22 Jan by Kuwait Times

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TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

Obama issues inaugural call for unity, equality

Algeria says 37 foreigners killed in gas plant siege

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RABI ALAWAL 10, 1434 AH

India rape trial begins as father urges hangings

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Federer and Serena power into Aussie Open quarters

Leaders urge cooperation at Saudi economic summit Amir saddened by ‘humanitarian tragedy’ in Syria

More ‘populist’ financial bills tabled by MPs By B Izzak KUWAIT: Five MPs yesterday submitted a draft law calling on the government to grant every Kuwaiti citizen KD 5,000 to be deposited in the so-called “family portfolio” while another MP separately proposed a monthly payment of KD 300 for every Kuwaiti woman who does not work. In the first proposal, MPs Nasser Al-Merri, Mubarak Al-Khrainej, Faisal Al-Kandari, Safa Al-Hashem and Nasser AlShimmari said the money will be deposited in the portfolio which will be used to pay unpaid bills for power, water and others. The proposal stipulates that low-income Kuwaitis will benefit from the grant. If only one-third of the Kuwaiti people benefit from the grant, it would cost state coffers at least KD 4 billion. If passed by the National Assembly and accepted by the government, it would be the largest ever grant offered by the Kuwaiti government to citizens. In the other Continued on Page 2

KUWAIT: Kuwaiti Islamists gather in front of the French Embassy in Rawda to protest against the ongoing French offensive in Mali. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Max 21º Min 07º High Tide 09:40 & 19:23 Low Tide 03:07 & 13:35

RIYADH: Arab leaders began a two-day economic summit in Riyadh yesterday, calling for the strengthening of mutual trade and cooperation in order to face challenges brought on by the Arab Spring uprisings. HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah also voiced sorrow and pain at the “humanitarian tragedy” in Syria, where the machine of murder and destruction is claiming thousands of lives as well as indiscriminately demolishing everything. “Our eﬀorts at all levels have failed to achieve what we are looking for - which is to put out the blaze of the crisis in Syria - because the (ruling) regime is not responsive to all initiatives at the regional and international levels,” Sheikh Sabah said at the opening of the third Arab Economic and Social Development summit. “We should achieve an Arab common market,” said Egyptian President Mohamed HH Sheikh Sabah Morsi, urging Arab nations to “catch up” in the realm of free trade. “Very little has been done to improve trade between Arab countries,” which reportedly comprises no more than 10 percent of total Arab commerce. Saudi Crown Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz, who stood in for ailing King Continued on Page 2

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

LOCAL

Kuwait urges France to reconsider hijab ban law GENEVA: The State of Kuwait has recommended France yesterday, in front of the Human Rights Council, to reconsider amending the law of banning wearing religious symbols for students in public schools, including hijab, to suit with freedom of beliefs and continue the effor ts in fight against racism towards foreigners, and develop the social integration policies for immigrants. The adviser of the permanent Kuwaiti delegation at the United Nations in Geneva Malik Al-Wazzan, said in a speech that Kuwait is interested on the national report of the Republic of France that was displayed in front of the Human Rights Council, which shows the great efforts to ensure and protect the human rights in discrimination and

inequalities towards foreigners and those with diﬀerent beliefs. Al-Wazzan also congratulated French Human Rights Ambassador Francois Zimmeraa and his accompanying delegation, on the national report presentation which shows its close cooperation with the international institutions and with the UN Human Rights Council. Al-Wazzan also stressed on France’s role and its initiatives to lay the foundations of the international regime to ensure protection and development of human rights, praising the important actions taken by the Republic of France, in the framework of the universal periodic review, especially when establishing the secretariat of injustices. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Firefighters from the Mubarak Al Kabeer Centre yesterday swiftly responded to a call about a six-year-old child whose foot had gotten stuck in a manhole in Al Qosoor area and extricated him using special cutting tools. After the operations center received the distress call around noon about the accident, the personnel from the fire centre accompanied by those from the technical rescue center rushed to the site where the child’s leg had gotten stuck when he was playing in the garden of his house. Once the firemen succeeded in releasing the child, who was taken to the hospital. — By Hanan Al-Saadoun

‘Mobile Collector’ launched to help elderly, disabled By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: The Ministry of Electricity and Water yesterday launched its ‘Mobile Collector’ service meant to facilitate the elderly and disabled people in paying their electricity and water bills. People can call at telephone number 152 to avail of the service. “A collector from the Ministry will go to the house of the debtor belonging to this category to collect the bill after receiving a call on the Ministry’s line on 152. The collector will give the debtor a receipt generated by the mobile paying machine in lieu of the payment,” Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim, the Minister of Electricity and Water, said launching the facility yesterday. The service comes courtesy the Consumers Aﬀairs Department at the Ministry for the citizens and expatriates. “This service provides a simple way to pay as apart from virtually opening all oﬃces to the consumers irrespective of the areas as they can pay through the internet. The service is in addition to other services,” he added. According to him, the Ministry is following the instructions of His Highness the Amir in providing the service to all consumers. “The owners of farms and stables should pay their bills as soon as possible, as the Ministry will start, beginning next week, to collect the debts of this category of consumers and to continue debt collection from all consumers,” said Ibrahim. “The Ministry is keen to always provide its services to everyone and also to enable them to pay their bills in the easiest way possible. I would like to remind the consumers to rationally consume the electricity and water, especially since the current networks are in the process for regular maintenance in view of the upcoming summer. The rational use of these two services will ensure proper maintenance work,” he further said. The government is subsidizing the electricity to

KUWAIT: The Minister of Electricity and Water Abdulaziz Al-Ibrahim showing a sample of the bill. —Photo by Joseph Shagra the tune of 95 percent of its real cost. “The diﬀerence between the real cost of the electricity and water and what is paid by the consumers is borne by the government,” he pointed out. Since the beginning of the debt collection campaign, the Ministry succeeded in collecting KD 148 million out of KD 303 millions. “This campaign started from major consumers such as the companies, hotels, schools, clubs, private institutions, unions, NGOs, ministries and other consumers. A total of KD 1,200000 was collected from the oﬃcers in leading positions who were late in paying their bills. This campaign will continue in collecting the debts from the consumers according to law no. 48/2005. Also, I have to mention that the Ministry does not cut the electricity supply of the consumer unless he is too

late in paying and accumulated huge debts that may reach tens of thousands of KD, as there are some consumers who have not paid for more than ten years,” explained Ibrahim. Regarding the delay on the part of the Ministry in delivering the bills to some consumers, he said that the Ministry is keen on delivering these to the consumers as soon as possible. “The previous contract regarding this had expired and a new contract will be signed soon with other companies,” he noted. Ibrahim also called upon the consumers who are paying their bills whether through the internet or the consumers aﬀairs oﬃces to provide the Ministry with their data, telephone numbers and emails so that they can be contacted regarding their bills via email or SMS.

More ‘populist’ ...

Leaders urge cooperation...

Continued from Page 1

proposal, MP Kandari called on the government to pay every Kuwaiti woman who is not working a monthly aid of KD 300 to help Kuwaiti families cope with the economic situation. The ﬁnancial and economic aﬀairs committee yesterday met over the issue for the second day in a row, this time meeting with the banking association. Rapporteur of the panel MP Hashem said after the meeting the government will not vote for the draft law in the Assembly. In another development, the Assembly’s foreign relations committee yesterday met Communications Minister Salem Al-Othaina to discuss an Amiri decree issued before the election about a settlement between Kuwait Airways and Iraq Airlines. Rapporteur of the committee MP Taher Al-Failakawi said the minister informed them Iraq will deposit next week the entire amount of the settlement of $500 million, revealing that the full amount will be paid. The settlement was reached between the two airlines over cases related to the Iraqi invasion in 1990 and after British courts awarded Kuwait Airways around $1 billion in compensation. The two countries had agreed to the settlement and dropping all court cases last July.

Abdullah in hosting the summit, highlighted economic and social challenges facing the region and also pointed to weak inter-Arab trade. “The urgent development issues that face our countries are very diﬃcult, including poverty, unemployment and disease. Eﬀorts must be made to confront and eliminate them,” he said. Saudi Arabia also called for a minimum 50 percent increase in the capital of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, a leading Arab soft-loan development institution, and urged more commerce between Arab countries. The website of the Kuwaitbased fund states that as of Dec 31,

2011, the fund’s capital stood at two billion Kuwaiti dinars ($7.10 billion). Owned by 21 Arab governments, the fund lends at low rates over 20 to 25 years mainly for power, water and communications projects. “I invite the increase of capital to the Arab Fund for Economic Development by an increase not less than 50 percent,” Prince Salman told the summit. He said that the kingdom was ready to pay for its share in whatever increase was agreed by the fund’s owners. “The level of trade between our countries does not reflect our capabilities and aspirations, this requires for all of us to work hard to build the desired Arab economic integration,” he said. — Agencies

LOCAL

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

‘Customs allowances before April’

RIYADH: HH the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and other leaders pose for a family photo during the third Arab Economic, Social and Development Summit yesterday. —KUNA

Govt sends working plan to Assembly Top priority to security, stability KUWAIT: The government reiterated that instilling national security, stability and the safety of the Kuwaiti citizen was a basic pillar of the state and society, and protection from domestic and external threats was a priority of the government and its patriotic and constitutional commitment. The government published its working program and sent it to the National Assembly as part of its commitment to protect and develop the democratic system retaining the characteristic openness between the ruling class and the citizens. The government said cementing the national unity and the social cohesion in the Kuwaiti society was one of the most notable national

challenges that preoccupied the government, adding that it was worried about threats to the social fabric. The government also felt the necessity to teach comprehensive national culture to strengthen Kuwaiti citizenry and loyalty among members of Kuwait society. The government adopted several priorities in its program including a guarantee about the continuity and eﬃciency of planning and follow up activities in the state. It also vowed to complete the necessary legislative requirements for development, and to intensify eﬀorts to execute major projects while also working to remove any administrative, institutional, and technical obstacles in

the way of implementation of the development plans. The government said that among its most important priorities was boosting national unity, protecting public funds, completing the legislative structure of the state, caring for the youth, improving health care, enhancing educational facilities, preserving the family as a social unit, enhancing social care and security, supporting information sector and dealing with the issue concerning illegal residents. The parliamentar y Foreign Aﬀairs Committee agreed in its meeting yesterday on bill No. 23/2012 approving the settlement agreement between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi governments on the com-

pensation issue of Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC). Committee Rapperteur MP Taher Al-Failakawi told reporters that the committee has made its decision following its meeting today with Minister of Communications and Minister of State for Housing Aﬀairs Salem AlUthainah and KAC chairman Sami Al-Nisf. He said the Iraqi government has shown goodwill and deposited all the claims funds agreed upon at once in the Kuwaiti bank and completed all the requirements in this agreement. On the other hand, KAC stressed that cost cuts would be among the top priorities of the new administration.

Two die after inhaling charcoal smoke By Hanan Al-Saadoun

and raped in the Salmi Desert. The victim gave police the details about the culprit.

KUWAIT: Two Indian expats died Sunday night after they inhaled charcoal smoke from the stoves meant to keep the room warm, security sources said. Initial reports pointed to negligence. Sources added that a citizen reported yesterday morning about the death of two servants working in his house. The medical examiner lifted the bodies and a case was ﬁled.

Drug possession The Hawally police arrested four persons, including two Kuwaiti women, for being in possession of drugs. All four were found wanted by the police and were sent to drug enforcement administration.

Painting theft A man in his ﬁfties complained to the Bayan police about the theft of a number of expensive painting tins stored in his under construction house in the area. The stolen paint was worth KD 880 and the man said one of the construction laborers could be involved since they know the value of such paint. A case of robbery against unknown people was recorded.

Car shot at An Egyptian expat working with a company which has a contract with traﬃc department about speed monitoringmobile cameras claimed that his car equipped with surveillance cameras was shot at by a man driving a white colored vehicle. He said he was on duty in AlJahra Area when bullets hit his car. Traces of bullets having grazed the car were noticeable. The case was handed over to detectives.

Girl kidnapped A bedoon girl reported to the police that she was kidnapped by a Kuwaiti man

Officer insulted A police oﬃcer accused a Syrian

woman of insulting him, saying that the woman was having a fight with a man opposite the police station and when he asked for her identification, she refused and asked him who was he to ask such a question. “I will let you know your size (sic),” the woman said, as per the police officer. A case was registered. Road accidents A 19-year-old Kuwaiti man died in an accident yesterday when his speeding car turned spun out of control and rolled across the road several times on the Fahaheel Expressway near Bayan Area. Medical emergency personnel tried to resuscitate the man even as they rushed him to the Mubarak Hospital but he died due to severe bleeding from the head before even reaching the hospital. In another accident, a Syrian expat was killed when a speeding car hit him when he was trying to cross the Sixth Ring Road on foot. He suffered injuries all over his body and died on the spot before even an ambulance could arrive.

Major role for Awqaf secretariat KUWAIT: Minister of Justice, Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Shareeda AlMuosherji stressed importance yesterday on the role played by Awqaf (endowment) General Secretariat in terms of its partnership with public and private institutions interested in the Awqaf work. Al-Muosherji said, in a speech at the opening of the 19th Secretariat of Awqaf forum, which is held under the theme (community development sponsored endowment) and sponsored by His Highness Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, that the forum’s main message comes from the Secretariat, providing community development and to meet their needs through Waqf and the management and investment of money to meet that goal. The minister added the two-day forum was to translate the vision of Awqaf as a Public Foundation, which provides intellectual leadership and implementation to Waqf as a tool for the comprehensive development locally and as a model worldwide.— KUNA

KUWAIT: The Customs General Department announced that allowances approved for employees last year are now set to be paid before April with retrospective effect, General Manager Ibrahim AlGhanim announced on Sunday. His statements were published yesterday by AlRai, two days after the same newspaper published quoted the head of the CGD labor union, Ahmad Uqlah, as threatening to go on strike to force the payment of allowances enforced by the parliament with effect from April last year. “Talks are ongoing with the Civil Service Commission to speed up operations for payment of the allowances,” Al-Ghanim said, adding that there was no need to strike work “because the allowances are already approved and were delayed due to routine procedures.” Nearly 3000 employees working at seaports and land border outlets are set to benefit from the allowances which amount to KD140 per employee. The total annual cost for the allowances would reach KD3 million. These allowances are to be paid for ‘noise, risk, contagion and pollution’ that the employees are subjected to at the workplace. In other news, Al-Rai reported quoting Interior Ministry insiders to say that a decision was recently made to allow servicemen to enjoy up to 60 days of annual leave instead of 45, the earlier cap for leave. The source who spoke on the condition of anonymity also noted that up to one month of annual leave would be encashable if they chose to forgo it to work.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

LOCAL Local Spotlight

the column

A new beginning!

Are maids being enslaved here?

By Fouad Al-Obaid

By Muna Al-Fuzai

fouad@kuwaittimes.net Twitter:@fouadalobaid muna@kuwaittimes.net

ecently, I met an expat lady and while we were chatting about life in Kuwait and my field of writing, I asked her what she thinks of Kuwait and how has her thinking about the country and the entire Middle East been impacted over the ten years that she has lived here. She said she thinks of the system of housemaids in Kuwait as more a form of slavery. I agreed with her that a lot needed to be done on this issue and that I do not blame her for considering the sponsorship system like a sort of any slavery system. We pay money to bring the maid from her home country and use a recruitment agency for the purpose. It is almost a slavery system with a different name since the mission is clearly spelt out: a human being is brought from his or her country for a certain amount of money and for such time till the sponsor agrees to let him or her return home. The maids have a price list based on their nationality, and it sounds so much like common sense at any recruitment agency. The maids are sometimes forced to wear what is given to her by the sponsor and I am surprised to see that some sponsors force their non-Muslim maids to wear a hejab (head scarf). She can also be taken to the house of sponsor’s relatives if the sponsor was to go on leave overseas or she may have to accompany them as well. Whether she consents to join this new family or not is not of much concern to anyone. Why would any sponsor think of taking the maid with him while travelling abroad unless he has a sick family member or children who need to be looked after? For a maid, travelling with the sponsor and his family is also work and possibly involves more pressure because she has to bear the full responsibility for the family, often all alone, as in Kuwait she can at least have some more staff to help her. This lady that I was chatting with also said the maids are not given a regular weekly day off. She is right though some sponsors do so, but certainly not all. The problem is that the maid’s offs are dependent upon the sponsor’s kindness and not factored into the rules of the contract. I think this issue needs further analysis. As much as we need new rules, we also need to follow up and enforce the laws against those who treat the maids as slaves and not as workers. It is a long road that we need to traverse, and while my meeting with this lady was over, the subject would come back to haunt all of us for a long time to come.

kuwait digest

Victims of violence By Arwa Al-Waqian

iolence is pervasive in our Arab societies, and though it is a worldwide phenomenon but, at least other countries, including some Arab ones, provide shelter to victims of physical violence, be they women, children or teenagers suffer physical abuse by either relatives or strangers. If you live in a family where you are brutally beaten as a matter of routine, or where a husband behaves like a jailor torturing his wife and children, where can such wretched people find protection? There are no laws to protect them. Women are by nature vulnerable and willing to sacrifice anything for the sake of their families. They know for sure that they would not be welcome anywhere if they abandoned their husbands’ houses. Therefore, some husbands give themselves the right to beat and harshly scold women, assured in the knowledge that they would not be penalized for their actions nor would the women find another shelter. Some of them may go as far as causing permanent disabilities to their wives or children. The most unfortunate aspect in the Arab world in this context is the refusal of the families to accept or provide shelter to their own daughters who become victims of violence. They, instead, urge them to stick to their families. Thus, they only have Allah to protect them from their vicious husbands. Building shelters for such victims has become a top priority mission, especially since many Arab countries, including the GCC states, already have them. It would be a serious aberration if the Kuwaiti Human Rights organizations do not succeed in ensuring similar facilities in Kuwait where the government has provided shelters for many categories but forgot all about victims of violence. Law should be just towards such

victims and in case of any violence, punitive measures like exemplary fines and imprisonment should kick in, particularly in case of recurring offences. Women should be allowed the right to demand divorce if they wish to because they spend more than half of their lives bearing agonies for their families’ sake and spend the other half tending to and treating their serious physical and psychological pains. Human rights are not to be invoked only in the case of bedoons, or marches for ‘A Nation’s Dignity’ and those rejecting the one-vote decree. The concept of human rights is much wider. They also include providing a decent living for underprivileged people who face physical violence and are deprived of their rights by both relatives and strangers. They are real sufferers. Once the pain and the agony which is worse than hunger and poverty turns into terror, fear, assaults and screams is addressed, we can shout, scream and cry ourselves hoarse about the constitution. They must be our priority now. Would you believe that recent studies show that over 80 per cent of domestic violence crimes are not even reported because the victims have no protection? A study also shows that most of the reported cases were actually of those women whose physical injuries were too serious to remain hidden. The spread of family violence against women is directly related to the lack of enough family consultation centers which can provide help to the victims. The lack of sensitivity towards women’s issues and concerns in our family courts is another key factor. I hope we can provide such shelters and centers, as well as tweak existing laws and come up soon with new gender sensitive, laws to protect these victims. —Aljarida

kuwait digest

50 constituencies is the solution By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

fter a few weeks’ hiatus, I find myself drawn back to my passion, which I am blessed to be able to convey via my articles in Kuwait Times on the many issues I have addressed in the past, and God Willing, will continue to do so in the foreseeable future. What pulled me towards writing first in a student-based magazine and subsequently here in Kuwait Times was the lack of knowledge and information available on Kuwait and the wider GCC region. My international upbringing has led me to question my society, and with a bird-eyes perspective I have written about the many issues we in Kuwait to be specific and the wider region in general are faced with. I believe that our region is still not adequately portrayed in the global media, and certainly that the vision of the region’s youth are not properly voiced. These are turbulent times. In post-elections Kuwait a new wave of contestation movements have led to multiple protest around the country that were until very recently unheard of, and more interesting after popular pressure some were even licensed. The issues that Kuwait is faced with are daunting. For the first time it is becoming clear that perhaps Kuwait is not as free as it portrayed itself to be. Despite being more open than other countries in the region when it comes to political liberties. Constraints have been added that have ultimately decreased the intellectual freedom threshold, and for the first time in decades we are starting to see political prisoners whose crimes are perhaps powerful ideas on social media timelines! In the upcoming political and social battles, questions of legitimacy and democracy have found their way towards the mind of a youth that the government erroneously believed docile. It seems that people are no longer fooled by vague promises by what appears to be a weak government and a worse governance notion. It used to be proclaimed by TV anchors on State TV that whenever they mentioned the government in policy or action they would give the government a collective title of ‘wise government’. Wise it proved not to be when an anonymous Twitter account fooled our entire police/military establishment that were hell-bent on preventing people to protest, preparing war-grade equipment to counter peaceful protestors only to be duped in a change of venue! Nor was the government wise in calling for elections and asking people to come to vote, whereby their own admission only 40% of the electorate voted stating that the elections were successful! The international threshold is 50% just in case they were unaware. Those that have studied history are blessed and cursed, for they can easily come to see a pattern that has consistently repeated itself over, and over again, and yet today could witness history in the making whereby once again a series of nations whom amassed unfathomed wealth and yet are squandering their resources without true consideration for their very future. In Kuwait we are happy that we have been running a surplus for over a decade, whereas in reality a surplus is just as bad as a deficit for they are both indicators of poor governance and budgetary planning. For all the issues we are facing, and the dangers that are looming, solutions are to be found, policies are to be produced, and earnest work is to be undertaken to urgently remedy the shortfalls before we run out of options and time. It will be the policy of my column to engage in a multitude of debates concerning the most pressing issues facing Kuwait and the wider Middle East region. May 2013 bring about a new sense of possibilities for our region, and may we learn from history valuable lessons so as to not repeat it...

here are people who like to pretend they are smart in the matter of amending the electoral law, or give the issue more prominence than it deserves. While discussing the amendment is not only a legitimate right of the parliament but also its duty, hastening ahead with it preempting the Constitutional Court’s ruling would be an act of political suicide. It would then be a clear violation of the constitution, or at least an attempt to circumvent the judiciary. Not to mention the fact that it would also amount to an underestimation of the decision of His Highness the Amir who had earlier announced his commitment to the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the challenges raised against the emergency decree he passed to adopt the single-vote system. An amendment carried out with the specific purpose of preempting the Constitutional Court’s ruling must not be allowed, and if any lawmaker is sick enough to think otherwise, he or she should rethink that position. The parliament neither has the right nor is qualified to carry out the amendment since it must keep in mind the proprieties involved. The current electoral law was enforced as per an emergency decree due to circumstances which necessitated its issuance. On the other hand, introducing amendments or a new law must come after an agreement among all the stakeholders involved. The main goal behind the single-vote system was to allow each citizen to elect someone who can represent him and express his opinion in the parliament. As a result, the narrower the range of election is, the closer we would be in achieving that goal. The basis of the democratic system is to allow people to decide their public affairs directly. But since it would be impossible to gather the entire nation in order to achieve that, the solution was to let them elect representatives who can handle this duty on their behalf. This representation is required to remain as close to a true manifestation of the direct presence of the public as possible. In other words, the lesser number of voters a lawmaker represents, the more we can achieve the goal of representing the public directly. And as a result, an election system based on large constituencies similar to the present one in Kuwait would not signify representation of the public in its true essence. Therefore, increasing the number of constituencies is required in order to achieve better direct representation. In light of this, I believe that the best way to achieve that goal is to amend the electoral law and redistribute constituencies into 50 with each one electing one representative to the parliament. Some people are going to argue that such a proposal would make vote buying easier, but I believe such aberrations were found more in the fourvotes-per-voter system when many ‘extra’ votes were ‘sold’ when voters did not know who to give their fourth vote to. At the end of the day, each citizen is free about whom to vote for, regardless of how they vote. A national committee featuring Kuwaiti individuals with expertise and led by credible judges is required to prepare a new electoral law that the government can then adopt and present it to the parliament as the national public choice. —- Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

Act before it’s too late By Ahmad Al-Sarraf

he Kuwaiti society like other Gulf countries indulges in conspicuous consumption, most of it wasteful, in almost all domains. When it comes to using water, medications or food, there is a huge element of over indulgence. I have personally seen that in the gym I go to, many members end up using three towels without sparing a thought about the cost of detergents and water to wash them. The thought that the detergents contain chemical substances harmful to the environment does not cross their mind. I also notice that a large number of members, especially Kuwaitis, insist on parking their cars in front of the gym’s gate where parking is not allowed. It is ironic that they do not want to take the trouble of walking from the parking lot to the gym even though they come there to exercise in the first place. If you take a walk in any neighborhood in Kuwait, chances are that you will come across trash cans flooded with food leftovers and cats roaming around. Not only is that sad, but also makes me feel pathetic about what kind of people we have become. It is strange that after so much of this profusion of money and wasting fuel, electricity, water and even time, some people come out and demand that the government write off the interests of their consumer loans. It is not that they had to borrow money in order to buy medicines for their sick family members. They borrowed to replace their cars with newer models or go on luxurious vacations. It is weird when such demands are raised by someone whose monthly phone bill is more than the monthly installment for his car, or equal what they spend each month on cigarettes. Writing off the bank loans, or the interests accrued thereon or any other compromise that the government makes in this regard would be a social disaster. We have already suffered a lot following the government’s decision to increase salaries of public sector employees, which led to simultaneous increase in prices leading those who did not enjoy pay raises to suffer the most. The effects of this hasty decision were also seen in the values of tenders which doubled due to the increase in the salaries of employees and workers. The government had not thought about it since all it wanted was to appease the public sector employees. Not only is the government required to shut the door in the face of such demands pertaining to bank loans, but it should also reconsider all subsidies if it is serious about achieving people’s welfare. It must come up with a plan to utilize these funds to improve the living conditions of human beings in Kuwait.—Al-Qabas

LOCAL TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

Opposition denies reports of ‘reconciliation talks’ Govt’s initiative welcomed KUWAIT: Former opposition MP Dr Waleed Al-Tabtabaei denied reports hinting that he reached out to the government for reconciliation talks, but at the same time welcomed “an initiative from the government” in this regard “as long as it was not in conflict with [the opposition’s] demands.” Al-Tabtabaei spoke to Al-Rai newspaper which had requested comments on rumors about a deal as per which the government would drop charges against opposition activists as part of a compromise and the opposition would stop its current movement. “I am here to deny [the rumors] categorically and confirm that I have not made any communication with any [government] member in this regard,” he said while commenting on rumors which connected him to the alleged talks. Meanwhile, Al-Tabtabaei reiterated that the opposition is “willing to pay any price” to achieve its demands till the government reaches out to them. “We call for national reconciliation based on realizing the public’s demands to dissolve the current parliament and call for new elections as per the five

constituencies and four-votes-per-voter system,” he said. He added that the opposition does not necessarily approve of the old system “but it needs to be reinstated after which the government can come up with amendments while the final say must be in the hands of the people’s representatives in the parliament.” In another development, the Attorney General, Dherar Al-As’ousy, referred to a special tribunal the complaints filed against three ministers and two former ministers to be probed by the tribunal’s permanent investigation committee, a local newspaper reported yesterday quoting a source privy to the case. Three of the complaints referred to the Court of Ministers were filed by a Kuwaiti man who claims having documents incriminating the defendants in a case pertaining to corruption allegations in a government-backed calcined coke project. The complaints were made against Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Mustafa Al-Shamali, Minister of Planning and Development and State Minister of Parliament Affairs Dr. Rula Dashty, and former finance min-

ister Badr Al-Humaidhi. Meanwhile, the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity indicated that the fourth complaint was lodged by a lawyer against Minister of Municipality Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah, accusing him of ‘wasting public funds’ by overcharging the expenses incurred to promote public participation in last month’s parliamentary elections. The final complaint was filed against former health minister Dr. Ali Al-Obaidi regarding alleged violations in the government’s treatment overseas program. In other news, four lawyers filed a complaint against a member of the ruling family, saying his remarks were offensive to Kuwaitis who took part in demonstrations organized by the opposition. In their complaint, Abdurrahman AlBarrak, Mubarak Al-Khashab, Bashar AlNassar and Khalid Al-Suwaifan accused Sheikha Fraiha Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah of violating law number 10 of the year 2012 “which bans expressing hatred or disrespect to any social category or cause sectarian or tribal instigations”.

Praise for Diabetes Institute KUWAIT; A delegation from the Kuwait Gulf Oil Company, represented by Abdul Hameed Khajah, Manager of the Management Support Group, Hussein Karim Ben Ali, Specialist in Health, Safety and Environment and Kholoud Al-Ajran, Team Leader, Public Relations, visited the Dasman Diabetes Institute

and were met by Dr. Kazem Behbehani, Director General of the Institute and Dr Faisal Al Rifaei, Director of Clinical Services at the Institute. The Kuwait Gulf Oil Company Chairman, Eng Hashim Al-Rifaei, and the firm’s delegation appreciated the efforts of the Institute and its

role in promoting health awareness amongst members of the community. The Kuwait Gulf Oil Company presented a cheque of KD 40,000 in support of the ‘Pumps for Kids’ campaign to provide insulin pumps for children suffering from diabetes in Kuwait.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

LOCAL

Kuwait-India relations ‘vibrant’ Ambassador Mehta sees challenges ahead for India By Sajeev K Peter KUWAIT: Satish C Mehta took over as India’s Ambassador to Kuwait nearly one-and-a-half years ago. As India is poised to celebrate its 64th Republic Day on Jan 26, the Ambassador, in an exclusive interview with Kuwait Times, takes a quick look at the growth and evolution of India as a republic over the last six decades, analyzing some of the critical challenges the country faces today despite its strengths and the opportunities that are available to it. Mehta also shared his views on a range of topics from growing economic engagement between Kuwait and India to community welfare and consular services at the Indian embassy in Kuwait. Excerpts: KT: It is almost a year-and-a-half since you assumed office as India’s Ambassador to Kuwait. How do you view the growing bilateral relations between India and Kuwait? Mehta: Relations between India and Kuwait are historic and close and cover a broad spectrum, including convergence of views on important international issues, growing economic engagement, intense people-to-people contacts and regular cultural exchanges. Happily, all these aspects of the relationship have grown in the last one-anda-half years. Bilateral trade, which was $12.1 billion in 2010-11 crossed $17.5 billion in 2011-12 - a new record. In the current financial year, even this may be surpassed. Joint Working Group on Labour and Joint Working Group on Hydrocarbons met last year. We also had the first Foreign Office Consultations in India in May 2012 and Undersecretary in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry visited India to participate in the ‘Partnership Summit’ in January 2012. Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed visited Kuwait twice in October 2011 and October 2012. Advisor to Prime Minister of India, T K A Nair visited Kuwait in May 2012. Rahul Gandhi visited Kuwait at the invitation of HH the Amir in June 2012. Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHamoud Al-Sabah visited New Delhi in September 2011 to participate in the activities of the launching ceremony of the Cultural Library of His Highness the Amir of the State of Kuwait. Vayalar Ravi, Minister of Overseas

Indian Affairs visited Kuwait in November 2012 to promote PBD 2013 which was recently held in Kochi. A high-level Kuwaiti media delegation of the Kuwait Journalists Association, led by its President Ahmed Y Behbehani and comprising editors-in-chief/deputy editors of various prestigious newspapers of Kuwait visited India in May 2012. We expect greater momentum in our bilateral relations in 2013.

lems related to consular services. Yet it is our endeavour to further improve our services. In response to the feedback that our community members who do not live close to the two outsourced centres were facing some difficul-

Day on January 26. How do you look at the evolution and growth of the Republic over the last six decades? Mehta: India has come along a long distance since January 26, 1950 when it became

Community welfare KT: Since Indians form the largest expatriate community in Kuwait, it will be both gratifying as well as challenging to represent India in Kuwait. It may also present a lot of opportunities for you to help improve the lives of thousands of Indians here, especially in the domestic sector. Your experience? Mehta: Indeed it is an honour to represent India in Kuwait. Indians are the largest expatriate community in Kuwait and for good reasons - they are peace-loving, sincere, hardworking and committed employees in whichever occupation they are. These qualities have endeared them to their Kuwaiti employers. On its part, the Government of India is committed to the welfare and well-being of Indian nationals abroad and the Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs has initiated a number of welfare schemes and measures including Indian Workers Resource Centre and pension and insurance schemes. It is our endeavour to assist the Indian community and facilitate their well-being. In this regard, we work closely with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Interior and Social Affairs & Labour of Kuwait. Consular services KT: Are you satisfied with the consular ser vices currently being offered by the Embassy? Do you see any scope for improvement? Mehta: We render efficient, prompt and courteous consular services for which we have established two outsourced centres. The quality of services is constantly monitored by us to ensure satisfaction of service-users. We have a daily ‘Open House’ where any service seeker can meet with senior officers without any prior appointment to seek redress. In addition, I have a weekly Open House on Wednesdays which started in April 2012. I must say very few people come with prob-

Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta during the interview. — Photo by Sajeev K Peter ties in coming to pick passports, we started an optional courier service in May 2012. The response has been gratifying and over 6,500 people used this service in 2012. We will be happy to adopt any implementable ideas and suggestions within the resource limitations that we have. Evolution and growth KT: India is celebrating its 64th Republic

a Republic. Democracy has taken deep-roots and institutions, conventions and practices have evolved to strengthen our democracy. Emergence of regional political parties, active participation of people in elections, public discourse and articulation of views, expectations and demands to the government are increasing. This is a good sign as it shows peoples’ trust in India’s democracy and its institutions. India’s economy has witnessed spectac-

ular growth and we are now the third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity in the world. Every decade since 1950 has seen higher rate of growth. In the last two decades, India’s economy has grown by over 7 percent year-on-year. We can be confident of even better performance in the years ahead. India is now synonymous with excellence in information technology and is fast catching up in the manufacturing sector. Just to give a couple of examples: Last year India exported almost 3 million vehicles all over the world; and bulk of Fortune 500 companies source at least a part of their IT requirements from India. India is emerging as the knowledge capital of the world, with an ever-growing number of companies conducting research and development in India. Bollywood today is the producer of largest number of films enthralling viewers all over the world. Equally pervasive is the presence of skilled Indians who are sought after in practically every country in the world for their skills, peaceful nature and work ethics. But we are not resting on our laurels as we know that a lot still needs to be done. Challenges KT: What are the challenges ahead for India? Mehta: While India has made significant progress in different areas, more needs to be done on the socio-economic front to achieve our national objective of inclusive growth so that the benefits of our economic successes are shared by all. Besides creation of economic opportunities and infrastructure both physical and social, our focus is on poverty alleviation through creation of employment opportunities, provision of basic amenities such as food, clean water, sanitation, health and education to the weaker sections of the society at affordable prices. Reducing regional disparities, elimination of gender discrimination, building more effective and responsive law and order institutions, reinforcing social norms and mores, and meeting the expectations of the young India are some of the other challenges. While the challenges are formidable, we are undaunted. We have the confidence in the dynamism, resourcefulness, energy and ingenuity of our people and the institutions we have created to address these effectively.

Two held for human trafficking

Zain eSuccess Social Online Learning Project launched KUWAIT: Zain Group a pioneer in mobile telecommunications in eight markets across the Middle East and North Africa, yesterday announced that it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Hamdan Bin Mohammed eUniversity (HBMeU) for the launch of the Zain eSuccess Social Online Learning Project. HBMeU is a first mover in elearning in the Arab World, being the first accredited e-learning academic institution by the UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. In partnership with HBMeU, Zain is developing a program through which individuals can acquire knowledge and develop skills formally and informally on Facebook. The Zain eSuccess Social Online Learning Project will provide individuals an opportunity for self-development and social interaction, which ultimately has the ability to positively affect a community’s economic development. HBMeU will be offering learners an extensive range of lessons including more than 1,200 online courses in math, sciences, and IT for grades 4-12, based on the best international curricula. The new social online learning service also includes more than 75 online sessions in business skills for adult learners under 10 categories of soft skills, including Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Talent Development, Marketing and Operation Management, HR Management and Islamic Banking, among others. There are also more than 600 online lessons in English language for all age groups from 3-4 years to adults, based on Cambridge curricula and exams. The partnership between Zain and HBMeU represents the first time a telecom operator has engaged with the University in such a manner, and the first time that online training and education will be offered across all age segments in the region. The Zain eSuccess Social Online Learning Project will be officially launched by Zain Kuwait on 1 March 2013, with users being able to access and utilize the online training, social media, and educational resources freeof-charge for the month. As of April 1, 2013 a nominal charge will be instituted. Other Zain Group operating companies

are set to follow suit with their own launches in due course. Information on the registration process and available courses will be posted on Zain Kuwait’s website and Facebook page as the launch date approaches. The MoU signing event took place at the Dubai Officers’ Club under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and in the presence of other senior representatives including H.E. Lieutenant General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim, Commander -In-Chief of Dubai Police, H.E. Mohamed Ibrahim Al Shibani, Director General Ruler’s Court,and Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, HBMeU Chancellor. Present at the signing event was Zain Group Deputy CEO and COO,

Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, aiming to achieve a real change in education, which is a crucial component in the UAE Vision 2021. The new initiative’s role is not limited to education only; it combines educational and social goals, which are primarily based on promoting social responsibility, encouraging the young generation to responsibly use various practical resources on the Internet, and reinforcing the culture of e-learning among the youth. This is all in line with the directions of H.H. Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and President HBMeU, to reach out to all young people in the UAE, the Arab world, Africa and Asia.” Other presti-

KUWAIT: Two people were arrested for human trafficking after they were caught forging work permits by hacking into the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor’s system. Investigations began after a tip-off about a Bangladeshi dishing out Kuwaiti work permits to expatriate laborers brought by a human trafficker residing in a different Gulf state. Fur ther investigations revealed that the man was collecting KD1,000 for every work permit sold. He used to obtain these by using forged documents in the name of an inactive trading company owned by a Kuwaiti man. This led detectives to suspect that some labor department employees could be involved who would have allowed the fake company’s owner to issue work permits. A total of 350 forged work permits were reportedly entered into the MSAL’s database through hacking, according to investigations. It was also revealed that the suspects had managed to sell 150 permits before their arrest. The Bangladeshi man was arrested in an ambush and eventually confessed to his role in the crime when he was confronted with the findings of the sleuths. Police later arrested the Kuwaiti man, who confirmed detectives’ findings but refused to divulge the names of his accomplices who helped him hack into the MSAL’s system. The two remain in the custody of the Criminal Investigations General Department pending further action.

house when two men in track suits forced her into their car and drove to a remote location where they sexually assaulted her before dropping her off and escaping. The victim was escorted to the area’s police station by her Kuwaiti employer who came to know about what happened after she managed to reach home. Investigations are on.

Rapists at large Two men allegedly assaulted a domestic helper they kidnapped from Abu Halifa recently. According to her testimonies to the local police, the Ethiopian woman was walking towards her employer’s

Infiltrators in custody Coastguards arrested 12 Iranian men on board a vessel near the Kuwaiti shores when they tried to infiltrate their way into the country. The men were taken to the proper authorities after investigations

Search for shooter Investigations are on to identify and arrest a person who shot at a speed camera fixed inside a car parked under the Subbiya Bridge in Jahra. Investigators recovered a shotgun bullet from the scene which the suspect likely fired from top of the bridge. A case was filed against the suspect who faces multiple charges that include possessing a firearm, shooting and damaging property. Bootlegger arrested Detectives arrested a man connected with a case in which customs officials at the Shuwaikh port had last Friday thwarted an attempt to smuggle a container containing 7060 liquor bottles into Kuwait. The Kuwaiti man faces multiple charges which include forgery since he had used a scanner to forge custom papers belonging to the US Army. Investigations are still to track down an Egyptian identified as the second suspect in the case, as well as to determine whether there were other accomplices.

revealed that they were trying to enter Kuwait illegally. The arrest came after the coastguards’ radar system spotted a boat moving in a ‘fast and winding manner.’ Theft gang busted Abu Hlaifa police arrested a gang of thieves led by a domestic helper who used her part-time job to gain access to victims’ houses. Detectives carrying out investigations in 10 reported home robberies found a common factor among all the cases as the plaintiffs had all hired a housekeeper to clean their homes at night before the thefts happened. Police managed to arrest the Sri Lankan woman who confessed to the crime and also divulged the identity of her two accomplices who were later arrested from Al-Fintas and Salmiya. The three remain in custody pending legal action. Search for addicts Search is on for male suspects who left a man in a critical condition after he passed out due to a drug overdose. Police had rushed to a location in front of a school in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh on Saturday night where an eyewitness reported seeing people stepping out of their car and dragging someone from inside, then hitting him with a hard object on his head and leaving him before escaping. The man, an Indonesian, was brought to the Far waniya Hospital in a critical condition and admitted to its intensive care unit after a blood test revealed that he had overdosed on drugs. The suspects could face charges of an attempted murder as preliminary investigations indicated they wanted to get rid of him with a fatal head trauma to avoid prosecution.

KIB hails Al-Fadhli’s achievement

Hisham Akbar, who said: “Zain Group is well known for the strong ties it establishes with the communities in which it operates, and entering into this partnership with HBMeU represents a further extension of those bonds.” Akbar continued: “HBMeU is a fine educational institution, and we are excited and honored to be the first telecom provider to enter such an agreement with the University. Zain is an innovative communications provider that places a great deal of emphasis on the development of young people and education, so this social online learning partnership reflects our core values and activities perfectly.” Lt Gen Dhahi Khalfan said: “The new initiative is inspired by the vision of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid

gious companies that also penned their own partnerships with HBMeU included Emirates National Bank of Dubai (Emirates NBD), Sharjah Islamic Bank, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, and Aramex. Zain is a leading telecommunications operator across the Middle East and North Africa providing mobile voice and data services to over 41.282 million active customers as of 30 September, 2012. With a commercial presence in 8 countries, Zain operates in the following countries: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and South Sudan. In Lebanon, the company manages ‘touch’ on behalf of the government. In Morocco, Zain has a 15.5% stake in Wana Telecom, now branded ‘INWI’, through a joint venture.

KUWAIT: The CEO of Kuwait International Bank (KIB), Louai Maqamis, has recognized Mubarak Al-Fadhli, Trainee Relationship Manager, Commercial Banking Department for achieving the highest results in the rigorous Kuwaiti Graduates Development Program at the Institute of Banking Studies. A ceremony was held to celebrate AlFadhli’s achievement and was attended by Maqamis, in addition to Salem Qabazard, Executive Manager - Human Resources and Jasem Al-Abdulhadi, Acting Executive Manager - Commercial Banking. Commenting on the occasion, Maqamis said: “We are proud to see our employees consistently striving for professional development and growth. This will reflect positively on the high standards of customer service that KIB provides.” Maqamis emphasized the value KIB places on recognizing the accomplishments of its employees as they progress in such a dynamic sector of Kuwait’s economy. This falls in line with the bank’s vision to support and encourage the national workforce in the banking industry, and provide them with opportunities to forge rewarding and successful careers for the future. “Kuwait International Bank works diligently to support young Kuwaitis as they enter the banking sector,” Maqamis added. “We facilitate our employees’ growth across the dif-

ferent stages of their careers by offering strategic training courses and professional workshops. This will help us sustain the industry’s best practices as well as deliver the highest levels of service to our customers.”

