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Local FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Conspiracy Theories

Deportation is not the answer

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

L

abor laws in Kuwait have been struggling for many years. No matter how many ministers come and go, none of them have come up with a proper set-up for the ministry for the workforce or the expats. I feel there is miscommunication between the Ministry of Social Affairs and other ministries to establish a proper system where all ministries participate with their expertise.

The Ministry of Interior has a big role to play. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs which also foresees the movement of foreign labor has an important role too. The Ministry of Commerce issues licenses for companies and is well informed on what labor force is needed in which field. They know what expertise and skills are locally available. In fact, all ministries should participate.

The problem in Kuwait is that it is not like any other country. It does not only need expertise and skills. We need employees here from A to Z. We need household help, cleaning companies, security companies and restaurant companies. We need salesgirls, chefs etc. Kuwait needs almost everything.

Don’t forget the health field. It needs technicians, doctors, and nurses.

Kuwait University has closed the nursing department because Kuwaiti students did not want to become nurses be it male or female. Obviously, there is a huge shortage of nurses in Kuwait.

We are compensating for this shortage by bringing in nurses from the Philippines and India or from other countries. Also, the Ministry of Education does not have enough staff to teach the children. That is why I call for all ministries to take their time, discuss systematic rules without merchants and visa traders to solve the problem and not by placing obstacles for expats in every way. We should not pin the mistakes of our country on their existence. Once we understand this, there will be fair rules and regulations in Kuwait.

We need foreign work force in every field. The thing which the Ministry of

Social Affairs and Labor does not comprehend is that Kuwait needs more help beyond these. If I want to paint my house, I do not have to bring in someone on a work visa to do the renovation for me. Or if I need somebody to adjust my garden, I do not need a special employee on my visa for that.

There should be a mechanism for me to find somebody who can do my garden for me where I do not need to bring him in to the country. In the past we would find someone in the co-op to do the job. This is not shameful. This is a practice well known in Italy, France, the US, and the United Kingdom for example. These workers gather in places where people can find them and get them to do the job.

Kuwait cannot survive only with doctors, engineers and architects. This is important for the day-to-day activities.

Either the Ministry allows them to bring workforce with such skills or they should think of a mechanism to employ such labor whom we can hire when we need them.

It is not smart to just deport people.

Deporting is easy. If somebody breaks the rules by doing something hurtful to the country or something illegal, then he should be deported. But if you are deporting only on the grounds that someone’s visa has expired, I find it pathetic.

Criminals, drug traders, and people who have problems with security issues should be deported. But to deport someone over an expired visa while he is changing a kafeel, is not fair. They should be given a chance to change their situation.

By the way, I do not believe that one nationality should dominate the whole workforce in Kuwait. Securitywise and politically speaking, this could become an issue in the future.

We should not wait for 2014 to come to discuss labor rules. We have all the ministries in place. But here everything is delayed and takes time. For God’s sake, when you follow examples, follow examples of advanced countries.

Have a nice weekend! @BadryaD

KUWAIT: A vendor sells pickles at Mubarakiya market. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Pre-owned hot wheels

Old cars are seen at the Souq Harraj in the Amghara scrap yard. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

‘Buying cars in Souq Harraj is like buying fish in Mubarakiya Market’

By Ben Garcia

‘If you like the car in Souq Hararaj, buy it right away or you will lose it. But the problem is, cars often look good from the outside but you never know what is in store for you under that hood.’

O

ld cars can be purchased literally almost anywhere in Kuwait. They are displayed along the main highways, minor streets and at the sprawling open used cars’ showroom Souq Harraj in the Amghara scrap yard.

Compared to the other countries, buying a car in Kuwait is cheaper. In fact, cars could cost 30 to 50 percent less since the Value Added Tax affects car prices. Some GCC countries levy VAT on the price, virtually doubling the cost. Being a tax-free country, buying a car could turn out to be more economical than using a taxi or public transport. Also, most of the cars on Kuwait’s roads are owned by Kuwaiti nationals, and more often than not a family owns two or three vehicles. Additionally, once a citizen reaches the legal age of 18, he is under social and peer pressure of either owning a car as a must or be ready to feel left out or bullied by

peers.

The intense heat and poor public transport system have led to continuing increase in the number of private vehicles plying on the road. In fact, the General Traffic Department of the Ministry of Interior recently reported that Kuwait’s roads can accommodate 700,000 vehicles while nearly 1.6 million vehicles were currently plying this road length every day. With new and used cars available in such abundance, buying a used car can be very tricky.

Tony Trono, an electrical and mechanical auto mechanic expert, said while it was easy to buy a new car, selecting a used car could be very risky, especially in Souq Harraj.

Auctioneers, who receive a fixed commission from the seller, set a base price and then invite bids. The contract is usually in Arabic, is signed on the spot and a deposit put down, the balance payable on transfer of ownership. As most used cars are sold for cash, an element of risk is involved. So the best advice one can give is to buy a car from a friend or a car dealer known to you.

“I accompanied a customer to buy used cars but we ended up buying problematic cars. Not because I do not know how to select the best one for him, but because he wanted to buy a car that he wanted rather than what he needed,” he said.

He warned that buying cars in Souq Harraj is like buying fish in Mubarakiya Market. “If you like the car in Souq Hararaj, buy it right away or you will lose it. But the problem is, cars often look good from the outside but you never know what is in store for you under that hood. That is the danger of buying cars in Souq Harraj. Sometimes, you are not even allowed to check the condition of the car. You will discover what is wrong with the car only the following day when you have already transferred the registration and paid them in full. So, if I were you, I would not buy cars from Souq Harraj, or at least I will be careful,” he advised.

One must keep many factors in mind while buying a used car. One should clearly know what kind of car one needs and that it has been used by other people whom you do not know.

One very important factor to consider, according to Trono, is the condition of the engine. Many engines, though not all, are made to ‘Gulf specifications’, which

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

means these engines, radiators, transmission system, and other heavy duty parts were reinforced to last the rigors of the local climate. The most popular vehicles are those best able to withstand the climate and which are easy to maintain, with spares readily available. “Engine is considered the heart and soul of a vehicle. A real expert mechanic can sense and feel the real condition of the vehicle just by listening to the sound of the engine,” Trono said.

But engine is not the only important part of the vehicle, he argued. “While engine is number one priority while buying cars, equally important is the gear system or transmission. These have to be likewise properly checked since these are equally expensive parts and are very vital, too. I recommend that not just a computer check but even a manual check is necessary to detect the problem if any. If the engine is good, surely you can feel it,” Trono added.

In Souq Harraj, you will be welcomed by a third party seller. He acts as the negotiator and claims a certain percent; usually, about KD50 is given to the third party seller if he manages to sell a vehicle. Any car owners, expats and citizens, can go and sell their vehicles.

Most of the people who sell cars at Souq Harraj are those whose cars could be in good or perhaps even bad conditions or owners who want to get rid of their vehicles in the quickest possible way.

After buying cars and using them for a while, your next problem would be to ensure that they receive a nod from the murur (Ministry of Interior Traffic Department).

There are many factors to consider when you want to ensure that your vehicle is passed. Some of these are listed below: Car passing in Kuwait is a smooth process for owners of newer models of cars. If you buy a new car, there is no need of such certification for about three years.

Checklist of major things that inspectors check the vehicles for: 1. Smoke: Black/white smoke is not permissible, so make sure your car does not emit any type of smoke.

2. Color: Any faded car color should be repainted especially bumpers and roof.

3. Lights: Brake lights, headlights and signal lights are just too important that every police inspector will notice these.

4. Windscreen: Should be crack free.

5. Tinted glass and stickers: These are allowed only to be of 30 percent opacity, enough to avoid excessive sunrays, and are based on the regulations agreed upon by the GCC countries.

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Bringing family home Kuwaiti family speaks about how adopting their son was the best decision they took in their life

By Nawara Fattahova

S

afa Al-Failakawi, and her husband are the youngest Kuwaiti couple to adopt a child from Kuwait’s orphanage. They adopted Mohammed in October 2011 when he was only five months old. Soon Mohammed will celebrate his second birthday. “We were the youngest couple to adopt a child.

Although we are capable of having our own children, we decided to adopt an abandoned child,” says Safa who also plans to have her own children in the future.

Before going to the orphanage, Safa was afraid if she would be able to adopt a child. “The staff from the orphanage told us that the baby will choose us and we will not choose him. When we arrived, Mohammed was sleeping. When he woke up, he came to us. We hugged him and we felt he is the one,” she added.

Safa says that she advises people to read up about adoption because in Kuwait, this topic is scarcely discussed. “Most of the people who adopt children do not announce it.

But we did. They hide the truth from the baby, and he only finds out when he gets older which is a

shock for him.” Safa plans to tell Mohamed that he was adopted when he is younger. “We prepare to tell him through stories before he is 10 years old. We will tell him in a positive way. We will tell him that he is special,” says Safa.

She says that they plan to adopt another child too when Mohamed grows older. “My family loves him.

He has become the favorite child.

Everyone brings him gifts. We are so blessed. Even if I have my own baby, I will still adopt another child,” she says explaining that her experience has made other women

also consider adoption. “My friend is excited and she plans to apply and adopt a child,” concluded Safa.

Many people do not know that adoption is possible in Kuwait since the Islamic Sharia does not allow it in the international sense. However, it is possible to adopt a child in Kuwait under certain conditions and limits. An adopted child can neither inherit the family name of his or her foster parents nor can he claim material inheritance from the adopting family.

In Kuwait, it is possible to adopt children but in the form of custody.

As family atmosphere is very important for an orphan, a voluntary cam-

paign was held to raise awareness and encourage people to adopt orphaned children. The ‘Color a Life’ Campaign was founded for this very reason.

“Through our campaign, we aim to spread awareness in the community by encouraging people to adopt orphans. In fact, we noticed that the number of adoptions have increased during the last two years,” said Aneesa Al-Jarallah, Director of Kayan Voluntary Team.

“Every child has the right to receive care and be nurtured in a family atmosphere. Adoption gives them a chance to receive care and love, which affects their life and helps them perform better in school. The adopted children should be from an orphanage, monitored by the Family Nursery Department and their parents must not be known. Their ages could range from a few months to 17 years,” added Al-Jarallah.

The adopting family also has to fulfill certain conditions. “The parents should be a Kuwaiti family and Muslim, in good economic situation, have good social and moral standards, and must not have any disease. The law also allows a Kuwaiti woman to adopt a child if she is a divorcee, a widow or single.

Many women do not know these facts, and we spread awareness through the campaign. It has resulted in more women applying to adopt kids,” she stated.

“People mostly demand the new born babies, so the older children stay at the orphanage. Through our campaign, we also aim to encourage people to adopt the older children who are above nine years of age. We wish that every child has a family and receives care and love of this family,” she explained.

The adoption program started in 1967. “A total of 534 children were adopted between the years of 1967 and 2010, out of the total 898 orphans, which is about 60 percent.

The number increased in the years 2011 and 2012 and has reached 560 now. We aim to ensure 100 percent adoption with our campaign. Now a new law is being drafted which may simplify the process,” stressed AlJarallah.

She also explained the procedure of adoption. “Family Nursery Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor is in charge of the adoption procedures.

People aiming to adopt should apply there and bring their documents. The social worker from the Department then visits the family at

Safa Al-Failakawi pictured with Mohammed.

their house to verify the information provided. The application is then forwarded to a committee comprising representatives from different ministries to decide if the adopting family is eligible,” she pointed out.

“Inspectors from the department make visits even after the adoption to check the situation and status of the adopted child. These are weekly visits during the first month, then undertaken on a monthly basis and later every six months. While

observing these families, I noticed that they take care of the adopted children and love them as they appreciate having them and usually do not have any other children,” she further said.

Aneesa Al-Jarallah is a volunteer also working for the Deema Voluntary Team, and presented the Kunooz Charity Project for the Ministry of Information. She has been working in this field for more than 30 years, and started working with the orphans a few years ago.

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Kuwait’s my business

Does Kuwait really want new business startups?

By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

“I

t’s been 10 months and a lot of money!” an expat friend told me this week when I asked how it was going with getting a license for his new business.

“Even with a very helpful Kuwaiti partner, and an experienced mandoob, who knew what to do, what began in June 2012 looks like it will conclude this month,” he explained somewhat exasperated. That’s not a good state of mind for a new business owner.

Kuwait, do you really want people to start new businesses? Doesn’t seem so. If this same guy wanted to start a business in the USA, he would merely start. At some point he would need to register his business name and file for a local license, but he could get all the paperwork done in a morning and still have time for a late breakfast, not to mention drumming up some business! The USA encourages its citizens to start their own businesses because small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. It’s a good way to keep people from collecting more of the government’s money.

“Mister, this not America!”

But as my landlady reminds me, “Mister, this not America!” Indeed, and I’m often pleased about that, but not when it comes to starting a business. Countries of the world that encourage business startups make it very easy for people to do so. What’s the problem, Kuwait?

I’m sure there’s a good explanation for why the process is so complicated, and discouraging, and I’m not criticizing my host country, but sometimes it’s a good idea to consider an outsider’s view to break down a process and simplify it. Of course, that’s assuming Kuwait wants to simplify the process of starting new businesses.

My friend’s experiences suggest that’s not the case.

Endless paperwork and surprises For example, just to initiate his business application he

had to show proof that he had rented an office. Why? What if his business doesn’t need an office? What if a vehicle serves as his office? Or what if his “office” is his computer? In addition, the licensing process required visits to several ministries. “Because the ministries don’t seem to talk to each other,” he explained, “sometimes one ministry would require something from another ministry that could not or would not be provided. Usually the ministries are (geographically) far apart, and there is no one place where you can quickly get all the approvals.

The paperwork seems endless.”

Rules and regulations are also changed without notice.

For example, my friend was told he needed a minimum of KD 7,500 in his bank account to qualify for a license. But when he deposited the money, he was told it’s now 10,000 KD. “I have learned,” he continued, “that in Kuwait there are always surprises.” And business people don’t like surprises. Incidentally, when you start a business in countries that encourage business startups, your bank account balance is not a consideration. Your operating cash may be stuffed in a mattress - the government doesn’t care. Let the business owner worry about paying the cost of the business - it’s not the government’s business.

How many employees?

Since my friend will now be part owner of a business, his sponsorship will change, but before his sponsorship can be transferred to his new business a ministry has to decide how many employees his business can hire.

Maybe that makes sense, but listen to this: “The size of my office is what determines the number of employees I can have!” continued my friend. “The kind of business I have seems irrelevant.” Can someone please tell me how that makes sense?

What if you’re going to be the only employee? Must

you then rent a smaller office? What if you land a big contract and you need 10 new employees? Must you rent a larger office? What if you’re approved for two employees, but you need 100 employees who work online, from another country? You can’t hire them? It doesn’t seem prudent for a government to micro-manage a small business that has yet to attract its first customer.

Worn out, but celebrating!

Today my friend is celebrating because his office was inspected and approved! He spent half a day waiting for the inspector to show up only to find out he would come the next day, inshallah. “Now,” he said, “I need to pay the insurance and get a new work permit for my passport, and then I’ll get a new Civil ID and the transfer of my sponsorship to my new company will be completed.” And if he has the energy, and he’s still motivated to do so, he can focus on developing his business and generating some revenue so that he can pay for his needless startup costs!

Ten months - even 10 days - is too long to get a simple business license. Isn’t it? If the goals are to generate new revenue streams in Kuwait, to create new jobs, to reduce the size of the government’s payroll, to inspire entrepreneurship, and to build a business base that will serve the country’s people for years to come, Kuwait must re-engineer its business licensing process. But only if the country really wants to encourage new business startups.

Dr. John P. Hayes teaches marketing and directs the Kuwait Leadership Mastery program at GUST. He has helped dozens of franchised brands expand internationally. Contact him at questions@hayesworldwide.com, or via Twitter @drjohnhayes.

In my view

By Armineonila M local@kuwaittimes.net

L

ast week, I was at an outdoor animal shelter. I was hit by a transforming experience when the haris of the building in which I live shooed me away like he would dispel a fly - all because I was in the company of a dog, whom he fatuously nicknamed “mamnoo” (the forbidden).

For a second, my non-radical notion of animals and human beings living together harmoniously emptied itself in a pothole when I realized that I just got evicted from the life-I-used-to-know in exchange for the life-I-am-trying-tosave. It seemed to have forced me to devalue the whole of humanity in the blink of an eye. And I have learnt that the gravity of the Arabic word “mamnoo,” a word that has, by the way, become so vulnerable on the tongue of language abusers who enjoy hearing it overused and misused. This gravity etched out a fresh viewpoint of mine that the relationship between humans and animals in Kuwait is one which I suddenly recognized was virtually nonexistent.

It was past eleven on the evening of March 12, Tuesday, when I took Parker, the puppy I “rescued” from the street a couple of weeks ago, to and fro from his foster home somewhere in Salmiya, in the hope of finding a permanent home for him. Geared with nothing more than a blanket given to us and Parker’s stuff, we went straight past the parking space in a haste to call it a day. Parker, the fourmonth-old king-size Jack Russell mix, had never played the “invisible mutt” around the neighbourhood, at least as far

‘The forbidden’ as I know. In fact, his size, with a grandeur matching that of a St Bernard or a German Shepherd, and a vocal stamina that could rock the entire cosmos, are reasons enough for him to attract people’s attention. It was the first time, however, that Parker came face-to-face with his bogeyman, finally in flesh and blood, blocking our way to the lift. We were refused entry and reprimanded, in the middle of the night, and worse, I was compelled to abandon the innocent dog.

It did not come to me as a shock when I instantly weighed two crucial options - first, defend Parker, even if it meant sleeping in the street without a bed; and two, defend Parker, even if it meant sleeping in the street without a bed. What I fail to understand was the haris’ propensity to regard the act of saving-a-dog’s-life as “mamnoo” while quite overtly convenient with the idea of a lady, whose rights to her own abode was denied, spending the rest of the night roofless as entirely acceptable. Or that life itself really is a chunk-full of contradictions, or that the haris is simply the antithesis of Big Brother, was far beyond me. I could not stick my eyeballs together on apartment caretakers who in real time give consent to trafficking liquor, illegal drugs, women or bacon with the flicker of a dinar and consider it acceptable. I could not stick my eyeballs together on apartment caretakers who grant special privilege to such atrocities while sneering dubiously at

helpless creatures that have done nothing but remain faithful to their human companions. Apartment owners need to be addressing this matter seriously. And I mean, seriously.

That day, at 3 am, in a four-hour feat of settling down on a narrow sidewalk besides a garbage container, Parker and I resolved to flash an SOS sign to PAWS Kuwait, and we have finally come up with a grand scheme: sneak my way towards the lift and carry Parker up the building incognito while the haris snores his way to dreamland.

The end.

Or not. I feel like my mind has fallen apart thinking about backdoor breeders and puppy/kitten mills basking in loads and loads and more loads of money while animal foster parents and rescuers labor hard to manage their abandoned and abused animal companions, and even face repressive behaviour to defend their cause.

Dogs like Parker did not choose to live here, by the way. So, why all the hatred? And while the majority of people and certain customs do not jibe with the interest of animal rights, they continue to curtail the rights of humans who favour saving the lives of sentient beings like Parker. There is a bleak future ahead for humanity, and the chances of humans being able to harbour values tailor-made to nurture a more compassionate younger generation seem very slim.

Local FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

The building which caught fire is seen.

KUWAIT: A man who was evacuated from the Salmiya building which caught fire is pictured at the hospital.

A fireman is seen rescuing children.

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

Kuwaiti woman robbed A Kuwaiti woman reported that unidentified robbers broke into her vehicle and stole KD 200 while it was parked outside her house in Jabiya. A case was filed and further investigations are in progress.

Fire breaks out in salmiya

KUWAIT: A fire broke out in an eighth floor apartment in Salmiya, security sources said, noting that firemen from Salmiya northern and southern stations, Hawally and back up teams rushed to the scene.

The sources added that 20 tenants, including children, were evacuated safely from the building. Three firemen were injured in the process while one suffered suffocation after inhaling fumes. The operation was led by Hawally fire chief, Colonel Mohammed AlMahmeed.

In another incident, a fire broke out in a Jabriya building but was successfully brought under control by firemen rushed from Salmiya and Hawally security sources said. No casualties were reported.

The axe effect In a strange incident, a citizen became livid with anger when another man accidentally hit his car. He stepped out of his car with an axe and smashed the offender’s car. Security sources said that the man was so overcome with fury that he also smashed his own car’s windshield before driving away while leaving everybody appalled.

Citizen succumbs to injuries A badly injured Kuwaiti woman found bleeding on the street was rushed to Jleeb polyclinic, but succumbed to her injuries soon thereafter, security sources at the Jleeb police station said.

Investigations are on to determine how the woman could have suffered injuries all over her body and whether it was a case of brutal physical assault or if she was run over by a speeding vehicle.

ceeded in striking a bargain with the suspect for buying two grams of heroin. Later, the suspected was arrested red-handed while being in possession of three more grams of the drug. On searching his house, detectives found another 45 grams of heroin, 2,000 psychotropic pills and two grams of ICE. The suspect admitted he was selling drugs on behalf of a drug dealer abroad.

A case was filed and the suspect was referred to relevant authorities.

Drug overdose A 21-year-old Arab died yesterday of an overdose of Tramadol pills, security sources said, noting that the young man was rushed to the Mubarak Hospital by his father. The father told doctors that his son was addicted to Tramadol. A search of the deceased’s room led to the discovery of some more pills.

Asian busted with drugs Working under the drug control general department, narcotic detectives recently arrested an Asian for drug trafficking, security sources said. Case papers indicated that detectives had been tipped off about the suspect who had been packing heroin in small plastic bags to sell to addicts. An undercover detective suc-

Asian hangs self An Asian was found hanging dead in a deserted house in Hawally, security sources said. Case papers indicated that passersby reported a foul odour while passing by the house and informed the police. Initial examination showed that the corpse had been hanging for more than 72 hours.

Kuwait deports 17,800 expats over 2 years MPs want mornings allotted for citizens at hospitals

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The interior ministry has deported as many as 17,824 expatriates over the past two years for committing serious violations and breaking the law, a top interior ministry official told the national assembly yesterday.

Major-General Youssef Al-Saudi told MPs during a debate about the security situation in the country that 9,307 of those deported were women and 8,517 were men. He did not provide explanation for the violations the deported expatriates had committed.

The special debate was called to study the measures made by the interior ministry to beef-up security measures in the country following an earlier debate on the issue in January this year.

Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad AlHumoud Al-Sabah said that the ministry has taken all the necessary measures to implement recommendations made by lawmakers in January, including increasing the number of policemen and security men. Several MPs praised the minister for the measures he had taken while others criticized the ministry saying that lawlessness was still widespread and that the ministry has failed to improve deteriorating security situations amid warnings that Kuwait might be impacted by the fallouts of events in Arab countries. Sheikh Ahmad told the assembly that he and senior officials will continue to improve the security in Kuwait.

In another debate yesterday on the health situation in Kuwait, a number of MPs called for allocating the morning sessions at health facilities for Kuwaitis and evening sessions for expats. The ministry had earlier announced that it planned to apply such a policy in certain public health facilities in order to organize the operations of hospitals and clinics.

