23 Feb 2013

IPT IO N SC R SU B

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

RABI ALTHANI 13, 1434 AH

No: 15728

4Larayedh 8 asked44to 150 Fils

120 firemen battle major Amghara blaze

Arab states urged to train forces in crowd control

Pistorius wins release on $113,000 bail

form Tunisia govt PM-designate promises ‘all-inclusive cabinet’

TUNIS: Tunisia’s prime minister-designate Ali Larayedh, a hardliner from the main Islamist Ennahda party, said yesterday he hoped to form a “government of all Tunisians”, but opposition leaders swiftly signaled discontent. Tunisia plunged into political crisis on Feb 6 when the assassination of secular opposition politician Chokri Belaid on Feb 6 ignited the biggest street protests since the overthrow of strongman Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago. President Moncef Marzouki asked Larayedh to draw up a government within two weeks after he was formally nominated for prime minister by Ennahda leader Rached Ghannouchi.

“We will start consultations to form a new government ... a government of all Tunisians,” Larayedh said in brief remarks after meeting the secular president. He urged political parties, trade unions, businessmen and journalists to support his government to achieve the objectives of the North African country’s revolution and build democracy. Ennahda’s choice for prime minister raised hackles among opposition parties, some of whom accuse Larayedh’s Interior Ministry of failing to curb Islamist violence, although he is credited for acting firmly against al Qaeda-linked militants.

“The decision deepens the crisis because Larayedh headed the minAli Larayedh istry responsible for the killing of Belaid and violence that has spread throughout the country,” said Zied Lakhdar, a leader in the Popular Front, in which Belaid was secretary-general.

The Interior Ministry and Ennahda have denied they had any hand in Belaid’s killing, which they have condemned. Mahmoud Baroudi, a leader of the secular Democratic Alliance opposition party, said Larayedh’s appointment would aggravate tensions and increase anger in the streets. “He was responsible for leniency with Islamist violence against human rights activists,” he said, blaming Islamists for disrupting opposition meetings and assassinating Belaid. No one has claimed responsibility for Belaid’s killing. Ennahda is the biggest party in the National Constituent Assembly with 89 of its 217 seats.

Marzouki’s secular Congress for the Republic party (CPR), the second largest with 29 seats, has already said it will join a new Ennahda-led coalition. — Reuters

US Embassy in Senegal warns of bomb threat DAKAR: The US Embassy in Senegal said yesterday it had received information of a bomb threat to the capital Dakar.

In a text message to US citizens, the embassy advised its nationals to stay away from the city centre until further notice but did not give any further details.

A Senegalese security source confirmed the threat and said the authorities had taken “necessary measures”.

Reuters reporters in the city centre said there were signs of a reinforced police presence, but that people were going about their business ahead of Friday prayers.

The United States and African governments are backing a five-week-old French military campaign against Islamist rebels in Senegal’s neighbor Mali. — Reuters

Max 31º Min 14º

PORT SAID: Egyptian protesters chant anti-President Mohammed Morsi slogans and carry posters with pictures of victims of recent violence and their names in Port Said yesterday. — AP

Morsi calls April polls amid oppn warning CAIRO: Egypt’s president called multistage parliamentary elections beginning in April but a key opposition leader warned yesterday that the vote may only inflame tensions unless there are serious political talks first. President Mohammed Morsi set the start of a staggered, four-stage voting process for April 27 ending in June. The newly elected parliament would convene on July 6, a decree issued late Thursday night said.

Mohamed ElBaradei, who leads the main opposition National Salvation Front, wrote on his Twitter account Friday that Morsi’s “decision to go for parliamentary elections amidst severe societal polarization and eroding state authority is a recipe for disaster.”

Egypt has been mired in political tur-

moil for the past two years. The current phase began when Morsi took over as president in June 2012. The opposition accuses Morsi and the Brotherhood of monopolizing power and going back on campaign promises to set up an inclusive government and introduce farreaching reforms.

Morsi’s supporters say the new government cannot immediately fix years of neglect and poor administration from ousted Hosni Mubarak’s 29-year rule, and say they have the legitimacy of the ballot box in their favor.

Tensions deepened with the second anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising, when anger spilled out onto the streets and violence again engulfed the nation.

About 70 people died in a wave of

protests, clashes and riots that began with the anniversary and lasted for weeks.

Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets of Port Said yesterday to demand justice for protesters killed by Egyptian police, as a strike in the Suez Canal city entered its sixth day.

Protesters chanted against Islamist President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood, while slamming the interior ministry it accuses of having killed at least 40 people in clashes with police last month.

Most factories and government offices were closed during the week, witnesses said, and expected to stay shut after the Muslim weekend of Friday-Saturday. — Agencies

LOCAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

BAHRAIN: The ambassador of Kuwait to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Sheikh Azzam Mubarak Al-Sabah held a celebration on occasion of Kuwait’s National and Liberation days.

ROME: Sheikh Jaber Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s ambassador to Italy hosted a reception on the occasion of Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days.

Kuwaiti embassies around the world celebrate National, Liberation days Amir’s distinguished leadership lauded on national occasions CAPITALS: Kuwaiti diplomatic missions abroad have marked the country’s National Days with ceremonies and statements affirming the national occasions depicted its prosperity and progress. The state diplomats praised the distinctive leadership of HH the Amir, mastermind of Kuwait’s prosperity and progress. The ambassador of the State of Kuwait to the Kingdom of Bahrain, Sheikh Azzam Mubarak Al-Sabah, said “Kuwait deserves further work form our part for its promotion at the international level. These occasions fall while Kuwait pursues the steps for further development, credit for such development goes to our leader His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the leader who hoists the national slogan and seeks to secure the development of the country locally and internationally.” Sheikh Azzam Mubarak deeply congratulated HH the Deputy Amir and the Crown Prince, Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and the people of Kuwait, expressing the wish that Kuwait may witness ever-lasting security, stability and prosperity. Also on these patriotic days, Sheikh Azzam recalled the national martyrs who had sacrificed their souls for the dear homeland and for sake of safeguarding its dignity and freedom. He also noted Bahrain’s strong support for Kuwait during the 1990 Iraqi aggression on the country.

Sheikh Jaber Duaij Al-Ibrahim Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s ambassador to Italy, said that the mission was sharing the people of Kuwait celebrations of the 52nd anniversary of the independence, the 22nd anniversary of the liberation and the seventh anniversary of HH the Amir’s ascension to power. The ambassador expressed congratulations to HH the Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah, the Deputy Amir and Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Sabah and the faithful people of Kuwait on the patriotic occasions.

Sheikh Jaber Duaij held a ceremony, marking the national occasions. He stated that the request by the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, to Kuwait to host the conference for donors for Syria manifested Kuwait’s distinguished international status, which it has earned as a result of its constructive foreign policy, basis of which had been laid by HH the Amir. In Tunis, the ambassador, Fahad Ahmad Al-Awadhi, held a ceremony, last night, marking the occasions. Al-Awadhi expressed good wishes to the top leaders. “Kuwait celebrates its national occasions of independence and liberation under leadership of His Highness the Amir, enjoying progress, prosperity and development,” he stated.

Tunisian Minister of Industry Mohammad Chakhari expressed

greetings to HH the Amir, praising the Gulf country support for Tunisia, along with its contributions to the country’s prosperity and independence. In Kuala Lumpur, the ambassador, Munther Al-Issa, celebrated the occasion in an identical manner. In remarks to KUNA, he expressed gratitude to various personalities that attended his ceremony. He also congratulated HH the Amir, the other top leaders and the people of Kuwait on these occasions.

The Kuwaiti ambassador to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Mohammad Khalaf, also marked the patriotic anniversary with a ceremonial gathering. In a statement to his eminent guests, the diplomat shed light on the development of Kuwait and the enormous efforts that have been exerted by its leaders for making Kuwait among the civilized nations. In the Hague, the embassy of Kuwait in the Netherlands celebrated the 52nd anniversary of the National Day of Kuwait and the 22nd anniversary of the Liberation by holding a splendid reception, late on Thursday.

Kuwait’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Hafeez Mohammed Al Ajmi, extended his warm greetings to HH the Amir, HH the Deputy Amir and HH the Prime Minister on this auspicious occasion. He congratulated the people of Kuwait and prayed for the prosperity and progress of the State of Kuwait.

Al-Ajmi described Dutch-Kuwaiti political and economic rela-

tions “as very good” and noted that the Netherlands was Kuwait’s biggest trading partner in the European Union and that Kuwait had enormous investments in Holland. A large number of diplomats, businessmen, media persons and cultural personalities attended the event and congratulated Kuwait on its National Day. On his part, Gilles Beschoor Plug, director of Middle East and North Africa, in the Dutch foreign ministry, underlined the growing close economic, trade and political relations and cooperation between the two countries. “Ties between our two countries are thriving in trade, social relations, tourism, people to people contacts, education,” he said.

In Myanmar, the Kuwaiti embassy held a ceremony on the occasion. Ambassador Issa Al-Shimali congratulated the top leaders on the occasion. The ceremony was attended by ranking and eminent figures of the country. In Frankfurt, the Kuwaiti consulate held a similar gathering. The general consul, Asaad Al-Bahar, and staff of the mission, greeted the eminent guests, including political and diplomatic personalities. Al-Bahar also expressed congratulations to HH the Amir, HH the Deputy Amir, HH the Prime Minister and people of Kuwait on the national occasions, expressing the homeland further prosperity, progress and promotion at various levels. — KUNA

HAGUE: Kuwait’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Hafeez Mohammed Al-Ajmi hosted a special celebration for Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days.

LOCAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Minister calls for revision of subsidies, pay Al-Qallaf threatens to grill Prime Minister KUWAIT: A senior state official called for the introduction of “legislative measures” that would allow an increase of fees collected for public services as means to “diversify sources of income”. As a motive for the suggestion the official cited the state’s “inability to continue giving services either free of charge or for nominal prices”.

Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali made these statements recently in response to a question by MP Ahmad Lari who inquired about whether the ministry has “belttightening policy” for worst case scenarios, such as the predicted budget deficit for the upcoming fiscal year. “While a belttightening policy does not necessarily provide the best solution to avoid the predicted deficit, we believe that a solution must be in providing policies that result in income growth and reduced spending”, Al-Shamali was quoted by Al-Rai as saying yesterday.

The minister proposed examples for these policies which include “restructuring the budget in a way that achieves efficiency in allocation of resources. He added that the finance ministry is currently “working seriously” on placing a more efficient price system “because it is not

possible for the state to continue providing services at their current rates”.

Moreover, Al-Shamali called for reconsidering state subsidies. He also called for a revision of “the payroll policies, allowances and all other financial privileges granted to citizens”. He expressed the need to “limit the increase of public sector salaries and reducing the gap between salaries in the public and private sectors”. He also called for encouraging investment spending with productive nature in order to avoid further pressure on the Kuwaiti economy as a result of the ongoing consumer spending.

Al-Shamali’s remarks sparked prompt reactions from MPs, including Abdullah Al-Ma’youf who called the finance minister to “protect public funds and to stop people with influence from controlling state funds”. In the mean time, MP Nawaf Al-Fuzai’ argued that Al-Shamali “should instead be focusing on limiting the price increase people suffer from”.

Meanwhile, lawmakers reacted to the call of MP Saadoun Hammad Al-Otaibi, who appealed to HH the Amir on Thursday to dissolve the National Assembly that he described as “useless”.

“A lawmaker who believes that dissolving the parliament is the solution needs to

Nationality-based segregation in clinics to be studied KUWAIT: The Health Ministry is currently studying a proposal to designate morning hours in governmental hospitals and clinics for Kuwaitis only and the evening period for non-Kuwaitis, according to an official letter obtained by a local daily and published recently.

The letter signed by Director of the Sabah Medical Zone was sent to directors of public hospitals and clinics in Kuwait. A photocopy of the letter was published on the front page of Al-Qabas newspaper. It reads: “As per our meeting with the health minister in which he proposed studying the proposal to change the current system by designating morning hours for Kuwaiti patients and afternoon hours for non-Kuwaiti patients, kindly perform a comprehensive study for the subject addressing the obstacles that might prevent applying this system”.

The proposal comes as the latest episode of the government’s attempts to improve the quality of services at its overcrowded medical facilities, in light of the lack of infrastructure development that is adequate with the pace of the country’s demographic growth.

There have been many complaints in public medical facilities about situations in which expatriate patients feel discriminated against, the most common of which pertain to certain types of medications that are only given to Kuwaiti patients.

Expatriates pay a KD50 ‘medical insurance’ fee when renewing their visas either every year or every other year, and are asked to pay additional fees each time they have a medical check-up in a public hospital or clinic. Many feel that this kind of ‘austere’ behavior is unnecessary in a country credited for large charitable contributions around the world every year.

According to a report that came out last October, the Ministry of Health’s budget for the fiscal year 2012/2013 was estimated at KD1,268 billion; KD204,507 million of which are allocated for medications, Al-Qabas reported.

Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali resign and open the door for someone else to work for their country”, MP AlMa’youf told Al-Rai. Al-Otaibi had argued that dissolving the parliament helps “provide immunity to the single vote system, and allows former colleagues who boycotted the elections to contest again”. His appeal came after the parliament agreed last week to postpone the debate of a grilling motion filed by MP Husain Al-Qallaf against the Minister of Communications Salem Al-

Othaina, and another grilling motion filed

by MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan against First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud AlSabah. Al-Otaibi expressed concern that a grilling motion he had filed with MP AlFuzai’ against Oil Minister Hani Husain is going to face the same fate.

In related developments, MP Al-Qallaf announced his plans to grill the Prime Minister HH Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlSabah at the beginning of the next term, and that in protest after the debate of his grilling was postponed until the next term as well. Meanwhile, sources quoted by AlJarida yesterday also indicated that a number of MPs plan to contest the legality of the delay requests in the Constitutional Court.

The opposition believes that the slew of interpellations - there is a fourth grilling submitted by Al-Fuzai’ against Al-Shamali that is also pending debate - is part of a plot to dissolve the parliament and as a result lead the Constitutional Court to waive challenges made against the single vote system. The opposition had boycotted last December’s elections in protest of a decree that reduced the number of candidates a citizen can vote from four to one. — Al-Rai & Al-Jarida

Minimum salary for Kuwaitis to be KD1,500: MPs’ proposal KUWAIT: Four members of parliament presented a non-binding proposal to the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra Al-Rashidi, urging her to make it mandatory for cooperative and NGO jobs to be given only to Kuwaitis with the exception of cleaning services and goods transportation.

The MPs, namely Faisal Al-Kandari, Hamad Al-Harshani, Nasser Al-Meri, and Bader Al-Bethali, said such a step would help Kuwaiti families face life’s burdens.

The MPs also proposed that the minimum salary for any Kuwaiti employee should be KD 1,500 per month, with an annual increase linked

to the annual inflation. They also proposed increasing the housing loan eligibility to KD 100,000, a figure that would be equally applicable to men and women. The proposal includes an increasei of the housing loan cap for the Kuwaiti women from KD 45,000 to KD 100,000. It also recommends an increase in the children allowance without limiting their number for an employee, and said retired employees should be given KD 100 per child.

The proposal stipulated that any unemployed Kuwaiti woman, on attaining the age of 55, should become eligible for a minimum of KD 500 monthly allowance. The proposal

also stipulated that priority must be given in naturalizing the wife and children of a Kuwaiti man, Gulf citizens and Bedoons who meet stipulated conditions.

In their advice to the minister, the four MPs called for a ministerial decision that prohibits the cooperatives, NGOs and Civil Society establishments from employing any foreigners, except in the fields of cleaning and loading.

All other jobs should be reserved for Kuwaitis, in order to eradicate unemployment and increase the Kuwaiti families’ income, Al-Rai reported.

Opposition strike seen as let-down KUWAIT: A one-hour strike that the opposition called for last week failed to garner support as just a dozen employees gathered at the Ministries Compound to express rejection to the government’s procedures.

Former MP Dr. Waleed AlTabtabaei who joined the protesting employees told reporters that more strikes are expected “in the coming few days”, adding that the strikes will last from two hours to a whole day.

Meanwhile, Minister of Communications Salem Al-Othaina

condemned calls for civil disobedience, which he said are “wishes of people who wish no good for the country”.

A Civil Service Commission insider who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity said that penalties are expected to be taken against the protesting employees, which include pay deduction or termination.

In other news, Al-Rai reported that several leaders of youth groups have submitted a request to meet with Chairman of the Supreme Judicial

Council, Counselor Faisal Al-Mershid, in order to have clarifications about a number of issues including “wearing activists with court cases, some of which filed over not serious complaints”. “The meeting aims to clarify various legal, humanitarian and constitutional aspects that pertain with young activists’ future, such as with regards to travel bans against a large number of them, as well as the effect of long legal procedures on the activists’ studying or careers”, the sources said. —Al-Qabas & Al-Rai

local SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

120 firemen put out Amghara fire KUWAIT: Kuwaiti firemen have managed to control a fire that caught a timber scrapyard in Amghara in Al-Jahra Governorate earlier on Thursday. No one was hurt in the fire. Speaking to reporters at the fire site, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said 120 firemen struggled to prevent the spreading of the fire to affect nearby areas.

The fire covered nearly 30,000 square meters. Luckily no one was hurt in the incident, the minister pointed out. But, the fire caused some material damage at the location, Sheikh Mohammad said, reassuring that the smoke caused by the fire was not harmful to health.

The minister voiced hope that the fire would be fully put under control very soon as some gas tanks are near the fire site.

He appreciated great efforts by various state agencies involved to put out the fire that caught the timber scrapyard in Amghara on Thursday afternoon.— KUNA

Kuwait-Japan Parliamentary Committee formed TOKYO: Upon an invitation from Japan’s Parliament, the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi participated in a ceremony to form Kuwait-Japan Parliamentary Friendship Committees for the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Opposition Democratic Party.

Kuwait’s Embassy press release said yesterday that MP of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and former Defense and Environment Minister Yuriko Koike was elected to chair the Kuwaiti-Japanese Parliamentary Friendship Committee; a successor to Former Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura.

Yuriko expressed gratitude to the help offered by the state of Kuwait during Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters. She also stressed that the visit of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to Japan in 2012 was “historical” and marked the strong ties between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Teruhiko Mashiko of Japan’s Opposition Democratic Party was also elected to chair the same parliamentary committee; a successor to former Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yukio Edano.

Mashiko lauded the deep-rooted bilateral ties and stressed on the importance of taking the relations to the next level. The Kuwaiti envoy expressed similar feelings and wished the committee success in its endeavors.

KUWAIT: Firemen managed to control the fire that broke out in Amghara on Thursday. (Inset) Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak AlSabah is seen talking to the media and firemen at the site of the fire on Thursday afternoon. —Photos by Joseph Shagra

Bedoon woman stabs Kuwaiti husband to death Policeman accepts KD10,000 bribe, sets detainee free KUWAIT: A policeman, who was tasked with guarding a drugs trader but instead helped him escape from the chest hospital confessed having accepted a bribe of KD 10,000. A security source said after the prisoner escaped following a catheterization procedure at the hospital, the director of capital detectives set up a team to track down the inmate and question the guard again. He said the policeman admitted that he had helped the convict, who was serving a 20-year jail sentence, to escape in lieu of KD 10,000. Earlier, the policeman had claimed earlier that he was asleep when the convict decamped.

Bedoon woman stabs Kuwaiti husband to death A Bedoon woman, found under the influence of some illicit substance, confessed before the prosecution that she killed her Kuwaiti uniformed husband. The woman told detectives that the two had a fight in Shuwaikh about two hours before the crime. Her husband left her in Shuwaikh and headed home. The woman said when she hailed a taxi and arrived home angry, he tried to calm her but could not. She said as the argument escalated into fisticuffs and both exchanged blows, she pulled a knife and stabbed him repeatedly, plunging the knife into his heart once and thus causing his death.

Car accident participant abuses investigator Salmiya police station investigator Muna Al-Failakawi

ordered the detention of an Egyptian who insulted her while on duty. A security source said the Egyptian went to the Salmiya police station following a car accident in which she was involved. The Egyptian had to spend some time in the waiting room while the investigator was dealing with another case, but instead became impatient and barged into the investigator’s room, screaming, “We are busy (people), do our work (quickly).” Despite the investigator requesting her to wait for her turn, the Egyptian continued screaming and hurling insults at her in the process.

2 expats charged with out-of-wedlock pregnancy, attempted kidnapping Two expats, a Filipino and a Syrian man, were detained at the Salmiya police station after she accused him of having kidnapped her and making her pregnant. The Syrian denied the charge and said she worked for him in a private company, and that he married her by a verbal agreement, following which they were in a relationship and she became pregnant. The Filipina told the police that the Syrian official working with a private company kidnapped her and had sexual relations with her. When Hawally police brought him, he said that he had married the woman. When asked about the marriage contract, he said it was verbal.

When police questioned the Filipina again, she said she was pregnant as he used to have sex with her without

her consent, something that happened more than 20 times. She said that he even collected her salary and kept her from sending money to her family. Both were charged, she for “pregnancy out of wedlock,” and he for attempted kidnapping.

Romeo-stalker sought after leaving phone number A woman told officers at the Saad Al-Abdallah police station that a man who stalked her and tried to flirt with her as she shopped, suddenly shoved a piece of paper with his phone number scribbled on it into her purse, and then disappeared. When police tried to call the man on his phone, it was found switched off. Investigations are on.

Unknown perpetrators stab Bedoon boy Unknown men forced a 24-year-old Bedoon to drive on to a side road near Farwaniya and then attacked him with a knife, stabbing him repeatedly. The victim later approached officers at a police station where paramedics were called in who took him to the Farwaniya Hospital.

Asian hangs himself An Asian employed as a guard at a camp hanged himself to death in his Kirby room on Mutlaa road. Crime scene analysts arrived at the scene while the body was referred to the coroner.

LOCAL

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Bangladesh embassy observes International Mother Language day KUWAIT: Bangladesh Embassy in Kuwait observed Shahid Dibash and International Mother Language Day 2013 at the Chancery in a befitting manner in the presence of embassy officials, officials of the Bangladesh Military Contingent, Bangladesh Biman, members of the community and representatives of the print and electronic media.

On Thursday Bangladesh Ambassador Syed Shahed Reza hoisted the national flag at half mast ceremoniously in the presence of embassy officials and a large number of members of the community.

The main program started with the recitation from the Holy Quran. Special Dua and Munajat were offered seeking divine blessings for the souls of the martyrs who died for the cause of the language. Prayers were also held for the continued progress of the country.

The messages from the President, the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Bangladesh were read out by officers of the embassy. An interactive discus-

KUWAIT: On Thursday, Bangladesh Ambassador Syed Shahed Reza (left) hoisted the national flag at half mast in the presence of embassy officials and a large number of members of the community. —Photos by Joseph Shagra sion took place amid very lively atmosphere as a good number of participants from the community participated. They highlighted various important events that took place before and after the language movement.

Ambassador Syed Shahed Reza in his

speech highlighted the language movement and its significance in the formation of the subsequent mass movement that led to the emergence of an independent Bangladesh. He urged all Bangladesh nationals to work in a united fashion for the benefit of

the country and asked Bangladesh nationals in Kuwait to abide by the rules and regulations of the State of Kuwait. He thanked the government and people of the State of Kuwait for their continuous support for Bangladeshi expatriates in Kuwait.

AUK students celebrate National and Liberation Days KUWAIT: In celebration of Kuwait’s National and Liberation Days, AUK students organized a series of activities to mark the special occasion. The AUK campus celebrations were covered by KTV2, through which AUK students delivered statements of greetings to the Kuwaiti community and His Highness the Amir of Kuwait.

The kickoff event of the day was the Student Government Association’s (SGA) National Anthem gathering. AUK students gathered in the garden area to sing in unity the national anthem of Kuwait. The event was a call to take a moment of reflection on the meanings and connotations of the national anthem. With the last verse, students released balloons carrying the colors of Kuwait’s flag (black, green, red and white) in cheerful atmosphere. “The event was wellmanaged and efforts of planning were evident. I definitely look forward to more events celebrating Kuwait’s patriotism,” said AUK student and entrepreneur Abdulrahman AlSultan. In the meantime, Fouz Al-Khunaini, AUK student and SGA Secretary, said, “The national anthem is a national icon

without which the celebrations would not be complete; the feelings that filled the place as the students sang in one voice were overwhelming.” In the meantime, the AUK Finance Club celebrated the occasion bringing the history and traditions of Kuwait to life. Their event, “Kuwaitna”, included a historical timeline of key events in Kuwait’s history, live traditional music, and a “diwaniya” style corner set-up under a huge flag of Kuwait. The atmosphere attracted many students who gathered around a huge wall banner to write their comments, greetings, and thoughts of the day.

Farah Majed Al-Ajeel, President of the Finance Club expressed her “warmest wishes for a happy Liberation Day to all the Kuwaiti people and to the students of AUK.” She added, “On this occasion I’d like to highlight our pride with this youthful energy that lies within the young generation that contributed to the success of this event.”

The AUK community has always been keen to create a festive atmosphere throughout the month of February, through campus events, flag decorations, and student-themed activi-

ties. “I think that Kuwaitis should be proud of their country; they bring a refreshingly healthy and balanced pride of their country. It puts a smile on my face,” said Steven MacAulay, an AUK faculty member and a newcomer to Kuwait.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Arab states urged to train forces in crowd control

8

Indian police hunt for clues in bomb attack

10

Obama hosts Japan PM amid rising tensions in Asia

14

CHARSADDA, Pakistan: Pakistani people gather around a bus carrying wedding guests which plunged into a canal in Charsadda yesterday. At least 10 people were killed and several others wounded when a bus carrying wedding guests plunged into a canal. — AFP

More suicide bombs hit Mali Fierce urban battles leave 20 Islamists dead BAMAKO: Five people, including two suicide bombers, died yesterday in car bombings in northern Mali, a day after fierce urban battles between French-led forces and Islamists left up to 20 extremists dead, officials said.

Two vehicles targeting civilians and members of the ethnic Tuareg rebel group, the MNLA, exploded near the town of Tessalit, killing three and wounding several others, a security source said. The suicide bomber drivers also died. A spokesman for the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) in Burkina Faso confirmed the report. Mohamed Ibrahim Ag Asseleh said “the two kamikazes were killed and in our ranks there were three dead and four seriously wounded”.

The blasts came after Al-Qaeda-linked rebels claimed a car bomb attack on Thursday near a camp occupied by French and Chadian troops in the city of Kidal, local officials said.

At least two civilians were reported wounded in that attack. The vehicle, apparently driven by a suicide bomber, was targeting the camp but exploded before it reached it, killing the driver, an official in Kidal governor’s office said. France sent in troops on January 11 to help the Malian army oust Islamist militants who last year captured the desert north of the country. Thousands of soldiers from African countries have also deployed since then.

The French-led forces are increasingly facing guerrilla-style tactics after initially meeting little resistance in their drive to oust Islamists from the

main northern centres of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu. The Tuareg MNLA blamed Friday’s car bomb attacks on the Al-Qaeda-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO), one of Mali’s main Islamist groups.

The MUJAO made no comment on the latest attacks, but on Thursday it told AFP that it was responsible for the car bomb in Kidal. “More explosions will happen across our territory,” MUJAO spokesman Abu Walid Sahraoui warned.

He also said the group had sent fighters to Gao, 1,200 kilometres (745 miles) from the capital Bamako, where battles erupted overnight Wednesday after about 40 Islamists infiltrated the city. The Islamists briefly occupied the courthouse and the city hall but French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Malian and French forces backed by French helicopters repelled the attack on Thursday. Le Drian said initally that five Islamists were killed in the fierce street fighting,

GAO: Malian soldiers lay on the floor as they survey a street yesterday in Gao, northern Mali. — AFP

but on Friday the French defense ministry reported that between 15 and 20 had died. Sporadic gunfire was heard on Friday morning in Gao, then Malian soldiers opened fire with rocket-propelled grenades on the city hall, where MUJAO forces had holed up on Thursday, an AFP journalist said.

It was not immediately possible to determine whether Islamists were still active inside the building. A Malian soldier earlier said “many” bodies of dead fighters wore explosives belts, both in the city hall and the nearby court house.

MUJAO spokesman Sahraoui said the rebels were determined to recapture the city: “Our troops have been ordered to attack. If the enemy is stronger, we’ll pull back only to return stronger, until we liberate Gao.” Mali’s Prime Minister Diango Cissoko said this week that large-scale military operations in the north were winding down, but sporadic fighting has continued. A French legionnaire was killed on Tuesday in the mountainous Ifoghas region. The French military said that their “Panthere 4” operation in the Ifoghas had already left 30 Islamists dead since the start of the week. Ethnic Tuaregs in northern Mali, who have long sought greater autonomy, initially backed the rebellion but later fell out with the Islamists and regained control of Kidal before the arrival of French troops. About 1,800 Chadian troops were then deployed in the city as part of the African-led International Support Mission to Mali (AFISMA), a military force organized by west African countries which France hopes will eventually become a UN stabilization force.—AFP

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Arab states urged to train forces in crowd control Regional mindset must change: Specialists

HEBRON: Palestinians throw stones towards Israeli soldiers, unseen, during clashes that broke out after a rally in the West Bank city of Hebron to show solidarity with prisoners on hunger strike in Israeli jails yesterday.—AP

Palestinians protest as strikers in hospital JERUSALEM: Palestinians demanding the release of hunger-striking prisoners clashed with Israelis in the West Bank and east Jerusalem yesterday, as three fasting inmates were taken to hospitals. Around 2,000 Palestinians marched in the northern West Bank city of Nablus, while protesting worshippers at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem threw stones at police, a police spokesman told AFP. “Stun grenades were used to disperse the rioters and police are at the moment in complete control of the situation,” Micky Rosenfeld said of the Jerusalem incident, adding that there were no reports of injuries on either side.

Hundreds of demonstrators, some waving Palestinian flags, also clashed with troops at the Jalameh military checkpoint, outside the northern West Bank city of Jenin, an AFP journalist reported. He said that protesters hurled stones at the soldiers who fired tear gas in response, but nobody was hurt. An Israeli official, meanwhile, said that hunger strikers Tareq Qaadan, Jafar Ezzedine and Ayman Sharawrna were admitted to hospitals for protective check-ups.

“We moved them (to hospitals) because we want them examined to see if they are really alright,” said Israel Prisons Service spokeswoman Sivan Weizman, adding that she expected them to stay in hospitals until today. The three along with fourth hunger striker Samer Issawi, who on Thursday was given eight months in jail for violating the terms of his release from a previous sentence, have been fasting on and off for months to demand their freedoms. Qaadan and Ezzedine, accused of participating in activities of Islamic Jihad militant group, have been imprisoned without trial since November. Sharawrna, an alleged Hamas activist involved in attacks on Israelis was, like Issawi freed in the 2011 swap for Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit and later rearrested. — AFP

ABU DHABI: Defense experts who say many lives could have been saved during Arab uprisings if states used proper crowd control measures sought to tap into a growing market at an Abu Dhabi arms fair. Anti-riot vehicles with sophisticated acoustic repellents have boldly taken their place alongside the likes of Eurofighter’s Typhoon warplane and the bristling firepower of rocket launchers at the arms industry’s biennial quest for petrodollars in the Gulf emirate. “If a given state lacks the means, the doctrines, and the training for homeland defense and internal security missions, that government is more likely to use lethal means that are disproportionate,” said Steven Adragna of US defense consultancy Arcanum.

Riot-control specialists such as South Africa’s Paramount and Turkey’s Otokar are bidding to change an apparent regional mindset by exhibiting their wares at the IDEX arms fair.

Paramount’s Ivor Ichikowitz said governments need to be better equipped for crowd control to avoid resorting to use of disproportionate force. “The riot catastrophe in Egypt, for example, was greatly exacerbated because police were using inappropriate equipment,” said Ichikowitz.

“Appropriate and better-quality anti-riot vehicles and equipment increases police safety, thus reducing the pressure they feel in conflict situations.” From inside one such mobile fortress, police can repel rioters using acoustic repellents that emit ear-shattering frequencies over a 30-metre (yard) radius. Adragna said anti-riot gear, which in addition to batons and shields includes shotguns, rubber bullets, tear gas and stun grenades, can maintain order. “If an individual policeman is trained on how to use those devices, I think they are perfectly legitimate,” he said. Thousands have been killed in demonstrations that have swept across several Arab countries since December 2010 as security forces used overwhelming force against peaceful protesters demanding political change.

Street protests in Syria that began in March 2011 escalated into an armed conflict that the United Nations says has now killed more than 70,000 people. Security forces in Bahrain, where an uprising was crushed in 2011, continue to use tear gas to quell regular Shiite protests and also use shotguns. In Egypt, security forces under the Islamist government of President Mohamed Morsi appear to have reverted to the same heavy-handed practices used under toppled former strongman Hosni Mubarak.

