17th Jul

CR IP TI ON BS SU

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

Bloody tussles over ice-cream vending territory

Clinton talks Egypt, Iran, peace with Israel

Fedrigo wins Tour de France stage

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NO: 15511

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Opposition announces ‘declaration for nation’

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150 FILS

Military mentor to North Korean leader dismissed

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www.kuwaittimes.net

SHAABAN 27, 1433 AH

Kuwait’s majority bloc outlines sweeping reforms

Max 49º Min 37º High Tide 09:27 Low Tide 02:52 & 17:06

By B Izzak

Labor union sees ‘hidden agenda’ behind KAC woes KUWAIT: The Kuwait Labor Union (KLU) alleged that it suspected deliberate efforts by certain ‘influential bodies’ to sabotage Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) and damage its reputation further.

According to KLU Secretary Fares Al-Sawwagh, what is going on currently at the Kuwait Airways is a serious national issue with economic, political and humanitarian implications. “The issue cannot be viewed lightly as it is handled by the government”, said Al-Sawwagh pointing out that the deteriorating state of affairs of the KAC fleet is posing serious danger to the passengers flying the airline.

He also suspected that the present ‘state of affairs’ at the airline had been created deliberately by certain influential bodies with the ‘hidden agenda’ of taking over KAC at a cheap price. “These bodies were operating silently for years to take control of the airline,” he alleged.

“The decision to ground three aging planes, then the decision to repair them and put them back into Continued on Page 13

KUWAIT: Former Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun addresses the members of the majority bloc at a gathering at his diwaniya yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Zayyat

KUWAIT: The opposition majority bloc in Kuwait yesterday announced the long-awaited program which it described as a “declaration for the nation” pledging to forge major legislative and constitutional reforms that would eventually transform Kuwait into a full parliamentary system.

Reading the document after a huge gathering at the diwaniya of speaker of the scrapped assembly Ahmad AlSaadoun, member of the 2012 assembly Mohammad AlDallal said the opposition has agreed on the program that would immediately require a majority government.

The program calls for giving the majority of the cabinet seats to the group that controls the majority in the National Assembly as a prelude to the future for a multiparty system.

The opposition also pledged to pass laws on anti-corruption, reforming and regulating the judiciary, legalizing political parties, transforming Kuwait into a single electoral constituency and establishing an independent election commission.

The opposition pledged that it will submit the necessary laws to amend several articles in the constitution to achieve the full-fledged parliamentary system which must be formed by the party that wins the election.

Other amendments include requiring the new government to seek confidence from the assembly, not requiring the government attendance in parliamentary sessions, only elected members will be allowed to vote and others.

Continued on Page 13

US navy fires at boat off Dubai, Indian dies Pentagon to send USS John-Stennis to Gulf early

HOMS: A handout picture released by the Syrian opposition’s Shaam News Network yesterday shows a wounded Syrian child receiving treatment at a hospital in Houla in Syria’s Homs province. — AFP

Syria war reaches a ‘turning point’ DAMASCUS: Syria’s military deployed armored vehicles near central Damascus yesterday as troops battled rebels around the capital in what activists said could be a turning point in the 16-month uprising.

Russia, meanwhile, slammed as “blackmail” Western pressure to push for a UN Security Council resolution against Syria’s regime and said it would be “unrealistic” for its ally President Bashar AlAssad to quit.

“Al-Midan and Tadamon are out of the army’s control,” said Ahmed Al-Khatib, spokesman for the Free Syrian Army’s (FSA) military council in Damascus. “The army has no presence inside either of these neighborhoods any more, though they are shelling from the outside, and clashes on the edges of the neighborhoods continue.”

Meanwhile, Syria declared Morocco’s

ambassador persona non grata yesterday, the foreign ministry said, in a tit-fortat move hours after Rabat expelled Damascus’s envoy to the North African country.

“Syria has just considered the accredited Moroccan ambassador to Syria persona non grata,” ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said via Twitter, after Morocco demanded that Syrian ambassador Nabih Ismail depart the country. In its statement announcing Ismail’s expulsion, Rabat cited violence in Syria as the trigger for its decision.

“The Moroccan authorities have been following with great concern the violence that Syria’s people are suffering,” it said, putting the death toll in Syria at 20,000.

Rights activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed in Syria Continued on Page 13

DUBAI: An Indian fisherman was killed and three others were wounded yesterday when a US navy ship fired at their small boat off Dubai in the tense waters of the southern Gulf, officials said.

US defense officials said the motorboat had ignored warnings not to approach the refuelling ship USNS Rappahannock, and that sailors on board the American vessel feared it could pose a threat. “Since 2000, we’ve been very concerned about small boats,” a defense official in Washington told AFP, referring to the year of a deadly suicide bomb attack against the destroyer USS Cole in the Yemeni port of Aden.

A United Arab Emirates official said one fisherman was killed and three other Indians were wounded. “The services concerned are now investigating this incident,” foreign ministry official Tareq Amed Al-Hidan said, quoted by state news agency WAM. A statement from the US Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain and on alert for possible Iranian action in Gulf waters, said the crew had opened fire as a last resort. “An embarked security team aboard a US navy vessel fired upon a small motor vessel after it disregarded warnings and rapidly approached the US ship near Jebel Ali,” it said, referring to an Emirati port city.

Continued on Page 13

This US Navy handout image shows sailors assigned to the guided-missile destroyer USS James E. Williams (DDG 95). The Pentagon announced yesterday that the Rappahannock fired on a small boat that got too close after having been warned. — AFP

UAE arrests four after plot reports DUBAI: United Arab Emirates has detained at least four Emirati Islamists after saying it was investigating a foreign-linked group planning “crimes against the security of the state”, relatives and activists said yesterday.

Family members said those detained included Mohammed Al-Mansouri, head of the Islamist group Al-Islah (Reform), which has been the target of a crackdown in the UAE. “My father was arrested this morning around 11:30 in the souk in (northern emirate) Ras Al-Khaimah,” said Mansouri’s son Hassan, adding he did not know his father’s

current whereabouts. Interior Ministry officials were not available for comment.

Meanwhile, the UAE deported an online activist to Thailand yesterday after stripping him of citizenship, part of a widening crackdown on alleged anti-state challenges since the Arab Spring uprisings, a rights group said.

The deportation followed a separate wave of detentions this week of at least seven people suspected of plotting against the ruling system in the Western-allied Emirates, which has stepped up pressures on per-

ceived dissent since the political upheavals across the region began last year.

UAE, a major oil exporter, allows no organized political opposition. It has avoided the political unrest that has toppled four Arab heads of state since last year thanks in part to its cradle-to-grave welfare system. But it has also moved swiftly against dissidents, stripping citizenship from Islamists whom it deemed a security threat and issuing jail sentences to activists who called for more power for the semi-elected advisory council.

Continued on Page 13

in the

news

Narrow escape for envoy to Jordan

Private schools in Kuwait to hike fees

Kuwait pledges autonomy for Olympic Committee

Guantanamo hearing put off for Ramadan

KUWAIT: The Kuwait Ambassador to Jordan had a narrow escape yesterday when a stray bullet almost hit him during a wedding party in the City of Jerash, North of Jordan, sources said. Jordanian dignitary Essa Al-Raimouni was seeing the ambassador off when shots were fired in the air as part of the celebration and a stray bullet hit Al-Raimouni who was taken to a hospital. Ambassador Hamad Al-Duaij however escaped unhurt, the sources added.

KUWAIT: Foreign private schools informed the education ministry that they intend to increase the fees next year because the current fees are not enough.

According to sources, the same schools had sought to increase the fees before, though the ministry did not allow them to do so. The sources added that a meeting would be convened between the ministry officials and school representatives to discuss the matter.

KUWAIT: Kuwait has promised the IOC it will rid its sports institutions of political interference to have a two-year ban on the national Olympic committee lifted, allowing its athletes to compete under the Gulf country’s flag at the London Games. The International Olympic Committee suspended Kuwait in 2010. The IOC said in May Kuwaiti athletes could participate at the games and march in the opening ceremony under the Olympic flag.

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico: A US military judge is postponing the hearing for five men charged in the Sept 11 attacks to avoid a conflict with the end of the holy month of Ramadan. A lawyer for one defendant says the judge approved the request by all five men yesterday.

Prosecutors opposed the delay. The judge denied a defense request not to hold future hearings on Fridays, a day many Muslims do not work. The next pretrial hearings in the Sept 11 case will start Aug 22 at Guantanamo Bay.

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TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

LOCAL

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the delegation accompanying him returned home yesterday, after attending the 19th Summit of the African Union held in Addis Ababa. HH the Amir was received at the airport by HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, senior royal family members, Deputy Chief of National Guards Sheikh Mishaal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Acting National Assembly Speaker Abdullah Youssef Al-Roumi, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, senior state officials, military, police and National Guard figures.—KUNA

Amir visit to boost Africa’s relations with Arab world ADDIS ABABA: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Envoy to the African Union Rashed Al-Hajeri hopes that HH the Amir’s visit here will provide a boost to Africa’s relations with the Arab world as a wholeand Kuwait in particular.

HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah was invited to the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to attend the 19th African Union (AU) Summit of heads of state as a guest of honor

and observer, and this is the first time a non-African Arab leader is invited to attend these talks, AlHajeri told KUNA. The visit touched upon Kuwait’s preparations to host the Arab-African Summit in March 2013, a sign that Kuwait is taking it upon itself to improve bilateral relations between the two regions.

African heads of state were called upon to honor the invitation to Kuwait, in the Amir ’s

speech held at the launch of the AU talks.

“The eagerness of African leaders to meet HH the Amir is a clear sign of the success of the visit.

They described HH the Amir as a wise and effective leader,” he noted. “They also applauded HH the Amir’s decision to donate a logistical support of the AU headquarters.” “We hope this will be an added boost to relations between the Arab World and Africa,” he stressed. —KUNA

MEW reinforces power grids for Ramadan KUWAIT: In anticipation of expected power consumption increases during the holy month of Ramadan, the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) has prepared an intensive plan to avoid power outages during

peak consumption hours. They added that the ministry’s control centers are ready to produce and distribute power with the aim of achieving power grid stability and high performance rates. Furthermore,

sources added that all control centers are in possession of high-tech accurate and efficient data collection systems and power supply that ensures steady supply of power and report overloads to avoid outages.

Kuwait keen to assist, cement ties with Africa Five nations receive loans worth $70 million ADDIS ABABA: Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah said that his country was keen on assisting African nations, in appreciation of their role played during tough times and to improve Arab relations with Africa. He was speaking from the residence of HH the Amir earlier on Sunday evening, after attending meetings with several African leaders, during the Kuwaiti delegation’s visit as a guest of honor and observer at the African Union Assembly meeting in Addis Ababa.

“We would like to thank the African Union and the head of the current session for their kind invitation to HH the Amir to attend the African Union Assembly’s19th session.

“There is no doubt that Kuwait will host the Arab-African Summit, ahead of this occasion HH the Amir was happy to attend today as an honorary guest and deliver a speech to welcome African leaders to Kuwait in 2013.” “HH the Amir’s speech focused on more than one issue, and its contents were a clear message of gratitude and appreciation to the member nations of the African Union for standing beside Kuwait during tough times,” said Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled, also Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs.

He noted that the efforts of the state-founded Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development(KFAED), which operates in 48 countries in the African Union out of a total 50, emphasizing that this presence was solely aimed at improving the infrastructure of these nations.

Roads, communications, education and health were other issues in

Africa, Kuwait is keen to support, he added. In admiration of the beautiful architectural structure of the Africa Hall - where the talks were hosted “the Amir said Kuwait would be donating a generous sum, aimed at providing the building with any additional requirements needed.”

“During the many meetings held earlier this morning and evening, the Kuwait Fund has signed five agreements with several African nations, after necessary revision, for the execution of a number of projects,” he noted.

The separate meetings, with African leaders held on the sidelines of the event, are aimed at enhancing Arab-African relations, he said, and Kuwait’s role in preparing for the upcoming gathering of these two regions. Five African countries have received loans wor th a total of around $67-70 million from the statefounded Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development, Abdulwahab Al-Bader, Director General said yesterday. “ We (KFAED) have taken the opportunity to sign agreements with five nations while His Highness the Amir of Kuwait (Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah) is in the country (Ethiopia) to attend the 19th African Union Assembly as guest of honor. These countries are Uganda, Ethiopia, Lesotho, Senegal, and Kenya,” he told KUNA in an interview earlier. “These agreements relate to development projects the fund agreed upon with these countries earlier, which would be signed today,” he said during the signing cere monies at Africa Hall, the headquarters of the African Union.

When asked about the nature of these loans, Al-Bader said they fund varied projects, namely for building roads, schools, a dam, where Lesotho is concerned. After signing on behalf of his countr y, the President of Senegal Macky Sall told KUNA that the loan was will be utilized to build a key road in Dakar worth $17.5 million.

“I would like to express my thanks to the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and affirm that our two countries are working closely.

“As you know, Senegal was very involved during the Gulf war and we lost a lot of (Senegalese) people.

Kuwait cooperates very nicely and generously with Senegal - we appreciate that, and aim to provide an added boost to these relations.”

The Prime Minister of Lesotho Tom Thabane said, “This is not the first time we have this kind of cooperation with Kuwait. We have had a special and ver y close association with Kuwait.” “ I think that what has happened here today once again is one more step in a very healthy relationship that we have to keep up.”

Lesotho is developing its water resources, and Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) will support building a dam, worth millions of dollars, in the African country, he added. “Our king was there (Kuwait) and his visit made him very happy indeed. We will go back and tell him about what happened here today, and he will be very delighted.

Our people stand to benefit greatly from this cooperation and we can only hope that this is not the last time.”—KUNA

KIB organizes summer training program for children of employees KUWAIT: Kuwait International Bank (KIB) has announced the launch of its summer training program for the children of the employees as par t of its social responsibility, in an effort to develop the skills of the trainees as well as provide them with banking experience during their free summer time.

The program was organized by the KIB Training Department and took place over 12 consecutive days. During the program children from ages between 15 and 18 years old were trained and familiarized on the jobs that get done at

the bank’s headquarter and in all branches and divisions.

Commenting on behalf of KIB, the Executive Manager- Human Resources Depar tment Salem Qabazard said: “KIB is keen to strengthen the relations between the families of the employees, and to develop their children’s skills.

This program aims to support the students in their different educational stages, giving them the opportunity to learn more about work ing in the bank ing sec tor which brings good returns to their careers in the future”.

Salem Qabazard added: “part of

the program was theoretical training as the students attended specialized lectures explaining the work process of the bank, which operates according to Islamic principles. The program also included training which allowed the youth to be familiar with the methods and techniques used within the bank departments and divisions and how to deal with different customers and the public. KIB is always keen to organize more training programs for the youth to enhance their skills and abilities, as part of their essential role in the community.”

Fahad Al-Ahmad charity organization launches orphan fund KUWAIT: Sheikh Fahad Al-Ahmad charity organization has launched an orphan fund, which sponsors orphans of the Islamic world, in order to provide them with a better access to education and a decent life.

Dr Hashem Al-Hashemi, Secretary of the organization, announced in a statement to KUNA yesterday that the project is to contribute to the fund by donors through monthly deductions

starting from KD 10.

“The fund will enable the organization sponsor orphaned children in the affected areas directly, without having to go back to the donor, which enables the organization to sponsor the largest number of orphans and contribute toward alleviating the hardships of their living and education,” Al-Hashemi added.

The project will obtain a leading

role in ensuring the orphans’ sponsorships overcoming many of the obstacles that the committees and charities previously faced regarding the sponsorships of orphans and following up on their living, which does not cost more than KD 15. Al-Hashemi concluded by saying that the donors will receive reports to take follow up action on the most prominent achievements.—KUNA

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

local

KUWAIT: The Egyptian ambassador to Kuwait, Abdul Kareem Sulaiman recently held a special ceremony to celebrate Egypt’s National Day anniversary at the Missoni Hotel. The ceremony was attended by a number of diplomats and other dignitaries. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

News

in brief

Workers go on strike in Kaifan KUWAIT: “Ramadan is approaching and we do not have enough money to buy food, we are being abused and nobody is treating us fairly,” said a number of workers from a private company. They urged the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor and all concerned authorities to intervene and contact the company that failed to pay them salaries on time and did not renew residency permits. The workers, employed with a company supervising the environmental projects in Kuwait University, staged a sit-in outside the College of Education in Kaifan, saying that backdated salaries have been accruing for four months although it was paid in full by the Kuwait University. They added that the company has not renewed residence permits. “We cannot move about with an expired residence permit,” workers complained.

Special geriatric clinics KUWAIT: Health minister, Dr Ali Al-Obaidi stressed on the importance of establishing special geriatric clinics in all hospitals and urged all hospital managers to work toward setting up such clinics within the next two months. He added that the Health Ministry(MoH) has long term and short term strategic plans in place to provide geriatric health care.

Speaking during a meeting with MoH Undersecretaries Council and health zone directors to launch the national project on geriatric care, AlObaidi stressed that a large specialized geriatric hospital will be built. He also expressed hope to build a senior citizen-friendly city in the future.

Furthermore, Al-Obaidi said that many teams were formed to execute the project by providing senior citizens with health, social and psychological care.

ANOC chief condemns kidnapping KUWAIT: Chairman of the Association of the National Olympics Committees (ANOC), Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah condemned yesterday the kidnapping of Libyan Olympic Committee Member Nabil Al-Alam by unknown people. Sheikh Ahmad said that ANOC association along with the Olympic committee express wishes for the release of Al-Alam as soon as possible, particularly before the advent of holy month of Ramadan in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Sheikh Ahmad called on authorities concerned to exert efforts and ensure the release of Al-Alam, also prior to the start of Olympic London games on July 27.

Kuwait, Turkey seek more partnership KUWAIT: A visiting Turkish parliamentary delegation met here yesterday with Kuwait Industries Union officials on available industrial opportunities and genuine partnership.

They also discussed ways and means of further reinforcing and developing economic and trade cooperation between Kuwait and Turkey.

The Turkish guests stressed the necessity of boosting the size of bilateral economic and trade cooperation, which is merely KD 700 million, the Kuwait Industries Union said in a press release.

They boasted that their countries had recently adopted a package of laws targeting better investment conditions, pointing to political and economic stability in the country.

For his part, Khalid Al-Abdelghani, a member of the union, lauded fervent efforts exerted by the Turkish government to develop the national economy.

He hoped that mutual visits would create genuine partnerships between Kuwaiti and Turkish businesses. —KUNA

Sharp increase in sales of sun block products Residents urged to take precautions

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: With the recent extremely hot weather, more people suffer from sunstroke, sunburn or dehydration, especially those who are new to Kuwait and have never experienced such extreme heat. “For the first time I noticed dark spots on my white cheeks. I was born here and I’m used to this weather and sun, so I don’t know why this happened to me this year. I’m not even a beach or tanning fan, and I developed these spots just by driving my vehicle during the daytime. The doctor prescribed some medical creams and I hope the spots

will disappear with the treatment,” 45-yearold Hatim told the Kuwait Times.

When questioned, officials at hospitals and polyclinics said they had not noticed a great increase in the number of patients suffering from sunburn or dehydration.

They mostly noted that the number of patients being seen is normal for this time of year. They did advise people to take care by using high factor sun protection products, drinking more water, and avoiding direct sun for long period.

On the other hand, officials at pharmacies have noticed a slight increase in demand for medical healing creams, com-

World celebrates Nelson Mandela Day KUWAIT: The South African Embassy in the State of Kuwait takes pleasure in reminding Kuwaitis that on July 18, Nelson Mandela will celebrate his 94th birthday. South Africans will celebrate this by participating in acts of goodwill and community service. Nelson Mandela Day is an annual international day adopted by the United Nations in 2009, and is much more than an act of celebrating his life and legacy; it is a global movement to take his life’s work into a new century.

In order to honor the legacy of Nelson Mandela and celebrate his immense contribution to South Africa’s liberation, the president of the Republic of South Africa encourages all South Africans and people all over the world to embrace his values of democracy and be of selfless service to the community and those that are less fortunate.

Nelson Mandela, fondly known as ‘Madiba’ asks us all to embrace his values and honor his legacy through an act of kindness

with the hope of inspiring people around the globe to embrace their individual power to make an imprint and help change the world around them for the better.

He wholeheartedly committed himself to the liberation struggle and lives a life of honor, courage and integrity in his effort to improve the lives of the people of South Africa.

All are encouraged to dedicate at least 94 minutes of their time to do community work in celebration of the values and principles that South Africa’s first democratic president stood for. The 94 minutes symbolize Mandela’s 94 years of selfless service to the people of South Africa and the world in the course of his extraordinary life.

It is an opportunity for all South Africans and people all over the world to set aside time to be of service to fellow human beings and collectively strive to become agents for building a better and caring society.

pared to last month. “Many people come to buy sun block products, which is normal for this time of year as the sun is very hot in Kuwait. And now, with increasing temperatures, we even noticed more people coming for treatment for sunburns, especially after they went to the beach without sun protection creams and stayed for a long time,” noted Riham from Salmiya Pharmacy. Based upon what he has seen, Ahmad, from Al-Turkey Pharmacy, stressed that currently there were not many people coming for sunburn or sunstroke products, though he expects the number of cases to increase in the coming days when the

weather will become even hotter. “Also, I think more people may suffer from dehydration in this heat, especially during Ramadan when they are fasting, and if they stay longer outside during the hot weather,” he pointed out.

An official at Seba Med also witnessed higher sales of sun block products this month, compared to last month. “I think that people are more aware of the harm caused by sun and they have experienced or witnessed sunburns on other people, so they are more careful to be protected from the sun,” stated Abdulatif from Seba Med Company.

Kuwaiti security delegation to visit UAE

By A Saleh KUWAIT: Sources said that a Kuwaiti security delegation would travel to the UAE following the recent apprehension of members of a terrorist organization by authorities in Abu Dhabi.

The visit also seeks to increase security coordination between GCC countries and to determine whether this group has terror cells in Kuwait and other GCC countries.

Staff from Abu Dhabi’s Public Prosecution began questioning members of the terrorist group, which sough to commit crimes affecting state security and who oppose the constitution and the fundamental principles the state is built upon.

Salem said Kubaish, the prosecutor general, ordered the arrest and interrogation of the members of the group.

In Kuwait, former air force commander Maj. General Saber Al-Suwaiden said that

Iran’s announcement about its ability to keep oil tankers from passing through the Strait of Hormuz has been heard before and are contradictory, since Tehran quickly retracts what official leaders say. He noted that Iran usually retracts its statements following a strong reaction by international public opinion and international press reports of views that reject such threats.

Meanwhile, member of the girls’ Sabaek organization, Nouf Al-Khudhair, said the organization’s Ramadan program would open on Wednesday at the exhibition hall.

She said the event is a youth gathering, the first of its kind to prepare for the holy month and will hold training courses and workshops, in addition to discussions and lectures. The gathering will also host a mini exhibition of Ramadan products.

Al-Khudhair said the gathering would only be for girls and is to be held for one day from 10 am until 9 pm.

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

LOCAL

Local Spotlight

The column

Best of luck Sarah Attar

The call for humanitarian intervention

By Muna Al-Fuzai

By Fouad Al-Obaid muna@kuwaittimes.net

H

er upcoming participation at the London Olympics will be big news for the international media and the millions of followers who will be thrilled to see her in the field. Why not, and who is she?

Sarah Attar is a Saudi who was born and lived in California. She finished her high school studies there.

While she was studying, she joined several races and made it to the finals, which drew attention to her strength and determination to win. She proved to have the potential to be an Olympic star and she made it this year.

fouad@kuwaittimes.net Twitter: @Fouadalobaid

O

ver the last few centuries the notion of a legal State became the pre-dominate form of government over almost every single portion of our planet. The system of sovereignty enshrined in the treaty if Munster and Osnabruck a treaty signed in 1648 between the Holy Roman Empire, the House of Habsburg, the Kingdom’s of Spain and France, the Swedish Empire, the Dutch Republic, Princes of the Holy Roman Empire, last but not least Sovereigns’ of free Imperial Cities led to the emergence of the Westphalian Sovereignty concept that enshrines the following three primary principles: The fundamental right of self-determination and the principle of State sovereignty; The notion of legal equality amongst sovereign States; and lastly, the notion of nonintervention of any one sovereign State into the internal affairs of another sovereign State.

As most readers already know - those that don’t can easily imagine - that this principle over the decades has not constrained the temptation by many States to not only intervene in the affairs of sovereign States; throughout the modern era, post-Westphalia, numerous cross-border wars ensued - though the trend of such wars has today decreased - most problematic and of prime concern to neighboring countries is the emergences of protracted civil conflicts predominantly in the ‘developing world’ especially post-independence.

If we look back to the history of the carving up of modern nations in Africa, Arabia, and Asia we come to view how legally through conventions different parts of lost empires were ‘shared’ amongst victorious ‘European’ colonial powers. For instance, the Congress of Vienna in 1814-15 was a ploy to settle territorial claims by major European powers post-Napoleonic Empire; the African continent amongst others was ‘shared’, creating artificial States that have not taken much consideration of historical realities. The outcome, countless resistant movements, civil strife and war that still today are plaguing the ‘Black’ continent.

In Arabia, post-World War I, the allied powers broke down the Ottoman Empire; the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 created modern day Turkey, and gave mandates over Syria and Lebanon to France, Mesopotamia (Iraq) and Palestine (which included modern day Jordan). Throughout the Gulf region the British established ‘protectorates’ - Kuwait was as such until 1961. In the post-Independence era countless dictators rose and fell in this part of the world.

Until the Arab Spring of last year, despots were the standard. Ruthless dictators have historically crushed the affinities of popular uprisings. It is only recently that non-democracies are suddenly concerned about the affairs of civilians in neighboring countries that are being bluntly murdered by their own governments because they are uprising against the system of government. The irony tragedy really - is the fact that should their own populace revolt similar fates could be the outcome!

With the case of Syria galvanizing crowds East and West, the Arab League for a historic first suspended Syria from the League in a public diplomatic slap, and worked out a scheme to send ‘observers’ to witness what is really going on. Many might find irony in countries that have historically crushed revolts - and in the case of two in the observer mission actively crushing open dissent, going out and reporting on the tragedy befalling Syria. Regardless, the repression has left at the latest count at least ten thousand dead.

The world is daily being fed news of the ongoing massacre in Syria - let us be reminded that when such massacres happen in places like Darfur not much is reported - the drums are clearly beating towards a march of military confrontation. And yet, it is not clear who would emerge victorious if such would be the outcome. What many people watching their TV screens and listening to the radio are unaware of is the Realpolitik ongoing with regards to the Syria situation.

The anger against both Russia and China that keep blocking resolutions at the UN Security Council is a cause of worry by mainly the Arab street not understanding the position of the two countries. Russia for one has a its only naval base in the Mediterranean in Tartus, Syria. It certainly does not want to loose its base and presences in the Mediterranean leaving the US unchecked in this region. China has a clear non-intervention foreign policy, which it has used to develop its burgeoning economy that needs its partners in nondemocracies to grant it access to raw materials.

The temptation for humanitarian intervention is growing amidst a more globally connected society that regards the loss of life as tragic. Should an intervention happen, it is likely to lead to greater death. Most pressing would be the manner by which the potential foreign military intervention would unravel.

Syria is a strong ally of both Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iran, along with Russia. Unlike Libya, Syria has a stronger armed force, and is crucial to the stability of the region. It’s proximity to Iraq, Lebanon, Israel and the Gulf could push it towards asymmetrical warfare, which has the potential to set the entire region ablaze. As a reminder, when the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Sarajevo, no one could have predicted that a world war would be the outcome.

kuwait digest

Who’s leading Kuwait?

By Dr Wael Al-Hasawi

W

ikipedia defined a ‘constitutional monar- stand what is a constitutional monarchy” —-true!

Further, the too-much parroting about shifting chy’ as a form of government in which a monarch acts as head of state within the to a parliamentary regime was actually responded parameters of a constitution, whether it be a writ- to in the constitution’s explanatory note since the ten, uncodified, or blended constitution. This form establishment, which explained that combining of government differs from an absolute monarchy parliamentary and presidential systems was necin which a monarch serves as the source of power essary in Kuwait since it is a constitutional monarin the state and is not legally bound by any con- chy.

Everything is, however, negotiable through stitution and has the powers to regulate his or her official channels entrusted respective government. with decision-making, such It then gave an example of the parliament and the constitutional monarchies in Everything is, however, as leading power. Constitutional Kuwait, saying it is ‘a constitutional monarchy as an eminegotiable through offi- changes must be agreed upon by the Amir and the rate led by an Amir or Sheikh cial channels entrusted people. Going out to the from the Al-Sabah family. It is yard and different from other counwith decision-making, determination organizing public seminars tries in that its parliament votes on the Amir’s nominasuch as the parliament can only increase tensions.

Frankly speaking, I believe tion and deposing, as it did and the leading power. that, although somehow when voting on deposing the the movements late Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah Constitutional changes exaggerated, made by MPs to demand when he became ill. must be agreed upon by some constitutional amendAccording to the Constitution ments are still within reasonof Kuwait, nomination of a new Amir or Crown Prince by the Amir and the people. able limits. On the other hand, presenting a group of the ruling Al-Sabah family has Going out to the young people and describing to be approved by the Determination Yard and them as ‘the youth bloc’ that National Assembly. If the solutions to all the counnominee does not win the organizing public semi- has try’s problems is, with all due votes of the Assembly, and the Assembly must approve nars can only increase respect to their devotion and sincerity in quest of reform, a another one to hold the post. tensions. big mistake, because most of Any amendment to the conthem only gained fame stitution can be proposed by through uploading some the Amir, but it needs to be approved by more than two-thirds of the mem- rude tweets that got them jailed or broke into the bers of the National Assembly before being imple- parliament building in a way condemned by the whole people! mented.

What’s even more funny is the attempt of some In fact, this definition is the strongest message to those parroting demands to change Kuwait MPs to please the youth by adapting calls to go into a constitutional monarchy and threatening to out to the streets. Have we really become that go out onto the streets to do so. It looks like what weak and have elderly and wiser people vanished, writer Mohammed Abdul Qadir Al-jassim said leaving public opinion to be led by the young? about “those raising this subject do not under- Please answer me! —-Al-Rai

In my View

Stop trying to twist history

By Thaar Al Rashidi

S

ome are dealing with this state as if it is part of a heritage waiting to be divided between the heirs. Whoever they might be, who think of themselves as heirs, whether they are political groups or merchants or influential, each one of them should know that if he is involved in politics, then he should stop dealing with the state as if it is his father’s inheritance. He will only become a very bad memory in the nation’s history.

Some, unfor tunately, and regardless of his knowledge, have not read history, and he doesn’t know that Mr History does not lie, even if some tried to twist its stories to be compatible with their own opinion. One of the new “muftis” came and said, there is nothing in all Islamic history about revolution.

Such a “mufti”, and we respect his knowledge, yet I call on him to read history books carefully, and then he will come to know that history records tens of revolutions. It is true that during that time there was no “liberation square” and no “determination yard”, but during that time there were real revolutions, which caused the collapse of rulers and

states, there were, as well, some that were “bloody ”. So if the mufti talked about what he knew, it would have much better for us and for him. But to deny something without knowledge,

The ones who need to swiftly think again on an urgent basis is the majority group, which is facing an organized attack, aiming at dismantling the group and destroying its election base.

So those who belong to the majority group should think again and leave their differences aside until the awaited election day in October.

here, he should think again.

The ones who need to swiftly think again on an urgent basis is the majority group, which is facing an organized attack, aiming at dismantling the group and destroying its election base. So those who belong to the majority group should think again and leave their differences aside until the awaited election day in October, because any differences among themselves now means a crackdown on their base.

What the 27th youth have demanded in their press release, in which they threatened to boycott the majority group unless the majority adopts a political reform proposal, is the top of democracy. Their statement was clear and their demands were specific, which were raised by the majority group, and the majority MPs should be aware, along with the government, as well as the fighting wings, that new political activities are being led by the youths, especially those who still are not polluted by political interests.

Note: States are not inheritances for anyone, as an inheritance is linked to death and states do not die!!! — Al-Anbaa

I personally think it is great to see young women like Sarah Attar involved in a sports activity on a world level, and not just locally. Meanwhile, I don’t agree with those who thinks that an Arab woman should not be involved in such games because it contradicts her nature or roots, which I think is false.

When the news came to the front, it raised many inquiries and comments. It is not common to see a Saudi woman being involved in a massive sport event like this one. But, to be fair here, Ms Attar will not be seen just because she is an Arab girl from a conservative society in which woman are commonly seen in black with a cover over the face. But, this young woman will be experiencing her first participation in a global arena and as part of an Olympic team. For the Olympics, a glorious event, do not happen every day.

Sarah made a statement to the media about her upcoming participation, saying she had the great honor to represent her country, and she hoped that she would become a good incentive to encourage women to participate in sports activities.

I personally think it is great to see young women like Sarah Attar involved in a sports activity on a world level, and not just locally. Meanwhile, I don’t agree with those who thinks that an Arab woman should not be involved in such games because it contradicts her nature or roots, which I think is false.

Being part of an Olympics game is something that she must be proud of, and not the opposite.

I will be following the news of Ms Attar and wish her all the best.

kuwait digest

Why can’t we be like them?

By Dr Sulaiman Al-Khadhari

G

entlemen, I’m not going to talk about Germany and other Western countries who have very strict laws and have a vision to follow while we are still crawling, but I’m precisely going to talk about a nearby neighbor called the UAE. I have been to the UAE several times, and I saw amazing practical developmental changes take place each time. The amazing thing are those applied, fully systematic changes that are not premature or need further study, and are applied to everybody, both citizens and expatriates. There is no hesitation in law enforcement, which means that citizens follow the laws and they can comment, criticize, inquire or ask for amendments.

Each and every citizen and expatriate is responsible for safeguarding the system. This means that if you are afraid to report a violation lest you be exposed to those involved, you have nothing to worry about. You’ll have full anonymity and will even be rewarded for it. Thus, everybody cooperates to build the nation and the state and respect the sovereignty of law that governs, protects and regulates the lives of everybody.

I’m not talking about a certain project in the United Arab Emirates that is evidently competing with law enforcement, building and construction, and which is very clear to all visitors. I could go on talking about this forever, but what I wish to highlight here is a very simple question: “Why can’t we be like them?” The question does not only involve construction, but rather means building Kuwaiti individuals according to systems and laws. So if they follow them, it’s OK. But if they violate them, they’d be penalized and fined. There should be no mercy in such penal measures, just like the UAE, not the West does. UAE laws are fully observed by citizens before anybody else.

Therefore, and at a time when a majority of Kuwaitis ignore and violate laws because they are not afraid of penalties, everybody in the UAE follows and respects all laws! Nobody dares to violate traffic laws, highway toll fees or parking in restricted areas such as airports, complexes and other places, which is fully known and respected by Kuwaitis who, as soon as they return home, start violating all laws and doing things they could not dare do there. So, when on earth are we going to be like them in culture, mentality and conduct? — Al-Qabas

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

local

‘Bloody tussles over ice cream vending territory’ Not allowed to remain stationed at one place

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: With Kuwait experiencing temperatures that soar to 50 degrees Celsius and above, ice cream is just one of the delectable items that quenches a parched mouth and throat. Ice cream vendors usually brave the extreme weather to sell them. Unfortunately, they are out there, even when the ban on outdoor work from 11 am to 4 pm starting

June 1, 2012 has been implemented. They are an ubiquitous presence in front of schools, gardens, parks or even street corners. But not many know that that ice cream vendors work hard and struggle to get their fair share of customers every day.

In order to make sure that they are situated in crowded places like schools, parks, hospitals, some would even connive with the security guards and watchmen to ‘reserve’

KUWAIT: An ice cream vendor near Farwaniya Immigration Department. —Photo by Ben Garcia

the same spot at all times. Some have already ‘sealed territorial ownership’ of certain places to secure customers and sell their ware. Any territorial intrusion would result in heated arguments or sometimes a bloody tussle.

An incident took place at the vicinity of a school near Salmiya just before the advent of summer. In a video uploaded in YouTube recently, two Egyptian ice cream vendors were seen involved in a bloody tussle using batons to hit and assault each other.

Their dispute allegedly stemmed from territorial ownership of the place. In the video, one ice cream vendor claimed to have been selling ice cream at the same spot for many years. He accused his ‘rival’ of intruding.

Ice cream vendors are allowed to operate with a license issued by the Ministr y of Commerce to sell ice cream, juice and water.

They earn not less than KD 5 per day, and mostly hail from Egypt and Syria.

Mahmoud Ahmed, a regular ice cream vendor near Far waniya Immigration Department, admitted to have secured a spot. “I have been selling ice cream here since 2010,” he said. “This spot is mine. I don’t mind other ice cream vendors selling their goods because there is room for more, and I don’t own this place. So, I cannot forbid anyone from selling,” he added.

Mahmoud, who is from Syria, admitted to learning about the news about the bloody brawl in Salmiya. He added that the spot near the immigration department is anything but permanent. “Our license allows us to sell ice cream along the streets of Kuwait, maybe parks or seaside, but we are not allowed to remain stationed at one place and stay there forever.”

Seven injured in traffic accidents

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A multi-car accident at King Fahad Road caused a large traffic jam as trucks and other vehicles came to a standstill.

Further, queues of vehicles were lined up along the roadside since the accident took place waiting for traffic department procedures to be put in place, which caused the traffic backup.

A 14 year-old Egyptian girl suffered a broken hand when a car struck her while she crossed the road near Al-Shaab Park. She was taken to Amiri Hospital.

Following an automobile accident, a 27 year-old Kuwaiti man was rushed to a private hospital, which in turn sent him to Mubarak Hospital. The man was suffering from a broken right leg, an injury to his head and a deep

injury to his stomach.

A car accident at Salmi Road resulted in injuries to two people.

Officials report a 22 year-old Saudi man suffered a broken left arm and a 21 year-old Saudi man broke his leg. The medical examiner was placed in charge of the fatality, and the two injured men were taken to Al-Jahra Hospital for treatment.

A car accident at Cooperative

street opposite Salwa resulted in a broken leg for a 25 year-old Kuwaiti man. He was taken to Mubarak Hospital for medical treatment.

A 50 year-old Kuwaiti woman injured her back and a 26 yearold Bangladeshi was also injured following a car accident at the 7th Ring Road, opposite Jaber Al-Ali. Both were taken to Al-Adan Hospital.

ABK launches charity initiative KUWAIT: Like every year at this time, at the onset of the holy month of Ramadan, Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait under its corporate social responsibility banner is providing relief to the underprivileged segment.

Each year, ABK provides assistance to lesser privileged families in Kuwait, especially during Ramadan, a month which carries the meaning and essence of goodness and giving.

Assistance is provided in the form of relief packages, which contain basic food essentials to tide over any shortages that may occur during the month of fasting and prayer. Packages are systematically distributed to those who could benefit from them the most.

Sahar Al-Therban, Public Relations Manager at ABK explained this charitable innovation came about because, “At ABK we work to support constructive interaction with the community, and the holy month of Ramadan is considered the most auspicious for charitable work, due to its significance in promoting the concept of solidarity and social cooperation”.

Al-Therban added “ABK holds a strong belief in service to society, and will continue providing humanitarian aid as a confirmation of the same.”

Drug peddlers caught KUWAIT: Two citizens were arrested with possession of a ‘cocktail’ of drugs. Case papers indicate that detectives were tipped off concerning the activity of a citizen who had a criminal record in drug trading. Upon arresting him and searching his house, detectives found hashish and other drugs that were stashed away in a safe. The suspect led the police to his supplier who was arrested and detectives found hashish bars, opium, a marijuana joint and an ‘ICE’ substance joint in his pocket. Both suspects confessed and led the police to more drugs that were hidden. A case was filed and they were referred to relevant authorities.

Car stolen A citizen filed a complaint with police stating that his brand new SUV vehicle was stolen from his doorstep. He had reportedly parked the vehicle outside his house in Jabriya. A case was filed.

Weapons seized Two citizens were arrested with possession of steel weapons, a number of cudgels and a bottle of liquor.

Case papers indicate that upon being stopped at a check point and checked, the two suspects appeared to be confused, calling for searching the car and finding the ‘weapons’ and liquor. A case was filed.

Policemen insulted A traffic policeman reported to

police that upon issuing a ticket for a citizen who drove her car in the opposite direction of traffic flow in a Hawally street, she insulted him. The policeman provided the woman’s information to higher authorities.

She is being summoned for further investigations.

A citizen was arrested in connection with insulting a traffic policeman on duty. Reportedly, when he was stopped and a ticket was issued for violating traffic laws, the heavily drunk man refused to produce his driver ’s license and insulted the policeman. A case was filed.

Worker killed A Korean construction worker was killed when he accidently got caught between the wheels of a wheel loader at a site he worked in Mina Shuaiba. The man was immediately carried to Adan hospital after suffering serious injuries. However, he was declared dead.

Drug addict caught A drug addict was arrested. Police raided his house after a request made by his wife. Case papers indicate that a female citizen reported that her drug-addict husband had been ill treating her and the children.

A search warrant was issued and on being let in by the wife, he fiercely resisted police, and they finally overpowered and arrested him.

Detectives noted that the house was

in a mess with the children sleeping on cardboards instead of beds.

Man mugged An Asian filed a complaint with police stating that two men had accosted him in Fahaheel pretending to be police detectives. They then stole his mobile phone and KD 250 in cash. A case was filed.

‘False’ death threats Detectives on received a phone call from a citizen reporting that he had been receiving death threats.

Upon checking the caller’s number, they found out that he was a patient hospitalized at the psychiatric diseases hospital.

Honest expat The Assistant Director of Passports and Citizenship Directorate, Colonel Abdul Rahman Al-Haqqaan recently received and honored an honest expatriate who found a bag full of passports and handed it over to officials.

Egyptians held Egyptian detectives arrested an Egyptian couple who had hacked the bank account of a Russian woman residing in Kuwait. They stole KD 180,000 from it. The woman had been working in an investment company in Kuwait under the Russian woman. She managed to get access to her account’s password and committed the act.

KUWAIT: A health awareness day was held at Jahra Hospital yesterday in the presence of Jahra Hospital director and other officials. — Photos by Fouad AlShaikh

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

LOCAL

Kuwait plans new rules to bring expat workers Plans to combat infiltration attempts DUBAI: Kuwaiti authorities are planning to link several embassies abroad, mainly from countries that Kuwait hires low-paid workers from, with a central database system in Kuwait with the aim of stopping the infiltration of people using forged passport to the country, a Kuwaiti newspaper said. Officials from both ministries of foreign affairs and interior have met last week to discuss the plan, which will be put in effect early next year, Al Rai Arabic-language newspaper said earlier this week.

The plan, with a cost estimated at KD1.697 million, aims to further enhance cooperation among the concerned authorities in combating infiltration attempts using forged passports. It also aims to “arrest those who are wanted in terrorism or criminal cases, and end the embarrassment to government bodies,” wrote the paper quoting security sources. According to the new plan, fingerprint machines will be placed in 10 Kuwaiti embassies abroad namely those from which labourers are hired and brought in to Kuwait.

The machines will be also connected to a data base system which include those who are not allowed in for either security cases or violating the laws.

Previously, the work permission is issued from the Social Affairs and Interior ministries inside Kuwait before being sent to the

labourer in his or her country. However, upon arrival and taking the fingerprints, authorities find out that some of them are using forged passports, or using travel documents with pictures of other people, or they are not allowed in.

In such a case, the situation is “embarrassing” to the authorities that issued the work permit, Kuwaiti journalist Mansour Al Shamari said. But after introducing the new system, the fingerprints will be taken in the concerned countries and checked with the central data system before issuing the work permission.

“The central data has over half a million people who are not allowed in Kuwait for security reasons or for breaking the laws,” Al Shamari told Gulf News. Once implemented, the new plan will “put an end to the issue of entering Kuwait with forged passports, or infiltrating to the country,” he added.

Initially, the plan was supposed to include Arab and Asian countries, including Egypt, Syria and Lebanon.

“However, because of the on-going developments in these (Arab) countries, applying the new system was put on hold temporarily until the situation settles down there,” said al Shamari. But the new regulations will be in place next year in other countries, including India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka .

As for Bangladesh, which Kuwait stopped hiring low-paid workers few years back, because of issues related to using bogus passports, Al Shamari expects the resumption of hiring workers from the Asian country after putting the new system in place.

Last month, Kuwaiti press reports said the government is working on new plans to introduce residency caps on expatriates to slash their number to 45 per cent of the population down from the current 69 per cent of the population. “The government will suggest imposing a cap of six years on unskilled labourers, eight years on semi-skilled employees, 10 years on semi-skilled employees who are with their families and 12 years on skilled employees. Foreigners with rare expertise will be given an open stay,” Arabicnewspaper of Annahar daily said quoting Kuwaiti sources.

According to 2010 estimates, the number of foreign workers in Kuwait stands at 2,340,000 and make up 69 per cent of the population, the report said. The total number of Kuwaitis is said to be 1,120,000.

A source cited by the Annahar daily said the “government is interested in proceeding with the residency cap plans after the World Bank ranked Kuwait as having the fourth highest rate of foreigners compared to the nationals.” — Gulf News

Kuwait Energy, consortium sign contract KUWAIT: Municipality inspection campaign in progress. — Photos by Hanan AlSaadoun

2,302 citations issued KUWAIT: The Kuwait Municipality has released its bi-annual report about achievements garnered by Farwaniya municipality branch’s cleaning department. The report details about the citations handed over, number of vehicles towed from roads, number of licenses issued, and revenue generated during the past six months.

Bader Al-Qattan, Director of Administration has said that total number of citations issued amount to 2,302 in all.

The highest rate was recorded during May when 456 citations were issued, followed by the month of April when 447 citations

were issued. In the month of January, 442 citations were issued and in March, 426 citations were issued. In the month of February 330 citations were issued and in June only 201 citations were issued.

Al-Qattan said that number of neglected vehicles and those exhibited for sale stood at 844 vehicles. They were taken to car detention site at Mina Abdullah.

The number of licenses issued were 319 and the total income collected amounted to KD 109,114. The official said that fines levied on cleaning companies in Farwaniya governorate amounted to KD 362,965.

KUWAIT: The Iraqi Ministry of Oil and Tender Committee and the Kuwait Energy-led consortium yesterday initialed the exploration, development and production service contract for “block 9” located in the Basra province, the first step in a customary process before the Iraqi Council of Ministers and the consortium members sign the final contract, on a date to be announced later in the year.

Kuwait Energy Chief Executive Officer, Sara Akbar, said, “This is another great milestone in our relationship with Iraq that started in 2008. On behalf of Kuwait Energy and our partners, we look forward to continue participating

in the development of Iraq’s energy resources, and supporting the country’s endeavors towards the development of its energy sector.”

In May 2012, the Kuwait Energy-led consortium successfully bid for “block 9” during Iraq’s fourth energy bidding round. The consortium includes the national oil company of Turkey, Turkiye Petrolleri Anonim Ortakligi (TPAO), and Dragon Oil, an independent international oil and gas exploration, development and production company.

Kuwait Energy will be the operator of the block with a 40% working interest, while TPAO and Dragon Oil will each hold a 30%

working interest.

According to the contract, the consortium has a five-year exploration phase to determine the oil prospects of “block 9”, which spans over a 900 kmsq area in the Basra province. If “block 9” is found to be commercial during this phase, the consortium may apply to the Iraqi government to continue developing the block over a 20-year development period.

This is the third block awarded to Kuwait Energy in Iraq. In Iraq’s third bid round held in October 2010, Kuwait Energy was awarded two 20-year development contracts of the Siba and Mansuriya gas fields. Kuwait

Sara Akbar Energy is the operator of the Siba gas field with a 60% working interest, and holds a 30% working interest in Mansuriya gas field which is operated by TPAO.

Ambassador meets with students in New Zealand KUALA LUMPUR: The Ambassador of Kuwait to Australia and New Zealand Khalid Mohammed AlShaibani met with Kuwaiti students in Auckland town in New Zealand, during which he encouraged them and conveyed the greetings of Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah.

A statement issued by the Kuwaiti embassy said that Al-Shaibani, in a statement, asked students to exert efforts in attaining education, to reach the highest academic levels, and come back to their country with high qualifications to contribute toward progress and prosperity.

He advised them to abide by the laws and rules of the country they are continuing their studies in, being good example of their country, as well as fearing (Allah) God and following his orders, and sharing brotherly ties between each others.

The students explained to the diplomat the problems they faced there, while Al-Shaibani asked them to go to the embassy or the Kuwaiti cultural bureau to help them overcome difficulties they encounter. The Kuwaiti students deeply thanked the ambassador for his visit and cooperation. —KUNA

Abdulrazzaq Al-Essa

VIVA offers Iftar banquets

CBK launches campaign for workers KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) recently conducted field visits to various construction sites and places where garbage collectors work.

They distributed water, face masks to protect them from inhaling dust, hand sanitizers, caps and some gifts with CBK logo on them as par t of its ‘Hawwin Alaihom’ (Make it Easier for Them) campaign that focuses on protecting workers and preventing any

health problems they might undergo as a result of sand or dust storms or extreme summer heat.

In this regard, Amani Al-Wer, Assistant General Manager for Media and PR Affairs said that CBK has been always keen on communicating with all sects and providing the best corporate and social services. She added that this campaign stems from the bank’s awareness of the significance of

such workers who are employed in extreme working conditions to protect the environment and beautify streets.

She also noted that construction workers were always subject to extreme weather be it sand storms or heat.

Furthermore, Al-Wer explained that a number of CBK branches in areas where large number of garbage collectors and construction workers existed were selected and assigned to launch

the campaign so that the workers know that they were not alone or isolated from the community.

“The campaign is meant to show these people’s significance in serving both citizens and expatriates,” she added noting that, with the aim of assisting various social establishments, the campaign would go on until Ramadan mainly depending on volunteer CBK employees.

KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s newest and most advanced mobile telecommunications service provider, yesterday announced the launch of its annual Iftar meals program for Ramadan. The program offers free Iftar meals each day to fasting Muslims in the areas of Jahra and Jleeb Al Shuyoukh.

Commenting on this initiative, Abdulrazzaq Al-Essa, Senior Communication Manager at VIVA said: “VIVA’s Iftar programme has proven to be very popular in previous years and it is developing in to something of a tradition for the company. Ramadan is the month of kindness and giving, and offering Iftar meals to those who fasted is very rewarding. As the Prophet, may peace be upon him, said: “Whoever feeds a fasting person has the same reward as him, except that the reward of the fasting person will not be diminished.”

“VIVA is proud to provide help to Muslims throughout the holy month of Ramadan to assist their continued health and wellbeing during the period of fasting.

During the program, a team from VIVA will be present to oversee meal distribution, ensure the cleanup of halls before and after sunset, and look after the needs of any fasting person while at the halls. In addition to Iftar meals, VIVA will also be very active in providing a wide range of religious and charitable activities.”

Iftar meals are just one of many of the charitable events and activities that the company will be holding throughout the month of Ramadan. These events highlight the importance of charitable work and caring for the poor and the needy, a core element of the company’s policy of supporting the needs of the community.

During this program, VIVA will seek to encourage Kuwaiti nationals to participate in charity programs and instil a sense of giving across all community segments.

VIVA is the newest, most advanced mobile telecommunications service provider in Kuwait. Launched in December 2008, VIVA makes things Possible for our customers by transforming communication, information and entertainment experiences. The company has rapidly established an unrivalled position in the market through our customer and employee centric approach.

VIVA’s quest is to be the mobile brand of choice for Kuwait by being transparent, engaging, energetic and fulfilling.

VIVA is growing it’s share of the market by offering an innovative range of best value products, services and content propositions, a state of the art nationwide network, and world-class service. VIVA is able to offer internet speed up to 42.2Mbps due to its investment in developing Kuwait’s most advanced third generation (3G and HSDPA) network. This delivers superior coverage, performance and reliability.

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

Romney charges Obama’s ad attacks ‘misdirected’ Page 9

Military mentor to North Korean leader dismissed Page 12

JERUSALEM: Israeli President Shimon Peres kisses US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to bid farewell to her after they made statements to the press at the President’s compound in Jerusalem yesterday. Clinton held top-level talks with Israeli leaders expected to focus on changes sweeping the Middle East, as well as Iran and the stalled peace process. —AFP

Clinton talks Egypt, Iran and peace with Israel Moment of great change, transformation in the region: Clinton JERUSALEM: Israel and the United States must think and act together to face the changes sweeping the Middle East, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday after meeting Israeli President Shimon Peres. Clinton, who arrived late Sunday after two days of talks with the new leadership in Egypt, hailed a “moment of great change and transformation in the region.” “It is a time of uncertainty but also of opportunity. It is a chance to advance our shared goals of security, stability, peace and democracy,” she said in remarks to the press after talks with Peres focusing on Egypt, Syria, Iran’s nuclear programme and peace efforts with the Palestinians.

“It is in moments like these that friends like us have to think together, act together,” she said. On the last leg of a 13-day, nine-nation tour, Clinton met early yesterday with her

Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman before her talks with Peres, briefing both on her discussions in Cairo with newly-elected President Mohamed Morsi and military leader Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi. Peres thanked Clinton for her efforts to shore up the peace between Israel and the new Egyptian leadership. “We appreciate very much that immediately after Egypt, you came to us with your latest impressions because for us, as well as for the United States, Egypt is a key country in the Middle East and much depends on Egypt and a little bit on us as well, to continue the great march of peace,” he said. “Israel is very much interested in keeping the peace with the largest Arab country.”