But recommendations submitted by MPs at the end of the debate did not call for separation between Kuwaiti and expatriate patients. MPs strongly blasted Health Minister Mohammad Al-Haifi for low standard public health services and for the ministry’s policy of sending Kuwaiti patients for treatment abroad.

The minister told the assembly that the ministry plans to build nine new hospitals over the coming four years and expand existing hospitals so as to almost double the number of beds to over 12,000 beds, adding that the number will further increase to over 15,000 beds in 2030.

He said that the ministry’s budget this fiscal year (2013-14) is KD 1.5 billion and this will help the ministry speed up the implementation of its plans. Haifi said that between 2002 and 2010, Kuwait registered as many as 7,200 cases of cancer, a fifth of which were breast cancer, adding that under the ministry’s plan, the cancer center will be expanded four-folds over the coming four years.

Poor weather suspends work at Kuwait’s ports KUWAIT: Operations at Kuwait’s three ports were suspended yesterday because of poor visibility caused by dust, state news agency KUNA said. “Operations at Kuwait’s three ports come to (a) halt as a result of dust, strong winds, limited vision,” the agency said in an SMS news alert. OPEC member Kuwait produces around 3 million barrels of crude oil per day.

KUWAIT: An accident which took place on Hawally bridge yesterday. — Photo by Rajesh Kulaparambil

FRIDAY,APRIL 5, 2013

Syria warns Jordan over aiding rebels

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Nightclub dancer ‘Ruby’stands up for Berlusconi

14

British couple jailed for killing 6 children in fire

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HEBRON: Palestinians follow the body of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh (center) during his funeral in the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday. — AP

Anger as Palestinians bury prisoner, teens Abbas: Israel igniting chaos • Kerry returns to Mideast HEBRON: Clashes rocked the West Bank yesterday as thousands attended the funerals of a prisoner and two teenagers shot dead by Israeli troops and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said the killings jeopardized US efforts to rekindle peace talks.

Israeli soldiers fired rubber bullets in the southern city of Hebron after furious crowds lined the streets to pay their respects to 63-yearold Maisara Abu Hamdiyeh, whose body was carried in a cortege to a local mosque for burial. Abu Hamdiyeh, who had served 10 years of a life term for attempted murder, died of throat cancer on Tuesday in hospital, sparking tension on the Palestinian street and its leadership accusing Israel of medical negligence. As news of his death spread, protests that erupted in several places quickly turned into clashes with the Israeli army, notably in Hebron, Abu Hamdiyeh’s home town.

Near the northern village of Anabta close to Tulkarem, the clashes turned deadly, with two teenagers shot dead overnight by troops, Israeli and Palestinian sources said. Palestinian security officials said Amer Nasser, 17, was killed by a bullet to the head and Naji Balbisi, 19, whose body was discovered at dawn, was shot in the chest. The Israeli military said troops had opened fire at “rioters who hurled petrol bombs” at a military post.

Abbas slammed the killings, saying in a statement that “the Israeli government is behind this escalation. “The Israeli government is

responsible for the (negative) impact on US and international efforts to restart negotiations.” He charged in a separate speech to his Fatah party that “Israel is trying to ignite chaos,” adding that “there’s no way peaceful demonstrations should lead to two deaths.” His remarks come just days ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry, who will hold fortnightly meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, local media say, as he tries to revive the stalled Middle East peace process. In Anabta, where schools and shops were closed in mourning, around 6,000 people gathered for the funerals, many calling for revenge as the two bodies arrived, both wrapped in Palestinian flags, an AFP correspondent said. Maath Kanaan spoke bitterly about the loss of his friend Amer. “He always had a nationalist spirit and he was the first one to go to demonstrations. They killed him in cold blood,” he said.

Since news of Abu Hamdiyeh’s death emerged, Hebron has been wracked by clashes between stone-throwing youths and Israeli troops, and since Tuesday the city has been shut down for a three-day general strike in a show of mourning. Soldiers on Thursday erected roadblocks in Hebron’s old city and fired rubber bullets at protesters who set tyres alight. On Wednesday, 4,600 prisoners in Israeli jails staged a one-day hunger strike, with another 1,900 refusing breakfast again yesterday, the prisons service said.

Abu Hamdiyeh was jailed for life in 2002 on charges of attempted murder in connection with a failed bomb attack on a Jerusalem cafe.

He had served 10 years of his sentence when he died. The issue of Palestinians jailed by Israel is highly sensitive, and frequently sparks mass demonstrations across the territories that often flare into violent clashes with the military. In the Gaza Strip, Salafist militants fired a handful of rockets over the border in protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, prompting retaliatory air strikes. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that if a current truce in and around Gaza was violated, Israel would “respond forcefully.” In a separate development, Israel has reportedly deployed a fifth battery of its vaunted Iron Dome anti-missile system in the southern city of Eilat, over fears of rocket fire on the Red Sea resort. US Secretary of State John Kerry is headed back to the Middle East for his third trip in a month, foraging for signs that Israel and the Palestinians are ready to make tough sacrifices for peace. In a surprise move, the State Department announced Wednesday that Kerry will return to Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories early next week to build on a series of talks last month between American and regional leaders. Expectations are growing that the US administration is ready to resume some kind of shuttle diplomacy to rekindle the moribund peace process, which has stalled since late 2010 amid bitter recriminations on both sides. — AFP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Syria warns Jordan over aiding rebels Amman ‘playing with fire’: Daily

TUNIS: Tunisian policemen with dogs man a checkpoint at the Tunis-Carthage airport to keep Salafists away from the building yesterday after radical Islamist websites called for a big turnout to welcome a Salafist sheikh evicted from Egypt for falsifying travel papers for jihadists. — AFP

Salafists say Hamas arrested 2 over rocket attacks GAZA CITY: The Palestinian movement Hamas which rules Gaza has arrested two hardline Islamists in connection with rocket attacks on Israel, sources close to a Salafist group said yesterday.

The Hamas interior ministry, however, denied any arrests had been made for “resistance against the occupation.”

Hamas’s “internal security apparatus in the last two days arrested two mujahedeen. One was released after several hours. The other is still detained,” a Salafist source told AFP on condition of anonymity. The source said it was part of a “campaign to pursue Salafists after the targeting of Israel with rockets.”

A Gaza-based Salafist group claimed firing rockets at Israel on Tuesday and Wednesday that landed in open fields, causing no damage or casualties. In response, Israel carried out two air strikes, also without causing harm. The Mujahedeen Shura Council said the rocket attacks were a response to the death of a Palestinian who died of cancer while serving a life sentence in an Israeli prison.

Interior ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan denied there had been any “arrests for resistance to the enemy (Israel),” saying such action would “not help national consensus (unity).” The Islamist movement Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since 2007, has regularly cracked down on hardline Salafists in the territory, notably in 2009. “Our security apparatus is part of the resistance and does not arrest anyone who resists the occupation. On the contrary, we encourage resistance,” Shahwan said.

The Mujahedeen Shura Council, meanwhile, urged “the rational-minded in Hamas to pressure its security to release Salafists” in a statement yesterday. In response to the rocket attacks Israel has tightened a maritime restriction barring Gaza fishermen from operating more than three nautical miles off the Mediterranean coast.

The already stringent limits were tightened from six miles on March 21 after Salafist militants fired two rockets at southern Israel as US President Barack Obama was visiting the country. Israel also closed down Kerem Shalom, Gaza’s only goods crossing, and imposed tight restrictions on travel into and out of the territory via the northern Erez terminal which was limited to medical emergencies only. A week later, the restrictions on the two crossings were lifted and Kerem Shalom and Erez began operating as normal.

But the fishing limitations were left in place, Palestinian officials said, with the Israeli army confirming it was a political decision taken after an uptick in rocket fire this week.

“It was decided after continuous firing of rockets today to keep the fishing zone limited to three miles until there is a political decision (to lift it),” a military spokesman told AFP on Wednesday. “This is a political issue and we’re waiting for the politicians’ decision to be made.”

Last week, two Israeli rights groups Gisha and B’Tselem, demanded that Israel lift the fishing restrictions, saying the measure amounted to “collective punishment.”— AFP

AMMAN: Syria’s regime sternly warned neighboring Jordan yesterday that it was “playing with fire” by allowing the US and other countries to train and arm rebels on its territory.

Jordan, America’s closest ally in the Arab world, has long been nervous that President Bashar Assad’s hardline regime could retaliate for supporting the rebels.

The warning carried on state media may add to those jitters, though Jordanian government officials publicly downplayed it as “mere speculation by the Syrian media.” Syrian state television said leaks in US media show Jordan “has a hand in training terrorists and then facilitating their entry into Syria.” State radio accused Jordan of “playing with fire.”

A front-page editorial in the government daily Al-Thawra accused Amman of adopting a policy of “ambiguity” by training the rebels while at the same time publicly insisting on a “political solution” to the Syrian crisis. “Jordan’s attempt to put out the flame from the leaked information will not help as it continues with its mysterious policy, which brings it closer to the volcanic crater,” the paper said.

Two Jordanian officials downplayed the diplomatic tiff with Syria. One said Jordan will not discuss the state of relations through the media.

“Such discussions are usually carried out through the appropriate diplomatic channels,’ he said. Both officials insisted on anonymity out of concern that their comments may further irritate relations, which have been historically bumpy.

Jordan has long been concerned that the Assad regime could use chemical weapons against it, or that agents linked to the regime or its allied Lebanese militant group Hezbollah could attack the kingdom. The Syrian warnings appeared to reflect the regime’s concerns about statements by US and other Western and Arab officials saying Jordan has been facilitating arms shipments and hosting training camps for Syrian rebels since last

ALEPPO: Rebel fighter load their weapons in the Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood in Aleppo yesterday. The UN says more than 70,000 people have been killed in a spiralling war that broke out after the army unleashed a crackdown on a peaceful revolt which morphed into an armed revolt. — AFP October. The training and the influx of foreign-funded weapons have coincided with rebel gains in southern Syria near the strategic border area with Jordan.

Those gains could be leading up to control of the region along the Jordanian border. That would be a major victory that could offer rebels a staging ground to try to attack the capital Damascus, the seat of Assad’s power.

Rebels already control large swathes of territory in northern Syria along the Turkish border. Activists reported more advances in the south yesterday. The rebels receiving training in Jordan are mainly secular Sunni Muslim tribesmen from central and southern Syria who once served in the army and police. The force is expected to fill a security vacuum - mainly to protect the border with Jordan, assist displaced Syrians and possibly set up a safe haven for refugees - if Assad is toppled.

The Syrians training in Jordan are also

envisioned as a counterbalance to the Islamic militant groups that have proven to be among the most effective of the myriad rebel factions fighting Assad’s forces on the ground.

Chief among those rebel extremist groups is Jabhat Al-Nusra or the Nusra Front, which the US designates as a terrorist group and says is associated with Al-Qaeda. The prominence of such extremist groups has fueled fears in Jordan that the chaos in Syria could lead to a failed state where Islamic militants have a free hand.

Israel and the United States also are concerned about militants potentially operating in the area near the Israeli frontier with Syria in the Golan Heights - also in the south - should Assad’s regime collapse. Though Jordan is supporting one segment of the disparate patchwork of rebel groups, it is nevertheless concerned about the recent rebel advances in the south along its border. —AP

Red Cross: Syria’s humanitarian crisis worsening rapidly BEIRUT: The humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening rapidly with some areas a landscape of “devastation and destruction”, the Red Cross said yesterday after a month which activists said was the bloodiest yet in the conflict.

About 70,000 people have been killed and millions displaced during the two-year-old uprising, the United Nations says. Civilians have been cut off from water, electricity and life-saving medical supplies, especially in rebel-held areas targeted by air strikes and ballistic missiles.

The Syrian government’s restrictions on aid convoys have meant most supplies are distributed in government-held areas. Peter Maurer, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said aid workers had been able to do make more trips into opposition-held areas in the past two weeks, indicating Damascus may be softening its stance on convoys into such territory.

He said the workers were “not pleasantly surprised” by what they found in areas accessible for the first time, with the need for food, sanitation, water and medicine increasing.

“We saw devastation and destruction,” he said. “What we were able to achieve is not enough. The needs are growing exponentially while our ability to react is growing linearly,” he said.

Convoys and volunteers for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent the ICRC’s partner in Syria - have been targeted during the civil war by both sides, who are suspicious of the group’s neutrality. Several volunteers have been jailed or killed.

Maurer called for aid groups to be respected. “When we have a convoy on the road from Damascus to any part of Syria it is of the uttermost importance that this convoy is allowed to pass checkpoints and is not shot at,” he said at the end of a three-day visit to neighboring Lebanon, which has 400,000 Syrian refugees.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Monday that March was the bloodiest month yet in the conflict, with more than 6,000 people killed, a third of them civilians. The group opposes Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad but has monitored human rights violations on both sides. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Jalili stoutly defends Iran’s nuclear policy 6 powers to meet Tehran negotiators

CAIRO: An Egyptian woman carries an empty gas cylinder to be refilled at a warehouse in Cairo yesterday. Cashstrapped Egypt on April 1, hiked the price of subsidized cooking gas by 60 percent, triggering market chaos, officials and media reported, ahead of a visit by the IMF for talks on a $4.8-billion loan. — AFP

Morsi in Khartoum on ‘historic’ visit KHARTOUM: Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi arrived in neighboring Sudan yesterday to push economic and other ties on a visit Khartoum calls “historic” but which comes nearly a year after Morsi’s election. The two-day trip is the former Muslim Brotherhood leader’s first to Sudan, which Egypt jointly ruled with Britain until 1956.

Morsi assumed office last June after a popular uprising toppled long-time president Hosni Mubarak in 2011.

The Egyptian leader is to hold talks with President Omar Al-Bashir, a fellow Islamist, as well as with business people and political party leaders. Posters of the two leaders have been hung on street corners. “It is a historic visit because of the strategic depth of the relations between the people of the two countries, and both leaders are elected,” Emad Sayed Ahmed, Bashir’s press secretary, told AFP. Morsi’s office said the visit has “particular importance because it is the first of its kind since the president took office, and is aimed at stressing the special and strong strategic relationship between Egypt and Sudan.” Cairo is keen to establish “a real economic partnership with Sudan, to meet the ambitions and goals of growth and prosperity for both peoples,” the Egyptian statement said ahead of the visit.

Sudan is an important ally for Egypt in terms of its agricultural potential and in Cairo’s efforts to secure an acceptable agreement with upstream river Nile countries on vital water supplies. Two years ago, Egypt’s then prime minister Essam Sharaf said his country was the third largest investor in Sudan, with stakes valued at $5.4 billion. But University of Khartoum political scientist Safwat Fanous said Morsi’s trip “comes too late,” after he visited several other countries including India and Pakistan. “Sudan is very important to Egypt, has been and will be in the future, for many reasons” including historical factors, the resources of the Nile river, and close ties between the two peoples, Fanous said. “The visit should’ve maybe taken place earlier,” a foreign diplomat told AFP. “Relations are not 100 percent in harmony, I would say.” Fanous suspects the trip was delayed because Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood “deliberately wanted to keep a distance” from the internationally isolated Bashir regime. Khartoum has been under US trade restrictions since 1997 for reasons which Washington has said include human rights violations. US Secretary of State John Kerry in March pledged $250 million to help revive Egypt’s economy. — AFP

ALMATY: Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili sounded a defiant note ahead of a new round of talks with world powers in Kazakhstan, saying yesterday they had to recognize Iran’s right to enrich uranium to see any breakthrough.

The six powers - United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - will meet Iranian negotiators today and tomorrow in the Kazakh city of Almaty, hoping Tehran agrees to scale back its most sensitive atomic work that they suspect is aimed at achieving a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran has refused to do so during a decade of on-and-off negotiations, despite hardening economic sanctions, arguing its uranium enrichment has peaceful purposes only and therefore can continue under international law.

Jalili, speaking at a university in Almaty, said that stance would not change. “We think our talks tomorrow can go forward with one word. That is the acceptance of the rights of Iran, particularly the right to enrichment,” he said. World powers argue Iran has given up its right to enrich uranium under international rules because it has

hidden nuclear work from United Nations inspectors in the past and has refused to open fully to their investigations. Jalili said Iran would continue to defend its policy regardless of a June presidential election, which Western diplomats say complicates Tehran’s approach to talks.“The impact of the election will be that ... our people will defend their right with more rigour,” Jalili said. There is broad unity within the Iranian political establishment on pursuing the nuclear program and policy on the issue is closely overseen by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader who has the last word on all momentous matters.

In Almaty, their second meeting with Iran in Kazakhstan’s commercial centre in five weeks, the powers want Iran to agree to suspend higher-grade uranium production in return for modest relief from economic sanctions.

Stakes are high in the negotiations.

Israel, widely assumed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power, has said it would bomb Iran’s military installations if diplomacy and sanctions fail to curb nuclear progress. That could in turn spark reprisals

by Iran and its regional allies, engulfing the Middle East in a new war. Oil prices could jump and threaten the fragile global economy. At the core of the international community’s concerns are Iran’s efforts to enrich uranium to 20 percent fissile purity, a level that closes an important technological gap en route to making weapons-grade material. During the last meeting in Almaty in February world powers told Iran to stop producing such uranium and constrain the ability to quickly resume operations at the Fordow facility, buried deep in a mountain near the Iranian city of Qom. The EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said during a trip to Turkey on Wednesday that she was “cautiously optimistic” about prospects of a deal in Almaty.

“But I am also very clear that it is very important that we do get a response (from Iran),” she told reporters.

Iranian media quoted deputy negotiator Ali Bagheri as saying in Almaty that Tehran would suggest its own deal at talks.

“Iran will enter tomorrow’s negotiations with clear and instrumental proposals,” he was quoted saying. —Reuters

France to join future Mali peacekeeping RABAT: French troops will take part in a future UN peacekeeping mission in Mali after they end their task of clearing AlQaeda-linked rebels out of Mali’s vast northern region.

French President Francois Hollande made the announcement Thursday as he spoke before Morocco’s parliament, part of a two-day visit celebrating the two nations’ close cooperation.

“France will soon complete its mission (in Mali) in a few weeks and African forces will take over. The security council is going to deploy a peacekeeping operation and France will play its part,” Hollande said. He said that scenario was based on the condition that a “indispensable” dialogue take place between Mali’s factions and the Mali government in Bamako and on the resumption of the democratic process in the West African nation. Elections in Mali are planned for July. Mali was plunged into turmoil after a coup in March 2012 created a security vacuum. That allowed secular rebel Tuaregs, who have long felt marginalized by Mali’s government, to take half of the country’s vast north as a new homeland. But months later, their struggle was co-opted by Islamic jihadists, who imposed strict Shariah law in the north.

France launched a military operation on Jan. 11 against the Islamic extremists, many linked to al-Qaida, after they suddenly started moving south and captured key towns. Backed by Chadian soldiers, French troops ousted the radical Islamic fighters from major towns in northern Mali, though many went into hiding in the desert and continue to carry out attacks.

Hollande said last week the first of France’s more than 4,000 troops in Mali will pull out in late April and by July, will be down to 2,000 soldiers. He said just 1,000 will remain by the end of the year. — AP

CASABLANCA: (From left) King’s sister Princess Lalla Meryem, Morocco’s Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane, King’s wife Princess Lalla Salma, France’s President Francois Hollande, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, Hollande’s partner Valerie Trierweiler, King’s brother Moulay Rachid and king’s sister Princess Lalla Asmaa attend a State dinner at the king’s Palace in Casablanca, yesterday. —AFP

Kurdish party denies Ocalan asked rebels to leave unarmed ISTANBUL: Turkey’s main pro-Kurdish political party denied yesterday media reports that jailed Kurdish militant leader Abdullah Ocalan had told his fighters to leave the country without their weapons under a peace plan.

A weapons-free withdrawal by Ocalan’s Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), as sought by the government, would be seen as a significant step towards ending a conflict which has dragged on for three decades and killed more than 40,000 people. The Yeni Safak daily, which is close to the government, said Ocalan had given the withdrawal message on Wednesday to a delegation from the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) which visited him in his island prison, south of Istanbul. BDP co-leader

Selahattin Demirtas, who was one of the delegates, said Ocalan had prepared a letter on the subject but had not delivered any message on Wednesday.

“First of all I want to state clearly that Mr Ocalan did not pass on a clear message regarding the withdrawal during our visit yesterday, nor did he give us a letter,” Demirtas told Kurdish television channel Nuce TV in a telephone interview.

“However, he told us he had written a letter on this subject and that it would reach us in one or two days. We expect to receive this letter today or tomorrow. He said the details were in this letter,” Demirtas said. It was not clear whether the letter would be addressed to the PKK or others, but Demirtas said a reply was expected to be sent to Imrali within a week. — Reuters

International FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

S Africa pulls troops from C Africa after deadly firefight CAPE TOWN: President Jacob Zuma announced yesterday that South Africa will pull troops out of the Central African Republic, after 13 paratroopers died in a nine-hour firefight with rebels.

“We have taken a decision to withdraw our soldiers,” Zuma said, as he faced a firestorm of criticism over South Africa’s biggest military loss since the end of apartheid. At least 13 troops died and 27 were wounded on March 23 when they came under fire from around 3,000 Seleka rebel fighters near the capital Bangui. Zuma said the decision to pull out remaining troops was made because the overthrow of Francois Bozize’s government effectively ended a bilateral deal that resulted in troops being deployed.

“Our mission was to help train the soldiers, since the coup and the self-appointment of rebels, it was clear that the government is no longer there,” Zuma said, according to state broadcaster SABC. As the situation on the ground deteriorated last year South Africa had 26 troops deployed to help with training in the troubled Saharan nation, which has suffered repeated coups since independence in 1960. In December a decision was taken to send around 200 more troops to protect the trainers.

It emerged in 2011 that the troops also had a mandate to protect Bozize, who himself seized power in a coup and later won a flawed presidential election.

With the South African government offering few details about the mission, deployment or rules of engagement, accusations have swirled that the mission morphed to match business interests of the ruling ANC. Yesterday defense minister Nosiviwe MapisaNqakula denied those allegations, saying the mission was about making Africa more peaceful. “We will always be there to assist,” she said. — AFP

Nightclub dancer ‘Ruby’ stands up for Berlusconi Karima: I lied about being Mubarak’s niece MILAN: The nightclub dancer at the centre of former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s sex trial staged a dramatic protest outside the court yesterday, alleging that she had been unfairly pressured as part of a campaign against Berlusconi.

Karima El Mahroug’s emotional and at times contradictory statement in defence of Berlusconi follows a protest by parliamentarians from his party outside the court last month as the media magnate tries to have the trial moved away from Milan.

The charges against Berlusconi, which he denies, include paying for sex with El Mahroug, better known under her stage name “Ruby the Heartstealer”, when she was a minor.

