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It’s Mars vs Venus on the galactic freeway

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KUWAIT: A Syrian man waves his national flag bearing the image of embattled President Bashar Al-Assad during his country’s team match against Iraq in the 7th West Asia Football Federation (WAFF) championship yesterday. — AFP

Russia admits Syria rebels might win See Page 11

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

In my view

Nostra damned us?

By Priyanka Saligram

priyankasaligram@kuwaittimes.net

A

KUWAIT: A supporter of the Syrian opposition (left) clashes with a supporter of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad during their country’s team football match against Iraq in the 7th West Asia Football Federation (WAFF) championship yesterday. — AFP In my view

Embracing change

By Labeed Abdal

labeed@kuwaittimes.net

A

number of developments were happening during the US presidential debates and in the run-up to the election of the president, including the unfolding situation in the Middle East, the political developments impacting Israelis, Palestinians and Iranians, the situation in Syria, Libya and Egypt. Given the major role of the US in the world and its large number of friends and allies, both from the east and the west, the foreign policy formulation dominated the entire exercise even while addressing domestic issues.

This role of the US remains effective even when it is busy addressing issues like investment and economic reforms in the region. The influence of the United States can be clearly seen in many Arab countries which experienced Arab Spring like movements in the latest phase as people search for democracy, gender equality, freedom of expression, freedom of belief and other public liberties.

The situation in many of those countries is now tied with the vision of some extreme groups. We will soon be entering 2013 and must remember

that our societies need to be ready to engage with modernity and demands for more job opportunities. We need to better understand the younger generation which fought for freedom without falling for radicalism or extremism.

In many cases, embracing change or progress would require embracing more modernity and doing so with humility. Some Islamic groups do not represent moderate Islam and still believe it is possible to go back to the old ways when we were living in the desert where camels and women were meant to serve the male of the species. These are modern times and we are living in a world where there is equality as well as opportunity.

Sometimes, thinking in their old ways, some people try to import narrow issues into the Kuwaiti society. These Islamic groups should remember that moderate and modern Islam is what Kuwaitis profess today. That is how Kuwait was over 300 years ago and that is how people would want it to remain in the times to come - advanced and forward looking.

re you one of the those people who has a list of things to do before you die? Well, if you are, you have exactly a week left to go sky-diving, swim with sharks, get married, streak through the town or become a dad or mum (through adoption, of course).

If Mayans and Nostradamus and the rest of the loons holding “The world is ending; repent now!” placards are to be believed, we’ll all be dead next Friday. Way too many movies have been made and documentaries have been shot about how Mother Nature is going to breathe her last sigh on December 21, 2012. Doomsday conspiracies haven’t left any stone unturned in guessing how we might get struck by a giant meteor which has lost its way or have the poles suddenly go “Whoops!” and shift - inadvertently dumping a big, puzzled polar bear in your lap when you’re trying to get a tan by the beach.

A colleague showed me a video of Nostradamus predicting the end of the world - or at least, someone’s brilliant interpretation of his cryptic words. In Nostradamus’ words, “From the calm morning, the end will come, when of the dancing horse, the number of circles will be 9.” The interpretation that followed was that South Korea is called ‘The Land of the Morning Calm’. South Korea’s best musical offering to the world was rapper Psy whose chronically popular ‘Gangnam Style’ had a horse dance and the “9 circles” referred to nine zeroes in the number of hits his video received on YouTube: 1,000,000,000.

So what’s that supposed to mean? That Psy is the cause for the end of the world? Maybe if all the people in the world coordinated with each other and did the gallop while listening to ‘Gangnam Style’ at the same time, the intense activity could trigger an earthquake which in turn would propel a tsunami to whoop our backsides and flush us down the cosmic drain. Now, that’s a possibility.

National Geographic channel has been running a show called Doomsday Preppers which as the name suggests is about people preparing themselves for the end of civilization. A particularly paranoid bloke spoke of how he’s been walking around with salad dressing in his pocket and eating plants and shrubs - in case there’s nothing to eat after the planet’s complete annihilation. It’s hysterical to see people denying their own mortality and expecting to live to tell their tale while simultaneously expecting “the others” to get wiped off the face of the planet.

The good thing about the world ending is that you don’t have to get flustered in case you haven’t started your Christmas shopping yet. Hey, no people, no presents, right? But assuming, we are around to see next Saturday and you haven’t got your wife a pretty Christmas gift, chances are YOUR world will definitely end. And you certainly don’t need Nostradamus to predict this one for you.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Conspiracy Theories

Local Spotlight

Traffic: Tragedy of Kuwait

21/12/2012

By Muna Al-Fuzai

By Badrya Darwish muna@kuwaittimes.net

I

have no doubt that from a certain perspective, automobile traffic is something tragic. I am saying this because every day so many people die or suffer injuries, or even become maimed in accidents. At times, their vehicles become badly mangled in road mishaps. At such a time, people say it is okay if all you lost was your car, because it could have been much worse. They tell you that for many, life in the fast lane often ends in a serious injury or being crippled for the rest of one’s life. I know that people say these things to console and comfort you after the loss of your vehicle but it does little good to hear all this at such a time.

Everyone is complaining about the traffic jams in Kuwait and how they spend hours on the road trying to commute from one place to another which is actually just half an hour away if the traffic jams were not there.

I am aware that some police officers typically claim that traffic jams are normal in today’s urban life and that it is a problem that all countries face, but does that mean that we should throw up our hands and let the roads be crowded day after day?

Should we simply assume such a fate and not find any solutions to end the menace? Should we let things

remain as they are because it is an issue which has gone out of our hands and we no more understand how to bring things under control?

I believe that the crisis on our roads is of our own doing because our people do not respect traffic laws. The drivers who cross speed limits on our roads do not understand that they could prove to be a killing machine, particularly the ones who try to send a text message from their phones while driving. It makes me angry that while such a driver may have decided to flirt with death himself or herself, why should they be allowed to harm someone else?

Expatriates are now following the local Kuwaiti citizens as their role models, and a very poor role model they are proving to be. It is common to see a Kuwaiti family’s driver smoking or texting at the same time when he is behind the wheel. He will be seen trying to multitask while on the road, but if was to crash into someone, he would first blame the other party and then resort to some ‘wasta’ call from his influential master to someone to let him go scotfree.

Such a driver’s sponsor or master helps him but not because he believes that the driver was right but because he knows he will suffer

financial loss if the driver was to be arrested, jailed or punished by the law. This would mean losing his driver and having to find another one.

The master or sponsor thinks that he is making a good choice by saving the driver caught in such a situation but the result is that the driver thinks that he has done nothing wrong.

Such a driver can someday endanger an entire family. I think it is pure ignorance on the part of the sponsor and is a tragedy.

We surely need solutions and these can be achieved not only through spreading more awareness by using the media but also by a strict enforcement of the laws. I do not want to see policemen talking on their mobile phones or smoking while on duty, even when they are instructing other drivers not to do exactly that.

This daily death marathon is happening every day on Kuwait’s roads where people are racing to their tragic end. I have still to hear better suggestions apart from the dream metro. We need to widen our roads and find other ways to educate our people about road safety measures.

So far, we have not been able to do that.

Drive safely and may Allah be with you.

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

D

o you believe in astrology? If you believe in it, take it from me that you will be scared. Many astrologers link the end of the world with the Mayan calendar which ends on 21/12/2012. So, prepare yourselves. If you are a believer, you have a total of eight days to tick all the checkboxes in your bucket list. In Europe, there are online psychoses and headlines about the apocalypse predictions.

People are seriously scared and have started stocking up on food, generators for electricity, water and essentials in case the world comes to an end. A woman even called her children to stock on essentials. One wonders the point of it all if the world is going to end on the 21st? Why does she need all these things? Why is she stocking things if the world as we know it is to end on that date? Who will need the batteries and the generators?

Thank God, I am relaxed because I do not believe in these predictions. According to scientists, there will be a galactic alignment and that is it. They are not indulging in any ominous talk about apocalypse.

Do you thing that this alignment is the reason for the Arab Spring which, mashallah, is spreading even further. It started in Tunisia, swept Libya, the land of the Pharaohs and then through the Nile to came to Sudan, Syria, Jordan and Bahrain. Now the craziness has reached Kuwait. It is like bird flu - very catchy, airborne and fast-spreading. So far, only a mild flu has hit Kuwait but did not reach pandemic proportions. If the parliamentarians now act wisely, it will be over and if the opposition were to act wisely, it will be over even before the end of winter.

Iraq, of course, had its own pre-seasonal Arab Spring which turned out to be a chronic flu.

I do not believe in astrology but I believe in conspiracy theories. They are less scary and more realistic.

Kuwait’s my business

Are you an entrepreneur?

By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

M

any readers responded to my previous column about entrepreneurship in Kuwait, and this week I’m answering some of their questions.

“How do I know if I’m an entrepreneur?”

Good question; easy to answer. Do you accept things the way they are, or do you have a passion (or at least an urge) to take things apart and put them back together again? If you could, would you re-invent the wheel? Are you willing to take risks? You’re probably an entrepreneur if you don’t accept the status quo. Entrepreneurs are somewhat analytical, but mostly action-oriented. They don’t want to “wait and see” or “test the market.”

“What’s the difference between an entrepreneur and a business manager?”

Another good question; easy to answer. Watch the two perform. They can’t do each other’s job. An entrepreneur

is usually horrible at managing a business. A business manager usually can’t create a new business.

Unfortunately, people confuse the two roles. They think that entrepreneurs create and operate businesses when they only do half that job. Many entrepreneurs can’t get out of their own way, or out of a competent manager’s way, and the business falters or fails. Read Michael Gerber’s The E Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. It’s the best book on this topic, and it’s short and easy to read. I owe much of my business success to Gerber.

“Should an entrepreneur buy a franchise?”

Only if he or she wants to be miserable. I love franchising; I’ve promoted it for 30 years internationally. But it’s not for entrepreneurs. Good franchisees are followers.

Good franchisors (the people who create and own the brands) are entrepreneurs who set the rules for the franchisees. If you’re an entrepreneur who wants to work in franchising, then create a business and franchise it. I see lots of good franchise opportunities coming to life in Kuwait. Beware: franchising is a business discipline all of its own. Just because you can sell hamburgers, frozen yogurt, clothing, or a service to consumers doesn’t mean you can franchise your business.

“Do entrepreneurs need college degrees?”

The founders of Holiday Inn, Dunkin Donuts, Century 21, and dozens of other major brand franchises did not graduate from college. Street-smart entrepreneurs are among my favorite clients. However, in today’s socio-economic and global marketplace, I think it’s better for an entrepreneur to possess a college degree. Among other benefits, good college courses (often depends on the professor) teach you how to think and how to relate to people - those are key attributes of successful entrepreneurs.

Special offer for entrepreneurs If you’re an entrepreneur with a business, and you want to join the journey to transform Kuwait, here’s a special offer for you from the REMAS Institute (see my Nov 30 column ). Tell me about your business and the challenges standing in the way of its development or expansion. I’ll share the best of these stories with REMAS Institute and perhaps you’ll get a free consultation. *Dr John P Hayes is a professor in the College of Business at GUST and the Head of the Business Administration Department.

Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

Local FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2012

It’s

Mars Venus on the galactic freeway vs

By Nawara Fattahova

C

ars are invariably identified with men and are considered their hobby. No wonder, men are generally known for being better drivers.

Men always blame women for not being able to exercise good control over the steering wheel, being slow drivers, not skilled at parking, and in general being bad drivers. Men also think women are not confident. “In general women are more emotional and sentimental, and this affects their

way of driving. As they are not brave and have fear of driving, they are unable to react quickly to a sudden situation occurring in the street. Such slow reflexes behind the steering wheel cause many accidents,” Anwar, a 50-year-old male driver, claimed.

Driving instructors too claim that notice the difference between men and women when it comes to learning how to drive, and they tilt towards the men. “From my long experience as a driving instructor, I know that men need a shorter period to learn driving or to be ready for the driving test.

Of course, it differs from one person to another, but in general men take three to six days for training, while women take between seven and ten days,” Faris Al-Sheikh, an instructor at Al-Arabiya driving school told Kuwait Times.

Some earlier behavior may also play a role in the driver’s ability to drive. “Most men, especially Kuwaitis, already know how to drive or are aware about the basics of driving as they start to drive even before turning 18 and obtaining a driver’s license. So they have an advantage over the women, who start learning much later. Very few men know nothing about driving before coming for training,” he added.

According to him, driving skills also depend on

culture and nationality. “Kuwaitis consider their car as their house. They spend a lot of time in it, and are used to driving more than other nationalities. They always take lesser time to learn compared to people from other nationalities not used to driving so much in their countries as they depend more on public transport. Those who are not well skilled drivers often become confused between the brake and acceleration pedals.

Fortunately, no accidents have happened so far during training as I can control the brakes from my side,” Al-Sheikh pointed out.

But he did have complaints about driving school students who are obsessed with their smart phones. “Earlier, students used to completely concentrate on driving, but today they are using their phones. They are thinking of their phones while learning driving, and this is not good,” he rued.

Even women think that men are better drivers.

“Definitely men are better in driving vehicles than women, although I am a woman, I must admit it. I see that most woman block the traffic on the road as they do not have the same courage in driving that men display. They are rather soft while driving needs courage and a tough personality. Men have better control behind the steering wheel,” stated 39-yearold Ibtisam.

Mohammed, aged 45, thinks there are different ways in

which drivers belonging to a particular gender can be qualified to be better or worse. “If it is a question of respecting the traffic rules, surely men are worse than women as they are more careless and reckless than women. Of course, some women are also reckless, especially the young ones. The newspaper reports about accidents prove this every day as almost all those arrested for illegally racing on the roads are male drivers,” he explained.

Women are not cautious during driving, he claimed. “Another factor that needs to be considered while rating drivers is concentration. Even before smart phones came on the scene, women were often seen using their cell phones while driving, which caused accidents. In fact, the general view is that men are better drivers than women. So much so that there are hundreds of funny videos and pictures on the Internet about women’s stupidity while driving or parking,” Mohammed said to back up his claims.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

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Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

The culture of ‘bukra’ If tomorrow becomes timeless

By Ben Garcia

‘B

ukra inshallah’. Have you ever experienced bukra culture? In Kuwait, the term bukra is not at all welcoming for many of us because of what it could mean here - ‘probably’, ‘maybe’, ‘yes’ or ‘could no longer happen’. Although some observers have claimed the bukra attitude or culture is not exclusive to Kuwait and is prevalent in many Arab countries or societies, the bad thing is that bukra culture can be transferred, inherited or copied easily by others. In fact, bukra culture seems to have seeped into the veins of many in Kuwait including expatriates.

Bukra, an Arabic term meaning tomorrow is a word that is excessively used in many places, either individually or by a group. It is a serious word that holds huge meaning for some but is of no value to many. In other cultures, if they say tomorrow, they mean tomorrow (bukra). In Kuwait, tomorrow is a word which could mean yes or no at the same time. It has no meaning to others, a useless word that is no longer honored or denotes its real sense of purpose.

In dictionaries, the term tomorrow

means: on or for the day following the present day; a future period, time. If a person promised you an accomplishment report tomorrow, he will deliver it tomorrow - no buts and ifs. Not the whole country though is following this ‘sad culture’. Some government institutions are adhering to and are keeping their word if they promise to deliver something by tomorrow. Most of the inshallah bukra culture or promises are being done by crooks who are not at all keeping their promises.

An anthropology professor who wanted to remain anonymous said the bukra culture is not at all harmful, depending on how the word is used or delivered to the ‘receiver’. “Bukra means tomorrow and tomorrow is timeless,” the psychologist said. “Perhaps, the bukra culture which is prevalent in the Arab world was derived from the fact that tomorrow is timeless.

There will always be a tomorrow, it never ends. Tomorrow means a future period and a time to which we cannot put any timeframe,” he explained.

“In Arab culture, if one asks for a favor, we don’t want to make anybody uncomfortable. So we say it in a nice way. If we cannot do it today, we promise ‘inshallah

bukra’, which means it can be done tomorrow. The sad story is that some people who do not keep their promises promise to do something tomorrow after tomorrow,” he noted.

Such a story was relayed to Kuwait Times by a female Pakistani teacher whose passport has been with her ‘would-be sponsor’ who promised a residency two years ago. The ‘would-be employer’ took the civil identification of the teacher and KD 800 for her visa 18. Over the last 16 months, the ‘employer’ would only promise to provide the visa ‘inshallah’, bukra after bukra. “Now, two years have passed and the visa has not materialized. On top of that, passports and other legal documents are still with him. He has been promising us to effect the necessary transfer (of residency) for the last two years. Every time we talk to the man, he tells us inshallah bukra. That bukra, bukra promises have been extended over sixteen months, until we could no longer reach his mobile,” she lamented.

A funny but also sad ‘bukra’ story was of Tony. He said that he went to the immigration department last month to get a stamp on the visa for his kids. When he reached the counter after standing in a long queue,

he found that he had forgotten his wife’s civil ID, so he rushed out of the immigration department and headed home instantly. Upon returning to the queue, it was already 1 pm, so he was told to come back ‘bukra’ - the following day. “I don’t really know how but maybe because I was so preoccupied with the things that had happened, the following day I went to the immigration (very early) only to find out that the immigration department was closed because it was a Friday. It was ridiculous and funny but a true story,” he noted.

Honoring your word, in this case keeping your bukra promises, is the best gift you can give to yourself, and to the people around you. It means trust and you will have inner peace and confidence. Keep your ‘bukra’ promises.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Up and down real estate results KUWAIT: The local real estate sector continues to send out mixed messages. While Kuwait’s residential segment is clearly on the rise, other components of the market are struggling to rebound from the downturn in the property market in 2009 and, more recently, domestic political concerns. In its mid-November briefing on the economy, the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) said there had been a slight easing in the property market in September.

Residential sales were down 1.7 percent yearon-year (y-o-y), though the bank said at least some of this decrease was due to seasonal effects, with the residential property turnover usually slower immediately after Ramadan.

September’s result marks a rare retreat for the residential segment in 2012, as the general trend for most of this year has been a moderate increase in prices and in transactions.

Residential sales have averaged just under $354 million per month for the first three quar-

ters of this year, up on the $333 million average figure for the opening nine months of 2011. A solid final three months should see the segment well positioned to enter 2013. A potential sales spurt is on the cards after the reserve bank lowered its base discount lending rate in early October to 2 percent, having already eased lending requirements, allowing more cash to flow into the market. This has indeed had an impact on the sector, with the Central Bank of Kuwait reporting in mid-November that new bank lending for real estate transactions increased 4.9 percent y-o-y in September and should be reflected in the October figures, due out this month.

While the residential segment has proved fairly resilient to external factors, the long-running political standoff between the government and parliament has affected the rest of the sector, a situation that could continue into 2013. Uncertainty over the make-up of the new

parliament following national elections in December may have an impact on the real estate market, as any stalemate in the new legislature will result in further delays in approving government plans for property and infrastructure developments.

The recently dissolved legislature was at odds with the government over a number of its major projects, demanding greater accountability from parliament and querying some of the government’s $108 billion investment program. This standoff has hindered the rollout of developments while also sapping investor confidence. That lack of confidence may well be a factor in at least one segment of the property market: office space and other commercial transactions have stalled. According to Tawfiq Al-Jarrah, the head of the Kuwait Real Estate Union, the occupancy rate for office space is less than 60 percent, and there are also many commercial developments that have yet to be

finished. “There is a glut of supply of office space,” Jarrah told Reuters in October.

“Occupancy is the engine and dynamo of the property market.”

The latest NBK report on the property market said there were only four commercial property sales in September, with a total value of $49m, around $34m down on the same month in 2011. However, the September result was somewhat better than the preceding month, when three deals were sealed for a total sales value of $24.8m. But with buyers having easier access to funds, Kuwait’s residential property market should maintain steady progress moving into 2013. While the outlook for commercial property and, in particular, the heavily oversupplied office segment seems likely to be contingent, at least in part, on whether the government will be able to encourage greater investment in 2013 and stimulate further growth. — Oxford Business Group

Armenia hails Kuwaiti aid to Syrian refugees IICO donates $100,000 YEREVAN: Armenian Minister of Diaspora Dr Hranush Hakobian has praised the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) for donating $100,000 for Syrian refugees in Armenia. She told KUNA during her meeting with IICO’s delegation that Kuwait was the first Arab country that offered humanitarian aid to the Syrian refuges, and thanked the Gulf country for its financial contribution. She said this would help bolster the bilateral ties between the two countries at various levels.

The number of Syrian refugees in Armenia has reached 8,000, and is increasing even further by the day as the situation in Syria deteriorates, she said. The Armenian government has offered $2 million in relief to the Syrian

refugees, besides exempting them from paying visa, residence and health services fees, she added.

A total of 650 students of Syrian refugees are now studying in Armenian schools while 200 students are at the university. All the students are exempted from paying any fees, she stated.

The main challenges facing Armenian refugees include housing and job opportunities, the minister said, adding that nearly 3,000 Syrian families living in Armenia are not able to pay house rent.

She appreciated the fact that many Armenians chose to host a number of Syrian refugees’ families without any financial reward. A total of eight million Armenians are living in 100 countries

across the world due to political reasons and wars, and are a significant economic strength for their homeland, Hakobian said. Armenia’s population has reached eight million, of which only three million are living in the country.

A total of 150,000 Armenians carry Syrian nationality. A delegation of the IICO visited the country earlier this month to inspect the condition of the Syrian refugees and provide them with relief materials in cooperation with the embassy of Kuwait.

They offered $100,000 as relief aid to the refugees who left their homeland due to unrest, violent clashes and chaos.

The Kuwaiti Cabinet, upon instructions of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, has earmarked $20 million for these refugees. — KUNA

ABU DHABI: GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani addresses the GCC-Chinese Sustainable Development Forum. — KUNA

Cooperation expanding between China, Kuwait

KUWAIT: Within their constant training to improve the skills of their staffs, the civil defense and the land customs department concluded a training course on inspecting tucks in search of any radioactive elements. The drill was supervised by Land Customs Manager Mohammed Al-Sulaitti, Civil Prevention Manager Col Adel Al-Habib and the operation manager Col Ali Al-Rughaib. — KUNA

ABU DHABI: Kuwait’s ties with China and the level of cooperation between the two countries have been improving and expanding in various sectors, particularly in commerce and energy, the Kuwaiti ambassador to the Asian nation has affirmed. Interests of Beijing and Kuwait intersect at various levels and the two countries cooperate in the fields of investments, energy, oil and commerce, Mohammed Al-Thuwaikh said in a statement to KUNA on the sidelines of the “Forum for Sustainable Development between GCC and China” held here.

He said the rise in trade figures being registered every year was a reflection of the improving Chinese-Kuwaiti relations, and noted that major strides were taken since the visit of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to the Asian nation in 2009. The two states have been seeking to bolster their friendly ties and cooperation ever since that visit.

This was the third such forum aimed at cementing the bonds of friendship and was a result of the cooperation between the council of GCC ambassadors in Beijing and the Chinese Communist party. China now boasts having second largest economy in the world, after the US, and is expected to become the number-one economic super power by 2020. — KUNA

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Kuwait participates in Jakarta charity bazaar Sheikha Hussa among the attendees KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuwaiti diplomatic mission to Indonesia participated in the annual bazaar, a charitable event organized by the 40state International Women’s Club. It was attended by eminent Kuwaiti personality Sheikha Hussa Saad Al-Abdullah Al-Salem AlSabah. Indonesia’s first lady Kristiani Herawati Yudhoyono inaugurated the charitable event in the presence of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the Asian nation Nasser Bareh Al-Enezi and the deputy chair of Kuwait’s Women’s Affairs Committee Sheikha Hussa who was invited by Yudhoyono, according to a statement released by the Kuwaiti embassy in Jakarta yesterday.

The bazaar, hosted by Jakarta earlier this month, coincided with the Fourth Conference on the Role of Women in Development of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member states, which was held on Dec 4-6.

Sheikha Hussa was among the prominent figures that took part in the well-attended convention. Sheikha Hussa was one of the promi-

nent Kuwaiti figures who welcomed the Indonesian first lady when she inspected the Kuwaiti pavilion at the bazaar, which showcased national products and traditional artefacts. Proceeds from the sale of Kuwaiti products went to the organizing authority as a small gesture towards enhancing the KuwaitiIndonesian ties.

The bazaar is a major annual event hosted in the Indonesian capital. The international club was founded in 1950 for promoting philanthropic activities, friendly ties and cooperation among various nations. Sheikha Hussa, during her visit to the Asian country, had held talks with Linda Amalia Gumelar, Minister of Women’s Empowerment and Child Protection Affairs, on sidelines of the OIC ministerial conference, in which she had discussed issues related to supporting small and medium businesses run by women. She had also invited the minister to visit Kuwait and met other delegates to the conference. — KUNA

JAKARTA: Sheikha Hussa Saad Al-Abdullah and Indonesia’s first lady Kristiani Herawati Yudhoyono are seen at the International Women Club’s charity fair. — KUNA

Gunman arrested

The three arrested drug smugglers are seen.

KUWAIT: A Jahra patrol has arrested a masked gunman who shot at special forces and the riot police during last week’s demonstrations in Sabah Al-Nasser, said security sources. The suspect, who was caught on camera while shooting at the forces and his photo had appeared in various social media and newspapers, turned out to be a 28-year-old citizen who is wanted for drug-related cases. Case papers indicate that on suspecting a vehicle driven at dawn along the Kabd highway, a police patrol stopped it and on checking

the driver’s identity, he was found wanted. Even the vehicle he drove turned out to be stolen and the license plates on it stolen from another vehicle. On searching the vehicle, the police found a shotgun, a machinegun, a gun, ammunition, 15 mobile phones and a number of fake IDs. The suspect confessed to be the same shooter, added the sources, noting that all his 15 mobile phones kept ringing during the interrogation. A case was filed and further investigations are in still in progress.

The weapons and mobile phones found with the gunman are displayed.

Trio held for selling drugs

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

The house that was destroyed by the gas explosion.

A municipal officer inspects spoilt food at a makeshift kitchen.

KUWAIT: Three Asians have been arrested for involvement in drug trafficking, security sources said, noting that the suspects were arrested when they were found in possession of three kilograms of heroin and other psychotropic substances besides KD 66,000 that they had collected from drug sales.

Drug enforcement agents received a tipoff about the suspects’ activities following which an undercover agent struck a deal with one of them to buy 10 gm of heroin. At the time of delivery, he, along with a second suspect, was arrested redhanded. A search of the two suspects’ residence yielded more heroin. The suspects then divulged that they usually handed over whatever they collected from the sales to a third suspect, who also doubled up as a cloth salesman.

The third suspect was arrested from the store where he worked along with KD 66,000 found in his possession.

Killer arrested An Asian was arrested for stabbing a compatriot to death after they were embroiled in a fight in the staff mess, and later resumed the scuffle in the dormitory of a private company that had subcontracted work at a KOC site in Rawdhatain, security sources said.

The suspected murderer stated that he had an argument with the victim during lunchtime at the mess which soon led to fisticuffs.

Later, he followed him to the dormitory and stabbed him, the man confessed.

Kitchen closed Municipality inspectors raided and closed down an illegal central kitchen in Mangaf, said security sources noting that the 300 sq m kitchen was found to have started operating even before it could obtain a mandatory license from the municipal authorities. Also, it was found employing catering staff who did not hold any health certificates.

Illegals nabbed Twenty-five people were arrested during security related surprise checks in Ahmadi, security sources said, noting that those arrested included 17 illegal residents and eight who figured in the list of people wanted by law enforcement authorities. The campaign also resulted in locating three vehicles wanted in cases filed with the police.

Knifepoint rape An 18-year-old stateless person reported that a 22-year-old man invited him to a Subbiya camp where he sodomized him at knifepoint. A case was filed and further investigations are in progress.

Blast rocks house A fire broke out in a three-storey Mangaf house when a gas cylinder exploded in a kitchen on the second floor, security sources said. Firemen rushed to the scene and managed to bring the fire under control. A housemaid was injured in the blaze and another was rescued along with three children.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Russia says Assad losing control, rebels could win

11

Nurse in UK royal hoax call case found hanged: Inquest

12

Japan scrambles fighter jets for China plane

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CAIRO: Soldiers walk past a military tank guarding the presidential palace in Cairo yesterday. Egypt’s opposition called on its followers to vote “no” in a crucial referendum on a disputed constitution drafted by Islamist supporters of President Mohammed Morsi. — AP

Split Egypt set for referendum Violence feared amid ElBaradei warning CAIRO: The political struggle over a divisive new constitution for Egypt went into campaign mode yesterday with Islamists backing President Mohamed Morsi and the opposition urging either support or rejection of the draft charter.

The staggered referendum to decide the text is to begin on Saturday across half of Egypt, including in Cairo and Alexandria. The rest of the country will vote a week later, on December 22.

Weeks of protests over the draft charter, and over near-absolute powers that Morsi gave himself for two weeks to push it through, have failed to sway the president from his path.

“It’s you who will pay the price if you vote yes. No to the constitution,” said an online campaign advertisement by an opposition group called April 6. The pro-referendum camp has released videos with a song that goes “This constitution is not too bad, it was written by a committee of heroes.” It also has supporters holding “Yes to the constitution” placards along main roads.

Fears of violence remain after violent clashes in Cairo last week in which eight people were killed and more than 600 injured. According to an inte-

rior ministry official, 130,000 police officers will be deployed, along with troops, to ensure security during the vote. Morsi has ordered the army to secure state institutions, giving it powers of arrest until the referendum result is known. The military, which ruled for 16 months following the ouster of president Hosni Mubarak early last year, has tried in vain to bring both sides together for talks to calm the crisis.

Morsi ordered the referendum to be split because of a lack of judges willing to monitor voting.

