17 Dec 2011

IO N IPT SC R SU B

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

MUHARRAM 21, 1433 AH

No: 15301

Bloody clashes overshadow Egypt vote count

150 Fils

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Kuwait police fire tear gas at stateless demo Bedoons demand citizenship, basic rights

Max 20º Min 04º

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti riot police use water cannons to disperse stateless Arabs, known as bedoons, during a protest to demand citizenship and other basic rights in Jahra yesterday. —Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti riot police used tear gas and water cannons yesterday to disperse hundreds of stateless protesters who were demanding citizenship and other basic rights. The police attacked some 400 people who gathered following noon prayers in Jahra, 50 kilometers northwest of Kuwait City, raising Kuwaiti flags and banners reading: “We demand Kuwaiti citizenship.”

Police arrested at least six stateless people, a journalist and a photographer of a local newspaper. The assault came after the protesters refused to disperse, defying a police deadline to clear the area within 15 minutes.

Security forces chased protesters to their nearby homes, while a helicopter hovered overhead. The demonstration come four days after a Kuwaiti lower court began the trial of around 50 stateless people, locally known as bedoons, who were arrested during similar protests in February and March.

The men were charged by the court of illegal assembly with the intent to commit crimes and assault security forces. All the defendants denied the charges and said they committed no offence. Under Kuwaiti law, only citizens have the right to hold public gatherings while foreigners are banned. Kuwait launched a crackdown on the estimated 100,000 bedoons in 2000, depriving them of health care, education and jobs. The stateless claim they are Kuwaiti citizens who have been denied nationality. The wealthy Gulf state, which considers bedoons illegal residents, has said that it is studying the issue of bedoons carefully and is prepared to grant citizenship to those deemed deserving — AFP

Police rough up Bahrain blogger

NAGPUR: Dr Manoj Pahukar of Wockhardt hospital, measures Jyoti Amge, 18, in Nagpur, India, yesterday. Amge is now eligible under the Guinness World Record guidelines for the “Shortest Woman in the world” title measuring 62.8 centimeters (2 feet). — AP (See Pages 24, 25)

DUBAI: Bahraini police have arrested prominent human rights blogger Zainab Al-Khawaja, according to a rights group and video posted online of her being roughed up, handcuffed and dragged off into custody. Khawaja had been taking part in a sit-in protest on a highway leading to the Gulf state’s capital when police moved in to detain her, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights said in a statement.

Security forces fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the protest of hundreds of Bahrainis, while Khawaja, 27, and other women staged the sit-in on a roundabout, said the organization. A daughter of imprisoned leading activist Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, she was seen sitting on the grass before police moved in to take her away, the video footage posted on YouTube showed. But while all other women fled the scene, Khawaja remained sitting in the middle of the roundabout.

The footage showed her being handcuffed by a female policewoman. Another female member of the security forces appears to grab Khawaja’s face violently, before both dragged her to a police vehicle. One of the policewomen can be seen in the footage punching Khawaja in the chest as she lay on her back on the pavement. In its statement, the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights called for action to “guarantee her release and protection from further physical violence.”

Another woman, Masooma Al-Sayed, was arrested at another sit-in next to a mall on the same Manama highway, said the BCHR. The interior ministry said in a statement that two women were arrested after refusing to end their “illegal” assemblies. It said the protester arrested near the mall, presumably Sayed, had “attacked one of the policewomen”. The two were referred to the public prosecutor in the presence of their lawyer, said the statement. — AFP

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Filipinos donate money to help runaway maids ‘Dawn Masses’ celebrated

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: The Filipino tradition of ‘Simbang Gabi’ (Dawn Masses) began yesterday in Kuwait to usher in Christmas. This year’s dawn masses in Kuwait will be dedicated to runaway housemaids, Father Fred Micua announced. Dawn Masses are held all over Philippines for nine days to welcome the arrival of ‘baby Jesus’ on Christmas Day. In Kuwait, Filipinos attend a church mass during the early hours every day (usually four or five in the morning).

The masses are divided among the faithful to cater to about 160,000 Filipinos, most of whom are Catholics. The dawn masses have been organized in the Holy Family Cathedral starting at 5 am. The Ahmadi Church follows almost the same schedule. Meanwhile, Salmiya Catholic Church organizes night masses, (9:30pm) called ‘anticipated Simbang Gabi’ (mass).

‘Simbang Gabi’ has been famous in the Philippines since the time of Spanish colonization of the Philippines for 400 years. Farmers

and fishermen were told to listen to daily masses to seek God’s blessings before taking up work. Since then, this has become a tradition.

During the remaining seven days to come before Christmas, Father Fred Micua will be celebrating a mass in Tagalog. In a sermon given during the first day of ‘Simbang Gabi,’ he called upon Filipinos in Kuwait to celebrate the birth of Christ, and remember ‘His great mission to save the world from sins.’ He talked about respecting parents and the sacrifices they made “for us to live.”

A separate ‘alms collection’ will be arranged everyday to help the Filipino runaway housemaids currently housed at the Filipino Workers Resource Center in Jabriya, who according to him needed financial help.

“Last time I spoke to embassy officials, I was told that it managed to provide runway housemaids with food,” he said, elaborating that the embassy did not succeed in collecting petty cash for maids that would help facilitate their return to their respective provinces. “We appeal for some ‘fils’ to help them,” he said.

KUWAIT: Bedoons protest to demand citizenship and other basic rights in Jahra before riot police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse them. Placard reads in Arabic “We demand our rights as Muslim brothers.”

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti riot police take position before dispersing stateless Arabs protesting to demand citizenship and other basic rights in Jahra, yesterday.

—Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Al-Mulaifi plans to penalize protesting legal staff

KUWAIT: Father Fred Micua, celebrating ‘dawn mass’ yesterday at Salmiya Church. —Photos by Ben Garcia

KPC concludes conference on greenhouse gas emissions KUWAIT: Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) on Thursday concluded a conference on its program for managing the carbon dioxide and greenhouse gas emissions in the oil industry.

The three-day gathering, held at the Oil Sector Complex, is part of the KPC strategy for 2030 in the areas of scientific research, environment protection, innovation, and occupational health safety, according to a press release by the corporation.

It provided platform for local and foreign oil

and environment experts to debate the latest scientific and technological achievements to curb the global warming, the statement quoted KPC Managing Director for Research and Development Bader Al-Khashti as saying.

The participants included representatives from Kuwait Oil Company, Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Japan Cooperation Center, Petroleum (JCCP) and Mitsubishi, it added. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Newly appointed Minister of Justice Ahmad Al-Mulaifi is expected to take disciplinary measures against legal staff members in state departments who have been taking part in strikes throughout the past couple of months, according to reports quoting sources familiar with the situation.

One source who spoke on the condition of anonymity to Al-Qabas on Thursday indicated that Al-Mulaifi - who accepted the Justice Ministry portfolio in the new cabinet in addition to the education and higher education ministries that he held in the previous cabinet - already has a meeting scheduled with MOJ officials, during which he is expected to be provided with a list containing names of the protesting staff members, as well as reports showing losses suffered as a result of the ongoing strike. The list and reports would then be sent to the Civil Service Commission so that penalties could be taken against the protesting employees accordingly, the source said.

Al-Mulaifi reportedly indicated that while Kuwait is committed to international labor agreements that protect employees’ right of holding strikes, exceptions can be made when it comes to cases in which interests of large groups of the Kuwaiti community are affected as a result of the strike such as the

strike of real estate registry employees.

Meanwhile, the Kuwait Trade Union Federation were quick to criticize Al-Mulaifi’s statements, saying in a statement on Thursday that the minister’s stance “doesn’t reflect a cooperative attitude that aims to find a solution for the present problem”. This statement was released shortly following a meeting with Al-Mulaifi during which the minister insisted that international regulations are inapplicable regarding the case of striking legal staff.

The labor union representing legal staff members in state departments called last week for a mass sit in to be organized next Monday in front of the CSC building. The KTUF announced in their statement that they plan to hold an emergency meeting within the upcoming few days in order discuss the possibility of filing a complaint to the International Labor Organization against potential penalties taken against the striking employees.

The protesting staff demand adjustment of their job classifications to match those of their peers at the Fatwa and Legislation Department and the Kuwait Municipality.

These special classifications allow members of these two departments to obtain additional financial privileges. —Al-Qabas

LOCAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

KUWAIT: Jahra traffic director Brig Mohammed Al-Khaldi yesterday honored two traffic policemen for their sincere efforts to boost traffic safety.

Former MPs investigated in graft, storming cases

Parliamentary elections set to be held on Feb 2 New moves to avoid controversies

KUWAIT: A combo picture of former members of the Parliament expected to be summoned by the public prosecution for storming the National Assembly last month.

KUWAIT: Former lawmaker Mubarak Al-Khurainej was reportedly subjected to investigations by the Public Prosecution on Thursday as part of the ongoing probe with former legislators in the multimillion-dinar deposits scandal which fueled escalations that eventually led to the resignation of Kuwait’s cabinet and the dissolution of its parliament.

Reports emerged about an “unidentified person” arriving Thursday night to the prosecution’s office at the courts compound in Regaie in a window-tinted black SUV, and was escorted inside with the outside lights turned off “to prevent reporters from taking pictures or identifying the person”. AlQabas daily reported on Friday that the person was actually former pro-government MP Mubarak Al-Khurainej, making him the eleventh former legislator to be summoned for investigations since the parliament was dissolved earlier this month. Al-Qabas’ report further claims that two more MPs are expected to be summoned for investigation today, along with a “first degree relative” with each of them, who the report suggests could be their wives. The Public Prosecution is reportedly making sure that the investigation process is carried out under extreme confidentiality, making it very difficult for local press to identify the people summoned or learn about the nature of questions they were asked.

Former MP Saleh Ashour, who is among the ten former MPs summoned so far for investigations in the graft case, indicated that the banking sector in Kuwait has been “forced into the political scene”, something that he further described as a threat to the country’s economy and transparency of the banking sector. Moreover, Ashour said following his release after he was briefly detained for failing to pay his bail, that he has information about some former lawmakers who did not face any legal procedures despite suspicious inflation of their bank accounts.

In other developments, the Public Prosecution released Thursday subpoenas to apprehend nine former MPs to undergo investigations in charges pressed over the parliament’s storming incident last month.

According to an Al-Qabas report quoting sources with knowledge of the issue, the former MPs summoned are Musallam Al-Barrak, Faisal Al-Mislem, Waleed Al-Tabtabaei, Jamaan Al-Harbash, Falah Al-Sawagh, Khalid Al-Tahous, Mohammad Al-Mutair, Salem Al-Namlan, and Mubarak AlWalan; all of whom are part of the opposition.

“The former MPs will be called to turn themselves in so as to avoid facing the other legal option which is being put under arrest”, said one source who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the subject. The former MPs are set to face multiple charges including felony and state security charges. —- Al-Qabas

KUWAIT: The upcoming parliamentary elections are expected to take place on Feb 2, 2012, based on an official decree that will be submitted tomorrow, a report released yesterday stated. The Cabinet insiders who spoke to Al-Jarida on condition of anonymity confirmed that the decree by which HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah dissolved the Parliament is final, and doesn’t require to be replaced by another request submitted by the newly swornin Cabinet. Officials also denied reports that former MP Husain Al-Mizyed offered to join the Cabinet, reported AlJarida.

These speculations emerged from the fact that the Cabinet should include a member from the elected Parliament as per the Constitution. Officials told AlRai that the circumstances which led to the new Cabinet’s formation deem it unnecessary for a minister from the Parliament to be appointed. This means that any controversy about the legality and constitutionality of the Cabinet will be removed.

Several former MPs argued that changes are needed to correct the situation to avoid controversies that could emerge in the future. “The decree of the Parliament’s dissolution must be revoked. It should then hold a session in which one member is selected to join the Cabinet, after which the prime minister can put forward a request to dis-

solve the Parliament,” said former MP Dr Ali Al-Omair. Meanwhile, former MP Saleh Ashour urged consultants and legal experts in the Amiri Diwan to resign after committing ‘errors’ which lead to the controversial situation of Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah.

In recent updates, former liberal MP Saleh Al-Mulla announced on Thursday that he is officially contesting elections in the third constituency, hinting that the election process is likely going to feature ‘dirty tactics.’ He announced that ‘public funds protection’ as the main topic of an elections campaign. Al-Mulla plans to push for reducing the government’s authorities in the democratic process, including the government’s authority to vote for Members of Parliament’s committees.

Former MP Jamaan Al-Harbash said that maintaining integrity “is the only way in which the temporary Cabinet can solidify its integrity.” Al-Harbash also claimed to possess knowledge about offers made to people so as to work in favor of certain candidates.

In other news, the Salafi Islamist Movement will nominate members who will run during the 2012 elections in a meeting to be held today (Saturday).

Speaking on condition of anonymity, officials said that Khalid Al-Sultan, Abdullatif Al-Omairi, Fahad Al-Khanna, Anbdulhameed Al-Shayji and

Kuwait’s pavilion catches visitors’ attention BEIRUT: Kuwait’s pavilion in the just-concluded 55th Beirut International Book Fair caught visitors’ attention, a Kuwaiti official said here yesterday.

The visitors voiced their utmost admiration for the pavilion’s variety of publications, Head of the Kuwaiti delegation to the fair Abdullatif AlSabeeh, chief of the Arab Media Department at the Ministry of Information, said at the conclusion of the event.

The Kuwaiti pavilion, he added, had always been distinguished; encompassing valuable issues of highly-esteemed publications.

Terming Kuwaiti-Lebanese rela-

tions as “ever-growing”, Al-Sabeeh said such relations would be further buttressed through exchanging visits at cultural and media levels.

For his part, Meshaal Al-Shehri, a researcher at the department of Arab states media at ministry and member of the Kuwaiti delegation, said that a number of new publications have been showcased for the first time in the fair.

He unveiled that Kuwait Pavilion have received more than 4000 visitors during the two-week event.

Al-Shehri highlighted the role of cultural events in enhancing relations between people and intellectuals of different nations. — KUNA

Mohammad Saffah are expected to represent the movement in the second constituency. Dr. Ali Al-Omair and Nassar Al-Abduljaleel will contest elections in the third constituency.

Mohammad Al-Kandari will stand for elections in the first constituency, reported Al-Rai. Meanwhile, Al-Jarida reported yesterday that fifth constituency tribes will coordinate to agree on a formula to nominate respective candidates for the upcoming elections. However, officials with knowledge of the subject indicate that the Awazem tribe is still leaning towards primary elections, while conflicts within the Ajman tribe to elect candidates from their tribes.

In a related development, an official told Al-Jarida that the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense personnel received notice of servicemen who were found guilty of participating in illegal tribal primary elections, either through nomination or voting. It will be met with disciplinary measures, reported Al-Jarida.

Secretly, Kuwait Transparency Society(KTS) Chairman Salah AlGhazali announced that it has received approval from office of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlSabah to hire local and international supervisors to monitor the 2012 elections against potential violations, reported Al-Rai.

Al-Shamali pushes for MoH project execution KUWAIT: The new Minister of Health Mustafa AlShamali has called for exerting efforts to eliminate obstacles that hinder the execution of the ministry’s projects. The statements were made during a meeting held Thursday morning with senior MoH officials including Undersecretary Dr Ibrahim Al-Abdulhadi.

Al-Shamali was assigned with portfolio in the new Cabinet, succeeding former minister Dr Helal Al-Sayer who tendered his resignation a few days before the Cabinet resigned a few weeks ago. AlShamali holds this portfolio, in addition to the Ministry of Finance’s post.

Meanwhile, Al-Abdulhadi conveyed “deepest gratitude of all MoH staff members for the efforts made by former minister Dr Hilal Al-Sayer in helping garner great accomplishments to elevate the health sector in Kuwait.” — Al-Jarida

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Three children perish in Subbiya camp fire Drug addicts in custody

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A fire that broke out in a Subbiya camp claimed the lives of two Kuwaiti children and a two-year- old bedoon toddler. A 21-year-old bedoon woman suffered from emotional trauma and a 26-year-old Ethiopian suffered burn injuries. They were admitted to Jahra Hospital.

KUWAIT: The drug dealers pictured after their arrest yesterday.

Drug addicts nabbed The General Department for Drug Control arrested two Asians and a citizen after being tipped off on their activities . After obtaining an arrest warrant, the Asian’s place of residence was raided and three hashish joints were found.

He and his father (the second accused) were smoking hashish at the time of the raid. When quizzed about the source of the illicit substance, they admitted to buying it from a third suspect, a citizen.

Police then raided his home in Salwa where around quarter kilogram of hashish was found.

Motor accidents A 22-year- old citizen sustained a fractured right arm and leg in a motorcycle accident that took place near Marina Mall. He was admitted to Mubarak Hospital.

A 22-year-old citizen sustained a fractured right leg when his All Terrain Vehicle met with an accident in Abdaly camp. He was admitted to Jahra Hospital.

A 22-year-old citizen suffered several bruises in a motorcycle accident that took place near the Swimming Pools Complex along Gulf Road. He was admitted to Mubarak Hospital.

Street fight A 26-year-old Indian sustained a laceration to his face during a fight in Farwaniya and was admitted to Farwaniya Hospital.

Smoke inhalation A 27-year-old fireman suffered from smoke inhalation, while another complained of pain in the arm and neck while tackling a fire in Sabahiya. Both were admitted to Adan Hospital.

Siblings row A citizen is being held pending legal action after he allegedly threatened to kill his sister. Police headed to a home in Adan after a female citizen reported the incident. The man was arrested after the woman filed a case.

Drunks held Four people were arrested in Hawally after police caught them in a heavily inebriated state. The suspects, three women and a man, were referred to higher authorities to face charges.

The police report doesn’t mention the circumstances which led to the suspects’ arrest, but adds that they were caught driving while drunk.

Man attacks girl KUWAIT: Police are currently looking for a young man who physically assaulted a student at a girls only school in Abdullah Al-Salem. Police reached the scene after receiving a report about a male suspect who brutally assaulted a student. The suspect escaped even before police arrived. The victim claimed that she wasn’t familiar with the assailant’s identity. However, police believe she lied because the attacker handpicked her from among other students in the school, suggesting that the attack was premeditated. Investigations into the case are ongoing. —Al-Rai Police attacked A couple were taken into custody after assaulting police who tried to arrest them. Patrol officers headed to the parking lot of a college in Hawally where an eyewitness reported to spotting a couple in a compromising situation. The male suspect was quick to physically attack the police officer as soon as they sought the duo’s identification cards.

He was eventually restrained and arrested before being escorted to Maidan Hawally police station. —Al-Rai Public shooting Investigations are currently ongoing in search for a male driver believed to be responsible for a recent shooting spree that took place in Mubarak Al-Kabeer. Police rushed to a street in the area where several residents reported to witnessing gunshots fired from the driver of a Japanese-made car. He fled from the scene before he could be unidentified. Criminal investigators failed to track down the vehicle.

Furthermore, investigations are still ongoing. - Al-Rai Embassy investigates fraud The Egyptian Embassy in Kuwait is reportedly looking into a suspected fraud case that took place during the recent election process.

A candidate has been accused of scam. Top embassy officials including Ambassador Abdulkareem Sulaiman has reportedly received complaints from two Egyptian nationals who claimed that their votes were forged. Complainants explained that they received phone calls from unidentified individuals, assuring them that they could submit votes to an office run by the embassy in Farwaniya. Later, the two learnt that the Egyptian embassy did not operate any branches to collect votes from residents. They contacted the embassy immediately afterwards.

The votes were allegedly hired before submitting them to the embassy. —Al-Anba

BEIRUT: Sheikha Fareeha Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah visiting the Beirut Autistic Center yesterday.

Call to help people with special needs BEIRUT: Chairperson of the Kuwait Association for the Ideal Family Sheikha Fareeha Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah called here yesterday for finding specific mechanisms for helping people with special needs and autism.

Speaking on the sidelines of the just-started 7th meeting of Arab Network for Autism (ANA), she said it is imperative to develop legal and social mechanisms for stemming the spreading of Autism.

Calling for more care to people with special needs and autism, she said cooperation

and coordination among Arab countries ought to be stepped up in order to ensure human safety and health.

In this context, Sheikha Fareeha applauded the significant role of the State of Kuwait in supporting human and social issues in all events.

People with special needs and autism need to be incorporated in the society so as to help them play a role in the building of their nations according to their capabilities, she said.

Sheikha Fareeha has pledged financial

funding to the Arab Network for Autism (ANA) for answering the needs of people with autism in the Arab world.

Earlier in the day, the 7th meeting of Arab Network for Autism (ANA) kick-started at the UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Education under the auspices of Chairwoman of the Lebanese Society of Caring for the Handicapped Randa Beri.

Addressing the gathering, she cautioned that the number of autistic patients is on the increase, citing a recent US survey as showing that autism percentage worldwide now

affects one for every 150 people against one for every 500 previously.

She called on Arab countries to pay more attention to autism by means of developing their health systems.

Beri appreciated Sheikha Fareeha for her financial contribution to the ANA as a sign of her great support for autistic patients.

The one-day meeting is attracting the Arab Network for Autism (ANA) board members, board of trustees, committee members and observers as well as UNESCO members. —KUNA

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KUWAIT: Abraq Khaitan High School for girls held a seminar about fire awareness entitled ‘Safety and Security’ over the weekend. The seminar was organized by Eng Maji Yousuf and supervised by the school’s Principal, Maha Al-Rajehi. Participants in the seminar were Maj Abdul Elah Al-Abdul Salam and fire fighter Capt Majid Al-Otaibi, who discussed different types of fires, their causes and possible ways the fire department uses to extinguish them.

Commerce minister underlines WTO role GENEVA: Kuwaiti Minister of Commerce and Industry Amani Bouresli stressed here yesterday the significant role of the World Trade Organization (WTO), especially in developing and least-developed countries.

Addressing the 8th ministerial meeting of the WTO, the minister said this meeting comes at a very difficult time for all Members in light of the on-going global financial and economic crisis, described by WTO Director-General, Pascal Lamy as the worst since World War II. “However, we believe that the mission and role of the WTO has increased in importance especially for the developing and least developed countries (LDC) as a result of the financial crisis,” she said.

And despite of the global economic crisis the evidence strongly supports that some nations have reaped the benefits of their membership to WTO such as realizing higher economic growth rates, robust export growth and welfare gains, she added.

“The global crisis should be viewed as a challenge and should be dealt with positively. As described by observers, crisis carries some hidden opportunities.

Therefore, upon dealing with outstanding issues we need to change our approach,” Bouresli noted.

The Member states are aware of how important this conference would be in providing a platform for dialogue and assessing progress and outstanding difficulties that WTO integrated system has faced in the area of Doha Development Agenda negotiations, implementation of agreements, dispute settlement, monitoring and surveillance, capacity building, accessions, trade and development and other activities, she said.

The Kuwaiti minister went on to say: “In this regard, I call upon WTO members not to save any effort to move forward the Doha round, which can give the necessary impetus to address the present global economic challenges.”

“I also believe it is important to strengthen the other regular bodies and surveillance mechanisms of the organization, in particular the Committee on Trade and Development, which should continue to be the focal point and coordinator of all development related activities in WTO, including Regional Trade Agreement under Enabling Clause.

“We regret that two members of this Organization continue to block consensus concerning the observer request of the League of Arab States. This action undermines otherwise unanimous support for the request and is inconsistent with the WTO’s rules and guidelines.

We hope that the two members would reconsider their position to allow all qualified IGOs to participate on the WTO’s activities,” she remarked. — KUNA

Kuwaitis hope to elevate level of cooperation with Japan ‘Very promising partnership’ TOKYO: Visiting ranking and eminent Kuwaiti figures have expressed aspiration to elevate level of business cooperation with Japan to partnership status noting necessity of such an aspired approach in shadow of national development strategy aimed at launching more than 1,000 ventures in the 2012 fiscal year. In an interview after concluding the annual meeting of the Kuwaiti-Japanese Businessmen’s Committee, Co-Chairman Khaled AlSager showed satisfaction on the results of the gathering, saying that both sides were keen to explore opportunities for new joint projects in Kuwait and abroad.

Al-Sager, who also serves as Kuwait Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) Deputy Chairman, said the Japanese companies took more active stance than past years toward enhanced and broadened business relations with their Kuwaiti counterparts.

“Since the inception of our committee 15 years ago, bilateral trade value between Kuwait and Japan has redoubled four times and reached $13.44 billion in 2010. In addition, Japan receives 20 percent of Kuwaiti oil exports. But despite their importance, all these achievements do not fully express the ambitions of the two

countries,” Al-Sager said. He voiced hope that economic cooperation between the two countries will reach the “partnership level” in executing Kuwait’s development plan with its cities, roads, ports, institutes, universities, and developing the national human resources, “which is considered very promising partnership politically, socially, and economically for both countries.”

According to Dr Adel Al-Wugayan, Secretary General at Supreme Council for Planning and Development, the Kuwaiti government plans to implement 1,370 projects in the fiscal 2012 alone as an annual program based on the five-year development plan.

The Kuwaiti Embassy in Tokyo hosted a dinner on Thursday evening in honor of the visiting delegation for the 16th Kuwaiti-Japanese Businessmen’s Committee and its related seminar which were just wrapped up here.

The 30-member high-level delegation included officials from Supreme Council for Planning and Development, Partnerships Technical Bureau, Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait Metro Rapid Transportation Co., Kuwait Foreign Investment Bureau and other government sectors, as well as executives of leading companies.

A total of some 280 people from both countries attended the two-day event consisting of a meeting and a seminar on investment opportunities in Kuwait. Wednesday’s committee meeting was also attended by former Minister of State for Planning and Development Affairs Abdulwahab AlHaroun.

Meanwhile, Japan’s Co-Chairman Hiroshi Saito said separately that the symposium was held in response to requests from the Kuwaiti side, that believes the current Japanese investment in the country does not reflect real economic relations and should be increased. Saito also said the event was concluded with great success and vigorous exchange of views among the participants from the both sides.

“This year’s committee had different meaning from previous ones, because it came after Kuwait showed us unstinted support and a deep-rooted friendship in the wake of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which prompted us to renew our determination in further developing relations with our Kuwaiti partners through activities of the committee,” Saito said.

The committee meeting and the seminar were organized by the Japanese Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME). — KUNA

Kuwait-Argentina relations hailed BUENOS AIRES: Kuwait Ambassador to Argentina Saud Abdulaziz Shamlan Al-Roumi attended the swearing in ceremony of Antonio Bonfatti as new governor of Santa Fe Province, center-east Argentina, said a statement by Kuwait Embassy here on Thursday.

The ceremony, held at the premises of the local government of Santa Fe, was also attended by outgoing governor of the province Hermes Juan Binner. Binner, in an address to the gathering, lauded the close ties between Argentina and the State of Kuwait, appreciating the funding by Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) for

infrastructure projects in his province. On the sidelines of the ceremony Al-Roumi held talks with Binner and Bonfatti on the friendly ties and cooperation between the two countries, the statement said. Al-Roumi invited Bonfatti to visit Kuwait in early 2012 which was welcomed by the new governor. The provincial government of Santa Fe and the federal government of Argentina are finalizing the procedures to receive a new KFAED loan, it revealed.

After the ceremony, the provincial government held a reception in honor of the senior guests and delegates, including the Kuwaiti diplomat. — KUNA

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LOCAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Bhutan celebrates 104th National Day

By Sherub Tenzin Ambassador of Bhutan

B

hutan, when ruled by the spiritual leader Zhabdrung Ngawang Namgyal, faced with civil wars for power struggle ended after the unanimous election of Sir Ugen Wangchuck as the first hereditary King of Bhutan by the Monk Body, Representative of the People and Officials of the Government on Dec 17, 1907 in Phunkha Dzong. Thus, the People of Bhutan commemorate and celebrate the 17th Day of December to mark the unification of the country, stability, peace and progress brought to the people with enthronement of the first king of Bhutan.

The succeeding monarchs continued strengthening sovereignty of the country and focused on the welfare of the people. Bhutan emerging from the policy of isolation launched its first socio-economic development plan and programs from 1961 onwards by His Majesty the 3rd King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck.

The Government structure was instituted with the establishment of the National Assembly, the Royal Advisory Council and the judicial system with a High Court.

Bhutan became a member of United Nations in 1971 and established diplomatic relations with other countries.

His Majesty the King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, who ascended the throne at the age of 16 after sudden demise of his father, pur-

sued more carefully the socio-economic development policy and programs, with gradual restructuring and consolidating the governance system. The decision making process was decentralized to the local government. Given the uniqueness of the rich biodiversity, culture and tradition, good governance, His Majesty the King advocated the philosophy of Gross National Happiness as the main socio-economic development policy to balance spiritual and material requirement. The continuity of development efforts to construct roads, infrastructure for health services, agricultural extension centers, educational institutions from primary to tertiary level and telecommunication facilities were carried out to provide equitable and sustainable development without compromising Bhutan’s unique culture, tradition and exceptional characteristics.

Besides it, mineral based industries, hydropower development and tourism and hospitality services were developed. Bhutan’s economy is based on agriculture, forestry, tourism, mining and sale of electric power. As of now, the country has experienced a sharp acceleration of average annual growth rate of real GDP to 6.7% from 5.9% in 2010s. In 2011, life expectancy has risen to 66.3 years and literacy level to 59.5 per year.

While people of Bhutan enjoyed continued peace, prosperity and stability, the 4th King voluntarily stepped down at the

age of 51 and handed over the responsibility of King to His Majesty the King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck. Their Majesties the Kings gifted democracy to the people and the first elected parliament was established on the 16th April 2008. The RGoB is pursuing the policy based on the principles of GNH focusing on equitable and sustainable socio-economic development, preservation and promotion of

Ambassador Sherub Tenzin culture and traditions, preservation and protection of environment and good governance to maintain peace and stability.

Having made achievements in the political, economic and social affairs, Bhutan aspired to contribute and play a role to share experiences of Bhutanese development philosophy with the international community. “ Happiness: Towards the Holistic Development Approach,” was proposed by Bhutan and supported by 68

member states has passed the resolution without a vote in the United General Assembly in July 2011.

Bhutan’s commitment to preserve and promote environment is demonstrated by keeping 79% of the total area of the country under forest cover and has internationally committed to remain carbon neutral and aspires to share and contribute to the global community in the midst of financial crisis, natural disaster, famine and struggles for economically and political gains.

Bhutan with well respected leadership, law and order, peace and security, political stability, vibrant culture, pristine environment, reliable green power, proximity to Indian market, English speaking population, home of Gross National Happiness invite foreign investment in the field of health, education, tourism and hospitality, finance, infrastructure development, hydropower, industry and ICT in the region.

Bhutan is voted one of the world’s top travel destinations because of its rich flora and fauna, unique and rich cultural heritage.

People searching for a peaceful and calm life, enjoy raw natural beauty with trekking and camping, sacred monasteries perching on the rocks, architecture, people and its daily lives etc may decide to travel to Bhutan on its national carrier Royal Bhutan Airlines known as Drukair through Delhi, Dhaka, Bangkok and Kathmandu.

Please log on to

http://www.tourism.gov.bt/ for further information on Bhutan and choose to contact any tour operator in Bhutan to organize your trip to Bhutan.

Diplomatic relations between the kingdom of Bhutan and the State of Kuwait enjoys close ties of friendship and goodwill, trust and understanding for the last 28 years. The strong brotherly relationship existing between two monarchs has been further enhanced and cemented with the visit of His Majesty the King to participate in the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Independence Day, the 20th Liberation Day, the 5th Anniversary of assumption of power of His Highness the Amir as a guest of honour. Economic cooperation is channelized through Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development for the development of banks and industries. Bhutan remain grateful for generous support and continued assistance extended in the times of need particularly for providing relief fund for cyclone and earth quake that hit Bhutan in 2009.

Bhutan having joined the club of democracy and also lay down a strong and vibrant foundation of democracy, looks forward for continued support.

On the joyful occasion of our National Day Celebration, I would humbly like to offer my prayer for good health and well being of His Majesty the King of Bhutan, His Majesty the Fourth King, members of the Royal Family, Honorable Prime Minister and the fellow citizens.

UN presses Iraq to boost Kuwait normalization U N I T E D N A T I O N S : The UN Security Council on Thursday called on Iraq to step up efforts to normalize ties with neighboring Kuwait, still recovering from the Saddam Hussein-era invasion. UN envoys are looking for greater progress in helping pin down the fate of Kuwaitis and other foreigners missing since the 1990 war. Property and most of the Kuwaiti national archives also remain missing.

The Iraqi government has made several commitments to carry out its obligations under peace accords but the UN said in a recent report that the progress had come to a virtual standstill in the past two years.

The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross have been working with a joint government committee on the various outstanding disputes.

The Security Council said in a statement after a briefing by special envoy on Iraq-Kuwait reconciliation Gennady Tarasov that it welcomed the “continued cooperation by the governments of Iraq and Kuwait.”

“Nevertheless, the members of the Security Council stressed the need for

Iraq to build on the steps already taken to fully meet these commitments, specifically finding Kuwaiti or third country nationals, property and archives,” it added.

The council said more could be done to make missions searching for missing persons more effective and “urged continued cooperation to translate efforts into tangible results.”

“Previous calls for greater efforts with regard to the Kuwaiti national archives and other properties had so far yielded limited results,” it added, pointing to concern raised by UN leader Ban Ki-moon.

The council called for “an intensification of efforts to clarify the whereabouts of the archives.”

Iraq and Kuwait should “continue to act in the spirit of the confidence and cooperation building process, which should contribute to the further strengthening of their good-neighborly relations and enhancing of regional stability.” it added.

The two neighbors have not settled their border and Iraq still has to pay almost $20 billion in war damages. The pair are also in dispute over a new Kuwaiti port that Iraq considers a threat to its sea access. —AFP

KUWAIT: Kuwait National Guard on Thursday conducted an exercise on dealing with riots, vehicle weapon and explosive searches, and means to combat an armed infiltration. The exercises, carried out by a unit from the directorate of the protection and security of public utilities, were held in the attendance of the KNG’s Secretary Maj Gen Naser Al-Daei and the Commander of Security Affairs Brig Khaled Al-Ragwa, among other senior officers.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Syrians protest against Assad after Russia UN move

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Poll suggests Obama re-election bid threatened

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India raids distilleries as deaths hit 170

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Bloody clashes overshadow Egypt vote count At least 36 wounded

CAIRO: Egyptian protesters against military rule shout slogans at soldiers while holding their national flag as they gather outside the parliament building during clashes in Cairo yesterday.—AFP CAIRO: Egyptian troops clashed with petrol bomb-throwing protesters against military rule in Cairo yesterday, as the worst violence in weeks overshadowed the count in the second phase of a landmark general election. At least 36 people were wounded as the soldiers repeatedly attempted to break up a sit-in outside the cabinet’s offices demanding an immediate transition to civilian rule, the official MENA news agency reported.

State television reported that 32 security forces personnel were wounded in the clashes, including an officer hit by birdshot it said came from the protesters. The clashes, which raged since dawn, were the bloodiest since five days of protests in November killed more than 40 people just ahead of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections since the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak in February.

The violence erupted after a bloodied protester said he had been arrested by soldiers and beaten up, infuriating his comrades who began throwing stones at the soldiers, witnesses said. Protesters also threw petrol bombs as the clashes continued through the morning with troops and military police repeatedly charging the crowd, AFP correspondents reported.