Mauro Della Costanza of Italian shotgun maker Benelli says “Egypt is a big customer.

“Egyptian police have several thousand of these,” he said, showing off the company’s M3 shotgun marketed to law enforcement authorities. “In the past two years, we had a big increase in purchase orders from the Middle East, especially the UAE,” he said.

But he said that exports to some countries face delays, and sometimes complete bans, from Italian export authorities which investigate “how guns will be used.”

Tunisia, where violence erupted again this month two years after the first Arab Spring uprising, “is under a 100 percent embargo,” Della Costanza said. Amnesty International has called on China, the United States and other arms exporting countries to ensure that weapons sold at this week’s fair do not lead to human rights abuses. Brian Wood, Amnesty’s head of arms control and human rights, charged that commercial pressures were taking precedence over concerns for rights.

“Governments are letting the unrelenting commercial pressures of arms companies and their own narrow national interests

ABU DHABI: An Emirati woman looks over at a French soldier during the launching of the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre in the Emirati capital. — AFP take precedence over building the rule of law and respect for human rights,” Wood said in a statement. “These are prime examples of why the world desperately needs a strong Arms Trade Treaty that would halt an arms sale when it can be foreseen that there is a substantial risk the arms will be used for serious human rights abuses.” — AFP

Somalis using fake passports on Turkish airline MOGADISHU: Somali officials and Turkish Airlines say that Somalis are using fake passports to board the Mogadishuto-Istanbul flight as a way to flee to Europe. Gen. Abdullahi Gafow Mohamud, Somalia’s immigration and naturalization department chief, said human traffickers are driving the practice. He showed a reporter stacks of fake passports that officials have found on passengers.

Turkish Airline last year became the first international carrier to fly direct to Mogadishu after two decades of conflict isolated the East African nation. Somalia’s government says asylum seekers are using fake passports belonging to Somali-Europeans smuggling networks. Turkish Airlines confirmed that such scams are happening. Merve Oruc, a spokesman for the airline, said Turkish Air is working with immigration officials to battle the problem. — AP

Iran moving close to Arak N-plant work VIENNA: Iran appears to be advancing in its construction of a research reactor Western experts say could offer the Islamic state a second way of producing material for a nuclear bomb, if it decided to embark on such a course, a UN report showed.

Iran has almost completed installation of cooling and moderator circuit piping in the heavy water plant near the town of Arak, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said in a confidential report issued to member states late on Thursday.

Nuclear analysts say this type of reactor could yield plutonium for nuclear arms if the spent fuel is reprocessed, something Iran has said it has no intention of doing. Iran has said it “does not have reprocessing activities”, the IAEA said. In its previous report on Iran, in November, the Vienna-based UN agency said installation work at Arak was continuing, without giving any indication of

how far advanced it was. Iran rejects Western allegations it seeks to develop a capability to assemble nuclear weapons, saying its atomic program is entirely peaceful and that the Arak reactor will produce isotopes for medical and agricultural use. Iran says it plans to begin operating the facility in the first quarter of 2014, the IAEA said. Tehran last year postponed the planned start-up from the third quarter of 2013, a target that Western experts said always had seemed unrealistic.

The Arms Control Association, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, said late last year that it was questionable whether Iran would be able to meet the new target date as well, in view of “significant delays and impeded access to necessary materials” because of international sanctions imposed on Iran.

Western worries about Iran are focused largely on uranium

enrichment plants at Natanz and Fordow, as such material refined to a high level can provide the fissile core of an atomic bomb. But experts say Arak may also be a proliferation issue.

The Arak facility is a “growing source of concern”, said Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the non-proliferation and disarmament program of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), a London-based think-tank. Israel, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed state, sees Iran’s nuclear program as a serious danger and has threatened to attack its atomic sites if diplomacy and sanctions fail to resolve the decade-old dispute.

If it does, the nuclear sites at Natanz, Fordow and Arak in central Iran are likely to be targets. Fitzpatrick said it could be Arak that triggers a conflict because attacking it after it is launched could cause an environmental disaster. — Reuters

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Stop ‘exploiting’ boy’s death: US envoy to Russia MOSCOW: The US ambassador to Moscow called on Russia to stop “sensational exploitation” of the tragic death in Texas of an adopted Russian boy as parliament yesterday issued a special appeal to the US Congress on the escalating scandal.

The January death of three-year-old Maxim Kuzmin was this week alleged by some Russian officials to be murder by his mother Laura Shatto, whipping up a storm of controversy less than two months after Russia banned US adoptions.

In an emotional blog post dated late Thursday, US ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul said he was troubled by how the American people, legal system and diplomacy are being portrayed in the Russian press. “I am troubled by how my people and my country are being portrayed by some in the Russian press,” he wrote hours after a federal television channel aired a prime-time talk

show where speakers alleged that Americans subject children to religious cults and torture.

“It is time for sensational exploitations of human tragedy to end and for professional work between our two countries to grow, on this issue and many others,” he added.

“Just as it troubles me to see unfair stereotypes of Russians and Russia in the American press, it pains me to read these inaccurate portrayals of Americans and our values by some in your media,” McFaul wrote. In the talk show, Yulia Kuzmina, the mother of Maxim Kuzmin and his younger brother Kirill, who remains in the custody of the Shatto family, told the audience that “she is afraid the same will happen with Kirill” and would now like her surviving son back.

Other speakers on the show exclaimed that Kuzmina’s children were stolen and discussed American totalitarian sects who forcefeed children drugs.

But despite her assurances of sobering up enough to resume custody of adopted Kirill, Kuzmina got drunk on the way home from her Moscow TV appearance and was kicked off the night train for causing a disturbance, tabloid Komsomolskaya Pravda reported.

Although the paper provided scans of the police report regarding Kuzmina’s overnight adventure on her way to Pskov in western Russia, she told RIA Novosti agency that the reports are not true.

“We got to Pskov just fine,” she said. The Kremlin’s children’s rights envoy Pavel Astakhov, who was the first to allege that Maxim Kuzmin was murdered, on Friday said that his birth mother “evokes pity” and deserves to have a court decide if she is fit to be a parent.

State Duma deputies meanwhile approved a special appeal to the US Congress asking American lawmakers to

assist Russia in returning Kirill to his home country, take measures to ensure safety of other adopted Russian children, and provide information about all US families with Russian adoptees. “Kirill Kuzmin’s continued residing with the family where his older brother has been murdered is unacceptable,” said the appeal to Congress which was overwhelmingly approved by Duma deputies.

Lawmakers blamed US authorities for failing to prosecute US parents who harm Russian adoptees, justifying the recent adoption ban.

“The situation proves that we were right in taking the decision to ban the (US) adoption of children into this country,” senior lawmaker with the majority United Russia party Sergei Neverov said ahead of the vote. “Its authorities are not evaluating the actions of the adoptive parents adequately. That means that the security of our children is not guaranteed.” — AFP

Uncertainty as Italian poll campaign ends Unclear outcome could shake economy

VATICAN: Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, right, flanked by Vatican spokesman, Rev. Federico Lombardi, gestures during a press conference at the Vatican yesterday. —AP

Pope moves top official amid leaks fallout VATICAN CITY: In one of his last appointments, the pope yesterday transferred a top official from the Vatican’s secretariat of state to Colombia amid swirling media speculation about the contents of a confidential report into the Vatican’s leaks scandal. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, stressed the transfer of Monsignor Ettore Balestrero had been months in the works, was an important promotion and had nothing to do with what the Vatican considers baseless reporting.

Balestrero was named undersecretary of the Vatican’s Foreign Ministry in 2009 and, among other tasks, has been a lead player in the Holy See’s efforts to get on the “white list” of financially transparent countries. Pope Benedict XVI, who steps down Feb. 28, named him ambassador, or nunzio, to Colombia. Italian newspapers for days have been rife with unsourced reports about the contents of the dossier, presented to Benedict in December, that three cardinals prepared after investigating the origins of the leaks. The scandal erupted last year after papers taken from the pope’s desk were published in a blockbuster book. The pope’s butler was convicted in October of aggravated theft, and later pardoned.

The Vatican has refused to comment on the media reports, which have claimed the contents of the dossier were a factor in Benedict’s decision to resign. Benedict himself has said he simply no longer has the “strength of mind and body” to be pope.

Lombardi has indicated that Benedict would meet with the three cardinals before stepping down.

Balestrero was head of the Holy See’s delegation to the Council of Europe’s Moneyval committee, which evaluated the Vatican’s anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing measures. The Vatican submitted itself to Moneyval’s evaluation in a bid to improve its reputation in the financial world.

The Vatican passed the test on the first try in August, and Moneyval said it had made great progress in a short amount of time. But the Holy See received poor or failing grades for its financial watchdog agency and its bank, long the source of some of the Vatican’s more storied scandals. —AP

ROME: Italy held its final day of campaigning yesterday ahead of crucial elections, as international investors warned an unclear outcome could shake the economy and set off shockwaves through the euro-zone. Italians will cast their ballots tomorrow and Monday as they grapple with the longest recession in two decades and austerity cuts that have caused deep resentment in the euro area’s third economy.

The most likely outcome is a centreleft government led by Democratic Party leader Pier Luigi Bersani, a former communist with a down-to-earth manner who now espouses broadly pro-market economic views. “I am very, very confident of victory although we should not underestimate the right,” Bersani said in one of his last television interviews ahead of today, when no campaigning is allowed.

But the result is by no means certain and whether Bersani can form a stable coalition with a majority in both houses of parliament is in serious doubt, putting the financial markets on edge.

The European Commission added further pressure yesterday, downgrading its forecast for the Italian economy to a 1.0-percent contraction this year from its previous forecast of a 0.5-percent shrinkage.

Bersani is due to address his last electoral meeting in Rome later on Friday, while his rival Silvio Berlusconi will address a rally in Naples. With everything at stake, the campaign has been remarkably underwhelming, with few rallies and a lot of back-and-forth in television interviews with little or no hard detail on electoral promises.

A case in point was Silvio Berlusconi’s vow to refund Italians an unpopular property tax levied by Prime Minister Mario Monti in an official-looking letter that prompted some people to queue up at post offices to claim their money straight away.

European capitals and foreign investors will be watching closely as a return to Italy’s free-wheeling public

finances could spell disaster for the euro-zone. “We believe that a risk exists that after the February 24-25 elections there may be a loss of momentum on important reforms to improve Italian growth prospects,” Standard & Poor’s ratings agency said in a report this week.

London-based Capital Economics warned that even with a stable governing majority “huge underlying economic problems suggest that it may only be a matter of time before concerns about the public finances begin to build again.”

“And a hung parliament might plunge Italy and the euro-zone back into crisis rather sooner,” the economic research company said this week. Polls open at 0700 GMT on Sunday and close at 1900 GMT. A second day of voting on Monday begins at 0600 GMT and ends

at 1400 GMT, after which preliminary results will begin to trickle through late Monday and into Tuesday.

Wild card The wild card in the election will be Beppe Grillo, a tousle-haired former comedian whose mix of invective and idealism has appealed to crowds of protest voters fed up with corrupt politicians.

Grillo’s last election rally later yesterday in a large square in Rome traditionally associated with the left is expected to be packed with supporters.

Bersani has said he will follow the course set by Monti, a former high-flying European commissioner roped in to replace the scandal-tainted Berlusconi who was forced to step down in November 2011. —AFP

SKOPJE: Foreign Minister of Germany Guido Westerwelle (left) shakes hands with his Macedonian counterpart Nikola Popovski (right) prior to a meeting in Skopje yesterday. Westerwelle is in a two-day official tour in Albania and Macedonia. — AFP

INTERNATIONAL

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Indian police hunt for clues in bomb attack Minister said there were warnings

BAJENGDOBA, India: Adolf Lu Hitler-Marak (second left), an Indian candidate for local assembly elections, speaks with a group of men as he campaigns in Bajengdoba in the northeastern state of Meghalaya on Thursday.— AFP

No furor over Hitler’s name on Indian ballot GAUHATI: Adolf Hitler is running for election in India. So is Frankenstein. The tiny northeast Indian state of Meghalaya has a special fascination for interesting and sometimes controversial names, and the ballot for state elections today is proof. Among the 345 contestants running for the state assembly are Frankenstein Momin, Billykid Sangma, Field Marshal Mawphniang and Romeo Rani. Some, like Kenedy Marak, Kennedy Cornelius Khyriem and Jhim Carter Sangma, are clearly hoping for the electoral success of their namesake American presidents. Then there is Hitler. This 54-year-old father of three has won three elections to the state assembly with little controversy over being named after the Nazi dictator.

His father had worked with the British army, but apparently developed enough of a fascination with Great Britain’s archenemy to name his son Adolf Hitler - though he also gave him the middle name Lu, Hitler said. “I am aware at one point of time Adolf Hitler was the most hated person on earth for the genocide of the Jews. But my father added ‘Lu’ in between, naming me Adolf Lu Hitler, and that’s why I am different,” Hitler told The Associated Press from the small village of Mansingre, 200 kilometers west of Gauhati, the capital of the nearby state of Assam.

Hitler said his name has not stopped him from traveling the world, including to the United States and Germany.

“I never had problems obtaining a visa but I was asked many times during immigration as to why I should have such a name. I told the immigration staff I possibly didn’t have a role in my naming,” he said. India played little role in World War II, and many Indians view Hitler not as the personification of evil but as a figure of fascination. Hitler’s book “Mein Kampf” is prominently displayed at many Indian bookstores. The owner of a menswear shop named his store “Hitler,” then expressed puzzlement last year after Israel complained. Musfika Haq, a teacher in Meghalaya’s capital, Shillong, said such names are common in the state. “Parents obviously get fascinated by names of wellknown or great leaders, but must be unaware that some of them, like Hitler, had been highly controversial,” he said.—AP

HYDERABAD: Indian police are investigating whether a shadowy Islamic militant group was responsible for a dual bomb attack that killed 16 people outside a movie theater and a bus station in the southern city of Hyderabad, a police official said yesterday.

The group, the Indian Mujahideen, is thought to have links with militants in neighboring Pakistan. India’s recent execution of an Islamic militant is being examined as a possible motive for the bombings, said the official, an investigator who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to reveal details of the probe.

Police have not detained anyone in connection with Thursday evening’s attacks, the first major terror bombings in India since 2011. According to a New Delhi police report, two suspected Indian Mujahideen militants who were arrested last year said during questioning that they had done reconnaissance of Dilsukh Nagar, the Hyderabad district where the blasts occurred. They had also visited various spots in New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. In a statement in India’s Parliament, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that in response to the “cowardly terror attack,” the government will “make all efforts to apprehend the perpetrators and masterminds behind the blast and ensure that they are punished as per the law.”

Earlier yesterday, as he toured the site of the bombings, Shinde said there had been a general alert about the possibility of an attack somewhere in India for the past three days. “But there was no specific intelligence about a particular place,” he said. The bombs were attached to two bicycles about 150 meters (500 feet) apart in Hyderabad’s Dilsukh Nagar district, Shinde said. He said in addition to the 16 dead, 117 others were injured.

The bombs exploded minutes apart in a crowded shopping area. The blasts shattered storefronts, scattered food and plates from roadside restaurants and left tangles of dead bodies. Passersby rushed

the wounded to hospitals. Top state police officer V Dinesh Reddy said improvised explosive devices with nitrogen compound were used in the blasts, which he blamed on a “terrorist network.”

Pakistan strongly condemned the blasts. “Terrorism in all its forms and manifestations constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and

attack on India’s Parliament that killed 14 people, including five of the gunmen.

Since the execution, near-daily protests have rocked Indian-ruled Kashmir, where many people believe Guru did not receive a fair trial. Anger in a region where anti-India sentiment runs deep was further fueled by the secrecy with which the execution was carried out.

HYDERABAD: Sudhakar Reddy, (center) brother of the deceased, performs the last rites over the body of Swapna Reddy who died at their residence during a bomb blast, at a grave-yard in Hyderabad yesterday. — AFP security. All acts of terrorism are unjustifiable regardless of their motivation,” the Pakistan Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Yesterday morning, Indian police with cameras, gloves and plastic evidence bags used pointers to gingerly look through the debris in Hyderabad. Officials from the National Investigation Agency and commandos of the National Security Guards arrived from New Delhi to help with the investigation.

India has been under a heightened state of alert for nearly two weeks since Kashmiri militant Mohammed Afzal Guru was hanged for his involvement in a 2001

Hyderabad, a city of 10 million in the state of Andhra Pradesh, is a hub of India’s information technology industry and has a mixed population of Muslims and Hindus.

The United States, whose secretary of state, John Kerry, met Thursday in Washington with Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai, condemned the attack.

“The United States stands with India in combating the scourge of terrorism and we are also prepared to offer any and all assistance Indian authorities may need,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said at a news briefing. — AP

Rape and killing of three young sisters shock India

PATNA: Indian pedestrians help move the body of a policeman that was killed by a landmine when he was driving down a road in Patna yesterday. Maoist rebels killed six policemen in a landmine attack in the eastern Indian state of Bihar in their second deadly attack on security forces in recent weeks, police said.— AFP

NEW DELHI: Police were searching villages in western India yesterday for suspects in the rape and killing of three young sisters, as Indians still angry over the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus in December face another heinous sexual attack. The bodies of the sisters - aged 7, 9 and 11 - were found on Feb 16 in a village well in Bhandara district in Maharashtra after they had gone missing from school two days earlier, said police officer Abhinav Deshmukh. The area is more than 1,000 kilometers (630 miles) south of New Delhi, the capital. The victims’ mother said police did not take the case seriously and did nothing for several days until villagers held protests. Deshmukh said yesterday that 10 teams of 30 investigators were working on the case and that he was confi-

dent they would find the killers soon.

Police first dismissed the deaths as accidental, the Press Trust of India news agency reported. The girls’ mother accused police of a shoddy investigation and said they did nothing for two days.

Enraged villagers forced shops to close, burned tires and blocked a national highway passing in the area for hours earlier this week, demanding justice.

Police eventually registered a case of rape and murder after a post-mortem of the girls found that they had been sexually abused and brutally killed, PTI said.

One police officer has been suspended for not acting promptly, Indian Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel, who represents Bhandara district in Parliament, said Thursday.

Cabinet Minister Manish Tewari called the killings a “very, very heinous assault” and said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was sending 1 million rupees ($18,300) to the girls’ family. The case has horrified Indians two months after they were outraged by the gang rape and killing of a young woman on a moving New Delhi bus.

The gang rape sparked nationwide protests about India’s treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them. The gang rape victim and her male friend, who also was badly beaten up in the attack, were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital. —AP

Boby Chemmanur International Jeweller Jeweller’s ’s

Maradona Special

Gold Locket FFree ree

“Conquer the World with Love” hemmanur International G

45% Discount Boby Chemmanur Airlines

100% BIS Hallmarked 916 Jewellery Showroom

KWWS IDFHERRN FRP ERE\FKHPPDQXURI¿FLDO E-mail: bobychemmanurintl@gmail.com, nurintl@gmail.com, Web: www.chemmanurinternational.com

Block No. 4, Street No. 6, Building No. 102, Shop No.1

Jleeb Al Shuyoukh, Abbasiya, Kuwait. Ph: +965 24341882 Branches : Kerala X Tamil Taamil Nadu X Maharashtra X Dubai X Kuwait

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

China slams Abe over interview comments Territorial dispute takes new twist

An Indonesian Air Force helicopter with a bullet hole in the pilot side window at the Mulia town airport in Puncak Jaya district in Papua. — AFP

Gunmen attack Indonesian military chopper in Papua JAYAPURA: Gunmen shot at an Indonesian military helicopter in the restive province of Papua yesterday as the crew was trying to evacuate the bodies of eight soldiers killed in attacks a day earlier.

Three crew members were wounded in yesterday’s attack on the Super Puma helicopter, which was forced to abort its mission and rush the injured to a hospital, said Lt Col Jansen Simanjuntak, an army spokesman. Eight soldiers and four civilians were killed in two separate attacks in the area on Thursday. The area is a stronghold of separatists who have battled Indonesian rule in the impoverished region for more than 40 years.

In the deadliest attack Thursday, about 20 assailants armed with guns and machetes attacked a group of soldiers walking to an airport in Puncak district to collect communication equipment, killing seven, Simanjuntak said. Col Agus Rianto, a national police spokesman, said yesterday that four civilians were killed.

Military chief Adm. Agus Suhartono said the soldiers were walking unarmed as part of the army’s strategy to earn the public’s trust. That attack came just after gunmen stormed an army post in a village in neighboring Puncak Jaya district, and fatally shot one soldier and injured another before fleeing into the jungle, Simanjuntak said.

Indonesian military spokesman Rear Adm Iskandar Sitompul said the same group was responsible for both attacks. “They are believed to be old players who always try to disturb the situation there,” Sitompul said in Jakarta, the capital. Simanjuntak identified the assailants as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.

Senior Security Minister Djoko Suyanto said the incidents were “very irresponsible acts by the armed groups in Papua,” adding that “the government very strongly condemns such brutal incidents.” He said the perpetrators would be captured and prosecuted.

Data from Suyanto’s office shows that 10 soldiers and 12 policemen were killed in 14 attacks in 2012.

In Jakartay, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who held a security meeting yesterday, said the attacks “have bothered security, sovereignty and integrity of Indonesia.”

Andreas Harsono, an Indonesian researcher with New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch, said many villagers living near the sites have left their homes because of fears of military retaliation. Some fled to churches in Puncak Jaya. “What we heard from church officials there, villagers fear being wrongly targeted,” Harsono said.

The former Dutch colony of Papua in the western part of New Guinea was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 following a UN-sponsored ballot of tribal leaders that has since been dismissed as a sham. A small, poorly armed separatist organization known as the Free Papua Movement has battled for independence since then. —AP

BEIJING: China sharply criticized Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe yesterday for telling a US newspaper that Beijing had a “deeply ingrained” need to challenge its neighbors over territory.

Abe, visiting the United States for talks with President Barack Obama, told the Washington Post in an interview published Thursday that China uses disputes with Japan and others to shore up its domestic support.

Tensions between the Asian giants are growing over rival claims to a group of small islands in the East China Sea that the Chinese call the Diaoyus and the Japanese refer to as the Senkakus. Beijing is also at odds with several Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, over islands in the South China Sea. China’s confrontational stance risked eventually harming its economy and scaring off foreign investors, Abe said.

“Such behaviour is going to have an effect on their economic activity at the end of the day,” the paper quoted him as saying. “In the case of China, teaching patriotism (is equivalent to) teaching antiJapanese sentiment,” he added.

Beijing fired back, with foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei saying outsiders have no right to criticise how China works. “Only Chinese people have the right to speak about whether China’s political system and development strategy is suitable,” he told a regular briefing yesterday.

“The great renaissance of the Chinese people cannot be obstructed by anyone,” he added, saying that Beijing had demanded a clarification.

Hong was earlier quoted by the staterun Global Times newspaper as saying Chinese officials were “shocked” at Abe’s comments. “It’s rare that a country’s leader would brazenly distort facts, attack its neighbor and instigate confrontation among countries in the region,” Hong said, according to the paper. The maritime dispute over the uninhabited East China Sea islands, which are administered by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan, has simmered for decades. Tensions escalated last year after Tokyo nationalized those islets in the chain it did not already own. China responded angrily, with violent street demonstrations damaging

Japanese businesses and property, and some Japanese citizens reporting being harassed and physically attacked.

Beijing and Tokyo have both scrambled jets to ward off moves by the other side and fishing boats and government patrol ships have played cat-and-mouse in the vicinity of the islands.

Earlier this month, Tokyo alleged that a Chinese frigate locked its weapons-targeting radar on a Japanese destroyer in what it characterized as a dangerous escalation.

Beijing denied the charge.

Abe met Obama yesterday. Japan and the United States have a security treaty and Washington stations some 47,000 troops in Japan. Last month Hillary Clinton, approaching the end of her term as secretary of state, said Washington does not take sides in the territorial dispute but pointedly cautioned Beijing not to challenge Japan’s control over the islands. China’s official Xinhua news agency in a commentary yesterday warned the US that backing Tokyo would risk damaging ties with China, urging Washington against “being hijacked” by Japan. — AFP

Myanmar survivors say floated at sea for 25 days COLOMBO: All are Rohingya Muslims who are regarded as illegal immigrants in Myanmar from Bangladesh, and say they do not want to return to Myanmar.

The survivors were suffering from serious dehydration when they were rescued about 250 miles off Sri Lanka’s east coast.

The Sri Lanka navy said they were alerted to the sinking vessel by a fisherman.

“The journey was dangerous, but we had to do that ... as we fear for our lives, no jobs, and big fighting,” one of the survivors, Shofiulla, told The Associated Press.

Sectarian violence in western Myanmar has killed hundreds of people and displaced 100,000 more since June. The Muslim Rohingya speak a Bengali dialect and resemble Bangladeshis, with darker skin than most people in Myanmar, which is

mostly Buddhist. They are widely regarded as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and are heavily discriminated against.

The United Nations estimates the Rohingya population in Myanmar at 800,000, but the Myanmar government does not recognize them as one of the country’s 135 ethnic groups. Most are denied citizenship and have no passports, though many of their families have lived in the country for generations. Bangladesh also refuses to accept them as citizens.

Shofiulla, 24, said 130 people were on the boat when the journey to Malaysia started on Jan. 10. Each had paid $465.

After 10 days’ travel, he said the boat reached the Thai border when two boats from the Thai navy intercepted them.

Shofiulla said the sailors took their engine.

A woman carries water with plastic containers after she fetched water from a lake, south of Yangon, Myanmar. —AP

“Then we (had) no food, no rations ... no water. We drank only sea water,” he said, adding the bodies of the 97 who died over the next 25 days were put into the sea.

Col. Thanathip Sawangsaeng, a Thailand Defense Ministry spokesman, denied the allegations. “This is absolutely not true. The Thai Navy officers would have not done that,” he said, adding that similar accusations have arisen in the past, including claims that the Thai Navy had abused the refugees.

“The Royal Thai Navy commander has previously made it clear that the Thai officers have treated the boat people according to humanitarian principles.” “There are two approaches in handling the Rohingya: giving them food and help before letting them carry on their sea journey or prosecute them for illegal entry. However, it’s not possible that the Thai Navy would have done what they were alleged of doing.”

The Thai army said last month that two senior officers had been suspended pending investigations into alleged involvement in trafficking Rohingya people from Myanmar into other countries.

Shofiulla said he is a second-year student studying micro-biology, but that his university was closed last July after the fighting erupted. “We can’t go back to our country ... our government kills Muslims... we are afraid to go back. We want to go to a safe place,” said Shofiulla, who appeared to be the only English-speaking person in the group. He said they wanted to go to Malaysia to find jobs, following in the footsteps of others from his village. He added 25 people were in the detention center while eight were still in hospital.— AP

SATURDAY, FEBRUUARY 23, 2013

INTERNATIONAL SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Obama hosts Japan PM amid tensions in Asia Abe to seek US support in isle row

Former Nebraska Republican Sen Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s choice for defense secretary, testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. — AP

Hagel has enough support for US defense secretary WASHINGTON: Chuck Hagel secured the necessary votes for the US Senate to confirm him to be the next defense secretary barring any new, damaging information, after a longtime senator said he would support him, paving the way for a vote next week that will end the bitter fight over President Barack Obama’s Cabinet choice. Hagel cleared the threshold when 30year veteran Republican Sen. Richard Shelby said he would vote for the fellow Republican and former senator after joining other party members last week in an unprecedented delaying maneuver of the Pentagon nominee. Republicans have been critical of Hagel, charging he is not sufficiently pro-Israel and tough on Iran. “He’s probably as good as we’re going to get,” Shelby told an Alabama newspaper. In another boost for Hagel’s nomination, former Republican leader Bob Dole, a decorated World War II veteran, issued a statement Thursday saying, “Hagel’s wisdom and courage make him uniquely qualified to be secretary of defense and lead the men and women of our armed forces. Chuck Hagel will be an exceptional leader at an important time.”

If confirmed, Hagel, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran, would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is stepping down after four years first as CIA director and then Pentagon chief. Although a Republican, Hagel has faced strong Republican opposition, with many of his former colleagues voting last week to stall the nomination. They have questioned his support for Israel, his tolerance of Iran and willingness to cut the nuclear arsenal. His opposition to the Iraq war after his initial vote for the conflict angered his onetime friend, Sen. John McCain, a Republican.

Hagel once said “the Jewish lobby (in the United States) intimidates a lot of people here” and does some “dumb things” that aren’t “smart for Israel.” He also said that “I’m not an Israeli senator. I’m a United States senator.” Those statements and others caused jitters in Israel, where in some circles he is seen as unsympathetic.

Regarding Iran, Hagel in the past has questioned the efficacy of unilateral sanctions, arguing that penalties in conjunction with international partners made more sense. However, in his responses during confirmation hearings, Hagel adopted a hard line on Iran, echoing Obama’s position that the US would consider all options, including military action, to keep Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. Shelby’s support was a clear sign of weakening Republican opposition, and it prompted two letters within hours from Hagel’s fiercest Republican foes. One letter went to the president calling on him to withdraw the nomination, the other to Republican senators pleading with them to stand together against Hagel.

Fifteen Republicans senators wrote that Hagel lacks the bipartisan support and confidence to serve in the vital job of defense secretary. “The occupant of this critical office should be someone whose candidacy is neither controversial nor divisive,” wrote the senators - all opponents of Hagel. Leading the effort was Texas Sen John Cornyn, the party’s No 2, who is up for reelection next year.

One name missing from the letter was McCain, who has called Hagel unqualified but indicated last Sunday that he wouldn’t stand in the way of a Senate vote. Separately, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe, sent a letter to his Republican colleagues urging them to vote again to block the nomination when the Senate returns from its recess next week. — AP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama is welcoming Japan’s new prime minister to the White House to reinforce a core US alliance at a time of high tension stoked by a Japan-China territorial dispute and a North Korean nuclear test.

Shinzo Abe is a nationalist and a keen advocate of stronger relations with Washington that have assumed more importance for Tokyo as it has locked horns in recent months with emerging power China over the control of unoccupied islands in the resource-rich seas between them.

Abe, who arrived Thursday afternoon and will leave early today, has been anxious for the Oval Office meeting since he returned to power after a convincing election victory in December for his second stint as prime minister since he resigned for health reasons in 2007 after serving for one year. The US partnership with Japan, which hosts about 50,000 American forces, is an enduring one and a cornerstone of Washington’s Asia policy, but establishing a personal rapport between leaders has been difficult. As Japan has struggled with its prolonged economic malaise, there’s been a rotating door of prime ministers.

Abe is the fifth since Obama took office.

Abe will seek a reaffirmation of US treaty obligations to help Japan in the event of conflict - spelled out in clear terms last month by then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who said the US opposes any unilateral actions seeking to undermine Japan’s administration of the islands.

Abe’s market-pleasing moves to stimulate Japan’s economy - dubbed ‘Abenomics’ - have fueled hope of a recovery and are expected to be featured in a policy speech he will deliver at a Washington think tank

Friday after his meeting and working lunch with Obama at the White House.

The US will be gauging Tokyo’s intent to join negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a region-wide free trade pact being pushed by Washington. Abe may

percent of cars sold there are made by for eign auto companies. “We hope the US government will send a clear message that any future trade policy with Japan must ensure a level playing field and not come at the expense of American workers,” he said

MARYLAND: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, center, arrives at Andrews Air Force Base, Maryland on Thursday. The Japanese prime minister was scheduled to meet President Barack Obama yesterday. — AP give pointers but is widely expected to hold back from such a commitment, which is opposed by most of his party and Japan’s small but politically powerful farming lobby, at least until after key elections in July for the upper house. Joe Hinrichs, Ford Motor Co’s president of the Americas, said that Abe should be told to open Japan’s automobile markets, because only about 4

Thursday. On the security issues roiling northeast Asia, the US and Japan will show solidarity in the face of North Korea’s recent long-range rocket launches and last week’s nuclear test, and reiterate their support for the UN Security Council to agree upon tougher sanctions against Pyongyang. They could also discuss military cooperation and missile defense. — AP

Man who killed college students executed in US

Storm promises messy, dangerous in Midwest

JACKSON: A man who was convicted of killing two college students after confessing to his FBI agent father was executed in Georgia, apologizing to the families of both victims before being injected at a state prison. Andrew Allen Cook, 38, was pronounced dead at 11:22 p.m. Thursday, about 14 minutes after he was injected with the sedative pentobarbital. He was the first inmate to be executed since the state changed its procedure in July from a three-drug combination to a single dose.