The opposition National Salvation Front, while urging its supporters to vote “no”, warned it could yet call a last-minute boycott if the referendum was not brought back to just one day of voting, and if judges and independent observers did not monitor every polling station.

“The Salvation Front will not recognize the results of a referendum that does not occur in conditions of total transparency,” it said in a statement, adding that it “deeply feared” that would be lacking.

Mohamed ElBaradei, a former UN nuclear energy agency chief who

heads the Front, tweeted: “Insistence on referendum in an explosive, polarized, chaotic & lawless environment is leading country to the brink.” Egyptian citizens were divided over the referendum.

“I’m voting yes,” said Mohammed Hassan, a 28-year-old Cairo resident.

“The Muslim Brotherhood is good. No one has given them a chance.

They’ve been in power for five months compared to 30 years for Mubarak,” he said. Hamdi Imam, a street bookseller in his 50s, said: “I’m not going to vote because the constitution has blood on it... The Muslim Brotherhood will destroy the country.”

The referendum outcome was uncertain, though many analysts thought it likely to pass, given the Brotherhood’s efficiency in mobilizing Egypt’s vast poorer segment of society.

The opposition sees the proposed charter, drafted by a panel dominated

by Islamists, as weakening human and gender rights, bolstering the military and undermining the judiciary’s independence.

It fears ambiguities and loopholes in the charter will push Egypt closer to a form of sharia law favored by the

more ultra-orthodox Islamists. The UN human rights chief, the United States, European nations and international

watchdogs have also criticized the draft constitution and the way it was rammed through. — AFP

Saudi King Abdullah leaves hospital RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah left hospital yesterday, Saudi state television said, nearly four weeks after an 11hour back operation. The health of senior royals is closely watched in the world’s top oil exporter, where the ruling family controls most senior government posts and in the absence of elections wields near absolute authority. “The Custodian of the Two Holy Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Mosques leaves the National Guard King Abdulaziz Medical City,” Al Ekhbariya television said in a screen caption. Saudi state television later showed footage of the monarch walking slowly surrounded by members of the royal family, including Crown Prince Salman. He climbed into a car.

The 89-year-old king appeared in good health when he appeared on Saudi state television on November 28. He was shown then sitting in a chair chatting with members of the royal family. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Thousands protest as Turkish plot trial nears end ISTANBUL: Thousands of Turkish secularists protested outside a court near Istanbul yesterday against the trial of nearly 300 people charged with attempting to overthrow Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted government.

Security forces wielded batons and fired pepper spray to keep crowds behind barricades in front of the courthouse at the sprawling Silivri prison complex, where dozens of the defendants have been in jail for much of the four-year trial. Those in the dock include politicians, academics, journalists and retired army officers accused of membership of a shadowy underground network of ultra-nationalists.

The alleged group, “Ergenekon”, is accused of orchestrating decades of political violence, extra-judicial killings and bomb attacks, and most recently of trying to topple Erdogan.

Rivalry between religious and secular elites is one of the major fault lines in Turkish public life. The case is emblematic of Erdogan’s long-standing battle with secularist opponents, and one of a series of conspiracy trials that he describes as a struggle against anti-democratic forces.

State prosecutors were set to present

their final statements later yesterday.

Erdogan’s critics say the trial is part of efforts to stifle opponents of his AK Party (AKP), whose strong strain of religious conservatism they see as undermining Turkey’s secular foundations. There were calls for the government to resign among slogans chanted by the crowds.

“Turkey is secular and will remain secular!”, “The AKP will have to answer to the people!”, “Shoulder-to-shoulder against fascism!”, chanted the crowds.

They were largely made up of members of the main opposition CHP, a smaller left-wing party whose leader is one of the defendants, and secularist associations.

Many in the crowds waved Turkish flags and pictures of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded a modern, secular Turkish republic from the ashes of the Ottoman Empire in 1923.

During his decade in power, Erdogan has transformed Turkey, creating a thriving economy and taming a powerful military that had ousted four governments in recent decades. But the Ergenekon case and other conspiracy trials have drawn accusations of political influence over the judiciary, with the CHP describ-

ISTANBUL: Police use teargas and pressurized water to push back hundreds of protesters trying to enter a courthouse where prosecutors are scheduled to deliver final arguments in the case against 270 people accused of plotting to overturn the Islamic-leaning government, in Silivri near Istanbul yesterday.—AP ing them as an “Inquisition” against opponents of the government.

“These courts are like Russian dolls.

They may look like different cases and different courts, but they are all the same. They are carrying out a political mission,” CHP deputy leader Umut Oran, who was attending the hearing, told

Reuters. The 275 defendants, 66 of them in custody pending a verdict, include former armed forces chief Ilker Basbug and two deputies from the CHP. Once prosecutors have summed up their case, the defendants will have a right to a final statement which, given their numbers, could still take months. — Reuters

Russia says Assad losing control, rebels could win Assad regime on the brink: NATO offcial

HEBRON: Palestinian mourners shout slogans and wave green Islamic flags as they carry the body of Mohamed Ziad Salayma during his funeral procession yesterday after he was killed the previous day by Israeli forces near his home in the old city of the West Bank town of Hebron. — AFP

Hundreds mourn Palestinian teen killed in Hebron HEBRON: Thousands of Palestinians in Hebron yesterday mourned the death of a teenager killed by Israeli forces on his birthday after he allegedly threatened them with a toy gun.

Sixteen-year-old Mohamed Ziad Salayma was shot dead on Wednesday evening at an Israeli checkpoint in the southern West Bank city. Israeli police said he was shot after threatening border policemen in the city with a weapon, which turned out to be a toy. “A young Palestinian man approached a post manned by border guards. One of them asked him for his identity card. The Palestinian attacked him, brandishing a gun that he aimed at the head of the border guard,” a police spokeswoman said.

“Another border guard who was nearby opened fire killing the Palestinian,” she added. The police spokeswoman said bomb disposal experts later discovered that the “pistol was a toy made of metal.” Clashes erupted after Salayma’s death, and continued yesterday morning, with health officials saying 25 people suffered tear gas inhalation and three were wounded by rubber bullets fired by Israeli troops. The Israeli military confirmed clashes had erupted earlier in the day.

“This morning, some Palestinians were throwing rocks and the army dispersed them with riot dispersal means,” a spokesman told AFP. Salayma’s funeral was attended by around 2,000 people, an AFP correspondent said, but there were no reports of violence.—AFP

BEIRUT: Syria’s most powerful ally, Russia, said yesterday that President Bashar Assad is losing control of his country and the rebels might win the civil war, the first time Moscow has acknowledged the regime is cracking under the force of a powerful rebellion.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov also said Moscow is preparing to evacuate thousands of its citizens from Syria, where nearly two years of violent conflict have killed more than 40,000 people and turned Assad into a global pariah.

“An opposition victory can’t be excluded, unfortunately, but it’s necessary to look at the facts: There is a trend for the government to progressively lose control over an increasing part of the territory,” Bogdanov said during hearings at a Kremlin advisory body.

Bogdanov’s statement marks a clear attempt by the Kremlin to begin positioning itself for Assad’s eventual defeat at a time when rebels are making significant gains. Opposition fighters have seized large swaths of territory in north Syria and appear to be expanding their control outside of Damascus, pushing the fight closer to the seat of Assad’s power in the capital. On Wednesday, the US, Europe and their allies recognized the newly reorganized opposition leadership, giving it a stamp of credibility and possibly paving the way for greater international aid to those fighting Assad’s forces. At the same time, international condemnation of the regime has grown more intense as Western officials raise concerns that Assad might unleash his chemical weapons stockpiles against rebels in an act of desperation. On Wednesday, the US and NATO

DAMASCUS: A damaged area is seen after a car bomb explosion in Qatana, 25 kilometers (15 miles) southwest of Damascus yesterday.—AP said Assad’s forces had fired Scud missiles at rebel areas.

NATO’s top official said he thinks Syria President Bashar Assad’s regime is on the brink of collapse. SecretaryGeneral Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the regime’s collapse is “only a matter of time.” He confirmed earlier reports that NATO had detected Syrian forces launching short-range missiles at opposition forces within Syria, saying this illustrated the “utter disregard” for the lives of the Syrian people.

Fyodor Lukyanov, the editor of the magazine Russia in Global Affairs, said Bogdanov’s statement may reflect new information about the situation on the ground. “A public statement like that appears to indicate that the balance is shifting,” he said. Abu Bilal Al-Homsi, an activist based in a rebel-held neighbor-

hood of Homs in central Syria, said he is encouraged by Bogdanov’s comments because Russia is in a position to know about the strength of Assad’s forces.

“The Russians know his capabilities and his military force. Russia knows what warplanes and what weapons he has,” Abu Bilal said via Skype. “The Free Syrian Army is on the verge of strangling Damascus and this indicates that the regime is reaching an end,” he added, referring to the main rebel fighting force. A bomb blast yesterday near a school in the Damascus suburb of Qatana killed 16 people, at least half of them women and children, the state news agency, SANA, reported. The government says it was the latest in a string of similar bombings in and around Damascus that killed at least 25 people in the last two days.

International FRIDAY, DECMBER 14, 2012

Fear grips civilians as war reaches Damascus DAMASCUS: As Syrian rebel fighters edge closer towards central Damascus, displaced families who first flocked to the capital to escape the civil war elsewhere fear they will lose their safe haven.

There is scant evidence that forces loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad are regaining control. Rebels now hold a near continuous arc of territory from the east to the southwest of his capital. Um Hassan, a grandmother who until recently lived in the outskirts of Damascus, gave her daughter’s family refuge after they fled their bombed-out rural home town last month. But before long rebels took over Um Hassan’s neighborhood, a push which was inevitably followed by army bombardment and this week the entire family had to move to another suburb. The grandmother, daughter, son-in-law and two girls found a place with one bedroom and a living room. Um Hassan cleans houses for around $15 a day to supplement the shared rent. “We escape

from one place and trouble follows. I don’t know where we can keep running to,” she told Reuters.

Almost every family in the capital is now doubling up with relatives or friends displaced elsewhere. For them, the city is their final refuge from countrywide fighting and bombardment, but now Damascenes themselves are bracing for the worst.

This week, rebels clashed with government forces right in the centre of the capital, exchanging machinegun fire and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) through the streets of Rawda, a ritzy district near the Central Bank.

“Can you imagine? RPGs fired in a tiny alley? They want Damascus completely destroyed?” said a witness, who withheld his name for safety reasons. Rebels have also announced that Damascus International Airport is now a military target and clashes on the road to the airport, a 25 minute drive from the city centre, are frequent.

At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria’s uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad’s security forces, and which spiralled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts. Perhaps most alarming for Damascenes is that rebels keep promising that the final battle for the capital is imminent. A video posted on YouTube titled “Stages of Zero Hour: Are You Ready?” calls for civil disobedience and general strikes to pressure army troops to abandon their posts and join the rebels.

The video does not specify “Zero Hour”, but say it will be announced through social media, TV channels and mosques.

Once a thriving metropolis with tourists wandering through its Old City and couples sitting in its cafes, Damascus now resembles a garrison town preparing for disaster. Last month, the army placed new missile batteries on the Qasioun mountains, which overlook

the capital, and opposition activists say more batteries are deployed within Damascus’ centre, including one inside the Old City’s medieval citadel.

Day and night, Damascenes can hear the thunderous sound of bombardment aimed at rebel-held and contested neighbourhoods.

The city’s streets have now turned into a labyrinth of checkpoints and road blocks, with several major roads permanently closed off to traffic by concrete barriers.

Vigilant armed men in civilian clothing stand guard at every turn. It is not unusual for them to open fire at the slightest perception of a threat, shooting their Russian-made assault rifles as pedestrians duck for cover.

And, desperate to flush out rebels, Assad’s forces have been strangling their strongholds, preventing much needed supplies from entering even though civilians still live there.

Um Hassan lived through this hardship before she moved. — Reuters

Swiss parliament votes to allow some gays to adopt GENEVA: The lower house of the Swiss parliament yesterday voted to allow gays to adopt in very limited circumstances, bouncing the sensitive issue in the conservative country back to the upper chamber.

With 113 votes in favour and 64 against, the 200-seat house opted to allow gays to adopt any biological or adopted children that their partner had before the start of their relationship.

The lower house, or National Council, thus tiptoed in the footsteps of the upper house, or State Council, which adopted a far broader measure in March. Switzerland’s largest party, the populist right SVP, had called on the lower house to reject Thursday’s motion, insisting children should have a mother and a father. “If we accept this Senate motion today, we are opening a Pandora’s box,” warned SVP’s Oskar Freysinger.

Critics however said that the change did not go far enough and criticized the chamber for not passing the same motion voted through the upper house of parliament in March. That version allowed adoption for all adults, regardless of their lifestyles of marital status.

Yesterday’s vote means the upper house will now need to vote on the narrower motion and if it approves it, the government will be asked to draw up a law proposal that will be resubmitted to a new parliamentary vote.

In light of the sensitive nature of the issue, observers say the government may opt to put it to a national referendum, which would mean that any law could take several years to actually take effect. — AFP

VILNIUS: Lithuanian new Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius holds flowers after swearing an oath during a session of the parliament in Vilnius yesterday. Lithuania’s parliament voted in a new four-party coalition government headed by Social Democrat Algirdas Butkevicius, who pledged to focus on growth after four years of austerity in the Baltic state. — AFP

LONDON: A policeman stands on duty outside as media gather at Westminster Coroner’s Court where the initial inquest into nurse Jacintha Saldanha’s death is being opened, in London yesterday. —AP

MANGALORE: People participate in a candle light rally in Mangalore, India to pay their respects to nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who killed herself in London after taking a hoax call from Australian DJs about the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge. —AP

Nurse in UK royal hoax call case found hanged: Inquest ‘No suspicious circumstances surround death’ LONDON: A nurse at the hospital treating Prince William’s pregnant wife Catherine was found hanging in her room after being duped by a hoax call from an Australian radio station, an inquest heard yesterday. Jacintha Saldanha, 46, who was found in nurses’ quarters near the private King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London on Friday, left three notes before she died, a police officer told the hearing.

The Indian-born mother-of-two also had injuries on one of her wrists.

Police said there were “no suspicious circumstances” surrounding her death.

Detective Chief Inspector James Harman told the opening of the inquest: “Jacintha Saldanha was found by a colleague and a member of security staff. Sadly she was found hanging. There were also injuries to her wrist. “The London Ambulance Service was called to the scene.”

Two notes were found in her room and another was among her possessions, Harman told the hearing at Westminster Coroner’s Court, without revealing their contents. Police are also looking at telephone calls and emails to see if they shed more light on her death, he said. Scotland Yard will “in the very near future” be in contact with Australian police to ask them interview witnesses there, he added.

Saldanha’s husband Benedict Barboza and two teenage children did not attend the hearing.

The full inquest-which could record any one of a number of possible verdicts including suicide or misadventure-will be held in March 2013 after toxicology tests and further investigations.

In England, inquests are held to examine sudden or unexplained deaths. They set out to determine the place and time of death as well as how the deceased came by their death. They do not apportion blame. Setting a provisional date of March 26 for the next hearing, coroner Fiona Wilcox told the court: “I would like the police to pass on my sympathies to her family and everybody who has been touched by this tragic death.”

Australia’s media watchdog yesterday opened an investigation into the prank call. The Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) said its probe was into the broadcaster, 2Day FM, and not presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian who have borne the brunt of worldwide anger. The station’s right to broadcast could either be cancelled, restrictions put on its licence or it could be fined. Saldanha, a nurse originally from near Mangalore on the southwest Indian

coast, was found dead Friday. Three days earlier she answered a prank call to the hospital made by two Australian radio presenters impersonating Queen Elizabeth II and her heir Prince Charles, William’s father. Saldanha put the call through to a nurse who divulged details of Kate’s condition as she recovered from acute morning sickness.

The radio station has pledged at least Aus$500,000 ($523,600) to help the grieving family, but British lawmaker Keith Vaz, who has been acting as their spokesman, said the broadcaster had not done enough. “There has been no written apology, no request for a meeting with the family, and no attempt to travel to the United Kingdom to express contrition,” he said, according to ABC radio which interviewed him. He also questioned how the network arrived at the figure of $500,000.

British Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament on Wednesday that the death is a “complete tragedy.”

“There will be many lessons that need to be learned,” he said, adding that the family should be given “the time and space to grieve”. Kate is continuing to rest and William attended the British premiere of “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey” on his own on Wednesday. — AFP

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Ukraine parliament elects speaker despite brawls Oppn fails to block vote

KIEV: Newly-elected speaker of the Verkhkovna Rada-Ukrainian parliament, Volodymyr Rybak speaks during a session in Kiev yesterday. — AFP

KIEV: Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich’s ruling party installed one of its parliamentary deputies as speaker yesterday despite brawls triggered by opposition attempts to block the vote.

Deputies wrestled with each other in a mass of bodies around the main rostrum in parliament after the opposition tried physically to prevent a vote on Volodymyr Rybak’s nomination.

Backed by their traditional communist allies, Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions secured 250 votes - 226 were required - backing Rybak, indicating they were also likely to succeed in approving Yanukovich’s ally Mykola Azarov as prime minister. In equally rowdy scenes on Wednesday, opposition deputies paralyzed the session by encircling the rostrum to sabotage the ruling coalition’s plans to ease Azarov rapidly into a second term as prime minister. The vote on Azarov’s nomination expected later an early test of the support that Yanukovich, who is expected to bid for a second term as president in 2015, commands in the new chamber.

Yesterday, opposition deputies swarmed around the rostrum when a vote on the appointment of Rybak as speaker was about to be announced, clashing with a group of Regions deputies. Opposition deputies chanted “Shame!” whenever a Regions MP spoke in Russian and tried to remove one Russian speaker from the rostrum. But they were held off by Regions lawmak-

ers as Azarov, a staid 64-year-old conservative, looked on bemused. Rybak, 66, comes from the eastern Ukrainian industrial hub Donetsk - the power base of the Regions - and worked as Yanukovich’s deputy when he headed the government in 2006-2007.

The opposition, which includes deputies loyal to jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, nationalists from the far-right Svoboda and a liberal party led by boxing champion Vitaly Klitschko, accuse the ruling coalition of trying to ram through voting despite violations of parliamentary rules. The pro-business Party of the Regions and their allies enjoyed a strong majority in the last parliament.

But though it is still the biggest single party, it lost seats in the Oct. 28 election and faces an opposition which has been re-energised by the arrival of the Svoboda nationalists and Klitschko’s UDAR (Punch) party.

The two-metre-tall Klitschko stayed away from the brawling, jokingly telling the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper his punches would be too dangerous.

“I understand that many people want Klitschko to launch an offensive but I would like to remind (them) that, for example, in the United States a boxer’s fists are considered weapons and the fists of a world champion are considered nuclear weapons,” he said. “We will not use these weapons for now.” — Reuters

Russia TV reveals new ‘evidence’ on activists MOSCOW: Pro-Kremlin Russian media yesterday claimed to have uncovered new evidence incriminating detained opponents of Vladimir Putin in planning riots with the help of a Georgian lawmaker.

Russia’s state-controlled Pervy Kanal (Channel One) flagship channel led its morning news broadcast with the allegations that activists had met the Georgian MP in Tbilisi to discuss the results of an anti-Vladimir Putin protest on May 6. The activists named in the allegations - Konstantin Lebedev and Leonid Razvozzhayev - have both been detained on charges of plotting mass riots in a hugely controversial criminal case. The TV channel alleged the pair met Georgian lawmaker Givi Targamazde in Georgia a week after the May 6 protest. The demo was marked by bloody clashes between police and protestors on the eve of Putin’s inauguration for a third Kremlin term.

The channel broadcast what it said were audio tapes of Lebedev, Razvozzhayev and another activist Yuri Aimaletdinov; and text excerpts of an alleged Skype conversation between Lebedev and Targamadze. Similar allegations were also published by the Lifenews.ru website known for its good sources in the security forces.

The spokesman of Russia’s powerful Investigative Committee (SK), Vladimir Markin, insisted in a statement that the body was not the source of the media leaks.

But he confirmed that the tapes were part of the criminal case and said they showed that Targamadze had played a “concrete role in organizing the riots” on May 6 and subsequent protests.

The Russian opposition has complained of an unprecedented crackdown-triggered by a smear documentary on pro-Kremlin TV-since Putin returned to the Kremlin.

The media reports alleged that the activists were representing far-left Russian opposition leader Sergei Udaltsov who has been charged, but not detained, in the probe. Udaltsov angrily denied the reports as a “full propaganda attack” and said he was considering suing Markin for slander. “I categorically deny any leadership from the outside, all the more aimed at carrying out riots,” Udaltsov told RIA Novosti.

He said the reports were aimed at discrediting the opposition ahead of another anti-Putin rally, planned for Saturday. That gathering will be a crucial test of whether the protest movement remains a force to be reckoned with. International concern has focused on the case of Razvozzhayev who claims that security forces abducted him in Ukraine and took him back to Russia where he was tortured into confessing.

But although he has since retracted the confession, Markin said this did not matter as investigators already had enough evidence against him. — AFP

MOSCOW: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin gestures during a meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow yesterday. — AFP

Putin slams US rights bill, signals measured response MOSCOW: Russia’s President Vladimir Putin criticized US legislation designed to punish Russian violators of human rights yesterday but said Moscow’s reaction should not be excessive.

The US Senate last week approved a bill that would require the United States to deny visas and freeze the assets of people involved in the abuse and death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian anti-corruption lawyer who died in a Moscow jail in 2009, and other alleged rights violators. President Barack Obama is expected to sign it into law soon. “This is a purely political and unfriendly act,” Putin said. He voiced support for a bill now under consideration in Russia’s parliament that would respond to the US legislation with similar measures, barring entry to Americans deemed to have violated the rights of Russian citizens abroad. But he signalled that Russia’s response would not go far beyond that bill, telling a meeting of lawmakers that Moscow’s reaction “should be adequate but not excessive”.

Russia has said it could respond with other unspecified measures. It denied any connection between the Magnitsky Act and its announcement on Friday of restrictions on meat imports from several countries including the United States.—Reuters

ROME: Democratic Party secretary Pierluigi Bersani answers a question at the foreign press club in Rome yesterday. Bersani said yesterday he is certain that Berlusconi will not win the upcoming elections. —AP

Italy raises cash as Berlusconi vacillates MILAN: Silvio Berlusconi’s vacillations over whether or not to run for Prime Minister of Italy failed to dent investor demand for the country’s debt, leaving borrowing costs steadfastly low in a bond auction yesterday. Italy easily raised 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion) in the sale of 3-year bonds yesterday that saw interest rates, or yields, drop to the lowest level in two years. Italy paid an interest rate of 2.5 percent, compared with 2.64 percent last month.

The country has been back in the spotlight for the last week after Berlusconi’s party pulled its support for Premier Mario Monti’s technocrat government and Berlusconi said he would take another shot at re-election. All this prompted Monti to announce he would step down as soon as the budget is passed.

Nonetheless, the markets, which fell on Monday, have eased-and Berlusconi has again shifted his position, saying Wednesday he will step aside if Monti decides to run under the moderate banner. Monti has not disclosed any future political plans-though he has said he is open to a second term. “No one really cares about Berlusconi,” said Michael Hewson, a senior analyst at CMC Markets in London. “I would suggest he is white noise. ... The markets are fairly comfortable with the political situation in Italy, now that they have had time to assess after Monday.”

Nicholas Spiro, a managing director of Spiro Sovereign strategy, says that the bond market is able to shrug off uncertainty over Italy’s upcoming parliamentary elections thanks to the European Central Bank’s bond-buying program. “Sentiment toward Italy is being heavily shaped by the ECB’s new bond-buying program,” he said. “Italian politics is playing second fiddle to the pledge of unlimited support from the ECB.” Berlusconi’s moves to seek a fourth-term in office prompted European partners to display their displeasuremostly in the form of comments favoring a continuation of euro-friendly Monti’s policies.

Former Premier Lamberto Dini, who ran a technical government in the 1990s, said he found Europe’s response to a Berlusconi bid “a bit undemocratic and excessive.” “It is his right to run,” Dini said at European Council event in Turin.

“Let’s see what his final decision is.”

The latest polls, taken after Berlusoni’s announcement that he would run but before he vacillated, showed a very modest improvement for his People of Liberty Party-to 15 percent support from just under that. And reaction within the party has been mixed, with several notable dissenters, including former Foreign Minister Franco Frattini.—AP

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Japan scrambles fighter jets for China plane Chinese plane breaches Japan airspace NANJING: Kai Satoru (centre right), the son of a Japanese soldier who served in China, bows to a survivor (bottom left) at a ceremony for victims to mark the 75th anniversary of the Nanjing massacre at the Memorial Museum in Nanjing yesterday. — AFP

massacre amid tense Japan ties China marks Nanjing NANJING, China: Sirens wailed in China’s Nanjing city yesterday, 75 years after Japanese troops embarked on mass killing and rape, as a modern-day territorial row between the two saw Tokyo scrambling fighter jets. The two countries-the world’s second- and third-largest economies-have extensive trade and business links, but the weight of Japan’s wartime atrocities still bears heavily on their relationship.

Nearly 10,000 people sang the Chinese national anthem at a commemoration at the Nanjing Massacre Museum, as soldiers in dress uniforms carried memorial wreaths across a stage and officials urged remembrance of the past. Beforehand an elderly woman cried as she placed flowers by the names of family members listed among the victims on a grey stone wall, and a group of Chinese and Japanese Buddhist monks chanted sutras to pray for world peace.

“We are here to recall history, grieve for compatriots who suffered and died, and educate the people... about the lessons of history,” said Nanjing Communist Party chief Yang Weize, the only government official who spoke.

China says 300,000 civilians and soldiers died in a spree of killing, rape and destruction in the six weeks after the Japanese military entered its then capital on December 13, 1937. Some foreign academics put the number of deaths lower, including China historian Jonathan Spence who estimates that 42,000 soldiers and citizens were killed and 20,000 women raped, many of whom later died.

On its website, the Japanese foreign ministry concedes only that “the killing of a large number of noncombatants... occurred” and says that “it is difficult to determine which the correct number is”. Some ultra-conservative Japanese politicians dispute that atrocities ever took place in Nanjing. — AFP

TOKYO: Japan scrambled eight fighter jets yesterday after a Chinese stateowned plane breached its airspace for the first time, over islands at the centre of a dispute between the countries.

It was the first incursion by a Chinese state aircraft into Japanese airspace anywhere since Tokyo’s military began monitoring in 1958, the defense ministry said.

The move marks a ramping-up of what observers suggest is a Chinese campaign to create a “new normal”-where its forces come and go as they please around islands Beijing calls the Diaoyus, but Tokyo controls as the Senkakus.

It also comes as ceremonies mark the sensitive 75th anniversary of the start of the Nanjing Massacre, when Japanese Imperial Army troops embarked on an orgy of violence and killing in the thenChinese capital.

F-15 jets were mobilised after a Chinese Maritime Surveillance twin turbo-prop aircraft ventured over the islands just after 11 am (0200 GMT), Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura told reporters. “It was a fixed-wing Y-12 aeroplane belonging to the Chinese State Oceanic Administration. We confirmed that this aeroplane flew in our country’s airspace,” he said.

“It is extremely regrettable. We will continue to resolutely deal with any act violating our country’s sovereignty, in accordance with domestic laws and regulations,” he said, adding a senior Chinese diplomat had been summoned.

Japan mobilized eight F-15 jets and an E2C early-warning aircraft, the Asahi Shimbun reported, citing a defense ministry source. But the incident appeared to have passed off without any direct confrontation.

In Beijing, China’s foreign ministry said the flight had been routine. “China’s maritime surveillance plane flying over the Diaoyu islands is completely normal,” said spokesman Hong Lei. “China

requires the Japanese side to stop illegal activities in the waters and airspace of the Diaoyu islands,” Hong said, adding they were “China’s inherent territory since ancient times”. The incident came as Japan’s coastguard chief told reporters he was digging in for a protracted dispute. “As China has publicly said it will make this a permanent situation, we are preparing to be better equipped for this long, drawn-out contest,” Takashi Kitamura, the commandant of Japan Coast Guard, told a news conference.

“Because we have various other responsibilities other than patrolling for border security, we are asking government to consider building up our capacity,” he said. Chinese government ships have moved in and out of waters around the islands for more than two monthsfour vessels were there for several hours yesterday. Such confrontations have become commonplace since Japan nationalized the East China Sea islands in

September, a move it insisted amounted to nothing more than a change of ownership of what was already Japanese territory. But Beijing reacted with fury, with observers saying the riots that erupted across China had at least tacit backing from the Communist Party government.

Mitsuyuki Kagami, an expert in Chinese politics at Aichi University said there would be no let-up from Beijing.

“China will keep sending official ships and probably aeroplanes to undermine the status quo of Japan’s control over the islands,” he told AFP. He said it would be more alarming if it began to send military vessels or aircraft, but he believed Beijing had no interest in a war with Tokyo.

“China hopes to draw Japan to the negotiating table,” he said, adding that the likely victory of the hawkish Shinzo Abe in Japan’s general election on Sunday might make any Japanese compromise more difficult. — AFP

In this photo released by Japan Coast Guard 11th Regional Coast Guard, a Chinese airplane flies in Japanese airspace above the islands known as Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese in southwestern Japan yesterday. — AP

N Korea’s satellite orbiting normally, says S Korea

PAJU, S Korea: US tanks move during a military exercise near the demilitarized zone between South and North Koreas, in Paju, South Korea, yesterday. — AP

PYONGYANG, North Korea: A satellite North Korea launched aboard a long-range rocket is orbiting normally, South Korea said yesterday, following a defiant liftoff that drew a wave of international condemnation. Washington and its allies are pushing for punishment over the launch they say is nothing but a test of banned ballistic missile technology.