“The people demand the execution of the field marshal,” they chanted in reference to Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took over following Mubarak’s ouster. In early afternoon, the military police pulled back to a side street but the demonstrators were pelted with stones by men in plain clothes from another government building and responded by smashing the windows of transport ministry offices.

Blogger Mostafa Hussein said that, at one point, demonstrators managed to reach the lobby of the cabinet offices after breaking down the front gate, before being pushed back by a large number of troops. An AFP correspondent saw bloodied protesters being carried away by comrades and a string of arrests made. Troops later released some of the detained demonstrators.

Leading activist Nur Nur, son of former presidential candidate Ayman Nur, emerged from behind the military police cordon limping and with a cut and large bruise to his head.

“When the military police rushed us, a girl behind me tripped up and fell,” he said. “I stopped to help her, and the soldiers beat us with sticks for

about two minutes and then dragged us off into the parliament building.” A military official told AFP soldiers involved in the clashes had been tasked with protecting the cabinet and did not try to break up the sit-in. He blamed the protesters for the violence. The demonstrators have been camped outside the cabinet offices since November 25, when they branched off from larger demonstrations in nearby Tahrir Square, the nerve centre of the 18 days of protests that led to the downfall of Mubarak.

They objected to the military’s appointment of a new caretaker prime minister, calling on the generals to transfer power fully to a civilian government. The military has said it will only step down once a president has been elected by the end of June following a protracted series of phased parliamentary polls. The count was under way yesterday in the second stage of elections for the lower house of parliament. A third stage next month will be followed by a similar three-phase election to the upper house before the presidential vote.

As in the first phase last month, Islamist parties were leading the liberals, according to initial results, state media reported. The flagship state-

owned daily Al-Ahram reported a close race between the two main Islamist parties, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party and ultra-conservative Salafist movement’s Al-Nur. The FJP said on its website that it was ahead in the southern province of Sohag and Giza province, which includes a large part of the capital. It said AlNur was ahead in the port city of Suez, with 45 percent of the vote to the FJP’s 25 percent. The main liberal coalition, the Egyptian Bloc, appeared to have garnered even fewer votes than it did in the first round, when it won about 13 percent, AlAhram reported.

The FJP, which was founded by the Brotherhood after Mubarak’s ouster, won more than 36 percent of the vote in the first round, followed by Al-Nur’s 24 percent. The Muslim Brotherhood had been widely forecast to triumph as the country’s best organised political movement, well known after decades of charitable work and its endurance through repeated crackdowns by the Mubarak regime. The good showing by the Salafists has been a surprise, raising fears of a more conservative and overtly religious legislature. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Last US base handed to Iraq ahead of pullout NASIRIYAH: Iraq took control of the last American military base in the country yesterday, a day after US forces marked the end of their mission, bringing a divisive war to a low-key conclusion. The transfer of the sprawling installation on the outskirts of the southern city of Nasiriyah is a final step ahead of a complete US withdrawal from Iraq in the coming days. The Imam Ali Base, known to the US military as Camp Adder, housed 15,000 American troops at its peak and was officially signed over at a ceremony attended by US Colonel Richard Kaiser and Hussein al-Assadi, the Iraqi official in charge of base transfers.

“We proudly announce to the Iraqi people today the handover of the last American military base,” Assadi said after the signing. “Today we are turning the last page on the occupation.” The base, which will now be used by Iraq’s fledgling air force, lies on the edge of the ancient city of Ur, the Biblical birthplace of Abraham. “It’s an honor to have been the commander of this base, and to be the one to sign over the last large base in Iraq,” Kaiser told AFP. “It’s truly an honor... I feel very proud of all the work we’ve done together” with Iraq. After the two men signed documents transferring the base to Iraq, Iraqi Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Hakim Abboud said it marked “a day of freedom.” “We promise to our people to be faithful to our army, our Iraq, and to work for its unity,” said Abboud, the commander of air force units on Imam Ali Base. Yesterday’s handover comes after US

Yemenis protest against amnesty for Saleh SANAA: Hundreds of thousands of Yemenis demonstrated yesterday across the country rejecting an amnesty given to President Ali Abdullah Saleh against prosecution in a deal that eases him out of office. “A trial is a must and amnesty is rejected,” chanted demonstrators in Sanaa’s Sitin Street, close to Change Square-the focal point of protests that broke out in January demanding Saleh’s departure after 33 years in power.

Similar demonstrations were staged in 18 cities and towns across Yemen in response to a call by the central organizing committee of protests, as protesters insisted Saleh and his top lieutenants should face justice over the killing of demonstrators. “There should be punishment for shedding the blood of the youth,” said cleric Waheeb AlSharabi in his Friday sermon in Taez, the second largest city of Yemen and a major flashpoint in the conflict with forces loyal to Saleh.

Last month, Saleh signed a Gulf-brokered deal aimed to end the political crisis in the impoverished country.

Under the deal, he handed authority to Vice President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, and the opposition formed a national unity government. Saleh serves now as an honorary president until polls are held in February to elect his successor.

A bloody crackdown on anti-Saleh demonstrations since January has claimed hundreds of lives. — AFP

Defence Secretary Leon Panetta and US commanders took part in a subdued “casing of the colors” ceremony on Thursday near Baghdad airport, the first site US forces occupied in Baghdad during the 2003 invasion.

All that remains of the American military in Iraq are around 4,000 soldiers, down from a peak of nearly 170,000 troops and 505 bases across the country. After the end of the year, the US embassy will retain just 157 US soldiers, for training of Iraqi forces, and a group of marines to secure the diplomatic mission. The withdrawal ends a war that left tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,500 American soldiers dead, many more wounded, and 1.75 million Iraqis displaced, after the US-led invasion unleashed brutal sectarian fighting.

It brings to a close nearly nine years of US military involvement in Iraq that began with a “shock and awe” campaign in 2003 to oust Saddam Hussein, which many in Washington believed would see US forces conclude their mission in Iraq within months. But key decisions taken at the time have since been widely criticised as fuelling what became a bloody Sunni Arab insurgency, in particular dissolving the Iraqi army and purging the civil service of all members of Saddam’s Baath Party, including lower-ranking members.

The insurgency eventually sparked brutal communal bloodshed, particularly after the February 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine in the predominantly Sunni city of Samarra by Al-Qaeda. More

than 100,000 Iraqis have been reported killed since the invasion, according to British NGO Iraq Body Count. The bloodshed was only quelled when then-president George W Bush ordered a “surge” of American troops to Iraq, and Sunni tribal militias sided with US forces against AlQaeda.

Attacks remain common, but violence in Iraq has declined significantly since its peak. “After a lot of blood spilled by Iraqis and Americans, the mission of an Iraq that could govern itself has become real,” Panetta said at Thursday’s symbolic flag-lowering ceremony, describing the pullout as “nothing short of miraculous”. “Iraq will be tested in the days ahead-by terrorism and by those who would seek to divide it, by economic and social issues, by the demands of democracy itself,” he added.

Iraq has a 900,000-strong security force that many believe, while capable of maintaining internal security, lacks the means to defend its borders, air space and territorial waters. Some observers also fear a return to bloody sectarianism, doubt the strength of Iraq’s political structures, and feel that Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki, who hails from the Shiite majority, has entrenched his power base to the detriment of the country’s minorities. President Barack Obama honored America’s “bleeding and building” in Iraq on Wednesday, hailing the “extraordinary achievement” of a war he once branded “dumb.”— AFP

Syrians protest against Assad after Russia UN move Activists say 200,000 people protest in Homs BEIRUT: Hundreds of thousands of Syrians took to the streets yesterday to protest against President Bashar al-Assad, activists said, a day after Syria’s big power ally Russia sharpened its criticism of Damascus in a draft United Nations resolution.

Activists and residents said Syrian forces shot dead four people in a continuing crackdown that the United Nations says has killed 5,000 people in the last nine months and has provoked Western and Arab League sanctions to isolate Damascus.

Yesterday’s killings took place, activists said, after midday prayers in the eastern city of Deir alZour and in Homs, hotbed of opposition to four

decades of repressive Assad family rule. In Homs 200,000 people joined a protest march, the Britishbased Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and footage broadcast by Al Jazeera television showed mock gallows where five effigies were hanged, including one of Assad. It was not possible to verify the number of protesters as Syria has barred most independent journalists, but if true it would be one the biggest turnouts for several weeks. Russia on Thursday presented a new, beefed-up draft resolution on the violence to the UN Security Council, offering a chance for the 15nation panel to overcome deadlock and deliver its

DAMASCUS: Syrian demonstrators raise posters showing Syria’s President Bashar Assad as they perform an oath to defend their country at Sabe Bahrat square in downtown Damascus, Syria yesterday during a rally to support President Bashar Assad. —AP

first statement of purpose on Assad’s crackdown.

The council has been split between Western countries harshly critical of Syria on the one hand, and Russia, China and non-aligned countries on the other that have refused to pin the main blame on Assad for the violence.

Western diplomats believe a firm Security Council resolution backed by Russia, Syria’s longstanding ally and arms supplier, could make a real difference to efforts to tackle the crisis. Assad has denied that Syrian forces have been given orders to kill demonstrators, blaming armed groups for the violence. He said 1,100 soldiers and police have been killed since the uprising erupted in March, inspired by other unrest in the Arab world that has toppled three autocratic leaders this year.

An armed insurgency has begun to eclipse civilian protests, raising fears Syria could descend into civil war. On Thursday army deserters killed 27 soldiers and security personnel in the southern province of Deraa, the Observatory said. It is the most serious challenge to the 11-year rule of Assad, 46, whose family is from the minority Alawite sect that has dominated majority Sunni Muslim Syria since 1970.

The United States and European Union have imposed sanctions and called on Assad to step down. Neighboring Turkey has taken similar steps and even the Arab League has declared sanctions against Syria, although it has several times extended a deadline for Syria to approve a formula for ending the crisis. In the latest sign of the heavy economic price Syria is paying for the bloodshed, Turkey said yesterday that Damascus would lose more than $100 million a year in transport revenues as Ankara bypasses the turbulent country by opening alternative export routes to the Middle East and Gulf. —Reuters

international

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Prominent journalist gunned down in Russia

LONDON: This is a Thursday, Dec 1, 2011 file photo of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he talks during a news conference in central London. —AP

WikiLeaks founder granted extradition appeal in UK LONDON: Britain’s Supreme Court said yesterday it had agreed to hear WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s appeal against extradition to Sweden over sex crimes allegations. The court said a panel of three judges had considered a written submission and granted a two-day appeal beginning on Feb 1, meaning there is no prospect of Assange being sent to Stockholm until at least next year.

In a statement, the court said it had “decided that seven justices will hear the appeal given the great public importance of the issue raised, which is whether a prosecutor is a judicial authority.”

Assange’s legal team argue that police and prosecutors - like the Swedish prosecutor seeking to bring Assange back to the country for questioning - are not a proper judicial authority, and shouldn’t have the right to order extraditions.

Earlier this month, High Court judges John Thomas and Duncan Ouseley said Assange could apply to the Supreme Court to argue that point and seek to prove that Europe’s process of carrying out extradition was flawed. However, Thomas warned Assange that his chance of success “may be extraordinarily slim.” Assange - who leads the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website - was accused of rape, coercion and molestation following encounters with two Swedish women in August 2010. Swedish authorities issued a European Arrest Warrant on rape and molestation accusations, and Assange was arrested in London in December 2010.

The 40-year-old denies wrongdoing and is currently held on bail on the condition that he lives under curfew at a supporter’s country estate in eastern England and wears an electronic tag. Claes Borgstrom, the lawyer in Sweden representing the two women, said the decision would cause more strain for his clients - and predicted Assange would eventually face extradition.

“It is stressful for my clients that there is yet another extension,” Borgstrom told AP by telephone. “I assume that the Supreme Court will rule that Assange should be extradited according to the European Arrest warrant. If not, you can scrap it,” he said. In a hearing in London in February, Judge Howard Riddle had ruled that Assange can be extradited to Sweden to face questions about the allegations, rejecting his claims that he would not receive a fair trial there.

Assange appealed to the High Court, and will now take his legal battle to the country’s highest legal authority, the Supreme Court.

The hearing will be his last avenue in Britain to avoid extradition, though lawyers have said they could consider a further appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. —AP

MAKHACHKALA: The founder of a newspaper critical of authorities in the restive province of Dagestan in Russia’s North Caucasus has died after he was gunned down in a hail of bullets outside his office, police said yesterday.

Khadzhimurad Kamalov’s leading independent weekly paper Chernovik (Rough Draft) has reported extensively on police abuses in the fight against an Islamist insurgency that originated in neighboring Chechnya and has spread across the region.

Kamalov founded the weekly in 2003, worked as its editor for several years and remained its publisher until his killing late Thursday. He was 46. Vyacheslav Gasanov, a spokesman for the Russian Interior Minister in Dagestan, said a masked gunman riddled Kamalov with bullets outside the office in the provincial capital, Makhachkala. Kamalov died of his wounds at a local hospital shortly after.

Biyakai Magomedov - the editor of Chernovik, who witnessed the attack said on Russia’s NTV television that Kamalov fell on the pavement as he was struck by the first round, and then covered his head with hands when the assailant approached to finish him off.

“They deliberately killed him in front of the newspaper’s office to scare the staff,” Magomedov said. Chechen rebels have fought two separatist wars against Russian forces since 1994. Major battles in the second war subsided about a decade ago, but the Islamist insurgency has engulfed neighboring provinces, stoked by poverty and corruption.

Rights activists accuse security services of fueling the violence with arbitrary arrests, torture and extra-judicial killings of militant suspects.

Dagestan, the largest and most ethnically diverse of Russia’s mostly Muslim provinces in the North Caucasus, has evolved into the main breeding ground for terror, with near daily attacks on police and other authorities. Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot), a leading online news resource on the region, said Kamalov’s name figured on a list of militants and their “accomplices” that has been released since 2009 by anonymous authors vowing to avenge the dead police and security officers.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists granted Chernovik’s editor Nadira Isayeva its 2010

International Press Freedom award. CPJ hailed the paper’s relentless reporting on the heavy-handed tactics of security agencies in the fight against Islamic militancy. It said Isayeva and the newspaper were regularly harassed with official summonses, financial audits and statecommissioned “linguistic analyses” that label content as extremist.

In 2008, authorities brought a crimi-

tion about the killing of Kamalov and demanded that authorities track down and punish the perpetrators.

International media watchdogs have ranked Russia among the world’s most dangerous countries for reporters. Most attacks on journalists have remained unsolved, including the 2006 slaying of Anna Politkovskaya, who exposed atrocities against civilians by Chechnya’s

DAGESTAN: In this Aug 29, 2008 file photo, Dagestan journalist Khadzhimurad Kamalov speaks during a rally in Makhachkala, Dagestan, southern Russia. Kamalov, the founder of Chernovik (Rough Draft), an independent weekly newspaper critical of authorities in the restive province of Dagestan in Russia’s North Caucasus, has died after being riddled with bullets outside his office, police said yesterday. —AP nal case against Isayeva and several other Chernovik journalists under antiextremist legislation after she published an interview with a former guerrilla leader. A court acquitted them earlier this year. “The corrupt structures have been afraid of us,” Chernovik editor Magomedov said yesterday. “They couldn’t defeat us in courts, because we won practically all the cases.” Russia’s Union of Journalists voiced its indigna-

Moscow-backed authorities. “Just as Politkovskaya’s death meant the loss of information about Chechnya, Kamalov’s death will mean that to a large extent we will stop to understand what’s going on in Dagestan,” Yulia Latynina, an author and an expert on the Caucasus region, said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

“People will simply be scared to write anything.” Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report. —AP

Norway police say did all they could after massacre OSLO: Norwegian police responded as quickly as possible when an antiIslamic gunman set off a bomb in Oslo and shot dead dozens of teenagers at a summer camp in July, the head of an internal police commission assessing the response said yesterday. Victims’ families have strongly criticized police for not reacting faster to reports that the gunman, Anders Behring Breivik, had gone on the rampage at a Labour Party youth summer camp after set-

ting off a bomb in central Oslo that killed eight.

It took police around an hour to get from Oslo to Utoeya island, 40 km (25 miles) away, but the head of the commission appointed by police said no officers hesitated in their duty and criticism was “unreasonable”. “During a very intense action, time for planning and reflection is highly limited,” the commission’s head, Olav Soenderland, told a news conference.

“It would be unreasonable to use the knowledge we have in hindsight as the basis for evaluating the effort on the ground.” Court-appointed psychiatrists have concluded the anti-immigration shooter, who killed 69 people on Utoeya, may be criminally insane and therefore escape jail.

Soenderland acknowledged that the first responders accidentally swamped a rubber boat heading to the island, losing precious minutes, but characterized the incident as a

“learning point”.

“What was done was consistent with the desire to get to Utoeya as quickly as possible,” he said. He said the fact that emergency phone lines were overwhelmed during the island shooting had no effect on the police response. As well as the police report, due in March, a parliamentary committee and an independent commission appointed by the government are also evaluating the police response. —Reuters

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

I Coast leader’s party wins crushing majority Ouattara head of illegitimate regime: Gbagbo ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara’s coalition won a crushing majority in parliament after elections boycotted by followers of his toppled rival Laurent Gbagbo, results showed yesterday. After the announcement in the early hours by the independent electoral commission, Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) said Ouattara was the head of an illegitimate regime and was only in power as a result of force.

Gbagbo is currently awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity. He was captured by pro-Ouattara forces in April, with support from French and UN troops. The election commission’s head Youssouf Bakayoko said on public television that Ouattara’s Rally of Republicans (RDR) won 127 of the 254 seats up for grabs, with its main ally, the Ivory Coast Democratic Party (PDCI), getting 77.

A government source said the RDR expected some independent MPs to join the party, giving it an absolute majority of around 129 or 130 seats. Turnout in the vote last Sunday was 36.56 percent, higher than the last election in 2000, Bakayoko added. But it was well down from the November 2010 presidential election when more than 80 percent voted. That contest plunged the former French colony, which is the world’s num-

ber one cocoa producer, into a new round of civil war when Gbagbo refused to accept defeat. The fighting, which eventually left around 3,000 dead, only came to an end after Gbagbo’s dramatic capture in the presidential palace.

The parliamentary election campaign was marred by five deaths, but the poll itself took place without serious incident. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has hailed a “peaceful and orderly” vote, and West African regional bloc ECOWAS said the election had been free and fair.

Ouattara has vowed to unite the country after a near decade of civil war and his overwhelming majority should help his cause.

Bruno Kone, a spokesman for the Ouattara government, expressed satisfaction at the result, saying it showed that “Ivorians continue to trust the president of the republic and wish to give him the means to fulfill his mission”. “The rebuilding process continues, brick by brick” to ensure that the Ivory Coast can “put an end to the crisis once and for all”.

Gbagbo’s FPI boycotted Sunday’s poll after citing security concerns and the detention of the former president, whose release it says is a prerequisite for reconciliation. After the announcement of the results, party spokesman Laurent Akoun again dismissed Ouattara as head of an

illegitimate regime. “Ouattara has built himself a parliament that is totally under his control but he has a crisis of legitimacy,” Akoun told AFP. “This election confirms the illegitimacy of his regime. Without the use of force, he could not have taken power.” Ivory Coast-once a beacon of stability in west Africa-was plunged into bloody chaos when Gbagbo refused to accept defeat in last November’s presidential poll and clung to power for months. As the first former head of state to be brought before the ICC, he faces four counts of crimes against humanity including murder, rape and inhuman acts allegedly committed by his troops between December 16, 2010 and April 12. The ICC is also investigating other figures in the conflict. Prime Minister and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, some of whose lieutenants have been charged with crimes, met ICC prosecutor Luis MorenoOcampo and his successor Fatou Bensouda in New York on Thursday. With the victory of Ouattara’s party confirmed, the next question will be whether Soro-elected with a Soviet-style score of nearly 99 percent in his hometown of Ferkessedougou-will retain his post as prime minister. Soro has said he is ready to face an International Criminal Court trial for political killings if charged. —AFP

S Africa’s liberation armed wing marks 50th anniversary SOWETO: South Africa’s ruling party’s former armed wing Umkhonto WeSizwe (MK) yesterday marked its 50th anniversary by urging the state to look after ex-combatants who fought against apartheid. “Today we mark 50 years of existence but my heart bleeds when I see the majority of our heroes languishing in poverty,” said Kebby Maphatsoe, the chairman of MK Military Veterans Association. “While we acknowledge the progress done by government to improve the lives of ex-MK soldiers, many of our people seem to have fallen through the cracks,” Maphatsoe told the 16,000-strong crowd gathered in a Soweto stadium.

The MK, or ‘Spear of the Nation,’ was the armed wing of the African National Congress, the continent’s oldest liberation movement.

Former South African president Nelson Mandela was its first commander-in-chief. The MK established secret training camps in neighbouring African states and the Soviet Union and carried out attacks on key state properties in the country. Others fought with liberation armies in Zimbabwe and Mozambique.

The MK was disbanded by Mandela after he came out of prison in 1990 and integrated into the South African defence force by 1994, the year white minority rule ended. —AFP

Thousands abused in Catholic institutions THE HAGUE: Thousands of children suffered sexual abuse in Dutch Catholic institutions, and church officials knew about the abuse but failed to adequately address it or help the victims, according to a long-awaited investigation released yesterday. Archbishop of Utrecht Wim Eijk apologized to victims on behalf of the entire Dutch Catholic organization and said the report “fills us with shame and sorrow.”

The report said Catholic officials failed to tackle the widespread abuse, which ranged from “unwanted sexual advances” to serious sex abuse, in an attempt to prevent scandals. The investigation followed allegations of repeated incidents of abuse at one cloister that quickly spread to claims from Catholic institutions across the country, echoing similar church-related scandals around the world.

The suspected number of abuse victims who spent some of their youth in church institutions likely lies somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000, according to a summary of the report investigating allegations of abuse dating back to 1945. The commission received some 1,800 complaints of abuse at Catholic schools, seminaries and orphanages and said that the institutions suffered from “a failure of oversight.” It then conducted the broader survey of the general population for a more comprehensive analysis of the scale and nature of sexual abuse of minors - both in the church and elsewhere. Based on a survey among more than 34,000 people, the commission estimated that one in 10 Dutch children suffered some form of abuse broadly in society. The number doubled to 20 per-

cent of children who spent part of their youth in an institution like an orphanage or boarding school - whether Catholic or not. The commission was set up last year under the leadership of former government minister Wim Deetman, who said there could be no doubt church leaders knew of the problem. “The idea that people did not know there was a risk ... is untenable,” he said.Deetman said abuse continued in part because the Catholic church in the Netherlands was splintered, so bishops and religious orders sometimes worked autonomously to deal with abuse and “did not hang out their dirty laundry.” However, he said the commission concluded that “it is wrong to talk of a culture of silence” by the church as a whole. Bert Smeets, an abuse victim who attended the presentation of the report, said it did not go far enough in investigating and outlining in precise detail exactly what happened. “What was happening was sexual abuse, violence, spiritual terror, and that should have been investigated,” Smeets told The Associated Press. “It remains vague.

All sorts of things happened, but nobody knows exactly what or by whom. This way they avoid responsibility.” Archbishop Eijk said victims would be compensated by a commission the Dutch church set up last month and which has a scale starting at ?5,000 ($6,500) and rising to a maximum of $130,000 depending on the nature of the abuse.

He said he felt personally ashamed of the abuse. “It is terrible,” he said.The commission said about 800 priests, brothers, pastors or lay people working for the church were named in the com-

plaints. About 105 of them were still alive, although it was not known if they remained in church positions, the report said. It did not release their names and identified them as “perpetrators” rather than “offenders,” meaning they had not been proven to have committed a crime. Prosecutors said in a statement that Deetman’s inquiry had referred 11 cases - without naming the alleged perpetrators - to them.

Prosecutors opened only one investigation based on those reports, saying the other 10 did not contain enough detailed information and adding that they also appeared to have happened too long ago to prosecute. Had the case files contained enough information to trigger an investigation, prosecutors could have asked for the identities of the suspected abusers.

Deetman said the inquiry could not

establish a “scientific link” between priests’ celibacy and abuse, but he added, “we don’t consider it impossible ... maybe if there was voluntary celibacy a number of problems would not have happened.” According to the Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics, 29 percent of the Dutch population of 16 million identified themselves as Catholics in 2008, making it the largest religion in the country. —AP

A woman tries to use her umbrella at Lake Geneva in Lausanne, Switzerland yesterday.

Switzerland was getting hit by a heavy storm expected to bring hurricane-force winds to some areas of the Alps, after moving through northern France and Germany. The Swiss weather service said Storm Joachim would be particularly strong Friday, delivering gusts of up to 150 kilometers per hour in some mountain regions and heavy rainfall in many towns and cities. —AP

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Accused Penn State higher-ups face perjury hearing HARRISBURG: Two Penn State officials plan to fight perjury charges and allegations they did not respond properly after being told a young boy had been sodomized in the football team’s showers as a judge decides if their cases should go to trial. Gary Schultz and Tim Curley arrived at a Pennsylvania courthouse for their preliminary hearing yesterday morning. They were charged in early November with perjury and failure to report suspected child abuse, on the same day former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was accused of child sex abuse.

Schultz was a vice president at the university and had overseen the campus police. Curley was the university’s long-serving athletic director. Since they were arrested six weeks ago, Schultz has retired and Curley has been on administrative leave. Both maintain their innocence. The scandal brought great

shame to Penn State’s respected football program and led to the departures of longtime coach Joe Paterno and the university’s president.

Sandusky, the school’s retired assistant football coach, is charged with 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys. He says he is innocent. The hearing in Dauphin County court in Harrisburg requires the attorney general’s office to prove there is a minimum of evidence to support the charges, a relatively low bar. Mike McQueary, the Penn State assistant coach at the heart of the perjury case, arrived at the court shortly after Schultz and Curley yesterday. McQueary declined to speak to reporters as he entered the courthouse.

McQueary told the grand jury he saw Sandusky attacking a boy in the shower. Curley and Schultz gave different accounts, and are charged

with not properly alerting law enforcement when McQueary contacted them. To support the perjury charges, prosecutors must show probable cause the two men lied and that the lies were intentional and material to the case.

Sandusky on Tuesday waived his preliminary hearing at the last minute. His lawyer said he was concerned the proceeding would be too one-sided and that prosecutors had agreed not to seek a bail increase.

The attorneys for Curley and Schultz have not indicated they intend to waive, and issued a statement earlier this week saying the defendants were looking forward to the preliminary hearing and “to start the process of clearing their good names and demonstrating that they testified truthfully to the grand jury.”

McQueary’s expected testimony yesterday marks the first time he has testified in public about what he saw

Poll suggests Obama re-election bid threatened Survey shows public’s outlook on economy improving WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama’s standing in a new Associated Press-GFK poll suggests he could be in jeopardy of losing a re-election bid in November 2012, even as the survey showed that the US public’s outlook on the economy appears to be improving. Obama’s re-election prospects are essentially a 50-50 proposition, according to the poll. It found that most Americans say the president deserves to be voted out of office even though they have concerns about the Republican alternatives.

The Republican candidates held their last debate Thursday before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses lead off the battle for the nomination to challenge Obama. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich looks to maintain his recent lead while former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and other rivals work to tear him down.The poll found Americans were evenly divided over whether they expect Obama to be reelected next year.

For the first time, the poll found that a majority of adults, 52 percent, said Obama should be voted out of office while 43 percent said he deserves another term. The numbers mark a reversal since last May, when 53 percent said Obama should be reelected while 43 percent said he didn’t deserve four more years.

Obama’s overall job approval stands at a new low, with 44 percent approving and 54 percent disapproving. Heading into his re-election campaign, the president faces a conflicted public. It does not support his steering of the economy, the most dominant issue for Americans, or his overhaul of health care, one of his signature accomplishments, but it also is grappling with whether to replace him

with Romney or Gingrich.

Romney was still campaigning in Iowa yesterday as he looked to halt Gingrich’s momentum. He planned a campaign swing later in the day through South Carolina, whose governor, Nikki Haley, endorsed him yesterday morning, saying Romney is

to Ronald Reagan in Thursday’s debate and insisting that he can defeat Obama in 2012. He added that it was laughable for his rivals to challenge his conservative credentials.

Despite the soft level of support, many are uncertain whether a Republican president would be a bet-

WASHINGTON: This photo provided by the White House, taken Dec 11, 2011, shows President Barack Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, and their daughters, Sasha, right, and Malia, center, sitting for a family portrait in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. —AP “someone that knows what it’s like to make a decision and lead.” She announced her endorsement yesterday on Fox News. South Carolina will be the third state to weigh in on the Republican field. And Haley’s support is key because she remains a favorite of tea party activists, whose energy helped Republicans win across the country last fall.

Gingrich was returning to Washington after comparing himself

ter choice. Asked whom they would support next November, 47 percent of adults favored Obama and 46 percent Romney, the former Massachusetts governor.

Against Gingrich, the Republican front runner and former speaker of the House of Representatives, the president holds a solid advantage, receiving 51 percent compared with 42 percent. The Associated Press-GfK Poll was conducted Dec. — AP

and heard inside the Lasch Football Building. McQueary told the grand jury he saw Sandusky raping the boy one Friday night before spring break. He said he called his father, then left distraught. He and his father met with Paterno the next day.

Paterno, in turn, told his boss, Curley. According to the grand jury report, Paterno told Curley that his graduate assistant had seen Sandusky “fondling or doing something of a sexual nature.” Schultz, who oversaw campus security, and Curley met with McQueary 10 days later. McQueary told them that he thought Sandusky had sodomized a young boy, according to his grand jury testimony, which the panel found “extremely credible.” Curley, though, denied that McQueary reported a rape or anything “of a sexual nature whatsoever,” the report said. — AP

Romney picks up governor’s push in GOP race SIOUX CITY: Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney won a coveted endorsement yesterday from the governor of early voting South Carolina, a plumb nod from a tea party darling as he works to halt rival Newt Gingrich’s momentum before voting in the GOP nomination race begins in less than three weeks. “Neither South Carolina nor the nation can afford four more years of President Obama, and Mitt Romney is the right person to take him on and get America back on track,” Gov. Nikki Haley, a rising GOP star, said in a statement after announcing her endorsement on Fox News. She said Romney is “someone that knows what it’s like to make a decision and lead.” She promised to work hard to help elect him.

From western Iowa where he was campaigning, Romney, in turn, praised Haley for her efforts to change government.

He said the endorsement was “an honor.” The two planned to campaign together later yesterday in South Carolina, a state Gingrich is running aggressively in and that seems to be a more natural fit for the former House speaker and one-time Georgia congressman than for Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts who has struggled to win over South Carolina Republicans.

Haley’s nod, somewhat rare because sitting governors of important primary states usually remain neutral, came hours after the candidates met in Iowa for their final debate before the lead-off Iowa caucuses on Jan. 3. The meeting featured Gingrich on the defensive over his decades in Washington, his post-congressional career as a consultant, and whether he was conservative enough to be the Republican Party standard-bearer. The fast-paced debate underscored the state of the race, with Gingrich atop the polls nationally and in Iowa and Romney, Texas Rep. Ron Paul and Gingrich’s other pursuers working in television ads and elsewhere to overtake him. All were making final pitches to voters yesterday heading into the final weekend before people begin to tune out politics for the holiday season. Gingrich was returning to Washington, while others looking for late-game surges - like Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann - embarked on bus tours that would take them across Iowa.

They were setting out to make the case that Gingrich is the wrong fit for a party whose core voters are conservative.

Indeed, the big question in the opening moments of a fastpaced, two-hour debate went to the heart of a dilemma that could eventually settle the race: Do conservative Republican caucus and primary voters pick a candidate with their hearts, or do they look elsewhere if they conclude their favored candidate might not be able to defeat Obama? Those voters begin making that choice in Iowa on Jan. — AP

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Canada oil pipeline into US gets extension support CALGARY: TransCanada Corp. said Thursday that it has received customer support to undertake an extension of its stalled Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline pending regulatory approval in the US Russ Girling, TransCanada’s president and chief executive officer, said in a statement that the potential 50-mile (80-kilometer) expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline would increase the capacity of the pipeline to 830,000 barrels per day from 700,000 barrels.

Instead of ending in Port Arthur, Texas, the pipeline will reach into the Houston market, known as the Houston Lateral, as well. That will more than double the US Gulf Coast refining market capacity the pipeline can access if it’s approved. “This significant demand and additional long-term customer commitments confirm the continued strong shipper support of TransCanada and the need for Keystone XL to move forward,” said Girling.

“Proceeding with the extension of the Keystone XL system to Houston and increasing capacity on the pipeline system will further enhance the connection of a secure, growing and reliable supply of Canadian crude oil and domestic US crude oil with the largest refining market in North America, while providing additional flexibility to our shippers,” he added.

The Houston Lateral is within the original scope of the regulatory process that is currently under way, TransCanada said. The US State Department was originally set to announce its final decision by year-end, but in November said more time was needed to weigh a new route for the pipeline to take through Nebraska, in order to avoid environmentally sensitive areas. The pipeline would carry oil from western Canada to refineries in Texas, passing through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma and Houston if the expansion is approved.

Montana state officials on Thursday announced environmental approval for the pipeline. But TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard said there were no immediate plans to begin work in Montana while federal approval is pending. The US State Department - which has final say because Keystone XL would cross an international border - now expects to make its decision in early 2013. If it’s approved, TransCanada expects Keystone XL, including the Houston Lateral, to be in service by the end of 2014. — AP

5 bodies found at student group office in Mexico 3 of the dead indentified as high school students MEXICO CITY: Mexicans got a rare glimpse into the rough-and-tumble student organizations at many of Mexico’s universities Thursday, after five bodies were found buried at one group’s headquarters in the western city of Guadalajara. Jalisco state Attorney General Tomas Coronado said relatives had identified three of the dead as high school students who were reported missing along with two other people last week after they complained that the student group was demanding protection money to sell snacks outside a campus.

Police uncovered three bodies in a pit late Wednesday and two more in another pit late Thursday.

Investigators were trying to determine if the latest two were a frieddough vendor and his son who went missing with the three teenagers, Coronado said. The vendor, Armando Gomez, his son and three of his high school friends disappeared last Friday after going to the Federation of Guadalajara Students’ headquarters, where the bodies were found. They went to complain that the student group was demanding too much protection money for allowing him to sell snacks outside a high school campus.

The first three bodies were found two days after two college students in nearby Guerrero state were killed in a clash with police after student protesters hijacked buses, used them to block a highway and fought officers with rocks and sticks. Highly organized, semiformal and often violent groups are commonplace at Mexican universities. It is a phenomenon that dates back at least to the 1950s, but swelled during student radicalization in the 1960s. The organizations have

become less ideological over the years, however, and are now often linked to, or protected by, political bosses known in Mexico as “caciques,” or chieftains. The groups sometimes act as enforcers to strong arm a politician’s rivals, or freelance in extortion or petty robbery.

Political analyst John Ackerman said Mexico’s current political atmosphere, with tension heating up before the July presidential election and a lame-duck central government distracted by the fight against drug cartels, may have emboldened such local groups. “Cacique power is alive and well in Mexico,” said Ackerman, of the legal research institute at Mexico’s National Autonomous University.

“This is another aspect in which democracy is still incomplete in Mexico.”

The Federation of Guadalajara Students, known as by its Spanish initials FEG, no longer has any formal ties to the university, but it operates at high schools affiliated with the university. The FEG specialized in charging food and soft drink vendors to operate around the high schools, according to one university official familiar with the group. While the group was once leftist, the FEG switched decades ago to supporting the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico for 71 years before losing the presidency in 2000, said the official, who agreed to discuss the group only if not quoted by name because he wasn’t authorized to speak about it.

