2 Feb 2013

Pouting beauties of the desert

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Beckham heading to the City of Light

US Muslim clothing firms fill a void

Max 18º Min 08º

NO: 15706 - Friday, February 1, 2013

www.kuwaittimes.net

Zain wins boardroom tussle From the very beginning I’ve stated that the election process is correct: Bader Al-Kharafi

KUWAIT: Telecom giant Zain said it had won an appeal against a discrimination lawsuit filed by a member of the ruling family, according to a statement on the stock exchange yesterday.

The lawsuit, filed by Sheikh Khalifa Ali AlKhalifa Al-Sabah, accused Zain of unfair selection of members to the board of directors in April 2011. The court of cassation rejected the essence of Sheikh Khalifa’s lawsuit in a hearing on Wednesday and ordered him to pay the fees associated with the case, the filing said.

The ruling was final since the court was the highest legal body in Kuwait for the suit, it added.

At the April board meeting, Sheikh Khalifa was voted off the board, and Bader Al-Kharafi, the vice chairman of Kharafi Group, was elected in his place. Sheikh Khalifa had steadfastly and successfully opposed the Kharafi-led proposed sale of a 46 percent stake in Zain to Etisalat, with the Kuwaiti company’s feuding board one of the reasons why UAE’s top telecom operator scrapped its $12 billion offer in

March 2011. The ruling closes the curtain on a judicial dispute that lasted nearly two years, and agrees with the appeals court to drop the ruling of the first instance court.

Commenting on the ruling, Kharafi said the ruling is another proof of Zain’s credibility and that of its major shareholders. He said Kharafi Group was confident from the start that the general assembly’s decisions were taken according to correct procedures and were within the rules.

Kharafi thanked Kuwait’s just judiciary for its ruling in favor of the board of directors two years after the judicial dispute. Zain’s lawyer Hussein Al-Ghareeb said the cassation court upheld the appeals court ruling and removed all suspicions made by the contestant on the validity of the general assembly’s decision and the election of members of the board of directors. He said there are no longer any reasons to raise suspicion on the validity of decisions taken by the said general assembly. — Agencies

Bader Al-Kharafi

Asa'ad Al-Banwan

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

In my view

Freedom of expression in the era of social media

By Frank Baker local@kuwaittimes.net

O

ne thing that I have been continually struck-by during my three years in Kuwait is the increasing ubiquity of the smartphone. Indeed, someone told me recently that Kuwait has the highest level of smartphone usage per capita anywhere in the world. A fact I can well believe as I watch my mediasavvy Kuwaiti friends at their diwaniyas.

And of course the ubiquity of the technology goes hand-inhand with the ubiquity of social media. Twitter in Kuwait is not a craze, it is part of the political landscape. Kuwaiti MPs have more followers on Twitter than their British equivalents, despite the fact that there are sixty times as many Brits as there are Kuwaitis.

Kuwait’s accomplished and knowledgeable Twitterati are at the leading edge of every new story.

Such a change doubtlessly has a massive impact. Instinctively, for example, it seems clear that social media offers huge opportunities for freedom of expression. Individuals are able to see their thoughts traverse the globe in an instant; news and its interpretation - is not automatically dependent on the filtering process of the media, or of government. Injustice, when it happens, can easily have light shone upon it. Contrast the international outrage, from ordinary people and their governments, over the barbarity in Syria today, with the quiescence in 1982 when Hafez Al-Assad flattened the city of Hama. There was no YouTube video of that bloodbath.

But with rights come responsibilities. Unchecked, social media can also allow disinformation, slander, racism, incitement to hatred, victimisation and a catalogue of ills, some - obviously - more serious than others. We are struggling with this issue in the UK. Our Crown Prosecution Service recently published a new set of guidelines on what, in the UK context, was required for the law to be broken on social media. The simple fact is that what is said on social media, merely by dint of the forum in which the view was aired, should not be a free pass to immunity. In my view, if something incites violence or racism, then it should be prosecuted, regardless of whether it is

said in front of physical people or their virtual avatars.

But drawing this line is no easy matter. Going too far one way allows space for hatred and violence and undermines social cohesion; going too far the other impinges on fundamental human rights. It is therefore a controversial and contested subject in the UK, with various politicians, pressure groups, civil society organisations and journalists weighing in on different sides of the debate.

That is why the Embassy has worked with the Euro-Gulf research unit at Kuwait University to organise a seminar on Monday February 4, bringing together British and Kuwaiti experts to discuss precisely these issues an academic session looking at these principles and the issues their intersection throws up is far preferable to having them buried amidst the tumult of the daily political cut and thrust. The hashtag for the seminar is #Q8_expression and all are welcome to participate, whether in cyberspace or in person at KU. Hopefully, as befits this subject, the debates in the hall and more widely will feed off each other. It promises to be an interesting discussion, and I’ll certainly be glued to my smartphone to watch how it unfolds...

NOTE: Frank Baker is the British Ambassador to Kuwait

Local Spotlight

Kuwait’s my business

A husband left behind

Does a pyramid make a good business?

By Muna Al-Fuzai

By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

A

young man came into my GUST office this week and asked if I knew anything about the “triangle” business.

I was stumped, but then it occurred to me: He’s talking about “pyramid marketing,” or what is formally known as multi-level marketing, network marketing, or direct selling.

“Yes, I do know something about it,” I replied. “I am the coauthor of Network Marketing for Dummies. How can I help you?” “Is it a good business?” he wanted to know.

Winners and losers The question required more than a “yes” or “no” answer, so I invited the young man to sit down. If you ask the people who have become millionaires in network marketing (and I interviewed dozens of them for my book) they will tell you it’s an “excellent” business. But if you ask the people who lost their money in network marketing (there are countless numbers of them) they will tell you it’s a “horrible” business.

I hadn’t thought about network marketing since I arrived in Kuwait, but once I started talking to this young man, it occurred to me that network marketing should work better in Kuwait, and in the Arab world, than in most of the other 140plus countries where it exists. According to the World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, in 2011 there were more than 91 million independent direct selling agents (largely network marketers) who produced worldwide retail sales in excess of $154 billion!

How many of those agents worked in Kuwait? I don’t know. An Internet search provided a variety of information about network marketing companies and groups in Kuwait, but that doesn’t mean much. Network marketers are very good at posting information online, but not as good at building organizations, or what many refer to as “pyramids”.

Building a pyramid You know how this business works. You’re at the top of the pyramid and you got there simply by paying a fee to join a network marketing company - perhaps to sell telecommunications services, or household goods, or fashion and beauty products, etc. You have two jobs: recruit more people to fill out your pyramid, and sell products and services. As quickly as you can, you want to recruit four people who take positions below you in the pyramid. They each pay a fee to join,

and you earn a commission. Their job is to each recruit four more people who pay fees and continue to build your pyramid. Each time a new member pays a fee, you earn a commission!

Selling is most important Meanwhile, everyone in your pyramid is expected to sell products or services, and when they do, you earn more commission money! Each person in your pyramid (this tends to be the ugly part of network marketing) may be required to achieve a sales quota each month. This isn’t a problem for people who are good at direct selling. But for those who can’t sell, they may buy the products and personally consume them. Vitamins, energy drinks, supplements, etc, are very popular among network marketers. Unfortunately, some network marketers end up with a garage or basement filled with products that they cannot sell or consume.

Let’s say you’re at the top of a very deep pyramid, which includes 1,000 members. On average, each member generates $25 in monthly commissions paid to you. Is that a good business? If you’re all about the money, unquestionably it’s a very good business. But if you also care about value, quality, and integrity, it may be a bad business. And there’s always the chance the “pyramid” will collapse and you suddenly are left with zero income.

Are you suitable?

However, there are many reputable network marketing companies, and if you are suitable for direct selling, you can develop a profitable and satisfying independent business.

The critical question is (and this is what I asked my student): Are you suitable for direct selling? I’ll tell you how to answer that question in a future column.

Before I close I want you to think about this: Network marketing is especially compatible in societies where tribes dominate, and families are closely connected. Imagine if every member of your family relied on you to provide a product or service that they required every month. It could be detergents, health or diet products, makeup, candles, kitchen items, baby products, clothing, Internet services, etc. Imagine if you earned a commission for every bottle of perfume or cologne consumed by a family member, and you earned additional commissions for sales by your family members to their family members. How long before you can quit your public or private sector job?

NOTE: Dr John P Hayes is the head of Business Administration at GUST where he also teaches marketing.

Through the years he’s worked with more than 100 franchised brands internationally. Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

muna@kuwaittimes.net

I

t is all too common for me to read stories about wives who were left behind by their husbands but honestly, I never heard about a man whose wife left him behind to settle in her own homeland and kept their children with her while he had no place to live or means to survive and was forced to sleep in public gardens and seek alms from strangers. That was news to me and worth writing about since it was the first time I saw something like this happening.

The news as it appeared in a local newspaper here said that a 67-year-old Kuwaiti man, nicknamed Abu Ghazi, is homeless currently and residing in the open in Al-Khattabi garden in Salmiya. This by itself was weird because I have always heard from my foreign friends that they never came across a homeless man in Kuwait. Here, we finally have one.

This man narrated his life story saying he had a well-settled life in the past. He said that he was happily married to a Sri Lankan woman and they had a boy and a daughter. He encountered some financial difficulties and was forced to sell his house and gave the money to his good wife to buy a house in her own country. She did that and clearly never came back. Now this man has no other home but a public garden and is dependent upon charity and people’s generosity.

Introducing himself as Abu Ghazi, the man said he had fallen sick due to living in the open and his blood relatives have turned him away. He has no means of any income. A charity society gives him some money and he survives on donations.

Now I have no idea whether this man is a Kuwaiti or not because the government takes care of all Kuwaiti nationals, especially the old ones with no financial support, by providing them salaries for life or a shelter in their old age unless he turns out to be a bedoon or belonging to some other nationality. In that case, the government bears no responsibility and is not under any obligation to consider the case. There is also the issue of residency and one wonders how he managed to survive all these years.

I know for sure that such issues are being solved and taken care of within the Kuwaiti system through many laws and regulations. That is why you would never come across a Kuwaiti living in a garden or found as a destitute in the streets. We should not be fooled by appearances.

Kuwaiti or not, I hope someone at the Ministry of Social Affairs and labour will act in this case and ensure that the man does not have to sleep in the open. It is not only because it looks ugly and cruel for anyone to be in that position but also because I am sure a shelter for him can be found.

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Photos by @ Anshuman Fuller

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Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Pouting beauties of the desert

By Nawara Fattahova

C

amels are considered an important part of Kuwaiti and Arab heritage. They were the most important mode of transportation in the Arab world for thousands of years due to their proven ability to endure the hard weather conditions in the desert. Camels are able to walk long distances without eating or drinking, and that is why they are called ‘ships of the desert’.

The tradition of breeding camels and taking care of them continued in Kuwait and the entire region. It is a hobby that is now bringing huge profits to owners. According to Sa’ad AlSibei, head of the judging committees of the Third Traditional Heritage Festival, the price of a camel may reach more than SAR 20 million (KD 1,500,000).

“These expensive camels are participating in beauty contests held annually in Kuwait. The camel beauty contest will be on till Feb 15. This contest is open to participants from all Gulf countries. This year, the number of participants in this event has reached about 6,500. This contest was started in 2006, and since 2011, it has been sponsored by HH the Amir. Various activities besides the main contest are also going on.

— Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

People can come and ride the camels, buy a camel, or buy souvenirs and traditional items displayed here,” Al-Sibei told Kuwait Times.

“MP Saad Al-Khanfour bought a camel yesterday for SAR 1,800,000 (KD 135,000). Currently, the majority of the breeders of expensive camels are young people. This tradition has become a hobby for young men and some also benefit from it as they sell the camel later for high prices. Also, they participate with these camels in the camel beauty contest and may win one of the valuable prizes. The first three winners receive vehicles including SUVs and pickups while those coming at fourth and fifth place will

be rewarded with KD 4000. Even the one who comes in 16th will receive KD 1,000. Most of them participate not for the prize but to gain popularity and become known in the Gulf for owning a pretty camel,” noted Al-Sibei.

Besides the camel beauty contest, there are also camel races. “The camel racing season is from October to April every year. Basically there are six kinds of camels. The camels are usually bred in farms in Wafra and Abdali. It is an expensive hobby that may cost the breeder about KD 20,000 a year and the breeders know each other across the Gulf countries. Also, many Kuwaiti breeders keep their camels in farms in Saudi

Arabia as the plots there are larger and camels have more space. Some of them also ride on the camel from Saudi Arabia to Kuwait as this beast can walk more than 100 km a day,” he pointed out.

Those interested in camels can buy them during the camel beauty contest. They can also buy these at certain places known for camel sales in the Gulf, such as Um Rgeiba in Saudi Arabia or Al-Thafr in the United Arab Emirates.

“The white camels - ‘Wath’ha’ - are usually the winners as the most beautiful camels. The camels from UAE are usually only black, but we in Kuwait like more varieties of camels,” Al-Sibei

explained. Traditions also mention medical treatment with camel urine and milk. “I know many patients suffering from cancer. One of them recently received chemotherapy in the United States and was not cured, but after drinking the camel’s urine and milk for a month, he was cured. A man called Mohammed Al-Sibei on the 7th Ring Road made available this treatment and people know him very well,” said Al-Sibei.

The camel beauty contest is being held in the desert area on Salmi Road (Road No 57) after the fuel station. Signs and boards indicating the event will guide anyone desirous of observing the preening beauties with a pout.

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Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

High-profile retail in Kuwait KUWAIT: The opening of the long awaited third phase of The Avenues mall in Kuwait has provided the retail sector with a major boost, while reaffirming a growing demand for luxury goods. Kuwait has one of the highest per capita GDPs in the world, estimated at $45,757 by the IMF in 2011 and predicted to increase to $52,267 by 2014, indicating its consumers’ considerable spending power.

The number of high-profile, international retailers moving into the new shopping centers is also on the rise, signaling a growing confidence in the Kuwaiti market. However, as competition in the sector heats up, industry players are recognizing the need to attract both new and repeat business, citing customer loyalty as a key component of long-term success.

Rising consumer demand has led to a wave of new shopping centers opening their doors in Kuwait in recent years. 360 Kuwait, which began operating in 2009, is home to 82,000 sq meters of retail space, and the Mall of Kuwait is expected to have a 150,000-sq-m capacity when it opens.

In its expansion, which covers an area of more than 100,000 sq m at a cost of KD 150 million ($533 million), The Avenues has adopted the increasingly popular model of combining retail outlets with family entertainment options. The new sections of the mall include the Grand Avenue, which has become a talking point due to its unusual architectural design. The Avenue sets out to conjure up an outdoor, “European” shopping experience, with retailers located on a 500-m-long, 20-m-wide, tree-lined boulevard.

The mall’s new sections contain a number of small boutiques and international retailers, as well as popular restaurant chains. New retailers include the first overseas branch of the American kitchen supply and gourmet goods store Williams-Sonoma. The store opened in November in partnership with M H Alshaya, a Kuwait City-based global franchise operator.

Even more new sections are set to open in the coming months, including Prestige, which will house a number of high-end retailers, including a branch of Harvey Nichols. The third phase will also witness the construction of the Mall, which is to serve as a connection between the buildings constructed in the shopping centre’s first two phases. The Mall is set to contain a jewellery souk, and a 5000-sq-m section of the first floor has been dedicated to children’s entertainment. Another area of the mall, SoKu (“South of Kuwait”) is modeled on New York’s famous SoHo district and is intended to attract a younger segment of the Kuwaiti population.

While the expansion of the retail sector is gaining pace, luxury goods sales have suffered in recent years due to a wave of consumer wariness sparked by the global economic crisis. Shahzad Gidwani, the general manager of the trading division at Kuwait-based luxury goods trader Mourad Yousuf Behbahani Company, told OBG that overall luxury sales were flat in 2012 and that future expansion may necessitate a change in the way retailers interact with their clients. Gidwani told OBG that by encouraging younger customers to see the value in owning luxury goods, retailers would promote brand loyalty and, in turn, generate growth.

In a separate interview with OBG, Aref Easa Al-Yousifi, the vice-chairman and managing director at Easa Husain Al-Yousifi and Sons, a Kuwait City-based electronics distributor, also emphasized the importance of cultivating better customer service standards. “The Kuwaiti consumer, especially in the technology market, is becoming more sophisticated,” he said. “Quality and after-sales services are becoming increasingly important, therefore it is becoming harder to compete.”

Kuwait’s malls are expected to retain their popularity with consumers, especially centers offering a multifaceted shopping experience that includes familyfriendly facilities and entertainment. Rising demand should bring more luxury lines to local malls, although they will need to focus on their competitiveness, rather than relying purely on brand name, to flourish in an increasingly diverse market. — Oxford Business Group

Small is beautiful - and sometimes so is big

By John O’Neill

T

he influential study in the field of economics ‘Small is beautiful’ by EF Schumacher was first published at the time of the 1973 global energy crisis and stimulated much debate with its message that a village-scale economic model should be reclaimed. He challenged the ‘growth is good’ mantra, arguing rather for sustainable development carefully conserving finite and non-renewable resources. Schumacher felt small-scale appropriate solutions on a human scale would turn around what he saw as a trend towards consumption as an end in itself, and organizational inefficiencies which were beyond what we could imagine and therefore went largely undetected.

He felt people were actually overlooking what was within their personal circle of influence, an idea also advanced by Stephen Covey. Both of these thinkers place work in the context of wider lifestyle. At times our task is to accept the inevitable rather than “solve a problem”.

When confronted with a pressing need, our analysis can begin by asking is there a small-scale action which gives all parties a feeling of increased personal significance and involvement?

We can, in fact, see examples in Kuwait of this kind of effective grass-roots action.

One excellent example would be the Red Crescent’s Balsam program which is managed collectively by Kuwait Airways and the National Bank of Kuwait. Quite simply, the donations in the form of extra coins contributed by Kuwait Airways passengers are used in many far-reaching ways: • Assisting needy families of all nationalities and religions.

• Supplying the needy with clothing both inside and outside Kuwait.

• Purchasing gifts for the elderly, sick children and those with disabilities in public hospitals and nursing homes.

• Contributing to purchasing medication for needy people in Kuwait.

• Contributing to distribution of food and medicines to victims and countries faced by natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes and wars.

• Forwarding rare coins to the UNICEF as a special donation.

• Contributing to Learners Committee inside Kuwait.

This is exactly the sort of transparent, efficient action which was envisaged in 1965 when 18 prominent and experienced Kuwaitis spearheaded the idea of founding the Kuwait Red Crescent Society. Even a primary school child can relate to small change making a big difference. In this modern age, do we see similar imaginative use of easily-accessed resources? Some say not. Last year, many reflected that 40 years after Apollo 17 took us to the moon for the last time, we have not gone anywhere beyond low Earth orbit. In fact, since the last flight of the supersonic Concorde in 2003, civilian travel has become slower. Technology was apparently on a roll but looking around, the same old problems plague us - hunger, poverty, malaria, climate change, cancer, and the diseases of old age.

Did we think too big - or maybe think about the wrong things? Investors and

entrepreneurs often say our finest thinking is being diverted into trivial toys. “We wanted flying cars - instead we got 140 characters.” Peter Thiel of PayPal in Silicon Valley does not consider the iPhone a technological breakthrough. “Compare it with the Apollo program. The Internet is a net plus - but not a big one. Twitter gives 500 people job security for the next decade, but what value does it create for the entire economy?”

Sometimes we choose not to undertake major technological projects which could seed spin-off benefits. We could travel to Mars if we wished. NASA knows how it might send humans to Mars and bring them home. The mission would last about two years; the astronauts would spend 12 months in transit and 500 days on the surface, studying the geology of the planet and trying to understand whether it ever harbored life. Humans could realistically walk on the Red Planet

sometime in the 2030s if the goal was proclaimed.

Regarding Apollo, President John F Kennedy in 1961 asked the United States Congress to “commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” His challenge in fact seemed over- ambitious to NASA’s experts who a few weeks earlier had strapped an astronaut into a tiny capsule atop a converted military rocket and shot him into space as if he were a circus clown. However, they accepted the call, spent four percent of the federal budget, employed around 400,000 people and gained the collaboration of about 20,000 companies, universities, and government agencies.

In some sense though, the goal of this massive project remained highly visible and focussed with a clear deadline.

Schumacher would not have agreed with the large scale, but in fact many of the astronauts spoke of their feelings of awe and new awareness of how vulnerable and inter-dependent the global community is - exactly in line with Schumacher’s

philosophy.

So if big can also be beautiful as well, why have we apparently stalled in finding technological solutions on any scale at all? Consider how malaria affects over 200 million of our poorest people globally. We have thrown technology at this ongoing crisis - recombinant vaccines, genetically modified mosquitoes - but it turns out the steps to reducing infection are eliminating standing water, draining swamps, providing mosquito nets and most of all, increasing prosperity in communities.

Addressing the problem may not require any new technological breakthrough. We may have all the pieces of the puzzle at hand but not have the collective will to put them together.

The idealism that Kennedy tapped into is surely still with us. He famously said: “But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? Why climb the highest mountain? We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”

We may have many possible solutions to some problems, each with certain human costs beyond the simple economics. The benefits, too, can always be interpreted subjectively. We can often select or reject some technological tool according to our philosophy and order of priorities. Our new class of ‘hard problems’ contains the ones which we still hardly understand - ‘we don’t know what we don’t know.’ How to begin? Consider the loss of cognitive ability in the elderly. As the populations of the industrialized nations age, it is emerging as the world’s most pressing health issue; by 2050, palliative care in the United States alone will cost $1 trillion a year. Yet we have no effective ‘solution’ and still struggle with definitions.

This is where some say we should not label old age as a problem to be fixed - it is part of a natural process. A dignified overall quality of life may actually be lost as we struggle with the inevitable. There is a relevant comparison with some cancers where many elderly people die with the condition rather than of the condition. The statisticians tell us of tests giving false negatives and false positives, and the final clinical decision is not to intervene and possibly disrupt an overall balance of health which already allows a reasonable level of coping. As Schumacher would say, we learn to settle for what is sufficient.

NOTE: John O’Neill is a teacher with KMBS Business school, the Retail Academy and the British Institute of Training and Education.

Local FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Lawmakers threaten to question ministers 8 MPs form new parliamentary bloc

By B Izzak

BRUSSELS: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen launches his annual report 2012 at the NATO headquarters yesterday. — AFP

NATO welcomes Kuwait offer to host ICI centre BRUSSELS: NATO yesterday underlined that its partnerships with the Gulf and Mediterranean countries progressed in 2012. “Kuwait generously agreed to host an Istanbul Cooperation Initiative Centre, which will help NATO deepen relations with all of its Gulf partners,” said NATO in its annual report 2012 presented yesterday by NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen at a press conference. The ICI - which includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE - was launched in 2004 to develop security cooperation between the alliance and Gulf countries.

“Over the past two decades, NATO has developed a network of structured partnerships with countries across the Euro-Atlantic area, the Mediterranean and the Gulf region, as well as with other international organizations,” noted the report. “The alliance’s other partnerships also progressed in 2012. NATO is working towards agreeing a new political framework for the Mediterranean Dialogue to reinforce the existing relationship between the NATO Allies and the seven partner countries which participate in this initiative, it said.

NATO is also stepping up its engagement with partners in new areas, such as cyber security and energy security, it underlined. The Annual Report sets out the Alliance’s achievements in 2012 and the challenges it expects to face in 2013.

One of the most pressing concerns is the economic situation and its impact on defence capabilities within the Alliance, stated the report. “Our security rests on our prosperity: you can’t be safe if you’re broke. But in turn, our prosperity rests on our security,” Rasmussen told the press conference. “We have to invest to keep our societies safe. Because security threats won’t go away while we focus on fixing our economies,” he underlined.

However, the development has been uneven, and while total defence spending by the allies has been going down, the defence spending of emerging powers has been going up, he said. “If these trends continue, we could face serious gaps that would place NATO’s military capacity and political credibility at risk,” warned Rasmussen. The report said that in 2012, the alliance continued its mission in Afghanistan - the most militarily demanding and significant operational commitment to date. At the same time, the alliance continued to play a vital role in ensuring a safe and secure environment in Kosovo. It also continued to counter the threat of terrorism in the Mediterranean and play its part in the international community’s efforts to fight piracy off the Horn of Africa and in the Gulf of Aden, where, as a result of those collective efforts, attacks were at an all-time low in 2012, noted the report. NATO also agreed to augment Turkey’s air defence capabilities by deploying Patriot missiles in order to defend the population and territory of Turkey and contribute to the de-escalation of the crisis along the alliance’s border, it said. Afghan security forces will have full responsibility for security across the country by the end of 2014, added the report. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Independent MP Nawaf AlFuzai announced yesterday that he will file to grill Finance Minister Mustafa AlShamali after two weeks over a variety of issues, mainly the minister’s opposition to writing off interest on loans taken by Kuwaiti citizens. If he files the request, it will be the first grilling in the new National Assembly elected just two months ago following a major political controversy and a total boycott by the opposition over the amendment of the electoral law.

The Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee last week approved a draft law stipulating that the government writes off all interest on loans taken between 2002 and 2008.

The draft law also proposes a grant of KD 1,000 for each Kuwaiti citizen who will not benefit from the debt relief. The

government has rejected the bill which has a massive support among MPs, estimated by some at over 40. The government has the right to reject laws passed by the Assembly which can override the government’s rejection with a fresh twothirds vote.

Shamali has remained the main obstacle for passing any debt relief scheme, insisting any such scheme is harmful to local economy. Instead, the government has set up what it calls the defaulters fund which offers help to Kuwaiti debtors facing difficulty in repayment. The Central Bank has said that the cost of the law will be around KD 1.7 billion. The cost of the KD.1,000 grant has not been revealed.

In a related issue, MP Safa Al-Hashem yesterday threatened to grill Minister of Social Affairs and Labour Thekra AlRasheedi and Health Minister Mohammad Al-Haifi for allegedly pro-

moting their relatives illegally in their respective ministries. Hashem claimed Rasheedi has provided her four brothers and sister favourable treatment in the ministry and proposed to promote her cousin to become an assistant undersecretary in violation of rules and regulations. The lawmaker also claimed that the health minister has made similar measures for a number of his relatives and warned that if the reports were proved, she will file to grill them.