With his last words, he apologized to the families of Mercer University students Grant Patrick Hendrickson, 22, and Michele Lee Cartagena, 19, who were shot several times as they sat in a car at Lake Juliette, south of Atlanta, on Jan 2, 1995. He said what he did was senseless.

“I’m sorry,” Cook said as he was strapped to a gurney.

“I’m not going to ask you to forgive me. I can’t even do it myself.” He also thanked his family for “their support, for being with me and I’m sorry I took so much from you all.”

The Georgia Appeals Court on Wednesday temporarily stayed Cook’s execution to consider a challenge to the state’s lethal injection procedure. But the Georgia Supreme Court lifted the stay Thursday and all other appeals were exhausted. Cook wasn’t charged until more than two years after the killings. He confessed to his father, a Macon FBI agent who ended up testifying at his son’s trial. As a law enforcement officer, John Cook said he was forced to call his supervisor and contacted the Monroe County sheriff. At the trial, as he walked away from the stand, the distraught father mouthed “I’m sorry” to the victims’ families who were sitting on the front row of the courtroom. — AP

DES MOINES, Iowa: A major snow storm that shuttered airports in Missouri and buried parts of Kansas in knee-deep powder is crawling northeast, promising a messy and possibly dangerous morning commute. Wind gusts of 30 mph are expected to churnup snow that fell overnight in southern Wisconsin, where forecasters are warning Milwaukee-area residents of slick roads and reduced visibility Friday morning. The same is expected in northeast Iowa, where residents could wake up to as much as 7 inches of new snow, and in Chicago, where nearly 200 snowplows were deployed overnight. The storm system swirled to the north and east late Thursday, its snow, sleet and freezing rain prompting winter storm across the region. The snow accumulations are impressive, especially in Kansas, where as much as 17 inches of snow fell. — AP

This still image taken from a security video was released by the Los Angeles Police Department in connection with the search for 21-year-old missing Canadian tourist Elisa Lam. In this image, a woman believed to be Lam quickly peeks out the door of an elevator before jumping back inside in the Cecil Hotel in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. —AP

New govt must pull Italy out of economic quicksand

16

The children who work in India’s rat-hole coal mines

Business

17

Wal-Mart gives glimpse of economy

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

18

19

Land scarce Singapore looks underground for more space

WOLFSBURG: Picture shows Volkswagen workers inspecting the auto maker’s VW Tiguan and Touran models coming off the assembly line in central Germany. Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, said yesterday that its net profit zoomed ahead by more the 40 percent last year on higher vehicle sales. — AFP

EU hopeful euro-zone will grow in 2013 European commodities rebound after sharp losses BRUSSELS: The European Union predicted yesterday that the economy of the 17 member countries that use the euro will see its fortunes improve as the year goes by even though it expects the recession to last longer than it previously thought. In its winter forecast, the EU Commission, the EU’s executive arm, said the euro-zone is likely to contract a further 0.3 percent this year, in contrast to its prediction last November of 0.1 percent growth. Across the euro-zone, the Commission said the debt crisis and the associated budget tightening continue to weigh on activity - figures last week showed the euro-zone contracted by 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2012 from the previous threemonth period. The euro-zone has been in recession - officially defined as two consecutive quarters of negative growth - since the second quarter of 2012, when concerns about the future of the euro currency were particularly acute.

Many countries are in deep recessions, such as Greece and Spain, as they push often-severe spending cuts and tax increases to get a grip on their public finances. Others have suffered in the fallout, such as Germany, Europe’s largest economy, which contracted by a quarterly rate of 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2012 as its main export markets in Europe faltered. Despite what it terms “headwinds,” the Commission said it

expects the euro-zone recession to bottom out over the first half of 2013. By the fourth quarter of 2013, it forecast that the euro-zone economy will be 0.7 percent bigger than the same period in 2012. In 2014, growth of 1.4 percent has been penciled in. A number of recent economic confidence indicators have pointed to an improving outlook, particularly in Germany. Much of the recent calm in financial markets with regard to the euro-zone has been credited to the debtreduction measures taken by many countries and a commitment by the European Central Bank’s president Mario Draghi to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro. “The decisive policy action undertaken recently is paving the way for a return to recovery,” said Olli Rehn, the Commission’s top economic official.

The wider economy of the 27-nation EU, which includes non-euro members such as Britain and Poland, is also bottoming out, according to the Commission. Here too, the Commission lowered its 2013 growth forecast from 0.4 percent to 0.1 percent. And in 2014, it expects the world’s largest economic bloc with 500 million people to grow by 1.6 percent. One of the key problems afflicting Europe at the moment is unemployment, and the Commission said a marked improvement was unlikely anytime soon, with the jobless rate in the EU rising

to 11 percent and the euro-zone rate swelling to a record 12 percent.

While unemployment is high overall, the trend is not uniform: Germany has seen unemployment falling as its exporters have benefited from the pick-up in global trade. However, those countries, mostly in southern Europe, where market concerns over excessive public debt have pushed governments to make the toughest budget cuts, are recording sky-high levels. In the case of Greece and Spain, unemployment already is over 25 percent and expected to rise to around 27 percent. The Commission forecast that Germany’s economy will grow 0.5 percent this year, but France, Europe’s second-largest economy, will record only 0.1 percent growth.

Italy and Spain are expected to decline 1 percent and 1.4 percent respectively.

Meager growth, in turn, means that some governments might have to tighten their belts even further - possibly in France, where the government’s 2013 budget is predicated on a growth rate of 0.8 percent. Given its paltry level of growth, the Commission said France was likely to miss its target of getting its budget deficit down to below 3 percent of its annual gross domestic product. Instead, it predicted that the deficit will actually rise from 3.7 percent of GDP this year to 3.9 percent next. And it forecast that

the country’s overall debt burden will rise from 90 percent of GDP last year to 95 percent in 2014. Rehn urged the French government to push ahead with measures to reduce its deficit and implement reforms to the labor market and to pensions. “France faces significant challenges,” he said. Tom Rogers, senior economic adviser at Ernst & Young, said he was encouraged with the Commission’s message on the need for countries to continue with their ongoing policy efforts. “Reforms are already bearing fruit in a number of peripheral economies, and this should be an incentive for other governments to follow suit,” said Rogers. Greece has been the country that has pursued the most difficult reforms and austerity over the past few years and the Commission forecasts for the country show it’s still a long way from healing.

The country, according to the Commission, will contract a further 4.4 percent this year - Greece’s sixth year in recession - before posting growth of 0.6 percent in 2014. One bright spot is that the Commission expects Greece to achieve a primary budget surplus - whereby revenues are higher than spending excluding interest payments - sometime this year. However, given the depth of its recession, Greece’s debt burden will continue to rise from 162 percent of annual GDP in 2012 to 175 percent this year and next. — AP

business

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Locksmiths, firemen refuse to aid evictions in Spain

MADRID: Strikers of Spanish airline Iberia demonstrate at Madrid-Barajas airport yesterday. Iberias cabin crew, ground staff and maintenance workers struck from February 18 to February 22 in the fifth day of a series of three five-day strikes to protest plans to axe 3,800 jobs.— AFP

Air France loss deepens PARIS: Air France-KLM said yesterday its net loss deepened by nearly 50 percent last year to 1.2 billion euros ($1.59 billion) as it began restructuring to cope with the rise of lowcost airlines. However the airline group said that underlying prospects were improving despite heavy fuel and restructuring costs, with its operating loss narrowing to 300 million euros from 353 million euros in 2011. This was better than the average figure expected by analysts polled by Bloomberg financial agency of a loss of 334.6 million euros.In the fourth quarter of last year, the operating loss was reduced to 143 million euros from 202 million euros 12 months earlier.

Sales rose by 5.2 percent in 2012 to 25.6 billion euros. The load factor, the percentage of seats occupied, rose by 1.2 points to a record 83.1 percent. Financial director Philippe Calavia said that 2012 was an important year for the group because decisions about the structure and transformation of the company had been taken. “Today, all of the foundations for an improvement of competitiveness are in place and will produce their full effects in 2013 and 2014,” said Calavia.

Air France-KLM has suffered from a fall of competitiveness in recent years, under the pressure of low-cost operators and the rise of airlines in the Middle East and in Asia. In January of last year, the company announced a vast restructuring plan called “Transform 2015.” It booked provisions of 471 million euros under this plan to cover expenses related to cutting its workforce in order to boost productivity.

Last year some 3,300 out 100,000 staff voluntarily left the airline group and most were not replaced, said AirFranceKLM. The plan targets 5,122 voluntary departures this year.

Wages have been frozen and the fleet of aircraft trimmed. Air France-KLM executives said this led to an improvement in the results on long-haul routes, but that in the medium-haul sector they had yet to turn a corner. Chief executive Jean-Cyril Spinetta said the operating loss on medium-haul activities deepened from 700 million euros in 2011 to 800 million euros in 2012 due to a worse performance at Air France.

Losses at Air France regional hubs at Marseille, Nice and Toulouse were to blame, and the company has already taken measures to improve their performance. — AFP

MADRID: Locksmiths and firemen in Spain are rebelling against a wave of evictions in the economic crisis by refusing to help bailiffs open ruined homeowners’ doors to throw them out.

“Families’ lives were being ruined and we were acting as executioners,” David Ormaechea, president of the Locksmiths Union, told AFP. “It was causing us tension and unease.” A wave of evictions of mortgage-holders ruined by the recession has prompted several suicides and sparked a protest movement that last week brought a motion to parliament for a law to end the procedure.

With the locksmiths refusing to take part, some authorities have been asking the fire service to step in and break open the doors of those resisting eviction. On Tuesday in the northwestern city of A Coruna, firefighters were called to help evict an 85-yearold woman who had defaulted on her rent. A crowd of protestors gathered outside the apartment to block the eviction. When the firefighters arrived they refused to open the door and some of them joined in the protest.

Firefighters in other regions such as Catalonia and Madrid have since followed their example. “We come to the aid of people in emergencies. It is contradictory to help the banks that are putting people’s lives in danger” by evicting them, Antonio del Rio, a labour union representative for the Catalonia fire service, told AFP. “The only thing we do is help citizens,” said another Madrid fireman, Pedro Campos.

“We only enter a home when there is danger inside. Getting a woman of 85 out of her home is not a situation of danger.” PAH, the campaign movement that brought the proposed law to parliament, says hundreds of thousands of people face eviction following the collapse of Spain’s housing boom in 2008. The resulting recession has driven the unemployment rate over 26 percent, leaving many unable to pay mortgages on houses that have lost much of their value. Regularly demonstrating on evictees’ doorsteps, PAH says it has blocked half a million evictions since 2009, in some cases enabling families to stay in their homes and pay rent. Its bill, backed by a petition with 1.4 million signatures, proposes to end evictions and let insolvent homeowners write off their debts by surrendering their home. — AFP

New govt must pull Italy out of economic quicksand Return to growth must be priority, businesses say

MILAN: Italy’s new government, after elections this weekend, must cut bureaucracy and taxes and reform an ineffective legal system if the shrinking economy is to be jolted back to life, businesses and foreign investors say. Italians vote tomorrow and Monday for a successor to Mario Monti’s technocrat government whose austerity policies saved Italy from a Greek-style debt crisis but did nothing to pull it out of deep recession.

Italy’s economy has contracted for six consecutive quarters, shrinking 2.2 percent last year, and companies say it is time to pull down the barriers that have hampered Italian businesses and put foreign investors off Italy for years. “I would like a government that truly thinks about growth and that could bring Italy out of the quicksand,” said Massimo Scaccabarozzi, CEO of pharmaceutical company Janssen-Cilag SpA, a unit of Johnson & Johnson.

“It’s no secret that we are bottom of the list when it comes to ease of business.” Net foreign direct investment, a measure of a country’s attractiveness, has averaged $23 billion from 2005 to 2011, equivalent to just 1.1 percent of Italy’s gross domestic product, according to data from UN economic think-tank UNCTAD. That is half of the investment into France, a quarter of Britain’s and well below all other major European economies, in percentage terms. “(Foreign) companies find it’s a more bruising experience than they expect. They complain about bureaucracy, contract enforcement and late payments,” one Western diplomat said. It takes on average

1,210 days to enforce a contract, according to the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” index, twice the OECD average, as Italy’s creaking judicial system makes it one of the least efficient in the world for business. Another diplomat said things were getting worse. “Competitiveness in Italy is going down. The Spanish and even the Greeks have done more in regaining competitiveness quicker than Italy.”

Italy ranks 73rd out of 183 countries as a place to do business, according to the World Bank index.

“The new government must simplify procedures, make the system more transparent and figure out how to cut labour costs,” said Fabio Gianisi, a Milan lawyer who advises Chinese and Russian investors with an interest in Italy. The total tax rate for companies, including tax on profit and labour taxes, comes to 68.3 percent - one of the highest in the world. On top of that, layers of complex bureaucracy cause endless frustration to foreign companies, causing many to turn their backs on Italy. Royal Dutch Shell dropped plans for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in Sicily in November after seven years spent on paperwork.

“Foreign investors are scared as they fear being sucked into a red tape maelstrom,” said Harvard economist Alberto Alesina. Italian pharmaceutical companies, for example, need to satisfy each of Italy’s 20 regions before they can sell a drug, even after winning national approval. That adds an extra year to the process. Those doing business in Italy also struggle with chronic

payment delays from the state and can get trapped for years in legal disputes over building permits, as a myriad of authorities have veto powers, giving locals the opportunity to tell industrialists: “not in my backyard”. “A big project, the expansion of a building site, should not be subject to local interests that are not aligned with the general country interest,” said Sandro De Poli, chairman of General Electric in Italy.

Losing momentum?

The most likely election winner, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), has said the best way to cut public debt is increasing economic growth, and has made streamlining the notoriously inefficient public sector a priority. But, with the possibility of an unstable coalition where the hard left may have to work with members of Monti’s centrist grouping, few people are counting on any rapid change.

“The risk exists that after the Feb. 25 elections, there may be a loss of momentum on important structural reforms to improve Italian growth prospects,” said Standard & Poor’s.

The credit rating agency said failure to revive growth, rather than fiscal performance, was now the main risk for Italy, especially if the winning coalition fails to secure a majority in both houses of parliament.

Businessmen like Lorenzo Stanca of Mandarin Capital, a private equity fund that invests in small Italian and Chinese firms, agree. “If the election results in an unstable context, then I think we can be very pessimistic about Italy’s capacity to attract foreign investment,” he said. —Reuters

business

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

The children who work in India’s rat-hole coal mines RYMBAI: Thirteen-year-old Sanjay Chhetri has a recurring fear: that one day, the dark, dank mine where he works will cave in and bury him alive. Like thousands of children in India’s remote northeast, Chhetri begins work in the middle of the night, ready to dig pits, squat through narrow tunnels and cut coal shards. At four feet six inches, the skinny teenager is the perfect fit for a job in the lucrative mining industry in Meghalaya state whose crudely-built rat-hole mines are too small for most adults to enter.

Each day Sanjay makes his way down a series of slippery ladders in the pitch-dark, carrying two pickaxes, with a tiny flashlight strapped to his head. Seven months into the job, he still walks gingerly, taking care not to miss a step and fall fifty metres (165 feet). Once he reaches the bottom, he squats as low as he can and slips into the two-feet-high rat-hole, pulling an empty wagon behind him. That’s where his nightmares begin.

“It’s terrifying to imagine the roof falling on me when I am working,” he says. Twelve hours later, he will have earned 200 rupees ($4) for a day’s work, more than his parents make as labourers in the state capital Shillong. The eldest boy in a family of ten, Sanjay left school two years ago when his family could no longer pay the bills. “It’s very difficult work, I struggle to pull that wagon once I have filled it with coal,” he tells AFP. As he shivers in coal-stained jeans and flip-flops-revealing wrinkled feet that look like they belong to a much older manhe says his parents constantly ask him to return home to work with them. But he isn’t ready to leave the mines yet. “I need to save money so I can return to school. I miss my friends and I still remember school. I still have my old dreams,” he says.

No curbs on child labour Mine manager Kumar Subba says children like Sanjay turn up in droves outside Meghalaya’s coal mines, asking for work.

“New kids are always showing up here. And they lie about their age, telling you they are 20 years old when you can see from their faces that they are much, much younger,” he tells AFP. Baby-faced Surya Limu is among the most recent recruits to join Subba’s team in Rymbai village. Limu, who claims he is 17, left his native Nepal for Meghalaya when his father died in a house fire, leaving behind a widow and two children.

Unlike his more experienced colleagues, Limu moves slowly down the precarious mine steps, his delicate features straining with the effort.”Of course I feel scared but what can I do? I need money, how else can I stay alive?,” he tells AFP. Child labour is officially illegal in India, with several state laws making the employment of anyone under 18 in a hazardous industry a non-bailable offence.

Furthermore, India’s 1952 Mines Act prohibits coal companies from hiring anyone under 18 to work inside a mine.

Meghalaya, however, has traditionally been exempt due to its special status as a northeastern state with a significant tribal population. This means that in certain sectors like mining, customary laws overrule national regulations. Any land owner can dig for coal in the state, and prevailing laws do not require them to put any safety measures in place.—AFP

TEHRAN: Iranian women shop in the northern Elahieh neighbourhood yesterday.— AFP

German economy puts worst behind ‘Economy is regaining momentum’: Ifo president FRANKFURT: A contraction in the German economy at the end of last year was a hiccup, analysts said yesterday, as data showed business confidence in Europe’s economic powerhouse soaring this year. The federal statistics office Destatis confirmed an earlier estimate that German gross domestic product (GDP) contracted by 0.6 percent in the final quarter of 2012, weighed down by a 2.0-percent slump in exports. Economic growth in Germany slowed throughout all of last year as the euro-zone debt crisis put the brake on exports.

GDP grew by 0.5 percent in the first quarter of 2012 and then by 0.3 percent in the second quarter and 0.2 percent in the third quarter. With the contraction of 0.6 percent in the fourth quarter, the economy expanded by just 0.7 percent across the whole of 2012 — or 0.9 percent in calendaradjusted terms. Nevertheless, a whole range of experts-from analysts to economic thinktanks, the government and even the Bundesbank-are convinced that the dip in growth will prove only temporary and GDP will start growing again as early as the first quarter of 2013.

Economic sentiment in Germany could

hardly be better. Earlier this week, the key ZEW barometer of investor confidence rose to levels last seen before the start of the three-year-old debt crisis. And yesterday, the even more closely watched Ifo business climate index notched up its strongest gain in two and a half years to hit its highest level since April 2012. “The German economy is regaining momentum,” said Ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn as his institute’s index jumped by 3.1 points to 107.4 points in February. “Satisfaction with the current business situation continued to grow.

Survey participants also expressed greater optimism about their future business perspectives,” Sinn said. “It just gets better and better. Germany is heading for a strong rebound,” said Berenberg Bank economist Robert Wood. “The Ifo points to strong and rising growth in the first half of 2013.

Germany is heading up,” he said.

Wood said that the recent easing of financial market tensions “has taken time to feed through to the real economy.

But the German surveys have picked up sharply, and output growth should follow.”

Risks remained, the expert cautioned, pointing to Italian elections this weekend.

“Nevertheless, our base case is that Germany should be embarking on another period of strong growth, which will also help the rest of the euro-zone by boosting demand for their exports,” Wood concluded. Johannes Gareis at Natixis said the Ifo data “are positive news for the prospects of the German economy and underpin the upbeat investors’ morale. “Hence, Germany should be back on track for positive growth in the first quarter of 2013. Nevertheless, as there are still many challenges to overcome due to the ongoing euro-zone crisis, risks to the downside of growth remain,” he said.

IHS Global Insight economist Timo Klein said that improvements in all key sentiment indicators-the purchasing manager index or PMI, Ifo and ZEW-”all point to a rapid GDP recovery in early 2013.” And he suggested worries about the negative effects of the strengthening euro were misplaced.

“Despite having strengthened modestly since September 2012, the euro is still at quite competitive levels for Germany’s export industry. This is helping additionally at a time when demand in countries such as the US and China is picking up again,” Klein said.—AFP

India’s Jet shares fall on Etihad deal worries

RYMBAI: In this photograph, coal miners push a wooden cart loaded with coal they scraped from a mine near Rimbai village in the Indian northeastern state of Meghalaya. — AFP

MUMBAI: Shares in Jet Airways plunged nearly six percent yesterday on concerns over whether India’s second largest private airline will clinch a stake sale to Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways. Shares fell 6.19 percent before recovering slightly to close down 5.81 percent at 527.35 rupees as a media report said “fresh hurdles” had emerged in talks with the Gulf carrier over its plans to buy a stake in Jet. “Etihad has put a host of conditions, including an

option to buy up to 49 percent stake in Jet,” the Business Standard said yesterday, citing an unnamed source.

The Gulf airline also wants operational control and a representation on Jet’s board, the newspaper said. The Indian carrier declined to comment on the report.

Several Indian airlines have been in talks with foreign carriers after the government last year opened up the aviation sector further to allow non-Indian airlines to

invest in their counterparts in the country.

Indian carriers need money to fund expansion and cut debt after years of losses caused by intense air-fare battles and rising fuel costs. The Jet-Etihad development comes after Asia’s biggest low-cost airline, AirAsia, this week announced plans for a no-frills carrier in the country with India’s Tata conglomerate. The venture awaits government and regulatory approval. — AFP

BUSINESS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Oil snaps 2 days of steep losses NEW YORK: The price of oil broke two days of steep losses yesterday and scrambled back to close to $93 a barrel after official predictions that economic growth in Europe would pick up pace in the second half of the year. Ample supplies kept gains in check. By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark crude for April delivery was up 14 cents to $92.97 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The

contract fell $2.38, or 2.5 percent, to finish at $92.84 per barrel in New York on Thursday, the second drop of 2 percent or more in two days.

The European Union’s executive arm, the Commission, said Friday that it expects the recession currently afflicting the economy of the 17 EU countries sharing the euro to bottom out during the first half of 2013, with growth seen reaching an annual rate of 0.7 percent

in the last three months of the year. In 2014, growth in the euro-zone is forecast to accelerate to 1.4 percent. Crude oil’s recent slide is a result of ample supplies and recent speculation that the Federal Reserve may soon allow interest rates to rise, which would reduce the supply of easy cash investors have been using to buy commodities such as oil.

Data from the Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration

Wal-Mart gives glimpse of economy ‘Wal-Mart moms are barometer of US household’ NEW YORK: As the fortunes of many Americans go, so goes Wal-Mart, so goes the economy. Even as the world’s largest retailer on Thursday reported an 8.6 percent rise in fourth quarter profit during the busy holiday shopping season, it offered a weaker forecast for the coming months.

The problem? The poor and middle-class Americans Wal-Mart caters to - and who are big drivers of spending in the US - are struggling with rising gas prices, delayed income tax refunds and higher payroll taxes.

Melanie M Burkhardt, a mother of two teenagers who shops at Wal-Mart, is one of those people. Burkhardt, a Waycross, Ga., resident, said she’s been hit with a double whammy: the payroll tax hike, which has cut her household monthly income by $260, and higher gas prices. “We had to do a flip on our budget,” said Burkhardt, a legal assistant who plans to cut back on her trips to Wal-Mart. “This is money we used for things like going to a movie or splurging at Olive Garden. Not anymore.”

It’s widely known that Americans in the lower income brackets continue to struggle even as higher earners benefit from improved housing and stock markets, but Wal-Mart’s results signal that matters may be getting worse for the nation’s poor and middle-class. Wal-Mart is the latest in a string of big-name companies from Burger King to Zale to say those Americans are being squeezed by new challenges. But since Wal-Mart accounts for nearly 10 percent of nonautomotive retail spending in the US, it is a bellwether for the economy.

“Wal-Mart moms are the barometer of the US household,” said Brian Sozzi, chief equities analyst at NBG Productions who follows Wal-Mart. “Right now, they’re afraid of higher taxes and inflation.” Indeed, while wealthier households have seen their stock portfolios grow, poor and middle-class Americans have struggled to regain their financial footing since the recession ended more than 3 1/2 years ago. Stocks have roughly doubled since June 2009.

Dividends and capital gains from stocks, which disproportionately benefit higherincome Americans, are taxed at lower rates compared with ordinary income At the same time, while incomes for most Americans have failed to keep pace with inflation since the recession, that’s been particularly true for middle and lower-income earners. Median household income, adjusted for inflation, fell 1.5 per-

ROSEMEAD: In this photo, Eva Cevallos with her eleven-month daughter, Quinn, shop during the Thanksgiving Pre-Black Friday event at the Walmart Supercenter store in Rosemead, Calif. — AP cent to $50,054 in 2011 compared with 2010, the latest period for which figures are available, according to the Census Bureau.

That was down 8.1 percent from 2007, just before the recession began. (The median is the point halfway between the highest and lowest levels.)

But lower and middle-income households fared worse: The share of overall income earned by the bottom 80 percent of households shrank in 2011, while the income for the top 20 percent grew. And in 2012, inflation-adjusted hourly pay barely rose, inching up 0.3 percent. Another hurdle for lower- and middle-income Americans has been the jump in gas prices since mid-January. The average price for a gallon of gas rose 47 cents in the past month to $3.78 on Thursday, according to AAA. Tax changes also have hit the nation’s lowest earners especially hard. On Jan 1, Social Security payroll taxes rose 2 percentage points after a temporary cut expired.

That sliced about $1,000 from the takehome pay of a household earning $50,000.

Since the Social Security tax is levied against income only up to $114,000, it disproportionately affects middle- and lowerincome households. An even larger challenge for many lower-income Americans has been the government’s delay in processing taxes and paying refunds. That’s because income tax rates weren’t set until

a lastminute deal between the White House and Congress on Jan 1. So the IRS pushed back the start of tax-filing season to Jan. 30, two weeks later than usual. As a result, by Feb 14 the government had paid only $55 billion in refunds, down from $77 billion at the same time last year, according to an estimate by UBS. That drop of $22 billion is more than twice the impact of the higher payroll tax. Refunds have accelerated recently and will eventually be paid out, but the impact still can be felt by many taxpayers: About 78 percent of taxpayers receive refunds, and the figure rises to 82 percent for those reporting income below $50,000.

Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark, said while its business has been volatile since December, the month of February, in particular, has been “slower than planned” largely due to the tax refund delay. The company said that resulted in Wal-Mart customers cashing about $1.7 billion in income tax refunds year to date, compared with $3 billion for the same period a year ago. Bill Simon, president of the company’s US namesake division, said shoppers used their refund money last year to buy TVs ahead of the Super Bowl. This year, the retailer said it isn’t sure how customers will use the additional money when they get it, but some analysts say the most likely scenario is that they’ll save it. — AP

released Thursday showed US stockpiles of crude oil rose by 4.1 million barrels last week, just over twice the increase expected by analysts. “The recent sharp decline in the oil market was a combination of disappointing US economic data, renewed concerns from Fed minutes and a large increase in the levels of the oil inventories,” said commentary from Sucden Financial Research in London. — AP

US jobs, factory, inflation data favor easy Fed policy WASHINGTON: A raft of US economic data on Thursday from claims for jobless aid to factory activity and consumer prices pointed to a still tepid recovery and supported the argument for the Federal Reserve to maintain its monetary stimulus. The Fed is currently buying $85 billion in bonds per month and has said it would keep up purchases until the labor market outlook improves substantially, although officials are increasingly divided over the wisdom of that course.

“The economy is in a holding pattern. It’s not going to strengthen sufficiently to justify an end of the current program,” said Millan Mulraine, senior economist at TD Securities in New York.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 362,000, unwinding the bulk of the prior week’s decline, the Labor Department said. A second report from the department showed consumer prices were flat for a second straight month in January as gasoline prices fell and the cost of food held steady.

In the 12 months through January, consumer prices rose 1.6 percent, the smallest gain since July. That suggested there was little inflation pressure to worry the Fed. Concerns over tepid job growth prompted the US central bank last year to embark on its open-ended bond buying program.

However, minutes of the Fed’s Jan. 29-30 policy meeting published on Wednesday showed some policymakers feel the central bank may have to slow or stop the asset purchases before it sees an acceleration in job growth because of concerns over the financial risks of the program. Those diverging views were evident on Thursday, with two Fed officials signaling support for scaling back the program, while another outlined the case for maintaining bond purchases until well into the second half of the year.

Manufacturing slowing News on the manufacturing sector, which has supported the economy’s recovery from the 2007-09 recession, was downbeat. The Philadelphia Fed’s business activity index dropped to minus 12.5 in February, the lowest level since June. The index, which measures factory activity in the midAtlantic region, had fallen to minus 5.8 in January. A reading below zero indicates contraction in the region’s manufacturing sector. The survey covers factories in eastern Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware.

Another report from financial data firm Markit that tries to gauge overall national factory activity showed manufacturing growth slowed in February but remained near a ninemonth peak. “We believe manufacturing activity will continue to expand early in 2013,” said Daniel Silver, an economist at JPMorgan in New York. The claims and factory reports, as well as weak data from Europe weighed on US stocks. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index recorded its worst two-day loss since November. Prices for US government debt rose and the dollar touched a 5-1/2-month high against a basket of currencies.

Growth in the US economy braked sharply in the fourth quarter, but it expanded at a 2.2 percent clip for the full year.

Output is being hampered by lackluster demand as employment struggles to gain traction. Job growth has been far less than the at least 250,000 per month over a sustained period that economists say is needed to significantly reduce the ranks of unemployed. —Reuters

BUSINESS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Land scarce Singapore looks underground for more space Underground living is ‘next frontier’

HONG KONG: This picture shows high rise buildings in Hong Kong. — AFP

HK unveils new bid to cool property market HONG KONG: Hong Kong unveiled fresh measures yesterday to cool its red-hot property market, as the finance minister warned that an asset bubble is forming in the southern Chinese city. Property prices in the Asian financial hub, famous for its sky-high rent, have surged over the past few years due to record low interest rates and a flood of wealthy people from mainland China snapping up homes.

The government last year implemented several measures to curb the rise, including an unprecedented bid to restrict the number of non-local homebuyers with a 15 percent property tax on foreign investors, but prices have continued to climb.

“The risk of an asset bubble is increasing,” finance minister John Tsang told a news conference, after saying that residential prices had jumped 120 percent since 2008, while prices for commercial properties had also soared. He announced higher stamp duties, with the top rate doubled from 4.25 per cent to 8.5 percent. “Maintaining a healthy, stable property market will be our ongoing endeavour. We shall continue to monitor the market closely and I will not hesitate to introduce further measures when necessary,” Tsang said. The new measures come after investors this week flocked to buy 360 hotel suites sold by the leading property developer Cheung Kong Holdings, a firm controlled by Asia’s richest man Li Ka-shing. — AFP

SINGAPORE: Already one of the most densely populated countries in the world, tiny land scarce Singapore is projecting its population to swell by a third over the next two decades. To accommodate the influx, its planners envisage expanding upward, outward and downward. The population target of 6.9 million people, an increase of 1.3 million from the present, is contentious in a country where rapid immigration has already strained services such as public transport and contributed to surging home prices and a widening wealth gap. It sparked a rare protest last week, with some 3,000 people gathering in a park that’s the only approved area for demonstrations.

Singaporeans, whose forebears mostly hailed from southern China, fear their falling birth rates combined with the relentless immigration will reduce them to a minority in their own country.

Adding a new dimension to their complaints is the idea that planners want underground living to leap off their drawing boards and become a solution to overcrowding. State media is already championing the idea. In September, the Straits Times newspaper characterized underground living as the “next frontier” for Singapore. It said Singaporeans may one day “live, work and play below ground in vast, subterranean caverns that make today’s underground malls look like home basements.” The Building Construction Authority, which oversees a new agency responsible for surveying underground, said it could become reality by 2050.

The public’s reaction has included derision and disbelief. “Why pull me down,” said Patricia Bian-Hing, a retired 87-year-old businesswoman. “The only time I will go underground peacefully to live will be in my coffin.” But experts are calling for an open mind about the possibility. “Singaporeans are dismissing this prospect because it is new, not because it is unworkable or implausible,” said Jeffrey Chan, an assistant professor of architecture at the National University of Singapore.

“Astronauts who live in space stations, despite the abundance of direct sunlight have to live in shade most of the time,

and they are only debilitated from the lack of gravity, not light,” he said. “Hence, I think if there are any biologicallyimposed constraints, psychologically or real, these biological constraints can be overcome through new habits or technologically.” With about 675 square kilometers (261 square miles) of land, Singapore is only 3.5 times the size of Washington DC and has limited options for increasing its space. Land reclaimed from the sea already accounts for a fifth of its landmass and Singapore’s appetite for imported sand for reclamation has caused tensions with neighboring countries concerned about coastal erosion.