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

Algeria says 37 foreigners killed in gas plant siege

India gang-rape trial begins as father urges hangings Page 11

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WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama is sworn by Chief Justice John Roberts at the ceremonial swearing-in at the US Capitol during the 57th presidential inauguration yesterday. — AP

Obama calls for unity, equality US prez takes oath of office for second time in 24 hours WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama issued a impassioned call for national unity and equality yesterday, warning political “absolutism” must not thwart change and renewal, as he was inaugurated for a second term. Obama was publicly sworn in for another four White House years before a crowd of hundreds of thousands on Washington’s National Mall, and delivered an inaugural address steeped in poetic power and broad hints of his new agenda. The 44th president repeatedly used the “ We the People” preamble to the US Constitution to suggest how to reconcile America’s founding truths and the current discord and dysfunction of its embittered political system. “For now, decisions are upon us, and we cannot afford delay,” Obama said. “We cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate. We must act, knowing that our work will be imperfect,” Obama declared. Obama’s speech was noticeably liberal - calling for protection for the weak, the poor and those lacking health care and obliquely including a call for gay rights and protection against gun crime for children. “Our journey is not complete until our gay brothers and sisters are treated like anyone else under the law - for if we are truly created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be equal as well,” Obama said. “Our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see America as a land of opportunity. Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.” The president also said that American security did not require “perpetual war” and promised to base American global leadership on dialogue, firm alliances but not to cede the threat of the use of force. “We will defend our people and uphold our values through strength of arms and rule of law,” Obama said. “We will show the courage to try and resolve our differences with other nations peacefully - not because we are naÔve about the dangers we face, but because engagement can more durably lift suspicion and fear.” And Obama also vowed the meet the threat of global warming, despite skepticism on climate change from some Republican foes, and political barriers to taking serious action. Obama earlier raised his right hand and rested his left on Bibles once owned by Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln, on an outdoor platform set on the West Front of the US Capitol building and below its elegant white dome. “I Barack Hussein Obama ...” the 44th president said, vowing to faithfully execute his office and to “preserve, protect and defend the constitution”, led in the oath of office by black-robed Chief Justice John Roberts. The president was earlier announced with a peal of trumpets and walked down the steps from the iconic building to a huge cheers of “Obama, Obama” from a vast crowd stretching into the distance down the National Mall below. Obama, his smile beaming wide, appeared more relaxed than at his first inauguration four years ago, when he took office as an untested and inexperienced leader as an economic depression threatened. The president, the first African American to hold the office, launched his second term with a private swearing-in ceremony on Sunday, before basking in the full pomp of his office with public

celebrations yesterday. Bundled-up Obama supporters had trekked into town to join snaking lines for Secret Service checkpoints guarding a steel-fenced secure zone around the White House and the inaugural parade route. Armored military vehicles and parked buses blocked major roads, as part of a security vice which included air and river exclusion zones, road closures and a heavy presence of police and National Guard reserve troops. Though the mood was festive, as revelers crammed into coﬀee shops and subway trains heading downtown, Obama’s second inauguration lacked the sense of historic promise and hope that greeted his ﬁrst term in 2009. Dignitaries, including former Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and Secretary of State

Hillary Clinton, took their seats on a platform at the West Front of the Capitol. One Obama supporter, the Reverend Ruddie Mingo, 54, donated time and money to the president ’s winning campaign against Republican Mitt Romney, and said inaugural festivities were less mobbed than four years ago. “My hope is that his next four years we can get more stuﬀ accomplished on both sides,” he said. Obama’s political brand has been damaged by an exhausting ﬁrst term battling the worst economic storm in decades and brutal partisan warfare with his Republican rivals, notably over taxes and spending. When he returns to politics, Obama, 51, has a legacy to defend, including a historic health care law and a retrenchment from draining

wars abroad, and he is vowing to make good on the promise of a fairer economy. Obama took the oath for a ﬁrst time Sunday in a private ceremony at the White House because the constitution states that US presidential terms end at noon on Jan 20. When that date falls on a Sunday, there is a private swearing-in ceremony before public celebrations and a second oath taking the next day. Poignantly, Obama took his second, second term oath of oﬃce on the federal holiday marking civil rights pioneer King’s birthday. In another historic echo, Obama was the second president to be sworn in four times - thanks to the Roberts stumble in 2009 and his double oath duty this year, joining Democratic icon Franklin Roosevelt. — AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

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

Hostages were ‘human shields’ in Algeria MANILA: Islamic militants used foreign hostages as human shields to stop Algerian troops aboard helicopters from strafing them with gunfire, a Filipino survivor of the four-day bloodbath recounted yesterday. Father-offour Joseph Balmaceda said he saw one Japanese hostage draped with explosives, while he and others had their hands bound with cable ties, during the ordeal at the In Amenas gas plant in the Sahara Desert that ended Saturday. “Whenever government troops tried to use a helicopter to shoot at the enemy, we were used as human shields,” a clearly stressed Balmaceda told reporters shortly after arriving back in Manila.

“We were told to raise our hands. The government forces could not shoot at them as long as we were held hostage.” Balmaceda, nursing abrasions to his face and a loss of hearing, said he was the only sur vivor out of nine hostages who were aboard a van that exploded, apparently from C-4 explosives that the militants had rigged to the vehicle. He said two militants were transferring the nine hostages to the central facility of the gas plant but the bomb went off during a clash with Algerian security forces. “The only thing left of the car was the back portion of the Land Cruiser,” said Balmaceda, 42. “I was the only one who survived

because I was sandwiched between two spare tyres. That is why I am still here and can talk to you.” Balmaceda said the two militants driving the vehicle were also k illed. “But (other) hostage-takers were firing at me. It meant there were other terrorists,” he said. “So I crawled about 300 metres to where the government forces were. And when I reached them I fainted. When I woke up I was in the hospital.” The Al-Qaeda-linked “Signatories in Blood” group said it attacked the gas plant in retaliation for a French military operation to evict Islamists from neighbouring Mali. Most hostages were freed on Thursday in a first Algerian rescue operation, which was initially viewed by

foreign governments as hasty, before the focus of public condemnation turned on the jihadists. Balmaceda said the incident in which the vehicle exploded occurred on the second day of the siege, apparently during the first rescue operation. The crisis ended on Saturday with a final assault by Algerian troops. Dozens of foreigners are believed to have died during the siege, although authorities have yet to give a definite figure. The Philippine government said earlier yesterday that six Filipinos had been confirmed killed, and four were missing. Balmaceda, who worked at the facility as a maintenance technician for eight years, said the hostage takers had ini-

tially told him and other Filipinos that they were mainly interested in killing French and US nationals. “We were told by the leader that: “This is not a problem with the Philippines, we don’t have a quarrel with the Philippines and you will not be touched. We have problems with France and the Americans’,” he said. However he said he was with four other Filipinos when he was initially captured, and he had not seem them since. They were not in the van that exploded. Balmaceda said he was overjoyed to be back in the Philippines and with his family. “I am very very happy. I prayed to be reunited with them. I couldn’t die because I have four kids to take care of,” he said.— AFP

Algeria says 37 foreigners killed in gas plant siege Japan PM confirms 7 deaths in crisis

ADANA: A leftist group member clashes with Turkish riot policemen during a protest against NATO Patriot missiles in front of the US military base yesterday at Incirlik in Adana. Two Patriot missile batteries each arrived from Germany and the Netherlands yesterday in Turkey as part of a NATO mission to protect Turkish borders from any spillover of the conflict in neighboring Syria. — AFP

Power outage hits Damascus DAMASCUS: The Syrian government yesterday blamed a rebel attack on a key power line for a blackout that hit Damascus and much of the countr y ’s south overnight, leaving residents cold and in the dark amid a fuel crisis that has stranded many at home. Meanwhile, Syria’s main opposition postponed the selection of a prime minister and the formation of a transitional government to run the country should the regime of President Bashar Assad fall, highlighting the continued failure of Assad’s opponents to unite behind a shared leader or vision nearly two years into the country’s crisis. While Damascus’s 2.5 million residents have grown used to frequent power cuts as the country’s conflict has damaged infrastructure and sapped the government’s finances, they said yesterday that the overnight outage was the first to darken the entire capital since the conflict began. The blackout hit residents especially hard because of rampant fuel shortages and the winter cold that pushed temperatures below freezing overnight. Getting gas requires waiting in hours-long lines at stations, and cooking fuel and diesel for portable heaters has grown scarce and expensive - forcing people to find other ways to keep warm. “We covered ourselves from the cold in blankets because there was no diesel or electricity for the heaters,” said retired teacher Mariam Ghassan, 60. “We changed our whole lives to get organized for power cuts, but now we have no idea when the power will come or go.” At its height, the outage engulfed all of Damascus and extended to an area at least 50 kilometers (31 miles) north to the town of Zabadani and across the southern provinces of Daraa and Sweida that abut the Jordanian border. By midday yesterday, power had

returned to more than half of the capital, and Electricity Minister Imad Khamis said authorities were working to restore it in other areas. Syria’s state news agency quoted him as saying that the outages were caused by “an armed terrorist attack on the main feed line.” The regime refers to those fighting to topple Assad as “terrorists.” Dozens of rebel groups operate in the Damascus area, and the government did not name a specific group or give any information on where the alleged attack took place. No rebel groups claimed responsibility. Other than a rebel incursion in July that the government quickly quashed, Damascus has yet to see the large clashes between Assad’s forces and opposition fighters that have destroyed entire neighborhoods in other Syrian cities. The government still controls the capital with a network of checkpoints, but has faced mounting difficulty in providing basic services as the civil war drags on and sanctions imposed by the US, the European Union and other countries take their toll. For most Damascenes, the power cuts and fuel shortages are the most frequent reminder of the war that has engulfed much of the rest of their country. The government has fixed gasoline prices at about 75 cents per liter, but shortages mean residents must wait up to six hours in lines to fill up. “There is almost no diesel in the city,” said a taxi driver named Wael, who gave only his first name for fear of government reprisals. To fuel his car, he gets to the gas station first thing in the morning and often waits until noon to fill up. Even then, the gas is rationed by the government to no more than 20 liters per person - meaning he’ll have to wait in line again the next day. “I hate my job,” he said. “I’ve been trying to find a new one but I can’t. How am I supposed to feed my kids?”— AP

Part of courthouse burnt in Egypt clashes CAIRO: A courthouse went up in flames in Egypt’s northern Mediterranean city of Alexandria during clashes between protesters and riot police Sunday, according to witnesses. The blaze destroyed part of the building, burning some files. A security official said unidentified assailants were responsible. This was the second straight day of clashes there ahead of the two-year anniversary of Egypt’s uprising that toppled longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak. Young men threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas, outside the courthouse where six senior police officers were on trial for deaths of protesters during the nation’s 2011 uprising. Two years after the revolt was first sparked, families of the deceased remain frustrated over the pace of reform. Rights groups have criticized what they say remains a culture of police impunity. Two trucks that transport riot police was set ablaze outside the courthouse, which is near the Italian consulate, after Judge Mohammed Hammad Abdel-Hadi resigned from the case on Sunday. He did not say why he quit. His resignation means a new trial for the police officers accused of using excessive force that led to the deaths of protesters during the unrest that ousted

Mubarak. Alexandria’s former security director is among those on trial. Mohammed Ibrahim has since retired, while the others are still working for the Interior Ministry. A day earlier, protesters and riot police clashed outside the same courthouse. Families of the dead were angered by the judge’s decision Saturday to bar the prosecution from calling witnesses to testify. Since Mubarak was deposed on Feb. 11, 2011, nearly 100 police officers have been brought to trial on charges of killing and wounding protesters. All were acquitted or received suspended sentences. Mubarak and his former interior minister were sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the killings. They were granted a retrial this month. Around 900 protesters died in the revolt that began Jan. 25, 2011, with some 300 killed in Alexandria alone. A fact-finding committee set up by President Mohammed Morsi, who came to office in June as Egypt’s first freely elected president, submitted a 700-page report this month on protester deaths over the past two years. The commission is comprised of judges, rights lawyers, and representatives from the Interior Ministry and the intelligence, as well as families of victims.— AP

IN AMENAS: Algiers said yesterday that 37 foreigners of eight different nationalities, as well as an Algerian, were killed by hostage-takers in a well-planned attack on a remote gas plant. Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal said five other foreigners were still missing and that several of the hostages had been executed “with a bullet to the head” as the four-day crisis ended in a bloodbath on Saturday. Most of the 32 militants who took hundreds of people hostage at the In Amenas gas complex in the Sahara on Wednesday had entered the country from neighbouring Mali, Sellal told a news conference in Algiers. The premier gave the final grim figures after Algeria had warned other nations to prepare for a higher body count, amid fears as many as 50 captives may have died in the world’s deadliest hostage crisis in almost a decade. “Thirty-seven foreigners of eight different nationalities,” were killed during the siege, Sellal told reporters, adding an Algerian was also killed, giving an overall toll of 38. He said the group’s leader was Mohamed el-Amine Bencheneb, an Algerian militant known to the country’s security services, and was killed during the army’s assault. A total of 29 hostage-takers were killed and three captured. As well as the three Algerians among them, the kidnappers comprised six foreign nationalities, namely Canadian, Egyptian, Tunisian, Malian, Nigerien and Mauritanian. Governments have been scrambling to track down missing citizens as more details emerged after the final showdown on Saturday between special forces and extremists who had taken the hostages, demanding an end to French military intervention in Mali. Survivors’ photos seen by AFP showed bodies riddled with bullets, some with their heads half blown away by the impact of the gunfire. “They were brutally executed,” said an Algerian who identified himself as Brahim, after escaping the ordeal, referring to Japanese victims gunned down by the hostage-tak-

IN AMENAS: Algerian firemen carry a coffin containing a person killed during the gas facility hostage situation at the morgue yesterday. — AP ers. Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said seven Japanese people were known to have been killed in the hostage crisis, the first confirmation from Tokyo that any of its nationals had died. Witnesses had said nine Japanese people connected to plant builder JGC were killed in the 72-hour ordeal. One Japanese survivor was quoted in the Daily Yomiuri newspaper as telling colleagues how the gunmen had dragged him from his barricaded room, handcuffed him and executed two hostages standing nearby. The Philippine government said six Filipino hostages were among the dead, killed “mostly by gunshot wounds and the effects of the explosions.” As more harrowing accounts emerged of the siege, a Filipino survivor described how the militants used foreign hostages as human shields to stop Algerian troops aboard helicopters from strafing them with gunfire. Joseph Balmaceda told reporters in Manila

Eritrean troops lay siege to ministry ADDIS ABABA: Eritrean soldiers with tanks laid siege to the information ministry yesterday and forced state media to call for political prisoners to be freed, a senior intelligence official said. The renegade soldiers had not gone as far as to call for the overthrow of the government of one of Africa’s most secretive states, long at odds with the United States and accused of human rights abuses. Eritrea has been led by Isaias Afewerki, 66, for some two decades since it broke from bigger neighbour Ethiopia. Soldiers had forced the director general of state television “to say the Eritrean government should release all political prisoners,” the Eritrean intelligence source told Reuters on condition of anonymity. There was no immediate statement from the Asmara government. Accusing Eritrea of torture and summary executions last year, the United Nations human rights chief estimated that 5,000-10,000 political prisoners were being held in the country of about 6 million people. State media went off air after the call for prisoners to be freed, the intelligence official and diplomats in the region said. One Western diplomat in neighbouring Ethiopia said other buildings might have been seized by soldiers too. The gold-producing state, on a strategic strip of mountainous land along the Red Sea coast, is one of the most opaque countries on the continent and restricts access to foreign reporters. Eritrean opposition activists exiled in neighbouring Ethiopia said there was growing dissent within the Eritrean military, especially over economic hardship. Despite its relatively small population, Eritrea has Africa’s second biggest army. “Economic issues have worsened and have worsened relations between the government and soldiers in the past few weeks and months,” one activist told Reuters. Eritrea broke from Ethiopia in 1991. The two countries fought a 1998-2000 war over a border which remains disputed. Relations between them are perennially strained, with Eritrea denying accusations it backs Ethiopian insurgents. The United Nations’ Security Council imposed an embargo on Eritrea in 2009 over concerns its government was funding and arming al Shabaab rebels in neighbouring Somalia charges Asmara denied. Diplomatic sources told Reuters Isaias survived an assassination attempt by a disgruntled soldier in 2009. — Reuters

he was the only survivor out of nine hostages in a van that blew up on Thursday, apparently from C-4 explosives the militants had rigged to the vehicle. “I was the only one who survived because I was sandwiched between two spare tyres. That is why I am still here and can talk to you,” said the visibly distressed father of four. The alleged mastermind of the hostagetaking, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, said in a video posted online that it was carried out by 40 fighters from the Muslim world and “European countries”. His Al-Qaeda-linked group “Signatories in Blood” threatened to stage attacks on nations involved in the French-led operation to evict Islamists from Algeria’s neighbour Mali, and said it had been open to negotiations. “But the Algerian army did not respond... preferring to stage an attack which led to the elimination of the hostages,” it said in a message published by the

Mauritanian news agency ANI. Most hostages were freed on Thursday in the first Algerian rescue operation, which was initially viewed by foreign governments as hasty, before the focus of public condemnation turned on the jihadists. The In Amenas plant is run by Britain’s BP, Norway’s Statoil and Sonatrach of Algeria. An Algerian employee of BP who identified himself as Abdelkader said he was at a security post with colleagues on Wednesday morning when he saw a jeep with seven people inside smash through the barrier and screech to a halt. One of the militants got out of the vehicle, demanded their mobile phones and ordered them not to move, before disabling the security cameras. “He said: ‘You are Algerians and Muslims, you have nothing to fear. We’re looking for Christians, who kill our brothers in Mali and Afghanistan and plunder our resources’.” — AFP

Islamist boycott clouds Jordan general election AMMAN: Jordanians go the polls tomorrow, but an Islamist boycott is expected to produce a toothless parliament that is unlikely to bring real reform, leaving the country in political uncertainty. Jordan has high hopes for the election, seeking to turn it into the pivot of a reform process aimed at fending off protests inspired by Arab Spring revolts that have toppled four regimes. But a boycott by the powerful Muslim Brotherhood and other opposition groups such as the National Reform Front of former premier and intelligence chief Ahmad Obeidat cast a long shadow over the process. “Previous parliaments have proven their incapability of introducing reform and change. The coming parliament is no exception. It could be the worst,” Zaki Bani Rsheid, deputy leader of the Brotherhood, told AFP. “Many people will not vote and the political scene will be more frustrating. Any hope of establishing real political life as a foundation for parliamentary governments is illusory.” Tribal leaders, pro-regime figures and independent businessmen are expected to sweep the election. The Islamist boycott is in protest at constituency boundaries that they call unfair, and at the failure to move towards a constitutional monarchy with an elected premier rather than one named by the king. “We do not seek the overthrow of the regime. We want to reform the regime. Our boycott was the right decision because a parliament or government that is imposed on people is illegitimate. A comprehensive national dialogue is the solution,” Bani Rsheid said. According to the constitution, elections are supposed to take place every four years, but Jordan also held early polls in 2010 after the king dissolved parliament. The Brotherhood boycotted those polls also, in protest at constituency boundaries which they say over-represent loyalist rural areas at the expense of urban areas seen as Islamist bastions. “We hoped to see elections under a national accord that would produce powerful

MPs and put reform on the right track. But that is not the case,” analyst Oraib Rintawi, who runs the Al-Quds Centre for Political Studies, told AFP. “The coming election will add to problems instead of solving them, particularly under the boycott. We will see a parliament that does not have political weight.” More than 2.27 million voters registered to choose from around 1,500 candidates vying for 150 seats in the lower house of parliament. Jordan has a population of 6.8 million, of whom 3.1 million are entitled to vote. “I think the turnout will be low. People are worried about the economy, poverty and unemployment, and the ‘what happens politically’ does not encourage (people) to vote,” Rintawi said. Jordan has been largely spared the kind of protests that have swept eastwards from Tunisia across the Arab world since early 2011, but it still sees regular demonstrations demanding political and economic reform and an end to corruption. “The opposition will keep expressing themselves in the street, escalating without violence. And I think their first protest after the elections will demand the dissolution of parliament, which brings us back to square one,” Rintawi said. Political analyst Labib Kamhawi said the election will be “disappointing.” “The Islamists are boycotting the polls because they are not in their interest. But others are boycotting them because the entire process is undemocratic,” Kamhawi told AFP. “The result will be disappointing to the people because they feel there is no will for genuine reform.” King Abdullah II told AFP in an exclusive interview in September the Islamist boycott was a “tremendous miscalculation,” and urged all Jordanians to take part in the election to boost reform. “We are not trying to delude people and tell them that the coming parliament will be perfect,” Information Minister and government spokesman Samih Maaytah told AFP. “The election is a gate to further reforms. It is not the end of reforms. Boycotting the polls is not a solution.”—AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

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

A bitter defeat for Merkel months before German poll SPD, Greens win key regional election by single seat

VIENNA: Fire-fighters secure the site where two trains of the line S45 standoff rail after having crashed yesterday. — AFP

Dozens hurt in head-on Austria train crash VIENNA: Two packed commuter trains collided head-on in the morning rush-hour in Vienna on yesterday, leaving several dozen people injured including five in serious condition, the emergency services said. In a large rescue operation involving around 25 fire engines as well as helicopter ambulances and a special accident train, many of the injured had to be extracted from the wreckage using special cranes. “Two of the seriously injured are in a lifethreatening condition, one of whom is one of the train drivers,” emergency services spokesman Ronald Packert told AFP. “In total 41 people were hurt.” “One good thing was that the crash happened right next to an emergency services station, meaning that our people were there in seconds,” he said.

One of those seriously injured had to be cut out of the twisted wreckage after being trapped, Packert said. Austrian Railways said the cause of the crash appeared to have been a technical fault that caused both trains to be travelling towards each other along the same track. “There was a technical problem,” company spokeswoman Sarah Nettel told AFP. “One of the trains received a signal to proceed that it shouldn’t have.” It took almost two hours to evacuate both trains, which smashed into each other at 8:45 am (0745 GMT) in the Penzing district of western Vienna. Last September a train derailed in the same area, without causing any injuries. An enquiry blamed human error for the incident after a rail worker switched a point the wrong way. — AFP

African troops kill rebel who guarded warlord Kony KAMPALA: Ugandan troops in the Central African Republic have killed the chief bodyguard of Joseph Kony, the fugitive head of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a Ugandan army official said yesterday. Ugandan Col. Felix Kulayigye said the bodyguard, a rebel commander known only as Binani, was among a small group of rebels when he was killed in a fire fight Friday 280 kilometers (175 miles) north of Djema, a base in the Central African Republic where Ugandaled African Union troops are being advised by US special forces. It was not clear if Kony, a self-styled mystic who has eluded capture for more than two decades, was part of the group of rebels that fled the attack in which Binani was killed, Kulayigye said. “He was a member of the LRA high command,” Kulayigye said of Binani. “He was Kony’s chief bodyguard and he was also the LRA’s main logistician.” Kulayigye said it is unfortunate that Binani was not captured alive. He might have shared information on Kony, a cruel rebel leader whose whereabouts are unknown, Kulayigye said. Kony, whose rebellion originated in Uganda before spreading to other par ts of Central Africa, was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Last year he became the focus of international attention after the US advocacy group Invisible Children released a popular online video highlighting LRA crimes

and calling for Kony to be stopped from recruiting children. Ugandan officials believe Kony may be hiding in a place called Kafia Kingi, along the volatile Sudan-South Sudan border. The LRA, which used to have several thousand men, is now seriously degraded and scattered in small numbers in Congo, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic. Only about 200 LRA rebels are still active in the jungle, according to the Ugandan military, but they can conduct hit-and run operations that terrorize villagers. They move across the region’s porous borders in small groups that are hard to detect in dense jungle, and are difficult for militar y forces to eliminate from a jungle the size of France. LRA watchdog groups such as the Enough Project say it will be hard to eliminate the LRA’s top leaders without more troops on the ground as well as greater investment in human and aerial intelligence. Last year the LRA killed 39 civilians in Congo and the Central African Republic, according to a report by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon published late last year. About 2,500 African Union troops hunting for Kony and other LRA commanders are assisted by 100 US military advisers. The US has spent $30 million every year since 2008 on the LRA mission, including on supplies such as fuel for helicopters, according to Daniel Travis, a US Embassy spokesman in Uganda. —AP

BERLIN: In an extremely tight German state election that seemed to produce few clearcut winners, there was no argument over who the biggest loser was-Chancellor Angela Merkel. Her Christian Democrats (CDU), led by rising star David McAllister, had convinced themselves over the past week that they were on the verge of a stunning come-from-behind victory in Lower Saxony, a major agricultural and industrial region that is Germany’s closest approximation to a swing state. But on Sunday, they came up agonisingly short, losing power to the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens, who together garnered just one more seat in the state assembly than the centreright. The defeat is a bitter one for Merkel, even if she remains a strong favourite to win a third term in a federal election eight months from now. In one fell swoop, it gives the centre-left a majority in the Bundesrat upper house of parliament, meaning the opposition can block major legislation from Merkel’s government and initiate laws themselves. “I assume it won’t be possible to push anything through the Bundesrat that the SPD doesn’t want,” Volker Kauder, a Merkel ally and leader of her CDU in parliament, told German public television yesterday morning. That will not change after the national election in September, even if Merkel’s centre-right coalition with the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) manages to hold onto power. In the run-up to the federal vote, Merkel’s room for manoeuvre will be limited and the notoriously riskaverse German leader may take a more cautious stance on a range of policy issues, including her management of the euro zone debt crisis. The vote is also a blow to McAllister, the 42-year-old half-Scot who had ruled Lower Saxony since 2010 and become a protege of the chancellor, declaring on the eve of the vote that he was happy to be “Merkel’s Mac”. There will be much hand-wringing in the CDU about

Nigerian convicted of 13 acts of ‘terror’ JOHANNESBURG: A South African court yesterday convicted Nigerian national Henry Okah of 13 terrorism charges, including bombings that killed 12 people in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on independence day 2010. “I have come to the conclusion that the state proved beyond reasonable doubt the guilt of the accused,” said Judge Neels Claassen, handing down the verdict in the South Gauteng High Court. Okah was found guilty of masterminding attacks including twin car bombings that killed 12 people in Abuja on October 1, 2010 and two explosions in March 2010 in the southern Nigerian city of Warri, a major hub of the oilrich Delta region. He faces a life term at minimum when the court hands him the sentence between January 31 and February 1. The armed Nigerian group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which in 2010 was a well-equipped group fighting for a greater share of the Delta oil wealth, claimed responsibility for the attacks. Although Okah has denied leading MEND, saying he just sympathised with their goals, court documents referred to him as its leader. Documentary evidence of his role in the group included handwritten notes by his wife. MEND has a history of staging fierce attacks on oil facilities and kidnapped oil expatriate workers in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern Delta. He holds permanent residence in South Africa, but is known to have travelled back and forth between the two countries. In 2009 he was freed from a jail in the central Nigerian city of Jos where he was being held for treason and gun-running. His liberation came in the wake of an amnesty deal offered by the government to thousands of Delta militants.—AFP

BERLIN: German Chancellor and chairwoman of the German Christian Democrats, CDU, Angela Merkel attends a press conference after the party’s weekly executive committee meeting yesterday. — AP McAllister’s not-so-subtle hints to supporters in the weeks before the election that they use their votes to boost the score of the FDP. His message resonated with CDU voters, but perhaps stronger than he would have liked. The FDP, which had been expected to struggle to make the 5 percent threshold needed to enter the state assembly, ended up with a surprisingly strong score of 9.9 percent, largely thanks to CDU backers who split their two votes (in German elections voters cast ballots for both a party and a local candidate). Yet the FDP’s strong showing appears to have come at the expense of McAllister’s CDU, which scored 36 percent, down 6.5 points from their last result in Lower Saxony in 2008 and well below the 40 percent-plus that opinion polls had forecast. With the loss, Merkel’s CDU has now lost to the SPD and Greens in five states over the past two years, including in their longtime southern stronghold of Baden-

Wuerttemberg and in Germany’s most populous state, North RhineWestphalia. The string of losses is likely to fuel anxiety about Merkel’s ability to leverage her own popularity into votes for her party. “ The state election in Lower Saxony should be a warning for Angela Merkel for the federal election in the autumn,” conservative daily Die Welt wrote yesterday. The FDP were hailed as the big winners of Sunday’s vote, but the result failed to silence internal critics who want to jettison national party leader Philipp Roesler before the federal vote. Leading Roesler critic Dirk Niebel, who serves as development minister in Merkel’s government, said the Lower Saxony surprise could not mask the FDP’s problems at the national level and demanded a special party congress in May to debate its leadership. The SPD will take some satisfaction from having ousted loyal Merkel ally McAllister, but the narrow victory does not

give them the major boost in momentum they had been hoping for heading into the national vote. Instead it highlighted the problems of their own chancellor candidate Peer Steinbrueck, who on Sunday accepted responsibility for weakening the party’s score in Lower Saxony with a series of verbal blunders. Just as with Roesler in the FDP, the result is unlikely to quiet voices within the SPD who have begun questioning Steinbrueck’s suitability as a challenger to Merkel. The only party that came out an undisputed winner from Lower Saxony was the Greens, who with 13.7 percent of the vote scored their best ever result in the state. But without a stronger performance from the SPD, their natural allies, the environmentalist party has little hope of dislodging Merkel as they did McAllister. “We are doing our part,” said Greens leader Cem Oezdemir. “But the SPD needs to look closely at how they can improve their own score.” — Reuters

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

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Taleban attack on Kabul police HQ kills 3 officers Second brazen attack in a week KABUL: Two Taleban suicide bombers blew themselves up at the gates of the Kabul traffic police headquarters early yesterday before another group of militants stormed the compound, battling security forces for nine hours in an attack that left three policemen and all five attackers dead, authorities said. The coordinated assault was the second brazen raid in the heart of the Afghan capital in less than a week, a sign that the insurgency is determined to keep carrying out such spectacular attacks even as the US and Afghan governments try to coax the Taleban into holding peace talks. Nine hours after yesterday’s insurgent attack began with two of the five attackers blowing themselves up, police commandos killed the last two insurgents holed up in the police headquarters, Interior Ministr y spokesman Sediq Sediqi said. He added that four traffic policemen and 10 civilians were also been wounded in the fighting. Kabul Police chief Mohammad Ayub Salangi

said two Taleban suicide bombers died at the gate when their vests exploded, another blew himself up inside the building and two more were killed by security forces before they managed to detonate their explosive vests. He said a sedan packed with explosives blew up near the gate a short time later. Such secondary devices are rigged to timers and designed to kill as many first responders as possible. Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack, which he said was targeting a police training facility “run by foreign military forces.” The traffic police headquarters is not heavily guarded, though it is located on a square leading to the parliament and is also next to the zoo. It is also adjacent to the Afghan border police headquarters and a police training facility which may have been the more likely target. The traffic police facility, usually teeming with civilians seeking to get drivers licenses and registrations for vehicles, was nearly empty at the time of the attack.

KABUL: An Afghan security policeman adjusts the bullets of his machine gun after the militant attack on the Kabul traffic police headquarters building yesterday. — AP

French, Malian troops enter Diabaly NIONO: French and Malian troops entered the central frontline town of Diabaly yesterday as they pushed north in their bid to flush out fanatical Al-Qaeda-linked rebels who have threatened reprisal attacks. A convoy of about 30 armoured vehicles transporting some 300 Malian and French troops moved into the town early yesterday morning without meeting any resistance, an AFP journalist said. The town, 400 kilometres (250 miles) from the capital Bamako, has been the theatre of air strikes and fighting since it was seized by Islamists a week ago. A colonel in the Malian army had said earlier that a “fringe of the Diabaly population adheres to the jihadists’ theories and we must be very careful in the coming hours”. French television footage from Diabaly has shown charred pick-up trucks abandoned by the Islamists amid mud brick homes. One resident said the rebels had fled the town which was abandoned by many of its residents, and those remaining lacked food and other essentials. As French troops began a deployment towards the Islamist-held north, moving into the strategic central towns of Niono and Sevare on Sunday, Paris said the aim of the 11-day old military offensive was total victory over the Islamists. “The goal is the total reconquest of Mali,” French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in televised remarks. “We will not leave any pockets” of resistance. France swept to the aid of the crippled and weak Malian army on January 11, a day after the hardline Islamists who have occupied the country’s vast north since April 2012 made a push south towards Bamako. In retaliation, a jihadist group run by a former leader of the regional Al-Qaeda franchise Mokhtar Belmokhtar, attacked a gas plant in neighbouring Algeria. A 72hour stand-off at the complex ended in scores of deaths Saturday. Officials have warned that the death toll from the bloody rescue operation could rise. “I fear that it (the death toll) may be revised upward,” Algerian Communications Minister Mohamed Said told a radio station, as details slowly emerged over the hostages who had died. On Sunday, the

assailants, calling themselves “Signatories in Blood”, vowed “more operations in all the countries which have taken part in the crusade” against northern Mali, if it did not halt immediately. The Islamists in Mali, who have proved a well-armed and formidable foe, were reported Sunday to be abandoning some of their positions and converging on the mountainous region of Kidal, their northernmost bastion, 1,500 kilometres (900 miles) from Bamako and near the border with Algeria. Kidal was the first town seized by an amalgam of Islamist militants and Tuareg separatist groups in March last year. The two sides then had a falling out and the Islamists have since gained the upper hand in the desert north. Meanwhile the planned deployment of nearly 6,000 African soldiers continued slowly into Bamako, hampered by cash and logistical constraints. Only 150 African troops had arrived by Sunday. Senegal, Benin and six other west African nations are contributing to the African mission which is expected to take over the baton from France, and Chad has also pledged 2,000 soldiers. The head of the Commission of regional west African bloc ECOWAS, Desire Kadre Ouedraogo, estimated the cost of an African offensive against the armed Islamist groups at about 500 million dollars (about 375 million euros). The European Union has pledged 50 million euros to the International Support Mission for Mali (MISMA). On the ground in Mali, French troops said they were buttressing their positions. “The deployment towards the north... which began 24 hours ago, is on course with troops inside the towns of Niono and Sevare,” Lieutenant Colonel Emmanuel Dosseur told reporters, referring to key frontline outposts. Niono is about 350 kilometres (220 miles) northeast of the Malian capital and 60 kilometres (40 miles) south of Diabaly. Sevare has a strategically important airport about 630 kilometres (390 miles) northeast of Bamako that could help serve as a base for operations further north. The western region is home to what are considered the most martial and fanatical Islamists. — AFP

DIABALY: A Malian soldier walks inside a military camp used by radical Islamists and bombarded by French warplanes yesterday. — AP

Sediqi, the Interior Ministry spokesman, said Afghan forces carried out the operation against the militants without any assistance from NATO, adding that “this shows the ability of the Afghan forces, that they are leading the operation.” A unit of NATO special forces that trains and mentors Afghan police was at the scene but not taking part in the fighting. Gul Rahman, who owns a shop near the traffic police compound, said he heard at least two blasts when the attack began just before dawn. An Associated Press reporter at the scene said a number of big explosions were heard from inside and around the building, along with heavy gunfire. It was the second insurgent attack inside Kabul in five days. Last Wednesday, six Taleban suicide bombers attacked the gates of the Afghan intelligence agency in downtown Kabul, killing one guard and wounding dozens. That operation bore several similarities to Yesterday’s attack, including the use of a secondary car bomb placed outside the government compound. The attacks came as the Afghan government has been pushing to get the Taleban to the negotiating table and as President Hamid Karzai and the US negotiate for a quicker pullout of American forces. President Barack Obama said after meeting Karzai in Washington earlier this month that the US-led military coalition would hand over the lead for security around the country to Afghan forces this spring - months ahead of schedule. Obama also said he agreed with Karzai that the Taleban should open a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar to facilitate peace talks. Pakistan, the other regional powerbroker, also said last week that it plans to release more Afghan militant detainees in an attempt to boost the peace process ahead of the departure of international troops at the end of 2014. Islamabad made the announcement after talks with Afghan and American officials in Abu Dhabi. Pakistan is thought to hold more than 100 Taleban prisoners and has so far released 26. In general, Kabul has pressed hard for Pakistan to release Afghan detainees, with some officials saying that they hope the released Taleban can ser ve as intermediaries. But Washington is concerned about specific prisoners it considers dangerous, saying they could take up arms again. —AP

Canada’s Trudeau calls for fresh ideas TORONTO: The race to find a new head of Canada’s minority Liberal Party is about ushering in someone with “vibrant ideas” who can help the struggling middle class, Justin Trudeau, the son of charismatic former Canadian leader Pierre Trudeau, said on Sunday. The younger Trudeau, lauded for his charisma as much as he is criticized for lacking substance, is part of a crowded field of nine candidates vying to bring the once dominant party out of the political wilderness. He is a member of Parliament from a Montreal district. “For the first time, this is about bringing forth a new generation of leadership with bold ideas, with strength and vision,” Trudeau said in Vancouver, British Columbia, in the first of a series of leadership debates. Trudeau is seeking to recreate the excitement that surrounded his father when he was first elected in 1968, with the ultimate aim of unseating the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, which won a majority in 2011. With an army of followers on Twitter, Trudeau is the front-runner in the race to head a party that has shrunk to third place in Parliament for the first time in its 145year history. Trudeau, like his late father, stands for a united Canada and is a foe of separatist forces that have dogged politics in his home province of Quebec. The separatist Parti Quebecois was returned to power in a narrow provincial victory late last year. Marc Garneau, a former Canadian astronaut and member of Parliament, spoke of protecting the environment, saying he had been around Earth hundreds of times and knew something about protecting the planet. “This leadership race must be about new ideas,” said Garneau, seen as a possible challenger to Trudeau’s front-runner status. The candidates generally expressed strong support for the middle class and affordable housing, while accusing the Conservative government of disregarding the environment in its bid to exploit the massive oil sands resources in Western Canada. Joyce Murray, a member of Parliament from Vancouver, pressed Trudeau as he discussed ways to oust the prime minister. “If you want to replace Stephen Harper, where is your plan?” Murray asked Trudeau in a direct exchange. Alex Sevigny, a political analyst at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, said after Sunday’s performance, Trudeau was still the one to beat. “Justin Trudeau didn’t make any errors tonight and spoke with confidence and authority,” Sevigny said. “His position as front-runner has not been affected.” Trudeau, a former school teacher who is married with two children, is often criticized as running on his name, which carries the same dynastic weight in Canada as Kennedy or Bush in the United States. — Reuters

AYUTLA: Armed and masked men guard a roadblock at the entrance to the community of El Pericon near Ayutla, early Saturday, Jan 19, 2013. — AP

In Mexico, self-defense squads battle violence AYUTLA: The young man at the roadside checkpoint wept softly behind the red bandanna that masked his face. At his side was a relic revolver, and his feet were shod in the muddy, broken boots of a farmer. Haltingly, he told how his cousin’s body was found in a mass grave with about 40 other victims of a drug gang. Apparently, the cousin had caught a ride with an off-duty soldier and when gunmen stopped the vehicle, they killed everyone on the car. “There isn’t one of us who hasn’t felt the pain ... of seeing them take a family member and not being able to ever get them back,” said the young civilian selfdefense patrol member, who identified himself as “just another representative of the people of the mountain.” Now he has joined hundreds of other men in the southern Mexico state of Guerrero who have taken up arms to defend their villages against drug gangs, a vigilante movement born of frustration at extortion, killings and kidnappings that local police are unable, or unwilling, to stop. Vigilantes patrol a dozen or more towns in rural Mexico, the unauthorized but often tolerated edge of a growing movement toward armed citizen selfdefense squads across the country. “The situation Mexico is experiencing, the crime, is what has given the communities the legitimacy to say, ‘We will assume the tasks that the government has not been able to fulfill,’” said rights activist Roman Hernandez, whose group Tlachinollan has worked with the community forces. The young man and his masked cohorts stop cars at a checkpoint along the two-lane highway that runs past mango and palm trees to Ayutla, a dusty, sun-struck town of concrete homes with red-tile roofs. Pigs, chickens and skinny dogs root in the dirt while the mountains of the Pacific Coast range loom above. The men wear fading t-shirts, leather sandals and most are armed with old hunting rifles or ancient 20-gauge shotguns hanging from their shoulders on twine slings as they stop cars and check the IDs of passing drivers. The reach of drug gangs based in Acapulco, about 45 miles (75 kilometers) away, had intensified to the point that they were demanding protection payments from almost anybody with any property: truck and bus drivers, cattle ranchers, store owners. In a region where farmworkers make less than $6 per day, the situation grew intolerable for everyone. “When they extorted money from the rancher, he raised the price of beef, and the store owner raised the price of tortillas,” said a short, stocky defensepatrol commander who wore a brown ski mask and a black leather jacket. Because the patrols are not formally recognized by the courts, the law or the government - and they fear drug cartel reprisals most members wear masks and refuse to give their full names. An example of the danger came in late July when the city’s official police chief was found shot to death on the edge of town. It was another attack by criminals that sparked the movement in Ayutla: In early January, gang members kidnapped a commander of an existing community police force in a nearby town. “Maybe they wanted to intimidate us, but it backfired. They just awakened the people,” said one of the older vigilantes, a straw-hatted man without a gun. Since then, the upstart self-defense movement has spread to other towns and villages such as Las Mesas and El Pericon. On a recent day, Associated

Press journalists saw 200 to 300 masked, armed men patrolling, manning checkpoints and moving around in squad-size contingents. Some had only machetes, but most had old single-shot, bolt-action rifles. Waving guns, they stop each vehicle, and ask for driver’s licenses or voter IDs, which they check against a handwritten list of “los malos,” or “the bad guys.” They sometimes search vehicles and frisk the drivers. The commander of the Las Mesas vigilantes explains their motives. “We are not against those who are distributing drugs. That’s a way for them to earn a living. Let anyone who wants to poison themselves with drugs do it. What we are against is them messing with the local people.” The movement so far seems to be well-accepted by local residents fed up with crime that plagued this stretch of mountain highway. “In less than a month, they have done something that the army and state and federal police haven’t been able to do in years,” said local resident Lorena Morales Castro, who waited in a line of cars at a checkpoint Friday. “They are our anonymous heroes.” One vigilante passed sheepishly down the line of waiting cars with a jar asking for donations. Some people tossed in coins or small bills. Housewife Audifa Miranda Arismendi showed up at the vigilante checkpoint in El Pericon with a vat of chilate, a local beverage made of rice, cocoa beans and cinnamon, for the masked men. “It’s good to help out here, because this is for the good of all,” she said. Some officials, too, have cautiously approved of the do-it-yourself police. Guerrero Gov. Angel Aguirre offered to supply them with uniforms so they wouldn’t be confused with masked gang members, but he also said he is trying to eliminate the need for vigilantes by beefing up official forces. Community and indigenous rights activists often see citizen patrols as a good alternative or addition to standard rural police forces that are considered corrupt or repressive. But clearly, the vigilante squads here present problems even in their first few weeks. The vigilantes in Guerrero are holding, by their own account, 44 people accused of crimes ranging from homicide to theft. Nobody outside the village of El Zapote, where they are being held in a makeshift jail, knows what conditions they are being held in, or what charges, if any, there are against them. When the head of the Guerrero state Human Rights Commission, Juan Alarcon Hernandez, showed up to check on the prisoners’ condition, he was met by about 100 angry villagers who said they didn’t want anyone to visit the prisoners. “No, no, no. We want justice!” the crowd shouted. “We wanted to see what condition these people are in, as a human rights issue and as a humanitarian issue,” said Alarcon Hernandez. Eventually, he and his aides turned around and left, unsure how to proceed, because the selfdefense squads exist in legal limbo. Still, the idea of citizen patrols is spreading in Mexico. In 2011, townsfolk in the pinecovered-hill town of Cheran in neighboring Michoacan state began armed patrols in the face of what they said were the killings of farmers by illegal loggers in league with drug traffickers. In the northern state of Chihuahua, a community of farmers and ranchers known as Colonia Lebaron - most of whom hold dual US citizenship - set up self-defense squads following the 2009 killings of two of its members. — AP

Teen accused of killings of parents, 3 children ALBUQUERQUE: A horrific scene awaited officers responding to an emergency call at a New Mexico home - five family members dead, all with multiple gunshot wounds. The victims were later identified as parents and their three young children and the suspected attacker as their 15year-old son. Investigators trying to piece together what led to the violence late Saturday night found several guns believed used in the shootings, including one assault rifle, Bernalillo County Sheriff Dan Houston said Sunday. The owner of the weapons hasn’t been determined. “There’s no other way to say it, except that we have a horrific crime scene down there that we are working on,” said Houston. Nehemiah Griego, 15, was arrested on murder charges following the shootings at the residence in a rural area southwest of downtown Albuquerque, the sheriff’s department said. Authorities identified the victims as Greg Griego, 51, his wife Sara Griego, 40, and three of their children: a 9-year-old boy, Zephania Griego, and daughters Jael Griego, 5, and Angelina Griego, 2. “Right now we’re to the meticulous points of processing the scene and collecting

physical evidence, and this is a vast scene with a lot of physical evidence,” Bernalillo County Sheriff ’s Department spokesman Lt Sid Covington said Sunday. Word of the shootings traveled quickly through the law enforcement community, and officials began offering their condolences for Greg Griego, a spiritual leader known for his work with firefighters and the 13 years he spent as a volunteer chaplain at the county jail. “Chaplain Griego was a dedicated professional that passionately served his fellow man and the firefighters of this community,” Fire Chief James Breen said in a statement. “His calming spirit and gentle nature will be greatly missed.” Jail Chief Ramon Rustin said Griego was instrumental in the creation of the Metropolitan Detention Center ’s chaplain program and worked to get inmates integrated back into the community. Griego also was a former member of the pastoral staff at Calvary, a Christian church in Albuquerque. As part of his work there, he oversaw the Straight Street program for jail inmates. On Sunday, a police roadblock cut off public access

to the narrow dirt road that leads to the home, which is surrounded by trees and an agricultural field on one side. Neighbors said they saw the first police cars and ambulances arrive at the home Saturday night. The road was blocked and word of the shootings began to make its way through the neighborhood. Peter Gomez, a 54-year-old carpenter who lives about 200 yards from the home, said he had seen the family - a husband and wife and their four children - pass by many times but didn’t know them personally. “It’s a horrible thing,” Gomez said. “You see all this stuff that happens all over the country, the shootings in the schools and theaters, and then it happens right here. It’s sad.” Authorities declined to release details of any conversation that the 15-year-old had with investigators, but they said he was the Griegos’ son. The sheriff’s office said he is charged with two counts of murder and three counts of child abuse resulting in death. The sheriff’s office said it wouldn’t release any further information about the case until Sheriff Dan Houston holds a news conference Tuesday morning. — AP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

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

India gang-rape trial begins as father urges hangings 2nd Delhi gang-rape suspect under 18

DHAKA: An activist shouts slogans as he and others including former freedom fighters who fought against Pakistan in the 1971 war demonstrate outside the International Crimes Tribunal court premises yesterday. — AFP

