19 Nov 2011

IO N IPT SC R SU B

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

THULHIJA 23, 1432 AH

No: 15273

Blatter sorry for racism remarks but won’t quit

150 Fils

48

US to boost security in Asia Pacific: Obama US, China set to clash over maritime dispute

Max 28º Min 16º

NUSA DUA, Indonesia: US President Barack Obama (fifth from left) and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (sixth from left) pose with other leaders for a family photo before the East Asia Summit Gala dinner on the island of Bali yesterday. — AP

Egyptians protest against army rule CAIRO: Tens of thousands mainly Islamist protesters flocked to Cairo’s Tahrir Square yesterday to press Egypt’s military rulers to transfer power to elected civilians after the cabinet launched a move to exempt the army from parliamentary oversight.

The protesters chanted Islamic songs before Friday prayers while others handed out flyers demanding the withdrawal of the constitutional proposal and that presidential elections be held no later than April 2012, instead of at year end or in 2013. “Does the government want to humiliate the people? The people revolted against Mubarak and they will revolt against the constitution they want to impose on us!” a member of an orthodox Islamic Salafi group cried out over loudspeakers. “Down to military rule” and “No to making the army a state above the state” were some of the chants echoing across Tahrir.

A military source said yesterday the army would hand power to a civilian government in 2012, without giving a exact date. Except for the preponderance of

bearded men and veiled women typical of strict Islamists, the mass rally recalled the 18-day, largely secular uprising centred in Tahrir that toppled autocratic President Hosni Mubarak on Feb 11. A parliamentary election set for Nov. 28 could be disrupted if political parties and the government fail to resolve a row over the proposal that would deny parliamentary oversight of the army, potentially allowing it to defy an elected government.

Over 39 political parties and groups said in a joint statement they would rally “to protect democracy and the transfer of power” after negotiations broke down between Islamist groups and the cabinet.

Deputy Prime Minister Ali Al-Silmi showed a constitutional draft to political groups earlier this month which would give the army exclusive authority over its internal affairs and budget. Salafi parties and movements who follow strict Islamic teachings were the earliest to galvanise support for the Friday protest, with the Muslim Brotherhood and a number of liberal parties following suit. — Reuters

By Sajeev K Peter NUSA DUVA, BALI, Indonesia: US President Barack Obama said yesterday that the United States is committed to promoting peace and security in South East Asia in order to ensure lasting stability in the region. Addressing a joint summit conference with Indonesian President Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono after ASEAN and East Asia summit negotiations, President Obama said maritime security of the region is in America’s interest, indirectly suggesting that the US will go ahead with its plan to establish a military base in Darwin, Australia.

Media observers at the ASEAN 2011 venue feel that if the US goes ahead with the plan, it will bring this Asian archipelago into sharp international focus as it is already in the midst of a dispute following China’s new claim on the South China Sea. It may be recalled that the US and Chinese military chiefs had clashed over US naval exercises in South China Sea. The US has held joint naval exercises with the Philippines recently and announced plans to hold similar drills with Vietnam. Though the US states that these are routine training exercises, China expressed displeasure over the drills as Beijing claims that part of the Sea is within in its maritime territory. Obama also announced a series of cooperation agreements with the East Asian countries including financial assistance to boost security in the region.

Meanwhile, a Japanese official said yesterday said that Japan supports Manila’s proposal to settle the maritime dispute with China through negotia-

tions. “The Philippines plays a very constructive role in the region and the amicable solution to the dispute is imperative for the region,” said Noriyuki Shikata, Deputy Cabinet Secretary for Public affairs of PMO, during a summit briefing. Answering a question regarding the US plan to establish a military base in Darwin, Shikata said the US and Australia have jointly taken the decision after necessary consultations. “We believe that the new move will enhance the peace and security in the region,” he added.

Japan is coming up with a special project for Mekong which will help the region establish a better connectivity with the rest of the world, said Shikata.

“There are certain missing links in the Mekong region. Our new initiative is intended to overcome this problem,” he said. “Japan is keenly observing the evolving political situation in Myanmar. We will support the process as the current developments are quite encouraging and helpful for democracy,” he said in reference to Myanmar’s bid to become the chair of the ASEAN summit in 2014.

A Chinese official, who announced the formal launching of ASEAN-China Centre at the summit, however, remained tight-lipped on the issue. Ma Mingqiang, Secretary General of the ASEAN-China Centre, said the center is a new mechanism established to promote two-way flow of investments, trade and tourism between China and ASEAN member states. China will invest $10 billion for infrastructure development for the center which will also boost culture, education and information technology among the countries.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Minister demands MP’s apology over bribe allegations KUWAIT: Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Dr Mohammad Al-Afasi is demanding that a lawmaker makes an official apology to the ministry’s female employees if she fails to provide proof for her allegations that the staff members collect bribes in order to favor individuals ahead of others in finishing transactions.

“MP Dr Sarlwa Al-Jassar made serious statements when she accused the ministry’s female employees of general of misconduct”, said Al-Afasi, who is also a Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Justice.

“She is required to prove her allegations, or else make an official apology for damaging the employees’ reputation”.

Al-Afasi further condemned what he described as “hiding behind [the parliamentary] immunity and using the parliament’s building to question the integrity of others”, and vowed to respond on the subject during a future parliamentary session. — Al-Rai

Health Minister denies resignation rumors KUWAIT: Minister of Health Dr Helal Al-Sayer denied rumors that he had resigned in protest against the political infightings, and reiterated his commitment to face any potential grilling motions filed against him, according to a news report published by Al-Shahed daily yesterday.

Al-Jarida daily published a front-page story yesterday quoting “reliable sources” as saying that Dr Al-Sayer submitted his resignation to His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah on Wednesday, and that he insists on stepping down.

These rumors drew quick comments from MP Saifi AlSaifi, who plans to file a grilling motion against the health minister in the near future. “The minister would be escaping from confrontation if his resignation talks turn out to be true”, the lawmaker said, adding at the same time that he would continue taking “constitutional measures [against the minister] for his financial and legal violations” even if he steps down.

News MP delays naturalization list KUWAIT: Sources have reported that an MP caused the delay in announcing the naturalization list of the military bedoon this week. The sources revealed that the MP used his influence to write the names of new military men, which brought their number to 128. The sources expected the list to be approved by the Cabinet within the next two weeks, adding that it will be the first of several lists.

All committees completed the evaluation of the military men as ‘A’ and ‘B’. Those in group ‘A’ will be naturalized, and those in group ‘B’ will be given certain incentives, such as retirement.

Additional official holiday KUWAIT: Sources at the Civil Service Commission revealed that a decision is expected next week regarding whether or not Sunday Nov 27 will become an official holiday as a compensation for Saturday Nov 26, which is the start of the new Hijra year. — Al-Watan

Govt employees continue strikes for pay increases Call for equality in job classification KUWAIT: Legal staff members in state departments plan to continue their strike next week as their union evaluates options which include taking action with international organizers against the government if it keeps ignoring their demands. “The strikes will continue until all legitimate demands are met”, said Hamad AlWardan, the head of the labor union representing legal staff in state departments. The employees demand equality in job classification with their peers in the Fatwa and Legislation Department, the General Department of Investigations, and the legal department of the Kuwait Municipality.

Legal staff in these three departments have different classification than those of other state departments; and by which they are entitled to higher pay and other financial privileges.

Last week ended with labor strikes hitting a number of state departments, including the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Electricity and Water, and immigration departments.

Around one hundred staff members from the Ministry of Education’s administrative department staged a sit-in Thursday morning to demand similar financial privileges to those enforced recently to Kuwaiti teachers.

Acting Assistant Undersecretary Aisha Al-Roudhan pleaded to the employees to go back to their offices and wait for the Cabinet’s meeting that is scheduled for tomorrow (Sunday) when adjustment of the public sector’s payroll will be addressed.

The senior MOE official got emotional while speaking to reporters covering the event, as she pointed towards a few number of employees who stayed at their office and said “those are the ones who truly love Kuwait”.

There has been concern that employees from the salaries division at the financial department were among those who joined the protest.

However, assistant undersecretary for financial affairs Radhi Al-Rasheedi denied those rumors, and insisted in statements to Al-Jarida that salaries of MOE employees will be paid on time.

Meanwhile, a two-hour strike car-

KUWAIT: Staff members from the Ministry of Education’s administrative department are seen staging a sit-in Thursday morning to demand similar financial privileges to those enforced recently to Kuwaiti teachers. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

ried out by Ministry of Interior personnel on Thursday paralyzed work at several immigration and traffic departments around the country, and left crowds of people with no one to handle their transactions. The staff members resumed their work after senior ministry officials promised to look into their financial demands.

The situation wasn’t different at the Subbiya power plant, where several maintenance workers held a strike to demand unpaid salaries. The employees, who work for a private company which has a contract with the MEW, plan to continue with their strike for a couple more days, raising concerns about maintenance opera-

tions at the plant.

In the meantime, 30 female employees working for the emergency operator at the Ministry of Interior held a strike on Thursday to demand a KD150 pay raise which they claim the Civil Service Commission is deliberately ignoring.

On the other hand, medical registration officers at the Al-Razi Hospitals canceled plans to stage a strike on Thursday, after what they claim was “threats of salary deductions” by the hospital’s administration. The staff members were planning to hold a strike to demand financial allowances. —Al-Qabas, Al-Rai, AlJarida

Call for more Kuwaitis to sign Gitmo petition KUWAIT: As part of Kuwait’s official efforts demanding the release of its citizens jailed in Guantanamo, Fayez Al-Kandary and Fawzi Al-Oudah, lawyer Adel Abdelhadi has said “As a member of the team asked by the Pentagon to defend Fayez Al-Kandari, who is one of the Kuwaitis detained in Guantanamo for 10 years without being charged or tried, and to continue shedding light on this humanitari-

an case, we are declaring the intensification of the campaign to defend Fayez Al-Kandari and Fawzi Al-Ouda”.

He added that a petition was prepared previously asking for justice for the due, “We had nearly 19,000 signatures to date, along with the support of 36 Kuwaiti MPs, so we appeal to all in Kuwait to participate with us in intensifying our campaign by signing on the petition, which is available at:

http://www.q8portals.com/care2/portal/default/ar.asp Adelhadi further said that American soldier Brandon Nilly, who is a former guard at Guantanamo detention center, had intended to apologize to the people of Kuwait and the detainees’ families over the goings on at the center. Tremendous pressure, however, halted his plans.

—Al-Aan, Al-Watan

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Cabinet approves shops shut down KUWAIT: The Cabinet agreed on a decision made by Minister of Public Works and State Minister of Municipality Affairs Dr Fadhel Safar to close down shops at the Abu Ftaira area over licensing conflicts, despite a decision from the Municipal Council which overruled the minister’s order.

Shops in Abu Ftaira were closed after it was discovered that they practice commercial activities as opposed to handicraft jobs which the area have been established for.

The shop owners in the meantime argue that the licensing problem was committed by Kuwait Municipality officials, and therefore they shouldn’t be held accountable

for mistakes they never committed.

In other news, the Ministry of Interior rejected a request made by the Kuwait Municipality to give up a piece of land in Shuwaikh allocated by the Municipal Council to build a new building for the General Department of Citizenship and Passports. In a statement to Kuwait Municipality Director Ahmad AlSubaih, General Director of the General Department of Constructions and Maintenance at the Ministry of Interior, AbdulHakeem Al-Falah, indicated that the ministry desperately needs the new building, adding at the same time that the project is ready for construction. — Al-Rai

Eight protesters in custody for role in parliament raid MPs to be summoned for questioning

KUWAIT: Officers from the Interior Ministry are seen collecting evidence from parliament’s building after protesters broke into the Assembly building on Wednesday evening. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

KUWAIT: Eight citizens were arrested Thursday for “playing a major role” in the raid at the parliament building the previous night, says a report published yesterday quoting security sources with knowledge of the subject. “A team consisting of State Security and Criminal Investigation officers apprehended the suspects after viewing surveillance tapes that exposed their clear involvement in the storming as well as the property damage and assault against security officers that ensued”, said the sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The suspects are currently detained pending the ongoing investigations, while the sources added that more suspects will be detained soon. “More people will be called to undergo investigations, while arrest warrants will be issued against those who fail to cooperate with officers”, a source said.

The report further quotes the sources as indicating that MPs who took part in the melee will be summoned for investigations and possibly face legal action.

Hundreds of protestors stormed into the Parliament building late night on Wednesday following a confrontation with police during a rally near Irada Square, which happened after officers intervened to stop a planned march towards the residence of Prime Minister His Highness Sheikh Nasser AlMohammad Al-Sabah. Five security officers and one National Guard were injured during the raid, according to a statement from the Ministry of Interior on Thursday.

“Some protestors attempted to snatch my weapon as well as weapons of fellow personnel assigned to guard the Abdullah Al-Salem Hall”, said National Guard officer Nasser Al-Otaibi from his bed at the Amiri Hospital where he recovers from bruises on his back, arms and legs. The officer further told Al-Qabas that the protestors initiated the attack against the Guards who were

trying to keep the situation under control. “We had clear instruction to negotiate with the protestors and avoid confrontations”, he said, “but we immediately found ourselves under the protestors’ physical and verbal assault”.

Meanwhile, the National Guard assigned 150 personnel from the ‘Striking Force’ division of the riot police, to be deployed at the Parliament’s building in case of emergency following Wednesday night’s incidents, according to an unnamed official. A source from the Ministry of Defense in the meantime revealed that the military’s police force was also reserved for the same purpose.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud AlSabah insisted in the meantime that “necessary measures” will be taken “to punish those involved in storming the parliament, damaging its contents and attacking police officers and the parliament’s guard”. Describing the raid as being “an utterly unacceptable act”, minister Al-Sabah further urged citizens and lawmakers in his statements to AlJarida on Thursday to “give priority to the country’s interest” and “avoid breaking the law”.

Wednesday night’s fiasco has also urged the government to reconsider the country’s demonstrations law, and consider the possibility of introducing stricter penalties against violators in the future. A source familiar with the issue indicates that the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Justice, and Supreme Council of Planning and Development have been assigned to study amendments that “increases penalties against violators who attack police officers and damage state properties”.

Criminal Investigators were present at the Parliament building Thursday to lift fingerprints and carry out investigations on the scene. In the meantime, General Secretary of the National Assembly Allam Al-Kandari told Al-Rai daily that a liquor bottle was found in the car of a lawmaker’s secretary during

strict searching procedures carried out by the parliament’s guard following Wednesday’s incidents. Al-Kandari added that charges were pressed against the secretary in question.

Speaking of charges, newly appointed Minister of Information Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah stressed in statements to Al-Rai that “[punitive measures of] the audiovisual and press laws will be activated against media outlets that failed to abide by their articles”, without giving specific details about violations detected during TV and press coverage of Wednesday’s events.

Wednesday’s events drew statewide reactions and evaluations on Thursday; perhaps among the most notable of which came from former Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber Al-Khalid Al-Sabah, who called in statements to Al-Watan for MPs who took part in the raid to be prosecuted for “sabotage, assaulting police officers and pushing young protestors to commit violations”.

Meanwhile, constitutional expert and Kuwait University professor Dr Mohammad Al-Feeli raised the need for amending the gatherings law “so that organizers of public rallies would be directly responsible for any actions that take place.” He hinted that attempts to provoke officers into attacking protestors might have been involved on Wednesday.

Some legal experts who spoke to Annahar daily argued that the events happened during the parliament’s storming “includes multiple crimes which warrants for lifting the parliamentary immunity of MPs involved in the events”. The Kuwait Human Rights Society agreed with that notion in a statement on Thursday, saying that according to the constitution, immunity doesn’t protect MPs in cases “similar to the crime of leading citizens into breaking into the parliament, damaging its contents and attacking police”.

—- Al-Qabas, Al-Rai, Al-Jarida, Al-Watan

LOCAL SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Al-Mulla calls for ‘decisive decision’

By A Saleh

CAMP BUEHRING: Capt Eric Athman, Commander of Albert Lea’s Delta Company, poses for a photo outside Delta’s offices at Camp Buehring in Kuwait.

KUWAIT: MP Saleh Al-Mulla attacked members of the ruling family for overstepping the law. Al-Mulla added that, to successfully reform the ruling house and prevent those trying to destroy Kuwait for their own ambitions, a decisive decision by HH The Amir must be taken. He added “The situation reached today is a result of the reliance of authority on the time factor to solve our problems. Fears that the law would be breached have already taken place, which has opened the door for police solutions by security authorities.”

He continued, “It is now vital to send a clear message to the ruling

family that their children were the first to breach the law without any deterrent. They violated public funds in the thefts of KOTC and KIA, and possess state property, including the Olympia Complex, for example.”

Al-Mulla questioned how citizens could be expected to respect the sanctity of public funds and state property while the children of the ruling family are the first to violate them.

He said that the solution is to be realistic and carry out true political reforms and ensure that the law is applied on all in Kuwait.

He said “Your Highness The Amir, Kuwaitis are worried and scared about the future, and, frankly, we are tired.

The solution is in your hands alone.

The reform of the ruling house, and the prevention of those wishing to harm Kuwait for their own ambitions, will only be achieved through a decisive decision by your Highness to uphold the constitution and the state of law.”

Members of Parliament from the opposition bloc said they will return to determination square next Monday under the slogan “Do not breach the charter”. Meanwhile, the Democratic Forum issued a statement condemning the storming of Parliament. They announced in a statement that they had warned the government multiple times on the dangers of breaching the constitution and failing to comply completely with it.

Albert Lea’s Delta Company gets new commander CAMP BUEHRING: The new leader of Albert Lea’s Delta Company was named commander recently and has taken on the role of leading local troops in their missions in Kuwait.

Capt Eric Athman, 29, of Minnetonka, has been with the 2nd Battalion, 135th Infantry within the 34th “Red Bull” Division for nine years with Headquarters Company. He was a First Lieutenant until a promotion on Oct 26. His main job involves taking on missions, analyzing them and delegating tasks.

“Within the four platoons I break down the tasks they need to do,” Athman said. Athman said he has a group of supporting staff who help him with tasks. “It’s been great,” Athman added. “We have a lot of competent officers and NCOs.” NCOs are non-commissioned officers, who are enlisted personnel. He said his job has been a good challenge so far.

“These guys definitely know what they’re doing, which makes the cohesive effort a lot easier,” Athman said. Staff Sgt Michael Bakken, of Albert Lea, said Athman is highly knowledgeable and an efficient leader. “He’s the best in the business,” Bakken said. Right now the mission is to help escort troops and equipment safely from Iraq through Kuwait. With the Iraq War ending, it will likely have implications for the company, and the mission may change. “I don’t know where that takes us,” Athman said.

He said he doesn’t think the company will be going home early, despite rumors that they would, “It’s hard to predict what will happen,” Athman said. “We’ve had different missions since we’ve been here.” One of the first missions was training to be a reactionary force, but this changed as the concentration became turned to helping to flow troops and equipment out of Iraq. — The Austin Daily Herald

Kuwait to host safety event KUWAIT: The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE), Kuwait Branch, will hold the sixth health, safety, environment, and loss prevention conference on Dec 29 with the event to be held under the auspices of Minister of Oil and Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Dr Mohammad Al-Busairi.

Head of the ASSE Kuwait Branch Fahdel Al-Ali said that the conference would be accompanied by workshops and training courses aimed at boosting safety, health, and environmental awareness at oil facilities.

The event would witness the participation of experts from the US, Europe and the Middle East, said the official, adding that an exhibition would be held on the sideline of the event featuring health and safety regulations at oil fields. —KUNA

Laurel Award for Weldon KUWAIT: Amanda Weldon, District Commissioner for British Guides in Foreign Countries (BGIFC) in Kuwait, was awarded the prestigious Laurel Award at a ceremony at the British Embassy. Weldon received the award in the presence of the two Guiding Ambassadors to Kuwait District BGIFC - Maria Pilar Fernandez Fraca, wife of the British Ambassador to the State of Kuwait, and Sue Read.

The award was presented by Ruth Sara, the BGIFC Commissioner responsible for members of Girlguiding UK who live and work overseas to help ensure they follow the standard Girlguiding programs.

She was joined by Fiona Carle, assistant BGIFC commissioner and Guiding development advisor who

provides support and training for adult leaders overseas.

Recipients for the Laurel Award are selected by Girlguiding UK through a London based committee which considers submissions from Guiding associations around the world. The Laurel Award is only awarded in cases where someone has shown exceptional service.

Amanda Weldon - who was presented with a broach denoting the Laurel Award - has been involved with the Girlguiding movement for over 20 years, the first nine of which were spent in the United Kingdom.

During this time she has shown total commitment to and enthusiasm for the movement and acted as an inspiration to leaders and guides alike.

Through her successful leadership and tireless work, she has helped attract a dedicated team of leaders to run the Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Senior Section groups which collectively constitute the Girlguiding movement in Kuwait.

Girlguiding is a worldwide movement. The organizers of the event were therefore delighted that several district leaders of the Kuwaiti Girlguiding Association were able to attend the ceremony, thus underlining that the close bilateral relationship between the UK and Kuwait extends into the area of Girlguiding.

They were joined by Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Senior Section members along with their leaders, families and friends.

Kuwait nearing winter season KUWAIT: Astronomer Dr Saleh AlOjairi has said that Kuwait can expect more rainfall across the country soon.

He added that the rain on Thursday morning was due to low pressure coming from the south in the form South-Easterly winds that passed over the Gulf waters, which saturated the air with moisture.

According to Al-Ojairi, Kuwait is fast approaching cooler weather with temperatures dropping low enough by the end of the month to call for winter-wear.

Astronomer Khalid Al-Jamaan said the winter season is divided into two parts; the public’s winter, which is known to the people, and the

Astronomer’s winter, known to those interested in meteorology.

He said the public’s winter begins this year with the coming of the ‘40 day period’ starting Dec 6, with the second part will be around Dec 22 with the winter turn over as the cold intensifies and days become shorter. — Al-Watan

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Kuwait funds Lebanon road renovation to help tourists KFAED offers loan to Mozambique

KUWAIT: Chief of warrant officers and manager of the training department Brig Khalid Al-Janahi honoring one of the officers over the weekend.

Sri Lanka urges more Gulf investments BRUSSELS: Sri Lanka’s Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen is urging businessmen in the Gulf countries to increase investments in his country, particularly in tourism. “The Gulf countries and Sri Lanka have cordial relations,” he said. Bathiudden is leading a business delegation which is currently on a European tour including Belgium, France and the Netherlands to expand commercial and economic cooperation with Europe.

He added that Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was President of a Palestinian-Sri Lankan friendly organization 30 years ago and a supporter of the Palestine cause.

“After he became the President of Sri Lanka he began to develop closer ties with the Gulf countries. The Muslim world is helping Sri Lanka following Rajapaksa’s rise to the Presidency,” said the minister.

There is already some activity by certain Gulf States in Sri Lanka in the form of infrastructure development. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia both have development funds involved in health sector projects in the country. Bathiudeen said, however, that exports from Sri Lanka to the Gulf countries were very low and expressed hope that they would be increased, calling on investors to invest in the tourism sector in Sri Lanka. “We are expecting more tourists from the Gulf countries,” he said, adding that hotels serving halal food are available in Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, whilst addressing a meeting with businessmen on Thursday in Brussels, Bathiudeen said the tourism sector is booming in Sri Lanka following the end of the conflict in June 2009. Up until September 2011, tourists’ numbers increased by 35%. To showcase Sri Lanka’s capabilities, Sri Lanka’s Minister of Industry and Commerce has organized an international trade fair, ‘EXPO 2012,’ scheduled to be held in Colombo next March. —KUNA

BEIRUT: The renovation of a stretch of road East of Beirut, which Kuwait has funded, will help in facilitating traffic flow to and from Mount Lebanon, a Kuwaiti official has said. The renovation of the road, which stretches between the suburb of Al-Hazmiah and resort town Sofar, will help to minimize traffic congestion on the main road, said the local representative of the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED), Nawaf Al-Dabbous, yesterday. Al-Dabous was speaking following an inspection tour of the construction sites along the road, accompanied by Nabil Al-Jisr, Board Chairman of the Lebanon’s Council of Construction and Development.

In addition to facilitating movement of vehicles including trucks, the project will also make movement of tourists much easier, he affirmed, alluding to the main road that stretches from the Lebanese capital to the eastern border point, as well as to the Syrian capital, Damascus. The road passes through main resort and market towns in the mountains, namely Bhamdoun and Chtaura. The latter is located in the eastern Bekaa valley.

Al-Dabous affirmed Kuwait’s interest in supporting construction ventures in Lebanon, with the aim of boosting the national economy.

Kuwait’s participation in the construction and development process in Lebanon emanates from its strong advocacy of the relations of brotherhood ties bounding the two countries, he added.

The $146 million project aims at renovating two lanes and constructing sidewalks stretching 24km. At least 11 intersections and several causeways will be also built. KFAED has given Lebanon up to 17 loans since 1966 — with an overall value of $500 million.

Meanwhile, KFAED offered a supplementary Loan agreement of KD 1.45 million to finance the additional costs of

President of OCA tours Asian Games stadiums KUWAIT: President of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah yesterday toured and inspected sports stadiums in Incheon city, South Korea, in preparation for the 17th Asian games, to be held in 2014.

Sheikh Ahmad toured the city of Incheon, accompanied by officials of the city and members of the organizing committee, tasked with developing stadiums for the games, the OCA said in a press statement.

The tour included a visit to the main stadium for Asian games, named “Bird’s Eye View,” and surrounding facilities.

During the tour, Sheikh Ahmad listened to detailed explanation on development and schedules of the games, as well as establishment of the

“Bird’s Eye View” stadium.

Sheikh Ahmad praised the organizing committee for the effort and short time given to complete construction work, the statement noted.

Incheon city has developed modern facilities and infrastructures that will benefit the Korean and Asian youths in sports, as well as contributing in enhancing sports, financially and economically in the city, he said.

Sheikh Ahmad affirmed support for cities that host various Asian Games, based on the principle of partnership to achieve the objectives of the Council in the development of youth and sports sector in the Asian region.

The “Bird’s eye view” stadium, scheduled to open in April 2014, consists of five floors. Its construction is projected to cost $500,000. —KUNA

the Polytechnics Agrarian Sciences Institutes in Manica and Gaza Provinces in the Republic of Mozambique.

According to a KFAED statement yesterday, the supplementary loan agreement was signed in Maputo whereby the Fund shall make a supplementary loan, which equals around $5 million, to assist in covering the increased costs of financing the construction of the Polytechnics Agrarian Sciences Institutes.

Manica and Gaza that lack any higher education institutions.

The project will expand access in particular to the increasing numbers of high school graduates in consonance with the needs of the labor market.

Upon signing this Supplementary Loan Agreement, this loan will be the 10th one accorded by the Fund to the Republic of Mozambique considering that the Fund had already extended nine loans to it before to finance proj-

BEIRUT: The renovation of the road in progress.

The Supplementary Loan Agreement was signed on behalf of the Government of the Republic of Mozambique by Finance Minister Manuel Chang and on behalf of KFAED by Deputy DirectorGeneral Hamad Al-Omar.

The project aims to support the economic and social development of Mozambique through the provision of higher education services in the fields of agrarian sciences in two provinces,

Al-Shimali discusses economic opportunities in Mongolia ULAANBAATAR: Kuwait’s Minister of Finance, Mustafa Al-Shimali, met yesterday with top Mongolian officials. Al-Shimali met, along with his accompanying delegation, Mongolian President’s Office Director Patologa and Prime Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold, Minister of Mineral and Energy Dashdorj Zorigt, Minister of Finance S Bayartsogt and Minister of Transportation Khaltmaa Battulga.

During the meetings, various means of promoting investment opportunities in the financial, economic and banking domains were discussed.

The Minister’s accompanying delegation included representatives from the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development and the Kuwait Investment Authority as well as Kuwaiti ambassador to Mongolia, Suaad Mubarak Al-Sihaijan. —KUNA

ects in transport, electricity and telecommunications sectors.

The total amount of the previous nine loans is estimated about KD 24.1 million ($84.3 million).

In addition to that the Fund extended also to Mozambique five technical assistance grants for preparing the feasibility studies for certain projects with the total value of KD 576,000 ($2.03 million). —KUNA

CB governor to attend GCC meeting KUWAIT: Central Bank of Kuwait (CB) Governor Sheikh Salem Abdulaziz Al-Sabah is due to leave, tomorrow, to Riyadh to attend the 12th Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) Monetary Council Board meeting which will kick off on Monday.

The councilís meeting will include the Board of Governors of central banks and monetary agencies of the member states of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, a CB press release said.

It further noted that the meeting will address the ongoing efforts to complete the institutional and organizational structures of the monetary council.

It will also follow up on the monetary councilís achievements that would enable it perform its assigned functions since it is the core bank in the Gulf region.

There will be also a meeting with Directors of the analytical bodies of the member states of the GCC monetary Union in order to discuss means of developing analytical systems to push forward the completion of the comprehensive economical and monetary process in the region. KUNA

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KUWAIT: Children take part in special activities organized by the Police Officers Club for the families of police officers as part of the Eid Al-Adha celebrations last week.

Expat suffers broken neck

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A 34-year-old Pakistani suffered a broken neck and lacerated scalp when an advertisement board fell on him in a Hawally Mall. He was rushed to Mubarak Hospital.

A 17-year-old Kuwaiti sustained a bruise and several grazes following a fight in Jlaiah and a 19-year-old Egyptian also had suffered multiple bruises. Both were taken to Adan Hospital.

A 85-year-old Kuwaiti suffered from smoke inhalation during a fire in a Dhaher area home. He was taken to Adan Hospital.

A 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl sustained an injury to her ankle when a car hit her near Marina Mall. She was taken to Mubarak Hospital.

A 27-year-old Kuwaiti sustained a broken arm and lacerations to the face during a car accident on King Fahad Road. He was taken to Adan Hospital.

Taiwan looking to expand business in Kuwait TAIPEI: Taiwan’s Institute for Information Industry (III) led a group of representatives from the information and communication technology (ICT) sector on a visit to Kuwait yesterday in a bid to expand business in the Middle East, the institute said.

The delegation, led by III Chairman Shih Chintay and Executive Vice President Gary Gong, will also share their experience in the ICT industry and renewable resources at a series of seminars, the institute said. The seminars have been organized by Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia.

With the help of Taiwan’s representative offices in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Oman, the delegation also plans to meet with government agencies and business leaders to discuss opportunities for cooperation in the Middle East, the III said.

The trip is also part of the regular exchanges between the III and KISR since they signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in October last year, the institute said.

KISR Director-General Naji Al-Mutairi and Deputy DirectorGeneral Nader Al-Awadhi visited Taiwan in April in a bid to expand bilateral cooperation in the areas of ICT, green energy and science parks. During the visit, the Kuwaiti institution said it would copy Taiwan’s successful experience in building and operating science parks and complete construction of its first science park in its capital. The KISR is expected to organize another visit to Taiwan early next year, according to the III. Meanwhile, the III said it was optimistic about the prospects for cooperation between Taiwanese institutes and Kuwaiti and Omani businesses and organizations in the areas of the environment, ICT and monitoring systems. Qatar has also expressed interest in building an automatic license plate recognition system and would possibly initiate partnerships with Taiwan businesses, the III said. The delegation on the current trip includes representatives from the Industrial Technology Research Institute, Environment and Development Foundation, Advanced Control and Systems Inc., and Sochamp Tech Co.

Ethiopian housemaid found dead in employer’s house Inmate hospitalized following overdose KUWAIT: An Ethiopian housemaid was found dead inside a house in Jaber Al-Ali in what is presumed to be a suicide case.

Her employers alerted the police after having found her hanging from the ceiling of her bedroom. Her body was taken for an autopsy while preliminary investigations indicated that she had committed suicide. Investigators are currently working to uncover any motives.

Suicide attempt A housemaid was rushed to Adan Hospital in critical condition after attempting to poison herself. She was found unconscious by her employers who contacted emergency services who rushed her to the hospital where she was treated for blood poisoning. Preliminary investigations revealed that the woman’s sponsor had withheld her salary for November and December, supposedly waiting to add it to January’s salary despite the woman’s urgency to send money to her family abroad.

Drug overdose An inmate at the Central Jail was hospitalized after he was found unconscious inside his cell where he had overdosed on medications. An investigation was opened.

arrived at Shuwaikh Port recently.

Criminal investigators and customs officers were waiting for the container to arrive after receiving a tip about a large alcohol smuggling attempt coming from a nearby Gulf state. Officers found 6200 imported liquor bottles hidden between sanitary ware inside the container. A company representative who appeared on the scene to claim the shipment was placed under arrest, but insisted during investigation that he wasn’t aware of the container’s contents. The man was placed in custody as police launched an investigation to arrest those responsible.

Black magic Hawally police have arrested a man accused of transforming his home into black magic den. A team of investigators were assigned arrest the suspect following information received about his growing activity and popularity among people looking to purchase his services.

The man was detained as he tried to escape from the backdoor of his house.

He admitted during investigations that he had been practicing black magic for

three years, and that most of his customers were women from all over Kuwait. He is currently in custody pending further action.

Thieves caught Three people were arrested after being found in possession of items stolen from several camps in the AlFarwaniya governorate. Patrol officers pulled over a suspicious vehicle in AlFarwaniya and the three young men inside, a Bidoon (stateless), a Syrian and a GCC national, were arrested after admitting that electric appliances found in their car were stolen. Further investigations revealed that the three had formed a gang targeting camps in order to sell stolen goods at the Friday Market.

Police search for thieves Jahra investigators are looking for those responsible for several thefts that targeted camps at the Al-Mutla’a desert.

The most recent case was filed by a citizen at the North Jahra police station, reporting that items, worth KD 900, had been stolen from his camp on Thursday, just three days after it had been set up.

Vicious attack A young man was hospitalized in critical condition after a car run him over multiple times during a vicious fight in Al-Sulaibiya. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene as witnesses has reported seeing the victim being repeatedly hit with a car by a man following a fight. The victim, a GCC national, was rushed to the Farwaniya Hospital where he was admitted into the intensive care unit in unstable condition. Police arrested the assailant, who was found hiding inside his house. During interrogation, the assailant admitted his actions and explained that he had lost his temper during the altercation. He was jailed and charged with attempted murder.

Alcohol shipment Thousands of liquor bottles were found on a sanitary ware container

KUWAIT: National Guards military training chief Brig Hashim Al-Refai and Kuwait Fire Service Directorate chief Brig Yousif Al-Ansari attend the graduation ceremonies of a new batch of students at the National Guards headquarters over the weekend.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Protesters pray in Yemen

8

Clashes mar Occupy Wall Street protests

11

Arroyo arrested in hospital

14

11 killed amid civil war warning in Syria Thousands take to the streets in defiance of security deployments

ISTANBUL: Syrians living in Turkey write “Freedom” with their blood during a protest against the government of Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad in front of the Syrian consulate in Istanbul yesterday. —AFP DAMASCUS: Security forces killed at least 11 people yesterday on the eve of an Arab League deadline for Syria to stop its lethal crackdown on protesters and as Turkey warned of the risk of civil war. The latest bloodletting came as thousands of protesters took to the streets in defiance of massive security deployments to urge nations to expel Syrian ambassadors, activists said.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for restraint over the Syria crisis, after talks with his French counterpart who accused President Bashar al-Assad of being deaf to pressure. “We are calling for restraint and caution. This is our position,” Putin told a Moscow news conference the day after his foreign minister had likened the situation in Syria to a civil war.

Turkey said the risk of civil war was real-a warning also echoed by analysts monitoring developments in Syria amid growing reports that

mutinous soldiers are attacking regime targets.

The Arab League said, meanwhile, it was examining a Syrian request to make changes to a proposal to send 500 observers to Damascus to help implement a peace plan.

Facing growing isolation, Syria has been told by its Arab peers to stop the lethal repression against protesters by 2200 GMT today or risk sanctions, and the Arab League has voted to expel it from the 22-member bloc. The repression against protests that erupted in midMarch has claimed more than 3,500 lives so far, according to UN estimates.

Protesters who initially took to the streets seeking democracy in one of the Arab world’s most autocratic regimes now want the ouster of Assad’s regime and have the support of much of the Western world. French officials yesterday called for stern action. “We think that it is indispensable to increase international

pressure and we have tabled a resolution at the United Nations. We hope it will find as wide support as possible,” French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said. Speaking after meeting Putin in Moscow, he accused Assad of keeping a deaf ear to international calls to stop the bloodshed. “The massacres are continuing,” said Fillon.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, in Turkey ahead of a tour of Arab countries, also said the “time has come to increase sanctions” on Syria, branding the situation “unacceptable.” The foreign minister of Turkey, a once close ally who has become disillusioned with Assad and his regime, sounded the alarm. “I say there is a risk of transforming into civil war,” Ahmet Davutoglu told AFP, pointing to army defectors attacking key regime targets.

“It is now the right time to stop this massacre, and therefore the Arab initiative is

important,” he said. “If it is not successful of course there is always a risk of civil war or high level tension in Syria.” On the ground, 11 people were killed when security forces fired on demonstrators in the restive central cities of Homs and Hama and in the southern town of Daraa, cradle of eight months of anti-regime protests.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights which reported the toll said a 14-year-old boy was among the dead, and said dozens of people were wounded by gunfire nationwide.

State television reported that a bomb blast in Hama killed three members of the security forces and critically wounded an officer, while state news agency SANA said two were killed.