Ahead of her arrival, a top State Department official said Washington’s top diplomat wanted to have “a broader strategic conversation” with

the Israelis following the sweeping changes across the region. It would be a kind of “comparing of strategic notes,” he said, adding she would also bring Israeli leaders “up to speed” on diplomatic efforts to try to end the bloodshed in Syria.

Clinton, who was to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak later in the day, was to tell them that their counterparts in Cairo had reaffirmed support for Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel during her visit. Egypt became the first Arab nation to sign a peace accord with Israel in 1979, and Clinton has repeatedly referred to it as “the cornerstone” of regional security.

Fears have been raised that Morsi, who emerged out of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood to be sworn in as Egypt’s first democratically elected president, might seek

Mubarak ordered back to prison from hospital CAIRO: Egypt’s public prosecutor ordered former president Hosni Mubarak be moved back to prison yesterday, saying an improvement in his health meant he no longer needed to stay in a military hospital. Mubarak, sentenced to life in prison over the killing of protesters in the uprising that ended his rule, was moved from the medical wing of Tora prison to a military hospital last month following reports of a deterioration in his health. At the time, senior officers and military sources gave various accounts of the 84-year-old’s condition, including that he was in a coma and on life support. The state news agency then reported he was “clinically dead”, a report that came under wide criticism. MENA was accused by critics of participating in a cover up to move the former president of three decades out of prison. He was moved to hospital just days after Egyptians voted in the second round of a presidential vote that eventually installed the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohamed Mursi.

Adel al-Saeed, the assistant prosecutor and spokesman for the prosecutor’s office, said yesterday a medical committee formed to review Mubarak’s condition had decided his health was stable

CAIRO: In this Saturday, June 2, 2012 file photo, Egypt’s ex-President Hosni Mubarak lays on a gurney inside a barred cage in the police academy courthouse in Cairo, Egypt. —AP enough that he did not need advanced hospital care. “The medical committee’s members have unanimously reached that his medical condition is currently stable under the use of medication,” the statement from the prosecution said.

Sentenced on June 2 for his failure to protect demonstrators, Mubarak has been portrayed as being in poor health by officials for the past year. He was wheeled in to court during his trial on a

hospital stretcher. Mubarak’s legal team had been pressing to have him moved from the prison hospital to a betterequipped facility, saying he was not receiving adequate treatment for his condition. There has been no clear statement from independent medical experts on any ailments, although state media have reported a variety of illnesses from shortage of breath to heart attacks and comas. — Reuters

to renegotiate the treaty. “I think for the last 30 years the fact that there was peace between us and Egypt saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of young people in Egypt and Israel,” Peres said.

Travelling with Clinton are US Middle East envoy David Hale and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman, who represents Washington at the talks between world powers and Iran. Clinton also met Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad, after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Paris on July 6, at the start of her trip. Direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been on hold since late September 2010 following an intractable dispute over settlements, and US efforts to bring the two sides closer together have so far led nowhere. “Obviously, every day that goes by where there is not a

peace agreement is a day, that leaves us unsatisfied,” the State Department official told reporters. The fact that the two sides had not yet reached the point of inking a deal was “a testament to the difficulty of the challenge,” he said. “But the fact that we’re still at it is a testament to just how important the issue is to us, and to her personally.”

The Palestinians are demanding that Israel halt construction on land they want for a future state and accept a framework for talks on borders, but Israel is looking for an immediate return to talks without preconditions. Peres insisted that building peace “takes time.” “But we shouldn’t give up hope, we shouldn’t stop, we should be insistent, we should be determined, the Palestinians don’t have a better alternative, we don’t have a better alternative,” he said.—AFP

Egypt officials reject demands by US hostage-taker EL-ARISH: Egyptian security officials said yesterday that they will not give in to the demands of a Bedouin man who took hostage two Americans and their local translator, now entering their fourth day in captivity. Boston-area residents Pentecostal Rev. Michel Louis, 61, and 39-year-old Lissa Alphonse were taken off a bus Friday with their Egyptian tour guide on a road in the Sinai Peninsula. Their captor wants the security forces to free a detained relative.

The two Americans were on a Holy Land tour heading from Cairo to the sixth-centur y St. Catherine’s Monaster y, located at the foot of Mount Sinai where the Old Testament says Moses received the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments. The route is frequently targeted by Bedouins who abduct tourists to pressure police to meet their demands, usually the release of detainees they say have been unjustly arrested. In past cases, tourists have not been physically harmed.

The 32-year-old hostage -taker, Jimmy Abu-Masuh, told The Associated Press by telephone that the hostages were being fed, offered tea and coffee

and sleeping in his home. He said he would not release them until there is a swap for his detained uncle. The translator, Haytham Ragab, 28, told the AP on Friday from the captor’s phone that they had been fed a roast lamb. He confirmed they were sleeping in AbuMasuh’s home deep in the harsh mountain terrain of central Sinai.

The Arab Bedouins of the sparsely populated peninsula have long-running tensions with the government in Cairo, and with the security forces in particular. They complain of state discrimination in the development of their region. The smuggling of drugs and of migrants is endemic to the region. Islamist militants waged a lowlevel insurgency against the regime of deposed president Hosni Mubarak in the 1980s and 1990s, targeting security forces and foreign tourists. Well over 1,000 people were killed.

Bedouin and Egyptian rights groups say the security forces are responsible for many abuses in the peninsula.

Police hunting fugitives have staged mass arrests to pressure families to hand over their relatives. They frequently enter homes by force and detain women - particularly provoca-

tive acts in conservative Bedouin society. Egyptian security officials are in a tight spot with the latest abduction, apparently unwilling for the moment to attempt to free the hostages by force and risk a violent confrontation with the captor’s Tarbeen tribe. Any escalation could lead to more abductions along the popular tourist route.

Abu-Masuh has complained that the security forces’ treatment of Bedouins has not improved, despite Mubarak’s overthrow in a 2011 uprising. He reiterated yesterday his earlier ultimatum: he will not free the Americans until Egyptian authorities free his 62-year-old uncle, who raised him after his father died and who he says suffers from back and heart problems as well as diabetes.

Egyptian officials said they will not release the uncle, who was taken into custody last week. Officials said AbuMasuh’s uncle was ordered detained on Saturday for 15 days pending investigation for alleged possession of drugs.

Abu-Masuh says his uncle is being held for refusing to pay police a bribe. The officials spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity to discuss the negotiations.—AP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

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

Dozens of Jewish leaders criticize West Bank report JERUSALEM: Dozens of American Jewish leaders and scholars have made a rare appeal to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, asking him to make sure his government rejects a controversial report that denies Israel is occupying the West Bank. In a letter to Netanyahu, more than 40 prominent Jewish figures predicted the report authored by former Supreme Court Justice Edmond Levy would tarnish Israel’s image and jeopardize prospects for peace with the Palestinians. “ We recognize and regret that the Palestinian Authority has abdicated leadership by not returning to the negotiating table,” they wrote in the letter, obtained yesterday by The Associated Press.

“Nonetheless, our great fear is that the Levy Report will not strengthen Israel’s position in this conflict, but rather, add fuel to those who seek to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist.”

Signatories included businessmen and philanthropists Charles Bronfman and Stanley Gold, the former head of the Israel lobby in Washington, Tom Dine, and former Jewish Agency board chairman Richard Pearlstone.

Another signatory, Rabbi Daniel Gordis of the Shalem Institute think tank in Jerusalem, said the question was not whether Levy’s legal opinion was correct. “The question is whether or not it is wise for Israel at this particular juncture to take a stand which would appear to most people to be

the equivalent of annexing the West Bank,” making Israel appear to be the obstructionist party in peace efforts, Gordis told The Associated Press.

The Levy report, written by a committee with pro-settler sympathies and released last week, reaffirmed Israel’s longstanding position that the West Bank is not occupied territory and therefore Israel has the legal right to settle it. That position is at odds with the international consensus that settlements are illegitimate and an obstacle to peace.

Israel captured the West Bank, now home to some 2.5 million Palestinians, from Jordan in 1967. It contends there is no sovereign power there because Jordan’s 1948 annexa-

tion of the West Bank was not internationally recognized, and the Hashemite kingdom renounced all claims to the territory in 1988. Israel never annexed the territory.

The Palestinians and most of the international community say the West Bank was under Jordanian control when it was captured and is not Israeli territory, meaning it is occupied land. “We are confident that with your deep understanding of the gravity of this situation, and your unprecedented political strength, you will ensure that adoption of this report does not take place,” the letter said. Netanyahu has said he would bring the report’s conclusions to a special forum that would decide

whether to adopt them.

If endorsed by the government, the recommendations could give Netanyahu ammunition to support new settlement activity and fend off pressure from a Supreme Court that has ordered the government to take action against unauthorized settlement enclaves. Jewish settlements are at the heart of a 3-year-old deadlock in M ideast peace effor ts.

Palestinians view the West Bank as the heartland of a future state. They see all settlement construction as cementing Israel’s hold on the territory and say they will not resume negotiations until the building is frozen, something Israel has refused to do.— AP

Special investigator dies in Palestinian custody ‘Mansour jumped, security footage proves it’

EREZ: Relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons cross by bus at the Erez border crossing in Beit Hanun during the first visit by the International Committee of the Red Cross early yesterday.—AFP

3 security force members killed in Iraq attacks BAGHDAD: Shootings and bombings in the north of Iraq killed three members of the security forces yesterday, officials said, while a senior leader of Al-Qaeda’s front group was found dead by police. In Nineveh province, a roadside bomb killed two off-duty Iraqi soldiers as they were driving an unmarked car in AlKissik, west of provincial capital Mosul, according to army First Lieutenant Khalaf Zaidan. And in the town of Tuz Khurmatu, 175 kilometres (110 miles) north of Baghdad, gunmen stormed the house of a married couple who both worked in the Facilities Protection Service (FPS), an interior ministry force tasked with securing government buildings. The attackers kidnapped the husband and killed the wife, according to Kirkuk provincial FPS chief Colonel Sherzad Mufri. Meanwhile, five people were wounded by a car bomb near a

restaurant along the road connecting Baghdad and Balad, around 70 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, according to a Balad police officer and a medic in the town’s hospital.

In Anbar province, west of the capital, the accused head of operations in south Baghdad for Al-Qaeda’s front group in Iraq killed himself when the house he was in was surrounded by police, provincial police chief Major General Hadi Arzaij said. “The terrorist Amid Hamid Jari, who is known as the Wali of south Baghdad for the Islamic State of Iraq, killed himself with a shot to the head when our forces surrounded his home in Saghlawiyah,” Arzaij said. The latest violence comes after the country suffered a spike in unrest in June-at least 282 people were killed last month, according to an AFP tally, though government figures said 131 Iraqis died.—AFP

News

in brief

Lawyer: Tunisia welcome to Ben Ali’s Swiss assets TUNIS: The Tunisian government is welcome to any of its deposed dictator’s assets it can find hidden in Swiss banks, said his Beirut-based lawyer in a statement yesterday, after previously denying there were any such funds. Akram Azoury said in response to accusations that his client Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ruler of Tunisia for 23 years, had hidden money away in Swiss accounts, he had authorized the Swiss government to turn over all such funds to the Tunisians.

“You are authorized to transfer any so-called assets or economic resources to the Tunisian state without needing to resort to any judicial or extra-judicial measures and without referring to my client,” Azoury wrote in a letter he said he had sent to the Swiss ambassador in Beirut. Azoury said it was a follow-up to his statement May 30 saying his client had no funds in Swiss accounts and he would gladly accompany Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki to Switzerland to repatriate any money he could find under Ben Ali’s name. Marzouki and other Tunisian officials have accused Ben Ali of squirreling away state funds abroad for his own use. Tunisians last year overthrew Ben Ali in a popular uprising. He fled to Saudi Arabia, which has ignored Tunisian requests for his extradition.

Israeli activist says vandals strike her home JERUSALEM: An Israeli anti-settlement activist says vandals have sprayed hate graffiti on her home for the third time in ten months. Hagit Ofran said she found messages on her stairwell yesterday reading “Hagit - you’re dead,” and “Kahane was right” - a reference to the late ultranationalist rabbi Meir Kahane, who advocated expelling Arabs from Israel. Ofran monitors West Bank settlement construction for the Peace Now movement. The group has frequently been a target of right-wing wrath in Israel, and Ofran says her home was targeted twice last November.

“This is clearly from the right wing - they don’t like what I’m trying to do,” Ofran said.

RAMALLAH: A senior Palestinian official suspected of embezzling public funds fell to his death from the third-floor kitchen window of a West Bank security compound where he was being interrogated, officials said yesterday. He was involved in tracking land sales to Israelis, considered treasonous by Palestinians. The official investigating the incident said Osama Mansour jumped, and that there is security camera footage to prove it. Members of Mansour’s family said he was cheerful when they visited him last week, and they suspect he was killed. An autopsy is set for today at Israel’s premier forensics institute, presumed to be independent, relatives said.

Mansour ’s job was to track Palestinians who sold land to Israelis. The death is training a spotlight on the murky world of secret West Bank land deals. Israeli settlers routinely tr y to buy Palestinian-owned land in the West Bank and east Jerusalem to strengthen their hold on territories the Palestinians want for their state. Those convicted of selling land to Israelis face the death penalty from the Palestinian judiciary. In at least one case, such a sentence was handed down, though none of more than 140 convicted land dealers has been executed, court officials say. Palestinian society views such acts as treason because it weakens their quest for an independent state in the occupied lands.

Currently, 141 Palestinians are being held in West Bank prisons for selling land to Israelis, court officials said. Mansour retired from the intelligence service, and then he was assigned to the attorney general’s office in 2009 to investigate land sales, said family members who would not give their full names on advice of their lawyer.

Mansour was arrested more than three weeks ago on suspicion of corruption, said Abdel Latif alAidi, an official leading the investigation into Mansour ’s death.

According to the suspicions,

WEST BANK: Photo of Osama Mansour is shown at his home in the West bank city of Ramallah yesterday. Mansour, a senior Palestinian official suspected of embezzling public funds fell to his death from the third-floor window of a West Bank security compound where he was being interrogated, officials said yesterday. —AP Mansour pocketed money given to him by the Palestinian Authority for sting operations meant to catch land dealers or to buy back properties whenever possible, al-Aidi said.

As a former senior member of the security ser vice, Mansour was being held in a regular room and not in a cell at the Militar y Intelligence building, said al-Aidi, head of the military judicial system in the West Bank.

On Sunday, Mansour was told his matter would be referred to a special court for corruption cases, al-Aidi said. “He took a shower, shaved and smoked a cigarette,” alAidi said. Mansour told the guards he was thirsty and was told to go to the kitchen for a glass of water, the investigator said, adding that the detainee was not handcuffed or accompanied by a guard. “He went to the kitchen, opened the window and jumped,” al-Aidi said.

He said a security camera captured the fatal fall, and that the footage would be made public.

Al-Aidi said he did not know how much money Mansour was suspected of embezzling. However, relatives of Mansour, speaking on condition of anonymity at the advice of the family lawyer, said they doubt he committed suicide.

They said he was upbeat when they visited him Friday. Shahwan Jabareen of the Palestinian human rights group al-Haq said the autopsy must be done in the presence of an independent doctor. “Usually, when someone dies in custody, that raises our suspicions, but we are waiting for the autopsy,” he said.

A number of Palestinians have been killed in detention over the years, and human rights groups have accused the Palestinian security forces of mistreatment of

detainees under interrogation. As part of its crackdown on political rival Hamas, the Palestinian selfrule government in the West Bank has also become increasingly authoritarian, on occasion attempting to stifle dissent. Land deals between Palestinians and settler groups in the West Bank and east Jerusalem are usually done in secret because of the danger to the lives of the Palestinians involved.

Scams are commonplace.

Sometimes, Palestinians sell land they don’t own, or take the money without turning over the property.

Other times, settlers falsely claim they’ve purchased Palestinian land and produce fraudulent documents. After successful sales, Palestinians often relocate abroad for fear of possible vigilante attacks against them.—AP

Hamas seeks new Gaza policy from Egypt GAZA CITY: Egypt’s new president holds the key to blockaded Gaza, but he is signaling that he won’t rush to help the territory’s Hamas rulers by striking a border deal with them, even though they are fellow members of the region’s Muslim Brotherhood. A bilateral border agreement between Egypt and Hamas could hurt chances of setting up a single Palestinian state, made up of the West Bank and Gaza, alongside Israel. “I don’t think they (the Egyptians) are ready for that,” said Palestinian economist and business leader Samir Hulileh.

Hamas was jubilant over Morsi’s election in neighboring Egypt in June, hoping the Egyptian leader would lift years of travel and trade restrictions that have hit the Gaza economy hard. But for now Morsi is keeping Hamas at arm’s length, focusing on his relationship with Egypt’s powerful military and with the US, which gives Egypt $1.3 billion in annual military aid.

In Gaza, Hamas officials say that once Morsi settles into his job, they expect him to transform the Gaza-Egypt border crossing, now open only to select passengers, into a vibrant cargo route with free trade zones. Such a new lifeline could keep Hamas in power for years, reviving an economy battered by a border closure Israel and Morsi’s pro-Western predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, imposed after the violent Hamas takeover of Gaza in 2007.

One senior Hamas official said Gaza now has the chance to become semi-independent by relying on close relations with Egypt and cutting the last ties to Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was expressing a personal view.

Israel might welcome closer ties between Egypt and Gaza, since this could further ease its responsibility toward the seaside territory. However, Israeli officials insisted there is no change in the current policy of

isolating the territory and containing Hamas. Israel, which withdrew from Gaza in 2005 after 38 years of occupation, still controls most of Gaza’s land border, including several crossings, and restricts access by air and sea. Among those most affected by a separate Egypt-Gaza deal would be Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who was left with limited autonomy in

appeal to Egypt. “It would be the end of the two-state solution,” he said. For Hamas, that might be of little concern. The Islamists view such a state at best as an interim step toward an Islamic entity in all of historic Palestine, the area between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River that includes Israel.

Morsi has signaled that there will be no

GAZA CITY: In a Sunday, June 24, 2012 file photo, Palestinians wave green Islamic flags that represent Hamas and the Egyptian national flag as they celebrate the victory of Mohamed Morsi in the Egyptian presidential elections, in Gaza City. —AP parts of the West Bank after Hamas seized Gaza from him. A strong trade bond with Egypt could break Gaza’s last tentative ties with the West Bank, further hurting Abbas’ efforts to establish a state in both of those territories, along with east Jerusalem. “This is a very dangerous step,” Abbas aid Mohammed Ishtayeh, said of Hamas’

radical changes anytime soon. The Egyptian leader reiterated in a weekend meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton that he would honor all of Egypt’s international obligations. He has also avoided preferential treatment of Hamas. This week, he’ll receive Abbas in Cairo, while Hamas leaders are still waiting

for their invitation. Still, Egypt’s continued role in the Gaza blockade is deeply unpopular in Egypt, and Morsi has promised a new policy.

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Mahmoud Ghozlan said Morsi will not lend a hand to “choking Gaza.” Ghozlan spoke of easing passenger traffic at the Rafah crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border, and sending more humanitarian supplies. But he was evasive when asked about Hamas’ central demand that Egypt allow regular trade.

Morsi would like to lift the blockade, but is worried about violating international protocols, said Egyptian security officials familiar with Gaza policy, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

This includes a border deal brokered by the U.S. after Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, when Abbas’ forces still controlled the territory. The agreement was meant to address Israel’s fears that Gaza would be flooded with weapons and militants. A complicated arrangement was worked out that enabled Israel to watch the border crossing by remote cameras. It did not contain a provision for full-fledged Egypt-Gaza trade. Instead, Egypt sent its goods via an Israel-run cargo crossing into Gaza.

This also helped protect the customs union between Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, a component of interim IsraeliPalestinian peace deals of the mid-1990s.

Since the blockade was imposed in 2007, Gaza has been importing hundreds of millions of dollars in goods through underground smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt - a major source of tax revenue for Hamas. The border closure and the smuggling meant the customs union existed only on paper. Still, it was one of the last formal bonds between Gaza and the West Bank, since Israel had previously banned virtually all travel between the territories.—AP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

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

News

in brief

Body recovered after landslide hit Canada town JOHNSONS LANDING: Police say emergency crews have found the body of one of four people missing after a massive landslide crushed several homes in a tiny western Canada town. British Columbia’s chief coroner Lisa Lapointe said Sunday that an adult male body was recovered near a home swept away by the landslide in the small hamlet of Johnsons Landing in B.C. She says crews will try to recover the three remaining bodies. At least three homes were crushed after a wall of rock, mud and trees cascaded down the side of a mountain earlier this week. Two sisters, aged 17 and 22, and their father have been missing since the slide struck last Thursday. A female German tourist was also believed to have been caught in the debris.

Lightning strikes Canada food fest ONTARIO: Seventeen people have been hospitalized with minor injuries after lightning struck a dining tent at a food festival in Ontario. Whitby Ribfest event chair Colin O’Regan said Sunday that the lightning hit a tent holding several hundred people taking shelter from a sudden downpour in Whitby, a town about 55 kilometers (34 miles) east of Toronto. He says the lightning bolt struck one of the tent’s steel poles. Lakeridge Health hospital spokesman, Aaron Lazarus, says some of those hospitalized suffered minor burns. He says everyone has been discharged. O’Regan says festival officials were aware of the severe thunderstorm watch, but thought it wasn’t a risk at the time. He says the festival has closed early as a result of the lightning strike.

3 teens charged in fatal beating of Chicago man CHICAGO: Authorities in Chicago say three teens are charged with first-degree murder in the fatal beating of a 62-year-old man after they posted a video of the attack on Facebook. Police say Delfino Mora was attacked in an alley on the city’s North Side early Tuesday. A passer-by found him hours later and he was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston in critical condition. The Cook County medical examiner’s office says he died Wednesday afternoon from blunt head trauma. The teens were arrested over the weekend and are slated to appear in court Monday. Mora’s family says the father of 12 was disabled because of a workplace injury and was in the alley collecting aluminum cans to earn money for his family.

Bodies found in search for 2 Missouri sisters EDGERTON: Authorities in Platt County, Mo., say officials have found the bodies of two women in a field after officials interrogated “a suspect in the disappearance of Britny Haarup and Ashley Key.” The Kansas City Star reported (http://bit.ly/Nsrx8S) late Sunday that the bodies were found near Trimble, Mo., in Clinton County. Platt County Sheriff’s Capt. Erik Holland told the newspaper the bodies were those of white women but he could not immediately confirm the victims’ identities or how they had died. Haarup, 19, and Key, 22, were reported missing Friday from Haarup’s Edgerton, Mo., home. Holland said authorities “were led” to the area where the bodies were found by talking to the suspect in case, whom he did not identify.

“That individual is under arrest and in custody,” he said.—Agencies

LA sheriff: Man recovers car 42 years after theft LOS ANGELES: A Texas man whose prized sports car was stolen 42 years ago recovered the vehicle in California after spotting it on eBay, authorities said Sunday. Robert Russell told the Los Angeles County sheriff ’s officials that he had never given up searching for the 1967 Austin-Healey after it was stolen from his Philadelphia home in 1970.

The 66-year-old retired sales manager from S o u t h l a k e to l d t h e D a l l a s M o r n i n g N e ws (http://dallasne.ws/ML2fBq ) he paid a friend $3000 for the car. It had sentimental value to him because it was stolen the morning after he took his future wife out on their second date.

Russell said he spent years sur fing the Internet looking for the car and didn’t have much hope of finding it. “The fact that the car still exists is improbable,” he said. “It could have been junked or wrecked.” He said he checked on eBay periodically and spotted it a few weeks ago. He immediately called a Beverly Hills car dealership that was selling it.

He said the vehicle’s identification number matched that of his car. He had the original key and car title, but not a copy of the stolen-car report to prove that it was stolen from him.

Russell contacted Philadelphia police for help and learned that the stolen-car report wasn’t showing up at the FBI’s national crime index because one vehicle identification number was entered incorrectly. The repor t was finally found and the file was reactivated, enabling Los Angeles authorities to impound the car.

Russell and his wife, Cynthia, drove to Los Angeles and took possession of the car. It’s now valued at $23,000. “It still runs, but the brakes don’t work well,” he said. “We’re going to put it back the way it was.”— AP

Romney charges Obama’s ad attacks ‘misdirected’ US prez prepares for campaign appearances in Ohio WOLFEBORO: Republican Mitt Romney demanded yesterday that President Barack Obama back away from his persistent attacks on Romney’s record at Bain Capital, advising that it would be better “if you spent some time speaking about your record.” “What does it say about a president whose record is so poor that all he can do in this campaign is attack me,” Romney said in a nationally broadcast interview. In a separate interview, Obama said he has run mostly positive campaign ads but said the media largely has ignored them.

In his interview on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends,” Romney was asked whether Obama should apologize for statements and campaign ads suggesting that Romney has not been truthful in his accounts of his record as head of Bain Capital, a private equity firm.

Romney responded: “I think when people accuse you of a crime you have every reason to go after them pretty hard and I’m going to continue going after him.” He defended his business record but did not demand that Obama apologize. Romney also declined to make a fuller disclosure of tax returns than he has already committed himself to releasing.

The latest exchanges came yesterday as Obama prepared for campaign appearances in Ohio, a critical state for both candidates, and Romney was to join Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal on a fundraising trip. Obama’s campaign has been arguing that Romney’s record at Bain Capital indicates that jobs were shipped overseas under his watch. That pitch has been given a lot of attention at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate remains above 8 percent and millions of people are out of work.

Asked about this, Romney said he was “very proud of the record I had in my business career.” He added: “I’d say to the president, wouldn’t it be interesting Mr. President, wouldn’t it be interesting if you spent some time speaking about your record.” Romney also pressed a new line of attack against Obama, saying the Democratic president had put the interests of his wealthy campaign donors above the middle class.

“When billions upon billions of dollars are given by the Obama administration to the businesses of campaign contributors, that’s a real problem, particularly at time when the middle class is really suffering in this country,” the former Massachusetts governor said. “This is a tough time for the people of America. But if you’re a campaign contributor to Barack Obama your business may stand to get billions or hundreds of millions of dollars in cash from the government. I think it’s wrong. I think it stinks to high heaven and I think the

administration needs to explain how it is they would consider giving money to campaign contributors’ businesses.”

Romney didn’t say it, but he was referring to Solyndra, a solar energy company that received a federal loan under Obama’s economic stimulus but went bankrupt last year, laying off its 1,100 workers and leaving taxpayers on the hook for more than $500 million. An Obama campaign donor had invested millions of dollars in the company.

Obama’s team dismissed Romney’s latest criticism of the president. White House spokesman Jay Carney noted that Republican-led House committees have examined potential conflicts and found no evidence of improper behavior Obama campaign spokeswoman Jennifer Psaki, who joined Carney on Air Force One as the presi-

Obama said “we’ve done a whole slew of positive ads” that talk about the need for changes to the education system and the tax code, how to rebuild America and how to promote energy development. “So those just don’t get attention in the news,” Obama said. Romney also was asked about statements by Obama supporters, including Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, that he “stop whining” about the Obama attacks. He responded: “The best offense is to look at the president’s record. ...

He just hasn’t been able to do the job he was going to try and do.”

“The president has only one thing going and that is constant attacks on me,” Romney said. “They’re dishonest, they’re misdirected and I think the American people recognize that kind of politics is something of the past.

It may work in Chicago, but it’s not going to

MASSACHUSETTS: In an April 29, 2005, file photo Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to media gathered at the Statehouse in Boston and addresses issues, such as the resurrection of the death penalty in the state. —AP dent flew to Ohio, said Romney was trying to change the subject to avoid the questions about his time at Bain Capital. “He has created this cloud of secrecy around his campaign that I promise you people in states across the country are very concerned about,” she said.

Obama, in a taped interview broadcast yesterday on “CBS This Morning,” was asked about the number of negative ads his campaign has been running against Romney.

work across America.” Romney refused calls

by Democrats - and some Republicans - to release several years of tax returns. He said the Obama campaign was only looking “for more things for their opposition research to make a mountain out of and to distort and to be dishonest about.” Romney has released his 2010 return and has pledged to release a complete return for 2011, but no more.

Romney’s campaign said Sunday that

Obama will say anything to get re-elected and should say he’s sorry for attacking the Republican’s successful career at Bain Capital.

“No, we will not apologize,” the president responded, adding that if Romney wants credit for his business leadership, he also needs to take responsibility. Questions about Romney’s tenure at Bain Capital, the fortune he earned there, foreign bank accounts and his refusal to release more of his tax returns have dogged the former Massachusetts governor. Romney insists he left the firm in February 1999 to take over the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, but documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission indicate he was still in charge as late as 2001.

Romney’s advisers on Sunday offered fresh explanations for the discrepancy. “He actually retired retroactively at that point,” Romney adviser Ed Gillespie said Sunday. “He ended up not going back to the firm after his time in Salt Lake City. So he was actually retired from Bain.” A second adviser, Kevin Madden, said Romney had no choice but to have his name listed on SEC documents as he sought to transfer the company’s leadership to partners.

“The reason that there is a document that had ... his signature is because, during that transition from 1999 to 2002 ... there was a duty to sign those documents,” Madden said.

Romney’s exact role at the firm between 1999 and 2001 is important not only because critics have raised questions about his truthfulness, but also because Bain was sending U.S. jobs overseas during the period. Romney has sought to distance himself from that period in Bain’s history, saying on financial disclosure forms and in a recent blitz of TV interviews that he had no active role in the company as of February 1999.

“I had no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after February of 1999,” he said Friday. “I was an owner, and being a shareholder doesn’t mean you’re running the business.” That answer didn’t satisfy Obama.

“Mr. Romney claims he’s Mr. Fix-It for the economy because of his business experience, so I think voters entirely legitimately want to know what is exactly his business experience,” Obama told WAVY-TV in Portsmouth, Va., in an interview taped Saturday and posted on the station’s website Sunday.

“Mr. Romney is now claiming he wasn’t there at the time except his filings with the SEC listing says he was the CEO, chairman and president of the company.” Gillespie appeared on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union. Madden spoke on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”— AP

Court-martial to begin in Texas base sex scandal SAN ANTONIO: Military officials say the initial flirtations that Staff Sgt. Luis Walker directed at the women he trained at a Texas Air Force base grew into something more sinister: threats and intimidation that eventually led to rape. Walker is among 12 instructors at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio who are being investigated in a widening sex scandal that has rocked one of the nation’s busiest military training centers.

“We haven’t had a case of this magnitude, certainly in recent memory,” said Brent Boller, a spokesman for Joint Base San Antonio, which operates Lackland.

Walker’s court-martial was scheduled to begin yesterday. He faces the most serious charges in the case - 28 counts, including rape, aggravated sexual contact and multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault. He could get up to life in prison and a dishonorable discharge if convicted.

The 10 female recruits Walker is accused of either sexually assaulting or engaging in inappropriate sexual conduct with are expected to testify during the court-martial at Lackland. A seven member jury made up of military personnel will decide the case.

At least 31 female trainees have been identified as victims in the sex scandal. Officials at Lackland are calling Walker’s court-martial the “cornerstone case” in the ongoing investigation.

Walker ’s civilian attorney, Joseph Esparza, declined to comment. A two-star general, Maj. Gen. Margaret H. Woodward, has also launched a separate, independent investigation that military prosecutors say

could sweep up more airmen. Advocates for female service members and members of Congress have started taking notice.

“It’s a pretty big scandal the Air Force is having to deal with at this point,” Greg Jacob, a former Marine infantry officer and policy director of the Service Women’s Action Network, said last month. “It’s pretty substantial in its scope.” The start of the court-martial yesterday was expected to mostly deal with procedural matters.

Testimony in the case is not likely to begin until Tuesday.

The sexual misconduct at the base apparently began in 2009, but the first woman didn’t come forward until last year.

The first allegations were levied against Walker, who is accused of crimes that allegedly took place between October 2010 and January 2011. According to the Air Force charge sheet, Walker had sexual intercourse with 4 of the 10 female recruits.

He also is accused of making flirtatious or sexually suggestive comments, sending inappropriate text messages and sometimes groping his recruits.

Walker also is accused of telling one recruit to “get naked” and that she “turned him on,” forcing five recruits to engage in sexual acts by threatening their military careers and intimidating two of the women into lying about his alleged misconduct, according to the charge sheet.

Walker was a trainer for about 18 months, until he was removed from his position in June 2011. He joined the Air Force in 2004 and previously was stationed at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and at facilities in

Montana and Korea. The Air Force is withholding his age and hometown.

Lackland is where every American airman reports for basic training - about 35,000 a year. About one in five is female, pushed through eight weeks of basic training by a flight of instructors that are about 90 percent male.

Six of the 12 instructors under investigation for misconduct face charges ranging

from rape to adultery. Officials say nine of those instructors were in the same squadron. The first court-martial in the case resulted in a plea agreement in June, when Staff Sgt. Peter Vega-Maldonado admitted to having sex with a female trainee. He struck a plea deal for 90 days confinement.

He later acknowledged being involved with a total of 10 trainees - a number previously unknown to investigators.-AP

BOONE: US President Barack Obama walks from Air Force One upon arrival at Cincinnati Northern Kentucky International Airport in Boone, Kentucky yesterday enroute to attend campaign events in Cincinnati, Ohio. —AFP

Mexican president: Drug murders down 15-20%

MEXICO CITY: Central American migrants take a nap while waiting for a northbound freight train on the outskirts of Mexico City, Sunday.

While the number of Mexicans heading to the U.S. has dropped dramatically, a surge of Central American migrants is making the 1,000mile northbound journey this year, fueled in large part by the rising violence brought by the spread of Mexican drug cartels. —AP

MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Felipe Calderon said homicides in Mexico dropped 15 percent to 20 percent in the first six months of this year compared to the same period of 2011, according to an interview published Sunday by the Spanish newspaper El Pais. Calderon said 2011 had proved “a climactic point” in drug-related killings, though he did not cite specific figures.

“Today, violence related to rivalries between criminals is declining,” he said.

“It is higher than when I assumed the presidency, yes, but I insist it is a phenomenon that comes from the brutality and conflicts between cartels, and not precisely from the government’s actions.”

Calderon claimed in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last month that drug-related killings in Mexico had fallen

by roughly 12 percent in the first five months of this year, although he and his administration have refused to release the actual figures of drug-linked homicides since last September.

The last set of official figures showed such homicides rose 11 percent to 12,903 during the first nine months of 2011, up from 11,583 in the same period of 2010. As of the report in September, drug violence had killed more than 47,500 people since Calderon launched an offensive against Mexico’s cartels when he took office in December 2006.

Gruesome mass killings continue in parts of northern and western Mexico. In June, members of a drug cartel dumped 49 bodies without heads, hands or feet on a highway near the northern industrial city of Monterrey.—AP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

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

Berlusconi allies criticize party name change ROME: Former Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi suggested in an interview published yesterday that he will attempt a return to power - using the old party name that brought him into politics two decades ago. In an interview in Germany’s Bild newspaper, Berlusconi said he is asked “often and emphatically” to step back into the political ring.

“I can only say I won’t let my old People of Freedom Party down. We will soon return to the old party name by the way, ‘Forza Italia’ (Go Italy).”

Berlusconi came to power in 1994 using the catchy soccer chant as his

motto, and he dominated Italy’s political scene until he was forced to resign in November with the country in financial shambles and a personal legacy tarnished by sex and corruption scandals.

By yesterday afternoon, though, enough of his political allies had criticized the name change to compel Berlusconi to issue a statement backing down, saying his was just a proposal, not a solid decision by the party.

In a way it was classic Berlusconi revisionism: the interview with the name change quote was posted verbatim on his website, yet Berlusconi insisted he

had been misunderstood.

In recent days, members of Berlusconi’s inner circle have spoken openly that the media mogul would run in elections next spring. On Sunday, his onetime political heir, Angelino Alfano, essentially admitted he would step aside to make way for a new Berlusconi run. But not all party members favor Berlusconi’s return: Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, for example, noted that People of Freedom members had elected Alfano party secretary with the express intention of making him the center-right candidate in 2013 elections. In an

interview with Rome daily La Repubblica, Alemanno said a party primary would be necessary to determine if voters really are behind Berlusconi despite the scandals that continue to vex him. Even Alfano hinted that the name change was a bad idea, noting that the People of Freedom party was a beloved “project” that involved millions of Italians. In addition, the Northern League party, Berlusconi’s longtime coalition ally, no longer supports him, complicating any re-election bid.

In Italy, it’s common for political parties to change their names and

logos in a bid to reinvent themselves, even though the politicians and policies remain essentially the same.

In the Bild interview, Berlusconi said he saw his resignation as a way to allow Premier Mario Monti to use his broad support to bring about necessary changes. Monti, an economist and former European Commissioner, has raised taxes and pushed through painful reforms to the pension and labor market systems.

“I wanted to make reforms possible,” Berlusconi said. Monti has ruled out running for office when his term ends in 2013. — AP

Somali lawmaker killed, Shabaab claim attack Shabaab still threaten Mogadishu despite pressure

NYAKABANDE: Refugees are pictured at the Nyakabande refugee camp during UNHCR Assistant High Commisioner’s visit yesterday. Over 30,000 DR Congo refugees have registered in Uganda since fighting flared earlier this year, officials say. Uganda warned that fighting between the rebels and DR Congo troops risked destabilising the wider region. —AFP

UN report urges sanctions against corrupt Somali leaders NAIROBI: Corrupt leaders in war-ravaged Somalia should face immediate Security Council sanctions, a UN report said, stressing that 70 percent of state revenues were stolen or squandered. The leaked report said key leaders at the very top of government-including the president and the speaker of parliament-were mired in scandal, boosting the cause of Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab insurgents.

It called for the UN Security Council to impose sanctions “with the least possible delay ”. Somalia’s Western-funded Transitional Federal Government (TFG) ends its mandate next month, with several members hoping to remain in power afterwards. Many are accused in the report of “per vasive corruption”.

President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and parliament speaker Sharif Hassan are among leaders named in allegedly corrupt deals, the report by the UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea said.

“Out of every $10 received by the TFG in 2009-2010, $7 never made it into state coffers,” said the report, a copy of which was seen by AFP. In 2011, almost a quarter of total government expenditureover $12 million-was “absorbed” by the offices of the president, prime minister and speaker, it said. This equalled half the TFG’s domestic income and “almost as much as the government spends on security in a time of conflict,” it added. A May 2012 World Bank report found $131 million unaccounted for in TFG revenues in 2009-2010, or 68 percent of total recorded revenues, but the UN report suggested a further $40 million in 2011 could be missing.

“Many TFG officials make no distinction between public and private finances, and treat financial rules and institutions as obstacles to be circumvented or disregarded,” it said. While the Shebab have suffered a string of territorial losses in recent months, helping the government consolidate its fragile hold over the conflict-torn country, rampant corruption endangers what little gains have been made, the report said. “The systematic misappropriation, embezzlement and outright theft of public resources have essentially become a system of governance,” it said, warning corruption was “the most serious impediment to building effective governing institutions”.

A failure to address the issue threatens “the restoration of peace, security and stability”, and “would fuel continued instability and conflict, potentially reviving the fortunes of an embattled AlShebab”, it said. The report “therefore recommends that the Security Council...

consider imposing targeted measures, and possibly other forms of political censure, against the senior Somali political leaders who bear responsibility.” It also warns that the Shebab remains a “serious threat to peace, security and stability, not only in Somalia but also on the broader international scene,” despite losses and leadership rifts. The Shebab is “actively strengthening its ties with other foreign extremist groups” including Kenya’s Muslim Youth Centre (MYC) and Tanzania’s Ansaar Muslim Youth Centre (AMYC).

It warns that Kenya’s MYC “seeks to use its sanctuaries in Somalia as springboards for terrorist acts in Kenya, deploying several operational cells to Kenya in recent months for this purpose.” Kenya has seen a spate of attacks in recent months. Al-Qaeda’s endorsement of the Shebab may also boost relationships with groups including Yemen’s Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and Boko Haram in Nigeria, “both of which have engaged with Al-Shebab in the recent past.”

The report details a catalogue of examples of corruption in Somalia. In one, officials ordered a mass printing of banknotes worth $130-$150 million, in a deal negotiated by the speaker.

Described as “little better than counterfeiting” the report said the deal was to “generate a political slush fund, enable large scale corruption and finance the ambitions of certain TFG leaders to interfere with the political process.” Much of the funding from foreign aid “never reaches the Central Bank or the Treasury,” it adds.

President Sharif told UN investigators the cash was “perhaps in the pockets” of others, before “calling for more aid” because the government was struggling to pay workers their wages. Sharif was also fingered in the failure of Somalia’s new passport authority also allegedly missing $1.5 million in revenue-where fraud and corruption are rampant, posing “potential threats to regional and international security.” At least one senior Shebab leader has been issued a passport, while one of Somalia’s “most notorious pirate leaders received a diplomatic passport,” the report added.

The president told the group that pirate kingpin Mohamed Abdi Hassan “Afweyne” was given the passport as an inducement to end his criminal network.

The report also points to worrying “large scale misappropriation or diversion of lifesaving assistance” in Somalia, which is still reeling from extreme drought and famine conditions last year. —AFP

MOGADISHU: A car bomb killed a Somali lawmaker allied to the president, an official said yesterday, in an attack claimed by the al Shabaab militant group that is fighting the Western-backed government. The insurgents, who want to implement their strict interpretation of sharia (Islamic law) across Somalia, have been under increased pressure since African Union troops and Western-backed government soldiers drove them out of the capital Mogadishu last year.

Kenyan and Ethiopian troops have also attacked them in areas they control in the south and centre of the lawless Horn of Africa country. The militants have, however, still managed to launch large-scale attacks in Mogadishu. “The MP himself was driving the car. A bomb had been placed in his car without his awareness,” deputy Mogadishu Mayor Warsame Mohamed told reporters.

“The MP died. His flesh and documents are in the car,” said Mohamed, referring to Mohamud Abdi Ibrahim, who was also a former minister for humanitarian affairs and trade. Al Shabaab claimed the attack shortly afterwards. “We targeted the MP and killed him with an assassination bomb,” Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, spokesman for al Shabaab’s military operations, said. “We managed to place a bomb in his car. Government officials and those who work with them are infidels.” Mohamud was known to be close to President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. They belonged to the alliance that entered the government in 2009 through a power-sharing deal in Djibouti. — Reuters

MOGADISHU: Somalia security officials secure the scene of an explosion in Hamarweyne district of Mogadishu yesterday. The apparent car-bomb attack claimed by hardline extremist group, Al Shabab killed Somali parliamentarian, Mohamed Abdi Ibrahim and is said to have wounded six others. —AFP

Russian patriarch Kirill to visit Poland in August WARSAW: The Polish Catholic church is preparing to welcome the head of the Russian Orthodox Church to Poland in August, a visit church leaders describe as a historic step toward healing wounds between Russians and Poles. The two Slavic nations have been divided for centuries by religion, with Poles predominantly Roman Catholic and Russians largely Orthodox. Wars and occupations going back centuries have also left a legacy that still causes bitterness in political relations between the two countries.

The key moment in Patriarch Kirill’s four-day visit, from Aug. 16-19, visit will be the signing of a document appealing to Poles and Russians to forgive each other for past wrongs and injustices. “We hope it will gradually lead to reconciliation between our nations,” said Rev. Jozef Kloch, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic church in Poland. Historical feuds are based on centuries of wars and invasions. The most recent causes of bitterness include the Soviet invasion and occupation of Poland’s eastern half during World War II and Soviet domination of Poland during the Cold War. Officials said the document will be signed by Patriarch Kirill and Archbishop Jozef Michalik, the head of Poland’s conference of bishops, on Aug. 17 in Warsaw’s Royal Castle. Kloch said it is almost certainly the first such document signed by the two churches. A Russian church spokesman, Rev. Vsevolod Chaplin, said in March that discussions between Catholic and Orthodox leaders in Poland will include recent and centuries-old problems between Catholic and Orthodox Christians.

The Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches had been united until the Great Schism of 1054, which was precipitated largely by disagreements over the primacy of the pope. The Vatican and Orthodox churches have worked in recent years to try to heal the 1,000-split. They took a step forward in 2007 by agreeing that the pope has primacy over all bishops - but they could not agree on just what authority that primacy gives him.

Rev. Henryk Paprocki, a spokesman for the Orthodox church in Poland, said he did not expect the Polish-Russian document to have any influence on the larger disputes between the Orthodox church and the Vatican. Among issues causing tensions in recent years are Orthodox accusations that the Vatican has sought converts in traditionally Orthodox areas, particularly in eastern Europe.

Rome has denied those charges.

Property issues have also caused strains. Based on a 2010 Russian law on the restitution of church property, the Moscow Patriarchate has taken over hundreds of religious buildings that were never Russian Orthodox but belonged to other denominations before the 1917 Bolshevik revolution. Some of those buildings belonged to the Catholic church, and most Roman Catholic clerics in Russia and the former Soviet republics are ethnic Poles. —AP

Spanish civil servants try to march on Parliament MADRID: Firefighters, police in plainclothes and civil servants tried to march on Spain’s Parliament yesterday to protest stinging austerity measures, but were blocked by police in riot gear manning layers of metal fences protecting the legislature. Police got into shoving matches with demonstrators who numbered more than 1,000 in the latest in a series of demonstrations against deficitcutting reforms announced last week by the conservative government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Firefighters wore black helmets and some of the police who took part wore shirts identifying them as union representatives.

The austerity measures include the suspension of one of 14 paychecks most civil servants get each year - specifically, the one usually paid right before Christmas. Civil servants’ wages were already cut by an average 5 percent in 2010. All Spaniards also face higher sales tax and cuts in government spending and services starting in September as part of a whopping package designed to save euro65 billion ($79.2 billion) through 2015.

Discontent over the austerity regime was also hurting political support for Rajoy’s government. A Catalan national-

ist party called Convergence and Union, which has generally been supportive of Rajoy since he took power, said it will vote against the austerity measures when they come up Thursday for a yes or no vote, with no margin for amendments, in Parliament. Catalonia is a politically powerful but heavily indebted region of northeastern Spain centered on Barcelona.

In practice, the party’s decision will make no difference because Rajoy has an ample majority in the legislature. But it does make him more isolated. Catalan President Artur Mas said in a radio interview yesterday that the central government could take over the region’s finances, but insisted that this would be unfair because, he said, Catalonia is trying harder than other regions to get its finances in order.

Spain’s central government is itself in danger of needing a sovereign rescue like those Greece, Ireland and Portugal have taken as its borrowing rates in bond markets remain exorbitantly high. The yield, or interest rate, on its benchmark 10-year bonds was at 6.78 percent yesterday. Spain’s banks, stung by a burst real estate bubble, are already being bailed out by other eurozone countries for up to euro100 billion. —AP

TENERIFE: Dark clouds of smoke billow from a wildfire over the town of Adeje as members of the Military Unit of Emergency (UME) try to control the fire on the Spanish Canary island of Tenerife yesterday. —AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

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

Afghan teen murder spotlights growing violence against women CHARIKAR: Pressing her cheek against the fresh grave of her newly married teenage daughter, Sabera yowls as she gently smears clumps of dirt over her tear-stained face. “My daughter! Why did they kill you so brutally?” the mother screams in the sparsely filled cemetery in Parwan province, 65 km (40 miles) north of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Sabera says her daughter Tamana was killed by a relative in a socalled “honour killing”, in what officials link to a wider trend of rapidly growing violence against women in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan’s independent human rights commission has recorded 52 murders of girls and women in the last four months, 42 of which were honour killings, compared to 20 murders for all

of last year.

Activists and some lawmakers accuse President Hamid Karzai’s government of selling out to the ultraconservative Taliban, with whom it seeks peace talks, as most foreign troops prepare to leave the country by the end of 2014.

During their 1996-2001 reign, the Taliban banned women from education, voting and most work, and they were not allowed to leave their homes without permission and a male escort, rights which have been painstakingly won back. But there are signs the government is backsliding on women’s rights. Earlier this year, Karzai appeared to back recommendations from powerful clerics that stated women are worth less than men and can be beaten.

“Karzai has certainly changed, and

women’s issues are no longer a priority for him,” said outspoken female lawmaker Fawzia Koofi. Last week, Hanifa Safi, head of women’s affairs in eastern Laghman province, became the first female official to be killed this year when a bomb planted on her car exploded. A spokesman for Karzai said the government is committed to women’s rights. “Unfortunate incidents against women do occur. The government is doing what it can,” said Siamak Herawi.

Fifteen-year-old Tamana died not far from where a young woman was publicly executed for alleged adultery last month, touching off an international outcry. Tamana’s parents say she never returned from a trip to the local bakery in March, located near their home in

Parwan’s capital Charikar. The next time they saw her was one week ago, lying dead on a hospital bed. A video filmed on their mobile phone last Monday at her funeral shows the teenager’s bruised face swathed in white sheets.

“My daughter always said she wouldn’t stop studying, and would one day become important, having to travel to work in a convoy of cars,” Sabera told Reuters in her spartan living room, where flies buzzed over ruby red carpets. “But now she is under a tonne of clay,” she said, prompting her husband, retired intelligence official Abdul Fatah, to wipe a tear from his wrinkled eyes.

Tamana was forcibly married to her cousin after refusing his advances for months, they say, adding she was beat-

en and killed for being a “disobedient” wife, unable to hide unhappiness at her plight.

Reuters could not independently verify the family’s claims, but police in Charikar said they believe Tamana was intentionally poisoned, although cannot say with certainty until the results of the autopsy come later this month.

No one has been arrested over Tamana’s killing, but the alleged killer’s sister was given as a bride to Tamana’s brother as compensation, abiding by the brutal Afghan practice ‘baad’, which is widespread despite Karzai criminalising it in 2009.

She is one of eight women killed in Parwan since March including two in Bagram, home to a major US base, who were shot to death.— Reuters

Anger in India as floods leave 109 dead, 400,000 homeless PM Singh calls floods worst in recent times, promises aid

BANNU: Pakistani security personnel gather after militants attacked a police station in Bannu yesterday. —AFP

Taleban attack police in Pakistan, take hostages BANNU: Pakistani Taleban disguised in burqas attacked an office of the security force’s intelligence agency in the country’s northwest yesterday, taking several hostages before police stormed the building and ended the siege, police said. The attack took place in the city of Bannu just outside of the militant stronghold of North Waziristan in the rugged tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.

Police official Zeenatullah Khan said police cordoned off the building and exchanged fire with the attackers. The roughly five-hour siege ended after police stormed the building and rescued the hostages. Initial reports indicated that one police officer was killed in the attack, but police official Zahid Khan from Bannu said no police died.

Three were wounded, he said.

He said security forces caught two of the attackers while another was killed by police gunshots and a fourth exploded his suicide vest. The Pakistani Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack. “They are our fighters. They are fighting. There are two suicide bombers,” said Ahsanullah Ahsan, a spokesman for the Taleban .

He spoke to The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location. Bannu police chief Waqar Ahmad Khan said the attackers tried to disguise themselves as women when they entered the police building by wearing burqas, a type of cloak worn by conservative women in Pakistan that covers the face and most of the body.

Because of Bannu’s proximity to North Waziristan, militant fighters often launch attacks on Pakistani government facilities in the city and then retreat back into the tribal region where it is almost impossible for the security forces to track them. In April, Pakistani Taleban fighters broke into a prison in the city and freed close to 400 prisoners, including 20 who were considered dangerous insurgents.

Meanwhile, Pakistani health officials have launched a nationwide anti-polio vaccination drive intended to protect the country’s children from the potentially paralyzing disease. But vaccinations will not be given in the tribal

areas of North and South Waziristan after top Taleban commanders there banned the vaccinations until the US stops drone attacks in the region.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where the disease is endemic. The virus usually infects children living in unsanitary conditions, attacks the nerves and can kill or paralyze.

The government, teaming up with UN agencies, is on a nationwide campaign to give oral polio drops to 34 million children under the age of five.

This is the third of four nation-wide anti-polio vaccination campaigns scheduled for this year in Pakistan, said Michael Coleman, a communications specialist with UNICEF’s polio campaign.

But vaccination programs, especially those with international links, have come under suspicion in Pakistan ever since it became known that a Pakistani doctor ran a fake vaccination program to help the CIA track down Osama bin Laden. While it has always been difficult to reach areas such as North and South Waziristan due to security concerns, the Taleban threats in June were the first time that militants had actively campaigned against the vaccination programs.

The top health official for the Federally Administered Tribal Area, Dr. Fawad Khan, said that due to the security situation and threats to health workers, the polio campaign in South and North Waziristan has been postponed until the security situation in those areas improves.

A total of 145,000 kids in North Waziristan and 81,000 in South Waziristan were supposed to be immunized during this campaign, he said. “We will use all possible means once security situation improved to immunize children in Waziristan,” he said. “We have to protect our children.”

Coleman said there have been 23 reported cases of polio so far this year, compared to roughly 58 for the same time last year.

However, the monsoon season is approaching, and the higher temperatures, rains and displacement due to flooding can sometimes increase the disease’s transmission. —AP

PAZARBHANGA: India’s annual monsoon has claimed 109 lives since rains started in June and left at least 400,000 people homeless in the northeastern state of Assam, in a tragedy experts say was made worse by corruption and poor management of the Brahmaputra River. A senior member of the Assam Human Rights Commission, a government body, told Reuters it suspects millions of dollars meant for flood control have been siphoned off by state water department officials in the last five years. The commission has demanded a highlevel investigation by the government.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in the upper house of parliament, called the floods the worst in recent times and promised $1,800 to each victim’s family in compensation. Critics say that much of the money will evaporate. “Corruption is rampant before and after a flood,” said Arup Misra, a prominent environmental activist in the state and a professor at Assam Engineering College. “Some officials eagerly wait for floods as they could make money on repairing of embankments and relief distribution.”