Bangladesh war tribunal orders cleric executed DHAKA: A controversial Bangladeshi war crimes court probing the nation’s bloody independence struggle sentenced a fugitive Islamic TV preacher to death yesterday as it handed down its first judgement. Maolana Abul Kalam Azad, who has been on the run for about a year, “is found guilty... to be hanged by the neck until he is dead” for genocide and murder during the 1971 liberation war against Pakistan, Judge Obaidul Hasan announced. The International Crimes Tribunal, a domestic body with no international oversight, was created by the government in 2010 and has been tainted by allegations it is politically motivated. But its first verdict was warmly welcome by the government and its supporters. “It’s a victory for humanity. Bangladeshi people have been waiting for this day since 1971. They can now heave a sigh of relief,” said Attorney General Mahbubey Alam. Supporters of the ruling Awami League party held instant processions in the capital and across the country as the verdict was announced. There were also marches by former freedom fighters, some of whom made V-signs. Azad, 63, who for years presented a widely watched show on Islam on private and state-run television channels, is a former leading light of Bangladesh’s largest opposition Islamic party Jamaat-eIslami. In total, 11 top opposition figures-nine from Jamaat and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — stand accused of war crimes. Both Jamaat and the BNP have called the cases “politically motivated and farcical” and international rights groups have questioned the proceedings and found loopholes in the war crime laws. Abdus Shukur Khan, a tribunal-appointed defence lawyer for Azad, said the case was “false”. “He was not involved in any of these crimes and was never named a Pakistani collaborator,” he told AFP, adding the convict can appeal the verdict in the Supreme Court but he “must surrender to the court or be arrested”. Prosecutor Shahidur Rahman told AFP

that Azad was a Jamaat activist during the war when he was known as “Bachchu the collaborator” in his home town in a southwestern district, where he was accused of murdering at least a dozen Hindus. “I am happy that Bachchu the collaborator is sentenced to death. The government should now find him and execute him,” a Hindu who said Azad had killed his father during the war told private ATN news television. Azad, who also heads an Islamic charity, is believed to have fled the country immediately after the tribunal opened the case against him. Bangladesh, which was called East Pakistan until 1971, has struggled to come to terms with its violent birth. The current government says up to three million people were killed in the war, many murdered by locals who collaborated with Pakistani forces. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government established the tribunal in March 2010 to try the collaborators, but it has been hit by a series of controversies. Last month a presiding judge resigned after his leaked Internet calls showed he was under pressure from the government to deliver a quick judgement. “There is no doubt that atrocities were committed in 1971, and the Jamaat leaders now before the tribunals certainly have very legitimate questions to answer about their alleged involvement,” war crimes researcher David Bergman told AFP. “But a number of the trials have significant due process shortcomings, have become highly politicised, and more recently evidence of collusion between the prosecution, government and a tribunal judge has emerged.” The government says the trials are fair and meet international standards. Twenty-two prosecution witnesses testified against Azad in the trial which concluded quickly as the defence failed to bring any of its witnesses. Judge Hasan blamed Jamaat for creating proPakistan militias during the war and said the impunity that war criminals enjoyed had “held back political stability, saw the ascent of militancy and destroyed the constitution”. — AFP

India’s next Gandhi rises with many critics to answer NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, the next in line in India’s top political dynasty, has been handed the keys to power, but his political abilities and policy convictions remain largely an open question. Gandhi was named vice-president of the ruling Congress party on Saturday at a ceremony that saw senior leaders openly weeping. Tributes hailed him as “the heartbeat of young people” and even India’s answer to Barack Obama. In his decision to accept the post, the 42-year-old who has spent a lifetime in the corridors of power appeared to signal willingness to follow in the footsteps of his great-grandfather, grandmother and father as prime ministers. Until now the Cambridge and Harvardeducated bachelor, of ten spotted in upmarket nightspots and restaurants in the capital, had refused repeated offers of cabinet positions and entreaties to take a bigger role in the party. “I will fight for the people of India with everything I have,” he promised party members, who see the Gandhi dynasty as the force that binds together India’s only national secular party. “Congress party is now my life,” he added late on Sunday at the end of a strategy meeting in the city of Jaipur before national elections scheduled for early next year. But Rahul has spent many years seemingly unsure of his own future, first going into business management in London before returning to India and winning the family parliamentary seat of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh state in 2004. He has since concentrated on a lowprofile mission of reviving the Congress youth wing, while undertaking heavily publicised visits to marginalised and seemingly wronged people such as tribal groups threatened by mining. His occasional trips to stay overnight with lowcaste families and even rare journeys on Delhi’s metro system are covered intimately by the Indian media, ensuring him constant and generally positive publicity. But his refusal of greater responsibility and his aloof style-he almost never gives interviews and is a reluctant public speaker-has raised consistent questions about his appetite to be prime minister. A US diplomatic cable written by the American ambassador and leaked in 2011 stated that Rahul was “widely viewed as an emp-

ty suit”. For all these reasons, his decision to become number two in the par ty behind president Sonia Gandhi, his mother, is seen as a watershed moment. “There is one subject now closed for discussion. Rahul Gandhi will lead the party in the next campaign, and thereby claim the prime ministership if the electorate makes this a possibility,” wrote commentator MJ Akbar. While his leadership style and thoughts on important issues such as economic liberalisation or relations with Pakistan remain something of a mystery, his political achievements so far are also mixed. He is an intermittent attendee in parliament, appearing on just 41 percent of days since elections in 2009 and taking part in only one debate, data from parliamentary think-tank PRS Legislative shows. When left jointly to handle the party during an absence by his mother in 2011, the government lurched into a crisis sparked by an anti-corruption crusade by a 74year-old former truck driver. Most significantly, he spearheaded campaigning for local elections in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh last year, giving hundreds of stump speeches and helping pick candidates. Congress-the dominant force in Indian politics since independence -suffered a landslide defeat, winning only a small increase on their miserly tally of 2007 and leading to murmurs that Rahul’s sister Priyank a might be a safer bet for the future. “Having already wielded the power, Rahul will now have to acknowledge responsibility,” the Indian Express said in an editorial on Monday. “He no longer has the option of parachuting in and out of situations at will and evading questions about failure or follow through.” The biggest challenge will be to energise his party ahead of elections expected in early 2014 after a difficult second term in office for the Congress-led coalition government. The next elections could also see the power of the Gandhi name tested by hardline Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi from the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party. Modi, the son of a tea-stall owner who has been thrice elected as chief minister of the booming western state of Gujarat, would relish emphasising his own very different personal story. — AFP

NEW DELHI: Five men went on trial yesterday over the fatal gang-rape of student on a bus in Delhi as the victim’s father urged the special fast-track court to deliver swift justice and sentence her attackers to hang. With the case being held behind closed doors and subject to a gagging order, it was left to one of the prosecutors to announce the start of the case to reporters packed outside the sessions court in New Delhi. “The trial has begun,” Dayan Krishnan told AFP. “ The chargesheet has been submitted before the judge and the arguments will begin on January 24.” The trial is being held in a special “fast-track” court in the capital set up to circumvent India’s notoriously slow justice system, with the victim’s family leading widespread calls for quick closure on the horrifying case. The start of the trial was delayed until late in the afternoon yesterday by a failed application to overturn the gagging order while a lawyer for one defendant also sought to move the trial out of New Delhi. The father of the 23-year-old victim said her family would rest only once the culprits were convicted and hanged and he urged judge Yogesh Khanna to complete his work quickly. “We have finished the mourning rituals for my daughter in the village but our mourning will not end until the court passes down its verdict. My daughter’s soul will only rest in peace after the court punishes the men,” the father told AFP. “It is the duty of the court and the judges to ensure that the final order to punish all the accused is handed down quickly and all the men are hanged. “No man has the right to live after committing such a heinous crime.” The assault last month on the medical student, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sparked mass protests across India-in particular in New Delhi which has been dubbed the country’s “rape capital” over the incidence of such attacks. Though gang-rapes and sexual harassment are commonplace in India, the case has touched a nerve, leading to an outpouring of criticism of the treatment of women in Indian society. Sonia Gandhi, president of India’s ruling Congress party, on Sunday condemned the “shameful” social attitudes which she said led to crimes like gang-rape. The New Delhi case had “shaken the entire country,” she added. The five men face murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping and other charges, with prosecutors expected to demand the death penalty. A sixth suspect, who claims he is 17, will be tried by a separate juvenile court. Defence lawyers say they will enter notguilty pleas and accuse police of torturing the adult defendants-aged between 19 and 35 — to

confess. The woman, a promising student whose father worked extra shifts as an airport baggage handler to educate her, suffered massive intestinal injuries during the assault on the bus in which she was raped and violated with an iron bar. She died 13 days later after the government airlifted her to a Singapore hospital in a last-ditch bid to save her life. In a move that could lead to a significant delay to proceedings, the Supreme Court yesterday agreed to consider a request to transfer the trial to a venue outside New Delhi. M L Sharma, counsel for defendant Mukesh Singh, said it would be impossible for his client to receive a fair hearing in the city where the December 16 attack took place. The application for a transfer will be considered by the Supreme Court today. VK Anand, a defence lawyer for another suspect called Ram Singh, asked the judge to lift the reporting ban on proceedings, but his request was refused. “Crime is against society at large. Society has the right to know what happens in the court,” he argued when speaking to AFP. Senior prosecutor Rajiv Mohan, who has vowed to seek the death penalty for the “heinous” crime, has said that he has “sufficient evidence” against all the accused to secure a conviction. Police have gathered DNA evidence allegedly linking the defendants to the attack while the victim’s hospital-bed declaration before her death and testimony from her 28-year-old com-

panion are also set to be crucial. India says it only imposes the death penalty in the “rarest of rare cases”. Two months ago, it hanged the lone surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks-the country’s first execution in eight years. Meanwhile, a lawyer for one of five suspects who have gone on trial for the fatal gang-rape of a student on a New Delhi bus said yesterday his client was under 18 and should appear before a juvenile court. Police had said Vinay Sharma, a gym assistant and fitness trainer, was aged 20 and he was put on trial along with four other adult suspects in a special “fast-track” court yesterday. “My client is a minor and I have requested the court that his case should be moved to the juvenile justice court,” Sharma’s lawyer A P Singh told AFP outside the courtroom, adding that a ruling was expected on January 24. A sixth suspect in the horrifying crime, which has provoked street protests and a month of soul-searching in India, is being tried in a juvenile court where he is expected to receive a far more lenient sentence. The woman, a promising student whose father worked extra shifts as an airport baggage handler to educate her, suffered massive intestinal injuries during the assault on the bus in which she was raped and violated with an iron bar. She died 13 days later after the government airlifted her to a Singapore hospital in a last-ditch bid to save her life. — AFP

NEW DELHI: Indian female activists hold placards during a protest at the district court Saket yesterday. — AFP

Villagers in Kashmir brace for violence CHAKOTHI: Villagers in Kashmir are building bunkers as they brace for more clashes along the fragile line of control that divides Pakistan and India after the recent killings of soldiers on both sides in one of the worst flare-ups in violence in the disputed Himalayan region in a decade. In the past two weeks, three Pakistani and two Indian troops have died in clashes on the heavilymilitarized border, drawing harsh words from both Islamabad and New Delhi. Caught in the middle are villagers who have lived for years near the makeshift border splitting the region. There has been low-level shooting and shelling across the 750-kilometer (460-mile) line since a cease-fire was signed in 2003. Civilians and livestock have died in the skirmishes, but now soldiers are being killed and many people in this village of 5,000 worry that simmering tension could boil over. “We are perplexed and scared about recent incidents of shooting on the line of control,” said Muhammed Shabbir, a shopkeeper in Chakothi who is building a bunker near his house in the village, surrounded by snow-capped peaks, just 500 meters (yards) from the line. Some villagers built bunkers a decade ago during heavy violence in the area, but many were destroyed during a 7.6 magnitude earthquake in 2005. Worried about the recent clashes, some villagers are trying to rebuild the shelters. “We are not certain about our future after these shootings,” said Shabbir, whose wife was killed in shelling in May 2003, about six months before the cease-fire took effect. He added that many residents who used to freely graze their livestock near the line of control are now avoiding the area. Since 2005, both countries have let local residents cross the line to visit relatives. But Shabbir said that last Monday the travel day for local residents - none of the villagers from the Pakistani side went to the Indian-held side because they were worried about escalating tensions. Both countries claim the Muslim-dominated Kashmir region in its entirety, and two of the three major wars the two nuclear-armed nations have fought have been over the mountainous Himalayan region. Multi-layered barbed wire fences separate the two sides, and Indian and Pakistani troops man guard towers, eyeing each other’s territory. Tensions, however, rose on Jan 6 when Pakistan accused Indian forces of crossing the line and killing a Pakistani soldier and wounding another in a raid. India denied raiding the post. It said its troops fired across the border in response to Pakistani shelling that destroyed a home on the Indian side. Two days later, India claimed Pakistani troops had crossed into Indian territory and killed two of its soldiers, beheading one. Pakistan denied the allegations. Then, on Jan 10, Pakistan claimed Indian troops fired across the border, killing another Pakistani soldier. Political rhetoric from both capitals also intensified. Pakistan’s foreign minister accused India of “warmongering” while India’s army chief urged his troops to be “aggressive and offensive” when dealing with gunfire from Pakistan. In the latest verbal barrage, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Sunday that India was reviewing its future ties with Pakistan in light of the “inhuman killing” of its soldiers. About 30 people from at least seven villages in Indian-held Kashmir met last Monday with government officials in the town of Uri, demanding that the government build bunkers in their villages to protect them from shelling. Almost everyone there remembers what it was like before the 2003 cease-fire. “I was born and raised amid firing and shelling,” said 28year-old Nadeem Abbassi, speaking by telephone from his village of Gwalta. “ We don’t want to live like before—AP

India’s women commuters face daily sexual harassment NEW DELHI: On a wintry evening in Delhi, beautician Geeta Misarvan leaves work, steeling herself for a long wait until a bus arrives, and with it the dreaded prospect of being groped by strangers during the ride home. “Once a guy sees you travelling alone, he will come and stand right behind you. Then, he will lean in and press his body against yours and try to touch you,” Misarvan said, describing an ordeal endured daily by many women in urban India. In Delhi’s crowded coaches, where men easily outnumber women, the sense of hostility and fear is particularly palpable in the wake of the widely-discussed gang-rape and murder of a young student on a moving bus in the city last month. “It’s terrifying,” Misarvan told AFP. “Sometimes I just lose it and ask the guy to stand properly but then he just yells at you, telling you to shut up. “It’s upsetting, but what more can I do? If the guy gets even more aggressive or violent, no one on that bus is going to help me... so I just put up with it and wait for my bus stop,” she said. Once 34-year-old Misarvan steps off the bus, she hunts for an auto-rickshaw, three-wheeled vehicles which are cheaper than taxis, since it’s too dark and unsafe to make the 35-minute walk alone to her house. On most evenings it takes her 90 minutes to arrive home from work. India’s expanding economy has seen unprecedented numbers of women join the workforce, but their emergence has been accompanied by growing threats to their security. Like many working women, Poonam, a 21-year-old barista at an upmarket coffee shop in the capital, often stays late serving customers and says her parents fret nonstop about her comings and goings, calling her every night. “I try to get an auto-rickshaw (home) because it’s safer but the drivers haggle for double pay and I can’t always afford it. So I end up waiting late at night for the bus, which never arrives on time,” she told AFP. Once on board, Poonam, who declined to give her surname, says that sexual harassment is a constant risk. “There’s nothing you can do about it, if you tell your family, chances are they will just tell you to stay

home,” she said. India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said that economic progress is impossible without the “active participation” of women, but there are signs that the Delhi gang-rape case has led some to turn their backs on the workplace. A survey by industry group ASSOCHAM published this month showed a 40 per cent fall in the productivity of female employees at call centres and IT firms in the country because many had reduced their hours or had quit their jobs. Insensitive comments from politicians implying women are to blame for sexual assaults and clumsy “safety tips” from police have only fuelled anger among commuters. A Delhi Police advisory posted on its official website suggests that women should “turn off” prospective attackers by vomiting or “acting crazy”. Just days after the December 16 gangrape, K P Raghuvanshi, a senior police officer in Mumbai told female college students to carry a packet of chilli powder with them always and use it when threatened, the Press Trust of India reported. While trains in Mumbai and Delhi run segregated womenonly coaches in response to the high incidence of sexual harassment, many have now called for more vigilance by authorities and frequent police checks. Police and prosecutors have outlined how the student and her male companion struggled to find transport to go home and so agreed to climb aboard the bus driven by the rapists. The group allegedly beat up the man and repeatedly raped and assaulted the victim with a rusting metal bar in the back of the bus while driving around Delhi for some 45 minutes. Five adults were due to go on trial yesterday on charges of rape and murder in connection with the attack. Since the attack, beautician Misarvan, who often boarded similar privately-run buses to visit her widowed mother in west Delhi, says she is too afraid to keep doing so and now spends more to take an auto-rickshaw instead. Like her other female colleagues, she tries to leave work as early as possible and expresses no faith in the Indian police’s ability to protect her. —AFP

NEW DELHI: In this photo, a lone Indian woman stands in a queue at the railway station in New Delhi.—AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

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

S Koreans face lonely deaths as Confucian traditions fade SEOUL: When South Korean widow Yoon Sook-hee, 62, died after a bout of pneumonia in mid-January, she joined a growing number of old people in this Asian country who die alone and was cremated only thanks to the charity of people who never knew her. Once a country where filial duty and a strong Confucian tradition saw parents revered, modern day South Korea, with a population of 50 million, has grown economically richer, but family ties have fragmented. Nowadays 1.2 million elderly South Koreans, just over 20 percent of the elderly population, live - and increasingly die - alone. Yoon’s former husband, whom she divorced 40 years ago, relinquished responsibility after being contacted by the hospital and told of her death. Her only son was unreachable as he had long broken off all contact with his parents. “There are many elderly people who are

incredibly depressed because they don’t have a place to put their bodies after they die,” said Kang Bong-hee, representative of a federation of funeral directors that manages funerals free of charge for those who are unable to afford their own. “They collect what little money they have and they come and ask us what to do (with their bodies) after they die.” Kang was one of the volunteers who put together a makeshift funeral for Yoon, with most of the funds coming out of his own pocket. South Korea is ageing at the fastest pace of all industrial nations, with the proportion of elderly rising to 11.8 percent of the population in 2012, up from 7.2 percent in 2002 and just 3.8 percent in 1980. A report from the Welfare Ministry published in May last year predicted the ratio would grow to 15.7 percent in 2020 and to 24.3 percent in 2030, thanks to a

declining birthrate that has dropped from six per woman of childbearing age to just one. Poverty adjacent to “Gangnam style” While South Korea and Seoul were catapulted onto the global map by rapper Psy’s “Gangnam Style” hit featuring the affluent suburb south of the Han River, the reality for older people is far less glamourous. A toilet is the first thing you see when you step into 73-year-old Kong Kyung-soon’s tiny apartment. It has barely two square meters of living space despite being adjacent to Gangnam. Kong, who boils water in a rice cooker to save money, divorced more than 30 years ago after her husband was caught having a string of affairs. A love child, she says, was the final straw. “If I get sick, it will just be the end for me,” she said, adding she pays 360,000 won ($340) a month for rent and living costs out of the roughly 500,000 won she gets from government

welfare checks and public transportation subsidies. She is one of 234,000 elderly South Koreans, or 19.7 percent of all those over 65 years old, living alone as of last year, who were living on government welfare. No data is available on what percent of those are female. When asked why she didn’t ask for help from her children, Kong said times have changed and she should care for herself. “Whenever I tell my sister I want to die, she tells me I can after I make 500,000 won for my funeral expenses,” said Kong, wiping tears from her eyes. Her sister, two years her senior, lives with her husband in another neighbourhood. “I have prayed to the Lord that I will do good if he can spare me just 10,000 won.” The South Korean government tries to help, but in a nation where welfare spending came at second lowest among OECD countries in

2009, resources are limited. It passed its first wide-ranging law on welfare for the elderly in 1981, focusing on the early detection and treatment of illnesses as well as the well-being of the elderly. Services that send a caretaker to visit the home of elderly people living alone at least once a week started in 2007. These caretakers usually keep in contact with an average of 30 elderly citizens and are instructed to call them frequently. Local governments in some areas take a more subtle approach by leaving small bottles of popular yogurt drinks at front doors every day. If unopened bottles start piling up, it’s usually a bad sign. Still, that doesn’t address the main problem of the old, Kang said. “From where I see it, the elderly just want someone to talk to. What’s most important about elderly welfare is to prevent them from feeling lonely.” — Reuters

China labour camps ready for abolition 60,000 people detained in the camps

TOKYO: A man sits as wooden plaques (right) are displayed for sale at the entrance to the reconstructed Yushima Seido, a Confucian temple yesterday. The wooden plaques, called “ema,”are written prayers or wishes by worshippers. — AP

Thai army chief wants officers probed for people trafficking BANGKOK: Thailand’s army chief called yesterday for a probe into senior army officials suspected of helping to traffic Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar through Thailand and on to a third country. “This problem has been going on for some time. Anyone found to be involved-especially soldiers-will be prosecuted, expelled and charged with a criminal offence,” army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha said. Thai media on Sunday reported that a police investigation had found senior army officers, some with ranks as high as major and colonel, were involved in smuggling Rohingyas from Myanmar into Malaysia via Thailand and that the trafficking had been going on for several years. The United Nations estimates about 13,000 boat people, including many Rohingya, fled Myanmar and neighbouring Bangladesh in 2012, a sharp increase from 7,000 a year earlier Around 800,000 Rohingyas live in Myanmar but are officially stateless and regarded as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants by the Myanmar government. Hundreds have fled recent sectarian violence involving majority Buddhists in Myanmar ’s western state of Rakhine. Malaysia has offered asylum to some in the past. Prayuth said some army officers might have got involved in the Rohingya situation because it was “hard not to sympathise with their plight”. More than 600 Rohingya

have been detained this month in what Thai authorities described as anti-trafficking raids and more than 1,000 are now being held, including some whose boats had come ashore, said Sihasak Phuangketkeow, permanent secretary at the foreign ministry. Some of those detained in the raids had been in hiding for many weeks. It remains unclear if they were being held against their will or simply waiting to sneak into Malaysia. The Thai government has said it will cooperate with international humanitarian agencies to provide assistance to migrants detained after the raids, but it says Rohingya arrested for illegal entry will be deported. “The Rohingya found last week were not held in captivity. They were waiting to be transferred to a third country. Our records don’t show any Rohingyas rescued from trafficking,” said Chalwalit Sawaengpueth, chief of the Thai police’s Counter-Human-Trafficking unit. Rights groups have frequently criticised Thailand for its handling of the Rohingya and its deportation process, which leaves many illegal immigrants subject to abuse from authorities or even other Rohingyas. “A stateless person has no other option but to rely on these trafficking networks and it’s not just the Thai authorities, their own people are also involved,” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, which campaigns for Rohingya rights. — Reuters

BEIJING: China’s hugely controversial “re-education” labour camp system is set to be abolished this year, state media yesterday quoted a senior legal official as saying. It is another signal that the widely criticised scheme-where people can be sentenced to up to four years’ “re-education” by a police panel, without an open trial-is coming to an end. The comments come after the Communist Party’s new leader Xi Jinping said the party recognised as a “pressing problem” that it was “out of touch with the people”. About 60,000 people are detained in the camps, officials say, most of whom serve from six months to a year. Opponents say the system, initially set up under Mao Zedong, are used to silence government critics and would-be petitioners who seek to bring their complaints against officials to higher authorities. Earlier this month reports emerged briefly that the scheme-known as laojiao-would be abolished. But they were swiftly deleted and replaced with predictions of reforms, with few details and no timetable. Chen Jiping, deputy director of the China Law Society, was quoted by the China Daily as saying that a key meeting had agreed to tightly limit the system’s use until it

could be scrapped by China’s rubber-stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress (NPC). It added in reported speech that he described laojiao as having “made its contribution at a time when the Communist Party of China was consolidating the republic and rectifying social order, but now China has well-established legal systems”. “Ending the system requires the approval of the top legislature which originally endorsed laojiao in 1957,” the paper said. The annual session of the NPC is due to be held in March. The China Law Society is an influential advisory body, made up of lawyers, judges and academics, with close ties to the ruling party, although the paper did not make clear whether the final decision had already been taken. Currently, people sentenced to “re-education” are forced to perform manual labour such as farm or factory work, but do not receive a criminal conviction. Authorities will need to replace it with alternative punishments for those accused of petty offences, the paper added. “Chen’s remarks suggest offenders are likely instead to get a court hearing, short-term detention or a fine,” the newspaper said, citing “experts”. The

system has faced growing criticism for being open to abuse and public anger has erupted over sentences deemed too harsh. In a case which shocked the nation, Tang Hui, a mother whose 11-year-old daughter was abducted, raped and forced into prostitution, was sentenced to 18 months of laojiao after she demanded death penalties for seven men convicted in the case. The 40-year-old also accused two police officers in her home city of Yongzhou, in the central province of Hunan, of being complicit in the crime. She was released within a week following public outrage. Party officials visited Tang on Friday as part of an investigation into the decision to punish her. She is claiming compensation. Earlier this month the official microblog of the CCTV state news channel quoted Meng Jianzhu, a member of the powerful 25-strong Politburo who oversees politics and legal affairs, as saying that China would stop using the system. The reports were quickly removed, but the following day the China Daily said the government “will push reforms”. At the time news of the changes was widely welcomed on China’s hugely popular microblogging sites. — AFP

Singapore boosts ‘baby bonus’ plan SINGAPORE: Singapore yesterday announced increased cash bonuses for parents of newborn babies and introduced paternity leave as part of a package of measures to boost population and reduce dependence on foreigners. Parents of Singaporean babies born since August 26 last year will receive a cash gift of Sg$6,000 ($4,900) — a rise of 50 percent, which applies to each of a couple’s first two children. The financial incentive will rise to Sg$8,000 for a couple’s third and fourth babies, as the government attempts to offset the high cost of raising a family-one of the gripes often aired by young couples in the city-state. At least one parent must be a Singapore citizen to be eligible for the handout. The government will subsidise one week of paternity leave for fathers of babies born from May 1 this year, the National Population and Talent Division (NPTD) agency also announced in a press release. In addition, new fathers will be eligible to stay off work for a second week by taking a chunk of the standard 16-month maternity leave granted to their wives, it added. Housing issues were also addressed in the Sg$2 billion ($1.63 billion) Marriage and Parenthood Package. Couples with at least one child below 16 will be given priority to buy government-built apartments, where most Singaporeans live. Many couples keep their families small until they get their own flats. “We hope that the enhanced marriage and parenthood measures will help create a more conducive environment for Singaporeans to set up families,” Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said in the press release. Singapore’s birth rate of 1.20 children per woman, according to 2011 figures, is well below the 2.1 figure needed to sustain the native population. The low rate has forced the city-state to bring in more immigrants in recent years. But the numbers were reduced following a social backlash, with foreigners blamed for problems including overcrowding, straining public services and driving up housing costs. Singapore, which relies on foreign labour to power its economic growth, now has a population of 5.3 million, of whom only 3.3 million are citizens. By 2030, 20 percent of Singaporeans are forecast to be 65 years or older, according to official statistics. — AFP

BANGKOK: Thai ultra nationalists wave flags as they protest in front of the Thai supreme court yesterday. Ultra nationalists demonstrated ahead of an April decision of a Thai court regarding the disputed Preah Vihear Temple at the border between Thailand and Cambodia. — AFP

Indonesia judge to face tribunal over rape ‘joke’ JAKARTA: A senior Indonesian judge will face an ethics tribunal for saying rape victims enjoyed the act, an official said yesterday, after a judicial commission recommended his dismissal. The commission, which monitors judges’ conduct and professionalism, decided on Friday that High Court judge Daming Sunusi’s comments during a hearing for a Supreme Court position were “disgraceful”, spokesman Asep Rahmat Fajar told AFP. “ The commission questioned him last week. We concluded he had breached the judicial code of ethics with respect to the proper conduct of judges,” he said. “We recommended a heavy sanction, that he be dismissed from his profession as a judge. He will now face the ethics tribunal where he has the opportunity to defend himself,” Fajar added, saying the tribunal would be held “as soon as

possible”. Sunusi made the remarks in answering a question on whether the death penalty should be introduced for convicted rapists, saying capital punishment should not be applied because “the one raped and the rapist both enjoy it”, prompting an uproar among lawmakers and rights groups who called for his dismissal. Sunusi has since apologised for the comment, insisting he was trying to lighten the mood of the tense interview. The House of Representatives ethics council is also considering a probe into lawmakers who reportedly laughed at Sunusi’s remarks, the Jakarta Globe newspaper reported. “This is concerning the image of the parliament,” ethics council member Alimin Abdullah told the Globe. “(The candidate’s screening) isn’t some comedy show.” — AFP

China hopes for Myanmar ceasefire

SEOUL: South Korean military soldiers take position during a joint military drill at the special police forces’ drill field yesterday. This military drill, called “Remember 1.21” was held to mark the Blue House Raid which was an unsuccessful attempt by North Korean commandos to assassinate then-South Korean President Park Chunghee at his resident on Jan 21, 1968. — AP

BEIJING: China hopes to see a ceasefire between Myanmar government forces and Kachin ethnic minority rebels, it said yesterday after fresh fighting broke out near its southern border at the weekend. The clashes came despite President Thein Sein offering peace talks to end Myanmar’s last active civil war, which could see large numbers of displaced people fleeing into China if the fighting escalates. Beijing’s vice foreign minister Fu Ying visited Myanmar at the weekend for talks with Thein Sein, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters, saying they “agreed to maintain peace and stability of the border areas between them”. He added at a regular briefing: “China hopes that relevant parties can realise a ceasefire and start

peace negotiations so as to restore peace and stability in the China-Myanmar border areas.” China wanted to “play a positive and constructive role” in the process, he said. “We sincerely hope that relevant parties can resolve this issue through peace negotiations... so that border areas can become a bridge of friendship and cooperation of the two countries.” The military junta that ruled Myanmar for decades had a close relationship with China, but since taking power in March 2011 the country’s new government has introduced wide-ranging reforms and seen ties with the West improve dramatically. The recent use of air strikes against the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) triggered growing international concern, but the rebels

have not announced any ceasefire of their own, saying negotiations should also address their demands for greater political rights. Rebels said Sunday that the military was battling to retake control of a strategically important hilltop just several kilometres away from the KIA headquarters in Laiza, and was using artillery shells and ground forces. Laiza is next to the frontier and according to Chinese state-run media officials in the neighbouring province of Yunnan say they are planning camps for 10,000 people in case large numbers flee the conflict. Tens of thousands have been displaced in Kachin state since June 2011, when a 17-year ceasefire between the government and the KIA broke down. — AFP

NEWS

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

A pigeon shakes itself dry after washing in a fountain in the northern Greek port city of Thessaloniki yesterday. — AP

As Andean condors decline, tradition draws critics LIMA: Strapping a giant condor to the back of a raging bull is a central part of an Andean festival celebrated in Peru but some people worried about the endangered vulture’s future say it is time to ban the tradition. A bill introduced to Congress this month aims to slow what scientists and ecologists describe as a worrisome drop-off in Peru’s population of the Andean Condor, one of the world’s biggest flying birds. Condors, which use their 10-foot (3-meter) wingspan to ride rising warm air currents for hours without stopping, have been a prominent part of culture in the Andes for millennia. The bill, presented by a legislator and backed by local officials in a province famous for its condors, would start a conservation program, declare the condor a national treasure and set jail sentences of 3-5 years for capturing or killing the birds. It specifically targets the traditional “yawar” festival although there are no definitive statistics or scientific evidence on whether condors are hurt by the celebrations. In an Andean twist on Spanish bull fighting, the ritual involves tying a condor, representing indigenous people, to the back of a wild bull, representing colonists. Though it is too early to say if the measure will pass Congress, it will likely generate controversy over whether protecting the condor should trump the distinctive Peruvian tradition that supporters say pays homage to it. At yawar festivals, held each year in an estimated two to three dozen towns in Peru’s southern

Andes, townspeople take turns running in front of a bull enraged by the condor clawing into its back. Participants in the events say they take pains to protect the condor before freeing it from the bull because its injuries or death foreshadow bad luck for the entire village. One of the bill’s proponents, Elmer Caceres, the mayor of the province of Caylloma in the mountainous Arequipa region, said that view is naive. “They step on the bird, pull at its wings, tie it onto a bull that’s jumping and kicking and if it does not die then it flies away so traumatized it dies somewhere else,” said Caceres. “This is a sick tradition and people who practice it should be thrown in jail.” Yuri Ortiz de Zevallos, a condor catcher for decades and now the mayor of the Cotabambas district in the region of Apurimac, is also concerned about declining numbers of condors. “When I was young we could see 20, 30, even 40 condors gather around when we laid out the bait,” said 50-year old Ortiz de Zevallos. “Now you will see maybe 5 or 10.” But he said the yawar festivals are being unfairly targeted. “I have never seen a condor die from a festival.” The condor’s survival in Peru is also threatened by shrinking habitat due to development, including large mining projects in the highlands, the trafficking of its feathers and body parts. Fewer livestock now get lost and die, reducing a once-reliable supply of carrion for the bird. There are no reliable figures on how

many condors live in the Peruvian Andes today, and scientists say no exhaustive studies have been carried out here. Jose Antonio Ochoa, a biologist in southern Peru who works with the Frankfurt Zoological Society, said all anecdotal evidence suggests an alarming decline in Peru, and put the population today at no more than 500. The culture ministry has declared at least one annual yawar festival to be part of the country’s heritage, and the legislation, if passed, might conflict with other Peruvian laws designed to protect cultural diversity. “This is the product of exaggerated conservationist beliefs that lack respect for the Andean traditions that are so vital to the conservation of our cultural identity,” said Juan Ossio, a former culture minister and anthropologist with Lima’s Catholic University. But Peru Antituarino, an animal rights group working to abolish bull fighting, said yawar festivals could end up finishing off the animal that is so central to Andean culture. Condors have been exalted creatures along the Andes since before the Incan empire. A 135-m depiction of a condor is one of the best known Nazca Lines, the giant geoglyphs mysteriously etched into the Peruvian desert more than 1,500 years ago, and the Incan ruins of Machu Picchu feature a stone carving of a condor in flight, believed by some to have been an altar in a sacrificial temple. Many Quechua-speaking communities today consider the con-

dor sacred. “The condor is the god of the Andes,” said Ortiz de Zevallos. “Before we can capture it for the yawar festival, we have to make it offerings and tell it about our intentions.” Andean condors, which can fly more than 160 km in a single day, used to be connected all along the mountains from Argentina to Venezuela as a single population. Because fragmented groups no longer integrate, over the long-term they risk heading toward a genetic bottleneck, when in-breeding can result in defects like infertility. Michael Mace, a birds specialist at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, said Peru could benefit from a captive breeding program. The United States started a successful captive breeding program for the California Condor, a different and slightly smaller species, in the late 1980s after the population dwindled to just 22. Now that population stands at more than 400, with more in the wild than in captivity. Andean Condors do not start reproducing until they are around 5 years old, and lay only one or two eggs at a time in nooks of remote canyons every other year. Scientists at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and its partners say over the years they have successfully released Andean Condors in other South American countries. At least 12 have been released in Venezuela, where they had been locally extinct since 1965, and 74 in Colombia, where some have already hatched offspring in the wild. — Reuters

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

ANALYSIS

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Issues

Obama faces tough list By Nancy Benac t’s a good thing US President Barack Obama considers himself a congenital optimist. There are no easy “gets” as he scrolls through his second-term to-do list and looks ahead to the uncertainties of the next four years. Many of the items already on his agenda aren’t there of his own choosing. First up is certain battle with Congress in the next few months over deadlines on automatic budget cuts, expiring government spending authority and raising the debt limit. House Republicans last week agreed to bump up the debt limit slightly, but that just puts off that part of the fight for a few months. Obama’s goal is to get through that trifecta and still have the political capital left for the things he’d rather focus on: reducing gun violence, overhauling immigration policy, revamping tax laws, addressing climate change and more. With Republicans in Congress approaching the new year with very different goals, “it’s a formula for deadlock and difficulty for the president,” says James Thurber, director of the Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies at American University. “I don’t think this president has even a month of political capital.” The president also will have to devote significant energy simply to safeguarding the achievements of his first term, by keeping the economic recovery alive, making sure his health care law is properly put in place in the face of persisting objections from businesses and individuals, and ensuring new financial regulations have teeth. International worries, including the civil war in Syria, Iran’s nuclear intentions and instability in Mali could complicate the president’s Term Two game plan as well. “Things are stacked up,” Obama senior adviser David Plouffe acknowledged Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Plouffe argued that the president’s big agenda gives him “the sort of focus and energy you need. And I think his intention is to run through the tape all the way.” Obama can take heart from any number of things he’s got going for him. He has a can-do attitude, growing public support for action on some of his chosen issues and better approval ratings. Democrats gained seats in both houses of Congress in the November election and Republican poll numbers are weak. With the war in Iraq over and US military involvement in Afghanistan winding down, he has more time to focus on domestic priorities. He also doesn’t have to worry as much about ruffling feathers because he doesn’t have to run for re-election again. “People shouldn’t underestimate how much we can get done,” the president said in a pre-election interview for Rolling Stone. Obama also understands the underwhelming track record of second-term presidents and the dangers of over-reaching. “We are very cautious about that,” he said. The president hoped to strike a hopeful theme in his second inaugural address on yesterday. But he knows that partisanship only worsened during his first term. “The optimism of his 2008 campaign about bridging divides has not been realized at the end of the first term, and there’s very little prospect that it’s going to be coming into a second term, so the language has to be careful,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center. Immigration offers Obama perhaps his best chance at a significant second-term achievement. The 2012 elections, in which Obama drew lopsided support from Hispanics, gave Republicans a wake-up call on their need to pay more attention to Latinos, so the GOP is more inclined to work with the president there than on other issues. The problem is incredibly complex, though, and past efforts at comprehensive change have failed. The question of how to deal with the estimated 11 million people already illegally in the U.S is the big sticking point. On gun control, an issue where Obama moved quickly after the Connecticut elementary school shooting, the president faces longer odds in Congress. The president knows that. He promised to “put everything I’ve got” into the effort. But he also put people on notice that the effort will only succeed “if the American people demand it”. That reflects his growing recognition that the only way to make an end-run around Washington gridlock is by leveraging public will. The polling on guns, then, may offer clues to what elements of the president’s package have the best chances of enactment. More than 80 percent of adults back setting a federal standard for background checks on people buying guns at gun shows. By comparison, 55 percent favor a nationwide ban on military-style, rapid-fire guns. That prohibition appears to have few chances of passing Congress. —AP

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Israeli vote is least of neighbours’ worries By Alistair Lyon hardline Israeli government or a very hardline one. With those widely viewed as the likeliest outcomes Of Tuesday’s election in Israel, the ballot has aroused minimal interest from Middle Eastern states who once scrutinised such votes for clues about the fate of the so-called peace process. Whether they endorsed US-backed negotiations with the Palestinians or were out to sabotage them, regional powers would see Israeli polls at least as significant straws in the wind. Not this time, when the only questions appear to be the size of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reelection victory and whether he will rely for coalition partners on sworn foes of any territorial compromise with the Palestinians, or seek to include “centrist” parties still formally committed to the quest for an increasingly implausible two-state solution. Mustapha Kamal Al-Sayyid, a professor of political science at Cairo University, said Arabs were paying little attention to an election destined only to shift Israel further to the right. “The chances of a peaceful settlement are already thin under Netanyahu, but they would be even more remote under a new Israeli government dominated by rightist parties,” he said. In the United States, Israel’s indispensable ally, President Barack Obama may be reluctant to embark on a new drive to break the Middle East deadlock in his second term after US-brokered talks in the first term collapsed almost immediately. Netanyahu has shifted the whole political terrain to the right, imposing “the language of security, violence and control rather than a language of peace, reconciliation or compromise”, argued senior PLO official Hanan Ashrawi. “Unfortunately that has dominated the whole election campaign,” she told Reuters. The region also has more compelling worries than a seemingly predictable parliamentary poll, Israel’s first since Arab uprisings erupted two years ago, reshaping the Middle East. The upheaval’s biggest scalp so far is Hosni Mubarak, who preserved Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty with Israel for 30 years. An Islamist leader,

Mohamed Morsi, is now in power, saying he will not scrap the pact. But videotapes that surfaced this month of speeches he made in 2010 as a Muslim Brotherhood leader have alarmed Israelis and others with their crude anti-Semitic remarks and calls for children to be taught to hate Israel. Yet Israel’s election is hardly uppermost in the minds of Egyptians, who Al-Sayyid said were preoccupied with this week’s anniversary of the antiMubarak revolt, their own next election and economic difficulties exacerbated by political turmoil. Syria’s devastating civil war and the ousting of leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen have largely overshadowed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, despite Israel’s brief war in November with Hamas Islamist militants in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which rejects Israel’s right to exist, and its more moderate Palestinian rivals led by President Mahmoud Abbas have renewed attempts to heal their feud since the Gaza conflict. Neither faction has high expectations from the Israeli election. “Palestinians have no option except to unite against the Zionist enemy (Israel), whose extremism increases every day,” Osama Hamdan, the leader of Hamas in Lebanon, told reporters in Gaza on Sunday in a terse comment on the Israeli vote. Netanyahu, playing on his security credentials, has tried to keep the focus on perceived external threats, especially Iran’s nuclear program, while vowing to promote Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, both captured, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 war. “The problem in the Middle East is Iran’s attempt to build nuclear weapons, the chemical weapons in Syria and the Islamist radicalism spreading in Africa, threatening to sweep the entire region,” the prime minister told his cabinet on Sunday. A day earlier, he said Iran, the Lebanese Shiite Islamist group Hezbollah and Hamas were keenly following the Israeli election to gauge whether his ruling party had grown or shrunk. “They want a weak Israel, a divided one, and the most challenged country in the world must not be divided,” he said, after opinion polls showed his sizeable lead was declining.