SANA also reported that said five security personnel were wounded when gunmen fired on them in Daraa, where a bomb squad defused an explosive device. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

News

in brief

Jordan protest calls for political reform AMMAN: More than 1,000 Jordanians marched after Muslim weekly yesterday in a protest called by opposition Islamists pushing for political reform and an end to corruption. The march began outside Al-Husseini mosque in central Amman and moved towards city hall about a kilometre (less than a mile) away. Banners held up by Islamists, leftists and youth groups said “the people want to reform the regime”, “the people want an elected government”, and “we want a fair electoral system”. In a statement distributed before the march, organisers from the Muslim Brotherhood and its political arm, the Islamic Action Front, said the movement still awaited reforms that “would bring power back to the people”. “We ask for a serious fight against corruption, the corrupt to be tried, and a boosting of regulatory institutions,” it said. Since this year’s uprisings sweeping the Arab region, Jordan has been jostled by its own protest movement fueled by calls for political reform and the end of widespread corruption.

Thousands rally in Bahrain against island’s rulers MANAMA: Thousands of Shiite-led protesters calling for greater rights have streamed into an area outside the capital Manama. Yesterday’s rally is one of the largest demonstrations in weeks against the Gulf kingdom’s Sunni rulers. Some of the protesters carried tents, suggesting an attempt to occupy the site in A’ali, about 1.5 miles (three kilometers) southeast of Manama. Others waved flags from nations where Arab uprisings have toppled regimes, such as Libya and Tunisia. Security forces did not make an immediate attempt to intervene.

Bahrain’s majority Shiites began protests in February calling for a stronger voice in the nation’s affairs. Sunni leaders have offered reforms, but refuse to give up control of top government posts.

Libya UN envoy says Qatar arming Islamists TANGIER: Libya’s UN envoy Mohammed Abdel Rahman Shalgam yesterday urged Qatar to stop meddling in his country’s domestic affairs, accusing the fellow Arab nation of providing funds and weapons to Libyan Islamists. “There are facts on the ground, they (Qatar) give money to some parties, the Islamist parties.

They give money and weapons and they try to meddle in issues that do not concern them and we reject that,” Shalgam told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in the Moroccan city Tangier. “The Qatari state is still providing assistance to some (Libyan) parties and they are giving them money and we reject this totally,” he added.

Rise in Jewish settlers joining army combat units JERUSALEM: Six out of 10 Jewish settlers were drafted into combat units for their compulsory military service, an Israeli army study showed yesterday, indicating a sharp rise in numbers. According to a study on draft trends which was published by the military’s personnel division, Jewish settlers are more likely than regular Israelis to try to join combat units. Figures in the report show that 61 percent of the 310,000 Israelis who live in the occupied Palestinian territories people spent their military service in combat units, compared with 44.2 percent among the rest of the population. Last year, only 45.8 percent of settlers signed up for a fighter unit, the study showed. The report also confirmed a rise in the number of young people not doing their compulsory military service, in a development viewed by the army as worrying. In 2011, only 67 percent of those expected to enlist entered the military, compared to 74.7 percent in 1990. Should the trend continue, only around 40 percent of Israelis will be carrying out their compulsory military service by 2020 — a projection which is causing concern within the military. Israel’s Arab minority, which makes up 20 percent of the population, does not serve in the army, while ultra-Orthodox Jewish men are also exempted in order to pursue their religious studies. —Agencies

Protesters pray in Yemen, UN envoy pushes for peace Yemenis mark day for women killed in protests SANAA: Tens of thousands of Yemeni worshippers gathered in Sanaa for Friday prayers, demanding Ali Abdullah Saleh be tried for alleged use of violence against demonstrators, as a UN envoy struggled to reach a deal to ease the president out of office. As protesters marking the “Friday of Female Martyrs of the Revolution” held prayers in the capital’s Sixty Street, UN envoy Jamal Benomar met opposition officials to try and broker a deal to end months of protests that have paralysed the country.

“The martyrs wrote with blood, Saleh must be tried,” the crowds chanted before the Friday prayers began. Armed soldiers loyal to a dissident general who defected to the opposition earlier this year guarded demonstrators as they filled the main street, where a Muslim preacher called on the Arab League to impose sanctions on Saleh and recognize a council set up by the opposition as a representative body. “We urge the Arab League to freeze Yemen’s membership, as it did with the Syrian regime, and recognize the National Council as the legitimate representative,” the preacher said.

Opposition leaders met Benomar again yesterday after talks late into the night on Thursday, but an opposition official said there was no progress on efforts to get Saleh to sign the Gulf initiative power transfer deal, designed to remove him after 33 years in office.

The Gulf initiative grants Saleh immunity from prosecution and allows him to keep his wealth. The opposition says Saleh has been demanding changes to the initiative that would effectively allow him to retain most of his powers during a transitional period until new

SANAA: Yemenis protest against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule during a rally after the weekly Friday noon prayers in Sanaa yesterday. An opposition MP urged the UN Security Council, which is to meet on Yemen, to refer President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the International Criminal Court over bloodshed linked to his refusal to quit. —AFP elections, a demand rejected by demonstrators and the opposition. The standoff has pushed Yemen to the brink of civil war and allowed Islamist militants to seize control of swathes of territory in the impoverished Arab country bordering Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter.

The UN envoy flew to Yemen last Thursday to follow up on a UN Security Council resolution adopted last month calling on Saleh to immediately sign the initiative. The opposition official said Benomar was expected to travel to Saudi Arabia today and return to Sanaa before he leaves the country to submit a report on his mission to UN SecretaryGeneral Ban Ki-moon in New York. “The

negotiations being conducted by Benomar do not concern us,” said Anwar al-Sharaabi, a demonstrator at the Sixty street told Reuters. “Yet, it will not succeed,” he added. The Sanaa protest comes a week after at least four women were killed in the city of Taiz, some 200 km (120 miles) south of Sanaa, by government forces who shelled the ancient city during clashes with armed tribesmen. An opposition website quoted the director of a Taiz hospital where victims of the violence had been taken as saying 154 people had been killed and 2,000 wounded in the city since the uprising began in February. The doctor said 51 people died in the last month alone in Taiz.— Reuters

Iran participation in Mideast nuclear forum still unclear VIENNA: Iran’s participation at a UN atomic agency forum next week on creating a Middle East free of nuclear weapons was unclear yesterday after a damning report from the Viennabased watchdog. Tehran had not signaled its attendance at the forum at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Monday and Tuesday by the time registration closed late Thursday, an official familiar with the matter said.

Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment. The IAEA’s board of governors was expected yesterday to pass a resolution expressing “deep and increasing concern” about Iran’s nuclear program tabled by the six members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. Iran has angrily rejected the report as being based on fake intelligence and says its nuclear program is peaceful.

The forum is aimed at learning from the experiences of other regions in creating a nuclear-weapon-freezone (NWFZ) such as Latin America

and the Caribbean, the South Pacific, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central Asia. The Middle East is a considerably more volatile region, however, marked by animosity between states and rocked this year by “Arab Spring” popular uprisings toppling regimes in a string of countries.

Iran is suspected of seeking to develop the bomb, leading to four rounds of UN Security Council resolutions, while Syria was also reported to New York this year over a suspected covert nuclear reactor. That site, Dair Alzour, was allegedly bombed by Israel, which is widely believed to have nuclear weapons but has never confirmed it, and which unlike Syria and Iran has not signed the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT).

NWFZ treaties prohibit the production, acquisition or stationing of nuclear weapons, and also ban nuclear testing. IAEA member states requested in 2000 that such a forum take place but agreement on holding such a meeting remained elusive until

now. The forum comes ahead of a conference in 2012 to be hosted by Finland on ridding the powder keg of a region of nuclear weapons.”I am encouraged by what I have heard during the consultations and I think that there is a genuine will to make this a positive experience,” said the chairman of the forum, Norwegian ambassador Jan Petersen. “This is an independent IAEA activity not formally linked to the 2012 NPT conference, but if successful it may be a building block towards 2012.”

“The fact that all the countries ... agreed to participate is important by itself, since it is rare for them to be able to agree on a regional agenda on arms control issues,” said Chen Kane and Gaukhar Mukhatzhanova from the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies said in a research note.

“On the other hand, the IAEA convened similar events in 1993, 1997 and 1998, but no progress on the zone was made thereafter.”— AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Famine eased in 3 Somali zones but crisis remains 250,000 people face imminent starvation: UN

ROME: In this photo released by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI is welcomed by the Italian Premier Mario Monti, left, as he arrives to board a plane to Benin, at Fiumicino international airport, near Rome yesterday.—AP

Pope says Church must not imitate Pentecostals in Africa ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE: Pope Benedict XVI said yesterday that the Roman Catholic Church must not imitate Pentecostal movements that have enjoyed huge success in Africa, as he headed for his second visit to the continent.

The Church “must not imitate those communities,” Benedict told journalists aboard the plane en route to Benin. He added that such movements “have success, but little stability.”

The Vatican has faced a major challenge from Pentecostal and other evangelical movements in Africa, with their lively, down-to-earth services seen by many as more relevant to their lives. Benedict spoke of the Catholic Church as having a “participative liturgy, but not sentimental.” The Church “must have a simple, concrete, understandable message,” he said. “It is important that Christianity not appear as a difficult system, European, that others cannot understand,” he said. Of Africa in general, he spoke of a “vitality in the future” on a continent with the world’s fastest growing population.

“Africa’s problems are not yet overcome, but there is a brightness, a positive outlook on life, a youth population which is full of hope and also humor and joy,” the pontiff said, as opposed to “relativism that restrains life and extinguishes hope.” He also paid tribute to Benin, a country of some nine million people considered both a Catholic stronghold as well as a voodoo heartland, calling it a “country at peace”. Benedict spoke of a “good co-existence” between Christians, Muslims and followers of traditional religions.

The pontiff is expected to be welcomed by tens of thousands of Benin citizens as well as pilgrims from West Africa and beyond during the three-day visit that will culminate with a mass Sunday in a stadium in the economic capital Cotonou. Benedict left Rome yesterday morning and was to arrive in Cotonou at around 1400 GMT. The trip is also to take the 84-year-old pontiff to Ouidah, a city heavy with symbolism as a centre of voodoo and which served as a major slave trading port.

The highlight of the pope’s trip to a region that has the world’s fastest growing number of Catholics will be the formal signing today of an apostolic exhortation called “The Pledge for Africa”. — AFP

NAIROBI: The United Nations yesterday downgraded famine declarations in three Somali regions, but warned thousands still face death in the world’s worst crisis, as heavy fighting rocked Mogadishu. Nearly 250,000 people face imminent starvation, with three areas remaining in famine including inside the war-torn Somali capital, the UN Somalia Food Security Nutrition Analysis Unit (FSNAU) said in a statement.

“Substantial humanitarian assistance has mitigated the most extreme food deficits” in southern Somalia’s Bay, Bakool, and Lower Shabelle regions, the statement read, now classifying them as “emergency” areas.

But despite some improvements the situation remains dire and the outlook bleak.

“Tens of thousands of people have died since April and deaths are likely to continue over the coming months,” the statement added. “Overall, food security outcomes remain the worst in the world, and the worst in Somalia since the 1991/92 famine.”

The latest wave of heavy fighting in Somalia’s anarchic capital broke out late Thursday, as Islamist Shebab rebels attacked government and

African Union troops, killing four civilians and wounding 12 others.

Despite withdrawing from fixed positions in Mogadishu in August, the hardline Shebab militia have vowed to continue waging war against the Western-backed Somali government and the AU troops protecting it.

Witnesses said the fighting was so intense that people in many parts of the city could hear the sound of the battle. “Four civilians were killed in the Yaqshid area last night after a mortar struck their houses, the fighting was very heavy and so everybody was worried,” said Habibo Mumin, a witness.

Medical sources said that at least 12 people were wounded, with six admitted to Mogadishu’s Medina hospital. Much of southern Somalia is controlled by Al-Qaeda linked Shebab fighters, who are also battling Kenyan troops in the far south, after Nairobi sent in troops to attack rebel bases there last month. Aid agencies said that while they welcomed improvements in some areas, they warned the situation remained acute.

“Children are still dying at a frightening rate across Somalia,” said Sonia Zambakides, head of Save the

Children’s emergency response team for Somalia. “The aid we’re distributing is making a difference, but this crisis is nowhere near over,” she added.

Famine will persist through December in southern Somalia’s Middle Shabelle, in Afgoye-the world’s largest camp for displaced people-and inside camps in Mogadishu, FSNAU warned. “Death rates, especially for young children, remain extremely high, in part due to continued outbreaks of measles, cholera, and malaria,” FSNAU added.

Oxfam said that attempts to solve the crisis through military action risked increasing suffering for civilians and reducing access for aid agencies.

“We should be celebrating one step forward, with less people at risk of starvation. Instead, we fear two steps back with yet more conflict,” said Senait Gebregziabher, Oxfam Somalia country director. Famine was declared in the Southern Bakool and Lower Shabelle regions in July, but later spread to other areas.

Famine implies that at least 20 percent of households face extreme food shortages, with acute malnutrition in over 30 percent of people, and two deaths per 10,000 people every day, according to the UN definition. — AFP

Croatia marks 20th anniversary of Vukovar fall VUKOVAR: Some 30,000 people gathered in Vukovar yesterday to commemorate the 20th anniversary of its fall to Serb forces, one of the darkest chapters of Croatia’s 19911995 war. Top Croatian officials, including Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor and President Ivo Josipovic, joined mourners who marched through the eastern town in what was called a “Memory Column.” “We gather here every year to mark the sacrifice of Vukovar. Vukovar is a symbol and a motivation to work more and better and to achieve well-being for our citizens,” Josipovic said.

The marchers first gathered at the town’s hospital, a wartime symbol of resistance, from where some 400 wounded Croats and other non-Serbs were evacuated by the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) in 1991. At the time, soldiers bused some 260 evacuees and took them to a secluded pig farm a few kilometres (miles) away, where they were beaten, killed and buried in mass graves. The march ended at a memorial cemetery where the mourners lit candles and laid wreaths for those killed during and after the bloody three-month siege.

The fall of Vukovar marked the beginning of Croatia’s war of independence from the former Yugoslavia, which claimed around

20,000 lives. The battle for the town was crucial for Croatia as it stalled the Yugoslav forces long enough to give Zagreb time to arm and prepare troops. During the Vukovar siege, some 1,600 defenders and civilians were killed and the town was practically razed to the ground.

After the town’s fall, Yugoslav forces expelled some 22,000 Croats and other non-Serbs, almost half of

its population. The UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague convicted two Serb officers, Mile Mrksic and Veselin Sljivancanin, for the massacre and sentenced them to 20 and 10 years in prison, respectively. After the war Vukovar was put under UN administration and reintegrated into Croatia in 1998. More than 300 people from the Vukovar region are still reported as missing.— AFP

VUKOVAR: Croatian army officials hold flags as they lead a procession which was called a “Memory Column” through the eastern Croatian town of Vukovar yesterday on the 20th anniversary of the town’s fall to Serb forces, the bloodiest episode of Croatia’s 1991-1995 independence war. —AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Zuma aide accused of censorship by paper JOHANNESBURG: One of South Africa’s most influential newspapers accused a top presidential spokesman yesterday of censoring an article about his possible involvement in a shady arms deal. The incident could prove to be a further embarrassment to President Jacob Zuma who in recent weeks sacked two ministers found as corrupt in government reports and is also facing renewed calls to account for his actions in the same arms deal.

The weekly Mail & Guardian said it received a letter from presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj saying it could face prosecution if it published an article disclosing details of a police

probe into the arms deal from about a decade ago that has led to convictions of other government officials for bribery. The paper said Maharaj was also implicated. Contents of the article relating to the probe were blacked out by the weekly, known for its investigative reports that have embarrassed Zuma and his ruling African National Congress.

Maharaj said in a statement dated on Thursday that his attorney informed the paper it had acquired documents unlawfully. “In the name of press freedom the M&G arrogates to itself the ‘right’ to break the law that has been on our statute books since 1998,” he said in the statement.

Maharaj did not make any comment about any involvement in the arms deal. The 30 billion rand ($3.7 billion) deal to buy European military equipment has clouded South Africa’s politics, and Zuma, for years. Zuma was implicated but not convicted.

The controversy comes as parliament is debating a new law on state secrets that calls for jail time for whistle blowers who divulge classified information and media outlets that publish such documents.

Critics have called the penalties Draconian and said the bill is aimed at intimidating media outlets trying to expose corruption. Mail & Guardian editor Nic Dawes said in a Twitter

post: “It is very simple: Mac Maharaj is trying to keep his actions secret. We’re trying to tell you about them. We’ll keep trying.”

The paper said it will appeal to the national prosecutors for permission to publish details of evidence that came out in closed court proceedings. It said it faced up to a 15 year jail term if it published them without the permission. Maharaj, a political veteran who took up the post earlier this year, has had running battles with the media, complaining about perceived slights to the president and using the country’s Press Freedom Day to tell media to take a softer line on Zuma. — Reuters

Eritrea set to avoid harsh sanctions, still mistrusted Red Sea state says Ethiopia dirtying its name

MOSCOW: Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (3rd R) and his visiting French counterpart Francois Fillon (4th R) meet in Moscow yesterday. —AFP

S Sudan rulers must trim ‘huge’ govt: Opposition JUBA: South Sudan’s main opposition leader called for the dominant ruling party to pare down the country’s “huge” government and said it had not done enough to plan for a rapid decline of oil revenues in coming years.

South Sudan seceded from Sudan in July under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war with the north, and the new nation now faces a raft of challenges including multiple armed insurgencies and an economy battered by conflict.

The ruling Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) dominates government, and analysts say power is overwhelmingly concentrated in the executive branch . Some are concerned South Sudan will follow regional examples of one-party rule. Lam Akol, head of the main opposition party Sudan People’s Liberation Movement for Democratic Change (SPLM-DC), said the SPLM should allow a “national dialogue” that gives church leaders, civil society groups and others more say in governance.

“There are a lot of challenges that need a collective approach by all. One party will not do it, or a number of few parties cannot do it.

These are national issues that concern all, must be taken by all,” he told Reuters in an interview. “The SPLM thinks that they can do things alone. Two minds are better than one, and when it comes to the nation, we need all.” He said the ruling party had bloated the government to an unnecessary size to

accommodate its cadres, adding far more ministers, members of parliament and other officials than the country’s population of 8 million justified.

At independence, the government added 96 seats to parliament to absorb politicians returning from the north, 66 seats for other political parties and 50 more for the council of states, bring the total to around 382 seats.

“With the meagre resources that we have now, we have a very huge government,” Akol said. “The axe must fall on this huge government. We don’t need it.” South Sudan officials often dismiss concerns that the country’s interim constitution and power structure are not democratic, saying the nation is in a transitional process. President Salva Kiir in his independence day speech said a “democratic, inclusive and accountable” government was “critical to the future of our people”.

Sudan’s decades-long civil conflict devastated the south’s economy and infrastructure, apart from oil. South Sudan, which is nearly as big as France, has only about 100 km (60 miles) of paved roads. The International Monetary Fund said last month South Sudan’s oil output, which accounts for about 98 percent of government revenues, will halve by 2020 without new finds. Akol said not enough had been done to plan for that. “They are not even thinking about what happens when the oil runs out.” —Reuters

ADDIS ABABA: Eritrea has a strong chance of heading off new sanctions that could cripple the Red Sea state’s economy even though it remains far from persuading its neighbors and the United Nations that it is not a destabilizing force in the volatile Horn of Africa. The United Nations is mulling more punitive measures against the secretive government of President Isaias Afewerki that include sanctions on the impoverished country’s nascent mining sector and remittances sent from abroad-both key sources of foreign exchange.

But Western nations see those sanctions hurting the population more than the government, while analysts say others including China and Russia typically oppose sanctions on African nations. Asmara is long accused of arming and bankrolling al Qaeda-linked Islamist militants fighting to topple Somalia’s Western-backed government and is now squaring up to Kenya after it deployed forces into it lawless neighbor five weeks ago.

Championing the new sanctions is Eritrea’s neighbor and arch foe Ethiopia. The draft resolution was submitted to the United Nations Security Council in the wake of a UN report in July that said Eritrea plotted to attack an African Union summit in Ethiopia in January and was sending funds to the militants via its embassy in Nairobi.

Kenya this month accused Asmara of flying a cache of weapons destined for the insurgents into central Somalia. Eritrea denied the allegation and said it was neither an enemy of Kenya nor a sponsor of al Shabaab. In spite of a widespread and deep mistrust of Eritrea’s dealings in the Horn of Africa, the latest round of sanctions are likely to be rejected by the Security Council, or at the very most softened up.

“It’s not that we approve of the Eritrean government, but we don’t think sanctions that would hit the Eritrean people would be very helpful,” a Western envoy to the UN Security Council told Reuters. “Sanctioning the mining industry and remittances would hurt the Eritrean people far more than the government,” he said. The envoy said sanctions against Eritrea’s main source of income would be “counterproductive” and would “probably not be approved by the council”.

Further sanctions would come on top an arms embargo, travel restrictions and assets freeze imposed in 2009.

David Shinn, a former US ambassador to Ethiopia said China and Russia among others were likely to push for a watered-down reso-

lution. Both China and Russia typically oppose sanctions on African nations, a position that left China in particular in a bind. “While it has cordial relations with Eritrea and opposes sanctions, it has much more important ties with Ethiopia,” Shinn told Reuters.

“Something will probably come out of the United Nations Security Council, but I believe it will be fairly mild.”

Eritrea says Ethiopia is deliberately dirtying its name to distract world attention from a festering border dispute between the two nations. It’s reputation as the region’s bad boy is unjustified and unfair, it says. “This long history of allegations against Eritrea is Ethiopia’s fabrication. They want the world to forget their occupation of Eritrean territory and they want to weaken the government,” Eritrea’s ambassador to Kenya, Beyene Russom, told Reuters. “We are trying to clear our name against all these allegations in the UN Security Council. We are not being given the right to defend ourselves,” he said.

Ethiopia brands Eritrea a regional threat.

The normally reclusive Isaias has in the past months embarked on a rare round of shuttle diplomacy across Africa and in New York to drum up political support. Known better for his brash criticism of the West and a penchant for shunning diplomatic niceties, Isaias sought Eritrea’s re-entry into the regional IGAD bloc in August, after walking out four years ago in protest of Ethiopia’s deployment of troops inside Somalia at the same time.

Isaias has travelled to Uganda, hit last year by a devastating twin-bomb attack claimed by al Shabaab to avenge Kampala’s peacekeeping force in Mogadishu and Equatorial Guinea, whose leader is current chair of the African Union. The 65-year-old leader, who is widely criticised by foreign powers and rights groups for the political and religious repression of his people, has also requested an audience at the Security Council to defend his case. “Eritrea is seen by African countries as a pariah state. The government of Isaias Afewerki wants to change this perception,” said Shinn.

Eritrea appointed in January its first envoy to the African Union since 2004. Its effort so far to rejoin IGAD has met a brick wall. “It is purely Ethiopia blocking our re-entry into IGAD. They don’t want us there,” said envoy Russom. But Kjetil Tronvoll, a Horn of Africa analyst and human rights professor, believes the entire region remains sceptical over Eritrea’s intentions.—Reuters

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Clashes mar Occupy Wall Street protests ‘Crowd control tactics an excessive use of force’ NORTH CAROLINA: New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner listens at left, as Republican presidential candidate, businessman Herman Cain talks to reporters during a campaign stop at the Statehouse Thursday in Concord, NH. —AP

Cain receives Secret Service protection WASHINGTON: Herman Cain on Thursday became the first Republican presidential candidate to receive Secret Service protection. Cain asked for the security and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and congressional leaders approved his request Thursday, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan confirmed. There have been threats against Cain, who had been experiencing a bounce in the polls, according to an official with knowledge of the situation who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the situation. The nature of the threats was unclear.

Donovan would not say whether there had been any threats or discuss why protection was being provided. The campaign confirmed in an email early yesterday that the candidate was receiving federal protection. “Due to the recent surge in the polls and the large crowds of enthusiastic supporters at recent campaign events, we are appreciative of the extra level of protection provided by these elite professionals,” the Cain campaign said in a statement. While it’s unknown whether a specific incident triggered the request, police reports show that Cain’s campaign has been the target of threats on at least one occasion. On June 1, Cain’s campaign office in Stockbridge, Ga., reported receiving a call from someone who did not identify himself but who claimed he was a member of the Klu Klux Klan. The man said that Cain, who is black, should not run for the White House.

“Tell him not to run” and “there’s no such thing as a black Republican,” the man said, according to a written statement that Cain’s administrative assistant, Lisa Reichert, gave to the police.

The Associated Press obtained a copy of the police reports using Georgia’s open records law. Local police alerted the FBI and the US Secret Service to the incident. Secret Service protection is given to each major party’s presidential nominee but can be provided earlier if the Homeland Security Department approves a campaign’s request.

When then-Sen. Barack Obama was placed under Secret Service protection in May 2007, it was the earliest ever for a presidential candidate. One of his rivals, Hillary Rodham Clinton, already had a protective detail because she was a former first lady. In the 2004 campaign, Democratic candidates John Kerry and John Edwards received their protection in February of that year as they competed for the party’s nomination.

Federal law allows candidates to seek protection if they meet a series of standards, including public prominence as measured by polls and fundraising. Napolitano consulted Thursday with a congressional advisory committee made up of the House speaker, the House and Senate majority and minority leaders and the House sergeant-at-arms, the chief law enforcement officer in the House. — AP

NEW YORK: Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in the US to raise their voices against what they say is corporate excess. But after police in riot helmets swept them from their original encampment this week, Occupy Wall Street protesters are singling out officers as another enemy, saying their crowd control tactics were an excessive use of force against free speech.

“Police Brutality,” protesters’ signs blared Thursday, in a day of protests across the country to mark the twomonth mark of the Occupy movement.

New York officials have called for investigations of the police raid of Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan early Tuesday. “The police played their role. I wouldn’t call it respectful,” said Danny Shaw, 33, on Thursday. The image of an 84-year-old woman who was tear-gassed in the face in Oakland, California, and hundreds of arrests of demonstrators and journalists at protests across the US this week shone the spotlight on the crowd control tactics of police who broke up encampments in New York and other cities.

Experts on policing say departments have used necessary tactics to control unpredictable, sometimes violent protesters, and that the police haven’t yet reached the stages of full riot protection.

“I don’t think they’re rioting at Occupy Wall Street, not yet, but they are getting out of control,” said Maki Haberfeld, a professor of police studies at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

“If they were rioting, you would see much more riot gear” like sonic devices and high-powered weapons, she said.

“When somebody puts their hands on somebody itself, it never looks right,” Haberfeld said. “But this is what they’re allowed to do. ... It is truly not excessive, and I am surprised by how not excessive it is.” The demonstrations Thursday - in such cities as Los Angeles, Boston, Las Vegas, Washington and Portland, Ore. were for the most part peaceful. But at least 300 people were arrested in New York and dozens were arrested elsewhere, including five on charges they assaulted police officers by throwing liquid into several officers’ faces and tossing glass at another. “We will assure that everyone has the right to exercise their First Amendment rights,” New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Thursday after visiting one hospitalized officer who needed 20 stitches on his hand. But “if anyone’s actions cross the line and

threaten the health and safety of others including our first responders, we will respond accordingly.”

Chanting “All day, all week, shut down Wall Street,” more than 1,000 protesters gathered near the New York Stock Exchange and sat down in several intersections. Several thousand jammed Manhattan’s Foley Square Thursday evening and marched to the Brooklyn Bridge. Several weeks ago, an attempt to

earlier by a coalition of unions and liberal groups, including Moveon.org and the Service Employees International Union, in which out-of-work people walked over bridges in several cities to protest high unemployment. The street demonstrations also marked two months since the Occupy movement sprang to life in New York on Sept. 17. They were planned well before police raided a number of encampments in US cities

NEW YORK: Police carry an Occupy Wall Street protester in handcuffs in New York, Thursday. —AP march across the bridge drew the first significant international attention to the Occupy movement as more than 700 people were arrested. In Seattle, hundreds of Occupy Seattle and labor demonstrators shut down the University Bridge.

In Los Angeles, helmeted police equipped with batons surrounded the base of a bank tower, but the protest remained peaceful as several hundred Occupy sympathizers marched. Police arrested two dozen people after they sat down in a street. Police arrested 21 demonstrators in Las Vegas, and 20 were led away in plastic handcuffs in Portland, Oregon, for sitting down on a bridge. At least a dozen were arrested in St. Louis after they sat down cross-legged and locked arms in an attempt to block a bridge over the Mississippi River.

Several of the demonstrations coincided with an event planned months

over the past few days, but were seen by some activists as a way to demonstrate their resolve in the wake of the crackdown.

Live television shots Thursday showed waves of police and protesters shoving back metal barricades set up to separate the protest from the public in downtown Manhattan. Some of the police hit protesters as they resisted arrest. Emmanuel Pardilla, 20, said the heavy police presence “added to the fear tactic.” First Amendment experts said that every interaction with demonstrators, particularly when televised nationally, can thwart the goal of protests and discourage others from joining.”That’s really is terribly inhibiting,” said New York attorney Herald Fahringer. “Because people say, ‘Gee, well, I don’t want to go out there and join the protest if I run the risk of getting hit over the head with a billy club.”— AP

Ohio mom charged in death of 28-pound girl CINCINNATI: A mother and a nurse were charged Thursday in the death of the woman’s 14-year-old daughter, who had cerebral palsy and weighed only 28 pounds, a prosecutor said. A Montgomery County grand jury in Dayton indicted the mother and the nurse on involuntary manslaughter charges. Two other nurses were indicted on lesser charges of failing to report child abuse or neglect. All were being held in the county jail, prosecutors said.

“This is a tragic and sad case wherein four

adults were responsible for the care of this 14-year-old special-needs girl, and they all utterly ignored and failed to do so,” county prosecutor Mathias Heck Jr. said in a statement. “The conduct of these four defendants transcends all bounds of human decency.” Heck said that the girl undoubtedly would still be alive “if just one of these defendants had acted responsibly.”

Makayla Norman died March 1 from nutritional and medical neglect complicated by her chronic condition, the county coro-

ner’s office ruled. “She was the worst malnourished child this office has ever seen,” Ken Betz, director of the coroner’s office, said Thursday. Authorities have said that the teen died minutes after paramedics rushed her to a hospital. She had numerous bed sores and showed other signs of neglect, and the prosecutor described the home as vile and filthy.

The girl’s mother, Angela Norman, also was indicted on a felony count and a misdemeanor count of endangering children. No

attorney was listed for Norman, whose age was listed as 42 in jail records. Mollie E. Parsons, 41, of Dayton, was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter, failing to provide for a functionally impaired person and tampering with records. Kathryn Williams, 42, of Englewood, and Mary K. Kilby, 63, of Miamisburg, were each charged with failing to provide for a functionally impaired person and failing to report child abuse or neglect. No attorneys were listed for them. —AP

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Chavez deploys National Guard to help fight crime 3,200 troops deployed to the streets of Caracas CARACAS: President Hugo Chavez ordered thousands of National Guard soldiers into the streets of Venezuela’s capital and surrounding states Thursday, urging them to help outgunned police curb widespread violent crime. “We’ve been fighting and reducing overall crime rates, but we’ve fallen short when it comes to the number of

has not released official statistics tallying annual killings for several years, but statistics released by human rights groups and academic organizations indicate Venezuela has become one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America. From 1998 through 2010, the yearly homicide rate tripled, rising from 19 for every 100,000 residents in the

CARACAS: Members of the National Guard sing Venezuela’s National Anthem during a ceremony in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday. —AP homicides,” Chavez told National Guard troops holding assault rifles as they stood in formation at a downtown plaza.

More than 3,200 troops were deployed to the streets of Caracas as well as the surrounding states of Miranda and Vargas, according to Gen Miguel Vivas Landino, commander of the new security force.

Venezuela has one of Latin America’s highest murder rates. The government

South American nation to 57 per 100,000, according to the Venezuelan Violence Observatory, a Caracas-based academic organization that closely tracks crime statistics and trends.

Other violent crimes such as kidnapping and armed robbery have also increased in recent years in Venezuela.

As ransom kidnappings have soared, the government passed a revised law in 2009 that stiffened prison sentences for kidnapping and also allows authorities

to freeze the banks accounts of victims’ families to prevent them from paying ransom.

Kidnappings have soared over the last decade, the Venezuelan Violence Observatory says. Reports of kidnappings increased from 52 in 1998 to 618 in 2009, when the organization last compiled complete statistics. Last week, professional baseball player Wilson Ramos was seized at gunpoint outside his family’s home in the city of Valencia.

The Washington Nationals catcher was rescued by police commandos two days later at a remote hideout in the mountains of central Carabobo state.

His kidnapping captured the attention of many Venezuelans, but few were surprised that one of the country’s major league players had become a crime victim because the problem is now so widespread that it affects citizens of all social classes. Rising crime is among the problems that have weakened Chavez’s standing with his countrymen, although he remains the country’s most popular politician heading into next year’s presidential election.

During Thursday’s speech, Chavez turned to politics by warning the massed soldiers that his opponents are preparing to cause chaos and upheaval ahead of the election. He said the foes of his socialist-oriented government know they cannot win at the polls, so they hope to cause disorder in the streets and then blame government supporters for the chaos and denounce alleged voter fraud to smear his election triumph.

Chavez provided no proof to support his allegations, and he has made similar charges in the past without offering evidence. Opposition leaders have repeatedly said they plan to unseat Chavez through the ballot box - not by violent or unconstitutional means. —AP

Guru to be sentenced in Arizona sweat lodge deaths ARIZONA: More than two years after an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony turned deadly, the charismatic selfhelp author convicted in the tragedy will learn his punishment. James Arthur Ray was found guilty on three counts of negligent homicide.

Authorities originally charged Ray with manslaughter, but jurors rejected arguments that he was reckless in his handling of the October 2009 ceremony.

Prosecutors are urging Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Warren Darrow to hand down the maximum sentence yesterday to keep Ray off the self-help circuit and from harming others. Ray’s attorneys say probation is best for a man who has shown remorse, lacks prior criminal history and is the sole caretaker for ailing parents.

Ray’s motivational mantra drew dozens of people to a retreat nestled

in the scrub forest near Sedona with a promise that the sweat lodge ceremony typically used by American Indians to cleanse the body would help them break through whatever was holding them back in life. Participants began showing signs of distress about half way through the two-hour ceremony.

By the time it was over, some were vomiting, struggling to breathe and lying lifeless on the ground.

Two people - Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, NY, and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee - were pronounced dead.

Liz Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., slipped into a coma and never regained consciousness. She died more than a week later at a Flagstaff hospital.

The trial was a mix of lengthy witness testimony and legal wrangling that lasted four months. Witnesses painted conflicting pictures of Ray, with some describing a man who was

more like a coach encouraging participants to do their best to endure the heat but never forcing them to remain in the sweat lodge. Others said they learned through breathing exercises, a 36-hour fast, and a game in which Ray portrayed God that they dare not question him and lost the mental and physical ability to take care of themselves or others in the sweat lodge.

Prosecutors contended that Ray ignored pleas for help and watched as participants were dragged out of the sweat lodge. Ray’s attorneys suggested that toxins or poisons contributed to the deaths, but jurors said that theory was not credible. Ray’s attorneys made at least nine requests for a retrial or mistrial based on what they say were errors by the prosecution. While Darrow ruled that prosecutors broke disclosure rules, he rejected each of the defense requests. The case is bound for appeal. —AP

MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s new Interior Minister Alejandro Poire speaks during his swearing-in ceremony in Mexico City on Thursday. Poire, chief of Mexico’s intelligence agency, replaces Francisco Blake Mora, who died in a Nov. 11 helicopter crash on the outskirts of Mexico City. —AP

Mexico rights bodies allege abuses by ex-top cop MEXICO CITY: A former police chief in the border city of Tijuana and several subordinates violated the human rights of suspects and broke the law by torturing people in custody, state human rights officials charged Thursday. Baja California state’s Human Rights Commission and human rights prosecutor made the accusation in a report on the allegations against former chief Julian Leyzaola and others.

The commission said Leyzaola has been summoned to appear before a state judge in the case. The rights body has the power to issue nonbinding recommendations and to refer cases to prosecutors. Leyzaola, a retired army lieutenant colonel, become known nationally as a tough cop after cracking down on police corruption and drug gang violence in Tijuana. He resigned the Tijuana post in November 2010, but his success there spurred another violencewracked border city, Ciudad Juarez, to hire him as police chief last March.

In both cities, Leyzaola or his subordinates have been dogged by accusations of abuse. Leyzaola released a written statement saying the four men cited by the rights commission were corrupt police officers who had assaulted and robbed a Korean man and they had to be subdued when they resisted arrest. Leyzaola said he himself had suffered blows during the scuffle in March 2010. “We had to control and detain them,” he wrote. “They are on trial because they are criminals ... the Korean they assaulted identified them, and a taxi driver identified them for what they are: criminals.”