Meanwhile, MP Nasser Al-Marri announced yesterday the formation of a parliamentary bloc consisting of eight lawmakers which he said will work to ensure cooperation between the Assembly and the government. The MPs who are members of the “Bloc of Independents” are Marri, Adel Al-Kharafi, Taher Al-Failakawi, Mishari Al-Husseini, Faisal Al-Kandari, Bader Al-Bathali, Hamad Al-Harshani and Saad Al-Bous.

Reception held for Indian minister

News

in brief

Jordan exempts Kuwaiti vehicles from commission KUWAIT: Jordan has decided to exempt Kuwaiti vehicles which are temporarily brought into the country from paying any commission for the first three months as a move to ease the stay of Kuwaiti students residing in the Arab country, a government source said yesterday. The Jordanian “Arabs Today” newspaper quoted the source as saying that the number of vehicles that entered the country in the past year reached 38,419. The annual commission of the vehicle is set by the engine’s size.

Vehicles of less than 1000 cc engines pay $56 per year.

Those between 1001-1500 cc pay $85. Vehicles of 15012000 cc engines are charged $113, while the 2001-2500 cc engine vehicles pay $325. Finally, those of 2502-3000 vv engine size get charged $420. Government data show that there are 5,000 Kuwaitis residing in Jordan, of which 4,000 are male and female students.

KUWAIT: India’s Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed is seen with Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta during a reception.

KUWAIT: India’s Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed was on a visit to Kuwait from Jan 29-31, 2013 to represent India at the high-level International Humanitarian Pledging Conference on Syria on Wednesday. Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta hosted a reception for the visiting minister at India House on Jan 29. Ahamed stated that all sides should work for peace in Syria and as a responsible member of the international community, India considers it a duty to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Syria.

Speaking about India’s bilateral relations with Kuwait, he stated that the bonds of friendship between the two countries have resulted in close political understanding and strong economic and cultural ties. India values its relationship with Kuwait and is committed to further strengthen and expand it.

During his interaction with the members of the Indian community and members of the women’s association he discussed issues of interest to them. He appreciated the role of the Indian community in fostering closer links between India and Kuwait. He also congratulated the Indian Doctors Forum on being conferred with the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman by the President of India in Kochi last month.

400 tourists arrive in Kuwait on cruise ship KUWAIT: The Kuwait Ports Authority announced that a cruise ship with 400 tourists from different nationalities arrived yesterday in Kuwait. In a press statement, Director of Handling Department at Shuwaikh Port Salem Al-Taqi said the tourists will make a marine tour of the Arabian Gulf. This is the fourth cruise ship Kuwait received in this season, Al-Taqi pointed out, stressing that Kuwait Ports Authority is embarking on an ambitious plan to bolster the tourism sector in Kuwait and increase the country’s share in the regional tourism market. An entertainment and tourism program was set, in cooperation with local travel agencies, to receive the tourists and organize a tour for them to Kuwait’s historic and touristic destinations, he added.

MoI sets up hotline for traffic operations room KUWAIT: The Ministry of Interior said Thursday it has designated 25583777 as a hotline for its traffic operations room. All Kuwaiti or expatriate motorists are kindly asked to contact the operations room via this hotline to report on any problem such as traffic jams, malfunction of traffic lights, etc, the ministry said in a statement.

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Defiant Iran plans to speed up N-fuel work

11

Mali president offers Tuareg rebels talks

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Britain will train Libya security forces: PM

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A UN Jeep crosses the border between Israel and Syria yesterday a day after an overnight Israeli strike in the Lebanon-Syria border area. Iran’s deputy foreign minister said that the alleged Israeli air strike on a Syrian military research facility a day earlier will have “grave consequences.” — AFP

Syria warns of ‘surprise’ response Russia, Iran, Hezbollah denounce Israeli attack BEIRUT/AMMAN: Syria warned yesterday of a possible “surprise” response to Israel’s attack on its territory and Russia condemned the air strike as an unprovoked violation of international law.

Damascus could take “a surprise decision to respond to the aggression of the Israeli warplanes”, Syrian ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdul-Karim Ali said a day after Israel struck against Syria.

Syria also lodged a complaint yesterday with the United Nations over what it says was an Israeli air raid on a military research centre.

“Syria is engaged in defending its sovereignty and its land,” Ali told a website of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Syria and Israel have fought several wars and in 2007 Israeli jets bombed a suspected Syrian nuclear site, without a military response from Damascus.

Diplomats, Syrian rebels and regional security sources said on Wednesday that Israeli jets had bombed a convoy near the Lebanese border, apparently hitting weapons destined for Hezbollah. Syria denied the reports, saying the target had been a military research centre northwest of Damascus.

Hezbollah, which has supported Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad as he battles an armed uprising in which 60,000 people have been killed, said Israel was trying to thwart Arab military power and vowed to stand by its ally.

“Hezbollah expresses its full solidarity with Syria’s leadership, army and people,” said the group which fought an inconclusive 34-day war with Israel in 2006.

Syria’s allies in Moscow and Tehran were quick to denounce the strike. In Israel, a lawmaker close to hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stopped short of confirming involvement in the strike. But he hinted that Israel could carry out similar missions in the future.

Russia, which has blocked Western efforts to put pressure on Syria at the United Nations, said that any Israeli air strike would amount to unacceptable military interference.

“If this information is confirmed, then we are dealing with unprovoked attacks on targets on the territory of a sovereign country, which blatantly violates the UN Charter and is unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Iranian deputy foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdullahian said the attack “demonstrates the shared goals of terrorists and the Zionist regime”, Fars news agency reported. Assad portrays the rebels fighting him as foreign-backed, Islamist terrorists, with the same agenda as Israel. “It is necessary for the sides which take tough stances on Syria to now take serious steps and decisive stances against this aggression by Tel Aviv and uphold criteria for security in the region,” Abdullahian said. An aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Saturday that Iran would consider any attack on Syria as an attack on itself, but Abdullahian made no mention of retaliation.

Hezbollah said the attack showed that the conflict in Syria was part of a scheme “to destroy Syria and its army and foil its pivotal role in the resistance front (against Israel)”.

Details of Wednesday’s strike remain sketchy and, in parts, contradictory. Syria said Israeli warplanes, flying low to avoid detection by radar, crossed into its airspace from Lebanon and struck the Jamraya military research centre.

But the diplomats and rebels said the jets hit

a weapons convoy heading from Syria to Lebanon, apparently destined for Assad’s ally Hezbollah, and the rebels said they - not Israel hit Jamraya with mortars. The force of the dawn attack shook the ground, waking nearby residents from their slumber with up to a dozen blasts, two sources in the area said.

“We were sleeping. Then we started hearing rockets hitting the complex and the ground started shaking and we ran into the basement,” said a woman who lives adjacent to the Jamraya site. The resident, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity over Israel’s reported strike on Wednesday morning, said she could not tell whether the explosions which woke her were the result of an aerial strike. Another source who has a relative working inside Jamraya reported that a building inside the complex had been cordoned off after the attack and that flames were seen rising from the area after the attack. “It appears that there were about a dozen rockets that appeared to hit one building in the complex,” the source, who also asked not to be identified, told Reuters. “The facility is closed today.”—Reuters

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Defiant Iran plans to speed up N-fuel work New machines could accelerate enrichment

TEHRAN: An Iranian man raises a placard featuring the founder of Iran’s Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during a ceremony marking the 34th anniversary of his return from exile yesterday at Khomeini’s mausoleum in Tehran. —AFP

Bahrain policemen hurt by home-made bomb DUBAI: Several policemen were injured when a homemade bomb exploded at a roundabout west of the Bahraini capital Manama on Wednesday, the prime minister was quoted as saying.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa said the explosion happened at Budaiya Highway “leaving a number of policemen injured whilst on duty”, the official Bahrain News Agency reported late on Wednesday.

A Ministry of Interior message on Twitter put the number of wounded at three and described the device as remotely-detonated and home-made. Both the ministry and Sheikh Khalifa described the explosion as a “terror” incident. Bahraini police say they have been the target of numerous attacks with homemade bombs since April 2012, including one that killed a policeman in October.

The Sunni Muslim-dominated government has been struggling since early last year to end pro-democracy unrest. Five home-made bombs killed two people in Bahrain on Nov 5, and the US-aligned government said the attacks bore the hallmarks of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with Iran.

Iran dismisses Bahraini accusations of involvement in the political unrest. Hezbollah also denies involvement, but has criticized the government’s handling of protests.

Sheikh Khalifa said that Bahrain would remain stable and its citizens “would foil any terror plot targeting Bahrain to subvert its security,” BNA reported.— Reuters

VIENNA: Iran has told the UN nuclear agency that it will deploy more modern machines to refine uranium, a defiant move that may further complicate diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over Tehran’s atomic activities peacefully. The Islamic Republic said in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency that it will use the new centrifuges at its main enrichment plant near the central town of Natanz, according to an IAEA communication to member states seen by Reuters.

Such a step could enable Iran to enrich uranium much faster than it can at the moment and increase concerns in the West and Israel about Tehran’s nuclear program, which they fear has military links. Iran says its work is entirely peaceful.

It was not clear how many of the new centrifuges Iran planned to install at Natanz, which is designed for tens of thousands of machines. Analysts say sanctions may have limited Iran’s access to spare parts needed to produce sophisticated enrichment centrifuges in larger numbers.

Enriched uranium can fuel nuclear power plants, Iran’s stated aim, or provide material for bombs if processed much further, which the West suspects is Tehran’s ultimate goal. Iran’s announcement to the Vienna-based IAEA coincides with wrangling between Tehran and six world powers over when and where to meet next, delaying a resumption of talks aimed at reaching a negotiated deal and avert a new Middle East war. The powers - the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China - want Iran to curb its enrichment program, work which can have both civilian and military applications. The United States and its Western allies have sharply ratcheted up the sanctions pressure on Iran over the past year, targeting its lifeline oil sector. This is increasingly hurting Iran’s economy but the clerical leadership is showing no sign of backing down. Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state,

has hinted at possible military action against Iran if sanctions and diplomacy fail to resolve the nuclear stand-off.

Iran says it is its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purpose and has repeatedly refused to halt the work, a position highlighted by its letter dated Jan. 23 to the IAEA about its centrifuge plans.

Such machines spin at supersonic

from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) dated 23 January 2013 informing the Agency that ‘centrifuge machines type IR2m will be used in Unit A-22’ at the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz,” it said. The IAEA said it had asked Iran, in a letter dated Jan. 29, to provide technical and other information about the plans. A unit can house more than 3,000 cen-

An anti-aircraft gun position is seen at Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz, Iran. Iran is poised for a major technological update of its uranium enrichment program, allowing it to vastly increase production of the material that can be used for both reactor fuel and nuclear warheads, diplomats said. — AP speed to increase the ratio of the fissile isotope. Iran has for years been trying to develop centrifuges that are more efficient than the breakdown-prone 1970s IR-1 model it now has.

Iran said it would use the new centrifuge model at a unit in Natanz where Iran is refining uranium to a fissile concentration of up to five percent, according to the IAEA letter. The IAEA “received a letter

trifuges. The UN agency, whose mission it is to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons in the world, regularly inspects Natanz and other Iranian nuclear sites.

Nuclear expert Mark Fitzpatrick, of the International Institute for Strategic Studies think-tank, said that employing the new centrifuges at Natanz could be “a most unfortunate game changer,” depending on the numbers.— Reuters

Egypt factions seek talks, slam killings

CAIRO: Egyptians supporting the police clash with others protesting against the president near Cairo’s Tahrir Square, on Wednesday. Egyptian opposition leaders called for urgent talks on the political crisis gripping the country, as a fresh eruption of violence killed two more people in Cairo. — AFP

CAIRO: Rival factions in Egypt yesterday condemned the violence which has killed dozens in a week of unrest and pledged support for a national dialogue to resolve the political crisis gripping the country.

Top Islamic scholar Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayyeb chaired talks between liberal opposition heads, Islamists, youth groups, independents and church members at the headquarters of Al-Azhar, Sunni Islam’s highest seat of learning. They signed an AlAzhar document vowing to support “a serious dialogue” and “condemn all forms of violence and incitement to violence,” and stressing “the responsibility of the state and its security apparatus to protect citizens.”

“We come out of these talks with some sort of optimism” despite “the difficult challenges ahead,” former UN nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei, a leader of the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF), said. “We will do whatever we can with goodwill to build the trust of the Egyptian people,” he told reporters. Saad al-Katatni, head of the Freedom and Justice

Party of Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood, stressed the need for compromise from all parties. “There is no solution to the problems in our path for democracy without dialogue... Dialogue must have guarantees but no preconditions,” he said.

“All topics are up for discussion and all participants said they were ready for compromises,” Katatni told reporters. Even with few concrete points agreed, the talks marked a blow for Egypt’s Islamist President Mohamed Morsi whose calls for dialogue were snubbed by the opposition only last week. But it remained to be seen whether the Al-Azhar document would carry weight on the street, where clashes between protesters and police have killed dozens since rallies marking the second anniversary of Egypt’s uprising last week.

Opposition groups have already called for mass protests on Friday against Morsi, who is accused of betraying the revolution that brought him to the presidency and of consolidating power in the hands of the Brotherhood. In a statement, the NSF said

Egyptians should demonstrate across the country on Friday to protest against “a regime that seeks to impose its will on the people and is managing the country in the interest of the Muslim Brotherhood.” It accused Morsi of “only defending the interests of the (Muslim Brotherhood) instead of being a president for all Egyptians.”

In Cairo, marches will head to Tahrir Square and to the presidential palace.

Egypt has been gripped by unrest since rallies last week marking the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled president Hosni Mubarak. The protests turned violent on Saturday after a Cairo court sentenced 21 residents of the canal city of Port Said to death for their involvement in football-related violence last year.

Friday’s protest will mark one year since the Port Said clashes that left 74 people dead.

In the capital, the health ministry said two more people had died from their injuries following clashes, bringing to 56 the number of deaths nationwide in a week of violence. —AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Arab Spring states must respect rights: HRW LONDON: The euphoria of the Arab Spring has given way to abuses as new governments fail to respect freedom of expression and other basic rights, Human Rights Watch warned in its annual report yesterday.

The US-based group urged the fledgling regimes of countries such as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia to build “genuine” democracies, saying that even democratically-elected governments did not have a mandate to ignore human rights. “It’s been two years now, almost to the day, since the euphoria of those early days when we saw dictator after dictator toppling in the Middle East and North Africa,” HRW’s executive director Kenneth Roth told reporters in London.

“That early euphoria has given way to often despair and deep concern over what turned out to be a much more difficult situation than many perhaps had hoped.” Launching HRW’s annual report on human rights around the world, Roth said the Arab Spring had seen “the rise of Islamist parties in particular who threaten to use religion to suppress the rights of women or dissidents or minorities”.

HRW said that in Egypt, gripped by political crisis two years after the uprising that ousted president Hosni Mubarak, serious human rights problems continued including torture and the “systematic” sexual abuse of women. The group expressed numerous concerns over Egypt’s new constitution, saying it contained “defects” with regard to women’s rights, freedom of expression, freedom of religion and civilian oversight of the army. “It turns out, in fact, the toppling of a dictator may have been the easy part,” said Roth. “The difficult part is replacing that repressive regime with a rights-respecting democracy.”

In Egypt and elsewhere in the region, freedom of expression is being heavily restricted, he warned. — AFP

BAYONNE, France: People applaud yesterday at the end of the funeral of Yann Desjeux, 53, French citizen who was killed in the hostage rescue operation at a remote gas plant seized by Islamist militants in Algeria, at the SaintAndre church in Bayonne, southwestern France. — AFP

Kurdish rebels to pull out of Turkey ISTANBUL: Kurdish militants will withdraw from Turkish territory by the Kurdish new year on March 21 under a peace process to end a conflict in which 40,000 people have been killed, a newspaper close to the government said yesterday.

The withdrawal of the militants to northern Iraq, where most of the PKK’s several thousand fighters are based, is planned to begin at the start of March as the weather in southeast Turkey starts to become milder, the Sabah daily reported. Turkish officials have been in talks with jailed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) leader Abdullah Ocalan since late 2012 and he was expected to issue a call within 10 days for the militants to declare a ceasefire, the paper said.Ocalan, imprisoned on Imrali island south of Istanbul, is widely expected to make the call via a delegation of Kurdish politicians who are set to visit him in early February.

The rebels took up arms in 1984 with the aim of creating a Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey. The PKK, declared a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and the European Union, has since moderated its goal to one of autonomy.

Sabah did not disclose its source but has close links to the government. Only a few officials are involved in the talks and have not disclosed details publicly, fearing a nationalist backlash ahead of local and presidential elections next year. — Reuters

GAO: Children run in front of Malian artillery positions set near the bridge crossing the river Niger at the entrance of Gao, northern Mali, yesterday. Islamist extremists fled the city Saturday after French, Chadian and Nigerien troops (right) arrived, ending 10 month of radical Islamic control over the city. —AP

Mali president offers Tuareg rebels talks Uneasy calm in battered Timbuktu TIMBUKTU, Mali: Mali’s president offered Tuareg rebels talks yesterday in a bid for national reconciliation after a French-led offensive drove their Islamist former allies into mountain hideaways.

A three-week ground and air offensive dislodged al Qaeda linked fighters from northern Mali’s major towns, ending the first phase of an operation designed to prevent Islamists using the vast desert region as a launchpad for attacks on Europe. France is now due to gradually transfer the military mission to a UNmandated African force of some 8,000 soldiers, tasked with securing northern towns and pursuing militants into their mountain fastnesses near the porous Algerian border. French air-strikes have destroyed the Islamists’ training camps and logistics bases but Paris says a longterm solution hinges on finding a political settlement between Mali’s restive northern Tuareg community and the distant capital Bamako.

Pro-autonomy Tuareg MNLA rebels, whose rebellion last year was hijacked by the better armed and financed Islamists, have already retaken control of their remote northern stronghold of Kidal after al Qaeda-linked fighters fled from French airstrikes into the rugged Adrar des Ifoghas mountains. French troops, which occupied Kidal’s airport on Tuesday, have not entered the town and Malian forces

have been stationed far to the south in the liberated towns of Gao and Timbuktu. Under pressure from Paris, Mali’s interim President Dioncounda Traore said he was ready to open talks with the MNLA provided it honored a pledge to drop its claims of independence for northern Mali. “Today, the only group that we could think of negotiating with is certainly the MNLA. But, of course, on condition that the MNLA drops any pretence to a territorial claim,” Traore told French radio RFI, ruling out talks with any Islamist groups.

The MNLA’s leaders have offered to join the fight against the Islamists, amid fears that the Malian army would carry out reprisals against Tuaregs in recaptured towns. The Tuareg rebellion last year, which prompted frustrated army officers to topple the government in Bamako, is blamed by many Malians for the current crisis. Traore, installed in office after the March military coup, has called national elections for July 31 to complete a political transition. Military analysts suggest the conflict could now be headed for a prolonged, low-level insurgency, with small groups of Islamist fighters carrying out sporadic attacks. Four Malian soldiers were killed and five injured when their patrol vehicle hit a mine on the road between Gao and the nearby town of Gossi, in the first incident of its kind dur-

ing the conflict, Malian military sources said. Only one French soldier has been killed in the mission but Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius warned on Wednesday that things could get more difficult as troops try to flush out insurgents from wilderness hideouts. He warned of the risks of hostage-taking and strikes against French interests across the region. An attack on the In Amenas gas plant in Algeria earlier this month by Islamist fighters opposing the French intervention in Mali led to the deaths of 37 foreign hostages and raised fears of similar reprisals across North and West Africa.

Amid concerns over the funding, equipment and leadership of the African force, Paris renewed a push for the UN Security Council to approve a peacekeeping force, an idea the world body had rejected before French military intervention. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had resisted UN peacekeepers becoming embroiled in an offensive combat mission but the recapture of the main Malian towns has made a deployment less risky.

The Security Council is due to discuss the possibility soon, UN diplomats said on Wednesday. “This development is extremely positive and I want this initiative to be carried through,” French JeanYves Le Drian told France Inter radio, adding that France would “obviously play its role”. — Reuters

Jordan Islamist sees clash with secular Syrian rebels AMMAN: A Jordanian Muslim preacher who encourages a flow of militants to Syria predicts an eventual showdown between Islamists and secular rebel groups should President Bashar AlAssad fall. Mohammed Shalabi, better known as Abu Sayyaf, said Islamist fighters with groups such as the Nusra Front, which the United States lists as a terrorist organisation, had refused offers to join the rebel Free Syrian Army in return for pay and weapons. If Assad is overthrown, he told Reuters, the Free Syrian Army, or elements within it ideologically hostile to the Nusra Front, would immediately order Islamist groups to disarm. “Then there will be a confrontation between us and losses will rise, but I don’t want to pre-empt events,” he said. Abu Sayyaf is a marked man, who has spent 10 years behind bars for militant activities including a plot to attack US troops in Jordan, but seems unconcerned about surveillance.

Interviewed in his car outside the state security court in Amman this week, the Salafi jihadi leader said the Jordanian

authorities were trying to stop young militants from crossing the border to join the battle against Assad’s forces.

“We have sat with the security forces and asked them what harm would come if they let us go to Syria freely,” said Abu Sayyaf, 46, a burly man with a flowing beard, dressed like a tribesman in a red chequered headdress and a white robe. “You tell us we are troublesome, so let us get killed in Syria, leave us to meet our fate in this inferno,” he said he had told Jordanian intelligence officers when they called him in to ask him to restrain fighters bent on travelling to Syria.

“What they fear is that these youths will return like the ‘Afghan Arabs’ did. They fear they would come back one day and declare jihad and fight here,” he declared. He was alluding to Arab militants who combated Soviet forces occupying Afghanistan in the 1980s, some of them members of Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, which was supported at the time by the United States, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. —Reuters

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Britain will train Libya security forces: PM Cameron makes a surprise visit to Tripoli CALW: Camels stand on a meadow at a camel farm after a fire in Ebhausen-Rotfelden near Calw, southern Germany yesterday. Eighty-five camels died in the fire, the cause of which was not immediately known. — AFP

86 camels perish in German blaze BERLIN: Eighty-six camels perished as a ferocious fire swept through their farm in southern Germany earlier yesterday, causing nearly one million euros ($1.36 million) damage, police said.

Around 150 firefighters rushed to the scene and managed to save five animals from the inferno, which hurt no people, according to the authorities. The farm, near Stuttgart in southwestern Germany, which catered mainly for tourists and visitors, wrote on its website: “We have sad news. In the night, the camel farm burned down. Most of the animals died.”

Police said in a statement that six officers were on the scene investigating possible causes for the blaze.

“At the moment, nothing points to arson but at this stage of the investigation, nothing can be ruled out,” police said. “One million euros damage was caused to the main building, which was completely burned down. The material worth of the camels cannot be estimated at present,” the statement added. — AFP

Tunisia extends emergency rule TUNIS: Tunisia’s presidency said yesterday it is extending for one month the state of emergency imposed after the fall two years ago of long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. “President Moncef Marzouki has decided, after consulting the heads of government and Constituent Assembly, to extend the state of emergency from February 1 to March 2, 2013,” a presidency statement said. In October last year, the authorities prolonged the state of emergency by four months, whereas before it had been extended on a month-to-month basis.

The four-month extension from October 31, continuing special intervention powers for the police and army, came after a series of Islamist attacks. Tunisia’s state of emergency was decreed in January 2011 after Ben Ali, the first despot to be toppled in an Arab Spring popular uprising, fled the country for exile in Saudi Arabia. — AFP

LYON: Members of the public sector, (education, health and finance) take part yesterday in a national day of protest in Lyon against the French government’s social policy. — AFP

TRIPOLI: British Prime Minister David Cameron, on a surprise visit to Tripoli, said yesterday Britain would help train Libya’s security forces. After flying in from Algiers, where he also pledged to cooperate on security and intelligence to counter Islamist militancy in the region, Cameron visited a police training academy and Martyrs’ Square in the Libyan capital.

Cameron has called North Africa and the Sahel a “magnet for jihadists” and warned of a “generational struggle” against them, after at least 38 hostages died in an Islamist attack on an Algerian gas complex earlier this month.

However, he has shied away from a major military response and instead espoused empowering regional governments to take the lead in security and bolstering the rule of law and democratic institutions.

“There is no true freedom and no true democracy, without security and stability as well. We are committed to helping with that both here and also in your neighborhood,” Cameron said at a news conference with Libyan Prime Minister Ali Zeidan.

“We’ve agreed a package of additional help from Britain to Libya - increasing the military training we are providing, increasing the police advisers ... We’ve also discussed how we can help build the institutional capacity of the new Libyan government,” he added. Cameron last visited Libya in 2011 along with then French President Nicolas Sarkozy after rebels ousted former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi with French, British and US backing.

At the time he called Benghazi, the cradle of the uprising against Gaddafi, an “inspiration to the world”. Since then, Libya’s second city has been disrupted by violence and become a base for Islamist militant groups. Last September an attack on the US diplomatic mission killed the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans.

Last week Britain urged its citizens to evacuate the city, citing a “specific, imminent” threat, irking Libyan officials keen to attract foreign money and expertise after decades of under-investment during Gaddafi’s rule.

“Our security situation is good, we are recovering, things are getting better ... I would like to highlight that what was raised about Benghazi is just some propaganda, made by opponents to the Feb 17th revolution,” Zeidan said. Cameron highlighted the two countries’ shared interest in boosting security in Libya, highlighting cooperation on investigations into the 1988 Lockerbie airplane bombing and the 1984 shooting of police officer Yvonne Fletcher outside the Libyan embassy in London. — Reuters

TRIPOLI: Libyan prime minister Ali Zaidan (right) greets British Prime Minister David Cameron (left) ahead of their meeting as part of the British PM visit in Libya yesterday. —AFP

NATO: Europe must plug defense gaps BRUSSELS: France’s need for US help during the Mali operation shows Europe must do more to fill worrying gaps in its defenses, NATO’s chief said yesterday.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen also sounded the alarm about growing disparities between what the United States and Europe spend on defense and warned that NATO’s military power and global influence could be put at risk if allies continue to slash their defense budgets while emerging powers boost theirs.

France’s intervention in Mali has illustrated his point by again exposing European military deficiencies that were laid bare during the 2011 Libya campaign when European states relied heavily on the United States for air-toair refuelling, intelligence and surveillance.

