31 Dec

CR IP TI ON BS SU

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

Indian gang-rape victim cremated

Central Asian migrants change face of Moscow

Lampard double propels Chelsea up to third

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Flashback 2012: Kuwait and the world in pictures

Assembly panels discuss bedoons, loans, GCC pact

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www.kuwaittimes.net

SAFAR 18, 1434 AH

Opposition to resume demonstrations next Sunday

Max 19º Min 10º High Tide 00:28 & 14:41 Low Tide 07:37 & 19:13

By B Izzak conspiracy theories

KUWAIT: National Assembly committees had a busy day yesterday approving proposals to raise the housing loan and children’s allowance, and discussing the issue of bedoons and the Gulf security pact. In the meantime, opposition activists called on citizens to demonstrate again on Jan 6. The Assembly’s human rights and bedoons committee discussed in full the problem of around 110,000 bedoons (stateless people), and decided to divide them into three categories, rapporteur of the panel MP Taher Al-Failakawi said.

The first category are those who qualify for Kuwaiti citizenship, the second are those whose situation remains undecided and unknown and the third group are those who do not qualify for consideration for Kuwaiti citizenship. Failakawi said that the committee decided to work towards asking the government to speed up procedures of granting Kuwaiti citizenship to the first category so their issue is resolved in the shortest time possible. The committee also decided that the third section should be totally disqualified and not considered as stateless people while more work should be done on the second category to establish if they deserve to be naturalized, he said.

MP Hussein Al-Qallaf asked the prime minister about a statement by the head of the central committee for bedoons Saleh Al-Fadhalah that 40,000 bedoons qualify for citizenship. The government has maintained that only 34,000 bedoons qualify for consideration for Kuwaiti citizenship.

Continued on Page 2

Lucky 2013?

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

A

s the saying goes: “Tomorrow is another day.”

I am telling you tomorrow will be another year. I did not feel how 2012 went by. As if it was yesterday when I was collecting people’s resolutions for the new year. 2012 went away with its sweetness and bitterness. I wish I could have said “better” instead of bitter but I can’t cheat you or myself. I think it was a tough year for the whole world, especially for the Middle East.

You do not need to be a magician or a fortuneteller like those who appear on TV to see what is happening around you and in the world. Honestly speaking, the worst part is what is happening in the Middle East. Just turn on the TV or open a newspaper and you will be flooded with catastrophic news, destruction and death.

It is the Arab Spring Part 2 and not only we have all lived it minute by minute thanks to the abundance of media channels - be it Tunisia, its neighbor Libya and Egypt. It spread to Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Oman. Our beautiful Kuwait was not spared from demonstrations and opposition rallies. Some countries managed to crush their spring quickly while others are still dragging on and on and becoming Arab Falls and Arab Winters. They have lived all the Arab Spring seasons.

Gaza had a different story. I’m referring to The Pillars of Clouds which was the last assault on Gaza last November. The Israelis always give their assault operations a mysterious title. The war in 2008 was called Cast Lead. I do not know what they might call their next assault maybe in 2013 or 2014. Maybe the Israelis will this time call it “Hell Pouring” because this is what is left.

The rest of the world did not sound more glamorous. Greece was down on its knees asking for financial packages left, right and centre. The rest of the European Union is not in a flourishing state as well. Let’s not forget the police of the world - the United States of America. Obama’s luck struck again but I do not envy him. He inherited more problems now than his previous term. Besides the financial crunch, growing unemployment and the unfixed healthcare, he has to face the arms industry.

Anyway, this is his last term so I do not think he is bothered to please anybody.

China, the factory of the world, managed to stay stable against the backdrop of the world slowdown.

Chinese always pick up and I do not know their recipe. I wish they share it and it spreads all over the Middle East. Of course, 2012 had its share of natural disasters in many areas but I do not want to bore you with them. Let’s pray for a better 2013. Though many people do not like the number 13, I think it might bring more luck to all of us than all the other numbers.

Five to hang for Saudi diplomat’s murder in B’desh

URFA, Turkey: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wearing traditional Arab garb, waves during a visit to the Akcakale refugee camp yesterday. — AFP

Erdogan tells Syrian refugees victory near ISTANBUL: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told a crowd of thousands of Syrian refugees yesterday their country was preparing for a “sacred birth” that would replace President Bashar Al-Assad with the will of the Syrian people.

Refugee camps in Turkey host 150,000 Syrians who have fled the conflict across the border, and Erdogan visited one of them on Sunday, telling the people there they should regard Turkey as their “second home” and that help was at hand.

“We can see very clearly that God’s help is close. Don’t forget victory comes to those who are patient,” he told the crowd.

Moaz Alkhatib, head of the internationally recognised Syrian National Coalition opposition, stood at his side.

Ankara had previously said it would struggle to accommodate more than 100,000 refugees but has continued to accept more without setting a limit. Though the camps in

Turkey mostly have facilities such as portable electric heaters, and refugees receive three hot meals a day from the Red Crescent, temperatures can plunge below freezing in the rugged border terrain and rain can be torrential.

“You have suffered a lot,” Erdogan said, wearing a scarf in the form of the rebel Syrian green-white-and-black flag. “The cruel Syrian regime, the cruel Assad, has martyred nearly 50,000 Syrians so far,” he said. “Every sacred birth is painful, and now Syria is preparing for a sacred birth through which the will of all Syrian people will take power,” he told the crowd at the camp in Akcakale in Sanliurfa province. “Maybe we cannot provide you here with the luxury you have at home, but in these conditions we tried to do whatever we could,” he said to fervent applause from the crowd in the refugee camp at Akcakale. — Reuters

Brahimi has plan all powers may back

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DHAKA: A Bangladeshi court yesterday sentenced five people to death for the murder of a Saudi diplomat in the capital Dhaka in March this year, a senior police official said. Khalaf Al-Ali, 45, the head of Saudi citizen affairs at the embassy, was shot while taking a late-night walk near his home in the city’s Gulshan area. He was rushed to hospital where he died three hours later. “The Speedy Trial Tribunal in Dhaka sentenced five people to death today (Sunday). Four of the convicts were present when the judge gave the verdict,” said deputy commissioner of police Anisur Rahman, adding that the fifth had evaded arrest and was sentenced in absentia.

Police had blamed the murder on a mugging incident gone wrong in Dhaka’s posh Gulshan district.

They arrested four of the muggers in July and recovered the pistol they used to shoot Ali as well as a car.

The diplomat had been living alone in a rented apartment in Gulshan for several years. Bangladesh authorities made sure the case was heard by the country’s fast-track court, which has sentenced hundreds of people to death for crimes mostly related to Islamic militancy. Saudi officials were regularly briefed about progress on the case.

Saudi Arabia is a key ally of Bangladesh and a major donor, but ties have become strained in recent years after Riyadh tightened recruitment from the South Asian country. More than two million Bangladeshis - a quarter of the impoverished nation’s large migrant population -work in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom. — AFP

Drama in Washington as fiscal cliff looms

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Iran showcases special forces at naval drills DUBAI: Iranian special forces and military diving units practiced defending their ports and coastline against attacks yesterday, state-linked media reported during naval war games meant to warn off states threatening the Islamic republic. The highly-publicised “Velayat 91” exercises are taking place across a wide area from the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil and gas shipping route, to the Gulf of Oman and northern parts of the Indian Ocean. Naval commanders have made regular appearances on Iranian television since Friday saying the six-day drill would show how Iran could defend its territory. “ Today there are attacks from invading forces on our ports and coasts and engagement of them by marine units and special operations forces (from helicopters),” said commander Amir Rastegari, according to Fars news agency.

Germany close to Saudi arms deal BERLIN: The German government is close to completing a €100 million arms deal with Saudi Arabia to sell 30 armoured vehicles, and Berlin’s national security council has already signaled its backing, Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported yesterday. Quoting sources it said were involved in the negotiations, the newspaper said Saudi Arabia wants to buy a total of 100 of the “Dingo” armoured vehicles over the longer term. The armoured vehicles are manufactured by Krauss Maffei-Wegmann and Bruker Daltonik from Leipzig, Bild said. Earlier this month, Der Spiegel magazine reported Saudi Arabia wanted to buy several hundred BOXER armoured fighting vehicles, another type of armoured vehicle made by Artec, a joint-venture of Rheinmettal Defence and Kraus-Maffei Wegmann. The magazine suggested the vehicles could be used in confronting possible demonstrations. According to other unconfirmed media reports, Germany gave pre-approval for the export of 270 Leopard 2 tanks to Saudi Arabia in 2011.

US plane leaves Iran after emergency landing TEHRAN: A small American commercial plane left Iran yesterday after it was repaired following an emergency landing at an Iranian airport this month, state TV reported. The plane was forced to land 16 days ago at the airport of the southern city of Ahvaz due to technical failure, Mahmoud Rasoulinejad, head of the state-owned Iran Airports Company, told the TV station. Rasoulinejad said three passengers left Iran for Arab countries in the Gulf, but the plane remained under repair in the airport. He said the plane took off from Iran yesterday upon arrival of needed spare parts and completion of repairs. A separate report by state TV said the Falcon-900 plane had one passenger and two crew members and was flying to Rotterdam in the Netherlands from Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates when it encountered mechanical difficulties. It said a French team from Abu Dhabi repaired the plane at Ahvaz airport.

Bahrain cops jailed over detainee’s torture, death DUBAI: Two Bahraini policemen were sentenced to jail for seven years each yesterday for beating to death a Shiite opposition activist in custody during last year’s crackdown on protesters. The sentences, reported by state news agency BNA, were criticised as too lenient by critics and may do little to blunt international criticism of human rights abuses since Bahrain’s Sunni Muslim rulers quelled a Shiite-led uprising last year. In April 2011, Kareem Fakhrawi - a businessman and member of Wefaq, the leading opposition group in Bahrain - died in custody, a week after failing to return home from a police station where he had tried to complain about his house being demolished by police, opposition members said. “We didn’t expect it would be just seven years,” said Wefaq member Sayed Hadi alMousawi, criticising the sentences. “The prosecutor changed the charges from ‘torture leading to death’ to ‘beating leading to death’. They don’t want to admit that there was torture,” he told Reuters.

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

Local

Officer, brother wanted for Rumaithiya assault KUWAIT: A police officer and his brother attacked a civilian duo of two brothers, stabbing and injuring one of them seriously in Rumathiya recently. The officer came across his victim with whom he had a score to settle since they were both romantically involved with the same woman in the past, and along with his (officer’s) brother, chased him. On the run, the man called his own brother who too reached the site. However, the officer forced both brothers to halt at gun point, and allowed his own brother to physically assault the civilian duo, stabbing one of them, and then escaped. The victim was rushed in an ambulance to the Mubarak Hospital where he was admitted to its intensive care unit with a deep chest wound.

Meanwhile, the injured man’s brother revealed that his brother and the officer have been at loggerheads due to their past romantic liaisons with the same woman.

Fatal crash A motorist was killed in an SUV accident reported recently at the King Fahad Highway. The 41-yearold Kuwaiti was pronounced dead on the scene by paramedics who

arrived shortly after the accident was reported at 1:30 am Saturday. The body was taken to the coroner while investigations went underway to determine the circumstances which led his vehicle to lose balance and turn turtle.

Maid gives birth A domestic worker was hospitalized along with her newborn shortly after giving birth to a healthy baby at her employer’s house. The incident took place in Surra recently where a Kuwaiti family became concerned after their housemaid spent more than an hour inside the bathroom. The maid’s employer eventually broke the bathroom’s door after hearing her cries, only to find the Filipina woman with a baby she had just delivered. An ambulance arrived at the scene shortly afterwards and took the mother and her baby to the Maternity Hospital. Meanwhile, police launched investigations into the case as the baby might be the result of an illegal love affair.

Addict hospitalized A man was hospitalized in a critical condition recently after con-

suming an overdose of drugs. The 27-year-old Kuwaiti was brought in a state of unconsciousness to the Jahra Hospital and admitted to its intensive care unit following diagnoses which proved he had suffered complications from a drug overdose. Police were notified and a case was filed. Meanwhile, preliminary investigations revealed that the man had been arrested along with others a few months ago in a case in which a man had died of suspected overdose of drugs. A group of men in that case had consumed excessive quantities of homebrewed alcohol at a desert location.

Drunken man threatens campers A man was arrested in an inebriated condition in Bnaidar recently after he broke into a camp and accused people inside of having stolen his dog. Police reached the scene following an emergency call in which campers reported a canewielding man threatening them, asking that his pet be released. The man was taken to the nearest police station and held behind bars pending legal procedures.

—Al- Watan, Al-Anbaa

Kuwaiti complains of threat to life

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti man in a complaint to AlRiqqa police claimed that someone tried to kill him by setting fire to his house using inflammable material.

Sources said in his complaint that he was woken up from his sleep by shouts of one of the maids and found that a fire had broken at the ground floor. He immediately called the fire department which responded quickly and brought the flames under control.

He said the firefighters told him that the fire was case of deliberate arson and some inflammable material was used. A case was registered and the investigation unit of the fire department was asked to investigate.

Woman liquor maker held Security sources revealed that an Asian woman was arrested for running a factory of locally made liquor in Salmiya area. She was sent to area detec-

tives after they found with her 50 bottles of locally made liquor and 16 drums filled with liquor.

Equipment and vessels for making the liquor were also confiscated from her apartment as she had converted it into a liquor factory.

Fake tires confiscated Ministry of Commerce and Industry emphasized that inspection units continued its activities in monitoring public markets and enforce laws on violators.

The ministry said in a press release that the inspection team found during their campaign a number of fake vehicle tiers which were not in conformity with the specifications and were exhibited for sale in Shuwaikh industrial area.

The inspection team headed by capital governorate supervisor Faisal Al-Ansari prepared a confiscation report against the company. The fake tires, made in Korea, could endanger the lives of motorists and the public, the release added.

Dive Team lists 2012 achievements

KUWAIT: Establishment of the Environmental Voluntary Foundation topped its many achievements for the Kuwait Dive Team which released its annual report for 2012. The Foundation is the team’s parent organization. The report enumerated various activities carried out by the team’s volunteers, including removing debris of 39 sunken shops and an 800 ton boat. It also removed the debris of 28 sunken boats from the Shamlan docking area in Sharq. The team also finalized annual maintenance operations for 70 buoys around the coral reefs in Kuwaiti waters, and fixed five new buoys around Kubbar Island’s coral reef.

Furthermore, the team recorded more than 200 coral reef observations in cooperation with the Coral Watch organization, and carried

out a massive cleaning campaign at the Ushairej beach.

Other contributions of the Kuwait Dive Team include organizing the largest environmental workshop in Kuwait targeting public school students, and releasing 60 documentaries during a celebration held by the Kuwait Journalists Association on the World Environment Day. The team also took part in the ‘Coral Reefs of the Gulf’ event which took place in Abu Dhabi last January.

The team also expressed its gratitude to HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah and the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Science “for their continuous support” which they credited for their achievements in 2012, and hoped to continue winning laurels in 2013.

KT staff spell out New Year resolutions

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The New Year is here again with new hopes for people.

Considering the local situation, 2012 was not a good year for Kuwait. The elected parliament in February 2012 did not meet the expectations and its members brought more tensions and for the first time we saw so many protests in the course of a single year. The country seemed in chaos. Now people hope that with the advent of 2013, they will see a better year.

Many people are optimistic about 2013 and carry the general hope that the world will live in peace, especially the Middle East.

Some people made resolutions for 2012 but could not stick to them, so they intend to do so in 2013.

Others have no resolutions, and many have new ones, which they intend to work hard to fulfill. Here are the resolutions of the Kuwait Times’ staffers: Nawara has high ambitions: “My resolution for the new year is to save some money and launch my own business even if in partnership with someone else. The price of everything has gone up and one job is not enough anymore. I want to buy the Dodge Viper, even if an older model, and in order to do so, I have to have an additional income. That’s why I am thinking of my own business.”

Abdulatif Al-Sharra said: “I want to complete my mission in educating my children till they achieve their university degree.

Three of my children have already graduated from the university, and now it is the turn of the remaining two. In general, of course, I wish world peace.”

Islam Al-Sharra is completing his old resolution: “I wish to build a house in my county. I think

everyone has a dream to have his own house. If I didn’t succeed this year, I will pursue my dream in the coming years.”

Badrya Darwish has a healthy challenge: “I was planning to reduce my weight in 2012 but I didn’t succeed even though I only need to get rid of 8 kg. So my resolution for 2013 is to reduce my weight. I will work on it.”

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan has no resolutions in 2013: “I am tired of setting goals and coming up with resolutions and not fulfilling them. My resolution for this year is not to have a resolution.”

Shakir has professional resolution: “To learn new skills in order to enhance my professional career.”

Velina: “I want to live a healthier life, and my other resolution is to love my family more and make more time for them.”

Joseph is continuing his resolution from 2012: “To start my own business in my country. I already bought a shop in 2012 and now I hope to start working and run a business from this shop. I am waiting till the situation becomes better in Syria. I planned to start it last year but postponed it because of the bad political situation.”

Sajeev noted: “I don’t see a new beginning for me in 2013.

Life will go on and I will stay the course. I will learn to live with a lingering recession with some belt-tightening. I may complete the telefilm I am working on.”

Marline simply stated: “My resolution in 2013 is to spend more time with my family and friends.”

Sahar has some resolutions she would not reveal and only mentioned one: “I want to travel the world in 2013. I hope I can fulfill this resolution although it is not easy at all.”

Ahmad Jaber is sharing the same resolution with Al- Alyan: “I have no resolution for 2013. I was lazy in 2012 and I didn’t fulfill even the easy ones such as going to the gym, so I don’t want to have any and be disappointed later.”

Rachelle stressed: “I will try my best to cut down on my trips to the shopping malls and boutiques, especially when a sale is on. I also aim to be more patient, and have more time for my family.”

Sunil Cherian has a simple resolution: “To finish reading the book Roberto Bolano’s ‘2666’, which I started six months ago and have not been able to finish it yet.”

Osama had many resolutions in 2012 and is still aiming to fulfill them: “The most important resolution is to emigrate to Australia. I tried in 2012 but and didn’t succeed, so I will be trying this year again. Hopefully, I will succeed this year. Also, there are more simple resolutions such as reducing my weight, going to gym, quitting smoking and others.”

Husni has religious resolutions: “I wish to go to Omra or Hajj in 2013. I also aim to save some money and donate to Majid Yaqoub Hospital in Aswan Egypt.”

Hasan: “To see my children finish their studies and graduate from the university.”

Falah: “I intend to take a break and go for short vacation abroad with my family.”

Sharif: “My resolution is to make an audio studio for my son in Egypt.”

Sameh: “I am planning to have a baby in 2013. I already have two and I want to have another one.”

Faisal: “To travel to my country and see my wife and children.”

Assembly panels discuss bedoons, loans...

Continued from Page 1 The legal and legislative committee meanwhile held a marathon meeting yesterday in which it approved proposals to increase the housing loan for Kuwaitis from KD 70,000 to KD 100,000, and also to increase the monthly child allowance from KD 50 to KD 100 for a maximum of seven children, MP Yacoub Al-Sane said. But the committee rejected another proposal calling to grant Kuwaiti housewives who are not working with a monthly salary to encourage Kuwaiti women to stay home to take care of their children, Sane said. The committee approved a draft law to set up a national fund for aiding small and medium size projects, he said. The panel also decided to file civil lawsuits against those who publicly ridicule the National Assembly.

The foreign relations committee discussed with Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah a number of issues including the outcome of the recently concluded Gulf summit, Kuwait’s relations with Iraq and Iran, the situation in Syria and the GCC security pact. Head of the committee MP Saleh Ashour said the committee did not receive a copy of the Gulf security pact but the minis-

ter informed the committee that a number of provisions in the pact were amended to be in line with the Kuwaiti constitution.

In another development, several MPs criticized Oil Minister Hani Hussein over what they claimed a lack of action regarding irregularities in promotions at Kuwait Oil Company. A number of the lawmakers have threatened to grill the minister if he does not interfere to rectify the situation. Hussein said yesterday that he has appointed a committee to review procedures taken by the company and to listen to any complaints from employees.

The opposition meanwhile decided yesterday to resume demonstrations after a stoppage of about one month. The Karamat Watan (Dignity of a Nation) account on the Twitter yesterday called on the Kuwaiti people to demonstrate on Jan 6 to press for dissolving the Assembly and scrapping the amendment to the electoral constituency law. The organizers of the new protest did not say where and what time the new rally will be held.

The last demonstration was staged on Dec 8, a week after the elections were announced. The opposition boycotted the election in protest against the amendment of the electoral law.

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

local

Legal dilemma holding up KAC privatization Ministry examines legal hurdle KUWAIT: The Ministry of Commerce and Industry is studying a legal problem pertaining to potential errors in procedures while establishing the Kuwait Airways Company since the Cabinet appointed the KAC board before signing the contracts or holding a general assembly meeting.

After an emergency decree was issued last September to privatize the national carrier by establishing the Kuwait Airways Company, the next step was supposed to be filing a request for the company’s proclamation which should have been followed by a constituent meeting

for the general assembly to elect the board members or have them appointed by the Kuwait Investment Authority which is the founding body.

However, the KAC board was appointed before the company’s contract was even put together, leading to a controversy regarding the correctness of the adopted procedures from a legal standpoint.

According to “MCI insiders” quoted by AlRai, the issue was posed to the KAC board “which failed to provide clear answers.”

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the

sources did not specify the correct legal way out of the issue but noted that the MCI is “investigating whether the Amiri decree is enough to exempt the KAC from regular legal procedures followed by the ministry.”

The main concern behind this issue is the possibility of legal action at any point in the future to demand annulling the KAC establishing procedures. “The issue could become even more complicated and might affect decisions made by the KAC board such as settling the KAC staff’s rights or purchasing new aircrafts,” the sources warned. —Al-Rai

KUWAIT: Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta meets Kuwait Times Editor-inChief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan at the Kuwait Times office yesterday.

—Photo by Joseph Shagra

KD 164m electricity bill dues yet to be collected KUWAIT: Despite concerted efforts of the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW), and deploying several payment methods to collect from consumers dues totaling more than KD 300 million over the last few months, only KD 136 million have been collected so far and remaining dues remain relatively high.

Meanwhile, bills continue to pile up as consumers continue to incur new amounts even as MEW collects older payments from some consumers. Some theft is happening in areas inhabited largely by expat laborers.

Although the ministry succeeded in collecting KD 1 million from leaders in the state, others have ignored the ministry instructions to pay the amount owed for consuming power and water. Major companies, public and private establishments along with hotels, malls and major real estate ventures are in default and MEW is having a tough time to extract its rightful money despite the fact that it has fol-

lowed all legal procedures against the defaulters before cutting off their water supply.

Sources said the collection problems started in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion as earlier there were no problems in collecting bills despite the fact that MEW relied on the employees of consumer affairs sector only. There were 2,500 employees at the time. The ministry signed contracts with private companies to read the meters where more serious mistakes occur, making consumers lose confidence in the ministry’s credibility and accuse it of slapping bills randomly, which encouraged most consumers to stop paying their dues.

The sources revealed that some officials fear that the smart meters tender could be cancelled and the ministry may lose the advantages that these could have accrued, particularly when developed countries also adopted this technology when demand for electric energy grew.

New Kuwaiti employees join Wataniya staff KUWAIT: Wataniya Telecom announced that a number of new Kuwaitis had recently joined its staff in some vital departments such as customer care services and sales.

CEO Dr Bassam Hannoun said that Wataniya is keen on supporting national labor through roping in more Kuwaiti manpower of both genders as well as training them to become qualified for taking up leading posi-

Parliament ‘morality’ committee proposed

By A Saleh KUWAIT: Two lawmakers forwarded a proposal yesterday to establish a parliamentary committee tasked with maintaining moral conduct inside the parliament by investigating allegations against elected House members pertaining to abuse of power.

As per the proposal handed in by MPs Safaa Al-Hashim and Maasouma Al-Mubarak to the assembly’s head office, the committee would consist of the current chiefs of parliamentary committees. It will be empowered to

investigate a lawmaker referred to it via a request signed by at least ten elected members of parliament. The committee would then make a recommendation, including a suspension for a maximum of six months if the lawmaker is found guilty.

In other news, rapporteur of the parliament’s human rights and stateless residents committee, MP Tahir Al-Failakawi, announced that the panel is set to start studying files of Bedouins based on three categories: residents who meet the conditions for naturalization, residents who do not meet these con-

ditions and those which require further study.

Youth groups affiliated with the opposition announced plans to organize a mass demonstration on January 6, 2013 to press for a decision to retract the single vote decree and dissolve the parliament elected on the basis of the amended electoral law. The announcement was made via a Twitter account named Karamat Watan (dignity of nation), a reference to the name given to four similar demonstrations which took place since the decree was released last September.

MOI issues decree on treatment Abroad KUWAIT: First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud, has issued a ministerial decree in respect of treatment inside and outside Kuwait for the ministry employees. The decision calls for reimbursing the daily financial allowance based on a letter and copy of the decision for treatment abroad to be sent by the administration of treatment abroad, deciding the date from which payments are to start, allowances to be paid to the patients and his companions. It would be one day before the start of treatment for cases sent to Arab countries and Europe. The payment would continue up to one day after the completion of treatment.

For cases sent to the USA and Canada, payment would be made for two days before the treatment starts and till two days after the completion of the treatment.

Yesterday morning, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud received in his office Assistant Undersecretary Lt. General Anwar Abdul Razzaq Al-Yaseen accompanied by a group of police officers who acquired the Ph. D. and masters degrees. Al-Yaseen presented to the minister his book about formalities for security inspection at Airports and

related laws. The First Deputy Prime Minister appreciated the book and said it would be a valuable addition to the Kuwaiti security literature.

tions. “We are very proud of this unique group of young Kuwaitis and will provide them with all necessary means of developing their skills in a most appropriate working environment”, said Hannoun.

On his part, CEO deputy, engineer Abdul Aziz Fakhroo congratulated the new recruits underlining that their appointment was a source of pride for Wataniya. “Investment in

young national manpower is the best of all and comes on top of Wataniya’s priorities”, he underscored noting that finding suitable job opportunities for young Kuwaitis was a responsibility the private sector shared with the state.

The new recruits underwent intensive training before they were assigned to various departments.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

LOCAL kuwait digest

kuwait digest

Inculcate values of forgiveness

Parliament position on GCC agreement

By Dr Yaqoub Al-Sharrah hile the security agreement among the Gulf Cooperation Council states was necessary in the light of regional hazards and repercussions stemming from Arab revolutions, it remains a bone of contention, particularly because Kuwait signed it despite the fact that it had rejected the pact on the ground that it was in conflict with the state’s constitution at the time. While local newspapers reported that Kuwait’s approval came only after the agreement was amended, the nature of these amendments remains ambiguous, fueling the controversy further since the agreement is binding on all signatory states.

The fact that the agreement’s details are yet to be published has prompted many to voice their objections and reservations about the unannounced amendments. There are concerns about the sovereignty of the signatory states, as well as fears of prosecution and suppression of freedom.

The fact that the government signed it before waiting for the parliament’s approval has added to the feeling of discomfort about the agreement, notwithstanding the fact that it is aimed at protecting the sovereignty of the member states and ensuring that any threat to a GCC country will be perceived as a threat to all GCC members.

When a decision is taken without taking parliament into confidence or obtaining its approval, it is perceived that the government does not want to share some significant piece of information with the public, or is hiding something that directly affects people’s lives. Such a situation contradicts with the constitution, and leads to problems that affect the safety and security of the state. People feel that their right to be a part of the decision making process has been undermined.

Meanwhile, asking for the parliament’s approval after the agreement has already been signed is not enough because the main point is to have the parliament’s prior approval for sovereign decisions before they are made. Not only would this ensure public support for these decisions, but would also solidify the state’s commitment to its political gains.

I hope that the security agreement meets the individual circumstances and political systems of each state, and that it becomes a corner stone for these countries’ development in the light of the instability still plaguing the region.

In the meantime, people in Kuwait are reposing their trust in the parliament to study the feasibility of the agreement in the context of their own country’s interests, and take a decision after ensuring that the agreement was not on conflict with the country’s constitution. —Al-Rai

By Sami Al-Kharafi

W

he tragic crime that happened at the Avenues last week has shocked the peaceful Kuwaiti society.

That is being clearly reflected in personal interactions and at family gatherings. Even the social media, Twitter and Facebook, besides the local media, are reflecting this reality. Matter has even reached the council of ministers which denounced this horrible crime totally strange to our Kuwaiti society. Such crimes are exceptional and not known to Kuwaitis.

Besides, these are totally against our religious teachings and our values.

This and other recent crimes that happened in the last one month should serve as an alarm. The government and the National Assembly must pause and do something about it. One of the newspapers recently published a report saying “there was a crime happening in Kuwait every 30 minutes” and 15,000 crimes have happened during the last nine months only.

Though these are various kinds of crimes but they all point towards one direction that Kuwait is on its way to becoming a “Chicago.” This is an indicator of the security situation and the Minister of Interior is partially responsible for the state of affairs. Those who witnessed the crime at the Avenues were merely watching as mute bystanders and did not intervene, while some even remained busy snapping pictures. No one came forward to help the victims.

The reason behind such behavior is the fear of being interrogated as a witness. Since it involves paying repeated visits to the police station, detectives and public prosecutors, any witness shrugs the responsibility and avoids sharing any information with the Ministry of Interior. Further, one value that people seem to have lost was about helping others. No one wants to intervene in such a scuffle lest one is hurt while trying to break up a fight. Even security men at all complexes, belonging to different nationalities, keep away from interfering as they are afraid of the results. Besides, there is the culture of interference through “wasta” which, in most cases, affects the investigation process and even changes the facts.

What is required is to start working towards ending such a sorry state of affairs. One appreciates that some MPs met the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Ahmad Al Hmoud and discussed with him measures to strengthen security at commercial complexes, play grounds and recreation places.

Also, MP Safa Al-Hashem said that she and ten other MPs have filed an application to hold a special session to discuss security related matters. She emphasized that petition has been made by the MPs, and was sent to NA speaker to decide a time for the session.

We hope that retired policemen are deployed as security men in these commercial complexes to deal with any emergency since they have such experience. It is also necessary to carry out campaigns to educate the public. The Ministry of Information, Interior, Awqaf, Social Affairs and Education must participate in such campaigns. We must inculcate the values of forgiveness among people and educate them to stay away from violence. It is time to stop fooling around with issues of security and stability of Kuwait and triggering a state of panic. — Al-Anbaa

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kuwait digest

Selective justice?

By Thaar Al-Rashidi n auditing exercise has found out that an employee caused a loss of hundreds of thousands of Kuwaiti dinars in the construction projects running under his supervision. The audit reports indicated that he may be solely responsible for the loss of about KD 800,000 in projects under him. Ironically, and shockingly, after the loss was discovered, the employee was investigated by a committee for one of the violations but all that happened in the name of punishment was “deduction of 4 days of salary”. If actor Yousuf Wahbi was still alive, he would have shouted in his inimitable style: “YA LELHAWL.” An employee causes a loss of KD 800,000 of public money and by deducting KD 300 from his salary as a punishment, they want to set an example that the law was being applied to everyone equally.

Instead of sending the employee to the public prosecutor, he was referred to an internal investigation committee that comprised lesser number of people than a game of trump cards would require. On what basis did the committee deducted salary for four days? They penalized him as per a decision of civil service commission which does not allow an employee to have any direct or indirect interest in any tender or contract under his supervision.

But what did the committee members discover?

They discovered that this employee had become a part-

A

ner (subcontract) in two contracts within his charge. The first was a contract valued at KD 150,000 while the second contract was valued at KD 330,000. This this employee was also the supervisor appointed by the government and a contractor too, all at the same time.

But more shocking facts were still to come to light.

The employee did not attend the meetings of the investigation committee. He told the committee chairman, “It seems that you don’t know who I am, or who my father is?” On top of it, the committee found that both projects were not executed despite the fact that the employee’s company was paid in full.

So, the moral of the story is that you can steal brazenly in this country and break all administrative laws, civil laws, auditing laws and criminal laws, and steal a whopping KD 800,000 and still the penalty will not exceed deduction of four days’ worth of salary from your earnings.

NOTE: If the government was serious in implementing the law, then the minister, the Undersecretary, the Assistant Undersecretary, the employee and his manager, apart from the committee which interrogated him, all should have been sent to the public prosecutor. But it seems that law is applied only to someone who steals shaving blades worth 300 fils from a commercial complex. Those stealing KD 200,000 and above are exempt. — Al-Anbaa

kuwait digest

Unannounced redaction?

kuwait digest

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij uwait’s political system comprises three authorities, just as is the case in a majority of countries in the world that practice democracy. HH The Amir, being the head of the state in Kuwait, chairs the three authorities, which remain independent and are required to cooperate as per Article 50 of the constitution.

The legislative authority, which is the parliament, is tasked with legislating and monitoring the performance of the executive authority which is the cabinet.

The Cabinet’s duty is to control the state’s interests and carry out the legislations passed by the parliament. The Supreme Judicial Council, which is the judicial authority, adjudicates any disputes between the legislative and executive authorities, and all public disputes.

Given this order of things, the Amir being the head of all three authorities is considered the top man in the state, followed by the parliament’s speaker, the prime minister, president of the Supreme Judicial Council, then the Attorney General in the official hierarchy.

Amalgamating the posts of the Prime Minister and HH the Crown Prince resulted in the premier’s position ‘ascending’ ahead of the speaker’s and now he is considered the second most important man in the state in the pecking order.

This tradition has been followed since independence, at least till last Thursday.

Last Thursday, the state’s official news agency, KUNA, released a report about HH the Amir chairing the Cabinet’s meeting. According to KUNA’s order of importance, HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah was mentioned second in the report after HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, followed

by HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah, and fourth came the name of the Parliament’s Speaker Ali Al-Rashid. The report was carried verbatim by all newspapers the following day, except Al-Qabas which edited it by bringing ahead the name of the speaker to its natural position ahead of the premier’s.

The report could have been written by the Cabinet, the Amiri Dewan or a KUNA reporter.

Regardless, it indicated a major shift in the way the hierarchical order of different authorities is perceived. Putting the executive authority ahead of the legislative authority could possibly be an inadvertent mistake or it could be a prelude to more upcoming steps leading to limiting the influence of the parliament.

And since KUNA is yet to clarify its report, and no clarification has been released by the cabinet or the Amiri Dewan, I can only perceive that what happened was the beginning of a change being forced on the country’s political system and constitution. — Al-Qabas

K

A mercy from Allah

By Aziza Al- Mufarej pecial thanks to the person who made us smile when he stood behind former MP Ahmad AlSaadoun and said he is the one who will turn Kuwait into Switzerland. Of all the places, Switzerland, no less. The problem of people like him is severe naivety.

Ahmad Al-Saadoun remained an MP for nearly 40 years, which is approximately for as long as modern Dubai has been in existence. Still he was unable to contribute to achieving even a quarter of that Emirate’s achievements, at least in the field of cleanliness, organization and fastpaced development. One wonders how he is going to succeed after reaching this advanced age.

The courts have done their duty and pronounced death sentences against murderers who took away loved ones from their families. So, what is the justification for keeping these criminals in prisons, fattening them as years go by and people forget the issue involved? All this while, the victims’ families are waiting for the day when the convicts will receive their punishment. People in primitive societies used to avenge themselves without approaching the government. In case of a civil society, they trust the government and rely on the legal system to secure their rights and punish the criminals. Kuwait is one of those societies. So we need to ask when will the verdicts be implemented and justice served so that people can feel that we live in a state run by law?

One of the simplest things when you appear on TV during an interview or debate is to respect the channel that hosted you and the interviewer who is questioning you along with your fellow guests. It is in bad taste to keep turning your chair and listen with disgust towards your debaters, or keep fiddling with your iPhone, suddenly interrupting them when they say anything you do not like. This is a message to someone who will understand.

I do not think that former MP Jamaan Al-Harbash have visited countries like Britain, The Netherlands and Denmark so frequently, and do not think that a Briton, Dutch or Dane told him “what are those insults you are bearing with”. This is what I heard him saying during a TV interview before the latest elections while criticizing the authorities in Kuwait. If these words were said, then they must have been said in a country Al-Jamman knows very well since whoever opens his mouth to criticize the government in that country faces hard times.

Al-Jamaan also followed up his claim by asked Allah not to put him under control of the lowest class of people.

We, on our part will not do only that, but also thank Allah that he did not place us under the authority of the lowest class of people and saved Kuwait from falling into their hands.

That happened because of its leader HH the Amir and due to the one vote decree which came as a mercy from Allah. If Jamman Al-Harbash and others feel insulted in this country, then they are free to leave but they will never do so for one reason: they will never find a country like Kuwait nor rulers like Al-Sabah.

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

LOCAL

Parliament, Cabinet on collision course over KPC promotions Oil minister faces charges of ‘nepotism’

By A Saleh and agencies

Amir receives Libyan senior official KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received at Al-Seif Palace yesterday, Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-

Sabah, who was escorting visiting envoy of the President of Libya’s General National Congress |(GNC) Ashraf Ali Ibrahim Ghafir. Ghafir delivered the Amir a letter from the Congress’s President

Mohamed Al-Megaryef, regarding bilateral relations. The meeting was also attended by Deputy Minister of the Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah AlSabah. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Oil Minister Hani Husain finds himself in a hot spot as recent staff promotions in the oil sector have triggered allegations of certain employees receiving unfair advantage over other more deserving candidates. While the minister formed a committee to probe potential misconduct, several lawmakers have threatened to “use constitutional tools” to address the “injustice” which they believed was meted to the employees.

“The issue is expected to become a hot topic of discussion that threatens the relationship between parliament and cabinet,” MP Dr. Ali AlOmair said yesterday, quoting information which he said “confirms the need for efforts to put things back on to the right track.”

“There is evidence that justice

and equality were not taken as a basis for the recent staff promotions announced at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation,” he said in a statement to the press.

According to a report published yesterday by Al-Qabas, the dispute was sparked following a meeting between MP Essam Al-Dabous and Managing Director of the KPC Sami Al-Rushaid pertaining to “complaints” that Al-Dabous received personally from those KPC employees “who were excluded from the recent promotions.”

Sources quoted anonymously in the same report also spoke about a potential probe committee to be established in the parliament, which is one option discussed by a group of MPs as a way to deal with the matter.

Some of the strongest words in the parliament came from MP Saleh

Ashour who, in a statement, demanded that all recent promotions be retracted. MP Khalid AlShatty announced plans to “utilize all parliamentary tools”, including filing a grilling motion, in order to address the injustice felt by the complaining employees.

Minister Husain spoke about the subject in exclusive statements to Al-Jarida, defending the staff-related decisions made last Thursday at the Kuwait Oil Company as being “based on professional and scientific basis as well as employees’ evaluation reports”.

He added that the decision to form a probe committee to study the allegations was meant to “ensure transparency”, but refuted at the same time allegations that discrimination on the basis of political and social categories was involved in the promotions.

Medical consultants to visit Kuwait in January KUWAIT: Seventeen international medical advisors will be visiting Kuwait in January to lend their expertise in numerous fields of their profession, said a Health Ministry official here yesterday.

Kuwait-US joint naval exercises conclude KUWAIT: The joint naval exercises between Kuwait and the United States of America concluded with a ceremony held at Sabah Al-Ahmad base. The exercises were held from December 12 to December 27, 2012.

Kuwait Coast Guards, Police Air Wing and the Special Forces represented by SWAT Team participated from the Kuwaiti side while on the American side, participants included Navy Seals and special boats unit from the US Marine Forces.

The exercises included inspection operation at the sea and landing operation on board the ships.

Participants were honored under the patronage of the director of special units, Lt. Colonel Fahad Al-Obaid and the American Forces’ representative Colonel Cesick.

Mementoes were exchanged by both parties.

The managerial grid course, attended by 18 officers, concluded under the patronage of the general director for training, Lt General Hameed Habeeb Al-Sammak.

Major Thamer Saud Al-Suwaileh was also present. Lt General Al-Sammak congratulated those who passed the course and exhorted them to put in more efforts and make use of such courses in their practical life.

Undersecretary at the Health Ministry Dr Khaled Al-Sahlawi said in a press release that the experts would be visiting a number of hospitals in Kuwait during their visit, conducting workshops and seminars to help

develop healthcare services in the country. The official affirmed that the Health Ministry was very keen brining on the brightest minds in medicine to help reinforce the experience of Kuwaiti physicians. —KUNA

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

LOCAL

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al-Saud with the GPA members in 2005.

GPA Secretary General Nasser Al-Othman (left) with the late Amir of Bahrain Sheikh Essa bin Salman Al- Khalifa in a photo taken in 1999.

GPA releases introductory booklet KUWAIT: The Gulf Press Association (GPA) released a booklet providing information about the GPA’s history and efforts leading to its official establishment in 2005. The booklet also traces all the publications it released so far that focused on efforts of leading journalists in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. The 30-page booklet also lists the GPA’s goals as mentioned in the statutes at the founding meeting, and includes a photo album documenting the GPA’s history including a picture showing the GPA members visiting Saudi King Abdullah bin AbdulAziz Al-Saud in Riyadh where the constituent meeting took place. Another photo shows GPA Secretar y General Nasser Al-Othman with Bahrain’s Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa who played a pivotal role in the formation of GPA.

The GPA constituent meeting in 2005.

Newly-elected Kuwaiti head of ALECSO sees challenges Dr Mhareb hopes to upgrade organization TUNIS: Dr Abdullah Mhareb, an advisor at research center of the Kuwaiti Cabinet, said his election as Director-General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific

organization.

A lot of challenges and missions should be tackled during service at the helm of the organization, said Dr Mhareb in a state-

TUNIS: Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Nayef Al-Hajraf with Dr Abdullah Mhareb and other officials.—KUNA Organization (ALECSO) constituted heavy responsibility on his shoulder in view of necessity of updating the 42-year-old

ment, shortly after his election by majority of votes of heads of delegations of ALECSO’s member states, during a general con-

vention of the organization, held here late on Saturday. Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education Nayef AlHajraf said here Saturday Dr Abdullah Mhareb was elected new director-general of the ALECSO. There were another three candidates from Tunisia, Iraq and Mauritania competing over leading the prestigious organization.

Mhareb won 12 votes in a runoff election, while his only rival Abdulatif Ebeid, Morocco’s minister of education and outgoing ALECSO chairman, got nine votes, the Kuwaiti minister said following a fourhour closed meeting.

ALECSO’s reforms will require great efforts and this mission will warrant cooperation from all member states and experts serving in identical organizations such as the UNICEF (the United Nation’s Children Fund) and the ISESCO, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said Dr Mhareb, also a renowned Arabic language professor.

“I hope God will guide me in execution of this huge task, which I will fulfill in cooperation with all Arab states,” said Dr Mhareb, noting his desire to work out a full-scale plan to organize and update the organization’s diverse programs and activities in the realms of culture, education and sciences.

Dr Mhareb and the Kuwaiti delegation to the conference, headed by Minister of Education and Minister of Higher

Education Nayef Al-Hajraf, received good wishes from the delegates including ALECSO’s Secretary General Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Tuwaijri.

Nayef Al-Hajraf said Dr Abdullah Mhareb is a dynamic personality on the local, regional and international levels who is able to lead the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) in this crucial stage. “I take a pride in Dr Mhareb’s election as director general of this important organization,” Al-Hajraf, who leads Kuwait delegation to the 21st ALESCO General Conference, said.

He voiced hope that the organization will be able to discharge its huge responsibilities under the challenging conditions in the Arab world. Al-Hajraf congratulated His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah as well as the entire Kuwait people on the new post of Dr Mhareb.

The Kuwaiti minister renewed his country’s support for the ALECSO, voicing much confidence in its new chief’s ability to lead the pan-Arab organization efficiently.

In this context, he pointed to Kuwait’s relentless backing to all Arab organizations.

Al-Hajraf thanked the GCC member states for supporting Kuwait’s candidate for the post, wishing Mhareb best of luck in his new position. — KUNA

MOE new projects valued at KD 321m KUWAIT: Ministr y of Education’s Assistant Undersecretar y for Educational Buildings Mohammad Al-Sayegh announced yesterday the new projects of ministry’s developmental plan for years (2014-2015-2016-2017-2018) valued KD 321 million.

Al-Sayegh said that KD 249 million were allocated to projects of demolishing and rebuilding old and dilapidated schools, besides building new schools in cooperation with public education sector.

The new developmental plan includes building new 50 schools between years 2010-2014, while ten schools were already built, he added.

The new plan includes the project of a new building dedicated for the private education sector, besides a building for National Center for Education Development at Al-Salmiya area, of an expected estimated cost of no less than KD5 million per each project.

The Ministry’s plan also includes six centers to train teachers and administrators in each educational area, while the first center was opened in Al-Jahra, with a preliminary cost of the project valued KD four million. —KUNA

TEC rewards Khairan Resort staff

Director of the Khairan Resort Adnan Zinedine.

KUWAIT: The Khairan Resort organized its annual ‘end of the year’ event to reward staff members at the facility. The event was attended by senior Touristic Enterprises Company officials including Vice Chairman and Managing Director Khalid AlGhanim, Deputy Managing Director

for the Entertainment City Affairs, Meshary Al-Sanousy, and Director of the Khairan Resort Adnan Zinedine.

The celebration opened with a speech by Zinedine in which he praised the staff members’ efforts in contributing to the success of various activities being hosted by the

Khairan Resor t in 2012. He also applauded the management’s support in “helping achieve this success”. Al-Ghanim followed it with a speech in which he recognized the workers’ efforts throughout the year.

He also supervised the distribution of presents.