Hardline media in Iran have indeed forecast that Netanyahu’s Likud party, running jointly with the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu faction, will fare worse than expected in the polls. “Contrary to Netanyahu’s predictions, the Likud party and its main ally Yisrael Beitenu will be in a weaker position,” wrote Sadollah Zarei in Kayhan newspaper, whose editor is considered close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But Meir Javedanfar, lecturer in Iranian politics at the Interdisciplinary Center at Herzliya, Israel, said the election rated relatively low on the scale of challenges faced by Iran. “What Iran’s supreme leader probably cares most about is: will the next Israeli government isolate Israel’s position in the international community and damage its relations with the EU and US through more settlement building? If the answer is yes, then Khamenei will probably sleep easier at night, because he most probably knows that an isolated Israel will find it difficult to justify a unilateral military attack against Iran’s nuclear sites,” Javedanfar said. Iran denies seeking atom bombs, but has been markedly secretive about some of its nuclear activity. It points to Israel, widely believed to have the Middle East’s only nuclear arsenal, as the main threat to regional peace and security. Iran’s ally Hezbollah is always an avid monitor of its arch-enemy, but the Israeli election can hardly rank with the group’s anxiety about the possible fall of Syrian President Bashar AlAssad and the loss of its overland arms lifeline from Tehran. As for the Palestinians, they can only watch in dismay as their cause is eclipsed as a concern for Israeli voters fed up with failed peacemaking and as Netanyahu elevates Iran’s nuclear ambitions to the pinnacle of his national agenda. “He presents Iran as a strategic threat to Israel, and he attempts to present the Palestinian question as a domestic issue under Israeli control,” the PLO’s Ashrawi said. “People who know better understand that the Palestinian question is the real existential issue when it comes to Israel - it’s the key to peace, legitimacy and stability throughout the region, whereas Iran can be dealt with politically.” — Reuters

Qaeda flourishes in Sahara, emerges stronger By Paul Schemm and Karim Kebir he Islamists are back as a force in Algeria. The terrorist attack on an Algerian natural gas plant that left dozens of hostages and militants dead has demonstrated how a failing Algerian insurgency transformed itself into a regional threat, partly by exploiting the turmoil unleashed by the Arab Spring revolts. Al-Qaeda’s branch in Algeria retreated into a Sahara no man’s land between Mali, Algeria and Mauritania after it was largely defeated by the Algerian army in a 10-year war in the 1990s that claimed 200,000 lives. There it grew rich on smuggling and hostage-taking, gained new recruits and re-emerged stronger than ever, armed with looted high-tech weapons from Libya’s 2011 civil war. The audacious assault last Wednesday on Algeria’s In Amenas gas complex by a multinational band of Islamists shows how long-simmering ethnic tensions in Mali, a civil war in Algeria and a revolution in Libya have combined to create a conflict spanning the deserts and savannahs of both North Africa and West Africa. Algeria’s Islamists were driven south into the desert by the military’s brutal counterinsurgency tactics - a take-no-prisoners approach vividly on display in the resolution of the latest hostage crisis. Factions of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb became rich in the lawless desert by smuggling guns, drugs and cigarettes and by kidnapping foreigners for ransom. Soon they became involved in the longstanding disputes of the desert Tuareg against the government in Mali, whom the tribesmen felt ignored or abused them. One of their prominent

leaders was Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who made millions smuggling and kidnapping and went on to mastermind the attack on the Ain Amenas plant. While taking up the Tuareg cause in nor thern Mali, these Al-Qaeda-allied groups decided to use their new-found strength to settle scores against old opponents like Algeria and the West. “It seems that Mokhtar has tasked himself with the internationalization of the Mali conflict,” said William Lawrence, the North African analyst for the International Crisis Group. “There’s no question there is struggle between different groups in the Sahel and Sahara to have the upper hand in claiming the jihad mantle in the region.” Belmokhtar fell out with the local AlQaeda franchise, the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), and formed his own nor thern Mali-based group in December called the Masked Brigade. He promised to attack those threatening the radical Islamist mini-state that was emerging in northern Mali. “We threaten everyone who participated in and planned for the aggression against our Muslim people due to their implementation of Islamic sharia law on our land,” he announced in December on jihadi websites. “You will taste the heat of war in your countries and we will attack your interests.” With the money to be made in smuggling and kidnapping, all that was missing was easy access to heavy weaponry. That changed in 2011, and weapons came cascading across the borders when Libya fell apart and dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s vast arsenals of oil-bought weapons were looted. What began in Jan 2012 as a secular revolt of disaffected Tuaregs hoping to

carve out a homeland in northern Mali was soon hijacked by Al-Qaeda and allied extremist groups. With their new weapons, money and men, Algerian militants like Belmokhtar could now do what had never been possible before - hit oilrich Algeria’s strategic energy infrastructure in the remote desert. National borders were no impediment to these heavily armed fighters in fourwheel drive vehicles. “AQIM and other militant Islamist groups’ control over northern Mali and weak security along Libya’s borders has provided the organization with greater operational freedom,” noted Arun Pillai-Essex, an analyst with Maplecroft, a risk analysis group, who said AQIM has also been able to capture weapons from the Libyan and Malian armies. The question now is where the Islamists will strike next. Another attack on an Algerian energy installation is doubtful, analysts say. Already heavily guarded, security will no doubt be vastly increased and there are suggestions that the In Amenas attack only succeeded by having some type of inside help. France and its Western allies fear AQIM could metastasize its terrorism into Europe if left unchecked. In the last two weeks, France has been taking the fight to AQIM with punishing air strikes against the vast territory the group controls in northern Mali - raising questions about whether the group’s fighters will have much time to think about new terror attacks. “It is one-off episode, they got lucky,” said Riccardo Fabiani, North Africa analyst of the Eurasia group. “I would think that the next attacks are going to target other countries. Mauritania could be an easy tar-

get, Morocco or any ECOWAS country or possibly in Libya.” The attack has also pushed France and Algeria - two nations with fraught relations due to bloody colonial ties - closer together over the need to combat these groups. Prior to the attack, Algeria had long publicly opposed France’s call for armed intervention to deal with the rise of extremist groups in northern Mali, citing the threat to regional stability and the chances of the crisis spilling over into its own desert regions. Now, with the fight brought to Algeria’s doorstep, Al-Qaeda-linked groups will be facing their old implacable enemy once more. Unlike other Western nations, French officials refused to criticize Algeria for its strong-fisted handling of the Ain Amenas hostage ordeal. “When a country is attacked in this way, and its own sovereignty is jeopardized, it decides on how to respond with its own army,” French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Sunday on France-5 TV. Throwing more military operations at Al-Qaeda, however, is not going to solve the underlying problem, warned Lawrence, the North Africa analyst. “This is linked to the Libyan conflict, it’s linked to the Mali conflict, it’s linked to 50 years of struggle by the Tuareg, it’s linked to 20 years of struggle in Algeria,” he said. Ultimately, he says, the countries of North and West Africa, not to mention Europe, will have to address the conditions that allowed Al-Qaeda to flourish in this impoverished region. “A security response is at best a partial response. Until a robust political, humanitarian and economic effort is implemented, the security effort won’t solve these problems,” Lawrence said. —AP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

S P ORTS

Mickelson plans ‘drastic changes’

Falcao out three weeks with injury

Sneijder signs for Galatasaray

LA QUINTA: Phil Mickelson has hinted at a move away from California, perhaps the United States and maybe even away from golf as he seeks to escape punitive tax rates. “It’s been an interesting oﬀseason,” Mickelson said Sunday after the ﬁnal round of the Humana Challenge. “And I’m going to have to make some drastic changes. I’m not going to jump the gun and do it right away, but I will be making some drastic changes.” The 42-year-old said he would talk in more detail about his plans before his hometown Farmers Insurance Open, the San Diego-area event that starts Thursday at Torrey Pines. “I’m not sure what exactly I’m going to do yet,” Mickelson said. “I’ll probably talk about it more in depth next week. I’m not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some. There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and it doesn’t work for me right now.” — AP

MADRID: Atletico Madrid’s slim hopes of catching Spanish leader Barcelona were dealt a blow Sunday when striker Radamel Falcao sustained a leg injury that will sideline the team’s top scorer for around three weeks.Falcao came up lame while sprinting for a ball and immediately asked to be substituted in the 57th minute of Atletico’s 2-0 win over Levante. He walked oﬀ clutching the upper part of his left leg. Atletico coach Diego Simeone said the Colombia striker will be out “around 20 days.” “We don’t know exactly what he has, but he is hurt. He will rest and that will serve him well,” Simeone said. “Falcao will be a great reinforcement for us when he comes back.” Falcao leads Atletico with 18 goals in the league. Atletico is in second place, eight points behind Barcelona just past the season’s midway point. Atletico plays Real Betis on Thursday in the Copa del Rey. It then faces Athletic Bilbao and Betis in the league over the next two weekends. Adrian Lopez, who scored Atletico’s opener on Sunday, could replace Falcao up front alongside Diego Costa. — AP

ROME: Inter Milan’s Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder signed for Turkish side Galatasaray on Sunday for a fee believed to be in the region of 7.5 million euros, the Istanbul side announced. Playmaker Sneijder penned a three and a half year deal which will keep him at Galatasaray until 2016 as the drawn-out transfer saga was finally completed. The Gazzetta dello Sport reported that the player would earn around five million euros a season. Sneijder was a key figure in the treble winning season under Jose Mourinho in 2010 when they won the Italian title, the Italian Cup as well as their first Champions League trophy since 1965. But he fell out with the club this season after Inter asked him to accept a reduction in salary and extend his contract by one year to 2016 without a change in total salary. Sneijder’s Romanian teammate Cristian Chivu said he wanted to see the Dutchman succeed in Turkey.”He’s my friend and team-mate, I wish him all the best in the world. I’ll speak to him on the phone,” he said. — AFP

Brian Gay wins Humana Challenge ‘I’ve always been a short hitter’

Central Bank leads KBC bowling tourney KUWAIT: With the third week commencing, the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) leads other banks by 18 points in the annual bowling championship organized by the Kuwaiti Banks Club (KBC) at Cosmo Center courts in Samiya. The Ahli United Bank comes second

with 16 points followed by the Gulf Bank with 14 points. The third week competitions saw Al-Ahli Bank beating NBK by 7/nil, Central Bank beating Al-Ahli United Bank by 8/2, Burqan bank beating the Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK) by 5/2 and Gulf bank beating KFH 5/2.

Toulouse’s Kakovin out for three weeks TOULOUSE: Toulouse’s Georgian prop Vasil Kakovin will be sidelined for three weeks after cracking a rib in the 9-5 defeat to Leicester, he said yesterday. Kakovin came on for South African Guerthro Steenkamp in the closing stages of the game which sealed the four-time European Cup winners’ exit from Pool 2, but lasted just seven minutes on the snowy surface at Welford Road after a crunching encounter with Italian Martin Castrogiovanni. Two clubmates - fellow Georgian Jaba Bregvadze and Jean-Baptiste

Poux meanwhile were in the gym as they look to shrug off fitness concerns ahead of Friday’s Top 14 meeting with Biarritz. Meanwhile, England called up flanker Matt Kvesic, lock Mouritz Botha and wing Ugo Monye to their Six Nations training squad on Sunday. Kvesic has reported to the camp in Leeds, northern England, as cover for Tom Johnson who injured his knee playing for Exeter against Leinster in the Heineken Cup on Saturday, the Rugby Football Union said on its website (www.rfu.com). —Agencies

LA QUINTA: Brian Gay won the Humana Challenge on Sunday for his fourth PGA Tour title, beating Charles Howell III with a 5 1/2-foot birdie putt on the second hole of a playoff. Gay closed with a 9-under 63 on PGA West’s Arnold Palmer Private Course to match Howell and Swedish rookie David Lingmerth at 25under 263. “I’m still in a little bit of shock,” Gay said. “It kind of happened so fast there at the end the way things went down. Last year was a struggle. It was a long year, a lot of work. I just wanted to come out this year kind of refocused, recharged, and believing in myself.” Gay won on the par-4 10th, putting his 9-iron second shot just below the hole. Howell drove into the right rough, hit into the back bunker, blasted out to 15 feet and two-putted for bogey. The 41-year-old Gay worked hard last year with Grant Waite and Joe Mayo to increase his driving distance. “My whole game’s been about accuracy and short game,” Gay said. “I’ve always been a short hitter on the tour and I felt like as I was getting older I’m only going to get shorter and shorter. ... It was tough last year trying to play making those changes.” Gay closed with a 9-under 63 on PGA West’s Arnold Palmer Private Course to match Howell and Swedish rookie David Lingmerth at 25under 263. Howell shot a 64, and Lingmerth had a 62. Lingmerth dropped out with a bogey on the first extra hole - the par-5 18th - after hitting his approach into the left-side water. Scott Stallings, five strokes ahead entering the round, bogeyed the final hole for a 70 to miss the playoff by a stroke. Gay began the round six strokes behind Stallings. “ The thoughts were, ‘Just be aggressive, shoot as low as you can,’” Gay said. Howell tied for second a week after opening the season with a third-place tie in Hawaii in the Sony Open. He won the last of his two tour titles in 2007. “Anybody that says that that golf is fun or whatever, has really not done it for a living,” Howell said. “I would never characterize this as fun. It’s different than that. It’s awfully challenging mentally.” After birdieing nine of the first 13 holes, Gay finished regulation with five straight pars. On the 18th, he hit into the right greenside rough, chipped past the hole and missed an 8foot birdie try. “I felt like I gave one back with a par on 18,” Gay said. “I was happy to be in the playoff.” Given a second chance, he outlasted Howell for his first victory since the 2009 St. Jude Classic. He also won the 2008 Mayakoba Golf Classic and 2009

Verizon Heritage. Needing a birdie to win and a par to get into a playoﬀ, Stallings hit a 315-yard drive on the 18th to set up a 6-iron approach from 220 yards. His ball landed in the left rough, bounced into the rocks and trickled into the water. He took a penalty drop, chipped to 10 feet and missed his par try. “I felt great. There wasn’t any nerves or anything like that going into it,” Stallings said. “Just hit a bad shot. Same thing that happened on 14. .. Coming down the stretch on the 72nd hole, you can’t make mistakes like that. It stinks, but it’s something that I’ll deﬁnitely learn from.”

Making his second career PGA Tour start, Lingmerth hit his 4-iron approach way left into the water in the playoﬀ. He had an awkward stance with the ball above his feet. “I didn’t feel that comfortable over it, obviously,” Lingmerth said. “I just hit a bad shot.” Phil Mickelson had a 66 to tie for 37th at 17 under in his season debut. “I was rusty starting the year,” Mickelson said. “I had a great four days here where I can work on my game with perfect weather and wonderful golf courses, where I could build some momentum. Heading into San Diego, I feel a lot more conﬁdent.” — AP

LA QUINTA: Brian Gay hits from the tee on the 14th hole during the final round of the Humana Challenge golf tournament on the Palmer Private course at PGA West in La Quinta, Calif., Sunday. Gay defeated Charles Howell III on the second playoff hole to win the tournament. —AP

Former Miami baseball coach Ron Fraser dead CORAL GABLES: Ron Fraser coached the national teams from two different countries, is a member of 10 different Halls of Fame, won two NCAA baseball championships and never had a losing record in a 30-year career with the Miami Hurricanes. He’ll be remembered for so many other reasons. The longtime Miami coach - dubbed “the wizard of college baseball” - died Sunday morning after fighting Alzheimer’s disease for many years, family spokesman Tony Segreto said. University officials said Fraser was 79, though a statement issued by his family did not divulge his age or other private matters, including a cause of death. “The impact he had on our university, on college baseball and on the game itself worldwide is immeasurable,” acting Miami athletic director Blake James said. Fraser’s legacy will be, as he once said, his penchant for “doing crazy things out there.” He raffled car batteries, hosted bikini nights, threw nine-course gourmet dinners on the Hurricanes’ infield, even is credited for helping bring batgirls into the college game. If any idea to drum up interest or money for his program came his way, Fraser wanted to make it happen. “No one did it better,” said Texas’ Augie Garrido, the NCAA Division I coaching-wins leader. But Fraser’s finest moment may have come at the College World Series in 1982. A few Hurricanes stuck fingers in their ears, the signal for the hidden-ball trick, known to this day as “The Grand Illusion.” Miami was leading 4-3 in the sixth inning of a winner’s bracket game in Omaha, Neb., and Wichita State’s Phil Stephenson was on first base. With his team down by a run, Stephenson was going to try to steal; everyone in the stadium knew this, especially since he already had swiped 86

bases that season. So the play, which was installed in 15 minutes the day before, was called. Skip Bertman, Fraser’s associate coach at the time who went on to become a great at LSU, gave the signal. Mike Kasprzak was the Miami pitcher, and made a few throws over to first to get Stephenson’s attention. Then came the moment. Kasprzak made another “throw” to first, one where Hurricanes’ first baseman Steve Lusby dove for the supposedly errant ball and, as the story goes, swore to further sell his displeasure. Several Hurricanes started chasing the “ball” along the right-field line, and others in the dugout pointed up the line excitedly, getting in on the act. And what an act it was. “He would teach the bat girls to scramble as if they were getting out of the way of it,” Florida State coach Mike Martin said Sunday. “They were sitting on a chair. He also had the bullpen and had a guy call it, ‘There’s the ball! Get out of the way!’ It was theatrics at its best.” Sure was. Kasprzak tossed the ball - he had it the whole time - to second base, a stunned Stephenson was tagged out trying to advance, Miami won the game and went on to capture the national championship. When the play was called, Kasprzak remembers exactly what was going through his head: “What if this doesn’t work?” “I’m not sure if every coach would have allowed their teams to attempt something like that,” Kasprzak said Sunday in a telephone interview. “He was always the showman type. Doing something like that on a stage as big as the College World Series was something that maybe only he would have attempted. That worked right into his personality and his approach to the game and putting on a good

show.” Fraser took Miami to another national title in 1985, and wound up leading the Hurricanes to the College World Series 12 times over his 30 years at the school. He retired in 1992 with 1,271 wins. But his biggest victories came through his promotion of the college game. “I was more interested in getting the people in the stands,” Fraser once said, “because I knew we’d never be really successful unless we made money.” Fraser also played a key role in getting baseball on national television. And now, the College World Series - the entire NCAA tournament, really - is a mainstay on TV, as are hundreds of regular-season games annually. “Coach Fraser is the most inﬂuential person in my career and the man who put college baseball on the map,” current Miami coach Jim Morris said last year. “He is like a father to me.” Ronald George Fraser was born and raised in New Jersey, then attended Florida State, where he’s a member of the Seminoles’ Hall of Fame. His induction there really had very little to do with his athletic achievements in Tallahassee. “Florida State University is proud to honor a former athlete who more recently has become a distinguished opponent,” read the text of his induction into that Hall of Fame in 1981. “A brilliant promoter and coach, he has advanced collegiate baseball at the University of Miami, across Florida and across the nation.” That’s how well thought of Fraser was: The Seminoles put an arch rival in their Hall of Fame. “Heck, he used to wash the baseballs in milk because he didn’t have enough money to buy the dozen or so baseballs he needed,” Martin said. “So, he’d wash them in milk and use it as a cleaner. ... He was a character. And, he really was a guy who shared his knowledge with younger coaches.

“I’m going to miss him. He was a good man.” After a stint leading the Dutch national team, Fraser took over at Miami in 1963 with a $2,200 salary, a converted shower for an office and a cow pasture for a field. He got the school’s attention in most unconventional way - which seemed fitting for him. University officials said Sunday that Miami first noticed Fraser by his appearances on the television game show, “What’s My Line?” “He was the person who put college baseball on the map - not only in the crowds and the entertainment we see today, but in the competitiveness of the game itself,” Miami trustee Paul DiMare said. “It was all him.” College baseball was not a revenue generating sport, even for successful programs, so Fraser got creative. Giveaways, parachutists, whatever he could think of, it all was part of Fraser’s plan to entice more people to come see his team. “My whole thing was to entertain the people. People said it was the winning, but I was trying to entertain the people so they would come back,” Fraser said around the time his coaching career ended. “I did a lot of crazy things and it worked.” Attendance at Miami grew over a sevenyear span from 33,000 a season to 90,000. And in 1981, the Hurricanes set a record with 163,261 fans - over 3,200 per game. Attendance dipped below 100,000 only once for the remainder of Fraser’s tenure. After eight straight winning seasons to start off his tenure at Miami, the Hurricanes finally broke through with the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1971. In 1982, the Hurricanes swept through five games in Omaha, clinching the school’s first national title with a 9-3 win over Wichita State. Three seasons later, the Hurricanes won their second championship, beating Texas

twice in three days for the 1985 crown. That team finished with a school record 64 wins. And to think - Fraser’s run at Miami almost didn’t get started. With the athletic department in dire straits in the early 1970s, the school elected to cut one program. Football was lousy, basketball was worse and baseball though far more successful than the others didn’t make money. “We were going to have to let one of them go,” Fraser said. He fully expected baseball to be the program that got cut. So in a last-ditch effort, Fraser called in some favors. Baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial (who died at 92 on Saturday, one day before Fraser), major league broadcaster Joe Garagiola and other notables showed up at a beach benefit banquet that impressed the school. In 1972, the university dropped basketball instead of baseball. Fraser made the move pay off, finally leading Miami to its first College World Series appearance in 1974. “Coach Fraser had a tremendous impact on the baseball program at the University of Miami at a pivotal time in our history,” Miami President Donna Shalala said. “His love of the sport and the program can still be felt, years after this legendary tenure at ‘The U.’” Fraser is a former NCAA coach of the year and coached numerous US national teams including the 1992 Olympic team, and went on to work with many community and charity organizations in his retirement. Miami officials said he had three children and five grandchildren. Funeral arrangements have not been announced. “On the field and off, Ron Fraser showed how one man can make a difference,” James said. “The University of Miami, South Florida and college baseball are all better because of him.” — AP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

S P ORTS

No home tests holding Pakistan back, says Misbah JOHANNESBURG: Pakistan are losing ground on test rivals because they cannot host international teams owing to security concerns and accordingly play fewer test matches, captain Misbah-ulHaq Misbah-ul-Haq said yesterday. As his team prepared to take on the world’s top-ranked test team South Africa in the three-test series starting in Johannesburg on Feb. 1, Misbah said Pakistan were at a disadvantage because of the “limitations”.

“As a team it is very difficult when you not playing a format on a regular basis. You really have to work hard. But we have to adjust, you could say it is a limitation for us but we are professionals, we have to do well,” he told a news conference. “We don’t have home series and when you aren’t playing at home then you miss a lot of cricket and you play only about five or six tests a year when other teams are playing 15 or 16 tests a year. It really does affect your team.”

Pakistan have not hosted a test-playing team since armed militants attacked the Sri Lanka team bus in Lahore in 2009, killing eight Pakistanis and wounding six Sri Lankan players. Their ‘home’ matches since then have been held at neutral venues, mostly in Dubai or Abu Dhabi, while Pakistan have not played a test series anywhere since July last year. Misbah said that the success of the two-match series between a World XI and a Pakistani All Star team in

October last year showed that Pakistan could safely host international matches. “Pakistan is such a big cricketing nation and the world has to think about bringing international cricket back (to Pakistan). “ The T20 tournament in Pakistan saw full stadiums for every match. There were no (security) concerns. The people should have international cricket,” he said. Misbah’s words were echoed by Pakistan team manager Naveed Akram Cheema who said that

the situation in Pakistan was a lot safer than outsiders perceived. “Our people in Pakistan are being deprived of international cricket. There is a diﬀerence between perception and reality. People don’t come (to Pakistan) on the pretext of security concerns. But I can tell you that it is as safe as any country in the world,” he said. Bangladesh were due to tour Pakistan this month but it was postponed for security reasons. — Reuters

NHL results/standings Buﬀalo 5, Philadelphia 2; San Jose 4, Calgary 1; Pittsburgh 6, NY Rangers 3; Minnesota 1, Dallas 0; Edmonton 3, Vancouver 2 (SO); Chicago 6, Phoenix 4. Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA PTS Pittsburgh 2 0 0 9 4 4 New Jersey 1 0 0 2 1 2 NY Islanders 0 1 0 1 2 0 Philadelphia 0 2 0 3 8 0 NY Rangers 0 2 0 4 9 0 Northeast Division Ottawa 1 0 0 4 1 2 Buﬀalo 1 0 0 5 2 2 Boston 1 0 0 3 1 2 Toronto 1 0 0 2 1 2 Montreal 0 1 0 1 2 0 Southeast Division Florida 1 0 0 5 1 2 Tampa Bay 1 0 0 6 3 2 Winnipeg 0 1 0 1 4 0 Washington 0 1 0 3 6 0 Carolina 0 1 0 1 5 0

Western Conference Central Division Chicago 2 0 0 11 6 4 St. Louis 1 0 0 6 0 2 Columbus 1 0 0 3 2 2 Nashville 0 0 1 2 3 1 Detroit 0 1 0 0 6 0 Northwest Division Minnesota 2 0 0 5 2 4 Edmonton 1 0 0 3 2 2 Vancouver 0 1 1 5 10 1 Colorado 0 1 0 2 4 0 Calgary 0 1 0 1 4 0 Pacific Division Anaheim 1 0 0 7 3 2 San Jose 1 0 0 4 1 2 Dallas 1 1 0 4 4 2 Los Angeles 0 1 0 2 5 0 Phoenix 0 2 0 7 10 0 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L)

Australia unveils revamped T20 squad SYDNEY: Top-order batsman Shaun Marsh was recalled to Australia’s Twenty20 side yesterday, joining others who impressed in the domestic Big Bash League to take on Sri Lanka later this month. Chief selector John Inverarity said Marsh was among six players in the squad who did not feature in last year’s ICC World Twenty20 event in Sri Lanka, where Australia were beaten by the West Indies in the semi-finals. “Each of these six, Aaron Finch, Shaun Marsh, Adam Voges, Ben Cutting, James Faulkner and Ben Laughlin has shown outstanding form in the T20 format over the past two months,” said Inverarity. “Their performances have been compelling and we anticipate they will take this momentum into the two fixtures scheduled for 26 and 28 January.” Marsh was the BBL’s highest run-scorer, finishing with 412 runs, while Finch was player of the tournament. Laughlin was the leading wicket-taker on 14, closely followed by Cutting, with 13 wickets. Cutting is the only player not to have previously represented Australia in the T20 format. Inverarity said choosing the squad was difficult, with batsman Ben Rohrer from the

Melbourne Renegades and New South Wales batsman Luke Pomersbach both in strong contention. David Hussey and Cameron White also missed out. “We’ve just picked the best squad that we can,” Inverarity said. “It was David Hussey or Glenn Maxwell and we’ve gone with Glenn Maxwell and some other younger players have performed better than Cameron White.” He said Marsh’s form had been “absolutely compelling”. “He’s batted brilliantly and we all know how well he can play when he’s in a good space and he seems to be in a very good space at the moment,” Inverarity said. Australia play two T20 internationals against Sri Lanka, one in Sydney on January 26 and in Melbourne on January 28. They have already completed a clean sweep of the three-match Test series but trail the tourists 2-1 in the one-day series, with Sunday’s fourth game rained oﬀ and the series decider to be played on Wednesday in Hobart. Australia T20 squad: George Bailey (capt), Ben Cutting, Xavier Doherty, James Faulkner, Aaron Finch, Ben Laughlin, Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell, Mitchell Starc, Adam Voges, Matthew Wade, David Warner. — AFP

Falken Tires cricket team in semi-final KUWAIT: Falken Tires cricket team fired all their guns to snatch a convincing 6 wicket victory over Indian Veterans in the ongoing Kuwait Swedish Cleaning Company tournament organized by KVCC. Falken team deserved their victory to an astonishing all round performance by the team as a single unit where they excelled in all departments of the game. Winning the toss & electing to bat first, IVCC started with a bang as the hard hitting Asghar smashed 3 boundaries in the very first over to give the team a rousing start. Unfortunately, Alwa who was batting in prime form was run out by a direct throw from Ahmed and the well settled Freddy who started in a confident note was caught & bowled by Nadeem to put IVCC in the back seat. Falken Tires opening bowlers, Ahmed & Nadeem bowled a hostile spell of superb swing bowling and IVCC struggled to find

their way out. The lanky Ameen & Shakeel then steadied the innings with some thoughtful batting strategy and their fruitful partnership yielded 34 runs. Falken bowlers Nadeem 2-7, Ahmed 2-13, Zahid Butt 2-18 & Naeem 2-16 were at their best and the combined effort by the team in taking some brilliant catches resulted in IVCC folding for a paltry 117 runs in 20 overs. IVCC put up a spirited fight back as they first removed Arshad Shams in the very first over and then it was a match winning partnership by Zahid Butt & Binu Mathew who combined well to post 78 runs second wicket partnership. Zahid was at his best as he pulled and cut with awesome power and as the duo were about to wind up the match, Zahid was caught at gully for a well made 38 runs. Binu Mathew went on to score 24 runs and Falken passed the target of 117 runs in 13.4 overs.

The winning Falken Tires cricket team

GLENDALE: Goaltender Mike Smith #41 of the Phoenix Coyotes covers the puck as Jonathan Toews #19 of the Chicago Blackhawks looks for a rebound during the NHL game at Jobing.com Arena yesterday in Glendale, Arizona. The Blackhawks defeated the Coyotes 6-4. — AFP

Penguins win 6-3 to ruin Rangers home opener Vanek scores twice in Sabres’ 5-2 win NEW YORK: The Pittsburgh Penguins sent New York goaltender Henrik Lundqvist to the bench early in the second period of a 6-3 win on Sunday that spoiled the Rangers’ home season opener. Elsewhere, Thomas Vanek had five points to help Buffalo beat Philadelphia, Chicago played the role of party-pooper again by beating Phoenix, Edmonton downed Vancouver in a shootout, San Jose won at Calgary in the seasonopener for both, and a sole goal saw Minnesota defeat Dallas. Pittsburgh’s James Neal scored twice and Evgeni Malkin assisted on three goals as the Penguins moved to 2-0 from two road games in the strike-shortened season while the Rangers slipped to 0-2. Lundqvist was benched with the score 4-1 in the second, while in the other net, veteran backup Tomas Volkoun was preferred to Marc-Andre Fleury and put in a solid performance. In Buffalo, Vanek scored twice and had three assists in the Sabres’ 5-2 win over the

Philadelphia Flyers. Vanek became the first Sabres player with five points in a game since 2007-08. Defenseman Tyler Myers scored the go-ahead goal with 5:03 left after the Sabres overcame a 2-1 second-period deficit The Flyers are off to a 0-2 start to their campaign for only the 10th time in team history. Chicago’s Dave Bolland had two goals and an assist as the Blackhawks won 6-4 at the Phoenix Coyotes. A day after winning at Los Angeles to spoil the Kings’ Stanley Cup banner-raising game, the Blackhawks did it again by putting a dampener on Phoenix’s raising of its Pacific Division banner. Marian Hossa scored twice for Chicago, avenging the events of last season when he was knocked out of the playoffs by a blindside hit from Phoenix’s Raffi Torres. Hossa scored 50 seconds before Viktor Stalberg in the second period and again 14 seconds into the third. The Blackhawks have 11 goals in two games. Edmonton’s Ales Hemsky scored in the third period to tie the game than netted the shootout

winner as the Oilers won 3-2 at the Vancouver Canucks. Sam Gagner also scored in the shootout for the Oilers, who were making their debut in the lockout-shortened season, while Devan Dubnyk stopped both Vancouver shootout attempts. Roberto Luongo, who was expected to be traded after being displaced as Vancouver’s starter in last spring’s playoffs, made his second straight appearance in the young season and finished with 30 saves. San Jose’s Patrick Marleau scored a pair of goals to lead the Sharks to a 4-1 win at the Calgary Flames. Martin Havlat and defenseman Dan Boyle also scored for the Sharks during a three-goal second period. The Sharks spoiled the debut of new Flames coach Bob Hartley. The Minnesota Wild had a 10 home win over the Dallas Stars, with goalie Josh Harding stopping all 24 shots he faced in his first start since being diagonosed with multiple sclerosis. Zach Parise scored his first goal with the Wild, at 8:11 of the first period. — AP

S Lanka slams decision to abandon 4th ODI SYDNEY: Sri Lanka cricket captain Mahela Jayawardene says his team will officially complain to the match referee over the abandonment of Sunday’s fourth one-day international, which may have cost it the chance to win the five-match series. Umpires Marais Erasmus of South Africa and Paul Reiffel of Australia made the decision to call off the match early in the second innings after a spell of rain left the outfield at the Sydney Cricket Ground damp and slippery. Sri Lanka was 14 without loss in the fourth over of its innings, replying to Australia’s moderate total of 222 for nine. A win would have given it a 3-1 lead in the series and a rare series win over Australia at home. At the time of the abandonment, almost two hours of play had been lost to rain and Sri Lanka was likely to face an even more achievable total under the Duckworth-Lewis system. At a news conference Sunday, Jayawardene questioned the decision to abandon the match and the inability of the Sydney Cricket Ground to cope with the effects of very moderate rainfall. “It’s disappointing because at the SCG I would assume that a ground of this magnitude you should be able to get a game in,” Jayawardene said. “Maybe they should do what we do back home - cover the entire ground. “I think we can probably write to the match referee (Javagal Srinath of India) because obviously the interpretation we got three months ago in the New Zealand series (in Sri Lanka) was different. It was deemed that we’d only stop play if it was dangerous. ... I think you need to find a bit more consistency, and that’s something that we’ll probably write and put it across to them.” Staff at the Sydney Cricket Ground worked hard on Sunday to make it playable after the rain. But head groundsman Tom Parker said that because the rain was relatively light, it stayed on

the surface rather than sinking in. The additional absence of wind to assist drying meant that the ground remained damp in some areas and possibly dangerous. Australia captain Michael Clarke said his players were also eager to resume the match. “I think this ground is known for its drainage,” he said. “I’ve played a number of games here where it’s held a lot more water than that and

we’ve managed to get back on and play games of cricket. “Sri Lanka deﬁnitely would have loved to have gotten back on there. As the game got shorter, with 10 wickets in hand, it was probably going to suit them a lot more. But we certainly wanted to play as well to give ourselves a chance at winning the series.” The ﬁnal match of the series is at Hobart tomorrow. — AP

LAHORE: In this image released by the Pakistan Cricket Board, Afghanistan’s cricket coach Kabir Khan, second from right, speaks during a news conference with Pakistan Cricket Board official Intikhab Alam, right, in Lahore, Pakistan. Afghanistan cricket team will establish a onemonth long training camp in Lahore to tuneup for this March’s ICC Intercontinental Cup and World Cricket League Championship matches against Scotland in the United Arab Emirates, Khan said. — AP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

S P ORTS

Maloofs agree to sell NBA’s Kings to Seattle group SACRAMENTO: The only thing stopping the Sacramento Kings from a sale and move to Seattle is approval by NBA owners. The Maloof family has agreed to sell the Kings to a Seattle group led by investor Chris Hansen, the league confirmed in a statement yesterday morning. The deal is still pending a vote by the NBA Board of Governors. A person familiar with the decision said that Hansen’s group will buy 65 percent of the franchise for $525 million, move the team to Seattle and restore the SuperSonics name. The Maloofs will have no stake in the team. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the deal was waiting approval. The sale figure is a total valuation of the franchise, which includes relocation fees. Hansen’s group also is hoping to buy out other minority investors. The Maloofs will get a $30 million nonrefundable down payment by Feb. 1, according to the deal, one person said. They will still be allowed to receive other offers until the league approves the sale. The plan by Hansen’s group is to have the team play at least the next two seasons in KeyArena before moving into a new facility in downtown Seattle. The deadline for teams to apply for a move for

next season is March 1. “We have always appreciated and treasured our ownership of the Kings and have had a great admiration for the fans and our team members. We would also like to thank Chris Hansen for his professionalism during our negotiation. Chris will be a great steward for the franchise,” Kings coowner Gavin Maloof said in a statement on behalf of the family. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said last week he had received permission from NBA Commissioner David Stern to present a counteroﬀer to league owners from buyers who would keep the Kings in Sacramento. Johnson, himself a former AllStar point guard in the NBA, said in a statement that the city remained undeterred despite the agreement with the Seattle group. “Sacramento has proven that it is a strong NBA market with a fan base that year in and year out has demonstrated a commitment to the Kings by selling out 19 of 27 seasons in a top 20 market and owning two of the longest sellout streaks in NBA history,” Johnson said. “When it comes to keeping the team in our community, Sacramento is playing to win. In particular, we have been focused like a laser on identifying an ownership group that will both have the ﬁnancial resources desired by the NBA and the

vision to make the Kings the NBA equivalent of what the Green Bay Packers have been in the NFL.” In a saga that has dragged on for nearly three years, Johnson and Sacramento appear to be facing their most daunting challenge yet. Hansen, a Seattle native and San Francisco-based investor, reached agreement with local governments in Seattle last October on plans to build a $490 million arena near the city’s other stadiums, CenturyLink Field and Safeco Field. As part of the agreement, no construction will begin until all environmental reviews are completed and a team has been secured. The arena also faces a pair of lawsuits, including one from a longshore workers union because the arena is being built close to port and industrial operations. Hansen’s group is expected to pitch in $290 million in private investment toward the arena, along with helping to pay for transportation improvements in the area around the stadiums. The plans also call for the arena to be able to handle a future NHL franchise. The remaining $200 million in public ﬁnancing would be paid back with rent money and admissions taxes from the arena, and if that money falls short, Hansen would be

responsible for making up the rest. Other investors in the proposed arena include Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer and two members of the Nordstrom department store family. Hansen’s goal has been to return the SuperSonics to the Puget Sound after they were moved from Seattle to Oklahoma City in 2008. Asked in September if he could envision a team being in Seattle for the 2013 season, Hansen was cautious about ﬁnding an option that quickly. The Kings’ sale price would top the NBA-record $450 million the Golden State Warriors sold for in July 2010. “While we are not at liberty to discuss the terms of the transaction or our plans for the franchise given the conﬁdential nature of the agreement and NBA regulations regarding public comments during a pending transaction, we would just like to extend our sincerest compliments and gratitude toward the Maloof family,” Hansen said in a statement. “Our negotiations with the family were handled with the utmost honor and professionalism and we hope to continue their legacy and be great stewards of this NBA franchise in the coming years and decades.” Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn added, “While there is more work ahead, this is a

major step toward bringing the Sonics home.” Brothers Joe, Gavin and George Maloof bought controlling interests in the franchise from Los Angeles-based developer Jim Thomas in 1999. The Maloofs, who have long waited for an upgrade to the team’s outdated arena, backed out of a tentative $391 million deal for a new downtown building with Sacramento last year, reigniting fears the franchise could relocate. Johnson and the Kings broke off all negotiations in the summer, with the team’s owners saying the deal didn’t make financial sense for the franchise. In 2011, the Kings appeared determined to move to Anaheim before Johnson convinced the NBA to give the city one last chance to help finance an arena. At one point, Johnson seemed so certain the team was gone he called the process a “slow death” and compared the city’s efforts to keep the Kings a “Hail Mary.” Johnson made a pitch to the NBA Board of Governors in April 2011, promising league owners the city would find a way to help finance a new arena to replace the team’s current outdated suburban facility. That pitch bought the Kings time, before the brokered deal between the city and the Maloofs fell apart last year. — AP

Ravens upset Patriots to reach Super Bowl Return to Super Bowl for first time in 12 years

DENVER: Denver Nuggets guard Andre Miller, left, drives against Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant, center, in overtime of an NBA basketball game in Denver on Sunday. Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried trails at right. The Nuggets won 121-118 in overtime. — AP

Raptors down Lakers as Howard tossed on tech TORONTO: Toronto guard Jose Calderon scored 22 points and handed out nine assists Sunday as the Raptors handed the Los Angeles Lakers their fifth straight NBA road defeat, 108-103. The Lakers were without center Dwight Howard for the second half, after he was ejected with 1:18 left in the first half for his second technical foul of the contest. Howard and Raptors forward Alan Anderson were whistled for a double-technical after they tangled while jostling for position under the basket. Howard picked up his first technical in the first quarter for arguing for a foul call. In the second incident, Anderson appeared to initiate contact and jaw with Howard, but after the officials conferred the doubletechnical call stood. “I don’t want to talk about it,” said Howard, who had never been ejected from a game until December 26, when he was tossed for a flagrant foul on Denver forward Kenneth Faried. “I didn’t do anything to get ejected,” Howard said. “(Anderson) pulled me. They called a double tech.” Landry Fields added a double -double of 18 points and 10 rebounds for Toronto, who had 18 points from Ed Davis and 14 from Anderson. “We played well enough this week to win a couple of games, but we didn’t,” said Raptors coach Dwane Casey, whose team snapped a four-game slide. “Today, our guys stayed together, followed the game plan and played together as a team.” Kobe Bryant led the Lakers with 26 points but connected on just 10-of-32 from the field and had six turnovers. Bryant put his shooting woes down to “dead legs” and prescribed ice baths for himself. “I’ve just got to rest my legs, man. My shot’s just short,” he said. “That’s on me. I’ll

take this loss on me, gladly. There’s a lot of easy shots, a lot of them, that I should put down. And I will.” Bryant didn’t have much time to rest, with the Lakers continuing a three-game road trip today in Chicago. Pau Gasol added 25 points for a Lakers team that lost their second straight and are languishing in 11th place in the Western Conference and third in their division. Howard had five points, two rebounds and one assist before he was thrown out of the game. Toronto leapt to an early lead thanks to a 19-4 scoring run as the Lakers made just two of their first 11 shots. The Lakers trailed by double digits from there until narrowing the gap to 29-20 going into the second quarter. Antawn Jamison then opened the second with a 3-pointer to trim the deficit to six points, but Toronto responded with a 15-7 run to regain control. Los Angeles mounted another challenge and pulled within 51-49 shortly before halftime, but a jump shot by Calderon gave Toronto a fourpoint halftime lead. Los Angeles trailed 83-70 going into the fourth quarter and couldn’t put together a strong enough challenge to get past the Raptors, who had lost their last four meetings with the Lakers. “We were down, but we fought back and tried to make it close,” Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni said. “Right now on offense the ball seems to be sticking and defensively we’re having our ups and downs.” Oklahoma City Thunder dropped into a tie for the NBA’s best record when they lost 121-118 at the Denver Nuggets in overtime on Sunday. Kenneth Faried scored the goahead layup in overtime, dropping the Thunder equal with the Los Angeles Clippers on 32-9 records. —Agencies

NBA results/standings Toronto 108, LA Lakers 103; Dallas 111, Orlando 105; Detroit 103, Boston 88; Denver 121, Oklahoma City 118 (OT). Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT NY Knicks 25 13 .658 Brooklyn 24 16 .600 Boston 20 20 .500 Philadelphia 17 23 .425 Toronto 15 26 .366 Central Division Indiana 25 16 .610 Chicago 23 16 .590 Milwaukee 21 18 .538 Detroit 15 25 .375 Cleveland 10 32 .238 Southeast Division Miami 26 12 .684 Atlanta 22 18 .550 Orlando 14 26 .350 Charlotte 10 30 .250 Washington 8 30 .211

GB 2 6 9 11.5 1 3 9.5 15.5 5 13 17 18

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma City 32 9 .780 25 18 .581 Denver Utah 22 19 .537 Portland 20 20 .500 Minnesota 17 20 .459 Pacific Division LA Clippers 32 9 .780 24 15 .615 Golden State LA Lakers 17 23 .425 Sacramento 16 25 .390 Phoenix 13 28 .317 Southwest Division San Antonio 32 11 .744 26 13 .667 Memphis Houston 21 21 .500 Dallas 18 24 .429 New Orleans 13 27 .325

8 10 11.5 13 7 14.5 16 19 4 10.5 13.5 17.5

FOXBOROUGH: The Baltimore Ravens won their AFC title rematch against the New England Patriots, using a commanding second-half display to pull away for a 28-13 triumph on Sunday that booked a Super Bowl showdown against the San Francisco 49ers. Baltimore outscored the Pats 21-0 after halftime as coach John Harbaugh gave Joe Flacco the green light to throw more against a depleted Patriots’ secondary to complement the hard running by Ray Rice and Bernard Pierce. “We kind of made a decision on the second half to cut it loose a little bit more,” Harbaugh said. “We were running the ball with some effectiveness, but they were doing a good job on defense. “Their front seven is as good as any in football and we had to get away from that. We had to get away from challenging them and give Joe a chance to make some plays.” Flacco, who threw for 81 yards on 6-of-12 passing in the first half, finished the game completing 21-of-36 for 240 yards and three secondhalf touchdowns, two to Anquan Boldin. Along with some big stops by the Baltimore defense that halted New England drives into their territory, that added up to sweet revenge for last year’s 23-20 loss to New England in the corresponding game in what was the first repeat clash between the same teams in successive AFC championships for 25 years. Baltimore’s victory also set up the first Super Bowl meeting between sibling head coaches. John Harbaugh’s Ravens will face Jim Harbaugh’s NFC champion 49ers, who rallied for a 28-24 road win over the Atlanta Falcons. “I’d like to think our two teams are very similar,” said John Harbaugh, at 50 the older brother by 15 months, after turning the Feb. 3 title game in New Orleans into a family affair. “I’d like to think when you look at the two teams you’re looking at mirror images of two football teams,” he said. “It’s going to be a great football game.” The Ravens trailed 13-7 at halftime but punctured the Patriots’ aura of invincibility and took the lead with an 87-yard drive capped by a fiveyard touchdown pass to tight end Dennis Pitta in the third quarter after forcing New England to punt when their drive stalled at the Baltimore 34. An apparent first down for the Patriots was nullified by a holding penalty that led to another

New England punt, and the Ravens marched on a long drive that culminated in a three-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to Boldin on the ﬁrst play of the fourth quarter for a 21-13 Baltimore lead. “I said to our players last year, don’t put your heads down, we’ll be back,” said Ray Lewis, a 13time Pro Bowl linebacker who is retiring after the Super Bowl. The killer blow came on New England’s ensuing possession when Stevan Ridley fumbled after a hit by safety Bernard Pollard and defensive end Arthur Jones recovered the ball on the Patriots’ 47-yard line. Four plays later, Boldin had another TD catch from 11 yards out to make it 28-13 and send the Ravens back to the Super Bowl for the ﬁrst time since their sole triumph in 2001. New England coach Bill Belichick said the

Ravens thoroughly outplayed his team. “I don’t think anything was really as good as it needed to be tonight,” he said. “(We) gave up too many points, didn’t score enough. I’d say we probably came up a little short in every area.” Flacco finally tasted victory in the championship game after two previous losses with a Super Bowl berth on the line. “I think it’s pretty sweet having won one of these AFC championships,” said Flacco, who showed his grit by notching a sixth playoff win away from home in his five-year NFL career, breaking his tie with Giants quarterback Eli Manning at the top of that postseason list. “I think this is a special team,” he said. “These are tough games to win, but we played well as a team today and that’s what we’re going to need to do in a couple of weeks (at the Super Bowl).” — Reuters

FOXBOROUGH: Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice (27) goes in for a two-yard touchdown run against New England Patriots outside linebacker Dont’a Hightower (54) during the first half of the NFL football AFC Championship football game in Foxborough, Sunday. — AP

Drogba’s Elephants start digging for gold RUSTENBURG: Rustenburg may be one of the world’s top platinum mining centres, but gold is the precious commodity Ivory Coast are digging for when they take on Togo today. For the fifth consecutive time, Didier Drogba’s Elephants are favourites to win the Africa Cup of Nations and the continent’s topranked team will be expected to dispatch Group D minnows Togo with ease. With tricky Maghreb opposition in the shape of former champions Tunisia and Algeria ahead, the Ivorians will be anxious to get their 2013 campaign off to a flying start. For 34-year-old Drogba, Africa’s most famous footballing son, this is the last chance to finally add the coveted crown to his over-laden trophy cabinet. At the 2012 Nations Cup, Ivory Coast remained undefeated only to suffer an agonising penalty shoot-out loss to Zambia in the final in Libreville. Ironically, Drogba’s missed penalty in regulation time set up the Zambians for victory. The decision to switch the competition from even to odd years has offered the China-based forward one last throw of the Nations Cup dice. On paper, at least, today’s Group D opener is a lop-sided affair, with Togo a yawning 63 rungs behind Ivory Coaost on FIFA’s world rankings’ ladder. With Drogba and the

Toure brothers Kolo and Yaya from English Premier League champions Manchester City in their midst the Ivorians are oozing class-yet remain Cup-less. This so-called ‘golden generation’ has failed to emulate the class of 1992, which brought the Nations Cup title to Abidjan for the only time after winning a marathon shoot-out over Ghana in Senegal. They lost the 2006 final in Cairo on penalties to Egypt, with the Pharaohs sweeping them aside 4-1 in the semi-finals two years later. In 2010 they were undone by Algeria, who won a quarter-final thriller in extra time, before going so close in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea last year. Drogba, whose mother set up a street stall cooking food for fans in Gabon, is hungrier than ever to take the coveted prize. “It would be great to win the trophy now. Honestly, we are getting tired of losing out each time,” says the striker who plans to make his international swansong at the 2014 World Cup should Ivory Coast make it to Brazil. “This Africa Cup is undoubtedly my last. I want to pour my whole heart and strength into it. “We have come so close to winning the trophy twice, but that doesn’t mean we should slow down. We have learnt from our failures and are returning to win the title.” Ivory Coast are coached this

year by inexperienced Frenchman Sabri Lamouchi. Togo, back for the ﬁrst time since the Cabinda attack in Angola in 2010 when two members of their entourage were killed by separatists in the oil-rich enclave, have nothing to lose. Their return, though, was clouded by Emmanuel Adebayor’s interminable ‘will he compete, won’t he compete’ saga. The Tottenham striker has

retired more times than Frank Sinatra, but ﬁnally decided to join up with his compatriots following a little arm-twisting from the tiny west African nation’s president. Although he may have scored only twice for Spurs this term, Adebayor is undoubtedly the star of the national side, equalising away and opening the scoring at home against Gabon in the decisive qualiﬁer. — AFP

LIBREVILLE: Eritrean Natnael Berhane (C) receives the African Cyclist of the year 2012 trophy from French Bernard Hinault (R), five-times Tour de France champion, at the Beach Club in Libreville, yesterday after the seventh and last 126 kms stage of the eighth edition of the Tropicale Amissa Bongo cycling race between Owendo and Libreville in Gabon. — AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

S P ORTS

Makarova eager to face rampant Sharapova MELBOURNE: Russian Ekaterina Makarova is eager to meet Maria Sharapova in the quarter-ﬁnals of the Australian Open today even though her compatriot has been one of the dominant women players of the tournament. The 19th seed met Sharapova in the same round last year at Melbourne Park, with the world number two recording a 6-2 6-3 victory and Makarova is keen on seeing if she has the game to match it with the world’s best. “I really want to play against her,” Makarova said. “During last year we played lot of times, and I never beat her.