Rasmussen praised France for taking “swift and effective action” in Mali. Paris intervened militarily in Mali in early January to halt the advance of AlQaeda-affiliated militants who launched an offensive that threatened the Malian capital Bamako. While NATO is not involved in Mali, some European members of the alliance as well as the United States and Canada have supported France with transport aircraft

and other help. “The operation also illustrates that European allies still need strong support from the United States in their endeavours to carry out such an operation,” Rasmussen told a news conference.

“The Mali operation once again points to the need for increased European efforts to fill the gaps when it comes to essential military capabilities such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance,” he said. The United States agreed to a French request to fly tankers to refuel French jet fighters and bombers attacking the militants. The United States is also sharing intelligence and helped to transport some French troops.

The United States, shifting its security focus increasingly to Asia, wants the Europeans to take the lead in military operations in its neighborhood, such as in Libya and Mali.

Releasing his annual report, Rasmussen voiced concern that defense cuts by Western states trying to rein in budget deficits because of the financial crisis risked weakening their security.

“Of course, governments must reduce deficits and borrowing,” he said.

“You can’t be safe if you’re broke. But ...

we have to invest to keep our societies safe. Because security threats won’t go away while we focus on fixing our economies.”

Rasmussen warned that defense spending among the NATO allies is increasingly uneven, not just between North America and Europe, but also among European allies. This could lead to a growing capability gap that could limit the allies’ ability to work together and risk weakening political support for NATO in the United States. At the same time, emerging powers were spending more on defense.

“The rise of emerging powers could create a growing gap between their capacity to act and exert influence on the international stage and our ability to do so,” Rasmussen wrote in the annual report.

He did not name any countries but China boosted military spending by 11 percent last year, continuing a nearunbroken string of double-digit rises across two decades.

Rasmussen also warned that too deep defense cuts could worsen the West’s economic crisis by weakening defense industries that are key drivers of innovation, jobs and exports. —Reuters

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

S Korea warns North against nuclear test Seoul urges army to keep tight vigilance

NEW DELHI: Exiled Tibetans shout slogans as they take part in a rally during Tibetan People’s Solidarity Campaign in New Delhi yesterday. The four-day campaign that began Wednesday is being held to express solidarity with Tibetans inside Tibet and to raise awareness and seek international support for Tibet. — AP

China sentences two Tibetans BEIJING: A court in China has handed down heavy sentences to a Tibetan monk and his nephew for inciting eight people to set themselves on fire in anti-Chinese protests, media said yesterday, the first time punishment has been meted out over such protests.

Nearly 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire to protest against Chinese rule since 2009, with most of them dying from their injuries. Lorang Konchok, 40, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in the Aba prefecture in Sichuan province, while his nephew, Losang Tsering, 31, was sentenced to 10 years in prison, the Xinhua state news agency said.

In practice, a death sentence with a two-year reprieve is commuted to life imprisonment or reduced to a fixed-term later. “The two incited and coerced eight people to self-immolate, resulting in three deaths,” Xinhua said, citing the Intermediate People’s Court in Aba prefecture.

Last December, Xinhua reported that Lorang Konchok, who was detained with his nephew in August, confessed to police that he had followed instructions from exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his followers.

Lorang Konchok and his nephew passed on information about each self-immolation, including photographs, to overseas contacts belonging to a Tibetan independence organization with mobile telephones, Xinhua said. China has repeatedly denounced the Dalai Lama and exiled Tibetan groups for fomenting the self-immolations. —Reuters

SEOUL: Myanmar’s opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi poses for the media after receiving the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights 2004 during an awarding ceremony in Gwangju, south of Seoul yesterday.—AP

SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak held an emergency security meeting yesterday that warned North Korea of “serious consequences” if it went through with an expected nuclear test.

The meeting at the presidential Blue House included the defense minister, National Intelligence Service chief and the national security advisor.

A statement issued afterwards said Lee had insisted on a strengthened defence posture, given Pyongyang’s apparent desire to take advantage of the ongoing leadership transition in the South.

Lee will be formally replaced as president by the newly elected Park Geun-Hye on February 25. “The government urges North Korea to immediately stop all provocative statements and actions and abide by international obligations including UN Security Council resolutions,” the statement said.

“If the North miscalculates and commits a provocative act again, it would face various serious consequences”, it added.

North Korea has threatened to carry out its third nuclear test in response to UN sanctions imposed on Pyongyang for its long-range rocket launch in December. It has also warned of “physical counter-measures” against the South if Seoul “directly participates” in the UN sanctions.

South Korean Defence Minister Kim Kwan-Jin later visited a front-line army unit and called for tight vigilance.

“Provocations are always possible because North Korean troops have been put on full alert,” he said, adding South Korean troops should cope swiftly with any provocations.

North Korea said its rocket launch was a scientific mission aimed at placing a satellite in orbit, but most of the world saw

it as a disguised ballistic missile test. South Korea staged a satellite launch on Wednesday.

After North Korea’s rocket launch, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution, expanding sanctions imposed on the country after its nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. North Korea’s space agency, a bank, four trading companies and four individuals were added to the UN sanctions list for an assets freeze and travel ban. According to Lee’s national security advisor, Chun Young-Woo, numerous North Korean state entities have begun opening special

accounts in China to pre-empt fresh sanctions that would almost inevitably follow a nuclear test.

“In anticipation of UN sanctions, North Korea has opened dozens of these bank accounts under aliases,” Chun was quoted as telling a seminar on Wednesday by the Chosun Ilbo daily.

Insisting that the North had been repeatedly “weasling” out of sanctions already imposed, Chun said the UN measures against Pyongyang should be ramped up to the level of those imposed on Iran. — AFP

SEOUL: South Korean protesters shout slogans during a rally against possible nuclear test by North Korea in Seoul yesterday.—AP

Abe seeks to change post-war constitution TOKYO: Hawkish Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told lawmakers yesterday he intends to change the post-WWII constitution that imposed pacifism on Japan, in a move likely to stir suspicion in China and beyond.

Abe, who thundered to general election victory in December, has long harbored ambitions to re-write a document critics say hampers effective self defense, but supporters say is a bulwark against the militarism that blighted Asia last century.

“I will start with amending Article 96 of the constitution,” Abe told upper house lawmakers, referring to a clause stipulating that amendments require a two-thirds majority in parliament. In the run-up to polls, Abe said he wanted to study the possibility of altering the constitution’s definition of Japan’s armed forces. The wellfunded and well-equipped military-one of the world’s most technologicallyadvanced-is referred to as the Self-Defense Forces, and barred from taking aggressive action. Abe said before the election that he would look into making the SDF a fullfledged military, but the suggestion sets

alarm bells ringing in Asian countries subject to Japan’s brutal military adventurism of the past. US occupying forces imposed the constitution on Japan in the aftermath of World War II, but its war-renouncing Article Nine became part of the fabric of national life, engendering a pacifism that remains dear to many Japanese.

Retiree Kazuo Shimamura said Japan’s suffering in WWII, including from two atomic bombs, was reason enough not to change. “I want the constitution to stay as it is to prevent new wars from happening,” he said. But critics say a pledge that “land, sea, and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained” ties Tokyo’s hands at a time of growing regional unease and amid a sovereignty spat with China. “Japan’s next generation will have to face all sorts of problems,” 60-year-old Nobuyuki Shimane said. “We have to take our destiny in our hands and change the status of the army to protect our territorial sovereignty.” Abe told parliament he wants to set up a Japanese version of Washington’s National Security Council,

tasked with the gathering and analysis of information.

“It is unavoidable that we strengthen Japan’s security arrangements to protect our national interest and ensure the safety of our people in the increasingly complex international situation,” he said. Japan and China have butted diplomatic heads repeatedly over the last half-year over a disputed island chain in the East China Sea. Tokyo views Beijing’s military build-up with suspicion and says its vast trading partner should be more transparent about what it spends on its increasingly mighty forces and to what end, something Abe Thursday said was a “common concern” for the entire region. Since coming to power, Abe, whose father was a World War II cabinet member and later prime minister, has been on a bridge-building mission to South East Asia, looking to shore up alliances with capitals disquieted by Beijing’s rise. In December, Manila-which has a separate territorial row with Beijing-said it favoured a re-armed Japan that could act as a counterbalance to China. — AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Indian state defends ban on Kamal film Fears over freedom of expression grow

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani schoolgirls, who were displaced with their families from Pakistan’s tribal areas due to fighting between militants and the army, listen to their teacher, not seen, as a health worker visits their school to give them polio vaccines, in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Islamabad yesterday.—AP

Bomb kills two polio workers in Pakistan PARACHINAR, Pakistan: A roadside bomb killed two Pakistani polio workers on their way to vaccinate children in a northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border yesterday, an official said. The two men were on their way to Malikhel village as part of the UN-backed anti-polio campaign when the bomb hit their motorcycle, said government administrator Yousuf Rahim.

The attack - the third this week against polio workers in Pakistan - took place in the Kurram region, a known militant stronghold. On Tuesday, gunmen riding on a motorcycle shot and killed a policeman protecting a polio team in Gullu Dheri village of Swabi district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The polio workers escaped unharmed in that attack.

In a separate incident in the northwest on Tuesday, a man wounded a polio worker with an axe. Rahim said it was not immediately clear if the two workers killed yesterday were the actual target of the bombing. Javed Husain, a doctor at a hospital in the town of Parachinar, said the slain men were working as contractors for the government-run anti-polio program in the area. No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks but suspicion fell on Islamic militants. Some of the militants oppose the vaccination campaign, accuse health workers of acting as spies for the US and claim the polio vaccine is intended to make Muslim children sterile. —AP

MUMBAI: The southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu yesterday defended its ban on a new film by veteran actor Kamal Haasan which has sparked a row over freedom of artistic expression in the country.

Spy thriller “Vishwaroopam” was forced out of cinemas after Muslim groups complained that they were portrayed in a negative light, leading Haasan-who directed and co-produced the film-to threaten to go into exile.

Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram said her government was forced to impose the 15-day ban to prevent unrest across the state, because there was “every apprehension” that protests outside cinemas would turn violent.

“When you know that there’s going to be violence in a certain situation, in a certain place, it’s the duty of the government to do whatever is possible to prevent that happening,” the former actress told reporters in Chennai city.

She said the state did not have enough police to maintain law and order outside more than 500 cinemas that were due to show the movie.

Haasan, travelling to Mumbai today for the film’s release there, has reportedly agreed to modify his movie to appease the protesting groups. “If the leaders of the Muslim organizations and Mr Kamal Haasan can sit together and work out an amicable agreement, the government of Tamil Nadu will do everything possible to facilitate that,” Jayaram said.

Indian film stars have rallied around Haasan since the ban in the film, which has already passed the country’s censorship board. “Go stand outside the cinema hall (and) insist on seeing the film,” Bollywood megastar Salman Khan told his huge following on Twitter on Thursday.

Another leading actor, Shah Rukh

CHENNAI: Indian Tamil film actor Kamal Hassan gestures as he addresses the media in Chennai. Hassan, one of the biggest movie stars in southern India, said yesterday he would go ahead with the release of a Hindi language version of his controversial spy thriller “Vishwaroopam” as he fights a court battle for the release of the Tamil language version in his home state of Tamil Nadu. — AP

Meet India’s ‘Man with Golden Shirt’

Bangladesh factory owners arrested DHAKA: Two owners of a Bangladesh garment factory where seven workers were killed in a weekend fire were arrested yesterday as police investigated allegations of murder and negligence.

Police were questioning Smart Export Garment Ltd. Chairman Sharif Ahmed and Managing Director Zakir Ahmed after a court placed them on a two-day remand. Police say the only emergency exit to the Smart factory had been locked from outside when Saturday’s fire occurred. Garment industry workers and labor rights groups had demanded the arrest of the owners. The fire occurred just two months after a blaze killed 112 workers in a factory owned

by Tazreen Fashions Ltd. The November fire raised an outcry about safety in Bangladesh’s garment industry, which exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The gates of that factory also were locked.

Three managers accused of locking the doors of the Tazreen factory have been in custody since shortly after the fire, but the factory owner has not been arrested. A government committee set up to investigate the fire said in December that the fire was sabotage, but also said that no matter who set it, the owner should be punished for the deaths because he neglected worker safety.

Tazreen is a member of a powerful industry group, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, but Smart Export is not, according to the group. Labor activist Kalpona Akter of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity alleged that Tazreen’s association with the industry group has blocked stiffer prosecution. — AP

Khan, said it was “the most unfortunate thing to happen to a film”. India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tiwari told NDTV that each case was different, but state governments “need to lean in favor of freedom of speech and expression” even amid law and order fears. — AFP

PUNE: Indian businessman Datta Phuge poses for a photo with a shirt made of gold, worth 12.7 million rupees, $240,000, at a shop in Pune. —AFP

MUMBAI: India is a country known for its love of gold, but for one businessman a ring or chain was not enough. Datta Phuge is now the proud owner of a golden shirt worth 12.7 million rupees (240,000 dollars), made up of 14,000 pieces of 22-carat gold and put together by 15 craftsmen over 16 days.

“Gold has always been my passion since a young age. I’ve always worn gold as jewellery in the form of bracelets, rings, chains,” he said.

The 42-year-old, who lives in the Pune district of western Maharashtra state, hatched the plan late last year with a local jeweller friend. “We were thinking, is there something different we could do with gold? What has no one done before?” he said. At 3.32 kilograms (7.3 pounds), the end product is so hefty Phuge said he had asked Guinness World Record to recognize his shirt as being the heaviest.

He only wears it for special occasions, along with numerous flashy gold accessories. The rest of the time the shirt is locked up at home. His fashion choice may sound ostentatious in a country where an estimated 42 percent of children under five are malnourished, but Phuge is adamant that “it is my property, it does not matter what other people think or say”.

He seems delighted that the shirt, with its six Swarovski crystals for buttons and matching gold belt, has brought him his 15 minutes of fame.

Phuge, a grandfather who runs a finance company, also says he is a keen social worker and harbors ambitions to go into politics. Showy displays of gold have become something of a trend in the area, started by late local politician Ramesh Wanjale who became known as the “gold man” around Pune-a title Phuge seems keen to inherit. “Everybody knows me as the ‘gold man’ in the whole region. Other rich people spend one crore (10 million rupees) to buy Audis or Mercedes, to buy what they like. What crime have I done? I just love gold,” he said. India is the world’s biggest consumer of gold, with purchases an essential part of religious festivals and weddings. But faced with a rising import bill, the government has sought to discourage buying by raising import duty by 50 percent.

Indians bought 933.4 tons of gold in 2011, the last year for which complete data is available, according to the World Gold Council. —AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

1 killed, 2 hurt in Arizona shooting, suspect on loose Police hunting for armed 70-year suspect

SAO PAULO: View of hundreds of tents with accommodations for 6000 people during the Campus Party event, in Sao Paulo. About 8,000 hackers, developers and geeks are expected to attend the annual weeklong, 24-hours-a-day technology event which first started in Spain in 1997 and now spread into various countries. — AFP

Congress grapples with gap on scofflaw contractors WASHINGTON: With thousands of civilian contractors remaining in Iraq and Afghanistan, Justice Department officials want Congress to resolve a legal issue that they say obstructs efforts to prosecute any such workers who rape, kill or commit other serious crimes abroad.

Scofflaw Pentagon employees and contractors supporting the American war mission overseas are subject to federal prosecution in the US, but a nonmilitary contractor who breaks the law may fall outside the Justice Department’s jurisdiction. Lawmakers who have pushed in the past to extend the reach of US criminal law plan to renew their efforts this session with bills to make civilian contractors and employees liable to federal prosecution for acts including murder, arson and bribery.

Federal prosecutors believe clearer and more uniform rules are needed to resolve a jurisdictional question made murkier by the end of the Iraq war and the ongoing drawdown of troops from Afghanistan. The jurisdictional gap caused problems for authorities during the first prosecution of Blackwater contractors accused in 2007 shootings in Baghdad and could again be a stumbling block as prosecutors seek a new indictment in the case. “There still is this great vulnerability if these contractors get into some kind of scrape, some kind of problem, and there’s no clear legal path to deal with it. That can be a serious problem,” said Rep. David Price, a North Carolina Democrat who plans to reintroduce legislation called the Civilian Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act. “We just need to give this the priority it deserves.” — AP

US man sues Boy Scouts, alleging sex abuse SAN FRANCISCO: A man has sued a regional Boy Scouts council, alleging he was sexually abused by his scout leader more than 30 years ago. Coast Guard veteran Mark Dietrich, 49, filed the lawsuit Wednesday claiming the scoutmaster of his troop frequently molested him between 1978 and 1981.

The suit also claims Boy Scouts officials at the local and regional level knew the scoutmaster, Gary Hatfield, had inappropriate contact with other boys, and the abuse occurred “despite knowledge of Hatfield’s dangerous propensities and unfitness.” Hatfield, who is also named as a defendant in the case, said he hardly remembered Dietrich and denied abusing him or any other scouts. “That’s a joke,” Hatfield, 60, said of Dietrich’s allegations. Hatfield said he currently helps oversee a branch of a breakaway scouting organization called Confederate Scouts of America that split ranks with the Boy Scouts of America about 15 years ago.

The Navy veteran now works as an apartment maintenance man in Reno, Nevada. — AP

PHOENIX: Police are hunting for an “armed and dangerous” 70-year-old man suspected in a Phoenix office complex shooting that left one person dead and two wounded.

Arthur Douglas Harmon allegedly opened fire at the end of a mediation session Wednesday morning at a threestory office complex in north-central Phoenix, police said. One man - identified by police as 48-year-old Steve Singer - died hours after the shooting.

They said a 43-year-old man was listed in critical condition and a 32-year-old woman suffered non-life threatening injuries. “We believe the two men were the targets. It was not a random shooting,” said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman. Thompson said the gunman arrived at the office building about 10:30 a.m. and got into a dispute with someone, a conflict that escalated to the point where the suspect drew a gun and shot three people.

Police believe Harmon acted alone and fled the scene in a car. Police said he had at least one gun and was considered “armed and dangerous.”

Harmon also allegedly shot at someone who tried to follow him after the shooting in an attempt to get his license plate number, according to authorities.

Police didn’t immediately release the names of the wounded. But a Phoenix law firm, Osborn Maledon, said one of its lawyers, Mark Hummels, was among the wounded. The firm said Hummels “was representing a client in a mediation” when he was shot. According to court documents, Harmon was scheduled to go to a law office in the same building where the shooting took place for a settlement conference in a lawsuit he filed last April against Scottsdalebased Fusion Contact Centers LLC, where Singer was the CEO. The company had hired him to refurbish office cubicles at two call centers in California, but a contract dispute arose. Fusion said Harmon was paid nearly $30,000 under the $47,000 contract. But the

company asked him to repay much of the money when it discovered that the cubicles could not be refurbished, according to the documents.

Harmon argued Fusion hung him out to dry by telling him to remove and store 206 “worthless” work stations after the mix-up was discovered.

Harmon said Fusion then told him that the company decided to use a competitor. Harmon’s lawsuit had sought payment for the remainder of the contract, $20,000 in damages and reimbursement for storage fees and legal costs.

Hummels was representing Fusion in the lawsuit. Pro tempore Judge Ira Schwartz, who scheduled the meeting, didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment. A message left Wednesday at the home of Singer also wasn’t returned. As police searched for the shooter, SWAT teams and two armored vehicles surrounded a home about 7 miles north of the shooting scene. Police served a search warrant to

enter the house, which county property records show was sold by Harmon to his son last year for $26,000.

For a time, officers used a megaphone to ask Harmon to surrender, believing he might be inside the home.

Lois Ellen, who has lived across the street from the Harmon home for about eight years, said she was startled to see all the police cars in the neighborhood.

She said she never met Arthur Harmon but had seen him walking a dog before. Ellen said he wasn’t very neighborly and the people in the Harmon home “keep to themselves.”

The gunfire at the office complex prompted terrified workers to lock the doors to their offices and hide far from the windows. SWAT officers searched the building. “Everyone was just scared, honestly, just scared,” said Navika Sood, assistant director of nursing at First at Home Health Services who along with her co-workers locked the entrances to their office. — AP

PHOENIX: Members of the Phoenix Police Department SWAT team prepare to enter the home of a suspected gunman who opened fire at a Phoenix office building, setting off a manhunt that led police to surround his house for several hours before they discovered he wasn’t there. —AP

Jury mulls verdict in US Xmas bomb plot trial PORTLAND: The jury in the trial of a Somali-American accused of plotting to blow up a Christmas tree ceremony retired to consider its verdict Wednesday after lawyers made closing arguments.

Attorneys for Mohamed Mohamud, 21, argued that he was tricked by undercover FBI agents who provided him with fake explosives to target the Yuletide ceremony in Portland, Oregon on November 26, 2010.But prosecutors in the northwestern US state insisted during the three-week trial that the young man actively participated in a plot that could have killed thousands, had the bomb been real.

Mohamud could face life in prison if convicted of planning to use a weapon of mass destruction.

Defense lawyer Stephen Sady said Mohamud, who was first contacted by an undercover agent a year before the attempted bombing, was a troubled teenager led on by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) — and not a ter-

rorist. “He’s not a threat,” the publicly-appointed attorney said in closing arguments Wednesday, cited by local ABC television affiliate KATU. “He’s simply a person trying to live through a difficult adolescence.”

“In America, the government cannot create a crime,” he added. But Assistant US Attorney Ethan Knight dismissed the claim, saying: “We are not talking about an adolescent period .. We’re talking about a bomb.” When Mohamud pressed a button he thought was rigged to a massive bomb at a traditional Christmas ceremony attended by thousands, he was “totally at peace,” said Knight.

“That calm only evaporated when the bombing didn’t happen,” he said. After Mohamud tried twice to detonate the bomb, the FBI arrested him. At the start of the trial one FBI agent, giving evidence in disguise, maintained that Mohamud was prone to violence from the beginning and spoke of plans to “wage war” on the United States. — AFP

International FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Columbia space tragedy, 10 years on WASHINGTON: NASA today will commemorate the loss of the space shuttle Columbia and its seven astronauts a decade ago, a landmark incident that triggered the end of the shuttle mission.

The US space agency’s Administrator Charles Bolden will join other senior officials participating in a ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington that will also honor others killed in space-related incidents. Three American astronauts died after a fire swept through the Apollo 1 aircraft during a test run in January 1967, and the

explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in January 1986 shortly after take-off killed all seven crewmembers aboard.

Columbia, NASA’s first space shuttle orbiter to be put into service-in April 1981 — disintegrated during re-entry on February 1, 2003, as it was ending its 28th mission. It had been the first space shuttle to travel to Earth’s orbit. A piece of insulating foam from the external fuel tank that had peeled off during the launch 16 days earlier struck one of Columbia’s carbon composite wings.

After the deadly incident, president

George W. Bush’s administration decided to put an end to the shuttle program, allowing the three remaining orbiters to fly only as long as it took to complete the International Space Station-in 2011 — and to honor Washington’s commitments to its partners. “It was recognized early on that the shuttle was not going to be able to live up to its promises of regular, inexpensive access to space,” said John Logsdon, a former director of the Space Policy Institute who was a member of the Columbia Accident Investigation Board. “It was pretty clear

by the mid-80s that it was a first-generation experimental vehicle even though NASA tried to act like that was not the case.”

The end of the shuttle program almost came earlier. In July 2005, during the first orbiter flight since Columbia, the same problem repeated itself, though the piece of foam from the external tank did not pierce a wing.

NASA responded by grounding shuttle flights for nearly a year and the Bush administration nearly called it quits then, Logsdon recalled. — AFP

Alabama gunman holed up with kidnapped boy Law officers live a nightmare

The Malaysian tug Vos Apollo (foreground) prepares for defueling operations near the grounded USS Guardian while a US Navy small boat approaches with a salvage team. — AP

Navy hiring giant cranes to help remove ship HONOLULU: The US Navy is hiring floating cranes to help with the dismantling and removal of a minesweeper that ran aground on coral reef off the Philippines, a spokesman said Wednesday.

A contractor in Singapore is sending the cranes, which should arrive on site in a few days, said US Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt Darryn James said. It’s expected to take over a month to dismantle the USS Guardian, which ran aground before dawn on Jan. 17.

Crews have already removed 15,000 gallons of fuel from the ship. They’ve also taken off hundreds of gallons of lubricating oil and paint. They’ll be removing human wastewater and other materials that could harm the environment, James said. The Navy originally said the Guardian would be lifted by crane onto a barge and taken to a shipyard. But James says damage to the ship is “beyond economical repair” and the Navy now plans to dismantle the ship before it’s removed.

Taking the ship apart will allow the Navy to limit damage the salvage operation causes the reef, James said. “That is important to us,” James said by telephone from Pacific Fleet’s headquarters in Pearl Harbor. The Navy cares about being good environmental stewards and regrets the incident, he said.

The Navy has presented the ship removal plan to the Philippines, which is reviewing it. “We’re working very closely with the Philippine coast guard, with their navy and their government personnel. We’ve been grateful for their support as we all work together to remove guardian and minimize further damage to the reef,” James said. No one was injured when the ship ran aground at the reef in the Tubbataha National Marine Park. The park is a World Heritage Site in the Sulu Sea, about 400 miles southwest of Manila. The Guardian was on its way to Indonesia after making a rest and refueling stop in Subic Bay, a former American naval base west of Manila. Vice Adm Scott Swift, the US 7th Fleet Commander based in Yokosuka, Japan, has ordered an investigation into the grounding. — AP

MIDLAND CITY, Alabama: A gunman holed up in a bunker with a 5-year-old hostage kept law officers at bay Wednesday in an all-night, all-day standoff that began when he killed a school bus driver and dragged the boy away, authorities said. SWAT teams took up positions around the gunman’s rural property and police negotiators tried to win the kindergartener’s safe release.

The situation remained unchanged late Wednesday, with negotiations ongoing, Alabama State Trooper Charles Dysart told a news conference.

He said no additional information would be released until last morning.

The gunman, identified by neighbors as Jimmy Lee Dykes, a 65-year-old retired truck driver, was known around the neighborhood as a menacing figure who once beat a dog to death with a lead pipe, threatened to shoot children for setting foot on his property and patrolled his yard at night with a flashlight and a shotgun.