The launch of the three-stage rocket - similar in design to a model capable of carrying a nucleartipped warhead as far as California - raises the stakes in the international standoff over North Korea’s expanding atomic arsenal. As Pyongyang refines its technology, its next step may be conducting its third nuclear test, experts warn.

South Korea’s Defense Ministry said the satellite launched by the rocket is orbiting normally at a speed of 7.6 kilometers (4.7 miles) per second, though it’s not known what mission it is performing.

North Korean space officials say the satellite would be used to study crops and weather patterns.

Defense Ministry Spokesman Kim Min-seok said

it usually takes about two weeks to determine whether a satellite works successfully after liftoff. He cited data from the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The North American Aerospace Defense Command also said “initial indications are that the missile deployed an object that appeared to achieve orbit.”

The UN Security Council, which has punished North Korea repeatedly for developing its nuclear program, condemned North Korea’s action and said it will urgently consider “an appropriate response.”

The White House called the launch a “highly provocative act that threatens regional security,” and even the North’s most important ally, China, expressed regret.

In Pyongyang, however, pride over the scientific advancement outweighed the fear of greater international isolation and punishment. North Koreans clinked beer mugs and danced in the streets to celebrate. — AP “It’s really good news,” North Korean citizen Jon

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Pakistan military, Taleban guilty of abuses: Amnesty ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan military and the Taleban are guilty of rights abuses with a lack of justice fuelling a crisis in the tribal areas on the Afghan border, a report by Amnesty International said yesterday.

The military is using new security laws and a colonial-era penal system to act with impunity in the northwestern, semi-autonomous region where Taleban and Al-Qaeda-linked violence is concentrated, the watchdog said. A spokesman for the military rejected the allegations as a “pack of lies and part of a sinister propaganda campaign” against the armed forces. The military has arbitrarily detained thousands for long

periods with little or no access to due process, said the report, based on interviews with victims, witnesses, relatives, lawyers, officials and militants. Cases of death and torture have been documented, detainees are not brought before court and relatives have no idea of their fate, sometimes for extended periods of time, said the London-based human rights group.

“Almost every week the bodies of those arrested by the armed forces are being returned to their families or reportedly found dumped across the tribal areas,” said Polly Truscott, Amnesty’s deputy Asia-Pacific director. “The government must immedi-

ately reform the deeply flawed legal system in the tribal areas that perpetuates the cycle of violence,” she added.

Although judges have sought to investigate the fate of people who go missing, Amnesty said no military personnel had been prosecuted for alleged torture, enforced disappearance or deaths in custody. It demanded the repeal of sweeping powers of arrest and detention given to the armed forces in 2011, and called on the jurisdiction of the courts and parliament to be extended to the tribal areas.

Pakistan says more than 35,000 people have been killed as a result of

terrorism in the country since the 9/11 attacks on the United States and that its forces have for years been fighting homegrown militants in the northwest.

A spokesman for the Pakistan military refuted the allegations, calling it a “biased report based on fabricated stories twisted to serve an agenda”. Amnesty also singled out the Taliban and other militant groups for targeting human rights activists, aid workers, journalists and alleged spies. It also reported that the Taleban had brutally executed captured Pakistani troops in contravention of international humanitarian law. — AFP

Millions vote in test for India’s hardliner leader Modi claims BJP storm in Gujarat AHMEDABAD: Millions voted yesterday in India’s Gujarat state where Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi is seeking a big win to spur his prime ministerial ambitions, 10 years after anti-Muslim riots on his watch.

Crowds thronged polling stations in the first of two rounds of voting in the western state, one of India’s fastest developing regions that has been run since 2001 by chief minister Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Polling officials said over 10 million people out of the 38-million-strong electorate had cast their ballots in the first seven hours, amid reports that many more were still queuing up at voting centres.

“It is a BJP storm in Gujarat,” Modi announced at an election rally in the state’s Siddhpur region. “Wherever there is voting, records of all previous polls have been broken,” he told cheering supporters. Modi, who has secured thumping victories in the last two polls,

is looking to secure another sizeable majority for the BJP to bolster his reputation, which was stained by religious riots in Gujarat in 2002.

Though he has never declared his ambition to be prime minister, his desire for the top spot in his party is an open secret and he is widely thought to be angling to lead the BJP into national elections due in 2014. Modi’s links to some of the worst sectarian violence in post-independence India make him a hate-figure for many Muslims and secularists.

He is blamed by some rights groups for turning a blind eye to the unrest in which as many as 2,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in an orgy of violence that saw many victims set alight or hacked to death in public. He denies any wrongdoing.

His main rival in Gujarat is the leftleaning Congress party, which runs the federal government and is dominated by the Gandhi dynasty which has run

ANAND, Gujarat: Indian women stand in a queue to cast their vote at a polling station at Anand in Ahmadabad district, India, yesterday. —AP

India for most of its post-independence history. Rahul Gandhi, the next-in-line who might face Modi in the 2014 national polls, has campaigned locally where he accused his rival of being autocratic and ignoring the poor in the home state of late independence hero Mahatma Gandhi.

“He wants to hear only his own voice.

He has his dream and he thinks only about his own dream,” Gandhi told supporters on Tuesday. The final phase of the balloting is scheduled for December 17, with counting to take place three days later. Some 100,000 security personnel including federal troopers are on duty at around 45,000 polling stationssome 17,000 of which are labelled “vulnerable” to violence-the state home department said.

On Wednesday, Modi was back in the headlines after claiming the federal government was set to “hand over” a disputed strip of water in Gujarat to neighbor Pakistan. “I would earnestly request you to stop this dialogue with Pakistan at once and Sir Creek should not be handed over to Pakistan,” Modi wrote in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, released by his party.

Singh, who has pushed a peace dialogue with Pakistan as a means to reduce tension in nuclear-armed South Asia, countered that the letter was a “mischievous” and “baseless” stunt ahead of the election. The son of a foodstall owner, who rose through the ranks of hardline grassroots Hindu groups, Modi has always denied any wrongdoing in the riots and has never been convicted over the violence.

“Gujarat is progressing because we have peace, unity and compassion here,” Modi told AFP in an interview in October.

On the campaign trail, he has targeted the corruption-plagued federal government in Delhi and the heads of the ruling Congress party, particularly the Italian-born leader Sonia Gandhi, who he portrays as out-of-touch and foreign. — AFP

NEW DELHI: India’s ruling Congress party president Sonia Gandhi (center) pays tribute to Indian parliament security officers who lost their lives in the 2001 attack on India’s parliament during an event to mark the 11th anniversary of the attack, in New Delhi, yesterday. — AP

NASA’s photo error puts Everest in India KATHMANDU: The world’s highest mountain should not be hard to spot but American space agency NASA has admitted it mistook a summit in India for Mount Everest, which straddles the border of Nepal and China.

The agency said on its website that Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko’s snap from the International Space Station, 230 miles (370 kilometres) above Earth, showed Everest lightly dusted with snow.

The picture spread rapidly via Twitter and was picked up by media around the world, including the US-based magazine The Atlantic, astronomy website Space.com and US cable news channel MSNBC. But Nepalis smelt a rat and voiced their suspicions on social media. Journalist Kunda Dixit, an authority on the Himalayas, tweeted: “Sorry guys, but the tall peak with the shadow in the middle is not Mt Everest.” NASA confirmed yesterday that it had made a mistake and removed the picture from its website.

“It is not Everest. It is Saser Muztagh, in the Karakoram Range of the Kashmir region of India,” a spokesman admitted in an email to AFP. “The view is in mid-afternoon light looking northeastward.” He did not explain how the picture from the space station, a joint project of the US, Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe, had been wrongly identified.

Everest, which is 8,848 metres (29,028 feet) high, is an sought-after photographic target for astronauts in orbit but is tricky to capture, according to astronaut Ron Garan, who lived on the International Space Station last year.

“No time is allotted in our work day normally for Earth pictures. So if we want to capture a specific point on the ground we have to first know exactly when we will fly over that spot,” he told The Atlantic. — AFP

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Britain lifts ‘fracking’ ban despite tremors LONDON: Britain’s government said yesterday that a controversial shale gas extraction method known as fracking should resume, despite the fact that it is suspected of having triggered earthquakes. Exploratory fracking can restart under tight controls to “mitigate the risks of seismic activity”, Energy Secretary Edward Davey said in a statement. The British energy firm Cuadrilla Resources had been forced to halt drilling trials on Lancashire’s Fylde coast in northwest England. Its work was thought to have caused a 2.3-magnitude tremor in April 2011 and a 1.5-magnitude tremor in May. But Davey said yesterday: “My decision is based on the evidence. “It comes after detailed study of the latest scientific research available and advice from leading experts in the field.

“We are strengthening the stringent regime already in place with new controls around seismic risks,” he added. “And as the industry develops we will remain vigilant to all emerging evidence to ensure fracking is safe and the local environment is protected.” Davey said shale gas was a “promising new potential energy resource” for Britain which could contribute to energy security and reduce the reliance on imported gas.

Hydraulic fracturing or fracking is the drilling of underground shale rock formations by injecting chemicals and water to release trapped natural gas. Opponents say it causes water pollution but energy groups say it provides access to considerable gas reserves and drives down prices. — AFP

KANDHAHAR: US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (right) speaks to troops during a visit to Kandahar Airfield in Kandahar yesterday. Panetta conferred with commanders in Afghanistan on December 12 on how many US troops should remain in the country after most combat forces withdraw in 2014. — AFP

Census: Non-whites to make up nearly 60% of US by 2060 Hispanic, Asian populations to more than double

LISBON: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, right, poses for a photo with Portuguese Foreign Minister Paulo Portas yesterday at the Necessidades palace, the foreign ministry in Lisbon. Abbas visited Portas to personally thank him for his support leading to the UN General Assembly vote that recognized the Palestinians as a non-member observer state. At left is Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Malki. —AP

Suicide car bomb targets Afghan NATO airbase KANDAHAR: A suicide car bomb exploded near a NATO airbase in southern Afghanistan yesterday, killing two civilians, wounding 15 others and injuring four foreign soldiers, police said.

“The suicide bomber detonated his car as an ISAF convoy was entering the Kandahar airfield,” Kandahar provincial police chief General Abdul Razeq told AFP. “As a result of this suicide attack two civilians have been killed, and 15 civilians and four ISAF soldiers have been injured.” A spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force confirmed the attack, without giving details of any ISAF casualties.

Last week, Taleban suicide attackers struck at a NATO base at Jalalabad airport in eastern Afghanistan, killing five people and wounding several foreign troops in a two-hour battle, officials said. A total of eight attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons were killed, Afghan officials said. Both assaults came as the summer fighting season should be drawing to a close, indicating that the insurgency remains resilient after surviving the biggest onslaught US-led forces will throw against them.

The last of the extra 33,000 soldiers President Barack Obama deployed in a “surge” nearly three years ago left in September, and the vast majority of the remaining NATO force of more than 100,000 will follow by the end of 2014. — AFP

WASHINGTON: A surge in Hispanics and Asians is set to dramatically change the face of the United States over the next 50 years, with no one ethnic group the majority, according to US figures that depict an aging nation with slower population growth.

By 2060, non-whites will make up 57 percent of the US population, more than doubling from 116.2 million in 2012 to 241.3 million, according to projections by the US Census Bureau released on Wednesday.

Racial minorities are now 37 percent of the population, it said. The shift will largely be fueled by minority births that continue to outpace those of whites, the agency said, based on data from the 2010 Census. Nearly one in three US residents will be Hispanic by 2060, up from one in six now, it said. The Asian population is also expected to more than double over the next five decades.

“The US will become a plurality nation, where the non-Hispanic white population remains the largest single group, but no group is in the majority,” Thomas Mesenbourg, the agency’s acting director, said in a statement. The United States has been on a steady path to greater racial diversity, and experts have predicted for years that minorities would be the “majority” before 2050. The Census Bureau on Wednesday projected that would happen in 2043. Such a shift may take decades, but the expected changes are already reshaping politics, public policy, the economy and consumer spending.

The looming changes are especially evident as the country grapples with controversial issues from immigration and gay marriage to Medicare reform and social safety net programs in the wake of the recent presidential election. Last month, US President Barack Obama won a second term with overwhelming support from Latinos, blacks and younger voters. Gay marriage - now before the nation’s top court - has been legalized in several states, which experts say shows growing acceptance among younger Americans.

Companies and advertisers have adapted strategies amid changing US demographics by targeting more shopping malls aimed at Hispanic shoppers. Although the white population has already declined in several states like California and Texas, the report underscores the trend nationwide, said Steve Murdock, former Census director and a sociologist at Rice University. “This is increasingly a

pervasive diversification ... It’s not a few areas,” he said. Johns Hopkins University sociologist Andrew Cherlin cautioned that the report is only a prediction based on factors that could change. “Minority groups are clearly gaining in numbers, but we can’t be certain exactly when we’ll become a ‘majority minority’ nation,” he said. “This gives us a sense of what we might look like, but we can’t be sure. This is a half-century from now.”

The number of older Americans is expected to more than double. Those age 65 and older will rise from 43.1 million in 2012, or one in seven, to 92 million in 2060, or one in five, according to the Census Bureau. “The increase in the number of the ‘oldest old’ would be even more dramatic,” the agency said in its statement.

Americans age 85 and older will more than triple from 5.9 million to 18.2 million over the same period, it predicted.

“Projections show the older population would continue to be predominately nonHispanic white, while younger ages are increasingly minority,” Census wrote.

Earlier this year, births of non-white US

babies for the first time reached more than 51 percent, a trend influenced by the rise in interracial marriages.

Paul Taylor of the Pew Research Center said the Census findings signal the nation’s dramatic division into two main groups: the older white population and the increasingly diverse younger generations.

The change in demographics will present challenges to policymakers. As the population ages, more people will be dependent on programs like Medicare and Social Security, but there will be fewer younger workers to pay for these programs. Lawmakers will have to balance the needs of the different groups.

“These are uncharted waters for this country,” Taylor said. Even as the white population declines, it will still make up the largest ethnic group, even though whites will no longer hold the majority. In 2060, there will be about 179 million whites compared, for example, to 128.8 million Hispanics, Census said. As for Census’ prediction that whites will become the minority in 2043, Hopkins’ Cherlin said, “I’m not convinced we’re going to get there that fast.”—Reuters

S Africa deputy president in race to lead ANC JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s softspoken Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe will compete next week against President Jacob Zuma to lead the country’s ruling party, the African National Congress.

Motlanthe accepted nominations from several provinces and the party’s youth league to enter the race to be the ANC’s next president, his spokesman Thabo Masebe said yesterday.

The announcement ends weeks of uncertainty as Motlanthe previously told foreign journalists he was “agonizing” over whether to accept the call to challenge Zuma, whose popularity has faded over corruption allegations and questions about his personal life. Motlanthe also accepted nominations to hold onto his current position as the ANC’s deputy president, as well as to hold another

leadership position in the party, Masebe said. That could put Motlanthe in position to hold onto his deputy president post even if he loses out to Zuma for the top spot. However, others have been discussed as possible replacements for the deputy position in a bid to push out Motlanthe, 63.

Becoming leader of the ANC means a nearly automatic ticket to becoming the president in post-apartheid South Africa.

Opposition parties don’t garner the widespread support given to the ANC, the party of anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela. The party’s president will become the state president, if the ANC wins national elections in 2014, and its deputy president will serve in the same national office. In many ways, Motlanthe appears to offer almost the opposite qualities of Zuma, 70. —Reuters

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Obama backers turn from re-election to ‘fiscal cliff’ Grassroots pressure could weaken Republicans WASHINGTON: After a year of knocking on doors and working the phones to get US President Barack Obama reelected, Meechie Biggers had gotten over her fear of talking politics with strangers. So when she came to Washington last week, the small-town real estate agent and a few like-mind-

giving people your two cents,” Biggers said. The election ended more than a month ago, but the campaign continues for many of the 2 million-plus foot soldiers who helped secure Obama’s second term.

Flush with victory, many volunteers and staffers are now mounting a grass-

NEW YORK: A video of US President Barack Obama speaking to victims of Hurricane Sandy is projected as The Who perform during “12-12-12 The Concert For Sandy Relief” at Madison Square Garden in New York. — AFP ed Tennesseeans paid a visit to one of their Republican senators, Bob Corker, to try to persuade him to back Obama’s proposal to raise tax rates for the wealthy. Biggers didn’t think she had much of a chance of changing his mind, and perhaps she didn’t. But four days later, Corker became the latest Republican to say his party should consider Obama’s proposed tax hike as part of a year-end budget deal. “It’s a testament to knocking on doors and

roots effort to ensure that any deal that emerges from year-end “fiscal cliff” discussions includes a tax increase on the wealthiest households. It’s an open question how many will stick with him if he is forced to consider cutting popular programs such as Medicare that enjoy broad support on the left. But for now, it’s a chance to help Obama fulfill one of his central campaign promises economic justice - and build on the momentum of his re-election. It also

enables them to maintain friendships and a sense of purpose that were forged through the campaign.

“You can only go to so many celebrations, parties and lunches. And then you’re ready to help the president get done what he needs to get done,” said Lenda Sherrell, a retired accountant from Monteagle, Tennessee, who visited Corker along with Biggers. The effort gives Obama added leverage in Washington at a time when many Republican allies are undergoing a painful re-examination in the wake of last month’s election. Groups aligned with the conservative Tea Party movement, who pressed successfully for deep spending cuts in earlier budget fights, have been less visible in the fiscal-cliff battle, and business groups have pressed Republican lawmakers to abandon their no-tax-hike stance.

The grassroots pressure from the left could weaken Republicans’ resolve to hold the line against tax hikes, said Chris Arterton, a professor of political management at George Washington University. “It tends to take the wind out of their sails if their citizens are pushing in a direction that is absolutely contradictory to the politician’s views,” he said.

Corker’s office said he appreciates hearing from his constituents but he has not changed his view that increased tax revenue should come from eliminating deductions rather than raising rates.

The post-election effort stands in stark contrast to Obama’s first term, when officials did not keep his massive grassroots organization engaged in battles over spending, health care and climate change. — Reuters

Florida caseworker stabbed to death during home visit DADE CITY, Florida: The death of an inexperienced health care caseworker in Florida underscores the dangers of in-home visits by social workers and health care professionals.

Police say 25-year-old Stephanie Ross was stabbed to death Monday morning during a visit to Lucious Smith’s apartment in Dade City.

Authorities say Ross had visited Smith before and even noted in his file that there was something that made her feel very uncomfortable around him.

She also wrote that future visits should be done with another person but she still made the visit alone.

Some states have added safeguards to prevent attacks on caseworkers, such as pairing them up with another worker for home visits or assigning a police escort, but the additional measures are sometimes too costly for states and private companies. —AP

MANAGUA: A woman holds in her hands a flower during a mass held in La Merced Church, in Managua, to pray for the health of Hugo Chavez, on Wednesday. — AFP

OKINAWA: A local protester walks by a banner against US Marines in Okinawa hung on a fence near a gate of the US Marine Corps Futenma air station in Ginowan, Okinawa, southwestern Japan. Okinawans are angry that Japan approved the deployment of 12 Osprey aircraft, which began in October, though the government has asked for additional assurances of the aircraft’s safety. Washington said the Osprey is safe and is needed to ensure regional security. — AP

California robbery spurs chase, long campus lockdown LOS ANGELES: What began as yet another car chase on Southern California freeways turned into a saga that spanned three counties, with one of five suspects arrested within sight of the Los Angeles police chief at a charity event and another leaving thousands of students and staff stranded for hours into the night as police searched for the suspect on the Cal State Fullerton campus.

The five were suspected in an armed robbery Wednesday at a pawn shop and jewelry store. Two of the suspects remained at large late Wednesday, with one believed to be hiding on campus. The other three were in custody. The search at Cal State Fullerton was centered on the southeast edge of campus, said Chris Bugbee, the school’s director of public relations.

Students were alerted via text message at about 4 p.m. and were told to stay where they were with doors locked. Many remained in classrooms and offices more than seven hours later.

Students stayed connected to family, friends and media outlets via text messages, phone calls and Twitter from classrooms and dorm rooms, some with doors barricaded. “We’ve made a makeshift bathroom out of trash cans, and whatever happens here stays here. That’s the rule,” Robert Pachorek, a student holed up in a classroom in Langsdorf Hall, told KABC-TV in a call from his cellphone. Police believe at least one suspect fled into Mihaylo Hall at the university’s College of Business, where some occupants were evacuated.

“We saw all these cops coming through with - I think they were like AKs or something. They were pretty big guns,” student Nate Chu told KABC. “And they eventually told us we had to leave the campus.” SWAT officers were clearing Mihaylo Hall room by room, and the suspect had yet to be found seven hours after the search began.

All students were safe, school officials said. A slow stream of students began leaving campus late Wednesday, telling several television news stations that police had cleared their buildings and allowed them to leave.

At least one person fired a handgun while attempting to rob the combination pawn shop and jewelry store in Moreno Valley just after 3 p.m., according to Riverside County sheriff’s Cpl. Angel Ramos. One person was shot and survived, but police had no further details on his condition late Wednesday.

Five suspects fled the robbery in a gray Lexus and were stopped by police in Fullerton when the sedan rear-ended a vehicle near the school. Two people were detained soon after the crash. — AP

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Qatar gives SocGen an honorable exit from Egypt

European shares down 0.4%, world shares flat

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LOS ANGELES: Lufthansa’s Boeing 747-8 Brandenburg aircraft arrives at Los Angeles International Airport, after its inaugural passenger flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Los Angeles. — AP

Airbus gambles on giving managers wings New CEO aims to raise profit margin five-fold PARIS: Frenchman Fabrice Bregier is waging a quiet revolution at the world’s biggest planemaker, Airbus, gambling that he can achieve spectacular profit growth by letting his managers manage.

After years of top-down reforms to fix poor coordination that once reduced Airbus to disarray, Bregier has ushered in decentralization since becoming chief executive in June. The industrial engineer has already played a leading role in turning around Airbus, the global rival to US Boeing, since joining six years ago as number two at the subsidiary of the European aerospace group EADS. Now he believes that keyhole surgery will help to multiply Airbus profit margins five-fold and keep up with strong demand for its airliners from Asia.

“We have extra potential if we behave again as a small business unit. That is what we need to target,” the recently promoted chief executive told Reuters in an interview. Such change is risky in an industry where tiny errors can cost billions, as investors and airlines learned to their cost when coordination broke down on the A380 superjumbo or Boeing lost control of the supply chain for its 787 Dreamliner.

But after reaching 60,000 workers, Airbus has become too big to run from the centre as Bregier aims to lift profit margins to 10 percent by 2015 from a meagre 1.8 percent in 2011. “We have decided to change the organization a little bit, which was very concentrated,” he said in the interview con-

ducted in London. “We will of course keep all of the harmonization of our ways of working, but will decentralize further to local teams that can manage their objectives.” It is a delicate manoeuvre for the 51-year-old head of a company that started out 40 years ago with lofty European ambitions but a patchwork structure of national fiefdoms.

It is also a potentially astute one following a row between Airbus and Germany over jobs, taking the sting out of charges that power is concentrating at the company’s French headquarters in Toulouse.

Bregier is tipped as the next chief executive of parent EADS, following Germany’s Tom Enders. France and Germany agreed last week on the biggest overhaul of EADS in over in a decade, following a failed attempt at merging with UK defence company BAE Systems. The German state will take a direct stake for the first time, but analysts say the deal also severely curbs government powers to interfere.

POLITICAL ENVIRONMENT Bregier admits that politics still plays a role in his part of the group, as well as its rival. “Airbus is in a political environment; I will not deny it, of course,” he said. “Who can say that Boeing is not in a political environment?”

When Bregier joined Airbus as operations chief in 2006 after running sister company Eurocopter, Airbus was at war with itself and Franco-German industrial relations were at a low point. The crisis,

which cost the company billions of dollars and brought down three CEOs, was traced to a simple decision by engineers in Toulouse and in the German city of Hamburg to use different versions of the same digital design software.

As a result, cables were found to be millimeters short when sections of A380 superjumbos were delivered for assembly, setting the prestigious project back by years. The mistake led to a huge profit warning and accelerated a restructuring involving 10,000 job cuts. Power was centralized and “transversal” teams created in a drive for ever deeper integration between staff in France, Germany, Britain and Spain. But Bregier, who also ran Europe’s largest missile company MBDA before joining Airbus, believes centralized organization has reached its limits as Airbus spreads its wings outside Europe with plants in China and, soon, the United States.

Today, for example, a factory manager might have to wait two weeks instead of two days for new drawings from a central engineering pool because of competition from other departments. From Jan 1, the factory manager will have operational authority over some engineering resources, avoiding delays. “It is a huge change,” explains Marc Fontaine, Airbus company secretary and one of Bregier’s closest aides. “It sounds normal but you have to understand this company has long been organized around functions and geographical units

which are difficult to manage at the scale of Europe, so we are striving to empower our people more.” Investors appear to believe Airbus, which accounts for two thirds of EADS sales, is serious about closing a profitability gap with Boeing, whose 2011 commercial margin was 9.7 percent.

EADS shares have risen fourfold from a low of less than 8 euros in 2006. But markets remain on alert for any new problems. “In theory, decentralization is a good idea as it takes out layers of bureaucracy,” said Societe Generale analyst Zafar Khan. “But it is like an orchestra; the danger comes if it is not monitored and coordinated. On the A380 in 2006, everyone was doing a great job, but collectively it was a disaster.”

BOXING GLOVES Bregier was educated at two of France’s elite engineering schools, the Polytechnique and the 17th-century Ecole des Mines. The approachable, soccer-loving Frenchman lacks the aloof demeanor of many who trod the same path - even Polytechnique’s famously short nickname, “X,” enhances its cult status - yet his methods and philosophy remain an enigma to many in the industry.

One reason is Bregier has spent most of his time at Airbus pushing through the “Power8” restructuring plan. It earned him a reputation for being tough but gave away little about his long-term vision for Airbus as a CEO-in-waiting. —Reuters

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Qatar gives SocGen an honorable exit DUBAI: Qatar has given Societe Generale an honorable exit from Egypt. State-backed Qatar National Bank will buy the French bank’s 77 percent stake in its Egyptian unit, National Societe Generale Bank (NSGB), through a mandatory tender offer valuing the whole at $2.6 billion.

The valuation of 2 times book value is lower than prerevolution multiples, and SocGen will have to carry some currency risk. But with few-sizeable buyers willing to live with Arab spring volatility, it makes sense for SocGen to shrink while it can. The French group has had to swallow a post-revolution discount to end any lingering concerns about its capital ratios. Prior to the uprising, NSGB traded at almost three times book. The central bank’s long freeze on new licenses, combined with the growth

potential of a country with a population of 80 million and banking penetration of just 10 percent, means Egyptian banks enjoy higher valuations than in other emerging markets: Turkey’s Denizbank sold for just 1.3 times book earlier this year.

The valuation also reflects the currency risk facing both buyer and seller. Though QNB’s bid is denominated in dollars, it will be converted into the equivalent pershare value in Egyptian pounds when the offer is formally launched. SocGen will then be exposed to currency fluctuations until the offer closes a month later. The Egyptian pound is expected to devalue by 10 percent against the dollar within the next year, having already weakened by more than 5 percent in the two years since

the uprising. Limited liquidity in the foreign exchange market could make it tricky to hedge the risk.

Qatar has a higher tolerance for Middle East risk than its Western counterparts and the emirate is close to Egypt’s new Islamist leaders. Indeed, the deal is further evidence of how the Arab spring has provided QNB with an opportunity to take a big step toward fulfilling its long-term goal to become an “iconic” brand and, implicitly, the biggest bank in the Middle East and North Africa. With a market capitalization of $25 billion, QNB recently invested in Libya and Iraq and remains keen on Turkey and Morocco as it diversifies from its slowing domestic market. SocGen’s honourable retreat is Qatar’s gain.— Reuters

Fed ties rate pledge to a threshold as stimulus set Fed adopts numerical thresholds in surprise move

ATHENS: A homeless man begs for money in the center of Athens yesterday.

Much-needed rescue funds for Athens “will be flowing to Greece as early as next week,” the head of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker said yesterday. — AFP

Banking deal boosts EU leaders in fighting crisis BRUSSELS: The European Union reached a landmark deal yesterday to make the European Central Bank the bloc’s top banking supervisor, giving EU leaders greater confidence that they are gaining the upper hand over the eurozone’s debt crisis. EU finance ministers forged a deal on the single supervisor in the early hours of yesterday after marathon talks. Leaders will give their stamp of approval at a summit starting later in the day, their last of 2012, and also discuss closer fiscal ties for their troubled currency area.

After a hectic year of crisis management, during which Greece had a close brush with the euro-zone exit, getting an agreement on the first stage of a banking union is a victory for the EU and represents a bold step towards pooling sovereignty. “The importance of the deal cannot be assessed too highly,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Europe’s most powerful leader, told parliament in Berlin before heading to Brussels. “We succeeded in securing Germany’s key demands.”

But there will be no time to relax. The next stages of banking union - creating a resolution fund for winding up troubled banks and coordinating deposit guarantees to protect savers - will be fought over even harder. And then there will be political and financial hurdles to negoti-

ate through the year. With Silvio Berlusconi vowing to contest an Italian election early next year, a full bailout of Spain still on the cards and a German general election in September casting a long shadow, 2013 promises to be the EU’s fourth turbulent year in a row, and that’s without mentioning Greece, Ireland or Portugal. The immediate priority is to finalize the legal framework for banking union and get the backing of the European Parliament. Then the ECB must hire staff and decide how to carry out its mandate. It may not start supervision until April at earliest, and will only be fully operational in March 2014.