She has always denied being a prostitute or having sex with the 76-yearold billionaire during the now-notorious “bunga bunga” evenings at his villa outside Milan, where numerous witnesses have said she was a regular guest. Carrying a large sign reading “The Ruby case: Are you not interested in the truth anymore?”, she said she had been used as part of a deliberate campaign against Berlusconi by magistrates and sections of the press. “Today I realize that there is a war under way against him that I do not feel part of, but which has dragged me in and injures me,” she said, reading a pre-

MILAN: Exotic dancer Karima El-Mahroug, nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer speaks to journalists outside court. — AFP pared statement. “I do not want to be a against him. The next hearing is due on April 22. Berlusconi is also appealing victim of this situation.”

El Mahroug demanded to be against a four-year sentence for tax allowed to testify in open court but fraud, and his legal problems further declined to explain to reporters why complicate the political standoff that she had avoided summons to appear arose when elections in February left at previous hearings. As recently as no party able to form a government. El December, she failed to appear in Mahroug, her voice breaking at times, court, later turning up in Mexico, said she had been publicly humiliated by the implication that she was a proswhere she said she was on holiday.

The trial has been suspended while titute and said that investigators had judges consider Berlusconi’s request to exploited her vulnerability to attack transfer it away from Milan, where he Berlusconi, leader of Italy’s main censays magistrates are waging a vendetta tre-right party. — Reuters

Ukraine parliament moves building amid blockade Move seen as attempted constitutional coup KIEV: Pro-government lawmakers in the Ukrainian parliament yesterday moved building and held a plenary session on different premises amid a weeks-long standoff with the opposition, which described the move as an attempted constitutional coup. The rare walkout is the latest twist in the political tug-of-war between the Regions Party of President Viktor Yanukovych and the opposition supporting his nemesis, jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

The last time the Ukrainian parliament split into two and held two sessions on two different premises was under the then president Leonid Kuchma in 2000. The ruling Regions Party said 244 deputies in the 450seat parliament supported the move, but the opposition insists that number is just 182.

The opposition has sought to disrupt parliamentary proceedings by blockading the speaker’s rostrum, and the parliament has held only a few full-blown sessions over the past few weeks. On Thursday, the lawmakers, mostly from the Regions Party and their Communist Party backers, moved into a building located a block

KIEV: Lawmakers from various Ukrainian opposition parties attend a session of parliament in Kiev yesterday. —AP down from the Verkhovna Rada parliament in central Kiev. Meanwhile, opposition deputies kept up a blockade in the Verkhovna Rada that has blocked parliamentary proceedings in the last days and accused the ruling party of attempting a coup.

“This is a new state emergency committee,” fumed leading opposition figurehead Arseniy Yatsenyuk, referring to the failed plot to seize power from Mikhail Gorbachev in the last days of the Soviet Union in August 1991. He accused Yanukovych of organizing the walkout, which he called an attempt to seize state pow-

er, and asked prosecutors to open a criminal probe. He warned that any decisions taken during the extramural session would not be legal.

“Any decisions taken by the ruling party supporters in the backstreets are unconstitutional,” he was quoted as saying in a statement.

The ruling party insists that their session is legal since a parliamentary majority supported the move. “We have a lot of issues that we need to solve,” head of the Regions Party faction Olexander Yefremov said. “And I believe it is not entirely correct to depend on the minority.” — AFP

Burundi lawmakers OK tough media law BUJUMBURA: Burundi lawmakers have approved a draft media law that forces journalists to reveal sources, threatens reporters with financial penalties and bans news about the local currency.

Lawmakers say it will protect Burundi leaders and citizens but local media call it an attack on press freedom in a central African nation recovering from more than a decade of civil war. Although the media operate with some freedom in landlocked Burundi, several journalists have been jailed and independent outlets threatened with closure in the last few years.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said last year the government was trying to restrict efforts by independent media and civil society to criticize violence blamed on the state. Under the bill passed by the national assembly late on Wednesday, journalists, newspapers or radio businesses will be liable to pay fines from $2,000 and $6,000 for press offences.

It also bans the media from publishing news about national defense, public safety, state security and the local currency, which lost 14.3 percent against the dollar in 2012 and is down 4 percent in 2013. “This bill was approved by the majority of members of parliament, because we believe it guarantees the freedom of expression for journalists, but it also protects the rights of citizens and country’s leaders,” said Pie Ntavyohanyuma, speaker of the national assembly.

Burundi’s journalists union (UBJ) said the bill was an unconstitutional attack on press freedom. “This bill denies the freedom of expression and media, it is against the country’s constitution and other international laws such as the universal declaration of human rights,” said Alexandre Niyungeko, the UBJ chairman. — Reuters

15

International FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

British couple jailed for killing 6 children in fire Plot to torch house went awry

PAMPLONA: Spanish newspapers feature front page coverage of Spain’s Princess Cristina de Borbon and her summoning to court as a suspect in a corruption case, in Pamplona northern Spain yesterday. — AP

Spain ‘concerned’ over subpoena for princess MADRID: The Spanish government is deeply concerned about the fact that one of the king’s daughters has been named as a suspect in a corruption case, the foreign minister said yesterday.

Minister Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo said the summoning of Princess Cristina affected the entire country’s image and urged that the case be resolved rapidly. “Anything that affects an institution that has been so important in Spain’s transition (from dictatorship to democracy) and which is so important for Spain’s image abroad, causes enormous concern,” Margallo told reporters. The subpoena announcement caused a sensation Wednesday and has been the main news item for all Spanish media. The summons is a first for a member of the king’s immediate family. The palace expressed surprise at the decision and welcomed a prosecutor’s move to appeal it.

The 47-year-old princess, the youngest daughter of King Juan Carlos, has not been charged but must appear for questioning by Palma de Mallorca Judge Jose Castro on April 27. The investigation centers on whether her husband Inaki Urdangarin and his former business partner funneled about 5 million euros ($6.4 million) in public funds via the nonprofit Noos Institute they ran into private businesses they controlled. “It’s imperative that the judiciary should get to the bottom of the Noos case, not just because it’s a serious case of corruption but rather because it’s a scandal that is causing considerable damage to the prestige of the monarchy,” the leading newspaper El Pais wrote yesterday in an editorial.

The royal family’s troubles and corruption scandals affecting the country’s two main political parties have greatly irked Spaniards, who are suffering through an economic crisis that has sent unemployment soaring to 26 percent. Previously both the judge and the prosecutor had agreed there was not enough cause to call the princess in for questioning but the magistrate said new information had changed his mind.

The judge said while there was no indication that the princess took an active part in her husband’s businesses, she was a board member on two of his companies and there was evidence she knew that Urdangarin used her name and status in his dealings, which benefited both of them. Castro said such evidence could lead the princess to be classified as an accomplice.

Urdangarin, 45, has already been questioned twice by Castro since the probe began two years ago. The royal family last year sidelined him from all official duties. The princess went to work as normal yesterday at the Caixa bank foundation in Barcelona but did not comment on the case. She is seventh in the line of succession. — AP

MOSCOW: US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul (left), takes part in a round table discussion on NGO cooperation between the two countries in Moscow yesterday. — AFP

LONDON: A British couple were handed lengthy jail terms yesterday for killing six of their children in a plot to torch their house that went disastrously wrong.

Mick Philpott, 56, was jailed for life, while his 32-year-old wife Mairead was jailed for 17 years for the manslaughter of their children, in a case that has gripped Britain.

Judge Kathryn Thirlwall said Mick Philpott was a “disturbingly dangerous man”. “You have no moral compass,” she told him. Paul Mosley, who joined the couple for sexual encounters and was in on the plot, was also jailed for 17 years for manslaughter. Philpott was told he would serve a minimum of 15 years and his wife and Mosley at least eight and a half years over the deaths at the family home in Derby, central England, on May 11 last year. All six children, aged from five to 13, died from smoke inhalation.

The Philpotts wept as they were jailed.

There was the rare sound of applause in court-coming from the Philpotts’ own family members-as the judge finished her sentencing. “Die, Mick, die,” one shouted, while another called out: “Your own babies.” In response, Philpott smiled and made an obscene gesture as he was led from the dock.

A jury found the trio guilty after an eight-week trial. With 17 children in total by five different mothers, Philpott was already a nationally notorious figure, dubbed “Shameless Mick” by the press for his feckless lifestyle funded by hefty state welfare handouts.

Prosecutors said the couple set their home ablaze in a bid to frame Philpott’s 29-year-old former live-in girlfriend and claim custody of her five children-four of which he fathered.

She had left the house three months earlier, taking her children and leaving just six youngsters for whom Philpott

DERBY: A fire-damaged house in which six children died is pictured in Derby, central England. A British couple were handed long jail terms yesterday for killing six of their children in a deliberate house fire. — AFP could claim welfare payments. Philpott was supposed to have rescued the sleeping children through a bedroom window-but the petrol-fuelled fire spread more quickly than planned and the window would not open. Judge Thirlwall said the plot was “a wicked and dangerous plan” and was “outside the comprehension of any right-thinking person”.

She said the children were subjected to a terrifying ordeal. “Their terror was the price they were going to pay for your callous selfishness. In fact, they paid with their six young lives.” She added: “Mercifully, the deaths were swift and, it would appear, without pain.” She told Philpott that women were his “chattels”, saying: “You barked orders and they would obey. You were the kingpin, Noone else mattered.”

The case has triggered a debate in

Britain about welfare culture as the government this week brings in a major shake-up of the system, including capping the amount someone can claim at the national average wage. Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent Kate Meynell said it was an “incredibly tragic” case. “Six innocent children died as a result of the actions of their parents, the very people who should have protected them against danger,” she said.

“The Philpotts and Paul Mosley showed no regard for the safety of the children and, since the fire, have shown no remorse for their actions. “They have lied throughout the investigation and court case. There were plenty of opportunities to admit their guilt but they never did and persisted with their denials.” — AFP

Britain urges Saudi not to paralyze convict LONDON: Britain yesterday urged Saudi Arabia not to carry out the “grotesque” punishment of paralysis for a man whose alleged crime took place when he was just 14 years old.

Ali Al-Khawahir, 24, has reportedly been sentenced to “Qisas” (retribution) for allegedly paralyzing a friend when he stabbed him in the back 10 years ago. He could be paralyzed from the waist down if he fails to pay compensation of one million riyals ($270,000), rights group Amnesty International said on Tuesday citing Saudi media reports. Britain’s Foreign Office said it was deeply concerned by the reports. “We urge the Saudi authorities to ensure that this grotesque punishment is not carried out,” a spokesman said. “Such practices are prohibited under international law and have no place in any society.”

Amnesty said paralysis as punishment would be akin to torture. “It is time the authorities in Saudi Arabia start respecting their international legal obligations and

remove these terrible punishments from the law,” said Ann Harrison, Amnesty’s deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

The rights body said a similar sentence of paralysis was given in Saudi Arabia in 2010, but that it was unknown whether it had been

carried out.

The ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom imposes several forms of corporal punishment attributed to Islamic sharia law, ranging from flogging to amputation and beheading. — AFP

Russia: N Korea actions cut chance of nuke talks MOSCOW: Russia said yesterday that North Korea’s disregard for UN restrictions was unacceptable and that its decision to pursue a nuclear program radically limited the chances of resuming stalled six-party nuclear talks.

Pyongyang formally rejected a UN Security Council resolution on March 9 that demanded an end to its nuclear arms program, signaling it would defy international sanctions and pursue its goal of becoming a full-fledged nuclear weapons power. “We have taken notice of the March decision ... to

further enhance the status of a country possessing nuclear arms for the purposes of self-defense,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich told a briefing.

“This radically complicates, if it doesn’t in practice shut off, the prospects for resuming six-party talks,” he said, referring to stalled aid-for-disarmament talks between the two Koreas as well as China, Russia, Japan and the United States. “Attempts by Pyongyang to violate ... decisions of the UN Security Council are categorically unacceptable,” Lukashevich said. —Reuters

International FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Obama raises California money for Democrats President walks a fine line to win house majority

MEMPHIS: Martin Luther King III speaks at the Mason Temple on Wednesday in Memphis. The Mason Temple is the building where King’s father, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, gave his last speech the night before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers. — AP

45 years after Martin Luther King shot, ‘50 days of nonviolence’ ATLANTA: The 45th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr is marked with the launch of a campaign against youth violence in his hometown of Atlanta and a labor union rally in the city where he was killed.

The King Center in Atlanta said it would honor its namesake by kicking off “The 50 Days of Nonviolence,” a challenge for youth to abstain from violence for the rest of the current school year.

“As my father said, ‘The choice is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence,’” said Bernice King, the civil rights leader’s daughter and chief executive officer of the King Center. “We believe young people have a leadership role to play in creating a nonviolent society,” she said.

Bernice King will speak outside the center yesterday at 7:01 pm EST, the exact time her father was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

A wreath will be placed on the front of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King had preached, in the same spot where one was placed the day after his death.

King, who advocated nonviolence, racial brotherhood and equal rights, rose to international prominence after leading the Montgomery bus boycott, which began in December 1955. He went on to win the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. In 1968, he traveled to Memphis to support sanitation workers who were striking against unfair working conditions and low pay. King was shot and killed while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Hotel. He was 39. James Earl Ray, a segregationist, confessed to the assassination but recanted shortly afterward and tried for years to get a new trial. He died in prison in 1998 while serving a 99-year sentence.

The hotel is now home to the National Civil Rights Museum, which will commemorate King’s death with a labor union rally, wreath laying and panel discussion including Alvin Turner, a retired sanitation worker who participated in the strike.

“It’s been 45 years since the assassination, and it’s been 45 years that the country’s struggle has continued for equality and freedom,” said Barbara Andrews, director of education for the National Civil Rights Museum. Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees labor union, which organized the 1968 sanitation strike in Memphis, plan a march from the local union office to the museum, union spokesman Chris Fleming said. Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights leader, is scheduled to speak at the rally, Fleming said. — Reuters

SAN FRANCISCO: Making a down payment on his vow to go all in for Democrats in 2014, President Barack Obama is courting well-heeled donors in California on a two-day fundraising jaunt that requires the president to walk a fine line: Berate Republicans too much, and Obama could put fragile prospects for achieving his secondterm goals in jeopardy.

Obama’s California swing, which started Wednesday with two fundraisers for House Democrats, kicks off a concerted effort to help his party win back the House and keep its Senate majority next year. It’s a mission that, if successful, would improve his playing field and help him secure his legacy during his final two years in office, a lame-duck period in which a president’s influence quickly ebbs.

Making his pitch to donors Wednesday night in San Francisco, Obama said he’s prepared this year to

work with Republicans to pass legislation aimed at gun violence, an immigration overhaul and fiscal stability.

“But, realistically, I’d get a whole lot more done if Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House,” Obama said with the California congresswoman and House Democratic leader at his side.

The short-term pitfalls are clear.

Obama has spent much of the past month pursuing warmer relations with Republicans in Congress whose votes he needs to enact his agenda.

Republicans on the receiving end of Obama’s ongoing “charm offensive” the president will dine with Senate Republicans next week for a second time - say his partisan tone when he leaves Washington makes them question his sincerity when he says he’s willing to meet Republicans halfway.

“He’s doing a pretty lousy job of it,” Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican Party, said in an interview.

“If he was someone who was as conciliatory as he proclaims to be, you would think he would have a few decent relationships with Republicans, but he doesn’t. Instead, he spends most of his time campaigning.”White House officials are mindful of the balancing act Obama must carry out to avoid undermining relations with Republican lawmakers when he hits the campaign trail for Democrats. Aides say the president can carry out both goals at once by avoiding explicit attacks on Republicans, instead focusing on elements of his agenda that enjoy broad public support and urging voters to support candidates who will back that agenda.

“The president’s appeal to his supporters won’t interfere with his continued efforts to work with Republicans to move that agenda through the Congress,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. —AP

Gun measures okayed in US state where children shot HARTFORD, Connecticut: The governor of the US state where 20 young children were shot dead at school in December is expected to sign a law putting in place some of the country’s strictest gun control laws. Early yesterday morning, following hours of respectful and at times somber debate, the House and the Senate in Connecticut voted to approve the law.

The bill now goes to Democratic Gov Dannel P Malloy, who planned to sign it at noon. The state, where gun manufacturing dates back to the war for independence from England, has wrestled with the issue of gun safety since 20year-old Adam Lanza shot his way into the school with a high-powered rifle legally purchased by his mother, whom he killed as well. The massacre reignited a national debate on gun control, and Obama has made gun safety one of the defining issues of his second term, which started a month after the shooting. His proposed gun control measures have largely stalled in Congress, however, and Obama has planned a trip to Connecticut on Monday to increase pressure on lawmakers in Washington.

President Barack Obama visited Colorado on Wednesday and repeated his call for universal background checks for gun buyers - a measure that has better chances of winning enough support in Congress than an assault weapons ban or limits on large-capacity ammunition magazines. — AP

NEWTON: Family members of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting attend a news conference in Newtown, Connecticut. Connecticut passed the toughest US law on owning military-style rifles early yesterday. —AFP

NEW YORK: Morning commuters use the the old South Ferry subway station yesterday in New York. The historic, century old hub has re-opened after massive damage from Superstorm Sandy closed the station.

South Ferry is the last stop on the No 1 train. — AP

US man sentenced to death for Craigslist plot AKRON, Ohio: A self-styled street preacher was sentenced to death yesterday in the killings of three down-and-out men lured by bogus job offers posted on Craigslist. The jury that convicted Richard Beasley of murder recommended that he face execution. The judge had the option of reducing the sentence to life in prison. Beasley, 53, was convicted of teaming up with a teenager in 2011 to use the promise of jobs on a farm to lure them into robberies.

Three men were killed, and a fourth who was wounded testified at Beasley’s trial.

The judge read the three death sentences in a hushed courtroom crowded with victims’ relatives, some of them holding back tears. Beasley skipped the chance to speak to the judge before the sentencing. He asked to speak later, but the judge said that was his chance, and he passed on it. He listened to the verdict with his head on his chest, sitting in a wheelchair he uses for back pain.

Beasley’s co-defendant, who was 16 at the time of the crimes, was too young to face the death penalty. Brogan Rafferty was sentenced to life in prison without the chance of parole on his conviction last year. One victim was killed near Akron, and the others were shot at a southeast Ohio farm during bogus job interviews. — AP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Taleban staged room to room massacre: Officials NATO air strike kills 6 in Afghanistan MUMBAI: MSV Yusufi moves through Indian waters near the main port in Mumbai. The vessel coming from Dubai, suspected to be carrying a satellite phone, was intercepted off Mumbai, and five people were arrested, Coast Guard officials said. — AFP

Myanmar communal unrest threatens political reforms WASHINGTON: Few imagined Myanmar would embrace democracy when the US began its historic engagement with the military regime. The country’s rapid changes were lauded by visiting Western leaders, and the nation’s president was hailed as a hero. But spasms of spreading, communal violence show the reform path is bumpier than expected and have taken the sheen off a foreign policy success of the Obama administration’s first term.

While Washington says the country’s overall direction is still positive, some experts worry Myanmar risks backsliding toward military rule that ended two years ago.

In the past two weeks, violence between Buddhists and Muslims has left dozens dead. Thousands of refugees of an earlier spate of sectarian bloodletting are fleeing on rickety boats. And in a key concern to US policymakers, the country’s murky military ties with North Korea continue. Washington has been at the forefront of international efforts to encourage the country also known as Burma to open up to the world and ease controls on its 60 million people. Yesterday marked the anniversary of the historic US announcement that it was normalizing diplomatic relations - the first in a series of diplomatic rewards in response to reforms. — AP

FARAH, Afghanistan: Taleban gunmen who killed 46 people at a courthouse in western Afghanistan in a bid to free insurgents moved ruthlessly from room to room, shooting everyone they found, officials recounted yesterday.

Defenseless civilians, judges, lawyers and court staff were left dead after nine militants disguised as Afghan soldiers launched an eighthour assault on Wednesday which only ended after security forces killed the last surviving gunman. Taliban fighters frequently target government compounds, but the unprecedented massacre at a courthouse in the remote province of Farah raised new fears about the insurgency’s strength as NATO forces withdraw from the battlefield.

Three attackers died when their explosive-laden vehicle, stolen from the Afghan army, drove into the entrance of the court in Farah city early in the morning.

The vehicle detonated in a huge blast when they refused to stop and police opened fire, deputy governor of Farah province Mohammad Younus Rasouli told AFP. Six other attackers entered the court buildings and the attorney general’s office next door.

“They had 10 hand grenades each and lots of bullets. They smashed down each door and shot anyone in each room, one by one,” Rasouli said.

Gandhi says growth in ‘beehive’ India must help poor NEW DELHI: Rahul Gandhi, often tagged India’s “prime minister-in-waiting”, told business leaders yesterday that the poor must see the benefits of economic growth in a keynote address designed to raise his profile.

Despite the sharply slowing economy and ballooning budget deficit, the ruling Congress party vice-president said he wanted to forge a “longterm partnership” with business to help the poor and release the nation’s “beehive” energies. “This country is only going to move forward if we all stand together,” Gandhi, 42, told the annual meeting of the Confederation of Indian Industry in a sometimes rambling address. Gandhi, one of Rahul Gandhi a string of big guns Congress wheeled out at the meeting to woo the crucial business community before 2014 polls, said “inclusive growth is win-win for everybody”.

“We have to carry the poor and weak with us,” he added. In his first speech to a major corporate audience, the media-shy leader hailed the energy of the nation and talked of the need to change India’s political system, but he was short on policy detail and gave no hints about his own ambitions.

He said that instead of the usual references to India as a slow-moving elephant, a far more apt comparison would be to a complex beehive-one of the most memorable lines of the speech and quickly picked up on social media.

Such complexity, he said, gave India the edge internationally and over its Asian rival China. Gandhi-who comes from a line of three prime ministers and is second in the party’s hierarchy after his mother, Sonia Gandhi-was non-committal about whether he would be a prime ministerial candidate in 2014. — AFP

FARAH: Afghan army soldiers stand around a killed Taleban, dressed as an Afghan army soldier, in the destroyed courthouse in Farah, western Afghanistan, yesterday. —AP “Everybody, all the attorneys and judges and anyone else. All were unarmed, defenseless.”

Television footage and photographs showed badly damaged buildings, walls reduced to rubble and wrecked cars at the scene. The governor of Farah, Mohammad Akram Khpalwak, said 36 civilians were killed, including four lawyers and four judges. Ten security force personnel were also killed and 95 to 100 people wounded, he added.

“Many people were stranded in the buildings. After they were rescued, the police and army started the operation to hunt down the attackers,” Khpalwak told AFP. “Ten security force personnel died during the day.” The court was due to put Taliban militants on trial when the attack took place. The militants claimed to have freed 13 of its members, but Khpalwak told AFP that 12 Taliban prisoners at the court were taken back to jail. — AFP

Pakistan expels 3 ‘French jihadists’ ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has deported three Frenchmen who have been held in secret since they entered the country illegally 10 months ago to fight NATO troops in neighboring Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

Investigators are expected to question the men in France, where the case is likely to draw parallels with Mohammed Merah, the 23-yearold who shot dead seven people in southwest France in March 2012 after returning from Pakistan.

Investigators said Pakistani police arrested the trio on May 28 last year after they entered the country illegally from Iran. They were detained along with Naamen Meziche, another Frenchman of North African extraction previously known to Western security services as a presumed member of Al-Qaeda.