Leyzaola said he would file an appeal to the findings, so he can get his side of the story heard. The rights commission also charged that in August 2009, Leyzaola and other officers tortured five people suspected of killing police. Leyzaola also denied those allegations and called them part of a campaign to smear him. There have been earlier allegations against Leyzaola but he has not been formally charged. Several police officers who were charged in early 2009 with helping drug traffickers said Leyzaola or other officers dropped them off at a military base where they were beaten, nearly asphyxiated or forced to endure electric shocks to their genitals. Leyzaola has denied those accusations. In Ciudad Juarez, rights activists say that last March, officers from one of the city’s elite police units kidnapped four young men whose bodies were found later in a vacant lot. Leyzaola has pledged to investigate that case. Many Mexican mayors and local police chiefs refuse to confront drug kingpins, saying it is the federal government’s job to fight organized crime. Leyzaola, 51, broke with that pattern during his tenure as Tijuana, forging an unusually close relationship with the military, sharing intelligence as they pursued the same targets. He slept at an army base in downtown Tijuana, sometimes after nights of cruising the city to “hunt” for criminals, as he put it.

The New York-based group Human Rights Watch released a report earlier this month that accused the Mexican government of torture, forced disappearances and extra-judicial killings in its war against organized crime. The report outlines misconduct at all levels of authority, from prosecutors who give detainees prewritten confessions for signing to medical examiners who classify beatings and electric shock as causing minor injuries. Only 15 soldiers have been convicted out of the 3,671 investigations conducted by military prosecutors into alleged human rights violations by soldiers against civilians from 2007 to June 2011, according to the report. Not a single soldier or state official has been convicted in any of more than 200 cases Human Rights Watch documented in the report. Earlier Thursday, federal officials announced that soldiers captured a suspected leader for the Zetas drug cartel during a horse race that he organized in the northern state of Zacatecas. —AP

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7 Afghan children die in two blasts Explosions caused by left over mortar KABUL: Eight Afghans, including seven children, were killed in two separate blasts yesterday, officials said, the latest civilian deaths to hit the troubled country. In the first incident, four children died when a roadside bomb went off as they played near their home in Nangarhar province, near the country’s eastern border with Pakistan.

In the second, three children and an old man, all members of the same family, were killed when their rickshaw hit another roadside bomb in the south-

ern province of Uruzgan. The killings were the latest reminders of the high death toll suffered by civilians in the war since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taleban from power. “Four children were killed and six others were slightly injured as a result of a roadside bomb explosion,” said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, a spokesman for the governor of Nangarhar.

But the interior ministry said the explosion was caused by a mortar apparently left over from Afghanistan’s

decades of war. It put the death toll at two. Afghanistan faced years of conflict before 2001 and explosive devices dating from this period regularly cause deaths and injuries, often to curious children. However, most bombings are linked to the Taleban -led insurgency, despite a call from Taleban leader Mullah Omar earlier this month for fighters to limit civilian casualties.

A spokesman for the chief of police in Uruzgan, Farid Ail, said the second blast came as the three children and

one man were driving towards their home. “As a result of the explosion, three children and an elderly man died,” he said. The United Nations said the number of civilians killed in the war during the first half of this year rose 15 percent to 1,462, with insurgents responsible for 80 percent of the deaths. There are around 140,000 international troops, mainly from the United States, in Afghanistan helping government forces combat a Taleban led insurgency. — AFP

Imprisoned Sri Lanka war hero gets 3-year sentence

BANGKOK: A Thai man and a child paddle through floodwaters in Bangkok yesterday. At least 562 people have been killed across the country in Thailand’s worst floods in half a century, which have inundated parts of the capital. —AFP

Thai protesters rally against Thaksin pardon reports BANGKOK: Hundreds of Thais protested yesterday at the government’s reported attempts to bring back fugitive ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, as his arch-rivals announced further street action next week. Thaksin lives abroad to escape a twoyear jail term for corruption, but a cabinet meeting this week reportedly endorsed a royal pardon that could allow him to return, prompting an angry response from the opposition.

Local police told AFP that about 800 people from a nationalist group known as the “multi-colored shirts” were gathering peacefully at a park in Bangkok to protest the plan. The demonstrators share the same royalist, anti-Thaksin sentiments in Thailand’s color-coded politics as the influential “Yellow Shirts”, who are also planning to rally next week, spokesman Parnthep Pourpongpan told AFP. The People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD), as the Yellows are officially known, will stage a day-long rally on Monday outside the offices of the State Council, the body that gives legal advice to the government.

“Our aim is to protest at government plans to advise to the king to grant a royal pardon for Thaksin. This is the decision of all core PAD leaders,” he said. Thai media reports said a draft decree for an amnesty was approved at a cabinet meeting on Tuesday which Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra missed.

Yingluck, who is Thaksin’s younger sister and widely seen as his proxy, did not deny the reports when asked at a news conference on Wednesday. Without mentioning her brother, she said such a decree was “a common process”.

The Yellow Shirts’ street protests have helped to claim the scalps of three governments in under five years, including that of Thaksin in 2006, but they have yet to flex their muscles during Yingluck’s premiership. Last year the rival, pro-Thaksin “Red Shirts” held two months of protests in Bangkok against the-then pro-establishment government and more than 90 people, mostly civilians, were killed in clashes between the army and protesters.— AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s jailed former army chief was sentenced yesterday to three more years in prison for reportedly implicating the defense secretary in war crimes at the end of the country’s civil war. Two judges of a three-member High Court bench ruled Sarath Fonseka’s reported comments to a newspaper in 2009 breached the harsh emergency laws in place during and after the 26-year civil war. He claimed at his trial he was misquoted.

Fonseka rejected the verdict as unjust but said he was not surprised because Sri Lankan authorities did not want him active in politics. Attorney Nalin Ladduwahetty said Fonseka would appeal the sentence.

The court’s third judge ruled to acquit him.

“I reject this decision with disgust,” Fonseka said in a statement in open court.

“I believe that the fair-minded people will correct this mistake one day, otherwise it will remain a black mark in the history of our judiciary.” He said prosecuting an opposition presidential candidate based on a newspaper interview only happens in dictatorships.

Fonseka was regaled as a war hero after he led Sri Lanka’s army to victory in its 26-year civil war with separatist Tamil Tiger rebels in 2009, and he and President Mahinda Rajapaksa were immensely popular among the Sinhalese majority for defeating a rebel group that had seemed invincible for decades. He challenged the president in last year’s election and days after Rajapaksa’s victory, Fonseka was arrested and a court martial found him guilty of planning his political career while still in the military and of fraud in purchas-

ing military ware. He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and stripped of his rank and medals.

Yesterday’s sentence means Fonseka will have to spend three more years in jail when he finishes serving his first sentence in February 2013. After the verdict, Fonseka’s supporters shouted anti-government slogans in the court premises and tried to block the vehicle taking him to prison. Later, several dozens of people marched, demanding Fonseka’s release.

Opposition lawmaker Ranjan Ramanayake called the verdict a “cruel revenge.” “This man is none other than our presidential candidate who received millions of votes.”

The verdict also assumed a political col-

or yesterday coinciding with Rajapaksa’s 66th birthday and the first anniversary of his taking office for a second term. Large banners were hung around the city with birthday greetings, and some protesters removed them crushed and burnt them.

International human rights groups have long accused Sri Lanka’s government of committing war crimes in the final stages of the war. Ethnic Tamil activists say in the face of defeat several Tamil Tiger political leaders including its political wing head Balasingham Nadesan tried to surrender and approached a military sentry holding white flags, but they were shot dead. The government denied that and said the rebels were killed in combat. —AP

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan supporters of jailed former army chief Sarath Fonseka protest outside the Colombo High Court in Colombo yesterday. —AFP

Pakistan bans ‘obscene’ words on phone texts ISLAMABAD: Texters in Pakistan better start watching their language.

Pakistan’s telecommunications authority sent a letter ordering cell phone companies to block text messages containing what it perceives to be obscenities, Anjum Nida Rahman, a spokeswoman for Telenor Pakistan, said yesterday.

It also sent a list of more than 1,500 English and Urdu words that were to be blocked. The order was

part of the regulator’s attempt to block spam messages, said Rahman.

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority refused to comment on the initiative. Many of the words to be blocked were sexually explicit terms or swear words, according to a copy of the list obtained by The Associated Press.

It also included relatively mild terms like fart and idiot. The reasons for blocking some words, including Jesus

Christ, headlights and tampon, were less clear, raising questions about religious freedom and practicality. Any word could conceivably be part of a spam message. The letter, which was also obtained by the AP, was dated Nov. 14 and gave cell phone companies seven days to implement the order. Rahman, the Telenor spokeswoman, said her company first received the letter Thursday and was discussing how to proceed. —AP

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Philippine ex-president Arroyo arrested in hospital Military, police promise to maintain law and order MANILA: Former Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was arrested yesterday for electoral fraud, which carries a life sentence, at a Manila hospital, preventing her departure from the country to seek medical treatment. President Benigno Aquino and his government have long accused Arroyo of corruption during her two terms in office, from 2001-2010, though until yesterday, authorities had not formally charged her.

“She is now under our control, under our custody,” Senior Superintendent Franklin Bucayu, head of the Southern Police District, told a news briefing outside St Luke’s Hospital. “The arrest warrant has been served. We tried to read her rights but her lawyers waived it because of her conditions. She smiled at us and she was expecting it.” The arrest warrant had been issued earlier in the day, just after the government lost a bid to reverse a Supreme Court ruling allowing Arroyo to travel abroad. Arroyo

denies any wrongdoing.

Police said Arroyo’s family, her lawyers and some members of her cabinet were at her side in the hospital when the warrant was served. Her photograph would be taken and booking done over the weekend. “We posted two police officers outside her room and there are more officers down here to protect,” Bucayu said, adding the former president was wearing a neck brace when the warrant was served. “She just nodded and did not say any word.”

Both military and police leaders promised to maintain law and order, dismissing rumours of unrest within their ranks. “That is the real triumph of justice,” said Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.

The warrant was served on the 64year-old Arroyo at 6:30 pm at the hospital where she has been since Tuesday night after a failed attempt to leave the country. The government had stopped her at Manila airport believing she was

TAGUIG CITY: Senior Superintendent Joel Coronel of the Natonal Capital Region Police Office, center, shows a copy of the warrant of arrest served to former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in her hospital bed, during a press conference outside the hospital yesterday in suburban Taguig City, east of Manila, Philippines. —AP

trying to avoid investigation and possible prosecution. The Supreme Court had reaffirmed a decision to lift the travel ban yesterday, which could have allowed Arroyo and her husband to take a planned afternoon flight to Singapore, but that was subsequently overridden by the warrant.

President Benigno Aquino campaigned last year on fighting corruption and prosecuting those responsible for it, winning strong support after two administrations that had been dogged by allegations of wrongdoing. He vowed in particular to pursue Arroyo, although the Supreme Court last year blocked his plans for a special commission to investigate her.

Arroyo had prosecuted her predecessor, Joseph Estrada for corruption.

However after he was convicted of plunder and sentenced to life imprisonment, Arroyo pardoned him. Despite the conviction, Estrada was runner-up in a 2010 presidential election.

Arroyo also faces allegations of fraud over a 2004 presidential election and corruption in her administration. The alleged vote rigging happened in the restive southern Muslim province of Maguindanao, where all 12 pro-Arroyo senate candidates won a clean of sweep of the province at mid-term elections in 2007, at odds with national trends. “After finding the existence of probable cause, the court issued a warrant of arrest against the accused,” a clerk of Pasay City Regional Trial Court told reporters.

Arroyo has not been seen in public since Tuesday night, when, following the initial Supreme Court decision to lift her travel ban, she had turned up at the airport in a wheelchair and her neck in a braceThe Pasay City court also set for Monday morning a hearing on a separate petition to issue a hold departure order, which could permanently prevent Arroyo from leaving the country.— Reuters

Prosecutors appeal freeing of Khmer Rouge ‘First Lady’ PHNOM PENH: Prosecutors at Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge genocide tribunal yesterday appealed against a decision to free the regime’s former “First Lady” after she was deemed unfit for trial for having dementia. Judges on Thursday ordered Ieng Thirith, the only female leader charged by the UN-backed court, to be released after medical experts said she suffers from memory loss and most likely has Alzheimer’s disease.

“We have appealed her immediate release,” international co-prosecutor Andrew Cayley told AFP. The ruling on the 79year-old’s fitness came just days before the tribunal was to hear opening statements in her long-awaited trial alongside three co-accused. Judges said the former social affairs minister would now not have to answer to charges of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity next week over the deaths of up to two million people during the movement’s 1975-1979 reign Ieng Thirith will remain locked up while the Supreme Court Chamber ponders the appeal.

She has been held along with her husband and former foreign affairs minister Ieng Sary and two other top regime leaders-”Brother Number Two” Nuon Chea and ex-head of state Khieu Samphan-at a purpose-built detention centre

since 2007. All face and deny the same charges. Questions have long been raised over the mental state of the regime’s “First Lady”, who famously lost her cool during a 2009 court appearance, telling her accusers they would be “cursed to the seventh circle of hell”.

Trial chamber judges said in a statement Thursday that the “continued detention of an accused who lacks capacity to understand proceedings against her... would not serve the interests of justice.” But while they agreed about her mental health affliction, they were split about what to do with Ieng Thirith after staying the proceedings against her, their decision showed. Cambodian judges suggested she should be hospitalised for six months before re-assessing her fitness, while international judges said there was no legal basis to keep her locked up. In the absence of an agreement, international law prevailed.

In their appeal document, prosecutors said judges had failed to exhaust all possible options to improve the suspect’s condition. “The decision should be amended to require the accused to remain in detention and undergo medical and other remedial treatment, subject to a review in six months,” it read. —AFP

YANGON: Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi greets supporters as she leaves the National League for Democracy party’s headquarters after a meeting in Yangon, Myanmar yesterday. —AP

Suu Kyi party to register for Myanmar elections YANGON: Democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s opposition announced its return to Myanmar’s political arena yesterday, as the country’s nascent reforms received a dramatic seal of approval from the United States. After speaking directly to Nobel laureate Suu Kyi for the first time, in a call from Air Force One, US President Barack Obama said Hillary Clinton would next month become the first secretary of state to visit Myanmar for 50 years.

Attending an Asian summit in Indonesia, Obama said Clinton’s December 1-2 trip was designed to stoke “flickers” of democratic reform in a country that for decades has been blighted by military rule and international isolation. In rare elections a year ago, Myanmar’s military rulers gave way to a nominally civilian administration which released Suu Kyi from years of house arrest and has since made a surprising series of conciliatory gestures. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) said it would re-register as a political party and contest coming by-elections after boycotting last year’s poll-paving the way for the 66-year-old democracy heroine to run for office. She told her party yesterday that they should rejoin the mainstream political process and contest all 48 seats available in upcoming by-elections. “Why? The NLD has not worked as a political party for a long time so we need to practise as a political party again,” she said to party delegates in Yangon, before their official decision to re-register was announced. The NLD won a landslide victory in polls in 1990 but the then-ruling junta never allowed the party to take power. Suu Kyi, although a figurehead for the campaign, was under house arrest throughout.

Myanmar’s next election was not held until November last year, and the NLD boycotted it-mainly because of rules that would have forced it to expel imprisoned members. Suu Kyi was again under house arrest. After spending 15 of the past 22 years in detention, Suu Kyi hinted to her party yesterday that she would stand for office herself in the by-elections. No polling dates have yet been set.

“If I think I should take part in the election, I will. Some people are worried that taking part could harm my dignity. Frankly, if you do politics, you should not be thinking about your dignity,” she said. “I stand for the re-registration of the NLD party. I would like to work effectively towards amending the constitution. So we have to do what we need to do.” Party spokesman Nyan Win said the group would re-register as soon as they could, possibly next week. Asked whether Suu Kyi would stand, he said: “I believe she will.”

Myanmar’s 2010 election, widely discredited by outside observers, brought the army’s political proxies to power after decades of outright military rule, but the new government has surprised critics with its recent reformist moves. It has held direct talks with Suu Kyi, freed some 200 dissidents from jail, frozen work on an unpopular mega-dam and passed a law giving workers the right to strike.

As a reward for its conciliatory moves, Myanmar has won Southeast Asia’s backing to chair the region’s ASEAN bloc in 2014, despite concerns the move was premature. Analysts say the return of the NLD would add to the legitimacy of the armybacked government, which is seeking to end its global isolation by loosening political shackles-but would also increase the relevance of the popular but long-excluded Suu Kyi. —AFP

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Global stocks slump as China housing cools

18

Monti to launch radical reforms to save Italy

Business SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

17

Automatic spending cuts a new threat to US economy

Merkel, Cameron meet as tension over Europe crackles

16

BALI: US President Barack Obama applauds as Boeing Senior Vice President Ray Conner, seated right, and Lion Air CEO Rusdi Kirana, seated left, announce a commercial deal at a signing ceremony in Nusa Dua, on the island of Bali, Indonesia, yesterday. — AP

Boeing wins $21.7bn airplane order Largest commercial order in Boeing’s history NUSA DUA: The United States announced a massive order for Boeing jets from Indonesia’s largest domestic airline, Lion Air, to be showcased as US President Barack Obama winds up an Asia-Pacific tour.

The sale of 230 short-haul 737 jets, worth $21.7 billion at list prices, is the largest commercial order in Boeing’s history, toppling a previous record set just days ago as the industry taps in to relentless demand in emerging economies. The order is also a boost for Boeing’s efforts to develop a revamped version of its best-selling 737 to compete with a model produced by its European rival Airbus.

The deal from Lion Air, Indonesia’s largest private carrier, included orders for 29 NextGeneration 737-900 extended range planes and 201 of Boeing’s new 737 MAX, an updated version of its best-selling model.

The company said the 201 orders for the 737 MAX were included in previously announced commitments for 700 of the planes, which are due to enter service in 2017 equipped with fuel-efficient engines.

Obama, under pressure to bring down a 9 percent US unemployment rate, attended the signing ceremony yesterday for the order, which the White House said would sup-

port more than 110,000 jobs at Boeing and US suppliers.

The US president, who hopes to convince voters before the November 2012 presidential election that his administration can revive the economy, is seeking to increase American exports to Asia-Pacific to offset weakness in Europe. The Lion Air deal includes options for another 150 aircraft valued at $14 billion, bringing the potential total value to $35 billion, although big plane orders tend to come with significant discounts. Boeing said the Lion Air order, when finalized, would be its largest ever “by both dollar volume and total number of airplanes.”

The plane maker said strong customer demand was driving its plans to raise production over the next three years. “As a result of that increase, we will definitely be adding many more jobs,” Boeing spokesman Doug Alder Jr. said without giving a specific figure.

High oil prices are spurring orders worth billions for airplanes with improved fuel savings, re-energizing the rivalry between Boeing and Airbus. Alex Hamilton, managing director with EarlyBirdCapital in New York, said the strong order confirmed that the commercial aerospace sector was bouncing back despite

a skittish global economy. He said he expected more airplane orders as oil prices reach $100 a barrel.

The challenge for Boeing now is to execute its production schedules to turn the orders into revenue, Hamilton said. Boeing has “a backlog that most people wouldn’t know what to do with,” he said. “The faster they get (planes) out, the less risk there is to the backlog being canceled and the faster they convert those orders into cash.”

Boeing shares closed down 0.4 percent at $66.09 on the New York Stock Exchange, compared with a 1.1 percent fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, of which the plane maker is a component.

The revamped 737 MAX is designed to compete with the Airbus A320neo in the narrow-body aircraft segment, which is expected to produce $2 trillion in sales over 20 years.

Demand from Asia and the Middle East has powered an increasing proportion of orders for Boeing and Airbus passenger jets in recent years as the growing ranks of the middle class acquire wealth and opportunities to travel.

With traffic strongly tied to gross domestic product, the trend is likely to continue as Asia’s share of the world economy moves

from 27 percent now to 35 percent in 2030, according to Boeing.

“Something has changed in the past 20 years,” Randy Tinseth, vice president of marketing for Boeing commercial airplanes, told Reuters. “In 1990, 72 percent of demand was from Europe and the Americas. Now it is closer to 50 percent. In 2030 it will be only 40 percent.” The Lion Air deal marks the second time in a week that Boeing has broken its company record for commercial airplane deals after bagging an $18 billion order for 50 wide-body 777 jets from Emirates airline at the Dubai Air Show.

In other deals to be announced on the sidelines of an East Asia Summit on the Indonesian island of Bali, the White House announced Boeing reached a $2.4 billion deal for Singapore Airlines to buy eight 777300ER aircraft. General Electric Co will sell 50 engines to Indonesia’s Garuda Airlines in an agreement worth $1.3 billion. In a $325 million deal presented as one of the largest defense procurements in Brunei’s history, United Technologies Corp unit Sikorsky will supply 12 Black Hawk helicopters to the Royal Brunei Armed Forces Support Helicopter Project. —Reuters

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Greece unveils hopeful budget ahead of debt talks ATHENS: Greece revealed progress on its budget deficit yesterday but increased expected recession next year in a budget of austerity mixed with optimism, and hanging on a debt deal with banks. The blueprint was published as auditors from the European Union, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund headed to Athens for negotiations on a debt rescue deal brokered by the eurozone last month.

The figures forecast that Greece’s budget deficit will drop to 5.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 from 9.0 percent this year, an ambitious target given the previous forecast for next year of 6.8 percent.

At the same time, the unity coalition under former ECB deputy chief Lucas Papademos estimated that the economy would shrink next year by 2.8 percent, a deeper contraction than the 2.5 percent previously estimated.

The economy shrank by 5.5 percent in 2011, the third year of recession.

Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said he hoped Greek lawmakers would approve the budget before an EU summit on December 9, an indication of the new government’s determination to appease its creditors in return for loans urgently needed.

He also said he believed no new

austerity measures were needed beyond what had been agreed by the previous socialist government, although deeply unpopular reforms slashing the public sector must still be

measures on Thursday in Athens and Thessaloniki.

The estimated deficit figures would put Greece well within the goals agreed with its EU and IMF creditors,

ATHENS: Greek Finance minister Evangelos Venizelos, left, gives the 2012 budget to Philippos Petsalnikos, Speaker of the Greek Parliament, in Athens yesterday. —AP implemented.

Many Greeks are already at breaking point after two years of austerity measures involving sweeping pay cuts and tax rises, and more than 40,000 people joined protests against the

Libya open for business but obstacles ahead TRIPOLI: When Omar’s boss called him from abroad to tell him he wanted to come back Tripoli to restart his manufacturing business, the Libyan employee joked to his foreign manager the visit would just be personal.

“I said ‘Boss, you would be spending all your time with me, there is no one to do business with’,” Omar, who would only give his first name, said. “I told him to wait.” Omar’s boss, like many other international businessmen, is keen to return to Libya to get his venture back up and running after eight months of civil war ousted Muammar Gaddafi from 42 years in power.

But in a nation lacking security and bristling with weapons, their re-entry may not be swift or easy.

Within days, Prime Minister Abdurrahim El-Keib will name a new government that will have the tough task of asserting the National Transitional Council’s (NTC) control of a fractured country, reviving the economy and introducing democracy.

It will have to build institutions from scratch, sustain the revival of Libya’s oil industry and disarm militias. “It’s a rather dark picture that is to be painted right now. Offices have been looted in the conflict, it’s not clear who is in charge, who you need to speak with,” said one European businessman who returned to Libya a few weeks ago after being evacuated during the conflict.

“I have tried to go find my old clients to get money that was owed, but how can they pay me back? Services aren’t back up and running, banks are still limited in their operations.” Post-war Libya is also grappling with a banknote shortage. The businessman had visited his old office and home, but like many other foreigners in Libya now, preferred to stay in the secure compound of one of Tripoli’s plush hotels.

“There is no police, no order right now,” he said. “But I am hopeful things will get better.” Bringing unruly and heavily armed militias under government control is a daunting challenge. Many foreign workers are adopting a waitand-see approach until stability is restored.

“The economy is suffering from a lack of funds and the spread of weapons is one of the reasons for this with regard to tourism and foreign companies,” Tripoli Islamist militia leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj told a seminar at Tripoli university.—Reuters

after it missed its 7.4 percent target by a long shot this year, but they are highly dependent on a still shaky debt deal.

Eurozone leaders agreed with the banks last month to write off 50 percent of Greek debt as part of a second

rescue plan which also provide Athens with 100 billion euros in loans and 30 billion euros to recapitalise its banks.

The man leading the talks on behalf of the banks, Institute of International Finance chief Charles Dallara, said Thursday he hoped to reach agreement on the details of the deal, worth 100 billion euros, within weeks.

Venizelos said he hoped all of Greece’s private creditors would sign up to one of two or three models being hammered out, adding: “We will do all we can.”

According to the budget, the government’s interest payments on its debt will fall to 12.75 billion euros in 2012 from 16.38 billion euros this year following the debt deal. Without the agreement, the payments would total 17.9 billion. Papademos’ new government of socialists, conservatives and a small far-right party is in a race against time to implement the reforms demanded by the EU and IMF, most pressingly to release eight billion euros in loans frozen since August.

The funds, which must be delivered

by December 15 to stop Greece going bankrupt, are part of a 110-billion-euro bailout agreed in May 2010 which have been held up by delays in the implementation of reforms and a political crisis.— AFP

Merkel, Cameron meet as tension over Europe crackles Proposals could trigger change in EU’s rule-book BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel hosts British Prime Minister David Cameron for talks yesterday amid growing friction over how to restore stability in the face of Europe’s debilitating debt crisis.

Cameron, arriving after talks with EU leaders in Brussels, and Merkel have clashed recently on the way forward for Europe as it suffers what she has called perhaps its most difficult hour since World War II.While Merkel sees “more Europe” as the solution, with member states agreeing to cede more sovereignty on issues such as fiscal policy, Cameron has taken a hard eurosceptic line of late in response to domestic pressure.

He lashed out this week against “grand plans and utopian visions” and called for an EU with “the flexibility of a network, not the rigidity of a bloc”. He has also evoked using the crisis to claw back powers from Brussels. German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle sought to soothe British fears over Berlin’s calls for limited treaty change to beef up the EU’s fiscal rule book, in an interview published yesterday in London’s Financial Times. Any European treaty changes restricted to the 17-member eurozone bloc will only arise as a last resort, he said, playing down anxiety over a potential two-tier Europe that could see non-euro countries sidelined.

German commentators fretted about the anti-Europe mood in London and said Cameron appeared to be seeking a scapegoat for troubling British economic data seen this week, including a record one million young people out of work. “The atmosphere between the two countries is currently frostier than it has been in a long time,” the centre-left daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung wrote. “With his speech he has

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) and British Prime Minister David Cameron address the press before holding talks yesterday at the chancellery in Berlin. Cameron, whose country is a non-eurozone member, met Merkel amid sharp differences over handing more central power to Brussels as the eurozone tackles its debt crisis. — AFP positioned himself firmly against Merkel, do more to help resolve the debt crisis who is calling for more Europe. In Berlin such as support a financial transaction tax, this development is being viewed with which the City of London fears would concern.” spook investors.

The opposing views could put the two However Merkel has grudgingly concamps on a collision course ahead of a ceded that Berlin would move forward December 9 EU summit which may step with the tax in the 17-nation eurozone up the role of Brussels in enforcing eco- alone if need be. nomic discipline among the eurozone Meanwhile the combative parliamennations. The proposals could trigger the tary group leader of Merkel’s Christian need for a limited change in the EU’s rule- Democratic Union party, Volker Kauder, book, the Lisbon Treaty, and a commission ruffled feathers this week with a call for official confirmed that treaty change was Britain to “do its part” in rescuing the euro. on the menu at talks Cameron held earlier He also staked a claim to Berlin’s leadFriday with commission chief Jose Manuel ership in Europe, saying it was now Barroso. “speaking German”, which provoked Germany would like to see Britain, howls of protest in some corners of the which is not a member of the eurozone, British press. — AFP

business SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Automatic spending cuts a new threat to US economy ‘Deep spending cuts are set to kick in’

NEW DELHI: Bollywood actress Nargis Fakhri introduces Range Rover Evoque from Tata Motors-owned Land Rover in New Delhi, India, yesterday. The Evoque will retail in India from about $86,000. —AP

ECB resists calls for more crisis action FRANKFURT: European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi stood firm yesterday against heavy pressure to come to the rescue of the eurozone, standing by the bank’s independence and antiinflation duty. Draghi, who took over at the ECB’s helm on November 1, hit back by telling governments they had a duty to get their finances in order and enact agreed measures to stabilise the crisis-wracked eurozone.

Pressuring the ECB to act would undermine the bank’s credibility, Draghi warned. In the current environment, the “continuity, consistency and credibility” of the ECB1 and its monetary policy were “essential”, the Italian central banker said.

“Credibility implies that our monetary policy is successful in anchoring inflation expectations over the medium and longer term. “This is the major contribution we can make in support of sustainable growth, employment creation and financial stability,” Draghi said in a speech to the European Banking Congress here.

“And we are making this contribution in full independence.”

There is growing pressure from politicians and markets for the ECB to ramp up hugely its purchases of debt issued by governments in trouble to relieve upward pressure on borrowing rates and the threat that devalued government bonds could cause severe strains in the banking sector.

It was in the hands of the politicians to solve the debt crisis, Draghi insisted. “National economic policies are equally responsible for restoring and maintaining financial stability,” he said.

“Solid public finances and structural reforms-which lay the basis for competitiveness, sustainable growth and job creation-are two of the essential elements.”

And a third essential element for financial stability was “a much more robust economic governance of the union going forward,” he said, calling for “urgent implementation” of the recent decisions taken by the European Council and the EU summit. Draghi complained that it was now 18 months since EU leaders agreed to set up the European Financial Stability Facility or EFSF as a bailout fund for debt-stricken countries.

It was also four months since EU leaders had finally decided to make the full EFSF guarantee volume available. “And we are four weeks after the summit that agreed on leveraging of the resources by a factor of up to four or five and that declared the EFSF would be fully operational,” Draghi said.

“Where is the implementation of these long-standing decisions? We should not be waiting any longer,” Draghi said.

Bundesbank chief and ECB governing council member Jens Weidmann similarly believed that the onus lay with governments, saying it was “indispensible” that reforms were made to tackle “deficiencies in the institutional framework of monetary union and structural deficiencies in various member states.”

“The lack of success in containing the crisis does not justify overstretching the mandate of the central bank and making it responsible for solving the crisis,” Weidmann said.

“A clear commitment to (the ECB’s price stability) mandate is an indispensable element of a prosperous future for the euro,” he argued. Like Draghi, Weidmann rejected calls for unlimited buying by the ECB of sovereign bonds of debtwracked countries.

“I am also convinced that the economic costs of any form of monetary financing of public debt and deficits outweigh its benefits so clearly that it will not help to stabilise the current situation in any sustainable way,” he said. Germany has always been one of the most vociferous opponents to suggestions that the ECB should simply print money for countries who find themselves in a credit squeeze. —AFP

WASHINGTON: Just as the US economy is making progress despite Europe’s turmoil, here come two new threats. Deep spending cuts are set to kick in if a congressional panel can’t agree by Thanksgiving on how to shrink the budget deficit. And Congress may let emergency unemployment aid and a Social Security tax cut expire at year’s end.

Either outcome could slow growth and spook markets.

Analysts are concerned. Yet most aren’t panicking. Many say the economy and markets can withstand the blows. That’s because Congress or the Federal Reserve could take other steps next year to blunt the automatic cuts and lift the economy.

And investors expect so little from the congressional panel that they’re unlikely to overreact if no deal is reached.

“There’s no doomsday scenario in reducing government spending,” said David Kelly of JP Morgan Funds. The 12-member bipartisan panel, or supercommittee, was created in August to defuse a political standoff over raising the federal borrowing limit. It’s supposed to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit cuts by Nov. 23. If it fails, federal spending would automatically be cut by that amount over nine years, starting in 2013.

The law triggers cuts in programs prized by both parties: Social services such as Medicare for Democrats, defense spending for Republicans. The panel appears to be deadlocked. Economists say a stalemate makes it harder for Congress to extend the Social Security tax cut and unemployment benefits. On the other hand, if the supercommittee does forge a deal, it might include an extension of those benefits. Or it could at least clear the way for an extension later.

The Social Security tax cut gave most Americans an extra $1,000 to $2,000 this year. Unemployment benefits provide about $300 a week. Most of that money quickly and directly boosts consumer spending, which drives the economy. By contrast, an expiration of those benefits could cut growth by about three-quarters of a percentage point, economists say.

Throw in other cuts, like those passed in the August debt deal, and all told, federal budget policies could subtract 1.7 percentage points from growth in 2012, according to JPMorgan Chase and Moody’s Analytics.

Given the tepid economy, such a hit could be damaging. “It would be very difficult for an economy that’s doing well to digest, let alone one that’s barely growing at potential,” said Ryan Sweet, an economist at Moody’s. “That could unwind a lot of the improvement we’ve seen so far.”

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the July-September quarter.

Some analysts fear it could fall below 2 percent next year, especially if the emergency unemployment benefits and Social Security tax cuts aren’t renewed.

The US economy faces other threats, too - from persistently high unemployment to Europe’s spreading debt crisis, which could hasten a recession. If the automatic spending cuts take effect, the defense budget could be cut by nearly $500 billion over nine years. Some contractors are nervous.

Wes Bush, CEO of Northrop Grumman, has told analysts that the company is bracing

for spending cuts.

“It’s certainly going to be a more challenging environment” next year, he said.

Another wild card: Some investors fear that the supercommittee’s failure would spark fresh downgrades of US debt. Standard & Poor’s downgraded the government’s longterm debt in August. That contributed to a stock market plunge. It’s possible that a deadlocked supercommittee would lead the two other major rating agencies - Fitch and Moody’s - to follow suit. Yet S&P’s downgrade did little to tarnish US debt.

tend to retain their value in a weak economy, have been outpacing the S&P 500 index as a whole. In the past month, the economy has shown surprising strength.

Reports this week showed that manufacturers are producing more goods and consumers are spending more. The number of people seeking unemployment benefits for the first time is at a seven-month low.

Still, more than once since the recession officially ended more than two years ago, the economy has displayed vigor only to stumble again. High gas and food prices

NEW YORK: Specialist Chris Molloy, left, and trader Jason Harper, work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Financial markets remained volatile yesterday, in the face of a European debt crisis that has widened and deepened over the past week. —AP Treasury prices rose, and yields fell. Bond investors still saw Treasurys as a super-safe investment. Federal borrowing costs actually declined. “S&P showed that when a rating agency downgrades the best-known security in the world, it has little impact,” Kelly said. The market for US Treasurys is so broad, accessible and transparent that ratings downgrades don’t pose much threat, he noted. Kelly said Wall Street is unlikely to panic given that expectations for the supercommittee “are so low as to be subterranean.” Even so, some traders appear to be positioning for a shock. So-called “defensive” sectors of the stock market, like healthcare companies and utilities, which

and Japan’s earthquake sharply slowed growth in the first half of the year.

Congress’ debt-ceiling fight sent consumer confidence to recession levels.

Sweet thinks there’s a good chance Congress will end up extending the Social Security tax cut. Partly on that assumption, Moody’s foresees 2.6 percent growth next year. For this year, analysts generally estimate less than 2 percent growth.

Lawmakers could make other policy changes next year to energize the economy. The tax cuts enacted during the Bush administration, and extended in 2010, are set to expire after 2012. Republicans will push to renew them. —AP

Oil below $99 S I N G A P O R E : Oil prices hovered below $99 a barrel yesterday in Asia amid concern Europe’s debt crisis will undermine the continent’s economic growth and crude demand.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was up 8 cents at $98.90 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $3.77 to settle at $98.82 in New York on Thursday.

Brent crude for January delivery was up 22 cents at $108.44 a barrel on the ICE Futures Exchange in London.

Crude jumped to above $103 on Thursday before pulling back as Spanish and French sovereign debt yields rose sharply higher.

Investors are increasingly worried austerity measures to contain debt levels could trigger a recession in Europe.

“Crude values will remain subject to the vagaries of increasing debt problems across the euro zone,” energy consultant Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. “Economic deterioration in southern Europe is capable of offsetting positive economic vibes within the US.” —AP

BUSINESS

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Former Olympus exec wants Woodford back TOKYO: A former board member of Olympus Corp. said yesterday that he launched an online petition to persuade the Japanese company to bring back Michael Woodford, the British executive fired for questioning payments made to cover up huge investment losses.

Koji Miyata, who served on Olympus’ board from 1995 to 2006, told The Associated Press that he wants the company to issue a public apology to Woodford and reinstate him as chief executive officer. Woodford was fired last month after raising questions about $687 million in payments for financial

advice and expensive acquisitions of companies unrelated to Olympus’ mainstay businesses. Woodford also had urged company executives to resign before being ousted himself.

The company later admitted that the payments were made to cover up huge investment losses since the 1990s. “No matter how you look at this, the only person who did the right thing all along was him,” said the 70-year-old Miyata.

Olympus had no comment yesterday on the petition drive, but management has steadfastly refused to bring Woodford back. Woodford, 51, a 30-year

Europe shares halt slide as euro rises PARIS: European stocks inched higher yesterday, reversing a small portion of the week’s losses and mirroring a rebound in the euro currency, but simmering fears over the borrowing costs of a number of euro zone countries kept investors on edge.