Officials said the ECB would regulate some 150 to 200 banks directly, mostly major cross-border systemic lenders and state aided institutions, with the power to delve into all 6,000 banks in case of problems. “It’s very good news that shows that step-by-step the euro-zone and the European Union are coming out of the crisis,” French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici told reporters.

Completing such a complex process would be one of the EU’s biggest achievements since the region’s debt crisis erupted in early 2010, and might go some way to severing the so-called doom loop between indebted banks and shaky governments.—Reuters

WASHINGTON: The US Federal Reserve, announcing a new round of monetary stimulus, took the unprecedented step on Wednesday of indicating interest rates would remain near zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent. It was the latest in a series of unorthodox measures taken by central banks around the world to battle erratic, sub-par recoveries from the financial crisis and recession of 20072009. The Fed expects to hold rates steady until its new threshold on unemployment was reached as long as inflation does not threaten to break above 2.5 percent and inflation expectations are contained. It also replaced an expiring stimulus program with a fresh round of Treasury debt purchases. The central bank previously said it expected to hold rates near zero through at least mid-2015, but policymakers were uncomfortable making a pledge based on the calendar rather than the economic goals they hope to achieve.

“By tying future monetary policy more explicitly to economic conditions, this formulation of our policy guidance should ... make monetary policy more transparent and predictable to the public,” Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told a news conference. Importantly, in the eyes of Fed officials, the new framework should help financial markets assess incoming data in a way that helps them better guess were monetary policy is heading.

Right now, the Fed is engaged in an open-ended program of asset purchases, which it bolstered on Wednesday.

Officials committed to buy $45 billion in longer-term Treasuries each month on top of the $40 billion per month in mortgage-backed bonds they started purchasing in September. They repeated a pledge to keep pumping money into the economy until the outlook for the labor market improves “substantially.” “The committee remains concerned that, without sufficient policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions,” the Fed’s policy-setting panel said after a two-day meeting.

BALANCE SHEET ACTION The Fed will fund the new Treasury purchases with an expansion of its $2.8 trillion balance sheet. Under the expiring “Operation Twist” program, the Fed bought an identical amount, but paid for them with proceeds from sales and redemptions of short-term debt. Some policymakers view actions that expand the Fed’s balance sheet as economically more potent than actions that do not. However, Bernanke said the dose of stimulus would remain about the same, given that the central bank is still purchasing a combined $85 billion per month in longer-term securities.

“They see an anemic economy, and they’re doing all they can to get any economic progress,” said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates in Toledo, Ohio. The Fed’s decision initially gave a small lift to US stock prices, but the major indexes closed mostly unchanged, while government bond prices fell. Oil prices rose and the dollar weakened against the euro. Fed policymakers voted 11-1 to back the new plan. Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, dissented, as he has at every meeting this year, expressing opposition both to the bond buying and the new economic thresholds.

SWEATING A WEAK RECOVERY The newly unveiled numerical policy guidelines offered the most specific suggestion yet that the Fed is willing to tolerate slightly higher inflation as it tries to juice up a moribund economy and spur stronger job growth. A drop in the unemployment rate to 7.7 percent in November from 7.9 percent in October was driven by workers exiting the labor force, and therefore did not come close to satisfying the condition the Fed has set for trimming its stimulus. In response to the financial crisis and recession, the Fed slashed overnight rates to zero almost exactly four years ago and bought some $2.4 trillion in mortgage and Treasury securities to keep longterm rates down.

Despite its unconventional and aggressive efforts, US economic growth remains tepid. Gross domestic product grew at a 2.7 percent annual rate in the third quarter, but a Reuters poll published on Wednesday showed economists expect it to expand at just a 1.2 percent pace in the current quarter. Businesses have hunkered down, fearful of a tightening of fiscal policy as politicians in Washington wrangle over ways to avoid a $600 billion mix of spending reductions and expiring tax cuts set to take hold at the start of 2013. Bernanke has warned that running over this “fiscal cliff” would lead to a new recession. He told reporters the Fed could ramp up its bond buying “a bit,” but emphasized that monetary policy has limits and could not fully offset the impact.

NEW TACK ON RATES He said the central bank would look at a range of indicators, not just the rates of unemployment and inflation, in determining when to finally push overnight borrowing costs higher, adding that the Fed was not on “auto pilot.”

“Reaching the thresholds will not immediately trigger a reduction in policy accommodation,” Bernanke said. “No single indicator provides a complete assessment of the state of the labor market.” Bernanke said the new framework was consistent with the earlier calendar guidance, because officials do not expect the jobless rate to reach 6.5 percent until sometime in 2015. Indeed, a fresh set of economic projections from the Fed put the rate in a 6 percent to 6.6 percent range in the fourth quarter of 2015. At the same time, the projections showed that at no point over that forecast horizon does the central bank see inflation topping its 2 percent target.

Officials held to their assessment that they could eventually push the unemployment rate down to a 5.2 percent to 6 percent range without sparking inflation, although Bernanke cautioned that policy would have to start tightening before it fell so low. In its statement, the Fed said its long-term asset purchase program would end well before any rate increase. Fed policymakers see GDP expanding between 2.3 percent and 3.0 percent next year. That is down from the 2.5 percent to 3.0 percent they forecast in September, but is still a bit more optimistic than most private forecasters. The Reuters poll of economists found a median US growth estimate of 2.1 percent for next year. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Nexen’s Gulf oilfields key to China deepwater ambitions US politicians have voiced national security concerns HONG KONG: CNOOC Ltd’s purchase of Canadian energy producer Nexen Inc may prove to be bittersweet if US regulators block the Chinese state-run oil company from taking over Nexen’s oilfields in the Gulf of Mexico. CNOOC won a major coup last week by securing Ottawa’s consent for the $15.1 billion deal, China’s largest ever overseas acquisition, but the company is still waiting for approval from the US government. While the Gulf assets are just a fraction of Nexen’s reserve base and production, they would give CNOOC a foothold in the world’s premier deepwater oil province from which to acquire the technical know-how to drill in the contested South China Sea. “The Nexen prize is the hi-tech ultradeepwater drilling tech,” said a person familiar with CNOOC’s business strategy, adding that the Gulf of Mexico assets were “one of the key reasons that they are buying Nexen”.

Approval from Washington is also important to CNOOC as it wants to be endorsed as an acceptable operator in the United States after American politicians blocked its highprofile bid for Unocal in 2005, according to another source. A rejection would not sink the entire deal-CNOOC is ready to buy Nexen excluding the US assets, people familiar with the situation told Reuters. But it would be a major blow to CNOOC’s deepwater ambitions.

An acquisition of the Gulf of Mexico assets would make CNOOC the operator of deepwater producing assets for the first time, giving it the prized opportunity to grasp the expertise it desperately needs to realise its production target. China, the world’s largest energy user, is already relying on imports for more than half of its oil needs.

The country has long hoped to expand deepwater exploration in the South China Sea as onshore production growth sags.

CNOOC, which derives nearly all its domestic output from shallow waters, has vowed to build deepwater capacity of 1 million barrels of oil equivalents per day by 2020, more than doubling the company’s total production. Buying Nexen-most of whose reserves are oil sands and shale gas in Canada and crude oil in the North Sea-would mark a “material entry into the Gulf of Mexico” and an “increase in access to deepwater expertise”, CNOOC said in a July presentation after it announced its bid for Nexen. As the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, examines whether the deal presents any threats to national security, a handful of US politicians have voiced concerns. One issue the committee will examine, CFIUS experts say, is whether Nexen’s assets are too close to sensitive US military areas.

Senator James Inhofe, soon to be the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Reuters on Tuesday that he hopes CFIUS forces CNOOC to divest the assets. “It’s the same as it would be when I object to their presence in our borders in California, or the Panama canal- they’re not our reliable ally,” Inhofe said. Under US law, CFIUS operates in complete secrecy and it is not known when it may make a decision or

close to a Navy military site used to test unmanned drones in Oregon.

ROME: A placard reads ‘closed for strike’ at a petrol station during a strike in Rome. The strike of petrol stations in Italy started the day before 7 PM and will last until today 7 PM. — AFP which way it is leaning. CNOOC has declined comment on the review and Nexen had no immediate comment.

UNOCAL OVERHANG CNOOC was forced to abandon its $18.5 billion bid for California-based Unocal in 2005 because of bitter opposition on sovereignty grounds from US lawmakers. The rebuke influenced its bid for Nexen, and it carefully prepared for the review processes it would face. Some energy analysts and investment bankers not involved in the transaction say they believe the US government would approve the deal, perhaps with some agreements on who operates the rigs, as CNOOC is just buying a relatively small portfolio in the Gulf. Nexen produced 22,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in the region in 2011, less than 2 percent of overall Gulf of Mexico production. The Gulf accounts for around 10 percent of Nexen’s production

and 5 percent of its proved and probable reserves, according to recent company statements.

Foreign oil and gas companies are very common in the Gulf both as operators and lease owners-Royal Dutch Shell and BP Plc are the two largest oil producers there.

Brazil’s state-controlled Petrobras also has a substantial position in the Gulf. Analysts and bankers also pointed to the approval of recent acquisitions of minority stakes in some US onshore oil and gas assets by CNOOC and China’s Sinopec Group, parent of Asia’s largest refiner Sinopec Corp. “I am going to toss the coin and say look, given Canada has approved, it is more likely now the US will approve,” said Simon Powell, head of Asian oil and gas research at CLSA in Hong Kong. But CFIUS standards can often be murky. For instance, a privately owned Chinese company was blocked in September from building wind turbines

SOUTH CHINA SEA AMBITION As China’s energy demand soars, CNOOC and other state Chinese oil firms like Sinopec Group have been venturing into deepwater projects in partnership with global oil majors such as Total and Shell in west Africa and offshore Brazil in the last few years. But the Chinese firms mostly play a minority, passive role in such projects, with limited access to deepwater exploration and production know-how and hence with lack of exposure to the entire operational process. That leaves an acquisition as the other route to acquiring new technical expertise. “What they could learn in the Gulf of Mexico could be deployed back into the domestic, South China Sea exploration in terms of best practices in the longer term,” said Gordon Kwan, head of energy research at Mirae Asset Securities in Hong Kong.

CNOOC launched its first ultra-deepwater rig earlier this year and it is drilling south of Hong Kong in an area within Beijing’s ambit.

Industry watchers expect CNOOC will eventually move the $1 billion rig to explore in deeper and more oil-rich waters further south in the South China Sea, where China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping territorial claims. The deepwater area of the South China Sea remains untapped, largely because tensions between rival claimants have made oil companies and private rigbuilders reluctant to explore contentious acreage well away from sovereign coastlines.

Rich hydrocarbon resources are believed to lie below the centre and south of the South China Sea, which is in the disputed zone. Estimates for proven and undiscovered oil reserves in the entire sea range from 28 billion to as high as 213 billion barrels of oil, the US Energy Information Administration said in a March 2008 report. That would be equivalent to more than 60 years of current Chinese demand, under the most optimistic outlook, and surpass every country’s proven oil reserves except Saudi Arabia and Venezuela, according to the BP Statistical Review. Chinese state media have called the South China Sea “the second Persian Gulf”.

CNOOC also hopes to use the acquisition of Nexen to form a foundation for growth in the Gulf of Mexico, analysts say.

Currently, it just owns a minority stake in a deepwater joint venture project with Nexen in the Gulf and some relatively small assets divested by Norway’s Statoil in 2009.

Its deepwater capabilities should also benefit from Nexen’s projects in the North Sea. Nexen has 43 percent of the Buzzard oilfield in the North Sea, Britain’s largest pumping about 200,000 barrels per day. They are not deepwater projects but CNOOC can learn how to deal with harsh weather-expertise also key for CNOOC to expand its deepwater footprint, analysts say. “You learn how to conduct drilling in extreme weather. It is not deep water but it is harsh weather,” said Mirae’s Kwan. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Brent slips towards $109 on stockpiles LONDON: Brent crude slipped toward $109 a barrel yesterday on rising US oil stockpiles, while fears that the world’s largest economy might miss a deadline for next year’s budget and risk a recession also kept bulls in check. Brent crude fell 19 cents to $109.31 a barrel by 1112 GMT, while US crude was at $86.34, down 43 cents. The January Brent contract expires today. The US dollar strengthening almost 0.2 percent against a basket of currencies also weighed on oil prices. Deadlocked talks to avert a “fiscal cliff” of steep tax hikes and budget cuts in the United States returned to investors’ focus after announcements by the US Federal Reserve of more monetary stimulus buoyed global markets on Wednesday.

Failure to reach a compromise on the US budget by the end of the year risks pushing the world’s biggest oil consumer

into recession and has stoked fears that a fragile recovery trend emerging in China and some other countries would be stifled. Sharp differences on the 2013 budget persisted between Congressional Republicans and the White House on Wednesday, when negotiators warned the showdown could drag on past Christmas. “People are worried about the economy, the fiscal cliff in the US and the European economy still remains a tricky one,” said Richard Langkemper, analyst at Argos North Sea Group in Rotterdam.

“Refinery margins in Europe are very thin at the moment,” he added.

US crude inventories rose last week against expectations of a fall while gasoline and distillates stockpiles jumped more than expected. The jump in fuel stocks came despite a pull-back in refinery output and steady import levels. “You saw distillates stocks and especially gaso-

Gold drops about 1% SINGAPORE: Gold dropped about 1 percent yesterday after the Federal Reserve linked its monetary policy to unemployment, raising concerns that future economic stimulus could be limited. Gold benefits from easy monetary policy as it drives investors who fear diminishing value in fiat currencies to seek safety in hard assets such as bullion. Gold has risen nearly 9 percent so far this year.

The Fed said it plans to buy $45 billion in longer-term Treasuries each month on top of the $40 billion monthly purchase of mortgage-backed securities, as expected, but set unemployment and inflation thresholds for exit strategy. “This announcement is a bit confusing to gold investors as it linked policy to unemployment, etc.,” said a Tokyo-based trader. “Perhaps the market wanted unlimited QE.” Last month the US unemployment rate dropped to a near four-year low of 7.7 percent, although the better number was the result of a lower number of job-seekers.

Spot gold dropped 1 percent to $1,693.80 an ounce earlier in the day, before paring some losses to stand at $1,699.20 by 0754 GMT. Fed’s move to buy bonds had pushed up prices to a near two-week top of $1,723.01 on Wednesday. When prices dropped below the 100-day moving average above $1,705, stop-loss selling was triggered, traders said. The most-active US gold futures contract lost as much as 1.3 percent to $1,695.5 an ounce, and recovered to $1,701.40. Nearly 38,000 lots already changed hands, higher than what normally would be traded in Asian hours. Physical gold buying demand is expected to pick up after prices fell below $1,700 level, traders said. “Physical demand seems to be supportive, but can’t offset all investor selling,” said the Tokyo-based trader.

GOLD SEEN BOUND IN A RANGE But gold is likely to remain rangebound, as many investors are closing books for the year, while the difficult US budget talks keep them away from big bets. The negotiation could drag on past Christmas given sharp differences between congressional Republicans and the White House on how to avert steep tax hikes and budget cuts. “The near term risk is a stronger dollar,” said Jeremy Friesen, commodity strategist at Societe Generale in Hong Kong. “The ‘fiscal cliff’ is going right to the end, and that could support the dollar and take some shine off gold.”

The dollar, seen as an ultimate safe haven, is likely to attract investors worried about the uncertainty in the US fiscal situation. A stronger greenback pressures dollarpriced commodities by making them more expensive for buyers holding other currencies. In other metals, US silver fell more than 2 percent to $32.88 an ounce, before paring losses to stand at $33.06. Spot silver, which dropped nearly 2 percent to $32.79 earlier in the session, was down 1.4 percent at $32.96. Spot platinum fell nearly 1 percent to $1,616.99, easing from $1,643.50 hit on Wednesday, its highest since Oct 19. Spot palladium eased to a one-week low of $679.72.—Reuters

line going up, people may be worried about demand now,” Langkemper said.

Demand will be sluggish through 2013 as economic expansion stays tepid and crude supply levels comfortable, which could ease price pressure on consumers, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said. Global oil demand would grow 865,000 barrels per day in 2013 to hit 90.5 million bpd, the IEA said.

In Vienna, OPEC ministers agreed to retain the producer group’s 30-million barrels-a-day output target and meet next on May 31. “It became clear once again that the cartel is relatively unwilling to act, especially when prices are high,” Commerzbank commodity analysts said in a note. The target is higher than what is required from OPEC to meet demand next year, some market observers say, but the excess supply has cushioned the impact on prices from a

sharp drop in Iranian oil exports due to sanctions this year.

Big powers hope soon to agree with Iran to hold a new round of nuclear talks in another bid to resolve a protracted dispute over Tehran’s atomic program.

Inspectors from the UN nuclear watchdog arrived in Tehran in the first such meeting since August to ease international concerns over Iran’s disputed nuclear program. For oil products, US heating oil and gasoline futures slipped after Wednesday’s sharp gains following a fire at Motiva’s refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, the largest in the United States. Worries about supply disruptions kept losses in check as Syria’s forces of President Bashar Al-Assad have fired ballistic missiles against rebels in recent days, in what US officials described as an escalation in the 20-month civil war. —Reuters

European shares down 0.4%, world shares flat US budget talk uncertainty weighs; Yen slips LONDON: European shares and commodities fell yesterday as worries over the lack of a budget deal in the United States eclipsed the positive impact of new measures by the Federal Reserve to stimulate the world’s largest economy. The Fed said it would buy $45 billion of Treasuries a month on top of the $40 billion a month in mortgage-backed bonds it started buying in September to keep the US, recovery on track. It added that interest rates would remain near zero until unemployment falls to at least 6.5 percent as long as inflation remains low. But Fed chairman Ben Bernanke also warned that monetary policy would not be enough to offset the damage to growth if talks to close the fiscal deficit in Washington failed, triggering mandatory tax increases and spending cuts. The MSCI world equity index initially gained on the announcement, extending a seven-day rally on global share markets, before the renewed US budget worries hit European shares and pulled the global index back to 337.75 points, barely changed on the day. Analysts said investors were right to be cautious. “If the talks fail and we get 3 or 4 percent of GDP of fiscal tightening, that’s going to be a massive, massive drag on economic growth,” said Alan Clarke, economist at Scotia Capital. “Even if we get a compromise and it’s just 1 percent of GDP of fiscal tightening ... that would make it very hard for growth to be anywhere near this sort of 2 percent that the consensus is assuming over the coming year.”

The concerns produced a marked drop in European share markets, where the FTSEurofirst 300 index fell 0.4 percent to 1,134.965 points, ending a three-weeklong rally that has sent prices to 18-month highs. London’s FTSE 100, Paris’s CAC-40 and Frankfurt’s DAX were all around 0.3 percent lower, while US stock index futures pointed to a lower open when Wall Street resumes trading. “I think we’ll get a slow drift (lower) into the year-end ...

There are no real factors that are going to come in to send it significantly higher. The overhang of the fiscal cliff is going to weigh on the upside to a certain extent,”

TOKYO: People walk by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo yesterday. Asian stock markets rose yesterday with the help of Japan’s Nikkei 225, which was propelled higher by a weakening yen. —AP said Michael Hewson, senior analyst at CMC Markets.

DOLLAR CHOPPY In the foreign exchange markets, the dollar initially slipped to a one-week low of 79.71 against a basket of other major currencies after the Fed decision, but it recovered as investors closed positions ahead of the year-end. “The Fed announcement has had a fairly limited impact on most of the majors,” said Adam Cole, global head of FX strategy at RBC Capital Markets. The dollar index settled to be up 0.12 percent at 79.91, while against the euro the greenback was little changed at $1.3070. Sentiment toward the euro was helped by a deal clinched yesterday to give the European Central Bank new powers to supervise euro zone banks, the first step in a new phase of closer integration to help underpin the single currency. The euro found some support after former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had abruptly withdrawn support for Prime Minister Mario

Monti’s government last week, offered to stand back and suggest Monti could become the candidate of a centre-right coalition at an election expected in February.

YEN PRESSURE The Japanese yen meanwhile came under renewed pressure as markets took the view that the Fed’s move made it more likely that the Bank of Japan would further ease monetary policy to support its weak economy at its policy meeting next week. The dollar rose to near its 2012 high of 84.187 yen to trade around 83.40 yen. Japan also holds an election on Sunday, with opinion polls showing conservative former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s opposition Liberal Democratic Party, which favours more stimulus measures, is heading for a resounding victory.

Oil prices retreated on widespread concerns about the growth outlook, with US crude futures down 39 cents at $86.38 a barrel and Brent falling 35 cents to $109.15.—Reuters

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

THEY ARE THE 99!

99 Mystical Noor Stones carry all that is left of the wisdom and knowledge of the lost civilization of Baghdad. But the Noor Stones lie scattered across the globe - now little more than a legend. One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost. His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life. Now, his luck is about to change - the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power. Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world. A force known as ... the 99!

THE STORY SO FAR : BAETH, HAFIZ, and MUKIT travel undersea to bring food to the colony of Pacifica. But when their ship leaves, they must find a new source of nourishment: seaweed

www.the99.org

The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2012, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

from the ocean floor.

Opinion FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14 , 2012

North Korea rocket gift to leaders, warning to world

By Jean H Lee

W

hy would North Korea launch a rocket into space now? The act invites additional sanctions for a country where the UN says millions are going hungry, and the bitter cold had only increased the risk of the launch becoming the latest of several embarrassing failures. Some of Pyongyang’s reasons are calendar-related: It’s been 100 years since the birth of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il Sung; nearly a year since the death of his son and successor, Kim Jong Il, and the first year in power for young leader Kim Jong Un. It’s also a period of political transition for four countries with especially high stakes in the North: South Korea, the United States, China and Japan.

North Korea insists it launched a satellite Wednesday for peaceful purposes, but the act fits perfectly with its history of using carefully timed provocations to show the world it has dangerous weapons and must be negotiated with. At home, the launch drums up North Korean unity and allows Pyongyang to cultivate an “us against them” mentality, part of the regime’s survival strategy.

Sending a Message After lying low for several months, Pyongyang raised its “Remember me?” hand with an announcement about a December launch. It was issued just two days after South Korea aborted its own rocket launch, and four days after campaigning officially began in Seoul for the Dec. 19 elections that will usher in a new South Korean president.

The launch also sends a message to China, the US and Japan, all focused on elections and assembling new governments, that they shouldn’t keep North Korea, defiant even when it is needy, on the back burner for too long.

The launch is particularly complicated for China. Beijing remains North Korea’s biggest ally and the lynchpin to its economic survival, but Pyongyang has long shown it will do as it wishes. North Korea announced the launch window just one day after Beijing sent an envoy to Pyongyang bearing a letter to Kim Jong Un from new leader Xi Jinping. “We are concerned,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said after the announcement, without clarifying whether the issue came up for discussion in Pyongyang. Japan holds elections on Dec 16, and newly re-elected President Barack Obama will be inaugurated to a second term in a few weeks. With the South Korean president taking office in February, it could be months before the region is ready to rethink North Korea policy.

Celebrating a Centenary North Korea also has domestic reasons for justifying a rocket launch before the year’s end. Nearly four years ago, the regime in Pyongyang set an ambitious goal for its people: to “open the gate to becoming a strong and prosperous nation in 2012” - the year that North Korea founder Kim Il Sung would have turned 100. The economy, science and technology were pinpointed as

three areas of focus after decades of lagging behind its fast-developing neighbors. Decrepit shops were torn down to make way for cavernous supermarkets stocked with flatscreen TVs and Coca-Cola. The State Academy of Sciences sent scholars abroad to study the latest agricultural techniques. Kim Jong Il sent HP and Dell computers to the nation’s top universities.

Schoolchildren from Samjiyon in the far north to Kaesong near the border with South Korea began learning about North Korea’s ambitious space and nuclear programs. Students painted satellites on classroom walls, and playgrounds were installed with miniature rockets instead of slides. In April 2009, North Korean scientists tested a three-stage rocket from an east coast launch pad. This year, two days before Kim Il Sung’s April 15 birthday, scientists attempted to launch a rocket from a new launch pad on the west coast, but it broke up just 90 seconds after liftoff.

North Koreans treated it as a celebration, anyway.

Pyongyang residents were sanguine about the failure, noting that China and Russia struggled with their rockets, too, before reaching space. The failure and ensuing global condemnation did little to dampen festivities, and the city went ahead with a massive birthday fireworks show over the Taedong River.

Mourning Kim Jong Il If the April launch attempt was seen as a gift to Kim Il Sung, the December success may be an homage to Kim Jong Il. Kim, who ruled for 17 years under a “military first” policy before his Dec 17, 2011, death, made getting a satellite into space one of the last goals of his leadership. In his honor, North Korea’s three satellites have been dubbed “Kwangmyongsong”, or Lode Star, in honor of the bright star that legendarily appeared in the skies when Kim was born.

Two weeks before the first anniversary of his death, North Korea has already quieted down amid an unofficial state of mourning. State media are churning out odes to the late leader, honoring everything from his skill as a composer to the workaday parka he famously wore while making “on the spot” field trips by train. A grand commemoration can be expected to mark Kim’s death, and a rocket mounted with at satellite named after the Dear Leader could end up being the biggest firework of them all.

Elevating Kim Jong Un Outside observers consider Wednesday’s liftoff North Korea’s first successful satellite launch, and although North Korea had claimed the 2009 launch was also successful, this certainly boosts the standing of Kim Jong Un. Though omnipresent now, he had been a mystery when he was revealed several years ago as the heir-apparent. One of Kim Jong Un’s early tasks as successor-in-training was to oversee the launch of the April 2009 rocket, which he monitored from the command center.

Throughout his succession campaign and during this first year of leadership, the 29-year-old has been characterized by state propaganda as young, modern, tech-savvy and forward-thinking. He has been working to build a base of loyalty among North Koreans struggling with chronic economic hardship by promising them a higher standard of living and a better future. The rocket and satellite are portrayed by state media as a symbol of the nation’s future.

Satellite or Missile?

Washington, Seoul and other adversaries see a more sinister objective in the launch. Experts note that sending a satellite into space uses a similar technology as firing a long-range missile capable of striking American soil. The UN Security Council warns that a North Korean rocket fired for civilian purposes or otherwise would violate a ban on developing its missile and nuclear programs. The Security Council, which has already passed two rounds of sanctions, was to meet behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss its response to the launch.

The North Koreans are not naive about the distinction between satellite launches and missiles. They see their nukes as a bulwark against US military might in the region.

The 2009 rocket launch was followed within weeks by another, more worrying test: a nuclear bomb.

With a successful rocket launch, the US and other countries fear North Korea’s next step will be to master miniaturization technology so their nukes are small enough to be loaded onto missiles. Pyongyang’s position to Washington: Sign a peace treaty and withdraw your troops from South Korea, and then maybe we’ll get rid of our bombs. — AP

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012 www.kuwaittimes.net

A dolphin leaps out of the water to pass a 'gift' package to an animal trainer wearing a Santa Claus costume during a Christmas show at the Aqua stadium aquarium in Tokyo yesterday. —AFP

FOOD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

soup

Nourishing and warm,

T

hey couldn’t get enough mulligatawny.

The soup party wasn’t for another day, but the appetites of the guests for saying the mouthful of mulligatawny couldn’t be satiated. The “Seinfeld” episode on Kramer’s favorite soup by the Soup Nazi obviously had a lot to do with it, but curiosities and appetites were piqued. Here was everyone’s chance to try the exotic mulligatawny. What is it? Where’s it from? What’s in it? Truth be told, they didn’t really want to know that it’s an Indian soup with curry paste. Those with the biggest appetite for saying mul-li-ga-tawny aren’t adventurous eaters and wouldn’t touch it if they knew what was in it. But even these professed blandies lined up for a bowlful when a double batch of soup emerged from the kitchen. They finally got a taste of mulligatawny-and they liked it!

Soup is universal. Spice it up, tone it down, keep it simple or load it with ingredients. The results are the same: Warm or cold, it’s comfort in a cup. It’s delicious and nutritious whether slurped from a cup or savored with a spoon. You could say soup is giving - and forgiving. Throw in anything. Thicken it in so many ways: cornstarch, pureed cooked beans, cooked mashed potatoes, 2 tablespoons of almonds or cashews soaked in hot water and pureed, barley, a flour slurry, with potato starch or semolina flour. The other wonderful thing about soup is that it swings both ways.

All of these soups can be made with vegetable broth - with meat added after the soup is done. So the newly minted vegetarian at one end of the house and the lifelong meat eater at the other end can both be happy without stressing the cook. The 13-bean soup is a perfect example. The beans are cooked in water, and then

is comfort in a cup

the stock is added to the soup trinity - the cooked onion, carrot and celery. Divide the soup in half and the trinity in half and go with chicken chunks in one version, and a vegetable stock in the other. Perfect.

MIGHTY MULLIGATAWNY Serves 6 Ingredients: • Olive oil • 8 ounces quality ground beef • 1 red onion, peeled • 2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped • 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced • 1 red pepper, deseeded and finely chopped • A 1-inch piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped • 1 or 2 chilies, deseeded and chopped • A small bunch of fresh cilantro • 1 heaped tablespoon Patak’s Madras curry paste • 1 tablespoon tomato puree • Sea salt and ground pepper • 1 heaped tablespoon HP sauce • 5 cups organic beef stock • 1 butternut squash (roughly 12 ounces) • A couple of sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked • A couple of pinches of garam masala • 1 cup basmati rice • Plain yogurt, to serve Directions: Put a large pan on a high heat and add a splash of olive oil and the ground beef.

Cook for about 7 minutes, stirring occasionally and breaking up the beef, until it starts to turn golden and caramelize. Stir in the onion, carrot, garlic, red pepper, ginger and most of the chilies, and add a splash more oil, if needed. Cut the top leafy section off the cilantro and put aside in a cup of cold water for later.