“They said they came to Pakistan to deepen their knowledge of Islam and to fight in Afghanistan,” one investigator told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Meziche’s arrest was announced last June but French and Pakistani officials had kept quiet about the other three. At the time, Pakistani officials said Meziche was probably heading to Somalia.

But Western experts said he had been en route to Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, an Al-Qaeda and Taleban

stronghold. Investigators believe Meziche could have been taking the other three to the tribal belt, a rear base for the Taliban’s war in Afghanistan and a location of Al-Qaeda training camps. — AFP

Man kills 9 in axe rampage in India RAIPUR: An Indian villager axed to death four women and five young girls yesterday while apparently mentally disturbed after his wife left him, police said. Pandu Nagesia, 35, killed nine of his neighbors during a deadly rampage through Behratoli village in the central state of Chhattisgarh, district police chief Govardhan Singh Darroh told AFP by telephone.

The victims were five girls aged between two and nine, a 25-year-old and three women over 60, he said.

“A total of nine females were axed to death,” Darroh said. “The accused Nagesia first attacked a 25-year-old woman and her two-year-old child and axed them to death, subsequently killing his neighbors one after another,” the police chief said. — AFP

International FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

N Korea warns of nuclear strike US boosts missile defense in Pacific SEOUL: The United States has scrambled to reinforce its Pacific missile defenses as North Korea pushed more global alarm buttons yesterday by announcing it had authorized plans for possible nuclear strikes on US targets. US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Pyongyang’s increasingly bellicose threats combined with its military capabilities represented a “real and clear danger” to the United States and its allies South Korea and Japan.

The Pentagon said it would send groundbased THAAD missile-interceptor batteries to protect bases on Guam, a US territory some 3,380 kilometers (2,100 miles) southeast of North Korea and home to 6,000 American military personnel. “They have nuclear capacity now, they have missile delivery capacity now,” Hagel said Wednesday. “We take those threats seriously.”

Shortly afterwards, the North Korean military said it had received final approval for military action against the United States, possibly involving nuclear weapons. “The moment of explosion is approaching fast,” the Korean People’s Army general staff said, responding to what it called the provocative US use of nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 stealth bombers in war games with South Korea.

The US aggression would be “smashed by... cutting-edge smaller, lighter and diversified nuclear strike means,” it said in a statement. While few of the North’s threats have been matched with action, South Korea said it appeared to have moved a medium-range missile to its east coast.

“It could be aimed at test-firing or military drills,” South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin told lawmakers. A provocative missile test-fired into the sea over Japan is one scenario that analysts have said the North could opt for as a relatively low-risk way of exiting the crisis with a face-saving show of force.

The new nuclear threats drew fresh concern led by UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who said on a visit to Monaco that he was “deeply concerned and troubled” over the escalating rhetoric. “At this time, I think all the parties concerned in the Korean peninsula, in

DANDONG: North Korean officials wait by the docks along the bank of the Yalu River in the North Korean town of Sinuiju across from the Chinese city of Dandong yesterday.

North Korea appears to have moved a medium range missile to its east coast, South Korean Defense Minister Kim Kwan-Jin said, prompting fears of a strike against South Korea or Japan. — AFP

NKorea’s Twitter account hacked SEOUL: Hackers apparently broke into at least two of North Korea’s government-run online sites yesterday, as tensions rose on the Korean Peninsula.

The North’s Uriminzokkiri Twitter and Flickr accounts stopped sending out content typical of that posted by the regime in Pyongyang, such as photos of North’s leader Kim Jong Un meeting with military officials. Instead, a picture posted yesterday on the North’s Flickr site shows Kim’s face with a pig-like snout and a drawing of Mickey Mouse on his chest.

Underneath, the text reads: “Threatening world peace with ICBMs and Nuclear weapons/Wasting money while his people starve to death.”

Another posting says “We are Anonymous” in white letters against a black background. Anonymous is a name of a hack-

Philippines to probe ‘secret’ Marcos offshore trust MANILA: A Philippine government body said yesterday it would investigate an allegation that the eldest daughter of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos was the beneficiary of a secret offshore trust. A report published by the Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism alleged Imee Marcos, 57, now a provincial governor, had failed to declare the trust in the British Virgin Islands as legally required.

Andres Bautista, head of a presidential body tasked with recovering the billions of dollars the Marcos family stole during his 20-year rule, told AFP his office would look into the allegations. “We are duty bound to investigate and, depending upon informed preliminary findings, decide whether to pursue the matter,” Bautista said. An army-backed popular uprising topped Marcos in 1986 and he died in US exile three years later. His famously extravagant wife, Imelda, has always denied she and her husband were corrupt.

The Presidential Commission on Good Government, which Bautista heads, has recovered $4 billion in assets that the Marcoses illegally acquired, including money from Swiss bank accounts and US properties.

But Bautista told AFP in January that, with Imee, Imelda and Ferdinand Jr having re-established political influence in the Philippines, the commission was considering giving up the chase for billions more believed to be hidden. “It’s been 26 years and people you are after are back in power. At some point, you just have to say, ‘We’ve done our best’, and that’s that. It is really difficult,” he said at the time. —AFP

er activist group. A statement purporting to come from the attackers and widely circulated online said that they had compromised 15,000 user records hosted on Uriminzokkiri.com and other websites. The authenticity of the statement couldn’t be confirmed, but the North’s official website did not open yesterday.

Tweets on the North’s Twitter account said “Hacked” followed by a link to North Korearelated websites. One tweet said “Tango Down” followed by a link to the North’s Flickr page.

North Korea opened its Twitter account in 2010. It has more than 13,000 followers. The North uses the social media to praise its system and leaders and also to repeat commentaries sent out by North’s official Korean Central News Agency. — AP

particular the Chinese government, can play a very important role to calm down the situation,” said Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister.

The European Union also called on Pyongyang to stop stoking tensions and reengage with the international community.

Russia’s foreign ministry termed the North’s neglect of UN resolutions as “categorically unacceptable”. Yun Duk-Min, a professor at the Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul, said the latest nuclear threat was similar to one issued a month ago, but with the added weight of “approval”-presumably by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un. “The problem is whether Kim, who is still young and inexperienced, knows how to handle this escalation,” Yun said. “Where does it end?

That’s the worrying question.” North Korea blocked access to its Kaesong joint industrial zone with South Korea yesterday for the second day running, and threatened to pull out its 53,000 workers in a furious reaction to the South’s airing of a “military” contingency plan to protect its own workers there.

Pyongyang informed Seoul on Wednesday it was stopping the daily movement of South Koreans to Kaesong, which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) inside the North and is the last real surviving point of contact between the two countries.

“The full closure of the complex is set to become a reality,” a spokesman for the North’s Committee for Peaceful Reunification of Korea said. The North says the South Koreans currently in Kaesong can leave whenever they want. About 200 departed Thursday but some 600 remain to keep the factories running.

Tensions have soared on the Korean peninsula since December, when the North test-launched a long-range rocket. In February, it upped the ante once again by conducting its third nuclear test and drawing fresh UN sanctions. It previously threatened a “pre-emptive” nuclear strike against the United States in early March, and last week its supreme army command ordered strategic rocket units to combat status. —AFP

China reports fourth H7N9 bird flu death BEIJING: A man has died in China’s business capital of Shanghai of a new strain of bird flu, state media said yesterday, bringing the total number of deaths from the H7N9 virus to four.

The 48-year-old poultry worker, from the eastern province of Jiangsu, was the eleventh person known to have been infected with H7N9 since the first human cases were reported earlier this year, according to China’s CCTV. He was the third person to die in the commercial hub, while a 38-year-old chef died in the neighboring province of Zhejiang on Wednesday. Shanghai health authorities said none of the eight people with whom the 48year-old had had close contact showed signs of the illness. An 87-year-old man in Shanghai fell ill on February 19 and died on March 4, while a managed 27 in the city got sick on February 27 and died on March 10, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in a statement in late March.

Health authorities said the delay in announcing the results was because it took time to determine the cause of the illnesses.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday ruled out the possibility of a pandemic because the sub-type is not thought to be transmitted from human to human, unlike the

more common H5N1 strain. But health experts have emphasized the need to quickly identify the source of the virus and its mode of transmission to reduce human exposure. —AFP

BEIJING: Two Chinese women take photos a cockerel in Beijing yesterday. A man in the Chinese province of Zhejiang has died of the H7N9 strain of bird flu, state media said. —AFP

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Egypt eyes IMF loan deal in two weeks

BOJ eases monetary policies, yen dives PAGE 20

PAGE 22

WASHINGTON: US Export-Import Bank Chairman and President Fred Hochberg speaks during the US Export-Import Bank’s annual conference yesterday in Washington, DC. The ExportImport Bank of the United States is the nation’s official export credit agency and works to facilitate the US economy by insuring and financing exports to foreign countries. — AFP

Oil price level not harmful: OPEC Brent near $107 on high stockpiles, faltering growth PARIS: The current level of oil prices is not harmful to the global economy and on the contrary supports energy investments, the secretary general of oil exporting group OPEC said yesterday. Oil prices have averaged about $110 per barrel this year. After early signs of stabilisation in the world economy, the last month has seen a series of setbacks with US and European recovery stuttering.

“We believe current price levels are supportive of the energy future we portray, and will not harm the global economy,” OPEC Secretary General Abdallah Al-Badri told an oil conference in Paris. “The oil price as we see it now is comfortable for producers and consumers.”

Badri added: “If prices fall below certain levels, then many investors will find their developments no longer viable.” OPEC crude oil output is on course to reach its lowest since October 2011 this month as unrest in Libya, pipeline leaks in Nigeria and Iraqi export disruptions weigh on supplies, a Reuters survey found last week.

The survey indicated top OPEC exporter Saudi Arabia was still keeping a lid on output.

OPEC is scheduled to meet on May 31 in Vienna to review its output policy for the second half of the year.

Brent crude oil steadied at around $107 per barrel yesterday after its biggest fall in five months on signs of faltering economic growth and rising stocks of fuel.

Oil fell more than 3 percent on Wednesday following a disappointing US jobs report and

a sharp spike in US oil inventories to their highest level since 1990.

Commodities have under-performed other assets for several years and many big investors have begun to reduce holdings of oil, metals and other raw materials. So far this year the S&P GSCI index of oil and commodities is down 2.5 percent but Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is up almost 9 percent.

“Investors are shifting out of oil and commodities and into equities after poor returns,” said Eugen Weinberg, head of commodities research at Germany’s Commerzbank.

Brent futures for May delivery rose 5 cents to $107.16 per barrel by 1040 GMT, not far above this year’s low of $106.78 hit on Wednesday. Brent fell $3.58 on Wednesday, its biggest one-day fall since early November.

US crude was unchanged at $94.45 per barrel, after also shedding almost 3 percent in the previous session. Gold also fell sharply with spot bullion down 1 percent at one point to a 10-month low of $1,541.14 an ounce.

After early signs of stabilization in the world economy, the last month has seen a series of setbacks with US and European recovery stuttering. Cyprus narrowly escaped financial meltdown and euro zone economic sentiment has tumbled with surveys showing manufacturing across Europe slipping deeper into decline.

Lower economic growth brings less demand for fuel. US crude oil stocks rose 2.71 million barrels in the week to March 29, compared with analysts’ expectations for a rise of

2.2 million barrels, data showed yesterday. US crude inventories now total more than 388 million barrels, close to the all-time peak of 391.9 million barrels hit in 1982. “There is now no shortage of oil in the United States or any-

where else. This is very clear. And we can see that the economic recovery is also not as good as we thought it was,” said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity sales manager at Newedge. — Reuters

Bargain hunters help lift Dubai, Egypt off 4-mth low MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Dubai’s market rose to a one-week high yesterday as bargain hunters returned, while Egypt’s bourse lifted off a four-month low ahead of the weekend on renewed hopes of a much-needed $4.8 billion loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Dubai’s measure fell 6.2 percent from Feb. 24’s 39-month peak to reach a twomonth low on Monday, but bargain hunters have since helped the market rebound. The index continued that trend yesterday, climbing 1.4 percent to its highest level since March 24.

“The drop in prices created an opportunity that encouraged the market bulls, especially foreign investors,” said Firass Yaish, business development manager at One Financial Markets. “The bulk of their liquidity is extremely selective towards heavyweight stocks, particularly Emaar. It looks like Emaar is the winning horse of 2013.” Emaar

Properties climbed 0.2 percent to be up 43 percent in 2013. The stock is a favored pick among investors as Dubai’s real troubled estate sector shows signs of a tentative recovery. Dubai Islamic Bank jumped 4.8 percent, its biggest one-day advance in two years, while Air Arabia and courier Aramex rose 3.5 and 2.3 percent respectively.

Abu Dhabi’s measure gained 1.2 percent to a 41-month high. Heavyweight First Gulf Bank rose 4.7 percent. Investors have been accumulating blue-chips in the UAE ahead of first-quarter earnings, with banks in particular expected to post strong growth.

In Egypt, the country’s planning minister said yesterday that the government expects to reach a final agreement on its long-awaited IMF loan within two weeks, the state news agency MENA reported. Talks had stalled in recent months over economic reforms required to seal the deal. — Reuters

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Cyprus bank workers protest over pension

NICOSIA: A discount promotion sign is seen outside a beauty saloon in the Cypriot capital Nicosia yesterday. Cypriot banks have been operating under stringent capital controls since they reopened on March 28, after a near two-week lockdown prompted by fears of a run on deposits. — AFP

NICOSIA: Bank workers were to hold a work stoppage over fears that pensions may be at risk under Cyprus’s bailout, as the island looked set to top the agenda at a European Central Bank policy meeting.

Bank employees’ union ETYK called the twohour stoppage over concerns that pension funds at Laiki and Bank of Cyprus are not being protected under the island’s 10-billion-euro ($12.8 billion) bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and ECB. The strike comes despite reassurances last week from President Nicos Anastasiades that every effort would be made to preserve pension funds at the two banks. There has been no labour unrest in Cyprus so far, but the terms of the bailout will force the island to make painful reforms, raising taxes, downsizing the public-sector workforce, privatizing some state-owned firms and drastically reducing the size of its bloated banking sector.

The country’s new Finance Minister Haris Georgiades vowed Wednesday to implement the bailout terms in full. “We... shall do whatever it takes

to fix our public finances and put our economy back on track for growth,” he said after swearing in to his new post.

Georgiades, a British-educated economist who had been serving as labour minister, took over from Michalis Sarris, who announced Tuesday he was resigning to cooperate with a judicial probe into the causes of the crisis. Sarris had been chairman last year of failed bank Laiki, the collapse of which was a major contributor to the crisis. Cyprus is already in recession, with unemployment at around 15 percent and expected to grow sharply this year and next. Forecasts before the deal was agreed saw GDP contracting by 3.5 percent this year.

Banks have been operating under stringent capital controls since they reopened last Thursday, after a near two-week lockdown prompted by fears of a run on deposits. The central bank has been progressively easing these restrictions, and has now raised the limit on business transactions from 5,000 euros to 25,000 and allowed people to write cheques of up to 9,000 euros. —AFP

Egypt eyes IMF loan deal in two weeks $4.8bn needed to bolster economy in crisis CAIRO: Egypt’s planning minister said yesterday the government expects to reach a final agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on a $4.8 billion loan within two weeks, the state news agency MENA reported. Ashraf al-Araby also said that Cairo had not requested an increase in the amount of the loan, needed to avert a deepening economic crisis.

An IMF delegation resumed long-delayed negotiations with Egypt on Wednesday and government officials have said the team is expected to stay until April 15.

The IMF has set no timeline for a deal and some private economists are skeptical that an agreement can be reached before parliamentary elections later this year because of the need to implement unpopular tax rises and subsidy cuts. After two years of political upheaval, foreign currency reserves have fallen to critically low levels, limiting Egypt’s ability to buy wheat, of which it is the world’s biggest importer, and fuel.Foreign reserves dipped further to $13.4 billion at end-March, the central bank reported, down from $13.5 billion a month earlier, equivalent to less than three months’ imports.

Cairo must convince the global lender it is serious about reforms aimed at boosting growth and curbing an unaffordable budget deficit. That implies tax hikes and politically risky cuts in state subsidies for fuel and food, including bread. The government reached a preliminary agreement with the IMF on the loan last November but went back on implementing the economic conditions in December amid political unrest over the extent of President Mohammed Morsi’s powers.

In a statement coinciding with the IMF team’s visit, Oil Minister Osama Kamel said the government aims to phase out subsidies for bread, other basic foodstuffs and oil within three to five years.

“We are considering starting to increase salaries and decrease subsidies until we manage to completely eliminate subsidies in three to five years,” Kamal said in an interview with state-run Al-Ahram newspaper. Just before the visit, the government announced an increase in the price of subsidized cooking gas. But it has postponed plans to ration subsidized fuel using smart cards until July 1 and some reports say that date may be pushed back further. The Egyptian pound has lost nearly one-tenth of its value against the dollar on the official market this year and has fallen more sharply on the black market in the last few days due to dwindling supplies of the US currency.

The dollar is now worth 17 percent more in unofficial trading than the official rate, said Mohamed Radwan, director of international sales at Pharos Securities. The Cairo bourse fell to a 2013 low on Wednesday as foreign investors sold stocks on fears that Egypt’s currency would be further devalued. The stock market index recovered slightly yesterday. — Reuters

Syrian CB inaction signals lack of support for pound AMMAN: A pledge by Syria’s central bank on Sunday to take action to support the pound is already looking hollow, raising speculation the authorities may no longer be willing to burn up reserves defending the currency.

The pound has plunged by nearly a quarter this month against the dollar since rebels seized vast areas of the oil-rich northeast region, prompting more Syrians, fearful of the economic outlook, to convert pounds into foreign currency. The pound, which is only traded in Syria and neighbouring Jordan and Lebanon and mostly on the black market, hit a record low of 126 to the dollar last Wednesday on the black market and has stayed close to that level this week, local financial sources said on Wednesday.

Central bank Governor Adeeb Mayaleh, in an interview on Sunday, blamed the pound’s fall in the black market on speculators, whom he compared to insurgents waging a war against his sanctions-hit country.

He vowed to take action to support the currency.

“People once they get a bit more afraid rush to change their pounds into foreign currency. There is no economic factor at play, it’s just psychological. There are many measures we will take to help the pound recover,” Mayaleh said in the interview on state television.

He did not elaborate on what those measures might be and the absence of any action this week to halt the pound’s slide has sparked rumors that the central bank is now prepared to let the currency fall.

Defending it would mean burning up more foreign currency reserves, which have been depleted by a slump in tourism and oil revenues and by previous efforts to prop up the currency.—Reuters

SINGAPORE: Tourists take photos with their digital cameras and smartphones at the Merlion park in Singapore yesterday. Tourists, using digital cameras that enable users to immediately post pictures on the web, have risen sharply in Asia despite stiff competition from smartphones, an industry survey showed yesterday. — AFP

‘Sleeping giant’ debt market wakes up in Saudi Arabia DUBAI: After years in which the growth of Saudi Arabia’s bond market lagged its economy, the market is taking off as local companies rush to issue debt - though low returns are keeping foreign investors on the sidelines. Traditionally, Saudi companies and other entities have relied on bank loans and retained earnings to finance their expansion. For debt market traders, that has made the Arab world’s biggest economy a case of unfulfilled potential.

In recent months, that pattern has started to change as companies become more familiar with bonds, a wide range of investors demand them, and banks bump up against the limits of how much they can lend to individual companies. This has caused a burst of riyal-denominated debt issuance. In Saudi Arabia, such issuance is entirely in the form of Islamic bonds, or sukuk, which are structured to obey Islam’s ban on interest and instead pay returns on assets.

“Saudi Arabia had traditionally been considered the sleeping giant of regional debt capital markets, but this has certainly changed in the past 18 months as we

have seen an upsurge in riyal sukuk issuance,” said Stuart Ure, partner at law firm Clifford Chance in Dubai.

Bank loans are still growing rapidly in Saudi Arabia because of strong economic growth; lending to the private sector climbed 15.6 percent from a year earlier in February to 1.02 trillion riyals ($272 billion). But sukuk issuance is now expanding much faster. Last year about 27.2 billion riyals worth of riyal-denominated sukuk were issued, according to HSBC, up from 11.3 billion in 2011. In the first quarter of this year, 10.3 billion riyals were issued.

Three sukuk deals have closed in the past week alone: a 1.3 billion riyal deal from construction giant Saudi Binladin Group, 1.3 billion riyals from dairy firm Almarai Co, and 7.5 billion riyals from Sadara Chemical Co, a venture between Saudi Aramco and Dow Chemical. Some Saudi banks have run up against their internal lending limits for companies, an issue which is particularly acute for firms such as Saudi Binladin, which require large amounts of finance to undertake construction projects. —Reuters

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

ECB holds interest rates, markets await signals BOE keeps policy steady despite new remit

PARIS: French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici (left) and then Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac arrive for the weekly cabinet, at the Elysee Palace in Paris. — AP

Pressure on Hollande over tax fraud scandal Critics level cover-up charges PARIS: Pressure was building on French President Francois Hollande yesterday over a disgraced ex-minister’s secret foreign bank account, as it emerged that his one-time campaign treasurer was a partner in companies registered in the Cayman Islands. With Hollande away in Morocco on a state visit, calls were growing at home for top officials in his embattled Socialist government to resign over the scandal that saw former budget minister Jerome Cahuzac charged in a tax fraud probe.

Cahuzac-the minister responsible for cracking down on tax evasion until he resigned two weeks ago-was charged on Tuesday with “laundering the proceeds of tax fraud” after he admitted to having an undeclared foreign bank account containing some 600,000 euros ($770,000), following weeks of denials. Critics have accused Hollande and his government of either trying to cover up the scandal or of mismanagement for having believed Cahuzac’s denials. The head of the main opposition right-wing UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope, said the government no longer had the credibility to rule. “The only solution possible, the only one, is a major government reshuffle, including the prime minister,” Cope said. French newspapers said Hollande was facing his biggest political crisis since taking office, with popular daily Le Parisien saying the situation had become “untenable” for the government.

Adding to Hollande’s woes, Le Monde newspaper reported that his campaign treasurer for last year’s presidential vote, 59-year-old businessman Jean-Jacques Augier, had joint ownership of two companies registered in the Cayman Islands, a well-known tax haven.

Augier confirmed the existence of the firms and said they had been set up to form partnerships with foreign entrepreneurs. “There is nothing illegal,” Augier told Le Monde, which carried out the probe with the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other international media. “My adventurous nature is responsible.

Maybe I lacked a bit of caution,” he added. The scandal has overshadowed Hollande’s landmark two-day visit to former French colony Morocco, though he has refused to comment on it since arriving.