The FEG has a website in which it describes itself as “a student political organization ... teaching the promotion of Democracy and Tolerance.” It

lists no phone number or email contact.

On Monday, many Mexicans were shocked by the shooting deaths of two protesters at a demonstration by students from a rural teachers college in Guerrero state, but were not at all surprised students had hijacked buses, used them to block the toll highway leading to the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco and threw stones when police tried to clear the road. The Guerrero state prosecutors office said students from the teachers college regularly block highways or take over toll booths to raise funds, but had acted with unusual violence in Monday’s protest, which was called to demand more funding for the college. Police called in to clear the blockade apparently opened fire on the students.

Federal police have said it was state police who fired the fatal shots, while Guerrero officials released video of federal officers kicking and beating detained protesters.

Lawyers for the students and rights groups, meanwhile, are accusing authorities of planting grenades at the scene and an assault rifle on one student to try to justify the shootings.

Ackerman, at the national university, said he considered the shootings unjustified. But he added there were indications that “outside forces,” perhaps directed by a former governor, may have infiltrated the protest in an attempt to create a politically embarrassing situation for current Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre. “The long-standing tradition of using student ‘golpeadores’ (street fighters) to implement a strategy that authorities can’t carry out themselves is alive and well in Mexico,” Ackerman said. —AP

Cuba travel language dropped in budget deal MIAMI: Luis Damian came to the US from Cuba nearly a decade ago and has never returned. Nor does he frequently send money to his relatives on the island. Still, he doesn’t understand why Cuban-American politicians from South Florida want to roll back the ability of fellow Cuban-Americans to visit and send money to family there.

“Look, I’m going to be frank. The situation is really screwed there,” the Miami chef said.

“The only ones who are going to be hurt are the Cuban people.”

Since taking office, President Barack Obama has allowed Cuban-Americans to visit extended family on the island as many times as they want and send unlimited remittances to relatives there. But CubanAmericans such as Damian were concerned about an amendment to the $1 trillion-plus omnibus spending package that would have returned US regulations to the George W. Bush era, when CubanAmericans could travel to Cuba only once every three years and send only $1,200 to immediate relatives on the island annually.

However, a deal on a $1 trillion spending bill was reached Thursday night after

Republicans agreed to drop the language dealing with Cuba. US Rep. Mario DiazBalart, a Cuban-American, sponsored the amendment, which the House Appropriations Committee unanimously approved this year. The Florida Republican argued that the 30 percent cut that the Cuban government takes from remittances

has been propping up a dictatorship, adding billions of dollars to its coffers. He also maintained people have been abusing the spirit of the regulations by making repeated trips to sell items to Cubans that are otherwise difficult to obtain on the island. “This is not a humanitarian issue,” Diaz-Balart has told The Associated Press.

BAY OF PIGS: Cubans sunbath in this April 17, 2011 file photo at Playa Giron beach, in the Bay of Pigs, Matanzas province, Cuba. Cuba has broken its record for tourism this year with more than 2.5 million foreign visitors, helped by increases from Canada, Britain, Russia and Argentina, officials said yesterday. —AFP

“People who go there 10 or 15 times a year.

It’s become a business, and a very lucrative business for the Castro regime.” Damian wasn’t convinced. “The government and the officials, they always have money. They will be fine,” he said. “I think the politicians don’t understand because they don’t have relatives on the island. They’ve made their life here. Most of their family is here.”

Older Cuban-Americans who came shortly after the revolution and have few connections to the island tend to support limited travel and remittances. They also wield significant influence in the swing state of Florida. Although increasingly in the minority, they are far more likely to vote and contribute to political campaigns than the growing number of Cubans who have come to the US in the last 20 years and who generally want to help relatives on the island any way they can.

Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, a group founded by Cuban-American business leaders supporting greater exchange with the island, called it ironic that Cuban-American lawmakers want to reverse the law now. —AP

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Sri Lankan commission: Civilians weren’t targeted COLOMBO: A government-appointed commission concluded Sri Lanka’s military did not intentionally target civilians at the end of the country’s civil war and that ethnic rebels routinely violated international humanitarian law. The conclusions from the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission report, which was presented to Parliament yesterday, contradict an extensive UN report that accused the government of deliberately shelling civilian areas and possibly killing tens of thousands of people in the final months of the conflict.

Human rights groups and the UN experts panel have called for an international war crimes probe, arguing that the government could not be expected to conduct a credible investigation of its own behavior during the conflict, which ended in May 2009. The government commission said some isolated allegations of civilian abuses by security forces needed to be investigated further, suggesting that any violations could only have resulted from soldiers who were not following orders.

The government is expected to argue that the report makes an international investigation unneccessary. The commission gathered evidence from ethnic minority Tamils, government officials, politicians, civil and religious leaders and former rebels. International rights groups refused to testify before it, saying it was pro-government, did not have a mandate to investigate abuses and did not meet international standards. The report listed allegations by witnesses that the navy had killed

NATO admits Afghan local police abuses KABUL: A NATO military report acknowledged yesterday that members of a US-funded Afghan police force have committed human rights abuses, but insisted the units are making a “tremendous difference” overall. The report followed a highly critical Human Rights Watch (HRW) investigation released in September that claimed members of the Afghan Local Police (ALP) are getting away with serious abuses including rape and murder. The ALP was set up last year and has been touted as key to the handover of security control from NATO to Afghan forces, allowing all US-led foreign combat troops to leave Afghanistan in theory by the end of 2014. The force arms local people to protect their communities in areas where the Afghan army and regular police have limited reach.It does not have law enforcement powers, and is due to more-than triple in size to 30,000. Critics have called it little more than a militia. The investigation, ordered by the US commander in Afghanistan, General John Allen, looked at 46 allegations of abuse and found seven were credible, 10 were not credible, and 15 were credible “in part”. Investigating officer Brigadier James Marrs of the US Air Force said the credible allegations included a case where a policeman killed an ALP commander who was trying to release two boys who had been kidnapped for ransom. There were also credible allegations that the ALP stole from villagers, “roughed up” suspects and hit a child with a stick.

HRW also raised concerns about the role of governmentbacked militia groups controlled by local strongmen, which it linked to rapes, smuggling, extortion and targeted killings. The militia are small groups loyal to warlords with roots in Afghanistan’s bloody past, while the uniformed and salaried ALP was only set up last year. Marrs found it credible that those militias, known as arbakai, were guilty of collecting informal taxes, committing sexual offences, and stealing.

Militias also killed a guard from a provincial reconstruction team, units designed to kickstart development, the evidence suggested. The NATO report said it was “essential” to teach the ALP about human rights and conceded that “political differences, power struggles and corruption are some of the multiple challenges to overcome”. But it claimed the HRW report “ignores the vital service ALP and VSO (village stability operations) are providing every day to give Afghans a chance to end 30 years of conflict and to live secure and peaceful lives”.

“ALP and VSO are making a tremendous difference,” the report said. In May, a report by Oxfam highlighted growing rights abuses

by Afghan police and soldiers, including killings and child sex abuse. Afghanistan’s army and police have grown quickly to over 300,000 and received billions of dollars of funding from the United States to build them up ahead of the foreign combat force withdrawal in 2014. Commander of US special forces Admiral William McRaven told reporters earlier this month of plans to expand the ALP to 30,000.—AFP

civilians who tried to escape the war by boat and that the army had forced civilians to retrieve the body of a dead soldier amid a hail of fire and had shot to death those refused to comply.

“In these circumstances the commission stresses that there is a duty on the part of the state to ascertain more fully the circumstances under which such incidents could have occurred, and if such investigations disclose wrongful conduct, to prosecute and punish the wrong doers,” it said. The commission, however, said it found no evidence of deliberate killings of civilians in “no-fire zones” set up in the final months of the war.

“On consideration of all facts and circumstances before it, the commission concludes that the security forces had not deliberately targeted the civilians in the NFZs, although civilian casualties had in fact occurred in the course of crossfire,” it said. The commission also said it had serious doubts about the authenticity of a video broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 television which purportedly showed soldiers shooting bound, blindfolded prisoners and abusing corpses.

Christof Heyns, the UN independent investigator on extrajudicial killings, has said the video is authentic and provides enough evidence to open a war crimes case.

The commission’s report, which was earlier presented to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said the defeated Tamil Tiger rebels disregarded international humanitarian law in their combat strategies, and urged tough legal action

against rebels being held in detention.

It accused the rebels of using civilians as human shields, killing civilians trying to escape the fighting, conscripting child soldiers, laying land mines, and using civilians as forced laborers. Human rights groups have long accused both the government and Tamil Tiger rebels of abuses. A UN panel reported in April that it found credible allegations against both sides of abuses that could amount to war crimes. It accused the government of deliberately shelling civilians and hospitals and of blocking food and medical supplies for people trapped in the war zone. It said tens of thousands of civilians may have been killed in the final phase of the war and called for an independent international investigation.

The commission acknowledged that shells did fall on hospitals and cause casualties, but said there was no evidence to prove who had fired them. It said the government had taken all possible steps to deliver food and other supplies to the war zone, although at certain times there were acute shortages. After insisting for more than two years that not a single civilian had been killed by military strikes during the war, the government in August admitted to civilian deaths for the first time. Last month Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, the president’s brother, announced that the government has started a count of its own to ascertain how many civilians were slain. — AP

India raids distilleries as bootleg booze deaths hit 170 At least 90 others being treated in hospital DIAMOND HARBOUR: Police raided illegal distilleries and dismantling dozens of liquor dens yesterday across an eastern Indian district where 170 people have died after drinking bootleg alcohol that had been mixed with toxic methanol. Twelve people have been arrested in connection with making and distributing the cheap, illicit liquor, but police were still searching for the kingpin of the operation, District Magistrate Naraya Swarup Nigam said.

Many of the victims - day laborers, street hawkers, rickshaw drivers - had gathered after work Tuesday to drink the illicit booze they bought for 10 rupees (20 cents) a half liter, less than a third the price of legal alcohol. They later began vomiting, suffering piercing headaches and frothing at the mouth, and by yesterday afternoon 170 people had died, according to West Bengal state’s health director, Dr. Shyamapada Basak.

At least 90 others, some in critical condition, were being treated at a hospital in Diamond Harbour village, where doctors and other medical staff worked overtime to help. Dozens more patients were taken to hospitals in the nearby state capital, Kolkata. Dead bodies lay on the ground outside the Diamond Harbour hospital’s mortuary, while ill patients on intravenous drips waited in corridors and on staircases for treatment. Nearly every home has at least one victim in the village of Sangrampur, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Kolkata, the city formerly known as Calcutta. “My husband, after returning from the liquor den, complained of severe stomach pain and headache. He started vomiting and frothing at the mouth. We took him to the hospital, but he he died after a severe convulsion,” said Jayeda Bibi.

Women who had become widows overnight said they could not find enough

villagers to help cremate or bury bodies.

“Whatever money my husband earned was spent on liquor,” Sachi Bar said. “He never listened to my warning that liquor will kill him one day.” Angry villagers have ransacked some booze shacks, and police were tearing down others. West Bengal state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered an inquiry, promised a crackdown and pledged 200,000 rupees ($3,600) compensation for each of the victims’ families.

Forensic investigators were working on determining the exact components of the toxic liquor. Bootleg liquor sometimes is mixed with cheap, toxic chemicals to increase potency and profit, but can have deadly consequences. Illegal liquor operations flourish in India’s urban slums and among the rural poor who can’t afford the

alcohol at state-sanctioned shops.

Despite religious and cultural taboos against drinking among Indians, 5 percent roughly 60 million people - are alcoholics.

Two-thirds of the alcohol consumed in the country is illegal homemade hooch or undocumented liquor smuggled in, according to The Lancet medical journal. One or two people die each week from bad bootleg booze in India, according to the Indian Alcohol Policy Alliance, which fights alcohol-related problems. In 2009, at least 112 people died from a toxic brew in western India.

Drinking alcohol contains ethanol, whereas highly toxic methanol - a clear liquid that can be used as fuel, solvent or antifreeze - can induce comas and cause blindness and is deadly in high doses. — AP

DIAMOND HARBOUR: Sandhya Kishani, right, sits besides her husband as he is being treated after drinking toxic alcohol in a hospital in Diamond Harbour, India yesterday. Police raided illegal distilleries and dismantled dozens of liquor dens yesterday across an eastern Indian district where 162 people died after drinking methanol-tainted bootleg alcohol. —AP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Filipino police rescue US boy from kidnappers Five suspects were arrested

GUANGDONG: Villagers wear white ribbons on their arm as they prepare to attend a memorial ceremony for Xue Jinbo, a local butcher who died in police custody while negotiating with officials over land seizure, in Wukan village, in China’s Guangdong province, yesterday. Xue whose death in police custody helped spark a rare revolt was given a hero’s farewell yesterday as thousands of tearful residents mourned what they called his sacrifice for them. —AP

China sends long-missing lawyer Gao back to jail BEIJING: More than a year and a half after prominent civil rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng disappeared, China’s government gave the first sign yesterday that he is still alive, saying he would be sent to prison for three years for violating his probation. A brief report by the state-run Xinhua News Agency gave few details and did not answer key questions about Gao - the condition of his health and his whereabouts now and in the 20 months since he disappeared, presumably at the hands of the authorities.

“Are they sending him to a proper prison? Which prison was he at before?

Where were they hiding him?” said Gao’s brother, Gao Zhiyi, who has been on a quest to find his sibling.

Charismatic and pugnacious, Gao was a galvanizing figure for the rights movement, advocating constitutional reform and arguing landmark cases to defend property rights and political and religious dissenters. Convicted in 2006 of subversion and sentenced to three years, he was quickly released on probation before being taken away by security agents in 2009 in the first of his forced disappearances that set off an international outcry.

The Xinhua report referred to his 2006 subversion conviction and said Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court found that Gao “had seriously violated probation rules for a number of times, which led to the court decision to withdraw the probation.” The report did not explain what violations Gao had committed but said his five-year probation was due to expire next Thursday timing which legal experts said may have prompted the government to send Gao back to jail. “He would serve his term in prison in the next three years,” the report said.

Calls to the No. 1 court and the city’s appeals court rang unanswered yesterday. Gao has been held incommunicado in apparent disregard of laws and regulations for all but two months of the last three years. When he emerged from the first 14-month bout in April 2010, he told The Associated Press that he had been shunted between detention centers, farm houses and apartments across north China and repeatedly beaten and abused.

“It’s hard to fathom what they might be referring to when they say that he violated his parole given that he seems

to have been under constant supervision,” said Joshua Rosenzweig, a human rights researcher based in Hong Kong.

“It’s kind of cynical.” The change, Rosenzweig said, gives Chinese leaders a ready response to queries from foreign governments and officials. Gao’s case has repeatedly been raised by the US and European governments, drawing cryptic responses if any from Chinese officials. US Ambassador Gary Locke mentioned him in a public statement last weekend.

Gao’s wife, Geng He, fled China with their two children around the time he first disappeared and now lives in the United States. Activists in China seemed astounded and outraged by the news.

Huang Qi, who runs a rights monitoring group in Sichuan province, strongly condemned what he said was the use of the judicial system to persecute dissidents and he offered his services to Gao’s family.

“Gao Zhisheng has used his actions to write a glorious page in the history of the Chinese democracy movement,” Huang said in a statement. Amnesty International called the move to send Gao to prison “a travesty.” “This inhuman treatment must stop. Gao Zhisheng and his family have suffered enough and he must be freed,” Catherine Baber, deputy director in Asia for the group, said in a statement.

While Gao may be the most prominent government critic to be treated so harshly in years, the authorities have done so with other dissidents. Du Daobin, an outspoken critic also convicted of subversion and sentenced to three years in prison in 2004, did not immediately start his sentence, according to the Laogai Research Foundation, a Washington-based advocacy group that runs a website Du used to write for.

Instead, Du was released and lived under probation for four years before being sent to prison in 2008, apparently because he continued to criticize the government online.

Gao’s treatment during his first disappearance has further troubled his family and supporters. His brother, Zhiyi, has been on a constant search for information. When he asked Beijing police in September about his brother, one officer told him Gao Zhisheng was a “missing person and no one knows where he is.” — AP

MANILA: Philippine police stormed a kidnappers’ hideout and rescued a 4 year-old American boy who was held for ransom for eight days, officials said yesterday. Five suspects were arrested in the second recent case of a kidnapped US minor in the Philippines.

The boy, who was living with his Filipino mother and American father, was seized in Manila on Dec 6 by three gunmen who cut off the car he was traveling in with the mother, said Isagani Nerez, head of the police anticrime unit. A $13,600 ransom was paid three days later, but the kidnappers demanded $113,000 more before releasing the boy, whose identity has been withheld, Nerez told reporters.

The father, an engineer, sought the help of the US Embassy and FBI, who sent representatives to the national police headquarters to coordinate with local authorities in securing the victim’s release, Nerez said.

He said police feared the boy would be harmed and traced his location to the kidnappers’ hideout in Prieto Diaz town in eastern Sorsogon

province. On Wednesday, police stormed the site, rescued the boy, who was unharmed, and arrested three of his alleged captors. A followup operation led to the arrest of two more suspects in Manila on Thursday.

“We were worried that the kidnappers would kill the boy if their demand was not met,” Nerez said. “It was the reason why we decided to launch the assault on the kidnappers’ lair.” After a medical checkup found the boy to be in good health, he was reunited with his family, Nerez said.

The boy’s identity was withheld because of privacy concerns. Nerez said he was attending an international school in a Manila suburb.

US Embassy spokeswoman Betina Malone told The Associated Press that the US authorities were appreciative of the efforts of Philippine police in rescuing the boy. “It was the result of a great deal of hard work,” she said, adding that US authorities expected those responsible to be prosecuted and punished. The five suspects were charged by the Department of Justice

with kidnapping for ransom and are being held in police detention pending trial. If convicted, they face up to 40 years in prison.

“They are new faces,” Nerez said, adding that the suspects have not been previously linked to kidnappings. He said they could be linked to the communist rebel New People’s Army, which has a strong presence in Sorsogon province. Last week, 14year-old American Kevin Lunsmann escaped from suspected Al-Qaedalinked militants in the southern Philippines after five months in jungle captivity. His Filipino mother was freed two months ago, and their cousin escaped last month.

Kidnappings for ransom are more common in the impoverished, volatile south, home to a long-running Muslim insurgency. But abductions have also taken place in Manila, which was once notorious as the kidnapping capital of Asia. Children of wealthy Filipinos are often targeted and many cases go unreported to police. — AP

Indonesia to investigate beheadings of farmers JAKARTA: Indonesia’s president has ordered an investigation into the videotaped beheadings of two men allegedly by security forces hired to secure the borders of a palm oil plantation. Six suspects - five plantation workers and a farmer - already have been arrested for their alleged role in the deaths, national police spokesman Col Boy Raffli Amar said yesterday.

Eight other suspects are at large.

Indonesia is one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil - used to make everything from lipstick to biscuits to biofuel - and the rapid expansion of plantations across the sprawling archipelagic nation of 240 million has led to many violent disputes with local communities. Land is often forcibly seized - also by timber, pulp and paper companies - without any offers of compensation. But the allegations by farmers from South Sumatra province, if confirmed, would be by far the most shocking so far.

A dozen men, accompanied by a retired general, traveled to the capital, Jakarta, earlier this week to present their case before Parliament’s human rights commission. They told its members at least 30 farmers have been killed by security forces and men hired by a palm oil company in Mesuji district since 2009 - two of them beheaded in April. They presented two video clips as evidence, though one appears to be unrelated to the dispute.

In the first, a decapitated corpse is shown hanging from an electricity pole in Mesuji, according to witnesses. Then it jumps to another headless body on the ground, masked men, some toting assault rifles, milling about in the background. Next, two bloody heads are shown on the roof of a truck, also in

Mesuji. The other clip appears to unrelated, however, possibly from the separatist insurgency in southern Thailand, judging from the dialect and words of the assailant.

It shows a man dressed in camouflage standing in the woods, an assault rifle slung over his shoulder, holding onto a freshly severed head by the hair.

“Fathoni Darussalam,” he says triumphantly, using the cry of Pattani separatists in southern Thailand.

“Freedom! Freedom!” Ifdhal Kasim, who heads the National Commission on Human Rights, condemned the killings. But the details, he said, remain very murky. There appear to have been

several, separate deadly clashes in the last year between farmers and three palm oil companies in Mesuji - which straddles South Sumatra and Lampung provinces. As concession sizes grew, he added, thousands of people were driven from their homes. Facing protests, one of the companies formed an integrated security team, consisting of civilian guards, members of an elite police unit and military troops to protect their plantation, he said. “It’s not clear who was behind the beheadings or the other killings,” he said. “But if there’s even a hint that security forces were involved, they should be investigated first.” —AP

QUEZON CITY: Fraternity members squeeze through a crowd of shrieking students as they run naked along Palma Hall of the University of the Philippines campus in suburban Quezon city, northeast of Manila, Philippines, yesterday. More than 30 members of the Alpha Phi Omega fraternity ran naked in the annual tradition dubbed “Oblation Run” with this year’s theme of saving the country’s rivers and increase awareness on climate change. —AP

US jobless claims fall

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To tame oil prices, follow Saudi’s steps

Business

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

After the bust, Irish look back to the land

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Occupy groups take ‘golden calf’ to US Congress

CANNES: This combination of pictures shows British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) speaking at the Chancellery in Berlin and France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy listening to his Uk counterpart during their joint press conference ahead of the start of the G20 Summit of Heads of State and Government. — AFP

France angry over Britain ratings France fuels row with fresh attacks on British economy PARIS: France fuelled a burgeoning crossChannel row yesterday, describing Britain’s economy as “very worrying” as the press in London reacted with fury to French calls for British debt to be downgraded. The row comes after Britain clashed with France at last week’s EU summit and refused to join members of the eurozone single currency bloc in a new fiscal pact, prompting French President Nicolas Sarkozy to declare there are now “two Europes”.

Despite widespread condemnation in London of criticisms from Paris on Thursday, Finance Minister Francois Baroin picked up the issue again yesterday, saying the French economy was in better shape than the British one. “It’s true that the economic situation in Great Britain is very worrying and that we prefer being French rather than British on the economic front at the moment,” Baroin said on Europe 1 radio.

“We don’t want to be given any lessons and we don’t give any,” he said. Baroin’s comments came as the British press yesterday slammed French officials for suggesting that

ratings agencies were targeting the wrong country for a debt downgrade by looking at France. “They should start by downgrading the United Kingdom, which has greater deficits, as much debt, more inflation and less growth than us,” central bank chief Christian Noyer had told regional newspaper Le Telegramme. French Prime Minister Francois Fillon picked up on the theme on Thursday, telling reporters in Sao Paolo that ratings agencies seemed to be ignoring the state of British government finances.

“We are challenged on the European currency, first of all because we are too indebted,” he said. “But we are not the only ones.

Our British friends are even more indebted than we are and have a higher deficit, but the ratings agencies do not seem to notice this.”Prime Minister David Cameron’s official spokesman had rejected the French criticism, insisting Britain had a “credible” economic plan. British officials would not be drawn into responding directly to the French attacks, but the British press reacted furiously.

Noyer’s comments were dismissed as “out-

rageous” and “plain wrong” by The Times. “It is simply not the job of a central bank governor to urge the downgrading of another country’s credit,” it added. Popular tabloid The Sun ran a scathing leading article attacking “treacherous” Noyer under the headline “Gall of Gaul”.”You find out who your friends are in a crisis,” it continued. “We shouldn’t be surprised, then, when the head of the Bank of France tries to better his country’s economic position by sabotaging ours.” “Monsieur Noyer, you’re a AAA-rated fool,” it concluded.

The Daily Telegraph, which carried “France declares war of words on Britain” as its frontpage headline, quoted Conservative lawmaker David Ruffley calling the comments “another example of Gallic self-delusion on an epic scale”.

The concerted French attack came ahead of elections next year and as France’s statistics agency warned Thursday the country will fall into a mild recession in the final quarter of this year and the first quarter of 2012.

Analysts said French officials seemed to be looking to deflect attention from the coun-

try’s own economic concerns. In its morning briefing note, British foreign exchange firm Moneycorp described Noyer’s attack as “a clumsy attempt to divert attention from the possibility that France itself could lose its triple-A rating.” US ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s have warned that France is close to losing its prized triple-A debt rating over fears that eurozone members cannot control their rising debt and deficits.

Britain, which is outside the euro and which has the Bank of England to act as a lender of last resort in the event of debt problems, is seen as a safe haven by bond buyers as the debt crisis engulfs the eurozone on its doorstep.

The shock decision by Britain a week ago to stand aside from a new European Union architecture to control budgets has caused strains between the EU and Britain. But Poland, which is coming to the end of its presidency of EU meetings, said yesterday that Britain would send experts to a meeting of the other 26 EU members at the end of the month on saving the 17-nation eurozone. —AFP

business SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

More business travelers flying economy now: IATA GENEVA: More business air travelers bought economy tickets in October, as they shifted from premium to cheaper seats, particularly in Europe, due to the economic crisis, industry body IATA said. Although overall travel has not stopped growing “so far,” airline profitability will be more challenging in this quarter as jet fuel prices have not fallen from third-quarter levels, the International Air Transport Association said on Thursday.

The number of passengers traveling premium (first and business class) on international flights fell sharply in October, rising only 0.1 percent from the same month last year, against yearon-year growth for September of 6.7 percent, it said.

“We interpret this as being mostly due to business travellers shifting to cheaper seats, since in October economy travel was up 4 percent on last year,” IATA said in its monthly premium traffic monitor. “Premium seat share is falling back towards the lows of early 2009,” it said.

“This changing seat class mix will undermine yields.”Stagnant international trade and falling business confidence points to further weakness in business travel, the Geneva-based trade group added.

Airlines worldwide face over $8 billion in losses next year if Europe’s politicians fail to get to grips with the region’s debt crisis, IATA warned last week. A collapse of efforts to shore up

the euro and prevent a new shock to the global banking system would hit air transport across the globe and cripple the Asian profit machine which has led the industry’s recovery since 2009, it said.

Premium travel is seen as a barometer of factors driving activity in manufacturing, finance and consulting. In October, premium travel shrank by 3.3 percent within Europe and by 1.5 percent on the North Atlantic routes, IATA said on Thursday.

“Despite financial market uncertainty and economic pressures, both routes had shown strong growth throughout the year, until now.

October can be marked as the first sign of clear weakness,” it said. Travel across

the North Atlantic represents the largest share of total revenues of premium-class tickets, some 26.2 percent, it noted.

“Decline in another important route, Europe to the Far East, can also be understood by the behaviour of European exports to that region of the world, as well as indications toward contractions in other major economies, namely China,” it said.

However, within the Far East, premium air travel has remained strong, with year-to-date growth staying in the double digits at 10.4 percent, according to IATA. IATA groups most of the world’s flag carriers and network airlines such as United Airlines, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines. — Reuters

US jobless claims fall US data point to firming economic recovery

GENEVA: A delegate faces the international ocean conservation organization Oceana’s mascot “Finley the fish” at a World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference yesterday. Trade Ministers of New Zealand and Australia joined officials from a diverse group of countries today at the Eighth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, reaffirming the need to establishing strong trade rules on subsidies that lead to overfishing. — AFP

To tame oil prices, follow Saudi’s steps SINGAPORE: Major oil producers must follow top exporter Saudi Arabia in increasing output to help tame high prices that threaten global economic growth, the chief economist for the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. Oil prices, which at $109 a barrel already pose a “major risk” to the fragile global economy, could rise further to $150 in coming years if there is no more investment to boost oil output in the Middle East, said IEA’s Fatih Birol.

His comments come ahead of Wednesday’s meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, where ministers are expected to agree to a new collective output target that legitimizes a big increase in supply over the last six months.

“Saudi Arabia is the central banker of the oil market and the decision that they will bring more oil to the market is definitely a good one,” Birol said.

“I would like to see the move of Saudi Arabia followed by other oil producers and, more importantly, more investment needs to come in the key countries in the region.” Upon arriving in Vienna for the OPEC meeting, Saudi Oil Minister Ali AlNaimi confirmed on Monday that the kingdom had pumped more than 10 million barrels a day in November, its highest in decades. Saudi Arabia’s output increase was timely, given rising demand, low global oil inventories and poor output from non-OPEC producers, Birol said.

High oil prices led the Paris-based IEA to reduce its forecast of oil demand growth by 40,000 barrels per day (bpd) next year to 1.26 million bpd in its monthly oil report on Tuesday.

One of the main drivers of oil prices this year was the loss of Libyan crude oil production following the uprising against then-leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Oil production was ramping back up at a surprisingly rapid pace, Birol said, and should fully recover to pre-civil war levels by the end of next year. — Reuters

WASHINGTON: The job market is healthier than at any time since the end of the Great Recession. The number of people filing for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest since May 2008, a sign that the waves of corporate layoffs that have defined the past few years are all but over. “This is unexpectedly great news,” said Ian Shepherdson, an economist at High Frequency Economics.

It will take an additional step - robust hiring, not just the end of layoffs - to bring the 8.6 percent unemployment rate down significantly. Experts say that won’t happen until businesses are more confident about customer demand. And the European debt crisis could still cause damage here. But the report on unemployment claims Thursday was the latest to suggest that the economy, two and a half slow years after the official end of the recession, may finally be picking up momentum.

The nation added 100,000 or more jobs every month from July through November, the first five-month streak since 2006. And the economy, which was barely growing when the year started, has picked up speed each quarter. More small businesses plan to hire than at any time in three years, a trade group said this week. And another private-sector survey found more companies are planning to add workers than at any time since 2008. The number of people applying for unemployment benefits came in at 366,000, down from 385,000 the week before. That moves the figure closer to its pre-recession range of roughly 280,000 to 350,000. The last time claims were so low, the nation was six months into the recession but didn’t know it yet.

The unemployment rate was 5.4 percent - a level almost hard to imagine these days. Unemployment has been above 8 percent for almost three years. That spring of 2008, Bear Stearns, an investment house that predated the Depression, had been hobbled by its investment in subprime mortgages and was sold near collapse to JPMorgan Chase for a paltry $10 a share. The worst was yet to come. Lehman Brothers collapsed that September. Credit froze, investors panicked and the stock market

plunged. Businesses began slashing millions of jobs. Unemployment claims peaked at 659,000 in March 2009.

Unemployment claims are a measure of the pace of layoffs, and they have declined steadily for three months. But that’s just part of the picture. Business aren’t hiring with gusto. Unemployment fell 0.4 percentage points last month, but about half the decline was because people gave up looking for work and were no longer counted as unemployed.

“One of the features of this recovery is that hiring is exceptionally weak,” said Jeremy Lawson, senior US economist at BNP Paribas. And weaker-than-usual hiring doesn’t necessarily show up in unemployment claims. Many employers cut staffs to the bone during the recession. If they worry that business will grow weakly next year, they may hold off on layoffs - but not hire, either.

“The hiring numbers will continue to look good but not great,” said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at IHS Global Insight. Besides waiting for demand to come back, companies have other things to worry about. A recession in Europe would hurt US exports, and a collapse in European banks because of the debt cri-

sis there would probably cause a worldwide panic. Another concern: The economy has been here before. In February, unemployment claims fell to 375,000.

Companies added about 200,000 jobs a month for three months. But then oil prices spiked and Europe’s debt problem got worse.

Employers added just 53,000 jobs in May. The decline in unemployment claims comes as Congress wrangles over whether to extend long-term unemployment benefits, which are set to expire at the end of this year. Lawmakers differ over how long benefits should last. The House passed a Republican bill Tuesday that would renew emergency aid but reduce the maximum duration to 79 weeks from 99.

Democrats want to keep the full 99 weeks. The measure is part of broader legislation in the Democratic-led Senate that would also extend a cut in the Social Security tax and put $1,000 to $2,000 in most Americans’ pockets next year. In other economic news Thursday: The prices companies pay for factory and farm goods rose 0.3 percent last month.

The figure was pushed up by higher food and pharmaceutical prices. — AP

NEW YORK: In this photo, people wait to talk with potential employers at a job fair sponsored by National Career Fairs. — AP

business

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Paris property boom to wilt in European turmoil PARIS: The property market in Paris has undergone a dizzying boom in the midst of Europe’s debt crisis, driven by French buyers pouring money into what they saw as goodas-gold investments. Now the same crisis could prick the bubble. Even by the breakneck standards of London and New York, the trend for property in Paris has been remarkable: since fears of a default by Greece hit headlines in mid-2009, prices per square meter are up nearly 40 percent. The world’s major cities have all seen property prices spike, but the Paris boom is in a league of its own. Both in terms of strength and duration, it has outpaced average prices in France and across the euro zone.

Parisian estate agents are reluctant to depart from the bullish script when it comes to predicting where prices will go next-and they have plenty of arguments to back their case. Paris remains the world’s top tourist destination. A global capital in a highly centralized country, it has permanent appeal for French and

foreign buyers alike. Most important to investors, a chronic supply shortage is seen locking in long-term value. The jingoism is palpable. “Still no drop in sight for Paris properties!” a French investment web site trumpeted last week. But even now, with prices holding above 8,300 euros per square metre, alarm bells are ringing and the FNAIM real estate group has warned that prices will drop by at least 5-10 percent in 2012. A key factor pointing to a correction next year is the pressure on French banks, whose ability to write mortgages is squeezed both by the need to raise 7 billion euros in new capital and by higher interest on government debt.

Mortgage rates, which track 10year bonds, have mostly kept steady so far. But a downgrade of France’s AAA debt rating- now seen as inevitable-could change that. “If we lose the AAA, (mortgage) rates will have to rise,” said Mael Bernier, spokeswoman for Empruntis, a loan comparison company. “That will knock a big swathe of borrowers out

of the market.” Lending to home buyers, meanwhile, has fallen steadily even as Paris prices headed skyward, dropping to 158.9 billion euros nationally in October from a high just under 180 billion euros in July, Bank of France data shows. The bank’s head, Christian Noyer, said in November that France was not facing a credit crunch. But that has not stopped prospective buyers from feeling the squeeze.

“You get the impression that banks are recapitalising on the backs of home buyers,” said David Amanou, an estate agent who heads the District-Immo agency in Paris’ swanky eighth district. Bernier, whose firm deals with prospective buyers, said anyone without a long-term contract in a “solid” job-read, in governmentwas no longer eligible for a loan, while lenders no longer offer nomoney-down mortgages and have given up financing buy-to-let deals.

Recession proof? Hardly People with a stake in the Paris

market say prices will “stabilise” but not follow France downward because building restrictions-like Socialist mayor Bertrand Delanoe’s rule that half of new builds must be “social housing”, 20 percent of which are rent-controlled-are locking in a shortage.

An influx of foreign buyers, they add, offsets the economic pain being suffered by the French, from high joblessness to an upcoming recession and three rounds of belt-tightening. But a glance at historical data shows Paris property is not immune to a downturn. In each of three recessions since 1990, property prices fell sharply, slumping 28 percent after a combined recessionand-lending squeeze in 1992 and only recovering in 1997.