Cyclical shares such as heavyweight miners were among the biggest losers, with Xstrata down 0.4 percent and Anglo American off 0.3 percent. At 1249 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up 0.1 percent at 958.88 points in relatively low volumes, on track to post a loss of 2.6 percent on the week. The euro zone’s blue chip Euro STOXX 50 index was up 0.8 percent at 2,259.50 points, after testing its 50-day moving average, a strong support level from which the index has bounced over the past two weeks. Banking stocks gained ground, with UniCredit up 2.6 percent and Credit Agricole up 0.3 percent. Italian and Spanish government debt yields retreated and the euro rose as the European Central Bank bought bonds in the secondary market to ease the tension surrounding the two countries’ debt levels.But the gains in the euro-which helped highly correlated banking shares pare early losses and turn positive-was mainly seen as the unwinding of bearish bets on the single currency ahead of the weekend rather than a return of investor appetite for risk. The euro’s correlation with euro zone banking index, which often makes it a gauge of “risk-on/risk-off” trade, has hit a two-year high, with the 25-day rolling correlation between the single currency and the index at 0.871.

The recent sharp rise in correlation between the different asset classes has rattled traditional long-only equity investors, making it more difficult to beat benchmark indexes and limiting their risks by betting on uncorrelated assets.

“This market has been hell for stock pickers, with emotions running high,” said Denis Beaudoin, CEO of Paris-based asset management firm Finaltis. “Quant models are more resilient in this context, they help investors navigate through the noise to manage risk and outperform the indexes. Just look at the quant funds’ performances year-to-date, a lot of them are positive to just slightly negative while stock indexes are down, sometimes below 20 percent.”

Around Europe, the UK’s FTSE 100 index was down 0.3 percent, dragged down by miners, Germany’s DAX index up 0.6 percent, and France’s CAC 40 up 0.2 percent. So far this year, the FTSE 100 is down around 8 percent, the DAX is down 16 percent and the CAC 40 is down 21 percent.

After tumbling to a 2-1/2 year low in late September, European stocks bounced back-with the Euro STOXX 50 gaining as much as 30 percent-but the recovery rally has been stalled this month by mounting fears over the finances of Greece and Italy and the risk of contagion to France and Spain. The market has been marked by high intraday volatility, which has kept many long-term investors at bay, while short-term and derivative investors have been thriving. “‘Long-term investment’ used to mean ‘five years’. It became ‘three weeks’ in 2010, and now it’s ‘three days’. No wonder why passive investors are getting smacked,” said David Thebault, head of quantitative sales trading, at Global Equities. —Reuters

employee at Olympus had been groomed since his 20s to be a top executive. He technically cannot be kicked out except at a shareholders’ meeting.

Miyata’s website said the weeklong petition had 377 signatures. Miyata said the tally had actually reached 2,700 signatures, but the numbers were unclear because the site crashed repeatedly from a deluge of access, and some of support came in anonymously. Japanese authorities have started an investigation. The reputation of Tokyo-based Olympus, the global leader in endoscopes, has been battered. Prime

Minister Yoshihiko Noda has expressed worries about the credibility of Japan Inc. in the international community.

Olympus, founded in 1919, must report revised earnings by Dec. 14, or face delisting from the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Japanese media reported Woodford will be in Japan next week to speak with investigators.

Woodford did not immediately respond to requests for comment by the AP. Miyata said he had no direct knowledge of what appeared to be an elaborate financial scheme concocted over the years. — AP

Monti to launch radical reforms to save Italy Merkel, Sarkozy voiced their ‘full support’ ROME: Prime Minister Mario Monti won a Senate vote of confidence and rushed to implement radical economic reforms aimed at breathing new life into Italy, as Europe voiced support for his plan to prevent the debt crisis from spreading.

The premier faces a confidence vote on his new technocrat government in Italy’s lower house yesterday, but is unlikely to meet obstruction after unveiling a series of courageous measures to lift Rome out of the eurozone crisis.

The Senate overwhelmingly backed Monti’s government on Thursday, with 281 out of 307 senators in attendance backing his plan to pull the country back from the brink.

In his first speech to parliament, Monti announced a plan to balance Italy’s crucial austerity measures with schemes to boost “growth and equity”, including investing in women and the young as well as tackling unfair privileges.

Although Monti is racing to implement initiatives demanded by Europe, he assured Italians fearful of losing their sovereignty that the reforms were not being “imposed by external forces,” insisting: “We are Europe.”

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the premier after his speech for an “in-depth discussion on the economic situation” and voiced their “full support,” Italian authorities said.

Eurogroup chief Jean-Claude Juncker has insisted on the EU’s “full confidence” in Rome’s ability to overcome the current crisis. The inclusion of key pension and labour reforms urgently pushed for by the EU in Italy’s crisis game plan is expected to reassure markets.

“We need measures to make the economy less fossilised, help new industries grow, improve public services and favour youth and female employment,” Monti said. “If we fail, if we don’t carry out the necessary reforms, we will also be subjected to much harsher conditions,” he warned.

Economics professor Giuliano Noci

ROME: Italian Premier Mario Monti, third from left in back, speaks before a confidence vote in the Italy’s lower chamber of parliament in Rome, yesterday.

Monti’s day-old government won a confidence vote 281-25 in the Senate after he warned that all Italians would need to make sacrifices to get the country out of its massive debt hole. — AP

said the programme “includes everything one could imagine carrying out in Italy and would allow-if implemented-a truly great revival of the country.”

While Monti, who replaced the billionaire media mogul Silvio Berlusconi, has won the support of Italy’s parliamentarians for now, he could face a political backlash when he begins implementing the painful and delayed economic reforms.

Thousands of students protested ahead of his speech against a technocratic government they fear will favour fat cats and bankers, but the soft-spoken Monti is supported by over half of Italians, a recent poll found. The technocrat faces his first international test next week, when he is expected to travel to Brussels, Berlin, Paris and London. The rate on Italian 10-year government bonds has hovered around the 7.0-percent warning threshold that set off alarm bells in Europe and beyond, but dropped down to 6.84 percent following Monti’s speech.

Fitch ratings agency said Thursday there was “a window of opportunity

for the new Italian government to generate a positive surprise” and “break the negative market dynamics,” but warned: “Italy is likely already in recession.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced it would send a monitoring team to Italy this month at the invitation of the Italian authorities.

Italy has to issue 440 billion euros (about $590 billion) in debt next year.

While its high public debt of 1.9 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion) is relatively stable and its deficit relatively low, its anaemic growth rate and recent political weakness have pushed up borrowing costs.

Berlusconi had agreed during a G20 summit at the start of November to an embarrassing monitoringscheme by which the IMF and European Commission would keep an eye on Italy to reassure markets that it was acting to reduce its debt.

The scandal-plagued premier bowed to intense market pressure and resigned on Saturday to cries of “Buffoon!” as Italians celebrated in the streets. — AFP

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Wen warns over global economic turmoil NUSA DUA: Global economic turmoil could persist for “a long time to come”, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao warned yesterday, saying that recovery in some developed nations lacked momentum. China has become a key driver of the global economy in recent years and has been courted by top European officials looking to bolster a fund set up to support troubled economies.

Beijing has the world’s largest foreign exchange reserves at $3.2 trillion, but has so far made no firm commitment to provide financial assistance for the eurozone. “The global economy may experience uncertainty and instability for a long time to come,” Wen said at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit on the

Indonesian island of Bali.

“The world is undergoing profound and complex changes. The international financial crisis has entered its fourth year, and the current global economic and financial scene still gives no reason for optimism,” he said. “Economic recovery in some developed countries lacks momentum, and those countries are plagued by serious financial and debt crises,” Wen added in a reference to the eurozone.

But he said that despite relatively strong growth, the developing world still had to address fundamental problems. “Emerging and developing countries are ascending on the world stage, but taken as a whole, they are still not strong enough,” he said.

Global stocks slump as China housing cools HONG KONG: Global financial markets slumped yesterday as investors signaled they held little optimism of any breakthrough in Europe’s debt crisis and a report showed new house prices in China cooled last month.

Oil rose above $99 a barrel while the dollar weakened against the euro and the yen. In early European trading, Britain’s FTSE 100 fell 0.8 percent to 5,378.56 while France’s CAC- 40 fell 0.6 percent to 2,992.82. Germany’s DAX was down 1 percent to 5,791.42. US stocks were poised to open flat. Dow futures were practically unchanged at 11,745.00 while broader S&P 500 futures held steady at 1,215.70. In Asian trading, South Korea’s Kospi tumbled 2 percent to 1,839.17 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.7 percent to 18,491.23. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index slid 1.2 percent to 8,374.91.

Australia’s S&P ASX 200 declined 1.9 percent to 4,177. In mainland China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.9 percent to 2,416.56, its lowest close in almost a month. The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index lost 2.7 percent to 1,031.54. Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, India, Thailand, the Philippines and New Zealand also fell.

Investors found little to be hopeful about yesterday. A Chinese government report showed new house prices in October fell in more than half of 70 cities measured from the month before, stoking fears about the country’s once-buoyant housing market. China says credit and investment curbs imposed to cool its real estate boom will stay in place. The measures appear to have worked in tamping down property prices, but have also slowed the real estate and construction industries, which account for about 10 percent of China’s economic output.

Hong Kong-listed China property shares tumbled, including China Resources Land Ltd., which closed 4.3 percent lower; and China Overseas Land & Investment, which closed 5.4 percent lower. In Shanghai, China’s second-largest listed property developer, Poly Real Estate lost 3.2 percent, while industry leader China Vanke lost 4.7 percent.

“Today, investors are reacting to the fact that their expectations for credit easing haven’t actually come true yet,” said Cai Dagui, an analyst at Ping’an Securities based in Shenzhen.

Shares in shipping, coal, nonferrous and new energy companies also weakened. China CSSC Holdings lost 2.1 percent while Advanced Technology & Materials Co. lost 5.8 percent.

But Europe’s sovereign debt crisis outweighed all other fears in the markets.

“Everyone is sitting on cash and not wanting to get into the market right now until there’s a clearer picture in Europe,” said Jackson Wong, a vice president at Tanrich Securities.

“Every time when there is news about Europe it’s negative.

Until they have a valid solution to solve - or at least contain the current worries, I don’t think the market will bounce back.”

Investors were spooked Thursday after Spain’s government auctioned 10-year government bonds that will see the country paying interest of nearly 7 percent - the highest rate since 1997 and a level that many economists see as unsustainable.

Borrowing costs in France also rose. —AP

“Social turbulence has erupted in west Asia and north Africa. Global food, energy and environmental challenges pose a growing threat to the sustainable development of mankind.” China is ASEAN’s biggest trading partner, with two-way trade expected to surpass $350 billion this year, Wen said.

Beijing is concerned about inflation, but said this week it will “finetune” monetary policy amid “global systemic risks”, raising hopes of a relaxation in credit after growth slowed to 9.1 percent.

Wen said yesterday Beijing would offer its Southeast Asian neighbours $10 billion in infrastructure loans, as he sought to deepen trade ties in the region. He made the announcement in a speech at China’s meeting

with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders on the Indonesian island of Bali, after Beijing in 2009 announced a similar $15 billion loan to the region.

The earlier loan “has supported more than 50 infrastructure development projects, involving almost all ASEAN countries,” said Wen, according to a copy of his speech released by China’s state news agency Xinhua. He said China and the 10-member regional bloc should enhance financial cooperation, including “local currency swap and encourage the quoting of China’s yuan and ASEAN currencies in each other’s inter-bank foreign exchange”.

China has an ambitious goal to turn the yuan, also known as the

renminbi, into a global currency rivalling the dollar. “China-ASEAN relationship is solidly based and has great potential and a promising future,” said Wen, promising China would “forever be a good neighbour, good friend and good partner” of ASEAN. “We will work closely with you to implement all the agreements we have reached to bring more benefit to our people and make greater contribution to peace and prosperity in our region,” he said. Wen announced the establishment of a 3.0 billion yuan ($470 million) fund to step up maritime cooperation with ASEAN states that covers marine research, navigation safety, combating transnational crimes, among others. —AFP

Asian stocks slump as Spain borrowing costs spike S Korea’s Kospi tumbles 2.2% HONG KONG: Asian stocks slumped yesterday after a spike in Spanish government borrowing costs added to the uncertainty over Europe’s debt crisis and a report showed new house prices in China slid last month. Oil fell below $99 a barrel while the dollar weakened against the euro and the yen.

South Korea’s Kospi tumbled 2.2 percent to 1,835.90 while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.8 percent to 18,476.24.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index slid 1.3 percent to 8,379.48. Australia’s S&P ASX 200 declined 1.9 percent to 4,177 while mainland China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite Index shed 1.4 percent to 2,428.39.

Benchmarks in Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, India and New Zealand also fell.

Events in Europe the day before left investors in Asia with little to be happy about. Spain’s government auctioned 10year government bonds that will see the country paying interest of nearly 7 percent - the highest rate since 1997 and a level that many economists see as unsustainable. France’s borrowing costs also rose following an auction of midterm bonds that saw strong demand while Italian bond yields were slightly lower after new premier Mario Monti vowed to focus on restoring growth. “Everyone is sitting on cash and not wanting to get into the market right now until there’s a clearer picture in Europe,” said Jackson Wong, a vice president at Tanrich Securities. “Every time when there is news about Europe it’s negative. Until they have a valid solution to solve - or at least contain - the current worries, I don’t think the market will bounce back.”

Investors are also starting to worry about whether US politicians will be able to find $1.2 trillion in budget cuts before a Nov. 23 deadline. A report that the US unemployment situation improved slightly wasn’t enough to overcome the gloom.

Adding to the pessimism, a Chinese government report showed new house prices in October fell in 33 of 70 cities measured from the month before, stoking fears about the country’s once-buoyant housing market. Hong Kong-listed blue

SEOUL: A union member of Korea Exchange Bank wipes her tears during a rally in front of the Financial Services Commission building in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. —AP chip property shares tumbled, including China Resources Land, down 6.5 percent; and China Overseas Land & Investment, down 5.1 percent.

In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones industrial average dropped 1.1 percent to close at 11,770.73. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 1.7 percent to

1,216.16 and the Nasdaq slid 2 percent to 2,587.99. Oil prices fell below $99 a barrel.

Benchmark crude for December delivery was down 27 cents at $98.55 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $3.77 to settle at $98.82 in New York on Thursday. —AP

Yelp files for $100m IPO NEW YORK: Yelp, a website which posts user reviews of businesses and services, filed for an initial public offering seeking to raise up to $100 million. Yelp, in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), did not say how many shares of Class A common stock it plans to issue or which Wall Street exchange it would be traded on.

The company, which has its headquarters in San Francisco and was founded in 2004, will trade under the symbol “YELP.” In the SEC filing, Yelp said it had a net loss of $7.6 million for the first nine months of the year on revenue of $58.4 million. Yelp reported revenue of $12.1 million in 2008

and $47.7 million last year.

The Yelp website hosts more than 22 million reviews of local businesses-from restaurants to plumbers-and averaged 61 million unique monthly visitors during the quarter which ended on September 30.

Yelp earns money by selling advertising on its website to local businesses. It said it plans to use the money raised from the stock offering for general corporate purposes and possible “acquisitions of complementary businesses.” Online discount deals site Groupon went public earlier this month, raising $700 million in the biggest initial public offering by an Internet company since Google. —AFP

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Thai floods ripple through global supply chain TOKYO: Thailand’s worst floods in decades may gradually be subsiding but ripples will be felt by companies and consumers for months to come, analysts say, underlining the fragility of the global supply chain.

Thailand is a production hub for many firms, and severe flooding since October has left hundreds dead while hurting a wide range of industries, particularly the automotive and computer hard-disk drive (HDD) sectors. The consequences have been global, hitting companies such as personal computer maker Dell, HDD makers Toshiba and Western Digital, and auto giants Toyota and Ford.

As with supply chain woes after Japan’s March earthquake, analysts say the Thai disaster raises questions as to how well companies understand their

supply networks for essential parts, and whether risks could be better managed.

However, “companies are limited in what they can do because possessing extra inventory pressures corporate earnings and can heighten risk,” said Masaki Nakamura, analyst at MM Research Institute in Tokyo. In particular, the “just-in-time” delivery system pioneered in Japan and often used in the technology and car sectors to deliver components and raw materials only when needed is vulnerable to such shocks.

“While the basic concept behind ‘just-in-time’ will remain unchanged, firms will now further reduce production risks” by establishing facilities elsewhere after the floods, said Toru Nishihama, senior economist at Dai-

Ichi Life Research Institute. Thai factories supply about 40 percent of the world HDD market and while analysts do not see much of an impact on PC sales in the Christmas holiday shopping season, conditions will remain tight into 2012.

“During the Christmas season, consumers may not see too much in terms of price increases for PCs” because components for those goods were preordered in the previous quarter, IHS iSuppli analyst Fang Zhang told AFP. “However, if they need to purchase external HDDs, they will see a big price increase.” In Tokyo’s Akihabara electronics district, signs can be seen in shops selling HDDs calling on buyers to purchase now to beat price hikes.

Others have stopped selling altogether.

“We can’t buy HDD stocks as prices are four- to five-times higher than normal,” said Yu Sugawara, a buyer at Hamada Electrical Equipment Manufacturer. “Customers won’t buy at higher prices, so we can’t pass on higher costs through retail prices.

We’ve stopped selling hard disks rather than squeezing our business.”

The flooding has made a bad year worse for Japanese firms that were already fighting to restore output after the March earthquake and tsunami, and as they grapple with a profit-eroding strong yen.

By late October more than 400 Japanese companies suspended operations or lowered output due to the Thai floods that claimed more than 560 lives and damaged millions of homes and livelihoods. — AFP

Japan calls on Germany to build debt ‘firewall’ Tokyo committed to helping the eurozone

TOKYO: Japan’s Suzuki Motor vice president Yasuhito Harayama speaks at a press conference in Tokyo yesterday. Japan’s Suzuki Motor said yesterday it will seek arbitration to terminate its alliance with Volkswagen if the German auto giant refuses to sell its stake in the Japanese carmaker by November 2012. — AFP

Suzuki cuts ties with Volkswagen TOKYO: Japan’s Suzuki Motor said yesterday it had ended its alliance with Volkswagen and demanded the German auto giant sell back its stake in the Japanese carmaker by November 2012.

The company said it would seek arbitration if Volkswagen refused to sell the 112.21 million shares, or 19.89 percent of Suzuki, to the Japanese small-car maker or a third party it designates.

“Today Suzuki terminated the partnership with VW,” Suzuki chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki said in a statement. “Suzuki will be seeking the return of its shares from VW in arbitration.” “I am disappointed that we have to take this action but VW’s actions have left us with no choice.” The company said that it notified VW of the termination of the capital alliance as its board approved the action yesterday. But Volkswagen, which has repeatedly refused to accept similar demands in the past, told Dow Jones Newswires that the company planned to keep its roughly 20 percent stake. The two firms formed a 1.7 billion euro ($2.3 billion) tie-up in 2009. Suzuki planned to seek support from Volkswagen in hybrid technologies and other eco-friendly areas, while the German firm hoped to jointly develop small cars for emerging markets by taking advantage of Suzuki’s know-how.

But they made little progress and halted their joint projects.

The Japanese automaker in September said it wanted to end the alliance, citing a deep disagreement over collaboration and complained that its partner failed to provide promised access to technologies. — AFP

TOKYO: Japan called on Germany yesterday to step up and help plug the widening hole in the eurozone’s finances, saying Berlin should play a leading role in creating a debt “firewall”.

Japan, along with China, was one of the first ports of call when the bloc began looking abroad for cash to keep its debtcrippled nations afloat.

Finance Minister Jun Azumi said Germany, the continent’s largest economy, needed to do more if Europe was to get out of the downward spiral of debt that is threatening to tip the global economy into recession.

“It is important for Germany to (play) a central role in creating a firm funding scheme that we can refer to as a firewall,” Azumi told a news conference, Dow Jones newswires reported. “I think it is time for Germany to work particularly hard,” Azumi said, adding the need to prevent a worsening of the situation in Italy and Spain was becoming “urgent”.

Azumi’s comments come after European deal brokers began travelling the globe looking for cash to boost the coffers of a bailout fund earmarked for countries struggling under piles of sovereign debt.

The continent’s leaders have agreed to a massive boost to the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), but shied away from putting in their own money, instead agreeing to “leverage” its capacity from 440 billion to one trillion euros, via a debt insurance scheme.

The head of the fund, Klaus Regling, received a distinctly non-committal response during a cap-in-hand visit to China, where he was asking Beijing to spend some of its $3.2 trillion of foreign reserves on the venture. At the G20 in Cannes, Chinese President Hu Jintao told his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy that Europe had primary responsibility for resolving its debt crisis.

Beijing has said it could provide up to $100 billion in support for the eurozone, but says there are strings attached; it

TOKYO: A businessman is reflected on a share prices board in Tokyo yesterday.

Japan’s share prices fell 112.39 points to close at 8,367.24 points at the morning session of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, hitting their lowest level in more than six weeks amid fears of eurozone crisis contagion while a stronger yen hit exporters. — AFP wants certainty that the EFSF package will work and wants to know what sort of guarantees would be offered if the bailout fails. Azumi’s comments echo statements from his boss, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, during the APEC meeting in Hawaii at the weekend.

Noda said Japan, the world’s thirdlargest economy, was committed to helping the eurozone but stressed the currency bloc bore primary responsibility for sorting out its own debt problems.

“We want Europe to first roll up their sleeves and work on this. I believe this is the very first step to bring confidence to the marketplace,” Noda told a news conference in Honolulu.

“This crisis is a matter that will have bearing for the world as a whole,” Noda said. “If the proper stance is demonstrated, then we will make our appropriate contributions.”

Japan was initially buying 20 percent of the debt issued by the EFSF, but the figure has recently decreased to about 10 percent. Japan also has a mounting public debt and faces major challenges as it rebuilds from the catastrophic March 11 tsunami.

Azumi told reporters yesterday that there had been talk of G7 finance chiefs meeting again before the year is out, but said no details have yet been finalised, Dow Jones reported. —AFP

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Detectives take new look at Natalie Wood’s death www.kuwaittimes.net PAGE 25

Hollywood power couple Moore, Kutcher split PAGE 25

An artist places daggers into his nose during the Body Paint Festival in Caracas yesterday.

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he hotel heiress took time out from her week-long vacation in Indonesia to visit two orphanages and happily played with children and mingled with staff. Paris posted a photo of herself with the kids on her twitter page and revealed the visit had been a wonderful experience. In a series tweets, she wrote: “Had a great day spending time with the orphans from 2 of the orphanages in #Bali. Such sweet, beautiful children. Loved seeing them smile ... The orphans in #Bali are so adorable. Loved being with them today ... A pic from today w/ the orphans in #Bali. They are such sweet children. Love them! (sic)” Paris also posted a link to the website of non-profit organization Yayasan Kasih Peduli Anak, which provides housing and education for street kids in Bali, urging her followers to make a donation. She tweeted: “The orphans of #Bali need your help. Make a difference.

Change a child’s life. Please donate (sic)” It seems her trip to Indonesia has had a profound effect on the 30-year-old star and has made her want to do even more charity work. She wrote on twitter: “Bali completely changed my outlook on life. Feel so #blessed. See the world differently. (sic)”

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onathan Rhys Meyers has been fined $1,350 for threatening to kill three police officers. The 34-year-old actor was not present in court in Bobigny, France to hear his sentencing over an alcoholfuelled incident at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport in June 2009, which also saw him given a one-month suspended jail term.

The actor’s lawyer Vincent Toledano asked the court to dismiss the drunk and disorderly charges, insisting his client was “a fragile man” and a “fairly weak person” who “suffers from his demons” and has been “harmed by fame”. He later brandished the punishment given to the actor “harsh”, though the judge

had described Jonathan’s actions as “extremely aggressive”. The court heard that the ‘Tudors’ star - who also punched a waiter in the airport later said sorry to those he had been abusive to and blamed his alcoholism. He had also offered undisclosed compensation to the victims. This is not the first time Jonathan - who has been in rehab three times - has ran into problems in an airport. He was arrested for being drunk and in breach of the peace at Dublin airport in Ireland in 2007, but the charges were eventually dropped. In May 2010, he was banned for life by United Airlines after being “belligerent” and “disruptive” during a heavy drinking session at an airport in New York.

with her s Angeles ed in a o L to d e tress mov ars old and enroll said: n-born ac e ye he Ukrania n she was seven other children. Sh iends. t e fr e h y e w n m a y famil ay to ery m ss as a w lace for n’t have v drama cla a little janky. I did on the radio as a p uldn’t s d c a e w ts is n o rt sh “My Engli as this place adve ting class. My pare e s u p o u r w c a ta re at k - an And the ther kids y s a id , ‘G re a t, th d adult comedy o t e e m e imate hy r. T h kids to Meg in an erstand w b a b y s it te a ff o rd a Mila - who voiced ted she can’t und king to the “ it a Saturday.’ ily Guy’ - also adm ssion as “art”. Spe d Knockout e fe m a m ro a ‘F p n s ir e e is at the seri rs regard azine - in which sh ut my theory is th to c a r e th b g to o , a o it m d e I v Q t G a ro p of wh new issue - she said: “I love ey do and want to , art.’ I run rt th ar of the Ye who doubt what ate art. It’s art, a e h o u rs ; I re le c p I tw r e lv rt. it’s peo like ‘It’s a s o m e o n e e ls e fo and watch ‘Jersey e ’r y e th m , you ome n d I’ n d p re te et to go h a ro u n d a ily Guy’. Then I g m record ‘Fa ” ’. re o Sh

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he red silk La Perla lingerie set -comprising of a bustier with lace trim and silk and tulle body - quickly surpassed the predicted £2,000 to £4,000 bid when it went under the hammer at Christie’s auction house in London along with a signed copy of the Kylie 2012 Official Calendar. The ‘All the Lovers’ first wore the items during a photo shoot for a charity calendar and proceeds from the auction will benefit the StudyVox Foundation, the charitable branch of StudyVox FM Radio, which aims to “empower charities to have their voices heard by providing its radio broadcasting facilities at cost”. Kylie wrote on her twitter page: “Thx to the mystery buyer!!!

WOW! So thrilled and for a great

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cause. (sic)” The foundation tweeted Kylie saying: “Thank you for your support. The proceeds from the auction will help lots of young people. Hugs from us all at StudyVox. Xx (sic)” The lingerie was sold as part of the Pop Culture: Rock and Pop Memorabilia auction which also included a rare signed copy of the album ‘The Man Who Sold The World’, by David Bowie and a black leather waistcoat worn by Johnny Cash.

he ‘Ringer’ actress - who has a two-ear-old daughter, Charlotte, with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. loves to eat “fresh, organic” foods but insists it doesn’t have to be expensive as she always has her eye out for a bargain. She said: “Freddie and I go to the supermarket probably every day, because we like to eat fresh, organic and local. People think it’s so expensive to eat like that, but there are ways to do it so it’s not as pricey. “We shop at Whole Foods, but we ask which fish is on sale. On sale doesn’t mean it’s bad! It probably just

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means it’s overcaught. And I clip coupons all the time.

Why should you pay more for something that someone else is paying less for?” The 34-year-old actress loves spending as much time as possible with her daughter, but knows it is also important to focus on herself and her marriage in order to keep it strong. She explained to the new issue of Self magazine: “Charlotte is my best friend, and any free time I have, I want to spend with her. But while it’s easy to forget yourself, I can’t define myself as only Charlotte’s mother - one day, she’s going to be an adult, and then where am I? “Like in any other relationship, you have to remember who you are through all this. After she goes to bed at 7.30, I might take a bath or read. And Freddie and I get our time together, too.

Relationships are like flowers: They need attention to grow and develop. You have to make time to be there for the other person. “Luckily, Charlotte’s a sound sleeper, so once she’s down, we can have friends over and have dinner and conversation and not worry.”

he soccer star - who has Brooklyn, 12, Romeo, nine, sixyear-old Cruz, and four-month-old daughter Harper with wife Victoria - says the ‘Baby’ singer is a natural with children and was lavishing attention on little Harper when the family attended a recent studio session with the teen idol. In an interview with Ryan Seacrest, David said: “Justin’s so great with kids! We walked into the studio, and we had Harper with us.

Justin literally picked up Harper, and wouldn’t put her down the whole time we were there. “Obviously, he’s got a younger brother and sister so he’s really amazing with the kids.” Mariah Yeater - who claimed Justin was the father of her four-monthold son - dropped her paternity lawsuit against the 17-year-old, but her new lawyer has revealed she wants to pursue the matter out of court. Jeffery M Leving told Chicago’s WGN-TV: “This

matter is not over. Negotiations are going on right now with Bieber’s counsel. There’s a new legal team [in place). “[Mariah] believes Justin Bieber is the father. We’re trying to secure a private DNA test, because this case is out of control.” While the lawyer says his client still wants to pursue the matter, he wants details of any DNA test to be kept private as Mariah has allegedly received death threats over her claims the 17-yearold pop star fathered her son, who is now four months old.

Leving added: “I don’t want something terrible to happen to my client or her child. “My goal, when a DNA test is completed, is to keep everything confidential, which will be difficult if not impossible. I’m very concerned about this.”

— Bangshowiz

he 41-year-old singer-and-actress - who is usually incredibly guarded about her private life - would be happy to have a baby naturally but adopting has been a dream of hers since she was a teenager. She explained: “I’m definitely going to adopt - or have - a child. I’ve wanted to adopt since I was 17 or 18 years old.”

The ‘Chicago’ star also opened up about her older brother Lance Owens who died in 1992 at the age of 24 while riding a motorcycle that she’d bought him - saying his death had inspired her to live her own life to the full. Latifah who often wears Lance’s motorbike keys around her neck - said: “I think the most important thing I’ve learned is to not stop living. “As my Aunt Elaine says, ‘You never get over it, but you get through it.’ I think the most important thing I’ve learned is to not stop living. “I know for a fact that my brother would not want me to stay right there, stuck in that misery.”

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New Zealand artists pose while making a play at the festival in Caracas Body Paint yesterday. Luces neon, extravagant costumes, fluorescent paint or video are some of the elements used to support the human body during the VI Body Art, which opened Thursday night in Caracas, where about 50 artists from 18 countries will present their works. — AFP

Blind Cubans savor romance at the movies “Y

ou could say I have seen the movie,” said Julia Rodriguez, a 69-year-old Cuban who was born blind, as she summed up her feelings after taking part in “Touching the Light,” the island’s first film club for the visually impaired. “This is very good. I was one of those who never left my house nor ever went to the movies, and now I don’t miss one,” she said at “La Rampa,” the movie house where she saw “A girlfriend for David.” “The movie was good, and the narrator was good. You could say I have seen the movie,” she said, using a cane and wearing dark glasses like most of the other 60 spectators who had come from all around Havana for the showing.

“Touching the Light” has shown 14 films since it began July 6, an initiative of the Havana affiliate of the state National Association of the Blind, which has 32,000 members island-wide, and the

Cuban Film Institute. At the entrance to the theater, whose design based on ramps is ideal for the blind, movie-goers can read a synopsis in Braille of the movie being shown. A narrator describes the scene, gestures, costumes and other essential details for understanding the film.

“A girlfriend for David,” by Cuban director Orlando Rojas, tells the story of a young man from the provinces who goes to Havana to study at the university in the years right after Fidel Castro’s revolution. Though somewhat timid, he decides to embark on his love life, and finds himself at a cross-roads when he has to choose between two women: Olga, an uninhibited young woman from Havana, or Ofelia, who is chubby and studious and has sound values.

“The movies are very well described and succeed in capturing the message of the plot. I am very satisfied,” said Maikel Perez, a blind 31-year-

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A Christie’s auction house employee poses for pictures with a baby Ewok puppet, ‘Nippett’ as featured in ‘Star Wars: Episode VI- Return of the Jedi,’ (1983) during a photocall at the auction house in London, yesterday. — AFP

old who works as a bookbinder at a publisher of works in Braille. Oscar Caballero, 59, saw the film when it first came out in 1985 when he still had his eyesight. He lost his sight 19 years ago due to a congenital illness, which interrupted his own career as an actor.

“At that time, I saw it with my own eyes. Now I can say that I felt it, I was able to savor it in another way. People with sight see, we have sensations,” he explained. Guillermo Rodriguez, the cultural secretary in Havana of the National Association of the Blind, or ANCI by its Spanish acronym, was one of the founders of the film club. His main objective, besides enjoyment of the movies, was to get the blind “out of their houses and to take part in society more.”

“This is something very important that has never been done before,” said Rodriguez, a 54year-old teacher who lost his sight at the age of

he vast palm groves of Marrakesh in southern Morocco are in danger from urbanization, massive tourist projects and even golf courses, so a conservation program is in hand to save them. Ten centuries after they came to be, these palm groves, which are among the most prized sites in the north African kingdom, are subject to the combined ravages of mankind and of the climate. The oasis with its hundreds of thousands of palms used to stretch over 16,000 hectares (39,500 acres), but it has lost 30 percent of its surface area in the past 20 years, according to experts.

The experts point to the nestling in the heart of the groves of big tourist attractions at the expense of the environment. These sites swallow up lots of water, upset the ecological balance and lead to the degradation of the palms. “The tourist projects, for all the good sides of what they generate, take enormous resources. This has a negative effect on the ecological balance,” Nour-Eddine Laftouhi, a hydrogeologist at the Marrakesh faculty of sciences, told AFP. “Personally, I consider the irrational spread of golf courses to be a crime,” he added.

28, and who hopes the initiative will spread to the rest of the island. Jorge Frometa, who works at the Film Institute and is the creator of the film club, acknowledges it was difficult to organize.

But he is thinking big, and is now fighting to have movies shown with subtitles for the deaf.

“That would broaden an initiative that is so human and so necessary,” said Frometa, who also plans to organize art shows and other productions by fans of the ANCI. In the movie’s final scene, David decides in favor of Ofelia, and at a party he declares his love. In the theater, shouts of encouragement rose up from the audience. — AFP

Nicknamed “the ochre city” for the predominant color of its stonework, Marrakesh is the most popular place in Morocco with tourists and indeed among Moroccans taking a break. Fortunately for the nature-lover and hiker, the snowcapped mountains that surround the town and which can be seen from the city centre, make for good picture postcards and walks. But Marrakesh today has 10 golf courses, two of them in the palm groves, and construction companies are waiting for authorization to create about 10 more, which would use a great deal of water. The tourist appeal of Marrakesh has led the Club Med to push into the palm grove with its golf course and a centre hosting three swimming pools.

Such activities are a stark contrast with the very name of the city, which was founded in 1062 by the first ruler of the Almoravid dynasty, Yusef Ibn Tashfin, and named for divine delights rather than worldly pleasures. “Marrakesh” comes from the Berber word “amour” which means “country” and from “Akouch”, which means “God”, thus making the city the

“land of God” or “the holy land”. Such concepts evaporate at a time when the city has almost one million inhabitants, with an impressive number of hotels, a multitude of swimming pools and numerous “riyadhs”, the traditional homes built around an interior courtyard.

Some of the riyadhs have been bought up and renovated by wealthy Moroccans or rich foreigners, driving the less well-off residents towards the outskirts of the city.

This sorry state of affairs arouses feelings of bitterness and nostalgia among inhabitants of the palm groves, who are becoming fewer and fewer. “The spring welled up right here, where I am standing.

Before, there was a stream,” said Boujemaa, a resident of a grove. “There used to be a spring over there and another beside it. Everywhere, this place was full of springs. But once they began to build the villas and hotels, the water disappeared. It’s over.”—AFP

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Hollywood power couple Moore, Kutcher split

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ctress Demi Moore announced “with great sadness” Thursday the end of her high-profile marriage to Ashton Kutcher, after his reported infidelity with a woman less than half her age. The confirmation comes after months of media reports about problems between the Hollywood power couple, who married in 2005 when she was 42 and he was 27. She had earlier been married to actor Bruce Willis for 13 years. “It is with great sadness and a heavy heart that I have decided to end my six-year marriage to Ashton,” the 49year-old said in a statement issued through her publicist.

“As a woman, a mother and a wife there are certain values and vows that I hold sacred, and it is in this spirit that I have chosen to move forward with my life.” Thirty-three year-old Kutcher, who recently took over from troubled star Charlie Sheen in the hit TV series “Two and a Half Men,” tweeted a poignant message minutes after Moore’s announcement. “I will forever cherish the time I spent with Demi. Marriage is one of the most difficult things in the world and unfortunately sometimes

they fail. Love and Light, AK,” he wrote.

As well as being a famous acting couple, Moore and Kutcher have both been pioneers of the use of social media, notably Twitter. Moore, whose movies include “Ghost” (1990), “A Few Good Men” (1992), “Indecent Proposal” (1993) and “G.I. Jane” (1997), may have to get a new Twitter name: her current one is @mrskutcher. She made no immediate comment on her Twitter feed-her usual method of sharing news, comment or other information-after announcing the split via her publicist.

Rumors of trouble in the marriage flared in recent weeks after Kutcher reportedly had unprotected sex with a 22-year-old woman during a trip with friends to San Diego-allegedly on September 24, the night of his sixth wedding anniversary with Moore. The blonde Texan, Sara Leal, said afterwards that Kutcher told her that he was no longer with Moore. “He said he was separated and it felt natural,” Leal told US magazine last month.

“He was good... It wasn’t weird or perverted,” she added, saying that their pillow talk involved politics, particularly

the Republican candidates for president.

Earlier this year, Moore and Kutcher launched the Demi and Ashton Foundation aimed at ending child sexslavery. But signs of strain could be seen

in September, when Moore posted a picture of a broken heart, and tweeted: “2day can U feel some1 else’s heart pain needs desires as U can feel your own? At the core we’re all reaching 4 the same.”