Vice Chairman and Managing Director Khalid AlGhanim

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

Pak militants kill 41 in mass execution, attack on Shiites

CAR president ready to share power with rebels Page 8

Page 12

NEW DELHI: Indian protesters hold banners and wear black ribbons during a rally yesterday following the cremation of a gang-raped victim in the Indian capital. — AFP

India gang-rape victim cremated Woman was due to marry • New alleged gang rape outside Kolkata

NEW DELHI: The body of a woman, whose gang rape provoked protests and rare national debate about violence against women in India, arrived back in New Delhi yesterday and was cremated at a private ceremony, as it emerged she was planning to marry in February. Scuffles broke out in central Delhi between police and protesters who say the government is doing too little to protect women.

But the 2,000-strong rally was confined to a single area, unlike last week when protests raged up throughout the capital. Riot police manned barricades along streets leading to India Gate war memorial - a focal point for demonstrators - and, at another gathering point - the centuries-old Jantar Mantar - protesters held banners reading “We want justice!” and “Capital punishment”.

Mourners revealed the victim had been due to wed a boyfriend who was injured in the same attack. “They had made all the wedding preparations and had planned a wedding party in Delhi” for February, said Meena Rai, who was a close friend and neighbour. “I really loved this girl. She was the brightest of all.”

Most sex crimes in India go unreported, many offenders go unpunished, and the wheels of justice turn slowly, according to social activists, who say that successive governments have done little to ensure the safety of women. The unidentified 23year-old victim of the Dec 16 gang rape died of her

injuries on Saturday, prompting promises of action from a government that has struggled to respond to public outrage. The medical student had suffered brain injuries and massive internal injuries in the attack and died in hospital in Singapore where she had been taken for treatment.

She and her boyfriend had been returning home from the cinema, media reports say, when six men on a bus beat them with metal rods and repeatedly raped the woman. The friend survived.

New Delhi has the highest number of sex crimes among India’s major cities, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, police figures show.

Reported rape cases rose by nearly 17 percent between 2007 and 2011, according to government data. Six suspects were charged with murder after her death and face the death penalty if convicted.

In Kolkata, one of India’s four biggest cities, police said a man reported that his mother had been gang-raped and killed by a group of six men in a small town near the city on Saturday. She was killed on her way home with her husband, a senior official said, and the attackers had thrown acid at the husband, raped and killed her, and dumped her body in a roadside pond. Police declined to give any further details. One officer told Reuters no criminal investigation had yet been launched.

The leader of India’s ruling Congress party, Sonia Gandhi, was seen arriving at the airport

when the plane carrying the woman’s body from Singapore landed and Prime Minister Mannmohan Singh’s convoy was also there. A Reuters correspondent saw family members who had been with her in Singapore take her body from the airport to their Delhi home in an ambulance with a police escort. Her body was then taken to a crematorium and cremated. Media were kept away but a Reuters witness saw the woman’s family, New Delhi’s chief minister, Sheila Dikshit, and the junior home minister, R P N Singh, coming out of the crematorium.

The outcry over the attack caught the government off guard. It took a week for the prime minister to make a statement, infuriating many protesters. Last weekend they fought pitched battles with police. Issues such as rape, dowry-related deaths and female infanticide rarely enter mainstream political discourse. Analysts say the death of the woman dubbed “Amanat”, an Urdu word meaning “treasure”, by some Indian media could change that, though it is too early to say whether the protesters can sustain their momentum through to national elections due in 2014.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon added his voice to those demanding change, calling for “further steps and reforms to deter such crimes and bring perpetrators to justice”. Commentators and sociologists say the incident earlier this month has tapped into a deep well of frustration many Indians feel over what they see as weak governance and poor leadership on social issues. Newspapers raised doubts about the commitment of both male politicians and the police to protecting women. “Would the Indian political system and class have been so indifferent to the problem of sexual violence if half or even onethird of all legislators were women?” the Hindu newspaper asked. The Indian Express said it was more complicated than realising that the police force was understaffed and underpaid. “It is geared towards dominating citizens rather than working for them, not to mention being open to influential interests,” the newspaper said. “It reflects the misogyny around us, rather than actively fighting for the rights of citizens who happen to be female.”

— Agencies

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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

India rape death prompts soul searching in S Africa JOHANNESBURG: The death of a young Indian woman who suffered organ failure after being gang raped reverberated beyond Asia Saturday to South Africa, a country battling its own epidemic levels of sexual violence.

News of the 23-year-old’s tragic death in a Singapore hospital where she had been taken for treatment prompted a groundswell of anger and a good deal of introspection about why South Africa persistently has some of the highest incidences of rape in world.

Official statistics show there were almost 65,000 sexual offences in South Africa last year, but police estimate only one in 36 rape cases is reported.

Based on those figures it is possible 2.3 million South Africans were victims of

sexual offences, out of a total population of 50 million.

So South Africa is all too able to empathise with the victims of horrendous acts of sexual violence. In addition it also has a large Indian population. But events in Delhi and Singapore appear to have struck a painful chord in large part because of the subsequent protests in India, which raised difficult questions about whether South Africans were doing enough to come to terms with their own crisis.

“Here rapists attack everyone - from babies up to grannies and we sit and do nothing. A revolution is taking place in India,” said commentator Pinky Khoabane. “We need the good men to stand up,” Khoabane said, decrying

what she said was systemic pattern of femicide. An estimated 28 percent of South African men have committed rape, according to data from the Medical Research Council of South Africa and the International Center for Research on Women. That compares to 24 percent of Indian men according to the same data.

South Africa often appears to have become accustomed to levels of sexual violence that would be considered intolerable in other countries. In November six South African village boys, including one aged 10, were charged with rape and the murder of three other children, in a case that hardly made the newspapers.

South African President Jacob

Zuma’s rape trial - at which he was acquitted - and the filmed gang rape of a 17-year-old girl with a mental age of four were notable exceptions, and both sparked a national debate. But analysts say that the general resignation about sexual violence has partly to do with who the victims are. Based on statistics from Gauteng - which encompasses Johannesburg and Pretoria researchers have shown that almost 89 percent of reported rapes involve black women, who are predominantly poor.

Some 58 percent of the victims were unemployed and 15 percent were under the age of 11, according to figures published in the journal Crime Quarterly. The same data showed 16 percent of reported rape cases in South

Africa involve gang rape. In a heated Twitter debate on Saturday Zwelinzima Vavi, head of the union umbrella group COSATU - which is part of the ANC-led tripartite alliance that governs the country -angrily dismissed claims sexual violence was caused by poverty or apartheid.

“No one can tell me that raping a three-month-(old) baby or 87-year-old granny or burning a library or vandalizing a school is caused by poverty,” he wrote. “Poverty can’t lead to an erection when seeing a 90-year or threemonth-old.” “Yes, apartheid humiliated, dehumanised and made people feel valueless - its existence in the past is no excuse for current moral degeneration,” he added. — AFP

CAR president ready to share power with rebels Rebel fighters within 75 km of capital

CAIRO: UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi (left) shakes hands with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby following a joint press conference at the Arab League headquarters yesterday. — AP

Brahimi says has plan all world powers may back CAIRO: International envoy Lakhdar Brahimi warned yesterday the Syrian war was worsening “by the day” as he announced a peace plan he believed could find support from world powers, including key Syria ally Russia. Brahimi’s comments came as Russia despatched a third warship to its naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus in readiness for a possible evacuation of its nationals and as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told Syrian refugees that victory over the “tyrant” President Bashar Al-Assad was at hand.

The situation in Syria “is very bad and getting worse by the day,” Brahimi told reporters in Cairo, a day after warning in Moscow that Damascus faced a choice between “hell or the political process.” He said he had crafted a ceasefire plan “that could be adopted by the international community”. “I have discussed this plan with Russia and Syria... I think this proposal could be adopted by the international community,” the UN and Arab League envoy said, without giving details.

“There is a proposal for a political solution based on the Geneva declaration foreseeing a ceasefire, forming a government with complete prerogatives and a plan for parliamentary and presidential elections,” he said, referring to a peace initiative that world powers agreed to in Geneva in June. That plan was rejected by Syria’s opposition, which is adamant that Assad’s departure is a given before any national dialogue such as that under the Geneva initiative can take place. Russia and China have so far vetoed three Security Council draft resolutions seeking to force Assad’s hand with the threat of sanctions. Brahimi held talks in Moscow on Saturday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on his end-of-year bid to accelerate moves to halt the conflict that monitors say has killed 45,000 people. The talks came amid signs that Russia was beginning to distance itself from Assad’s government. Moscow dispatched a third naval vessel to the eastern Mediterranean on Sunday in readiness for a possible evacuation of Russian nationals, many of them

women who married Syrian men during the Cold War years of close relations.

The Novocherkassk landing ship joined the Azov and Nikolai Filchenkov amphibious vessels already en route for Syria since Friday and is expected to dock in Tartus in the first 10 days of the new year, Russian news agencies reported. The Tartus base is Russia’s only remaining naval station outside the former Soviet Union and is seen as a major strategic asset for Moscow.

Russia has been accused of using the base to supply Assad’s government with secret military shipments supplementing the official weapons sales that Moscow has made to Damascus since Soviet times.

But recent rebel gains prompted Russia to admit for the first time this month that Assad’s days in power may be numbered.

The Turkish premier visited a Syrian refugee camp near the border accompanied by armed opposition National Coalition chief Ahmed Moaz Al-Khatib. “I can see it clearly that the help of God is near,” Erdogan said. “You have suffered so much but do not despair.” Turkey is currently home to almost 150,000 Syrian refugees. It is also the principal rear-base for the rebels.

On the ground, at least 63 people were killed in violence yesterday, 40 of them civilians, according to a preliminary toll from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Among seven people killed in an air strike in the central province of Hama were a man, his wife and young daughter, the Britain-based watchdog said. South of second city Aleppo, rebels spearheaded by fighters of the jihadist Al-Nusra Front blacklisted by Washington for its suspected links to Al-Qaeda launched a fierce assault on besieged troops in the Hamidiyeh base near the strategic crossroads town of Maaret Al-Numan.

In Idlib province in the northwest, rebels downed a military helicopter near the Taftanaz airbase, the Observatory said.

In Homs province in the centre, troops shelled rebel positions around Krak des Chevaliers, a UNESCO-listed Crusader castle that is one of the jewels of Syria’s architectural heritage. — AFP

RAMADI, Iraq: Protesters chant slogans against Iraq’s Shiite-led government yesterday. Gunshots wounded at least two people at the demonstrations when bodyguards protecting a senior Sunni politician opened fire to disperse protesters, a local official said, marking the first casualties in a week of rallies. — AP

BANGUI: Central African Republic’s embattled President Francois Bozize said yesterday he was ready to share power with the leaders of a rebellion that has swept aside government defences to within striking distance of the capital. The three-week old onslaught by the rebel alliance Seleka has highlighted the instability of the landlocked former French colony, which remains one of the least developed nations on the planet despite its rich deposits of uranium, gold and diamonds. “I am ready to form a government of national unity with Seleka to run the country together, because I am a democrat,” Bozize told a news conference following a meeting with African Union Chairman Thomas Yayi Boni in the capital Bangui.

He added that he was ready to attend peace talks that are being organised by regional leaders in Libreville, Gabon, “without condition and without delay”. It was unclear if the offer would defuse a crisis that has posed the biggest threat to Bozize’s nearly 10 years in charge of the country, nestled in the midst of a turbulent region known for wars and haunted by armed groups.

A spokesman for the rebels said the group would consider Bozize’s offer, but added its aim was not to join the existing government.

“I take note of his proposals. We need to meet to study them,” Seleka spokesman Eric Massi told France 24 television. He said the rebels also wanted to see what guarantees would be made to them. “Know that Seleka’s aim today is not to enter into a government but to allow the people of Central African Republic to be able to drive the country towards development and self-fulfillment,” he said.

Seleka, an alliance of three armed groups, accuses Bozize of failing to honour a 2007 deal under which members who laid down their guns were meant to be paid. It claims to have a force of more than 3,000 men and to have positions within 75 km of Bangui.The last time rebels reached Bangui was in 2003 during the insurgency that swept Bozize to power. Residents in the ramshackle riverside capital have either fled or stockpiled food and

BANGUI: President of the Central African Republic Francois Bozize (third left) arrives at the airport to meet the current president of the African Union, the President of Benin, for talks over the current crisis. — AFP water in their homes in preparation for a rebel attack. The streets of the city were largely deserted on Sunday save for military patrols and a trickle of churchgoers. Youths carrying machetes had set up makeshift barricades along main roads during a driving ban imposed overnight. “There is a great deal of fear here now, and people are hiding their belongings and seeking safety,” said Genael Dongonbo, a student at Bangui University from the northern town of Bambari. “I’d also like to leave, but I have no money and the rebels have already seized my town.”

With a government that holds little sway outside the capital, some parts of the country have long endured the consequences of conflicts spilling over from troubled neighbours Chad, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Central African Republic is one of a number of countries in the region where US Special Forces are helping local forces try to track down the Lord’s Resistance Army, a rebel group which has killed thousands of civilians

Turkey talking to jailed Kurd leader ANKARA: Turkey is holding talks with the Kurdish rebels’ jailed leader to press the autonomy-seeking guerrilla group to relinquish arms and end its decades-long conflict, a senior official was quoted as saying yesterday. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s chief adviser, Yalcin Akdogan, insisted in an interview with Taraf newspaper that the discussions were aimed at convincing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, to lay down its arms for good. He said Turkey was not seeking any kind of a temporary truce, similar to those the PKK has declared in the past and which critics say allow the group to recoup before resuming attacks on Turkish military targets.

“The basic aim of the meetings is not a temporary ceasefire but to push the organization to put down its arms,” Taraf quoted Akdogan as saying. Akdogan’s comments came days after Erdogan also said Turkey’s intelligence agency has resumed discussions with rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who is serving a life term on a prison island off Istanbul. “As long as we see a light we’ll continue to talk. If there is no light, we’ll stop there,” Erdogan said, without providing details on the discussions.

Turkey - which has been torn between a desire for reconciliation with Kurds and its stated aim of battling a group it regards as terrorists - has admitted holding secret discussions with Ocalan and other PKK members in recent years. Officials have said those talks failed. The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives since the rebels - who are seeking self-rule for Kurds in southeast Turkey - took up arms in 1984. Turkey’s Western allies also label the group a terrorist organization. The Kurdish minority comprises more than 20 percent of Turkey’s 75 million people. The resumption of talks with Ocalan comes amid a surge in violence this year which has killed hundreds of PKK rebels, Turkish security force members and civilians. Ocalan, imprisoned since 1999, is believed to still hold sway over the PKK. Last month, at Ocalan’s request, hundreds of Kurdish prisoners ended a hunger strike they had started to demand more rights for Kurds and improved jail conditions.

Erdogan’s government has granted unprecedented rights to Kurds since coming to power in 2002, including opening a Kurdish-language television station and allowing optional Kurdish language courses in schools. — AP

across four nations. Regional neighbours agreed on Friday to send more troops to shore up CAR’s army after a string of defeats this month, and after French President Francois Hollande rejected a plea for Western military help made by Bozize last week. The Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) already has more than 500 peacekeepers in CAR. Officials did not say how many more would be added or when they would arrive. About 1,200 French nationals live in CAR, mostly working for mining firms and aid groups in the capital. The French defence ministry sources said Paris had in recent days boosted its force in CAR to nearly 600 from an existing 250-strong deployment safeguarding French citizens.

French nuclear energy group Areva mines the Bakouma uranium deposit in CAR’s south - France’s biggest commercial interest in its former colony. The United States said on Thursday it had closed its embassy in Bangui and evacuated its staff. — Reuters

15 slaughtered in Nigeria KANO, Nigeria: Suspected extremists have killed 15 Christians by slitting their throats in an attack on a village in Nigeria’s volatile northeast, residents and a relief source said yesterday.

The gruesome violence was the latest to be blamed on Islamist extremist group Boko Haram, though this Christmas season has been notably less bloody than in 2011, when attacks on churches and other locations left scores dead. “From the information we gathered, the attackers broke into selected homes and slaughtered 15 people in their sleep,” the relief official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak publicly.

Authorities had previously confirmed the predawn Friday attack in Musari, but gave few details and said only five were killed. Musari is located on the outskirts of Maiduguri, Boko Haram’s base. Lieutenant Colonel Sagir Musa, spokesman for a military task force in the area, told AFP on Sunday that he stood by the toll of five dead, adding that some were shot and others attacked with machetes.

Nigerian authorities tend to underreport death tolls however, and the relief official’s information matched up with that of residents, who spoke of 15 people having their throats slit.

Speaking of the victims, the relief official said “they included one traffic warden and 14 civilians. The victims were selected because they were all Christians, some of whom had moved into the neighbourhood from other parts of the city hit by Boko Haram attacks.” Residents said they suspected the attackers were from Boko Haram.

“The attackers came in and silently went into homes whose residents were all Christians and slit the throats of their victims. They killed 15 people,” one resident said.

An earlier military statement on the

attack had said “unknown gunmen sneaked into Musari community ... and secretly carried out selective killings of five people including a serving Nigerian police traffic warden”.

Residents said that a number of people have moved into the Musari area to flee violence in Maiduguri, which has faced incessant bombings and shootings blamed on Boko Haram.

Violence linked to Boko Haram’s insurgency in northern and central Nigeria has left some 3,000 people dead since 2009, including killings by the security forces. Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

While Boko Haram’s victims have often included Muslims, the group has also specifically targeted Christians, including bombings of churches. There have previously been instances of victims having their throats slit in attacks.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan has accused the group of seeking to ignite a religious crisis in the nation of some 160 million people.

During a Christmas Eve service last week, gunmen attacked a church in northeastern Yobe state, killing six people, including the pastor, before setting the building ablaze.

Boko Haram has claimed to be fighting for the creation of an Islamic state in Nigeria, though its demands have repeatedly shifted and it is believed to include a number of factions with varying aims.

Nigeria’s militar y has also been accused of major abuses in its response to Boko Haram’s attacks, including killings of civilians and the burning of homes. Human Rights Watch recently alleged that Nigerian security forces as well as Boko Haram may both be guilty of crimes against humanity. — AFP

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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

Storms on US Plains stir memories of ‘Dust Bowl’ LIBERAL, Kansas: Real estate agent Mark Faulkner recalls a day in early November when he was putting up a sign near Ulysses, Kansas, in 60miles-per-hour winds that blew up blinding dust clouds. “There were places you could not see, it was blowing so hard,” Faulkner said.

Residents of the Great Plains over the last year or so have experienced storms reminiscent of the 1930s Dust Bowl. Experts say the new storms have been brought on by a combination of historic drought, a dwindling Ogallala Aquifer underground water supply, climate change and government farm programs.

Nearly 62 percent of the United States was gripped by drought, as of Dec 25, and “exceptional” drought enveloped parts of Kansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico, according to the US Drought Monitor. There is no relief in sight for the Great Plains at least through the winter, according to Drought Monitor forecasts, which could portend more dust clouds. A wave of dust storms during the 1930s crippled agriculture over a vast area of the Great Plains and led to an exodus of people, many to California, dramatized in John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath”.

While few people believe it could get that bad again, the new storms have some experts worried that similar conditions - if not the catastrophic environmental disaster of the 1930s - are returning to parts of Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas and Colorado. “I hope we don’t talk ourselves into complacency with easy assumptions that a Dust Bowl could never happen again,” said Craig Cox, agriculture director for the Environmental Working Group, a national conservation group that supports converting more tilled soil to grassland. “Instead, we should do what it takes to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

Satellite images on Dec 19 showed a dust storm stretching over an area of 240 km from extreme southwestern Oklahoma across the Panhandle of Texas around Lubbock to extreme eastern New Mexico, said Jody James, National Weather Service meteorologist in Lubbock.

Visibility was reduced to half a mile in places, stoked by high winds, he said. At least one person was killed and more than a dozen injured in car crashes. “I definitely think these dust storms will become more common until we get more measurable precipitation,” James said.

The Great Plains is a flat, semiarid, area with few trees, where vast herds of buffalo once thrived on native grasses. Settlers plowed up most of the grassland in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to create the wheat-growing breadbasket of the United States, encouraged by high commodity prices and free “homestead” land from the government. The era known as the “Dirty

30s” - chronicled by Ken Burns in a Public Broadcasting Service documentary that aired in November was when a 1930s drought gripped the Great Plains and winds carried away exposed soil in massive dust clouds. Bill Fitzgerald, 87, a farmer near Sublette, Kansas, remembers “Black Sunday” on April 14, 1935, when a clear, sunny day in southwest Kansas turned black as night by mid afternoon because of a massive cloud of dust that swept from Nebraska to the Texas panhandle.

“My older brother and I were in my dad’s 1927 or ‘28 Chevy truck a mile north and a mile west of the house and we saw it rolling in,” Fitzgerald said. “It was about 10 pm when it cleared enough for us to go home.”

Farming practices have vastly improved since the 1930s. Farmers now leave plant remnants on the top of the soil and less soil is exposed, to preserve moisture and prevent erosion. Irrigation beginning in the 1940s from the Ogallala aquifer, a huge network of water under the Great Plains, also made land less vulnerable to dust storms.

But the Ogallala aquifer is drying up after years of drawing out more water than was replenished. Many farmers have had to drill deeper wells to find water. Others are giving up on irrigation altogether, which means they can no longer grow crops of high-yielding and lucrative corn. They will instead grow wheat, cotton or grain sorghum on dry land, which depends completely on natural precipitation in an area that typically gets 20 inches of rain a year or less.

Near Sublette, Kansas, farmer Gail Wright said he would probably give up irrigating two square miles of his land and would plant wheat and grain sorghum instead of corn because of the diminishing aquifer.

Drilling deeper wells would cost $120,000 each, Wright said. “When we drilled those wells in the 1960s and 70s, we were doing 1,500 or 1,600 gallons per minute,” said Wright. “Now, they are down to anywhere from 400 to 600 gallons per minute. We probably pumped out 200 feet of water.”

Another farmer in Sublette, 79year-old Lawrence Withers, whose family farms land his grandfather settled in 1887, is resigned to a future without irrigation. “We have pumped 170 feet off the aquifer, that’s gone. There’s just a little tick of water at the bottom,” he said. The Ogallala supplies water to 456,000 sq km of land in parts of eight states from the Texas panhandle to southern South Dakota. That amounts to about 27 percent of all irrigated land in the nation, according to the US Geological Survey.

The volume of water in the aquifer stood at about 2.9 billion acre feet in 2009, a decline of about 9 percent since 1950, according to the Geological Survey. About twoand-a-half times as much water was drawn out in the 14 years ended

2009 as during the prior 15-year period, data shows. The water may run out in 25 years or less in parts of Texas, Oklahoma and southwest Kansas, although in other areas it has 50 to 200 years left, according to the Geological Survey.

Rationing has been imposed on irrigation in the region but it may be too little too late. “It’s a situation where across the Plains the demand far exceeds the annual recharge,” said Mark Rude, executive director of the Southwest Kansas Groundwater Management District. The worst drought in decades has exacerbated the situation. The semi-arid area around Lubbock, which typically gets about 19 inches of rain a year, received less than 6 inches in 2011, the lowest ever recorded. This year was better but still far below normal at 12.5 inches, meteorologist James said.

Climate change is also having an impact on the region, said atmospheric scientist Katharine Hayhoe, co-director of the Climate Science Center at Texas Tech University in Lubbock. “It is definitely hotter in the summer and drier in the summer because of climate change,” she said. The average annual temperature in Lubbock has increased by one full degree over the last decade, according to National Weather Service data, and the average amount of rainfall has fallen during summer months by about .50 inch over the decade.

Some say government policies are making things worse. Federal government subsidized crop insurance pays farmers whether they produce a crop or not, encouraging farmers to plant even in a drought year. Another subsidized US government program that pays farmers to take sensitive marginal land out of crop production and put it into grassland is gradually shrinking.

In a possible case of history repeating itself, high commodity prices are encouraging farmers to break up the land and plant crops when the 10-year conservation contracts with the government expire, said environmentalist Cox.This is similar to what happened in the 1920s when vast areas of grassland were plowed up. The government also has imposed restrictions on how much land can go into conservation reserves to save money at a time of massive US budget deficits, he said. The amount of land in conservation reserves has declined by more than 2.3 million acres over the last five years in five states of the Great Plains - Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado and New Mexico, according to US Agriculture Department data. If most of that land is plowed up for crops it could lead to more dust storms in the future. “I think you are probably going to see increased erosion if that happens,” said Richard Zartman, Chairman of the Plant and Soil Science Department at Texas Tech, adding that it was unlikely to get as bad as the Dust Bowl days. — Reuters

Obama wants gun violence measures passed in 2013 President to press issue with public WASHINGTON: Recalling the shooting of 20 first graders as the worst day of his presidency, President Barack Obama yesterday pledged to put his “full weight” behind a legislative package next year aimed at containing gun violence. In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama voiced skepticism about proposals to place armed guards at schools in the aftermath of the Dec 14 deadly assault at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. In his boldest terms yet, he vowed to rally the American people around an agenda to limit gun violence and said he still supports increased background checks and bans on assault weapons and high capacity bullet magazines.

“It is not enough for us to say, ‘This is too hard so we’re not going to try,’” Obama said. “So what I intend to do is I will call all the stakeholders together. I will meet with Republicans. I will meet with Democrats. I will talk to anybody. I think there are a vast majority of responsible gun owners out there who recognize that we can’t have a situation in which somebody with severe psychological problems is able to get the kind of high capacity weapons that this individual in Newtown obtained and gun down our kids. And, yes, it’s going to be hard.”

Obama’s comments come as the schoolroom shooting has elevated the issue of gun violence to the forefront of public attention. Six adults also died at the school. Authorities say the shooter killed himself and also killed his mother at their home. The slayings have prompted renewed calls for greater gun controls. The National Rifle Association has resisted those efforts

COLLEGE STATION, Texas: In this Dec 19, 2012 file photo, a customer checks out a shotgun at Burdett & Son Outdoor Adventure Shop. — AP vociferously, arguing instead that schools should have armed guards for protection. “I am skeptical that the only answer is putting more guns in schools,” Obama said. “And I think the vast majority of the American people are skeptical that that somehow is going to solve our problem.”

Obama said he intended to press the issue with the public. “Will there be resistance? Absolutely there will be resistance,” he said. “The question then becomes whether we are actually shook up enough by what happened here that it does not just become another one of these routine episodes where it gets a lot of attention for a couple of weeks and then it drifts away.

It certainly won’t feel like that to me.

This is something that - you know, that was the worst day of my presidency.

And it’s not something that I want to see repeated.”Besides getting gun vio-

lence legislation passed next year, Obama also listed immigration as a top priority for 2013 as well as deficit reduction. A big deficit reduction deal with Republicans proved elusive this month and Obama is now hoping Senate Democratic and Republican leaders salvage a scaled back plan that avoids across the board tax increases for virtually all Americans. He issued a defense of former Republican Sen Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, who has been mentioned as one of the leading candidates for new secretary of defense.

Hagel, who opposed President George W Bush’s decision to go to war with Iraq, has been criticized in conservative circles for not being a strong enough ally of Israel. Many liberals and gay activists also have banded against him for comments he made in 1998 about an openly gay nominee for an ambassadorship. — AP

Woman charged in subway pushing NEW YORK: A woman suspected of shoving a man to his death in front of an oncoming New York subway train was arrested on Saturday and charged with “second-degree murder as a hate crime” in the second such fatality this month for one of the world’s busiest transit systems. The district attorney for the New York City borough of Queens said Erika Menendez, 31, who was seen pacing the subway platform and muttering to herself before the attack, had told investigators that she pushed the victim, Sunando Sen, 46, on Thursday because “I hate Hindus and Muslims.”

Menendez was taken into custody in Brooklyn by authorities acting on a tip from someone who recognized the suspect from video of the incident that was aired on television, a spokeswoman for the district attorney told Reuters. “The defendant is accused of committing what is every subway commuter’s worst nightmare - being suddenly and senselessly pushed into the path of an oncoming train,” District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

“Beyond that, the hateful remarks allegedly made by the defendant and which precipitated the defen-

Erika Menendez dant’s actions can never be tolerated in a civilized society,” he said. The prosecutor’s statement quoted Menendez as telling investigators: “I pushed a Muslim off the train tracks because I hate Hindus and Muslims ever since 2001 when they put down the twin towers I’ve been beating them up.” Her alleged admission was an apparent reference to the Sept 11, 2001, attack on Manhattan’s World Trade Center by Muslim extremists who flew two hijacked jetliners into the twin towers.

Brown’s statement gave no indication of the victim’s ethnicity or religion or Menendez might have taken Sen to be a Muslim. The spokes-

woman for the prosecutor’s office, Meris Campbell, said she did not believe the victim was wearing any clothing that would have led someone to identify him as being a Muslim. Menendez is awaiting arraignment in Queens Criminal Court on a criminal complaint charging her with second-degree murder as a hate crime, an offense that carries a minimum sentence of 20 years to life in prison. The minimum penalty for second-degree murder alone is 15 years to life, Campbell said. If convicted, Menendez could face a maximum penalty of 25 years to life.

Witnesses told police a woman appeared to be mumbling and pacing Thursday evening before she approached an unsuspecting man from behind on the platform of an elevated station in the borough of Queens. She then shoved him onto the subway track as the train pulled into the station, witnesses said. Brown said Sen died of multiple blunt-force trauma. After shoving Sen on Thursday, the suspect ran from the station to the street in a scene caught on surveillance video footage that police released on Friday as they searched for her. — Agencies

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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

Serb nationalist regime turns step closer to EU BELGRADE: Serbia’s new government, a deja vu coalition of nationalists and socialists that led the country during the 1990s bloody Balkan wars, has surprised many with its pro European moves, especially regarding breakaway Kosovo. After winning a May general election, the once ultranationalists turned conservative populists of President Tomislav Nikolic’s Serbian Progressive par ty joined ranks with the Socialists, the party of the late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The new government took over from the pro-European reformers who led Serbia for more than a decade through its uneasy transition from a once pariah nation towards a candidate countr y to join the European Union. But as the new regime settled in some feared it would push Serbia back into the era when it incited conflicts in Croatia and Bosnia and triggered 1999 NATO

air strikes over the Serb forces’ brutal crackdown on the pro-independence ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo.

“The fear of a return to the 1990s was justified... but they have changed policies” after coming to power, said Antonela Riha, political editor of the influential NIN weekly. What is motivating the government is the goal of joining the European club. “ They obviously intend to meet all EU-set conditions to start accession talks,” Riha told AFP. An improved relationship with Kosovo is a key condition for Serbia, an EU candidate since 2011, to obtain a date for launching accession talks.

In an effort to meet those conditions, Belgrade has removed all obstacles to Pristina’s representation at regional meetings, which it had previously blocked after Kosovo unilaterally proclaimed independence in 2008, which Serbia still refuses to recognise.

There have also been higher-level

meetings with Prime Minister Ivica Dacic holding EU-mediated talks with his Kosovo counterpart Hashim Thaci, a move unthinkable during the previous regime.

Belgrade’s cooperation in managing the borders with Kosovo was praised by both Brussels and Washington, which have encouraged the new regime’s attitude. Even the government’s political opponents ack nowledge the signs of a pro European path. “I believe they will be granted the date for EU accession talks by next June if they continue this way,” said Milica Delevic, head of the Serbian parliament’s Committee for EU integration.

Delevic, a member of the opposition Democratic par ty, however warned that the authorities would have to “make more concrete steps in improving relations with Kosovo” to achieve that goal. Besides Kosovo, still a sensitive issue for many Serbs,

widespread corruption is another concern of EU diplomats, who have urged Serbia to root it out to get closer to Brusselsthe Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic is heading a vast anti-graft initiative. Dozens have been arrested including the richest Serbian tycoon Miroslav Miskovic and two former ministers on suspicion of corruption and abuse of power. If Serbia wants to move on, the new “government had to be much more responsible than anybody thought it would be,” Vucic told AFP in an interview. He said the government would introduce “key system reforms in 2013” to fight corruption and revive the ailing economy. In a country of seven million the unemployment rate has reached 25.5 percent and public debt has risen over 60 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). “If we manage all this... and obtain the date for EU accession talks, I believe that Serbia will really be on

the right track,” Vucic said. However, analysts warn that the real anti-graft drive must not end with several “spectacular” arrests, but should include a systematic fight against corruption and a strengthening of institutions in accordance with EU standards. “If he ( Vucic) would make a step in that direction, not only should we applaud him, but congratulate him for what he has done,” said Vladimir Pavicevic, a professor at Belgrade’s Faculty of Political Sciences. Riha said it was yet to be seen whether the authorities “have the capacity to reform (state) institutions.... This is a real challenge.”

Western powers have openly supported the moves by Serbia’s new regime despite the country’s worrisome past. But they want to see results. “As much as we welcome these moves, we hope they will result in successful outcomes,” said a Western diplomat who requested anonymity. —AFP

Bad brakes cited in plane crash MOSCOW: Russian investigators yesterday blamed a defective brake system for a Moscow airport crash that killed five crew members when a liner skidded off the runway and smashed into a highway. Rescue workers recovered the flight recorders from the four-year-old Tu204 of tycoon Alexander Lebedev’s Red Wings airlines late Saturday as Russia began mourning its latest postSoviet crash fatalities. “The plane touched down in the proper landing area but for some reason was unable to stop on the strip,” Federal Air Transport Agency chief Alexander Neradko said in televised remarks.

“According to preliminary data, the pilots used all the brake systems available on the plane,” an unidentified investigator told the Interfax news agency. “But for some reason, the aircraft failed to stop and continued moving” down the runway. “Most likely, the cause was defective reverse engines or brakes.” Red Wings said a flight attendant died of her injuries yesterday to bring the toll to five. Three others were recovering in stable condition.

Greater loss of life was averted only because the 210seat liner was empty except for the eight crew returning from a charter flight to the Czech Republic. Cell phone footage of the accident posted online showed chunks of debris hurtling over the highway and crashing into cars whose drivers had to swerve and make emergency stops. The jet split into three pieces and required the temporary shutdown of both the Kiev Highway and Vnukovo - Moscow’s third largest airport and the site of a special terminal for Kremlin officials.

Red Wings owner Lebedev - a billionaire famous for his critical view of the Kremlin and his ownership of the London Evening Standard and The Independent in Britain - said the jet had recently passed a meticulous check. “Plane number 47 had accumulated 8,500 flight hours and underwent its last thorough check on November 23,” Lebedev said on his Twitter feed. He also suggested that traffic controllers’ initial refusal to authorise landing - requiring the plane to complete several circles over Vnukovo in bad weather - may have been a contributing factor. “All machinery has its limits, even when it is new,” Lebedev wrote.

Russian media said the authorities had concerns about the Tu-204 jet’s ability to stop in various weather conditions even before Saturday’s crash landing. They cited a letter sent by the state aviation watchdog Rosaviatsya to the jet’s maker on Friday asking about an incident last week in which the engines failed to fire into reverse on landing. The manoeuvre is required for the plane to slow down quickly upon touchdown. The russianplanes.net aviation website said the very same jet had suffered an engine failure and was forced to make an emergency landing in June 2009. Smoke could be seen coming out of the Tupolev’s right engine after Saturday’s incident.

Russianplanes.net said Lebedev’s airline had in fact decided not to order any more Tu-204 planes after the 2009 incident because of the engine problems. The latest line of Tupolev jets was developed in the late Soviet era as the preferred replacement for the workhorse Tu154 liner that still dominates Russian skies. But only 50 or so of the more modern versions of Tupolev are in operation because of slow orders and continuing efforts to modernise the jet’s engines.

The planes that do fly are most often used by charter companies - both private and those belonging to the state. A spokesman for the Russian Football Union said the national squad used the plane that crashed on Saturday for its flights to away matches in 2009-10. One photograph published online showed the Russian Football Union’s insignia on one of the segments of the plane’s debris. Russia has experienced a recent surge of air accidents involving ageing equipment and poor maintenance work conducted by a growing array of small and largely unregulated airlines crisscrossing the vast country. The emergencies ministry says that some 200 Russians have died in air disasters in the past two years alone. — AFP

MOSCOW: A truck removes the cabin of the Tu-204 jet from its crash site near the Vnukovo airport outside Moscow late Saturday. — AFP

(From left) In this May 18, 2008 file photo, Russian billionaire and ethnic Uzbek Alisher Usmanov stands near pieces from the art collection of late cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in the Konstantin Palace outside St Petersburg, Russia. In this Dec 17, 2012, photo, construction company owner Timur Bulgakov and his ethnically Russian wife Yevgeniya pose for a photo near their car in Ivanteyevka, a Moscow suburb. In this Aug 22, 2012 photo, Tajikistan native Magomed, 18, poses for a photo at a market stand where he sells spices, fruit and ceramics in Moscow. —AP

Central Asian migrants change face of Moscow Muslims taking on more visible roles in society MOSCOW: Timur Bulgakov has a black belt in karate, two university degrees, a powerful SUV and a small yet thriving construction company. The 28-year-old’s success is impressive for a Muslim migrant from Uzbekistan whose first job in Moscow 10 years ago was as a delivery boy. But his story is no longer that unusual. The old Moscow, populated largely by Slavs, is rapidly giving way to a multiethnic city where Muslims from Central Asia are the fastest growing sector of the population. And they are changing the face of Moscow as their numbers rise and they move up the career ladder, taking on more visible roles in society.

Muslim women wearing hijabs are a growing sight on the capital’s shopping streets. Bearded men sport Muslim skullcaps and hang trinkets with Quranic verses in their cars. Many more are non-practicing Muslims who blend in with secular attire, although their darker skin, accented speech and foreign customs often provoke frowns from native Muscovites. Meanwhile, their children - some born and raised in the capital - throng kindergartens and schools.

Russia’s Federal Migration Service estimates that about 9.1 million foreigners arrived in Russia to work in 2011. More than a third came from three impoverished Central Asian countries that were once part of the Soviet Union: About 2 million from Uzbekistan, 1 million from Tajikistan and more than 500,000 from Kyrgyzstan.

Local experts say the number of Central Asian arrivals is at least twice as high. And hundreds of thousands of Central Asians have already acquired Russian passports and are off the migration services’ radar.

The Central Asian migration has been the driving force in boosting Russia’s Muslim population to more than 20 million, from some 14 million 10 years ago - a phenomenon experts call one of the most radical demographic makeovers Russia has ever seen. “Today, we’re standing on the verge of a powerful demographic explosion, a great migration period equal to the one that took place in the first centuries AD,” said Vyacheslav Mikhailov, a former minister for ethnic issues and a presidential adviser on ethnic policies.

Muslims are expected to account for 19 percent of Russia’s population by 2030, up from 14 percent of the current population of 142 million, according to the US government’s National Intelligence Council report on global trends published this month.

“Russia’s greatest demographic challenge could well be integrating its rapidly growing ethnic Muslim population in the face of a shrinking ethnic Russian population,” the repor t said. The changing ethnic mix “already appears to be a source of growing social tensions.”

By the most conservative estimates, 2 million Muslims now live in Moscow, a city of nearly 12 million. Polls show that nearly half of Russians dislike migrants from

Central Asia and Russia’s Caucasus - another source of Muslim migration. They have become the bogeymen of Russian nationalists, accused of stealing jobs, forming ethnic gangs and disrespecting Russian customs. “If you build a mosque in downtown Moscow, slaughter sheep on your holiday and impose your traditions on us, no one will want you as a neighbor,” said Dmitry Demushkin, a veteran Russian neoNazi skinhead who heads a nationalist party. Central Asian labor migrants for years have filled the lowest paying jobs, working as janitors, street cleaners, construction workers, vendors at outdoor markets and unlicensed cab drivers whose run-down cars are popularly known as “jihad taxis”.

Many live in trailers on construction sites, in squalid basements and overcrowded flophouses or sleep inside their cars. The uncertain legal status of many of the migrant workers has left them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation from employers.

They also have fallen victim to xenophobic attacks. But in recent years, they are increasingly becoming more established members of the work force. And a significant minority, like Bulgakov, now run their own successful businesses. The undisputed star among Russia’s Central Asian business figures is ethnic Uzbek Alisher Usmanov: His interests in mining, telecoms and Internet startups have made him one of Russia’s richest men, with a fortune estimated at $18.1 billion, and he is the coowner of British football club Arsenal.

Filmmaker Timur Bekmambetov, who was born in Kazakhstan and educated in Uzbekistan, has directed some of Russia’s most top grossing movies. Recently he moved to Hollywood, directing this year’s “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter” and before that “Wanted”, a 2008 action flick with Angelina Jolie. Uzbek native Mirzakarim Norbekov has penned half a dozen bestsellers based on the medical teachings of Muslim medieval scholar Avicenna, who was born in what is now Uzbekistan. His medical training center in Moscow charges hundreds of dollars for short healing courses.

And while the Central Asian influx has caused frictions, there are also abundant signs of non-Muslim Muscovites embracing things seen as quintessentially Central Asian. Uzbek restaurants, fast-food joints and clay-oven bakeries that churn out round flat-cakes and meat pies have become ubiquitous; fashionistas sport oriental silk scarves and pashminas that resemble hijabs; and many ethnic Russian housewives buy halal meat believing it to be healthy and devoid of chemical preservatives.

The trend may have deep roots in Russian histor y : Unlike most West European capitals, Moscow has absorbed Muslims into its population for centuries.

The principality of Moscow emerged as a regional power some 700 years ago, when the Golden Horde, a state dominated by

Mongols and Muslim Tatars, controlled parts of what is now southern Russia, the Caucasus and Central Asia. As Moscow took over the Horde’s territories and invaded lands that once had been conquered by Arabs, Persians and Turks, Muslim nobles became par t of the Russian elite and Muslims were free to practice their faith under the czars.

Novelist Vladimir Nabokov proudly wrote that his aristocratic family descended from Nabak, an illegitimate son of Genghis Khan. Composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and writer Mikhail Bulgakov were the offspring of Tatar nobles.

“Muslims are not newcomers here, and all the current problems are temporary,” said Vladilen Bokov, a devout Muslim and member of the Public Chamber, which advises the Kremlin on social issues.

The Central Asians are far from a homogeneous group: Kyrgyz are proud of their militant nomadic heritage, while Uzbeks and Tajiks extol their cultures that produced poets and scholars who contributed to medieval Muslim civilization. Czarist armies finished the conquest of Central Asia by early 20th century and Stalinist purges decimated their elites. The Soviet era reshaped their economies and agriculture and made “Russification” a key to success for several generations of their best and brightest. In the 1980s, Central Asian conscripts became a majority in the Soviet Army as birth rates among ethnic Russians plummeted. Communist Moscow tried to win sympathies of Central Asians - and uproot their Muslim traditions - by building schools and universities. Their graduates are still qualified to work as bank clerks, computer engineers, artists and

medical doctors in Russia. Employers often praise them for their hard work, career ambitions and indifference to alcohol Russia’s proverbial scourge.

The 1991 Soviet collapse was followed in their overpopulated republics by ineffective economic reforms, political unrest a resurgence of Islamic traditions and a gradual loss of Soviet mentality. But the number of Russian speakers remains high.

They visit Russia visa-free and can stay here for up to three months, or longer if they get work or residence permits.

Construction company owner Bulgakov has faced his share of hardships. Squarejawed and burly, he recalled over a cup of steaming tea how he stole some undercooked buckwheat from a dormitor y kitchen several days after losing a job. He lost another job after beating up his supervisor for calling him a “churka”, a pejorative term for Central Asians. Bulgakov said that during a hospital visit he heard a doctor reproaching his ethnic Russian wife for failing to “find a decent Russian man”.

After several years of selling construction paint, Bulgakov started his own company. Now his company renovates apartments of affluent Muscovites and works on occasional contracts with the Defense Ministry. He also has joined Kremlin’s United Russia party and wants to run for office in the Moscow suburb of Ivanteevka where he lives with his wife and two children. Bulgakov, who sports a white-gold ring with a sparkling diamond, has this advice for fellow Central Asians seeking a better life in Moscow. “If you want to work, just work,” he said, “If you don’t, you’ll find a thousand excuses - ‘I am being oppressed, abused, beaten’.” — AP

In this Aug 27, 2012 photo, Uzbekistan natives and subway janitors Kushan (right) and Umid pose for a photo in Moscow. — AP

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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

Trap reveals how Afghan ‘insider attacks’ work KABUL: The Taleban believed Beyar Khan Weyaar was the perfect candidate to prepare an insider attack on Afghan police, but instead he set a daring trap that has given a rare insight into suicide bombing tactics. Weyaar, a low-ranking police officer in the eastern province of Paktika, was approached in November by a man who offered him the chance to get rich if he met a local insurgent commander.

“I thought he was joking,” Weyaar told AFP after collecting a hero’s medal from Interior Minister Mujtaba Patang in Kabul on Dec 25.

“But the commander, who said he was called Mohammed, came to meet me at my police post in Sar Hawza district. He must have known I worked there. “He brazenly asked me to take the Taleban side and help them launch an attack inside the police force. I asked him to give me time to think.”

Weyaar, aged in his early 40s, instead informed senior officers, who gave him clearance to continue meeting the

insurgents to gain intelligence. He then got a telephone call from a leader of the Taleban-linked Haqqani group offering him a luxury house in Pakistan if he helped bombers infiltrate the Paktika provincial headquarters where the governor and police chief work.

Though impossible to verify, Weyaar and government officials believe the caller was Sirajuddin Haqqani, chief of the Haqqani network, a group close to Al-Qaeda that is blamed for some of the most deadly insurgent attacks. “He said he would give me 2.5 million Afghani ($50,000), two brand new cars and a house in Pakistan,” Weyaar said.

The police decided to go along with the plot and signed up three men aged 18-25 who were sent by Mohammed.

They were taken on as junior recruits, given police uniforms and started work in Weyaar’s post. “We were watching this very closely. We told Weyaar to cooperate with them and be careful to not give himself away,” Mohibullah Samim, the governor of Paktika, told

AFP. “He is a true warrior and he was not worried about his own security. We trusted him, and he proved himself to be a brave patriot.”