The market fared better in a sharp downturn in 2008, slipping 9 percent. But stimulus measures including a hefty tax break for buy-to-let home owners played a part in propping up prices, before it sent them flying upward. — Reuters

Mario Monti wins confidence vote in Italy on austerity Italy intercepts bullets for Monti, Berlusconi ROME: Italy’s lower house of parliament gave the green light to Prime Minister Mario Monti’s austerity package yesterday in a vote of confidence aimed at speeding up implementation of the urgent measures. The plan, intended to balance the budget by 2013 in a bid to reassure skittish markets, is set to be formally approved by the lower house later yesterday, before going on to a vote in the upper house next week. The former eurocrat’s crisis-busting plan, which was adopted by the cabinet on December 4, aims to reduce the deficit by around 20 billion euros ($25 billion) and includes measures worth over 10 bil-

lion euros to boost growth.

Italy “has a message to send to Europe,” Monti said yesterday during a conference in Rome with the heads of the European Bank and the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), ahead of the vote. The lower house voted overwhelming in favour of the package-with the exception of the right-wing Northern League partyformer premier Silvio Berlusconi’s coalition partner-and the centre-left Italy of Values party. The party’s headformer anti-corruption judge Antonio Di Pietro-said the plan was “unjust” and “makes pensioners pay rather than financial lobbies.”

ROME: Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti (left) chats with the head of the Bank of Italy, Ignazio Visco, as he arrives for a conference in honor of the late economist Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa yesterday at the Bank of Italy in Rome. — AFP

Monti, who stepped in after Berlusconi was ousted in November, is under pressure from his European partners to reduce Italy’s huge debt burden but also to kick-start growth to stave off the debt crisis sweeping the eurozone. In reforms to pensionswhich have embittered unions-the threshold at which the index will be frozen in 2012 and 2013 will be raised to 1,400 euros (around three times the minimum pension), rather than the planned 960 euros.

While a tax on first homes which had been abolished by ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi in 2008 will be reintroduced and taxes will increase on all real estate, contributions from lowerincome households and families with children will be weighted so that they shoulder less of the burden. The government will balance the loss by taxing pensions worth over 200,000 euros a year, and raising the tax on capital previously stashed in off-shore accounts and now regularised as part of a tax amnesty under Berlusconi’s rule. The plan also includes incentives for growth: Companies that hire women and young people will be rewarded with a reduction in their social welfare costs and small and medium-sized enterprises will be given loans. Faced with opposition from some political parties over the draconian plan, Monti has insisted it is fair, but that Italians will have to tighten their belts to pull through an “extreme” financial emergency.

Berlusconi and his former ally Umberto Bossi, the head of the League, voiced doubts yesterday over whether Monti would stay out his mandate until 2013. — AFP

ATHENS: In this photo, a blind protester takes part in a rally. Around 2,000 disabled demonstrators attended a rally in central Athens this week to protest sweeping benefit cuts that have affected the disabled. — AP

Greeks fear bankruptcy as govt support slips ATHENS: An overwhelming majority of Greeks say their country is likely to go bankrupt, a poll found yesterday, as support for a new coalition government eroded just over a month after it took office. Over 65 percent of 2,000 people polled nationwide said Greece would ultimately be unable to break free of a national debt crisis despite a tough recovery plan followed under the supervision of the EU and the IMF for nearly two years. In a separate question, 53.8 percent said the country would take over five years to get back on its feet.

And the new government of Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, a former European Central Bank deputy chief who took over on November 11 after a power-sharing deal between three political parties, is past its honeymoon phase with the public. A combined total of 55.1 percent said the Papademos administration-which includes ministers from the socialist, conservative and far-right partieswas “as bad” or “worse” than expected.

A disagreement was opened between the unlikely coalition partners over the duration of the interim government, which is supposed to ratify a eurozone bailout for the country and then hold snap elections. The conservative New Democracy party wants the elections to be held in February but the other parties in government are in favour of giving Papademos more time to put a debt-saving bond rollover with creditors on track. “This is a temporary, transition government to keep the country from going bankrupt,” New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras said in a Thursday speech to the Hellenic-American chamber of commerce. — AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Luxury spending rockets in China’s smaller cities CHENGDU: Flashing bright green contact lenses and fake eyelashes, Li Xingyi struts through a shopping centre in southwest China clutching a Louis Vuitton bag and wearing a red fur coat.

The 25-year-old entrepreneur is one of a growing number of Chinese living outside the booming metropolises of Beijing and Shanghai who can afford to splash out on expensive designer brands and luxury products. “I liked it, I could afford it, so I just bought it,” Li told AFP, pointing to her Louis Vuitton monogram handbag, which she bought in the southwestern city of Chengdu for 17,000 yuan (about $2,600).

China is forecast to be the world’s top buyer of luxury goods such as handbags, watches, shoes and clothes by 2015, and analysts say those living in smaller cities such as Chengdu in Sichuan province are driving the growth. While most of China’s 1.34 billion-strong population live in rural areas, a growing number of people are moving to the cities where many have benefited financially from soaring property prices and rapid economic growth.

The world’s second largest economy had a total of 146 US dollar billionaires this year-up 14 percent from 2010, and second only to the United

States, which has 413, Forbes magazine said in September. Li, who is married and has a son, said she spends about 20,000 yuan a month about a fifth of her monthly income-on luxury brands in a country where the average disposable income for urban dwellers is 1,592 yuan.

“I got to know many brands when I was studying abroad,” Li said, adding that her favourite label Miu Miu of the Italian fashion house Prada had not yet opened in Chengdu-a city better known for its pandas and spicy cuisine than top designers. “The best is what suits me.” Chinese shoppers are

expected to spend $15.6 billion on luxury products this year, up 20 percent from last year, said Shaun Rein, managing director of China Market Research Group in Shanghai.

But only 40 percent of the purchases are made in China. Many shoppers in Beijing and Shanghai prefer to travel to Hong Kong or Europe for their top labels to avoid a mainland sales tax of up to 17 percent, consumption tax of as much as 56 percent as well as hefty import duties. Rein said consumers in second and third-tier cities tended to travel abroad less often and so made their purchases in China. —AFP

Asia shares climb on upbeat US data Fitch downgrades six major global banks

ALLAHABAD: A banker checks an Indian currency note on a forgery detection machine at a bank yesterday. — AP

India holds rates steady MUMBAI: India’s central bank held key interest rates steady as it struggles to foster growth amid high inflation, and took steps to curb currency speculation, lifting the rupee from all-time lows yesterday. The Reserve Bank of India kept the short-term lending rate, or repo rate, at 8.5 percent and the reverse repo rate - the rate it pays to banks for deposits, at 7.5 percent. The bank also kept the cash reserve ratio for commercial lenders unchanged at 6.0 percent. “Downside risks to growth have clearly increased,” the bank said in a statement. “However, it must be emphasized that inflation risks remain high.”

Ambushed by a horde of reporters yesterday, RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao declined to say when the bank would start lowering rates. “I cannot speculate on the timing because I don’t know,” he said. Growth slipped to a two-year low of 6.9 percent in the September quarter and industrial production fell 5.1 percent in October, its first contraction since June 2009. But inflation remains above 9 percent. The bank’s 13 rate hikes since March 2010 have kept it out of step with many other emerging economies, which have started to ease monetary policy as global growth slows. The Reserve Bank noted that Brazil, Indonesia, Israel and Thailand have all cut their policy rates, while China cut reserve requirements. In India, the Reserve Bank has been waging a lonely - and largely ineffective - fight on inflation. New Delhi has failed to back the bank with fiscal consolidation or enact difficult policy changes that could unlock supply-side bottlenecks, pushing down prices and unleashing growth.

India is largely a cash economy, so rate hikes have little direct impact on most consumer demand. They do, however, hit investment, which can curtail supply and make inflation even worse.

“You’ve killed investment,” said Jay Shankar, chief economist at Religare Capital Markets. “Supply responses have weakened significantly. Demand has not weakened. That’s leading to inflation pressures.” He said “virtually nothing” is being done on the fiscal side to contain inflation. He said by restoring excise and customs duties to the levels they were at before the 2008 global financial crisis, India could bring its fiscal deficit down from about 5.7 percent of GDP to 4.7 percent of GDP. The central bank is now under enormous pressure from New Delhi and business leaders, who want a quick, politically expedient fix for flagging growth.

Businesses said they were disappointed yesterday that the bank hadn’t taken more drastic action. —AFP

HONG KONG: Asian markets followed Wall Street and European shares higher yesterday as strong US data on jobs and manufacturing and a successful Spanish bond auction tempered fears over the eurozone. However, traders remained cautious as they awaited a potential credit downgrade of 15 euro member countriesincluding France and Germany-while the IMF warned of a miserable outlook for the global economy. Tokyo gained 0.29 percent, or 24.35 points, to end at 8,401.72 and Sydney was 0.47 percent, or 19.3 points, higher at 4,159.3, while Seoul jumped 1.15 percent, or 20.85 points, to 1,839.96.

Hong Kong rose 1.43 percent, or 258.55 points, to 18,285.39 and Shanghai jumped 2.01 percent, or 43.94 points, to 2,224.84.

Regional markets took a breather after three straight sessions of losses caused by growing concern that last week’s European deal for tighter budgetary rules and closer integration may not do enough to halt the eurozone’s plight. Traders took their cue from the United States and Europe, where some rare positive news boosted sentiment.

Spain-which has been subject to speculation it could buckle under a huge debt mountain-enjoyed a bumper bond sale, raising nearly twice the amount targeted as it snatched the chance to lock in competitive borrowing rates.

The treasury raised 6.0 billion euros ($7.8 billion), far above its 2.5-3.5 billion euro target. The result allowed the eurozone’s fourth-biggest economy to distance itself from Italy, which was forced to pay record high borrowing rates in a bond sale just a day earlier. And in Washington the Labor Department announced new claims for government unemployment benefits fell last week to levels not seen since May 2008, which, coming a week after a big fall in unemployment, raised hopes for the US economy.

Also the Commerce Department said the US trade deficit fell to its lowest level in almost two years, while readings on manufacturing activity in the Philadelphia and New York regions hit six-month highs.

“We had more good news than we’ve had for a long time-the Spanish bond auction

BEIJING: A woman pushes a bicycle across a road yesterday. China’s consumer prices rose at their slowest pace in over a year in November, data showed. — AFP went well and US data was strong,” said IG Markets institutional dealer Chris Weston.

“But we’ve got these potential European sovereign debt ratings looming over the market,” he added, according to Dow Jones Newswires. Standard & Poor’s last week put 15 of the 17 eurozone countries on a downgrade warning citing tightening credit, rising bond yields and deteriorating economic conditions. It said it would make a final decision after the EU summit last Friday, which many said did not do enough to avoid a ratings cut.

On Thursday Fitch downgraded six major global banks, citing increased challenges in their business and the prospect of financial turmoil ahead. Among those that saw cuts were Bank of America and Goldman Sachs in the United States, British bank Barclays, French bank BNP Paribas, German bank Deutsche Bank and Swiss bank Credit Suisse. Investor fears were echoed by International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who warned that the European crisis was escalating and threatened every economy in the world. “The issues that we have in front of us now are not just a concern for the euro-

zone, not just a concern for the European Union, not just a concern for the advanced economies,” she told a forum at the US State Department.

“There is no economy in the world, whether low-income countries, emerging markets, middle-income countries or super-advanced economies, that will be immune to the crisis that we see not only unfolding but escalating.” On Wall Street the Dow rose 0.38 percent, the S&P 500 gained 0.32 percent and the Nasdaq Composite edged up 0.07 percent.

And in Europe yesterday markets extended the previous day’s advances, with London up 0.54 percent, Frankfurt rising 0.59 percent and Paris 0.39 percent higher in early trade while Madrid gained 0.13 percent and Milan added 0.24 percent.

The euro, which bounced back on Thursday after hitting 11-month lows against the dollar, stood at $1.3030 and 101.50 yen in early European trade, compared with $1.3017 and 101.41 yen overnight in New York. The dollar bought 77.89 yen, compared with 77.89 yen in New York. —AFP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Investors fall out of love with hedge funds Investor dissatisfaction higher in 2011: Poll

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan produce traders shout slogans as they block a main road. — AP

Lankan fruit traders protest basket rule COLOMBO: Thousands of produce traders at Sri Lanka’s main market are protesting in the streets demanding that the government withdraw a new rule requiring all vegetables and fruits be transported in plastic baskets instead of sacks.

Business came to a standstill Wednesday at the central market in Colombo, the capital, when the traders started a sit-in protest on a main road. They were protesting a rule that makes compulsory the use of plastic baskets in transporting vegetables and fruits. The government says the move was to stop colossal waste through damage while transporting perishable produce in sacks. But the traders say the rule is not practical because the plastic baskets hold smaller quantities of vegetables and take up too much space in their shops. — AP

Peru central bank not likely to change rates LIMA: Peru’s central bank is unlikely to change interest rates in the coming months as a weak global economy is expected to curb inflation, according to a draft of its quarterly inflation report. Inflation in Peru, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing countries, is running well above target. “The baseline forecast assumes that monetary policy won’t differ substantially from the current position in the short term,” the draft obtained by Reuters on Thursday said. The official report is slated for publication on Friday.

The forecast also said inflation could rise as much as 5 percent this year, well above the 3 percent ceiling of the target range, before slowing to 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent next year.

The central bank has held its benchmark lending rate steady at 4.25 percent for the past seven months as slower global growth tempers inflation expectations. The central bank blames inflation on external price shocks in imported goods rather than hot domestic demand. The government on Thursday reported the economy in October grew at the slowest rate in 21 months, up 5.12 percent from a year ago, due mostly to lower demand for textiles and minerals from the developed world. Despite the October deceleration, the central bank raised its 2011 growth forecast to 6.8 percent from 6.3 percent. The economy will likely grow 5.5 percent in 2012 rather than the previously estimated 5.7 percent, the report said. In recent years, a boom in credit and construction has fueled domestic demand and replaced mining as Peru’s economic engine. The Andean country managed to grow even during the last global recession in 2009.

The bank also said this year’s fiscal surplus would be 2.1 percent of gross domestic product, up from the 1 percent previously estimated. But for next year, the forecast surplus was lowered to 1 percent of GDP from 1.2 percent, according to the report. Finance Minister Luis Miguel Castilla has said Peru’s larger-than-expected fiscal surplus has guaranteed 2011 funding for social programs that President Ollanta Humala promised to implement when he took office in July.

But the country must increase its low tax base to fund them in coming years. Peru’s current account deficit should be 1.5 percent of GDP in 2011, rather than the 2.8 percent gap previously estimated, the bank said. In 2012, it should be a gap of 2.2 percent of GDP rather than a 2.6 percent deficit. The quarterly inflation report said the trade surplus for Peru, a top metal exporter, should be 5 percent of GDP this year and 3.6 percent next year. — Reuters

LONDON: Deep cracks are starting to show in the love affair between hedge funds and their investors, after another year of paltry returns on expensive investments leaves many feeling cheated and close to bailing out. An asset class once feted for its ability to make money in all markets is back under the spotlight after the average fund lost 4.4 percent in the first 11 months of the year, data from Hedge Fund Research shows. That tepid performance comes just three years after hedge funds lost an average 19 percent in 2008’s market chaos, and raises serious questions about the industry’s future growth, particularly in light of the huge fees the managers often earn.

“I’m disappointed at the level of returns,” said one large institutional investor who asked not to be named. “The hedge fund industry has once again been underwhelming people’s expectations.

“It’s an expensive asset class ... They’re going to have another 2001 or 2003 in the next three-to-five years if they expect the industry to grow,” the investor said. Hedge funds, which made money both in 2001’s tumbling markets and 2003’s rally, have been caught out this year by whipsawing markets and high volatility amid the euro zone’s prolonged and deepening debt crisis.

Equity funds-which often rely on fundamental stock analysis-have been particularly hurt, while macro funds, which bet on stocks, bonds, currencies and commodities, have also left some investors disappointed. Star managers have suffered, notably John Paulson, whose main Advantage fund was down 47 percent to the end of November, while Crispin Odey’s European fund is down around 15 percent to end-October, despite big gains in the autumn rally.

“Most hedge funds have a cash benchmark so one really wants to ask-have they been better than cash after fees? My sense is that many have not,” said Patrick Rudden, head of blend strategies at AllianceBernstein. A review of hedge fund performance compiled by HSBC seen by Reuters shows huge variance of more than 80 percentage points across the industry during 2011.

While the Paulson Advantage Plus fund was seen the worst performer this year, the Renaissance Institutional equities fund had advanced 32 percent by Dec 9.

“Hedge fund performance figures this year should be seen in the context of exceptionally challenging circumstances for all market participants,” one industry source said.

Redemptions Despite the humble returns, clients faced with volatile equity markets and meagre returns on cash and government bonds markets aren’t pulling out wholesale from hedge funds because they do not know where to re-allocate to.

However, Man Group and Polar Capital have both recently reported outflows from their funds and data from BarclayHedge and TrimTabs Investment Research on Monday showed investors asked funds to return $9 billion in October, more than three times the amount they pulled in September.

“Obviously investors (across the industry) are not happy with performance ... but many know why (funds have lost money) and they know you’re paid to manage risk,” Fabrice Cuchet, global head of alternative investments at Dexia Asset Management, told Reuters in a recent interview. However, dissatisfaction is certainly growing. Data from research group

Preqin show the proportion of investors who say hedge fund returns have fallen short of their expectations has risen to 40 percent, compared with 28 percent last year and the 38 percent recorded in 2008’s market chaos. “In 2008 people were calling the end of the hedge fund industry, but in retrospect people scratched their heads and said, ‘the equity market is down 40 percent and hedge funds are down 20 percent. Have they done a good job? Yes,’” the large institutional investor said.

“This (year) isn’t that. This isn’t a ‘down 40 percent’ year. It’s a totally different situation,” he said. Guy Saintfiet, senior hedge fund researcher at pensions consultant Aon Hewitt, which has $3.8 trillion in assets under advice, said new and existing clients were still allocating to hedge funds but were far more picky about the funds they backed. “But I think what you have seen is that the average hedge fund out there is probably not a good investment and that is the main lesson, not that the hedge funds our clients are investing in are not doing what they are supposed to be doing,” he said. Nevertheless, one head of hedge funds at a US bank said the overall industry performance has been “unimpressive” since 2007 and a broad shake-up is needed if managers want to hold onto jittery investors chastened by recent volatility. “Not only is this a second down year in four, but the up years have been in line with the market. So you’ve had four years that have been in line or horrific,” the manager said, speaking anonymously to avoid souring business relationships. “In the new paradigm they should be aiming for capital protection.

They should be trying to minimize downcapture and offer a decent amount of up-capture...I do have a genuine worry for the industry,” he said. — Reuters

Indonesia passes land law to speed progress JAKARTA: Indonesia’s parliament yesterday passed a long-anticipated bill allowing the government to seize land for public projects in an attempt to speed up muchneeded infrastructure development. “The land law will be beneficial for the nation as we can now roll out infrastructure smoothly. The law also assures the rights of people who will be affected by development,” lawmaker Daryatmo Mardiyanto said in a statement.

The law will likely appease foreign investors who have been waiting since it was first proposed two years ago. Surveys in recent years have shown that Indonesia’s poor infrastructure is the main deterrent to doing business there. The bill gives the government the right to seize civilian land for projects such as roads, railways, ports, airports and power plants, in exchange for compensation.

It will take effect once it is signed by the president within 30 days. The Indonesian Employers’ Association said that tackling the land acquisition bottleneck would have a ripple effect on other

development projects. “Over the last two years, we have won many tenders and secured around Rp 400 trillion ($44.4 billion) in bank loans for various projects, but

they can’t go ahead until we have the right ports, railways and other infrastructure,” association chairman Sofjan Wanandi told AFP. —AFP

JAKARTA: In this photograph, visitors pose for a picture session with Santa Claus complete with mock reindeers and snowman in winter setting inside an upscale. Some commercial centers are decorated for the Christmas season celebration in the world’s most populous Muslim country. — AFP

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Occupy groups take ‘golden calf’ to US Congress WASHINGTON: Some 30 “Occupy DC” protesters took their anti-corporate demonstration to the corridors of the US Congress, toting a “golden calf” made from papier mache to symbolize lawmakers’ subservience to moneyed interests. The protest, according to group leader Jeremy John, aimed to call attention to “the worship of money” by the US legislature. “Our political process worships money instead of serving the people,” he said. John called on members of Congress “to cease worshiping the false idols of profits over and above the people” and to “withdraw the influence of big money from politics.”

In the Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions, the golden calf symbolizes idolatry. The protesters called on Speaker of the House John Boehner to support taxes on Wall Street trades instead of program cuts for the poor

and elderly. Protesters included members of Catholics United, a Christian activist group. The protesters could not leave their golden calf at an office building for legislators near the Capitol as planned, but instead left a written declaration.

Protesters later donned holiday hats and sang Christmas carols with satirical lyrics outside the US Chamber of Commerce, as it hosted a Christmas party for the Republican National Committee near the White House. “The business interests that dominate this country are not acceptable anymore,” said protester Brian Ward.

The DC group is but one of dozens of “Occupy” groups that have sprung up across the United States to protest corporate excess and economic inequality, inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York City three months ago. — AFP

WASHINGTON: Occupy DC protesters and religious leaders try to deliver a giant “Golden Calf” to Speaker of the House John Boehner at the Longworth office building. — AFP

After the bust, Irish look back to the land Government cites sector as key to recovery

WASHINGTON: Gustavo Carpio shines shoes on Washington, DC’s busy “K” street, outside the Starbucks Coffee store, just across the street from where the Occupy DC protesters have been camping for months in McPherson Square Park. — AFP

In shadow of Occupy DC camp, shoe-shiner shines WASHINGTON: On a sidewalk across from Washington’s main encampment of Occupy Wall Street protesters, who rail ever day against the evils of corporate greed, Peruvian immigrant Gustavo Carpio ekes out a living. Carpio is a shoe-shiner, whose regular clients are the very people the protesters despise the most-the lawyers and lobbyists of K Street, one of Washington’s most influential corridors of power. While he says he appreciates the enthusiasm of the demonstrators, who have lived in Washington’s McPherson Square since October, Carpio says there is another path to making the system work for the 99 percent. “I grew up in Peru, a world they’ve never seen. The USA will be always better than Peru,” Carpio told AFP. Every morning, the 50-something Carpio sets up his stall underneath a large green parasol in front of a Starbucks cafe, with his back to the dozens of tents dotting the square, just a few blocks from the White House. “It’s growing very fast,” Carpio says proudly of his business. In the summer, the long-time US resident can make $150 a day. That number dwindles to $100 dur-

ing the long winter months. Carpio says that in just two years, his clientele has doubled. And with 20 years of experience under his belt, Carpio knows how to drum up new business. He has slowly made a name for himself, in a profession once stereotypically associated with African Americans.

“I arrived in the States in 1973. I had to find a way to make a living,” said Carpio, who is twice divorced and a father of four. After his arrival in the United States, Carpio worked all sorts of odd jobs on the West Coast in the 1980s until he sank into a dark spiral and ended up on the streets. “In the 90s, I was homeless. Alcohol and drugs were my priority. I could not afford a home any more. I got it back together in 2000,” he said. Carpio first learned the shoeshine trade at Washington’s Dulles international airport, about 20 years ago. He says the clientele has not changed much. Bruce Neal is a banker in the K Street corridor who regularly sits in Carpio’s chair, raised up on a platform so the shoe-shiner can work his magic at a rate of $7 for a pair of shoes, and $10 for boots. “For a while, a guy was coming right into my office. —AFP

DUBLIN: After the Celtic Tiger died, Anthony Slattery quit his job as an accountant and bought some cows.

With food and drinks exports rising by close to a billion euros a year and food firms among the best performers on Ireland’s bruised stock market, agriculture beckoned as one of the few sectors to survive a devastating property collapse. “A few years ago people thought you were insane if you went into farming,” said Slattery, 25, who quit a leading international accountancy firm to spend seven days a week milking cows on his farm in the midlands. “Now there’s definitely money to be made.”

The government has climbed on the bandwagon, citing food and agriculture as a route back to growth and the key to extracting some value from the vast land holdings left in state hands after Dublin was forced to take over banks’ risky development loans. Experts warn expectations have become inflated, however, and with incomes in the sector highly dependent on both EU subsidies and international commodity prices, and exports skewed towards struggling European markets, it could yet suffer its own shock.

Construction’s poor cousin Food and agriculture struggled to attract the interest of investors during the Celtic Tiger decade to 2007 as high-tech and pharmaceutical multinationals, and later construction firms and banks, drove GDP growth of up to 7 percent per year. With tens of millions of euros to be made filling fields with duplex apartments, banks had little time for farmers upgrading their milking equipment.

But after the property bubble burst, bringing much of the economy down with it, the food sector was suddenly the safest bet in town.

“Multinational investment was the

sexy thing in the 90s; in the 2000s, it was construction and financial services,” said Jim Power, chief economist at financial firm Friends First. “Now everyone is sitting up and taking notice of the agri-food sector.”

While home-buyers and small businesses found it all but impossible to get credit this summer, leading lender Bank of Ireland boasted it was approving 85 percent of loan applications in agriculture, fishing and forestry. Equities investors are equally enthused, driving food stocks higher and more than doubling the share of the food and drink sector in the Irish market to more than 20 percent, from under 10 percent at the height of the boom, when banks dominated.

Key to recovery In speech after speech, Ireland’s leaders laud the sector as key to the country’s recovery. The point out food and drink exports have played a key role in the balance of payments surplus that has fuelled optimism in recent months that Ireland may be the best-placed of Europe’s peripheral economies to export its way out of debt. Unlike the pharmaceutical and high-tech multinationals that have set up in Ireland to take advantage of tax breaks, who repatriate much of their profits to corporate headquarters abroad, agri-food tends to be produced by indigenous companies, and most of the money stays in Ireland.

“The agri-food sector is worth around 24 billion euros, but about 22 billion of that actually stays in the Irish economy, which is an extraordinary figure,” said Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney. Half of all exports by indigenous companies are in the sector, he said. The government expects agri-business exports to grow to 12 billion by 2020 from 8 billion last

year, with two thirds of the increase from food processing and one-third from commodities. Part of the growth will come from commodity price increasing and phasing out production caps on dairy products, which the industry believes could boost dairy exports by 40 percent, or up to 800 million euros. The government is also encouraging farmers to switch to higher value commodities, to invest to boost productivity and to look at high-value artisanal food products.

But before policymakers get too excited they should remember that even if the strategy succeeds, agriculture would likely amount to no more than 10 percent of annual economic output, up from under 7.5 percent today, economist Jim Power said. An additional 40,000 jobs would mean one in ten would work in the sector, from one in twelve today. “It will be one of the stronger growth areas, but it is not going to result in a GDP bonanza,” said Power. “It’s not going to drive a new Celtic Tiger.” The wider domestic economy must recover if Ireland is going to see the growth rates necessary to make its debt sustainable. Exports have offset domestic weakness, but economists warn a global slowdown may dampen the effect in the coming year.

Tale of two booms The agriculture and food sector is actually experiencing two separate booms-local farmers are enjoying bumper earnings as milk and meat prices soar and a vanguard of Irish food companies are chalking up strong profits in niche global markets. There is some overlap, but the fate of the farmers and the multinationals who have spread their tentacles around the globe over recent decades may be very different. —Reuters

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Bale attacked during trip to China dissident SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

www.kuwaittimes.net

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World’s shortest woman wants to be Bollywood star PAGE 24

Ana Julia Torres kisses Jupiter, a lion who was rescued from a circus 12 years ago, on September 17, 2011, at Villa Lorena shelter, in Cali, Valle del Cauca department, Colombia. Torres, a 52 year-old teacher, founded the Villa Lorena animal shelter 17 years ago, which protects about 600 animals seized from drug traffickers, circuses, animal traffickers or abandoned by their owners. — AFP

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elena Gomez is putting her music career on hold. The 19-year-old star is planning to take a break from pop and concentrate on her acting career for the immediate future. Selena released her third album, ‘When the Sun Goes Down’, in June and enjoyed success with her movie ‘Monte Carlo’ and at the moment the big screen appeals to her more. She told Hollywoodlife.com: “I’m very happy and pleased with how well the record did and I’m so thankful that radio and everybody is still being so supportive. “Next year I’ll be starting to do more acting, I’ll be doing two films in the beginning and then I’ll probably go back to singing. I’ll balance them.” The former ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ star also insisted fame has not affected her life, despite her rapid success and high-profile relationship with Justin Bieber, 17. She added:

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he actress - who will play Miss Moneypenny in new James Bond movie ‘Skyfall’ - attended one of Britain’s most prestigious colleges, Cambridge, but didn’t enjoy her time there because she didn’t fit in. She said: “I really hated it. I imagined staying up all night discussing the meaning of life. Everyone told me I’d meet my future husband there, too. “People used to drink and drink and drink until they threw up all over the college grounds - where’s the fun in that? It was one of the worst periods of my life. The people there were so different to me and I couldn’t connect with them on any level. They talked about Eton and skiing and here was I, this black girl from North London. “I didn’t envy them; I was quite sorry for them. But I just felt so lonely.”

Naomie also revealed she is very health-conscious and likes to look after herself but says she once got very ill when she tried to follow the raw food diet. In an interview with the Daily Mail newspaper, she said: “Yes, I’m obsessed with health, which has been an interesting journey. I went down the raw-food diet route, but got ill. It was really hard, especially in Britain in winter, trying to survive on raw carrots. I became so ill and anemic, so I stopped that and became a vitamin junkie. I just ate lots of vegetables, exercised and breathed.”

“Nothing’s changed for me, I mean, yeah, you get recognized occasionally, but I’m not scared of that.

People assume it’s awful.” Now that the Disney series has come to an end, Selena says she is up for a new challenge but although she acts and sings she doesn’t believe she will ever try her hand at directing. She said: “I don’t have dreams anymore; I just want to do things that are different and challenging and have fun with it.” When asked whether she would try her hand at directing, she laughed: “No!, I will stay in front of the camera!”

ris Humphries has slammed Kim Kardashian’s reality shows as “a total sham”. The professional basketball player - who split from the 31-year-old socialite when she filed for divorce in October after just 72 days of marriage has reportedly told friends the brunette beauty’s shows, which include ‘Keeping Up with the Kardashians’ and ‘Kourtney and Kim Take New York’, are more fictional than they appear. A source told RadarOnline.com: “Kris says that Kim’s reality shows are a total sham. He doesn’t think there is anything real about the shows at all.” The 26-year-old sportsman thinks Kim’s sister Khloe - who is set to move to Dallas after her basketball player husband Lamar Odom was transferred from the Los Angeles Lakers to the Dallas Mavericks - is the only one of her siblings who is genuine. The insider added: “Kris thinks that Khloe is truly the only authentic one among the Kardashian sisters.

“Even though they didn’t get along, at all, he respects that Khloe does what she wants. If Kim and Kris had stayed together, and he had gotten traded to Dallas, like

Lamar did, he knows Kim wouldn’t have moved with him like Khloe is doing.” Kris who is currently without a club after leaving the New Jersey Nets - is thought to have been particularly unconvinced by the reality shows when a pair of Kim’s diamond earrings were “miraculously” found by one of her younger sisters after the model lost them in the ocean during filming. The source said: “Kris was with Kim and her family in Bora Bora, and he playfully threw her in the sea. Kim emerged from the water, freaking out, with cameras rolling, shrieking that she had lost one of her diamond earrings, which are worth $75,000. “Kim was crying hysterically, but then miraculously, one of her younger sisters found the earring in the ocean, where the group had been swimming. It was probably six to eight-feet deep, and Kris commented to Kim how unbelievable it was that the valuable earring was found as the current in the ocean in Bora Bora is very, very strong. Kim just said, ‘I know,’ with very big smile on her face.”

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elly Osbourne feels “untouchably safe” when she holds her dad’s hand. The ‘Fashion Police’ presenter spent the day with her father Ozzy Osbourne and she admits even though she is 27 she still feels comforted when she is with him. In a series of posts on her twitter page, she wrote: “Spending time with my daddy! He is filling me in all his gossip and it’s makes me laugh so hard! “Nothing is more comforting then when my Dadda holds my hand! For some reason it makes me feel untouchably safe. “I am the most grateful/luckiest girl in the world to have the most amazing parents in the world! mum/dad I love you so much! (sic)” Kelly and Ozzy have a famously close father/daughter relationship and previously released a duet together in 2003, ‘Changes’.

Earlier this week, Kelly revealed she cried “tears of joy” when she received her Christmas present from Ozzy and her mother Sharon. She was given a Mark Ryden painting featuring Barbie as a Saint with a little girl praying to the toy doll and she was blown away by the gesture.

Kelly tweeted: “i just got my Christmas gift from my mum and dad & I am in tears of joy I can’t believe what they got me I’m blown away #SPEECHLESS “This is what @MrsSOsbourne & @OfficialOzzy got me I love you both so much I’m so grateful I can’t stop crying! Thank U! (sic)”

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eorge Michael is coming home for Christmas. The ‘Faith’ singer has been receiving treatment for pneumonia at the AKH clinic in Austria, but his previously life threatening condition is improving so much he is likely to be able to return to England in time for the big day on December 25, according to his boyfriend Fadi Fawaz. Fadi, 38, told the Daily Star newspaper: “Christmas at home.

I cannot stop smiling today, the best day ever. He is getting better and better.

Nothing to worry about, happy days.” The singer’s spokesperson added: “He is getting better and better.” George, 48, became seriously ill in November and had to cancel all remaining shows on his ‘Symphonica Tour’ when he was taken to hospital. Fadi has kept a bedside vigil and George’s 75-year-old father Kyriacos

Panayiotou and older sisters Melanie, 49, and Yioda, 53, also flew in to be with him.

A family friend said: “His whole family are with him. They are very close knit all of them. The family are around him. They are such a close family I can’t tell you. They all love each other.” Professors Gottfried Locker and Christoph Zielinski, of the hospital announced in early December that George’s condition was improving and he had been taken out of intensive care.

They said in a joint statement: “The latest development in Mr. Michael’s case, which has evolved from a severe pneumococcal infection, necessitate intensive care due to its severity and extension. “We are happy to announce that Mr Michael is improving.