“So I’m really interested to play against her. She’s in good form now, in good shape. I hope I show my good tennis again.” Makarova had entered last year’s quarter-ﬁnal against Sharapova having beaten Serena Williams. Makarova was then ranked 52nd in the world. This year, she was seeded but still managed to upset a top-10 player when she beat ﬁfth seed Angelique Kerber in the fourth round. She also beat 11th seed Marion Bartoli in the third round and Sharapova was not taking her lightly. “I have to do the right things to beat

her,” she said. “If I win that, it’s moving on to the next one. That’s how I go about a tournament, a grand slam. “Obviously I want to be playing my best tennis towards the end of the second week.” While Sharapova has overpowered her opponents, tennis purists should be looking forward to the ﬁrst match in the quarter-ﬁnals with world number four Agnieszka Radwanska playing China’s sixth-seed Li Na. Radwanska and Li are renowned more for their touch and construction of points rather than relying on the power game that the top three seeds Victoria

Azarenka, Sharapova and Serena Williams have utilised ruthlessly in the tournament. “It’s never easy playing against her,” Radwanska said of the 2011 French Open champion. “She’s a very consistent player and moving very well, serving well. “We played in Sydney. It was really tough match (and)... I really have to play... hundred percent to beat her.” Men’s champion Novak Djokovic, who was forced into a ﬁve hour, ﬁve set marathon against Stanislas Wawrinka has been given some respite from that clash, with his match against Tomas

Berdych the first match in the night session. The winner of the Djokovic-Berdych match will face either fourth seed David Ferrer or his Spanish compatriot 10th seed Nicolas Almagro in the semi-finals. Almagro has not beaten Ferrer in 12 previous clashes but his eyes are firmly set on ending that streak and moving into his first grand slam semi-final. “(It) is a big opportunity for me to be in a semifinal,” Almagro said. “I’m ready to fight. I’m healthy and I’m happy with my tennis. I think I’m playing really good. “We’ll see what happens.” — Reuters

Easy win for Serena and Azarenka in Melbourne MELBOURNE: Serena Williams and Victoria Azarenka wasted little energy in making the Australian Open last eight yesterday as Svetlana Kuznetsova roared back to form with a tournament upset. Third seed Williams, gunning for her sixth Australian title, blitzed a dazed Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-0 and has conceded just eight games in the tournament so far. That equalled the previous record held by Monica Seles and Steffi Graf, but Williams’ main rival Maria Sharapova has already set a new mark by getting to the same stage by losing just five games. The two are scheduled to meet in the final. Williams summed up her performances so far as “consistency, fighting”. “I’m really out there just doing the best I can, just fighting for everything,” she said. “I think with that attitude I’m just trying to stay in the tournament just to stay alive.” She next faces exciting American teenager Sloane Stephens, who beat Serb Bojana Jovanovski in a tough 6-1, 3-6, 7-5 battle to make her first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Like Williams, top seed Azarenka took less than an hour to dispose of Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-1 to set up a last eight meeting with Kuznetsova, a two-time Grand Slam winner who spent two months on crutches last year. The experienced Russian needed a tense 2hrs 28mins to oust 10th seed and former world number one Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 2-6, 7-5. “I can see Sveta came back much fresher, much stronger,” Azarenka said of her clash with Kuznetsova. “She knows how to handle big stages, big tournaments. She’s a Grand Slam champion. It’s definitely an exciting match for me to be in.” The Belarusian world number

one was in red-hot form off the baseline against Russia’s unseeded Vesnina, but seven double-faults blotted her performance. Kuznetsova has dropped down the rankings to be 75 in the world, but she showed her quality against Wozniacki, who has been struggling for form. It was a courageous win by the Russian after an injury to her right knee forced her to skip a big chunk of 2012. The injury meant she missed all postWimbledon events including the US Open, which ended her streak of 40 straight Grand Slam appearances dating back to 2002 at Flushing Meadow. But Kuznetsova, who won the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, said she was feeling fresh again. “I never had a thought of stopping tennis. I was just laying in bed, and I was like, thanks knee. At least I can rest,” she said. The defeat was another disappointment for Wozniacki, whose preparations for Melbourne were hurt by going out early at both the Brisbane and Sydney International tournaments. “There is still a long year in front of me. There are still a few things I can work on and it can be better,” said the Dane, whose golf-star boyfriend Rory McIlroy also had a poor start to his season, missing the cut in Abu Dhabi. On Hisense Arena, Stephens was made to dig deep for her first appearance in a last eight at a major. The 19-year-old, whose poise and power has seen her compared to a young Williams, steamrolled through the first set before Jovanovski woke up and gave her a fright. “I don’t know what happened after the first set but she played great tennis,” said Stephens. “I haven’t beaten Serena and I hope I’ll give you all a good show.” — AFP

MELBOURNE: Serena Williams of the US reaches for a return to Russia’s Maria Kirilenko during their fourth round match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, yesterday. — AP

Algeria, Tunisia target must-win Maghreb derby RUSTENBURG: Maghreb neighbours Tunisia and Algeria clash today in arguably the stand-out first round tie at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, their first meeting in the competition. Algeria coach Vahid Halilhodzic has identified this opening Group D game as a mustwin affair, with his former team Ivory Coast fancied to top the mini-league. “The match against Tunisia will determine our future in this competition,” asserted the vastly experienced manager. Algeria are being touted as one of the sides that could make a deep impact at the 2013 Cup. Champions in 1990, the Desert Foxes saw off Ivory Coast with Halilhodzic in charge in a quarter-final extra-time win in 2010, going on to finish fourth. “If we get to the quarter-finals you never know what can happen, but we have to get there first and it starts with a positive result from our outing against Tunisia.” Rated the second best team on the continent in FIFA’s January rankings behind the Ivorians, Algeria tuned up the competition with a goalless draw against South Africa in Soweto. Young Valencia midfielder Sofiane Feghouli is one of the rising stars in an inexperienced squad captained by Medhi Lacen from La Liga’s Getafe. Algeria made it to the finals by overcoming Gambia and Libya, the original hosts of the 2013 Nations Cup, in qualifiers. Like Algeria, Tunisia have also experienced Nations Cup glory, lifting the title on home soil in 2004. They have mixed memories of playing in South Africa, having made it to the final here in 1996 only to lose out to the hosts in the final. The Carthage Eagles made lasteight exits in 2006, 2008 and 2012 and suffered a first-round knock out in 2010 despite not losing. Coach Sami Trabelsi, who won the

African Nations Championship for homebased players in Sudan in 2011, has set his sights on a minimum target of reaching the quarter-finals. “My players are working really hard and I believe we can go far-maybe even to the decider again,” he remarked, referring to the 1996 final in which he played. Tunisia owe their presence at the 2013 Cup to an away-goal defeat of Sierra Leone in qualifying. One of their stars is Youssef Msakni, the creative midfielder known as ‘Little Mozart’. The 22-year-old has just moved from Tunis-based Esperance to Qatari club Lakhouya, and is a key figure in Trabelsi’s team. Msakni made his mark, twice, in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea last year. His late goal enabled Tunisia to win their opening game against Morocco, and he set his team on the path to victory over Niger in their second game. — AFP

RUSTENBURG: Tunisia’s Coach Sami Trabelsi gives a press conference in Rustenburg yesterday at the Royal Bafokeng Stadium, one day before his team plays Algeria in a Group D match of the 2013 African Cup of Nations. — AFP

MELBOURNE: Switzerland’s Roger Federer plays a return during his men’s singles match against Canada’s Milos Raonic on the eighth day of the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne yesterday. — AFP

Federer cruises into Australian Open q-finals Murray shows ailing Simon no mercy MELBOURNE: Roger Federer thwarted a powerful serving performance from Milos Raonic to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open yesterday. Raonic was serving in excess of 230 kilometres (143 miles) per hour but Federer made enough inroads to post a 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 win in 1hr 53min and reach his 35th consecutive appearance in the last eight of a major. Federer, 30, the holder of 17 major championships, moved into a showdown against Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who defeated countryman Richard Gasquet 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 earlier yetsreday. “I felt good out there. I was moving well, had good anticipation and reaction today, which was key obviously on the return,” Federer said. “In the third set I started to feel extremely good on the return. I played well. I think I played tactically well tonight and was able to keep the points short on my own service games, used the onetwo punch. “ That was obviously also a good thing tonight.” Federer broke Raonic’s serve in the 10th game to sneak through a tight opening set in 33 minutes. Raonic’s serve held firm in the second set, as did Federer’s, as they moved into a tiebreaker. A running, down-the-line backhand passing shot from Federer gave him the minibreak of serve in the tiebreaker and he closed it out without fuss. Raonic dropped his first two service games of the third set and Federer ran through the set in 35 minutes. The number two seed has negotiated his first four rounds at Melbourne Park without losing his serve. “I have good reflexes,” Federer said of nullify Raonic’s serve. “You try to

anticipate a bit, and it happened better and better as the match went on. “It’s important to stay focused. I have learned that over the years, and it pays off in the end.” Britain’s Andy Murray seized on the weakened condition of an ailing Gilles Simon to march into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open yesterday. The US Open champion was far too physical for the French 14th seed, still struggling from the effects of a marathon match over the weekend, as the third seed won 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 in 1hr 35min on Hisense Arena. Murray, twice a runner-up in Melbourne and a semi-finalist last year, will take on another Frenchman, Jeremy Chardy, in the last eight tomorrow. Simon was barely mobile around the court following Saturday’s nearly five-hour win over fellow Frenchman Gael Monfils, and he was a spent force late in the match. “I felt after the first few games, because he wasn’t serving hard at all, his forehand side wasn’t moving that well either,” Murray said. “It was just about trying to finish the match as quickly as I could and then getting ready for the next one.” Murray broke Simon’s serve eight times and hit 32 winners with just 26 unforced errors, while the Frenchman could hardly break into a run inside the final set. “I have to try and focus on my side of the court. He’s one of the best movers on the tour and he was clearly struggling in his movement today,” Murray said. “It was tough, but that’s what Grand Slam tennis is. The games are so physical nowadays and it was 8-6 in the fifth set the other

day and nearly five hours, so it was tough for him.” Murray largely did as he pleased, breaking Simon three times in the opening set, another three times in the second and two more in the final set. “It was just difficult for me today. I just did all I could for the last two days to be able to play this one,” Simon said. “It was a painful hour-and-a-half on the court. But Andy is a very good player so it’s always very hard to beat him. Without being 100 percent you have almost no chance to do it. “I just wanted to do my best, but it was getting worse and worse on the court.” Murray’s 10th victory over Simon, whose only win over the Scot was back in 2007 in Rome, took him into his ninth consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final and his 15th overall. He said he wasn’t concerned that he had yet to be fully tested heading into the tournament’s final stages. “He (Simon) got tested very hard in his last round and couldn’t compete today. You can look at it both ways,” Murray said. “You’ve just got to work hard on the days off, practice all the things that you need to do better, hope that when the time comes that when you’re tested you play better.” Murray has now won 11 consecutive Grand Slam matches including his breakthrough US Open triumph in New York last September, when he beat world number one Noval Djokovic in the final. He now faces up to the 36th-ranked Chardy in the last eight, following the Frenchman’s fourset win over Italian 21st seed Andreas Seppi earlier on Hisense Arena. — AFP

Ayew brothers on target for Marseille PARIS: Brothers Andre and Jordan Ayew from Ghana scored in a 3-2 comeback win for Marseille over title-holders Montpellier in the French Ligue 1 at the weekend. Jordan was overlooked by Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations and then-injured Andre lost his squad place after failing to meet the deadline for arriving at a pre-tournament camp in Abu Dhabi. The Black Stars could have done with the Ayew brothers at the weekend as they surrendered a two-goal lead against outsiders Democratic Republic of Congo in Group B and ﬁnished the game hanging on for a draw. ENGLAND PETER ODEMWINGIE ( West Bromwich Albion) The Nigeria forward secured a 22 draw in a derby with Aston Villa when he scored seven minutes from time at The Hawthorns and so ended a run of three straight defeats for the Midlands club. Having earlier shot over the bar, he made amends when he volleyed home Gareth McAuley’s knockdown. DEMBA BA (Chelsea) Came on in the second half of the Blues’ hard-fought 2-1 win over London rivals Arsenal at a snowy

Stamford Bridge and the Senegal striker could have sealed victory after rounding Gunners keeper Wojciech Szczesny only to see his shot cleared oﬀ the line. PAPISS CISSE (Newcastle) The Senegal striker endured a frustrating match as Newcastle suffered a shock 2-1 home loss to relegation-threatened Reading. He pressed hard for a goal but was denied by the Royals’ Australian keeper Adam Federici. FRANCE ANDRE AYEW (Marseille) The Ghana forward played an instrumental role as he provided a goal and an assist in the title challengers’ 3-2 win over defending champions Montpellier. He headed in Joey Barton’s cross on 14 minutes to give Marseille the lead before teeing up his brother, Jordan, 11 minutes from time to level the scores. JORDAN AYEW (Marseille) The younger Ayew brother netted his sixth goal of the season to help Elie Baup’s side recover from a 2-1 deﬁcit in their victory over Montpellier. The Ghanaian prodded home brother Andre’s cross on 79 minutes to make it 2-2 before his side grabbed an injury-time winner.

JOHN UTAKA (Montpellier) The Nigerian international was involved in both of Montpellier’s goals. The 31-year-old played a defence-splitting pass to set up Emanuel Herrera for his side’s first goal after 17 minutes before controlling Remy Cabella’s cross to slot home Montpellier’s second 11 minutes after half-time. GERMANY MAME DIOUF (Hanover 96) The Senegal striker scored with a spectacular bicycle kick in the 92nd minute of Hanover’s thrilling 5-4 defeat at Schalke 04 when he met defender Mario Eggiman’s pass and fired home his seventh goal in 14 league games. ITALY KEVIN PRINCE BOATENG (AC Milan) Apart from an otherwise mediocre performance in a 2-1 win over Bologna, former Ghana midfielder Boateng played a direct role in the Rossoneri’s second goal by providing the cross for Giampaolo Pazzini to score his second of the match. KEVIN CONSTANT (AC Milan) Constant continues to impress with his strong forward movement, which saw the Guinean complete 35 of the 40 passes he made in Milan’s 21 win over Bologna, as well as his

commitment to running back and helping out with defensive duties when needed. He has become a real plus for Milan as they continue their fightback from a disastrous start to the season. SPAIN LASS BANGOURA (Rayo Vallecano) The Guinean winger played as a centre-forward in the 2-0 away loss to Granada due to an injury to Leo Baptistao and while he showed plenty of movement and chased balls from midfield, he struggled to lead the line and hold up play. PAPE DIAKHATE (Granada) Diakhate kept his place at centreback alongside Diego Mainz and helped Granada keep a clean sheet in the win over Vallecano. The Senegalese returned from a serious ankle injury, which forced him out for over six months, and has worked hard with the aim of winning a first-team place. PAPE DIOP (Levante) Diop disappointed against Atletico Madrid in a 2-0 defeat. The Senegalese has played a key role in Levante’s strong first half to the season with his ability to break up play in the middle of the pitch, but he saw little of the ball against Atletico. — AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

SPORTS

Pressure builds as Guardiola-mania sweeps Munich BERLIN: “Mia san Mia” - “We are who we are” is Bayern Munich’s motto and Pep Guardiola will find out exactly what it means to coach the Bavarian giants when he takes office on July 1. Bayern pulled off a coup for the Bundesliga last Wednesday by revealing the 42-year-old will take charge for the 2013/14 season, rubbishing speculation the ex-Barcelona boss had been destined for England’s Premier League. A full five months before Guardiola’s first day in office, the German media has been in a frenzy following Wednesday’s announcement with the Spaniard set to remain in New York’s Manhattan for the foreseeable future. “Since everyone seems to be going crazy about Guardiola, let’s not get carried away and concentrate on the football,” president Uli Hoeness demanded after Saturday’s latest win kept Bayern nine points clear in the league. But the softly-spoken Guardiola will

face a hype maelstrom when he finally arrives under the expectation the success he tasted during his four years at Barca, with his vision of ‘Tiki-Taka’ total football reaping 14 trophies, will be repeated in Munich. Despite having waxed lyrical about the Premier League only last Tuesday, Guardiola’s decision to choose Germany over England is best explained by the boom the Bundesliga is experiencing. On average, 42,000 fans watch each game and the Bundesliga enjoys the lowest ticket prices with the highest average attendance of Europe’s five major leagues. With admissions starting from as little as 10 euros (US$13) and average prices around 22 euros (US$ 29), match tickets double as free rail passes for supporters travelling within the host city. Guardiola has done his homework and will join one of European football’s powerhouses: Bayern are in rude

financial health with a star-studded squad. While many of Europe’s top clubs are propped up by wealthy businessmen, Bayern has returned a profit for each of the last 20 years and Munich’s Allianz Arena is regularly sold out with capacity 71,000 crowds. Germany stars Philipp Lahm, Bastian Schweinsteiger, Holger Badstuber and Thomas Mueller are all home-grown. Eight of the squad have regular places in the national squad. Under the Bundesliga’s ‘50+1’ rule, which forbids an individual owning a controlling share, the Bayern Munich sports club owns an 81.8 percent stake, while sponsors Audi and Adidas each have 9.1 percent-without a Russian or Arabian investor in sight. Last year, Bayern announced a bumper turnover of 373.4 million euros (US$496.3m) and pre-tax profit of 11.1m euros (US$14.9) for the 2011/12 season. But having been forced into Borussia Dortmund’s shadows for the

last two seasons, Bayern have won nothing since May 2010 and are desperate for titles. Working alongside director of sport Matthias Sammer, Guardiola will fit into the club’s conservative ethos having charmed Hoeness and chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in July 2011 when he first told them he wanted to work at Bayern. He has been studying German since November, but staying onside with Hoeness is another skill Guardiola must master. Passionate and quick to defend Bayern’s proud history, Hoeness has been instrumental in removing previous coaches when results dip. Having spent 30 years as general manager before replacing Bayern legend Franz Beckenbauer as president in 2009, Hoeness, a 1974 World Cup winner with West Germany, is the club’s driving force. He is a personal friend of the current Bayern coach, which explains why

Jupp Heynckes, 67, will finish his twoyear contract in June despite failing to win silverware during that period. USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann was sacked in 2009 after just 10 months in charge, while Dutch coach Louis van Gaal was jettisoned in April 2011 when league results went against them. Bayern last won the Champions League in 2001 and having reached the 2010 and 2012 finals, the club’s craving for more European success will need to be satisfied. Chelsea’s record of eight managers since Jose Mourinho left in September 2007, may have been a key factor in Guardiola reportedly turning down Blues’ owner Roman Abramovich - but Bayern have had six changes in the same period. “(Guardiola) is being praised to the heavens so much that he can’t possibly do himself justice,” Felix Magath, who was sacked by Bayern in 2007, commented at the weekend. It’s up to Pep to prove him wrong. —AFP

Madrid hand Valencia five-goal thrashing Ronaldo, Di Maria hit braces

ROME: Inter Milan Argentine defender Javier Zanetti left, and AS Roma US midfielder Michael Bradley, challenge for the ball during a Serie A soccer match at Rome’s Olympic stadium, Sunday.— AP

Juve pull ahead as Napoli, Lazio and Inter stall MILAN: Juventus reinforced their Serie A title defence thanks to a 4-0 win over Udinese as the Serie A champions opened up a five-point gap on title rivals Lazio and Napoli. Napoli and Lazio went into their weekend’s fixtures, respectively against Fiorentina and Palermo, trailing Juventus by three points. However, Lazio were lucky to emerge with a share of the points thanks to an 84th minute penalty from Hernanes in a 2-2 draw at Palermo, while Napoli had Edinson Cavani to thank for their leveller in a 1-1 draw at Fiorentina. In Sunday’s late match, Roma were held to a 1-1 draw by Inter Milan at the Olympic Stadium to leave Inter fourth, but now nine points shy of the league leaders. Juve started their 21st match of the league campaign missing key players including midfielders Andrea Pirlo and Claudio Marchisio. However French teenager Paul Pogba stepped up to the plate to score a sensational brace and inspire his side to a 4-0 rout which has boosted their goal of a 29th league title. Pogba, signed in the off-season on a free transfer from Manchester United, had already scored two sensational goals earlier this season. And the 19-year-old broke the deadlock near the end of a frustrating first half for the hosts by unleashing a 30-metre screamer which hit the crossbar before beating Daniele Padelli in the Udinese goal. Antonio Conte’s side were struggling to build on their lead in the early stages of the second half when Udinese were unlucky not to score on the counter. But again Pogba came to the rescue, this time with a

long-range daisy-cutter which slotted into Padelli’s bottom corner to give Juve a 2-0 lead. “It’s the best night of my career,” said Pogba, sporting a blond-tinted crest on his traditional mohican-style haircut. “Conte always tells me to try my luck from range, but I never thought I’d score two goals like that.” Six minutes later Juve striker Mirko Vucinic made it 3-0 when Padelli parried the Montenegrin’s innocuous close-range effort over his own body and into the net. And with 10 minutes to play, second-half substitute Alessandro Matri made it 4-0 when he latched on to a Vucinic through ball to nutmeg the onrushing Padelli. Despite his side missing a number of key players, including Antonio Cassano, Diego Milito and Walter Samuel, Inter coach Andrea Stramaccioni had hoped to strut his stuff at Roma, where he was once employed as youth academy coach. However Inter were left to play catch-up when Roma were awarded a controversial penalty after American midfielder Michael Bradley came down softly under a challenge from Andrea Ranocchia. Francesco Totti stepped up to give the hosts a 22nd minute lead and score his first home league goal against Inter since October 2004. Zdenek Zeman’s side, however, were pegged back when Freddy Guarin did well at the byline to set up Rodrigo Palacio, who tapped home from close range. Inter are now nine points off the pace with Fiorentina fifth, three points further back. Roma’s third draw of the season means they drop to seventh as AC Milan, who had Giampaolo Pazzini to thank for a brace in a 2-1 win over Bologna, move up to sixth.— AFP

Arsenal must toughen up, admits Wenger LONDON: Arsene Wenger admits Arsenal’s bid for a top-four finish in the Premier League is in danger of ending in disaster unless his players toughen up. Wenger’s side are seven points adrift of fourth placed Tottenham after slumping to a 2-1 defeat at London rivals Chelea on Sunday and their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League are looking increasingly bleak. A week after waving the white flag all too quickly in a 2-0 loss against Manchester City, Arsenal once again paid the price for making a nervous start. The lacklustre Gunners were two goals behind within 16 minutes at Stamford Bridge as Juan Mata’s cool strike and a Frank Lampard penalty raised the temperature on a freezing afternoon in snowy west London. Theo Walcott sparked a spirited second half fightback when he reduced the deficit in the 58th minute, but Arsenal couldn’t turn their possession into an equaliser, leaving Wenger to bemoan his stars’ lack of killer instinct. Wenger also complained that Chelsea’s opener should have been ruled out for a foul by Ramires on Francis Coquelin in the buildup and then claimed Wojciech Szczesny’s

challenge on Ramires wasn’t worthy of a penalty. But it was significant that he was willing to turn his fire on his own players rather than soley blame referee Martin Atkinson. “We started the same as against Man City, we didn’t go for it and didn’t defend well,” Wenger said. “When you start 2-0 down in the big games it is very difficult. Chelsea played well but we gave them too much room and didn’t defend tight enough. “We had a physical problem to get going. There is a psychological ingredient in there for sure as well because in the last two games we didn’t really go for it. “On top of that we were a bit unlucky because I felt it was a free-kick for the first goal and the second wasn’t a penalty. The referee could have given a yellow card to Ramires (for diving).” With just one win in their last five matches in all competitions, Arsenal are still far too inconsistent to take a top-four place for granted and the prospect of failing to qualify for Europe’s elite club competition is giving Wenger cause for concern.—AFP

MADRID: Real Madrid put their dismal first half of the season behind them as they tore Valencia apart for the first 45 minutes to win 5-0 and ease the pressure on coach Jose Mourinho. Cristiano Ronaldo and Angel Di Maria both hit braces and Gonzalo Higuain was also on target in a firsthalf goal romp. But there is still little hope of them retaining their title as they trail Barcelona by 15 points despite the Catalan side losing 3-2 against Real Sociedad on Saturday, their bitter rivals’ first league defeat of the season. They are also seven points off neighbours Atletico Madrid who beat Levante 2-0 earlier Sunday. “As long as there are points available then you can’t throw in the towel but the aim isn’t to just win for the league but for the other positions behind and to improve,” said Real Madrid assistant coach Aitor Karanka. “All we do is to try and improve and it looks as though we are on the right lines. Against Valencia we have shown what we can do.” Madrid arrived at the Mestalla having beaten Valencia 2-0 in a stormy Spanish Cup quarter-final first leg tie in midweek. There has been plenty of tension in the Madrid camp following their poor form but there were no repercussions from an argument between Mourinho and Ronaldo after the first leg of the cup. Furthermore, Iker Casillas was preferred in goal to Adan Garrido who had controversially replaced the Spain international before being suspended. Still they had important absentees at the back with Pepe, Sergio Ramos and Marcelo all missing and they faced a rejuvenated Valencia side under Ernesto Valverde who had won their previous three league games. After a cagey opening spell Madrid were suddenly presented with a gift for Higuain which

VALENCIA: Real Madrid’s Sami Khedira from Germany, right, duels for the ball with Valencia’s Victor Ruiz, left, during their La Liga soccer match at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia, Spain, Sunday. — AP he failed to take advantage of in front of goal. He was left unmarked but side-footed an Alvaro Arbeloa cross wide from six yards. Higuain was given the chance to make amends a minute later and this time made no mistake. Again it was a case of poor defending as Di Maria scampered clear and set up Higuain who slotted into the corner. Valencia attempted to respond but they fell apart midway through the first half as their defence was once again exposed. Keeper Diego Alves twice denied Sami Khedira and Raphael Varane headed wide from a corner before Di Maria got the second. Ronaldo teased makeshift right-back Ricardo Costa,

standing in for Joao Pereira, and crossed for the Argentine to tuck the ball home from close range. Valencia were in disarray at the back and Ronaldo split them open again as he burst into the left of the area and beat Alves at his near post. Ronaldo got his second after 41 minutes when he cracked in an Ozil pass from 12 yard and then Ozil was again the provider as he put Di Maria clear for the fifth still before half-time. Valencia showed character to come back at Madrid after the restart with Pablo Piatti hitting the crossbar and Adil Rami had a header cleared off the line by Fabio Coentrao but Madrid remained

organised and managed to keep a clean sheet. Atletico Madrid equalled their best ever winning streak at home in La Liga in a memorable season for the club with their win over Levante. Goals from Adrian Lopez and Jorge Resurrecion ‘Koke’ saw Atletico win their 12th straight league game at the Calderon and match the club record dating back to a run between the 1939-40 and 1940-41 seasons. But the win was overshadowed by a thigh injury suffered by 18-goal top-scorer Radamel Falcao which could sideline the Colombian striker for three weeks. — AFP

Giant-killers Bradford within sight of Wembley BIRMINGHAM: Aston Villa must overturn a 3-1 deficit in the second leg of their League Cup semifinal today if they are to avoid becoming the latest team to fall to giant-killers Bradford City. Fourth-tier Bradford have already accounted for Arsenal and Wigan Athletic in this season’s competition and their shock 3-1 win at home to Villa on January 8 took them to within 90 minutes of a first final appearance in 102 years. FA Cup winners in 1911, Bradford are bidding to become the first side from England’s fourth tier to reach a major final since Rochdale lost to Norwich City over two legs in the 1962 League Cup final. To do so, they must hold off a Villa team who showed real signs of improvement in Saturday’s 2-2 Premier League draw at Midlands rivals West Bromwich Albion, albeit despite letting a two-goal lead slip. The point was enough to take Villa out of the relegation zone and manager Paul Lambert said the performance gave him plenty of reasons for optimism. “I was not happy with conceding two goals but the performance and effort was excellent,” he said.

“I thought we should have been out of sight in the first half and we played some fantastic football.” Charles N’Zogbia, fit again after a knee problem, set up both of Villa’s goals at the Hawthorns and Lambert hinted that the decision to substitute him mid-way through the second half was made with half an eye on Tuesday’s game. “I took Charles off because he has got a lot of games coming up,” he said. “Remember that he’s back from a long lay-off, so you have to watch him. We have to protect him.” Bradford’s exploits in the League Cup have thrust manager Phil Parkinson into the limelight and he recently rejected an approach from Blackpool over the Championship club’s vacant managerial position. “This is a great club and it would have been bad practice of me to look to move with everything we have got going on,” Parkinson told BBC radio. “The fans and board have been exceptionally good to me and I want to repay that by bringing success.” The Yorkshire club have excelled in the cup competitions this season but Parkinson gave an indication of where his priorities

lie by resting eight players in a 41 loss to Crewe Alexandra in the Football League Trophy. Bradford’s league game at Port Vale on Saturday was postponed due to a frozen pitch, but their cup run means today’s game will be their 41st match of an energysapping season.

The Bantams could hand a debut to centre-back Michael Nelson, who has signed from last season’s Scottish League Cup winners, Kilmarnock. “Very pleased to have joined Bradford city fc,” he wrote on Twitter. “Hopefully have some great times ahead.” —AFP

BORDEAUX: Paris’ forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic (R) shoots the ball during the French L1 football match Bordeaux (FCGB) vs Paris SaintGermain (PSG), at Chaban Delmas Stadium in Bordeaux. — AFP

Ravens upset Patriots to reach Super Bowl

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

Federer cruises into Australian Open q-finals

Raptors down Lakers as Howard tossed on tech

Page 17

NELSPRUIT: Nigeria’s John Obi Mikel, center, is challanged by Burkina Faso’s Djakaridja Kone, left, and teammate Jonathan Pitroipa, right, during their African Cup of Nations Group C soccer match at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, South Africa, yesterday. — AP

Traore strikes late to hold Nigeria NELSPRUIT: Super sub Alain Traore bagged the equaliser deep in injury time to earn Burkina Faso a 1-1 draw against 10-man Nigeria yesterday. The Lorient midﬁelder came on late in the second half and worked his magic to earn the Stallions an unexpected point. Emmanuel Emenike had put Nigeria into the lead before the break, but the wasteful Super Eagles were reduced to 10 men when Celtic defender Efe Ambrose picked up a second yellow.

The result left Group C evenly balanced after title-holders Zambia and Ethiopia drew 1-1 earlier. Chelsea winger Victor Moses was left on the bench, with coach Stephen Keshi, who won the Nations Cup as a player in 1994, ﬁelding a three-pronged attack comprising Emenike, Brown Ideye and Ahmed Musa. Traore, who had faced a race to be ﬁt after an ankle problem, started on the bench with veteran captain Moumouni Dagano leading from the

front. Before a modest crowd at the Mbombela Stadium, Ideye’s appeal for an early penalty after hitting the deck in a challenge from Bakary Kone was dismissed by Algerian referee Mohamed Benouza. A short time later the mohicanhaired Dynamo Kyiv midﬁelder blasted over Abdoulaye Soulama’s crossbar after good work by Musa down the right. Burkina were enjoying plenty of the action but Nigeria’s defence, marshalled by skipper Joseph Yobo, who was

equalling Nwankwo Kanu’s record of playing in six Nations Cups, comfortably absorbed the pressure. Nigeria took the lead in the 23rd minute as Ideye artfully flicked the ball to Emenike in the box and the Spartak Moscow star fought off two defenders to poke it past Soulama. John Obi Mikel, a Chelsea teammate of the missing Moses, was making his presence felt as Nigeria, back at the finals after failing to make it last year, held Burkina at

bay. On 48 minutes, a fire alarm sounded in the stadium, with instructions over the tannoy to vacate the stadium. No one told the players, however, who played on oblivious, and the fans stayed put. Keshi replaced Emenike with Villarreal striker Ikechukwu Uche approaching the hour mark in a ploy to kill off the game One of Burkina’s best chances came when Dagano unleashed a low angled shot from the right of the area, ruffling goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama’s feathers.

Platini disagrees with Blatter over Boateng

Champions Zambia held by spirited 10-man Ethiopia NELSPRUIT: Ethiopia, back at the Africa Cup of Nations after a three-decade absence, overcame a red card to hold champions Zambia to a 1-1 draw in an explosive Group C encounter yesterday. Ethiopia, one of the founding fathers of African football who had fallen on hard times before enjoying a recent revival, had keeper Jemal Tassew sent oﬀ in the ﬁrst half of a game that also featured a missed penalty and disgruntled vuvuzela-throwing fans. China-based captain Christopher Katongo and Collins Mbesuma led the Zambian attack, with Salahdin Said the lone frontman for Ethiopia. Zambia featured 10 of the XI that performed heroics in Gabon/Equatorial Guinea 12 months ago with Nyamba Mulenga the lone absentee. The 40,000-seat Mbombela Stadium was only a quarter full, with barely a Zambian fan in the sparse albeit colourful crowd, but one that did turn up, a man, was in a bikini. Against the run of play, Ethiopia almost pinched the lead when Said pounced on a poor clearance from defender Joseph Musonda and lobbed onrushing Kennedy Mweene only for the ball to bounce over the crossbar. Said then won a 23rd-minute penalty when he was felled by Chisamba Lungu in the box but his spot-kick lacked steel and was kept out by Mweene with the disgusted striker burying his head in his hands. At the other end, drama ensued after a high velocity clash between Lungu and Tassew, who

rushed out from his goal, boots flying. The Ethiopian keeper came off worse in the reckless assault, lying stricken on the ground for an age before being stretchered off-with Gabonese referee Castane Otogo waving him goodbye, a red card in his hand. This incensed the Ethiopian fans, who pelted the pitch with vuvuzelas (plastic horns) and water bottles, ignoring the stadium announcer’s impassioned pleas to stop. To add to the air of tension, a South African fighter jet chose that moment to scream low over the stadium, as Zerihun Tadele entered the fray to replace Tassew between the posts. Zambia went in front in the third minute of stoppage time when Orlando Pirates striker Mbesuma ran on to Isaac Chansa’s headed pass to shoot left-footed past Tadele with the Ethiopian defence at fault. This provoked another angry volley of vuvuzelas, cutting short the Zambian players’ celebrations and prompting the arrival on the touchline of riot police. With their numerical advantage, Zambia emerged for the second half eager to put the game to bed. But Ethiopia had other plans. On 65 minutes, Addis Hintsa, seconds after coming on for Getaneh Kebede, picked out Said who, in turn, found Adane Girma with the captain slotting an angled close-range shot past Mweene to finally give Ethiopian fans something to smile about. A frantic climax failed to change the deadlock, with Tadele producing a good save to deny a late shot from Mbesuma. —AFP

At the other end, Uche should have done better, his close-range shot badly oﬀ target. Burkina coach Put then brought on his ace, Traore, for Aristide Bance. Nigeria were down a man on 74 minutes when Ambrose picked up his second yellow, but Burkina were unable to make their numerical superiority count. Nigeria will face sterner opposition Friday when they take on champions Zambia, the side they beat to claim their second title 19 years ago. — AFP

NELSPRUIT: Ethiopia’s Said Ahmed (L) reacts after failing to score a penalty during the Africa Cup of Nations 2013 group C football match Zambia vs Ethiopia at Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit yesterday. — AFP

PARIS: UEFA president Michel Platini differed with his FIFA counterpart Sepp Blatter yesterday in applauding KevinPrince Boateng leading his AC Milan teammates off the pitch after receving a torrent of racial abuse in a friendly earlier this month. Blatter had said players should not take matters into their own hands although he has since said that clubs whose fans are guilty of racial abuse could end up facing either points deductions or even demotion. However, Platini told French radio station RTL on Monday he had been delighted by Ghanaian international midfielder Boateng’s gesture in walking off after some fans of Italian fourth division side Pro Patria showered him with racial abuse. “It is wonderful, I appreciated it enormously,” said the 57-year-old former French playing great. “It was excellent, in fact I later called Milan to congratulate them.” Platini, though, said that UEFA already had regulations in place should racial abuse take place during matches. “We implemented rules for Champions League and Europa League matches for the referees to follow,” he said. “If they hear racist chants, there is an appeal for them to desist over the public address system and the match is stopped for a minute. After that if the chanting resumes there is a stoppage of two minutes and a new appeal for them to stop. “A third time and the referee can call the match off. It is the referee who is the boss in the stadium.” —AFP

Business

Dubai eyes new sukuk issue, may raise $1bn Page 22 Leaders meet in Davos in bid to beat the odds

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

Page 23 Boubyan Bank posts KD10m profit

EBRD expresses optimism over euro-zone debt crisis Page 25

Page 26

NBK reports net profits of $1,085m in 2012 Dabdoub: Strong results despite ongoing economic, political challenges Total assets reached $58.4 billion, shareholders’ equity at $8.2 billion KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), the largest Kuwaiti bank and the highest-rated in the Middle East, reported net profits of $1,085 million (KD 305.1 million) for the year 2012 compared with $1,075 million (KD 302.4 million) for 2011. At year end, NBK Group’s total assets reached $58.4 billion (KD 16.4 billion) up from $48.5 billion (KD 13.6 billion) in 2011, while total group shareholders’ equity reached USD 8.2 billion (KD 2.3 billion), up 6% year on year. Ibrahim Dabdoub, NBK’s Group Chief Executive Officer said “NBK managed to deliver a strong set of results for the year notwithstanding the ongoing challenges. 2012 was a turbulent year for the banking sector in Kuwait as the operating environment remained stagnant. Government spending was insufficient and the tendering of new projects remained behind schedule leading to slower economic activity and an underperforming stock market. Additionally, the geopolitical tensions led to further pressures on the business sentiment both locally and in the region”. Dabdoub expressed a general improvement in the outlook for the local operating environment in 2013 as the government adopts a more dynamic fiscal policy, most importantly accelerating spending on mega projects. “The recent directions from the highest authority and the proposed measures to boost economic activity and spur growth are expected to lift the overall sentiment and create new opportunities in the local economy”, Dabdoub added. Dabdoub also highlighted 2012 was a remarkable year on the strategic level. During the year, NBK continued to deliver on its income diversification efforts through a major strategic move increasing its stake in Boubyan Bank to 58.4% transforming it into a subsidiary of NBK group. This move is key to strengthening our presence in Kuwait’s Islamic banking market and opens new growth prospects for the Group. Additionally, NBK continued to strengthen its positioning in its regional and

Mohammed Al-Bahar international markets with more focus on GCC operations. NBK’s international banking profits recorded a year-on-year growth of 22.7% in 2012. Dabdoub stressed on NBK’s focus on core banking operations both in Kuwait and regionally. NBK’s total operating income remained strong at $2,311 million (KD 650 million) for the year up from $1,921 million (KD 540 million) a year earlier. It is worth mentioning that NBK’s total operating income in 2012 includes revaluation gains of $290 million (KD 81.5 million) resulting from the consolidation of Boubyan Bank. NBK has the widest banking presence in Kuwait with 64 branches, which together with its growing international presence totals 173 branches worldwide. NBK’s international presence spans many of the world’s leading finan-

Ibrahim Dabdoub cial centers including London, Paris, Geneva, New York and Singapore, as well as China (Shanghai). Meanwhile, regional coverage extends to Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Turkey. NBK continues to collectively enjoy the highest ratings among all banks in the Middle East from the three international rating agencies; Moody’s, Fitch Ratings and Standard and Poor’s. The Bank’s ratings are supported by its high capitalization, prudent lending policies, and its disciplined approach to risk management, in addition to its highly recognized and very stable management team. In 2012, NBK was also named among Global Finance’s list of the 50 safest banks in the world for the sixth consecutive time.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Dubai eyes new sukuk issue, may raise $1bn HSBC, NBAD, Stanchart and DBI chosen DUBAI: The government of Dubai has mandated four banks for a potential Islamic bond, or sukuk, issue, four sources familiar with the matter said yesterday, as the emirate seeks to benefit from its lowest borrowing costs since a crippling debt crisis in 2009. Three of the sources indicated the new issue could be announced as early today, and two sources said the borrower was looking to raise at least $1 billion from the sale. All sources declined to be identified because the information is not yet public. A Dubai government spokesperson was not immediately available for comment. It has picked Dubai Islamic Bank, HSBC,

National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Standard Chartered Plc to arrange the potential new sale, the sources said. Unrated Dubai’s five-year credit default swaps, or the cost to insure against sovereign default, were trading at 211 basis points yesterday, at their lowest since hitting levels above 600 bps at the peak of its debt crisis in late 2009. Since then, the emirate has been at pains to regain its credibility among international investors, successfully refinancing or restructuring debt maturities as well as benefiting from safe haven status amid broader regional unrest. “It makes sense for them to come now as the spreads are ridiculously low,” said a banker away

from the deal. Yields on Dubai’s existing bonds have continued to drop this year, after a dramatic rally in 2012. Its $750 million 7.75 percent bond, which matures in 2020, was bid at 128 cents on the dollar on Monday, to yield just 3.5 percent, about 30 bps tighter since the start of the year. Dubai last tapped global debt markets in April with a $1.25 billion two-tranche sukuk, which was substantially oversubscribed. It is understood the government will issue ahead of state-owned utility Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) which has also indicated its intention to raise about $1 billion in a sukuk sale in the first quarter. — Reuters

