Open lead. As the year’s second major lived up to its reputation as the toughest championship of all, the former world number one mixed three birdies with two bogeys to finish the first round three behind fellow American Michael Thompson at the Olympic Club.

“I played well today,” three-times champion Woods told reporters after breaking 70 in the opening round of a US Open for the first time since 2002 with a superb display of course management on a firm and fast-running layout. “I felt like I had control of my game all day. I’m really excited how I was able to execute my game plan all day today.

The golf course was really quick.

“We knew the greens were going to be a little quicker, but I didn’t think they would be this firm this early in the week. So we had to make a couple of adjustments with that.”

Woods was one of just six players who broke par, ending the round tied for second with fellow Americans Nick Watney and David Toms, Britain’s Justin Rose and 2010 champion Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland.

Watney capped a memorable display in glorious afternoon sunshine with a rare albatross two at the par-five 17th, holing out with a five-iron from the fairway for only the third double-eagle ever recorded at a US Open.

The little known Thompson, who tied for 29th in his only previous US Open appearance in 2008, upstaged the game’s biggest names by carding a seven-birdie 66 on the challenging, hilly Lake Course. Though Thompson bogeyed three of the first six holes - a stretch widely regarded as the most difficult start in the majors - he then surged up the leaderboard with six birdies in bright sunshine to take control of the tournament. “This is one of my favorite golf courses, so I’ve got good feelings coming in here,” said the 27-year-old Thompson, who booked his place in this week’s field via sectional qualifying.

“I just got the putter hot today. I got kind of a wake-up call on the first hole, I missed my par putt because I didn’t realize the greens were that fast. From then on, I was just trying to flow.” American world number six Matt Kuchar, 2003 US Open champion Jim Furyk, Swede Robert Karlsson and Britain’s Ian Poulter were among a group of eight locked on 70. Most of the players strug-

SAN FRANCISCO: Tiger Woods hits off the second tee during the first round of the US Open golf tournament at Olympic Club in San Francisco. —AP gled on the tight fairways and surprisingly quick greens, Phil Mickelson carding a 76, defending champion Rory McIlroy a 77, Masters champion Bubba Watson a 78 and world number one Luke Donald a ninebogey 79.

‘TOUGH DAY’ “I didn’t play very well,” Mickelson said after a round including seven bogeys, one

birdie and a lost ball with his opening tee shot, a wild hook into trees. “It was a tough day when you play it the way I did.” McIlroy, who romped to victory by eight shots in last year’s US Open at Congressional, paid the price for hitting only seven of 14 fairways.

“It’s just so tough here if you put yourself out of position at all,” the 23-year-old said.

“When you’re trying to play catch-up on this golf course it’s very hard. “I was able to make only one birdie out there today. I need to try to make more tomorrow and limit the mistakes.”

Left-hander Watson never recovered from four bogeys in his first eight holes but was hugely impressed by Woods. “That was the old Tiger,” he gushed. “That was beautiful to watch. That’s what we all want to watch and that was awesome to see him strike the ball look. He made a couple (of) bogeys but under par on this golf course is pretty good.” Woods, who won the most recent of his 14 major titles at the 2008 US Open, oozed confidence throughout his round as he outshone playing partners Mickelson and Watson in front of huge galleries. He was rock solid as he parred his first five holes after teeing off at the ninth, bogeyed the 14th after his tee shot ended up in thick rough but recovered with a twoputt birdie at the par-five 17th.

Woods then knocked in birdie putts from 10 and 30 feet at the fourth and fifth to move within a stroke of the lead before making his only other stumble, a bogey at the par-four sixth. “This golf course, it’s so demanding and if you’re off your game just a little bit, you’re going to pay the price,” said Woods, who completed his US Open preparation with his 73rd PGA Tour victory at the Memorial tournament two weeks ago in Ohio. “I felt very pleased with every facet of my game today and I stayed very patient out there.” Chinese teenager Andy Zhang, at 14 the youngest competitor at a US Open since 1945 and possibly of all time, opened with a 79. The day’s average score was 74.92 on the twisting, hilly and heavily tree-lined layout.—Reuters

sports

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Heat hold off Thunder

OKLAHOMA CITY: LeBron James scored 32 points and Chris Bosh had 16 points on his return to the starting line-up as the Miami Heat beat Oklahoma City 100-96 to level the NBA finals at one game apiece.

