11 Jan

The man behind the image worth a million words

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‘The Hunger Games’ lead fan favorites at People’s Choice awards

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NO: 15685- Friday, January 11, 2013

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Holy City turns into winter wonderland See Page 11

JERUSALEM: A Muslim man prays in the snow in front of the Dome of the Rock inside the AlAqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City, yesterday.

Stormy weather conditions across the region continued yesterday with snow, torrential rains and strong winds. — AP

Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Local Spotlight

The sheesha fashion in Kuwait

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

T

he sheesha or the hubbly-bubbly, as some foreign expatriates call it, is becoming the fashion in Kuwait and while many young boys and girls are taking to smoking excessively to kill the time, they are not noticing how harmful this habit is.

Although many of the cafes in Kuwait serve the sheesha to patrons of all ages, I fail to see any medical fliers or public awareness campaigns about the negative impact of the sheesha on the lungs and bodies of these young smokers, who sometimes also include pregnant women.

Smoking sheesha is being seen more as an act of

fashion than a dangerous habit which negatively affects the health and can cause early death or lung diseases.

The tobacco companies are forced by law to print a warning on the label about the possible health threats.

The sheesha, however, is being served at many places and cafes without any restrictions or warning. It is available as easily as a scoop of ice cream and even five stars hotels are serving it without observing any precautions. The sheesha costs very little money, around two or three KD. I am in favor of increasing its price so it becomes a little hard for the youth to smoke who do so now because it is cheap, available and fashionable.

Although some media channels are holding debates and discussions occasionally about smoking, they do not talk about sheesha as if this form of smoking does not exist or is not harmful.

I do not even know if the Ministry of Health maintains data about smokers’ age including variation

KUWAIT: The rich variety of spices are the secret to Kuwait’s sumptuous cuisine. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

In my view

Good luck Dubai

By Labeed Abdal

labeed@kuwaittimes.net

D

ubai has been moving forward in a most pleasant fashion, taking some steady steps ever since the independence of the United Arab Emirates in the year 1971.

Although, it was affected by the international meltdown in 2008, yet with the support of Abu Dhabi, it was possible to cross many hurdles and achieve better growth in the areas of trade, logistics and tourism.

It was fortunate for having a leadership that was not only responsible but had a progressive view point and was able to start the recovery for the real-estate market which had suffered huge losses. It increased the spending for a well-planned comeback and went on to build `the city in the city` project. This project in Dubai will be the world’s largest shopping mall in the name of Sheikh

Mohammad bin Rasheid bin Maktoom.

During the great depression of 1930, the patriotism and courage of many leaders helped certain countries come out of it. Some major steps were taken regarding governmental spending, building new cities, laying new railroads, creating more job opportunities, introducing more tax cuts for the low income employees, coming up with the concept of unemployment insurance and levying more taxes on the wealthy companies.

Dubai’s initiative deserves the blessings and support of all other GCC countries, not only for addressing the impact on the region of the international financial crisis but also for becoming a new hub to foster many shattered economies and businesses of countries from the Middle East, North Africa and many other parts of the world.

among males and females and those hailing from different nationalities. We need statistics about whether smokers seek medical opinion or treatment and what is the possibility them being afflicted with serious illnesses such as cancer.

I believe it is a societal obligation to promote public campaigns for the benefit of the youth, citizens or expats to encourage them to try to stop smoking. It is possible that some of them are unaware about the possible threat to their bodies or think that they are not inhaling the smoke and interpreting it to mean it causes lesser damage than the typical cigarette. These are all illusions and smoking the sheesha is not less harmful.

I wish the NGOs adopt such a campaign as it is really the need of the hour.

Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Conspiracy Theories

Passionate parents

Kuwait’s my business

Are you in the right business?

By John P Hayes

By Badrya Darwish local@kuwaittimes.net

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

T

he New Year is indeed up to an exciting start. It brought in some very unpredictable news in the beginning itself. For instance, the floods in the Middle East that spread all over, starting with Lebanon.

Now you can swim from Lebanon to Jordan. Leave alone the high gushing winds and the snow all over the mountains or higher areas. Do not forget the cold that has led near freezing conditions in many countries where electricity also is expensive. You are lucky if the electricity was not interrupted by the lovely storm from Russia. If you hoped to opt for cheap gas in any of these countries, the start of the year is cold.

Even Alexandria in Egypt is no more dry. The Egyptians jokingly say that their buses have turned into sailing boats. The worst part is that at the old palace of King Farukh, a historical place, some of the walls have collapsed. It is a pity and a loss. I stayed at the palace for a day once.

Palestine was also not spared. It has been going through a bad situation. The Israelis who rule the West bank are not providing any help, unlike how they treat Tel Aviv, but then again, this is how they are.

Let me tell you about a bunch of other pieces of some intriguing news. In Saudi Arabia, a 90-year-old man married a 15-year-old girl. His marital bliss did not last long because the tribe forced him to divorce her. A male colleague of mine says: “What does a 15-year-old girl know about marriage? And then a female editor responded: What does a 90-year-old man know about marriage?” My answer to that is that he should be pretty experienced and would have an impressive CV. Another editor interjected to add: “That is if he still remembers.”

After we stopped laughing in the editorial room about this peculiar piece of news, sadness engulfed us as more news stories trickled in. A woman beat her son to death because he could not memorize the verses of the Quran. It was really sad. Another woman beat her daughter to death not for lack of memory or want of good grades. She did so because the little girl had spoiled her mood while she was hyper-busy with her husband in the bedroom. My straight-forward and succinct comment on this is: What passionate parents!

Hello 2013! It is just the 11th of January. Have mercy on us.

Twitter: BadryaD

KUWAIT: The weather allows for picnic season to start with families flocking to the seaside to prepare grilled food. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

I

f you’re a business owner or manager I recommend that you stop whatever you’re doing and ask yourself this question: “Will this (whatever you are doing) help me capture or keep a customer?”

If the answer is “Yes,” then continue with what you were doing. If the answer is “No” - and usually it is - do something else. Of course, if you were reading this article, by all means continue! I promise it will help you capture and keep customers.

The purpose of your business It’s easy to forget that business has only one purpose: To earn a profit! And to earn a profit a business must capture and keep customers. However, most business owners and managers spend most of their time doing things that will not capture or keep customers, or earn a profit. Makes no sense!

Distractions plague businesses. Hiring and managing employees are distractions. Dealing with suppliers is a distraction. Buying and managing inventory are distractions. Social media are distractions. Bookkeeping is a distraction.

I didn’t say that distractions aren’t necessary. You can’t avoid them when you operate a business. But if you allow them to monopolize your time, you will eventually discover that you don’t need to worry about them anymore because without customers you won’t have a business! Or, you may keep your business and regret it because the business “owns” you rather than the other way around. If you’re giving all of your time to a business for a poor return (less money than you could earn as an employee, and more frustration) that routine soon turns into drudgery.

What business are you in?

The first question I ask new clients is this: “What busi-

ness are you in?” Usually they answer by telling me what they sell, or they’ll describe their industry. “We’re in the franchising business,” or “We’re in the food business,” or - most often - “We’re in the people business!”

To which I say, “Oh, that’s too bad.”

Because customers aren’t looking to buy from a franchising business, or a food business, or a people business. Customers want answers to questions, solutions to problems, and most of all, benefits!

Do you sell benefits? If your business doesn’t offer answers, solutions, or benefits, why would customers possibly need your business?

Truth is, they don’t. Or they won’t for long. The easiest way to capture and keep a customer is to offer what the customer wants and needs. Meanwhile, you can plan your new menu, negotiate with another vendor, soothe an unhappy employee, tweet your business, and add content to your Web site, but you won’t capture and keep customers.

The only business to be in is this: “Capturing and keeping customers!” Get into that business first and deal with the distractions second. Your bank account will soon reflect the benefits.

Don’t know how to capture and keep customers?

Stay tuned to this column and I’ll tell you!

Dr John P Hayes heads the Business Administration Department at Gulf University for Science & Technology. He also leads the Kuwait Leadership program, which is inspiring Kuwait’s future leaders. Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Defining moments

By Ben Garcia

The man behind the image worth a million words

H

e traveled as far as Africa, Europe, and even more importantly, to all the Arab states. His mission - to capture the defining moment in an action, drama, comedy and sports, not for any Hollywood movie but because he is in love with photography. Meet Maitham Al-Misry, 38, a freelance photographer from Kuwait.

Married with three children, Maitham discovered his hidden talent back in 2004 when he acquired a professional Canon camera. He honed his skills behind the lens made it a point to improve his craft day by day. Since most of his photos were unique and spectacular in nature, he started gathering a number of feathers in his cap by winning numerous recognitions and awards in both local and international photo competitions.

Maitham Al-Misry with his Canon 7D camera “I love taking photos of landscapes. At first I used to do some random photography but was fascinated with the brilliant results. Then, one day, I discovered that I loved it deeply, and hence it became a hobby. Soon it turned into a real passion for

A breath-taking view of Kuwait City at dusk captured by Maitham Al-Misry.

photography,” Maitham recalled.

Graduated as one of the best students in political science at Kuwait University in 1998, Maitham’s only connection to his academic background was a photograph of Kuwait’s Parliament Building.”I think because I have a unique taste in colors, which is the basis of the beauty of every masterpiece of art. So instead of becoming involved in the field of political science, I became involved with the arts. . I never regretted it,” he said. Now, he works as graphic designer at the Ministry of Information. To capture his favourite and unique moments, Maitham regularly travels to many of his favorite places on earth. “In the summer of 2012, I went to Kenya to capture the beauty of wildlife,” he disclosed. “It was a really fascinating experience for me since I have been dreaming about photographing the wildlife. I captured thousands of photographs of my favorite animals there. It was a dream come true and was really splendid. I love it very much and enjoy taking photos of people and capturing their culture too,” he added.

Maitham loved the stunning beauty of ancient and historical places. “I started capturing landmark buildings and locations when I received my first professional camera. I love taking photos of Kuwait Towers, Liberation Tower and the parliament building. I want to capture these from the best angle possible. I take many shots but see to it that my pictures are somehow unique and will be admired by people,” he said.

Capturing the right moment is a rare

opportunity, according to Maitham. In fact, it appears at the most unexpected time and period. “For example, you can only get the best shot in a matter of a second. If missed that angle, you have missed it forever.”

KUWAIT: An aerial view of Kuwait City taken from a helicopter. This image was the first prize winner in Kuwait News Agency annual photo competition.

Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Awards

Horse race — An award winning photograph

An intriguing moment during a football match.

Desert car race Accolades Maitham received various awards and recognition for his work. He bagged his first ever photography award at a photo contest organized by the Advocates for Western-Arab Relations (AWARE) Contest in 2007 where he won the second top honour.

“It was my first ever award winning photography contest. It was about the culture and the people of Kuwait,” he said.

Buoyed by the win, he again entered some of his best photographs in the Hala February Festival and Kuwaiti Marine Sports Club photo contests in 2008 which proved that he indeed has an eye for photography. In 2009, he won the topmost award at the Kuwait News Agency Annual Photo Contest. Since then, awards and recognition from various giving bodies and companies have been flowing in regularly.

“I just love the idea of collecting awards. So I never stop learning and taking photographs. I know one day, I will be able to click photos which are uniquely impor-

A view of Kuwait City. —Photos by Maitham Al-Misry

tant and would be my contribution to my country and people,” he noted.

Seashore is Maitham’s favorite place in Fireworks light up Kuwait skyline as the country celebrates.

Kuwait as he loves taking photographs of migratory birds. “One of my favorites is capturing migratory birds feeding by the

• 2nd place winner - Advocates for Western-Arab Relations Contest 2007 • 2nd place winner - Hala February Festival photo contest 2008 • 2nd place winner - Kuwaiti Marine Sports Club photo contest 2008 • 1st place winner - Shekh Ali Al-Salem AlSabah Contest - Kuwait Heritage theme.

2009 • 2nd and 5th place winner - Shekh Ali AlSalem Al-Sabah Contest - Night Photography theme. 2009 • 4th place winner - Shekh Ali Al-Salem AlSabah Contest - Kuwait Environment theme. 2009 • 1st place winner - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Annual Photo Contest Technically Processed Theme 2009 • 4th place winner - Al-Reyada annual contest - Kuwait Foundation For Advancement of Sciences. 2010 • 2nd place winner - Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) Annual photo contest Scenic category 2011.

• Silver medal winner - Trierenberg super circuit - photo travel theme Austria 2010 • Gold medal winner - Trierenberg super circuit - Arab Photography theme Austria 2011 • Gold medal winner - Trierenberg super circuit seaside. I captured a seagull feeding upon a small fish. I captured different images and colors of migratory birds. I love pointing my camera at the flying ducks,” he beamed.

According to Maitham, the only trait required in capturing the best picture is a ‘wow’ factor that goes with the moment.

“If you are a real photographer, you will only look for that ‘wow’ factor in your photograph. That defines the impact of the moment on you and on the other people that your chosen images leave. The ‘wow’ factor includes the color combination, the quality and the message it gives to the people.”

Besides stunning images of people and animals, Maitham also loves taking photographs of various sports related events. In fact, he is looking forward let his camera do the talking at the upcoming motocross (sports event) to be held in Doha, Qatar sometime around mid-2013. He is still dreaming about capturing spectacular landscapes in the rest of Europe, Canada and Scandinavian countries.

Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Why divorce cases spurt in Kuwait?

Social media, smart-phones trigger cyber-cheating

By Nawara Fattahova

“T

he smart phone is a devil that entered my house and ruined my life,” says a husband who was living a happy life for 15 years. Once his wife acquired a smart phone, she became a different woman, the husband explains adding that she started spending most of her time on What’s app and other chatting programs which later demonstrated her infidelity. This story is not an isolated case of a marriage-end.

Technological development, modern ways of communication among people and the advent of the social media have played a role in the increased rate of divorce in Kuwait.

Many wives and husbands have paid the price for cyber cheating and lawyers now are Lawyer Saleh Al-Huseini, who is a family law expert, told the Friday Times that a similar theme ran through some of the recent divorce cases that he handled. “I have been practicing my career for about six years now during which I had to handle many divorce cases involving cheating. The instances of cheating also involved use of internet, social media or smart mobile phones. Some cases were rejected by one or the other judge as

they considered the photos or messages normal and not immoral,” he pointed out.

“One of my clients filed a case seeking divorce from her husband who had many girlfriends and was travelling frequently, especially to the Far East where he was afflicted with AIDS. By searching his mobile phone, she found immoral photos of him with many women, and sought divorce which was granted,” the lawyer said.

Facebook was the reason behind another divorce case. “After 14 years of marriage, my client found that her husband was cheating on her with men. She received no affection from her husband for about nine years. The Facebook revealed the reason as her husband was paid as an escort for men. The account was created by using a fake name and he had put up certain objectionable photographs of himself in various states of undress, including some dressed up in women’s lingerie. He was virtually marketing himself and demanding money from the men he was in relation with.

The judge granted her a divorce immediately,” Al-Huseini said.

In some cases, an account on a social media site like the Facebook could also reveal past relationships and can lead to a divorce.

“A client of mine who was not cheating on her husband found her marriage ruined by the discovery of her past relationship due to Facebook. She was in a relationship with a man before her marriage and had gotten herself clicked with him at some private places wearing indecent outfits. Eventually, she ended this relationship and got married. Her husband accidentally stumbled upon these photographs on the Facebook which were posted by her former boyfriend, and filed a case. The judge did not grant divorce as these photos were old and he held that they do not affect her life. Afterwards, she filed a case against her husband to seek divorce and keep her children since he started to suspect her all the time. Soon she will be granted a divorce,” he explained.

The much hyped applications on smart phones resulted in annulling the marriage of Nouf whose children spotted their mother’s change of behavior And alerted their father.

“The husband installed a recording device to snoop on her in the bedroom and recorded conversations lasting more than 100 hours.

He offered her to leave the house quietly without causing any scene but she refused, and instead filed a case to seek custody of the

children. When the children were produced before the judge, they refused to stay with their cheating mother, and she lost the case.

The court was shown a printout of the record of more than 8000 calls and SMSs from different men from three mobile service providers.

These were the men from whom she was receiving gifts and prepaid cards,” stressed AlHuseini.

A smart phone ended a long-lasting marriage of a religious couple. “My client’s wife was a very religious woman who used to cover herself completely wearing a niqab and gloves. After she bought a smart phone, new problems entered their house. His wife became negligent towards her children and him and then left the house and filed a case seeking custody of her children. In front of the judge, the witnesses said in their testimony that she was not a good mother and was not the right person to raise the children. One of the witnesses brought a portable hard drive on which she had copied some photos of the cheating wife wearing a bikini on the beach and other photos showing her with men in a flat. The husband was shocked and divorced her immediately during the court session, and won the custody case as well,” he stated.

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Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Food @ the desk A peek into the healthiest workplace practices in Kuwait

O

besity levels in Kuwait are on the rise, and currently it figures as the second most obese country in the world, trailing only behind the United States of America. One common factor shared by many in Kuwait is the time spent at the workplace, which is estimated at around 40 hours in a fiveday week. Therefore, the fixed hours during which we all remain committed to our workplace inadvertently become an ideal time and place to kick-start healthy lifestyle practices.

Sarah Dimashkieh, an expert dietitian at Diet Care, underlines three key performance areas at the workplace - nutrition, exercise and stress management. The employees can adopt a healthier approach towards improving their overall lifestyle.

PERFORMANCE AREA ONE: DESK DINING According to the American Dietetic Association, the desk, in terms of bacteria, is actually 400 times dirtier than your toilet seat and 70 percent of Americans eat at their desk several times a week.

“This statistic can also be applied to Kuwait because most people who work in offices eat their lunch at their desks. The desk then becomes a bacterial hub because although we eat on it, we do not clean it sufficiently. A quick wipe does not get rid of all the food particles and when this becomes a regular practice over a long time, the bacterial particles multiply and your desk becomes the perfect feeding ground for bacteria,” Dimashkieh reveals.

Instead of deskdining, find a quiet spot at your office whereby you can have your lunch. It could be the common room, the cafeteria or even the pantry in your office.

“The important aspect to look out for is a place where you can focus on your food without the distraction of work,” Dimashkieh recommends.

Dimashkieh also highlights that eating at the desk encourages overeating since you are most likely multitasking, and not paying enough attention to how much you are actually consuming.

We must be careful lest we fall prey to readyto-eat food items with low-calories. They may seem time-efficient for the workplace, but are unhealthy. Some of these food items like “soupin-a-cup” are full of preservatives and artificial sweeteners that will not keep you fit for long.

Have a fresh, healthy lunch that lasts you

throughout the day. “If you have cooked dinner the previous day, save a small portion of chicken or vegetables and make a sandwich with wholegrain bread for lunch the next day,” Dimashkieh suggests.

Sandwiches are great for lunches as they are time efficient, healthy and not too messy.

Sandwiches, unlike rice, pasta and other lunch items, also keep you full without the bloated effect that can cause us to feel lethargic and sleepy at work.

“Also, remember to minimize the dressings for the sandwiches such as mayonnaise and Thousand Island. You can also opt to make a

Simple routines Exercise once you return home from work, but you can also go through a few simple routines at the office. Here are a few routines Dimashkieh recommends: Also, ideally we should all be walking 10000 steps a day, so clocking in at least 1000 steps during our lunch break means that we have achieved one-tenth of our target. If walking alone becomes too mundane for you, listen to your favourite music on your iPod or bring along a camera and take pictures of the outdoor scenery at your office,” Dimashkieh explains.

DE-STRESS AT YOUR DESK Stress levels can soar in the office environment. However, it is important that you take control of the situation and keep your calm during challenging times like this. Most of us crave comfort foods during times of distress and often end up

turkey wrap, for example, with spinach and carrots, that has all the ideal nutrients to keep you energized and full, without the ‘overly-stuffed’ effect,” Dimashkieh reveals.

PERFORMANCE AREA TWO: DESKERCIZE Exercising at work is not impossible. In fact, the Chinese government brought back compulsory exercise at the workplace because it boosts productivity and employee morale.

“Exercise releases feel-good endorphins that make us happier, suffer less stress and are definitely more productive at work,” Dimashkieh says. choosing the wrong food items.

Keep a block of dark chocolate in your office and every time you feel the stress levels elevated, have a small piece from it.

“Dark chocolate is high in antioxidants and the consumption of chocolate triggers the release of endorphins in our brain, which are chemicals that make us happy. But be careful not to overdo it, as 30g (2 bites) of dark chocolate contain 151Kcal and 9g of fat” Dimashkieh said.

Take a quick two-minute walk outside the office area at times of high-stress situations to take your mind off the issue for a while, Dimashkieh advises.

“You will come back to the office with a clearer perspective instead of jumping the gun and relying purely on your emotions. If all else fails, the one fool-proof method is to laugh it off. Laughter is by far the best medicine and having a hearty laugh on stressed-out days provides a physical and emotional release,” Dimashkieh concludes.

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Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

KUWAIT: His highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad AlSabah arrives to attend the National Assembly session yesterday.

—Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

A general view of the assembly session.

NA holds ‘secret session’ to discuss ‘security chaos’ Opposition warns police as new protest called

By B Izaak KUWAIT: The security situation in the country was under the microscope yesterday as the National Assembly held a special secret session to discuss “security chaos” in Kuwait and the opposition called for a new demonstration for next Sunday, warning that protesters may not remain peaceful if police continued to use excessive force.

MPs voted 38, including cabinet ministers, against 24 to enforce the special session to be held behind closed doors, the first such session for the new assembly.

But after Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah made his remarks about the ministry efforts in maintaining law and order, a number of MPs walked out of the session amid talk about a possible grilling.

Shiite MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan said after he was the first to leave the chamber that he was upset because the minister did not bring any senior official and did not prepare a written statement on the issue.

The minister did not take this assembly seriously as he only respected the assembly of (former speaker) Ahmad AlSaadoun and showed disrespect for this assembly.

MP Ahmad Al-Mulaifi also walked out and called on the prime minister to sack him, saying that he came to the session without any data, information or senior officials and gave us only “stories”.

Mulaifi warned that if the prime minister does not sack him, he vowed to exercise his constitutional right of grilling the minister.

Shiite MP Abdulhameed Dashti said the minister had nothing to say and we planned to walk out of the session but decided against it for the sake of the Kuwaiti people.

MP Hammad Al-Dossari said there is an intention to grill the minister and many lawmakers were surprised that he did not bring his senior officials. But MPs Mishari Al-Hussaini and Faisal Al-Kundari defended the minister saying that the attacks on the minister were personal and that he was very convincing although he was not given full opportunity.

Kundari criticized the talk about going straight to grilling the minister saying this will make constitutional tools meaningless and the assembly and the government must cooperate on this very important issue. MPs then passed a large number of non-binding recommendations calling to strengthen the police and security force by opening doors to employ children of Kuwaiti women.

The recommendations also called for seeking the assistance of security experts and for checking the influx of expatriates into Kuwait.

The interior minister said after the session that he will take the recommendations into account.

Shiite MP Hisham Al-Baghli told

reporters after the session that the Prime Minister said during the session that there are Kuwaiti financiers for the alleged terror cell in UAE. MPs also said the next session on security will be held within three months.

Sources said that some MPs urged the interior minister to deal harshly with opposition protests.

In another development, the opposition yesterday called for a new demonstration “Karamat Watan 6 - A Dignity of A Nation 6” to be staged on Sunday in Sabah Al-Nasser, a predominantly tribal area. The call came as the organizers of the demonstrations warned that riot police has used excessive force against protesters in last Sunday’s rally, insisting the extent of police violence was not to apply the law but to “humiliate” the Kuwaiti people.

The organizers warned that if the extent of police violence continued at such level, there is no guarantee protesters would remain peaceful endlessly, the first such warning since protests were launched around two years ago.

Also, veteran opposition leader and former assembly speaker Ahmad AlSaadoun denied yesterday that there were any contacts between the opposition and the government. He reiterated that contacts were being made with all political groups in the country to establish a broad-based front to confront attempts by the government to ratify the Gulf security pact and amend the constitution.

KUWAIT: Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah receives the newly-appointed Palestinian Ambassador Rami Tahboub. —KUNA

Palestinian ambassador presents credentials KUWAIT: The Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs celebrated here yesterday receiving the credentials of the newly assigned Palestinian ambassador to the country Rami Ehsan Tahboub. Deputy Prime Minister Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received his credentials during the ceremony. It was attended by Ministry’s Undersecretary Khaled Sulaiman Al-Jarallah, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Office Ambassador Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad AlSabah, as well as Foreign Ministry Protocols Director Ambassador Dhari Ajran Al-Ajran. —KUNA

Warning on flying thermal balloons KUWAIT: The Interior Ministry’s security installations’ department warned yesterday against flying thermal balloons near petroleum facilities or installations, particularly at night.

In a statement, the ministry said the thermal balloons cannot be controlled once they are high up in the air, and can therefore prove dangerous near facilities like oil refineries and storage yards where heavy gases can be released. Those balloons may also pose a serious threat and may even explode near such facilities, it noted. —KUNA

Iraq scraps Turkey deal to okay Kuwait partnership BAGHDAD: Iraq has approved an oil exploration deal with a Kuwait-led group, a statement said yesterday, replacing a previous agreement with a Turkish firm that was torpedoed amid worsening ties with Ankara.

The cabinet agreed to replace Turkey’s TPAO with Kuwait Energy for a 900-squarekilometre (347-square-mile) exploration block in south Iraq, near the country’s border with Iran.

“The cabinet decided... to approve the adoption of the recommendations of the energy committee regarding... signing exploration block number nine’s contract with a coalition of Kuwaiti and Emirati companies,” a statement said.

Kuwait Energy will up its stake in the project to 70 percent, with Dragon Oil of the United Arab Emirates holding the remainder. The original consortium of

TPAO, Kuwait Energy and Dragon Oil had won the exploration contract for the block in a May 30-31 public auction in which they agreed to be paid a service fee of $6.24 per barrel of oil equivalent eventually extracted.

It is one of several agreements between Baghdad and foreign energy firms to boost oil output and explore for new deposits of energy as Iraq looks to cement its role as a key global oil supplier.

Officials announced TPAO would be expelled in November due to “non-technical issues”, one of several signs of worsening ties between Baghdad and Ankara. The two countries have been at odds over the Syrian conflict and Iraq has publicly urged Turkey to hand over fugitive Vice President Tareq Al-Hashemi, who has been sentenced to death in Baghdad on charges of running a death squad. —AFP

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Local FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

CAIRO: KJA chairman Ahmad Yousif Behbahani during the Arab Journalists Federation conference in Cairo. —KUNA

CAIRO: KJA delegation at the Arab Journalists Conference.