Finely chop the stalks and add to the pan. Cook and stir for around 10 minutes on a medium heat, or until the veggies have softened.

Stir in the curry paste, tomato puree, a good pinch of salt and pepper and the HP sauce. After a few more minutes, when it smells fantastic, pour in the stock. Leave to blip away with the lid on over a medium heat for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, cut the butternut squash into 1-inch chunks, getting rid of any seeds and gnarly bits (there’s no need to peel it). Put a smaller pan on a high heat. Add a lug of olive oil and the squash. Stir in the thyme leaves and the garam masala. Pop a lid on the pan and cook for around 10 minutes on a medium heat, stirring every few minutes, until softened and golden. Add a cup of rice to the pan with 2 cups of water and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Replace the lid and cook for around 8 minutes on a medium heat, then turn the heat off and leave to steam for 8 minutes with the lid on.

Fluff up the rice and tip it into the soup.

Have a taste, and season if needed. Gently mix together, then divide among your soup bowls with a good dollop of plain yogurt. Scatter over the cilantro leaves and add a sprinkling of fresh chili, if you like.

This recipe is from “Jamie Oliver’s Great

Britain,” by Jamie Oliver (Hyperion, $35).

Oliver delivers best of the old and new (including classic British immigrant food) in his first cookbook focused on England.

ROASTED CARROT SOUP Serves 4 Ingredients: • 6 to 8 large carrots (about 1 } pounds), peeled and cut into 1-inch-thick slices • 1/2 cup olive oil • Salt • 6 cups vegetable stock, or as needed • A 1-inch-long piece fresh ginger, peeled • 1 fresh thyme sprig, plus chopped thyme for garnish • 1large sweet onion, chopped • 2 large garlic cloves, chopped • Freshly ground black pepper Directions: Set an oven rack 6 to 8 inches from the heat source and turn on the broiler. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the carrots with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and sprinkle generously with salt.

FOOD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Broil the carrots until they brown and soften, turning them over with a spatula every 5 minutes or so; this should take 15 to 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, bring the stock to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the ginger and sprig of thyme, turn down the heat, and simmer gently for 15 minutes.

Just before the carrots are done, put the onion in a large saucepan with the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil and brown over medium heat, stirring frequently. Add the garlic and cook for a minute, then add the carrots.

Remove the ginger and thyme from the stock and add the stock to the onions and carrots. Bring to a boil and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes, until the carrots are very soft. Use an immersion or a standard blender to puree the soup until smooth. If the soup seems too thick, add more stock or water and reheat gently. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve garnished with chopped thyme.

BOSKOS MINESTRONE Serves 15 Ingredients: • 1 cup oil (canola or a non-extra-virgin olive oil) • 2 tablespoons chopped garlic • 1 pound yellow onions, cut into 1inch dice • 1 large carrot, cut into 1-inch dice • 2 bunches celery, leaves removed, stalks cut into 1-inch dice • 2 leeks, white part only, cut into 1inch dice • 1 head green cabbage, chopped into {-inch dice • 2 tablespoons kosher salt • 1teaspoon white pepper • 1 teaspoon red chili pepper flakes • 1 teaspoon paprika • 1 tablespoon dried oregano • 1 tablespoon dried basil • 1 cup crushed tomatoes • 1 cup beef base • 3 quarts chicken stock or water • 1 cup dry (or 2 cups cooked) cannellini beans • 1 pound red potatoes, cut into 1-inch dice • 1 pound zucchini, cut into 1-inch dice • 1 bunch (approximately 1 cups fresh Swiss chard or spinach • 1 pound shell noodles, uncooked Directions: Start with a large stockpot over medium-high heat; add oil. When the oil is hot, add the garlic. Once the garlic starts to brown slightly, add the diced onions, diced carrots, diced celery, sliced leeks, and diced cabbage; cook for about 5 minutes, still over medium-high heat. Add the salt, white pepper, pepper flakes, paprika, oregano and basil during this first saute process - adding dry seasonings early helps create layers of flavors in a dish. Be sure all the vegetables become translucent before adding the water or stock.

Add tomatoes, beef base, and water or stock to the pot with the vegetables; bring entire mixture to a simmer.

Meanwhile, if using dry cannellini beans: Cook the cannellini beans in boiling, salted water with a bay leaf until beans are soft (approximately 20 minutes). Once beans are done (or if starting with cooked beans), set half aside. Puree the other half. Add the whole, cooked beans and the pureed beans to the soup.

When the soup comes to a simmer, add the potatoes. Let the soup continue to boil for 5 minutes, then add the zucchini and chard to the pot. Cook mixture for another 5 minutes.

Add the shell noodles and cook for a final 5minutes. Adjust the salt and pepper to your liking.

SHRIMP STEW IN YUCCA AND COCONUT SAUCE Serves 6 Ingredients: • 1 small yucca, about 11 ounces • 3 tablespoons dende oil (or vegetable oil) • 1 cup chopped onion • 1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper • 1/3 cup chopped yellow bell pepper • 2 scallions (white and green parts), chopped • 2 stalks celery • 4 cloves garlic, finely minced • 2 cups shrimp stock • 1 cup coconut milk • 2 tablespoons tomato paste • 1 pound shrimp, uncooked, peeled and deveined • Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper • 2 tablespoons unsalted butter • Pinch of ground nutmeg • 3 plum tomatoes, peeled, seeded and diced • 1\2 cup fresh chopped cilantro Directions: To prepare the yucca, cut off the ends of the yucca root and make 3 to 4 vertical cuts from top to bottom with a paring knife. Peel the two layers of the vegetable: the brown skin and the inner white layer.

Cut the yucca in half lengthwise and remove the center woody fiber with a paring knife. Cut the white flesh into 1-inch chunks.

Transfer the yucca to a medium saucepan, cover with fresh cold water by • Olive oil • 1 red onion, sliced • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar • 2 tablespoon ricotta • 1 tablespoon jarred basil pesto • 1/2cup sun-dried tomatoes in oil Directions: Heat olive oil in skillet and add sliced onions. Caramelize over low heat until golden brown, stirring in the balsamic vinegar toward the end of cook time. Roll out pizza dough to a free-form oblong shape. Cover bottom of a cookie sheet with olive oil and place rolled out dough on top.

Combine ricotta and basil pesto and spread evenly over the dough. Top with the onions and bake according to package directions on prepared dough. Add the sun-dried tomatoes during the last 5minutes, then continue to cook until top is golden brown. Slice and serve. at least an inch, and add a good pinch of salt. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until tender, 15 to 20 minutes.

Drain the yucca and, while still hot, pass through a food mill or ricer.

Place the dende oil, onion, peppers, scallions and celery in a large saute pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until they are soft and translucent, about 3minutes.

Add the garlic and stir until it gets hot.

Add the shrimp stock and coconut milk, then bring the mixture to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low and add 1 cup of the mashed yucca and the tomato paste and use a whisk to help dissolve them both into the sauce. The sauce will start to thicken naturally; add up to another cup of the mashed yucca if necessary.

Set aside.

Season the shrimp with salt and pepper on both sides. In a medium skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shrimp and cook until they just start to turn orange, about 1 minute each side.

Transfer the shrimp to the saucepan.

Pour in any shrimp juices that stayed in the skillet and braise the shrimp stew over very low heat, covered, for 5minutes.

Taste the stew and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and nutmeg. Garnish with the tomatoes and cilantro.

CARAMELIZED ONION AND SUN-DRIED TOMATO FLATBREAD Makes 1 flatbread Ingredients: •1 ball fresh pizza dough

OREGANO FLATBREAD Makes one flatbread Ingredients: • 1 ball fresh pizza dough • Olive oil • 1 cup prepared pasta sauce • 1 tablespoon grated Romano cheese • 1 tablespoon dried oregano Directions: Roll out pizza dough to a free-form oblong shape. Cover bottom of a cookie sheet with olive oil and place dough on top. Spread more olive oil on dough.

Spread a light layer of pasta sauce evenly over the dough and top evenly with the cheese, then the oregano. Bake according to package directions on prepared dough or until top is golden brown. — MCT

Beauty FRIDAY,DECEMBER 14, 2012

What’s causing your

dry skin?

Your skin is your body’s first line of defense against the elements. When sun, wind, and cold leave skin dry and itchy, don’t hide it under long pants and gloves. Replenish it! To get the kind of smooth, sleek skin you’ll want to show off, learn these 8 top causes of, and fixes for, dry skin.

1. Winter weather When the temperature drops, the humidity level plunges too. Dry air leaves skin parched. “Once the weather starts to change, I see patients coming in complaining of dry, itchy skin,” says Linda Stein Gold, MD, clinical research director for the dermatology department at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital.

Turning up the thermostat doesn’t help, either.

Indoor heating strips even more moisture from the air-and your skin.

Quick Fix: Dial up the humidity Install a humidifier in your home to keep air moist. Set humidity at a constant 45 percent to 55 percent, and the temperature at a balmy 68 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Before you go outside in wintry weather, create your own moisture barrier. Protect your most sensitive parts-lips, face, and hands-with a scarf and gloves.

2. Steamy showers Setting the shower to steamy soothes your body, but it won’t do your skin any favors. “I know it feels wonderful to stand in a really hot shower... but it can dry out the natural oils in our skin more quickly,” Stein Gold says. Standing under that hot spray long enough to belt out your favorite tune is also a no-no.

The longer you linger in the shower, the more you dry out your skin.

Quick Fix: Cleanse coolly and quickly Dial down the shower temperature to lukewarm, and keep showers short. Five minutes is enough to get clean without over-drying. Save the singing for your car.

3. Moisture-robbing soaps Don’t put just any bar of soap into your shower dish-they’re not all the same. Wash with a harsh soap and you’ll send your skin’s natural moisture barrier straight down the drain.

Quick Fix: Go mild “We recommend using a mild, fragrance-free soap that moisturizes as it cleanses,” Stein Gold says.

Bar or liquid doesn’t matter, but choose a soap that’s specially formulated for sensitive skin.

4. The rub-down Think you need to scrub your skin to get it clean?

Toss that old notion, along with your scrubby sponge. “Friction strips the skin and enhances the dryness,” says Nanette Silverberg, MD, a dermatology professor at Columbia University.

Quick Fix: Go soft Use your hands or a soft washcloth instead, Silverberg suggests. They’ll get you just as clean as

abrasive sponges, without roughing up your skin.

5. Losing shower moisture Showering bathes your skin in moisture.

Scrubbing off with a towel right afterward strips that moisture away. “The surface of your skin absorbs some of the water, which will be lost if you don’t seal it in,” Silverberg says.

Quick Fix: Lock in moisture “I recommend that you towel-dry off but still leave the skin a little bit moist,” Dr. Stein Gold says.

Apply moisturizer to still-damp skin, she suggests.

What kind of lotion should you use? Rub on a rich cream containing ingredients such as soothing ceramide for sensitive skin, or urea or lactic acid for very dry skin. These products “will seal moisture into the skin and create an effective skin barrier,” Silverberg says. Your face needs different moisturizing than your body. Smooth on a noncomedogenic face lotion-one that won’t clog pores and cause breakouts. Pick a moisturizer that incorporates an SPF 30 sunscreen. “Moisturizer with sunscreen addresses both dryness and sun protection,” Silverberg says.

6. Aging As hormone levels change over the years, skin becomes thin and parched.

Quick Fix: Smooth out the years You can’t turn back the clock, but you can minimize aging skin changes. Start each morning with a generous rub of a rich face and body cream. To minimize wrinkles while you relieve dryness, look for ingredients such as alpha hydroxy acids and retinol.

Not in the habit? Keep a bottle of lotion next to your bed so it’s the first and last thing you see each day.

7. Irritants Is your favorite sweater making you itch? It could be the fabric, fabric softener, or the detergent you’re washing it in. Lots of everyday fabrics and products can irritate skin-from dryer sheets to perfume.

Quick Fix: Set products free “Free” is the key word when buying any type of cleaner or beauty product. Pick products that are labeled fragrance- and dye-free, and that are specially formulated for sensitive skin.

Wear clothes made of soft, natural fabrics-cotton and silk instead of wool or polyester. Line your bed with cotton percale sheets for a gentler touch while you sleep.

8. Your health Is your skin especially scaly and red? It could be a

skin condition, like atopic dermatitis or psoriasis. It can also be a symptom of diseases such as diabetes or an underactive thyroid gland.

Quick Fix: Target treatment When dry, red skin won’t go away, see your doctor to discover and treat the cause. The solution may be as simple as taking a medication or using a prescription cream.

No matter what the cause, dry, itchy skin isn’t something you should have to live with long-term. If you’ve tried a few different moisturizers and they’re not helping, or the irritation is getting worse, see your dermatologist. www.webmd.com

HEALTH FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Calcium and calcium supplements

C

alcium is important for optimal bone health throughout your life. Although diet is the best way to get calcium, calcium supplements may be an option if your diet falls short.

Before you consider calcium supplements, be sure you understand how much calcium you need, the pros and cons of calcium supplements, and which type of supplement to choose.

Supplements: Nutrition in a pill?

T

he most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans make it very clear that your nutritional needs should be met primarily through your diet. For some people, however, supplements may be a useful way to get nutrients they might otherwise be lacking.

But before you go shopping for supplements, get the facts on what they will and won’t do for you.

Supplements v swhole foods Supplements aren’t intended to be a food substitute because they can’t replicate all of the nutrients and benefits of whole foods, such as fruits and vegetables.

So depending on your situation and your eating habits, dietary supplements may not be worth the expense.

Whole foods offer three main benefits over dietary supplements: Greater nutrition. Whole foods are complex, containing a variety of the micronutrients your body needs - not just one. An orange, for example, provides vitamin C plus some beta carotene, calcium and other nutrients. A vitamin C supplement lacks these other micronutrients.

Essential fiber: Whole foods, such as whole grains, fruits, vegetables and legumes, provide dietary fiber.

Most high-fiber foods are also packed with other essential nutrients. Fiber, as part of a healthy diet, can help prevent certain diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, and it can also help manage constipation.

Protective substances: Whole foods contain other substances important for good health. Fruits and vegetables, for example, contain naturally occurring substances called phytochemicals, which may help protect you against cancer, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Many are also good sources of antioxidants - substances that slow down oxidation, a natural process that leads to cell and tissue damage.

foods, including fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, low-fat dairy products, lean meats and fish, you likely don’t need supplements.

However, the dietary guidelines recommend supplements - or fortified foods - in the following situations: Women who may become pregnant should get 400 micrograms a day of folic acid from fortified foods or supplements, in addition to eating foods that naturally contain folate.

Women who are pregnant should take a prenatal vitamin that includes iron or a separate iron supplement.

Adults age 50 or older should eat foods fortified with vitamin B-12, such as fortified cereals, or take a multivitamin that contains B-12 or a separate B-12 supplement.

Supplements aren’t for everyone, but older adults and others may benefit from specific supplements.

Who needs supplements?

If you’re generally healthy and eat a wide variety of

Dietary supplements also may be appropriate if you: Don’t eat well or consume less than 1,600 calories a day Are a vegan or a vegetarian who eats a limited variety of foods Are a woman who experiences heavy bleeding during your menstrual period Have a medical condition that affects how your body absorbs or uses nutrients, such as chronic diarrhea, food allergies, food intolerance or a disease of the liver, gallbladder, intestines or pancreas Have had surgery on your digestive tract and are not able to digest and absorb nutrients properly Talk to your doctor or a dietitian about which supplements and what doses might be appropriate for you.

Be sure to ask about possible side effects and interactions with any medications you take.

Choosing and using supplements If you decide to take a vitamin or mineral supplement, consider these factors: Check the label. Read labels carefully. Product labels can tell you what the active ingredient or ingredients are, which nutrients are included, the serving size - for example, capsule, packet or teaspoonful - and the

The benefits of calcium Your body needs calcium to build and maintain strong bones. Your heart, muscles and nerves also need calcium to function properly.

Some studies suggest that calcium, along with vitamin D, may have benefits beyond bone health, perhaps protecting against cancer, diabetes and high blood pressure. But evidence about such health benefits is not definitive.

The risks of too little calcium If you don’t get enough calcium, you could face health problems related to weak bones: * Children may not reach their full potential adult height. * Adults may have low bone mass, which is a risk factor for osteoporosis.

Many Americans don’t get enough calcium in their diets.

Children and adolescent girls are at particular risk, but so are adults age 50 and older.

Calcium requirements How much calcium you need depends on your age and sex. Note that the upper limit in the chart represents the safe boundary - it’s not how much you should aim to get. If you exceed the upper limit, you may increase your risk of health problems related to excessive calcium.

Calcium and vitamin D Your body needs vitamin D to absorb calcium. For this reason, some calcium supplements contain vitamin D. A few foods naturally contain small amounts of vitamin D, such as canned salmon with bones, and egg yolks. You can also get vitamin D from fortified foods and sun exposure. The RDA for vitamin D is 600 international units (15 micrograms) a day for most adults. www.mayoclinic.com

amount of nutrients in each serving.

Avoid megadoses. In general, choose a multivitaminmineral supplement that provides about 100 percent of the Daily Value (DV) of all the vitamins and minerals, rather than one which has, for example, 500 percent of the DV for one vitamin and only 20 percent of the DV for another. The exception to this is calcium. You may notice that calcium-containing supplements don’t provide 100 percent of the DV. If they did, the tablets would be too large to swallow and wouldn’t be absorbed.

Check expiration dates. Dietary supplements can lose potency over time, especially in hot and humid climates. If a supplement doesn’t have an expiration date, don’t buy it. If your supplements have expired, discard them.

Watch what you eat. Vitamins and minerals are being added to a growing number of foods, including breakfast cereals and beverages. If you’re also taking supplements, you may be getting more than you realize of certain nutrients. Taking more than you need is expensive and can raise your risk of side effects. For example, too much iron can cause nausea and vomiting and may damage the liver and other organs.

Keep up with supplement safety alerts The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) keeps a list of dietary supplements that are under regulatory review or that have been reported to cause adverse effects. If you’re taking a supplement, it’s a good idea to check the FDA website periodically for updates. www.mayoclinic.com

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Get smart on these phones

A

simple enough question but once you throw sales people, marketing spiel and fire sales into the mix, it gets a little trickier often resulting in consumers not being particularly happy with the deal or handset they’ve been lumped with. So what’s a consumer to do?

First you need to tackle the basics: Do you go with Android, iOS, Windows Phone or BlackBerry?

Should you opt for a high-end device with all the trimmings or go with a mid-range handset and save some cash? Then there’s contracts and tariffs - are you better off going SIM-only rather than on contract?

Beyond these questions are a myriad of others. But if you are looking to get a new smartphone and aren’t fussed about what operating system it uses you might be best accessing your needs and looking at the individual components of a phone before making your decision. Here are some key factors that you need to consider before buying any new flagship handset, regardless of OS. Size 3.5-inch displays used to be the norm.

Nowadays this is no longer the case with more and more smartphones using 4.7 to 4.8-inch displays. Samsung’s Galaxy Note, as an extreme example, took things even further with the inclusion of a 5.3-inch display, emphasising just how much the mobile space has changed.

Case in point: many of our readers love the Samsung Galaxy S2 but are not fans of its large 4.3-inch display. Others, conversely, love their large-displayed smartphones - just look at how well the Samsung Galaxy Note and Galaxy S2 sold. Even Apple, a company that has long favoured the 3.5-inch form factor, upped the ante with its iPhone 5 to 4-inches.

What’s clear is that smartphone displays are getting bigger but that doesn’t mean you have to buy a massive phone. Take a look at your friend’s devices, handle different models in store, ask yourself what you’d do with a 5-inch display and if it would fit in your pocket before getting something that might be too big for your needs. Tip: if you think it’s too big, it probably is.

Display But it’s not just the size you need to worry about: display resolution and screen technology

How do you choose the right smartphone? are also very important. Motorola’s Razr Maxx, for instance, is a new handset but its display lags well behind that of the Samsung Galaxy S2, which is a significantly older device.

Apple (Retina Display), Sony (BRAVIA), Samsung (Super AMOLED Plus), Nokia (Clear Black) and Microsoft (Clear Type) all use their own bespoke display technologies to heighten the viewing experience on their respective handsets.

Generally speaking, though, what matters most with handset displays is resolution - and the higher it is the better.

So when you’re eying a new smartphone online or in store check what the handset’s pixel per inch (ppi) stats are. It will usually be listed next to the device’s display resolution and, like with display resolution, the higher it is the better.

Ideally you want to be aiming for the top end of 200 (290 to 300) or above. Apple’s iPhone 4S has a pixel density of 330 ppi, for instance. Tip: the higher the ppi, the better.

Processor The advent of quad-core processors, such as Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad and Nvidia’s Tegra 3, and their use in marketing spiel has lead to chipsets playing a much more prominent role in the decision process of consumers when buying a new handset. However due to the rather oxymoronic nature of chipset production having more cores isn’t always better. For instance, in the extensive benchmarking of Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 and Qualcomm’s dual-core S4 Snapdragon processor, nine times out of 10, Qualcomm’s came out on top despite having less processing cores.

The reason for this is that Qualcomm’s chipset is based on 28nm architecture whilst Nvidia’s Tegra 3 uses a 32nm setup. Because Qualcomm’s process is smaller it’s more power efficient, which means it doesn’t drain the batter as much.

In general, though, you’re not likely to notice much of a difference in performance when buy-

ing a handset with either Qualcomm’s S4 Snapdragon or Nvidia’s Tegra 3 - both are exceptionally powerful. Having said that, the S4 has been shown to run rings around nearly everything else on the market, bar Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad. Tip: the smaller the ‘die shrink’, the better (28nm is the current upper limit).

Updates Is having a smartphone that’s constantly upto-date with the latest software important to you? If it is then you might want to think long and hard about whether you opt for a BlackBerry, current Windows Phone, or Android handset.

Current Windows Phone devices on the market - Nokia Lumia 800, 900, 710 and 610 - will not be getting fully updated to Windows Phone 8.

Similarly no current BlackBerry handsets will receive BlackBerry 10 once it arrives later in the year - although this is rarely advertised in stores.

With Android you’ve got serious fragmentation issues affecting the entire platform, with relatively new handsets - Motorola’s Droid 3 and the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play - being left to die on Android 2.3. Apple has the best record with regards to updates, supporting its handsets, on average, for around two years. Microsoft has been a lot better updating handsets than Google has with devices using its Android OS, but the schism that Windows Phone 8 will cause throws all that progress by the way side.

In the end no one platform is perfect but if you’re a stickler for always being up to date Apple is probably your safest bet. Microsoft has promised to support its Windows Phone 8 handsets for 18 months but that will only come into fruition on new devices, and not current Windows Phone models. Tip: Windows Phone 8 handsets or Apple’s iPhone are your safest bets for consistent updates.

Apps & Games Applications and, to a lesser extent, games are

the lifeblood of the modern smartphone. Back in the day, early-2010, the number and quality of applications on the world’s two major platforms iOS and Android - was a major differentiating factor with Apple well out in front.

Apple and Android are clearly the front-runners in this respect, but Windows Phones’ lower numbers shouldn’t put you off. Microsoft’s platform is a baby compared to Google and Apple’s platforms and is growing at a rapid pace.

Couple this with the advent of Windows Phone 8, the level of support Microsoft gives its developers, and the high-end gaming capabilities of the newly announced Windows core and 2013 could well be the year that Windows Phone becomes truly mainstream.

Tip: Apple and Android are currently best for applications and games but Windows Phone is catching. The less said about BlackBerry’s current state of affairs the better - maybe BlackBerry 10 will change this. We can but live in hope.

LTE-ready?

LTE is on the way to the UK and will be here before the end of the year, according UK officials.

But how can you be sure that you’re next smartphone will support it?

Many manufacturers, as we’ve seen in the US, will market devices purely based on their abilities to access the faster spectrum of mobile data.

HSPA+ is already a reality in the UK, which is essentially 3.5G, but full LTE is scheduled to hit before the end of the year and will represent a massive uplift in speed bringing download speeds usually reserved for your home network straight to your phone.

Many current flagships, such as the iPhone 4S, HTC One X, Samsung Galaxy S3 and HTC One S, already take advantage of HSPA+ but will not be able to access true LTE once it’s rolled out. For this reason it’s important to think carefully about the timing of your next upgrade: LTE is coming early 2013, and if you want it on your phone you’ll have to wait for LTE handsets to arrive.

There are currently no handsets in UK that support 4G LTE. This will change as we approach Q4 2012, however. Tip: If you want an LTE-ready handset put off upgrading your phone until later in the year. We expect LTE-ready handsets to start hitting the market in Q4 2012. www.knowyourmobile.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Sweden’s ice hotel, a work of art for the here-and-now

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n a small Arctic town in Sweden, a construction crew bundled up in heavy parkas is bustling around a building site unlike any other: a massive ice hotel is taking shape. Armed with thick gloves and safety helmets over fur-lined hats, the builders in the northern town of Jukkasjaervi assemble two-tonne blocks of ice as if they were a large set of Lego blocks, with the end result a giant igloo with several domes, vaulted ceilings and archways. In one hallway, a worker uses a large pick to carve a door out of the blue-tinged packed snow, working up a sweat despite the sub-zero temperatures as he exhales feathery puffs of breath.

The builders had just a few weeks to sculpt 65 hotel rooms, a lobby and reception area, a main hall and an ice bar in a race against the clock ahead of the December opening. An ice chapel will be added to host weddings and christenings, complete with an icesculpted altar, font and pews. And yet all this effort is ephemeral: in a few months the entire structure will melt away with the spring thaw. “We’re completely dependent on the weather, we have a schedule to adhere to but it varies from year to year,” Icehotel representative Beatrice Karlsson said.

The construction method is unique to the Icehotel, according to Nordic architecture expert Rasmus Waern. “It’s totally original. There’s no tradition in Scandinavia of building with ice,” he said. But it is rapidly becoming a tradition: the Icehotel is being staged for

the 23rd time this year on the shores of the Torne river from where the ice is taken.

“In March, 5,000 tonnes of ice are pulled from the river and then conserved in two-tonne blocks in two warehouses where the temperature is maintained at between minus eight and minus five degrees Celsius (between 17.6 and 23 Fahrenheit),” explains Jens Thoms Ivarsson, in charge of the hotel’s interior design.

Construction typically begins in the autumn, when the first polar chills descend on Sweden’s far north. But five months later, once spring arrives and with it the long-awaited sun, the entire site melts down. “We return to the Torne what we borrowed,” says Thoms Ivarsson, grateful for the river’s

Beds made of ice blocks and reindeer skins Once the building process is completed, the interior still needs to be decorated: ornate chandeliers will embellish the main hall, while avantgarde sculptures, bas reliefs, and chairs and beds all cut out of ice await. Each of the 16 suites is considered a unique piece of art, designed by artists selected from more than 100 applicants from all corners of the globe. While management refuses to disclose how much the entire endeavour costs each year, the hotel’s interior design alone has a budget of five million kronor (580,000 euros, $752,000).

People work at the construction site of the new Ice Hotel in the village of Jukkasjarvi, near Kiruna, in Swedish Lapland on November 16, 2012. — AFP

‘Lincoln’ leads

Details of the suites’ themes and designs are kept a well-guarded secret until the hotel’s opening: all that is known so far is that some of the artists hail from France, Argentina and the United States. Ambitious sculptures in the past have included a pinball machine with coloured lights inside the ice, a man sitting on a toilet in a bathroom, a female Buddha, a rocket ship, and the inside of a refrigerator.

The hotel also has 49 standard rooms with less elaborate decor, some of which will feature scenes of northern lights, a spectacular phenomenon also known as aurora borealis in which streams of coloured lights streak across the night sky, a show some visitors will be lucky enough to see during their stay. As in the suites, all of the regular room beds are made of ice blocks covered with reindeer skins. Visitors spending the night are given thermal sleeping bags when they check in-and a diploma when they check out to prove they survived a night at minus seven degrees Celsius (19 degrees Fahrenheit).

The hotel-copies of which are now erected in several other countries-has no stars the way other hotels do.

But that doesn’t mean it’s for budget travellers: the cost of a room ranges from 2,200 to 7,000 kronor (between 255 and 810 euros) per night.

Alternately, tourists can pay 325 kronor a head to tour the hotel, which also makes money off the weddings and christenings it hosts, as well as the popular ice bar where drinks are served in glasses made of ice. — AFP

Golden Globes

with 7 nominations

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teven Spielberg’s Civil War epic “Lincoln” led the Golden Globes yesterday with seven nominations, among them best drama, best director for Spielberg and acting honors for Daniel Day-Lewis, Sally Field and Tommy Lee Jones. Tied for second-place with five nominations each, including best drama are Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage-crisis thriller “Argo” and Quentin Tarantino’s slave-turned-bounty-hunter tale “Django Unchained.”

Other best-drama nominees are Ang Lee’s shipwreck story “Life of Pi” and Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden manhunt thriller “Zero Dark Thirty.” Nominated for best musical or comedy were: the British retiree adventure “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”; the Victor Hugo musical “Les Miserables”; the first-love tale “Moonrise Kingdom”; the fishing romance “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”; and the lost-soul romance “Silver Linings Playbook.

The directing lineup came entirely from dramatic films, with Affleck, Bigelow, Lee, Spielberg and Tarantino all in the running. Filmmakers behind best musical or comedy nominees were shut out for director, including Tom Hooper for “Les Miserables” and David O Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook.” Along with Day-Lewis as Abraham Lincoln in Spielberg’s epic, best dramatic actor contenders are Richard Gere as a deceitful Wall Streeter in “Arbitrage”; John Hawkes as a polio victim trying to lose his virgini-

loan without which the Icehotel could not exist.