Hollande appeared on national television Wednesday to address the scandal, vowing a new law within weeks on the “publication and control” of the wealth of ministers and parliamentarians. He said he knew nothing of the foreign account and that Cahuzac “did not benefit from any protection” from the government. The government was struggling to contain the scandal yesterday, with ministers insisting it did not go beyond the actions of one man. “This was a very serious individual failure. —AFP

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank kept interest rates on hold yesterday, waiting to see if a recession-hit economy perks up and whether an aggressive policy move by the Bank of Japan helps the euro-zone. Investors’ attention will now shift to ECB President Mario Draghi’s 1230 GMT news conference for any signals about the bank’s preparedness to lower borrowing costs for the 17-country euro-zone in the coming months.

As the world recovers from the financial crisis, the ECB has lent less support to the economy than its peers in Japan, the United States or Britain, which have launched massive asset purchase programs with new money and cut rates closer to zero.

Meanwhile, the Bank of England decided not to pump fresh money into its stagnant economy yesterday, despite a new remit that gives it more leeway to disregard above-target inflation.

Further stimulus may still be on its way, however, after finance minister George Osborne tweaked the central bank’s mandate two weeks ago. He gave the bank stronger backing to ignore the series of one-off factors that have kept inflation above target for most of the time since the financial crisis.

The remit also paves the way for a broader review of the Bank of England’s monetary policy when Mark Carney, who currently heads Canada’s central bank, succeeds BoE Governor Mervyn King in July.

But for now there is no majority on the nine-member Monetary Policy

FRANKFURT: The euro logo in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt am Main, western Germany. — AFP Committee to add to the 375 billion pounds of government bonds it bought between March 2009 and October 2012, in line with economists’ expectations.

Interest rates remained at a record-low 0.5 percent.

The British central bank’s decision contrasts with that of the Bank of Japan, which has been under more overt political pressure to stimulate its economy. It shocked markets earlier yesterday when it pledged to double its government bond holdings within two years.

The Bank of Japan went a step further yesterday. Its new governor, Haruhiko Kuroda, shocked markets with

a radical overhaul of its policymaking, adopting a new balance sheet target and pledging to double its government bond holdings in two years as it seeks to end nearly two decades of deflation. The ECB held its main rate at a record low of 0.75 percent - still the highest level among the world’s major central banks.

“This is as expected,” said Citi economist Juergen Michels.

“In the press conference, we expect them to take a more dovish tone, taking into account the recent weak sentiment data, the fall in inflation ... and opening the door for a rate cut in the next month or two.” — Agencies

UK gas prices stay high on weather LONDON: British spot gas prices remained firm between Wednesday and yesterday morning because cold weather and low stocks caused a tight system.

Prices are expected to fall however, as warmer weather begins to move in and Norwegian supplies improve.

Both gas prices for next day and for within day delivery were trading at 82 pence per therm at 0900 GMT yesterday, slightly higher than the previous morning (see chart 1).

The high prices are a result of unusually cold weather and low stock levels.

At 316.9 million cubic metres (mcm), yesterday’s gas demand was expected to be more than 20 percent above the seasonal norm, according to National Grid, although flows of 327.9 mcm, which include storage withdrawals, were expected to meet demand.

Because of the cold weather, which has gripped Britain since the beginning of March, the UK’s gas storage sites have been depleted by 93.71 percent, to just 299 mcm, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe.

This leaves the market with less than a day’s worth of gas consumption of reserves in case of a major supply out-

age. Despite the tight system, analysts said prices were likely to fall towards the end of the week as milder weather would move into Britain and Norwegian gas supplies would improve. “The dayahead contract is bearish due to lower forecast consumption and an increase in

supply today,” analysts at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon said. “The higher Norwegian exports to the UK are due to slightly lower Norwegian exports to the continent, but also slightly higher Norwegian production,” they wrote in a note.—Reuters

MANILA: Models pose for photos in front of a passenger jeepney at the auto show in Manila yesterday. The annual auto show is being held from April 4 to 7 at the world trade center. — AFP

Business FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

BOJ eases monetary policies, yen dives Bold moves to escape deflation

MANILA: A model poses for photos next to a life-size makeshift Facebook browser during the auto show in Manila yesterday. — AFP

Eyes on Facebook mobile event as company evolves NEW YORK: Facebook is unveiling a new Android product, as a fast-growing number of its 1.06 billion users access it on smartphones and tablet computers.

Advertisers are not far behind. Though mobile ads have been a big concern for Facebook’s investors since before the company’s initial public offering last May, some of that worry has subsided as Facebook began muscling its way into the market.

Last year, the company began showing ads to its mobile audience by splicing corporate sponsorships and content into users’ news feeds, which also includes updates from friends and brands they follow. Among the challenges Facebook faces now is showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

The mobile advertisement market is growing quickly.

That’s thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. Research firm eMarketer expects US mobile ad spending to grow 77 percent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.

As for yesterday event at the company’s Menlo Park, California, headquarters, speculation has centered on a mobile phone, made by HTC Corp, that deeply integrates Facebook into the Android operating system. Facebook is working to evolve from its Web-based roots to a “mobile-first” company, as its mantra goes.

“What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers’ experience,” said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

EMarketer said Wednesday that it expects Facebook Inc. to reap $965 million in US mobile ad revenue in 2013. That’s about 2.5 times the $391 million in 2012, the first year that Facebook started showing mobile ads. Clark Fredricksen, vice president at eMarketer, said it’s “tough to speculate” how much effect Thursday’s announcement would have on ad revenue.

At the same time, he says “there are some clear reasons why a deeper integration with mobile operating systems and handsets make sense for Facebook. At the end of the day, the more deeply Facebook can engage consumers, no matter what device or operating system or handset,” the better.

Facebook’s rival, Google Inc., makes the Android software that Facebook and HTC would be using under the widely speculated scenario. Google makes the software available on an open-source basis, meaning others including rivals are free to adapt it to their needs. Amazon.com Inc. does just that in modifying Android to run its Kindle tablet computers. —AP

TOKYO: The Bank of Japan embarked on a new era of huge spending yesterday by unleashing a flood of easy money, in its boldest attempt to drag the economy out of decades of crushing deflation.

The yen slumped against the dollar, the Nikkei bounced spectacularly and bond yields hit a record low after new governor Haruhiko Kuroda unveiled a doubling of the money supply and vowed no let-up in the battle against falling prices.

“We will carry out quantitative and qualitative monetary easing that is unprecedented in its scale and quality,” Kuroda told a packed news conference.

The moves, which were described as a “regime change in monetary policy”, signalled that the bank is abandoning selfimposed limits critics say have stymied the economy. He added that “we are resolved to take whatever measures we can think of” to hit a two-percent inflation target in a couple of years.

“Rather than doing things incrementally, we are taking all the necessary steps to achieve two percent inflation early.” The BOJ said it would expand its asset-purchase program to include riskier bets such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and real-estate investment trusts.

ETFs are similar to an index fund, but are market traded like stocks.

It will also buy longer-term government bonds, a move aimed at pushing down long-term interest rates to encourage companies and individuals to borrow, instead of hoarding their cash. The bank said it wanted to boost the monetary base-the amount of currency in circulation including commercial bank deposits in BOJ reserves-by 6070 trillion yen ($630-$725 billion) annually to 270 trillion yen by the end of

TOKYO: Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda (right) speaks at a news conference at Japan’s central bank headquarters in Tokyo yesterday. — AP 2014. Market players lapped up the moves. The news sent the dollar surging against the Japanese currency to sit at 95.46 yen by mid afternoon, against 92.71 in the morning.

The country’s stock markets also saw a severe reversal. The Nikkei closed 2.20 percent higher at 12,634.54, having been down about 2.3 percent in the morning-representing a whopping 558 point turnaround. Also, the yield on 10year Japanese government bonds sank to an all-time low of 0.425 percent. The bold moves by the Bank of Japan are just what Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ordered when he came to office pledging to get the economy back on track after decades of falling prices and anaemic growth.

Abe had tapped Kuroda, former head of the Asian Development Bank, for the

bank’s top job, seeing in him a kindred spirit for his public criticism of the BOJ’s timid action. The pressure on Kuroda on Thursday was to deliver after weeks of talking up his plans, with some market commentators saying that he was bound to disappoint having set the bar too high. But Tsuyoshi Ueno, economist at NLI Research Institute, said the BOJ had shown the naysayers the door with a “huge regime change in monetary policy”.

“What the BOJ announced today met almost all policy measures that had been speculated in the market,” Ueno added. Yoshikiyo Shimamine, executive chief economist at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute, hailed the moves, saying: “Kuroda showed today that the Bank of Japan is now different from what it was in the past.” — AFP

Euro-zone private sector activity slumps further BRUSSELS: Private sector business activity in the 17-nation euro-zone fell sharply in March, adding to an increasingly gloomy outlook for the economy, a key survey showed yesterday. The Markit Eurozone Composite Purchasing Managers Index dropped to 46.5 points in March, unchanged from the initial estimate but well short of February’s 47.9 and the boom-bust line of 50 points. Markit said the downturn was now accelerating at its fastest rate since November, confounding hopes that the worst of the debt-crisis slump was over. The report will fuel concern that “the euro-zone downturn shows no signs of ending,” Chris Williamson, Markit’s chief economist, said in a statement. “The recession is deepening once again as businesses report that they have become increasingly worried about the region’s debt crisis and political instability,” Williamson said.

Continued uncertainty in Italy was “commonly cited as a key factor clouding the economic outlook,” he said, adding that the “botched bail-out of Cyprus could well filter through to a further worsening of business sentiment ... in April.”

Williamson noted too that “growth almost stalled in Germany, which suggests that the only source of bright light in an otherwise gloomy region has once again begun to fade.”

The March index reading for Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, hit a three-month low of 50.6 points to leave it just in positive territory. France was stuck at a 48-month low of 41.9 points while Italy was on 44.9, a two-month high. —AFP

TOKYO: A woman passes before a share prices board in Tokyo yesterday. Japan’s share prices rose 272.34 points to close at 12,634.54 points at the Tokyo Stock Exchange after the Bank of Japan unveiled fresh easing measures, reversing a heavy drop earlier in the day. — AFP

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

THEY ARE THE 99!

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

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

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

www.the99.org

Opinion FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Instability keeps Iraqi savings in property or under mattress

By Aseel Kami

W

hen a recent lecture for a group of Baghdad university students started with the question, “What is the Iraq Stock Exchange?”, only one young participant put up her hand to respond, and got the answer wrong. Last month’s scene at the headquarters of the Baghdad bourse revealed the struggle which Iraq faces to modernize its financial system: it must overcome primitive, ultraconservative savings habits born of decades of war and political instability.

Thanks to a partial improvement of security and an oil boom, Iraqis’ average incomes are rising sharply, and they are able to save more. But many of these savings are not being channeled into the stock market, where they could earn returns, or even into bank deposits, where they could be lent on to companies for fresh investment.

Instead, they are going into real estate, where a large proportion of the money becomes tied up unproductively, or being hidden in people’s homes in the form of cash - sometimes hard currencies such as US dollars - or jewelry.”Other countries have political and security stability but we do not,” said local economist Majid AlSouri. “So people tend to put their money under the pillow.”

GROWTH Iraq’s economy grew about 8 percent last year and is projected to exceed that performance in the next five years, the International Monetary Fund says. Such growth is supporting a big, if uneven, rise of incomes. Since the US-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraqi government salaries have jumped from the equivalent of a few US dollars a month to a minimum of around $200 - though some of that increase is due to appreciation of the local currency against the dollar.

Government figures show the per capita annual income in Iraq is now about $4,000.

Official, comprehensive data are not available, but the IMF estimates Iraqis will save about a third of their national income this year - a rate about 10 percentage points higher than many wealthy countries in Europe, and 20 points higher than the United States and Britain. Iraq’s gross domestic product was about $130 billion last year.

But guiding the savings into productive investments within the country is proving difficult. The political and security situation is one big obstacle. Although Iraq is much safer than it was during the sectarian bloodletting that killed tens of thousands in 2006-2007, Sunni insurgents tied to Al-Qaeda still carry out major attacks.

Bombs hit Shiite Muslim mosques in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk last week, killing at least 19 people.

The two-year-old civil war in neighboring Syria is straining Iraq’s shaky sectarian and ethnic balance, and over a year after the last US troops pulled out of the country, its power-sharing government has

lurched from crisis to crisis. In this environment, savings continue to get funneled out of the country to Jordan, Dubai and other destinations. Timely, comprehensive data is not available, but Iraqi central bank figures from 2011 show a net $6.4 billion left the country that year in the form of “portfolio investment”. “A large amount of money is being smuggled outside Iraq to be invested there,” said Souri.

Such transfers appear to be conducted

But analysts and government officials say that relative to the large volumes of savings which Iraq’s fast-growing economy is generating, the amount of money going into bank deposits remains fairly small. This is partly because of concern that it could be hard to withdraw money in the event of another major security crisis, and partly because Iraq’s banking sector failed to develop in the final, difficult years of Saddam’s rule. State-owned banks

BAGHDAD: Water melons shipped into Iraq overland from neighboring war-torn Syria are stacked on sale along a main road in Baghdad. — AFP

largely by the richest businessmen; smaller business owners, with less access to safe international payments networks, are generally keeping their money in the country, Souri said. Some funds are going into bank deposits. At the end of 2012, total deposits at Iraqi commercial banks had climbed to around 64 trillion dinars ($55.2 billion), around 22 trillion dinars of which were from the private sector rather than the government, said Abdul-Aziz Hassoun, executive director of the Iraqi Private Banks’ League.

are large but criticized for indifferent customer service.

Privately owned banks have top-class technology but their networks are still relatively small. Trust in them was hurt in March last year when Iraq’s central bank placed Warka Bank under guardianship to supervise it through an insolvency process. “The number of people putting their money into banks is small in comparison to the size of the population. We do not have a specific figure but this is the general sense,” said Abdul-Zahra Al-

Hindawi, spokesman for Iraq’s planning ministry. “We do not have banking awareness” in the country, he added.

REAL ESTATE That leaves real estate as a major destination for Iraqi savings. In the last several years, money has poured into the sector; a lot has gone into houses or apartments in the Kurdistan region, where security is better than many other places in the country, but Baghdad and other provinces have also attracted funds. “Real estate and land are the only guarantee for Iraqis,” said Zainab al-Azzawi, a civil servant who bought a flat in Kurdistan and land on the outskirts of Baghdad for $20,000 four years ago. She estimates the market value of her holdings has now increased by about 50 percent. “There is nothing without risk in Iraq, but real estate is the best among investments,” she said.

Much of the land bought for investment remains undeveloped, however - an inefficient use of economic resources. And Hindawi noted that the rise in real estate prices could have a negative side, by making it harder for ordinary Iraqis to buy homes. He said many Iraqis still preferred to keep a substantial amount of their cash at home as a safe, accessible option. There is little thought of putting their money into equities or other tradeable financial instruments.

“Generally, there is no awareness of the stock market so we try as much as possible to educate people through advertisements, meetings or lectures,” said Firas Mechael, a member of the stock exchange’s board of governors. It was at such a lecture last month that the Baghdad university students struggled with the definition and the functions of a stock exchange. The exchange mounted a big public relations drive in January to promote a $1.27 billion offer of shares by Iraqi mobile telephone firm Asiacell, the country’s largest-ever flotation and the first big one since Saddam was ousted.

The offer was a success - the listing doubled the bourse’s capitalization to $9.2 billion. But foreign investors, including parent Qatar Telecom, bought about 70 percent of the offer, and it was not seen as signaling the arrival of an equity culture in Iraq. “The trend to buy shares or bonds is still almost non-existent, except when Asiacell sold shares because people trust that company,” said Mudher Kasim, a former deputy central bank governor.

“People are uncertain. There are no decisions about future investments in an unstable environment. People are afraid.”

One way to channel savings into financial markets would be to develop a private sector pension industry, to complement the state pensions which government employees receive. The reform has been discussed inside and outside the government, but no official decision has been made, and Iraq’s political instability makes legislation on the issue difficult. “What is needed now is to include the private sector in the pension law,” Souri said. “There are many suggestions.” — Reuters

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013 www.kuwaittimes.net

Joanna Krupa from "The Real Housewives of Miami" attends the Bravo Network 2013 Upfront on Wednesday April 3, 2013 in New York. —AP

Food FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

By Russ Parsons

S

ometimes it’s the simplest things that are the most confounding. Last year, right before Easter, I blogged about how to make a perfect hard-boiled egg. Basic? Yes. Popular? Very. This seemingly simple task received tens of thousands of page views.

And, it seemed, almost as many complaints: “But how do you peel them?”

Mea culpa. While my method ensures that hard-boiled eggs are never overdone (at last: the cure for the dreaded copper-green ring!), it also can make them harder to shell, because perfectly cooked eggs turn out to be stickier than ones that have been overcooked. So this year I determined that I would find the absolutely perfect way to cook hard-boiled eggs you could actually peel. I spent a couple of days researching and cooking several dozen eggs and found that the answer is surprisingly simple.

While overcooking hard-boiled eggs does have its obvious drawbacks - rubbery dry whites and pale crumbly yolks - it actually does make them easier to peel. That’s because one of the determining factors in peel-ability is the pH of the egg - the higher (less acid), the easier. And longer cooking raises the pH (so does aging - and older eggs also have a larger air pocket, which helps even more). But you don’t have to choose between easy-to-peel eggs that aren’t worth eating and delicious eggs that are as pocked and cratered as the surface of the moon.

Do a little research and you’ll find all sorts of solutions, some more fanciful than others: Cool the eggs in an ice water bath. Cook them in salted water. Add baking soda to the water (baking soda is alkaline, so theoretically it could raise the pH). I settled on four alternatives that seemed to be most promising. I added salt to one batch of eggs and baking soda to another. I transferred another batch to an ice water bath whole, and another I cracked slightly after cooking but before going into the bath.

And just to make sure I wasn’t imagining things, I also cooked one batch the original way, trying to crack them straight out of the warm water.

What didn’t work? Salting made no difference in peelability and didn’t affect the flavor, either. Which was actually better than the baking soda, which made no difference in peeling but left the eggs with a noticeable sulfur smell.

The ice water bath turned out to be the key. Eggs chilled while whole seemed slightly easier to peel. But the real winners were the eggs that had been cracked before going into the ice water. They were by far the easiest to peel. Just drain off the water and roll the eggs around in the dry pan until the shells crack slightly. Then transfer them to an ice water bath.

Actually, unless you’re in a hurry, you don’t even need to crack them. When I was done with my experiment, I dumped all the remaining unpeeled eggs into the ice water bath while I ate my lunch. When I came back 45 minutes later, they were all easier to peel. The shells are porous, and given enough time, the ice water will seep into the egg, even without the cracking. Sometimes simple problems really do have simple solutions.

The perfect hard-boiled egg It’s easy to cook eggs that are firm, not rubbery, and yolks that are bright orange and moist. Perfection is the goal here. How do you cook a perfect hard-boiled egg? It’s really simple. Arrange the eggs in a single layer in a saucepan or deep skillet. Add just enough tap water to cover. Bring to a boil and cook one minute. Remove from the heat and let them stand at least 15 minutes.

Because the water begins to cool a s

soon as the heat is turned off, the eggs never overcook the way they can if you leave them at a steady simmer. You get eggs with whites that are firm but not rubbery and yolks that are bright orange and moist. Furthermore, you never wind up with split or cracked eggs.

Those problems happen when you add cold eggs to boiling water and are caused by the sudden expansion of the air bubble inside the shell because of the heat. Since eggshells are porous, if you warm the egg slowly that air eases out gently (if you watch closely, you’ll see the bubbles).

Easter’s bounty can feed the week ahead What do you do with all of those leftover eggs? Cobb salad?

Deviled eggs? Too obvious. Here are four ways to cook with hardboiled eggs that you might not have thought of. Egg salad with capers and celery: Chop the eggs, add sliced celery, a little minced red onion and drained capers and bind everything with mayonnaise. Garnish with celery leaves.

Sauce gribiche: Don’t try to say it; just make it. Combine minced shallots, capers and cornichons. Make a vinaigrette with olive oil and a bit of Dijon mustard and add that. Add chopped hard-boiled egg white and yolk. Sprinkle over chopped fresh herbs: tarragon, parsley, chives, etc. Mix together. Perfect accompaniment for any fatty food.

Asparagus mimosa: Steamed or boiled asparagus never met a better match. Like a stripped-down gribiche: Make a vinaigrette with mixed fresh herbs and add finely chopped hard-cooked egg whites and yolks (chop them separately or the yolks will smear together). Pan bagnat: Make an egg salad with hard-boiled eggs, chopped anchovies and chopped vegetables such as cucumbers and tomatoes.

Moisten with olive oil and use to fill a crusty roll. — MCT

Food FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

By Ellise Pierce

E

aster still makes me think of vinegar. A clear wax crayon, drawn onto the white shell, not able to see the childish designs, hoping for the best. Dipping into the colored, vinegary dye with a flimsy wisp of wire shaped like a stop sign. Who decided a hexagon was best suited for Easter egg fishing? Never worked very well for me. I always ended up with orange and blue fingers.

I loved the colors, though. The bright, almost turquoise blue, the grassy green, the tangerine, and pink the color of flamingos. We always dyed dozens of hard-boiled eggs for Easter. The next day, my brother and I would race around the backyard, plucking the eggs out of monkey grass, off of fence railings, and in flower pots, filling up our baskets as fast as we could. Easter was the ultimate competition. The prize? I don’t even remember. The fun was the race around the yard.

Afterwards, we had all of these eggs, which Mom had to do something with. Deviled eggs were her default, but she often made egg salad, too, which we took to our grandparents’ house in Oklahoma for a picnic lunch later that day.

Which got me to thinking about egg salad and how homey - and easy - it is. And the perfect way to use the decorated, hunted, and gathered eggs. In France, where the love of the egg is unsurpassed you find eggs on sandwiches (Croque Madame), on and in salads, on burgers and mixed into steak tartare, and in the many different types of quiches available at the boulangeries _ I’ve yet to see anything like an egg salad, which seems strange, given, too, the Frenchies’ mayo and mustard-centric culture. How did they miss this eggy fun, I wonder?

But living here has opened me up to the possibilities of combining eggs with just about anything, which is how I came up with these four new takes on egg salad, below. A great way to enjoy your Easter eggs, or a half-dozen hard-boiled eggs any other day of the year.

Carefully pour off the hot water, then put the pot in the sink and let cold water run over the eggs until they’re cool enough to peel.

Roughly chop the eggs and put them in a bowl.

2. Add the avocado, cilantro, chopped chipotle, and salt to taste.

Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

3. To serve, preheat the oven to broil. When the oven’s hot, toast your tortillas by putting them directly on the rack, making sure to flip them to the other side after about a minute. Be sure to watch them carefully so they don’t burn. Spoon one-fourth of the egg salad on each of the four tortillas and sprinkle with a little more cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

EGG SALAD MEDITERRANEO Makes enough for 4 sandwiches 6 eggs 6 cherry tomatoes, chopped 10 artichoke heart quarters (in oil), chopped 6 fresh basil leaves, chopped (with additional for serving) 8 kalamata olives, pitted and chopped 1 heaping tablespoon Hellmann’s mayonnaise Sea salt and pepper 1. Put the eggs in a saucepan, cover with water by 2 inches, and put on the stove over medium-high heat. When the water boils, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and put on the timer for 10 minutes.