But its ruling People’s Action Party, in power since 1959, sees a bigger population as crucial to its goal of transforming Singapore into what it calls a leading world city.

The government’s new plans call for releasing land for housing and industry by closing golf courses and military training grounds and paving over some of the island’s nature reserves. That along with reclamation will free some 5,200 hectares (52 square kilometers, 20 square miles) of land to help accommodate an additional

700,000 homes and new shops and factories over the next 20 years. The projected increase in available land lags far behind the planned population increase so projects to put industry and other activities underground are already advancing on several fronts despite the technical challenges and significantly higher costs of subterranean construction.

“Going underground is one option for Singapore as it frees up surface land,” said David Tan, assistant chief executive officer of Jurong Town Corporation, Singapore’s main development body. The JTC is studying construction of an underground science complex beneath an existing science park that’s used by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.

Projected to cost 50 percent more than a similar facility above ground, it would go down 30 storeys - 80 to 100 meters - and house laboratories, offices and a data center. The corporation has already overseen construction of a massive underground oil bunker in rock caverns that freed up a surface area equivalent to six petrochemical plants. The island also saved 300 hectares of space by putting an ammunition bunker underground. — AP

SINGAPORE: In this file photo, girls between the ages of four thru twelve wait to get Disney Princess Academy makeovers at a major shopping mall in Singapore. — AP

Vietnam outlines economic roadmap HANOI: Vietnam has approved a broad plan to boost its economy to 2020, focusing on restructuring public investment, banks and stateowned enterprises while controlling inflation and maintaining growth. The Southeast Asian nation’s economic growth fell to a 13-year low of 5.03 percent last year as reduced consumer demand piled up inventory at many firms, forcing many into bankruptcy, further adding to banks’ bad debt problems. The master plan aims for a prudent monetary policy to tame inflation while ensuring “reasonable growth”, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said in a 29page directive signed on Feb 19, and seen by Reuters. The plan takes effect immediately.

Vietnam plans to restructure financial markets and consolidate state-owned businesses and investment but critics worry that, given entrenched interests and opaque decisionmaking, getting concrete results may prove dif-

ficult. “The approved economic restructuring plan is the combination of what has already been stated and it may be a concrete step in the restructuring of each sector,” said economist Dinh Tuan Minh at Hanoi-based Military Bank.

“However, I do not see any breakthrough in the plans to restructure the banking system and public investment,” Minh said. Investors wanted to see how the plan would be implemented, a Vietnamese financial expert in Ho Chi Minh City said.

Vietnam stocks were up 0.2 pct at 0650 GMT, after the central bank reaffirmed it would keep the dollar/dong exchange rate stable and on news that the government had approved a plan to boost the economy.

Vietnam will conduct tight fiscal policy, promote exports and strictly control imports while boosting domestic production of consumer

goods, the directive said. Financial experts have proposed that the central bank devalue the dong currency by up to 4 percent to support exports, but the central bank said it was not considering any such plans at present. The dong fell to 21,060/21,100 per dollar on the unofficial market on Thursday and stood unchanged yesterday, or 0.6 percent down from Monday, when Vietnam’s markets reopened after a long holiday to mark the Lunar New Year.

Tackling bad debt Moody’s downgraded Vietnam to its lowest rating ever in September last year, citing a weak banking sector likely in need of “extraordinary support”, dealing another blow to a country once tipped as Southeast Asia’s next emerging market star even as many of its neighbours prosper. The directive said banks will focus on

dealing with the sector’s overall bad debts as well as those of individual lenders, expand their core businesses, improve payment systems, avoid cross-ownership and increase transparency as part of measures to reform the sector by 2015.

Vietnam’s banking system is grappling with one of the region’s highest bad debt ratios, which rose to 8.82 percent of loans in September 2012 from 3.07 percent at the end of 2011, central bank data showed. Analysts said the downgrade of Vietnam and eight of its banks - including two controlled by the state did not signal a full-blown banking crisis and that the slowing economy should return to form if the government takes action.

Still, the cut compounded concerns about bad debts and the pace of so-called “doi moi” reforms begun in 1986 to build a socialist-oriented market economy. — Reuters

business

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Central banks in Japan, UK focus global easing trend

Dock workers strike halts loading at Brazil ports

LONDON: Central banks are in a deep easy-money hole of their own digging that they will have to start filling in at some point. But that day still looks quite some way off. Indeed, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England are staking out a much bolder stance, brushing aside warnings from some that they might be stoking currency wars by depreciating their currencies or sowing the seeds of asset bubbles and inflation.

For Japan, inflation would be a solution, not a problem, after years of gently falling prices. The country’s nominal gross domestic product is no higher than it was 20 years ago, saddling the government with a debt-to-GDP ratio of 235 percent and climbing.

Britain seems simply to have concluded that higher inflation is a price worth paying to revive economic growth. Three of the Bank of England’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee, including Governor Mervyn King, voted this month to buy more bonds under its quantitative easing (QE) programme even though inflation has been above target for five years and is unlikely to fall back to its 2 percent goal for another three years. “There are clear signs of a softening of the commitment to inflation control across a number of economies,” said Simon Hayes, an economist at Barclays Capital in London.

Workers protesting govt drive to privatize ports

A question of judgment Hayes said there was nothing wrong as such with banks buying bonds with newly minted money to breathe life into the economy. The difficulty is to know when to start dialling down the stimulus when policymakers are uncertain, because of the damage wrought by the financial crisis, just what their economy’s productive capacity is and how households and financial markets might react to the prospect of higher interest rates. “QE in and of itself is not the problem; the problem is the general environment in which this is happening. It may well be that policymakers are inclined to err on the side of holding policy too loose for too long,” he said. Which is where the Federal Reserve comes in. Stock markets around the world slumped on Wednesday afterthe latest minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee showed hawkish members of the US central bank’s policy-setting panel wanted to scale back or end QE before unemployment had fallen to the Fed’s 6.5 percent target.

Many economists believe the markets over-reacted to the minutes, which give equal weight to the views of non-voting members of the 19-member committee as they do to those of heavyweight Chairman Ben Bernanke and his deputy, Janet Yellen. Andrew Parlin of Kotell Advisors, an investment company in New York, is confident that the Fed chief knows monetary policy must remain highly accommodative until the economy is unquestionably on a firm footing. After all, it was the premature withdrawal of monetary stimulus in 1932 that turned a recession into the Great Depression, on which Bernanke has published several academic articles. As such, Parlin said he was not concerned about the FOMC minutes. “I think Bernanke and Yellen are totally on the same page, and they are firmly in control,” he said.

Too much of a good thing David Hale, who heads an eponymous global economics consultancy in Winnetka, Illinois, said the Fed was unlikely to start reducing asset purchases until well into 2014, not least because of fresh economic headwinds that are likely to limit first-half growth to 1 percent at most. On top of an increase in the payroll tax that took effect on Jan. 1, gasoline prices have risen sharply in recent weeks and across-the-board spending cuts due to kick in on March 1 could lead to 500,000 job losses in the second quarter.

“So I see no danger of policy changing in the short term. In fact there’s a risk that the unemployment rate could increase,” Hale said. The Fed was more concerned that easy money was leading to excessive risk-taking as investors hunt for yield in a world of next-to-zero interest rates. Bolivia, Latin America’s poorest country, sold its first international bond in 90 years in October at a yield of under 5 percent. The $500 million issue was nine times oversubscribed.

Ukraine, rated well below investment grade, sold $1.25 billion worth of bonds the month after. “These are very highrisk investments in great demand. That tells you we do have some mini-bubbles out there right now, but they’re not in important sectors like housing,” Hale said. That’s the problem with monetary policy. It’s a blunt instrument. — Reuters

SANTOS: Brazilian dock workers walked off the job in at least two major ports early yesterday for a six-hour strike to protest the government’s plans to change regulations and put more of the country’s ports in the private sector’s hands. The strike halted the movement of corn and soybeans at the port of Santos.

A largely automated, private grain terminal was forced it to shut down operations, Brazil’s grain exporters association Anec said.

“It’s totally stopped. We just received a notice,” the general director of Anec, Sergio Mendes, told Reuters. Authorities at Brazil’s other main grain port of Paranagua, roughly 400 kilometers to the south of Santos, said all loading of grains was also stopped at the port due to the strike. The stoppages come in the midst of a record soybean harvest and lineup of ships waiting to take Brazil’s harvest

abroad. Expectations of delays at Brazil’s ports caused top buyer China this week to cancel at least two soy cargoes ordered from Brazil and buy from the United States instead. Brazilian dock workers are afraid a drive to privatize some 158 terminals will lead to a loss of jobs and benefits because private operators would not have to hire through the centralized agency “OGMO” and might bring in labor from abroad.

“We’ve started the mobilization,” said Cesar Rodrigues Alves, a senior representative of the union of stevedores at Santos port, South America’s largest. A press official at the other major grains port, Paranagua, confirmed the labor stoppage had begun there, too. Shipping analysts do not expect major disruption, given the short duration of the strike.

Bulk grain loading, which is done via conveyor belt and requires little labor, is

also likely to continue uninterrupted at Santos, shipping agent SA Commodities/Unimar told Reuters.

The Brazilian government says the planned changes for ports are needed to boost competitiveness as it seeks to attract billions of dollars in private investment to expand capacity to cope with burgeoning commodity exports.

Queues of ships waiting to load grains this week were twice as long as this time last year at Santos and three times longer at Paranagua, according to data from SA Commodities/Unimar, with strong demand for an expected record soy crop.

Faced with the prospect of more protests at a time when logistics infrastructure is already under major strain, the country’s port minister was scheduled to meet with union representatives to discuss the proposals yesterday morning. —Reuters

FRANKFURT AM MAIN: Graffiti art is seen on the fence around the site of ECB’s new building under construction in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany yesterday. The bank’s new headquarter is to be finished in 2014. — AFP

Ghana targets annual growth of at least 8% ACCRA: Ghana will target minimum GDP growth of 8 percent over each of the next four years, President John Dramani Mahama said on Thursday in his first state of the nation address since his election in December. The cocoa, gold and oil exporting West African country has recorded two and half decades of uninterrupted economic expansion, culminating in estimated growth of 14.4 percent in 2011. It is now one of the world’s

fastest growing economies. “My vision in this first term ... is to work to sustain economic growth rates at a minimum of 8 percent in line with our goal of moving our country from a lower-middle income status to the full middle income bracket,” he said.

While analysts predict the expansion of its new oil and gas production will likely guarantee healthy growth over the next several years, Ghana has struggled

to bolster its weak cedi currency, combat inflation and control budget deficits. Last year’s deficit ballooned to 12.1 percent, nearly double a government target, leading the rating agency Fitch to downgrade the country’s economic outlook from stable to negative. The government cut fuel subsidies, which last year totaled about one billion cedis ($526 million), on Sunday, as one of its measures to curb spending. —Reuters

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Bollywood star urges ‘immediate’ change for women

www.kuwaittimes.net

PAGE 25

Oscar animators ready to be taken seriously PAGE 25

A model displays a creation as part of Etro Fall-Winter 20132014 Womenswear collection yesterday during the Women’s fashion week in Milan. — AFP

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

T

he actor-and-screenwriter has previously received two nominations for the biggest awards in the movie business - for Best Supporting Actor in ‘Training Day’ in 2002, and Best Adapted Screenplay for ‘Before Sunset’ in 2004 - but he doesn’t like the way the Academy Awards force films into being ranked. He told Gotham magazine: “People want to turn everything in this country (America) into a competition ... So it’s clear who the winner is and who the loser is. “It’s why they like to announce the grosses of movies, because it’s a way of saying, ‘This one is Number One’ It’s so asinine. “If you look at how many forgettable, stupid movies have won Oscars and how many mediocre performers have Oscars above their fireplace. Making a priority of chasing these fake carrots and

T

he 34-year-old former glamour model admits she was nervous about entering the competition but is proud of her achievements and enjoyed the experience a lot. She said: “I competed in my first horse jumping show last weekend. Me and my beautiful 17-year-old beast, Otto, competed a clear round - even if I did hold my breath the whole time. “People say the horse world is snobby but the show jumping set couldn’t have been more welcoming to me. “I’ve found another aspect of the sport that I absolutely love and so does Otto. The hardest thing is trying to hold him back because he wants to jump fences before me. “We didn’t do bad for an old boy and girl.” Katie - who has children Harvey, 10, Junior, seven, and five-year-old Princess Tiaamii from previous relationships - has loved horses since she was a

money and dubious accolades, I think it’s really destructive.”

Ethan is not the first actor to express his dissatisfaction with the awards - which take place in Los Angeles tomorrow - with Joaquin Phoenix memorably saying he thought they were the “stupidest thing in the world” last year. “It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’ve ever tasted in my whole life. I don’t want this carrot. It’s totally subjective. Pitting people against each other. It’s the stupidest thing in the whole world.”

child and was proud of how hard she worked to own her first equine when she was in her early 20s. She added in her column for The Sun newspaper: “I grew up loving horses but my mum couldn’t afford one in a million years. So I would go to the local stables every weekend and muck out just to get a ride. “Eventually I took a Saturday job and began to save up for my very own horse. I couldn’t afford one until I was in my early 20s, when my modelling career was taking off. “He was an Irish thoroughbred called Tyke and I’ll never forget how good it felt to ride him, knowing how hard I’d worked to buy him and call him my own.”

T

he ‘Ted’ star realised he needed to turn his life around as a troubled teen growing up in Boston when he was sentenced to two years in prison for assault and attempted murder after beating a stranger, but says the practicality of actually making a change was a daily struggle. Speaking on ITV’s ‘Daybreak’, Mark confessed: “There were moments where I knew I needed to get on the right course. Very sobering moments. As a 17-year-old adolescent going to jail, that’s a very sobering moment. “I had a very specific moment where I knew I needed to change my life, but when you decide to change your life then actually doing it, that becomes a very challenging and uphill battle that you need to take on a day-to-day basis.” Mark - who was addicted to cocaine by age 13 - immersed himself in his local youth group, the Dorchester Boys and Girls Club and says the support of its programme leader Mike Joyce was the only thing that helped him get back on track. He added: “Thankfully the people that I did look to as being role models were still there. The guy Mike Joyce who runs the Boys Club, he was our parish priest, those were the heroes I should have looked to. Unfortunately, I was looking to the wrong people for so long for inspiration.” As a result of his tough upbringing, the ‘Broken City’ actor and his wife Rhea Durham like to spoil their four young children because he wants them to have everything he never had. Quizzed about becoming a father, he replied: “It’s the greatest accomplishment of my life, I have the greatest wife and the most amazing children. But it’s also the most demanding role I’ll ever play and between that and work I’ve been very blessed. “I like to give them all the things I didn’t have and I like to make them appreciate that a lot of people are less fortunate.”

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

T

he 56-year-old actor explores reincarnation in his new film ‘Cloud Atlas’ - which also stars Halle Berry and Ben Whishaw - and although he strives to live for the present, Tom doesn’t believe in past lives affecting a person’s future. He told the Metro newspaper: “I think [past lives] is a bunch of baloney and malarkey. I’m known to be cranky in that way. “Look, I believe in the importance of the right now and although I’m perfectly willing to envelop myself in the mystery of it all. “As a layman who reads history, I can

see that the human condition does not evolve until someone does the right thing, which is a version of saying, ‘It’s important the karma you put our right now because it’s going to affect eternity.’ “ Tom - who has children Colin and Elizabeth with exwife Samantha Lewis, and sons Chester and Truman with current spouse Rita Wilson - is “proud” of his determination to get where he is today, which all began when he upped sticks from California and drove to New York to begin his career in 1979. He said: “Individual jobs come and

T

he actress sued the Cuban/American hitmaker in 2011 for a line in his song ‘Give Me Everything’ - in which he joked he was “locked up like Lindsay Lohan” - claiming he had no right to use her name and seeking financial compensation, but a court has now ruled in his favour.

A New York federal judge ruled on Thursday that Pitbull’s song, also featuring Ne-Yo and Afrojack, was protected by the US First Amendment, which covers freedom of speech and creative expression. Pitbull’s lawyer, Marcos Jimenez, told E! News: “This will further solidify the rights of artists to express themselves in song. He felt it was very important to address this head on to protect his right and the rights of other artist.

He decided to fight this.” Senior District Judge Denis R Hurley also fined Lindsay’s attorney, Stephanie

T

he reality TV star is set to have her first child with rapper Kanye West in July, and will choose to find out whether it is a boy or a girl if it is revealed on a scan. She told E! news: “I don’t know what we’re having yet. I do want to find out, I do.” The 32-yearold star would not say whether she prefers to have a boy or a girl, but added so far her growing bump has not interrupted her sleep patterns at all. She explained: “I sleep amazing, it’s like the best sleep ever. I’m a really easy sleeper though, you can put me on the couch with all these people in the room and say, ‘You’ve got 10 minutes,’ and I’ll take an eight-minute nap.” Kim added her pregnancy is going so smoothly, she doesn’t “feel anything, and I don’t crave anything”. The star’s mother, Kris Jenner, is preparing for the baby, but also biting her tongue and trying not to “gush” too much to Kim about it. She said: “I think Kim’s probably so sick of my advice by now, but what it does for me is it brings back memories from when I was pregnant with them. “So she’ll say something and I’ll think, ‘Oh my gosh, I remember back then,’ and I’ll try to share that. And, you know, I try not to gush too much because I can be annoying, I’m sure.”

T

he ‘LOL’ actress is considering a Marchesa gown for her impending nuptials to fiance Liam Hemsworth but she has been inundated with offers from other designers and so is torn over who to choose. She said: “Marchesa make the most amazing dresses, they are definitely one of our options. But so many people want to be involved, I’ll probably have 30 dresses at my wedding.” While she is struggling to choose the right dress, Miley revealed she and her fiance aren’t getting stressed about the wedding planning. She told People magazine: “I’m not worried about it, we haven’t talked about anything specific.

Liam is pretty laid back about every-

thing, it’s the best thing ever.” Miley’s mother Tish believes the couple will choose an intimate family gathering rather than a lavish affair. She said: “When the wedding does happen, it’s going to be a small, intimate one.” It was previously claimed that Miley, 20, and 23-year-old Liam are working with jeweller Neil Lane to create their own wedding rings. A source said: “In the past few weeks they’ve met with Neil to start working on their wedding jewellery. They want classic but unique wedding bands.”

go but the fact that I had the courage to do that is the thing I am most proud of.

“Most people would have been afraid to do that. I was about to have a kid, which I found out halfway across the country. But rather than listen to all the reasons why I shouldn’t do it, I adhered to the one reason why I should; it’s going to be fun.”

Ovadia, $1,500 for sanctionable plagiarism and false representation after Marcos claimed last March she had lifted her arguments from online sources. ‘Liz & Dick’ star Lindsay has a long history of run-ins with the law and has been jailed several times for charges including driving under the influence (DUI) and cocaine possession. Losing the case will be a financial blow to the flamehaired star, who is currently crippled with tax debt and has most recently being accused of destroying a $1,750 designer dress she borrowed.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

‘Argo’in knife-edge vs ‘Lincoln’ Oscars race B

Actress Sandra Bullock is seen during rehearsals for the 85th Academy Awards in Los Angeles, Thursday, Feb 21, 2013. — AP

Oscar best picture winners of last 20 years

H

ere is a list of the Best Picture Oscar winners from the last 20 years, ahead of this Sunday’s 85th Academy Awards in Hollywood.

Steven Spielberg’s presidential drama “Lincoln” and Ben Affleck’s Iran hostage drama “Argo” are seen as frontrunners, although it is seen as one of the least predictable Oscars races in recent memory.

2012 - “The Artist” 2011 - “The King’s Speech” 2010 - “The Hurt Locker” 2009 - “Slumdog Millionaire” 2008 - “No Country for Old Men” 2007 - “The Departed” 2006 - “Crash” 2005 - “Million Dollar Baby” 2004 - “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” 2003 - “Chicago” 2002 - “A Beautiful Mind” 2001 - “Gladiator” 2000 - “American Beauty” 1999 - “Shakespeare in Love” 1998 - “Titanic” 1997 - “The English Patient” 1996 - “Braveheart” 1995 - “Forrest Gump” 1994 - “Schindler’s List” 1993 - “Unforgiven” — AFP

en Affleck’s Iran hostage drama “Argo” goes into Oscars weekend a whisker ahead of Steven Spielberg’s presidential “Lincoln,” but the race is one of the most unpredictable in recent memory. Veteran director Spielberg, bidding for his first best picture Oscar since “Schindler’s List” in 1994, tops the nominations with 12 nods-but “Argo” has cleaned up in Hollywood’s awards season so far, despite having only seven. Although he started the season two months ago in front, Spielberg may have to settle Sunday for the best director award-one that Affleck cannot beat him to, having not been nominated in the category, in a perceived snub.

But again here there could be an upset, with rivals including Taiwan-born Ang Lee for “Life of Pi,” David O. Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook,” or even Austrian dark horse director Michael Haneke for Cannes-topping “Amour.” One near-certainty Sunday is that “Lincoln” star Daniel Day-Lewis will be named best actor, a record third for the British-Irish actor after wins in 1990 for “My Left Foot” and in 2008 for “There Will Be Blood.” The diffident Day-Lewis, known for his meticulous preparation-he spent weeks in a wheelchair before playing Christy Brown in “My Left Foot”-has been modest despite repeatedly taking the stage for acceptance speeches.

“Members of the Academy love surprises, so about the worst thing that can happen to you is if you’ve built up an expectation,” he said, after winning the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) best actor award last month. “I think they’d probably be delighted if it was anybody else,” he added. For best actress, the early favorite was Jessica Chastain, playing a CIA agent hunting Osama bin Laden in “Zero Dark Thirty,” but the clever money is now on Jennifer Lawrence for her turn in “Silver Linings Playbook.”

Lawrence, star of the “Hunger Games” blockbuster franchise, has won praise for moving out of her comfort zone as mixed-up widow Tiffany to Bradley Cooper’s recovering bipolar Pat, in the romantic comedy with an edge. The best supporting actress race is

Director Ben Affleck (left) and director Steven Spielberg arrive for the 85th Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in this February 4, 2013 file photo in Beverly Hills, California. — AFP more open, although Anne Hathaway is probably still the frontrunner for her heart-wrenching turn in musical adaptation “Les Miserables,” which is also nominated for best picture.

The most unpredictable race of all is perhaps for supporting actor, with Hollywood legend Robert De Niro tipped by some for playing Cooper’s father in “Silver Linings Playbook.”

But strong rivals in the category include Austrian Christoph Waltz as a white bounty hunter who frees Jamie Foxx’s black slave in Quentin Tarantino’s blood-spattered “Django Unchained,” as well as Tommy Lee Jones in “Lincoln.”

On the foreign front, the clear frontrunner is “Amour,” which won the Palme d’Or at last year’s Cannes Film Festival for its heartwrenching portrayal of an elderly couple coping with encroaching physical and mental illness. Its French female lead, Emmanuelle Riva, could even cause an upset in the best actress

category, some critics believe. If she did, she would be only the sixth performer to win an Oscar in a language other than English.

Riva, who will be 86 on Sunday, is coincidentally also the oldest ever best actress nominee, and up against a shortlist including the youngest ever nominee, nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis for “Beasts of the Southern Wild.” “Amour” (“Love”) is also among the nine films nominated for best picture, although it is not seen as a favorite there.

On a more colorful note, the best animated feature contest is widely seen as a battle between Scottish-themed princess adventure “Brave” and “Wreck-It Ralph,” about a video game villain fed up with being the bad guy.

The fast and fun movie pays subtle homage to generations of computer games, in a feelgood story appealing to both mainstream cinema-goers and hard-core animation filmmakers at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. — AFP

‘Beasts’ comes to Oscars with tiny budget, first-time director

“B

easts of the Southern Wild”, nominated for four Oscars including Best Picture, is one the most unlikely contenders ever for Hollywood’s top honors. Produced for just $1.5 million by a collective of first-time filmmakers who bunked in a fishing shack during the shooting, it is considered a longshot to win the top Oscar, but it has already set a new standard for thrifty filmmaking in an industry that routinely spends 100 times more for a major picture. “It’s the perfect combination of art and commerce, but the commerce was made a lot better because of that price,” said Fox studio chairman Jim Gianopulos, whose Fox Searchlight Pictures unit distributes the film in the United States.

The film, set in the swamps of Louisiana near New Orleans, portrays the fierce pride and intimate, if dysfunctional, culture of a community on the furthest margins of society. The stars are a hard-drinking father and his young daughter, played by the now nine-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis, whose performance made her the youngest-ever Best Actress nominee.

The film was created by Benh Zeitlin, a 30-year-old first-time director who set up his studio in the abandoned Connecticut racquetball court that he had used for his senior thesis film at Wesleyan University.

“I’m not sure they knew what we were doing in there when we set up to make the film,” said Zeitlin. “I think they thought we

were just making short films.”

The crew he assembled became Core 13 Pictures, named for the court, and it describes itself on its website as a collective of “madcap artists and animators” who work on one another’s projects. Zeitlin also ranged far outside the usual list of Hollywood names in casting the film, using first-time actors, including Wallis and Levy Easterly as her father. The crew were all paid the same salary as the director, said producer Paul Mezey, and will share in whatever profits the film makes. So far, it has generated $12 million in domestic ticket sales and is not yet profitable, he said, after Fox deducts its marketing and other costs. —Reuters

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Bollywood star urges ‘immediate’ change for women

B

ollywood star and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has called for “immediate” action to protect women in India following the fatal gang-rape of a student that horrified the country. The vicious attack by a group of drunken men on a 23year-old medical student in New Delhi two months ago in which she was raped and assaulted with an iron bar sparked outrage in India.

The appeal by the star of dozens of movies comes as Indian lawmakers are due to take up new measures to significantly tighten laws on sexual assault against women.

The 39-year-old actress-one of India’s best-known faces at home

and abroad-voiced anger over the situation of women in the country.

“There should be definite laws for offenders. They should be punished immediately. That is when we will see the change in society,” said Rai Bachchan, who spoke Wednesday in New Delhi where she attended an awards ceremony.

Though gang-rapes and sexual harassment are commonplace in India, the case of the student who died of massive internal injures touched a nerve, leading to an outpouring of criticism about treatment of women in Indian society. “I don’t feel fear. Rather there is a lot of anger and I don’t hesitate to say this. Many of us are privileged to

This publicity film image shows Ralph (left) voiced by John C Reilly in a scene from “Wreck-It Ralph.” — AP

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan

have a lot of assurance about our safety but most of the women in our country do not have that,” Rai Bachchan said.

Five suspects in the rape case are being tried in a fast-track court on charges of murder, gang-rape and kidnapping and a sixth faces trial in juvenile court. “The incident has brought about a lot of attention and awareness but the change needs to come immediately,” said Rai Bachchan, a regular on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2007, she wed fellow movie star Abhishek Bachchan, son of legendary Bollywood veteran Amitabh Bachchan, and they have a oneyear-old daughter. — AFP

In this undated publicity film image, the character Merida, voiced by Kelly Macdonald, follows a Wisp in a scene from “Brave.”

Oscar animators ready to be taken seriously I

n the animated feature film category at this year’s Oscars, there’s a film set in medieval Scotland, another that features old-school video game characters, one that relies heavily on dry British humor, while the other two take inspiration from the supernatural. It’s not exactly kid stuff - and that’s how the directors like it. “I think this year with these films - and so many more - the envelope for animation is being pushed,” said “Brave” director Mark Andrews at an Academy Awards event Thursday night honoring the animated feature film nominees. “We keep seeing more risky, deep films that we wouldn’t have seen 10 years ago coming out. I wanna be one of those guys pushing it more and more and more because it’s not only an awesome medium, but there’s so many more stories that we can tell.”

The Scotland-set “Brave,” a darker fable from Pixar about a rebellious red-headed princess named Merida, will face off against four other animated films at tomorrow’s 85th annual Academy Awards. The category was first introduced at the 2002 ceremony, with “Shrek” winning the inaugural trophy. Despite the less lighthearted tone of this year’s animated nominees, none cracked the best picture category for a spot alongside the likes of “Argo,” “Lincoln” and “Zero Dark Thirty.” (Only

three animated films have ever been nominated for best picture at the Oscars: “Beauty and the Beast,” “Up” and “Toy Story 3.”)

“Edward Scissorhands” and “The Nightmare Before Christmas” mastermind Tim Burton

could take home his first-ever Oscar at the Dolby Theatre ceremony for “Frankenweenie,” his black-and-white stop-motion film based on his 1984 live-action short film of the same name. “Frankenweenie” is among three of the

This publicity film image shows Characters (from left) Grandma Babcock, voiced by Elaine Stritch, Sandra Babcock, voiced by Leslie Mann, Perry Babcock, voiced by Jeff Garlin, Norman, voiced by Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Courtney, voiced by Anna Kendrick, in the 3D stop-motion film, “ParaNorman.” — AP

five Oscar nominated films this year that employ stop-motion, the intricate and time consuming animation method that use miniature sculptures and sets.

Despite a strong stop-motion presence at this year’s Oscars, Burton cited finances, not the omnipresence of computer animation, as the reason that more stop-motion films aren’t produced.

“In the case of ‘Frankenweenie,’ it’s not like it was a studio wish-list to-do: ‘Let’s make black-and-white stop-motion animation,’” said Burton. “You hope it can survive. We all love it.” The other stop-motion nominees are the English seafaring comedy “Pirates! Band of Misfits” from director Peter Lord and the undead tale “ParaNorman” from directors Sam Fell and Chris Butler.

“Wreck-It Ralph” director Rich Moore told the crowd at the motion picture academy’s Beverly Hills headquarters that he never envisioned the video game adventure from Disney as a musical, but “Book of Mormon” co-writer Robert Lopez and his wife Kristen AndersonLopez did create an original song for the film.

“It didn’t work, so it’s not in the movie,” said Moore. “That’s our process. We try lots of stuff.

We throw it against the wall, and the stuff that sticks stays in the movie. It’s a very organic process making films like this.” — AP

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

‘The Power of Few’

makes limited-release debut

Morrissey will not get

meat-free concert in LA B

C

omedian and actor Anthony Anderson sheds his funnyman persona to play a gun-wielding thug in “The Power of Few,” an independent actiondrama made its limited-release debut yesterday.

Anderson, star of the NBC sitcom “Guys With Kids,” told The Associated Press the main reason he took the part was its departure from the comedic roles for which he’s known. But there was another draw: It meant a return to New Orleans, where Anderson lived for a short while after Hurricane Katrina when working on the Fox detective drama “K-Ville,” a post-Katrina series set in New Orleans that aired in 2007 and 2008.

“Any chance I have to get back to New Orleans, I jump at it,” Anderson said. “I found a love for the city and a love and affinity for the people there.” Anderson is part of the film’s eclectic cast, which also includes Christopher Walken, Christian Slater, Jesse Bradford and New Orleans native rapper Juvenile. “My character is a man of the streets,” Anderson said. “There’s a code in the streets that you don’t snitch. Someone was testifying against a friend, and my character wants to send him a message so that he doesn’t testify.”

The story line is one of several unfolding at the same time. Other story lines include a teenage boy desperate to get medicine he can’t afford for his infant sibling; a woman on a mission to deliver a mysterious package to an even more mysterious recipient; and two detectives resorting to torture to solve a crime.

“It’s really about karma and choices and consequences,” Anderson said. “It’s about how every choice we make has consequences, good, bad or indifferent.”

The film is part mystery, with a dose of religious conspiracy surrounding the Shroud of Turin - a centuries-old linen cloth that bears the image of a crucified man that millions believe to be Jesus of Nazareth.

Walken’s character, an insightful homeless man named Doke, delivers a monologue referencing the shroud during a pivotal moment in the film. It was a performance Walken said was “challenging” but one he wanted to get right.

Walken said filming gave him his first chance to visit New Orleans. He said that during breaks in shooting, he took walks in the French Quarter and watched cargo ships and paddlewheel boats maneuver the winding Mississippi River outside his hotel window. “I hoped that I could be good in it,” he said. “If you’re an actor, you take parts as they come to you. When you read the script, you ask yourself, can I be good at it, and sometimes you’re right, sometimes you’re wrong.”

“The Power of Few,” a Steelyard Pictures production, opened in select theaters in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, La, yesterday and is expected to open in other markets in coming weeks. — AP

Morrissey animal rights pressure group PETA recently named Staples Center as the most vegetarian-friendly venue in professional basketball. The National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Lakers and Los Angeles Clippers play their home games at the arena.

Morrissey, 53, who co-wrote The

Smiths’ 1985 song “Meat Is Murder,” postponed a series of concerts on his North America tour last month after being hospitalized for a bleeding ulcer.