Snow effect could tip UK into triple-dip recession LONDON: A wintry burst of weather hit businesses and travellers across Britain for a fourth day yesterday, threatening an unprecedented “triple-dip” recession that could knock the government’s economic plans further off track. Commuters fought to get to work as airlines and train operators struggled to deal with a blanket of snow and ice, while some 3,000 schools were closed, forcing parents to stay at home to look after children. Figures this week look set to show the economy shrank again in the fourth quarter of 2012. The snow-induced a loss of working days for manufacturers and builders, allied to falls in business for shops, pubs and restaurants, could now push the first quarter of 2013 into the red also. Even if the economy does turn around later, it would leave the government seeking to dispel fears of slow growth well into next year with an election due the year after. “At a time when retailers are already under pressure, bad weather which keeps people from going shopping is very bad news,” said Richard Dodd from the British Retail Consortium body representing the country’s major chains. “That said, it would have been much worse had it happened over Christmas.” Shop owners and workers on a deserted Oxford Street, central London’s main shopping destination, said trade had been hit heavily since Friday. Jay Gordon, manager of a hairdresser’s just off the main thoroughfare said half of his customers had cancelled over the weekend, at a cost of 30-100 pounds per head. “On Saturday, we had 15 no-shows. It’s a loss of revenue,” he said. Economists said that while retailers may be able to make up the lost sales as customers come back to buy later what they would have bought anyway, the impact on construction and manufactur-

ing is harder to smooth over quickly. “Assuming the fourth quarter is as substantially negative as we now fear, we will almost certainly be heading back into recession,” Peter Spencer, chief economic adviser to business think tank the Ernst and Young Item Club, told Reuters. “When the economy is bouncing along the bottom anyway, a bout of bad weather can easily tip it into negative territory.” There was a familiar hum of national outrage at train stations and airports about the struggle to run normal services more than 12 hours after the last snowfall in many areas on Sunday evening. Commuter operators across southern England were operating reduced services and only six of every 10 of those were running on time. British Airways had cancelled 350 flights since Friday, largely at the request of London’s Heathrow airport, which has little room to reschedule delayed flights. That reflects a shortfall in infrastructure investment over past years which has fallen behind euro zone neighbors. Operators note, however, the UK has less snow than much of the rest of Europe and less on average now than it did 20 years ago. That was no consolation for 24year old Georgina Kourousiakli and Fay Sakellariou from Athens, who missed their flight home by minutes due to train delays on Monday morning. “They don’t care about us, we told them we need somewhere to live until tomorrow and they just looked at us and said ‘oh’,” Georgina said. “We don’t have any money to eat ... we can’t call home and the internet is 10 pence per minute.” Heathrow has come under heavy criticism before for not handling inclement weather well. The Conservative-led coalition government had lauded numbers for the third quarter of last year

which saw Britain emerging from its second recession since the 2008 financial crisis. But that always looked at risk from the gloom amongst consumers who account for two thirds of the economy. They have seen wages fall consistently compared with inflation while also struggling to reduce debts built up in a decade of booming credit growth. A survey on Monday showed the state of most households’ finances continued to worsen in January, even if the rate of decline was slightly less pronounced than a month earlier. “Concern remains that consumers will be restrained in their spending over the coming months which will limit growth,” said IHS Global Insight economist Howard

Archer. He noted that snow had helped spur contractions in the first quarter of last year and fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011. “With the bad weather looking set to continue well into this week and possibly beyond, the risk of a triple dip recession is growing by the day,” he said. The ConservativeLiberal Democrat coalition’s central promise after gaining power in 2010 was to eliminate Britain’s underlying budget deficit by the end of a five-year term. But that target was reliant on the private sector taking up the slack for some of the harshest cuts in public sector spending since World War Two. So far this year, government borrowing is up 10 percent due to falling revenues. — Reuters

SINGAPORE: A vessel docked at Sembawang shipyard for maintenance repair in Singapore. Singapore escaped a technical recession after the economy grew in the fourth quarter thanks to a boost from services, government data showed earlier this month, but prospects for 2013 remain gloomy. — AFP

Exxon holds oil talks with Iraq’s Maliki BAGHDAD: Exxon Mobil has asked Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki whether the US oil major can keep operating in the country’s southern oilfields while also working in the autonomous Kurdistan region, the government said yesterday. The talks between the Shiite premier and Exxon came as the US company is in the process of selling its stake in the huge West Qurna-1 oilfield in the south after clashing with Baghdad over its Kurdistan deals in the north. Exxon angered OPEC member’s central government by signing deals with the northern Kurdish enclave, agreements Baghdad rejected as illegal contracts putting at risk the US company’s other operations in Iraq’s southern oilfields. “Exxon Mobil asked to meet with prime minister to know his opinion on the company’s con-

Abu Dhabi property merger a mixed bag DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s property merger is a mixed bag for minority shareholders. Factoring in a surprise cash sweetener from the government, it looks like well-run independent Sorouh is paying a premium to seal an all-share deal with troubled statecontrolled rival Aldar . But the $2.9 billion state-sanctioned merger of Abu Dhabi’s leading publicly-listed developers will help smooth the emirate’s property mess. The politics make valuing the deal tricky. Aldar and Sorouh were trading at a 63/37 split in favour of Aldar, based on yesterday’s closing price. The terms of the deal give Sorouh shareholders 1.288 new shares for each share in Aldar. That would have equated to a 28 percent premium for Sorouh. That premium, however, quickly dissolves into a discount after taking into account the unexpected $436 million cashgift presented as “reimbursement” from the government to Sorouh for infrastructure assets. The sweetener lifts Sorouh’s premerger market price to give a 55/45 split in favor of Aldar. With the proposed exchange ratio, though, post-merger Sorouh will only own 43 percent of the enlarged group. Even though the cash payment is an integral part of the deal, these terms might seem tough for Sorouh, which is helping to reduce Aldar’s huge debt burden. Aldar’s

Syria raises petrol, flour prices: Report DAMASCUS: The Syrian authorities have raised the prices of petrol, wheat and flour, state media said yesterday, three days after the price of diesel was hiked amid a severe economic crisis in the war-torn country. “The Ministry of Internal Trade and Consumer Protection issued a decision to raise the selling price of 95-octane gasoline to 60 Syrian pounds ($0.75) per litre,” said pro-regime daily Al-Watan. The nine percent price hike came on the day the price of wheat and flour was also raised despite a severe shortage of bread in the country. The price of flour has risen from 33,515 Syrian pounds ($419) per tonne to 34,685 pounds ($434), the newspaper said. Raw wheat now costs 27,460 pounds ($344) per ton, jumping from 26,155 pounds ($327), while soft wheat, used to make bread, is now priced at 26,949 pounds ($337), up from 26,155 pounds ($321), the daily added. Syria’s fuel and bread crisis has affected the whole of the population, with long queues for buying bread becoming a daily reality even in major cities. On Friday, the regime raised the price diesel by 40 percent per litre to 35 pounds ($0.43). On the black market its value has shot up to 115 pounds ($1.15) per litre. Faced with severe electricity shortages, many Syrians have resorted to fuel to cook and heat their homes during a bitter winter marred with daily bloodshed. The uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, which broke out in March 2011, has left over 60,000 people killed and at least two million people internally displaced, according to the United Nations. — AFP

tracts in the south and in the northern region and if there was a possibility to keep working on both contracts,” Maliki’s media advisor Ali Al-Moussawi said after the meeting. “The prime minister’s answer was clear to the head of Exxon that they can’t keep operating on both deals at the same time and they should observe Iraq’s laws.” A statement from the government said only that Exxon Chief Executive Rex Tillerson had “expressed his company’s keenness to continue and expand its work in Iraq and that it will take important decisions in this regard.” Iraqi officials said late last year that China National Petroleum Corp or CNPC had emerged as the favorite in negotiations to take over Exxon’s 60 percent stake in the $50 billion the West Qurna-1 project. — Reuters

net debt will fall from 180 percent of equity to 69 percent within the enlarged firm. Still, the merger could have been much worse for minority shareholders that account for less than half of Sorouh’s register, and the 13 percent of foreign owners. Sorouh relies on the government for a large chunk of its business in an emirate where residential rents have fallen 50 percent since 2008. The smaller firm will also chair and control the board. Abu Dhabi plans to spend $90 billion on new infrastructure over the next five years. With the emirate still owning 37 percent of the firm, Aldar Sorouh will be well-positioned to win new business. The government will find it easier to control the market through a single firm and, with a little luck, the new group won’t repeat the same mistakes that got Aldar into trouble in the first place. Abu Dhabi’s biggest property firms, Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate, plan to merge in a share swap, Sorouh announced on Jan 21. Sorouh shareholders would receive 1.288 Aldar shares for every share in Sorouh, the company said. Sorouh would be delisted on the effective date of the merger. The two companies’ boards of directors have unanimously voted to recommend the merger to shareholders, Sorouh said. — Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

.2740000 .4440000 .3720000 .2990000 .2810000 .2930000 .0040000 .0020000 .0763380 .7437430 .3880000 .0720000 .7291070 .0430000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2812000 .4462080 .3745020 .3006680 .2835530 .0501870 .0431320 .2954430 .0362720 .2291770 .0031210 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0765900 .7461850 .0000000 .0750070 .7306740 .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka

ASIAN COUNTRIES 3.203 5.150 2.889 2.224 3.246 231.160 36.408 3.533

.2840000 .45900 .3810000 .3110000 .2920000 .3030000 .0067500 .0035000 .0771060 .7512180 .4050000 .0770000 .7364350 .0510000 .2833000 .4495400 .3772990 .3029140 .2856710 .0505620 .0434540 .2976490 .0365430 .2308880 .0031450 .0053020 .0022450 .0029110 .0035700 .0771620 .7517580 .4007070 .0755670 .7361310 .0070470

Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani Riyal - transfer Irani Riyal - cash

Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

6.994 9.443 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 75.297 77.584 733.400 749.970 77.886

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 282.250 Euro 376.520 Sterling Pound 454.420 Canadian dollar 287.720 Turkish lire 159.460 Swiss Franc 304.150 Australian dollar 298.620 US Dollar Buying 281.050 GOLD 311.000 157.000 81.500

SELL DRAFT 301.17 289.26 306.98 379.38 282.00 451.17 3.21 3.568 5.243 2.230 3.290 2.892 76.85

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Selling Rate 282.250 285.310 450.050 377.280 301.730 747.250 76.825 77.475 75.230 397.875 42.694 2.227 5.236 2.885 3.540 6.948 692.360 4.125 9.540 3.970 3.320 93.365

Bahrain Exchange Company

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams

748.000 45.500 399.500 733.000 78.500 75.350

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 46.200 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 42.785 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.318 Tunisian Dinar 182.330 Jordanian Dinar 398.350 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.894 Syrian Lier 3.067 Morocco Dirham 34.212

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

750.87 42.71 401.76 733.93 77.78 75.41

SELL CASH 300.000 289.000 311.000 380.000 282.850 458.000 3.750 3.800 5.400 2.600 3.550 2.980 77.200

COUNTRY Australian dollar Bahraini dinar Bangladeshi taka Canadian dollar Cyprus pound Czek koruna Danish krone Deutsche Mark Egyptian pound Euro Cash Hongkong dollar Indian rupees Indonesia Iranian tuman Iraqi dinar

SELL CASH 300.400 750.880 4.000 288.300 554.500 46.000 51.300 167.800 44.710 379.900 37.110 5.480 0.032 0.161 0.242

SELLDRAFT 298.900 750.880 3.538 286.800

231.300 42.588 378.400 36.960 5.245 0.031

Japanese yen Jordanian dinar Lebanese pound Malaysian ringgit Morocco dirham Nepalese Rupees New Zealand dollar Nigeria Norwegian krone Omani Riyal Pakistani rupees Philippine peso Qatari riyal Saudi riyal Singapore dollar South Africa Sri Lankan rupees Sterling pound Swedish krona Swiss franc Syrian pound Thai bhat Tunisian dollar UAE dirham U.S. dollars Yemeni Riyal

3.250 400.120 0.191 96.850 46.100 4.340 239.500 1.829 51.500 733.410 3.000 7.310 78.100 75.390 231.260 35.080 2.689 452.100 44.300 305.700 3.400 9.780 198.263 76.980 282.700 1.360

10 Tola

GOLD 1,799.160

Sterling Pound US Dollar

400.090 0.190 96.850 3.300 238.000

733.230 2.895 6.969 77.670 75.390 231.260 35.080 2.230 450.100 304.200 3.400 9.720 76.880 282.300

TRAVELLER’S CHEQUE 450.100 282.300

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 281.900 378.250 449.900 286.550 3.175 5.234 42.550 2.223 3.540 6.930 2.889 750.600 76.775 75.250

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Sorouh surges on merger deal; markets fall MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Abu Dhabi’s Sorouh Real Estate jumped to a 25-month high yesterday after the company reached a long-awaited merger agreement with Aldar Properties, but most regional markets fell. Trading volumes for both Sorouh and Aldar, Abu Dhabi’s two biggest property developers, hit record highs. Both stocks had more than doubled in price over the past year in anticipation of the merger, and while the terms of the deal looked positive for Sorouh shareholders, they prompted heavy profit-taking in Aldar. Sorouh jumped 4.3 percent to close at 1.70 dirhams, its highest level since December 2010; they hit a high of 1.87 dirhams in early trade. Aldar plunged 9.8 percent. Sorouh shareholders will receive 1.288 Aldar shares for every share in Sorouh, which will be delisted once the merger, which is subject to shareholder approval, is completed, the companies said yesterday. “The official announcement highlights a ratio that on paper is favourable to Sorouh shareholders, and the valuation is obviously a reflection of the quality of the respective underlying assets,” said Akber Naqvi, hedge fund portfolio manager at Al Masah Capital.

Ali Adou, portfolio manager at The National Investor, said: “Sorouh’s shareholders are being given an incentive to hold more shares in the new company, while Aldar shareholders will be diluted.” NBK Capital observed in a research note that based on Sunday’s close, the merger plan valued Sorouh at 2.10 dirhams per share. “On the face of it, this is actually quite a good deal for the Sorouh minority shareholder, since our fair value for Sorouh as a standalone company amounts to 2.33 dirhams per share,” it said, adding: “Given the uncertainties surrounding the still-declining Abu Dhabi real estate market, a discount of just 10 percent to our fair value does not seem unreasonable.” Including the impact of Abu Dhabi’s financial support for Sorouh in the merger, the company’s fair value is even higher, at 3.24 per share, NBK added. Abu Dhabi’s benchmark slipped 0.1 percent, easing from Sunday’s 26-month high. Dubai’s measure shed 0.3 percent to end at 1,786 points, down from Sunday’s 32-month closing high, after the index tested and failed on Sunday to break major chart resistance between 1,778

points, the 2012 high hit in March last year, and the October 2010 peak of 1,793 points. Trading volumes were thin, however, which may suggest that many investors are unwilling to sell because they think the resistance could be broken in coming days or weeks. Major proper ty developer Emaar Properties rose 2.1 percent to a fresh multi-year high, however, after the Al Ittihad newspaper quoted United Arab Emirates central bank governor Sultan Nasser al-Suweidi as saying authorities would not impose limits on mortgage lending without consulting commercial banks, and that any new rules were not imminent. His remarks appeared to show the central bank, after fierce protests from commercial banks, was backing away from caps on residential mortgage lending that it announced just weeks ago. There was no confirmation of the report. In Saudi Arabia, weak earnings soured sentiment, dragging the market to its lowest in nearly three weeks. Shares in Saudi Telecom plunged 7.7 percent to 40.6 riyals per share, the lowest price since last November. STC reported a 79-percent fall in fourth-quarter

profit yesterday, missing market expectations, after it took one-time charges related to affiliates in South Africa and India. Zain Saudi slipped 1.8 percent. The firm posted a fourth-quarter net loss that narrowed 4 percent but still missed analysts’ average forecast. “The improvement in net losses in Q4 is mainly due to the lower financial charges. We remain cautious on the stock,” NCB Capital said in a note. “Longer term, the company’s main challenge remains growth in top-line. Due to a weak balance sheet, we believe Zain’s capex investment remains behind the levels necessary to be able to effectively compete with STC and Mobily.” Saudi Industrial Investment Group dipped 1.7 percent to 22.7 riyals after posting a fourth-quarter net profit of 28.5 million riyals, up 506 percent year-onyear. SIIG said in a bourse filing that it would conduct shutdowns at both its projects in Jubail due to technical problems, the impact of which would hit firstquarter earnings. “Our 2013 earnings per share estimate has been revised down by -28 percent to 2.21 riyals while our target price drops from 29 to 26 riyals,” Riyad Capital said in

a note, adding it was downgrading the stock to ‘Hold’. The kingdom’s index fell 1.0 percent. In Egypt, the benchmark slipped to its lowest close since Jan. 2, down 0.8 percent, as retail investors in particular sold ahead of a weekend that may see unrest. Tensions are rising ahead of the second anniversary of the 2011 uprising due on Jan. 25, which is expected to trigger protests against new President Mohamed Morsi and his Islamist allies. “Investors are selling ahead of the stressful weekend protests are expected to hit the streets,” says Mohamed Radwan, director of international sales at Pharos Securities. “People would rather be out of the market.” Elsewhere, shares in Doha Bank surged 5.5 percent to their highest close since September. The lender posted a fourth-quarter net profit gain of 5.1 percent and proposed a cash dividend of 45 percent or 4.5 riyals per share. Qatar Islamic Bank, however, dropped 4.6 percent after the company recorded a 50 percent fall in fourth-quarter net profit and widely missed analysts’ forecasts. Qatar’s index declined 0.2 percent, trimming gains to 3.0 percent so far in January.—Reuters

Leaders meet in Davos in bid to beat the odds WEF annual meeting January 23-27

ATHENS: A woman passes by an advertisment with 500 euro banknotes in central Athens yesterday.—AFP

Crest Nicholson back to profit LONDON: British housebuilder Crest Nicholson announced a return to pre-tax profit and the UK stock market yesterday, positioning itself for a sector recovery five years after being taken over during the country’s housing crash. The 50-year-old company posted annual pre-tax profit of 62.1 million pounds, compared to a 27 million-pound loss in 2011, and said it would sell new and existing shares on the London stock exchange to raise about 50 million pounds ($79 million) and pay down debt. “Our announcement today is just a sign that the housing market recovery is starting to move forward. There’s a lot of interest in the sector and a lot of interest from government in increasing housing volumes in this country,” Chief Executive Stephen Stone told Reuters. The company said it expected a minimum of 35 percent of its shares to be free float following the offer. Crest Nicholson, one of Britain’s biggest housebuilders, was hit hard by the slump in the UK housing market after years of easy credit inflated prices. It and rivals like Taylor Wimpey and Barratt Developments have since focused their building efforts in the south of England and London, where house prices stayed strong in comparison to the north of the country. Taylor Wimpey and Barrett said last week that they expect to post significant profit rises for the full year. The sector has also been helped by government schemes to boost buyer demand and loosen mortgage lending. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors showed British house prices held steady in December and are tipped to pick up in coming months. Crest said on Monday revenue for the full year rose 27.9 percent to 408 million pounds. The company has a short term

land bank of which over 95 percent is in the south of England, with 16,959 plots on 72 sites and an estimated gross development value of 3.9 billion pounds. Crest hopes to use cash raised from the listing to buy more land. A source told Reuters in September that Crest was actively exploring a flotation on the London stock market and described a 500 million pound valuation at the lower end of the possible range. “Being a listed company does give you greater flexibility and credibility,” Stone said on Thursday. Crest was taken private by Scottish entrepreneur Tom Hunter and mortgage lender HBOS in May 2007 and is now majority owned by U.S. distressed investment fund Varde Partners, after a series of deals last year. The company said its offer to list would also incorporate a sale of existing shares by some institutional shareholders, including Varde Partners and Deutsche Bank AG worth between 200250 million pounds, Group Finance Director, Patrick Bergin, said. Stone said he hoped institutional investors such as Fidelity and Standard Life, which were shareholders in Crest Nicholson before it was taken private, would participate in the initial public offering. “All of our major institutions when we were listed did very well - we sold out just a few months before Northern Rock (collapsed),” he said. “We hope that the major institutions that were involved then might be interested in once again becoming part of our company.” The company expects the offer to complete in February and to become eligible for inclusion in the FTSE UK indices at the quarterly review at either March 2013 or June 2013.—Reuters

ZURICH: Italian premier Mario Monti will set the tone for beleaguered business and political leaders gathering in Davos this week for the annual World Economic Forum (WEF), with a speech entitled “Leading against the odds”. The pow-wow will bring together more than 1,500 business leaders and up to 50 heads of state or government, many of them, like Monti, weathered by almost perpetual crisis as they fight to bring their economies and companies through global financial turmoil and a few homegrown scandals of their own. “It’s very clear that the future of the world economy is based on restoring trust. Restoring trust in leaders, restoring trust in our future. And this means we have to move out of this crisis mode,” WEF founder Klaus Schwab told a news conference. There’s still some way to go, according to a survey by global public relations firm Edelman published yesterday. “There is an incredible lack of trust in leadership,” said Richard Edelman, the firm’s president and chief executive. “Levels of trust in governments are worse than for business, but they are both terrible.” Edelman’s annual survey across 26 countries did show a rise in trust in business and government over the previous year, but only 26 percent trust business leaders to solve social issues and 15 percent for government leaders, and 19 percent expected business to make ethical decisions, while only 14 percent said the same for politicians. Edelman said trust in public figures had been eroded by a string of scandals in the banking industry as well as controversies ranging from cyclist Lance Armstrong’s admission of doping, to the purging of Chinese politician Bo Xilai in a murder case and a sex-abuse affair at British broadcaster BBC. Though Europe managed - just - to keep the euro zone intact in 2012 and Washington stepped back - at the last minute - from its “fiscal cliff”, a WEF survey this month showed business leaders and academics fear politicians are failing to address fundamental problems. And they will have it all to do again in 2013, subject to the ballot box. Monti will be defending his austerity measures in parliamentary elections in four weeks, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be hoping a weekend defeat for her party in a regional election won’t derail her re-election later this year. A contingent from the United States including four secretaries and 14 congressmen will

have another looming budget crunch at the back of their minds. The WEF’s annual risk report cited inequality and the burden of government debt as the biggest economic threats and also highlighted a rise in concern about severe weather, an issue likely to be on the minds of many participants as they struggle even to reach Davos after heavy snowfall cancelled many flights. The Algerian hostage crisis, the French campaign against Islamists in Mali and the fallout from the Arab Spring will also be hot topics, with many leaders from Africa and the Middle East attending Davos

DAVOS: Employees clean the chairs in the main hall at the congress center yesterday at the Swiss resort of Davos. The World Economy Forum (WEF) will take place from 23 to the 27 of January. — AFP as well as several oil and gas executives. “We face a new reality of sudden shocks and prolonged global economic malaise,” Schwab said. “Future growth in this new context requires dynamism, bold vision and even bolder action.” The Davos elite will be shielded from dissent by a ring of razor wire and up to 5,000 Swiss soldiers, though activists will be handing out an award for “the worst company of the year”, and Swiss left-wing groups plan small protests against financial speculation.

“development strategy in Turkey will revolve around the establishment of a network of close to 100 branches and build an asset and a profit base that would allow the Turkish subsidiary to rank second to Lebanon within the Group,” it said. Lebanese banks have been hit by a slowdown in domestic economic growth, turmoil in neighboring Syria and broader uncertainty in the Middle East after uprisings swept the region. Audi Bank said the growth of its customer deposits of $7.4 billion over the first 11 months of 2012 was close to that of the previous year, but growth in lending of $3.6 billion was 24 percent less than in the previous year. — Reuters

looking for concrete deals and innovative ideas in Davos as the first signs emerge of fragile confidence returning to the world economy. “There is more certainty than there was three or four months ago,” said Kevin Kelly, chief executive of Heidrick & Struggles, a global executive search and leadership consulting firm. “This is a turn in the mood. There is an old saying you can’t fall off the floor. Economically speaking - we are in the basement now. There is nowhere to go but up.” — Reuters

Jakarta to start building long-awaited metro soon AKARTA: The Indonesian capital Jakarta will soon start construction of a metro system to try to unravel its infamous traffic jams, 26 years after the idea was first mooted, officials said yesterday. The city administration and the central gov-

ernment finally agreed last week on how to split the cost, with 49 percent to be paid by the central government. The city initially wanted to pay 42 percent of the cost but finally agreed on 51 percent, said Eko Hariyadi, a Jakarta administration spokesman.

Lebanon’s Audi Bank net profit rose 5% BEIRUT: Lebanese lender Audi Bank said its net profit rose 5 percent in 2012 as it strengthened its position in its home market and in Egypt and Turkey. Net profit for the year rose to $384 million in the face of difficult economic conditions in the region, and consolidated assets rose 8.9 percent on the year to $31.3 billion at end-December, Lebanon’s biggest lender by assets said in a statement on Monday. Audi Bank said the earnings increase was mainly due to consolidating its position in its domestic market, asset growth in Egypt and the launch of its Turkish subsidiary, which fully offset the contraction in activity in war-torn Syria. The

UBS Chairman Axel Weber and JP Morgan Chase & Co Chief Executive Jamie Dimon are among the top representatives of a chastened financial industry, which the Edelman survey shows is still the least trusted sector, on just 50 percent globally. The WEF is trying to boost leadership skills in the tough environment, offering morning meditation and even a session with a trombonist subtitled: “How can jazz serve as a strategic model for diplomacy, leadership, collaboration and innovation?” But chief executives are more likely to be

JAKARTA: Workers build an elevated highway in Jakarta, Indonesia. — AP

Hariyadi said construction would start this year, pending an announcement of the winner of the tender. Two consortia of Japanese and Indonesian construction firms, ObayashiShimizu-Wijaya Karya and Sumitomo-Hutama Karya, are competing for the work. The Japan International Cooperation Agency has agreed to give a soft loan for the first stage of the longawaited project, which will cost 15.7 trillion rupiah ($1.63 billion) and is expected to be completed by the end of 2016, said Sutanto Soehodho, deputy governor for transportation and macro economy. The city has spent nearly three decades discussing the merits of different mass transport systems to alleviate congestion in greater Jakarta, home to 20 million people. Poor infrastructure is one of the main constraints on the growth of Southeast Asia’s largest economy, experts say. It was hit by serious floods last week. One thousand new vehicles hit the roads daily in the capital and it could face complete gridlock as soon as next year unless traffic problems are addressed, according to a study by the private Indonesian Transportation Society. Its chief Danang Parikesit said even the metro would not be the “silver bullet” to solve Jakarta’s traffic problems. “Other projects should be done as well to really address the transportation system,” he told AFP. Jakarta is one of the last major cities in Asia without a metro. Singapore inaugurated one in 1987, Manila in late 1984 and Bangkok in 2004. — AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Oil below $112 on oversupply worries LONDON: Brent below $112 yesterday, ending a three-day rally as economic worries and concerns about oversupply offset fears of unrest in North Africa. Global oil supply exceeded demand throughout 2012, inflating oil inventories and providing a sizeable cushion to cope with any potential supply disruption. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has begun to reduce output and pumped its lowest volumes in more than a year in December in

an attempt to head off a price fall. But many investors argue the action may have come too late and oil prices are likely to slip in the next few weeks. “The over-riding fundamental feeling in the market is that crude oil is over-supplied in 2013,” said Tony Nunan, an oil risk manager at Mitsubishi. Brent futures for slipped 37 cents to $111.52 per barrel by 1247 GMT. US crude shed 40 cents to $95.16 per barrel after touching a four-month high last week. US

markets were closed on Monday for a holiday. Oil analysts at US brokerage Jefferies Bache say the rally in US crude futures may be over for a while and the next move is likely to be downwards. “We are in process of shifting from a bullish to a bearish trading stance with the extent of price declines into month’s end heavily reliant upon economic guidance,” they wrote in a note to clients. Worries about the global economy and its impact on fuel demand were renewed after US consumer sentiment

dropped to the lowest in a year in January reflecting uncertainty surrounding the country’s debt crisis. Demand worries were accentuated by OPEC’s report last week that indicated that oil supply will comfortably outstrip demand in the first half of 2013, even after an output cut by Saudi Arabia late last year. The International Energy Agency said a rebound in China’s demand and Saudi’s production cut may tighten the market, but added it was too soon to be concerned

about that. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said it expected US crude production to rise by the largest amount on record in 2013, adding to a global over-supply. Unrest in the Middle East and North Africa region, the world’s biggest source of crude supply, is still supporting prices. World attention last week was focused on an Islamic militant attack on an Algerian gas field, which claimed 80 lives of Western hostages and militants. —Reuters

JAKARTA: Commuters drive in heavy traffic in Jakarta yesterday. The Indonesian capital Jakarta will soon start construction of a metro system to try to unravel its traffic jams, 26 years after the idea was first mooted, officials said yesterday.—AFP

Peak oil and other fallacies LONDON: “The limit of production in this countr y (the United States) is being reached, and although new fields undoubtedly await discovery, the yearly (oil) output must inevitably decline, because the maintenance of output each year necessitates the drilling of an increasing number of wells. “Such an increase becomes impossible after a certain point is reached, not only because of a lack of acreage to be drilled, but because of the great number of wells that will ultimately have to be drilled.” This assessment could have been written recently about the outlook for oil production from North Dakota’s Bakken formation or by any member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO). In fact, it was written by Carl Beal at the US Bureau of Mines in 1919. Beale dramatically warned his readers: “At present the country is facing a serious shortage of petroleum ... favourable territor y has become scarcer, competition has increased and the demand for petroleum and its products has created a market that cannot be adequately supplied.” When Beale was writing, the United States was pumping 3.8 million barrels per day and had produced a total of 4 billion barrels over the previous 50 years. The bureau expected domestic reserves to run out by the 1930s (“Decline and Ultimate Production of Oil Wells” 1919). By the end of 2012, however, US wells had produced about 205 billion barrels, 50 times as much, an amount that would have been unimaginable in 1919. And daily output was almost 7 million barrels, twice as much as in Beale’s time. Fears about declining output from old fields, lack of new discoveries and peaking oil supplies crop up every few decades, almost always in the same form and usually at times when oil prices are rising strongly. There were similar oil scares in the 1970s (associated with the oil shocks, the limits to growth study and Hubbert’s peak) and again between 2005 and 2008 (again associated with a spike in prices). In every case, price rises were followed by a surge in new discoveries and field developments that brought prices back down in real terms and pushed fears about peaking supplies back to the margins of the debate. Exploration found substantial new deposits, while improvements in technology allowed more oil to be recovered from existing and new reservoirs. In the most recent case, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing have resulted in a big upward revision in reser ves and ultimately recoverable resources. The shale revolution has already doubled estimates of global gas resources and will probably have the same impact on the oil industry. Peak oilers emphasise the total amount of oil and gas below ground is fixed. While that is true in a fundamental sense, the volume of hydrocarbons is so vast it will last for centuries - long after the planet has been cooked by global warming. As a result, hardly anyone currently believes in peak oil theory (though it will make a comeback at some point in the next 20 to 30 years). Peak oil assumptions nonetheless still lurk, hidden and unexamined, behind many predictions about future oil and gas production, causing substantial forecasting errors. The total volume of hydrocarbons in a field (the original oil in place) is fixed. But the amount that can be technically and economically produced (reserves) is a more elastic concept. In many cases it has increased dramatically over time. “In the United States, crude oil discovery peaked in 1930, when proved reserves were 13 billion barrels. Over the next 60 years, the United States, without Alaska, produced 130 billion barrels. The inventory turned over ten times,” MIT Professor Morris

Adelman explained (“Genie out of the bottle: World oil since 1970”, 1995). Most of the extra reserves were added in existing fields rather than new ones. Remaining reserves in California’s giant Kern River field were estimated at just 54 million barrels in 1942 (after 43 years of depletion). Over the next 44 years, however, Kern River produced 736 million barrels, and still had another 970 million barrels remaining in 1986. “ The field had not changed, but knowledge had: science, technology and not least the detailed local geology learned by development,” Adelman wrote. The same is true in other parts of the world. An expert survey of the Middle East Gulf in 1944 put proven reserves at 16 billion barrels, with another 5 billion probable. By 1975, those same fields, excluding new discoveries, had already produced 42 billion barrels, and were estimated to have 74 billion remaining. Recovery estimates for old formations are still growing, even today. In 2012, the US Geological Survey (USGS) estimated another 32 billion barrels of oil could be added to reserve estimates for existing fields in the United States as a result of improvements in geological understanding and technology (“Assessment of Potential Additions to Conventional Oil and Gas Resources in Discovered Fields” Aug 2012). Reserves are not a gift of nature. They are an inventory paid for through expensive exploration activity and improvements in knowledge and technology. In fact, reserves/production ratios have actually been rising strongly in recent years as the industry adds new reserves faster than it depletes old ones. Buoyant oil prices and strong corporate cash flows have certainly sharpened the incentive to do more exploration activity. But oil companies also have an existential reason to keep finding new reserves, since without them they would shrivel and eventually disappear. Proved reserves have continued to rise steadily over the last 30 years, even as record amounts of oil have been produced from new and existing fields. Proved reserves hit a record 1.65 trillion barrels at the end of 2011, up from just 683 billion barrels in 1980, according to the BP “Statistical Review of World Energy”. Once reserves are understood to be a created inventory, not a natural endowment, several other fallacies about the outlook for the oil industry explode. The first is that oil will become ever more expensive in future as reserves run out and oil production shifts to ever more marginal and expensive fields. This assumes (wrongly) that reserves are fixed and declining. It also assumes new oil is much harder to find and develop than the reserves it replaces. But plenty of the reserve additions have been of oil that is only moderately expensive (such as US shale deposits) once adjusted for inflation. Nor is it inevitable that the global economy will become ever more dependent on the enormous reserves in the Middle East. Production controls and conflicts have kept output from OPEC members in the Middle East artificially low over the last 40 years, which is why the reserves/production ratio in the region is so much higher than in any other part of the world. During the long period of very low oil prices in the 1990s and early 2000s, reserve growth stagnated. But higher prices have changed the dynamics of the industry. High prices and the continuing lack of access to the major Middle Eastern fields have encouraged oil companies to turn to other areas to add reserves: shale, deepwater and the Arctic. Recent exploration and production activity has begun to add reserves much faster in other areas, especially North America, Latin America and Africa. — Reuters

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Bank lobby preached to converted in crisis talks LONDON/PARIS: Lobbyists found themselves preaching to the converted: the European Central Bank and Bank of England needed little persuading in the end that new global liquidity rules for commercial banks needed loosening. Central bankers realized they had to relent unless they wanted to remain cash machines for squeezed European lenders indefinitely, said sources close to negotiations on the rules. Earlier this month, commercial banks got their way after a campaign whose subtlety contrasted to past aggressive and unsuccessful lobbying efforts. Global regulators gave them four more years and greater flexibility to build up sufficient liquid reserves - those that can be sold quickly for cash even during crises - so that taxpayers would no longer have

to fund rescues like in 2007-09. “What helped the ECB and Bank of England rally to European banks’ cause was the realization that liquidity deficits were a central bank issue,” said a banking source close to the talks. “The change in their minds happened around the middle of last year,” said the source, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the talks. While the banking crisis late last decade was global, European lenders now need the relief on the liquidity rules most due to weak economies across the euro zone and Britain. The rethink followed the ECB pumping roughly 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of liquidity into banks in two stages late in 2011 and early last year. The operation flooded the banks with cheap three-year

loans, allowing them to buy assets such as bonds of stressed euro zone governments. But the risk was that as central banks gave with one hand, the Basel Committee of regulators would effectively take away with the other. The rules, had they not been eased, would have tied up huge sums in bank reserves - money that would no longer be available to lend into the economy and encourage growth. “The biggest change is that they have cut the size of the liquid assets buffers,” said Patricia Jackson, a former Basel Committee member. “They were going to be enormous, some 1.5 to 2 trillion euros would have to be held across Europe, but now they will be significantly smaller,” said Jackson, who is now a consultant with Ernst & Young.,

Usually a regulatory hawk, the Bank of England also softened its stand as it began worrying that the tough rules would prevent banks from financing a global recovery. “As usual they are very pragmatic and happily swung from one extreme to the other in the negotiations,” said the source. Bank of England Governor Mervyn King, who chairs the Basel Committee’s oversight body, has said the changes make the rule more realistic, a view shared by ECB President Mario Draghi. The BoE had no further comment and the Basel Committee declined to comment about the negotiations leading to the changes in the liquidity rule. However, King has said the new structure should ensure “central banks are asked to perform only as lenders of last resort and not

as lenders of first resort”. The Basel Committee, the global standard-setter on bank capital, wants lenders to be able to survive 30 days of heavy deposit outflows - a run on the bank - on their own. This rule responds to the 200709 financial crisis, aiming to avoid taxpayers having to rescue banks as they had to with Britain’s Northern Rock and others. King’s oversight body agreed to phase in the rule from 2015 over four years and widen the range of assets banks can put in the buffer to include shares and mortgage-backed securities, as well as lowerrated company bonds. This marked a significant move from the draft version two years ago, which foresaw banks meeting the targets in 2015 solely with higher-rated assets such as government bonds. —Reuters

EBRD expresses optimism over euro-zone debt crisis Bank trims 2013 growth forecast

PAMPLONA: A man holds up a euro note as he waits to buy food at a local public market, in Pamplona northern Spain yesterday. —AP

Davos must focus on unemployment issue By Hayder Tawfik

t is the time of the year when top politicians, businessmen, financiers, economists and the crowed gather for the continues debate about everything from the weather to the state of the world economy to the eurozone financial crisis to more likely this year will be the weakness of the Japanese Yen against the Euro. Some European politicians will be congratulating themselves about how

they managed to save the Euro in 2012 but some others will be more worried about the sudden weakness of the Japanese Yen. I am sure Japan will be targeted at this year’s summit. Other debates about whether the US economy will enter recession or not. Some smart economists who refuse to admit that their predictions over the last few years have been completely wrong will raise this. I am sure by now they will be shifting their assessments and will be talking about weaker economic growth. They could be right, but the issue they all should focus on is how to bring down the very high unemployment around the world. It is a big challenge but they should not think a lot about it, as the Federal Reserve has shown them the way to achieve this. No one can deny the fact that future economic growth in real GDP per capita will be slower in the coming years than in any extended period in the past. This is not a clever guess just look around the world and in specific in Europe and you will see how the very high unemployment has been eating into economic growth and governments budgets. The twin combination of governments cutting down on spending and consumers forced to reduce their debts will for sure will lead to weaker economic growth. This vicious circle should be broken and Ben Bernanke the chairman of the Federal Reserve has realized this way back in 2008. The aggressive measures he has taken since has lead to falling unemployment and economic growth picking up. A job well done and the rest should take notice of it before it is too late. My simple question is what is more important for any credible government, job creation or growth? I think with job creation comes economic growth and social wellbeing and stability. The organizers in Davos should know that hard economic times requires drastic measures not only to create growth but measures to reduce unemployment. At the same time they should continue to build risk resilience. European politicians should take drastic measure to deregulate the complicated labor and trade union laws. Thinking of how to reduce high unemployment should be their

top priority and should be the main topic of discussion. Industrialists and businessmen who are gathering in Davos should think seriously about playing a bigger part in creating jobs as they sit on trillions of dollar cash or they will face the wrath of their shareholders soon. They too have a very big social responsibility. Some of the reasons raised by some economists in their argument that future global growth will be much weaker than the past are aging population, rising income inequality, high government and consumers debt burden and automation. I have no worries about these factors apart from the automation that I think have been contributing to the high unemployment over the last decades. Industries should not take this for granted and start replacing employment with robots and machines. Over the last 40 years the car industry started the full automation of the car production but in the process they created very big and vibrant supply chain of small companies. This is a lesson other industries should take notice of and try to share their social responsibilities. A weaker future global economic growth may be the norm as it has been suggested. However, a stronger one, I think is in the hands of politicians and central bankers. The US lead by the Federal Reserve should continue to print money and other developed economies should do the same and worry less about the potential threat of inflation. As I have been saying in my previous articles the very high unemployment rates will be capping wage increases for years to come hence lower inflation. In the long run the creation of responsible jobs and economic growth should lead too much higher productivity and lower inflation. It is those unproductive jobs that should be avoided at any costs. The pessimists who are going around and arguing against printing money and future inflation threat are ignoring the historical fact that mankind always looking to progress and innovate itself and in the process will find substitutions to its food and fuel so it can meet the future demand. The developed economies need the urgent help from economies of China and India to do more and take drastic measures to raise the standard of living of their citizens. We should all be grateful for the contributions they are making to global economic growth but there are still huge untapped domestic demands for better standard of living. The majority of the Chinese and Indians are still living in rural areas with very little basic infrastructure such as transportation, electricity and education. The focus should be on the improvements of the basic living standard and education. Governments should for the sake of the well being of their citizens and to raise their standard of living, try at least to remove complicated red tape, reduce corruption and eliminate trade barriers. All these should help in creating better environment for stronger economic growth. Mankind instinct for progress and unlimited appetite for better living will ultimately lead to better economic growth once the right environments are created. It is the responsibility of all those meeting at Davos that they make sure that they address the urgent issue of high unemployment and they show kindness to those who look to hear some good news. —Hayder Tawfik - Executive Vice President of Asset Management, at Dimah Capital- HT@dimah.com.kw

LONDON: The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development expressed optimism yesterday that the worst of the eurozone debt crisis was over, but trimmed the 2013 growth forecast for its investment region in the ex-Soviet bloc. The EBRD cut the growth forecast for the countries where it operates to 3.1 percent this year, the London-based institution announced in its latest economic outlook report. That compared with the previous estimate in October of 3.2 percent gross domestic product (GDP) growth. “Downside risks to the outlook have continued to recede as the likelihood of further deterioration of the euro-zone crisis diminishes,” the EBRD said in the report. “Growth in the transition region continued to slow down in the third quarter of 2012, but the deceleration is showing signs of bottoming out.” The economies in the EBRD’s investment zone

shrank by 2.6 percent last year, hit by fallout from the long-running euro-zone sovereign debt crisis, after impressive expansion of 4.6 percent in 2011. “For the first time in a long while we are now seeing the possibility of a reduction in the risks facing emerging Europe, especially the risks from the euro-zone,” said EBRD chief economist Erik Berglof. “It is too early to sound the all-clear but there are signs of stabilization,” Berglof added. The London-based institution added that key policy measures-including the European Central Bank’s fire-fighting policies-had helped support the improved outlook for the euro-zone. “The EBRD report points to policy decisions taken within the euro-zone in recent months as increasing the chances of an economic improvement in the single currency bloc, albeit a very slow and gradual one,” it said.

Juncker bows out as euro-zone firefighter BRUSSELS: Luxembourg premier Jean-Claude Juncker chairs his last meeting of Eurogroup finance ministers yesterday after years battling the debt crisis, before handing over to a Dutch newcomer amid relative euro-zone calm. The succession issue, with a lone candidate bidding to overcome French reticence, will dominate the talks starting from 1600 GMT, relegating discussion about an increasingly contested Cyprus bailout to second-tier status. Arriving at the European Union headquarters venue shortly before 1200 GMT, Juncker said he was leaving feeling “some melancholy, but mainly relief.” Originally expected to lead the agenda at these talks, a formal request for aid from Nicosia appears to have gone backwards with the long shadow of Russian money-laundering especially hanging over negotiations. So much so that German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, in an interview with German and French Jean-Claude Juncker newspapers published on Monday, queried if any bailout should even take place-unless absolutely necessary for the wider eurozone’s collective interests. “We’re still a long way from being able to decide on an aid package,” Schaeuble told Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “First of all, we have to examine whether the problems in Cyprus represent a danger for the euro-zone as a whole. That is one of the pre-conditions for the money coming from the euro rescue fund.” This flagged one issue for the ministers, as Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem-who took up his national job only in November-bids to secure the high-profile role as Juncker’s replacement. The mood has changed in 2013, mainly due to European Central Bank action to guarantee downwards-pressure on bond yields for governments which find interest rates on the debt market becoming prohibitive, as was the case for Spain and Italy last year. “Markets are no longer betting that the ECB will commit suicide by letting major member countries implode,” said Holger Schmieding, chief economist with Germany’s Berenberg Bank. Even Greece, despite a sixth year of recession, is said by its public creditors to be on the mend. International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde told Athens daily Kathimerini on Sunday that no additional measures would be necessary if Greece carried out its obligations under the re-written aid programme finally agreed in December. Vision for Eurogroup “But if the structural reforms are not carried out...then more cuts would be necessary,” she underlined. Dijsselbloem formally announced his candidacy on Thursday in the Dutch parliament, and after a flying visit that evening to Madrid to secure Spain’s backing, faces one last hurdle on Monday night, which is to convince Paris with his manifesto for the job. “We’ll see Monday how it goes. My French colleague has asked for a presentation of...(my) vision for the Eurogroup,” Dijsselbloem said after a symbolic meeting on Juncker’s home ground on Friday. Juncker said on Monday of this hurdle: “I don’t think there are unsurmountable problems.” Dijsselbloem is more left-leaning politically, although the change still symbolizes to most an acceleration in the pressure on southern eurozone economies to change political course. But even Germany’s conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel found left-leaning rivals stealing a surprise march on Sunday in a regional election which ran counter to a recent strong showing in the opinion polls for Merkel, the top powerbroker in the euro-zone debt crisis. Ministers from the 17 euro-zone states are also due to tackle the thorny question of “legacy assets” at the evening talks-in other words, which old banking debt can be considered eligible in the event of future recapitalization of lenders by the euro-zone rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism. Today’s meeting of all 27 EU finance ministers, meanwhile, will focus on a bid by 11 euro-zone states to launch a tax on financial transactions. —AFP

“Recent such decisions include the European Central Bank signalling its readiness to help countries under pressure on the sovereign debt markets as well as moves to create a European Banking Union. “The euro area crisis will continue to negatively impact growth in the transition region, but as the euro-zone recession bottoms out economic activity in the transition countries that depend on it is likely to stop deteriorating.” The EBRD was formed in 1991 to help former Soviet bloc countries switch to a market economy, and invests alongside private-sector firms. It agreed earlier last year to expand its reach into emerging Arab democracies. In May, it approved the pumping of one billion euros ($1.2 billion) into nations in the Middle East and North Africa region, at the lender’s annual meeting. At the same time, the group appointed its first British president, veteran civil servant Suma Chakrabarti. —AFP

Travel the world with Gulf Bank’s enhanced Gulf Rewards Program KUWAIT: Gulf Bank has announced the enhancement of its ‘Gulf Rewards’ program, a new and exclusive program, and one of its kind in Kuwait, allowing Gulf Bank credit cardholders to redeem their loyalty points with more than 300 airlines and over 150,000 hotels world-wide. This unique program rewards credit card customers with instantly redeemable points that are exchangeable for an unparalleled range of travel offers and benefits. Points are awarded for every transaction made with either a Gulf Bank Visa or Gulf Bank MasterCard credit card, cash withdrawal or POS, and the more a customer spends on their credit card, either locally or internationally, the more points they will earn. Points can be redeemed for flights or hotel bookings from partner airlines and hotel operators at any time through the Bank’s dedicated website. Aly Shalaby, General Manager - Consumer Banking Group at Gulf Bank, said: “Gulf Bank’s exciting Gulf Rewards program is unique in that customers can book flights and vacations at a moment’s notice, choosing their flights or hotels from one of the widest selections of airlines and hotels currently on offer anywhere in the world. Unlike other schemes, ours allows customers to book flights 365 days a year without seasonal travel restrictions or limits on seats, and it also covers all hotel room types and even allows customers to benefit from extra air miles or points with the airlines or hotels they are booking with. We value our customers’ loyalty and we believe in building long- term relationships, which is why we try so hard to provide customers with the best services available.” Gulf Rewards makes it easy for customers

to exchange points for flights or hotel vouchers. To ensure the redemption procedure is as straight forward as possible, Gulf Bank has created a dedicated webpage on its website at www.e-gulfbank.com, where customers can view their points, check their balance

Aly Shalaby, General Manager, Consumer Banking Group at Gulf Bank and booking history, redeem points instantly, receive e-ticket confirmation of their bookings, and benefit from frequently advertised special offers. To find out more about Gulf Bank’s latest programs and promotions, customers should visit the Bank’s bilingual website at www.e-gulfbank.com, call the Customer Contact Center on 1805805, or visit one of Gulf Bank’s 56 branches in Kuwait.