Over the past 60 years successive governments have built levees along most of the length of the volatile Brahmaputra, which is Assam’s main river and is fed by Himalayan snow melt and some of the world’s heaviest rainfall. Experts say these embankments are both criminally under-maintained and a discredited form of flood management. Assam is famed as a tea-growing region and rich in oil and timber. It is also home to the Kaziranga National Park that hosts two-thirds of the world’s Great One-horned Rhinoceroses.

Nearly a decade ago, Hannan Sikdar’s father lost his home and farm to floods in Assam. On June 28, the same fate struck Sikdar and his family of 10 when the Brahmaputra b u rst through a dike and swept away their home and everything they owned in the middle of the night. Assam’s population is on the rise, and like millions of others,

Sikdar lived in a danger zone right next to the river’s mud embankment. Millions of dollars were assigned to keep levees in good shape.

But in eight years living there, Sikdar says nobody even came to talk about the risks.

“This was the place where we made our

MILANMORE: Indian residents wade through the flood waters at Milanmore village on the outskirts of Siliguri yesterday. —AFP home when my father lost his property several years ago,” said the 30-year-old, looking down at the wreckage of his bamboo and wood house from a new makeshift hut further along the embankment.

“We were never told that this embankment could break.” Rajiv Sinha, an expert on river dynamics, said the levees prevent the river from spreading silt in its natural flood plain, causing the river to clog up and increasing the frequency and intensity of floods. Similar embankments downstream in Bangladesh have also been blamed for devastating flooding.

“In the last fifty years, two things have happened-the expenditure on flood control has

type measures to natural storage areas such as swamps and wetlands. But Assam has failed to come up with any modern, long-term plan to harness the river.

Entire villages, such as the one Sikdar belonged to, have cropped up in flood-prone areas and their only layer of protection is a neglected, crumbling mud wall. As heavy rains continue, officials fear a second spell of floods soon, but victims such as Hanan Sikdar continue to live in tiny straw and tin shelters next to the broad river. “People are living in danger zones out of compulsion,” said Chandan Talukdar relief worker w ith Sikdar.

“Till alternative land is found, these people will remain on embankments.” —Reuters

News

in brief

Bus falls into Nepal river killing 16: Police KATHMANDU: A bus swerved off a road in central Nepal before dawn yesterday and plunged into a river, killing 16 people, police said the latest in a string of deadly accidents on the country’s highways. The incident came less than 24 hours after at least 39 pilgrims were killed when an overcrowded bus taking them from India to a Hindu festival in southern Nepal fell into a canal. Police said yesterday’s deaths occurred when the night-bus fell 200 metres (650 feet) down a cliff after the driver was thought to have fallen asleep. “The death toll from this morning’s bus accident in Krishnabhir has reached 16,” police sub-inspector Deep Kafle said, adding that the driver was among the dead. “Ten seriously injured are being treated in a hospital in Kathmandu.

ANDHRA: An Indian artist performs with fire during a procession of “Bonalu” festival in Hyderabad, India yesterday. Bonalu is a Hindu folk festival of the Telangana region in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. — AP

Ukraine jails two North Koreans for missile spying

SUDARIJAAL: Nepalese Hindu devotees arrive to collect water from the Bagmati river during the ‘Bol Bom’ pilgrimage at Sudarijaal, outskirts of Katmandu, Nepal yesterday. —AP

increased tremendously, and at the same time the damage caused by floods has also increased exponentially,” said Sinha, who teaches geosciences at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. Globally, flood management trends are moving away from levee-

KIEV: Ukraine has jailed two North Koreans for eight years on charges of trying to obtain sensitive missile production data, a law enforcement official said yesterday.

The sentence was issued last month and came into force in recent days after officials decided not to extradite the two back to the Stalinist state, the official told AFP. “They will serve their sentence in Ukraine,” said the official.

The Segodnya daily said the two men had admitted guilt during the trial and that their lawyer had not appealed the sentence. The agents worked under the cover of the North Korean trade mission in Minsk, capital of the neighbouring ex-

Soviet republic of Belarus, the report said. Ukraine has a vast defence industry and was an important part of the Soviet military industrial complex, producing many of the missiles and space technology used by Russia today.

Segodnya said the two spies tried to obtain data about liquid-fuelled engines and other secrets from Yuzhnoye, a designed bureau famous for coming up with the feared SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile during the Cold War. The two were arrested while trying to take photographs of sealed doctoral theses on secret missile engines in the eastern city of Dnipropetrovsk, the report said. — AFP

2 NATO troops, 3 civilians killed in Afghanistan KABUL: Two troops with the US-led international military coalition and three Afghan men died yesterday in violence in southern Afghanistan, local and NATO officials said. The Afghan men died when their car hit a roadside bomb in Spin Boldak district of Kandahar province, said provincial police chief Gen. Abdul Razaq. The coalition said the two service members were killed in an insurgent attack in the south where Afghan and international troops are trying to retain control of territory they seized during the past two years. The coalition did not disclose any more details about the deaths. So far this year, 237 international service members have been killed in Afghanistan, including at least 168 Americans. On Sunday, three Afghan women died when the tractor they were riding hit a roadside bomb in Khakrez district of Kandahar province, said district police chief Gul Jan. Sri Lanka arrests 109 on boat bound for Australia COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan navy has stopped a fishing trawler that was carrying 109 people trying to make the perilous and illegal migration to Australia. The navy’s statement says a naval patrol craft detected the “overcrowded” trawler about 25 nautical miles off the island’s eastern coast during the weekend. The boat and the 109 Sri Lankan males on it were taken to a naval base and then handed over to police. —Agencies

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

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

Detained ex-Philippine leader faces graft case MANILA: Philippine prosecutors filed a non-bailable corruption charge yesterday against former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, which she said was aimed at ensuring she remains in detention as she fights to be released on bail in a separate votetampering case. Renato Bocar, executive clerk of the special Sandiganbayan anti-graft court, said the new plunder, or high-level corruption, complaint accuses Arroyo and nine other former government officials of misuse of 365 million pesos ($8.7 million) in state lottery funds from 2008 to 2010, when she stepped down from nine turbulent years in power.

The maximum penalty for plunder is life in prison, confiscation of stolen funds and disqualification from public office for life. Arroyo’s lawyer,

Anacleto Diaz, denied the charge, saying it was an effort by President Benigno Aquino III’s administration to keep her in detention and demonize her when he delivers his annual state of the nation address next week. “This is another dark day for the rule of law,” Diaz said in a statement. Left-wing Rep. Teddy Casino, one of the complainants, said the complaint accuses Arroyo and other officials of shifting lottery money into an intelligence fund which could no longer be traced.

Arroyo, once regarded as one of Asia’s most powerful women, was arrested and placed in hospital detention last year for allegedly ordering the tampering of 2007 elections to ensure victory for her candidates in a vote-rich and violent southern Philippine

province controlled by a political ally. She has denied the vote-tampering charge and has asked a suburban Manila court to free her on bail. Although the election sabotage charge also is non-bailable, the court could grant Arroyo bail in about two weeks if it rules that the evidence against her is weak.

The vote-tampering charge was the first of a number of criminal cases filed against Arroyo by the administration of President Benigno Aquino III, who has blasted his predecessor’s leadership during years of corruption scandals, failed coup attempts and political unrest. Her trial in the votetampering case is expected to begin next month.

Aquino, the son of pro-democracy heroes, succeeded Arroyo in 2010 after winning a landslide

victory on a promise to fight widespread corruption, poverty and misrule.

Arroyo and her camp have portrayed her prosecution as a political vendetta to destroy her reputation and mask a failure by Aquino to improve the lives of Filipinos, about a third of whom live on $1 a day. The new corruption charge accuses Arroyo of conniving with officials of the Commission on Audit and the Philippines Charity Sweepstakes Office to use lottery funds “in the guise of fictitious expenditures for their personal gain and benefit,” Bocar said, citing case documents. Arroyo, 65, has been writing her memoir in a military hospital where she is detained and is being treated for a bone ailment, spokeswoman Maria Elena Bautista-Horn said.— AP

Military mentor to North Korean leader dismissed ‘Ri is out because of illness’ SEOUL: He was the guardian figure always at the side of North Korea’s young new leader. As the top army official, his experience and position lent Kim Jong Un credibility with the troops. Now, Vice Marshal Ri Yong Ho is out, dismissed from several powerful posts because of “illness,” state media said yesterday in a brief surprise announcement just days after he last appeared in public.

Ri did not appear ill in recent appearances, feeding speculation abroad that Kim purged him in an effort to put his own mark on the nation he inherited when father Kim Jong Il died in December. At the same time, there was no sign of discord at Ri’s last public appearance at a highlevel event, barely a week ago. Still, Ri’s removal, whether for health reasons or political missteps, shakes the core of the authoritarian regime’s power structure and may be a sign that Kim is tensing his grip on power, just as his father and grandfather, founding leader Kim Il Sung, did in their eras.

The decision to dismiss the 69-year-old from top military and political posts was made at a Workers’ Party meeting, convened uncharacteristically on Sunday, according to the official Korean Central News Agency. It was not immediately clear who would take Ri’s place, and the dispatch did not elaborate on his condition or future.

“Whether because of a physical malady or political sin, Ri Yong Ho is out, and Pyongyang is letting the world know to not expect to hear about him anymore,” said John Delury, an assistant pro-

fessor at Yonsei University’s Graduate School of International Studies in South Korea.

It’s too early to determine “whether Ri’s stepping down is a manifestation of civil-military tensions, or Kim Jong Un’s attempt to consolidate control” over the army, he said. North Korea’s political and military reshuffles are mysterious, with officials sometimes dropping out of sight without explanation. Many top North Korean officials-such as Vice Marshal Jo Myong Rok, who died of heart disease in 2010 at age 82 —stay in their posts until they die.

Perhaps, because Ri arrived on the national scene during Kim Jong Il’s final years, “he was always meant to be a transitional regent figure, and his function is played,” Delury said. The dismissal comes as Kim Jong Un makes waves in other ways. State TV showed him appearing at a music concert and visiting a kindergarten recently in the company of a mysterious woman who carried herself much like a first lady. Her identity has not been revealed but her public presence was a notable change from Kim Jong Il’s era, when his companions were kept out of state media.

In North Korea, the army chief has been a powerful figure since Kim Jong Il elevated the army’s role when he became leader after the 1994 death of Kim Il Sung. Kim Jong Un has upheld his father’s “songun” military-first policy, but in April he also promoted younger officials with economic backgrounds to key party positions in line with his push to build up the nation’s

PYONGYANG: This file photo taken on April 13, 2012 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (R) clapping as he attends the unveiling ceremony of two statues of former leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il in Pyongyang as North Korea’s army chief Ri Yong-Ho (2nd L) applauds with other senior members of the military. —AFP

Maldives ex-prez formally charged over judge’s arrest COLOMBO: The former president of the Maldives has been formally charged with illegally ordering the arrest of a senior judge, the move that led to the president’s ouster earlier this year. The judge’s secret arrest in January was deemed illegal because it did not follow the procedure laid down for arresting a top official, Deputy Prosecutor General Hussain Shameem said. The charge filed Sunday against former President Mohamed Nasheed carries a maximum penalty of three years’ imprisonment or banishment to a remote island.

Nasheed had ordered the military to arrest the chief judge of the country’s criminal court on accusations of political bias and corruption. The judge’s secret detention triggered weeks of unrest in the Indian Ocean archipelago known for expensive resorts. Nasheed was a pro-democracy political prisoner before becoming president in the Maldives’ first multiparty election in 2008. In the wake of the judge’s ouster, he resigned as president in February after losing the support of the military and police. He quickly insisted he was ousted in a coup, and his supporters have rallied since then for new elections. Hamid Abdul Ghafoor, a party spokesman speaking for Nasheed, said yesterday he did not expect the trial to be fair, accusing the judiciary of being corrupt and influenced by the country’s 30-year autocrat Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Nasheed’s supporters demonstrated for a sixth day Sunday demanding that new President Mohammed Waheed Hassan resign and call early elections. The protesters say their campaign would continue until they win. Hassan says he will hold elections in July 2013, the earliest time permitted by the constitution. — AP

economy. Where Ri’s departure leaves North Korea’s million-man army, one of the world’s largest, remained unanswered.

The Korean Peninsula has remained locked in a state of war and divided since a truce in 1953 ended three years of fighting. North Korea has threatened in recent months to attack South Korea’s president and Seoul’s conservative media, angry over perceived insults to its leadership and U.S.-South Korean military drills that Pyongyang says are a prelude to an invasion. A North Korean artillery attack in 2010 killed four South Koreans.

Ri was vice marshal and chief of the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army. In 2010, he was won top spots on the Central Military Commission of the Workers’ Party and the Presidium of the party’s influential Political Bureau. That boosted him to the highest political circles - along with Kim Jong Un, Kim’s uncle Jang Song Thaek and other trusted members of Kim Jong Il’s circle of advisers. Ri had been at Kim’s side since the young man emerged publicly as Kim Jong Il’s successor in 2010, often standing between father and son at major events. He was among the small group of men who accompanied Kim Jong Il’s hearse through snowy Pyongyang during the funeral procession.

In the months after Kim Jong Un took power, he accompanied the new ruler on his first trips to visit military units in a pointed show of continuity and military support as Kim sought to shore up the backing of the nation’s troops. Daniel Pinkston, a North Korea analyst at the International Crisis Group, was skeptical of the illness claim. He noted that Ri won his major promotions at a September 2010 party conference but received none in April, stirring speculation about his future.

“There’s a very high probability that it wasn’t health issues, but that he was purged,” sending a strong signal to anyone seeking to challenge Kim Jong Un - even if Ri never directly defied the new leader, Pinkston said. Ri’s departure could mean he lost a power struggle with rising star Choe Ryong Hae, the military’s top political officer tasked with supervising the army, said Koh Yuhwan, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University.

Choe, originally a Workers’ Party official, was handed several top jobs and was named a vice marshal in April. Ri had been anointed as Kim’s patron during the young man’s rise to power, Koh said. “But after Kim formally took power, Choe has emerged as No 2.” The robust, stocky Ri, who had served as chief of the General Staff since 2009, showed no sign of illness when he spoke in late April at a meeting of top officials marking the 80th anniversary of the army’s founding. He was shown in photos on July 6 chatting with Pyongyang residents and two days later joined Kim Jong Un at the Kumsusan mausoleum to pay respects to Kim Il Sung. — AP

DILI: East Timorese policemen wearing riot control gear patrol from the back of a utility vehicle on a street in Dili yesterday, a day after a protest that killed one man on the outskirts of the city. —AFP

1 killed in E Timor post-poll protests DILI: East Timorese police said yesterday one person had been killed in demonstrations that erupted after the ruling party announced that opposition party Fretilin would be excluded from a coalition government. Police confirmed that they fired warning shots and used tear gas to disperse mobs that gathered Sunday evening in the capital Dili, only minutes after a live broadcast of a National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) party conference.

“We have received information that one (person) has been killed in Hera,” a village just outside Dili, said National Police commander Longinhos Monteiro, adding that the circumstances were being investigated.

He said about 64 vehicles, including five owned by police, were damaged around Dili. He added: “A couple of people have been injured and seven houses have been burned” around the impoverished half-island nation of 1.1 million people.

At Sunday’s conference Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao’s CNRT party announced it was inviting the Democratic Party, which is part of the current government, and the smaller Frente-Mudanca into a coalition. The United Nations sees the polls and their aftermath as the last big test that will decide whether its remaining 1,300 peacekeepers and other security staff

can withdraw.

If a government is formed without any major violence the United Nations peacekeeping force plans to withdraw before the end of the year. “We’re not treating it (the violence) as a major security incident,” said Sandra McGuire, communications chief for the UN’s Integrated Mission in East Timor (UNMIT ). “ The unrest was contained by the National Police itself so that’s an indication of their ability to cope,” she said, adding that UN peacekeepers had played a “supporting role” in dealing with the violence.

CNRT’s decision to team up with the two smaller parties will keep the leftwing Fretilin, which was the second most popular party with 25 seats, in opposition for another five years. Fretilin secretary-general Mari Alkatiri condemned the violence, but said it was regrettable the CNRT ’s live broadcast included “insults and denigration of Fretilin”. “How avoidable it would all have been had such a spectacle not taken place to arouse emotions of some of our population via live TV and radio broadcast,” he said.

Formal negotiations to strike up a coalition are likely to begin once the Court of Appeal announces the final election results this week. The July 7 vote was a key test for the fragile democracy, which celebrated a decade of formal independence in May.— AFP

Over 100,000 protest nuclear power in Tokyo TOKYO: More than 100,000 antinuclear protesters marched through central Tokyo yesterday to voice their opposition to atomic power, racheting up the pressure on under fire Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. On the hottest day of the year, protesters forsook their air-conditioned homes to say the countr y does not need nuclear energy after last year’s Fukushima disaster raised concerns about the safety of atomic power.

It was the biggest demonstration since Noda said last month Japan needed to restart reactors shut down for safety checks to avoid electricity shortages that might hit the economy. “ Today temperatures reached record high levels,” Noda told Japanese television, as the city sweltered in 36.6degree Celsius. “We must ask ourselves whether we can really make do without nuclear power.” Noda has come under increasing pressure amid growing public distrust of nuclear power, and his Democratic Party of Japan party was hit last month by mass defections after he pushed through an unpopular sales tax increase.

Noda’s Democrats still control a majority in the lower house of parliament, but are outnumbered by the opposition in the upper house.

Many analysts say mid-term elections could be called. Protest organisers said 170,000 people

turned out, closing one of Tokyo’s main streets. Police estimated their number at up to 75,000, local media reported. Most demonstrators were middle aged-the constituency that has been the bedrock of support for the governments that ruled Japan during the growth years of the post-war era, powered by nuclear energy that many thought was cheap and safe.

“Japan is going to destroy itself by building nuclear plants in such an earthquake-prone country,” said one protester, who gave only his surname, Saegusa. All of the country’s 50 nuclear reactors were taken off line after last year’s earthquake and tsunami triggered the world’s worst atomic accident since Chernobyl in 1986. Nuclear power had previously supplied nearly 30 percent of Japan’s electricity. The first of two reactors operated by Kansai Electric Power Co that passed widely criticised safety checks started earlier this month and another one is due to be fired up later this month.

The decision to restart the reactors as summer power-cuts loom was seen as a victory for Japan’s still-powerful nuclear industry. But Japanese people have grown wary of nuclear power since Fukushima, with surveys showing that about 70 percent want to abandon atomic energy even if not immediately. — Reuters

FUKUOKA: A collapsed house lies in the Hoshino River in Yame City, Fukuoka prefecture yesterday following four days of torrential rainfall. Flood victims in Japan began a full-scale clean-up operation yesterday after record rainfall forced hundreds of thousands to flee and left at least 32 dead or missing. — AFP

Thai authorities kill seven drug suspects near border BANGKOK: Thai security forces killed seven suspected drug smugglers from Myanmar early yesterday in a gunbattle that was Thailand’s deadliest drug-related incident in three years, police said. Myanmar, meanwhile, reported a major seizure of methamphetamine near its border with China. UN and US drug experts say Myanmar, especially Shan state in the country’s east, is a major producer of amphetamine-type stimulants.

Thailand and China are large markets for the drug.

Thai police Maj. Gen. Surachet Thopunyanon said investigators who had been tipped off and were waiting at a border crossing for several days caught members of a drug gang as they entered Thailand’s Chiang

Rai province. He said the suspects refused to stop and a shootout ensued in which seven were killed.

Surachet said police seized 520,000 methamphetamine pills and 70 kilograms (154 pounds) of crystalline methamphetamine and are still hunting for other suspects who escaped the scene, about 735 kilometers (455 miles) north of Bangkok. Myanmar’s state-controlled Kyemon newspaper, meanwhile, said police there seized 73 kilograms (161 pounds) of crystal meth and hundreds of kilograms (pounds) of drug-making chemicals worth 3.14 billion kyat ($3.6 million) in a raid July 9 on a house in the town of Laukkai near the Chinese border.—AP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

NEWS

Relatives of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons enter Israel at the Erez border crossing yesterday to visit the prisoners for the first time in five years. — AFP

Syria war reaches a ‘turning point’

US navy fires at boat off Dubai, Indian dies

Continued from Page 1

Continued from Page 1

since the uprising broke out in March 2011 against the autocratic regime of President Bashar AlAssad.

As battles raged around Damascus for a second straight day, troops deployed armored vehicles near the historic neighborhood of Al-Midan.

“When there is fighting in the capital for several hours, even days, and troops are unable to control the situation, that proves the regime’s weak ness,” R ami Abdel R ahman of the Syrian Obser vator y for Human Rights told AFP. An activist on the ground, identifying himself as Abu Musab, said the army was trying to overrun AlMidan and called the fighting a “turning point ” in the revolt against Assad’s autocratic regime.

Activists said the army and FSA rebels had also been locked in fierce clashes since Sunday in the southern Damascus neighborhood of Tadamon, Kfar Sousa in the west and Jobar in the east.

They said the clashes were the heaviest in the capital since the March 2011 start of the uprising.

The authorities vowed yesterday they would not surrender the capital. “ You will never get Damascus,” read the headline in Al-Watan newspaper, which is close to the regime.

“Security forces, backed by the army, have for the past 48 hours been attack ing the terrorist groups as they try to pull back to

distric ts on the outsk ir ts,” the paper said.

A resident of nearby Jaramana said the area was like a “war zone.”

Activists said residents were fleeing Tadamon, with many seeking shelter in the nearby Yarmuk Palestinian refugee camp, as the opposition Syrian National Council accused the regime of transforming Damascus into “battlefields.”

Rebel-held districts of the central city of Homs, which has been under siege for months, were bombarded yesterday, according to the Observatory, which reported 10 people including four civilians and six rebels killed nationwide.

In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross sounded a note of alarm, saying Syria is in a state of all-out civil war and that all sides must respect humanitarian law or risk facing war crimes prosecutions. “Each time there is fighting we can see conditions that can be defined as a non-international armed conflict,” ICRC spokesman Alexis Heeb told AFP, adding “international humanitarian law applies” in such circumstances.

The latest violence comes as diplomatic pressure builds ahead of a key Security Council vote on Friday to decide if the 300-strong UN Supervision Mission in Syria (UNSMIS) will be renewed.

The unarmed obser vers are tasked with overseeing implementation of a six-point peace plan brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan which has been flouted daily since mid-April when

it was to have gone into effect.

Speak ing ahead of talks with Annan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the West of trying to “blackmail” Moscow to get its backing for possible sanctions against Syria. “To our great regret, we are witnessing elements of blackmail,” said Lavrov, adding that it was “unrealistic” for Moscow to back calls for Assad to step down as the population supports him.

“It is simply unrealistic... he will not leave power. And this is not because we are protecting him but because there is a very significant part of the Syrian population behind him.”

Annan is in Moscow for talks with Lavrov and President Vladimir Putin while UN chief Ban Ki-moon is due in Beijing today, also on a mission to get support for tougher action on Syria.

Lavrov stressed Russia’s belief in “the importance of continuing the activities of the UN in Syria” in a telephone conversation with Ban, the foreign ministry in Moscow said in a statement. Russia and China have twice blocked resolutions against Syria at the Security Council which is divided over Western calls to pile new sanctions on Damascus. The diplomatic moves come after Syria denied its troops carried out a massacre in the central village of Treimsa, where ac tivists said dozens of people were slaughtered on Thursday by troops and pro regime militiamen. — Agencies

Opposition announces ‘declaration...

Continued from Page 1 Speakers at the gathering also sent important messages to the government.

Former opposition MP Mohammad Al-Khalifa warned that the opposition will boycott the forthcoming elections if the government changed the voting system and “will start peaceful protests”.

Addressing the ruling family, Khalifa said that some of them are saying that late Amir Sheikh Abdullah Al-Salem reduced their powers by introducing the constitution but “I say that he protected you”.

Khalfia said that to achieve social and political justice, there should be a single constituency where all Kuwaiti voters have equal rights, adding that Kuwait is protected from the Arab Spring protests by the 1962 constitution.

A member of the scrapped 2012 assembly, Faisal AlYahya said that after 50 years of issuing the constitution, it had not been fully implemented. He said that Kuwait is at an important juncture that requires a civilized transformation to adopt a full parliamentary system and an elected government.

“I tell the decision-making Sheikhs that the governance is yours and the supremacy is for the people who are the source of the authority,” said Yahya, adding that there are attempts to dismantle the state institutions.

“I tell the regime that you have forged parliamentary elections, dissolved parliament on several occasions and paid bribes. Isn’t it time to make a compromise with the constitution?” he said.

Yahya held senior members of the ruling family

responsible for the deterioration of the country’s affairs.

He called for the ruling family to strike a “compromise with the people who are very loyal to you. We are not against the ruling family, but against total control”.

Earlier, the liberal National Action Bloc issued what they called a “national salvation document” in which they urged wide-ranging reforms with regards to the National Assembly, the government and in the country’s democracy but fell short of calling for a constitutional monarchy.

In its document, the bloc, which has five MPs in the National Assembly, called on the next National Assembly to swiftly pass anti-corruption laws especially the establishment of a corruption fighting authority.

It also called for establishing an ethics committee in the National Assembly that would monitor the practices of MPs, urged passing a law to legalize political parties in Kuwait and laws to amend the election law, set up an independent election commission and to organize election campaign and funding.

The document called for issuing laws that would guarantee more independence for the judiciary, laws for human rights, forbidding hatred and consolidating national unity, in addition to economic and administrative reform laws to liberalize the national economy.

The bloc said that amendments to the constitution need a consensus between MPs and the Amir, which is not available now. With regards to the government, the document called for changing the parameters of selecting the cabinet members who should be true statesmen, adding that more popular participation should be achieved in the cabinet.

“The USNS Rappahannock used a series of non-lethal, preplanned responses to warn the vessel before resorting to lethal force,” it said. “The US crew repeatedly attempted to warn the vessel’s operators to turn away from their deliberate approach,” it added.

“When those efforts failed to deter the approaching vessel, the security team on the Rappahannock fired rounds from a .50-calibre machine gun.”

The US navy has been building up its forces in the oil-rich region amid mounting tensions with Iran over its controversial nuclear program. Tehran has warned it could close the Strait of Hormuz in the southern Gulf if international sanctions begin to bite, potentially disrupting shipping and world oil

supplies through the strategic waterway.

Washington has deployed two aircraft carriers to the region-the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Enterprise-and doubled its minesweeper fleet in the area from four to eight ships on June 23.

And yesterday, the Pentagon confirmed that it had brought forward the deployment of a third strike group, led by the carrier USS John-Stennis, by four months in order to further bolster its presence. The deployment aims to warn off Iran over its threats to mine the narrow strait through which about a fifth of the world’s traded oil passes. In October 2000, 17 US sailors were killed when militants in an explosives-laden skiff blew a 30-by-30-foot (10-by-10metre) hole in the USS Cole in Aden. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack. — AFP

Labor union sees ‘hidden agenda’ behind...

Continued from Page 1 service are but examples of arbitrary decisions taken without showing any real intention to save the KAC”, added the sources, noting that wasting fortunes for maintaining such an old fleet had been costing KAC a loss of over KD 80 million a year.

Al-Sawwagh added that the best solution would be to take a few aircraft on lease to avoid major losses that may result from cancelling flights and routes and buying new aircraft. Meanwhile, a KAC press release said that the KAC was keen on restoring its reputation as a national carrier every citizen is proud of. “Too many accusations have been directed at KAC’s administration, though nobody is showing any serious interest in salvaging the national carrier’s

reputation,” said the statement. It said the real problem lay in the lack of cooperation between the government, the parliament and the KAC auditors. The statement also noted that the parliament had stopped approving KAC’s annual balance-sheets since 2005.

“How can an airline develop and upgrade its fleet without a budget. We have been working with a fleet of 17 aircraft that is way past its operational life. We have to either rent or buy new aircraft”, the statement added noting that the parliament had rejected a deal with ALAFCO to buy new planes in 2007.

The KAC statement also alleged that many lawmakers had been pressuring the airline to overstaff it with ‘unnecessary employees’, promote select employees and give more privileges to others.

UAE ARRESTS FOUR AFTER PLOT REPORTS Continued from Page 1 Authorities remain concerned that the growing influence of Islamists in post-revolutionary Egypt and Tunisia could embolden Islamist groups at home.

On Sunday, the state news agency WAM said prosecutors had ordered the arrest of a group that aimed to commit crimes against state security and challenge the constitution. It said the group was “subordinate to foreign organizations and agendas”.

The brother of Khaled Al-Shiba, one of the men arrested following that announcement, said he believed his sibling had been targeted for his links to Islah, echoing the comments of others who said their relatives had been detained.

The UAE last year stripped seven Islah members of their citizenship, saying they posed a threat to national security and were of non-Emirati origin.

Another of the arrested men, Abdul Rahman Al-Hadidi, was questioned and detained by security officials at Sharjah airport on Sunday night on his way to Saudi Arabia to perform the pilgrimage to Makkah, his wife told Reuters.

“We were going to the Umrah (pilgrimage) with our daughters and they stopped us at immigration. Then they took my husband and locked him inside a room and started questioning him,” Hadidi’s wife Badriya said by phone. “Then security officials confiscated his mobile phone and took him away.”

Activist said Hadidi was involved with Islamist groups.

Rashed Al-Shamsi, also affiliated with Islah, was arrested by security officers who searched his residence in Dubai early yesterday, a relative said.

Activists said as many as seven people with Islamist connections had been arrested since the WAM report. It was not clear whether all of those were UAE nationals. Relatives of three other people said to have been detained could not immediately be reached for comment.

The arrests are the latest in what activists describe as a crackdown on political opposition in general, and Islamists in particular. Some of the people detained over the past year had demanded greater power for the Federal National Council. Islamists in the UAE say their ideology is similar to that of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt but deny any organizational links.

Analysts say Islamists are aiming to tap into unease

among UAE’s largely conservative citizens at having become a minority in their own country, most of whose 8 million people are foreign workers.

The economic boom in Abu Dhabi and Dubai has given the seven-member UAE an average per capita annual income of $48,000, but has also brought what some see as unwelcome Western influence.

The London-based Emirates Center for Human Rights said activist Ahmed Abdul Khaleq was deported on a Comoros Islands passport arranged by UAE authorities in the first such banishment by the country. He is among a group of activists whose citizenship has been revoked by UAE officials after they campaigned for reforms.

Khaleq’s website included appeals for a greater public voice in affairs of the UAE, which bans political parties and allows only hand-picked voters to cast ballots for a national advisory assembly.

He was among five political activists - including an economics professor who frequently lectured at Abu Dhabi’s branch of the Sorbonne university - who were convicted last year of anti-state crimes after signing an online petition calling for a greater public role in politics. They were later freed by a presidential order, but the charges against them were not officially dropped.

It was unclear whether the UAE would seek further deportations. UAE officials had no immediate comment.

Khaleq’s mobile phone number was inactive.

On Sunday, the Abu Dhabi public prosecutor said it was investigating a group suspected of plotting “to commit crimes against state security.” No further details have yet emerged, but activist groups say at least seven UAE citizens have been taken into custody.

Earlier this year, at least eight people, including a member of the ruling family of the emirate Ras Al-Khaimah, were detained for suspected links to the Islamist group Al-Islah, or Reform. It advocates a greater public role in the country’s decisions and emphasizes the need to retain strong Muslim traditions in a place where foreigners greatly outnumber native-born Emiratis. Dubai’s police chief, Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has repeatedly raised alarms about the growing influence of Islamist groups, including factions inspired by Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, which has won the country’s presidency and dominated the now-dissolved parliament. — Agencies

14

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

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Issues

Eritrea reduces support for Al-Shabaab: UN

By Aaron Maasho ritrea has reduced its support for the Al-Qaedaallied Al-Shabaab militant group in Somalia under international pressure, but still violates UN Security Council resolutions and remains a destabilizing influence, a UN report says. The UN Monitoring Group on Somalia and Eritrea, which investigates violations of an arms embargo on both nations, said in a report to the Council, seen by Reuters, that it had found no evidence of direct Eritrean support for Al-Shabaab in the last year.

The Council imposed the embargo on the tiny east African state of Eritrea in 2009 over concerns its government was providing finance and weapons to Al-Shabaab - charges Asmara denied. The Monitoring Group now says that support has evaporated.

This was “a symptom of growing friction between the authorities in Asmara and al Shabaab’s leadership” as well as the “result of enhanced international scrutiny, which has made direct support ... a much riskier undertaking than in the past”, said the report, which is scheduled to be published this week. “Although it is possible that the Eritrean authorities have continued to provide financial and other forms of assistance to (Somali) armed opposition groups, without their activities being detected, it is the Monitoring Group’s assessment that any such assistance is negligible,” the report said.

Instead, the panel presented evidence that Asmara deployed Ethiopian rebel groups via Somalia, sold weapons to smuggling rings in Sudan that do business with Palestinian arms dealers, and imported spare parts for its air force. The report also alleged that ethnic Afar rebels responsible for the killing of five European tourists in eastern Ethiopia in January were hosted and trained in Eritrea, though there was no evidence the Red Sea state had a direct role in the killings. It said the escape last year of Djiboutian prisoners of war held in Eritrea proved Asmara had violated a UN resolution calling on it to disclose information on their whereabouts after their capture following a border clash in 2008. “Eritrea has failed to comply with Security Council resolutions and remains a destabilizing influence across much of the region,” the report said.

The Red Sea state has previously rejected these allegations and has called for the replacement of the panel’s members over what it calls their bias in favor of its archfoe Ethiopia. Eritrean envoys to the AU declined to comment specifically on the latest UN report.

Al-Shabaab has controlled much of southern Somalia since 2007, imposing a strict version of Islamic law in areas under its control. But over the last year it has been forced out of the Somali capital Mogadishu and other parts of the south by the coordinated military operations of U.N.-backed African troops.

Last year, the Monitoring Group alleged Eritrea was behind a failed plot to bomb an African Union summit in Ethiopia, had bankrolled known members of Al-Shabaab in Kenya and had been involved in the smuggling of weapons through Sudan and Egypt.

As a result, the Council prolonged the arms embargo and assets freeze on Eritrea, in addition to a travel ban on some officials, amid an escalation in operations against Al-Shabaab by AU, Kenyan and Ethiopian troops and their Somali allies. Matthew Bryden, the Monitoring Group’s coordinator, told Reuters that Eritrea was lobbying its allies at the Security Council to push for a removal of the arms embargo, but he said other Council members were reluctant to do this.

“We’re trying to make the case that any improvement in Eritrea’s conduct is the result of sanctions, and that it’s too early to lift them because of the other violations they have committed,” Bryden said.

Earlier this month, the US Treasury Department issued sanctions against Colonels Tewolde Habte Negash and Teame Abraham Goitom, two senior Eritrean military officers Washington says have worked closely with AlShabaab in the past. Diplomats at the UN say the US move against the two officers, who have not been subject to full Security Council sanctions, suggests that Eritrea will face sustained pressure from the United States and its allies in the Council. Eritrean officials routinely deny involvement in Somalia and say the Council embargo decision was based on “fabricated lies” made up by the U.S. government and its ally Ethiopia.

In a letter obtained by Reuters in December, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh accused the UN panel of bias and urged the Council’s chair to establish an “independent, impartial and credible body”.— Reuters

E

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GSK bolsters medicine chest with biotech buy

By Ben Hirschler laxoSmithKline chief executive Andrew Witty has an eye for a bargain. Despite paying a 99 percent premium for Human Genome Sciences, he is still getting the biotechnology company for less than half what it was worth 14 months ago. In exchange for his $3 billion cheque, which GSK can pay out of existing cash resources, Witty gets full control of a clutch of new medicines finally starting to flow from the decoding of human DNA. The two highest profile drugs, lupus treatment Benlysta and darapladib for heart disease, both have the potential to move the dial significantly for Britain’s biggest drugmaker, if they deliver on their promise. For Witty, who has eschewed large-scale acquisitions in favor of smaller bolt-ons, the opportunity to buy Human Genome while the stock was down in the dumps was too good to miss.

He and his predecessors have certainly bided their time-GSK first began working with Human Genome in 1993 when the US biotech firm was one of first to try and exploit the mapping of all the genes in the body.

The mission of the Rockville, Maryland-based company has been to isolate genes and identify their function to develop new drugs. Realizing that goal has proved a long haul.

Gaining 100 percent of Benlysta, the first new drug for the autoimmune disease lupus in 50 years, is GSK’s most obvious win as it will no longer have to give half the profit to its partner and can also

G

cut costs by doing away with separate sales forces. “Benlysta is going to be a big winner and GSK is going to make a lot of money from it,” said Mark Evans, a fund manager at Taube Hodson Stonex, a leading investor in Human Genome with a 5.5 percent stake. Evans, also a holder of GSK, thinks Witty has got himself a great deal.

Benlysta first went on sale last year and analysts have said it launch has been slow-the main reason for the 75 percent

GSK has always expected sales to ramp up gradually and, longer term, the medicine could get a fresh impetus with the development of a more convenient under-the-skin version. Benlysta also has potential to treat some other rare diseases. Industry analysts, on average, expected Benlysta to have annual sales of $2.3 billion by 2016, according to Thomson Reuters Pharma. A year or so ago, the market expectation was $3-$4 billion. Darapladib is far more of a wild

fall in Human Genome’s share price prior to GSK’s initial takeover approach in April.

Despite the market’s pessimism, GSK has not changed its internal forecasts for the intravenous drug which sells for $35,000 a year in the United States.

card. On paper, it is the biggest ticket item in the Human Genome pipeline, with up to $10 billion annual sales potential, according to Deutsche Bank.

But GSK-already in charge of developing the drug and which has a dominant economic interest of around 75 percent-

will not find out if it actually works until it gets results of pivotal clinical trials in 2013 or 2014.

Many analysts have not yet entered sales forecasts for darapladib into their models. Their caution has been underlined by the failure of past experimental drugs from Pfizer and Roche that have tried to tackle heart disease in new ways.

A third Human Genome-derived drug, albiglutide, for type 2 diabetes, looks likely to make it to market by early 2014, after GSK-which is also in control of this project-said last week it would seek approval to market the drug from regulators early next year.

Albiglutide belongs to the same class of injectable GLP-1 medicines as Novo Nordisk’s Victoza and Amylin Pharmaceuticals’ Bydureon and Byetta.

Analyst forecasts point to modest annual sales for the newcomer of around $292 million by 2016, given the growing competition in the diabetes space.

Further back in development, Human Genome also has an experimental drug called rilapladib in mid-stage Phase II testing for Alzheimer’s disease, a notoriously difficult area of drug development.

Products rather than people are the main driver for this deal and, analysts believe, many staff at Human Genome will likely lose their jobs, though a number of respected scientists will probably be retained. Human Genome had sales last year of $131 million, including $52.3 million from Benlysta and $52.5 million from deliveries of anthrax treatment raxibacumab to the US Strategic National Stockpile. It made a net loss in 2011 of $381 million.— Reuters

S Africa beaming at Dlamini-Zuma’s victory

By Susan Njanji outh Africa yesterday claimed a major diplomatic vic tor y as Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma won the hotly contested race to lead the African Union Commission. The win is seen to boost South Africa’s foreign policy goal of establishing itself as the continent’s voice.

Dlamini-Zuma beat the incumbent, Jean Ping of Gabon, in a closely fought election over several rounds of voting late Sunday, in what some observers took as a diplomatic coup on the French-speaking regions of Africa.

It is a “huge diplomatic victory” for the country, the region and the continent because South Africa’s foreign policy is keyed into the “pursuit of the African agenda... and the promotion of human rights and democracy, good governance”, said South African foreign ministr y spokesman Clayson Monyela. Alex Vines of the British think-tank Chatham House saw the election of the seasoned diplomat as “highly significant”.

“It strengthens South Africa’s continental efforts to position” itself as a leader in Africa, said Vines.

Others however consider the win as a breach of an unwritten tradition that continental powerhouses do not field candidates for the top AU post, but leave smaller nations to take the job. But her election “sets a precedent now for big African states to compete in the future for this position-such as Egypt and Nigeria, (which) as South Africa have an eye on a Security Council seat through UN reform,” Vines said.

Before the vote Dlamini-Zuma, who has refused to be tagged an “English-

S

speaking candidate” running against the French-speaking Ping, had played down concerns that the vote could divide the AU. “I don’t think the continent will be

polarized,” she said. But analysts insist fissures already exist between regions in the pan-African body, while other parts of the continent don’t really see themselves as

ADDIS ABABA: South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma (right) leaves from her meeting yesterday during the 19th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa. — AFP

belonging to Africa. “She will face major challenges of unifying the African Union,” said Dirk Kotze of the University of South Africa.

“Regions in Africa play a key role in the AU in resolving conflicts. Egypt on the other hand is closer to the Middle East than the AU,” said Kotze. Vines said “Dlamini-Zuma will have to focus on rebuilding relationships, especially with a number of francophone African states”.

Monyela believes the new AU Commission chief “will take Africa forward, will unite the continent.” The new job also “presents South Africa with an opportunity to establish Africa as a proponent of value-driven international relations, based on the principles of democracy and human rights,” according to South Africa’s main opposition par ty, the Democratic Alliance. Back home, President Jacob Zuma, who faces a party leadership vote in December-and who is Dlamini-Zuma’s ex-husband-is likely to ride on his former wife’s victory “domestically to demonstrate his leadership,” said Vines. The women’s league of the ruling African National Congress said she will forge ahead the struggle for gender equality on the continent. Her election as the first woman to head the organization “speaks volumes for the gains made in fighting patriarchy on the African continent,” said the league. On the streets, Johannesburg-based Zimbabwean Derek Mtambo, 32, a freight broker, thinks “politically, she’s going to mould Africa, I’m very confident.”

“She’s going to look at some hotspots... for example, the Zimbabwean crisis. She will tackle that one definitely,” Mtambo said. — AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

sp orts Clarke: Lytham is brutal

Cooper to miss playoff

Italians in fixing scandal

LYTHAM: Defending champion Darren Clarke echoed the sentiments of former world number one Tiger Woods when he described the rough at this week’s British Open as “absolutely brutal” yesterday.

“The grass is quite thick,” the 43-year-old Clarke told reporters as the rain lashed down at the Lytham and St Annes venue. “It’s not quite what we would expect on a links course. It’s a little bit thicker than what you normally find.

“It’s really tough - if you start spraying the ball around this week you might as well go home.

There are a few patches out there where it’s just absolutely brutal.” American Woods was similarly taken aback when he played a practice round at the Lancashire links course on Sunday. “I’ve never seen the rough this high or thick and dense,” said the three-times British Open champion.

“You can’t get out of it. That bottom six inches, in some places, is almost unplayable.” Clarke, who has struggled badly for form since winning his first major at Sandwich last year, believes there will be plenty of lost balls this week. — Reuters

BRISBANE: Queensland Reds flyhalf Quade Cooper will miss Saturday’s Super Rugby playoff against South Africa’s Sharks in Brisbane after it was ruled he had committed a dangerous tackle last weekend, governing body SANZAR said yesterday.

The Australia international was sent to the sinbin and cited for a high tackle on New South Wales Waratahs back Berrick Barnes during the 32-16 victory which secured the defending champion’s place in the playoffs. The mercurial flyhalf was the subject of a SANZAR judicial hearing on Monday, following which he was suspended for a week. “Whilst in the process of a tackle on Berrick Barnes, there was principle contact with the chest but also with the neck such as to make the tackle dangerous in contravention of Law 10.4(e),” SANZAR said in a statement. “...It is also a matter of significance that the SANZAR rules allow consideration be given to the importance of games to be played during the Super Rugby finals series and as such, this has been taken into account as a mitigating circumstance.

“It follows that Quade Cooper is suspended from all forms of Rugby for one week up to and including July 21.” Cooper’s absence is a huge blow to the Reds, who are now likely to move placekicker Mike Harris across from inside centre to take the number 10 shirt against the Sharks. —Reuters

ROME: Italian players Andrea Ranocchia and Domenico Criscito have been questioned by prosecutors who are investigating the match-fixing scandal.

Ranocchia, an Inter Milan defender, is under investigation for suspicion of wrongdoing while playing with Bari during the 2009-10 season.

The 24-year-old Ranocchia emerged from the 50-minute questioning by the Italian football federation prosecutors, saying only that “everything’s OK.” Criscito’s hearing lasted an hour and a half.

Criscito was dropped from Italy’s European Championship squad after police interrogated him at the national team’s training headquarters shortly before the start of the tournament. He plays for Zenit St. Petersburg and is suspected of alleged wrongdoing while at Genoa. The defender was questioned specifically about Genoa’s game at Lazio in May 2011, which finished in a 4-2 win to Lazio. At least 50 people have been arrested during a yearlong investigation into scandal.

Antonio Conte, who coached Juventus to the Serie A title last season, has also been questioned about his alleged wrongdoing while in charge of Siena in 2010-11. — AP

MLB results/standings LA Angels 10, NY Yankees 8; Toronto 3, Cleveland 0; Washington 4, Miami 0; Atlanta 6, NY Mets 1; Detroit 4, Baltimore 0; Boston 7, Tampa Bay 3; Milwaukee 4, Pittsburgh 1; Chicago White Sox 2, Kansas City 1; Oakland 9, Minnesota 4; Chicago Cubs 3, Arizona 1; Philadelphia 5, Colorado 1; San Francisco 3, Houston 2; San Diego 7, LA Dodgers 2; Texas 4, Seattle 0; Cincinnati 4, St. Louis 2.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT GB NY Yankees 54 34 .614 Baltimore 46 42 .523 8 Tampa Bay 46 43 .517 8.5 Boston 45 44 .506 9.5 Toronto 45 44 .506 9.5 Central Division White Sox 49 39 .557 46 43 .517 3.5 Detroit Cleveland 45 43 .511 4 Kansas City 38 49 .437 10.5 Minnesota 36 52 .409 13 Western Division Texas 54 35 .607 49 40 .551 5 LA Angels Oakland 46 43 .517 8 Seattle 37 53 .411 17.5

National League Eastern Division Washington 51 35 .593 Atlanta 49 39 .557 3 NY Mets 46 43 .517 6.5 Miami 42 46 .477 10 Philadelphia 39 51 .433 14 Central Division Cincinnati 50 38 .568 49 39 .557 1 Pittsburgh St. Louis 46 43 .517 4.5 Milwaukee 42 46 .477 8 Chicago Cubs 36 52 .409 14 Houston 33 56 .371 17.5 Western Division San Francisco 49 40 .551 .533 1.5 LA Dodgers 48 42 Arizona 42 46 .477 6.5 San Diego 36 54 .400 13.5 Colorado 34 54 .386 14.5

Angels hold on for win over Yankees NEW YORK: Kevin Jepsen got Alex Rodriguez to pop out with the bases loaded in the ninth inning as the Los Angeles Angels took advantage of New York’s baserunning follies to beat the Yankees 10-8 Sunday. With seemingly no lead safe recently at Yankee Stadium, Mark Teixeira hit a two-run homer off Ernesto Frieri to make it 10-7 in the ninth.

After a walk to Nick Swisher, Scott Downs relieved with a 1-0 count to Raul Ibanez. Ibanez knocked the glove off Downs and reached for an infield single.

Andruw Jones struck out, Russell Martin had a fielder’s choice and Derek Jeter walked to load the bases. Downs then walked Curtis Granderson to make it 10-8 before Jepsen came on and retired Rodriguez for his first save since 2009, helping the Angels avoid their first threegame sweep in New York since 1995.

Albert Pujols and Erick Aybar hit consecutive home runs off Ivan Nova (10-4) in the first inning for Los Angeles. The American League rivals combined for eight homers on an ideal day for the long ball.

Tigers 4, Orioles 0 At Baltimore, Justin Verlander returned to form after his uncharacteristic start in the All-Star game, allowing three hits in eight innings to carry Detroit over Baltimore.

Verlander (10-5) struck out eight and walked two in his first appearance since yielding five runs in one inning for the AL in an 8-0 loss Tuesday. Jose Valverde worked the ninth to complete the fourhitter. Austin Jackson and Miguel Cabrera homered for the Tigers, who took two of three from the Orioles.

Detroit has won seven of eight overall.

Red Sox 7, Rays 3 At St. Petersburg, Florida, Josh Beckett pitched six effective innings and Will Middlebrooks had a key two-run single to lead Boston past Tampa Bay. Beckett (5-7) allowed three runs - all in the first - and eight hits. The right-hander struck out seven and walked two while stopping a personal six-start winless streak. Boston went ahead 6-3 in the fifth when Daniel Nava homered and Middlebrooks singled in a pair of runs against James Shields (8-6), who has allowed double-digits hits in four consecutive starts.

White Sox 2, Royals 1 At Kansas City, Missouri, Chris Sale scattered a season-high 10 hits over eight innings and Adam Dunn homered for the third consecutive game, pushing Chicago over Kansas City.

Sale (11-2) allowed one run, struck out four and walked none, improving to 8-0 with a 1.61 ERA in 10 starts since his last loss on May 12 against Kansas City. The All-Star left-hander lowered his season ERA to 2.11, second in the American League.

Dunn, who leads the league with 28 home runs, drilled a 2-0 pitch from Luis Mendoza (3-6) just inside the right-field pole for a solo shot in the first inning.

Alex Rios scored when Alexei Ramirez grounded into a double play in the second. Chris Getz had an RBI single for Kansas City.

Athletics 9, Twins 4 At Minneapolis, Yoenis Cespedes had his first career four-hit game, including a homer and three RBIs, as Oakland completed a three-game series sweep of Minnesota. Jonny Gomes, Chris Carter and Seth Smith also homered for the A’s, who have won nine of 11 to climb back into the wild-card conversation in the American League. Jarrod Parker (6-4) gave up four runs and nine hits in six innings. Gomes finished with three hits and two RBIs. Rangers 4, Mariners 0 At Seattle, Matt Harrison tossed a fivehitter and Adrian Beltre had three hits and two RBIs as Texas won for the fourth time in five games spanning the All-Star break. Harrison’s 12th win kept him even with Tampa Bay’s David Price for the most in the American League and continued his streak against the Mariners.

Harrison (12-4) has won eight straight starts against Seattle and is 5-0 at Safeco Field. It was Harrison’s second shutout of the season and No. 4 for his career. Ian Kinsler hit his 10th homer of the season on the first pitch of the fifth inning by Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma (1-2).

Mariners rookie Jesus Montero singled in the first inning to snap a 0-for-23 winless streak.

Blue Jays 3, Indians 0 At Toronto, Carlos Villanueva struck out a career-best eight batters in six innings and Jose Bautista had two hits for Toronto.

Making his third start of the season after working in relief for much of the year, Villanueva (4-0) allowed three hits and walked five as the Blue Jays earned their first series win since taking two of three at Miami from June 22-24.

Jason Frasor worked the seventh and Darren Oliver pitched the final two innings for his first save as the Blue Jays wrapped up their seventh shutout of the season. —AP

NEW YORK: Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez reacts after popping out with the bases loaded in the bottom of the ninth inning of the Yankees’ 10-8 loss to the Los Angeles Angels. —AP

Nationals defeat Marlins MIAMI: Stephen Strasburg pitched six scoreless innings and drove in a run for the Washington Nationals in a 4-0 win over the Miami Marlins on Sunday.

Strasburg (10-4) allowed six hits and struck out seven. Steve Lombardozzi, Michael Morse, and Danny Espinosa also drove in a run for the Nationals. The Marlins were 1 for 13 with runners in scoring position as they were shut out for the ninth time this season.

Nationals reliever Tyler Clippard loaded the bases in the ninth with no outs, but retired the next three batters. Omar Infante flew out to Bryce Harper in foul territor y to end the game as Harper collided with second baseman Lombardozzi.

Marlins starter Ricky Nolasco (8-7) did not allow a hit until the fifth inning when Morse led off with a single to left. Strasburg and Lombardozzi followed with two-out RBI singles.

Reds 4, Cardinals 2 At Cincinnati, Scott Rolen hit a tiebreaking two-run single in the eighth inning, sending Cincinnati to a victor y and three -game sweep of St. Louis.

The Reds’ sixth straight win matched their best surge of the season, moved them a seasonhigh 12 games over .500, and jumped them a game ahead of Pittsburgh for the NL Central lead.

St. Louis fell 41/2 games back.

Rolen’s two-out single off Mitchell Boggs snapped a 2-all tie and provided a satisfying moment for the 37-year-old third baseman, limited by a bad shoulder and back. Jake Westbrook (78) set up the rally with a walk, a wild pitch and a hit batter.

Braves 6, Mets 1 At Atlanta, Ben Sheets pitched six scoreless innings in his first game in two years as Atlanta beat New York for its season-high sev-

enth straight victory.

Freddie Freeman hit a threerun homer in a six-run fifth inning and Sheets (1-0) allowed two hits and one walk with five strikeouts in his first start since July 19, 2010. The Mets have lost four straight and seven of 10. Atlanta improved to a season-high 10 games over .500.

homer and fifth in the past four games. John Axford pitched the ninth for his 16th save. Burnett (10-3) had his career-high ninegame winning streak ended.

Cubs 3, D’backs 1 At Chicago, Darwin Barney homered and Matt Garza threw seven shutout innings to lift

outs for his 10th save. He allowed a pair of baserunners, but struck out Geoff Blum and got Gerardo Parra on a comebacker to end it.

Aaron Hill hit his 12th homer in the eighth for Arizona.

Phillies 5, Rockies 1 At Denver, Cole Hamels allowed one run over eight innings and Hunter Pence hit a three-run homer as Philadelphia beat Colorado for its first series victory in nearly a month.

Hamels (11-4), making his 100th career road start, allowed six hits and had seven strikeouts in his first win in three career outings at Coors Field. Antonio Bastardo finished up with a 1-2-3 ninth.