He had been scheduled to appear in court Wednesday morning to answer charges he shot at his neighbors in a dispute last month over a speed bump.

The standoff along a red dirt road

began on Tuesday afternoon, after a gunman boarded a stopped school bus filled with children in the town of Midland City, population 2,300. Sheriff Wally Olson said the man shot the bus driver when he refused to hand over a 5-year-old child. The gunman then took the boy away.

“As far as we know there is no relation at all. He just wanted a child for a hostage situation,” said Michael Senn, a pastor who helped comfort the traumatized children after the attack.

Authorities initially said the boy was 6, but state Rep. Steve Clouse, who visited the boy’s family, said he does not turn 6 until next week. The bus driver, Charles Albert Poland Jr., 66, was hailed by locals as a hero who gave his life to protect 21 students.

The boy’s classmates, their parents and other members of this small Bible Belt community gathered in several churches and held a candlelight vigil in the town square Wednesday evening to pray for Poland and for the boy’s safety.

Some in the square joined together to sing “Amazing Grace.” Authorities gave no details on the standoff, and it was unclear if Dykes made any demands

from his underground bunker, which resembled a tornado shelter.

The sheriff said in a brief statement Wednesday evening that negotiators continued talking to the suspect and “at this time we have no reason to believe that the child has been harmed.” About 50 vehicles from federal, state and local agencies were clustered at the end of a dirt road near where Dykes lived in a small travel trailer. Nearby homes were evacuated after authorities found what was believed to be a bomb on his property. Clouse, who also has met with authorities, said the bunker had food and electricity, and the youngster was watching TV. He said law enforcement authorities were communicating with the gunman, but he had no details on how. At one point, authorities lowered medicine into the bunker for the boy after his captor agreed to it, Clouse said.

The lawmaker said he did not know what the medicine was for or whether it was urgently needed. Chris Voss, a former international kidnapping negotiator for the FBI, said negotiators at the scene should remain patient and calm, resisting the urge to force a quick resolution. — AP

2 dead, splintered debris, after storms rake South ADAIRSVILLE, Georgia: Kandi Cash walked through the debris of her grandparents’ demolished house in north Georgia, hoping to salvage family keepsakes after violent storms raked the Southeast, leaving two dead. The house was one of many in the Georgia city of Adairsville splintered by a massive storm front that tore across several states Wednesday, unleashing tornadoes and dangerous winds that flipped cars and destroyed homes and businesses.Authorities say falling trees claimed two lives: a man killed in Tennessee while taking shelter in a shed and another man crushed in his bed in Georgia.

The storm front sprang out of the Midwest on Tuesday and also knocked out power to thousands.

There were several reports of tornadoes. Early yesterday, parts of Virginia remained under tornado watches as the storm headed toward the Atlantic. —AP

COBLE: Hickman County Sheriff, Cody Woods helps remove debris from a house after a storm ripped through early morning on Wednesday, in Coble, Tennessee. —AP

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Banks boost Abu Dhabi, Egypt bourse recovers

Weekly US jobless aid applications edge up PAGE 20 PAGE 22

ATHENS: Striking public hospital doctors and health staff march in central Athens yesterday during their 24-hours strike. Greek trains and ferries ground to a halt and hospital staffing was cut to a minimum as transport workers and doctors went on strike to protest austerity measures demanded by the country’s foreign lenders.— AFP

Greece reels from new strikes Doctors, public transport workers walk off ATHENS, Greece: Greek doctors, port workers and public transport staff in the country’s capital walked off the job yesterday in strikes against deeply unpopular austerity measures that have seen incomes slashed as the country struggles to emerge from a deep financial crisis. Hundreds of protesters gathered at separate demonstrations, with port workers rallying in Greece’s main port of Piraeus and about 500 public hospital workers chanting slogans outside the Health Ministry in central Athens. One of the demonstrators, Tassos Antonopoulos, a member of the Greek Federation of Public Hospital Workers, said it wasn’t just medical staff who were suffering because of the cuts. “People have less and more expensive options,” he said.

“It is not possible for the citizens of this country, at a time when they are suffering from this situation and the crisis in the country, to not find the care that they deserve in the public hospitals.”

The strikes left Athens without buses, suburban rail and trolleys for the day,

while Greek islands will be without ferry services for two days. With doctors and ambulance workers also on strike, public hospitals were functioning with emergency staff only yesterday. The capital’s subway system was running, however, as its workers were still under a civil mobilization order after the government invoked rare emergency powers last week to end an eight-day metro strike.

The civil servants’ union declared a three-hour work stoppage at all public services from noon in solidarity, shutting down other services such as post offices. Greece has been gripped by a severe financial crisis since late 2009 and is being kept afloat by billions of euros in rescue loans from other eurozone countries and the International Monetary Fund. In return, the government has imposed wave upon wave of spending cuts and tax hikes, leading to severe salary and pension cuts and leaving unemployment spiraling to above 26 percent. Many of those still

employed have not received paychecks in months. “We want collective agreements to be signed, and back payments for working people to be paid,” said Savas Tsiboglou, head of the Greek Association of Merchant Marine Mechanics, as he demonstrated Thursday morning in Piraeus. Workers have been protesting the abolition of collective wage agreements and planned reforms to the pension and income contribution system. Other measures that took effect this year include a 25 percent cut to the incomes of most public servants, leading to a string of new strikes and protests.

Separately, farmers in central Greece parked their tractors along the country’s main highway for a second day, under the watchful eye of riot police, threatening to shut the road to protest spending cuts and high fuel taxes. Similar protests by farmers in the past have led to widespread disruption to transport and the supply of goods, with the central northsouth highway shut for weeks. —AP

Emaar misses forecasts as profits down 28% DUBAI: Emaar Properties, Dubai’s largest developer, posted a 28 percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit yesterday, missing analysts’ forecasts, as costs soared amid revival of stalled projects in the emirate. The builder of the world’s tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa, reported a quarterly profit of 512 million dirhams ($139.39 million) compared with a profit of 716.7 million dirhams in the prioryear period. A Reuters poll of five analysts estimated an average net profit of 546.25 million dirhams for the quarter. A gradual recovery in Dubai’s property market buoyed by return of speculative buyers - has helped Emaar revisit some of its projects which was put on hold after the emirate’s property crisis in 2009, and renew its international growth plans. Its shares have benefited from the revival of the emirate’s battered property market, gaining 30 percent year-to-date and nearly doubling in the last one year. “Emaar capitalized on the city’s resurgence by investing in creating prime real estate assets and strengthening our shopping malls and hospitality businesses,” said Mohamed Alabbar, the chairman of Emaar Properties.—Reuters

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Banks boost Abu Dhabi, Egypt bourse recovers MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS

RIGA: People protest against the Latvian government plan to join the euro-zone in front of the Parliament (Latvia’s Saeima) in Riga yesterday. Latvia is poised to pass key legislation paving the way for a request for EU approval of its entry as the zone’s 18th member on January 1, 2014. — AFP

Philippine economy expands 6.8% in Q4 MANILA: The Philippine economy expanded 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, lifted by a strong performance from service industries, the government said yesterday.

It said the robust growth was led by household spending, helped by low inflation and remittances from millions of overseas workers. Economists have credited renewed confidence in the Philippines on President Benigno Aquino III’s push to reduce graft and improve governance following a succession of corrupt governments. For all of 2012, the economy grew 6.6 percent. Services rose 7.4 percent in 2012, industry was up 6.5 percent and agriculture rose 2.7 percent.

The economy grew a feeble 3.9 percent in 2011. It still faces challenges, including decrepit infrastructure, rampant poverty and unemployment and low foreign investment. “Good governance generates confidence that translates to more economic activity,” said Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima, who credits the growth to Aquino’s anticorruption reforms.

Purisima said for 2013, the government will focus on accelerating the implementation of projects, programs and policies put in place to ensure that growth momentum is sustained. Socio-Economic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan said the biggest challenge is to address the country’s power problems to allow investments, manufacturing and exports to pick up and have a greater share in the growth that is now led by consumption. He said the government is seriously addressing the country’s energy requirements, with the aim of raising generation capacity, achieving reliable and adequate supplies and expanding rural utilities. The Philippines has been dogged by an inadequate power supply due to a backlog in investments in expensive power infrastructure. It also has among the highest power rates in the region. Balisacan said massive investments are also needed in the agriculture sector, including farm-to-market roads to improve connectivity, and greater access to credit for farmers. — AP

Global to delist from June 19 KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Global Investment House will delist from the country’s stock exchange as of June 19, more than a year after the group’s shares were suspended from trading, a bourse filing said yesterday.

Shareholders in Global approved the delisting late last year. Global’s shares have not traded in Kuwait since December 2011, when the bourse suspended the stock after the company accumulated losses exceeding 75 percent of its capital. — Reuters

DUBAI: Bank earnings helped Abu Dhabi’s stock index rise yesterday as the benchmark posted its largest monthly gain in over five years, while Dubai hit a fresh 37-month high. Bank shares extended gains after Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank reported a 32-percent jump in fourth-quarter net profit and proposed a 25-percent cash dividend for 2012. ADCB shares rose 3.5 percent to their highest since late 2008. On Tuesday, National Bank of Abu Dhabi had posted a 55-percent rise in fourthquarter profit, beating analysts’ forecasts. Its shares slipped 1.4 percent yesterday, but they still rose 6.3 percent for January.

“These numbers are a big change for UAE banks - a turning point,” said Ali Adou, portfolio manager at The National Investor. “We saw them spend the last three years cleaning their balance sheets and focusing on asset quality. It seems the provisioning cycle has bottomed.”

Banks’ fourth-quarter earnings have reinforced other signs that the worst of their debt problems is behind them, even though the Abu Dhabi property market remains weak and Dubai is still working through its corporate debt restructurings.

Outstanding provisions for bad loans set aside by banks in the United Arab Emirates fell in October for the first time since the global financial crisis began building in 2008, central bank data showed last month. Abu Dhabi’s index rose 1.1 percent yesterday. The market gained 9.5 percent in January, its

biggest monthly rise since October 2007. On the neighboring Dubai bourse, which has been surging on the back of a budding recovery in the property market, builder Arabtec jumped 5.7 percent to a six-month high.

“It has been lagging the construction industry and with the merger of Abu Dhabi developers, it makes sense that retails will be moving to Arabtec,” said a Dubai-based trader, referring to last week’s merger between Aldar Properties and Sorouh Real Estate.

Arabtec recently won a $653 million contract to build the Abu Dhabi branch of the Louvre museum, and investors are betting it will win more business from Dubai’s wealthy neighbor.

Blue-chip Emaar Properties slipped 0.2 percent, trimming the month’s gains to 29.9 percent. The developer has been the main driver for Dubai’s rally in recent months. Shortly after the market closed, Emaar posted a 28-percent drop in fourth-quarter net profit, moderately missing analysts’ forecasts because of a rise in costs. Dubai’s index rose 0.7 percent to 1,888 points, its highest finish since December 2009, extending its January gains to 16.3 percent. The index broke major, long-term technical resistance last week between 1,778 points, the 2012 high hit in March last year, and the October 2010 peak of 1,793. That triggered a major double bottom formed by the 2012 and early 2011 lows, with a technical target above 2,200 points in coming months.

Elsewhere in the Gulf, Qatar’s bourse was flat yesterday after rallying this

month as investors bought shares during the dividend season at the start of the year; Qatari companies usually give high payouts compared to regional peers. The index rose 4.4 percent in January, its best month since March 2011.

In Egypt, the index added 0.6 percent, continuing to rebound after slumping to a four-week low on Tuesday. Trade was sluggish with some investors hesitant to increase risk against a chaotic political backdrop.

More than 50 people have been killed in the past seven days of protests by President Mohamed Morsi’s opponents to mark the second anniversary of the uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak.

However, the market has held up well during the violence; it is down only 4.7 percent from its early January peak and up 19.7 percent from its November low, suggesting many investors, particularly foreigners, continue to look beyond the turmoil to a more stable political environment down the road.

Arab and non-Arab foreign investors were net buyers on Thursday, while Egyptian investors were marginal net sellers, according to bourse data.

Shares in National Societe Generale Bank rose 0.7 percent, after the central bank approved Qatar National Bank’s (QNB) offer to take over NSGB. French bank Societe Generale agreed to sell its 77 percent stake in NSGB to QNB for $2 billion, and the Qatari bank will offer to buy the remaining stocks for the same price under Egyptian market rules. — Reuters

Dubai bank ENBD beats estimates DUBAI: Emirates NBD, the Dubai lender buying BNP Paribas’ Egyptian business, yesterday posted fourthquarter net profit that more than tripled on the back of lower impairments and increased non interest income, beating analysts’ forecasts.

The lender, 55.6-percent owned by state fund Investment Corporation of Dubai, made a net profit of 625 million dirhams ($170.16 million) in the three months to December 31, a statement from the bank said, compared with 152 million dirhams in the same period last year.

An average of five analysts polled

by Reuters forecast a net profit of 484 million dirhams for the quarter. Fullyear profit for 2012 also rose, reaching 2.55 billion dirhams against 2.48 billion dirhams in 2011. Like other large Gulf banks, ENBD is seeking to expand its regional footprint through acquisitions as it seeks new markets to drive

growth. In December, ENBD announced it would purchase the Egyptian business of French lender BNP Paribas for $500 million in a first step towards diversifying its business away from its Dubai base.

The lender has been heavily hit by impairment allowances in recent quarters - particularly in the latter half of 2011 and the first six months of 2012 - which dragged down profits at the bank, with exposure to indebted Dubai state-linked entities among the main reasons.

Provisions for the final three months of 2012 period stood at 940 million dirhams, down from the 1.06 billion dirhams the bank recorded in the corresponding period of 2011.

This took impairment allowances for 2012 to 4 billion dirhams, below the 4.98 billion dirhams the bank set aside for bad loans in the previous year. ENBD also booked a profit from

associates of 37 million dirhams for the fourth quarter of 2012, versus a loss of 227 million dirhams in the same period of 2011. The bank attributed the swing to the absence of any provision against Union Properties, in which it owns a 47.6 percent stake, after a 750 million dirhams impairment in 2011.

Loans and advances gained 3 percent in the fourth quarter, taking growth for 2012 to 7 percent. This exceeds the 5-6 percent forecast given by Chief Executive Rick Pudner in October. Meanwhile, deposits increased 11 percent over the course of 2012. By comparison, figures from the UAE Central Bank said sector-wide deposits grew 8.7 percent in the first ten months of the year.

ENBD said on Wednesday its board had proposed a cash dividend of 25 percent for 2012, up from 20 percent for 2011. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Jet eyes deal with Etihad in a week NEW DELHI: India’s second biggest carrier Jet Airways expects to finalize a stake sale deal with Abu Dhabi’s Etihad Airways in a week or so, an executive at the airline, who declined to be named, said yesterday.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said earlier yesterday, after meeting the top executives of the two airlines, that Etihad was in talks with Jet for a potential investment in the carrier. The terms of the possible deal have not been disclosed, but a government source said earlier this month Etihad was in talks to pick up a 24 percent stake in Jet for up to $330 million.

“The government’s role is to make

sure that whatever agreement they come to is within the regulatory framework,” Singh told reporters after the meeting, declining to give details of the deal.

Top executives at the two airlines are in the Indian capital to meet the civil aviation and trade ministers and senior officials. Separately, an official at India’s trade ministry, who declined to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Etihad would soon apply to India’s foreign investment approval authority for investing in Jet. The Jet deal, if closed, will be the first since India relaxed ownership rules in September last year and allowed foreign

Global growth boosts MasterCard q4 net NEW YORK: MasterCard’s net income rebounded strongly in the fourth quarter as its overseas business continued to expand, the company said yesterday.

The results benefited by comparison to the year-earlier quarter, which was weighed down by a massive legal charge. Net income in the three months ended Dec. 31 rose to $605 million, or $4.86 per share, from $19 million, or 15 cents per share, a year earlier.

Net revenue rose 10 percent to $1.90 billion. Revenue increased because MasterCard continued to grow by every measure: It processed 20 percent more transactions than a year ago, including 17 percent higher crossborder volumes. The Purchase, NY-based payments network took a charge of nearly $500 million in the year-earlier quarter. The charge covered the cost of a settlement with retailers over the fees they pay on credit card transactions. For 2012, MasterCard earned $2.76 billion, or $21.94 per share, on revenue of $7.39 billion. During the quarter, management repurchased 1.3 million shares for $613 million.

Repurchasing shares is a way of returning profits to shareholders. It boosts the value of each share that remains in investors’ hands. The quarterly results beat analysts’ estimates, sending shares up 4 percent in premarket trading. Shares rose $21.20 at $537.05 an hour before the opening bell. — Reuters

Telecoms boom leaves rural Africa behind JOHANNESBURG/FREETOWN: While mobile phone usage has exploded across Africa over the last decade, transforming daily life and commerce for millions, it’s a revolution that has left behind perhaps two thirds of its people. Poor or no reception outside the towns helps explain why the continent’s mobile penetration, in terms of the percentage of the population using the service, is far lower than previously thought, and the cost of providing that service to impoverished, sparsely populated areas remains prohibitive.

In rural Sierra Leone, a country where GDP per capita is less than $400 a year, money doesn’t grow on trees, but mobile reception can, says street trader Abass Bangura in Freetown, the West African country’s capital. In parts of Tonkolili, a district in the centre of the country, or Kailahun to the east, it’s the only way you can get reception, he said.

“You climb stick, like mango tree, before you have network,” he said. In South Sudan, the world’s newest state, it’s a similar story. Less than a year old, the country already has five mobile operators, and its capital, Juba, is teeming with giant billboards advertising mobile phones, but go just a few kilometres beyond a handful of fast-growing towns, and cell phones become useless.

Multiple SIM cards help users navigate patchy network coverage and take advantage of price promotions from rival operators.

That is typical of much of the continent. With a population of just over a billion people, Africa has over 700 million SIM cards, but with most users owning at least two cards, penetration is only about 33 percent, according to a study released in November by industry research firm Wireless Intelligence.—Reuters

carriers to buy up to 49 percent in domestic carriers that are battling stiff competition and high operating costs.

The aviation sector has been abuzz with talks of stake sales to global carriers since the ownership rules were eased.

But investment bankers don’t expect a slew of foreign carriers striking deals in Asia’s third-largest economy due to worries about the sector’s billions of dollars of debt and high costs of operations.

Jet shares rose as much as 3.4 percent during the day on Thursday to 614.80 rupees. The stock has nearly doubled in the last three months on speculation about the stake sale talks with Etihad.

Etihad’s deal with Jet made opera-

tional sense, analysts have said, as both carriers already have a codeshare pact allowing them to rapidly ramp up the number of flights on lucrative Gulf-India routes and challenging Dubai-based Emirates Airline.

Nearly 1.5 million Indians work in the United Arab Emirates, which include Abu Dhabi and Dubai, and millions more work in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait. The deal with Etihad also gives Jet cash to pare some of its debt. The investment will also put it on stronger footing to compete with state-owned Air India Ltd on domestic routes that feed into the flights to and from the Gulf.—Reuters

India to slash defense and welfare spending Policymakers hope deficit cut to boost investment NEW DELHI: India’s finance minister is putting welfare, defense and road projects on the chopping block in a last-ditch attempt to hit a tough fiscal deficit target

by March, risking short-term economic growth and angering cabinet colleagues.

The cuts will reduce spending by about 1.1 trillion Indian rupees ($20.6 billion) in the current financial year, some 8 percent of budgeted outlay, or roughly 1 percent of estimated gross domestic product, two senior finance ministry officials and a senior government adviser told Reuters.

It is the first time the scale of the cuts and details of where the axe will fall have been made public, with officials revealing startling details about delays to arms purchases and belt-tightening for politically sensitive rural welfare schemes in an election year.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram has staked his reputation on lowering the deficit to 5.3 percent of GDP to improve the investment climate following ratings agency threats to downgrade to junk India’s sovereign debt if action was not taken. After a series of investor-friendly reforms and small steps to reduce fuel subsidies, he has now turned firepower on big-spending colleagues, some of whom are pushing back, worried cuts will hit voters ahead of a national election due in early 2014.

“Every ministry is affected by the budget cuts. We are trying hard to get as much money as possible,” said a senior official in the road transport ministry, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

A drop-off in investment, hurting growth, is blamed in part on public spending that is funded through market borrowing crowding out the private sector. Policymakers say getting India’s finances in order will give private players room to borrow and the confidence to invest. “With fiscal discipline, what will happen is that there will be larger money with the private sector, which can be used for the growth,” said B K Chaturvedi, a senior adviser to the government on infrastructure spending. Chidambaram will officially report the revised spending figures for 2012/13 when he presents next year’s budget to parliament on Feb.

NEW DELHI: Former President of Finland Tarja Halonen (left) talks to a delegate during the 13th Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, in New Delhi, yesterday. The event is organized by the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). —AP 28. “It is I who have done the math, the deficit will remain below 5.3 percent this year, next year it will be below 4.8 percent. I am not going to cross these red lines,” Chidambaram told Reuters in an interview yesterday.

His attention has turned to spending because revenue has dropped. The economy is on track to grow about 5.6 percent this year, the lowest rate for a decade, and the government is struggling to raise $10 billion in hoped-for windfall cash from partial privatizations and mobile spectrum sales.

The government had originally targeted a fiscal deficit of 5.1 percent in the current financial year, but loosened the target in October. It was 5.8 percent in 2011/12.

The impact of measures to cut bloated subsidies will mostly not be felt this fiscal year, which runs to the end of March. “We are estimating a budget cut of 1.1 trillion rupees ($20.6 billion) as an outer limit. However, the final picture will be clear by March 15 when we have a clear idea about tax collections and the fuel subsidy bill,” said a senior finance ministry official, who declined to be named. A senior official at the defense

ministry-the world’s biggest arms importer in recent years-said a $1.9 billion cut there could delay efforts to buy howitzer guns and Javelin anti-tank missiles from the United States by at least few months. “The Indian army would be hit hard due to budget cuts,” said the official, noting that a defence deal worth more $12 billion for procuring 126 jet fighters from France’s Rafale was already delayed by at least three months.

Up to $4 billion will be lost at the rural development ministry, which has the largest budget after defense, hitting spending on roads, housing, and the government’s flagship rural job-guarantee program, a senior official in the ministry said. Critics warn that at a time of low growth, lower spending risks deepening the slowdown without helping the deficit-to-GDP ratio, a problem familiar to the austerity-racked economies of Europe. Chidambaram’s cuts mainly affect capital investment and he has avoided attacking government wage bills and subsidy spending known in India as “non-plan expenditure”. Even so, powerful ministers have protested about the impact lower spending will have. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Weekly US jobless aid applications edge up Job cuts spike after holiday season

FRANKFURT: Deutsche Bank CEOs Juergen Fitschen (left) and Anshu Jain (right) attend the financial statement press conference in Frankfurt yesterday. — AP

Deutsche Bank slips into red FRANKFURT: Deutsche Bank, Germany’s biggest bank, said yesterday that one-off effects pushed it into the red in the fourth quarter of last year and led to a sharp drop in full-year profits. Deutsche Bank said in a statement it ran up a loss of 2.167 billion euros ($2.9 billion) in the period from October to December, compared with a profit of 147 million euros a year earlier. At a pre-tax level, too, earnings were deeply in the red to the tune of 2.569 billion euros in the October-December period compared with a year-earlier loss of 351 million euros.

The bottom-line loss was attributable to writedowns of 1.9 billion euros and litigation-related charges of 1.0 billion euros, the statement explained. At the same time, fourth-quarter revenues grew by 14 percent to 7.9 billion euros, Deutsche Bank said. Deutsche Bank is currently being investigated over allegations that some of its employees were involved in rigging the Libor and Euribor interest rates.

And one of its co-chief executives, Juergen Fitschen, is among a number of top-ranking managers under suspicion of being privy to a scheme to avoid paying sales tax in the trading of carbon emissions certificates. The fourth-quarter loss also dragged down Deutsche Bank’s bottom line for the whole of 2012, when net profit declined to 611 million euros from 4.132 billion euros the year before, the bank said.

At a pre-tax level, full-year profit slumped to 1.397 billion euros in 2012 from 5.39 billion euros in 2011. Nevertheless, Deutsche Bank said it would pay shareholders an unchanged dividend of 0.75 euros per share. In September, the group unveiled deep cost-cutting plans which included a decisive shake-out of risky assets.

While several of the measures “had an expected material impact on our fourth quarter financial results, we are encouraged by the initial results,” insisted Fitschen and his co-CEO Anshu Jain. For example, Deutsche Bank’s key Core Tier One capital ratio-a measure of a bank’s ability to withstand unforeseen risks-rose to 8.0 percent, from less than 6.0 percent a year earlier and “significantly above our communicated target of 7.2 percent for year-end 2012. “This development predominantly reflects strong delivery on portfolio optimisation and de-risking of non-core activities, as well as model and process enhancements,” the two CEOs said. — AFP

Japan industrial production up TOKYO: Japan’s industrial production picked up pace in December from the month before, in a sign the world’s third-largest economy may be stabilizing thanks to stronger global demand and government spending. Increased output of large passenger cars and vehicle components and machinery for making semiconductors were the main factors helping to drive the improvement in manufacturing, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said yesterday. It said industrial output rose a seasonally adjusted 2.5 percent from November.

The government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is already claiming progress in breaking the deflationary slump that has weighed on Japan’s growth for years. Share prices are approaching three year highs and many companies have reported improved profits thanks to a weakening of the Japanese yen against other major currencies.—AP

WASHINGTON: The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose sharply last week but remained at a level consistent with moderate hiring.

Weekly applications for unemployment benefits leapt 38,000 to a seasonally adjusted 368,000, the Labor Department said yesterday. The increase comes after applications plummeted in the previous two weeks to five-year lows.

The volatility reflects the government’s difficulty adjusting the data to account for layoffs after the holiday shopping season. Job cuts typically spike in the second week in January as retailers dismiss temporary employees hired for the winter holidays. Layoffs then fall in the second half of the month.

The department attempts to adjust for such fluctuations but the January figures can still be volatile. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, ticked up to 352,000, just above a four-year low.

On Friday, the government is scheduled to issue its January jobs report. Analysts forecast that it will show employers added 155,000 jobs, the same as in December. The unemployment rate is expected to remain at 7.8 percent for the third straight month.

