28 Dec by Kuwait Times

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NO: 15671- Friday, December 28, 2012

Son to keep Bhutto flag flying See Page 10

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Local Spotlight

Just kiddin’, seriously

Black Friday at The Avenues

Happy New Year By Muna Al-Fuzai

By Sahar Moussa muna@kuwaittimes.net

sahar@kuwaittimes.net

irst, I would like to convey my deepest condolences to Samir’s family for losing their son in a tragic incident that occurred last Friday at The Avenues Mall. Jaber Samir, 26, a Lebanese dentist at Jabriya clinic was hacked to death with a cleaver by four non-Kuwaiti men. Samir succumbed in the emergency room. One of the attackers, a 22-year-old man, was arrested after he escaped from the mall immediately after committing the crime, according to KUNA. Some said an argument over a parking spot in the basement started the fight while others claimed that it was about a woman who was with Samir, who got harassed by these men which led to the quarrel and subsequent murder inside the mall. No matter what the reason was, what happened publicly in front of hundreds of people was horrible and shocking. The problem is, in a country like Kuwait which always brags about how big their malls are, overlooking basic security is unacceptable. When I talk about “security”, I am not referring to an old expat in a corner who turns a blind eye to problems involving locals out of fear of deportation. I’m talking about real, strong, fearless security officials who know exactly what to do in such situations and don’t hesitate to take serious action against dangerous and immature gangs who walk around freely with weapons, secure in the thought that they can get away with anything. Does it take the death of a young man for officials to realize that installing metal detectors at malls is something that they should have done after building it in the

ﬁrst place? Is glamming up Phase Two more important than basic safety measures? It’s also beyond my understanding why a mall like The Avenues is not equipped with a medical room and an ambulance on stand-by. I do believe in destiny and fate and perhaps, Samir’s time had come, but I also believe that immediate medical attention could have saved his life. What all malls need right now is more safety and more security screening to protect innocent civilians. And what the country needs to do is punish criminals firmly, without letting any wasta interfere with justice. The wave of violence is spreading a lot, affecting our families and loved ones mindlessly. We can start by teaching our kids that violence is not the answer to anything. They say that smart people learn from their mistakes but smarter people learn from other’s mistakes. When we look at America’s gun culture or atrocities against women in India, shouldn’t we realize that perhaps Kuwait might have an anger management issue that needs serious attention before it gets out of hand? We need to take action and the lessons have to start at schools, mosques and churches before taking it to a global level. Tragedies make us think about what we take for granted until we lose it. Let us honor Jaber Samir’s death by taking some active security measures and not let his death be for nothing.

nother new year will be upon us very shortly. All I hope is that the New Year will turn out to be better than last year. As for my wish list, I do have a long one. In fact, I have an endless list of wishes, some of which are for me only while others are for my friends and beloved ones. I had a funny discussion with my friends recently about their New Year wishes. I was hoping to hear what kind of gifts they wished to receive on Christmas eve or New Year. But I was disappointed when they told me about what they really desired as fulfilling these would have spoiled my budget and I would not have been able to afford such pricey gifts, not only for the New Year but for any other year. Two of my friends wanted a first class ticket via Emirates Airlines to New York. Were they kidding? I need to take a loan to buy them those tickets and even then, it will not be enough for their accommodation or shopping expenses. One of my dearest friends claimed to be modest and said she would not wish something that one could not afford for oneself. She wished to buy a yacht. Well, who would offer a gift like that to his friend on any occasion? You buy such things for your family when you are loaded with money yourself or maybe when you have lived long enough to have grandchildren, but no one buys such gifts for one’s friends. I think it would be wonderful to restrict our new wishes within certain limits so that we can afford to accomplish these or buy the kind of stuff we desire. My New Year wishes are about having and wishing others good health and happiness. If you are sick, then no amount of money or a cruise on the sea in a fancy yacht or a first class trip around the world can help you feel any better. I guess it is about the spirit of the New Year rather than anything else. It spreads the feeling of hope, peace and joy. If one cannot afford more, even a smile on this occasion is a great gift. Happy New Year.

Kuwait’s my business

You’re not an entrepreneur if you don’t dream By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

ost people don’t know these names: Kemmons Wilson and William Rosenberg. These deceased entrepreneurs were not famous personalities, but the world enjoys their legacies today. Why? Mostly because they had the courage to dream. Does dreaming take courage? It does if you’re an entrepreneur, because when you share your dreams people will laugh at you, and some may get angry and not talk to you again. Few people want to risk either result. Mrs Wilson laughed Wilson’s wife laughed at him while they were driving from Memphis, Tennessee to Washington, DC for a family vacation one summer. He was upset that when they stopped at night he had to pay $4 for he and his wife to stay in a hotel, and $1 for each of his ﬁve children. “That’s outrageous,” he roared, “and when we get back to Memphis I am going to build a hotel where children stay free!” When Mrs Wilson laughed,

her husband got angrier and he said, “In fact, I’m going to build four hotels, one for each of the major entrances into Memphis so no one will miss my hotel.” Bigger laugh from the Mrs. Meanwhile, in the Boston area, another young man shared his dream with his brother-in-law, who was his business partner, and the two ended up parting ways. Rosenberg was co-owner of a street catering company, which sold breakfast and lunch items mostly to contractors. The company’s trucks would pull into a construction area and the hungry men would come forth to buy coffee, donuts, sandwiches, cakes, pies, soft drinks, etc. One day Rosenberg’s partner told him that the company made most of its money by selling coffee and donuts. So Rosenberg said: “Let’s stop selling everything else!” The partner, who was an accountant (they are generally not dreamers), said absolutely not. Such an idea would destroy the business! Rosenberg lost a partner Fortunately, neither of these entrepreneurs gave up on their dreams. Rosenberg’s brother-in-law stopped speaking to him when he opened a small shop that sold only coffee and a variety of donuts. At first, business wasn’t so good and you can imagine how that pleased his former partner, but eventually Rosenberg opened dozens of locations, then thousands worldwide. And back in Memphis, Mrs Wilson wasn’t laughing when her husband built those four hotels and eventually became Time magazine’s Man of the Year

because he signiﬁcantly changed the way people travel. He, too, opened thousands of locations worldwide. Dreams don’t build businesses It’s important to note that neither of these entrepreneurs succeeded simply because they were dreamers, even though without their dreams they likely would not have become multi-millionaires. These entrepreneurs succeeded because they turned their dreams into action plans. They set goals with speciﬁc steps to be completed over time and they faithfully worked their plans, in spite of setbacks. In other words, they never gave up. That’s what entrepreneurs do - they dream, they plan, they act. Most people who say they want to be entrepreneurs aren’t prepared to take all three steps, and consequently they fail. How about you? Are you a dreamer? Oh, by the way, Rosenberg founded Dunkin Donuts, which many claim is the world’s favorite donut shop, and Wilson was the founder of Holiday Inn, where kids stay and eat free. We enjoy both of these brands in Kuwait, and almost everyplace we travel worldwide. NOTE: Dr John P Hayes is a professor in the College of Business at GUST and the Head of the Business Administration Department. He teaches the Kuwait Leadership Mastery program at GUST. Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Conspiracy Theories

Kalax, creativity or simply a horn?

By Badrya Darwish Pigeons keep their distance as a cat arrives to feast on discarded food. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

onk, honk, honk. It has become too loud and too disgusting. I am sure you know what I am talking about. I never remember people in Kuwait acting like this, incessantly blowing their cars’ horns. It is something new for us in Kuwait. Earlier, people used to honk only when it was an emergency or they were really hard-pressed for time and wanted to reach somewhere urgently. We would blow the horn if we wanted to avoid hitting someone who was not paying attention. There are certain norms about when one should blow the horn. One norm followed worldwide is to use the horn for emergencies. It is known and agreed that the horn in your car is to be used sparingly and is not to be confused with a musical instrument. It has started to annoy me to drive in Kuwait because of the noise all around me. The minute a traffic light goes green, drivers impatiently hit the horn instead of driving. What do the people behind me think? That if they blow their horns, my car would suddenly turn into a batmobile from DC Comics and start flying over other cars? It suddenly becomes one huge ugly-sounding orchestra of horn-blowing musicians. Again I ask, if you blow your horn like a conductor, does that mean that all the cars in the orchestra will start flying? Ironically, as I am penning this column, my colleague Islam is telling me that when he went to visit his brother in the USA, he did not hear a single horn for days, and thought there was a bar on horns in vehicles. He actually asked his brother if horns have been removed from the cars and was told that these are used only in case of an emergency. It reminded me of my student days in the United Kingdom when I almost forgot there was a horn in the car. Come to Kuwait or the larger Arab world and you will feel the noise difference when you step out of the airport. With all due respect to my brothers the Egyptians, ever since their numbers increased in Kuwait, the horn blowing has also become more pronounced. One of the features of the good old Cairo is the horns in the taxis which Egyptians refer to as kalax, a slang term for blowing the horn. Now everybody is affected by this strain of Egyptian culture and is using kalax. Sherif, our Egyptian designer, asked me to be careful since kalax in Egypt has become a language in its own right for taxi drivers and those who drive big lorries as they can communicate by blowing their horns in a variety of ways. They resort to this language to warn each other about an approaching surveillance camera or a policeman in the vicinity. If two drivers know each other, they kalax instead of saying hello. I do not know if such kalaxing is already in use in Kuwait as a language or are we blowing the trumpet merely out of frustration or habit? My colleague Sherif could be right because I have noticed in Jordan that some drivers use their vehicles’ lights to signal to each other. People indeed have become creative. Follow me @BadryaD

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

fur

An ad in a local newspaper hawks fur coats.

Fetish for By Nawara Fattahova

he winter season is the perfect time for fur trade. An ad published in an Arabic newspaper offers fur jackets and coats of fox or mink for KD 500 and 600, which is still considered cheap when compared to prices at shops selling known brands. But is this trade legal? How many animals have to be killed or tortured to make a nice fur jacket or coat? Those who love to wear such outfits most probably do not care much about the animals who suffer, or they find enough excuses so as not to feel sorry for the animal. The Ministry of Commerce has imposed no special restrictions on importing fur in Kuwait. “Those dealing with imported fur and other items can receive a form with the rules and conditions about the import of such goods. The ministry will provide them with the form that they have to fill and take it to the customs department at the port to receive their shipment. The ministry does not inspect what individuals are selling online or in unlicensed exhibitions, as this sector does not fall under regulation as yet. We only inspect regular shops that have a license, and furs are not listed as forbidden goods,” stressed Ahmad from the PR department of the Ministry. Fur comes from a variety of animals including rabbits, foxes, mink and others. Mink fur has become particularly popular and has been the most in demand around the world during the past few years. This animal needs protection and animal rights activists in the United States have released

many minks from mink farms into the wild. In the West and cold countries, fur jackets and coats are popular because the weather is very cold, but in the Middle East, their popularity is somewhat less but many still do buy them. In Kuwait, there are a few shops that sell some items made of fur, including mink fur which is the most expensive. Not only are regular licensed shops selling these items, but there are some individuals too who sell them online or through exhibitions. “My price is cheap as I import the fur directly from the factory in France, and I make only a KD 50 profit. I used to make a profit of KD 100 before, but the factory has increased prices this year, forcing me to reduce my own profit to keep the price same for my customers,” Um Khalid told Kuwait Times. She is not providing any certificate of origin for the fur. “If I was to offer a certificate, I would have to add KD 3,000 or more to my price. Near the Salhiya complex, there is a store selling fur coats for KD 14,000 for the most expensive one and KD 6,000 for cheaper ones. My products match those in quality, but I do not claim any labels and cannot offer any certificates with them,” she said. Animal rights activists and organizations oppose such trade and are trying to fight fur production and its trading. Manuela Tague, Chairperson of the Protecting Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) said that the most important issue was to raise awareness among people about how fur is obtained. “All over the world, they are still selling fur. If the animals are bred for it, then selling fur is

allowed, according to the law in the West. This sad business will not stop as long as people want to wear fur, so they keep killing animals to obtain the fur. Many big organizations are fighting at the global level against the fur trade, but at PAWS, we only can spread awareness because as long the trade is legal in a country, we

cannot do anything,” she pointed out. There other options for fur lovers. “Many do not realize how much animals have to suffer in breeding farms where they are even skinned alive. People may simply wear fake fur which involves no need to slaughter animals. Why do they need the extra

luxury of real fur? Synthetic material is also beautiful. I, too, have a fur coat but for my coat, no animal had to die. Nobody in our organization wears real fur. In Germany, they spray people wearing real fur coats,” said Tague. “We should spread awareness about how their beautiful fur is obtained. Fur trade is connected to a simple law of economics. If there is a customer for fur, people will kill animals for them. Also, I am against the Friday market. As long as people go there, they will sell animals. We should educate people to regulate animal breeding, and register the breeders. People prefer to buy animals at the cheapest price without registration,” she explained. Tague believes in education. “If we educate our children from a young age about respectful behavior towards animals and treating them properly, they will not torture them or think of killing them. We hold monthly presentations in schools to teach children how to treat animals. Recently, we had a presentation in a school for about 160 students from age group of eight to eighteen years. We used material from around the world to make our case. We wish that Kuwaiti government includes humane treatment of animals in the curriculum just as British and American schools have done. Also, many schools visit shelters for animals where students can stay for about four or five hours. We teach them how to feed the animals and let them even wash them so that they come into contact with the animals and have better appreciation. Such children are less likely to torture an animal in the future,” she stated.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

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Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Riding the airwaves in radio revolution times Talal’s tunes help reshape staid Kuwait radio By Velina Nacheva

e has been appointed as the anchor of some groundbreaking musical ideas that have reshaped the country’s airwaves. Every weekday in Kuwait starts with his voice. For many, it is his voice that turns the evening commute into a pleasant drive. Meet Talal Malik, the cohost of Marina FM morning show Nagab Sabah (Morning Melody), who is currently the host of Night Ride on FM 99.7 Radio Kuwait RK FM. Malik traces his fondness for airwaves back to when he was just three years old and his parents used to record for him an hour of commercials. “I have always been infatuated by commercials on TV. Something about the commercials has always attracted me. It was never cartoons or serials. It was this 30-seconds-I-will-grab-your-attention-thing,” he said. Malik’s fascination with the radio started in 1994 when he discovered how different a new start-up sounded like. “I was fascinated about the ease with which they used to do their job. They were having a good time talking about music and talking to the listeners as if they were their friends. I hadn’t heard anything like that on Kuwaiti radio before,” Malik reminisced about the most recent radio era. He recalls that Radio Kuwait at the time “did not sound as stiff as everybody else. In fact, they sounded more chilled than everybody else.” As he was listening to radio more and more, he instantly picked up the hobby to imitate the station talk. When he was still in high school, he figured out that he could work in radio because, as he says, he knew enough about music, their language and style. After his university graduation, the first radio job he landed was in programming and imaging. Career steps For Malik, 31, an English literature graduate, his career took off when he joined The International Radio in 2001 as music and imaging director. “I did not sleep that day. I got my ID authorized to open the door of the studio. I knew I had to make a difference in the music scheduling process in Radio Kuwait because back then it was almost random. There was no talk of hits, any specific image or vision for the music. We had to play more hits. We had to get people hooked to the radio listening to their favourite music.” Four years later, Malik started with Marina FM, Kuwait’s first private radio station, as a music programmer. Shortly after joining the station, Malik started doing the yearly countdown show which has been running for seven years now. After he was appointed as imaging director of the station, he was tasked with audio branding of the station or what he says decide “the way the station sounds.” There was a need to do something more powerful, energetic and attractive. “It was time to acquire a new image for the station,” he said. Marina FM launched with a new style, image and catering to a differing kind of taste which, he says, has led to a totally new radio experience in

Kuwait. “Marina FM brought this change,” he said. “Marina FM’s job is not only to play people’s favourite songs but also to introduce new sounds and styles of music,” he said. “Being an entertainment station, we have to offer something totally new,” he said, adding, “Simplicity is the secret of Marina’s change.” By the end of 2009, Malik got his chance to direct and co-host a three-hour morning show at Kuwait’s second private station called Mix FM. At some point, he was juggling jobs in three different stations daily until one of them shut down. On top of his game, Malik then re-focused his energies on

was back on air on the weekends. Airwave etiquette The airwave etiquette is something every deejay should be familiar with, Malik says. “There are red lines you cannot cross, such as politics. Also, don’t go into all this girlfriend-boyfriend thing,” he observed, adding, “It is common sense and nothing else.” Common sense and self-censorship keep a radio talk show host or a DJ from landing in hot water. “About 99.9% of the time, Arabic music says nothing bad. We would sometimes avoid political stuff, especially with the Arab Spring and certain

Talal Malik

Marina FM, co-hosting a weekend two-hour show with two other deejays. “This was a shock-show because we did the most unexpected stuff,” he said, explaining that they even hosted it once from Egypt and another time from Bahrain. Enthusiastic about his trade, Malik started another on-air job - a show which was aired from 1 am till 3 am. “It was a challenge for us to see if people listen to the radio during those hours when there are large crowds outside. We wondered if that crowd would be interested in the show. They were, and the show turned out to be even more fun than the shows running during regular hours,” he said. In the meantime, Malik was busy since 2010 with the weekly Top 20 chart show which

artists from this part of the world. Sometimes we would censor English songs punctuated with foul language,” he admits. Good preparation and keeping a tab on what was happening around the world are the top two requirements for a good radio DJ. A fun-centered concept of news is pivotal for Malik’s shows, too. “Introduce yourself and be a down to earth kind of person,” says Malik, adding it was a key to being a successful DJ. In the same vein, being up-to-date and applying a radio evolution mindset is a corollary for a radio DJ’s job today. “You’ve got to keep your game up. Everyone is carrying their smartphones. You’ve got to be a part of that,” he said, adding

that a lot of Marina FM’s listeners come through the smartphone applications that they have developed since the beginning of online streaming. Recalling his career, he says that he learnt a great deal about the nature of the business and about radio listenership. “There is nothing better than hearing your favourite song and hearing your name on the radio,” he said, “It’s been a very joyful ride and still there is so much more because as things evolve, you’ve got to develop and progress as much as you can. This is what radio is about... It is about communication and you have to find new ways of communicating.” Malik surely is doing that. Switch on your radio if you need any proof.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Sexual favors sought for residence transfer Lured to quit employer, 3 women exploited By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: Maria left her employer with the promise for a better job and better pay but ended being physically abused and overworked by her new employer. Maria’s coworkers found themselves in the same sorry plight. Forced to endure regular physical abuse and overtime work for no extra pay, the highlight of their months are the two days off they get from working in a restaurant in Kuwait City. Reportedly of the over 500,000 domestic helpers employed in Kuwait, human rights organizations claim that some 10 percent of the housemaids are exposed to various forms of exploitation and could be easily lured with promises of greener pastures. While the laws exist to protect the domestic helpers under the Ministry of Interior, these are not as comprehensive as is the case with workers working under Article 18 visas. As a result, some domestic help would rather opt to run away regardless of the consequences their actions may bring. Because of the difficult situations in which some of them have to work they resort to a runaway status and sometimes fall into the trap of human traffickers. This was the case with domestic helpers Maria, Josie and Laila (names changed to protect their identity). They worked as domestic helpers in three households but were enticed by their friends to leave their job for better job opportunities under Article 18 visas. Currently, the three work in a restaurant in Kuwait City. However, for the three, the road to visa 18 proved to be rocky. They would face demands for sexual favors in exchange for visas and a hike in salary. Speaking to Kuwait Times, Maria, Josie and Laila admitted they fell into the trap of their abusive employer but said they had little choice, especially after they had given up their household jobs.”We have no choice at all. We are trapped. If you were to be in our shoes, you too would have agreed that we have no other option except to suffer this exploitation. We were told that if we do not agree, we will be in trouble,” said Maria. For Maria, the moment she was taken away from her old sponsor, the new employer was quick to tell her that she will have to serve as his “sex slave” and will have to agree to carry out his wishes. “He told me that all I needed to do was to make him happy; massage him if he needed and use me the way he wanted,” said Maria, her hands shaking. “I told him I would never agree to it and all I wanted was to work and earn money for my family,” she said. However, Maria did not really have a choice. After a week, she succumbed to her employer’s demands. “The first time I was used in this way was when he promised to transfer my visa from 20 to 18 but after sexually abusing me, he just took me to a shopping mall and bought me a uniform which I use in the restaurant,” she lamented. “Almost every day, I used to ask him about my visa and only recently he transferred my visa because I agreed to what he wanted me to do. The last time I was sexually abused, he gave me a cell phone,” she said. Do what I want or else Josie, another Filipina working in the same restaurant is now working under an Article 18 visa but her visa transfer also came at a cost. “My visa was transferred recently because I do what he wants. Our boss would tell us that if we allow ourselves to be abused, we could get whatever we want. So I gave in to his demands,” Josie said. Laila has a slightly different story. Her contract was almost completed when she came across a job advertisement. “When I saw this advertisement and called the phone number mentioned, I immediately asked my then-employer to take me back to my recruitment agency. My employer did not object to it and took me to the agency, but the agency demanded KD 850 for my release. So I told the new employer that I could contribute some money and can afford to spare KD 500,” she said. According to her, the new employer agreed and gave her the remaining KD 350 to help her obtain a transfer from the local agency. “A few days later, my new kafeel started sexually harassing me and promised that he will transfer my iqama from Article 20 to 18,” she said, explaining that although her

paperwork was transferred to the new company, her visa was not changed from 20 to 18. “He warned me that if I let him take advantage of my body again, he would transfer my visa to 18. It was the same situation when it came to my salary. He said he would increase my salary only if I allowed him to do the same thing again. Since I did not agree to a repeat of the abuse, my salary has remained unchanged,” she said. The three girls complained of being required to work for

more than 12 hours without any overtime or day off. “They only allow us to have one day off in a month. Just recently, our boss agreed to let us have a day off twice a month. Besides, many of us are still working under visa 20 despite all the physical favors we accorded,” one of the girls said. She also said that some of their colleagues had filed a complaint with the arbitration department at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.