Ahmad Behbehani elected head of Federation of Arab Journalists KJA hails it as ‘a crown for Kuwait media’ CAIRO: Chairman of Kuwait Journalists Association Ahmad Behbehani has been elected uncontested as Chairman of the Federation of Arab Journalists during the 12th conference of the union. Behbehani became the first Kuwaiti and Gulf personality to head the federation since its establishment in 1964.

The Director and Treasurer of the Association, Adnan Al-Rashed, said in a statement to KUNA, following declaration of the election of Behbehani late on Wednesday, that winning the senior post of the Arab organization “is a victory

for the State of Kuwait, (HH) the Amir, the government and people.”

The association winning of the post “is a crown for the Kuwaiti media for the prominent role it has played in the Arab world for long decades,” he added.

A panel supervising election of members of the secretariat general of the federation declared, late on Wednesday, election of 15 members for a four-year term.

The voters elected Behbehani, without contesting, as the chairman. Hatem Zakaria of

Egypt was chosen as the secretary general, and his fellow citizen, Karem Mahmoud, as treasurer. They also elected the Iraqi, Muayed Al-Lami, as the first deputy of the federation, the Moroccan Abdullah Al-Buqali as the second deputy, the Jordanian Tareq Al-Moumni as third deputy. Mohammed Yousef of the UAE was chosen as the fourth deputy and the Saudi Abdullah Al-Jehlan as the fifth deputy. AlHashemi Nuwairi of Tunisia was chosen as advisor, Abdel Wahab Al-Zughailat as the head of the committee of freedoms and Adnan Al-

Rashed as the chairman of the committee for development of resources.

Those who were named as general secretaries were Abdul Nasser Al-Najjar, Palestine, Um Kalthoum Al-Mustafa, Mauritania, Salma AlJelasi, Tunisia, Muhi-eddine Al-Titawi and Elias Aoun, Lebanon, Yassin Al-Masoudi, Yemen, in addition to the Omani Salem Al-Jahouri.

Kuwait is taking part in the federation 12th conference with a delegation headed by the secretary of the association, Faisal AlGinaee. —KUNA

Embassy monitoring welfare of Kuwaitis in Jordan after storm AMMAN: Kuwait’s Ambassador to Jordan Dr Hamad Al-Duaij said yesterday that the diplomatic mission is in touch with Kuwaiti citizens and students in Jordan and continues to check on their situation.

The statement by the Ambassador to KUNA came after a decision by Jordanian authorities to shut down institutions due to snowfall that has been hitting the country for two days, causing numerous problems for citizens and residents.

Estimated number of Kuwaitis in Jordan is

5,000, including 3,500 students who are either studying in academic institutions in the capital Amman or other provinces. Meteorological Department expects the temperatures to rise today and maximum temperatures may range between 7 and 4 degree Celsius.

Due to these prevailing hard weather conditions, the Ministry of Interior asked citizens to reduce use of their vehicles as much as possible and not to go out except in cases of extreme necessities. —KUNA

Qurain festival continues with regional participation KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid AlHamad Al-Sabah received yesterday Head of Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies James A Larocco.

FM meets officials KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received yesterday Head of Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies James A Larocco.

The meeting was attended by Ministry’s Undersecretary Khaled Sulaiman Al-Jarallah, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Office Ambassador Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser AlMohammad Al-Sabah, and Acting Director of Africa Department at the Foreign Ministry,

Advisor Hamad Sulaiman Al-Mashaan.

The Foreign Minister also received member of the House of Councilors in the Japanese Parliament Hiko Mashiko. The meeting was attended by the Director-General of the Foreign Ministry Asia Department Ambassador Mohammad Al-Mejren Al-Roumi, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Office Ambassador Sheikh Dr Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad AlSabah. —KUNA

KUWAIT: The activities offered as part of the program of the 19th Qurain Cultural Festival continue and the latest attractions included an art and sculpture exhibition. More or less like previous occasions, the participants come from other Gulf states and not just from Kuwait.

Director of Formative Arts at the National Council for Culture, Arts, and Letters (NCCAL) Mohammad Al-Asousi said the annual festival is by now a key Arab cultural attraction and event.

The variety it offers is a key factor, but the care it takes to attract younger audiences to different fields of art and culture, both classic and contemporary is noteworthy. This time around, the National Assembly is also holding an exhibition on parliamentary life in Kuwait as part of the festival program.

Next Sunday’s activities include the start of a

three-day seminar on the implications of the socalled Arab Spring phenomena, with elite Arab intellectuals taking part. There are also activities shedding light on the works of author Abdulla Zakariya Al-Ansari and of painter and artist Safwan Al-Ayyoubi. The NCCAL official had Wednesday night inaugurated an exhibition entitled “I see music” for Bahraini painter and sculptor Aisha Hafiz. He told KUNA the artist is unique in her use of versatile media for her creations, including wood, bronze, stone, and even ceramic ... and the over 100 pieces on display offer a view rich in color, style, medium and impression.” There would also be an exhibition for Omani artist Mousa Omar, and then there is the Qurain Festival Art Exhibition for works by 71 different artists in calligraphy, painting, sculpture and photography. —KUNA

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

3 Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris as Turkey seeks peace

12

Bomb attack kills 11 in Pakistan’s Quetta

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Lawyer: Police beat New Delhi gang rape suspects

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AMMAN: Jordanians walk past snow-covered cars and trees in Amman yesterday. The worst storms in a decade left swathes of Israel and Jordan under a blanket of snow and parts of Lebanon blacked out, bringing misery to a region accustomed to temperate climates. — AFP

Snowstorms paralyse Mideast Worst storms in a decade BEIRUT: The worst storms in a decade left swathes of Israel and Jordan under a blanket of snow and parts of Lebanon blacked out yesterday, bringing misery to a region accustomed to temperate climates.

Freezing temperatures and floods since Sunday have claimed at least 11 lives across the region and exacerbated the plight of hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees huddled in tented camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon.

The United Nations issued an urgent appeal for funds to help the refugees in the northern Jordanian camp of Zaatari, which was almost entirely flooded on Wednesday, leaving residents to battle mud and sub-zero temperatures.

“The next 72 hours will be a critical test of our ability to meet the basic needs of children and their families at Zaatari” UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Jordan representative, Dominique Hyde said in a statement yesterday.

But students in countries battered by snow,

rain and bitter winds got a break as authorities ordered schools and universities closed in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel and in some towns in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The education ministry in war-hit Syria also announced that mid-term exams will be postponed until further notice due to “the prevailing weather conditions” as snow blanketing the capital Damascus.

In Jordan, a blizzard brought the country to a near halt. King Abdullah II ordered the army to help clear roads across the usually parched country and help those stranded by the snow.

Thursday was also declared a holiday.

The storm triggered power blackouts in several countries, including Lebanon, where electricity has been rationed since the 1975-1990 civil war.

That plunged several areas into darkness and leaving those who rely on electricity to heat their homes shivering.

“Our boiler works with electricity, so of course

we have no hot water,” said Elsa, a Beirut housewife. Officials and residents blamed the outage on the storm and an open-ended strike by employees of the state-run Electricite du Liban power company over salaries and pension issues.

Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil told AFP: “There is a storm, and there is a problem in the grid. The electricity workers are on strike, and they’re not letting anyone fix the problem.”

A Beirut international airport weather expert said the storm is the worst ever to have hit Lebanon while other met officials in the region said it was the worst in 10 years.

Media reports said the cold weather originated in Russia, with one daily dubbing the storm “Olga,” and authorities urged citizens to remain indoors. In Jerusalem, at least 10 centimetres (four inches) of snow blanketed the Holy City as dawn broke, turning the pine-covered hills into what looked like an Alpine ski resort picture postcard. At least 11 people were reportedly killed in

the region. Among them were a man who froze to death after he fell asleep drunk in his car in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley and a baby swept away in a flash flood in the centre of the country.

In the Palestinian territories, officials reported four fatalities since Tuesday, one of them a woman in the West Bank who died from a fire she started in her home to keep warm.

The storm also crippled many businesses, took a heavy toll on regional economies and, in Israel, put on hold election campaigns for the January 22 general election.

The Manufacturers Association of Israel said the storm was set to cost the country’s industry at least about 300 million shekels ($80 million/60 million euros) in damages, most of it due to flooding. Three days of driving rains and strong winds that struck normally warm Egypt paralysed activity, including in most ports, with the commercial harbour in Alexandria on the Mediterranean sea worst affected, officials said.—AFP

International FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Saudi ‘Red Prince’ still demanding reform at age 82 RIYADH: Maverick Saudi Prince Talal bin Abdul Aziz, half-brother of King Abdullah, remains at the age of 82 as vehement as ever in his demands for political reforms and rights for women in oil-rich Saudi Arabia.

Prince Talal, nicknamed “Red Prince” in his youth for defying the royal family, insisted in an interview with AFP that democratic reforms are needed in the kingdom, including the holding of parliamentary elections.

Until such a vote takes place, he said, the advisory Consultative Council must be empowered. “Until elections are held, God willing, the Majlis Al-Shoura (Consultative Council) should be given the power to legislate, approve the budget and hold officials accountable,” Prince Talal said. Saudi Arabia, where calls for reform are rare, has no parliament and the Consultative Council is a 120-member toothless appointed body that gives its opinion on proposed laws and government policies.

King Abdullah had been carefully treading

towards change, introducing municipal elections for the first time in Saudi Arabia in 2005. He later granted women the right to cast ballots and run as candidates in the next local vote, set for 2015.

Asked about the situation of women in the kingdom, the only country in the world that bans females from driving, Talal said the issue had become “boring.” Many Saudi families “go into debt to pay drivers’ salaries,” he said, while strongly criticising religious leaders in the ultra-conservative kingdom who reject any calls for women to be allowed to drive.

“How can it make sense to allow a driver (a male stranger) to stay in the house day and night while prohibiting mixing between sexes and women from driving?

“Do we not have confidence in our women?”

In June 2011, female activists launched a campaign to defy the ban, with many arrested for doing so and forced to sign a pledge they will never drive again. No law specifically forbids women in Saudi Arabia

from driving, but the interior minister formally banned them after 47 women were arrested and punished for staging a demonstration in cars in November 1990.

The kingdom enforces strict rules governing mixing between the sexes, while women are forced to wear a veil and a black cloak, or abaya, that covers them from head to toe except for their hands and faces. On the economic front, Prince Talal in the interview with AFP called for the creation of a sovereign fund in the kingdom similar to those which exist in other Gulf states. The kingdom’s budget surplus in 2012 hit $102.93 billion thanks to rising oil-dominated revenues.

“The annual budget surplus must be put in the fund which in turn must be independent of the government,” he said.

Such a fund is needed to prepare for the post-oil era. “Oil could dry up, but there are alternatives in the market. We are afraid that demands for crude oil would fall one day.” Talal, who himself does not hold a government post, paid tribute to

his half-brother calling him “a man of reforms” and expressed hope that “God will grant him a long life to speed up political and social reforms.”

The king’s age and frequent hospitalisations have raised concerns about the future leadership of the world’s key oil producer, which is also a regional powerhouse. Talal, however, cannot be considered a contender to the throne as his mother is not Saudi.

Today his energies are directed towards the Arab Gulf Programme for Development (AGFUND) that he chairs and which promotes education and health in developing countries.

Influenced by late Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser, he created the rebellious “Free Princes” movement in the 1960s which demanded fundamental reforms in the kingdom.

Most famous among his sons is Prince Walid bin Talal, billionaire chief of Kingdom Holding investment group and one of the world’s richest men. — AFP

3 Kurdish activists shot dead in Paris as Turkey seeks peace Founding member of PKK among dead

CARACAS: Supporters of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez gather outside Miraflores presidential palace during an event in homage of Chavez, in Caracas yesterday. —AFP

Venezuela’s ‘Che’ prays for hero Chavez’s recovery CARACAS: A flamboyant look-a-like of Latin American revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara has for years been a familiar sight on the streets of Venezuela whipping up support for his other socialist hero, President Hugo Chavez.

Yet 54-year-old Humberto Lopez cuts a more subdued figure these days as he waits and prays for better news from Cuba where Chavez is battling to recover from cancer surgery.

“Every day after I wake up, I light a candle for him,” the bearded Lopez says, puffing a cigar and adjusting a Che-style beret as he stands in front of a shrine to Chavez in his home.

“I love Chave. It’s that simple. He’s not just a man or leader, he’s the hope of the world’s poor and dispossessed, the heart of the fatherland. When the heart is bleeding, how can I be happy?”

Though viewed by many as something of a cartoon figure when parading in the streets, Lopez is a militant activist who admits participating in various acts of violence during the turbulent 14 years of Chavez’s rule.

He carries a knife strapped to his ankle, shows off a bulletwound and other injuries and reels off details of his involvement in some of the most dramatic events in Venezuela’s recent past - roughing up opposition media, infiltrating protests, defending Chavez during a brief 2002 coup.

His depression over Chavez’s fragile health mirrors the feelings of millions of the president’s fanatical supporters among Venezuela’s poor, who have seen him as a virtual messiah and struggle to contemplate an end to his rule. His views on the future reflect those of a radical hard core who believe the ‘Comandante’ is simply irreplaceable.

“A man like him comes along every 100 years,” Lopez reflects on the rooftop terrace of his two-storey house in a scruffy neighborhood on a hillside outside Caracas. “I believe he will recover. But if he doesn’t, let’s be clear: there is no Chavismo without Chavez. — Reuters

PARIS/ISTANBUL: Three female Kurdish activists including a founding member of the PKK rebel group were shot dead in Paris overnight in execution-style killings condemned by Turkish politicians trying to broker a peace deal.

Dozens of riot police formed a cordon around the Information Centre of Kurdistan, an institute in central Paris with close links to the PKK where the bodies were found soon after midnight yesterday. According to one Kurdish agency, workers broke in after seeing blood stains at the door.

Sakine Cansiz and two other women appeared to have been shot in the head, a French police source said. According to Kurdish media one woman had also been shot in the stomach. It was not immediately clear who had carried out the killings; but the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has seen internal feuding during an armed campaign in the mountainous Turkish southeast that has killed some 40,000 since 1984.

The killings came shortly after Turkey announced it had opened talks with Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader jailed on the prison island of Imrali, near Istanbul.

The talks to end the conflict would almost certainly raise tensions within the movement over demands and terms of any ceasefire.

“Rest assured that French authorities are determined to get to the bottom of these unbearable acts,” French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said at the scene, adding the killings were “surely an execution”. Any Turkish government contacts with the PKK, deemed a terrorist group

by Ankara, Washington and the EU, are also highly controversial in the Turkish political establishment. Last summer, preceeding the move to talks, saw some of the worst bloodshed of the threedecades-old conflict.

Valls identified one of the victims as the head of the centre and said homicide and anti-terrorism units had been

assigned to investigate the murders. A police source confirmed their nationality as Turkish. “This is a political crime, there is no doubt about it,” Remzi Kartal, a leader of the Kurdistan National Congress, an umbrella group of Kurdish organisations in Europe, told Reuters. “Ocalan and the Turkish government have started a peace process, they want to engage in dialogue, but there are parties that are against resolving the Kurdish question and want to sabotage the peace process,” he said. An employee of the centre told French broadcaster i<Tele that Cansiz was a founding member of the PKK, which is fighting for greater Kurdish autonomy in the Turkish southeast. Many Turks fear such autonomy could stoke demands for an independent Kurdish homeland and undermine Turkey. The Firat news agency, which is close to the group, said another victim was the Paris representative of the Brussels-based Kurdistan National Congress political group. Firat said two of

those killed were shot in the head and one in the stomach, and that the murder weapon was believed to have been fitted with a silencer. “A couple of colleagues saw blood stains at the door. When they broke the door open and entered they saw the three women had been executed,” French Kurdish Associations Federation Chairman Mehmet Ulker was reported as saying by Firat.

The government and PKK have agreed a framework for a peace plan, according to Turkish media reports, in talks which would have been unthinkable in Turkey only a few years ago. Ocalan is widely reviled by Turks who hold him responsible for a conflict that burns at the heart of the nation.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has introduced some reforms allowing Kurdish broadcasting and some concessions on language; but activists are demanding more freedom in education and administration. — Reuters

MARSEILLE: A woman of Kurdish origin holds a poster showing the photos of the three Kurdish women activists killed overnight in Paris next to a boy holding a cardboard reading “Turkey assassin, Hollande complicit” during a demonstration yesterday in central Marseille. — AFP

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

International FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Family seeks body of maid beheaded in Saudi COLOMBO: Distraught family members of a Sri Lankan maid beheaded in Saudi Arabia have asked for her remains to be flown home, a family friend said yesterday, amid growing anger at the execution.

The family of Rizana Nafeek was in shock after hearing of Wednesday’s beheading and was pleading with the authorities to bring back her body, said the friend, Abdul Jihad, in the eastern village of Muttur. “The family is completely heartbroken,” Jihad, 46, told AFP. “They want Rizana’s body brought back, although we have been told that they have already buried her.”

Jihad, a science teacher at a local school who had taught Rizana, said Sri Lankan authorities had earlier raised the family’s hopes with repeated appeals for clemency, the latest over the weekend by President Mahinda Rajapakse.

“The villagers will pray for her tomorrow after the Friday prayers,” Jihad said, adding that Rizana had travelled to Saudi Arabia in 2005 to work as a housemaid when she was barely 17. She had hoped to earn enough to build a house for her family, which lives in a

makeshift home. “The mother is still in shock and her father is very ill and will be hospitalised soon,” he added.

Rajapakse has deplored the execution.

The European Union expressed dismay and said it had asked Saudi authorities to commute the death penalty. Sri Lankan newspapers carried banner headlines about the execution. Parliament observed a minute’s silence on Wednesday while some lawmakers called for a ban on sending local women to Saudi Arabia to work as housemaids.

Human rights groups have condemned the beheading, noting that Nafeek was just 17 when she was accused of killing the baby of her Saudi employer. She was found guilty of smothering the infant after an argument with the child’s mother, the Saudi interior ministry has said. Human Rights Watch said Nafeek had retracted “a confession” that she said was made under duress. She said the baby died in a choking accident while drinking from a bottle. “In executing Rizana Nafeek, Saudi authorities demonstrated callous disregard for basic humanity as well as Saudi Arabia’s international legal obliga-

COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan vendor displays the front page of daily newspapers in Colombo yesterday. — AFP tions,” the New York-based watchdog’s senior women’s rights researcher, Nisha Varia, said. Last year the ultra-conservative Muslim

kingdom beheaded 76 people, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. HRW put the number at 69. —AFP

US missiles kill five militants in Pakistan Seventh attack in less than two weeks

QUETTA: A Pakistani man pushes a stretcher carring an injured blast victim to a hospital after a bomb explosion in Quetta yesterday. A bomb attack killed 11 people and wounded dozens more in a crowded part of Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta, police said. — AFP

Bomb attack kills 11 in Pakistan’s Quetta QUETTA: A bomb tore through a Pakistan security forces’ vehicle yesterday, killing 11 people and wounding dozens more in a crowded part of the southwestern city of Quetta, officials said.

The vehicle belonging to the paramilitary Frontier Corps was completely destroyed along with about seven other vehicles, an AFP reporter said. Pools of blood, smashed window panes, charred pieces of metal and merchandise from street stalls littered the roadside after the blast.

“Frontier Corps personnel were the target because the bomb was planted underneath their vehicle,” said senior police investigator Hamid Shakeel. It was not immediately clear who carried out the attack. Quetta is the capital of the province of Baluchistan, one of the most deprived parts of Pakistan, which suffers from Islamist militancy, a separatist insurgency and sectarian violence.

“According to our information, 11 people were killed and 27 injured in the blast. We will be able to tell you after some time what kind of device it was, but it was a crowded place,” said Quetta police chief Mir Zubair Mehmood.

Allah Dad, a local shopkeeper who sells blankets and small bags, said he heard a deafening blast. “I went out of my shop and saw a thick cloud of dust. I was very scared and saw people screaming in panic. There were dead bodies and injured people shouting for help,” he told AFP. Bomb disposal official Abdul Razzaq said the bomb, packed with 20 to 25 kilograms (44 to 55 pounds) of explosives, was detonated by remote control. TV stations broadcast harrowing images of casualties being stretchered from the scene, heavily damaged vehicles and survivors picking through the debris.—AFP

PESHAWAR: US drone-fired missiles hit a house in Pakistan’s northwest tribal region yesterday, killing five suspected militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. It was the seventh such attack in less than two weeks.

The recent spate of strikes has been one of the most intense in the past two years, a period in which political tensions between the US and Pakistan led to a reduced number of attacks compared to 2010, when they were at their most frequent.

It’s unclear whether the current uptick has been caused by particularly valuable intelligence obtained by the CIA, or whether the warming of relations between the two countries has made strikes less sensitive. Protests by the government and Islamic hardliners have been noticeably muted.

The US views drone attacks as a key weapon against Taleban and al-Qaeda militants out of its forces’ reach in Pakistan’s tribal region. But the attacks are extremely unpopular in Pakistan, posing a problem for the Pakistani government, which has played a double game in the past of denouncing the strikes in public while supporting some of them in private.

The strike yesterday occurred in a village near Mir Ali, one of the main towns in the North Waziristan tribal area, said Pakistani intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

North Waziristan is located next to the Afghan border and is the main militant sanctuary in Pakistan. The US has repeatedly pushed Pakistan to launch a military offensive in the area, but

Islamabad has refused, saying its troops are stretched too thin fighting domestic militants who pose a threat to the state.

However, many analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target Afghan Taleban militants with whom it has historical ties and who could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw. Pakistan is also worried about potential backlash from militants who have so far directed their fight against coalition forces in Afghanistan rather than the Pakistani state.

Yesreday’s strike occurred in an area dominated by powerful militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is believed to have a nonaggression pact with the Pakistani military.

A drone attack on Jan. 2 in the neighboring South Waziristan tribal area killed another such commander, Maulvi Nazir, who also had a truce with the Pakistani army. His death could complicate the military’s fight against Pakistani Taleban militants in the area who have been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for the past few years.

The Pakistani and Afghan branches of the Taleban are allied but have focused their fights against different enemies. US drone strikes have mainly focused on members of the Afghan Taleban and al-Qaeda but have also occasionally targeted the Pakistani Taleban.

US missiles killed nine Pakistani Taleban fighters in South Waziristan on Jan. 6. A drone strike killed the leader of the Pakistani Taleban, Baitullah Mehsud, in South Waziristan in August 2009.

Islamabad has been understandably less opposed to strikes that target the Pakistani Taleban since the group poses a direct threat to the government.

It’s unclear whether the most recent strike was part of an effort to reduce government opposition to the drone program in the country.

The government has officially protested many recent strikes, but the response over the past two weeks has been muted. The response from Islamic hardliners, some of whom are believed to have links with the Pakistani military, has also been fairly quiet.

Many Pakistanis oppose the attacks because they believe they mostly kill civilians, an allegation denied by the US Independent research indicates that a majority of the people killed are militants, but civilian casualties also occur.

President Barack Obama ramped up drone strikes in Pakistan when he took office in 2009. There were 53 attacks that year, more than in the previous five years combined, according to the Long War Journal website, which tracks the strikes. Since Dec. 28, there have been seven drone attacks, according to an Associated Press count. The AP counts an attack that hits multiple adjacent targets as a single strike. The annual tally of attacks peaked in 2010 at 117 but declined over the next two years as tension between the U.S. and Pakistan increased, especially over the covert raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad in May 2011, and the accidental death of 24 Pakistani troops in US airstrikes in November 2011. There were 64 attacks in 2011 and 46 in 2012, according to the Long War Journal. — AP

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International FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

India, Pakistan calm tempers after border beheading NEW DELHI: The beheading of an Indian soldier may have sparked a war of words between Delhi and Islamabad but the two nuclear rivals are both determined to prevent it from wrecking a fragile peace process.

India delivered a dressing-down to Pakistan’s top envoy to New Delhi on Wednesday after senior ministers and the military denounced what they described as an “inhuman” and “dastardly” attack in the disputed Kashmir border region.

Pakistan’s foreign minister in turn said she was “appalled” at the reaction from Delhi as Islamabad insisted no such incident had taken place. Pakistan says one of its soldiers was killed in cross-border firing on Sunday. But for all the initial angry verbal exchanges, the episode has so far not triggered further military exchanges between the tens of thousands of troops on both sides of the de facto border known as the Line of Control (LoC).

And as tempers begin to subside, diplomats on each side are now stressing their desire to calm things down. “It is important to exercise utmost restraint, not indulge in

mutual recrimination,” Salman Bashir, the Pakistani high commissioner to New Delhi, told India’s NDTV yesterday.

In the initial aftermath of the killings on Tuesday, Indian Foreign Minister Salman Khurshid railed against the “ghastly” attack.

But by the next day he was telling reporters: “We cannot and must not allow for an escalation of a very unwholesome event that has taken place.”

And his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, said it was not time for both sides to start “having a go at each other”.

After a total break in ties following the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which India blamed on Pakistan-based militants, relations between political leaders of both countries had been slowly improving.

Opening up trade and offering more lenient visa regimes have been a feature of recent high-level talks and Kapil Kak, a Delhi-based strategic affairs expert, said neither side wanted to undo all their hard work. “India’s reaction was only to make noises so that the government is not seen as wimpish two years before national elections,” Kak told AFP.

“It is in nobody’s interest to escalate tensions as the two countries have larger areas of convergence.” Muslim-majority Kashmir, a Himalayan region that India and Pakistan both claim in full but rule in part, has been the cause of two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947.

A ceasefire has been in place since 2003 along the LoC, but it is periodically violated by both sides. While the three deaths this week have put strain on the truce, Kak said neither side wanted to see it collapse.

“The ceasefire is a milestone in our confidence-building measures as it not only helps local people in Kashmir but also serves a larger interest of both the countries,” said Kak. Ajai Sahni, an analyst at India’s Institute for Conflict Management, said Khurshid had highlighted the lack of appetite among India’s political leaders for confrontation with its nuclear-armed neighbour, even if such restraint undermined “our strategic interests”. “We do not have the stomach to take on anyone, let alone Pakistan,” Sahni told AFP. Privately, senior military officers have said they want to see the beheading

avenged with action on the ground, saying it was a question of “honour”. The contrast between the military’s more bullish approach and the political establishment’s desire to keep relations on an even keel carries echoes of recent differences of opinion towards China.