That’s consistent with the number of people seeking unemployment aid.

Applications fluctuated between 360,000 and 390,000 for most of last year. At the same time, employers added an average of 153,000 jobs a month.

That’s just been enough to slowly push down the unemployment rate, which fell 0.7 percentage points last year to 7.8 percent.

Steady hiring is needed to resume economic growth. The government said Wednesday that the economy shrank at an annual rate of 0.1 percent in the October-December quarter, hurt by a

WASHINGTON: General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt listens at right as President Barack Obama meets with the Council on Jobs and Competitiveness in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Obama’s jobs council is expiring, and there are no signs he plans to renew it. — AP sharp cut in defense spending, fewer exports and sluggish growth in company stockpiles. The contraction points to what is likely to be the biggest headwind for the economy this year: sharp government spending cuts and ongoing budget fights. The economy will likely expand in the current quarter and is forecast to grow around 2 percent this year as strength in areas like housing and auto sales could partly offset government cutbacks. But looming, across-the-board spending cuts, set to take effect March 1, would weaken a still-precarious recovery. Two key drivers of growth improved last quarter. Consumer spending, which

accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, increased at a faster pace and businesses invested more in equipment and software. Homebuilders, meanwhile, are stepping up construction to meet rising demand. That could create more construction jobs. Home prices are rising steadily. That tends to make Americans feel wealthier and more likely to spend.

Housing could add as much as 1 percentage point to economic growth this year, some economists estimate.

And auto sales reached their highest level in five years in 2012. That’s boosting production and hiring at US automakers and their suppliers. —AP

S Korea chaebol chief sentenced to 4 years in prison SEOUL: A South Korean court sentenced the chairman of the country’s thirdbiggest conglomerate to four years in prison yesterday for embezzling millions of dollars of company money for personal investments.

The ruling comes as South Koreans demand a tougher stance on crimes committed by bosses of chaebol as the familycontrolled conglomerates that dominate South Korea’s economy are known.

Seoul Central District Court found Chey Tae-won guilty of embezzling 46.5 billion won ($42.7 million) from two companies within the SK Group conglomerate, which he invested in stock futures and options.

Chey had denied the charge. SK Group said it was preparing an appeal. Chaebol bosses found guilty of crimes have received suspended prison terms and presidential pardons in the past and court rulings have emphasized their contributions to South Korea’s economy. Some argued that prison sentences could dam-

age the economy by depriving important companies of key decision makers.

But such rulings have undermined public trust in the courts and spurred calls for equal treatment as perceptions grew that the conglomerates were over-mighty.

President-elect Park Geun-hye who takes office Feb. 25 has vowed to toughen punishment of crimes by chaebol bosses.

The Seoul court said Chey’s case was a demonstration of how a chaebol boss can treat company assets as personal property.

Chey used “the companies that he controls and exerts influence over as a criminal tool and used a massive amount of the companies’ assets for a personal purpose,” the court said. Chey became chairman of SK Group in 1998, succeeding his late father who inherited the group from his older brother, the founder.

The conglomerate’s businesses include telecommunications and energy. Chey resigned last month as chairman of SK Group. However, he became chairman of

SEOUL: SK Group Chairman Chey Taewon arrives at the Seoul Central District Court in Seoul yesterday.—AP the holding company for the conglomerate, SK Holdings Co, and remained the most powerful executive. — AP

THEY ARE THE 99!

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

THE FASCINATING STORY OF THE 99 Baghdad lies in ruins, destroyed by the marauding armies of Hulagu Khan. The brave librarians of the great Dar Al-Hikma rush to save the glory of the ancient world’s accumulated wisdom, little knowing that centuries later their efforts will bear strange fruit. While the Noor Stones were created to save the library, their power has transcended that task and in our own time has provided extraordinary abilities to an international group of young people, the world’s newest superheroes known as… The 99.

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

www.the99.org

26

Opinion FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

US Muslim clothing companies fill void

Mahum Tahir, 14, picks out scarves with her mom Fouzia Tahir, 42, at Al-Anwar in Anaheim, California, on Sept 15, 2012. — MCT

By Shan Li

I

slamic clothing is getting a bit more hip.

Southern California, home to one of the largest Muslim communities in the nation, has become fertile ground for a new generation of designers crafting clothes for women who are limited by faith and conviction from flashing too much skin. Although Muslim women have been dressing fashionably for years, many in the US say they still face tricky challenges when getting dressed - and especially dressed up.

“We are Muslim and we can still express ourselves, be fashionable, as long as we do it in a halal way” or in keeping with Islamic law, said LaTanya Maassarani, 30, a postal carrier from Long Beach, Calif. “But unless you have lots of money or lots of time to shop, it’s been hard for years to find clothes in America that aren’t dowdy.”

Filling that void now are designers such as Afra Said-Ahmed and her sister Eiman Ahmed, both Muslims, who launched Irvine, California, clothing company Mohajababes. The name is a mash-up of the words “babe” and “Muhajiba,” or one who wears a hijab scarf. “Trying to conform to Muslim dress codes, you get stuck in a rut of black, black, black all the time,” said Ahmed, 26. “It’s definitely very difficult, especially in the US. You want to fit in, but still be appropriately dressed.”

So she and her sister scraped together $2,000 and began selling caftans and rhinestone accessories for head scarves at the end of 2011. The line is modest - caftans sweep the floor and hang loosely on the

body. Yet the jewel-colored clothing comes with feminine frills such as silky fabrics and metallic embroidery. Said-Ahmed said their goal was to dress fashion-conscious shoppers who are faithful to Islamic mandates but want nothing to do with traditional black coverings such as abayas and burkas, which are too hot for the California sun.

“There is a huge market here for Muslims who can’t access clothing like this,” she said. “People were saying, ‘Oh my God, that’s amazing. I have been looking everywhere for this.’ “ Designers are opening stores, showing off wares at conventions and sending models down runways. They’re hoping to make serious money: Southern California has a ready pool of more than half a million Muslims, said Munira Syeda, spokeswoman at the Council of Islamic-American Relations. Muslim Americans say the new designers make getting dressed in the morning - and avoiding stares from people nervous about anyone who looks remotely Middle Eastern - much easier.

Amira Mertaban, 21, said young Muslim women like herself now have the confidence to remain true to Islam. Even a few years ago, she said, women who didn’t want to look dour resorted to layering miniskirts on top of jeans. “If a non-Muslim looks at you, it obviously makes them more comfortable if they don’t see the standard black that they see in the news all the time,” the Chino Hills, California, college student said as she proudly showed off her pale pink hijab, striped maxi dress and stylish Marc Jacobs glasses. “Fashion has given

Muslims a sense of relief.”

Aside from the challenges of running a small business, designers churning out Muslim clothing must navigate tricky cultural norms and interpretations of Islamic law. Some conservative, older members of Muslim communities - and even younger members - frown upon anything brightly colored or remotely flashy, said Anna Secor, a University of Kentucky professor who has studied Islamic fashions. Secor said Islamic laws mandating modesty are open for wide interpretation. In Saudi Arabia, most women wear abayas and many also cover their hair with hijabs, she said. In Turkey, on the other hand, some young women dress in skintight bodysuits with strappy sundresses on top. “What exactly is the boundary of modesty is contested, and a lot of people don’t agree,” she said. “This tension of fashion and Islamic modesty is something women deal with every day of their lives.” Mohajababes carefully tailored the marketing to the audience: Models show very little skin. Its website has links to tutorials on stylish ways to wrap head scarves.

And the company’s tag line delivers the message: “We’ve got it covered.” Even so, Ahmed penned a long blog post on the firm’s site in response to “violent” online diatribes against popular Muslim fashion bloggers and designers. But the company has made some concessions, shelving plans for a shorter, knee-length caftan and embroidered trousers.

“If we sold pants, people would say, ‘These trousers - you can see the legs, that is totally inappropriate,’” she said, adding

that their vibrantly colored clothing has already drawn harsh critics. “We have heard people say, ‘It’s too bright, the caftans are too pretty, and they attract too much attention.’” Some designers are hoping to inch away from controversy by angling for an audience beyond the Muslim community.

In December, sisters Nadia Rayan and Nora Ghaneian launched the evening-wear line Rayan, designed and manufactured in Los Angeles. Like many Muslim American designers, they first began making clothes for themselves - designing gowns to wear to family weddings - after finding few alternatives at the mall besides flesh-baring dresses or frumpy frocks. “Pretty much the only options were mother-of-the-bride dresses, or a strapless or one-shoulder gown where you have to wear a longsleeved bodysuit underneath or a cardigan over,” Ghaneian said. “For people who are trendy and keep up with fashions, those are not valid options,” she said, “so there is definitely a void in the market.”

The Rayan line includes gowns, priced between $250 and $400, in shades of fuchsia, plum and navy decorated with trendy details such as lace and peplums. The designers have sold about 25 dresses already and hope to eventually expand beyond the Muslim women who are their customer base. “Our ultimate goal is to sell in a department store like Bloomingdales and Nordstrom,” she said. “Right now we are marketing toward our Muslim community because we know there’s a void, but many women would want a long-sleeved dress every now and then.” — MCT

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

www.kuwaittimes.net

A model presents a creation by Custo during the 080 Barcelona ‘Autumn Winter 2013-2014’ fashion†week in Barcelona. — AFP

FOOD FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

New cookbook chronicles

our love of cinnamon I

n the fall of 2011, local cookbook author Judith Fertig took on an ambitious assignment: Write a book of cinnamon roll recipes in 60 days. Fertig loves cinnamon rolls, and she’s authored more than 20 cookbooks on everything from

bread to barbecue. Still, this was no easy task. The expert baker holed up in her Overland Park, Kan, kitchen with colossal amounts of flour, butter, and sugar. She gathered four kinds of cinnamon and started rolling it into swirls of every shape and size. Her overworked oven churned out all kinds of crave-worthy creations: Carrot Cake Cinnamon Rolls with Pineapple-Cream Cheese Frosting.

Mexican Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls spiked with ancho chile. Moroccan-inspired crescents filled with black pepper and rose petals.

Fertig would taste each one, then hand out leftovers to neighbors, friends and family members. “I was very popular for a while,” she says. At the end of those two months, Fertig had lots of new friends and another cookbook: “I Love Cinnamon Rolls!” (Andrews McMeel Publishing, 2012). The book has everything from traditional sticky buns to gluten-free rolls. The recipes are customizable, so you easily change out the dough, filling, pan sauce or topping. “I’m a mix-and-match person,” Fertig says. Fertig says she wanted the recipes to be flexible because everyone has his or her own version of the perfect cinnamon roll.

Here in the Midwest, she says, we like our cinnamon rolls soft and feathery, with lots of gooey frosting on top. On the East Coast, people prefer sticky buns. In Colorado, it’s not a cinnamon roll unless it’s as big as a plate, and in the Northwest, vegan rolls are all the rage. Don’t even get Fertig started on all the different kinds of rolls Europeans like. As for the cookbook author, she’s a native Midwesterner, so it’s no surprise she likes cinnamon rolls that are soft and gooey, filled with lots of mouth-watering brown sugar and warm cinnamon. “If you’re going to have a cinnamon roll,” Fertig says, “have a cinnamon roll.”

CINNAMON ROLLS, SIMPLIFIED

Everyone loves the sweet breakfast pastry, but not everyone is willing to put in the time it takes to whip up a batch from scratch. These tips from “I Love Cinnamon Rolls” author Judith Fertig save time and headaches.

- Skip the proofing step by using instant (or bread machine) yeast instead of active dry yeast.

- Stock up on boxes of hot roll mix, which contains flour, dry milk, salt and instant yeast, then follow Fertig’s recipe for Easy Cinnamon Roll Dough to have rolls ready in about two hours.

- Invest in a Danish dough whisk. The stickiest dough won’t get stuck in this $10 tool, which has two stiff metal loops.

- Use a serrated knife to cut cylinders of dough into rolls without smashing their round shape.

- Mix dough the night before, let it rise, then store it in the fridge until morning.

“The cold makes yeast go into hibernation,” Fertig explains.

- Bake and cool a batch of Classic Cinnamon Rolls (recipe below), then stash

rolls them in the freezer. Next time you want cinnamon rolls, warm them in the oven and apply your favorite icing.

TRADITIONAL CINNAMON ROLL DOUGH

This easy dough, which bakes up all soft and feathery, can be kneaded with a mixer or by hand. “You know you’re done when you can stick your knuckle in it and it bounces back, like a pillow,” Fertig says.

Makes 6 jumbo, 12 large, 16-20 medium, or 48 minirolls 1 cup whole milk 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon salt 2 large eggs 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading and dusting 2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast In a 4-cup measuring cup, combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt. Microwave on high for 1 minute or until warm (Careful: Exceed 130 degrees and you’ll kill the yeast). Whisk in the eggs.

Place the flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Add the liquid ingredients. Mix on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time, until the dough forms a soft mass and starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl, 5 to 6 minutes.

Remove the paddle attachment and switch to the dough hook. With the mixer on low, knead the dough with the dough hook. Sprinkle the dough with a tablespoon of flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the sides of the bowl. When the dough is smooth, not sticky, and springs back when you press it with your finger, you’ve kneaded it enough (4 to 6 minutes). Place the dough in a large, oiled mixing bowl, cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place (about 85 degrees) for 45 to 60 minutes, or until it has almost doubled.

Proceed with a cinnamon roll recipe.

Per serving (based on 12): 209 calories (25 percent from fat), 6 grams total fat (3 grams saturated), 49 milligrams cholesterol, 33 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 200 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber.

SWEDISH CINNAMON ROLLS

Swedes like their cinnamon rolls on the spicy side, Fertig says. These cute, compact sweets get their kick from aromatic cardamom and taste great with coffee.

Makes 48 minirolls 1 recipe Traditional Cinnamon Roll Dough Flour for dusting 1 cup granulated sugar 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon cardamom 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 2 large egg yolks, beaten with 2 teaspoons water

FOOD FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

the bowl, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove the paddle attachment and switch to the dough hook. With the mixer on low, knead the dough with the dough hook. Sprinkle the dough with a tablespoon of flour, if necessary, to keep it from sticking to the sides of the bowl. When the dough is smooth, not sticky, and springs back when you press it with your finger, you’ve kneaded enough (3 to 5 minutes). Place the dough in a large, oiled mixing bowl, cover with plastic wrap,

1/2 cup Swedish pearl sugar or coarsely crushed sugar cubes Line 48 muffin cups with cupcake liners.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface.

Cut the dough in fourths. Roll each fourth out to an 8-by-12-inch rectangle.

For the filling, combine the sugar, cinnamon and cardamom in a small bowl. Brush a fourth of the butter over the dough and sprinkle with a fourth of the spice mixture.

Roll up the dough and form it into a tight 12-inch-long cylinder. Cut each cylinder into 12 slices. Place each slice, spiral side up, in a paper-lined muffin cup.

Repeat with the remaining dough. Cover the pans with a tea towel and rest in a warm place until almost doubled, 45 to 60 minutes.

Brush the tops of the rolls with egg wash and sprinkle with pearl sugar.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Per roll: 439 calories (29 percent from fat), 14 grams total fat (9 grams saturated), 72 milligrams cholesterol, 73 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 221 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.

CLASSIC CINNAMON ROLLS

For a twist, Fertig swapped the usual cream cheese frosting for an icing flavored with coffee and maple syrup.

Makes 12 large rolls 1 recipe Traditional Cinnamon Roll Dough Flour for dusting 8 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided and softened 1 cup packed dark brown sugar 2 tablespoons cinnamon 2 cups confectioners’ sugar Pinch of salt 1 tablespoon whole milk 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted 2 tablespoons strong brewed coffee 1 tablespoon maple syrup For the pan sauce, spread 4 tablespoons of the butter into the bottom of a 9-by-13inch pan.

Transfer the dough to a floured surface and roll out to a 16-by-20-inch rectangle.

For the filling, combine the brown sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Spread the dough with 4 tablespoons of the butter and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Starting with the shorter side, roll up the dough to form a tight 16-inch cylinder. Cut the cylinder into 12 rolls. Place in the prepared pan, spiral side up. Cover with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled, 45 to 60 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake

for 15 to 17 minutes or until lightly browned on top.

For the glaze, whisk the remaining ingredients together in a medium bowl.

Drizzle over the warm rolls.

Per roll: 439 calories (29 percent from fat), 14 grams total fat (9 grams saturated), 72 milligrams cholesterol, 73 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 221 milligrams sodium, 2 grams dietary fiber.

VEGAN CINNAMON ROLL DOUGH

This recipe makes an incredibly soft, flaky dough that you’d never guess was made without real eggs or butter.

Makes 6 jumbo, 12 large, 16-20 medium, or 48 minirolls 1\2 cup water 1 cup soy, rice or almond milk, preferably vanilla flavored 1/2 cup granulated sugar or date sugar 4 tablespoons vegan buttery-flavored sticks, such as Earth Balance, softened 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon powdered egg substitute, such as Ener-g Egg Replacer 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for kneading 2 1/2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast In a 4-cup measuring cup, combine the water, soy milk, sugar, vegan buttery-flavored sticks, and salt.

Microwave on high for 2 minutes or until warm. Whisk in the egg substitute.

Place the flour and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the liquid ingredients.

Mix on low speed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl from time to time, until the dough forms a soft mass and starts to pull away from the sides of

and let rise in a warm place (about 85 degrees) for 45 to 60 minutes, or until it has almost doubled.

Proceed with a cinnamon roll recipe.

Per serving (based on 12): 205 calories (22 percent from fat), 5 grams total fat (3 grams saturated), no cholesterol, 35 grams carbohydrates, 4 grams protein, 271 milligrams sodium, 1 gram dietary fiber. — MCT

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Sun, sand and heat

The rugged peaks of the Court of the Patriarchs are among the best-known features of Zion National Park in southwest Utah, which gets three million visitors a year.

By Jack Broom

P

ick your pleasure: Scrambling up a steep ridge, 1,000 feet above a canyon floor? Or gliding in a golf cart down a manicured fairway, where a carpet of emerald green offers a striking contrast to the red-rock desert? At first blush, the two outings might seem to have little in common. But having done them on successive days in Southwest Utah this fall, I can identify two key similarities: Both call for sunscreen and each goes a lot better if you avoid going off a cliff.

Visiting the dramatic spires and vistas of Zion National Park has been on my to-do list for decades. And recently a friend mentioned that St George, Utah, the closest sizable city, has become a bit of a golf haven. That revelation, and a little online research, turned the matter from a notion into a plan: hiking boots and golf clubs were tossed into the Camry trunk for the two-day, 1,200-mile drive from Seattle. Here’s a closer look at Zion hiking and a St George round of golf:

- Angels Landing Somewhere along the steepest section of this 5.4-mile hike in Zion National Park, my right foot slipped a bit, dislodging a couple of dime-sized rock chips. They bounced once or twice and disappeared. I didn’t see them land.

I knew they could be falling 1,000 feet or more. This is what the news clippings had talked about. It’s why the park’s published guide says the Angels Landing hike is “not for young children or anyone fearful of heights.”

And it’s why a heavy chain is anchored to steel posts to assist hikers along the uppermost half-mile of this hike, which includes crossing a narrow rock “fin” with sheer drops on either side. The Salt Lake Tribune has reported six fatalities in the last eight years along this route. (And in late October, a 49year-old California man fell to his death on a technical climbing route below Angels Landing, a route that is not part of the trail.)

When my foot slipped, I grasped the chain more tightly. And it took a few moments before I was ready for the next step.

Angels Landing, a hike that gains 1,488 feet, is in the “strenuous” category on the park’s guide, which also lists easy and moderate hikes. Zion, Utah’s most-visited national park, is known for its narrow canyons and layered sandstone cliffs in shades of red, tan and cream. Though the park is huge, at 229 square miles, visitor activity is centered along a 15mile stretch of the Virgin River, which carved these rock faces over the eons.

One of the appeals of Angels Landing is that it provides breathtaking views almost from the start of the hike. The first two miles, wide and paved, end in “Walter’s Wiggles,” a set of 21 switchbacks built in the 1920s and named for Walter Ruesch, the park’s first custodian.

The “wiggles” lead to Scout Lookout, with views up and down the canyon. This is where my wife, Judy, saying she felt no need to prove her “manhood,” waited while I tackled the final section. From Scout Lookout, it took about a half-hour, including stops for photos, to reach the top. The payoff was a gently

rounded summit, roughly the size of a 7Eleven lot, with a magnificent 360-degree view. This may indeed attract angels in the next world. For now, it’s drawing visitors from all over this one. I overheard conversations in at least four languages.

Perhaps because I had read about the danger well before the trip, I found the hike a little less scary than I had expected - but a little more strenuous, for a guy over 60. In one spot, I had to use the chain not just to hang onto, but to pull myself up, unclear where my foot should land. The park’s guide says the Angels Landing Trail is best from March through October, but it can be hiked yearround as long as it’s free of ice and snow (and avoid it if there are high winds or thunderstorms).

- On to the golf course For Northwest golfers, a round of golf in southern Utah may be a bit jarring. We’re used to seeing tall evergreen trees (or rows of houses) flanking our fairways.

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

But guess what runs alongside several holes at Sand Hollow Golf Resort near St George: Nothing. Just left of the fairway, the earth disappears. It’s a 100-foot drop down to the valley floor, and if you just smacked your $4 Titleist Pro V1 that direction, the two of you are not going to be reunited in this life-

Heading to the sunshine of Utah for Zion National Park hiking and St George golfing time. Sand Hollow, listed by Golf Digest as one of the nation’s 10 best new courses in 2009, has strengthened St. George’s credentials as a year-round golf destination. Golfers can choose from a dozen courses in and around this city of 140,000, which sits at 2,800 feet. With hot summers and mild winters, courses here present contrasts in bold colors: green grass, red-rock desert, black lava rock and blue sky.

At Sand Hollow’s 15th hole, a par-3 of 150 yards, I was determined to avoid the chasm on the left. I succeeded - but only by slicing far to the right, up a rocky slope. After a brief search, I saw I’d suffered a common fate.

Thought I didn’t find my ball, I did find four

others. A double-bogey was a small price to pay for the adventure. Speaking of price, I paid $55, including cart, to play Sand Hollow on a weekday in September, the last month of what the course calls its “offseason.” From Oct 1 to mid-May, a round here is $100 SundayThursday and $125 on Fridays, Saturdays and holidays.

With virtually no trees or water, the course defends itself with brick-red bunkers, undulating greens and patches of desert. Golfers decide how much of a challenge they want, with four sets of tees ranging from 5,306 to 7,315 yards. (From the 6,462-yard white tees, the course carries a rating of 69.6 and a slope of 126, meaning it’s a much tougher-thanaverage track.)Shots tend to travel farther than at home here, due to the firm, dry fairways and the elevation. Sand Hollow offers lower rates on its nearby nine-hole “Links Course,” laid out with a minimum amount of landscaping on flat desert terrain. A sign in desert grass off the first fairway warns “rattlesnake habitat.”

I also played another nearby course, Sky Mountain, which also has dramatic views but, with some bare patches on the greens, wasn’t in the same condition as Sand Hollow. Other courses praised by golfers I met included Coral Canyon and The Ledges. Sand Hollow rents vacation villas that could be good bases for groups who want to play this course and others. We stayed 15 minutes away, in downtown St. George, at the Best Western Coral

Twenty-one paved switchbacks lead hikers up a middle section of Angels Landing trail in Utah’s Zion National Park.

Hills. It’s rightly praised on Trip Advisor in part for its generous complimentary breakfasts.

And I apologize to the staff for misunderstanding the directions on the waffle-batter dispenser in the breakfast room, triggering something of a flash flood.

St George has an interesting selection of shops and restaurants and something we did not expect: a fantastic outdoor amphitheater

where shows and concerts are presented. It’s called Tuacahn, and is nestled against a red rock wall of Snow Canyon, just north of town.

We saw a performance of Disney’s “Aladdin” and marveled at feats of staging that included making a mountain talk and having Aladdin and Princess Jasmine fly over the audience on a magic carpet. — MCT

Cavernous red-sand bunkers swallow errant shots at Sand Hollow Resort, one of a dozen courses that have made St George, Utah, a prime golf destination. (Inset) A wary lizard is at home amid Zion National Park’s arid Utah terrain. — MCT photos

Te c h n o l o g y FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Why an SLR is a big deal Digital cameras vs dSLR

T

he term digital SLR is short for digital single lens reflex, so named because these types of cameras use a mirror positioned behind the camera lens to direct light toward the viewfinder when you’re composing a photo.

When you release the shutter, the mirror swings quickly out of the way, letting light from the lens travel straight to the sensor and momentarily blacking out the viewfinder. The viewfinder in an SLR incorporates a prism-usually a pentaprismthat flips the incoming image around so that you can see it right side up and bounces it onto the focusing screen where you see it.

The SLR design allows one camera to accommodate a very wide range of lens focal lengths, and that’s the biggest reason that SLRs dominate serious photography. The explanation? With a non-SLR camera, you have to match the angle of view of the “taking” lens with that of the “viewing” lens. That’s easy with a fixed lens or a shortrange zoom, but it requires increasingly complex and expensive viewfinder mechanisms as you try to cover a wider range of focal lengths. With an SLR, you avoid this problem because the taking and viewing lens are one and the same.

Most dSLR models beyond entry-level models incorporate a Live View mode, which allows the photographer to use the LCD to compose shots the same way they can with a snapshot camera.

The most basic implementations generally lock up the mirror, with the prism diverting the image to a small sensor that feeds through to the LCD rather than to the capture sensor. This does tend to hurt performance, however. Early versions required that you focus manually when in Live View mode, but current models use contrast autofocus.

lens mount. The first “standard” to emerge in this market is the Olympus/Panasonic Micro Four Thirds joint technology venture. Like SLR-style cameras, they use an EVF, since they lack a mirror for an optical through-the-lens view.

Digital SLR vs prosumer digital camera These days, the consumer camera midrange consists of megazoom models-those bulky cameras with manual features and ridiculously long zoom lenses that looka lot like SLRs but are otherwise nothing like them when it comes to performance or photo quality. Several manufacturers’ SLR lens systems offer more than 40 lenses, each optimized for its intended purpose. Sample from a smorgasbord of zooms, ultrawide-angles, supertelephotos, and specialty optics such as

have faster autofocus, shorter shutter delay, faster continuous shooting, and a bigger memory buffer.