“The Impossible”; and Rachel Weisz as a woman ruined by an affair in “The Deep Blue Sea.” For musical or comedy actress, the lineup is Emily Blunt as a consultant for a Mideast sheikh in “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”; Judi Dench as a

Megan Fox announces nominations at the 70th Annual Golden Globes Awards nominations event in Beverly Hills yesterday in California, where she was joined by Ed Helms and Jessica Alba in making the announcements. — AFP photos ty in “The Sessions”; Joaquin Phoenix as a Navy veteran under the sway of a cult leader in “The Master”; and Denzel Washington as a boozy airline pilot in “Flight.”

Dramatic-actress nominees are Jessica Chastain as a CIA analyst hunting Osama bin Laden in “Zero Dark Thirty”; Marion Cotillard as a whale biologist beset by tragedy in “Rust and Bone”; Helen Mirren as Alfred Hitchcock’s strongminded wife in “Hitchcock”; Naomi Watts as a woman caught up in a devastating tsunami in

Actress Jessica Alba announces nominations. widow who retires overseas in “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”; Jennifer Lawrence as young widow in a new romance in “Silver Linings Playbook”; Maggie Smith as an aging singer in a retirement home in “Quartet”; and Meryl Streep as a wife trying to save her marriage in “Hope Springs.” Nominees for musical or comedy actor are Jack Black as a solicitous mortician in

“Bernie”; Bradley Cooper as a troubled man fresh out of a mental hospital in “Silver Linings Playbook”; Hugh Jackman as Hugo’s long-suffering hero Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables”; Ewan McGregor as a British fisheries expert in “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen”; and Bill Murray as Franklin Roosevelt in “Hyde Park on Hudson.”

Competing for supporting actor are Alan Arkin as a Hollywood producer helping a CIA operation in “Argo”; Leonardo DiCaprio as a cruel slave owner in “Django Unchained”; Philip Seymour Hoffman as a mesmerizing cult leader in “The Master”; Tommy Lee Jones as firebrand abolitionist Thaddeus Stevens in “Lincoln”; and Christoph Waltz as a genteel bounty hunter in “Django Unchained.”

The supporting-actress picks are Amy Adams as a cult leader’s devoted wife in “The Master”; Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln in “Lincoln”; Anne Hathaway as a mother fallen into prostitution in “Les Miserables”; Helen Hunt as a sexual surrogate in “The Sessions”; and Nicole Kidman as a trashy mistress of a Death Row inmate in “The Paperboy.”

Globe acting winners often go on to receive the same prizes at the Oscars. All four Oscar winners last season - lead performers Meryl Streep of “The Iron Lady” and Jean Dujardin of “The Artist” and supporting players Octavia Spencer of “The Help” and Christopher Plummer of “Beginners” won Globes first. —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

A hummingbird stands on a branch during the Birding Rally Challenge at “Aguas Calientes” near the Machu Picchu sanctuary in Cuzco.

— AFP photos

Peru’s winged wonders stir birders’ passions

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ompetitive birdwatching might sound like an oxymoron. Try telling that to ornithologists from around the world racing around Peru on a six-day marathon vying to become best birder. “I am covered in bug bites, my legs are killing me and I got sick and threw up from the altitude,” Ryan Terrill, 26, a member of the winning American team, told AFP. “Despite all that, I have been able to see all the birds I have always wanted to see,” added Terrill, all smiles. Twenty-four seasoned bird specialists from Britain, South Africa, Brazil, Spain and the United States took part in “Birding Rally Challenge Peru.”

Decked out in shorts and caps, binoculars and cameras around their necks, these guys could be mistaken for random outdoorsy tourists, maybe on their way to Macchu Picchu. But they are super-specialists, indeed.

Some competitors are among the world’s best known and most respected authorities on bird life. They are all up, before five in the morning, pushing through brush at the Tambopata nature reserve with the same goal: identifying the greatest number of birds possible, as the clock ticks down. Off in the distance, a ball of scarlet feathers stands out against the verdant tropical jungle of the Amazon basin. It is the Andean cock-of-therock, or Rupicola Peruviana, a red, white and black mid-sized gem widely seen as Peru’s

Birdwatchers spot birds during the Birding Rally Challenge at “Aguas Calientes” near the Machu Picchu sanctuary in Cuzco. — AFP national bird. And the enthusiasm for seeing such rare and beautiful wildlife, for many of the experts, borders on obsession.

“Peru is one of the best places in the world for birdwatching in terms of biodiversity and infrastructure as well,” said Jordi Sargatal, a Spanish expert who has authored several books on ornithology. Sargatal’s team, “Tramuntana Birding,” came in last, but had

fun anyway and said they would have to study more species before next year’s event.

Terrell’s team “Tigrisomas”, made up of four doctoral students in ornithology at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, took the big feathered prize: covering the most terrain in six days while identifying a staggering 493 bird species.

This year the competition wrapped up at

the foot of the famous Inca citadel Macchu Picchu, in the town of Aguas Calientes, in the southern region of Cusco. “Normally, the birdwatching competition was done in just one day. But we really wanted to highlight Peru’s biodiversity. It has 1,800 registered bird species including 117” unique to Peru, said contest coordinator Dennis Osorio.

“Just in the area around Macchu Picchu, there are 700 different bird species, many of them found nowhere else,” Osorio said. A lot of change has come from within Peru itself, said American Tom Schulenberg, who literally wrote the book on birding in Peru. “What has changed so dramatically... is Peruvians’ growing interest in their own environment,” said Schulenberg, who has been visiting the South American nation of arid coastal, mountain and jungle terrains, for 35 years.

The rally’s turn in the south, where relatively little birding is done, brought some surprises. One birder spied a “Black Swift Apodidae,” a migratory bird that resembles a swallow but is native to North America. Tourism Deputy Minister Claudia Cornejo presented the prize to the winners: a trophy shaped like-what else? — a black-faced Cotinga (Conioptilon mcilhennyi). Cornejo says Peru aims to become the world’s top birding tourism destination, which could earn it at least $50 million a year.— AFP

Meyerbeer’s rare ‘Robert’ staged in London

Review

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egas painted it. Chopin wrote variations on it. Balzac and Dumas mentioned it in their fiction. The Paris Opera performed it 100 times in just three years. For more than a half-century after its premiere in 1831, Giacomo Meyerbeer’s “Robert le Diable” was everywhere.

Then, as its composer’s reputation plummeted, it all but disappeared. Now the Royal Opera has brought it back, for the first time in 120 years, in a new production by director Laurent Pelly that opened Dec 6 and was seen at the third of six performance Wednesday night.

It’s a commendable undertaking, especially at a time when many opera companies are opting for safe repertory choices. But “Robert” makes for a long evening - five acts spread over more than four hours - and Meyerbeer’s music is only fitfully inspired, to put it kindly. Also, Covent Garden has failed to make the strongest possible case for the work: The singing, with one exception, is merely adequate, and the staging is at times too cute for its own good. Based loosely on a medieval legend about the son of the devil by a mortal woman, “Robert” single-handedly established the popularity of “grand opera,” melodrama filled with lavish spectacle, expensive scenic effects, big choruses, ballets and vocal parts requiring great virtuosity. Above all, what caused a sensation at “Robert’s” premiere was the provocative “Ballet of Nuns,” in which the ghosts of fallen nuns rise from their crypt to seduce the hero at the devil’s bidding.

As choreographed here by Lionel Hoche, it’s moderately creepy and makes an honorable stab at replicating what audiences might have experienced then.

For most of the evening, however, Pelly seems afraid to take the opera seriously. That’s probably a mistake: If “Robert” is to succeed after all this time, it isn’t going to be

through camp. The brightly colored cutout sets by Chantal Thomas evoke titters with designs straight out of The Wizard of Oz: horses of different colors, knights resembling the Tin Man, even a castle with turrets like the Wicked Witch’s. The best music in the opera is a trio in which Robert’s half-sister, Alice, plays tug-of-war for his soul with his father, Bertram. It’s potentially thrilling, but Pelly undercuts it by having Alice drift in from our left on a cloud formation, while Bertram is menaced by a cartoonish monster who slides in from the right. Pelly even ends the evening with a gag - the devil reappears, suitcase and stovepipe hat in hand, walking across the stage as if en route to his next assignment.

Covent Garden had casting difficulties from the outset, and no wonder since few singers alive today are familiar with the score. The production was conceived for tenor Juan Diego Florez, but he decided against doing it, and the title role fell to Bryan Hymel. He has a big voice and his high notes - there are many - can be thrilling. But on Wednesday many of them sounded effortful. He and Pelly also haven’t found a way to make the vacillating Robert someone we care about, admittedly not an easy task.

Soprano Marina Poplavskaya sang the role of Alice, after first bowing out of the production a few weeks ago and then changing her mind. She is dramatically compelling as always, but her singing was wildly inconsistent - strong and soulful at times, frayed and off-pitch at others.

A second leading role for soprano, that of Robert’s true love, Princess Isabelle of Sicily, originally was to have been sung by Diana Damrau, but she canceled because of pregnancy and Jennifer Rowley was engaged. Then, just three days before the opening, Covent Garden announced she

This photo shows actor Bryan Hymel in the title role of their production of the opera “Robert Le Diable.” — AP was withdrawing, and Italian soprano Patrizia Ciofi flew in to take over. Ciofi’s voice is on the small side, but she’s a terrific artist and technician. She invested her phrases with sweet tone and real feeling, and hit every note with accuracy and seeming ease.

Isabelle gets the most famous aria in the opera, “Robert, toi que je t’aime,” and Ciofi made the most of its plaintive, upward-reaching refrain. As Bertram, bass John Relyea gave a performance that was workman-like when it needed to be charismatic and commanding. Daniel Oren conducted with a good sense of period style, though a faster pace might have helped at times to generate more excitement. —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Paul McCartney performs on stage during “12-12-12 - The Concert For Sandy Relief” December 12, 2012 at Madison Square Garden in New York. — AP/AFP photos

Scenes of relief operations amid Hurricane Sandy are projected as The Who perform.

Billy Joel performs on stage.

Music, comedy strike defiant tone at

Sandy concert M

Blake Lively addresses the audience.

usic and comedy royalty struck a defiant tone in a benefit concert for Superstorm Sandy that started Wednesday and stretched into Thursday morning, asking for help to rebuild a New York metropolitan area most of them know well. The sold-out Madison Square Garden show was televised, streamed online and aired on radio all over the world. Producers said up to 2 billion people could experience the concert live. “When are you going to learn,” comic and New Jersey native Jon Stewart said. “You can throw anything at us - terrorists, hurricanes. You can take away our giant sodas. It doesn’t matter. We’re coming back stronger every time.”

Jersey shore hero Bruce Springsteen set a roaring tone, opening the concert with “Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Wrecking Ball.” He addressed the rebuilding process in introducing his song “My City of Ruins,” noting it was written about the decline of Asbury Park, New Jersey, before that city’s renaissance over the past decade. What made the Jersey shore special was its inclusiveness, a place where people of all incomes and backgrounds could find a place, he said. “I pray that that characteristic remains along the Jersey shore because that’s what makes it special,” Springsteen said.

He mixed a verse of Tom Waits’ “Jersey Girl” into the song before calling New Jersey neighbor Jon Bon Jovi to join him in a rousing “Born to Run.” Springsteen later returned the favor by joining Bon Jovi on “Who Says You Can’t Go Home.” Adam Sandler hearkened back to his “Saturday Night Live” days with a ribald rewrite of the oft-sung “Hallelujah” that composer Leonard Cohen never would have dreamed. The rewritten chorus says, “Sandy, screw ya, we’ll get through ya, because we’re New Yawkers.”

Sandler wore a New York Jets T-shirt and mined Donald Trump, Michael Bloomberg, the New York Knicks, Times Square porn and Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez for laugh lines. The music lineup was heavily weighted toward classic rock, which has the type of fans able to afford a show for which ticket prices ranged from $150 to $2,500. Even with those prices, people with tickets have been offering them for more on broker sites such as StubHub, an attempt at profiteering that producers fumed was “despicable.” “This has got to be the largest collection of old English musicians ever assembled in Madison Square Garden,” Rolling Stones rocker Mick Jagger said. “If it rains in London, you’ve got to come and help us.” In fighting trim for a series of 50th anniversary concerts in the New York area, the Stones ripped through “You’ve Got Me Rockin” and “Jumping Jack Flash” before beating a quick retreat - perhaps not to upstage their

own upcoming Pay-Per-View show. Actor Steve Buscemi later made light of that, saying producers made room for him by cutting the Stones short. “I said, ‘if they play more than two songs, I’m out of here.’”

Jagger wasn’t in New York City for Sandy, but he said in an interview before the concert that his apartment was flooded with 2 feet of water. The Who weaved Sandy into their set, showing pictures of storm devastation on video screens during “Pinball Wizard.” Pete Townshend made a quick revision to the lyrics of “Baba O’Riley,” changing “teenage wasteland” to “Sandy wasteland.”

New York native Alicia Keys asked the audience to hold their cell phones high for her song, “No One,” triggering a sea of light that is the modern version of an earlier generation’s holding cigarette lighters in the air. “We love you,” Keys said, “and we’ll make it through this.” She didn’t perform “Empire State of Mind,” however, leaving untouched this century’s most indelible song about her hometown. Billy Joel did his signature “New York State of Mind,” however. Joel’s “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)” sounded prescient, with new Sandy-fueled lyrics smoothly fitting in.

By the time Joel worked in “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the concert was already testing the patience of viewers. Long sets by The Who and Kanye West stretched beyond the point of endurance, and Seth Meyers’ “drunk uncle” comedy set fell flat. An energetic West worked up a sweat in a hoodie, black leather pants and a black skirt. He told the audience that he had friends displaced by Sandy who were staying at his house, before getting the crowd swaying with a version of “Gold Digger.” He ended his set by shouting, “I need you right now!” tossing his microphone and stalking off stage.

Besides the Garden, people gathered in theaters across the region and country to watch the show. In Toms River, New Jersey, mail carrier Jerry Frasco said he was in awe of a lineup that included many of his favorites from 40 years ago.

“We didn’t want to go through a hurricane to have it,” he said. Eric Clapton switched from acoustic to electric guitar and sang “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” and “Crossroads.” New York was a backdrop for Clapton’s personal tragedy, when his young son died after falling out of a window.

Roger Waters played a set of Pink Floyd’s spacey rock, joined by Eddie Vedder for “Comfortably Numb.” Waters stuck to the music and left the fundraising to others. “Can’t chat,” he said, “because we only have 30 minutes.” The soldout “12-12-12” concert was being shown on 37 television stations in the United States and more than 200 others worldwide. It was to be streamed on 30 websites, including YouTube and Yahoo, and played on radio stations. Theaters, including 27 in the New York region and dozens more elsewhere, were showing it live. —AP

Chris Martin (left) and Michael Stipe are seen on stage.

Jason Sudeikis (left) and Katie Holmes (right) speak on stage.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

A woman walks past the works “Unbearable Warmth” (foreground) and “Collective Subconscious” by Chinese artist Yin Xiuzhen during a preview yesterday at the Kunsthalle museum in Duesseldorf, western Germany. — AFP

Art activists rattle eli W

ithin the space of less than a year a group of young Russian women in 2012 went from being almost unknown provocateurs to global superstars and a symbol of change in their country. The Russian feminist punk rock group Punk Riot have only a half dozen songs to their name, no recording contract, have never held a conventional concert let alone sold an album. Yet now they are garlanded worldwide as symbols of a battle for liberty and freedom of speech under Vladimir Putin, praised by personalities ranging from Madonna to Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi. Their extraordinary rise would have been unimaginable in an age before social media and video-sharing, which helped turn fringe anarchists into celebrities whose trademark multi-coloured balaclavas are now instantly recognisable. Internet media has allowed artists to try and break censorship at home and spread their message far beyond frontiers, be it Punk Riot or the equally prominent Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

The most detailed examination of the Russian protest movement to emerge so far is not a book or a traditional documentary but a sequence of dozens of short Internet films called “Srok” (The Term) posted on YouTube and elsewhere. The scrutiny of the protest leaders is by no means always sympathetic but the project was sufficiently explosive for investigators to last week raid the home of its director, the filmmaker Pavel Kostomarov who has now suspended the project.

Putin got scared?

Punk Riot first emerged in the autumn of 2011, initially an offshoot of the Russian street art group Voina (War) which had already won a name with subversive stunts. Members of Punk Riot had been involved in some of Voina’s most notorious actions that have included the mock hanging of immigrants in a supermarket and a group session in a Moscow zoological museum.

In their first major stunt in October 2011 they showered Moscow metro passengers with pillow feathers as they sang for an equivalent of Egypt’s

Tahrir Square in Russia. They took to the roof of a prison building to serenade detainees arrested in an anti-Putin protest and then in January 2012 managed to perform on Red Square singing “Rebellion in Russia, Putin’s Got Scared” and letting off pink flares.

Only a handful of people saw the protests live but the group astutely mixed footage of the performances with studio-recorded sound to create a compulsive Internet video. Even then the combination of aggressive rap-style lyrics in Russian to a base track of thrash rock was hardly to everybody’s taste.

But what happened on February 21, 2012 made them impossible to ignore.

Four members of the group, kitted out in coloured balaclavas, tights and vests managed to perform a “punk prayer” in the altar area of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow imploring the Virgin Mary to “rid us of Putin”. The action itself was chaotic and the girls were rapidly apprehended

by security. But all was recorded, the performance was edited that night with a new soundtrack and that video has now been viewed 2.5 million times on YouTube. In a trial denounced as a throwback to Soviet show trials, three of the girls were condemned to two years in a prison camp for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. Images of them peering through the defendants’ cage in court created yet another indelible image while the trio were nominated for the EU’s Sakharov prize. One was freed on appeal but two remain in prison camps-celebrated throughout the world and a painful thorn under Putin’s skin.

Gangnam Chinese-Style A few years back, the chances of a contemporary Chinese artist becoming a global freedom icon would have been about the same as Russian punk anarchists with a taste for thrash metal. But as global

South Korean pop sensation Psy, whose real name is Park Jae-Sang, performs for fans at a promotion by the Sunrise breakfast television show in central Sydney. — AFP

perceptions of Putin’s Russia have been shaped by Punk Riot, many ideas about China are now seen through the prism of its most internationally prominent cultural figure Ai Weiwei. Ai’s exuberant parody of the video Gangnam Style by South Korean rapper PSY the most viewed YouTube video of all time-on the surface appears charming but was deemed provocative enough for it to be blocked by the Chinese authorities.

The video shows the bearded artist in a bright pink T-shirt imitating PSY’s famous horse dance along with a cohort of assistants. But in a symbol of Beijing’s efforts to silence him he pulls out a pair of handcuffs which are then used to dance a strange pas-de-deux with a fellow activist. Ai, 55, has worked in numerous artistic media, including photography, sculpture, painting and architecture, but has become famous for a brand of performance art linked to political activism. It has included a campaign to identify the children killed in school collapses during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, which cast a broad light on poorly constructed buildings and used video of officials and police trying to silence him. Ai disappeared into police custody for 81 days last year as activists were rounded up amid online calls for Arab Spring-style protests in China and was then fined $2.4 million in a tax evasion case.

Full Circle At a time of uprising in the Middle East and economic crisis across much of the world, art and politics mixed more uneasily than ever as artists emerged as champions of rights causes. At the end of Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s 2000 film “The Circle” about the daily lives of women in Iran, a prison door slams shut on a cell containing all the main female protagonists of the movie. The Venice Golden Lion and Berlin Silver Bear-winning filmmaker was feted across the world as one of the most original voices of the Iranian new wave. But he was given a six-year prison term and 20-year ban on making films for “making propaganda” against Iran’s Islamic regime. He is now under house arrest, awaiting the final verdict in his case. —AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY,DECEMBER 14, 2012

Egyptian actress Raja Al-Jadawi attends the opening ceremony of the Dubai International Film Festival in Dubai.

Indian actors Shravanthi Sainath (right), Suraj Sharma (center) and Adil Hussain (left) attend the ceremony.

director herself, Haifaa Al-Mansour, and the films talented childactors Waad Mohammed and Abdullrahman Al-Gohani. The ground-breaking film has already been awarded the Art Cinema Award at The Venice Film Festival 2012 and sparked international discussion and interest in the burgeoning talent of the Arab World.

Before attending the critically acclaimed crowd pleasing Gala Screening of Wadjda, the humble cast and crew spent some time with the media during a press in Al-Qasr. Pioneering director

Haifaa Al-Mansour, and the child-actors Waad Mohammed and Abdullrahman Al-Gohani posed alongside the infamous bike from their ground-breaking film. Wadjda is the second Arabian Gala to be screened this week this follows Bekas earlier in the week which showcased at DIFF following astonishing success in Cannes.

Actor Mahmud Abdel Aziz receives an IWC watch, as part of the Lifetime Achievement award presented by Sheikh Mansur bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum at the Dubai International Film Festival in the Gulf emirate of Dubai. — AFP photos

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ast night’s red-carpet gala at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) celebrated Saudi Arabia’s first female film director, Haifaa Al-Mansour, with a screening of her Muhr Arab Feature film Wadjda, about a young girl’s quest to own her own bicycle despite the constricting social conventions of the Kingdom. The event was supported with stars from the GCC, supporting one of their own in what promises to be one of a series of cinematic endeavours. The strong Wadjda entourage included the

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esterday’s Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF) saw two red-carpet galas for the blockbuster-packed Cinema of the World programming segment, beginning with the Middle East Premiere of Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away-a lush 3D extravaganza that melds portions of seven Cirque shows into an immersive circus love story. The evening Gala was Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins, Helen Mirren, Scarlett Johansson and Jessica Biel, which goes behind the scenes of Alfred Hitchcock’s seminal Psycho. Stars in attendance included cast and directors from Cirque du Soleil: Worlds Away including director Andrew Adamson, actress Erica Linz and executive producer Jacques MethÈ. Additional talent walking the red carpet included Mohamed Kareem.

Running alongside the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF), Dubai Film Forum - the hub for talent development, funding, industry panel discussions, forums and workshops - will dedicate an entire day of its programming to the art and business of documentary filmmaking. From December 10-16, the Dubai Film Forum will present an invigorating series of international panels and networking session.

Jane Williams, Director of Film Forum and Dubai Film Connection, said: “While documentary films are often overlooked by the general public in favour of their more ‘glamorous’ fiction film counterparts, significantly more documentary films are produced in the region, and broadcasters rely on non-fiction material for a large share of their content. Moreover, documentaries are an art form in their own right, and an essen-

tial way of introducing viewers to concepts, ways of life and regions they would not otherwise encounter. The focus on documentaries in this year’s programming underscores their importance to the regional film industry and is meant to facilitate regional documentarians’ expos re to industry trends, different techniques of storytelling, and international funders.”

At the panel A Guide for Funding Documentary Film in the Arab World and Beyond, a distinguished panel of fund representatives will outline ways in which producers of Arab documentaries can access funds to develop and produce their proj-

The Cirque du Soleil troupe is seen.

ects. The day concludes with a networking session where Dubai Film Market delegates will be able to meet with international documentary funders and commissioners.

The Dubai Film Forum is an integral part of the Dubai Film Market, DIFF’s comprehensive script-to-screen initiative, which also includes the Dubai Film Connection, the Festival’s successful co-production market; Enjaaz, the Festival’s dedicated postproduction support programme; and the Dubai Filmmart, a global content trade and distribution platform.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Al-Madena Al-Shohada’a Al-Shuwaikh Al-Nuzha Sabhan Al-Helaly Al-Fayhaa Al-Farwaniya Al-Sulaibikhat Al-Fahaheel Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh Ahmadi Al-Mangaf Al-Shuaiba Al-Jahra Al-Salmiya

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ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation in Salmiya behind Mercedes showroom only single Pilipina lady in a master bedroom. Tel: 97751739.

11-12-2012

FOR SALE Toyota Camry model 2011 GLX full option with sun-roof km done 27,000, white metallic color, registration till 11-62014 (installment possible) cash price KD 4750. Tel: 66507741.

(C 4244) 11-12-2012

MATRIMONIAL 55 years well placed Indian Muslim man seeks a lady for marriage 30 to 35 years age background and faith does not matter. Please email: asgar_kathawala@ymail.com 14-12-2012 32 years Roman Catholic boy 5’7” working as a private nurse invites proposals from God fearing and well educated girls. Email: shijopmathew@hotmail.com (C 4250) 13-12-2012 Pentecostal parents invite proposals for their daughter 26, 5’4”, MSc Biochemistry working in Kuwait, from professionally qualified boys.

Please send detailed profiles with photos to ne_georgev@yahoo.com SITUATION VACANT Required driver for a Kuwaiti family, 3 years experience,

Kuwaiti driving license.

Salary KD 100. Call 99304076.

(C 4245) Required maid for a Kuwaiti family, experience in Kuwait for three months. Call 99304076. (C 4246) 10-12-2012

CHANGE OF NAME I, JUDE D’COSTA holder of Indian Passport No: F1450021 hereby change my name to JUDE DA COSTA. (C 4247) I, VENKAPA REDDY Indian Passport No: F8461897, embraced Islam, so I change my name MUSTAFA REDDY. (C 4248) 11-12-2012

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

05:10 06:34 11:43 14:33 16:52 18:14

GOVERNMENT WEB SITES Kuwait Parliament www.majlesalommah.net

The Public Institution for Social Security www.pifss.gov.kw

Ministry of Interior www.moi.gov.kw

Public Authority of Industry www.pai.gov.kw

Public Authority for Civil Information www.paci.gov.kw

Prisoners of War Committee www.pows.org.kw

Kuwait News Agency www.kuna.net.kw

Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mofa.gov.kw

Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affair www.islam.gov.kw

Kuwait Municipality www.municipality.gov.kw

Ministry of Energy (Oil) www.moo.gov.kw

Kuwait Electronic Government www.e.gov.kw

Ministry of Energy (Electricity and Water) www.energy.govt.kw

Ministry of Finance www.mof.gov.kw

Public Authority for Housing Welfare www.housing.gov.kw

Ministry of Commerce and Industry www.moci.gov.kw

Ministry of Justice www.moj.gov.kw

Ministry of Education www.moe.edu.kw

Ministry of Communications www.moc.kw

Ministry of Information www.moinfo.gov.kw

Supreme Council for Planning andDevelopment www.scpd.gov.kw

Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation www.awqaf.org

Pets FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Training is key for wild animals, just like the family dog

B

oo’s world turned upside down when Athena moved in last spring to share the large barn owl enclosure at the Akron Zoo. After getting a new roommate, the raptor, who had seemed happy splitting her digs with the male owl that died of old age, inexplicably became aggressive when zoo staff entered her habitat, said owl trainer Shannon Benedict of Stow, Ohio.

“Whenever anyone goes in the cage, she starts shrieking and screaming so loudly you can hear her all over the zoo,” she explained. She asked nationally recognized animal behaviorist Dr. Grey Stafford for help to curb the owl’s obvious stress. Stafford, author of the book “Zoomility: Keeper Tales of Training with Positive Reinforcement,” visited the zoo recently to conduct a behavior training seminar for the public and help staff members find solutions for stubborn behavior issues.

“It’s an opportunity for our staff members to talk to someone who’s been at it for 22 years,” said mammal curator Eric Albers. When the group arrived at the barn owl habitat, they saw Boo quietly resting in a nest box while her nemesis, Athena, had claimed Boo’s favorite perch. Benedict acknowledged she hit a roadblock while trying to help the bird learn to cope with the newcomer.

“Are there any fights between the two?” Stafford asked. Boo never confronts Athena, “just me,” Benedict said. “Well, she’s taking it out on you,” Stafford told her.

Stafford suggested Benedict try feeding the bird frequently during the day so she would associate the food Benedict was giving her with positive feelings.

Eventually, the nocturnal hunter’s daytime world would begin to revolve around seeing Benedict, who represents food, and she would obsess less about her perceived territorial rights being violated, he said. “When you leave, they should know the food leaves, too,” he said.

Stafford began his zoological career as a trainer at Sea World in Aurora, Ohio. He said his methods work with all animals, including domestic cats.

“They are just like the big cats here - the lions and jaguars - when it comes to training.” They are still felines, Albers reminded a visitor. “These guys are not all that different, but they can take your face off,” he said. It takes a lot of training to get a snow leopard to back up to the bars on its cage to await the piercing pain of an inoculation by needle, but that’s the goal, said Stafford.

“We’re teaching animals to participate in their own care,” he said. Animal keepers today want to avoid anesthetics for routine exams and inoculations. An anesthetic, as well as the stress of having it administered, may skew blood test results, Stafford said.

Tara Gifford, the zoo’s animal training consultant who works with zoo staff members one day a week, concurred with Stafford. “Any time you can get a good look at an animal without anesthesia is good for the animal’s welfare,” she said while observing Zheng, a red panda, standing on a scale for the price of a raisin. Lisa Melnik, primary trainer for the red pandas, demonstrated how she encourages 4-year-old Zheng when she enters his habitat for daily training sessions.

“As always, we remember they are wild animals. We know the subtle signs of frustration and know when to back off,” she said. Stafford was impressed that Zheng and the zoo’s wood storks seemed unfazed by noisy construction from the nearby future site of Grizzly Ridge, slated to open next summer.

“These animals are all being trained with the construction noises and they are calm,” he noted. Stafford’s message of positive reinforcement training with Zoomility’s three R’s - request, response, reinforce - has earned praise from TV personality Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo, who wrote the foreword in Stafford’s book.

“His work in zoos, oceanariums, and television has enabled him to apply the same principles of reinforcement training to dozens of exotic and endangered

species. Along the way, he’s helped many pet owners and professionals provide better care for their animals through positive reinforcement,” Hanna wrote.

While food may be the incentive for many animals, it doesn’t always work; some animals may require other inducements, said Stafford. “Reinforcement can be done with toys, attention from the teacher, or a particular scent,” he said. A large cat at the zoo loved a ginger body scent trainers sprayed inside a crate so much, it didn’t want to come out when its exam was finished, said Albers. “It was just like a cat with catnip,” he said.