Kutcher answered with the post: “When you ASSUME to know that which you know nothing of you make an ASS out of U and ME,” according to People magazine, the celebrity bible. Kutcher is best known for TV shows including “That 70s Show” and “Punk’d,” and this year replaced troubled actor Charlie Sheen in the popular comedy “Two and a Half Men.” His big-screen roles have include “What Happens in Vegas” (2008) and this year’s sex comedy “No Strings Attached” with Natalie Portman.

Moore is also famous for a 1991 Vogue magazine front cover photo of her heavily pregnant with her daughter Scout LaRue, her second child with Willis after the pair married in 1987.

On Thursday Moore said she would now focus on rebuilding her life separately from Kutcher. “This is a trying time for me and my family, and so I would ask for the same compassion and privacy that you would give to anyone going through a similar situation,” she said. — AFP

This file photo shows actors Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore attending Time’s 100 Most Influential People at Frederick P Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York. — AP

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he circumstances of Natalie Wood’s drowning death nearly 30 years ago remain one of Hollywood’s enduring mysteries and continue to create renewed intrigue, with homicide detectives unexpectedly re-opening a case Thursday that had long been classified as a tragic accident. A Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective will speak to reporters Friday about the decision to take another look at the Oscar-nominated actress’ nighttime demise in the chilly waters off Southern California on Nov 29, 1981. Wood drowned after spending several hours drinking on Catalina Island and a yacht with husband Robert Wagner, fellow actor Christopher Walken and the ship’s captain. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said Thursday the renewed inquiry was prompted by unspecified new information about Woods’ case. The Los Angeles Times quoted Sheriff Lee Baca as saying recent comments by the captain, Dennis Davern, who was interviewed for a book project and whose comments from a 2000 article by Vanity Fair are being featured on a new print edition and a “48 Hours Mystery” episode that focus on Hollywood scandals.

In the magazine, Davern is quoted as saying that Wood and Wagner fought in their cabin before the

In this file photo, actress Natalie Wood is shown at the 51st Annual Academy Awards in Los Angeles. — AP

actress went missing. Coroner’s officials ruled her death an accidental drowning, perhaps caused by her slipping off the boat while trying to tie down a dinghy. Wood’s death sparked tabloid speculation that foul play was involved, but Wagner and Wood’s sister have dismissed any suggestion the actress’ death was anything more than an accident.

Coroner’s officials at the time agreed, writing that Wood was “possibly attempting to board the dinghy and had fallen into the water, striking her face.” It is not the first time Davern has contradicted statements he and others made to investigators after Woods’ death, and the magazine notes that he has told his story through tabloids and has been shopping for a book deal for years. Attempts to reach Davern were unsuccessful Thursday night.

Sheriff’s officials are also hoping for tips from the public that may shed new light on how Wood, who was afraid of being in the water, ended up drowning. “Although no one in the Wagner family has heard from the LA County Sheriff’s department about this matter, they fully support the efforts of the LA County Sheriff’s Dept. and trust they will evaluate whether any new information relating to the death of Natalie Wood Wagner is valid, and that it comes from a credible source or sources other than those simply trying to profit from the 30 year anniversary of her tragic death,” Wagner spokesman Alan Nierob wrote in a statement.

Wood, a three-time Oscar nominee famous for roles in “West Side Story,” “Rebel Without a Cause” and other Hollywood hits, was 43 when she died.

She and Wagner, star of the TV series “Hart to Hart,” were twice married, first in 1957 before divorcing six years later. They remarried in 1972. Lana Wood wrote in a biography on her sister, “What happened is that Natalie drank too much that night.” Wagner wrote in a 2008 autobiography that he blamed himself for his wife’s death. He recounted the night of Wood’s disappearance, during which the couple and Walken drank at a restaurant and on the boat.

Wood went to the master cabin during an argument between her husband and Walken. The last time Wagner saw his wife, she was fixing her hair at a bathroom vanity and she shut the door.—AP

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aughable” probably isn’t the word the makers of “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1” were aiming for, but there it is; laughter, at all the wrong places. The fourth movie in the freakishly popular girl-vampwolf love triangle series is so self-serious, it is hard not to cackle at it. The dialogue is, of course, ridiculous and the acting ranges from stiff to mopey. But moments that should be pulsating with tension are usually hilarious because the special effects are still just so distractingly cheesy.

This latest installment has yet another new director - Bill Condon, a man capable of both panache (“Dreamgirls”) and serious artistry (“Gods and Monsters”), little of which you will see here - and yet again, the werewolves look jarringly out of place with their surroundings. In a technological age in which Gollum from the “Lord of the Rings” movies blends in seamlessly with everyone and everything around him, how are such sloppy visual effects still possible? Adam Sandler played opposite himself more convincingly in “Jack and Jill.”

But we digress, because other movies are more fun to discuss. “Breaking Dawn - Part 1,” the first of two films adapted from the final book in Stephenie Meyer’s series (with part two coming next year), serves as a placeholder for the ultimate finale but is jam-packed with developments in its own right. (Melissa Rosenberg once again wrote the adapted screenplay.) So much happens that you wonder, how can there be another entire film after this? Alas, there will be.

Part one begins with Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) and her vampire beau, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), marrying in a lavish, romantic outdoor ceremony. Bella’s childhood best friend and the other man in the equation, werewolf Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner, barely recognizable with his shirt on), stops by as a gesture of goodwill. Guests mingle and dance and you have to wonder, do they realize that the groom and his entire family are the living dead? Do their eerie, porcelain complexions and glowing amber eyes betray them? The mind wanders. — AP

In this image released by Summit Entertainment, Kristen Stewart (right) and Robert Pattinson are shown in a scene from “The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1.” — AP

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Mother of Hugh Grant’s baby gets anti-press injunction

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British judge said yesterday he had granted an injunction ordering paparazzi to stay away from the Chinese mother of actor Hugh Grant’s baby because she was suffering “unbearable” harassment. High Court judge Michael Tugendhat issued the legal order for actress Hong Tinglan and the child in London a week ago against unnamed photographers, and was setting out his reasons in an official judgment. He said Hong-who was revealed to be the mother of the “Four Weddings and a Funeral” star’s first child earlier this month-had complained “that since the birth of her child her life has become unbearable.” “She cannot leave her home without being followed and there are constantly photographers waiting outside her home,” the judge said, adding that she had been “unable to look after her daughter in a normal way.” “(She) has not been able to take her daughter outside. She has had to cancel appointments, including ones for her child. She is frightened to drive with her child because the distraction makes it unsafe.” She was also followed while visiting the doctor, he said, and was forced to change her mobile phone number because of calls and text messages from journalists. The judge concluded that it was “necessary and proportionate to grant the injunction sought”.

Hugh Grant

The order was granted against the “person or persons responsible for taking photographs outside their home and in the street during November 2011,” and issued to Tinglan and the child, identified only as KLM. Grant, 51, announced through his publicist on November 1 that he had become a father for the first time but did not reveal the identity of the mother, saying only that they had a “fleeting affair”. The judge said Hong had first featured in an article in the now-defunct News of the World newspaper in April, showing pictures that were taken in January, but interest in her escalated with speculation about her pregnancy. He added that Hong was a victim of a backlash against Grant, who spoke out about the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World after he alleged his voicemails were intercepted by the paper. Hong received a number of phone calls, including one when the caller said: “Tell Hugh Grant to shut up,” the judge said. — AFP

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ou will see his typewriter, the Olympia portable Woody Allen has used for pounding out everything he has written since his teens. You will see the contents of the “idea drawer” in his bedside table where he stashes random paper scraps, any of which might inspire his next film. You will see him in the role of director, both in the distant past and while making his 2010 film, “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” - a remarkable unveiling by an artist known for keeping a locked down set.

In sum, you will see this legendarily private filmmaker up close and personal, charming and candid, and, yes, funny as he strikes a clear contrast with the neurotic, death- and sex-obsessed Manhattanite he has famously depicted in so many classic films. Turns out, Woody Allen at heart is a writer. “Writing is the great life,” he says at the start of the film, seen recumbent on his bed scribbling on a legal pad. Only when production begins on the screenplay he has written does reality set in, he says, and “all your schemes about making a masterpiece are reduced to, ‘I’ll prostitute myself any way I have to, to survive this catastrophe.’”

An “American Masters” presentation, “Woody Allen: A Documentary” is a two-part, three-and-a-half-hour feast for all Woody fans and anyone else who is interested in a prolific, persistent artist’s creative world. It airs tomorrow and Monday at 9 pm EST on PBS. The film revisits Allen’s childhood in the Midwood section of Brooklyn and his first venture as a professional writer: supplying jokes to columnists and comics while still in high school. It covers his growing success in the 1950s and 1960s as a comedy writer for TV, then as a rising standup comic in his own right.

But this was all a prelude to “Take the Money and Run” in 1969, a zany comedy he wrote, directed and starred in, his first outing as an auteur who, astonishingly since then, has averaged one film per year for more than 40 years.

Allen never has been distinguished by his box-office might, although “Annie Hall” (1977) was a critical and commercial sensation, and this year’s “Midnight in Paris” caught everyone off-guard by becoming his highest grosser yet. Speaking of his up-and-down fortunes, Allen says, with the flicker of a smile, “I don’t really care about commercial success - and the end result is, I rarely achieve it.” More meaningfully, what sets Allen apart is the scale, scope and inquisitiveness of his output, which continues apace, even as he approaches his 76th birthday on Dec 1.

No la-di-da artist’s temperament complicates his working life. John Cusack, one of many stars from Allen’s films seen in the documentary, reports how, as a workday wears on, he will signal that it is time to speed things up: He does not want to miss the National Basketball Association Knicks’ tip-off. “I don’t have the concentration or the dedication that you really need to be a great artist. I’d rather be home watching the ballgame,” says Allen.

“What sometimes comes off as false modesty truly is modesty; the self-deprecating streak is very real,” said filmmaker Robert Weide, a lifelong Woody-phile who spent the past three years making the Woody Allen documentary. “In his own mind,” said Weide recently, “he’s just this journeyman director who has the opportunity to make a film a year, and so he does. And yet he grades himself on the same curve as Bergman and Kirosawa, so he thinks he is just some little pisher who has managed to get by with a percentage of the public.” How did Weide win over Allen as the subject for a portrait when others had wooed him and lost?

In the past, Weide (rhymes with “tidy”) produced documentaries on The Marx Brothers, W.C. Fields, Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce, comic heroes he happens to share with Allen, and he surmises that Allen, whom he had come to know casually, was aware of their simpatico tastes. In October 2008, Weide made the latest of several overtures to Allen, seeking his participation in the documentary. Then, Weide recalled, “I got a call from his assistant, saying, ‘Woody wants to know, if he were to do this...,’ and as soon as I heard the word ‘if,’ I

thought, ‘I’m in!’” Born in 1959, Weide discovered Allen when he saw “Take the Money and Run” as a 10-yearold, “and just loved it. I was fortunate to grow up with his films after that. And ‘Annie Hall’ led to my obsession.” During a varied career, Weide in 1999 teamed up with Larry David - a friend from his stand-up, pre”Seinfeld” days - to direct the one-hour HBO “Curb Your Enthusiasm” special, which led to the “Curb” series, where Weide remained for its first five seasons.

In this file photo, filmmaker Woody Allen poses during a photo call for the film “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger”, at the 63rd international film festival, in Cannes, southern France. — AP David (who appeared in Allen’s 2009 comedy, “Whatever Works”) is among a number of on camera interviewees rounded up by Weide for the documentary. Others include Mariel Hemingway, Diane Keaton, Louise Lasser, Sean Penn and Tony Roberts, as well as writing collaborators Marshall Brickman and Doug McGrath; Allen’s sister and producer, Letty Aronson; and longtime manager Jack Rollins. Soon-Yi Previn, Woody’s wife of nearly 14 years, declined to take part, as did her adoptive mother, Mia Farrow, with whom Allen had a 12-year relationship while she was starring in several of his films.

But the documentary doesn’t shut its eyes to the domestic scandal that erupted two decades ago, nor does Allen, who marvels at the media circus that put him in the center ring. “Apparently it was a good, juicy story,” he rationalizes with some understatement, “and it took a little edge off my natural blandness.” Said Weide, “Because this is a film about Woody’s work, my own feeling about the scandal was, ‘Who cares?’ But I certainly didn’t want this to appear as any kind of a whitewash, and have people think that somehow he had guided me away from it.”

Quite the opposite. “Once he said yes to the project, he was totally open to me,” Weide said, “and never refused a request or refused to answer a question, and was never looking over my shoulder.” In creating his penetrating portrait, however, Weide still seems amazed at having had the chance to look over the shoulder of his hero. And he will get to do it again: He spoke proudly of being among the chosen few invited to a screening of Allen’s current film-in-progress. “I went back and told that to my high-school self,” Weide said with a laugh. — AP

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Broadway’s ‘Private Lives’ is ‘big romantic stuff’

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ove can make you crazy. Just ask Beyonce (“Crazy in Love”) Knowles or Britney (“Toxic”) Spears or Patsy (“Crazy”) Cline. On Broadway, there’s no better example right now of how insane love can get than “Private Lives.” Kim Cattrall and Paul Gross star in this revival of the Noel Coward classic and clearly have an absolute romp as they reveal every shade of infatuation, from post-coital deliriousness to blood-curdling jealousy. Director Richard Eyre and the cast succeed in a tricky balancing act for a play written in 1930: Keep the humor, but lose much of the affected, mannered performances all those “darlings” and “splendids” and Coward bon mots - that often make his plays seem frothy and insubstantial.

The result, which opened Thursday at

In this theater publicity image Paul Gross (left) and Kim Cattrall are shown during a Broadway performance of “Private Lives,” in New York. — AP

the Music Box Theatre, is funny and insightful in its attempt to reconcile the notion of marriage and and yet also doesn’t shy away from exploring the link between lust and violence.

Cattrall’s return to Broadway is apparently overdue. At a recent preview, the audience accidentally burst into applause at the sight of Anna Madeley, also a blonde, thinking it was the “Sex and the City” star. By the time Cattrall did appear as Amanda, she was dressed only in a fluffy white towel, funny and arch but never insubstantial.

This play has brought out her best petulant, droll, physical and adoring.

Gross, who is making his Broadway debut, is the perfect mix of brute and sexy cad. Even when he’s being loveydovey, there’s an air of foreboding. He remarks that certain women should be struck regularly like gongs and he’s clearly not joking. But he’s also a lover, a romantic who dances, plays the piano and mixes up a (few too many) cocktails. The play opens on a hotel terrace in northwestern France, where this divorced couple, whose love was clearly too intense to last, discovers that

they are now inadvertently honeymooning next door to each other with new spouses.

It’s clear - often just through pauses in their speech - that neither Amanda nor Elyot are besotted by their new respective significant others: the really funny stuffed suit Simon Paisley Day as Victor, and a needy and naive yet beautiful Madeley as Sybil. Seeing Amanda and Elyot together - their eyes flashing, their bodies leaning into each other, the smolder still there - immediately turns the audience on the side of adultery, even though Amanda has explained that “we were like two violent acids bubbling about in a nasty little matrimonial bottle.”

The couple bolt to an apartment in Paris, with the jilted couple they left behind in hot pursuit, demanding answers that neither Amanda nor Elyot wants to answer. “That sort of attraction can’t be explained,” Amanda says later. In Act 2, the lovers convince themselves that this time it’ll last because they’re older and wiser and have worked out a cool-down phrase that triggers a two-minute period of silence if they’re arguing too much. It gets used plenty.

Rob Howell’s sets explode in richness in Act 2. The Paris apartment is a deeply Art Deco pied-a-terre, complete with painted ducks and fish on the walls, love seats, a piano, a round window like a ship’s porthole, and the coolest aquarium on Earth featuring goldfish in three tiers of bowls. It’s a far cry from Howell’s Act 1 set, the hotel, with its wood slated paneling and shrubbery, which seemed pedestrian.

But that was the point: boring and safe versus loose and seductive.

That Act 2 set will be destroyed, of course, as Amanda and Elyot return to familiar squabbling. The pillows fly and Eyre doesn’t shy away from the violence. Their rekindled love is like that goldfish tank - it springs a sensational leak. Both sides hit and squabble and threaten - both guilty of spousal abuse, a realization that sits somewhat awkwardly in a comedy. It’s funny but it’s scary to laugh.

The two supporting players - Victor and Sybil - are simply cutouts at the beginning but this production tries hard to put meat on those bones. Day, especially, who uses the piano lid as a trouser press, recalls another sort of winningly fussy, awkward gentleman in Adam Godley from “Anything Goes.”

The play - thanks also to Coward’s song “Someday I’ll Find You” and Howell’s gorgeous silk dresses and formal tuxedos - is ultimately what Amanda declares to her lover is “big romantic stuff, darling.” — AP

British singer-songwriter Elton John (left) is pictured with his partner David Furnish yesterday.

John was presented with “Doritaenopsis Sir Elton John”, an orchid named after him. — AP

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n an abandoned church at the center of what was once a thriving industrial town, a bit of movie magic is happening. A set designer pins white lace curtains up over the windowless frames of an old classroom, then kneels in the rubble-strewn floor to melt the tops of some candles with a blowtorch. Crew members beat a path through the dirt on a rusty stairwell as pigeons flutter through gaping holes in the roof to their roosts. It is the perfect setting for a spooky thriller about a serial killer, says “Altered” director Kely McClung.

“One of my rules for making low-budget films look rich and expensive is rust, dust and dirt. It films beautifully and it helps tell our story as well.” Gary, Indiana has rust, dust and dirt to spare. Founded by the US Steel Corporation on the shores of Lake Michigan just across the state line from Chicago in 1906, the story of Gary’s meteoric rise and fall is one shared by industrial towns across the nation. The steel boom brought tens of thousands of good jobs and a can-do spirit that was serenaded in the 1957 musical “The Music Man,” with the feel-good tune “Gary, Indiana.”

But life got bad in a hurry when the steel industry suffered a sudden collapse in the 1970s, exacerbating white flight to the suburbs.

Countless civic efforts have failed to stop the downward spiral. Gary’s population has fallen from a peak of 178,000 in 1960 to just 80,000 today. It is riddled with poverty, violence and crime. A Hollywood film crew couldn’t design a more convincing set for urban decay if they tried.

The main drag is a ghost of Gary’s former glory, with nearly every shop boarded up except the usurious payday loan office. Someone tried to add a little cheer by painting a smiling usher on the boards covering up the ticket booth of the movie theater. He is amazingly free of graffiti, perhaps because the few remaining neighborhood kids have so many more enticing ways to make trouble. Tourists searching for “King of Pop” Michael Jackson’s birthplace on 2300 Jackson Street turn west off Broadway and drive past empty streets lined with crumbling homes marred by fire, wind, and neglect.

Dilapidated factories stripped long ago by scavengers squat behind rusted fences a few blocks away. On the lakefront, smoke billows out of the stacks at US Steel and gas flares light up the night sky. With its shrunken tax base, Gary cannot afford to demolish its thousands of abandoned buildings. Ben Clement-a former TV show host who moved home from Ohio to try to revitalize Gary and ended up as the head of its economic development office-decided it was time the city got some use out of them.

He founded the Gary Office of Film and Television in 1997 and has brought hundreds of crews to town. “Since these buildings are here anyway and since they have a certain esoteric or aesthetic quality to them that is very attractive to filmmakers, why not take these lemons and in essence make lemonade,” Clement says. —AFP

Bollywood actors (left to right) John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Chitrangda Singh and Akshay Kumar pose for photographs after addressing the media during a promotional press conference for their upcoming film “Desi Boyz” in Bangalore yesterday. — AFP

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

US

fashion designer Marc Jacobs was forced Thursday to cancel his European press day after his entire spring-summer collection was stolen en-route from Paris to London.”Our press day tomorrow in the Marc Jacobs store is cancelled due to the theft of the spring/summer 2012 collections during its transfer from Paris,” an e-mail sent from the fashion house to the media revealed. London’s Metropolitan police force confirmed Thursday it was investigating the case. “The theft was report-

ed to police, via telephone, after a quantity of clothing, bags and shoes reported to be worth £40,000, ($63,000, 46,800 euros) were found to be missing earlier in the day,” a police spokeswoman said. “Officers based in Westminster are investigating.”

The range, which included drop-waist skirts, cellophane cocktail dresses and translucent and tinsel fabrics, was due to go on show yesterday. The pieces, which were being transported by train, have little street value as they are only sam-

ples from next season, raising suspicions that counterfeiters were behind the incident. The theft deprives British fashion editors of the chance to sample next year’s products, putting the Paris-based firm on the back foot. It is another blow for Jacobs, who last week had his perfume advertising campaignfeaturing 17-year-old Dakota Fanning-banned following accusations that it sexualized children. — AFP

Models present creations during Sri Lanka design festival’s Island Crafts Fashion show in Mount Lavinia, suburbs of Colombo, Sri Lanka. — AP photos

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Diplomatic ‘silly shirt’ parade revived in Bali

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quirky tradition of dressing Asia-Pacific leaders in colorful local costume was revived at an Asian summit in Bali yesterday, after briefly falling victim to the global economic crisis. The annual APEC fashion parade was axed earlier this month at the group’s summit in Honolulu, where leaders stepping out in Aloha floral shirts would have appeared out of step with the gloomy economic mood. But at an East Asia Summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, the heads of state and government emerged from their limousines clad in shirts made with tenun ikat, a traditional fabric woven from dyed threads.

US President Barack Obama, wearing green, gave Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s wife Kristiani a peck on both cheeks as he arrived, and was later seen in a close tete-atete with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, clad in Communist Party red. Thailand’s leader Yingluck Shinawatra picked the same colour-as worn by her brother Thaksin’s die-hard Red Shirt supporters who besieged central Bangkok for months last year.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard chose burgundy and the sultan of Brunei was in green, the colour of Islam. Yudhoyono, the purple-clad host of the evening, told the leaders that Bali had “an amazing way to cure jetlag and rejuvenate

strength” and their main duty for the evening was to enjoy themselves. “Tonight our business is everything but official,” he said. The annual APEC group photo has seen its share of fashion disasters, sometimes leaving leaders looking grimfaced.

Clinton handed out leather bomber jackets in Seattle in 1993, but blue and gold South Korean silk overcoats called durumagi were the order of the day in Busan in 2005. The next year the then US president George W Bush and Russian leader Vladimir Putin were required to don flowing silk “ao dai” tunics in Hanoi. Obama looked relaxed and jovial yesterday, despite having told reporters in Hawaii that it was about time the fancy APEC outfits were retired.

“I got rid of the Hawaiian shirts because I had looked at pictures of some of the previous APEC meetings and some of the garb that had appeared previously, and I thought this may be a tradition that we might want to break,” he said at the time. The leaders also skipped the ritual at last year’s APEC summit in Yokohama, Japan, appearing in sober business suits after organizers decided against turning them out in local garb. — AFP

Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung (second left), with First Lady Tran Thanh Kiem (left) pose for photograph with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (second right) and First Lady Kristiani Yudhoyono (right) wearing traditional Indonesian attire for the gala dinner during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit and East Asia Summit in Nusa Dua on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali yesterday. — AFP

Singer Jay-Z (left) and TV Personality Jimmy Fallon attend the GQ “Men of the year” party at the Chateau Marmont, in Hollywood, California, on November 17, 2011. — AFP

Singer Justin Timberlake

Actress Zooey Deschanel

Emma Roberts

Kaley Cuoco

Anna Faris

Kate Walsh

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Government closes mortgage scams tied to Google SAN FRANCISCO: The federal government has shut down dozens of Internet scam artists who had been paying Google to run ads making bogus promises to help desperate homeowners scrambling to avoid foreclosures. The crackdown announced Wednesday renews questions about the role that Google’s massive advertising network plays in enabling online misconduct. It may also increase the pressure on the company to be more vigilant about screening the marketing pitches that appear alongside its Internet search results and other Web content.

The criminal investigation into alleged mortgage swindlers comes three months after Google agreed to pay $500 million to avoid prosecution in Rhode Island for profiting from online ads from Canadian pharmacies that illegally sold drugs in the US A spokesman for the US Treasury Department division overseeing the probe into online mortgage scams declined to comment on its scope other to say it’s still ongoing.

Google Inc. also declined to comment Wednesday. No company wants to be tainted by a criminal investigation, but the prospect is even more nettlesome for Google because it has embraced “don’t be evil” as its corporate motto. That commitment may make it difficult for Google to fend off a call by Consumer Watchdog to donate the revenue from fraudulent mortgage ads to legitimate organizations that help people ease their credit problems. Consumer Watchdog is an activist group that released a report in February asserting that Google was profiting from ads bought by mortgage swindlers.

“Google should never have published these ads, but its executives turned a blind eye to these fraudsters for far too long because of the substantial revenue such advertising generates,” said Consumer Watchdog’s John M Simpson, a frequent critic of the company. To fight future abuse, Google has suspended its business ties with more than 500 advertiser and agencies connected to the alleged scams, according to the US Treasury Department’s Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

The evidence collected in the current investigation led to the government’s closure of 85 alleged mortgage scams.

The identities of the businesses and people involved in the scams weren’t disclosed Wednesday. The con artists are accuse of duping people into believing they could help lower their home loan payments under a government-backed mortgage modification program created to reduce the foreclosures that have made it more difficult for the slumping real estate market to recover. The alleged rip-offs typically relied on collecting upfront fees or getting victims to transfer their monthly mortgage payments to the scam artists, according to the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

In some cases, the swindlers passed themselves off as being affiliated with the government. Google’s name popped up because the scam artists relied on the company’s vast advertising network to bait their victims. About two out of every three Internet search requests are made through Google, making its ad network a prime outlet for finding people hoping to save their homes, according to Christy Romero, deputy special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “The first place many homeowners turn for help in lowering their mortgage is the Internet through online search engines, and that’s precisely where they are being taken advantage of and targeted,” she said.

In its February report on the problem, Consumer Watchdog found that Google processed more than 74,000 monthly searches using the term, “stop foreclosure.” An ad running alongside the results for that query cost an average of $8.29 per click at the time of the Consumer Watchdog study. The report couldn’t determine how much money Google was making from the ads offering bogus mortgage modifications. Even after surrendering $500 million to settle the investigation into ads for illegal online pharmacies, Google is still expected to sell more than $35 billion in advertising this year.— AP

Google opens music store to US, challenge to Apple LOS ANGELES: Google unveiled its much-anticipated digital music store Wednesday, opening a new front in its battle with Apple to provide services over mobile devices. For the first time, Google Inc. will sell songs on the Android Market, its online store for apps, movies and books. The service is available over the next few days to customers in the US , but it aims to roll it out eventually to some 200 million Android users globally.

Some songs are free, while others were priced at 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29 - the same prices as on Apple’s iTunes. Artists whose work is available right away include Adele, Jay-Z and Pearl Jam. The store will feature dozens of free tracks from artists like Coldplay, Rolling Stones and Busta Rhymes.

Google is offering 13 million tracks for sale, from three of the four major recording companies Vivendi SA’s Universal Music, EMI Group Ltd. and Sony Music Entertainment - and a host of independent labels. Warner Music Group was the major recording company left out. Warner spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment. Google is allowing sharing of purchased songs over its social network, Google Plus. Friends will be able to listen to one another’s songs once for free.

Once someone buys a song, it can be downloaded and is automatically uploaded for free into an online locker. The song can then be streamed over computer and mobile phone browsers, including the Safari browser, which comes on Apple Inc. devices such as the iPad. People who download the Google music app on devices running Android 2.2 and higher can stream stored songs or download them for offline playback within the app.

Google’s director of digital content for Android, Jamie Rosenberg, took a dig at Apple’s online song storage service, iTunes Match, which costs $25 a year. Google’s cloud storage service is free for up to 20,000 songs. “Other cloud music services think you have to pay to listen to music you already own. We don’t,” he said. Recording company executives said that, although some of

Google’s features go beyond what is offered at iTunes - specifically the one free listen for friends, the concessions were worth the benefit of reaching new customers.

“How many people do you know have both an iPhone and an Android device?” said Universal’s president of global digital business, Rob Wells. “I encourage any new entrant into the digital music space who is going to help us reach a broad audience and sell legitimate songs.” Mark Piibe, EMI’s executive vice president of global business development, said Google’s plan to bring legitimately sold music to people in new ways “can only be good for the market as a whole.” Although Google and the recording companies hope sharing of songs helps sell more tunes, some observers were skeptical.

Adam Klein, chief executive of discount digital music store eMusic, said that for his customers, buying music is more a considered, personal decision that is often not influenced by friends’ tastes. “A Google-Plus tie-in will not make it a game changer,” he said. T-Mobile USA, which brought Google’s first Android-enabled smartphone to market in 2008, also was a partner in the Google music launch. The mobile phone carrier said it would offer other free songs to its customers and soon allow them to pay for music purchases through their phone bill. Google also appealed to independent artists who release their own music, allowing them to upload songs, biographical information and artwork to the store after paying a one-time $25 fee. Artists would be able to keep 70 percent of all sales. By launching the store, Google is opening its music service widely. It released the service as an unfinished beta in May to about a million people in the US who requested an invitation and got one. That version of the service, which essentially uploaded your digital songs for online storage and allowed playback on computers and Android devices, proved to be a hit: Testers were streaming music on average 2.5 hours every day. — AP

LOS ANGELES: Senior product manager Michael Siliski introduces Google’s digital music store in Los Angeles on Wednesday. For the first time, Google Inc will sell songs on the Android Market, its online store for apps, movies and books. Some songs are free, while others were priced at 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. —AP

Kodak hopes to sell online photo-sharing unit: Report NEW YORK: Iconic US camera maker Eastman Kodak is seeking to sell its online photo sharing website as the company teeters on the verge of bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The Journal cited someone approached for the purchase as saying Kodak was seeking “hundreds of millions of dollars” for Kodak Gallery, which has been losing users in recent years.

The 131-year-old company has tapped photo-sharing websites, competitors, private-equity firms and retailers about a possible purchase of the online business said to boast 75 million users worldwide. Users can store their photos on the website and then share them and print them.

Kodak, which ventured into the online photo sharing business in 2011 when it bought Ofoto for $100 million, has

revealed that surviving another year could hinge on selling patents or borrowing money. The firm has suffered losses since 2008 and said it could seek as much as $500 million in financing. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, it said the ability to continue operations in the coming 12 months depended on an infusion of cash from selling patents or taking on debt.— AFP

TECHNOLOGY SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

HP adds activist investor Whitworth to board SAN FRANCISCO: Activist investor Ralph Whitworth is joining Hewlett Packard Co’s board after taking a small stake in the Silicon Valley behemoth, a move that may cheer many on Wall Street frustrated by the company’s recent decisions. The addition of Whitworth, who co-founded San Diego-based activist investment fund Relational Investors LLC, makes HP’s board one of Silicon Valley’s largest, with 14 directors.

HP’s board has found itself time and again on the firing line since the infamous wire-tapping incident of the 1990s, when a scandal involving eavesdropping on directors and journalists forced then-chairwoman Patricia Dunn’s resignation. More

recently, it has faced a storm of investor criticism and shareholder lawsuits over decisions from the hiring of former SAP AG CEO Leo Apotheker as chief executive, to the haphazard way it has communicated its strategy, including a consideration to hive off its personal computer division.

Apotheker was replaced by former eBay Inc CEO Meg Whitman in September. “HP is taking a proactive approach to upgrading its board of directors in the face of heavy investor frustration,” said Brian Marshall, analyst with ISI Group. CNBC reported that Whitworth has a nearly 1 percent stake in HP. Neither the company nor Whitworth has disclosed the amount of shares that he

LinkedIn to keep $88M from latest stock sale SAN FRANCISCO: LinkedIn Corp. raised an additional $88 million as the online professional networking service burnished its resume as a publicly held company.

The money came through a sale of LinkedIn shares that served as an encore to the company’s sizzling stock market debut six months ago. Besides padding LinkedIn’s own bank account, the stock sale gave the company’s employees and early backers their first chance to profit from some of their holdings since the company’s initial public offering. Restrictions imposed as part of the May IPO had prevented the company insiders from selling their stock until now.

LinkedIn sold 1.27 million shares in the offering while company insiders sold a combined 7.5 million shares in the offering completed late Wednesday. The size of the offering was slightly larger than originally disclosed because of LinkedIn’s stockholders, Bessemer Venture Partners, threw an additional 750,000 shares into the sales pool. All the shares were sold at $71 each, slightly below LinkedIn’s Wednesday closing price at $71.56.

The slight discount was a sign that there is still a decent appetite for LinkedIn’s stock. That came as a relief to investors who had been fretting there wouldn’t be enough demand to soak up the additional LinkedIn shares pouring into the stock market. About 9 million shares were sold in LinkedIn’s IPO, so the secondary sale nearly doubled the volume that can be traded on the market.

In another sign that the latest sale of stock went over well on Wall Street, LinkedIn shares gained $3.36, or nearly 5 percent, to close at $74.92 Thursday. That still left the stock slightly below its price before a Monday regulatory filing revealed how many shares were going to be sold.

LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner was the biggest individual winner in the stock sale. After paying investment banking fees, Weiner reaped a $26 million windfall from his sale of nearly 373,000 shares. He still owns 2.3 million shares. Three venture capital firms - Bessemer, Greylock Partners and Bain Capital Venture Integral Investors sold a combined 6.36 million shares for $438 million, after subtracting fees.

The amount LinkedIn raised fell below the $100 million that the company was targeting when it announced its plans for the stock sale early this month. After paying more than $2 million in fees, LinkedIn was left with about $88 million. The company, which is based in Mountain View, Calif., plans to the money to pay for an expansion of a service that already has more than 135 million members who share information about their careers and goals on LinkedIn’s website. LinkedIn makes money from advertising and fees charged for additional information and access to the profiles on its website. — AP

owns. Whitworth was unavailable for comment. HP declined to comment beyond its statement.

Whitworth has previously urged companies he owned stakes in to sell or spin off divisions. His firm pressured industrial conglomerate ITT Corp to split up its defense and water purifying businesses this year, boosting its share price. And it is urging contractor L-3 Communications to divest low-performing units. HP, in announcing Whitworth’s appointment to the board on Thursday, also said that Rajiv Gupta, chairman of chemical materials company Avantor Performance Materials and HP board member since 2009, will be the lead independent director.

“Relational will support the HP board, and the board will nominate and support Whitworth, for the next two years, as long as Relational continues to be a significant stockholder of HP,” HP said, adding that it hashed out a separate agreement with Relational. Whitworth will have to vacate his board seat if Relational’s stake falls below 0.5 percent, according to the agreement, which also stipulates that Whitworth’s firm has to vote in accordance with the board’s recommendation on any proposal at shareholder meetings. Whitworth will join the board’s finance and investment committee and compensation committee, the company said. — Reuters

Online reviews site Yelp to go public SAN FRANCISCO: Yelp is hoping investors give it a five-star rating, as the popular online review site plans to raise $100 million in an initial public offering. Yelp made the announcement in a filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The amount of money the startup is seeking in its IPO will likely change as its bankers determine how many shares should be sold and at what price. That process typically takes three to four months.

San Francisco-based Yelp, a website best known for reviews of restaurants, bars and other local businesses, said in its filing that it recorded a loss of $7.6 million, or 13 cents per share, on revenue of $58.4 million in the first nine months of the year. This compares with a loss of $8.6 million, or 16 cents per share on $32.5 million in the same period a year earlier. Most of Yelps’ revenue comes from local businesses advertising on its site.

The company has $32.1 million in debt, and $23.1 million in cash and cash equivalents, the filing said. Yelp plans to put proceeds from the offering toward general corporate uses, including sales and marketing, capital expenditures and working capital.

Yelp is no newcomer to the tech scene; the company was founded in 2004 by former PayPal employees Jeremy Stoppelman and Russel Simmons as a way for consumers to post reviews about - and discover - local businesses ranging from all-you-can-eat buffets to zip line operators. Stoppelman, 34, is currently its CEO. The site has grown rapidly in the years since. It had over 22 million reviews at the end of September, and an average of 61 million unique visitors per month. Yelp is available in 43 markets across the country and 22 markets around the world. Its popularity has not been without controversy.

Yelp uses an automated program to weigh reviews and sift out those that are potentially unreliable, such as a negative review that a pizzeria owner might write about a competitor. This has resulted in complaints from business owners about the way reviews can mysteriously come and go from their Yelp pages, and several lawsuits (which were subsequently dismissed). In an attempt to assuage irked merchants, in 2010 Yelp began allowing visitors the option of seeing any filtered reviews.

According to the regulatory filing, Yelp’s largest shareholders are currently Bessemer

NEW YORK: In this file photo taken Oct 26, 2011, Yelp CEO and co-founder Jeremy Stoppelman is shown at the new Manhattan offices of the online reviews website in New York. —AP Venture Partners, which holds a 22.5 percent stake, and Elevation Partners, which holds a 22.4 percent stake. Benchmark Capital Partners is its third-largest stakeholder, with 16.2 percent of Yelp’s stock.

Max Levchin, a PayPal co-founder and early Yelp investor who is chairman of Yelp’s board, owns a 13.8 percent stake, while Stoppelman has an 11.1 percent stake.