MIAMI: Washington Nationals’ Stephen Strasburg pitches against the Miami Marlins in the first inning of a baseball game. —AP

Giants 3, Astros 2 At San Francisco, Buster Posey had three hits and two RBIs to back Matt Cain as San Francisco finished a three -game series sweep of Houston.

Cain (10-3) gave up two runs, one earned, and five hits in 6 1-3 innings in his first start against Houston since he threw a perfect game against the Astros on June 13. The Giants won despite being without their best hitter. Melky Cabrera took a temporary leave to attend the birth of his child in Florida.

Santiago Casilla retired two batters for his 23rd save. Marwin Gonzalez had two hits and scored Houston’s only run. The Astros fell to 1-10 in July.

Chicago to a three-game sweep of Arizona.

Barney sent a Trevor Cahill pitch into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer in the second inning to help Chicago match a season high with its fourth straight win. Garza (5-7) held Arizona to five hits and one walk, striking out seven en route to his first win in July.

Carlos Marmol got the last two

Padres 7, Dodgers 2 At Los Angeles, Chase Headley homered for the second straight game as San Diego scored six unearned runs. Cameron Maybin and Everth Cabrera scored the tying and go-ahead runs on third baseman Jerry Hairston Jr.’s second throwing error of the seventh inning. Jason Marquis (2-5) allowed two runs and six hits in six innings for San Diego. —AP

Brewers 4, Pirates 1 At Milwaukee, Yovani Gallardo struck out a career-high 14 batters in seven innings as Milwaukee used a four-run sixth to beat Pittsburgh. Gallardo (8-6) gave up four hits, including Andrew McCutchen’s homer in the fourth. AJ Burnett’s ninegame winning streak ended.

McCutchen, who had three of the Pirates’ five hits, hit his 21st

India invite Pakistan for first series in five years NEW DELHI: Indian cricket chiefs yesterday said they had invited Pakistan for a series later this year, their first in five years, in a further sign of improving ties between the neighbours. If approved by the two governments, the series would comprise three one-day internationals and two Twenty20 games in December-January, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said.

“It was decided to resume cricketing ties with Pakistan by inviting the Pakistan cricket team for a short series in December 2012-January 2013,” the BCCI said in a statement. “The modalities will be worked out shortly.”

The rivals have not played a series since Pakistan’s tour of India in 2007, after cricket ties were snapped following the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai, which were carried out by militants from Pakistan.

The ODI matches will be played in Chennai, Kolkata and New Delhi and the Twenty20 games in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, BCCI spokesman Rajiv Shukla told reporters in New Delhi. The series will be held when England, who are due to tour India later this year, return home briefly for Christmas and New Year. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) swiftly welcomed the proposed series, which will now require approval from the Indian foreign affairs and home ministries.

“The decision is great and we welcome it. It seems that millions of cricket fans have their wishes fulfilled,” PCB chairman Zaka Ashraf told reporters in Pakistan’s eastern city of Lahore.

Cricket ties have been the subject of discussions between the governments of both nucleararmed countries, who have been holding regular meetings in a bid to improve ties and eventually thrash out a peace agreement. The countries-where cricket is hugely popular-have fought three wars since independence in 1947.

The Indian and Pakistani cricket teams have only met in international tournaments since 2007.

They clashed in the World Cup semi-final in the north Indian town of Mohali last year, a highprofile game that was attended by the prime ministers of the two countries.

They also played during the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in March. Both matches were won

by India. An Indian government source told AFP the decision to resume cricket ties was made by the respective boards and not the government.

“The issue of resuming cricketing ties came up in recent bilateral talks and it was left for the boards to resolve it,” the source said. “Once they have decided, then there would be the issue of internal security, which will be reviewed and decided by various agencies.”

Indian former players gave a mixed reaction.

Ex-captain Sunil Gavaskar said Islamabad was still not cooperating in the Mumbai attacks probe.

“Being a Mumbaikar (hailing from Mumbai), I feel what is the urgency (for a series) when there

is no cooperation from the other side,” the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency quoted him as saying.

But fellow former skipper Bishan Bedi welcomed the revival. “It is a step in the right direction,” he told PTI. “The amount of interest and goodwill it will generate will be huge.”

Players, officials and fans in Pakistan spoke of their delight at the resumption of one of cricket’s great rivalries. Test captain Misbah-ul Haq said it was “great news” for millions of fans across South Asia. “The competition in such a series is so high that it’s important for the players. And players from both the sides miss such matches and they want to be part of it,” he told journalists in Lahore. Former Pakistan captain Javed Miandad was similarly ecstatic. “It is definitely a great news,” Miandad told AFP. “One must give credit to Ashraf for his whole-hearted efforts to revive Indo-Pak cricket and that paid off today.” —AFP

LAHORE: Zaka Ashraf, Chief of Pakistan Cricket Board gives details of upcoming PakistanIndian cricket series to reporters in Lahore. —AP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

sp orts

Pink uniforms, record traffic as Olympians fly into London

PARIS: Members of the French women’s gymnastic team for the London Olympics 2012 take part in a training session at the training headquarters of INSEP (National Institute for Sport and Physical Education) in Paris yesterday. — AFP

21,000 journalists swarm into London LONDON: With less than two weeks to go before the Olympic Games, hordes of competitors are pouring into London from across the globe and limbering upbut they’re not athletes.

Promising coverage on an unprecedented scale and record-breaking use of social media, the 21,000 journalists, photographers, cameramen and technicians will in fact be twice as numerous as the athletes they are covering.

The BBC, Britain’s official Olympic broadcaster, will offer up 2,500 hours of live coverage and “more online and mobile services than ever before”.

“This will be the first truly ‘Digital Olympics’, with the BBC offering viewers the most comprehensive coverage of an Olympic Games ever,” the public broadcaster said.

With 765 staff accredited for the Games, the BBC’s team will be a third bigger than the one it sent to the Beijing Olympics in 2008.The broadcaster’s Facebook page will stream the TV coverage live for the first time, and in a second innovation, viewers with 3D televisions will be able to watch athletes lurching off the screen into their living rooms.

The BBC will show the opening and closing ceremonies in 3D along with nightly highlights. The men’s 100 metre finals will be the only sporting event shown live in the format.

NBC, the Games’ broadcaster in the United States, is also planning to air more than 200 hours of 3D coverage with a next-day delay.

The US giant is sending a 2,700-strong team to London to produce at least 5,500 hours of coverage across several channels. And in another first, its website is set to broadcast every sporting event live.

“This will be the most comprehensively covered event in television history,” said Mark Lazarus, NBC Sports Group chairman.

Of the international news agencies, Agence France-Presse will deploy a multilingual team of around 150 text, photo and video journalists to the British capital, plus thirty journalists from its German subsidiary SID. The US newswire Associated Press will have around 200 staff on the ground, while Yahoo!, the US website which aggregates news articles and agency dispatches, will send 26 journalists — 10 more than it

sent to Beijing.

In addition to the 21,000 “accredited” journalists reporting from the venues, between 6,000 and 8,000 of their colleagues are due in London to cover the “non-sport” aspects of the Games, from transport to security.

Games organisers have built two huge press centres at the heart of the Olympic Park in east London, with state of the art IT facilities and a miniature “high street” designed to cater for their occupants’ every need.

Banks, newsagents and a post office have been set up, along with a gym, grocery store, hair salon and medical centre. Stressed reporters can even relax at their very own massage parlour.

“The media are with us for such a long time, and they’re working such long hours,” said Mandy Keegan, manager of the Main Press Centre.

“They don’t have the opportunity to live normal lives while they’re here, so we aim to provide all of those services,” she told AFP. A 4,000-seater restaurant will serve some 480,000 meals to journalists- with a broad international menu reflecting their 190 different home countries along with 1.6 million cups of tea and coffee. Journalists working into the small hours, meanwhile, will be able to order pizza and beer directly to their desks.

Keegan wants journalists to be comfortable-but not too comfortable. “At previous Games there have always been reports of people sleeping in the media centre,” she said. “We want to avoid that.” St Bride’s church on central London’s Fleet Street, once the legendary home of Britain’s newspapers, is offering a bed to around a dozen cash-strapped journalists from countries including Togo, Croatia and Romania.

On the technical side, British Telecom (BT) has the formidable task of maintaining the Internet and telephone networks that the thousands of journalists will depend upon.

The company predicts that at the busiest times, some 60 gigabytes of information-equivalent to 3,000 photographs-will travel across the Olympic Park’s network every second. After slow Internet connections left many journalists frustrated in Beijing, BT have pledged a network capacity four times bigger than that of 2008. — AFP

LONDON: Athletes and Olympics visitors descended on London yesterday in the first wave of arrivals for the Games, bumping up traffic through the capital’s busy Heathrow airport to record levels.

Around 1,000 members of the so-called “Olympic family”, including 350 athletes, were due to fly into Heathrow on the first day of arrivals, as a brigade of cheerful volunteers swung into action to welcome them.

In total almost 237,000 passengers were set to pass through the airport on the western edge of the British capital, compared to 190,000 on an ordinary day, officials said.

“We are expecting people from over 50 nations today,” said Tom Willis, operations director for Heathrow’s Terminal 4.

“We have spent £20 million getting ready to welcome the world to Heathrow.

“Part of that has been training and recruiting 1,000 Games volunteers from the local community, so visitors will be met by a brightly-colored, pink-uniformed volunteer who will welcome them to London.”

Volunteer Michael Martin, 34, dressed in a bright pink t-shirt as promised, was waiting eagerly at Heathrow to greet athletes arriving ahead of the Games which open on July 27.

“Being part of the Olympics is a great honour and privilege for me,” said Martin, who is taking time out of his job as a selfemployed architect to work unpaid at the airport. “Growing up in the east end of London I was living just around the corner from where the Games are being held. Now I can turn around to my kids in future generations and say ‘I was part of that’.”

The US sailing team and Italy’s canoeists were among the first to touch down at Terminal 4, followed by members of the Dutch beach volleyball team.

“We are meeting and greeting athletes and higher ranking officials as they get off the plane and we support them through customs,” added Martin, one of a band of volunteers who speak 20 languages between them.

“I am hoping to meet some athletes later this afternoon. It’s great!” Despite weeks of apprehension in Britain over mounting queues at passport control at the world’s busiest international airport in terms of passenger traffic, the first Olympic arrivals appeared to have few complaints. The Dutch female beach volleyball players who flew in from Amsterdam wearing their vibrant orange kit said their passage through customs was seamless.

“From the moment we walked off the plane there were people helping us straight away. It is very well organised,” said team member Marleen van Iersel.

The blonde 24-year-old, who will be competing in her first Olympics when she joins other teams on London’s Horse Guards Parade, said the moment she had waited years for is finally in sight.

VIENNA: Members of the Austrian Olympic team pose for photographers at the Hofburg square before their meeting with Austrian’s President Heinz Fischer ahead of the London Olympics. — AFP

“We have been working towards this for four years now so we’re very excited,” she said, smiling broadly. “It is something we have always dreamed about.”

Heathrow operator BAA said waiting times had been reduced to within targets set by the interior ministry since extra staff were put in place on Sunday after queues of several hours at passport control in recent weeks.

Armed police and sniffer dogs were part of the welcome party, but airport bosses played down their presence. “Security is always a priority at Heathrow,” said Willis. “It is business as usual with security, which

means it is really very secure and no stone is left unturned.”

After stepping off the plane, athletes are being whisked to the Olympic village in Stratford, east London, which will become their home from home for the next month.

The first priority “Games Lane” went into operation on the M4 motorway leading from Heathrow, designed to allow athletes and officials to travel to their destinations without becoming snarled up in London traffic. But yesterday’s arrivals were only the first test for London’s infrastructure, with thousands more due in the coming days. — AFP

LONDON: Members of Russia’s Olympic sailing team arrive at Heathrow airport in west London ahead of the London 2012 Olympic Games that officially open on July 27. — AFP

Russian star wrestles for gold after poison trauma MOSCOW: Ahead of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, life seemed golden for Russia’s freestyle wrestling star Bilyal Makhov. A 1.94 metre tall manmountain from the Caucasus, conquering all before him in the 125 kg weight division, Makhov was reigning Russian and world champion. But then disaster struck.

At one of the Olympic warm-up tournaments in the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Makhov suddenly felt unwell and was unable to compete.

He was rushed to the local hospital where the medics gave an extraordinary diagnosis-mercury poisoning.

This was later confirmed after testing in a Moscow clinic.

The doctors said that Makhov received a dose of mercury vapour which could have killed an ordinary man. But Makhov managed to battle back and stay alive.

The Dagestan-based Makhov, now 24, staged a full recovery and is now one of Russia’s best chances for gold at the London Games. But the origin of the poisoning remains a mystery.

He refuses to suspect any of his rivals who were in contention for a place in the country’s Olympic squad at the time and says he has now put the terrifying incident behind him.

“How can I suspect any of my comrades as we lived under the same roof, practiced together day by day and ate the same food?” he said. “I don’t want to be disappointed in my friends. I just want to forget the incident as soon as possible.”

After rehabilitation, Makhov continued his attempts to qualify for the Beijing Games but his bad luck continued as he injured his elbow and then his knee.

These setbacks resulted in defeat at the Russian championships, dashing his hopes of competing at Beijing.

Makhov said later that he was bitterly disappointed at missing out and was close to retiring. But his friends and the support of his coach Magomed Guseinov convinced him to start training again.

Makhov’s talent and strong character paid off as he grabbed his second world title in 2009 in Denmark. Next year at the world championship in Moscow he repeated his success to regain the status of the world’s top wrestler.

Now the three-time world champion comes into the London Olympics as a red-hot favourite for the gold medal in freestyle wrestling, where unlike in the Greco-Roman style, hand holds are allowed below the waist.

Born in the Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, Makhov started his sporting career in martial arts when after the fall of the Soviet Union the country went mad for karate and kung fu.

The eight-year-old Makhov went in for karate training for almost a year before local wrestling coach Alibek Gadzhimagomedov invited him into his class.

Gadzhimagomedov recommended his young prodigy to Guseinov, who was seeking rising talent in the heavyweight category in the fellow Caucasus and wrestling-crazy region of Dagestan.

After the move to Dagestan, Makhov, then 14, found himself in the company of some of the country’s wrestling legends-Sajid Sajidov, Kurmagomed Kermagomedov and Makhach Murtazaliev-at their base in the town of Khasavyurt.

Guseinov personally ordered him a custom-made two-metre-long bed and assured Makhov a small but the regular salary.

In 2005 he grabbed the world junior title and improved his results day by day before winning the senior Russian and the world freestyle titles in 2007. “Plenty of European, world and Olympic champions were nurtured at our base in Khasavyurt. They all are worthy athletes,” Makhov said.

“But only the Olympic champions receive top honours there. I want to win at London both to boost the glory of our Khasavyurt team and to repay my coach for all of his efforts.” — AFP

Farah — Britain’s golden Somalian import PARIS: Mo Farah’s wife Tania is due to give birth to twins in September, but whether the Somalia-born athlete pursues his own dream of double Olympic gold will depend on how he fares first up in the 10,000 metres.

The 28-year-old - who came to England aged eight after being brought up in Djibouti - comes to the Games having become the first athlete to successfully defend his 5,000 metres European title in Helsinki last month.

Farah, who also became the first British male athlete to win a world distance title when he landed the 5,000m in Daegu last year after taking silver in the 10,000m, has, however, made the 10,000m his priority for the simple reason it is first on the schedule.

“I am going to run the 10,000 for sure because it is the first race,” Farah said after winning the 5,000 at the Diamond League’s Prefontaine Classic.

“I will see how I feel after that. It depends how I come off

in the 10,000. I would like to be fresh and not have any niggles.” It is questionable whether Farah would have got this far but for two seminal influences on his life once he was in England-his school PE teacher Alan Watkinson and British great Paula Radcliffe. Understandably speaking little English on his arrival in England - his family came becuase his English-born father lived and worked there - Farah had a hard introduction on his first day at school when he made the mistake of using one of the few phrases he knew ‘C’mon then’ to the toughest guy in his class.

“He twatted me,” he told ‘The Independent’, using the slang phrase for being punched. He was to come across Watkinson at his second school and the latter recognised he had an athlete of great potential on his hands, even if Farah professed a desire to go on and become a winger for soccer giants Arsenal. “I remember seeing him in a cross-country race for the first time,” said Watkinson.

“He didn’t win because he didn’t know the way. He kept turning round to see that the others had gone off in a different direction. But his running was so effortless.”

Radcliffe, who has known her fair share of Olympic disappointment in successive marathons in Athens and Beijing, also placed her faith in him and made it possible for Farah to get to training. “She paid for me to take driving lessons,” said Farah. “I couldn’t drive but I had to get out to Windsor to train, which was a difficult journey without a car. I look up to her a lot. She’s made me believe that anything is possible.”

Those days of driving to Windsor are long gone as he took the decision to move to Portland, Oregon, and train there in 2011 so he could spend more time with his coach, marathon legend Alberto Salazar and the results were immediate with his two medals in Daegu.

Now with him confirmed as Europe’s finest over 5,000m — he didn’t bother to defend his 10,000m title — Farah is

totally focussed on the Olympics and believes that he will thrive on home support.

“It gives me a good advantage,” he said. “But everybody else will be showing up early to try and get used to everything. “I am more of a positive person than a negative one,” Farah said. “I like to have a crowd behind me.”

Should Farah win he will end up having British national anthem God Save the Queen ring out, but Somalians will be forgiven for sharing in the glory.

Proud of his roots, Farah and Tania set up the Mo Farah Foundation which aims to build 50 wells and to give a month’s supply of food to at least 20,000 people and medical support to 40,000 by the end of the year.

He has already set aside the 250,000 pounds he won in a TV show earlier this year and should gold come his way in London then the Somalians are bound to reap the rewards as well from their ‘golden boy’. — AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

sp orts

Not going for gold: Britain’s non-Olympic sports LONDON: At the same time as athletes from around the world are taking part in the London Olympics, millions of Britons will be indulging in popular summer sports that you won’t see at the Games. Cheese-rolling, caber-tossing, bowls, golf and cricket have little in common except for their origins in Britain’s parks and village greens-and the fact that they are excluded from Olympian glory.

On a typical rainy British summer afternoon members of the Finchley Bowls Club in north London emerge from the clubhouse, around five miles from the park where the Olympic Games will be held.

“We play in all weathers, including rain,” says Ron Raymond, the club president. “We play if there’s a cloudburst. We only stop if the grass is waterlogged, and that’s because we don’t want to damage the green.”

Just down the road in this leafy enclave, which former premier Margaret Thatcher once represented in parliament, is the Finchley Cricket

Club. Finchley Golf Club is a similar distance in the other direction.

Bowls, cricket and golf are just three of a wide array of non-Olympic sports that are popular here. In London there are more than a dozen places for playing croquet-the deceptively genteel but in reality viciously competitive game in which players knock balls through hoops with a mallet. Then there’s polo, which also involves hitting a ball with a mallet, except on horseback. The rules of the game and its original headquarters in Britain, where it was imported from India, were in Hurlingham, southwest London.

Across town from Hurlingham is Lord’s, the spiritual home of cricket.

On a summer weekend in most English country villages, the type with thatched cottages and with handpumped ale in the pub, the thwack of leather on willow from a cricket match can be heard somewhere nearby.

Cricket last made a brief Olympic appearance 112 years ago-and the

closest it will get in 2012 is when Lord’s hosts the Olympic archery competition.

Earlier this year the International Cricket Council, the sport’s world governing body, said it was considering a bid to have cricket’s shorter Twenty20 form return to the Olympics.

“We have never had a format that would lend itself to playing in the Olympics until Twenty20 came to the fore,” ICC chief executive Haroon Lorgat said.

The ICC was officially recognised as a federation by the International Olympic Committee in 2010, meaning the ICC can bid to join the 2020 Games.

Bowls, meanwhile, is played at the Commonwealth Games, where Rob Weale of Wales and Natalie Melmore of England won the men’s and women’s singles titles respectively in New Delhi in 2010.

In Scotland, dozens of Highland Games meetings from May to August feature specialities such as caber toss-

ing-the throwing of a huge wooden log-and tug of war.

Highland Games meetings share a similarity to the Olympics in that they are multi-sports events, although they also feature dancing and classes for playing the bagpipes.

“Highland Games have a long history and there’s still a lot of interest all over the world,” said Ian Grieve, secretary of the Scottish Highland Games association which represents 60 events in towns and villages across Scotland.

“I would like to think that holding the Olympic Games in Britain might have a positive impact for Highland Games though so far I haven’t seen any evidence of it,” he told AFP. “We definitely get a positive spin off when the Open Golf is held in Scotland. Overall, I can’t say we have seen a positive or negative effect.”

English regions have their own local sports too, often big enough to run their own leagues. Quoits, which involves throwing hoops over posts

sticking up from the ground, is especially popular in northeastern England.

Even more curious events include cheese rolling in Gloucestershire, southwest England, in which competitors chase a giant round of Double Gloucester cheese down a steep hill, risking injury.

The Wall Game, meanwhile, is played only at Prime Minister David Cameron’s old boarding school, the elite Eton College. And when it’s raining, Britons can step up to the oche for a game of darts, play snooker or they take on the players from the pub’s dominoes team.

Back in Finchley, none of the bowlers are bitter about their sport’s non-Olympic status, adding that they are looking forward to the Games.

“I’ll certainly be watching, selectively,” says Ron Raymond. “I like basketball and then there’s the gymnastics, especially the floor exercises. You have to admire the hours of work they put in to be able to do it so well.” —AFP

India’s Gutta eyes double delight at London Games

TRIPOLI: Libyan judoka Ahmed Kwisseh is pictured at the end of a training session at a gym in Tripoli a few days before leaving to compete in the 2012 London Olympics. —AFP

Japan’s judokas tipped to keep hold over rivals LONDON: The hulking frame of France’s seemingly unstoppable judoka Teddy Riner may well leave the biggest lasting impression at the London Games, but it is the Japanese who are again hotly tipped to keep a firm hold on the majority of medals.

Since judo became an official Olympic sport in 1964, Japan, birthplace of the mar tial ar t, has won 35 gold medals, taking four of the 14 golds up for grabs in Beijing four years ago.

However, that haul was down from the eight golds won in Athens four years earlier and with only two of Japan’s 14-strong team having appeared at previous Games, and a growing array of rivals from across the globe, their dominance faces its stiffest challenge yet.

“Japan has definitely great potential to get a lot of gold, specifically in the lightweight categories,” Nicolas Messner from the International Judo Federation, the spor t ’s governing body, told Reuters. “But the level of the competition is really high and in many categories, there is not one favourite, but two, three, four.”

Working in the Japanese judokas’ favour could be rule changes which Messner said had taken the sport back to its roots, with the added bonus of leading to far more “ippons” - a match-

winning move that usually sees an opponent thrown onto their back.

Almost 400 contenders from 134 countries, up from 96 in 2008, will battle it out in the seven weight categories for men and women during seven days of competition at London’s ExCel exhibition centre. South Korea will again be among the medals along with France, which won two silver and two bronze medals in Beijing and have Lucie Decosse, runner up four years ago, hot favourite in the women’s -70 kg class.

They also boast the standout judoka in Riner, the 6ft 8ins (2.04m) giant who already has five individual world titles to his name at the age of just 23. He is firm favorite to convert the bronze he won at Beijing into a gold this time in the heavyweight (+100 kg) section.

“Teddy Riner is already a legend. If he wins the title in London, he will become the best active judoka,” said Messner.

Many medal contenders come from more unheralded sporting nations such as Egypt, Kazakhstan and Georgia, while Uzbekistan’s Rishod Sobirov is a massive favourite in the men’s -60 kg class.

Mongolia’s Tuvshinbayar Naidan, who won his country’s first Olympic gold in Beijing, will attempt to defend his title in the men’s -100kg class, while his compatriot Tsagaanbaatar Khashbaatar will fancy his chances in the -66 kg division. —Reuters

Magnussen aims to end 44-year drought in pool LONDON: Swimmer James Magnussen is confident of succeeding where fivetimes gold medallist Ian Thorpe failed by becoming the first Australian to win the Olympic men’s 100 metres freestyle title since 1968.

Michael Wenden was Australia’s last Olympic champion in the event. Thorpe could manage a bronze only in 2004 while Eamon Sullivan went one better with silver in Beijing four years later.

“It’s been a long time coming for an Australian to win and I think it’s just about time that we did it,” world champion Magnussen told reporters at the Manchester Aquatic Centre yesterday.

“All the work we’ve done and the taper has got me where I need to be. It’s been a fairly problem free preparation I’d say and everything has gone pretty smoothly so I’m pretty confident,” added the 21-year-old, whose nickname is ‘Missile’.

Brazilian world record holder Cesar Cielo’s time of 46.91 seconds, set in the now banned supersuit could also be under threat from Magnussen, who swam 47.10 at the Australian trials in March wearing a textile suit.

A potential showdown with Cielo appeals to Magnussen’s competitive nature although he was maintaining a relaxed approach to competition.

“The way I feel about it, is the better the field in London the bigger the result if I’m able to win,” he said.“I’m sure (Cielo) will be pushing the pace early on in the race and that’s something I’ll feed off.

“I’m the sort of person who the more relaxed and the more I enjoy myself, the quicker I’ll swim. “So keeping pretty calm and collected at the moment.”

Magnussen has also been selected for the men’s 50 freestyle and the 4x100 relay and is likely to contest the 4x100 medley relay. —Reuters

MUMBAI: Jwala Gutta thinks it may take India 100 years to emulate China’s sporting success but the badminton doubles specialist hopes to bring her country a step closer to that goal by earning a medal at the London Olympics.

Gutta, whose mother is Chinese, is under no illusions about China’s awe-inspiring sports infrastructure, a conveyor belt producing new talent seemingly on a daily basis.

Chinese shuttlers monopolise the badminton rankings and will be hard to shift, something Gutta, like most others, have come to accept.

“China in sports is 100 years ahead of us, there’s no comparison,” the 28-year-old told Reuters in a telephone interview, adding that her mother told her all about the Chinese sporting system. “She was born and brought up there. She knows how the system works over there. “Mum says that in China the players have to worry only about their game,” said the left-hander from Hyderabad, who is currently ranked 13th in the world in mixed doubles but once rose to a career-high sixth. “She respects me more than the Chinese players because she feels that I have to worry about everything — the game, the media, my studies, my job, my friends, the politics and the critics.”

Gutta, whose sister was named “Insi” by her father, deriving it from India and Sino (China), won the 2011 World Championship bronze medal in women’s doubles with Ashwini Ponnappa in London, the same venue where the Olympic badminton events will be held.

Having beaten some of the formidable Chinese pairs earlier, Gutta gives herself a fair chance of winning a medal in the women’s

Libyan Olympic Committee chief abducted in Tripoli TRIPOLI: Gunmen abducted the president of the Libyan Olympic Committee in the nation’s capital, grabbing him from his car and bundling him into a waiting vehicle, his brother said yesterday.

Salah al-Alam said his brother, committee chief Ahmed Nabil al-Taher al-Alam, was kidnapped on Sunday near the organization’s offices in central Tripoli. He said there has been no contact with him or the captors since.

Security officials said they are investigating al-Alam’s disappearance. They did not provide any further details. Salah AlAlam said he learned of the abduction from his brother’s friend, who was with the LOC chief when the kidnapping took place. The gunmen stopped al-Alam’s car, shoved him into another car and sped off, leaving the friend unharmed on the street.

The abduction comes amid a wave of score settling between rivals of Libya’s eight-month civil war that ended with the capture and killing of longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in October. Dozens of former rebel groups now operate independently, often ignoring the nation’s weak central authorities.

Since Gadhafi’s fall, militias frequently have taken matters into their own hands and rounded up officials with ties to the ousted regime.

Al-Alam, who served as the head of the Libyan Football Association under Gadhafi, is known to have been friends with Gadhafi’s son, Mohammed, who was al-Alam’s predecessor as the Libyan Olympic Committee president.

I nternational Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge expressed “grave” concern about the kidnapping, and said his office have “offered any possible help if we can do something.”

“Hopefully this will evolve in a good way,” he told reporters in a conference call from Lausanne, Switzerland. Five Libyans have qualified to compete in the 2012 Summer Olympics to be held in London. —AP

doubles and mixed doubles events at London.

“I am not afraid of losing at all. In both women’s doubles and mixed doubles we have beaten most of the top doubles teams earlier,” said Gutta, who will play women’s doubles with Ponnappa and mixed doubles with V. Diju in London. “So I am not worried about anybody and I am hopeful of winning a medal in both events.”

Gutta, who won the 2010 Commonwealth Games doubles gold in Delhi, is currently focused on improving her on-court move-

ment and is ready to shed a few pounds even if it means going without her favourite dishes.

“I am focusing on my diet and I have already lost a lot of weight. I am feeling much, much fitter. I had to quit every favorite food of mine,” she said, breaking into a laugh. “I am on high protein diet right now.

I will continue the same diet after the Olympics as well because I am feeling healthier. Now I know what to eat and what not to eat and I am getting to know my body better.” —Reuters

Jwala Gutta

In London’s pools, fast waters run deep NEW YORK: While most spectators at London’s Aquatics Centre will be watching the swimmers and the clock to see whether records are being set in the 50 meters pool, engineers and scientists will have their eyes on the lane dividers. If the hundreds of discs are spinning like mad, expect history to be made. The competition pool, from Britain’s Devin Consulting, is “one of the most technologically advanced pools ever built,” says the US National Science Foundation, which funds research on the hydrodynamics behind “fast water”.

“You want to eliminate any ambient (water) energy that impedes a swimmer’s motion,” said John Ireland, manager of technical services for Myrtha Pools, a division of A&T Europe S.p.a., which designed the pools for the US Olympic trials.

Both underwater currents and surface waves that run counter to swimmers’ direction of motion slow them down like a head wind does an airplane. Those effects can be offset by making a pool deep and wide, said Ireland.

“The larger a body of water and the further away the reflective surfaces; the better the pool is at absorbing energy,” Ireland said.

FINA, the international swimming federation, mandates minimum pool dimensions.

For London, the main competition pool will exceed the 2-meter required depth by a full meter. Overflow gutters will swallow waves the swimmers generate. “When the swimmers’ surge waves hit the edge, gutters let the water go over the edge and dissipate instead of reflecting, which would add to the water turbulence,” said Ireland.

The circulation system, which in backyard pools just keeps the water clean, will also contribute to the fast water. It will be adjusted so the water level remains as constant as possible, minimizing the “bounce-back” the creates turbulence.

Waves are basically just wet, moving energy, so minimizing them requires sucking up that energy rather than allowing it to continue bouncing around. Here’s where the lane dividers come in. Whenever a wave hits them, the discs strung along their length spin. That quells the waves by channeling their energy into turning the discs, preventing the waves from propagating.

If all goes as planned, even with Americans Michael Phelps and Missy Franklin, Australian Stephanie Rice and their rivals all churning up the water like so many human paddle-wheel boats, the surface should be nearly as calm as a pond on windless day. —Reuters

LONDON: Stuffed toys of the Olympic mascot are stacked in one of the stores inside the Olympic Village where athletes will live for the duration of the London 2012 Games in East London. The London 2012 Games officially start on July 27. —AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

S P ORT S

Johnson captures John Deere Classic

BROOKLYN: Denny Hamlin drives down pit road with his car engulfed in fire during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400 auto race at Michigan International Speedway.—AP

Kahne wins at New Hampshire LOUDON: Kasey Kahne got his second Sprint Cup win of the season. Denny Hamlin and his crew chief had trouble communicating.

Kahne took the lead from Hamlin during a restart on the 240th lap of the 300-lap race at the one-mile New Hampshire Motor Speedway on Sunday. The winner was helped by miscommunication between Hamlin, who wanted two tires changed, and crew chief Darian Grubb, who thought he wanted four.

That longer pit stop left Hamlin all the way back in 13th place, but he kept passing cars until only Kahne remained in front.

Kahne stayed ahead and won by about 10 car lengths.

It was Kahne’s 14th win of his career and first since May 27 at Charlotte. Clint Bowyer, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top five.

The win enhances Kahne’s chances of qualifying for the Chase, the last 10 races of the season in which the top 10 drivers in the point standings win automatic berths.

Two additional spots go to the drivers with the most wins who are ranked 11th to 20th in points. Kahne began the day in 16th place, but his two wins are more than anyone in the second group of 10.

“We’ve been pretty tough all year, but we just haven’t finished ‘em off a lot of the times,” Kahne said. “From here on out, we need some more top 10s and top fives the rest of the way. It doesn’t get us in the Chase yet, but it does help with a win today.”

The turning point came when the third caution flag came out on the 234th lap for oil dropped on the track by David Reutimann.

Hamlin went into the pit, telling Grubb over the radio that he wanted tires. Grubb, who first planned to change just two, interpreted that to mean four. As Hamlin went back on the track, Grubb told him, “My bad, bud.” And after the race, Grubb took the blame: “That was 100 percent my fault.”

Hamlin’s Toyota was the best car in the race, which enabled him to pick off one car after another as he recovered from the error.

“It’s such a team sport,” he said. “We just had a slight miscommunication and that one little miscommunication will magnify it.”

Kyle Busch, the pole-sitter, led the first 66 laps before his own costly pit stop. It took longer than usual as his crew had a problem with the right tire. Then there was more trouble - a drive-through penalty against Busch for entering pit road too fast.

When he finally returned to the track, he was all the way back in 22nd place. His crew chief, Dave Rogers, tried to reassure the sometimes temperamental Busch.

“No emotion right now. No emotion,” he told Busch over the radio. “One hundred percent driving talent. Long way to go. Just chip away, one by one.” Busch finished 24th.

Busch’s teammate, Hamlin, took over the lead from Busch after that problem. The first caution of the race came on the 90th lap to clear debris from the track. All the drivers on the lead lap made pit stops except for Jeff Gordon, who went in front.

But through 100 laps Busch had climbed all the way up to ninth while Hamlin, Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Kahne and Earnhardt held the top five spots. The last four all drive for Hendrick Motorsports.

Sprint Cup points leader Matt Kenseth finished 13th and has won just once this year - in the season-opening Daytona 500 in February.

Sam Hornish Jr., replacing the suspended AJ Allmendinger, came in 22nd.

Allmendinger was suspended about 90 minutes before the race at Daytona International Speedway last weekend after a urine sample taken the previous weekend at Kentucky Speedway came back positive for what his team identified only as a stimulant.

His “B” sample is to be tested, probably this week, with his toxicologist present.—AP

‘White Lion’ takes on traditional Senegal wrestling DAKAR: From remote villages to stadiums teeming with thousands of fans, traditional wrestling is Senegal’s sport of choice, with battles cloaked in mysticism and religion pitting locals against each other. Until now that is.

They call him “the White Lion”, a squarejawed hulk of a man draped with gris-gris (amulets) around his bare chest, legs and stomach enters a dusty arena in a suburb of Dakar.

Wearing only dark green underwear, the Spaniard Juan Francisco Espino charges towards his similarly attired opponent, their ponderous bellies and thighs undulating as they approach each other. A few punches are thrown, Espino gets a grip on his opponent and swiftly manouevres him onto his back, winning the match. The White Lion remains unbeaten, a step closer to becoming one of Senegal’s idolised “kings of the arena”.

Having won his first three matches, and with the novelty of having a Toubab (foreigner) taking part in the sport, Espino is already recognised whenever he wanders the suburbs.

“Juan! Juan! Juan,” children cry out as the 1.95 metres tall, 145 kg man walks past, while adults try and snap a shot of him on their mobile phones.

Wrestling in Senegal is an old practice which would pit neighbouring villages against each other after the annual harvest.

In 1930 striking was introduced, and this is the form which is the most popular today.

Recent years have seen an explosion in the sport’s popularity, drawing sponsors, media coverage, full stadiums and wealth beyond the imaginings of most Senegalese for the top wrestlers. The big names in wrestling are idolised, children play at being wrestlers and many dream of the day they too will enter the arena and make their fortune, escaping the poverty in their neighborhoods.

Espino was born into a traditional wrestling family in the Canary Islands and at a very young age learned the art of the islands’ wrestling style from his father.

While passionate about the sport, he was disappointed at not being able to whip up more zest among fans. He decided to go elsewhere, moving to Brazil for six months to learn Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and then to South Korea for two months to learn

Ssireum, the local wrestling style.

Last May Espino was named the European “grappling” champion, a very technical form of wrestling. “ There is wrestling all around the world,” he explains.

“So I told myself I must go and see and learn all these different kinds of wrestling, as each one is unique.”

In 2008 he discovered Senegalese wrestling, and in watching videos of the sport, was drawn by the fervour of the public during matches.

“I saw these stadiums with 30,000 people, just to see a wrestling match. I told myself I can’t miss that, that I too want to fight in these arenas.”

Arriving in Dakar, he signed up at a “stable” or wrestling school. But it is a slow process and no other white wrestler has ever gotten as far as Espino. He has to follow the steps of the wrestling circuit and learn as he goes. It has been two years since he began fighting in Senegal.

“I came to beat the best. But I understand that I have to go through the stages, that it is a long process to have access to the big fights,” he says.

While the matches are over in moments, much is made of the ceremonies leading up to them. Mystic practices, dances, amulets, body paint and most importantly, the most powerful marabout available to guide you.

“I have a marabout for my mystic preparation,” Espino says smiling. “Whether you believe in it or not, it is part of the tradition and for thepor moment, every time he has told me to wear green, and I have won the fight!”

While some 7,000 wrestlers are licensed in Senegal, only about 40 are able to make a living from their winnings. The last big match in April saw wrestling giants Oumar Sakho or “Balla Gaye 2” and Yakhya Diop or “Yekini” each earning some 100 million CFA (152,000 euro) in fees for a match of only a few minutes. However recently accusations of excessive violence during fights, excessive fees, doping suspicions and rumours of sponsors pulling out have tainted the sport’s image and forced those involved to reflect on its future.

Fees were thus recently capped at about 114,000 euro, and the time accorded to the mystical ceremonies inside the arena shortened.—AFP

ILLINOIS: American Zach Johnson birdied the second hole of a sudden death playoff to beat compatriot Troy Matteson and capture the John Deere Classic in Silvis, Illinois on Sunday.

It was the second PGA Tour title of the year for the 2007 Masters champion, who celebrated his ninth career win with hugs from his children on the 18th green before heading off to board a charter plane put on by the tournament sponsor to fly him to Britain for next week’s British Open.

“It just feels awesome, I can’t really put it into words,” Johnson, who is on the board of the directors for the John Deere tournament, told reporters.

“This tournament has meant so much to me and my family over the years.

“I don’t know if you can rank any of them (titles).

They’re all so ultimately special. “Augusta is Augusta, you really can’t push anything past that but I am really going to enjoy this one because this is supremely special.”

The playoff began looking as if it was a tournament neither man wanted to win with Johnson’s drive on the first playoff hole finding the fairway bunker. Matteson could do no better landing deep in the trees.

Attempting to punch out, Matteson watched his second shot skid across the fairway into the water where he was soon joined by Johnson both eventually carding messy double-bogeys.

Back on the 18th tee, Johnson found the same fairway bunker but this time produced a brilliant second shot that rolled within two feet of the pin leaving him a routine putt for birdie and the win.

Matteson with a two-under 69 and Johnson with a bogey-free 65 finished regulation at 20under par 264 after a rollercoaster final round.

American Scott Piercy also returned an error free 65 to finish alone in third with 18-under 266.

Johnson began the day four shots behind Matteson, who had topped the leaderboard since firing a course record equaling opening round of 10-under 61.

Matteson saw his lead trimmed to a single stroke several times over the final round but fought off all challengers until he double-bogeyed the 15th and Johnson drained birdies at 13 and 14 to replace him atop the leaderboard. Another birdie at 17 gave Johnson a two-shot cushion stepping

ILLINOIS: Zach Johnson holds the trophy after winning the John Deere Classic golf tournament at TPC Deere Run. Johnson defeated Troy Matteson in a playoff.—AP onto the 18th tee but Matteson was not ready to surrender.

With victory fading, Matteson cancelled out his double-bogey in dramatic fashion rolling in a 60foot putt for eagle at the par five 17th, the ball ringing the cup before falling into the hole to regain a share of the lead.

“I’m kind of shocked I got into a playoff because I just didn’t play my best today but kind of hung in there,” said Matteson. “Luckily that putt went in on 17. “All in all, you go into a playoff and lose to a shot like that, I mean, that’s an unbelievable shot.

“My hat’s off to Zach.

He drove it in the bunker twice and figured out a way to win.”

Three-time defending champion Steve Stricker had been well positioned to make a late charge for

a fourth consecutive crown but watched his chances disappear with back-to-back bogeys at 14 and 15 to fall four shots off the pace with three to play.

Stricker hit back with a birdie at 16 but was quickly in trouble again with a bogey at the 17th to finish with a one-under 70 and a tie for fifth.

Young Tom Morris, Walter Hagan, Gene Sarazen and Tiger Woods are the only male players who have won a tournament in four consecutive years.

“It was different. It was weird,” said Stricker. “Wasn’t that I wasn’t focused and into it, I just didn’t feel that like something good was going to happen.

“Maybe I was trying too hard. I don’t know really what it was. “I was trying to win the golf tournament. I wasn’t worried about four in a row, I was just trying to win.”—Reuters

Preview

Expect the unexpected as Open returns to Lytham LYTHAM ST ANNES: From American Bobby Jones paying to play his fourth round before winning in 1926 to Seve Ballesteros’s ‘Car Park Champion’ shot in 1979, British Opens at Royal Lytham & St Annes have always been eventful.

The Lancashire links course is primed to host its 11th Open from July 19-22 and 14times major winner Tiger Woods will want to add his name to a list of illustrious past Lytham champions.

Fellow American Jones, the only player to win all four majors in a year (1930), famously lifted the Claret Jug on its first visit to Lytham in 1926. Jones forgot his competitor’s ticket and was not recognised despite being second in the tournament after three rounds, but calmly paid an entrance fee before claiming the first of his three Opens. When Lytham’s turn next came around 26 years later South African Bobby Locke won the third of his four Opens and Australian five-time Open champion Peter Thomson clinched the 1958 title.

The omens get even better for Woods, seeking a fourth Open victory after wins at St Andrews in 2000 and 2005 and at Hoylake in 2006 when only once in 72 holes did he take a driver off the tee, hitting iron after iron into primary position.

Similarly prolific Open champions in South African Gary Player, who lifted the Claret Jug for a third and final time in 1974 and Spain’s Ballesteros, winner at Lytham in 1979 and 1988, highlight the calibre of past champions.

Woods, without a major triumph since his 2008 U.S. Open playoff victory, is itching to get back into the winner’s circle having chalked up three PGA Tour titles in 2012.

Lytham’s 206 bunkers gobble up almost everything off-line and are best avoided, something Woods managed en-route to his first Open victory at the Old Course where not once did he find sand.

“I’ll bring my 5-wood and 2-iron and decide which club to carry once I get there and feel out the conditions,” Woods wrote in his pre-tournament blog.

“You can have so many different conditions. You just don’t know. That’s one of the unique things about the British Open and

why it’s my favourite major championship.”

For the 36-year-old world number four, however, the clock is ticking and he has an army of young pretenders, major-hungry class acts and seasoned old pros waiting to pounce. Crowds and expectation follow world number two Rory McIlroy everywhere he goes and the Northern Irishman will want to put on a better show than at last year’s Open which he described as “not my sort of golf.”

McIlroy still finished tied for 25th but confessed the wind and rain had got to him and the 23-year-old is determined to make amends. “I’m going to embrace it and just camp out there and play, play, play,” said the 2011 U.S. Open winner. After finishing in the top-five regularly at the start of the season and becoming world number one in March, McIlroy’s form since a disappointing Masters has dipped with four missed cuts in seven tournaments.

Hard work with coach Michael Bannon and a top-10 at the Irish Open, however have left McIlroy ready for an assault on Lytham.

“My game feels back where it was. I’m excited about Lytham.” McIlroy will hope to follow in the footsteps of defending Open champion Darren Clarke after the 43-yearold’s emotional victory 12 months ago.

Clarke, who lost his wife Heather to cancer in 2006, finished tied third when the Open was last held at Lytham in 2001 and showed his links prowess at Sandwich in high winds, skills which will be required this week.

Also in the hunt should be Englishmen Luke Donald, the world number one who finished tied-16th on Sunday in the Scottish Open and third-ranked Lee Westwood who, like Donald, is desperate for a first major triumph. Westwood hurt his leg as he slid out of contention in the French Open third round this month but has dismissed any fears he would miss the Open. The 39-yearold has two top-three finishes in his last three Open appearances and will want to improve on last year’s missed cut. The bad news for the British hopefuls is that the Gods have smiled on Americans at the last two Lytham Opens.—Reuters

LONDON: Tiger Woods plays a shot towards the club house on the 18th hole during a practice round at the Royal Lytham & St Annes golf club before the forthcoming British Open Golf Tournament.—AP

LAKE ORION: Roger Chapman of England holds up the Francis D Ouimet Memorial Trophy after winning the 2012 Senior United States Open.—AFP

Chapman wins US Senior Open LAKE ORION: Roger Chapman had a lot of thoughts running in his head as he closed in on the US Senior Open title. One of them was proving that his Senior PGA Championship victory wasn’t a fluke. Chapman shot a 4-under 66 on Sunday to win the US Senior Open by two strokes at 10 under at Indianwood. He won the Senior PGA Championship by the same margin two months ago on the other side of Michigan.

“I wanted to prove to myself and to other people that Benton Harbor wasn’t a one-off event,” he said. “That was in the back of my mind.”

Chapman kept his wits after a bogey at 16 gave big-name players on the Champions Tour - Corey Pavin, Tom Lehman, Fred Funk and Bernhard Langer - a chance to potentially catch him.

The 53-year-old Chapman, though, stepped to the potentially pivotal 195-yard, par-3 17th and calmly hit a 5-iron shot that was close enough for a tap-in birdie that restored a two-shot lead. “I have to say that was my best shot ever played,” he said.

Langer (72), Funk (67), Lehman (68) and Pavin (68) finished tied for second at 8-under 272 at the Champions Tour’s fourth of five majors. Pavin’s two-stroke penalty after his first round for hitting a ball that moved a fraction of an inch proved to be costly.

By holding off senior stars, Chapman earned the right to be mentioned in the same sentence with Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Hale Irwin. Not bad for a self-described former European Tour journeyman. Chapman, Nicklaus, Player and Irwin are the only players to win the US Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in the same year. “It’s a true honor,” Chapman said.

Player was the first to win the US Senior Open and Senior PGA Championship in the same year back in 1987. Nicklaus did it in 1991, and Irwin pulled off the feat in 1998.

Until Chapman’s breakout, his shining moment was beating Padraig Harrington in a playoff for his first European Tour win in his 472nd start on that tour.

The Englishman had a conditional exemption on the Champions Tour in 2010 and lost his status last year, finishing 84th on the money list at less than $90,000 after failing to crack the top 10 in any of his 11 starts. Chapman received $500,000 for winning the U.S. Senior Open after getting a check for $378,000 for the Senior PGA victory.

“I guess when you read about him, you always hear journeyman or something like that,” Pavin said. “But he’s always been a very solid player.

“Sometimes, people bloom a little later.” Before this year, his career highlight was a European Tour win in Brazil in 2000.

Entering the final round, it seemed as if the only lingering question was how easily Langer would win.

Langer, though, found out what the first- and second-round leaders - Tom Kite and Lance Ten Broeck - did the previous two days: It’s not easy to stay consistent at Indianwood.

Langer took a four-shot lead into the final round and closed with a shaky performance that spoiled his shot at winning his second US Senior Open.

The German said on Saturday if he closed with a 2- or 3-under round, it would be difficult for anyone to catch him. When Langer had a double bogey at No. 2, he gave the field a chance to pass him. “I knew there was a lot of golf left, and I was still in the lead,” he said. “If I shoot under par from that point on, I’ll still be in good shape, but I couldn’t make a putt.”—AP

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TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

SPORTS

FIFA set to appoint corruption prosecutor GENEVA: FIFA ruling board members meet today to appoint a corruption prosecutor who will be urged to investigate how hosting rights for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups were awarded.

As part of FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s anti-corruption reforms, his executive committee in Zurich will choose lawyers to lead independent prosecuting and judging chambers of a revamped ethics court.

FIFA’s top anti-corruption adviser, Mark Pieth, told The Associated Press the scheduled appointments are key to modernizing football’s scandal-hit world governing body.

“They are absolutely fundamental to get this moving,” said Pieth, who has led a 13-member panel advising FIFA since January.

Pieth’s group has said the ethics officials must have authority to examine old cases, after finding that FIFA “insufficiently investigated” some allegations about World Cup bidding.

The December 2010 poll of FIFA’s

high command has been shrouded by claims that some received payments or sought unethical favors from bidders, and that several breached bidding rules by joining a pact to back Qatar and the Spain-Portugal bid.

Russia won the 2018 rights and Qatar was selected for 2022 ahead of the United States in a final round of voting. “We will want to meet the people who are going to be elected and make it clear what we expect of them,” said Pieth, a Swiss law professor, in a telephone interview. “We must help these people to see that they get the right resources.”

A leading candidate for the prosecutor’s job is Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina, who completed his term at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands last month.

Moreno-Ocampo’s name is among four suggested by Pieth’s panel to chair the investigation unit. Four more candidates have been proposed to chair the judging chamber, which will

rule on FIFA cases and set sanctions.

Still, FIFA could decline the advice and opt for candidates proposed from elsewhere.

“We don’t know if they are going to use our list,” Pieth said. “I am hopeful that they will have the sense to use the names that met the requirements.”

The new FIFA ethics bodies will also oversee vetting football officials for their integrity to hold office at FIFA. Pieth’s team - known as the Independent Governance Committee agreed that FIFA’s in-house judicial bodies needed credible leaders drawn from outside the so-called “football family.” A new FIFA statute approved in May says candidates must have had no paid connection with football “during the four years preceding his term.”

Pieth confirmed that “there are women” on his list - though FIFA reportedly told one panel member that female candidates were “entirely unacceptable” at this stage. FIFA’s

stance comes as it prepares to welcome a woman at the executive committee table for the first time today.

Burundi football president Lydia Nsekera was approved by FIFA’s member countries in May to join the now 25-member ruling panel, fulfilling a promise in Blatter’s reform agenda.

Nsekera is also a member of Pieth’s panel. The meeting falls days after a long-running World Cup financial scandal flared up. FIFA published a Swiss prosecutor’s report last Wednesday which finally identified former president Joao Havelange and Ricardo Teixeira, former head of the 2014 World Cup organizing committee, for taking millions of dollars in kickbacks from broadcasting deals in the 1990s.

Pieth, who had been blocked by Swiss courts from seeing the court dossier, said he was “very happy” it was published.

“For me, it’s the right moment. It reminds people from the (executive

committee) that they really have a problem,” the former United Nations investigator said. “It goes way beyond looking at individual people in the executive committee and even a president.” In the days since, Blatter has defended his role in the affair, said his mentor Havelange should be stripped of his FIFA honorary presidency and cast doubt on how Germany won hosting rights in 2000 for the 2006 World Cup. Because FIFA has a 10-year statute of limitations, the new ethics court is unlikely to get involved. Also today, FIFA is slated to approve an upgraded code of ethics for all football officials, players and referees and discuss Kosovo’s status in international football. Blatter said in May that Kosovo’s national and club teams should play international friendly matches, ahead of the Balkan province getting formal recognition of statehood from the United Nations.—AP

Fluminense hold Botafogo RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil striker Fred scored his ninth goal in 10 derbies for Fluminense against Botafogo although Sunday’s 1-1 draw favoured Atletico Mineiro who opened a three-point lead in the Brazilian championship.

Mineiro have 22 points from nine matches after their impressive 4-3 victory at Figueirense on Saturday when they came from 3-1 down with three goals in 11 minutes in the second half.

Fluminense, the only unbeaten team in the championship, went ahead when Fred scored with a header from corner nine minutes after halftime at the Engenhao in Rio. Arch-rivals Botafogo have borne the brunt

of Fred’s finishing for ‘Flu’ as he took his tally to 88 goals in 130 games since joining them in 2009.

However, with new signing Clarence Seedorf watching from the stands while awaiting clearance to make his debut, Botafogo equalised in the 67th minute with a header from Andrezinho.

Fluminense goalkeeper Diego Cavalieri denied Botafogo substitute Fellype Gabriel a winner in the 75th minute when he saved brilliantly with his foot at point-blank range.

Figueirense, with Uruguayan striker Sebastian Abreu making his debut, fell behind to an early Ronaldinho penalty before taking a 3-1 lead against Mineiro.

Ronaldinho played a major part in Mineiro’s recovery as they notched their seventh win in nine matches. He crossed for central defender Leonardo Silva to head home in the 65th minute, then laid on midfielder Bernard’s equaliser six minutes later with a quickly taken free kick.

Substitute Guilherme completed the turnaround with the winner in the 76th minute.

Libertadores Cup winners Corinthians, playing at full strength in the league for only the second time since being crowned South American champions, beat promoted Nautico 2-1 with a brace from midfielder Danilo.

Corinthians have eight points and managed to climb out of the relegation zone.—Reuters

Dundee to replace Rangers in SPL THAILAND: Real Madrid’s soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal (left) and President of Toyota Motor Thailand Kyoichi Tanada exchange contracts after signing during a ceremony at a hotel in Bangkok.—AP

Shooting tourney concludes

By Abdellatif Sharaa KUWAIT: The Late Sheikh Faisal Al-Duaij Al-Sabah Cup tournament concluded on Saturday at Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Olympic Shooting Complex.