The singer is expected to relaunch the tour with a performance on US latenight talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” next week. — Reuters

Chicago bluesman Magic Slim dead at 75

G

Magic Slim

This film image released by Steelyard Pictures shows Christopher Walken in a scene from “The Power of Few,” an independent action-drama filmed in New Orleans. — AP

ritish vegetarian rock singer Morrissey’s concert in Los Angeles next week will be a little more meaty than the former Smiths frontman had initially hoped. The longtime animal rights activist said earlier this week he had urged the Staples Center arena to close the concessions of fast-food chain McDonald’s and to halt the sale of meat by other outlets at the venue for his March 1 performance there. Morrissey’s representatives said in a statement on Monday that Staples Center had agreed to the request, and they added it would the first time that all vendors within and around the Los Angeles venue would be 100 percent vegetarian.

But Staples Center arena operator Anschutz Entertainment Group, or AEG, said on Thursday that meat would still be on menus.

“As of right now, there will be meat options for fans,” Staples Center spokeswoman Cara Vanderhook told Reuters. It was unclear how the apparent confusion arose. AEG will also roll out a special line of meatless food concessions for fans, including vegan sloppy Joes, vegan sushi, and hummus and pita bread. The

uitarist Magic Slim, a mainstay of the Chicago blues scene who followed in the footsteps of such greats as Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf, died on Thursday at age 75, his manager said. Slim, the son of Mississippi sharecroppers, gave up the piano and turned to guitar after losing his right pinky finger in a cotton gin accident at age 13. He died at a Philadelphia hospital where he had been under treatment for various ailments, manager Marty Salzman said. A heavy smoker who suffered from emphysema and heart problems, Slim was forced by illness to cut short a tour with his band, the Teardrops, in late January, Salzman said.

Born Morris Holt in Torrence, Mississippi, Slim grew up on a farm and made his first trip to Chicago in 1955, starting off as the bass player for a friend and mentor known as Magic Sam, who lent the younger musician his nickname. Slim cut his first record in 1966 and became a Chicago blues fixture in his own right, developing a guitar style that blended a distinct vibrato with a slide-guitarlike sound formed with his bare fingers against the strings.

Known for playing with picks on both the thumb and index finger of his right hand - a somewhat unusual technique, according to Salzman the guitarist was recognized as much for his powerful, gruff vocals as his musicianship. With more than 30 albums to his credit, Slim also was known for an encyclopedic mastery of the blues, Salzman said. “There’s probably not another bluesman who had quite the repertoire that Slim had,” he said.

While Slim lived in recent years with his family in Nebraska, “Chicago was always like home to him,” his manager said. — Reuters

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Andy Warhol work set to be auctioned online is pictured. — AFP photos

Christie’s to auction Andy Warhol works online

C

hristie’s auction house said Thursday it will put 125 works of art by the American pop icon Andy Warhol under the hammer in an online-only sale starting next week. The auction, which will start Tuesday and run through March 25, will be the first time that Warhol’s art is sold strictly online, Christie’s said Thursday. Sales “will feature works representing a wide array of media spanning the artist’s career,” the auction

house said in a statement.

Estimates range from $600 to $70,000, Christie’s said, offering buyers “extraordinary global access to Warhol’s work. “The timed online format allows clients to browse, bid, receive instant updates by email or phone if another bid exceeds theirs, organize shipping, and pay from anywhere in the world,” Christie’s said.

The online sale “will greatly expand access

to Andy Warhol’s work, in a fundamentally democratic manner that is entirely consistent with his art,” said Joel Wachs, president of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. It will be the first of several online auctions scheduled for 2013.

The proceeds will benefit the Foundation, which in turn offers financial support to artists and non-profit artist associations. The Foundation, created in accordance with

Warhol’s will following his death in 1987 at the age of 58, is dedicated to advancing the visual arts. The Warhol Foundation announced in September that it was dispersing its collection to raise more money for grants, with Christie’s as the long-term partner. Some of the works will be donated to museums. The inaugural Warhol live auction at Christie’s in New York on November 12 raised $17 million. — AFP

Review

‘Snitch’ a well-made yarn about drug world A

lthough it sometimes accompanies fine films such as “Zero Dark Thirty” and “Argo,” the phrase “inspired by a true story” tacked onto the front of a movie too often warns you that you’re about to see something “inspiring” in the most hackneyed, triumph-of-the-human spirit sort of way. What’s surprising about “Snitch” is that, rather than taking the reductive path of offering innocuous emotional uplift or one-man-army action, it generates a feeling of real desperation and fear as it shows a man getting in way over his head when he takes on some very bad guys. In other words, this is a pretty good film starring an actor named Dwayne Johnson, not a commodity with The Rock as a hood ornament.

Summit’s main commercial hopes still rest with the mainstream action crowd which likely will be satisfied despite the film’s refusal to dish out doses of bodily harm like clockwork - but for Johnson, this could broaden the perception of the sorts of roles he can play as he pushes into his 40s. Directed with intensity by longtime stuntman Ric Roman Waugh (“Felon”), “Snitch” takes its dramatic opportunities seriously and not just as an excuse for brutal confrontations between drug dealers and assorted thugs. The “inspiring” part lies in the fact that a father, John Matthews (Johnson), is willing to go to the absolute limit to prevent his teenage son Jason (Rafi Gavron) from serving 10 years in prison under mandatory-sentencing laws for having made one stupid mistake. The involving part is how he goes about it: getting entangled with some very unsavory characters while trying to preserve a vestige of his morality and remain alive.

Inspired by a “Frontline” report about an

aspect of the law that allows for reduced time in exchange for informing on drug dealers, the script by Justin Haythe (“Revolutionary Road,” “The Clearing”) and Waugh follows a familiar-feeling template but goes deep enough with character detail and legal issues to set it apart from standard-issue drug- and crime-related films. Jason gets sent away for ill-advisedly accepting delivery of a box full of Ecstasy as a sort-of favor for a friend and also in order to try it with his girlfriend.

Unwilling to rat his buddy out, the terrified, physically unprepossessing Jason is tossed into the pen, where he’ll be as defenseless as a rabbit in a foxhole. His resentful mother (Melina Kanakaredes) lashes out at John, her ex, while the only solution offered by politically hungry US Attorney Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon) is for Jason to offer evidence against some other drug dealer, but he truly doesn’t have any.

The biggest dramatic leap the film imposes is that John, a straight-arrow guy who runs a shipping company but suffers guilt over having been a deficient dad post-divorce, would conceive of and then persuade the attorney to accept a plan under which he himself would deliver drug dealers to her in exchange for his son’s freedom. Keeghan expresses the same dubiousness the audience might feel, but once John gets the green light, you can feel the sweat and inner turmoil begin to simmer, as he’s no better-suited than Homer Simpson to figure out how to go about this.

John’s formidable physique and straightshooter personality might serve him well in most situations, but they have little bearing given his new challenges.

Reluctantly, John leans on one of his employees who has done time, Daniel Cruz (Jon Bernthal), to point him in the right direction - a wrenching decision in that the man, who has a son of his own, is trying to stay straight. But John finally gets entree to dealer Malik (a terrific Michael Kenneth

This film image released by Summit Entertainment shows Rafi Gavron, center, in a scene from “Snitch.” — AP Williams), a two-time loser who, after some tense testing, agrees to use him on an outof-state drug run. The first big action scene doesn’t arrive until an hour in, at which point the stakes grow much higher with the involvement of a US branch of a Mexican drug cartel run by the cool Juan Carlos (Benjamin Bratt). With her congres-

sional race heating up, the idea of bringing down such a big dog excites Keeghan to no end but puts John and Daniel in untenable positions, leading to some tough choices for both men. The danger they face feels real, as does their angst over moral compromises, and the film climaxes in a wellstaged chase involving John’s 18-wheel big rig that presumably draws upon the director’s stunt experience in achieving such old-school, real-deal power.

Unusual for this sort of thing, “Snitch” is a film after which you remember the characters and actors more than the big action moments. Never removing his shirt, Johnson behaves within a narrow range but is engagingly distressed and stalwart in equal measure, conveying sufficient feeling and subtext to suggest the actor could be entrusted with greater dramatic challenges in the future. Bernthal (“The Walking Dead”) strongly puts over a conflicted man pushed into a terribly precarious position, and Barry Pepper keeps you guessing as a hipster-looking undercover cop.

Sarandon’s ambitious crime-buster remains unfortunately one-dimensional.

Waugh and sharp-eyed cinematographer Dana Gonzales keep their framing quite tight, which amplifies the actors’ work but, more ambiguously, keeps you worried about what might be going on outside the field of view. A very large contribution is made by Brazilian composer Antonio Pinto (“City of God,” “Senna,” “Get the Gringo”), whose eerie, ever-hovering electronic score gathers cumulative force to greatly amplify the story’s power. “Snitch,” a Lionsgate/Summit release, is rated PG-13 for drug content and sequences of violence. 112 minutes. — AP

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Prada

mixes romantic and urban I in Milan talian fashion house Prada ventured in a new post-industrial world for her introvert woman at Milan fashion week on Thursday. The trend-setting designer, whose collections are closely-watched by fashion critics, mixed romantic and urban looks for a refined style she called “raw elegance”. “What preoccupies me is impossibility. Women cannot be romantic, you have to be politically correct. There are so many restrictions,” Miuccia Prada said in the backstage of her show.

The designer created skirts with irregular hems of different lengths and fabrics, while tops were worn open on the shoulders. Other models wore chequered, romantic dresses with ample skirts. Assisted by design studio AMO, Prada turned its show space into an industrial landscape where the audience took seat on an irregular wooden island at the centre. A romantic landscape was projected on the walls alongside shadows of industrial devices.

“We wanted to express what women think,” Prada told reporters after the show. The designer created handbags in tweed, giving a sporty touch to luxury items. The Hong-Kong listed fashion house, which competes with LVMH’s Louis Vuitton and PPR’s Gucci, said on Tuesday preliminary revenues rose 29 percent to 3.3 billion euros ($4.36 billion) for the 12 months ended in January. The company declined to comment on Thursday on media reports that it may buy Milan’s renowned coffee house Cova, located in Via Montenapoleone, in the heart of the fashion district.— Reuters

Models display creations as part of Prada Fall-Winter 2013-2014 Womenswear collection on February 21, 2013 during the Women’s fashion week in Milan. — AFP photos

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

DSquare d2

features

B

oth the masculine and feminine sides of the DSquared2 label were shouting over each other for attention. The collection for next winter, presented on the second day of Milan Fashion Week on Thursday, featured over-the-top masculine tailoring balanced with oversized jewels. For daytime, the look was gangster chic, with loose-fitting men’s doublebreasted suits worn with nothing more than a dickey underneath and topped with exaggerated bowler hats - pink with purple ribbon. Pencil skirts paired with belted jackets, one with layered, architectural lapels. But for nighttime, the mood was more speak easy slinky with silky dresses with an asymmetrical, trailing feather boa hemline or a fur stole - a favorite on Milan runways this season. Designing twins Dean and Dan Caten showed at night for the first time in a while, giving up their closing day slot. — AP

Models wear creations for DSquared2 women’s Fall-Winter 2013-14 collection, part of the Milan Fashion Week, unveiled in Milan, Italy. — AP photos

TECHNOLOGY

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

On Twitter, a peanut gallery mocks Oscars NEW YORK: You can simply tune into the Oscars. Or you can watch them with the peanut gallery on Twitter.

While Hollywood parades in tuxedos and gowns, grandly celebrating itself, a freewheeling cacophony of quips and sarcasm - something like a digital, milliontimes multiplied version of those balcony Muppet onlookers, Statler and Waldorf - will provide a welcome and riotous counter-narrative to the pomp.

The second-screen experience is never better than on Oscar night, when a separate (and some might say superior) entertainment experience plays out on social media. The running commentary, in which comedians and others parody the glamorous stars and their sometimes laughable speeches, has become as central to the Academy Awards as the red carpet.

“Following the Oscars on Twitter is like watching the show with one hundred million of your drunkest friends,” says Andy Borowitz, the humorist and author who’s often been a standout tweeter on Oscar night.

Last year, he succinctly summarized the previous two best-picture winners, “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist,” as “an English dude who couldn’t speak” and “a

French dude no one could hear.” Live tweeting major TV events, from the Super Bowl to the Grammy Awards, has become engrained in our viewing by now, forming a virtual water cooler that has boosted ratings. But the Academy Awards stream is particularly captivating because it provides an antidote to the on-screen, buttoned-down glamour. It’s as if there’s not an “SAP” button on your remote, but a “YUKS” one, bringing you play-by-play from some of the funniest people in cyberspace. Comedians assemble as if by duty.

“You gotta say something. Someone has to say something,” says comedian Billy Eichner. “To just stand by and watch it happen is almost too tense. It’s cathartic.

You’ve got to just get it out on Twitter because if not, we’re all going to be bottled up thinking about how awkward Anne Hathaway made it for one billion people in real time. I don’t begrudge her the award; I’m just saying she’s a ridiculous person.”

As host of Funny or Die’s “Billy on the Street,” which airs on Fuse, Eichner aggressively and comically interviews passersby about pop culture. So he’s particularly adept at expressing all-caps mockery when it comes to

the stars of Hollywood. In the awards circuit leading up to the Oscars, he’s zeroed in on Anne Hathaway, the odds-on favorite to win best supporting actress for her performance in “Les Miserables.”

In Hathaway, Eichner recognizes a great actress, but also a striving theater geek. Nothing is funnier, he says, “than the mix of ego and lack of self-awareness, like Jodie Foster’s Golden Globes speech.” “Ultimately, it’s just fun because the whole thing is so ridiculous,” says Eichner. “It’s like, why not comment on it? What is it even there for other than to be commented on?”

The Oscars has become one of the biggest social media events of the year. Last year’s telecast at one point set a then-record for 18,718 tweets-per-second. A statuette could be handed out for a new award: most tweeted tweet. In 2011, that honor went to The Onion, which lamented: “How rude not a single character from Toy Story 3 bothered to show up.” Last year, “The Artist” may have won best picture, but Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” easily bested it with 110,179 tweets to 78,509 for “The Artist,” according to Twitter metrics analyst TweetReach.—AP

NYPD, Microsoft create crime-fighting tech system

PYONGYANG: In this Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2013 file photo, foreigners crowd around a sales person at a Koryolink cellphone rental booth, asking about mobile phone service at Pyongyang Airport in Pyongyang, North Korea.

Koryolink informed foreign residents in Pyongyang yesterday, that it will launch a high-speed 3G Internet service, taking another step toward interconnectivity by allowing foreigners to tweet, Skype and surf the Internet from their cellphones, iPads and laptops. — AP

N Korea to allow mobile Internet for foreigners PYONGYANG: North Korea will soon allow foreigners to tweet, Skype and surf the Internet from their cellphones, iPads and other mobile devices in its second relaxation of controls on communications in recent weeks. However, North Korean citizens will not have access to the mobile Internet service to be offered by provider Koryolink within the next week.

Koryolink, a joint venture between Korea Post & Telecommunications Corporation and Egypt’s Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding SAE, informed foreign residents in Pyongyang on Friday that it will launch a third generation, or 3G, mobile Internet service no later than March 1.

The announcement comes just weeks after North Korea began allowing foreigners to bring their own cellphones into the country to use with Koryolink SIM cards, reversing a longstanding rule requiring most visitors to relinquish their phones at customs and leaving many without easy means of communication with the outside world.

The two changes in policy mean for-

eigners in North Korea will have unprecedented connectivity while living, working or traveling in a country long regarded as one of the most isolated nations in the world.

However, wireless Internet will not yet be offered to North Koreans, who are governed by a separate set of telecommunication rules from foreigners. North Koreans will be allowed to access certain 3G services, including SMS and MMS messaging, video calls and subscriptions to the state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper - but not the global Internet.

The lack of Internet access in North Korea has put the country at the bottom of Internet freedom surveys. Though North Korea is equipped for broadband Internet, only a small, approved segment of the population has access to the World Wide Web. During a visit to Pyongyang early last month, Google’s executive chairman pressed the North Koreans to expand access to the Internet. Eric Schmidt noted that it would be “very easy” for North Korea to offer Internet on Koryolink’s fastexpanding 3G cellphone network.—AP

NEW YORK: A 911 call comes in about a possible bomb in lower Manhattan and an alert pops up on computer screens at the New York Police Department, instantly showing officers an interactive map of the neighborhood, footage from nearby security cameras, whether there are high radiation levels and whether any other threats have been made against the city.

In a click, police know exactly what they’re getting into. Such a hypothetical scenario may seem like something out of a futuristic crime drama, but the technology is real, developed in a partnership between the nation’s largest police department and Microsoft Corp., and the latest version has been quietly in use for about a year.

The project could pay off in more ways than one: The NYPD could make tens of millions of dollars under an unprecedented marketing deal that allows Microsoft to sell the system to other law enforcement agencies and civilian companies around the world. The city will get a 30 percent cut. The Domain Awareness System, known as the dashboard, gives easy access to the police department’s voluminous arrest records, 911 calls, more than 3,000 security cameras citywide, license plate readers and portable radiation detectors. This is all public data - not additional surveillance.

Right now, it is used only in NYPD offices, mostly in the counterterrorism unit. Eventually, the system could supply crime-fighting information in real time to officers on laptops in their squad cars and on mobile devices while they walk the beat.

“It works incredibly well,” said Jessica Tisch, director of planning and policy for the counterterrorism unit. For example, officers used the system during a deadly shooting outside the Empire State Building in August. Dozens of 911 calls were coming in, and it initially looked like

an attack staged by several gunmen.

But officers mapped the information and pulled up cameras within 500 feet of the reported shots to determine there was only one shooter.

Analysts are cautious about the potential profits, saying that largely depends on Microsoft’s sales efforts and whether any major competition arises. While there other data-drilling products made by other companies, they say the NYPD’s involvement could set the dashboard apart.

“This is the kind of stuff you used to only see in movies,” said analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group, a technology analysis firm. “Getting it to work in a way that police departments can use in real time is huge.”

The venture began in 2009 when the NYPD approached Microsoft about building software to help mine data for the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative, a network of private and public cameras and other tools monitored by the department’s counterterrorism bureau. Development cost the department between $30 million and

$40 million, officials said.

“Usually, you purchase software that you try to work with, but we wanted this to be something that really worked well for us, so we set about creating it with them,” said Richard Daddario, the NYPD’s deputy commissioner for counterterrorism. Officers were involved throughout the process with the programmers, offering advice on what they need during an emergency.

“It was created by cops for cops,” Tisch said. “We thought a lot about what information we want up close and personal, and what needs to be a click away. It’s all baked in there.”

The system uses hundreds of thousands of pieces of information.

Security camera footage can be rewound five minutes so that officers can see suspects who may have fled.

Sensors pick up whether a bag has been left sitting for a while. When an emergency call comes in, officers can check prior 911 calls from that address to see what they might be up against.—AP

BELLEVUE: In this Nov. 28, 2012, file photo, Microsoft Corp. retail store employees and guests mingle at a pop-up Microsoft Store during Microsoft’s annual meeting of shareholders, in Bellevue, Wash.

Longtime users of Hotmail, MSN and other Microsoft email services will start noticing a big change: When they sign in to check messages, they’ll be sent to a new service called Outlook.com. — AP

technology SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Yahoo redesign aims to make site more inviting SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo is renovating the main entry into its website in an effort to get people to visit more frequently and stay longer. The long-awaited makeover of Yahoo.com’s home page is the most notable change to the website since the Internet company hired Marissa Mayer as its CEO seven months ago. The new look debuted Wednesday in the US, although it could take a few more days before everyone starts to see it.

It’s the first time Yahoo has redesigned the page in four years. In that time, the company has seen its annual revenue drop by about 30 percent from $7.2 billion in 2008 to $5 billion last year as more online advertising flowed to rivals such as Internet search leader Google Inc. and social networking leader Facebook Inc. Mayer, who spent 13 years helping to build Google into the Internet’s most powerful company, has vowed to revive Yahoo Inc.’s revenue growth by estab-

lishing more of the company’s services as daily habits that “delight and inspire” their users.

Yahoo.com’s revamped home page figures to play a key role in determining whether Mayer, 37, realizes her ambition. “We think this will be the new foundation for Yahoo,” said Mike Kerns, the company’s vice president of product.

Despite the company’s recent financial malaise, Yahoo’s home page has remained one of the Internet’s top destinations. The page attracted 392 million worldwide visitors last month, a 7 percent increase from 365 million at the same time last year, according to research firm comScore Inc. By comparison, Microsoft Corp.’s msn.com drew a crowd of 334 million, up 4 percent from last year.

But visitors haven’t been spending as much time at Yahoo.com when they check in. They also haven’t been making as many return visits each month. That’s been a problem for many other web-

NEW YORK: This image released by NBC shows host Savannah Guthrie, left, with Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on NBC News’ “Today” show, Wednesday in New York as Mayer introduces the website’s redesign.

Yahoo is renovating the main entry into its website in an effort to get people to visit more frequently and linger for longer periods of time. — AP

sites, too, as Facebook and other online hangouts capture more of people’s online time.

Yahoo’s revamped home page isn’t a radical new look, but there are enough changes that could make the website more addictive. In a blog post, Mayer wrote that she is trying to infuse Yahoo’s home page with a “more modern experience.”

The biggest switch will be in how Yahoo determines which stories to show each visitor on the home page and how the information is displayed. Kerns says Yahoo has developed more sophisticated formulas to determine which topics are most likely to appeal to different people so the news feed can be finetuned to cater to different tastes. Yahoo, which is based in Sunnyvale, Calif., already knows a lot about people who have been coming to its website for years, particularly if they logged in while visiting.

People willing to connect Yahoo with their social circles on Facebook also are more apt to see stories that appeal to them. That access will enable Yahoo to pick out stories about subjects tied to a person’s interests on Facebook, either directly or through their online friendships. More tools will empower users to designate their areas of interest, too.

The news feed also has been retooled so it is constantly refreshed with more material as a person scrolls down the page. (Yahoo gets its news content from many sources, including The Associated Press.) The ability to endlessly peruse stories is ideally suited for viewing on smartphones and tablet computers controlled by touch, although the feature also works on desktop machines operated with a mouse or keyboard. Yahoo’s new home page also shows snippets of text from each story, borrowing a page from the Google playbook that Mayer helped write. — AP

China cybervictim claims a red herring: Analysts BEIJING: China’s full-throated denials of hacking and counter-accusations of its own do nothing to allay growing concern over large-scale cyberspying alleged in a bombshell report this week, Western analysts said.

Chinese officials and state-run media have lashed out after a report by a US firm laid out in unprecedented detail what Western officials and experts have long claimed: that China’s army runs an aggressive hacking operation targeting US firms.

But James Lewis, a senior fellow based in Washington with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said: “No country breaks into tears and confesses when accused of espionage, so the denials can be dismissed. “Many countries besides the US have concluded that China is the leading bad actor in cyberspace and China’s espionage is on track to become a major international problem,” he added. “Saying ‘we’re victims, too’ won’t deflect this.” The report from consultancy Mandiant alleged that hacking group “APT1” had stolen data from at least 141 organisations across 20 industries

and was part of a Chinese military unit which investigators traced to an office block in Shanghai. Although the account laid out the most detailed accusations yet of Chinese hacking, the rising power’s online conduct had already drawn growing scrutiny. Last month the New York Times and other American media outlets reported they had come under hacking attacks from China, and a US congressional report last year named the country as “the most threatening actor in cyberspace”.

Beijing has rebuffed the allegations by countering that attacks tied to Chinese IP addresses do not necessarily originate from China, that their accusers have ulterior motives and that it too is a victim of hacking.

Of about 10,000 attacks from overseas on Chinese websites last year, nearly three-quarters came from US IP addresses, the Xinhua state news agency said this month, citing the National Computer Network Emergency Response Coordination Centre. Several Internet security firms with operations in China or Asia declined to comment on hacking attacks in light of the report. — AFP

SAN FRANCISCO: Sundar Pichai, Google’s senior vice president of Chrome and apps, discusses the Google Chromebook Pixel laptop computer at an announcement in San Francisco, Thursday. Google is adding a new touch to its line of Chrome laptops in an attempt to outshine personal computers running on software made by rivals Microsoft and Apple. — AP

Google challenges Apple with high-end laptop SAN FRANCISCO: Google unveiled a touchscreen notebook computer Thursday designed for high-end users, throwing down the gauntlet to Apple and its MacBooks.

Google said its Chromebook Pixel computers blending tablet and laptop technology, boasting heavyweight Intel chips and screens tailored for rich graphics, were released in the United States and Britain, starting at $1,299.

“People will give up a MacBook Air for this,” Google Chrome senior vice president Sundar Pichai said. A Pixel model featuring built-in connectivity to the Verizon mobile Internet service will hit the US market in April at a price of $1,449. The newly unveiled version can connect online with wireless hot-spot technology or cables. “It’s a great looking product,” Om Malik of technology news website GigaOM said at the Pixel debut in San Francisco.

“But Google is facing a selling problem, they have to compete on price originally and build a developer base for a high-end product.” Google is hoping enthusiasts will forego price comparisons with competitors such as MacBooks or laptops built on Windows 8 software and focus instead on the Pixel’s touchscreen feature and the massive terabyte of Google Drive online data storage included.

“It seems like a pretty hard sell,” said Forrester analyst James McQuivey. “I hope they are not planning to make a lot of money off it.” While the Pixel seems aimed at the MacBook market, it also faces fierce competition from touchscreen laptops based on Windows 8 software.

“It seems like more of a symbolic product release with Google trying to make a point that it is no longer just a low-end provider of devices,” McQuivey said. Analyst Rob Enderle of Enderle Group branded the Pixel move “a train wreck,” arguing that notebook computers above $600 have historically not sold well and that Apple even sells a slick MacBook Air model for $999.

The booming popularity of tablet computers is also eroding the overall market for laptops. “It just boggles the mind,” Enderle said. “I have no clue what the hell Google was thinking.” The announcement adds a new dimension to the rivalry between the two tech giants, locked in a fierce battle over smartphones and tablets.

“This is for power users we expect to live completely in the cloud,” Pichai said. “The Pixel is about pushing the state of the art.” Google custom built Pixel and is producing it with the help of electronics manufacturers in Taiwan.

“It is clear that touch is here to stay and that it is the future,” Pichai said. He described the Pixel screen resolution as superior to that on any laptop shipped today.

Within three months, Google will release Quickoffice software for handling documents and spreadsheets after complaints by Chrome notebook users over difficulties when trying to work with Microsoft’s widely used Word or Excel software, according to Pichai.

Google’s main intent with the Pixel is to more deeply mesh the California-based Internet giant’s money-generating products and services into people’s lives. Google was working with third-party application developers to tailor Pixel programs. — AFP

TV listings SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

19:20 The Amazing World Of Gumball 19:45 Adventure Time 20:35 Regular Show 21:00 Mucha Lucha 21:25 Total Drama Action 21:50 Total Drama Action 22:15 Grim Adventures Of...

23:00 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 23:50 The Powerpuff Girls

00:20 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 00:50 Untamed & Uncut 01:45 How Sharks Hunt 02:35 Animal Cops Houston 03:25 Wildest Arctic 04:15 My Cat From Hell 05:05 Karina: Wild On Safari 05:30 Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer 05:55 Animal Cops Houston 06:45 Wildest Arctic 07:35 Wildlife SOS 08:00 Meerkat Manor 08:25 Dogs 101: Specials 09:15 Crocodile Hunter 10:10 Michaela’s Animal Road Trip 11:05 Monkey Life 11:30 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 12:00 Extraordinary Dogs 12:25 The Really Wild Show 12:55 Wildest India 13:50 Wild France 14:45 Wild France 15:40 Shamwari: A Wild Life 16:05 Shamwari: A Wild Life 16:35 Wildlife SOS 17:30 Too Cute!

18:25 My Cat From Hell 19:20 Call Of The Wildman 19:45 Call Of The Wildman 20:15 Venom Hunter With Donald Schultz 21:10 Into The Dragon’s Lair 22:05 Wildest India 23:00 Amba The Russian Tiger 23:55 Wild Things With Dominic Monaghan

00:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 01:20 Homes Under The Hammer 02:10 Homes Under The Hammer 03:00 Homes Under The Hammer 03:50 Homes Under The Hammer 04:45 Homes Under The Hammer 05:35 Rick Stein’s Spain 06:25 New Scandinavian Cooking 06:55 The Hairy Bikers USA 07:20 The Hairy Bikers USA 07:45 MasterChef 08:35 MasterChef 09:00 MasterChef 09:55 MasterChef 10:50 Rick Stein’s Spain 11:45 New Scandinavian Cooking 12:10 The Hairy Bikers USA 12:40 The Hairy Bikers USA 13:05 Come Dine With Me: Supersize 14:40 Come Dine With Me: South Africa 15:35 Antiques Roadshow 16:30 Bargain Hunt 17:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 18:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Specials 20:00 Come Dine With Me: Supersize 21:30 Gok’s Fashion Fix 22:20 Antiques Roadshow 23:15 Bargain Hunt

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:10 02:00 02:30 03:00 03:30 04:00 04:30 05:00 05:30 06:00 06:10 06:30 07:00 07:10 07:30 08:00 08:10 08:30 09:00 09:10 09:30 10:00 10:10 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:15

BBC World News Dateline London BBC World News My Country BBC World News Newsnight BBC World News Click BBC World News India Business Report BBC World News Fast Track BBC World News World Features Equestrian World BBC World News World Features Dateline London BBC World News World Features Changing Fortunes BBC World News World Features BBC World News BBC World News World Features Newsnight BBC World News The Bottom Line BBC World News Sport Today

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

World Report News Special Mainsail World Sport World Report Talk Asia World Report Amanpour CNN Marketplace Europe CNN Marketplace Africa The Brief CNN Presents CNN Newsroom Business Traveller Inside Africa World Sport Inside The Middle East World Report CNN Marketplace Middle East Talk Asia World Report CNN Marketplace Europe Eco Solutions World Sport Living Golf African Voices The Brief CNN Presents World Report News Special Fareed Zakaria GPS World Report Cnngo State Of The Union International Desk Backstory Global Exchange CNN Marketplace Africa Global Exchange CNN Marketplace Middle East World Sport Mainsail International Desk African Voices International Desk Inside The Middle East Fareed Zakaria GPS

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

Auction Kings Auction Kings Auction Kings Auction Kings How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Fast N’ Loud Jesse James Outlaw Garage American Chopper Gold Rush Gold Divers Around The World In 80 Ways How It’s Made How It’s Made Auction Kings Auction Kings Border Security Border Security Mythbusters Mythbusters Magic Of Science Time Warp How We Invented The World Protecting Washington DC Mythbusters

00:40 01:05 01:35 02:25

The X-Testers The X-Testers Finding Bigfoot Dark Matters

ALIEN VS. PREDATOR ON OSN ACTION HD 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:10 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:15 18:30 19:00 19:10 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00 22:30 22:45 23:00 23:30

Click BBC World News Horizons BBC World News My Country BBC World News India Business Report BBC World News BBC World News BBC World News The Ideas Exchange BBC World News Sport Today Equestrian World BBC World News World Features Changing Fortunes BBC World News Horizons BBC World News Our World Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday India Business Report

00:20 00:45 01:10 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:40 04:00 04:20 04:45 05:10

Yogi’s Treasure Hunt Duck Dodgers Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Dastardly And Muttley Popeye Wacky Races Scooby Doo Where Are You! The Flintstones The Jetsons What’s New Scooby Doo? Taz-Mania The Looney Tunes Show Tom & Jerry Tales

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

Johnny Bravo Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Ha Ha Hairies Baby Looney Tunes Cartoonito Tales Gerald McBoing Boing Lazy Town Krypto The Superdog Bananas In Pyjamas Cartoonito Tales Ha Ha Hairies Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Lazy Town Krypto The Superdog Baby Looney Tunes Ha Ha Hairies Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Lazy Town Krypto The Superdog The Garfield Show Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals Tom And Jerry Tales Taz-Mania Taz-Mania Johnny Bravo Dexter’s Laboratory Looney Tunes Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries Taz-Mania The Looney Tunes Show Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Pink Panther And Pals What’s New Scooby-Doo? Sylvester And Tweety Mysteries Puppy In My Pocket The Perils Of Penelope Pitstop The Addams Family Droopy: Master Detective

00:40 Chowder 01:30 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 01:55 Bakugan Battle Brawlers 02:20 Foster’s Home For...

02:45 Foster’s Home For...

03:10 Courage The Cowardly Dog 04:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 04:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 04:50 Adventure Time 05:15 The Powerpuff Girls 05:40 Generator Rex 06:05 Ben 10 06:30 Ben 10 06:55 Angelo Rules 07:00 Casper’s Scare School 07:30 Casper’s Scare School 08:00 Grim Adventures Of...