In a speech last month, Khurshid said New Delhi must accept China’s increasing presence in its own backyard, only days after India’s navy chief voiced “major concern” about Beijing’s maritime strength.

Many of India’s newspapers ran with headlines on Wednesday about Pakistani “butchery”, but there was little clamour for revenge in yesterday’s editions.

The Hindu newspaper highlighted previous border clashes which were bigger but less publicised, and said it had been told by one military official that Indian troops had beheaded a Pakistani last year.

In an editorial, The Times of India called for both sides to step up their contacts. “It is imperative for both to engage with one another at various levels: political and diplomatic, military and intelligence,” it said. —AFP

Lawyer: Police beat New Delhi gang rape suspects ‘Woman’s companion was ultimately responsible’ NEW DELHI: Police badly beat the five suspects arrested in the brutal gang rape and killing of a young woman on a New Delhi bus, the lawyer for one of the men said yesterday, accusing authorities of tampering with evidence in the case that has transfixed India.

“They are innocent,” Manohar Lal Sharma said of the five suspects ahead of a court hearing, which ended quickly after it turned out some of the official court paperwork listing the charges was illegible. He said police have beaten the men and placed other prisoners into the suspects’ cells to threaten them with knives, adding, “You can’t believe the reality of Indian prisons.” Five men have been charged with attacking the 23-year-old woman and a male friend on a bus as it was driven through the streets of India’s capital. The woman was raped and assaulted with a metal bar on Dec. 16 and eventually died of her injuries. Rape victims are not identified in India, even if they die, and rape trials are closed to the media.

Sharma, who has made a series of inflam-

matory and often-contradictory statements over the past two days, at one point yesterday said the dead woman’s male companion, who boarded the bus with her after the pair saw a movie together, was “responsible for the whole thing.” He gave no details, though, and a few hours later said the man’s responsibility “was only my opinion.”

The case has sparked protests across India by women and men who say India’s legal system doesn’t do enough to prevent attacks on women. Women have told stories of relentless abuse - from catcalls to bus gropings to rapes and of a police and judicial system that does little to stop it, often blaming victims’ unchaste behavior.

The woman and her male friend were coming home from a movie at a New Delhi mall when they boarded a bus that police say was carrying the defendants, who were traveling together on a joy ride through the city. The woman’s friend, who has not been identified, has said he tried to defend the woman but was

NEW DELHI: Indian lawyer V.K. Anand (C), who represents defendant Ram Singh who is on trial for the gang-rape of a student, gestures as he speaks with the media outside the Saket District Court in New Delhi yesterday. —AFP

soon beaten unconscious. Authorities say the two were dumped off the bus, naked and bloody, later.

Sharma said that authorities, under pressure to quickly wrap up the case, would convict the suspects no matter what evidence, including forcing them to make incriminating statements. “What happened to this woman was so heinous, so horrible,” Sharma said, adding that, “the police will manipulate the facts.” Sharma also said that the woman’s companion was ultimately responsible. “The boyfriend betrayed” her, he said. “The boyfriend is responsible for the whole thing,” he said, before backing away from the statement later in the day.

Sharma spoke to reporters before a hearing for the suspects in a New Delhi court complex.

While Sharma had said he represented three of the suspects - bus driver Ram Singh, Singh’s brother Mukesh, and another man, Akshay Thakur - the court eventually approved him to serve as the lawyer only for Mukesh Singh.

Other lawyers were assigned to three other suspects, and it was not immediately clear why the fifth had no assigned lawyer. The suspects were quickly hustled into the courtroom Thursday afternoon for the hearing, their faces covered by scarves or hats. They were surrounded by rings of policemen, and it was not clear if they were handcuffed or shackled.

Yesterday’s hearing had been expected to result in the case being sent to a special “fasttrack” court. India’s legal system is painfully slow, corrupt and inefficient, with many cases lasting years, even decades.

But much of the work of the hearing had to be postponed until Monday, after lawyers found that some of the official paperwork was not legible. Sharma appears to be preparing a defense based, in part, on the many problems with the legal and judicial system. He indicated the men had been picked up because the authorities needed to make arrests given the public outcry, and the suspects all come from poor or working class families. —AP

SRINAGAR: An Indian policeman detains a Kashmiri government employee shouting slogans against the government during a protest rally in Srinagar, India, yesterday. Police detained dozens of government employees demanding compensation for unpaid salaries and raising the retirement age. —AP

Afghans say US pullout would trigger disaster KABUL: Afghan lawmakers said disaster and civil war would follow if Washington pushed ahead with a suggestion to withdraw all its troops from the country after 2014. The White House said a day earlier it was considering the so-called “zero option” of a complete pullout - despite earlier recommendations from the top military commander in Afghanistan to keep soldiers there to help the government.

That option and the angry reaction from Afghan officials are likely to dominate talks between US President Barack Obama and his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai in Washington today. The meeting was already likely to be tense, given ongoing strains in their relationship over the war.

“If Americans pull out all of their troops without a plan, the civil war of the 1990s would repeat itself,” said Naeem Lalai, an outspoken lawmaker from volatile Kandahar province, the birthplace of the Taleban.

“It (full withdrawal) will pave the way for the Taleban to take over militarily,” Lalai told Reuters. When the Soviets left Afghanistan in 1989 after a decade-long war, financial aid dried up and the Afghan communist government collapsed, leading to infighting between warlords. A civil war paved the way for the Taleban’s rise to power.

The United States has about 68,000 troops there and that number was already expected to reduce sharply ahead of Dec. 31 2014 - the official end of the NATO-led combat mission in the country.

NATO and its partners are racing against the clock to train up Afghanistan’s 350,000-strong security forces though questions remain over how they well they will be able to tackle insurgents in the face of intensifying violence. —Reuters

International FRIDAY, JUNUARY 11, 2013

Australia firefighters race to beat rising heat YASS: Australian firefighters raced to control a series of blazes yesterday before a forecast rise in temperatures brings the risk of more infernos, as dramatic accounts of survival emerged.

Fires have been raging across southeast Australia for nearly a week. While many have been contained, 120 are still burning and at least 17 remain out of control in the country’s most populous state, New South Wales.

Cooler weather that brought some relief on Wednesday continued in many parts Thursday. But temperatures are set to soar again to well over 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) on Friday, piling pressure on firefighters.

In Tasmania residents of the fishing village of Dunalley, where 90 homes and businesses were destroyed, could be allowed to go home Friday, police said, as gripping stories of survival emerged. “We saw tornadoes of fire just coming across towards us and the next thing we knew everything was on fire, everywhere all around us,” Tim Holmes, who took refuge in the sea under a jetty with his five young grandchildren, told the ABC. “We were all just heads, water up to our chins

just trying to breathe because... the atmosphere was so incredibly toxic.”

The family survived but are now homeless. NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said crews were working flat-out containing blazes before the heat returned. “It’s about focusing on getting as much contained and consolidated as we can ahead of a return to hotter and dryer conditions dominating much of NSW over the coming days,” Fitzsimmons told ABC television. “We’re looking at temperatures across much of NSW into low-to-mid 40s and extending into the high 40s on Saturday. “The only reprieve, if you can call it that, is that we are not expecting significant wind strengths to build.”

The blazes have scorched more than 350,000 hectares (865,000 acres) of land in New South Wales alone, with one fire burning just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from a former weapons range littered with unexploded bombs. The 5,840hectare Deans Gap fire is near the Tianjara plateau which, until the mid1970s, was used by the army as a practice bombing range.

“If it was required they’d be looking

to put in a firebreak in that area,” a New South Wales Rural Fire Service spokeswoman told AFP. Were the flames to reach the plateau south of Sydney, it could complicate firefighting efforts, with the unexploded bombs making water-drops impossible.

The fires are so large they can be seen from space, with astronaut Chris Hadfield uploading images of “streamers of smoke visible all across the coun-

NEW SOUTH WALES: Firefighters (R) cross a paddock blackened by recent bushfires near Bookham, a small village in the Yass Shire in the southern region of Australia’s New South Wales state, yesterday. — AFP

Philippines warns of very threatening China Manila to acquire 10 new patrol craft from Japan MANILA: The Philippines’ top diplomat warned yesterday that “very threatening” actions from China in staking its claims to contested waters were posing a risk to stability in Asia. Foreign Secretary Albert del Rosario made the comments following a meeting in Manila with his Japanese counterpart, Fumio Kishida, during which the two sides pledged to deepen security and other ties to counter a rising China.

The Philippines and Japan are locked in separate territorial disputes with China which have simmered for decades but intensified recently amid what the two nations perceive as increasingly aggressive Chinese tactics.

“We talked about the challenges that we appear to be facing in view of the assertions being made by China,” del Rosario told reporters. “I think we all understand that the assertions being made by China, in terms of their ninedash line claim for example, they do pose threats to the stability of the region.” The so-called “nine-dash” line map lays out China’s claims to most of the South China Sea, including waters close to the shores of some of its neighbours. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also have overlapping claims to parts of the South China Sea, but China insists it has sovereign rights to nearly all of it.

Del Rosario cited a range of recent Chinese tactics that were of concern to the Philippines, including establishing a local governing authority to rule over the South China Sea and building more infrastructure in contested areas. “I

try” to Twitter from the International Space Station. While more than 100 homes were razed by fires in Tasmania state last weekend, only a handful have since been destroyed nationwide and no deaths have been reported.

The biggest impact has been on farmers, with vast amounts of pasture, crops and animal feed lost, as well as thousands of head of stock and sheds and outbuildings. — AFP

MANILA: Philippine Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario (L) shows the way to his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida (front R) as he arrives for their meeting at the foreign affairs office in Manila yesterday. Kishida called for stronger ties with the Philippines to uphold Asian peace amid tense territorial disputes by the two countries with China. — AFP think these are all very threatening,” Kishida, who later on Thursday met said del Rosario, who has infuriated Philippine President Benigno Aquino.

China with other outspoken comments.

Kishida said this also made it necesIn July last year, he accused China of sary to “enhance the strategic partner“duplicity and intimidation” in staking ship between the two countries and its claims. Meanwhile, Tokyo is cooperate in shaping (a) peaceful and embroiled in an even more hostile dis- prosperous Asia-Pacific region”. Del pute with Beijing over a group of unin- Rosario said Japan was committed to habited islands-known as the Senkakus boosting the capability of the underin Japan and the Diaoyus in China-in equipped Philippine Coast Guard, which the East China Sea. Without mentioning is one of the frontline forces in protectChina directly, Kishida said the ing Filipino interests in the South China Philippines and Japan needed to boost Sea. The Philippines expects to acquire their ties to help ensure peace in the in “about 18 months” 10 new patrol craft region. “As the strategic environment in from Japan, which will also help train the region is greatly changing, it is nec- coast guard staff and fund its communiessary for us foreign ministers to share cations system upgrade to promote recognition of the situation,” said maritime safety, he said. — AFP

Japan and South Korea meet in patch-up bid TOKYO: Japan and South Korea agreed yestersday to work together on building ties, Japanese officials said, as they look to repair relations frayed by a territorial row.

Vice foreign ministers from the two countries met in Tokyo for their 12th “strategic dialogue” since 2005 and had a “frank exchange of views on ways to further strengthen Japan-South Korea relations”, the Japanese ministry said in a statement.

It was the first such meeting since both countries elected new leaders last month, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Park Geun-Hye. Ties between the two US allies deteriorated last year after outgoing South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak made the first presidential visit to tiny disputed islands known as Dokdo in Korea and Takeshima in Japan.

The visit sent relations into a tailspin and reawakened historical animosities over Japan’s 1910-45 colonial rule and the plight of Korean women who were forced to serve as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers.

Japanese vice minister for foreign affairs Chikao Kawai told his South Korean counterpart Ahn Ho-Young that their two countries shared “basic values and interests”, according to the statement.

Kawai proposed the two countries work together to build a “future-oriented” relationship although “difficult problems occasionally occur”, the statement said. He proposed that Japan and South Korea continue close consultations under their new governments.

The two diplomats also agreed to maintain and strengthen cooperation between Japan, South Korea and the United States in dealing with North Korea in the wake of a rocket launch widely believed to be a missile test, the statement said.

Abe, who took office in late December, and Park, who is set to take office next month, appear to be trying to reset relations, with an envoy from the Japanese prime minister already having visited Seoul.

Abe’s first foreign guest since his swearing in was a close aide to Park, Hwang Woo-Yea, chairman of South Korea’s ruling Saenuri Party, whom he met Wednesday alongside other members of the Korea-Japan Parliamentarians’ Union. Park last week called for future “reconciliation and cooperation” with Japan. — AFP

International FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Hong Kong reporters slam bid to curb information HONG KONG: Journalists in Hong Kong yesterday slammed a government bid to restrict access to information about company directors, after a series of investigative reports into the hidden wealth of Chinese officials.

Under the proposals put forward by the financial services and treasury bureau, corporate directors could apply to have their residential address and full identity card or passport numbers blocked from public view.

Such information can presently be accessed with a small fee, and has been used by reporters to help unravel a web of secret assets showing the true wealth of China’s ruling elite and their families.

“We believe that the ability of foreign correspondents and journalists to legally access information about individuals and their companies is vital to our role of reporting on issues of public interest,” the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Hong Kong said in a

letter addressed to the city’s leader Leung Chun-ying.

“We call on the government to withdraw this amendment and to maintain its support for the free flow of information in Hong Kong.” The former British colony, which reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, maintains a semi-autonomous status with guarantees of civil liberties-including press freedom-not seen on mainland China.

The proposal comes amid concern over meddling by Beijing in the city’s affairs, and after a number of reports focusing on the wealth and assets of China’s ruling elite grabbed worldwide headlines.

In June last year, financial newswire Bloomberg used publicly available records to compile a list of investments made by the extended family of Xi Jinping, just months before he became head of the ruling Communist Party.

The agency said the investments totalled $376 million. The New York Times said in October that financial records showed outgoing premier Wen Jiabao’s relatives had control of assets worth at least $2.7 billion, a report Beijing branded as a smear.

Bloomberg said it used Hong Kong and Chinese identity card numbers from corporate filings to chart business ties among Chinese officials and their heirs, while the New York Times also used such information from Hong Kong.

Access to the websites of both Bloomberg and New York Times in China has since been blocked. A large number of Chinese companies are listed in Hong Kong, a financial hub that acts as a gateway for international firms seeking to tap the booming Chinese market.

“It’s a damage to the free flow of information, which is the bloodline of investigative

reporting,” Mak Yin-ting, the chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, told AFP. Without the ability to access the ID numbers of company directors it would be difficult to confirm a person’s identity, she added. Dozens of people might share the same name with the same Chinese characters. But the financial services and treasury bureau said in a statement the amendment was needed “to strike a balance between the right of the public to information and the protection of privacy”.

It added that under the proposal the public would still be able to access a director’s correspondence address as well as three of the seven digits of their ID number. “This should be enough for the public and the media to identify the persons concerned,” the statement said. The government aims for the new law to come into effect in the first quarter of 2014. — AFP

Schmidt urges N Korea Internet freedom Richardson calls to adopt a moratorium on nuclear tests

BANGKOK: Karen villager Yaserh Nasuansuwan, right, sits with his compatriots for a court session against Thai Pollution Control Department at the administrative court in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday. — AP

Thai villagers win lead pollution court battle BANGKOK: Ethnic minority villagers at the centre of a nine-year legal dispute over lead pollution from a mine in western Thailand won their fight for increased compensation yesterday.

Thailand’s Supreme Administrative Court ordered the government to pay 3.9 million baht ($128,000) shared between 22 plaintiffs from a Karen community living near the Klity Creek in Kanchanaburi province.

It said the government’s Department of Pollution Control had failed to prepare a contingency plan in case of a leak, while efforts to tackle the problem only made it worse. Both sides had appealed a lower court decision in 2008 to award a total of 783,226 baht in compensation to the plaintiffs for the contamination from a mine operated

by Lead Concentrate Ltd. until its closure in 1998.

Village chief Yasae Nasuansuwan said his communityhome to 400 people-had suffered from lead pollution since 1975. “We have had health problems such as stomach ache while many women feel tense because they no longer use water from the creek for their daily activities,” he told AFP after the ruling.

“About six to seven people died when high levels of lead were found in the creek, but I don’t know if they all died from the lead because we didn’t go to see a doctor,” he said. The court ordered the government regularly to test the contamination levels, but villagers expressed disappointment that it did not set a timetable to clean up the creek.

Activist Surapong Kongchantuk, director of the Karen Studies and Development Center, welcomed the ruling as “the beginning of standards in environmental cases” in the kingdom. — AFP

BEIJING: Google chairman Eric Schmidt said yesterday he had told North Korea it would not develop unless it embraces Internet freedom, as he returned from a controversial visit to the communist state.

Bill Richardson, the former US ambassador to the United Nations who led the trip, said he called on Pyongyang to adopt a moratorium on ballistic missile and nuclear tests following its widely criticised rocket launch last month.

Talks were also held about an American citizen who is being detained in the country, he told reporters at Beijing airport, after speculation that he could return with the man, Kenneth Bae. Efforts to “strongly urge” North Korea, a highly secretive and tightlycontrolled country, to increase the use of the Internet were “the main success of the visit”, the former New Mexico governor said.

Schmidt said he told North Korean officials they should open up the country’s Internet “or they will remain behind”. “As the world becomes increasingly connected, their decision to be virtually isolated is very much going to affect their physical world, their economic growth and so forth, and it will make it harder for them to catch up economically,” Schmidt said.

“Once the Internet starts, citizens in a country can certainly build on top of it.

The government has to do something.

It has to make it possible for people to use the Internet which the government in North Korea has not yet done.”

The North has a domestic Intranet service with a very limited number of users. Analysts say access to the Internet is for the super-elite only, meaning a few hundred people or maybe 1,000 at most.

Last week in a surprise New Year address North Korean leader Kim JongUn said improving the economy through science and technology was a key goal. But experts said Internet freedom in the tightly controlled country

BEIJING: Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (2nd R) and Google chairman Eric Schmidt (C) arrive at Beijing airport from North Korea yesterday. Richardson and Schmidt met with reporters following their visit to secretive North Korea calling for greater Internet freedom for the welfare of its people. — AFP was a distant possibility. “Most people several times in the past two decades in North Korea do not know what is and has been involved in negotiating going on in the outside world, so to the release of US citizens detained have access to this through the Internet there. During the latest trip there were would be a shock to the system,” said discussions about Bae, an American of Brian Bridges, of Hong Kong’s Lingnan Korean descent who was arrested in November, but the delegation did not University.

The US State Department had voiced meet him personally as he was being concern about the trip, saying it was ill- held too far from Pyongyang, timed in the wake of the North’s rocket Richardson said.

“We were informed that his health launch. Pyongyang said its aim was to put a scientific satellite into orbit, but was good and that the judicial proceedWashington and other nations called it ings would start soon. That is encouraging,” he added. Bae, 44, entered the a disguised ballistic missile test.

“We strongly urged the North country as a tourist, according to the Koreans to proceed with a moratorium North’s official news agency, which said on ballistic missiles and possible he had admitted committing a crime nuclear test,” Richardson said. The dele- against the state. The official agency gation did not meet leader Kim but had has described the high-profile visitors a “series of very frank discussions” with as a Google delegation.

Richardson last visited the North in officials on “the current level of tension in the peninsula”, he said, adding: “The 2010 when he met its chief nuclear North Koreans need to temper their negotiator to try and ease tensions after the country shelled a South Korean bornuclear development.”

Richardson has been to the North der island. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Modi’s growth model might not work across India

Chinese export surge lifts shares

PAGE 21 PAGE 20

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: The EURO logo is seen in front of the European Central Bank ECB prior to the meeting of the Governing Council in Frankfurt/Main, Germany. The European Central Bank rang in the New Year with its rates on hold at an all-time low at its first policy meeting of 2013 yesterday, amid new signs the euro-zone debt crisis could be easing. — AFP (See Page 22)

Food prices to remain high Low stocks pose risk-FAO

ROME: Food prices will stay at high levels in 2013 and low stocks pose the risk of sharp price increases if crops fail, the United Nations’ food agency said yesterday, after its index showed prices fell for the third month running in December. A surge in food prices over the summer of 2012 fuelled by the worst drought in more than half a century in the United States and dry weather in other major exporters raised fears of a new food crisis such as the one seen in 2008.

But the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Food Price Index, which measures monthly price changes for a basket of cereals, oilseeds, dairy, meat and sugar, fell for the third month in a row in December to 209, its lowest level since June, led by declines in cereals and oils

prices. Soy prices have fallen on forecasts of near-record South American production, bringing down other grains prices. For 2012 as a whole, the index averaged 212, down 7 percent compared to 2011, but still at historically high levels. “Prices are high and will remain high in 2013/2014,” FAO senior economist Abdolreza Abbassian said in a telephone interview.

“The fact that stocks remain low and the possibility of hopefully a better economic situation in 2013/14 that should encourage consumption are issues the market will get some price support from,” he said. FAO said in December it expected world cereal stocks to be about 495 million tons at end2013, down 5 percent from their opening level. Nevertheless Abbassian said that better international coordination was helping

prevent countries from using export bans, which was creating a calmer situation compared to 2008, when unexpected national controls worsened the food crisis.

Good supply prospects for corn and soybeans in the southern hemisphere would help offset tightness in the northern hemisphere, reducing the risk of supply shocks, he said. But the situation for wheat remained more cautious, he said, due to concerns over high usage and a lack of high quality wheat in the market. FAO’s index is below a peak of 238 points hit in February 2011, when high food prices helped drive the Arab Spring uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa. In the summer of 2012 it reached levels close to those seen in 2008 when riots, some deadly, broke out in several poor countries. — Reuters

Saudi telcos eking out gains DUBAI: Saudi Arabia’s top two telecom operators will show the rewards of their efforts to cut costs and lure customers to more costly contracts when they post results later this month. Saudi Telecom Co (STC) and Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) dominate an increasingly saturated home market and are having to get smarter to drive growth.

Both are trying to move users on to more

lucrative contracts and consume more profitable data services, but earnings growth is likely to have been sluggish in the most recent three months. STC’s fourth-quarter profit will rise by a slim 1.4 percent to 2.37 billion Saudi riyals ($630 million), according to the average forecast of analysts polled by Reuters, while Mobily’s will likely increase 5.1 percent to

1.78 billion. “We’re seeing more and more customers switching to smart phones and operators are trying to sell them handsets tied to post-paid contracts that will push them to use more data,” said Asim Bukhtiar, Riyad Capital’s head of research.

“It’s not about increasing mobile penetration any more, but getting existing customers to increase their usage.” — Reuters

Bahrain lender sells 33% Ahli Bank stake DUBAI: Ahli United Bank, Bahrain’s largest listed lender, has sold most of its 33 percent stake in Qatar’s Ahli Bank to sovereign fund Qatar Foundation. The sale, involving all but 1,000 of Ahli United’s 37.38 million shares, still requires the approval of Ahli Bank shareholders, an Ahli Bank filing to the Qatar bourse said yesterday. No price was given but the stake would have been worth 1.93 billion riyals ($530.2 million) at Wednesday’s 51.70 riyals closing price.

Ahli Bank, Qatar’s seventh-largest lender by market value, had said in November its strategic partner would offload its holding and that the proposed sale was being reviewed by the Qatar central bank. Qatar Foundation, a non-profit organization wholly-owned by the Qatar royal family and which focuses on developing the Gulf Arab state’s education and science sectors, will now become Ahli Bank’s largest shareholder, followed by the Qatar Investment Authority which has a 16.7 percent stake. The purchase by a Qatari sovereign fund not known for investments in the financial sector could indicate a lack of interest among other commercial banks, a Dubai-based banker said. “It was always a question of how much control you could exercise with a 30 percent stake. Qatar is already a very over-banked nation and if you don’t have majority ownership, there is little you could do there,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. Shares in Ahli Bank were up 3.5 percent by 0730 GMT.— Reuters

Business FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

DEWA sukuk could price inside sovereign DUBAI: One of the first big bond issues from a state-owned company in the Gulf this year is likely to set a bullish tone for the market - so bullish, some market participants believe, that it might price inside the sovereign. Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) plans to issue up to $1 billion of sukuk in the first quarter, using the proceeds to refinance existing debt and invest in its projects, Chief Executive Saeed Mohammed Al-Tayer said on Tuesday.

DEWA last tapped the bond market in October 2010, when it priced a $2 billion, dual-tranche conventional bond. The improvement in Dubai’s image among investors since then will help it win better pricing relative to the rest of the market.

“With benchmark interest rates low and Dubai CDS (credit default swaps) also close to all-time low levels of around 200 basis points, we think this is a good time for DEWA to tap into the markets to raise long-term capital,” said Biswajit Dasgupta, head of treasury and trading at Invest AD in Abu Dhabi. “With Dubai perception

extremely positive in the international community and global investors increasingly adding Dubai risk into their portfolios, the Dubai in DEWA will be seen positively by investors.” If DEWA conducts the issue in the next few weeks, it is likely to be one of the first major issuers from the region this year, which would give it an early-mover advantage as investors start to build their holdings in the New Year. It may also benefit from its choice of a sukuk rather than a conventional bond, since a supply/demand imbalance in Islamic bonds has often pushed their yields below those of equivalent conventional bonds since last year.

These factors could conceivably help DEWA price its sukuk at a yield below Dubai’s outstanding sovereign bond - a very rare event in any bond market, and unheard-of in the Gulf’s recent history. Last October, Turkish brewer Anadolu Efes issued a $500 million, 10-year bond at a yield almost 10 basis points inside the Turkish sovereign curve. “DEWA is one of the most defensive credits in the Middle

Oil climbs to $113 LONDON: Brent crude oil rose more than $1 to around $113 per barrel yesterday after news of a sharp cut in Saudi oil production, an explosion in Yemen which halted most of the country’s oil exports and following bullish Chinese trade data. Saudi Arabia cut its crude oil production by around 700,000 barrels a day (bpd) over the last two months of last year, with output in December of around 9.0 million bpd, an industry source familiar with Saudi oil policy said.

The world’s largest oil exporter produced 9.025 million bpd in December, down from 9.49 million bpd in November and more than 1 million bpd below its peak production last summer. Flows of oil through Yemen’s main crude export pipeline stopped yesterday after it was blown up by unknown attackers, government and oil industry officials said. The news followed strong Chinese trade data which raised expectations that a recovery in the world’s second-biggest oil consumer would drive fuel demand higher. Brent crude oil futures for February rose $1.53 to a high of $113.29, before easing back to trade around $112.90 by 1105 GMT. US light crude oil futures rose $1.60 to peak at $94.70 per barrel.