President of Kuwait and Asian Shooting Federation, Vice President of ISSF Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah, Sheikh Sabah Faisal Al-Duaij Al-Sabah, Sheikh Sabah Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, President of the Arab Shooting Federation, Vice President of KSF, Member of ISSF Administrative Council Eng. Duaij Al-Otaibi, KSF and ASF Secretary General Obaid Al-Osaimi and KSF board members Essa Bu Taiban, Adnan Al-Ibrahim and Dr. Nidal Al-Asem attended the closing ceremony of the Cup. Eighty shooters from Sheikh Saad Olympic Shooting Academy participated in the Skeet, Trap and 10M Pistol and Rifle.

In his speech Al-Osaimi said the late Sheikh Faisal Al-Duaij, was a member of

the first Kuwaiti National Shooting team and was the first to make an achievement in the name of Kuwait shooting. He said the Sheikh, with his personal efforts, contributed to the establishment of the first Olympic Shooting Range in Kuwait so as to allow Kuwaiti youth to practice this noble sport.

Al-Osaimi thanked the family of Late Sheikh Faisal Al-Duaij for their continued support and encouragement to youths.

The Shooting Sport Club board members honored shooters Heba Erzouqi and Bandar Al-Mutairi for winning gold medals in the Fifth Asian Junior Games held in Russia.

Results of the tournament are as follows: Skeet Men: Hassan Saud, Mubarak AlBughaili, Abdellatif Saif. Trap Men: Mubarak Al-Rashidi, Fares Mutlaq, Yousuf Saif. 10M Pistol Men: Abdelaziz Abdallah, Bader Abdallah, Ali Jassem. 10M Rifle Men: Mohammad Al-Shimmari, Tamim Al-Mutairi and Abdelrahman Al-Dhafiri.

10M Rifle Women: Hussa Al-Afasi, Kinda Al-Zayed and Khawla Al-Ibrahim.

Group picture of shooters and officials

Sheikh Sabah Faisal Al-Malik hands a shooter his trophy

LONDON: Dundee will take the place of Rangers in the Scottish Premier League (SPL) next season it was announced yesterday.

And the SPL also appeared to rule out the creation of an ‘SPL2’ by saying they would work with other Scottish football authorities to “facilitate” Rangers playing in the Third Division, the fourth tier of Scottish football.

Glasgow giants Rangers were expelled from the top-flight after the end of last season following months of financial problems that saw the 140-year-old club enter administration.

And on Friday they were dropped into the Third Division of the Scottish Football League.

Following an SPL meeting yesterday, a statement said: “It was agreed that Dundee FC would be invited to fill the space vacated by Rangers FC in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.”

Dundee, runners-up in the First Division, were competing with Dunfermline, relegated from the SPL last season, for a place in next term’s top flight. Dunfermline were holding a board meeting yesterday to consider their position.

In the meantime Dundee’s promotion means Rangers could begin their life as a Third Division side in the Ramsden’s Cup (a knockout competition for lower league clubs) away to Brechin at Glebe Park on July 28.

Rangers, the most successful club in Scottish football history, had to form a new company or ‘newco’ after entering administration.

Friday saw 25 out of 30 Scottish Football League (SFL) vote for Rangers to enter the Third Division, the standard punishment in such cases.

Before the vote, Scottish Football Association chief executive Stewart Regan had said that demoting Rangers to the Third Division would cause financial catastrophe and a “slow, lingering death” of the Scottish game.

Regan had reportedly wanted Rangers demoted to the First Division only.

And despite Friday’s vote, there remained a suspicion a way would be found to avoid Rangers playing in the Third Division, amid talk of the creation of an ‘SPL2’.

However, the SPL statement issued Monday also said: “It was agreed that the SPL would work with the Scottish FA, SFL and Rangers to facilitate Rangers FC taking their place in SFL Division 3 this season.”

Yesterday’s statement meant the return of the Dundee derby, with Dundee United already in the SPL. But it appeared to confirm there would be no league meetings for at least several seasons between Rangers and arch-rivals Celtic, the reigning Scottish champions who gained from the Gers 10-point deduction last term.

Most of the commercial and broadcast contracts concerning the SPL contain exit or renegotiation clauses in the event one of the Old Firm-Celtic and Rangers-were no longer in the top division.

SPL chief executive Neil Doncaster had told clubs a total of £18.7million would be lost to the SPL if Rangers were demoted to the Third Division, all but £1 million from broadcasting deals.

Police are conducting a criminal investigation into the takeover of Rangers by Craig Whyte in May 2011. Rangers went into administration on February 14 this year following court action from UK tax officials. Administrators announced subsequently Rangers had failed to pay about £9 million in tax since Whyte’s takeover.—AFP

COLOMBIA: Independiente Santa Fe fans celebrate after their team won the Liga Postobon local soccer league tournament match against Deportivo Pasto in Bogota.

Santa Fe won 1-0.—AP

Man United, Liverpool and Sunderland fly out on tours LONDON: Manchester United, Liverpool and Sunderland stepped up their preparations for the upcoming Premier League season by flying out on offseason tours across the globe yesterday.

Man United headed to Durban in South Africa to play AmaZulu FC on Wednesday night before going up against Ajax Cape Town on Saturday. United will then fly to China to face Didier Drogba’s new side, Shanghai Shenhua, on July 25.

Coach Alex Ferguson has selected a 22man squad for the tour, including the likes of Paul Scholes, Rio Ferdinand and his new signing from Borussia Dortmund, Japanese midfielder Shinji Kagawa.

Wayne Rooney and Nani have been left out to be given more time to recover from the European Championship, while Ryan Giggs stays in England as he will captain the British football team at the London Olympics.

Meanwhile, Liverpool has flown out to Toronto to begin a three-match tour of North America and Canada, beginning Wednesday against Toronto FC at the Rodgers Center. The team will then join prin-

cipal owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner for the 100-year celebrations of Fenway Park, the historic ballpark of the Boston Red Sox - which are also owned by Werner and Henry - by taking on Roma on July 25. Liverpool will finish its tour in Baltimore against Premier League rival Tottenham three days later.

Liverpool’s squad for the tour includes England captain Steven Gerrard and new signing Fabio Borini. Goalkeeper Pepe Reina will enjoy an extended break as he was part of Spain’s Euro 2012-winning squad. Luis Suarez stays behind as he is part of Uruguay’s Olympic football squad.

Sunderland travel to South Korea to compete in the Peace Cup alongside German club Hamburg, Dutch side Groningen and local side Seongnam.

Coach Martin O’Neill, who won the trophy in 2009 as coach of Aston Villa, believes the trip will be a good opportunity to step up the intensity of the offseason training.

“Over the course of the coming days we’ll start to get a bit more fitness into the players with some harder work alongside some sort of enjoyable work as well,” O’Neill said.—AP

AFC suspends Bin Hammam for bribery KUALA LUMPUR: The Asian Football Confederation have suspended former President Mohamed Bin Hammam after a lengthy audit of their accounts revealed fresh allegations of financial wrongdoing, the body said in a statement yesterday.

Bin Hammam, who is fighting a life ban by soccer’s world governing body FIFA for bribery, was suspended for 30 days by the AFC. The governing body in Asia said he had been suspended for “events surrounding the negotiation and execution of certain contracts and with the financial transactions made in and out of AFC bank accounts and his personal account during the tenure of Mr. Bin Hammam’s presidency.” Qatar’s Bin Hammam challenged Sepp Blatter for the

FIFA presidency last year.

He withdrew his candidacy, and was then provisionally suspended, days before the June election over allegations that he had tried to buy the votes of Caribbean officials by handing them $40,000 each in brown envelopes.

Blatter was subsequently re-elected unopposed for a fourth term as FIFA president, while Bin Hammam was found guilty of breaking seven articles of FIFA’s ethics code, including one on bribery.

Bin Hammam, who has denied any wrongdoing, was banned for life and subsequently lost an appeal at FIFA. He has appealed that decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.—Reuters

Johnson captures John Deere Classic

Pink uniforms, record traffic as Olympians fly into London

18

16

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

India invite Pakistan for first series in five years

Page 15

FRANCE: A combo picture shows (from top, left to right) the pack riding, fans cheering on stage winner, France’s Pierrick Fedrigo, Overall leader’s yellow jersey, British Bradley Wiggins riding and Fedrigo celebrating on the finish line at the end of the 191 km and fourteenth stage of the 2012 Tour de France cycling race. —AFP

Fedrigo wins Tour de France stage Wiggins still in yellow PAU: French rider Pierrick Fedrigo gave the hosts their fourth win of the Tour de France when he beat American Christian Vande Velde to win the 158.5 km 15th stage between Samatan and Pau yesterday. Race leader Bradley Wiggins of Britain and the main peloton came over the finish line nearly 12 minutes behind a five-man breakaway that had fought hard to form in a frantic opening to the race.

Wiggins, who took the race lead at the end of stage seven, came under no threat during the undulating stage from the Gers department to the foot of the Pyrenees where the peloton will spend the race’s second rest day today.

The Team Sky leader still has a 2min 05sec lead over teammate Chris Froome, with Italian Vincenzo Nibali in third at 2:23 and Australian Cadel Evans

fourth at 3:19. Fedrigo attacked with 6.5 km remaining and after being countered by Vande Velde he dominated the Garmin rider in a two-up sprint for the finish.

It is the 33-year-old’s fourth victory in the race, but first since 2010 and his return to cycling after a six-month spell on the sidelines. It is also the second for his FDJ team after Thibaut Pinot won stage eighth in Porrentruy, Switzerland.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Fedrigo, whose last win on the race was in Pau in 2010. “The last time I won on the Tour was here. When you’re racing the Tour, you need luck. And some days you just get the feeling it can be your day.

“The closer we got to the finish line, the more I believed in my chances.” After that victory, the

Frenchman-who is a keen hunter-came down with Lyme’s disease, keeping him off the Tour and off the bike for six months.

“I caught Lyme’s disease, a virus which is caused by a tick. You can catch it in the fields or in the woods. I came back to cycling determined to find my level again.” The race resumes Wednesday when the mountainous 197 km 16th stage takes the peloton over two unclassified and two category one climbs to a downhill finish in Bagneres-deLuchon. Meanwhile, six days from the finish in Paris, a further six riders pulled out of the Tour de France yesterday, which finished in Pau with 156 of the 1988 starters still in the field.

French time trial champion Sylvain Chavanel, suffering a chest infection and struggling to

points to break back to 5-5, but the 20 year-old Vandeweghe finally handed it to her when she double faulted.

“I been serving well all week and I still feel like I served pretty well against Serena, but she’s a great player and she going to take advantage of opportunities, especially on second serves on set point,” Vandeweghe said.

Williams took a 3-1 lead in the second set when Vandeweghe again double faulted and while she pushed Williams with her huge serve and heavy ground strokes, she could not get a break point on the Williams serve in the set and Williams sealed the title with a forehand winner down the line.

Williams won her 43rd career title, tying her with her older sister Venus for the most titles among active players on the WTA tour. The world number four has now also won 28 of her last 29 matches.

She will now take a couple of days off, play an exhibition match and then head to London to prepare for the Olympics where she will defend her doubles title with Venus and attempt to win the singles gold. “A gold medal will mean a lot to me, but I can’t lay all my hopes and dreams on that,” she said.—Reuters

ing to help Australian compatriot Matt Goss claim his maiden Tour de France stage win.

A Twitter post from his team said Lancaster “had been dealing with significant lingering pain from his crash on Saturday.” The French Europcar team meanwhile lost two of its riders, with Giovanni Bernaudeau-the son of team manager and namesake Jean-Rene-and Vincent Jerome getting off their bikes and into their team cars. FDJ, who won the stage thanks to Pierrick Fedrigo, also lost their main sprinter Yauheni Hutarovich of Belarus.

The casualty list was completed by Dutchman Kenny Van Hummel, who became the fifth Vacansoleil rider to leave the race and leaves just four-like fellow Dutch team Rabobank-of his teammates remaining.—AFP

Capello to coach Russia

Serena bags Stanford title STANFORD: Top seed Serena Williams overcame a week fighting jet-lag to beat fellow American Coco Vandeweghe 7-5 6-3 to retain the Stanford Classic title on Sunday.

Just eight days after winning her fifth Wimbledon single title, Williams fought off a set point in the first set before overcoming big-serving Vandeweghe, who had reached her first WTA final.

The 30-year-old Williams used her experience and know-how to race past the 20-year-old, nailing 21 winners. Vandeweghe struck 20 winners but also committed 25 unforced errors.

Williams, who had been contending with jet lag much of the week after travelling from London to California, was satisfied with the title run.

“I played well enough to win, but I can do a lot better and play stronger,” she said. “But there are a lot of positives and I was fighting and I didn’t quit. “I survived and didn’t play my greatest, but mentally I was there and that really helped me a lot.”

Vandeweghe served for the first set at 5-4 but could not convert her only set point when Williams ripped a cross court backhand return off a second serve.

It took Williams six break

breathe despite taking antibiotics for three days, abandoned less than 50km into the 158.5km ride from Samatan. His team sports director Brian Holm said: “He’s lost his voice and he’d been finding it hard to breathe. “This morning he was really sick.

He spoke with the doctors of the team and they’ve advised him it would be best to pull out of the Tour.”

Chavanel started the race but was soon left trailing as several early attacks prompted a frantic increase in pace in the peloton. Orica-GreenEdge rider Brett Lancaster followed suit, the Australian pulling out before the halfway stage.

Orica-GreenEdge, Australia’s first elite level professional team and making their race debut, are now down to eight men for the remaining five stages. Lancaster had spent the past two weeks try-

STANFORD: Serena Williams, of the United States, holds the winner’s trophy after defeating Coco Vandeweghe, of the United States, during the final of the Bank of the West tennis tournament.—AP

MOSCOW: The Russian Football Union (RFU) yesterday appointed Italian coach Fabio Capello as new national manager to revive the flagging fortunes of the team after its flop at Euro 2012.

“Today we decided to appoint Capello as our national team’s new manager,” the RFU deputy president Nikita Simonyan told ITAR-TASS news agency. “We expect him to come to Moscow in the nearest future to finalise the details of his contract and sign it.” “I think this will happen tomorrow or Thursday,” added Simonyan, who is acting chief of the RFU after the ruling body’s previous head Sergei Fursenko resigned last month.

Capello said he was happy and proud to take over Russia’s national side. “I’m happy and proud,” Capello was quoted as saying by Italian news agency ANSA. “And I’ll be happy if my work with the Russian team will go right way. The co-operation with this team is a great challenge for me as Russia is a great country.” Financial details have not been disclosed but the Sport Express daily reported last week that Capello had been offered an annual salary of up to seven million euros ($8.5 million).

The 66-year-old Capello will be the immediate successor to Dutchman Dick Advocaat whose side were disappointingly knocked out of the Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine at the group stages.

Russia’s failure to qualify out of arguably the event’s weakest group despite being packed with highly-rated players such as Andrei Arshavin and Alan Dzagoev left the team a tough challenge to make the 2014 World Cup finals in Brazil.

Capello, nicknamed “Don Fabio”, has previously coached AC Milan, Roma, Juventus and Real Madrid during his managerial career, winning domestic titles with each before becoming England manager in 2007.

Under Capello, England qualified for Euro 2012 before the Italian resigned after falling out with Football Association chiefs after he stood by John Terry as skipper despite the Chelsea man being embroiled in a racism trial which ultimately saw the defender acquitted. In a sometimes farcical

selection process, the RFU last week announced a star-studded 13-man list of candidates. The ambitious list included ex-Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp, former Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez, former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola, Italian veteran Marcello Lippi and Argentinian coach Marcelo Bielsa.

The list also contained the names of seven Russian coaches but also Capello, who in the end appeared to be the only serious candidate. Why the RFU felt the need to publish its wish-list has never been explained.

Last Thursday Capello came to Moscow to hold talks with RFU and his arrival caused an immediate sensation in the Russian media.

However, the Italian travelled to Moscow in a hurry and was reportedly forced to wait in the airport for several hours while RFU officials finalised visa entry formalities.

After their meeting, Russian football officials expressed confidence they could agree terms with one of the biggest coaching names in the sport. “Capello is ready to work conscientiously and live here in Russia,” Simonyan was quoted as saying by the local media. “He did not make any extraordinary demands.”

Vyachesval Koloskov, the RFU honorary president said Capello can make Russian football much more attractive.

“Capello is one of the world’s strongest coaches,” he said. “His skills, experience and achievements make him number one in the world. His work here it will do Russian football good. He is able to make our football more attractive.”

“He will need assistans who knows our football well and will be able to initiate changes in our national team.” One of the Italian manager’s key conditions was reportedly having Italian-speaking Russian assistant coaches in his squad.

Igor Shalimov and Dmitry Alenichev, who have experience playing with Italian Serie A clubs and both speak the language, are top contenders to join Capello’s coaching team, Sport Express said.—AFP

Oman’s Bank Muscat Q2 profit up 19 pct Page 22

Financial scandals scare investors Page 24

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

Two US states probing banks over Libor manipulation Page 23

HSBC seeks to evict Hong Kong ‘Occupy’ protesters Page 25

MADRID: Government employees hold signs reading “This is a hold-up” during a demonstration against the Spanish government’s latest austerity measures, in center of Madrid, yesterday. Several hundreds government workers, including police officers, firefighters, and healthcare workers, joined the spontaneous protest after conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy announced, on July 13, the latest measures to lower Spain’s deficit, a 65-billion-euro (80 billion USD) austerity package involving among other things an increase in the VAT (TVA) tax and cuts in unemployment benefits. —AFP

Protests against cuts in Spain Spain suffers second recession in four years MADRID: Hundreds of Spanish firemen, police officers and nurses marched yelling through the streets yesterday, denouncing as “robbery” the pay cuts enforced under Spain’s latest fiscal emergency plan. “Hands up, this is a robbery,” cried protestors as they blocked a major thoroughfare in central Madrid in a demonstration organised through messages on social networking sites such as Twitter.

The latest protests erupted after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy last week announced new pay cuts and tax increases, aiming to save 65 billion euros ($80 billion) in order to lower the public deficit. Spain is suffering its second recession in four years, with an unemployment rate of more than 24 percent. Cuts to public

budgets are already affecting services such as schools and hospitals and critics say Rajoy’s new austerity measures will worsen economic conditions for ordinary people.

Among the latest steps is a cut in the Christmas bonus paid to civil servants, equivalent to a seven-percent reduction in annual pay. “It’s intolerable. The problems of the Spanish state don’t stem from civil servants...

It’s unfair and shameful,” said nurse Miguel Contreras, 28, who came to protest in the capital yesterday from the central Castilla-La Mancha region. “There are hospitals with whole floors that are not being used because they are firing and cutting jobs. We have little hope, but staying sat at home would just make

it easier for the government to keep on doing what it wants.”

Thousands of people protested on the streets of Madrid on Friday after the government approved the measures, and again on Sunday evening, when they marched to the parliament where access was blocked by riot police. Introduced by a conservative government under pressure from the European Union to stabilise Spain’s public finances, the latest measures also raised value-added sales tax, with the upper limit rising from 18 to 21 percent. “These measures will ruin Spain. We don’t consume, we don’t shop anymore. We have to hit the streets, we can’t just sit there,” said regional government worker Angeles Carrasco,

57. Spain’s two main unions, UGT and CCOO, have called for a day of demonstrations on Thursday. CCOO leader Ignacio Fernandez Toxo said on Monday that a general strike later was “inevitable” if the government maintained the austerity plan. This year has already seen one general strike, in March.

Unions have called for the protests to be peaceful but clashes broke out on the fringes of some demonstrations in Madrid last week, including a major march by striking coal miners on Wednesday.

Small groups of protestors threw stones and police fired rubber bullets, beat some protestors with batons and made several arrests.

Spain will this month become the fourth

eurozone country, after Greece, Ireland and Portugal, to get bailout funds when it receives the first tranche of a 100-billion-euro kitty for its banking sector.

The bailout has annoyed ordinary Spaniards who feel their banks are being rewarded while they endure cuts.

The axing of the bonus for civil servants came on top of an earlier pay cut in 2010, after which their salaries were frozen. “We can’t buy presents and food at Christmas,” said Maria Garcia, 50, an administrative worker for the regional government who attended yesterday’s demonstration during her half-hour morning coffee break. “If the vacuum cleaner breaks, you have to clean with a broom.” —AFP

Saudi drops to 3-week Low, Emaar lifts Dubai DUBAI: Shares in Zain Saudi slumped to a record low yesterday amid a slow initial take-up of its rights issue, while Saudi Arabia’s index fell to a near three-week low. But Emaar Properties lifted Dubai’s bourse.

Shares in Zain Saudi sank 4.4 percent to 11.90 riyals. The telecom operator’s $1.6 billion rights issue, which closes on Tuesday, has sold only 54 percent of shares available, lead underwriter Banque Saudi Fransi (BSF) said. Parent firm Zain and underwriting banks are set to meet any shortfall. “People are playing it as an arbitrage opportunity, selling it at the current price and buying it at 10 riyals (the rights issue price),” said Ahmed Raza Khan, head of research for asset management at Riyadh-based MEFIC Capital.

“Anyone not afraid to lose the percentage holding in their portfolio wouldn’t mind selling the stock and subscribing to the rights. After the rights issue closes, there might be some selling pressure again.”

Zain Saudi’s rights issue is being used largely to ease some of its debts. Saudi banks were lower with Alinma Bank down 2.6 percent and Bank Aljazira falling 2.7 percent. The kingdom’s main index slipped 0.3 percent in thin trade to 6,641 points, its lowest close since June 27.

Elsewhere, Dubai bellwether Emaar Properties hit an 11-week high ahead of the developer’s quarterly earnings, expected in com-

ing weeks. This lifted the emirate’s bourse to its highest close since May 9.

Three analysts polled by Reuters expect the developer to post an average profit of 516.3 million dirhams ($141 million), which would be a 106 percent increase on a year earlier.

“People are expecting better results this quarter than usual,” said Mostafa Yousry, Cairo-based equity trader at EFG-Hermes. “Hotels have been doing pretty well in 2012 so far. So a nice piece of revenue should be rolling in from that as well.”

Shares in Emaar rose 2.5 percent to 3.23 dirhams, their highest close since May 1. “Emaar is heading to 3.35, its next resistance level, while support will come in at 3.00,” said Mohabeldeen Agena, head of technical analysis at Cairo’s Beltone Financial. “The rally is backed by strong volumes.” The stock peaked around 3.35 dirhams in April 2011 and again in April 2012.

Contractor Arabtec added 2.8 percent and budget carrier Air Arabia rose 1.7 percent, outperforming the benchmark, which climbed 0.9 percent. Elsewhere, shares in Bank Muscat rose 2.9 percent, up for a third session since last Wednesday’s two-year low, after the lender reported higher-than-expected earnings. It made a second-quarter profit of 35 million rials ($91 million), according to Reuters calculations.

In Egypt, the main index gained 0.5 percent, as bargain hunters stepped in after recent

declines spurred by the failure of the new president to appoint a government more than three weeks since his election win.

Traders say the market is focused on the need for a cabinet that can tackle the country’s urgent economic problems and that shares will likely rally in relief once President Mohamed Mursi announces a new prime minister.

SAUDI ARABIA The benchmark slipped 0.3 percent to 6,641 points.

DUBAI The measure rose 0.9 percent to 1,517 points.

OMAN The index rose 0.6 percent to 5,499 points.

EGYPT The benchmark gained 0.5 percent to 4,741 points.

QATAR The index gained 0.1 percent to 8,295 points.

KUWAIT The index ticks up 0.09 percent to 5,860 points.

ABU DHABI The benchmark slipped 0.2 percent to 2,457 points.

BAHRAIN The measure gained 0.2 percent to 1,115 points. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: Pedestrians pass by the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund(IMF) in this June 5, 2011 file photo in Washington, DC. The International Monetary Fund stepped up its warnings yesterday on risks to the global economy, especially coming from Europe, as it trimmed its growth forecast for the rest of the year. The IMF said the world economy appeared weaker since its assessment just three months ago, and while growth was only slightly off the expected pace, “downside risks continue to loom large,” especially from inadequate or slow policy reactions in major economies. — AFP

22

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

BUSINESS

Direct Line’s buyout suitors face uphill struggle LONDON: Buyout firms hoping to snap up Royal Bank of Scotland’s Direct Line Group will have to put forward a compelling offer to distract the British bank from a well-advanced plan to list its motor insurance business. Floating Direct Line could value Britain’s No. 1 motor insurer at over 3 billion pounds ($4.7 billion), analysts reckon, which would likely be more than bargain-hungry private equity groups are willing to pay.

An initial public offering would also make it easier for RBS to keep a stake in Direct Line in anticipation of better times. “If they do a phased initial public offering, RBS would have more of the upside,” Oriel Securities analyst Mike Trippitt said. “If they retain say 30 percent and they get a bit of market recovery, they can go again at a higher level.”

Private equity firms Bain Capital and Blackstone have been considering an offer for Direct Line, which also

state bailout it received in 2008, is putting the finishing touches to a planned autumn IPO. “The plan remains to IPO the business in the second half of 2012, subject to market conditions,” a Direct Line spokesman said. RBS last week added a further eight investment banks to its advisors for an IPO, a process being run by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS. The lender, 82 percent state-owned since its bailout, has been preparing Direct Line for sale for about two years, turning around Direct Line’s financial performance after it crashed to a 295 million pound loss in 2010.

RBS has also put in place a new senior management team at the unit, equipped it with its own investor relations department, and developed a separate Direct Line brand.

The IPO market in Europe has been in the doldrums since the onset of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis in

includes the Churchill and Privilege brands, people familiar with the situation said.

Apax Partners, BC Partners and KKR are also mulling a bid, though they have not agreed formally to join forces, another person familiar with the situation said.

Both plans are at an early stage and neither team has made an approach to RBS or Direct Line, three of the people said. Private equity groups have long coveted Direct Line because of its market-leading position and ability to generate strong cash flows from regular insurance premiums.

However, their ability to pay is limited by a dearth of affordable debt financing, while the government will be keen to avoid the potential embarrassment of seeing state-owned assets sold too cheaply to private equity.

The buyout interest comes as RBS, ordered by European Union regulators to sell Direct Line as payback for a

2010, with companies including German chemicals conglomerate Evonik and Georgia’s state railway monopoly forced to pull offerings this year. Direct Line could get a warmer welcome, as its strong balance sheet and steady income stream supports an ability to pay generous dividends.

RBS aims to sell a minority stake in Direct Line at first to avoid swamping the market. That could create a stock overhang weighing on the share price as RBS prepares to offload at least 51 percent of Direct Line by end-2013 to satisfy EU regulators.

But an IPO could still prove more lucrative than a sale to buyout firms who will negotiate hard on price after Britain’s Office of Fair Trading threatened in May to refer the motor insurance market to the competition regulator. “Private equity will be in there with a price hammer, pushing down the valuation because of the OFT stuff,” Shore Capital analyst Eamonn

Flanagan said.

“Private equity people like a reasonable element of certainty and the OFT provisional referral to the Competition Commission does not provide any certainty whatsoever.” The OFT has said it will decide in October whether to call for a full anti-trust probe of the motor insurance market, citing concern that dysfunctional competition was pushing up premiums for consumers.

Buyout groups BC Partners and CVC both came close to buying Direct Line more than three years ago, when RBS hoped to sell it for about 6 billion pounds, although the sale was pulled shortly after the lender’s bailout.

Analysts said the best outcome for RBS would be an offer from an insurer able to afford a higher price thanks to post-merger cost savings, although competition worries and strict new capital requirements make any such bid unlikely. — Reuters

Oman’s Bank Muscat Q2 profit up 19 pct H1 profit 68.4 million rials

TOKYO: Nissan Motor Co. Executive Vice President Andy Palmer poses with Nissan’s new compact car “Note” unveiled at a world premiere event in Yokohama, near Tokyo, yesterday. The hatchback is equipped with advanced Around View Monitor (AVM) which uses four cameras and a monitor to display the car as if it were shown from above so a driver the can see car and its relation to the lines around the parking space. — AP

Hyundai Motor union plans new strike SEOUL: The main union at South Korea’s Hyundai Motor said it will resume wage talks with management mid-week and stage another partial strike on Friday, signalling protracted labour tension at the world’s fifth-biggest carmaker and affiliate Kia Motors.

“The chance is slim for us to seal a wage deal before the summer vacation which is from July 28 to August 5,” said union spokesman Kwon Oh-il yesterday, adding the union will hold talks on Wednesday, but refuse overtime work on July 26 and July 27.

Workers at the top automaker in South Korea staged their first strike in four years on July 13 after negotiations collapsed amid disagreements over

working conditions. The country’s oncepowerful trade unions, largely silenced by conservative President Lee Myungbak’s tough anti-labour stance since he came to power in 2008, are demanding better working conditions as this year’s presidential elections approach and Lee’s mandatory single term draws to an end.

As well, more than 70,000 financial sector workers in South Korea voted on Friday to stage their first industry-wide strike in 12 years later this month. The moves came as Asia’s fourth-biggest economy cut its economic growth outlook as Europe’s debt crisis deepened, and many South Korean households struggle to pay off heavy debts. — Reuters

DUBAI: Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender by market value, posted a 19-percent increase in second-quarter net profit, slightly higher than analysts’ expectations. The bank made a net profit of 35 million rials ($90.9 million) for the three months to June 30, according to Reuters’ calculations, up from the 29.4 million rials in the same period last year.

Analysts polled by Reuters had estimated an average second-quarter profit of 33.2 million rials.

Reuters calculated the net profit figure based on the bank’s previous financial results.

It posted a net profit of 68.4 million rials for the first half of the year, compared to 57.2 million rials in the prior-year period.

Loans and advances rose 21 percent yearon-year to 5.18 billion rials at the end of June compared to 4.27 billion rials at the same point last year, an Oman bourse statement said. Customer deposits rose 16.3 percent, largely driven by demand and saving deposits, the statement said, while provisions for the six months to June 30 totalled 25 million rials, down 2.8 percent from the prioryear period.

Bank Muscat said last month it was planning to raise 96.7 million rials from a rights issue due to take place July 9-23. Capital raised from the offering would be used to fund credit expansion and its future Islamic banking window.

In a separate bourse announcement on Monday, Bank Muscat said the rights issue would close a day earlier, on July 22, because July 23 had been declared a public holiday in Oman. Shares in Bank Muscat were trading 3.5 percent higher at 0830 GMT, but are 21 percent lower so far this year. — Reuters

Jazeera Airways issues Q2 2012 operational performance report KUWAIT: Award-winning Jazeera Airways yesterday issued its Q2 2012 operational performance, which showed that the airline has continued to grab leading market shares to the destinations it serves.

The today-issued report had placed Jazeera Airways as the leading airline between Kuwait and Amman, and between Kuwait and the following five Egyptian cities: Alexandria, Sharm El Sheikh, Assiut, Sohag and Luxor.

The report is based on official figures from Kuwait’s Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA).

The airline captured a 38% market share on the Kuwait-Amman, a 31% market share on the Kuwait-Alexandria route, a 60% market share on the Kuwait-Sharm El Sheikh route, a 50% market share on the Kuwait-Assiut route, 38% market

share on the Kuwait-Sohag route, and a 71% market share on the Kuwait-Luxor route.

The airline’s market share also increased on the Kuwait-Cairo route during Q2 to 27%, with a 28% market share during the month of May alone, an 8% increase from April 2012 and an all-time high since it launched the route in May 2011. The report also showed that Jazeera Airways was the leading Kuwaiti airline between Kuwait and Beirut (capturing 32%), Kuwait and Bahrain (capturing 13%), and Kuwait and Dubai (capturing 16%). Jazeera Airways also reported this week that it ranked the highest in on-time performance (OTP) in the Middle East in the second quarter of 2012, as measured by FlightStats, the US-based global OTP tracker. The airline’s OTP for the second quarter was 94.21%.

DETROIT: Citigroup Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit speaks during the Manufactoring town hall meeting at the National Summit in Detroit, Michigan, yesterday. Citigroup profits fell 12 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period a year before, the bank announced yesterday. — AFP

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds

.2740000 .4340000 .3420000 .2840000 .2750000 .2850000 .0040000 .0020000 .0761890 .7422910 .3850000 .0720000 .7276840 .0430000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2806500 GB Pound/KD .4370420 Euro .3438380 Swiss francs .2862020 Canadian dollars .2766800 Danish Kroner .0461990 Swedish Kroner .0399310 Australian dlr .2871050 Hong Kong dlr .0361780 Singapore dlr .2218230 Japanese yen .0035430 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0764400 Bahraini dinars .7447260 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0748600 Omani riyals .7292450 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. ASIAN COUNTRIES

Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Malaysian Ringgit

3.553 5.072 3.053 2.141 3.173 220.090 36.173 3.425 6.439 8.876 89.338

.2840000 .4460000 .3540000 .2980000 .2850000 .2950000 .0070000 .0035000 .0769550 .7497510 .4060000 .0780000 .7349980 .0510000 .2827500 .4403120 .3464110 .2883440 .2787500 .0465450 .0402300 .2892520 .0364490 .2234820 .0035690 .0051560 .0021210 .0030100 .0034690 .0770120 .7502990 .3999290 .0754200 .7347020 .0067900

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

GCC COUNTRIES 74.883 77.158 729.380 745.850 76.464

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 48.250 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 46.466 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.309 Tunisian Dinar 176.65 Jordanian Dinar 396.190 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.884 Syrian Lier 4.899 Morocco Dirham 32.64 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 280.700 Euro 354.52 Sterling Pound 441.820 Canadian dollar 274.79 Turkish lire 152.400 Swiss Franc 295.01 US Dollar Buying 279.500 GOLD 293.000 148.000 75.250

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

47.400 732.240 3.100 6.970 77.980 75.270 224.090 36.400 2.685 442.800 41.000 290.900 4.400 9.260 198.263 76.860 282.300 1.350

10 Tola

GOLD 1,690.900

Sterling Pound US Dollar

732.060 2.997 6.734 77.550 75.270 224.090 36.400 2.104 440.800 289.400 4.400 9.100 76.760 281.900

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 440.800 281.900

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY

SELL CASH

SELL DRAFT

Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria

291.300 749.690 3.680 281.100 553.600 45.900 47.400 167.800 48.580 349.100 37.040 5.290 0.032 0.161 0.236 3.660 399.480 0.191 91.600 43.800 4.330 227.900 1.826

289.800 749.690 3.443 279.600

224.100 46.486 347.600 36.890 5.130 0.031

SELL DRAFT

Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

290.45 280.12 291.34 347.66 281.55 439.17 3.63 3.444 5.062 2.109 3.171 3.004 76.72 749.67 46.52 401.12 732.76 77.75 75.29

SELL CASH

288.00 279.00 299.00 357.00 281.25 442.00 3.65 3.550 5.950 2.260 3.650 3.200 77.000 745.150 48.200 397.500 732.00 78.00 75.150

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd 399.450 0.190 91.600 3.230 226.400

Rate for Transfer

Selling Rate

US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro

281.800 281.680 439.765 345.595

287.810 746.060 76.703 77.352 75.108 397.239 46.458 2.103 5.133 2.987 3.444 6.719 691.255 4.555 8.985 4.390 3.285 88.685

Kuwait Bahrain Intl Exchange Co.

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY

Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Currency

Rate per 1000 (Tran)

US Dollar Pak Rupees Indian Rupees Sri Lankan Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso UAE Dirhams Saudi Riyals Bahraini Dinars Egyptian Pounds Pound Sterling Indonesian Rupiah Nepali rupee Yemeni Riyal Euro Canadian Dollars

281.800 2.985 5.150 2.110 3.445 6.740 76.825 75.300 749.200 46.475 444.400 2.990 3.205 1.550 350.900 285.900

Al Mulla Exchange Currency

Transfer Rate (Per 1000)

US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

282.050 347.300 440.550 279.400 3.610 5.106 46.530 2.107 3.450 6.720 2.990 749.600 76.700 75.200

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

business

Two US states probing banks over Libor manipulation NEW YORK: New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has launched a probe into possible manipulation of the Libor benchmark international lending rates by global banks, his spokesman said yesterday. Schneiderman, along with Connecticut’s Attorney General George Jepsen started the investigation six months ago into the possible rigging of Libor, the London interbank offered rate, New York Attorney General spokesman James Freedland told Reuters.

Libor is compiled from estimates by big banks of how much they believe they have to pay to borrow from each other. It is used for $550 trillion of interest rate derivatives contracts and influences rates on many lending transactions, including

mortgages, student loans and credit cards.

“Working together, the New York and Connecticut attorneys general have been looking into these issues for over six months, and will continue to follow the facts wherever they lead,” Freedland said.

Jepsen’s spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a call and an email for comment.

Barclays Plc, the bank at the center of the Libor scandal, was fined a record $450 million last month by US and British authorities for manipulating the rate, but the deal does not shield Barclays employees from criminal prosecution.

The US Justice Department is also building criminal cases against several

financial institutions and their employees related to the manipulation of interest rates, The New York Times reported on Saturday.

The Times said cities, states and municipalities in the United States were trying to determine whether they suffered loses due to rate manipulation and some had filed suit.

Given the broad scope of the Libor case and the number of institutions thought to be involved, the investigations could provide authorities with a “signature moment” to hold big banks accountable for misdeeds during the financial crisis, which hit global markets from late 2007, the newspaper said.

The investigation is unusually com-

plex, could continue for years and end in settlements rather than indictments, the Times said, citing officials close to the case. Separately, Bloomberg reported that Barclays traders involved in allegedly manipulating Libor rates between 2005 and 2007 could face possible U.S. charges before the Labor Day holiday in September. The agency had cited a person familiar with the Justice Department investigation.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment to Bloomberg. Both Justice department and Barclays could not immediately be reached for comment by Reuters outside regular US and UK business hours.

The New York Attorney General has

powerful tools in his legal arsenal including the state securities fraud statute known as the Martin Act. That law allows authorities to establish financial fraud without proving intent to defraud. The AG can bring both civil and criminal cases.

States can also make the case that rate rigging harmed state finances by lowering returns on financial contracts with banks, such as interest rate swaps which help small governments manage the cost of their debt. If Libor is artificially lowered, the state receives smaller payments.

Barclays will pull out of the rate-setting panel for interbank lending in the United Arab Emirates because of its involvement in the Libor scandal in that country, industry sources said. — Reuters

Growth, Spanish debt woes hit euro, shares German debt prices gain on safe haven flows

NEW YORK: A man walks by a Citibank branch at the US bank Citigroup world headquarters on Park Avenue, in New York, in this November 17, 2008 file photo. Citigroup profits fell 12 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period a year before, the bank announced yesterday. — AFP

Citigroup earns $2.9b in Q2, beats Street NEW YORK: Citigroup made $2.9 billion in the April-to-June period, helped by lowering the amount it keeps aside for loan losses because more of its customers paid back loans on time.

The bank says it earned 95 cents per share, exceeding the 89 cents expected by analysts surveyed by data provider FactSet. The income included a $984 million decrease in the bank’s loan loss reserves and an accounting gain of $219 million because the value of its debt decreased.

Revenue was $18.6 billion, down 10 percent from the year-ago quar ter.

Analysts expected $18.8 billion.

Citi’s stock was up 50 cents, or almost 2 percent, to $27.13 in before-market trading. Overall, Citigroup’s net income declined 12 percent from the second quarter 2011 to $2.9 billion. Income was hurt by a $424 million loss the bank took from selling its 10 percent stake in Turkey’s Akbank. As more of its customers, both consumer and commercial, paid back loans on time, Citi kept aside less for future losses - $27.6 billion at the end of the quarter, compared with $34.4 billion in the prior year period.

The volatility in the second quarter from the European debt crisis hurt Citi’s

earnings in the investment banking division. Investment banking revenue declined 21 percent to $854 million.

Over the weekend, Citigroup said it will not seek to increase its dividend this year but may seek permission to raise it in 2013.

“I believe we will be in good shape and have the capital to be able to do that by the end of the year,” CEO Vikram Pandit told the U.K.’s Sunday Telegraph in a rare interview. “That’s a decision that will have to be taken with our regulators, and we will have those conversations at the end of the year.”

The bank did not ask the Federal Reserve for permission to raise the dividend last month, when it submitted its latest capital plan.

Citi currently pays a token amount of 1 cent per share every quarter. Pandit had previously promised shareholders a higher dividend earlier in the year.

The Fed in March said the bank did not have enough capital to raise its dividend and withstand another financial crisis. That was a blow to Pandit, whose 2011 compensation package of $15 million for last year and $10 million retention pay was rejected by shareholders in an advisory vote the following month.— AP

Brent stays above $102 SINGAPORE: Brent crude held steady above $102 per barrel yesterday on optimism over the outlook for demand growth as China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said the government will step up efforts to boost the economy of the world’s second-largest oil consumer.

Oil rallied for a third day on Friday after China’s economy expanded in line with expectations, easing concerns a slowdown in Europe was hurting a lot more than expected. Even though China’s growth slowed for the sixth successive quarter, Asian shares and the euro extended their rally yesterday on signs steps Beijing had taken so far were underpinning the economy. Brent crude slipped 5 cents to $102.35 a barrel by 0232 GMT. Prices settled $1.33 higher on Friday, crossing its 50-day moving average below $102 for the first time since April. U.S. oil fell 41 cents to $86.69 a barrel, after ending $1.02 higher. The contract also pushed above its 50-moving average of $87.50 for the first time since May on Friday.

“Short-term sentiment should be good for oil as well as other risk assets. It is a combination of two factors-China’s growth coming in in line with expectations and hopes for more measures to boost the economy,” said Ben Le Brun, a markets analyst at OptionsXpress in Sydney.

“We are seeing prices come off a bit due to profit-taking. Any dips will face quite strong support levels.” China’s Wen said efforts to stabilise the economy are working and the government will step up efforts in the second half of the year to increase policy effectiveness and foresight, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. He said the economy was running at a slower, more stable pace of growth.

“The economic growth rate is still within the government target range set early this year, and stabilisation policies are working,”

Wen was quoted as saying. Prices are also drawing support from hopes Europe’s fiscal crisis would stabilise after Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she was confident a majority of German lawmakers would back aid for Spain’s ailing banks.

Fresh warning by Iran to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world’s sea-borne oil exports passes, if its security is threatened is also supporting prices. Tehran will increase its military presence in international waters, said Ali Fadavi, naval commander in Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Brent has slipped 20 percent from the highs for the year touched in March despite concerns over supply disruptions from the Middle East as investors worry about demand growth amid a slowdown in the West. A slew of announcements over the weekend that have helped improve the supply outlook are, however, capping price gains. Yemen’s oil minister said on Sunday the country may be able to resume exports as planned this week after tribesmen agreed to allow repairs to the country’s main crude pipeline.

The presidents of Sudan and South Sudan on Saturday held their first talks since their countries came close to war in April, raising hopes for a negotiated settlement of oil and border disputes before an Aug. 2 UN Security Council deadline.

The United Arab Emirates loaded its first cargo on Sunday from its long-awaited new oil export terminal on the Gulf of Oman as Iran renews threats to close the Strait of Hormuz. Brent will retrace to $101.26 per barrel as a corrective wave cycle has completed on the rise from the July 10 low of $97.73 to $103.44, while US oil will rise to $88.98 per barrel after a moderate correction to $86.07 per barrel, according to Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao.—Reuters

LONDON: The worsening outlook for the world economy and uncertainty about Spain’s bank bailout pushed the euro to a 3-1/2 year low against sterling and drove safe-haven German bond prices higher yesterday.

World equities were also lower but investors were trading cautiously ahead of the start of US Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s twoday congressional testimony today.

They are waiting to see if he hints at new monetary policy steps to support the US economy after central banks from Europe, China and Brazil earlier this month cut interest rates to bolster fragile growth.

An index of US sentiment on Friday pointed to a slowdown in consumer spending and June jobs data disappointed earlier in the month, adding to evidence that the US recovery is slowing.

“2012 is turning out to be a slightly worse year for the U.S., for China and for Europe,” said Sarah Hewin, senior economist at Standard Chartered in London.

“We’re seeing the three large regions of the (global) economy all experiencing below potential growth and, in the case of Europe, we think we’ll see a recession for the year as a whole,” she said.

In foreign exchange markets, the euro’s weakness against the dollar and sterling was exacerbated by a report suggesting a change in the European Central Bank’s stance on how some bondholders could be treated under Spain’s bank bailout.

The Wall Street Journal said ECB President Mario Draghi advocated imposing losses on holders of senior bonds issued by the worst hit Spanish savings banks.

The ECB declined to comment on the report, which also said finance ministers rejected the advice due to concerns financial markets would react badly to such a decision.

“The euro is likely to remain on the defensive ... If this report gains credibility that would be another reason to play the euro from the short side,” said Jeremy Stretch, currency strategist at CIBC. The euro was down 0.2 percent at $1.2223, just above last week’s two-year low of $1.2162

and had touched a low of 78.55 pence against sterling, its weakest level since late 2008.

The final terms of the 100 billion Spanish bank bailout package are expected to be agreed by euro zone finance ministers this Friday.

German debt, which has been a shelter from the rise in yields on Spanish and Italian bonds, extended a week of gains on Monday with confidence the bank bailout would resolve the problems facing Spain beginning to ebb.

Germany’s 10-year bond was yielding around 1.24 percent, down one basis point, while Spanish 10-year bond yields were 8 basis points higher at 6.74 percent.

Equivalent Italian bonds gained 7 basis points to yield just over 6.0 percent. European shares edged lower with investors reluctant to push the

market higher after six weeks of gains because the early stages of the second quarter earnings season has shown signs the euro zone debt crisis is weighing on profits.

The FTSE Eurofirst 300 index of top European shares was down 0.15 percent at 1041.47 points. The MSCI world equity index was also fractionally lower at 309.18 points despite Asian shares having posted a stronger session after gross domestic product data on Friday suggested China may not face an economic hard landing. China’s Premier Wen Jiabao said the government would step up efforts to boost the economy and this helped lift Brent crude prices 6 cents to $102.46 a barrel and underpinned gold which was little changed at $1,589.75 an ounce. — Reuters

MADRID: In a July 13, 2012 file photo a demonstrator challenges the police officers during a protest against the recent austerity measures announced by the Spanish government, in front of the Popular Party in Madrid, Spain. A survey by the National Association for Business Economics released yesterday, says economists are gloomy about short-term growth in part because of Europe’s financial crisis. — AP

GSK set for Human Genome takeover NEW YORK/LONDON: GlaxoSmithKline is expected to announce a deal to buy Human Genome Sciences for about $2.8 billion as soon as today, ending a three-month hostile pursuit of the US biotech company on friendly terms after sweetening its offer.

Sources familiar with the situation said Britain’s biggest drugmaker was set to pay around $14 per share, up from $13 offered previously, which Human Genome - an early pioneer of gene-based drug discovery - had rejected as inadequate.

Biotechnology companies are in increasing demand as Big Pharma companies seek new products to replace older medicines that are going off patent in the biggest wave of drug patent expiries in history.

The acquisition will secure GSK full rights to Benlysta, a recently-launched drug for lupus, a disease of the immune system, and other experimental medicines for diabetes and heart disease. A deal is expected to be announced before the US stock market opens, the sources said, asking not to be identified because the matter is not public. The agreement has yet to

be finalised and the companies are still working out last-minute details, the sources said. “It looks like a great conclusion for Glaxo. At around $14 a share, it is marginally higher than they first pitched but lower than I expected them to have to pay,” said Navid Malik, an industry analyst at Cenkos Securities.

He sees the deal as a “nice to have” rather than a need to have for GSK, whose $112 billion market value dwarves that of Human Genome.

GSK will now enjoy 100 percent of the upside if the biotech firm’s drugs live up to their promise.

Shares in the British group traded 0.5 percent higher yesterday morning.

There have been a spate of acquisitions of biotech companies this year as large pharmaceutical companies seek to rebuild their pipelines. Most recently, Bristol-Myers Squibb agreed to buy diabetes specialist Amylin Pharmaceuticals by sharing the $7 billion cost of the deal with AstraZeneca.

Human Genome, which rejected GSK’s $2.6 billion offer in April as too low and launched an auction process, had come under pressure from investors to try and strike a deal with the British

AHMEDABAD: An Indian worker collects eggs at the Seven Star Poultry Farm in Piplaj village, around 20 kms from Ahmedabad yesterday. The Indian poultry industry contributed $10.8 billion to the GNP and provides employment to over six million people. — AFP

drugmaker in the absence of any alternative bids. The US company set itself a July 16 deadline for finding higher bids but interest has been limited because GSK, its long-time partner, already has marketing rights to its drugs.

US biotech company Celgene was at one stage considering whether to bid and was conducting due diligence, according to a separate source familiar with the matter, but negative analyst and investor reaction when news of those discussions broke deterred the US group.

Without alternative bids, Human Genome shareholders had been pressing the company’s management to engage with GSK before July 16 to avoid a share price collapse - and that argument acted as a trigger for weekend discussions.

Human Genome reached out first to its hostile suitor to negotiate a deal, according to one of the sources.

While the expected deal incorporates a small bump to the existing $2.6 billion offer, a socalled contingent value right (CVR) — an additional benefit tied to a specific drug’s success-is not expected to be part of a arrangement, the sources added.

A spokesman for GSK declined to comment, while officials at Human Genome were not immediately available.

Last year, Human Genome and GSK won approval for Benlysta, the first new treatment for lupus in 50 years. But the drug’s launch disappointed investors and Human Genome’s shares fell from a high above $25 to a low of $6.51 in December.

GSK made its offer a few months later, prompting Human Genome to launch an auction with the help of Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. Human Genome and GSK share rights to Benlysta. They are also collaborating on two other experimental drugs in late-stage trials for heart disease and diabetes, where GSK owns a large majority of the economic interest.

Buying Human Genome will give GSK full rights to these partnered drugs and GSK will be also be able to strip out costs. As a result, GSK’s chief executive, Andrew Witty, told investors in May he expected to deliver “an extraordinary return” through the acquisition.

Human Genome investors had been hoping that GSK would sweeten its offer and the shares closed on Friday at $13.58 - above GSK’s offer but well down on the level of more than $15 hit in April, soon after the unsolicited offer was made public. — Reuters

24

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

business

Financial scandals scare investors Is it killing confidence?

NEW YORK: It wasn’t supposed to be like this. After the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression almost took the global economy over a cliff, tough new regulations and stronger internal controls at the world’s major banks were meant to help restore confidence in the financial system.

But recent headlines have some top investors and strategists questioning whether there has been any progress at all.

The horror stories include the deepening scandal that big banks rigged Libor, the benchmark international lending rate; JPMorgan Chase’s mounting losses from disastrous credit bets and a possible coverup attempt; and the disappearance of customer funds from Iowa futures broker PFGBest, discovered after its founder tried to commit suicide and left a note outlining a 20-year fraud.

Add in the problems surrounding the botched trading debut by Facebook as well as the insider trading scandal that led to the conviction of hedge fund managers and big name businessmen such as former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta — and the picture isn’t pretty.

The signs of a falloff in investor confidence are not hard to spot.

US Treasuries, the traditional safe-haven for risk-averse investors, are drawing big demand even though they offer only the slimmest of returns, while US equity mutual funds have racked up big outflows.

And even though some of that investment trend may reflect the fragility of the U.S. economic recovery, the real problem lies elsewhere, said Larr y Jeddeloh, founder and chief investment officer of the TIS Group, an institutional research firm

that also manages client money. “ The bigger problem, which I think investors are focusing on, is confidence in the financial system is eroding,” he said.

“There have been a litany of failures and confidence-reducing events recently which should cause anyone with a stock certificate and a heartbeat to think hard about what to do with their stocks,” he said.

For many small and even some big investors, the recent headline events create a perception that the system can be gamed and that they could lose money because those who are able to manipulate a rate or a stock price or have inside information wield a big advantage, investors and strategists say.

At worst, in cases like the failed brokerages MF Global and PFGBest-with the echoes of the Bernie Madoff and Allen Stanford Ponzi scams also ringing in investors’ ears-it means that someone could simply raid their account and take their money.

It all feeds into a wider political backdrop. The speed with which the Occupy Wall Street movement gathered pace last year was seen by some economists and major investors as a growing symbol of the distrust of banks and the inability or unwillingness of the authorities to crack down on corporate malfeasance and greed.

Almost all of the scandals lead to allegations that regulators are asleep at the wheel or simply lack the firepower to keep up with the misbehavior.

In the scandal over the rigging of Liborthe London interbank offered rate that influences interest rates around the world-

documents released last week showed that regulators on both sides of the Atlantic knew years ago that there was something very wrong with the system but they have done very little to try to fix it.

Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, said the Libor scandal is fueling public anger toward the banks. “The revelations broadly are another episode that is damaging to people’s confidence in the financial services industry, and that’s a shame,” he said in an interview with Reuters last week.

In the case of PFGBest, its founder and sole owner, Russell Wasendorf Sr., confessed in a signed statement that he duped the National Futures Association, which had first-line responsibility for overseeing non-clearing brokers such as PFGBest, for up to two decades by forging bank documents. The FBI arrested Wasendorf on Friday and accused him of stealing more than $100 million from clients.

Even so, investors sometimes still shake off fears and plunge back into risky assets.

On Friday, after JPMorgan revealed its trading losses could be as high as $7.5 billion and Reuters reported that federal criminal investigators are investigating whether JPMorgan employees in London hid the problem, its shares rose 6 percent and the US stock market rallied. Among the reasons given by traders and investors: The worst of the scandal may be behind the bank.

“I am always surprised at the resiliency of the American investor and how people have become comfortably numb with each new scandal,” said Frank Partnoy, a former derivatives trader who has written books

on the instruments and a law professor at the University of San Diego. The lack of confidence may not always be apparent in day-to-day trading but it is showing up in financial markets in a number of other ways.