08:45 Total Drama Action 09:10 Total Drama Action 09:35 Ben 10: Ultimate Challenge 09:55 Level Up 10:15 Transformers Prime 10:35 Ben 10: Omniverse 11:00 Thundercats 11:25 Mucha Lucha 11:50 Adventure Time 12:40 Regular Show 13:35 The Amazing World Of Gumball 14:20 Johnny Test 15:10 Total Drama Island 15:35 Total Drama Island 16:00 Level Up 16:25 Level Up 16:50 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 17:15 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 17:40 Transformers Prime 18:30 Hero 108 18:55 Hero 108

03:15 Sci-Fi Science 03:45 Finding Bigfoot 04:35 The X-Testers 05:00 The X-Testers 05:25 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 06:20 Weird Connections 06:45 Weird Connections 07:10 Weird Or What?

08:00 Meteorite Men 08:50 Stunt Junkies 09:15 Stunt Junkies 09:40 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 10:30 Mighty Ships 11:25 Da Vinci’s Machines 12:15 Tech Toys 360 12:40 Tech Toys 360 13:10 Food Factory 13:35 Food Factory 14:00 Moon Machines 14:50 Sci-Fi Science 15:20 Da Vinci’s Machines 16:10 Weird Or What?

17:00 Tech Toys 360 17:25 Tech Toys 360 17:55 Superships 18:45 Through The Wormhole With Morgan Freeman 19:35 Da Vinci’s Machines 20:30 Meteorite Men 21:20 Finding Bigfoot 22:10 Tech Toys 360 22:35 Tech Toys 360 23:00 Meteorite Men 23:50 Dark Matters

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

Stitch A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic A Kind Of Magic Replacements Replacements Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Jake & The Neverland Pirates Suite Life On Deck A.N.T. Farm Wizards Of Waverly Place Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Prank Stars Prank Stars Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Jessie Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm Gravity Falls High School Musical 2 Wizards Of Waverly Place Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie Gravity Falls Phineas And Ferb Prank Stars Prank Stars Shake It Up Austin And Ally Jessie A.N.T. Farm Geek Charming Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Phineas And Ferb Wizards Of Waverly Place Shake It Up Austin And Ally Prank Stars Prank Stars A.N.T. Farm Jessie Jessie Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie The Suite Life Of Zack And

00:00 00:55 01:25 02:20 04:10

Dirty Soap Style Star E! Investigates E! Investigates THS

The Suite Life Of Zack And Stitch

TV listings SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013 05:05 Extreme Close-Up 05:30 Extreme Close-Up 06:00 THS 07:50 Behind The Scenes 08:20 E! News 09:15 Extreme Close-Up 09:45 Extreme Close-Up 10:15 E!es 11:10 Opening Act 12:05 E! News 13:05 Married To Jonas 13:35 Married To Jonas 14:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:00 THS 16:00 Fashion Police 17:00 Behind The Scenes 17:30 Behind The Scenes 18:00 E! News 19:00 Married To Jonas 19:30 Giuliana & Bill 20:30 Giuliana & Bill 21:30 Ice Loves Coco 22:00 Ice Loves Coco 22:30 Opening Act 23:30 Opening Act

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

00:15 00:40 01:05 01:30 Feasts 01:55 Feasts 02:20 02:45 03:10 03:35 04:00 04:20 04:50 05:15 05:40 06:30 07:10 07:35 08:00 08:50 09:15 09:40 10:05 Basics 10:30 Basics 10:55 11:20 11:45 12:10 12:35 13:00 13:50

I Married A Mobster Evil, I Evil, I Ghost Lab Dr G: Medical Examiner Blood Relatives I Married A Mobster I Married A Mobster Evil, I Evil, I Ghost Lab Dr G: Medical Examiner Disappeared Killer Outbreaks Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

True Crime With Aphrodite

14:15 14:40 15:05 15:30 15:55 16:20 16:45 17:35 Basics 18:00 Basics 18:25 18:50 19:15 Feasts 19:40 20:05 20:30 21:20 22:10 23:00 23:50

00:45 01:10 01:40 02:05 02:35 03:30 03:55 04:25 04:50 05:20 06:15 06:40 07:10 08:05 09:00 09:55 10:50 11:15 11:45 12:10

Unique Sweets Unique Sweets World Cafe Asia Easy Chinese Easy Chinese Food Crafters Chopped Barefoot Contessa - Back To Barefoot Contessa - Back To Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Andy Bates American Street Charly’s Cake Angels Guy’s Big Bite Chopped Chopped Iron Chef America Iron Chef America Iron Chef America

Market Values Market Values Into The Drink Into The Drink Ultimate Traveller David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 One Man & His Campervan Street Food Around The World Amish: Out of Order On Surfari On Surfari Don’t Tell My Mother Don’t Tell My Mother Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy

By Any Means Market Values Market Values Into The Drink Into The Drink

12:40 Ultimate Traveller 13:35 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 14:00 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 2 14:30 One Man & His Campervan 14:55 Street Food Around The World 15:25 Cruise Ship Diaries 15:50 Destination Extreme 16:20 Don’t Tell My Mother 17:15 Bite Me With Dr. Mike Leahy 18:10 By Any Means 19:05 Amish: Out of Order 20:00 On Surfari 20:30 On Surfari 21:00 Don’t Tell My Mother 22:00 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 22:55 David Rocco‚Äôs Dolce Vita 3 23:20 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 23:50 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita 1

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 PG15 10:00 12:00 14:00 PG15 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00

Dread-18 Get Rich Or Die Tryin’-18 True Justice: Street Wars-PG15 Goal!-PG15 True Justice: Lethal JusticeBiker Boyz-PG15 Metro-PG15 True Justice: Lethal JusticeBurden Of Evil-PG15 Metro-PG15 AVP: Alien vs Predator-PG15 The Rite-18

Something Borrowed-PG15 Eva-PG15 A Dog Named Duke-PG15 33 Postcards-PG15 Something Borrowed-PG15 Golden Christmas 3-PG15

Murder Shift Disappeared Killer Outbreaks Street Patrol Street Patrol Forensic Detectives True Crime With Aphrodite

13:00 14:00 15:30 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Muhammad And Larry-PG15 Once Brothers-PG15 Kung Fu Dunk-PG15 Win Win-PG15 S. Darko-PG15 30 Minutes Or Less-18 Martha Marcy May Marlene-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Saturday Night Live 02:30 Veep 03:00 Parks And Recreation 03:30 Baby Daddy 04:00 Less Than Perfect 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Less Than Perfect 06:00 Seinfeld 06:30 Hope & Faith 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Less Than Perfect 08:30 Less Than Perfect 09:00 Parks And Recreation 09:30 The Neighbors 10:00 Modern Family 10:30 Hope & Faith 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Seinfeld 12:30 Less Than Perfect 13:00 Less Than Perfect 13:30 Hope & Faith 14:00 Baby Daddy 14:30 Modern Family 15:00 The Neighbors 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 Seinfeld 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 The Simpsons 18:30 Baby Daddy 19:00 Two And A Half Men

19:30 Modern Family 20:00 The Cleveland Show 20:30 Breaking In 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 Saturday Night Live 23:00 Veep 23:30 The Cleveland Show

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 12:00 12:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 18:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Castle Strike Back C.S.I. Miami Justified C.S.I. Miami Castle Emmerdale Coronation Street One Tree Hill C.S.I. Miami Criminal Minds Emmerdale Coronation Street One Tree Hill Castle Emmerdale Coronation Street One Tree Hill Eureka Grimm Scandal Justified

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 PG15 10:00 12:00 14:00 PG15 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Dread-18 Get Rich Or Die Tryin’-18 True Justice: Street Wars-PG15 Goal!-PG15 True Justice: Lethal JusticeBiker Boyz-PG15 Metro-PG15 True Justice: Lethal JusticeBurden Of Evil-PG15 Metro-PG15 AVP: Alien vs Predator-PG15 The Rite-18

00:00 MacGruber-18 02:00 The Dilemma-PG15 04:00 Morning Glory-PG15 06:00 Desperately Seeking SantaPG15 08:00 The Tooth Fairy 2-PG15 10:00 Baby Geniuses-PG 12:00 Morning Glory-PG15 14:00 Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate-PG 16:00 Baby Geniuses-PG 18:00 Good Boy!-PG 20:00 Tamara Drewe-18 22:00 The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou-PG15

Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Disappeared Murder Shift Forensic Detectives True Crime With Aphrodite Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Fatal Encounters

01:15 03:15 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00

Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Andy Bates American Street Andy Bates American Street Unwrapped Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Kid In A Candy Store Unique Sweets Charly’s Cake Angels Chopped Iron Chef America Unwrapped Unwrapped Food Network Challenge Kid In A Candy Store Unwrapped Food Crafters Barefoot Contessa - Back To

The Last Gamble-18 Black Swan-18 The King’s Speech-PG15 Restless-PG15 Relative Stranger-PG15 Boy-PG15 The Game Of Their Lives-PG15 Relative Stranger-PG15 Page Eight-PG15 Resolution 819-PG15 The Fighter-PG15 The Butcher Boy-PG15

Barefoot Contessa - Back To

00:00 A Little Bit Of Heaven-18 02:00 Source Code-PG15 04:00 Jane Eyre-PG15 06:00 Unmatched-PG15 07:00 Backwash-PG15 09:00 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 11:00 Source Code-PG15 13:00 The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice-PG15 15:00 Kung Fu Panda 2-PG 17:00 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 18:30 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol-PG15 21:00 Moneyball-PG15 23:15 Straw Dogs-18

Cooking For Real Easy Chinese Easy Chinese Mexican Made Easy Mexican Made Easy Iron Chef America Tyler’s Ultimate

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00 08:00 10:00

WIN WIN ON OSN CINEMA

Nomads-PG15 Rising Stars-PG15 12 Dates Of Christmas-PG15 Three Inches-PG15 Miles From Nowhere-PG Hitch-PG15

12:00 PG15 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

Rise Of The Planet Of The ApesRio-FAM Miles From Nowhere-PG Big Miracle-PG Never Let Me Go-PG15 Extract-PG15

01:00 European PGA Tour 05:30 ICC Cricket 360 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Snooker The Welsh Open 10:00 Super League 12:00 ICC Cricket 360 12:30 Trans World Sport 13:30 Super Rugby 15:30 Futbol Mundial 16:00 Live Snooker The Welsh Open 19:30 ICC Cricket 360 20:00 HSBC Sevens World Series Highlights 20:30 Trans World Sport 21:30 Futbol Mundial 22:00 Live Snooker The Welsh Open

02:00 03:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 11:00 14:00 18:00 20:30 23:30

UFC The Ultimate Fighter Super Rugby Super League Top 14 Super Rugby Snooker Live PGA European Tour UFC Prelims UFC UFC The Ultimate Fighter

01:00 01:30 03:30 07:00 11:30 13:30 14:30 15:00 17:00 19:00 20:00

Total Rugby Pro 12 Premier League Darts European PGA Tour Pro 12 Trans World Sport Total Rugby Super League Top 14 Trans World Sport European PGA Tour

00:00 01:00 03:00 04:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 10:30 11:00 13:00 16:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 23:30

WWE Vintage Collection NHL UFC TUF UFC On Fuel WWE Bottom Line WWE NXT WWE Experience WWE This Week Mobil 1 The Grid NHL Prizefighter WWE SmackDown WWE Bottom Line WWE Vintage Collection WWE Experience WWE This Week NHL WWE Bottom Line

00:00 MSNBC News 02:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 02:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 03:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 03:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 04:00 Live NBC Saturday Today Show 07:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 07:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 08:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 08:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 09:00 MSNBC Investigates 10:00 ABC World News Now With David Muir 10:30 Live NBC Nightly News (Sat-Sun) 11:00 MSNBC Martin Bashir 12:00 MSNBC Hardball With Chris Matthews 13:00 MSNBC The Ed Show 14:00 Live ABC 20/20 15:00 MSNBC Hardball Weekend 15:30 MSNBC Your Business 16:00 Live NBC Sunday Today Show 18:00 ABC This Week With G Stephanopoulos 19:00 MSNBC Melissa Harris-Perry 20:00 Live NBC Meet The Press 21:00 ABC This Week With G Stephanopoulos 22:00 MSNBC Weekends With Alex Witt Sunday 23:00 MSNBC News

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

KMBS team emerges as Kuwait’s winners of the Global Management Challenge 2012

A

team from Kuwait Maastricht Business School (KMBS) has emerged as Kuwait’s national winners of the Global Management Challenge 2012 Inaugural Edition. The successful three high-flyers are Wafaa Nadim Salman, Training Manager and Professional Freelance Trainer, Sameh Sami Antoun, Senior Sales Manager at Nokia Siemens Network and Mohamed AdelAbouzeid, Vice President Research at United Real Estate Group.

The team will represent Kuwait in April 2013 in the international final among more than 40 countries in Bucharest, Romania.

Six teams had battled through to the national final round, after competing among 12 teams in an intensive first round over five consecutive weeks. Teams entered on behalf of many leading companies and universities in Kuwait. The aim of the Challenge is to achieve the highest share price for the same company given to

the six teams in a simulated stock exchange. Decisions had to be made in the areas of marketing, sales, human and financial resources and production, just as in real life. Tension was high as the Simulator’s reports were prepared.

The Ambassador of Romania to Kuwait said he looked forward to welcoming the winners to Romania in April and spoke about the importance of decision-making in corporate and national life.

Randa Haidar, Managing Director of the organizer ADNAR Group said “The Group’s commitment to social responsibility led us to the conviction that building a better Kuwait can only be achieved through the development of national cadres, and therefore we felt we had to support the Challenge.” The KMBS team paid tribute to the faculty who had paved their way to this moment and promised to do their best against the 40 other national teams in Romania.

NBK announces 3 winners of Al-Jahra weekly draw

N

ational Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announces the three lucky winners in Al-Jawhara weekly draws during the month of February.

Fatma Mohammed Hasan, Naheed Basar Mohamed Shareef Basar and Amina Rebah Manhal Mohammed Al Anzi each won KD 5,000. The winners expressed their gratitude and thanked NBK for its great services and promotions.

NBK has re-launched Al-Jawhara account by offering customers more chances to win bigger prizes; KD 5,000 weekly, KD 125,000 monthly and a grand prize of KD 250,000 quarterly.

Al-Jawhara is one of Kuwait’s leading cash prize accounts offering numerous benefits to its customers. Not only is it an interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, it also entitles account holders to enter the weekly, monthly and quarterly Al-Jawhara draws.

Each KD 50 in an Al Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance in any of the draws. All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw.

The more money held in Al-Jawhara account, the greater the chances of winning. Al-Jawhara account is available to both Kuwaitis and expats and can be opened at any of NBK’s branches in Kuwait. For further information visit www.nbk.com , or call Hala Watani at 1801801.

KFH served clients electronically during the National and Liberation Days holiday

K

uwait Finance House (KFH) announced that it is ready to fulfill its commitments towards its clients during the National and Liberation Day holiday. The bank will continue to offer various services for its clients in Kuwait and overseas through its website that offers over 150 free services, in addition to other service channels that provide clients with necessary services and products 24 hours a day. The bank added that departments are prepared technically to avoid any problems that might threaten offering KFH clients the best level of services possible. The call center will be ready to receive calls from clients throughout the day, and will work relentlessly to overcome any problems that clients might face both in Kuwait and abroad.

In addition, KFH continues to offer its phone services on

1803333 throughout the day. Clients can call to make account transactions, ask for financial transaction, pay bills, purchase cards to recharge cell phones, transfer money to charity, and other services.

Moreover, people can take advantage of KFH’s ATM machines that can be found at all vital locations. Those machines allow clients to deposit cash and cheques, not to mention Mobi Baitok vehicles that serve as mobile branches that allow people to deposit and withdraw cash. It is worth noting that KFH has additional technical privileges, such as allowing clients to perform basic banking operations through iPhones and iPads on kfhonline application. KFH will also ensure that all its ATM machines will be loaded with cash to face high withdrawal operations during the holidays.

Celebration package for Kuwait National Day at Movenpick Hotel & Residences Hajar Tower Makkah

R

esidents and nationals of Kuwait can take advantage of the hotel’s special national day package from 21 February to 1 March 2013. In a neighbourly gesture that celebrates the community spirit between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, the Movenpick Hotel & Residences Hajar Tower Makkah has launched a special national day package.

The national day package starts from SAR 555 per person per night in a classic double room, including buffet breakfast and per-

sonalised in-room amenities. An early check-in and late check-out will also be offered if availability allows. The package is available from 21 February to 1 March 2013 for nationals and residents of Kuwait.

Guests who take advantage of the package will enjoy staying in elegant accommodation with warm, traditional Arabic hospitality and the high standards of Swiss quality and service.

Five restaurants and tea lounges within the hotel premises are open daily for breakfast, lunch and dinner. A fully equipped business

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

W

hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture?

Sharing it with others! This summer, let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens.

Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

centre and a six-storey shopping mall are also available within the Abraj Al-Bait Tower Complex, where the hotel is situated.

Movenpick Hotel & Residences Hajar Tower Makkah is located directly on Al Haram Court, just steps from the Kaaba and facing the King Abdul Aziz Gate. Some of the hotel’s rooms have panoramic views of the Holy Mosque and Kaaba. The closest airport is King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah, which is 64 km away and linked to the hotel with private limousine service or rented cars.

Malayalam writer Zacharia to attend literary conference

M

alayalam Kuwait, a literary forum of Malayali writers in Kuwait, will celebrate its first anniversary on February 24-25.

Renowned Malayalam writer Zacharia will be the chief guest of the anniversary event. Cultural conference, book release, drama and workshop will be held as part of the anniversary.

Zacharia will address the literary conference on February 24 from 6.30 pm at the Central School auditorium, Abbassiya. ‘Oru Pravasiyude Ithihasam’, a novel unraveling the half-a-century-long life and history of Kuwait, written by John Mathew, will be released on the occasion.

Malayalam writer Kaipattoor Thankachan will be honored during the event.

WHAT’S ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Gulfmart reveals totally revamped first Fahaheel branch

G

ulfmart, the largest supermarket chain in the country, raised the curtains on its fully renovated and rebranded first Fahaheel store at a well-attended colorful ceremony on February 18th. Cutting the customary silk ribbon, Satish C. Mehta, the Ambassador of India to Kuwait, along with Dasho Tashi Phuntsog, Ambassador of Bhutan, Madhuban Poudel, Ambassador of Nepal and C.A.H.M. Wijeratne, Ambassador of Sri Lanka and in the presence of prominent Kuwaiti personalities, including lawyer Abdul Aziz Mohamed Al-Ajeel and Nasser Mohamed Al-Ajeel, opened the store to the public. A large gathering of shoppers, well-wishers and Gulfmart officials were on hand to witness the event and participate in the inaugural proceedings.

Traditional Arabic music welcomed guests to the venue, which was decorated with green and white balloons mirroring the newly rebranded color theme of Gulfmart. The rebranding, which includes a stylishly rendered new green leaf logo along with elegant twotoned green lettering, aims to give the brand a reinvigorated fresh image and unite all of its supermarkets under a common theme.

“The new green leaf logo projects the freshness of our produce, while the graceful two-toned lettering reflects the brand’s dynamic young spirit, explained Remesh T.A. Country Manager for Gulfmart. He added, “The green color theme also has a lot of connotations, not least of which is its association with growth, renewal, freshness and its nuances with sustainable and ecological initiatives. These are qualities that represent Gulfmart’s corporate identity and which we aim to portray through our new brand image.”

Clarifying that along with its rebranding and expansion strategies, Gulfmart is simultaneously engaged in a major renovation drive, Remesh said, “Several of our existing branches are undergoing, or will undergo, refitting to bring them on the same level with our newer outlets being launched. All the equipment, including freezers, cold storages, shelves and cash counters will be replaced with the latest retail gear, while wider aisles, clearer signage and enhanced merchandizing are being implemented with the sole aim of providing a better shopping experience for our customers.”

The winning business model of rebranding and renovating existing stores, while opening new stores in different formats in suburbs underserved by full-service retail supermarkets, is proving to be immensely successful for Gulfmart and is appreciated by residents in localities serviced by the supermarket. Gulfmart, which is renowned for carrying a wide variety of products that cater to the shopping needs of the diverse population in Kuwait, is especially popular for offering products that meet the specific ethnic requirements of customers in a locality.

Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration, Arif Sheikh, Managing Director of Gulfmart Group, thanked patrons for their trust in the brand and their continued support of Gulfmart. He said, “The opening of this renovated and rebranded outlet gives the branch a fresh new face-lift that will add to the brand’s persona while providing it with a prominent presence in the locality. The new branding also reinvigorates our commitment to offer customers the best products and services in the years ahead.”

GUST MBA Students complete course at Florida International University

T

he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) MBA class successfully completed the Real Estate/International Marketingclass (MRKT 595) at Florida International University (FIU) Graduate School which covered the core principles of Real Estate and International Marketing.

Through this course, the 23 GUST graduate students were introduced to the principles and latest trends in Real Estate

and achieved a higher level of education. They also were given techniques to understand the current real estate arena as a whole and develop a clear understanding of various industries. Participants received a certificate of completion to enhance their resumes.

According to Issam Moghrabi, Director of the MBA and Director of the Course Abroad Program, “GUST is committed

to graduating globally competent leaders, which means supplying them - through on-campus and study abroad instruction - with the knowledge and skills they will need to thrive in tomorrow’s increasingly interconnected economy. Students get to take courses they can’t take here, earn credits, travel, mix with different cultures, and grab a flavor of the professional world.”

HEALTH

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Governors to hear Oregon health care plan SALEM, Oregon: Oregon Gov John Kitzhaber will brief other state leaders this weekend on his plan to lower Medicaid costs, touting an overhaul that President Barack Obama highlighted in his State of the Union address for its potential to lower the deficit even as health care expenses climb.

The Oregon Democrat leaves for Washington, DC, to pitch his plan that changes the way doctors and hospitals are paid and improves health care coordination for low income residents so that treatable medical problems don’t grow in severity or expense. Kitzhaber says his goal is to win over a handful of other governors from each party. “I think the politics have been dialed down a couple of notches, and now people are willing to sit down and talk about how we can solve the problem” of rising health care costs, Kitzhaber told The Associated Press in a recent interview.

Kitzhaber introduced the plan in 2011 in the face of a severe state budget deficit, and he’s been talking for two years about expanding the initiative beyond his state.

Now, it seems he’s found people ready to listen. Hospital executives from Alabama

visited Oregon last month to learn about the effort. And the US Department of Health and Human Services announced Thursday that it’s giving Oregon a $45 million grant to help spread the changes beyond the Medicaid population and share information with other states, making it one of only six states to earn a State Innovation Model grant.

Kitzhaber will address his counterparts at a meeting of the National Governors Association. His talk isn’t scheduled on the official agenda, but a spokeswoman confirmed that Kitzhaber is expected to present. “The governors love what they call stealing from one another - taking the good ideas and the successes of their colleagues and trying to figure out how to apply that in their home state,” said Matt Salo, director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors.

There’s been “huge interest” among other states in Oregon’s health overhaul, Salo said, not because the concepts are brand new, but because the state managed to avoid pitfalls that often block health system changes.

Kitzhaber persuaded state lawmakers to redesign the system of delivering and

paying for health care under Medicaid, creating incentives for providers to coordinate patient care and prevent avoidable emergency room visits. He has long complained that the current financial incentives encourage volume over quality, driving costs up without making people healthier. Obama, in his State of the Union address this month, suggested that changes such as Oregon’s could be part of a long-term strategy to lower the federal debt by reigning in the growing cost of federally funded health care.

“We’ll bring down costs by changing the way our government pays for Medicare, because our medical bills shouldn’t be based on the number of tests ordered or days spent in the hospital - they should be based on the quality of care that our seniors receive,” Obama said. The Obama administration has invested in the program, putting up $1.9 billion to keep Oregon’s Medicaid program afloat over the next five years while providers make the transition to new business models and incorporate new staff and technology. In exchange, though, the state has agreed to lower percapita health care cost inflation by 2 per-

centage points without affecting quality.

The Medicaid system is unique in each state, and Kitzhaber isn’t suggesting that other states should adopt Oregon’s specific approach, said Mike Bonetto, Kitzhaber’s health care policy adviser.

Rather, he wants governors to buy into the broad concept that the delivery system and payment models need to change.

That’s not a new theory. But Oregon has shown that under the right circumstances massive changes to deeply entrenched business models can gain wide support. What Oregon can’t yet show is proof the idea is working - that it’s lowering costs without squeezing on the quality or availability of care. The state is just finishing compiling baseline data that will be used as a basis of comparison.

One factor driving the Obama administration’s interest in Oregon’s success is the president’s health care overhaul.

Under the Affordable Care Act, millions more Americans will join the Medicaid rolls after Jan. 1, and the health care system will have to be able to absorb the influx of patients in a logistically and financially sustainable way. —AP

Pollution-linked ‘cancer villages’ exist: China Authorities face growing discontent

LAS VEGAS: Plaintiffs Bonnie and Carl Brunson leave court at the end of opening statements during the case against Health Plan of Nevada for the HMO’s role in the largest hepatitis C outbreak in US history in Las Vegas, Nevada. — AFP

Psychological effects of bullying can last years

C

hildren who were bullied and those who were bullies themselves are both at higher risk for depression, anxiety and panic disorder years later, according to a US study.

Researchers had known that bullying can take a psychological toll on both bullies and victims, but it had been unclear just how long those effects would last.

But the latest study, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found that depression and anxiety tied to bullying at school persisted at least through people’s mid-twenties.

The worst off were those who had been both bullies and the targets of bullying. “It’s obviously very well established how problematic bullying is short-term,” said William Copeland, a clinical psychologist who led the new study at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.

“I was surprised that a decade down the road after they’ve been victimized, when they’ve kind of transitioned to adulthood, we would still see these emotional marks for the victims and also the bullies/victims.” His team’s research included 1,420 youth from western North Carolina who were asked about their experiences with bullying at various points between age nine and 16, then were followed and assessed for psychiatric disorders through age 26. —Reuters

BEIJING: China’s environment ministry has acknowledged the existence of “cancer villages”, after years of assertions by academics and domestic media that polluted areas experience higher rates of the disease. The use of the term in an official report, thought to be unprecedented, comes as authorities face growing discontent over industrial waste, hazardous smog and other environmental and health consequences of years of rapid growth.

“Poisonous and harmful chemical materials have brought about many water and atmosphere emergencies... certain places are even seeing ‘cancer villages’,” said a five-year plan that was highlighted this week.

The report did not elaborate on the phenomenon, which has no technical definition but gained prominence in domestic and foreign media after a Chinese journalist posted a map in 2009 pinpointing dozens of such “cancer villages”. The ministry acknowledged that in general China uses “poisonous and harmful chemical products” that are banned in developed countries and “pose long-term or potential harm to human health and the ecology”.

Environmental lawyer Wang Canfa, who runs an aid centre in Beijing for victims of pollution, said Friday it was the first time the “cancer village” phrase had appeared in a ministry document.

“It shows that the environment ministry has acknowledged that pollution has led to people getting cancer,” he said. “It shows that this issue, of environmental pollution leading to health damages, has drawn attention.” A ministry official who declined to be named could not confirm whether it

BEIJING: A woman with her face covered walks in Beijing. was the first time it had used the phrase, but said it had previously acknowledged the connection between the environment and human health.

Media reports about “cancer villages” emerged as early as 1998. Official sources such as government websites and television stations have altogether reported 241 such locations, a US-based geography professor said in a 2010 study. The total reached 459 if accounts from “unofficial” sites such as online portals were included, University of Central Missouri academic Lee Liu said in the USbased journal Environment.

The villages tended to be near major rivers, where people have congregated for generations but which also tended to attract industrial parks seeking easy access to water. “Water contamination from industrial pollution is believed to be the main cause of cancer villages,” Liu

wrote. Cancer incidence has shot up 80 percent over the past three decades-a period of breakneck economic growthto become the country’s most common cause of death, the China Daily cited the health minister as saying in 2010.

Today 2.7 million Chinese people die from cancer a year, the paper reported last month, citing the 2012 annual report from the Cancer Registry. Frustration over industrial pollution has sparked several huge protests over the past year and forced officials to promise to shut plants.

Several days of thick smog that covered swathes of the country last month prompted a public outcry as well as rare criticism from state-run media and top government officials.

The air pollution prompted a rise in hospital visits and forced flights to be cancelled as visibility dropped to as low as 100 metres. — AFP

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

HEALTH

information SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

ACCOMMODATION

Al-Madena Al-Shohada’a Al-Shuwaikh Al-Nuzha Sabhan Al-Helaly Al-Fayhaa Al-Farwaniya Al-Sulaibikhat Al-Fahaheel Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh Ahmadi Al-Mangaf Al-Shuaiba Al-Jahra Al-Salmiya

22418714 22545171 24810598 22545171 24742838 22434853 22545051 24711433 24316983 23927002 24316983 23980088 23711183 23262845 25610011 25616368

Hospitals Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Clinics Rabiya

24732263

Rawdha

22517733

Adailiya

22517144

Khaldiya

24848075

Khaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salim

22549134

Al-Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Al-Qadisiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Ghar

22531908

Al-Shaab

22518752

Al-Kibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Kibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Sharing accommodation available in a 2 bedroom, 2 toilets, CA/C, new building in Farwaniya for Indians only for Mumbai, Goa or Delhi from 25th of Feb. 2013 for single lady/executive bachelors.

Contact: 66625901. (C 4327) 23-2-2013 Sharing accommodation available for bachelors or families in Farwaniya with an Indian family. Please contact: 50540846, 97337658.

LOST Jordanian Passport lost in Jabriya under name of Heba Mohd. Hassan, Passport No. 310007.

Contact: 90035120.

21-2-2013

MATRIMONIAL Alliance invited for a Marthomite boy, age 29 years/182cms graduate born and bought up in Kuwait, currently working in Kuwait for American Drilling Company as a Logistic Controller. Invites proposal from God fearing well educated/employed girls. Email: proposal1984@ymail.com (C 4326) 23-2-2013 Financially sound Ex. NRI Orthodox parents invites proposal for their daughter 29/152, ME+MBA, from parents of God fearing professionals with good family backgrounds.