Forward Bosh, starting his first game since the middle of May, also grabbed 15 boards while guard Dwyane Wade rebounded from a poor performance in game one to finish with 24 points and five assists in Thursday’s wire-to-wire win.

James was pleased with the way his teammates held it together late in the game when Oklahoma City made one final push for the win.

“We’ve been through a lot in the playoffs. We have been down, we have withstood rallies,” said James, who was a perfect 12-for-12 from the free-throw line. “The good thing about (tonight) is when they scored we just got back on offence and started to execute. “This is a great team we are playing against and it is going to go all the way down to those zeroes to get a win.” Kevin Durant scored 32 points for the Thunder who had their nine-game win streak at home snapped in front of a crowd of 18,203 at the Chesapeake Arena. The best-of-seven series now switches to Miami for game three on Sunday. “It is a good win on the road,” James said. “We know they are going to come back strong in our house so we are glad we got the split here.” It marked the fifth consecutive playoff game in which James has scored 30 points or more, setting an all-time Miami postseason record.

James said he was trying to stay positive and keep his mind calm down the stretch as the Thunder roared back. “The clock is going really fast up there and I just try to slow it down in my mind and get a

good shot,” James said. “I am glad I was able to make a good bucket and some free throws down the stretch.” The Heat jumped on the Thunder from the opening bell, seizing control in the first quarter by compiling a 17-point lead at one

point. They led 55-43 at the half. But the Thunder made them work for it in the fourth quarter, cutting the Heat lead to just two points late in the game before James sealed the victory with a pair of free throws.

“Oh man, that was the game,”

Durant said of the first quarter. “We can’t start 18-2. We can’t get down that much especially at home.

We’ve got to correct it.” It was the first start for Bosh since the opening game of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. Bosh had to come off

OKLAHOMA: Miami Heat’s Shane Battier (center) tries to block a shot by Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook (top) as Miami’s Chris Bosh (right) and Oklahoma City’s Serge Ibaka (bottom) watch for the rebound. —AFP

London a hard terrorist target

HERZLIYA: Any potential attacker planning to threaten the Olympic Games that begin next month will find London a “hard target” to penetrate, a former British security minister has said. Pauline Neville-Jones said all major global events were attractive targets, but the fact Britain was under constant potential threat had made it far more vigilant and prepared to deal with lurking dangers. “All big international events are potentially a target ... I think that we have our own terrorist threat, it is one of the things that actually makes us most experienced and most capable of handling the situation, so I would say to anybody that thinks the British Games might be a soft target: Think again, it’s going to be a pretty hard target.”

The threat of attacks endures in Britain, seven years after suicide bombers killed 52 people in London and the effort to secure the Games, estimated to cost around $1 billion, is Britain’s largest-ever peacetime security operation. As security and counter terrorism minister, Neville-Jones reviewed security preparations for the London Olympics when Prime Minister David

Cameron’s coalition government took office in 2010. She stepped down last year. “We intend to make it a hard target and we intend also to make sure that if anything does happen that we are able to go after it very fast and very effectively,” she said in an interview with Reuters near Tel Aviv on Wednesday.

SPECIAL ARRANGEMENTS Neville-Jones said a recent display of some of Britain’s military might on the River Thames near the Olympic site was a necessary exercise to ensure that all echelons involved in securing the Games would know how to act if the need arose. “These exercises (are) ... one of the most important features of the government’s preparations ... so that we know what they are doing, so that everyone knows who’s in command, who’s in control, and what is expected of them.”

The placing of anti-aircraft missiles on the rooftops of residential buildings in the vicinity of the main Olympic venues was also vital to secure the Games, Neville-Jones

said. “You have to site your batteries in places where they are capable of actually being effective and it is very important to control the airspace over London,” she explained. One of the most challenging issues for organizers was facilitating a smooth passage through points of entry into Britain and Neville-Jones said the probable departure of many people after the Games on August 12 could be the most difficult.

Long lines of visitors forced to wait sometimes up to two hours at Britain’s airport border controls has caused anxiety in the run-up to the Games, which start on July 27. “There are special arrangements for the Olympic arrivals ... so there will be separate channels but actually the real challenge is not when people come in, because they all come in on different days, it’s actually when people go, because they all do leave in a rush,” she said.