Investors are mostly shying away from assets that carry high or even modest levels of risk and parking their money in US Treasuries and other places that pay very low interest rates. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield on Friday was at 1.49 percent, just a hair away from the record low of 1.46 percent touched in early June. Cash balances at major companies remain at very high levels. Those trends are occurring even though the world’s major central banks, led by the Fed, have found innovative ways to create easy monetary policies in an attempt to get companies and consumers to spend.

According to Jeff Tjornehoj, head of Lipper Americas Research, US equity mutual funds have had net inflows just once in the past five years, in 2010. Investors have pulled a net $305 billion from such funds since the end of 2007.

Taxable bond funds, on the other hand, last had annual net outflows in 2000 and since the end of 2007 have taken in a total of $834 billion, Tjornehoj said.

On the corporate side, a number of initial public offerings have been pulled or delayed in the wake of Facebook’s fumbled IPO. While Facebook’s $16 billion offering made the second quarter the strongest period on record for dollars raised, the number of deals fell by 50 percent to 11 in the quarter versus the same period last year, according to data from the National

Venture Capital Association and Thomson Reuters. Major technical problems on the Nasdaq exchange that messed up the first day of Facebook trading were not the only issue to sting investor confidence. Analysts at Morgan Stanley and other underwriters cut their earnings and revenue forecasts on Facebook only days before the IPO-but they only told select clients, inflaming concerns that retail investors are saddled with a big handicap.

“The investor needs to be confident that he has a fair shot, that the deck is not stacked against him, or he will pull his capital out, unless something happens to convince him he should stay in,” said Jeddeloh, of the TIS Group.

The Libor scandal may be the most insidious. More than a dozen banks are under investigation by authorities in Europe, Japan and the United States over suspected rigging of Libor, which is used to set many lending and borrowing rates on hundreds of trillions of contracts globally, influencing rates on everything from home mortgages to student loans and credit cards. British bank Barclays has agreed to pay fines of $453 million and its top three executives have quit after the release of emails showing traders at the bank brazenly seeking to manipulate Libor rates.

Many other major banks are expected to reach settlements with the authorities or face prosecution, and some individuals could also face criminal charges. Litigation from those who claim they suffered losses because of the manipulation is expected to embroil the banks in legal hell for some years and could potentially cost them trillions of dollars. — Reuters

NEW YORK: People pump gasoline at a Shell station on the east side of Manhattan in this March 16, 2012 photo in New York. US retail sales fizzled in June, falling for the third consecutive month amid lower gasoline prices and as consumers kept a tight hold on their wallets, government data showed yesterday. — AFP

US retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June WASHINGTON: Americans cut their spending at retail businesses for a third straight month, as a weak job market has made consumers more cautious.

Retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June from May, the Commerce Depar tment said yesterday.

Consumers spent less on autos, furniture, appliances, on building and garden supplies and at department stores.

“However hard you look, there’s just no good news in this report at all,” said Paul Ashworth, chief US economist at Capital Economics.

The drop in sales followed declines in the previous two months. Retail sales haven’t fallen for three straight months since the fall of 2008, at the height of the financial crisis.

Despite the declines, retail sales were still 4.7 percent higher in the April-June period than in the second quarter of 2011.

Some of the weakness in recent months reflects falling gas prices.

But even excluding sales at gas stations, retail spending fell 0.3 percent in June from May. Consumers have grown less confident in the economy this spring.

Hiring has slumped and wages have barely kept pace with inflation, keeping budgets tight. As a result, consumers have pulled back sharply on their spending, which drives 70 percent of economic activity.

“Recent weak jobs data have certainly done nothing to alter our view that consumer spending growth will be very modest at best in the quarters ahead,” said Joshua Shapiro, chief US economist at MFR, Inc. “A silver lining in the economic clouds is that lower gasoline

prices are helping to cushion the consumer.”

Sales at auto dealers fell 0.6 percent in June compared to May. That’s a gloomier assessment of the industry than earlier reports from automakers. Those reports said auto sales increased 22 percent in June from the same month in 2011.

However, the automakers do not adjust their sales data for seasonal changes. And their data only reflect changes compared to the same month in the previous year.

But the weakness in June went well beyond auto sales. The government report showed sales fell 0.7 percent at department stores and declined 1.6 percent at building supply stores. Sales at furniture stores and electronics and appliance stores both fell 0.8 percent.

Sales at gas stations declined 1.8 percent after a 2 percent drop in May. The declines reflected lower gas prices, which are down more than 50 cents since early April.

The economy is expanding too slowly to lower the unemployment rate, which stayed at 8.2 percent in June.

Employers have created an average of just 75,000 jobs a month in the April-June quarter - a third of the monthly job growth during the previous three months.

US futures headed lower as a disappointing repor t on retail spending hinted that consumers may once again be heading for shelter.

It was the third straight month of declines for the retail sector.

Dow Jones industrial average futures slid 44 points to 12,668.

Standard & Poor’s 500 futures fell 4.6 points to 1,347.10 and Nasdaq futures gave up 7.25 points to hit

2,569.75. Largely overlooked was another strong showing from a major U.S. bank.

Able to set aside less money to cover bad debts with more people paying loans on time, Citigroup beat Wall Street estimates and posted a second- quar ter net income of $2.9 billion. That comes on the heels of a good quarter for both JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo on Friday.

That may signal, however, that people are paying off debts and reining in spending because they are unsure about the economy.

Futures were already sinking before the retail report following weekend comments from Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who said his countr y ’s economy has not yet entered a recovery and “economic difficulties may continue for some time.”

Some of the weakness in China comes from the debt crisis in Europe, which has crippled spending on imported goods.

Americans are cutting spending as well, as the report yesterday from the Commerce Department illustrates.

Retail sales fell 0.5 percent in June from May, the report said.

Consumers spent less on autos, furniture, appliances, on building and garden supplies and at department stores.

The latest figures carry a particularly heavy resonance because the last time consumer spending fell for three straight months was during the fall of 2008, at the depth of the global financial crisis.

Consumer spending drives 70 percent of economic activity and it is key to any strong economic rebound in the US. — Agencies

26

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

business

A R Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi launch version 2 of iPhone App KUWAIT: Abdul R ahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Company, the authorized General Distributor of Mercedes-Benz in Kuwait has launched the latest version of its popular iPhone app for Mercedes-Benz customers and Mercedes-Benz enthusiasts.

The iPhone app called “MB Kuwait” is available now on the Apple app store, making Albisher & Alkazemi Company the first automotive company in Kuwait to update and launch a new version of its original app, which was released back in May 2011 and thereby continuing its tradition of always providing premium experience and convenience to its valued customers and automotive enthusiasts in Kuwait.

The app, available for free in the Apple app store provides a high level of functionality to its users, including the ability to Pre-Book a Service Appointment, Check on Your Car’s status in the Service Center and location maps, contact details of Parts & Service Centers.

Additionally, users can browse through all the latest Mercedes-Benz passenger cars along with pictures and features of each model type.

Links to the Test Drive module and Pre-Owned

Cars module are already integrated.

Now with the new version of the app, new features have been added along with improved navigation inside the app with a new look and refreshed user interface.

Some key new features in the updated, Version 2 of the “MB Kuwait” app are: l Dedicated section for AMG vehicles l Easy to share content such as Car pictures, Car videos and PDF Brochures on facebook, twitter or even via email. l Integration of Mercedes-Benz TV in the new media centre with possibility to stream and share these videos and moving images. l Integration of Mercedes-Benz Kuwait facebook page within the App itself. l New look and refreshed user interface with easy-to-use navigation within the app. l Additional New Passenger Cars and updated information l New gallery with larger pictures. l Integration of Commercial Vehicles section with product details and pictures l ‘News’ section updated with Albisher & Alkazemi activities such as events or product launches

l Updated section of ‘Special offers’ with latest information on Passengers Cars and AfterSales offers currently active. l Possibility to download Mercedes-Benz Cars and Trucks product information via PDF catalogues l Improved maps with directions to destination - such as Mercedes-Benz Service Centers.

“I am happy to say that the latest version of our iPhone app is now available for download, we are confident that with this new version we will continue to provide our customers with the convenience and premium features that are associated with our luxury automotive brand Mercedes-Benz.

With the new app, users can receive updates via their iPhones about offers, events and product launches. It also provides us with another way to interact with our customers and friends.” said Michael Ruehle, General M anager, Abdul R ahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Company, Mercedes-Benz Kuwait.

We encourage users to download the new version of the app and provide feedback to marketing@mercedeskuwait.com with their comments and suggestions.

Qatar Airways named best airline for second consecutive year

ARABAL 2012 opens its door to transport, aircraft industries DOHA: The strong global demand for aluminium led by the transport sector over the last year reflects the increasing importance of the overall demand for aluminium, reports Qatalum, the organizer of Arab International Aluminium Conference (ARABAL 2012), which will be held at the Grand Hyatt Doha.

This demand arrived during increasing change and development in the transport sector, particularly in the automobile, bus, aircraft and ship manufacturing sectors which are increasingly dependent on the use of aluminium qualities in comparison to other necessary metals used in transport industry. Aluminium is a lightweight metal, which enables a decrease in fuel consumption and emissions. Many industries are continuing the trend of replacing traditional metals with aluminium.

ARABAL will see a concentrated focus on the transport industry this year, as indicators have shown an increasing demand for industrial outputs in the transport sector in North America, particularly the USA. The overall consumption is expected to reach 3.6 million tonnes of semi-manufactured aluminium by 2016, according to recent forecasts, a significant increase over the 2.5 million tonnes reported in 2011.

This means that an annual average growth rate of 7.4% is expected in the period from 2012 until 2016. The year 2013 is expected to record the highest growth rate for the transport sector, with the transport sector in the USA projected to account for an increasing portion of overall domestic demand for semi-manufactured aluminium. It accounted for 34% of the overall demand for semi-manufactured aluminium in 2011 and is expected to reach 35% in 2012 and increase to 37% in 2013.

Downturn indicators dominated the European landscape in general, whether in terms of demand or production of aluminium and other industries. According to estimates Europe reported an overall downturn of 4.8%, although the German economy outpaced its neighbouring nations in the four th quar ter of 2011, posting a growth of 2.1%.

During 2011 the largest par t of demand was from the transport sector and the engineering industries.

Primary aluminium consumption grew by 4.3% in the third quarter of 2011.

German automobile exports increased by 6.6% in 2011, while domestic sales

grew by 6.1%. Germany produced 5.9 million cars in 2011, of which 4.5 million were exported.

It is become evident that the aluminium industry is slowly ramping up to satisfy demand from the transport sector. Many aluminium producers in the USA and Europe have undergone expansions, while many automobile manufacturers have announced ambitious plans to increase the use of aluminium in their new models. BMW and Mercedes Benz have decided to develop strategies to increase the density of aluminium in their cars.

Audi was the first manufacturer to discover the ideal uses of aluminium in their cars, with theA6 class using higher levels of aluminium in the body of the car, accounting for 20% of the overall weight of the car. This resulted in reducing the weight of the car by an estimated 70 kilograms. Luxury cars especially have shown a strong recovery in the Euro Zone in 2011, with BMW, Audi and Alfa Romeo registering growth of 4.9%, 9% and 19%, respectively.

In new car models, aluminium will make up 85% of the construction material, helping to reduce the total weight of the cars. These indicators confirm that the sector will be a steadying factor in the consumption of aluminium in 2012, and that demand for aluminium is expected to be stable, even if the production levels were reduced. This steady demand is a result of continued need for lighter vehicles.

The aerospace industry is set-to sign more long term deals for the supply of plates and chips and other aluminium related materials.

Leading aircraft manufacturers such as Airbus and Boeing have reported a significant growth in demand for aluminium. In 2012, as a result of to the increased use of blended wing designs from aluminium which reduce the weight of the aircraft by 33%, in addition to the other uses in aircraft manufacturing from plates and chips which will double in the near future.

The 16th Arab International Aluminium Conference (ARABAL 2012) will be held at the Grand Hyatt Doha from the20th - 22ndNovember 2012.

ARABAL is the premier trade event for the Middle East’s aluminium industry and the only conference in the world attended by every single primary aluminium manufacturer in the region.

Therefore, it is the conference of choice for anyone interested in the Middle East aluminium industry.

UNITED KINGDOM: Qatar Airways has once again triumphed at the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards, winning three top accolades including the main award World’s Best Airline for the second year running.

The Doha-based carrier retained the coveted title of Airline of the Year 2012 and notched up two further awards Best Airline in the Middle East for the seventh consecutive year and the Best Airline Staff Service award in the Middle East.

The winners were announced at an awards ceremony attended by leading figures from the global aviation industry at the Farnborough Air Show, the world’s largest aerospace event taking place in the UK this week. The Skytrax awards, conducted by the global aviation research organisation, polled over 18 million business and leisure air travellers from more than 100 countries. Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker hailed the achievements as “fantastic recognition” of all employees at Qatar Airways for the dedication and commitment to their job. “I am extremely proud of the adulation given once again by the very people who fly - the travelling public, for their support and faith in Qatar Airways,” said Al Baker, speaking after being presented with the awards.

“Qatar Airways set out on a mission 15 years ago when we launched to be the world’s best airline and spread the airline’s quality brand to all corners of the world. “Last year we achieved that.

Retaining awards is always difficult, but we have managed to do so amid the tough competition which only shows we remain focused in our day to day job of offering passengers what they ful-

ly deserve - the highest standards of service both in the air and on the ground. “ The achievements further reflect the high standards that we set for ourselves and receiving the awards is fantastic recognition of

dards, and ranking No 1 in the world at the 2012 Airline of the Year shows that they truly are a favourite airline among today’s global travellers.” Air travellers were surveyed during a 10-month period by telephone, question-

tion, currently operating a modern fleet of 109 aircraft to 117 key business and leisure destinations across Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North America and South America. Since the beginning of the year, Qatar Airways has

Qatar Airways Chief Executive Officer Akbar Al Baker, pictured left, receiving the coveted award for World’s Best Airline for the second consecutive year at the annual Skytrax World Airline Awards held at the Farnborough Air Show. With him is Skytrax CEO Edward Plaisted.

A delighted Akbar Al Baker, Qatar Airways CEO, receives three Skytrax World Airline awards.

the hard work and commitment of our staff across the world who help make Qatar Airways the success it is today.”

Skytrax Chief Executive Officer Edward Plaisted said: “To win the Airline of the Year award for a second successive year is a remarkable achievement for Qatar Airways, and a clear recognition of the continued efforts by Qatar Airways’ management and staff to be the world’s best airline.

“Qatar Airways should be very proud of this fantastic customer recognition of their service stan-

naires and online about their experiences with airlines on the ground and in the air. The survey measured passenger satisfaction across more than 38 key performance indicators of airline front-line product and service, including check-in, boarding, onboard seat comfort, cabin cleanliness, food, beverages, in-flight entertainment and staff service. The survey covered more than 200 airlines, from the largest international airlines to smaller domestic carriers.

Qatar Airways has seen rapid growth in just 15 years of opera-

launched flights to Baku (Azerbaijan); Tbilisi (Georgia); Kigali (Rwanda); Zagreb (Croatia), Erbil (Iraq), Baghdad, and most recently, Perth (Australia) with many more destinations planned during 2012.

Over the next few months, Qatar Airways launches services to a diverse portfolio of new routes, including Kilimanjaro, Tanzania (July 25); Mombasa, Kenya (August 15); Yangon, Myanmar (October 3); Maputo, Mozambique (October 31) and a date yet-to-beannounced to the Serbian capital Belgrade.

URC’s Salalah Gardens Mall in Oman to include cinema complex KUWAIT: United Real Estate Company (URC), one of Kuwait’s leading real estate companies, has announced that it has signed an agreement with City Cinema, one of Oman’s leading cinema operating companies, to start the fit out and management of the major cinema complex within Salalah Gardens Mall in Salalah, URC’s latest flagship project in Oman.

This agreement will provide Salalah Gardens Mall with a state-of-the-art 3screen multiplex facility, offering a wide variety of entertainment to shoppers and families visiting the mall when it opens later this year. The mall features a high street retail area, food court, casual dining, cafes, traditional souq, and hypermarket. URC is the leasing and marketing agent for the project and has leased to well-renowned brands including international names such as Carrefour, Nestle Tollhouse, The Body Shop, in addition to brands by Jamjoom Group.

Commenting on the agreement, Ali Hassan Moosa, General Manager of URC Oman, a fully owned subsidiary of United Real Estate Company said, “Our agreement

with City Cinema allows Salalah Gardens Mall to provide the very best and latest in family entertainment. Our vision for Salalah Gardens Mall is the creation of an exceptional entertainment and shopping experience all under one roof, for families and tourists alike.”

Aqeel Jawad Sultan from City Cinema said, “We welcome the opportunity to work with URC on this exciting new venue, the landmark entertainment center in Salalah, when it opens at year end. Cinema, as a leisure activity, is growing rapidly in Oman and this new 3-screen multiplex, with a seating capacity of 600 people, will provide Salalah Gardens Mall visitors with a wide selection of film entertainment. The opening of City Cinema in Salalah Gardens Mall, will fulfill the long felt need of the patrons in the City of Salalah and its neighborhood.”

Renimah Ali Al-Mattar, Executive Vice President of United Real Estate Company (URC) said, “ Salalah Gardens Mall is an important project for URC because we believe in the growth of the Omani market, specifically in the commercial and hospitality real estate sectors. URC is directly

responsible for the leasing activities of Salalah Gardens Mall and has carefully selected the appropriate tenant mix that caters to the retail market in Salalah.”

Salalah Gardens Mall is a development

by United Real Estate Company. It is the first combined mall and residence complex to be constructed in Oman’s second largest city, Salalah. Due to open in late 2012, the mall will include 168 serviced apartments ranging from studio, one bedroom, two bedroom, to three bedroom apartments.

Branded as Salalah Mall Residences, the hotel will be operated by Safir International Hotel Management Company, an affiliate of URC Kuwait. The project’s design is based on traditional Omani architecture with modern facilities, built on a 65,367 sq.m. plot with a total built up area of 86,074 sq.m.

City Cinema is solely owned by Oman Arab Cinema Company LLC, part of the Jawad Sultan Group of Companies. City Cinema has more than four decades of experience as Oman’s premier cinema operating company with 15 screens in 5 different locations viz. Muscat, Sohar, Sur.

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

TECHNOLOGY

Kaspersky Lab presents new version of mobile security DUBAI: Kaspersky Lab presents a new version of Kaspersky Mobile Security, which provides integrated protection for Android smartphones. The program’s updated version offers new features, including ways to block infected and phishing websites used by cybercriminals to steal data.

The capabilities of smartphones have long since gone beyond telephone calls and text messaging. According to a study conducted in February and March 2012

by Harris Interactive, 16% of users store personal documents on their mobile devices, 53% use their devices to access email, and 47% access social networks via mobile devices. Overall, 62% of smartphone owners worldwide regularly use their mobile devices for Internet access.

With Kaspersky Mobile Security, smartphone owners can be confident

that their devices and the data stored on them are secure. This updated solution from Kaspersky Lab employs traditional methods of anti-malware protection, combined with heuristics and cloud technologies. The application’s use of cloud security means a faster response to new malware and enables fast updates of information about malicious websites.

A filter for unwanted calls and text messages, and a new web antivirus module, provide extra security. All of this ensures maximum protection against mobile threats, which has been demonstrated in several independent tests. For example, Kaspersky Mobile Security was among only three applications that detected all the malware from the test samples used in an independent test conducted by AVtest.org in early 2012.

Kaspersky Mobile Security provides blacklisting and whitelisting capabilities

to protect the user from unwanted contacts. At the same time, the application secures personal data by hiding incoming and outgoing call history, text messages and contacts from prying eyes. If necessary, the application can be configured to automatically lock this information after a predefined period of time.

The user can also hide this data remotely by sending a text with a command to the smartphone. The program can selectively delete data stored on the device or wipe all data if necessary.

Kaspersky Mobile Security not only protects important data from unauthorized access but also increases the owner’s chances of getting a lost or stolen device back. Upon receiving a message with a command, the program can pin down the smartphone’s location using the phone’s GSM module, cellular base stations or a nearby Wi-Fi network and

inform the device’s owner. If a criminal replaces the SIM card in the device, the SIM Watch feature will automatically block the phone and email the new phone number to the device’s owner. “ The number of mobile threats is growing by the day, which means there is an ever-increasing risk that your device could be infected and important data could be lost. The new version of Kaspersky Mobile Security provides protection against malware as well as dangerous websites, including those used to steal online banking credentials.

Whatever the threat faced by the user, Kaspersky Mobile Security will always help to protect the user’s data from theft and the smartphone from infection,” said Victor Dronov, senior mobile product development manager at Kaspersky Lab. A free trial version of Kaspersky Mobile Security can be downloaded

from Kaspersky Lab’s website. The program costs $29.95. Users who have already purchased Kaspersky Mobile Security can install the update free of charge.

Kaspersky Lab is the largest antivirus company in Europe. It delivers some of the world’s most immediate protection against IT security threats, including viruses, spyware, crime-ware, hackers, phishing, and spam. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users. Kaspersky Lab products provide superior detection rates and one of the industry’s fastest outbreak response times for home users, SMBs, large enterprises and the mobile computing environment. Kaspersky(r) technology is also used worldwide inside the products and services of the industry’s leading IT security solution providers.

Microsoft breaks from NBC to launch own news portal Biggest product and services launch year

TOKYO: A visitor extends her hand to touch a high-resolution digital movie (4000 x 2000) of a whale shark during a press preview at the Sony showroom in Tokyo yesterday on Marine Day. Sony will display a high resolution movie illustrating Okinawa’s aquarium through Sept 9 to attract summer vacationers. —AFP

Nikon to release a super-telephoto lens TOKYO: Nikon Corporation will add the super-telephoto 800-mm, fixed focal length lens to its lineup of NIKKOR lenses. This lens will offer a fixed focal length of 800 mm, a maximum aperture of f/5.6, and will be fully compatible with Nikon FX-format cameras.

This lens has been developed in order to strengthen the NIKKOR lineup of supertelephoto lenses. It will boast the longest focal length of any NIKKOR autofocus lens, and will be best suited to capture a wide variety of decisive outdoor scenes, from sporting events to wildlife. In addition to its superior optical performance, the lens will offer dust and water resistance.

In 2012, Nikon released three new FXformat digital-SLR cameras - the D4, the new flagship digital SLR, and the D800 and D800E, which offer incredible resolution and image quality. In addition to reinforcing its lineup of FX-format digital-SLR cameras, Nikon has also been working to expand the lineup of NIKKOR lenses.

Nikon has been providing service and support to professional photographers for roughly fifty years through the activities of its Nikon Professional Services (NPS). In addition to providing maintenance and repairs for the equipment professional photographers use every day, NPS service depots are set up at a variety of interna-

tional sporting and cultural events. At these service depots, photographers can have their equipment inspected and repaired, and they can also borrow equipment.

Nikon has also been an official sponsor of The Open Championship since 1993. The Open Championship is the oldest of the world’s four major tournaments* in professional golf (the next Open Championship will be held at Royal Lytham& St. Annes Golf Club in Lancashire, England between July 19 and 22, 2012). This lens is scheduled to be on display at the Nikon service depot that will be set up for professional photographers working at the event.

Furthermore, this lens is scheduled to be on display at Photokina 2012, one of the world’s largest photo and imaging exhibitions, to be held in Cologne, Germany from Sept 18 to 23.

As a leader in the professional imaging market, Nikon will continue to develop and release products offering superior performance and functionality based on the optical technologies it has cultivated over its long history. Nikon will also continue to strive to strengthen and improve the service and support it offers to its professional customers. Release date and suggested retail price for this product have not yet been determined.

Short Message Service and the long list of possibilities BANGALORE: Over the weekend, technologists in the city participated in ‘55444 Hackathon’, a hacking event that focussed on the mobile tech space.

It was organised by mobile tech firm Innoz Technologies as part of the promotional activities for its offline SMSbased search engine and information services platform 55444.

A group of developers, including those working with leading tech majors in the city, and independent hackers with a fascination for the mobile space, spent the day writing code or creating applications around the Innoz platform. Applications were not the only technology on display.

Sessions also focussed on robotics, including a presentation by robotics technologies firm Li2-Innovations. A workshop focussing on robotics introduced hackers to simpler technologies involving SMS, such as a heartbeat monitor - which sends out an SMS to the nearest listed hospital if it detects an irregularity in the heartbeat - and a simple mechanical robot that can be operated through SMS commands.

Arvind Nadig, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Li2, said the company was working towards creating tech solutions that can “make an impact on the social level”.

Keynote speakers at the inaugural event included Sean Blagsvedt, CEO of Babajobs.com and Zubin Dubash, Chief Strategy Officer of Onward Mobility. They discussed their own products in the mobile application programming space. “SMS-based applications started in the early 2000s, and it’s amazing that something like that cre-

ated destructive innovation even a decade later,” Mr. Dubash said. Innoz’s own Web search and services engine ‘55444’ - you have to SMS 55444 to access it - aims to simplify access to information, and operates on a ‘pull’ system of information, where people input a specific query and receive a specific response. Apps currently supported include a dictionary, Wikipedia entries, weather, stock prices and song lyrics. For example, if one wanted to find the definition for the word ‘notebook’, they would simply have to text ‘#meaning notebook’ to 55444. A response text will be sent with the appropriate definition, and the user will be charged Re. 1. This differs from the ‘push’ model, where relevant information is continuously fed to the user.

Rakesh Haridas, Chief Marketing Officer of Innoz, says the company does not think of the service as a simple search engine. “In fact, it’s an answer engine,” he says. The company partners with content providers to give answers to specific queries.

Deepak Ravindran, co-founder and CEO of Innoz Technologies, told The Hindu that the company was looking to take simple SMS technologies into more complex tech applications such as a ‘smart’ environment. “We’re not stopping with SMS search technology.

We’re looking into voice control and SMS-based mechanical control,” he says. He details a plan to control household appliances with simple text messages. “A farmer in Karnataka should be able to send a text message to turn on his pump. I could send a message to my water heater to switch on if I’m driving home.”

SAN FRANCISCO: Software giant Microsoft has parted company with NBC News, pulling out of their joint venture MSNBC to launch its own online news service, the two companies announced Sunday. Moving on “allows us to go out and innovate,” Bob Visse, general manager of MSN.com, said, confirming that MSN.com had begun hiring for a new news operation-as yet unnamed-that will launch later this year.

“If you start thinking about what we’re going to be doing in Windows and the Bing app and what we’re going to be doing... across multiple platforms, it makes a lot of sense for Microsoft,” he said.

“We’re talking about using technology and using data to solve information delivery and news delivery in new and innovative ways. It’s really difficult for us to do that when we have an exclusive, single-source relationship with one news provider.”

Under the joint venture, NBC News had been the sole provider of news for MSN.com, which will now be free to forge partnerships with other media organizations.

NBC News said it would continue to provide new for MSN.com and would continue to sell the rebranded NBCNews.com’s advertising inventory for an undisclosed period to minimize the disruption in ad revenue.

The deal means that NBC effectively buys Microsoft’s 50 percent stake in the MSNBC. No details of the financial arrangement were provided. Anyone opening up the MSNBC.com website is now automatically redirected to NBCNews.com.

Microsoft’s move comes as other major Internet companies like Yahoo! and AOL have forged important alliances with news organizations.

NEW YORK: In this Dec 14, 1995, file photo, Robert Wright, president and chief executive officer of NBC, speaks in New York with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, displayed on screen, speaks from Hong Kong, during a news conference announcing that NBC and Microsoft would form a joint venture to start a cable news channel and related online service called MSNBC. — AP Yahoo! teamed up with ABC News towards the end of last year to create a digital news powerhouse Yahoo! News, which is the top online news destination in the United States with some 80 million unique visitors a month.

Microsoft’s move comes just days after it announced it was cutting an unspecified number of jobs in marketing and advertising as part of a move to “align” its operations to key priorities.

The tech giant gave no specific numbers or details, but also announced a writedown of $6.2 billion in its online operations.

Microsoft, which is soon to release its new Windows 8 operating system, said last week it would take the massive writedown related to the 2007 acquisition of aQuantive, a digital advertising firm aimed at helping Microsoft compete against Google and others.

The charge, to be reflected in the company’s upcoming earnings report, is required under accounting rules to reflect a lower value or so-called “goodwill impairment.”

Microsoft announced earlier this month that its next-generation operating system would be available in October as the software

giant strives to stay relevant in a blossoming mobile era centered on tablets and smartphones.

“This will be the biggest product and services launch year in our company’s history,” Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said at an annual gathering of gadget makers and other partners in the Canadian city of Toronto.

The Windows 8 operating system, which is the norm for personal computers, will also be used on many smartphones and tablet computers, including Microsoft’s own Surface tablet to be launched this year. —AFP

Is the internet as addictive as tobacco?

LONDON: I like the internet. I use it a lot. In fact, I work at a senior level in the industry and from here the internet does not look like a fad that will pass any time soon.

Hundreds of millions think Facebook is fun, that Google is useful, and that iPlayer is essential. Each day people reach for their phones to see if their latest Instagram is a hit, if a new profile pic is liked, or if they have been retweeted.

We do this because it is addictive - literally addictive. Each time there’s a new email, our brains reward us with a hit - a dopamine high - which encourages repeat behaviour. Apparently, it’s one of the ways in which we learn. As one behavioural psychologist put it, the internet creates “a dopamine-induced loop”, giving us “almost instant gratification of our desire to seek”.

Computer game manufacturers have long known this, and so they make products, apps or games that are “sticky”, in the jargon. Society has long known it too: stories of gamers dying of exhaustion at their keyboards are more than five years old now, not to mention “crackberries”. What they want most is for their app to be the first thing to come to your mind when your brain is idle for a second and you think, “What shall I do now?”

But why has the internet industry not asked itself whether it should be taking responsibility for these products, for creating

content that is actually designed to be addictive? Does it ask whether building the digital equivalent of a Skinner box or discussing how to manufacture desire is necessarily a good thing?

In other words, are we - the internet industry - the new tobacco? And, if we are, what stage of the marketing of this new industry are we at? Is this the equivalent of the 1930s? Are we at the stage of “More doctors smoke Camels”?

It is striking that, while there seems to be almost universal agreement that successful app design creates addictive experiences - “an impulse-control disorder that does not involve an intoxicant”, if you want to be scientific about it - apparently we do not see this as a problem. We simply do not define the physical, sociological or pathological implications of compulsive internet use (and the effect on our dopamine levels) as a bad thing.

Partly this is because we’re all doing it, and we like it (as I began by saying). Also, there’s a tendency to construe the gamification of society as a net positive. The X Prize founder, Peter Diamandis, for instance, has called for a “powerful, addictive game” that promotes education.

But this benign future is the flipside of a problem that we are already ignoring. We have glamorised it and mocked it out of existence.

Consider addictive technolo-

gies and children. Parents will know that taking an iPad away from a two-year-old is not something you undertake lightly. Yet we don’t worry about that reaction; instead we make videos and post them on YouTube. Putting a parental lock on a 14-year-old’s computer is also likely to lead to weeks of sulking. For some, life without their smartphone is unimaginable. Some of us feel panic at the loss of a phone; others feel adrift if the Wi-Fi goes down. We don’t yet console ourselves that we are simply suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

There seems a possibility, in other words, that digital can be a problem, not always a solution.

And when we focus on the “cuteness” of the symptoms, we risk neglecting the cause. Digital products are not seen in the same light as other consumer goods, and it seems unlikely that anyone will change their behaviour, or developers start making apps less addictive, without some firm encouragement.

In the past year, the backers of the US’s Stop Online Piracy Act and others have taken on the digital industries and got a bloody nose. What seems surprising, given their relentless focus on the legality (or otherwise) of various digital services, is that their lobbyists missed the potential of health implications for people using digital content that encourages compulsive use.

They might argue that an internet service is consumed, just

like tobacco, alcohol and fast food, all of which are regulated in the interests of the consumer.

Society generally agrees that most chemicals that are addictive are bad. Food, too. Sugar is poison, we are told. Why not digital?

Bill Davidow makes an equivalent argument far more elegantly in the magazine the Atlantic, saying that the internet is the new fast food. If digital were “regulated”, he asks, how would we do that? Is there high-tar digital and low-tar digital? Will we see class actions against developers?

Hysteria aside, there is a huge amount of good digital out there, transforming the world, changing lives, making economies grow, educating, and making us fit, happy and connected. It’s also fair to say that the internet is only a conduit, a medium, not a cause, just as the iPad is simply a device.

And one cannot be addicted to a tool. (The rate of syringe addiction is not high, either. Syringes have been a good, indeed worldchanging, thing.)

But we need to recognise that, when a harmless medium delivers its “thing” - its magic, its method, its programme, its app or its effect - the results can be bad, as with bad food. There are the super-foods, and there are the doughnuts. We need to be honest about which digital services are the doughnuts.

(This article was written by a director of a global internet services company, who chooses to remain anonymous)

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

Scientists see AIDS vaccine within reach after decades 34 million people affected worldwide

SRI LANKA: In this handout picture released on July 15, 2012, a Dawkinsia Srilankensis, a new genus of fish comprised of nine species that are found only in South Asia and are characterised by long filaments that trail from the dorsal fins of males, swims in a tank. —AFP

Sri Lankans name new fish genus for scientist Dawkins COLOMBO: Sri Lankan scientists have identified a new genus of fresh water fish and named it after the evolutionary biologist and renowned atheist Richard Dawkins.

Lead researcher Rohan Pethiyagoda, 56, said the new genus, named Dawkinsia, comprises nine species that are found only in South Asia and are characterized by long filaments that trail from the dorsal fins of males. The fish has previously been classified under the genus Puntius, comprising around 120 species of small tropical fish known as barbs. Pethiyagoda, an ichthyologist and internationally acclaimed conservationist, said extensive studies in India and Sri Lanka showed that the level of diversity among such fish was “much greater than previously suspected”.

This was partly the reason that the study group had chosen to name the new genus after the 71-year-old Dawkins, the British author of the anti-religion polemic, “The God Delusion”. “Richard Dawkins has through his writings helped us understand that the universe is far more beautiful and awe-inspiring than any religion has imag-

ined,” Pethiyagoda told AFP on yesterday.

“We hope that Dawkinsia will serve as a reminder of the elegance and simplicity of evolution, the only rational explanation there is for the unimaginable diversity of life on Earth,” he said. Male Dawkinsia barbs advertise their fitness by growing long fin filaments that make them more attractive to females but also dangerously conspicuous to predators.

“The filaments are rather like the peacock’s tail, expensive ornaments that place their owner at greater risk while offering him the reward of being the preferred choice of females,” Pethiyagoda said. The genus re-classification followed an eightyear study of the DNA, bone structures and overall anatomy of Puntius species. Last week a small crustacean parasite which feeds on fish in the Caribbean was named Gnathia marleyi after reggae musician Bob Marley. “I named this species, which is truly a natural wonder, after Marley because of my respect and admiration for Marley’s music,” said Paul Sikkel, a field marine biologist at Arkansas State University.—AFP

India’s top court blasts illegal drug trials NEW DELHI: India’s top court yesterday accused some drug companies of using Indians like “guinea pigs” in illegal clinical trials as it ordered the government to submit a report on the practice. Rights groups have raised concern that India has become a hotspot for drug trials, with hospital patients sometimes used unwittingly to test new drugs by leading pharmaceutical companies.

Low costs, weak laws and inadequate enforcement and penalties have made India an attractive destination for the tests, the groups say. “This is most unfortunate that clinical trials take place and people are dying.

What action has been taken?” Supreme Court Judges R.M. Lodha and A.S Dave said yesterday in New Delhi. “There has to be some sense of responsibility. Human beings are treated like guinea pigs.” The judges also criticized the government for failing to submit a report in time in response to a public interest case filed by a group of doctors and a voluntary organization, Swasthya Adhikar Manch

(Health Rights Group). The petitioners claim several patients in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh seeking medical help were used in drug tests and this was “unethical and illegal”. The group said they have compiled and submitted a report of more than 200 cases where patients were subjected to clinical trials to check the efficacy of various drugs without seeking their permission. In May, a government panel found serious problems with the way approvals for foreign drugs are given and clinical trials are being carried out.

Earlier this year, 12 doctors accused of conducting secret drug trials on children and patients with learning disabilities were let off after they paid fines of less than $100 each.

Faced with mounting criticism, the Indian Council of Medical Research in 2011 had sought proposals from doctors and health activists on new draft guidelines for compensation to be paid to people undertaking drug trials.—AFP

Circumcision ban could make Germany ‘laughing stock’ BERLIN: Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel told her party the country risked becoming a “laughing stock” over a court ruling calling religious circumcision a criminal act, according to a report yesterday. The mass-circulation daily Bild said in an article to be published today that Merkel warned the board of her conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) that Germany must restore legal protection for circumcision.

“I do not want Germany to be the only country in the world in which Jews cannot practice their rites,” Bild quoted Merkel as saying, citing several CDU members who attended the meeting. “Otherwise we would make ourselves a laughing stock among nations.”

Merkel’s centre-right government has pledged to take quick action to protect the right of Jews and Muslims to circumcise baby boys on religious grounds, and voiced concern about the ruling by the court in Cologne published in June.

The court said the removal of the foreskin for religious reasons amounted to grievous bodily harm and was therefore illegal, in a judgment that prompted an outcry at home and abroad. Diplomats admit that the ruling has proved “disastrous” to Germany’s international image, particularly in light of its Nazi past, following uproar from religious and political leaders in Israel as well as Muslim countries.—AFP

PHNOM PENH: This handout photo taken on January 27, 2011 and released by conservation group Fauna and Flora International (FFI) yesterday shows a new species of snake on the ground in Cambodia’s southwest Cardamom Mountains.—AFP

New scarlet snake found in Cambodia PHNOM PENH: A new species of snake which is scarlet with black and white rings has been discovered in Cambodia’s rainforest, conservationists announced yesterday.

The reptile, which has been named the Cambodian Kukri, was found in the southwest Cardamom Mountains, an area under threat from habitat loss, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) said in a statement.

Kukri snakes are so named because their curved rear fangs-designed to puncture eggs-are similar in shape to the Nepalese kukri knife, FFI said. “Most kukri snakes are dull-coloured,” said Neang Thy, one of the herpetologists who discovered the new species. “But this one is dark red with black and white rings, making it a beautiful snake.”—AFP

CHICAGO: At an ill-fated press conference in 1984, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler boldly predicted an effective AIDS vaccine would be available within just two years. But a string of failed attempts - punctuated by a 2007 trial in which a Merck vaccine appeared to make people more vulnerable to infection, not less - cast a shadow over AIDS vaccine research that has taken years to dispel.

A 2009 clinical trial in Thailand was the first to show it was possible to prevent HIV infection in humans. Since then, discoveries have pointed to even more powerful vaccines using HIV-fighting antibodies. Now scientists believe a licensed vaccine is within reach. “We know the face of the enemy,” said Dr. Barton Haynes, of Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and recent director of the Center for HIV AIDS Vaccine Immunology (CHAVI). The research consortium was funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), founded in 2005 by the National Institutes of Health to identify and overcome roadblocks in the design of vaccines for the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes AIDS. NIAID’s funding of CHAVI ended in June.

Unlike many viruses behind infectious disease, HIV is a moving target, constantly spitting out slightly different versions of itself, with different strains affecting different populations around the world. The virus is especially pernicious since it attacks the immune system, the very mechanism the body needs to fight back. “ The virus is far more crafty than we ever thought,” said Haynes, who will outline progress in vaccine research at the International AIDS Society ’s 2012 conference being held in Washington from July 22-27.

First sign of hope Thanks to drugs that can control the virus for decades, AIDS is no longer a death sentence.

New infections have fallen by 21 percent since the peak of the pandemic in 1997 and advances in prevention - through voluntary circumcision programs, prevention of mother-to-child transmission and early treatment - promise to cut that rate even more. Still, as many as 34 million people are infected with HIV worldwide. And with 2.7 million new infections in 2010 alone, experts say a vaccine is still the best hope for eradicating AIDS. Teams have been working on a vaccine for nearly three decades, but it wasn’t until RV144, the 2009 clinical trial involving more than 16,000 adults in Thailand, that researchers achieved any

hint of success.

The test of a combination of two vaccines followed several big failures, including the stunning news that Merck’s vaccine may have increased the risk of infection among men who were both uncircumcised and had prior exposure to the virus used in the vaccine. “It had an extremely chilling effect on the whole field,” said Colonel Nelson Michael, director of the U.S. Military HIV Research Program at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, which led the RV144 trial.

The Thai study tested Sanofi’s ALVAC, a weakened canary pox virus used to sneak three HIV genes into the body, and AIDSVAX, a vaccine originally made by Roche Holding’s Genentech that carried an HIV surface protein. Both vaccines had poor showings in individual trials.

Researchers were so convinced the Thai trial would fail that 22 scientists wrote an editorial in Science calling it a waste of money.

Then came the shocker. Results of the study published in 2009 showed the vaccine combination cut HIV infections by 31.2 percent.

According to Michael and many other experts, the result was not big enough to be considered effective, but its impact on researchers was huge, says Wayne Koff, chief scientific officer of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) based in New York. An extensive analysis of the Thai trial published this year in the New England Journal of Medicine offered clues about why some volunteers responded.

The study, led by Haynes, scientists at Walter Reed and 25 other institutions, found men and women who were vaccinated made antibodies to a specific region of the virus’s outer coat, suggesting this region provides an important vaccine target. Preparations are under way for a follow-up trial testing beefed-up versions of the vaccines among heterosexuals in South Africa and men who have sex with men in Thailand.

Once again, the trial will use a Sanofi vaccine, but instead of AIDSVAX, researchers will use a different vaccine candidate with a boosting agent from Novartis. Michael said it has been a major effort to secure new research partners and funding, including support from host countries, as well as to persuade rivals Novartis and Sanofi to work together. The teams still need to retool the vaccines to work in South Africa, where the strain of HIV is different. “We’re really working as fast as we can,” said Michael, who expects largescale effectiveness studies to start in 2016.

The hope is to have at least 50 percent effectiveness, a level that mathematical modelers say

could have a major impact on the epidemic.

Michael thinks this might be the pathway for getting the first HIV vaccine licensed, possibly by 2019. Vaccine experts are equally excited about a vaccine that Michael’s team is developing with Harvard University and Johnson & Johnson’s Crucell unit, which uses weakened versions of a common cold virus and a smallpox virus.

A study published in February showed this vaccine protected monkeys from a virulent strain of HIV. Animals that did become infected after repeated exposure also had low levels of virus in their blood. Safety studies in human patients are just starting, with large-scale efficacy studies slated for 2016.

Next-generation vaccines The current crop of vaccines is largely designed to train immune system cells known as T-cells to recognize and kill cells already infected with HIV. While these trials progress, scientists are working on even more advanced vaccines that activate powerful antibodies to prevent HIV from infecting cells in the first place. Both would be administered before a person becomes exposed to the virus. Most modern vaccines use this antibody approach, but HIV’s extreme skill at mutating makes it difficult for specifically targeted antibodies to identify and neutralize the virus.

Teams led by Dr. Dennis Burton of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, Dr. Michel Nussenzweig at Rockefeller University in New York, Dr. Gary Nabel of NIAID’s Vaccine Research Center, Haynes at Duke and others have focused on rare antibodies made by 10 to 20 percent of people with HIV that can neutralize a broad array of strains. Researchers think a vaccine that can coax the body into making these antibodies before HIV exposure would offer a powerful foil to many forms of the virus.

Such antibodies seek out and latch on to regions of the virus that are highly “conserved,” meaning they are so critical to the virus that they appear in nearly every HIV strain. By attaching to the virus they make it incapable of infecting other cells. Until 2009, scientists had identified only a few broadly neutralizing antibodies, but in the past few years teams have found dozens. So far, scientists have isolated the antibodies, identified what part of HIV they target and even know the exact shape they make, Koff said. Researchers are now using this information to design vaccines that prompt the immune system to make them. “We’re not there yet,” Nabel said. —Reuters

India clamps down on killer chewing tobacco MUMBAI: Anil K anade seems almost too stunned to speak about the deadly cancer recently found in his mouth, caused by his addiction to a popular Indian chewing tobacco that doctors say is fuelling an epidemic. Like millions of young Indians, the factory worker was for years hooked on “gutka”-a cheap, mass-produced mix of tobacco, crushed areca nut and other ingredients that several states are now trying to wipe out.

“It gave me a high. It felt nice,” Kanade told AFP quietly at the Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, where he is due to undergo surgery. The father-of-two, whose swollen cheek hints at his disease, is aged just 35.

His brother Datta travelled with him from their village in rural Maharashtra state, where he says children start munching on colorful sachets of gutka, each priced at only one rupee (two US cents), at the age of just 11 or 12.”I’m not sure if the government can ban it or not, but they should,” Datta said.

Maharashtra, of which Mumbai is the capital, tomorrow became the fourth state this year to outlaw gutka, which campaigning doctors say is targeted at children-even though Indian law prohibits tobacco sales to those under 18. They point the finger primarily at gutka for India’s 75,000 to 80,000 new cases of oral cancer a year, the highest in the world, according to the US-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids.

Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Bihar states have already banned gutka this year, following the earlier example of Goa, while others including Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, are considering similar action. But they face a struggle-not only to enforce the

law on the streets, but to overcome the powerful lobby of the billion- dollar gutk a industr y, which is disputing the bans on the grounds they are unlawful.

Leading the anti-gutka fight in Mumbai is K anade’s surgeon,

he has treated was a 13-year-old boy, who died of an advanced form of mouth cancer. “Gutka captured both economic strata, the poorest and the richest. They advertised very strategically to capture the entire youth,” he said.

MUMBAI: Indian cancer patient Brijender Singh being examined.

Pankaj Chaturvedi, a head and neck cancer specialist. He says half of his mouth cancer patients die within 12 months of diagnosis, while the rest are left severely disabled.

While tobacco has been chewed across the subcontinent for centuries, often in a concoction known as “paan”, Chaturvedi said gutka took over in recent decades as a more convenient, readymade version for modern life. “It comes in a pouch, it doesn’t make your tongue and mouth red and it doesn’t make an urge for spitting,” he said, listing sub stances found in gutka including lead, arsenic, copper, chromium and nickel. The youngest addict

An estimated five million Indian children are hooked on tobacco, although specific chewing figures are unclear, while the Global Adult Tobacco Survey in 2010 showed that 206 million Indians aged over 15 were using smokeless forms. The states now shifting such products off the shelves are taking their cue from a ruling by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in August last year, which said tobacco could not be used in food products. Their moves are hotly contested by the Smokeless Tobacco Federation (India), an association of chewing tobacco businesses, which is launching court petitions to get them overturned.

“What they are doing is totally unconstitutional,” the group’s executive director Sanjay Bechan told AFP. “ Tobacco is tobacco.

Food is food,” he said, insisting that gutk a comes under the Cigarettes and O ther Tobacco Products Act of 2003 and cannot be governed by food safety regulations. Bechan said an end to the smokeless tobacco industr y, worth about $2.5 billion, threatened the livelihoods of millions.

Chewable products, he added, were being unfairly blamed for tobacco deaths largely caused by smoking. “How can you guarantee if gukta is banned people will not smoke?”

For now, complete eradication remains far from imminent. With gutka banned in just small patches of India, officials face an uphill battle to keep the product at bay while it remains legal in most of India’s 28 states.

“It’s a struggle to keep the supplies under control. The borders are porous, there’s no restrictions on trade,” said Ashwini Kumar Rai, the Food Safety Commissioner in Madhya Pradesh, where a ban was introduced in April. He said they had since shut down eight gutka manufacturing factories in the state and acted on public tip-offs to seize 10 million rupees ($180,000) wor th of supplies, which are no longer sold prominently in shops. “That’s something that we have succeeded in completely eliminating. The trade has since gone underground,” Rai said.

Health workers believe clandestine sales will at least force the price up by five to ten times and make it more difficult for youngsters to purchase. “If children will not have access, then I see a better future,” said Chaturvedi.—AFP

Polio campaign troubles imperil 350,000 Pakistan children MIRANSHAH: Pakistan yesterday postponed a polio immunization campaign in parts of its tribal belt, jeopardizing the health of more than 350,000 children after the Taliban banned inoculations. Local Taliban and Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose followers are fighting Western troops in Afghanistan, banned the vaccinations in the nor thwestern region of Waziristan to protest against US drone attacks.

They have condemned the immunization campaign, which began nationwide yesterday, as a cover for espionage.

Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi was jailed for 33 years in May after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination program as cover. Fighting between government troops and local warlord Mangal Bagh also made it difficult to innoculate all children in Khyber district, officials said. “The campaign has

been postponed in North and South Waziristan and Bara (district) of Khyber,” Mazhar Nisar, in charge of the polio monitoring cell at the prime minister ’s secretariat, told AFP. Officials in Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, said a meeting of tribal elders to discuss immunisation had been postponed due to a military cur few. In Khyber, administration official Irfanullah Wazir told AFP that the target was to vaccinate 200,163 children, but conceded the campaign would be affected in parts of Bara and the Tirah valley, where 111,556 children need the drops.

“We will make every effort to reach the maximum children in those areas, with the help of security forces and lashkars (pro-government tribal militias),” Wazir said. Fawad Khan, director of health services in the tribal belt, told AFP last week that at least 160,000 children in North

Waziristan and 80,000 in South Waziristan would be affected if polio drops are not administered. Pakistan says 34 million children under five will be targeted in the three-day polio immunization campaign from yesterday to tomorrow.

The prime minister’s office said 22 vaccination points had been established on the Afghan Pakistani border, but expected that a “substantial proportion” of children in Bara, South and North Waziristan would not be accessed. The Lancet medical journal has said vaccination problems led last year to Pakistan’s highest number of polio cases in a decade, 198, compared to 144 in 2010. Polio remains endemic only in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria. The highly infectious disease affects mainly the under-fives and can cause paralysis in a matter of hours. Some cases can be fatal. — AFP

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

H E A LT H & S C I E NC E

All you need to know about Hypnotherapy

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atch the hands on the clock. Listen to my increasing levels of anxiety. In fact much of female depresvoice. You’re falling into a deep sleep...” We’re sion can be attributed to weight issues in general. Women all familiar with movies which deal with the who perceive they are unattractive become depressed theme of hypnosis or hypnotherapy. From classics such as when their diets are unsuccessful, and this can lead to self“Svegali” to the more recent Woody Allen black comedy, loathing and binge eating. It is a cycle that repeats itself “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion”, movies categorise hypno- with the anxiety and depression increasing with each sis as a tool used by unscrupulous practitioners to make failed diet.

Weight loss is simple in theory: just consume fewer people do things against their will. In Allen’s 2001 movie for instance, Allen portrayed the hapless subject, CW calories than your body needs per day and you will lose Briggs, who is forced to rob jewels by a stage hypnotist. weight. The problem is working out how to keep that Whilst these make for entertaining movies, unfortunately, weight off when food and eating is such a personal issue. many people’s views on hypnotherapy are based on the Bad eating habits usually develop over many years and it is Hollywood fantasy. In reality however, hypnotherapy is a these habits that are the root of the problem. Habit-breakway of re-focussing your consciousness to allow you to ing needs to be made at the subconscious level of the extend your thinking and move beyond the normal limita- mind, where emotions and habits reside. This is where hypnosis works in helping people develop tions we place upon ourselves. the right frame of mind to lose weight, The average person’s subconfeel positive about themselves and crescious mind has between forty and ate strategies to keep that weight off. fifty thought processes happening at Many famous international athletes any one time. Many of these are subsuch as football, tennis, cricket and golf conscious and cause us to feel tenstars have used hypnotherapy to help sion, stress, mood swings and them improve their game. Some people depression, with us often wondering ask, how can this be”? Surely, they why we feel this way. The more tense argue, to improve at sport is all about we become, the more dysfunctional the physical performance. In fact, nothwe can become, with everyday tasks ing could be further from the truth. seemingly beyond us.

Sport is as much about harnessing the This is where hypnosis comes in. psychological as it is about harnessing Hypnotherapy is when someone the physical. Hand-eye co-ordination is helps you to obtain control over your an integral part of many sports such a thoughts by enabling you to relax batting in cricket or serving in tennis, and concentrate -or focus -on just and being able to “visualise” a perfect one thing while staving off the other shot in one’s mind before actually playthings getting in the way and causing it, is a skill that has helped many an ing the anxiety. So the reality is hypLaila Hemmat athlete overcome form slumps. nosis helps you gain control rather Hypnosis can help elite sportsmen and women by helping than surrendering control to someone else.

Hypnosis is used by more and more people to help them focus, divest themselves of distractions and enable them break bad habits such as smoking, over-eating, pho- them to visualise hitting the perfect shot.

Similarly, many reformed smokers attribute their sucbias, anger issues, anxiety, alcohol or drug abuse and anorexia. It is also a positive tool which can be used to cess at “kicking the habit” to hypnotherapy, after trying overcome procrastination, fears related to public speaking, many other anti-smoking regimes without success. child birth or stage fright and can help motivate and help Smoking, as we know, is a habit and habits can be congoal-setting. By helping a subject to relax, hypnosis can trolled with hypnosis by helping smokers relax and uncovhelp the mind focus on that bad habit or obsession, find its er the hidden anxieties causing the underlying stress. underlying cause and help bring about solutions based on Modern hypnosis and hypnotherapy is a reliable way to move yourself toward success even when other approachrational decision-making.