Local FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Kuwait used ‘excessive force’ at demos: HRW Govt says needs to maintain law and order

Elevator accident kills man, wounds another in Sabhan By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: An Asian elevator technician was instantly killed and another was injured when a lift being maintained at the interior ministry’s services building in Sabhan accidentally fell on them while they were working, said security sources. The sources added that Sabhan firemen, headed by Maj Thamer Boresli and Mubarak Al-Kabeer fire chief, colonel Waleed AlAnsari rushed to the scene where the deceased technician’s body was handed to the coroner and the injured man was rushed to hospital for treatment. Parking stabbing An Egyptian stabbed his compatriot during a fight in Nugra over traffic rights. Another Egyptian was arrested upon arrival at Kuwait International Airport with the possession of some drugs he claimed he brought along for his own personal use. A case was filed. Pregnant maid A citizen reported that her housemaid had been having an affair with an Arab expatriate and that the maid was pregnant, said security sources. The lady said that noticing signs of pregnancy, she had her maid undergo pregnancy tests which proved positive. The maid told her sponsor about her relationship. A case was filed and the lover is being summoned.

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti security forces appear to have used excessive force to disperse several largely peaceful street protests since October, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said yesterday, citing activists, protesters and witnesses. Tens of thousands of Kuwaitis have taken to the streets over the past two months to protest changes to voting rules used in a parliamentary election on Dec 1 that they said would skew the outcome in favour of pro-government candidates. The Interior Ministry justified the use of force on the grounds that protesters had blocked traffic, thrown stones at the police, and attacked them, HRW said. But participants said the demonstrations were largely peaceful. “They said that masked riot police used tear gas and sound bombs without warning to disperse demonstrations and beat protesters while arresting them for participating in ‘unauthorized protests,’” the New York-based rights group said. Kuwait’s Information Ministry, in reaction to the HRW statement, said authorities were required to maintain law and order when illegal marches and demonstrations took place. “Kuwait has wit-

nessed several protests in 2012 where streets were blocked and riots took place at residential areas which endangered civilians and public properties,” the ministry said. “The right to protest is enshrined in our constitution. However, protesters should be aware of both their rights and responsibilities under the law.” It recalled that authorities had allowed several processions to take place this year after organisers obtained a proper licence and police provided necessary protection to protesters. Although Kuwait, an OPEC member state and ally of the United States, tolerates more dissent than other Gulf Arab countries, it has been enforcing a ban on public gatherings of more than 20 people without a permit. “Kuwait’s rulers need to fully respect the right to assemble peacefully,” Eric Goldstein, deputy Middle East director at HRW said in the statement issued from Beirut. “Declaring a gathering ‘unauthorized’ does not give police license to beat protesters.” Kuwaiti protesters have been less radical in their demands than demonstrators in other Arab countries, calling for the rein-

statement of the old voting system, action against corruption and for an elected government rather than one appointed by the prime minister, who is chosen by HH the Amir. “The authorities should show they will not tolerate abuses by investigating all allegations of abuse by security forces and punishing those responsible for violating rights,” Goldstein said. HRW also said Kuwait should increase the accountability of police by ending the use of masked anti-riot officers. “While police agents may have legitimate reasons to mask their identities in limited circumstances, such as when conducting surveillance, policing demonstrations is not one of them.” HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who used emergency powers to change the voting system, said on Dec 16 he supported freedom of expression and constructive criticism, but recent events had shown “aspects of chaos, breaching of the law and unguided political discourse”. The momentum of the protests has slowed since the election, with the last rally on Dec 15 drawing several hundreds of people. —Agencies

Desert tryst Another citizen reported that his African maid disappeared for four hours and that on returning home, she justified her absence saying that someone had taken her to a desert area where he had sex with her in return for KD 15. A case was filed. Broken trust A citizen reported that her husband withdrew over KD 2,000 from her bank account without telling her, said security sources. The wife added that she had only given her husband her credit card and PIN number to pay a KD 150 installment.

News

in brief

Amir orders help for Kuwaitis in Mashhad TEHRAN: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has instructed the diplomatic mission in Iran to act immediately and help Kuwaiti citizens stranded in the city of Mashhad due to bad weather. Kuwaiti ambassador in Tehran Majdi Al-Thafiri said in statement yesterday that HH the Amir had given guidelines to the mission to act immediately to ensure safety of all the citizens stranded there and secure temporary accommodation for them. AlThafiri told KUNA that the embassy staff had responded immediately and contacted these citizens, particularly managers of expeditions to the religious sites in the city. Moreover, the mission is contacting various local authorities to facilitate the safe return of the Kuwaiti nationals. No pollution in seawater near desalination plants KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity and Water denied yesterday that the seawater near desalination plants in the south of the country was polluted and consequently affected the efficiency of the plants. The ministry, in a press release, noted that such a report about alleged pollution issued by a local newspaper was unfounded and that all desalination plants worked perfectly and that they were regularly maintained.

KUWAIT: Minister of Health Dr Mohammad Al-Haifi (second left) yesterday discussed with the Indian ambassador to Kuwait Satish C Mehta (center) about cooperation in the sector between the two friendly states. The Ministry of Health said in a statement the discussions between the minister, the ambassador and a number of Indian officials accompanying him, dealt with prospects of expanding scope of cooperation between Kuwait and India at the health level. The talks also touched on means of cementing the friendly ties bounding the two countries, exchange of expertise and various issues of common concern. —KUNA

Amir’s initiative on Syria hailed CAIRO: The initiative of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah to host an international conference of donors for Syria in late Jan 2013 has won praise from around the Arab region and beyond, Kuwait’s Permanent Delegate to the Arab League and Ambassador to Egypt Jamal Al-Ghoneim said yesterday. “The planned conference aims primarily to scale up the international relief effort for the victims of the conflict in Syria,” Ambassador Ghoneim told KUNA here after meeting the League’s Secretary General Dr Nabil Al-Arabi.

“The League’s senior officials welcomed HH the Amir’s initiative as a timely response to serious humanitarian situation in Syria after the United Nations warned against further deterioration of the situation,” he said. Ghoneim was referring to the UN warnings that the relief agencies could be forced to stop aid to the Syrian refugees and internally-displaced persons due to the shortage of funding. He added that the League’s chief affirmed that HH the Amir’s initiative will help coordinate the international response to the disaster in Syria. —KUNA

Jamal Al-Ghoneim

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Russia: Assad’s exit can’t be precondition for talks

India rape victim sent to Singapore

Storm whips into Northeast bringing heavy snow, rain

GARHI DERA BAKHSH: A Pakistani supporter carries a portrait of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, chairman of ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) outside the Bhutto family mausoleum yesterday. —AFP

Bhutto’s son launches political career Pakistan marks 5 years since Bhutto murder GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH: The son of Pakistan’s slain former prime minister Benazir Bhutto launched his political career yesterday on the anniversary of his mother’s death, vowing to continue her fight for democracy. More than 200,000 people gathered at the Bhutto family mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh in the southern province of Sindh to pay their respects to Benazir and to hear Bilawal Bhutto Zardari make his first major public speech. Bhutto, twice elected prime minister, was killed in a gun and suicide attack after an election rally in Rawalpindi, the headquarters of Pakistan’s army, on December 27, 2007. No one has ever been convicted of her murder. In an impassioned speech amid tight security, Bilawal-the third generation of his family to go into politics-promised to continue the fight for the poor and against “anti-democratic forces”. “Bhutto is an emotion, a love,” he said. “Every challenge is soaked in blood, but you will

be the loser. However many Bhuttos you kill, more Bhuttos will emerge from every house.” The Bhutto family has been a force in Pakistani politics for nearly all of the country’s 65-year history. Benazir’s father Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who founded the PPP, led the country from 1971 until he was ousted in a military coup in 1977. He was hanged in 1979 after being convicted of authorising the murder of a political opponent. The Bhuttos are an almost ever-present element in the rhetoric of PPP leaders, who frequently eulogise the party’s two “martyrs” as champions of the common man’s struggle against a repressive “establishment”. Security for Oxford-educated Bilawal’s speech was tight-surveillance helicopters hovered overhead and police said more than 15,000 officers had been deployed, as well as some 500 government paramilitary forces. At Benazir’s grave, women beat their chests and wept as they touched the tomb as a mark of

respect and shouted “Long Live Bhutto” and “Bhutto was alive yesterday, Bhutto is alive today”. A general election is due in the spring and though the 24-year-old will be too young to stand-the lower age limit is 25 — he could act as a figurehead for the campaign. President Zardari, who came to power in elections held a month after his wife’s murder, is barred from leading the PPP election campaign. He is also hugely unpopular, tainted by years of corruption allegations. Bilawal also took aim at Pakistan’s vocal Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, demanding to know why the Supreme Court could find time to deal with issues such as compressed gas and sugar prices but not punish his mother’s killers. “I asked the top judge, can’t you see the blood of Benazir Bhutto on the roads of Rawalpindi?” Bilawal said. “I, as an heir of Bhutto, ask why the killers of my mother have not been punished, while

you have time to hold the trial of my mother’s grave.” The ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and the judiciary have been at loggerheads for more than two years over the Supreme Court’s attempt to reopen graft cases against Benazir and her husband President Asif Ali Zardari-Bilawal’s father. The PPP regards the efforts as tantamount to putting the dead former prime minister on trial. Bilawal, who has been co-chairman of the PPP with his father since Benazir’s death, in May accused former military ruler Pervez Musharraf of “murdering” his mother by deliberately sabotaging her security. A UN report in 2010 also said the murder could have been prevented and accused Musharraf’s government of failing to properly protect Bhutto. The Musharraf regime blamed the assassination on Pakistani Taleban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement and was killed in a US drone attack in August 2009. —AFP

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Egypt’s Mubarak health worsens CAIRO: Egypt’s state prosecutor yesterday ordered imprisoned former dictator Hosni Mubarak to be transferred to a military hospital after his health deteriorated, a source at the prosecutor’s office said. Mubarak, serving a life sentence over the killings of protesters, was briefly taken to hospital on December 19 for scans after he fell in his prison bathroom and hurt his head. Mubarak, 84, will be returned to prison after he is treated, the source said. A court sentenced the veteran strongman to life in June for failing to prevent the killings of protesters during the 18-day revolt that ended his threedecade rule in February 2011. Some 850 people died in the uprising. Mubarak spent nearly a month in hospital after he fell unconscious on June 19, with state media declaring him clinically dead on arrival. But medical sources said he appeared to have fallen into a temporary coma. Meanwhile, Egypt’s legal and parliamentary affairs minister announced his resignation yesterday, the day after President Mohamed Morsi vowed a government reshuffle to tackle the country’s troubled economy. Mohammed Mahsoub said he was stepping down because “many policies and efforts contradict my personal convictions,” according to his letter published on the Facebook page belonging to a leader of his moderate Islamist Wasat party. He also criticised the government’s failure to recover funds allegedly embezzled by members of ousted leader Hosni Mubarak’s regime. His resignation came two days after that of Morsi’s communications minister, Hany Mahmud, who blamed “the current situation in the country”. Mahsoub, Wasat’s deputy head, had backed Morsi against the secularleaning opposition through a deep political crisis over a new constitution that became law this week. Weeks of protests and violent clashes preceded the referendum this month on the constitution, which was drafted by an Islamist-dominated panel boycotted by Christians and liberals. In a speech on Wednesday, Morsi hailed the constitution and said he was mulling ministerial changes. “I will deploy all my efforts to boost the Egyptian economy... and I will make all the changes necessary for this task,” Morsi said. —Agencies

DAMASCUS: In this image taken from video, smoke rises from buildings from heavy shelling yesterday. — AFP

Russia: Assad’s exit can’t be precondition for talks Peace envoy Brahimi, Syria diplomats in Moscow talks

CAIRO: A file picture shows ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sitting inside a cage in a courtroom during his verdict hearing. — AFP

George HW Bush in ICU HOUSTON: Former President George H.W. Bush was admitted to a hospital intensive care unit after “ a series of setbacks including a persistent fever,” but is alert and talking to medical staﬀ, his spokesman said. Jim McGrath, Bush’s spokesman in Houston, said in a brief email Wednesday that Bush was admitted to the ICU at Methodist Hospital on Sunday. He said doctors are cautiously optimistic about his treatment and that the former president “remains in guarded condition.” No other details were released about his medical condition, but McGrath said Bush is surrounded by family. The 88-year-old has been hospitalized since Nov 23, when he was admitted for a lingering cough related to bronchitis after having been in and out of the hospital for complications related to the illness. Earlier Wednesday, McGrath said a fever that kept Bush in the hospital over Christmas had gotten worse and that doctors had put him on a liquids-only diet. “It’s an elevated fever, so it’s actually gone up in the last day or two,” McGrath told The Associated Press. “It’s a stubborn fever that won’t go away.” But he said the cough that initially brought Bush to the hospital has improved.— AP

MOSCOW: Russia will host Syria peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi this week after Syrian officials held talks in Moscow yesterday as part of a diplomatic drive to try to agree a plan to end the 21month-old conflict, Russia’s foreign ministry said. Talks have moved to Moscow, a long-time Syria ally, after a flurry of meetings Brahimi held in Damascus this week, but the international envoy has disclosed little about his negotiations. Brahimi, who saw Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Monday and is planning to hold a series of meetings with Syrian officials and dissidents this week, is trying to broker a peaceful transfer of power. More than 44,000 Syrians have been killed in a revolt against four decades of Assad family rule, a conflict that began with peaceful protests in March last year, but which has descended into civil war. Past peace efforts have floundered, with world powers divided over what has become an increasingly sectarian struggle between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and Assad’s security forces, drawn primarily from his Shi’ite-rooted Alawite minority. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad and an aide held talks for less than two hours yesterday with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Mikhail Bogdanov, the Kremlin’s envoy for Middle East affairs, but declined to disclose details of their visit. Syrian and Lebanese sources said Makdad had been sent to Moscow to discuss the

details of a peace plan proposed by Brahimi. Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich played down the idea that a specific new proposal was on the table in Moscow talks, at least one agreed by Moscow and Washington. Asked about rumours of a Russian-American plan to resolve the conflict, he said: “There has not been and is no such plan.” ‘Trying to feel a way out’ “In our talks with Mr Brahimi and with our American colleagues, we are trying to feel a way out of this situation on the basis of our common plan of action that was agreed in Geneva in June,” Lukashevich told reporters at a weekly briefing. Setting the scene for a planned Russian meeting with Brahimi tomorrow, he said, “We plan to discuss a range of issues linked to a political and diplomatic settlement in Syria, including Brahimi’s efforts aimed at ending the violence and the launch of a comprehensive national dialogue.” World powers believe Russia, which has given Assad military and diplomatic aid to help him weather the uprising, has the ear of Syria’s government and must be a key player in peace talks. Moscow has tried to distance itself from Assad in recent months and has said it is not propping him up, but Lukashevich reiterated its stance that Assad’s exit from power could not be a precondition for negotiations. Setting such a condition, he said, would vio-

late the terms of an agreement reached by world powers in Geneva on June 30 that called for a transitional government in Syria. Lukashevich said Russia continued to believe there was “no alternative” to the Geneva Declaration and repeated accusations that the United States has reneged on it. “Our American colleagues and some others ... have turned sharply from this position, by 180 degrees, supporting the opposition and conducting no dialogue with the government - putting the opposition in the mood for no dialogue with the authorities but for overthrowing the authorities,” he said. “The biggest disagreement... is that one side thinks Assad should leave at the start of the process - that is the US position, and the other thinks his departure should be a result of the process - that would be the Russian position,” Dmitry Trenin, an analyst at the Moscow Carnegie Center, told Reuters. But Trenin said battleﬁeld gains made by the Syrian rebels were narrowing the gap between Moscow and Washington. Tomorrow, Lavrov said that neither side would win Syria’s civil war and that Assad would not quit even if Russia or China told him to. Bogdanov had earlier acknowledged that Syrian rebels might win. Lavrov has said this month that Russia had no intention of oﬀering Assad asylum and would not act as messenger for other nations seeking his exit. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2012

DAMASCUS: In this image taken from video, smoke rises from buildings from heavy shelling yesterday. — AFP

Russia: Assad’s exit can’t be precondition for talks Peace envoy Brahimi, Syria diplomats in Moscow talks

CAIRO: A file picture shows ousted Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak sitting inside a cage in a courtroom during his verdict hearing. — AFP

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Sudan’s Bashir dances at first rally since surgery Sudan’s 68-year old leader in power since 1989 KHARTOUM: Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir danced, waved his walking stick and delivered a defiant speech yesterday at his first rally since undergoing surgery in Saudi Arabia and withstanding what officials called an attempted coup. Diplomats and Sudanese bloggers have speculated about the 68-yearold veteran leader’s health after he appeared less frequently in public in recent months. He did not attend an economic conference in Khartoum on Nov 27, the kind of event he has used in the past to attack a US trade embargo on the country. Yesterday, Bashir opened a new oilfield in western Sudan which the government hopes will mitigate the loss of

crucial oil reserves since South Sudan seceded last year. “To the enemies of Sudan who said that Sudan would collapse after the loss of oil to the South, we say our livelihood does not come from America or Israel or Europe but from God,” he told thousands of cheering people gathered at the Hadida oilfield in the Darfur region. Over his 23 years in power, Bashir has weathered armed rebellions, soaring inflation, years of US trade sanctions, an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court and student protests as well as the secession of the south last year. He has faced popular discontent over an economic crisis and divisions within

his ruling circle. The government arrested former spy chief Salah Gosh and twelve others last month, accusing them of trying to stage a coup. He had an operation on his vocal cords in Qatar in August and went to Saudi Arabia in November for what officials described as minor surgery. The televised speech yesterday lasted less than ten minutes, shorter than previous ones, but Bashir also performed his trademark celebratory dance for the first time in several months. He did not refer directly to the alleged coup attempt. “Let’s leave the conflicts and problems because conflicts only make our enemies stronger... Let’s sit down together and solve all problems,” said Bashir. — Reuters

Mandela convalescing at home

BAGHDAD: An Iraqi army soldier helps a schoolgirl yesterday. An unusually heavy rainstorm has collapsed shoddy houses in Iraq, killing a woman among several people, police and health officials said Wednesday. — AP