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Michael is receiving precisely the same treatment as any ordinary patient in Austria would receive at the hospital for this disease.”

he 52-year-old music mogul has decided to “scrap” the festive season and will spend yuletide apart from his fiancee Mezhgan Hussainy and will fly out for his annual vacation to Barbados alone. However, because of the four-hour time difference between the Caribbean and Los Angeles, he will miss the majority of Christmas Day altogether. An insider said: “His relationship with fiancee Mezhgan is at crisis point and Simon has been working flat-out on the American ‘X Factor’. All in all it’s been a pretty stressful year. “So he decided to scrap Christmas and just concentrate on himself. He’ll wake up at about midday and catch a flight at around 2pm, meaning he’ll land in Barbados seven hours later - 1am local time. “Simon and Mezhgan are spending the festivities apart so he may well have a turkey sand-

ussell Brand has signed up to front a new topical late night TV series. The stand-up comic-and-actor has agreed a deal with American cable network FX to present the series on which Russell will give his “unvarnished, unfiltered take on current events, politics and pop culture”. In a statement, FX executive vice-president of original programming Nick Grad said: “We’re very excited to add Russell Brand’s bracingly funny, original, and honest voice to the FX comedy line-up. “We look forward to supporting Russell and his partner Troy Miller’s ambition to strip down the hosted comedy format to its most fundamental elements and to create something daring and unfiltered for the FX audience.” The 36-year-old star - who is married to Katy Perry - claims he is “excited” to the “point of climax” about the project, which will hit screens next spring. Making a joke about Fox News political commentator Bill O’Reilly, Russell exclaimed: “I am so excited I’m on the point of climax. In fact, I will put the ‘O’ into FX, which spells Fox, which is actually the channel’s real name. That’s the only thing that worries me about all this, to be honest. At least I’ll be able to have a Christmas drink with Bill O’Reilly.” Six 30-minute episodes of the series have been commissioned and it will be filmed in front of a live studio audience who will be expected to interact with Russell and participate in the show. It will be produced by FX Productions in association with the ‘Arthur’ star’s Branded Films and Dakota Films.

wich on the plane by himself. It’s not going to be the greatest Christmas Day ever but it’s what Simon wants to do.” Despite shunning Christmas, the US ‘X Factor’ boss will spend Boxing Day with former flame, 80s pop icon Sinitta, and her family enjoying a slap-up meal, before hosting a “lavish” bash on New Year’s Eve . The source added to the Daily Mirror newspaper: “Simon is godparent to Sinitta’s kids and has bought them a sack-load of presents. “He is once again treating all his friends to a trip on his yacht, mooring in either St Barts or Antigua, before hosting a lavish New Year’s Eve knees-up. Simon wants to make 2012 his most successful year so far.” — Bang Showbiz

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

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Indian Jyoti Amge who stands at 62.8 centimeters (2 feet), poses in front of a mirror as she prepares for a press conference.

high school student in central India was recognized as the world’s shortest woman by Guinness World Records yesterday as she turned 18, saying she hopes to earn a degree and make it in Bollywood. Jyoti Amge stood just 62.8 centimeters (24.7 inches) tall - shorter than the average 2year-old when Guinness representatives visiting from London measured her at a ceremony attended by about 30 family and friends in the town of Nagpur, in Maharashtra state.

A teary-eyed Amge, dressed in one of her finest saris, called the honor an “extra birthday present” and said she felt grateful for being small, as it had brought her recognition. After receiving a plaque, she and her guests cut a birthday cake. “I have put Nagpur on the world map. Now everyone will know where it is,” said Amge, who says she dreams of one day becoming a Bollywood film star as well as pursuing a university degree after she finishes high school this year.

“I want to be an actor,” she said. She measured 7 centimeters (2.76 inches) shorter than the 22-year-old American Bridgette Jordan, who had held the title since September. “Jyoti encourages us all to look beyond mere size and to just celebrate our differences,” Guinness adjudi-

Jyoti Amge , 18, poses with her elder sister Vaishali at their residence in Nagpur yesterday. — AP/AFP photos cator Rob Molloy said. This was not Amge’s first Guinness record. Until Friday she was considered the world’s shortest teenager, but in turning 18 qualified for the new title.

She has grown less than 1 centimeter (0.4 inch) in the last two years, Guinness said in a statement, and will grow no more due to a form of dwarfism called

achondroplasia. Her teenage title brought the chance for multiple Guinness-sponsored trips to Japan and Italy for tours and meetings with other record holders, she said. The title of shortest woman in history continues to be held by Pauline Musters, who lived in the Netherlands from 1876 to 1895 and stood 61 centimeters (24 inches) tall. — AP

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Jyoti Amge smiles after getting the title of the shortest woman.

Jyoti Amge poses with family.

Jyoti Amge puts on lipstick while her sister Archna looks on.

Etibar Elchiyev (right) poses with 50 metal spoons stuck to his body during an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for “Most spoons on a human body” in Tbilisi. — AFP

Spanish gold hoard to be auctioned in NY

Photo shows some gold coins from the 37,895 piece Archer M Huntington Collection. (Center) Photo shows a unique example of the Fifty Excelentes coin struck under Spanish King and Queen Ferdinand and Isabella. (Right) Photo shows a Carthaginian 1 1/2 Shekel. — AFP photos

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mountain of 37,895 Spanish coins, many of them solid gold, will be sold as a single lot at auction in New York in March, Sotheby’s auctioneers announced on Thursday. The hoard, assembled at the turn of the 20th century by wealthy American collector Archer Huntington, is

the most important collection of historic Spanish coins outside of Spain, Sotheby’s said.

It is expected to sell for between US$25 million (S$32.7 million) and $35 million. With everything from rare Roman coins to pieces from Spain’s Golden Age of conquest and cultural achieve-

ment in the 15th to 17th centuries, the ‘collection represents something truly remarkable,’ David Redden of Sotheby’s said. “In a very real and tangible way, the nearly 38,000 coins provide a comprehensive view of world history,” he said in a statement. — AFP

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Jazz trumpeter Marsalis to join TV news show

File photo shows musician Wynton Marsalis arrives for the 2007 Future Legends Awards at Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. —AP

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azz musician Wynton Marsalis will join US television network CBS as a cultural correspondent to provide coverage of cultural and educational topics, CBS said on Thursday. Marsalis, 50, a nine-time Grammy award winner, will provide insight on a range of issues for CBS’ weekday morning news show and the network’s “Sunday Morning” segment.

His first appearance in his new role will be on Jan. 16 — the national holiday marking the birthday of civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King Jr. The trumpet player and composer has a long association with CBS and was friends with the network’s late newsman Ed Bradley.

Marsalis said he was looking forward to sharing with viewers “the incredible variety and richness of our national culture-from ballet to the blues, from barbecue to the backbeat.” Marsalis has been the artistic director of jazz at the Lincoln Center in New York since 1987, performed with symphony orchestras around the world, and written a number of books. — Reuters

‘Blanket on the Ground’ singer Spears dies at age 73

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S country singer Billie Jo Spears, who had a number one hit in the mid 1970s with “Blanket on the Ground,” has died aged 73, funeral home officials said Thursday. The husky-voiced songstress, who reports said was suffering from cancer, died at her home in Texas on Wednesday, said a notice on the website of the R S Farmer Funeral Home in Silsbee, Texas. Born Billie Jean Spears, the singer made her first record-”Too Old For Toys, Too Young For Boys”-while still a child.

In 1964 she moved to the music industry center of Nashville, Tennessee and signed with United Artists Records, music website Billboard said. By 1969 Spears had moved to Capitol Records with whom she had the hit “Mr Walker, It’s All Over,” but she returned to United Artists in 1975 — and promptly had a number one with the warmly suggestive title of “(Lay The) Blanket on the Ground.” Later hits included “What I’ve Got In Mind” and “Misty Blue.”

Spears also gained a following abroad, notably in Britain, where she toured regularly after her career had peaked.

A memorial service will be held on January 14, the funeral notice said, adding that she is survived by two sons and a daughter, five grandchildren and 12 greatgrandchildren. “A beautiful lady-tough with an unbelievably kind and giving heart. She reached out to many... Her voice was truly unique and will be missed,” said one message of condolence, posted on the funeral home website.—AFP

File photo shows Oscar-winning actor Christian Bale and his wife Sibi are escorted by Chinese security guards as they arrive for the premiere of the ‘Flowers of War’ in Beijing. — AFP

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scar-winning actor Christian Bale has suffered a nasty brush with Chinese guards who forcibly blocked him and a CNN crew from visiting a blind lawyer-dissident being held under house arrest. Bale, who is in China to promote his upcoming Nanjing Massacre film “The Flowers of War”, was stopped on Thursday on the outskirts of the village in eastern China where the activist Chen Guangcheng is being detained. Bale, describing Chen as a personal “inspiration”, invited a CNN crew to accompany him on an eight-hour drive from Beijing to the village in Linyi district.

The same guards in green military-style overcoats who attacked the CNN crew during a February visit to the village were again present, and aimed punches at Bale and the crew, the network’s video footage showed. “Why can I not visit this free man?” Bale asked repeatedly, as the guards tried to snatch a camera from the star of “The Dark Knight” and “The Fighter” and drag him away.

The Hollywood actor and CNN crew retreated to their van but were then

chased down bumpy roads by the guards in another vehicle for 40 minutes, resulting in damage to the van, CNN reported. “I’m not being brave doing this,” Bale reflected in the van, once they had made their getaway. “The local people who are standing up to the authorities, who are visiting Chen and his family and getting beaten up for it... I want to support what they’re doing,” he said.

Activists organized through the Internet have been flocking to Chen’s village as part of an online campaign to free the self-taught lawyer and rights campaigner, who has been blind since childhood and turned 40 last month. But campaigners say thugs have beaten up many of those who were able to come close to the home of the lawyer, who has been under house arrest since he completed a four-year jail sentence last year. Chen is renowned for revealing forced sterilizations and late-term abortions affecting thousands of women in the eastern province of Shandong as part of measures to enforce China’s population control policy. His cause has been championed in the

West, including in a speech by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last month. Bale said he had been moved by Chen’s story while in China to film “The Flowers of War” about the Nanjing Massacre, when Japanese troops killed tens of thousands of Chinese civilians during 1937-38. The British actor plays an American drifter who becomes the unwitting protector of a group of Chinese schoolgirls and prostitutes trying to escape the Japanese army’s brutal sacking of China’s wartime capital. The parallels of injustice played on his mind and motivated his desire to see Chen, Bale told CNN. “This doesn’t come naturally to me, this is not what I actually enjoy-it isn’t about me,” he said during the long drive from Beijing to the activist’s village. “But this was just a situation that said I can’t look the other way.”

Bale’s longtime publicist Jennifer Allen of the Viewpoint agency in Los Angeles told AFP by telephone, “His going to this village to see this man was a totally personal decision. He’d been following the story and was moved by it and wanted to do whatever he could.”—AFP

Mexican singer Fher Olvera and his band Mana perform during a concert in Asuncion on December 15, 2011, part of their Latin American tour to present their latest album ‘Drama y luz’. — AFP

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Rock solid:

Nile’s ‘Innocent Ones’ strikes a chord

H British band Coldplay singer Chris Martin performs on December 15, 2011 during a concert in Cologne, at the start of their Germany tour. — AFP

Top names tweet for Australia music legend Meldrum

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Molly Meldrum

ylie Minogue, Boy George and Russell Crowe were among the star names tweeting their support yesterday for Australian music industry legend Molly Meldrum, who was fighting for his life after a fall. Meldrum, a popular music critic, journalist, record producer and entrepreneur, has featured on the Australian music scene since the 1960s, nurturing local talent. The 65-year-old was unconscious in a Melbourne hospital after fracturing his skull, which led to bleeding on his brain, and puncturing a lung when he fell off a ladder while putting up Christmas decorations.

“Sending LOTS of love to Molly. Get well soon,” Australian pop diva Kylie Minogue tweeted, while her sister Dannii said: “Thinking of Molly Meldrum tonight.”

British singer Boy George tweeted “Sending my prayers to Molly Meldrum in

Australia!” while Hollywood star Russell Crowe also sent his support, saying: “Sending Ian Meldrum love. Thinking of you mate.”

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard also sent best wishes, saying: “I know Molly well and just want to say I’m thinking of him and wishing him all the best.”

Meldrum, whose real first name is Ian, is friends with many of the top names in the business across the world and has conducted interviews with figures from John Lennon and Mick Jagger to Madonna and Michael Jackson.

The brain surgeon who operated on him overnight said the next 24 hours were critical. “We’re really concerned for his life.

It’s a life and death matter,” neurosurgeon Jeffrey Rosenfeld told reporters, adding that Meldrum was in a “deep coma” with a “severe brain injury”. —AFP

Tintin comes to

America-on screen

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fter Europe, the Middle East and Asia, Tintin-or rather his new onscreen version-is coming to the United States, and the boyish-looking reporter could have more of a challenge in his latest adventure. Steve Spielberg’s 3D film “Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn” has already been released in the traditional heartlands of the comic books by Belgium’s Herge. Tintin is not well known on this side of the Atlantic, but the director reckons he’ll deal with that challenge as easily as he deals with assorted villains in the stories when the film opens here December 21.

“Tintin is just fun, it is just entertainment, it is just a huge ride I wanted to go on and take everybody with me,” Spielberg told a press conference. It’s a film about “about trust and friendship and fidelity to each other.” Actor Jamie Bell, who plays Tintin for the motion capture process, said the youthful hero will be popular with children. “He is a beacon of excellence for children,” he said. “His moral compass is pointing in the right direction.” Spielberg also announced a sequel in New York, saying that “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson would direct the new film and that he had already chosen the Herge book that will serve as the basis for the script.

In the sequel, the comic books’ bumbling Thompson detective twins “have a much bigger role,” Spielberg said. This time, Spielberg will produce and Jackson will direct, swapping their roles in “Unicorn.” “It’s being written right now and he’s directing it after he does ‘The Hobbit’ and I’ll produce it with him as he’s produced this with me,” Spielberg said. The first Tintin film will face strong competition from other movies also timed for the holidays including “Muppets,” “Hugo,” and “Happy Feet 2.” — AFP

Bollywood actress Neha Dhupia attends the premiere of Hindi film ‘Pappu Can’t Dance Saala’ in Mumbai on December 15, 2011. —AFP

e’s a cheerfully non-iconic rocker, with old-school cool oozing from every pore. Over three decades of musical exploits, Willie Nile has earned a global cult following, including marquee-name admirers like Bono, Lou Reed, and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band.

“I’m a longtime friend and fan of Willie,” Springsteen sidekick Nils Lofgren tells the AP. “The last couple of E Street Band tours, Bruce has brought him onstage with us and had him sing and play. ... He’s great at it.”

The “musician’s musician,” who’s repeatedly risen phoenix-like from personal and professional challenges, is back - and doing some of his best work. Nile is enjoying enthusiastic audiences worldwide and rave reviews for his party-hearty yet socially conscious new album, “The Innocent Ones.” “It’s the best; it’s the best!” Nile says, marveling over his hardwon creative success. “It’s the kind of thing that you dream about as a kid.”

Dedicated to the struggling, downtrodden and forgotten everywhere, the album and its “One Guitar” a dance-inducing, getsunder-your-skin track anchoring a charity effort that includes Graham Parker - advocates enjoying life while making a difference. Don’t be fooled by the lip that curls into the perfect flash of punk sneer; the hair that evokes fullblown Chia Pet; the onstage energy-bursts rivaling a File Photo shows Willie Jack Russell Terrier.

Nile is a bonafide rock Nile performs at the philosopher. In fact, he has ‘Light of Day’ benefit a university philosophy concert at the degree. He also was real- Paramount Theater in life-schooled in Greenwich Asbury Park, NJ. — AP Village’s famously fertile music heyday. Not surprisingly, his body of work references Plato, Sartre, and some very weighty matters: terrorism, death, ecological disaster - all with a “celebrate life” underpinning. “I’ve seen breaks out on the levee, in a world so far beyond strange,” he sings in the hopeful “Give Me Tomorrow.” ... “I’ve seen hunger in the garden. I’ve seen empty eyes, full of pain. ... But I have seen things change.” His story includes some rock history moments. In December 1980, Nile and John Lennon were recording in adjacent studios.

Lennon ran out of guitar strings, so Nile had someone take his extras to his famous neighbor. “I was going to put a note to John - ‘Thanks for all the music. I love you.

Willie,’” recalled Nile. “Then I thought, ah, too corny. I’ll tell him when I see him in person” in a couple of days. “The last thing he played was my guitar strings,” says Nile.

Years later, Nile’s Beatle worship came full circle in a much happier way. On a tour with Ringo Starr, “He comes walkin’ right over and he gives me a big hug. I thought, ‘Beatle sweat! I’m covered with Beatle sweat!’ It was a glorious moment,” Nile says with a chuckle. In the early days, he was wedged into the New Dylan pigeonhole that chafed Springsteen. Nile still occasionally employs the half-spoken, freight-train-in-the-distance vocals and folkstrident themes that evoke early Dylan. That connection intensified a generation later when Bob Dylan’s son, Jakob, appeared on a Nile album.

Recent critics have labeled Nile’s work folk-punk; rootsrock; singer-songwriter; power-pop; classic rock; alternative rock, Pete Seeger channeled through Joey Ramone. He uses the term “New Classic,” denoting a “timeless quality.” But his personal favorite is “one-man Clash.” Nile now has his own record company. He’s had contracts with two major labels. Weary of “hustlers” and gripped with legal woes, he says he walked away from the business twice. —AP

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Josephine’s humble beginnings on Martinique

This undated photo shows Anse Couleuvre beach in Martinique. (Inset) This undated photo shows a balisier flower at the Balata Garden in Martinique. — AP Photos

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ven now, Paris feels a world away from this tropical paradise. How much farther the immense capital must have seemed to Marie-Josephe-Rose Tascher de la Pagerie, a teenager on a remote sugar plantation with an improbable future. “You will be queen,” a fortune-teller told her, according to the local legend. Indeed, she would leave this southeast Caribbean island and rise through French society through the last days of its monarchy, the French Revolution and Reign of Terror to marry Napoleon Bonaparte, who would crown her Empress Josephine.

If she returned to Martinique today, she would find a sophisticated French-influenced culture enhanced by the flavors and rhythms of the non-Europeans who have lived here for centuries. They make up most of the population of this chic yet laidback island, which dips into the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Caribbean Sea on the other. Josephine’s humble beginnings on Martinique are explored here in a museum, the Domaine de la Pagerie, just outside the resort village of Les Trois-Ilets, named for three little islands just off shore.

When Josephine lived here in the mid-18th century, Martinique was a French colony. Her family owned more than 200 slaves on their plantation south of the capital, now called Fort-de-France, and the

songs sung by these slaves and their descendants in Martinique’s sugar cane fields are now performed by professional musicians and dancers wearing bright Madras plaids in luxury hotels. Just the foundation of their “great house” remains, a modest stone square set in a green field of grass under the gaze of a white stone bust of Josephine. The original house, set atop a small hill with a view of its fields in the valley below, was blown down in a hurricane when Josephine was not much more than a toddler. Financial problems kept her parents from rebuilding, so the family moved into the upper quarters of the property’s sugar factory.

The foundation that remains supported a wooden house built after Josephine left for France in 1779. The stone factory walls remain standing in the shade of leafy palms. Another circular building has been restored as an openair pavilion, where a handful of massive rusted cylinders and gears rest, long past use as parts in the sugargrinding machines. The kitchen, also a separate building, has been restored as a small museum containing Josephine’s tiny, canopied bed, portraits, porcelain gifts bearing Napoleon’s and her faces when they were the toast of Europe, and a copy of her letter of marriage to Napoleon, along with other historical documents. There are also rust-

This undated photo shows La Pagerie Museum in Martinique.

ed chains that once shackled slaves, resting at the bottom of a glass case. The legacy of slavery still tarnishes Josephine’s reputation in Martinique. Many still blame her for Napoleon’s reinstitution of slavery when France regained control of its colonies from the British, even though it’s unclear whether

book-filled office has been preserved in the capital’s main theater, a landmark building that also bears his name. Martinique is a department of France. French is the official language and the euro is the official currency. Locals drive Renaults and Citroens on twisty mountain roads and shop for the latest European

more daring view of the lush tropical foliage. Farther north along Martinique’s Caribbean side are the black sand beaches around the small town of Saint-Pierre, built around the ruins left by a volcano that smoked through Josephine’s lifetime and finally erupted in 1902. Off the island’s Atlantic coast are the “baths of Josephine,” shallow turquoise waters where the young, would-be empress swam, according to local legend.

If you go

This undated photo shows La Pagerie Museum in Martinique.

Josephine influenced that decision.

It certainly would have benefited her family, members of the island’s wealthy elite who have considerable land holdings to this day.

Perhaps this is why Josephine’s face and name are absent from most of the island’s narrow streets, colorful buildings and even the Pagerie’s gift shop, which mostly features postcards of island scenes. And there’s nothing subtle about the condition of the statue of Josephine in the main square in Fort-deFrance, where the intimidating stone fort still looms over cruise ships and ferries in the harbor.

The white stone figure is regal in a flowing, low-cut gown, but it was vandalized years ago - beheaded, red paint splattered down the white dress and Josephine’s name struck from the pedestal. The most prominent faces instead in Fort-de-France are two late intellectuals, Aime Cesaire and Edouard Glissant, whose writings explore black identity in a French-speaking country.

Banners celebrating their works hang in the sleek, modern airport named for Cesaire in 2009. Cesaire’s

fashions in boutiques. But its cuisineFrench staples spiced with curry, fresh seafood, tropical fruits-is flavored by what’s grown locally along with the mix of African and Indian dishes brought to the island over the centuries. The covered market in the heart of Fort-de-France has packs of spices and vials of vanilla for sale and Madras plaid tablecloths for those who want to try the cuisine at home. A meal is complete with a tumbler of ti punch, sugarcane syrup and lime.

Even as empress, Josephine longed for her childhood Caribbean home. She tried recreating Martinique’s tropical splendor at her home near Paris, Malmaison, a refuge famous for its gardens and greenhouse. Visitors to Martinique can experience a similar retreat at the Jardin de Balata, a botanical garden perched in the hills above Fortde-France. A paved walkway winds its way through bromeliads, orchids, palms, flowering trees and a cluster of the Balisier flower, the flower of Martinique, a red blossom that looks something like a Bird of Paradise. A rope suspension bridge offers a

Martinique: http://www.martinique.org Getting there: Air France flies to Fort-de-France from Miami.

American Airlines flies to Fortde-France through San Juan, Puerto Rico. Flights can be pricier to Martinique than to some of the other islands frequented

by Americans.

Travel tips: Think of Martinique as Tropical France: You’ll be spending euros, and speaking French is widely expected on an island still off most Americans’ radar. Nightlife varies from Miami Beach-style restaurants and bars to the local hang-outs . A car is helpful for journeys to rum distilleries or other attractions, unless you arrange a tour; boat tours are another way to see both coastlines. There is a Club Med, but all-inclusive resorts don’t divide the beachfronts as they do in other Caribbean locations; in fact, all beaches in Martinique are public.

Les Trois-Ilets: The village is about a half-hour ferry ride (6 euros) from the capital, Fortde-France. You can also drive into the village along the Bay of Fort-de-France coastline.

Domaine de La Pagerie: http://www.napoleon.org/en/m agazine/museums/files/Domain e_Pagerie.asp . A roughly 15minute drive from the center of Les Trois-Ilets. Open TuesdayFriday, 9 am-1 pm and 2 pm5:30 pm; weekends, 9:30 am12:30 pm and 3 pm-5 pm. —AP

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Photo shows Mae Kham Paan after she was washed by volunteers during bath time in Chiang Mai province, Thailand. — AP photos

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uests volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park don’t have phone service or television, and Internet access is limited to a single area. But what they get instead of TV is ele-vision, all day long. They can see elephants eating, playing in the mud, bathing and even floating in a river. They can watch large family groups and their ever-shifting relationships, which one observer compared to a soap opera. And while first impressions might suggest there is nothing subtle about a six-ton animal, by the end of a stay at the Elephant Nature Park, most guests come to realize there’s a lot about elephants that’s easy to miss.

Mae Boon Ma during feeding time.

There’s the rubbery rasp as they exhale through the trunk, the leathery skin and sharp bristly hair, the pink-orange patch between the eyes, and the freckles that run down the trunk and across the lower part of the ears. I learned all of this during a week of observing and helping out at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai province, northern Thailand. The park is home to 36 elephants, most of them rescued from handlers who had them begging for food in the streets or hauling timber, carrying tourists on treks, or doing tricks in “elephant shows.” The elephant is Thailand’s national symbol, but tame elephants are considered livestock.

Most of the park’s elephants endured brutal training and decades of work, and some are now disabled. A few have been crippled by land mines. The Elephant Nature Park offers sanctuary and a calmer life, and its founders are hoping to show Thailand that there is another way to treat elephants. They

Photo shows an elephant family group.

believe that tourists will come to Thailand to see elephants in a more natural setting.

The elephants include family groups surrounding the park’s babies, Chang Yim and Faa Mai, rambunctious bull Hope, and duos like Jokia and Mae Perm. Jokia is blind, and Mae Perm has become her “seeing-eye elephant.” The elephants have deep and complex bonds, but there are often conflicts and jealousies. The elephants also have personality to match their size, and their trunks give them an almost endless variety of facial expressions.

“I had watched a documentary which spoke about an elephant park where you could volunteer and work with the elephants,” said Sim Marsh, who works at a financial planning firm in Melbourne, Australia. Marsh says volunteering at an elephant park was on her “bucket list.”

The park is home to more than just elephants. It’s become an animal preserve of its own, hosting around 20 head of cattle and water buffalo, a few horses, one moon bear, chickens, dozens of cats, and about 80 dogs.

The dogs often make more noise than the elephants.

Some areas of Thailand, including Bangkok and parts of Chiang Mai, were flooded earlier this year, but the park noted on its website that it was unaffected by the floods in part because its “strong river wall” protected it from the waters. According to the latest US State Department travel alert, floodwaters have generally receded around the country and the situation in damaged areas is improving.

The Elephant Nature Park offers a series of packages starting with day trips costing about $80 per person, while a week’s stay as a volunteer costs under $400 per person, including food and a place to sleep. The newer rooms are spacious and the park is building new rooms quickly. There isn’t all that much privacy and the accommodations are pretty Spartan - there’s no hot water and the staff warns that the power sometimes cuts out, taking the water down with it - but the food is delicious. The flavors are more complex than the typical restaurant Thai food in New York; I know I’ll be spending a lot of time trying to get replicate the fried rice with cinnamon.

Volunteers spend three or four hours a day working at the park, with about two hours of work in the morning and another one or two

in the afternoon. They mash up bananas and clean fruit in the elephant kitchen, plant trees and sugar cane, build fences, and clean the elephant shelters. Yes, that means we paid them to let us shovel elephant dung. It doesn’t smell, but there are 36 elephants, so there was a lot of dung to shovel and pitchfork away.

The work can be grueling; Thailand’s climate is humid and temperatures at the park reach the 80s. Casual tourists and elephant fans might find a full week’s stay to be intense, but it’s worth the work to see and interact with elephants in a way you won’t get if you’re just riding them or watching them perform.

The days are paced well, and the rewards are remarkable. After work in the morning, the elephants crowd up to the main building and volunteers feed them bunches of bananas and sliced watermelon and mango. After lunch, the elephants bathe at the river. (They can bathe themselves, of course, but they’re happy to let the volunteers throw buckets of water on them in return for treats from their handlers, or mahouts, who always accompany them.) Later in the afternoons, the park offers work sessions alternating with trips to a local school, shadowing the park’s veterinarians, and film screenings and talks.

At night, the valley comes alive with the chirping of crickets and the twisting croak of frogs. The fog pours in from over the mountains and shrouds the park as the volunteers relax from their hard work. But thinking about one’s experiences here at the end of a long day is very different from reflecting on the typical vacation. After all, we were not just tourists. We were visitors in the land of the elephants.—AP

Mae Bua Kham after the elephant was bathed by park volunteers.

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lephant nature park: Located 37 miles or 60 kilometers from the city of Chiang Mai, Thailand; http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/. Visits can range from a day trip ($80 or 2500 baht) to an overnight ($185 or 5,800 baht) to three nights, a week or two weeks ($385 a week or 12,000 baht). Discounts for children under 12. Stays include simple hut accommodations and meals.

Visitors can travel by train or plane from Bangkok to Chiang Mai; the park provides transportation from the city of Chiang Mai to the preserve and offers a package that covers train travel from Bangkok.

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technology

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

RIM chiefs slash pay as stock slides SAN FRANCISCO: The two chiefs of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion on Thursday slashed their annual pay to a dollar each as the company’s stock price sank under the weight of gloomy earnings figures. “The last few quarters have been some of the most trying in the recent history of this company,” RIM co-chief Jim Balsillie said while discussing the most recent quarterly earnings on a conference call with analysts. “We recognize our shareholders may feel we’ve fallen short.”

Balsillie and fellow RIM chief Mike Lazaridis said they arranged to have their pay slashed to one dollar each per year as they overhaul the company to better compete in the booming smartphone and tablet computer markets.

The executives depicted themselves as being among RIM’s largest stockholders and vowed to “leave no stone unturned” in evaluating what needs to be changed at the company. The Canada-based firm reported a profit of $265 million, or 51 cents per share, on revenue of $5.2 billion as compared with a net income of $911 million in the same quarter last year.

RIM profit in the quarter ended November 26 missed Wall Street forecasts and the stock price dropped more than seven percent to $14.06 in after-hours trading following the release of the figures. RIM said it had yet to finalize its outlook for the current fiscal quarter but preliminary estimates indicated that device shipments would slide and that it would not meet its original forecast of earning $5.20-6.00 per share.

A costly BlackBerry service outage and deep discounting of the price of its PlayBook tablet computer were cited as factors in RIM’s disappointing financial performance. Sales of the PlayBook have been sluggish since the device hit stores in midApril with a $499 price tag for the 16-gigabyte model, $599 for the 32GB version and $699 for the 64GB model. Major US retailers Best Buy, Staples and Office Max slashed PlayBook prices to $299, $399 and $499 in September but the device has failed to make inroads in a market dominated by Apple’s iPad. RIM said it sold 150,000 PlayBook tablets in the third quarter and 14.1 million BlackBerry smartphones. RIM earnings were also hurt by delays in getting new products to market. Lazaridis said that release of a new BlackBerry 10 smartphone was postponed into next year to wait for availability of more powerful, energy-efficient chips to power handsets. BlackBerry sales have been declining in the United States where the market rewards highperformance smartphones such as the iPhone and Android-powered devices.

BlackBerry sales outside the country grew in the recently ended quarter. RIM planned major marketing and promotion campaigns for BlackBerry in the United States. RIM “remained committed” to PlayBooks, with improved operating software for the tablet computers on track for a delayed release in February. PlayBook OS 2.0 is seen as a chance to improve the PlayBook’s appeal in the eyes of businesses devoted to the company’s smartphones but increasingly tempted by hot Apple or Android mobile gadgets.

RIM reported that it has 75 million subscribers in its growing base of BlackBerry users. Ramped up marketing, product releases, and internal changes at RIM would hurt earnings in the short term while making the company more profitable in the long run, according to the chiefs. — AFP

Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus a sweet smartphone: Review SAN FRANCISCO: As fans of Google’s Android mobile software well know, each new version is named after a sugary treat, such as Gingerbread or Honeycomb. Android is about to get even sweeter with Ice Cream Sandwich - a smooth, feature-rich operating system that will run first on the delectable Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphone. The combination of Google’s software and Samsung’s hardware makes the Galaxy Nexus one of the best candidates to compete with Apple’s latest iPhone, though its price is steep. It will be available Thursday in the US for $300 with a two-year Verizon Wireless contract.

ounces, slightly less than Apple’s offering. On it, videos and Web pages looked crisp and bright, with rich colors. I started watching a video during testing - an HD copy of “The Help” that I rented from Google’s Android Market - and had to force myself to break away to test other features of the device.

With the latest version of Android under the hood, the Galaxy Nexus is packed with new and improved features. Many of them are great; others are simply great in theory. Overall, the software looks fresher and less cluttered. The virtual “buttons” that usually sit at the bottom of the screen have been redesigned. There’s

SAN FRANCISCO: An Associated Press reporter demonstrates the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone, which runs the newest version of Google’s Android mobile software, Ice Cream Sandwich, during a product review in San Francisco. — AP Like the previous phone in the Nexus line, the Nexus S, the Galaxy Nexus was jointly developed by Google Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co It features a slim frame with a large, curved glass screen that’s comfortable for chatting with friends and excellent for watching videos. There are 32 gigabytes of built-in storage space on the Verizon version of the phone, but no external slot for a microSD memory card.

The screen, a pocket-busting 4.65 inches at the diagonal, makes the iPhone’s 3.5-inches look diminutive.

And despite the size, the Galaxy Nexus manages to weigh just 4.8

still a “home” and a “back” button, but no “menu” button to pull up various options within an app. Instead, there’s now a “recent apps” button that shows what you’ve been doing lately on the phone.

Another neat change: The buttons are completely virtual, so they change directions when you flip the phone sideways and disappear when you’re viewing photos or videos.

Other changes to Android include an overhaul of its virtual keyboard, meant to make it easier to type without messing up - something I’ve always had trouble with on the stock Android keyboard. I was often able to

type more accurately than in the past, but sometimes still ended up with unintended words in my messages.

The Android browser and Gmail are updated, too. Gmail’s new functions include the ability to search emails while offline, while the browser is zippier and has a “request desktop” option so you can check out webpages in their non-truncated desktop version. One new feature that falls into the “great in theory” category is Face Unlock, which uses facial-recognition technology to unlock the phone from standby mode. To set it up, you take a picture of your face with the phone. Then, all you have to do to unlock the phone is stare at the screen after you press the power button.

Most of the time it didn’t work, though, probably because the phone couldn’t recognize my face from certain angles. I was also able to fool it by holding up a shot of my face on an iPhone. So much for security. Ice Cream Sandwich also has Android Beam, which lets you share such content as a Web page, map or video between two Android phones by bringing the backs of the phones close together. It only works with phones that have this Android software and near-field communication technology, though, so unless you and your friend both buy the Galaxy Nexus you’ll be out of luck at launch.

More immediately useful was the phone’s 5-megapixel camera, which is the snappiest I’ve seen on any Android phone. There was almost no shutter lag between shots, even when I had just turned the camera on. Still, I would have preferred a higher-resolution sensor - 8megapixel cameras are quickly becoming common on smartphones.

In addition, photos I took could have been brighter, though this can be improved on somewhat by using some of the available editing options, including numerous color filters and adjustable contrast options.

Like the iPhone 4S and some other high-end smartphones, the Galaxy Nexus can record high-definition videos in 1080p - the best resolution you can get on a consumer camera. I had some fun taking sunset videos with a time-lapse feature, and there are some goofy filming effects to play around with, too. And yes, you can make calls on the Galaxy Nexus. Its thin body and curved screen make it comfortable to hold against your ear, and calls generally sounded good.

Sadly, high-speed networks guzzle battery power like a milkshake, so I wasn’t able to spend a ton of time using the device on a single battery charge. The phone Google loaned me to test was a version that works with AT&T or T-Mobile, so I couldn’t test its speed or battery life with the carrier actually selling it in the US, Verizon, or with its high-speed 4G network. — AP

technology

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

MPAA anti-piracy legislation point-man blames Google LOS ANGELES: The fierce debate over anti-piracy legislation currently rocking Capitol Hill is pitting Hollywood against Silicon Valley, and has left some wondering if the latest effort to crack down on illegal downloads will be shot down over free speech concerns. In the wake of scathing series of attacks that have portrayed the new legislation in Orwellian terms, Michael O’Leary, who has played point man for the Motion Picture Assn. of America in the battle over the latest piracy bill, said that the act has been misrepresented as “draconian” by its opponents.

He lays the blame squarely at the feet of Google and other tech giants.

“What’s frustrating about Google is that they have never come forward with any kind of constructive alternative,” O’Leary, whose title at the MPAA reads senior executive vice president for global policy and external affairs, said. “It’s been more delay

and distraction, and it’s clear they want to preserve the status quo and obstruct this process.” Entitled the Stop Online Piracy Act, the legislation is headed for a House Judicial Committee vote this week. The bill, in tandem with its Senate sister, the Protect IP Act, grants the Justice Department the authority to block offshore “rogue” websites that engage in the illicit sale of pirated products.

“This is important for one fundamental and simple reason- it’s about protecting the film and TV production industry and the thousands of jobs it creates across the country from the very real threat posed by foreign websites that park themselves overseas and steal our content,” O’Leary said. In an open letter to Congress, the co-founders of such tech titans as Twitter, Yahoo, PayPal and Google say that act is too far reaching and gives the government the power to censor digital content

“...using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran.”