Neville-Jones participated in a conference that reviewed threats to the Olympics 40 years after 11 Israelis were killed at the Munich Games in 1972 by Palestinian Black September gunmen. —Reuters

the bench for the previous four games as he eased his way back into the line-up from an abdominal strain that caused him to miss nine playoff games. Bosh found his scoring touch early and had a double double in the first half with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“Today was a good time for me to see where I am at,” Bosh said.

“Fortunately it went good for me individually.” Game two started much like game one, with Miami coming out of the gate as the quicker, more confident-looking team.

Wade helped kickstart the offence for the Heat, who scored 18 of the game’s first 20 points. James Harden was the lone bright light in the opening quarter for the Thunder, scoring 10 of their meagre 15 points. Harden finished with a total of 21 points off the bench.

Three-time NBA scoring champion Durant showed he is human, bagging just six points in the first half after a brilliant 36-point performance in his NBA finals debut in game one.

Durant did his best to try and get the Thunder consecutive come-from-behind wins by making seven shots in a row in the second half as Oklahoma City staged a furious late rally. He missed a jump shot with nine seconds left in the fourth that would have tied it 9898. That paved the way for James to cap the scoring with two free throws with seven seconds on the clock. “This is probably going to be like this every single game,” said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra. “That is the beauty of competition at this level... seeing what it brings out of you collectively. We were able to play a bit more to our identity tonight and that was probably the biggest factor.” —AFP

Kohlschreiber ousts Nadal

HALLE: Top seeded Rafael Nadal was ousted from the Gerry Weber Open after falling in the quarterfinals of the grass court tournament to Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-3, 6-4 yesterday. The eighth-seeded Kohlschreiber ended Nadal’s 13-match winning streak four days after the Spaniard won a record seventh French Open title. “It’s not the time to look for excuses,” Nadal said. “He played much better than me.”

Kohlschreiber, the defending champion, fired eight aces in all, ending the first game with his first.

He broke Nadal in the next - after the Spaniard saved two break points - and piled on the pressure by making it 3-0 after the third game. “Today, from the beginning was tough for me,” Nadal said. Kohlschreiber missed the opportunity to break the 11-time Grand Slam champion again in the first game of the second set, and defended three break points to hold serve three games later, when Nadal improved to make some terrific returns. But the German broke Nadal again in the seventh game and confirmed the break to establish a 5-3 lead before seeing out the match in 1 hour and 25 minutes. “It was a world-class day for me,” said the 34th-ranked Kohlschreiber. “In principle I did nothing wrong.” It was his first win over Nadal in nine attempts, but this was their first meeting on grass. “It’s more a tennis problem than a mental problem,” Nadal said. —AP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Swansea name Dane Laudrup as manager LONDON: Swansea City appointed former Denmark international and Barcelona great Michael Laudrup as their manager yesterday in what they hoped would prove a perfect fit for the ‘Barcelona of Welsh football’.

The Premier League club said in a statement that Laudrup, who won four titles in a row with Barcelona and was also acclaimed as Denmark’s best ever player, had signed a two-year deal.

Swansea’s style last season paid tribute to a Barca side widely hailed as the best in the world and the Dane, who is expected to start work towards the end of next week, will keep up that tradition. “Everyone knows the style of football Swansea play and it suits my way of thinking,” said Laudrup, who has been working in Spain as a television pundit alongside former Swansea, Real Madrid and Wales manager John Toshack.

“It’s going to be a new experience for

me and I’m really looking forward to it,” he told the club website (www.swanseacity.net).

It will be Laudrup’s first foray into English soccer management, after resigning from la Liga side Real Mallorca in September, and he will be the third manager in four years at the Liberty Stadium. He will also be the first Dane to manage in the Premier League. Laudrup, who celebrated his 48th birthday on Friday, replaces Brendan Rodgers who moved to Liverpool last month with three backroom staff. Swansea said his assistants would be confirmed at a later date. Swansea finished 11th this year in their debut Premier League season, winning plenty of admirers with a possession style inspired by Barcelona’s rapid passing ‘tiki-taka’ philosophy.

FULLY COMMITTED The Dane will bring the experi-

ence he acquired as a Barca and Real Madrid player who won five successive Spanish titles between 1991 and 1995 with a reputation as an elegant passer of the ball.