“These three factors - Saudi Arabia, Yemen and the China data - are all helping to push up the market,” said Tamas Varga, oil analyst at brokers PVM Oil Associates in London. “The Saudi news is a surprise. We knew output was coming down but not this far, this quickly.” Riyadh says it favors an oil price of about $100 a barrel but recent reports have suggested that the market is very well supplied and output from some areas, particularly North America, will grow strongly over the next two years.

“Short-term, the Saudi output figures are bullish, but longer term they are more bearish because they suggest Saudi Arabia sees the need to cut to balance the market,” Varga said.

The market was jolted by news of the damage to Yemen’s key export pipeline in the central Maarib province, which only resumed flows in December after major repairs. “The bombing of the pipeline made us stop the crude pumping from the fields to the export terminal,” a Yemen oil ministry official said.

Chinese trade data was strongly bullish. China’s import and export growth in December were well above most projections, widening the country’s trade balance to $31.6 billion from $19.6 billion in November, and boosting Asian shares, official data showed.

“Risk is back on after the China data,” said Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt. “General market sentiment is much more positive, with hopes of better growth pushing up most markets.” World shares, commodities and growth-linked currencies rose as the stronger-than-expected Chinese exports raised hopes of a recovery in global economic activity this year.

Trade data from the world’s second-largest economy showed the value of exports grew 14.1 percent last month from a year earlier, racing past the forecasts of analysts polled

by Reuters, who had expected annual growth of 4 percent, and accelerating sharply from 2.9 percent in November. —Reuters

East and we believe that its bonds are cheap relative to regional and EM (emerging market) comparables,” JP Morgan said in a research note this week. “Diverging from our earlier view, we now believe that Dubai government bond spreads should not define the floor for DEWA.” Yields on DEWA’s outstanding bonds have been falling for over a year and are at record lows, thanks to a general rally in Dubai bonds and upgrades by rating agencies. Last November, Standard & Poor’s raised its long-term rating of DEWA to BBB from BBB-, citing an improved financial performance and its plan to refinance upcoming maturities.

DEWA’s $500 million, 6.375 percent bond maturing in 2016 was yielding 2.72 percent on Thursday, down about 300 bps from a year ago. The yield on its 2020 maturity has tightened even more. The $1.5 billion bond yielded 3.66 percent on Thursday, down 348 bps. Dubai’s $750 million, 7.75 percent conventional bond maturing in 2020 is yielding 3.63 percent, down 340 bps. It is benefitting from a

sense that Dubai has largely put its 20092010 debt crisis behind it, as its economy grows robustly and real estate prices start to recover.

The sovereign bond has continued to perform well since the release at the end of last month of Dubai’s 2013 budget plan, which would raise state spending moderately while cutting the size of the budget deficit by 18 percent, to below 0.5 percent of gross domestic product. But DEWA has one advantage over the Dubai sovereign; DEWA has a credit rating, which could make international investors more comfortable buying the bond. Dubai remains unrated, and has not indicated it will seek one in the near term. “The investment grade rating of DEWA in the context of Dubai being “unrated” gives more comfort to the global EM fund managers and gives an extra kicker in terms of money flowing into DEWA debt,” said Invest AD’s Dasgupta. DEWA’s rating may encourage investors to look at its individual corporate profile, rather than viewing it merely as an arm of the Dubai government. —Reuters

China’s export surge lifts shares and commodities Successful Spanish debt sale strengthens euro LONDON: World shares, commodities and growth-linked currencies rose yesterday as stronger-than-expected Chinese exports raised hopes of a more robust recovery in the global economy this year. However, gains in Europe’s equity markets were more limited with investors waiting for European Central Bank President Mario Draghi to give his views on the outlook for the recession-bound euro zone after a rate setting meeting later in the day.

“We’re not expecting him to move on policy, but what Draghi might have to say could be of interest with respect to possible interest rate cuts further down the line,” Michael Hewson, senior analyst at CMC Markets, said. A strong response by investors to Spain’s first debt sale of 2013 added to the positive sentiment in the markets ahead of the ECB meeting at which it is expected to leave rates unchanged.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index steadied just under its 2-year high of 1,169.19 points, with London’s FTSE 100, Paris’s CAC-40 and Frankfurt’s DAX were also little changed. Earlier the Chinese data lifted Asian markets to help the MSCI world equity index add 0.25 percent. Gains in the S&P 500, Dow Jones and Nasdaq 100 futures pointed to a higher open on Wall Street, where the main focus will be on corporate earnings as the fourth quarter reporting season gathers pace.

China surprised most observers by reporting its exports had rebounded sharply in December to hit a seven-month high, with imports growing at double the expected rate. However, the data showed demand for its goods from the United States and Europe remained subdued. A broad measure of Chinese credit growth was also found to have risen strongly, making it likely that the world’s secondlargest economy will be shown to have expanded by around 7.8 percent in 2012 when fourth quarter GDP data come out

SHANGHAI: A man transports goods on a tricycle on a street in Shanghai.

China’s trade surplus surged 48.1 percent to $231.1 billion in 2012 from the previous year, though total trade volume grew at a much slower pace. — AFP next week. China’s GDP growth touched a 3-1/2-year low of 7.4 percent between July and September last year. The strength of imports revealed in the data stoked hopes of greater demand across the commodity markets, lifting copper, iron ore and oil prices. “Risk is back on after the China data,” said Carsten Fritsch, senior oil analyst at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

“General market sentiment is much more positive, with hopes of better growth pushing up most markets.” London copper was up 0.9 percent at $8,156 a ton while US crude futures rose 1.4 percent to $94.45 a barrel and Brent futures added one percent to $112.90.

The economic report from China, Australia’s largest trading partner, sent the Aussie dollar to a three-week high of $1.0568 and contributed to further falls in the Japanese yen. The yen has been weakening on expectations of massive fiscal spending and aggressive monetary easing

in the coming weeks advocated by the new government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The dollar was up 0.4 percent to 88.22 yen, inching closer to its highest since July 2010 of 88.48 reached on Friday.

The euro was also up 0.5 percent to 115.43 yen. Last week it hit 115.99 yen, its highest since July 2011.

The euro received an extra boost after Spain successfully sold a larger-thanexpected amount of new bonds for a lower cost at a closely watched debt auction.

Madrid raised 5.8 billion euros ($7.56 billion) at the sale, up from an expected 5 billion euros, taking its first step towards borrowing the 121.3 billion euros the government says it needs this year. Most of the demand was for a bond maturing in 2015 that would be covered by an ECB bondbuying program if Spain were to apply for international aid, though the success of the auction has probably pushed back the timing of any request. —Reuters

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Business FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Airport debacle ignites concern for ‘Made in Germany’ brands BERLIN: Germany is concerned that its fabled international reputation for efficiency may have taken a blow from a catalogue of delays dogging major projects, especially the new Berlin airport. “It’s bad for our good image,” the spokesman for Germany’s Association for Electrical, Electronic and Information Technologies, Walter Boermann, told AFP after the latest in a series of setbacks for the ill-fated future hub.

He worried that for German manufacturers eyeing contracts for major infrastructure projects in big Asian cities, near daily reports about problems with building works could tarnish the “Made in Germany” brand. On Monday, Berlin’s mayor said the opening of the capital’s new main airport would have to be postponed from October indefinitely after several previous delays due to a series of technical issues.

Chancellor Angela Merkel is “concerned” about news surrounding the airport, her

spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters on Wednesday.

The Berlin-Brandenburg Airport was originally slated to open its doors in June 2012 but has suffered multiple delays due to a raft of technical difficulties and construction errors. The new airport, to be named after former chancellor Willy Brandt, will eventually replace Berlin’s two existing airports, Tegel in the northwest of the city, and the southeastern-located Schoenefeld, which is where the new facility is being built.

It was designed to finally end the vestiges of Berlin’s Cold War division and deal with a sharp rise in air traffic to the region in the two decades since the fall of the Berlin Wall and German reunification.

But “the problems are... very severe”, the new airport’s technical chief, Horst Amann, acknowledged in a radio interview, declining to offer a specific new opening date. “2014 is a good number but I can’t

commit myself to it now,” he acknowledged. The main reason for the delay has been the fire detection system, Amann said, adding he could not rule out having to destroy parts that had already been constructed to resolve problems. The debacle has prompted many questions and much headscratching about Germans’ muchtouted efficiency. “Do Germans no longer know how to see through big prestigious projects?”

Germany’s ZDF public television asked.

ZDF pointed to other troubled building projects, such as a controversial railway station in the southwestern city of Stuttgart or the Elbphilharmonie concert hall in the northern port city of Hamburg that is running millions of euros over budget. Town planner Karlheinz Roessler laid the blame at the door of the system of governance.

“Politicians have monuments built. But mostly they are no longer around when the

Hollande’s policy gaffes endanger reform drive Anti-business image overshadows pro-growth reforms PARIS: On the campaign trail, Francois Hollande pleased working-class voters with promises of a super-tax on millionaires and sought to reassure foreign investors with commitments to restore public finances and revive French industry. But now as he starts 2013 and his eighth month as president, the Socialist’s clumsy handling of those promises has turned the public mood against him, created the impression among many entrepreneurs that he is anti-business and prompted smirking foreign leaders to offer refuge to French tax exiles.

Although Hollande and his parliamentary allies can look forward to a four-year run before facing re-election, those policy and PR gaffes risk hobbling him just as he embarks on what could be the decisive phase of his fiveyear mandate, with plans to set in motion long talked about labor, welfare and pension reforms in the euro zone’s second largest economy. Mass protests in the streets have thwarted French presidents before, as have

economic pressure and lobbying by business.

“He is struggling to explain the general sense of what he is doing. He needs to find a central message that is simple, credible and sounds like it will bring people benefits,” said veteran political communications consultant Denis Pingaud.

From the very beginning of his mandate, Hollande has had to walk a narrow political tight rope. Investors had long viewed him warily, especially since he declared a year ago that the “world of finance” was his enemy; meanwhile ordinary voters are impatient to see promised improvements in living standards.

His image among business leaders was tarnished after his election by a leftist minister who threatened to expropriate a steel plant in the northern town of Florange and tell its Indian owner, Lakshmi Mittal, that he was persona non grata in France.

“Florange was a public relations disaster,” said a leading French industrialist who argues Hollande’s main problem is persuading people

French president Francois Hollande

he has a coherent, workable strategy: “Hollande needs to sort this out. As soon as you have a communications problem you have a political problem.” If business feels scorned, voters, too, feel let down, by a failure to tackle a jobs crisis and by the fact that his most emblematic promise, a 75-percent tax rate on income above 1 million euros ($1.3 million), has been ruled unconstitutional.

Long in the doldrums, Hollande’s approval rating slid by a further four points in an Ifop opinion poll published this week to 37 percent. Another survey found three people in four doubt he can keep a promise to stem rising unemployment by end-2013. Any one of the reforms expected this year could spark the kind of fierce street revolt faced by past governments trying to overhaul France’s generous but costly welfare model. Hollande faces the first mass street protest of his term this coming Sunday when up to half a million people are expected to march against his push to legalise gay marriage, a keynote social reform promise and one long cherished by the French left.

NEW PR CAMPAIGN For now, a lack of low-risk alternatives means investors, especially in Asia, are still snapping up French sovereign debt, allowing Hollande the breathing space of cheap borrowing. But the furore over his tax policies has turned France into an international laughing stock, with Britain and Belgium both offering refuge to entrepreneurs, and the leaders of Russia and Montenegro jostle to host tax-exile actor Gerard Depardieu.

Investment bank JP Morgan this week ranked concern about “disarray” in Hollande’s strategy and loss of control of the domestic agenda second behind Italy’s volatile politics in a list of 13 issues to watch for Europe this year. “The communications failure is a serious one and it has pretty serious consequences,” said JP Morgan economist Alex White. “He needs to somehow get ahead of all this.”

Hollande’s conciliatory manner, which he used to good effect to lead the fractious Socialist Party for a decade, could well work to his advantage in a government which must tread a path between pleasing left-wingers and financial markets. —Reuters

costs of the project they have begun have exploded,” he said. So far no politicians’ heads have rolled as a result of the airport debacle. Pressure on both Berlin Mayor Klaus Wowereit and the head of the Brandenburg state government-the region surrounding the German capital-Matthias Platzeck is increasing however.

Both men, who are from the centre-left Social Democratic Party, face imminent votes of confidence in their respective regional assemblies but are expected to keep their jobs, nine months before general elections. Berlin’s two airports currently welcome around 24 million visitors a year, less than half the 56 million passengers who pass through Frankfurt’s airport in western Germany, even though the capital’s population is roughly five times greater. Frankfurt has built its airport into the third biggest hub in Europe and serves as a continental gateway. —AFP

Modi’s Gujarat growth model might not work across India SURAT: Turning a single Indian state with a long tradition of entrepreneurship and a solid political majority into an investor-friendly economic powerhouse is one thing. Replicating that experience across a diverse country of 1.2 billion would be a tougher prospect for Narendra Modi, whose leadership of booming Gujarat state has led to his being touted as a potential candidate to become India’s next prime minister.

While Modi wins praise even from critics for cutting red tape and making government more responsive and predictable, many ingredients for Gujarat’s run of growth were in place well before he took office in 2001.

“It is like an icing on cake sort of thing. You have a nice cake and Modi has done a lot of good icing,” said Rakesh Chaudhary, director of Pratibha Group, a textile manufacturer in Palsana on the outskirts of the Gujarat city of Surat. Industry in Gujarat is helped by a long coastline and plenty of barren land that is easy to turn over to factory use. The power that comes from a long-standing and heavy majority for his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the state also gives Modi an advantage that he would not enjoy on a national stage marked by fractious coalition politics.

Despite a controversial past - Modi is accused by critics of not doing enough to stop or of even quietly encouraging religious riots in 2002 that saw as many as 2,000 killed, most of them Muslims - he has established a reputation as an economic reformer in part by building on the strengths of Gujarat and marketing them heavily. Modi’s marketing savvy, aided by the Washington lobbying and public affairs firm APCO Worldwide, will be on display at the biennial “Vibrant Gujarat Summit” that begins today.

Initiated by Modi in 2003 to attract investment after the violence and an earthquake in 2001, the event is attended by thousands of corporate officials who pledge billions in investment, although in reality only a fraction has seen the light of day. Of 12.4 trillion rupees ($225 billion) in investment proposed at the 2009 event, just 8.5 percent had been spent as of November 2011, according to state government data. “Under Modi’s regime, there has been significant improvement in infrastructure growth, significant improvement in industrialization, as well as agriculture,” said Jahangir Aziz, senior Asia economist at JPMorgan. “But what has been overplayed is initial conditions were actually pretty decent in Gujarat.” —Reuters

Business FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

British top statistician reject inflation change LONDON: Britain’s top statistician unexpectedly decided against major changes to the country’s longest-running inflation index yesterday, rejecting a move that could have significantly cut government borrowing costs. Jil Matheson, the government’s top statistical adviser, concluded that the existing Retail Price Index did not meet current international standards. But she said it would be better to create a new index rather than fundamentally change RPI, which is written into many existing contracts.

The news is a major boost to the many Britons with company pensions legally linked to RPI, and to holders of Britain’s inflation-linked government debt, as some of the proposed changes would have led to much lower future increases in payments. Sam Hill, a fixed income strategist at Royal

Bank of Canada, said he was highly surprised by the move, which came after months of consultation by the UK Statistics Authority. “I think it’s remarkable that they have said that the current formula does not meet international standards, and then continue to use it for a number of key functions,” he said.

Some economists had estimated Britain’s finance ministry would have saved up to 3 billion pounds a year in interest payments if the change to RPI had gone ahead, out of annual debt servicing costs of 47 billion.

This would have been a boon for cash-strapped finance minister George Osborne, but after the decision by the UK Statistics Authority, his ministry confirmed that it would use RPI for future index-linked gilts as well as existing ones. “For gilt investors, future

cash flows on existing index-linked gilts will continue to be calculated by reference to RPI,” Economic Secretary Sajid Javid said in a statement.

RPI, which was developed after World War Two, runs significantly higher than the consumer price index (CPI) which is used by the Bank of England to set monetary policy. RPI also uses different statistical techniques which Bank of England Governor Mervyn King described as “outdated” in November, and in recent years the discrepancy with CPI has grown. Before the decision, analysts at Deutsche Bank estimated there would be an average 1.3 percentage point gap between RPI and CPI inflation measures if no change was made to the RPI index.

Instead, the expected newer techniques will be applied to an index dubbed RPIJ which will appear from

March onwards alongside RPI and CPI. “There is significant value to users in maintaining the continuity of the existing RPI’s long time series without major change, so that it may continue to be used for long-term indexation and for index-linked gilts and bonds,” Matheson said.

Some minor changes will be made to the private rental data used in RPI, subject to consultation with the Bank of England, but the Office for National Statistics said these would not affect the average rate of RPI. Annual RPI inflation was 3.0 percent in November, compared to 2.7 percent for CPI, reflecting a recent narrowing in the gap between the two measures due to differences in how changes in insurance and mortgage interest payments are accounted for. — Reuters

ECB to hold fire Economy shows glimmers of hope

HOLYHEAD: Customers leave a Tesco supermarket in Holyhead, Anglesey. Supermarket giant Tesco said yesterday that sales rose at the fastest pace for three years during the Christmas and New Year trading period, triggering a turnaround in fortunes for the firm. — AFP

Tesco posts strongest UK growth for 3 years LONDON: Britain’s Tesco Plc said its 1 billion pounds ($1.6 billion) turnaround plan for its home market was starting to work as it posted its highest sales growth in three years over the crucial Christmas period. Tesco, the world’s third-largest retailer, beat forecasts for underlying sales growth, regaining an edge after a dismal Christmas in 2011 prompted the group’s first profit warning in 20 years and a strategic rethink. Shares in Tesco - which also announced the appointment of Chris Bush as managing director to run its key British business - rose more than 2 percent to hit their highest in a year.

Sales at British stores open more than a year, excluding fuel and VAT sales tax, grew 1.8 percent in the six weeks to Jan. 5, part of Tesco’s fiscal fourth quarter, compared with analysts’ forecasts in a range of up 0.5 to 1.5 percent and with a thirdquarter fall of 0.6 percent. “Whilst our seasonal performance is encouraging, there is a lot more to do,” said group CEO Philip Clarke. The outcome was driven by a stronger food performance and an 18 percent rise in online food sales, though general merchandise - including electricals - was still a drag on growth. The company did, however, benefit from easy comparative numbers, as in the same six week period of Tesco’s last financial year like-for-like sales had fallen 2.3 percent.

“They’ve really done well in the UK, showing the strongest evidence to date that they’re regrouping,” said analyst Clive Black at brokerage Shore Capital. “The momentum on Tesco is now more up than down.” Tesco is battling to regain momentum against a weak UK economy, with consumers fretting over job security and a squeeze on incomes. The firm has suffered more than rivals, in part because it sells more discretionary non-food goods on which shoppers have been cutting back most.

In April Clarke launched a strategy to revive UK sales, investing in more staff, revamped food ranges, refined marketing and smartened stores that give more space to food. Yet some shareholders are still to be convinced of its effectiveness. “The expression ‘one swallow doesn’t make a summer’ comes to mind,” said one top 20 investor in Tesco. — Reuters

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank is expected to keep interest rates at a record low of 0.75 percent yesterday, refraining from a cut as the euro zone economy shows some signs of stabilizing and inflation still tops its target.

The 17-country euro zone is in recession, but recent data points to some stabilization, and ECB President Mario Draghi might strike a slightly more positive tone in the news conference that follows the rate decision. The ECB’s 23-man Governing Council began its meeting at 0800 GMT to consider this month’s policy decision.

A Reuters poll published on Monday pointed to the ECB keeping rates on hold, though the economists surveyed could not agree on the chances of a cut in the next few months due to a murky economic outlook. “Rates are definitely on hold. Nothing has been spectacular enough in recent data to force the ECB to any action,” Deutsche Bank economist Gilles Moec said. “There is a recession, but no further deterioration.

Lending is weak, but also not deteriorating further, so the ECB is not compelled to act.”

The Governing Council will find some comfort from improving business morale as well as a survey of purchasing managers, which gave tentative signs that the worst of the downturn may

have passed. “Since the December meeting key figures have generally surprised on the upside,” Nordea analyst Anders Svendsen said in a note to investors. While the ECB had, in Draghi’s words, “a wide discussion” on reducing rates last month, the grounds for such a move have not grown and Executive Board members have argued against a cut. Yves Mersch said last month he did not see the logic of a debate about the ECB cutting its main rate and Peter Praet said there was little room to cut.

Another cut of the refinancing rate would raise the question of whether the ECB would also lower its deposit rate currently at zero - by the same amount, which would push it into negative territory, essentially charging a fee, for the first time. Even though Draghi has said the bank was “operationally ready” for such a step, it has grown increasingly wary of the idea over the past couple of months, a source with knowledge of the ECB’s thinking said.

Negative deposit rates could deal a hefty blow to money market funds, which have already seen cash outflows since the ECB cut the deposit rate to zero in July. The rate is a peg for shortdated money market rates and at zero it is already almost impossible for funds to generate a return for their investors.

Executive Board member Joerg

Asmussen said last month he would be “very reluctant” about the ECB cutting the deposit rate any further, adding that “our (monetary) policy is very accommodative”.

INFLATION STUBBORN ECB staff projections published last month saw inflation at about 1.4 percent in 2014, which would usually justify another interest rate cut. The central bank also sees inflation falling below 2 percent this year with underlying price pressures remaining moderate. But inflation has eased more slowly than the ECB initially expected and as long as it misses the target - it has been above 2 percent for more than 2 years - a cut could be difficult to justify. Furthermore, in the euro zone’s largest economy, Germany, prices rose faster in December than in the previous month. In addition to gauging whether the ECB is entertaining another cut or not, Draghi will be pressed on what other options the ECB has, especially to improve lackluster bank lending. ECB data showed last week that bank lending to the private sector fell at an annual rate of 0.8 percent in November. At his December news conference, Draghi attributed the drop mainly to demand factors, but added that in a number of countries, credit supply is restricted. — Reuters

BMW, Audi clock up record sales FRANKFURT: German top-of-the-range carmakers BMW and Audi said yesterday they raced ahead to new sales records in 2012, with growth driven primarily by demand outside Europe.

BMW said in a statement that it sold a total 1.845 million vehicles last year, an increase of 10.6 percent over 2011, while rival Audi, a unit of Volkswagen, was able to lift its sales by 11.7 percent to 1.455 million units. In December alone, BMW sold 181,571 vehicles, which represents a rise of 14.8 percent yearon-year, while Audi did not fare quite as well, lifting sales by a much more modest 0.8 percent to 110,400 units. “2012 was a very successful year for us,” boasted BMW’s sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson.

“The BMW group achieved its best ever sales result for the second year in a row and expanded its lead in the premium segment,” Robertson said. And he continued: “We enter the new year with positive momentum and despite the prevailing head-

winds in some markets, we aim to achieve another record year in sales in 2013.” Audi’s sales and marketing chief Luca de Meo said: “Audi ran up new records in all regions in 2012.” In Europe, too, “we grew against the negative market trend and extended our lead as the strongest premium brand,” de Meo said. He attributed the carmaker’s success to new models, including the new four wheel drive Audi Q3. Both BMW and Audi said strong demand from outside Europe was the main driver of their success. In BMW’s case, while European sales edged up by 0.8 percent in 2012, sales in Asia raced ahead by 31.6 percent, with Chinese sales soaring by 40.4 percent. In the Americas, sales were up 11.9 percent last year, BMW said. Audi’s US sales sped ahead by 18.5 percent and its Asian sales roared 28.1 percent higher, with Chinese sales up by 29.6 percent and sales in India by as much as 63.4 percent. In Europe, its biggest market, Audi reported a 1.8 percent increase in unit sales. — AFP

THEY ARE THE 99!

99 Mystical Noor Stones carry all that is left of the wisdom and knowledge of the lost civilization of Baghdad. But the Noor Stones lie scattered across the globe - now little more than a legend.

One man has made it his life’s mission to seek out what was lost. His name is Dr. Ramzi Razem and he has searched fruitlessly for the Noor Stones all his life. Now, his luck is about to change the first of the stones have been rediscovered and with them a special type of human who can unlock the gem’s mystical power. Ramzi brings these gem - bearers together to form a new force for good in the world. A force known as ... the 99!

THE STORY SO FAR : While visiting the Retreat, the remote Himalayan sanctuary for Noor Stone-wielders, three members of The 99 confront a wild tiger that has wandered in from the mountains. But as

The 99 ® and all related characters ® and © 2013, Teshkeel Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Jabbar grapples with the giant cat, Fattah disappears through a teleportation portal!

www.the99.org

26

Opinion FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Cubans line up for passports; Travel reform deadline nears Cuba doing away with hated exit visas

HAVANA: Just graduated doctors have their picture taken holding their diplomas after a graduation ceremony at the Karl Marx theater in Havana, Cuba. A Cuban doctor says the Caribbean nation is eliminating longstanding restrictions on health care professionals’ overseas travel as part of a broader migration reform. —AP

By Jeff Franks

W

ith paperwork in their hands and dreams of faraway places in their heads, Cubans waited in long lines this week to apply for passports ahead of a major liberalization of travel policies in place for more than half a century. Starting on Monday, most will be able to leave the country with just a passport and no need for much-hated exit visas and letters of invitation the communist government imposed in 1961 to slow a mass exodus of people fleeing after the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro.

The reform was announced in October to address the near universal complaints by Cubans about the expensive and time-consuming paperwork requirements that purposely made it difficult to leave the island.

They were fodder for Castro opponents who charged the Cuban government was a brutal dictatorship that deprived its people of the right to travel and other freedoms. The passport seekers told Reuters they wanted to reunite with family members, seek more economic opportunity or simply see more of the world from which they have been isolated since the revolution.

SEEKING JOBS, FAMILY “I’m thinking of going to Venezuela or

Angola to work,” said Ruben Osorio the 45year-old proprietor of a small Havana coffee shop who wants to make more money to support his wife and three kids.

He said he has friends in Angola from his time there as a young soldier during Cuba’s African military interventions in the 1980s and family in Venezuela. “No matter how much I work here, no matter how much coffee I can sell, I’m never going to make what I could make in one month in either one of those countries,” Osorio said, puffing on a cigarette while standing in the tropical sun.