Though the entertainment industry has been clashing publicly with internet companies in committee hearing rooms and on newspaper opinion pages, O’Leary stress that the show business community is not anti-technology. “It’s absolutely false,” O’Leary said. “Look at the people who work on projects like ‘Avatar’ or ‘Benjamin Button.’ Our industry is innovative every single day. It’s a misperception that this is a battle between content and technology.

The truth is that these two communities should be working together to make each other stronger.”

That may be the case, but the fact remains that the tech companies are pushing for an alternate bill put forward last week by Rep. Darrell Issa (RCalif.) and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) that charges the International Trade Commission, and not the Justice Department, with policing online

copyright violations. The MPAA maintains, however, that the act does not go far enough. Although Issa, for one, has warned that the legislation pushed by the MPAA will not pass Congress as it’s currently written, O’Leary expressed optimism that the bill will become law.

“All this controversy is just an attempt to draw attention away from the bill and to turn it into a complex and lengthy bureaucratic process that will take 12 to 18 months, while thieves keep on stealing our products,” O’Leary said. One charge, which O’Leary vehemently denies, is that the anti-piracy legislation imperils freedom of speech.

“This is an industry that owes its livelihood to the First Amendment,” O’Leary said. “This bill allows for due process and includes a neutral magistrate, so it is nothing akin to censorship. To paint us as advocating a Chinese-like system is just offensive.”— (TheWrap.com)

Beijing tightens controls over popular microblogs Rules may be rolled out nationally TOKYO: Japan’s electronics giant Toshiba president Norio Sasaki speaks before press in Tokyo yesterday.

Toshiba has been selected as lead contractor for a smart community demonstration project in Lyon, France’s second largest city beginning January 2012 till the end of March 2016. — AFP

Qantas trials inflight Internet access SYDNEY: Australian flag carrier Qantas said yesterday customers will be able to access the Internet inflight on certain services from February using their personal electronic devices. Airline chief Alan Joyce said the pilot scheme would start on six of its A380s on transPacific flights linking Sydney and Melbourne to Los Angeles.

“From February next year our customers travelling between Australia and Los Angeles will have the opportunity to participate in our inflight connectivity trial and communicate online from 35,000 feet,” he said. “Our customers will be able to access the Internet via their WiFi enabled personal electronic devices, such as iPhones, iPads and BlackBerrys, on Qantas for the first time.”Qantas said it was aware of Lufthansa and Emirates mounting similar trials. Passengers-initially only in first and business class-will be able to use the Internet in the same way as a terrestrial Wi-Fi hotspot in which customers pay with their credit card.

It follows the airline earlier this year saying it will deliver over 200 hours of inflight entertainment options to passengers via iPads provided in the seats of dedicated Boeing 767-300 aircraft.

Customers on those flights will also be able to watch in-flight entertainment on their laptop computer, smartphone, tablet or other WiFi enabled devices, in what it claims is a world first. Qantas is working to repair damage to its brand after grounding its entire fleet in October during a bruising industrial dispute with unions over wages and conditions. —AFP

BEIJING: The Beijing city government said yesterday it would tighten control over popular microblogs that have vexed authorities with their rapid dissemination of news, giving users three months to register with their real names or face legal consequences.

China has repeatedly criticized microblogs for irresponsibly spreading what it calls unfounded rumors and vulgarities and has issued a series of warnings in recent months that online content must be acceptable to the ruling Communist Party.

Microblogs such as Sina’s Weibo allow users to issue short messages of opinion-a maximum of 140 Chinese characters-that can course through chains of followers who receive messages instantly. Censors have a hard time monitoring the tens of millions of messages sent every day and users have become expert at using clever, nuanced language to discuss sensitive topics such as human rights and the foibles of the top leadership. Now, in rules unveiled by the Chinese capital’s government and carried by state media, individual and company users must register with their real identification information.

Users have three months to register with “responsible departments for Internet content” or will face legal consequences, state media cited the rules as saying. However, people will be able to choose their own user names, staterun Xinhua news agency cited an unidentified government spokesman with the Beijing Internet Information Office as saying. Hong Kong media said the cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou were likely to follow suit. “The new rules are aimed at protecting Web

users’ interests and improving credibility on the Web,” the government spokesman told Xinhua. “Not only will this not affect the development of microblogs, it will help such sites build their brands and improve their service.”

China has more than 300 million registered microbloggers, although many people have more than one account. Wang Junxiu, an Internet commentator and investor in Beijing, said the new policy would be difficult to implement, but nonetheless would have a chilling effect. “I don’t know how they’re going to implement this because there are already hundreds of millions of users on microblogs,” said Wang, who studies microblog developments. “How do you go about checking them one by one? It will be very hard to enforce, but it still means that the intensity of controls will grow. “I’d

guess that the way it will work out is that, as operators encounter problems and complaints, they’ll use this regulation to simply shut down users. It will be an excuse to shut down problem users,” Wang said. Wang said the policy was likely to spread nationwide.

“Beijing has set an example that other areas will follow. They don’t want to be seen as falling behind in regulation.”

China already blocks foreign social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, fearing the uncensored sharing of images and information could cause social instability and harm national security.

Chinese microbloggers were quick to share their dismay at the new rules.

“This is a covert way of monitoring what people say and to control public opinion!” complained a user with the screen name of “huitailang.” — Reuters

BEIJING: A woman looks at a computer in a coffee shop in Beijing yesterday. Beijing city authorities issued new rules requiring microbloggers to register their real names before posting online, as the Chinese government tightens its grip on the Internet. —AFP

TV listings

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Of Flapjack 19:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 20:15 Adventure Time 20:40 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 21:05 Chowder 21:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 21:55 Cow & Chicken 22:20 Best Ed 22:45 I Am Weasel 23:00 Ben 10 23:25 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 23:50 The Secret Saturdays

00:50 I Was Bitten 01:45 Animal Cops Phoenix 02:40 Monster Bug Wars 03:35 Whale Wars 04:30 I Was Bitten 05:25 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 06:20 Animal Cops Phoenix 07:10 New Breed Vets With Steve Irwin 08:00 Monkey Life 08:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 09:15 Breed All About It 09:40 Talk To The Animals 10:10 Animal Planet’s Most Outrageous 11:05 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 11:30 Monkey Life 12:00 Crocodile Hunter 12:55 Bondi Vet 13:20 Bondi Vet 13:50 Speed Of Life 14:45 Animal Kingdom 15:10 Animal Kingdom 15:40 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 16:35 Queens Of The Savannah 17:30 Wildest Africa 18:25 Zebras On The Move 19:20 Cheetah Kingdom 19:45 Cheetah Kingdom 20:15 Karina: Wild On Safari 20:40 Karina: Wild On Safari 21:10 Dogs 101: Specials 22:05 Ultimate Air Jaws 23:00 Jaws Comes Home 23:55 Killer Sharks

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

After You’ve Gone Beautiful People Lab Rats The Weakest Link Married, Single, Other Doctor Who My Family 3rd & Bird The Large Family Boogie Beebies Poetry Pie Tweenies Balamory 3rd & Bird The Large Family Boogie Beebies Poetry Pie Tweenies Charlie and Lola Balamory 3rd & Bird The Large Family Boogie Beebies Poetry Pie Tweenies Charlie and Lola Balamory 3rd & Bird The Large Family Boogie Beebies Poetry Pie Poetry Pie Tweenies Charlie and Lola Balamory My Family My Family Ray Mears’ Wild Foods Doctor Who EastEnders EastEnders After You’ve Gone The Weakest Link Ray Mears’ Wild Foods Doctor Who The Weakest Link After You’ve Gone Holby City Holby City Doctor Who As Time Goes By Last Of The Summer Wine Gavin & Stacey One Foot In The Grave

00:25 00:50 01:40 02:30 03:20 03:50 04:15 05:05 05:55

The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook Gok’s Fashion Fix What Not To Wear What Not To Wear The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook Gok’s Fashion Fix Gok’s Fashion Fix What Not To Wear

THE WARLORDS ON OSN ACTION HD 06:45 07:10 07:40 08:10 08:35 10:20 11:10 15:20 16:10 20:30 21:20 23:50

The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook The Hairy Bikers’ Cookbook Daily Cooks Challenge James Martin’s Champagne Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me Antiques Roadshow Antiques Roadshow Come Dine With Me Come Dine With Me

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 01:40 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:10 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:30 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:00 11:10 11:30 12:00

BBC World News America World Football Focus BBC World News Sport Today Weekend World BBC World News America Newsnight BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News My Country BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News Click BBC World News Weekend World BBC World News BBC World News World Football Focus BBC World News BBC World News

12:10 13:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:10 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:15 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:10 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:10 21:30 22:00 22:15 22:30 23:00 23:10 23:30

The Doha Debates BBC World News The Health Show Newsnight BBC World News Weekend World Talking Books BBC World News Equestrian World BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News World Features BBC World News BBC World News Click BBC World News Final Score BBC World News World Features My Country BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News The Health Show Equestrian World

00:15 00:40 01:05 01:30 01:55 02:20 02:45 03:10 03:35 04:00

Samurai Jack Megas XLR Robotboy Squirrel Boy George Of The Jungle Cramp Twins Chop Socky Chooks Best Ed My Gym Partner’s A Monkey Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

04:25 Generator Rex 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 05:40 Chowder 05:55 Powerpuff Girls 06:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 06:55 I Am Weasel 07:20 Squirrel Boy 07:45 Cow & Chicken 08:00 Total Drama Action 08:25 Powerpuff Girls 08:50 Angelo Rules 09:05 Eliot Kid 09:30 Chowder 09:55 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy 10:20 Adventure Time 10:45 The Amazing World Of Gumball 10:55 Cow & Chicken 11:30 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 11:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 12:20 Generator Rex 12:45 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 13:10 Bakugan: Gundalian Invaders 13:35 Ben 10: Ultimate Challenge 14:00 Batman Beyond: Return Of The Joker 15:15 Best Ed 15:40 Chowder 16:05 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 16:30 Courage The Cowardly Dog 16:55 Cow & Chicken 17:20 Adventure Time 17:45 Codename: Kids Next Door 18:10 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 18:35 Generator Rex 19:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 19:25 The Marvelous Misadventures

00:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson 01:00 Backstory 01:30 World Sport 02:00 The Situation Room 03:00 World Report 04:00 Anderson Cooper 360 05:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 06:00 Quest Means Business 06:45 CNN Marketplace Africa 07:00 Erin Burnett Outfront 08:00 World Sport 08:30 Backstory 09:00 World Report 09:15 CNN Marketplace Africa 09:30 The Gateway 09:45 Future Cities 10:00 World Report 10:15 CNN Marketplace Middle East 10:30 Open Court 11:00 World Sport 11:30 Cnngo 12:00 Talk Asia 12:30 African Voices 13:00 Inside Africa 13:30 The Gateway 13:45 Future Cities 14:00 World Report 14:30 World Sport 15:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 16:00 World Report 16:30 Cnngo 17:00 World’s Untold Stories 17:30 The CNN Freedom Project 18:00 International Desk 18:30 African Voices 19:00 CNN Marketplace Europe 19:15 CNN Marketplace Africa 19:30 Inside Africa 20:00 Open Court 20:30 World Sport 21:00 International Desk 21:30 The Gateway 21:45 Future Cities 22:00 World Report 22:30 Cnngo 23:00 Piers Morgan Tonight

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

Danger Coast Deadliest Catch Overhaulin’ Dirty Jobs Ultimate Survival Mythbusters How Stuff’S Made How It’S Made Dirty Jobs Ultimate Biker Challenge South Beach Classics Wheeler Dealers Fifth Gear American Chopper: Senior vs

00:40 01:05 01:35 02:25 02:50 03:40 04:35

The Gadget Show The Tech Show Kings Of Construction Stunt Junkies Futurecar Eco-Tech The Gadget Show

Deception With Keith Barry Mythbusters Curiosity How Stuff’S Made Auction Kings Auction Kings Salvage Hunters Border Security Border Security Mythbusters Extreme Fishing Marley Africa Road Trip Coal Gold Rush: Alaska Deadliest Catch Surviving The Cut An Idiot Abroad

05:00 05:25 05:50 06:40 07:10 08:00 World 08:55 08:58 09:25 09:55 10:45 11:35 14:55 15:45 15:48 16:15 16:45 17:10 17:35 18:00 18:50 World 19:40 20:30 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:50

The Gadget Show How Stuff’s Made Kings Of Construction One Step Beyond Brainiac How Techies Changed The Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Flying Anvils Robocar The Future Of...

The Future Of...

Head Rush Sci-Fi Science Weird Connections Bang Goes The Theory The Gadget Show The Gadget Show Mega World How Techies Changed The Smash Lab Prototype This Weird Or What?

Sci-Fi Saved My Life Smash Lab Prototype This

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es 02:45 E!es 03:15 25 Most Stylish 04:10 Sexiest 05:05 Extreme Hollywood 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 10:15 Bridalplasty 11:10 Bridalplasty 12:05 E! News 13:05 THS 14:05 Giuliana & Bill 15:00 Ice Loves Coco 15:55 Dirty Soap 16:55 Style Star 17:25 Fashion Police 17:55 E! News 18:55 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 20:55 The Soup 21:25 Kendra 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 The Soup

00:40 Extreme Forensics 01:30 The Haunted 02:15 A Haunting 03:05 True CSI 03:50 True Crime With Aphrodite Jones 04:40 Extreme Forensics 05:25 The Haunted 06:15 A Haunting 07:10 Mystery Diagnosis 08:00 FBI Files 08:50 Forensic Detectives 09:40 Murder Shift 10:25 Life Or Death: Medical Mysteries 10:25 Life or Death: Medical Mysteries 11:10 Real Emergency Calls 11:35 Real Emergency Calls 11:55 On The Case With Paula Zahn 12:40 Disappeared 13:25 Murder Shift 14:15 Life or Death: Medical Mysteries 15:00 Real Emergency Calls 15:25 Real Emergency Calls 15:50 On The Case With Paula Zahn 16:35 Disappeared 17:20 Forensic Detectives 18:10 Murder Shift 19:00 FBI Files 19:45 Real Emergency Calls 20:10 Life Or Death: Medical Mysteries 20:10 Life or Death: Medical Mysteries 20:55 Street Patrol 21:20 On The Case With Paula Zahn 22:10 Disappeared 23:00 The Haunted 23:50 Ghost Lab

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00

Somewhere In China Geo Sessions Geo Sessions Earth Tripping

TV listings

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011 02:30 Travel Madness 03:00 Madventures 04:00 Around The World For Free 05:00 A World Apart 06:00 Somewhere In China 07:00 Geo Sessions 07:30 Geo Sessions 08:00 Earth Tripping 08:30 Travel Madness 09:00 Madventures 10:00 Around The World For Free 11:00 A World Apart 12:00 Somewhere In China 13:00 Word of Mouth 13:30 Food School 14:00 Danger Men 15:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 16:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 18:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 19:00 Word of Mouth 19:30 Food School 20:00 Danger Men 21:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 22:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 23:00 Don’t Tell My Mother

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

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:15 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 16:45 18:30 21:00 22:45

Walled In-PG15 The Gene Generation-18 Splinter-18 The Next Karate Kid-PG Rocky III-PG15 Dick Tracy-PG15 Ip Man-PG15 Rocky III-PG15 The Three Musketeers-PG15 Ip Man-PG15 The Spirit-PG15 The Warlords-PG15

The Waiting City-PG15 Love N’ Dancing-PG15 Paper Man-PG15 Fly Me To The Moon-PG Ramona And Beezus-PG The Front-PG15 Chasing A Dream-PG15 Private-PG15 The Front-PG15 Eat Pray Love-PG15 Perrier’s Bounty-18 A Single Man-R

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Louie 02:00 Weeds 02:30 South Park 03:00 Raising Hope 03:30 The Office 04:00 Will And Grace 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Seinfeld 06:00 Two And A Half Men 06:30 Just Shoot Me 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Will And Grace 08:30 Raising Hope 09:00 Seinfeld 09:30 30 Rock 10:00 Hot In Cleveland 10:30 Just Shoot Me 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Two And A Half Men 12:30 Will And Grace 13:00 The Office 13:30 Seinfeld 14:00 Just Shoot Me 14:30 Hot In Cleveland 15:00 30 Rock 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Outsourced 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Raising Hope 18:30 2 Broke Girls 19:00 30 Rock 19:30 Hot In Cleveland 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 South Park 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

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

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

The X Factor (US) Survivor: South Pacific Damages Glee No Ordinary Family Good Morning America The Glades The Bachelor The Ellen DeGeneres Show Downsize Me The View The X Factor (US) Glee No Ordinary Family Survivor: South Pacific Live Good Morning America The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Breakout Kings The Killing C.S.I. Miami Top Gear (UK) The Glades

Detroit 1-8-7 Damages Century City The X Factor (US) Glee Survivor: South Pacific Detroit 1-8-7 Tower Prep Kojak Survivor: South Pacific The X Factor (US) Glee Tower Prep The Ellen DeGeneres Show Kojak Detroit 1-8-7 Modern Family Marathon

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

Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Kojak Breakout Kings The Killing C.S.I. Miami Top Gear (UK) The Chicago Code

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

Blood And Bone-18 Saw VI-R Walled In-PG15 Arctic Predator-PG15 The Lost Future-PG15 Echelon Conspiracy-PG15 Fighting-PG15 The Lost Future-PG15 Rocky v-PG15 Outpost-18 The Warlords-PG15 Clive Barker’s Book Of Blood-18

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:15 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Double Wedding-PG15 Nine Months-PG15 School Of Rock-PG15 Cop And A Half-PG Knucklehead-PG15 A Guy Thing-PG15 Renaissance Man-PG15 The Boys Are Back-PG Double Wedding-PG15 Cop Out-PG15 The Sweetest Thing-18 Lower Learning-PG15

01:15 03:15 05:15 07:15

Le Dernier Pour LA Route-PG15 Indecent Proposal-18 Mona Lisa Smile-PG15 Invictus-PG15

09:30 11:15 13:00 15:00 16:45 19:00 21:00 23:00

Good Hair-PG15 The Wronged Man-PG15 On Broadway-PG15 The Nutty Professor-FAM Dance With Me-PG American Son-PG15 Husbands And Wives-18 L’armee Du Crime-18

01:30 04:00 05:30 07:00 09:00 10:30 12:30 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Forrest Gump-PG15 Quest For Zhu-PG15 Garfield-PG Knight And Day-PG15 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story-PG15 One Hot Summer-PG15 The Blind Side-PG15 Bandslam-PG15 Hachiko: A Dog’s Story-PG15 Calvin Marshall-PG15 Faster-PG15 Biutiful-18

00:00 Dennis The Menace: Cruise Control-FAM 01:45 The Last Airbender-PG 04:00 Gladiators: The Conspiracy-PG 06:00 Quest For Zhu-PG15 08:00 Dennis The Menace: Cruise Control-FAM 10:00 Lego: The Adventures Of Clutch Powers-FAM 12:00 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid-PG 14:00 Queen Of The Swallows-FAM 16:00 Planet 51-PG 18:00 Lego: The Adventures Of Clutch Powers-FAM 20:00 Open Season 3-FAM 22:00 Planet 51-PG

00:00 Looking For Eric-PG15 02:00 That’s What I Am-PG15 04:00 The Joneses-PG15

EAT PRAY LOVE ON OSN CINEMA

06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Coyote County Loser-PG15 That’s What I Am-PG15 Marmaduke-PG The Joneses-PG15 Phoebe In Wonderland-PG Megamind-FAM Too Big To Fail-PG15 Life In A Day-PG15 Death At A Funeral-PG15

00:00 WWE SmackDown 02:00 WWE Bottom Line 03:00 UFC Unleashed 04:00 UFC Unleashed 05:00 Rugby Union Varsity Match 07:15 Live ISAF World Sailing Championship 13:30 Live Powerboats F1 14:30 Powerboats UIM 15:00 WWE SmackDown 17:00 WWE Bottom Line 18:00 WWE NXT 19:00 WWE Vintage Collection 20:00 Trans World Sport 21:00 Powerboats F1 22:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter

02:30 Trans World Sport 03:30 World Cup of Pool 04:30 World Pool Masters 05:30 Ping Pong World Championship 06:30 ICC Cricket World 07:00 Darts PDC World Championship 12:00 Live Dubai Ladies Masters 15:00 Live Darts PDC World Championship 20:00 Scottish Premier League 22:00 Live Darts PDC World Championship

01:00 01:30 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:30 09:00 09:30 13:30 14:30 15:00 15:30 17:30 18:00 21:30 22:30

ICC Cricket World Asian Tour Golf Trans World Sport ICC Cricket World Volvo Ocean Race Highlights Futbol Mundial Asian Tour Golf Show Live Asian Tour Golf Trans World Sport Futbol Mundial SPL Highlights Live Scottish Premier League ICC Cricket World Dubai Ladies Masters Trans World Sport Scottish Premier League

00:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 22:00

WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line Intercontinental Le Mans Cup Speedway UFC Unleashed UFC Unleashed WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection V8 Supercars Championship WWE SmackDown Aquabike World Power Boats Nations Cup Power Boats F1 WWE Tough Enough Speedway UFC 140 WWE SmackDown

00:05 00:30 00:55 01:20 01:45 02:10 02:35 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:00 04:25 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:10 06:35

The Garfield Show Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop Droopy: Master Detective The Flintstones Johnny Bravo Duck Dodgers King Arthur’s Disasters The Scooby Doo Show Popeye Classics Tom & Jerry Popeye The Jetsons The Flintstones Looney Tunes Pink Panther & Pals Tex Avery Duck Dodgers

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

The Garfield Show The Addams Family Popeye Paddington Bear Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm Puppy In My Pocket Help! It’s The Hair Bear Bunch Yogi’s Treasure Hunt The Garfield Show Pink Panther And Pals Looney Tunes The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Top Cat Popeye New Yogi Bear Show Tex Avery The Addams Family Droopy & Dripple The Flintstones The Garfield Show Duck Dodgers Wacky Races Scooby-Doo And Scrappy-Doo Dastardly And Muttley The Jetsons Wacky Races Scooby Doo Where Are You! Popeye Classics Scooby Cinema Top Cat Dastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Wacky Races The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Johnny Bravo

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

Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Stitch Stitch Replacements Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Mini Adventures Of Winnie The So Random Suite Life On Deck Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Pixie Hollow Games A.N.T. Farm Wizards Of Waverly Place Good Luck Charlie So Random Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie A.N.T. Farm Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place My Babysitter’s A Vampire Shake It Up Fish Hooks So Random The Suite Life Of Zack And The Suite Life Of Zack And My Babysitter’s A Vampire Wizards Of Waverly Place A.N.T. Farm Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place So Random Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place My Babysitter’s A Vampire Good Luck Charlie Suite Life On Deck Sonny With A Chance The Suite Life Of Zack And Hannah Montana

what’s on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Adopt a pet

Glasgow Celtic coaches visit PGA Kuwait

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Jasper the mix breed Jasper is a gentle and friendly 2-year-old male mix-breed dog.

He is a little shy and takes his time to get to know you but once he does, he’ll chase you to play. He will be a great addition to a family - with children over 10 - that can put in the extra care and patience to build up Jasper’s confidence. To adopt Jasper, contact K’S PATH at (+965) 6700 1622 or visit the website www.kspath.org.

Marlon the DSH cat Marlon is a playful, suave and independent three-year-old male Domestic Short Haired (DSH) cat. He likes to be on his own but also likes being groomed and playing with his favourite cat toy. He will be a great addition to a family with children over 14.

To adopt Marlon, contact K’S PATH at (+965) 6700 1622 or visit the website www.kspath.org.

he Premier GOAL Academy, sponsored by Porsche Centre Kuwait, Behbehani Motors Company, is pleased to announce the visit of Glasgow Celtic FC coaching staff to Kuwait from November 25-28, 2011. Dave Cook, ex-Everton FC, and now with Scottish giants Celtic will be accompanied by Greig Robertson, the International Academy Development Officer and Senior Youth team coach. Dave and Greig are visiting Kuwait as part of their role to develop strong working relationships with clubs and associations globally, focusing on key elements such as coach education, talent identification, facilitating tours and parent education. Both Dave and Greig hold elite level coaching positions at Celtic FC, working with some of the very best young players in the country and focusing on development of technique and game awareness.

They will be leading this weekend’s coaching sessions with over 150 youngsters at the Premier GOAL Academy based at Shaab Park. In addition they will be providing certified Coach Education sessions for the PGA and other nominated football coaches from within Kuwait. Currently Celtic FC have formed football relationships in many countries including USA, Canada, India, Australia and Ireland, bringing cutting edge coaching and training methodologies to clubs and associations worldwide.

The support and active involvement of Scottish Premier League and European Club giants Glasgow Celtic FC, alongside the association with Everton Football Club from the English Premier League, ensures that players at the Premier GOAL Academy receive the very best football development program available in the State of Kuwait.

The visit is being supported by GOAL, Crowne Plaza Hotel and the Ministry of Education.

Swiss-Belhotel Plaza gets ready for Christmas

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ather your family and friends this Christmas at Swissbelhotel Plaza Kuwait and feel the true essence of Christmas with delightful treats, sumptuous buffet, and special packages waiting for you. Christmas is a time of giving grab up your mouthwatering Yule logs, with enticing gingerbread house display, festive cakes and Christmas cookies sale at our cafe. Boost your appetite with the culinary celebrations at Al-Dallah restaurant with our luscious international buffet and live cooking stations with the host of regional and traditional favorites for Christmas Eve dinner. Carry on the next day with your cravings from roast turkey to Christmas pudding and lots of delectable treats only at Swiss-belhotel plaza Kuwait!

Upcoming events Entertaining events Al-Kout and The British Playhouse join hands in bringing fun, entertaining and educational events to the community.

Please join them for lots of fun filled activities. All activities are FREE of charge! Events will include: Face painting, Henna, Characters Clown, Balloon arch Balloon art, gifts for children’s competitions for kids (best drawing, etc). Interactive activities will include: Coloring corner, story telling corner, play dough corner, arts and crafts corner, bricks blocks, board games and puzzles corner on Saturday December 17th, & Thursday December 29th at AlKout Mall, Fahaheel-Kuwait From 5pm - 9pm. For more info: 9441-1783.

Talent Hunt Wesal Media Team is organizing a new concept competition for little talents in Kuwait. This competition is for children ages 6-12 years who have excellent talents in singing, dancing, drawing, etc.

All interested little talents are welcome to participate. To sign-up, just visit their website and register your child.

The final announcements will be published in a short event at Discovery Mall with famous singers and actors in Kuwait. For more information: 97547705

New Year Hangama The RAK Dance Academy (RDA) Kuwait, is planning to put a charity event as celebration of its New Year Hangama 2012, on 31st December, 2011, from 6 pm onwards, at Carmel School Khaitan. All participants are well known artists from Kuwait. The main purpose of this celebration is to collect donations and raise money for supporting handicapped children in India. contributions from you.

Your attendance is your donation. Please join for an evening for a good cause. Call 99692266, 65925730 for details.

Aware Center Arabic lessons The AWARE Management is glad to inform you that Winter 1 Arabic language courses will begin on November 20th, 2011 until January 12th, 2012.

AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed and 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 activi-

ties that aim at bringing Arabs and Westerners together.

AWARE Arabic courses highlight: lIntroductory to Level 4 Arabic language basics lBetter prepare you for speaking, reading and writing Arabic lCombine language learning with cultural insights lTaught in multi-nationality group settings lProvide opportunities to interact with Western expatriates and native Kuwaitis/Arabs.

For more information or registration, call 25335260/80 ext 105/104/0 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw.

La Leche meeting La Leche will hold a meeting on December 12 from 3:30 to 5:30 pm at the L’Ali Al-Badri Building in Salmiya (Qatar Street, across from the Boulevard construction site, about 500 metres from City Centre. Little Caesar’s Pizza is at the foot of the building). For directions call Raj Alvis at 6991342. La Leche League (LLL) is an international, non-profit organization that provides mother-to-mother support, encouragement, information and education for women who breastfeed their children. If you are currently breastfeed-

ing your baby or small child, or are pregnant and intend to breastfeed your baby (or are considering it but have questions) and would like to meet up with others mums who breastfeed, then LLL is for you! This meeting is for pregnant women and breastfeeding moms only.

Rak dance academy New Year Hangama-2012 The RAK Dance Academy (RDA) Kuwait, is planning to put a charity event as celebration of its New Year Hangama 2012, on 31st December, 2011, from 6.00pm onwards, at Carmel School Khaitan. All participants are well known artists from Kuwait. The main purpose of this celebration is to collect donations and raise money for supporting handicapped children in India. Advertisement will be published throughout Kuwait absolutely free of charge. We are expecting huge crowd for this event. The fund raised will be beneficial handicapped children. In order to make this event joyous and successful we are seeking kind contributions from you. Your attendance is your donation.

Please join for an evening for a good cause. Darla Srinivasulu Achari, 99 692266; Mob: 65728740 K. Eswar Babu, Phone 99692266, Lashmeesha 65925730 Email: rakdanceacademy@gmail.com

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what’s on SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Pirates of the Caribbean at KES

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ahad Al-Sahli stole the show with a fixating portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow, as a vast audience enjoyed four nights of spectacular performances by Kuwait English School students appearing in Pirates of the Caribbean. “He was absolutely brilliant” said Helen Searle, Preparatory Department Head Teacher. “He had him down to a tee”, added teacher Lorraine Al-Farhan.

Two years ago KES presented its best ever production of Sweeney Todd. This year in “Pirates of the Caribbean” the Directors proved their canny knack of merging creative visions into reality yet again. Marie Naylor and Ms Donna Clarke realized most of their outlandish dreams and masterfully adapted to the stage yet another Johhny Depp Hollywood blockbuster. The thoroughly entertaining theatrical venture followed the antics of the loveable pirate, “charting the trials and tribulations of the incorrigible rogue, Jack Sparrow. Sorry Captain Jack Sparrow, who is with doubt the best pirate we’ve ever heard of”.

The explosive nautical production was action packed with dynamic word play, and thrilling music and dance routines.

The play launched into the first scene with Elizabeth, 12 year old daughter of Governor Swann, hiding a gold medallion worn by the sole survivor of a shipwreck. Eight years later Elizabeth, the delightful Loura Al-

agrees to rescue Will. The soldiers and pirates clash in highly energetic and gruesome combat. Elizabeth once again saves Jack and Will after they are taken to Port Royal.

“The 1770’s Setting has been a joy.

The floppy hats, foppish shirts, and swashbuckling swords have lead to many classic moments of hilarity”, the Directors noted. Una Munday created the costumes, which were made by Mohammed and Jameel.

“Our cast and crew have worked tirelessly, with great dedication and flair to produce a show we are truly proud of”, the Directors agreed. “Ellie Siddiq’s joie de vivre, stage slides and support throughout the journey has been invaluable”

last performance in a KES production and I wanted to give everything I’ve got” Fahad Al-Sahli said. “Running around for Thriller was fun because I could run around with my bloomers underneath! I want to thank my wonderful mother who was really happy for me and always there after every endless rehearsal” said Laura Al-Ateeqi.

“Enjoy the show ye land lubbers” exclaimed Raed Zein thanking his parents for their support. “It has been an excellent experience” added Elia Haddad. School Chairman Mohammed Jassim Al-Saddah, Naela Al-Saddah and Rula Al-Saddah were thanked for making it all possible and and Muhmood for their consistent passion for the arts.

Thanks went out to the cast, crew and

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

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, AlMutawakel St., Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed from 12:30 to 01:00 pm for lunch break. Consular Services for Canadian Citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00 on Sunday through Wednesday. Canada offers a registration service for all Canadians travelling or living abroad. This service is provided so that Consular Officials can contact and assist Canadians in an emergency in a foreign country, such as a natural disaster or civil unrest, or inform Canadians of a family emergency at home. The Embassy of Canada encourages all Canadian Citizens to register online through the Government of Canada Travel Website at www.voyage.gc.ca.

The Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi provides visa and immigration services to residents of Kuwait.

Individuals who are interested in visiting, working or immigrating to Canada are invited to visit the website of the Canadian Embassy to the UAE at www.UAE.gc.ca. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF GERMANY

Ateeqi, faints into the bay as Captain James Norrington, the eloquent Ali AlRadaan, proposes.

“Our leading lady’s feisty nature and ability to fall off a cliff with panache and seamlessly vanish has provided hours of curtain pulling!” noted the Directors.

The medallion touches the sea bed, emitting a pulse to the pirates on the Black Pearl. They beseige Port Royal and capture Elizabeth. Will Turner, played superbly by Elia Haddad, persuade Jack to rescue her. They commandeer a ship and set sail for the Island of the Dead, which the ghostly pirates are doomed to haunt as skeletal beings until they return stolen loot to the treasure chest.

Barbossa, the dashing Raed Zein, has thrown William “Bootstrap Bill” Turner overboard. Believing Elizabeth is his daughter, Barbossa drops her blood onto the last coin - without result. Will rescues Elizabeth and they escape on the Interceptor, while Jack agrees with Barbossa to exchange the pearl for the identity of Bootstrap Bill’s child. They pursue the Interceptor, sinking it in a stunt filled battle and capture the crew.

Will is taken back to Island of the Dead, where Barbossa plans to kill him.

Jack and Elizabeth are marooned until Norrington spots a fire set by Elizabeth and, when she accepts his proposal,

“The opportunity to work so intensely and creatively with Naylor and Clarke on the school play has provided the usual hilarity. I am very grateful to be part of such an amazing team” Tara Ellie-Siddiq responded. She said she was inspired by the creativity and humor of the students and working on the show was an absolute joy.

“I have thoroughly enjoyed working with extremely talented students, mastering some classic Michael Jackson moves. Inspired by the work of an absolute pop legend and incredible dancer , working on the choreography has provided me with hours of fun and laughter” Tara said giving special thanks to Fahad Al-Sahli for his support.

“I was ecstatic when I found out I had got the part as it was going to be my

parents for their unwavering goodwill and enthusiasm throughout the rehearsal process and performances.

Sherwood was thanked for his support and good humor throughout. “These youngsters have worked so hard”, he said, “I guarantee you will really enjoy this performance. It is fantastic”.

Artist Lewis Chapman and the Lost Lizards produced an amazing backdrop.

Ahmed Rashdan Sifar led the organized, patient and professional Saif El Kholy and Bethel Embai working on lighting.

Sound was perfected by David Abi Hanna and Hagop Moumjian. Faye Morgan and Ahmed Al-Awadhi procured the props. Nick Veitch and Chris Laken became adept at “suspending disbelief” and brought to life an amazing set - worthy of an Oscar.

The Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Kuwait wishes to announce that as of 1 May 2011, the external service provider Al Qabas Assurex is operating a Visa Application Centre in support of the German Embassy. Short-term visa applications for travels to Germany (e.g. for tourism, visits, business) are to be submitted to the service provider Al Qabas who for your convenience will ensure that all relevant documents are included in your application. Your personal appearance at the Application Centre is not required. Address of the Visa Application Centre: Al Qabas Assurex Sanabel Tower (Al-Babtain) Mezzanine (M3) opposite Sharq Mall Kuwait 22924444 Fax: 22924442 Further information are available on the following websites: www.kuwait.diplo.de www.qavisa.com nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF INDIA The Embassy of India will remain closed December 25, 2011 (Sunday) “Christmas Day”. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to request all Kenyans resident in or training through Kuwait to register with the Embassy.