“We see Michael as someone who is fully committed and educated in all aspects of the way we want to take the club forward,” said chairman Huw Jenkins. “Our overall aim is to build on our first season in the Premier League, but we also fully understand the need to adapt our approach as we go along to remain competitive season after season,” he added. “Part of that process is to look at new ideas and increase our knowledge on all aspects of the game to keep advancing.”

The attacking midfielder also won league championships in Italy and Netherlands with Juventus and Ajax.

He won 104 caps for Denmark and has managed in Denmark, Spain and Russia. Former Swansea player-man-

ager and compatriot Jan Molby said earlier in the week, when the appointment was looking a done deal, that Laudrup would be an ideal appointment.

“I think he’ll do well... I know Michael was very impressed with the way things are done (in the Premier League), the way in which he is in control of footballing matters, selling of players, buying of players,” Molby told the BBC. “I know that’s some of the problems he’s had at previous clubs and of course he has a very specific way he wants to play,” added the former Liverpool midfielder. “He was strongly influenced by Johan Cruyff when he was at Barcelona in the late 1980s, early 90s. “That’s how he wants to play his football that’s how Swansea played last year under Brendan Rodgers, so if it happens I think it’s a marriage made in heaven.” — Reuters

Boca Juniors stun Universidad 2-0 COPA LIBERTADORES SEMI Barcelona’s new coach Tito Vilanova

New Barca boss Vilanova seeks defensive signings BARCELONA: Barcelona are looking to land two players to strengthen their defense, coach Tito Vilanova said at his official presentation yesterday after he signed a two-year contract to replace Pep Guardiola. The 42-year-old stepped up to take over from his friend after a trophy-ladened four years as assistant at the Nou Camp, and started laying out some of his plans for the future. “We want to reinforce the squad at the back. It’s a position we have had problems with,” a calm and confident Vilanova told a packed news conference. “At the moment, we are interested in a left back and a centreback. We don’t have any plans to bring in any one up front. “Last year David Villa, Alexis Sanchez and Pedro all suffered injuries but we hope next year they’ll be ok. Also we can count on (youth academy players) Isaac Cuenca and Cristian Tello.”

With inspirational captain Carles Puyol nearing the end of his playing career and Eric Abidal recovering from a liver transplant, Barca’s defense was always going to be the starting point when it came to strengthening their squad.

Vilanova has a tough act to follow after Barca won 14 trophies under Guardiola, but he batted aside questions over the pressure he would be under next season to match their previous success. “They don’t worry me, the comparisons with Guardiola. I have come here to do my work,” Vilanova said. “Pep and I were very close. Pep was the communicator of the message, but he shared the decisionmaking with me 50-50 and sought my opinion. Most of the time we were in complete agreement. “I am not going to try and change things just to differentiate myself. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Barcelona president Sandro Rosell said the board had been fully behind sports director Andoni Zubizarreta’s proposal that Vilanova take the reins. “He represents the type of football we want and he is imbued with the values he learned in La Masia (Barca’s renowned youth academy,” Rosell said of the former youth-team player. — Reuters

SAO PAULO: Six-time champion Boca Juniors took a big step toward qualifying for a record 10th Copa Libertadores final with a 2-0 win over Universidad de Chile 2-0 in the first leg of their semifinal on Thursday.

Striker Santiago Silva opened the scoring in the 15th minute and Juan Sanchez Mino added to the lead in the 55th for the home team at Buenos Aires.

Boca Juniors can advance to the final of Latin America’s most important club competition with a draw or even a 1-0 loss next week in Santiago, Chile. Universidad is trying to become the first Chilean team to reach the final since 1991.

Defending champion Santos lost 1-0 at home to Corinthians on Wednesday in the first leg of the allBrazil semifinal. Silva put Boca Juniors on the board in the second semifinal by controlling the ball near the penalty spot after a cross from the right side and firing a low leftfoot shot into the net.

Mino increased the lead from close range after Universidad de Chile goalkeeper Jhonny Herrera failed to hold on to a shot by Walter Erviti. Boca Juniors is trying to reach its 10th Copa Libertadores final, which would equal the tournament record held by Uruguay’s Penarol.

Boca Juniors have won four of their six titles in the last 12 years, but hasn’t lifted the trophy since 2007.

Universidad de Chile has never won the Copa Libertadores and is trying to reach the final for the first time.