That’s why visitors to the zoo’s website shouldn’t be surprised that the donation “wish list” includes perfumes

for its scent-loving residents. As the group headed to Farmland, the zoo’s petting habitat, Linda Criss, vice president of communications, acknowledged she makes regular early morning visits to see the resident black Guinea hog named Cletus.

Criss, of Wooster, said she has a soft spot for the pig, probably because she grew up on a farm and was a member of a 4-H Club. “He’s one of my favorites. I like his personality and he likes to be scratched,” she confided.

Cletus’ secondary trainer, Mark Schneider of Akron, who also cares for the storks and red pandas, said he didn’t have a particular favorite. “They all have different personalities and so it changes every day,” he said. — MCT

Lisa Melnik, wild animal keeper, gets “Zheng,” a Red Panda, to stand and be weighed at the Akron Zoo, in Akron, Ohio. — MCT

Stars

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Aries (March 21-April 19) You may not believe it but . . . there is a career opportunity today. Networking has paid off. You may have an idea for a new invention and someone you met at a networking party will know just how to get your invention noticed. What with gifts, trash, electric products and food preservation, it would not be surprising if your invention takes the form of an easier method of trash disposal.

Perhaps you will come up with a new idea for storage or technical adjustments to save batteries or electricity. Career comes into play because you may have interested the higher-ups at your place of business. You will find lots of support from others. Tonight you enjoy neighbors and family—count your blessings. You have good vibrations regarding finances.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You may find yourself at work early this morning, perhaps to find your friends and talk about the movie, the restaurant or the play from last night. You may be emotionally involved in a competitive situation today—you are motivated to improve your techniques. You are confident and that is a good because you may have to start again and again. This is how one learns and you do better than most . . . really. At the break you could pick up a few pointers and this afternoon you succeed in what you set out to accomplish. You may devote personal time to helping others in some therapeutic or a charitable type of work this evening. Working in groups of volunteers you find the evening moving along very quickly and everyone works together quite well.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) As a tour guide or travel planner you have been mighty busy. Most occupations at this time of the year will tend to stay busy for one reason or another. Today you spend much of your time putting special-needs people on a plane or in a vehicle, or finding the right place to purchase some special clothing. At home this afternoon you will find successful resolutions to most situations—there are opportunities to express your ideas. There is talk of things you would like to see changed next year, such as the use of pesticides. There is talk of helping the elderly that want to drive and be more independent. You may look for ways to supplement your income or maybe start your own business. Keep these ideas active by making a note on your calendar.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) We have access to the Internet for our news and few people read the newspaper anymore. We are still able to keep up-to-date with news and articles of interest. Today is one of those days when one people try to outdo each other with how much they know. Be prepared . . . every time you go to break others may think you need to be updated with new information. Eventually, this all gets silly and people find jokes and animated antics to share. It is not that any of you have little to do and everyone is bored; it is more like there is a boatload of errands and calls and quotas to accomplish and everyone is feeling the madness. This afternoon you are busy with neighbors or relatives. Your timing is perfect and others find you most natural. Kids find you fun.

Leo (July 23-August 22) This morning, you could be seen by others as just the person to be put in control. There is a need for change and a few things don’t work and have become out-of-date. Today may not be the time to change a lifelong tradition but it is a good time to set an appointment for talking over some ideas you have. The basic changes for your company would involve the old-fashioned holiday decorations. It may be fun for the kids but it doesn’t help draw in the adult customers or clients. There is a longing for something different and you may not be alone with these feelings. You may find that someone is supportive of your ideas. You could come up with new solutions or inventions. You work for a company that can make these changes for next year.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) This is a workday that is not too slow or too busy. Your work keeps you busy and you like that. Your day usually has people in it that you help to locate items or perform research and you would think this time of year your workday would be slow but recently, people want to know things. People like to be education.

They come to you to find answers. You may find yourself enjoying these last few weeks of the year as you uncover answers to mysterious and curious questions. Outside activity today is perfect for a little exercise and a change of scenery—weather permitting, of course. Make sure that your home is not too warm. You may be updating your address book and phone directory this evening. You keep young people out of cook’s way tonight.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Practical matters have your attention this morning. Take your time with a serious task. Lovers, children and other people or things dear to your heart are emphasized just now. Being appreciated and admired for your gifts and talents are a powerful need. Taking chances can bring big rewards and you are mostly interested in pleasing others . . . getting the right gift, etc. Professionally speaking, you are in the right place and can expect good things to happen. You will intuitively know when it is time to move on. You may receive a surprise visit from a distant friend this afternoon. Your love relationship is in a positive swing. You and your loved one will enjoy the real meaning of the holidays. Eat a light evening meal and enjoy an after dinner walk.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) A senior family member could be the object of your affections today. This is a good time for imagination and creativity when it comes to ideas and thinking in the workplace. This, coupled with the ability to put your thoughts into words, allows you to captivate others and hold them in your spell. You are in a good position to make important adjustments or slight changes that may not be noticed today but will gain momentum and have positive and stable changes in the future. You are like a little bug that puts ideas in important people’s ears, so to speak. This ability is one of the reasons for which you were hired. A romantic date or time with a loved one this evening may have the feel of permanency. Plans to marry or add to the family could be in the future.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Emotional satisfaction comes through good, sound relationships. Reacting to outward conditions too quickly may have you working to explain yourself or calm yourself. Get into the habit of thinking through situations or challenges. In-depth discussions and probing conversations find you at your mental best. Your investigative abilities are in focus and as you put on your thinking hat to solve a young person’s predicament, you are successful in making everyone happy. Much of the stresses you have felt in the past will soon balance out nicely. You may experience this realization as you begin to notice how quickly you can turn a negative conversation into a positive conversation today. This evening is filled with good news.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Any frustrations iron out quickly today—you are willing to compromise and bargain and you are very talented at the art of negotiation. You can soak in many positive vibrations the rest of this day. Beauty and color can harmonize and create a positive effect on your psyche, as can music. You may have a wonderful opportunity to share these positive effects with your loved one at the noon break.

This may also be a fun time to walk through an area of town to view the happenings. Work this afternoon has more negotiations but you complete your business early and may even think of leaving early to grocery shop. No serious discussions after the sun goes down, you have a new supply of wood and are looking forward to enjoying a warm fire—relax.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You demonstrate a great deal of sensitivity to the needs of others. Today, you may be sought after for your advice and counsel regarding a very personal issue. Trying to understand the whole story or plot first is an important step and after a while you have everything figured out. Giving advice may not be what is needed at this time. For now, listening is the best avenue to take. After the workday is over you make it a point to visit with a person you sincerely love to chat with and this could be someone in the family or a friend down the street. When you can get to a calendar you make each other a promise to set aside the days and times of a walking exercise together each week. A little computer time this evening brings good news from across the globe.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) A new perspective gives you positive insight in the workplace this morning. There are places to go and things to do and new tools that will help you negotiate through your day. You are feeling charged and in charge. Some time ago, perhaps in school, you knew a musical instrument or spoke a foreign language. Now you want to begin again. You are probably right to think that after learning something once you could pick it up fairly easily the second time.

Some opportunity has come up that brings this to your attention and you want to finish what you started. A co-worker or someone you have recently met in a group after work may teach this skill. Consider starting slowly at first and you will probably enjoy the learning process.

COUNTRY CODES Afghanistan 0093 Albania 00355 Algeria 00213 Andorra 00376 Angola 00244 Anguilla 001264 Antiga 001268 Argentina 0054 Armenia 00374 Australia 0061 Austria 0043 Bahamas 001242 Bahrain 00973 Bangladesh 00880 Barbados 001246 Belarus 00375 Belgium 0032 Belize 00501 Benin 00229 Bermuda 001441 Bhutan 00975 Bolivia 00591 Bosnia 00387 Botswana 00267 Brazil 0055 Brunei 00673 Bulgaria 00359 Burkina 00226 Burundi 00257 Cambodia 00855 Cameroon 00237 Canada 001 Cape Verde 00238 Cayman Islands 001345 Central African Republic 00236 Chad 00235 Chile 0056 China 0086 Colombia 0057 Comoros 00269 Congo 00242 Cook Islands 00682 Costa Rica 00506 Croatia 00385 Cuba 0053 Cyprus 00357 Cyprus (Northern) 0090392 Czech Republic 00420 Denmark 0045 Diego Garcia 00246 Djibouti 00253 Dominica 001767 Dominican Republic 001809 Ecuador 00593 Egypt 0020 El Salvador 00503 England (UK) 0044 Equatorial Guinea 00240 Eritrea 00291 Estonia 00372 Ethiopia 00251 Falkland Islands 00500 Faroe Islands 00298 Fiji 00679 Finland 00358 France 0033 French Guiana 00594 French Polynesia 00689 Gabon 00241 Gambia 00220 Georgia 00995 Germany 0049 Ghana 00233 Gibraltar 00350 Greece 0030 Greenland 00299 Grenada 001473 Guadeloupe 00590 Guam 001671 Guatemala 00502 Guinea 00224 Guyana 00592 Haiti 00509 Holland (Netherlands)0031 Honduras 00504 Hong Kong 00852 Hungary 0036 Ibiza (Spain) 0034 Iceland 00354 India 0091 Indian Ocean 00873 Indonesia 0062 Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686

Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland)0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK)0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677 Somalia 00252 South Africa 0027 South Korea 0082 Spain 0034 Sri Lanka 0094 Sudan 00249 Suriname 00597 Swaziland 00268 Sweden 0046 Switzerland 0041 Syria 00963 Taiwan 00886 Tanzania 00255 Thailand 0066 Toga 00228 Tonga 00676 Tokelau 00690 Trinidad 001868 Tunisia 00216 Turkey 0090 Tuvalu 00688 Uganda 00256 Ukraine 00380 United Arab Emirates00976

Stars

C R O S S W O R D

3 8

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Yesterday始s Solution

ACROSS 1. Weapons considered collectively.

5. The cavity in which the large intestine begins and into which the ileum opens.

11. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

15. The flesh of animals (including fishes and birds and snails) used as food.

16. A family of languages of the Fula people of west Africa in the sub-Sahara regions from Senegal to Chad.

17. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

18. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

20. A proteolytic enzyme secreted by the kidneys.

21. A collection of facts from which conclusions may be drawn.

22. White Southerner supporting Reconstruction policies after the Civil War usually for self-interest.

24. Brief episode in which the brain gets insufficient blood supply.

26. The most common computer memory which can be used by programs to perform necessary tasks while the computer is on.

27. A derogatory term used by Jews to refer to non-Jewish women.

28. Being nine more than ninety.

30. System of measurement based on centimeters and grams and seconds.

34. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

38. A Kwa language spoken in Ghana and the Ivory Coast.

42. The craniometric point on the sagittal suture near the lamboid suture.

44. The capital and largest city of Myanmar.

47. Done or occurring in a brief period of time.

48. Administration of a nutritionally adequate solution through a catheter into the vena cava.

49. A rare polyvalent metallic element of the platinum group.

52. The basic unit of money in Lesotho.

53. A cut of pork ribs with much of the meat trimmed off.

56. A state in midwestern United States.

58. The month following February and preceding April.

59. Harmed or injured or spoiled.

62. The closing section of a musical composition.

64. Having been taken into the mouth for consumption.

68. A small cake leavened with yeast.

72. A wad of something chewable as tobacco.

76. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.

77. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

79. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

80. Be obedient to.

81. A member of the Siouan people formerly inhabiting the Black Hills of western South Dakota.

82. An associate degree in applied science.

DOWN 1. Collect or gather.

2. An involuntary spasm of ineffectual vomiting.

3. New Zealand conifer.

4. Moving silently and deliberately.

5. A radioactive transuranic element.

6. A sensation (as of a cold breeze or bright light) that precedes the onset of certain disorders such as a migraine attack or epileptic seizure.

7. Resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy.

8. Airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc..

9. Any division of quantity accepted as a standard of measurement or exchange.

10. (British) A minicar used as a taxicab.

11. An informal term for a father.

12. The sixth month of the civil year.

13. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

14. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

19. The network in the reticular formation that serves an alerting or arousal function.

23. A state in northwestern United States on the Pacific.

25. A soft white precious univalent metallic element having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal.

29. Being ten more than one hundred ninety.

31. Small evergreen shrub of Pacific coast of North America having edible dark purple

grape-size berries.

32. A decree that prohibits something.

33. A state of deep and often prolonged unconsciousness.

35. A tumor consisting of fatty tissue.

36. Of or relating to coitus or copulation.

37. Small genus of evergreen trees of tropical America and western Africa.

39. The 10th letter of the Greek alphabet.

40. A communist state in Indochina on the South China Sea. 41. Having turned bad.

43. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group.

45. A state in northwestern United States on the Pacific.

46. Being ten more than one hundred forty.

50. A metallic element having four allotropic forms.

51. A choice or delicious dish.

54. A canal for a current of water.

55. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank.

57. (Judaism) Sacred chest where the ancient Hebrews kept the two tablets containing the Ten Commandments.

60. A percussion instrument consisting of a pair of hollow pieces of wood or bone (usually held between the thumb and fingers) that are made to click together (as by Spanish dancers) in rhythm with the dance.

61. A island in the Netherlands Antilles that is the top of an extinct volcano.

63. Of or relating to a speaker of the Tamil language or the language itself.

65. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

66. The income arising from land or other property.

67. An informal term for a father.

69. A particular geographical region of indefinite boundary (usually serving some special purpose or distinguished by its people or culture or geography).

70. A wine bottle made of leather.

71. Type genus of the Anatidae.

73. A corporation's first offer to sell stock to the public.

74. A human limb.

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

78. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

Yesterday始s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Spot fixing threatens integrity of cricket LONDON: Any comfortable assumptions that world cricket has largely eradicated corruption after the shock of the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal are challenged in a disturbing new book investigating India’s illegal bookmaking underworld. In “Bookie Gambler Fixer Spy; A Journey to the Heart of Cricket’s Underworld”, English author and cricket betting tipster Ed Hawkins says his confidence in the sport has been eroded “on the long trip to cricket’s corrupt core”.

Early in the book, Hawkins describes a bookmaker’s message sent to him during last year’s World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan, accurately predicting the course of the match. He watches, with a friend, “in a daze” as the match won by India, unfolds as outlined in the script. Hawkins says during the course of his investigations he was given the names of 45 former and current internationals and domestic cricketers alleged to have been involved in corrupt activities. None of them are named for legal reasons.

Finally, he says, English county one-day matches, broadcast live on television in India, are now being targeted by bookmakers and fixers. Hawkins’s three-year journey started at the site of a London shop owned

by the bookmaker recorded by Delhi police fixing matches with former South Africa captain Cronje in 1999. It continued in India where he met bookmakers, punters and fixers and included lengthy interviews with Paul Condon, the first director of the International Cricket Council’s AntiCorruption and Security Unit (ACSU), and Lalit Modi, the man behind the Indian Premier League who said his life had been threatened three times by mobsters. Cronje, who died in a plane crash 10 years ago, and two other international captains Mohammad Azharuddin (India) and Salim Malik (Pakistan) were banned for life for fixing the results of matches.

INSIDIOUS CRIME Spot-fixing, the manipulation of individual incidents within a match which may not affect the result, is a more insidious crime and one which can be impossible to detect.

It hit the international headlines when Pakistan players Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were jailed after arranging for deliberate no-balls to be delivered in the 2010 Lord’s test against England.

Hawkins learned that Indian bookmakers had four markets in all forms of cricket: the

innings’ scores, the match outcome, the favorites at an interval and the bracket scores - for example the number of runs scored in a 10-over segment in a 50-overs match or a six-over segment in a Twenty20 match. Brackets are alarmingly easy to manipulate by the illegal syndicates who set the odds, if they can bribe a corrupt player.

“Spot-fixing is not what people think it is. So, for example, a corrupter might say to a captain ‘move your gully fielder five yards to the left or the right and instruct your bowler to bowl just outside off-stump’,” Hawkins told Reuters in an interview.

“So the batsman cuts and up goes the run tally. And people think wrongly the market is for there to be no gully fielder, or for a fielder to be positioned in a particular place.

But what is actually happening is that they are manipulating the session’s runs or the bracket because they want runs to be scored.

“If you a corrupter and you know that you’ve got your captain on side and he is going to make sure runs are scored then they are able to manipulate the odds in their favor. So the syndicate can send out fake odds tempting gamblers, and as you know there are thousands in India, to bet a certain

way, to bet on not many runs being scored when they know lots of runs are going to be scored because the captain is in their pocket.

“It is just like insider trading and the alarming thing about it is that it is such a subtle art so you have the potential for almost every game to be manipulated. Just for one ball you’ve got fixing.” Whereas match-fixing requires the connivance of at least one of the captains, spot-fixing needs only one corrupt player who agrees to under-perform with either bat or ball at a certain stage of the match to influence the number of runs scored. For that reason, Hawkins said, the emphasis had shifted from match-fixing to spot-fixing.

COUNTY TREADMILL Hawkins said the 45 players whose names he had been given came from each of the test-playing nations apart from Bangladesh. “Included in that are players who have retired and players who have not played international cricket,” he said. He said there was “huge potential” for corruption in county cricket. “County cricket is so vulnerable because it’s a little bit of a treadmill, there are a lot of games and players don’t get paid a lot of money,” he said. —Reuters

Ice hockey fans fed up with NHL strife

Ryo Ishikawa

Ishikawa loses major sponsor - Panasonic TOKYO: Japanese golf star Ryo Ishikawa lost his major sponsor as troubled electronics giant Panasonic announced yesterday it would not renew a deal with him next month. Panasonic, forecast to book a mammoth $9.6 billion net loss in the current fiscal year in the process of overhauling its business, also said it would stop sponsoring a domestic golf tournament after next year.

Ishikawa, 21, ended a two-year title drought in November when he scored a one-stroke victory at the Taiheiyo Masters. He has yet to win an individual title abroad. “Our company has support-

ed golfer Ishikawa for five years with the aim of backing young people in their global challenges,” Panasonic said in a statement. “He has established an unshakable status as a top player in Japan and our company’s initial aim has been fully achieved.” Ishikawa signed a five-year sponsorship deal with Panasonic in January 2008, eight months after becoming the youngest male winner of a major tour by lifting the domestic Munsingwear Open KSB Cup at the age of 15 years and eight months.

The value of the deal was estimated at 500 million yen ($6 million). Ishikawa

has since become a hot marketing property. The electronics firm also said it would end sponsorship of the Panasonic Open after its sixth annual edition next September as “our company is undertaking various streamlining efforts” to rebuild its business.

Panasonic has also stopped bankrolling women’s badminton and men’s basketball teams. The country’s economic slowdown has also forced other major companies to reconsider sponsoring golf tournaments. The number of domestic tournaments next year has been cut to 23 from 25. — AFP

NEW YORK: Sitting in an ice hockey changing room, Steve Chase became the latest die-hard fan fed up with the NHL lockout.

Living in Los Angeles, Chase believed the league had squandered all the goodwill built in the area after the Kings won the Stanley Cup. His weekly games with friends became his only taste of the sport he loved because of the ongoing labor strife that has dragged on for months. So he took a poll of his friends, then took a pledge: “We’re not coming back.” Not for good. Just not after the lockout is settled, not for a while. Chase started the grass roots “Just Drop It” campaign that encourages fans to boycott one NHL game for every game canceled after Dec 21. No tickets, no TV, no merchandise - not a minute or a cent spent on the league, punishment for what he believed are continued abuses of loyalty on their fan base.

He made a video and started a Facebook page, urging fans to click the “like” button and join the cause. More than 11,000 angry fans have joined since the weekend, a puck drop in the circle compared to the millions of fans who attend games, but the latest small sign fans won’t again be easily won back. “People are trying to crush the NHL,” Chase said. “That’s not our goal. Our goal is just to get hockey back. Hopefully somebody somewhere cares about this and decides, ‘Guys, we’ve got to get back and talk.’ The fans are right.

“They’re fighting over our money.” The days of letter writing and 30-second phone calls to sports radio stations have ballooned to steady streams of hashtags, Facebook posts and homemade videos from fans who just want to come in from the cold of this labor battle and watch slap shots and saves. They are exasperated over a work stoppage with no end in sight and little regard for the fans. Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby understood why fans are upset over the third lockout in commissioner Gary Bettman’s 20-year tenure.

“Everyone’s got to be frustrated with the way this has gone,” Crosby said. But for all the angry tweets, texts, threats and organized campaigns, fans will still pick up the TV remote and print out tickets as soon as the strife ends. They always do. In every sport. Remember 1994? After the World Series was wiped out, baseball loyalists vowed never to return.

Fueled by super-sized sluggers and retro ballparks, attendance topped 60 million in 1996, 70 million in 1998 and soared past 79 million in 2007. The NHL, of course, can’t match those numbers. But the story arc is still the same. The NHL drew 20.8 million fans when the league returned in 2005-06 - 498,000 more than the total in 2003-04, the season before the lockout. The NHL saw an attendance rise in each of the next three seasons and totaled a record 21.4 million fans in 2011-12. The NHL is coming off its sixth consecutive year of record revenue, with a projection of more than $3.2 billion by the end of the 2012 Stanley Cup playoffs, the league said. —AP

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2011

Noah powers Bulls past Sixers Warriors overcome Heat 97-95 MIAMI: Draymond Green made a layup with 0.9 seconds left to give the streaking Golden State Warriors a 97-95 win over the Miami Heat on Wednesday night. Klay Thompson tied a season high with 27 points to lead the Warriors, who have won five straight. LeBron James led Miami with 31 points, reaching the 20-point mark for the 25th consecutive game - the longest current streak in the NBA. Warriors guard Jarrett Jack dribbled the ball at the top of the key as the clock ticked down before finding Green, who caught a quick pass from Jack underneath the basket and made the layup. James then missed a baseline jumper, sending Miami to only its second loss in 12 home games. David Lee had 22 points and 13 rebounds, and Jack added 20 points for the Warriors. Chris Bosh had 21 points and 13 rebounds for Miami, but Dwyane Wade was limited to 14 points on 5for-11 shooting and had five turnovers.

to Sacramento’s lineup after missing three straight games - and five of six - with a sore left knee. John Salmons added 16 points.

The Kings were without center DeMarcus Cousins, who was suspended one game for striking Dallas’ OJ Mayo in the groin.

THUNDER 92, HORNETS 88 Kevin Durant scored 35 points and Oklahoma City extended its winning streak to nine games with a victory over New Orleans. The Thunder rallied from an 11point second-half deficit and matched their longest win streak since the franchise moved from Seattle. At 18-4, the Thunder also matched the second-best start in franchise history. Seattle started 20-2 in the 1993-94 season and the Thunder started 18-4 last season. Brian Roberts scored 16 points to lead the Hornets, who lost their fifth straight game overall and seventh straight against Oklahoma City.

TIMBERWOLVES 108, NUGGETS 105 Nikola Pekovic had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Minnesota used a big advantage at the free throw line to overcome Kevin Love’s shooting struggles and beat Denver. Love finished with eight points on 3-for-17 shooting and grabbed 14 rebounds on a day he had to explain to Minnesota’s owner and his teammates some critical comments he made about the franchise.

The Timberwolves shot under 40 percent for much of the game, but made 30 of 37 from the free throw line. The Nuggets were just 14 of 24 at the line. Kenneth Faried had 26 points and 14 rebounds for the roadweary Nuggets, who missed a 3 point attempt at the buzzer that would have tied the game.

PACERS 96, CAVALIERS 81 Paul George scored 27 points to help Indiana overcame a 16-point deficit in a win over Cleveland. David West added 18 points and nine rebounds, and George Hill scored 17 points for the Pacers, who snapped a two-game skid. Indiana, third in the NBA in scoring defense and No. 1 in opponent fieldgoal percentage coming in, held the Cavaliers to 23 points on 8-for-41 shooting in the second half - Cleveland’s lowest-scoring half of the season. CJ Miles had 28 points, while Kyrie Irving was held to nine on 4-for-12 shooting for the Cavs.

CLIPPERS 100, BOBCATS 94 Chris Paul had 19 points and 10 assists to help the Clippers extend their longest win streak in two decades to eighth with a victory over Charlotte. Blake Griffin and Matt Barnes also scored 19 points for the Clippers, who maintained sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division. Byron Mullens had 19 points and eight rebounds, and Kemba Walker chipped in with 17 points to lead the stumbling Bobcats, who have lost nine straight since starting the season 7-5. The Bobcats trailed 78-71 entering the fourth quarter and got as close as three before Barnes scored on a fast break dunk and hit a 3-pointer to push the lead back to eight.

NETS 94, RAPTORS 88 Joe Johnson scored 23 points, and Andray Blatche had 14 points and nine rebounds to help Brooklyn end a five-game losing streak with a win over Toronto. CJ Watson scored 16 points and Deron Williams added 12 as the Nets won for the first time since Nov 30 at Orlando. Former Raptors Reggie Evans and Kris Humphries both had big games for the Nets. Evans had nine points and 11 rebounds, while Humphries scored 11 points, making nine of 10 free throws. Ed Davis matched his career high with 24 points and added 12 rebounds, while Jose Calderon had 10 points and 15 assists for the Raptors, who have lost six straight and 12 of 13.

BULLS 96, 76ERS 89 Joakim Noah scored 21 points, and Luol Deng added 19 points and 12 rebounds to help Chicago win its fourth in a row on the

HAWKS 86, MAGIC 80 Josh Smith and Jeff Teague scored 16 points apiece, Al Horford added 13 points and 13 rebounds, and Atlanta Hawks held off a late charge to beat Orlando. Atlanta extended its regular-season win streak against Orlando to eight with its second win over the Magic this season. Arron Afflalo scored 16 points and JJ Redick added 13 for the Magic, who were able to dig out of a huge first-half hole couldn’t overcome 16 turnovers that led to 24 points. Orlando also struggled from the field, connecting on only 31 of 81 shots, in dropping its fourth straight home game. The Magic get a chance to end the skid Friday against Golden State.

PHILADELPHIA: Chicago Bulls’ Jimmy Butler (top) shoots against Philadelphia 76ers’ Nick Young in the first half of an NBA basketball game on Wednesday, Dec 12, 2012. — AP

road with a victory over Philadelphia. Less than 24 hours after losing to the Los Angeles Clippers by five points at United Center, the Bulls traveled to Philadelphia and appeared more rested than the Sixers, who had Tuesday off. Marco Belinelli had 16 points and Nate Robinson, starting in place of guard Kirk Hinrich, had 14 for Chicago. Hinrich injured his left knee in the loss to the Clippers and is listed as day-today. Jrue Holiday scored 26 points, Evan Turner added 16 and Thaddeus Young 13 for Philadelphia. Reserve Spencer Hawes

chipped in with 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Nick Young also scored 10.

BUCKS 98, KINGS 85 Brandon Jennings scored 19 points, and Monta Ellis had 17 points and 11 assists to lead Milwaukee past Sacramento. Ersan Ilyasova added 16 points and a season-high 14 rebounds, and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored a season-high 17 in his first start of the season for Milwaukee (11-9), which has its best 20-game start since 200506. Tyreke Evans had 17 points in his return

ROCKETS 99, WIZARDS 93 James Harden scored 31 points and Houston got its first victory under coach Kevin McHale Rockets in over a month with a win over Washington. The Wizards threatened late in the fourth quarter, but Chandler Parsons scored eight straight points for Houston in the final three minutes, including two 3-pointers, to secure the victory. Parsons finished with 18 points and eight rebounds. It was Houston’s first victory since McHale rejoined the team last Saturday following the death of his 23-yearold daughter. Alexandra “Sasha” McHale died Nov 24 of complications from Lupus.

Rookie Bradley Beal had 20 points to lead Washington. — AP

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Sudamericana violence may spell trouble for World Cup Tigre abandon final over gun threat SAO PAULO: The image of Brazilian football in the lead up to the 2014 World Cup was seriously tarnished on Wednesday when the final of the Copa Sudamericana was abandoned as visiting club Tigre accused security officials of pulling guns on them and beating the players. Sao Paulo was awarded the title when Tigre players refused to take the field for the second half of Wednesday’s second leg of the final. Sao Paulo was leading 2-0, with the first leg having ended scoreless. Officials of the Argentine club said their players and staff had been beaten up by security officials in the dressing room area at halftime and guns were drawn. The trouble off the pitch followed scuffles between the two teams at the end of the first half. Nestor Gorostio, the coach of Tigre, declined to take his team back on the field for the second half. He said unspecified security officials pulled guns on his players while others clubbed players and team officials. “They pulled two revolvers,” he said, referring to unspecified security officials. “We’re not going to play anymore.”

The chaotic scenes in Sao Paulo, before a sellout crowd of 65,000 at Morumbi stadium, will dismay FIFA - the governing body of world football - which has already been frustrated by slow preparations for the World Cup. Most of FIFA’s angst so far has been focused on getting stadiums and new infrastructure in place. Now security also looms as a concern for the World Cup, which will be played at 12 venues across the country. Violence on and off the pitch still blights many matches in South America, with Brazil and Argentina particularly troubled. For the World Cup, FIFA relies on local officials and police to enforce safety and stadiums, with Wednesday’s event raising doubts about

Brazil’s capability of doing so. The Confederations Cup, a preparatory event for the World Cup featuring eight national teams, will be played next year at six venues in Brazil. The trouble at the Morumbi stemmed from confrontations between the two sets of players following a first half in which the hosts had taken a 2-0 lead, with goals from Lucas and Osvaldo. It was unclear what happened in the dressing room area, but Argentine television showed what appeared to be blood spattered on walls. Argentine television also showed several Tigre staff members with bruises and bloody faces. “Police entered and struck our players with clubs,” Gorosito told Argentine television. “It was crazy. What happened was crazy.” Romer Osuna, a Bolivian official with CONMEBOL, South America’s governing body of football, said Tigre players were afraid to return to the field. “The Tigre people declined to play because they considered security was not good enough,” Osuna told Fox Sports.