About a month later, Mohammed returned to launch the attack. He was with two more people, a pick-up truck packed with explosives, and had 60 hand grenades, six machine guns and six suicide vests. “I asked him about the sixth suicide bomber that he had told me would take part,” Weyaar said. “He said, ‘The sixth person is me, I will detonate the vehicle.’” On December 11, the day of the planned attack, Weyaar was told his role was to ensure the attackers and the bomb-laden truck were separately allowed into the government compound where he had security clearance. He would then be free to escape and head into Pakistan, which borders Paktika.

Police let the plan unfold until just before the suicide attack was set to be launched - a potentially huge strike in the strategically important province.

Commanding officers, who had positioned reinforcements in hiding spots, sprung the trap, and police swooped in to arrest all six men as they gathered near the compound, without a shot being fired. Realising he had been tricked, Mohammed shouted at Weyaar: “Now that you deceived us, why don’t you just shoot me yourself?”

He was then led away in handcuffs.

Insider attacks have surged in Afghanistan this year, with at least 60 foreign troops and many more local personnel killed, severely undermining US-led efforts to work with the Afghan army and police. Last week a policeman let Taleban gunmen into a post in Uruzgan province before dawn, where they killed four of his sleeping colleagues and in Kabul a female police officer shot dead a US adviser. The thwarted attack in Paktika provided valuable information on how militants try to recruit insiders and how they plan attacks weeks or months in advance. US special forces in

September suspended training for around 1,000 Afghan local police recruits to investigate current members for insurgent links - though most attacks are thought to be driven by personal animosity. Weyaar’s tale of trickery and nerve has been corroborated by the interior ministry in Kabul, the Paktika provincial governor and its police chief Dawlat Khan Zadran.

Weyaar collected his medal and a cash reward in Kabul on Tuesday and also appeared on television news programmes to recount how he turned the tables on the Taleban and its Haqqani associates. The NATO-led coalition confirmed to AFP that it had detonated the attackers’ vehicle, explosives and suicide vests after the failed plot in the village of Sultani. Since the attack was foiled, Weyaar said he received several death threats from Pakistan-based militant commanders furious that he had deceived them. “I told them I’m not scared of you. I’m a fighter,” he said. —AFP

Pak militants kill 41 in mass execution, attack on Shiites Govt faces array of lethal militant groups

GARHI KHUDA BAKHSH, Pakistan: Bilawal Bhutto, son of assassinated former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto, and chairman of ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) waves to supporters outside the Bhutto family mausoleum in this Dec 27, 2012 photo on the fifth anniversary of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto. — AFP

Testing times for third-gen Bhutto ISLAMABAD: Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s entry into Pakistan’s political arena continues south Asia’s tradition of dynastic politics, but analysts say he faces tough challenges to turn his famous name into palpable success. His mother Benazir Bhutto and grandfather Zulfikar Ali Bhutto were both prime ministers, and in his first major public speech on Thursday Bilawal painted himself as the true heir to the dynasty that has dominated Pakistani democracy for more than 40 years. “Bhutto is an emotion, a love,” he told 200,000 supporters at the majestic family mausoleum in the southern province of Sindh as he marked the fifth anniversary of Benazir’s assassination and launched his own political career.

“Every challenge is soaked in blood, but you will be the loser,” he said in a message to what he called anti-democratic forces.

“However many Bhuttos you kill, more Bhuttos will emerge from every house.”

Zulfikar, who led Pakistan from 1971 until he was deposed in a coup in 1977, was hanged in 1979 over the murder of a political opponent. Benazir was killed in a gun and suicide attack after an election rally in 2007. For the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), founded by Zulfikar and now at the head of the ruling coalition, the dead Bhuttos are martyrs. Its rhetoric makes much of their struggle to bring democracy in the face of an entrenched and oppressive “establishment”. A general election is expected in the spring and after almost five years of PPPled government, ordinary Pakistanis face a host of miseries on a daily basis: gas shortages, incessant power cuts, inflation, pervasive corruption and the ever-present threat of terror attacks.

The Oxford-educated Bilawal is free from the taint of corruption that dogged both his mother and his father, President Asif Ali Zardari. Analysts say the PPP will aim to capitalise on his freshness and energy - as well as the Bhutto name - as they seek to persuade voters to give the party another chance. At 24, he will be too young to stand if the poll goes ahead on time, but he has been tipped to spearhead the PPP’s campaign. Neutrality rules bar the head of state, Zardari, from playing a role.

Raza Rumi of the Jinnah Institute thinktank said the young Bhutto could prove useful in more than just name. “I think the PPP will have to keep him at the central stage - partly it needs a charismatic leader at the front, but also remember that in Pakistan the majority of the population is young,” Rumi told AFP. Given the rise over the past two years of cricket legend Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party, with its energetic youth wing, a move by the PPP to appeal to younger voters looks like an astute tactic.

Several local newspapers noted similarities in looks between Bilawal and his mother, though the passion and emotion of his speech seemed to cast further back to the fiery demagoguery for which his grandfather was famed. Political analyst and author Hasan Askari said Bilawal would play the Bhutto card for all it was worth, but warned it would take more than clever speeches to win the public over. “The speech was emotionally charged, this style works in the crowd,” Askari said. “He repeated the ‘roti, kapra aur makan’ (food, clothing and shelter) slogan which his grandfather gave in 1970. He invoked the legacy, but gave no idea or vision.”

Support for political parties in Pakistan stems from a complex mix of kinship networks, patronage and ethnic allegiances.

Analyst Talat Masood questioned how much of a draw Bilawal’s name would be beyond the PPP’s heartland in Sindh. “I will not bank too much on his leadership,” he told AFP. “The Bhutto card will continue to play in Sindh but it seems to have no relevance in Punjab and other provinces.”

Democratic dynasties are a feature of Asian politics: the Nehru-Gandhi clan has given India three prime ministers since 1947 and family ties have had a key role in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and most recently South Korea. Rumi said the phenomenon was partly a reflection of local culture but also of the nature of fledgling democracies. “Political systems are evolving, democracy as an idea is new, modern political parties are new - it is less than a century old and in between there have been so many military rulers,” he said.—AFP

PESHWAR: Pakistani militants, who have escalated attacks in recent weeks, killed at least 41 people in two separate incidents, officials said on Sunday, challenging assertions that military offensives have broken the back of hardline Islamist groups. The United States has long pressured nuclear-armed ally Pakistan to crack down harder on both homegrown militants groups such as the Taleban and others which are based on its soil and attack Western forces in Afghanistan. In the north, 21 men working for a governmentbacked paramilitary force were executed overnight after they were k idnapped last week, a provincial official said.

Twenty Shiite pilgrims died and 24 were wounded, meanwhile, when a car bomb targeted their bus convoy as it headed toward the Iranian border in the southwest, a doctor said. New York-based Human Rights Watch has noted more than 320 Shiites killed this year in Pakistan and said attacks were on the rise. It said the government’s failure to catch or prosecute attackers suggested it was “indifferent” to the killings. Pakistan, seen as critical to US effor ts to stabilise the region before NATO forces withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, denies allegations that it supports militant groups like the Afghan Taliban and Haqqani network.

Afghan officials say Pakistan seems more genuine than ever about promoting peace in Afghanistan. At home, it faces a variety of highly lethal militant groups that carry out suicide bombings, attack police and military facilities and launch sectarian attacks like the one on the bus in the southwest. Witnesses said a blast targeted their three buses as they were overtaking a car about 60 km west of Quetta, capital of sparsely populated

QUETTA: Injured Pakistani Shiite pilgrims wait for treatment at a hospital following a car bomb attack yesterday. — AFP Baluchistan province. “The bus next to us caught on fire immediately,” said pilgrim Hussein Ali, 60. “We tried to save our companions, but were driven back by the intensity of the heat.” Twenty people had been killed and 24 wounded, said an official at Mastung district hospital.

International attention has focused on Al-Qaeda and the Pakistani Taleban. But Pakistani intelligence officials say extremist Sunni groups, lead by Lashk ar- e -Jhangvi (LeJ ) are emerging as a major destabilising force in a campaign designed to topple the government. Their strategy now, the officials say, is to carr y out attacks on Shiites to create the kind of sectarian tensions that pushed countries like Iraq to the brink of civil war. As elections scheduled for next year approach, Pakistanis will be asking what sort of progress their leaders have made in the fight

against militancy and a host of other issues, such as poverty, official corruption and chronic power cuts. Pakistan’s Taleban have carried out a series of recent bold attacks, as military officials point to what they say is a power struggle in the group’s leadership revolving around whether it should ease attacks on the Pakistani state and join groups fighting US-led forces in Afghanistan. The Taleban denies a rift exists among its leaders. In the attack in the northwest, officials said they had found the bodies of 21 men kidnapped from their checkpoints outside the provincial capital of Peshawar on Thursday. The men were executed one by one.

“They were tied up and blindfolded,” Naveed Anwar, a senior administration official, said by telephone. “They were lined up and shot in the head,” said Habibullah Arif, another local official, also by telephone. One

man was shot and seriously wounded but survived, the officials said. He was in critical condition and being treated at a local hospital. Another had escaped before the shootings.

Taleban spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan claimed responsibility for the attacks. “We killed all the kidnapped men after a council of senior clerics gave a verdict for their execution. We didn’t make any demand for their release because we don’t spare any prisoners who are caught during fighting,” he said.

The powerful military has clawed back territory from the Taleban, but the kidnap and executions underline the insurgents’ ability to mount high-profile, deadly attacks in major cities. This month, suicide bombers attacked Peshawar’s airport on Dec 15 and a bomb killed a senior Pashtun nationalist politician and eight other people at a rally on Dec 22. — Reuters

Rural India’s rape victim refuses to drop case NEW DELHI: Every month Debangana boards a train from her remote village in eastern India and steels herself for another round of searing crossexamination by lawyers about the men who kidnapped, raped and sold her. While the tragic killing of a student after she was gang-raped in Delhi has triggered an outpouring of angry protests and attracted global headlines, Debangana’s ordeal is an equally damning indictment of the fate of sex attack victims in India. “I hear about the Delhi rape case on the radio every day,” Debangana, who is now 16, told AFP in a phone interview from her home in West Bengal after waiving her right to anonymity. “Only a rape victim can understand the grief of another rape victim. She died but I have to live to fight on.”

On a summer’s day in 2010, Debangana, who chooses to go by one name, was working at her family shop in the sleepy village of Sonarpur when two boys offered her an ice cold soda laced with sedatives. She regained consciousness in a train compartment in the presence of three men. When they arrived at a Delhi station, the men frogmarched her to an apartment. “They locked me in a room, forced me to stay silent by attacking me with shoes and sticks and then they raped me.”

The 14-year-old was then sold to a brothel in the capital. “Drivers, old men, poor men and some rich boys, they all exploited me for a year,” said Debangana who was rescued along with 10 girls by the police and a voluntary organisation during a series of raids in the red light district.

Debangana’s struggle was far from over. When she arrived home, she found no one supported her decision to register a police case. “In a city, a girl still has the freedom to decide but in a village she cannot make a decision against the wishes of a village head. A woman has to obey her father, brothers, village men,” she said. “Why would one man punish another man? But I registered a police case against my kidnappers, rapists and traffickers.”

It took the multiple rape and murder of a woman in the capital to push the epidemic of sexual violence against women onto the front pages, but the real epicentre is in the villages.

Sonarpur, like thousands of Indian villages, is a tight-knit, mainly agrarian community where family honour and the avoidance of shame are a matter of life and death. Women are never given the freedom to voice their opinion. Men take decisions on their behalf, including the clothes they wear and whether they can go out or not.

Local police are often reluctant to pursue cases of sex assault. Only last week, a teenager in the Punjab committed suicide after she was allegedly asked to drop her complaint in exchange for cash or by agreeing to marry one of her attackers.

But Debangana wanted the world to know what happened. She says too many victims are either afraid or ashamed to speak out. Her fight for justice was supported by Shakti Vahini, a voluntary organisation that provides her with legal aid. “But the confidence and the commitment to

fight is solely hers,” said Rishi Kant of Shakti Vahini. Kant, who has been conducting raids in red light districts of New Delhi for over 12 years, said the city is a hub for sex trafficking, but despite the increase in sex attacks the number of convictions has fallen.

New Delhi has been dubbed the “rape capital” of India, with a rape reported on average every 18 hours, according to police figures. The lack of women officers has been widely blamed for the failures of police forces to thoroughly investigate allegations of sex crimes. Women currently account for fewer than one in five Indian police officers. Debangana was forced to record her statement - and the details of her abuse - before male officers. Three of her alleged attackers were promptly arrested and charged but two years later they are all out on bail. India’s notoriously slow justice system allows defence lawyers to spin the case out as it goes through the courts. Her family’s home has been destroyed and their rice field torched after she refused to withdraw the case.

That defiant streak has enabled to her endure the humiliating questions in the packed courtroom where she is asked to recall minute details of each assault. “They once asked me how many times did I sleep with men? I replied: ‘I never slept with them, they raped me’. “A lawyer then asked how much money did I make at the brothel? I said, the men just threw a few coins at my face, so they could hurt me more.” Asked if she believes she will ever get justice, she replied: “At least I’m trying.” —AFP

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

NEWS Czech Lukas Hvala vies during the first competition jump of the Four-HillsTournament (Vierschanzentournee) in Oberstdorf, southern Germany yesterday. — AFP

14

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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Washington Watch

After US ‘fiscal cliff’ dive, more battles, new cliffs

By David Lawder and Fred Barbash

hether or not the US “fiscal cliff” impasse is broken before the New Year’s Eve deadline, there will be no post-cliff peace in Washington. With the political climate toxic in Congress as the cliff’s steep tax hikes and spending cuts approach, other partisan fights loom, all over the issue that has paralyzed the capital for the past two years: federal spending. The first will come in late February when the Treasury Department runs out of borrowing authority and has to come to Congress to get the debt ceiling raised.

The next is likely in late March, when a temporary bill to fund the government runs out, confronting Congress with a deadline to act or face a government shutdown. The third will possibly be whenever the temporary bill replacing the temporary bill expires. While Congress is supposed to pass annual spending bills before the start of each fiscal year, it has failed to complete that process since 1996, resorting to stopgap funding ever since.

Influential anti-tax activist Grover Norquist predicted in an interview with Reuters that conservatives would wage repeated battles with President Barack Obama to demand budget savings every time the government needs a temporary funding bill or more borrowing capacity. The so-called “continuing resolutions” to which a divided Congress has increasingly resorted to keep the government operating, provide a “very powerful tool” to pry out spending cuts, said Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee said he will not be satisfied until there are substantial cuts to federal retirement and healthcare benefits known as entitlements, producing savings in the $4.5 trillion to $5 trillion range. “Unfortunately for America,” said Corker, “the next line in the sand will be the debt ceiling.” Most observers see the $16.4 trillion debt limit as the true fiscal cliff in the new year because if not increased, it would eventually lead to a default on U.S. Treasury debt, an event that could prove cataclysmic for financial markets. The Treasury Department said on Wednesday it would start taking extraordinary measures by Dec 31 to extend its borrowing capacity for about two more months.

It was a deadlock over raising the debt ceiling in Aug 2011 that prompted a deficit reduction deal that led to a key fiscal cliff component, the $109 billion in automatic spending cuts on military and domestic programs. If the fiscal cliff’s spending cuts or tax increases are left even partly unresolved on Dec 31, the political combat over them will carry over into the new Congress, possibly simultaneously with the debt ceiling debate. “We would be pessimistic of a quick fix” if the deadline is missed, Sean West, head US analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy, said in a note to clients. “The political climate will be poisoned. The new Congress will need time to settle in.”

“We are concluding one of the most unsuccessful Congresses in history,” Democratic Representative John Dingell of Michigan declared in a statement on Saturday, “noteworthy not only for its failure to accomplish anything of importance, but also for the poisonous climate of the institution.” Dingell, 86, is the longest serving member of the House, elected first in 1955.

Historically, bitter struggles in Congress like that over the fiscal cliff lead to further resentment and strife in a cycle of cumulative grudges that now spans nearly 30 years. Many analysts and lobbyists in Washington believe the strife could get even worse because the new Congress convening on Jan. 3 will include fewer members from moderate or swing districts and more from districts tilted heavily to the left or the right. Republicans in particular are likely to face their most serious re-election challenges in 2014 not from Democrats but from conservative Republicans challenging them in primary elections.

“Ironically,” said a post-election analysis published by the law firm Patton Boggs, “the voters have elected a 113th Congress that may be even more partisan than the 112th.” —Reuters

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The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

Two sides speak different languages

By Jesse Washington nside the Big Buck Sport Shop, where mounted moose and deer heads loom over rifles, handguns, targets and ammunition, the customers have no doubt: More gun laws will not save lives.

Fifteen miles south, in the city of Pittsburgh, many confronted by a steady stream of gun violence are just as certain: To reduce the carnage, stricter gun control is needed. This divide has existed for decades, separating America into hostile camps of conservative vs. liberal, rural vs. urban. As the nation responds to the massacre of 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn., the gulf has rarely felt wider than now.

After the gunman invaded an elementary school with a Bushmaster AR-15 semiautomatic rifle and magazines of 30 bullets each, there was a brief moment of unity amid the nation’s grief. Across partisan divides, politicians said something must be done about weapons based upon military designs. Many wondered if even the National Rifle Association would adjust its staunch opposition to gun control. Then both sides regrouped. With President Barack Obama pushing for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and memory lingering of Obama’s divisive 2008 comment that some Americans “cling to guns and religion,” positions hardened.

Listening to the public discourse, and to citizens in places like Pittsburgh and the Big Buck Sport Shop, people seem to be speaking different languages entirely. Communication has broken down amid a flurry of accusations, denials, political maneuvering and catch phrases. “You have to place some people in the category of ‘you cannot communicate with them,’” Big Buck salesman Dave Riddle said Friday, standing between a rack of rifles and a glass case full of used handguns. “Their minds are set; they cannot change.”

A short drive away, at the New Pittsburgh Courier newspaper, editor and publisher Rod Doss pondered how to tell gun enthusiasts about his belief that assault weapons should be banned. “I don’t know that they would hear me,” Doss finally said. “Their culture is totally different. They’ve grown up around guns. It’s part of their life and their lifestyle.

It’s second nature. Hunting, shooting, it’s the love of guns.”

Doss does not own a firearm: “I don’t feel a need for any. I personally don’t live in fear.” His

I

newspaper, which covers the African-American community, publishes detailed information on every Pittsburgh homicide because most are black-onblack crimes. “I’m awestruck with their fascination with guns,” Doss said of his suburban and rural neighbors.

“When you look at it from that perspective, it’s hard to relate to anything.”

Locally, nationally, even globally, this is the issue that places people at odds a fact seen by the passionate, often angry conversations that are ringing out

ence, seized vast territory from indigenous peoples wielding arrows and tomahawks, and forged an ethos of personal freedom. Today, according to most estimates, there are about 250 million guns in our nation of 310 million people. America has a higher rate of gun deaths than most similarly developed nations: 3.2 firearm homicides per 100,000 people in 2009, according to a report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

That compared with a rate of 0.5 per 100,000 in Canada; 0.2

Liberto does think gun laws could be tightened, to track and collect more sale information. He’s against an assault weapons ban but expects one to happen soon, as a first step to outlawing even more guns.

So after Newtown, Liberto hustled to buy the same type of semiautomatic rifle used by the school gunman. On his iPhone was a photo of his weapon’s handiwork: an Osama bin Laden target that featured a face full of bullet holes. “It’s a target item,” Liberto said of his purchase. “Unlike a hunting

In this Dec 21, 2012 photo, Josh Nelson, campaign manager, CREDO Mobile, speaks after his group was denied entrance to the Williard InterContinental Hotel where they wanted to deliver a petition to the National Rifle Association calling for the NRA to get out of the way of gun control, as the NRA holds a news conference in Washington. —AP across the world in the days since the Newtown shootings.

Harry Wilson, author of “Guns, Gun Control and Elections: The Politics and Policy of Firearms,” sees common misperceptions on both sides. Wilson, a Roanoke College political science professor, would like gun control advocates to know: “Gun owners are not idiots. Gun owners are not in favor of gun violence. Gun owners are in many ways like them, and would genuinely like to see gun violence reduced. Obviously they have a different solution.

But they’re people too, just with different perspectives. And what I would want gun owners to know is, the large majority of people in favor of gun control don’t really want to take all of your guns.”

Guns were inseparable from America even before their enshrinement in the Second Amendment. With guns we secured the nation’s independ-

in Spain; 0.2 in Germany; and 0.1 in the United Kingdom and Australia. No data was available for Russia.

To many gun enthusiasts, though, these numbers have nothing to do with guns themselves. With so many guns in circulation, they say, people intent on killing will always find a way to do it. Nor do they fault high-capacity magazines, because it can take only seconds to reload a standard 10bullet version. Some even say the solution to gun violence is more guns - to deter, and to fight back against the bad guys.

“The easy, lazy conclusion is that (gun violence) has to do with firearms,” said Sam Liberto, a business consultant shopping in Big Buck with his two young sons. “We should look at the root cause: parenting or lack thereof, mental illness, video games. The underlying forces are probably far more important.”

rifle or a sport shotgun it has less kick, a lighter weight. It’s designed to be carried. It’s just nice, a nice gun to shoot.”

Liberto and Riddle, the Big Buck salesman, are officers of the Millvale Sportsmen’s Club, where target shooters and hunters enjoy their pursuits.

Riddle knows many people who enter competitions with the type of AR-15 used in Newtown. The gray-bearded Riddle has been around firearms since he was born in rural Pennsylvania. To him, guns are no more dangerous than an axe or a bat. What would he tell people who want more gun control? “Let’s go out and shoot a little bit,” Riddle offers. “I’d take ‘em out, introduce them to firearms, show them the safety aspects of it. I’d just go out and start shooting, have some fun. Shoot some paper targets, some cans.

Shooting guns is a lot of fun, it really is.”

That’s incomprehensible to Pittsburgh resident Valerie Dixon, whose law-abiding 22-year-old son was killed in Pittsburgh a decade ago by a neighborhood thug with an illegal .357 Magnum.

“The original purpose of the Second Amendment was not a sport,” she said. “I do think the laws need to be looked at. Look at lifestyles as they are today, as opposed to when they created the Second Amendment.”

Dixon doesn’t only blame guns for her tragedy. She said better parenting and education are among many other factors that need to change. But still: She says her son’s killer was able to obtain the fateful gun within two hours. “I believe in the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms, but I believe there’s a responsibility with our rights,” said Dixon, who does not own a gun. How to draw the line? That would require consultation and cooperation. Those who don’t own guns might have to learn things from those who do. People who like to shoot military-style weapons might have to sacrifice some of their recreation.

Or sacrifice some of their way of life. Over the Christmas holiday, James and Jennifer Shafer shot guns with their parents and young kids at their ranch an hour north of Pittsburgh. The Shafers feel the pain of parents who have lost children. The Newtown killings left them shaken. But the response scares them, too. “You can’t take away our right to protect ourselves,” said James Shafer, a former Marine who has called his congressional representatives to voice his opposition to laws that limit guns. “We’re not going to give them up, that’s plain and simple,” he said. “I don’t know how to get on the subway in a big city,” said his wife, Jennifer.

“I’ve heard bad things about it, and I’m scared of it. But the subway is normal for other people . guns are the thread of our culture.”

James’ cousin, Erik Shafer, started buying guns a few years ago after he returned to his rural home and found it ransacked by burglars. Police took 20 minutes to arrive. After listening to conversations about Newtown, “I honestly don’t think there is a middle to meet in,” said Erik Shafer, a small business owner with a wife and two young daughters. Then what does the future hold? He sees no end to gun violence, no matter what laws are passed.

“How do you prepare yourself for an infinite way that people can be shot and killed?” Erik Shafer responded. “It’s tough. I really don’t know what the answer is.” —AP

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

sp orts ‘United will not sell Nani’

Coach quits due to stress

LONDON: Manchester United winger Nani will not be sold in the January transfer window, manager Alex Ferguson said on Sunday in dismissing media reports that the Portuguese international could leave Old Trafford. Nani, sidelined by injury since the Champions League tie with Braga on Nov. 7, has yet to sign a new deal after talks stalled in the close season.

“Obviously his people have been negotiating with [chief executive] David about a new contract but I don’t know what stage we are at with that. But we won’t be letting him go,” Ferguson told the club’s website (www.manutd.com).

“He’s injured. His contract’s not up for a year and a half.”

Ferguson said he still regarded 26-year-old Nani, who joined United from Portugal’s Sporting in 2007, as an important part of his squad.

“We need a Nani. He offers something different from the other players. — Reuters

MOSCOW: Vladimir Alekno, who coached the Russian men’s volleyball team to the 2012 Olympic title, has quit his job because it was too stressful for him to continue. “I just can’t take this stress any more,” the 46-year-old told reporters in Belgorod after his club team Zenit Kazan lost to local side Belogorye in Saturday’s Russian Cup final.

“This is purely my decision. Nobody has forced me to quit. I’ll concentrate on coaching Zenit. As you can see from today’s game we have plenty of room for improvement.” Belarus-born Alekno, who started his coaching career in France, was named Russia boss in 2007 but left the job after leading his team to third place at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He was much more successful in his second spell as Russia coach, which began in December 2010, winning both the World Cup and the World League in 2011 before achieving his greatest triumph this year in London.

It was the first Olympic gold for the Russian men’s volleyball team since winning on home turf in Moscow in 1980. “Winning the gold in London was the biggest thrill for me but it was just too much to take. I’m not ready to do it again,” said Alekno. Stress from the job was blamed for the death of Russian women’s volleyball coach Sergei Ovchinnikov, who committed suicide by hanging himself in his hotel room in August, shortly after failing to lead his team to an Olympic medal in London. — Reuters

NBA results/standings New Orleans 98, Charlotte 95; Atlanta 109, Indiana 100; Toronto 123, Orlando 88; Brooklyn 103, Cleveland 100; Chicago 87, Washington 77; Memphis 81, Denver 72; Oklahoma City 124, Houston 94; Minnesota 111, Phoenix 107; Milwaukee 104, Miami 85; Portland 89, Philadelphia 85; Golden State 101, Boston 83.

Western Conference American League Eastern Division Northwest Division W L PCT GB Oklahoma City 23 6 .793 NY Knicks 21 9 .700 17 15 .531 7.5 Denver Brooklyn 16 14 .533 5 Minnesota 14 13 .519 8 Boston 14 15 .483 6.5 Portland 15 14 .517 8 Philadelphia 14 17 .452 7.5 Utah 15 16 .484 9 Toronto 11 20 .355 10.5 Pacific Division Central Division LA Clippers 24 6 .800 Milwaukee 16 12 .571 .677 3.5 Golden State 21 10 Chicago 16 12 .571 LA Lakers 15 15 .500 9 Indiana 17 13 .567 Phoenix 11 20 .355 13.5 Detroit 10 22 .313 8 Sacramento 10 19 .345 13.5 Cleveland 7 25 .219 11 Southwest Division Southeast Division San Antonio 23 8 .742 Miami 20 8 .714 19 8 .704 2 Memphis Atlanta 19 9 .679 1 Houston 16 14 .533 6.5 Orlando 12 18 .400 9 Charlotte 7 23 .233 14 Dallas 12 18 .400 10.5 Washington 4 24 .143 16 New Orleans 7 23 .233 15.5

Connecticut snap Stanford’s unbeaten run STANFORD: Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis and second-ranked Connecticut played spoiler and streak-buster this time, snapping No. 1 Stanford’s nation-leading 82-game home unbeaten run with a surprisingly easy 6135 rout Saturday. It was the Huskies who saw the end of their NCAA record 90-game winning streak at Maples Pavilion with a 71-59 loss two years ago, almost to the day on Dec. 30. Mosqueda-Lewis scored 19 points as UConn (11-0) thoroughly outplayed Stanford (11-1) on both ends of the floor in this highly touted game featuring the country’s top programs and Final Four regulars from opposite coasts.

Stanford got harassed right off the home floor that it ruled with perfection and dominant play for nearly six years and the Huskies surely took the Cardinal’s No. 1 spot along with it. Chiney Ogwumike had 18 points and 13 rebounds as Stanford lost at Maples Pavilion for the first time since March 2007. Baylor 106, Southeastern Louisiana 41 In WAco, Jordan Madden scored all 13 of her points in the first half and third-ranked Baylor took control early in a victory over Southeastern Louisiana. The Lady Bears (10-1) have won 46 consecutive games at home, now the longest active streak in women’s college basketball. Earlier Saturday, No. 2 Connecticut won 61-35 at top-ranked Stanford to end the 82-game home streak by the Cardinal.

Madden made all six of her shots in the first half, with three in a 92-second span that put Baylor ahead 16-2 only 6 minutes into the game. Four players scored in double figures for Baylor, which hasn’t lost at home since the 2009-10 regular season finale against Texas. Brandi Simmons had 12 points to lead Southeastern Louisiana (7-4).

Notre Dame 74, Purdue 47 At South Bend, Kayla McBride scored 18 points, Natalie Achonwa had 15 points and 17 rebounds, and Skylar Diggins shook off early foul trouble to finish with 16 points Saturday to help Notre Dame rout Purdue.

Courtney Moses led the Boilermakers (11-2) with 13 points and Taylor Manuel added 12. Diggins also had her 300th career steal 5:37 into the second half when she poked the ball away from Courtney Moses and drove in for a layup, which pushed Notre Dame’s lead to 23. The senior guard is the third player in Notre Dame history with at least 300 career steals. Purdue was one of the country’s best 3-point shooting teams coming into the game, but went 0-for-11 from behind the arc. The Boilermakers were also outrebounded 56-28 as the Irish led by as much as 30 points in the second half.

Maryland 72, Hartford 40 In College Park, Alyssa Thomas had 22 points and 11 rebounds, helping No. 9 Maryland cruise to a victory over Hartford in the championship game of the Terrapin Classic. Tianna Hawkins scored 16 points and Alicia DeVaughn added 13 points and 13 rebounds for Maryland (10-2), which has won six straight games. The Terrapins improved to 96-5 in non-conference games at Comcast Center. Daphne Elliott

had nine points for Hartford (9-4) in the first meeting between the schools since December 1997. The Hawks, who had won three of four overall, are 0-2 all-time against Maryland. Hawkins was selected as the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.

Oklahoma 79, Cal State Northridge 57 In Norman, Aaryn Ellenberg scored 24 points, and Portia Durrett had 14 points and 10 rebounds to lead Oklahoma to a victory over Cal State Northridge. Ellenberg was 5 of 9 from 3-point range for the Sooners (10-2), who made 12 of 28 from behind the arc in their last non-conference tuneup before the start of Big 12 play.

Janae Sharpe and Jianni Jackson scored 12 points each for the Matadors (6-5). Nicole Griffin had 11 points and Sharane Campbell 10 points, six rebounds and six assists for Oklahoma.

The Sooners used all 10 players on the active roster, including OU volleyball players Tara Dunn and Eden Williams, who made their debuts after joining the injuryriddled basketball squad last week. Four players, including preseason All-Big 12 selection Whitney Hand, have been lost to season-ending injuries.

South Carolina 66, Western Carolina 44 In Columbia, Tiffany Mitchell scored 12 points to lead South Carolina to an easy victory over Western Carolina. Ieasia Walker had nine points for South Carolina (12-2), and her five blocks pushed her over the 200 mark for her career, the 13th Gamecocks player to reach that milestone.

Makensey Campbell and Lindsay Simpson scored nine points apiece for the Catamounts (3-9), who have lost five games in a row. South Carolina shot 50 percent from the field (28 of 56) and 66.7 percent on 3-pointers (6 of 9). The Gamecocks won the turnover battle with 10 to the Catamounts’ 20. The only suspect statistic from South Carolina was the 4-of14 shooting from the line. The Gamecocks led 29-18 at halftime, but with 13:38 left in the second, the advantage was 47-27.

South Carolina’s only loss came against No. 1 Stanford, 53-49, on Dec. 19.

Colorado 84, New Mexico 39 In Boulder, Lexy Kresl scored 20 points to lead unbeaten Colorado over New Mexico. Kresl was 5 of 5 from 3-point range, tying a school record for most 3-point attempts without a miss. Arielle Roberson scored 18 points, and Chucky Jeffery had 11 points, eight assists and eight rebounds.

Jen Reese added 10 points. Colorado (11-0) never trailed. Colorado led 39-21 at halftime and went on a 21-4 run to open the second half. Colorado shot 50.8 percent from the field for the game, while New Mexico shot 30 percent. New Mexico had 23 turnovers. Antiesha Brown led New Mexico (8-5) with 10 points, and Jourdan Erskine had seven rebounds. This was Coach Linda Lappe’s career 100th win and her 50th in three years with Colorado. —AP

Tipsarevic eyes bright start at Chennai Open CHENNAI: World number nine Janko Tipsarevic hopes to build on an impressive campaign in 2012 with a dazzling start to the new season at the ATP Chennai Open from today. The 28-year-old Serb, who finished in the top 10 for the second successive year, is seeded second behind world number six Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic at the $430,000 event.

Tipsarevic was confident of doing well in the coming season after ending the year with a 57-28 match record, including a quarter-final berth at the US Open. “I have improved my game in all aspects, but the biggest change came in my mindset and how I was able to keep up with the constant pressure,” Tipsarevic said in a statement released by the tournament organisers. The right-hander heads to Chennai boosted by a win over US Open and Olympic champion Andy Murray at an exhibition event in Abu Dhabi last week. — AFP

Thunder defuse Rockets HOUSTON: Russell Westbrook scored 28 points and Kevin Durant added 26 as the Oklahoma City Thunder built a big lead in the second quarter and rolled to a 124-94 win over the Houston Rockets on Saturday night.

Durant scored 11 points during a 16-0 run by the Thunder to end the first half and extend the lead to 18. Oklahoma City had another big run early in the third quarter to put the game further out of reach.

Former Thunder sixth man James Harden scored 25 for the Rockets, who went cold on offense for long stretches. It was Oklahoma City’s second win this season over Houston, after taking the first meeting 120-98. Kevin Martin, who came to Oklahoma City in the trade for Harden, finished 19 points and five 3-pointers. Westbrook had eight rebounds and eight assists.

Marcus Morris scored a career-high 24 points for Houston.

Hornets 98, Bobcats 95 In Charlotte, Eric Gordon had 24 points and seven assists, helping New Orleans overcome a 21point first-half deficit and extend Charlotte’s losing streak to 18 games. The Bobcats are one game away from a winless December.

They haven’t won since Nov. 24.

Gordon, who hadn’t played since April 22 following arthroscopic right knee surgery, was 5 of 13 from the field and 12 of 14 from the free throw line in 24 minutes.

Ryan Anderson had 19 points and made a pair of 3-pointers in the final period as the Hornets won for the second time in three games. Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 22 points and nine rebounds and Gerald Henderson added 19 points for the Bobcats.

Nets 103, Cavaliers 100 In New York, Brook Lopez scored a season-high 35 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, and Brooklyn improved to 2-0 under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo by beating Cleveland.

Lopez followed his 26-point, 11-rebound performance in a victory Friday over Charlotte by shooting 13 of 20 from the field, making a number of timely baskets in the fourth quarter that the Nets ultimately needed to hold on.

Deron Williams and Joe Johnson each scored 15 points for the Nets, who fired coach Avery Johnson on Thursday and followed with two victories over losing teams. But now, they head off for major tests at San Antonio and Oklahoma City.

CJ Miles scored 33 points and made eight 3-pointers for the Cavs, but Kyrie Irving capped a miserable shooting night when his tying 3-point attempt went in and out. He finished with 13 points on 5-of-16 shooting.

Tristan Thompson added 17 points and 15 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who played without center Anderson Varejao because of a knee injury.

Grizzlies 81, Nuggets 72 In Memphis, Rudy Gay scored eight of his 19 points down the stretch to help Memphis beat Denver. Gay’s rush was part of 10 straight points for the Grizzlies, breaking open a 68-all game with 4:45 left. His baseline jumper with 1:25 left gave Memphis a 10point lead, helping the Grizzlies snap a two-game skid.

Zach Randolph had 12 points for Memphis, which won despite shooting 40 percent. The Grizzlies outscored the Nuggets 28-15 in the fourth quarter. Andre Iguodala, Corey Brewer and JaVale McGee all had 12 points

for Denver, which had its twogame winning streak stopped.

Danilo Gallinari, coming off a career-high 39 points Friday night against Dallas, was held to seven on 2-of-8 shooting.

Hawks 109, Pacers 100 In Atlanta, Lou Williams had 21 points and a career-high 12 assists, Al Horford added 20 points and Atlanta beat Indiana for its fourth consecutive win.

David West scored a game-high 29 points for the Pacers, who had won four straight and seven of eight. With Josh Smith, Atlanta’s leading scorer, unable to play because of a right hip flexor, Hawks coach Larry Drew started Zaza Pachulia, who responded with 17 points and a game-high 14 rebounds. Indiana never got closer than three in the fourth quarter after Paul George’s threepoint play made it 91-88 at the 5:18 mark.

Raptors 123, Magic 88 In Orlando, DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points and Jose Calderon added 15 points and 10 assists, helping Toronto to an easy victory over injury-depleted Orlando.

Rookie Ed Davis had 18 points and seven rebounds as Toronto won for the seventh time in eight games. The Raptors, who hit a season-high 15 3-pointers, got 16 points apiece from Kyle Lowry and Terrence Ross.

Rookie Andrew Nicholson led Orlando with a career-high 22 points. Arron Afflalo added 14 points and Ish Smith had 13 points and six assists. The Raptors hit nine of their first 10 attempts from behind the 3-point line and built a 67-47 halftime lead. Orlando cut it to 76-65 with 5:16 left in the third quarter, but that was as close as the Magic would get the rest of the game. The Magic played without starting point guard Jameer Nelson (hip) and his backup, E’Twaun Moore (elbow).

Timberwolves 111, Suns 107 In Minneapolis, Nikola Pekovic

MEMPHIS: Denver Nuggets center Kosta Koufos (left) and forward Danilo Gallinari, right, of Italy, pressure Memphis Grizzlies forward Rudy Gay (22) in the second half of an NBA basketball game. —AP had 28 points and 11 rebounds, and Kevin Love added 23 points and 18 boards to lift Minnesota over Phoenix. Andrei Kirilenko had 20 points and five rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were missing guard Ricky Rubio because of back spasms.

Luis Scola had 33 points and 10 rebounds for the Suns, who lost their fifth straight. They led 102-99 with 3:30 to play, but once again failed to close it out.

Pekovic scored two quick ones underneath, but the Suns still had a chance down three with 8.1 seconds left. Dante Cunningham stole the inbounds pass to seal it.

Bulls 87, Wizards 77 In Chicago, Marco Belinelli came off the bench to score 17 points, leading Chicago to a victory over Washington. Carlos Boozer added 15 points and 12 rebounds for the Bulls, who snapped a two-game losing streak. Belinelli shot 7 of 16 in a reserve role as Richard Hamilton returned to the starting lineup.

Hamilton had missed 12 games because of a torn plantar fascia in his left foot.

Chicago’s Luol Deng scored 11 points after injuring his right ankle Tuesday in a loss to Houston. Bradley Beal led the

OAKLAND: Golden State Warriors’ Harrison Barnes (40) shoots as Boston Celtics’ Paul Pierce guards during the second half of an NBA basketball game. —AP

NBA-worst Wizards (4-24) with 14 points. Emeka Okafor added 11 points and 18 rebounds for Washington, which has lost nine of 10. Wizards leading scorer Jordan Crawford sat out because of a left ankle injury.

Warriors 101, Celtics 83 In Oakland, Stephen Curry had 22 points and nine assists, David Lee scored 20 points and Golden State routed the short-handed Celtics to close a memorable month.

First-round pick Harrison Barnes added 15 points and eight rebounds to help the Warriors build a 20-point lead in the second quarter and cruise most of the way. Golden State (21-10) finished December with a 12-4 record and has at least 20 wins before New Year’s Day for the first time since 1980. Courtney Lee had 18 points and five rebounds starting in place of Rajon Rondo, a late scratch for Boston because of a bruised right thigh and hip. The Celtics (14-15) have lost six of eight to fall below .500 for the first time in almost two months.

Bucks 104, Heat 85 In Milwaukee, Brandon Jennings scored 25 points and Mike Dunleavy had 13 of his 18 in the fourth quarter as Milwaukee beat Miami to spoil Dwyane Wade’s return.

Wade was back after serving a one-game suspension for flailing his leg and making contact with guard Ramon Sessions’ groin during the Heat’s victory over Charlotte on Wednesday. Wade sat out Miami’s 109-99 loss to Detroit on Friday night, which snapped the Heat’s six-game winning streak. Wade had 24 points on 10-of-19 shooting. LeBron James scored 26 as Miami failed to reach 100 points for just the third time in 28 games.

Luc Richard Mbah a Moute scored 19 points for the Bucks, and Larry Sanders had 16 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.

Dunleavy also had nine rebounds, six assists and three steals for the Bucks, who outscored Miami 3514 in the fourth. The Heat (20-8) fell to 6-6 on the road.

Trail Blazers 89, 76ers 85 In Portland, Nicolas Batum had 22 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, Damian Lillard added 20 points and Portland beat Philadelphia for its eighth straight victory at home.

JJ Hickson had 16 points and 13 rebounds for the Trail Blazers.

LaMarcus Aldridge added 16 points. Jrue Holiday had 29 points, nine assists and nine rebounds to lead the Sixers, who have lost eight of 10. Thaddeus Young added 17 points. Portland opened the fourth quarter with a 7-0 run to take a 10-point advantage. —AP

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

sp orts

Canada beat US 2-1

UFA: Canada forward Ryan Strome (18) scores past USA goalie John Gibson (35) as USA defenseman Seth Jones (3) looks on during first period IIHF World Junior Championships hockey action in Ufa. —AP

UFA: Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Ryan Strome scored in the first period for Canada to beat the United States 2-1 and advance to the next round at the junior ice hockey world championships. The victory gave Canada provisional top spot of Group B, one point ahead of Russia.

The top team in each group gets a bye into the quarterfinals. Jacob Trouba scored for the U.S. in the 51st minute.

In Group A, Finland beat Switzerland 5-4 from a shootout goal by Markus Granlund, who also scored twice in regulation time. Later yesterday, Latvia plays the Czech Republic and Slovakia faces Germany.

Meanwhile, Russia routed Germany 7-0 Saturday for its third straight victory at the junior ice hockey world championships.

Yaroslav Kosov scored a hat trick in the third period for the Russians, who had already decided the game by then.

Nikita Kucherov gave the hosts the lead just a minute into the game, before Nail Yakupov and Danil Zharkov added goals in the first period. Defenseman Albert Yarullin netted the fourth in the second period.

Russia goalkeeper Andrei Vasilevski had 41 saves for the shutout. Russia tops Group B with nine points and will face Canada on Monday in a game that will likely decide the group winner.

Earlier Saturday, Viktor Arvidsson scored twice as Sweden beat Latvia 5-1 to secure a spot in the knockout round. Sweden dominated the match but struggled to find a way past goalkeeper Ivars Punnenovs, until Emil Molin gave the Swedes the lead with 50 seconds left in the first period. Teodors Blugers equalized for the winless Latvians, but Sebastian Collberg restored the lead before the interval and Sweden added three late goals to wrap up the win.

Arvidsson scored two quick goals midway through the third and Alexander Wennberg added the fifth with less than a minute to play.

Sweden tops Group A with eight points from three games, while Latvia is last with zero points. —AP

CLERMONT-FERRAND: Clermont’s Fidji winger Napolioni Nalaga (second right) vies with opponents during the Top 14 French championships rugby Union match. —AFP

Clermont hammer Bayonne PARIS: Clermont closed the gap on Top 14 leaders Toulon yesterday with a runaway 48-3 win at home over lowly Bayonne. Tries from Wesley Fofana (2), Fiji winger Napolioni Nalaga (2), JeanMarcellin Buttin and Kiwi centre Benson Stanley gave the on-form Auvergne side the full five points, leaving them just two points shy of the Mediterranean side who play later in the day at home to Perpignan.

Bayonne started well and were still level at 0-0 after the first quarter, but a Morgan Parra penalty broke the deadlock and two tries from Fofana after 25 and 31 minutes, both converted by Parra, opened the floodgates.

Clermont were 20-3 ahead at halftime and it was more of the same in the second half as a brace from Nalaga, and tries from Buttin and Stanley rounded off an impressive win. France international scrum-half Parra was flawless with the boot, kicking all the penalties and conversions that came his way with Butch James and David Skrela stepping in when he went off. It was a 52nd straight home win for Clermont in the Top 14.

In other games Racing Metro eased their troubles with a 40-6 win over Agen, bottom team Mont-de-Marsan were edged 19-18 at home by Biarritz, while Grenoble defeated Bordeaux 19-9.

Meanwhile, France coach Philippe Saint-Andre will, with his assistants Yannick Bru and Patrice Lagisquet, now take charge of team selection after the traditional committee was disbanded, a French rugby official said Saturday.

The selection committee’s latest fouryear mandate has come to an end and it simply was not renewed, French rugby federation vice-president Jean Dunyach told AFP. In place for several decades, the selection committee was in its last guise presided over by Jo Maso and made up of national technical director JeanClaude Skrela, the under-20 coach Fabien Pelous and his predecessor Philippe Sella, now coach of top 14 outfit Agen. “When we proposed the France team to Philippe Saint-Andre in 2011, we agreed in talks on a new organisation: he wanted to be coach-selector and have with him two men on the ground who would make up his backroom staff,” said Dunyach.

“It’s not only a political desire of (federation president) Pierre Camou and the federation, but also a desire to change the functioning of the national team to entrust coaches with more responsibility.

“This means players will also see that the decision-makers are really the people who coach them and not other people who can influence coaches.” Saint-Andre will unveil a list of 30-33 players for the Six Nations on January 11.