Colo Colo is the only Chilean club to

have won the competition, in 1991 in a final against Paraguay’s Olimpia.

Boca Juniors got off to a good start Thursday and attacked constantly until Silva opened the scoring.

Silva almost scored again in the 47th, but goalkeeper Herrera just barely tipped the striker’s close-range shot wide of the goal.

Forward Pablo Mouche also had an open shot from near the penalty spot a few minutes later, but sent the

ball over the crossbar. On Wednesday, Brazilian champion Corinthians picked up an important away victory against Neymar’s Santos.

Striker Emerson scored the winner with a well-placed shot from inside the area in the 28th, securing a result that will allow Corinthians to reach its first Copa Libertadores final with a draw in the return match next week in Sao Paulo. — AP

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s Boca Juniors forward Santiago Silva (second right) kicks to score against Universidad de Chile during their Copa Libertadores 2012 semifinals first leg football match at “La Bombonera” stadium in Buenos Aires. — AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

Today’s Matches on TV UEFA European Championship

Greece v Russia

21:45

21:45

Russia look to seal quarter-final slot

WARSAW: Russia’s midfielder Alan Dzagoev (center) takes part in a training session at the Drukarz stadium in Warsaw yesterday. — AFP is set to leave his post after the tournament to return to club management in his homeland at PSV Eindhoven. Though they repeatedly have refused to comment on off-pitch issues, Russia are likely to be hoping that their fans will behave.

A

Czech Republic v Poland Al-Jazeera Sport 1 HD Al-Jazeera Sport +9

WARSAW: Russia will aim to storm into the Euro 2012 quarter-finals here today when they face bottom of the table Greece, after missing the chance to pop the champagne by drawing 1-1 with co-hosts Poland. But Group A underdogs the Greeks will not be content to play the role of extras in the Russians’ movie, aiming to bring some cheer to a homeland locked in a political and economic crisis. A draw will suffice to clinch Dutch veteran Dick Advocaat’s Russia a berth in the last eight, but they aim to display the form that enabled them to demolish the Czech Republic 4-1 in their tournament opener last Friday.

“We need to forget that a draw will also put us into the knockout stage and score.

Once, twice... as much as we can,” said goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev, one of seven Zenit St Petersburg players who have started both of Russia’s Euro 2012 matches. “Our fate is still in our own hands,” he said. The picture is very different for Greece, who know it is do or die.

“We are going after one result,” underlined their Portuguese coach Fernando Santos.

“My faith in my team is total. “There is a chance and we have to focus and believe that it is possible,” he added.

But the Euro 2004 champions will be painfully aware that they are not masters of their destiny, even if they take three points today. Russia currently top the group on four points, while the Czechs have three, Poland two and Greece one. In the night’s other match, between the Czech Republic and Poland in the southwestern city of Wroclaw, a draw or a win for either for would sink Greek hopes. Against Poland last Friday in the opening game of Euro 2012, Greece, down to 10 men, battled back to draw 1-1 and only a penalty save by the Poles prevented a Greek victory.

They come into the Russia match on the back of a 2-1 defeat to the Czechs on Tuesday. Advocaat, who took over from compatriot Guus Hiddink in May 2010, has won plaudits for building a side with attractive, free-flowing play and blooding young talent such as CSKA Moscow’s Alan Dzagoev.

The 21-year-old, said to be on the radar of the English Premier League, has scored three goals so far at Euro 2012, with a double against the Czechs and one in the Poland match. For Advocaat, a Euro 2012 success would be a fine way to bow out. He

Group

Russia’s two games have been marked by fans lighting flares and throwing fireworks, and UEFA has already hit them with a 120,000-euro ($150,000, 96,000-pound) fine for that offence during the win over the Czechs. —AFP

Al-Jazeera Sport +10 Al-Jazeera Sport 2 HD

Euro 2012 spotlights E European hooliganism WARSAW: Street violence and alleged racism in the stands at Euro 2012 have thrown the spotlight squarely on the interplay between football hooliganism, the far right and organized crime in Eastern Europe. Even before the start of the first-ever edition of the European championship behind the former Iron Curtain, there were warnings of hooliganism, notably during matches such as Tuesday’s fixture between co-hosts Poland and historical rivals Russia.