We are updating our database. This information is necessary in order to facilitate quick assistance and advise in times of emergency. Kindly visit in person or register through our website www.kenyaembkuwait.com. The Embassy is located in: Surra Area - Block 6 - Street 9 Villa 3 Tel: 25353362 - 25353314; Fax: 25353316.

HEALTH

SATURDAY, DECEBER 17, 2011

First public appearance of Chinese pandas

INDIA: Photo shows India Gate, the war memorial, is seen through haze in New Delhi. — AP

Delhi’s air as dirty as ever despite some reforms NEW DELHI: A decade ago, plans for a metro and clean-fuel buses were hailed as New Delhi’s answer to pollution. But air in the Indian capital is as dirty as ever - partly because breakneck development has brought skyrocketing use of cars.

Citywide pollution sensors routinely register levels of small airborne particles at two or sometimes three times its own sanctioned level for residential areas, putting New Delhi up with Beijing, Cairo and Mexico City at the top of indexes listing the world’s most-polluted capitals.

Sunrises in India’s capital filter through near-opaque haze, scenic panoramas feature ribbons of brown air and everywhere, it seems, someone is coughing. “My family is very worried. Earlier, the smoke and dust stayed outside, but now it comes into the house,” said 61-year-old shopkeeper Hans Raj Wadhawan, a one-time smoker now being treated for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Delhi Heart and Lung Institute. “I can see the air is bad again, and I can feel it in my chest.” New Delhi could lay some of the blame on its own success. Its recently minted middle class adds 1,200 cars a day to the 6 million on roads already snarled with incessantly honking traffic. Generous diesel subsidies promote the use of diesel-powered SUVs that belch some of the highest levels of carcinogenic particles, thanks to their reliance on one of the dirtiest-burning fuels and low Indian emissions standards.

“The city has lost nearly all of the gains it made in 2004 and 2005,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, executive director of research at the Delhi-based Center for Science and Environment. New Delhi has undergone head-spinning expansion as Indian economic reforms in the 1990s ushered in two decades of record growth. Once a manageable capital of 9.4 million where cows, bicycles and bullock carts ruled the road, New Delhi today is a gridlocked metropolis and migrant hub now home to 16 million. Authorities have scrambled to deal with everything from rocketing real estate prices to overflowing garbage dumps. Efforts to clean the air, it seems, have only just begun.

The capital saw some success after a 1998-2003 program removing power plants from the city center and adopting compressed natural gas, CNG, for running buses and rickshaws. The buses had run on diesel, and the rickshaws on gasoline and highly polluting kerosene. Of all possible fuels, CNG releases the smallest amounts of particulate matter. But just a few years later pollution levels are back up, with levels of airborne particles smaller than 10 micrometers - called PM10s - often near 300 per cubic meter, three times the city’s legal limit of 100 - and well above the World Health Organization’s recommended limit of 20. The tiny particulate matter, sometimes called black carbon or soot, is small enough to lodge in people’s lungs and fester over time. WHO says the stuff kills some 1.34 million people globally each year.

Studies on the Indian capital put the number of such deaths in the thousands. It worsens in the dry winters, as winds die down and pollution pools over the Delhi plains.

Vehicular smog mixes with smoke from festival-season fireworks as well as countless illegal pyres of garbage burned by homeless migrants to stay warm as temperatures near freezing. And the booming construction scene, free for a few months from monsoons, sends up clouds of dust. “Our biggest challenge is the vehicles, but building roads is not the answer,” Roychowdhury said. —AP

LONDON: Hundreds of animal lovers flocked to Edinburgh Zoo yesterday to get the first glimpse of two giant pandas which arrived from China earlier this month. Up to 600 people were expected to flood through the gates of the zoo in the Scottish capital as Yang Guang (Sunshine) and Tian Tian (Sweetie) went on display for the first time. Groups of around 25 filed past the outdoor enclosure housing the eight-year-old pandas, the first of the endangered bears to live in Britain for 17 years.“It was absolutely fantastic. I’m ecstatic,” said Denise Stronach, 46, who was the first to see the pandas. “As soon as I knew the pandas were coming to Scotland, I kept coming into the zoo every time I was through in Edinburgh, asking: are they here yet?

“I want them to have a wee baby and I want to be first to see that as well.” They arrived on December 4 but were given a few days to recover from jet lag and get used to their new surroundings away from public view. The zoo said hundreds of people had prebooked to see the bears’ first appearance. Pre-booked visitor numbers for this weekend are up by about 80 percent on usual expectations for a preChristmas winter weekend, the zoo said. Visitors took photos of the bears and were given a short talk by a zoo guide, with a “panda patrol” of 14 trained helpers on hand to deal with the influx. Each panda has indoor living quarters and a large outdoor enclosure, with plants, trees, a pond and somewhere for them to shelter from

SCOTLAND: Giant panda named Tian Tian, explores her enclosure as the public look on for the first time at Edinburgh Zoo yesterday. — AP the sun.

It is hoped the bears will take advantage of a specially built “tunnel of love” between their separate enclosures and breed new cubs that will help preserve the endangered species. Zoo chief executive Hugh Roberts said it was wonderful to see the visitors’ initial reaction. “We’ve been working for this moment for so, so long,” he said.

“When you get the public coming in

today, it’s a moment that says it all because the pandas are here for everybody in the UK and everybody in Scotland.” The bears arrived in Scotland to great fanfare, with a bagpipe band in kilts and flag-waving wellwishers dressed as pandas. They are spending 10 years on loan in Edinburgh under a deal agreed after five years of high-level political and diplomatic negotiations. —AFP

Drugmakers extend cut-price pneumonia vaccine deal GAVI to buy extra doses of Prevenar 13, Synflorix at $3.50 LONDON: Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are increasing sales of cut-price pneumonia vaccine to developing countries by more than 50 percent, marking the scale-up of an international program to protect millions of children. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) is buying an additional 180 million doses of Pfizer’s pneumococcal vaccine Prevenar 13 and a similar quantity of GSK’s Synflorix at a deeply discounted price of $3.50 a shot. The two companies said yesterday they would supply the extra vaccine through 2023, building on an original commitment last year to supply 300 million doses apiece.

The GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership set up in 2000 to speed the introduction of vaccines into the world’s poorest countries, hopes to avert up to 7 million deaths by 2030 by giving the vaccines to infants and young children. Pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis, kills more than half a million children every year, the vast majority of them in poorer countries. GSK’s Synflorix protects against 10 strains of the streptococcus pneumoniae bacterium, while Pfizer’s Prevenar 13 shot protects against 13 strains.

In exchange for large orders, GAVI has negotiated a low price with the two drug companies, which get $7 per dose for the first 20 percent and $3.50 for the remainder of their orders under a so-called Advance Market

Commitment (AMC) scheme. A Pfizer spokeswoman said $3.50 was a more than a 90 percent reduction from prices charged in some industrialized countries. The pneumococcal vaccination program was initially started a year ago in Nicaragua and has now been rolled out to 15 other countries in Africa and Latin America.

The latest agreement shows how momentum is building behind the GAVI program, even as experts worry about funding cutbacks in other areas of global health due to austerity measures in donor countries hit by the economic crisis. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world’s largest financial backer of HIV treatment and prevention programs, said last month it was cancelling new grants for countries battling these diseases and would make no new funding available until 2014.

By contrast, GAVI secured a bigger-than-expected $4.3 billion in pledges from its donors last June, reflecting widespread acknowledgement of the value of its immunization work. Overall, development assistance for health in all forms has continued to grow in 2011, although the rate of growth has slowed, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle said in a report this week. It estimated that spending increased by 4 percent each year between 2009 and 2011, reaching a total of $27.7 billion, down from 17 percent between 2007 and 2008.— Reuters

HEALTH

SATURDAY, DECEBER 17, 2011

Many surgeons don’t discuss end-of-life care NEW YORK: Many US surgeons fail to discuss their patients’ wishes in case a risky operation goes awry, and even more would not operate if patients limited what could be done to keep them alive, a survey found. Such medical wishes and plans for end-of-life care, called “advance directives,” outline what can and cannot be done if patients are unable to decide for themselves. The most famous examples are so-called living wills. But the restrictions are

debated among doctors, said the survey, published in the Annals of Surgery. “(Surgeons) feel the advance directive basically ties their hands behind their back, and they’re not given the tools to get them through the surgery,” said Margaret Schwarze, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, who was one of the survey’s authors. She and her colleagues asked 912 surgeons who regularly perform risky

operations 14 questions on how they discuss a patient’s advance directives and whether the directives influence their decision to operate. More than four out of every five surgeons discussed which forms of life support the patients would like to limit. But only about half asked specifically about the patient’s advance directive, which can include restricting the use of feeding tubes and ventilators to keep a person alive. —Reuters

CLASSIFIEDS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

ACCOMMODATION A separate room available with separate bathroom in a sharing flat in Mahaboula.

Contact: 66216713.

Sharing accommodation available in Abbassiya with Keralite family. Keralite family or working ladies preferred.

Contact: 99509436. (C 3782) 17-12-2011 Sharing accommodation available in Salmiya opposite Eddie Store for Indian bachelors. Contact: 97947562.

(C 3780) 15-12-2011

FOR SALE Mitsubishi Nativa 2008, 66564 kms, black color, excellent condition, KD 3,560/-, negotiable.

Contact: 60306273.

(C 3779) Mercedes Benz 1998 (E 200), color beige, running condition, registration till May 2012. Price KD 600. Contact: 97277135.

15-12-2011 Jeep GMC Envoy 2004, black color, very good condition, KD 2,250/-.

Contact: 50699345. (C 3777)

SITUATION VACANT Wanted English speaking maid / nanny. Contact: 99824597. (C 3781) 17-12-2011 A Kuwaiti family is looking to hire a full-time Asian driver. Tel: 99774658. (C 3771) 11-12-2011

Mohammed Abdur Rahman Ba Aqeel. (C 3778) 13-12-2011

MATRIMONIAL Orthodox boy 31/172 cm working in MNC Logistics Company in Kuwait as sales manager invites proposal from God fearing qualified Christian girls.

Email: mathewzachariah1@gmail.com

(C 3776) CHANGE OF NAME I, Habeeb Mohammed Abdur Rahman Baageel Indian Passport No. G9948258 hereby change my name to Habeeb

Orthodox parents invite proposals for their son 27/180, fair.

B.Tech, employed with a reputed company in Kuwait, from parents of suitable girls working in Kuwait.

Contact email: rcengannoor@yahoo.com

information SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

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

Arrival Flights on Saturday 17/12/2011 Flt Route 185 DUBAI 447 AMSTERDAM/BAHRAIN 539 CAIRO 620 ADDIS ABABA 772 ISTANBUL 239 SIALKOT 853 DUBAI 138 DOHA 641 MUSCAT 370 BAHRAIN 612 CAIRO 67 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 211 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 201 DUBAI 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 416 JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR 157 LONDON 412 MANILA/BANGKOK 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 302 MUMBAI 531 ASSIUT 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 301 ABU DHABI 55 DUBAI 213 BAHRAIN 165 DUBAI 310 RAS ALKHAIMAH 6807 SHIRAZ 5066 MASHAD 382 DELHI 610 CAIRO 672 DUBAI 621 ASSIUT 57 DUBAI 606 LUXOR 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 93 KANDAHAR/DUBAI 140 DOHA 745 JEDDAH 500 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 562 AMMAN 786 JEDDAH 284 DHAKA 257 BEIRUT 2600 JEDDAH 611 ALEXANDRIA 134 DOHA 839 JEDDAH/MEDINAH 535 CAIRO 303 ABU DHABI 357 MASHAD 857 DUBAI 118 NEW YORK 6791 MASHAD 792 LUXEMBOURG 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 127 SHARJAH 777 JEDDAH

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

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

227 550 618 177 63 6130 542 125 178 607 674 104 774 790 341 572 647 975 618 372 789 788 402 217 136 859 135 502 445 614 61 239 981 393 43 636

COLOMBO/DUBAI SOHAG/SHARM EL SHEIKH DOHA DUBAI DUBAI DOHA CAIRO BAHRAIN GENEVA/FRANKFURT MASHAD DUBAI LONDON RIYADH MEDINAH DAMASCUS MUMBAI MUSCAT CHENNAI/GOA ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN JEDDAH JEDDAH BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT AMSTERDAM BAHRAIN DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE/COCHIN DHAKA FRANKFURT

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 17/12/2011 Flt Route 216 KARACHI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 976 GOA/CHENNAI 530 ASSIUT 637 FRANKFURT 447 AMSTERDAM 283 DHAKA 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 240 SIALKOT/ISLAMABAD 381 DELHI 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 642 MUSCAT 371 BAHRAIN 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 54 DUBAI 156 LONDON 256 BEIRUT 671 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 785 JEDDAH 101 LONDON/NEW YORK 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 302 ABU DHABI 549 SOHAG/SHARM EL SHEIKH

18:00 18:00 18:15 18:15 18:40 18:50 18:50 19:00 19:10 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:40 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:45 21:00 21:05 21:10 21:20 21:25 21:35 21:40 21:55 22:00 22:05 22:05 22:15 22:45 23:00 23:40 23:45 23:50

Time 0:30 0:45 0:50 1:15 1:20 1:45 2:40 2:45 3:15 3:30 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 3:55 4:00 4:00 4:55 5:50 6:55 7:00 8:25 8:40 9:00 9:00 9:15 9:20 9:25 9:35 9:40 9:45 10:00 10:00

FDB QTR GFA JZR KAC KAC JZR RKM IRC JZR MSR IRM MSR FDB KAC MSR KAC KNE UAL KAC RJA JZR LMU SVA KAC KAC KAC QTR SVA KNE JZR ETD JZR QTR VOS UAE IRC GFA ABY SVA CLX JZR KAC JZR ALK FDB JZR QTR IRA SYR DHX KAC KAC JAI OMA MSR KNE KAC DHX KAC MEA GFA FCX QTR JZR KAC UAE KAC KLM FDB JZR KAC

56 133 214 356 165 541 776 311 6808 176 611 5065 622 58 617 607 673 746 982 789 641 124 612 505 787 501 773 141 9300 840 238 304 538 135 82 858 6792 216 128 511 792 266 613 134 228 64 184 6131 616 342 171 331 351 571 648 619 790 543 373 675 403 218 102 137 554 301 860 205 445 62 528 411

DUBAI DOHA BAHRAIN MASHAD ROME/PARIS CAIRO JEDDAH RAS ALKHAIMAH SHIRAZ DUBAI CAIRO MASHAD ASSIUT DUBAI DOHA LUXOR DUBAI JEDDAH BAHRAIN MEDINAH AMMAN BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH JEDDAH BEIRUT RIYADH DOHA JEDDAH JEDDAH AMMAN ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA BAGHDAD DUBAI MASHAD BAHRAIN SHARJAH RIYADH HONG KONG BEIRUT BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI/COLOMBO DUBAI DUBAI DOHA AHWAZ DAMASCUS BAHRAIN TRIVANDRUM COCHIN MUMBAI MUSCAT ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DOHA ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI ISLAMABAD BAHRAIN/AMSTERDAM DUBAI ASSIUT BANGKOK/MANILA

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

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

C R O S S W O R D

5 3 0

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. Edible tuber of any of several yams.

4. A port city in southwestern Iran.

10. (computer science) A computer that is running software that allows users to leave messages and access information of general interest.

13. A federal agency established to coordinate programs aimed at reducing pollution and protecting the environment.

14. A salt or ester of boric acid.

15. Towards the side away from the wind.

16. The residue that remains when something is burned.

17. Affect with wonder.

19. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

21. Norwegian mathematician (1802-1829).

22. A girl or young woman who is unmarried.

23. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

25. A card game for 2 players.

27. A young child.

31. An enclosed space.

32. Wild sheep of northern Africa.

33. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

35. Morally bad or wrong.

39. The state prevailing during the absence of war.

40. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

43. Of or relating to a member of the Buddhist people inhabiting the Mekong river in Laos and Thailand.

44. A sodium salt of carbonic acid.

45. Common black-and-gray Eurasian bird noted for thievery.

49. Experiencing or showing sorrow or unhappiness.

52. Large brownish-green New Zealand parrot.

53. Automatic data processing in which data acquisition and other stages or processing are integrated into a coherent system.

56. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

57. The basic unit of money in Cambodia.

59. The inner and longer of the two bones of the human forearm.

61. A trivial lie.

63. God of love and erotic desire.

64. An associate degree in applied science.

65. An island in the West Indies.

66. The sixth month of the civil year.

DOWN 1. Not only so, but.

2. A domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church.

3. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

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

5. Large genus of tropical American vines having showy often spotted umbellate flowers.

6. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

7. The feeling of distress and disbelief that you have when something bad happens accidentally.

8. Spider monkeys.

9. A colorless odorless gaseous element that give a red glow in a vacuum tube.

10. Tired to the point of exhaustion.

11. A living organism characterized by voluntary movement.

12. A general conscious awareness.

18. Used especially of fruits.

20. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

24. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

26. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

28. Chocolate cookie with white cream filling.

29. Two items of the same kind.

30. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

34. A Hindu prince or king in India.

36. Large lipoproteins rich in triglycerides.

37. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

38. Less than normal in degree or intensity or amount.

41. Aerobic rod-shaped spore-producing bacterium.

42. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

46. Small New Zealand broadleaf evergreen tree often cultivated in warm regions as an ornamental.

47. Small genus of hairy herbs with yellow flowers.

48. Everyone except the clergy.

50. The capital of Western Samoa.

51. United States labor organizer who ran for President as a socialist (18551926).

54. A federally chartered corporation that purchases mortgages.

55. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that was formed by an explosion.

58. Take in solid food.

59. A radioactive transuranic element produced by bombarding plutonium with neutrons.

60. A boy or man.

62. (chemistry) P(otential of) H(ydrogen).

Yesterday始s Solution

sports SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Sailing: Tunnicliffe storms to gold

LIUZHOU: Chen Long of China competes against Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia during their men’s singles Group B match of BWF badminton World Superseries Finals in Liuzhou city yesterday. —AFP

China’s Chen sends Hidayat crashing LIUZHOU: Chinese second seed Chen Long sent former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat tumbling out of the World Superseries Finals with a masterful display yesterday. Chen was on top from the end of the first game and he accelerated past the Indonesian veteran in the second, spraying 24 smash winners as he won 21-13, 21-7 in just 34 minutes in Liuzhou. The result leaves winless Hidayat bottom of Group B and out of Saturday’s semi-finals after losing his first two matches against Tago Kenichi and Chinese ace Lin Dan in the season finale. Lin, who is vying to complete the ‘Super Grand Slam’ after winning every other major honor in the sport, will bid for his third straight victory when he takes on Japan’s Kenichi in his final group match later.

Women’s top seed Wang Yihan knocked out Germany’s Juliane Schenk in three games to finish top of Group A. She was joined in the semi-finals by Danish player Tine Baun, who beat Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea. However, China’s bid for a cleansweep of all five events took a hit when reigning world champions Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng were knocked out of the men’s doubles with defeat to South Korean pair Ko Sung-Hyun and Yoo Yeon-Seong. Chinese hopes in the men’s doubles now rest on Chai Biao and Guo Zhendong, who qualified second in Group A. The $500,000 showdown featuring the top eight singles players and doubles pairs goes into the semi-finals today and finals tomorrow. —AFP

Bolt eyes more wins to become a legend NEW DELHI: Record-breaking sprinter Usain Bolt says he will not be regarded a legend of athletics unless he successfully defends his three Olympic titles in London next year. “I want to be a legend in the sport and defending my Olympic titles will definitely help me in achieving this goal,” the 25-year-old Jamaican was quoted as saying by the Times of India yesterday.

The Jamaican created history at the 2008 Beijing Olympics when he won the 100m, 200m and the 4x100 relay gold medals, all with world record timings. Bolt, however, parried a question on whether he will improve on his timings in London. “I never talk about world records,” he told the newspaper.

“My aim is to win first and foremost. If the weather is good in London, who knows.” Bolt, who was disqualified in the 100m at this year’s world championships in Daegu, South Korea, said he preferred the old rule where a sprinter was given a second chance after a false start.

“A rule is a rule and you have to accept it,” he said. “After what happened in Daegu, I think I liked the old rule better. “It (the false start) wasn’t something that I had planned to happen, but then these things are part of sport. You cannot really do much when they occur. I hope it does not happen again.” Bolt was, however, pleased with his performance this year. “It has been a good year for me overall,” he said. “I was undefeated, won the 200m and 4x100m events at the world championships, set a new world record in the 4x100m and was also voted the athlete of the year. —AFP

PERTH: United States skipper Anna Tunnicliffe emphatically claimed gold in the women’s match racing at the ISAF World Sailing Championships in Western Australian yesterday. The world number one, who was born in London but moved to the US as a teenager, was too good for defending champion Lucy Macgregor, of Great Britain, winning their best-of-seven final 4-0. It was the 29-year-old’s first world championship gold and she will be eyeing top spot in London next year when women’s match racing makes its Olympic debut.

A jubilant Tunnicliffe embraced crewmembers Deborah Capozzi and Molly Vandemour after crossing the finish line in Fremantle Harbour to win the fourth race and secure the gold medal.

It was a highly competitive final despite the scoreline, with penalties ultimately costing second-ranked Macgregor dearly. The Brit was penalized in each of the first three races, all of which were extremely close. Tunnicliffe won the first race by just one second, as Macgregor tried valiantly to overcome a penalty in the final downwind run to finish.

The next race saw Macgregor lead until the final mark, when a penalty incurred before the start handed the American the lead, which she held to win by three seconds. The third race was another thriller, with Macgregor well in front on the second leg and looking good to pull one race back. But Tunnicliffe steadily closed and in an absorbing downwind run to the finish, clawed her way to the lead with a series of manouevres. A late penalty on the

Brit sealed the win for the American.

Tunnicliffe always controlled the fourth race, leading throughout to win by five seconds. France’s Claire Leroy claimed

Bertrand. Meanwhile, Spain’s Tara Pacheco and Berta Betanzos extended their lead to a healthy 13 points over Japan’s Ai Kondo and Wakako Tabata in

FREMANTLE HARBOUR: USA 1 United States skipper Anna Tunnicliffe (right) celebrates with her crew after winning the gold medal during the Women’s Match Racing final at the ISAF World Sailing Championships yesterday. —AFP bronze, coming from behind Russian skipper Ekaterina Skudina on the final leg of the fourth race to win their bestof-five series 3-1.

Any disappointment at missing the final was not evident as Leroy vigorously celebrated winning the bronze medal with crew Marie Riou and Elodie

the women’s 470. In the men’s 49er skiffs, Australian duo Nathan Outteridge and Iain Jensen closed to within two points of leaders John Pink and Rick Peacock, of Great Britain. There are four races left in the 49er regatta, including tomorrow’s double points medal race for the top 10 sailors in the fleet. —AFP

Asian fortunes hit new heights SINGAPORE: Asian sporting fortunes reached new heights in 2011 as its growing riches drew a rising number of top events and China’s Li Na made history as the region’s first tennis Grand Slam winner. Japan claimed a thrilling victory in January’s Asian Cup, India were crowned cricket’s one-day champions and in October, New Zealand ended a 24-year jinx to lift the Rugby World Cup in front of an ecstatic home nation.

India’s debut Formula One race made it seven grands prix in the Asia-Pacific region, prompting the sport’s supremo Bernie Ecclestone to declare Europe was “finished” in the sport. And Asia’s burgeoning golf scene became so crowdedpartly due to the advent of mega-rich Chinese exhibition events-that tournaments clashed and were forced to compete for players. Asia-Pacific tennis players starred this year, with Samantha Stosur downing Serena Williams in a stormy US Open final to become Australia’s first female Grand Slam winner since 1980.

Earlier, Li’s historic French Open victory had triggered a rapturous response from the Chinese public, a government cash prize and a bronze statue in her home city of Wuhan, and eager anticipation of further success. But the straight-

sets win over defending champion Francesca Schiavone proved a tough act to follow as Li won just one match at Wimbledon and crashed out in the US Open first round. Japan had got the year off to a flying start as they edged Australia in the Asian Cup final in Doha thanks to a sublime extra-time volley from Tadanari Lee which settled it 1-0.

And the marathon cricket World Cup built to a memorable climax in Aprilafter starting in February-when co-hosts India chased down Sri Lanka’s 274 in Mumbai, sparking riotous celebrations.

England retained the Ashes with a 31 demolition of disbelieving Australia, their first away victory in the historic series in 24 years. But cricket reeled from newspaper revelations of a spot-fixing scam which led to jail terms in Britain for disgraced Pakistan captain Salman Butt, bowlers Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer, and their agent Mazhar Majeed. Asian football was also dragged through the mire when regional chief Mohamed bin Hammam was accused of handing out cash-stuffed envelopes and banned from the sport, after attempting to topple FIFA president Sepp Blatter.

South Korea’s K-League was rocked by a wide-ranging match-fixing scandal

which was closely linked to two suicides and left dozens of people in the dock.

But China’s much-maligned football scene celebrated a coup when Shanghai Shenhua landed the signature of Chelsea’s Nicolas Anelka, the Super League’s first legitimate star. In October, India held a trouble-free maiden Formula One race near New Delhi, boosting its image after last year’s shambolic and scandalous Commonwealth Games. Juvic Pagunsan became the Philippines’ first winner of golf’s Asian order of merit, largely through his efforts in coming second in the rain-hit Singapore Open.

A galaxy of golf stars were again lured to the region by ever-growing purses and hefty appearance fees, with world number two Rory McIlory pocketing $2 million-the sport’s richest first prize-for an exhibition win in China.

Tiger Woods showed signs of a longawaited return to form at the Australian Open in Sydney, before finally breaking his two-year win drought three weeks later in California. But the congested ‘Asian swing’ showed signs of reaching saturation point as tournaments competed for players and organizers hit out at China’s new “vanity” events which sucked in the game’s top talent. —AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Singapore eyes WTA debut next year SINGAPORE: Singapore looks set to hold its first WTA tennis tournament as early as next year after being offered an end-of-season time slot, a promoter said yesterday. The wealthy Southeast Asian mini-state, which is holding an exhibition event featuring six top players from Friday, would become the seventh AsiaPacific stop for the professional women’s tour. “We are in discussions with the WTA (Women’s Tennis

Association) to convert it to a WTA tournament. We have two options, the one we are looking at is probably the November time-slot,” promoter Hicham Moudden told journalists.

“We are planning to convert it to a WTA tournament from next year,” he added.

Moudden said Singapore also had the option to hold an event in January or February, but preferred the November slot because there are

no other events in the region at that time.

US Open champion Sam Stosur, world number eight Agnieszka Radwanska, China’s Peng Shuai, Flavia Pennetta, Daniela Hantuchova and Anabel Medina Garrigues are all in Singapore for the inaugural Singapore Women’s Tennis Exhibition. Spain’s Garrigues said a November event could prove popular with

Sparkling Westwood builds up huge lead BANGKOK: Lee Westwood put on another dazzling display at the $1 million Thailand Golf Championship yesterday to finish the second round on 20 under par, creating a commanding 11-stroke lead. The English world number three followed up his stunning opening day 60 on the par-72 Amata Spring Country Club course with another impressive eight-under 64 to leave the rest of the field reeling in his wake.

His score matches the 36-hole Asian Tour record held by Chapchai Nirat of Thailand. In joint second place are Masters champion Charl Schwartzel and American Michael Thompson who both shot six-under 66. Westwood raced away from the opening day’s closest challenger John Daly who could only manage a 73 in yesterday’s windier conditions, to slip to fourth place. Westwood admitted it was a “strange feeling” being so far ahead of the field. “It’s the biggest lead that I’ve ever had. It’s outrageous.”

He said conditions in the second round were more difficult than the first day. “There was quite a strong breeze and 64 is a really good score.

I’m delighted with the two days’ work.” Despite his huge lead, Westwood was not getting carried away. “I just want to carry on the way I’m playing. I am really looking forward to the weekend.” After his round Westwood headed for the gym. “One reason I’m playing well is because I am much fitter,” he said. Schwartzel was pleased with his round despite being a long way behind Westwood.

“I played really good golf. It was tough out there with the wind blowing.”

The South African praised Westwood’s performance. “I feel like Lee is playing his own tournament and we are playing something else. I still think I have a very outside chance, but I need a 14-under weekend to have a real sniff. It’s difficult to chase

“It’s frustrating when you are hitting it good, but not sinking those putts.”

He accepted that he has no chance of winning the tournament: “Playing for second is all I can do. No one is going to catch him (Westwood).”

Three stars, Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa,

CHONBURI: Lee Westwood of England lines up a putt during the second round of the Thailand Golf Championship 2011 tournament in Chonburi province yesterday. — AFP 11 shots.” Thompson, a PGA Tour rookie, was overjoyed at being in the mix. “I’m feeling great,” he said. “I’ll get to play with two great players. It will be exciting.” Thompson said he would not be overawed by playing in the final group despite his lack of experience. “I’m not going to be a pushover. I’m looking forward to it.”

Daly was disappointed with his round after a promising opening day of 65. “I just didn’t make any putts,” he said.

Darren Clarke of Northern Ireland and Spain’s Sergio Garcia all narrowly made the cut, which was set at threeover par 147. In the opening round Garcia threw a club in the lake in frustration at his erratic play. There was disappointment for local fans when Thailand’s top player, Thongchai Jaidee pulled out on the 13th hole with a painful back injury. The leading Thai player is Prom Meesawat in joint 11th place. — AFP

Outsiders queue to fill tennis power vacuum PARIS: Four different Grand Slam winners, Kim Clijsters’ freak accident on the dance floor and another Serena Williams US Open rant. There may be a power vacuum in the women’s game, with world number one Caroline Wozniacki still to win a major, but 2011 was far from dull as Li Na, Petra Kvitova and Samantha Stosur all joined Clijsters in the Grand Slam winners enclosure. Li’s French Open triumph, the first major singles crown captured by a Chinese player, was secured by a 6-4, 7-6 (7/0) victory over defend-

ing champion Francesca Schiavone. It also sparked hopes of a revolution in the game in China as well as a huge commercial windfall.

“For me it is a dream come true. I think it will do a little bit to improve tennis in China because more children think ‘Okay, maybe someday I can do the same or even better than her’,” said the 29-year-old, who had seen off Maria Sharapova in the semi-finals. But as the year progressed, Li’s dreams became the stuff of nightmares. — AFP

Asia-Pacific players, but may struggle to attract Europeans at the end of a long season. The last event on the current WTA calendar for 2012 is the Tournament of Champions season finale in Sofia, which starts on October 29. “I think for the Asian people or the people close to Australia, it’s going to be good preparation,” Garrigues said.

“For the people from Europe maybe it’s a little bit difficult.” — AFP

‘Perfect Storm’ led to Wheldon death LAS VEGAS: The crash that killed two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Dan Wheldon was the result of a “perfect storm” with no single factor pinpointed as the cause of the deadly accident, IndyCar officials said on Thursday. Wheldon died when his open-cockpit car became airborne during a 15-car pileup at the IndyCar season finale at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in October and slammed into a post holding the catch fencing sustaining a “non-survivable” head injury.

The cause of death was included in the findings of an exhaustive two-month investigation into the crash that took the life of one of Britain’s most successful race car drivers and sent several other drivers to the hospital. “While several factors coincided to produce a perfect storm none of them can be singled out as the sole cause of the accident,” IndyCar chief executive Randy Bernard said on a conference call. “For this reason it is impossible to determine with certainty that the result would have been any different if one or more of the factors did not exist.”

According to the report, safety systems functioned normally and there were no mechanical problems detected among the cars that might have triggered the chain reaction. “The impact with the fence that resulted in Dan’s unsurvivable injuries involved the circumstances of location, direction and orientation that was a chance result of previous interactions,” said IndyCar president Brian Barnhart. In the aftermath of the crash, drivers pointed to several factors as the potential cause for the accident, including the decision to run a large 34-car field sprinkled with part-time drivers on a lightning quick, 1-1/2 mile high-banked oval.

IndyCar has not released its schedule for 2012 but confirmed on Thursday that the series will not return to Las Vegas. IndyCar also conducted several inspections, including a test where series veterans Ryan Briscoe and Scott Dixon went 400 laps over two days to see how cars performed at the Las Vegas oval. It was also noted that the Las Vegas track, which was staging its first IndyCar race in 11 years, was capable of handling a 37 car field and that all drivers had competed in a least one IndyCar event that season. “This incident and the consequences could have occurred with any size starting field at any track,” said Bernard. “However, the experience of freedom of movement with the October 16 race does create questions whether an IndyCar starting field of any size is appropriate in the future.”

Barnhart said the ability of cars to race at top speed from the bottom of the Las Vegas Speedway to the top was not anything seen before, increasing the chances for an accident. “The examination of the video of the October 16 accident demonstrates normal pack racing that is common on high bank ovals,” explained Barnhart. “However, what was also witnessed was unlimited movement on the track surface under race conditions. “This movement not only allowed for increased car-to-car contact but made it more difficult for drivers to predict the movement of other drivers around them ... as a result the opportunity for this accident was increased.” — Reuters

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SPORTS

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

No 24 Murray State stun Lipscomb 89-65 MURRAY: Lipscomb coach Scott Sanderson had a big point to make after his team lost to No 24 Murray State on Thursday night: “They’re as good as advertised.” Ed Daniel and Ivan Aska both scored 16 points to help Murray State to the 89-65 victory - the team’s first game as a ranked team in 13 years. “They’re very good,” Sanderson said. “When you turn the ball over as much as we did tonight it’s not going to be much of a game and we had a lot of perimeter turnovers and you can’t do that against anybody let alone Murray State who are extremely athletic and quick and can get the ball up and down the floor.”

The Racers, who forced Lipscomb into 23 turnovers, had 15 steals and 25 assists. Malcom Smith led the Bisons (6-6) with 13 points, while Robert Boyd added nine. “Our coach told us this was probably going to be the best defensivepressing team we’re going to see all year,” Smith said. “They beat Memphis the other day and that’s a good high-pressure team too, so we knew they were going to come in and do that. We just have to handle the ball better than that - we’re a better team than that.”

Lipscomb, which is 0-4 on the road, faces an intensifying schedule as the Bisons head to Memphis on Monday to take on the team Murray State beat last Saturday to earn its national ranking. “Any mistake you make offensively and defensively they are going to turn into baskets at the other end of the floor, they are extremely quick,” Sanderson said.

“They cause you to turn the ball over and make you pay when you do.” Daniel said the Racers aren’t “too much hyped about being ranked.” “We like being ranked but we’re not trying to focus on that the whole time,” he said. “We’re still going to be the same team that plays hard and goes hard and play everybody like they’re ranked No 1.”

The Racers (10-0) have Steve Prohm off to the best start for a rookie coach in Murray State history. Isaiah Canaan added 13 points for the Racers, who won their 14th straight non-conference game, a streak dating to February 2009.

“Coach Prohm has a great personality and he cares about our team more than anything,” Canaan said, “and the same way he cares about us we care about him and we try to go out and play as hard as we can for him.” Daniel scored the first seven points for Murray State who led by 16 points at halftime and pulled away throughout the second half. “I thought we had some advantage in the post,” Prohm said. “I said in practice yesterday this is one of the games we want to get the ball inside. We’ve been playing against 6-foot-9, 6-foot10 guys for the last month and this was the first time I think we saw guys our size so we wanted to get the ball inside.”