Carefully pour off the hot water, then put the pot in the sink and let cold water run over the eggs until they’re cool enough to peel.

Roughly chop the eggs and put them in a bowl.

2. Add the cherry tomatoes, artichoke hearts, basil, kalamata olives, mayo, salt and pepper to taste. Let rest in the fridge for 2 hours before serving. I like to serve this on toasted grainy bread, open-face, like a French tartine, with a bit more chopped basil on top.

EGG SALAD TEX-MEXY Makes enough for 4 tostadas 6 eggs 1 avocado, chopped Small handful of cilantro, roughly chopped (plus additional for serving) 1 chipotle chile (in adobo), finely chopped Sea salt 4 corn tortillas 1 lime, cut into wedges (for serving) 1. Put the eggs in a saucepan, cover with water by 2 inches, and put on the stove over medium-high heat. When the water boils, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and put on the timer for 10 minutes.

EGG SALAD FRENCHY Makes enough for 2 large or 4 regular-size sandwiches 6 large eggs 10 French cornichons, chopped 1 heaping tablespoon Hellmann’s mayonnaise

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard A pinch piment d’Espelette Sea salt and pepper 1 baguette, sliced 1. Put the eggs in a saucepan, cover with water by 2 inches, and put on the stove over medium-high heat. When the water boils, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and put on the timer for 10 minutes.

Carefully pour off the hot water, then put the pot in the sink and let cold water run over the eggs until they’re cool enough to peel. Chop the eggs and put them in a bowl.

2. Add the cornichons, mayo, mustard, piment d’Espelette, and salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving. Serve on a baguette (I like mine toasted) with an additional sprinkle of piment d’Espelette for color - voila!

Note: Piment d’Espelette is a French chile pepper from the Southwest of France, milder than cayenne and without the smokiness of, say, chipotle or Spanish paprika. It can be found in specialty stores. As there is not an American equivalent, if you can’t find it, simply leave it out, and the egg salad will still be delicious.

EGG SALAD FANCY SCHMANCY Makes enough for about 2 dozen hors d’oeuvres-size toasts 6 eggs A small handful of fresh dill, chopped (plus more for serving) 1 tablespoon capers, chopped 1 heaping tablespoon Hellmann’s mayonnaise Sea salt and pepper 5.29-ounce box of tiny toasts 3.5 ounces of smoked salmon, sliced into small pieces 1. Put the eggs in a saucepan, cover with water by 2 inches, and put on the stove over medium-high heat. When the water boils, cover, reduce heat to a simmer and put on the timer for 10 minutes.

Carefully pour off the hot water, then put the pot in the sink and let cold water run over the eggs until they’re cool enough to peel. Grate the eggs and put them in a bowl.

2. Add the dill, capers, mayonnaise, salt and pepper to taste.

Refrigerate for 2 hours before serving.

3. When ready to serve, spoon some of the egg salad on your tiny toasts, top with a piece of salmon and sprinkle a bit more dill on top.

— MCT

Books FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

R

Greatest Romance Novels of all Time. Listed here you will discover some great romance novels from these really talented authors. Then you can curl up in a comfortable chair and do your own personal review of some wonderful romance literature.

Dream Man

It Had to Be You

McKenzie’s Mountain

omance novels take us into a world of love and passion, where the characters play out our dreams and fantasies for our delight and satisfaction, which in turn provides us with a longing for more.

If you adore romance novels, you will enjoy this list of the

Linda Howard

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

D

P

Linda Howard

etective Dane Hollister’s life is difficult enough but when a manic serial killer starts attacking women with a knife and Marlie Keen a psychic claims she can see the murders through the killer’s eyes he begins to believe that the psychic is as crazy as the killer. Marlie is sorry she offered her help because he just treats her visions with scepticism. But Hollister investigates her past and is convinced she is genuine. They spend countless hours together in her home as he listens to her terrifying clairvoyance experiences. There is sexual tension between them which threatens to take them over—which makes it a steamy romantic story.

hoebe Somerville from New York is outrageous, curvaceous and most surprisingly is the inheritor of the Chicago Stars football team. Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the clubs head coach, Dan Calebow, he only has sexist thoughts and the teamwork on his mind.

Calebow depicts all the things Phoebe hates and he thinks that she is just a meddling bimbo who doesn’t understand a thing about the game. So why is he drawn to her like a magnet? Maybe his good looks and charmingly bad manners have some sort of attraction for her? Phoebe wants to fight him in every moment she can, but the chemistry of love decides to step in between them.

M

ary, a schoolteacher sets off up the mountain to see Joe Mackenzie where he lives with his father, Wolf, she wants to get Joe back in school. What she discovers is a passion she did not think existed with this tall, rugged man with a past. Wolf had been put in prison for a rape he didn’t do, but he doesn’t want to destroy Mary’s reputation in their small town, he will not entertain any form of relationship with her, as nice as she is. Then out of the blue in this quiet little town someone starts raping the women and Joe and Wolf Mackenzie believe that Mary could be his next target.

Nobody’s Baby But Mine

J

ane Darlington spends her 34th birthday crying. She would so much like to have a baby without having a husband. But how on earth would she be able to find an average, maybe stupid man? Then along comes Cal Bonner, the quarterback legend of the Chicago Stars.

Jane makes a plan and eventually succeeds to attract him. But Carl realizes what she is trying to do and even though his family wants to interfere they fall in love. Will it work, perhaps with honesty, understanding and a lot of humor it will. If you are looking for great characters, laughs and a wonderful ending, don’t miss this one.

Outlander

Flowers from the Storm

Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Diana Gabaldon Laura Kinsale

C

hristian Langland, Duke of Jerveaux is the ultimate hero and a rather contradictory mathematician who has a stroke which leaves him speechless and his family thinking him mad put him in a sanitarium. As fate would have it Maddy, a Quaker realizes that Christian is not insane—he just can’t talk. Maddy has depth of character, and possibly is the only person who has the patience to understand and accept a life dealing with Christian’s pent up frustration. Maddy never thought her gentle, healing ways would change his and her life completely — binding them together in necessity, arousal and love.

C

laire Beauchamp Randall and her husband Frank decide to have a second honeymoon in the Scottish Highlands. As Claire strolls around the stones of an ancient ruin, she suddenly finds herself in 1743. She is confronted by Frank’s ancestor, Captain Black Jack, and joins a clan where she nurses James Fraser, a redheaded gallant soldier and the two commence a whirlwind romantic adventure that involves the evil Black Jack.

Eventually Claire finds her way back to her own time and has to decide which life she wants, the one with Frank or her joyous, existence with James..of being friendly with.

Books FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Morning Glory

A Knight in Shining Armor

LaVyrle Spencer

W

ill Parker served time for killing a Texas prostitute and cannot hold a job because of it. In the small town of Whitney, Ga, he responds to an ad that has been placed by a pregnant widow and mother of two, Eleanor Dinsmore, who is seeking a husband. Parker falls in love with Ellie and idolises her two sons. Will and Ellie have no formal education, but love reading and soon a friendship develops with Miss Beasley, at the local library.

Unfortunately, Lula Peak, the town’s loose woman, decides to sink her teeth into this new juicy arrival to the town and manages to awkwardly bump into him in the library. Lula has another relationship which she wants to end with a coward called Harley Overmire, someone who Will has no intention of being friendly with.

Jude Devereaux

W

hile on vacation in England with her lover and his daughter, Dougless Montgomery finds herself alone in a isolated country churchyard close to the tomb of Nicholas Stafford, an earl who died in 1564. Suddenly and to her great surprise an armor-clad Nicholas appears in front of her, he has been brought to the present day to clear his reputation, because he was unfairly convicted of treason. Dougless is intrigued by what he has to say and agrees to assist him in discovering his accuser’s identity so that he can again restore his good name. In the adventures that follow they are both willing lovers, and even travel back in time to solve the mystery.

Lord of Scoundrels Loretta Chase

J

essica Trent has only one intention and that is to get her idiot brother away from the influence of Sebastian Ballister, the Marquess of Diain. She is amazed to find that she is attracted and desires the arrogant man who is persecuting her brother. He responds with a similar passion for her and they find themselves in a scandal. Jessica decides she has no option but to seek satisfaction... Damn her, why did she tempt him and then force him to try and salvage his reputation. Sebastian is impatient to get his own back on her and put her in an amorous position. And if that is marriage, then so be it — though Sebastian is somewhat uncertain he can stay aloof and at the same time not find himself affected by this sensuous and determined lady’s charms.

The Bride

Whitney, My Love

Julie Garwood

B

y king’s decree, Scottish laird Alec Kincaid is obliged to find and marry an English bride. He decides to choose the youngest daughter of Baron Jamison...Jamie a feisty, violet-eyed beauty. Alec ached to touch her, to tame her, to possess her... forever. But Jamie was determined that she would not ever surrender to his barbarian ways. After all he was an arrogant scoundrel whose rough good looks spoke of savage pleasures. But Kincaid’s kisses made her blood boil, although she did not want him and showed him so, there came a time when he broke her will and she realized that all her senses were now being threatened, should she surrender?

Pride & Prejudice Jane Austen

I

f you have never heard of Pride and Prejudice you must have been living in a cave. This is a story that has captured the hearts and minds of people throughout the world like no other romance novel. It generates emotional feelings for both men and women who are glad that the world has evolved since the early 19th Century’s English society that this story depicts.

Honor’s Splendour

A

fter Whitney Stone has a teenage crush on a neighbor her father sends her to live with family in Paris where under their guidance, she blossoms into a ravishing beauty that is the attraction of Parisian society—the handsome, wealthy Duke of Claymore notices this and is determined to have her as his wife. But even though he shows great interest, she is still thinking of her childhood love. Then she discovers she is starting to be tempted and attracted by the Duke—-Whitney is confused, where will this all lead her heart. The Duke has no such confusion. He wants Whitney. And he plans to have her.

Gone With The Wind

Rebecca

Julie Garwood

Daphne du Maurier

L

ebecca, the first Mrs DeWinter; may have died but she is still a powerful force to confront, along with the estate’s demonic housekeeper who doted on her former mistress. And during the long secretive silences of her new husband the innocent second Mrs. DeWinter has to endure the emotional traumas that they place upon her. The scene is set for an epic psychological story that will hold you spellbound as the deceit and deception give way to a triumphant romance.

ady Madelyne’s brother has managed to capture the Wolf, but she finds a way to let him escape...then she realizes that he had entered in order to capture her!

With her arms held she has no choice but to be taken to where he lives and to suffer the wrath of his brother, sister and dogs who all have a distinct dislike for her. The family antics will make you laugh out loud and you will appreciate the courage of the heroine as she confronts the situation she is in and still manages to discover a romance that will leave you sighing. This is one romance novel that you must read.

Judith McNaught

R

Margaret Mitchell

A

lthough there are several novels that cover the Civil War and all its hardship, none have managed to so clearly depict the burning fields and cities of the American South like Gone With the Wind. It provides us with meaningful scenes and characters that make us remember their words and feel their fear forever. In the characters of the irresistible Scarlett and the contemptuous Rhett, the author has not just written a story of survival in the harshest conditions, she also created two of the most famous lovers in the world since Romeo and Juliet. www.squidoo.com

Health FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Eating right when pregnant G

ood nutrition during pregnancy, and enough of it, is very important for your baby to grow and develop. You should consume about 300 more calories per day than you did before you became pregnant. Although nausea and vomiting during the first few months of pregnancy can make this difficult, try to eat a well-balanced diet and take prenatal vitamins.

Here are some recommendations to keep you and your baby healthy.

Goals for healthy-eating when pregnant Eat a variety of foods to get all the nutrients you need. Recommended daily servings include 6-11 servings of breads and grains, two to four servings of fruit, four or more servings of vegetables, four servings of dairy products, and three servings of protein sources (meat, poultry, fish, eggs or nuts). Use fats and sweets sparingly.

Choose foods high in fiber that are enriched such as whole-grain breads, cereals, pasta, rice, fruits, and vegetables. Make sure you are getting enough vitamins and minerals in your daily diet while pregnant. You should take a prenatal vitamin supplement to make sure you are consistently getting enough vitamins and minerals every day. Your doctor can recommend an over-thecounter brand or prescribe a prenatal vitamin for you.

Eat and drink at least four servings of dairy products and calcium-rich foods a day to help ensure that you are getting 1000-1300 mg of calcium in your daily diet during pregnancy. Eat at least three servings of iron-rich foods per day to ensure you are getting 27 mg of iron daily.

Choose at least one good source of vitamin C every day, such as oranges, grapefruits, strawberries, honeydew, papaya, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, green peppers, tomatoes, and mustard greens.

Pregnant women need 70 mg of vitamin C a day.

Choose at least one good source of folic acid every day, like dark green leafy vegetables, veal, and legumes (lima beans, black beans, black-eyed peas and chickpeas). Every pregnant woman needs at least 0.4 mg of folic acid per day to help prevent neural tube defects such as spina bifida.

Choose at least one source of vitamin A every other day. Sources of vitamin A include carrots, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, spinach, water squash, turnip greens, beet greens, apricots, and cantaloupe.

Limit caffeine to no more than 300 mg per day. The caffeine content in various drinks depends on the beans or leaves used and how it was prepared. An 8-ounce cup of coffee has about 150 mg of caffeine on average while black tea has typically about 80 mg. A 12-ounce glass of caffeinated soda contains anywhere from 30-60 mg of caffeine. Remember, chocolate contains caffeinethe amount of caffeine in a chocolate bar is equal to 1/4 cup of coffee.

The use of saccharin is strongly discouraged during pregnancy because it can cross the placenta and may remain in fetal tissues. But, the use of other non-nutritive or artificial sweeteners approved by the FDA is acceptable during pregnancy. These FDA-approved sweeteners include aspartame (Equal or NutraSweet), acesulfame-K (Sunett), and sucralose (Splenda). These sweeteners are considered safe in moderation so talk with your health care provider about how much non-nutritive sweetener is acceptable during pregnancy.

Decrease the total amount of fat you eat to 30 percent or less of your total daily calories. For a person eating 2,000 calories a day, this would be 65 grams of fat or less per day. Limit cholesterol intake to 300 mg or less per day. Do not eat shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish (also called white snapper), because they contain high levels of mercury.

Avoid soft cheeses such as feta, Brie, Camembert, blue-veined, and Mexican-style cheese. These cheeses are often unpasteurized and may cause Listeria infection. There’s no need to avoid hard cheese, processed cheese, cream cheese, cottage cheese, or yogurt. Avoid raw fish, especially shellfish like oysters and clams.

What to eat when pregnant and don’t feel well During pregnancy you may have morning sickness,

diarrhea, or constipation. You may find it hard to keep foods down, or you may feel too sick to even eat at all.

Here are some suggestions: Morning sickness: Eat crackers, cereal, or pretzels before getting out of bed; eat small, frequent meals throughout the day; avoid fatty, fried, and greasy foods.

Constipation: Eat more fresh fruit and vegetables.

Also drink 6 to 8 glasses of water a day.

Diarrhea: Eat more foods that contain pectin and gums (two types of dietary fiber) to help absorb excess water. Examples of these foods are applesauce, bananas, white rice, oatmeal, and refined wheat bread.

Heartburn: Eat small, frequent meals throughout the day; try drinking milk before eating; and limit caffeinated foods and beverages, citric beverages, and spicy foods.

Can I diet while pregnant?

No. Do not diet or try to lose weight during pregnancy-both you and your baby need the proper nutrients in order to be healthy. Keep in mind that you will lose some weight the first week your baby is born.

Can I eat a “low carb” diet when pregnant?

Low carbohydrate diets, such as Atkins and the South Beach Diet, are very popular. There have been no studies of the effects of a low carbohydrate diet on pregnancy, so its effect on the fetus, if any, are unknown. While you are pregnant, you should eat a balanced diet from all of the food groups.

Can I maintain my vegetarian diet when pregnant?

Just because you are pregnant doesn’t mean you have to diverge from your vegetarian diet. Your baby can receive all the nutrition he or she needs to grow and develop while you follow a vegetarian diet if you make sure you eat a wide variety of healthy foods that provide enough protein and calories for you and your baby.

Depending on the type of vegetarian meal plan you follow, you may need to adjust your eating habits to ensure that you and your baby are receiving adequate nutrition (you should consume about 300 more calories than you did before you became pregnant).

Why do I need more calcium?

Calcium is a nutrient needed in the body to build strong teeth and bones. Calcium also allows blood to clot normally, muscles and nerves to function properly, and the heart to beat normally. Most of the calcium in your body is found inside your bones.

Your growing baby needs a considerable amount of calcium to develop. If you do not consume enough calcium to sustain the needs of your developing baby, your body will take calcium from your bones, decreasing your bone mass and putting you at risk for osteoporosis. Osteoporosis causes dramatic thinning of the bone, resulting in weak, brittle bones that can easily be broken.

Pregnancy is a critical time for a woman to consume more calcium.

Even if no problems develop during pregnancy, an inadequate supply of calcium at this time can diminish bone strength and increase your risk for osteoporosis later in life.

The following guidelines will help ensure that you are consuming enough calcium throughout your pregnancy: The US Recommended Daily Allowance (USRDA) for calcium is 1,000 mg per day for pregnant

and breastfeeding women over age 18. The USRDA for teenage girls up to age 18 is 1,300 mg of calcium per day.

Eating and drinking at least four servings of dairy products and calcium-rich foods a day will help ensure that you are getting the appropriate amount of calcium in your daily diet.

The best sources of calcium are dairy products including milk, cheese, yogurt, cream soups, and pudding. Calcium is also found in foods including green vegetables (broccoli, spinach, and greens), seafood, dried peas, and beans.

Vitamin D will help your body use calcium. Adequate amounts of vitamin D can be obtained through exposure to the sun and in fortified milk, eggs, and fish.

— www.webmd.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Nikolai Vasenin pictured in 1942 during his imprisonment and then in 2007. — AFP photos

A group of Maquisards, rural fighters of the French Resistance, in the summer of 1944.

At 93, Red Army veteran searches for lost French love “H

er name was Jeanne.... A brunette, nothing special. But I must find her at any cost.” At 93, Nikolai Vasenin, a former Red Army soldier and Gulag prisoner who fought for the French Resistance in World War II, is searching for the love he says he lost 60 years ago in France. “I am 93, there is no reason to wait any longer.”

Vasenin’s extraordinary nine decades of life have seen him captured by the Nazis, escape from German captivity, join the French resistance and then be arrested on his return to the Soviet Union. It is believed that Jeanne-the daughter of a top Resistance commander-is still alive but so far Vasenin has been unable to realise his final life’s mission of meeting her.

Born in 1919, Vasenin was conscripted into the Red Army soon after Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. On July 9, 1941, his regiment was encircled near Minsk, in present-day Belarus.

Wounded, Nikolai-just like 400,000 other Soviet soldiers-was taken prisoner by the Nazis. Following a failed attempt to escape from prison in Nuremberg, he was sent to a labor camp in the Drome region of southern France, which he managed to flee in October 1943 to join a group of Maquisards, rural fighters of the French Resistance.

“I did not speak a word of French,” he told AFP by telephone from his home in the Urals region of central Russia. “The Maquis (resistance fighters) did not trust me in the beginning but after my first fight their attitude changed,” the old man recollects. Fairly soon, the young Russian became a commander of a

25-strong guerilla detachment dubbed later “the group of Nicolas.” Vasenin fought against the Nazis in the north of the Drome region, said the French journalist Laurent Brayard, who has worked on stories on the “Russian Maquis” for the Voice of Russia radio station.

“The Maquisards had a strange way of fighting: before an operation, they were having coffee at home and coming back at noon to have lunch,” Brayard said. Through encrypted cables, the “group of Nicolas” was in contact with the British who were supplying the resistance fighters with arms.

When Vasenin was wounded in the leg, his commander, Gerard Monot, took him to his home where his daughter Jeanne, four years his junior, nursed him. When British-American troops arrived in September 1944, Nikolai had to go to Paris and appear before the Soviet mission’s general staff. “Before leaving, I asked Gerard for Jeanne’s hand,” Nikolai recounted. The three had a tough talk as the “captain was categorically against.” The Russian had to go. “Probably, because I was poor,” Vasenin said. “And Jeanne... she was sad, but she was afraid of her father.”

In the spring of 1945, just before the end of the war, Vasenin arrived in the Soviet Black Sea port city of Odessa where he was immediately arrested, in a cruel twist of fate suffered by many Soviet ex-prisoners of war. He was sentenced to 15 years in the Gulag “for treason” but was released early after a few yearshe does not remember exactly when-and confined to internal exile in Siberia.

At the end of his prison term, Nikolai married Zinaida, a geologist who visited the mine

where inmates worked. He was rehabilitated during the perestroika reforms under the USSR’s last leader Mikhail Gorbachev, shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union in late 1991. Since Zinaida’s death five years ago, the old man and father of three lives alone in a small apartment in Novoberezovsky, near Yekaterinburg. In 2005 he was made Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur, France’s highest decoration, after his story was made

public for the first time. The only survivor of the Drome Maquis group, Vasenin said he will live at least until he sees Jeanne again.

“Je t’aime” (I love you) are the only words he still remembers in French, but “it will suffice,” he said. Will his life have a fairy tale ending? It remains to be seen. But his friends and relatives have already made contact with the French authorities in the hope of reuniting him with Jeanne once more. — AFP

Soviet rocket launchers spring into action on June 22, 1941 as Nazi Germany attacks.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Grandfather s hidden phot inspire Holocaust film M

atthew Nash’s grandfather only mentioned the photographs to him once. Twenty-five-years later, they are the subject of a new documentary on the Holocaust that Nash spent three years making after finding the pictures his grandfather took while serving as an Army medic in World War II. Kept hidden from Nash and others in the family, the photos were not something Nash’s grandfather seemed to want to talk about with rela-

things. When you get a little older, I’ll show you some pictures and you’ll understand.’”

But Donald Grant Johnson, a former Army lieutenant, died in 1991 without sharing

Matthew Nash, hand only, holds a 1945 photograph, in his Boston home that shows survivors at what is believed to be the Nazi Mauthausen concentration camp.

Photo shows filmmaker Matthew Nash displays a World War II era photo of his grandfather US Army medic Donald Johnson, while standing in front of a projected image of a boy in a WWII Nazi concentration camp at Nash’s Boston home. — AP tives. But they were something he could never forget.

Nash’s film - “16 Photographs at Ohrdruf” - tells of the first concentration camp that US soldiers liberated in 1945.

The 72-minute film will have its first public screening Thursday evening at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., and also will be shown as part of the Boston International Film Festival on April 16 and the G.I. Film Festival in Washington in May. The summer he was 12, Nash asked about his grandfather’s World War II service as the two were stacking wood in his grandparents’ barn in East Dorset, Vt. “As I recall he got really quiet,” said Nash, now a 37-year-old photography professor at Lesley University. “I think he just said, ‘Yeah, we saw some really terrible

In this Tuesday, April 2, 2013 photo a World War II era photo of US Army medic Donald Johnson, top, lies next to a 1945 photograph taken by Johnson that shows a boy in what is believed to be the Nazi Mauthausen concentration camp, at the home of Matthew Nash.

the photos with his grandson. Family members only spoke of the pictures in whispers. When Nash’s grandmother threatened to destroy them when the subject came up at Thanksgiving dinner in 1995, Nash and his sister felt compelled to secretly sift through their late grandfather’s belongings the following Christmas.