More than 180 people, mostly Poles, were detained during street brawls in Warsaw, as police used water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets to bringing marauding fans under control. Inside the stadiums, meanwhile, Croatian and Russian fans have lit flares, and the latter also beat up stewards, while UEFA is investigating claims that black players have been taunted. Since the communist bloc crumbled two decades ago, the region’s stadiums have proved fertile ground for those who lionize England’s once-notorious hooligan “firms” or gangs-but have taken things to a whole new level.

“An individual can at the same time be in a far-right group, a hooligan group and a drug-dealer group,” Serbian security analyst Zoran Dragisic said. In Poland, police estimates put the hardcord hooligan element at up to 5,000. While that is a minority of the tens of thousands who attend league matches and a drop in the ocean in a nation of 38.2 million-they still have the potential to sow mayhem. In reality, Polish hooligans tend to gravitate around clubs, not the national team, explaining why fears of Polish hooligans at the 2006 World Cup in Germany or Euro 2008 in Austria fizzled out.

There was, however, trouble at a 2011 friendly away to Lithuania. “Real club hooligans aren’t interested in Euro 2012,” said Warsaw expert Janusz Czapinski. “If they had gone into action in Warsaw, the 6,000 police officers deployed in the capital wouldn’t have been enough and the situation would have been far more serious.” The gangs ally with counterparts in other cities and various league levels to draft muscle for “ustawki”-pre-arranged brawls with rivals which have claimed lives in the past.

Long accused of doing too little, and mindful of the Euro 2012 spotlight, Polish authorities cracked down after violence marred the May 2011 Cup Final.

A blanket ban on away fans was imposed for all remaining matches that season, with ad hoc sanctions for clubs in the 2011-2012 season-a broad-brush approach that angered ordinary fans. Poland has beefed up electronic tagging and slapped stadium bans on some 2,000 individuals. Fellow Euro 2012 host Ukraine adopted a similar approach, with a list of 1,400 individuals considered dangerous, though some fan groups complained of heavy-handed policing in the run up to the tournament.

Balkan hooligans, meanwhile, have repeatedly made headlines. Fourteen Partizan Belgrade fans were recently jailed for the September 2009 murder in the Serbian capital of a fan of French club Toulouse who had come for a Europa League match. —AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012

France blank co-host Ukraine 2-0 DONETSK: France won a match at a major tournament for the first time since Zinedine Zidane’s head-butt, beating Ukraine 2-0 yesterday in a storm-delayed match at the European Championship. Jeremy Menez and Yohan Cabaye scored early in the second half for the French, who last won a major match in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup. In the final of that tournament, Zidane was given a red card for his head-butt in the last match of his career. “We scored twice and could have had more,” France coach Laurent Blanc said.

“We have a lot of potential.”

Yesterday’s match at the Donbass Arena was suspended for nearly an hour because thunder, lightning and torrential rain forced the players off the field after five minutes. It resumed almost an hour later. After a 1-1 draw with England in its opening match, France has four points in Group D, one more than Ukraine. The French also extended their unbeaten run to 23 games. “I congratulated my players and the Ukrainian players,” Blanc said. “It was a good match with both teams trying to attack.”

Both France goals were the product of the one-touch passing and movement that was once the team’s hallmark. For the first, Franck Ribery gathered the ball on the left, sprinted forward and then set up Karim Benzema near the penalty area. The Real Madrid forward stroked the ball to Menez, who then cut inside and drilled a low shot inside the near post with his left foot.

The goal justified Blanc’s decision to replace veteran midfielder Florent Malouda with Menez, although the Paris SaintGermain winger had two earlier chances denied by the legs of Ukraine goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov. France’s second goal was another example of exquisite teamwork, with Ribery and Samir Nasri combining to find Benzema. He cushioned the ball and then split the Ukraine center halves with a superbly weighted pass that allowed Cabaye to run on and finish with an angled shot.

The goals were also France’s first from

Euro 2012 briefs

Varela wary of ‘wounded’ Dutch

DONETSK: French defender Philippe Mexes heads the ball during the Euro 2012 championships football match Ukraine vs France yesterday. (Inset) Ukrainian midfielder Oleh Gusev reacts at the end of the game. — AFP open play since Zidane’s late strike in the 3-1 win over Spain in the second round of the 2006 World Cup. With France’s confidence peaking in Donetsk, Cabaye almost added a third midway through the second half with a half-volley that hit the middle of the right post. The exasperated whistles from the frustrated home fans at the Donbass Arena grew in intensity, and by the time Nasri forced a late save from Pyatov with a curling free kick, the home fans were already leaving.