Murray State had five players in double figures as Jewaun Long had 11 points and Stacy Wilson 10. The bench provided 26 points and 15 rebounds for the Racers, who had 12 players on the 13-man roster see action. As the clock dwindled down the Racers’ lead kept going up with the largest margin 34 points on a dunk by Aska with just under 8 minutes remaining. “We really talk about our game plan and our game plan is real simple,” Prohm said. “We’re not complicated, they just play hard, pressure the ball and deny the wings, fly around and play with great effort.”

With 7:22 to go, the Racers led 81-50 and Lipscomb, a team that took Ohio Valley Conference preseason favorite Tennessee Tech to overtime on Saturday, seemed to lose all fire. “I’m very excited to get a good win tonight,” Prohm said.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for Lipscomb and Coach Sanderson, I think they have a really good basketball team. They were 3-1 against our league and really had a chance against Tech.

They got up 24-11 against Tech and then Tech had to catch up and they were able to win the game.”

At just under 5 minutes on the clock, both Prohm and Canaan were yelling from the bench as Canaan aggressively interlocked his fingers, reminding the team to stay unified.

Prohm, yelling at the new players so hard his voice gave out, took a seat - an unlikely scene for the rookie coach who stands or squats through games. “I want those older guys to teach and coach those older guys,” Prohm said. “The expectation shouldn’t change if we’re up 30 or 20 or if we have bench guys in - you play the way we play on the defense end of the floor by playing hard.” Fourteen of the Racers’ 44 second-half points were dunks. “It was very exciting,” Daniel said. “Everybody was playing on the steals and leaking out and it was extremely fun.”— AP

Falcons soar to easy win Gabbert fumbles twice; White scores two touchdowns NEW YORK: The Atlanta Falcons had little difficulty dispatching the woeful Jacksonville Jaguars 41-14 at the Georgia Dome on Thursday to keep their pursuit of a playoff place on track. The Falcons improved to 9-5 and moved ahead of the Detroit Lions in the hunt for an NFC post-season spot, while the Jaguars fell to 410. Jacksonville’s rookie quarterback Blaine Gabbert had a miserable game and gave up two fumbles, both of them forced by John Abraham, which Atlanta converted into 10 points, including a 13-yard return for a touchdown by Corey Peters early in the third that stretched the Falcons lead to 34-0.

Abraham also had three-and-a-half sacks to lead the Falcons defense that allowed just 207 total yards. “This is a game I felt like I could do something,” Abraham told reporters after being critical of his own performance against the Carolina Panthers last week.

“Last week missing three sacks against Cam (Newton), if that was a regular quarterback those would have been sacks. He did a great job of breaking tackles and getting away. I said this week, if I get that opportunity, I’m getting the guy down.”

Julio Jones scored on a 29-yard reception on the Falcons opening drive and after a Matt Bryant field goal, Michael Turner extended Atlanta’s lead to 17-0 on a five-yard run early in the second quarter. Receiver Roddy White caught 10 passes for 135 yards and two scores. Zach Potter returned a blocked punt 46 yards to score Jacksonville’s first touchdown late in the third quarter and Chastin West added another in the final minute of the game. “A game like that is going to test your character,” Jaguars interim coach Mel Tucker said after the loss. “It’s going to reveal character. It’s how you respond to it.” — Reuters

ATLANTA: Atlanta Falcons defensive end John Abraham (55) sacks Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blaine Gabbert (11) during the first half of an NFL football game on Thursday, Dec 15, 2011. — AP

Giants and Jets guarding against Sunday ambush EAST RUTHERFORD: The New York Jets and New York Giants are on pace to reach the National Football League playoffs and both are guarding against Sunday ambushes by potential spoilers before the Big Apple teams clash next week. The Giants (7-6), coming off a last-minute win against the division-rival Dallas Cowboys, host the Washington Redskins (4-9), while the Jets (85) visit the Philadelphia Eagles (5-8).

At present, the Jets would possess an AFC wildcard berth in the postseason, and the Giants would claim their division title through a tiebreaker they hold over the Cowboys. Giants coach Tom Coughlin said the Redskins, who beat his team in the season opener, have been playing better than their losing record indicates. “Don’t be fooled by the record,” Coughlin said on

Wednesday at the Giants practice facility.

“Washington has played very, very well.

They’ve given everybody their A-game and taken literally all but a couple of these games right to the wire.”

Last week, Washington fell to the AFC East-leading New England Patriots, narrowly failing to force overtime despite driving within five yards of the end zone at the final whistle. The Jets play an Eagles team that marked quarterback Michael Vick’s return to the lineup after being sidelined with broken ribs by sinking the Miami Dolphins. “This is going to be a huge challenge for us,” Jets coach Rex Ryan said about a team that boasts Vick, running back LeSean McCoy and wide receiver DeSean Jackson. “(They are) the fourth-rated offense in

the league, the 11th-rated defense in the league and they probably have as many explosive playmakers as anybody we’ll face.” The Giants have faltered against struggling opponents this season, losing at home to the Seattle Seahawks in Week Five and to Philadelphia at home last month during a four-game skid. “The most important game of the season is right now,” Giants quarterback Eli Manning said about the Redskins. “We know it’s a talented team, a team that beat us earlier in the season. We know they play great defense.”

Washington coach Mike Shanahan said playing hard through the end of the schedule was a test of character for a sub-.500 team that would love to put a dent an opponents’ playoff hopes. “You just want to get back on the winning track. —Reuters

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Flyers extend winning streak to 7 MONTREAL: Andrei Meszaros scored 8:08 into the third and Mathieu Carle had three assists as the Philadelphia Flyers extended their winning streak to seven games with a 4-3 victory over the Montreal Canadiens in the NHL on Thursday. Maxime Talbot, Harry Zolnierczyk and Wayne Simmonds also scored for the Flyers, who have won nine of 10. Philadelphia was without star forward Claude Giroux, who missed his second game with a concussion, and captain Chris Pronger, who will miss the rest of the regular season and playoffs because of severe postconcussion syndrome. Louis Leblanc, David Desharnais and Erik Cole scored for Montreal.

scored the go-ahead goal 4:33 into the third period in Dallas’ victory over the Islanders.

Loui Eriksson and Brendan Morrow also scored and Richard Bachman made 25 saves to improve to 3-0 in the NHL and help the Stars run their winning streak to three games. Michael Grabner and Kyle Okposo scored for the Islanders, who have lost four in a row. New York’s Brian Rolston left the game because of a concussion in the first period.

ing streak with a victory over Edmonton.

Lauri Korpikoski and Radim Vrbata added goals for the Coyotes, who have won eight of their last nine games against the Oilers.

Taylor Hall scored twice for Edmonton after missing his last seven games with a shoulder injury. The Oilers have lost seven of nine.

Sharks 5, Avalanche 4 In San Jose, California, Brent Burns, Joe

Pavelski and Logan Couture scored in a 4:29 span of the third period as San Jose overcame a two-goal deficit to beat Colorado.

Ryane Clowe and Michal Handzus also scored to help the Sharks win for just the third time in 10 games.

Paul Stastny scored twice, and Ryan O’Reilly and Daniel Winnick added goals for the Avalanche, who have lost nine straight on the road. — AP

Kings 2, Blue Jackets 1 In Columbus, Ohio, Dustin Brown scored on a redirect midway through the third period to lead Los Angeles past Columbus to give interim coach John Stevens his first victory. Davis Drewiske also scored for the Kings, who fired Terry Murray as coach on Monday. There is widespread speculation that the team is close to hiring former San Jose coach and Calgary general manager Darryl Sutter as the permanent coach.

Jonathan Quick had 24 saves for Los Angeles, which ended a five-game skid. After a 5-1-1 start, the Kings have gone 9-12-3.

Hurricanes 4, Canucks 3 In Raleigh, North Carolina, Drayson Bowman scored two goals as Carolina rallied to beat Vancouver to give Kirk Muller his first coaching win on home ice. Tuomo Ruutu added a deflected goal and an assist and Jaroslav Spacek scored his first goal since being acquired by the last-place Hurricanes last Friday. Carolina scored four straight goals to rally from a 2-0 deficit. Muller replaced Paul Maurice, who was fired Nov. 28 following the Hurricanes’ slow start to the season. They have lost 16 of their last 21 games.

Lightning 5, Flames 4, OT In Tampa, Florida, Steven Stamkos scored his 19th goal of the season 30 seconds into overtime as Tampa Bay topped Calgary.

Teddy Purcell, Tom Pyatt, Ryan Malone and Nate Thompson also scored for the Lightning, who had lost seven of their last eight games. Calgary got goals from Matt Stajan, Jarome Iginla, Rene Bourque and Olli Jokinen. The Flames rebounded from a twogoal, third-period deficit when Bourque scored on a breakaway in the opening minute and Jokinen redirected Alex Tanguay’s shot past Mathieu Garon during a power play with 3:12 to go in regulation.

Capitals 1, Jets 0 In Winnipeg, Manitoba, Alex Ovechkin scored with 1:14 left and Michal Neuvirth made 26 saves for his first shutout of the season as Washington edged Winnipeg.

Ovechkin took a drop pass from Marcus Johansson at the Winnipeg blue line and fired a shot through Ondrej Pavelec’s pads for his 10th goal of the season. Washington improved to 4-4 since Dale Hunter took over as coach after Bruce Boudreau was fired on Nov 28. Pavelec made 27 saves for the Jets, who had won five straight at home.

Stars 3, Islanders 2 In Uniondale, New York, Jamie Benn

GLENDALE: Taylor Hall #4 of the Edmonton Oilers prepares to check Keith Yandle #3 of the Phoenix Coyotes during the first period of the NHL game at Jobing.com Arena on December 15, 2011. — AFP Predators 4, Red Wings 3 In Nashville, Tennessee, Shea Weber scored two goals late in the third period to lift Nashville to victory. David Legwand and Jordin Tootoo also scored for the Predators, who won their fourth straight game. Tomas Holmstrom, Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom scored for the Red Wings, who ended a three-game win streak. Weber scored his first goal on a power play with 4:46 left in the third, then got the game-winner on a wrist shot less than three minutes later.

Blues 4, Rangers 1 In St Louis, Brian Elliott made 25 saves to win for the ninth time in 10 starts and Alex Steen had a goal and an assist as the Blues beat New York. Elliott lowered his NHL-leading goals-against average to 1.43 and increased his league-best save percentage to .950. The Blues have 15 of a possible 16 points against Eastern Conference foes this season.

Patrik Berglund, David Perron and Jami Langenbrunner also scored for the Blues.

Coyotes 4, Oilers 2 In Glendale, Arizona, Shane Doan and Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored in the third period as Phoenix ended a three-game los-

NHL result/standing Dallas 3, NY Islanders 2; Carolina 4, Vancouver 3; Los Angeles 2, Columbus 1; Philadelphia 4, Montreal 3; Tampa Bay 5, Calgary 4 (OT); Nashville 4, Detroit 3; Washington 1, Winnipeg 0; Phoenix 4, Edmonton 2; San Jose 5, Colorado 4; St. Louis 4, NY Rangers 1. (OT denotes overtime) Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA PTS Philadelphia 20 7 3 110 85 43 NY Rangers 17 8 4 84 65 38 Pittsburgh 17 10 4 95 79 38 New Jersey 16 13 1 79 86 33 NY Islanders 9 14 6 67 96 24 Northeast Division Boston 20 9 1 102 61 41 Toronto 16 11 3 93 95 35 Buffalo 15 12 3 81 82 33 Montreal 13 12 7 82 84 33 Ottawa 14 14 4 96 112 32 Southeast Division Florida 16 9 6 84 80 38 Washington 16 13 1 90 94 33 Winnipeg 14 13 4 84 94 32 Tampa Bay 13 16 2 84 105 28 Carolina 10 18 5 84 113 25

Western Conference Central Division Chicago 19 8 4 103 95 Detroit 19 10 1 96 67 St. Louis 18 9 3 75 63 Nashville 16 11 4 83 83 Columbus 9 18 4 74 102 Northwest Division Minnesota 20 8 4 83 70 Vancouver 18 11 2 101 77 Calgary 14 14 3 78 87 Edmonton 14 14 3 85 84 Colorado 14 17 1 86 99 Pacific Division Dallas 18 11 1 77 80 San Jose 16 10 3 83 72 Phoenix 16 12 3 82 82 Los Angeles 14 13 4 67 71 Anaheim 9 16 5 71 96

42 39 39 36 22 44 38 31 31 29 37 35 35 32 23

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sports SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Spanish League Preview

Real Madrid target year-end top spot MADRID: Real Madrid go to Sevilla today looking to hit back from their shattering home loss to bitter rivals Barcelona last weekend and finish the year top of La Liga with their title challenge reignited. Barca’s victory in the Bernabeu means the two sides are equal at the top on 37 points, seven ahead of third-placed Valencia. However, Madrid have played one game less and will be looking for maximum points in the Sanchez Pizjuan. Away to fifth place Sevilla is not the easiest place for ‘Los Merengues’ to pick themselves up after the 3-1 defeat to Barcelona, but Madrid will want to widen the gap at the top over the Catalans who face Santos in the Club World Cup final in Japan today. President Florentino Perez was quick to back his staff this week in the wake of last Saturday’s game. “One of my best decisions since I became president has been to bring in Jose Mourinho. He has a great virtue in that he never gives up no matter how difficult the task facing him,” he said. “The defeat last week hurts everybody but only makes us more motivated and stronger, nobody likes losing but confidence is high.”

Madrid already returned to winning ways in the Spanish Cup on Tuesday with a 2-0 away victory at second division Ponferradina. And Brazilian midfielder Kaka was clear this week that a victory in Seville can put their campaign back on the right path. “After losing the ‘clasico’ it was important to win well at Ponferradina, now we go to Sevilla motivated because we know we can go clear at the top of the league,” he said. For Sevilla midfielder Manu del Moral there is no better way to come back from last weekend’s defeat at Levante than to beat Madrid. “They are one of the best teams in the world, to beat them we have to do almost everything well and be careful not to leave too much space because they are deadly on the counter-attack,” he declared. Madrid’s Argentine midfielder Angel Di Maria did not train on Thursday due to a family bereavement but is expected to be available, Portuguese defender Ricardo Carvalho is their only unavailable squad member, out with a long term injury. Sevilla will welcome back talismanic centre forward Freddie Kanoute from injury.

He proved his fitness scoring in the 1-0 away victory to San Roque in the Spanish Cup in midweek.

Third-placed Valencia face sixth-placed Malaga at home tomorrow in a clash where both teams are desperate to get their seasons back on track. Champions League elimination at Chelsea followed by defeat at Real Betis last week means Valencia need a victory to stay in touch with the top two. Bigspending Malaga have dropped down the table after failing to win in two and need points to enhance their Champions League aspirations. They trail Valencia by six points and Levante, in fourth, by five. Levante face a much-improved Mallorca who sit in 11th and are unbeaten in five league games with newly-appointed coach Joaquin Caparros slowly propelling the Balearic side up the table. —AFP

French League Preview

PSG prepare for heavyweight clash PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain can put the disappointment of their midweek European exit behind them by beating Lille at the Parc des Princes tomorrow in one of the biggest games of the French season so far. The capital club had been banking on a long run in the Europa League, but a 42 win against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday was not enough to prevent them from being eliminated at the group stage, ruling out any chance of a meeting with a continental giant such as Manchester City or Manchester United in the last 32.

However, winning the title remains the ultimate goal for the campaign, and Paris are back level with Montpellier at the top of the Ligue 1 table on the back of successive victories against Auxerre and Sochaux. “It’s a huge disappointment because we were good enough to get through,” said PSG coach Antoine Kombouare in the immediate aftermath of his team’s European exit. “Now we have to keep moving forward and draw on this victory.

It’s a third consecutive victory and that’s the best possible way to prepare for the Lille match tomorrow.”

A victory would put PSG five points clear of the defending champions, who have had to get over their own European heartache, having been knocked out of the Champions League. However, Rudi Garcia’s side travel south in third place in the table and are unbeaten in their last 15 league games, a club record. “PSG are a team we respect a lot,” said Lille’s Cameroon defender Aurelien Chedjou. “We know that it will be a difficult game because they have such quality players, but I think we have the desire and the capability to go and get a positive result there.”

Lille have not beaten PSG at the Parc des Princes since 1996, but they do have the best away record in the league this season and they also have happy memories of their most recent meetings with the capital side. In May, they emerged victorious when the teams clashed in the French Cup final at the Stade de France, before a 2-2 draw at PSG a week later sealed their first league title since 1954. PSG have a slight doubt over Jeremy Menez (calf), while Blaise Matuidi is out but Guillaume Hoarau could feature after making his comeback from a shoulder injury against Athletic Bilbao. Benoit Pedretti could return to the Lille line-up.

Montpellier held on to top spot on goal difference despite seeing their eight-match unbeaten run ended in defeat at Valenciennes last time out. Rene Girard’s side can go provisionally three points clear again if they can beat Toulouse today, although they face a tough test against a side renowned for their defensive strength and who come into the weekend in sixth spot. Elsewhere today, fresh from winning their last four games in all competitions, a revitalized Lyon entertain Evian in a match

Paris-Saint-Germain’s coach Antoine Kombouare that sees Sidney Govou return to face his former club.

Govou is a veteran of all seven of Lyon’s championshipwinning campaigns, although injuries and poor form mean he has played only a peripheral role since moving to Evian in the summer.

Like PSG, Rennes bowed out of the Europa League in midweek, but the Breton side are fifth in Ligue 1 and will be confident of claiming all three points when they travel to Corsica to face rock-bottom Ajaccio tomorrow. Both Saint-Etienne and Marseille have lost just once in their last 11 league games and remain hopeful of joining in the fight for European places as they face Dijon and Lorient respectively. Caen against Nancy, Nice v Valenciennes and Brest against Auxerre complete the today line-up, while tomorrow’s other game sees Bordeaux coach Francis Gillot take on his former side Sochaux. —AFP

Italian League Preview

Contenders coy on Italian title chances ROME: The four teams leading the way in Serie A remained coy of their chances ahead of this weekend’s matches. Leaders Juventus host Novara, who are in the bottom three, while third place AC Milan are at home to Siena. But the most intriguing match of the weekend sees second placed Udinese travel to fourth placed Lazio. Udinese are only behind Juve on goal difference while Lazio, who trail Milan by the same margin, are just two points behind that. Any one of the top four could end the weekend at the top of the table. Both Udinese and Lazio were involved in Europa League matches in midweek, although Lazio had one more day to rest and recover from their exertions.

While most observers are surprised by both sides’ positive starts to the season, the general consensus is that Udinese are the most likely to continue their run.

But Lazio’s French centre-back Mobido Diakite believes

that their front pair of compatriot Djibril Cisse and Germany’s Miroslav Klose make them competitive. “For a striker like Cisse goals are everything. He’s missing those but against Lecce he won us the game with his assist for Klose,” said Diakite. “When I was younger I used to watch (Klose’s) matches at home and I used to say ‘it’s crazy how good he is’. “We’ll approach Udinese as we do every match, they’re a great team with great players but we don’t think we’re inferior.”

While one of those two at least will lose ground at the top, that’s not expected to be the case with Juve and Milan, who both have what on paper appear easy home matches. If Juve avoid defeat they will take their unbeaten start to the season to 15 matches but goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon says previous experience shows it is still too early to start dreaming of winning the title. “It’s risky talking about the title, leading the

league is just something temporary that’s lasted 14 games,” said Buffon. “At this time of the season last year we were also close to the top but we didn’t even qualify for Europe.”

Champions Milan have picked up impressively since a poor start in which they won only one of their first five matches. Since then, though, they’ve racked up seven wins and two draws and club captain Massimo Ambrossini insists they’ve proved they have the desire to go all the way again. He also denied that successstarved Juve want it more. “Juve don’t have any more grit than Milan, they just have two more points in the standings,” he said. “It’s always difficult to win the title and you can’t think it’s possible to win a title without having challengers. “Juve are doing a lot to stay at the top and I have to congratulate them because they deserve to be top.” —AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

NYON: A picture shows the final results of the draw for the last 32 of the UEFA Europa League yesterday. — AP

NYON: A picture shows the draw for the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League yesterday at the UEFA headquarters in Nyon. — AFP

Tough Champions League draw for Chelsea, Arsenal Man United to face Ajax in Europa PARIS: England’s two surviving representatives in the Champions League, Chelsea and Arsenal, were handed tough ties against Italian opposition in yesterday’s draw for the last 16, while holders Barcelona will come up against Germany’s Bayer Leverkusen. Chelsea will take on Napoli, while Arsenal will meet reigning Serie A champions AC Milan, with both Premier League clubs travelling to Italy first. Chelsea have never previously faced Napoli, but they will know not to take Walter Mazzarri’s side lightly after they qualified for the last 16 at the expense of Manchester City. The 2008 beaten finalists have also only ever won once in Italy in seven attempts.

Meanwhile, former European champions Manchester United and Ajax will meet in the last 32 of the Europa League. The two were drawn to face each other yesterday. Defending champion FC Porto will take on Manchester City, while 2010 Europa League champion Atletico Madrid will face Lazio. Also, it’s: Stoke vs. Valencia; Udinese vs PAOK; and Locomotiv Moscow vs Athletic Bilbao. The first legs will be played Feb. 16, with the return matches scheduled for Feb 23.

“I think that at this stage we can come up with the cliches about it being difficult, and it will be difficult because we’ve seen that Napoli were in the same group as Manchester City, so that reflects on the quality of Napoli,” Chelsea secretary David Barnard said. For Arsenal, meanwhile, the clash with Milan is a repeat of their meeting at the same stage in 2007-08. On that occasion the Gunners won 2-0 on aggregate, with Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor scoring late goals in the second-leg at the San Siro after a goalless first-leg. “It’s going to be a fantastic two games,” Arsenal club secretary David Miles told Sky Sports after the draw, before admitting: “If I’m being honest there are probably some other teams we may have preferred.”

Nevertheless, Milan have also been eliminated by English clubs in the round of 16 in each of the last two campaigns, losing to Tottenham last season, and to Manchester United in 2010.

Barcelona will go to Germany first to face the 2002 runners-up Leverkusen, who qualified from Group E behind Chelsea. There is history between the clubs, as Leverkusen beat Barca in the 1987-88 UEFA Cup quarter-finals, on their

way to winning their only European trophy to date. However, the Catalans will fancy their chances of gaining revenge this time as they aim to become the first club to win the Champions League in successive seasons.

“We have got Bayer Leverkusen! That’s not a bad draw! I have always enjoyed playing in Germany. The atmosphere is always great there,” Barcelona defender Gerard Pique said on Twitter from Japan, where Pep Guardiola’s side are currently preparing for Sunday’s Club World Cup final against Santos. Real Madrid, who romped through the group stage winning all six games in Group D, will be heavy favorites to beat CSKA Moscow, although their Director of Institutional Relations Emilio Butragueno told Eurosport that the Spaniards will not be taking the tie lightly. “In football you never know. CSKA won at Inter in the group stages and will not be an easy team to play against,” he said.

“They will be really up for it. It will be very cold there in February and it will be a difficult surface (CSKA play on artificial turf). “We are a great team, of course. The level of performance so far this season has been very good but it is

Prospects shine at the Club World Cup YOKOHAMA: While Neymar has been hogging the headlines at the Club World Cup with his frightening talent and bleached hair, several other young prospects have quietly burnished their own reputations. The 19-year-old Brazilian hit a wonderful strike to put his Santos side 1-0 up against Kashiwa Reysol on Wednesday, but it was a defender from the Japanese champions who drew the most attention at the post-match press conference.

Hiroki Sakai, 21, the J-League Young Player of the Year, scored his team’s only goal in the 3-1 defeat-a powerful header from a corner-and was a constant menace going forward, while defending bravely to keep Kashiwa in it.

The attacking right full-back, who has drawn comparisons with Barcelona’s rampaging defender Dani Alves, is widely reported to be interesting Santos-and that was before his highly impressive showing against them in Toyota. Santos coach Muricy Ramalho refused to say whether the South American champions would go in for the youngster, but he showed enough knowledge of the under-22 international to suggest he had been closely watching his progress.

“He’s a young player and just a rookie,” Ramalho said.

“It was only his first year in the J-League. You need to be patient with him and he will develop further in the future”, was all he would say on the player. Sakai, like fellow Kashiwa prospect Akimi Barada, the 20-year-old midfielder, is a product of the J-League champions’ youth system.

It was in the same Kashiwa-Santos tie that another young defender also announced his arrival on the world scene.

With the Japanese side scenting an equalizer, Danilo dinked a free-kick beyond the Kashiwa wall and into the goal, leaving keeper Takanori Sugeno dumbfounded and handing Santos a decisive 3-1 lead. Along with Sakai, the 20-year-old Danilo, who can play in defense or midfield, was arguably the man-of-the-match as Santos set up a final showdown with Barcelona. That the Brazilian international was even taking a direct free-kick for a side boasting Neymar, Ganso and Elano in its ranks says it all about his standing in the team and deadly quality from set-pieces.

But it was his all-round play that has impressed Ramalho in the youngster’s first full season at Santos and convinced Porto to shelve out about 13 million euros ($16.9 million) for his signature. He will link up with the Portuguese side after the Club World Cup. —AFP

tough to win this competition so we just need to make sure we produce the best performance we can possibly muster.” Meanwhile Bayern Munich, who are hoping to reach the final at their own Allianz Arena, will meet Manchester United’s conquerors Basel. “The team will be motivated because the objective is to reach the final in Munich,” said Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. “Of course, we will be favorites. If the team plays to its best then we have a good chance of reaching the quarter-finals.” Marseille will take on 2010 winners Inter Milan in a tie that sees Claudio Ranieri once again come up against Didier Deschamps. Ranieri was in charge of Chelsea when they lost to Deschamps’ Monaco in the semi-finals of the competition in 2004. Benfica meet Zenit St Petersburg, while Lyon will face the tournament outsiders APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus. “They are probably the weakest team left in the competition, but that doesn’t mean we will not have to do really well if we are to go through,” said Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas. “APOEL have done brilliantly, especially away from home, although this is one of the kindest draws we have had in recent years.” — Agencies

Okada bracing for a rough ride in China TOKYO: Former Japan coach Takeshi Okada said yesterday he was ready to face anti-Japanese sentiment as manager of China’s Hangzhou Greentown, especially if results do not go his way.

Okada, who signed a one-year contract with the Chinese Super-League side on Thursday, conceded he may face hostility as the first Japanese national to coach in China’s top flight.

The two nations share a decades-old enmity stemming from war-time atrocities committed by Japanese troops invading China, a source of enduring friction.

The animosity has frequently spilled over into sport, with spectators at the 2004 Asian Cup and the 2008 East Asian championships in China jeering the Japanese national anthem and burning Red-Sun flags. “I think for now that, if I cannot help the team win, I may come under tremendous criticism combined with that

kind of anti-Japanese sentiment,” the bespectacled 55-year-old said in Tokyo.

“But so far everyone in the staff has been friendly. Three Chinese coaches on the field help me and would do anything for me,” added Okada. “I have the impression that the players will accept me. I had thought they would be more sceptical about me.” Outlining his targets for the club, who finished eighth in the 16-team Super League, Okada said qualification for the AFC Champions League and then the Club World Cup-currently being held in Japan-were next season’s priorities.

“We aim to qualify for the AFC Champions League, become champions there to qualify for the (Club World Cup) and beat Barcelona.”

“Everybody laughs at this. But it is not impossible. When I said this to the players, they also laughed. —AFP

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Manchester City vow to bounce back LONDON: Manchester City are determined to bounce back from the disappointment of losing their unbeaten record tomorrow as the Premier League leaders entertain a resurgent Arsenal. Roberto Mancini’s men suffered their first loss of the season with a 2-1 reverse at Chelsea, a setback which slashed City’s lead at the top to two points and removed their aura of invincibility.

By the time City kick off against the Gunners in the weekend’s showpiece fixture, they may already have been knocked off top spot if second placed Manchester United manage to beat Queens Park Rangers at Loftus Road. Nevertheless Mancini is adamant that his expen-

sively assembled side have the character to shrug off their defeat at Stamford Bridge, a game they had led 1-0 before Chelsea struck back to blow the title race wide open.

“I think that at these moments we should be strong,” said Mancini. “After one defeat, we can improve - we know what we can do, and in this moment we can become stronger. “We have never had a problem bouncing back after a defeat, and I am sure we will do it again.

“We play Arsenal tomorrow and at the moment Arsenal are playing very well. It will be difficult but we need to start again. What is important is that we start to win

again.” City captain Vincent Kompany said the defeat at Chelsea had brought the club’s first team closer together.

“Losing at Chelsea has made us feel more hungry,” said Kompany. “We want to play football again as quickly as possible. That is the kind of team we are. “We don’t like to lose. We still feel for a team playing away at Chelsea we showed a lot of courage, especially in the first-half.” City’s Arsenal old boy Gael Clichy, sent off against Chelsea, is suspended for the clash with his former club. However Samir Nasri, who departed Arsenal for City last summer amid acrimony, could feature for the Manchester side. —AFP

Drogba future uncertain, admits Villas-Boas

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English Premier League

Chelsea’s Ivorian striker Didier Drogba

LONDON: Chelsea manager Andre VillasBoas admits Didier Drogba’s Chelsea future remains unresolved-but insists Fernando Torres is going nowhere. The prospect of both strikers remaining at the club has been thrown into doubt with Drogba tipped to follow Nicolas Anelka to China while there has been mounting speculation the Blues could be ready to cut their losses on Torres. But Villas-Boas-whose side will attempt to secure a fourth successive Premier League win at Wigan this weekend-insists he is anxious to keep both forwards at Stamford Bridge.

Drogba, 33, has emerged as Villas-Boas’s first choice striker during Chelsea’s recent upturn in form but is out of contract at the end of the current campaign. Speaking before the trip to Wigan, the manager admitted the length of any new deal was proving to be a sticking point-but is hope-

ful terms can be agreed. “It’s between a two-year and a one-year and we’re waiting to make the best decision possible,” VillasBoas said. “The situation is on-going and we hope to solve it. Whatever the outcome or agreement, or non-agreement, there will be no question of his professionalism and integrity and he will keep on representing Chelsea this season.

“Didier’s importance is straightforward, it’s not just because he is performing now.

The conversation has been on-going since the beginning and we’ll continue to push for that. “It’s not up to me to speak about what is in Didier’s mind at the moment regarding his future. “What I think is clear is that he is pretty much involved with Chelsea and his mindset is on competing with his colleagues for this club. That’s the most gratifying thing, the commitment from the player. His professionalism is not

Ferguson rules out Jan shopping spree MANCHESTER: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson ruled out a January transfer window spree yesterday despite a mounting injury crisis at his club. Midfielder Darren Fletcher this week became the latest player to join United’s casualty list, which already includes Captain Nemanja Vidic, who will miss the rest of the season, and striker Javier Hernandez.

But despite calls for Ferguson to

bolster his squad-with particular concern over his midfield-the United manager said yesterday he will only buy if the right player becomes available.

Asked if he expected United to sign any new players next month: “Not neccessarily. I don’t know why people keep going on about it.”(I won’t buy) unless someone appears we have always been interested in appears, but there isn’t.”—AFP

in question.” Chelsea’s season has been revived in the last two weeks with victory over Valencia securing a place in the last 16 of the Champions League before the 2-1 win over Manchester City left Villas-Boas’s side just seven points off the pace in the Premier League. Torres, though, has been forced to watch from the substitutes’ bench, triggering reports the Spaniard might be offloaded for a cut-price £20 million, just 12 months after he arrived from Liverpool in a £50 million record deal. Villas-Boas remains adamant the Spain international is not for sale, however. “It’s not true. I’m sorry,” he said. “He is not available at any price, for sure.”

Victory at the DW Stadium will reduce the gap on leaders Manchester City to just four points with Roberto Mancini’s side due to face Arsenal the following day. And while Villas-Boas has no new injuries to contend with, he conceded Michael Essien, absent all season with a knee injury, is still a month away from full fitness and expects the Ghana international to miss the African Cup of Nations. “We’re looking at midJanuary, that’s the best we can think about.

There was a setback at the beginning of December if I’m not wrong which took him back 10 days and that’s extended into January, so I don’t think he will go to the African Cup of Nations,” the manager said.

Wigan have been lifted by the victory at West Bromwich Albion that moved them out of the bottom three and revived hopes they can escape relegation. Like VillasBoas, Wigan manager Roberto Martinez has also been forced to deny reports his main striker could quit the club in January.—AFP

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SATURDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2011

Sports

Tough Champions League draw for Chelsea, Arsenal

46

UDINE: Udinese’s goalie (left) defends goal during an UEFA Europa League football match between Udinese and Celtic Glasgow at Friuli Stadium in Udine on December 15, 2011. —AFP

Spurs, Birmingham, Celtic crash out Rubin, Udinese, Bruges, Alkmaar cruise into last 32 BERNE: Rubin Kazan, Udinese, Bruges and AZ Alkmaar qualified for the Europa league knockout stages on Thursday and will go into the draw for the round of 32 with big guns Manchester United and Manchester City after their Champions League elimination. Rubin Kazan, down to 10 men after 13 minutes, held on for a 1-1 draw at PAOK Salonika to qualify at the expense of last season’s Champions League quarter-finalists Tottenham Hotspur. The under-strength English Premier League side, with only three outfield players on the bench, won 4-0 at Shamrock Rovers but finished third in Group A, one point behind the Russians.

Udinese’s Antonio Di Natale volleyed an equalizer in first half stoppage time to give the Italians the point they needed at home to Celtic who had taken the lead through Gary Hooper. The 1-1 draw left Udinese second in Group I behind Atletico Madrid.

Bruges also went through with a 1-1 home draw versus last year’s Europa League finalists Braga, who played most of the Group H match with 10 men, as did Dutch league leaders Alkmaar by the same scoreline against Metalist Kharkiv in Group G. Bjorn Vleminckx opened the scoring for Bruges just after the break against a Braga side who had defender Elderson sent off in the 16th

minute for a trip on Vadis Odjidja but the Portuguese outfit equalized with a fine strike from Ewerton in the 65th. English Championship (second division) side Birmingham City beat Maribor 1-0 but finished a point behind group winners

Bruges and Braga who had already qualified.

Alkmaar’s Adam Maher equalized seconds after Metalist went ahead late in the first half through Marko Devic and the point kept the Dutch side in second place just above Austria Vienna, who beat

UDINE: Udinese’s goalie Samir Handanovic blocks a ball during an UEFA Europa League football match between Udinese and Celtic Glasgow at Friuli Stadium in Udine. — AFP

visitors Malmo 2-0, on goal difference.

FIVE GOALS Tottenham needed a win combined with a defeat for Rubin and had to make up a difference of five goals to qualify and, although it looked impossible to start with, it was on the cards at the break in the respective games. “At halftime we knew that the other team (Rubin) were losing and thought we had a real chance,” Spurs manager Harry Redknapp told ITV4. “We knew they had gone down to ten men.” Rubin fell behind to a Vierinha penalty in the 16th minute after their goalkeeper Sergei Ryzhikov was sent off for scything down Giorgos Georgiadis, while a second-string Tottenham side had opened up a three-goal halftime lead at Shamrock. But Paraguay forward Nelson Haedo Valdez scored for Rubin three minutes after the break, volleying in from the penalty spot after Gokdeniz Karadeniz had cut the ball back.

South Africa midfielder Steven Pienaar, with his first goal for Spurs, Andros Townsend and Jermain Defoe struck in a 16-minute spell before halftime to keep the Londoners in the hunt. Substitute Harry Kane then added the fourth in stoppage time for Tottenham, who have fielded under-strength teams in all their group games. —Reuters