While the least-expensive digital SLRs are now available at prices that compete with nonSLR cameras, the price range for digital SLRs is generally higher.

Some designs are better than others, but digital SLRs tend to have easily accessible thumb and forefinger wheels for exposure settings, discrete buttons for other critical features (exposure compensation, white balance), vertical position shutter releases, and just less menu surfing overall.

The introduction of Live View mode has made it possible to frame with a dSLR the way you do with a point-and-shoot model, but because

impossible to pan during continuous shooting.

An EVF can show you what the sensor sees, and therefore accurately display exposure, white balance and 100 percent of the scene. Some optical viewfinders can do the latter, but it adds a lot of cost to the camera.

For standard shooting, dSLRs use phase detection autofocus which is generally faster than contrast-detection AF, though not necessarily. dSLRs use contrast-detection AF in Live View mode, which tends to be very slow. There are some fast implementations, usually by incorporating a second sensor, but this adds cost.

Simply by virtue of being a more mature technology, and because they can usually use older film-camera lenses without an adapter, there’s a much bigger choice of lenses in all price

dSLRs are signficantly bigger and heavier than your typical snapshot camera, and not really designed to be held at a distance in front of you, the process can be a bit awkward.

Access to a much broader range of accessories, including powerful external flashes, alternate power sources, wireless transmitters, and remote triggering devices.

Interchangeable-lens cameras are similar to SLRs, but don’t have the mirror an SLR uses to bounce the image up to the viewfinder. As such, they’re theoretically smaller than their old-school counterparts.

With the possible exception of a live preview, the through-the-lens (TTL) optical viewfinders found on dSLRs are superior than the electronic viewfinders on ILCs and megazoom snapshot cameras. There’s no update lag, regardless of lighting, and they’re usable for shooting action; an EVF, which receives its image from the sensor, can only show you what’s already happened, while an optical viewfinder, which passes the image straight through the lens, can show you what’s currently happening. That makes it

ranges for dSLRs. ILCs can also use older lenses, but only via adapters and usually without support for autofocus. Plus, the large film and dSLR lenses tend to be uncomfortably bulky compared to many of the smaller ILC bodies.

Though this should be rectified as time goes on, currently dSLRs don’t support AF during video for a couple of reasons. First, the current crop of lenses aren’t optimized to be quiet, which you need when capturing video. Second, most current dSLR lenses only support ondemand autofocus, rather than the continuous AF required by video. Though there are several very large ILCs and several relatively compact dSLRs, overall dSLRs are bigger and heavier than ILCs. Digital cameras have been around long enough that few people are really comparing them to film SLRs anymore, but we’ll leave this here for nostalgia value. The instant review of your shots and the instant transmission capability (by e-mail or even via wireless transmitter, for instance) is the beauty of digital photography, regardless of whether the camera is an SLR or a standard digicam. — www.cnet.com

Types of digital SLRs Nikon D300 Interchangeable-lens full system digital SLR These are what most people mean when they say “digital SLR,” and they are the primary focus of this buying guide. As the name implies, the capability to remove one lens and replace it with another-to go from, say, ultra-wide-angle to supertelephoto-is what sets these cameras apart.

Olympus E-20N Fixed-lens digital SLR The lenses on these cameras can’t be removed, which limits their versatility. The best known of these models use a semitransparent, nonmoving mirror to bounce some light to the viewfinder while letting most through to the sensor, which means you can use their LCDs for composing. Examples: Olympus E-20N. Canon PowerShot S5 IS SLR-like or SLR-style These are standard digicams that use an electronic viewfinder (EVF)—just a small LCD-in place of an SLR’s pentaprism or a point-andshoot’s optical finder. They can’t truly be considered SLRs because they have no mirror, and we’ve yet to see an EVF that approaches the image quality of a decent pentaprism viewfinder.

Most cameras of the type have extremely long zoom lenses and cameras are sometimes referred to as ZLRs or megazooms. Example: Megazoom.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-G1 Interchangeable lens cameras Also referred to as Hybrid cameras, these are models which use the same technology as pointand-shoots, but incorporate an interchangeable

macro and perspective-control lenses.

Generally bigger and heavier.

The SLR mirror box and pentaprism add some weight and bulk compared to a point-andshoot’s design. Other factors include heavier, more durable materials and the need for larger batteries to power higher-performance components. That said, many recent entry-level models are about as light and compact as the larger EVF cameras.

Almost always better image quality at a given resolution. In other words, 10 megapixels from a digital SLR beats 10 megapixels from a typical digicam. This advantage is especially dramatic at higher light sensitivities (ISO 400 and greater).

(For more on the reason for this, see page 3.)

Increased complexity.

Choosing and changing lenses while shooting is an unwelcome chore for some folks. Plus, digital SLRs generally have a plethora of buttons and dials, which can intimidate some users.

Better performance. Typically, digital SLRs

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Skeletons in the closet: Homeless Serbs live in tomb

Homeless men Bratislav Jovanovic, 43, and Aleksandar Dejic, 50, sit inside a tomb at a cemetery.

“I just do not want my every glance to shift towards them.”

Dejic, 53, has been living here for two decades. His father, also homeless, brought him to the cemetery and they lived together in a chapel-like vault built in 1929 by “grateful daughter Angelina Veselic for her mother Milenija.” But the father fell ill and died. Now his son passes his time in the windowless grave walled with bricks, sleeping on an old bed covered with a blue quilt. Dejic’s only earthly possessions are a few jars filled with a dark liquid, scraps of leftover food and some old clothes.

Neither man has ever worked. “I am a construction worker, but I couldn’t get a job anywhere,” says Stojkovic, as he recalls his first days being homeless in Serbia, during its transition from a communist state to a decade of wars that ravaged the Balkans in the 1990s.

Homeless Aleksandar Dejic, 50, sleeps in a tomb.

W

ith a thin pink quilt pulled around his shoulders and three rusty metal coffins to keep him company, Bratislav Stojkovic is spending another freezing night inside a tomb at a long-forgotten municipal cemetery in the southern Serbian city of Nis. He and his friend Aleksandar Dejic are the only two living tenants of the “Old Cemetery,” once known for its precious, intricately carved tombstones, which have long since vanished. “I have never stolen anything. I did not even desecrate the grave I live in, it was already open,” Stojkovic says. Forty-year-old Stojkovic has lived in the grave for more than a decade. When his father died in a fire that also destroyed his house, Stojkovic found himself homeless, jobless and with no friends or relatives to turn to for help.

Unshaven and with a woollen cap pulled down almost to his eyes, Stojkovic hunkers down under his quilt for another night in the sub-freezing temperatures of the Serbian winter.

The coffins, which contain the remains of a long-forgotten local family, are also covered up.”I am not afraid of the dead, their souls are where they should be, either in hell or in heaven, while their bones bother no one now,” said Stojkovic, dressed in an old but clean, faded-green jacket.

Hundreds of thousands faced with homelessness International sanctions imposed to punish Belgrade for its role in the conflict led to growing homelessness. Factories that flourished under communism ground to a halt under the new economy. Serbia has an estimated 200,000 homeless people among its population of 7.2 million, according to a rights group survey last year. The poll showed seven percent of the population lives below the poverty line, while unemployment has reached 22.5 percent.

Serbia has also sheltered almost 300,000 Serb refugees from other former Yugoslav republics, and officials say at least one-third of them live in so-called collective refugee centers.

Only twelve towns in Serbia have homeless shelters, but these cannot keep up with demand, shelter volunteer Mirna Jokic said. “We have beds for about 300 people in Belgrade, while we need at least three times more, especially during winter,” she said. Neither Stojkovic nor Dejic receive welfare. Because they have no fixed abode, they cannot get identity cards. “It’s a vicious circle and you cannot win: You need to have a residence if you want to be registered with social services,” Jokic said.

The situation may change in the future, after human rights

Homeless men Bratislav Jovanovic, 43, and Aleksandar Dejic, 50, warm up beside a fire at a cemetery in Nis.

activists won a long campaign to let homeless people use a shelter address as their residence. “Grobljanci,” or “Graveyard men,” as Nis residents call the two men, survive by picking through trash, searching for leftovers and discarded clothes.

Nearby residents sometimes help, bringing food, clothes and even money. “I bathe in a public bath, but it costs 180 dinars. I also need 120 dinars for a bus fare as in winter, it is not easy to walk two hours to get there,” Stojkovic said. Local authorities

Homeless Bratislav Jovanovic, 43, sits on January 10, 2013 in a grave, which he uses as a shelter during winter time at a cemetery in Nis, 200 kilometers south of Belgrade.—AP photos plan to transform the cemetery, closed since the 1970s, into a memorial centre. But a lack of funds will spare the two men from being forced to find a new shelter soon. Both say they are “at peace” in their morbid lodgings. Visitors are rare, and only sometimes do they see a drug addict hiding behind the tombstones. But Stojkovic worries about frightening passers-by. “It is a real scare to see a man alive coming out of the grave,” he said.—AP

Homeless Bratislav Jovanovic, 43, enters a grave.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Twain then, us now, on

Italian time

travel trip

I

came to Italy to test a French adage by way of an American writer, Mark Twain.

“Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.”

The more things change, the more they remain the same. The saying had been on my mind while traveling before, usually with a

Photo shows spires of the Milan cathedral against the threatening skies.

book from the past clutched in my hands. On a 1991 honeymoon in the Greek Cyclades with my pockets full of love and a 1964 Nagel’s travel guide in my hands, the descriptions still fit some of the small fishing ports and dusty museums. But when I returned to

Portugal’s Algarve coastline a dozen years after I’d kept a holiday diary there, I found some parts transformed beyond recognition.

Now came another test: travel through northern Italy with a copy of Twain’s 1869 “The Innocents Abroad,” his irreverent “record of a pleasure trip” to Paris, the Mediterranean and Jerusalem. Twain’s humorous account of the great sights of Europe and the Holy Land was a best-seller in its day, but its mocking tone was a shocking departure from the era’s solemn travelogues.

Following Twain’s entire itinerary would take far too big a chunk out of my holiday time. But, Milan, Florence and Venice, a mere fragment for Twain, was within my reach for a two-week vacation. I wondered how our modern cynicism would hold up against his.

My family of four first headed to Milan, and much like Twain, we were drawn like a magnet to Milan’s cathedral. “That forest of graceful needles, shimmering in the amber sunlight,” the American writer wrote of the stiletto roof peaks, all topped with statues made of sheer grace. When Twain was there, the duomo (Italian cathedral) was still surrounded by “pygmy housetops,” leaving it visible from within seven miles (11 kilometers) around to stand in awe of its white marble majesty.

In 21st century Milan, the piazza in front of the Gothic building still offers a glimpse of

the overall vista Twain and his American travelers must have had. But beyond, the boutiques for Giorgio Armani and umpteen fashion empires, business centers and a massive football stadium now crowd in one of the biggest cathedrals in the world. Where Twain saw the vastness of the countryside in the distance, the cathedral’s rooftop now offers views of the new Porta Nuova business district - all sleek glass, cutting edges into the skyline much like the cathedral once did.

Considering the cathedral was not even fully finished when Twain treaded the marble stairs, such changes might be obvious. But there were other contrasts and similarities Twain would have enjoyed. His account of a cathedral tour mocked the ghoulish relics and priceless treasures on display - two fingers of St. Paul’s, a gem-covered corpse, candlesticks in silver and gold. Stepping outside today, he surely would have noted the contemporary gaudiness that affronts not just your eyes, but literally gets in your ears. Right across from the church, the Rinascente department store has a sun-splashed food court and bar on its top floor, where Krug Grand Cuvee champagne goes for euro 250 ($336) a bottle. Surely, classic European tours of yore offered similar conspicuous consumption, but to have the garish pop tunes waft across the street and through the Gothic arches while watching magnificence in stone,

Lifestyle FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

was a bit much to take.

We thought of Twain in Florence, too, where he observed “how the fatigues and annoyances of travel fill one with bitter prejudices sometimes.” Visiting last summer during peak tourist season, the throngs were endless, as were spray-painted human statues on each corner and street vendors selling every ilk of cheap thrills. The must-sell trinket of the moment was a ball that splashed flat on the floor only to magically reconstitute itself to a round shape. Twain would have skewered it, for sure.

But while we could see and feel the fatigue Twain endured, we were wary of becoming what contemporary travelers recognize as the incessant whiner.

Fortunately, even in Florence’s high season, you can drift into the Bargello museum and see sublime art in soothing circumstances. Go in and around Cappella Brancacci and the Boboli gardens across the river and have a Renaissance calm wash over you.

When we got to Venice, “afloat on the placid sea,” as Twain put it, we discovered that current guidebooks, despite magnificent graphics and pictures, often could not match Twain’s prose. As he fell under the city’s spell, his sarcasm subsided: His complaint about the “caterwauling” of the gondolier on a “rusty old canoe” became an ode to the sight of marble reflected on glittering waves, “soft and dreamy and beautiful,” as he took his readers from palace to gondola and back.

During our visit to the Ducal Palace and its Bridge of Sighs by St. Mark’s Square, it was as if Twain took us by the hand and led us through, much better than any

modern audio tour could. Even his political analysis chillingly conjured the Doges’ cruel rule and the hopeless fate of prisoners from centuries ago: “The doomed man was marched down a hall and out at a door-way into the covered Bridge of Sighs, through it and into the dungeon and unto his death.”

Later, at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Twain reemerged as a cynic, siding with my family against me in giving the building the

Gondolas jockeying for position on the Grande Canale in the heart of Venice. thumbs down. I thought it awe-inspiring but Twain only found “unlovely Byzantine architecture” filled with “coarse mosaics.”

There was one thing left before our trip was over: Not to find another of Twain’s

A view from the Bridge of Sighs onto the canals of Venice, Italy.

Gondolas in a traffic jam on the narrow canals of Venice. places, but instead to experience the ambience that permeates the book, that of voluptuous luxury travel in a foreign land where riches may be enjoyed away from the masses. For all the author’s notes about the squalor, filth and ruins he encountered on his tours, there were just as many descriptions of parties where champagne flowed.

Being many rungs below the caste of the super-rich, sampling that lifestyle proved somewhat of a challenge in the 21st century. Yet we found it in between Florence and Venice when we landed for a day in the provincial town of Ferrara. It was off the beaten track, and had all the advantages that go with that. Our hotel, Annunziata, was as affordable as it was sumptuous, with by far the best breakfast bounty of local produce we ever found in Italy, and beyond. As it was, rock stars from the British band Kasabian were lounging on its terrace beneath the medieval Castello Estense, and were even up for a chat. A stone’s throw away was the marble-clad duomo and several museums, with nary a tourist in sight. Off went the kids, Clara and Corneel, into the evening for Kasabian’s open-air concert.

My wife Reine and I lazed through the streets and a park before settling among the locals with prosecco to watch the sun turn a deeper shade of gold. Over an excellent yet simple pasta dinner served al fresco in an alley alongside the cathedral, we felt we had become Twain’s “innocents abroad.” Would he have mocked us, or joined us? We didn’t care. —AP

A man looking at the spires of the Milan cathedral in Milan, Italy.

This July 6, 2012 photo shows a man taking a picture on the rooftop of the Milan cathedral in Milan, Italy. — AP photos

Naomi Campbell wins damages over India elephant polo story

M

odel Naomi Campbell won damages from a British newspaper yesterday over a report claiming she was planning to organize an elephant polo tournament for her partner’s birthday in India, her lawyer said.

The Daily Telegraph formally apologized in court for the story published in November and agreed to pay a “substantial sum” in damages and legal costs, the model’s lawyers, Michael Simkins Solicitors, said in a statement.

They said the story had included

condemnation by animal rights activists of Campbell’s alleged plans for her Russian boyfriend Vladimir Doronin’s 50th birthday celebrations in Jodhpur, which were re-published widely in the Indian press and elsewhere.

The extravagant birthday party in Jodhpur in November was attended by stars including model Kate Moss, and took place in the 15th century fort that dominates the city.

Campbell said in a statement: “There were never plans to hold an ele-

phant polo tournament, so the allegations should not have been published.

“However, I am glad that the matter has been resolved and I accept the newspaper’s apology.” Lawyer Gideon Benaim added: “This is a very positive outcome for our client.

The statement read in court today provides Ms Campbell with proper vindication in respect of false allegations that were repeated on a global scale.”

Campbell and Doronin have been dating since 2008 and currently live together in Moscow. — AFP

File photo shows British model Naomi Campbell arriving for a Fashion For Relief dinner at Downtown restaurant in central London. — AP

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

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PETS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Heeeere

kitty, kitty, kitty Catch-and-neuter: Humane or horrendous?

O

n a late Sunday afternoon behind some houses in midtown Kansas City, Mo, a mission as organized as a military exercise is about to go down. A dozen live game traps? Check. Neatly folded sheets? Check.

Cans of mackerel? Check: smelly but essential.

Clipboards contain Google map printouts of the neighborhood. Earlier, someone distributed door hangers urging residents to keep their pet cats inside. From a nearby backyard a dog on a chain barks incessantly, adding an air of tension to what is already a semi-clandestine operation. “I don’t know if it’s exactly legal,” one of the half-dozen volunteers will say a few moments later as he deposits a trap under a tree in an unkempt lot.

His efforts, and the efforts of others in neighborhoods across the city and around the nation, might not be a war exactly, but it can

game. That day in Kansas City, where 15-20 ferals and strays were thought to be living in a one-block area, the colony’s “caregiver” - in TNR-speak, a person who feeds and cares for them - did not want to be identified for fear the city would come after her. In Kansas City, after all, a household can legally have no more than four dogs and cats.

“When did it become a crime to help one of God’s creatures?” she asks. She got evicted from her last place for feeding strays. A neighbor across the street, she adds, was trapping cats and letting them loose in Loose Park.

Suddenly a racket breaks out a few feet away.

“We got one!” somebody calls out. “It’s the boy,” the caregiver reports after getting a look at the yellow cat inside the wire box.

“It’s OK, sweetie,” a woman says softly to the trapped tom as she covers the box with

One of 27 cats in the Jazz Colony paced around on a hay bale as Vance Steadman fed and watered cats on January 16, 2013, in Independence, Missouri. — MCT feel that way. And it’s all about cats. Feral cats.

“TNR” is the name of the mission, and it describes the objective: Trap. Neuter. Return (aka release). Traps are set near a known “colony” of feral cats. The caught cats get taken to a clinic to be neutered or spayed and vaccinated (against rabies, at a minimum).

Each cat’s left ear is “tipped” - a straight-across snip - to indicate that it’s a feral fixed feline.

Then, within a couple of days or so, the cats are returned to the wild where they were caught (which might be a spot no wilder than an alley). They’re baaaaack, maybe to the chagrin of neighbors whose complaints may have prompted TNR in the first place. But now, at least, the cats that were caught won’t be breeding. Many animal welfare groups have wholeheartedly embraced TNR, saying it’s the only effective way to keep down the numbers of feral and stray cats.

But the practice has detractors, too. One anti-TNR website prominently displays a photo of a cat with a chipmunk in its mouth... as if only feral cats are interested in stalking such

one of the old sheets. “It’s OK, baby.” She carries the trap to the caregiver’s driveway. The sheet-draped cage rocks from side to side, then is still. The trap-neuter-return movement really started booming about a decade ago, says Michelle Rivera, executive director of Spay & Neuter Kansas City, which provides low-cost veterinary services. “It’s universal now.”

TNR made news late last year when Annette Betancourt of Liberty, Mo, ended up in court after the city accused her of “harboring” more cats than were legal. At the jury trial - which resulted in a conviction and $200 fine 30 animal advocates, many of them TNR practitioners, turned out to support her.

Betancourt, who lives near a wooded area, had been caring for a colony of cats. Since 2008 she had caught 40-plus cats around her neighborhood and gotten them fixed. But a neighbor’s complaint led to the city’s involvement and, ultimately, the trial. The ruling against Betancourt was “devastating” to people who work on behalf of feral cats, says Gail Longstaff, vice president of Great Plains SPCA

in Merriam, Kan. Chelli Tillman, who has assisted with TNR in her midtown neighborhood, says she had nightmares after Betancourt’s trial. She expresses a sentiment popular among the TNR crowd: Betancourt, “trying to do good,” was rewarded by “getting in trouble.” Which is not exactly, as you might expect, the viewpoint of the city of Liberty.

People like Betancourt who care for animals “have good hearts on them,” acknowledges Capt. Andy Hedrick of the Liberty Police Department, who oversees the animal control unit. “But we have to address the bigger concern by residents of the neighborhood,” he says. “I understand why people want to feed animals, but it doesn’t mean we don’t have a responsibility to address the concerns of the neighbors.”

Liberty has two animal control officers, and they are “not out there seeking to trap feral cats,” Hedrick says. “A lot of our enforcement actions are complaint-driven. When we receive complaints, that’s where we devote resources.”

That’s an understandable position. Cities “have to respond to taxpayers,” says Rivera with Spay & Neuter KC. But make no mistake: A colony of feral cats can make life miserable for the humans next door or down the block. Particularly if those feral cats are mating, and producing offspring, year-round. Yowling tomcats brawling over a pussycat in the middle of the night. Males spraying to mark their territory, which might happen to be your front porch. “You can smell that 100 feet away sometimes,” Rivera says.

Cats leaving dirty paw prints all over your justwashed car. Or using a flowerbed or sandbox as a toilet.

(Time out for definitions: A colony might include cats that were born in the wild or lost or abandoned pets. Feral cats haven’t been around people and typically aren’t adoptable.

Strays are more social and probably once belonged to someone. Ferals and strays are often lumped together as “free-roaming” cats.)

Kansas City, like many communities, does not have a leash law for cats. Generally, KC animal control is not in the business of picking up cats, although injured and sick animals are exceptions. Across the entire metropolitan area, Longstaff estimates there are 250,000 free-roaming cats. (Since 2004, Great Plains and predecessor organization No More Homeless Pets KC has fixed about 21,000 of them, just “the tip of the iceberg.”)

Pro and con Proponents have heard the arguments from the other side of the TNR fence. Here’s some of what’s said about trap-neuter-return, and how supporters counter those claims: - Great! The nuisance cats have been neutered. But they’re still around, so they’re still a problem. “TNR doesn’t address all of the concerns with feral cats,” says Hedrick with the city of Liberty. “The nuisance behaviors are still there.” TNR advocates say, however, that once the felines in a colony are spayed or neutered, they change their bad-cat ways. The midnight catfights and the spraying, for instance. The

cats won’t roam nearly as much. And fixed cats tend to hide more. After they’ve been spayed, free-roaming cats “become much more good citizens,” Longstaff says, “because they’re not doing the behaviors that upset people.” And if the cats don’t conduct themselves properly, Great Plains, which claims to operate the largest TNR program in the Kansas City area, has strategies to rein them in.

- The cats just need to be relocated - isn’t there a nice barn out in the country somewhere? Yes, and organizations like Great Plains do try to find those barn homes, a win-win, especially when there’s a rodent problem. The cats in Betancourt’s colony in Liberty will be divided between a barn in Holt, Mo., and one near the Iowa border.

But there’s much more demand for barns than there is supply. Also, herding cats somewhere else might not solve a neighborhood’s problem, says Melody Kelso, executive director of Pet Connection, a no-kill group. “If you take all the cats out of an area, more cats just move in.” An average feral colony is 10-15 cats, Longstaff says, but one not TNR-managed and therefore overflowing with kittens could grow much larger. Females can bear their first litters at 6 months old or younger, and they can produce as many as three litters a year.

- The feral cats are a menace to people, including those who try to catch them.

Veterinarian Lawrence Kovac, owner of Northland Mobile Veterinary Clinic, says two of his human clients were bitten last year by feral cats, and one had to undergo rabies shots. Kovac worries about disease control among the feral cats that will never be caught, worries “about children, especially, being bitten by sick feral cats.” (Longstaff says research shows that the incidence of disease in feral cats is about the same as in “owned” cats.) But Kovac is sympathetic to the plight of the cats, and he knows that people who feed them have the best of intentions. Veterinarian Vern Otte of State Line Animal Hospital in Leawood, Kan., supports TNR, but with one caveat: Humans shouldn’t be feeding the feral cats, he says.

Otte asserts that a given area “will supply enough wild animals, mice and rabbits and so on, for a certain number of wild cats to live.

And once it reaches that level, that’s it.” When people feed a cat colony, “now there’s enough food for 10 more cats to come into the area. If you don’t feed them, they maintain the level of food supply and know how much space they can have. And if there’s not enough food there, they move on to somewhere else. If you feed them, you mess all of it up.”

TNR opponents maintain that as long as humans are feeding a cat colony, there’ll always be feral cats around. And when people hear about a managed colony, Liberty’s Hedrick says, they start dumping unwanted cats there. Their thinking is “‘I won’t turn in the animal to the animal shelter; I’ll let it go where I know this feral population is taken care of.’ Which doesn’t really address the problem.” — MCT

Stars

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Are you feeling ambitious? ready to tackle anything? If so go for it, BUT have a well prepared plan in place from which to launch any new projects. Be prepared to change directions quickly as opportunities may abound, but they are mercurial in nature. A shift in moods and attitudes occurs at this time that will continue to affect you deeply for a few days.

You may be emotionally sensitive now, but often it is difficult for you to clearly express what you are feeling. Try not to take things that are said or done too seriously as you may be hurt more than any one intends for you to be.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Though you may have the best of intentions, you tend to act very compulsively, working boldly toward some goal which you may not even be completely aware of. Your secret need for power, or control, emerges now, and power struggles are very possible. Romance and flirtations are likely now. You are feeling warm, expressive, and frisky. Loving feelings flow between you and the people you meet, especially those with sexual interest. Friendships are also strengthened at this time so be sure to let them know how much you appreciate them.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

This is a time of personal beginnings, when you find yourself shot into the limelight and all eyes turn toward you to see what you’re going to do next. This may be somewhat startling, as it’s rather different than what last month brought, and you will need to step up and display your self-confidence in a way that wasn’t called on before. In a volatile situation you will need to have your wits about you as you will have a particularly high profile. The trick is to handle it with grace and not let it go to your head, as this too shall pass and you’ll want to look back on a performance that maximized the opportunities dropped into your lap.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Seemingly small changes have a way of turning into something big for you now, and they bear close watching.