“It wasn’t easy because they had a whole stadium behind them,” Blanc said. But for the French fans, it was finally something to sing about after going out of the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2008 at the group stage. Moments

before kick off, the rain intensified as about 49,000 soaked Ukrainians gave a searing rendition of their national anthem after a clap of thunder had interrupted France’s “La Marseillaise.”

When crackles of lightning lit up the sky, referee Bjoern Kuipers made a quick decision in the fifth minute that the players’ safety and the drenched field made it impossible to continue. When the players returned, Menez should have given France the lead in the 28th. Ribery intercepted a dreadful back pass from midfielder Anatoliy Tymoschuk and hit a quick cross that ball rolled behind Benzema and fell to Menez - but Pyatov kicked his effort away. — AP

Poland face a must-win game WROCLAW: It is win or bust for co-hosts Poland as they take on the Czech Republic today knowing that any other result would see them exit the European Championship.

Poland may have played well in their opening two Group A matches but they failed to win either and currently sit third with just two points. The Czech Republic have three points and failure to win would mean that the Poles could overtake neither the Czechs nor group leaders Russia, who have four points.

It means the co-hosts find themselves in a situation that looked highly unlikely after 45 minutes of their opening game against Greece. A goal and a man to the good and playing vibrant attacking football, Franciszek Smuda’s team looked to be fulfilling the pre-tournament promise that a 2-2 friendly draw with Germany in September had started to foment. That all looked to be disintegrating as Greece stormed back to snatch a 1-1 draw and could even have won after Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was sent off, giving away a penalty to boot.

Substitute goalkeeper Przemyslaw Tyton was the hero as he saved Giorgos Karagounis’s spot-kick and kept the Poles from defeat. Szczesny has served his onematch suspension and Smuda must now decide whether to recall the Arsenal stopper or stick with PSV Eindhoven’s Tyton.

Smuda said he will decide only 24 hours before the game but Szczesny believes the competition is good for them both.

“Whether I play in the last game or not, that’s up to the manager. I’m available, I feel confident, I’m ready to play, so I’m hoping I’ll be in the starting lineup,” he said. “This is what football’s about. You want to fight for your spot. That can only help the team, people fighting for their places.”

Things could have been worse for Poland as they trailed 1-0 to Alan Dzagoev’s goal for Russia in the next group game but Captain Jakub Blaszczykowski’s superb equalizer maintained their unbeaten run and kept them in with a shot at qualification. The hosts have some injury worries, though, with defender Damien Perquis and midfielders Eugen Polanski

and Dariusz Dudka all doubts having suffered injuries against Russia on Tuesday. An abdominal strain has made Dudka the most doubtful of the three while Perquis is recovering from a gashed shin and Polanski is suffering from a bruised knee. While Poland have injury concerns and need to win, the Czechs are in almost exactly the same boat.

They could qualify with a draw but only if Greece don’t beat Russia, otherwise they will be out. It means they too need to win to be sure of progressing but they have concerns over two crucial players, captain Tomas Rosicky and goalkeeper Petr Cech.

Arsenal midfielder Rosicky is the bigger doubt after what he believes is a recurrence of a calf injury he suffered in the final Premier League game of the season forced him to miss the second half of their 2-1 win over Greece. Chelsea goalkeeper Cech has a sore shoulder and is desperate to play to make up for his gaffe that allowed the Greeks a route back into a match in which the Czechs had established an early twogoal lead. — AFP

OPALENICA: Portuguese winger Silvestre Varela, scorer of the winning goal in his country’s thrilling 3-2 win over Denmark yesterday warned final Euro 2012 Group B opponents Holland were dangerous as they are ‘wounded’ after two losses. “We all know the Dutch have excellent players with a lot of quality,” the Portuguese Federation reported Varela as saying. “We will have to play our game and essentially look to ourselves - but also beware of an opponent which is wounded,” he added. The Dutch, initially expected by many observers to make it through the ‘Group of Death’ with Germany, are all but heading for the exit after losing to the Danes and the Germans.