Iran president sacks cabinet’s sole woman TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sacked Health Minister Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, the sole woman in his cabinet, state television reported yesterday. The minister had proposed price hikes for a number of medicines due to the plunge of the Iranian rial against the US dollar and Western sanctions imposed on the country over its disputed nuclear programme. But Ahmadinejad was opposed to the price rises and dismissed the minister. Although the sanctions do not directly target medicines, they limit their importation because of restrictions on financial transactions. Iran produces 97 percent of the drugs on its market, but their ingredients are imported. In October, an Iranian official acknowledged the price of locally produced medicines had increased by 15-20 percent in the past three months, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi and 20-80 percent for imported products. Fatemeh Hashemi, head of the Foundation for Special Diseases, sent a letter to UN chief Ban Ki-moon in August asking him to make a case to the West for easing sanctions that are detrimental to patients. Tehran is under different rounds of sanctions designed by the United States, European Union and the UN Security Council to pressure it to curb its nuclear programme. Western powers suspect Iran is using the programme to develop atomic weapons capability. The Islamic republic denies that and says its nuclear activities are purely peaceful. — AFP

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela was recovering at his Johannesburg home yesterday, convalescing and receiving further care after a nearly three-week hospital stay, officials said. The revered 94-yearold had been admitted to a Pretoria hospital on December 8, undergoing treatment for a lung infection and gallstones in the latest health scare for South Africa’s first black president. Though he was discharged on Wednesday, doctors for now want him to stay in Johannesburg, near the country’s top medical facilities, said a presidential spokesman. It was unclear if and when Mandela would return to his ancestral home in Qunu in the Eastern Cape. “Doctors yesterday came to the conclusion that he made sufficient progress to be discharged,” presidential spokesman and former Mandela prison mate Mac Maharaj told local television channel eNCA. Mandela is now receiving “home-based care” at his residence in the posh Johannesburg suburb of Houghton. “When Madiba goes, in which period, is a matter that is entirely depending on his own wishes. Whatever he wishes we will do,” said Maharaj. “But right now the doctors have considered it necessary and good that he should be in Houghton so that he’s closed to all the facilities where they can give him high care.” His release from hospital spells relief for many South Africans, who had feared for the nonagenarian’s health. “Yes he is old, but nobody really wants to lose him,” said Cianda, a Johannesburg resident. “For me it is quite a relief because I’m happy that he’s back home, and he’s going to be home to see the New Year. Not in hospital.” Mandela had spent Christmas in a Pretoria facility, part of his longest hospital stay since coming out of prison in 1990. The Nobel Peace laureate was visited on Christmas Day by his wife Graca Machal and other family members along with President Jacob Zuma, who said Mandela was “looking much better”. Mandela, once a spry boxer who stayed fit during his long years behind bars by doing calisthenics in his cell, has grown increasingly frail in recent years. He has rarely been seen since retiring from public life in 2004. Messages of support and prayers for the recovery of the man affectionately known as Madiba, his clan name, have been pouring in from all over the country. — AFP

SIEVERSDORF: A picture taken with long exposure time yesterday shows the date “2013” being written in the evening sky with an electric torch, near eastern Germany. — AFP

PLO reorganisation is the key to Palestinian unity RAMALLAH: The Palestinian Liberation Organisation, which has shaped Palestinian politics since the 1960s, is set for an overhaul as rivals Hamas and Fatah look to restart reconciliation. The organisation is recognised as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people” and engages in activity on their behalf on the international stage, including negotiations and moves at the United Nations. It was this body, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas as its head, which successfully obtained upgraded UN status for the Palestinians this year, but both the Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad remain outside of the organisation. Leaders of Abbas’s Fatah movement have said in recent weeks that the so-called provisional leadership of the PLO, tasked with integrating Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would meet soon at the invitation of Egypt, which mediates Palestinian reconciliation. “There will be a meeting but we don’t know exactly when”, Nabil Shaath, a Fatah leader involved in the reconciliation efforts, told the official radio Voice of Palestine last week. “Egypt is very committed to this but we are considerate of the internal situation in Egypt,” he said, referring to ongoing political turmoil in Egypt. “From our side, the priority is to end the conflict, the priority is to end the split, not only to bring Hamas into the PLO,” another Fatah official, Mohammad Shtayyeh, said earlier this month. “The PLO is always open for membership of Hamas or whoever, but the PLO has a political platform. And if that political platform is acceptable by Hamas and Jihad, they’re both welcome to be members,” he added. The PLO’s platform includes recognition of Israel and signing of peace agreements, stances which have been rejected by Hamas and Islamic Jihad and could prove stumbling blocks to their membership. Shtayyeh stressed that the PLO represents Palestinians everywhere, pointing out that even Hamas’s chief-in-exile Khaled Meshaal offered the body his support in its bid to achieve upgraded UN status. “We went to the United Nations not as Palestinian Authority,” Shtayyeh said, referring to the West Bank government headed by Abbas. — AFP

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

France says won’t defend CAR govt against rebels Regional leaders scramble for peace talks

LAGOS: Fire-fighters try to put out a fire at the building following an explosion in Lagos on December 26, 2012. —AFP

Lagos fireworks blaze destroys 10 buildings LAGOS: Fire that tore through a district of Nigeria’s largest city after an explosion at a fireworks warehouse destroyed 10 buildings in addition to killing one person and wounding 40, an official said yesterday. Firefighters meanwhile worked to douse the remains of the fire that began Wednesday morning in Lagos, and government officials pledged to investigate, saying storage of the fireworks in the crowded neighbourhood was illegal. Building codes throughout Nigeria are often poorly enforced and calls to ban fireworks have gone unheeded. Ibrahim Farinloye of the National Emergency Management Agency told AFP that 10 buildings housing a large number of small shops and apartments as well as multiple vehicles were razed by the fire. “We recovered only one body while 40 people were injured,” he said. The fire tore through the crowded Jankara area of the city on Wednesday after the explosion at the building believed to be storing fireworks. “Government has put up a team of experts to determine the cause of the explosion. The government wants to know so that this sort of thing does not happen again,” said Femi Osanyintolu, the head of the state-run emergency service LASEMA. He said the state governor, Babatunde Fashola, was at the scene on Wednesday to inspect the damage. “The governor wants to know why somebody had to store firecrackers and bangers in a building in contravention of the law against such a practice,” he said. Osanyintolu said rescue workers were still battling yesterday to extinguish the remains of the fire as smoke rose from some areas. — AFP

Gunmen kill Muslim cleric in Russia’s North Ossetia MOSCOW: Gunmen shot dead an Islamic cleric in the internal Russian republic of North Ossetia, investigators said yesterday, an attack that suggests militant Islamist violence in Russia’s southern Muslim provinces is spreading to nearby regions. Shootings and bomb attacks on police and officials are a near daily occurrence across much of Russia’s restive North Caucasus, but violence in North Ossetia - a mainly Christian region - is unusual. Gunmen shot dead 34year-old Ibragim Dudarov, North Ossetia’s deputy mufti, many times in the head at point blank range as he was driving late on Wednesday near the provincial capital of Vladikavkaz, the Investigative Committee said in a statement. The killing - at least the sixth this year of a Muslim religious leader - is likely to inflame tensions between moderate and more radical Muslims. Moscow is struggling to extinguish an insurgency that stems from its two devastating wars against separatists in Chechnya, just east of Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and has been fuelled by chronic unemployment, police brutality and poverty. Militants fighting for an Islamic state in the mountainous region have increasingly targeted Muslim leaders who are backed by the Russian authorities. “This man died for his faith. — Reuters

BANGUI: France’s military will not defend Central African Republic’s government against advancing rebels, French President Francois Hollande said yesterday, and regional African leaders tried to broker a ceasefire deal. Insurgents on motorbikes and pickups have driven to within 75 km (45 miles) of the capital Bangui in recent weeks, threatening to end President Francois Bozize’s nearly 10 years as leader of the turbulent, resource-rich country. “If we have a presence, it’s not to protect a regime, it’s to protect our nationals and our interests and in no way to intervene in the internal business of a country, in this case the Central African Republic,” Hollande said, speaking on the sidelines of a visit to a wholesale food market outside Paris. “Those days are over,” he added. The comments came after a plea from Bozize’s government for French military support to stop the SELEKA rebel coalition, which says it will topple the president unless he implements in full a previous peace deal. CAR Foreign Minister Antoine Gambi declined to comment on Hollande’s remarks in a phone interview with Reuters but said the government supported talks with the rebels. Officials from around central Africa are due to meet in Bangui later yesterday to open talks with the government and rebels to end the crisis, and a rebel spokesman said fighters temporarily halted their advance for dialogue. “We

will not enter Bangui,” Colonel Djouma Narkoyo, the rebel spokesman, told Reuters by telephone. Previous rebel promises to stop advancing have been broken. The atmosphere remained tense in Bangui the day after anti-rebel protests broke out, and residents were stocking up on food and water in preparation for a rebel push into the city, built up on the banks of a river. CAR soldiers deployed at strategic sites and French soldiers reinforced security at the embassy after protestors threw rocks at the building on Wednesday. In Paris, the French Foreign Ministry said protecting foreigners and embassies was the responsibility of CAR authorities. “This message will once again be stressed to the CAR’s charge d’affaires in Paris, who has been summoned this afternoon,” a ministry spokesman said. He also said France condemned the rebels for pursuing hostilities and urged all sides to commit to talks. France has 250 soldiers in its landlocked former colony as part of a peacekeeping mission and Paris in the past has ousted or propped up governments - including by using airstrikes to defend Bozize against rebels in 2006. Bozize came to power in a 2003 rebellion that overthrew President Ange-Felix Patasse. However, France is increasingly reluctant to directly intervene in conflicts in its former colonies. Since coming to power in May, Hollande has promised to end its

shadowy relations with former colonies and put ties on a healthier footing. Some 1,200 French nationals live in CAR, mostly in the capital, according to the French foreign ministry, where they typically work for mining firms or aid groups. French nuclear energy group Areva mines the Bakouma uranium deposit in CAR’s south - France’s biggest commercial interest in the country - and uses the uranium to power nuclear plants in France. The rebel push through a string of towns has highlighted the instability of a country that has remained poor since independence in 1960 despite rich deposits of uranium, gold and diamonds. Average income is barely over $2 a day. A military source and an aid worker said the rebels had got as far as Damara, 75 km (47 miles) from Bangui, by late afternoon on Wednesday, having skirted Sibut, where some 150 Chadian soldiers had earlier been deployed to try and block a push south by a rebel coalition. With a government that holds little sway outside the capital, some parts of the country have long endured the consequences of conflicts in troubled neighbours Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo spilling over. The Central African Republic is one of a number of nations in the region where US Special Forces are helping local forces track down the Lords Resistance Army, a rebel group responsible for killing thousands of civilians across four African nations. — Reuters

Poachers make 2012 deadly year for Africa’s rhinos, elephants JOHANNESBURG: Africa’s biggest animals were poached in near record numbers in 2012, with surging demand for horn and ivory from Asia driving the slaughter of rhinos and elephants. By midDecember, poachers had killed 633 rhinos in South Africa, according to environment ministry figures. That marks a new annual peak in the country that is home to most of the continent’s rhinos, and a sharp rise from the record 448 poached last year and the mere handful of deaths recorded a decade ago. Elsewhere in Africa, the slaughter of elephants continued unabated, with mass killings reported in Cameroon and Democratic Republic of Congo. According to conservation group TRAFFIC, which monitors global trade in animals and plants, the amount of ivory seized will likely drop from 2011, when a record number of big hauls were made globally. But the trend remains grim. “It looks like 2012 is another bumper year for trade in illegal ivory though it is unlikely to top 2011,” said Tom Milliken, who manages TRAFFIC’s Elephant Trade Information System. In 2011, an estimated 40 tonnes of illegal ivory was seized worldwide, representing thousands of dead elephants. So far

this year about 28 tonnes has reportedly been seized but the number is expected to climb as more data comes in. “The last four years since 2009 are four of our five highest volume years in illegal ivory trade,” said Milliken. Demand for ivory as ornamental items is rising fast in Asia, in tandem with growing Chinese influence and investment in Africa, which has opened the door wider for illicit trade in elephants and other animals. Rhino horn has been used for centuries in Chinese medicine, where it was ground into powder to treat a range of maladies including rheumatism, gout and even possession by devils. War and organised crime Ivory smuggling has also been linked to conflict, and last week the United Nations Security Council called for an investigation into the alleged involvement in the trade of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) in Uganda. Led by warlord Joseph Kony, who is being hunted by an African Union and U.S.-backed military force, the LRA is accused of terrorising the country’s north for over 20 years through the abduction of children to use as fighters and sex slaves. “The illegal killings of large

number of elephants for their ivory are increasingly involving organised crime and in some cases well armed rebel militias,” the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) said in a statement this week. “In Bouba N’Djida National Park, in northern Cameroon, up to 450 elephants were allegedly killed by groups from Chad and the Sudan early this year,” said CITES, which is an international agreement that oversees trade in wildlife. In the case of rhino horn, demand has also been growing in Vietnam, where a newly affluent class has been buying it to treat ailments ranging from hangovers to cancer. The claims have no basis in science but demand has pushed the price of the horn up to $65,000 a kilogramme on the streets of Hanoi, making it more expensive than gold. Most of the rhino killings take place in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Gangs armed with firearms and night-vision goggles enter from neighbouring Mozambique, from where observers say the horn is often smuggled out through the same routes used to bring illegal drugs from Southeast Asia into Africa. — AFP

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

India rape victim sent to Singapore Singh pledges to take action

NEW DELHI: Indian acid attack survivor Sonali Mukherjee poses at her home in New Delhi. —AFP

India acid attack victim becomes TV millionaire NEW DELHI: When Sonali Mukherjee spurned the advances of three of her fellow students, they responded by melting her face with acid. But rather than hide herself away, the 27-year-old applied to appear on India’s most-watched TV quiz show-and walked away a millionaire. “If you can stare at a picture of a pretty woman then you can look at my burnt face too,” Mukherjee tells AFP in her tiny home in the capital New Delhi. “It’s very easy for victims of acid attacks to swallow poison but I made the choice to stand up and scream and shout against the violence.” The recent gang-rape of a university student on a bus in New Delhi-which sparked angry protests across India-has again shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the levels of violence against women in the country, where sex assaults are often dismissed as mere “eve-teasing”. National crime records show that 228,650 of the total 256,329 violent crimes recorded last year were against women. Nine years ago, Mukherjee was a promising student at a college in the eastern city of Dhanbad when the three students broke into her home while she was sleeping and hurled acid on her face for rejecting them. They used a liquid known as “Tezaab”, which is normally used to clean rusted tools. Her attackers used it to melt Mukherjee’s eyelids, nose and ears. Even after 22 subsequent surgical procedures, she remains blind and partially deaf. No one has ever been convicted of the attack. The three were arrested and spent some time behind bars on remand but were later freed on bail and the case has been bogged in India’s notoriously slow justice system. “They couldn’t take a ‘no’ from me and so they decided to snatch my face, and steal my life away,” she said as she groped for water to wash down medicine administered by her father. The Indian government does not keep specific figures on acid attacks. According to the London-based charity Acid Survivors Trust International, about 1,500 acid attacks are reported globally each year. But many more victims do not report their injuries to the authorities and instead suffer in silence. ‘I used my face’ Mukherjee says that numerous appeals failed to produce any financial or legal support from the state. Instead her family had to sell their two-storey home, farmland, gold and the cattle to meet medical expenses. In one letter to the government she even said that she would prefer to commit suicide-which is illegal in India-rather than live in continuous pain. But as she despaired of funding her treatment, Mukherjee decided to apply to appear on “Kaun Banega Crorepati”, the Indian version of “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” and which was featured in the movie “Slumdog Millionaire”. After being chosen as a contestant, she went on to win 2.5 million rupees ($45,000) last month after successfully answering 10 questions. The money will be used to fund a round of plastic surgery next year for Mukherjee, who keeps a portrait of herself as a fresh-faced teenaged cadet. She said that letters appealing for help had failed to yield results but the sight of her injuries had a much more profound impact. “Once everything else had failed, I decided to use my face.” Mukherjee says that her winnings may be welcome but they still will not be enough to cover all her medical bills. “I won some money but I need much more for my treatment,” she said. Her determination not to be a victim has inspired viewers and members of the audience were in tears when she won the contest. —AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged yesterday to take action to protect the nation’s women while the young victim of a gang rape on a New Delhi bus was flown to Singapore for treatment of severe internal injuries. The Dec 16 rape and brutal beating of the 23year-old student triggered widespread protests in New Delhi and other parts of India demanding a government crackdown on the daily harassment Indian women face, ranging from groping to severe violence. Some protesters have called for the death penalty or castration for rapists, who under current laws face a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. Rape victims rarely press charges because of social stigma and fear they will be accused of inviting the attack. Many women say they structure their lives around protecting themselves and their daughters from attack. Singh’s government set up two committees in response to the protests. One, looking into speeding up sexual assault trials, has already received 6,100 email suggestions. The second will examine what lapses might have contributed to the rape - which took place on a moving bus that passed through police checkpoints - and suggest measures to improve women’s safety. “Let me state categorically that the issue of safety and security of women is of the highest concern to our government,” Singh told a development meeting. He urged officials in India’s states to pay special attention to the problem. “There can be no meaningful development without the active participation of half the population, and this participation simply cannot take place if their security and safety is not assured,” he said. The victim of the gang rape arrived in Singapore on an air ambulance yesterday and was admitted in “extremely critical condition,” to the intensive care unit” of the Mount Elizabeth hospital, renowned for multi-organ transplant facilities, the hospital said in a statement. India’s Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said in a statement that the government, which is over-

seeing her treatment and paying the costs, had decided to send her abroad on the recommendation of her doctors here. “Despite the best efforts of our doctors, the victim continues to be critical and her fluctuating health remains a big cause of concern to all of us,” he said. Her family was also being sent to Singapore to be with her during her treatment, which could last weeks, he said.

toward the protesters with a group of police when he collapsed on the ground and began frothing at the mouth and shaking. Two protesters rushed to the officer to try to help him. Police charged eight people with murder in the death of the policeman. Police said the rape victim was traveling on the evening of Dec 16 with a male friend on a bus when they were attacked

NEW DELHI: Indian demonstrators shout slogans and wave placards as they move towards India Gate yesterday. —AFP Meanwhile, police in riot gear manning barricades filled the streets of central Delhi in a show of force ahead of another planned protest march. Near daily protests have shut down the center of the capital for days since the rape. Police quelled some of the demonstrations with tear gas, water cannons and baton charges. One police officer died Tuesday after collapsing during a weekend protest. Police said an autopsy showed the officer had a heart attack that could have been caused by injuries suffered during violence at the protest. An Associated Press journalist at the scene said the officer was running

by six men who gang raped her and beat the couple with iron rods before stripping them and dumping them on a road. All six suspects in the case have been arrested, police said. B.D. Athani, the medical superintendent of Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi, where the woman had been treated, said she suffered severe intestinal and abdominal injuries, underwent three surgeries and had parts of her intestines removed, according to the Press Trust of India. “With fortitude and courage, the girl survived the after effects of the injuries so far well. But the condition continues to be critical,” he was quoted as saying. —AP

India president’s son sorry for demo remarks NEW DELHI: The Indian president’s son landed himself in hot water with his own family yesterday for denigrating women who took part in mass protests over a gang-rape as being middleaged and caked in makeup. Abhijit Mukherjee, who is also a member of parliament, came in for widespread condemnation after he said that many of those who have taken part in the nationwide protests were “dented and painted” women rather than students. “These pretty women, dented and painted... have no contact with ground reality,” Mukherjee told a regional news channel. The phrase “dented and painted” is used by mechanics who mask the bruised bodywork and rust on second-hand vehicles with liberal coatings of paint. Among the most vocal critics was his own sister Sharmishtha who described his comments as “a

bit of a shocker” and said her father, President Pranab Mukherjee, also disapproved. “It is definitely something that we as a family definitely don’t agree with,” she told the NDTV network. “It’s not just one protest, it’s accumulated rage over the way women are being treated, raped, molested... my father is absolutely with me on this.” The main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party said Mukherjee junior’s remarks were particularly illtimed as the 23-year-old victim of the December 16 attack fights for her life in hospital in Singapore. “I think this is exactly the kind of mindset that the youth is fighting against,” said Smriti Irani, head of the BJP’s women’s wing. Mukherjee later issued an apology. “My intention was not to hurt anyone,” he told NDTV. “I apologise to all those people whose sentiment got hurt by these sentences and these sentences are withdrawn.” —AFP