The French team, unbeaten in three November Tests, will kick off the tournament away to Italy on February 3, before welcoming defending Grand Slam champions Wales to the Stade de France six days later. Les Bleus then face two tough away games in England on February 23 and Ireland on March 9, before rounding off with a home Test against Scotland on March 16. — AFP

Michigan State roll over TCU 17-16 in BWW Bowl

TEMPE: Michigan State labored on offense throughout the first half, unable to get anything going on the ground, in the air, anywhere.

For a team that had lost five games by a combined 13 points during the regular season, it was starting to feel familiar.

The Spartans changed their luck by turning to brutally effective running back Le’Veon Bell in the second half, setting up Dan Conroy for another game-winning kick in a bowl game. Bell ran for 145 yards and a fourth-quarter touchdown, Conroy kicked a 47-yard field goal with 1:01 left and Michigan State rallied to beat Texas Christian 17-16 in the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl on Saturday night.

“With so many close games and losing like we did during the season, to have one go our way was definitely sweet,” Conroy said. It wasn’t always pretty for the Spartans. Michigan State (7-6) managed 76 yards of offense dur-

ing the first two quarters as TCU bottled up Bell.

The 237-pound junior started to wear down the Horned Frogs in the second half, grinding out 107 of his yards on a 32-carry night. Behind Bell, the Spartans went on the longest drive in their bowl history in the third quarter, marching 90 yards to set up freshman Connor Cook’s 15-yard touchdown pass to Aaron Burbridge.

Michigan State then recovered a muffed punt by TCU’s Skye Dawson at the 4-yard line midway through the fourth and Bell scored two plays later by racing around left end for a 14-13 lead.

TCU (7-6) still had a little life after blowing a 13-point halftime lead, moving just far enough to set up Jaden Oberkrom for the longest field goal in the bowl’s history, a 53-yarder that put the Horned Frogs up 16-14 with 2:42 left. They just left Michigan State too much time. Starting at their own 25-yard

line, the Spartans moved 45 yards in eight plays, setting up Conroy for his second game-winner in a bowl after beating Georgia with a 28yarder in the third overtime of the 2012 Outback Bowl. Michigan State’s defense held after that, sending the Spartans to their second straight bowl win after three consecutive losses. “ There was no doubt in my mind that after so many losses in similar fashion that we were going to come out on top in this one,” Spartans linebacker Max Bullough said.

The Horned Frogs shut down Michigan State’s offense in the first half and did just enough when they had the ball to put together three scoring drives. In the second half, TCU couldn’t get anything going against the Spartans’ defense - 84 total yards - and its defense gave up the long scoring drive in the third quarter, along with the game -winner in the

TEMPE: Michigan State players celebrate on the field after winning the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl NCAA college football game against TCU. —AP

fourth. Trevone Boykin threw for 201 yards and an interception on 13-of-29 passing for the Horned Frogs. “A little bit empty feeling inside because we felt like we left a lot on the field,” TCU coach Gary Patterson said. TCU and Michigan State came to the desert with an awful lot of similarities.

The Horned Frogs opened their first season in the Big 12 with four straight wins before losing four of their final six games. Michigan State started 4-2, then lost four of six down the stretch.

Michigan State had the nation’s fourth-best defense and was 10th in scoring defense during the regular season. TCU was 18th in total defense and 10th against the run.

Michigan State quarterback Andrew Maxwell was up-anddown in his first season as Kirk Cousins’ replacement, throwing 13 touchdown passes and nine interceptions. Boykin took over after four games for Casey Pachall, who was suspended and later left the team, and threw for 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions. The biggest difference between the teams was Bell.

He ranked third nationally with 137.3 yards rushing per game and had 1,648 on the season, secondmost in Michigan State history and 242 fewer than TCU had as a team.

Early on, the Horned Frogs gave him nowhere to go. Filling holes inside and stringing plays out toward the sidelines, TCU stuffed the bruising Bell on nearly every touch, holding him to 38 yards on 11 carries in the first half.

Of course, it didn’t seem to matter what Michigan State did. The Spartans had 29 yards on 12 plays in the first quarter and weren’t a whole lot better in the second, with Maxwell throwing two near-interceptions on consecutive passes and an ill-advised trick play that probably should have resulted in a turnover, too.

The Spartans still seemed to be stuck in the ruts in the third quarter before grinding out a 14-play scoring drive led by Cook, who replaced Maxwell for the second time in the game. They had their biggest play on a floating pass from Bell to fullback TyQuan Hammock (29 yards), then Cook threw his first career touchdown pass, a 15-yarder to Burbridge on a crossing route that cut TCU’s lead to 13-7. “I thought Connor did a

TEMPE: Michigan State running back Le’Veon Bell (24) is tripped up

by TCU cornerback Kevin White (25) during the first half of the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl NCAA college football game. —AP good job on the 90-yard drive, gave us a little momentum,” Spartans coach Mark Dantonio said. TCU didn’t exactly have its way with Michigan State’s defense in the first half and missed some chances to build a bigger lead.

The Frogs started gashing the Spartans for decent-sized chunks with their option midway through the first quarter, setting up Matthew Tucker’s 4-yard touchdown on an end-around.

Boykin had an impressive offthe-back-foot throw to freshman Kolby Listenbee for 59 yards on the last play of the first quarter and nearly had a 19-yard touchdown pass to open the second, but LaDarius Brown was bumped and dropped the ball in the end zone.

Oberkrom followed with a 47-yard

field goal and added another from 31 yards after Boykin hit Josh Boyce on a 61-yard pass to put TCU up 13-0 at halftime. The Frogs couldn’t keep it up in the second half.

With Michigan State clogging the running lanes and chasing Boykin around, TCU had 30 yards of offense in the third quarter and continued to struggle in the fourth.

The Horned Frogs did manage the short scoring drive to set up Oberkrom’s late field goal, but ended up going backward on their final drive after Conroy’s kick.

“What I thought happened in the third quarter was Michigan State dialed up the heat and we didn’t have an answer,” Patterson said. Michigan State did - for one of the few times this season. —AP

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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Hope for polluted lagoon near Rio Olympic village?

RIO DE JANEIRO: Near Rio’s future 2016 Olympic village the Marapendi lagoon emits a foul stench from waters that have been turned into a cesspool by unfiltered sewage from surrounding upscale condominiums.

Brazil has pledged the athletes will see a much different sight when they descend on the country for the Summer Games in four years.

The government pledged to cleanup the decades of pollution in its bid to host the Olympics, in a two-year project estimated to cost $300 million and slated to start early next year.

The municipality has also vowed to build four sewage treatment stations in local rivers at a cost of $68 million. But it

will be an uphill battle. Waste from area lagoons could fill Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium seven times over, according to experts.

“The sewage dumped into the lagoon comes from the residences of the wealthy who do not provide proper treatment,” fumed biologist Mario Moscatelli during a dawn tour of the area. Until five years ago, untreated sewage was dumped directly into the water system.

A treatment network has since been implemented and been made mandatory, but today the water utility network still only covers 60 percent of area homes. “Some object because it requires costly work,” conceded Marlene

Ramos, president of the Rio de Janeiro Environment Institute. Today, dead fish can be seen floating in the fetid waters.

The lagoon is my lifeline In early December, four tons of fish died in the lagoon because of the pollution and the heatwave that has brought 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) temperatures to the Southern Hemisphere this summer, Moscatelli explained.

The lagoon has also shrunk considerably. In some areas, the waters measure only a few centimeters deep, where it used to have 12-meter (40foot) depth. Waste sedimentation impedes navigation, and, in addition

to killing fish, the lack of oxygen threatens other species such as herons, ducks, cabybaras and caimans who flee pollution.

And wildlife aren’t the only ones to suffer from the lagoon’s ruin. “The lagoon is my lifeline,” said Ricardo Herdy, owner of the EcoBalsas company, which shuttles local residents, as well as offers aquatic sports classes as well as educational and ecological tours.

“I cannot develop projects as nobody wants to cruise dirty waters reeking of rotten fish,” he complained.

He confessed that he has considered closing down his business. But local residents remember happier days for

this ecosystem in the densely populated western Barra da Tijuca district.

“Up until 1985, I would fish in this lagoon. There were plenty of fish and shrimp. You did not have to go out to sea,” said Sergio Borel, who has been fishing in the area for 40 years.

“That changed when they began building these apartment buildings,” he said, though he holds on to hope the lagoon can come back. “I hope that one day I will be able to fish shrimp here again,” Borel said.

Biologist Moscatelli hasn’t lost faith either. “There is no question that a solution can be found to depollute the lagoon. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” — AFP

Serena sends Varvara packing

PERTH: Venus Williams of the US hits a return against Chanelle Scheepers of South Africa during their third session women’s singles match on day two of the Hopman Cup tennis tournament in Perth. —AFP

Venus leads US to victory over S Africa PERTH: American tennis star Venus Williams gave her comeback hopes a boost with a win at the Hopman Cup in Perth yesterday, and said she still believed she could be a force in the Grand Slams.

The former world number one beat Chanelle Scheepers in three sets to help the United States post a 2-1 win over South Africa in their Group B tie at the mixed teams tournament.

Williams, playing for the first time since October and just 24 hours after arriving in Australia, made a slow start against the 60th-ranked Scheepers but steadied to win 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. The seven-time Grand Slam singles winner has climbed the rankings this year as she recovered from a major setback due to illness in 2011.

Williams has not won a Grand Slam singles title since her 2008 success at Wimbledon. She slipped to 134th in the rankings last year after suffering from Sjogren’s Syndrome, a systemic autoimmune disease. However, the 32-year-old has enjoyed much better fortunes this year.

She won her first singles title since 2010 in Luxembourg, teamed with sister Serena to win gold in the doubles at the London Olympics and finished the season ranked 24th in the world.

Speaking after hitting 44 winners in disposing of Scheepers, Williams said this year was a great platform for the coming 12 months. “Last year was so awesome for me, winning a tournament and getting to the Olympics and getting a gold,” she said. “I was extremely happy last year and moved up quite a few spots.

“This year is just about building on it and continuing to play deep into the draws and put myself in positions to play well deep into the tournaments.” Williams said she still believed she could be a force in the Grand Slams.

“I always feel that way,” she said. “That’s how you have to feel, you have to be positive. “I try to be positive and tell myself I’m the best now. It doesn’t happen every time but you’ve got to have that mind frame.”

Kevin Anderson levelled the tie for South Africa with an upset win over fellow big man John Isner in the men’s singles, the world number 37 beating the world number 14 after two tie-breaks, 7-6 (7/0), 7-6 (7/5). The Americans then prevailed in straight sets in the deciding mixed doubles 6-3, 6-2. In the evening Group A session Spain beat France 2-1, with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga recovering from a break down in the first set to beat Fernando Verdasco 7-5, 6-3 in the men’s singles, before Anabel Medina Garrigues levelled the tie with an easy win over Mathilde Johansson, 6-3, 6-2.

The Spanish dominated the mixed doubles, winning 6-3, 6-3.

Meanwhile, Germany’s Andrea Petkovic has withdrawn from the tournament after injuring her right knee during her singles match on Saturday, and will be replaced in the German team for the remainder of the tournament by Tatjana Malek.

The injury-plagued Petkovic, a former top 10 player, has ruptured the meniscus in her right knee and will miss the Australian Open, but hopes to only be sidelined for a month. —AFP

OBERSTDORF: Germany’s Severin Freund performs a training jump of the 61th edition of the Four-Hills-Tournament. The first competition of the jumping event will take place in Oberstdorf, before the tournament continues in GarmischPartenkirchen, Germany, in Innsbruck (Austria) and in Bischofshofen (Austria). —AFP

BRISBANE: An angry and impatient Serena Williams overcame blustery conditions at the Brisbane International yesterday in an ominous beginning to her only tournament before her charge at a 16th major title at the Australian Open next month.

The American threw her hands in the air, shook her head, gesticulated towards her coach and stomped her feet in petulant protest - but that did little to help compatriot Varvara Lepchenko who suffered a 6-2 6-1 first round defeat.

Howling with frustration in her first match since winning the WTA Championships at Istanbul in October, lacking rhythm in swirling winds on Pat Rafter Arena, Williams still delivered enough booming serves and punishing groundstrokes to prevail in a formidable if cantankerous display.

The reigning Wimbledon, Olympic and US Open champion told reporters a calendaryear grand slam was very much on her mind at the start of the season. Williams held all four major titles in the so-called Serena Slam of 2002-2003 but the holy grail of professional tennis is to win the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open tournaments in the same calendar year.

The American claimed world number one Victoria Azarenka and number two Maria Sharapova, and perhaps a few fringe-dwellers, were eyeing off a near-impossible feat not achieved since Steffi Graf ’s unbeaten run through 1988.

“I think whoever wins the Australian Open will have that same thought,” Williams said. “I think there is no way that Victoria or Maria or maybe some other players don’t have that same thought. I think I definitely feel that way.” Both Azarenka and Sharapova are in a red-hot Brisbane field with Williams. Of the world’s top 10, only Agnieszka Radwanska and Li Na are missing.

The predictability of her defeat of Lepchenko was matched by the level of emotion surrounding Australian wildcard Jarmila Gajdosova’s victory on the opening day.

Playing her first tournament since the passing in September of her mother, also named Jarmila, and with her world ranking having plummeted from a career high of 25 to 183 in the last 18 months, Gajdosova roared home from a one-set deficit to stun Italy’s world number 16 Roberta Vinci.

Gajdosova wept after a 4-6 6-1 6-3 triumph that set up a second-round showdown against French Open champion Sharapova.

“There have been a lot of things happening in my life,” Gajdosova said.

“As you all know, my mom passed away in September. It’s been a difficult time. First Christmas, as well, without her. My dad is here. My brother and his wife and son. It was my first match in front of them and my first match in Australia, after a long time, without my mum.” Sixth-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova recovered from a pre-tournament asthma scare to defeat Spain’s Carla Suarez-Navarro 63 6-4.

Kvitova has been gasping and wheezing in Brisbane’s humid weather and revealed one of her recent attacks had been her worst in three years. The 2011 Wimbledon champion was unaware she was asthmatic until she nearly collapsed during an event in New York in 2009.

“I was playing a tournament in the Bronx

and after about five minutes I had to sit down and relax and have a drink because I just couldn’t move and I couldn’t play,” she wrote in a column for the Courier-Mail newspaper.

“I still feel really uncomfortable when I’m in this sort of hot and humid weather and it was at practise on Friday that I started to feel a bit similar to what I did in The Bronx.” —Reuters

BRISBANE: Serena Williams of the US plays a shot during her first round match against Varvaro Lepchenko of the US during the Brisbane International tennis tournament. —AP

Gasquet believes Grand Slam success can be his DOHA: Richard Gasquet, the world top ten’s biggest enigma, is seeking a platform during the next six days for the Grand Slam success that his undoubted ability warrants in the new season which starts here today.

Following the late withdrawal of Rafael Nadal, the 26-year-old Switzerland-based Frenchman is seeded to reach the final of the Qatar Open and sees that as an important platform for a flying start to 2013.

Gasquet’s two-thirds match winning ratio of last year is a respectable but not a fulfilling statistic for a man with such a sublimely gifted game at his best - and that is an assessment with which he appears to agree.

“I want to play better in Grand Slams. I did fourth rounds this year, so I’m sure I can do better again,” said Gasquet who hopes to make at least the quarter-finals of the 2013 Australian Open which begins in Melbourne in two weeks time.

It is one of the tour’s curiosities that it is fully five and half years since Gasquet’s best

Grand Slam performance, a semi-final on the grass at Wimbledon. Asked why this was so, he replied: “I think I can play on every surface, every court. Last year I played well in Wimbledon too. “As I said, a lot of fourth rounds last year, lost to Murray, against the best player in the world. This year I want to play better against those guys, and why not to win them and go farther in Grand Slam?”

One evident way by which Gasquet has for some time been trying to do that is controlling and re-directing the strong emotions which both fuels and sometimes erodes his classically fluent style.”Yeah, it’s important to have a big mental side,” he agreed.

“You know, Djokovic, Federer, Nadal have an incredible mental part. I try to reach that level. It’s tough, but for sure when you want to win these kind of matches, you need to have a big mental (side).”

Gasquet also said: “I think I finish at number ten in the world, so I’m sure I can go farther. I’m not sure about the top five though -

it’s tough. There are good players between five and ten, but I’m able to do it.”

One of those in the top five is David Ferrer, who is top seed this week, and who during the prolonged absence of Rafa Nadal last year was voted the Spanish player of the year by tennis writers.

Ferrer, who beat Gasquet in last year’s US Open, is the man whom the Frenchman should meet in next Saturday’s final, although both have to clear significant hurdles before they can.

Ferrer may have a semi-final with either his compatriot Feliciano Lopez or Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, both former top 20 players who have done well previously in the Middle East. Gasquet meanwhile may need to beware a quarter-final with Viktor Troicki, the Serbian who reached world number 12 last year, and could have a semi-final with Jeremy Chardy, his fellow Frenchman who reached the top 30 in September and hopes to break into the top 20 during the new year. —AFP

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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Velez records first Slovakian win

SEMMERING: Slovakia’s Veronika Velez Zuzulova competes in the women’s Alpine skiing World cup night slalom in Semmering. —AFP SEMMERING: Veronika Velez Zuzulova gave Slovakia their first victory in a women’s alpine skiing World Cup race by winning a slalom on Saturday. After having achieved 13 podium finishes in 10 years, the former junior world champion finally broke through when she clocked a combined time of one minute 37.28 seconds.

“It’s just a lifetime dream come true. I had been on the podium so many times I didn’t

know if this would finally happen,” Velez Zuzulova told reporters. “I come from a very small country and up to now I was the only one the fans could count on.

The pressure was enormous, everybody kept asking me when I would make it at last.”

Zuzulova, 28, who married her French coach Romain Velez earlier this year, was 0.10 seconds ahead of Austrian Kathrin Zettel. Zettel, winner of a slalom in Colorado

last month, was cheered wildly by the huge crowd gathered in the closest ski resort to the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Zuzulova said she longed for the day when she would receive a similar kind of support. “In another life I would love to come back as an Austrian skier to feel what the girls feel here,” she said. “It must be great.” Overall World Cup leader Tina Maze was fastest on the first run but skied a little

too conservatively in the floodlit second leg and had to be content with third place, 0.20 off the pace.

It was the Slovenian’s 11th podium finish of the season and lifted her overall points tally to 1,059, giving her a lead of 427 points over second-placed German Maria HoeflRiesch who ended up fourth in Semmering.

There was more good news for Slovakia when Velez Zuzulova’s 17-year-old compatri-

Velasquez reclaims UFC title LAS VEGAS: Cain Velasquez reclaimed the UFC heavyweight championship Saturday night, battering Junior Dos Santos on the way to a lopsided unanimous decision in UFC 155.

Velasquez (11-1) took early control of the rematch of his only career loss, flooring the champion with a big right hand midway through the first round. Velasquez spent most of the match stalking and pounding on Dos Santos (15-2), who never fully recovered from the firstround shot that left him bruised and dazed.

“I was so tired, but I had to endure,” Velasquez said. “My coaches and everybody helped me so much. He’s tough, too. ... It feels so good to get this. This is my wife’s Christmas present. I promised her I would do this.”

Velasquez won every round on every judge’s scorecard in the UFC’s traditional year-end event in its hometown. The three judges scored the bout for Velasquez 50-45, 50-44 and 50-43. The Associated Press also favored Velasquez 50-44, giving a 10-8 advantage to Velasquez in the first round.

Dos Santos took the UFC belt away from Velasquez in November 2011 in just 64 seconds, earning a first-round stoppage victory with one vicious overhand right in Anaheim, California.

Velasquez refused to blame a knee injury for his only defeat, but in the rematch, he demonstrated exactly what he can do at full strength.

Velasquez immediately showed the rematch would be a different fight, pursuing Dos Santos from the opening bell and backing up the champion. Velasquez then floored Dos Santos with that huge right to the head midway through the round, and Dos Santos had to cover up in the corner while barely surviving an onslaught of strikes.

Dos Santos struggled to regain his rhythm after the early knockdown, and Velasquez managed another takedown early in the third round before repeatedly tagging the champion with shots that left his face swollen and puffy.

Dos Santos’ Brazilian fans attempted to rally him with chants of his nickname, “Cigano,” in the final rounds, but Velasquez was relentless. At the final bell, he collapsed on his back at the center of the cage, pointing skyward with both hands.

“His game was very effective, and tonight he was better than me,” Dos Santos said. “It’s not usual for me to take a punch, but he walks forward all the time. His takedowns, his grappler LAS VEGAS: Junior dos Santos of Brazil (left) and Cain Velasquez of San Jose grapple during their UFC game is very effective, so congratulations for 155 heavyweight championship mixed martial arts match at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Velasquez won with a unanimous decision. —AP him.” —AP

ot Petra Vlhova secured 11th position in her first World Cup race. American teenager Mikaela Shiffrin, who claimed her first World Cup victory in Sweden last week, missed a gate on the second leg and failed to score any points.

The next race is in Munich on New Year’s Day, a parallel slalom competition involving the 12 best skiers in the discipline and the top four all-rounders. —Reuters

Scandal was the name of sports game in 2012 DETROIT: Cynicism was the big winner in 2012. There was once trust . . . and then came Jerry Sandusky. No other sports story in the last 12 months resonated as strongly as the gruesome revelation of the former Penn State defensive coordinator’s long pedophilic history. Sandusky lured vulnerable young men looking for positive direction in their lives into his monstrous web.

His actions - and Penn State’s apparent blindness to what was unfolding right before its eyes brought forth the strongest sanctions ever in NCAA history for a case that didn’t involve excessive benefits. There was once honor . . . and then came Joe Paterno.

Sadly, it was probably a blessing that lung cancer took Paterno in the early weeks of 2012. It protected what shards remained from a once-peerless legacy - the uncontested model of what was good and just about college football.

But the head coach who won more games than any other in college football history posthumously became the example of a reckless autonomy, football trumping the moral responsibility of those in authority.

Those defending Paterno maintain that the “real story” was buried with him and that he deserves the benefit of the doubt.

But even the university removed his statue, quickly distancing itself from its single most iconic figure a pre-emptive move against future civil litigation from Sandusky’s victims. There was once heroism . . . and then came Lance Armstrong.

Armstrong, a cancer survivor, had been the embodiment of unrelenting will. His inspiring story raised millions for cancer research as he became the greatest cyclist of all time. He not only defied amazing odds once when he survived brain cancer, but he was perceived as the lone honest broker in a competition consid-

ered the dirtiest sport in regards to performance-enhancing drug usage.

But Armstrong was stripped of his Tour de France titles in 2012 due to doping allegations. His reluctance to continue fighting to save his reputation suggested that even he knew it was a lost cause.

There was once tradition . . . and then came the Big Ten. The conference raided other league’s teams when it snatched Maryland away from the Atlantic Coast Conference and Rutgers from the soon-to-be defunct Big East. Maryland left its roots because it was broke and needed a quick infusion of money. Who cares about history? Who cares about rivalries?

The Big Ten is home to the biggest football stadiums in the country, but its actions seem to cater to those who are either priced out of attending the games or are happy watching their favorite teams on their widescreen, high-definition televisions without worrying about traffic jams and long lines for portable toilets.

There was once integrity . . . and then came baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot. This became the first steroid vote. First-time eligible candidates Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and Sammy Sosa own some of the game’s more cherished records and none of them is likely to gain entry in their first year. The feds couldn’t convict Bonds and Clemens on the more serious charges involving their suspected steroids usage.

But is there a voter out there who doesn’t believe all three cheated to gain a competitive edge? I didn’t include them on my ballot.

This was a year in which you learned that history and hypocrisy carried equal weight. Sports stopped being the idyllic toy store - after all, we couldn’t help but notice that many of the toys were broken. —MCT

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

SPORTS

Ferguson thanks RVP as United reach ‘halfway’

SHARJAH: Iraq’s Yunis Mahmud (center) celebrates with teammate Ali Adnan (right) during their friendly football match against Tunisia in Sharjah.—AFP

Shades of Henry as Walcott fires Arsenal hat-trick LONDON: Theo Walcott evoked memories of the great Thierry Henry when his dazzling hat-trick inspired Arsenal to a 7-3 win over Newcastle United on Saturday in one of the best Premier League games of the season.

The England winger has been pleading for the central striker’s role for some time and, playing in his new position, Walcott proved he has what it takes to fill the boots of the London club’s all-time top scorer Henry. “He can play through the middle. I am convinced of that,” manager Arsene Wenger told reporters after Arsenal climbed to fifth in the table, 16 points behind leaders Manchester United.

“He can only get stronger there. He has done very well and it just typifies what I think he can do.” Walcott was on target in the 20th and 73rd minutes before adding his third goal in stoppage time. Olivier Giroud (2), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski also struck for Arsenal while two-goal Demba Ba and Sylvain Marveaux replied for Newcastle.

Former France striker Henry, who hit 228 goals in all competitions in two spells with the club between 1999-2012, applauded from the stands as Walcott produced his outstanding display in attack.

The 23-year-old burst free down the left and cut in to deliver a clinical finish beyond Newcastle goalkeeper Tim Krul for the opening goal.

Three times Arsenal led and Newcastle hit back to equalise on each occasion before the visitors were finally buried under a late avalanche of goals in an endto-end encounter. Walcott’s second effort was a powerful close-range strike into the roof of the net but it was his hat-trick goal that had the stamp of Henry at his best.

The England international weaved his way round three defenders. He then stumbled and fell to the ground before picking

himself up to delicately lift the ball over Krul from an acute angle.

Walcott, at the centre of a contract dispute with Arsenal, cradled the match ball in his arms as he lapped up the adoration of the crowd at the end of the game. He bowed and clapped all corners of the stadium while cries rang out of ‘sign him up, sign him up, sign him up’.

“I think he loves the club and the club loves him,” said Wenger. “My desire is to extend his contract - I think he belongs here and hopefully we can do it.” New York Red Bulls striker Henry, who is training with Arsenal during the Major League Soccer off season, has been working closely with Walcott behind the scenes.

“I believe Theo takes advice from Thierry,” said Wenger. “It’s good when you need to talk to someone who has played in there (as a central striker).” Walcott said he was delighted with his performance and that of his Arsenal colleagues.

“I’ve always said that I’m a striker,” said the former Southampton winger who wears the same number 14 jersey Henry used to parade. “I’m not saying I want to play there all the time but it’s an option for me and the team.

“It was a manic game today, it was so open and that played into our hands.

Newcastle have got some top quality players and they play some good football at times but as soon as it went to five we could see some of their heads dropping.”

Newcastle, who lost 4-3 at Manchester United on Wednesday, have now conceded 11 goals in two games and are struggling sixth from bottom. “It was a heavy pitch at United and we looked leggy after our exertions there,” said manager Alan Pardew.

“We did not have the energy to cope with Arsenal in the last 20 minutes. We put the ball at risk too often and we gave away some soft goals.” —Reuters

US soccer giving a better head start to young players LOS ANGELES: Ben Lederman’s baggy shorts hang below his knees, and even the tiniest sweat shirt US Soccer could find is still a couple of sizes too big for his skinny 12-year-old body. Put a ball at Lederman’s feet, though, and one of the smallest kids on the field clearly towers over his competition. A midfielder from Calabasas, Lederman is a soccer prodigy. At 11, he became the first US-born player ever accepted in La Masia, FC Barcelona’s famed youth academy, where he’s already been promoted one level. And in November, six months past his 12th birthday, Lederman was one of the youngest players invited to US Soccer’s youth training camp at the Home Depot Center.

For Tony Lepore, director of scouting for US Soccer, that all qualifies as good news.

“Benny’s ... still a little boy (and) has a long way to go in his pathway for development.

But he’s in a great environment now,” Lepore says. “We think the future is very bright.” Consider that Barcelona star Lionel Messi, arguably one of the best players of all time, wasn’t invited to La Masia until he was 13. Or that 16 of Barca’s 24 first-team players - as well as the entire coaching staff - came through the same program Lederman is in now. But he’s not the only US player to draw the attention of an elite foreign soccer club before he’s old enough to start high school.

Last year, 12-year-old Vincent Borden of Ithaca, N.Y., was invited to the prestigious youth academy of Croatian club Dinamo Zagreb. And there are at least 12 other players in US Soccer’s U-15 program who have made or are contemplating moves to clubs in Europe, South America and Mexico, including forward Christian Pulisic of Hershey, Pa., who has trained with Barcelona.

Some of the credit should go to US Soccer and its fledgling youth academy system, which is modeled after ones used in much of the soccer world. In its fifth year, the US Soccer Development Academy which consists of 80 member clubs scattered around the country - has already seen five of its graduates advance to the senior national team.

Now even the youngest US players are beginning to earn attention abroad. And all

of them bring back things they learned there, further contributing to the improvement of American soccer.

The development academy program has been so successful that, in August, US Soccer announced it was expanding the program down to the U-13/U-14 level next year, meaning players like Lederman and Borden can train with boys their own age.

And “train” is the operative word here.

Traditionally, boys in that age group in the US have joined local club teams, where the emphasis has been not on skill development but on playing as many games - and winning as many trophies - as possible.

In the US development academy, however, the emphasis is on year-round training - as much as eight hours a week, 40 weeks a year, with four practices for every game. It’s still far short of what kids in Spain or Brazil do, but it’s a major step up for USbased players.

“The development academy has drastically changed the landscape for better in our country,” Lepore says. “There’s high accountability. And high standards.” Some may question whether it’s appropriate to require high accountability and high standards from grade-school kids. But if the US ever hopes to compete evenly with the likes of Spain and Brazil on the soccer field it will have to train like them as well.

Mckay Eves of Las Vegas was one of 36 players called up to November’s U-14 training sessions. “After he came back from the last camp, his intensity was a lot higher,” says Jason Eves, Mckay’s father. “He learned what was expected. It’s a good structure.”

And that certainly beats what Eves sees as the alternative. “I’d rather him doing this than playing Xbox any day,” Jason Eves says. “He loves it. We don’t ever have to tell him to practice or work on things because that’s what he’s always doing.”

Just what the payoff will be for the likes of Eves, Lederman, Borden and the rest of the players in their age group could take years to sort out. But as US Soccer’s development academy continues to expand, Lepore says soccer in the US will keep getting better. “We feel like every year there’s a significant improvement,” Lepore says. “We are improving as a soccer culture.”—MCT

MANCHESTER: Alex Ferguson said Manchester United were “halfway” to the Premier League title after Robin van Persie scored late on to seal a 2-0 win over West Bromwich Albion.

United go into Tuesday’s visit to Wigan Athletic leading the Premier League by seven points from defending champions Manchester City, and with van Persie having scored 33 club goals for Arsenal and Ferguson’s team in the year 2012.

His last-minute effort in the 2-0 win against West Brom, adding to an early Gareth McAuley own goal, was his 14th Premier League strike since moving to Old Trafford in the close season and his 17th for United in all competitions.

After scoring his goal towards the end of Saturday’s game, van Persie revealed a T-shirt bearing the words ‘RIP Tchuna’, in tribute to a personal friend who had passed away on the eve of the game.

Ferguson certainly appreciated the efforts of his forward and the United manager believes that United are halfway towards completing their goal of wrestling the league title from City’s grip. “He (van Persie) changed the game for us,” said Ferguson. “When I brought him and Paul Scholes on, they settled the game down for us.

“It (van Persie’s goal) is fantastic. He is a fantastic player. He came on and changed the

game for us. “Every time the ball came up to him, he got hold of it. He turned on them.

They were having to go back to their box all the time. He has done well.

“We’re in a good position. We’re halfway there. We’ve a game on Tuesday away from home at Wigan and we’ve got a few players to freshen it up. We’ll look forward to the next game and try and win it.

“It’s important, though, that we do not sit looking at the league table, admiring our position, positive though it is, because we would soon get a rude awakening.

“Congratulating ourselves on our Premier League lead doesn’t mean a thing to me. It’s winning the next game that counts.”

Given his team’s defensive problems of late, Ferguson was arguably even more content with the efforts of his defenders, who kept just their fourth clean sheet of the season in the Premier League.

“We defended their crosses very well,” said Ferguson. “They kept pumping it in and we had to make sure we were competing for all the crosses, which we did very well. “It will be a hard game tomorow. Wigan have had a great result today (a 3-0 win at Aston Villa on Saturday).

“Hopefully we can freshen up again.

Possibly Phil Jones will be ready. Rafael will be ready. We rested Javier Hernandez today, Ryan (Giggs) and Paul (Scholes). We have

enough freshness to bring in tomorrow.”

Steve Clarke, the West Brom manager, was disappointed by the margin of defeat and felt the sodden Old Trafford playing surfacewhich required two pre-match pitch inspections before being declared playable-did not help his team.

“The scoreline didn’t reflect how well we played, particularly in the second half,” said Clark. “The pitch was dreadful and trying to play through the middle was something we got caught out by.

“But you don’t look for games to be called off. We used to play on pitches like that all the time. There was no reason to call that game off.” Clarke’s club have been one of the big surprises of the Premier League season, although the manager refuses to be carried away by his team’s impressive first half of the campaign.

“It’s difficult for a club like us to look too far ahead,” he said. “Like our fans keep singing, we know what we are. “We know what we’re trying to be and what we’re trying to build as a team and for us to look too far ahead would be wrong.

“We’ve got Fulham at home in two days’ time and the first target for us, like most teams in the league, is to get to the 40-point mark so we can say we’re safe. When we reach that, we will re-assess and set ourselves another target.”—AFP

Chiefs stars dominate South Africa squad

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa coach Gordon Igesund included seven stars from championship leaders Kaizer Chiefs in his 23man Africa Cup of Nations squad yesterday. Goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune, defenders Siboniso Gaxa and Tshepo Masilela, midfielders Reneilwe Letsholonyane and Siphiwe Tshabalala and strikers Lehlohonolo Majoro and Bernard Parker come from the league pacesetters.

There are also four stars from second-place Orlando Pirates, two from Mamelodi Sundowns and one each from Bloemfontein Cetlic, Moroka Swallows and Platinum Stars to swell the local contingent to 16 players.

Captain and centre-back Bongani Khumalo from Greek outfit PAOK is among seven Europe-based players and the list includes fit-again Ajax Amsterdam midfielder Thulani Serero. Defensive midfielders Kagisho Dikgacoi and Dean Furman, who play in England for second-tier Crystal Palace and third-tier Oldham Athletic respectively, also got the nod.

Sweden-based midfielder Max Mahlangu and striker Tokelo Rantie and defender Anele Ngcongca from Belgian club Racing Genk complete the overseas-based South Africans for the January 19-February 10 tournament.

Among those who missed out was left-back Ricardo Nunes from

Slovak club MSK Zilina, who impressed going forward in friendlies against Poland and Zambia, but looked defensively vulnerable.

“Now that the squad has been selected the focus is on the tournament and the real hard work begins for all of us,” Igesund said after the squad announcement at

an upscale hotel in a Johannesburg suburb. “I can now instil my philosophy and am confident that by the time the Cup of Nations starts we will be ready and playing as a unit. The support of all South African will be crucial if we are to succeed.”

Hosts South Africa, who won the Cup of Nations when they last

staged it 16 years ago, are in Group A with Angola, former champions Morocco and debutants Cape Verde Islands. Bafana Bafana (The Boys) face Norway at Cape Town Stadium on January 8 and fellow Cup of Nations contenders Algeria at Orlando Stadium in Soweto four days later in warm-up games.—AFP

DOHA: Paris Saint-Germain’s (PSG) Brazilian defender Thiago Silva (center) has his picture taken by a fan following a training session at the Aspire Academy of Sports Excellence in the Qatari capital Doha. PSG is in Qatar for a week-long training camp before the resumption of the French Ligue 1 after the winter break. —AFP

Bowe goes from basketball court to speedskating rink

VANCOUVER: When Brittany Bowe watched the 2010 Winter Olympics on television, she saw several of her old skating friends on the ice in Vancouver such as Chad Hedrick and Heather Richardson.

Bowe knew them as in-line speedskaters, champions in the nonOlympic sport they had left to become Olympians. It also was the sport she had left after 2008, with eight senior world titles on her resume, to concentrate on basketball at Florida Atlantic University.

“She was a baller,” said Michael Bowe, her father and her basketball coach at Trinity Catholic High School in their hometown of Ocala, Fla. Watch the highlight video of her career that Florida Atlantic put on YouTube, and you will know that is not just a proud parent’s view.

The 5-foot-7 point guard is eighth on Florida Atlantic’s all-time scoring list because she has quicksilver feet to penetrate for easy layups as well as a solid outside shooting touch. The three-year captain is also fourth on the school assists list and ninth in steals, and she was third-team allconference as a senior.

Bowe was a senior in 2010, looking at options to play basketball in Europe, when the sight of Hedrick and Richardson changed her plans.

“It lit a fire inside me,” she said. “One of my dreams always was to be an Olympian.”

Bowe seems likely to turn that dream into reality at the 2014 Winter

Games in Sochi, Russia. And her improvement during the past year has been so dramatic Bowe, 24, is not far from being an Olympic medal contender.

“A lot of people say they want to be the best, but she means it,” said Chance Dugan, her college basketball coach. “When she told me, ‘I will be in the Olympics in 2014,’ my reply was, ‘I have no doubt.’ “ In her first World Cup 1,000-meter

do everything I can to make that next step,” Bowe said. While many have stepped with relative ease from wheels to blades, there is no record of anyone dribbling onto the ice.

“Basketball and speedskating are at different ends of the athletic technique spectrum,” said Ryan Shimabukuro, U.S. long-track sprint team head coach. “What Brittany brought from basketball is overall athleticism and knowing how to

Brittany Bowe in action in this file photo race, 13 months ago, Bowe finished a respectable 16th but was 1.23 seconds - or a light-year - from the podium. In the most recent, in early December, she was fourth, .06 seconds from the podium.

“I’m right there, so close I want to

work very well in a team environment.”

The team player wasn’t always there. Dugan said Bowe rarely played as a college freshman because she was “a turnover waiting to happen, wouldn’t play defense and wouldn’t

listen.” Bowe almost switched to ice skating at that point but decided to hang in with a changed attitude.

“She transformed herself from an individual to a team leader,” Dugan said. Growing up, Bowe excelled at whatever sport she tried. At 2, according to her father, she gave dribbling exhibitions at halftime of college basketball games. Bowe made a statewide Under-13 boys travel team in soccer, which she gave up in high school because the season overlapped with basketball. From 8 until her junior season at Florida Atlantic, she also found time for inline skating.

“The thing that has benefited me most from playing basketball is my persistence and mental toughness,” she said. A month after her June 2010 graduation with a degree in sociology and social science, Bowe picked up and moved to Salt Lake City.

At the time, US Speedskating had a Wheels To Ice Program - it ended in March - to support leading in-liners who wanted to try long-track ice skating. Now she supports herself on results-based funding from the U.S. Olympic Committee and money from her parents, the split about 50-50.

Bowe put on ice skates for the first time in July 2010. It would take her a season to make the World Cup team.

By the end of the 2011-12 season, she had placed fifth in a World Cup 1,000 and eighth in the event at the World Single Distance Championships. —MCT

Velez records first Slovakian win

Serena sends Varvara packing

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Scandal was the name of sports game in 2012

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LIVERPOOL: Everton’s Nigerian striker Victor Anichebe (center) challenges Chelsea’s English defender Gary Cahill (left) during the English Premier League football match.—AFP

Lampard gives Benitez happy return Everton 1

Chelsea 2 LIVERPOOL: Frank Lampard scored twice as Chelsea came from behind to secure a 2-1 victory at Everton yesterday in Blues interim coach Rafael Benitez’s first game on Merseyside since leaving Liverpool.

South African Steven Pienaar gave Everton the lead in the second minute as the hosts made a flying start. But Lampard pulled one back with a header

just before half-time and in the 72nd minute he added a second from close range to earn a battling victory for Benitez’s side.

Lampard, 34, is facing an uncertain future, with his contract set to expire at the end of the season after 12 years at Chelsea. But he now has six goals this season, with his first effort at Goodison Park meaning he has scored five league goals or more in 16 consecutive seasons.

Chelsea’s fourth successive Premier League win takes them up to third in the table, four points behind second-placed Manchester City with a game in hand. For Benitez, who endured jeers from the Everton fans throughout a game that extended his unbeaten run against them

to eight league matches, the only downside was losing goalkeeper Petr Cech to an ankle problem at half-time.

It was a frustrating day for the hosts, who dominated for long periods and hit the woodwork three times, only to slip to just a third league defeat of the season.

Everton’s bench showed just how stretched their squad was by the fresh absences of Phil Neville and Darron Gibson.

But the hosts could not have wished for a better start, which saw David Moyes’ men take the lead with just over a minute gone. Phil Jagielka was playing out of position at right-back but he charged forward onto a Pienaar pass and his cross was headed against the post by Victor

Anichebe. Nikica Jelavic moved out of the way of the rebound to leave Pienaar the space to thump a shot into the bottomleft corner. Croatian striker Jelavic saw a free-kick bounce away off the post as Chelsea struggled to cope with the hosts’ intensity.

The visitors were grateful to Cech for keeping them in the match when another Jagielka cross was pushed to the edge of the area by Ashley Cole and the Chelsea goalkeeper turned a shot around the post from Leon Osman.

Chelsea finally threatened when Ramires was allowed to burst through midfield and after his shot was blocked

by John Heitinga, Juan Mata’s follow-up was saved by goalkeeper Tim Howard.

They went even closer when Cesar Azpilicueta’s cross ran across the Everton goal-line with just too much force for Cole to tap in at the far post. Then, after a quick break, Pienaar picked out Jelavic and the striker’s low effort was pushed wide by Cech at full stretch.

But three minutes before the interval, Chelsea hit back when Lampard was left unmarked and guided in a header from a Ramires cross. Chelsea suffered a blow at the break when Cech had to be replaced

by Ross Turnbull.

But they did not seem disrupted and after a neat move, Azpilicueta passed inside for David Luiz to drive a shot high and wide of goal from just outside the area. Fernando Torres also had his first

EPL results/standings

QPR left adrift at the bottom QPR 0

Liverpool 3 LONDON: Liverpool ended a difficult year in promising style by winning 3-0 at Queens Park Rangers yesterday to leave Harry Redknapp’s hapless side eight points adrift at the foot of the Premier League.

Liverpool have never previously lost as many league matches in a calendar year — 17 — but a Luis Suarez brace and a Daniel Agger header in the first half mean they will start 2013 in ninth place in the top flight.

Illness meant that Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was not present to witness the game, but Redknapp may have wished that he, too, had stayed away after his 600th Premier League game ended in chastening defeat.

The QPR manager elected to replace Rob Green with Julio Cesar in goal and the former Brazil goalkeeper quickly found himself udner assault at Loftus Road. Suarez got his first sight of goal in the third minute after nutmegging Clint Hill, but Julio Cesar was equal to his effort.

It was a different story seven minutes later, however, as Suarez flummoxed Hill with a sharp turn on the cusp of the 18-yard area before

coolly rolling the ball into the bottom-left corner.

The Uruguayan made it 2-0 in the 16th minute, following in from close range after his initial cross came back to him via Nedum Onuoha to register his 13th league goal of the campaign.

It was one-way traffic, with Julio Cesar fumbling a Steven Gerrard shot and the recalled Jordan Henderson steaming in to prod the ball wide. Liverpool’s third goal came in the 28th minute and once again the hosts’ defence was easily exposed, with Gerrard afforded far too much time to deliver a right-wing cross that Agger nodded in.

Desperate blocks from Armand Traore and Ryan Nelsen prevented Gerrard from inflicting further damage prior to half-time, before Adel Taarabt belatedly responded for QPR with a swirling left-foot shot that Pepe Reina fielded.

Julio Cesar denied Suarez a hat-trick early in the second half by pushing a fierce shot from the former Ajax striker onto the crossbar. QPR showed greater desire to get forward following the change of ends and after Traore drilled a low cross across goal, Stephane Mbia had three attempts at goal from distance, two of which required Reina to save.

Liverpool lost Jose Enrique to an apparent hamstring injury late in the game, but, Rodgers’ absence notwithstanding, it was the only troubling element of a very straightforward victory.—AFP

effort on goal midway through the second period, hitting a powerful drive from just outside the area that was turned away by Howard.

Just as it looked like Everton were tiring, Osman burst onto a return pass from Anichebe and was denied by a fine low save from Turnbull. Seconds later, Jelavic beat Turnbull with a header from a Baines cross but the ball rebounded back off the bar.

But with 20 minutes remaining, Lampard edged Chelsea in front when he turned in after Howard saved from Mata.

Sylvain Distin pulled off a fine block in added time to deny Torres a third Chelsea goal, while Jelavic shot straight at Turnbull in the dying seconds.—AFP

Everton 1 (Pienaar 2) Chelsea 2 (Lampard 42, 72); QPR 0, Liverpool 3 (Suarez 10, 16, Agger 28).

Played Saturday: Arsenal 7 (Walcott 20, 73, 90, Oxlade-Chamberlain 50, Podolski 64, Giroud 84, 87) Newcastle 3 (Ba 43, 69, Marveaux 59); Aston Villa 0 Wigan 3 (Ramis 3, Boyce 52, Kone 56); Fulham 1 (Ruiz 56) Swansea 2 (Graham 19, De Guzman 52); Man Utd 2 (McAuley 9-og, Van Persie 90) West Brom 0; Norwich 3 (Pilkington 15, Martin 63, 75) Man City 4 (Dzeko 2, 4, Aguero 50, Bunn 67-og); Reading 1 (Pogrebnyak 5) West Ham 0; Stoke 3 (Jones 16, Upson 67, Jerome 90) Southampton 3 (Lambert 10, Rodriguez 24, Wilkinson 36-og); Sunderland 1 (O’Shea 40) Tottenham 2 (Cuellar 48-og, Lennon 51).