Weight issues are one of the major causes of anxiety in es have failed. both men and women. Many women who are over-weight sghazal@kaizen-kw.com lurch from one diet to another, without success and with

California newborn contracts salmonella in hospital CALIFORNIA: As a first-time mom, Sheila Vega of Modesto, Calif., read the books about feeding, bathing and other details of baby care. Then, complications during pregnancy caused her daughter to be born six weeks premature in April. What she never prepared for was her newborn daughter, Skylin, getting salmonella poisoning while in the hospital. “It can cause permanent damage to her,” Vega said this week.

“We are not in the safe zone yet. She is still positive.”

Skylin’s case of salmonella infectionand a second involving an infant from Stanislaus County, Calif., 80 miles east of San Francisco-caught the attention of county and state public health officials. Dr. John Walker, county public health officer, said he asked the state Department of Public Health in April to investigate a salmonella infection involving an infant at a local hospital because of the potential it could have come from a commercial product.

He did not release the name of the baby or the hospital, citing patient confidentiality laws. A health care provider reported the second infant case of salmonella poisoning May 30, he said. “We rarely see it reported in infants,” Walker said. “So far we have not heard anything from the state, indicating it was related to a commercial product.”

Vega and her mother, Gina Adasolo of Salida, Calif., suspect Skylin got sick from infant formula fed to her in the Doctors Medical Center neonatal intensive care unit, where the 3-pound, 12ounce baby was born April 9. A hospital nurse discovered blood in the baby’s stool-a sign of salmonella poisoning-when she was 4 days old.

Vega said her daughter was placed in an isolation room at Doctors after a stool culture tested positive for salmonella April 19. The infant still had the symptoms after being treated with antibiotics, and the family had her moved to Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif.

There, Skylin was treated with other antibiotics and a test showed it was salmonella Newport, a type with resist-

ance to multiple antibiotics. After her release May 3, the parents found blood in the baby’s stool at home and took her to the emergency room. The last culture, taken June 8, came back positive, Vega said. At this point, doctors have advised them to wait for the baby to get over it with regular monitoring.

CALIFORNIA: Three-month-old Skylin Gold Vega is pictured.

Vega, 25, took pills for high blood pressure during pregnancy, so nurses at Doctors gave the newborn pre mixed formula, instead of her mother’s breast milk. Doctors Medical Center confirmed an infant tested positive for salmonella in the hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit in April.

Spokeswoman Carin Sarkis said it appears to have been an isolated incident. Sarkis said the hospital sent samples of the infant formula to the supplier and received a letter back saying they weren’t contaminated. “We have no reason to believe there was any problem with the formula that would be the cause of the illness,” Sarkis said.

Abbott Laboratories, the maker of the Similac formula used at the hospital, said Tuesday there’s no evidence for-

mula caused the illness.

“The quality and integrity of Abbott products are tested at every stagefrom selection and approval of ingredients throughout production,” the company said. “All of Abbott’s infant formula products pass over 1,500 quality checks prior to release to hospitals and the public.” A state Department of Public Health spokesman said the agency was looking into the salmonella case at Doctors and had no comment. Sarkis said state officials told the hospital Tuesday no deficiencies were found.

In 2004, salmonella contamination of infant formula was declared a health concern by the World Health Organization. There are a variety of other causes of the infection, such as eating tainted eggs or undercooked poultry or handling animals carrying the bacteria.

Walker said babies can get infected from ingesting contaminated formula, breast milk or baby food. He said in most cases, the body has the ability to get rid of the infection without treatment. Symptoms of the intestinal infection include diarrhea, bloody stools, fever and abdominal cramps. It often lasts for a week and most people recover without treatment, but elderly people and infants are susceptible to serious effects, caused when the infection invades the bloodstream and damages organs. Vega said doctors are concerned her baby could become a salmonella carrier and spread the illness to others. The 3-month-old baby, now weighing 8 pounds, often is fussy and seems to groan from discomfort, Vega said. They have not noticed blood in her stool in recent weeks, but doctors want to keep monitoring the child, the family said.

In 2011, the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a 10percent increase in food poisoning from salmonella bacteria over previous years. More than 1 million people are infected in the United States every year, resulting in about 400 deaths annually.—MCT

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TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

W H AT ’ S O N

Winners of register and win promotion at Q8India.com

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ity Centre, Kuwait’s premier megamarket, in association with Q8India.com, a leading online Indian community portal, felicitated winners of their draw for the first week of the monthlong ‘Register and Win’ promotion campaign.

The six lucky winners, picked from those registering their names on Q8India.com website, were each presented with a KD10 shopping voucher from City Centre.

The winners of the first week’s draw in the month-long campaign were: Annadata Venkata Murali Manohar (July 07) Farhan Wasay (July 08) Amina Shaila (July 09)

Vidya Anil Menon (July 10) Jaffer Mohiddin Mehattar (July 11) Jasmina Dsouza (July 12)

Announcements Indian Embassy passport and visa Passports and Visa applications can be deposited at the two outsourced centers of M/S BLS Ltd at Sharq and Fahaheel. Details are available at www.blsinternational.com and www.indembkwt.org .

Consular Open House Consular Wing is providing daily service of Open House to Indian citizens on all workings days from 1000 hrs to 1100 hrs and from 1430 hrs to 1530 hrs by the Consular Officer in the Meeting Room of the Consular Hall at the Embassy. For any unaddressed issues, Second Secretary (Consular) can be contacted. Furthermore, the head of the Consular Wing is also available to redress grievances.

Congratulations to the lucky winners.

Any resident in Kuwait can participate in the promotion by visiting www.Q8India.com and registering their name, email and phone number. A winner will be picked each day (except Friday), from the list of names registered on the previous day, and receive a free shopping voucher worth KD10 from City Centre.

To register and participate visit www.Q8India.com

Indian workers helpline/helpdesk Indian workers helpline is accessible by toll free telephone number 25674163 from all over Kuwait. It provides information and advice to Indian workers as regards their grievances, immigration and other matters. The help desk at the Embassy (Open from 9AM to 1PM and 2PM to 4:30PM, Sunday to Thursday) provides guidance to Indian nationals on routine immigration, employment, legal and other issues. It also provides workers assistance in filling up labour complaint forms. For any unaddressed issues, the concerned attachÈ in the Labour section and the head of the Labour Wing can be contacted.

Rapid oil change in Kuwait launched Socialobby and Edges Media Launch RamadanBuzz.com

Legal Advice Clinic Free legal advice is provided on matters pertaining to labour disputes, terms of contracts with employers, death/accident compensation, withholding of dues by employers, etc. by lawyers on our panel, to Indian nationals on all working days between 1500hrs to 1600hrs.

Buzzing on latest news and events this ramadan

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o strengthen TOTAL Lubricants’ retail presence, Gulf Express Co. (an Al Babtain Group of Co.) & TOTAL Marketing Middle East, have launched the Rapid Oil Change concept at strategic locations in collaboration with Super Service Co. specialized in providing automotive technical check-up services reputed partners in Kuwait in the auspicious presence of Gulf Express representative and Philippe Cabus, Managing Director Total Marketing Middle East FZE, and Adnan Al Abid, Managing Director Super Service Co., in addition to Management teams of Al Babtain Group & Total Marketing Middle East.

Gulf Express emphasized that “being close to our end customers has been a core principal to our operations and we take pride in being one of fastest growing lubricant brands in Kuwait in a very short time. These strategically located service centers provide the customers an ideal solution for their automobile service requirements”.

“TOTAL Rapid Oil Change (ROC) is a

highly professional concept developed

by TOTAL globally and with its highly popular concept of 16-Point Check Up we try to serve the customers in the best possible manner” stated Philippe Cabus TOTAL ROC stands for a warm welcoming team, professional Services, trust and a selection of high quality TOTAL lubricants. Al-Babtain Group is committed to improve service center standards in Kuwait over the next few years and by tying up with reputed and like-minded partners, TOTAL ROC should become the preferred destination for customers seeking professional solutions for their service requirements.

Adnan Al Abid added that Super Service Co. launched the “Total Rapid Oil Change Center” specially designed to provide all customers with the best oil change and maintenance services.

The center hosts the latest diagnostic equipments and products operated by a team of specialized technicians with over 10 years of experience in car maintenance and repair.

ocialobby in cooperation with Edges Media have announced the launch of RamadanBuzz.com website especially created to focus on latest happenings and events taking place during the holy month of Ramadan in Kuwait. The website is launched in association with Mkan.com, Kuwait’s leading online directory and the Social Media Club-Kuwait Chapter.

Ramadanbuzz.com will provide people in Kuwait with updates and news on upcoming events taking place during Ramadan, such as social gatherings, activities, media events, food menus in addition to articles and Islamic seminars related to the month of Ramadan.

As its first initiative, the team of Ramadanbuzz.com has announced that it will be supporting children with diabetes which is organized by Charities Supporting Businesses under the umbrella of Kuwait Red Crescent Society and in coordination with Dasman Diabetes Center. The campaign will commence on Ramadan 8th and end on the last day of Eid Al Fitir with an objective to provide the children with Insulin Pump; a medical device that measures the level of Insulin in the person’s body allowing for continuous flow of insulin to be released into the body when needed.

On the occasion, Socialobby CEO said: “We are delighted to introduce RamadanBuzz.com in collaboration with Edges Media - Khalil Al-Hamar which comes in as a new and unique concept to the Kuwaiti market. The holy month of Ramadan holds many activities and social events that are celebrated by everybody in Kuwait. The website will serve as a platform bringing

together everything related to the month of Ramadan in one place, especially since we will be coordinating with different media agencies and companies.”

Al Nahedth also added: “It is our pleasure to support the great initiative highlighting the campaign for children with Diabetes, especially since Ramadan is the month of generosity and giving. Socialobby looks forward to participating at campaigns and events that benefit the community through social and online media.”

For more information about Socialobby please visit the website on www.socialobby.com or call customer service on 25733605.

Ambassador’s Open House The Open House for Indian citizens by the Ambassador is being held on all Wednesdays at the Embassy for redressal of grievances. In case Wednesday is an Embassy holiday, the meeting will be held on the next working day.

‘Leniency of Islam’ An unprecedented initiative of KTV2 (English channel) is the new program by the name ‘Leniency of Islam’ presented by Shaikh Musaad Alsane and directed by Hamid AlTurkait. 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.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

KIG conducts Marahaban ya Ramadan

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Bangladesh Awami League’s 63rd anniversary celebrated in Kuwait

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he 63rd glorious founding anniversary of Bangladesh Awami League is being celebrated in Bangladesh as well as in Bengali Diaspora worldwide.

Accordingly, with much more grace and enthusiasm, the celebration took place on 12th July, Thursday at Rajdhani hotel in Kuwait City. The celebration committee convener Akbar Hosen had presided over the function while it was brilliantly presented by the Member Secretary of the committee Moeen Uddin.

Among the dignified guests of honor were Lutfar Rahaman General Secretary of Bangladesh expatriate businessman’s association (BEBA), Azadur Rahaman Joint convener of the committee, Awami Foundation President Rafiqul Islam bholo, Sesehsasehak League President Md.Masud Karim, General Secretary of Jatiya Sramil League Md.Kamal, General Secretary of Jatiya Party Ismael Hosen.

The program had commenced with the recitation of verses from the Holy Quran, recited by Tofazzal hosen. That followed the observation of one minute silence in honor of all martyrs of Bangladesh.

Convening committee member and ex organizing secretary of Bangladesh Awami league Kuwait Nazrul Islam had delivered the introductory speech. Convening committee member respectively Nuruzzaman,

Alauddin, Nazrul Islam, Zahidur Rahaman, Seschsasebak League President Masud Karim, Jatiya Party General Secretary Ismael Hosen , Awami Foundation President Rafiqul Islam bhulo, the joint convener of the committee Azadur Rahaman, BIBA kuwait’s general secretary Lutfar Rahaman and the committee convener Akbar Hosen in their respective speeches had explained the importance, background and impact of such a celebration. The speakers had urged all patriotic Bengalis to stand by the dedicated leadership of Bangladesh Awami league central committee and along that with to make sure that the overseas wings of the League, specially in Kuwait may function responsibly under the patriotic, honest and competent leaderships only. In doing so it is of utmost necessity to form a strong overseas wing here under the honest, dedicated and competent leadershipthey had emphasized.

A huge and well decorated celebratory cake was pierced in the magnificent segment of the jubilant program. Members from all associates of Bangladesh Awami League Kuwait, community leaders, and representative of socio-cultural and economical organizations, journalists of electronic and print media as well as vast number expatriate Bengalis had participated in the celebration.

ith the holy month of Ramadan fast approaching, Kerala Islamic Group conducted Marhaban Ya Ramadan study camp. Anees Farooqi spoke on the topic ‘Ramadan - a season of blessings’. “It is the time to be alert and work hard during the day and night to obtain the blessings of the Almighty and to sacrifice and reach higher level of spiritual satisfaction”, he said.

Every person need to work hard to fight off the evil forces that constantly put us off track and be ones’ own master against the forces that constantly try to lead us astray.

When each person disciplines himself, the society becomes disciplined and great revolutions take place. Those who work with a plan only, can make use Ramadan and be the blessed ones to enter the paradise thru the gates of Rayyan, he said.

PP Abdul Razak spoke on the subject ‘Man in the Quran’. Quran is a book which

addresses mankind directly and guides man on all the aspects of his life thru which he may have to live thru, including his personal life, family, societal, financial and political aspects of his life. The Holy Quran encourages man to think about the nature and the environment and find their creator. As per Quran, Man is the only creature on earth that is liable for its actions on earth will be held responsible. All man-made beliefs are myths and the only book that has the right and responsibility to guide mankind is the Quran, he said.

VP Shoukathali delivered on the topic ‘The path of the righteous’. The earth is only like a temporary halting place of a wayfarer, where he needs to prepare for the road ahead. And the one who prepares well for the journey ahead becomes the winner, he said. Faith, fearfulness of the Almighty, good deeds, spending as instructed by the Almighty and good manners are the best

way to prepare for the journey. Those who fear God need not rely on any worldly powers and is entitled to receive the help from the Almighty during his lifetime and thereafter.

Faisal Manjeri answered questions from the audience related to Ramdan and Zakath. To obey the commandments of the God as delivered and be broadminded in cases where there are differences of opinion is the sign of a true believer, and that is how the Prophet and his companions have shown us, he said. Kerala Islamic Group President Sakkeer Hussain presided the conduct of the program, which started with verses from the Quran by Zubair KA. KIG General Secretary Anwar Sayeed welcomed the audience and the program convener Faisal KV proposed the vote of thanks.

Around a thousand people participated in the event held at Masjidul Kabeer Auditorium.

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TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

W H AT ’ S O N Aware Centre

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Embassy Information

he AWARE Management is glad to inform you that Summer 3 Arabic language courses will begin on August 12, 2012 until September 26, 2012.

AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed & courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community. We cater to teachers, travelers & those working in the private business sector. Arabic classes at the AWARE Center are unique because students are provided with the chance to practice their Arabic through various social

activities that aim at bringing Arabs and Westerners together.

AWARE Arabic courses highlights • Introductory to Level 4 Arabic language basics • Better prepare you for speaking, reading and writing Arabic • Combine language learning with cultural insights • Taught in multi-nationality group settings • Provide opportunities to interact with Western expatriates and native Kuwaitis/Arabs.

For more information, call 25335260/80 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw.”

Kuwait Central Bank Governor Dr. Mohammad Yousuf Al-Hashil received accountant Al-Mulla Hussein from the Foreign Operations Administration, who handed him his masters thesis titled the evaluation of the financial status of Islamic banks in the state of Kuwait, based on the repercussions of the economic crises. The governor congratulated Ali Mulla Hussein on receiving the masters degree.

Pakistan Cultural Society pay tribute to Mehdi Hassan

EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian ConsulateGeneral in Dubai.

Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com ( VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.html nnnnnnn

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

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akistan cultural society established in 2004 under the dynamic leadership of Sain Nawaz, who organized many musical evenings in the past of renowned artists like Tarannum Naaz, Ustad Hamid, Ali khan, Ikram Mehdi, Ishtiaq Bashir and others were invited to Kuwait.

To pay tribute to Sehenshah e Ghazal late Mehdi Hassan, a program was organized last Friday in a local Shahi Qillah restaurant in which a large number of prominent Pakistanis and Indians participated. The program was presided over by respected Hassan Wazir dy. chief of Pakistan embassy in Kuwait. While special guest were Janab Arif Butt, president of Pakistan business council, Ateeq Adnan, Janab Ishtiaq Malik, a prominent Pakistan businessman were all the main sponsors.

The program was conducted by radio Kuwait announcer Mohtaram Abdullah Abbasi who conducted the programmed in a very exciting and amusing manner. The singer who pre-

EMBASSY OF BRITAIN Consular section at the British Embassy will be starting an online appointment booking system for our consular customers from Sunday, 01 July 2012. All information including how to make an appointment is now available on the embassy website. In addition, there is also a “Consular Appointment System” option under Quick links on the right hand side on the homepage, which should take you to the “Consular online booking appointment system” main page.

Please be aware that from 01 July 2012, we will no longer accept walk-in customers for legalisation, notarial services and certificates (birth, death and marriages). If you have problems accessing the system or need to make an appointment for non-notarial consular issues or have a consular emergency, please call 2259 4355/7/8 or email us on consularenquirieskuwait@fco.gov.uk. If you require consular assistance out of office hours (working hours: 0730l430 hrs), please contact the Embassy on 2259 4320.

sented Ghazals were Amjad Ali, Zafar Ghauri, Nayyar, Hamid Ali, Neelma. The Ghazals sang by late Mehdi Hassan were presented by these artists and were amused and liked by the audience, the program commenced at 9:00 pm and lasted till 12:30 midnight.

The president of the function and the chief guests in their speech appreciated the efforts of Sain Nawaz and Arif Butt in his speech announced his cooperation to Sain Nawaz for his all future programs. Before the conclusion of the event, the president of Pakistan cultural society, Sain Nawaz, thanked the audience and all the artists who performed and the management of Lahore Shahi Qillah restaurant for their wonderful cooperation which lead to the success of this night and paid tribute to the late Shehnshah e Ghazal Mehdi Hassan. The program concluded with a vote of thanks and the guests were invited to the tables for dinner.

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EMBASSY OF KOREA The Embassy of the Republic of Korea wishes to inform that it has moved to Mishref. New Address: Embassy of the Republic of Korea Mishref, Block 7A, Diplomatic Area 2, Plot 6 The Embassy also wishes to inform that it will be opened to the public on the following office hours: Saturday to Thursday Morning: 8:00 am to 12:30 pm Lunch Break: 12:30 pm to 1:00 pm Afternoon: 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform Kenyan residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that with effect from June 1, 2012 the Embassy has moved from its current location to a new location in Surra Block 1, Street 8, Villa 303. Please note that the new telephone and fax numbers will be communicated as soon as possible. For enquiries you can contact Consular Section on mobile 90935162 or 97527306. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF MEXICO The Embassy of Mexico is pleased to inform that it is located in CLIFFS Complex, Villa 6, Salmiya, block 9, Baghdad street, Jadda Lane 7. The working hours for consular issues are from 9:00 to 12:00 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 14:00 to 15:00 hours for lunch break. The Embassy of Mexico kindly requests all Mexicans citizens in Kuwait to proceed to the email: embkuwait@sre.gob.mx in order to register or update contact information. Other consultations or/and appointments could be done by telephone or fax: (+965) 2573 1952 nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, Al-Salaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location. Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, email:myankuwait11@gmai1.com nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF PAKISTAN During the holy month of Ramadan the general working hours at the Embassy of Islamic Republic of Pakistan will be from 8 am till 2 pm.

Competitions in Patriotic songs

I

ndo-Kuwait Friendship Society, Kuwait (www.indokuwaitfriendshipsociety.com) is planning to conduct competitions in Indian and Kuwaiti Patriotic songs.

This is the first time in Kuwait, an Indian Association is organizing contests in “Patriotic Songs” for both Indian and Kuwaiti School students. The first 3 places will be declared separately by Judges who are experts in Indian and Kuwaiti Patriotic songs. Several prizes and awards will be handed over for the winning schools. Pradeep Rajkumar and A K S Abdul Nazar said that IKFS wants let our children learn what they mean as a “Patriotic” to their home country. 4 pages of spot Essay competition related to “Patriotism” also will be held in the same day as a spot registration. 1 Girl and 1 Boy student from each School can participate in the ESSAY contest. Dr. Mohamed Tareq, Chairman of the First Indian Model School in Kuwait “ Salmiya Indian Model School (SIMS) already confirmed as a Co-Sponsor of the Program.

Conditions apply 1) The competitions are meant for all the Schools located in Kuwait and should be nominated by school authority.

2) Each school can select group of 7 students for the “PATRIOTIC SONGS (Indian and Kuwaiti)” and nominate separately.

3) Children of above 12 years till 17 years (VII classes to XII classes) are eligible for the contest. But if School is permitted 4) Musical instruments or KARAOKE mixer should be accompanied by the participating students/Children and the school team should operate and select the mixers.

5) Time frame: 7 minutes - Names will be called as “First come” in the Registration.

The Event will be held at the auditorium of “Salmiya Indian Model School” on Saturday, 27th October 2012

from 09:30 am onwards. It will be a full day program with fun and full of entertainments. Food-stalls of different Kuwaiti and Indian tastes will installed.

Dr. Ghalib Al-Mashoor said in a press release that Invitations for all schools located in various parts of Kuwait are already been sent. Schools under one management but from different locations can also participate in the contest individually. As per the school directory, there 23 Indian schools in Kuwait. The last date of receiving names of the Participants is scheduled on 2nd day of October, 2012 (INDIA’s GHANDI JAYANTHI DAY). The entry is free to all and due to 2nd day of Eid Al-Adha holidays, a large crowd is expected to attend in addition to, Senior Kuwaiti and Indian citizens will also grace the function.

All the applications of interest should be sent to: ikfsociety@gmail.com Phone:99430786

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EMBASSY OF THAILAND The Royal Thai Embassy in Kuwait, wishes to invite the Kuwaiti companies that deal business with Thai companies or those agencies of Thai commercial companies to visit the Embassy’s Commercial Office to register their relevant information to be part of the embassy’s business and trade database. The Royal Thai Embassy is located in Jabriya, Block 6, Street 8, Villa No. 1, Telephone No. 25317530 -25317531, Ext: 14. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF UKRAINE We’d like to inform you that in response to the increasing number of our citizens who work in the state and the need for 24-hour operational telephone in case of emergency the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait has opened “hotline telephone number” - (+ 965) 972-79-206.

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

TV PROGRAMS

00:45 Your Worst Animal Nightmares 01:40 Untamed & Uncut 02:35 Great Animal Escapes 03:30 Must Love Cats 04:25 Wild France 05:20 Stranger Among Bears 05:45 In Too Deep 06:10 New Breed Vets With Steve Irwin 07:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 07:25 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 08:15 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 08:40 Breed All About It 09:10 Baby Planet 10:05 Wild France 11:00 Wildlife SOS 11:25 Going Ape 11:55 Animal Cops Specials 2009 12:50 Safari Vet School 13:45 Animal Precinct 14:40 Wild France 15:30 Karina: Wild On Safari 16:00 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 16:30 Growing Up...

17:25 Cats 101 18:20 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 19:15 Wildlife SOS 19:40 Going Ape 20:10 Stranger Among Bears 20:35 In Too Deep 21:05 Wild France 22:00 Rescue Vet 22:25 Rescue Vet 22:55 World Wild Vet 23:50 Animal Cops Houston

00:55 Eastenders 01:25 Doctors 01:55 Spooks 02:45 The Weakest Link 03:35 As Time Goes By 04:05 Fimbles 04:25 Tellytales 04:35 Little Prairie Dogs 04:45 Nina And The Neurons 05:00 Show Me Show Me 05:25 Boogie Beebies 05:40 Charlie And Lola 05:50 Fimbles 06:10 Tellytales 06:20 Little Prairie Dogs 06:30 Nina And The Neurons 06:45 Show Me Show Me 07:10 Boogie Beebies 07:25 Charlie And Lola 07:35 As Time Goes By 08:05 One Foot In The Grave 08:35 Dinnerladies 09:05 Eastenders 09:35 Doctors 10:05 Coast 11:05 The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 11:50 As Time Goes By 12:20 One Foot In The Grave 12:50 The Weakest Link 13:35 Eastenders 14:05 Doctors 14:35 Coast 15:30 The Inspector Lynley Mysteries 16:15 The Weakest Link 17:00 Eastenders 17:30 Doctors 18:00 Bleak House 18:30 Bleak House 19:00 After You’ve Gone 19:30 Gavin & Stacey 20:00 London Hospital 20:50 2 Point 4 Children 21:20 Lead Balloon 21:50 Life On Mars 22:40 Fawlty Towers 23:10 The Weakest Link 23:55 Bleak House

00:30 01:20 02:05 02:35

Gok’s Fashion Fix Gok’s Clothes Roadshow MasterChef MasterChef

03:25 MasterChef 04:20 Living In The Sun 05:10 MasterChef 05:40 MasterChef 06:30 MasterChef 07:25 Living In The Sun 08:15 MasterChef Australia 08:40 MasterChef Australia 09:25 Bargain Hunt 10:10 Antiques Roadshow 11:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:40 Come Dine With Me 12:30 10 Years Younger 13:20 Holmes On Homes 14:05 Holmes On Homes 14:55 Bargain Hunt 15:40 Antiques Roadshow 16:30 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:15 Come Dine With Me 18:00 Rachel’s Favourite Food For Living 18:30 The Hairy Bikers Ride Again 18:55 Rick Stein’s French Odyssey 19:20 James Martin’s Brittany 19:45 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Bargain Hunt 22:05 Antiques Roadshow 23:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

00:00 BBC World News America 00:30 BBC World News America 01:00 Newsday 01:30 Asia Business Report 01:45 Sport Today 02:00 Newsday 02:30 Asia Business Report 02:45 Sport Today 03:00 Newsday 03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Sport Today 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Sport Today 05:00 BBC World News 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 Sport Today 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 Sport Today 11:00 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 13:30 BBC World News 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 16:30 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 19:30 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 BBC Focus On Africa 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 21:30 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 23:30 Hardtalk

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

Puppy In My Pocket Tom & Jerry Kids Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes Popeye Classics Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Johnny Bravo The Flintstones The Jetsons Wacky Races The Garfield Show Tom & Jerry Kids Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing Ha Ha Hairies A Pup Named Scooby-Doo The Garfield Show Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory Pink Panther And Pals Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Duck Dodgers Looney Tunes The Flintstones Wacky Races Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Looney Tunes Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Duck Dodgers Duck Dodgers Scooby-Doo And ScrappyDastardly And Muttley Johnny Bravo Johnny Bravo Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show The Garfield Show Dexter’s Laboratory Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Dexter’s Laboratory Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Duck Dodgers Looney Tunes The Garfield Show A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Popeye The Jetsons Duck Dodgers

00:30 Bakugan: New Vestroia 00:55 Bakugan: New Vestroia 01:20 Powerpuff Girls 02:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Ben 10 03:50 Adventure Time 04:15 Powerpuff Girls 04:40 Generator Rex 05:05 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:30 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 05:55 Angelo Rules 06:00 The Marvelous Misadventures...

06:25 Casper’s Scare School 07:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 07:15 Adventure Time 07:40 Johnny Test 08:05 Grim Adventures Of...

08:55 Courage The Cowardly Dog 09:45 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 10:10 Redakai: Conquer The Kairu 10:35 Powerpuff Girls 11:25 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 12:15 Ed, Edd n Eddy 13:05 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 13:30 Sym-Bionic Titan 13:55 Foster’s Home For...

FANTASTIC FOUR ON OSN ACTION HD

14:20 Foster’s Home For...

14:45 Angelo Rules 15:35 Powerpuff Girls 16:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 16:40 Johnny Test 17:05 Adventure Time 17:30 Regular Show 17:55 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 18:20 Batman Brave And The Bold 18:45 Young Justice 19:10 Hero 108 19:35 Ben 10 20:00 Ben 10 20:25 Courage The Cowardly Dog 21:15 Grim Adventures Of...

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

00:00 Amanpour 00:30 World Sport 01:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 02:00 World Report 03:00 Anderson Cooper 360 04:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 05:00 Quest Means Business 06:00 The Situation Room 07:00 World Sport 07:30 African Voices 08:00 World Report 09:00 World Report 10:00 World Sport 10:30 Talk Asia 11:00 World Business Today 12:00 Amanpour 12:30 Going Green 13:00 World One 14:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 15:00 News Stream 16:00 World Business Today 17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 19:00 World Sport 19:30 Going Green 20:00 International Desk 21:00 Quest Means Business 22:00 Amanpour 22:30 CNN Newscenter 23:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson

00:15 Monsters Inside Me 01:10 Sons Of Guns 01:35 Hillbilly Handfishin’ 02:30 Extreme Fishing 03:25 Robson Green’s Extreme Fishing Challenge 04:20 Monsters Inside Me 05:15 How Do They Do It? 05:40 How It’s Made 06:05 Swamp Loggers 07:00 American Chopper 07:50 Mythbusters 08:45 Ultimate Survival 09:40 Border Security 10:05 Auction Kings 10:30 How Do They Do It? 10:55 How It’s Made 11:25 Rattlesnake Republic 12:20 Finding Bigfoot 13:15 Tornado Road 14:10 Border Security 14:35 Auction Kings 15:05 Ultimate Survival 16:00 American Chopper 16:55 Fifth Gear 17:20 Swamp Loggers 18:15 Mythbusters 19:10 How Do They Do It? 19:40 How It’s Made 20:05 Border Security 20:35 Auction Kings 21:00 The Gadget Show 21:30 Rattlesnake Republic 22:25 Finding Bigfoot 23:20 Wreckreation Nation

00:35 01:25 02:15 03:05 03:35 04:25 05:15 06:05 07:00 07:50 07:53 08:20 08:50 09:40 10:30 11:20 12:10 13:00 13:50 14:45 15:35 16:00 16:03 16:30 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 19:55 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:40

Superships Science Of The Movies Mighty Ships The Gadget Show Da Vinci’s Machines Moon Machines Superships Science Of The Movies Mighty Ships Head Rush Bang Goes The Theory Sci-Fi Science Sport Science Da Vinci’s Machines Scrapheap Challenge Scrapheap Challenge Scrapheap Challenge Scrapheap Challenge Scrapheap Challenge Scrapheap Challenge The Gadget Show Head Rush Bang Goes The Theory Sci-Fi Science Science Of The Movies Sport Science Moon Machines Junk Men Junk Men Scrapheap Challenge The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Junk Men Junk Men Scrapheap Challenge Sport Science

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

Style Star Beauty Queens Gone Wrong Behind The Scenes Extreme Close-Up Sexiest THS THS Behind The Scenes E! News Scouted THS E! News Ice Loves Coco Ice Loves Coco Kourtney & Kim Take New Kourtney & Kim Take New Style Star E!es Behind The Scenes Keeping Up With The

Kardashians 17:55 E! News 18:55 E!es 19:55 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 20:55 Mrs. Eastwood And Company 21:25 Giuliana & Bill 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 Fashion Police

00:30 01:20 02:05 02:55 03:45 04:30 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:40 09:30 09:55 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:25 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 Jones 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40

The Haunted Crime Scene Psychics Deadly Sins Scorned: Crimes Of Passion Extreme Forensics The Haunted Crime Scene Psychics Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Street Patrol Street Patrol Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite

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

The Green Way Up The Green Way Up Destination Extreme Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Chasing Time Treks In A Wild World Meet The Natives The Green Way Up Destination Extreme Destination Extreme Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Chasing Time Chasing Time Treks In A Wild World Meet The Natives The Green Way Up The Green Way Up Destination Extreme Madventures Extreme Tourist Afghanistan Chasing Time Chasing Time Treks In A Wild World Meet The Natives The Green Way Up The Green Way Up Travel Madness Travel Madness David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1 David Rocco’s Amalfi Getaway Exploring The Vine Exploring The Vine Dive Detectives Asia Action Challenge 2000

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

Big, Bigger, Biggest Secret Bible Is It Real? S3 (1 hour) Big, Bigger, Biggest Fight Masters Hunter Hunted Banged Up Abroad Air Crash Investigation Big, Bigger, Biggest Secret Bible Is It Real? S3 (1 hour) Big, Bigger, Biggest Fight Masters Hunter Hunted Banged Up Abroad Air Crash Investigation Big, Bigger, Biggest Secret Bible Is It Real? S3 (1 hour) Untamed Americas World’s Deadliest Animals Shark Men Lockdown Air Crash Investigation

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

Inside Nature’s Giants Built for the Kill 4 Deep Jungle Outback Wrangler Hooked Predator Battleground Great Migrations Deep Jungle Outback Wrangler Hooked Secrets Of The King Cobra Monster Fish Rescue Ink I, Predator Deep Jungle Outback Wrangler Hooked The Rise Of Black Wolf Monster Fish Rescue Ink Deep Jungle Outback Wrangler Hooked Secrets Of The King Cobra Monster Fish

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

Homecoming-18 Blood Out-18 AVP: Alien vs Predator-PG15 Legendary-PG15 Fatal Secrets-PG15 Kull The Conqueror-PG15 Fantastic Four-PG15 Fatal Secrets-PG15 So Close-PG15 Fantastic Four-PG15 Gridlock’d-18 Twins Mission-PG15

Disappeared FBI Files Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Fatal Encounters Killer Kids Dr G: Medical Examiner

RED ON OSN CINEMA

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

Red-PG15 According To Greta-PG15 The Making Of Plus One-PG15 Sounds Like Teen Spirit-PG15 According To Greta-PG15 Red-PG15 District 9-PG15 Bound By A Secret-PG15 Goodbye Solo-PG15 Dear John-PG15 No Strings Attached-18 A Perfect Getaway-18

00:00 King Of The Hill 00:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 01:30 Louie 02:00 American Dad 02:30 American Dad 03:00 2 Broke Girls 03:30 Raising Hope 04:00 Til Death 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 The Simpsons 06:00 Seinfeld 06:30 Mad Love 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Til Death 08:30 2 Broke Girls 09:00 The Simpsons 10:00 Happy Endings 10:30 Mad Love 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Seinfeld 12:30 Til Death 13:00 The Simpsons 13:30 Mad Love 14:00 Raising Hope 14:30 Happy Endings 15:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 16:30 Seinfeld 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 2 Broke Girls 18:30 Man Up! 19:00 The Cleveland Show 19:30 Happy Endings 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 23:00 Two And A Half Men 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 16:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Justified Missing Luck Suits The Killing Good Morning America The Glades Coronation Street The Martha Stewart Show The View Missing Suits Live Good Morning America The Glades White Collar Royal Pains House Perception The Killing

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

Cold Case Luck Missing Justified Suits Cold Case Emmerdale Coronation Street Body Of Proof The Ellen DeGeneres Show Missing Suits Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Body Of Proof Cold Case Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Smallville White Collar Royal Pains

21:00 House 22:00 Perception 23:00 The River

01:00 Kiss Of Death-18 03:00 AVP: Alien vs Predator-PG15 05:00 Largo Winch 2-PG15 07:00 Time Machine: Rise Of The Morlocks-PG15 08:30 Snake In The Eagle’s ShadowPG15 10:15 The Postman-PG15 13:15 True Justice: Dark Vengeance18 15:00 Snake In The Eagle’s ShadowPG15 16:45 Iron Man 2-PG15 19:00 8 Mile-PG15 21:00 Twins Mission-PG15 23:00 Paranormal Activity: Tokyo Night-PG15

00:00 I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry-PG15 02:00 Miami Rhapsody-PG15 04:00 Bubble Boy-PG15 06:00 The Open Road-PG15 08:00 Miami Rhapsody-PG15 10:00 Snow Dogs-PG 12:00 The Beverly Hillbillies-PG15 14:00 Labor Pains-PG15 16:00 Snow Dogs-PG 18:00 Made In Dagenham-PG15 20:00 28 Days-PG15 22:00 Rag Tale-18

01:00 Henry & June-R 03:15 My Afternoons With Margueritte-PG15 05:00 All The Pretty Horses-PG15 07:00 Family Gathering-PG15 09:00 Oscar And The Lady In PinkPG15 11:00 Desperate Hours: An Amber Alert-PG15 13:00 Love The Beast-PG 14:45 Oscar And The Lady In PinkPG15 16:45 Mammoth-PG15 19:00 A Simple Twist Of Fate-PG15 21:00 Scent Of A Woman-18 23:45 Of Gods And Men-18

01:00 Held Up-18 03:00 My Sassy Girl-PG15 05:00 Good Hair-PG15 07:00 Rango-FAM 09:00 Prom-PG15 10:45 Les Miserables 25th Anniversary-PG15 13:45 Kings Ransom-PG15 15:00 Spy Kids: All The Time In The World-PG 17:00 Prom-PG15 19:00 Kung Fu Panda 2-PG 20:45 Fast Five-PG15 23:00 28 Days-PG15

00:00 Wuthering Heights-18 02:15 Country Strong-PG15 04:15 The Hole-PG15 06:00 Fat Albert-PG 08:00 Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story-PG 10:00 Battle For Terra-PG15 12:00 Country Strong-PG15 14:00 Senna-PG15 16:00 Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story-PG 18:00 Chronicles Of Narnia: Voyage Of The Dawn Treader-PG 20:00 The Dilemma-PG15 22:00 Kung Fu Panda 2-PG

00:00 Zorro’s Secrets-PG 02:00 Columbus III: The New WorldPG 04:00 Emperor’s Secret-PG 06:00 The Adventures Of Don Quixote-FAM 08:00 Micropolis-FAM 10:00 Christmas In New York-PG 12:00 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid-PG 14:00 Supertramps-FAM

16:00 The Three Bears: The Amazing Adventurers-FAM 18:00 Christmas In New York-PG 20:00 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules-PG15 22:00 Supertramps-FAM

01:30 PGA European Tour Highlights 02:30 Super Rugby Highlights 03:30 Super Rugby 05:30 Trans World Sport 06:30 Futbol Mundial 07:00 NRL Premiership 09:00 Rugby League Challenge Cup 11:00 Volvo Ocean Race Highlights 11:30 Volvo Ocean Race Highlights 12:30 PGA European Tour Highlights 13:30 Super Rugby Highlights 14:30 Super Rugby 16:30 NRL Premiership 18:30 The Open Championship Official Film 19:30 Rugby League Challenge Cup 21:30 AFL Premiership

00:00 NRL Premiership 02:00 PGA European Tour 07:00 Super Rugby Highlights 08:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 09:00 The Open Championship Official Film 10:00 Super Rugby 12:00 Super Rugby 14:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 15:00 Volvo Ocean Race Highlights 16:00 Super Rugby Highlights 17:00 UFC Countdown 18:00 UFC - Munoz Vs. Weidman 21:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter 22:00 WWE SmackDown

00:30 AFL Highlights 01:30 Golfing World 02:30 World Match Racing Tour Highlights 03:30 City Centre Races 04:00 World Cup of Pool 06:00 World Pool Masters 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 AFL Highlights 09:00 Trans World Sport 10:00 World Cup of Pool 12:00 City Centre Races 13:00 Golfing World 14:00 Sailing World Match Racing Tour 16:00 Mobil 1 The Grid 16:30 AFL Premiership 19:00 Golfing World 20:00 NRL Full Time 21:00 Futbol Mundial 21:30 World Match Racing Tour Highlights 22:30 The Open Championship 23:30 City Centre Races

02:30 03:30 07:00 08:00 09:00 11:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 14:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00

UFC 149 Countdown UFC Unleashed WWE NXT WWE Bottom Line NHL Mobil 1 The Grid V8 Supercars Extra WWE Bottom Line WWE Vintage Collection V8 Supercars WWE NXT WWE Experience UFC 149 Countdown UFC

01:20 02:55 04:30 07:00 08:40 10:35 12:15 13:55 16:00 17:45 19:45 22:00 23:35

The Outrage Point Blank Now, Voyager-PG Catlow-PG The Hucksters-PG The Prisoner Of Zenda-FAM Saratoga-PG The V.I.P.S-FAM Blackboard Jungle-PG The Last Time I Saw Paris-PG Little Women-FAM Sitting Target Clash Of The Titans

Classifieds TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines JZR QTR RJA GFA UAE ETD OMA THY FDB MSR RBG QTR JZR KAC THY JZR DHX JZR KAC KAC BAW KAC JZR KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB IRA ETD IRA GFA MEA KAC JZR MSR MSC JZR JZR MSR GFA KAC KAC FDB KNE JZR QTR SVA KAC RJA JZR KAC KAC QTR FDB ETD JZR UAE UAL GFA SVA JZR JZR ABY KAC KAC QTR SYR KAC KAC FDB KAC MSR MSC KAC KAC KAC KAC JAI KAC AXB FDB OMA MEA QTR GFA ALK KLM UAE JZR ABY QTR JZR UAE AIC FDB MEA GFA UAL JZR DLH JZR MSR THY PIA

Arrival Flights on Tuesday 17/7/2012 Flt Route 185 DUBAI 148 DOHA 642 AMMAN 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 643 MUSCAT 768 ISTANBUL 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 3553 ALEXANDRIA 138 DOHA 503 LUXOR 544 CAIRO 770 ISTANBUL 1541 CAIRO 170 BAHRAIN 555 ALEXANDRIA 412 MANILA 154 ISTANBUL 157 LONDON 416 JAKARTA 529 ASSIUT 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 332 TRIVANDRUM 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 605 ISFAHAN 301 ABU DHABI 619 LAR 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 118 NEW YORK 165 DUBAI 618 ALEXANDRIA 401 ALEXANDRIA 561 SOHAG 200 DAMASCUS 610 CAIRO 219 BAHRAIN 672 DUBAI 514 TEHRAN 57 DUBAI 472 JEDDAH 535 CAIRO 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 562 AMMAN 640 AMMAN 257 BEIRUT 546 ALEXANDRIA 678 ABU DHABI 134 DOHA 8053 DUBAI 303 ABU DHABI 787 RIYADH 857 DUBAI 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 177 DUBAI 777 JEDDAH 127 SHARJAH 502 BEIRUT 542 CAIRO 144 DOHA 341 DAMASCUS 166 PARIS 786 JEDDAH 63 DUBAI 104 LONDON 624 SOHAG 403 ASSIUT 618 DOHA 674 DUBAI 742 DAMMAM 614 BAHRAIN 572 MUMBAI 774 RIYADH 389 KOZHIKODE 61 DUBAI 647 MUSCAT 402 BEIRUT 146 DOHA 221 BAHRAIN 229 COLOMBO 415 AMSTERDAM 859 DUBAI 135 BAHRAIN 129 SHARJAH 136 DOHA 539 CAIRO 3855 DUBAI 981 CHENNAI 59 DUBAI 406 BEIRUT 217 BAHRAIN 981 BAHRAIN 239 AMMAN 636 FRANKFURT 513 SHARM EL SHEIKH 614 CAIRO 772 ISTANBUL 205 LAHORE

Time 0:15 0:20 2:10 2:20 2:25 2:30 2:50 2:50 3:10 3:20 3:20 3:25 3:55 4:10 4:35 4:55 5:00 6:00 6:15 6:20 6:30 6:35 6:40 7:15 7:45 7:50 7:55 8:05 8:15 8:25 8:30 9:00 9:20 9:20 9:30 9:40 10:00 10:55 11:00 11:05 11:25 12:00 12:25 12:30 13:30 13:40 13:40 13:40 13:45 14:15 14:20 14:25 14:30 14:30 14:55 15:00 15:05 15:05 15:15 15:55 16:35 16:40 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:30 17:40 17:45 18:00 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:40 18:45 18:45 18:55 19:00 19:20 19:25 19:30 19:30 19:35 19:40 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:35 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:15 21:30 21:35 22:10 22:15 22:25 22:30 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:55 23:10 23:30 23:35 23:40 23:59

Airlines AIC UAL DLH MSR KLM PIA THY THY UAE FDB OMA RBG ETD MSR QTR QTR JZR RJA JZR JZR GFA THY JZR KAC BAW FDB KAC JZR ABY KAC KAC KAC UAE QTR KAC FDB ETD IRA IRA GFA KAC KAC MEA KAC JZR MSR MSC KAC JZR JZR GFA FDB MSR KAC JZR KNE SVA KAC RJA QTR KAC KAC KAC FDB ETD JZR JZR QTR UAE GFA JZR ABY UAL SVA JZR QTR FDB SYR KAC MSR MSC JZR KAC JAI FDB KAC KAC OMA MEA KAC GFA DHX ALK KLM JZR ABY KAC UAE QTR KAC KAC JZR QTR AXB FDB GFA MEA KAC UAE JZR

Depature Flights on Tuesday 17/7/2012 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 981 WASHINGTON DC 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 411 AMSTERDAM 240 SIALKOT 773 ISTANBUL 769 ISTANBUL 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 644 MUSCAT 3554 ALEXANDRIA 306 ABU DHABI 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 643 AMMAN 164 DUBAI 201 DAMASCUS 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 534 CAIRO 545 ALEXANDRIA 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 677 ABU DHABI 256 BEIRUT 126 SHARJAH 561 AMMAN 513 IMAM KHOMEINI 671 DUBAI 856 DUBAI 133 DOHA 101 LONDON 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 604 ISFAHAN 618 LAR 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 405 BEIRUT 501 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 623 SOHAG 404 ASSIUT 785 JEDDAH 786 RIYADH 176 DUBAI 220 BAHRAIN 58 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 673 DUBAI 538 CAIRO 473 JEDDAH 501 JEDDAH 617 DOHA 641 AMMAN 135 DOHA 773 RIYADH 613 BAHRAIN 741 DAMMAM 8054 DUBAI 304 ABU DHABI 512 SHARM EL SHEIKH 238 AMMAN 141 DOHA 858 DUBAI 216 BAHRAIN 134 BAHRAIN 128 SHARJAH 982 BAHRAIN 511 RIYADH 526 ASSIUT 145 DOHA 64 DUBAI 342 DAMASCUS 283 DHAKA 607 LUXOR 402 ALEXANDRIA 184 DUBAI 361 COLOMBO 571 MUMBAI 62 DUBAI 343 CHENNAI 351 KOCHI 648 MUSCAT 403 BEIRUT 543 CAIRO 222 BAHRAIN 171 BAHRAIN 230 COLOMBO 415 DAMMAM 1540 CAIRO 120 SHARJAH 381 DELHI 860 DUBAI 137 DOHA 301 MUMBAI 205 ISLAMABAD 554 ALEXANDRIA 147 DOHA 390 MANGALORE 60 DUBAI 218 BAHRAIN 407 BEIRUT 411 BANGKOK 3856 DUBAI 528 ASSIUT

Time 0:05 0:25 0:30 0:35 0:55 1:00 2:15 3:40 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:00 4:05 4:20 4:50 5:40 6:00 6:50 6:55 7:00 7:05 7:10 7:30 8:10 8:25 8:25 8:35 9:00 9:05 9:15 9:15 9:20 9:40 10:00 10:00 10:05 10:15 10:20 10:40 10:45 11:30 11:45 11:55 12:00 12:15 12:25 13:00 13:10 13:15 13:20 14:25 14:25 14:30 15:05 15:10 15:15 15:45 15:45 15:50 16:15 16:25 16:30 16:30 16:35 17:20 17:25 17:30 17:45 18:05 18:20 18:20 18:25 18:30 18:35 18:50 19:20 19:25 19:30 19:30 19:55 20:00 20:05 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:55 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:50 21:55 22:05 22:05 22:10 22:20 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:10 23:10 23:15 23:30 23:30 23:40 23:45 23:50

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

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation available for decent bachelor non smoking, Amman street, one room, opposite to Al Rashid hospital.

Contact: 66232356.

(C 4080) 16-7-2012

CHANGE OF NAME “I, VALLATH KOZHIPILLIL NARAYANANKUTTY also known as NANDAN MENON, holding Indian Passport No: Z1120130 of SREEBHADRA, Chandrathil Road, Edappally PO, Cochin - 682024 hereby change my name as VALLATH KOZHIPILLIL NARAYANANKUTTY NANDAN MENON”. (C 4077) 14-7-2012

MATRIMONIAL Proposals are invited for a highly qualified, well settled Male, 28 year old Latin Catholic boy from Cochin working at a Semi Government firm in Kuwait, from parents of catholic girls. Interested may please email to edamana28@gmail.com (C 4078) 14-7-2012

SITUATION VACANT Urgently needed a cook with knowledge of local and international dishes for Kuwaiti family.

Tel: 94088822. (C 4079) 16-7-2012 Full time live out maid/nanny for three months, starting mid July. Must have own residency. Work from 7am to 7pm, Saturday - Thursday in Salwa. Call 97687172 for interview.

12-7-2012

FOR SALE Mitsubishi Lancer Ex-2008, green color (new body) 62000km, price KD 1,950/-.

Contact: 50699345.

(C 4075) 10-7-2012

112

POLICE STATION Al-Madena Police Station 22434064 Al-Murqab Police Station 22435865 Al-Daiya Police Station 22544200 Al-Fayha’a Police Station 22547133 Al-Qadissiya Police Station 22515277 Al-Nugra Police Station 22616662 Al-Salmiya Police Station 25714406 Al-Dasma Police Station 22530801 THE PUBLIC AUTHORITY FOR CIVIL INFORMATION Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988

Prayer timings

Ministry of Interior website: www.moi.gov.kw

Fajr: Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:26 11:54 15:29 18:50 20:19

GOVERNMENT WEB SITES Kuwait Parliament www.majlesalommah.net

The Public Institution for Social Security www.pifss.gov.kw

Ministry of Interior www.moi.gov.kw

Public Authority of Industry www.pai.gov.kw

Public Authority for Civil Information www.paci.gov.kw

Prisoners of War Committee www.pows.org.kw

Kuwait News Agency www.kuna.net.kw

Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mofa.gov.kw

Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affair www.islam.gov.kw

Kuwait Municipality www.municipality.gov.kw

Ministry of Energy (Oil) www.moo.gov.kw

Kuwait Electronic Government www.e.gov.kw

Ministry of Energy (Electricity and Water) www.energy.govt.kw

Ministry of Finance www.mof.gov.kw

Public Authority for Housing Welfare www.housing.gov.kw

Ministry of Commerce and Industry www.moci.gov.kw

Ministry of Justice www.moj.gov.kw

Ministry of Education www.moe.edu.kw

Ministry of Communications www.moc.kw

Ministry of Information www.moinfo.gov.kw

Supreme Council for Planning and Development www.scpd.gov.kw

Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation www.awqaf.org

34

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

stars CROSSWORD 739

STAR TRACK

CALVIN & HOBBES

Aries (March 21-April 19) You may decide that now is a good day to help the new person in your department. This person seemed to be struggling and you think you might be able to help. Today you can see a new opportunity to make a few changes in your own life. Status and security goals need rethinking. Your career is a focus for this, but your home and family situation are also involved. Finances—purchases, investments and credit in particular—could stand some clear thinking. You and your family will prosper from new skills in financial planning. Planning and communicating about a budget system may be in everyone’s best interest. There is unexpected help or support from those around you, especially someone younger. You may be able to pay off some bills soon.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You will find that this day holds numerous opportunities; at work, or outside of work hours! Your enthusiasm to get a lot accomplished, whether alone or as the leader of a group, is contagious. If you have your own business, you may find this is the best time to increase your inventory, hire new people or work on a new ad campaign. If you are an employee, you may find that your superiors are watching your progress. You can expect or ask for a new responsibility, which may lead to a raise or promotion. You know what you want and what you can do. Now show them! You have the ability to put ideas into words and give others a feeling for what things mean—communicating with words. Your mind is sharp, quick, clever and entertaining.

POOCH CAFE ACROSS 1. A human limb.

4. A shrub or tree of the genus Rhus (usually limited to the non-poisonous members of the genus).

10. The federal agency that insures residential mortgages.

13. Step on it.

14. A loose robe.

15. A coenzyme derived from the B vitamin nicotinic acid.

16. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

18. A primeval personification of air and breath.

19. Used in combination to denote the middle.

20. When dried yields a hard substance used e.g. in golf balls.

22. Soreness and warmth caused by friction.

24. A young woman making her debut into society.

25. A Loloish language.

27. A public promotion of some product or service.

28. Not agitated.

31. A river that rises in central Germany and flows north to join the Elbe River.

33. Of or relating to or involving an area.

36. (used of count nouns) Every one considered individually.

37. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

39. A mechanically operated piano that uses a roll of perforated paper to activate the keys.

41. A radioactive element of the actinide series.

43. A nucleic acid that transmits genetic information from DNA to the cytoplasm.

44. A doctor's degree in education.

45. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

46. Being one more than two.

48. A gray lustrous metallic element of the rare earth group.

49. Being one more than one.

51. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

52. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

55. Of or relating to or characteristic of Asia or the peoples of Asia or their languages or culture.

60. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

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

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

65. A Buddhist who has attained nirvana.

66. According to need (physicians use PRN in writing prescriptions).

67. An Asian river between China and Russia.

68. Jordan's port.

69. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit juice.

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

2. Port city that is the capital and largest city of Latvia.

3. The food served and eaten at one time.

4. Sports equipment that is worn on the feet to enable the wearer to glide along on wheels and to be propelled by the alternate actions of the legs.

5. An expression of greeting.

6. A benevolent aspect of Devi.

7. A port city in southern Kenya on a coral island in a bay of the Indian Ocean.

8. Used of a single unit or thing.

9. (anatomy) A structure that resembles a shell in shape.

10. A federally chartered corporation that purchases mortgages.

11. A port in northwestern Israel on the Bay of Acre.

12. Combined or joined to increase in size or quantity or scope.

17. An insane person.

21. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

23. Exhibiting or restored to vigorous good health.

26. A family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia.

29. Lacking sufficient water or rainfall.

30. A soft heavy toxic malleable metallic element.

32. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

34. Spanish poet and dramatist (1898-1936).

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

37. The portion of the vertebrate nervous system consisting of the brain and spinal cord.

38. Thigh of a hog (usually smoked).

40. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects.