Stoppelman, Levchin and some other insiders have already cashed in on Yelp’s success. The filing said that as part of a

company financing round in Feb. 2010, each man sold 7.4 million shares to Elevation Partners for $15 million apiece.

Several others sold stock to Elevation then, too. Yelp is the latest in a string of tech companies that have navigated the road to an IPO in recent months. It filed its initial IPO papers the same day that another reviews site, Angie’s List Inc, began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The stock jumped $3.26, or 25.1 percent, to finish trading at $16.26.—AP

PayPal lets Facebook friends send cash SAN FRANCISCO: Online financial transactions powerhouse PayPal released an application on Thursday that lets friends send one another cash at leading social network Facebook. A “Send Money” application tailored for Facebook by PayPal lets members of the online community tie money to occasions such as birthdays or send it in an unadorned online transfer.

“We are bringing the largest online payments company to the world’s largest social network to make it even easier to send money to your friends and family directly from Facebook,” PayPal market-

ing manager JB Coutinho said in a blog post. “Our new Send Money application on Facebook allows users to turn those wall posts into actual gifts,” she said.

Gifts of money sent to Facebook members through PayPal can be announced with digital greeting cards, videos, or pictures. Links in e-cards or messages are followed to culminate in cash transfers. PayPal charges no fee for people to send money to Facebook members in the United States as long as transactions are done through accounts with banks or the eBay-owned online financial service.—AFP

TV listings

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

21:05 21:30 21:55 22:20 22:45 23:00 23:25 23:50

00:50 Whale Wars 01:45 Animal Cops Miami 02:40 Planet Earth 03:35 Whale Wars 04:30 Whale Wars 05:25 Dogs 101 06:20 Animal Cops Miami 07:10 World Wild Vet 08:00 Monkey Life 08:25 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 09:15 Breed All About It 09:40 The Really Wild Show 10:10 Growing Up...: Orang-Utan 11:05 Project Puppy 11:30 Monkey Life 12:00 Crocodile Hunter 12:55 My Cat From Hell 13:50 Dogs vs. Cats 14:45 America’s Cutest...

15:40 Must Love Cats 16:35 Monkey Life 17:00 Monkey Life 17:30 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 18:25 Austin Stevens Adventures 19:20 Wildest Africa 20:15 Wildest Africa 21:10 Dogs 101: Specials 22:05 Best Bites: 25 Greatest Shark Moments 23:00 Monster Bug Wars 23:55 Bear Feeding Frenzy

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:20 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 09:50 10:10 10:20 10:45 11:15 11:45 12:35 13:20 15:20 15:55 16:40 17:30 18:15 19:00 19:30 21:10 21:55 22:25 23:00 23:30

00:00 00:45 01:35 02:25 03:15 04:05 04:55 05:45 06:40 07:30 08:00 08:40 10:25

After You’ve Gone Beautiful People Lab Rats The Weakest Link: S10: Set 2 Afterlife Doctor Who 2 Point 4 Children 3rd & Bird: set 01 Bobinogs Boogie Beebies: Set 4 The Adventures Of Spot Me Too: Set 1 Fimbles: Set 2 3rd & Bird: set 01 Bobinogs Boogie Beebies: Set 4 The Adventures Of Spot Me Too: Set 1 Charlie & Lola: Set 1 Fimbles: Set 2 3rd & Bird: set 01 Bobinogs Boogie Beebies: Set 4 The Adventures Of Spot Me Too: Set 1 Charlie & Lola: Set 1 Fimbles: Set 2 3rd & Bird: set 01 Bobinogs Boogie Beebies: Set 4 The Adventures Of Spot Me Too: Set 1 Charlie & Lola: Set 1 Fimbles: Set 2 2 Point 4 Children One Foot In The Grave Ray Mears - Wild Food Doctor Who Eastenders: set 253 After You’ve Gone The Weakest Link: S10: Set 2 Ray Mears - Wild Food Doctor Who The Weakest Link: S10: Set 2 After You’ve Gone Holby City: Set 1 Doctor Who As Time Goes By Last of the Summer Wine Gavin & Stacey Blackadder Goes Forth

Holmes On Homes Gok’s Fashion Fix Gok’s Fashion Fix What Not To Wear Holmes On Homes Gok’s Fashion Fix Gok’s Fashion Fix What Not To Wear Holmes On Homes Eating In The Sun Fantasy Homes By The Sea Antiques Roadshow Bargain Hunt

12:00 Daily Cooks Challenge

Chowder Courage The Cowardly Dog Cow & Chicken Best Ed I Am Weasel Ben 10 Bakugan Battle Brawlers The Secret Saturdays

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 World Sport 07:30 Inside Africa 08:00 World Report 08:30 Backstory 09:00 World Report 09:15 CNN Marketplace Africa 09:30 I Report For CNN 10:00 World Report 10:15 CNN Marketplace Middle East 10:30 Mainsail 11:00 World Sport 11:30 Road To Durban: A Green City Journey 12:00 Talk Asia 12:30 African Voices 13:00 Inside Africa 13:30 I Report For CNN 14:00 World Report 14:30 World Sport 15:00 Piers Morgan Tonight 16:00 World Report 16:30 Road To Durban: A Green City Journey 17:00 Eye On 17:30 The CNN Freedom Project 18:00 International Desk 18:30 African Voices 19:00 Mainsail 19:30 World Sport 20:00 Talk Asia 20:30 Inside Africa 21:00 International Desk 21:30 I Report For CNN 22:00 World Report 22:30 Road To Durban: A Green City Journey 23:00 Piers Morgan Tonight

JASON X ON OSN ACTION HD 16:55 21:15 22:55 23:45

Antiques Roadshow What Not To Wear Gok’s Fashion Fix Gok’s Fashion Fix

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 12:10 13:00 13:10 13:30 14:00 14:10 14:30 15:00

BBC World News America World Football Focus BBC World News Sport Today Weekend World BBC World News America Horizons BBC World News Weekend World The Bottom Line BBC World News Horizons BBC World News One Square Mile BBC World News Africa Business Report BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News Middle East Business Report BBC World News Click BBC World News Weekend World The Bottom Line BBC World News World Football Focus One Square Mile BBC World News The World Debate BBC World News The Health Show Newsnight BBC World News Weekend World Talking Books BBC World News

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

Equestrian World BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News World Features Horizons BBC World News Click BBC World News Final Score BBC World News World Features Africa Business Report BBC World News Sport Today Fast Track BBC World News The Health Show Equestrian World

00:15 Samurai Jack 00:40 Megas XLR 01:05 Robotboy 01:30 Squirrel Boy 01:55 George Of The Jungle 02:20 Cramp Twins 02:45 Chop Socky Chooks 03:10 Best Ed 03:35 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 04:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:25 Generator Rex 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack 05:40 Chowder 05:55 Powerpuff Girls 06:30 Ed, Edd n Eddy 06:55 I Am Weasel

07:20 Squirrel Boy 07:45 Cow & Chicken 08:00 The Life & Times Of Juniper Lee 08:04 Cow & Chicken 08:25 Powerpuff Girls 08:50 Cartoon Network Dance Club 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 Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes 14:25 Robotboy 14:50 I Am Weasel 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 Of Flapjack 19:50 My Gym Partner’s A Monkey 20:15 Adventure Time 20:40 The Grim Adventures Of Billy & Mandy

00:15 Swamp Brothers 00:40 Dual Survival 01:35 Overhaulin’ 02:30 Dirty Jobs 03:25 Ultimate Survival 04:20 Mythbusters 05:15 How It’s Made 05:40 How Do They Do It? 06:05 Dirty Jobs 07:00 Ultimate Biker Challenge 07:25 South Beach Classics 07:50 Wheeler Dealers 08:15 Fifth Gear 08:45 American Chopper: Senior vs Junior 09:40 The Supernaturalist 10:30 Mythbusters 11:25 Curiosity: Did God Create The Universe?

12:20 How It’s Made 12:45 Scrappers 15:05 Border Security 17:20 Curiosity: Did God Create The Universe?

18:15 Extreme Fishing 19:10 River Monsters 20:05 Ultimate Survival 21:00 Dual Survival 21:55 Deadliest Catch 22:50 One Man Army 23:45 River Monsters

00:40 The Gadget Show 01:05 The Tech Show 01:35 Mega World 02:25 Green Wheels 02:50 Build It Bigger: Rebuilding Greensburg 03:40 Brainiac 04:35 The Gadget Show 05:25 How Stuff’s Made 05:50 Mega World 06:40 Stuntdawgs

07:10 The Future Of...

08:00 Nasa’s Greatest Missions 08:55 Head Rush 08:58 Sci-Fi Science 09:26 Weird Connections 09:55 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 10:45 Moon Machines 11:35 Science Of The Movies 15:45 Head Rush 15:48 Sci-Fi Science 16:16 Weird Connections 16:45 Bang Goes The Theory 17:10 The Gadget Show 18:00 Things That Move 18:50 How The Universe Works 19:40 Da Vinci’s Machines 20:30 Prototype This 21:20 Nasa’s Greatest Missions 22:10 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 23:00 Da Vinci’s Machines 23:50 Prototype This

00:25 Kendra 00:55 Style Star 01:25 Cheating Death 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 12:05 E! News 13:05 E!es 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 21:55 Kendra 22:25 E! News 23:25 Chelsea Lately 23:55 The Soup

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

Dr G: Medical Examiner Ghost Lab Psychic Witness True CSI True Crime With Aphrodite Dr G: Medical Examiner Psychic Witness Ghost Lab Mystery ER FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Real Emergency Calls Real Emergency Calls On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared FBI Files Forensic Detectives Murder Shift Real Emergency Calls Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared The Haunted Ghost Lab

00:00 Departures 01:00 The Music Nomad 01:30 Geo Sessions 02:00 Treks In A Wild World 02:30 Travel Madness 03:00 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody 03:30 Amazing Adventures Of A Nobody 04:00 Around The World For Free 05:00 A World Apart 06:00 Departures 07:00 The Music Nomad 07:30 Geo Sessions 08:00 Treks In A Wild World

TV listings

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011 08:30 Travel Madness 09:00 Amazing Adventures of A Nobody 09:30 Amazing Adventures Of A Nobody 10:00 Around The World For Free 11:00 A World Apart 12:00 Departures 13:00 Word of Mouth 13:30 Pressure Cook 14:00 Cooking The World 15:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 16:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 17:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 18:00 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 19:00 Word of Mouth 19:30 Pressure Cook 20:00 Cooking The World 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 08:45 10:45 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:15 20:00 22:00

Diary Of The Dead-18 Mindhunters-18 Mirrors 2-18 2012-PG15 I, Robot-PG15 No Time To Fear-PG15 The Three Musketeers-PG15 I, Robot-PG15 King Arthur-PG15 The Three Musketeers-PG15 Jason X-18 Empire-18

01:15 Death Race 2-18 03:00 Secretariat-PG15 05:15 The Spy Next Door-PG 07:00 Leap Year-PG15 09:00 The Flyboys-PG15 11:00 Secretariat-PG15 13:15 Make It Happen-PG15 15:00 The A-Team-PG15 17:15 Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star-PG15 19:00 Crazy On The Outside-PG15 21:00 Winter’s Bone-18 23:00 Nine Dead-PG15

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

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

Tower Prep The Ellen DeGeneres Show Friday Night Lights The View The X Factor (US) Glee Alias Survivor: South Pacific Live Good Morning America The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. The Killing C.S.I. Miami Top Gear (UK)

The Closer Friday Night Lights Century City The X Factor (US) Glee Survivor: South Pacific The Closer The Simpsons The Simpsons White Collar Friday Night Lights The X Factor (US) Glee The Simpsons The Simpsons White Collar The Closer Outsourced Coronation Street White Collar C.S.I. The Killing C.S.I. Miami Top Gear (UK) The Good Guys

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 PG 09:00 11:15 13:45 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Rocky III-PG15 Paranormal Activity-PG15 Diary Of The Dead-18 Batman: Under The Red HoodPatriot Games-PG15 Set It Off-PG15 The Postman-PG15 Tracker-PG15 Child’s Play 3-18 Empire-18 Halloween 2-18

00:00 12 Men Of Christmas-PG15 02:00 Sleepover-PG15 04:00 My Father The Hero-PG15 06:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel-FAM 08:00 What’s The Worst That Could Happen?-PG15 10:00 Everybody Wants To Be ItalianPG15 12:00 Valentine’s Day-PG15 14:00 16 To Life-PG15 16:00 12 Men Of Christmas-PG15 18:00 Death At A Funeral-PG15 20:00 Friday-18 22:00 My Best Friend’s Girl-18

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

Paris-PG15 On The Edge-18 Mary Reilly-PG15 Where The Wild Things Are-PG Me And Orson Welles-PG Witch Hunt-PG15 Ed-PG Return To Rajapur-PG15 Glitter-PG15 Limousine-PG15 Moonlight And Valentino-PG15 American History X-18

01:00 03:00 04:30 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 PG15 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

The X Factor (US) Survivor: South Pacific Friday Night Lights Glee Alias Good Morning America Detroit 1-8-7

Easy Virtue-PG15 A Lot Like Love-PG15 Takers-PG15 Open Season 3-PG15 Biutiful-PG15

00:00 Gladiators: The Conspiracy-PG 02:00 Furry Vengeance-PG 04:00 Adventures Of A Teenage Dragonslayer-PG 06:00 Gladiators: The Conspiracy-PG 08:00 Gladiators: The Tournament-PG 10:00 Tangled-FAM 12:00 Queen Of The Swallows-FAM 14:00 The Prince Of Dinosaurs-PG 16:00 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid-PG 18:00 Tangled-FAM 20:00 Big Fat Liar-PG 22:00 Queen Of The Swallows-FAM

00:00 My Last Five Girlfriends-PG15 01:45 Animal Kingdom-PG15 04:00 Iron Man 2-PG15 06:15 My Last Five Girlfriends-PG15 08:00 Lottery Ticket-PG15 09:45 Iron Man 2-PG15 12:00 Carnera: The Walking Mountain-PG 14:15 Oceans - Into The Deep-PG 16:00 The Lightkeepers-PG15 18:00 Legendary-PG15 20:00 Open Season 3-PG15 21:45 Wrong Turn 3: Left For Dead-18 23:30 Helen-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 South Park 02:30 Entourage 03:30 The Office 04:00 According To Jim 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Dharma And Greg 06:00 Yes Dear 06:30 Just Shoot Me 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 According To Jim 09:00 Dharma And Greg 09:30 Hot In Cleveland 10:00 Community 10:30 Just Shoot Me 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Yes Dear 12:30 According To Jim 13:30 Dharma And Greg 14:00 Just Shoot Me 14:30 Hot In Cleveland 15:00 Community 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Yes Dear 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Melissa And Joey 18:30 Mr. Sunshine 19:00 Community 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

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Wake-PG15 Winning Time-PG15 The Karate Kid-PG The Last Song-PG15 A Lot Like Love-PG15 The Box-PG15 The Sorcerer’s Apprentice-

WINTERʼS BORN ON OSN CINEMA

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WWE Tough Enough WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC 139 Countdown Trans Word Sport WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE SmackDown Super Formula Live PGA European Tour Aquabikes WWE SmackDown UFC 139 Countdown Live Rugby League 4 Nations Trans Word Sport

02:00 European Challenge Cup 04:00 Rugby League 4 Nations 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Darts 11:00 European Challenge Cup 13:00 ICC Cricket World 13:30 Trans World Sport 14:30 Scottish Premier League Highlights 15:30 Live Scottish Premier League 17:30 Futbol Mundial 18:00 Live Scottish Premier League 20:00 Trans World Sport 21:00 Live Rugby League 4 Nations 23:00 Scottish Premier League

00:00 ICC Cricket World 00:30 Premier League Snooker 04:00 Total Rugby 04:30 European Challenge Cup 06:30 Futbol Mundial 07:00 The Challenge Series Golf 08:00 Live European PGA Tour 12:00 European Senior Tour Highlights 13:00 European Tour Weekly 13:30 Live European PGA Tour 17:30 Total Rugby 18:00 European Challenge Cup 20:00 Scottish Premier League 22:00 Live Darts

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WWE Tough Enough WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC Countdown UFC Unleashed WWE Bottom Line Live V8 Supercars WWE SmackDown WWE NXT WWE Vintage Collection V8 Supercars Powerboats UFC Countdown Live Darts V8 Supercars UFC 139 Countdown WWE SmackDown

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Battles B.C. Modern Marvels Lost Worlds Chasing Mummies Ancients Behaving Badly Clash Of The Gods Battles B.C. Modern Marvels Lost Worlds Chasing Mummies Ancients Behaving Badly Clash Of The Gods Battles B.C. Modern Marvels Lost Worlds Chasing Mummies Ancients Behaving Badly Clash Of The Gods Battles B.C. Modern Marvels Dead Men’s Secrets Cities Of The Underworld The President’s Book Of Secrets

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Kim Possible Fairly Odd Parents Stitch Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School

03:35 04:25 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:30 Fairies 08:00 Cody 08:25 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 10:30 12:24 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 20:55 21:25 21:50 22:15 22:40 23:05 Cody 23:30 23:55

Stitch Replacements Fairly Odd Parents Fairly Odd Parents Jungle Junction Handy Manny Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates The Adventures Of Disney

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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 The Garfield Show New Yogi Bear Show Bananas In Pyjamas Baby Looney Tunes 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 The Good, The Bad And...

Top Cat Dastardly And Muttley Tom & Jerry Wacky Races The Scooby Doo Show Tom & Jerry Johnny Bravo

The Suite Life Of Zack And My Babysitter’s A Vampire Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Cars So Random Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Fish Hooks Wizards Of Waverly Place Stitch 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 Sonny With A Chance Phineas And Ferb Suite Life On Deck Wizards Of Waverly Place Cars 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 Kim Possible

what’s on

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Hip Hop at BAIA BAIA offers weekly Hip Hop classes for students aged five and up. These “just for fun” classes area great work-out.

Augy and Tracy will teach you new moves and help you polish you old ones. Express yourself and have fun dancing to the music you love. No previous dance experience is required. Various days and times are available depending on the age of the student. Classes are held at the British Institute of Vocational Training (BIVT) in Salmiya. For more information visit our www.thebaia.com or contact us at: info@thebaia.com Telephone: 25623604 ext. 154, 25620706 ext. 154. Mobile: 60052087.

Exhibition Text in contemporary Arab and Iranian art by JAMM Highlighting the use of writing in the field of contemporary Arab and Iranian art, JAMM’S exhibition will feature artworks that incorporate text in its various forms - calligraphy, graffiti, quotations, poems and sometimes just a single letter. Featuring works by both emerging and established Middle Eastern artists, the participating artists include

Parviz Tanavoli, Hassan Hajjaj, Farideh Lashai, Katya Traboulsi, Fareed Abdal, Amira Behbehani, Shezad Dawood, Nargess Hashemi, Susan Hefuna and Farhad Moshiri. The event will be held from tomorrow till November 10.

Gallery Tilal The idea and subject of her artwork is figurative abstract and particularly of women’s anatomy. This collection is an evolved version of transforming figures into cubes using transparent water colors and reflection the soul of a dreamy woman. Her artwork captivates the heart and speaks of deep hidden emotions all set into letting loose to your wildest imaginations. It is a reflection sensual and past experiences embedded in the sublime. Those paintings are the art burst of sincere sensational feelings of the inner soul exposed and put under the viewer’s disposal. Shay Maiyat (Shayma’a Ashkanani) is on from November 13- 24.

Gallery Tilal is located in Shuwaikh, Jahra Road, Tilal Complex, M3-M4. for more information please call: 22256101 or email: gallerygallery@hotmail.com .

Christmas Carol Concert

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he Ahmadi Music Group will be holding a fantastic Christmas Carol Concert on December 9-10, 2011 in which Santa will be making an appearance, and the children can get involved with singing, waving jingle bells, etc.

Guaranteed Christmas fun for the whole family! The event will be held at New English School (NES) at 5 pm both days with an adult show at 7:30 pm on both days.

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF GERMANY

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 (AlBabtain) 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 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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax- 25387719.

Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk nnnnnnn

Events November 20 Aware Arabic courses: “The AWARE Management is glad to inform you that Winter 1 Arabic language courses will begin on November 20th, 2011 until January 12th, 2012. AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. For more information or registration, call 25335260/80 ext 105/104/0 or log onto: www.aware.com.kw.”

November 24 Lebanese cooking classes: Would you like to prepare Lebanese Cuisine for your family and loved ones? Its food will soon adapt to your kitchen with, and its favorite ingredients will tickle your taste buds! Ladies only.

From November 24th December 15th at TIES Center (Shuhada, Block 4, Street 413, Villa 64). For more information contact 2523-1015/6 or 97228860/9779-344.

EMBASSY OF PERU The Embassy of Peru is located at Al-Arablya Tower, Sharq, Ahmed Al-Jaber Street, on the 6th Floor. In the same place, as a part of the Chancellery of the Embassy of Peru in Kuwait, also is located the Showing Room of “PeruExpoTour, Trade & Invest.” nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF UKRAINE We’d like to inform you that in response to the increasing number of our citizens who work in the state and the need for 24-hour operational telephone in case of emergency the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Kuwait has opened “hotline telephone number” - (+ 965) 972-79-206.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

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what’s on

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

ICSK wins 8th Islamic Quiz Competition ICSK celebrates Int’l Day of Non-Violence

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he students of The Indian Community School Khaitan celebrated the day with great vigor and spent their time remembering the Mahatma. The Principal S Ilango together with the senior teachers and senate president lit the ceremonial lamp while the strains of Gandhiji’s bhajans permeated the air. A power point presentation on the life and labours of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was shown to the students. The students were reminded of Gandhiji’s selfless deeds and were urged to practise his teachings, especially of non-violence.

In another development, The Indian Community School, Khaitan touched the 8th Octave, winning the 8th Interschool Islamic Quiz Competition held by the Friday Forum. The competition was held at the Medical Association Hall, Jabriya on October 28, 2011. The Senior and Junior teams presented a brilliant performance under the guidance of Samina Khan, Islamic Studies teacher. The senior team - Ehab Abdulla Fysel and Nadeem Abdulla received laptops while the junior team of

Mohammed Mishal and Mohammed Basil Habeeb bagged air tickets to any destination in India. The ICSK fraternity proudly congratulates their dazzling accomplishment.

Self-Government Day at The Indian Community School Khaitan is the day when the staff members are given a respite from their daily routine. The senior students of the school carry the yoke on their able

shoulders. This is the day that creates in them an even greater awe for their teachers and school administration. The President of the School Senate Zeenat Ayub Shaikh took over the charges from the principal. The able support of the dedicated and enthusiastic team of Senate members made the day a thunderous success.

Soon after the assembly, the senior students took charge of the

classes and office while the rest of the students vied with each other to make the day as pleasant and memorable as possible for their teachers. The Self-Government Day was conducted in the most meticulous and remarkable way.

The young leader of the school proved beyond doubt that they are competent and conscientious, from handling the tiny tots to helping out at the school office.

The zest and vigor with which the senior students managed the school is deserving of praise and is an indication of the immense potential in them. The day came to a close with a sumptuous lunch for the staff and the senior students. Congratulations!

HEALTH SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

US doctors disagree on pregnancy start NEW YORK: Most US doctors believe pregnancy starts when the sperm fertilizes the egg, a survey shows, contradicting the position of a key medical group with a view that could potentially affect US policy and laws regarding contraception and research.

The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG), the leading organization for this field of medicine, defines pregnancy as beginning when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus, roughly a week after fertilization.

“People say that the medical profession has settled on this,” said Farr Curlin, senior author of the study,

which appeared in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and a professor at the University of Chicago.

“What our data show rather clearly is that it is not at all settled among the medical profession.” Physicians who responded that they were religious or opposed to abortion or contraceptives that prevent implantation were more likely to believe that conception is the start of pregnancy, the study said.

Embryonic stem cells, used in scientific research, are often derived from surplus embryos that aren’t transferred to a woman after in vitro fertilization, and some contraceptive devices, such

as intrauterine devices, prevent implantation. “Then you see why any technology that prevents implantation would be problematic,” Curlin said.

For the survey, Curlin and his colleagues sent questionnaires to more than 1,000 obstetrician-gynecologists.

The questions asked whether pregnancy begins at conception, at implantation, or if the doctor was unsure.

Most of the doctors, 57 out of every 100, said that pregnancy begins at conception, while 28 out of every 100 said it begins at implantation. The rest, 15 out of every 100, said they were unsure.

Implantation takes place about a week after fertilization, when the blas-

tocyst-a tiny group of cells that will later become the fetus-embeds itself into the wall of the uterus. Curlin said he was surprised that a majority of doctors in his study disagreed with the ACOG, which did not respond to requests for comment.

“In this case, the science shows exactly what happens, but what you define as pregnancy is not what science can settle,” Curling told Reuters Health. He added that one of the weaknesses in the survey is the use of the word “conception” instead of fertilization. While conception is usually defined as fertilization, others interchange it with implantation. — Reuters

Antibiotics no cure for colds and coughs, HPA LONDON: A quarter of people wrongly believe antibiotics work on most coughs and colds, a British Health Protection Agency (HPA) survey has found. However antibiotics cannot treat viruses, which cause most respiratory tract infections.

The HPA poll of 1,800 people in England also found one in 10 people keep leftover antibiotics - and many would self-medicate next time they got ill. A leading GP said antibiotics were not a “cure all”.

The HPA’s Dr Cliodna McNulty said self-medicating was unsafe and could fuel drug resistance. Dr McNulty, head of primary care for the HPA, said “The majority of people can treat themselves at home using over-the-counter medicines to relieve symptoms.”

Of those polled, 500 had been prescribed antibiotics in the previous year, with 11 percent reporting they had leftovers and 6 percent saying they might take them if they had future infections. Speaking on European Antibiotics Awareness Day, Dr McNulty said that while the numbers might appear small, they could translate into large numbers given that 30 percent of people take antibiotics every year.

She said “There is evidence that the more antibiotics you have, the more likely you are to develop resistance. And you’re also more likely to develop antibiotic-related diarrhoea.”

However, 70 percent were aware of the problem of antibiotic resistance in hospitals, and a similar number were aware that they or their family could be affected. The HPA says health professionals must learn to resist demands from patients for treatments they know have little or no effect on coughs and colds.

It found 97 percent of those questioned said that the last time they had asked their GP or nurse for an antibiotic, they were prescribed one. The Department of Health issued fresh guidance on antibiotic prescribing in hospitals today, with doctors and nurses being urged to “think twice” before offering them to patients.

Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said “Antibiotics are a wonderful thing when used properly, but they are not a cure-all for every condition, and should not be seen, or used, as such”. — KUNA

This undated image provided by NASA shows a rippled dune, front, in Herschel Crater on Mars that moved an average of about two yards between March 3, 2007 and December 1, 2010. NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) show sand dunes and ripples moving across the surface of Mars at dozens of locations and shifting up to several yards. — AP

Births by young American moms reach historic low Rate of births among women age 40-44 up 2% WASHINGTON: Birth rates by teenage and young adult mothers in the United States fell to historic lows last year, while birth rates among women over 40 hit a 30-year high, according to data released Thursday.

The birth rate among teens age 1519 dropped nine percent in 2010 compared to a year earlier, the largest single year dip since 1946-47, the US Department of Health and Human Services said in its National Vital Statistics Report.

At 34.3 births per 1,000 among teens, that marks “a record low for the nation,” said the report.

Teenage birth rates have been falling steadily since 1991, and are now 44 percent lower than they were 20 years ago.

“I am aware of no other social problem that has improved so dramatically over so many years,” said Sarah Brown, chief executive officer of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy.

“The magic formula of less sex and more contraception is responsible for this great good news.” Tough economic times, combined with some popular

reality television shows that have spotlighted the lives of teenage mothers, have also helped bring down the birth rates.

“But at the end of the day, the thanks and admiration go to teens themselves,” said Brown. Women 20 to 24 years old also saw a drop of six percent in birth rate compared to 2009, with 2010’s rate of 90 per births per 1,000 making it the “lowest level ever reported for the United States.”

Meanwhile, the rate of births among women age 40-44 rose two percent from 2009 to 2010, reaching 10.2 births per 1,000 women, the highest since 1967. That age group was the only one to see an increase, as part of a trend in which more women in the United States are postponing child-bearing until after they have built their careers.

“Women have more and more options later in life as in-vitro fertilization techniques get better and better,” Mitchell Maiman, chairman of obstetrics and gynecology at Staten Island University Hospital, told AFP. “And of course, more women work, and they delay child-bearing, but now

we have the technology to give these women pregnancies well into their 40s, so it is being utilized.” Overall births among women of all races in the United States declined in 2010, and the total number of US births was just over four million last year, dropping three percent from 2009.

The number of Caesarean deliveries leveled off in 2010 (32.8 percent) after a steady rise seen from 1996 to 2009, when they reached 32.9 percent. “While the C-section rate is still too high, that is a good sign that it is starting to stabilize, at least nationally,” said Maiman.

“The rise had to do with a lot of factors-malpractice in OB-GYN, and doctors practicing defensively, and inductions of labor and not committing to the woman delivering vaginally because of convenience,” he added. “Now there is more education and women are beginning to ask more questions and they realize that having multiple C-sections is not a safe thing for them.”

The pre-term birth rate fell for the fourth year in a row to 11.99 percent in 2010, but still remains higher than any year in the span of 1981 to 2001. — AFP

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Health

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Fluoride OK’d for San Jose drinking water SAN JOSE: Dentists and children’s health advocates in California are cheering a decision to add fluoride to the drinking water of San Jose the largest city in the nation without the cavityfighting mineral in its water supply.

The board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District voted Tuesday to support fluoridation for most of the county. The district provides drinking water to 1.5 million residents in several cities in Silicon Valley. “I’m elated,” Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Marty Fenstersheib said after the 7-0 vote, reported the San Jose Mercury News (http://bit.ly/v7KIh1). “It has been my hope that this would happen.”

Supporters say fluoridated water reduces tooth decay and benefits low-income children and the elderly who do not have regular access to dental care. Critics argue adding fluoride is too costly. They say the mineral also can have adverse health effects, including fluorosis, a dental condition caused by too much fluoride.

In extreme cases, fluorosis can cause discoloration and pitting of tooth enamel.

“When you fluoridate the water, childhood tooth decay drops 40 percent and among the elderly, tooth loss and decay drops 70 percent,” said Dr. Donald Lyman, of the state Department of Public Health.

But Maureen Jones of Citizens for Safe Drinking Water in San Jose said fluoride has nothing to do with high rates of cavities and root canals experienced by low-income children in and around San Jose.

“The parents are uneducated,” Jones said.

“They are bedding down children with bottles of fruit juice and soda. That’s an educational issue. It has nothing to do with fluoride.”

About 21 percent of county residents already have fluoridated water, including those living in Palo Alto, which receives water from San Francisco’s Hetch Hetchy system. Nationwide, 72 percent of residents have fluoride in their

drinking water.

A combination of issues has slowed San Jose in adopting fluoridation. They include a mix of providers, wells and treated water. The municipal water system, which serves roughly 12 percent of the city’s population, already contains fluoride.

It’s expected to take at least a year before the district can secure funding to add fluoride to the water. The project is expected to cost $4.4 million to $9.5 million, with annual operating expenses at $836,000. The board voted Tuesday to work with community groups to find funding. —AP

Canadian health system too expensive: Report Ex-TD economist rejects two-tiered healthcare

This false-color mosaic provided by NASA from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft shows the tail of Saturn’s huge northern storm, top. The storm’s 200-day active period also makes it the longest-lasting planet-encircling storm ever seen on Saturn. The previous record holder was an outburst sighted in 1903, which lingered for 150 days. The large disturbance imaged 21 years ago by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and comparable in size to the current storm lasted for only 55 days. —AP

FDA approves first drug for bone marrow disorder WASHINGTON: The first drug to treat a rare disorder that causes red blood cells to build up inside bone marrow was cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA approved the twice-a-day pill Jakafi from Incyte Corp. to treat myelofibrosis, which causes anemia, fatigue, pain and swelling of the spleen. The disease spurs abnormal blood cells to build up in bone marrow, forming thick scar tissue that slows the production of healthy blood cells. To make up for the shortage, other organs including the liver and the spleen begin producing blood cells.

Incyte estimates the disease affects between 16,000 and 18,500 people in the US, though precise figures are not available. The disease is currently treated with chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant, and some patients are not eligible for the procedures. Incyte said it plans to launch Jakafi nationwide next week through specialty pharmacies.

Known generically as ruxolitinib, Jakafi is the first drug to reach the market from Wilmington, Del.-based Incyte Corporation. The company has partnered with Swiss drugmaker Novartis, which holds the rights to market Jakafi abroad. The company said Wednesday that Jakafi will cost $7,000 per month, or $84,000 for a year’s supply for insured patients. Incyte plans to provide the drug free to uninsured patients and will offer co-pay assistance to patients with financial need.

The FDA approved the drug based on two studies including 528 patients with the disease. Patients were randomly assigned to receive a placebo or Jakafi. More patients in the drug group saw a significant reduction in the size of their spleen as well as a 50 percent decrease in symptoms, including pain, discomfort and night sweats.

The drug works by blocking two enzymes associated with the disease. The FDA reviewed Jakafi under its priority review program for important new therapies, which aims to clear drugs in six months instead of the usual 10. —AP

TORONTO: Canada’s public healthcare system is becoming too expensive but could offer better value without drastic cuts or abandoning its state-funded structure, one of the country’s most influential economists said on Thursday.

Changes needed include more treatment of patients outside of hospitals through family doctors and home care, for example - and by offering more private services paid for by the public purse, said Don Drummond, a former Toronto-Dominion Bank chief economist and federal finance official.

Drummond, who has been hired by the Ontario government to advise it on program spending, said in a report that politically “palatable” options are needed to tackle the threat of ballooning health care costs.

“If healthcare spending keeps the provinces’ backs to the fiscal cliff, they might once again lash out with spending cuts, as they did in the 1990s,”

Drummond warned in the report for the market-friendly C.D. Howe Institute, a public-policy thinktank.

“But a lesson should be learned from that episode: little was really solved ... the experience left the public even more leery of moves to save money or raise efficiency.”

Healthcare in Canada is delivered through a publicly funded system that covers all “medically necessary” hospital and physician care, as well as prescription drugs for seniors, and curbs the role of private medicine.

While the system has widespread public and political support, costs have soared well above the rate of inflation and are expected to climb further as the baby-boom generation ages.

Drummond said other ways to save money include allowing nurses and physicians’ assistants to perform some tasks done by doctors and enabling pharmacists to write basic prescriptions.

Policymakers should also contain drug costs and change the way doctors are paid, with more emphasis on salaries and less on fees for services. He also urged lower fees for procedures where technological advances have made them quicker, such as cataract surgery.

But doctors should receive incentives when they find ways to improve the quality of care, such as lowering the number of complications after treatment, he said.

Drummond noted that Canadians spent C$192 billion ($186 billion) on healthcare in 2010, or 11.7 percent of gross domestic product. In Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, the health-spending share of GDP was even higher at 12.2 percent.

Of the 34 countries covered in the latest OECD health data, Canada had the 7th most expensive system. The United States topped the list at 16 percent of GDP. —Reuters

Over 20% US adults on behavioral medication NEW YORK: More than 20 percent of American adults took at least one drug for conditions like anxiety and depression in 2010, according to an analysis of prescription data, including more than one in four women. The report, released Wednesday by pharmacy benefits manager Medco Health Solutions Inc., found that use of drugs for psychiatric and behavioral disorders rose 22 percent from 2001. The medications are most often prescribed to women aged 45 and older, but their use among men and in younger adults climbed sharply.

In adults 20 to 44, use of antipsychotic drugs and treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder more than tripled, and use of anti-anxiety drugs like Xanax, Valium and Ativan rose 30 percent from a decade ago.

The statistics were taken from Medco’s database of prescriptions and is based on 2.5 million patients with 24 months of continuous prescription drug insurance and eligibility. The company said women are twice as likely as men to use anxiety treatments, as 11 percent of women 45 to 65 are on an

anxiety medication. Women are also more likely than men to take antipsychotic drugs like Zyprexa, Risperdal, and Abilify, which treat disorders like bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

However, among men 20 to 64, use of the drugs has quadrupled over the last decade.

“There has been a significant uptick in the use of medications to treat a variety of mental health problems; what is not as clear is if more people - especially women, are actually developing psychological disorders that require treatment, or if they are more willing to seek out help and clinicians are better at diagnosing these conditions than they once were,” said Dr. David Muzina, a psychiatrist and national practice leader of Medco’s Neuroscience Therapeutic Resource Center.

Pharmaceutical companies have also sought and received approvals to market their drugs to larger groups of people. Drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are prescribed to boys more often than girls, but adult women now take the drugs more often than

men. ADHD prescriptions to adult women grew 2.5 times from 2001.

However ADHD prescriptions for children have been declining since 2005.

That reflects a decline in prescriptions for psychiatric and behavioral drugs for children. Medco found that prescriptions of those drugs for children have dropped since 2004, when the FDA warned they were linked to suicidal thoughts when used in people under 19. The company said less than 1 percent of children use antipsychotics drugs, although the figure has doubled since 2001.

In the “diabetes belt” states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Alabama, about 23 percent of people are on at least one psychiatric or behavioral disorder drug. Diabetes is particularly widespread in those states and the condition is associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety disorders. The lowest rate of prescriptions was found in Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where less than 15 percent of people are using those medications. —AP

CLASSIFIEDS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

The scientific name for the Adélie penguin is Pygoscelis adeliae.