Referee Enrique Osses of Chile awarded the victory to Sao Paulo after waiting about 30 minutes for Tigre to retake the field. Sao Paulo scored twice in five minutes in the first half - a left-footed drive from Lucas in the 23rd and a lobbing shot from the right wing

by Osvaldo in the 28th. Sao Paulo, one of Latin America’s most famous clubs, is a three-time winner of the Copa Libertadores; South America’s most prestigious club tournament. It has also won the Club World Cup once, and twice won the Intercontinental Cup, the predecessor to the Club World Cup. This was the club’s first Copa Sudamericana title. The modest Argentine club Tigre was playing in its first international final and has never won the Argentine first-division title. — AP

SAO PAULO: Military police officers enter the field as players of Brazil’s Sao Paulo and Argentine’s Tigre argue after the first half of their Copa Sudamericana football final match at Morumbi stadium in Sao Paulo. Tigre’s players did not show up for the second half and Sao Paulo won by 2-0. — AFP

London sets bar high for 2020 bid trio PARIS: The three candidates still standing to win the right to host the 2020 Olympics all acknowledge that they have a tough task to emulate the Games hosted so successfully by London this year. Delegations from the Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo bids were all in London and the appraisal of International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge at the closing ceremony will still be ringing in their ears.

“These were happy and glorious Games,” said the 70-year-old Belgian. Buenos Aires will be a momentous time for not only the three bid cities, who will learn their fate when the 100+ IOC members vote there on September 7, but also for Rogge, as he will step down after 12 generally highly successful years.

All of the cities enter 2013 eyeing the finishing straight with reason to be optimistic. Istanbul believe that they can prevail at the fifth attempt-though this is the first realistic chance they have had of winning-with the government wanting to prioritise the Olympics rather than a bid for the Euro 2020 football championships. Rogge had emphasised that IOC rules did not allow another major sporting event to be held in the country of the host city in the same year. The Istanbul bid chief, former basketball player turned successful businessman, Hasan Arat told AFP that the IOC would be making an historic decision by giving them the Games.

“My dream is to make Olympic history, to really catch an historic moment - one city, one Games and two continents.

“The athletes will have the unique experience of sleeping on the European continent and competing on the Asian continent.” Tokyo, who are the only one of the trio to have previously hosted the Games (1964), also are looking to tug at the IOC heartstrings and persuade them the perfect panacea for the 2011 tsunami that devastated the country would be the Games. “The bid process - and ultimately having the chance to host the Games - is helping Japan heal and re-unite after a difficult 2011,” bid chief Tsunekazu Takeda said. “Without a doubt, Tohoku (the region affected by the tsunami), and the rest of Japan, will benefit from the Games.”

Madrid too can dream of securing the Games, after finishing surprise runners-up behind Rio de Janeiro for the 2016 edition, especially as despite Spain’s severe economic crisis they made the short list, easily seeing off Doha. It was the second successive time Doha flopped in their efforts to make the short list and serious questions will be asked why the successful formula that worked on FIFA for winning the race to host the 2022 World Cup falls well short when their message gets to be put across to IOC members.

While there are no officially declared candidates to succeed Rogge, it is generally accepted German lawyer and former team fencing Olympic gold medalist Thomas Bach will throw his hat into the ring. However, while many have seen him as the Crown Prince, there may be a wish to take the presidency away from European hands after the last three supremos have been from the ‘old continent’. Indeed, only one non-European has held the position, the unloved American Avery Brundage. —AFP

Frankel bows out on high as Frankie hits low point PARIS: Frankel and his trainer Henry Cecil, the unbeaten colt and his cancer-stricken handler, gave racing rare front page headlines in 2012. However, by year’s end the sport was on the front pages for the wrong reasons as legendary jockey Frankie Dettori was banned for six months for failing a dope test. While Dettori will be back in time for the blue riband of the turf, the Epsom Derby on June 1, Frankel will not but the performances he produced will be hard to eclipse. Frankel, named after one of owner Prince Khalid Abdullah’s former American trainers Bobby who died of cancer, carried on from where he left off last year, winning five Group One races to take him to 14 wins from 14 and nearly £3 million in prizemoney.

Cecil said Frankel’s seven-length win in his penultimate race, the International Stakes at York in August, had taken 30 years off his life such was the joy he felt. For many, the obvious way to crown Frankel as the greatest ever was to have a crack over a distance he had never raced before, 1.5 miles in Europe’s most prestigious race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Cecil, knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2011, decided to give it a miss with the 69-year-old dismissing the critics of that decision by saying “they have never sat on a horse”.

Longchamp’s loss was Ascot’s gain as Cecil opted for the Champion Stakes on the appropriately named Champions Day with the raceday sold out within hours. Soft going and then a stumble at the start augured ill for the final outcome. However, Frankel, ridden as always by Tom Queally, used the roar of 40,000 racegoers as inspiration as they entered the home straight. The duo had 1 3/4 lengths to spare over top class French runner Cirrus des Aigles and the cheers rang out and lasted so long that Frankel did an unheard of two rounds of the parade ring before he exited for the last time.

“I cannot believe in the history of racing that there has ever been a better racehorse,” said Cecil, who insisted that he would not quit. “The only retirement I’m doing is taking a well-earned holiday,” he said. Those hoping to see a new champion may not have to wait long as Dawn Approach, who won a perfect six from six in his two-year-old campaign, gave the Dubai-based Godolphin Operation a rare reason to smile. Dawn Approach apart, Godolphin had a season largely to forget and it ended on a sour note when they ended their 18-year partnership with Dettori.

His positive dope test-for an unspecified non-performance enhancing substance-was not the final straw. It was more that the

Italian, weary of being reduced to second choice jockey, opted to ride bitter Godolphin’s bitter rivals Coolmore Stud’s Camelot in the Arc. However, the yielding going, which would have probably done for Frankel’s chances, failed to suit the Epsom and Irish Derby winner and he finished unplaced behind surprise French winner Solemia. Truth be told it should have been Japan celebrating the prize they have sought for so long as Orfevre stormed from an unfavorable draw to lead in the straight only to inexplicably wander across to the rail and be overhauled in the final few meters.

“It looked like it was a dream unfolding but in the end it was a catastrophe, a nightmare,” said Orfevre’s distraught jockey Christophe Soumillon. Orfevre got revenge of a sort six weeks later when Solemia finished down the field in the Japan Cup but once again he had to make do with second, this time behind crack Japanese filly Gentildonna. While Orfevre may not have another chance to set the record straight in the Arc-he will be five next year-the Sei Ishizaka-trained filly looks the type to finally give Japan their moment of glory. “It’s (the Arc) every Japanese horseman’s dream,” Ishizaka said.— AFP

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

French league Preview

PSG target top spot in french league PARIS: Back in form, Paris-Saint Germain can reclaim the top spot in the French league if it beats current leader Lyon on Sunday. PSG fell in the standings when it could win only once in five league games, but morale is high again after consecutive 4-0 wins and progression to the knockout stage of the Champions League. Lyon leads by three points but PSG has a superior goal difference and will take top spot by winning at Parc des Princes. Third-placed Marseille is level on points with PSG and it travels to Toulouse, which has slipped down the standings after failing to win its last three matches.

“It’s a match which could decide who is champion of the first half of the season,” midfielder Jeremy Menez said yesterday. “It’s an important battle in terms of confidence, and it will be the chance for us to show that we have really come back to the top of the table. “To be autumn champion would

really boost our spirits, it would be synonymous with a great show of character, after our poor run these last few weeks.

But we shouldn’t put more pressure on us than that.”

Lyon slipped up on Wednesday and needed a late equalizer from winger Michel Bastos to rescue a 1-1 home draw with relegation battler Nancy. “We’re disappointed,” Lyon assistant coach Gerald Baticle said. “But we’ll go fighting to Paris.

These two points lost won’t change anything with regard to the match at the Parc. “We’re still ahead, with a three-point advantage.

We’ll go there to play with our qualities, our weapons and we will see ... this could change things in the mental attitude of the Parisians.” Marseille has struggled for consistency all season and almost every victory recently has been followed by a loss. However, it has won three of its past four matches

on the road. “It’s odd, we get shocks at home and pick up points away,” coach Elie Baup said. “We can’t continue a season in such a roller-coaster manner. We have to look for a better energy, get past this, we have to be more consistent.

“I look at PSG’s performances ... for a couple of matches they have been incredible in attack. We are in the game, we have chances but we have to convert them into more goals.”

That result was Nancy’s fifth draw on the trot. It faces highflying Bordeaux on Sunday. Prior to PSG’s clash with Lyon, there is another clash between title rivals, as Lorient look to extend its winning streak to four when it faces Saint-Etienne.

At the other end of the table, rock-bottom Troyes hosts Ajaccio while Sochaux entertains Brest. Also tomorrow, it’s: Montpellier vs Bastia; Nice vs Evian; and Reims vs Lille.

Valenciennes visits Rennes today. — AP

German league preview

Bayern aim to end year on high note

LYON: Lyon’s Dejan Lovren (center) falls during their French League One soccer match against Nancy at Gerland stadium, in Lyon, central France. — AP

Bastos grabs 1 point for Lyon Lorient up to 4th with 3rd victory in a row PARIS: Michel Bastos rescued a point for Ligue 1 leaders Olympique Lyon as they were held to a disappointing 1-1 home draw against struggling Nancy on Wednesday. The Brazilian winger, who earned his side a 1-0 win at neighbours St Etienne last weekend, fired home from just outside the box with six minutes to go to cancel out Jordan Loties’ opener. Lyon stay top on 35 points from 17 games, three ahead of Paris St Germain after the capital side hammered Valenciennes 4-0 away on Tuesday. The two sides will clash at Parc des Princes on Sunday.

Olympique Marseille are third, level on points with PSG but behind on goal difference, after they won 2-1 at Bastia. Lyon, who were missing suspended Maxime Gonalons and the injured Clement Grenier and Yoann Gourcuff in the midfield, struggled to create clear-cut chances and mainly relied on long-range efforts in the first half. France striker Bafetimbi Gomis, whose recent run of scoring form lifted Lyon to top spot, failed to convert a pass from Bastos six minutes before the break. Lisandro Lopez came off the bench after the interval but the Argentine striker, returning from four weeks out injured, could not boost his side.

Lyon eventually conceded in the 74th minute when goalkeeper Remy Vercoutre parried Salif Sane’s header only to see the ball rebound off Loties’ stomach and roll into the net. Bastos quickly leveled with his fifth goal in eight appearances. “We left a lot of

energy in the derby (at St Etienne) and our minds were already turned to Paris,” coach Remi Garde told reporters before criticising the referee after they were denied a penalty early in the second half. “I think it’s the turning point in the game because we have never lost after taking the lead at home,” he said. “I admit my team did not play at their usual level but we were not the only ones to be poor tonight.” Nancy moved up to 19th after a fifth draw in a row.

In Bastia, where the game was played behind closed doors, Mathieu Valbuena deservedly put Marseille ahead with a superb volley from just inside the box in the 15th minute. Andre Ayew doubled the lead from the penalty spot on 70 minutes after goalkeeper Landry Bonnefoi had fouled his younger brother Jordan.

Anthony Modeste scored a late goal but Bastia did not go on to worry the visitors, who clinched their sixth away league win and also welcomed back striker Andre-Pierre Gignac six weeks after he suffered a broken foot. Alain Traore netted a spectacular strike a minute before the break to inspire Lorient to a 2-0 home victory over Sochaux, their third consecutive league win. Lamine Kone took advantage of confusion into the box following a corner to score a second goal eight minutes into the second half for Lorient, who climbed up to fourth on 27 points. Champions Montpellier moved up to 11th after they recovered from conceding an early goal to win 2-1 at Stade Brest. — Reuters

BERLIN: Runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich will be looking to end the first half of the season on a high with a win over Borussia Moenchengladbach today as contract talks with coach Jupp Heynckes are pushed to the new year. With a four-week winter break starting next week, the Bavarians are eager to consolidate their 11point lead going into the holidays with their 14th win in 17 league matches in what has so far been a recordbreaking season. Victory today would see them 14 points clear with their closest title rivals in action a day later.

Second-placed Bayer Leverkusen, on 30 points, host mercurial Hamburg SV while champions Borussia Dortmund, in third spot on 27, take on lowly Hoffenheim.

Bayern bosses, aware of last year’s implosion at the same stage that cost them the title, have been careful not to rock the boat this season and have also postponed contract talks with Heynckes to next year to maintain calm among the players. Heynckes, who joined for a third spell last season, has led the team to a record-breaking start as Bayern have scored a stunning 46 league goals and conceded a mere six so far for the best offence and defense in the league. They have also carved out the biggest lead going into the winter break by any other Bundesliga team in its 50-year history and also enjoyed the best season start in half a century of top flight football.

CONTRACT TALKS “This is a discussion we will not start now,” Bayern President Uli Hoeness told reporters this week while paying a visit to a fan club and asked about contract talks with Heynckes. “Personnel issues will not be opened now because we want to spend calm holidays,” he said. The coach, a close personal friend of Hoeness, could well be offered a new deal if he ends Bayern’s two-season trophy drought. However, talk of a successor to the veteran 67year-old coach has been swirling in the past weeks with a string of names being mentioned, including former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola.

Even former Bayern and Germany goalkeeper Oliver Kahn became an advocate for the Spaniard, writing in his blog a transitional period for Guardiola at Bayern alongside Heynckes could be useful with the German bringing his Spain experience into the mix. Whether Heynckes, who led Real Madrid to the Champions League title in 1998 and came out of retirement for a four-match spell at Bayern in 2009 before taking over in 2011, would want to stay on is still unknown. A Bundesliga title victory this season, on the cards given their form so far, would crown a hugely successful sporting career with another record: that of the oldest coach ever to win the Bundesliga.— Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

The flea and the tiger face off in La Liga MADRID: Two of the most prolific forwards in world soccer, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Atletico Madrid’s Radamel Falcao, will come face to face when unbeaten leaders Barca host second-placed Atletico in La Liga on Sunday (2000 GMT). World Player of the Year Messi, nicknamed “the flea”, extended his record goals haul for 2012 to 88 with a double in the King’s Cup on Wednesday and the Argentine tops the La Liga scoring chart on 23 from 15 matches.

Falcao, known as “the tiger” and coveted by several of Europe’s richest clubs, became the first player in more than 10 years to score five in a 6-0 La Liga thrashing of Deportivo La Coruna last weekend, taking his tally for the

season to 16. The pair have very different playing styles, with the 25-year-old Messi often finding the net after weaving runs from outside the penalty area that leave opposition defenders floundering.

Colombian Falcao, 26, is more of a traditional striker who operates inside the box to devastating effect. A 15th win in 16 matches for Barca at the Nou Camp would stretch their lead over Atletico to nine points. Defeat for Atletico would put third-placed champions Real Madrid within two points of their city rivals if they beat struggling Espanyol at the Bernabeu two hours earlier (1800). Real forward Cristiano Ronaldo, the world’s most expensive player, has been left in the shade by

Messi and Falcao in recent weeks and has 13 goals in third spot on the scoring chart.

Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said the presence of the goal-hungry trio in La Liga was “great news” for Spanish football and soccer fans in the Iberian nation were fortunate to be able to enjoy them in the flesh.”The three are different, the only thing they have in common is goals,” Del Bosque was quoted as saying in daily newspaper El Pais on Monday. “The three start from different positions,” added the former Real coach. “Falcao is the goal scorer inside the box par excellence. Cristiano is more a player who operates down the wing in search of goals and Messi just goes wherever he wants. “They are

Celta Vigo upset Real Madrid 2-1 Messi stars for Barcelona MADRID: Celta Vigo upset Real Madrid with a 2-1 victory in the round of 16 of the Copa del Rey on Wednesday, and Lionel Messi scored his 21st double to reach 88 goals in 2012, leading Barcelona to a 2-0 win over second-tier club Cordoba. Having broken German great Gerd Mueller’s 40year-old record for most goals in a year on Sunday, Messi added to his tally in the 11th minute by tapping into an empty net from David Villa’s pass. “Messi is extraordinary,” Barcelona defender Dani Alves said. “In every age there is always a player that stands out, and right now he is the reference point, just like Pele and Maradona were in their time.” Pedro Rodriguez controlled the ball in midfield and delivered a perfectly weighted long pass to the flank for Villa to cross. As goalkeeper Mikel Saizar fell to the ground, Messi tapped the ball in off the underside of the crossbar.

Messi received a cross from Alexis Sanchez to beat Saizar and score his 21st double of 2012 in the 74th. The Argentina forward has now scored two goals in each of the past seven matches he has started. The 20,000 fans who filled Cordoba’s Municipal del Arcangel stadium cheered Messi as he came on the field. Cordoba began by launching aggressive runs deep into Barcelona’s half, and goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto was forced to leap athletically to tip out a powerful shot by Lopez Garai in the fifth minute.

Cordoba’s Alberto Aguilar forced a save from Pinto when he jumped high to head the ball toward goal in the 43rd.

Messi found Villa with a well-timed pass in the 53rd minute but, having beaten the offside trap, the Spain striker shot over the bar. A powerfully struck shot by Pedro was saved by Saizar three minutes later. At Balaidos stadium, Celta Vigo’s Cristian Bustos unleashed a powerful shot from outside the area into the top far corner of the net in the 33rd minute after a sloppy throw-in by Madrid defender Pepe had been intercepted by Roberto Lago. Celta Vigo’s Mario Bermejo beat the offside trap to hit a low shot past goalkeeper Iker Casillas after receiving a pass in behind Madrid’s back four by Danish midfielder Michael Krohn-Dehli in the 56th.

Cristiano Ronaldo latched onto an overhead pass from Xabi Alonso to pull one back in the 86th. “They were the best team on the field,” Madrid coach Jose Mourinho said, “but I still think Madrid is the favorite to win in the second leg at the Bernabeu.”

Madrid forward Karim Benzema limped off in the 31st minute with an ankle injury. Celta Vigo goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez made a good save by from a bouncing shot by Luka Modric. Also, Atletico Madrid beat Getafe 3-0 despite resting prolific striker Radamel Falcao. Getafe defender

CORDOBA: Barcelona’s Argentinean forward Lionel Messi (left) vies with Cordoba’s defender Jose Manuel Fernandez during the Spanish Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) football match Cordoba FC vs FC Barcelona at the Nuevo Arcangel stadium in Cordoba. — AFP Alexis Ruano fouled Diego Costa in the area and the Atletico striker converted the penalty in the 17th minute.

Atletico’s Felipe Luis pounced on a loose ball in the 79th to score and Gabriel Fernandez passed to Diego Costa who scored in the 87th. Also in the last 16, Sevilla trounced Mallorca 5-0 with Alvaro Negredo scoring twice.

He rose to head in his first from a corner in the 13th, and hit his second beyond goalkeeper Dadu Aouate five minutes later. — AP

the undisputed reference points for their teams.”

MAGIC WAND Messi has stolen most of the recent headlines after he broke Gerd Mueller’s 40-year-old record for the most goals scored in a calendar year of 85. He has tomorrow’s home game against Atletico and the match at Real Valladolid to add to his tally and is hot favorite to secure an unprecedented fourth straight World Player award when the winner is announced next month. “Messi is unique because he is already the best player in the history of this sport,” his Barca and Argentina team mate Javier Mascherano said after Wednesday’s 2-0 Cup victory at second-division Cordoba. — Reuters

Pressure builds on Pardew as Newcastle entertain City LONDON: Alan Pardew was hailed last season as a steady hand on the Newcastle United tiller but finds himself contemplating an impending relegation battle ahead of a clash with wounded champions Manchester City tomorrow. With the season nearing the halfway mark, Pardew is among a handful of coaches including City’s Roberto Mancini and Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger who are already feeling the heat. Pardew was rewarded with an eight-year contract earlier in the season in an effort to bring stability to a club more used to the spinning mayhem of the managerial merry-go-round. The deal was in recognition of the fact that the former West Ham United boss had steered the north east club to fifth place in the Premier League last term while making the most of a limited transfer budget.

The close-season optimism that he could propel his charges to the promised land of the Champions League has evaporated as this season has progressed and after one league win in seven matches, they find themselves 14th and two points above the drop zone. A haul of 17 points from 16 league games is evidence that the magic touch wielded by the plain-speaking coach has been absent in his side’s early season skirmishes while Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Fulham set alarm bells ringing. “I’m worried in so much as we are not picking up enough points, that is pretty evident,” Pardew said. “We just didn’t defend well if I’m honest, we are going to have to be better - we can’t concede soft goals at this level.”

BAD TIMING The timing of City’s visit is not ideal for Newcastle as the Premier League champions are themselves desperate to return to winning ways having fallen behind local rivals United in the title race after an injury-time derby defeat.

For City manager Mancini, last weekend’s reverse prompted a burst of bravado with the Italian stating his side are superior to United and will have won the double come the end of the season.

It also led to reports of dressing-room discontent at the Etihad Stadium. The derby was their first league defeat of the season and a second slip up in a week would leave a serious dent in Mancini’s plans as well as questions about his future in the job. The six-point gap between the top two means the pressure is off league leaders Manchester United, who will feel confident of continuing their good form at home to Sunderland on Saturday having won their last four league games.

They come up against an opposing manager in Martin O’Neill who, in his heyday, was touted as a future replacement for Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford but whose stock has slipped so significantly recently that Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Reading was labeled make-or-break for the coach.

Wenger, previously untouchable in his 16 years at Arsenal, is another who is under serious pressure. — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Pragmatic Lienen aims to rescue AEK Athens ATHENS: The scarcity of the grass on AEK Athens’s one usable training pitch is as evident as the furrows on the brow of the club’s German coach Ewald Lienen as one of Greek football’s most successful and historic clubs fight for their Super League life. Operating on a shoe-string budget following a period of financial turmoil in which virtually an entire first-team squad was sold off in order to secure a licence and preserve their topflight status, the ‘Union’, as they are known by supporters, have been left with a patchwork roster of youth team and unknown Greek players.

The result is that AEK suffered their worst-ever start to the season and are stuck at the foot of the table. Thanks to the arrival of Lienen, who was appointed on Oct 10, AEK enjoyed a mini-resurgence in form, briefly moving off the bottom with two wins in succession. But a 1-0 loss to Panthrakikos in their last outing on Dec 10 left them stranded once more, a point behind fellow strugglers Aris Salonika, Kerkyra and Veria.

Pessimism is still rife among media observers and fans as to whether the club can avoid their first ever relegation, but Lienen has other ideas as he attempts to guide AEK to safety working under extreme financial constraints. “We’ve almost destroyed the second pitch but it is four weeks until the other one is fully ready and recovered so we are stuck with this muddy one for the moment,” Lienen saidin an interview. “It’s difficult to have a really quality training session with the state of the pitches, that is a big problem but I wish it were the only one. It’s more about the players; most of them are on really low salaries and have delays in their payments...even more so the club staff who are also on low wages.

“But what gives me great strength and hope is that in spite of this situation, everyone is willing to come in and do their jobs to the very best of their ability. This is one of the reasons why I love the club.” AEK’s squad is made up of 25 Greeks and just five foreign players, with an average age of 22.5, and Lienen revealed that the younger players in particular are struggling to provide themselves with the basic lifestyle needed in terms of the correct nutrition that is necessary to recover from training sessions and matches. “This has an impact on our daily work, not for psychological reasons but for practical reasons and we are trying to fix it by helping them more,” Lienen said.

Despite taking over during the most difficult period in the club’s history, the former Panionios boss remains upbeat. “It motivates me even more,” he said. “I knew about the situation economically and its position in the table and really I look at it as an opportunity. I have always liked the club and the chance to get them back to their rightful place. “We have to hope that the team gets better and we get some more money back into the club through new investors, if not it will be very difficult.

But I see the chances that are in this project as it’s certainly not possible to get worse.”

PROUD HISTORY AEK, which stands for the Athletic Union of Constantinople, are one of Greek football’s most historic and successful clubs.

Formed in 1924 by refugee Greeks who fled to Athens during the Greco-Turkish war, the club have 11 league titles to their name as well as 14 domestic cups. Most significantly, they has never been outside of the top flight. Lienen is trying to help the current crop of players handle that weight of expectation and avoid the drop.

“The main challenge has been dealing with the inexperience and indiscipline,” Lienen explained. “For me it’s not so much about age, it’s about character. “Players have to understand that all of this is about teamwork and they have to do the best they can for each other, be humble and behave correctly inside and outside the dressing room. We are trying to unite the group further and we are working very hard on a daily basis on this,” he added.

Lienen is above all a realist, and despite some encouraging results of late, he is under no illusions that the club are in for a long hard winter and the focus is simply on survival. “At the moment we don’t have the right and should not even think of anything more than staying up,” he said. “We have to give everything to survive both economically and out on the pitch.

This means that probably we’ll need 35 points and this is still a big target. We have to go for this and we won’t think of anything else as it simply damages the psychology. As soon as you think you are there, you get knocked down again.”— Reuters

YOKOHAMA: Chelsea FC’s Eden Hazard (left) collides with CF Monterrey’s Sergio Perez during their semifinal match at the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament in Yokohama yesterday. — AP

Chelsea thrash Monterrey to set up Corinthians final Torres lifts Chelsea into Club WCup final YOKOHAMA: Fernando Torres continued his recent resurgence as Chelsea confidently brushed aside Mexico’s Monterrey 3-1 to reach the final of the Club World Cup in Japan yesterday.

The English side and their interim manager Rafael Benitez will be under pressure to beat Brazil’s Corinthians in Sunday’s final after becoming the first holders to exit the Champions League at the group stage last week. “We can’t afford to lose the final,” Benitez, who won the tournament with Inter Milan in 2010 but lost in the 2005 final with Liverpool, told reporters. “We will see if Corinthians can play at our level. They have Brazilian quality so we know it will be a difficult match.”

Juan Mata finished off a classy move in the 17th minute to give Chelsea the lead, smashing in a left-foot shot after a low ball from Ashley Cole, sent clear by a back-heel from Oscar. Spain team mate Torres added Chelsea’s second

with a deflected drive 20 seconds after the break, his fifth goal in three games.

Mata’s cross was turned into his own net by Darvin Chavez moments later to effectively kill off the game, although Aldo de Nigris grabbed a consolation for Monterrey in stoppage time. “It’s nice to be scoring goals again,” said a smiling Torres, still hugely popular with Japanese fans despite only recently emerging from an alarming goal drought.

“To hear the fans chanting my name meant a lot to me. Hopefully I can take that form into the final,” added the Spaniard, one of the world’s deadliest strikers under Benitez at Liverpool.

“This is a massively important tournament for us. We came a long way and it’s a trophy we have to win.” Benitez said Torres, on the score sheet for the third successive game for the first time in a Chelsea shirt, was close to his best.

“Fernando is sharper now and has

more confidence,” said Benitez, who replaced Roberto Di Matteo last month and has yet to win over the Chelsea faithful. “If we can keep playing at the same level, he will continue to score goals.”

European teams have won the last five Club World Cup tournaments.

Barcelona lifted the trophy in 2009 and 2011 and Manchester United were the only English winners in 2008.

“European teams are the best in the world,” said Monterrey coach Victor Vucetich, understandably frustrated by his side’s calamitous start to the second half. “They pay the most money.

Clubs like Chelsea, Manchester United and Barcelona can go out and buy the best players from all over the world.

We made mistakes and it cost us dear.”

Corinthians, far from convincing in their 1-0 semi-final victory over Egypt’s Al-Ahly, won the first Club World Cup in 2000.— Reuters

Former Brazil coach joins Internacional RIO DE JANEIRO: Dunga took charge of Porto Alegre club Internacional on Wednesday, his first coaching job since leading Brazil at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. “To work with me, you have to be committed, you have to have the will to win,” he told reporters after being presented by the club with which he started and ended his playing career. “I never left Inter, I was always here as a fan. Inter opened their doors to me when I was 14 years old and now I’m ready to pay them back.” Dunga’s four years with Brazil between 2006 and 2010 are his only previous experience as a senior coach. He succeeded Carlos Alberto Parreira after the 2006 World Cup and won the Copa America one year

later, followed by the Confederations Cup in 2009.

Under his leadership Brazil developed a physical, counter-attacking-based game which was unpopular with many fans and their World Cup campaign ended with a 2-1 quarter-final defeat by the Netherlands. Dunga also alienated the media with what they called his siege mentality. “Inter have a strong tradition,” he said. “Inter fans will accept everything, except when players don’t give everything for 90 minutes. “The worst defeat of all is when you get home and think you could have done better.

Everybody has to be committed.” As a player, Dunga was a feisty, defensive midfielder with a spiky haircut and

almost permanent snarl who played in three World Cups.

He captained the side who won the tournament in 1994 and led them to second place four years later. His club career took him to Corinthians, Vasco da Gama and Santos in his homeland, Pisa, Fiorentina and Pescara in Italy, VfB Stuttgart in Germany and Japan’s Jubilo Iwata. Inter won the Club World Cup in 2006, beating Barcelona in the final, and are twice South American champions and three-times Brazilian championship winners. They finished 10th in this year’s Brazilian championship. Dunga replaced Fernandao, a player in the 2006 team who was fired as coach in November. — Reuters

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2012

Warriors overcome Heat 97-95 Page 43

www.kuwaittimes.net

Chelsea thrash Monterrey 3-1 Page 47

YOKOHAMA: English Premier League team Chelsea midfielder Oscar (front) controls the ball in front of Mexico’s Monterry captain and defender Jose Maria Basanta during their 2012 Club World Cup semi-final football match in Yokohama yesterday. — AFP