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

China tightens controls to deter self-immolations China seizes TVs in Tibetan area BEIJING: Chinese authorities are tightening controls in an ethnic Tibetan region where at least 10 people set themselves on fire and hundreds demonstrated last month to protest Chinese rule, a news report said yesterday. Huangnan prefecture in western China’s Qinghai province is beefing up security and taking steps to shield the area from outside influence to deter self-immolations, the state-run, web-based Qinghai News reported. The local government will also use economic rewards and punishments to crack down on the practice. China has blamed exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his associates for the self-immolations in Qinghai and other Tibetan regions, but supporters of Tibetan rights say the fault lies with Beijing’s oppressive rule of the Himalayan region. The number of incidents spiked in November when the ruling Chinese Communist Party held a national congress to install its new leaders for the next five years. In Huangnan, local authorities are stepping up police and military patrol of public areas and setting up checkpoints to keep foreigners out of the Tongren area, home to the restive Rongwo monastery, Qinghai News said. The 600year-old monastery has been the scene of several self-immolations. In the town of Rongwo, hundreds of Tibetans staged a demonstration in November, shouting for independence and for the return of the Dalai Lama, according to witnesses. To discourage self-immolations, the pre-

fecture will thoroughly account for inflammables, monitor residents and organize propaganda teams to condemn self-immolations. Authorities will confiscate illegal satellite dishes that allow local residents to receive anti-China programs from abroad, register every business that sells satellite signal receiving devices, and replace 3,000 television sets in monastery dormitories. The government will “handsomely” award those who offer tips on premeditated acts of selfimmolation, report any instigators, dissuade self-immolations or put out fires on the scene. It will also use economic tools - such as canceling social security and postponing projects - to punish the villages where selfimmolations occur and the people who visit family members of self-immolators, Qinghai News said. Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have confiscated televisions from 300 monasteries in a heavily Tibetan part of the west of the country and dismantled satellite equipment that broadcast “anti-China” programmes, prompted by Tibetan self-immolations in the region. Some 94 Tibetans, including 81 this year, have set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule. Five self-immolations occurred in Tibetan-dominated Huangnan prefecture in Qinghai province, the state-run Qinghai news agency said yesterday. The government in Huangnan said its approach in tackling self-immolations comprised of “guiding public opinion on the Dalai issue”, increasing patrols and “blocking

outside harmful information”, according to the news agency, which is managed by the Qinghai government. “At this critical moment for maintaining social stability in Huangnan prefecture ... (we must) strengthen measures and fully fight the special battle against self-immolations,” the article said. “We do not know anything about it,” an official from the Huangnan prefecture government told Reuters by telephone, when asked to confirm the report, before hanging up. Beijing considers Nobel peace laureate the Dalai Lama, who fled China in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, a separatist. The Dalai Lama says he is merely seeking greater autonomy for his Himalayan homeland. The article said the prefecture’s agricultural and pastoral areas had relied on certain satellite equipment “to watch and listen to overseas, anti-China programmes”. The local government would invest 8.64 million yuan ($1.39 million) to install 50 transmitters that would broadcast 70 percent of the prefecture’s television channels, the report said. China has repeatedly denounced the Dalai Lama and exiled Tibetan groups for fomenting the self-immolations. The United States and several other countries have called on China to end repressive policies and to negotiate with the Dalai Lama. Beijing has defended its iron-fisted rule in Tibet, saying the remote region suffered from dire poverty, brutal exploitation of serfs and economic stagnation until 1950 when Communist troops “peacefully liberated” it. —Agencies

PHNOM PENH: Born Samnang (center), one of two men convicted for the 2004 murder of a prominent labour leader, is led by police as they make an appearance at the Court of Appeals yesterday. —AFP

Outcry as Cambodia jails pair over boss’s murder PHNOM PENH: Cambodian rights campaigners yesterday condemned the sentencing of two men to 20 years in prison for the 2004 murder of a prominent labour leader, saying they appeared to be scapegoats. Chea Vichea, a vocal critic of Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government, was gunned down in broad daylight at a newsstand in the capital Phnom Penh-a killing decried by activists as an attempt to silence his labour union. Days later, Born Samnang, now 32, and Sok Sam Oeun, 43, were arrested and jailed for 20 years each in a verdict which rights watchdogs said was based on insufficient evidence. In 2008 the Supreme Court provisionally released the pair and ordered a retrial. But the Appeal Court yesterday ruled that there was enough proof of their guilt and confirmed the 20-year sentences. Am Sam Ath, of local rights groups Licadho, said the pair appeared to be innocent victims. “Civil groups still consider the two men as the artificial killers,” he told reporters. The pair shouted “Unjust!” and called for help from the king and Hun Sen as they were led from the court in handcuffs and taken to prison. “Let me go. I am not the killer,” said Born Samnang. Sok Sam Oeun’s wife, Neang Heng, told reporters her husband had been “full of hope” that he would be acquitted. The pair’s lawyers immediately appealed the ruling, which rights activists said once again failed to deliver justice. “I am very shocked and disappointed at the lack of independence of the court and at the inability of the court to provide justice in the case,” the president of the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights, Ou Virak, told AFP. —AFP

China ‘highly vigilant’ over Japanese fighters flying over disputed islands BEIJING: China is “highly vigilant” about Japanese jet fighter flights over islands claimed by both countries and Japan must bear responsibility for any consequences, Chinese military and maritime officials said yesterday. The officials, speaking a day after a new hawkish Japanese prime minister took office, were responding to Japan sending jet fighters several times in the past two weeks to intercept Chinese patrol planes approaching airspace above the islands. The situation in the volatile East China Sea region has severely strained relations between Beijing and Tokyo. “We will decisively fulfill our tasks and missions while coordinating with relevant departments...so as to safeguard China’s maritime law enforcement activities and protect the country’s territorial integrity and maritime rights,” Defence Ministry spokesman Yang Yujun told a news conference. Japan’s Defence Ministry has acknowledged scrambling F-15 jets on several occasions in recent weeks to intercept Chinese marine surveillance planes approaching the islands, called the Diaoyu in Chinese and the Senkaku by Japan. It says a Chinese aircraft breached what it considers Japanese airspace for the first time on Dec 13.

The Japanese government administers the islands and purchased three of them from a private owner this past sum-

mer, sparking violent anti-Japanese protests across China. New Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has promised

ASAKUSA: New Year decorations are displayed at the Nakamise shopping alley approaching Sensoji temple in Tokyo’s Asakusa area yesterday. Japan has started to prepare for the New Year’s break, one of the biggest holidays of the calendar in the country. —AFP

not to yield in the dispute over the islands and boost defence spending to counter Beijing’s growing military clout. “The Japanese side is using military aircraft to interfere with planes on normal patrol in undisputed Chinese airspace,” said Shi Qingfeng, director general of the Administration Office of the State Oceanic Administration, the agency whose ships patrol disputed waters in the South and East China Seas. “This is highly unreasonable conduct and the Japanese side is consciously trying to escalate the situation,” Shi said at a presentation for Chinese media and diplomats. “The Japanese side must assume responsibility for the consequences.” China has been increasingly flexing its military and political influence in the western Pacific, forcefully asserting territorial claims while it builds up its military forces. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also claim parts of the South China Sea. To China’s east, the island conflict with Japan has led to tense confrontations in the waters around the islands. “China-Japan defence relations are an important and sensitive part of bilateral ties, and the Japanese side should face up to the difficulties and problems that currently exist,” Yang said. —Reuters

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Obama’s 2nd inauguration to draw smaller crowds WASHINGTON: Visitors coming to the nation’s capital for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration can’t stay in the one place President Ronald Reagan’s family once called an eight-star hotel. That spot is the White House, and it’s booked for the next four years. Still, inauguration-goers have a range of lodging options - from crashing on a friend’s couch to reasonably priced rooms to ones that cost thousands of dollars a night. With second inaugurations tending to draw fewer spectators, finding a place to stay in Washington won’t be nearly as difficult as in 2009. City officials are expecting 600,000 to 800,000 visitors for the Jan. 21 inauguration, far less than the 1.8 million people who flooded the National Mall four years ago to witness the inauguration of America’s first black president. Back then, some hotels sold out months in advance and city residents rented out their homes for hundreds of dollars a night. This time, hotels say they’re filling up more slowly, with rooms still available and prices at or slightly below where they were four years ago. “Very few hotels are actually sold out at this point, so there’s a lot of availability,” said Elliott Ferguson, CEO of the tourism bureau Destination DC, who

added that he expected demand to pick up after Christmas. In 2009, hotel occupancy in the city for the night before the inauguration was 98 percent, and visitors paid an average daily rate of more than $600 that night, according to STR, a company that tracks hotel data. This time, some hotels still have half their rooms available. As a result, some establish-

ments have relaxed minimum stays from four nights to three and could drop prices closer to the time of the inauguration if demand does not increase. Despite the muted enthusiasm, many of the city’s posh hotels are still offering pricy packages. Visitors with an unlimited budget can check in to accommodations almost as grand and historic as the White

WASHINGTON: In this photo, Gerald Duval, innkeeper of the Aunt Bee’s Little White House B&B, stands in the doorway by a cutout of President Barack Obama in a super hero outfit, at the B&B in Washington. — AP

US childhood obesity dips CHICAGO: Obesity rates among small children may finally be on the decline after more than tripling in the United States the past 30 years, a study out Wednesday indicated. The study found that obesity rates peaked in 2004 and then declined slightly among low-income children aged two to four who receive benefits from a federal food stamp program called SNAP. “To our knowledge, this is the first national study to show that the prevalence of obesity and extreme obesity among young US children may have begun to decline,” wrote lead author Liping Pan of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “The results of this study indicate modest recent progress of obesity prevention among young children. These findings may have important health implications because of the lifelong health risks of obesity and extreme obesity in early childhood.” Obesity is most prevalent among minority and low-income families and has been associated with a range of health problems and premature death. The researchers analyzed data from a pediatric nutrition surveillance system which monitors almost half of the children eligible for federally funded maternal and child health and nutrition programs. They were able to access height and weight data from 27.5 million children aged two to four in the 30 states which consistently reported their data. In 1998, obesity levels were at 13.05 percent of the children. This rose to a peak of 15.36 percent in 2004 before declining to 14.94 percent in 2010. Extreme obesity rates rose from 1.75 percent in 1998 to a peak of 2.22 percent in 2003 before slipping down to 2.07 percent in 2010, the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found. In an accompanying editorial, Dr. David Ludwig said the declines seen are not enough, and he urged an overhaul of the federal food stamp program (SNAP) to help low-income families tackle obesity by eliminating junk food and adding more fruit and vegetables to their diet. “SNAP is essential for hunger prevention in the United States, but its exclusive focus on food quantity contributes to malnutrition and obesity, and is misaligned with the goal of helping beneficiaries lead healthier lives,” wrote Ludwig, who works in an obesity prevention center at Boston Children’s Hospital.—AFP

House. At The Willard hotel, about a block from the White House, rooms were still available starting at more than $1,100 a night with a four-night minimum. That’s a far cry from the bill paid by President Abraham Lincoln when he checked out after his 1861 inauguration and paid $773.75 for a stay of more than a week. At the Park Hyatt hotel in northwest Washington, where rooms start at $849 a night with a four-night minimum stay, the presidential suite is still available. For the 57th presidential inauguration next month, the hotel is charging $57,000 for a four-night package in the suite that includes butler service. And no one has yet booked $100,000 packages at the Fairmont hotel or the Ritz-Carlton. A number of the city’s luxury hotels plan special treats for guests, some of whom will be paying two to five times as much to stay during the inauguration compared with staying in the same room a week before. At the Ritz-Carlton, for example, where rooms start at about $1,100 per day, guests will get to bring home commemorative pillowcases embroidered with the official inauguration seal and their initials. There are options for visitors looking to spend less, too, though some walletfriendly choices have filled quickly.—AP

Storm whips into Northeast bringing heavy snow, rain Hundreds of flights cancelled, delayed CONCORD: A powerful winter storm was expected to drop one to two feet of snow on parts of the Northeast just a day after it swept through the nation’s middle, dumping a record snowfall in Arkansas and ruining holiday travel plans for thousands. The storm, which was blamed for six deaths, pushed through the Upper Ohio Valley and made its way into the Northeast Wednesday night. Within hours, there was anywhere from a few inches of snow to a dozen in some locations. National Weather Service spokesman David Roth said the Northeast’s heaviest snowfall would be in northern Pennsylvania, upstate New York and inland sections of several New England states before the storm ended Friday morning and headed to Canada. Little or no accumulation was expected in the East Coast’s largest cities: New York, Philadelphia and Boston. Other areas were to get a messy mix of rain and snow or just rain - enough to slow down commuters and those still heading home from visits with family. Hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed on Wednesday and scores of motorists got stuck on icy roads or slid into drifts. Said John Kwiatkowski, an Indianapolis-based meteorologist with the weather service: “The way I’ve been describing it is as a low-end blizzard, but that’s sort of like saying a small Tyrannosaurus rex.” The storm system spawned Gulf Coast region tornadoes on Christmas Day, startling people like Bob and Sherry Sims of Mobile, Alabama, who’d just finished dinner. “We heard that very distinct sound, like a freight train,” said Bob Sims. They headed for a center bathroom. Power was still out at the Sims’ home on Wednesday, but the

house wasn’t damaged and they used a generator to run heaters to stay warm. Some neighbors were less fortunate, their roofs peeled away and porches smashed by falling trees. The storm also left freezing temperatures in its aftermath, and forecasters said parts of the Southeast from Virginia to Florida saw severe thunderstorms. Schools on break and workers taking holiday vacations meant that many people could avoid messy commutes, but those who had to travel were urged to avoid it. Snow was blamed for scores of vehicle accidents as far east as Maryland, and about two dozen counties in Indiana and Ohio issued snow emergency travel alerts, urging people to go out on the roads only if necessary. About 40 vehicles got bogged down trying to make it up a slick hill in central

Indiana, and four state snowplows slid off roads as snow fell at the rate of 3 inches an hour in some places. Two passengers in a car on a sleet-slickened Arkansas highway were killed Wednesday in a head-on collision, and two people, including a 76-yearold Milwaukee woman, were killed Tuesday on Oklahoma highways. Deaths from windtoppled trees were reported in Texas and Louisiana. Larry McClain and John Crider, each driving a mobile construction crane from Shady Grove, Pa., traveled only 15 miles before snow forced them off the highway and into a McDonald’s in Hagerstown, Md. The vehicles aren’t permitted to travel in snow. They planned to spend the night in a motel before resuming their trip. Crider was headed for Oklahoma City and McClain for Corpus Christi, Texas.—AP

NEW YORK: A cyclist waits to cross the street while a winter snow storm hits the region on December 26, 2012 in New York City. — AFP

International FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

NY newspaper’s handgun permit map draws flak NEW YORK: A newspaper’s publication of the names and addresses of handgun permit holders in two New York counties has sparked online discussions - and a healthy dose of outrage. The Journal News, a Gannett Co. newspaper covering three counties in the Hudson Valley north of New York City and operating the website lohud.com, posted a story Sunday detailing a public-records request it filed to obtain the information. The 1,800-word story headlined, “The gun owner next door: What you don’t know about the weapons in your neighborhood,” said the information was sought after the Dec 14 school shooting in Newtown, Conn., about 50 miles northeast of the paper’s headquarters in White Plains. A gunman killed his mother, drove to an elementary school and massacred 20 first-graders and six adults, then shot himself. All the weapons used were legally owned by his mother. The Journal News story includes comments from both sides of the gun-rights debate and presents the data as answering concerns of those who would like to know whether there are guns in their neighborhood. It reports that about 44,000 people in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties are licensed to own a handgun and that rifles and shotguns can be purchased without a permit. It was accompanied online by maps of the results for Westchester and Rockland counties; similar details had not yet been provided by Putnam County. A reader clicking on the maps can see the name and address of each pistol or revolver permit holder. Accompanying text states that inclusion does not necessarily mean that an individual owns a weapon, just who obtained a license. By Wednesday afternoon, the maps had been shared about 30,000 times on Facebook and other social media. Most online comments have criticized the publication of the data, and many suggest it puts the permit holders in danger because criminals have a guide to places they can steal guns. Others maintain it tells criminals who does not have a gun and may be easier to victimize, or where to find law enforcement figures against whom they might hold a grudge. Some responded by publicizing the home addresses and phone numbers of the reporter who wrote the piece, along with other journalists at the paper and even senior executives of Gannett. Many echoed the idea that publicizing gun permit holders’ names is tantamount to accusing them of doing something wrong, comparing the move to publishing lists of registered sex offenders. The Journal News is standing behind the project. It said in the story that it published a similar list in 2006. “Frequently, the work of journalists is not popular. One of our roles is to report publicly available information on timely issues, even when unpopular,” Janet Hasson, president and publisher of The Journal News Media Group, said in an emailed statement. “We knew publication of the database (as well as the accompanying article providing context) would be controversial, but we felt sharing information about gun permits in our area was important in the aftermath of the Newtown shootings.” Roy Clark, a senior scholar at the Poynter Institute, a Florida-based journalism think tank, said publishing the data was “too indiscriminate.” He, too, compared the maps to similar efforts involving sex-offender registries or lists of those arrested for driving under the influence, noting that such a move is usually done to indicate a serious problem that requires a neighbor or parent to maintain vigilance. “You get the connotation that somehow there’s something essentially wrong with this behavior,” he said of the gun permit database. “My predisposition is to support the journalism,” Clark said. “I want to be persuaded that this story or this practice has some higher social purpose, but I can’t find it.” Also common among the comments on the lohud.com were suggestions about suing the paper for violating permit-holders’ privacy rights. Such a move would likely be unsuccessful. — AP

9 slain in Mexico as cartels clash Victim dismembered with machete, bodies dumped CULIACAN: A group of armed men stormed a town in the mountains of the western state of Sinaloa on Christmas Eve and shot nine men to death with assault weapons, then dumped their bodies on a sports field as part of a war between Mexico’s two most powerful cartels, officials said Wednesday. Sinaloa state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez said the town of El Platanar de Los Ontiveros had become part of a dispute between the Sinaloa cartel controlled by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Mexico’s most-wanted man, and remnants of the Beltran-Leyva cartel who have allied themselves with the Zetas, a paramilitary organized-crime group founded by ex-members of the Mexican special forces. “Everything is linked to a dispute for territory and the buying and selling of drugs,” he said. The prosecutor said the nine victims were eating Christmas dinner when gunmen entered the town on foot, surrounded them, and opened fire with assault rifles. They decapitated one victim with a machete and dumped the bodies on field, Higuera Gomez said. He said the

army had set up a checkpoint nearby to hunt for drugs, but the killers had avoided it by entering the town on foot. Another cartel fight is raging to the south, along the border between the state of Jalisco and Michoacan. At least seven people have been killed in the area since Sunday. Officials in both states said Wednesday they could not confirm local media reports of more than a dozen new deaths in clashes in the area. Michoacan authorities did report the slaying of a mother and her three children in the capital, Morelia, which has been mostly spared the worst of the state’s drug violence. Prosecutors said 41-year-old Maria Elena Lopez Bautista and her 19-year-old daughter and 18- and 13-year-old sons appeared to have been tied hand and foot with wire and burned to death inside their home on Monday. Officials did not speculate on the motive for the crime, but the border with Jalisco has been hit by clashes between Michoacan’s dominant Knights Templar cartel, and the New Generation cartel that operates in much of Jalisco. — AP

PIHUAMO: Relatives weep at the funeral of four police officers killed in the last 48 hours in Pihuamo, Jalisco State, Mexico on December 26, 2012. — AFP

Personal picture of Mark Zuckerberg’s family leaked SEATTLE: Even Mark Zuckerberg’s family can get tripped up by Facebook’s privacy settings. A picture that Zuckerberg’s sister posted on her personal Facebook profile was seen by a marketing director, who then posted the picture to Twitter and her more than 40,000 followers Wednesday. That didn’t sit well with Zuckerberg’s sister, Randi, who tweeted at Callie Schweitzer that the picture was meant for friends only and that posting the private picture on Twitter was “way uncool.” Schweitzer replied by saying the picture popped up on her Facebook news feed. The picture shows four people standing around a kitchen staring at their phones with their mouths open while Mark Zuckerberg is in the background. Randi Zuckerberg, who used to run Facebook’s marketing department and now produces a reality television show, eventually said Schweitzer was able to see the picture because they had a mutual friend. Those tweets have since been taken down. Schweitzer declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. Randi Zuckerberg didn’t reply to a message via Twitter seeking comment. Randi Zuckerberg used the dustup to write about online sharing etiquette. “Digital etiquette: always ask permission before posting a friend’s photo publicly. It’s not about privacy settings, it’s about human decency,” she posted on Twitter.