LONDON: Liverpool’s English midfielder Raheem Sterling (left) vies for the ball against Queens Park Rangers’ English midfielder Shaun Wright-Phillips (right) during the Premiership match at Loftus Road.—AFP

English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Man Utd 20 16 1 3 50 28 49 Man City 20 12 6 2 38 19 42 Chelsea 19 11 5 3 39 18 38 Tottenham 20 11 3 6 36 26 36 Arsenal 19 9 6 4 39 21 33 Everton 20 8 9 3 33 25 33 West Brom 20 10 3 7 28 25 33 Stoke 20 6 11 3 21 17 29 Liverpool 20 7 7 6 31 26 28 Swansea 20 7 7 6 29 24 28 Norwich 20 6 7 7 23 32 25 West Ham 19 6 5 8 22 23 23 Sunderland 20 5 7 8 21 26 22 Fulham 20 5 6 9 30 36 21 Newcastle 20 5 5 10 26 37 20 Wigan 20 5 3 12 22 35 18 Aston Villa 20 4 6 10 15 39 18 Southampton 19 4 5 10 26 37 17 Reading 20 2 7 11 22 37 13 QPR 20 1 7 12 16 36 10

Business

Smooth air travel seen despite US ‘fiscal cliff’ Page 25

13 money-saving tips for 2013

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

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Nakheel awards $136m in contracts for villa project

KAMCO, NBK Capital joint lead managers of corporate bond

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ATHENS: Protesters march through Athens’ main shopping street during a demonstration against a draft law allowing retail stores to open on Sundays, yesterday. Hundreds of demonstrators marched through the Athens’ shopping area, protesting against the government’s plan to allow stores to remain open on Sundays. — AFP

Cliffhanger! US lawmakers seek last-gasp fiscal deal Desperate bid to strike deal to avoid tax hikes, spending cuts WASHINGTON: After weeks of failed haggling, the fiscal cliffhanger was at hand as US lawmakers convened yesterday in a bid to strike a yearend deal that avoids huge tax hikes and possibly spending cuts set to kick in January 1.

With the clock ticking ever closer to the New Year’s time bomb, the suddenly alarmed Senate and House were holding special sessions 36 hours before the year-end deadline for a plan that would keep America from tumbling off the so-called fiscal cliff. The stakes in the game of holiday-interrupting brinkmanship are enormous. Economists agree the $500 billion in fiscal pain due to hit when the new year starts would stifle the US economic recovery and send the country back into recession, spelling bad news for the global economy as well.

Aides to both sides’ leaders in the Democratcontrolled Senate worked feverishly behind closed doors Saturday to fashion a deal palatable to Democrats as well as to Republicans, who control the House of Representatives. The Senate convened yesterday at 1:00 pm (1800 GMT) while the House goes into session an hour later, with no votes expected before 2330 GMT. Both chambers would have little time to debate and then pass a deal that has eluded the White House and Congress for weeks. President Barack Obama, who called congressional leaders to the White House on Friday, will address the crisis once more when he gives an interview on NBC’s morning talk show “Meet the Press.”

According to The Washington Post, Senate Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have set a deadline of about 3:00 pm on Sunday for reaching a deal.

At that time, the newspaper says, they plan to convene caucus meetings of their respective members to brief them on what has been achieved and determine whether their plan has enough support to put it for a vote. If so, the Senate will hold a vote by midday today, giving the Republican-controlled House Representatives the rest of New Year’s Eve to consider the measure, The Post said.

Amid the tense negotiations, Obama pressed lawmakers to clinch a deal, even if they must reach a compromise that lacks the significant deficit-reduction measures both sides had sought. The country “just can’t afford a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy,” he said.

If lawmakers fail, “every American’s paycheck will get a lot smaller,” he warned. “Congress can prevent it from happening, if they act now.” The president, sensing a mandate from his re-election last month, wants to raise taxes on the rich.

Republicans want only to close tax loopholes to raise revenue and demand significant spending cuts in return, notably to federal benefit programs like Social Security.

But if nothing is done by the deadline, all taxpayers will see an increase. Following the White House talks, the Senate Majority Leader

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama speaks following a meeting with congressional leaders in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC. — AFP Harry Reid and Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell are heading efforts to craft a deal. But any agreement would also have to pass the House, where there is doubt that an Obama-backed deal would win favor with restive conservatives in the Republican caucus.

While each side must for the sake of appearances be seen to be seeking a deal, one way out

Egypt rises, shrugs off currency fears MIDEAST STOCKS DUBAI: Egypt’s stock market held up well yesterday despite a weak currency, as foreign investors continued to buy shares - a sign that a devaluation of Egypt’s pound, which looks increasingly likely, might not be a disaster for financial markets.

The Egyptian pound briefly hit a record low of about 6.30 in interbank trading against the dollar, a fall of roughly 1.8 percent from its previous close. The central bank launched a system of foreign currency auctions on Sunday in an effort to conserve its falling reserves.

Many analysts believe authorities may no longer be willing or able to support the Egyptian pound; in a research note, Pharos Research forecast a free float would be introduced with the pound weakening to 6.50.

Some analysts have a longer-term target for the currency of around 6.80.

But the stock market’s calm reaction to the currency turmoil showed the extent to which bad economic news had already been factored into Egyptian share prices, and also that some investors - many of them foreigners - remain bullish on the long-term outlook for equities.

The main stock index ended 0.5 percent higher at 5,442 points, after a 2.2 percent gain on Thursday. Stock exchange data showed the value of buying by foreign investors, though small in absolute terms, was more than double the value of their selling during the day.

The index is up 50 percent from its level at the end of last year and has regained all of its losses since late November, when a political crisis erupted over President Mohamed Morsi’s drive to push through a controversial new constitution for the country. The passage of the constitution, though still the subject of bitter protests by the opposition, is being seen as positive by some investors because it paves the way for parliamentary elections in about two months. A new parliament could restore some political normalcy and allow the government to focus on economic issues.

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil said yesterday he expected a resumption of talks in January with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan, after the talks were suspended because of the political turmoil. Depreciation of the Egyptian pound could saddle foreign investors with currency losses and perhaps encourage more capital flight in the short term.

But many investors seem already to have factored a weaker currency into their calculations, and some believe it could actually be positive for the stock market in the longer term, by helping exporters and putting the economy on a stronger footing.

“I believe that the rise of the US dollar against the EGP is reminiscent of what happened in 2003 after the floating of the EGP,” said Mohabeldeen Agena, head of the techni-

cal analysis desk at Beltone Financial. “This had a positive impact on the Egyptian bourse as the index rose from 700 points to 12,000 by the end of 2008.”

An extended rally from current levels would require the political situation to stabilise, but nevertheless the stock index could rise above 5,600 points by the end of the current week, Agena added.

Gulf bourses ended mixed yesterday with activity mostly quiet because of year-end holidays. Dubai’s index. however, ended at a nineweek closing high, up 1.1 percent.

“Investors are betting on good earnings in the fourth quarter and maybe a good rally next month,” said Mohab Maher, senior manager at the institutional desk for MENA Corp.

Emaar Properties rose 1.9 percent and Air Arabia climbed 4.3 percent. Property developer Deyaar advanced 2.9 percent. Arabtec dropped 0.4 percent after Qatar Airways said it filed a $600 million legal claim against Lindner Depa Interiors, a German-Dubai joint venture, for a delay in opening a new international airport in Doha. Arabtec said in November it was taking a stake in the venture’s parent Depa Ltd. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s index dropped to a two-week low, more than eliminating gains posted during a rally on Saturday following the state budget announcement. The index lost 0.8 percent. —Reuters

is to go over the cliff, then fix the problem in the first days of next year.

Under that scenario, Republicans who are philosophically opposed to raising taxes could vote to lower the newly raised rates on almost all Americans without formally hiking taxes.

Lawmakers, while ruing the inability to work out a multi-trillion-dollar grand bargain in time,

have said a pared down version dealing mainly with taxes was within reach. Citing unnamed people briefed on the talks, The Post said one version under consideration would protect nearly 30 million taxpayers from paying the higher, alternative minimum tax rate for the first time and maintain unemployment benefits for two million people. The plan also would halt a steep cut in Medicare reimbursements for doctors and preserve popular tax breaks for both businesses and individuals, such as those for research and college tuition, the report said.

But the two sides were still at odds over where to set the limits of wealthy-at $250,000 or $400,000 of annual income-and over taxes on inherited estates. Nor has there been agreement on spending cuts so sought after by Republicans, who say excessive government spending is the main driver of US debt. Obama warned that if an agreement was not reached in time, he would ask the Senate to hold an up-ordown vote on a basic package that protects the middle class from a tax hike, extends unemployment insurance, and “lays the groundwork for future... deficit reduction.”

In a weekly Republican address, Senator Roy Blunt expressed some optimism, saying that “going over the fiscal cliff is avoidable.”

But he criticized Democrats for focusing mainly on taxes while setting aside government spending, arguing that such inaction “shouldn’t be an option.” —AFP

Egypt pound hits record low under new currency regime CAIRO: The Egyptian pound hit a record low against the dollar yesterday as worried Egyptians shifted their money out of local currency after the central bank introduced a new currency regime to protect foreign reserves.

The new regime, announced on Saturday and which includes regular currency auctions, seemed to represent a controlled shift towards a free float after the central bank spent more than $20 billion in reserves over the past two years to defend the pound, according to bankers.

The currency crisis underlines the scale of the economic challenge facing President Mohamed Morsi, whose administration has been grappling with the fall-out of a political crisis ignited by his move to drive through a constitution written by his Islamist allies. The shift to a freer floating currency raised fears the pound could fall further or the government could impose more capital controls, prompting Egyptians to shift into the dollar when the market opened yesterday.

Prime Minister Hisham Kandil told a news conference that the economy was in “a very difficult and fragile” situation, adding that he expected talks with the International Monetary Fund on a $4.8 billion loan to resume in January. Egypt won preliminary approval in November from the IMF for the loan, but delayed seeking final approval until January after it suspended implementation of a series of tax increases to allow the government more time to explain the heavily criticized package of economic austerity measures to the public. The central bank, which had previously

allowed the pound to move within a tight range against the dollar, has spent more than $20 billion in foreign reserves to support the currency since a mass uprising against Hosni Mubarak in early 2011 chased away tourists and foreign investors.

At the maiden auction of the new currency regime on Sunday, the central bank sold virtually all of the $75 million it had offered, with the lowest price of pounds at 6.2425 to the dollar, down from 6.185 earlier in the day. The pound subsequently weakened on the interbank market to about 6.30, a fall of 1.8 percent from the morning, smashing through a previous low in October 2004. The auction system means the price of the Egyptian pound will begin to reflect supply and demand more closely, bankers said. The central bank is expected to hold the auctions daily. “The arms of central bank that used to be there will not make (the) market anymore, so it is for first time a real free market,” said one banker who works in a treasury room. Kandil announced a national economic initiative at his news conference yesterday, which he described as an effort to build consensus around the government’s economic program.

He said the government would seek to engage society so the state’s economic plan “really is a national plan”. He said the government’s program could be amended to reflect other views. “We hope that there will not be any fundamental changes in our plan with the IMF because we will summon them in January so we resume discussions to go forward in the matter of the loan,” Kandil said. —Reuters

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

BUSINESS Dima report

Our investment style still for growth stocks for 2013

By Hayder Tawfik urprisingly, there are still companies growing in this tough economic environment. These companies combine very good business model, offering very good products and services and above all have strong balance sheet.

Some of them offer even high dividend yields relative to what investors can get on cash or bonds. Our investment style has favored growth companies over the last couple of years and still continues to do so.

One of the main reasons why these companies have been growing above the market average is the very low interest rates yields on long bonds i.e. 10 year bonds. The low yields on 10 year bonds has been helping the countries with high debt so far and at one point this low level of rates will stabilize government debt to GDP and unemployment as it has been happening in the US. There is a strong historic correlation between growth stocks and long duration assets.

In the last couple of years growth stocks have outperformed the market by a substantial amount. Growth stocks tend to outperform till the time when the main leading economic indicators rise sharply, because this makes the yield on the long bond rise too which changes the valuation model completely.

We at Dimah Capital do not subscribe to the view that long term yields will rise as the economy starts the recovery process because inflation is no longer a threat. Let’s not forget that throughout the developed economies unemployment is very high and even heading higher and that should put a cap on wage push inflation threat.

Even if long term interest rates rises we cannot see them going back to where they were few years ago. At present, quality growth stocks offer an earnings yield much higher than underlying government bond yields. Growth stocks always demand a higher valuation and in time of lack of growth, they demand even higher P/E multiples. Also, the quality and the sustainability of the growth push the valuation even higher.

Investors can find growth stocks cross all industrial and services sectors. The perception that growth stocks always related

S

to start ups or technology stockshas been misplaced. In the last couple of decades stocks such as Apple, LVMH, Burberry, SAP, INDITEX(Zara) and Google have successfully grown way above the market averages and have dominated their sectors. They all have some common characteristics. Their products are distinguished around the world and consumers have established some sense of belonging to those trademarks. This is the greatest successful marketing strategy for any company which produces consumers’ goods. Also, these companies not only come up with new products more often but they improve on them and at the same time do not abandon the older products so their fan club increasing all the time. Take for example INDITEX (ZARA); the company makes sure that they have new products in their stores every week and even sometimes every day.

These products sourced from at least 10 countries around the world so the chance of supply disruption is reduced. I imagine now that the cost of production has fallen dramatically in Spain some of their products will be produced at home, hence improvements in the quality and reduction in the supply chain. Another important common characteristic is that all successful companies have an excellent business model backed by very strong financial balance sheet. I always believe that successful growth companies are the ones that create demands for their products rather than create products and hope for demand to pick up and those kinds of companies are very difficult to identify in the early days of growth.

My advice to international investors for the coming year is to stick to the winners of last year and look to invest in some stocks which are extremely undervalued and allocate small portion to them. As I mentioned in my previous article, I think some multinational companies in Spain, France, Italy and Greece i.e. the worst performers of 2012 are showing good value at current levels.

International investors should start looking into those economies and start building small investment exposure and wait for improvements in the fundamentals then increase the exposure gradually. As for the Foreign Exchange market, I think the biggest move will be the weakening of the Japanese Yen against the euro throughout the year and the weakening of all other major currencies against the euro.

Oil output hikes elsewhere may dent Saudi 2013 income RIYADH: Production hikes by other oil producers will weigh on energy prices in 2013, potentially cutting into Saudi Arabia’s fiscal surplus, Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf said yesterday in a television interview.

The world’s top oil exporter said on Saturday that it ran a budget surplus of 387 billion riyals ($103.2 billion) in 2012 as high energy prices and strong output levels generated revenue of 1.24 trillion riyals. For next year it has conservatively budgeted spending of 820 billion riyals and income of 829 billion riyals, although based on recent fiscal performance both figures are likely to be a lot higher.

“The results of this year are exceptional ... The international conditions and the increase in production by some states (in 2013) will have negative effects on prices, that’s why we’re being conservative,” Alassaf said on Al-Arabiya television.

Saudi Arabia has maintained high production in the past two years to help avert oil price spikes. However, new output from fellow-OPEC member Iraq and from projects in North America, may drag on crude prices and lead Riyadh to cut production.

While next year’s budget plan envisages revenue of 829 billion riyals, if oil prices stay above $100 a barrel, the actual 2013 surplus will be far larger.

The 2012 budget had forecast this year’s revenue at 702 billion riyals, only 57 percent of the estimated actual income.

Monica Malik, an independent economist at investment bank EFG-Hermes, estimated the 2013 budget implied an oil price of around $64-67 a barrel and average oil output of around 9.5 million barrels a day.

In November, Saudi Arabia produced 9.90 million barrels a day, a Reuters survey showed. — Reuters

Nakheel awards $136m in contracts for villa project Developer to hand over 5,000 units in 2013 DUBAI: Property developer Nakheel yesterday Sunday awarded contracts worth $136 million to two local construction firms for a luxury villa project stalled after Dubai’s property market collapse.

The developer, which successfully restructured a $16 billion debt in 2011, will selffinance the construction of 381 luxury villas on Jumeirah Park, Nakheel chief executive Sanjay Manchanda said at a press conference.

“We would not go ahead with these projects if we don’t have the financing. We want to ensure that we won’t make the same mistakes again,” said Manchanda.

Nakheel’s extravagant developments at the height of Dubai’s property boom contributed to its debt problems. The developer’s flawed off-plan property sales model and mounting debt problems forced Nakheel to shelve ambitious projects like two palmshaped island developments and write off real estate assets worth $21.4 billion. But Dubai has begun to undertake big projects again and revive some earlier plans that had to be dropped following the property market collapse.

Speculative buyers are back in Dubai’s markets helping to drive a 13 percent increase in apartment prices this year, a study by property consultant CBRE showed.

Manchanda said Nakheel had no immediate plans to raise money. “We have adequate funding arrangements for our old projects and funds for the new projects are also in place.” State-owned Nakheel’s capital expenditure for existing projects was around a billion dirhams, he said. The developer had a total of around 8,500 to 9,000 residential and commercial properties to be completed, of which around 4,500 have been handed over

The proposed Nakheel Tower

to buyers so far. “We will see the remaining units being delivered next year,” he said. For the Jumeirah Park development, Arabtec will build 134 luxury villas, and family-owned contractor SS Lootah Group is to build 247 villas at the same location. Nakheel said it had sold more than 1.2 billion dirhams worth of villas in the project so far. Construction of the new villas will begin in February and the project is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Power cut halts operations at Saudi’s PetroRabigh KHOBAR: A power cut halted operations at Saudi Arabia’s PetroRabigh refining and petrochemicals complex, the company said late yesterday.

The joint venture, owned by Saudi Aramco and Japan’s Sumitomo Chemical, said in a bourse statement that supplies of power and steam had been interrupted from provider Rabigh Arabian Water and Electricity Co (RAWEC) on Saturday. The company said it was working on bringing back production units at the giant petrochemical complex, which includes a 400,000 barrel per day oil refinery. On Sunday morning, company officials were not

available to comment and it was not clear whether power supplies and production had resumed to any degree. RAWEC is owned by Japan’s Marubeni, JGC Corp, Itochu, Saudi Acwa Power and PetroRabigh.

PetroRabigh can produce an annual 18 million tons of refined products and 2.4 million tons of petrochemicals in the first phase of the project. In May, Saudi Aramco and Sumitomo Chemical Co said they planned to go ahead with a $7 billion expansion of their complex in Rabigh, on the Red Sea coast. The Rabigh II project, now under construction, is to start operating in early 2016. — Reuters

Arabtec’s contract was worth 159 million dirhams, the chief executive of Arabtec construction Greg Christofides told reporters at the sidelines of the press conference. Dubaibased contractors have struggled for the last few years as developers delayed payments and shelved projects. However, some movement in Dubai’s property market has improved the situation. “Serious developers have taken their commitments seriously,” said Christofides. —Reuters

Tabreed to issue bonds in recap plan DUBAI: District cooling firm Tabreed has agreed to issue 1.13 billion dirhams ($308 million) in convertible bonds to Abu Dhabi fund Mubadala on Dec 31, the firm said yesterday, as part of a recapitalization plan agreed last year. Tabreed secured 3.1 billion dirhams of financing from Mubadala Development Co, wholly owned by the Abu Dhabi government, in March 2011; the package consisted of a 1.7 billion dirham convertible bond issue and a loan facility of up to 1.4 billion dirhams.

Under terms of the loan, which matures this month, the amount drawn by Tabreed would be repaid with an issue of new convertible bonds. Yesterday’s statement said Tabreed had drawn 1.13 billion dirhams from the facility, and would issue that amount of convertible bonds to Mubadala under the same terms as its previous convertible issue. The conversion price of the original bonds was 1.1259 dirhams a share; Mubadala can convert them into shares in 2019.

Formally known as National Cooling Co, Tabreed provides cooling systems to residential and commercial properties in the Gulf. It also cools Dubai’s metro network. The company reported a 35 percent rise in third-quarter net profit, helped by growth in its chilled water business and lower financing costs. Its shares have jumped 140 percent year-to-date. Tabreed is among a number of United Arab Emirates firms that has had to restructure its debt after the property market boom ended abruptly in 2009. — Reuters

Saudi plans bonds for Jeddah, Riyadh airports DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s government will issue bonds next year backed by the kingdom’s ministry of finance to fund construction work at airports in Riyadh and Jeddah, Finance Minister Ibrahim Alassaf told Al-Arabiya television yesterday. “The rest of the bonds for King Abdulaziz Airport in Jeddah and King Khaled Airport in Riyadh will be issued this (coming) year,” Alassaf said.

The kingdom’s General Authority for Civil Aviation (GACA) said in January it planned to issue a second sukuk, or Islamic bond, at the end of 2012 to help fund its 27 billion riyal ($7.2 billion) airport in Jeddah. A first sukuk, launched earlier this year and fully guaranteed by the Saudi Ministry of Finance, raised 15 billion riyals to help fund the Jeddah airport development.

Last year, industrial conglomerate Saudi Bin Laden Group won the contracts to develop the first phase of the Jeddah airport, raising its annual capacity to 30 million passengers.

Saudi Arabia is currently investing in multibillion dollar infrastructure projects and revamping many of its airports to cater to a growing number of passengers. — Reuters

EXCHANGE Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

.2740000 .4510000 .3680000 .3050000 .2790000 .2890000 .0040000 .0020000 .0761760 .7421590 .3880000 .0720000 .7275550 .0430000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2806000 .4537160 .3709110 .3071870 .2814300 .0497050 .0430630 .2910800 .0361990 .2293420 .0032620 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0764270 .7445930 .0000000 .0748470 .7291150 .0000000

.2840000 .4630000 .3780000 .3130000 .2900000 .3020000 .0067500 .0035000 .0769410 .7496180 .4060000 .0770000 .7348670 .0510000 .2827000 .4571120 .3736870 .3094860 .2835360 .0500770 .0433850 .2932590 .0364700 .2310580 .0032870 .0051910 .0022350 .0029170 .0035660 .0769990 .7501660 .3998590 .0754070 .7345720 .0069410

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 282.000 Euro 376.750

Sterling Pound Canadian dollar Turkish lire Swiss Franc Australian dollar US Dollar Buying

Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

457.690 287.320 157.480 312.470 295.540 280.800 GOLD 311.000 157.000 81.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 281.600 375.100 457.800 284.800 3.290 5.134 45.460 2.204 3.497 6.850 2.895 749.500 76.700 75.200

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee

SELL DRAFT 297.01 287.69 312.30 374.69 281.50 457.46 3.34 3.521 5.133

SELL CASH 296.000 288.000 311.000 373.500 283.000 457.500 3.690 3.667 5.500

2.212 3.217 2.896 76.71 749.54 45.52 401.04 732.63 77.74 75.28

2.370 3.600 3.050 77.400 748.500 47.400 398.850 734.000 77.850 75.600

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Selling Rate 281.750 284.290 455.440 371.830 308.010 745.925 76.685 77.335 75.095 397.165 45.625 2.220 5.123 2.885 3.494 6.839 691.135 4.315 9.290 4.370 3.290 91.965

Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

Bahrain Exchange Company

286.400 553.500 45.900 50.900 167.800 47.730 376.600 37.060 5.480 0.032 0.161 0.242 3.360 399.410 0.191 95.080 45.900 4.330 234.700 1.826 51.600 732.110 3.050 7.270 77.960 75.250 231.790 35.210 2.685 459.800 44.300 312.300 3.400 9.560 198.263 76.850 282.200 1.360 GOLD

10 Tola 1,764.360 COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka

SELL CASH 295.900 749.550 3.840

SELL DRAFT 294.400 749.550 3.516

Sterling Pound US Dollar

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 457.800 281.800

284.900

231.800 45.494 375.100 36.910 5.135 0.031

399.380 0.190 94.080 3.230 233.200

731.930 2.898 6.868 77.530 75.250 231.790 35.210 2.217 457.800 310.800 3.400 9.400 76.750 281.800

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

BUSINESS

Fiscal cliff fears rule holidays NBK MONEY MARKETS REPORT he holiday season quietness continued as most of the major global markets were off-duty most of last week due to Christmas break. However, the fiscal cliff continues to be a hot topic on the table as we are few days away from the deadline set by the end of this year. On Friday, the US President met congressional leaders at the White House for last-minute talks on a fiscal cliff deal to avoid automatic tax increases and broad spending cuts that threaten the US economy’s recovery. Moreover, US House Republican leaders announced the chamber would meet on the same matter later.

Based on a limited trading session last week due to Christmas break, the US dollar had a mixed performance staying relatively weak against most of its counterparts except for the Yen. This is shown in the performance of the dollar index, which opened the week trading at 79.62 levels, and stayed flat in the Asian markets during the holiday before gaining some strengths going towards the end of a short week, closing sessions trading at 79.68.

The euro, on the other hand, was fairly supported over the light-trading week, staying almost flat going into the break before gaining some strength trading with a positive note until it slipped against the US dollar on Thursday. However, the 17-nation currency managed to trade upwards supported by a betterthan-estimated French consumer spending came out on Friday. The currency started the week trading at 1.3188 levels to a high of 1.3284 and ending sessions at 1.3216. The Sterling Pound had a somewhat similar performance opening at 1.6172 levels, then dropping ahead of the break, before gaining some strength trading as high as 1.6206 and a low of 1.6067 on Thursday, closing sessions trading at 1.6153. The

T

Japanese Yen was the biggest loser last week weakening against the greenback. The currency opened the week trading at 84.24 and going as high as 86.64 on Friday, and closing sessions trading at 85.96 levels.

As far as commodities are concerned, Gold traders are the most bullish in four months as US lawmakers near a deadline for budget talks, at a time when hedge funds are cutting bets on higher prices.

However, gold was thin- trading with a mixed performance last week opening at $1,657.22 an ounce, and mounting as high as $1,668.07 and closing the week trading weaker at $1,655.70.

On the other hand, oil headed for the biggest weekly gain since August as the US officials, as mentioned previously, met on Friday aimed at averting automatic tax increases and spending cuts that threaten the economy of the world’s largest crude consumer. The commodity closed the week trading at $90.80 per barrel.

US consumer confidence US consumer confidence fell sharply in December, as the looming fiscal cliff imposed a negative effect on consumer sentiment. The index tumbled to 65.1, down from 71.5 in November, the second straight decline and the lowest level since August.

The average number of people in the US seeking unemployment benefits over the past month fell to the lowest level since March 2008, a sign that the job market is healing. The Labor Department said Thursday that weekly applications dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000 in the week ended Dec 22.

There is a fresh evidence of a recovery in the US property market, with the Commerce Department reporting Thursday a solid rise in the number of

homes sold in November. Sales of new single-family houses in November increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 377,000 units, up 4.4% from October, and 15.3% higher than a year ago.

In Italy, the caretaker government of Prime Minister Mario Monti has been dissolved. But with new elections to be held in February and another former prime minister already set to run again, some say this is not necessarily the end of Monti. Former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is running for office again after he was forced to resign last year. The latest news in Italy indicates that Monti is considering returning as Italian Prime Minister. However, these uncertainties increase the pressure on the euro-zone as the bloc is trying to contain its economic problems away from any political distractions.

The French economy grew less than initially reported in the third quarter, signaling a recovery that may be too weak to help President Francois Hollande’s government reduce unemployment that is at a 15-year high. Gross domestic product rose 0.1%, half the pace estimated on Nov. 15th.. Moreover, data showed jobless claims rose for a 19th straight month in November to 3.13 million, the highest since January 1998.

UK mortgage UK’s British Banker’s Association (BBA) reported that the number of new mortgages approved in November rose to 33,634 approvals from a revised 33,128 approvals in October; the expected level was 34,500.

Japan Japan’s industrial output tumbled more than forecast to the lowest level since the aftermath of

the record 2011 earthquake, bolstering the case for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to unleash large-scale stimulus. Weakness in exports is the major drag on Japan’s economy given the weak state of the economy; Abe’s government may need a large-scale stimulus program to boost growth.

Japan’s unemployment rate improved by 0.1% from the previous month to 4.1% in November. On the other hand, the nation’s key consumer prices dropped 0.1% in November from a year earlier for the first decline in two months. Hopes are high that new Prime Minister Abe’s policies, centered on loose monetary policy and public spending will wrest the world’s third largest economy out of the doldrums.

Commodities The commodity traders are the most bullish in four months as US lawmakers near a deadline for budget talks. Most analysts expect prices to rise next week increasing the demand for safer assets.

Gold started the week traded at $1,657.22 an ounce and ended sessions trading at $1,655.70 levels.

Oil headed for the biggest weekly gain since August as last-minute talks continue in Washington; aimed at averting automatic tax increases and spending cuts that threaten the economy of the world’s largest crude oil consumer.

The commodity closed sessions trading at $90.80 per barrel.

Kuwait Kuwaiti Dinar at 0.28115 The USDKWD opened at 0.28115 yesterday morning.

KAMCO, NBK Capital joint lead managers of corporate bond Burgan Bank completes KD100m subordinated bond Issue

CAIRO: Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil gives a press conference at his office in Cairo yesterday. During the conference Qandil said that Egypt wants to resume talks with the International Monetary Fund in January on a $4.8-billion loan frozen this month because of political tensions and unrest. — AFP

Egypt wants to resume talks on IMF loan: PM CAIRO: Prime Minister Hisham Qandil said yesterday that Egypt wants to resume talks with the International Monetary Fund in January on a $4.8-billion loan frozen this month because of political tensions and unrest. “We have invited (the IMF) to resume talks during January,” Qandil told a news conference in Cairo.

‘He said the sum involved was “small,” but “its value is in the sign of confidence it gives to the Egyptian economy,” which he admitted was in difficulty although talk of bankruptcy was not in order.

‘The request for a loan, made last August, was suspended on December 11 for a month, with Cairo saying the postponement was “because of the political situation in the country.”

The presidency of Mohamed Morsi is going through its worst crisis since his election in June, mainly over a referendum on a new Islamist-drafted constitution that was approved by 64 percent of voters but in which the secular opposition alleged fraud.

‘The likelihood of prolonged “elevated” political conflict despite the adoption of the constitution prompted the ratings agency Standard and Poor’s to knock Egypt’s long-term credit rating down a peg this week to “B-”. Egypt has also frozen a series of planned tax rises aimed at bringing state finances into line with the expected terms of the IMF loan but which could have had serious social repercussions. “The economic situation is difficult, there’s no doubt about that,” Qandil told reporters yesterday, adding:

“But we cannot talk about bankruptcy.

“The problems are difficult and complex.

We have huge challenges to meet after the revolution,” he said, adding however that “there is a light at the end of the tunnel... and the length of this tunnel depends on us.”

‘Since the February 2011 ouster of long-time strongman Hosni Mubarak, the economy has nosedived as investment from abroad has dried up and key revenue-earner tourism has taken a major tumble. In a speech to the senate on Saturday, Morsi tried to sound a note of optimism. ‘“I say to all, both at home and abroad, the state of financial institutions is not what some are trying to picture,” he said, adding that foreign reserves increased by $1.1 billion from July to $15.5 billion in November. “We cannot even consider this satisfactory. In June 2010 it was $35 billion. But in July 2012 it was $14.4 billion,” he said. ‘“But with Egypt now approaching stability, and with a sense of responsibility, we will do our utmost to double it (reserves) in future.” However, the Central Bank said in a statement later on Saturday that foreign currency reserves were critically low and must not be allowed to sink further or the country would not be able to meet its external debts. It did not give a figure.

And yesterday the state-run MENA news agency reported that the Egyptian pound was trading at 6.36 against the dollar, compared to 6.1 a month ago-its worst level since the ouster of Mubarak. — AFP

KUWAIT: KAMCO and NBK Capital announced yesterday the successful completion of a KD100 million ($356million) Lower Tier II (LT2) Subordinated Bond Issue by Burgan Bank, in which they acted as Joint Lead Managers.

This landmark transaction solidifies KAMCO and NBK Capital’s longstanding commitment to developing the local debt capital market in Kuwait. The Burgan Bank Issuance is the largest bond ever raised by a private sector issuer and has the longest tenor of 10 years. The bonds were issued at par and will pay coupons semiannually in arrears, also the bond is rated BBB+

by Capital Intelligence. The ten-year subordinated LT2 bond was issued in fixed and floating rate tranches. This tenor is the longest in Kuwait’s history. This transaction marks the third time that both KAMCO and NBK Capital have worked together in the local debt capital market, having previously cooperated in 2010 on the issuance of bonds by United Real Estate Company of KD40 million, and early in 2012 on the issuance of KD80 million bond by Kuwait Projects Company (KIPCO).

As Joint Lead Managers, both KAMCO and

NBK Capital commented on the issuance, Salah Y Al-Fulaij, CEO of NBK Capital stated that, “The issuance is an important one as it signals a milestone in the development of the local debt capital markets. Investors now have long term local currency securities to consider as part of their investment universe. Furthermore, we are pleased to support Burgan Bank in its expansion initiatives. The success of this transaction could not have happened without the coordinated and efficient effort of the Central Bank of Kuwait and Capital Markets Authority and the continued support of our investor base”.

On the same note, Faisal M Sarkhou, KAMCO’s Acting CEO added, “We are proud to have played a leading role in such a momentous financial milestone, and we expect that this issuance will increase overall confidence in the Kuwaiti economy and investment banking sector. We at KAMCO have a firm interest in the development and support of the local bond market which in turn will be a key element in the development of the Kuwaiti economy and the private sector. Finally I would like to extend my gratitude to all of our sub-

scribers for their help in making the issuance a success, as well to the governmental institutions and all other companies that have provided support to develop the local bond issuance market”.

IMF, EU push for less drastic deficit cuts PARIS: The International Monetary Fund and European Commission officials have encouraged France and its euro-zone partners not to fixate on deficit reduction targets if it would exacerbate the bloc’s debt crisis.

The head of an IMF mission in France, Edward Gardner, urged officials in Paris last week to consider their 2013 budget targets “in a broader European context.” The IMF and the EU Commission expect the French public deficit to amount to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) next year.

They do not believe France can reach its 3.0 percent goal, the euro-zone limit, without additional measures that could aggravate an already tenuous economic situation.

“The credibility of the medium term orientation policy” was more important than a specific deficit target, Gardner told reporters. Loosening the criteria would “be more effective, more credible in a coordinated fashion” across the 17nation euro-zone, he suggested. In Portugal the public deficit fell at the end of the third quarter to 5.6 percent of GDP from 6.7 percent at the same point a year earlier, while neighboring Spain has promised to slash its deficit to 3.0 percent by 2014 from a blowout shortfall equal to 9.4 percent of output last year.

Germany expects its budget to be in balance this year, two years ahead of schedule, but IMF head Christine Lagarde has suggested that Berlin ease up a bit in its drive for healthy finances.

“Germany ... and others ... can allow themselves to go a little more slowly than others in the push to straighten out their public finances,”

Lagarde told the German weekly Die Zeit in comments published last week.

‘Her call echoed other European voices that are now arguing for greater emphasis on growth rather than austerity measures. “The IMF is beginning to understand that the French situation has become dangerous,” economist Marc Touati at the ACDefi consulting group said.

Unemployment is climbing and the economy is still struggling, he pointed out. The IMF was “trying to prepare public opinion” for missed government targets, Touati suggested. “This is not really a new position,” Frederique Cerisier at the French bank BNP Paribas said of Lagarde’s recent remarks. She acknowledged however that some international institutions were “placing added emphasis” on the need to cut deficits more gradually.

‘On Tuesday, the EU’s ‘fiscal compact,’ a hardwon step towards tighter economic coordination agreed as part of efforts to tame the debilitating debt crisis, takes effect. Finalized in March, 25 of the 27 EU member states accepted a ‘balanced budget rule’ in the compact to ensure that governments would no longer run the massive budget deficits which drove the debt crisis and nearly sank the euro. But as the European debt crisis drags on and economies flounder, the idea of allowing governments more time to straighten out their finances has gained ground.

‘European Economic Affairs Commissioner Ollie Rehn said last week that France needed more reforms rather than more austerity. “Once you have a credible medium-term budget strategy, backed up by reforms, you can have a slower adjustment,” he told French daily Le Monde.

Qatari growth slows as energy sector sluggish

STRATFORD: A man standing outside of a bookmakers on the High Street in Stratford, east London. London may have basked in the euphoria of a successful Olympics in 2012 but now that the party is over, local people are wondering if its legacy can improve the deprived area which hosted the Games. — AFP

Salah Y Al-Fulaij- CEO, NBK Capital

DUBAI: Qatar’s economic growth slowed in the third quarter of the year but was supported by strong expansion of non-oil sectors, data released by the statistics authority showed yesterday.

Gross domestic product in the July-September period, adjusted for inflation, rose 3.9 percent from a year earlier and grew 1.7 percent from the previous quarter. That marked a slowdown from the second quarter of this year, when real GDP grew 5 percent from a year ago, and the first quarter, when growth was 6.9 percent.

A period of heavy investment in Qatar’s oil and gas resources ended last year, meaning the energy industry, which accounts for almost half the economy, is now contributing much less to growth.

The mining and quarrying sector, which includes oil and gas, shrank 0.8 percent from a year ago in the third quarter and rose only 0.6 percent from the previous quarter. But other parts of the economy picked up much of the slack, with manufacturing expanding 13.6 percent year-on-year, construction growing 9.4 percent and the financial sector rising 4.7 percent. Qatar plans to spend tens of billions of dollars on infrastructure in the coming years to help it host the 2022 soccer World Cup. —Reuters

Inflexible France If a 3.0-percent French deficit remains a valid reference, “what needs to be taken into account above all is the structural budget adjustment effort which France is making with remarkable intensity,” the EU official said. French officials nevertheless seem determined to stick by their targets. They insist that the public deficit will be brought down to 3.0 percent of GDP next year from 4.5 percent in 2012, based on a 2013 growth estimate of 0.8 percent that economists consider overly optimistic.

Friday’s third-quarter growth figures gave them little comfort: official statistics revised growth over that period down from 0.2 to 0.1 percent.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici wrote in the German business daily Handelsblatt that France had a duty to reverse years of budget deficits. ‘“In the past 30 years, France has not been able to pass a balanced budget. State debt rose to an unacceptable 1.7 trillion euros ($2.2 trillion) in 2011. It is our duty to reverse this,” Moscovici said.

‘On Friday he reaffirmed the government’s 2013 growth target. Cerisier at BNP Paribas warned that France, which is now benefitting from exceptionally low borrowing rates, must be careful how it communicates to markets, if it wants to maintain its credibility.

But, she added: “The fact that we can begin to discuss all that is proof that countries have become more credible with respect to their economic targets.” — AFP

Alba gets loans to pay off $169m bond maturing in 2013 DUBAI: Aluminium Bahrain, or Alba, which owns the world’s fourthlargest aluminum smelter, said yesterday it received two loans from banks to refinance a $169 million bond maturing in March 2013.

Alba, 69 percent owned by Bahraini sovereign wealth fund Mumtalakat and 20 percent by the Saudi government, said it obtained a five-year $85 million loan from Abu Dhabi’s First Gulf Bank, according to a statement on the Bahrain bourse. The company also received a three-year $84 million loan from a group of banks including Ahli United Bank, National Bank of Bahrain, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd , Bank of Bahrain and Kuwait and Arab Banking Corporation.

Alba earlier in December said it had hired Bechtel Canada to conduct a feasibility study for its proposed $2.5 billion expansion plan to add a sixth production line. The new line - which will add 400,000 tons annual capacity to its current production of 881,000 tons a year could be completed by early 2015. — Reuters

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

business

US crude futures flat amid uncertainty GLOBAL WEEKLY INTERNATIONAL REPORT KUWAIT: US crude futures edged up but gains were capped by uncertainty over whether the United States will avoid a fiscal crisis, which could hit demand in the world’s top consumer of oil.

On the New York Mercantile Exchange, crude oil settled at $90.80 a barrel, rising by $2.14 for the week.

In London, Brent crude, settled at $110.62, up by $1.65.NYMEX RBOB gasoline settled at $2.7999 a gallon, for the week, the contract rose by 0.65 cents. NYMEX heating oil closed up at $3.0448.

For the week, it rose by 0.22 cents. Top Chinese refiner Sinopec Corp has completed building a 800,000 tons per year (tpy) ethylene plant in central China, state media reported. China, which imports about half its ethylene needs and is keen to reduce that amount, will likely add a total of about 7.5mn tpy of ethylene capacity between 2011 and 2015.

US oil demand in October was 116,000 barrels per day less than previously estimated, and down 122,000 bpd

from a year earlier, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said. October oil demand was revised down by 0.62 percent to 18.722mn bpd from EIA’s earlier estimate of 18.838mn bpd. The revised demand was down 0.65 percent from the 18.844mn bpd posted for the month last year. US crude stocks fell by 586,000 barrels in the week to December 21. That was smaller than the average forecast of a 1.9mn barrel decline in a Reuters poll of analysts, data from EIA showed. US oil imports dropped by 374,000 barrels per day to 7.98mn bpd. US gasoline inventories rose 3.78mn barrels last week, a much sharper gain than the 500,000 barrels forecast by analysts. Over the last five weeks, US gasoline inventories have risen by 22.7mn barrels. Inventories of distillates, which include diesel and heating oil, rose by 2.42mn barrels, versus analysts’ expectations for a drop of 900,000 barrels.

US natural gas futures ended higher in reaction to forecasts for cold US weather next week that should force homeowners and businesses to turn up their heaters. On

the New York Mercantile Exchange settled higher at $3.469 per million British thermal units (mmbtu). The US Energy Information Administration gas storage report showed total domestic gas inventories fell by 76 billion cubic feet (bcf) to 3.648 trillion cubic feet (tcf). The weekly draw increased the storage surplus relative to last year by 15 bcf to 81 bcf, or more than 2 percent. It also added 68 bcf to the excess versus the five-year average, pumping that total up to 413 bcf, or 13 percent.

Early withdrawal estimates for next week’s report range from 100 bcf to 141 bcf. That would be well above the 77 bcf pulled during the same year-ago week. The five-year average is 111 bcf.

The Dollar Index touched a two-week high as President Barack Obama and US lawmakers seek to avert the socalled fiscal cliff of more than USD600bn of tax increases and spending cuts. The 17-nation Euro fell against most of its 16 major counterparts after Italian borrowing costs increased at a debt sale and a report showed the French economy grew less than initially estimated. The Yen weakened to a 28-month low versus the US Dollar after Japanese consumer prices and factory output declined.

US US consumer confidence fell to a four-month low in December as a looming budget crisis sapped what had been a growing sense of optimism about the economy, a private sector report released showed.

The Conference Board, an industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes fell to 65.1 from a downwardly revised 71.5 in November. Economists had expected a reading of 70.0, according to a Reuters poll.

Contracts for US home resales hit a 2-1/2-year high in November and factory activity in the Midwest expanded this month, suggesting some strength in the economy despite the threat of tighter fiscal policy. The National Association of Realtors said its Pending Home Sales Index, based on contracts signed last month, increased 1.7 percent to 106.4 - the highest level since April 2010 when the home-buyer tax credit expired. The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment aid fell last week to nearly its lowest level in 4 1/2 years, a sign that the labor market is healing.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. The prior week’s figure was revised to show 1,000 more applications than previously reported.

Europe Germany’s economy will expand at a decent rate next year, underpinned by exports to countries outside the Euro-zone, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said.

Speaking to newspaper Bild, he added he had no plans for an austerity package after parliamentary elections next September.

“The situation is better than we thought because among other things, business with the United States and Asia is stronger. The German economy will therefore grow decently in 2013,” Schaeuble said.

German exports could increase by four percent in 2013, according to a forecast by the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper. The DIHK said that despite increasing hurdles to trade and weak economic growth in industrial nations, there would be a considerable increase in demand for German exports from develop-

ing countries. The DIHK is slightly more optimistic with its forecast than the German industry association (BDI), which recently forecast an increase in exports in 2013 of “at least 3 percent”.

Britons suffered the biggest deterioration in their finances in seven months in December and turned more downbeat about 2013, a survey showed. The Markit Household Finance Index fell to 36.8 - the lowest since May - from November’s near two-year high of 39.3, sinking further below the 50 level that would mark no change in the financial situation compared with a month ago. Around a third of respondents said their finances had worsened in December, while only 6 percent reported an improvement.

Overall, households also felt less secure in their jobs than in November.

Japan Japan’s jobless rate edged down in November and the availability of jobs was unchanged, indicating that severe economic conditions are keeping firms cautious on hiring.

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate fell to 4.1 percent from October’s 4.2 percent, figures from the Internal Affairs ministry showed. The November result compared with economists’ median forecast of 4.2 percent. The jobsto-applicants ratio was 0.80 in November, unchanged from the previous month and the same as the median forecast.

The number of new job offers rose 0.1 percent in November from the previous month and was up 8.4 percent from a year ago.

Japanese retail sales rose 1.3 percent in November from a year earlier, government data showed, in a sign that consumer spending may have stopped deteriorating. The rise was more than a median market forecast for a 1.1 percent annual increase. Retail sales were unchanged from the previous month. Japanese industrial output fell 1.7 percent in November, suggesting falling exports and weak global demand took a toll on the nation’s production. The fall was much bigger than a median market forecast for a 0.5 percent decline. It followed a 1.6 percent rise in the previous month, which was the first increase in four months.

Emerging Markets China Profits earned by China’s industrial companies jumped 22.8 percent in November from a year earlier to CNY638.5bn ($102.4bn), accelerating from October’s 20.5 percent increase, China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said. Industrial profits totaled CNY4.66tn in first 11 months of 2012, up 3 percent from a year earlier, the bureau said in a statement published.

Annual growth of China’s industrial profits quickened to 22.8 percent in November from October’s 20.5 percent, official data showed, reinforcing signs of a steady economic recovery thanks to pro-growth policies. Chinese industrial firms made CNY638.5bn ($102.4bn), China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in a statement published on its website.

India India’s M3 money supply rose an annualized 12.9 percent in the two weeks to December 14, compared with 16.9 percent growth a year earlier, the Reserve Bank of India said. Money supply was INR79,867.4bn ($1.46tn) as of December 14, compared with INR79,791.6bn on November 30, the central bank said. It also said currency in circulation grew 11.9 percent YoY in the week to December 21, compared with 12.8 percent a year ago.