Sex, money, and health could be the focus for this, and a time of decision has come where these things are concerned. It’s up to you to decide; if you let circumstances decide for you, you lose control. This is a good time to spoil yourself and also to spend time with the people who love and appreciate you the most.

The craving for sweetness and comfort in the form of loving affection is strong now. Also, you may be feeling rather tender and softhearted, and may do or say something on impulse.

Leo (July 23-August 22) Your desire to make a fresh start, to take the initiative and strike out on your own, is a powerful drive right now. Your physical energy, will, and courage are intensified.

Unless you channel your abundant energy into decisive action or vigorous work, accidents, anger, and irritability are likely at this time. Draw your strength from a partner where you can, as relationships will give you a great deal of energy you as long as you don’t allow yourself to be drawn into an argument. In return, be protective and watch the backs of the ones you care for, as they may need it.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

Uncertainty and shifting grounds can mark the day’s outcomes, and confidence may retreat in the face of a challenge. Confrontation is the wrong game to play, but pulling out entirely is equally unsuitable. Take judicious compromise now and the resulting situation will improve, but don’t chase diminishing returns. Conflicts between duty and pleasure, or between sober practicality and a yearning for love and emotional satisfaction, are likely now. This can be a very frustrating time. A relationship may end or a temporary break may be made. This could be a time to relinquish something or someone you once cherished but which no longer has a positive purpose in your life.

Libra (September 23-October 22) Making yourself perfectly clear may be perfectly impossible at this time, and when you lose your focus admit it and be ready to start over. Sometimes wandering away from your normal routine leads to new discoveries, and at other times just the same old same old. Expect a mix of both for a while, and be ready to take advantage of new finds if you run across them. Communication with your romantic interest should be excellent at this time. Lively conversations, lighthearted chatting, and verbal flirting should lead to more intimate moments. More serious discussions about your bond could bring forth profound revelations that strengthen your tie tremendously.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Tremendous internal changes, intense effort, relentless determination, compulsive and irrational drives, and strong assertion of your will are the key issues during this time period. This is a difficult time period when you want to make intense changes.

This transit can last for a number of weeks. A little fantasy can keep you together at this time, and being flattered will get you someone else a lot farther than you normally would consider. Share your fantasy’s with someone and see if you might make them a reality. You’ll be surprised at the response when others start sharing their dreams and fantasy’ with you, they just may be the same dream.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

You should benefit from added support and recognition from both the public and family and friends. You feel at home in the world, and it more than takes care of you.

You could have deep insights into your own feelings and inner, spiritual nature. You feel highly competitive, hot-blooded, and impatient, which can cause friction or furiously emotional confrontations with others. Your spouse, children, or parents seem especially able to raise your temper at this time. Unresolved feelings and issues from the past are likely to trigger emotional outbursts now.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Others may find you especially witty and eccentric just now. You may have insights or breakthroughs in regard to your living situation or life circumstances. Others value you for your independence and unique qualities. It’s nice to be appreciated isn’t it. You may find yourself running into a great deal of opposition from just about every direction you turn today. Instead of relief from others, you may find more complications and misunderstandings than you could have anticipated. Perhaps the thing you need to do is take the situation into your own hands and deal with it all by yourself.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) There is an inclination to spend more than you can afford, with the possibility of overextending yourself financially through extravagance. Although your intentions were good, you may discover that you have promised more than you can actually deliver. At this time you are more temperamental, impassioned and inclined to act on the dictates of emotion and desire rather than reason, sounds like it’s just a cranky kind of day. Minor annoyances and others’ idiosyncrasies seem to aggravate you more than usual. You could be in a fighting mood so take a few deep breathes and hang on, but not to someone else’s throat!

Pisces (February 19-March 20) This is a positive time for your career. There will definitely be changes: you may change jobs, receive additional training or education that will help you reach your goals, or develop a fresh, new approach to your work. You are likely to receive some benefits, raises, promotions, or increased stature and recognition in your work. You have a special magnetism and attractive power now, in other terms, baby when you’re hot you’re hot. You are likely feeling intensely loving also. Your relationships, particularly sexual or romantic ones, intensify and have a deep, compelling, urgent quality. Your inner feelings and needs for love and closeness emerge very strongly.

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

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

L e i s u re

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 8 7

ACROSS 1. The bill in a restaurant.

4. A thief who grabs and runs.

12. The compass point that is one point east of due south.

15. A nucleic acid that transmits genetic information from DNA to the cytoplasm.

16. Major items of military weaponry (as tanks or missile).

17. Concerning those not members of the clergy.

18. Adorned by inlays.

20. A soft silvery metallic element of the rare earth group.

21. (sports) Not offside.

23. One of the four countries that make up the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

26. The square of a body of any size of type.

27. (nautical) Of an anchor.

29. A river that rises in western New Mexico and flows westward through southern Arizona to become a tributary of the Colorado River.

31. A Portuguese province on the south coast of China and two islands in the South China Sea. 33. A quantity of no importance.

37. (of upper front teeth) Projecting outward.

40. A silvery soft waxy metallic element of the alkali metal group.

41. United States baseball player and manager (1873-1934).

42. A type of submachine gun that is designed and manufactured in Israel.

43. A solid piece of something (usually having flat rectangular sides).

46. A unit of surface area equal to 100 square meters.

47. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali metal group.

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

51. Hardened sugary exudation of various trees.

53. A Portuguese province on the south coast of China and two islands in the South China Sea. 55. A collection of objects laid on top of each other.

57. A facial expression of contempt or scorn.

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

61. A polite name for any woman.

62. Tropical American tree producing cacao beans.

66. A village of huts for native Africans in southern Africa.

69. The (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb.

73. The fatty flesh of eel.

74. Coelenterate genus of order Madreporaria, including staghorn corals.

78. The cry made by sheep.

79. United States architect (born in China in 1917).

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

81. A container.

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

83. A city in southwestern California east of Los Angeles.

84. Large northern deer with enormous flattened antlers in the male.

3. Any of various aromatic resinous substances used for healing and soothing.

4. A garment worn on the upper half of the body.

5. An extreme state of adversity.

6. A colorless and odorless inert gas.

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

8. A steep-walled semicircular basin in a mountain.

9. (astronomy) The angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing.

10. Geraniums of Europe and South America and Australia especially mountainous regions.

11. Of or relating to the kidneys.

12. Having a long narrow cut.

13. A Chadic language spoken in northern Nigeria.

14. Having an eye or eyes or eyelike feature especially as specified.

19. Having the wind against the forward side of the sails.

22. Leap. jerk, bang (dialectal).

24. An anticipated outcome that is intended or that guides your planned actions.

25. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

28. Fudge made with brown sugar and butter and milk and nuts.

30. Being one more than ninety.

32. A hidden storage space (for money or provisions or weapons).

34. A genus of orb-weaving spiders including common garden spiders and barn spiders.

35. Expletives used informally as intensifiers.

36. Physically and mentally fatigued.

38. A member of a Turkic people of Uzbekistan and neighboring areas.

39. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity.

44. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

45. Large brownish-green New Zealand parrot.

48. The capital and largest city of Yemen.

49. A heavy odorless colorless gas formed during respiration and by the decomposition of organic substances.

52. Muslim name for God. 54. Genus of tall smooth herbs of forested mountains of Europe and Asia minor.

56. Derived from pepper (especially black pepper).

59. The syllable naming the fourth (subdominant) note of the diatonic scale in solmization.

60. An uproarious party.

63. A fastener (as a buckle or hook) that is used to hold two things together.

64. Secured or held in place by tape.

65. Love intensely.

67. Tall woody perennial grasses with hollow slender stems especially of the genera Arundo and Phragmites.

68. (Greek mythology) Daughter of Zeus and Demeter.

70. A French abbot.

71. Horny plate covering and protecting part of the dorsal surface of the digits.

72. Unpleasantly cool and humid.

75. An accountant certified by the state.

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

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

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. A very short time (as the time it takes to blink once).

2. A communist state in Indochina on the South China Sea.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

42

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Latest A-Rod troubles have team frustrated NEW YORK: Alex Rodriguez was speaking on a conference call. “A huge debacle,” he said. “Distasteful.” That was on Dec 13, 2007, when he re-signed with the New York Yankees and was discussing his decision 11/2 months earlier to become a free agent. Now those words describe how some in the team’s front office feel about A-Rod’s $275 million, 10-year contract. Once considered a player who could shatter the career home run record, Rodriguez has transformed from AllStar to annoyance for some in the Yankees organization. He hasn’t played a full season since he was voted his third AL MVP award in 2007, he’s out for at least the first half of this year following hip surgery on Jan. 16 and now he’s been accused of again receiving performance-enhancing drugs an allegation he denies.

Even before the charges were published Tuesday by the alternative weekly Miami New Times along with accusations against Melky Cabrera, Nelson Cruz, Gio Gonzalez, Bartolo Colon and Yasmani Grandal, some Yankees executives were wishing Rodriguez would just go away. Speaking on condition of anonymity because the team isn’t publicly commenting on A-Rod’s latest troubles, they revealed their frustration with the slugger.

And they have a big incentive for A-Rod to disappear. If he doesn’t play again due to a career-ending injury, about 85 percent of the $114 million he’s owed by the team would be covered by insurance, according to one of the executives who spoke on condition of anonymity. New York also might be able to free itself from having the $27.5 million average annual value of Rodriguez’s contract count in its luxury tax payroll in each of the next five seasons, a key factor as the Yankees try to get under the $189 million threshold in 2014. If Rodriguez is on the disabled list, his contract is included. But if he’s on the voluntary retired list, it would not be part of the total. And if the Yankees fall under that $189 million benchmark, their luxury tax rate would drop from its current 50 percent to 17.5 percent for 2015. That would give them far more flexibility to pursue pitchers Clayton Kershaw, Felix Hernandez and Justin Verlander if they become free agents following the 2014 season.

New York is not likely to be able to void A-Rod’s deal.

Baseball’s drug agreement between management and the players’ association specifies the commissioner’s office has all disciplinary authority for violations. A-Rod’s poor health, however, may provide the path to savings for the team.

While Rodriguez rebounded from right hip surgery in March 2009 to help the Yankees to their first World Series title since 2000, Dr. Bryan Kelly said recovery from his operation on A-Rod’s left hip this month will be more complex if for no other reason than it receives more stress because Rodriguez is a right-handed hitter. Even before the latest kerfuffle, ARod seemed to have worn out his welcome. Yankees management tired of spotting him on the gossip pages with Madonna, Kate Hudson, Cameron Diaz and Torrie Wilson.

They bristled when he was seen with a stripper in Toronto, at a swingers’ club in Dallas and at an illegal poker club in New York. They made their displeasure public in 2010 when they said they never authorized Rodriguez to be treated by Dr Anthony Galea, who said he prescribed anti-inflammatories to A-Rod following the first hip operation. Indicted in part for illegal possession of human growth hormone with intent to distribute, the Canadian doctor pleaded guilty in 2011 to one count of introducing misbranded drugs into interstate commerce with the intent to mislead a US agency. Then came last year’s playoffs, when Rodriguez was benched in three of nine games and pinch hit for in three others. He flirted with girls in the stands after he was removed from the AL championship series opener against Detroit.

Rodriguez’s 647 home runs are 115 shy of tying Barry Bonds’ career record but he has totaled just 34 the last two seasons and his 38th birthday is in late July. He has averaged 119 games, 21 homers and 81 RBIs over the last three years.

Before and after most games, when media is allowed to enter the Yankees’ clubhouse, Rodriguez spends little time at his locker in the back left of the oval room, not too far from the entrance to the inner sanctum that contains the players’ lounge, steam room, sauna, rubdown room, weight room, trainer’s room and swimming pool. He doesn’t have one of the prestige locations flanking the back entrance, held by Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano, who took over the spot when Jorge Posada retired. He has never been accepted by Yankees’ fans the same way they adored Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada.—AP

Anthony sets team record with 30th 20-point game Pacers defeat Pistons 98-79 NEW YORK: Carmelo Anthony scored 20 points to set a team-record with his 30th straight 20-point game as the New York Knicks downed the reeling Orlando Magic 113-97 on Wednesday. Anthony’s scoring tended to overshadow outstanding games

by New York big men Tyson Chandler and Amare Stoudemire, who combined for 35 points on 17-for-18 shooting from the field against the Magic. Orlando lost its seventh straight and 18th in 20 games.

Chandler finished with 21 points on 10 of 11 shooting, along with seven rebounds and a season-high five assists. Stoudemire hit all seven of his shots and scored 14 points as the Knicks beats Orlando for the third time this season. JJ Redick scored 29 points and fellow guard Jameer Nelson added 21 for Orlando. Atlanta’s Horford scored 22 points, including a go-ahead dunk with 21 seconds remaining as the Hawks edged the short-handed Toronto Raptors 93-92.

Longtime Raptors guard Jose Calderon and forward Ed Davis gave farewell hugs to their teammates about an hour before the game as word leaked of a trade that will send small forward Rudy Gay from Memphis to Toronto. Indiana is acquiring Calderon. DeMar DeRozan led Toronto with 23 points.

At New York, LeBron James had 24 points, nine rebounds and seven assists as the Miami Heat scorched the Nets in the second half to down Brooklyn 105-85.

Dwyane Wade added 21 points and Chris Bosh had 16 for the Heat, who outscored the Nets 56-36 in the second half after it was level at halftime. Brook Lopez, chosen to his first All-Star team Wednesday, scored 21 points for the Nets, who had their eight-game home winning streak broken. The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Washington Wizards 92-84 thanks to 21 points from Jrue Holiday and 18 from Nick Young. Thaddeus Young and Lavoy Allen each added 14 points to help the Sixers win for just the fourth time in 13 games and seventh in 24.

Emeka Okafor had 15 points and 17 rebounds and Nene scored 16 for Washington. Paul Pierce scored 16 points as the Boston Celtics downed the Sacramento Kings 99-81 for their second win since losing Rajon Rondo for the season with a knee injury. Tyreke Evans had 19 points and 11 rebounds and DeMarcus Cousins scored 13 for the Kings The Suns’ Michael Beasley scored a season-high 27 points as Phoenix Suns from 13 down in the fourth quarter to hand the Los Angeles Lakers their eighth straight road loss 9286. The dramatic comeback came in Steve Nash’s first game in Phoenix since he left for the Lakers after last season. Kobe Bryant had 17 points and nine assists, but missed what would have been the tying layup with 24 seconds to play. The Indiana Pacers defeated the Detroit Pistons 98-79 without forwards Tayshaun Prince and Austin Daye, who were listed as inactive before the game and are part of a threeteam trade that will send them to Memphis. Chicago’s Nate Robinson scored 16 of his 24 points in the second quarter to lead the Bulls past the Milwaukee Bucks 104-88, while Blake Griffin had 26 points and 13 rebounds to lift the Los Angeles Clippers over the Minnesota Timberwolves

96-90. In other games, the San Antonio Spurs defeated the Charlotte Bobcats 10278, the Utah Jazz beat the New Orleans

Hornets 104-99 and the Denver Nuggets were 118-110 winners over the Houston Rockets. — AP

NEW YORK: Carmelo Anthony #7 of the New York Knicks heads for the net as Nikola Vucevic #9 of the Orlando Magic defends on January 30, 2013 at Madison Square Garden in New York City. — AFP

NBA results/standings Phoenix 92, LA Lakers 86; Brooklyn Nets 85, Miami 105; San Antonio 102, Charlotte 78; New York Knicks 113, Orlando 97; Atlanta 93, Toronto 92; Boston 99, Sacramento 81; Denver 118, Houston 110; Utah 104, New Orleans 99; Milwaukee 88, Chicago 104; Minnesota 90, LA Clippers 96; Philadelphia 92, Washington 84; Indiana 98, Detroit 79.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT GB N York Knicks 28 15 .651 Brooklyn Nets 27 19 .587 2.5 Boston 22 23 .489 7 Philadelphia 19 26 .422 10 Toronto 16 30 .348 13.5 Central Division Chicago 28 17 .622 Indiana 27 19 .587 1.5 Milwaukee 24 20 .545 3.5 Detroit 17 29 .370 11.5 Cleveland 13 33 .283 15.5 Southeast Division Miami 29 13 .690 Atlanta 26 19 .578 4.5 Orlando 14 31 .311 16.5 Washington 11 33 .250 19 Charlotte 11 34 .244 19.5

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma 34 11 .756 Denver 29 18 .617 6 Utah 25 21 .543 9.5 Portland 23 22 .511 11 Minnesota 17 25 .405 15.5 Pacific Division LA Clippers 34 13 .723 Golden State 28 17 .622 5 LA Lakers 20 26 .435 13.5 Sacramento 17 30 .362 17 Phoenix 16 30 .348 17.5 Southwest Division San Antonio 37 11 .771 Memphis 29 15 .659 6 Houston 25 23 .521 12 Dallas 19 26 .422 16.5 New Orleans 15 31 .326 21

43

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

NHL results/standings Phoenix 1, Edmonton 2 (OT); Vancouver 3, Colorado 0; Minnesota 3, Chicago 2 (SO); Ottawa 5, Montreal 1.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OT GF GA PTS New Jersey 3 0 2 12 9 8 NY Islanders 3 2 1 22 19 7 NY Rangers 3 3 0 16 17 6 Pittsburgh 3 3 0 16 18 6 Philadelphia 2 5 0 14 20 4 Norhteast Division Boston 5 0 1 19 12 11 Ottawa 5 1 1 24 13 11 MontrÈal 4 2 0 18 15 8 Toronto 3 3 0 18 20 6 Buffalo 2 3 1 16 19 5 Southeast Division Tampa Bay 5 1 0 29 15 10 Winnipeg 3 2 1 18 18 7 Carolina 2 3 0 14 18 4 Washington 1 4 1 13 22 3 Florida 1 5 0 10 24 2 Western Conference Central Division Chicago 6 0 1 24 16 13 St. Louis 5 1 0 24 13 10 Detroit 3 2 1 15 17 7 Nashville 1 2 3 10 18 5 Columbus 2 4 1 13 22 5 Northwest Division Minnesota 4 2 1 19 19 9 Edmonton 4 2 0 17 15 8 Vancouver 3 2 2 19 19 8 Colorado 2 4 0 10 16 4 Calgary 1 2 1 11 15 3 Pacific Division San Jose 6 0 0 26 10 12 Anaheim 3 1 1 17 17 7 Los Angeles 2 2 1 11 14 5 Phoenix 2 4 1 22 22 5 Dallas 2 4 1 13 18 5 Note: Overtime losses (OT) worth 1 pt and not included in loss column (L)

Djokovic lights up starless Davis Cup PARIS: World number one and newly-crowned Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic goes straight back into action in the Davis Cup this weekend while his Grand Slam rivals skip the opening round. The Serb, who collected his fourth Melbourne title and sixth career major with victory over Andy Murray on Sunday, just about catches his breath before leading his country into their World Group opener against Belgium.

However, the 113-year-old competition is not the powerful draw card it once was. World number two Roger Federer, fourthranked David Ferrer as well as world number seven Juan Martin del Potro have opted not to turn out for Switzerland, Spain and Argentina respectively. Murray’s British team does not have a match while 11-time major winner Rafael Nadal also misses Spain’s trip to Canada as he completes his recovery from the knee injury which has kept him off court for seven months.

Djokovic and ninth-ranked compatriot Janko Tipsarevic, who spearheaded Serbia’s first Davis Cup title in 2010, should help their country prevail over Belgium in Charleroi. The home side’s top player David Goffin is ranked only at 50. “The Davis Cup title came in the right moment. I believe that feeling of sharing one of the biggest titles in our sport with my team for our country, in our country, was one of the best feelings I experienced as a player,” said Djokovic, who skipped the tournament in 2012.

His absence last year was felt as Serbia were defeated in the quarter-finals by eventual champions Czech Republic. Spain, winners three times in the last five years, and runners-up to the Czechs in 2012, travel to Vancouver without their three top players-Nadal, Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro, who has a leg injury.

Almagro has been replaced by world number 85 Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, which should mean Marcel Granollers, the world 34, and 51st-ranked Albert Ramos, will play singles.

Canada’s top player is big-serving Milos Raonic, who stands at 15 in the world while, in the shape of Daniel Nestor, they boast one of the world’s most accomplished doubles players. —AFP

GLENDALE: Phoenix Coyotes’ Shane Doan (19) watches the puck as Edmonton Oilers’ Nick Schultz (15) defends in front of the goal during the second period in an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Jan 30, 2013, in Glendale, Ariz. — AP

Cullen, Wild hand Blackhawks 1st loss Sharp misfires in shootout to end game ST PAUL: Matt Cullen scored 90 seconds into the game and again in a shootout to lift the Minnesota Wild to a 3-2 victory over Chicago on Wednesday, handing the Blackhawks their first loss in seven games this season. Cullen’s snap shot in the third round slipped between Corey Crawford’s legs, and Patrick Sharp then hit the crossbar for Chicago. The Blackhawks and San Jose were the only teams to start 6-0 this year.

The Wild improved to 4-1 at home.

Goals by Andrew Shaw and Jonathan Toews early in the first period prompted the Wild to pull goalie Josh Harding for

Niklas Backstrom. Cal Clutterbuck also scored for the Wild, and Backstrom stopped all 28 shots he saw.

Vancouver’s Roberto Luongo made 24 saves for his first win of the season as the Canucks blanked the Colorado Avalanche 3-0. Jason Garrison and Max Lapierre each scored for the first time this season and Zack Kassian picked up his fifth goal in seven games. Edmonton fought back after giving up a goal late in regulation as Nail Yakupov scored a power-play goal at 3:52 of overtime in the Oilers’ 2-1 win over the Phoenix Coyotes. Lennart Petrell scored his

first goal since Feb 27 for the Oilers, but Nick Johnson whipped a shot past Devan Dubnyk’s glove side with 19 seconds left in regulation. Yakupov ended it in overtime, punching in a rebound after a shot by Ryan Whitney caromed off teammate Taylor Hall.

The Ottawa Senators downed the Montreal Canadiens 5-1 as Daniel Alfredsson scored his first goal of the season. Jim O’Brien, Mika Zibanejad, Chris Phillips and Chris Neil also scored for the Senators, and Craig Anderson had 31 saves in his 300th career game. Tomas Plekanec scored for Montreal. — AP

Al-Fatat Taekwondo team return winners

Al-Fatat Taekwondo team KUWAIT: Al-Fatat Taekwondo team returned from Thailand with two silver and two bronze medals after they participated in the first Phuket International Open Championship.

2,500 girls from all over the world participated, and Al-Fatat Club was the only Arab participant, lead by Iman Saadoun

Coach Hanan Al-Nasser and coach Hanan Al-Nasser. Dan Al-Haddad and Shareefa Faraj won silver, while Sheikha Al-Haddad and Sundus took the bronze. The team was received by Chairperson of the club Wadha Al-Aqrooqa, Salma Al-Ameeri, Muna AlFoudhary and Naeema Al-Furaij.

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Singh admits using controversial spray PGA Tour probing matter

DUBAI: Sergio Garcia of Spain hits off the tee box during the first round of the Dubai Desert Classic golf tournament yesterday. — AFP

Twelvetrees to make debut against Scotland LONDON: Uncapped Gloucester centre Billy Twelvetrees is set to make his England debut in the Six Nations opener against Scotland at Twickenham tomorrow after being named in the starting XV. Twelvetrees was one of two changes announced by coach Stuart Lancaster when he unveiled his run-on side yesterday, with the midfielder replacing the injured Manu Tuilagi (ankle).

The only other change to the side that started England’s record-breaking 38-21 win over world champions New Zealand at Twickenham last time out in December saw Joe Marler come in for Alex Corbisiero after his fellow tight-head prop was ruled out of the entire Six Nations with a knee problem. Lancaster signalled Twelvetrees’s inclusion when he retained him in his matchday 23 announced Tuesday and excluded London Irish’s Jonathan Joseph. Now the 24-year-old will partner Brad Barritt in England’s midfield. Lancaster could have deployed either Owen Farrell or Toby Flood, both primarily outside-halves, at inside centre.

But instead he kept Farrell, who starred against the All Blacks, at No 10 with Flood on the bench as specialist fly-half cover. Tuilagi’s pace and power saw him score one and help create two of England’s three tries against New Zealand. However, Twelvetrees has been in fine form for Gloucester this season after joining from Leicester, impressing with his handling game and allround ball-playing skills.

Earlier this month former England fly-half Stuart Barnes said Twelvetrees could be the man to provide the guile the Red Rose midfield have often been accused of lacking in recent seasons. “He has a lovely pass off left and right, he can kick and he can carry. He is a guy who can change the way England play,” Barnes said. Elsehwere scrum-half Ben Youngs held off a challenge to his place from Danny Care and it was a similiar story for his brother, Tom Youngs, retained at hooker instead of Dylan Hartley.

On the bench, Hartley, Toby Flood and David Strettle replaced David Paice, Freddie Burns and Joseph respectively. “We are happy to stick with the team that did so well against New Zealand, especially in light of the fact that they have all been in good form for their clubs since then,” said Lancaster of a side that is again captained by Harlequins flanker Chris Robshaw.

“There were some very tight calls, with some experienced players coming back into contention, and I am sure the bench will have a significant impact on the game,” he added. “We can’t wait to get back to Twickenham and hopefully experience the same atmosphere as the autumn when the crowd was superb.” Interim Scotland coach Scott Johnson named his team Tuesday, with the most eye-catching pick the inclusion of uncapped New Zealand-born wing Sean Maitland. Scotland, who finished with the wooden spoon in last season’s Six Nations, are seeking a first win at Twickenham in 30 years. — AFP

LOS ANGELES: Former world number one Vijay Singh has admitted using deer antler spray, but says he was unaware the extract contained an insulin-like growth factor that is banned by the PGA Tour. Fijian Singh, a three-times major winner, has been using the spray, which is believed to speed up recovery from injury, for “a couple of months”, according to a Sports Illustrated article published online earlier this week. The spray is produced by Sports with Alternatives to Steroids (SWATS) and contains IGF-1 (insulin-like growth factor), a natural anabolic hormone that stimulates muscle growth.