But Randi Zuckerberg’s comments sparked sharp reactions from people who thought the issue wasn’t about etiquette, but rather Facebook’s often changing and often confusing privacy settings. “The thing that bugged me about Randi Zuckerberg’s response is that she used her name as a bludgeoning device. Not everyone has that. She used her position to get it taken it down,” said Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group in San Francisco. While Facebook has made improvements in explaining the social network’s privacy settings, Galperin said they remain confusing to most people. She added that with people using Facebook as part of their everyday lives, the consequences of fumbling privacy settings can become serious. “Even Randi Zuckerberg can get it wrong. That’s an illustration of how confusing they can be,” she said. The Menlo Park, California, company recently announced it is changing its privacy settings with the aim of making it easier for users to navigate them. The fine-tuning will include several revisions that will start rolling out to Facebook’s more than 1 billion users during the next few weeks and continue into early next year. The most visible change - and perhaps the most appreciated - will be a new “privacy shortcuts” section that appears as a tiny lock at the top right of people’s news feeds. —AP

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Luxury firms pin hopes on China

Bankia wipes out 350,000 shareholders

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AZAZ: Syrian youth fill jerrycans with fuel in the northern Syrian town of Azaz. — AFP

Black market thriving in Syria Cars, fuel, cigarettes sold at inflated prices AAZAZ: Endless supplies of cigarettes, a BMW or Mercedes for between $4,000 and $6,000 but fuel at vastly inﬂated prices-the black market is thriving on the Syria-Turkey border. “It is all legal,” insists Abu Ahmad, once a grocer in Syria’s war-ravaged city of Aleppo who is now dealing in motor vehicles in the rebel-held town of Aazaz near the frontier. “The vehicles come from Switzerland, where my brother is a second hand car dealer,” Abu Ahmad says. “They arrive in Syria legally,” he says, along with shipments of blankets, food and medicines for Syrians who have taken refuge from the country’s civil war in camps along the Turkish border. Abu Mohammad Faid, who turns up at Abu Ahmad’s car lot with two cousins, opts for an immaculate black BMW. “Before the war, the only cars we could buy were those manufactured in China, Russia or Korea,” he says. “In peacetime, a car such as this would cost about $15,000, and on top of that we had to pay $1,000 in taxes.” Rebels of the Free Syrian Army also count among Abu Ahmad’s customers. Abu Tareq, captain of the FSA’s Al-Faruq brigade, says he chose “three vehicles to transport our ﬁghters between Idlib and Aleppo (provinces).” Business, however, is far from brisk, admits Abu Ahmad. “Few people come to buy cars. Many do not even have money for food,” he says. “Mostly we sell the cars to

the rebels-and we have to offer them at a special price, otherwise we will have to give the vehicles to them.” Business is distinctly better for Abu Ismail and his brother Hamid, who have set up a fuel depot in an abandoned building. In this region where the winter can be harsh, heating takes priority. “We get diesel and petrol on the black market at Hama and Arraka where there is no shortage,” says Abu Ismail, referring to areas under the control of Syria’s army. “The smugglers buy it from the regime and we sell it at a much higher price. Since the arrival of the cold, people have been using their oil stoves. Our supplies move very quickly,” says the entrepreneur, who before the Syrian conflict erupted 21 months ago was studying Arab literature. A man who gives his name only as Mustafa arrives with his son to buy a small quantity of oil, which today is going at 65 Syrian pounds (95 cents) per liter. “In the past we used diesel but it is now very expensive. We are using oil even if it is not good (for the health) of the children,” says Mustafa. “To die from the cold is much worse.” The conflict, in which an estimated 45,000 people have died and which has sent hundreds of thousands of Syrians fleeing into neighboring countries, has substantially affected the cost of living in rebel-held areas. “Before the war a liter of diesel cost around 20 pounds (28 cents),

but right now it is selling at 200 pounds ($2.81). And petrol, which used to cost 45 pounds (63 cents), is today selling at 250 pounds ($3.52) a liter,” says Abu Ismail. Those who can’t afford to buy fuel “are burning olive branches for heating,” he adds grimly. But many are still willing to pay the higher prices to fend off the biting cold of the winter. “We easily make a profit of $20 per barrel,” of diesel, says Abu Ismail’s brother Hamid. “The cold is very good for business” even if the FSA charges 100 pounds ($1.40) “revolutionary tax” per barrel. Cigarettes, meanwhile, are plentiful, sourced from the Banns Al-Nera sector of the northern city of Aleppo, which has been the theatre of an intense standoff between rebel fighters and regime troops since mid-July, with neither side able to gain the upper hand. “Many people have lost their jobs since the beginning of war and are selling cigarettes,” says Abu Assad, a trader in tobacco products for the past 12 years. “We buy cigarettes in Iraq, we have our suppliers. They are 10 percent cheaper than cigarettes bought in Syria or in Turkey,” he says. But with cash in short supply and many other traders trying to eke out a living in Aazaz, his returns these days amount to little more than three dollars a week-barely enough to provide for his family.— AFP

Burgan Bank issues KD100 million bond KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Burgan Bank said yesterday it had completed a 100 million dinar ($356 million) bond sale, the largest local currency bond issue ever conducted by a company in the country, and would use the funds to strengthen its capital base after buying Eurobank’s Turkish arm Tekfen. The bond issue was “nearly four times oversubscribed”, Salah Al-Fulaij, chief executive of NBK Capital, told a news conference. His company was joint lead manager for the sale along with KAMCO, a unit of Kuwait Projects Co (KIPCO). “Since the onset of the global economic crisis, Kuwait’s bond market has been starved of quality bond offerings, so it is crucial that local banks help to stimulate supply,” Burgan’s chairman Majed Al-Ajeel said in a statement. The 10-year bond is subordinated paper rated BBB+ by Capital Intelligence. It was issued in fixed- and floating-rate tranches; in the first five years, the fixed-rate bonds pay 5.65 percent annually while the floating paper pays 3.90 percentage points over the central bank’s discount rate, capped at 6.65 percent. If Burgan decides not to exercise a call option five years after issuance, the coupon on all tranches increases by 0.25 percentage point. Burgan, which is KIPCO’s commercial banking arm, last went to market in September 2010, raising $400 million with a 10year dollar-denominated bond. Corporate dinar-denominated issuance has dominated bond activity in Kuwait since the end of last year, and analysts see scope for the market to expand. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Gold dips amid US budget talks India’s demand firm as jewelers stock up LONDON: Gold eased yesterday and was in sight of last week’s four-month lows, with investors focused on talks between the White House and Congress to prevent the US economy from plunging into recession next year. Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged the Democratcontrolled Senate to act to pull back from the so-called fiscal cliff and offered to at least consider any bill the upper chamber produced, raising hopes there may be a way through deadlock in Congress. Gold fell $4.58 an ounce to $1,654.91 by 1059 GMT. It has come off a 4-month low of $1,635.09 struck last Thursday, but remains below a record high of around $1,920 hit in September 2011. US gold for February fell 0.3 percent to $1,655.70 an ounce. The United States faces $109 billion in across-the-board spending cuts starting in January unless a deal is reached to either replace or delay them. Democrats want to switch the spending cuts to tax increases for the most part. “If the politicians reach an agreement on the fiscal cliff, the dollar could suffer and there could be more investment into

gold,” said Afshin Nabavi, head of trading at MKS Finance, referring to gold’s behavior as a risk asset similar to shares. He said he expected gold to trade in a range of $1,650-1,670 per ounce in the near term. “Every time we go to the lows near $1,650, there seems to be good buying,” Nabavi said, talking of brisk physical offtake over the past week from China and India, the world’s top two gold consumers. A failure in the fiscal talks could spur safe-haven buying, boosting gold. For the year, bullion is up around 6 percent, on track for a twelfth straight year of gains on rock-bottom interest rates, concerns over the financial stability of the euro zone, and diversification into bullion by central banks. Investors await the release of US weekly jobless claims data due at 1330 GMT after a recent run of positive economic data from the United States. Economists in a Reuters survey forecast a total of 360,000 new filings compared with 361,000 in the prior week. “The better the data the more the fear that monetary easing will ultimately come to an end,” said Credit Suisse analyst Tobias Merath. “Every time there is this fear that monetary eas-

ing may not be continued to the extent that was previously expected there can always be a little bit of selling pressure.” Gold prices have benefited from the ultra-loose monetary policy of leading central banks because of gold’s appeal as a hedge against inflationary fears. Spot gold is expected to drop into a range of $1,397-$1,447 per ounce over the next three months, as indicated by its wave pattern and a Fibonacci retracement analysis, according to Reuters market analyst Wang Tao. In other markets, world shares and the euro edged higher yesterday, while the yen hit a two-year low on the prospect of drastic monetary easing. Gold demand in India, the world’s biggest buyer of the metal, remained strong yesterday as jewelers were restocking for a key festival, though retail demand was weak. Miner Randgold Resources Plc has cut the production forecast for its troubled Ivory Coast gold mine after a fire over Christmas at the project’s mill. Silver was down 0.17 percent to $29.92 an ounce, platinum eased 0.02 percent to $1,532.74 and sister metal palladium firmed 0.28 percent to $691.47 an ounce.— Reuters

Luxury firms pin hopes on China BEIJING: Clad in a black and orange Prada winter coat with a diamond-shaped pattern she snapped up during a trip to Milan, Jennifer Ren embodies China’s nouveau riche. For the 27-year-old exhibition planner, accessories such as Dior handbags, Chanel perfume and necklaces by French jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels are daily fashion essentials. “Luxury goods have become a necessary part of my life,” said Ren, who earns about $960 a month in salary but gets virtually unlimited financial backup from her wealthy mother, a successful businesswoman. “Once you start buying them, it would be hard to step down to lower-end products,” she said. Free-spending Chinese consumers such as Ren have so far proven a blessing to big name labels trying to buck global woes. Sales of personal luxury goods in mainland China surged a spectacular 56 percent last year to $19 billion, after a 35 percent climb in 2010, data from CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets showed. In comparison the world economy grew just 2.7 percent in 2011. The investment group expects China’s luxury market growth to slow in the rest of this decade, but still predicts it to average an impressive 20 percent a year over the period. Chinese consumers are now the world’s biggest buyers of luxury merchandise, according to a report last week by management consultancy McKinsey, while another consulting firm, Bain and Company, found they account for a quarter of all such purchases globally. ROOM FOR OPTIMISM This year growth has been restricted by slowing expansion in the Chinese economy and repressed gift-giving among and between officials and businessmen a key element of building relationships, even at middle and lower levels. The habit remains widespread, but has been affected by mounting scrutiny of corruption and stepped-up government crackdowns, along with political uncertainties linked to the country’s once-a-decade leadership transition. But global luxury brands still see plenty of long-term potential in the world’s second-largest economy, pinning their hopes on China’s rising middle class as Europe slogs through its debt crisis, US growth remains weak and Japan’s economy fails to gain traction. French luxury icon Louis Vuitton launched its first China Maison in July, a four-storey megastore selling jewelry, leather goods, clothing and other products in the commercial hub of Shanghai-its biggest anywhere. In November New York-based Coach unveiled a China-language version of its official Internet store to ride the country’s online shopping wave. PPR, the French owner of brands including Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, announced this month that it had acquired a majority stake in rising Chinese luxury jewelry brand Qeelin for an undisclosed amount. Easing domestic luxury sales this year has prompted warnings that the lightning growth rates of previous years are unlikely to be sustainable given China’s economic slowdown and as the market matures.—AFP

TOKYO: Pedestrians walk past an electronic share price board in Tokyo yesterday. The Nikkei added 0.91 percent, or 92.62 points, to 10,322.98 by the close, finishing above 10,254.43. — AFP

Shares, euro climb US scrambles to avert ‘fiscal cliff’ LONDON: World shares and the euro edged higher yesterday as US lawmakers prepared to resume negotiations to avoid a fiscal crunch, while the yen hit a two-year low on the prospect of drastic monetary easing. President Barack Obama will try to revive budget crisis talks which stalled last week when he returns to Washington yesterday after cutting short his Christmas holiday in Hawaii. In a sign that there may be a way to break the deadlock, Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner urged the Democrat-controlled Senate to act to pull back from the so-called “fiscal cliff” and offered to at least consider any plan the upper chamber produced. European shares were up 0.3 percent and heading back towards last week’s 19-month high at 1300 GMT as trading resumed after the Christmas holiday break. The MSCI global index was also up 0.3 percent ahead of what was expected to be a flat open on Wall Street. Japan’s Nikkei had earlier hit a 21-month high, amid signs the country’s authorities are preparing to ease policy considerably. “The majority view is that a solution will be reached on the ‘fiscal cliff’ in a timely fashion,” said XBZ European equity options broker

Mike Turner. “Most people are taking a neutral stance, as opposed to trying to second-guess the outcome of the US talks,” he said. Economists warn that the “fiscal cliff” of higher taxes and spending cuts worth $600 billion and set to kick in from January, could push the world’s largest economy into recession, dragging other countries with it. Such concerns underpinned the dollar as the fiscal impasse continues to sap investor appetite for risky assets, raising the dollar’s safe-haven appeal. Against the Japanese currency, the dollar at 85.87 yen reached its highest since September 2010, with investors accelerating their yen sales after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said his newly formed government would pursue a bold monetary policy, a flexible fiscal policy and a growth strategy to encourage private investment. The yen has now fallen roughly 10.5 percent versus the dollar in 2012, its biggest annual drop since 2005. At the same time Japan’s benchmark Nikkei is now up 22 percent for the year. “The present yen weakness is related to the new government, which seems devoted to push through both fiscal and monetary policy changes and take direct measures to weaken the yen,” said Richard Falkenhall, currency strategist at SEB in Stockholm. —Reuters

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Toyota, US vehicle owners reach deal Japanese automaker to pay about $1.1 billion TOKYO: Toyota said it had agreed to pay about $1.1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit launched by US vehicle owners affected by a series of mass recalls from the Japanese automaker. Toyota did not accept any blame but agreed to compensate owners who argued that the value of about 16.3 million vehicles took a hit from dozens of deadly accidents allegedly caused by Toyota vehicles speeding out of control in 2009. The deal will cover the cost of installing a free brake override system in about 2.7 million vehicles. It will also provide cash payments to those who sold their vehicles in the wake of the recalls or who own vehicles ineligible for the override system. Toyota shares jumped 2.74 percent to 3,935 yen by the morning break in Tokyo on Thursday, outpacing broader gains in the Japanese market as investors reacted to the settlement which was announced in the US on Wednesday. The huge payout will “sting” Toyota, but it will also allow the Japanese giant to “leave these troubles behind and move forward in the new year”, said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with automotive site Edmunds.com. Once lauded for its safety standards, Toyota has been forced into damage control mode in recent years after recalling millions of vehicles due to a series of serious defects. The firm’s biggest domestic rivals, Nissan and Honda, have also issued huge recalls over their own safety and quality problems. Earlier this year Toyota added two models to the 2009-2010 recalls launched after it was discovered that floor mats were trapping the accelerator pedal. Toyota’s mishandling of the initial problem and other reports of sudden, unintended acceleration led to a US congressional probe, more than $50 million in fines from US regulators and public apologies by its chief. Just two weeks ago, the company agreed to pay a record $17.35 million fine for failing to promptly notify US authorities that the floor mats could also be trapped under the accelerators of 2010 Lexus models. And last month Toyota agreed to pay $25.5 million to settle claims from shareholders who lost money after the automaker’s stock price plummeted in the wake of the recalls. Toyota has

worked hard to regain its reputation for safety, while at the same time fighting off the impact of the economic crisis, a strong yen and the devastating 2011 quake-tsunami disaster. The settlement helps Toyota avoid a lengthy and risky court battle with angry owners who also argued that its technology-not the trapped floor mats was behind the deadly instances of sudden, unintended acceleration. “This was a difficult decision-especially since reliable scientific evidence and multiple independent evaluations have confirmed the safety of Toyota’s electronic throttle control systems,” Christopher Reynolds, Toyota Motor North America’s chief legal officer, said

held between 2008 and 2010 but lost last year after a slump in sales and production largely tied to Japan’s quaketsunami disaster. Japan’s biggest automaker-which has forecast a net profit of 780 billion yen ($9.1 billion) in the fiscal year to March-also said it expects to sell about 9.91 million vehicles in 2013, up two percent on-year. “Toyota’s outstanding performance this year is proof that consumer sentiment for the company’s products has already recovered to a degree as if nothing ever happened,” said Jesse Toprak, an analyst with automotive site TrueCar.com. The settlement, which was filed in a California federal court Wednesday, must still be approved by a judge. It

TOKYO: Japan’s auto giant Toyota Motor president Akio Toyoda speaks before press in Tokyo. Toyota has agreed to pay about $1.1 billion to settle a class action lawsuit launched by US vehicle owners affected by a series of mass recalls. — AFP in a statement. “However, we concluded that turning the page on this legacy legal issue through the positive steps we are taking is in the best interests of the company, our employees, our dealers and, most of all, our customers.” On Wednesday, Toyota forecast a 22 percent jump in worldwide sales this year to 9.7 million units, driven by surging demand that may help it retake the top spot in the global auto market. The figures could put Toyota ahead of General Motors and Volkswagen as the world’s biggest automaker, a title it

includes $250 million for owners who have sold their vehicles, $250 million for owners whose vehicles are ineligible for the brake override system and $30 million for safety research. Toyota will also provide free repairs for certain components linked to the recall. Toyota said it would take a $1.1 billion charge to cover the estimated costs of the settlement and two other cases. A lead attorney for the plaintiffs told the Wall Street Journal that Wednesday’s deal could end up costing Toyota as much as $1.4 billion. — AFP

BMW hits record sales FRANKFURT: German top-of-the-range carmaker BMW sold a record 1.8 million vehicles in 2012, chief financial officer Friedrich Eichiner said in a newspaper interview yesterday. “One of our goals for 2012 was to increase unit sales and achieve a new deliveries record. With 1.8 million vehicles, we’ve done that,” Eichiner told the Die Welt daily. Earlier this month, Eichiner had said that BMW was “on target” for reaching a new sales record following buoyant sales in November. In November, BMW’s worldwide sales rose by about 20 percent to more than 170,000 vehicles. In the 11 months to November, vehicle sales so far this year reached about 1.66 million, an increase of some 10

percent compared with the same period last year. The carmaker’s aim was to lift sales again next year, Eichiner told Die Welt. “The big question is whether the markets will allow it,” he said, cautioning that BMW would see “stagnation at best” in Europe. “The United States, on the other hand, will offer recovery opportunities, with the overall market there projected to grow by 5.0 percent and the premium segment even stronger,” Eichiner said. “In addition, we’ve built up a strong position in medium-sized markets such as Australia, Russia, Korea and Turkey. And these markets are continuing to grow,” he said. — AFP