That’s when they found an envelope marked “Holocaust” tucked away in a wooden trunk. Inside were a few letters and a series of snapshots of a war horror the 23-year-old Johnson encountered as a soldier in April 1945.

Johnson took most of the photos at Ohrdruf in Germany. Nash believes his grandfather may have treated survivors of the camp, which the Germans had formed as a sub-camp of Buchenwald. On a personalized sheet of notepaper with “Don Johnson” printed at the top, the 65th Infantry Division Army veteran cataloged the photo collection as best he could.

“Lime Pit - effort to destroy bodies,” reads one handwritten caption. “Griddle used in (vain) attempt to incinerate bodies - note skull bottom center,” reads another. “Small stack of bodies,” says yet another.

Soldiers are on the outskirts of some of Johnson’s shots, standing together to view piles of emaciated and burned corpses.

Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower wanted many witnesses to the Nazi atrocity so that reports of it couldn’t be dismissed as propaganda. “He had as many units as possible come and see the camp,” said Geoffrey Megargee, a scholar from the US Holocaust Memorial Museum who appears in Nash’s film. Johnson likely came to Ohrdruf within a few days of its liberation.

He later returned home to become a banker, National Guard soldier, and a volunteer emergency-medical technician.

Some of Johnson’s photos show survivors, including what he described as a survivor being treated by two camp doctors. The skeletal-looking man is lying on a cot, with what appears to be an open wound on his hip, as the men stand beside him. In another, a bare-chested boy of about 14 looks toward the camera, with

what appears to be prisoner barracks in the background.

Nash found 19 photos in all and used 16 in his film. His research showed his grandfather may have shot a few of the photos at Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. The professor also discovered from letters his grandfather packed away with the pictures that he had wanted his photographs to become part of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum. He said in one letter that he had visited more than one concentration camp, but Ohrdruf was engraved in his memory. “I keep the pictures close at hand and have made a point of looking at them frequently,” Johnson wrote. “And, during my years of National Guard service, I made a point of showing them to the personnel, hoping we could prevent any such disasters from happening again.”

Johnson died two years before the museum opened, and before he sent the pictures. Nash has since given the photos to the museum for its archives, and said he’s proud to have done that for his grandfather. Nash made the documentary with about $5,000 and the help of friends in the film business.

Among film interviewees, Nash talked to veterans who served in the same infantry division as his grandfather, including Boston resident Edwin “Bud” Waite.

The 87-year-old was an infantry soldier who wasn’t part of liberating concentration camps, but visited Dachau later. He said he sees value in Nash’s film effort.

“I think it’s very important because the younger people nowadays, they don’t really understand concentration camps back in World War II,” Waite said. Megargee, who will give a lecture before Thursday’s screening, said Nash’s film opens up a personal window into what the Allies were fighting against in World War II. “When you can personalize the history, especially for younger kids, it helps to get them interested. It’s one thing to talk about tens of thousands of camps. It’s another thing to bring it down to the level of one American soldier,” he said. — AP

Motown s unsung female trio finally gets ac

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ore than 40 years have passed since the recording of Marvin Gaye’s “Save the Children,” but a replay of the song in the studio where it was recorded compressed time and brought tears to the eyes of Louvain Demps. Demps was no mere fan visiting what’s now the Motown Historical Museum. She was one of the women singing the angelic, high harmonies on the recording - and hearing it in Hitsville USA’s Studio A was too much. “It’s my heart, it’s my heart,” she said.

For Demps and her fellow Andantes, Jackie Hicks and Marlene Barrow-Tate, moments like these have been private, since the wider world knew only their voices, not their faces. But now in their 70s, the unsung backing group who sang on thousands of Motown songs is finally getting acclaim for its contributions to the groundbreaking, chart-topping music made in Detroit in the 1960s and early ‘70s before the label moved to Los Angeles. The trio gathered recently to see the exhibit, “Motown Girl Groups: The Grit, the Glamour, the Glory,” which will run through the summer. The Andantes are featured - with equal billing - alongside the Supremes, Vandellas, Marvelettes and Velvelettes.

The joyous but rare reunion was made possible by a sad event the day before: the funeral of former Miracles member Bobby Rogers. For the Andantes, it made their meeting more poignant. “It

is unfortunate that so many are gone and thank God that we are still here - all of us - to be able to see this and see our dream come true,”

This March 12, 2013 photo show The Andantes, from left, Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow-Tate and Louvain Demps posing during a visit to Motown Historical Museum in Detroit. — AP

said Barrow-Tate, who still lives in Detroit, as does Hicks. The two are retired, but Demps, who lives near Atlanta, still sings solo or with others. The Andantes were the go-to backup singers for most Motown artists, including Gaye, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops and the girl groups themselves. “Save the Children” came from Gaye’s “What’s Going On,” one of Motown’s greatest - and last - albums recorded in Detroit.

The Andantes sang backup on many of the record’s cuts - including the title track - and even traveled with Gaye to his hometown of Washington, D.C., in 1972 to perform the disc in its entirety at the Kennedy Center. Motown Museum officials say the trio, almost always anonymously, sang on more songs than any other group at Motown. They were the female and vocal equivalent to the Funk Brothers, the label’s house band that itself was largely anonymous in its time but gained acclaim through the 2002 documentary film, “Standing in the Shadows of Motown.”

The Andantes’ peerless ability to vocally blend - not only with each other but also with stars such as Gaye, The Four Tops, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles and many others - was one of the factors that kept them in demand behind the scenes. They were so successful that they were seen as essential backup artists, and that limited them from growing more. —AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Rolling Stones roll out North America, Hyde Park tour dates

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File photo shows the Rolling Stones, Charlie Watts, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards during “12-12-12 The Concert For Sandy Relief” at Madison Square Garden in New York. —AFP

he Rolling Stones announced Wednesday a highly anticipated nine-city North American tour ahead of their first gig in London’s Hyde Park in more than four decades. On its website, the legendary British rock group-which last year marked its 50th anniversary together-said the “50 and Counting” tour would kick off in Los Angeles on a date yet to be confirmed. It will then move on to Oakland and San Jose, California on May 5 and May 8 respectively, before proceeding to Las Vegas, Anaheim in suburban Los Angeles, and Toronto in southeastern Canada, Chicago, Boston and

Redford makes welcome return in ‘Company’ cronies, some more welcoming than others, Nick hopes to smoke out his ex-lover Mimi Lurie (Julie Christie), the one person able to clear his name. This allows for brief but incisive appearances from Nick Nolte as a lumberyard owner still wearing his “Liberty or Death” T-shirt; and Richard Jenkins as a

The Stones also disclosed they would play London’s Hyde Park on July 6, almost 44 years since the veteran rockers took to the stage in the sprawling park just two days after the swimmingpool death of guitarist Brian Jones.

“Hyde Park holds such great memories for us and we can’t think of anywhere better to perform to our UK fans this summer,” Jagger said. Last month, organizers of the Glastonbury Festival in southwestern England revealed that the Stones would make their first appearance at the gigantic outdoor event on June 29. — AFP

Trance is mind-bendin but little else Review

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obert Redford does his most compelling work in some time as both actor and director in “The Company You Keep,” a tense yet admirably restrained thriller about a fugitive forced out of hiding after 30 years to prove his innocence.

Adapted with clarity and intelligence by Lem Dobbs from Neil Gordon’s novel, and lent distinguishing heft by its roster of screen veterans, this gripping drama provides an absorbing reflection on the courage and cost of dissent. Recalling aspects of Sidney Lumet’s poignant “Running on Empty” from 1988, but with a more subdued emotional palette, the film opens with vintage-style news footage detailing charges against members of radical antiwar group the Weather Underground in the early 1970s for plotting to blow up buildings in multiple US cities.

A second report follows, attributing responsibility to the same group for a Michigan bank robbery during which a security guard was killed. While the robbers were identified, only one was ever apprehended. Back in the present, Sharon Solarz (Susan Sarandon), who was involved in the robbery and has been living in hiding as a Vermont housewife in the decades since, is preparing to turn herself in to the FBI when she is arrested entering New York State.

Coverage from aggressive young Albany newspaper reporter Ben Shepard (Shia LaBeouf) links her to local civil rights lawyer Jim Grant (Redford), who declined to take Solarz’s case.

Eager to impress his prickly editor (Stanley Tucci), Ben exploits his access to Diana (Anna Kendrick), a college hookup now working for the bureau.

Despite warnings from her boss Cornelius (Terrence Howard) to back off, Ben persists, digging for insights. His legwork reveals that while Jim has long been a respected community member, raising his 11-year-old daughter Isabel (Jacqueline Evancho) alone since the death of his wife in an accident a year earlier, no record of him exists before 1979.

Putting two and two together, Ben discovers, just ahead of the Feds, that Jim is Nick Sloan, another of the Michigan robbers.

This establishing action is set up with methodical efficiency in Dobbs’ screenplay, gaining momentum when Jim/Nick whisks Isabel out of town and into the care of his brother (Chris Cooper) just as the FBI is closing in. Meanwhile, Ben continues to look for neat answers to messy questions. But a prison interview with Sharon gives him some understanding of the commitment and idealism of the ‘70s radicals.

This affecting scene - Sharon shows regret for the mistakes that were made but refuses to repudiate her convictions - is played with perspicacity, toughness and compassion by Sarandon.

Propelled by another moody score from Cliff Martinez (“Drive,” “Contagion”) that adds a contemporary edge to Redford’s solidly conventional style, the remainder of the film plays out in pursuit mode.

Dropping in on former Weather Underground

Philadelphia.

“We did a few shows in London and New York last year and had such a good time that we thought, ‘Let’s do some more,’” frontman Mick Jagger said on www.rollingstones.com. “It’s a good show... Lots of the classic stuff everyone wants to hear, with a few little gems tucked in here and there.”

Joining the tour as a “special guest” will be guitarist Mick Taylor, a member of the Stones from 1969 to 1974 who played on such classic albums as “Exile on Main Street,” “Sticky Fingers” and “It’s Only Rock ‘n Roll.”

This film image released by Fox Searchlight shows James McAvoy in a scene from “Trance.” —AP

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This film image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Robert Redford, left, and Jackie Evancho in a scene from “The Company You Keep.” — AP college professor who stayed above ground and fears that Nick’s visit may compromise him.

Still a step ahead of the FBI, Ben has located Henry Osborne (Brendan Gleeson), the investigating officer on the Michigan case, who is cagey with him, but his daughter Rebecca (Brit Marling) unexpectedly sheds light. It becomes clear to the reporter that Nick is not running toward another assumed identity but toward a solution that will give him back his life and his daughter. Ben also discovers old links between Osborne’s family and Mimi’s, leading him to a remote cabin on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. While it provides for some passing commentary on the journalistic process and the slow death of print media, making the ambitious reporter such a driving figure perhaps mutes the focus a little. LaBeouf acquits himself well in the role. But tracking Ben‘s slow-blooming integrity is a somewhat prosaic detour in the concluding scenes, occasioning some speechy wisdom from Nick when they finally meet again. The storytelling is nonetheless robust and thematically rich, strengthened by a fine cast. Redford has done this kind of earnest man of conscience countless times before, but he brings such gravitas and thoughtfulness to play that he keeps us firmly in Nick’s corner. While Sam Elliott, as Mimi’s current partner, Cooper and Tucci are given little to do, Christie, Nolte, Jenkins, Gleeson and Sarandon all use their limited screen time to maximum effect. It’s remarkable how much texture these faces add to the film’s depiction of a generation with a fire in its belly that has had to adapt to a different world or find other ways to channel their impassioned ideas. —AP

lot-twisting puzzlers are a bubble market in the movies these days, with an arms race of “Inception”-like reality reversals that flip like a coin until dizzy audiences lose all interest in how it lands. That’s certainly the case with Danny Boyle’s “Trance,” a mind-bending neo-noir with continually shifting layers but little beyond its flashy plot machinations. The movies used to be content to be the stuff of dreams.

Now, they aim for hypnosis, limbo and headache-inducing dreams within dreams.

Advil might soon replace popcorn.

With Boyle’s characteristic briskness, “Trance” starts promisingly enough. James McAvoy is Simon, a London auctioneer who describes the emergency protocol of the high-end auction house “in the event of an event.” As he does so, such an event is underway: A well-planned gang led by Frank (the excellent Vincent Cassel) brazenly attempts to steal Francisco Goya’s “Witches in the Air.” Simon attempts to foil the heist, but we soon realize he’s in on the plot, too.

But something has gone awry. A blow to the head has sapped Simon of his memory, leading the crew to enlist a hypnotist (Rosario Dawson) to elicit the location of the missing painting from Simon’s banged-up brain.

This is, naturally, when the script by Joe Ahearne and John Hodge (a frequent collaborator with Boyle), begins to play with Simon’s hypnosis. The movie drifts in and out of consciousness, guided by Dawson’s silky voice. Is Simon our protagonist or villain? Is Elizabeth Lamb (Dawson) pulling out Simon’s memories or implanting them?

Pubic hair, you will be happy to learn, figures prominently in the answers to these

questions. Boyle and his cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, saturate the film with reflected images and a sleek, colorful palate.

“Trance” is never more than a minute away from a striking image, though the glassy, frenetic compositions only heighten the movie’s lack of depth.

It’s Dawson’s fleshy, commanding presence that helps melt the right angles of “Trance.” Her character gradually moves to the forefront of the film, such that you might mutter “James McA who?” by the time she, like a goddess, disrobes. But before a full picture of Elizabeth arrives, the movie’s succession of implausible trapdoors has rendered any big reveal about as satisfactory as a punch line to a 20-minute-long knock-knock joke.

Boyle is a talented, zippy craftsman with a protean body of work (“Trainspotting,” “Slumdog Millionaire,” “127 Hours”) that, pleasingly, seems to cringe at the whiff of pretension to anything running longer than two hours. The notable exception to that, of course, was the opening ceremony to the London Olympics that Boyle directed. That pageant culminated in an ode to modernity, a theme for Boyle, particularly in his last three films. “Trance,” “127 Hours” and “Slumdog Millionaire” are all populated by screens within screens, from cellphones to tablets to video cameras. “Trance” ends, somewhat laboriously, with the choice of a click, and the option to remember or forget.

But the superficial tricks of “Trance” sadly already made that decision. “Trance,” a Fox Searchlight release, is rated R for sexual content, graphic nudity, violence, some grisly images, and language. Running time: 101 minutes. Two stars out of four. — AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Photo shows Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum, home to the world’s finest collection of Golden Age art, yesterday as it counts down the nights until it reopens on April 13 after a 10-year renovation.

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msterdam’s world-famous Rijksmuseum revealed its eagerly-awaited 21st century identity yesterday after a vast 10-year renovation aimed at breathing new life into its unparalleled collection of Golden Age masterpieces. “The Rijksmuseum stands at the threshold of a new page of its history,” the museum’s general director Wim Pijbes told journalists at a press preview of the 375-million euro (480-million dollar) revamp, masterminded by Spanish architects Cruz y Ortiz.

Architects and artisans have restored much of the original styling of the Gothic-Renaissance building, designed by Pierre Cuypers and first opened in 1885, but with extensive modern touches.

The museum covers 800 years of Dutch history through 8,000 objects, distributed through 80 rooms. A one mile (1.5-kilometre) walk around the galleries will take you “from the Middle Ages to Mondrian.” But at the heart of the museum’s physical and artistic identity is Rembrandt’s vast masterpiece of militia intimidation, The Night Watch. The painting, flanked by works by the likes of Johannes Vermeer and Frans Hals, symbolizes the Golden Age, roughly spanning the 17th century, when the Dutch dominated much of world trade and, as a result, art.

Spectacular newfound bourgeois wealth meant that millions of paintings were commissioned, often portraits or landscapes, rather than the romanticized Biblical imagery that had dominated the Italian Renaissance. The Protestant Dutch spent the first half of the Golden Age fighting for liberation from the Catholic Spanish, and it is not without irony that Spanish architects have now renovated the world’s foremost Golden Age treasure trove.

The museum hopes to draw two million visitors a year, “binding people, art and history,” according to director Pijbes. When the museum was first designed, it was to receive 200,000 visitors a year.

“Everything has changed except for one thing, The Night Watch-although it’s now hanging a little bit higher than before,” he said. Director of collections Taco Dibbits summarized the museum as being about a “feel for beauty and a consciousness of history”. While previously a museum such as the Rijksmuseum would have a room for paintings, a room for furniture and a room for ceramics, Dibbits said, that has now changed.

Instead, Rembrandt’s paintings now hang alongside furniture made by Herman Doomer, a cabinetmaker friend of his, or a portrait of Golden Age poet Constantijn Huygens, who wrote about Rembrandt. The objects live happily together, either hung on walls or housed in what Dibbits called “nearly invisible” cases.

“We restored the entire building,” said Dibbits. “We gave it back air, we gave it back light.” “I think that beauty can be asleep for a long time, but when she wakes up, she wakes up and it’s party time,” said Dibbits.The renovation has not been without controversy, running massively over budget and deadline.

One particularly Dutch headache has been a bicycle path running through a tunnel in the middle of the building. The museum didn’t want the tunnel used as a bike path because of its

A cameraman films paintings by Vermeer in Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.— AP photos

proximity to the entrance, but the city authorities decided to let the bikes through and monitor the situation. It was even suggested at one point that Amsterdam hold a referendum on the typically Dutch and divisive issue.

During the renovation, 400 of the museum’s works were moved into the Philipsvleugel wing, where they were seen by 8.5 million visitors over nine years. Other works were to be seen in rotating exhibitions at the museum’s annex at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport, which has been there for over 10 years, and a full 5,000 objects were restored during the building’s renovation.

Former Dutch football international Ruud Gullit, whose mother used to work at the museum, has starred in adverts for the Rijks, in the hope of drawing more Dutch visitors, with more than 40,000 advance tickets already sold online.

The Rijksmuseum shares the Museumplein in south-central Amsterdam with the formidable cultural ensemble of the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk modern art museum, both also world famous in their own right. The Stedelijk reopened late last year after a nine-year renovation and the construction of a new wing resembling a giant bathtub, and the Van Gogh Museum is to reopen next month after its own renovations, bolstering Amsterdam’s credentials as a top-flite art destination. The museum trio hopes to work together to retake the grassy park of the Museumplein they share, an area more used to serving as a party ground for football fans. Queen Beatrix is to officially reopen the museum to the public on April 13, when entrance will be free, in her last major public appearance before she abdicates in favour of her son Willem-Alexander on April 30. — AFP

Visitors admire Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’ during pressviewing day.

A man looks at Dutch master Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid painting (oil on canvas, circa 1660).

A visitor passes a portrait of Adam Wachendorff, with a Putto Blowing Bubbles painted on the reverse side, by painter Cornelis Ketel (1548-1616).

View of the library which houses about one fifth of the total collection of books.

A photographer takes pictures of a 1698 model of the late 17th century Dutch warship William Rex.

Lifestyle FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Gallery assistants mount the painting ‘View of Avignon from the right bank of the Rhone’ by 18th century French artist Claude-Joseph Vernet at Sotheby’s auction house in London yesterday where it is estimated to fetch 3 - 5 million GBP in a forthcoming sale. The work is Vernet’s only recorded painting of his birthplace, the French city of Avignon, and was once believed to be lost and will be offered for sale for the first time in 200 years at the Sotheby’s London Old Master and British Paintings sale. — AFP

Build color confidence into your artwork

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rtists and craftspeople know that the colors they choose - and leave out - are critical ingredients in their works’ success, no matter the medium. Color done well is captivating. Color done badly? It’s just bad.

Or drab. Yet a color tweak may be all it takes to turn up a piece’s vibrancy and magic. An eye

This publicity photo of Betina Fink’s oil painting, ‘Aspen,’ (5 feet by 4 feet, 2013), demonstrates how reds, oranges and yellows, which are analogous colors (adjacent on the color wheel) get a ‘pop’ from the addition of tints of blue-gray (blue is a complement, or opposite, of orange) and deep greens. — AP

for color is both intuitive and learned, say the experts. Kaffe Fassett has spent a lifetime experimenting. The septuagenarian is exuberant with color in his embroidery, knitting and fabric designs. He’s known for bold florals, fruits and vegetables, and geometric shapes in sweaters, knitted coats and needlepoint.

The author of 15 books, his latest, “Kaffe Fassett Quilts: Shots and Stripes” (STC Craft, 2013), goes minimal with vibrant swaths of color - a simplicity that’s a stretch for him.

A Londoner for 40 years who was born and raised in California, Fassett eschews conventional color rules, although he subscribes to a few intuitively. “I left art school the minute the color wheel came out,” he muses. “I thought that was the work of the devil.” When Fassett talks about harmony and “bounce,” his language is as energetic as his artwork.

“Pick up one color and stick it next to another and see if you get a bounce from it,” says the textile artist. “Colors can either dampen each other or they can light each other up.

It’s just fantastic to see color that is pulsating.

It’s just vibrating with life. Other times, the most wonderful color is dropping dead because it’s in the company of something that’s killing it.” “I want to make the colors lush,” Fassett continues. “I’m after the glow all the time.” During the quilting workshops he teaches in the United States and elsewhere, including online, he recommends using myriad shades of the same color to create depth and harmony.—AP

I

n one of La Paz’s most exclusive French restaurants, carpaccio, sprinkled with Parmesan and topped with baby Swiss lettuce is a popular menu item. But it may surprise the diner to learn the tender, thin slices of raw meat are not beef or fish-but llama. Llama meat, a traditional part of Andean indigenous cuisine, has recently made the leap into the most prestigious kitchens in Bolivia, and its high protein, low-fat content could soon make it into a prominent dish on menus of Bolivia around the world.

In many of Bolivia’s five-star hotels llama meat has been going down a treat with tourists who praise both the flavor and the health benefits. For a perfect meal, experts say, pair it with quinoa, the grain of the Andes, another Bolivian staple that has made a splash in international cuisine.

For years, indigenous Bolivians have enjoyed llama meat, butchered and sold in local markets and cooked by street vendors. “Llama meat is very good for the health, it’s healthy, the meat has less fat than cow,” said Wilma Mamani, a butcher at a street market in the mining city of Oruro, 3,700 meters (12,000 feet) above sea level in the Bolivian Andes.

In this market, despite the wind and cold temperatures, some 300 vendors, mostly women, exhibit llama meat-brought in from rural villageson metal grills and wooden tables. At her market stand, Gladys Guarachi prepares two traditional Bolivian dishes featuring llama: chicharron, which is fried, and fricassee, which is a spicy stew.

“People love it. It’s very rich,” she told AFP. “It sells really well,” she added, saying she sells a dish for between 15 and 20 bolivianos ($2 and $2.80).

There are about 3.7 million heads of llama, a cousin of the alpaca, raised in a region of South America stretching from Ecuador to Argentinathough the vast majority are in Bolivia and Peru.