Fiscal cliff deal would pale against hopes Key decisions may be put on hold WASHINGTON: Whether negotiated in a rush before the new year or left for early January, the fiscal deal President Barack Obama and Congress cobble together will be far smaller than what they initially envisioned as an alternative to purposefully distasteful tax increases and spending cuts.

Instead, their compromise, if they do indeed cut a deal, will put off some big decisions about tax and entitlement changes and leave other deadlines in place that will likely lead to similar moments of brinkmanship, some in just a matter of weeks. Republican and Democratic negotiators in the Senate were hoping for an accord as early as yesterday on what threshold to set for increased tax rates, whether to keep current inheritance tax rates and exemptions and how to pay for jobless benefits and avoid cuts in Medicare payments to doctors.

An agreement would halt automatic across-the-board tax increases for virtually every American and perhaps temporarily put off some steep spending cuts in defense and domestic programs.

Gone, however, is the talk of a grand bargain that would tackle broad spending and revenue demands and set the nation on a course to lower deficits. Obama and Republican House Speaker John Boehner were once a couple hundred billion dollars apart from a deal that would have reduced the deficit by more than $2 trillion over 10 years. The trimmed ambitions of today are a far cry from the upbeat bipartisan rhetoric of just six weeks ago, when the leadership of Congress went to the White House to set the stage for negotiations to come.

“I outlined a framework that deals with reforming our tax code and reforming our spending,” Boehner said as the leaders gathered on the White House driveway on Nov. 16.

“We understand that it has to be about cuts, it has to be about revenue, it has to be about growth, it has to be about the future,” House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said at the time. “I feel confident that a solution may be in sight.” And Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., offered a bold prediction: “There is no more let’s do it some other time. We are going to do it now.”

That big talk is gone for now. Senate negotiators were haggling over what threshold of income to set as the demarcation between current tax rates and higher tax rates. They were negotiating over estate limits and tax levels, how to extend unemployment benefits, how to prevent cuts in Medicare payments to doctors and how to keep a minimum income tax payment designed for the rich from hitting

WASHINGTON: House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio arrives at the White House in Washington for a closed-door meeting between President Barack Obama and Congressional leaders to negotiate the framework for a deal on the fiscal cliff. — AP about 28 million middle class taxpayers.

But the deal was not meant to settle other outstanding issues, including more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years, divided equally between the Pentagon and other government spending. The deal also would not address an extension of the nation’s borrowing limit, which the government is on track to reach any day but which the Treasury can put off through accounting measures for about two months. That means Obama and the Congress are already on a new collision path.

Republicans say they intend to use the debt ceiling as leverage to extract more spending cuts from the president. Obama has been adamant that unlike 2011, when the country came close to defaulting on its debts, he will not yield to those Republican demands.

As the day ended Saturday, there were few signs of success on a scaledback deal, but no one was declaring a stalemate either. Lawmakers have until the new Congress convenes to pass any compromise, and even the calendar mattered. —AP

WASHINGTON: Reporters and photographers try to get a glimpse of Congressional leaders as they arrive at the White House in Washington for a closed-door meeting with President Barack Obama regarding the fiscal cliff. —AP

25

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

BUSINESS

Germany’s fabled chimney sweeps to try luck in free market BERLIN: Chimney sweep Norbert Skrobek, a rosy-cheeked German in a brass-buttoned jacket and black top hat, is the picture of good cheer on a blustery winter morning on a rooftop in Berlin.

But the new year will be bringing big changes to his tradition-steeped trade, as Germany overhauls the market after years of resistance against pressure from Brussels. Germany has since 1935 maintained a rigid monopoly of sorts for the nappily attired men of the order-and the vast majority are still male-when the Nazi regime set up a national network of district “master” chimney sweeps.

They will from January 1 face competition from roving entrepreneurs who can negotiate their own prices.

“It’s not all bad-clients will be able to decide who they want as a chimney sweep, and we for the first time will also have a choice,” said Skrobek, 52, who also employs his adult son and two apprentices. “Clients who haven’t paid for two years or three-now I can say I don’t need

to work there anymore. That’s a plus.”

The change in policy brings Germany in line with an EU directive liberalizing the services sector.

Germany’s around 8,000 chimney sweeps are hired not only to climb roofs and scrub away soot with their coiledwire brushes, but also to inspect heating systems for fire hazards and poisonous carbon monoxide leaks.

They also monitor pollution levels and energy efficiency. Under the new rules, chimney cleaning and measuring of gas emissions can be carried out by licensed free contractors.

Hopes that competition will drive down prices, however, look dubious because contractors will likely have to travel greater distances to the job and advertise their services to stand out from the crowd, boosting their expenses.

Anticipating the changes, Skrobek moved his offices to a prominent spot in the lively Kreuzberg district and decorated his shop window with images of the

iconic chimney sweep. “We didn’t have to make publicity for ourselves before-our status is still like a civil servant,” he said.

Dream job Skrobek has been in the business since 1977, when he was just 17. “It was always my dream job-even as a boy in school I thought it was pretty romantic” working above the treetops with breathtaking views over the city, he said. A friendly man with a distinct twinkle in his eye, he said he loved delighting children in his spiffing uniform and handing out chimney sweep soft toys in a time-honoured custom.

Sweeps are traditionally thought to bring good luck, in large part because before their trade was widespread in Europe, thousands died every year in house fires attributed to faulty chimneys, fireplaces or heating ovens. The districts were established under the Third Reich and historical records show the Nazis pressured chimney sweeps to use their

unique access to homes to spy on fellow Germans. The practice continued in communist East Germany but Skrobek insists chimney sweeps are now trusted members of the community.

According to the Federal Association of Master Chimney Sweeps, Germany has the fewest number of injuries due to fire or carbon monoxide poisoning in the EU. It said its members uncover 1.5 million hazardous defects per year. They also carry out energy checks to determine heat loss from flue gas, a component in government plans to reduce CO2 emissions.

Skrobek said many sweeps took a kind of holistic approach and addressed whatever problems they might come across under the flat rate they received.

With the smashing of the monopoly, he said, homeowners will have to be better informed about what needs to be done and what it should cost.

In addition, he warned, private companies will frequently be affiliated with specific manufacturers and thus less straight-

forward in advising clients. “I hope we don’t come under so much pressure that we lose our neutrality because that’s our most valuable asset-people trust us,” he said. Skrobek currently pulls down 150,000 euros ($198,000) per year for his district duties and pays his employees’ wages and benefits out of that sum.

The market already opened a crack in 2009, when Germany was forced to allow in sweeps from other EU countries. But low statutory prices made the move unappealing to most foreign firms.

In addition, the wages of district chimney sweeps are generally set down in regional rates so that little flexibility is possible, despite complaints by consumer advocates.

“The chimney sweeps have no say in the fees for their statutory work because there is an official price list,” the guild master for Berlin, Heiko Kirmis, explained. “For these jobs, chimney sweeps will try to maintain the old prices for as long as possible.” —AFP

Smooth air travel seen despite US ‘fiscal cliff’ Automatic spending cuts may spell trouble for aviation industry Stung Bankia investors look to courts for justice MADRID: Spanish savers and pensioners who have seen their money wiped out by investing in state-rescued lender Bankia are likely to seek redress in court rather than wait for any official inquiry, which looks increasingly unlikely.

About 350,000 stockholders will share the pain of the bank’s European bailout, many of them bank clients who were sold the shares through an aggressive marketing campaign for its stock market flotation in 2011. Shares in the lender, rescued by the state in May in Spain’s biggest ever bank bailout, fell to record lows on Friday, tumbling over 40 percent from the start of the week after it emerged losses on bad loans were worse than expected. The stock has fallen 85 percent since its IPO. “Going to the courts and seeing if a judge can bring us justice is the only path left to us,” said Maricarmen Olivares, whose parents lost 600,000 euros ($793,300) they made from selling her father’s car workshop by investing in Bankia preference shares.

Neither of the two main political parties want to push for a full investigation into Bankia’s demise, which could draw attention to their own role in a debacle that has driven Spain to the brink of an international rescue, commentators say.

“Investigations work when a political party has something to gain over another. In this case, no-one has anything to gain,” said Juan Carlos Rodriguez, of consultancy Analistas Socio Politicos.

“I don’t see the big parties investigating this because if there have been errors committed, they have been committed by both sides.” The Socialist Party was in power when Bankia was formed in 2010 from an ill-matched combination of seven regional savings banks, a union that concentrated an unsustainable exposure to Spain’s collapsed property sector.

Immense political pressure from the then government forced Bankia executives to push ahead with an initial public offering in July 2011 as Spain sought to bring private capital into its banking system and avoid a European bailout.

Then chairman, Rodrigo Rato, a former chief of the International Monetary Fund, had strong links to the centre-right Popular Party (PP) and was finance minister in a previous PP administration.

A small political party, UPyD, forced the High Court in July to open an investigation into whether Rato, ousted when the bank was nationalized in May, and 32 other former board members are guilty of fraud, price-fixing or falsifying accounts.

Investigating magistrate Fernando Andreu has so far not brought charges against anyone and could still drop the case.

Rato appeared in a private session before the judge on Dec 20 where he denied any blame for what happened.

Rato, who cannot legally speak to the press because he is the subject of a court investigation, has kept a low profile since the bank rescue in May. Protesters gathered outside the court on the day of his declaration wearing masks of his face.

The probe centres around Bankia’s stock market listing, the formation of the lender from the seven savings banks and the gaping capital shortfall revealed at the bank after the state takeover in May. Rato and 23 others including bank executives and cabinet ministers were called to testify before a parliamentary committee in July this year where Rato said he had a clear conscience and had done things properly. “That was just window-dressing by the PP following the outcry over the Bankia disaster,” said a Socialist Party source.

The opposition Socialists called for a full parliamentary investigation in May, but the ruling PP blocked it, the Socialist Party source said. A PP spokeswoman said any investigation of Bankia should be carried out through the courts, not the government.

A government source said any investigative process would not fall to the government, but to the courts.

Bankia, alongside other Spanish banks, sold billions of euros of preference shares and subordinated debt to high street clients, many of whom say they were tricked into parting with their savings and are seeking compensation.

The investigating magistrate is not including the misselling of preference shares - hybrid instruments that fall between a share and a bond - in the probe.

Holders of preference shares at Bankia will incur losses of up to 46 percent as part of the European bailout, receiving shares rather than cash in exchange. —Reuters

WASHINGTON: Air travel should continue uninterrupted-at least in the short termeven if the federal government sails off its fiscal cliff this week, government and industry officials say.

The big threat is that if Congress and President Barack Obama can’t reach an agreement on spending cuts and tax increases, automatic spending cuts are scheduled to hit the Federal Aviation Administration and the Transportation Security Administration on Jan 2.

If that should happen, the FAA could be forced to close more than 100 smaller airports because they’d have fewer airtraffic controllers, according to separate reports by a former congressional aide and a current lawmaker.

And, they warn, the TSA could lay off thousands of baggage screeners, which could force the agency to abandon fullbody screening for hundreds of thousands of passengers at airports each day.

But because lawmakers are expected to continue negotiations in January if they can’t reach agreement, government officials say there should be no immediate changes at FAA or TSA. John Porcari, deputy secretary of transportation, explained in a memo to staffers this month that any cuts could be spread over the fiscal year until Sept. 30. He contrasted that with an immediate government shutdown, when lawmakers can’t agree to spending bills. “For these reasons, I do not expect our day-to-day operations to change dramatically on, or immediately after, Jan 2,” Porcari said. “This means that we will not be executing any immediate personnel actions, such as furloughs, on that date.”

David Castelveter, a spokesman at TSA, says that “if a budget agreement is not reached, front-line screening operations would continue uninterrupted.”

German exporters eye record trade BERLIN: Germany, one of the world’s top exporters, should post a new record for exports next year, driven by demand from Asia, the head of the BGA federation of exporters and wholesalers said yesterday.

“We expect an increase of up to five percent in exports to 1.158 trillion euros ($1.53 trillion) in 2013 and a 5.5-percent rise in imports to 980 billion euros,” said BGA chief Anton Boerner in a new year’s message.

Despite the euro-zone crisis, Germany achieved record exports in 2012, added Boerner, amounting to 1.103 trillion euros, and a trade surplus of 174 billion euros.

Boerner said the bullish projection was based on “stability and no new volatility on the financial markets. Europe, the United States and China have a lot of homework to do in the new year in this respect,” he said. He said order books for next year were full “especially from the growth markets in Asia” and added that the low value of the euro on the currency markets was helping trade with the United States and Japan.

However, he cautioned that “the European debt crisis will be with us for a long time yet” and said he was especially concerned about what he said were “increasingly protectionist trends in several eastern European countries.” “By going alone down this protectionist road, these countries are harming not only our exports but also massively harming themselves,” said Boerner. —AFP

The airline industry group Airlines for America also isn’t expecting any changes that would affect fliers this week. “We are confident the FAA will ensure that air travel remains as safe as it is today, and customers should continue to book with confidence as we are not anticipating disruptions to the schedule,” says Victoria Day, a spokeswoman for the group.

If Congress can’t reach a compromise in the next few weeks, the automatic cuts

highest levels of safety,” Huerta said. The National Air Traffic Controllers Association released a report earlier in December that warned of furloughing 2,000 to 2,200 controllers, which “would inevitably lead to a reduction in services, reduced capacity and fewer flights.” “We urge Congress to act to prevent the sequester before it’s too late,” says Paul Rinaldi, the association’s president.

Scott Lilly, a longtime Democratic

called “sequestration” would be devastating for the agencies and some travelers for the rest of the year.

The FAA would lose more than $1 billion of its nearly $16 billion budget, according to the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Michael Huerta, FAA’s acting chief, warned in October that “we could face some very drastic cuts in services” and that “these cuts would impact air-traffic control services.”

“We will always, however, maintain the

House Appropriations Committee staffer who is now a fellow at the Center for American Progress think tank, expects those cuts to close airports.

The 29 largest hubs, such as in New York, Chicago or Atlanta, handle 70 percent of the country’s 730 million annual passengers. Another 70 large airports, such as Houston’s Hobby, Pittsburgh or New Orleans, handle 25 percent of the passengers. But Lilly says that leaves 340 airports handing 5 percent of passengers.

FAA had 15,236 controllers last year, so

Lilly projected that more than 2,000 faced furloughs. By “educated guess,” Lilly made a list in August of 106 smaller airports facing closure, topped by Savannah’s Hilton Head airport in Georgia; Long Island, NY; Orlando’s Sanford airport in Florida; Palm Springs, Calif.; and Pensacola, Florida.

“Such reckless slashing of vital services will not only fail to diminish the deficit, but will also help strangle a struggling economy,” Lilly says. Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, warned separately in 2011 that the FAA cuts could close 246 air-traffic control towers.

Former Transportation secretary Norm Mineta says if the automatic cuts aren’t stopped, “It will be by far the most devastating budget cut to the FAA in its 54 years.”

At airports that remain open, TSA would lose more than $640 million from its $8 billion budget, according to the Office of Management and Budget. The cuts include $429 million for aviation security and $79 million for air marshals, who fly undercover to thwart hijackings.

The cuts could force TSA to eliminate 9,000 screeners and Customs and Border Protection to drop 1,600 inspection officers, according to Dicks, the lawmaker.

That would reduce staffing for fullbody scanners, which are aimed at nonmetallic explosives such as the attempted underwear bomber on Christmas 2009, and leave 350,000 passengers per day screened only with metal-detectors, according to Dicks.

Stephen Mullin, vice president of Econsult Corp., produced a report outlining the dangers of cuts for the advocacy group Aerospace Industries Association.

He says the closer officials look, “the more destructive it turns out to be.” —MCT

Passages in 2012

Notable deaths in business Barry Becher, 71, marketing mastermind and infomercial pioneer known for introducing US TV viewers to Ginsu knives, the Miracle Slicer, Armourcote Cookware and a bevy of other products. Complications from surgery related to kidney cancer, June 22.

Barton Biggs, 79, former chief global strategist for Morgan Stanley who warned three years before the crash in dot-com companies that stocks were too expensive. Biggs co-founded one of the first hedge funds, Fairfield Partners, in 1965. Biggs joined Morgan Stanley in 1973 and founded Morgan Stanley Investment Management in 1975. In a speech in Tokyo on Jan. 21, 1999, Biggs predicted that a spectacular rally in Internet stocks would “come to a very bad end.” Short illness, July 14. Andrew Brimmer, 86, the son of a Louisiana sharecropper who in 1966 became the first black member of the Federal Reserve Board, where he was known as an expert on international monetary policy.

Lengthy illness, Oct. 7.

James Burke, 87, former Johnson & Johnson CEO who steered the health care giant through the Tylenol poisonings in the 1980s that resulted in the first tamper-resistant product packaging. Later, as chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, Burke persuaded TV stations and newspapers to run free ads warning of the dangers of illicit drugs. In one of the most memorable ads, an announcer intoned, “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs,” as an egg sizzled in a frying pan. In 2000, President Clinton awarded Burke the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Unspecified illness, Sept. 28.

Robert Cohen, 86, built the Hudson News chain of newsstands from one store at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. There are now more

than 600 stores across the nation.

Complications from progressive supranuclear palsy, Feb. 1. Stephen Covey, 79, Author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which he developed after studying hundreds of books and essays on success written since 1776. The ideas, sounding so simple, made Covey a force of human nature. Complications from a bicycle accident, July 16.

Stephen Covey in 1997.

James Herr, 87, founder of the company that makes Herr’s potato chips and other snack foods. Herr began his career with a $1,750 investment in a small potato chip company, the Herr Foods website says. Respiratory illness, April 5. Sanford McDonnell, 89, former CEO of McDonnell Douglas who turned his family’s troubled aerospace company into one of the country’s leading defense contractors.

Under “Sandy” McDonnell’s stewardship, the company built the Air Force’s F-15 Eagle fighter jet. Pancreatic cancer, March 19. Elinor Ostrom, 78, Indiana University political scientist and only woman to have been awarded a Nobel Memorial Prize in economics. Ostrom won a share of the 2009 prize for analyzing the rules by which people exercise authority in companies and economic systems. Pancreatic cancer, June 12.

John Phelan, 81, who led the New York Stock Exchange into the modern era and provided calm when stock prices crashed in October 1987. During his tenure as vice chairman, president and then chairman from 1975 through 1990, the NYSE spent millions on technology to make trading swifter and less prone to error. Complications of prostate cancer, Aug. 4. Harold “Red” Poling, 86, former Ford Motor chairman and chief executive officer from 1990 to 1994 who helped lead the

automaker through two recessions. He also approved spending $3 billion to engineer an aerodynamic sedan named Taurus that became the top-selling car in the United States after it was introduced in 1985. Cause not given, May 12. Bernard Rapoport, 94, founder of an insurance company who became a linchpin of the beleaguered community of Texas liberals. He was a major donor to Democratic candidates, progressive causes, Israel and the University of Texas. In 1951, he borrowed $25,000 and founded American Income Life Insurance. Cause not given, April 5. Jerome Rubin, 86, who helped bring to market the commercial online research database known today as LexisNexis and the display technology behind Amazon Kindles and other e-readers. Stroke, Jan. 9.

Jack Tramiel, 83, whose Commodore computers helped establish a mass consumer market for personal computers in the 1970s and 1980s. Tramiel, a concentration-camp survivor, transformed the computer market by building dependable home computers at a price that regular people could afford. In 1977, he introduced the Commodore PET, the first PC to cost less than $1,000. In 1982, he made his most lasting mark with the Commodore 64, with 64 kilobytes of internal memory. By 1984, Tramiel’s company had sales of $1 billion a year and commanded 42% of the US home-computer market. Heart failure, April 8.

Chaleo Yoovidhya, in his 80s, self-made Thai billionaire who co-founded the Red Bull brand. He started T.C. Pharmaceuticals in the 1960s and made an energy-drink prototype a decade later called Krathing Daeng, or Red Bull in English. Natural causes, March 17. —MCT

26

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

business

IKEA Kuwait unveils LED lights as sustainable alternative Leading the way by shedding light on new practice

Raj Kishore Prasad wins a brand new GMC Yukon Gulf Bank’s final KOC draw for 2012 KUWAIT: Gulf Bank announced Raj Kishore Prasad as the winner of a brand new 2012 GMC Yukon in the fourth and final quarterly KOC prize draw for 2012. Gulf Bank’s Quarterly Prize Draw for a GMC Yukon is part of the benefits offered to all KOC staff members who transfer their salaries to Gulf Bank and have a valid credit card.

Expressing his gratitude on winning, Raj Kishore Prasad said, “I am grateful to Gulf Bank for this prize and for the excellent ser vice I always receive at the Bank’s KOC branch.

Having my Bank’s branch close to me is convenient but winning a brand new car just because I am a Gulf Bank customer is superb.”

The KOC salary package provides a non-interest bearing current account especially designed to fulfill KOC staff ’s banking needs. KOC staff are entitled to several exclusive benefits

such as, vouchers from X-cite by Alghanim Electronics, free issuance charges for Visa and MasterCard Credit Card and special discounts upon using Gulf Bank cards at over 100 outlets in Kuwait.

Upon entering the draw, KOC staff are further qualified to win a new GMC Yukon as an added bonus to the KOC salary tailored banking package.

Gulf Bank is the only Bank available at the KOC Head Office and all KOC staff are invited to visit the branch to find out more about the KOC salary package.

For more information about the package and all Gulf Bank’s products and services, customers can visit one of Gulf Bank’s 56 branches, or call the Customer Contact Center on 1805805 for assistance and guidance, or log on to www.e-gulfbank.com, Gulf Bank’s website.

ABK extends warmest greetings for New Year Al Ahli Bank of Kuwait extends a warm greeting to its customers and the people of Kuwait on the occasion of the New Year.

Ms. Sahar Al Therban, Public Relations Manager at ABK congratulated the customers on this auspicious occasion, with wishes for a wonderful 2013.

Ms. Al Therban said “During the upcoming holiday ABK branches will be closed on Tuesday January 1, and will resume business as normal on Wednesday January 2.”

KUWAIT: IKEA Kuwait launched the start of a new era with the introduction of LED lights and lamps as part of its ongoing sustainability program to improve the local environment and save energy.

With the intention of creating a better life at home for more of the many people, IKEA yearned for the capacity to provide a smarter solution that holds aesthetic value, functionality and longer shelf life. LED is all these things and affordable! Supported

by IKEA, LED lighting consumes 85% less energy than incandescent bulbs and can last up to 20 times longer.

IKEA Kuwait will sell only LED bulbs and LED lamps to enable millions of people to live a more sustainable life at home and save money on their energy bills. The LED bulbs will be sold at the lowest price, thus making it an affordable innovation for the many people. Additionally, IKEA is changing more than one million light sources inside the IKEA stores to LED and other more efficient lighting. Best kept

secrets about LED Product: LED is all about design - it offers many new possibilities thanks to the technology that can be integrated in almost any product.

They encourage smaller lamps, thinner structures and a more carefully spread light. The diodes might be tiny - but they encourage great change and big design ideas. For example, you can have LEDs that are both warm and dimmable, and lighting options that are colder and sharper than before. We can now offer light sources with better color rendering, output and precision.

Initiative: Consumption is a great solution for growth but it¥s also a part of the environmental problems we face today. Our challenge is to create better life at home within the limits of the planet. Imagine a zero waste world, where our products live many lives.

Imagine if we could make our homes part of the solution! Our vision is more relevant today than ever. We have the chance to create a better everyday life for

Al-Tijari announces winners of daily draw with Najma Account KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait held the Al Najma Account Daily draw on 30th December 2012. The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry represented by Saquer AlManaie.

The winners of the Najma Daily Draw are :● Maha Mohammed Al-Bloushi — KD 7000, ● Abdul-Latif Abdullah Sameer Hendal — KD 7000, ● Meshaal Abdulla Shibib Al-Subaiee — KD 7000, ● Fahad Bader Fahad Albaz— KD 7000, ● Adnan Akram Agha Mohammad — KD 7000.

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announces the biggest daily draw in Kuwait with the launch of the new Najma account. Customers of the bank can now enjoy a KD 7,000 daily prize which is the highest in the country and another 4 mega prizes during the year worth KD 100,000 each on different occasions: The National Day, Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha and on the 19th of June which is the date of the bank’s establishment.

With a minimum balance of KD 500, customers will be eligible for the daily draw provided that the money is in the account one week prior to the daily draw or 2 months prior to the mega draw. In addition, for each KD 25 a customer can get one chance for winning instead of KD 50. Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes this opportunity to congratulate all lucky winners and also extends appreciation to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their effective supervision of the draws which were conducted in an orderly and organized manner.

many people around the world.

Sustainability is a cornerstone of IKEA, which takes continuous steps to make its business more

sustainable and, at the same time, makes it easier for customers to live a more sustainable life at home.

Burgan Bank names of daily winners of Yawmi Account KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced yesterday the names of the five lucky winners of its Yawmi account draw, each taking home a prize of KD 5,000.

Winner’s names will also be announced through Marina FM on a daily basis during their prime shows.

The lucky winners for the five daily draws took home a cash-prize of KD 5000 each, and they are: 1. Bader Hmoud Sulaiman Almudhayyan 2. Abdul-bari Mohammed Mohammed Abdulbari 3. Mohammed Ahmed Humoud Alajlan 4. Sarah Ebrahim Taqi Alawadhi 5. Mustafa Qatan Shattam Khaleel The newly re-launched Yawmi Account is better, easier and faster than any day before. With its new and enhanced features, the Yawmi Account has become more convenient, easier, and faster for customers to benefit from.

Now, customers will be eligible to enter the draw after 48 hours only from opening the account.

Customers are also required to deposit KD 100 or equivalent only to

enter the daily draw, and the coupon value to enter the draw stands at KD 10.

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13 money-saving tips for 2013 hirteen might not be the luckiest of numbers, but 2013 could be a pretty good year to get on a better financial footing-if you’re not fussy. Now 2013 is the year I will finally use a 1991 calendar. While cleaning, I found a Laura Ashley desk calendar that was too pretty to use back then. The days of the week for 1991 match up with 2013. See www.whencanireusethiscalendar.com.

Now, 13 other tips for ‘13: ● No. 1: Use what you’ve got.

It is possible to make dinner out of what’s at home at least one day a week. Need a use for small bottles of shampoo in the closet? My husband made a game out of regularly tapping into our stockpile. We got about three months of shampoo free. ● No. 2: Cancel a service.

“I canceled cable in 2002,” said Gabriella Barthlow, a certified credit counselor and owner of the Alpha Advisory Group. She’s saved thousands of dollars. She waits until a TV series is on DVD at her library. ● No. 3: Drag your feet until January when it comes to donations.

Tax rates could go up in 2013. So a charitable contribution could be a more valuable deduction if you send the check next year instead of by Dec. 31, according to Robert Shefferly III, certified public accountant, senior tax manager for the national tax office for Plante Moran in Southfield, Mich. ● No. 4: Watch ATM fees.

If you’re out of town and not near your bank, it may be possible to avoid ATM fees by using your debit card at a nearby supermarket. Buy items that you can use-and get $50 cash back or more.

Kroger allows up to $250 cash back on a debit card purchase if you go to a lane with a clerk; the self-check lane has a $100 limit for cash back.

If instead you go to an ATM that’s not part of your bank, you’d typically pay your bank a fee of $1.57 and pay the ATM owner another $2.50 on average, according to Bankrate.com. ● No. 5: Bank one more buck.

Charge one dollar every single time you break a New Year’s resolution. Make sure everyone in the house makes one promise-not to yell at the TV during a Detroit Lions’ game, not to forget to put away the laundry. Put that money toward a goal. ● No. 6: Go to your kids and ask them how to save money.

“If the family is struggling economically, the kids know that in the household,” said Gregory Downing, a former auto dealer and author of Entrepreneur Unleashed: Wealth to Stand the Test of Time. It’s OK to be upfront with older children, if your take-home pay was cut by 50% and you

T

now have to buy your own health insurance, said the Florida father of three, ages 17, 13 and 11.

Children can be part of the solution, he said, noting teens need to work as well, even if only doing odd jobs for pay. Back in the summer, my 14-year-old son told me to stop buying him Tshirts and hoodies. I had gotten into a bad habit of frequently picking up something cool and cheap. Nice, but he had too much. It’s been an easy way to save $5 or $10 here and there. ● No. 7: Think “just in time.”

Buying in bulk can save money, say freezing butter bought on sale during the holidays.

But “avoid overstocking your refrigerator and pantry,” said Tomika Snodgrass, a vice president for RBS Citizens in Southfield. The mom of two buys only items for her weekly plan. ● No. 8: Don’t clip coupons.

This anti-coupon tip sounds counterintuitive, because so much marketing works against it these days, said Laura Lee, author of Broke is Beautiful: Living and Loving the Cash-Strapped Life. Shoppers who peruse bargain circulars, sign up for e-mails from stores, join Facebook groups and so on are constantly bombarded with deals.

“Buying stuff involves spending money, not saving it,” Lee said.

If you clip coupons, prioritize based on your budget. ● No. 9: Buy some bandages-and maybe a bed pan?

Some rules changed in 2011 and now you’re required to have a prescription from a doctor if you want to be reimbursed as part of a flexible spending account for buying over-the-counter medicine or drugs.

But many do not realize that there are 32,000 services and items that would be reimbursed by FSA funds-and do not need a prescription for reimbursement, said Natasha Rankin, executive

director for the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation in Washington, D.C. She noted that on average people lose $138 after not filing for reimbursements or not spending the necessary amounts in flexible spending accounts.

Online stores even sell items that qualify for FSA dollars. “People think they can’t buy any products anymore,” said Jeremy Miller, president of FSAstore.com. Miller notes that’s not true.

Check with your sponsor about deadlines for spending and filing for reimbursements. A new FSA cap hits in January. The maximum an employee can set aside is $2,500. If both spouses are working, the maximum allowed is $5,000. ● No. 10: Play make-believe.

If you could pretend to be a cowboy when you were a kid, why can’t you imagine that one day you’ll be able to retire? If you can believe it, you can save. ● No. 11: Create one “no-spend-zone.”

One Saturday each month, don’t spend any money. No fair pulling out plastic. ● No. 12: Save sentimental cash.

Examine the serial number on each $1 bill.

Then, save bills that start with a special letter, like your first initial, said Samirian Hill, president of BudgetWise Financial Solutions in Southfield. ● No. 13: Go offshore.

No, not really offshore. But why not bank far from home? If you choose a financial institution that is a hike to get to, it could be difficult to empty that account, said Dorothy Barrick, financial counselor and group manager for GreenPath Debt Solutions, a national non-profit credit counselor. Of course, just pulling out a debit card from that bank would defeat the purpose.

The odd thought here: Don’t just work for your money; work hard to avoid spending it, too.

More ways to ring in savings in the New Year: ● Take time to return cans for deposit money. ● Switch up your morning drink. If you usually buy a pricey coffee, opt for a less expensive tea.

Re-use that fancy tea bag one or two more times, too. ● Don’t be afraid to do something that seems too totally weird to save money-recycle scrap metal that’s cluttering up your garage. ● Dig up an old, low-cost family recipe, maybe for something like corn fritters. It won’t be as good-or as cheap-as when Mom made it, but it will be less expensive than drive-thru. ● Fix something. When a backpack rips during the school season, sew it or use some duct tape. ● Substitute. My friend Joel cut back on his beer budget by opting to freeze cider for the year.

Take a weekend trip, instead of a week. Buy fun socks instead of shoes. — MCT

Specialist Christian Sanfilippo works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Despite many challenges, 2012 turned out to be a surprisingly good year for stocks. —AP

Budget stalemate won’t push stocks off a cliff NEW YORK: Despite the hype and hysteria over the fiscal cliff, it’s unlikely the stock market will suffer a hair-raising correction, at least in the short term, if politicians can’t agree on a deal.

If lawmakers don’t avoid automatic tax hikes and government spending cuts by Dec. 31, the stock market may suffer a drop of just 2% to 3%, some Wall Street analysts say. The reason investment strategists don’t expect a massive sell-off is because they believe some sort of deal will come early in the new year, limiting damage to the economy from any short-term fiscal drag. “I think the market comes under some pressure if nothing is done by Dec. 31,” says Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. “It may not be more than a 3% correction. ... The longer it drags out, however, the greater the likelihood its impact will start to show in economic data, which will then be counterproductive to stocks as corporate profits are threatened.”

To a certain degree, fiscal-cliff fears have been “overblown in the sense that it sounds so terminal,” Luschini says. Indeed, the full force of any government spending cuts or tax hikes won’t have a major impact right away. The economy won’t go into recession Jan. 1 barring an eleventhhour deal. Automatic spending cuts of

$1.2 trillion will occur over a decade.

There’s a consensus that if lawmakers can agree on a deal by year’s end or early in 2013, even one that simply extends tax cuts for the middle class, stocks will probably enjoy a relief rally as some uncertainty fades. The market’s big test, however, will come in the first quarter of 2013, when lawmakers are forced to tackle the nation’s mushrooming deficit.

That requires tough decisions on tax policy and entitlement reform to put the nation’s finances on a more healthy, sustainable path, says Michael Pento, president of Pento Portfolio Strategies. Pento also believes stocks would suffer an initial drop of 2% to 3% if the U.S. goes over the cliff. The next big obstacle for markets is likely to be a renewed debate on the debt ceiling, which needs to be raised again early in 2013, Pento says. The Treasury Department said Wednesday that the U.S. will hit the $16.4 trillion borrowing limit Dec. 31, but it can take “extraordinary measures” to extend the government’s borrowing ability for another two months or so. “The real fight will be over spending cuts and raising the debt ceiling,” says Pento. “If there is no agreement to raise the borrowing limit of the US, we will see a panic move lower (in stocks) in the area of 15% unless action is taken quickly.” — MCT

27

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

TECHNOLOGY

China’s Chengdu aiming to be world’s next Silicon Valley

Customers affirm EMC leadership in VMware backup

The best reason to come to Chengdu is the education environment CHENGDU: Entrepreneurs in China’s southwest are dreaming of turning the city of Chengdu into the world’s next Silicon Valley as the government encourages more investment outside the booming coastal regions.

Small startups as well as big-name western companies have flocked to the metropolis of 14 million people, attracted by cheap labor costs and favorable government investment policies and hoping to tap into China’s rapidly expanding consumer market. And the Silicon Valley dream is becoming reality as the city, already a hi-tech manufacturing hub, seeks increasingly to become a magnet for software development and innovation.

Between one-third to one-half of the iPads sold worldwide are assembled in Chengdu, while computer giant Intel makes up to half of its chips in the city. Far from the booming coastal regions, Chengdu can offer perks through the government’s “Go West” development programme, with incentives for startups such as one-year interest-free loans. So far it has attracted about 29,000 companies to its 130-square-kilometre (50-square-mile) “hi-tech development zone”, including about 1,000 foreign enterprises. Chengdu is also developing a nearby “Software Park” as the city aims to go beyond manufacturing and become a centre of innovation.

At Chinese startup GoodTeam, a software engineer shows off his latest creation: a game in which players try to place a bottle into the mouth of a baby. The application is being developed for pre-schoolers between one and three years old, the age at which children in Chengdu begin to toy with computer technology. Founded in 2009, the startup employs 32 people and has seen strong growth in the gaming market, with most of its applications used on mobile telephones. “In July 2009 we had about five downloads a day, today we have more than 100,000 a day for each game. We are confident in the market,” Liu Jia, a GoodTeam manager, told AFP. “Since we started we have survived three crises but it has been the hi-tech zone that has sustained us by allowing us to borrow money.” With five nearby universities focusing on science and technology, cafes and restaurants around the development zone have become networking hotspots for software programmers.

“The best reason (to come to Chengdu) is the education environment. The region has

CHENGDU: This photo taken on December 12, 2012 shows a developer testing a game for children in an office in southwest China’s Sichuan province. — AFP great universities,” Xiong Jie, the director of Thoughtworks, which runs an Internet site for a group of Australian insurance companies, told AFP. “Only China and India have this talent pool. We have grown very fast, we started with zero people in April and now we have 50.” The company plans to add at least 30 more workers in 2013 and all will likely be aged under 30, he said. The zone boasts Chinese technology companies like Lenovo, Huawei, ZTE and the Taiwan electronics giant Foxconn, as well as Internet portals Tencent and Alibaba.

Foreign companies include Texas Instruments, Intel, Fujitsu, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Sun, SAP, Ubisoft, Siemens, Motorola, Nokia, Ericsson, Alcatel and Dell.

Chengdu highlights the changing nature of the technology scene in China, where Beijing, Shanghai and the metropolis of Shenzhen near Hong Kong have long been the centre for the country’s IT industry.

Multinationals have traditionally set up in those areas, initially making products for export but increasingly tapping into the country’s lucrative domestic markets.

Sales revenue for Chengdu’s information technology sector neared 36 billion euros

VERSAILLES: Students sit behind a row of iPads displaying with the Kentucky iTunesU page displayed during an unveiling event.

($47.6 billion) in 2011, with 20 million computers produced and production capacity four times that. In 2012 production capacity was set to surpass 100 million, with more than 50 million computers delivered, while by 2015 capacity is expected to reach 150 million tablets and 80 million laptop computers. “Although the speed of growth has slowed everywhere, for us the loss has been minimal,” said Tang Jiqiang, the Chengdu hi-tech’s zone’s director of strategy. “We have seen growth slip from 25 percent to 23 percent.”

Overall, Chengdu expects economic growth of 13 percent in 2012, down from around 15 percent in recent years, but still well above the expected national average of about eight percent. Gao Wenshu, an expert on labor economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, said Chengdu’s skilled labor force could help it emulate Silicon Valley.

But the city offers relatively low wages compared to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, and the challenge will be attracting and keeping an innovative workforce. “I don’t think the local salary level can meet the high-salary demands technology specialists seek,” Gao said. — AFP

DUBAI: EMC Corporation (NYSE:EMC) yesterday announced that users of EMC Avamar consistently report better backup for their VMware environments, citing metrics that positively impact operational efficiency and client service levels. EMC leads the industry in backup of VMware environments by fully using the latest VMware vSphere APIs to deliver fast and reliable virtual machine backup and recovery. Avamar deduplication software and systems excel at backup of both virtual and physical environments. This enables Avamar customers to make the transition to a highly virtualized environment faster and more smoothly than if they used any other backup method.

Regardless of size, industry or location, Avamar users share common experiences and successes when it comes to the protection of their VMware environments,” says Rob Emsley, Senior Director of Product Marketing, EMC Backup Recovery Systems Division. “As virtualization continues to drive more efficiency and flexibility into IT environments, it also creates new and different challenges for backup and recovery of data and applications. Avamar users are not only able to meet these challenges head-on, but also deliver better backup and disaster recovery capabilities to their internal clients.

Nothing speaks louder than universal customer success, and the common thread running through Avamar customer experiences is dramatically enhanced VMware backup and recovery.”

St Charles Health System St Charles Health System (SCHS) is Central Oregon’s largest employer, with multiple medical treatment delivery facilities and over 3,000 caregivers. “We anticipate yearly savings of over $130,000 from our Avamar system. Restores that were taking eight to ten hours now take only one to two hours. But what’s really impacted our organization is the operational time savings. I can’t emphasize enough how much our IT operation has improved now that our team is not spending all day on backups. Our in-house customers are excited about Avamar’s ability to do file level as well as image level restores, and our IT team can focus more on building our virtual environment-with the full confidence that we can efficiently and effectively protect it.”

Mike Crystal, Enterprise Architect for Servers and Storage, St Charles Health System TekLinks TekLinks is a leading services provider of IP telephony, network security, data storage, backup, disaster recovery and hosting servic-

VERSAILLES: Mike Stacy, left, the chief academic officer for Woodford County Schools shows University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto an AP physics class using iPads at Woodford County High School in Kentucky.—MCT photos

es to numerous businesses across the Gulf South states “We needed a backup solution that would perform reliably in the cloud and effectively address VMware backup. After looking at several other solutions, only Avamar delivered the performance, versatility and efficiency we required. With backup as a service, clients are often concerned that a backup job will choke out their network bandwidth. Avamar gives us a great competitive advantage, enabling fast daily full backups across existing LAN/WAN links. Our clients really respond to that. With Avamar, we have exceptional visibility into our backups so we know we’re delivering great service levels to our clients. We now have just one admin assigned to backups, yet we’re processing nearly five times as many backup jobs.”

Ed McLain, Director of data center operations, TekLinks EMC Avamar is optimized to provide the fastest, most efficient backup and recovery for virtualized environments. Avamar supports the VMware vSphere Storage API for Data Protection (VADP), and it is tightly integrated with VMware vCenter(tm) Server for seamless management of the backup infrastructure. Avamar provides the industry’s first and only implementation of changed block tracking for data recovery - resulting in the fastest possible virtual machine restore.

Avamar also leverages its own load-balancing algorithm across multiple Proxy VMs to maximize throughput, and further accelerate backups.

Speed - A large financial services company cut the backup time of VMware environments by 10x and now responds to restore requests in just minutes Scale - A rapidly growing cloud service provider processes five times as many backups-addressing 1,000 backup jobs daily-with just one backup administrator, while improving customer service levels Savings - A health care provider will save $130,000 annually on the backup of VMware environments with Avamar, after cutting backup times by 3x and restore times by 8x Success- EMC Avamar users are exceeding their expectations for the backup of VMware environments and recovery performance, while delivering better service levels to their internal and external clients

ARLINGTON: Fourth graders, from left, Geena Sherman, 10, and Kelsey Campos, 9, study a Virginia history lesson on iPads.

Schools across the US bring iPads to the classroom ARLINGTON: On a warm spring morning, two first-grade boys enter the computer lab at Jamestown Elementary, a traditional-looking red-brick neighborhood school that’s educated generations of students. The first-graders take a black cart, big enough that they both could fit in it, and push it down the hall to their classroom. It contains an Apple iPad for every student in their class.

This school is anything but old school.

Jamestown, part of the 21,000-student Arlington Public Schools, is on the leading edge of what many educators describe as the classroom edition of the digital revolution.

“Kids are not only able to access material but use a number of tools to construct learning in a completely different way from what they’ve seen before,” said Camilla Gagliolo, the instructional technology coordinator for Arlington Public Schools.

While this revolution is far from complete amid concerns about its cost and effectiveness, schools and textbook publishers say it’s opened up a new chapter in education, changing the way students interact with teachers and with one another. “Teachers are having to rethink their classroom,” said Becky Keith, a technology integration specialist at Woodford County Public Schools in Kentucky.

“The teachers who are embracing it are having great success.”

Teachers in digital classrooms have become learning coaches, moving around the room and giving students more one-on-one instruction. Educators who have embraced this approach said it better prepares students for the interactive environments they’ll encounter in their college and professional lives.

“In the past, the teacher was the owner of the knowledge,” said Richard Jean, the principal of Archbishop McCarthy High School, a Roman Catholic school in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. “A year ago, if a child wanted to tape a lecture, he couldn’t.” From kindergarten through 12th grade, students in more than 2,000 school districts across the country are learning with electronic devices that until recently they were discouraged from using in class.

“We asked them to turn off all electronics when they came to school,” Jean said. Now, “we have a tool they can use for everything.”

Students can use tablets-whether from Apple or rival brands — to take notes, submit assignments and engage in group discussions with teachers or other students. They can shoot and edit movies, produce podcasts and record lectures. They also can look up information right at their desks, saving a trip to the computer lab or the library. They’re also allowing teachers to jettison traditional textbooks.

“I do not really use the textbook at all,” said Jessica Basanta, who teaches Spanish at Woodford County High School in Versailles, Ky. “Sometimes I’ll pull a few things from textbooks.” Woodford County is among hundreds of school districts across the country to buy into tablets as the future of classroom instruction. It purchased iPads for all 1,250 of its high school students last fall at a cost of $785,000. It plans to buy a new set for each incoming class and offer students the option of buying them at a steep discount when they graduate.

“We feel like we have a model in place to sustain this for many years to come,” said Scott Hawkins, the district’s superintendent. But not

every district can afford the money that Woodford spent on the iPads, cases and management software for one high school.

Hawkins said it cost another $170,000 to build a wireless network, another important requirement beyond the outlay for the tablets themselves.

And not every parent can afford to chip in.

The parents of Archbishop McCarthy’s approximately 1,500 students pay a $25 monthly technology fee on top of regular tuition, which runs about $10,000 a year. Arlington Public Schools in Virginia allocates $360,000 a year over a four-year cycle to replace computers at its 37 schools. Frank Bellavia, a district spokesman, said principals at schools that are due for upgrades can decide whether they want tablets or laptops, or a mixture of both.

Schools also can receive state and federal funding for classroom technology, but the funds aren’t unlimited. “I would check my wallet if anyone said this is the solution and you have to do it tomorrow or your schools will fail,” said Mark Warschauer, an education professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Warschauer said there is no evidence yet that such devices improve learning.

ARLINGTON: Kindergarteners from left, Seby Newman, 6, and Clare Laney, 5, study a game/lesson on iPads in Mr Guye Turnerís class at Jamestown Elementary School in Virginia.

“I’m a big enthusiast of technology in education, but I’m very wary of notions of silver bullet or magic bullet or game changer,” Warschauer said. “An iPad is a different way to deliver content. It has some advantages, and it has some disadvantages.” Education experts who embrace the technology acknowledge the hurdles.

“The money itself is extremely daunting,” said Justin Bathon, an assistant professor of education at the University of Kentucky. “The infrastructure is hard to build.” The US education system is highly decentralized, meaning that new concepts aren’t adopted uniformly. It also was built for another era. “We built schools for an industrial economy, and we did spectacularly good at it,” Bathon said. “It made us the country we are today.”

In a competitive global economy, Bathon said, it’s time for a new model. South Korea had planned to convert every classroom to digital textbooks by 2015. However, this approach worries some educators who think students spend too much time on digital devices, so in a shift, the country won’t eliminate printed textbooks entirely. In William Donovan’s fourth-grade class at Arlington’s Jamestown Elementary School, it almost appears that the printed history textbook has become history.