Email: gracegeevar@gmail.com (C 4325) 20-2-2013

Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) NO TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

SHARQIA-2 THE SNOW QUEEN (DIG-3D) SNITCH (DIG) THE SHOCK LABYRINTH SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) NO TUE+WED

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

SHARQIA-3 FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) MAMA (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) MAMA (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) NO TUE+WED

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

MUHALAB-1 BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) JABARDASTH (DIG) (TELUGU) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) NO TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 4:00 PM 7:45 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

MUHALAB-2 FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) MAMA (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) MAMA (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) NO TUE+WED MUHALAB-3 SNITCH (DIG) THE SNOW QUEEN (DIG-3D) THE SNOW QUEEN (DIG-3D) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) NO TUE+WED FANAR-1 SNITCH (DIG) GAMBIT (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG)

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

1:00 PM 1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (21/02/2013 TO 27/02/2013)

SNITCH (DIG) NO TUE+WED FANAR-2 MAMA (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) MAMA (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) MAMA (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) MAMA (DIG) NO TUE+WED FANAR-3 FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) ZILA GHAZIABAD (DIG) (HINDI) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) MARINA-1 6 BULLETS (DIG) MAMA (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) MAMA (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) NO TUE+WED

12:30 AM

MAMA (DIG) MAMA (DIG) NO TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM

AVENUES-3 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) NO TUE+WED

2:15 PM 4:45 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 4:45 PM 6:45 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM

360 º- 1 SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) NO TUE+WED

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:15 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM

360 º- 2 BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) BEAUTIFUL CREATURES (DIG) NO TUE+WED

2:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 12:30 AM

MARINA-2 A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) GAMBIT (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) NO TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

MARINA-3 THE SNOW QUEEN (DIG-3D) SNITCH (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) NO TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

AVENUES-1 FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) SAVE YOUR LEGS! (DIG) BULLET TO THE HEAD (DIG) NO TUE+WED

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

AVENUES-2 MAMA (DIG) GAMBIT (DIG) MAMA (DIG) MAMA (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:45 PM

360 º- 3 FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) FROM UP ON POPPY HILL (DIG) BROKEN CITY (DIG)

11:00 PM 1:15 AM

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

AL-KOUT.1 THE SHOCK LABYRINTH (DIG-3D) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) MAMA (DIG) 3ALA GOSETY (DIG) MAMA (DIG) THE SHOCK LABYRINTH (DIG-3D) NO TUE+WED

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

AL-KOUT.2 6 BULLETS (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (DIG) 6 BULLETS (DIG) NO TUE+WED

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.3 SNITCH (DIG) GAMBIT (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) NO TUE+WED

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

information SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION In case you are not travelling, your proper cancellation of bookings will help other passengers use seats Airlines JAI KLM THY JZR JZR QTR SAI ETH GFA UAE ETD OMA FDB PIA MSR RBG QTR DHX THY JZR JZR KAC JZR BAW KAC KAC FDB KAC KAC KAC UAE KAC KAC ABY QTR FDB ETD GFA JZR JZR MSC SVA JZR IZG KNE JZR FDB MSR IRM UAE KAC JZR ABY IZG IRC FDB KNE KAC SVA QTR FDB JZR KAC SYR KAC KNE QTR JZR IRA JZR JZR KAC UAE JZR ETD RJA

Arrival Flights on Saturday 23/2/2013 Flt Route 574 MUMBAI 413 AMSTERDAM 772 ISTANBUL 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 148 DOHA 441 LAHORE 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 643 MUSCAT 67 DUBAI 239 ISLAMABAD 612 CAIRO 3555 ALEXANDRIA 138 DOHA 170 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 503 LUXOR 555 ALEXANDRIA 416 JAKARTA 529 ASSIUT 157 LONDON 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 53 DUBAI 382 DELHI 302 MUMBAI 352 COCHIN 855 DUBAI 344 CHENNAI 362 COLOMBO 121 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 327 NAJAF 165 DUBAI 401 ALEXANDRIA 9414 JEDDAH 329 NAJAF 4161 MASHAD 482 TAIF 359 MASHAD 8055 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 1190 MASHAD 871 DUBAI 284 DHAKA 325 NAJAF 123 SHARJAH 4171 MASHAD 6592 MASHAD 57 DUBAI 472 JEDDAH 672 DUBAI 500 JEDDAH 140 DOHA 8055 DUBAI 257 BEIRUT 788 JEDDAH 341 DAMASCUS 790 MEDINAH 470 JEDDAH 134 DOHA 331 NAJAF 3403 MASHAD 787 RIYADH 535 CAIRO 118 NEW YORK 857 DUBAI 357 MASHAD 303 ABU DHABI 640 AMMAN

Time 0:05 0:30 0:35 0:45 0:50 1:00 1:30 1:45 1:50 2:35 2:45 2:50 3:05 3:05 3:10 3:25 3:45 5:15 5:30 5:55 6:00 6:25 6:35 6:40 6:45 7:40 7:45 7:45 7:55 8:05 8:40 8:40 8:45 9:05 9:10 9:15 9:20 9:55 9:55 11:20 11:30 11:30 11:40 11:45 12:00 12:05 12:40 12:45 12:50 12:50 12:55 13:00 13:00 13:05 13:10 13:50 14:15 14:15 14:30 14:35 14:50 14:50 14:55 15:00 15:00 15:05 15:30 15:55 15:55 16:10 16:25 16:35 16:40 16:45 16:50 16:55

IAW GFA FDB SVA JZR QTR ABY UAL KAC KAC NIA JZR RBG FDB IZG IRC MSC KAC KAC KAC KAC IRA KAC OMA KAC FDB JAI AXB MSR JZR ABY KNE ALK QTR KNE KAC MEA QTR GFA ETD UAE JZR FDB KLM KAC AIC JZR GFA JZR KAC UAL DHX BBC DLH

157 215 8063 510 777 144 127 982 538 542 251 177 3553 63 4167 6692 405 176 618 104 674 607 774 647 562 61 572 389 618 189 129 462 229 146 474 502 402 136 221 307 859 135 59 415 786 975 239 217 185 614 981 370 43 636

BAGHDAD BAHRAIN DUBAI RIYADH JEDDAH DOHA SHARJAH WASHINGTON DC DULLES SOHAG CAIRO ALEXANDRIA DUBAI ALEXANDRIA DUBAI MASHAD MASHAD SOHAG GENEVA DOHA LONDON DUBAI MASHAD RIYADH MUSCAT AMMAN DUBAI MUMBAI MANGALORE ALEXANDRIA DUBAI SHARJAH MEDINAH COLOMBO DOHA JEDDAH BEIRUT BEIRUT DOHA BAHRAIN ABU DHABI DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI AMSTERDAM JEDDAH CHENNAI AMMAN BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DHAKA FRANKFURT

Airlines AIC KAC JAI UAL DLH KLM SAI ETH THY FDB UAE OMA ETD RBG MSR PIA QTR QTR JZR JZR JZR

Departure Flights on Saturday 23/2/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 283 DHAKA 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 413 AMSTERDAM 442 LAHORE 621 ADDIS ABABA 773 ISTANBUL 68 DUBAI 854 DUBAI 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 3556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 240 SIALKOT 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 358 MASHHAD 326 AL NAJAF 164 DUBAI

17:00 17:15 17:15 17:20 17:45 17:50 17:55 17:55 18:00 18:05 18:10 18:15 18:20 18:45 18:50 18:55 19:00 19:15 19:20 19:35 19:35 19:50 19:50 19:55 19:55 20:00 20:10 20:15 20:25 20:30 20:35 20:40 20:55 21:00 21:00 21:10 21:20 21:25 21:30 21:35 21:40 21:50 22:00 22:05 22:25 22:30 22:45 22:50 23:05 23:15 23:25 23:40 23:45 23:55

Time 0:05 0:10 1:05 1:10 1:20 1:45 2:30 2:45 2:55 3:45 3:50 3:55 4:00 4:05 4:10 4:20 4:50 6:05 6:05 6:30 6:55

GFA THY JZR FDB BAW JZR JZR KAC KAC JZR KAC ABY KAC UAE FDB ETD QTR KAC GFA JZR KAC KAC JZR JZR MSC JZR SVA IZG FDB ABY KNE MSR JZR IRC IZG IRM UAE FDB KAC KAC KNE KAC FDB KAC SVA SYR KNE JZR QTR KAC KAC JZR IRA ETD JZR QTR UAE RJA FDB IAW GFA JZR SVA ABY JZR QTR RBG JZR UAL NIA FDB IRC MSC IZG KAC FDB IRA OMA

212 771 328 54 156 256 534 101 787 324 671 122 537 856 56 302 133 789 214 356 541 165 776 330 406 786 2615 4162 8056 124 483 611 176 6593 4172 1191 872 58 561 673 473 501 8058 617 505 342 461 188 141 773 785 238 3402 304 538 135 858 641 8064 158 216 184 511 128 266 145 3554 134 982 252 64 6693 402 4168 613 62 604 648

BAHRAIN ISTANBUL AL NAJAF DUBAI LONDON BEIRUT CAIRO LONDON JEDDAH AL NAJAF DUBAI SHARJAH SOHAG DUBAI DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA MADINAH BAHRAIN MASHHAD CAIRO ROME JEDDAH AL NAJAF SOHAG RIYADH JEDDAH MASHHAD DUBAI SHARJAH TAIF CAIRO DUBAI MASHHAD MASHHAD MASHHAD DUBAI DUBAI AMMAN DUBAI JEDDAH BEIRUT DUBAI DOHA JEDDAH DAMASCUS MADINAH DUBAI DOHA RIYADH JEDDAH AMMAN MASHHAD BU DHABI CAIRO DOHA DUBAI AMMAN DUBAI AL NAJAF BAHRAIN DUBAI RIYADH SHARJAH BEIRUT DOHA ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA DUBAI MASHHAD ALEXANDRIA MASHHAD BAHRAIN DUBAI ISFAHAN MUSCAT

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

7:00 7:35 8:15 8:25 8:45 8:50 9:15 9:20 9:25 9:35 9:40 9:45 9:50 9:55 10:00 10:05 10:10 10:15 10:40 10:45 11:30 11:50 12:15 12:30 12:30 12:55 13:00 13:05 13:20 13:40 13:40 13:45 13:50 13:55 14:05 14:15 14:15 14:30 14:30 15:05 15:10 15:15 15:30 15:45 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:05 16:15 16:25 16:55 17:15 17:25 17:35 17:40 17:45 17:50 17:55 17:55 18:00 18:15 18:30 18:35 18:40 18:45 18:50 19:00 19:05 19:10 19:10 19:25 19:50 20:00 20:05 20:15 20:40 20:50 20:55

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 1 0 9

ACROSS 1. A preparation (usually made of sweetened chicle) for chewing.

4. Large arboreal boa of tropical South America.

12. A unit of pain intensity.

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

16. Of or relating to or characteristic of Bavaria or its people.

17. Any of various primates with short tails or no tail at all.

18. A German city near Leipzig.

20. East Indian cereal grass whose seed yield a somewhat bitter flour, a staple in the Orient.

21. Adult female chicken.

22. God of love and erotic desire.

23. (cosmology) The original matter that (according to the big bang theory) existed before the formation of the chemical elements.

25. The basic unit of money in Nigeria.

28. A lump of hard consolidated mineral matter.

30. Adornment consisting of a small piece of shiny material used to decorate clothing.

33. A worker who attaches something by nailing it.

37. The act of hauling something (as a vehicle) by means of a hitch or rope.

38. A French abbot.

41. A quantity of no importance.

42. The basic unit of money in Cambodia.

46. (informal) Informed about the latest trends.

47. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

49. (plural) Hosts or armies.

51. Changed for the worse in health or fitness.

53. A tax on various goods brought into a town.

54. One species.

55. A compartment in front of a motor vehicle where driver sits.

57. A three-tone Chadic language.

58. The capital and largest city of Ghana with a deep-water port.

60. A small cake leavened with yeast.

61. A machine or person that adds.

64. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

66. Wearing or provided with clothing.

70. The cardinal number that is the product of 10 and 100.

73. A public promotion of some product or service.

74. A republic in West Africa on the Gulf of Guinea.

75. A plant hormone promoting elongation of stems and roots.

76. Capital and largest city of Yugoslavia.

79. An independent ruler or chieftain (especially in Africa or Arabia).

80. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 10 liters.

81. New Guinea echidnas.

82. (British) An open river valley (in a hilly area).

3. Injure or wound seriously and leave permanent disfiguration or mutilation.

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

5. Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (trade name Nardil) used to treat clinical depression.

6. The eleventh month of the civil year.

7. Genus of large deciduous nut-bearing trees.

8. Using speech rather than writing.

9. An African river.

10. One of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian belief.

11. Used of a single unit or thing.

12. Tropical woody herb with showy yellow flowers and flat pods.

13. An organization of countries formed in 1961 to agree on a common policy for the sale of petroleum.

14. A Russian river.

19. United States educator who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education (1796-1859).

24. Similar or related in quality or character.

26. Gone by.

27. Appear again.

29. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

31. A low-lying region of west central France on the Bay of Biscay.

32. Physically and mentally fatigued.

34. City in northeast Pakistan.

35. A person responsible for the editorial aspects of publication.

36. Leaf fibers of the raffia palm tree.

39. A small ball with a hole through the middle.

40. Date used in reckoning dates before the supposed year Christ was born.

43. (of speed) Having or caused by speed approximately equal to that of sound in air at sea level.

44. African tree having an exceedingly thick trunk and fruit that resembles a gourd and has an edible pulp called monkey bread.

45. The elementary stages of any subject (usually plural).

48. Give a description of.

50. Fastened together.

52. French romantic writer (1766-1817).

56. A port city in southwestern Iran.

59. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

62. East Indian tree bearing a profusion of intense vermilion velvet-textured blooms and yielding a yellow dye.

63. The face of a timepiece.

65. One of a set of small pieces of stiff paper marked in various ways and used for playing games or for telling fortunes.

67. A Tibetan or Mongolian priest of Lamaism.

68. A blue dye obtained from plants or made synthetically.

69. A challenge to do something dangerous or foolhardy.

71. A former agency (from 1946 to 1974) that was responsible for research into atomic energy and its peacetime uses in the United States.

72. The syllable naming the first (tonic) note of any major scale in solmization.

77. Of or relating to the stomach and intestines.

78. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. An awkward stupid person.

2. The chief solid component of mammalian urine.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

SPORTS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Castleford reacting well to Chase ban - Millward LONDON: Castleford coach Ian Millward claims the Tigers have shown they can cope without their star stand-off Rangi Chase as they prepare to welcome Catalan Dragons in their next Super League fixture.

The 2011 Man of Steel, who joined Castleford from St George for the 2009 season, will serve the second of his twogame ban for the visits of the Dragons tomorrow for a reckless shoulder charge on Leeds Rhinos full-back Zak Hardaker.

The shoulder charge has since been banned by the Rugby Football League, after the International Federation extended a worldwide ban, but Millward’s sole focus is on getting the Tigers back to winning ways after a 38-12 defeat by Bradford Bulls last weekend. “The boys tried very, very hard (against Bradford)

and I was quite impressed,” said Millward.

“If they can keep that attitude up and just keep getting used to playing with each other and refining a few things, there will be some good days ahead.

“Losing Rangi before the game, and losing Gareth O’Brien after five minutes didn’t help, but I thought it was a great contest at Bradford and there was nothing between the two teams, which was encouraging.

“There was plenty of controversy out of the game. But what it did do was give us great heart. Everyone tried hard and did a good job and we look to take that forward now.”

Meanwhile, Hull FC coach Peter Gentle is hoping the blossoming partnership between Daniel Holdsworth and Richard Horne continues on Saturday against

Warrington Wolves.

Holdsworth, who had a three-year spell with Canterbury in the National Rugby League, was a pivotal figure as the Black and Whites came back to earn a 2222 draw against St Helens last weekend.

And former West Tigers assistant Gentle is relishing seeing him in action again. “Daniel is a calming influence on this team,” he said. “He has a couple of good allies in the two hookers-Danny Houghton and Aaron Heremaia-as well as Richard Horne and Shannon McDonnell.

“His work off the ball is pretty special too and he’s settling in to our side. We are working hard towards getting our combinations going but it’s coming and we are going OK.” Ahead of St Helens’ clash with

Bradford Bulls on Saturday, coach Nathan Brown admits he is still getting to grips with life at the Saints after taking the reins at the start of the season.

Brown’s last job, in the NRL, was as St George head coach in 2008 before a stint with Huddersfield Giants was brought to an end mid-way through last season. But following an indifferent start at Langtree Park this season, which has yielded a loss, a defeat and a draw, Brown claims he has still got some tweaking to do.

“The effort is good but we need to do some things consistently better,” he said.

“From a coaching point of view, I have picked up some things that I may have thought are now not quite right for this group of personnel, so we have to do things a little bit different. “That’s a part of learning about your personnel.”

Tina Maze has chance to enter history books MARANA: Tiger Woods tees off the 11th hole in the first round against Charles Howell III during the Match Play Championship golf tournament, Thursday, in Marana, Ariz. — AP

McIlroy, Woods out in first round at WGC Match Play MARANA: World number one Rory McIlroy and 14-time major champion Tiger Woods were toppled in the first round in the World Golf Championships Match Play Championship.

Ireland’s Shane Lowry, ranked 68th in the world and the 64thseed in the 64-man field, defeated Northern Ireland’s McIlroy 1-up, while Charles Howell defeated Woods 2 and 1 at the Ritz Carlton Golf Club course at Dove Mountain.

Lowry, McIlroy’s friend from their days in the amateur ranks, made his run on the back nine, chipping in for birdie to win the 12th hole and winning the 13th with an eagle to gain a two-up advantage. “I was just trying to get up and down for the half, and it went in,” Lowry said of his chip-in at 12. “That kind of got me going.

“Then I hit a lovely five-wood to five feet at the next and that got me going for the rest of the round.”

McIlroy pulled one back at 14, but conceded the 15th after finding a series of bunkers. He then birdied the par-three 16th for a win, but they halved the last two holes with pars, and Lowry emerged victorious. Lowry was in a fairway bunker off the tee at 18, and a greenside bunker with his second shot. McIlroy couldn’t take advantage, however, hitting his second shot into the same greenside bunker. McIlroy’s bunker shot rolled within inches of the cup and was conceded par. Lowry blasted out to four feet and rolled in the match winner. “I’m feeling quite good now,” said Lowry, who gave a sigh after his match winner dropped. “But it’s important not to get too high now, because it’s only the first round, and I’ve got another match tomorrow and am really looking forward to playing that.” Neither Howell nor Woods made a bogey in their match, which ended with darkness closing in. “I knew I had to play my best to have a chance out there,” Howell said, adding that his mindset throughout was that he had “nothing to lose.”

Howell never trailed after going 1-up with a birdie at the second.

Woods squared the match with a birdie at the fifth, but Howell edged ahead at the eighth. Woods won the 13th with a birdie, but Howell regained a 1-up lead with a birdie at the 15th and held on.

He stretched his lead with a birdie to win 16. Woods couldn’t birdie 17, and Howell’s two-putt par gave him the win. —AFP

MERIBEL: Tine Maze is a downhill victory away from history. The 29-year-old from Slovenia can become only the third woman to win all five disciplines in a single season with a victory today, matching Austria’s Petra Kronberger (1990-91) and Croatia’s Janica Kostelic (2005-06) in clinching a single-season sweep of slalom, giant slalom, downhill, super-combined and super-G. “It’s an amazing season and now I’m also skiing well in downhill,” said Maze, who was fastest in Thursday’s training and second best on Friday. “I was working for that and now my goals are coming true so I’m really proud.”

The only man to complete a seasonsweep was Marc Girardelli in 1988-89. In the World Cup last season, Maze finished second overall behind Lindsey Vonn without winning a race. But she has won seven races and has 17 podiums so far this season, leaving her one short of equaling the women’s record held by Pernilla Wiberg of Sweden and Hanni Wenzel of Liechtenstein.

Maze has won four giant slalom races, and one each in super-combined, slalom and super G, and her lead at the top is a huge 888 points over secondplace Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany. At the recent world championships, Maze won gold in super-G and silver in supercombined and giant slalom.

Maze agrees that - despite intense pre-season preparations - she has even surprised herself this season. “Actually, yeah,” she said. “We were working for that in the summer, trying to get some speed skills. I think I needed a lot of years to be a speed skier.”

Vonn and Anja Paerson have also won all five disciplines, as Maze has, but not in the same season. Maze also wants to become the first woman to break the 2,000-point barrier. She has 1,694 points and is in the top three for all five globes, underlining her outstanding consistency.

However, her only World Cup downhill win came five years ago in the Swiss resort of St Moritz. Downhill was a struggle early in her career and she finished in the top 10 of the downhill standings for the first time in 2009 - placing sixth but dropped to 25th the following sea-

PREDAZZO: Germany’s Bjoern Kircheisen soars through the air as he competes in the men’s Nordic combined individual gundersen of the Val di Fiemme FIS Nordic World ski championships at the ski jumping stadium in Predazzo, north Italy yesterday. — AFP son. She admits her approach was too cautious and hampered by a lack of preparation. “It’s a question of speed and how do you accept the speed. I’m not a person that will risk her body,” Maze said. “Now I feel OK when I go fast, I have no fears, I can attack, be relaxed.

Until now I never felt so good in the speed, that’s why I wasn’t risking skiing fast.”

Working on her downhill with member of the Austrian men’s ski team helped her confidence grow. “We were training two years in Portillo (Chile) doing tough downhills with the men, trying to get more training before the season,” she said. “Before, I had two days of downhill before I went to Lake Louise, so if you’re coming there and doing all five events ... you’re not training (properly), you risk a lot.”

Hoefl-Riesch, the World Cup winner two years ago, has certainly noticed a difference. “Considering she’s doing all events, it’s the best I’ve seen (from her),” Hoefl-Riesch said yesterday. “She is in

great physical shape and her equipment is fitting perfect for all conditions ... it was hard to keep up with her this season.”

It may be next season, too, as Maze is already thinking ahead. “Today we were talking about testing at the end of the season, so things are going forward,” she said, adding that she welcomes the increased level of expectation that will be on her shoulders next season.

“I will be more than happy to have pressure and handle it on the slope,” Maze said. “Until now I was always the first one that made pressure on myself, and I wanted to be better and better.

But now I’m No. 1, I’m proud of that.”

Proud, also, of making people happy back home. “Sport is one of the most positive things in Slovenia and people are always writing to me, happy to see me (win),” she said.

“In these tough times, if you make your country happy - with one run or one minute of work - it’s the most beautiful thing you can do.” — AP

SPORTS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Take a walk! Koreans reject Cuban ball switch TAIPEI: A baseball game between Cuba’s national team and a South Korean professional club had to be called off when they could not agree on which ball to use, leaving the two sets of players practising awkwardly next to each other in the stadium, an official from Korea’s NC Dinos has told Reuters.

Cuba were set to play NC Dinos at the Dou Liou Baseball Stadium in Taiwan on Thursday as part of their preparations for the World Baseball Classic, which takes place from March 2-19. “We have never experienced any-

thing quite like this before,” an NC Dinos official with the team in Taiwan told Reuters by telephone yesterday.

“It is customary for baseball teams from two different countries to have two different balls and to use balls of their choice (when fielding). “But 40 minutes before the game, Cuba insisted both teams use the ball they chose,” the official added. “We rejected that because our players could get injured by using balls they are not familiar with. “We could not risk getting injured in a warm-up match like this one. Then they brought another ball, to which we

again said no. They didn’t give up and brought another one again and we turned them down once again.

“Finally, about 15-20 minutes before the game, they just abruptly notified us that they cancelled the game.” The official said Dinos had been taken aback by Cuba’s decision to cancel the game.

“What they insisted was preposterous and goes against normal practice.”

With no game to play, both sets of players started practising on the field.

“After the game was cancelled at the last minute, our team remained and

practised in the stadium and the Cuban team didn’t leave,” the official added.

“So we practised there too for a while, the two teams in the same space, until we asked them to leave ... it was so awkward.” Dinos coach Kim Kyung-moon lamented the lost opportunity for his team to play one of the best international sides and said it would have been a valuable experience for his players.

Cuba are placed in Pool A of the WBC alongside champions Japan, Brazil and China. — Reuters

McLaren yet to unlock car’s potential: Button LONDON: McLaren have yet to unlock the potential of their new Formula One car with the start of the season looming, according to Jenson Button. The 2009 world champion told Sky Sports television that there was plenty of work to be done at next week’s final test in Barcelona after the Briton had less track time than he had hoped for on Thursday. “It’s been a very difficult few test days for me in terms of mileage,” he said.

“It’s been very tricky to understand where the car is: at times the car feels good, at other times it doesn’t. And a lot of that is basically understanding the car that we have and making sure it’s working as we expect it to be working. “I really am looking forward to a good test next week in Barcelona because I don’t feel we’ve been able to do enough to really understand the car and where we are with the car,” Button added.

The season starts in Melbourne, Australia, on March 17.

Button had similar problems last year, even within the space of a race weekend when the car would look very quick in practice and then be strangely off the pace in qualifying.

The Briton, who won the opening race in Australia last year as well as the season finale in Brazil, said the new Pirelli tyres were another problem with high degradation after just a handful of laps. “You have to throw a lot of new tyres at it and we don’t have that many. So it’s difficult to do set-up work and comparisons,” Button said. “I think we have a good base.

If we can extract the best out of the car I think it is a good car.

It’s just that at the moment I don’t think we’re doing that.”

Button was only seventh fastest on Thursday, completing 71 laps, a day after his new Mexican team mate Sergio Perez had been quickest. Perez, who managed to make his tyres last longer than most with Sauber last season, was also disconcerted by how quickly the performance of the new Pirelli rubber wore off.

“It’s extreme... and it’s a big surprise,” he said. “Normally we see in winter testing a lot of degradation but never this much.” “I definitely hope it changes because if we see this situation in Melbourne we are going to need something like seven or 10 stops to manage the race,” added the youngster.

“Once you do one lap you start fighting degradation so it is difficult to learn anything from your car or from your balance.”

Pirelli have introduced a new range of structures and compounds this season with the aim of producing more exciting racing and ensuring more pitstops. The McLaren drivers were not the only ones expressing concern about the tyres.

Frenchman Romain Grosjean, at Lotus, said they would be a challenge. — Reuters

BARCELONA: Jules Bianchi of Italy and Force India drives his car during a test session at the Montmelo racetrack near of Barcelona, Spain, yesterday. — AP

SYDNEY: Australian swimmer James Magnussen (2nd L), Eamon Sullivan (3rd L), Cameron McEvoy (L) and members of Australia’s much-hyped men’s Olympic swim relay team, dubbed the “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, speak to the media after owning up to taking part in “stupid” pre-Games pranks, in Sydney yesterday. — AFP

Aussie swimmers admit using sedative Could lose funding for 2016 Olympics SYDNEY: James Magnussen and his team mates from the Australian men’s 4x100m freestyle relay squad have admitted using a sedative banned by their national Olympic committee in a bonding session before the London Games. The prescription drug Stilnox was banned by the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) just before the 2012 Games and the athletes now face sanctions from the governing body for breaching their Olympic team membership agreement.

Stilnox, a brand of the medication zolpidem, is not banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency but was prohibited by the AOC because of its hallucinatory effects and after former Olympic champion Grant Hackett said he had become addicted to it. “We stand here collectively to confirm that we did take part in a bonding exercise during which members of the relay team took Stilnox,” the six swimmers said in a statement read out at a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We acknowledge by our recent action in continuing a recent tradition in the Australia swim team, we have let ourselves down and the people who have supported us.”

Olympic silver medallist Magnussen and his team mates Matt Targett, Eamon Sullivan, James Roberts, Cameron

McEvoy and Tommaso D’Orsogna apologised for their actions.

The statement said the drug had been prescribed before the AOC ban and the swimmers had then indulged in “childish” and “stupid” pranks such as knocking on the doors of other athletes.

The AOC said they would be appointing a lawyer to conduct an investigation into these and other disciplinary issues relating to the swimming team in London. “All members of our 2012 team were well aware of the ban imposed. The AOC will consider what action it will take in the light of these admissions,” read a statement. “Possible sanctions for a breach of the team agreement might include withdrawing funding from the athletes concerned.”

Magnussen received A$10,000 ($10,300) from the AOC for winning a silver medal in the men’s 100 metres freestyle, while Targett and D’Orsogna were paid A$7,500 for winning bronze as part of the 4x100m medley relay team.

The athletes face the possibility of losing part or all of those rewards as well as funding for preparation for major events, including the 2016 Olympic Games.

Magnussen was hot favourite to win the 100 freestyle in London and suggested the weight of expectation on him contributed to him agreeing to take the

drug. “I think one of the reasons that I agreed to go along with this night was I was feeling under so much pressure and it had been building for the best part of a year,” the 21-year-old said.

“In hindsight, a ridiculous choice, and a ridiculous method to do that. “I have a lot of regrets, but I don’t feel think it affected my performance. My preparations continued on as per normal immediately following the next day.” Misuse of prescription drugs along with allegations of drunkenness, breaching curfews, deceit and bullying were highlighted in a review published on Tuesday, which said slack management had allowed a “toxic” culture to develop in the team.

Roberts said he personally had never taken Stilnox. The relay squad arrived in London confident of winning gold but ended up fourth in the final as the swimming team produced Australia’s worst results in the Olympic pool for two decades. “As a senior member of the team I should’ve stood up and took more leadership at the time,” said Sullivan. “If I thought for one moment that these actions and our communal decisions to take Stilnox would affect our performance, there’s no way I would’ve done it. And I believe there’s no way it would’ve affected our performance at all.” — Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Bomb-hit Hyderabad to host Australia Test NEW DELHI: Hyderabad will host the second Test match between India and Australia as scheduled next week despite twin bombings in the city that killed 14 and wounded dozens, officials said yesterday. Rajeev Shukla, spokesman for the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), said government officials had given assurances about security in the wake of Thursday night’s deadly attacks.

“I spoke to the (federal) home secretary, who was in Hyderabad, and had discussion with the chief minister and officials of the state government,” Shukla, himself a federal minister, told reporters outside parliament. “They apprised me that adequate security will be provided to the players as well as the spectators. So the Test should not be shifted out of Hyderabad.” Hyderabad is the capital of the south-

ern state of Andhra Pradesh, where the Test is scheduled to begin at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium on March 2. Cricket Australia (CA) officials, who are attending the ongoing first Test in Chennai, will be briefed about the assurances from the government, Shukla added.

CA chief executive James Sutherland had earlier said in a statement from Chennai that he expected the Hyderabad Test to go ahead as scheduled.

“At this stage there is no reason to doubt that what we have planned in Hyderabad next week will go ahead,” Sutherland said. “My expectation would be everything would go ahead as planned. The team were very comfortable (with security), everything has gone absolutely to plan. “We will liaise with the relevant authorities over the course of next few days and make any necessary assess-

ments, but the focus right now in Chennai is around the cricket,” Sutherland said.

Security has been beefed up at the Chennai hotel where the teams are staying for the first of four Tests, and also at the stadium where fans were frisked before they were allowed to enter. Australia had pulled out of a tour to Pakistan in 2008 over security concerns after a series of bombings. They also refused to play any matches in the 1996 World Cup in Sri Lanka after bombings there.

Australia condemned the Hyderabad bombings “directed at innocent people, going about their daily business”. Australian foreign Minister Bob Carr said he was writing to his Indian counterpart Salman Khurshid to express support for India’s efforts to prevent terrorist attacks.—AFP

China Football corruption - mend it like Beckham?

BEIJING: Former England captain David Beckham is being lined up to promote Chinese football, state media said yesterday, but fans say rebuilding the sport’s shattered image may be too big a challenge even for him.

Officials have confirmed the superstar will make a highly anticipated tour of China “in which he will be appointed the CSL’s (Chinese Super League’s) ambassador”, the state-run China Daily said.

The Chinese Football Association is not expected to confirm the trip until next week, but sports fans took to Internet message boards in droves to criticise the decision.

Many said installing Beckham-currently with French club Paris Saint-Germain-as an “international ambassador” will do little to address the core problems of the competition, which is battling to overcome match-fixing and bribery scandals.

“This is a superficial change by the CFA. Even if Beckham comes, what exactly is he going to do?,” said one poster on Sina Weibo, China’s version of Twitter.

“Chinese football will become even more rotten. Its prospects are bleak.” Another addressed the player himself: “Want to discredit yourself, or to launder money? You have come to the right place. You could spend half a lifetime disgracing yourself, handsome guy.”

A CSL source told the official Xinhua news agency on Thursday it was “almost certain” the 37-year-old would take up the new role.

An official at IMG, which is described in Chinese media as a CSL “marketing partner”, was quoted in the China Daily Friday saying: “Yes, we are indeed organising his visit to China as the ambassador.”

None of the media reports signalled how much Beckham, who is known as “little Becks” in China, would be paid in the position.

Football in the country is reeling after years of corruption involving officials, referees and players. A three-year investigation into matchfixing led to 33 people being banned for life and Didier Drogba’s former club Shanghai Shenhua being stripped of the 2003 league title earlier this week.

The arrival of the Ivory Coast striker and Nicolas Anelka, his former team-mate at English Premier League side Chelsea, last year signalled to some commentators that Chinese football had turned a corner.

But both players have since left Shenhua, with Drogba going to Turkish league leaders Galatasaray in disputed circumstances and Anelka signing for Juventus on loan. — AFP

CENTURION: South African batsman Faf du Plessis plays a shot during the first day of the third Test match between South Africa and Pakistan yesterday at Super Sport Park in Centurion. — AFP

De Villiers steers South Africa to solid total CENTURION: An inexperienced Pakistan pace bowling line-up had South Africa in trouble before AB de Villiers steered the hosts to a respectable total on the first day of the third and final Test at SuperSport Park here yesterday. De Villiers made an unbeaten 98 as South Africa reached 334 for six. De Villiers and Hashim Amla, who made a sparkling 92, were the only toporder batsmen to play significant innings against a three-man Pakistan bowling attack with only two Test caps between them.

Rahat Ali and Ehsan Adil, neither of whom had taken a wicket in Test cricket before, were responsible for the first five dismissals as South Africa stumbled to 196 for five.

Left-arm Rahat, playing in his second Test, took three for 95, while new cap Adil, 19, took two for 54. Amla looked set for his 20th Test century before edging a drive against a wide delivery from Rahat to be caught behind by wicketkeeper Sarfraz Ahmed. He struck 13 fours in a 128-ball innings and shared partnerships of 69 for the third wicket with Faf du Plessis (29) and 79 for the fourth wicket with De Villiers.

With the South Africans missing star allrounder Jacques Kallis becaue of a calf injury, De Villiers took over responsibility for batting out the day. He shared a sixth wicket stand of 52 with Robin Peterson, who made 28 before being run out, and an unbeaten seventh-wicket partnership of 86 with Vernon Philander (45 not out).

De Villiers faced 179 balls and hit 13 fours.

Although they produced wicket-taking deliveries, both Rahat and Adil were inconsistent and sent down enough loose deliveries for South Africa to maintain a scoring rate of close to four runs an over for much of the day.