Like a lot of Cubans, he does not want to stay away forever, which the new law makes possible. It increases the amount of time, from the current 11 months to 24 months, that a Cuban can be out of the Caribbean island without losing rights and property, and allows extensions beyond that.

For Amaryllis Cespedes, 22, the goal is not money, but to see her family again. She wants to go to the Dominican Republic where her relatives have lived for years, particularly to finally meet her 14-year-old brother. “I don’t care (about going anywhere else). I want to see my family and I want to know my brother,” said Cespedes, dressed in purple and pink clothes and carrying a fake leopard skin purse. “I’ve only seen him in photographs. I want to know him and his

country,” she said, smiling at the idea of it.

The long lines at passport offices were prompted in part because the price of passports will double to the equivalent of $100 on Monday, but they also testified to the pent-up desires of Cubans to go abroad.

The crowds were such that outside one of the offices, a once-stately old home in Havana’s Vedado district, taxi drivers stood at the entrance pitching for fares and a street vendor sold cookies and doughnuts from a cart. In homes across the street, typists using old-fashioned manual typewriters filled in passport application forms for those willing to pay a small fee. The new law has been a work in progress, with a notable change this week that Cuban doctors will be allowed to travel after years of prohibition due to government fears they would not return, as thousands did following the revolution.

NATIONAL SECURITY Even so, the government maintains the right to restrict travel for reasons ranging from national security to economic importance. Some of the island’s best known dissidents have been denied exit visas in the past, but whether that policy will continue is unknown. “My suitcase continues to be ready for a trip WITH RETURN. Will I be able to go?,” tweeted dissident blogger Yoani Sanchez,

who says she has been denied a visa 19 times.

“As with all things concerning reforms in Cuba, we will have to see,” said Christopher Sabatini, policy director at the Americas Society in New York. “The ugliest of the bars may have been lifted, but they’ve been replaced with a leash - people will only know how far they can go when they are yanked back,” he said. The bigger hindrances to travel for most Cubans will be the governments of other countries, not their own, and financial constraints. There are few nations around the world Cubans can visit without needing an entry visa because of their reputation for not returning to Cuba.

While the Cuban government will no longer require that they get a letter of invitation from someone in their destination country, many countries they want to visit will.

And with an average monthly salary of $19, most Cubans do not have the money to travel. When pressed about how he would pay for an airline ticket to go to Venezuela or Angola, Ruben Osorio talked about selling more coffee and cutting costs before finally admitting it would take a “miracle” to fulfill his dream. “I sell coffee, I keep selling coffee ... I cut back a little, I don’t buy clothes or shoes and it might be that a quirk of fate comes along, a miracle, and it tells me there’s a ticket,” he said —Reuters

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013 www.kuwaittimes.net

This Nov. 11, 2012 file photo shows actress Jennifer Lawrence at a special screening of "Silver Linings Playbook" in New York.

Lawrence was nominated for an Academy Award for best actress yesterday, for her role in the film. The 85th Academy Awards will air live on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 on ABC. â&#x20AC;&#x201D;AP

FOOD FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Quick breads rise to occasion with full flavor options

T

he idea came together in a flash.

Someone mentioned quick breads, and everybody jumped on the bandwagon.

That’s the beauty of quick breads: Mix, bake, take, share. They are sweet or savory, studded with fruits or nuts, and full of flavor and endless possibilities. Our gathering featured four sweet and two savory loaves. Quick breads are in the same family as muffins and scones and rely on baking powder and baking soda for rising. The chemicals in the soda or powder react with acids to produce carbon dioxide, the gas that gives baked goods their lift.

Baking powder and soda are not interchangeable, though, because baking powder is baking soda mixed with cornstarch and a dry acid.

If you find yourself without baking powder, “The America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook” offers this recipe for a “passable substitution”: Replace each teaspoon of baking powder with 1 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1\2 teaspoon baking soda. For best results with these recipes, use baking powder and baking soda before their “best by” dates.

If baking powder is nearing expiration, check to see if it is still active by mixing 2 teaspoons of it in a cup of hot water. If the foaming reaction is weak, toss it. Here are some more tips for perfect loaves: Preheat the oven.

Prepare the nuts and fruit ahead of time.

Don’t overmix the batter. Too much mixing can result in loaves not properly rising,

turning out tough and possibly with tunnels through them.

Tent the loaves with aluminum foil once they begin to brown to prevent overbrowning.

Loaves that are too compact are a result of too much flour or too much leavening.

Use a knife - a toothpick is too short - to check for doneness by sticking the blade in

the center of the loaf. If the knife blade comes out clean, or with a few crumbs attached, it’s done.

Shiny pans reflect heat, but dark pans absorb heat so baked goods brown more quickly. If using dark pans, lower the heat by 25 degrees.

Store loaves for 24 hours before slicing. Or freeze and slice with a serrated-edge knife.

EARL GREY TEA LOAF Serves 12 Ingredients: 6 Earl Grey tea bags 14 ounces dried fruit, such as raisins, golden raisins, cherries, cranberries 1 orange 1 large egg 2 cups sugar, divided use 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder Pinch salt 1 teaspoon quality pumpkin pie spice 1 whole nutmeg, for grating 1 lemon Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Put 4 tea bags in a measuring cup and add 1\2 cups boiling water. Leave to brew for a few minutes, then remove tea bags. Put the dried fruit into a large mixing bowl, grate over the zest of the orange and pour over the hot tea. Cover and leave overnight.

Whisk the egg and add to the bowl of fruit along with 1cup sugar. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, pumpkin pie spice and a few good gratings of nutmeg, and squeeze in the juice of the orange. Mix until a dough-like consistency (it might seem a bit dry). Spoon the mixture into a 4-cup loaf pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until cooked through, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean.

FOOD FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Put the 2 remaining tea bags into a pan with 1 cup water and the zest and juice of the lemon. Gently bring to a boil, removing the tea bags after a few minutes. Add the remaining 1 cup sugar and bring to a boil without stirring - keep it on a steady medium heat so that you have a steady boil for 5 to 10 minutes, or until the mixture has reduced by half and you have a golden syrup. Pour this into a measuring cup.

As soon as the loaf comes out of the oven, poke little holes in the top and pour the syrup over the loaf. Once the syrup has absorbed, turn loaf onto wire rack and cool. This recipe is from “Jaime Oliver’s Great Britain: 130 of My Favorite British Recipes, From Comfort Food to New Classics” (Hyperion Books, $35).

WHITE CHOCOLATE CRANBERRY BREAD Serves 10 Ingredients: 6 ounces white chocolate, finely chopped 2\3 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon salt 1\2 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup sugar 8 tablespoons (1 stick) salted butter, at room temperature 3 large eggs, at room temperature 1 cup buttermilk Grated zest of 1 orange 1\2 cup fresh orange juice 2 teaspoons pure vanilla 1 cup fresh or frozen whole cranberries, not thawed 1 cup toasted, skinned, coarsely chopped hazelnuts 1 cup white chocolate chips Instructions: Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 9by-9-by-3-inch loaf pan and tap out excess flour. Melt and cool the chopped white chocolate.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. In a large bowl, beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer set on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3minutes. One at a time, beat in the eggs, beating well after each addition, and scraping down sides of the bowl as needed.

Beat in the buttermilk, followed by the tepid white chocolate, orange zest and juice, and vanilla. The mixture will look curdled.

With the mixer on low speed, add the flour mixture, and beat just until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Stir in the cranberries, hazelnuts and white chocolate chips. Spread batter in prepared pan.

Bake until a bamboo skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 hour. Let cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before inverting and unmolding bread.

This recipe is from “Tate’s Bake Shop Baking for Friends,” by Kathleen King (Tate’s

Bake Shop, $24.95).

POLENTA LOAF WITH ROSEMARY, PARMESAN AND OLIVE OIL Makes 1 loaf Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup (5-ounces) polenta 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 3 ounces Parmesan cheese, grated course (1 cup), divided use 1 cup sour cream 1 cup whole milk 1 cup sugar 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 2 large eggs Instructions: Heat oven to 400degrees.

Whisk flour, polenta, rosemary, baking powder, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in 1 cup Parmesan, breaking up any clumps, until coated with flour.

In a separate bowl, whisk sour cream, milk, sugar, oil and eggs together until smooth.

Gently fold sour cream mixture into flour mixture until just combined; do not overmix.

Pour into greased loaf pan or greased muffin tins. Sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.

Bake until golden brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes for muffins, 40 to 50 minutes for loaf

pan. Cool before inverting.

Note: Cornmeal can be used in place of the polenta. It will result in a more cake-like texture.

This recipe is from “The America’s Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook,” by editors at America’s Test Kitchen ($34.95).

GOLDEN PUMPKIN LOAF Makes 1 large loaf Ingredients: 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 cup yellow cornmeal 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1 teaspoon ground cardamom 1 teaspoon nutmeg or mace 3 large eggs 1\2 cup dark brown sugar, packed 1 cup granulated sugar 1 cup pumpkin puree 2 teaspoons vanilla extract 6 tablespoons canola oil 1 cup dried cranberries 1 cup chopped walnuts Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 9by-5-inch loaf pan, and line bottom and long sides with parchment paper.

Mix together flour, cornmeal, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices in a medium bowl.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs and both sugars on medium-high speed until creamy and thick, for about 3 minutes.

Reduce the speed, then add the pumpkin, vanilla and oil and continue mixing until smooth.

On low speed, slowly add the dry ingredients a little at a time, mixing only until the flour just disappears. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Scrape the bowl up from the bottom and fold in the cranberries and walnuts.

Transfer to prepared pans.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes, or until loaf is well browned and a knife inserted emerges clean from the center. Cool in pan for 15 minutes before turning out.

This recipe is from “Piece of Cake: Home Baking Made Simple,” by David Muniz and David Lesniak (Rizzoli, $29.95).

PRALINE-APPLE BREAD Makes 1 loaf Ingredients: 1 cup chopped pecans 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream 1 cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 2 cups all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup finely chopped, peeled Granny Smith apples 1/2 cup butter 1 cup packed light brown sugar Instructions: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake {cup pecans in a single layer in a shallow pan for 6 to 8 minutes, or until toasted and fragrant, stirring after 4minutes.

Beat sour cream and the next three ingredients on low speed with an electric mixer for 2 minutes until blended. Stir together the flour and next three ingredients. Add to sour cream mixture, beating just until blended. Stir in apple and 1 cup toasted pecans. Spoon batter into a greased 9-by-5-inch loaf pan.

Sprinkle with remaining pecans.

Lightly press pecans into batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour to 1hour and 5 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, shielding with aluminum foil after 50 minutes to prevent excessive browning. Cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Remove from pan to wire rack.

Bring butter and brown sugar to a boil in a 1-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly; boil 1minute. Remove from heat, and spoon over top of bread.

This recipe is from “Southern Living Home Cooking Basics: Great Food Made Simple” (Oxmoor House, $29.95). — MCT

Beauty FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

These user-friendly skin tips from Renee Rouleau are sure to help keep your skin healthy and beautiful 1. Never, ever, use a bar of soap on your face or high-foaming cleansers: The binders that hold a bar of soap together are in an alkaline base (high pH balance) which will strip all the water and natural oils out of the skin, causing the surface of the skin to dehydrate. Your skin cells need to stay moist in order to be healthy, and without water, acne conditions, sensitive and dry skins will be aggravated and made worse. Even if the soap claims it’s moisturizing, it will still strip the skin, no matter what.

Remember the rule, more lather, more drying. Less lather, less drying.

2. Avoid using toner that contains SD Alcohol 40: Many people like the “clean” and “tight” feeling associated with using alcohol on the skin, but this ingredient will strip the skin of water, which results in dead cell build up and dull looking skin! Trying to dry up oily skin can backfire as stripped cell buildup traps oil and leads to break outs and more oil production. Toners without alcohol, on the other hand, are very important for removing the drying chlorines and minerals found in tap water. Make sure to use a toner both morning and night after cleansing. And remember the secret: Always leave your toner damp before applying your moisturizer. The cream will help seal the hydrating benefits from the toner deep into the skin.

3. Drink 12-14 glasses of water daily: Hydrating the skin from the inside will help to keep the skin cells moist. If the cells are not hydrated, both internally and externally, the cells will dry up and cause premature aging.

Drink that water!

4. Get regular monthly facials: Think of facials as maintenance for the health of your skin! As the skin ages, circulation and metabolism slow down, resulting in tired and dull looking skin. One of the benefits of a facial is increased circulation and oxygen resulting in healthy, glowing skin! Plus deep pore cleansing facials are a must for clogged pores and break outs.

5. Always choose products recommended for your skin type: Your friend will tell you about some fabulous product that she loves; you’ll read in a magazine about a product that celebrities use, but that doesn’t mean it will work for you. The #1 reason why you will not show improved results with your skin care products is that they aren’t suited for your skin’s needs.

6. Use a glycolic acid product: Hands down, studies show the effectiveness of exfoliation given by glycolic acid in reducing the appearance of past sun damage, smoothing and softening the skin, and increasing the cell turnover rate. Other exfoliants will try their best, but glycolic is the most effective AHA out on the market. .

7. Drink hot lemon water first thing in the morning: Squeeze fresh lemon into hot water and drink when you wake up. This will help flush out and purify the body internally, reducing toxins, which can cause skin sensitivities. This is great for skins that have a tendency to break out!

8. If you have acne-prone skin, limit the use of products designed for acneic skin: Sounds weird, right? A skin care line geared towards acne is designed to fight bacteria and dry out breakouts. For someone whose skin is covered in severe acne (like a teenager) this is appropriate. But for most people who get some break out (but not on the majority of their face), acne products can make it worse. These products are extremely drying, and although they will help dry up and heal the individual breakouts, they will over-dry other non-broken out areas resulting in dead skin cell buildup. The cell buildup will then act as a barrier to trap oil under the skin causing more clogged pores and breakouts. So your effort to clear up your skin will actually cause you to break out more! The three most important elements for controlling clogged pores and break outs are: Exfoliation (this will keep off dry skin cells to untrap clogged pores and also help fade those red, post-breakout marks), disinfecting (it is important to elimi-

nate bacteria to help prevent the spread of breakout as well as drying up infection), and hydration (water-based moisture to keep cells healthy to discourage dry skin cell buildup).

9. Don’t be fooled by fancy packaging: Often the main focus of some cosmetic manufacturers is expensive and fancy packaging, to entice the purchaser to buy the product. “If it looks good, then it must be good! Right?”

Wrong! When choosing skin care products, the focus should be on quality ingredients on the inside of the bottle, not what it looks like on the outside! Become ingredient savvy, because after all, it’s what’s inside of the bottle that actually gets applied to the skin!

10. Avoid the following ingredients in skin care products: Mineral oil & Petrolatum (pore-clogging, leads to breakouts and closed comedones) SD Alcohol 40 (the “bad” alcohol commonly found in tonersextremely drying) Isopropyl myristate & Isopropyl Palmitate (can cause blackheads) Synthetic dyes (it’s not necessary to use in products. Listed as “F D & C #” on the ingredient listing.)

Sodium or Ammonium Lauryl Sulfate in gel cleansers (will dehydrate the skin) Synthetic fragrances (the No. 1 cause of allergic reactions to products. Listed as “Fragrance”, “Parfum”, or “Perfume” on the ingredient listing.)

Apricot kernels, or seed/ shell powders (naturally made particles found in facial scrubs can scratch and irritate the skin causing bacteria to spread.)

11. Avoid dairy products if your skin is prone to breakouts: Many people have heard that greasy foods and chocolate cause breakouts. In our experience, when the breakout is cystlike in the chin and jaw line area, most often it is related to too much ice cream, yogurt, milk and cheese. Try cutting back and watch your skin clear up!

Why does dairy cause break outs in the chin and jaw line area? In Chinese medicine, breakouts around the chin/jaw line area are representational of reproductive and hormonal systems. Because our dairy cows are given growth hormones, the body may use this area to remove the excess of hormones. Your skin acts as an excretory system for getting rid of foods that do not agree with your body. And there are a greater number of sebaceous glands in the face and since hormones are fat soluble, the body will use these glands as an avenue of excretion for

fat-based hormones, which is why breakouts are most commonly found in the face.

12. Wear a sunscreen in your moisturizer daily, 365 days a year, rain or shine: Studies indicate that 78 percent of the sun exposure you get in a lifetime is incidental exposure. You may say, “I’m not out at all during the day.” Just walking to your car, driving in your car, and sitting in your house next to windows will give you unnecessary sun damage. Windshields do nothing to protect you from UV rays! And we know that sun exposure is the No. 1 cause of aging!

13. Give yourself a “mini facial” once a week at home: Take some time to de-stress and condition your skin at the same time! Cleanse skin to remove all traces of makeup, and then exfoliate with a mild facial scrub. Apply a hydrating serum and seal it in with a nourishing facial mask (drier skins should avoid clay masks). Run warm water in the tub, sprinkle in some mineral bath salts, light a candle, play soft music and create your own spa at home! Your skin loves the attention and your mind loves the relaxation.

14. Don’t be afraid of products containing oil: When a consumer picks up a cream and sees an ingredient with the word “oil” in it, if their skin is already prone to oil, they will not use it. We often hear, “I can only use oil-free products.”

What you first need to understand is that virtually all creams and lotions use a form of oil or emollient to make the product slip across the skin. But not all oils are comedogenic and will be poreclogging. The one type of oil RenÈe Rouleau does not recommend the use in skin care formulas is Mineral Oil, as we feel that it clogs the pores and suffocates the skin. The emollients we avoid are Isopropyl Myristate, Isopropyl Palmitate and Petrolatum. We find these to be very pore clogging, but because they don’t have the word “oil” in their name, the consumer wouldn’t know that these were pore-clogging ingredients. The “safe” oils are Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil, Safflower Oil, Jojoba Oil, Soybean Oil, Sunflower Seed Oil and acadamia Nut Oil. 15. Don’t try to scrub away acne: Wash cloths, buff puffs and aggressive scrubbing tend to aggravate the problem by allowing bacteria deeper into the skin, which will cause further irritation. Many apricot and almond based facial scrubs have sharp edges which can lacerate the skin, causing bacteria to spread. Instead use a gentle scrub with perfectly round grains which roll across the skin.

HEALTH FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Go on and breathe easy How to recognize the symptoms of asthma and control it

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sthma is caused by the production of sticky secretions inside the tubes.

People with asthma experience symptoms when the airways tighten, inflame, or fill with mucus. Common asthma symptoms include: coughing, especially at night; wheezing; shortness of breath; chest tightness, pain, or pressure.

Still, not every person with asthma has the same symptoms in the same way. You may not have all of these symptoms, or you may have different symptoms at different times.

Your asthma symptoms may also vary from one asthma attack to the next, being mild during one and severe during another.

Some people with asthma may go for extended periods without having any symptoms, interrupted by periodic worsening of their symptoms called asthma attacks.

Others might have asthma symptoms every day. In addition, some people may only have asthma during exercise or asthma with viral infections like colds.

Mild asthma attacks are generally more common. Usually, the airways open up within a few minutes to a few hours. Severe attacks are less common but last longer and require immediate medical help. It is important to recognize and treat even mild asthma symptoms to help you prevent severe episodes and keep asthma under better control.

Signs of a pending asthma attack Early warning signs are changes that happen just before or at the very beginning of an asthma attack. These signs may start before the well-known symptoms of asthma and are the earliest signs that your asthma is worsening.

In general, these signs are not severe enough to stop you from going about your

daily activities. But by recognizing these signs, you can stop an asthma attack or prevent one from getting worse. Early warning signs of asthma include: Frequent cough, especially at night Losing your breath easily or shortness of breath Feeling very tired or weak when exercising Wheezing or coughing after exercise Feeling tired, easily upset, grouchy, or moody Decreases or changes in lung function as measured on a peak flow meter Signs of a cold or allergies (sneezing, runny nose, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, and headache) Trouble sleeping If you have early warning signs or symptoms of asthma, you should take more asthma medication as described in your asthma action plan.

The severity of an asthma attack can escalate rapidly, so it’s important to treat these asthma symptoms immediately once you recognize them.

Without immediate treatment, such as with your asthma inhaler or bronchodilator, your breathing will become more labored. If you use a peak flow meter at this time, the reading will probably be less than 50 percent.

As your lungs continue to tighten, you will be unable to use the peak flow meter at all.

Gradually, your lungs will tighten so there is not enough air movement to produce wheezing. This is sometimes called the “silent chest,” and it is an ominous sign. You need to be transported to a hospital immediately. Unfortunately, some people interpret the disappearance of wheezing as a sign of

improvement and fail to get prompt emergency care.

If you do not receive adequate asthma treatment, you will eventually be unable to speak and will develop a bluish coloring around your lips. This color change, known as cyanosis, means you have less and less oxygen in your blood. Without aggressive treatment for this asthma emergency, you will lose consciousness and eventually die.

If you are experiencing an asthma attack, follow the “Red Zone” or emergency instructions in your asthma action plan immediately. These symptoms occur in life-threatening asthma attacks. You need medical attention right away.

Know the asthma symptoms in children Asthma affects as many as 10 percent to 12 percent of children in the United States and is the leading cause of chronic illness in children. For unknown reasons, the incidence of asthma in children is steadily increasing.

While asthma symptoms can begin at any age, most children have their first asthma symptoms by age 5. Not all children with asthma wheeze. Chronic coughing with asthma may be the only obvious sign, and a child’s asthma may go unrecognized if the cough is attributed to recurrent bronchitis.

Know about unusual asthma symptoms Not everyone with asthma has the usual symptoms of cough, wheezing, and shortness of breath. Sometimes individuals have unusual asthma symptoms that may not appear to be related to asthma. Some “unusual” asthma symptoms may include

the following: rapid breathing; sighing; fatigue; inability to exercise properly (called exercise-induced asthma); difficulty sleeping or nighttime asthma; anxiety; difficulty concentrating; and chronic cough without wheezing.

Also, asthma symptoms can be mimicked by other conditions such as bronchitis, vocal cord dysfunction, and even heart failure. It’s important to understand your body. Talk with your asthma doctor and others with asthma. Be aware that asthma may not always have the same symptoms in every person.

Know why infections trigger asthma symptoms Sometimes a virus or bacterial infection is an asthma trigger. For instance, you might have a cold virus that triggers your asthma symptoms. Or your asthma can be triggered by a bacterial sinus infection. Sinusitis with asthma is common.

It’s important to know the signs and symptoms of respiratory tract infections and to call your health care provider immediately for diagnosis and treatment. For instance, you might have symptoms of increased shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, or wheezing with a bronchial infection. In people who don’t have asthma, the bronchial infection may not trigger the same debilitating symptoms. Know your body and understand warning signs that an infection might be starting. Then take the proper medications as prescribed to rid the infection and regain control of your asthma and health. www.webmd.com

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Picture perfect

Photoshop tips and tricks to transform your photos into art

hen it comes to designing in Photoshop, there is a myriad of ways one could use to achieve a certain result, especially when it comes to photo retouching. Designers use technique they are most confident as well as comfortable with, which is great because it’s always useful to peek into the workflow of our colleagues and learn new design approaches.

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Naturally increased light The light of the sun creates texture. There are shadowy areas and spots where the sunlight can shine without interference. To control the intensity, you can draw more light onto a separate layer or increase already existing light. Press Shift + Control + N on Windows or Shift + Command + N on a Mac. Set the blending mode to “Color Dodge” and the opacity to about 15 percent.

Then use the brush tool with a soft brush, and hold the Alt/Option key to pick up colors from the area that you want to brighten. Continue to brush in some light, picking up appropriate colors if the background changes. This way, you increase not only the light, but the saturation, which makes for more realistic results.

Simulate infrared images Open a photo in Camera Raw; you can do this either in Bridge, using the right mouse key and clicking “Open in Camera Raw,” or directly in Photoshop, by selecting File ?

Open as Smart Object.

Apply basic adjustments to optimize your image (for example, with the “Recovery” and “Fill Light” slides), then switch to the “HSL/Grayscale” tab. Check “Convert to Grayscale,” and set the Blues down to around -85. Set the Greens to +90 and the Yellows to +20. Trees and bushes should now shine in the typical white, and the sky should appear almost black. If you want to go on and simulate some grain, switch to the “Effects” tab, and enter 15 for the amount, 20 for size and 80 for roughness. You could also apply a “Vignette.” Here I used -30 for the amount, 40

for the midpoint and -35 for roundness.

Levels When applying a “Levels adjustment,” you can set black and white points in order to decrease color tints, but where are the darkest and brightest spots in the image ●Go to New Adjustment Layer ●Threshold to find those areas. This function is available under the “Layer” menu. Move the slider so far to the right that only a few white spots remain in the document.

Use the “Color Sampler tool” and set down a point there.

Move the slider to the left until only a few black spots remain, and set a second point down there.

One could also find a neutral gray in the image by using a “Threshold adjustment layer.” Add a new blank layer between the original image and the threshold adjustment layer, and fill this layer with 50 percent gray.

Go to Edit ●Fill or press Shift + F5, then select “50 percent Gray” under “Contents” and click “OK.” Change the blending mode of this layer to “Difference.” Select the “Threshold adjustment layer” again and move the slider all the way to the left. Slowly move the slider back to the right until black dots start to appear. These are the neutral gray areas in the image (if neutral grays are present). Add a “Color Sampler spot.”

Now delete both the threshold adjustment layer and the 50 percent gray layer. Create a new adjustment layer, “Levels.” Use the first Eyedropper tool to click on the darkest area, then use the third Eyedropper on the brightest area. Now you can use the gray Eyedropper tool on the third Color Sampler spot. The color tint will be decreased.

Color Sampler spots can be deleted by dragging them off the canvas with the Color Sampler tool.

Color look with adjustment layer Go to the Layer menu, and then New Adjustment Layer ●Hue/Saturation, and set the blending mode to “Soft

Light” and check “Colorize.” Use the Hue, Saturation and Lightness sliders to control the color: for a cool look, for example, set the hue at 210, the saturation at 50 and the lightness at 10; for a warm look, set the hue at 30, the saturation at 30 and the lightness at 5.

Alternatively, you could use several color layers. Create them from the layer palette with the “New Fill/Adjustment Layer” button. Choose a color, then set the blending mode to “Vivid Light.” Reduce the opacity to about 12 percent, and invert the layer mask with Control/Command + I. Paint in the colored light with a big brush and white color. This works especially well for the lighting in portraits that have a textured background.