42. Class of protozoa having cilia or hairlike appendages on part or all of the surface during some part of the life cycle.

47. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

49. A heavy wooden pole (such as the trunk of a young fir) tossed as a test of strength (in the Highlands of Scotland).

50. Russian country house.

53. The biblical name for ancient Syria.

54. (Babylonian) God of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools.

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

57. Thin fibrous bark of the paper mulberry and Pipturus albidus.

58. A United Nations agency created to assist developing nations by loans guaranteed by member governments.

59. A stick that people can lean on to help them walk.

61. The cry made by sheep.

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

Yesterday’s Solution

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You will find your interest in business is on the uphill run. A new person, a new project, something has peaked your interest. Your decision-making abilities are in high form. Intellectual creativity is highlighted and your social connections have a flair of drama to them. Winning the admiration of others for what you say or write and the way you do it, takes on more importance in your life just now. An important relationship, perhaps with an older person or someone in authority, may come into focus this afternoon. An opportunity for understanding and even growth is available. Independence, as well as anything unusual or different, is valued. New ideas, writing, researching and other sciences are what draw you to a bookstore this evening.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Decisive action is called for today. How you respond to change and maintain your independence is a major focus for you now. You are not interested in the superficial; instead, you want to get right to the root of things.

A change of residence could be in order so as to take advantage of new career opportunities. This could come about quite suddenly. Family ties may be in a state of flux: someone wants to be more independent in a very radical way. Fate sends opportunity your way if you listen to your instincts and give your natural sense of curiosity a free rein. Education in some form may help uncover some of the answers that will give you the advantage you seek. This could mean lectures, continued education or even community interest classes.

NON SEQUITUR

Leo (July 23-August 22) There are scattered energies today. From time to time you may find yourself puzzling over people and situations; however, this is a day to walk away. You may feel like retaliating some behavior of a friend, co-worker or family member but given time, the energies will calm and questions will form to wonder what instigated all the confusion. You will not establish anything permanent at this time, so this might be a good time to complete tasks and chores. It would also be best to concentrate on routine matters for now. This afternoon there will be a little time to prop your feet up and snooze a bit—take advantage of that time. Close bonds and interactions with loved ones are where most people will be able to find you this evening.

ZITS

Virgo (August 23-September 22) If ever there was a day to work with groups, this is it. Your acute sensitivity to other people’s moods could enable you to fine-tune those moods as you would a violin. You could obtain or sell most anything at this time—you understand a good transaction. Others will think you have done them a favor! You will love being around people this afternoon, particularly those with whom you are emotionally attached. Better yet, old friends and familiar places may bring about much laughter from old memories. Fondness and appreciation for the past and for your roots in life take on greater importance for you now. Making your home situation more pleasant and attractive plays a part in this and the sale or purchase of real estate could bring you much gain.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

MOTHER GOOSE AND GRIMM

The urge is strong to indulge yourself today. You may be thinking that you just cannot do without that new expensive electronic toy you saw the other day. Perhaps the desire is for food . . . that tempting chocolate cake at an office birthday party. Of course, these things can be very enjoyable if you do not overdo it. Check with the budget and check those calories—moderation. Later today, you could be in situations that would cause you to listen to complaints of the public or co-workers. You are willing to listen to others, take cues and then reflect and build upon that information. Others find you gentle and, for the most part, kind. You have a ready ear. A planned gathering with friends later this evening makes your day zoom by quickly.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You will find that today is a high achievement day. This is a time of decision—small changes can have big effects later on down the road. Make the right choice and it rebounds to your benefit; the wrong choice does you no favors. Thinking before action is a good thing. You are very communicative today and talking, writing, broadcasting . . . even by car, may interest you. Careful, a news story or piece of gossip may need holding back for a while. You are happiest today when you are absorbed in the variety and complexities of life. You naturally are a giving person, sacrificing your own interests for the sake of an inner vision—what you feel is right. You will certainly be pleased by the personal and professional opportunities this day brings forth.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) This may be a day to make lists and check off the most important tasks. There is danger of your being misled or becoming too carried away with some plan or idea. This is a day to honor your responsibilities and concentrate on the things it takes to get you ahead in life. Be sure to take your regular breaks, walk and climb stairs. This is the time to pursue your obligations with much enthusiasm. Seek to find the balance that is between extravagance and frugal—in all your affairs. Talking things over with a professional counselor may help you create and plan for new and better professional goals. Perhaps a new financial portfolio is in order. A domestic or charity project turns into a fun adventure later this afternoon.

Familiar faces keep appearing.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

To

You and your workmates or partners are in for a successful day.

Projects get off to a good start. Break time may be full of a variety of people that seem to want to involve themselves in competition—any competition.

One person does a little shuffle dance and another person shows off with a Riverdance routine. Making your mark on the world has special significance for you but other than having a bit of fun occasionally, you may want to leave the competition to those looking for a job on stage. True enough, achievement, ambition and authority take on greater importance. This afternoon’s work will give you plenty of opportunities to show your talents. You or a mate has a chance to travel soon—good things happen.

Yesterday’s Solution Yester

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You could be stressed this morning. You may think that whatever does not contribute to security and other long-term goals is trivial—but everything matters—we just may not know all the answers from moment to moment. You may come to realize that part of your life work is to provoke others, perhaps even yourself, into thought, creativeness, reassessments or change. You could be a bit compulsive in the way you react to people with whom you are emotionally involved. You will not be going to a fire and problems do not have to be solved instantly—slow down, smell the flowers and have faith in your own good abilities.

There is an opportunity to relax and enjoy the company of a friend this evening—fun times ahead.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Word Sleuth Solution

The exchange of ideas and information is likely to be a special challenge now. Because of extra time away from the workplace last week, today could be a catch up type of day. Everyone also seems to be in a hurry— on the road and in the office. In order to successfully achieve some meaningful end result here, you must allow yourself time to think through decisions and ask questions when necessary—perhaps by confirming instructions. Avoid acting on rumors or unverified reports. You may feel emotionally frustrated. Your feelings are going against much of what you value, so make way for possible difficulty. Kick your feet up this evening and enjoy a light dinner and some quiet time. Perform random acts of kindness this evening.

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Kaizen center

25716707

Roudha

22517733

Adhaliya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Keifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Khadissiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

ST TAT TE OF K KUW WA AIT

Tel.: e 161

DIRECTORA AT TE GENE GENERAL OF CIVIL AV VIA AT TION METEOROLOGICAL DEP PA ARTMENT

Veery hot h with light to moderate north westerly to northerly wind, with speed of 12 - 35 km/h

BY Y NIGHT:

Relatively hot with light to moderate northerly changing to south westerly wind, with speed of 06 - 28 km/h

No Current Warnings arnin a

WARNING A

36 °C

22451082

KUW WAIT A AIRPOR RT

48 °C

37 °C

Al-Mirqab

22456536

NUW WAISEEB A

49 °C

34 °C

Sharq

22465401

WAFRA A

49 °C

31 °C

Salmiya

25746401

SALMI

47 °C

32 °C

ABDAL LY

49 °C

32 °C

Jabriya

25316254

JAL ALIY YAH A

48 °C

33 °C

Maidan Hawally

25623444

FAILAKA A

47 °C

32 °C

Bayan

25388462

AHMADI POR RT

46 °C

38 °C

Mishref

25381200

UMM AL-MARADEM

42 °C

33 °C

W.Hawally

22630786

WARBA A A - BUBY YAN A

49 °C

31 °C

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

ST TAT TION

DA AT TE

WEA AT THER

Tuesday

17/07

West Jahra

24772608

Wednesday e

South Jahra

24775066

Thursday

North Jahra

24775992

Friday

North Jleeb

24311795

MAX.

MIN.

Wind Direction

Wind Speed

Relatively humid

45 °C

35 °C

SW-SE

15 - 40 km/h

18/07

humid

44 °C

35 °C

SE

15 - 40 km/h

19/07

very hot

48 °C

36 °C

VRB

06 - 22 km/h

20/07

very hot

49 °C

37 °C

NW-N

15 - 38 km/h

PRA RA AY YER TIMES 03:26

MAX. Temp.

50 °C

Sunrise

04:59

MIN. Temp.

36 °C

Zuhr

11:54

MAX. RH

14 %

Asr

15:29

MIN. RH

04 %

Sunset

18:49

i MAX. Wind

N 64 km/h

Isha

20:19

TOT TA AL L RAIINF FALL A L IN 24 HR.

24892674

23900322

RECORDED YESTERDA AY AT KUW WA AIT AIRPORT

Fajr

24884079

Fintas

16/07/2012 0000 UTC

Temperatures DA AY

24575755

24710044

SFC. CHART

4 DA AYS Y FORECAST

New Jahra

N.Kheitan

.03 mm

All times are local time unless otherwise stated.

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TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

lifest yle G o s s i p

t’s possible French actress Marion Cotillard could have been replaced as a love interest for Christian Bale’s Batman in the movie, “The Dark Knight Rises”. That’s because she was due with her first child, a son named Marcel, around the beginning of filming for the third installment

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in the franchise Director Christopher Nolan tells the August issue of Vogue magazine he wanted to “figure it out.” Most of her scenes were pushed back a month and Nolan made room on set for Cotillard’s family. Still, he marveled at the Academy Award winner’s ability to do her job so

he 66-year-old singer - who, along with husband David Furnish, welcomed son Zachary into the world on Christmas Day 2010 - says he will reassess his career once his little boy starts school as he knows how important it is to be there for him. Elton told the BBC: “While I’m feeling good, I’m going to keep working. When Zachary goes to school, that’s another different thing.” “I want to take him to school and I want to pick him up. I don’t want to miss that part of his childhood.” The ‘Rocket Man’ hit maker also says he is dreading Zachary -who was born via a surrogate mother - finding out he only has two fathers and not a mum. He said: “It’s going to be heartbreaking for him to grow up and realize he hasn’t got a mummy. But he’s so happy. I’ve never seen a more contented child. And you have never seen two more contented people as David and I.” However, the couple - who married in a civil partner-

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soon after giving birth, calling it “amazing to see” and describing her as “Superwoman.” Nolan and Cotillard also worked together on the 2010 film “Inception.”

ship in December 2005 - would love another child as they think it’s important for Zachary to have a sibling. Elton said: “I’d love to have more children. I want Zachary to have a brother or a sister to go to school with him, and so that he can have someone to play with.”

Holmes enrolls Suri in Catholic School he 33-year-old actress - who was given primary custody of Suri after her divorce settlement with estranged husband Tom Cruise was agreed last week - wants her little girl to be educated at New York’s Convent of the Sacred Heart School and she will start there this autumn. Katie is said to be keen for Suri to get a Catholic education instead of the Scientology upbringing Tom reportedly wanted her to have.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Suri - who was previously home-schooled - will start her classes on September 6, which will be the youngster’s first open classroom format. The curriculum at Sacred Heart is thought to be extremely strict, requiring students to attend Mass every Thursday, while tuition reportedly costs $38,000 a year. As well as Lady Gaga, former students at the school - which calls itself on its website “the oldest independent school for girls in New York City” - also include Caroline Kennedy, actress Jordana Brewster and Paris Hilton. Katie filed for divorce from 50-year-old Tom last month and sources claim one of the reasons behind the split was Tom’s desire to have Suri attend a Scientology school like his two other children, Isabella,19, and 17-year-old Connor.

However, they have denied they clashed over their beliefs and released a statement saying: “We are committed to working together as parents to accomplish what is in our daughter Suri’s best interests. We want to keep matters affecting our family private and express our respect for each other’s commitment to each of our respective beliefs and support each other’s roles as parents.”

he couple filed a divorce agreement on February, but under Californian law this does not become official until six months have passed, meaning the pair were not legally single until Saturday. Katy and Russell split after 14 months of marriage last December citing irreconcilable differences.

The British comic did not ask for any of the ‘Firework’ star’s estimated £45million fortune. The ‘Wide Awake’ hit maker has recently said she blames the comedian and actor for the breakdown of their marriage, as he didn’t come and see during her enough while she was on her ‘California Dreams Tour’.

When asked if Russell’s absence was the catalyst for the breakup, Katy replied: “Yes, if I could edit it any other way I would but that is exactly what it was. “I always had plans to make this record (‘Teenage Dream’) and usually with a record, you tour.

“Touring is always important to me. It’s like a big IOU to my fans, because I know they are the reason I exist.” Since their split Katy has been linked to Florence + the Machine guitarist Robert Ackroyd, but claims their relationship is not serious.

She said: “There are times I go out and meet people and flirt, but it’s not really appropriate to have anything serious. For me, right now, I’m totally not looking. I’m just looking to heal. And I’m on that path.” Meanwhile, Russell has been linked to British presenter Emily Hartridge, fashion stylist Maeve Reilly, actress Anouska De Georgiou, Hungarian model Nikolett Barabas and Mexican artist Oriela Medellin Amieiro although none of these romances have been confirmed.

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aloma Faith doesn’t own full length mirrors in her home because of body image issues. The 27-year-old singer admits she went through a spate of comfort eating as a youngster and has continued to have trouble with her figure ever since, but she thinks it is “better” than living any other way. She said: “There were a lot of things about body image. I used to comfort eat; I went to school a size 8 and came out a size 12.

Spending three years all day every day in front of a mirror in a leotard is difficult. “I still don’t have mirrors in my house that show my full

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length. I have one that leans against a wall and I can’t get far enough back to see my head, so then I go to the bathroom mirror to see my face. It’s a bit distorted and I think it’s better in a way.” However, the ‘Picking Up the Pieces’ hit maker admits when she is on stage, she feels like she can be truly herself. She told Marie Claire magazine: “Whatever is going on in my life, I forget it when I’m on stage. It’s the ultimate escapism for me.”

arlilyn Manson drugs and alcohol have made germs “afraid to live” in his body. The 43-year-old singer who has written a number of songs about illegal substances, including ‘Dope Show’ claims to have “no health problems” thanks to years of consuming alcohol and taking drugs. He said: “My body is a place where drugs and alcohol have made germs afraid to live. I have no health problems to speak of, touch wood.” Marilyn is currently dating fashion model and photographer Lindsay Usich, and he is keen to start a family with her so that their little one can “breathe profanity”. He explained: “My girlfriend Lindsay’s twin just had a baby and I’ve started to think that maybe I wouldn’t mind passing my demented genius on to some small thing who can set fire and breathe profanity.” Marilyn admits he is still on “good terms” with his ex-wife Dita Von Teese - who

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icole Scherzinger “tired of fighting for” Hamilton. The ‘X Factor’ judge was recently left furious after her boyfriend was caught partying with 10 girls in his hotel suite last week and is now said to have told friends she is having doubts about her future with the Formula 1 star. A source told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “Nicole’s confiding in pals that she thinks it might be time to call it a day. It’s a long distance relationship, he isn’t ready to settle down and they’re both working nonstop - she’s tired of fighting for it and feels it just isn’t working. “Nicole is so busy at the moment with promotional activity for her music on top of her role on ‘X Factor ’. It’s really hurt her that she has to take on a new job while feeling so humiliated. She is furious he could be so dis-

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respectful to her - and seeing as it was only a few months ago that they vowed to make a go if things after they split last year, she doesn’t know whether she can face the heartache of trying to make it work anymore. She’s telling her friends that she doesn’t think it’s worth it. She hasn’t wanted to speak to him for the past few days while she mulls it over.”

Nicole was said to be “seething” after it emerged that Lewis partied with the bevy of beauties at London’s Mayfair Hotel last week. A source said: “She is seething. She can’t believe he would be so disrespectful to her in this way. It’s not the kind of behavior she expects from him. Lewis is in serious trouble. “He wasn’t thrilled when she accepted the ‘X Factor’ job so there have been massive tensions. Now things have reached crisis point.”— Agencies

he tied the knot with in November 2005 before the pair divorced in 2007 - despite her seeming angry at him during a recent meeting. He added to the Observer Magazine: “I’m on good terms with my exwife, but I saw her recently at the Met Bar in London and I think there’s a part of her that’s still angry at me. “I am drawn to women who are independent and creative, which is problematic because it’s a struggle, a competition of careers. There’s jealousy.

And if you don’t want to be known as Marilyn Manson’s girlfriend, why would you be it? “I’m not some sort of sexual deviant. I think I would laugh nervously in the face of a threesome. I’m shy. I’m the kind of person who turns the lights out.”

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

lifestyle M u s i c

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n autopsy was carried out in Los Angeles Sunday on the body of Sylvester Stallone’s son Sage after his shock death aged 36, but toxicology results will take about 10 weeks, officials said. The Hollywood A-lister was said to be “devastated” after his eldest son, also an actor, was found dead at his Hollywood home Friday, with some reports suggesting he had died from a drug overdose. The autopsy took place Sunday morning, said Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office spokeswoman Cheryl MacWillie, adding: “But the results from the toxicology screening will probably not be back for at least 10 weeks.”

Some prescription pill bottles were taken from the apartment, but authorities have said little about the cause of the death. There was no sign of foul play or trauma, or a suicide note, said Ed Winter of the coroner’s office. Sage Moonblood

Stallone appeared in the 1990 film “Rocky V” as Rocky Balboa Jr, the son of his father’s title character. The pair also appeared together in the 1996 movie “Daylight.” The 36-year-old is credited with 13 big-screen roles as an actor, while he was a producer on three films, including the 2006 short “Vic” which he also wrote and directed.

“He wasn’t depressed. He was thinking about getting married. He just had his whole life ahead of him,” Sage Stallone’s attorney George Braunstein told the Los Angeles Times. His father was in San Diego at the annual Comic Con festival to promote his latest movie “Expendables 2” when he was told about his son’s death. Celebrity news website TMZ cited unidentified sources as saying Sage Stallone died of an overdose of pills, and his body may have been in the apartment for several days.

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scar-winning actress Celeste Holm — who was the original girl who couldn’t say no in the musical “Oklahoma!”-has died aged 95, her family and reports said Sunday. Holm, who won the best supporting actress Academy Award in 1948 for “Gentlemen’s Agreement” and later appeared in “High Society” (1956), died at her home in New York. She was admitted to hospital a week ago, said her niece Amy Phillips, cited by CNN. “She passed peacefully in her home in her own bed with her husband and friends and family nearby,” she said.

Photo dated September 4, 2008 of US actress Celeste Holm arrives at the premiere of “The Women”, in Westwood, California. — AFP She also garnered Oscar nominations in 1950 for “Come to the Stable,” in which she played a French nun, and in 1951 for “All About Eve,” which starred Bette Davis. The New Yorkborn actress made her professional debut in a production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” starring Leslie Howard, and got her first big part on Broadway in 1940, opposite Gene Kelly. The

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his year’s 43rd annual Comic-Con festival may be over but die-hard fans of the popculture celebration already have their minds on next year’s show. “There’s no more preregistration,” lamented Chris Herrera, 26, of Los Angeles, who was attending his sixth consecutive Comic-Con. “Now you have to register online, and that website always crashes.” Fans used to be able to register onsite for the following year’s convention, but organizers eliminated that option this year for the 2013 convention, set for July 18-21.

The event has become so popular that organizers have capped attendance at around 130,000 and implemented the digital-registration system to reduce long lines onsite (there are enough of those already) and to prevent ticket brokers from buying blocks of admission badges for resale. “It seems more and more crowded every year,” Herrera said of the festival, which has become as much a marketing mecca for movie studios and TV networks as a celebration of comic books, which is how it all began.

Lines stretched around the San Diego Convention Center this year as fans camped out

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M o v i e s

Sylvester Stallone’s publicist Michelle Bega issued a statement hours after the death was confirmed, saying the star “is devastated and griefstricken over the sudden loss of his son, Sage Stallone... His loss will be felt forever.” “His compassion and thoughts are with Sage’s mother, Sasha,” the statement added, referring to the “Rocky” star’s first wife. “Sage was a very talented and wonderful young man.”—AFP

File photo shows, Sylvester Stallone, left, star of the film “Daylight,” arrives at the film’s world premiere with his girlfriend Jennifer Flavin, center, and his son Sage Stallone, who co-stars in the film, in Hollywood district of Los Angeles. — AP

role which really made her name was Ado Annie in the original production of “Oklahoma!” in 1943, in which she sang the showstopper, exclaiming: “I Cain’t Say No!” She signed with 20th Century Fox and went to Hollywood to make a series of movies starting with “ Three Little Girls in Blue” in 1946.

“Gentlemen’s Agreement” was her third film.

But she longed for the stage and returned to Broadway, only returning for two movies in the 1950s-”The Tender Trap” in 1955 and “High Society” the following year. She once said of her wisecracking smart girl image: “I hated that. It’s stereotyped. I only played that kind of role in two pictures and that was enough, thank you. It’s not me.” She also began taking television roles, including her own series “Honestly Celeste,” and for two decades was a regular in TV series, mini-series and films made for television. In 1957, Holm, the son of a Norwegian insurance adjuster and a US writerartist mother, was made a Knight 1st Class of the Order of St. Olav for her help in saving one of Norway’s national treasures, a schooner.

Holm was married five times, the last to Frank Basile — 46 years her junior-whom she wed on her 87th birthday in 2004. Shortly afterwards she became embroiled in litigation which lasted for years and cost her $2 million in lawyers’ fees. She confirmed in 2011 that she was no longer speaking to her two sons. Holm lived in the same New York building as Hollywood icon Robert De Niro, on Central Park West. The Los Angeles Times reported that she was hospitalized for dehydration following a fire in the building.

But she asked her husband to bring her home Friday, and spent the last day or two with him and other relatives and close friends by her side, before dying in the early hours Sunday, it cited her niece as saying. Basile, 49, told the New York Post before she died that

overnight to attend the most popular panels, including an appearance Saturday by the cast of the HBO vampire drama, “True Blood.” Panels for “The Walking Dead,” “Game of Thrones,” and the final “Twilight” film drew overnight lineups, too.

One “Twilight” fan who had been camped out days in advance was fatally injured by a car as she dashed across a street in front of the main convention hall.

A book signing by the author of the erotic romance sensation “Fifty Shades of Grey” also attracted overnight waits. Other popular events included previews of Peter Jackson’s “ The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” Guillermo del Toro’s massive-monsters-versus-robots adventure “Pacific Rim,” Marvel’s “Iron Man 3” and a new “Godzilla” film is in the works. This year’s conventioneers can pre-register for Comic-Con 2013 next month. Aspiring first-timers have to wait until later to sign up for the 44th annual Con. —AP

Frah, singer of French electro-rock band Shaka Ponk, performs on the stage during the Francofolies music festival, in La Rochelle, western France, on July 15, 2012. — AFP

she had heart problems. “There were some setbacks in the hospital. She championed through and maintained her dignity. But there have been some irrevocable situations, and we are now going home,” he said before taking her from the hospital. “I told her I wanted to have more good memories together, and she held me and she said, ‘ That’s a good memory.’

Celeste told me she always remained happy because she chose to only remember the good things.”—AFP

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even independent films made their box office debuts this weekend, and the news was good for four of them. Indomina’s “The Imposter” played on just one screen but made the most of it. The Sundance documentary about a young Frenchman who convinces a Texas family he is their missing 16-year-old son took in $20,643. The Cohen Media group bowed “Farewell My Queen” in four theaters and Benoit Jacqot’s tale of Marie Antoinette’s relationship with one of her aides made $72,123, an $18,007 per-screen average.

The Weinstein Company debuted “Easy Money,” a Swedish crime thriller directed by Daniel Espinosa and based on the international best-selling novel “Snabba Cash” by Jens Lapidus. It took in $23,784 for an $11,892 average. “Trishna,” from Sundance Selects, brought in $30,600 from three screens, a $10,200 per-screen average for Michael Winterbottom’s tale of love between a developer’s son and the daughter of a rickshaw owner.

Freida Pinto stars.

Arc Entertainment’s “The Obama Effect,” written by, directed and starring Charles S. Dutton, raised $73,000 from 25 screens, a soft $2,920 per-screen average.

Millennium Entertainment’s “Red Lights,” starring Sigourney Weaver, Robert De Niro and Elizabeth Olsen, brought in $10,011 from two screens. “The Alps,” a Kino Lorber release, made $3,000 from a single screen in its debut. Among holdovers, Fox Searchlight’s “Beasts of the Southern Wild” successfully expanded from 19 to 81 theaters, taking in $775,290 for a $9,571 per-screen average. “The good word of mouth should propel the picture as we continue to increase the overall number of theaters,” said Frank Rodriguez, sr. vp of domestic distribution at Fox Searchlight. “Beasts” will expand into 22 more markets next week. —Reuters

In a March 20, 1948 file photo Celeste Holm, center, and George Seaton, right, hold their Oscar statuettes at the 1947 Academy Awards ceremony held at the Shrine Auditorium in Hollywood, Calif., March 20, 1948. — AP

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inger-songwriter Paul Simon celebrated the 25th anniversary of his classic album “Graceland”with an African musical extravaganza in London on Sunday night, any lingering memories of the controversy over its creation in apartheid-era South Africa swept away. Simon reunited the original Graceland band led by Soweto guitarist Ray Phiri for the Hard Rock Calling festival and brought along Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the Zulu acapella group whose original rendering of the song “Homeless” shot them to worldwide fame.

A host of other stars helped out, including Hugh Masekela, the legendary South African jazz trumpeter who was exiled under apartheid, and reggae king Jimmy Cliff. As the crowd in London’s Hyde Park swayed and danced to the chiming guitars, punchy horns and accordians of the township jive, it was hard to imagine such joyous music had ever caused a political storm.

Back in 1985, Nelson Mandela was still in jail and the apartheid system of white minority rule held South Africa’s black majority in a vicious grip.

Inspired by a tape of township music, Simon flew from New York to Johannesburg to record tracks with black musicians. But in doing so, he violated a U.N. cultural boycott.

When Graceland was released in 1986, it drew the wrath of many anti-apartheid activists, including the African National Congress. Critics accused Simon of exploiting the musicians and boosting the apartheid government. But the album sold millions, alerted Western rock fans to South Africa’s music and its problems, and revived his flagging career. He eventually made his peace with the ANC and South Africa became a free democratic nation with Mandela’s election as president in 1994.

Pioneer The Hyde Park show opened with a run of songs from Simon’s career which served as a reminder that he was a pioneer in embracing music from across the world - the Hispanic rythmns of “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard”, the zydeco stomp of Graceland’s “That Was Your Mother”, samba drums in “The Obvious Child” and the reggae-influenced “Mother and Child Reunion”, which he sang with Cliff after the Jamaican had delivered a brace of his own hits.

Ladysmith Black Mambazo came on stage to huge cheers, their sonorous harmonies resonating across the park. Simon joined them for “Homeless” then launched into the Graceland songs. Many of the

crowd, a sizeable portion of whom were young, appeared to be word perfect, singing along to “I Know What I Know” and filling in the horn parts on “Diamonds on the Soles of her Shoes.”

The show reached an emotional point when Masekela came on. “We negotiated the way to free-

Paul Simon

dom in South Africa and now we ask you to shake some booty for a man who is going to be 94 next week - Nelson Mandela,” he said. He then played his song “Free Nelson Mandela”, an anthem that was banned in South Africa at the time.

Simon, now aged 70 and looking somewhat dumpy in a black t-shirt, blue jacket and pork pie hat, at first glance cut an unlikely figure amid the African personalities on stage. But their affection and respect for him was clear and his musical skills were evidently supreme. The Graceland show wrapped up with romping versions of the title song and the hit “You Can Call Me Al”. He returned to play two old Simon and Garfunkel hits, “The Sound of Silence” and “The Boxer”, harking back to the early, folky days of his own musical journey.—Reuters

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

lifestyle T r a v e l

Lyndon Johnson’s western White House office is displayed at the LBJ Ranch.

A U.S. post office is shown near Fredericksburg.

By Luaine Lee

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ho would have thought that deep in the heart of Texas sits a little slice of Germany? The town of Fredericksburg was settled in the 1840s by German immigrants and you can still find people with names like Wolfgang and Fritz and Brunhilde. (Well, OK, maybe not Brunhilde ...) There are German biergartens, quaint gastehauses and homemade sauerkraut _ sausages as fat as Texas hogs and a klatch of artists who discovered this little haven before anyone else.

The Texas flag flies over the Cotton Gin Village in Fredericksburg.

Just 63 miles north of San Antonio, Fredericksburg sits in the Texas hill country, circled by rolling topography and the exposed volcanic dome, Enchanted Rock, a favorite hiking trek. Sprinkled throughout the town are unique one-room “Sunday” houses, built by the early farmers who’d come to town Saturday, overnight in their tiny cottages, and head off to church on Sunday.

Many of these have been preserved, and you can even rent one for your stay. Arrangements for any lodging may be made at Gastehaus Schmidt on Main Street, or try the replicated Sunday houses at the Fredericksburg Herb Farm with its state-of-the-art spa and bistro. A good place to start is the Visitor Center at the corner of Austin and Lincoln streets, then a quick jaunt to the historic area, including the Marktplatz with its Vereins Kirche Society Church) Museum, which was the town’s first public building. The

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teps away from the honking traffic jam of humanity crushing into the grand opening of Cars Land last week, Disneyland quietly welcomed back one of its icons-the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The Swiss Alps-themed ride was the park’s first roller coaster in 1959 and has been undergoing much-needed minor repairs and refurbishment during the last six months.

The most notable alteration is completely cosmetic and instantly recognizable - the mountain simply looks better, much brighter and sharper. Despite global warming, more snow has fallen over the venerable Matterhorn.

It pops, and frankly, is a considerable improvement over

The Pedernales River flows through the LBJ Ranch in Johnson City.

Pioneer Museum Complex, down the street, with its 10 historic buildings, recalls the early days of the struggling colony.

Through September the Marktplatz is the location of the local Farmers’ Market featuring tree-ripened produce. Peaches are their specialty, and you can even pick your own if you want the exercise. There are 150 quaint shops along Fredericksburg’s Main Street (once the route of the Butterfield Stage), where you can find everything from ranch supplies to a chocolatier.

Another juxtaposition here is the National Museum of the Pacific War. Miles from the Pacific Ocean, Fredericksburg was the birthplace of Adm. Chester Nimitz, commander of the Pacific Fleet during World War II. While military museums can be less than fascinating to those who haven’t served, this is one of the most compelling in the country. The museum is divided into three zones.

The George H.W. Bush Gallery uses multimedia and interactive displays as you witness each battle of the Pacific, complete with recorded eyewitness accounts, actual relics _ including a tank that was destroyed and the three-barreled gun that did the firing.

On display is one of the two-man Japanese subs that prowled Pearl Harbor, a crashed fighter plane discovered in the jungle and the real skin of “Fat Man” _ one of the atomic bombs that ended the war.

A letter to the president from the frantic mother of the five Sullivan brothers who were killed in the Pacific leaves nary a dry eye in the crowd. Nearby is the Lyndon B. Johnson State and National Historical Park _ LBJ’s birthplace, the one-room school he attended and the ranch where he and Lady Bird lived out their lives. The surprisingly modest home has been kept in pristine condition. It’s as though the Johnsons had just stepped out for a Texas barbeque _ a favorite event for the 36th president. Clothes still hang in the closet, the office still sports IBM typewriters and real cowboys still work the ranch.

Another must-see is Wildseed Farms, six miles east of town.

The largest working wildflower farm in the U.S., it has become a hot attraction with its cacophony of colorful flowers, gift shop and self-guided tours. The town holds a full-house of art galleries including Insight Gallery, cloistered in its white limestone frame.

The Whistle Pik features many of the luminous works of G. Harvey, who started as a teacher and has had both his studio and his home in Fredericksburg for 27 years.

Drop by the Agave Gallery to gander at John Bennett’s Western bronzes _ inspired, he says, by Roy Rogers. And check out the RS Hanna Gallery, where one-time illustrator John Austin Hanna exhibits his colorful oils. The galleries feature an art walk the first Friday of the month.

Antiques abound here. Two of the best shops are the reasonable Red Baron and Lone Star antique malls. Fresh, local produce helps make some of the town’s 70 restaurants worth writing home about. Altdorf Restaurant and Biergarten, August E’s, the

its former battered and worn appearance. Extra snowflakes and frost won’t be the only change visible on the peak’s ridges.

After a lengthy absence from the park, real mountain climbers return to the 147-foot mountain and will begin scaling the slopes that separate Tomorrowland and Fantasyland (just as the attraction’s 14,690-foot European namesake marks the border of Italy and Switzerland).

Climbers were once a routine sight on the mountainside dating back to the ride’s original opening, but they have disappeared in recent years (although they were up and at it again during a special appearance at a 50th park anniversary celebration in 2005, according to park officials).

There are other changes deep inside the mountain though, but you have to jump on a bobsled to know what they are. The facelift project, which cost about $1 million, brought brand new sleds with it. Instead of the old two-seaters (in which you’d share seat belts with your companion) the cars now have three individual seats. If you’ve ever ridden with your kids (as I have frequently, and did so again during a pre-opening test run), the new sleds are way better than being smushed accordion-style into each other as the bumpy back-and-forth ride unfolds. Definitely a roomier ride.

But, as before, don’t expect a smooth ride. The individual seats are more comfortable, but you can still feel every click and every clack as you roll down the ride’s roughly

Navajo Grill (try the pepita fish), Bejas Grill, the Cabernet Grill and the scrumptious fare at the Farm Haus Bistro are some of the best.

Accommodations are plentiful. Check out _ or rather, into _ the picturesque replicas of the Sunday houses at the Fredericksburg Herb Farm, $179-$229, or the Inn on Barons Creek, $177-$241; the Econo Lodge runs about $70. But for a real kick land at the Hangar Hotel, $109-$179. The hotel resembles a hangar and venturing inside is like slipping into the 1940s. Overstuffed leather chairs, an old telephone switchboard, Samsonite suitcases like your grandmother used _ all set the scene. Featured are a fully-equipped 1940s diner, vintage cars and a “USO” nightclub where special events draw crowds dressed like Betty Grable and Tyrone Power swinging to Glenn Miller.

Best of all, it lies adjacent to the small airport where _ starting at $75 a person _ you can hop a ride with Zulu Helicopters and capture a bird’s-eye-view of the glories beneath. Twirling down Main Street, hovering over Enchanted Rock State Natural Area, are sights you’d never see from the ground. Side trips can include Luckenbach, population 3, made famous by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, where you’re sure to find some music no matter what time of day. Spelunkers can explore the limestone cave near Enchanted Rock. And on summer evenings you can marvel at 3 million bats evacuating an abandoned railroad tunnel at sunset, just 11 miles from town. — MCT

2,100 feet of decades-old steel track. (Hey, a smooth ride isn’t why you hop on the Matterhorn anyway — if you want that, take off on the nearby bullet that is California Screamin’.) Another difference is not entirely welcome.

The abominable snowmen, while being better groomed and lighted, have grown much louder during their 6month hibernation. They are loud, startlingly so.

The kids in my bobsled — age range 6 to 12 — were covering their ears after the first blast from the fearsome snow creatures. But this is not a hugely serious matter and one that could be easily remedied if Disney hears from enough park visitors. The Matterhorn is not the best ride in the park or even its best roller coaster. But it’s still one of my favorites and it’s good to have it back in action as we head into summer. In a region with a notoriously short and malleable past, it’s nice to sled down a bit of history. — MCT

The Matterhorn reopens to the public at Disneyland after an extensive renovation in Anaheim, California. — MCT photos

The Wildseed Farms is the nation’s largest wild flower seed farm and operates near Fredericksburg.

— MCT photos

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

lifestyle F e a t u r e s

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niversity of Southern California head football coach Lane Kiffin and his wife, Layla, have bought a home in Manhattan Beach for $5.5 million. The 7,308-square-foot contemporary Craftsman includes six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The beach city is popular with college and professional coaches and athletes in part because of its proximity to Los Angeles International Airport and professional training facilities. At 37, Kiffin is the youngest active BCS Conference head coach in college football. When he coached the Oakland Raiders starting in 2007 he was the youngest head coach in NFL history. Kiffin earned about $2.4 million in 2010, according to USC’s federal tax return. USC will be eligible for postseason play this football season after two years of National Collegiate Athletic Association sanctions.

Meg Ryan not sleeping in Bel-Air Meg Ryan has finally sold her house in Bel-Air for $11.125 million. The two-storey home had been on and off the market since 2008, when it was listed at $19.5 million. It’s doubtful the actress lost any sleep over the prolonged process or the sales price, however. She bought the property in 2000 for $8.995 million and had been leasing it out last year at $40,000 a month. The classic Spanish-style house, built in 1931 and restored during Ryan’s ownership, features stenciled beam ceilings, arched doorways and ironwork.

There are city and ocean views, two family rooms, a pub room, a screening room, six bedrooms and seven bathrooms in 6,877 square feet. The four fireplaces include one in the guesthouse. French doors open to a loggia, a dining pavilion, lawn and a swimming pool on the nearly three-quarter-acre lot. Ryan, 50, starred in such romantic comedies as “When Harry Met Sally ...” (1989), “Sleepless in Seattle” (1993) and “You’ve Got Mail” (1998). Her more recent work includes “Serious Moonlight,” “The Women” and “My Mom’s New Boyfriend.” She will star in the upcoming “The Lives of Saints” and “Long Time Gone.”

‘Le Palais’ is aptly named at $58 million International developer Mohamed Hadid has put a palatial estate on the market in Beverly Hills at $58 million. Known as “Le Palais” and “The Crescent Palace,” the newly built 48,000-square-foot mansion sits on 1.09 acres near the Beverly Hills Hotel. The

French chateau-style residence has a hand-carved limestone exterior. The three floors of contemporary interiors include an indoor pool, seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. Three additional bathrooms are in the outdoor areas, which feature a 60-foot-long infinity-edge pool, a pond and palm, olive and magnolia trees. There is parking to accommodate at least 10 cars. Over 30 years, Hadid has developed hotels and commercial projects as well as luxury homes. He has appeared on “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”

Drummer hopes to snare a buyer Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine and his wife, vocalist Selene Vigil, have listed their house in Malibu at $2.699 million. The contemporary home, built in 2001, takes in ocean views from its hillside perch. Walls of glass in the living room open to a large deck. The house has about 2,750 square feet of living space containing a loft office, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. Potential buyers might want to

keep in mind when making an offer that Wilk has an affinity for the number three, which he incorporates in his drum playing and decision making. Wilk, 43, also has played with Audioslave. Vigil was lead singer for the band 7 Year Bitch. Public records show he bought the property in 2003 for $1.9 million.

Playground for sale in La Quinta A Moroccan-style estate that was once owned by entertainer Merv Griffin is on the market in La Quinta at $9.5 million. The 39-acre equestrian compound includes a racetrack, a 5,000-square-foot main house, four casitas, three one-bedroom staff quarters and apartments at both ends of the 16-stall stables for a total of 14 bedrooms and 12 bathrooms. The estate was developed by L.A.-based Griffin in 1986 as a desert retreat for entertaining and work. He raised Arabian horses and, later, Thoroughbreds. Other features include an infinity pool and a 2.5-acre fishing lagoon. Griffin, who died in 2007 at 82, was a singer, talk show host and television producer. He created

game shows including “Jeopardy” and “Wheel of Fortune.” The property was previously listed two years ago at $14.5 million.

Kardashian pal checks out of Weho Reality show actor Jonathan Cheban has sold his condo in West Hollywood for $765,000. The two-bedroom, two-bathroom unit is in a contemporary Mediterranean building that was constructed in 2004. The 1,606-square-foot condo features a den with a fireplace, a breakfast bar and a patio. There is an access-controlled elevator. Cheban, 38, appeared on “Kourtney & Kim Take New York” last year and has been on other Kardashian family shows. The Kim Kardashian pal and Command PR publicist also was in “The Spin Crowd” (2010). — MCT

International developer Mohamed Hadid has put a palatial estate on the market in Beverly Hills, California, at $58 million. — MCT photos

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efore opening, the team behind Asian Box, a build-your-own-bowl cafe in Palo Alto, Calif., hoped that executive chef Grace Nguyen’s authentic cuisine would transport guests to the bustling streets of Vietnam, where rickshaws kick up dust and pho carts pump basil steam high into the sky. Restaurant entrepreneur Frank Klein knew that even the best tamarind-topped rice noodles weren’t enough to take them there. So, he called friend and musicologist Joel Selvin with a request.

“I want my restaurant to sound like a Saigon hooker’s boombox,” he told Selvin, founder of San Francisco’s The Selvin Collection, which helps restaurants source appropriate music. Selvin and Elliott Peltzman, director of the Selvin Collection, mined 250,000 songs to find the perfect mix of Asian sonic-experimentation, from Japanese garage rock and Cambodian pop to Burmese folk music, that mirrored Asian Box’s culinary flavor.

Clearly, the combination is working; the 4month-old restaurant, helmed by a former Slanted Door chef, is thriving, and more cafes are in the planning stages. Originally, decor defined a restaurant’s vibe. Now, restaurateurs increasingly are considering their music selections by turning to DJs and audio-branding experts to curate one-of-akind dining soundtracks.

“Just like you can touch the table and taste the food, we want to make sure we’re thoughtfully curating the music our guests hear,” says Patric Yumul, the president of Mina Group, which uses L.A.-based Playlist Generation to craft the personalities of San Francisco’s high-profile RN74 and Michael Mina restaurants. Playlist Generation CEO Michael Smith equips each restaurant with a Mac mini linked to a sound system that he controls via Internet. Meanwhile, an iPhone app allows in-house staff to control tunes based on tempo and energy.

At Michael Mina, $98-hay-smoked cote du boeuf for two is complemented by eclectic cover songs, such as India. Arie doing Rihanna’s “Umbrella” and Etta James covering “Miss You” by the Rolling

Stones. “They are familiar songs, but with an exotic quality that provokes people,” Yumul says. At RN74 in the Mission district, Yumul envisioned hipsters walking in and feeling like they’d just entered a friend’s house party, where they could sip a glass of Burgundy to indie electro pop by M83 and Empire of the Sun. Just don’t call it background music. It’s “ambient coloration,” according to Selvin. After years on the

says. For the vegan charcuterie crowd at Berkeley’s Gather, co-owner and organic food visionary Eric Fenster sought a sonic identity as pure and comforting as the restaurant’s seasonally focused menu and natural, honey-hued color scheme.

“Our music folds well into our dining,” says Fenster, who looked to investing partner Darian Rodriguez Heyman, better known as DJ Hey Man, to craft a soundtrack of nonhit reggae, bluegrass

Patrons listen to music created by the Prescriptive Music system at the Local Cafe on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland, California. — MCT photos nightclub beat for the San Francisco Chronicle, he knows how music can match the mood of foie gras foam at Fleur de Lys or a burger at the now-defunct Clown Alley. For each client, he crafts a 24-hour playlist, or about 500 songs.

At El Paseo, the Sammy Hagar-Tyler Florence chophouse in Mill Valley, Calif., the tunes are raucous and horn-heavy R&B, like Archibald’s “Shake Shake Baby” and “Coleslaw” by Frank “Floorshow” Culley. “Sammy calls it steak-eatin’ music,” Selvin

comfort and familiarity. As such, the self-proclaimed music sommeliers at Prescriptive Music in Woodland Hills, Calif., devised a classic rock playlist for the restaurant that reflected its Americana menu of pork chops, breakfast biscuits and brisket sandwiches.

However, after 13 years in audio-branding, founder Allen Klevens says that he’s seeing a shift in music pairings. Instead of complementing a restau-

Joel Selvin hams it up for the camera as he listens to the music playing at Asian Box in Palo Alto.

and world music. “We wanted songs that weren’t too familiar or distracting and that fit the time and day of service.”

Brunch guests nibble on maple-strawberry cornmeal pancakes while an iPad, stationed near the bar, cranks out a Beatles B-side. At night, Fela Kuti and Thievery Corporation play, while chef Sean Baker treats heirloom carrots to a bath of chamomile and goat butter.

Like Gather, Local Cafe in Oakland, Calif., projects

rant’s food, he and his staff of programmers are increasingly focused on its architectural design and overall vibe. “Think about it: When you walk into a restaurant you rarely smell the food,” Klevens says.

“You hear the music first.” — MCT

Autopsy carried out on Sylvester Stallone’s son

TUESDAY, JULY 17, 2012

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Compassion For Fashion hosts Zeena Alkurdi, center, and Ndaa Hassan visit backstage during the Compassion For Fashion Show in Dallas, Texas.

—MCT photos

Women make chic Muslim scarves to empower, foster dialogue

And they are providing a product that wasn’t always easy to find, said Elif Kavakci, who spoke at the fashion show. She designs high-end, one-of-a-kind outfits for powerful clients, such as the first lady of Turkey, through her company, Kavakci Couture. “There is a high demand,” Kavakci said. “In 2012, women have so many more options.” Both Hassan’s and Alkurdi’s parents came from the Middle East. The friends grew up in North Texas and attended local universities. But neither has a background in fashion. Their mothers and grandmothers taught them how to sew, and they taught themselves the rest _ finding time to make hijabs outside Alkurdi’s job at a Muslim school and Hassan’s parttime marketing work. Their clients range from teens to women in their 30s. They each field orders from around the world-Malaysia, Canada, Brazil-and sell their scarves for $10 to $30. In the last year and a half, Alkurdi has sold about 350 hijabs. Hassan, who started six months ago, has sold between 150 and 200.

Hassan’s boutique, Echarpe a la Mode, offers classy scarves with a simple design, while Alkurdi prefers a bold style inspired by Kim Kardashian. “If I was going to a night out with my friends, I would wear Zeena’s hijab.

If I was going to a wedding or a brunch, I would wear Ndaa’s,” said Hanan Qasem, 20, a college student and one of the models at the fashion show.

Alkurdi named her business Pearl Boutique, inspired

by Muhammad Ali. As the story goes, the legendary boxer told his daughter that oysters cover pearls, and since she was even more precious than a pearl, she should be covered, too. This story resonates with

Muslim women. Wearing the hjiab as part of their faith makes them feel empowered, proud and beautiful.

Alkurdi says the best compliment she can get is when she’s wearing a hijab. For “hijabis,” the scarf is not just an item of clothing; it connects them with God and reminds them who they are. They wear the hijab every day. Only other women and male family members can see them without the scarf. “It might be an accessory and clothing, but it is a way of life,” Hassan said. “With the hijab on, we’re always representing our religion, and it forces us to be on our best behavior.”

Ten years ago, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Alkurdi’s father asked her if she wanted to take a break from wearing the hijab. She broke down in tears. “This is a part of me,” she said. “I can’t take it off.” Alkurdi and Hassan both chose to wear the hijab at young ages.

Alkurdi was in the sixth grade and Hassan was in 11th.

It was a choice they wanted to make, but they struggled to put together outfits that looked good and also fit a hijab lifestyle.

They say it’s a problem many young Muslim girls face, and it can take its toll on a girl’s confidence. That was true for Hanan Qasem. Growing up, she wore the hijab and was overweight, a combination that made her especially sensitive to feeling judged. She often wore sweats or all black. “That doesn’t give the best impression,” she said.

Qasem also attended schools where she was one of only a few Muslims. Once, a boy ripped off her hijab and exposed her hair. “I was a fish with sharks,” she said.

“I was swimming by myself.”

The play’s the thing: A Jordan taboo tackled

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arifeh and Jaber are not your usual couple: she’s Palestinian, he is Jordanian, and no more is that difference apparent than when their rival football teams square off.

“Neither East nor West” brings to the stage with subtle sarcasm the rifts between East Bank Jordanians and those of Palestinian origin, or West Bankers. The play spotlights proud East Banker Jaber and Zarifeh, his no-nonsense Palestinian-born wife, and their everyday differences often escalate into verbal duels. Satirist Kamel Nuseirat told AFP his play is the first to tackle a key taboo, as it reflects the social, political and identity dilemma that has faced the tiny kingdom for decades.

“Jordanian society is divided. I can proudly say I have broken this taboo thanks to the Arab Spring” which tore down a wall of fear across autocratically ruled nations, he said. “Many officials have seen the show and applauded. I think they got the message.” Back to the plot. Jaber supports Faisaly, or “The Boss” as some people call the football team considered to represent East Bankers. Zarifeh is a staunch fan of archrivals Wihdat, or “The Green Giant,” named after a large refugee camp in Amman. “We’re playing at home,” says Jaber, sporting the red-and-white chequered keffiyeh of East Bankers, a rebuttal to the black-and-white headscarf made popular by the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.

Their curtains are a stark example of the divisions that mar the household. Half of them are in Wihdat green,

and the other half are Faisaly blue. But no matter how hard they spar over football, they also know deep down that the game is a strong bond between East and West Bankers. “Not

there are six million,” says Jaber of Jordan’s population.

‘They exercise self-censorship’ There are no official statistics on

Handout pictures obtained from playwriter Kamel Nuseirat shows Jordanian actors performing a scene in the “Neither East nor West” play in Amman on May 28, 2012. —AFP photos only are many Faisaly players West Bankers, but the club’s founder, Suleiman Nabulsi, is originally a Palestinian,” Nuseirat said. “But it is rare to find East Banker fans of Wihdat or vice versa.” When the two teams meet it is under tight security, and past matches have been called off after rioting. “In all countries of the world, there are 22 players on a football pitch running after a ball. But in our country

how many Jordanians of Palestinian origin live in the kingdom, but experts say they form a significant proportion.

UN figures show Jordan is home to more than two million Palestinian refugees. Football is not the only source of friction. Rows also erupt over food: mansaf, Jordan’s national dish, or the Palestinian favourite mulukhiyeh.

Jaber likes mansaf, a traditional dish of lamb cooked in yogurt and served

with rice and nuts. He refuses to eat mulukhiyeh, a dense soup made of Corchorus leaves from the jute family.

“How about you get yourself blue vegetables instead?” Zarifeh asks Jaber sarcastically when he refuses to eat green vegetables for lunch.

One day, their home is burgled. But Jaber has actually helped the thieves break in, thinking this could undermine his wife’s power. The robbers clear them out. “We lost everything!”

Jaber cries. He is full of remorse, and the burglary proves a turning point in their relationship.

“It is easy to destroy a wall, but it is better to bring down the barriers inside our hearts,” he says, opening his heart to his wife. “Get me mansaf and mulukhiyeh on one table. I miss both dishes.” Playwright Nuseirat says the thieves are symbolic of corruption in Jordan, where weekly Arab Springinspired demonstrations have demanded reform and an end to the problem.

Jordanian-Palestinian tensions came to a head in 1970 when Palestinian guerrillas tried to overthrow the Hashemite monarchy.

Thousands of people were killed in the infamous clashes of the so-called Black September, which today both sides have tacitly agreed to forget. Over the years, the Jordanian and Palestinian leaderships have repeatedly rejected reports, namely from Israel, suggesting a Jordan option to solve the Palestinian conflict.—AFP

Miss World Next Top Model 2012

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t a sleek venue in Dallas’ Design District, Ndaa Hassan burst through the curtain and rushed backstage. The fashion show was about to start.

She was a flurry of nerves, wrapped in light pink from head to toe. “Ladies, it’s a full house!” she shouted. The 30 or so models wore vibrant eye shadow, bejeweled dresses and high heels. But in this case, the stilettos didn’t lead up to bare, twiggy legs. In fact, they led no further than the hems of loose-fitting dresses that revealed almost no skin.

This was fashion, all right, but with a Muslim influence. Hassan and her friend Zeena Alkurdi were presenting their first fashion show to about 150 people, spotlighting stylish but modest clothing _ including some of their own designs. As entrepreneurs, Hassan and Alkurdi, both 22, design and sew hijabs whose chic styles range from tie-dye and sequins to cheetah print and vintage floral.

Each has launched an online boutique to bridge the gap between the Middle Eastern traditions of their parents and the American culture they grew up in. A stylish hijab, they say, empowers Muslim girls to feel more confident and find common ground with non-Muslim peers. Using the Internet and social media, these entrepreneurs have expanded their businesses in ways that wouldn’t have been possible even a few years ago.

They have a growing Muslim population to cater to, with around 2.6 million living in the U.S., according to census data, and about 150,000 in North Texas, according to the Association of Religion Data Archives at Pennsylvania State University.

Once a girl begins to wear the hijab, she has to prepare for questions and, sometimes, ridicule. Over the years, Hassan and Alkurdi have been called many offensive names. But it’s not all bad. By wearing fashionable hijabs, Hassan and Alkurdi have encouraged others to ask questions: You don’t always have to wear black? Are you assigned to wear a certain color hijab each day of the week? Can you really exercise while wearing the scarf ? (No, no and yes.)

“It opens that door,” Alkurdi said. “It allows a sort of forum between you and people who admire the way that you dress.” Though many Westerners _ and some Muslims _ think Islam is incompatible with being stylish, Hassan and Alkurdi disagree. They quote an Islamic saying: “God is beautiful and he loves beauty.”

Kavakci, who has hosted similar fashion shows in the Dallas area, understands. “People say, ‘Is that a fashionable outfit or a religious attire?’” she said. “I say, ‘Both. Why can’t it be both?’” After the fashion show, Hassan hurried back to her booth to sell a scarf. A girl stopped her. Hassan had never seen her before, and she didn’t catch her name. But the girl told Hassan what she needed to hear at that moment. “This has inspired me,” the girl said, “to put on the hijab.”—MCT

Mina Milutinovic of Serbia celebrates after winning the title of Miss World Next Top Model 2012 along with runner up Miss Russia Uliana Berdysheva (right) and second runner up Kannika Khunkae during the final contest in Beirut on July 15, 2012.—AFP

Mina Milutinovic of Serbia celebrates after winning the title of Miss World Next Top Model 2012.