Off-spinner Saeed Ajmal, the only experienced bowler in the side, was easily the most economical, conceding 70 runs in 26 overs.

Pakistan finished the day a bowler short after Adil limped off with what appeared to be a hamstring strain after sending down just one delivery with the second new ball. The injury to Kallis meant a reshuffle to the South African team. He was replaced by fast-medium bowler Kyle Abbott, 25, who earned his first cap after being called into the squad as cover earlier in the week. Abbott topped the wicket-takers in the domestic first-class competition, taking 49 wickets for the Dolphins at an average of 15.36.

It was the first time this season that South Africa had gone into a Test match without seven specialist batsmen.

South Africa, who had already clinched the series by winning the first two Tests, had one other injury-enforced change, with Rory Kleinveldt replacing fellow fast bowler Morne Morkel. Pakistan made three changes, with Imran Farhat replacing opening batsman Nasir Jamshed, while Rahat and Adil came in for Umar Gul and Tanvir Ahmed. — AFP

SCOREBOARD CENTURION: Scoreboard at the close of play on day one of the third test between South Africa and Pakistan at Centurion yesterday: South Africa first innings G. Smith c Younus Khan b Adil 5 A. Petersen lbw Rahat Ali 10 H. Amla c Sarfraz b Rahat Ali 92 F. du Plessis c Sarfraz b Adil 29 AB de Villiers not out 98 D. Elgar lbw b Rahat Ali 7 R. Peterson run out 28 V. Philander not out 45 Extras (b-1 lb-4 w-4 nb-11) 20 Total (for six wickets, 85 overs) 334 Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-38, 3-107, 4-186, 5196, 6-248.

To bat: D. Steyn, M. Morkel Bowling: Mohammad Irfan 16.5-3-59-0 (nb2), Rahat Ali 20-1-95-3 (6nd, w4), Ehsan Adil 12.1-2-54-2 (nb3), Saeed Ajmal 26-570-0, Younus Khan 3-0-14-0, Mohammad Hafeez 5-0-24-0, Azhar Ali 2-0-13-0.

Pakistan: Mohammad Hafeez, Imran Farhat, Azhar Ali, Younus Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq, Asad Shafiq, Sarfraz Ahmed, Saeed Ajmal, Mohammad Irfan, Rahat Ali, Ehsan Adil.

South Africa won the toss and elected to bat.

SPORTS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Pistorius freed on bail pending murder trial Ordered to avoid his home, witnesses, surrender passport PRETORIA: Paralympic icon Oscar Pistorius was granted bail by a South African magistrate yesterday, pending a high-profile trial for killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Pretoria magistrate Desmond Nair ruled Pistorius was not a flight risk and does not pose a danger to society after an emotionally charged fourday bail hearing.

“I come to the conclusion that the accused has made a case to be released on bail,” Nair said to cries of “yes!” from Pistorius’s family and supporters. “The issue is not guilt, but where the interests of justice lie,” Nair said. As the lengthy ruling was read the 26-year-old stood in the dock weeping and quivering.

The athlete was escorted to the holding area sobbing uncontrollably. He is expected to be released later yesterday.

His arrest on February 14 shocked the world and gripped South Africa, where he is still considered a national hero after becoming the first double amputee to compete in the Olympics.

Pistorius has since spent more than a week at a Pretoria police station charged with the premeditated Valentine’s Day killing of Steenkamp, a model and law graduate. If found guilty he faces a possible life sentence. He denies the charge, saying that he shot 29-year-old Steenkamp repeatedly through a locked bathroom door in the dead of night by accident, having mistaken her for a burglar. Steenkamp was found by medics in the early hours of Thursday last week at Pistorius’s luxury Pretoria home covered in bloodied towels, with bullet wounds to her head, elbow and hip. She was pronounced dead on the scene.

His family were overjoyed at the mag-

PRETORIA: Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius’ father Henke Pistorius, right, with his children Carl, center and Aimee, left, watch as Oscar Pistorius walks in during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, yesterday. — AP istrate’s ruling, which his lawyer praised. “I think it’s a fair decision to grant bail,” said Barry Roux. Experts said the case would now be fast-tracked through the courts.

“This is probably going to get priority and will probably take about six months to go to trial,” said Stephen Tuson, a criminal law professor at the University of Witwatersrand. “It’s a high profile matter.”

It was not immediately clear where Pistorius would go, but he will not return to the Pretoria estate where Steenkamp was killed. “He doesn’t want to go back to the house,” said Roux. Pistorius often cut a sorry figure sitting alone in the dock, having lost weight and often breaking into sobs. The bail proceedings offered more than a glimmer of what is to come, with

so many details about Steenkamp’s last hours that it sometimes appeared to be a mini-trial. The prosecution saw its evidence repeatedly picked apart.

Serious doubt was cast on the work of Hilton Botha, the detective who initially investigated the case. He bumbled through testimony, admitted he may have contaminated the crime scene and appeared to undermine the police’s own witnesses.

Botha himself was forced to admit that Pistorius’s claims were “consistent” with the crime scene and that his police work was not adequate.

“I’m sure it could have been handled better,” he told the court. The magistrate agreed, saying the detective blundered.

“Botha indeed made several errors and concessions during cross-examination.”

In a dramatic twist South African police unceremoniously turfed Botha off the case after it emerged he faces seven attempted murder charges for having opened fire on a minibus in 2011.

The prosecution will now have a few short months to regroup and try and put the case back on track. Embarrassed by proceedings that sometimes seemed to put the South African authorities in the dock, the country’s most senior detective Lieutenant General Vineshkumar Moonoo will now lead the case.

But the prosecution will be buoyed by apparent gaps in Pistorius’s account of events. “He fired four shots, not one. He meant to kill. On his own version, he’s bound to be convicted,” said top prosecutor Gerrie Nel. “He hasn’t said so, but he must think that conviction is likely. He must realise that a long term of imprisonment is almost guaranteed,” he told the court.

In arguing against bail, Nel said Pistorius had the money, means and motive to flee his native South Africa.

“Lots of people have escaped bail. Lots of famous people,” he said. And just hours before the magistrate’s decision, Pistorius’s top lawyer appeared to admit the star sprinter could be convicted on charges of homicide. “We can never ever say that he acted in self-defence,” chief defence counsel Barry Roux told the court “He is exposed to be convicted of culpable homicide.” That charge, which entails negligence rather than murderous intent, could carry a sentence of up to 15 years in prison, or in some instances release and a warning. — AFP

Senators top New York Rangers in shootout 3-2 OTTAWA: Despite a 3-2 shootout victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday night, the Ottawa Senators were not in a mood to celebrate. The team lost goalie Craig Anderson to a sprained right ankle at 1:43 of the third period after Rangers forward Chris Kreider was tripped in front and slid into him. No penalty was called on the play and Anderson, who is listed day to day, had to be helped to the locker room. The Senators are already dealing with injuries to defenseman Erik Karlsson (Achilles) and center Jason Spezza (back).

“My heart sank into my stomach when it happened,” said defenseman Marc Methot, who got tangled up with Kreider on the play. “It’s the last thing we need. He’s basically been the heart and soul of our team, or at least a large part of it. It’s unfortunate, but it’s the luck we’re getting right now as a team.” The 31-year-old Anderson leads the NHL with a 1.57 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage, but Senators coach Paul MacLean says the only thing the team can do is look at the injury as yet another opportunity for someone else in the organization.

That appears to be goaltender Robin Lehner, who will be recalled from Binghamton of the American Hockey League and is expected to arrive in Ottawa today.

“It’s creating great opportunities for young players,” MacLean said. “We’ve always talked about what great depth we have in this organization and how many good young players that

we have playing in Binghamton and we’re finding out that we do have a lot of great young players because now they’re all playing here in Ottawa and they’re finding a way to win a game.”

Anderson didn’t speak to reporters after the game, but later provided an update on his Twitter account. “My ankle’s gonna be ok, be back (as soon as possible),” he wrote. Lost in the wake of Anderson’s injury, was the fact the Senators won their third straight game.

Kaspars Daugavins scored in the seventh round of the shootout, and backup goalie Ben Bishop earned the victory in relief. Daugavins appeared to fan on his winning shootout attempt that fooled Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, and the puck went into the net between the legs.

Kreider then stepped up needing to score, but couldn’t beat Bishop. “I was actually a little lucky,” Daugavins said with a smile. Jakob Silfverberg also scored in the shootout for Ottawa, and Ryan Callahan had the lone goal for the Rangers in the tiebreaker.

Silfverberg and Mika Zibanejad scored for the Senators in regulation. Anderson stopped all 21 shots he faced before being replaced by Bishop, who allowed two goals on 13 shots. Callahan and Ryan McDonagh scored 51 seconds apart in the third period for the Rangers.

Lundqvist made 35 saves. Bishop disliked seeing Anderson get hurt, but added there was little time to dwell on it. “You want to know if he’s OK

OTTAWA: Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers makes a save as team mate Derek Stepan #21 defends against Jakob Silfverberg #33 of the Ottawa Senators, during an NHL game at Scotiabank Place on Thursday in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. — AFP at first, but once the puck drops you’ve got to do your job,” Bishop said. “It’s one of those things that as cold as you can be once the puck drops, you’re in the game.” The Rangers tied it 1-1 at 10:44 of the third period on a power-play goal by Callahan and then quickly took the lead on McDonagh’s shot from the point.

Callahan’s goal was his fourth of the season.

McDonagh netted his second. Zibanejad tied the game with a power-play goal from in close at 13:30. “We got that first one and then we were able to get the lead and at least we got a point,”

Rangers defenseman Marc Staal said. “We found a way to get back in the game.” Thursday was the first meeting between the teams since the Rangers eliminated the Senators in Game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference quarterfinal series. The Senators opened the scoring at 6:48 of the first period on a short-handed goal by Silfverberg. The Swedish rookie beat New York defenseman Michael Del Zotto in a race for the puck in the Rangers end, looked up as if he was going to pass, but instead beat Lundqvist with a backhand into the top corner. —AP

sports

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

NBA results/standings Miami 86, Chicago 67; San Antonio 116, LA Clippers 90.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division

NY Knicks Brooklyn Boston Philadelphia Toronto

W 32 33 28 22 22

Indiana Chicago Milwaukee Detroit Cleveland

33 31 26 22 17

Miami Atlanta Washington Orlando Charlotte

38 29 15 15 13

L 19 22 26 30 33

PCT .627 .600 .519 .423 .400

GB 1 5.5 10.5 12

Central Division 21 .611 23 .574 27 .491 34 .393 37 .315

2 6.5 12 16

Southeast Division 14 .731 23 .558 9 37 .288 23 39 .278 24 41 .241 26

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma City 39 15 .722 Denver 34 21 .618 5.5 Utah 31 24 .564 8.5 Portland 25 29 .463 14 Minnesota 20 31 .392 17.5 Pacific Division 18 .684 23 .574 29 .473 36 .345 37 .327

LA Clippers Golden State LA Lakers Sacramento Phoenix

39 31 26 19 18

San Antonio Memphis Houston Dallas New Orleans

44 35 30 24 19

6.5 12 19 20

Southwest Division 12 .786 18 .660 7.5 26 .536 14 29 .453 18.5 36 .345 24.5

Spurs beat Clippers for 5th straight win

Heat win ninth straight, tighten grip on East LOS ANGELES: Tony Parker scored 31 points and the San Antonio Spurs led all the way in beating the Los Angeles Clippers 116-90 on Thursday night for their fifth straight victory and first over the Clippers this season.

The Spurs improved to an NBA-best 22-10 on the road, where they’ve also won five in a row. Parker had seven assists and no turnovers in 28 minutes and Danny Green added 15 points. The West-leading Spurs tied their seasonbest with 59-percent shooting, hit eight 3-pointers and made 22 of 28 free throws. They had lost both previous meetings with the Clippers in November.

Matt Barnes scored 18 points, Blake Griffin had 17 points and Jamal Crawford 15 points as the Clippers’ four-game winning streak ended in their first game after the All-Star break.

Chris Paul, MVP in Houston last weekend with 20 points and 15 assists, was held to four points on 1-of-6 shooting and three assists.

The Clippers have lost their first game coming out of the break in nine of the last 10 years, including five in a row. They came in trailing the Spurs by 4 1/2 games for the best record in the NBA, but they never got a run going and their defense didn’t do much. The biggest excitement during the game was generated by a fan who made a half-court shot during a timeout to win a new car.

The Spurs led by 28 points to start the fourth quarter, when Parker rested and fans hit the exits in droves. The Clippers equaled their worst loss of the season. San Antonio put on a freethrow shooting clinic in the third quarter, making 16 of 20, including 12 during a 14-4 run that extended its lead to 81-53.

The Spurs shot 63 percent to lead 58-43 at halftime. Parker scored 17 points in the half, while Griffin was the only Clipper in double figures with 13

points. Paul didn’t make his first basket until the final 3 minutes of the second quarter.

San Antonio made its first six shots to start the game and used a 17-4 run, including seven by Manu Ginobili, to close out the first quarter leading 34-21.

The Miami Heat tightened their grip on the Eastern Conference by routing the Chicago Bulls 86-67 on Thursday.

With the NBA’s trade deadline passing without any change among top contenders, LeBron James missed just four shots while compiling 26 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists as Miami won their season-high ninth straight and stretched their conference lead to 5 1/2 games.

“We’re putting together some good basketball right now,” James told reporters. “If we don’t turn the ball over, we get good shots at the rim, we have a good chance to win.” Miami (38-14)

grabbed a 45-35 halftime lead and cruised against a Chicago team struggling to find offense without 2011 MVP Derrick Rose, who is hoping to return from a knee injury that has kept him on the sidelines this season.

After his brother had criticized Chicago ahead of the game for not making moves before the trade deadline, Rose said in a statement he and the Bulls were on the same page. “I have always felt that the Bulls organization’s goals have been the same as mine and that is to bring another championship to this city,” he said. Chicago (31-23) look far off championship contenders after losing for the fifth time in seven games. Nate Robinson had 14 points for the Bulls, who were without Kirk Hinrich due to a sore elbow and committed 26 turnovers. The Heat got 17 points from Dwyane Wade and 12 from Bosh. — Agencies

LOS ANGELES: Tony Parker #9 of the San Antonio Spurs is fouled by Blake Griffin #32 of the Los Angeles Clippers during a 116-90 Spurs win at Staples Center on Thursday in Los Angeles, California. — AFP

Cagliari ask fans to stay away for Torino clash ROME: Sardinian club Cagliari have asked their fans not to go to the Is Arenas for their Serie A clash with Torino on Sunday (1400 GMT) after the match was ordered to be played behind closed doors.

“Dear fans, as you know, due to the complex situation regarding the Is Arenas Stadium, the authorities have decided that Cagliari-Torino will be played behind closed doors,” the club said in a statement on their website.

“We know that this is painful, to not see your team and not support us in a game important for survival, and for both you and us this is a reason for sadness. “As it is easy to understand, Cagliari is in delicate moment, and for this we ask for your help, understanding and sense of responsibility. The future of Cagliari is in your hands.”

Serie A authorities ordered the match be played at the Is Arenas but behind closed doors on Wednesday, the latest in a long running series of incidents surrounding the controversial stadium.

Last Thursday, Cagliari president Massimo Cellino was arrested along with Stefano Lilliu, public works assessor for the Quartu Sant’Elena neighbourhood where the stadium is located, and the district’s mayor Mauro Contini.

They were charged with embezzlement and false representation in the rebuilding of the stadium. Cellino was refused bail on Friday and will remain in prison, ANSA news service reported.

Cagliari moved to the small Is Arenas stadium, which had previously hosted third-tier matches in the 1980s,

at the start of this season but, with only one permanent stand, they have had trouble from the outset.

Three temporary stands were built but their opening match against Atalanta was staged behind closed doors after local authorities ruled the stadium was not ready. Their following match against AS Roma was cancelled by the Cagliari city government after the club defied its orders to play without supporters.

On that occasion, Cellino told fans the ground was safe, invited them to turn up for the match and slammed the city government for placing bureaucratic obstacles in the club’s way. Roma were awarded a 3-0 win but Cellino won a court case last week which could lead to the game having to be played after all. Less high profile

matches proceeded at the Is Arenas but Cagliari were banned from hosting a game against champions Juventus in the stadium and had to switch that fixture to Parma.

Their match against AC Milan on Feb. 10. was initially set to be moved to Turin amid security worries but eventually went ahead at the stadium after a regional tribunal ruled it was safe.

Cagliari played at the Stadio Sant’Elia from 1970 until around halfway through last season but abandoned the arena due to disagreements with the local authorities and over growing safety worries.

They played their remaining matches last term in Trieste, near the border with Slovenia and nearly 1,000 kilometres away. — Reuters

SPORTS

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Sheikh Salman in the running for AFC president SEOUL: Four years after narrowly losing his bid to join the FIFA executive committee, Sheikh Salman Bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa is running for president of the Asian Football Confederation and looking to mend the organization’s relationship with FIFA. Salman, the head of the Bahrain Football Association, will likely be up against Yousef Al Serkal of the United Arab Emirates and acting-president Zhang Jilong of China in the election in May. In 2009, Salman came within two votes of defeating Mohamed bin Hammam for a seat on the FIFA executive committee.

The election campaign became a bitter battle that widened divisions in Asia, and deepened when Bin Hammam was suspended and eventually banned for life by FIFA amid allegations of financial irregularities.

“What happened in the past is something that we have to learn from and shouldn’t be repeated,” Salman told The Associated Press. “The past two years has seen enough bad publicity and it just gave us a bad image. We have to clear this up and have a wind of change and a new beginning. It is time to have unity and solidarity in Asia.

“There are many things that need to be done. The first is to establish trust in the relationship between the national associations and the AFC. And the second is to build a bridge between us and other confederations and FIFA. The mistrust between FIFA and AFC has to be repaired.”

Since Bin Hamman was suspended in May 2011, Zhang has been acting president. But he has yet to confirm is candidacy for the vote at the AFC Congress in Kuala Lumpur on May 2 and 3. The deadline for nominations is March 3.—AP

Beckham and Barton brace for French duel PARIS: Paris Saint-Germain and Marseille meet in the biggest fixture in the French footballing calendar this weekend, and the game at the Parc des Princes is set to have a distinct English flavour to it. This latest edition of what has come to be known as ‘Le Classique’ is one of the most important in years, with PSG coming into the weekend three points clear of Lyon at the top of Ligue 1, and five points above Marseille in third.

The outcome of tomorrow’s encounter could go a long way to deciding who is crowned champions at the end of the season, but the possibility of seeing David Beckham finally make his PSG debut in the game adds an even greater element of intrigue.

If he does play, there is the prospect of seeing the 37-year-old Beckham go directly up against his fellow countryman, Marseille’s Joey Barton. They are two men who represent the polar opposites of English footballing culture.

Renowned ‘bad-boy’ Barton, who is on loan at Marseille from Queens Park Rangers, has raised doubts as to how much of an impact Beckham can make at PSG, and expressed confidence that the visitors can still have a major say in the title race.

“He is a super ambassador for English football, but he is maybe not the athlete he was five years ago because, without wanting to disrespect the MLS (where Beckham last played for the Los Angeles Galaxy), it is not the same level,” Barton told sports daily L’Equipe.

“People have been talking to me about this game since I arrived here,” he added. “We are just behind them in the table, and we are getting to the end of February. It is now that championships are won and lost. “We are the outsiders, but that status suits us. Nobody expects us to win, while for Paris it would be a catastrophe if they failed to win it.” This is the first of two meetings of the teams in four days, with a French Cup last-16 showdown also set for the Parc des Princes on Wednesday. As league leaders, and the financial powerhouse of French football, PSG come into this game as clear favourites. However, there is extra pressure on them to get a result after their shock 3-2 defeat away at struggling Sochaux last weekend. Meanwhile, Elie Baup’s Marseille side have not been at all convincing since the winter break, and needed an injury-time strike from Rod Fanni to beat Valenciennes 1-0 last weekend.

Lyon bounced back from successive league defeats to crush Bordeaux 4-0 away last weekend, but they face a tough test at home to Lorient less than 72 hours after their last-gasp elimination from the Europa League at the hands of Tottenham.—AFP

PARIS: A picture taken yesterday in Paris shows French L1 Paris Saint-Germain football club’s new logo unveiled on the club’s official website. — AFP

DOHA: Al-Jaish’s Maher Yousef (C) celebrates after scoring his team’s first goal against Al-Arabi during their Qatar Stars League football match in Doha yesterday. Al-Jaish won 1-0. — AFP

Aston Villa take aim at Wenger’s wounded Arsenal LONDON: Arsene Wenger has endured one of the worst weeks of his career as Arsenal manager and it could get worse if his side fail to beat struggling Aston Villa at the Emirates Stadium today.

Wenger has come in for strong personal criticism after back-toback home defeats by Blackburn Rovers and Bayern Munich all but ended the Gunners’ hopes of winning a trophy this season.

The FA Cup exit to Championship side Blackburn was embarrassing enough, but the gulf in quality between Wenger’s side and Bayern as the German club established a 3-1 first-leg lead in their Champions League tie has been held up as evidence of how far Arsenal have fallen behind Europe’s best teams.

Stan Kroenke, the US-based majority shareholder, was in London for the Bayern game and attended a board meeting 48 hours after the loss. Wenger’s future was not expected to have been on the agenda, confirming the hierarchy’s continuing support for the manager. But the growing discontent among the club’s fans that has been audible in recent weeks, and in particular at the final whistle of the Blackburn game, will grow if Arsenal fail to beat Villa and step up their challenge for fourth place. Wenger’s team currently lie fifth, four points behind Tottenham Hotspur, who face West Ham United 48 hours later. Senior players including Jack Wilshere and Theo Walcott have voiced their support for the manager in the wake of the Bayern defeat.

“We’ve got the best man in the job to get our heads back to where they should be,” said Walcott. “I’ve played a lot of games in the Champions League and I know how things go.

“We need to react in a positive way straight away. We can’t be down in the dumps in training. Everybody needs to be alive and

alert, recover well.” Right-back Bacary Sagna has been ruled out of the visit of Villa after picking up a knee injury against Bayern, while left-back Kieran Gibbs is still out. Gabriel Agbonlahor has raised the stakes ahead of the weekend game by claiming Villa team-mate Christian Benteke should aim “even higher” than Arsenal for his next move. Benteke, 22, is in demand after an impressive first campaign in England in which he has already scored 15 goals.

Both Arsenal and north London rivals Tottenham, as well as Manchester City and Chelsea, have been linked with summer moves for the Belgium international, but Villa manager Paul Lambert says the forward is now worth over double the £8 million ($12.2 million, 9.3 million euros) they paid Genk to sign him. Agbonlahor said: “Christian is one of the players of the season for me so far. He’s going to get linked with the top clubs, especially because of his age.

“He’s young, he’s gifted in what he can do, so he’s going to be linked with a lot of clubs. I think he’s good enough for even higher than them (Arsenal and Tottenham).

“He’s showed that by the way he plays, with his composure for a big guy, and he has quite a bit of pace as well. There are many aspects of his game that are at the top level.” Agbonlahor, though, insists Villa can keep hold of Benteke, who signed a four-year deal last August. He added: “He’s still learning his trade here and enjoying his football, so hopefully he stays here.” Charles N’Zogbia is expected to shake off a knee injury to take his place in the side, while Agbonlahor and Karim El Ahmadi have recovered from the illnesses that ruled them out of the 2-1 victory over West Ham last time out. — AFP

SPORTS SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Ferguson brushes off City’s spoiling tactics LONDON: Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson says he has no problems with Manchester City’s attempts to undermine his side’s confidence ahead of the trip to basement club Queens Park Rangers. Today, United have the chance to move 15 points clear at the top of the Premier League table, with City not in action until they face Chelsea at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow.

City manager Roberto Mancini has continually attempted to put pressure on his title rivals by promising they will stumble. A host of City players have also reminded United that they let an eightpoint advantage slip over the course of the final six games of last season.

Ferguson admits he would come up with similar ploys if he was in City’s situ-

ation, but also expects the Blues to drop points over the course of the final 12 matches. “My experience of this situation is that teams drop points,” he said.

“I know they’re going on about us dropping points, and I’d say the same things to be honest with you, but the fact of the matter is that they will drop points too. “It’s unavoidable. It’s a tough league and it’s not easy winning all of your games.

“At the moment we’ve got a good momentum and the only thing we can do is try to win our next game and the one after that and see where it takes us.”

United are unbeaten in 16 matches in all competitions and have secured 12 wins over that run. Ferguson added: “Win our next match is the only thing we can do

and there are great examples of that.”

Phil Jones is definitely absent from the game at Loftus Road after sustaining an ankle injury in the 2-1 FA Cup fifthround victory over Reading on Monday.

Striker Wayne Rooney missed that match with a sinus problem and will also miss today’s game. Rangers are seven points from safety but Ferguson thinks they still have a chance of survival under manager Harry Redknapp.

Ferguson said: “It might have helped them if he’d gone there a bit earlier, but they are where they are and it’s not easy down at the bottom of the league, and Harry would be the first to admit that.

“But with his experience and his ability to judge players then he will have a better chance than most in that situation.”

Barca capable of Milan comeback, says Xavi MADRID: Xavi has denied that Barcelona’s 2-0 defeat to AC Milan on Wednesday night was their worst performance of the season. The Spanish international was the only Barca player who even managed a shot on target at the San Siro, but he remains confident they can avoid elimination at the last-16 stage for the first time in five years.

“I don’t think this has been our worst match. We were bad, but it wasn’t the worst,” he told reporters. “We couldn’t take advantage of the space on the wings or get something from a shot from distance. Simply we didn’t dominate the details that in Europe end up costing you.

“If you are good or bad you have to show it every day. Milan were strong and we couldn’t get through in attack or stop them in defence. They made it very difficult for us, particularly after the first goal.

“The result is very bad but there are 90 minutes left. Our generation hasn’t had a historic comeback so we will try to do it.” The league leaders’ preparation for this weekend’s clash at home to Sevilla is further complicated by the fact they have the second-leg of their Copa del Rey semi-final with Real Madrid to come on Tuesday.

However, stand-in boss Jordi Roura will at least be able to call on David Villa after he missed the trip to Milan and Eric Abidal returns to the squad for the first time in a year after undergoing a liver transplant.

Sevilla midfielder Ivan Rakitic meanwhile doesn’t think the defeat to Milan will affect Barca’s confidence and says that Unai Emery’s men will not be distracted by their own cup semi-final against Atletico Madrid to come on Wednesday.

“I always say to go game by game.

We are going to try today and then there will be plenty of time to think about Wednesday,” he told the club’s website.

“We are talking about the best team in the world. No team comes off a defeat well, but they have too much quality to say they will become nervous.

“We know it will be very difficult, but

we want to play a good game. We want to win and will do everything to do so.”

Emery is unlikely to rotate too much as three wins in four league games have brought the Andalusians back into the fight for European places, but Emir Spahic will miss out as he is suspended.

Elsewhere bottom-placed Deportivo la Coruna go in search of their first win under new boss Fernando Vazquez when they host Real Madrid today evening.

With Madrid trailing Barca by 16 points in the league Jose Mourinho is expected to rest a number of key players ahead of Tuesday’s cup clash, but Depor defender Ayoze Diaz is wary that the champions always play to win.

“I hope that the cup game favours us and they come more relaxed, but we know it is not like this and Madrid play

to win at every ground,” he told the club’s website. “We need to be very concentrated, do things as we know how to and try to take a positive result. We know we need to be at 100% to win.”

Sergio Ramos will definitely miss out for Madrid as he is suspended, but Marcelo could be handed a start as he tries to regain match fitness after three months out with a foot injury.

Atletico Madrid meanwhile take topbilling on Sunday as they try to maintain their four-point advantage over city rivals Real when they host in-form Espanyol.

Javier Aguirre’s side have more points than anyone else in the league over the last six games and have still only been beaten once in 11 games since the Mexican took charge in December. — AFP

COBHAM: Chelsea’s interim manager Rafael Benitez gestures during a press conference at Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham, Surrey, England, yesterday. Chelsea will play away to Manchester City in a premiership soccer match tomorrow. — AP

Christopher Samba, the QPR defender, is less upbeat about his side’s chances of survival in the wake of the 41 defeat by Swansea City last time out that brought an improved run of form to an abrupt end.

Samba, signed from Russian Premier League club Anzhi Makhachkala for £12.5 million ($19.7 million, 14.6 million euros) during the January transfer window, reacted angrily to the display and admitted it was a low point.

“We shouldn’t be ashamed of performances but I was ashamed of mine and the team’s against Swansea,” he said. “We need to show great attitude and commitment. I have nothing to hide-I was very angry. I said what I saw to the players. — AFP

Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League Fulham v Stoke City Abu Dhabi Sports HD

15:45

Reading v Wigan Athletic Abu Dhabi Sports HD

18:00

Albion v Sunderland Abu Dhabi Sports HD

18:00

Arsenal v Aston Villa Abu Dhabi Sports HD

18:00

Norwich City v Everton Abu Dhabi Sports HD

18:00

QPR v Man United Abu Dhabi Sports HD

18:00

Spanish League Mallorca v Getafe Aljazeera Sport +6

18:00

Zaragoza v Valencia Aljazeera Sport +1

20:00

Coruna v Real Madrid Aljazeera Sport +2

22:00

Barcelona v Sevilla Aljazeera Sport +2

0:00

Italian League Palermo v Genoa Aljazeera Sport +1

22:45

German League Bayern Munich v Werder Bremen Dubai Sports

17:30

Stuttgart v Nuremberg Dubai Sports

17:30

Augsburg v Hoffenheim Dubai Sports

17:30

Hannover v Hamburger Dubai Sports

17:30

Mainz v Wolfsburg Dubai Sports

17:30

Schalke v Dusseldorf Dubai Sports

20:30

French League Stade Rennes v Sochaux Aljazeera Sport +4

19:00

Lorraine v Saint Etienne Aljazeera Sport +4

22:00

Gaillard v Montpellier Aljazeera Sport +5

22:00

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2013

Sports

Spurs beat Clippers for 5th straight win

45

DUBAI: Italy’s Sara Errani returns the ball to her compatriot Roberta Vinci during their semi-final tennis match of the WTA Dubai Open in the Gulf emirate yesterday. — AFP

Kvitova, Errani in Dubai final DUBAI: Czech sixth seed Petra Kvitova will face Sara Errani of Italy in the final of the Dubai Open after beating Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets in yesterday’s second semi-final.

Left-hander Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, disposed of eighth seed Wozniacki 6-3, 6-4 in 82 minutes after Errani got the better of fellow Italian Roberta Vinci earlier in the day.

Errani, the French Open finalist, continued her upward spiral by beating her best friend and doubles partner to reach the 12th final of her career.

The 25-year-old fifth seed did so with a 6-3, 6-3 win over her unseeded fellow Italian to underline why she has been voted the WTA’s most improved player of the year.

The fifth seed will now play Petra Kvitova in

today’s final. Errani and Vinci are the world’s topranked doubles pairing, having won three of the past four grand slams.

They also practice together and that made for a strange encounter, with neither player celebrating winning key points.

“It was very tough playing against a friend, sometimes it happens and you just have to try to play normally,” Errani, 25, said in a court-side interview. The world number seven now has a 5-2 winning record against Vinci, coming out on top in their last five meetings including in last year’s U.S. Open quarter-finals.

Vinci had shown the better form in Dubai, winning in straight sets in the opening three rounds and beating top 10 opponents in Germany’s

Angelique Kerber and Australian Samantha Stosur along the way, but she faltered against her buddy, winning only two of nine service games.

Errani also struggled initially with serve, the first three games won by the returner. Vinci had the chance to make it four after a stooping Errani played an attempted lob too short and, arching backwards, she put away a smash winner to earn a break point. Vinci then reached Errani’s drop shot, but could only scoop the ball long and the 2012 French Open finalist went on to hold for a 3-1 lead.

Both players are petite by modern tennis standards and the match was more about finesse than power as they hugged the baseline.

The slower pace made for long rallies, Errani seeing out her next service game with a disguised

drop shot following a prolonged exchange.

Serving for the set, Errani’s nerves seemed to get the better of her and Vinci earned three break points after stepping inside the baseline to bludgeon a cross-court winning return. She did the same on the next point to close to 5-3 behind.

When Vinci did try to inject more power into her shots, she was often found wanting and although she saved two set points on her own serve, Errani was not to be denied on a third as another poor backhand ceded her the first set.

The players traded breaks at the start of the second set and overall eight of the first 11 games went against serve. Errani, again playing with a heavily strapped left thigh, went 4-1 up in the second and she eventually saw out the match. — Agencies