Pearson warns of another tough year after profit fall LONDON: British education and media group Pearson warned it expected tough market conditions to continue in 2013 after weak trading in its key fourth-quarter selling season hit earnings last year. The Financial Times newspaper and Penguin books publisher said it now expects to report on Feb. 25 adjusted earnings per share of around 84 pence for 2012, below the 84.9 pence it had said it expected in October, due to restrained government funding on education in developed markets and weak advertising. The result had already expected to be down on the previous year’s earnings of 86.5 pence a share due to last year’s sale of its 50 per cent stake in the FTSE International market indexes business to the London Stock Exchange which it said contributed 2.2 pence a share to earnings in 2011. “If you look at the statement it’s pretty clear that 2013 is going to be another grim year,” Liberum analyst Ian Whittaker said. “Overall it’s a weak statement, it’s a downgrade to guidance and the mere fact they’ve had a downgrade to what is seen as a defensive stock is likely to drive a negative reaction.” Shares in the group were down 3 percent at 1202 pence by 0903 GMT, back to the level they were trading at at the start of the year following a jump last week.

The weakening conditions come at a time of widespread change for Pearson - for years one of the most stable media groups in Britain. Marjorie Scardino stepped down at the end of last year after 16 years as chief executive, making way for the head of the international education arm, John Fallon, to take over. The appointment however has also resulted in the departure of the FT Group chief executive, Rona Fairhead, who missed out on the top job. At the same time the group is merging its Penguin book publisher with Random House, owned by Germany’s Bertelsmann, and it faces constant media speculation as to whether it will sell its FT Group under the new CEO, who has few ties to the newspaper industry. Weak government spending in developed markets weighed on its school publishing business last year, while professional education struggled due to changes in training programmes in Britain, which has resulted in the planned closure of the Pearson in Practice business. In North America it said it would report modest revenue growth last year after increasing its market share in what was a particularly tough year, with net sales for the combined US School and Higher Education publishing industries declining by 11 percent in the first 11 months of the year. —Reuters

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Patrick Préfontaine, President of DTI Solutions, Ghaith Al Ghaith, CEO of flydubai, Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Kent Craver, Regional Director for Passenger Satisfaction and Revenue, Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and Adrian Bradley, CFO of Jumeirah Group, addressed local and international media at a press conference to mark the start of flydubai’s operations to Malé held at the Jumeirah Vittaveli Resort, Maldives.

flydubai celebrates the inauguration of its new route to Malé with a traditional cake cutting ceremony with the Maldives Minister of Tourism and other industry partners.

flydubai touches down in exotic Maldives New route makes leisure travel affordable KUWAIT: flydubai, Dubai’s innovative low-cost airline, has inaugurated services to its latest destination - MalÈ, the capital of the Maldives. The inaugural flight, FZ561, departed Dubai Terminal 2 at 0035hrs on Sunday (20 January), arriving at Malé International Airport (Ibrahim Nasir International Airport) at 0620hrs local time. A water cannon salute and delegation of senior Maldivian state officials received the aircraft and flydubai’s Chief Executive Officer, Ghaith Al-Ghaith on the runway. Together with local and international media, they later attended a press conference at the Jumeirah Vittaveli resort. Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor, Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, said: “The start of flydubai’s flights open our wonderful nation to a wider number of tourists, while also offering

affordable fares to Dubai for our residents. Through this regular service, we look forward to welcoming travellers from a wider range of destinations and continuing to develop our tourism appeal.” Speaking at yesterday’s press conference, flydubai’s CEO, Ghaith AlGhaith, said: “Launching flights to MalÈ is a great start to the year as we introduce our affordable fares and innovative onboard services to a new market. I am confident that the Maldives will prove attractive to passengers from across our network, particularly those in the GCC and CIS regions who can transit easily through Dubai’s aviation hub.” Furthering its commitment to enhancing passenger experience, flydubai has become the first airline to offer daily updated digital newspapers through its In-Flight Entertainment (IFE) system. The eReader platform provides

access to 45 newspapers in seven languages from across the globe in pdf format. Patrick PrÈfontaine, President of DTI Solutions, the airline industry’s leading provider of in-flight digital reading software which supplied flydubai’s eReader, said: “We’re delighted to have helped flydubai achieve this historic project. We truly believe that eReader solutions are strategic for airlines to provide their passengers with relevant and engaging content, while benefiting from the noted advantages of digital content such as weight and cost reductions, compared to paper-based media onboard.” Meanwhile, joining flydubai in the Maldives were representatives from Boeing, who delivered the airline’s latest 737-800 aircraft in December 2012. “We are extremely proud of our partnership with flydubai and their confi-

dence in the Boeing 737. Thanks to its unparalleled operating efficiencies and unique Boeing Sky Interior cabin environment, the 737 is an important enabler of flydubai’s business model, which is based on affordable fares and a superior onboard experience,” said Kent Craver, Regional Director for Passenger Satisfaction and Revenue, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “It is the confidence that flydubai and other airlines around the world have in this airplane that made 2012 a record year for the 737 program which accumulated 1,124 net orders, the most any Boeing model has had in a single year. We look forward to continuing our relationship with flydubai as it rapidly expands its fleet and its network.” flydubai now flies five times a week to the Maldives, a nation consisting of twenty-six atolls and 1,190 coral islands.

Boubyan Bank posts KD10 million profit BOD recommends distribution of 5% bonus shares KUWAIT: Boubyan Bank announced a net profit of KD 10 million, growing by 25% compared to year 2011 at earnings per share of 5.75 Fils Meanwhile, the Board of Directors recommended distribution of bonus shares of 5% for the first time since year 2007 (the last time the Bank made profit distributions). Chairman & MD of Boubyan Bank, Adel Abdul-Wahab Al-Majed indicated that this represents a new achievement for the Bank, as profitability continues to grow since 2010, then 2012 witnessed the regaining of profit distributions to shareholders. “Our regaining of profit distribution is the best news we bring to our shareholders who supported us during the reconstruction phase started three years ago, which bore its fruits, thanks to their support, through many achievements made and expansion objectives realized on the local market level in general and Islamic banking services, in particular,” added Al-Majed. Al-Majed noted: “Within a short period, namely since the strategic changes witnessed in 2009 as main-

ly represented in the entry of the NBK as a major stakeholder in the Bank, Boubyan Bank managed to prove its competiveness in the Islamic banking products and serv-

Adel Abdul-Wahab Al-Majed ices market, which continue to attract more interest from customers. Positive Indicators Al-Majed highlighted some noticeable positive indicators for the

Bank including the increase in net financing income to KD 53 million by the end of year 2012 compared to KD 40 million for year 2011; growing by 33% , in addition to the increase in customers’ deposits to around KD 1.4 billion compared to around KD 1.2 billion; growing by 16%. In addition, the Bank’s total assets as by the end of December 2012 amounted to KD 1.9 billion compared to KD 1.5 billion by the end of December 2011, boosting up by 22%. The Bank’s total equity increased to KD 254 million compared to KD 244 million for year 2011; resulting in a Capital Adequacy Ratio of 24.4% against 12%, being the minimum required ratio stipulated by the Central Bank of Kuwait. Al-Majed added that positive indicators also include a rise in financing portfolio to KD 1.27 billion by the end of December 2012 compared to KD 1.03 billion, growing by 23%, in addition to the continuous rise in the Bank’s customer base. Five-Year Strategy On the other hand, Al-Majed

emphasized that the Bank continues to implement its Five-Year Strategy (2010-2014) started three years ago, which aims at more expansion in the Kuwaiti market through distinguished Shari’ah compliant products and services catering to the different needs of both companies and individuals. In addition, the Bank will adopt the new strategy to be implemented during the period from 2015-2020 entitled “2020 Strategy.” Regional and International Recognition Concluding his statements, AlMajed noted the Bank’s distinguished achievements realized during last year represented in winning 5 regional and international awards including: Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait for Customer Service for the second year in a row from “Service Hero”, Best Islamic Bank in Elite Credit Card Services from “The Banker Middle East Magazine”, Best Islamic Bank in Kuwait from “World Finance”, Fastest Growing Bank in Kuwait from “The Banker Middle East Magazine” and Best Islamic Bank in

The country is particularly popular with tourists from Russia, CIS and the GCC, who are attracted by the lush white sandy beaches, serene turquoise lagoons and richly colourful coral reefs that are renowned the world over for their bio-diversity and radiant flora and fauna. Gerald Lawless, President and CEO of Jumeirah Group, said: “We congratulate the flydubai team on opening up the new route to the Maldives. This will allow many more people to experience the exotic beauty of this remarkable nation, where we are proud to run two of the most beautiful luxury hotels: Jumeirah Vittaveli and Jumeirah Dhevanafushi. We also appreciate the significant contribution flydubai makes to the growth of tourism in Dubai and the region.” flydubai’s network now spans more than 50 destinations in 32 countries

across the Middle East, Africa, Indian Subcontinent, Asia, the CIS and Central & Eastern Europe. Flight Details Flights to Malé operate five times a week. l Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays: FZ561 is scheduled to depart Dubai Terminal 2 at 1855, landing in MalÈ International Airport (Ibrahim Nasir International Airport) at 0040. The return flights leave on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with FZ562 departing at 0140hrs and arriving in Dubai at 0540hrs local time. l Saturdays and Sundays: FZ561 is scheduled to depart Dubai at 0030hrs, landing in Malé at 0615hrs local time. The return flight, FZ562, departs on the same day at 0855hrs, arriving in Dubai at 1255hrs local time.

Get latest iPad devices from VIVA for KD18 KUWAIT: Kuwait’s fastest-growing telecom operator, VIVA, announced yesterday the launch of an exciting promotion for the latest Apple iPads through specially tailored packages fit to meet all customers’ needs. VIVA is presenting its customers with the first bundle of its kind in Kuwait and the opportunity to enjoy the latest iPad devices with a free mini router starting at KD18 per month. VIVA will continuously work towards presenting customers with the latest from the technology world, and ensure that it is

available to all through specially designed bundles and packages. VIVA’s strategy is customer centric and continuously strives to cater to the different needs of its existing and potential customers. Furthermore, VIVA’s customers will be able to take advantage of this offer during the InfoConnect 2013 exhibition as well as many other exciting promotions tailored to meet their needs. To find out more about VIVA’s numerous competitive promotions, products and packages visit any of the 14 VIVA branches.

London Heathrow cancels more flights LONDON: London’s Heathrow airport cancelled 10 percent of flights yesterday because of snow, about half the number cut on Sunday, and said there could be further disruption with more snowfall expected. Heathrow, Europe’s busiest airport, said it had cut around 130 flights - most operated by IAG’S British Airways - from its schedule yesterday to allow more space between aircraft because of low visibility. “Many airports have plenty of spare runway capacity so aircraft can be spaced out more during low visibility without causing delays and cancellations. Because Heathrow operates at almost full capacity, there is simply no room to reschedule the delayed flights,” a Heathrow spokesman said.

The airport scrapped some 250 flights on Sunday and said the decision had helped it to operate smoothly. British Airways said it had cancelled around 350 flights in total since Friday. Further light snowfalls and poor visibility were forecast at Heathrow through yesterday and Tuesday, the Met Office national weather service said, adding to the likelihood to further Cancellations. Ferrovial’s Heathrow has spent 36 million pounds ($57 million) on upgrading its winter weather equipment since 2010 - a year when it was heavily criticized for almost shutting down when snow hit just before Christmas. It now has 130 snow-clearing vehicles. —Reuters

Dollar gains as economic data disappoints markets NBK WEEKLY MONEY MARKETS REPORT KUWAIT: The US dollar started the week on a soft tone against a basket of currencies as the risk rally sparked by the unanimity of the ECB’s decision combined with positive comments from Mario Draghi, continued. The greenback started to gain traction at mid-week as data released from the US manufacturing sector disappointed the market and pushed investors towards safer assets. However, better-thanexpected employment and housing data in the US along-side falling borrowing costs in Spain fueled the risk-on trade and sent investors chasing higher-yielding assets such as stocks and abandoning their safe-havens. Nonetheless, the move was limited by constant US debt concerns. The euro reached a high of 1.3404 as the risk rally from the previous week continued. However, the single currency lost most of its gains after comments from the EU Finance minister, Jean-Claude Juncker stated that the Euro level is “dangerously high,” pushing the currency to the low of the week at 1.3257. The currency gained dramatically on Thursday as positive figures from the US and China pushed investors to riskier assets. The Euro closed the week at 1.3321. Cable lost grounds throughout the week, as sentiments on the economy remained vulnerable after a recent series of weak economic data, including a contraction

in the services sector in December that fuelled concerns over a triple-dip recession. The Sterling Pound started the week at 1.6132 and then reached a high of 1.6155 but quickly lost its gains. The Pound broke a number of key support levels to reach a low of 1.5854, and closed the week at 1.5870. The Japanese yen continued to depreciate across the board, as investors anticipate aggressive bond purchasing programs to be added to match the expected target of 2% on the Bank of Japan upcoming meeting on the 21-22 of January. The yen gained some momentum amid comments from the Japanese economics minister that a weaker Yen would hurt the economy. On Friday, the yen dropped against the greenback to reach 90.21 amid news that the BoJ will engage in an unlimited bond buying program, an effort to push inflation to 2%, its highly anticipated target rate. The Yen gained some footing as concerns over the US debt ceiling pushed the currency to 89.70 levels. The Japanese yen closed the week at 90.10. The Australian dollar dropped dramatically after figures from the labor market showed that the unemployment rate rose above expectations. The Aussie continued to drop despite good numbers from China, Australia’s biggest trade partner. The currency opened

the week at 1.0535 and reached a high of 1.0580. After the figures, the currency dropped dramatically to reach 1.0486 and closed the week at 1.0510. Manufacturing The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s general economic index dropped to -5.8 from 4.6 in December. Readings lower than zero signal manufacturing in the area covering eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware is contracting. The report follows New York Fed data released earlier this week showing factory activity shrank for a sixth straight month and raises the risk manufacturing, once a pillar of the recovery, will again weaken in early 2013. Looming changes in federal spending and stagnant prices give companies little reason to expand inventories, which may hurt producers. The Empire States Manufacturing Index dropped to -7.8 from the previous -7.3. Housing sector The rebound in US homebuilding accelerated in December, capping the best year for the industry since 2008 and adding to signs residential real estate is contributing to economic growth. Housing Starts climbed 12.1% last month to a 954,000 annual rate, exceeding

expectations. In a separate report, building permits, a measure for future construction, climbed less than starts, indicating that the industry may also have acquired a lift from unseasonably warm weather, a sign that the industry will take a break in the coming months. The number of authorizations issued climbed 0.3% in December to a 903,000 annual rate, the most since July 2008, from a 900,000 pace in November. Confidence in US Consumer sentiment unexpectedly deteriorated for a second straight month to its lowest level in over a year in January, with many consumers citing the recent “fiscal cliff” debate. The sharp drop in sentiment over the last two months coincides with bitter federal budget negotiations that have led to higher taxes for many Americans. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan’s preliminary reading on the overall index of consumer sentiment came in at 71.3, the lowest reading since December 2011, down from 72.9 the month before. The Index was expected to increase to 75. Retail sales Retail Sales in the US rose more than expected indicating that consumers looked beyond the political bickering regarding the “Fiscal Cliff” at the end of the year. Sales climbed by 0.5%,

the biggest gain in three months, after a revised 0.4% increase in November that was larger than previously reported. Industrial production Euro-area industrial production unexpectedly fell in November, adding to signs the 17nation currency bloc’s contraction deepened in the fourth quarter. Output in the euro area dropped 0.3% from October, when it declined a revised 1%. British inflation held at 2.7% for the third month running in December, in line with forecast as a rise in gas and electricity bills was curbed by falls in fuel costs. The Office for National Statistics said utility prices rose 3.9% on the year while fuel costs fell by 0.2%. Stubborn inflation, above the Bank of England’s 2% target since November 2009, is likely to have been a key argument against quantitative easing to support growth at the bank’s monthly policy meeting previously. High inflation has put pressure on consumer spending, which accounts for around two thirds of all expenditure in the British economy. Kuwait Kuwaiti Dinar at 0.28175 The USDKWD opened at 0.28175 yesterday morning.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

technology

Strong regulations needed for safer hydrofracking CHICAGO: Can hydrofracking-using fluids to break open underground rock formations and recover trapped natural gas-be done safely? This is a question often asked people who read stories linking shale gas production to incidents of water pollution. While fracking is frequently blamed for contaminating groundwater, studies indicate that pollution may actually stem from more basic issues like faulty well construction and design or improper wastewater disposal. No matter the cause of the pollution,

people should not be forced to trade their children’s health or quality of life for cheap energy. Serious questions about the environmental and publichealth impact of natural-gas drilling need to be addressed. While the burden of proof is on industry and regulators to show that shale gas development can be done without polluting the water and air or damaging our climate, one needs to be clear-eyed on the issue. Like any industrial activity, natural-gas development

has risks, which can be reduced in a variety of ways. But with thousands of gas producers and service companies supporting them, there is no way the good intentions of a few in industry are going to win the day without help. There is no substitute for strong regulation and vigilant enforcement. The Environmental Defense Fund is spearheading a national campaign to make sure that public health and the environment are not compromised by the natural-gas industry. Our objectives

are simple. The rules on well construction, wastewater management, and air emissions must be reformed. Full disclosure of the fracking fluids deployed at wells must be required, because communities have a right to know what chemicals are used in their midst. Claims that production activities are safe mean nothing unless data on air emissions and water quality are regularly collected and publicly shared. Lastly, emissions of methane, the main ingredient in natural gas and a powerful green-

house gas, should be limited to 1 percent or less of the total extracted at a well. Even small leaks can undo much of the environmental benefit of substituting natural gas for coal or oil, limiting the positive role that natural gas can play in a low-carbon future. Achieving these objectives will not be easy, but it is essential. The jury is still out on whether gas production can and will be done safely. The public will judge industry and regulators harshly if they fail to get this right. —-MCT

Yale physicists move closer to working quantum computer Non-destructive measurement system

TOKYO: Yasushi Yamamoto, spokesman of Japan’s battery maker GS Yuasa that manufactured the battery installed in Boeing’s Dreamliners worldwide, answers questions from journalists at the headquarters in Kyoto yesterday. — AP

Japan, US team probes Dreamliner battery maker TOKYO: Japanese and American safety inspectors were yesterday probing the company that makes batteries for Boeing’s Dreamliner after the aircraft’s worldwide fleet was grounded over safety fears. Aviation regulators were focusing on the lithium-ion batteries as the cause of a glitch that forced an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight into an emergency landing last week. Despite the investigation shares in GS Yuasa, which manufactures the batteries for the Dreamliner’s advanced electronics systems, were up 0.95 percent to 318 yen in afternoon Tokyo trade. The Japanese firm is just one of many contractors in a complex global chain that led to three years of delays before Boeing delivered its first 787 to ANA in 2011. “Engineers from the FAA (US Federal Aviation Administration), Boeing and our aviation bureau started a probe this morning that is mainly focusing on GS Yuasa’s production line,” said Yasuo Ishii, a transport ministry safety official. “They are checking on whether there have been any issues in the production process. We still don’t know what caused the battery problem and so we are looking into all possibilities.” Ishii said the inspection does not mean authorities think GS Yuasa, headquartered in the western city of Kyoto, was to blame for the problems. Investigators on Friday released a picture showing the blackened remains of the battery in the ANA plane. They are also inspecting the aircraft’s black box which contains data from the flight that may help to assess how the battery was affected. Boeing’s cutting-edge new planes suf-

fered a series of glitches earlier this month, prompting a global alert from the FAA that led to the worldwide grounding of all 50 operational 787s. The risk of fire from overheating powerpacks emerged as a major concern after pilots were forced to land a domestic ANA flight on January 16 due to smoke apparently linked to the lithium-ion battery. US investigators probing a fire on a Japan Airlines 787 after it landed in Boston on January 7 ruled out an overcharged battery as the cause, although the powerpacks were undergoing further tests. On Monday, ANA said the Dreamliner’s grounding forced it to cancel 335 flights up to next Sunday, affecting nearly 48,000 passengers. Cancellations on domestic routes from January 16 to January 27 amount to 292 flights for 44,074 passengers, while 43 international flights have been cut, affecting 3,778 passengers, the airline said. Flights affected include those from Tokyo to San Jose, Seattle and Beijing. ANA also said it would not receive a Dreamliner that was on order due to the grounding, but declined to say if it would cancel any purchases it has made to date. “We were supposed to receive our 18th plane from Boeing later this month,” a company spokesman said. “But as the suspension continues, it may be difficult for us to receive it as scheduled. So far, we have no plans to review anything related to our 787 contracts,” he added. ANA and its domestic rival JAL are key Dreamliner customers with Japan’s two biggest airlines having ordered a combined 111 aircraft so far.— AFP

Money seeks ideas NEW YORK: Where does innovation come from? For one answer, consider the work of MIT professor Eric von Hippel, who has calculated that every year US consumers spend $20 billion in time and money trying to improve on household products-for example, modifying a dog-food bowl so it doesn’t slide on the floor. Von Hippel estimates that these backyard Edisons collectively invest more in their efforts than the largest corporation anywhere does in R&D. The low-tech kludges of consumers might once have had little impact. But one company, Procter & Gamble, has actually found a way to tap into them; it now gets many of its ideas for new Swiffers and toothpaste tubes from the general public. One way it has managed to do so is with the help of InnoCentive, a company in Waltham, Massachusetts, that specializes in organizing prize competitions over the Internet. Volunteer “solvers” can try to earn $500 to $1 million by coming up with answers to a company’s problems. We like Procter & Gamble’s story because the company has discovered creative, systematic ways to pay for ideas originating far outside its own development labs. It’s made an innovation in funding innovation, which is the subject of this business report. How we pay for innovation is a question prompted, in part, by the beleaguered state of the venture capital industry. Over the long term, it’s the system that’s most often gotten the economic incentives right. Consider that although fewer than two of every 1,000 new American businesses are venture backed, these account for 11 percent of public companies and 6 percent of U.S. employment, according to Harvard Business School professor Josh Lerner. (Many of those companies, although not all, have succeeded because they’ve brought new technology to market.) Yet losses since the dot-com boom in the late 1990s have taken a toll. In August, the nation’s largest public pension fund, the California Public Employees Retirement System, said it would basically stop investing with the state’s venture funds, citing returns of 0.0 percent over a decade. The crisis has to do partly with the size of

venture funds—$1 billion isn’t uncommon. That means they need big money plays at a time when entrepreneurs are headed on exactly the opposite course. On the Web, it’s never been cheaper to start a company. You can outsource software development, rent a thousand servers, and order hardware designs from China. That is significant because company founders can often get the money they need from seed accelerators, angel investors, or Internet-based funding mechanisms such as Kickstarter. “We’re in a period of incredible change in how you fund innovation, especially entrepreneurial innovation,” says Ethan Mollick, a professor of management science at the Wharton School. He sees what’s happening as a kind of democratization-the bets are getting smaller, but also more spread out and numerous. He thinks this could be a good thing. “One of the ways we get more innovation is by taking more draws,” he says. In an example of the changes ahead, Mollick cites plans by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to allow “crowdfunding”-it will let companies raise $1 million or so directly from the public, every year, over the Internet. (This activity had previously been outlawed as a hazard to gullible investors.) Crowdfunding may lead to a major upset in the way inventions get financed-especially those with popular appeal and modest funding requirements, like new gadget designs. Citizen crowds have far less to offer in capital-intensive domains such as manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and energy. Innovation in these sectors requires investments in the tens and hundreds of millions of dollars. What’s more, the payoff time is more often measured in decades than in months. Yet R&D funding in these industries is also in transition. Manufacturers, for example, are pooling resources with government help to try to gain an R&D edge in newer areas such as 3-D printing. So what’s at stake in all this? The case of the pharmaceutical industry is instructive. In 2010, half of the top 10 corporate R&D spenders, including all of the top three, were drug firms.—MCT

YALE: Physicists at Yale University have devised a way to give scientists greater control in the volatile realm of quantum mechanics by letting them observe quantum data without disruption -an important step towards building a working quantum computer. A report on SciTechDaily said the scientists developed a new, nondestructive measurement system for observing, tracking and documenting all changes in a qubit’s state, preserving the qubit’s informational value. “Our experiment is a dress rehearsal for a type of process essential for quantum computing,” said Michel Devoret, the Frederick William Beinecke Professor of Applied Physics & Physics at Yale. “What this experiment really allows is an active understanding of quantum mechanics. It’s one thing to stare at a theoretical formula and it’s another thing to be able to control a real quantum object,” he added. Devoret is also the principal investigator of research published Jan. 11 in the journal Science. The SciTechDaily report said this could greatly improves the prospects of quantum computing, with quantum computers being envisioned to be exponentially faster than today’s most powerful computers. Other authors of the paper include S. Shankar, M. Mirrahimi, F. Schackert, K. Geerlings, T. Brecht, K.M. Sliwa, B. Abdo, L. Frunzio, S.M. Girvin, and R.J. Schoelkopf. Support for the research was provided by the National Science Foundation, the United States Army Research Office, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity, the Agence National de Recherche, and the College de France. In quantum systems, microscopic units called qubits represent information, with qubits assuming either of two states 0 or 1, or both simultaneously. While it is important to recognize and track their state for quantum computing, the act of monitoring them usually damages their information content. But now, Yale physicists drew up a new, non-

destructive measurement system for observing, tracking and documenting all changes in a qubit’s state, preserving the qubit’s informational value. “In principle, the scientists said, this should allow them to monitor the qubit’s state in order to correct for random errors,” SciTechDaily said. “As long as you know what error process has occurred, you can correct. And then everything’s fine. You can basically undo the errors,” Devoret said. Michael Hatridge, a postdoctoral associate in physics at Yale and lead author of the Science paper, added this is the key - “the ability to talk to the qubit and hear what it’s telling you.” “A major problem with quantum computing

is the finite lifetime of information stored in the qubits, which steadily decays and which must be corrected. We now know that it is possible to do this correction by feedback involving a continuous measurement. Our work advances the prospects of large-scale quantum computers by opening the door to continuous measurementbased quantum feedback,” he said. The Yale physicists have successfully measured one qubit, but now the challenge is to measure and control many at once. For now, the team is developing ultra-fast digital electronics for this purpose. “We are on the threshold between the ability to measure and control one or two qubits, and many,” Hatridge said. — MCT

The first quantum computer

The machine that will help end TB DURBAN: KwaMsane Township sits amid rolling hills in South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal Province. Drive 30 minutes to the west and elephants, giraffes, zebras, and rhinos often stroll by the side of a highway that cuts through a game park. A few kilometers to the east lie sprawling sugarcane fields, which shimmer in the subtropical sun and appear to spill into the Indian Ocean. KwaMsane is beautiful, but it has one of the world’s highest rates of multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis, an often fatal form of the disease. In November 2011, Jabu Ngcobo, 25, felt a pain in her side and went to the KwaMsane clinic, which resembles a trailer park. The clinic’s trailers-called parkhomes heresurround a small covered courtyard that serves as a waiting room, with patients sitting in plastic chairs. “I was all along thinking I had MDR TB because my two brothers and my sister had it,” says Ngcobo. Her siblings learned they had the dangerous form of the disease only after giving sputum samples, which had to be transported to a laboratory in Durban, 275 km to the south. The lab then had to nurture cultures of Mycobacterium tuberculosis until the colonies were large enough to be subjected to drug susceptibility tests. At best, the process takes six weeks; in reality, given the need to transport the samples, the likelihood of lab backlogs, and delays in reporting the results, three months often pass before patients in rural towns like KwaMsane learn whether they will benefit from a relatively simple, six-month course of antibiotics or instead need an 18-month barrage of heavy-duty drugs. The delay can mean the difference between permanent lung damage, or even death, and recovering with no long-term consequences. Ngcobo indeed had the drug-resistant form of TB-and she began treatment the next day. Richard Lessells, a Scottish physician who treated her and her family members at KwaMsane clinic, notes that for Ngcobo’s siblings, the months that passed without proper treatment came at a steep cost: one of her brothers suffered lung damage that will never heal. Jabu, in contrast, had no detectable levels of the bacteria a month after diagnosis, because she immediately started taking 22 pills a day as well as injections of anti-TB drugs. Ngcobo’s speedy diagnosis and recovery were made possible by a machine called a GeneXpert, which sits atop a counter inside one of the trailers and resembles a high-end espresso maker. Although the advanced molecular tricks it uses to identify the DNA of M. tuberculosis would have been unimaginable outside a state-of-the-art biology lab a few years ago, the device is simple to use. A technician squirts a sputum sample from a patient into what looks like a printer cartridge and then clicks that into the machine, which performs a reaction that amplifies specific bits of M. tuberculosis DNA if they are present. Fluorescent molecules light up when they come in contact with the targeted DNA, and the machine detects the fluorescence, sending the information to a computer.

The entire process takes a mere two hours. Not only can GeneXpert detect the presence of the TBcausing bacteria, but it can accurately determine whether the bacterial DNA has the mutations known to make the disease resistant to the most commonly used drug. Tuberculosis, which routinely spreads through the air, infects one-third of the human population. For almost all of those people it’s harmless, and most don’t even know they have been infected. And for much of the world, it is a disease mainly of historical significance. But in many poor countries, particularly in much of central and southern Africa, it remains at epidemic proportions. In 2011, an estimated 8.7 million people became sick from M. tuberculosis. Roughly 1.4 million people die of TB each year; HIV is the only infectious agent that kills more. One critical reason this epidemic continues is that there’s no effective and affordable way to tell who is infected. TB goes undiagnosed in some three million people each year. Some simply are never tested. Others, because of antiquated diagnostic technologies, are wrongly given a clean bill of health. Traditional diagnosis for TB relies on staining a sputum sample with dyes and then examining a slide under a microscope to look for the bacteria. This “smear” test, developed 125 years ago, detects fewer than 60 percent of all cases and doesn’t identify drug-resistant strains. The more precise culture test to determine sensitivity to certain drugs takes longer, costs more, and needs to be done in a well-equipped lab-so it is used sparingly. That means roughly 80 percent of the drug-resistant cases in the world go undetected, according to the World Health Organization. Together, these un-diagnosed individuals represent a vast reservoir for the bacteria, including drug-resistant strains. Infection flourishes and leapfrogs through communities, devastating the most vulnerable people, such as those already weakened by HIV. A practical, quick, and powerful diagnostic tool could change that deadly dynamic. Brought to market by a public-private partnership between the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics in Geneva, Switzerland, and Cepheid, a manufacturer based in Sunnyvale, California, the GeneXpert TB detection machine gained approval from the WHO in December 2010. A few months later, South Africa’s health minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, compared the machines to “bazookas” in the war against TB and pledged to place them in each of the country’s 52 districts. The GeneXpert machine alone will not be enough to break the back of the massive TB problem in South Africa or anywhere else. That would probably take a powerful vaccine combined with much more potent drugs than now exist. But meanwhile, for countries walloped by TB, including increasing numbers of cases resistant to increasing numbers of drugs, such a diagnostic tool is a crucial and necessary first step. Deploying it widely throughout a country like South Africa,

where much of the population lacks access to advanced medical care, will be a logistical and financial challenge. But failing to do so could be deadly. To understand the stakes, it is worth considering the out-break a few years ago of a nightmare TB strain just a few hundred kilometers from KwaMsane Township. Dreams One of the most frightening aspects of TB is that humans have treated it with such indifference. All too often, patients start treatment, soon feel better, and then stop taking their pills or take them only sporadically. This creates a perfect opportunity for resistance to develop, because the bacteria with mutations that make them least susceptible to the drug will be likely to survive the incomplete treatment. Then there is the scariest scenario of all: inappropriately diagnosed or incompletely treated MDR TB can foster “extensively” drug-resistant (XDR) mutants that dodge two of the main classes of TB drugs. An outbreak of just such a strain was reported for the first time in 2006. And it took place in KwaZulu-Natal. Tugela Ferry, about a four-hour drive from KwaMsane Township, is a small town in the central part of the province. In August 2006, headlines around the world described the startling news that 52 of 53 TB patients who had checked into the Church of Scotland Hospital there had died-on average, within 16 days of admission. Tests later revealed that they had XDR strains. The outbreak forced South Africa to look long and hard at the public-health failures that had allowed these dangerous strains to evolve and spread. Front and center was the lack of appropriate diagnostic tools. Given that even under ideal circumstances it would take more than a month to diagnose drugresistant TB, the patients had no chance: all died before they ever learned they had a deadly form of the disease. In the wake of Tugela Ferry, the government designated wards at King George V Hospital, a 75year-old TB facility in Durban, solely for drug-resistant cases. The goal was both to improve treatment outcomes and to slow the spread of the disease. The hospital has seven wards with 32 beds each, including one devoted exclusively to children. There’s a waiting list to get in, although Iqbal Master, the doctor who manages the program, is proud that all sick patients, and those with XDR TB, are now admitted within a few weeks of being referred; in January 2007, delays ran to four months. “We had patients dying while on a waiting list,” he says. Patients like Nomthandzau Elizabeth Mjwara, a 48-year-old woman who has HIV and MDR TB, are grateful to secure one of the 224 beds. “It’s like I’m staying at my home,” says Mjwara, who has lived in the hospital since April. After she fell seriously ill, four months passed before she sought care, gave a sputum sample, received her TB diagnosis, and was admitted to King George V to begin treatment.—-MCT

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Flu season fuels debate over paid sick time laws Flu spike makes people aware of the argument for sick pay NEW YORK: Sniffling, groggy and afraid she had caught the flu, Diana Zavala dragged herself in to work anyway for a day she felt she couldn’t afford to miss. A school speech therapist who works as an independent contractor, she doesn’t have paid sick days. So the mother of two reported to work and hoped for the best - and was aching, shivering and coughing by the end of the day. She stayed home the next day, then loaded up on medicine and returned to work.

tive mayoral race. Pointing to a flu outbreak that the governor has called a public health emergency, dozens of doctors, nurses, lawmakers and activists - some in surgical masks - rallied Friday on the City Hall steps to call for passage of the measure, which has awaited a City Council vote for nearly three years. Two likely mayoral contenders have also pressed the point. The flu spike is making people more aware of the argument for sick pay, said Ellen Bravo, execu-

NEW YORK: File photos show activists hold signs during a rally at New York’s City Hall to call for immediate action on paid sick days legislation in light of the continued spread of the flu. —AP photos

“It’s a balancing act” between physical health and financial well-being, she said. An unusually early and vigorous flu season is drawing attention to a cause that has scored victories but also hit roadblocks in recent years: mandatory paid sick leave for a third of civilian workers - more than 40 million people - who don’t have it. Supporters and opponents are particularly watching New York City, where lawmakers are weighing a sick leave proposal amid a competi-

tive director of Family Values at Work, which promotes paid sick time initiatives around the country. “There’s people who say, ‘OK, I get it - you don’t want your server coughing on your food,’” she said. Advocates have cast paid sick time as both a workforce issue akin to parental leave and “living wage” laws, and a public health priority. But to some business owners, paid sick leave is an impractical and unfair burden for small opera-

tions. Critics also say the timing is bad, given the choppy economy and the hardships inflicted by Superstorm Sandy. Michael Sinensky, an owner of seven bars and restaurants around the city, was against the sick time proposal before Sandy. And after the storm shut down four of his restaurants for days or weeks, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars that his insurers have yet to pay, “we’re in survival mode.” “We’re at the point, right now, where we cannot afford additional social initiatives,” said Sinensky, whose roughly 500 employees switch shifts if they can’t work, an arrangement that some restaurateurs say benefits workers because paid sick time wouldn’t include tips. Employees without sick days are more likely to go to work with a contagious illness, send an ill child to school or day care and use hospital emergency rooms for care, according to a 2010 survey by the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center. A 2011 study in the American Journal of Public Health estimated that a lack of sick time helped spread 5 million cases of flu-like illness during the 2009 swine flu outbreak. To be sure, many employees entitled to sick time go to work ill anyway, out of dedication or at least a desire to project it. But the work-through-it ethic is shifting somewhat amid growing awareness about spreading sickness. “Right now, where companies’ incentives lie is butting right up against this concern over people coming into the workplace, infecting others and bringing productivity of a whole company down,” said John A. Challenger, CEO of employer consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Paid sick day requirements are often popular in polls, but only four places have them: San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC, and the state of Connecticut. The specific provisions vary. Milwaukee voters approved a sick time requirement in 2008, but the state Legislature passed a law blocking it. Philadelphia’s mayor vetoed a sick leave measure in 2011; lawmakers have since instituted a sick time requirement for businesses with city contracts. Voters rejected a paid sick day measure in Denver in 2011. In New York, City Councilwoman Gale Brewer’s proposal would require up to five paid sick days a year at businesses with at least five employees. It wouldn’t include independent contractors, such as Zavala, who supports the idea nonetheless. The idea boasts such supporters as feminist Gloria Steinem and “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon, as well as a majority of City Council members and a coalition of unions, women’s groups and public health advocates. But it also faces influential opponents, including business groups, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who has virtually complete control over what matters come to a vote. Quinn, who is expected to run for mayor, said she considers paid sick leave a worthy goal but doesn’t think it would be wise to implement it in a sluggish economy. Two of her likely opponents, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Comptroller John Liu, have reiterated calls for paid sick leave in light of the flu season. While the debate plays out, Emilio Palaguachi is recovering from the flu and looking for a job. The father of four was abruptly fired without explanation earlier this month from his job at a deli after taking a day off to go to a doctor, he said. His former employer couldn’t be reached by telephone. “I needed work,” Palaguachi said after Friday’s City Hall rally, but “I needed to see the doctor because I’m sick.” —AP

Snowboarding linked to injury rate rise NEW YORK: Allowing snowboarders to hit the slopes at one US ski resort led to a small rise in the number of overall injuries, a trend in line with findings at ski areas elsewhere, according to a US report. Injuries rose by 13 percent in the two years after snowboarders were permitted at the Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico, compared to the two years before, according to the report in The American Journal of Sports Medicine. “We recognize that a small but statistically significant increase in injur y rate was obser ved after the addition of snowboarding to this mountain but that factors other than type of sport may play a ro l e i n t h e d i f fe re n ce s t h a t we re i d e n t i f i e d,” s a i d s t u d y l e a d e r D av i d R u s t f ro m t h e

U n i ve r s i t y o f n e w M e x i co i n Albuquerque. Rust and his team looked at records from the Mogul Medical Clinic at Taos Ski Valley and compared the injuries that happened before and after snowboarding was first allowed in March 2008. Overall, the rate of injuries increased from about 207 per 100,000 visits to the mountain in the 2006 to 2007 winter season, to about 234 injured per 100,000 in the 2009 to 2010 season. “If you did that (study) at 10 different mountains, the trend would be the same,” said Robert Johnson, from the University Of Vermont College of Medicine in Burlington. The rise was due mostly to an increase in the kind of upper body injuries that are most common

among snowboarders, such as wrist sprains and fractures. Broken wrists jumped from the then most common injury before snowboarders were allowed to the second most common at the end of the study. On the other hand, lower body injuries that are most typical among skiers, such as anterior cruciate ligament or ACL tears, and knee sprains, remained constant. During the study period, the number of visitors to the mountain also rose, from an average of 1,610 per day during the 2006 to 2007 season until March 2008, to 1973 visits per day from March 2008 to the end of the 2009 to 2010 season. The average age of injured people dropped, from 39 years old without snowboarders to 31 with them. The

researchers were unable to say why the number of injuries increased, but previous research suggests snowboarders are more injury-prone than skiers. Last year, Johnson and his colleagues found that snowboarders accounted for 19 percent of injuries at one ski mountain in Vermont, but only made up 17 percent of athletes on the slopes. The new report avoids suggesting that snowboarding is the more dangerous sport, or that skiers are taking more risk by sharing the slopes, and suggests that other factors than the type of skiing may play a role. These may include that snowboarding has brought in a younger group of people, who tend to take more risks, as well as raising the overall number of people on the slopes, the researchers said. —Reuters

Japan tsunami stress may have brought on seizures NEW YORK: The number of seizure patients in a northern Japanese fishing community devastated by the March 11, 2011 tsunami spiked in the weeks following the disaster, according to a Japanese study. The study, published in the journal Epilepsia, looked at 440 patient records from Kesennuma City Hospital, in a city that was devastated by the massive tsunami touched off by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake. Thir teen patients were admitted with seizures in the eight weeks after the disaster, but only one had been admitted in the two months before March 11. Previous research has linked stressful life-threatening disasters with an increased risk of seizures, but most case repor ts lacked clinical data with multiple patients. “We suggest that stress associated with life-threatening situations may enhance seizure generation,” wrote lead author Ichiyo Shibahara, a staff neurosurgeon at Sendai Medical Center in northern Japan.