Controlling mid-tone contrasts To increase detail in landscape shots, boost the midtone contrast. Copy the background layer withControl/Command + J, and then click on Filter ?

Convert for Smart Filters in the menu. Then go to Filter ?

Other ? High Pass and enter a radius of 3 pixels. Change the blending mode to “Overlay” and double-click the layer next to its name to open the “Layer Style” window.

For the first gradient, “This Layer,” split the sliders by holding the Alt/Option key and trim the layer effect to the “50/100” and “150/200” ranges. As soon as you move the sliders, you’ll see where those numbers are. This increases contrast only for the mid-tones. Double-click the “High Pass” filter in the layer palette to bring the dialog box up again in order to adjust the radius to your liking.

Sunset A sunset, especially at sea, can be an amazing color spectacle. The hues will depend heavily on the weather, though - but you can push them a bit with a gradient map. Click on the “New Fill/Adjustment Layer” button in the Layer palette and select “Gradient Map” from the list.

Click on the gradient to open the “Gradient Editor.” www.smashingmagazine.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Classical dancers of the Latvian National Ballet perform during a dress rehearsal of ‘Giselle’ at the Teatro de la Maestranza in Seville. —AFP

Vatican artist from Russia follows the Old Masters A

fter Michelangelo and Raphael, the Vatican’s latest official painter is something of an unusual choice-an ebullient Russian woman with a pet owl who is a regular at the court of cardinals and popes. An Orthodox believer in the heart of Roman Catholicism, Natalia Tsarkova paints her classical-style portraits in a flat filled with Vatican memorabilia by the walls of the Holy See. “I like the atmosphere here, I feel needed,” Tsarkova told AFP in an interview in a studio with several unfinished works and back copies of the Vatican’s official newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano.

It is dream come true for this graduate of the prestigious Moscow School of Arts, whose paintings including portraits of Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor John Paul II hang in Vatican palaces, Roman churches and museums around the world. “When I studied in Moscow, masters like Raphael, Michelangelo, Pietro da Cortona were like

God and now I find myself among them,” said Tsarkova, a slight blonde woman with an easy laugh who wore a neat tweed dress and black shawl. Tsarkova arrived in Rome in the early 1990s and began doing portraits of Roman aristocrats, who introduced her at

reads religious texts written by her models so as to help understand them and inspire her work, but she also often makes small talk as they sit for hours in front of her.

“They have a very rich world view and they love Russia. We talk about everything, start-

The Vatican’s newest official court artist Natalia Tsarkova poses next to a painting of Pope Benedict XVI in her studio in Rome. — AFP photos

The Vatican’s newest official court artist Natalia Tsarkova poses with a page of her children’s book “The Mystery of a Small Pond” featuring Pope Benedict XVI.

the Vatican where her background captured the attention of late pope John Paul II. “He spoke Russian with me. He said ‘Long live Russian art!’” remembers the now 45-year-old, thumping her fist for emphasis with the same glee as the late pontiff. John Paul II made great strides in rebuilding relations with the Russian Orthodox Church and Tsarkova said she too feels she can play a role. “I feel like a small bridge between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. I am like a diplomat with art.” Tsarkova said she often

ing with history and ending with my pet owl Rufus,” she said. “It’s very important to know how they think, to understand their energy,” she said. “When I paint the portrait, that energy goes through my heart, my soul and ends up on the canvas.”

‘Pope is an unusual person’ As for the popes she has painted, Tsarkova said she reads papal doctrine as part of her research. She spent hours studying Benedict in St Peter’s Basilica where she

was seated near him at masses. “I did millions of sketches! I was able to immerse myself in the prayer and draw at the same time.” The finished work is of a stern-looking pope seated on his throne with the light of the Holy Spirit behind him and images of angels all around him, including one who is a self-portrait of the artist. “It’s as if he gives life to the angels,” she said. Tsarkova said the pope was a “sensitive” character who felt the importance of symbolism in painting “very deeply” and had greatly liked the inclusion of the angels in the final result.

“The face is very important and the other objects are also very important since this is how they will be remembered for centuries to come. “He is an unusual person; he is very sensitive, clever, patient. He is a noble person,” she said. Her latest work in progress is a painting of Saint George slaying a dragon.

She said she is doing it for herself and was “inspired by the Holy Spirit”.

A protege of award-winning Russian artist Ilya Glazunov, who is best known for his patriotic and religious themes, Tsarkova said she would not consider straying from her classical style. “If you have one eye here and the other there then it would be like a caricature!” she said.

Tsarkova’s access to the papal residences helped lead to her newest venture a children’s book inspired by a visit to a fish pond at the Castel Gandolfo papal summer residence near Rome.

The book tells the story of a young goldfish and his fondness for “the man in white” who feeds him bread-a reference to the pope’s summer hobby. At the book launch in December, the pope’s personal secretary Monsignor Georg Gaenswein said the book was “a window into the Holy Father’s soul.”—AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

‘Gangster Squad’

Review

is a numbing barrage

This film image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows, from left, Giovanni Ribisi as Officer Conwell Keeler, Josh Brolin, as Sgt John O’Mara, Ryan Gosling as Sgt Jerry Wooters, Anthony Mackie as Officer Coleman Harris, Michael Pena as Officer Navidad Ramirez and Robert Patrick as Officer Max Kennard in “Gangster Squad.” — AP

“G

angster Squad,” a pulpy, violent tale of cops and mobsters in 1949 Los Angeles, rides an uncomfortable line between outlandishness and outright parody, and it’s difficult to tell which is director Ruben Fleischer’s intention. Which is a problem. While the film wallows in period detail and has some sporadic moments of amusing banter, it’s mostly flashy, empty and cacophonous, and it woefully wastes a strong cast led by Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone in barely developed, one-note roles. At its center is a performance from Sean Penn as mob king Mickey Cohen in which he doesn’t just chew up the scenery, he rolls it around in his mouth like a handful of marbles, then spits it back out again and blows it to bits with a Tommy gun for good measure.

With his mashed-up boxer’s mug, thick Brooklyn accent and volatile bursts of anger, he’s as cartoony as a Dick Tracy villain. While “Gangster Squad” certainly has its intended moments of humor, the laughs Penn’s performance prompts might not have been part of the plan. Or maybe they were who knows? The script from former Los Angeles police homicide detective Will Beall, based on the book “Gangster Squad” by ex-Los Angeles Times writer and editor Paul Lieberman, focuses on a time of flux in the city after World War II. Gang control of crime, cops and politicians had spread to the West Coast from places like New York and Chicago. Cohen had everyone of importance in his pocket and was on the verge of expanding his reach even further with a power play that would give him a piece of every wire bet placed in the Western half of the United States.

The gruff and grizzled police chief (a gruff and grizzled Nick Nolte) realizes the only way to conquer Cohen is to fight by his rules - that is, by no rules at all. So he asks Sgt. John O’Mara (Brolin), a principled, heroic war veteran, to put together a band of outsiders to destroy his empire without serving warrants or making arrests. His sidekick is the initially reluctant Sgt. Jerry Wooters (Gosling, chain smoking and speaking in a weird, whispery voice), who prefers booze and women to trouble.

Nevertheless, he makes the mistake of getting involved with Mickey’s moll, the classy, wannabe-star Grace. Stone is gorgeous with her wavy red locks, glam makeup and sexy gowns, but there’s not much to her besides looking good, which is a huge waste of Stone’s vibrant presence (not to mention the “Crazy Stupid Love” reunion she shares with Gosling).

The rest of the team consists of tried-and-true types, each of whom gets a one-liner here or there: the folksy, old-school gunslinger (Robert Patrick), the nerdy tech guru (Giovanni Ribisi) and - most dismayingly - the token black and Hispanic members, played by Anthony Mackie and Michael Pena, respectively. Seriously, that’s all they’re given to work with, and these are charismatic actors ordinarily capable of great command. (If you want to see Pena in a far superior movie about LA police officers, check out last year’s “End of Watch.”)

“Gangster Squad” was supposed to have come out last year, as well, featuring a climactic shootout in which gangsters fire automatic weapons from behind a movie screen at Hollywood’s historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. After the July shooting at a showing of “The Dark Knight Rises” that left 12 people dead in Aurora. —AP

South Korean students hold portraits of US actor Tom Cruise as they wait for his arrival before a premiere of his new movie “Jack Reacher” at the Busan Cinema Center in Busan, South Korea yesterday. —AP

Tom Cruise turns down Psy’s Gangnam challenge T

om Cruise turned down a chance to try out his “Gangnam Style” dance skills yesterday, despite topping South Korean rapper Psy’s list of celebrities who should attempt the signature horse-riding dance. When asked last year which person he would most like to see “go Gangnam Style”, Psy named the “Mission Impossible” star as his first choice. Cruise, who was in Seoul to promote his new film,

hailed Psy as “quite a sensation” but declined to follow the likes of UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon in imitating the singer’s dance moves.

“He does it better than me,” Cruise told reporters during a press conference to promote his movie “Jack Reacher” which will be released in South Korea next week. “I’m very happy for his success. Everyone has really enjoyed it,” Cruise added. Psy made

Internet history shortly before Christmas when his “Gangnam Style” video clocked more than one billion views on YouTube. Cruise was one of many celebrities around the world who took to social networks last year to promote Psy’s video as it became a viral sensation. “Think @Psy_oppa would make a good future co-star Gangnam Style?” the Hollywood star tweeted last September. — AFP

Tina Fey, Amy Poehler ready for Golden Globes show

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File photo shows Tina Fey, left, and Amy Poehler arrive at the 2012 Warner Bros and InStyle Golden Globe After Party at the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles.— AP

ina Fey and Amy Poehler are ready to crack each other up at the Golden Globe Awards. The two multi-hyphenate talents offered a taste of their quick-witted banter on a conference call with reporters Wednesday, during which Fey promised, “We’re going to sing the whole show.” “The whole show is going to be sung front to back and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine have written it,” Fey deadpanned. “We just called up Sondy,” Poehler said. “He just said, ‘Jackpot.’” Fey, 42, and Poehler, 41, take over for three-time Globes host Ricky Gervais, who sometimes created a prickly atmosphere with his pointed barbs at individual stars and films.

“It was originally going to be the car from ‘Transformers,’” Fey cracked about the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s first choice for a show host this year. The Emmy winner said she doesn’t expect to “change the face of comedy” at the show. “Because it’s such a fun, kind of sloppy night, it’s not really about the host giving any big comedy performance,” Fey said. “We feel like our job is to keep things moving and also to try to help get the movie stars more liquored up so, hopefully, someone’s boob will fall out of a dress. That’s our main role.”

Alcohol really does play a role in the show, with drinks at every table, Poehler said. “So it doesn’t take much, you know?”

“And Somehow, no matter what time you get there, you always just missed the food,” Fey said. “So you get there and there’s just booze on the table and a box of candy and that’s it. And the women haven’t eaten for days, so they have a half a glass of wine and they’re gone.” The two hosts are also competing against each other as nominees for actress in a TV comedy for starring in the shows they write and produce. Fey is up for “30 Rock,” while Poehler got the nod for “Parks and Recreation.”

Poehler said they have been too busy to consider acceptance speeches. “I know that I don’t need one,” Fey said. “If either one of us does win, we’ll already have been talking at that point for a while anyways so people will be sick of our faces, so I’m sure we’ll keep it short and sweet,” Poehler said. “Or screw it.

Since we’re hosting, we could just go as long as we wanted and cut into other people’s time.” Considering their dresses for the black-tie affair, Fey said she planned to pay sartorial tribute to the night’s honorees. “I’m going to wear one costume from each of the nominated films,” she said, “beginning with ‘Django’ and ending with a different character from ‘Django.’”

Given the Globes’ boozy atmosphere, will the hostesses imbibe? “I’m going to pubcrawl it all the way to the venue,” Poehler said. —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

‘The Hunger Games’ lead fan favorites at People’s Choice Awards

From left, Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, and Liam Hemsworth accept the favorite movie award at the People’s Choice Awards.

P

ost-apocalyptic action film “The Hunger Games” was the big winner at the People’s Choice Awards yesterday, picking up five awards including favorite movie of the year, while singer Katy Perry again led in the music categories. Hosted by “The Big Bang Theory” actress Kaley Cuoco, the People’s Choice Awards named winners in more than 40 categories across film, television and music. About 475 million fans voted through the People’s Choice website.

Jennifer Lawrence, winner of Favorite Movie Actress. —AP photos “The Hunger Games,” based on the trilogy of novels by Suzanne Collins, beat out “The Avengers,” “The Amazing Spider-Man,” “The Dark Knight Rises” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” for the coveted favorite movie accolade. Jennifer Lawrence, who plays “Hunger Games” heroine Katniss Everdeen, won the favorite movie actress award over Mila Kunis, Emma Stone, Anne Hathaway and Scarlett Johansson.

“Thank you for loving movies as much as I do, and loving this movie and voting,” Lawrence said. “The Hunger Games” was also named favorite action film and favorite movie franchise, while its stars Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth won favorite on-screen chemistry. The People’s Choice is the first of Hollywood’s annual awards shows, but unlike the Oscars or the Golden Globes, the winners are determined by fans, so it provides few insights into likely winners of the movie industry’s top honors in February.

“The Avengers,” which was nominated in eight categories, didn’t go home emptyhanded. Robert Downey Jr. was named favorite movie actor for his role as Iron Man in the superhero ensemble box office hit.

“You’ve chosen wisely,” the actor joked on stage. Adam Sandler picked up the fan favorite award for comedic actor, while former “Friends” star Jennifer Aniston picked up the favorite comedic movie actress award, beating out Mila Kunis, Reese Witherspoon, Emily Blunt and Cameron Diaz. “I cannot thank you enough for allowing me to be honored with this, after supporting me for almost 20 years,” Aniston said. Emma Watson of “Harry Potter” fame picked up the favorite dramatic actress accolade for her role in “The Perks of Being a Wallflower.” “Perks” was also named favorite dramatic movie, while “Ted,” the raunchy R-rated comedy from “Family Guy” creator Seth MacFarlane, was named favorite comedy film.

Music and television winners Katy Perry took home four trophies this year, including favorite female artist and a surprise win for favorite pop artist over Justin Bieber. Fan favorite Taylor Swift beat out Tim McGraw, Jason Aldean, Blake Shelton and Carrie Underwood for favorite country artist.

“You guys have blown my mind with what you’ve done with this album ‘Red.’ I want to thank you for caring about my music and me,” the singer said in her acceptance speech.

Her chart-topping album “Red,” which the singer based on her experiences, was one of 2012’s top-sellers. The singer attended the

awards alone following a widely reported split from boyfriend Harry Styles of UK boy band One Direction. Maroon 5 picked up the favorite band award. The band’s popularity skyrocketed in 2012 after lead singer Adam Levine served as a judge on television talent show “The Voice.” British boy band The Wanted won favorite breakout artist.

Jennifer Aniston accepts the award for favorite comedic movie actress.

Lea Michele, left, winner of the award for favorite comedic TV actress, and Chris Colfer, winner of the award for favorite comedic TV actor, pose backstage.

Adam Sandler accepts the award for favorite comedic actor.

In the television categories, CBS comedy “The Big Bang Theory” was named favorite network comedy, while ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” picked up favorite network drama.

Ellen Pompeo of “Grey’s Anatomy” and “Castle” actor Nathan Fillion won the favorite TV dramatic actress and actor awards, while “Glee” stars Lea Michele and Chris Colfer picked up the favorite TV comedic actress and actor awards. Sandra Bullock was named favorite humanitarian for her efforts in helping victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

The cast and crew of ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ pose backstage with the award for favorite dramatic movie.

Robert Downey Jr accepts the award for favorite movie actor.

The cast of ‘The Big Bang Theory’ pose backstage with the award for favorite network TV comedy.

Emma Watson accepts the award for favorite dramatic movie actress.

Singer Adam Levine holds Favorite Band award, and musician James Valentine of Maroon 5.

Ellen Pompeo accepts the award for favorite dramatic TV actress.

Host Kaley Cuoco is seen on stage.

Katy Perry accepts the award for favorite pop artist.

Taylor Swift accepts the award for favorite country artist.

Supermodel Heidi Klum

Lifestyle FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

The Wanted accept the award for favorite Breakout artist.

Alicia Keys performs.

People’s Choice Awards 2013 winners

Nathan Fillion celebrates in the press room after winning Favorite Dramatic TV Actor.

Ellen Degeneres accepts the award for favorite daytime TV host.

Actress Erinn Hayes

Sandra Bullock accepts the “Favorite Humanitarian” award.

Favourite Comedic Movie Actress: Jennifer Aniston Favourite Comedic Movie Actor: Adam Sandler Favourite Comedic Movie: ‘Ted’ Favourite Movie Actress: Jennifer Lawrence Favourite Movie Actor: Robert Downey Jr Favourite Movie Icon: Meryl Streep Favourite Movie: ‘The Hunger Games’ Favourite Movie Franchise: ‘The Hunger Games’ Favourite Action Movie Star: Chris Hemsworth Favourite Action Movie: ‘The Hunger Games’ Favourite Dramatic Movie Actress: Emma Watson Favourite Dramatic Movie Actor: Zac Efron Favourite Dramatic Movie: ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ Favourite Movie Fan Following: Twi-hards, ‘Twilight’ Favourite Comedic TV Actress: Lea Michele Favourite Comedic TV Actor: Chris Colfer Favourite Cable TV Comedy: ‘Awkward’ Favourite Network TV Comedy: ‘The Big Bang Theory’ Favourite New TV Comedy: ‘The New Normal ‘ Favourite Dramatic TV Actress: Ellen Pompeo Favourite Dramatic TV Actor: Nathan Fillion Favourite Network TV Drama: ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ Favourite Cable TV Drama: ‘Leverage’ Favourite New TV Drama: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Favourite TV Crime Drama: ‘Castle’ Favourite Premium Cable TV Show: ‘True Blood’ Favourite Sci-Fi/Fantasy TV Show: ‘Supernatural’ Favourite Competition TV Show: ‘The X Factor’ Favourite Celebrity Judge: Demi Lovato Favourite TV Fan Following: SPNFamily, ‘Supernatural’ Favourite Daytime TV Host: Ellen DeGeneres Favourite Late Night Talk-Show Host: Jimmy Fallon Favourite New Talk-Show Host: Steve Harvey Favourite Male Artist: Jason Mraz Favourite Female Artist: Katy Perry Favourite Country Artist: Taylor Swift Favourite Pop Artist: Katy Perry Favourite R&B Artist: Rihanna Favourite Hip-Hop Artist: Nicki Minaj Favourite Band: Maroon 5 Favourite Breakout Artist: The Wanted Favourite Album: ‘Up All Night’, One Direction Favourite Song: ‘What Makes You Beautiful’, One Direction Favourite Music Video: ‘Part of Me’, Katy Perry Favourite Music Fan Following: KatyCats, Katy Perry Favourite Superhero: Robert Downey Jr,’ Iron Man’ Favourite Face of Heroism: Jennifer Lawrence, ‘The Hunger Games’ People’s Voice Award: Christina Aguilera Favourite Onscreen Chemistry: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, ‘The Hunger Games ‘ Favourite Humanitarian: Sandra Bullock

Jay Ryan, left, and Kristin Kreuk, winners of the award for favorite new TV drama for ‘Beauty and the Beast.’

Ellen Degeneres accepts the award for favorite daytime TV host.

Paris Hilton and Spanish model River Viiperi

Jason Aldean, left, performs.

Casey Wilson, left, and Ian Somerhalder present the award for favorite comedic actor.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

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39 Pe t s

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Paradise for your pet ‘Resorts,’ ‘hotels’ and ‘country clubs’ cater to man’s best friends in style

Zeus (left) and CJ are ready for a cart ride at Tuscarora’s Country Club for Dogs near Mt Pleasant, North Carolina. —MCT photos

A

llie jumps from her wroughtiron bed and runs to the window of the presidential suite, past the flat-screen TV tuned to “Animal Planet” just for her. The black shih tzu presses her nose against the glass overlooking the lobby of Pet Paradise Resort, one of Charlotte, NC’s newest boarding facilities for dogs and cats. Here is Allie’s view from the resort’s ritziest, $70-per-night room: Framed portraits of terriers, bulldogs and spaniels hanging on all four walls of the lobby. Chairs upholstered in fabric printed with black and yellow labs. And visible through a window behind the reception desk, a golden retriever-poodle mix splashes outside in a bone-shaped swimming pool. “A lot of people say, ‘We don’t treat him like he’s a dog,’” says resort manager Dina Beam. “We say, ‘Great! That’s what we cater to.’”

This Club-Med-for-mutts near Charlotte/Douglas International Airport is part of a growing trend toward luxury pet boarding _ where businesses calling themselves “hotels” and “spas” pamper pooches with everything from golf cart rides and “Yappy Hour” ice cream to bedtime stories and orthopedic mattresses.

‘Do you want a blueberry facial?’

“Ten to 15 years ago, there started to be a dramatic change in how people viewed their pets,” says Joan Saunders, CEO of the Coloradobased trade group Pet Care Services Association. Pets became “members of the family,” she says, rather than animals that stayed mostly outdoors.

The shift left some pet owners unsatisfied with boarding Puff and Spot in a cage behind the vet’s office. They wanted more deluxe services and were willing to pay for them.

Doggies love the pool at Pet Paradise Resort in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Spending on boarding, daycare, grooming and other non-medical pet care is growing at a rate of more than 5 percent a year despite the sluggish economy, Saunders says.

Many boarding facilities have expanded to offer daycare, retail boutiques and other amenities.

“You might drop your dog off for the weekend,” Saunders says, “and the facility owner might say, ‘Do you want your dog groomed while they’re here? Do you want a blueberry facial and their nails done?’”

nighttime readings from books like “The Pokey Little Puppy” and “Lady and the Tramp.” The $43-per-night luxury suite is tricked out with a toddler bed - complete with orthopedic mattress - and wall-mounted TV playing doggy DVDs. They’ve

Dina Beam (left) gets Munchie settled into a bed in the presidential suite at Pet Paradise Resort in Charlotte, North Carolina.

even hosted a formal dance called a Pug Ball, with girl dogs in gowns and boys in tuxes or bow ties, says Assistant manager Kyrsten Shapiro.

“We had a disco ball in the middle and music playing,” she says.

At Meadows Bed & Biscuit in

Golf cart ride for Fifi Tuscarora’s Country Club for Dogs comes complete with golf carts, as any proper country club should. And that’s just what Fifi is riding in this afternoon. The white Maltese with a pink bow on her rhinestone collar is bouncing along Tuscarora’s }-mile nature trail in the back of a cart, held securely by staffer Kim Culley. “In the summertime, we let them swim in the creek,” Culley says, as Fifi sniffs the woodsy air along Cabarrus County’s Little Buffalo Creek.

The 33-acre club has a summercamp feel that attracts the pets of a few Charlotte Bobcats as well as former Bank of America chief executive Ken Lewis and his wife, Donna. “We use the pick-up and delivery service,” Donna Lewis says, adding that owner Vivian Kelly sometimes comes to get Sissy, the Lewis’s cocker spaniel, in her Cadillac instead of Tuscarora’s van. The tab for pick-up and delivery starts at $30 one way, added to Tuscarora’s boarding fees which start at $25 for dogs, $20 for cats.

Doggy DVDs and ‘mozart for cats’ At Best Friends Pet Care in Pineville, NC, pups bed down on synthetic lambs’ wool pads after

Kimberly Cully (left) gets a loving lick from Aries at Tuscarora’s Country Club for Dogs near Mt. Pleasant, North Carolina.

Huntersville, NC, owner Susan Meadows knows that if pet owners are going to spend $3,000 on a trip to Europe, they’ll want their dog to stay in a nice place. Like Pet Paradise, Meadows B&B has Webcams so owners can check in on their pooch while traveling. Two gyms are outfitted with rubber floors that are easy on paw pads and joints. There’s even anti-microbial synthetic turf in the play yard.

In Mooresville, Pampered Pets Inn has heated floors in its suites and play room. Feline friends aren’t left out of the trend. Meadows, like several of the area’s other upscale facilities, has multi-level kitty condos.

Those at Meadows come complete with four-poster beds, six levels for climbing and a view of a 110-gallon fish tank. Mooresville’s Hotel 4 Cats offers classical music (“Mozart for Cats” is a popular CD) and views of bird feeders out the windows.

‘We want to trade places’ Back at Pet Paradise, Jimmy Buffett on the sound system gives an island vibe to a day full of pumpkin frozen yogurt, oatmeal baths for sensitive skin and six different cologne scents that are included with grooming. Business has increased each month since the August ‘09 opening, says manager Beam, with boarding starting at $35 per night for dogs, $22 for cats.

“As soon as I get him out of the car, he’s dragging me into the place,” customer Tracy White says of Rylee, her 10-month-old golden retriever-poodle mix. She and her husband joke about how much fun Rylee has at Pet Paradise while they’re toiling away on business trips. “He’s there playing in the pool and eating ice cream,” White says.

“We want to trade places with this dog.” —MCT

Stars

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19) This is a day that should find everything running smoothly. Interplay with senior business partners may take up most of your morning. New ways to communicate or an easy manner will make conversations and interactions go well. A new technical process will have to be taught and you could spend a longer time in finding someone for the job than just becoming the teacher yourself.

You may find yourself more talkative than usual. When you are asked to guide others today, remember that knowledge is on your side. Not only will you be able to help, you will have luck with your mission.

Later you will enjoy gathering with friends or the usual fun group for perhaps some team game. Tonight would be a good time to enjoy some family quiet time.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You have a definite purpose—now you need a definite plan. You could be the one chosen for a special project today and you want everything regarding that project to be perfect. Your timing should be good and those around you will find you most agreeable.

Your mood is quite fitting—you get things moving and you are motivated. Others may find you especially witty and ask to work with you. A strong need for that one-on-one conversation takes precedence this afternoon and you may find yourself in lengthy conversations with a friend over past vacation adventures. You may feel the need to care for others—perhaps on a public rather than private level. It could be you will work with the homeless or be creative in helping the handicapped.