An Adélie penguin colony can be made up of 100 to 250,000 pairs of birds.

An Adélie penguin can live to be up to 20 years old.

“Gloria is a mom, so it kind of worked out perfectly. I didn’t know I was going to be a mom so soon when I was doing this, so it was a lot of fun.”

— P!nk, on voicing Gloria from “Happy Feet Two,” in London’s The Daily Mirror

— kids.nationalgeographic.com

‘Kirby’s Return’ is a welcome one Kirby might not even know it, but the way he walks in “Kirby’s Return to Dream Land” — with a proud strut and a carefree expression that completely belies it — is amusing without even meaning to be. That goes as well whenever Kirby enters a body of water: He sports a stylish innertube at the surface, and instantly swaps it for goggles whenever he plunges into the depths.

There are a thousand other similarly effortless details to spot in “Land” — some of them silly like those mentioned above, others crucial to the game’s design, but all adding up to a spotless Nintendo game that exemplifies the difference between a good sidescrolling platformer and one devised by the company that created the mold.

This isn’t to suggest “Land” has broken said mold. As the title itself implies, this is a return to Kirby’s roots much in the same way “New Super Mario Bros.” brought Mario and “KIRBY’S RETURN Luigi back to their TO DREAM LAND” basics. “Return’s” For: Wii primary objective — From: HAL move from left to Laboratory right and reach the /Nintendo exit — is as pure as ESRB rating: video game objecEveryone 10-plus tives get, and Kirby’s (mild cartoon techniques — strutviolence) ting, jumping, float Price: $50 ing, swimming and the always-wonderful ability to open his mouth, ingest enemies like a vacuum and briefly acquire their powers — are just as they were during his first visit to Dream Land.

Of course, Dream Land itself isn’t the same as Kirby left it. The levels and worlds are all new, and they’re naturally more elaborate in their construction than in past “Kirby” games.

Simply cruising from entrance to exit isn’t terribly challenging, but completely mastering a level — finding every secret area and using certain powers to acquire every last collectible piece of the spaceship you’re helping Kirby’s friend rebuild — is pretty tricky.

As has become tradition, “Land” complements the primary game with a surprisingly filling selection of bonus content, including challenge rooms, practice rooms and minigames. None of them are wildly original in light of the billion or so minigames that have graced the Wii over the last five years, but they’re fun, well-made, and work very nicely as free sides for an extraordinary main course.

Actor Robin Williams talks about returning to his penguin characters in “Happy Feet Two”

BY KELLI PLASKET Timeforkids.com

Bundle up, but don’t forget your dancing shoes! With “Happy Feet Two,” it’s a return to Antarctica and to the adorable singing and tap-dancing penguins from the Academy Awardwinning 2006 animated film “Happy Feet.” The 3-D sequel, in theaters now, finds everyone working together to survive after a powerful force shifts their icefilled world. Will they succeed?

Funnyman Robin Williams is also back as the voice of rockhopper penguin Lovelace and Adélie penguin Ramon. This time, Ramon is trying to win the heart of an Adélie beauty, Carmen. After being rescued from an oil slick, Lovelace returns to Adélie land sporting a crazy, colorful sweater. Read our Q&A with Williams to learn more about that sweater, and what it was like to return to penguin world.

TFK: How does it feel to step back into the world of penguins?

ROBIN WILLIAMS: It’s quite wonderful.

It’s great because it’s pretty much all of (the cast and crew from Happy Feet back together.) We all worked together in the same room — all the penguins (voice actors) do. So it’s

like a high school reunion every three years.

TFK: Once again you play both Lovelace and Ramon.

What do you do to channel your characters?

WILLIAMS: Lovelace is pretty easy. He’s a little bit like Barry White meets (Looney Tunes character) Foghorn Leghorn. (In Lovelace’s voice) “It’s not hard to get into that mood, so beautiful and sexy in his own big way. I’m a big bird and women love that.” Ramon is the opposite in that he’s small but fierce, and an incurable romantic. (In Ramon’s voice) “Where are the ladies? I’m here, why are they not flocking to me?

Las chicas love me.” He’s that little guy with big aspirations.

TFK: What kind of adventures will Lovelace and Ramon find themselves in, in the sequel? I hear Ramon is trying to win over a new love interest named Carmen?

WILLIAMS: Yes, very much so. She’s voiced by one of the great love interests, Sofia Vergara from (ABC’s)

Robin Williams

“Modern Family.” Oh, she was wonderful, that voice alone. Just to see her as a penguin; the ice is melting early! With Lovelace, he’s been rescued by another penguin called Sven. He’d been rescued by the humans, but then at a certain point they find out something about humans. Humans eat birds — not penguins, but they don’t know that, so they take off, and Lovelace has a revelation on that level.

TFK: How did you come to realize that your talent was in acting and making people laugh?

WILLIAMS: Oh, it came early on with my mother. If she laughed, I said, “That’s a good sign.”

TFK: Was she your toughest critic?

WILLIAMS: Yeah, she was.

But also at the same time, I think she gave me the idea that this is a good way to get along with things. My father was just much more dry about stuff. He’s the one who said, when I told him I wanted to be an actor, he said, “Great! Have a backup profession, like welding.”

But that was my first audience. © 2011 Time Inc. All Rights Reserved.

TIME FOR KIDS and Timeforkids.com are registered trademarks of Time Inc.

— Billy O’Keefe, MCT

Ramon

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Lovelace P R OV I D E D B Y N I N T E N D O / M C T

“Kirby’s Return to Dream Land” for the Wii is a return to the classic sidescrolling game’s roots.

P H OTO S C O U R T E S Y O F WA R N E R B R O S .

These simple yet sophisticated decorations are made from cardboard tubes and pipe cleaners.

Paint the outsides of the tubes before cutting them, if desired, or keep them unpainted for a natural look.

For each one, flatten a 71/2-inch length of cardboard tube. Mark and cut it into 3/4-inch-wide rings; Create snowflake ornaments using cardboard tubes and pipe cleaners.

E D J U D I C E / D I S N E Y FA M I LY F U N M A G A Z I N E

you’ll need 10 for this project. On each flattened ring, mark dots 3/4 inches in from each folded edge.

With a hole punch, make holes at the dots.

Starting with the inner circle, string the rings onto a pipe cleaner. For the outer circle, twist two pipe cleaners together to make a double-long piece, then thread it through the outer holes in the cardboard rings. Twist the ends together and trim the excess.

Hang with thread or string.

— Disney FamilyFun magazine

M A RT Y W E S T M A N / M C T

Retro snowflake ornaments

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information SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 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 SYR JZR KLM JZR ETH THY PIA UAE QTR OMA DHX MSR FDB ETD GFA THY DHX JZR JZR FCX KAC BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC JZR KAC KAC KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB ETD GFA JZR IRC IRM MSR JZR KAC GFA MSR FDB MSR UAL VOS QTR SVA RJA KAC KAC JZR LMU QTR KNE JZR IRC ETD JZR UAE KAC CLX GFA SVA ABY JZR

Arrival Flights on Saturday 19/11/2011 Flt Route 341A DAMASCUS 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 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 403 DOHA 416 JAKARTA/KUALA LUMPUR 157 LONDON 412 MANILA/BANGKOK 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 352 COCHIN 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 531 ASSIUT 284 DHAKA 362 COLOMBO 344 CHENNAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 165 DUBAI 6807 SHIRAZ 5066 MASHAD 610 CAIRO 201 DAMASCUS 672 DUBAI 219 BAHRAIN 621 ASSIUT 57 DUBAI 606 LUXOR 982 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 93 KANDAHAR/DUBAI 140 DOHA 500 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 562 AMMAN 786 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT 611 ALEXANDRIA 134 DOHA 839 JEDDAH/MEDINAH 535 CAIRO 6791 MASHAD 303 ABU DHABI 357 MASHAD 857 DUBAI 118 NEW YORK 792 LUXEMBOURG 215 BAHRAIN 510 RIYADH 127 SHARJAH 777 JEDDAH

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

RBG KAC ALK JZR FDB KAC KAC QTR JZR KAC IRA KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC FDB JAI OMA AIC MSR KAC DHX MEA GFA QTR UAE JZR KLM KAC JZR UAL AXB BBC DLH

3561 550 227 177 63 502 542 6130 125 618 607 674 178 104 774 790 61 572 647 975 618 788 372 402 217 136 859 135 445 614 239 981 393 43 636

ALEXANDRIA SOHAG/SHARM EL SHEIKH COLOMBO/DUBAI DUBAI DUBAI BEIRUT CAIRO DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA MASHAD DUBAI GENEVA/FRANKFURT LONDON RIYADH MEDINAH DUBAI MUMBAI MUSCAT CHENNAI/GOA ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH BAHRAIN BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN AMSTERDAM BAHRAIN AMMAN BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE/COCHIN DHAKA FRANKFURT

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

Departure Flights on Saturday 19/11/2011 Flt Route 216 KARACHI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 976 GOA/CHENNAI 342A DAMASCUS 530 ASSIUT 637 FRANKFURT 447 AMSTERDAM 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 240 SIALKOT/ISLAMABAD 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 642 MUSCAT 371 BAHRAIN 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 771 ISTANBUL 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 200 DAMASCUS 54 DUBAI 156 LONDON 256 BEIRUT 671 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 785 JEDDAH 101 LONDON/NEW YORK 856 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 549 SOHAG/SHARM EL SHEIKH 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA

17:50 18:00 18:10 18:15 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:00 19:00 19:15 19:20 19:25 19:30 19:35 19:40 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:45 20:55 21:00 21:20 21:25 21:35 21:40 21:55 22:05 22:05 22:45 23:00 23:40 23:45 23:50

Time 0:30 0:45 0:50 1:00 1:15 1:20 1:45 2:45 3:15 3:30 3:45 3:50 3:55 3:55 4:00 4:00 4:55 5:50 6:55 7:00 7:30 8:25 8:40 9:00 9:00 9:15 9:20 9:25 9:35 9:40 9:45 10:00 10:05 10:10

ETD GFA JZR KAC KAC JZR KAC IRC JZR MSR IRM GFA MSR FDB MSR KAC UAL KAC RJA KAC JZR KAC LMU SVA KAC QTR KAC KNE JZR IRC ETD JZR QTR VOS UAE GFA ABY RBG SVA JZR CLX KAC JZR ALK FDB JZR IRA QTR KAC FDB KAC DHX KAC JAI OMA MSR KAC DHX MEA GFA KAC FCX QTR JZR KAC UAE KAC KLM JZR KAC

302 214 356 165 541 776 501 6808 176 611 5065 220 622 58 607 673 982 789 641 617 124 787 612 505 773 141 153 840 238 6792 304 538 135 82 858 216 128 3563 511 266 792 613 134 228 64 184 616 6131 283 62 331 171 351 571 648 619 543 373 403 218 381 102 137 554 301 860 205 445 528 411

ABU DHABI BAHRAIN MASHAD ROME/PARIS CAIRO JEDDAH BEIRUT SHIRAZ DUBAI CAIRO MASHAD BAHRAIN ASSIUT DUBAI LUXOR DUBAI BAHRAIN MEDINAH AMMAN DOHA BAHRAIN JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH RIYADH DOHA ISTANBUL JEDDAH AMMAN MASHAD ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA BAGHDAD DUBAI BAHRAIN SHARJAH ASSIUT RIYADH BEIRUT HONG KONG BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI/COLOMBO DUBAI DUBAI AHWAZ DOHA DHAKA DUBAI TRIVANDRUM BAHRAIN COCHIN MUMBAI MUSCAT ALEXANDRIA CAIRO BAHRAIN BEIRUT BAHRAIN DELHI BAHRAIN DOHA ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI ISLAMABAD BAHRAIN/AMSTERDAM ASSIUT BANGKOK/MANILA

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

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

C R O S S W O R D

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SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Word Sleuth Solution

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. (computer science) A computer that is running software that allows users to leave messages and access information of general interest.

4. Most important element.

9. A river in southwestern England rising in Gloucestershire and flowing through Bristol to empty into the estuary of the Severn.

13. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

14. A choice or delicious dish.

15. An informal term for a father.

16. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

18. A quantity of no importance.

19. (Greek mythology) Greek god of war.

20. Large tropical butterfly with degenerate forelegs and an unpleasant taste.

24. A domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church.

28. Having an eye or eyes or eyelike feature especially as specified.

29. A light touch or stroke.

32. Any of various long-tailed rodents similar to but larger than a mouse.

33. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

34. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

36. Informal terms for a mother.

37. An early French settler in the Maritimes.

41. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

42. The dry dusty pulp that remains after juice is extracted from sugar cane or similar plants.

43. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

45. (astronomy) The angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing.

46. A state in north central United States.

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

49. The jurisdiction or office of an abbot.

54. A large number or amount.

58. The cry made by sheep.

59. (architecture) Forming or resembling an arch.

62. A slender double-reed instrument.

63. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

64. Dry red table wine from the Rioja region of northern Spain.

65. A Loloish language.

66. A chronic skin disease occurring primarily in women between the ages of 20 and 40.

67. An item of factual information derived from measurement or research.

68. An official language of the Republic of South Africa.

DOWN 1. A small ball with a hole through the middle.

2. English monk and scholar (672-735).

3. The act of scanning.

4. Being five more than one hundred.

5. Located at or near the back of an animal.

6. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

7. On end or upright.

8. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

9. South American armadillo with three bands of bony plates.

10. Characterized by variety.

11. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

12. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for aviation and spaceflight.

17. (New Testament) The sages who visited Jesus and Mary and Joseph shortly after Jesus was born.

21. Tropical starchy tuberous root.

22. Freed of dependence on something especially (for mammals) mother's milk.

23. A colorless odorless gaseous element that give a red glow in a vacuum tube.

25. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

26. Male red deer.

27. Narrow wood or metal or plastic runners used for gliding over snow.

30. A woman hired to suckle a child of someone else.

31. A small cake leavened with yeast.

35. A room or establishment where alcoholic drinks are served over a counter.

38. An informal term for a father.

39. An ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia which is in present-day Iraq.

40. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

44. An associate degree in applied science.

48. A coffee cake flavored with orange rind and raisins and almonds.

49. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members.

50. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

51. Denuded of leaves.

52. One of a set of small pieces of stiff paper marked in various ways and used for playing games or for telling fortunes.

53. Large (to 3 feet) blackish yellow-banded South American lizard.

55. An outer garment that has sleeves and covers the body from shoulder down.

56. The capital and chief port of Qatar.

57. Fastener consisting of a resinous composition that is plastic when warm.

60. A sheath worn to protect a finger.

61. A barrier constructed to contain the flow or water or to keep out the sea.

Yesterday始s Solution

SPORTS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Gaddafi demise revives Libya Olympic dreams TRIPOLI: Athletes and sports programs in Libya were woefully neglected during Muammar Gaddafi’s fourdecade rule. With Gaddafi’s regime toppled last month, Libya’s athletes and sports officials are hoping for a better future. Oil-rich Libya has never won an Olympic medal and ranks near the bottom in sports competition with other Mediterranean countries that had far fewer resources, including neighboring Tunisia and Egypt. “Sport, as a social activity, must be for the masses,” Gaddafi said in his treatise, “The Green Book”. “It is mere stupidity to leave its benefits to certain individuals and teams who monopolize them while the masses provide the facilities and pay the expenses for the establishment of public sports.”

Nabil Eleman, president of Libya’s Olympic committee, said he’s expecting the country’s new leaders, among them National Transitional Council chairman Mustafa Abdul-Jalil, a former

football player, to invest heavily in sports. “Sports was not a priority” for Gaddafi, Eleman said in an interview.

“We are very optimistic now.” Eleman is setting his sights on the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. There’s little chance Libyans will win medals in the 2012 Games in London, in part because of the eight-month civil war that ended with Gaddafi’s death on Oct. 20.

On a recent sunny afternoon, several Olympic hopefuls met for the first time in months at Libya’s main track at a rundown sports center in the capital of Tripoli. Mohamed Khawaja was stretching on the sidelines. The 400-m runner won gold at the 2009 Mediterranean Games and the 2010 African Championships, but said Libya’s war and lack of funding prevented him from participating in the 2011 World Championships in South Korea. Still, the 24-year-old’s personal best of 44.98 seconds is well within the

45.25-second qualifying threshold for London. Asked whether he believes he has a shot at a medal, he said: “Nothing is impossible.”

Like other Libyans, he was bitter about the old regime. “There was nothing called sports in the days of Gaddafi,” he said. “They tried to kill sports. They had a committee to fight stars, not to let them shine.” Khawaja said he hopes Libya’s new leaders will be different. “At the same time, they need to start (making changes) as quickly as possible because we have a lot to catch up on ...” he said.

Discus thrower Ali Khalifa’s spot on a Libyan Olympic team is less secure.

He threw 57 m in training in Tunisia at the beginning of the year. However, his personal best in competition was 55.19 m in 2010, way off the 63-m Olympic minimum.

The burly 28-year-old said he trained only sporadically during the war. “I was hiding from NATO,” Khalifa

said of the alliance’s bombing raids against regime-linked targets during the civil war. His part-time coach, cafe owner Abdullah Jarhour, said Khalifa would now train twice a day for next month’s Pan Arab Games in the United Arab Emirates. On Monday, the first day of training, Jarhour sat on a white plastic chair at the edge of the track and counted as Khalifa, looking a bit stiff, did stretches, lunges and forward bends with weights.

Other Libyans hoping to qualify for the London Games have gone abroad to train, in part because the country lacks facilities. The ongoing political turmoil and the social obligations of a close-knit tribal society also tend to be distractions.

Those training abroad include a half-marathon runner in Morocco, three judo athletes in Algeria, a taekwondo competitor in the US and a 50m freestyle swimmer in South Africa, Eleman said.— AP

US steady at windy Royal Melbourne JOHOR BAHRU: Daniel Chopra is seen during day two of the Iskandar Johor Open. — AFP

Chopra at home with strong round in Johor JOHOR BAHRU, Malaysia: Sweden’s Daniel Chopra seized the lead as he bids to capture a second Iskandar Johor Open on a course he calls his “second home”. Chopra, 37, moved five strokes clear of the field in adding a six under par 65 in the second round just hours after ending the first round with a 64 for a 13-under par tally on the rain-softened Horizon Hills course. However, a further two-and-a-half hour thunderstorm delay has brought the strong possibility of the $2 million event being reduced to 54 holes.

When play was halted at 6.35pm local time, half the field had not finished their second round including opening round leader Joost Luiten of Netherlands and defending champion Padraig Harrington of Ireland. Play will not be extended to Monday, however. “It is our goal to try and play 72 holes over the two days we have remaining,” tournament director Jose Zamora told Reuters. “But that could be unlikely as there are thunderstorms again predicted for the remaining two days. So we will try to play as many holes as we can with the likelihood the tournament will be reduced to 54 holes but we can’t confirm that just yet. Also we can’t have a Monday finish as we saw last week in Singapore as the King of Malaysia is attending the event on Sunday to be present at the prize giving ceremony.”

Chopra’s second round was a mix of six birdies and just one bogey under a continued “preferred lie” rule. “I won the 1993 Johor Open so coming back this year has worked out well after a week in Singapore,” he told Reuters. “It’s been very easy to come up here to Johor from Singapore. But having grown up in India and spent all my youth travelling around Asia I have so many friends living out in this part of the world so it’s like my second home. It’s the one place in the world where I feel comfortable and feel like I am back home.

Shooting low scores like 64 and then 65 is a great start and always a good feeling. I’ve had quite a few rounds like that the last few months. So if I can keep my bad rounds to about one or two under par I will be really happy.”—Reuters

MELBOURNE: The United States maintained their grip on the Presidents Cup yesterday, holding off a late charge by the Internationals to split the opening four-ball matches 3-3 as the Royal Melbourne course bared its teeth amid searing northerly winds. twWith the temperature soaring above 34 degrees Celsius and swirling gusts buffeting the famed sandbelt course, players on both teams were dumbstruck by the pace of the flint-hard greens but the U.S. made enough of their chances to hold a 7-5 lead going into the weekend.

Phil Mickelson, who teamed up with Jim Furyk again to down Australia’s Adam Scott and Kim Kyung-tae 2&1 for the pair’s second win, described the conditions as “crazy”. “This was a case where we’re trying to read the wind on the putts,” the four-times major champion said in a greenside interview. “I hit a couple of good putts that didn’t go in and it kind of affected my confidence.”

After stumbling with a late bout of nerves in Thursday’s opening foursomes, the Internationals showed grit to grind out three tense victories to square the day’s ledger.

Aaron Baddeley gained a measure of redemption following his meltdown at the 18th tee on Thursday, calmly sinking the winning putt from four feet on the last after carrying his wayward playing partner Jason Day to a one-up victory over Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson. “I was super disappointed yesterday because Jason played so well yesterday and I really feel like I let him down and the team down a little bit,” the Australian told reporters. “So to be able to bounce back today and get out there on a tough day and do the job, it was good.” His compatriot Geoff Ogilvy also showed nerves of steel to roll in the winner on the 18th against Bill Haas and Nick Watney.

South Africans Retief Goosen and Charl Schwartzel notched the

MELBOURNE: Tiger Woods (left) of the US team watches on as Jason Day of the International team lines up a putt during the Presidentís Cup tournament match played at the Royal Melbourne golf course yesterday. — AFP Internationals’ final point with a 2&1 victory over Hunter Mahan and David Toms. While the points were shared, the Americans could claim the moral victory, as three of their pairings enjoyed lopsided victories to silence the packed galleries at Royal Melbourne. US captain Fred Couples’s decision to split Woods and Stricker paid off well for one half, as Stricker’s playing partner Matt Kuchar notched four birdies in his first 12 holes.

Kuchar rolled a 40-feet putt from the apron of the 12th which burned the edge of a greenside bunker before dropping into the cup to the delight of spectators as the pairing marched to a crushing 4&3 victory over Australia’s Robert Allenby and YE Yang of South Korea.

Presidents Cup rookies Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson made it two in a row over South Africa’s Ernie Els and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa, sealing a 3&1 victory on the 17th hole. They were rewarded with a third match-up against

Allenby and Ogilvy in today’s final foursomes. “I’m riding his coat-tails pretty good right now so that’s how we got two Ws (wins) out of it,” answered Watson when asked whether he hoped to be paired with Simpson again.

Woods, who proved a controversial captain’s pick, remains his team’s only player not to reap a point. “We are up by two points, and that’s really all I care about at the moment. And I would say Tiger does the same,” said Couples. The players wrap up the final foursomes and four-ball matches today, with a change in the weather expected to bring rain showers and a wind from the south.

“Anyone breaking par, it’s an astonishing score, but it’s there if you play great shots,” said former US Open champion Ogilvy, who owns a house near the course. “It’s frustrating to play, but it’s also great fun to play like that for anyone that has not seen Royal Melbourne in weather like that before.” — Reuters

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SPORTS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

PREVIEW

Rested Chargers battle red-hot Bears CHICAGO: The Chicago Bears seek to continue their playoff push when they open a stretch of four straight games against American Conference opponents, starting with San Diego tomorrow at Soldier Field. In a battle between two clubs heading in the opposite directions, the Bears face a Chargers team that has lost four straight games but will have the luxury of having had 10 days of rest. The Chargers offence is struggling and having trouble protecting the ball. Quarterback Philip Rivers leads the league in interceptions so he will have to get into a rhythm early because the Bears are one of the best pass-rushing teams in the league.

“We’re going to need to get every guy healthy we can, and we’re going to need to play better than we did in our last game,” San Diego coach Norv Turner said. Chicago’s stingy defence is forcing turnovers and coming up with big stops. Once upon a time their playoff hopes seemed slim. On October 10, they lost 24-13 to Detroit, falling to 2-3 and three games out of first place in the NFC North.

But the Bears haven’t lost since. “We’re getting better,” linebacker Brian Urlacher said. “No doubt about that. We’re not done yet. We’ve still got a long way to go. But we’re going the right direction.”

Chicago’s defence was at its best last weekend, forcing six turnovers and keeping Detroit out of the end zone until five minutes remained. “It’s about execution and that’s what the guys are buying into,” coach Lovie Smith said. “We’ve been seeing progress. We’re climbing up the standings. “It’s November and this is when the teams that are really going to compete, step up and play their best football. Hopefully that will be us.” San Diego allowed a season-high six sacks in their last game as they slipped one game back of the first-place Oakland Raiders in their division. “The bottom line is we’ve lost four games in a row, and we’ve got to win a football game,” said Philip Rivers, the league leader with 15 interceptions and 19 turnovers.

In another key matchup, the Baltimore Ravens host the Cincinnati Bengals. Cincinnati’s rookie quarterback Andy Dalton has been superb in his first nine games, but he faces a new challenge against the Ravens’ defence, which ranks first in total yards allowed. Baltimore have already beaten the only two AFC teams with better records than theirs. But what’s frustrating for the coaching staff is they seem to let down against the weaker opponents. That class no longer includes the Bengals, who will try to keep the host Ravens reeling from their latest shocking loss last Sunday. “You’ve got to win those games to be one of those elite teams like we’re claiming to be,” Ravens safety Ed Reed said. “If we’re claiming to be that team, we’ve got to come out and play week to week. It can’t be elite one week and then unnecessary roughness the next week.”

Dallas look to garner a division win and show off their newfound running game when they face struggling Washington. Rookie runningback DeMarco Murray has taken the heat off quarterback Tony Romo this season. And Murray might get more help today because Dallas is going to have their top rusher from last year, Felix Jones, return to the lineup. But they may not need him as Murray has already helped turn the season around for Dallas who are seeking their third-straight victory. Dallas has moved within one game of the NFC-East leading New York Giants and a win would put them solidly in the hunt for a wild-card berth.

In other games it is Buffalo at Miami, Jacksonville at Cleveland, Tampa Bay at Green Bay, Carolina at Detroit, Oakland at Minnesota, Seattle at St. Louis, Arizona at San Francisco, Tennessee at Atlanta and Philadelphia at New York Giants. On Monday night, Kansas City visit New England. — AFP

DENVER: Denver Broncos defensive end Ryan McBean (98) reacts after sacking New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez (6) with help from defensive end Elvis Dumervil (92) in the fourth quarter of an NFL game Thursday. Denver won 17-13. — AP

Tebow, Broncos top Jets DENVER: There’s a new Comeback Kid in Denver, and John Elway’s proudly looking on as this plucky quarterback wins with his legs, not his arm. Tim Tebow’s 20-yard touchdown run with 58 seconds left capped a 95-yard drive and sent the Broncos to a 17-13 victory over the stunned New York Jets on Thursday night.

“I like winning,” Tebow said after his third comeback in a month, “but I wish it wasn’t this stressful.” The Broncos had punted on their eight previous possessions when they got the ball with less than 6 minutes and 95 yards to go. Tebow calmly drove Denver down the field, thwarting a Jets defense that had throttled him all night.

“We played them well, through the whole game, until that last play,” Jets star cornerback Darrelle Revis said. “We played them well. Tim Tebow’s legs took them to victory, ran them to victory.”

On third-and-4 from the Jets 20 and under a minute left, the Broncos got an extra minute to think about things when a fan ran onto the field and was corralled by security. During the break, the Jets dialed up their first all-out blitz of the night.

Tebow took the snap from the shotgun with 1:06 left, read the blitz and outflanked safety Eric Smith around the left edge, then cut back and bulled his way past other Jets into the end zone. “He shocked me,” Revis said, “probably shocked a lot of people.”

Not Jets coach Rex Ryan. “You know he’s going to keep it in that situation.

That’s what he does. You keep the ball in your playmaker’s hand,” Ryan said. “We thought he was going to carry the ball and he didn’t disappoint us. But he ran for a touchdown. The kid’s a competitor and makes big plays with the game on the line.” The Jets (5-5) lost for the second time in four nights. The Broncos (5-5) are 4-1 since Tebow replaced Kyle Orton, and at .500, they’re a-half game behind Oakland in the AFC West race. “He’s a competitive dude,” Broncos coach John Fox said. “He’s super competitive. He nev-

er lays his sword down. He’ll fight you to the death. That’s just his nature. He’s a great young man.”

Mark Sanchez’s desperation pass toward the end zone was batted down as time expired and the Jets trudged off the field with their playoff hopes dimmed just a week after they were brimming with optimism. Nick Folk’s 45-yard field goal had broken a 10-10 tie with 9:14 remaining, and the Broncos found themselves facing a daunting task when they got the ball back with 5:54 left at their own 5. New York safety Jim Leonhard could have quashed Denver’s winning drive on the first play when he wrapped up Eddie Royal in the end zone on a throw to the right flat, but Royal wiggled free for 8 yards.

Tebow ran just twice for 11 yards until the final drive, when he carried seven times for 58 yards in a performance reminiscent of his miracle in Miami, when he was ineffective for 55 minutes, then led the Broncos to two TDs in the final 5 minutes of a game Denver won in overtime. “I think it was just a bunch of guys that kept fighting, that had been knocked down a bunch of times and got back up,” Tebow said. “I’m proud of these guys for their resiliency and determination.”

After completing just two passes in a win at Kansas City four days earlier, Tebow completed 9 of 20 passes for 104 yards Thursday night. “I said before, I trust him. I trust him with everything,” teammate Von Miller said. “No matter how many interceptions he throws, no matter how many touchdowns he scores, that’s Tim Tebow and I’m going to ride with him to the end. I hope he shut up a whole bunch of critics today.” The debate across the NFL is whether the option is sustainable? After all, when Elway joined the team’s front office this year, he said Tebow had to become a pocket passer to make it in this league. “I want to run whatever’s going to work,” Tebow said, disputing the notion advanced by Hall of Famer and TV broadcaster Steve Young that he must be mad

that Fox isn’t letting him throw the ball more like a conventional quarterback.

Before Denver’s unorthodox option offense prevailed again, it appeared the Jets were going to win this one thanks to an oddball touchdown. Left guard Matt Slauson recovered rookie running back Bilal Powell’s fumble at the 1 and dived across the goal line early in the third quarter to give New York a 10-3 lead. “It was awesome at the time,” Slauson said.

“Unfortunately, it doesn’t mean anything now.” Denver tied it at 10 when Andre’ Goodman stepped in front of Plaxico Burress and picked off Sanchez’s illadvised pass and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown. “I shouldn’t have thrown it,” Sanchez lamented. “It’s an embarrassing play on my part.” It was the third pick-six Sanchez and thrown this year, and the Jets followed that with their fourth lost fumble on special teams when Joe McKnight coughed it up on the kickoff return at his 41. Cassius Vaughn recovered for Denver, but the Broncos couldn’t capitalize this time, going three and out.

McKnight and Powell shared snaps after New York’s backfield took another hit when starting running back Shonn Greene took a knee to the ribs and didn’t return.

They were already without LaDainian Tomlinson (knee), so Powell was activated for the first time all season. With each game, the Broncos mold their offense more and more to fit Tebow’s unique skill set that made him the most successful combination college quarterback in NCAA history, just as former Florida coach Urban Meyer once suggested an NFL team would have to do.

And they keep watching him run roughshod over defenders who are bigger, faster and stronger than they were in the SEC. “He did it to us in college and he’s doing it here,” said teammate Robert Ayers, who went to Tennessee. “It doesn’t have to be pretty, it doesn’t have to be Aaron Rodgers-like. As long as we get it done, that’s all that matters.” — AP

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SPORTS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Read lifts Flyers past Phoenix PHILADELPHIA: Matt Read knocked in a rebound with 18.6 seconds left to lift the Philadelphia Flyers to a 2-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday. Read’s sixth goal of the season made a winner out of goalie Ilya Bryzgalov in his first game against the Coyotes. Bryzgalov spent four years with Phoenix and blossomed into one of the NHL’s top goalies. James van Riemsdyk scored for the Flyers. Mikkel Boedker had the lone goal for the Coyotes. Mike Smith stopped 40 shots for Phoenix. Flyers forward Jaromir Jagr left with an undisclosed lower body injury in the first period.

LIGHTNING 4, PENGUINS 1 At Tampa, Florida, Dwayne Roloson made 33 saves and Vincent Lecavalier had two goals as Tampa Bay beat Pittsburgh. Brett Connolly and Steve Downie also scored for the Lightning, who have won six consecutive home games. Pittsburgh got a third-period goal from Tyler Kennedy. Roloson stopped an in-close shot by Steve Sullivan in the first. He also made several strong saves, including a lunging pad stop on Sullivan’s backhander during a late second-period power play.

ISLANDERS 4, CANADIENS 3 At Uniondale, New York, Rick DiPietro made 24 saves in relief of injured starter Evgeni Nabokov, and Matt Moulson scored a key goal in the New York Islanders’ win over Montreal. P.A. Parenteau, Jay Pandolfo, and Mark Streit also scored for the Islanders, who had lost four straight (0-3-1). New York, which scored all of its goals in the second period, held on after taking a 3-0 lead. Max Pacioretty, Erik Cole and Brian Gionta scored for the Canadiens, and Peter Budaj stopped 29 shots.

Montreal had won three of four.

BRUINS 2, BLUE JACKETS 1, SO At Boston, Tuukka Rask made 30 saves through overtime, then stopped Columbus’ Antoine Vermette in the shootout as Boston beat Columbus for its seventh straight win.

Rich Peverley and David Krejci scored to put Boston ahead 2-1 in the shootout, and Rask

ended it by stoning Vermette. Adam McQuaid scored his first goal of the season for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who nearly lost to the team with the worst record in the NHL. Derek MacKenzie gave the Blue Jackets (3-13-2) a 1-0 lead early in the second period.

BLUES 4, PANTHERS 1 At St. Louis, David Backes scored twice and Jaroslav Halak stopped 20 shots as St. Louis beat Florida. Chris Porter had his first goal of the season and Kris Russell added his second with St. Louis as the Blues finished a 4-0-1 homestand for new coach Ken Hitchcock. The Panthers, who lead the NHL with seven road wins, had their four-game, road-winning streak snapped. They got a goal from Mike Santorelli and 28 saves from Jose Theodore.

WILD 1, AVALANCHE 0 At St. Paul, Minnesota, Niklas Backstrom stopped 27 shots for his second shutout of the season, and Devin Setoguchi scored the game’s only goal with 2:31 left to give Minnesota a win over Colorado. Backstrom earned his 24th NHL shutout and the Wild’s third this season in 19 games. Minnesota has won three straight and eight of 10. JeanSebastien Giguere made 17 saves for the Avalanche, who have lost three straight and four of five.

PREDATORS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 1 At Nashville, Tennessee, Martin Erat scored two goals and Pekka Rinne made 38 saves to lift Nashville over Toronto. Nashville, which has won five of seven, sent Toronto to its fifth loss in six games. Ryan Suter and Matt Halischuk scored the other Nashville goals.

John-Michael Liles had the only tally for Toronto. Sergei Kostitsyn had three assists, tying his career high for assists and points in a game.

SHARKS 5, RED WINGS 2 At San Jose, California, Joe Thornton, MarcEdouard Vlasic and Torrey Mitchell all scored in the second period to help San Jose beat Detroit. Joe Pavelski and Brad Winchester also

NHL results/standings NHL results and standings on Thursday.

Boston 2, Columbus 1 (SO); NY Islanders 4, Montreal 3; Philadelphia 2, Phoenix 1; Tampa Bay 4, Pittsburgh 1; St. Louis 4, Florida 1; Nashville 4, Toronto 1; Minnesota 1, Colorado 0; Winnipeg 4, Washington 1; Ottawa 5, Edmonton 2; Los Angeles 5, Anaheim 3; San Jose 5, Detroit 2. (SO denotes shootout) Western Conference Eastern Conference Central Division Atlantic Division 12 4 3 67 53 27 W L OTL GF GA PTS Chicago Nashville 10 5 3 50 44 23 Philadelphia 11 4 3 67 52 25 St. Louis 10 7 1 46 40 21 Pittsburgh 11 5 3 58 47 25 Detroit 9 7 1 45 40 19 NY Rangers 10 3 3 47 34 23 Columbus 3 13 2 39 66 8 New Jersey 9 7 1 45 48 19 Northwest Division NY Islanders 5 8 3 35 50 13 Minnesota 11 5 3 44 38 25 Northeast Division Edmonton 9 7 2 41 43 20 Buffalo 11 7 0 55 47 22 Vancouver 9 9 1 56 56 19 Colorado 8 10 1 52 61 17 Toronto 10 7 2 54 65 22 Calgary 7 9 1 36 45 15 Ottawa 10 9 1 61 68 21 Pacific Division Boston 10 7 0 58 39 20 Los Angeles 10 6 3 48 44 23 Montreal 8 8 3 49 49 19 Dallas 11 6 0 48 47 22 Southeast Division San Jose 10 5 1 49 41 21 Washington 10 6 1 57 49 21 Phoenix 9 5 3 47 43 21 Florida 9 6 3 53 46 21 Anaheim 6 9 4 39 57 16 Tampa Bay 9 7 2 52 56 20 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one Winnipeg 7 9 3 52 61 17 point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L) Carolina 6 10 3 46 67 15

EDMONTON, Canada: Edmonton Oilers’ Ryan Smyth (94) falls between Ottawa Senators goalie Craig Anderson (left) and Senators’ Stephane Da Costa during the first period of an NHL game on Thursday. — AP

had goals for the Sharks, who won for the third time in four games and extended their winning streak over the Red Wings to five, dating to last November. Niklas Kronwall and Danny Cleary scored for the Red Wings, who have lost two straight since a four-game winning streak. Detroit has been beaten in five consecutive road games. Defenseman Brendan Smith made his long-awaited debut, but was never a factor.