Japan’s new finance chief hits out at BoJ TOKYO: Japan’s new finance chief hit out at the country’s under-pressure central bank, reports said yesterday, saying it was “slow” in tackling deflation that has plagued the economy for years. The remarks by Taro Aso, a former prime minister, were the latest sharp comments that the Liberal Democratic Party, which won national elections this month, has thrown at the Bank of Japan over its handling of policy matters. The BoJ was “slow in its response to deflation”, Aso said in his inaugural address to finance ministry officials. “Let’s stop the mindset that ‘we didn’t make mistakes’... we have to take measures seriously to end deflation,” he was quoted as saying by Japan’s leading Nikkei business daily and other media. Aso also echoed his new boss Shinzo Abe, sworn in as Japan’s prime minister on Wednesday, in calling for aggressive measures to boost the limp economy. Earlier yesterday, Aso said a planned doubling of Japan’s sales tax to 10 percent by 2015 — pushed through earlier this year by the ousted Democratic Party of Japan-may be put on hold unless Japan’s economy picks up. Japan’s new premier has proposed the BoJ set a two-percent inflation target, and vowed big government spending to jumpstart growth although his prescription for solving Japan’s woes has been met with a mixed response from economists. Last week, the BoJ launched its third round of easing since September after its counterparts in the US and Europe also ushered in huge moves to counter slowing growth. The move was widely seen as a bow to Abe, whose comments have been viewed as a direct challenge to the BoJ’s independence in setting policy. Deflation continues to pose a threat to Japan’s recovery as a fall in prices cuts into corporate profits, leading firms to slash jobs and put off growth-generating capital investment. It also hurts demand because it encourages consumers to put off purchases in the hope of paying less down the road. Aso, 72, served a one-year stint as prime minister until an election loss in 2009. He was foreign minister during Abe’s 2006-2007 tenure as premier in Japan’s revolving-door political system. — AFP

North Korea-China trade nearly triples SEOUL: North Koreaís trade with China has nearly tripled since 2007, data published by South Korea showed yesterday, underlining the isolated stateís deepening dependence on its only major ally. Bilateral trade jumped from $1.97 billion in 2007 to $5.6 billion last year, Statistics Korea said, with North Korean exports accounting for $2.44 billion against imports from China of $3.16 billion. Statistics Korea releases the annual data based on figures from trade and economic organizations at home and abroad. The North does not report economic data. Trade with China as of last year accounted for 70.1 percent of the Northís entire trade of $8.0 billion, up from 41.7 percent in 2007. During the same period, trade with South Koreaóthe Northís second-biggest partnerófell from $1.79 billion to $1.71 billion. Cross-border relations have been on ice since outgoing President Lee Myung-Bak, known for his hawkish stance towards the communist North, took office in 2008. Lee suspended humanitarian aid to the North in 2010 and tied any resumption to progress on resolving the issue of Pyongyangís nuclear program. Inter-Korea commerce, which accounted for 38 percent of the Northís total trade in 2007, was down to 21 percent last year. Apparently fearful of the consequences of North Korea collapsing, China has pumped in fuel and aid to its neighbor for years. The nuclear-armed North is subject to international sanctions imposed after its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, and those may be tightened or expanded following its successful long-range rocket launch earlier this month. Pyongyang said the launch was a purely scientific mission, but most of the world condemned it as a disguised ballistic missile test that violated existing UN resolutions. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Bankia wipes out 350,000 shareholders Shareholder wipeout key step in bank’s revival bid MADRID: Spanish lender Bankia will wipe out 350,000 shareholders, many of them small savers with little knowledge of financial markets, after it emerged it had a negative value of 4.2 billion euros ($5.6 billion). The measure, which will hit shareholders who were encouraged by aggressive marketing tactics to invest in the company, is seen as vital if the nationalized bank is to be refloated. A source close to the Bank of Spain said Bankia would receive 18 billion euros of European money by Friday and launch a capital increase in the first half of January when current shareholders will lose practically their entire investment. Under the European Union plan to prop up Spain’s banking sector, shareholders must be the first in the queue to suffer losses. This has already been the case in Ireland where shareholders in Anglo Irish Bank were left with nothing. “Are we looking into leaving shareholders with something? Yes. How much? That’s too soon to say. Will it be very little? For sure,” said the source on condition of anonymity. “But that will be purely symbolic. I can assure you they will lose up to the shirt on their back.” The source also said the issue was under discussion with the EU authorities and that the final figure

would be known when the capital increase takes place in January. Another source with direct knowledge of the process said the final value of the shares would be close to nothing but that neither the Spanish government nor the bank wanted to send the message that Bankia’s shareholders had lost it all. Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards, some retired people with no in-depth financial knowledge, invested their savings into Bankia shares when the bank was listed in July 2011. Shares have plummeted more than 80 percent since then. Some small savers, lured by aggressive marketing campaigns, also bought high-risk instruments, such as preference shares or subordinated debt, on which they will also suffer steep losses. Enrique Marquez, a 66-year-old retired technician, said he had invested 7,000 euros in shares and more than 70,000 euros in preference shares with Bankia. “The bank manager advised me to buy the shares. He told me it was interesting, that the staff were investing too and that it could be very profitable in the medium term,” he said. “It seems to be to have been managed extraordinarily badly. It is a total cock-up. I’ve been duped on the preference shares and I’ve been duped on

the ordinary shares. It’s been an abuse of trust.” Marquez says his future is more uncertain now because of the money he has lost. The interest payments on the preference shares supplemented his pension but they dried up in May or June. REVIVAL? Shares in Bankia, which was nationalized in May, fell 13 percent yesterday after the state bank rescue fund FROB disclosed it had a negative valuation of 4.2 billion euros while its parent group BFA was worth a negative 10.4 billion euros. Separately, the FROB also announced it would take over 99.9 percent of Banco de Valencia before it is sold to CaixaBank while shareholders in other nationalized lenders NCG Banco and Catalunya Banc will be fully wiped out. In Ireland’s Anglo Irish Bank, shareholders whose equity was once worth 13 billion euro were left with nothing following the bank’s 4-billioneuro recapitalization and immediate nationalization in January 2009. Anglo ultimately needed another 25.3 billion euros of state money, which was funded by a “promissory note” or government IOU that Ireland is now trying to restructure. Spain’s four nationalized lenders will receive in total 37 billion euros of EU

Indian PM calls 8% growth ‘ambitious’ India set to clear IKEA retail plan NEW DELHI: India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh played down hopes yesterday for the once-booming economy’s performance, saying achieving annual eight percent growth to 2017 would be an “ambitious” achievement. Singh’s muted expectations come after the government earlier this month cut its growth forecast to just under six percent for this financial year-putting Asia’s third-largest economy on track for its worst annual showing in a decade. “Achieving a target of eight percent growth, following less than six percent in the first year, is still an ambitious target,” he told state chief ministers meeting in New Delhi to review the government’s 2012-2017 economic plan. Despite moves to liberalize its economy, India still runs on five-year plans based on the former Soviet Union’s central planning model. Much of the world would envy even six percent growth. But the pace is not enough for New Delhi, which says it needs at least nine-to-10 percent expansion to significantly cut poverty and create jobs for a soaring young workforce. This year’s forecast growth would also be far below the near double-digit pace India logged before the onset of the global financial crisis. “The country faces many challenges to achieve sustainable growth,” Singh added. Singh said the biggest obstacles to expansion were dilapidated railways, roads, ports and other infrastructure that creates transport bottlenecks and slows production. “(Improved) infrastructure is the best guarantee for rapid growth,” he said. The ruling Congress party had long wanted to make history as the first government to usher in

JAMMU: Indian children carrying firewood walk through a fog on the outskirts of Jammu, India, yesterday. According to local news reports, dozens of people have died due to the extreme cold conditions in northern India. — AP 10 percent growth. It has been forced to row back in the face of deepening global financial worries and stubborn inflationary pressures. Singh’s scandal-scarred government in the past few months has unleashed a blitz of economic reforms to draw more investment and jump-start growth, before facing voters in polls in 2014 and to avert a threatened credit downgrade. Meanwhile, India is on track to approve a bid by Swedish furniture giant IKEA to open its trademark blue-and-yellow stores in the country as it seeks big new markets for its flat-pack products, a minister said. Last month the Foreign Investment Promotion Board rejected 15 of IKEA’s 30 product lines, underscoring the regulatory hurdles faced by

foreign stores hoping to enter the Indian market. But after complaints from IKEA over the curbs, commerce minister Anand Sharma said late Wednesday that the government has taken a “favorable view” of its request and the process of formal approval is underway. IKEA had told the Indian government the company must be allowed to retain its “global model” in India, retailing all of its products and running its in-store restaurants as it does in every country where it has operations. “We accept their global model,” Sharma said in a statement, adding: “We see no reason why their global model has to be changed in any manner.” The investment panel is due to take up IKEA’s new proposal at a meeting next week.—Agencies

funds. It will also tap another 4.4 billion euros to set up a “bad bank” and recapitalize smaller banks. In return, junior bondholders will take a loss on their holdings, toxic real estate assets will be transferred into a so-called bad bank where they will be held until they can be sold off later and thousands of jobs will be cut. The plan to revive Bankia, a merger of seven former savings banks which invested heavily in the real estate sector during a decadelong boom which ended abruptly in 2007, also foresees a reduction of more of 60 percent of its balance sheet over the next five years as well as asset sales. Both the shareholder wipeout and the downsizing are key in the revival strategy of the bank. The lender, which accounts for around 10 percent of Spain’s banking market, is too big to be sold to a bigger rival, bankers say. “The large Spanish banks would struggle to take on something of that size,” said one Madrid-based investment banker, on condition of anonymity. One possibility could be selling the bank to a foreign lender, maybe in 2017, bankers said. Around 10 percent of a stabilized market, flush with rescue cash and stripped of toxic real estate assets, may be an attractive investment proposition for a foreign bank, they said. —Reuters

Oil slips below $111 LONDON: Brent crude oil slipped below $111 a barrel yesterday as nervous investors watched talks to avert a US budget crisis that could push the world’s biggest economy back into recession. US President Barack Obama cut short his Christmas holiday to try to agree a deal with Republican lawmakers to avert the so-called “fiscal cliff” billions of dollars of tax hikes and spending cuts due to take effect next week. Economists say any deal is likely to involve big cuts in the government budget and a reduction in consumer spending power, which would be expected to dampen demand in the world’s largest oil market. But almost any deal would be better than none. “While markets have vacillated between optimism and pessimism over the prospects for a compromise, we expect a deal only at the last minute, with lots of decisions delayed into the New Year and austerity of roughly 2 percent of GDP,” Bank of America-Merril Lynch analysts said in a report. Brent was down 37 cents to $110.70 per barrel by 0845 GMT, after gaining 2 percent in the previous session. US crude gained 10 cents to $91.08, after rising to a nineweek high on Wednesday. Oil rose in Asian trade, following Japanese stocks, which hit an 18-month high after the country’s new prime minister said beating deflation and weakening the yen were his top priorities. Japan’s government will pursue bold monetary policy, flexible fiscal policy and a growth strategy to encourage private investment, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said. Worries over supplies from the Middle East revived after security forces in the United Arab Emirates arrested a cell of UAE and Saudi Arabian citizens which they said was planning to carry out militant attacks in both countries and other states. The region holds some of the world’s largest oil fields and unrest in the area often triggers supply concerns. Also supporting prices were expectations that US crude stockpiles may have decreased last week as refiners kept inventories low for year-end tax purposes. Crude stocks may have dropped by 1.9 million barrels in the week ended Dec 21, a Reuters poll showed on Wednesday. Inventory data from the American Petroleum Institute will be released yesterday, while numbers from the Energy Information Administration will be out today, a day later than usual, because of the Christmas holiday. — Reuters

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 FASCINATING STORY OF THE 99 Baghdad lies in ruins, destroyed by the marauding armies of Hulagu Khan. The brave librarians of the great Dar Al-Hikma rush to save the glory of the ancient world’s

www.the99.org

accumulated wisdom, little knowing that centuries later their efforts will bear strange fruit. While the Noor Stones were created to save the library, their power has transcended that task and in our own time has provided extraordinary abilities to an international

group of young people, the world’s newest superheroes known as… The 99.

Analysis FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Nonprofit tech innovators inspire new philanthropy By Brett Zongker

cott Harrison knows his charity has funded nearly 7,000 clean water projects in some of the poorest areas of the world in the past six years. How many of those wells are still flowing with drinking water months or years later, though? That’s a tough question to answer. His organization called Charity: Water has funded projects in 20 different countries. It’s committed to spend 100 percent of each donation in the field to help reach some of the 800 million people who don’t have clean water and resort to drinking from swamps, unhealthy ponds or polluted rivers. Organizers send donors photos and GPS coordinates for each water project they pay for. Still, Harrison, a former New York promoter for nightclubs and fashion events, didn’t want to guess at how many water projects were actually working. He wanted to give donors more assurance, knowing as many as a third of hand pumps built by various governments or groups stop functioning later. His solution: why not create sensors to monitor the water flow at each well? But raising millions for a new innovation could prove impossible. Few funders want to pay for a nonprofit’s technical infrastructure or take the risk of funding a dreamy idea. They’d rather pay for real work on the ground. This month, Google stepped in with major funding to create and install sensors on 4,000 wells across Africa by 2015 that will send back real-time data on the water flow at each site. The $5 million grant could be a game changer for Charity: Water to ensure its projects are sustainable, to raise money for maintenance and to empower developing countries to maintain their infrastructure with new data. “You could imagine a water minister salivating over this technology, even a president of a country being able to hold his water ministers in different districts accountable, saying, ‘Hey, look, I want a dashboard in my office where I can see how my small, rural water projects are performing,’” Harrison said. The grant is part of the first class of Google’s Global Impact Awards totaling $23 million to spur innovation among nonprofits. Experts say the new annual grants are a part of a growing trend in venture philanthropy from funders who see technology as an instrument for social change. Such donors say they can have a bigger impact funding nonprofits that find ways to multiply their efforts through technology. The gifts also represent a shift in the tech company’s approach to philanthropy. Google’s Director of Charitable Giving Jacquelline Fuller said the company analyzed its giving, including $115 million in grants last year. It decided it could have a greater impact by funding nonprofit tech innovation, rather than specific issue areas or existing projects. Its grants will come with volunteer consulting on each project from Google engineers or specialists. “We’re really looking for the transformational impact” from clever uses of technolo-

gy, Fuller said. But that sometimes involves risk that new technologies and innovations may not work. “Informed risk is something Google understands,” she said. “There’s actually very few dollars available that’s truly risk capital, lenders willing to take informed risk to help back some of these new technologies and innovations that may not pan out.” The largest source of funding for US nonproﬁts is government, mostly through contracts that come with strings attached.

That project could give six developing countries DNA testing materials with fast results to use as evidence to prosecute smugglers. To fuel future innovation, Google is giving Donorschoose.org $5 million to create 500 new Advanced Placement courses in math, science and technology for US schools that are committed to enrolling girls and minority students. The charity GiveDirectly will receive $2.4 million to expand its model of direct mobile cash

Omidyar Network founded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. Since 2004, the group has given out $310 million in grants to nonproﬁts, including the Sunlight Foundation and DonorsChoose. Seeking out ideas to fund, rather than existing projects, turns traditional notions of philanthropy on its head, Bannick said. “Rather than looking for organizations that could do this speciﬁc work that we’re hoping to get accomplished, let’s look for fabulous entrepreneurs ... that have a new and

In this undated image provided by Charity, Water, Scott Harrison talks with school children as he visits a school water project in India. — AP Individual donors contribute significant support to charities as well, and the nation’s foundations give about 14 percent of overall philanthropy to nonprofits. “There is sort of a new breed of philanthropists coming into the field,” including many who made money in the tech sector at a young age, said Bradford Smith, president of the Foundation Center, an information clearinghouse on nonprofits. “There I think you’re seeing a really interesting sort of confluence of almost kind of a venture, risktaking approach and technology as an instrument for social change.” Google zeroed in on projects that could develop new technology to scale up smaller projects targeting the environment, poverty, education and gender issues. It’s giving $5 million to the World Wildlife Fund to develop high-tech sensors for wildlife tagging to detect and deter poaching of endangered species. Another $3 million is going to a project at the Smithsonian Institution to develop DNA barcoding as a tool to stop illegal trading of endangered plants or animals smuggled across borders.

transfers to poor families in Kenya as a new method for lifting people out of poverty. A charity run by actress Geena Davis that studies gender portrayals in the media will use a $1.2 million Google grant to develop new automated software that analyzes how females are portrayed in children’s media worldwide, speeding up a previously manual process. “It was looking prohibitively expensive to do a global study,” Davis said, adding that developing new technology seemed like a far-flung wish. “It seems so science future that we weren’t really raising money to do it.” While the grant may be a relatively small investment for a major tech company, it represents one of the largest gifts ever for the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. Innovation and technology among nonprofits have long been underfunded with traditional funders often feeling averse to risk and more often seeking to fund specific types of existing programs. Momentum has been building for the past decade for funders pursuing venture philanthropy, said Matt Bannick, managing partner of the

innovative idea that we can get behind,” he said. Silicon Valley philanthropists are fueling some growth in funding for nonproﬁt innovators, but some older foundations also have turned to funding innovation and nonproﬁt entrepreneurs. The John S and James L Knight Foundation in Miami, born from a newspaper chain, has turned its focus to media innovation. The Alfred P Sloan Foundation, founded in 1934 by a General Motors chief, focuses on science and technology to drive the nation’s prosperity. Sloan was an early funder of the Smithsonian’s DNA barcoding project. Such funders are betting that early seed money can have a big impact with the right ideas and entrepreneurs. “If there was more funding,” Bannick said, “there would be a lot more great ideas that could emerge.” —AP

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012 www.kuwaittimes.net

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II smiles as she holds flowers she was given after attending the British royal family's traditional Christmas Day church service in Sandringham, England â&#x20AC;&#x201D;AP

FOOD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Lucky little bites

New Year’s dishes become fortune-packed appetizers

SUSHI ROLLS ong noodles are associated with long life and good health,” says Hiroko Shimbo, author of “Hiroko’s American Kitchen” (Andrews McMeel, $24.99). Here she turns soba noodles into sushi rolls. Pair with your favorite cold dipping sauce. Slice 1 medium mango, half an avocado and 1 peeled Kirby or pickling cucumber into 1 by3-inch sticks. Slice 3 ounces smoked salmon into 1-inch-wide strips. Divide 9 ounces soba noodles into 4 portions; bind one end of each together with a rubber band. Cook the noodles in a large pot of boiling water per package instructions. Drain; leave rubber bands on. Rinse noodles well under cold water; drain. Pat dry with a paper towel. Lay a bamboo sushi rolling mat on your work surface; ready 4 sheets nori seaweed. Position 1 nori sheet on the mat with one edge flush with the mat edge nearest you. Place 1 bundle cooked noodles at the nori’s near edge, with the tied end protruding from the right side. Cut off the tied end; discard. Spread the noodles to cover two-thirds of the nori sheet, leaving the top exposed. Place 2 avocado sticks, 3 each of the mango and cucumber sticks, and one-quarter of the salmon across the edge nearest you. Roll nori tightly around noodles. Make three more rolls; cut each into 8 pieces. Makes: 32 pieces

“L

ZESTY BLACK-EYED PEA SALSA he Southern tradition of eating blackeyed peas - or any field peas for that matter - for good luck often shows up in the pea-and-rice hoppin’ John. Here the legumes become a salsa-styled appetizer from Sheri Castle’s “The New Southern Garden Cookbook.” Serve with tortilla chips, or with saltines as they do in Texas, where it’s sometimes called Texas caviar. Place 2 cups frozen black-eyed peas in a large saucepan. Add cold water to cover by 2 inches and a pinch of salt; heat to a boil. Skim off foam, reduce heat and simmer until tender, about 25 minutes. Drain; transfer to a mixing bowl. (You may also use canned blackeyed peas, drained and rinsed.) Stir in1 cup vegetable oil, 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon hot sauce, 1 teaspoon kosher salt and 1 teaspoon each ground black pepper and ground cumin; let beans cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally. Stir in 1cup fire-roasted diced tomatoes, drained; 1 cup corn kernels; 1 cup diced red bell pepper; 1\2 cup finely chopped onion; 1\2 cup finely chopped flat-leaf parsley; 1 to 2 pickled or fresh jalapenos, finely chopped; and 2 tablespoons chopped fresh or canned mild green chilies. Cover; refrigerate at least 4 hours or overnight. To serve, stir well and check seasoning. Makes: 2 cups. — MCT

Waffle iron updates treat for winter break

ou’ve distributed the presents and recycled the paper. Now it’s time to enjoy the real gift of the season: spending time with the people you love. In order to unite the tiny tots of your home, we found the perfect recipe for the waning winter break. It’s exciting for eager elves, relaxed for newly emancipated Santas and healthy for those who’ve been naughty. Meet the PBRB, a quick, nutritious and delicious pressed sandwich that blogger and author Catherine McCord dreamed up while glancing at her appliances one day. “We have all of this equipment in our kitchens, and (it’s) used for just one thing. We have rice cookers for rice and a waffle iron for waffles, but I’m always looking to make that equipment stretch,” says McCord, who includes the recipe in her new cookbook “Weelicious: One Family, One Meal” (William Morrow, $27.50). With the PBRB, McCord uses a waffle iron in lieu of a panini press. She unites fresh raspberries, bananas and nut butter between two slices of sandwich bread into a morsel that begs to be warmed by a press of the simple (and big kid-friendly) machine. Let the little kids prepare the filling for these sandwiches by mashing together raspberries and banana. Once this mixture is heated, McCord says, it becomes a simple jam. “Instead of uber-sugary preserves and jelly, it’s naturally sweet,” she says. “You’re getting the fiber from the raspberries, and all sorts of vitamins.” McCord says that involving your children in the cooking can stave off picky eating by giving them control of their food.