Gemini (May 21-June 20) You and a close friend make plans for the upcoming weekend. Together you complete the list for shopping items that are needed and who will buy what. If your country is cold, you may decide to go to a warm area . . . if your country is hot, you may decide a skiing trip is in order. Whatever the case a hobby and a fun change of atmosphere makes life most interesting. Professionally speaking, you are on top of your game, so to speak. Because you create new and fun things to do in your off-work hours, you have incentive to work and make a good income to fulfill your dreams. Close personal ties to other people are a focal point for your feelings—marriage and other partnerships could be a key arenas for this in the future.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Start the year out right . . . with passion. Love is preferred; however, communication with friends and family will also work. Today you may not feel very talkative. There is much on your mind as well as work issues. There are much writing, advertising and computer-related work for now. The reformer, the inventor, the engineer, the revolutionary—these are important archetypes for you as a new cycle gets underway in your life. They are icons of the ambitions that stir you at a time like this. Independence, freedom from past patterns and a daring readiness to innovate are the paths of achievement for you now. You are a magnet for people. Tonight ends as the day began . . . passion. There are two people at your place when the lights go out.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You could be experiencing some emotional changes today as you help a friend or relative with some difficult situation. Positive thinking can change your life in good ways and that is what you teach. One day at a time, you can do anything and that is the example you set. You may need to be accountable to others so . . . say what you mean and mean what you say. You will receive help when it comes to entertaining others or cleaning up after a big night of entertaining. Talking with loved ones while you work or listening to music while you work makes the chores go lightening fast. A social life can be enjoyed this afternoon and evening. You are wise to create meals that are easy to share and enjoy with paper plates and napkins for easy cleanup.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) At home, away from the workplace, you may still be thinking of work and the way work is performed. When you think of the routine that is the accepted norm, you may come up with ideas to help update and modernize the worker and his or her tools. You may not be high enough on the totem poll to make certain changes but you are able to write a report that will create quite an interest. You may want to end your report with the suggestion that you could save the company money and do the research. This will make you a more valuable part of the team. To improve your own work, look at the communication techniques and what happens to create a faster change. This afternoon would be a good time to put out a bird feeder with corn or fat.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Gather facts that will back up your ideas today, especially where a business or financial plan is concerned. Keep your vision in mind and you will reach your goals. You like to be prepared and later today you have an opportunity to do a little planning and a little catching up type of work. You will find expressions of appreciation from your housemates this afternoon. You may decide that a mutual admiration society is in order. You go about telling others how much you appreciate them. A busy life for everyone around you, including yourself, leaves little time for a visit on most days. You enjoy having stability in your life and will continue to find time to send cards, letters or make phone calls that help update yourself on family happenings and activities.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Some negative aspects can be worked through very quickly today—especially if you are paying attention.

Give yourself time to see through all sides of a subject before coming up with a decision. This would be a good day to follow instructions— head down—pencil busy. A new co-worker may have you confused— there could be a power struggle. Figuring out how to organize projects and people is apt to become a topic of special interest—and a challenge. Opinions are not enough now: authority or evidence must back them—above all, they must have practical worth and application. This could be a time for intense study. Actually, sitting down to a meal and communicating may help to solve a few problems this evening.

Exercise control; balance.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You may be right to want to change a situation today but you are going to have to find a way to express yourself that can be constructive. Someone from your past has come into your thoughts today and who knows, he or she could be thinking about you. It is possible that this person will come to your attention sometime in the near future. Put your mind to work and take care of any details that you may have, for mental discipline should be easy.

Problems and obstacles that have been puzzling should find easy explanations under your keen examination. Get into the habit of identifying the real from the imagined and you will be able to be most productive. Habits are in a cycle of change; variety satisfies a deep inner need. Enjoy a movie or dinner tonight.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Usually, shortcuts are not a very good idea but today . . . it is the only way to get the demands of work completed. A helpful co-worker friend is a very welcomed assistant. You can return the favor soon. You may decide to start keeping track of money-in and money-out this year so that you can see where there might be leaks.

Going through your clothes and putting things in order creates an opportunity for you to mend or to cull out the things that need repair or cleaning. It is easiest to concentrate on the project of the day when you are organized at home. Someone who is really very fond of you may do you a big favor this afternoon. This action on his or her part lets you know just how special you are to him or her. If you feel the same way, express your feelings.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Someone will give you advice on travel or income and it would be worth your time to listen; this could be fun, beneficial and educational. There are harmonious energies moving in your direction regarding new projects. This could mean in the workplace or at home. If you are worried about beginning a new project; relax—there is fun in discovery. If you are wondering how a new project will fare, don’t . . . just put your head forward and move ahead. You attract the people that admire your common sense and your knack for handling all sorts of issues. You may want to consider your talents— there are monetary rewards just waiting, perhaps a book. Tonight you may talk to the family about building a deck or some other addition to the house.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) This is a very good day for getting things accomplished.

You may shine in your particular job description but there could come a time soon to consider business changes that will offer a better income. If you are observant, you will be able to create that change for yourself, when you are ready. You will receive encouragement and advice from an unexpected source. New ideas may lead in the direction of education, travel, creative writing or communication. Distribute your energies wisely—laugh! You may be a bit overly protective with someone this afternoon—careful. Something promised is not coming forth; the best way to teach someone a lesson for this may just be in verbally expressing disappointment. They will feel it.

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

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

Stars

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 6 6

ACROSS 1. Upright consisting of a vertical side member of a door or window frame.

5. Someone who plays the harp.

12. An ancient Hebrew unit of capacity equal to 10 baths or 10 ephahs.

15. The United Nations agency concerned with civil aviation.

16. Being without physical aid.

17. A strong emotion.

18. A word that is written with two letters in an alphabetic writing system.

20. Cause to lose courage.

21. Electrical conduction through a gas in an applied electric field.

22. Order of mammals having few or no teeth including.

24. A hard malleable ductile silvery metallic element that is resistant to corrosion.

26. United States writer of thrillers (born in 1925).

28. Blood-sucking African fly.

30. (computer science) A unit for measuring computing power.

32. Submerged aquatic plant having narrow leaves and small flowers.

34. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

36. An expression of greeting.

40. Sideboard with compartments for holding bottles.

44. German engineer and automobile manufacturer who produced the first highspeed internal combustion engine (1834-1900).

46. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

47. A metabolic acid found in yeast and liver cells.

49. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or BB gun.

50. How long something has existed.

51. A unit of dry measure used in Egypt.

54. West Indian tree having racemes of fragrant white flowers and yielding a durable timber and resinous juice.

56. The ability and desire to purchase goods and services.

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

61. Offering fun and gaiety.

63. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

64. Prevent from being seen or discovered.

67. The Moslem official of a mosque who summons the faithful to prayer from a minaret five times a day.

71. A sign of assent or salutation or command.

72. The French-speaking part of the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

75. Someone given to teasing (as by mocking or stirring curiosity).

76. Any of various systems of units for measuring electricity and magnetism.

77. A B vitamin that prevents beriberi.

79. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

80. A usually soluble substance for staining or coloring e.g. fabrics or hair.

81. Aged or processed.

82. Informal abbreviation of `representative'.

3. Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain.

4. 3rd largest island in the world.

5. All of the inhabitants of the earth.

6. An associate degree in nursing.

7. Measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radiation is used to detect and locate distant objects.

8. Perennial herb of East India to Polynesia and Australia cultivated for its large edible root yielding Otaheite arrowroot starch.

9. Goddess of spring and wife of Bragi.

10. 100 seniti equal 1 pa'anga.

11. (astronomy) A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.

12. Deciduous South African tree having large odd-pinnate leaves and profuse fragrant orange-yellow flowers.

13. German iris having large white flowers with lavender-tinged falls and a fragrant rhizome.

14. Reconnaissance (by shortening).

19. On, to, or at the top.

23. A hard gray lustrous metallic element that is highly corrosion-resistant.

25. Evergreen shrubs of north temperate regions.

27. A nucleic acid consisting of large molecules shaped like a double helix.

29. Formerly a term of respect for important white Europeans in colonial India.

31. A male religious of an order of mendicant preachers of the gospel.

33. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

35. An undergarment worn by women to support their breasts.

37. Wild or domesticated South American cud-chewing animal related to camels but smaller and lacking a hump.

38. A garment covering the leg (usually extending from the knee to the ankle).

39. (Greek mythology) One of the mountain nymphs.

41. A medicinal drug used to evoke vomiting (especially in cases of drug overdose or poisoning).

42. A small cake leavened with yeast.

43. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

45. In bed.

48. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

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

53. Affect with wonder.

55. (Greek mythology) One of the three Graces.

57. Exultantly proud and joyful.

59. (of buildings and rooms) Having ample space.

60. Give qualities or abilities to.

62. At full speed.

65. Informal terms for a meal.

66. A dull persistent (usually moderately intense) pain.

68. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria.

69. A small island.

70. A less than average tide occurring at the first and third quarters of the moon.

73. Any of several small ungulate mammals of Africa and Asia with rodent-like incisors and feet with hooflike toes.

74. The United Nations agency concerned with international maritime activities.

78. A colorless odorless gaseous element that give a red glow in a vacuum tube.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. An aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect.

2. Harsh or corrosive in tone.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Sri Lanka look for fresh start in Aussie ODI series SYDNEY: Sri Lanka are banking on the return of slinging paceman Lasith Malinga to give them a fresh start in the one-day series against Australia, starting in Melbourne. The explosive Malinga, whose unusual “slingshot” action makes him difficult to face, was keenly missed by Sri Lanka in their three-Test mauling by the Australians as he concentrated on the shorter forms of the game.

In missing the Tests, he became one of the standout bowlers in Australia’s Twenty20 Big Bash League with the Melbourne Stars. Sri Lanka go into the series opener reinvigorated by the addition of Akila Dananjaya, Upul Tharanga and Ajantha Mendis along with Jeevan Mendis and Thisara Perera, who have been playing in the Big Bash League. “I think it’s going to

be a fresh start because there are a few guys who will be joining us as well,” allrounder Angelo Mathews said.

“It’s very disappointing the way we played in the Test matches but I think we need to get through that, flush it out of the system and concentrate on the ODIs. “Lasith Malinga is joining us and we have got more fire in our bowling department....

I think he’s the best bowler going around in world cricket at the moment in the Twenty20 format.” Sri Lanka will be encouraged by their ODI record in Australia, with four wins in seven matches last year, while they claimed their first-ever series win in Australia 2-1 in 2010.

The Lions have also won their past three ODIs at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, boosting their confidence ahead of the

five-match series after the 3-0 battering they received from Michael Clarke’s team in the recent Tests. Selectors have rested Test men Clarke, Matthew Wade and David Warner from the two opening ODIs, and are fielding debutants in their top three batting spots in Melbourne-Aaron Finch, Phil Hughes and Usman Khawaja. “We’ve got to concentrate on our cricket... whatever team Australia puts on the field that’s up to them,” coach Graham Ford said.

“But a couple of those names are real match-winners in their own right and it is a bit of a comfort knowing they’re not going to be around. “We tend to prefer the short formats of the game anyway. We’ve got some really skilful one-day players.” Only three rankings points separate fourthplaced Australia from fifth-placed Sri Lanka

in the ODI rankings and the home side are going in with a much-changed squad and an eye on building towards the 2015 World Cup at home.

Australia T20 skipper George Bailey will lead the side in Clarke’s absence as he strives to fully recover from a hamstring strain, while Brad Haddin takes over the wicketkeeping gloves from Wade. But there was no place for senior batsman Mike Hussey, who played his 79th and last Test earlier this week. Hughes said he was confident that Australia had the quality to cope with a Sri Lankan attack boasting Malinga and spin dangermen Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herath. “The experience is there through state cricket even though it’s not there through international cricket,” he said.

“You’ve got to start somewhere.” — AFP

New Zealand aim to repel pace barrage

Tiger Woods

Tiger Woods to open season in Abu Dhabi ABU DHABI: Tiger Woods will begin his season next week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship, the 14-times major winner said on Wednesday, the second consecutive year he will start his campaign in the United Arab Emirates. Woods finished tied third in the European Tour event last year, two shots behind winner Robert Rock of England who he shared the lead with after 54 holes of play. World number one Rory McIlroy has also signed up to play in the $2.7 million event at the Abu Dhabi Golf

Club which starts on Jan 17. “I’m excited to compete again,” Woods said in a statement on his website. “Hopefully my good practice sessions will carry over.” The world number three will then head back home to compete in the US PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open which starts on Jan 24.

The 37-year-old has a strong record at Torrey Pines, winning the event six times under the previous Buick Invitational name and also claiming the 2008 US Open at the San Diego venue. He missed last year’s event

because of a schedule clash with the Abu Dhabi tournament.

“Obviously, I’ve had good success at Torrey Pines,” Woods said. “I practically grew up playing the South and North Courses. The fans have always been supportive, and I look forward to returning.” Woods, who won three times last year to take him to 74 PGA Tour wins and second on the all-time list behind Sam Snead’s 82, did not commit to any other tournaments in Wednesday’s release apart from the four majors. — Reuters

PORT ELIZABETH: New Zealand batsmen were subjected to a barrage of hostile deliveries from their own bowlers as they prepared to combat South Africa’s formidable attack in the second and final Test against South Africa starting at St George’s Park today. “Now that you know the challenge, the intensity and attitude that you put into training has to be as close to a match as possible,” said fast bowler Chris Martin in explaining his team’s unorthodox preparation New Zealand were blown away for 45 in the first innings of the first Test in Cape Town on the way to defeat by an innings and 27 runs.

The damage was done by South Africa’s pace trio of Vernon Philander, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel.

Although Philander will miss the second Test because of a hamstring strain, New Zealand’s batsmen will again face a formidable challenge from Steyn, Morkel, Jacques Kallis and Rory Kleinveldt, who will replace Philander.

“It’s hard to imagine facing Steyn, Morkel and Philander in the nets,” said Martin, “but as a group of bowlers we’re trying to lift the ante a little against our batters to make sure they get what they need out of training, a little more hostility, more aggression.

“If you walk away having trained like that you can feel more ready to deal with the fight.” The first Test ended inside three days. While the South Africans were given three days off before reassembling in Port Elizabeth on Tuesday, the tourists were in the nets the day after the Test ended in an attempt to lift their game before the final match of the series. There is such a wide gulf between world champions South Africa and eighth-ranked New Zealand that the host nation will drop a point on the International Cricket Council rankings if they win the series 1-0.

They will only gain one point if they complete the sweep, whereas they will lose four - and New Zealand will gain the same number - if the tourists defy the odds and square the series. New Zealand are unlikely to encounter conditions as bowler-friendly as they were on the first day at Newlands. The St George’s Park pitch has traditionally had less pace and bounce than other Test venues in South Africa, although much could depend on the amount of grass left on the surface - and which way the wind is blowing.

An easterly wind off the sea tends to favor swing and seam bowling, while a westerly from inland usually means good batting conditions. South Africa will again start as hot favorites. All of their top five batsmen are ranked inside the first 20 on the latest ICC ranking list, whereas the highest-placed New Zealander in the tour party is captain Brendon McCullum at 25. Despite the absence of second-ranked Philander, South Africa have the number one bowler in Steyn, while Morkel is in eighth place. Martin, at 16, is the best of the New Zealanders. — AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Final eight teams set for NFL playoff battle NEW YORK: The National Football League’s (NFL) four top-rated teams join the fray this weekend by hosting divisional round playoff games that will set the stage for the Super Bowl semi-finals. Following first-round byes, the Denver Broncos, New England Patriots, Atlanta Falcons and San Francisco 49ers should all be rested and well-prepared to do battle with last week’s wild-card playoff winners.

Quarterbacking kings Peyton Manning and Tom Brady are a win away from a tantalizing AFC championship duel, with top-seeded Denver big favorites over the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday and the Patriots expected to beat the Houston Texans on Sunday.

Manning, riding an 11-game winning streak with the Broncos, steered them to a 34-17 victory last month over Baltimore, while Brady led his Patriots to a 42-14 thumping against Houston. “We understand the challenge that we have,” said Houston head coach Gary Kubiak. “The Patriots have been at this level for a long time. We had a rough trip up there last time, but we’ve earned our right to go back.”

Arian Foster helped the Texans book the rematch by rushing for 140 yards in last week’s 19-13 win over Cincinnati.

Vince Wilfork, New England’s huge defensive tackle, said the Patriots expect a tougher test this time from the Texans. “They didn’t play their best game. They know that and we know that,” said Wilfork. “Come Sunday we are expecting their best. It’s all or nothing from here on out.” Manning, who has picked up right where he left off despite missing the 2011 season with Indianapolis after neck surgery, said it was pretty much business as usual for him. “I always try to prepare every single week as if it was a playoff game or the Super Bowl,” he told reporters. “That’s your job as an NFL player.”

CLOSE CONTESTS Ravens cornerback Cary Williams said his team relished the role of underdog. “Every time you turn on the TV you see somebody talking about the Broncos and the Patriots in the AFC championship game,” said Williams. “We love that. People are counting us out. We love being the underdog.” The NFC matchups, by contrast, are rated as close contests with the North Division champion Green Bay Packers playing the West-winning 49ers on Saturday, while topseeded Atlanta face the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.

Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers had an easy time disposing of the Minnesota Vikings 24-10 in their wild-card contest, while the Seahawks roared back froma 14-0 deficit to beat the Washington Redskins 24-14. The Packers fell 30-22 to the 49ers in their seasonopener. San Francisco, who led the NFL with nine players selected to the Pro Bowl, will have big-play quarterback Colin Kaepernick making his first postseason start in his second year in the NFL after taking over from Alex Smith.

“We lost the NFC championship game at home last year,” said Pro Bowl safety Donte Whitner about a heartbreaking overtime loss to the New York Giants. “We want to take that next step this year and that’s our goal. We want to win the first playoff game, win the second and then go to the Super Bowl.” Atlanta, is looking for their first playoff win under head coach Mike Smith and Pro Bowl quarterback Matt Ryan, so the pressure is on them against the wild-card Seahawks, who are without injured defensive end Chris Clemons. “I don’t worry about it. I don’t think about it,” Ryan said about the pressure. “We just want to play our best football.” —Reuters

SYDNEY: Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland returns a shot against Li Na of China during their semi-final match at the Sydney International tennis tournament yesterday. — AFP

Radwanska soars in Sydney Ferrer reaches Auckland semis SYDNEY: Agnieszka Radwanska needed eight match points to finish off Li Na yesterday but confirmed her fine pre-Australian Open form by maintaining her perfect start to the year and reaching the final of the Sydney International. The Polish top seed was well worth the 6-3 6-4 win over her Chinese opponent and will face Dominika Cibulkova in today’s final after the Slovakian stunned German second seed Angelique Kerber 6-2 46 6-3. “I think I was really playing good tennis the last couple of days,” said Radwanska, who also won the Auckland Classic last week and has started the year with eight straight wins.

“I hope I can continue playing at this level.”

David Ferrer has played six fewer matches than Radwanska this year but really hit his stride yesterday when he swept aside Lukas Lacko 6-2 6-1 in his bid to win a fourth title at the Auckland Open. The Spaniard, who like Radwanska will be seeded fourth at Melbourne Park next week, needed just 54 minutes to beat his Slovak opponent and set up a semi-final against Germany’s Tommy Haas or French wildcard Gael Monfils. The fifth seed in the men’s draw for the year’s first grand slam, Tomas Berdych, had a less enjoyable day at Kooyong where he was humbled 6-3 6-2 by Australia’s resurgent former world number one Lleyton Hewitt.

Hewitt, now 31 and ranked 82nd in the world, beat world number 15 Milos Raonic in his first round robin match on Wednesday and his 88-minute victory over Czech Berdych puts him into the final of the exhibition event. There he will meet either Argentina’s world number seven Juan Martin Del Potro or Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who face off at the Kooyong Classic today. “I’m just thrilled to be able to perform like this against quality players and on back-to-back days,” Hewitt told reporters. “I’ve had five tough sets in two days and that will hold me in good stead for next week.”

DEJA VU Although Radwanska has had a busy schedule, Li was clearly tired after playing nine times in 10 days as well as managing to fit in a flight from China to Australia after winning last week’s Shenzhen Open. The Pole broke on Li’s first service game and rarely looked back before stuttering to close out the match as she had in beating Yanina Wickmayer in Auckland last week. “It was kind of like a deja vu from Auckland final,” she said.

“I’m really ready for the Australian Open. I will do of course everything to win that match tomorrow as well, and we’ll see. I hope to win 16 matches in a row.”

Cibulkova added world number five Kerber to her list of top 10 victims in Sydney this week having already beaten Petra Kvitova and Sara Errani. The men’s event at the Sydney International warm-up reached the quarter-final stage with just one seed still standing after upsets and injury withdrawals ravaged the draw. Frenchman Julien Benneteau, well rested after his second round tie on Wednesday went just four points before Radek Stepanek retired hurt, cruised past American qualifier Ryan Harrison 6-4 6-2.

South Africa’s Kevin Anderson joined him in the semi-finals with an equally straightforward 6-4 6-3 win over Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

Australian young gun Bernard Tomic faces defending champion Jarkko Nieminen in the quarter-finals later with the winner going on to play third seed Andreas Seppi or Marcel Granollers in the last four. Men’s top seed John Isner, who lost to Harrison on Wednesday, pulled out of the Australian Open yesterday because of a knee injury, leaving Sam Querrey as the only American men’s seed at Melbourne Park this year. Querrey overcame Canada’s Jesse Levine 6-4 7-6 in Auckland and will face Philipp Kohlschreiber in the semi-finals after the German beat Xavier Malisse 7-6 6-4. — Reuters

Hewitt crushes Berdych MELBOURNE: Lleyton Hewitt pronounced himself in near-perfect form after a 6-3, 6-2 demolition yesterday of world number six Tomas Berdych sent the Australian into the final of the Kooyong Classic. Hewitt, who won the title on his first appearance at the eight-man exhibition in 2011, took 88 minutes to subdue his Czech opponent, who admitted he was struggling with his game. Former world number one Hewitt, about to play his 17th straight Australian Open, will face either Marcos Baghdatis or Juan Martin del Potro for the Kooyong title tomorrow.

“In the end I felt really good,” said the veteran Australian, now ranked 82nd after undergoing a second foot operation a year ago.

“Berdych has such weight of shot and hits so cleanly, I needed a few games to get used to his game. “I got confidence and didn’t

allow him to dictate. It was a good scoreline for me, but it was tighter than it looked. “The body felt great, my confidence was up and I was really happy with my ball-striking. I attacked his serve and put him under pressure, more than he was giving to me,” the 31year-old added. Berdych said he had concerns about his game. “I’m not feeling myself on the court. It’s not what I expect from myself. I need to speak with my coach about what he sees,” he said. “It’s nothing to do with an injury, it’s just me and the timing of the ball.

The comfort is not there. I need to feel strong from the baseline in my game and I need to get that back. “I was very tired at the end of a long 2012 season, but I need to deal with that and do my best next week (at the Australian Open).” Canada’s Milos Raonic beat Croatian Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-4 in the consolation round. — AFP

Sports FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

NHL owners unanimously approve labor deal High hopes for new India field hockey league NEW DELHI: With a young team led by the enigmatic Sardar Singh showing glimpses of India’s past prowess, there are now hopes an upcoming professional league likened to the money-rich Indian Premier League will help resurrect the sport’s former glory. Indians were long considered the kings of field hockey - winning eight Olympic gold medals - but that dominance has dwindled since the introduction of synthetic turf pitches in the 1970s. India’s fourthplace finish at last year’s Champions Trophy with a young squad led by versatile player Sardar Singh offered hope for the future, just in time for the proposed league to find some new backers.

The Hockey India League, which has the sanction of world body FIH and is organized by Hockey India, will be held at a range of venues from Jan 14-Feb. 10 featuring five city-based franchise teams - Delhi Waveriders, Jaypee Punjab Warriors, Uttar Pradesh Wizards, Mumbai Magicians and Ranchi Rhinos. Though announced with much fanfare, a sixth franchise - Bangalore - remained unsold and there had also been doubts over the Delhi franchise after its coowner Ponty Chadha died in a shootout over an alleged property dispute with his brother, but the sponsor remained on board. Former Australia coach and Olympian Ric Charlesworth, who will coach the Mumbai side, is bullish about the league, which he believes will benefit not just India but the global field hockey fraternity.

“I believe the league has the possibility of building interest in the game in India and elsewhere,” he told The Associated Press in an email. “Young players increasingly see a future as a hockey player. Our Australian players can now hope to play in Europe and in India, and young Indians see their hockey world expanding.” In an auction last month that was held along similar lines to the IPL, star player Sardar was the costliest player, selling for $78,000 to Delhi.

Ace drag-flicker V.R. Raghunath was bought by Uttar Pradesh for $76,000, Australian star Jamie Dwyer went to Punjab for $60,000, German player Mortiz Fuertse was taken

by Ranchi for $75,500 and Dutch great Nooijer sold to Uttar Pradesh Wizards for $66,000.

Charlesworth, who has been associated with Indian teams in the past, thinks the league will offer budding Indian players a chance to compete with the best. “The strength of this league for Indian players will be the fact that some of the world’s best international players will rub shoulders with young Indian players and thereby grow and develop in a highly competitive international environment, that will be the best place to advance their skills and international competitiveness,” he said. Charlesworth said he expects the league will evolve over the years even as a broader group of players is exposed to competition at an international level.

“Players learn from each other, they learn from the coaching environment and from the playing experience,” he explained. “I am confident that the whole perspective of those involved will be expanded and fertilized by this league. There will not be a day goes by that a new concept will be discussed, challenged or tried,” he said. India’s national coach Michael Nobbs has previously expressed the hope that said the league will help identify future stars. “My long-term goal is a podium in Rio (2016 Olympics) and that’s what we are aiming for,” Nobbs told reporters after the Champions Trophy. “But the short-term goal is the Hockey India League where I want to see how Indian players play against some of the best in international hockey.”

Despite high hopes and an injection of cash, the Indian hockey administration faces a struggle to build support and a completive team, especially just a year after the rebel IHF organizing its own World Series Hockey league which got a lukewarm response from fans and the media. Former star Dhanraj Pillay and ex-India captain Rajpal Singh were the prominent Indian players in that league, while the foreigners included Rehan Butt of Pakistan, Brent Livermore of Australia, Lucas Vila of Argentina and Rodrigo Garza of Spain. The challenge for the upcoming FIH sanctioned event will be to not just to sustain it but also ensure India is able to increase its pool of players and improve overall standards.— AP

NEW YORK: NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman felt all the anger directed toward him as the lockout dragged on and threatened to wipe out the entire hockey season. So when he stood on a podium bearing the league shield on Wednesday and announced that the owners unanimously approved the labor deal reached over the weekend with the players’ association, he also took the time to mend badly damaged fences. “To the players who were very clear they wanted to be on the ice and not negotiating labor contracts, to our partners who support the league financially and personally, and most importantly to our fans, who love and have missed NHL hockey, I am sorry,” Bettman said. The league’s board of governors met in a Manhattan hotel Wednesday and overwhelmingly approved the agreement that was hammered out early Sunday on the 113th day of the lockout. Bettman was well aware of all the negative talk during the four-month dispute that kept hockey off the ice and was contrite in announcing the latest step by the owners. He said he wants to look forward and not back at the mess created by the work stoppage.