‘Murder on the Gdansk floor’ DUBLIN: Ireland’s press yesterday reflected on the national side’s 4-0 defeat to Spain in Euro 2012, assessing that Giovanni Trapattoni’s team of spirited battlers had been simply outclassed by Spanish masters. “Murder on the Gdansk floor” the Irish Sun said in its headline, summing up the rout by the European and world champions in the Group C match in northern Poland on Thursday. The tabloid quoted aptlynamed fan Karl Spain as saying: “Watching that game was like playing a football match on the play station with a broken controller. That Spanish side were the best team I’ve ever seen. It’s such a pity.” The Irish Times dug deep into its stock of Spanish references to describe the game, which saw Fernando Torres score twice, with goals too from David Silva and Cesc Fabregas and long periods where the Irish side were chasing shadows.

SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 2012 KIEV: Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic is fouled by England’s John Terry during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group D match between Sweden and England in Kiev yesterday. (Inset) England's Danny Welbeck (second right) celebrates scoring his side's third goal during the Euro 2012 soccer championship Group D match between Sweden and England yesterday. — AP

England eliminate Sweden 3-2 Welbeck, Walcott rescue England KIEV: England remained on course for a place in the knockout rounds of Euro 2012 after coming from behind to send Sweden crashing out of the tournament with a 3-2 victory yesterday.

Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck scored a well-taken winner for England in the 78th minute after the introduction of substitute Theo Walcott swung a see-saw Group D battle back in his side’s favor. England had got off to a dream start when recalled striker Andy Carroll headed them into a 23rd-minute lead.

But an own goal from Glen Johnson on 49 minutes followed by a header from Olof Mellberg in the 59th minute threatened to set up a disastrous night for Roy Hodgson’s side.

However, the substitution of James Milner for Walcott changed the game.

The Arsenal winger lashed in a 64th-

minute equaliser to make it 2-2 and then provided the run and pass which set up Welbeck’s winner. England’s first ever competitive victory over the Swedes means they will qualify for the quarter-finals with only a point in their final group game against co-hosts Ukraine in Donetsk next Tuesday.

However, England manager Hodgson will want to see a marked improvement from his side if they are to secure the draw they need after a performance littered with errors and shaky defending. England had started positively, Scott Parker forcing a fine save out of Andreas Isaksson after only seven minutes with a fine swerving effort from 20 yards that the Swedish keeper parried to safety. Sweden meanwhile had to wait until 20 minutes before threatening the England goal, captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic let-

ting fly with a long range shot that was blocked comfortably by Joe Hart.

For a while it looked as if England’s familiar failings of conceding possession too cheaply and poor delivery would be costly. After successive crosses from Ashley Young and Milner failed to meet their targets, captain Steven Gerrard had clearly seen enough on 23 minutes. Seizing possession in midfield the England skipper looked up to curl in a pinpoint long-range diagonal ball which the twisting Carroll met with a thunderous header that gave Isaksson no chance. England ought to have done better again on 36 minutes when Ashley Cole played in Young with a first-time pass only for the Manchester United man to miscontrol and lash a low shot wide.

Sweden were forced to look for

openings on the break and threatened to score when Ibrahimovic dispossessed the careless Johnson and played in Kim Kallstrom whose shot flew over. England’s positive first half display came unstuck, however, within five minutes of the restart as a rejuvenated Sweden dominated play. The equalizer came after an Ibrahimovic free-kick bounced back off the wall and was played back to an unmarked Mellberg being played onside by Johnson.

The bearded centre-half’s shot beat Hart and Johnson was unable to scramble out of his own net. Mellberg claimed it, but the equalizer was ruled an own-goal by Johnson. England were rocking and it got worse for Hodgson’s men on 59 minutes as Sweden went 2-1 up. Sebastian Larsson swung in a curling free-kick

and shambolic defending in the England defense allowed Mellberg to nod home Sweden’s second.

Milner, who had capped a poor evening by conceding the free-kick which led to Sweden’s second, was then promptly hauled off for Walcott.

The Arsenal winger made an immediate impact and within minutes England were level, Walcott’s shot from just outside the area catching Isaksson off-balance to make it 2-2.

Sweden continued to cause England problems on the break and Ibrahimovic forced Hart to dive at fullstretch to turn around a 76th-minute effort. But two minutes later Walcott rescued England again, darting into the box with an electrifying burst to cross for Welbeck, who flicked in a deft finish with the back of his heel to make it 3-2. — AFP