“While I have used deer antler spray, at no time was I aware that it may contain a substance that is banned under the PGA Tour anti-doping policy,” Singh, who has battled assorted health problems in recent years, especially with his back, said in a statement on Wednesday. “In fact, when I first received the product, I reviewed the list of ingredients and did not see any prohibited substances.

“I am absolutely shocked that deer antler spray may contain a banned substance and am angry that I have put myself in this position. I have been in contact with the PGA Tour and am cooperating fully with their review of this matter.” Ty Votaw, the PGA Tour’s executive vice president of communications and international affairs, said the Tour was “looking into the matter.” Votaw told Reuters: “We are in the midst of conducting a review process of the PGA Tour’s anti-doping policy ... and because of that we have no further comment at this time.” Asked about the deer antler spray, he replied: “The spray is not banned but there is an ingredient in that spray, IGF-1, and that is banned under our anti-doping policy.”

Vijay Singh

Anti-doping program The PGA Tour launched its anti-doping program in 2008 and said, in the event of a positive doping test, it would disclose details only after the entire appeals and challenges process was completed. The variety of sanctions could include disqualification, a one-year suspension for a first violation, up to five years for a second violation and a lifetime ban for multiple violations, plus fines up to $500,000. In August 2011, the Tour warned players about using deer antler spray with its prohibited ingredient after veteran players Mark Calcavecchia and Ken Green had both endorsed SWATS’ so-called “Ultimate Spray.” Deer antler extract became a hot topic earlier this week when National Football League linebacker Ray Lewis was among a handful of athletes accused by Sports Illustrated of using the spray. Lewis swiftly dismissed the report which quoted Mitch Ross, co-owner of SWATS, as saying the linebacker asked for products to speed his recovery from a torn tri-

ceps in October, including deer-antler extract. In that same article, Singh was described as one of the few athletes who had compensated SWATS for their products, allegedly paying Ross $9,000 in November for the spray, chips, beam ray and powder additive. “I’m looking forward to some change in my body,” Singh was quoted as saying by Sports Illustrated. “It’s really hard to feel the difference if you’re only doing it for a couple of months.” Singh said he used the spray “every couple of hours ... every day,” slept under the beam ray and had put chips on his ankles, waist and shoulders. Since the PGA Tour’s anti-doping programme was launched, American journeyman Doug Barron is the only player who has been suspended for a violation.

Barron, then 40, was banned for one year in November 2009 for taking a performance-enhancing drug. Singh, a 49-year-old who is renowned for his workaholic approach to the game, is scheduled to play in the PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open this week in Scottsdale, Arizona. — Reuters

Pak face S Africa under injury cloud JOHANNESBURG: Pakistan will face top-ranked South Africa in the first Test at the Wanderers from today destabilised by the loss of rock-solid opener Taufeeq Umar. The 31-year-old Umar, who has played 43 Tests and scored 2,943 runs, was pulled out of the tour after suffering a muscle injury in his shin. Umar and regular partner Mohammad Hafeez had opened together in 18 consecutive Tests, a record for Pakistan, and the tourists were keen for the sequence to continue against South Africa’s formidable fast bowling attack on a pitch likely to offer pace and bounce.

With Umar out, Nasir Jamshed is expected to make his Test debut after scoring half-centuries in the warm-up game against a South African Invitation

XI which ended in a draw at East London on Monday. Pakistan’s batting could be the key to the three-match series after South Africa’s bowlers swept aside the challenge of New Zealand in two Test matches earlier this month. In Dale Steyn and Veron Philander, South Africa have the two leading bowlers on the International Cricket Council rankings, while fellow fast bowler Morne Morkel is ranked eighth.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, at number three, is the only Pakistan bowler in the top 10. The middle order failed against the Invitation XI, with only captain Misbah-ul-Haq joining the openers in notching a half-century. But if Pakistan can post respectable totals, they will be confident they have the bowling weaponry to test a strong South African

batting line-up. While Ajmal will be able to bowl long spells of spin, the experienced Umar Gul and the left-arm swing bowler Junaid Khan, together with the unknown factor of the 2.1 metre Mohammad Irfan, will provide a varied pace attack. The teams last met in two high-scoring drawn matches in the United Arab Emirates in 2010.

Since then Pakistan have won nine of their 16 Test matches and lost only twoagainst the West Indies in Guyana in May 2011 and against Sri Lanka in Galle in June 2012. South Africa, meanwhile, have built a formidable record as they have climbed to the number one place in the rankings, winning their most recent five series, including away encounters against England and Australia. — AFP

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Coke Super Bowl ad ‘racist’: Arab Americans LOS ANGELES: Arab-American groups have sharply criticized a Coca-Cola Super Bowl ad depicting an Arab walking through the desert with a camel, and one group said it would ask the beverage giant to change it before CBS airs the game on Sunday before an expected audience of more than 100 million US viewers.

“Why is it that Arabs are always shown as either oil-rich sheiks, terrorists, or belly dancers?” said Warren David, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, or ADC. Coca-Cola released an online teaser of the commercial last week, showing the Arab walking through a desert.

He soon sees cowboys, Las Vegas showgirls and a motley crew fashioned after the marauders of the apocalyptic “Mad Max”

film race by him to reach a gigantic bottle of Coke.

In its ad, Coke asks viewers to vote online on which characters should win the race.

The online site does not allow a vote for the Arab character. “The Coke commercial for the Super Ball is racist, portraying Arabs as backward and foolish Camel Jockeys, and they have no chance to win in the world,” Imam Ali Siddiqui, president of the Muslim Institute for Interfaith Studies, said in an email.

“What message is Coke sending with this?” asked Abed Ayoub, ADC’s director of legal and policy affairs. “By not including the Arab in the race, it is clear that the Arab is held to a different standard when compared to the other characters in the com-

mercial,” he said. CBS declined comment.

Coca-Cola spokeswoman Lauren Thompson said Coke took a “cinematic” approach with the ad, employing the characters as a nod to movies of the past.

“Coca-Cola is an inclusive brand enjoyed by all demographics,” she said in an email.

“We illustrate our core values, from fun and refreshment to happiness, inspiration and optimism across all of our marketing communications.” Ayoub said ADC intended to contact Coke and CBS Corp yesterday to “hopefully start a dialog.” “I want to know why this happened and how can we fix this if possible before Sunday,” he said.

The ADC garnered attention back in 1992 when it complained that lyrics in the Walt Disney animated film “Aladdin” were

racist. Ronald Goodstein, professor at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, said he was surprised by the image as well. “If Coke’s vision is to be an arm’s distance away from every customer, why would they want to offend the Arab world?” said Goodstein.

Ayoub said the commercial could harm Coke’s business with the Arab community.

“Coke should understand and respect their consumers and have a better understanding of the market they are sharing,” he Ayoub. The company has a large market share in the Middle East and North Africa, he noted, and many convenience stores and other retail outlets in the United States that offer Coke are owned by ArabAmericans. — Reuters

Lewis defends legacy Lewis denies performance-enhancing drug

This combo image shows San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh (left) in Atlanta, and Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh in Foxborough, Mass., during their NFL football conference championship games. — AP

Ravens-49ers: Which brother wins?

NEW ORLEANS: The San Francisco 49ers never have tasted defeat in a Super Bowl, going 5-0. It’s the most impressive mark for any franchise in the big game. Baltimore also is undefeated, with the Ravens winning their only appearance, in 2001.

Someone will have the Super Bowl blahs for the first time after Sunday’s title game in the Superdome. The Ravens (13-6), who are 31/2 -point underdogs, are on one of those runs reminiscent of recent NFL champions. Indeed, the New York Giants reached the Super Bowl a year ago in a similar manner, winning a wildcard game at home, then two playoffs on the road, including an overtime thriller.

The Giants got healthy down the stretch, something the Ravens have replicated, particularly on defense where star linebackers Ray Lewis and Terrell Suggs are giving vintage performances following injury-shortened seasons. “I believe we have found a way to believe in each other, and nothing else matters,” said Lewis, who will retire after the game. “That is one thing about our sideline. When we are on our sideline, there is only one thing that matters, when this game ends, we will be victorious, and everybody believes the same thing. That’s what’s been our road, no matter who’s been up, who’s been down, who’s been hurt, who’s been injured. We found a way to pick each other up.” Baltimore’s path to New Orleans led through New England, where the Ravens fell to the Patriots in last year’s AFC title game. But they outscored the Patriots 21-0 in the second half to earn their spot in the Super Bowl. San Francisco (13-4-1) also came up one win short a year ago, losing to the Giants for the NFC championship. That defeat has driven the 49ers just as much as the Ravens’ failure in 2011 lifted them.

These Niners are built around a physical, stingy defense - that also has been the Ravens’ persona for years, although not as much in 2012 as in Lewis’ other 17 pro seasons. Linebacker Patrick Willis, who like Lewis wears No. 52 and is a perennial AllPro, is the anchor. “As a kid, you grew up watching,” Willis said.

“Just to have the opportunity to be able to play in this game given my first four years (out of the playoffs), we were at home at this time watching other teams play. Last year we were one game away. To be able to be here, is truly special.”—AP

NEW ORLEANS: NFL linebacker Ray Lewis, one of the biggest stars in his sport, wants to go out on top by helping his Baltimore Ravens win a second Super Bowl championship. But instead of taking his last bows ahead of what is to be the final football game of his career Sunday, Lewis has been forced to issue denials about a performance-enhancing drug. “It is a joke if you know me,” he said Wednesday. “I have been in this game 17 years and I have too much respect for the business and my body to ever do something like that.”

The 37-year-old Lewis-a hard-hitting, musclebound enforcer on the gridiron-dismissed a Sports Illustrated report on Tuesday linking him to a product that includes a substance banned by the National Football League. The report on SI’s website comes four days before the Ravens meet the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl 47 that will crown the sport’s new champion, at the Superdome stadium in New Orleans.

Sports Illustrated reported that Lewis last year was in touch with the company Sports with Alternatives to Steroids (SWATS) as he searched for a product that might quicken his recovery from a torn right triceps. Sports Illustrated said he tried to obtain deer antler velvet extract to help him recover from his injury, which sidelined him for more than half the season. The spray however contains a compound called IGF-1, which is on the NFL’s list of banned substances.

Speaking at the Hilton Riverside hotel in downtown New Orleans on Wednesday, Lewis laughed off the magazine’s report.”The reason why I am smiling is it is so funny of a story,” Lewis said. “I never ever took what he says or did whatever I was supposed to do. “Our world is a very secret society,” he said of the NFL. “We try to protect our world as much as we can,” he said, railing against “cowards that come in and try to... disturb” their close and protected fraternity. “I tell my teammates all the time: ‘Don’t let people from the outside ever come in and try to disturb you’,” he said.

Lewis said the timing of the report

NEW ORLEANS: Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis speaks during an NFL Super Bowl XLVII football news conference. — AP

was an attempt to capitalize on the Super Bowl hype. “It is sad someone could have this much attention on a stage this big where the dreams are really real. “I don’t need it. My teammates don’t need it. It is just foolish.

That guy has no credibility,” he said.

Lewis is a hero to many who consider him to be the best ever to play the linebacker position for the National Football League, and his impending retirement has been headline news in the sport.

But all the attention also has focused greater scrutiny on one of the more controversial chapters of his career. It was 13 years ago that two men were murdered following a Super Bowl party in Atlanta, Georgia, after a fight between Lewis’ entourage and another group. The Ravens’ star player eventually admitted giving a misleading statement to police on the morning after the killings, and the crime still remains unsolved.

But critics feel he was given a pass in the case because of his superstar status in the sport, the most popular in America. Lewis has said that he intends to remain focused on winning

another Super Bowl and will not be distracted by allegations dredged up from his past-or speculation that he used banned substances. During a wide-ranging press conference ahead of his second Super Bowl in a dozen years-Lewis said he is hoping to make a big impact-just like he did in 2001, when he was named MVP of the game.

He said he has spent countless hours studying strategy ahead of Sunday’s contest, and hasn’t even allowed himself to be lured by the enticements of New Orleans’ night life. “Guys say to me ‘aren’t you going out?’” Lewis said. “I only want my face to be stuck in the iPad. I want to know everything about the San Francisco 49ers,” Lewis said. And while for most players in the championship, a win or a loss Sunday will means several months of down-time before training gets underway for a new season, for Lewis it will mean retirement and the end of a storied career. “The retirement will take care of itself,” he said.

“When the clock hits triple zeros, no matter what happens, that will be my last ride,” Lewis said. “This is the greatest stage to do it on.” — AFP

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Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

French League Preview

PSG to prove control over weakened rivals PARIS: Ligue 1 leaders Paris Saint-Germain head to Toulouse today in a position of strength that has been reinforced as many of their rivals have seen key players depart over the last month. French clubs have long exported their leading players to major clubs across the continent, and the domestic game has not always suffered as a result, but the trend in this January’s transfer window has been a worrying one.

Given their own huge resources, PSG hardly needed their rivals to lose players to establish their own superiority, even if their performances have not always convinced this season.

But while Carlo Ancelotti’s side have welcomed 40 millioneuro Brazil starlet Lucas Moura, there has been an exodus of talent from many of the country’s top sides. Lyon’s Michel Bastos, Marseille’s Loic Remy, Yann M’Vila of Rennes, Montpellier’s Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Mathieu Debuchy of Lille were among the stars to move abroad, with the latter two helping start a French revolution at Newcastle United.

Toulouse themselves saw France midfielder Moussa Sissoko head to Newcastle, although their coach Alain Casanova had to insist that another international star, Etienne Capoue, would be going nowhere.

As relieved as he will be to see the transfer window slam shut, Casanova must now prepare his team for the meeting with a PSG side who are unbeaten in ten games in all competitions. “When PSG sign a player he tends to cost the same as our budget for the year,” said Casanova. “That makes you think, although at the same time I believe that we are incredibly lucky to have them in Ligue 1. PSG are a locomotive and we need them.” These clubs met just last midweek in the French Cup, with PSG winning 3-1, and Casanova admits that there was “a big difference” between the pair that night. As if that were not enough, Paris goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu appears to be unbeatable in the league at the moment. He has gone 775 minutes without conceding a goal, breaking Bernard Lama’s club record dating back to 1996-97.

“I don’t pay too much attention to that. I think the merit for that goes to the whole team and to our defence,” insisted the Italian. Against all the odds, Lyon and Marseille continue to push their far wealthier rivals in the title race. Lyon, who have loaned Brazilian winger Bastos to Schalke as part of their attempts to drastically reduce their wage bill, travel to Corsica to face an Ajaccio side who have won just one of their last ten Ligue 1 games.— AFP

PARIS: Lille’s French midfielder Benoit Pedretti vies with Paris Saint-Germain’s Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic during the French Ligue 1 football match Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) vs Lille (LOSC). — AFP

CARSON: Picture shows David Beckham posing with his sons Brooklyn (left), Cruz (center) and Romeo and the MLS Trophy after the Los Angeles Galaxy beat Houston Dynamo 3-1 in the Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup in Carson. —AFP

Beckham heads to City of Light At PSG, Beckham eyes winning league title LONDON: After Madrid, Milan and Hollywood, David Beckham is heading to the most fashionable destination of all.

The 37-year-old former England captain has reached a deal with Paris SaintGermain and will be officially presented at the glamorous French club, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the signing hadn’t been officially announced yet, with Beckham undergoing a medical in Paris.

Beckham had been close to joining the Qatari-owned team last January but rejected a deal worth about $12 million per year to stay with the Los Angeles Galaxy of Major League Soccer. Beckham ended his six-year stint in the US last month after winning two MLS Cups, moving back to London with his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria, and their four children. Now Beckham’s family will be just a short flight or train ride away from the ChampsElysees. At PSG, Beckham will be hoping to win a league title in a fourth country, having already enjoyed success in England with Manchester United, Spain with Real Madrid and the US with the Galaxy.

Beckham is looking for one more opportunity to close out his glittering career. Paris seems a perfect fit for a player who has become a global fashion and style icon, known as much for his looks and endorsements as his curling free kicks. Whether an aging Beckham can still be a force in European football remains an open question. “I still feel like I have something left in me as a player,” he said recently. “I still feel like I have one more challenge left in me as a player, even at 37 years old. I still feel

like I can play at a high level.” Beckham is being reunited at PSG with coach Carlo Ancelotti and director Leonardo, who were at AC Milan when the midfielder went on loan there from the Galaxy in 2009 and 2010.

“Very happy to see Beckham going to PSG and under Mr Ancelotti again!” Milan director Umberto Gandini wrote yesterday on Twitter. “Great player and great person, he deserves It. Bonne chance!” Beckham, who was available on a free transfer, had been mulling over around a dozen offers over the last month from clubs around the

world, including Qatar and China. He opted to join one of the highest-profile teams in world football. Over the past 18 months, PSG’s Qatari owners have spent more than around $350 million on transfers. But the unrestricted spending power of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani, who first invested in PSG in 2011, has yet to pay off in trophies. With a star-studded squad including striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, defender Thiago Silva and playmaker Javier Pastore, the team is currently ahead of Lyon at the top of the French standings on goal difference.—AP

Matthews fires double as Celtic go 15 points clear GLASGOW: Adam Matthews grabbed a double to help Celtic to a 4-1 defeat of Kilmarnock on Wednesday that extended their lead at the top of the Scottish Premier League to 15 points. Kilmarnock thought they had taken a 37th-minute lead when Ross Barbour looked to have prodded Rory McKeown’s cross past Lukasz Zaluska at the far post. But after initially appearing to award a goal referee Calum Murray gave a free-kick to Celtic, much to the anger of the visiting players. Their sense of injustice grew five minutes later when substitute Joe Ledley opened the scoring with a sensational strike from 25 yards.

Killie equalised three minutes after the break when Cillian Sheridan converted a William Gros cross but they were only level for two minutes before Matthews sent a sizzling 25-yard effort past Cammy Bell. Anthony Stokes replaced Kris Commons in the 74th minute and four minutes later got his first goal of an injury ravaged season as he rounded Bell and finished from a tight angle. The Irishman then crossed for Matthews to stab home his second of the match from close range in the 84th minute.

The win moves Celtic 15 points clear of Inverness Caledonian Thistle, who lost 2-1 away to St Mirren. “They won’t get a lot of credit for that but they will in the dressing room. They showed a great mentality to bounce back so well,” said Celtic manager Neil Lennon in reference to his side’s shock League Cup exit to St Mirren at the weekend. “On the back of Sunday they showed great character. To be honest with you it could have been 10 as we missed so many good chances in the second half.” — AP

Sports FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Ivory Coast and Nigeria headline quarter-finals ‘It does not come bigger than this’

NELSPRUIT: Togo’s forward Emmanuel Adebayor (left) fights for the ball with Tunisia’s defender Aymen Abdennour on January 30, 2013 during the Africa Cup of Nations 2013 Group D football match. — AFP

Adebayor has a towering presence on and off pitch NELSPRUIT: Togo captain Emmanuel Adebayor is making his towering presence felt both on and off the pitch at the Africa Cup of Nations. The 1.90-metre Tottenham striker has navigated his tiny west African nation through the toughest of all the first round groups to an improbable and historic place in the quarter-finals. Few would have bet before the start of battle that Adebayor’s Togo, ranked a lowly 77 in FIFA’s world rankings, would finish above Tunisia and Algeria in Group D. This is their first taste of the knockout stages at the seventh attempt and Adebayor’s part in the writing of this fairy tale is substantial.

On the pitch he cuts a formidable, surly figure-on Wednesday he had something of the Samuel L Jackson’s about him. He opened his 2013 Nations Cup account in the 2-0 win over Algeria, and his pass set up Serge Gapke to score in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw with Tunisia. That stalemate bagged Togo the runners-up spot in Group D behind Ivory Coast and a last-eight meeting with neighbours Burkina Faso in this north-eastern city on Sunday.

Not bad for a team that was originally barred from entering the competition by Africa’s ruling body CAF as punishment for government interference when they withdrew from the 2010 Cup in Angola after the Cabinda machine-gun attack. Off the pitch, Adebayor has used his status as a top striker to take on the Togo Football Federation in a row over bonuses, team security and conditions that, at one stage, threatened his participation in South Africa.

A little bit of arm-twisting from Togo President Faure Gnassingbe helped persuade him to travel to South Africa.

Having finally agreed to compete there was one lastminute snag when his name was reportedly left off coach Didier Six’s 23-player squad list, with the federation hastily stepping in to reinstate him. All those shenanigans were forgotten in the euphoria of Wednesday’s achievement.

“This is historic,” beamed Adebayor. “Our first qualification to the knockout stages at the Nations Cup-I’m so happy for the players and my country, I can’t begin to imagine the celebrations back home in Lome.” Adebayor holds his 13,000 Twitter followers’ attention with entertaining exchanges, notably with his friend, former Nigeria defender Taribo West. — AFP

PORT ELIZABETH: One of three allwest African quarter-final clashes, between Ivory Coast and Nigeria, will headline the first knockout round of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations this weekend. The Ivorians are again fancied to win this competition after they lost last year’s final to an inspired Zambia, while Nigeria’s Super Eagles boast an impressive record in this tournament even if they struggled to reach the knockout stage here. The other all-west African quarter-finals will see Togo battle Burkina Faso, while Ghana take on surprise package Cape Verde.

Tomorrow, hosts South Africa will seek revenge against Mali in Durban for a place in the semi-finals. Nigeria skipper Joseph Yobo said Sunday’s showdown in Rustenburg against the Elephants will always be one of the biggest ties in Africa. “It does not come any bigger than this in Africa and, of course, we will be the underdogs against the highest ranked team in Africa. But the game will only be decided on the pitch,” said Yobo, who is at his sixth tournament.

“Everyone expects us to lose this match, but as players we just put our heads down and come Sunday we will cause a little upset against the Ivory Coast,” added Chelsea winger Victor Moses, who scored twice against Ethiopia to set up the tie. “They have got quality players like Didier Drogba, one of the best strikers in Africa. But as

a team we will concentrate on our own strengths.” The sides have met five times at the Nations Cup finals with two wins for Ivory Coast, one for Nigeria, and two draws.

The Ivorians have won the most recent match-ups — 1-0 in the semifinals of the 2006 Cup of Nations in Egypt and a 1-0 win in SekondiTakoradi in a group game at the following tournament in Ghana. Nigeria edged it on penalties after a 2-2 draw in a famous 1994 semi-final in Tunis and also pipped their regional rivals 10 in a group tie in Algiers in 1990.

The other draw was in a group match in Lagos in 1980 with the Eagles going on to win their first continental trophy.

The fairy tale run of the Blue Sharks from Cape Verde will face a stern test against one of the tournament favourites, Ghana, tomorrow in the Indian Ocean city of Port Elizabeth.

The west African islanders sent Cameroon packing in the qualifying tournament and have surpassed most expectations by reaching the knockout rounds on their debut appearance.

“We will keep working hard and try to win the next game,” said coach Lucio Antunes, an air traffic controller on a long sabbatical who has fired this team to the unexpected success.

However, they are up against fourtime champions Black Stars of Ghana, who beat them 1-0 in a warm-up

game in Portugal recently and have hit top form at the right time. The other all-west Africa clash will be between Togo and Burkina Faso in Nelspruit on Sunday.

Burkina Faso, who will be without injured star striker Alain Traore, are only appearing in their second quarter-final after they first did so in 1998, when they staged the competition. A Togo team led by Tottenham Hotspur striker Emmanuel Adebayor have also made history by reaching the knockout stage for the first time.

The Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban will again be packed tomorrow as fans troop to cheer the home team to the last four after a stuttering start.

Bafana Bafana coach Gordon Igesund is now just a victory away from meeting the semi-final target set for him at this tournament. “Mali are a very talented team with some very good players. They’re all big boys. I looked at them and all 11 are tall,” said Igesund, who was appointed coach in mid-2012.

“When we have the ball, we have to use it well. We’ll have to keep it on the ground, get behind them and put pressure on their defence.” Skipper Seydou Keita and Adama Coulibaly are the only survivors of the Malian team that defeated South Africa 2-0 in the quarterfinals when the west African country hosted the 2002 Cup of Nations. — AFP

GERMAN LEAGUE PREVIEW

Realists Dortmund eye 2nd place in Bundesliga BERLIN: Champions Borussia Dortmund have set their eyes firmly on the Bundesliga’s second place and they could take it from Bayer Leverkusen with a win at their rivals on Sunday. Dortmund coach Juergen Klopp has laughed off suggestions that his team, in third place on 36 points, could still catch leaders Bayern Munich, who are 12 points away, but said securing second spot and a Champions League ticket next season was their primary goal. Leverkusen are a point ahead of Dortmund in second place.

“Dortmund, champions this year, that is ridiculous,” Klopp said this week. “But our goal is to catch Leverkusen and finish the season in second place.” “We need to get 51 points, the maximum remaining from 17 games, and Bayern are 12 points ahead which means they would need a maximum of 39 points. Is that realistic?” he said of Dortmund’s title chances.

The champions had also talked down their chances in their two back-to-back title-winning seasons but realist Klopp knows the second-place target is well within their reach, especially against a team he has lost to only once in nine league encounters since taking over Dortmund in 2008. Klopp should have defender Marcel Schmelzer fit for the game while crowd favourite Nuri Sahin, back after

spells at Real Madrid and Liverpool, could make his first start for the club after playing in a mid-week friendly against Cologne.

Leverkusen, however, will not surrender their slim lead without a fight, being the only Bundesliga team this season unbeaten at home. A goalless draw at Freiburg last week cut their gap with Dortmund to one point but Leverkusen are not piling on the sort of pressure that has caused them to fold in past seasons.

“I would not rate the importance of this game too high,” said Leverkusen captain Simon Rolfes. “We will indeed measure ourselves on the highest level but there are only three points to give out against a direct rival.

“We are going into the game with a lot of confidence and at this level it may be details that will decide the game. We have to keep the pressure up against them throughout the game.”

When the two sides face each other on Sunday, Bayern could have already extended their lead over Leverkusen to 14 points if they beat Mainz 05 tomorrow.

Fellow Champions League competitors Schalke 04, who have won only one of their last eight league games, will be looking to end their bad run when they host bottomplaced Greuther Fuerth. — Reuters

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2013

Coke Super Bowl ad ‘racist’: Arab Americans Page 45

www.kuwaittimes.net

Beckham heads to City of Light Page 46

CARSON: Photo shows British football star David Beckham warming up prior to kickoff in an exhibition game against Real Madrid in Carson, California. —AFP