“We know that no words of apology or explanation will soften the disappointment,” Bettman said. “I read the letters, I followed the tweets, I read the blogs. We have a lot of work to do. “As commissioner of the National Hockey League it sometimes falls upon me to make tough decisions that disappoint and occasionally anger players and fans. This was a long and extremely difficult negotiation - one that took a lot longer than anybody wanted. I know it caused frustration, disappointment and even suffering to a lot of people who have supported the National Hockey League in many different ways.”

In his nearly 20 years as commissioner, Bettman has presided over three lockouts.

One caused the cancellation of the 200405 season, another led to a 48-game season in 1995 - much like is expected for this season. The latest lockout forced the cancellation of 510 games. Overall, 2,208 games have been lost by labor disputes during his tenure. But Bettman was quick to call any speculation he might consider stepping down from his post as “unfounded.” “I am looking forward to continuing to grow this game, both on and off the ice, as we have over the last 20 years,” he said. “I think the opportunities are great, and I am excited to be a part of them.” Players are expected to vote on the deal Friday and Saturday. If a majority of the more than 700 members in good standing agree to the terms, training camps can open Sunday. A 48-game season is likely to begin Jan 19. The NHL and the union are still drafting a memorandum of understanding that must be signed before training camps open. The players’ association wants as much of the document as possible to be completed before voting begins.

The union is busy calling players and agents to educate them about the changes and additions to the agreement.

The vote will be done electronically. There will be no more than seven days between the opening of camps and the start of the season, and no preseason games will be played. Teams will be challenged to be ready right from the start. “It’s one thing to skate and check out their conditioning and everything else, but you don’t get a chance to experiment much with lineups and lines and combinations,” Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee

MICHIGAN: Detroit Red Wings forward Cory Emmerton skates during drills at the Troy Sports Center in Troy, Mich. While lawyers work on putting a new collective bargaining agreement on paper, NHL players have a little more of a sense of urgency during informal workouts they’ve been putting together during the lockout. — AP said. “That’s the hardest thing for managers right now. A lot of unknowns ... but we’re excited nonetheless to get going.”

Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Steve Yzerman, who forged a Hall of Fame playing career over 22 seasons with the Detroit Red Wings, isn’t concerned about getting adjusted to the new deal because the key issue of the salary cap isn’t all that different. “As things go along, every change you make, every rule you put in whether it’s on ice or off ice, generally has unforeseen consequences that come up with it,” said Yzerman, who retired one season after the 2004-05 lockout. “I don’t see it being terribly difficult. “Over the next year or two the market will readjust and that will sort itself out.”

The agreement is for 10 years, but either side can opt out after eight. The previous deal was in effect for seven seasons.

“It’s one that will stand the test of time with a system where all teams can be competitive and have a chance to make the playoffs and even win the Stanley Cup,” Bettman said. “It guarantees that our attention from now on will stay where it belongs, on the ice.” After the players vote to ratify, clubs can begin the process of winning back fans. Bettman declined to give specifics because he didn’t want to be presumptuous that the union would give its approval.

“The National Hockey League has the responsibility to earn back your trust and support, whether you watch one game or every game,” Bettman said. “That effort begins today. The players are ready to play their hearts out for you, the teams are preparing to welcome you back with open arms, the wait is just about over. “Like all

of you, we can’t wait to drop the puck.”

The NHL won’t release the new schedule until players ratify the deal. The regular season was supposed to begin Oct 11, but the lockout wrecked those plans after it took effect Sept 16. The outdoor Winter Classic and the All-Star game won’t be played this season. Last season, the NHL generated $3.3 billion of revenue, and the new deal will lower the players’ percentage from 57 to 50.

Players will receive $300 million in transition payments over three years to account for existing contracts, pushing their revenue share over 50 percent at the start of the deal. They also gained a defined benefit pension plan for the first time. The salary cap for this season will be $70.2 million before prorating to adjust for the shortened season, and the cap will drop to $64.3 million in 2013-14 - the same amount as 2011-12. There will be a salary floor of $44 million in those years.

Free agents will be limited to contracts of seven years (eight for those re-signed with their former club).

Salaries within a contract may not vary by more than 35 percent year to year, and the lowest year must be at least 50 percent of the highest year. The minimum salary will remain at $525,000, and there were no changes to eligibility for free agency and salary arbitration. The threshold for teams to release players in salary arbitration will increase from $1.75 million to $3 million. Each team may use two buyouts to terminate contracts before the 2013-14 or 2014-15 seasons for two-thirds of the remaining guaranteed income. The buyout will be included in the players’ revenue share but not the salary cap.— AP

Sports FRIDAY, JANAURY 11, 2013

Clippers slice up Mavs Paul pulls the strings; Clippers extend franchise-record LOS ANGELES: Chris Paul had 19 points and 16 assists, and the Los Angeles Clippers held on to beat the Dallas Mavericks 99-93 on Wednesday night, extending their franchise-record home winning streak to 13 games. Matt Barnes added 19 points off the bench, and Blake Griffin had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Clippers (29-8), who took sole possession of the NBA’s best record from Oklahoma City with their third straight win overall. Darren Collison scored 22 points for Dallas. OJ Mayo added 17 and Dirk Nowitzki had 15. At 13-23, the Mavs fell 10 games below .500 for the first time since March 30, 2000, two months after Mark Cuban bought the team. They’ve lost four in a row overall and three straight on the road, where they are 5-16.

beat Chicago for its second consecutive victory under interim coach Jim Boylan. Mike Dunleavy had 16 points and Monta Ellis finished with 14 for Milwaukee, which made 10 of 22 3-point attempts. Larry Sanders grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked seven shots. Carlos Boozer had 22 points and 11

added 14 points for New Orleans. James Harden scored 25 points for the Rockets, who had won 10 of 12. Harden, who was held to three points in the final quarter when the Rockets were outscored 28-10, was the only Houston player in double figures. Eric Gordon struggled with five points

THUNDER 106, TIMBERWOLVES 84 Kevin Durant scored 26 points and Russell Westbrook added 23 to help Oklahoma City overpower outmanned Minnesota. After losing its last game on a buzzer-beater against a last-place Washington team saddled by injuries to its three top players, Oklahoma City left nothing to chance with the Timberwolves missing All-Star forward Kevin Love and four others. The Thunder stretched the lead to 24 before pulling the starters with 5:44 to go. Alexey Shved scored 18 points for Minnesota, which announced earlier in the day that Love would miss eight to 10 weeks after breaking his right hand for the second time.

BUCKS 104, BULLS 96 Brandon Jennings scored 20 of his 35 points in the third quarter and Milwaukee

NUGGETS 108, MAGIC 105 Kenneth Faried scored 19 points and grabbed 19 rebounds to help Denver rally for a win over slumping Orlando. Ty Lawson also finished with 19 points, including a three-point play with 1:27 remaining that gave the Nuggets the lead for good and sent them to their third straight win.

Orlando just can’t get on track since Glen Davis went out with a sprained left shoulder, dropping a 10th straight game in the big man’s absence. He currently isn’t with the team but it was hoped he might rejoin them at some point during the current four-game trip. Jameer Nelson led the Magic with 20 points and Arron Afflalo added 12 against his former team.

JAZZ 112, BOBCATS 102 Al Jefferson had 26 points and eight rebounds to lead Utah to its fourth win in five games with a victory over Charlotte.

The Bobcats had no answer for the 6-foot10 Jefferson, who went 11 of 15 from the field. Paul Millsap chipped in with 19 points and Gordon Hayward was 4 of 5 from 3-point range for 14 points as the Jazz made light work of the Bobcats’ zone defense, shooting 54 percent from the field. Ben Gordon led six Bobcats in double figures, scoring 20 points. Michael KiddGilchrist had 15 points and eight rebounds, while Gerald Henderson, Ramon Sessions and Kemba Walker each had 14 points for Charlotte.

SPURS 108, LAKERS 105 Tony Parker scored 24 points to help San Antonio hand slumping Los Angeles to its fifth straight loss. Manu Ginobili added 19 points and Tiago Splitter and Stephen Jackson had 14 each for San Antonio, which has won 11 straight at home. Kobe Bryant had 27 points, Metta World Peace added 23 and Earl Clark 22 for Los Angeles. Bryant was 10 for 24 from the field, missing a 3pointer on his final attempt that would have tied the game. Clark missed a followup 3 off a long rebound. Coming off a 125112 loss at Houston on Tuesday, the Lakers fought until the final buzzer.

CELTICS 87, SUNS 79 Jeff Green scored 14 points, rookie Jared Sullinger added 12 points and 16 rebounds, and Boston recovered from a dreadful third quarter, rallying in the fourth to beat Phoenix. The Celtics survived a scoring drought that spanned almost half of the third quarter, scoring just 14 in the period before regaining the lead and taking command against the road-weary Suns, who fell to 2-16 away from home with their 11th straight road loss. Jason Terry added 13 points as Boston’s reserves outscored Phoenix’s 47-16. Kevin Garnett was the only Boston starter to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points and five rebounds.

Jared Dudley scored 14 points and Marcin Gortat had 12 points and 14 rebounds for the Suns.

back games for only the second time this season. The Warriors were coming off their most lopsided loss of the season, 115-89 to the Clippers.

LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin (top) puts up a shot as Dallas Mavericks center Chris Kaman defends during the first half of their NBA basketball game on Wednesday, Jan 9, 2013. — AP rebounds for the Bulls, who have dropped their last two games against Milwaukee at the United Center. The Bulls blew a 27point lead in the third quarter as Milwaukee snapped a nine-game losing streak against Chicago with a 93-92 victory on Nov. 26.

Boozer has recorded a double-double in six consecutive games.

HORNETS 88, ROCKETS 79 Roger Mason scored 15 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter to rally New Orleans to a victory over Houston. Greivis Vasquez and Jason Smith each scored 17 points for the Hornets, who have won three in a row for the first time this season. Robin Lopez

on 2-of-12 shooting for the Hornets.

GRIZZLIES 94, WARRIORS 87 Zach Randolph had 19 points and 12 rebounds, Rudy Gay scored 18 points and Memphis completed a 3-0 road trip with a victory over Golden State. Mike Conley added 16 points and Marc Gasol finished with 12 points and nine rebounds to help Memphis make its quick West Coast swing more memorable. The Grizzlies (23-10) also won at Phoenix on Sunday and at Sacramento on Monday. Stephen Curry scored 24 points and Klay Thompson had 20 points, seven rebounds and seven assists as the Warriors (22-12) lost back-to-

RAPTORS 90, 76ERS 72 Amir Johnson had 19 points and 12 rebounds, Jose Calderon added 14 points and 11 assists, and Toronto beat Philadelphia, sending the slumping 76ers to their fifth straight loss. Landry Fields set season highs with 10 points and 11 rebounds. DeMar DeRozan scored 19 and Ed Davis had 17 for the Raptors, who had lost six of their previous seven meetings with Philadelphia, including three straight.

Jrue Holiday and Thaddeus Young each scored 16 points, and Evan Turner had 10 as the Sixers lost for the 13th time in their last 16 games. Philadelphia has played 12 of its past 16 on the road, winning just twice.

CAVALIERS 99, HAWKS 83 Kyrie Irving scored 18 of his 33 points in the third quarter to lead injury-riddled Cleveland over Atlanta. Irving’s big night came at a perfect time for Cleveland, which had lost five of six overall and six straight at home. The margin of victory was Cleveland’s biggest of the season. Josh Smith scored 17 points to lead Atlanta, which has lost a season-worst four straight. Alonzo Gee scored 15 points for Cleveland, while Tristan Thompson added 11 points and 14 rebounds. Rookie Tyler Zeller scored 11 points and had a career-high 12 rebounds.

Jeff Teague added 15 points and Al Horford scored 14 for Atlanta. — AP

Sports FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Ronaldo defends Mourinho, appeals for unity Ronaldo suspended for Osasuna trip MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo has pleaded with Real Madrid fans to get off Jose Mourinho’s back and to support the team after a couple of jittery home performances where their coach has been whistled by sections of the Bernabeu.

The Portugal forward has deflected attention away from his embattled compatriot with outstanding displays, scoring twice against Real Sociedad in La Liga on Sunday and a hat-trick in the King’s Cup against Celta Vigo on Wednesday. Real’s top scorer, with 174 goals from 172 appearances and the runner up to Lionel Messi in Monday’s World Player of the Year awards, is, however, suspended for their next game away at Osasuna in La Liga on Saturday (1900 GMT).

“I have to ask that they (the fans) stop this now,” Ronaldo told reporters after their 5-2 aggregate victory set up a Cup quarter-final with Valencia. “The boss is going to stay, we still have a lot we can win this year. He is in charge and he takes the decisions, the fans and the players should help him. “People have shown they are unhappy but that’s enough now. They have to get behind the boss and the team. It affects the players out on the pitch. If we win

the Cup and the Champions League it will have been a good year.”

Real have struggled to replicate the dynamic attacking football that won them the league title in record-breaking style last season and they have slipped 16 points behind arch-rivals and leaders Barcelona in the standings. The inconsistent performances combined with Mourinho’s confrontational style, hints that he may leave, and the recent decision to drop captain and fan-favourite Iker Casillas have alienated sections of Madrid’s more traditional supporter base.

WHISTLES AND APPLAUSE The last two home games have resembled plebiscites with huge cheers for Casillas when his name was read out on the team sheet before kickoff, while Mourinho’s has been met with a mixture of jeers, whistles and applause.

Ronaldo has also had to win his own personal battle to convince home fans, who have whistled him in the past despite his prolific scoring record.

The 27-year-old has cut down on the petulant histrion-

ics on the pitch this season and comports himself much more like the leader of the team - a change in approach from which Mourinho could take note. “I have felt the support of the Bernabeu for some time now and it makes me happy,” Ronaldo added. “If the fans are with me, it motivates me.” He was also asked about interest from bigspending Paris St Germain and speculation over possible contract renewal negotiations with Real. His current deal runs until 2015. “I have a contract and I am happy here but as you say, anything is possible in the world of football,” he said. Real have only won once in their last four league visits to Osasuna’s compact stadium in Pamplona, but cannot afford any more slip ups as they try to cut the gap on the unbeaten leaders Barca, who have to visit fourth-placed Malaga on Sunday (2000). Malaga upset third-placed Real 3-2 at the Rosaleda just before the mid-season break last month and provide Barca with one of their sternest tests yet. Second-placed Atletico Madrid, 11 points behind Barca and five ahead of Real, defend La Liga’s only remaining 100 percent home record against Real Zaragoza at the Calderon on Sunday (1800). — Reuters

Juve down AC Milan

TURIN: Juventus’ players Martin Caceres (left) of Uruguay, Leonardo Bonucci and Emanuele Giaccherini (right) celebrate at end of the Italian Cup quarterfinal soccer match between Juventus and AC Milan at the Juventus stadium in Turin. — AP

PSG ‘cannot afford’ another title failure PARIS: Leaders Paris St Germain must hit the ground running when Ligue 1 action resumes on Friday, defender Christophe Jallet said in a warning to the title favorites not to let the chance of silverware slip away again. PSG had a three-point lead over second-placed Montpellier at the winter break last season before losing out to the unfancied challengers, who claimed their first French title in May. Qatari-backed PSG, who host lowly Ajaccio on Friday, head the standings again, albeit on goal difference from Olympique Lyon and Olympique Marseille. In a poll published in daily Le Parisien yesterday, 76 percent of Ligue 1 players questioned said PSG would go on and win the title, with 14 percent favoring Lyon.

“We cannot afford another collapse after hav-

ing been leaders at the winter break,” France fullback Jallet told a news conference. “Last season, we had a rough patch which cost us a lot of points. So we know we can not take anything for granted.”

PSG claimed top spot when they defeated Lyon 1-0 at home last month and have won their last four league games. However, Ajaccio, 16th in the standings with 19 points, are one of the two teams to have denied PSG a goal in the French league so far, holding them to a 0-0 draw in Corsica. “It was the start of the season and we were struggling collectively. It will be completely different this time ... Our scoring power is obvious,” Jallet said. Lyon visit strugglers Troyes yesterday aiming to bounce back after their shock exit at third-tier Epinal in the

French Cup last 64 round last weekend.

“We want to move forward after this accident. We are not going to question all that we have done so far and there is no additional pressure,” midfielder Gueida Fofana, one of the players who missed a penalty in the decisive shootout, said.

Troyes, who have the league’s second worst defense with 37 goals conceded in 19 games, are unbeaten in their last three matches in all competitions. Marseille travel to Sochaux on Sunday seeking another away victory after bagging seven from 10 this season. Fourth-placed Stade Rennes host seventh-ranked Girondins Bordeaux on Saturday, while champions Montpellier, 11th on 26 points, take on Lorient, who are fifth on 31.— Reuters

ROME: An extra-time strike by Mirko Vucinic gave Juventus a 2-1 victory over AC Milan on Wednesday and a place in the Italian Cup semifinals. Milan had taken a sixth-minute lead when top scorer Stephan El Shaarawy found the target after being set-up by fine approach work from Giampaolo Pazzini and Kevin-Prince Boateng. But Juve were level six minutes later when Sebastian Giovinco curled a free-kick over the wall and into the top corner. Juventus snatched an extra-time winner when second-half substitute Vucinic allowed an Emmanuele Giaccherini pass to reach Paolo De Ceglie whose return pass gave the Montenegro international time to slot home the vital goal.

Juve coach Antonio Conte said that the win was the perfect response to the weekend’s shock 2-1 loss to Sampdoria in Serie A. “The lads knew what happened on Sunday should never happen again, not so much the defeat itself but for the manner in which it came,” said Conte. “Today I had a great response from everyone, in particular from those who have had fewer opportunities to show what they can do. “Milan are a great team and sent out their best available starting line-up. We were determined to go through to the next round and managed to do so.” — AFP

Today’s matches on TV

Arabian Gulf Cup UAE v Oman ....................................17:45 Dubai Sports 1 Kuwait Sport Saudi Sports 1 Saudi Sports HD1 Bahrain Sport Abu Dhabi Sports 2 Bahrain v Qatar................................17:45 Dubai Sports 1 Kuwait Sport Saudi Sports 1 Saudi Sports HD1 Bahrain Sport

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Sports FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

‘Only the richest clubs can afford Michu now’ LONDON: Just a handful of rich clubs could afford Swansea City striker Michu, according to manager Michael Laudrup who hailed the Spaniard as the “bargain of the season” after another sublime finish against Chelsea on Wednesday. Michu, signed from Rayo Vallecano for two million pounds ($3.20 million) in the close-season, again showcased his unerring eye for goal as he opened the scoring with his 16th of the season in Swansea’s 2-0 smash-and-grab semifinal, first-leg win in the Capital One (league) Cup.

“I’m not the one putting the price tag on him,” Laudrup told reporters after Michu had curled in Swansea’s opener with his left foot at Stamford Bridge following a mistake from Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic.

“We all know the economic situation in the world, so there really aren’t that many clubs who can buy him. “There are some here. In Spain there are only two. Italy, I don’t think so. They’re trying to sell. Bayern Munich in Germany... so only a few, few clubs.”

In a sport increasingly dominated by spiralling transfer fees, Michu’s acquisition is a

clear indication that diamonds can still be unearthed in the mines of European football. His display on Wednesday gave rise to inevitable comparisons with compatriot Fernando Torres, who was jeered by home fans as he again drew a blank in his 100th appearance for Chelsea. Torres, signed for 50 million pounds from Liverpool in January 2011 has scored 26 times, equating to almost 2 million per goal, a poor return in comparison to Michu, whose efforts have come at just 125,000 pounds each.

Michu’s performances, which are even

more impressive considering he was signed as an attacking midfielder who had only hinted at his goalscoring potential in La Liga last season, have led to questions about whether Swansea will be able to hang on to their prize asset.

“Michu likes it here,” Laudrup added.

“He’s happy where he is, so I’m really not afraid because I’m so sure he will stay with us for the next five or six months.” “I don’t know how much he’s worth. Ask my chairman. He was the bargain of the season, we know that.” —Reuters

Van Persie and Suarez set for Old Trafford shoot-out LONDON: Robin van Persie and Luis Suarez’s tussle at the top of the Premier League goalscoring charts continues at Old Trafford on Sunday as leaders Manchester United take on Liverpool in one of the season’s most keenly-anticipated fixtures. Neither player can stop scoring but while the superlatives have rained down on 16goal Dutchman Van Persie, Suarez’s 15 have more often than not been accompanied with pantomime-villain antics that polarize opinion on the Uruguayan. Last weekend proved a typical scenario as the FA Cup briefly took centre stage after a barrage of holiday Premier League action which left United seven points clear of title rivals Manchester City, who face Arsenal on Sunday.

Van Persie’s last-gasp equalizer against West Ham United had purists salivating but 24 hours later Suarez’s integrity was called into question after he got away with a blatant handball to score his side’s second goal against minor-league Mansfield. While van Persie has proved to be worth every penny of the 24 million pounds ($38.49 million) United paid Arsenal for his services, Suarez’s contribution to a Liverpool side finally flourishing under Brendan Rodgers after a terrible start is perhaps even more impressive.

He has worked tirelessly as a lone striker for most of the campaign and while his antics and reputation for diving mean the snipers will always be aiming for him, he is establishing himself as the latest idol on Liverpool’s famous Kop. At least the 160th league clash between the fierce north west rivals looks like being spared the controversial build-up which has marred their most recent meetings. The focus before and during United’s 2-1 victory at Liverpool in September was on concerns about crowd behavior in the wake of the publication of a report into the Hillsborough disaster that claimed 96 Liverpool fans and spawned several sickening songs from United fans.

Last February at Old Trafford the match was overshadowed by the continuing racism row between the clubs following Suarez’s eight-match ban for calling United’s Patrice Evra “negro” - a situation inflamed by Suarez’s refusal to shake hands with the Frenchman before kickoff. United manager Alex Ferguson labeled Suarez “a disgrace” at the time but on Sunday he will be more concerned with making sure his leaky defense keeps the south American quiet. Suarez, who has admirably led the Liverpool attack alone this season now has Daniel Sturridge for company after he joined from Chelsea.

Both scored against Mansfield although how to pair them successfully could pose a challenge to Rodgers who has hinted that Suarez may be moved to a wider position. “When he played at Ajax he played in behind as a number 10, in between the lines, and he played as a reverse winger from the left side so he wasn’t quite out wide - he was tucked in round the corner,” Rodgers said this week.

“Wherever he plays he will make the same movements and he will find the space because he is a world class player.” Both United and Liverpool have scored 11 goals in their last four league matches with United showing no sign of missing Wayne Rooney who is still a major doubt for Sunday with a knee injury.

Manchester City will be hoping Liverpool can do them a favor although three points against Arsenal at the Emirates will be a tall order for Roberto Mancini’s side especially as midfield powerhouse Yaya Toure is preparing for the African Cup of Nations with Ivory Coast. City lost 1-0 at Arsenal in April last year when Mario Balotelli was sent off, although they recovered from what seemed like a knockout blow for their title hopes to surge past United in the most dramatic ever finish to a Premier League season. Balotelli was involved in a training ground bust-up with Mancini last week and although the two volatile Italians appear to have made up, it would be a surprise if Balotelli earns himself a starting slot in north London. —Reuters

LONDON: Chelsea’s Gary Cahill (left) competes for the ball with Swansea City’s Michu during the English League Cup semifinal soccer match between Chelsea and Swansea City at Stamford Bridge stadium in London. —AP

Chelsea slump to shock home loss Swansea thump European champions 2-0 LONDON: Swansea City inflicted the second shock home defeat in eight days on Chelsea, goals from Michu and Danny Graham giving the Welsh club a 2-0 win in their Capital One (League) Cup semifinal first leg on Wednesday. Michael Laudrup’s Swansea, playing in their first major semi-final for 49 years, weathered an early storm from the European champions before scoring against the run of play in the 39th minute. Branislav Ivanovic blundered after receiving a pass from goalkeeper Ross Turnbull and Jonathan De Guzman robbed the Chelsea defender on the edge of the box before setting up Michu for a curling leftfoot finish.

It was the Spaniard’s 16th goal of the season in all competitions and substitute Graham delivered a sucker-punch second goal near the end. “Winning an away game against the European champions is obviously very special,” Laudrup told Sky Sports. “We knew it would be a very difficult game, we had to defend a lot more than we are used to. They had a lot more possession than we had.” Chelsea, who

also lost 1-0 at home to Premier League bottom club Queens Park Rangers last Wednesday, started well against Swansea but paid a heavy price for poor finishing.

Juan Mata and Ramires shot weakly when well placed while Gary Cahill headed narrowly over from a corner.

ACROBATIC SAVE Swansea then struck completely against the run of play through Michu before Ivanovic tried to make amends for his error when his rasping 20-metre shot was saved acrobatically by Gerhard Tremmel. The home fans became agitated in the second half as four-times League Cup winners Chelsea struggled to create clear-cut openings, calling for substitutes Frank Lampard and Demba Ba to come on.

Lampard replaced Ramires in the 70th minute and new signing Ba went on for a completely ineffective Fernando Torres 11 minutes later. Swansea then delivered a second goal in stoppage time when substitute Graham latched on to a short Ivanovic back pass and rounded Turnbull

before sliding the ball into an empty net.

Ba, bought from Newcastle United last week, had the ball in the net in the closing stages but it was chalked off. “We had chances, the team had chances and we have to take our chances,” Chelsea’s interim manager Rafael Benitez said. “It’s a Cup competition and we can score goals, if we score a goal everything will change,” he added in reference to the second leg.

Swansea captain Ashley Williams, named man of the match for a towering display in defence, said: “The second goal gives us little bit of a cushion but we know they are going to come at us with everything at our place. “I said to the guys before that this was the game of our lives. We are halfway there...and if we do get to the final at Wembley it will be massive for everyone.” It was the second surprise result in successive days in the League Cup, fourth tier Bradford City having beaten Premier League Aston Villa 3-1 in their first leg on Tuesday. Both second legs are in two weeks’ time. —Reuters

FRIDAY, JANUARY 11, 2013

Paul pulls the strings; Clippers slice up Mavs Page 45

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