JETS 4, CAPITALS 1 At Winnepeg, Manitoba, Evander Kane scored two goals and Blake Wheeler added his first of the season as Winnipeg defeated Washington. Kyle Wellwood had the other goal for Winnipeg, which recorded back-toback wins in regulation for the first time this season. Alexander Semin scored for the Capitals, who have dropped two straight.

They lost 3-1 to Nashville on Tuesday.

SENATORS 5, OILERS 2 At Edmonton, Alberta, Milan Michalek had a goal and an assist as Ottawa won its third straight game by beating Edmonton. Colin Greening, Kaspars Daugavins, Jesse Winchester and Zenon Konopka also scored for the Senators (10-9-1), who have rebounded following a five-game slide. This marked the first time Ottawa has won both games on an Alberta road trip since 2003. Anton Lander and Ryan Jones scored for the Oilers, who have lost four in a row and five of six.

KINGS 5, DUCKS 3 At Anaheim, California, Anze Kopitar scored the tiebreaking goal on his own rebound with 3:01 to play as Los Angeles blew a two-goal lead in the final minutes of the third period before rallying to beat Anaheim.

After Andrew Cogliano tied it for Anaheim on his second goal with 6:25 left, Kopitar capitalized on a defensive breakdown and circled the net before forcing the puck underneath Ducks backup goalie Dan Ellis, who made 31 saves.

Mike Richards added his second goal of the night on a short-handed, empty-netter with 1:38 to play for the Kings. — AP

Matches on TV (Local timings) English Premier League Norwich City v Arsenal Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 Everton v Wolver Abu Dhabi Sports HD 6 Man City v New United Abu Dhabi Sports HD 5 Stoke City v Rangers Abu Dhabi Sports HD 7 Sunderland v Fulham Abu Dhabi Sports HD 4 Albion V Wanderers Abu Dhabi Sports HD 8 Wigan V Rovers Abu Dhabi Sports HD 9 Swansea v Man United Abu Dhabi Sports HD 3 German League Monchengladbach v Werder Dubai Sports 1 Bayern v Dortmund Dubai Sports 1 Spanish League Villarreal v Betis Aljazeera Sport +4 Barcelona v Zaragoza Aljazeera Sport +2 Valencia v Madrid Aljazeera Sport +2 Italian League A Internazionale v Cagliari Aljazeera Sport +1 Aljazeera Sport 1 HD Napoli v Lazio Aljazeera Sport +7 Florentina v Milan Aljazeera Sport +1 Aljazeera Sport 1 HD French League Nice v Etienne Aljazeera Sport +10 Montpellier v Marseille Alfa Sports 1 Aljazeera Sport +4

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SPORTS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

US rocked by new child abuse claims NEW YORK: US sport was reeling Friday from a second child sex abuse allegations scandal in less than a fortnight with a top college basketball team coach put on leave after claims that he molested young boys. Veteran Syracuse University associate head coach Bernie Fine, 65, has been accused by two former ball boys of inappropriate behavior. “In light of the new allegations and the Syracuse City Police investigation, this evening Chancellor Cantor asked Director of Athletics Dr. Daryl Gross to place associate head coach Bernie Fine on administrative leave,” the university said in a statement late Thursday.

The allegations center on claims made by the former ball boys in the 1980s and 1990s which were later investigated by police but the university was not informed until 2005, when it conducted its own legal investigation. “Syracuse University takes any allegation of this sort extremely seriously and has zero tolerance for abuse of any kind,” it said, noting that if any evidence of abuse had been uncovered Fine would have been fired. “We understand that the Syracuse City Police has now reopened the case, and Syracuse University will cooperate fully. We are steadfastly committed to ensuring that SU remains a safe place for every member of our campus community,” the statement added.

The allegations surfaced less than two weeks after grand jury testimony revealed that Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State college football coach, is facing 40 counts of sexually abusing boys in his home, hotels and the elite team’s locker rooms, a revelation that rocked the sports world. One of Fine’s alleged victims Bobby Davis, now 39, told the ESPN network that the abuse started in the 1980s. “Probably when I was, you know, sixth grade, 11, 10 years old and he started trying to touch me and things like that,” said Davis, stating that the abuse took place at Fine’s home, Syracuse basketball facilities and on road trips. “I know I cringed up and didn’t want it to happen and I was very like, what’s going on?”

Davis’s stepbrother, Mike Lang, 45, who was also a ball boy, told ESPN that Fine molested him while he was in fifth or sixth grade. Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim, however, issued a strong defense of Fine. “This matter was fully investigated by the university in 2005 and it was determined that the allegations were unfounded,” he said in a statement. “I have known Bernie Fine for more than 40 years. I have never seen or witnessed anything to suggest that he would be involved in any of the activities alleged. Bernie has my full support.” — AFP

TOKYO: Italy’s volleyball national team members celebrate after the awarding ceremony of FIVB Women’s World Cup Volleyball yesterday. Italy won the tournament.— AP

Italy win World Cup, China to Olympics TOKYOL: Italy defended their World Cup women’s volleyball title yesterday as Asian champions China also claimed their ticket to the London Olympics next year. The Italians whipped winless Kenya 25-6, 25-10, 25-17 for a 10-1 win-loss record but had to wait for the outcome of the last match between the United States and Japan. And the Americans crashed to the Japanese 29-27, 25-23, 25-18 for a 9-2 record, surrendering the title to Italy.

The Chinese Athens Olympic gold medallists, who have won the World Cup three times before, rallied to a 2518, 25-18, 25-21 victory over Germany for third place to join the United States and Italy in the Olympics. The Chinese collected 26 points ahead of Japan on 24 points and Brazil on 21 points.

“Before the World Cup, we thought that

we would not be able to finish among top three to qualify for the Olympics,” said Hui Ruoqi, who was the team’s joint best scorer with 11 points, the same as Xu Yunli. “Because our team are still young, we couldn’t win at the beginning of the year. But our progress to the World Cup was excellent. I’d like to thank those who have supported us.”

Chinese captain Wei Qiuyue agreed that they had struggled a lot since the beginning of the year. “But we did our best in the World Cup. I think we grew up a lot through this tournament. We are determined to do our best in the Olympic Games as well,” said Wei. Chinese coach Yu Juemin said it was an important match which they hope to build on going towards the London Games.

“We had to fight against the pressure,

because we were vying for the Olympics. We prepared very well for this match, so I had nothing to talk to my players during the match,” said Yu. “It was our best match in this tournament.

We are going to improve further before the Olympics to cope with the top teams in the world,” added Yu. The top three teams in the final standings qualify for the Olympics. The winning teams received three points from 3-0 and 3-1 wins, two from a 3-2 win, while the losing team received one point from a 2-3 defeat. Earlier in the day, Italy powered past winless Kenya 25-6, 25-10, 25-17, while Serbia downed Algeria 25-19, 25-14, 25-18. Beijing Olympic gold medallists Brazil whipped the Dominican Republic 25-21, 25-10, 25-17, and South Korea outclassed Argentina 25-17, 28-26, 25-23. — AFP

Hidayat out as Indonesia notch 100 golds JAKARTA: Former Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat tumbled out of the men’s badminton singles at the Southeast Asian Games yesterday as Indonesia took their 100th gold to extend their medals table lead.

Hidayat, who won the men’s singles at the 2004 Olympics, ended a miserable week with a second capitulation at this year’s Games to Thai youngster Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk with a 14-21,19-21 loss.

Hosts Indonesia were on 119 golds late Friday, taking a seemingly unassailable lead over Vietnam in second who had amassed 70 golds with four days of competition to go.

A sweep of golds in the wall climbing, pencak silat, roller skating and vovinam - all making their Games debut - as well as a strong showing in the athletics have seen the hosts surge ahead of their regional rivals. And their wrestlers also played their part on Thursday securing four golds to make light of pre-competition funding problems that forced the team to buy their own training mats. There was however bitter disappointment for the host’s under-23 football team, who lost 0-1 to archrivals Malaysia in the final group game Thursday, ending an unbeaten streak that has galvanised their massive support.

Their coach struck a defiant note after the disap-

pointment of losing to the defending champions in front of a packed Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta.

Apologising to the home fans Rahmad Darmawan called the loss a “wake-up call” that will spur his side on

JAKARTA: Malaysia’s Shin Yii Ng competes in women’s wushi taijiquan competition at the 26th Southeast Asian Games yesterday. — AFP

in their semi-final clash against top-scoring Vietnam today. “I had to rotate players because there’s only one day of rest before the semi-finals. I’m sorry to the fans because the team played below expectations, but we will play better against Vietnam,” he told the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

His counterpart Ong Kim Swee, who was shown a red card for contesting a decision not to penalise a late tackle by an Indonesian player, played down his side’s achievement saying the host’s had fielded a weakened side. “Indonesia did not play its strongest team because they are saving them for the semi-final,” he was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying. “Every team that makes it through to the semifinal is a strong team. It will not be an easy game (against Myanmar).”

Meanwhile in the badminton, 21-year-old Saensomboonsuk inflicted another defeat on crowd favourite and world number eight Hidayat, who has endured a miserable Games after two losses to the Thai sensation. Saensomboonsuk takes on Indonesia’s Simon Santoso in Saturday’s final in front of a home crowd. His glittering form has boosted Team Thailand, who have struggled to repeat their 2009 Games table topping exploits, but have done well in the headline athletics and badminton events. — AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

India and Pakistan resume cricket ties Pak cricket chief set for India trip

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s cricketer Morne Morkel celebrates dismissing Australiaís cricket captain Michael Clarke on the second day of the 2nd Final test match at Wanderers Stadium yesterday. — AFP

Steyn sparks another Australian collapse JOHANNESBURG: Dale Steyn was the architect of another Australian batting collapse as South Africa ended the second day of the second test yesterday trailing by just 30 runs with all 10 second-innings wickets intact. Steyn took four for 64 in 18 overs to help bowl out Australia for 296 in reply to South Africa’s first innings of 266. South Africa’s second innings was cut short by bad light after just four balls with the hosts 0 without loss. Australian openers Shane Watson and Phil Hughes earlier both scored 88 as the visitors soared to 174 for nought, before crashing in the afternoon session as South Africa’s bowling improved considerably.

Seamer Vernon Philander, playing in just his second test, did much to turn the tide with his accurate bowling and he started the collapse when he forced Hughes to edge a back-foot drive to first slip, where AB de Villiers held on to a sharp head-high catch. Watson then pulled Jacques Kallis to the midwicket boundary, where Imran Tahir dived to complete a fine catch. Former captain Ricky Ponting - scouring desperately for runs in a bid to save his international career - lasted just three balls before Steyn trapped him lbw for a duck with an inswinger, leaving Australia’s leading run-scorer with just 245 runs in 15 innings in the last year.

Current captain, Michael Clarke and the inexperienced Usman Khawaja then took the total to 212 for three before the extra bounce obtained by tall fast bowler Morne Morkel undid Clarke, who was caught in the slips

by De Villiers for 11. Steyn then ensured the Australian innings remained on the skids after the tea break with two wickets in four overs, saving his best delivery of the day - a sharp in-swinger - to bowl Mike Hussey for 20.

Khawaja’s footwork eventually let him down after a vigil of nearly two hours for 12 runs as Steyn trapped him lbw.

Steyn claimed his fourth wicket when wicketkeeper Mark Boucher took a brilliant catch, diving in front of first slip as the ball dipped, to dismiss Pat Cummins for two.

He would have had a fifth wicket, but substitute fielder Dale Deeb dropped an easy catch from last man Nathan Lyon at mid-off. Mitchell Johnson’s 38 not out ensured Australia first matched South Africa’s first-innings total and then gained a small lead.

South Africa’s Pakistan-born leg-spinner Tahir wrapped up the tail as he grabbed his first three test wickets, at a cost of 55 runs in 13.4 overs. Australia must win the second and last test to avoid losing a series in South Africa for the first time since 1970 after the hosts won a memorable first test in Cape Town where the tourists were all out for 47. — Reuters

LAHORE: India and Pakistan resumed cricketing ties yesterday after three years - albeit at a low level - by fielding their blind teams for an international series starting with a fast-paced Twenty20.

Pakistan has hosted no major international matches over security fears posed

by Al-Qaeda and the Taleban since 2009, and India stalled direct cricketing ties after Islamist gunmen killed 166 people in Mumbai in late 2008. But Pakistanis hope that a trouble-free, limited over series for blind and partially-sighted players from Nov 18 to 26, will convince others that the country is safe enough for mainstream sporting giants to return.

“It’s a historical day for us,” Syed Sultan Shah, chairman of the Pakistan Blind Cricket Council (PBCC), told AFP at the Lahore Gymkhana cricket ground in the eastern city of Lahore where a crowd of 250 cheered on what ended in a win for Pakistan, who scored 213 runs to India’s 142. The event is the latest sign of a thaw in diplomatic and economic relations, although the two nuclear-armed rivals, who have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947, remain deeply wary.

Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf is set to meet his counterpart in India later this month as both countries try to settle a series as early as next March despite a hectic schedule for world champions India. The countries are united by nothing if not their fanatical love of cricket. “I have high hopes of reviving ties with India,” Ashraf told AFP on the sidelines of the third day-night match between Pakistan and Sri Lanka in Dubai yesterday. “I have received a positive reply from India today and hope to tour next month.”

It is the first time in three years that an Indian team are in Pakistan - the main cricket team last toured Pakistan for the Asia Cup in 2008 - and the first time in five years that the Indian blind team are

LAHORE: Indian blind wicketkeeper Prakash Jayaramaiah stumps Pakistani blind cricketer Masood Jan during the first international Twenty20 match between Pakistan and India blind cricket teams yesterday . — AFP playing Pakistan. It was in Lahore that gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan team bus in March 2009, stripping Pakistan of its 2011 World Cup co-hosting rights and forcing Pakistan to play all subsequent international fixtures abroad. “Initially I was a little nervous just because going to Pakistan will be little insecure,” Indian player Venkadeshwa Dunna, 21, told AFP. “It’s fine. India and Pakistan are like brothers. There’s not much difference...

We feel that Pakistan is also like our home town.”

At the cricket ground, one man circled the perimeter waving a massive Pakistan flag and wearing an “I love Pakistan” green top, drawing cheers as schoolchildren shouted “Long live Pakistan” and “Pakistan will win”. Policing was low-key, with armed officers sitting on benches dotted around the ground to take in the game. One of Pakistan’s stand-out players was Mohammad Jamil, a partially sighted school teacher from Kashmir - the

divided Himalayan region that triggered two Indo-Pakistan wars - who excited the crowd by clocking up run after run. The bowler throws underarm in blind cricket, with the ball filled with 25 ball bearings that rattle as it skits along the ground.

“It’s really difficult. You have to belt down your body and play a sweep shot,” said Pakistan team manager Abdul Razzeq, who said the pressure was on for his team to score a home win. “We will try, because India is here, and all the expectation is on us to win that match,” he said. “Our batsmen are better than the Indian batsmen. Indian fielding is good.”

Punjab provincial governor Latif Khosa, whose predecessor was shot dead in January for advocating blasphemy law reforms, said the blind series would help put matters on a better footing. “I think this will go a long way... For other teams to follow suit and feel comfortable that there’s nothing to be scared of,” Khosa told AFP. — AFP

Pak hold nerves to beat Lanka DUBAI: Pakistani bowlers held their nerves to stop a threatening Sri Lankan team to win the third day-night international by 21 runs here yesterday to take a 2-1 lead in the five-match series. Umar Gul (3-48) bowled well in the final overs to make sure good work by spinners Saeed Ajmal (3-42) and Shahid Afridi (242) do not go waste as they dismissed Sri Lanka for 236 in the penultimate over at Dubai stadium. Captain Tillakaratne Dilshan topscored with 64 but it was Angelo Mathews whose aggressive 40ball 32 kept Sri Lanka in the hunt before Gul took the last two wickets in a thrilling finish.

Sri Lanka were in a tight corner at 186-6 in the 41st over before Mathews and Jeevan Mendis (19) added 32 for the seventh wicket in quick time to threaten Pakistan but in the end Pakistan carried the day. Pakistan won the first match by eight wickets last Friday while Sri Lanka

levelled the series with a 25-run win in the second match on Monday - both played in Dubai. The remaining matches will be played in Sharjah (Nov 20) and Abu Dhabi (Nov 23). Both teams also play a Twenty20 international in Abu Dhabi on Nov 25.

Sri Lanka were set on course for a win

by Dilshan who added 106 runs for the second wicket with Kumar Sangakkara (45) after they lost opener Upul Tharanga (four) in paceman Umar Gul’s first over. Sangakkara, who survived a run out with the total at 89-1, finally failed to beat a direct throw from Shahid Afridi from mid-on after he set off for a quick single. He hit three boundaries during his 66-ball knock. Pakistani spinners Afridi and Ajmal then put the brakes on Sri Lankan innings, as Dilshan dragged a leg-break from Afridi onto his stumps after hitting eight boundaries in his 78-ball knock. Jayawrdene complet-

ed his 10,000 runs during his brief knock of 17, becoming the ninth batsman and second Sri Lankan to achieve the landmark.

Earlier, openers Mohammad Hafeez and Imran Farhat hit attractive half-centuries to help Pakistan post a challenging total. Hafeez made a 101-ball 83 and Farhat notched an 82-ball 70 to give Pakistan, who won the toss and batted, a solid 151-run start before Sri Lanka grabbed four quick wickets in the space of 26 runs. Hafeez, who took 26 balls for his first ten runs, hit paceman Dilhara Fernando for four boundaries in the 18th over to step up the tempo before he was finally bowled by spinner Seekkuge Prasanna in the 30th over.

Hafeez hit nine boundaries and a six during his 11th one-day half century.

Ten runs later Farhat followed, caught at long-on off Tillakaratne Dilshan. — AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 2011

Preview

Dortmund must be brave, bold at Bayern BERLIN: Borussia Dortmund captain Sebastian Kehl has demanded the defending German league champions travel to Bayern Munich with bravery and self-belief for Saturday’s key Bundesliga clash.

While November is still far too early to talk about the league title being won or lost, victory for either side would throw down a marker and give an indication of where the German league title may be heading next May. Bayern are five points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, but second-placed Dortmund have claimed 16 from a possible 18 points in their last six league games and beat Munich 3-1 at the Allianz Arena last February.

“We showed last season we can beat anyone on a good day,” said Kehl. “Of course, we need bravery and have to believe in ourselves and push ourselves to the very limits in Munich.”

One frustrated spectator come today will be Bayern’s Germany star Bastian Schweinsteiger, who

Preview

Lazio weakened for Reja’s Napoli return ROME: Lazio will be without a pair of key players for the crucial trip to Napoli today as coach Edy Reja looks to put one over his former employers. Lazio sit behind leaders Udinese on goal difference and face a stern test of their title credentials in Naples this weekend. And they will have to make do without hot-shot Miroslav Klose as well as defender Andre Dias. The loss of Klose, with a severely bruised leg, is most damaging for the capital club as he was on fire in Germany’s 3-0 victory against Holland in midweek, scoring one and setting up both the other goals. He is the club’s top scorer with eight goals in 13 matches in all competitions and Reja certainly would have been counting on the German for the trip to the club he brought back into Serie A in 2007.

However, the journey to Naples holds painful memories for Lazio, who lost 4-3 there last season. “The first thing that comes to mind is the goal that wasn’t and, even more bitterly, the defeat that prevented us from playing in a great competition, the Champions League,” said Lazio’s veteran midfielder Cristian Brocchi. “That’s two bad memories. Had we won, Napoli would have been fighting to the end with us.”

That victory for Napoli helped ensure they snatched third place and automatic qualification for the Champions League group stages. Lazio, on the other hand, went on to lose out to Udinese for fourth spot and had to settle for Europa League football this season. Napoli striker Edinson Cavani claims Lazio are favourites but Brocchi is paying no attention to that. “It’s normal, it’s more comfortable for them to say that but what’s important is how we approach the game in a fiery stadium,” he said. Winning is crucial for Napoli who trail their opponents by seven points, albeit with a game in hand, and cannot afford to slip any further behind in the title race.

For Inter Milan, success is even more vital. They remain fourth from bottom, only a point above the relegation zone, although they too have a game in hand. Inter host Cagliari today looking to transform their European form to the league. They have won three out of four matches in the Champions League but won only two - while losing five - in nine at home. “We have to return to being protagonists, we have to concentrate on Cagliari and to get as many points as possible before Christmas,” said Inter captain Javier Zanetti. “We have to approach every match in the best way to earn three points. We know it won’t be easy but the pitch will do the talking.”

Elsewhere champions AC Milan go in search of a sixth consecutive league win as they travel to Fiorentina, who sacked coach Sinisa Mihajlovic after their last match. ‘La Viola’ are right in the middle of a congested mid-table in which sixth placed Napoli are only two points above Parma in 15th but Mihajlovic’s efforts did little to convince the

is recovering with a broken collarbone and says watching his team play Dortmund will hurt him more than the 15cm scar. “It’s much easier to see certain things from up in the stands than out on the pitch, but you can’t do anything about it and that hurts,” he confessed.

“It’ll be a close match, but I reckon we’ll throw everything into it and end up winning. They won’t pack their defence, they don’t have the players for that. They’re really good in attack with the likes of (Japan’s Shinji) Kagawa, (Poland’s Robert) Lewandowski and (Germany’s Mario) Goetze. We have more quality than Dortmund, so we just have to make sure we show that quality. If we do, we’ll be hard to stop, even by Dortmund.”

Before Bayern square up to Dortmund tonight, there will be a battle royal in the afternoon when Borussia Moenchengladbach host third-placed Werder Bremen who are just one place above them

in the league and level on points. Having flirted with relegation last season, ‘Gladbach are proving dark horses this season and have enjoyed narrow 2-1 victories over both Hanover 96 and Hertha Berlin in previous weeks.

Germany midfielder Marco Reus, who scored both their goals at Hertha, is one to watch having broken into the national squad this season, while Bremen’s veteran striker Claudio Pizarro has scored 11 league goals in 11 games. Fifth-placed Schalke play Nuremberg today and look likely to be without Peru forward Jefferson Farfan and Germany defender Benedikt Hoewedes after they both suffered knee injuries while on international duty.

Farfan injured his left knee in Peru’s defeat by Ecuador in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday, the same night Hoewedes suffered tore cruciate ligaments in his right knee in Germany’s 3-0 win over Holland in Hamburg. — AFP

Preview

Real want to keep riding title wave MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo is hoping a combination of his and Real Madrid’s impressive form can help maintain their quest of bringing silverware back to the Santiago Bernabeu despite a challenging preChristmas fixtures list. Jose Mourinho’s Real side are on a tengame winning streak in all competitions which, in the Primera Liga, has given them a three-point cushion over arch rivals Barcelona, the European champions who are bidding for a fourth consecutive La Liga title.

Real’s championship credentials should be tested during a tough runup to Christmas, starting with a trip to Valencia this weekend and including games against Atletico Madrid and Barcelona. But while Valencia are back on track following four straight wins, Real’s ambition to aim for three titles this season has been boosted by seeing a minor but significant stumble on the part of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona. The Catalans were lucky to draw 2-2 with Athletic Bilbao in their last game before the international break, suggesting they may have lost their air of invincibility.

Ronaldo has scored five goals in his previous two games for Real as well as a further two in his last match for Portugal, and is loving being on top of the league. “It is good to be ahead of Barcelona, it’s a big motivation for us,” said the Portuguese striker. “I’m playing some of my best football and I want to continue like this.

Maybe this is the best Madrid side that I have been in but the key is to win and if we don’t do that then we are not the best.”

Real are already through to the last 16 of the Champions League after winning four of their six group games so far, and they are still in contention for the King’s (Spanish) Cup. “I want

LISBON: Portugal’s forward Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring a goal against Bosnia Herzgovina during the second leg of their Euro 2012 play-off match at Luz Stadium in this Nov 15, 2011 photo. — AFP to win something this season and in the Champions League places folReal Madrid are aiming for the three lowing their surprise start but two titles,” added Ronaldo, who admits straight defeats has taken the wind however that Valencia will be a out of their sails. They now travel to tougher opponent this time round. “It Atletico Madrid whose coach is going to be a difficult game against Gregorio Manzano is on the ropes Valencia. Last season we scored six with the side down in 11th place. goals there but Valencia are better Athletic Bilbao, unbeaten in ten now and we are going to have to play games, are marching up the table and play Sevilla while Malaga, another very well to get all three points.”

Although Barcelonca have been team in the hunt for a place in without several players due to inter- Europe, are away at Racing national duty, Guardiola’s side have a Santander.

Rock bottom Real Sociedad have a simpler task of taking on Zaragoza who have only two wins all season. crunch match against Espanyol after Lionel Messi may well be rested for three straight defeats, and Granada, the game after travelling to play for also in trouble, are host to Mallorca.

Argentina and also picking up a Rayo, who fired four past Real knock in their clash with Colombia. It Sociedad in their last game, have had is good news for Zaragoza midfielder a more than satisfying start to the Leo Ponzio. “It is always nice to see campaign and face Osasuna while him play when it is not against you. Sporting Gijon take on Getafe. Betis He is the best player in the world and finally brought to an end to a losing it is a relief if he does not play against run of six games with a draw against Malaga and now play a stuttering us,” he said.

Surprise package Levante remain Villarreal side. —AFP

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Preview

Newcastle face acid test against Man City LONDON: Newcastle United’s flying start to the season faces the acid test on Saturday as the Magpies travel to leaders Manchester City in a battle of the Premier League’s only remaining unbeaten teams. Alan Pardew’s resurgent Newcastle have been the revelation of the season so far, accumulating 25 points from 11 games to lie in third place, their best start to a campaign since 1995-1996. Yet Newcastle are about to embark on a demanding sequence of fixtures, with today’s clash at Eastlands followed by a trip to Old Trafford to face Manchester United before a home fixture with Chelsea on Dec 3.

Pardew, who has skilfully reconstructed Newcastle’s first team squad following the departures this year of Andy Carroll,

Kevin Nolan, and Joey Barton, insists his team are relishing the challenges ahead. “Belief comes from results as much as anything,” Pardew said this week. “I genuinely think the team believe they can win every game we enter. We will go to Manchester City thinking we can win. “That is very important because every manager, I don’t care who he is, sets their team up to win. Players, though, have to believe because if there is not an inner belief you can win, then the players after 2530 minutes accept it is going to be a tough day. Perhaps they start protecting themselves, come off the gameplan - then it is usually a case of trying to keep the score down or make it respectable. We are not doing that, we believe we can win, no matter if the (other) team scores two. We still believe

we can win.”

Although City’s expensively assembled squad means they can field a second string made up almost entirely of internationals, Newcastle may benefit should manager Roberto Mancini choose to rest several of his first choice starting XI with an eye on next Tuesday’s crucial Champions League match with Napoli. Any dropped points from City - who have won 10 of their 11 games so far this season - will be gratefully received by cross-town rivals Manchester United, who are aiming to close the gap with victory at newly promoted Swansea.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is expected to have Ashley Young and Tom Cleverley available for selection after injury.

United midfielder Darren Fletcher has meanwhile warned his team-

mates against taking the Swans lightly. “They play football in the right way and have been a breath of fresh air since coming into the Premier League. It’s going to be a real challenge for us on Saturday,” the Scottish international warned.

Elsewhere this weekend, fourth-placed Chelsea take on sixth-placed Liverpool with both sides desperate for three points to stay in touch with the frontrunners. Liverpool’s preparations for the trip to London have been disrupted by confirmation of FA charges against star striker Luis Suarez, who is accused of racially abusing Manchester United defender Patrice Evra. Liverpool have vowed to fight the charges, and Suarez is expected to line up against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge after scoring four goals for Uruguay against Chile during the

Preview

Preview

Focus on domestic duty: McGregor GLASGOW: Rangers goalkeeper Allan McGregor says his teammates must remain focused as they return to Scottish Premier League action after the international break. The Ibrox club hold an impressive 12-point lead at the top of the table following an unbeaten start to the season while rivals Celtic’s form has been faltering. However the Gers’ nine-game winning run came to an end in a last gasp 1-1 draw with St Mirren following the previous international break and McGregor has vowed not to let the same happen when St Johnstone come calling today.

“You need to be focused all the time. It was just unfortunate that they got the goal at the last minute,” McGregor said of the St Mirren draw. “We could maybe have put it to bed but the goal should never have happened. It’s just one of those things and you need to move on. I don’t think you can go into the next game saying ‘Oh it’s an international break’ - we just need to play like we always do.”

Manager Ally McCoist should have a full squad to pick from apart from long-term injury Steven Naismith, who is recovering from knee surgery. Celtic have the chance to put some pressure on their Old Firm rivals when they travel to take on Inverness Caledonian Thistle in the early kick-off match. Terry Butcher’s side may be propping up the rest of the SPL but Inverness has not been a happy hunting ground for the Hoops in recent years. However, after struggling for form earlier in the season Celtic striker Gary Hooper believes it is important that his teammates carry on the momentum they built up before the international break as they aim to cut the gap with Rangers at the top.

“We have got to win every game, no excuses. It is very important to win on Saturday. We will go there like we did at Motherwell and get the three points,” Hooper said. “It’s going to be a tough game. It’s a long way from here and it is a tight pitch but there are no excuses now. We just have to get in and out with the three points.” Celtic have had to come from behind to win their last two games, with Anthony Stokes and Hooper scoring the goals. But Hooper believes they have a new found confidence that will help them push on and up the SPL table. “Our focus is on three points on Saturday and nothing else. Those two games have made us more confident to go there and get them,” the English striker added. But I will keep saying it - we have to win every game. No excuses.” —AFP

international break. “It’s great for Luis to get four goals - I wish it was for us rather than his country,” Reds manager Kenny Dalglish said. “Maybe he’s kept some up his sleeve for us in the coming weeks.”

Arsenal meanwhile will be chasing their fifth consecutive victory at Norwich, with manager Arsene Wenger challenging his side to keep building on their recent improvements in form.

Wenger believes Arsenal’s resurgence - the Gunners now stand seventh, three points off of fourth place - has been down to a more conservative approach. “I would say we are a bit more controlled and less cavalier,” Wenger said. “We are less adventurous when the job is done, I must say.

You can feel that there is some reserve there if needed.” —AFP

Beckham seeks to secure MLS legacy LOS ANGELES: David Beckham will try to cement his Major League Soccer legacy with a championship tomorrow when his Los Angeles Galaxy take on the Houston Dynamo for the MLS Cup. The former England captain, who created a sensation when he arrived Stateside in 2007, is in the last year of a ground-breaking five-year deal with the Galaxy. He could yet extend his tenure in Los Angeles, or he could make a move back to Europe, where French club Paris Saint-Germain have expressed interest.

Beckham says he won’t even think about that until after Sunday, when he hopes to add an MLS title to the six English league titles he won with Manchester United and the Spanish league crown he claimed with Real Madrid. The fact that the Galaxy’s home ground of the Home Depot Center, in suburban Carson, was selected as the venue for the MLS Cup means Beckham has a chance to go out on a high note in front of the fans who greeted him five years ago.

Beckham, however, insisted his desire for the title is not a personal quest. “I think wherever you play, whatever you want to do in your life, you want to be successful,” he said. “I’ve been lucky enough throughout my career to be successful with Manchester United and successful at Real Madrid. Of course I want to win the Cup on Sunday. But it’s more important for the club that we win the Cup on Sunday than myself.” The Galaxy boast three of the league’s top players in Beckham, USA international Landon Donovan and Ireland captain Robbie Keane - who arrived this season. For the second year in a row, the Galaxy claimed the MLS Supporter’s Shield as the team with the best record in the regular season. In England or Spain that would have been enough to make Beckham and his teammates champions, but in classic US sports style the MLS awards its crown to the

team that goes all the way in the MLS Cup playoffs. “It’s only the last year or two that I’ve started to understand the playoffs,” Beckham admitted. “Playing in European things when you win the league you’re champions. We’ve had success in the last three years, we’ve got to the MLS Cup final, we’ve won two Supporters’ Shields,” said Beckham, whose only other appearance in the MLS Cup final was in the Galaxy’s loss to Real Salt Lake in 2009. We want the big

MLS Cup in six years. He guided them to back-to-back titles in 2006 and 2007, after the club was relocated from San Jose. “If you look at it on paper, the odds probably lean toward LA,” Kinnear said. “But it’s a Cup final. It’s 90 minutes of football.

Anything can happen.” Kinnear is also unfazed by the focus on Beckham and his high-profile teammates. “If we get lost in the shuffle, that’s the way it is,” he said. “I don’t really care what other people think.”

CARSON, California: David Beckham fans wait to no avail as the LA Galaxy star player fails to show up for practice at the Home Depot Center on Thursday. —AFP one,” he said. “We want the MLS Cup.” The Galaxy are unbeaten in 23 matches at home this season. Houston coach Dominic Kinnear, whose side were floundering before a late-season surge carried them into the playoffs, knows Dynamo face a tough task. But even after the loss to injury of play-maker Brad Davis, Kinnear was bullish on his team’s chances of claiming a third

That’s lucky, since the 36-year-old Beckham is one of the most recognizable faces in world sport, garnering headlines wherever he goes. His MLS career has had plenty of rocky moments, including injuries and an extended loan to AC Milan that had some - including teammate Donovan questioning his commitment to the US league. —AFP

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(Left) In this June 1, 2011 file photo Swiss FIFA President Sepp Blatter reacts during a press conference after the 61st FIFA Congress in Zurich. (Right) South African Minister of Human Settlements and FIFA member Tokyo Sexwale speaks at a news conference in Johannesburg yesterday. —AP

Blatter ‘sorry’, won’t resign LONDON: Embattled FIFA president Sepp Blatter apologised for his controversial comments about racism yesterday but said he would not be resigning despite a growing clamour in Britain for him to step down. “It hurts and I am still hurting because I couldn’t envisage such a reaction,” the 75-year-old head of world soccer’s governing body said in a BBC interview.

“When you have done something which was not totally correct, I can only say I am sorry for all those people affected by my declarations.”

Blatter sparked outrage, most notably in England where the FA is dealing with two highprofile racism allegations, when he said on Wednesday that incidents of racist abuse on the pitch should be settled with a handshake after the game. His comments were criticised by players such as England defender Rio Ferdinand and former captain David Beckham and even brought a stinging rebuke from British Prime Minister David Cameron, who described them as “appalling”.

However, Blatter said he would not quit over the remarks which have provoked back page headlines in Britain’s newspapers such as “Go

Now Blatter” and “Now He Must Go”. “I cannot resign,” Blatter said. “Why should I? When you are faced with a problem you have to face the problem. To leave would be totally unfair and not compatible with my fighting spirit, my character, my energy, my personal commitment to football and my personal commitment to bring FIFA out of a period of difficulties. It’s a serious incident, you cannot say it’s not serious but we have to go on, I have to go on. Let’s just see what is the reaction. This situation can only make us stronger by uniting us,” added Blatter, who said FIFA has a “zero tolerance” attitude to racism.

The latest controversy surrounding the longstanding FIFA president erupted on Wednesday when in two separate television interviews he suggested racism in football was not a problem.

Asked by CNN if there was racism in the game, Blatter said: “I would deny it. There is no racism, there is maybe one of the players towards another, he has a word or a gesture which is not the correct one. But also the one who is affected by that, he should say that this is a game. We are in a game, and at the end of the game, we

shake hands.” His remarks provoked disbelief from Ferdinand, whose brother Anton is at the centre of a police probe after England and Chelsea captain John Terry was accused of racist abuse towards the Queen Park Rangers player during a recent Premier League game.

Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, who like Terry denies wrongdoing, has been charged over alleged racist insults towards Manchester United’s Patrice Evra. Manchester United defender Rio was involved in a Twitter exchange with Blatter on Thursday, suggesting FIFA had tried to limit the damage by posting a photo of its president posing with South African government official Tokyo Sexwale, who has worked with FIFA on anti-racism initiatives. Sexwale, who is the Minister of Human Settlements in South Africa, said Blatter’s comments had been “unfortunate”. “It is important that such conduct is rooted out from the field of play without any equivocation,” he said.

“No handshakes repair these things, the exchange of jerseys doesn’t take it away. I think what Mr Blatter was saying he mixed up all those emotions and was quick to say let’s get

on with the game. I think this mistake has come at the right time because he has inadvertently raised the bar and the attention about racism and discrimination on the pitch.”

Beckham added his weight to the debate. “I think the comments were appalling,” Beckham told an LA Galaxy news conference. “I think a lot of people have said that. I don’t think the comments were very good for this game...(racism) is still there and can’t just be swept under the carpet.”

Blatter, whose organisation has been beset by corruption allegations in the recent past, has made a series of gaffes over the years. He once called on women players to wear skimpier kits and upset homosexuals by saying they should not engage in sexual relations at the 2022 Qatar World Cup. The Swiss also said England were “bad losers” after they missed out on hosting the 2018 World Cup to Russia. The latest furore over Blatter, re-elected unopposed this year after a rival pulled out amid corruption allegations, has barely got a mention in other European media outside of Britain but has been reported in the United States. — Reuters