On a recent day, Donovan’s students are engrossed in a lesson on Virginia history, scrolling through an electronic textbook on their iPads. Meanwhile, a faded set of World Book encyclopedias-an old staple of grade school research-occupies a nearby shelf.

“There’s a lot of discussion about when we won’t buy textbooks anymore,” Donovan said.

“Everything we do is interactive.” Rather than fighting the digital trend the way other traditional content providers did, the nation’s textbook publishers have embraced it.

“I don’t see any resistance at all,” said Jay Diskey, the executive director of the school division of the Association of American Publishers. “We’re seeing education publishers of all sizes going in this direction, because there is a great deal of demand.” McGraw-Hill

Education, one of the largest, is making “significant investments” in digital textbooks, said Lisa O’Masta, a vice president of marketing.

She said the company offers schools both printed books and digital ones or a combination of both.

“Our hope is we help our districts in that digital transition,” she said. “In many cases, school districts aren’t ready yet. We try to develop programs for where they are today.”

While Apple dominates the market for classroom technology, much as it did in the 1980s, other companies are offering the devices based on Google’s Android operating system, and the competition could bring down prices for schools. A traditional textbook may cost $75, and a district would have to keep it for five to seven years, and the material quickly becomes dated. Now schools can download digital textbooks for as little as $15 a student and do so more frequently, keeping the information current.

“It is very early with the digital textbooks, but I do believe over the long haul we will save some money over the printed text,” Hawkins said. The students in Donovan’s fourth-grade class aren’t complaining. “When my dad was a kid, it was a dream,” Isabella Check, 9, said about using a high-tech device in class. Others appreciate that they don’t have to lug around a bag full of heavy books. “I live right up the hill, so it’s a pain,” said Perry Gibbs, 10. At Woodford County High School in Kentucky, students are even teaching their teachers. Andy Smith, a 39year-old history teacher and by his own admission “not a digital native,” said it’s fine by him that the students have become innovators.

“There seems to be an attitude that we’re all in this together,” Smith said. “They’ve kind of taken ownership of their side of it.”Students staff the school’s help desk. Zachary Rankin, a senior, is always in demand. “A lot of teachers who stop me in the hallway say, ‘Hey, can you help me?’ “he said. Daniel James, another senior who works on the help desk, said the devices are helping teachers live in the same world as their students. “It’s bridging a gap between teens and society,” he said. — MCT

28

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

health & science

Nobel medicine laureate Levi-Montalcini dies aged 103 The oldest living Nobel laureate at the time of her death ROME: Nobel medicine laureate Rita LeviMontalcini, a neurologist and developmental biologist, died yesterday at her home in Rome aged 103. She was the oldest living Nobel laureate at the time of her death.

Levi-Montalcini shared the prize with colleague Stanley Cohen in 1986 for their ground-breaking discovery of growth factors. The Nobel committee cited the pair for advancing “our knowledge from a stage when... growth factors were unknown, to a situation today when the role of growth factors in cell proliferation, organ differentiation, and tumor transformation is generally recognized.” Their work has helped understanding of such disorders as cancer, birth defects and Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Enjoying great affection and respect in Italy, Levi-Montalcini intervened to defend the teaching of evolution in schools when, in 2004, the then education minister, Letizia Moratti, wanted to remove it from the curriculum. Born into a wealthy Jewish intellectual family in northern Turin in 1909, LeviMontalcini was the daughter of an engineer and an artist. In 2001, Italy’s then president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi named Levi-Montalcini a senator for life, an honor bestowed on former presidents and prominent figures in social, scientific, artistic or literary fields.

In this role, she was the grand old lady of the Senate, taking pains to turn up for crucial votes in support of the Italian centreleft, even late in life when she was deaf and nearly blind. In 2007 she cut short a trip to Dubai to help then Prime Minister Romano Prodi sur vive a confidence vote. LeviMontalcini had vowed to continue exercising her “right and duty” to vote alongside elected senators despite her age and sniping from elements of the right.

The indefatigable scientist continued to work daily at her laboratory in Rome well into her declining years. She was the first woman president of the Italian Encyclopaedia and a

member of several prestigious scientific societies including the Italian Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Sciences in the United States and London’s Royal Society. Born into a wealthy Jewish intellectual family in northern Turin in 1909, Montalcini

ROME: This file picture taken at the French Accademy in Rome, shows the 1986 Nobel laureate for medicine, Rita Levi Montalcini of Italy, being awarded the ‘Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour’. —AFP was the daughter of an engineer and an artist whom she described in her Nobel autobiography as “an exquisite human being.” Her twin sister Paola died in 2000, and her brother Gino in 1974. The oldest, Anna, overcoming her father’s resistance to the idea of a profes-

sional career for a woman, Levi-Montalcini entered medical school in Turin aged 20. LeviMontalcini shunned marriage and motherhood to devote herself to a medical career.

But in 1936, the same year she earned a summa cum laude degree in medicine and surgery, Mussolini decreed racial laws that barred Jews from pursuing academic and professional careers.

So instead of embarking on a specialization in neurology and psychiatry, she set up a small laboratory in her bedroom, performing experiments on chick embryos.

The Allied bombing of Turin in 1941 forced the family to flee to the Piedmont countryside, where Levi-Montalcini rebuilt the lab.

Two years later, with the German invasion, the family fled to Florence, where they lived underground until the end of the war.

She managed to work as a medical doctor for Allied forces, treating war refugees afflicted by deadly epidemics of infectious diseases such as typhus. Finally, when the w a r i n I t a l y e n d e d i n M ay 1 9 4 5 , Le v i Montalcini was able to resume her career.

Her work on chick embryos, published in Switzerland and Belgium, led to an invitation to a research position at Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1947.

Although she initially planned to stay for a brief stint, she wound up staying 30 years. It was there that she and Cohen studied mouse tumors implanted in chick embryos. Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi named LeviMontalcini a senator for life, an honor bestowed on former presidents and prominent figures in social, scientific, artistist or literary field, in 2001. She set up the interdisciplinary European Brain Research Institute in Rome in 2002. She established the LeviMontalcini Foundation to help African women, and as Food and Agriculture Organisation ambassador for many years and in many other public forums she advocated the alleviation of world hunger. —AFP

Hope for polluted lagoon near Rio Olympic village?

RIO DE JANEIRO: Near Rio’s future 2016 Olympic village the Marapendi lagoon emits a foul stench from waters that have been turned into a cesspool by unfiltered sewage from surrounding upscale condominiums. Brazil has pledged the athletes will see a much different sight when they descend on the country for the Summer Games in four years. The government pledged to clean-up the decades of pollution in its bid to host the Olympics, in a two-year project estimated to cost $300 million and slated to start early next year.

The municipality has also vowed to build four sewage treatment stations in local rivers at a cost of $68 million. But it will be an uphill battle. Waste from area lagoons could fill Rio’s iconic Maracana stadium seven times over, according to experts. “The sewage dumped into the lagoon comes from the residences of the wealthy who do not provide proper treatment,” fumed biologist Mario Moscatelli during a dawn tour of the area. Until five years ago, untreated sewage was dumped directly into the water system. A treatment network has since been implemented and been made mandatory, but today the water utility network still only covers 60 percent of area homes. “Some object because it requires costly work,” conceded Marlene Ramos, president of the Rio de Janeiro Environment Institute.

Today, dead fish can be seen floating in the fetid waters.

‘The lagoon is my lifeline’ In early December, four tons of fish died in the lagoon because of the pollution and the heatwave that has brought 40 degrees Celsius (104

Fahrenheit) temperatures to the Southern Hemisphere this summer, Moscatelli explained. The lagoon has also shrunk considerably. In some areas, the waters measure only a few centimeters deep, where it used to have 12-meter (40-foot) depth. Waste sedimentation impedes navigation, and, in addition to killing fish, the lack of oxygen threatens other species such as herons, ducks, cabybaras and caimans who flee pollution.

And wildlife aren’t the only ones to suffer from the lagoon’s ruin. “The lagoon is my lifeline,” said Ricardo Herdy, owner of the EcoBalsas company, which shuttles local residents, as well as offers aquatic sports classes as well as educational and ecological tours. “I cannot develop projects as nobody wants to cruise dirty waters reeking of rotten fish,” he complained.

He confessed that he has considered closing down his business. But local residents remember happier days for this ecosystem in the densely populated western Barra da Tijuca district.

“Up until 1985, I would fish in this lagoon. There were plenty of fish and shrimp. You did not have to go out to sea,” said Sergio Borel, who has been fishing in the area for 40 years. “That changed when they began building these apartment buildings,” he said, though he holds on to hope the lagoon can come back. “I hope that one day I will be able to fish shrimp here again,” Borel said. Biologist Moscatelli hasn’t lost faith either.

“There is no question that a solution can be found to depollute the lagoon. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” —AFP

29

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

health & science

YIACO Apollo Medical Center offers best-in-class beauty and skincare services YIACO Apollo Medical Center, established in Kuwait in 2005, recently organized a tour for Kuwait’s local media, showcasing its high-tech facility and modern equipment in the cosmetology, dermatology and laser departments at its clinical headquarters in Salmiya. Present at the tour were senior management from Apollo

Medical Center along with Apollo Clinic’s highly qualified and experienced medical staff.

Yiaco Apollo Medical Center is one of the leading healthcare providers in Kuwait, aimed at providing comprehensive patient care by operating highly advanced medical procedures using modern technology combined with excellent customer care.

Addressing the media during the tour, senior management at Yiaco Apollo Medical Center said “ The Laser, Dermatology and Cosmetology department is a serious investment from YIACO Apollo Medical Center.which provides fullfledged and transformational services focusing on shaping the new

age of patient care. Our goal is to deliver world class, high quality and affordable services to women and men through the hands of professional doctors in a committed and compassionate manner.”

Shedding light on the growing reputation of the clinic, Yiaco Apollo Management said, “Our patients are increasingly becoming

aware of new medical procedures available for skincare and enhanced beauty techniques.

Kuwait’s rising needs for top-notch beauty, laser, skin care and cosmetology services match the facilitiesprovided byYIACO Apollo, which helppatients re-evaluate their treatment optionsto maintain skin and Beautyquality by using our doctors’ expertise combined with the region’s best medical equipment.”

The Dermatology and Laser Department, located on the firstand second floor is consider to be the largest Laser Unit in the state of Kuwait,supervised by three highly qualified doctors, Dr Iva Ivanova, Dermatologist, Dr Swati Kapadia,

and Dr Ruchira Vasudeva,Specialized in Dermatology, Venereology & Lasers. The departmentis well equipped with modern and computerized facilities for hair laser removal, frox peel, Mesotherapy treatment, botox, fillers and oxygen treatment.

In addition to above, the newly revamped YIACO ApolloBeauty and Cosmetology Department, located on the thirdfloor, offers an exhilarating sensory experience in its soothing ambience that by far exceeds guests’ expectations andhelpspatients forget the daily hustle and bustle from the moment they walk through the doors. The entire floor offers a vast array of spa-like services with personal and detailed attention given to every individual. Some of the medically enhanced beautyservices offered at the cosmetology and beauty department include facials, crystal peeling, facial oxygen therapy, chemical peeling, face whitening, acne treatments, Fat reduction, eye contour treatment, the latest PRB treatment, skin tightening and body scrubbing with more yet to come. Women can enjoy the leisure of a medical spa ambiance within the guidance of qualified doctors that select individually suitable beauty treatments to help enhance and revitalize beauty.

Yiaco Apollo Medical Center is a complete health provider that holds patient care as its top priority, placing emphasis on handling patient care with compassion.

Some of the other departments based at the clinic include: ENT, Gynecology, Internal Medicine, Dental, Pediatrics & Neonatology, Laboratory, Radiology, Pharmacy and General Practice. The center is located in Salmiya, Block 10, at the corner of the Amman Streetand Al Mughira Street intersection.

Controlled Rheumatoid Arthritis can lead to a smooth pregnancy KUWAIT: While RA can cause a lot of discomfort during pregnancy, there exists treatments that can help to subdue and even reduce the pain in many cases. Some women with rheumatic diseases have even been advised against becoming pregnant.

“The worry comes from uncertainty about how a woman’s rheumatic condition will affect the pregnancy as well as how pregnancy will affect her rheumatic condition. If a woman who has arthritis is considering getting pregnant, know what pregnancy advice applies to the condition. “says Dr Kholoud Mohamed, Head of Rheumatology Unit, Farwaneya Hospital.

Although anyone can get rheumatoid arthritis, women with RA outnumber men by about three to one. Many women with rheumatoid arthritis are diagnosed in their 20s and 30s, just when marriage and family start to take life’s center stage.

In many women with RA, disease activity improves substantially during pregnancy. However, some women’s RA flares up or remain’s active during pregnancy. Thus, it is often necessary to change or modify treatment of RA during pregnancy to control flares while minimizing the risks of RA treatments to the developing fetus.

It is imperative to tailor a treatment regimen that stabilizes the woman’s disease prior to conception, using medications that are safe to continue throughout pregnancy and the post-partum period.

Changes in Rheumatoid Arthritis during pregnancy Many changes to the immune system occur normally during pregnancy. These changes enable a fetus to grow and develop. Some of these changes contribute to the improvement of RA symptoms during pregnancy.

Disease activity during pregnancy Rheumatoid arthritis itself doesn’t seem to harm the developing baby, even

if RA is active during pregnancy. In fact, 70% to 80% of women with RA have improvement of their symptoms during pregnancy. Although some women with RA may have a slight risk of miscarriage or low-birth-weight babies, the vast majority of women have normal pregnancies without complications. “Unfortunately, the disease intensifies in 90% of women postpartum of 3-4 months, so these women are advised to have constant follow ups with their rheumatologist.” commented Dr Kholoud. It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between the common discom-

Dr Kholoud Mohamed forts of pregnancy and the symptoms of RA. Pregnancy discomforts that are similar to those of RA include the following: * Fatigue * Swelling of the hands, feet, or ankles * Joint pain, especially in the low back * Shortness of breath * Numbness or pain in one or both hands (caused by carpal tunnel syndrome of pregnancy) Pregnancy outcome Most reports show that there is no increase in stillbirth or miscarriage in women who have RA. However, some medications, particularly high-dose steroids, may increase the risk of having a smaller than normal infant and may increase the risk of premature rupture of the membranes.

Rheumatoid Arthritis Treatment during pregnancy Some women with RA flare during pregnancy and require treatment.

However, some medications used in the treatment of RA can be harmful to the fetus. The benefit of any medication must be balanced with the potential risk.

Medical observation crucial in pregnancy With close observation and proper medical management, women with arthritis or other rheumatic conditions can have successful pregnancies. It’s important for pregnant women with arthritis to be under the care of both an obstetrician to manage their pregnancy and a rheumatologist to manage their rheumatic condition. Successful pregnancies are possible with the team approach but not every pregnancy will be without complications.

For some patients, the benefits of the drug in controlling disease and in maintaining function may outweigh the possible risks to the mother or to the fetus. The use of any medication for arthritis during pregnancy is, thus, a matter that a patient and her rheumatologist should discuss, so that potentially dangerous medications can be avoided and the individual risks and benefits of any other drug can be carefully weighed. Rheumatoid Arthritis after delivery Approximately 90 percent of women with RA experience a flare during the postpartum period, usually within the first three months and particularly after a woman’s first pregnancy .Many experts recommend restarting RA medications in the first few weeks after delivery. “With the right treatment and prenatal care, babies born to moms with rheumatoid arthritis are as healthy and happy as any.” added Dr Kholoud.

30

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

W H AT ’ S O N

Gulf Bank Recognizes 170 Employees’ Long Service

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

Greetings

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appy birthday to dear Prem wishes from daddy, mummy, and brother Lohith.

Announcements

Shirva feast

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hirva Welfare Association Kuwait (SWAK) will be celebrating their Shirva Parish feast-2013 here in Kuwait.

On this occasion there will be a mass offered at 9.15 am on February 8, 2013 at the Holy Family Cathedral.

Kuwait and the celebration / get-together with a of variety entertainment programme will he held from 4:30 pm - 9 pm on the same day at the Indian Community School, Salmiya.

SWAK members or their children who would like to participate in the variety entertainment programme and show their talent are requested to contact any of the SWAK committee members listed below to avail the opportunity before January 10, 2013. Likewise if any of members children have excelled in academics or any other extra curricular activities in the past 1 year will be appreciated and hence are requested to inform any of the SWAK committee members listed below before the 10th of January. Last date for enrollment in the talent show is January 15, 2013.

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uwait: Gulf Bank’s Human Resources Department recently arranged a ceremony to honour 170 members of staff for their long standing dedication, as part of the Bank’s Long Service Award program , which recognises employees who have com-

pleted 5, 10, 15 and 20-years of service.

To mark the occasion each employee was presented with a special award certificate and a gift. The program, which was launched in 2011, has already honored over 600 employees for their commitment and service to the Bank.

The Bank hosts these official recognition ceremonies to encourage motivation, loyalty and proactive behaviour on a continuous basis, and simultaneously reiterates the importance of staff loyalty. Gulf Bank is committed to providing its employees with the best work-

ing environment and continues to invest in its people to achieve this. The Long Service Award program is just one more of Gulf Bank’s wide range of employee recognition schemes designed to motivate, attract and retain the very best people.

Arabic courses

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WARE will begin Winter 1 Arabic language courses with new textbooks and curricula on from December 2, 2012 until January 24, 2013. AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed & courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community. For more information or registration, please log-on to our website.

Charity show

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n the occasion of New Year Hangama 2013, which will be held tomorrow from 6:00 pm to 12:00 am at Carmel School, Khaitan. Rak Dance Academy is conducting dance competition in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi. The winners will be rewarded.

Indian art exhibition planned at Avenues

Goan Culinary Club

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he Goan Culinary Club - Goa encourages you to log on to their website where you can find a video of Odette and Joe Mascarenhas sharing their thoughts on Goan cuisine. These videos were recorded at the launch of the Goan Culinary Club in Goa on March 3, 2012. Thanks to support from all at the Goan Culinary Club, we have made great progress in six months.

Basketball Academy

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he new Premier Basketball Academy offers coaching and games every Friday and Saturday from 10 am onwards for 6 to 18 year olds, boys and girls. Located in Bayan Block 7, Masjed Al-Aqsa Street by Abdullah Al-Rujaib High School. Free Basketball and Tee Shirts for all participants, with certificates and special awards on completion of each 6 week course. Qualified and experienced British and American Coaches, Everyone Welcome.

By Sunil Cherian

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enowned Indian art activist Chaula Doshi will conduct Indian Art Retreat, a first of its kind Indian art event in Kuwait at the Avenues Mall in April. The art exhibition, titled ‘Art for Peace’, will feature 200 contemporary semi-abstract paintings by 50 various Indian artists, Doshi said.

Chaula Doshi is in Kuwait as part of the preparation of the mega art event scheduled to take place from April 21-24, using a 7000-square meter space at the Avenues.

Artist MV John, an artist based in Kuwait and an activist of Chaula’s art movement who makes the ground support for the exhibition said, “We’ve ensured the support of Kuwait’s National Council for Art and Culture, Indian Embassy and officials who are art enthusiasts”.

Chaula Doshi

A semi-abstract artist Chaula Doshi said it is the first time her art movement has a Middle East exposure. “In India, the artists are marginalized largely and only those who have big names make it big in the international art market”. Chaula who is in the field of coordinating art events for the past 12 years gathering works of artists who are not in the limelight despite their talents and creativity, is of the opinion that only a vast vistarama like that of Kuwait can save the otherwise fading skills of the unknown artists.

“But the Avenues event will feature the best of Indian art as possible as we can since this is our maiden attempt outside India. We’ve brushed away Indian gods and goddesses paintings, a common trait among the artists, for our Kuwait exhibition”, said Chaula who left her fashion

designer profession for the promotion of art 12 years ago. The mission of her art movement is creating a global community through art that transcends the barriers of language, caste and color. “The Armada General Trading Company sponsored show in Kuwait is a new art movement that attempts to connect people through art”, MV John said.

Kuwait also has better conditions for the maintenance of art works, said Chaula who hails from Gujrat’s Ahmedabad. “In India, the art works get dampen down because of climatic conditions. Insects are other villains. The artists who have not established names are not able to buy varnish their own paintings”, the mother of two boys said. “People value an artist’s success by the millions his works have made. This attitude is to be changed”.

Embassy holidays

Happy New Year Message

French Embassy The French Embassy in Kuwait will be closed on the occasion of the New Year tomorrow, January 1, 2013.

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urgan Bank yesterday announced that its airport branch will be operating during the upcoming New Year holiday, on Tuesday 1st of January 2013. The branch will commence operations from 10:00 am to 10:30 pm, in an effort to accommodate banking requirements for travellers’ during the public holiday.

Indian Embassy The Embassy of India will remain closed on 01 January, 2013, tomorrow being New Year Day.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

Md. Juber Ahmed (Kuwait Times)

M.A. Rahman (Buru)

Md. Abdus Salam

To all of Bangladeshi officers, people, poets, philosophers, journalists, cultural activists and social organizations in English New Year 2013.

31

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department.

All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

NBK conducts a successful fire drill

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ational Bank of Kuwait (NBK) conducted a very successful fire drill as part of its ongoing commitment towards employee safety. This took place at the bank’s head office.

“At NBK, we have built our Safety Plan based on the importance we attach to an employee’s safety and security in our organisation. Every year, the success of our safety drills is a deserving recurrence of

the robustness of our plan,” said Khaled Al Matrouk, NBK Chief Security officer.

All NBK employees participated in the fire drill which was successfully completed in 11 minutes. Major Khaled Al

� � � ��� � �

Sawagh Head of planning administration and Warrant officer Fawaz Al Sleili participated in the drill that took place in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior (MOI) and the ministry of Health (MOH).

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Khaled Al Matrouk, NBK Chief Security officer

he Embassy of Canada will be closed on Tuesday and Wednesday 25 and 26 December 2012 on the occasion of Christmas. The Embassy will resume its duties on Thursday 27 December 2012.The Embassyof Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, Email: abdbi-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, AlMutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is closed for lunch from 12:30 to 13:00. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday. � � � ��� � �

Fascinating action rhyme competition at LOA

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hat lies before us and what lies after us are nothing compared to what lies within us”. The tiny tots of LOA proved it literally on the stage while they confidently served a delicious pot pourri of rhymes to the eager audience. The realm of rhymes has an unparalleled beauty and the children enjoy this beauty of expression, thoughts, feeling, rhythm and magic of words.

The innocent words and actions woven into a melody of joyful smiles and giggles made the audience spell bound.

Their buoyant and stabilized perform-

ance reflected prodigious talent and poise as if they were aware that comprehending and memorizing beautiful rhymes is the best way of receptive learning.

The innocent minds are oblivious to the concept of winning and losing but they did their best on the stage with a variety of interesting rhymes. It was an apt platform for them to exhibit their innate and budding talent.

The competition was conducted in two segments so that each and every tiny talent could be displayed on the stage.

Wonderful kids from LKG made their jour-

ney through “Tree song, Wheels on the bus, Clap your hands, Honey bunch sugar plum, Head and shoulders, Five little monkeys and Hello! How are you” where as kids of UKG challenged themselves through “Hum honge kamyab, People song, Wheels on the bus, Sare jahanse acha, Billi boy, What’s it tall ears, Shine upon that star, Far far star, Butterfly song, if you are happy, Down in the jungle, Boogie woogie, Roll your hands, Lollypop song, Hands on my side, Five little ducks and Jingle bells.

Both the Principal and the judges appreciated the talented kids whole-

heartedly for their enthusiasm, memorization skills, clarity of recitation and phonemic awareness. They were successful in capturing the attention of the onlookers. The beautifully adorned props used by the children added extra colour to each presentation.

The tremendous back up from their beloved teachers has undoubtedly played a vital role behind the resistant spirit of these little angels. Their effort was rewarded by their beloved students remarkably. The teachers as well as the students left the auditorium with blissful contentment.

EMBASSY OF CYPRUS In its capacity as EU Local Presidency in the State of Kuwait, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the Member States of the EU and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, would like to announce that as from 2nd October 2012 all Schengen States’ Consulates in Kuwait will use the Visa Information System (VIS). The VIS is a central database for the exchange of data on short-stay (up to three months) visas between Schengen States. The main objectives of the VIS are to facilitate visa application procedures and checks at external border as well as to enhance security. The VIS will contain all the Schengen visa applications lodged by an applicant over five years and the decisions taken by any Schengen State’s consulate. This will allow applicants to establish more easily the lawful use of previous visas and their bona fide status. For the purpose of the VIS, applicants will be required to provide their biometric data (fingerprints and digital photos) when applying for a Schengen visa. It is a simple and discreet procedure that only takes a few minutes. Biometric data, along with the data provided in the Schengen visa application form, will be recorded in the VIS central database. Therefore, as from 2nd October 2012, first-time applicants will have to appear in person when lodging the application, in order to provide their fingerprints. For subsequent applications within 5 years the fingerprints can be copied from the previous application file in the VIS. The Cypriot Presidency would like to assure the people of Kuwait and all its permanent citizens that the Member States and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, have taken all necessary technical measures to facilitate the rapid examination and the efficient processing of visa applications and to ensure a quick and discreet procedure for the implementation of the new VIS. � � � ��� � �

EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform the Kenyan community residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that the Embassy has acquired new office telephone numbers as follows: 25353982, 25353985 - Consular’s enquiries 25353987 - Fax Our Email address: info@kenyaembkuwait.com. � � � ��� � �

Ambassador of Senegal to Kuwait Abdul Ahad Embake hosted a farewell ceremony for the outgoing ambassadors of Mauritania, Georgia and Turkey. Several diplomats and other dignitaries attended the event which took place at the Corwne Plaza hotel. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, Al-Salaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location. Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, email:myankuwait11@gmai1.com. � � � ��� � �

EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk. � � � ��� � �

EMBASSY OF PERU The Embassy of Peru is located in Sharq, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Al Arabiya Tower, 6th Floor. Working days / hours: SundayThursday /9 am - 4 pm. Residents in Kuwait interested in getting a visa to travel to Peru and companies attracted to invest in Peru are invited to visit the permanent exposition room located in the Embassy. For more information, please contact: (+965) 22267250/1.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

TV PROGRAMS

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

Untamed & Uncut Animal Cops Philadelphia Biggest And Baddest Shamwari: A Wild Life Wildest Islands Sharkman Animal Cops Philadelphia Baby Planet Wildlife SOS The Really Wild Show Growing Up...

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01:10 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 02:00 Come Dine With Me 02:55 Antiques Roadshow 03:50 Bargain Hunt 04:35 Masterchef: The Professionals 06:25 Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is 08:00 Eating With The Enemy 08:45 Home Cooking Made Easy 10:40 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 11:30 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 12:20 Come Dine With Me 13:10 Antiques Roadshow 14:05 Bargain Hunt 14:50 Masterchef: The Professionals 16:40 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 18:00 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 18:45 Home Cooking Made Easy 19:35 Come Dine With Me 20:25 Antiques Roadshow 21:15 Bargain Hunt 22:00 Masterchef: The Professionals 22:30 Masterchef: The Professionals...

22:55 Home Cooking Made Easy 23:55 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 04:45 05:00 05:30 05:45 06:00 06:30 06:45 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 08:45 09:00 09:30 09:45 10:00 10:30 10:45 11:00 11:30 11:45 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 13:45 14:00

BBC World News Pick Of The Year BBC World News Our World Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday India Business Report Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Asia Business Report Sport Today BBC World News Hardtalk BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News Hardtalk BBC World News World Business Report BBC World News BBC World News

14:30 BBC World News 15:00 GMT With George Alagiah 15:30 GMT With George Alagiah 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 World Business Report 17:45 Sport Today 18:00 BBC World News 18:30 Hardtalk 19:00 The Hub With Nik Gowing 20:30 BBC Focus On Africa 21:00 BBC World News 21:30 World Business Report 21:45 Sport Today 22:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 23:00 BBC World News 23:30 World Business Report 23:45 Sport Today

00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:40 04:00 04:20 04:45 05:10 05:35 06:00 06:25 07:00 07:30 07:55 08:10 08:35 08:50 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:20 10:45 11:10 11:30 Cats 13:00 13:15 13:40 13:55 14:20 14:35 14:50 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:25 17:50 18:00 Of...

19:30 19:45 20:00 20:15 20:40 20:55 21:20 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:15 23:40

Yogi’s Treasure Hunt Duck Dodgers Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Dastardly And Muttley Popeye Wacky Races Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones The Jetsons What’s New Scooby Doo? Taz-Mania The Looney Tunes Show Tom & Jerry Tales Dexter’s Laboratory Moomins Dexter’s Laboratory Dexter’s Laboratory Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Ha Ha Hairies Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Puppy In My Pocket Wacky Races Looney Tunes Popeye Top Cat And The Beverly Hills Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Cartoonito Tales Moomins Dexter’s Laboratory Johnny Bravo Tom & Jerry Pink Panther And Pals The Garfield Show What’s New Scooby Doo? Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry Tales Yogi Bear And The Invasion Moomins The Garfield Show Ha Ha Hairies Gerald McBoing Boing Jelly Jamm Baby Looney Tunes Bananas In Pyjamas Puppy In My Pocket The Garfield Show What’s New Scooby Doo? Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry Tales The Looney Tunes Show

00:40 Chowder 01:30 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 01:55 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 02:20 Foster’s Home For...

02:45 Foster’s Home For...

03:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 04:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 04:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Powerpuff Girls 05:40 Generator Rex 06:05 Ben 10 06:30 Ben 10 06:55 Angelo Rules

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

Cow & Chicken Casper’s Scare School Eliot Kid Johnny Test The Powerpuff Girls Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Ben 10: Ultimate Alien Courage The Cowardly Dog Adventure Time Regular Show Transformers Prime Ben 10: Omniverse Courage The Cowardly Dog Batman: The Brave And The

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

World Report World Sport World Report Open Court World Report World Report World Sport Backstory Talk Asia Fareed Zakaria GPS CNN Newsroom I Report For CNN News Special World Sport Inside Africa World Report World Report World Sport News Special World Business Today Backstory African Voices World One Fareed Zakaria GPS News Stream World Business Today International Desk Global Exchange World Sport African Voices International Desk Quest Means Business Amanpour CNN Newscenter

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

American Guns American Guns American Guns American Guns The Hunger: Death Race When Robots Rule Rattlesnake Republic Street Customs Berlin Mythbusters Ultimate Survival Border Security Scrappers How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made American Chopper American Chopper Wheeler Dealers Border Security Scrappers Auction Hunters Ultimate Survival: The Pilot Overhaulin’ River Monsters Mythbusters How Stuff’s Made How It’s Made

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Ben 10: Destroy All Aliens Grim Adventures Of...

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THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS ON OSN ACTION HD

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Border Security Scrappers Auction Hunters World’s Toughest Drive Deadliest Catch Gold Divers

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04:35 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 05:25 Mega World 06:15 Tech Toys 360 06:40 Tech Toys 360 07:05 Ten Ways 08:00 The Future Of...

08:50 Prophets Of Science Fiction 09:40 Head Rush 09:43 Patent Bending 10:10 How Stuff’s Made 10:40 How Do They Do It? 11:05 How Do They Do It? 11:30 Mega Builders 12:20 Thunder Races 13:10 The Gadget Show 13:35 The Gadget Show 14:00 The Future Of...

14:50 Prophets Of Science Fiction 15:45 One Step Beyond 16:10 How Do They Do It? 16:35 How Do They Do It? 17:00 Head Rush 17:03 Patent Bending 17:30 How Stuff’s Made 18:00 Mega Builders 18:50 NASA’s Unexplained Files 19:40 Thunder Races 20:30 Mega World 21:20 Ways To Save The Planet 22:10 The Gadget Show 22:35 The Gadget Show 23:00 Mega World 23:50 Ways To Save The Planet

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

Stitch A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Doc McStuffins Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck A.N.T Farm A.N.T. Farm Jessie Jessie Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Austin And Ally Flubber Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Doc McStuffins Doc McStuffins Art Attack Gravity Falls Gravity Falls Phineas And Ferb Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Shake It Up Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Let It Shine Flubber Toy Story Toons Toy Story Toons Shake It Up Shake It Up Gravity Falls Gravity Falls My Babysitter’s A Vampire My Babysitter’s A Vampire 16 Wishes

01:25 E!es 02:20 Cheating Death 04:10 E!es 05:05 Extreme Close-Up 05:30 Extreme Close-Up 06:00 50 Cutest Child Stars: All Grown Up 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Married To Jonas 09:45 Married To Jonas 10:15 THS 12:05 Ice Loves Coco 12:35 Ice Loves Coco 13:05 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Style Star 15:30 Married To Jonas 15:55 Married To Jonas 16:25 Married To Jonas 16:55 Married To Jonas 17:25 Married To Jonas 17:55 Married To Jonas 18:25 Married To Jonas 18:55 Married To Jonas 19:55 Opening Act 20:55 Opening Act 21:55 Married To Jonas 22:25 Married To Jonas 22:55 E!es 23:55 Scouted

00:15 Great Crimes And Trials 00:40 Deadly Affairs 01:30 Police Women Of Memphis 02:20 Deadly Women 03:05 The Will: Family Secrets Revealed 03:55 Great Crimes And Trials 04:20 Great Crimes And Trials 04:45 Deadly Affairs 05:30 Police Women Of Memphis 06:20 Mystery Diagnosis 07:10 Disappeared 08:00 Mystery Diagnosis 08:50 Street Patrol 09:15 Street Patrol 09:40 Real Emergency Calls 10:05 Who On Earth Did I Marry?

10:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn 11:20 Murder Shift 12:10 Disappeared 13:00 Mystery Diagnosis 13:50 Street Patrol 14:15 Street Patrol 14:40 Forensic Detectives 15:30 On The Case With Paula Zahn 16:20 Real Emergency Calls 16:45 Who On Earth Did I Marry?

17:10 Murder Shift 18:00 Disappeared 18:50 Forensic Detectives 19:40 Street Patrol 20:05 True Crime With Aphrodite Jones 20:55 Who On Earth Did I Marry?

21:20 Nightmare Next Door 22:10 Couples Who Kill 23:00 I Married A Mobster 23:25 I Married A Mobster 23:50 Scorned: Crimes Of Passion

01:45 Thieves Like Us 03:45 The Men’s Club 05:25 The Good Wife 07:00 Neon City 08:45 Tom Jones 10:55 Starcrossed 12:30 Danielle Steel’s A Perfect Stranger 14:00 Timestalkers 15:35 A Man Called Sarge 17:05 In The Custody Of Strangers 18:40 Savage Harvest 20:05 The Innocent (1995) 22:00 Juggernaut 23:50 Mgm’s Big Screen

00:00 Programmes Start At 7:00am KSA 07:00 Kickin It 07:25 Phineas And Ferb 07:35 Phineas And Ferb 07:50 Ultimate Spider-Man 08:15 Pokemon S15: BW Rival Destinies 08:40 Slugterra 09:05 Kickin It 09:30 Almost Naked Animals 09:55 Pair Of Kings 10:20 Phineas And Ferb 10:45 Phineas And Ferb 11:10 Phineas And Ferb 11:35 My Babysitter’s A Vampire 12:00 Pair Of Kings 12:25 Kickin It 12:50 Kick Buttowski 13:20 Almost Naked Animals 13:45 Phineas And Ferb 14:20 Phineas And Ferb 14:35 Suite Life On Deck 15:00 Pair Of Kings 15:25 Zeke & Luther 15:50 Lemonade Mouth 17:35 Cars Toons 18:00 My Babysitter’s A Vampire 18:25 Phineas And Ferb 18:35 Phineas And Ferb 18:50 Phineas And Ferb 19:15 Phineas And Ferb 19:40 Slugterra 20:05 Pair Of Kings 20:30 Kickin It 20:55 My Babysitter’s A Vampire 21:20 Kick Buttowski 21:45 The Suite Life Of Zack And Cody 22:10 Scaredy Squirrel 22:35 Pair Of Kings 23:05 Almost Naked Animals 23:30 Scaredy Squirrel

00:15 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 00:45 The Frankincense Trail 01:40 On Hannibal Trail 02:05 On The Camino De Santiago 02:35 Street Food Around The World 03:00 Market Values 03:30 Travel Madness 04:25 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 04:50 Young Global Hotshots 05:20 Somewhere In China 06:15 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 06:40 Exploring The Vine 07:10 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 07:35 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 08:05 The Frankincense Trail 09:00 On Hannibal Trail 09:25 On The Camino De Santiago 09:55 Street Food Around The World 10:20 Market Values 10:50 Travel Madness 11:15 Travel Madness 11:45 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 12:10 Young Global Hotshots 12:40 Somewhere In China 13:35 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 14:00 Delinquent Gourmet 14:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:55 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 15:25 The Frankincense Trail 16:20 On Hannibal Trail 16:45 On The Camino De Santiago 17:15 Street Food Around The World 17:40 Market Values 18:10 Travel Madness 18:35 Travel Madness 19:05 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 19:30 Young Global Hotshots 20:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 20:30 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 21:00 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 21:30 Delinquent Gourmet 22:00 Weird & Wonderful Hotels 22:55 The Best Job In The World 23:50 The Best Job In The World

00:25 Chelsea Lately 00:55 Style Star

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00

Doomsday Preppers Ultimate Disaster Master of Disaster Untamed Americas

FINAL DESTINATION 5 ON OSN CINEMA 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Aftermath Swamp Men Untamed Americas World’s Toughest Fixes Doomsday Preppers Ultimate Disaster Master of Disaster Untamed Americas Aftermath Swamp Men Untamed Americas World’s Toughest Fixes Doomsday Preppers Ultimate Disaster Master of Disaster Which Way To Engineering Connections Hunter Hunted Which Way To World’s Toughest Fixes

00:00 Leopard Queen 01:00 Wild Case Files 01:55 Secret Brazil 02:50 Secret Brazil 03:45 Caught In The Act (aka Caught In The Act GPU Rever 04:40 Bears Of Fear Island 05:35 Great Migrations 06:30 Secret Brazil 07:25 Secret Brazil 08:20 Caught In The Act (aka Caught In The Act GPU Rever 09:15 Aerial Assasins 10:10 World’s Weirdest 11:05 Untamed Americas 12:00 Africa’s Deadliest 13:00 Secret Brazil 14:00 I, Predator 15:00 Caught In The Act 16:00 Squid vs. Whale 17:00 Salmon Wars 18:00 In The Womb 19:00 Secret Brazil 20:00 Secret Brazil 21:00 Caught In The Act (aka Caught In The Act GPU Rever 22:00 Aerial Assasins 23:00 World’s Weirdest

00:00 Seventh Moon-18 02:00 The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption-PG15 04:00 The Killing Room-18 06:00 Barricade-PG15 08:00 True Justice: Dead Drop-PG15 10:00 Bending The Rules-PG15 12:00 Biker Boyz-PG15 14:00 True Justice: Dead Drop-PG15 16:00 Ip Man 2-PG15 18:00 Biker Boyz-PG15 20:00 The Silence Of The Lambs-18 22:00 The Untouchables-PG15

01:00 Last Ride-18 03:00 Greener Mountains-PG 05:00 The Third Wave-PG15 07:00 Sammy’s Adventure: The Secret Passage-FAM 09:00 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 11:00 My Girlfriend’s Boyfriend 13:00 Cars 2-FAM 15:00 The Hole-PG15 17:00 The Artist-PG 19:00 Honey 2-PG15 21:00 Final Destination 5-18 23:00 In Time-PG15

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 American Dad 02:00 Curb Your Enthusiasm 02:30 Bored To Death 04:00 Hope & Faith 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Hope & Faith 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Hope & Faith 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 20:30 Wilfred

21:00 The Daily Show Global Edition 21:30 The Colbert Report Global Edition 22:00 American Dad 22:30 Curb Your Enthusiasm 23:00 Bored To Death

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 14:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Fairly Legal The Closer Sons Of Anarchy Six Feet Under Burn Notice Fairly Legal Emmerdale Coronation Street Criminal Minds Burn Notice Emmerdale Coronation Street Criminal Minds Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Criminal Minds Burn Notice Justified Sons Of Anarchy Six Feet Under

01:00 Street Kings 2: Motor City-18 03:00 Hostel: Part III-18 05:00 Stool Pigeon-PG15 07:00 Ticking Clock-PG15 09:00 The Fourth Kind-PG15 11:00 Stool Pigeon-PG15 13:00 Time Machine: Rise Of The Morlocks-PG15 15:00 The Fourth Kind-PG15 17:00 True Justice: Dead Drop-PG15 19:00 Resident Evil 4: Afterlife-18 21:00 Game Of Death-PG15 23:00 Imago Mortis-PG15

00:00 Extract-PG15 02:00 The Men Who Stare At Goats18 04:00 Just Crazy Enough-PG15 06:00 Hey Arnold! The Movie-PG 08:00 Say Anything-PG15 10:00 The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy-PG 12:00 Just Crazy Enough-PG15 14:00 Scooby-Doo! Curse Of The Lake Monster-PG 16:00 The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy-PG 18:00 The Ladykillers-PG15 20:00 MacGruber-18 22:00 Super-18

02:15 Bruc-PG15 03:45 25th Hour-18 06:00 Random Hearts-PG15 08:15 Bright Star-PG15 10:15 The Game Of Their Lives-PG15 12:00 The Alamo-PG15 14:15 Senna-PG15 16:00 The Game Of Their Lives-PG15 17:45 Seabiscuit-PG15 20:00 The Memory Keeper’s Daughter-PG15 21:30 The Fighter-PG15 23:30 I’ve Loved You So Long-PG15

01:15 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:30 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Toast-PG15 According To Greta-PG15 Love And Mary-PG15 Pina-PG15 The Art Of Getting By-PG15 War Horse-PG15 The Tender Hook-PG15 Ways To Live Forever-PG15 The Art Of Getting By-PG15 The Vow-PG15 The Change Up-18 Kick-Ass-18

01:00 The Adventures Of Don Quixote-FAM 02:45 Snowflake , The White GorillaPG15

04:30 The Great Bear-PG 06:00 Judy Moody And The Not Bummer Summer-PG15 08:00 Moomins And The Comet Chase-FAM 09:45 Hop-PG 11:30 Turandot-PG 13:00 The Apple & The Worm-FAM 14:30 Snowflake , The White GorillaPG15 16:00 The Hairy Tooth Fairy 2-PG 18:00 Hop-PG 20:00 Shark Tale-PG 22:00 The Apple & The Worm-FAM 23:30 The Hairy Tooth Fairy 2-PG

02:00 05:00 07:00 14:00 17:00 21:00

Twenty20 Big Bash League Top 14 Cricket Test Match Twenty20 Big Bash League Darts HSBC Sevens World Series

00:00 Live NFL 03:00 NFL Game Day 03:30 PGA European Tour Weekly 04:30 The Ryder Cup Championship Official Film 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Darts 11:00 The Open Championship Official Film 12:00 The USPGA Championship Official Film 13:00 The Ryder Cup Championship Official Film 14:30 PGA European Tour Weekly 15:30 Futbol Mundial 16:00 ICC Cricket 360 16:30 Trans World Sport 17:30 NFL Game Day 18:00 NFL 20:30 NFL 23:00 NFL Game Day 23:30 Darts

02:00 Trans World Sport 03:00 PDC World Darts Championship 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 Twenty20 Big Bash League 11:00 HSBC Sevens World Series 14:00 Golfing World 15:00 Pro 12 17:00 Pro 12 19:00 Golfing World 20:00 Twenty20 Big Bash League 23:00 Trans World Sport

01:00 02:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 20:00 Finale 23:00

WWE Bottom Line PrizeFighter European Le Mans Series European Le Mans Series UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC The Ultimate Fighter

01:00 01:30 02:00 04:00 04:30 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 19:00 19:30 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00

Pawn Stars Pawn Stars The Real Face Of Jesus?

Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Ancient Aliens Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Pawn Stars Storage Wars UFO Files Pawn Stars American Restoration Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens The Real Face Of Jesus?

Pawn Stars American Restoration UFO Files The Real Face Of Jesus?

Pawn Stars American Restoration UFO Files Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars

UFC 155

Classifieds MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

ACCOMMODATION Room available, rent KD 65, near the big Jamiya, Bahrain St, Ghadeer Clinic building. Tel: 66792392/ 66282602/ 60421240.

(C 4263) 25-12-2012 FOR SALE Jeep Honda CRV - 2007, green color, full options, km 47,000, KD 2,950. Tel: 66729295. (C 4272)

(28/160/Fair), B/B in Kuwait, Masters from UK and currently working with Global PR in Bangalore as senior account executive, from well qualified and employed MARTHOMA/ CSI/ ORTHODOX boys preferably in Kuwait/Dubai with good family background and clean habits.

Contact: Email: jacobthomask3@yahoo.com (C 4269) 30-12-2012

SITUATION WANTED Toyota Prado 2003, white color, 4 cylr, excellent condition, km 1,52,000, KD 3,100. Tel: 50994848.

(C 4271) 31-12-2012 CHANGE OF NAME

Systems Engineer (2-3 years experience in Infosys Ltd) Configuration Controller and Release Management, UNIX, Oracle, B-Tech Electronics & Comm.

Mob: 65015932. (C 4260) 24-12-2012

I, Jafar Mohammed Hussain Warekar, holder of Indian Passport No: E8758097 hereby change my name to Zafar Mohammed Hussain Warekar. (C 4266)

MATRIMONIAL Proposal invited for a bachelor 29 years working as a secretary in a reputed company looking for a good fearing and well educated girls. Email: eng.mrabdo@yahoo.com (C 4268) 29-12-2012 Marthomite parents in Kuwait, invites proposals for their daughter

Learn Holy Quran in perfect way, private tuition available for elders and children by Hafiz-E-Quran.

Contact: 66725950.

(C 4262) Tuition available for Web Designing & Professional Graphic Designing. Learn to create your own website just in 3 months. Flexible schedule, join us to build

your career as Web Designer. Call 60078629, 22403408.