When they smash the “bright red raspberries with the yellow banana,” they watch the color, texture and flavor change. For a savory bite, McCord swaps olive tapenade and cream cheese for the fruit filling. She also likes to riff on grilled cheese adding avocado and tomato. PBRB ‘WAFFLE’ SAMMIES Prep: 10 minutes Cook: 5 minutes per sandwich Makes: 4 servings From “Weelicious,” by Catherine McCord. For a crisper crust, butter the outside of the bread slices before cooking in the waffle iron. 1 ripe banana 1 cup fresh raspberries 8 slices whole wheat bread 1 cup peanut, almond or sunflower butter Heat the waffle iron. Place the banana and raspberries in a bowl; mash with a fork. Spread 2 tablespoons of the banana-raspberry mixture on 1 bread slice. Spread 2 tablespoons nut butter on a second bread slice; press together to make a sandwich. Repeat to make the rest of the sandwiches. Cook each sammie in the waffle iron until golden, 3-5 minutes. Cool; serve. Nutrition information per serving: 421 calories, 19 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 55 g carbohydrates, 18 g protein, 547 mg sodium, 9 g fiber. — MCT

FOOD FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

‘A-maize balls’

Popcorn an original

US snack food

By Wendell Brock

opcorn is one of America’s great snack foods. Delicious, aromatic and noisy, it is the perfect nosh for popping into the mouth, mindlessly, while watching Hollywood fluff, sporting events and circus clowns. “Popcorn,” writes food historian Betty Fussell in her book, “The Story of Corn,” “is a truly indigenous fast finger-food that links all ages, places, races, classes and kinds in the continuing circus of American life.” Moreover, Fussell says, popcorn is the “oldest known corn in the world.” When heated, the moisture inside the tightfisted little grains expands, turning the kernel inside out - and into something, light, white, fluffy and magical. If you only pop corn in the microwave, you are missing out on a one-of-a-kind sensory experience - pure, elemental, fun. You need nothing more than a few tablespoons of oil, a half-cup or so of popping corn and a heavybottomed pot with a lid. First the oil sizzles. Then there’s the surprise of the first few kernels exploding. Then the sound of the full-out pop-POP!-popping. Then the muffled thud as the corn virtually inches its way up the side of the vessel. Tell me you don’t pop a few pieces of the fluffed maize into your mouth before you can reach for the salt shaker, and I’ll say there’s not a kernel of truth in your mouth! Of course, like so many homespun treats, from boiled peanuts to deviled eggs, popcorn in recent years has gotten all gourmet. Truffle oil and rosemary. White cheddar and Parmesan. Chili and lime. Talk about a-maize balls. Truex favors dark-brown cane syrup Steen’s 100 percent Pure Cane Syrup, if you can find it -but you can make your popcorn balls with maple or corn syrup. For a total Cracker Jack experience, add peanuts.

decide to dress your popcorn, I suggest you forget the microwave and try it the old-fashioned way. If you can find an iron skillet with a lid, that’s perfect. I use a heavy-bottom stockpot, shaking it around and holding it just above the flame to keep the popcorn from charring. And when I do, it reminds me of the days before the microwave and before those ‘70s popcorn

(Cashews and pecans are good, too.) While experimenting with corny snacks, I heard The Branded Butcher in Athens, Ga, is serving fried hominy with salt and vinegar. Though it’s not technically popcorn, I’d say these corn nuts are a kissing cousin of popcorn. The kernels don’t turn inside out, but they do puff up when fried. Plus, they are crunchy and wicked good. Fishing around on the Internet, I found a New York Times recipe for Fried Hominy that suggests sprinkling the corn with a chili-spice mixture and serving with lime wedges. This fried hominy is really good with kosher salt and malt vinegar, too. However you

poppers with the little heating coil in the base, when my mother used to frenetically shake up a bowl of popcorn on top of the stove. Sprinkled with salt and tossed with butter, there’s nothing like it in the world. Pop along now. Try the accompanying recipes for NuttyCheese Corn (with pistachios, cashews, Parmesan and lemon zest), Gladys’ Popcorn Balls and Fried Hominy. — MCT

Books FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Utopia materialized in 2 States

Book review

Which caste, color and career will the new Indian generation have is the question the novel puts forward. The answer is not mixed marriages and new breed, but love that goes beyond borders. By Sunil Cherian

eel good novels do not come as rightly proportioned as Chetan Bhagat’s ‘autobiographical’ novel 2 States: The Story of My Marriage. Right from the dedication to his in-laws, Chetan shows off his skills as a crafty storyteller who knows his target audience - career oriented, intelligent middle-class youth - well. That talent is not to be looked down upon - like the Punjabis do at the ‘Madrasis’ in the novel of love transcending and conquering North-South differences and dichotomies. Chetan’s immense talent to laugh at himself and the people he is surrounded with give the 270-page, Rupa published novel worth the buy. For the customers, er.., readers, it’s a smile-on-the-lips page turner. And for the market, the best-seller, Chetan’s fourth in a row, is sure to wake the reading habit from the slumber of the time. Family drama The ex-military father of the protagonist, assume it as the author’s alter ego, does not talk to his kin and treats his wife and only son as sepoys. The angry young protagonist slaps his abusive father is drama enough to create generation gap almost impossible to be bridged. The Punjabi boy’s girlfriend is a conservative Tam Brahm (Tamil Brahmin) with a father who does not smile even in wedding photos. The drama gets tensed as the two families are staged to meet only to wage war on ‘we are not less welloff than you’ ego plays. Chetan’s trick here is not to burden readers with unnecessary tensions, but present the war as street fights where readers are educated and cultured onlookers. The as-if humor Tamil film posters tell one (northerner) think even his uncles can be stars, observes the first person narrator when he lands in Chennai to woo his Citi Bank career and

coo with his ladybird who is posted as a marketing manager after their IIM days. The intelligent beauty was once clad as if to go for a walk in Afghanistan. The southerners hear the word girlfriend as if the man has contracted AIDS. Chetan does the safe analogy dexterity over and over and also uses metaphors like some Indian husbands are TVs responding to their remote control wife. But chetan’s satire is best when he looks at his own culture and customs from

Corporatocracy A world ruled and ruined by business, investment, marketing and the like has found an amazing place in the otherwise take-it-easy novel. Lying comes without guilt and blaming some else for faults and taking credits for achievements also is easy. In job interviews, the novel seems to say, what is most counted is ﬂattery. My favorite line is on developing customer relationships: ‘I was the endangered

Forgoing divisions come easy as Chetan Bhagat fuses a north-south curry of a novel an outsider’s view. ‘Nothing soothes an upset Punjabi like dairy products ‘, goes one line. The middle-class infatuation with cars, jewelry and pomp are ridiculed as if Indian writing in English has not exploited this enough. Cultural day and nights Pot belly, lungi, Carnatic music and masala food are the most ‘abused’ areas by the novelist on South India. ‘Tamil names are too long for addresses’. Boastfulness, rich food, fairness are the north Indian vices. ‘Former Miss Chandigargh has now put on weight that she is three finalists put together.’ The most eligible spinster in the Punjabi town has done some hi-fi computer course mastering Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and e-mail. Madness for jewelry is a pan Indian evil. ‘She had bangles like hand cuffs’. The studious youth, though they are more from the south, opt for WPM companies - Whoever Pays More, that is. For the conservative southerners, ‘fun comes with guilt’.

species in the priority-banking zoo that customers could come throw bananas at.’ Love without borders The novel’s ultimate theme is love that stands the tests of climates, caste, color, credentials and various other cacophonies. National integration is too big a word for a novel like this, written more as a box oﬃce script or as a product that ensures sure sell. Leaving critical remarks such as why a conservative Brahmin family would let an outsider a frequenter at their home or how come the author, despite being all-knowing, knows the details of what someone is reading in the newspaper, the novel leaves you fulﬁlled as if you had a pan Indian food.

Health FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Knowledge is power Get the lowdown on diabetes and how to change your lifestyle

eople with type 2 diabetes often do not have any symptoms. When symptoms do occur, they are often ignored because they may not seem serious. Symptoms in type 1 diabetes usually come on much more suddenly and are often severe.

right for you-and that you can understand. You may also need other health care providers on your diabetes treatment team, including a podiatrist, nutritionist, eye doctor, and a diabetes specialist (endocrinologist). Treatment for both forms of diabetes requires keeping close watch over your blood

especially insulin. Diabetes drugs If you have type 1 diabetes, your pancreas no longer produces the insulin your body needs to use blood sugar for energy. You will need insulin therapy in the form of injections or through use of a continuous pump.

Common symptoms of diabetes include: Excessive thirst and appetite; increased urination (sometimes as often as every hour); unusual weight loss or gain; fatigue; nausea, perhaps vomiting; blurred vision; dry mouth; and slow-healing sores or cuts.

Understanding diabetes-Diagnosis and treatment Nutrition and meal timing for diabetes Maintaining a balanced diet is vital for people who have either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, so work with your doctor or dietitian to set up a menu plan. If you have type 1 diabetes, the timing of your insulin dosage is determined by activity and diet. When you eat and how much you eat are just as important as what you eat. Usually, doctors recommend three small meals and three to four snacks every day to maintain the proper balance between sugar and insulin in the blood. A healthy balance of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in your diet will help keep your blood glucose on target. How much of each will depend on many factors, including your weight and your personal preferences. Watching your carbohydrates-knowing how much you need and how many you are eating-is key to blood sugar control . If you are overweight, either a low-carbohydrate, lowfat/low calorie, or Mediterranean diet may help you get your weight to goal. No more than 7 percent of your diet should come from saturated fat, and you should try to avoid trans fats altogether.

Call your doctor about diabetes if: You feel nauseated, weak, and excessively thirsty; are urinating very frequently; have abdominal pain. You are breathing more deeply and rapidly than normal-perhaps with sweet breath that smells like nail polish remover-you need immediate medical attention for ketoacidosisa potentially deadly complication of type 1 diabetes. If you are having weakness or fainting spells; are experiencing a rapid heartbeat, trembling, and excessive sweating; and feel irritable, hungry, or suddenly drowsy. You could be developing hypoglycemia-low blood sugar that can occur with diabetes treatment. Follow your treatment plan for what to do if you develop hypoglycemia. How do I know I have diabetes? Your doctor may suspect you have diabetes if you have risk factors for diabetes, or if a routine history or physical exam points to elevated levels of blood glucose, which will show up in your urine. Your blood sugar or glucose levels may be elevated if your pancreas is producing little or no insulin (type 1 diabetes), or if the body is not responding normally to insulin (type 2 diabetes). Actual diagnosis begins with one of three tests: A fasting glucose test is a test of your blood sugar levels taken in the morning before you have eaten. A level of 126 mg/dL or higher may mean that you have diabetes. An oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) entails drinking a beverage containing glucose and then having your blood glucose levels checked every thirty to sixty minutes for up to three hours. If the glucose level is 200 mg/dL or higher at two hours, then you might have diabetes. The A1C test is a simple blood test that reflects what your average blood sugar levels have been over the past 3 months. An A1C level of 6.5 percent or higher may indicate diabetes. In most cases, your doctor will want to repeat a test that is high in order to confirm the diagnosis. What is the treatment for diabetes? Diabetes is a serious disease that you cannot treat on your own. Your doctor will help you develop a diabetes treatment plan that is

administers insulin on a set basis. You and your doctor program the pump to deliver a certain amount of insulin throughout the day (the basal dose). In addition, you program the pump to deliver a certain amount of insulin based on your blood sugar level before you eat (bolus dose).

sugar levels (and keeping them at a goal set by your doctor) with a combination of medications, exercise, and diet. By paying close attention to what and when you eat, you can minimize or avoid the “seesaw effect” of rapidly changing blood sugar levels, which can require quick changes in medication dosages,

Learning to give injections to yourself or to your infant or child may at first seem the most daunting part of managing diabetes, but it is much easier that you think and the process quickly becomes routine. Some people with diabetes use a computerized pump - called an insulin pump - that

Exercise for diabetes Another crucial element in a treatment program for diabetes is exercise. With either type of diabetes, check with your doctor before starting an exercise program. Exercise improves your body’s use of insulin and may lower blood sugar levels. To prevent your blood sugar from falling to dangerously low levels, check your blood sugar and, if necessary, eat a carbohydrate snack approximately half an hour before exercising. If you start to feel symptoms of low blood sugar (called hypoglycemia), stop exercising and have a carbohydrate snack or drink. Wait 15 minutes and check again. Have another snack again if it is still too low. Exercise helps some people with type 2 diabetes lower their blood glucose levels and may help prevent the disease in those at risk. For people with either type of diabetes, exercise can decrease the chance of having a heart attack or stroke and can improve circulation. It may offer stress relief as well. People with type 2 diabetes who need to lose weight can benefit from moderate exercise. Most people with diabetes are encouraged to get at least 150 minutes each week of moderateintensity aerobic physical activity, like walking. Strength training is often recommended at least twice a week. Talk to your doctor about what type of exercise is right for you. www.diabetes.webmd.com

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Mass Effect 3 is largely impenetrable to newcomers By Tom Higgins

spent a lot of time on the Citadel in Mass Effect 3. The political heart of the galaxy has become the last refuge of peace in a time of war. Soldiers on shore-leave drink and dance in the giant space-station’s nightclub, Purgatory, forgetting the fight under neon lights. If only for a moment. Worried families pack the embassies, asking after their loved ones while councillors’ of the galaxy’s most powerful species plan the war from their ivory tower. Chatter in the local hospital turns to dwindling supplies and volume of casualties. A docking bay is turned into a makeshift refugee camp, survivors of planets lost cramming into supply containers. It’s in its quietest moments that Mass Effect 3’s war is most keenly felt. Synthetic beings called the Reapers are trawling the Milky Way, studiously wiping out or harvesting every organic civilisation in the galaxy. You are Commander Shepard, tasked with uniting these threatened species in order to fight back. While most video games task you with saving the world, it’s rare that a developer takes such care in building a world worth saving. The Citadel is the apotheosis of BioWare’s careful construction. This, it says, is what you’re fighting for. Of course, this is a construction five years in the making. While Mass Effect’s RPG shell has been streamlined as the trilogy hurtles towards its conclusion, favouring action and accessibility, Mass Effect 3 is first and foremost a glorious payoff for those that have been with the series from the beginning, carrying their save game across each entry. The path your Shepard walks is the same as everyone’s else, but the sights you see and the decisions you make are wholly your own. Mass Effect 3’s greatest achievement is in respecting those decisions, taking the emotional investment you have built in its characters and worlds over half a decade and ensuring it isn’t wasted. The flip-side is that, despite marketing bluster, Mass Effect 3 is largely impenetrable to newcomers. BioWare, rightly keen to make their final push, leave little time to explain things before the Reapers attack Earth, sending Shepard on his (or her) quest to unite the galaxy. That does call into question the necessity of moving Mass Effect away from its RPG heritage towards dedicated third-person shooter territory, but the fact is that Mass Effect’s form matches its narrative trajectory. This is a war, after all, so there’s a lot of shooting to be done. Thankfully, Mass Effect 3’s gunplay is the best in the trilogy. Shepard and his team move with greater fluidity, while the weapons pack an extra punch, resulting in gratifying feedback as you tear through Reaper forces. It’s taken a few pages out of the Gears of War playbook, certainly, filling the holes in Shepard’s arsenal with a strong melee attack and grenades. It’s solid and satisfying, enhanced by Mass Effect’s own twist of class-based special abilities. It’s important that your squad of three has an eclectic spread of powers-technical, ballistic and biotic (read: magic)— to deal with enemy variants that require different types of attack to kill. The combat is solid and satisfying, though doesn’t match the finest in class. Cover can be erratic, occasionally sticking you to the wrong side of the wall or throwing you into a combat roll straight into enemy fire. Basic mission design, too, isn’t as well-orchestrated as it could be, leaning too heavily on overwhelming force to up the difficulty, rather than challenge you with elegant tactics. While at times the combat can feel too attritional, there are moments that this bluntness works terrifically. Battles can be fatiguing, but the relief of surviving against the odds is palpable, particularly later in the game. The environments are spectacular theatres of war too. Shepard will often alight on an occupied planet, glorious skyboxes depicting a conflict that stretches far beyond the confines of your own battle. Gigantic reapers stomping through infantry and buildings, red and blue laser fire cutting through the sky, explosions decimating entire areas of a planet. It’s smoke and mirrors, essentially, your own mission maps are neatly disguised corridors. However, it’s hard to underestimate the sense of place and chaos conveyed by BioWare’s newfound confidence in its visual language. BioWare seems notably more comfortable in every aspect of its vision, in fact. While the overall tone of the game is bleak, enhanced by a darkened colour palette, there’s a playful streak that the first two games po-faced approach could

have used. A handful of missions eschew the usual combat fare, adding a welcome variety, while the script is peppered with humour and a lighter touch. It’s a game written from the heart, rather than the head, which makes it very easy to forgive the odd bit of clunk or mawkishness amid the otherwise excellent script. The narrative successfully carries the gravitas of the blockbuster trilogy Mass Effect has strived to become. There’s a definite sense of urgency to the plot, helped along by the fact that even the most incidental of side missions feel integral to the war effort. Snippets of conversation overheard on the Citadel are added to your journal for investigation, dumped into one clumsy big list. While the intention to give

Shepard better than most games manage. And the emotional payoff is well earned. In addition to the huge single-player, the controversial multiplayer is a surprisingly good addition to the package. A four-player class-based co-op mode, the multiplayer tasks players with holding strategic war locations that Shepard secures in the main campaign. A pleasing handshake that gives the multiplayer a narrative beat in such a narrative-focussed game. While the mode may be too slight to offer long-term investment, the opportunity to play as different species across a strong selection of co-op maps is most welcome, even if it’s sullied by micro-transactions offering access to new gear. The missions are tough and a lot

equal priority to everyone’s concerns is admirable, it would have been nice to manage your quests a little easier. It also appears that with so many active quests at one time, the game occasionally struggles to keep up, with some conversations failing to activate at the correct time. It’s these small acts of kindness, however, that help to deliver such a complete story. While the core plot is strong, delivering emotional gut punches with startling regularity, it’s the incidental detail and characters that invest you so heavily in the ﬁght. As you stroll around the Citadel, you’re left in no doubt that Shepard is the hero, with everyone recognising the potential saviour of the galaxy. It’s hugely empowering, but only because you’re made to feel part of something greater. Shepard is the tip of the spear, but the force behind him stretches far and wide. BioWare do a stellar job of making sure you realise that at every turn. It’s the best kind of role-playing, and while the gameplay elements of that genre are restricted to armour perks and simple skill trees, Mass Eﬀect has a way of projecting you onto your

of fun, though, offering a Mass Effect flavoured twist on Gears of War’s horde mode. Success in multiplayer also greases the wheels in the campaign, allowing Shepard to build his forces quicker, though it isn’t mandatory to achieve the ‘best’ ending. BioWare, then, have managed to pull everything together for a terrific finale to their ambitious trilogy. While the individual parts of Mass Effect 3 aren’t perfect, the whole is a remarkable achievement. It’s an adage that’s true of the entire series. Each game has its flaws and do not escape criticism as standalone titles. But the commitment to the longgame reaps its own rewards for BioWare, with five years of dedication from creators and players alike coming together for a suitably heart-wrenching end to arguably the finest video game series of this generation. www.telegraph.co.uk