But he added that stress itself is not a universal risk factor for seizures. “Most of the seizure patients had some sort of neurological disease before the earthquake,” he said. His team examined medical records from patients admitted to the neurosurgery ward in the eight weeks before and after the March 11 disaster and compared them to the same time period each year between 2008 and 2010. In 2008, there were 11 seizure patients admitted between January 14 and May 15. In 2009, there were seven and in 2010, just four. Of the 13 admitted after the disaster, 11 had preexisting brain disorders that included epilepsy, head injuries or stroke. All the patients lived independently, and eight took anti-convulsive medication. Shibahara noted that of the five patients admitted just days after the tsunami, it was “not because of a lack of anticonvulsants, but because of the stress.” One later patient,

though, was unable to refill his medication weeks after the devastation. “This is interesting, but I’m not 100 percent convinced,” said William Theodore, senior investigator of the clinical epilepsy section at the National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke in Bethesda, Maryland. Theodore, who was not involved in the study, told Reuters health that because the number of patients was so small, random variation could explain the surge in seizures. Upset patients may also have forgotten to take, or weren’t able to find, anticonvulsant drugs. There are also various ways that natural disasters might cause seizures, including head trauma, infections from polluted water or a lack of sleep, he added. But the study did have a practical take home message, he said: “If you already have seizures and you’re taking medication, always make sure you have a decent supply just in case some natural disaster occurs.” —Reuters

Factory smoke clouds China pollution pledges DALIAN: Clouds of smoke billow from the chimneys at a Chinese chemical plant rumbling with activity, more than a year after authorities closed it following protests by thousands of people. The factory in Dalian was ordered to halt work and relocate 17 months ago after local residents took to the streets, fearing a toxic chemical spill that might poison them and their children. But now it appears to be functioning, although at what capacity is unclear. The apparent Uturn raises questions about how China’s communist rulers, ever fearful of social unrest, can deal with its pollution problem while also retaining the manufacturing operations that have powered economic growth. Across China public frustration mounted this week as dense smog blanketed swathes of the country, with even state-run media questioning the authorities’ ability to meet their goal of building a “beautiful China”. The darkened skies prompted premier-to-be Li Keqiang to call for stricter enforcement of environmental protections-but failing to fulfill even simpler promises such as shutting the plant in Dalian could further prime popular anger. “They have no intention of moving” regardless of company and government promises, said a local resident surnamed Zhao, 31, who said he worked near the plant until eight months ago. “They have never even stopped operating,” he said, expressing a distrust in the local government echoed by other residents. Zhao said he switched jobs to escape the “nose-stinging” stench in the area, a sprawling industrial zone with mammoth pipes and storage towers that churns out everything from ship parts to electricity. “The smell there was too much. Working there long-term was not good for one’s health,” Zhao said, adding that he still suffers from a nagging cough. About 12,000 people demonstrated in the centre of the northeastern city in August 2011 after waves from an approaching storm breached the seaside plant’s protective dyke, forcing residents to be evacuated

and raising fears of a toxic spill. The factory produced paraxylene, or PX, a flammable carcinogenic liquid used to make polyester films and fabrics. Authorities pledged to shut the plant and move it to a remote location, while the company, Dalian Fujia Dahua Petrochemical, agreed to “immediately carry out work to stop the PX project”, the Dalian Daily reported at the time. But a local government official later told media the factory had resumed operations after meeting certain standards. Others reached by AFP declined to comment, saying only that relocation plans were in the works, while three company employees refused to confirm or deny whether production was continuing. Tang Zailin, the head of a local environmental group, said his members were watching to see if authorities would eventually move the plant. He urged them to take seriously a call by President Hu Jintao in a key speech in November to build a more “beautiful China”. “‘Beautiful’ has to include a nice environment, right?” Tang said. Since July mass protests in at least three cities some with violent incidents have forced industrial projects to be cancelled. In the eastern city of Ningbo, residents said they doubted authorities would keep their word. In November the environment minister Zhou Shengxian promised that all major future projects would undergo “social impact assessments”. Such studies might help avoid protest, said environmental lawyer Wang Canfa, but ultimately factories should be opened or shut based on written codes rather than public duress-which could unfairly punish companies in compliance. “The key is whether or not they meet the requirements of the law,” said Wang, who runs a legal aid centre in Beijing for pollution victims. “This approach of promising to stop work and then restarting after people stop making a fuss, without giving the public any explanation or information the biggest victim will be the government’s credibility,” he said. “The next time they say something, the people will not believe them.” —AFP

Gamma-ray burst blasted Earth in 8th century PARIS: A mystery wave of cosmic radiation that smashed into Earth in the eighth century may have come from two black holes that collided, a study published yesterday says. Clues for the strange event were unearthed last year by Japanese astrophysicist Fusa Miyake, who discovered a surge in carbon-14,an isotope that derives from high-energy radiation-in the rings of ancient cedar trees. Dating of the trees showed that the burst struck the Earth in either 774 or 775 AD. But what was the nature of the radiation, and what caused it? Space scientists lined up the usual suspects only to let them go. There was no evidence that an exploding star, also called a supernova, occurred at that time, they

found. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a record in Old English, makes a dramatic reference to the appearance of a “red crucifix” seen in the skies after sunset. But that happened in 776 AD, which was too late to tally with the event marked by the tree rings. Also ruled out was a tantrum by the Sun, which can throw out sizzling cosmic rays or gouts of energy called solar flares. Writing in Monthly Notices, a journal of Britain’s Royal Astronomical Society, German-based scientists Valeri Hambar yan and Ralph Neuhaeuser have come up with a new explanation. The pair suggest that two black holes collided and then merged, releasing an intense but extremely brief burst of gamma rays. —AFP

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Stem-cell patient falls on hard times FLORIDA: Life goes up and down for David Aldrich, who is among the more notable quadriplegic men living in Palm Beach County, Fla. Lately it’s been down. Aldrich, 55, is broke. In 2002, Aldrich top-

pled from his yacht near Peanut Island with a bone-crunching thud. It left him immobile and blind. In the hospital, clicking his tongue once for yes and twice for no, he told doctors to pull the

FLORIDA: David Aldrich who was left a quadriplegic and blind after falling off a boat, passes a dog biscuit to his dog, Skipper, with his mouth. —MCT

plug. Arrangements were made. Then he changed his mind. He decided to try living this new way. Aldrich’s struggle reached the public’s attention when the Sun Sentinel and National Geographic documented his trips to China for stem cell treatments. He has since regained muscle and vision. But treatments and care came at a steep cost, and now he risks losing the trappings of independence he worked fiercely to maintain. “I’m faced with the prospect of having to go into a facility,” he said recently at his Delray Beach home. His desire to be home, to play with his dog, is what helped keep him alive. It’s what motivated him to exercise even when the payoff seemed meager (after 11 years, he finally has the strength to sit up on his own). “I can’t get out of bed. I can’t go for a walk. I can’t put my arms around a girl,” he told a Sun Sentinel reporter in 2003 when the wounds were still fresh. Being home gives him dignity, he said. He still can’t do those things, but he has made great strides, emotionally and physically. Despair is an afterthought, Aldrich says, thanks to a concerted positive-thinking effort. He used a flurry of muscle-building exercises to distract himself. “My time with David was exceptional,” said Norma Anderson, 55, who has been Aldrich’s home-care nurse since 2003. She was his sidekick at the gym, where she strapped his arms to weight machines. “He would push himself,” she said. Parts of Aldrich’s story remain unexplained. The first mystery is his fall. Aldrich was a successful yacht salesman who owned a red Mercedes. On Memorial Day 2002, he stepped away from his friends to check the line on his boat’s anchor. He remembers nothing but guesses he slipped. Minutes later, friends pulled him out of shallow water. “I think it put the most strain on my parents,” said Aldrich’s sister, Karen Powell,

64, a nurse practitioner in Pennsylvania. “For the first year that he was in the hospital ... they were with him every day.” The second mystery is Aldrich’s restored eyesight. Before two trips to China, in 2006 and again in 2008, Aldrich could only see light and dark. Now he can read enlarged icons on his desktop computer. Doctors in China gave him experimental stem cell therapies in which neutral cells are injected into body parts to regrow damaged tissue. The operations were expensive, potentially dangerous and controversial in the United States. Aldrich credits stem cells for helping him to read for the first time in five years in a Tsingtao hospital. The doctors “couldn’t believe it,” he said. “Stem cells are miraculous things, but you can’t inject them one day and walk the next,” he said. “They’re a catalyst to recover what you lost and get you on the road to recovery.” His arms still don’t move much. For that Aldrich still requires a home aide to wash him and to put dog treats in his mouth to give to his Shetland Sheepdog, Skipper. Anderson, the nurse, grew so fond of Aldrich that she now helps with some of his errands and personal finances for free. “I do volunteer work for him because he doesn’t have the money anymore,” Anderson said. “He was very generous with me. How could I charge him anything?” Friends, who rallied around him after the accident, have mostly drifted away. His father died two years ago, and his mother is frail and lives in Massachusetts. Last week, half of Aldrich’s face became paralyzed inexplicably. He thinks it’s financial stress. Then someone stole his van, but police found it. His net worth is a house, a wheelchair and a dog. The oppressive thought of a nursing home looms. “I don’t think I could bear it,” Aldrich said, “not being able to have my dog and have my home.” —MCT

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

WCSS holds charity concerts for Syrian refugees SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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Greetings

Kevork Mourad

he Women’s Cultural and Social Society has organized two charity concerts and hope to raise funds for nearly four million Syrian refugees who lost their homes inside the troubled country. Playing in the Nida’a AlYaasameen (Call of Jasmines) event will be oudist Nassir Shammah, while artwork for artist Kevork Mourad will also be displayed. The events take place on January 27, 2013 at the Gulf University for Science and Technology Theater Mishref starting from 7:30 pm under the patronage of Minister of Information Sheikh Salman Al-Hmoud Al-Sabah.

Many, many happy returns of the day to Shaikh Rihana Shabnam. Best wishes from father Shaikh Aslam Basha, mother Zarina Bano, grand-father Shaikh Mahaboob Basha, grand-mother Afzalunissa, uncles Akram Basha, Samiullah, Karimulla, Mohd Rafi, Karimulla, Kalimulla, aunties Yahyah Begum, Sabiha Begum and Reshma Begum, Washim, Arshiya, Fahim, Aleem, Sumaya Sultana and near and dear ones from Kuwait and India.

Kevork Mourad Kevork Mourad, an American artist of Syrian, Armenian origin was born in Aleppo, Syria. He received his MFA from the Yerevan Institute of Fine Arts in Armenia in 1996, and he now lives and works in New York. Kevork Mourad is both a painter and visual performer. He has held solo exhibitions at Gallery Z in Providence, RI and at JK Gallery in Los Angeles. He is represented in the Middle East by Rafia Gallery in Damascus, Syria, where he exhibited in 2009. His solo exhibition was also shown at the Courtyard Gallery

Naseer Shamma in Dubai in 2010. Five of his pieces are in the permanent collection in Bourj Khalife in Dubai. His work was auctioned twice at Christie’s Dubai. Kevork Mourad joined the Silk Road Ensemble in 2005. He performed with the Silk Road Ensemble- “Tales of Wonder” at the New York Hall of Science in June 2012 and “Night at the Caravanserai” in Central Park in June 2011. Kevork Mourad’s technique of spontaneous painting, he shares the stage with musicians-a collaboration in which art and music develop in counterpoint to each other-he has worked with many world class musicians. Kevork Mourad’s paintings carry a sense of history, each one describing a timeline from the ancient past to the abstract future and containing suggestions of the conflict, violence, sadness, passion, and, for better or for worse, humanity that define the course of that timeline. As often as not, the timeline as Mourad envisions it is a vertical one, the abstract and more concrete elements of history piling up on one another like an unstoppable vortex, as in Carved History. Kevork Mourad’s other primary form of expression is live painting perform-

ances, the same holds true - painting becomes as much a temporal art as a spatial one. Lines appear, smear; an image forms; a story is created with just a few seconds’ worth of color daubed on paper, writ large through projection on a screen above a stage. This is a new kind of performance, invented by Mourad, one that makes use of quick line drawings - a stylistic method Mourad has mastered - blended with prepared animation, in counterpoint to live music. The result is art that transforms itself, like magic, before viewers’ eyes is breathtaking. Art is made up of time, as much as it’s made up of paint and canvas and color and brushstroke. Naseer Shamma Naseer Shamma was born in 1963 in Iraq. He began studying the “oud” at the age of 12. He completed his undergraduate studies at the Institute of Musical Studies in 1987. He obtained the award of “The best melody of an emotional song in Iraq” during his graduation year. He performed with a selection of top artists. Naseer Shamma had performed any concerts outside Iraq, his first concert was in the Armenian Theater in Paris in

1985. As well as 6 concerts in West Germany. He presented, in 1986 his musical concert in Switzerland and in Greece in 1988. Naseer Shamma resided in Jordan for a year, during which he released the soundtrack for the play “The Country asked the People” and received an award in 1988 at the Carthage Festival. Naseer Shamma is residing in Egypt now, where he founded the “Arab Oud House”. He also organized and headed Egypt’s first Oud forum, in the “Cairo Opera House”. Naseer Shamma made the soundtracks for many Arab plays, he also founded the following bands: “Sodasy Al Anamel Azahabeya”, “Al Bayareq”, “Orchestra Al Sharq” and the famous “Arab Oud House Group”- consisting of thirty multiple sizes Oud players. Naseer Shamma received many international awards for his musical performances for his international concerts. Naseer Shamma now runs his school “The Arabic House of Oud” in Cairo, an ancient house in Fatimid Cairo .In addition to supervising “The Arabic House of Oud” branches, which were inaugurated in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates in 2007, and in Constantine, Algeria, and in the library of Alexandria, 2011.

Safir Hotel & Residences-Fintas holds annual associates’ party

Announcements

Arabic courses

WARE will begin Winter 1 Arabic language courses with new textbooks and curricula on from December 2, 2012 until January 24, 2013. AWARE Arabic language courses are designed with the expat in mind. The environment is relaxed & courses are designed for those wanting to learn Arabic for travel, cultural understanding, and conducting business or simply to become more involved in the community. For more information or registration, please log-on to our website.

India - Flag Hoisting Ceremony

n the occasion of the Republic Day of India, a Flag Hoisting Ceremony will be held at the Embassy of India premises at 9.00 am on Saturday, January 26, 2013. This will be followed by the reading of the message of Honorable President of India by the Ambassador, singing of patriotic songs, and an Open House Reception. All Indian nationals in Kuwait are cordially invited to attend the Ceremony.

IMLA students camp on Wednesday

he Kuwait Kerala Muslim Association’s ladies wing IMLA (Indian Muslim Ladies Association) has announced its Students Social awareness program on Wednesday, 23rd January from 6PM to 9.30 PM at KKMA community hall, Jleeb Al Shuwaik. The student aged between 12 to 18 years can attend the event. Prominent personalities and other professional will be presenting the various topics which is aimed at Women’s development and welfare. Well known psychologists Mrs. Sreedevi Pradeep and Mrs. Reeshma Farhan will address the session with effective topic “Beware of social evils” and “Adolescent Psychology” respectively. Prominent public speaker and trainer Mr. Mohammed Sameer will be instructing the students on Success and Leadership Essentials. Special transport facility arranged for the students in Farwaniya, Abbasiya and Fahaheel.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

afir Hotel & Residences-Fintas in Kuwait recently held its Annual Associates’ Party for 2012.The award ceremony took place at Al-Saif Ballroom. Speaking at the event, the hotel’s General Manager, Saif Eddin Mohammed thanked the associates on a job well done and for achieving great

guest satisfaction results throughout 2012. He also thanked all social committee members for their efforts and dedication in organizing the annual party. Mohammed announced that Safir Hotel & Residences’ motto for 2013 would be “Maintain & Increase for Excellence”, thereby continuing to offer

ABS Old Rock Day

or January’s library event the American Baccalaureate School hosted Old Rock Day, a clay craft event where students were able to use clay to make a nice faces, funny faces, or any other shape they wanted to do. Many students participated and they had great time competing against each other to win the prize for the most creative figure. It was a very difficult choice for the Librarian, Hadeel to choose, but in the end there were four winners. Prizes went to: First Place - Shaha Al-Woqayan Grade 5; Second Place - Mehrunisa Bilal Grade 2; Third Place - Najeeba Al-Rashed Grade 3; and Fourth Place - Jenna Al-Awadhi Grade 1.

top quality and personalized services in order to maintain the highest level of guest satisfaction. The event included a number of exciting activities such as a talent show contest, Karaoke, games, a raffle draw and awarding the best employees at all managerial and supervisory levels. Said Edden Mohammed not-

ed that such activities organized outside of the work environment are instrumental in bringing the associates from across the departments together in a fun, relaxed, and festive atmosphere. Such activities are part of why Safir Hotel & Residences-Fintas is heralded as a leader in employee satisfaction and retention.

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy

Indian Doctors Forum honors Burgan Bank

Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

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Majed Essa Al-Ajeel, Chairman of Burgan Bank, receives the latest copy of 2013 Health Guide from Dr Mohammed Al-Haifi Minister of Health.

urgan Bank was recently honored by the Indian Doctors Forum for its endorsement and sponsorship in launching the 2013 Health Guide for the 2nd consecutive year. Burgan Bank’s support is in line with its efforts to spread more health education and other community related medical issues. This year, the health guide has been published with a fundamental theme of raising more awareness on the dangers of obesity. The event was held under the

patronage of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, and was attended by Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, Dr Mohammed Al-Haifi Minister of Health, as well as Satish Mehta Ambassador - Embassy of India in Kuwait. Majed Essa Al-Ajeel, Chairman of Burgan Bank, received a token of appreciation during the event for the bank’s annual support of in publishing the annual health guide. Nearly 70 percent of Kuwaiti males

over 15 are overweight or obese, according to the World Health Organization, and over 80 percent for women. This has led to an unprecedented rise in obesity-related health problems, including heart disease and diabetes. The Indian Doctors Forum is an organization of Indian doctors residing and working across various fields of medicine in Kuwait. The forum is a registered body with the Indian Embassy which is affiliated to the Kuwait

Medical Association, and is one of the largest Indian organizations in Kuwait. It is worth mentioning that Kuwait includes around 700 Indian doctors that practice various kinds of medicine. Burgan Bank is fully committed to organizations and associations such as the Indian Doctors Forum, which reflects its role as a socially responsible Kuwaiti leading financial institution. The bank continues to open more chapters in its dedication towards the social fabric of Kuwait.

Hotel Missoni receives trophy from Saudi Football Team

he Saudi football team that participated in the seventh West Asian Championship, was held in Kuwait last December, presented a trophy as appreciation to Hotel Missoni Kuwait where Alfio Bernardini the General Manager received from the Director of the Saudi team Fares Al-Ammrey in the presence of Wassim Tarabay Director of Sales and Marketing. The Saudi team, led by coach Frank Rijkaard, stayed at Hotel Missoni Kuwait, where the hotel used all its facilities and capabilities in order to ensure a comfortable and pleasant stay for the Saudi team. Mr. Alfio Bernardini, has expressed his optimism to have the Saudi team at Hotel Missoni where they presented real value to us and added a touch of sports throughout the

hotel, which turned into a destination for lovers of stars for the team and specially for the Saudi’s famous coach. It is worth mentioning that the Hotel Missoni Kuwait has 169 rooms and suites all with charming views of the Gulf Sea and characterized by a mixture of gold, turquoise ,and beige colors, to provide an absolute pleasure and comfort to our guests. Hotel Missoni Kuwait is combining the unique style of the iconic Italian fashion and interiors house. Designed to give guests a true taste of the Missoni way of life, Hotel Missoni quickly established itself as one of Kuwait’s leading hotels. The hotel is located in Salmiya, Arabian Gulf Road and is part of the Symphony Complex, an adjacent luxury boutique shopping mall.

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassyof Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, U.A.E. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada†should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca†or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-imenquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00†until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday.

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EMBASSY OF KENYA The Embassy of the Republic of Kenya wishes to inform the Kenyan community residents throughout Kuwait and the general public that the Embassy has acquired new office telephone numbers as follows: 25353982, 25353985 - Consular’s enquiries 25353987 - Fax Our Email address: info@kenyaembkuwait.com.

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EMBASSY OF MYANMAR Embassy of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar would like to inform the general public that the Embassy has moved its office to new location at Villa 35, Road 203, Block 2, Al-Salaam Area in South Surra. The Embassy wishes to advice Myanmar citizens and travellers to Myanmar to contact Myanmar Embassy at its new location. Tel. 25240736, 25240290, Fax: 25240749, email:myankuwait11@gmai1.com.

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EMBASSY OF NIGERIA The Nigerian embassy has its new office in Mishref. Block 3, Street 7, House 4. For enquires please call 25379541. Fax25387719. Email- nigeriakuwait@yahoo.com or nigeriankuwait@yahoo.co.uk.

ABS supports Kuwait national football team nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF PERU The Embassy of Peru is located in Sharq, Ahmed Al Jaber Street, Al Arabiya Tower, 6th Floor. Working days / hours: SundayThursday /9 am - 4 pm. Residents in Kuwait interested in getting a visa to travel to Peru and companies attracted to invest in Peru are invited to visit the permanent exposition room located in the Embassy. For more information, please contact: (+965) 22267250/1.

Greetings

Dear Dhiraj (Dhiru)

n Tuesday, January 15, the students and staff of The American Baccalaureate School dressed in blue, in support of the Kuwait

National Football Team reaching the semi-finals of the Gulf Cup. This was an idea by members of the MSHS student council. The children were very excited

and the Principal, Nancy Cobb, led the rally with the children cheering loudly for Kuwait to win. Everyone had a fun time.

ight years of marital bliss, an endless love made stronger by time, blessed with joy and companionship; what more can I ask for, my beloved? A partnership made possible by celebration of love, trust and tenacity. You remain very special to me as always. Thank you for these wonderful eight years, my dearest husband. Jaya Dhiraj

TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

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

Animal Cops Phoenix After The Attack Untamed & Uncut Wildest Latin America Karina: Wild On Safari Karina: Wild On Safari Bad Dog Call Of The Wildman Cheetah Kingdom Wild Africa Rescue Wild Africa Rescue Wildlife SOS The Really Wild Show America’s Cutest Pet Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Crocodile Hunter Wildest Latin America Animal Cops Philadelphia Call Of The Wildman Wildlife SOS Shamwari: A Wild Life Shamwari: A Wild Life Animal Precinct Wildest Latin America Cheetah Kingdom The Really Wild Show Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 Deep Into The Wild With Nick Animal Airport My Cat From Hell Monkey Life Bondi Vet

00:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 01:20 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 02:15 Antiques Roadshow 03:05 House Swap 03:55 Saturday Kitchen 2008/09 04:20 Saturday Kitchen 2008/09 04:50 House Swap 05:35 Come Dine With Me 06:25 Antiques Roadshow 07:20 House Swap 08:05 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 08:30 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 08:55 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 09:45 Bargain Hunt 10:30 Antiques Roadshow 11:20 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 12:40 Come Dine With Me 13:30 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 14:00 Trish’s Mediterranean Kitchen 14:25 Fantasy Homes In The City 15:10 Bargain Hunt 15:55 Antiques Roadshow 16:45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 18:05 Britain’s Dream Homes 19:00 Rhodes Across The Caribbean

00:05 00:30 00:55 01:20 01:45 02:10 02:35 03:00 03:25 03:50 04:00 04:30 04:55 05:20 05:45 06:00 06:10 06:35 07:00 07:30 07:55 08:10 08:35 08:50 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:20 10:45

Taz-Mania Pink Panther And Pals Moomins Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Puppy In My Pocket Wacky Races Looney Tunes Duck Dodgers Dastardly And Muttley Dexter’s Laboratory Wacky Races Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry The Garﬁeld Show Moomins Looney Tunes Tom & Jerry Tales Dexter’s Laboratory Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Bananas In Pyjamas Ha Ha Hairies Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Puppy In My Pocket Wacky Races Looney Tunes

11:10 Duck Dodgers 11:35 Popeye 12:00 Top Cat 12:25 The Flintstones 12:50 Dastardly And Muttley 13:00 Ha Ha Hairies 13:15 Gerald McBoing Boing 13:40 Jelly Jamm 13:55 Baby Looney Tunes 14:20 Bananas In Pyjamas 14:35 Moomins 14:50 Dexter’s Laboratory 15:20 Johnny Bravo 15:45 Tom & Jerry 16:10 Pink Panther And Pals 16:35 The Garﬁeld Show 17:00 What’s New Scooby-Doo? 17:25 Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries 17:50 Tom & Jerry Tales 18:15 The Looney Tunes Show 18:40 Taz-Mania 19:05 Moomins 19:30 Scooby Doo On Zombie Island

00:40 Chowder 01:30 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 01:55 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 02:20 Foster’s Home For... 02:45 Foster’s Home For... 03:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 04:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 04:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Powerpuﬀ Girls 05:40 Generator Rex 06:05 Ben 10 06:30 Ben 10 06:55 Angelo Rules 07:00 Casper’s Scare School 07:30 Casper’s Scare School 08:00 Mucha Lucha 08:25 Johnny Test 08:45 Regular Show 09:05 Total Drama Action 09:30 Total Drama Action 09:55 Ben 10: Omniverse 10:20 Young Justice 10:45 Thundercats 11:10 Adventure Time 12:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 12:50 Foster’s Home For... 13:15 Foster’s Home For... 13:40 Courage The Cowardly Dog 14:30 Powerpuﬀ Girls 15:20 Angelo Rules 16:10 Batman: The Brave And The Bold 16:35 Young Justice 17:00 Ben 10: Omniverse 17:20 Johnny Test 18:00 Level Up 18:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 18:50 Adventure Time 19:15 Regular Show 19:40 Mucha Lucha 20:05 Total Drama Action 20:30 Total Drama Action 20:55 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 21:20 Young Justice 21:45 Bakugan: Mechtanium Surge 22:10 Grim Adventures Of... 23:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien

00:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 09:30 10:00 11:00 12:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00

Curious & Unusual Deaths Gangland Curious & Unusual Deaths I Survived Snapped: Women Who Kill Gangland The First 48: Missing Persons The FBI Files Psychic Detectives Psychic Detectives Crime Stories Nightmare In Suburbia The First 48 Curious & Unusual Deaths Snapped: Women Who Kill The First 48: Missing Persons The FBI Files

17:00 17:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Psychic Detectives Psychic Detectives Crime Stories Nightmare In Suburbia The First 48: Missing Persons Snapped: Women Who Kill Crimes That Shook Britain I Didn’t Do It

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

Gold Rush Gold Divers Around The World In 80 Ways Mythbusters Border Security Auction Kings Auction Kings How Stuff Works How It’s Made Sons Of Guns Mythbusters Is It Possible? Gold Divers Border Security Auction Kings Auction Kings How Stuff Works How It’s Made Gold Rush Gold Divers Around The World In 80 Ways Border Security Auction Kings Auction Kings Ultimate Survival You Have Been Warned Mythbusters Sons Of Guns How Stuff Works How It’s Made Auction Kings Auction Kings Flying Wild Alaska Man, Woman, Wild Ultimate Survival

00:40 Risk Takers 01:30 Mythbusters 02:15 Street Customs 03:05 Inventions That Shook The World 03:50 World’s Top 5 04:40 Sci-Trek 05:30 Ultimate Journeys 06:20 Chasing Classic Cars 06:45 Chasing Classic Cars 07:10 Risk Takers 08:00 Sunrise Earth 08:55 Inventions That Shook The World 09:40 World’s Top 5 10:30 Sci-Trek 11:15 Risk Takers 12:05 How It’s Made 12:30 Street Customs 13:15 Inventions That Shook The World 14:05 World’s Top 5 14:50 Ultimate Journeys 15:35 Chasing Classic Cars 16:00 Chasing Classic Cars 16:25 Mythbusters 17:10 Sci-Trek 18:00 Mighty Mississippi 18:50 Storm Surfers 19:40 Ultimate Journeys 20:30 Chasing Classic Cars 20:55 Chasing Classic Cars 21:20 Circus 22:10 Sci-Trek 23:00 Mighty Mississippi 23:50 Storm Surfers

00:00 Holly’s World 00:55 Style Star 01:25 THS 03:15 Behind The Scenes 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 E!es 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 Giuliana & Bill 10:15 15 Remarkable Celebrity Body Bouncebacks

12:05 Married To Jonas 13:05 Ice Loves Coco 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Style Star 15:30 THS 16:30 Behind The Scenes 17:00 Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane 18:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 19:00 E!es 20:00 A-List Listings 20:30 Giuliana & Bill 22:30 Fashion Police 23:30 Chelsea Lately

00:15 World Cafe Asia 00:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 01:30 Heat Seekers 01:55 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 02:20 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 02:45 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 03:10 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 03:35 World Cafe Asia 04:00 World Cafe Asia 04:20 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:50 United Tastes Of America 05:15 Unique Eats 05:40 Chopped 06:30 Iron Chef America 07:10 Unwrapped 07:35 Unwrapped 08:00 Iron Chef America 08:50 Kid In A Candy Store 09:15 Unwrapped 09:40 United Tastes Of America 10:05 Barefoot Contessa 10:30 Barefoot Contessa 10:55 Cooking For Real 11:20 Hungry Girl 11:45 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 12:10 United Tastes Of America 12:35 Unwrapped 13:00 Iron Chef America 13:50 Tyler’s Ultimate 14:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 14:40 Everyday Italian 15:05 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 15:30 Healthy Appetite With Ellie Krieger 15:55 Hungry Girl 16:20 United Tastes Of America 16:45 Chopped 17:35 Barefoot Contessa 18:00 Barefoot Contessa 18:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 19:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 19:40 Tyler’s Ultimate 20:05 Guy’s Big Bite 20:30 Chopped 21:20 Iron Chef America 22:10 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 22:35 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:00 Guy’s Big Bite 23:25 Guy’s Big Bite 23:50 Ultimate Recipe Showdown

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

Disappeared Dr G: Medical Examiner The Haunted I Married A Mobster I Married A Mobster Blood Relatives Disappeared Dr G: Medical Examiner The Haunted Murder Shift Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? On The Case With Paula Zahn Murder Shift Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Forensic Detectives True Crime With Aphrodite Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? Murder Shift Disappeared Forensic Detectives Mall Cops ‚Äì Mall Of America True Crime With Aphrodite Who On Earth Did I Marry? Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill Deadly Aﬀairs Deadly Women

01:45 Consuming Passions 03:20 Conﬂict Of Interest 04:45 Blood Oath 06:30 Marshal Law 08:05 Tom Sawyer 09:35 Undercover Blues 11:05 Danielle Steel’s Full Circle 12:35 Love Or Money 14:04 Extreme Close-Up 15:40 Sleeper 17:04 The Tempest 18:35 What Did You Do In The War Daddy? 20:30 Shadow Of A Stranger 22:00 Implicated 23:30 Toy Soldiers

KILLINGROOM OSN ACTION HD

00:15 One Man & His Campervan 00:45 Adventure Wanted 01:40 Bondi Rescue: Bali 02:05 On Surfari 02:35 Danger Beach 03:00 Danger Beach 03:30 Meet The Amish 04:25 Market Values 04:50 The Best Job In The World 05:20 Nomads 06:15 Food School 06:40 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 07:10 One Man & His Campervan 07:35 One Man & His Campervan 08:05 Adventure Wanted 09:00 Bondi Rescue: Bali 09:25 On Surfari 09:55 Danger Beach

10:20 Danger Beach 10:50 Meet The Amish 11:45 Market Values 12:10 The Best Job In The World 12:40 A World Apart 13:35 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 14:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:30 One Man & His Campervan 14:55 One Man & His Campervan 15:25 Adventure Wanted 16:20 Bondi Rescue: Bali 16:45 On Surfari 17:15 Danger Beach 17:40 Danger Beach 18:10 Meet The Amish 19:05 Market Values 19:30 The Best Job In The World 20:00 One Man & His Campervan 20:30 One Man & His Campervan 21:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2

00:00 Megacities 01:00 Secrets Of The Cross 02:00 Is It Real? S3 (1 hour) 03:00 Untamed Americas 04:00 Megastructures 05:00 Hunter Hunted 06:00 Untamed Americas 07:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 08:00 Megacities 09:00 Secrets Of The Cross 10:00 Is It Real? S3 (1 hour) 11:00 Untamed Americas 12:00 Engineering Connections 13:00 Hunter Hunted 14:00 Untamed Americas 15:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 16:00 Megacities 17:00 Secrets Of The Cross 18:00 Is It Real? S3 (1 hour) 19:00 Alaska Wing Men 20:00 Jurassic C.S.I. 21:00 Hunter Hunted 22:00 Alaska Wing Men 23:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr

BLIND REVENGE ON OSN PREMIERE

00:00 Crimes Against Nature 01:00 The Great Serengeti (aka Serengeti) 01:55 Japan’s Hidden Secret 02:50 Swamp Men 03:45 Caught In The Act 04:40 Swamp Men 05:35 Hidden Worlds 06:30 Japan’s Hidden Secret 07:25 Swamp Men 08:20 Caught In The Act 09:15 Maneater Manhunt 10:10 Shane Untamed 11:05 Animal Underworld 12:00 Sea Strikers 13:00 Great Migrations 14:00 Swamp Men 15:00 Caught In The Act 16:00 Maneater Manhunt 17:00 Shane Untamed 18:00 Animal Underworld 19:00 Monster Fish 20:00 Swamp Men 21:00 Caught In The Act 22:00 Maneater Manhunt 23:00 Shane Untamed

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

RoboCop 3-PG15 The Killing Room-18 The Reunion-PG15 Secret Window-PG15 Lords Of Dogtown-PG15 Judge Dredd-PG15 Vengeance-PG15 Lords Of Dogtown-PG15 Mission: Impossible-PG15 Vengeance-PG15 Get Rich Or Die Tryin’-18 Fighting-PG15

01:00 Blackthorn-PG15 03:00 Super 8-PG15 05:00 What’s Wrong With VirginiaPG15 07:00 Arrietty-FAM 09:00 Blackthorn-PG15 11:00 Space Chimps 2: Zartog Strikes Back-PG 13:00 Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2-PG 15:00 The Warrior’s Way-PG15 17:00 A Fall From Grace-PG15 19:00 Win Win-PG15 21:00 In Time-PG15 23:00 Spread-R

00:00 Wilfred 00:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 01:00 The Colbert Report Global Edition 01:30 Angry Boys 02:00 Unsupervised 02:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 03:00 Last Man Standing 03:30 The Simpsons 04:00 Brothers 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Til Death 06:00 Samantha Who? 06:30 Seinfeld 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Brothers 08:30 Last Man Standing 09:00 Til Death 09:30 Samantha Who? 10:00 Melissa & Joey 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Seinfeld 13:00 Til Death 13:30 Samantha Who? 14:00 The Simpsons 15:00 Melissa & Joey 15:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 16:00 The Colbert Report Global Edition 16:30 Seinfeld 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 New Girl 19:00 Melissa & Joey 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Angry Boys 22:30 American Dad 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show

22:00 Marco Macaco-FAM 23:30 The Ugly Duckling In Tales Of Mystery-FAM 00:00 03:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 17:00 18:00 18:30 19:00 22:00

Justiﬁed Breakout Kings Boardwalk Empire Good Morning America Royal Pains Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show House Royal Pains Breakout Kings House Live Good Morning America The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street Grey’s Anatomy World Without End

07:00 07:30 12:00 12:30 16:00 16:30 18:00 19:00 22:00

Emmerdale Coronation Street Emmerdale Coronation Street Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. Grey’s Anatomy World Without End

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Zero Eﬀect-PG15 Friday After Next-18 Just Go With It-PG15 Despicable Me-FAM Cheaper By The Dozen-PG Jumping The Broom-PG15 Just Go With It-PG15 Cheaper By The Dozen 2-PG Jumping The Broom-PG15 Last Holiday-PG15 The Secret Of My Success The Men Who Stare At Goats

01:00 Bob Roberts-PG15 03:00 The Skin I Live In-R 05:00 Frozen-PG15 07:00 Boy-PG15 08:30 The Natural-PG 10:45 Christmas Comes Home To Canaan-PG15 12:15 Jane Eyre-PG15 14:15 The Natural-PG 16:30 The Art Of Getting By-PG15 18:00 Les Miserables 25th Anniversary-PG15 21:00 1941-PG15 23:00 The Terminal-PG15

00:00 Blind Revenge-18 02:00 Letters To Juliet-PG15 04:00 Love And Mary-PG15 06:00 Taken From Me: The Tiﬀany Rubin Story-PG 08:00 Alpha And Omega-PG 10:00 Hitch-PG15 12:00 StreetDance 2-PG15 14:00 Ice Dreams-PG 16:00 Alpha And Omega-PG 18:00 The Avengers-PG15 20:30 Tomorrow, When The War Began-PG15 22:15 The Perfect Host-PG15

00:00 Snooker Masters 03:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 04:00 Rugby Union European Challenge Cup 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Cricket Twenty20 10:00 Rugby Union European Challenge Cup 12:00 Trans World Sports 13:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 14:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 15:00 Snooker Masters 19:00 Rugby Union European Challenge Cup 21:00 ICC Cricket 360 21:30 Futbol Mundial 22:00 Cricket Twenty20

00:00 Rugby Union European Challenge Cup 02:00 ICC Cricket 360 02:30 Dubai World Cup Carnival 07:00 ICC Cricket 360 07:30 City Centre Races 08:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 09:00 PGA Tour Highlights 10:00 Triathlon UK 12:00 Cricket T20 15:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 16:00 PGA Tour Highlights 17:00 Triathlon UK 19:00 Cricket T20 22:00 WWE SmackDown

01:00 The River Why-PG15 03:00 Soldier Love Story-PG15 04:30 Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon-PG15 07:15 The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice-PG15 09:00 Happy Feet Two-PG15 11:00 Green Lantern-PG15 13:00 Stolen Lives-PG15 15:00 Page Eight-PG15 17:00 Happy Feet Two-PG15 19:00 Source Code-PG15 21:00 127 Hours-PG15 23:00 Take Me Home Tonight-18

00:00 Top 14 Highlights 00:30 Champions Tour 03:30 World Pool Masters 04:30 World Cup of Pool 05:30 Golfing World 06:30 Spirit of Golf 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 Trans World Sport 09:00 World Pool Masters 10:00 World Cup of Pool 11:00 Top 14 Highlights 11:30 Rugby Union European Challenge Cup 13:30 Golfing World 14:30 World Pool Masters 15:30 World Cup of Pool 16:30 PDC World Darts Championship 19:30 Top 14 Highlights 20:00 Spirit of Golf 20:30 Spirit of Golf 21:00 Golfing World 22:00 Trans World Sport

01:15 Princess Sydney: The Three Gold Coins-FAM 02:45 Spooky Buddies-PG 04:30 Alex & Alexis-FAM 06:00 A Monster In Paris-PG 08:00 The Three Bears: The Amazing Adventurers-FAM 10:00 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules-PG 11:45 The Lucky Dragon-PG 13:15 Marco Macaco-FAM 14:30 Spooky Buddies-PG 16:00 The Ugly Duckling In Tales Of Mystery-FAM 18:00 Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules-PG 20:00 Judy Moody And The Not Bummer Summer-PG

00:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter The Smashes 01:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 02:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 03:00 UFC Unleashed 04:00 UFC Unleashed 05:00 NHL 07:00 WWE NXT 08:00 WWE Bottom Line 09:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 10:00 V8 Supercars Highlights 11:00 NHL 13:00 WWE Experience 14:00 European Le Mans Series 15:00 European Le Mans Series 16:00 Prizeﬁghter 19:00 UFC The Ultimate Fighter The Smashes 20:00 UFC 23:00 UFC Unleashed

00:15 01:30 02:45 04:00 05:15 06:30 08:00 09:15 10:30 11:45 13:00 14:15 15:30 16:45 18:00 19:15 20:30 21:45

Randy Jones’ Strike Zone World Class Sports Fishing Trout Unlimited On The Rise Steve Gruber’s The Wildlife World Class Sports Fishing Randy Jones’ Strike Zone Buck Commander Randy Jones’ Strike Zone Buck Commander Pro Hunter Journal Dream Season: Working Man Western Extreme Bow Madness Pro Hunter Journal Dream Season: Working Man Western Extreme Bow Madness Pro Hunter Journal

00:50 Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid 02:45 The Philadelphia Story-FAM 04:35 Ride The High Country-PG 06:05 The Sandpiper-PG 08:00 Some Came Running-PG 10:15 Bad Day At Black Rock-PG 11:35 An American In Paris-FAM 13:25 The Philadelphia Story-FAM 15:15 The Year Of Living Dangerously-PG 17:10 Ride The High Country-PG 18:45 The Sandpiper-PG 20:50 The Wonderful World Of The...-FAM

00:00 01:00 01:30 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 06:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 13:00 13:30 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 17:00 17:30 18:00 19:00 19:30 20:00

American Restoration Pawn Stars Storage Wars Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Pawn Stars Cajun Pawn Stars American Restoration Mud Men Pawn Stars American Restoration Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Pawn Stars Storage Wars Mud Men Pawn Stars American Restoration Pawn Stars Storage Wars Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Pawn Stars Cajun Pawn Stars American Restoration Pawn Stars American Restoration Mud Men Pawn Stars Cajun Pawn Stars American Restoration Pawn Stars American Restoration Mud Men

00:05 Empire Girls: Julissa And Adrienne 01:00 Jerseylicious 02:00 Videofashion News 02:25 Videofashion Collections 02:55 Big Rich Texas 03:50 Big Boutique In The City 04:20 Jerseylicious 05:15 Glam Fairy 06:10 Chicagolicious 07:05 The Amandas 08:00 Videofashion News 09:00 Videofashion Daily 10:00 Open House 10:30 Big Boutique In The City 11:00 Top 10 11:25 Top 10 11:55 Giuliana & Bill 12:55 Tia And Tamera 13:50 Videofashion News 14:20 Videofashion Collections 14:50 Dress My Nest 15:45 How Do I Look? 17:35 Giuliana & Bill 19:25 Tia And Tamera 20:25 Big Boutique In The City

Classifieds TUESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2013

Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:15 PM 8:00 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

SHARQIA-2 ZAMBEZIA (DIG-3D) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 2:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

SHARQIA-3 THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

MUHALAB-1 GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:15 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 9:15 PM 11:45 PM

MUHALAB-2 CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED MUHALAB-3 DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:30 AM

1:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

FANAR-1 GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:15 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

FANAR-2 TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) ZAMBEZIA (DIG-3D) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM 9:15 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM

FANAR-3 HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) JAB TAK HAI JAAN (DIG) (HINDI) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

FANAR-4 CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG)

12:45 PM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (17/01/2013 TO 23/01/2013)

THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

3:15 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

FANAR-5 DJANGO UNCHAINED DJANGO UNCHAINED DJANGO UNCHAINED DJANGO UNCHAINED DJANGO UNCHAINED NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

MARINA-1 PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 12:15 AM

MARINA-2 CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 12:05 AM

MARINA-3 TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

AVENUES-1 HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

AVENUES-2 SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG)

1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM 9:30 PM 11:30 PM

AVENUES-3 CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:15 PM 3:45 PM 6:15 PM 8:45 PM 11:15 PM

AVENUES-4 DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

360 º- 1 THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG)

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

NO SUN+TUE+WED

360 º- 2 GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:45 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM 12:05 AM

360 º- 3 ZAMBEZIA (DIG-3D) ZAMBEZIA (DIG-3D) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 8:30 PM 11:30 PM

360 º- 4 SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

360 º- 5 PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) SAT PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) FRI+SAT PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) NO MON PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:30 PM 11:00 PM

360 º- 6 THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

AL-KOUT.1 ZAMBEZIA (DIG-3D) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:15 PM 4:15 PM 7:15 PM 10:15 PM 12:15 AM

AL-KOUT.2 HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) PARENTAL GUIDANCE (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) HYDE PARK ON HUDSON (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 9:45 PM 11:45 PM

AL-KOUT.3 CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.4 THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) GREAT EXPECTATIONS (DIG) THE IMPOSSIBLE (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:30 AM

BAIRAQ-1 CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

BAIRAQ-2 THE LAST STAND (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) SABOBA (DIG) THE LAST STAND (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:15 AM

BAIRAQ-3 DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO SUN+TUE+WED

2:15 PM 5:15 PM 8:15 PM 11:15 PM

PLAZA TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) THU+FRI TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) SAT+MON SEETHAMMA VAKITLO SIRIMALLE CHETTU THU+FRI SABOBA (DIG) NO THU+FRI SABOBA (DIG) TEXAS CHAINSAW (DIG) LAILA THE LAST STAND (DIG) NO THU CHINESE ZODIAC (DIG) NO THU THE LAST STAND (DIG) NO THU DJANGO UNCHAINED (DIG) NO THU AJIAL.1 SAMAR (DIG) (TAMIL) SAMAR (DIG) (TAMIL) SAMAR (DIG) (TAMIL)

3:30 PM 4:45 PM 5:30 PM 6:45 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM

MATRIMONIAL

Mitsubishi Pajero 2004, golden color, 6 clr, excellent condition, km 187000, KD 1850. Tel: 66729295. (C 4288) 22-1-2013

Jacobite parents from upper middle class family (Ernakulam) living in Kuwait invite proposals from Christian parents of tall/slim/fair girls (age 2528, Bach/Masters degree, pref. Employed in Kuwait) with good family background, for their son 30/173cm/MBA (Australia) employed at a reputed bank in Kuwait. Nurses need not apply. Kerala Matrimony ID: E2321072, Email: cissacjee@yahoo.com (C 4286) 21-1-2013

Toyota Camry 2004, 4 cylinder, white color, interior and exterior neat and clean, car’s maintenance done by Al Sayer service center, tires and battery new, accident free, original paint, A/C super cool, 174000 km run, price KD 2,300, Contact: 99072651 / 99527500. (C 4283) 20-1-2013 Mitsubishi jeep Outlander model 2012 dark silver colour 4 cylinder engine, km 17,000, 4x4 drive electronic gear (installment possible) cash price KD 3,850. Tel: 66507741.

10:30 PM

3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM

AJIAL.2 SEETHAMMA VAKITLO SIRIMALLE CHETTU 3:30 PM SEETHAMMA VAKITLO SIRIMALLE CHETTU 6:30 PM JAB TAK HAI JAAN (DIG) (HINDI) 9:30 PM AJIAL.3 MATRU KI BIJLEE KA MANDOLA (DIG) NAAYAK (TELUGU) KANNA LADDU THINNA AASAIYA (DIG)

FOR SALE

4:00 PM 7:00 PM 10:00 PM

METRO-1 SEETHAMMA VAKITLO SIRIMALLE CHETTU 4:00 PM SAMAR (DIG) (TAMIL) 7:00 PM SEETHAMMA VAKITLO SIRIMALLE CHETTU 10:00 PM METRO-2 DA THADIYA (DIG) (MALAYALAM) DA THADIYA (DIG) (MALAYALAM) DA THADIYA (DIG) (MALAYALAM)

3:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM

GRANADA NAAYAK (TELUGU) NAAYAK (TELUGU)

3:30 PM 6:30 PM

SITUATION VACANT Wanted part time maid in Salwa, salary KD 80, 8 am to noon, six days per week. Contact: 96942874. 21-1-2013

TUITION Well prepared notes for the exams, for the courses of MBA, M.Com, MA, B.Com, subjects including accounts, management, cost accounts, income tax, economics, etc are available by a well experienced Indian Post Graduate teacher. Also for all levels including O, AS, AI and A levels for IGCSE & British, American schools. Tel: 99838117/99315825. (C 4287) 22-1-2013

Automated enquiry about the Civil ID card is 1889988 Prayer timings

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