(C 4264) 25-12-2012 AutoCAD tuition available by Highly Qualified Experienced Teacher, Learn professionally AutoCAD 2D&3D with Projects, Flexible Schedule, and individual tutorial.

Contact: 99302850 / 22467301. (C 4251) 20-12-2012

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

05:16 06:40 11:49 14:39 16:58 18:20

GOVERNMENT WEB SITES

I, Raguri Subbaiah Reddamma holder of Indian Passport No: F0419527 hereby change my name to Ravuri Reddamma Venkata Subbaiah. (C 4258) I, Mohammed Pervaiz S/o Mohammed Jahangir, R/o 194-281/A/30, Sanjeev Gandhi Nagar, Hyd. Passport bearing No: H1841911 hereby changed my name to Syed Parvez S/o Syed Jahangir Parvez.

(C 4267)

TUITION

Kuwait Parliament www.majlesalommah.net

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

Ministry of Interior www.moi.gov.kw

Public Authority of Industry www.pai.gov.kw

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

Prisoners of War Committee www.pows.org.kw

Kuwait News Agency www.kuna.net.kw

Ministry of Foreign Affairs www.mofa.gov.kw

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

Kuwait Municipality www.municipality.gov.kw

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

Kuwait Electronic Government www.e.gov.kw

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

Ministry of Finance www.mof.gov.kw

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

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

Ministry of Justice www.moj.gov.kw

Ministry of Education www.moe.edu.kw

Ministry of Communications www.moc.kw

Ministry of Information www.moinfo.gov.kw

Supreme Council for Planning and Development www.scpd.gov.kw

Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation www.awqaf.org

Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is

1889988 No: 15674

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines PIA JAI THY JZR JZR QTR ETH QTR GFA UAE ETD AFG QTR FDB MSR DHX THY JZR BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC UAE GFA ABY QTR FDB ETD KAC GFA BAB KAC JZR MSC IRC MEA MSR UAE JZR FDB KAC KNE KAC SVA QTR JZR KAC JZR

Arrival Flights on Monday 31/12/2012 Flt Route 205 LAHORE 574 MUMBAI 772 ISTANBUL 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 148 DOHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 6130 DOHA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 416 JEDDAH 138 DOHA 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 170 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 503 LUXOR 157 LONDON 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 855 DUBAI 223 BAHRAIN 121 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 352 COCHIN 213 BAHRAIN 436 BAHRAIN 344 CHENNAI 165 DUBAI 403 ASSIUT 6521 LAMERD 404 BEIRUT 610 CAIRO 871 DUBAI 175 DUBAI 57 DUBAI 672 DUBAI 472 JEDDAH 546 ALEXANDRIA 500 JEDDAH 140 DOHA 561 SOHAG 788 JEDDAH 257 BEIRUT

Time 0:15 0:30 0:35 0:45 0:50 1:00 1:45 1:45 1:50 2:35 2:45 2:55 3:01 3:05 3:10 5:15 5:30 5:55 6:40 6:45 7:40 7:45 7:55 8:40 8:45 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:50 9:55 10:05 10:40 11:20 11:30 11:45 11:55 12:45 12:50 13:10 13:50 14:10 14:10 14:30 14:30 14:45 14:50 14:55 15:05

KAC QTR OMA JZR KAC UAE ETD RJA GFA SVA JZR QTR ABY UAL KAC JZR RBG KAC BAB FDB MPH MSC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC OMA FDB JAI AXB MSR ABY QTR MSC ALK MEA QTR GFA ETD UAE JZR JAI DHX FDB AIC TAR JZR GFA JZR UAL BBC

284 134 645 535 118 857 303 640 215 510 777 144 127 982 542 177 3553 786 438 63 97 405 618 742 104 674 774 647 61 572 389 618 129 146 401 229 402 136 221 307 859 135 576 372 59 975 327 239 217 185 981 43

DHAKA DOHA MUSCAT CAIRO NEW YORK DUBAI ABU DHABI AMMAN BAHRAIN RIYADH JEDDAH DOHA SHARJAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES CAIRO DUBAI ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI AMSTERDAM SOHAG DOHA DAMMAM LONDON DUBAI RIYADH MUSCAT DUBAI MUMBAI MANGALORE ALEXANDRIA SHARJAH DOHA ALEXANDRIA COLOMBO BEIRUT DOHA BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN COCHIN BAHRAIN DUBAI CHENNAI TUNIS AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN DHAKA

15:10 15:30 15:40 16:25 16:35 16:40 16:50 16:55 17:15 17:20 17:45 17:50 17:55 17:55 18:05 18:15 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:15 19:20 19:30 19:35 19:35 19:50 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:20 20:25 20:35 20:45 20:50 20:55 21:20 21:25 21:30 21:35 21:40 21:50 21:55 22:00 22:00 22:30 22:45 22:45 22:50 23:05 23:25 23:45

Airlines AIC UAL JAI PIA KAC ETH THY QTR FDB UAE ETD AFG MSR QTR QTR JZR GFA THY KAC JZR FDB JZR BAW JZR JZR KAC GFA KAC ABY UAE FDB ETD QTR GFA BAB KAC KAC JZR KAC MSC IRC MEA KAC MSR JZR UAE FDB KAC KNE

Departure Flights on Monday 31/12/2012 Flt Route 982 AHMEDABAD 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 573 MUMBAI 206 PESHAWAR 283 DHAKA 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 6131 DOHA 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 306 ABU DHABI 416 JEDDAH 613 CAIRO 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 164 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 545 ALEXANDRIA 560 SOHAG 54 DUBAI 174 DUBAI 156 LONDON 256 BEIRUT 534 CAIRO 787 JEDDAH 224 BAHRAIN 671 DUBAI 122 SHARJAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 133 DOHA 214 BAHRAIN 437 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 776 JEDDAH 103 LONDON 406 SOHAG 6522 LAMERD 405 BEIRUT 785 JEDDAH 611 CAIRO 176 DUBAI 872 DUBAI 58 DUBAI 673 DUBAI 473 JEDDAH

Time 0:05 1:10 1:30 1:35 2:25 2:45 2:55 3:15 3:45 3:50 4:00 4:00 4:10 4:50 6:05 6:55 7:00 7:35 7:45 8:15 8:25 8:35 8:45 9:05 9:15 9:25 9:30 9:35 9:45 9:55 10:00 10:05 10:30 10:40 10:50 11:30 11:50 12:15 12:20 12:30 12:35 12:55 13:00 13:45 13:50 14:15 14:30 15:05 15:10

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

SVA KAC QTR KAC KAC OMA JZR ETD JZR QTR UAE RJA GFA JZR SVA ABY JZR QTR RBG JZR UAL FDB BAB MSC MPH FDB OMA KAC KAC JAI ABY MSR MSC DHX ALK MEA ETD QTR GFA KAC KAC FDB UAE JAI DHX KAC QTR JZR TAR GFA KAC

501 617 141 773 741 646 238 304 538 135 858 641 216 184 511 128 266 145 3554 134 982 64 439 404 97 62 648 331 351 571 120 619 402 171 230 403 308 137 222 301 361 60 860 575 373 205 147 502 328 218 411

JEDDAH DOHA DOHA RIYADH DAMMAM MUSCAT AMMAN ABU DHABI CAIRO DOHA DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI RIYADH SHARJAH BEIRUT DOHA ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN ASSIUT SHARJAH DUBAI MUSCAT TRIVANDRUM KOCHI MUMBAI SHARJAH ALEXANDRIA ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN COLOMBO BEIRUT ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN MUMBAI MUSCAT DUBAI DUBAI KOCHI BAHRAIN ISLAMABAD DOHA LUXOR DUBAI BAHRAIN BANGKOK

15:45 15:45 16:15 16:25 16:30 16:40 17:15 17:35 17:40 17:45 17:50 17:55 18:15 18:30 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:00 19:05 19:10 19:25 19:30 20:15 20:20 20:40 20:55 20:55 21:10 21:10 21:15 21:25 21:50 21:50 21:55 22:20 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:40 22:50 22:55 23:00 23:00 23:10 23:35 23:45 23:50 23:55

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 55

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) You are an active, imaginative charmer and you tend make social contacts that could take you far from your roots, particularly this day. You may leave the nest, but you never let go of your heritage. Your troubles are few and your good attitude is contagious. A co-worker comes up with an idea for a project of mutual interest— you both have great ideas. Lovers, business associates and friends involve you in productive situations. People expect great things from you. You are an original and have special qualities that help you to grow and help others. Your ability to excel and achieve are expressed each time you are called upon to do things with which you are not familiar. There are huge opportunities tonight—Celebrate life!

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Now that your goals are within reach, it is time for some new plans to take form. You enjoy independent thinking and finding solutions without help. Someone is influential in helping you find exactly how to get what you want in your career or self-improvement program. People around you want to help you; this is a good time to make your plans.

You are sensible and make good decisions. Your mind controls your body and soul, so keep it looking upward and outward. A financial adviser is offering an economic update or review this evening in some form of a lecture—it would be a great idea to attend. This miniclass will feature an industry expert to help the public understand the stock market with a special focus on telecommunications.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. An inflammatory disease of connective tissue with variable features including fever and weakness and fatigability and joint pains and skin lesions on the face or neck or arms.

4. Wife of Siva and a benevolent aspect of Devi.

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

15. Aromatic bulb used as seasoning.

16. Common name for an edible agaric (contrasting with the inedible toadstool).

17. A periodic paperback publication.

18. Edible agaric that is pale lilac when young.

20. A highly unstable radioactive element (the heaviest of the halogen series).

21. A device that, on receiving radar signals, transmits coded signals in response to help navigators determine their position.

22. A loose narrow strip of skin near the base of a fingernail.

23. An informal term for a father.

24. The opposite of entropy.

26. A cruel wicked and inhuman person.

28. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

32. A state in northwestern United States on the Canadian border.

37. A republic in southwestern Africa on the south Atlantic coast (formerly called South West Africa).

39. A period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event.

40. (botany) Of or relating to or functioning as a cambium.

42. (Norse mythology) One of the Aesir known for his beauty and skill with bow and skis.

43. The provincial capital and largest city in Ontario (and the largest city in Canada).

45. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

47. The sense organ for hearing and equilibrium.

48. Brown or blackish Alpine mosses having a dehiscent capsule with 4 longitudinal slits.

50. Everything you own.

52. A toilet in England.

53. German organist and contrapuntist (16851750).

55. Consisting of or made of wood of the oak tree.

59. Dutch astronomer who proved that the galaxy is rotating and proposed the existence of the Oort cloud (1900-1992).

61. West Indian tree having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice.

68. An Arabic speaking person who lives in Arabia or North Africa.

69. Of or relating to a basin.

72. Take in solid food.

73. English monk and scholar (672-735).

74. A fine usually white clay formed by the weathering of aluminous minerals (as feldspar).

75. The cardinal number that is the sum of four and one.

76. A Gaelic-speaking Celt in Ireland or Scotland or the Isle of Man. 77. An ancient kingdom in northern Mesopotamia which is in present-day Iraq.

78. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

DOWN 1. A fencing sword with a v-shaped blade and a

slightly curved handle.

2. Of a pale purple color.

3. Selected as the best.

4. Pertaining to or containing any of a group of organic compounds of nitrogen derived from ammonia.

5. Usually large hard-shelled seed.

6. An appraisal of the state of affairs.

7. (chemistry) P(otential of) H(ydrogen).

8. (Greek mythology) God of the heavens.

9. Large genus of erect or climbing prickly shrubs including roses.

10. (grammar) Having descriptive value as distinguished from syntactic category.

11. An alloy of mercury with another metal (usually silver) used by dentists to fill cavities in teeth.

12. Any of a class of organic compounds that contain the divalent radical -CONHCO-.

13. (Irish) Mother of the Tuatha De Danann.

14. Advanced in years.

19. (superlative of `bad') Most wanting in quality or value or condition.

25. Plaything consisting of a container filled with toys and candy.

27. Radioactive iodine test that measures the amount of radioactive iodine taken up by the thyroid gland.

29. Type genus of the Anatidae.

30. Become wider.

31. Without offspring.

33. A university town in east central Maine on the Penobscot River north of Bangor.

34. Australian clover fern.

35. An inflammatory disease involving the sebaceous glands of the skin.

36. Naked freshwater or marine or parasitic protozoa that form temporary pseudopods for feeding and locomotion.

38. Offering little or no hope.

41. A state in midwestern United States.

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

46. Widely distributed genus of herbs or shrubs with glandular compound leaves and spicate or racemose purple or white flowers.

49. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

51. French filmmaker (1908-1982).

54. One of the Aesir having a strong and beautiful body but a dull mind.

56. A confusion of voices and other sounds.

57. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

58. A coffee cake flavored with orange rind and raisins and almonds.

60. Of or relating to Oman or its people.

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

63. Remove with or as if with a ladle.

64. Any liliaceous plant of the genus Lilium having showy pendulous flowers.

65. An African grass economically important as a cereal grass (yielding white flower of good quality) as well as for forage and hay.

66. A sudden short attack.

67. An inactive volcano in Sicily.

70. An associate degree in applied science.

71. An internationally recognized distress signal in radio code.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

You are feeling upbeat, healthy and natural. Everything points to your taking the first step in a creative project. You should enjoy a great deal of support from those around you. Anything taking precedence in your life now gets your full attention. It is really a great time to be with others and to help with a team effort. Someone in a superior position may ask your advice. Ultimately, everyone has to do what he or she believes is right—all people are responsible for themselves. The ability that you have to manage and direct others is not exactly a secret. You should be feeling quite confident with your circumstances, very much at peace and stable on the emotional level. This evening, music may assume a more important role in your life than usual.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Something may help you to appreciate and discover all of the beauty that is in your life these days. Perhaps you did not know that large owls nest nearby your walking path. You are at your mental best with sharp ideas and clear thoughts when it comes to creative expression. You will find this an excellent time to put the finishing touch on any decisions or plans you have been thinking about making. You can be expressive this afternoon with ideas on little munchies or souvenirs that could be sold to hotels and party shops for New Year’s Eve parties. This evening you are able to see the results of your good budgeting. You feel good about being able to spend or overspend now. You will have some intelligent help from a friend with practical ideas.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Decisions are good, but they may take a little more time and patience on your part today. You complete your tasks efficiently. Prepare to reorient your viewpoint and direction during the next few days. You will soon close the door on many of the issues that you have been dealing with for the last three years. You need specialized training and tools for even the minor maintenance on a car these days—planning to take a mechanics class or handy home repair class next year is a good thing. Call a friend and see if you can take this class together. Quiet time is appreciated this evening and it may be a good time to order a meal for delivery. Possibly a good book or movie will take on that more than real dimension tonight. New goals are developing.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) There are clear speculation and problem solving all around you today—you cannot help but be inspired. You are in a serious frame of mind and find yourself dealing with matters of responsibility. A possible business deal or financial advice is opening up for you and you take time to consider all the implications. This afternoon you will want to spend more time with your lover or with your close friends. It may have been several days or weeks since you have spoken to a good friend—now there is time for a visit. To enjoy and keep in touch with friends and family helps you to maintain a comfortable feeling— the lack of these things can cause an instinctive feeling of uneasiness. There may be some party plans tonight . . . volunteer your help.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) You communicate effectively, both professionally and personally. You should find that today is one of those super nice days when things just kind of flow along. You will do particularly well in activities that include children, young people and your home and surroundings. You could feel real rapport and assistance at this time for circumstances and those around you. You may not be expecting it but some kind of a little boost in the form of extra recognition or support will be coming from those around you. You should feel very much in touch with others as the lines of communication are wide open. All of the support that you could possibly want or need is available now. This evening there is time for a phone conversation from someone far away.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You are attracted by unusual artistic projects at this time. Because the arts are your love, you will instinctively want to feel in control and be the one pulling the strings, if you will. This may lead to a greater interest or experience in healing at this time. There is nothing like company or out-of-town relatives to spur us into action around the house. There is a place for everything and everything in its place. A call you get this evening may be the announcement of the arrival of company—unexpected or otherwise. As you are cleaning around the house, use a ladder when needed, allocate the work, consider outside cleaning help, don’t take it upon yourself to throw away anyone else’s things. Others can see your positive attitude and will join in to help.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Being with others can be quite enjoyable this day. You will hear some positive information about a legal matter. You are most persuasive now.

Combined with a passion for your personal issues, you get most of what you want today.

You encourage your friends or co-workers to become involved in a 5K run benefiting some charity. They need volunteers and runners and your community could include the area where you work—you gain attention. You could design T-shirts for first-, second- and thirdplace winners. You will be pleased to be a part of this effort. Time will come later today to enjoy the company of a loved one. You will create a most romantic setting for a loved one this evening. Make plans to repeat this display of affection.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Go ahead and allow your creative and intuitive sides to surface—there are rewards coming your way. Watch for new solutions to old problems or something very inventive to evolve as a result of all of this. If anyone has a project that needs to be completed by a certain time, you will be the one that he or she comes to for help. You just seem to innately know what others want and need at this time and can take action with very little waste or haste. You will be greatly appreciated for your abilities to manage and direct others. There does not seem to be a problem with too many requests because you are good at saying no when there is no more room or energy for you to be expressive. Do, however, notice if family members are neglected . . . enjoy them often!

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) A feeling of peace and stability on the emotional level comes into play at this time. Being stable and permanent satisfies a deep emotional need. Music could also play a more important role for you than usual and you may find a period of material acquisition satisfies a deep yearning to be free from want. There is a better than average chance that you will understand those around you and have a special time with someone you love. A great deal of support and harmony, along with the good feelings that you are having, makes this an exceptionally happy time. Someone younger than yourself comes to you for guidance. You teach the actions and things about which you believe. The best reward of a kindly deed . . . is the knowledge of having done it.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) The-knock-yourself-out, sweating and grunting in the gym is beginning to pay off . . . keep up the good work. The answer to the question of how you are going to fit into those dress-up clothes for a party is a positive; however, you might like to reward yourself with new clothes. You have the enthusiasm and energy necessary for most any self-improvement project at this time. Money matters may demand your attention this afternoon. There are several improvements to your budget but there are still a few adjustments; patience will win. Entertaining business partners or acquaintances in your home this season is a good idea. This can be handled many ways without costing too much.

You spend some time in praising others this evening.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

lifestyle

Kuwait images that he year 2012 was punctuated with fastpaced domestic events but politics dominated the scene throughout. Two elections threw up two parliaments in the course of a single year, triggering a constitutional controversy which is still raging but within the framework of democracy that Kuwaitis have been proudly practicing since independence.

Kuwait has exerted huge efforts to overcome ramification of the global economic crisis, but economic firms were still facing a huge challenge to stand on their feet again. However, that did not stop Kuwait from assisting other countries.

The year 2012 was also significant in terms of the development of relations between Kuwait and Iraq.

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah visited Japan to reaffirm, among other things, solidarity with the Asian country following the tsunami.

Sheikh Sabah also paid a state visit to the United Kingdom and was received by Queen Elizabeth II. On January 6, Sheikh Sabah appointed Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah as Prime Minister. On February 14, Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Sabah’s cabinet members were sworn in before the Amir, and the following day Sheikh Sabah inaugurated the first session of the 14th legislative term. Sheikh Sabah, in his inaugural

T

KUWAT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah (centre), His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf AlAhmad Al-Sabah (right) and former MP Khaled Sultan, at the opening of the Parliament session on February 15.

In March, Kuwait called for the coordination of relief efforts for all Syrian people. On March 15, Kuwait closed its embassy in Damascus and told diplomats to leave Syria because of deteriorating security environment.

The UN, on March 19, praised Kuwait’s endeavors towards solving the issue of illegal residents.

Late March saw the UN Secretary General Ban ki-moon urging Iraq to fully implement UN resolutions related to the invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

In June, Kuwait’s Ambassador in Washington, Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Sabah, said the Pentagon’s dropping of charges against Fayez Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti detainee in Guantanamo, would not trigger his release. Foreign undersecretary Al-Jarallah called for ceasing the massacres committed by the Syrian regime against its own people. In July, Kuwait condemned inhumane treatment of the Muslims in Myanmar. Ban welcomed the progress in Kuwait-Iraq relations and commended Kuwait’s role in boosting international peace and security.

Kuwait, on September 12, donated $3 million towards the global campaign against Malaria.

During September, Kuwait won the Arab League e-government shield. A US NATO official said Washington was positively inclined towards establishing a NATO center in Kuwait.

In October, Kuwait, during international meetings, condemned the violence in Syria and

LONDON: His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah is welcomed

by Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II during the Amir’s state visit to Britain on November 28.

Kuwait’s Cabinet swears in on February 14.

A woman votes at the February 2 elections.

speech, rejected all acts that breached principles of freedom and democracy. Sheikh Sabah called for joining hands to face foreign threats.

Sheikh Sabah visited Japan on March 21 and was received by the Emperor. During his visit, Sheikh Sabah donated $3 million to rebuild the Aquarium in Fukushima which was devastated by the earthquake that hit Japan the previous year. On March 29, the Amir attended the Arab Summit in Baghdad. At the summit, Sheikh Sabah voiced his satisfaction about visiting Iraq after the country regained its freedom, dignity and democracy following a dark period.

On August 15, Sheikh Sabah, while attending the OIC’s extraordinary summit in Makkah, called for addressing the Syrian conflict in order to stop the bloodshed, exercising pressure on Israel to abide by international resolutions, and urged Iran to settle its nuclear case peacefully.

On October 8, Sheikh Sabah chaired a Cabinet meeting following the government’s law suit before the constitutional court regard-

(from left to right) The coach of Kuwait’s National Football team Guran Tufegdzic, Real Madrid’s head coach Jose Mourinho and the captain of Kuwait’s National Football team Jarrah Al-Ateqi seen at a press conference held on the occasion of the friendly match between Real Madrid and Kuwait’s National football team held in Kuwait in May.

Kuwait celebrates the National and Liberation Day holidays with fireworks, many colours and good mood. ing the electoral law.

On October 16, Sheikh Sabah inaugurated the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) Summit, calling for creation of suitable investment atmosphere and encouraging trade among the Asian countries. He also donated $300 million towards a proposed $2 billion fund for development projects.

On October 19, the Amir addressed the nation and warned against sedition. He also voiced dismay over the level of language used and affirmed that Kuwait was a state run by law and had institutions with independent judiciary.

Sheikh Sabah said he instructed the government to amend the electoral law which reduced

Girls are getting ready to vote at the February 2 elections in Kuwait.

the number of votes each voter could cast from four to one.

On November 21, Sheikh Sabah patronized a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the constitution. He began a visit to the UK on November 27 at the invitation of Queen Elizabeth II. During the visit, Kuwait and the UK signed some agreements.

On December 3, Sheikh Sabah accepted the government’s resignation and the following day he reassigned Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to form a government.

On October 3, the government approved, during an extraordinary meeting, a draft decree to dissolve the National Assembly.

FOREIGN POLICY

Kuwait has been actively pursuing its foreign policy throughout the year with foreign undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah summoning Iranian charge d’affaires on January 3 to protest against an Iranian oil official’s statement that Tehran intended to produce oil from the continental shelf unilaterally. The following day, the foreign ministry reiterated Kuwait’s sovereignty in the marine Durra region and its right to explore its resources.

The Gulf state also signed several cooperation agreements, including the prevention of double taxation, and tax evasion, as well as exempting holders of diplomatic and special passports from entry visas.

Kuwaitis gathered for the funeral of former Minister of Information Sheikh Saud Al-Nasser Al-Sabah.

called for immediate cessation of bloodshed. On November 28, Ban appointed Dr. Abdullah AlMaatouq of Kuwait as his Envoy for Humanitarian Affairs in Kuwait.

Ban visited Kuwait on December 5 and commended the progress of democracy in the Gulf country. He also thanked Kuwait for its relentless support of the UN. Kuwait, meanwhile, announced that the problem over Mubarak Al-Kabeer Port with Iraq was being addressed, and the two countries began a period of understanding. Ban said Kuwait and Iraq have a historic chance to overcome the past and build confidence in the coming months.

Bedoons (stateless) are seen protesting in Taima on January 6.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

lifestyle

defined 2012

Pro-government demos were held across Kuwait.

KUWAIT: This Nov. 10, 2012 file photo shows a view of the fireworks display organized by Kuwait’s government to commemorate Constitution Day in Kuwait City. The 60 minute $14 million spectacle was competing for a place in the Guinness Book of Records. — AP

DEFENSE

On January 8, Kuwait dispatched a group of officers as part of a GCC mission to monitor the situation in Syria. The chief of staff of the army received, throughout the year, military officers from brotherly and friendly countries. Both sides discussed ways of cementing military cooperation and relations in these meetings. The Kuwaiti army forces also carried out live ammunition drills in different parts of the country including the islands. The Chief of Staff, Gen. Khaled AlJarrah Al-Sabah, signed military cooperation agreement with the secretary general of the general defense in Italy on July 18. Kuwait and the UAE armies concluded joint maneuvers on November 29.

INTERNAL SECURITY

On January 8, security forces seized 2.5 million liters of diesel ready to be smuggled out of Kuwait.

The quantity was valued at over KD 500,000. In March, Kuwaiti coast guards nabbed Iraqi boats fishing in its territorial waters. Late this month, an Amiri initiative brought about the release of all Iraqi ships seized by the coast guards.

The interior ministry announced on June 22 the capture of two containers with 1,554 bottles of alcohol. During this month, the ministry announced seizure of a boat containing 242 kilograms of hashish. The ministry also announced the arrest of 335 people who were in violation of the residency law.

On October 20, the ministry said it would not allow any demonstrations, gatherings or sit-ins to be staged outside the National Assembly building, in line with the instructions of His Highness the Amir. However, groups of people staged demonstrations in commercial districts downtown and near Kuwait Towers, causing traffic disruptions.

They also hurled stones at the policemen, injuring 11 of them.

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Kuwait elected a new parliament on February 2, and elections took place under the supervision of 800 judges. Ahmad Al-Saadoun became the speaker of the House.

On March 6, MP Saleh Ashour submitted an interpellation for His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-

His Highness Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah is seen before addressing the opening session of the newly elected parliament in Kuwait on December 16.

Sabah over bank deposits, government’s slackness in implementing the law, foreign money transfers, problems related to stateless residents and failure of the government to present its program.

The parliament formed a committee to investigate the so-called ìmillions deposits.î On March 24, MP Mohammad Al-Juwaihel presented a request to grill Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah over naturalization, dual-nationality holders, spread of weapons, waste of public funds and issues related to traffic congestion. On March 27, MP Hussein Al-Qallaf submitted a questioning charter against Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Sabah.

On May 7, MPs Khaled Tahoos, Abdulrahman Al-Anjeri and Musallam AlBarrak on one side and MP Obaid AlMutairi on the other requested for the interpellation of Deputy Premier and Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shimali. MP Al-Mutairi withdrew his grilling request later that month.

On June 3, MP Riyadh Al-Adsani submitted a request to question Minister of Social Affairs over orphans, residencies, fake companies,

The first session of Kuwait’s parliament held on February 15.

The election headquarters of opposition MP Musalam Al-Barrak camp jubilates at his win in the February 2 elections.

Kuwait’s new Cabinet swears in office on December 4. sports affairs, supervision, expired food and high prices. On June 7, MP Al-Juwaihel presented another interpellation against interior minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah regarding illegal residents, nationality law and short answers in previous questioning. On June 18, an Amiri decree was issued to postpone National Assembly sessions for a month.

On June 20, the constitutional court annulled a decree that called for the 2012 elections and reinstated the 2009 parliament. The next day, the Amir accepted the government’s resignation.

In September, the constitutional court, reacting to a government law suit, ruled that the First and Second articles of the electoral law were constitutional.

On October 22, the electoral law was amended in a way that reduced the number of votes for each voter from four to one, paving way for fresh elections on December 1. Since then, Kuwait has been witnessing demonstrations calling for a return to the four-vote system. — KUNA

MP Massouma Al-Mubarak is waving at fellow MPs before the opening session of the newly elected parliament in Kuwait on December 16.

Kuwait went to the polls for a second time this year on December 1.

Protesters gather at a rally called to oppose a redrawing of the constituencies.

A protest was held after the Constitutional Court in Kuwait ruled the dissolution of the Islamist-dominated parliament.

Some opposition protesters were calling for protecting minorities and legalizing parties. —Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat and Joseph Shagra

39

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

LIFESTYLE F e a t u r e s

You can take a few shortcuts to

a simple Southern New Year feast fter all the fuss and bother of Christmas, New Year’s ought to be simple. The Southern tradition is to serve humble foods like collard greens and black-eyed peas to ensure luck and prosperity in the coming year.

A

Black-eyed pea salad. —MCT Photos

Collards with beets put a twist on the traditional New Year's food.

Collards with beets, bottom, black-eyed pea salad, top right, and black-eyed pea hummus.

Such basic foods should ensure an easy day of cooking, too. So why is it so complicated? Walk through supermarkets and there are so many decisions. Dried black-eyed peas or fresh? Fresh collards or frozen?

And would my ancestors rise up and smite me for using anything from a can? But sometimes shortcuts aren’t a bad thing. Sometimes they’re even the best option. For instance, fresh sounds best. But fresh black-eyed peas aren’t in season. If you look carefully at the label on “fresh” black-eyed peas in the produce department, they’re actually rehydrated. In my experience, they taste sour and have a gray appearance after they’re cooked.

Nathalie Dupree, the Charlestonbased cooking expert who recently finished a monumental new cookbook, “Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking,” with co-author Cynthia Graubart, has an order of preference on field peas: “Fresh-if someone shelled them. Home-frozen. Commercially frozen. Canned, drained and well-seasoned to mask the canned taste.” Frozen collards can be acceptable for longcooking dishes, she said.

“I would do something else rather than use canned collards.” But there is a great option on collards, said Atlantabased cookbook author Virginia Willis: pre-shredded collards. “I will freely admit that I buy already chopped-up ones,” she said. “I eat greens four or five times a week.” Triple-washed and chopped, pre-shredded collards cook fast because they’re in smaller pieces.

We found Nature’s Greens in the produce section at a Super Wal-Mart, in a 2pound bag for $3.96. And the bag held at least twice as much as we got after trimming and cutting a 2-pound bundle that cost $1.99 at another supermarket.

Of course, everyone has to decide where to draw the line on convenience.

We’re willing to dress up cornbread mix.

Is that evil? “Yes,” Willis declared.

“Usually, Jiffy is too sweet. And I like old-fashioned cornbread,” made from stone-ground cornmeal, buttermilk and eggs.

We agreed on this, though: It’s better to take a shortcut than to risk not eating collards and black-eyed peas on New Year’s. “I missed it once and it was truly the worst year of my life,” said Willis. “I’m never not doing it again.”

The slow way: Collards and black-eyed peas Ham stock: To make a seasoned stock for cooking black-eyed peas and collards, Virginia Willis starts with two smoked ham hocks and 4 to 6 cups chicken stock. Bring the stock and the hocks to a boil over high heat. Decrease the heat to low and simmer about 30 minutes. Use as a base for cooking black-eyed peas or collards.

Collards: They cook down, so it will look like you’re starting with a mountain of raw collards. Make sure you have a big cutting board and a big pot. Fold each big leaf in half and cut along the stem until it narrows to about \ inch wide. Discard the stem. Fill a clean sink with cold water and add the leaves.

Swish them and lift them, letting any sand sink to the bottom. Empty the sink and wash them again, to be sure.

Stack the leaves, roll them up and cut them into ribbons. Bring the ham stock back to a boil. Add the collards by

big handfuls, stirring down to make room before adding more. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook slowly until tender, about 1 hour.

Dried black-eyed peas: Place the peas in a fine-mesh sieve and rinse well.

Pick through them and remove any debris.

Place in a large pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, remove from heat and let stand 1 hour. Discard any floating peas. Drain well. Bring ham stock to a boil and add peas. Reduce heat to low, partially cover and simmer until peas are tender, about 2 hours.

Canned tasting: Black-eyed peas They’re just so tempting. But how are those canned black-eyed peas? We tried five brands. The result: 1. Glory Seasoned Southern-Style

Black-eyed pea hummus This is the perfect dip for a New Year’s Day party. From cookinglight.com 3 cloves garlic, peeled cup fresh lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons) 1/3 cup tahini (sesame-seed paste) 1 teaspoon ground cumin teaspoon salt teaspoon paprika 2 (15.8-ounce) cans black-eyed peas, drained

You can take a few shortcuts to a simple Southern New Year feast. Here, grits and collards casserole.

Black-eyed Peas. Glory’s collards and black-eyed peas both had the best texture and flavor in the canned products.

Unfortunately, they also were very salty.

The reduced-sodium version is a good idea.

2. Bush’s Best Black-eyed Peas. A good choice, with pinkish peas and good flavor.

3. Hanover Black-eyed Peas. The peas had a firm texture, although the packing liquid was very thin.

4. Luck’s Black-eyed Peas. The peas had a texture like boiled peanuts, while the liquid had very little flavor.

5. Margaret Holmes Seasoned Blackeyed Peas. Mushy peas and gray packing liquid, with a very salty, hammy taste.

Baked grits & greens Adapted from “Southern Living Home Cooking Basics,” (Oxmoor House, 2012). Even collard-haters won’t object to this warm, homey casserole. It works great with frozen collards.

2 to 3 cups frozen collards 1 teaspoon garlic salt 1 cup uncooked quick-cooking grits (not instant) 1/3 cup finely chopped red onion 5 tablespoons butter, divided 2 large eggs 1 cups shredded Parmesan cup bottled creamy Caesar dressing teaspoon freshly ground pepper 1 \ cups coarsely crushed garlic-fla-

New Year’s traditions

e all could use that little extra something for 2013 couldn’t we?

Cultures around the world have various beliefs and superstitions about the best food to eat to presage a lucky or happy new year. Pork is favored by some because a pig roots forward to search for its food (as opposed to other animals who root backward); pork and sauerkraut is eaten by the Pennsylvania Dutch and others of German extract in part because eating sour cabbage on New Year’s is thought to bring on sweetness for the rest of the year.

In Italy (and other cultures) lentils are thought to resemble coins and portend good fortune in the New Year. A specialty sausage of the Emilia-Romagna region called cotechino is a traditional New Year’s accompaniment.

Like lentils, black-eyed peas are also sometimes viewed as stand-ins for coinage, although the stories behind Hoppin’ John as a New Year’s tradition are varied. One says that the discovery of black-eyed peas in besieged Civil War Vicksburg, Miss, saved many from hunger. From then on, black-eyed peas were a sign of good luck. The dish, however, has unclear origins that date much earlier than that.

Preserved fish is another New Year’s tradition in many different forms and in many European countries. You’ll need to get started at least two days in advance, but gravlax (cured salmon) is relatively easy to

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make and beautiful to present. Set out a buffet of all four at your New Year’s Eve or New Year’s gatherings, and perhaps one of your guests will have just a slightly better chance of hitting a $100 million Powerball jackpot in the New Year.

Gravlax Yield: About 16 appetizer servings 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1 ounce (about \ cup) chopped fresh dill 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon

Cotechino with Lentils is one traditional New Year’s Eve dish.

vored croutons Place frozen collards in a strainer and rinse quickly with cold water. Drain, squeezing to remove most of the water.

Set aside. (It’s OK if there are some frozen chunks.) Bring 4 cups of water and garlic salt to boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat.

Gradually stir in grits. Reduce heat to medium. Cook 5 minutes, stirring often so it doesn’t stick. Remove from heat and stir in onion and 3 tablespoons butter.

Place eggs in a large mixing bowl and beat lightly. Stir in the collards, Parmesan, dressing and pepper. Stir in about a quarter of the hot grits, stirring quickly so the eggs don’t cook. Stir in the remaining grits, stirring constantly.

Pour into a lightly greased 13-by-9-inch baking dish. (Can be made ahead to this point and refrigerated for 24 hours.

Bring to room temperature for 30 minutes before finishing.) Melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter and toss with crushed croutons. Sprinkle evenly over the casserole. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 35 minutes, until mixture is set and croutons are golden brown.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

juice \ Cup fine sea salt 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 2 (about 1-pound each) thick fillets fresh salmon 1. Make the curing mix. Thoroughly combine sugar, dill, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl.

2. Lay one fillet of salmon skin-side down in a large, clean dish so that it is completely flat. Spread all of the curing mixture evenly over the salmon fillet.

3. Place the other fillet flesh-side down on top of the first fillet. Wrap the fillets tightly with plastic wrap. Weigh them down with a plate and 1 to 2 cans or other weights totaling between 1 and 2 pounds.

4. Refrigerate for 48 hours, turning every 12 hours and draining off the fluid.

After 48 hours, unwrap the fillets and pat dry with paper towels. To serve, cut thinly on a diagonal with a very sharp knife.

Serve with brown bread and butter, if desired.

Per serving: 245 calories; 13g fat; 2g saturated fat; 70mg cholesterol; 23g protein; 9g carbohydrate; 8g sugar; no fiber; 2,935mg sodium; 55mg calcium.

Adapted from “Cooking Season by Season” edited by Emma Callery and Susannah Steel (Dorling Kindersley, 2012) Cotechino with lentils Yield: 6 servings 1 (about 1 pound) cotechino sausage 1 tablespoon chopped onion 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Fresh pitas, cut in triangles, or pita chips Drop garlic through the chute of a food processor with the motor running and process briefly until well-chopped.

Add the lemon juice, tahini, ground cumin, salt, paprika and peas to the work bowl of the food processor.

Process until smooth, scraping down the bowl if needed. Serve at room temperature with pitas or pita chips.

Yield: About 3 cups.

Texas caviar salad From “Quick-Fix Southern,” by Rebecca Lang (Andrews McMeel, 2011).

This is a great way to turn canned blackeyed peas into a side dish with bright flavors and textures.

2 (15.8-ounce) cans black-eyed peas, rinsed and drained 2 (11-ounce) cans shoepeg corn, drained 1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeded and diced 1 large sweet onion, diced cup apple cider vinegar 6 pepperoncini peppers, cored and diced cup liquid from pepperoncini jar cup packed light brown sugar Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl. Stir to mix well. Cover and refrigerate up to 2 weeks.

Yield: 8 to 10 servings.

Chiffonade of beets and greens From “Mastering the Art of Southern Cooking,” by Nathalie Dupree and Cynthia Graubart (Gibbs Smith, 2012).

You don’t have to cook collards for hours. Dupree says she can’t remember

how she thought of adding beets to collards, but it works.

2 cups collards, cut in ribbons or preshredded (see note) 2 teaspoons butter or oil 2 cloves garlic, chopped 1 teaspoons minced fresh ginger 1 (16-ounce) can beets, drained and chopped 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice or cider vinegar Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste Bring a pot of water to boil. Add greens and cook 1 minute. Remove from water and drain well. (Skip this boiling step if the greens are very young and tender.)

Heat the butter or oil in a large, heavy skillet. Add the garlic, ginger and blanched greens. Cover and cook a few minutes. Remove lid and stir in the beets and lemon juice or vinegar.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Serve hot or at room temperature.

Note: You also could make this with turnip greens, kale or baby beet greens.

Yield: 4 to 6 servings.

Black-eyed pea and ham hock soup From “Bon Appetit, Y’all: Recipes and Stories from Three Generations of Southern Cooking,” by Virginia Willis (Ten Speed Press, 2008).

2 cups dried black-eyed peas, washed and picked over 4 to 6 cups chicken stock or low-fat, reduced-sodium chicken broth 2 smoked ham hocks 1 tablespoon canola oil 1 onion, preferably Vidalia, chopped 2 carrots, chopped 2 stalks celery, chopped 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes 1 bunch collards, tough stems removed and discarded, leaves thinly sliced Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper Place peas in a large bowl and cover with water. Soak overnight. Or place in a large pot of water and bring to a boil over high heat, then remove from heat and set aside for 1 hour. Discard any floating peas and drain.

Bring the stock and ham hocks to a boil in a pot over high heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer at least 30 minutes.

Heat oil in a large, heavy-bottomed Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, carrots and celery and cook until soft and translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add garlic and cook until fragrant, 45 to 60 seconds.

Add the drained peas to the pot with the red pepper flakes, ham hocks and stock. Bring to a boil over high heat.

Reduce heat to low and simmer until the peas are tender, 2 to 2 hours.

Return the soup to a boil just before serving. Stir in the collards. Cook until wilted, about 5 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Note: Willis says that canned peas are too soft, but you can make the soup with frozen black-eyed peas. Reduce the cooking time according to the package instructions.

Yield: 6 servings. —MCT

start with food

1 tablespoon chopped celery 1 cup dried lentils, washed in cold water and drained

Gravalax is one traditional New Year's Eve dish.

Salt Freshly ground black pepper 1. Cook the sausage. If using a partially dried or heavily salt-cured sausage, soak in cold water for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Drain.

2. Place the sausage in a pot with enough cold water to cover it. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to a slow boil and cook for 2 hours. Turn off the heat and let rest for 15 minutes.

3. When the sausage has been boiling

for 1 hour, make the lentils. Bring 1 quart of water to a simmer in a saucepan. In a heavy pot, cook the onion in oil over mediumhigh heat, stirring, until it turns a pale gold, 6 to 8 minutes. Add the chopped celery, stir to coat in the oil and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

4. Add the lentils to the pot, stirring thoroughly to coat. Add enough of the simmering water to cover the lentils and cook, covered, at a very low simmer, until the lentils are tender, 30 to 40 minutes. If necessary, add more simmering water to keep the lentils covered, or add some of the cooking water from the sausage for more flavor in the lentils.

5. When the lentils start to get tender, stop adding liquid so that the lentils will absorb all the remaining cooking liquid. If the lentils reach doneness with liquid still in the pot, turn up the heat to high and boil away the remaining liquid, stirring the lentils as they cook. Add salt and pepper to taste.

6. Transfer the sausage to a cutting board and cut into slices -inch thick. Spoon the lentils onto a warm platter, arrange the sausage slices on top, and serve.

Per serving: 400 calories; 28g fat; 9g saturated fat; 45mg cholesterol; 18g protein; 20g carbohydrate; 2g sugar; 8g fiber; 695mg sodium; 65mg calcium.

Adapted from “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” by Marcella Hazan (Knopf, 2010) —MCT

You can take a few shortcuts to a simple Southern New Year feast

MONDAY, DECEMBER 31, 2012

39 Booze hound Sheen opens bar in Mexico US

actor Charlie Sheen, who has a long history of hard partying and scandal, has a new night spot in Mexico- his own, a local official said Saturday. The perennially troubled Hollywood star hosted a gala opening night dinner Friday at his new bar, The Goose, in the Mexican resort area of Los Cabos, said state Tourism Secretary Ruben Reachi Lugo, who was not invited. Many celebrities “spend their vacation, celebrate their birthdays or open a new restaurant or new development,” Lugo said of the resort area at the

Charlie Sheen southern tip of the Baja California peninsula.

Sheen, born Carlos Irwin Estevez, was abruptly booted from his long-running gig starring in the television comedy series, “Two and a Half Men” in 2011, after publicly insulting the producer. He returned to television in 2012, with a somewhat tongue-in-cheek role playing a man sentenced to anger management counseling. Son of actor Martin Sheen and brother of another actor, Emilio Estevez, Sheen first became famous for his roles in the Vietnam War drama “Platoon,” and 1980s greed parable “Wall Street.” Highlights in his career have also included comedic roles in the “Major League” movies and “Top Gun” parodies “Hot Shots” and “Hot Shots: Part Deux.”—AFP

Taiwan holds first Chinese music concert T

housands of music fans packed a Taipei stadium to watch the island’s first concert staged by Chinese singers and rock bands, reports said yesterday, in the latest sign of warming cross-strait relations. The concert organized by the Chinese Music Chart, dubbed China’s Grammy Awards, saw some 60 bands and singers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan perform before screaming fans Saturday, but also drew dozens of antiChina protesters. They chanted pro-independence slogans and waved anti-Beijing banners outside the stadium, television reports showed, but were unable to interrupt the concert which included performances by Chinese singer Han Geng and actress Zhang Ziyi.

Without the prior approval of Taiwanese authorities, organizers of the Chinese Music Chart unilaterally announced in November that an award ceremony would be held in Taipei for the first time after it was set up in 1993. The plan drew fire from the opposition, prompting the Chinese award organizers to change the award presentation ceremony to a concert at the demand of Taiwanese authorities. The concert “is part of Chinese communist... tactics against Taiwan people and we’re here to voice our desire that we don’t want to be ruled

by China,” said protester Tsai Ting-kui, according to the Liberty Times.

Beijing still insists Taiwan is part of China even though the island has ruled itself for more than 60 years after their split in 1949 at the end of a civil war. But ties with China have improved markedly since Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang came to power in 2008 on a Beijing-friendly platform. He was re-elected in January for a second and final four-year term. —AFP

Vienna New Year’s concert rings in 2013 with Wagner, Verdi agner, Verdi and a myriad of waltzes will broadcast live to 81 countries when the Vienna Philharmonic kicks off 2013 with its traditional New Year’s Concert tomorrow. The event-sold out over a year in advance and followed by millions around the world-will once again be conducted by Franz Welser-Moest, musical director at the Vienna Opera, after his first appearance in 2011.

Together with the orchestra, Welser-Moest has devised a program full of novelties: 11 of the 16 pieces performed at the Musikverein’s grand Golden Hall on Tuesday will be playing at the New Year’s Concert for the first time. Among them are tributes to German composer Richard Wagner and Italian Giuseppe Verdi, both of whom will be celebrated on their 200th birthday next year.

Wagner’s dramatic Prelude to Act Three of “Lohengrin” and ballet music from Verdi’s opera “Don Carlo” will however alternate with the Strauss dynasty polkas and waltzes that are most associated with this classical event. “It should be a voyage of discovery,” Welser-Moest told AFP ahead of the concert, describing it as “a very subtle program,” with a heavy accent on the less frequently played Josef Strauss.—AFP

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