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

From socks to storytelling, simple crafts can sweep away kids’ holiday doldrums Photo shows Sarah Goldschadt’s Paper Bird Mobile, whose template can be used to make several paper crafts and others made of felt. — AP photos

It’s inevitable during the holiday season: Kids get bored. But the doldrums are just the thing for unleashing children’s creativity. Give them a few ideas and supplies, and step out of the way. Here, three crafts authors offer ideas for turning the blahs into hurrahs. Socks Brenna Maloney, a Washington, DC, mother of two, is the author of three sock-project books, including the new “Sock It To Me” (Stash Books, 2012). She turned to sewing with stretchy socks five years ago to offset job stress. Replicating a favourite sock bunny that her mother had made her when she was a girl, Maloney then turned to crafting snakes, mice, sea creatures - and, more recently, evil clowns and snowman assassins. Some of her biggest fans are pre-teens, who pose new project ideas and ask for help. “I work with (the kids) and bring them in on it,” says Maloney, now an editor at “National Geographic Explorer” magazine. For kids who know how to use a sewing machine or would like to learn, Maloney suggests starting with a snake, turtle or starfish; the snake project is posted at Maloney’s website, www.brennamaloney.com . “Think about the sock and how it’s shaped . turn it and twist it,” Maloney says. She uses a sock’s pattern, plus stuffing and embellishments to turn it into a creature. Stories Emily K Neuburger’s crafting projects evolve around storytelling. A former teacher, she offers art and writing classes for children out of her Amherst, Mass, home. The projects in her book “Show Me a Story” (Storey Publishing, 2012) and at her website, www.redbirdcrafts.com , encourage kids to play and experiment. She advises parents to leave out interesting, new supplies, such as pinecones and paint, for children to explore. Help them “begin that process of imagining new worlds and telling stories,” she says. For the holidays, Neuburger suggests that kids can share a personal memory or retell the Christmas story using memory cards or story stones. Pictures from the story are glued to cardboard surfaces or small stones. Neuburger uses colored paper and fabric scraps to make simple images. “Learning to know what to include in a story and what to leave out is an important storytelling skill,” Neuburger says in her book. She also recommends making a story grab bag: Allow kids to search through magazines, maps and catalogues, and cut out interesting words, numbers and pictures. Find other images online. Also, kids can draw, paint or stamp their own images. Glue these story-telling prompts to cardstock (or cereal-box cardboard). Neuburger follows with Mod Podge to seal the images, but this step can be skipped. After the images dry, place them in a bag. From there, children can pull cards to build a story together. It can feel like a game, she says. “That element of the unknown and the randomness - kids love it,” says Neuburger. “They have to work with it. There’s humor.”

Photo shows snakes from Brenna Maloney’s book, ‘Socks Appeal’ (Stash Books, 2010). Animal templates If they can wield a pair of scissors, children can make the cute characters in Sarah Goldschadt’s book, “Craft-A-Day” (Quirk Books, 2012). It provides a crafting motif for each week of the year, and a simple paper cut-out or small felt object each day. There’s a new iPad app for downloading templates and instructions. The animal patterns, including a penguin, dog and raccoon, are most likely to grab a child’s imagination. After tracing a template, kids can use it to make ornaments, cards, magnets, gift tags, mobiles and cake toppers. Goldschadt, a graphic designer, recently shared some of her crafts with teenagers in an after-school program at a library near her New York home, and was impressed by the kids’ dedication to finishing their owl and bird ornaments. “It was the most quiet they’d ever been,” she says, “and they stayed longer to get it done.” Goldschadt’s website: www.sah-rah.com

Photo shows a starfish, turtle and fish from Brenna Maloney’s book, ‘Socks Appeal’ (Stash Books, 2010), which includes an ‘Easy-Peasy’ chapter for kids, with snake, turtle and starfish projects. Photo shows Goldschadtís Plush Penguin made of felt.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Billy Crystal channels real-life role in ‘Parental Guidance’

fter a decade away from the big screen, funnyman Billy Crystal has mined his real-life experiences as a grandfather and is back in the holiday season movie “Parental Guidance.” The film, which opened in US theaters on Christmas, stars Crystal as a recently fired baseball announcer, who agrees to watch his three grandchildren with his wife (Bette Midler), while his daughter and her husband go on a business trip. Crystal, 64, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film, being a grandparent and why he won’t host the Oscars ceremony anymore. Q: You have not been on the big screen in a starring role since 2002’s “Analyze That.” Did you miss making movies? A: “I spent over four years doing my one-man Broadway show, ‘700 Sundays’ and didn’t care about doing movies. I just so love being in front of live audiences. The play is more satisfying than anything. I’m not interrupted by planes flying overhead, waiting for them to light and all those gruesome slow things on a movie. But really, the last five years were spent getting this movie made.”

Q: How did “Parental Guidance” become your return to film? A: “When I wrote the first story for this movie, my wife Janice and I babysat for our daughter Jenny while she went away with her husband. We had six days with their girls, all alone. It was an eye-opener. When you’re not used to that energy, it’s tough. On the 7th day I rested and came in to the office and said, ‘Here’s the idea for the movie.’” Q: What was eye-opening about those six days? A: “The eye-opener was the bible that we were given before they left town about what to say (to the kids), what to do, all the rules, don’t do this, don’t do that, this child has to be taken here. They have my respect of how they programmed their days and weeks. It’s insane what they have to do nowadays for schooling and parenting. It’s wild.” Q: Quite a difference between your childhood and the grandkids’ childhood, right? A: “When I was a kid growing up, it was basically ‘Go outside and play and I’ll see

Pakistani singer Muhammad Shahid Nazir is carried by supporters on his return from Britain in Lahore yesterday. —AFP photos

Billy Crystal you at dinner.’ There was no thought that there were bad people out there. There was such a carefree wonderful trust which forced you to use your imagination, which also bonded you with the best of you, and your friends. We didn’t have that ‘inside’ thing like videogames. My only ‘inside’ thing was watching the Yankees. Otherwise everything was outside.” Q: Speaking of the Yankees, your well-

documented lifelong love of baseball is incorporated in to the film with your character being a ball-game announcer. That must have been fun to do. A: “I love the game and I thought it was a really interesting occupation we hadn’t seen before. And a good one for me to play because I love it. I wanted my character to have something he loved doing where I didn’t have to fake it.” Q: In being absent from the silver screen for a while, did you find that the moviemaking business has changed much? A: “The studios are so concerned with quadrants (capturing four major demographic groups of moviegoers - men, woman and those over and under 25). I’d never heard of these things when I was in my early years of making movies. You just did them. There was no interference. Now it’s a whole different ball game. They’re so worried: ‘Who’s going to come?’ Well, there’s 77 million American who are babyboomers. That’s a huge audience who wants to laugh and have a story told to them that doesn’t have bombs and spies and killing.” —Reuters

Pakistani Muhammad Shahid Nazir and his wife Kashifa leave the airport arrivals hall.

One Pound Fish singer returns to Pakistan in triumph I

nternet sensation One Pound Fish Man returned to a hero’s welcome in Pakistan yesterday, vowing to take his signature tune in honor of cut-price produce to France and the United States. Hundreds showed up at Lahore airport in eastern Pakistan to honor Muhammad Shahid Nazir, who scaled the British music charts with “One Pound Fish”, which he originally composed to entice shoppers at the east London market where he worked. The song became a YouTube hit after someone filmed Nazir singing it at the market and Warner Music signed him up for a record deal in the hope of getting the coveted Christmas number one spot in the charts. Nazir said he spent no time writing the song-it came to him in a flash after his boss urged him to do something to encourage customers to cough up a pound ($1.60) for a fish. “This song is gift of God to me, I just sang it on the spot,” the father-of-four told reporters at the airport. “The owner of my fish stall asked me to sing to attract the customers and I started singing. On the first day I started slowly and on the second day more loudly.” Around 250 people including local politicians met him at the airport, showering him with rose petals and chanting

“Long live One Pound Fish”, while TV networks interrupted coverage of the fifth anniversary of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination to show his return live. The song’s lyrics are deceptively simple: “Come on ladies, come

Pakistani singer Muhammad Shahid Nazir is kissed by his mother Kalsoom Akhtar on his return from Britain in Lahore.

on ladies, one pound fish. Very very good, one pound fish, very very cheap, one pound fish.” The original video has been viewed more than 6.5 million times on YouTube and the “o-fish-al” Warner video featuring Nazir shimmying and strutting Bollywood-style in a natty suit has recorded more than eight million hits. The Christmas number one was not to be, with a single released in tribute to the victims of the Hillsborough football disaster claimed the top spot, but “One Pound Fish” managed a respectable 29 in the chart. Nazir, from the small Punjab town of Pattoki, said he was confident of a bright future in the music industry. “I will go to France in two weeks to release this song and then will go back to London,” he said, adding that he also planned to release the track in the United States. British media reports suggested Nazir was deported from Britain for overstaying or breaching the terms of his visa, but he insisted he had returned to Pakistan simply to apply for a French visa. And he promised not to abandon the unlikely source of his stardom. “I will adopt music as a profession now, but I can never forget my fish stall,” he said. —AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Bollywood actress and Bharatanatyam dancer Hema Malini performs during a tribute to her mother Jaya Chakravarthy Jaya Smriti in Mumbai. —AFP

Lady Gaga announces documentary Mr Rock n Roll about her life and upcoming album Winslet marries for third time - to

scar-winning actress Kate Winslet has married her third husband in a secret ceremony-tying the knot with Richard Branson’s nephew Ned RocknRoll, The Sun tabloid reported yesterday. Winslet, 37, was given away by her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio at an intimate service in New York attended by just a few close friends and family in early December, according to the paper. Although Winslet’s spokeswoman confirmed the actress had married, it came as a surprise to her family-her father Roger told The Sun “What are you going on about?” when he was asked. Her new 34-yearold husband, who changed his name from Abel Smith, works parttime for his tycoon uncle’s space venture Virgin Galactic. He began dating Winslet last year. Winslet first married in 1998 to Jim Threapleton, who was assistant director on “Hideous Kinky” in which she starred. They had a daughter, Mia Honey, in 2000 but split up the following year. Husband number two was Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning British director of “American Beauty”. They married in a ceremony on the Caribbean island of Anguilla in May 2003 and their son Joe Alfie was born A file photo shows seven months later, but British actress Kate they announced an amicaWinslet and boyfriend ble split in 2010. — AFP Ned Rocknroll. —AFP

n an apparent Christmas gift for all her “Little Monsters,” Lady Gaga took to Twitter on Tuesday to announce that fashion photographer Terry Richardson is making a documentary about her life and the creation of her next album, “ARTPOP.” “Merry Christmas little monsters,” she tweeted.”Terry Richardson is making a #LadyGagaMOVIE documenting my life, the creation of ‘ARTPOP’ + you!” Thanks to the singer’s nearly 32.5 million followers, the hashtag briefly became the top trend on the social media site. She previously worked with Richardson to create the New York Times best-selling photo book “Lady

Gaga x Terry Richardson.” She calls the upcoming film a “dream come true!” “I love you @Terry_World thank you for believing in me and my fans,” Gaga continued. “I have looked up to you and your work for so long, its a dream come true!” No specific release date has been set for her latest album or the forthcoming film, but Gaga told fans over the summer that they can anticipate the follow up to “Born This Way” before the spring of 2013. Lady Gaga’s reps did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. —Reuters

Fandango sets single-day ticket sales record on Christmas

hristmas Day was Fandango’s best-ever single day for ticket sales, the online broker said Wednesday. The previous high for Fandango during its 12-year history came earlier this year on May 4, the opening day of “The Avengers.” “Our record-breaking sales point to a tremendous variety of holiday film choices that are connecting with audiences,” Paul Yanover, president of Fandango, said. “Our top-selling day is also a testament

to an ever-growing base of consumers who recognize Fandango - and its multiple conveniences - as the best way to go the movies.” Fandango did not say how many tickets it sold Tuesday or how many tickets it sold the day “The Avengers” opened. Fandango’s top-sellers on Tuesday were, in order, “Les Miserables,” “Django Unchained,” “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” “Parental Guidance,” “This is 40,” “Jack Reacher”

and “Lincoln.” Separately, Fandango released the results of a survey of more than 1,000 online buyers of tickets to see “Les Miserables.” Thirty-five percent cited the power of the story as the single most important factor motivating them to buy a ticket; 21 percent picked the cast; while only 16 percent said they were fans of movie musicals and just 2 percent said awards buzz was a factor. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

File photo shows an unidentified person walks by a mural in the Wynwood area of Miami.

uperstorm Sandy almost kept roughly 50 New York City art galleries from participating in the one of the world’s most prestigious contemporary art fairs, Art Basel Miami Beach, officials said. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the 11th annual Art Basel Miami Beach, the US extension of the contemporary art fair held each June in Basel, Switzerland. A rum-running skeleton, red Lego pieces stacked into a starry flare and man-sized vampire fangs are among Picassos and thousands of other paintings, photographs and sculptures on display through Sunday. New York’s Chelsea gallery district is home to many of the 257 galleries participating in the main exhibitions that opened Thursday at the Miami Beach Convention Center, said Marc Spiegler, one of Art Basel’s directors. The district was one of those areas hard hit when Superstorm Sandy blew into the Northeast in October with flood waters and high winds. Some of the Chelsea galleries reported just minor water damage, while others lost everything they had in storage, Spiegler said. Still, none skipped the four-day fair. “Our fear was, not so much that we would have an empty booth, because that’s something we can deal with, but just that the implication would be that if you didn’t do Art Basel, it would be because you were going out of business,” Spiegler said. “Obviously, that’s what we were really afraid of: that (Sandy) would put people out of business, which so far it hasn’t.” In conjunction with Art Basel, about two dozen other fairs also opened across Miami on Thursday with gimmicks that organizers hope will attract collectors, critics, charitable donors and partygoers. A Bugatti has become a drivable painting, a menacing dog looms over a South Beach hotel and a scattering of Steinway pianos have been transformed by teams of artists for pop-up concerts. The Miami art season has developed into a see-and-beseen event as luxury brands and celebrities have sponsored or been featured in an increasing number of independent fairs and exhibitions. Not all the stars want to be treated as such, though. “Artist! Artist-not a celebrity!” Julian Lennon playfully yelled at a friend who had referred to the musician and photographer as “a unique celebrity.” The son of the late Beatles legend John Lennon has about a dozen landscapes in a show titled “Alone” at the Overture Art Fair. “It’s basically about having that moment in time where you can reflect, you can think about life, think of the past and present and future. It’s that moment in time when you have a bit of peace,” Lennon said about the photographs he shot while traveling between music and charity projects. Lennon also exhibited his photography during the 2010 art fairs, and he was looking forward to enjoying Miami’s social scene. “You get every kind of character and every

kind of style,” he said. “I just hope that doesn’t detract from the actual work of the artists who’ve come here.” Away from the velvet ropes and celebrity glare, many public art installations offer culture for free. Street artists, including Shepard Fairey, have painted colorful new works onto the exteriors of the warehouses of the Wynwood district. Red, blue and green resin alligators crawl up the yellow facade of Miami’s Freedom Tower to raise awareness for Florida’s environmental issues. There’s even a kind of scavenger hunt. Over the last two years, the French artist Invader has installed more than 70 mosaics of space alien figures throughout Miami, and maps to each spaceman’s location will supplement an exhibit of his new work in the Jonathan LeVine Gallery booth at the Pulse Miami fair. — AP

Art deco designed buildings line Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, Fla. Modern day South Beach is still a vibrant monument to the art deco designs of the late 1920’s and 30’s.

Domino players at play shuffling dominos at Maximo Gomez Park, also known as Domino Park, in the Little Havana neighborhood of Miami.

File photo shows Preslee Rakes, left, her mother Tina Rakes, center, and Brad Cunningham, right, all from Kansas, feed seagulls during a visit to the South Beach area of Miami Beach, Fla.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

Math

A door handle in the shape of pi is seen at the new National Museum of Mathematics in New York. (Right) Students play with interlocking shapes at a ‘Tessellation Station’. —AP photos

is anything but boring at NYC’s newest museum S quealing schoolchildren ride a square-wheeled tricycle and a “Coaster Roller” that glides over plastic acorns. Downstairs, they fit monkey magnets together at the “Tessellation Station.” This is how math is presented at New York City’s brand-new Museum of Mathematics, the only museum of its kind in the United States and a place where math is anything but boring.

Bronx Preparatory Charter School student Pablo Flores experiments with an exhibit called the ‘Human Tree’.

Children run across an interactive exhibit at the new National Museum of Mathematics.

“Math’s not just memorizing your multiplication tables,” said Cindy Lawrence, the museum’s associate director. “Math is a creative endeavor, and that’s what we want people to realize.” The museum, nicknamed MoMath, opened Dec 15 on two floors of an office building north of Manhattan’s Madison Square Park. It is the brainchild of executive director Glen Whitney, 42; a mathematician and former hedge fund analyst who helped raise $23.5 million for the 19,000-square-foot museum. Whitney said prominent mathematicians gladly shared their expertise for the museum’s hands-on exhibits. “They’re absolutely thrilled,” he said. “They’re so giving of their time and their energy and their enthusiasm. And I think a lot of mathematicians sort of get the sense that they are working in a misunderstood field.” The museum’s target audience is fourth through eighth grades but the exhibits can be enjoyed by younger children on one level while challenging adults on another. The point of the Coaster Roller is that the acorn-like shapes have a constant diameter although they are not spheres, so the clear plastic sled glides smoothly over

them. The square-wheeled trike works because the wheels align with the exhibit’s bumpy track. The bumps are not just any bumps; each one is an upside-down catenary, the shape formed by a chain when you hold both ends. Other exhibits allow museum-goers to create objects that will be put on display, either by building them with a Tinker Toylike system called Zome Tools or by computer modeling. Whitney said one structure built by visitors during MoMath’s first weekend was a truncated dodecahedron, which is a three-dimensional shadow of a four-dimensional shape. The Tessellation Station is a wall that visitors can cover with like-shaped magnets. Tessellation is the process of creating a plane using repeated geometric shapes, such as a floor tiled with squares or hexagons. MoMath visitors can build tessellations with pieces shaped like rabbits, monkeys and dinosaurs. There also is a Marjorie Rice pentagon, named for an amateur mathematician whose tessellation discoveries were later confirmed by professionals. The museum is highlighting Rice’s work in part to spark girls’ love of math. The museum had 700 visitors on its first

A visitor to the new National Museum of Mathematics rides a tricycle with square wheels.

day, a Saturday, and Lawrence said about 400 school groups have signed up without any advertising by MoMath. “The bookings have been coming fast and furious,” she said. Sharon Collins, a high school math teacher at Bronx Preparatory Charter School who brought a group on Monday, said her students enjoyed the squarewheeled tricycle just as much as the younger kids did. “The students would ride the bike and then think, why am I able to ride the bike,” Collins said. “They saw the real-world connections of math, which are sometimes missing in a classroom setting.” Second-grader Desire’e Thomas of Girls Prep on the Lower East Side was there Monday with her class as well. “I think that it’s very interesting, and I think that it’s fun,” Desire’e said. “I’m building with different shapes, and I’m playing on them.” Jennifer Florez brought her 4-year-old son to MoMath. She said they’ll return for more visits. “He’s a little young for some of the exhibits but there’s enough here to keep little ones engaged,” she said. “This will be a museum we’ll come back to and revisit as he gets older.” — AP

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2012

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