According to the UN’s Food and Agriculture

Organization, nearly 15,000 tons of meat from the camelid family is produced in Bolivia each year. The meat is low in fat, high in protein and fiber and helps keep cholesterol down, according to a technical study of the Ministry of Rural Development. — AFP

An Aymara woman sells llama meat at her stall in a public market in La Paz. — AFP

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

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KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (04/04/2013 TO 10/04/2013) KON-TIKI (DIG) 3:45 PM DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) 6:00 PM KON-TIKI (DIG) 8:15 PM DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) 10:30 PM KON-TIKI (DIG) 12:45 AM MARINA-1 KON-TIKI (DIG) 12:30 PM KON-TIKI (DIG) 2:45 PM THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) 5:00 PM THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) 7:30 PM KON-TIKI (DIG) 10:00 PM KON-TIKI (DIG) 12:15 AM MARINA-2 THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (DIG)12:30 PM THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (DIG)2:30 PM OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (DIG) 4:30 PM THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (DIG)6:45 PM THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (DIG)8:45 PM THE INCREDIBLE BURT WONDERSTONE (DIG)10:45 PM OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (DIG) 12:45 AM AVENUES-1 OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (DIG) 1:00 PM OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (DIG) 3:30 PM OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (DIG) 6:15 PM THE TALL MAN (DIG) 8:30 PM OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (DIG) 10:45 PM OLYMPUS HAS FALLEN (DIG) 1:00 AM AVENUES-2 THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM

THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) 360º- 1 G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D)3:30 PM G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) 360º- 2 AL HAFLA (DIG) AL HAFLA (DIG) AL HAFLA (DIG) AL HAFLA (DIG) AL HAFLA (DIG) AL HAFLA (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED AL-KOUT.1 JURASSIC PARK (DIG-3D) THE CROODS (DIG-3D) JURASSIC PARK (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) AL-KOUT.2 DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (DIG) DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG)

9:30 PM 12:05 AM 1:15 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM 1:15 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM 1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM 1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

Pe t s FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Adam Townsend the whipper-in (left) Geoff Hyde the Huntsman, center, and Ron Cornell lead the hounds back in after the hunt in Monkton, Maryland.

R

iders maintain British fox-hunting tradition with less-lethal means to action by the blast of a horn, more than 30 yapping spotted hounds spill down a hill, bound across a country road, leap a fence and rush a faded winter field. On the hound’s heels are about two dozen hunters on horseback, men and women in britches and tweed and velvet hats. Motorists, what few there are this deep in the country on a hushed winter morning, a weekday, are slow to take it in. Some stop altogether. For it’s something to behold, this pageant of beasts and man - a scene from another time, another place. A painting. It’s the living history exhibit that is what has become of Maryland’s centuries-old fox hunt. “It’s beautiful to watch. It just is,” says David Hagen, a retiree who belongs to the Elkridge-Harford Hunt Club simply to photograph the hunts with his wife, Joan. He takes each picture with the attitude of someone capturing the last breaths of an endangered species.

“It’s a piece of Maryland history,” he says. “And it’s going to go away, just like the watermen.” The Masters of Foxhounds Association counts 163 American fox-hunting clubs. That’s about 20,000 hunters in 34 states. Maryland has seven clubs, including two in Baltimore County, the state’s de facto fox hunting capital. The western side belongs to Greenspring Valley Hounds, while the eastern territory is all the 135-year-old Elkridge-Harford organization.

These days, its 100 or so hunters have hard-fought permission to ride through about 120 acres. It’s farmland mainly, pastures that dip and crest, with well-kept homes, dilapidated barns and lightly forested pockets. They have a clubhouse just off Jarrettsville Pike. If one didn’t recognize the location from the “Horses and Hounds crossing since 1878” sign there, there’s always the door knocker: a brass fox.

Club members convene three times a week during the fall and winter, stopping in March, which is fox cubbing season. On a recent Monday morning, they drove horse trailers up onto a grassy hill near the intersection of Hutchins Mill and Pocock roads. It’s overcast and brisk with predictions of snow on the way. Hunters sip warm port and stroke their horses’ muzzles.

Their dress - little different from what George Washington wore to hunt in his day. Every member wears a frock coat or hacking jacket, britches, riding hat, knee-high black leather riding boots - often custom cut - and white neckwear called stock scarves, wrapped just so and held in place with gold pins, ready to be unraveled should man or horse require a bandage. On top of that foundation comes a tedious code of accouterment. Depending on your role in the hunt, whether you’re a man or a woman and other particulars, there are certain coat colors, certain numbers of buttons, certain collars - even purposeful directions to point your scarf pin.

“England did it that way, so we do it that way,” says Liz McNight, a former steeplechase jockey and the club’s master, an elected office she has held for 20 years but might give up after this season.

“Continuity is very important to this sport.” They ride - for as long as four hours sometimes - across farms and fields, jumping fences, highfooting through mud, splashing through puddles and streams. Folks come and go as they please. More aggressive, seasoned riders lead the pack while those interested in a more leisurely afternoon stay back and sometimes lose track of the hounds altogether.

During the Monday hunt, a few members of the party break off from the group to head home along one of the winding, paved country roads. Cars keep a respectful distance as the horses clap along the pavement, making their way back to the start under a canopy of bare tree branches.

The hunt concludes with most of the party never even seeing a fox, though the hounds certainly roused a few - and deer, too. Though animal-rights groups have sharply criticized hunts, particularly in

Geoff Hyde leads the hounds into the field for the hunt.

England, for killing foxes, that’s one British tradition the Americans never embraced. Though overly enthusiastic hounds have caught foxes, hunters will tell you that’s not the intention. They aim to chase a fox to ground - its hole - and then call off the hounds and leave.

“They shouldn’t call it fox hunting,” says Cappy Jackson, 58, of Sparks, Md., who started fox hunting when she was just 7. “They should call it fox chasing. We never catch them.” Geoff Hyde, 54, the club’s huntsman for 24 years, lives at the club’s property to care for their approximately 100 hounds and train them in the ways of the hunt.

“It’s a way of life, not a job,” he says. “You’ve got to love it. And you have to be able to read the hounds and the horses. The hounds, the horses and the countryside.” These are not “dogs” to fox hunters. Do not make that mistake. They are hounds. Specifically, they’re crossbred foxhounds of English and American lineage. Hyde brought 15 and a half of them to the Monday hunt - they’re traditionally counted in pairs. All with tan ears and spotted coats, to a newcomer’s eyes they look essentially identical. Yet Hyde, who raised each one from a pup, recognizes each one. Tokyo. Ivan. Rocket. Paddy. Cowboy. Lex. Anchor. Cyclone.

Their barks and cries carry over the hills and through thickets.

Enthusiasts call it music. Same with the notes Hyde blows on his antique huntsman’s horn. A call of three long notes brings wayward hounds back to him. A staccato blast has them scurrying from cover.

When he blows three notes, holding the final one so long it turns his face as scarlet as his jacket, the hunt has ended. To Hyde, that one sounds mournful.

Bob and Kerri Smyth, who own Glen Manor farm nearby in Monkton, Md, are among the first to arrive and the last to leave. The president of the Baltimore-area Smyth Jewelers and his wife have hunted foxes for 12 years, despite Kerri Smyth’s initial reluctance.

“The first time I went out, I was scared to death,” she says. “And then after the second time, I’ve never stopped since. It’s an addiction.”

Hunting is the couple’s passion and pastime. They easily part with tickets to their box for Ravens games. But rarely do they miss a dirty, earthy, exhilarating hunt, the chance, as he puts it, to enjoy breathtakingly beautiful land, “doing something physical with like-minded people.” “This?” Smyth says, gesturing to the pastoral panorama that spreads in either direction as far as he can see. “This? You can get on a horse and you ride over this? It doesn’t get any better.” — MCT

Stars

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19)

It’s a very favorable time for developing your relationships with parents and other relatives. At times life becomes extremely distracting and work and other financial or professional commitments take over. Be sure to make room in your schedule to spend some quality time with family members that came before you. You are capable of forceful, decisive action, and you have the will to carry through on your intentions at this time with someone you care about. Physically, you feel good and your energy is flowing smoothly and your interactions with others seem feisty and spirited. You inspire others to take action and group efforts or joint projects are favored.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

Hold your head high when you come face to face with a group of people who were recently condescending towards you.

In total contrast, you can expect to be the center of attention at a social gathering sometime soon. This is a time to get others’ opinions and feedback about yourself and what you are doing in regards to your life at this time. Relationships of all types are energetic now and cooperation, compromise, and adjustments to others’ viewpoints are key issues that require your attention. You may come into contact with a person who will be especially creative or influential in your life.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Your social life will be in full swing today, with invitations and group activities almost showered upon you. It’s a shame you won’t be able to take advantage of every activity, but at least make a point of catching up in the near future. Disputes in close partnerships are likely at this time. Your relationships have a very competitive, aggressive quality, and conflicts over power and dominance may erupt. You won’t compromise yourself to please anyone, so knowing this you may just want to be alone today.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

You may feel burdened with too many of the details so necessary for a successful function. Some adjustment or adaptation to new routines, or a relinquishment of a personal interest, may be necessary to maintain peace and harmony. Ego compounding desire can make this moment a real scorcher of heat and intensity, just be careful you aren’t so intent it turns into a ice and freezes you out. In the passion of the moment you or your partner may be looking out for number one instead of long term harmony for both of you.

Leo (July 23-August 22) It’s a good time to get together with close friends or acquaintances and just socialize. Communication comes easy, and you can get yourself across without having to work at it. By joining in the general company, you enjoy the benefits of all. People are feeling insecure, so avoid encouraging any negativity you encounter. You are inclined to act on some of the wilder impulses and desires you feel from time to time. You crave stimulation and if you have an inventive side, you could make a startling discovery or breakthrough now. A strong sense of adventure makes this a very interesting time, especially when meeting new people or forming new relationships.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You will want to participate in any pleasurable activities with your friends today. An exceptional night out on the town would be perfect for you just now. This phase promotes thoughts of contentment and satisfaction toward your associates and with a fresh, playful approach you can enliven your circumstances today. It’s a great but possibly hectic time. The power of your personal relationships should rise significantly at this time. Romantic and/or sexual relationships will be so intense that they have a sense of urgency which demands you attend them now. Both your spiritual and more earthy side need to be sated. You’re likely to be irresistible to you mate whose own passions will be set aflame by yours.

COUNTRY CODES Libra (September 23-October 22)

You may be able to enjoy and value your own life situation today or feel especially kind towards a friend or loved one.

Someone may compliment you on your tastes or belongings.

Compliment them back and start up the conversation, you may have more in common than you thought. Confrontation is the wrong game to play in your relationships today, but pulling out entirely is equally unsuitable. Make some type of compromise now and the resulting situation will improve slowly but surely. It may not be a total win situation but you may not want everyone including yourself to lose.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You are inclined to be aggressive and hot-tempered now, particularly when your will is blocked. Your pushiness or competitive attitude is likely to create antagonism, hostility, and further resistance to your efforts. It is best to work alone rather than try to cooperate or coordinate your efforts with anyone at this time. It’s a day full of luck and charm and you are likely to be extravagant with your money where it concerns a relationship. Beware of being overly generous unless you are very sure this person isn’t in it for what you can be to them rather than what you can give to them. Emotional well being and contentment are very indicative at the moment and you can feel quite relaxed and carefree.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Your mood, feelings, and instincts rule you and you’re apt to act out of emotion or habit rather than reason or conscious choice. You seek the known, comfortable, and familiar, and you’re disinclined to confront new people or situations. It may be uncomfortable for you to be away from your home at this time. Compatible energies surround you and it pays not to make too many waves today, but welcome any help that’s offered and share what you can.

Diplomacy and consideration will get you a lot farther than trying to force your views or plans in a relationship. It would be advantageous to be on your best behavior and you’ll be appreciated far more than you anticipate.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Do things seem a little too right? too good? If so they probably are. Don’t become complacent because everything appears to be running perfectly. There are challenges just under the surface, and to keep things moving in the right direction you need to be ready to face these trials as soon as they spring up. A day of nostalgia and domesticity emphasizing a need for security and a sense of roots. Family, home, relatives, and romance play a bigger part in your life. You want to belong with someone on a private, intimate and very personal level. You need to be needed, and to feel it’s okay to have needs.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

The time is right for you to make a career move. Your talents are developed well enough for you to take the next step towards your goals. Go after that promotion or start searching for a better position elsewhere or even go out on your own. You may be a little nervous about, but the planets are in your favor. Act boldly and you will get to where you want to be much quicker. If you are single and looking for someone special to spend your time with then now is a good time for an unexpected encounter. It could be from someone you’ve known for quite some time or a stranger you literally bump into. Take the time today to say hello, be friendly and take a risk, it could pay off in a great way with a long term romance.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

You should have someone verify the results of your work or ideas today. Progress is likely-especially if you seek a second opinion.

Believe it or not someone you consider a competitor or foe may be helpful in this matter. Your sexual or romantic relationships have a deep, compelling, urgent quality today. Your inner feelings and needs for love and closeness emerge very strongly. You may find yourself looking for a little romance today or at least enjoying some emotional release.

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

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

Stars

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 1 5 0

ACROSS 1. Inquire about.

4. The lowermost portion of a structure partly or wholly below ground level.

12. (computer science) A computer that is running software that allows users to leave messages and access information of general interest.

15. A reptile genus of Iguanidae.

16. One of four subclasses or superorder of Monocotyledones.

17. Angular distance above the horizon (especially of a celestial object).

18. Having any of numerous bright or strong colors reminiscent of the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies.

19. Jutting or overhanging.

20. The corporate executive responsible for the operations of the firm.

21. Relating to or characteristic of the state or people of Alaska.

24. An Indian side dish of yogurt and chopped cucumbers and spices.

28. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.

29. Located, suited for, or taking place in the open air.

31. The Fate who determines the length of the thread of life.

36. A Mid-Atlantic state.

37. Type genus of the Soleidae.

41. Examination of conscience (as done daily by Jesuits).

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

44. A Russian prison camp for political prisoners.

46. A state in northwestern North America.

47. Black tropical American cuckoo.

48. Any high mountain.

49. Hormone secreted by the posterior pituitary gland (trade name Pitressin) and also by nerve endings in the hypothalamus.

52. The usually cylindrical central vascular portion of the axis of a vascular plant.

54. Polish filmmaker (born in 1929).

57. A large fleet.

59. One of the six playing periods into which the game of polo is divided.

64. Popular music originating in the West Indies.

67. Dressed in trousers.

69. On or toward the lee.

70. Naked freshwater or marine or parasitic protozoa that form temporary pseudopods for feeding and locomotion.

73. Jordan's port.

74. A city of central China.

75. A pad of paper for keeping notes.

77. An adult male person (as opposed to a woman).

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

79. In a clever manner.

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

4. A coffee cake flavored with orange rind and raisins and almonds.

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

6. Witnessed at first hand.

7. The administration of a strong electric current that passes through the brain to induce convulsions and coma.

8. A unit of length equal to one thousandth of an inch.

9. Improved or corrected by critical editing.

10. (British) Your grandmother.

11. Two-year-old sheep.

12. An indehiscent fruit derived from a single ovary having one or many seeds within a fleshy wall or pericarp.

13. Offering little or no hope.

14. A minute epidermal pore in a leaf or stem.

22. Abnormally enlarged thyroid gland.

23. A leather strap used to sharpen razors.

25. A member of the branch of Islam that accepts the first four caliphs as rightful successors to Mohammed.

26. Asian rat snakes.

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

30. Port city on southern Honshu on Osaka Bay. 32. Feel extreme happiness or elation.

33. Colony of the United Kingdom located on a limestone promontory at the southern tip of Spain.

34. One of the three Furies.

35. An associate degree in nursing.

38. An accidental hole that allows something (fluid or light etc.) to enter or escape.

39. Bulky grayish-brown eagle with a short wedge-shaped white tail.

40. The seventh month of the Hindu calendar.

43. A large and stately mansion.

45. A neutral middle vowel.

50. A bachelor's degree in religion.

51. Informal terms for a meal.

53. Goods (or wreckage) on the sea bed that is attached to a buoy so that it can be recovered.

55. A public promotion of some product or service.

56. Rapid and indistinct speech.

58. How a result is obtained or an end is achieved.

60. Extremely exciting as if by alcohol or a narcotic.

61. Botswanan statesman who was the first president of Botswana (1921-1980).

62. Cubes of meat marinated and cooked on a skewer usually with vegetables.

63. A city in southern Turkey on the Seyhan River.

65. English essayist (1775-1834).

66. Wild or seedling sweet cherry used as stock for grafting.

68. Deeply moved.

71. Informal terms for a mother.

72. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

76. A silvery ductile metallic element found primarily in bauxite.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. 100 aurar equal 1 krona.

2. An ancient upright stone slab bearing markings.

3. A family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Stosur and Wozniacki advance at Charleston CHARLESTON: Ex-champions Sam Stosur and Caroline Wozniacki cruised into the third round of the WTA Tour’s Family Circle Cup Wednesday, while Venus Williams had to battle her way through. The second-seeded Wozniacki breezed past Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-1, 6-1 just under an hour, while the third-seeded Aussie Stosur routed New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic 6-1, 6-2 on the green clay at Daniel Island Tennis Center.

Wozniacki, who won here two years

ago, only entered the tournament on the weekend, after she and golfer boyfriend Rory McIlroy postponed a trip to Haiti. Stosur won here in 2010, while Wozniacki claimed the title in 2011. “I felt like I really served well and returned well today,” Wozniacki said.

“Playing your first match of the year on clay, it’s always going to be difficult to slide and move unbelievably, but I felt like I did a pretty good job of that out there and I’m pleased with my work.”

Stosur was playing her first match

since withdrawing prior to the quarterfinals at Indian Wells in March with a calf injury. “But as the match went on I felt really good and the way I was playing all came together,” Stosur said.

“And of course, I really enjoy playing on this court, so I always try to do my best every time I’m out there.”

Williams, the fifth seed who won the title here in 2004, had to work harder to get past 19-year-old Puerto Rican Monica Puig. Puig pushed the seventime Grand Slam winner to three sets,

Berdych injury rocks Czechs in Davis Cup PARIS: What looked like being a fairly straightforward assignment in Kazakhstan for Davis Cup holders the Czech Republic has turned into a quarter-final minefield following the late withdrawal of top player Tomas Berdych. The towering Berdych, who led the Czechs to glory in the team competition last year against Spain, pulled out after injuring a shoulder in a quarter-final loss to Richard Gasquet in Miami last week.

That leaves Radek Stepanek, himself just back from neck surgery, as the number one with backing from Lukas Rosol, Jan Hajek and Ivo Minar. The Kazakhs will look to their number one Mikhail Kukushkin to provide the inspiration in Astana backed by Andrey Golubev, who has a fine Davis Cup record on home soil. The only previous time the two teams met in the competition was in 2011 when Kazakhstan won in the first round.

The Kazakhstan v Czech Republic tie is the only one of the weekend’s quarter-finals to be played in Europe - with the others being held in the United States, Canada and Argentina. In Boise, Idaho, world number one Novak Djokovic continues his love affair with the Davis Cup as he once again leads Serbia into battle against the United States. Djokovic was the inspiration behind the Serbs first ever Davis Cup crown win in 2010, and he was the first name on captain Bogdan Obradovic’s list for the trip to the United States.

Viktor Troicki will get the second singles slot and he will most likely link up with the hugely experienced Nenad Zimonjic for Saturday’s doubles tie going up against the mighty Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, who are 20-3 in Davis Cup play and won Olympic gold in London last year. US skipper Jim Courier will field the giant pair of John Isner and Sam Querrey in the singles, with the latter having just taken over the US number one spot last week at 20th in the world.

The Americans, who defeated Brazil in the first round, lost their only prior Davis Cup meeting with Serbia 3-2 in the opening round at Belgrade in 2010, when Djokovic led Serbia to the title. “It’s going to be very exciting,” said Isner. “(Playing Serbia) is going to be a huge challenge. The guy that anchors their team is the best player in the world so we’re certainly going to have our hands full but it’s going to be a lot of fun.” Vancouver’s Thunderbird Sports centre has been chosen to stage the Canada v Italy matchup with the playing surface seen to be particularly suitable for Canadian number one Milos Raonic. The stakes will be high as between them the two countries have just the one Davis Cup triumph - going to Italy in 1976.

Raonic will be key to Canadian hopes of a first ever World Group semi-final and will likely have to win both of his rubbers against world No 19 Andreas Seppi and world No 36 Fabio Fognini. “Playing in the Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Arena last time showed that the fans in Vancouver are really strong and I’m happy to be back in that atmosphere,” said Raonic. “It’s going to be exciting to play a strong Italian team. They’re going to be bringing a very strong team with them this year with (Andreas) Seppi

DORAL: In this March 6, 2013, file photo, Tiger Woods, foreground, putts as Steve Stricker watches on the practice putting green at the Cadillac Golf Championship in Doral. — AP in good form and Fabio (Fognini) who is capable of some good wins.”

The prize for the winner of this tie will be a clash with the winner of the United States versus Serbia tie. The remaining quarter-final takes place on the claycourts of Buenos Aires with what looks like an evenly-balanced match opposing Argentina and France. With world top tenners Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Richard Gasquet backed by the likely doubles pairing of Michal Llodra and Julien Benneteau, the visitors have good strength in depth But the slow clay surface will benefit the South Americans and boost their hopes even if they will have to do without top player Juan Martin del Potro, who is unavailable. The Argentineans will field Juan Monaco, the veteran David Nalbandian as well as Carlos Berlocq and Horacio Zeballos, all of whom are at home on the clay. “It is 50-50. Historically, playing over there is not easy,” said new French captain Arnaud Clement. “I think Argentina will be strong and be up for it. They have won 18 of their last 20 home matches.” — AFP

Williams-advancing 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Yet another former champion was taken to the limit as seventh-seeded Jelena Jankovic, the winner here in 2007, rallied to beat French qualifier Caroline Garcia 5-7, 7-6 (12-10), 6-3. American qualifier Mallory Burdette surprised 15th-seeded 2009 champion Sabine Lisicki 3-6, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5 in their second-round match. Burdette booked a third-round clash with world No 1 and reigning Charleston champ Serena Williams. — AFP

Tomic set to grab Davis Cup chance TASHKENT: Troubled star Bernard Tomic is expected to seize his Davis Cup chance this weekend after being recalled for Australia’s tie with Uzbekistan following an uneasy reconciliation with Captain Pat Rafter. Tomic, whose Grand Slam feats have been tempered with runins with the law and altercations with senior tennis personalities, was dropped for February’s win over Taiwan after Rafter vowed to “teach him a lesson”. The world number 43 initially said he wouldn’t be available until the World Group play-offs in September, before changing tack and agreeing to travel to Namangan for the Asia/Oceania Group I second-round tie.

Rafter admitted Tomic, Australia’s top-ranked player ahead of veteran former world number one Lleyton Hewitt, Marinko Matosevic and Matthew Ebden, has “still got a little way to go” in terms of his attitude and commitment. “He’s getting there though and he’s heading in the right direction and that’s all I can ask from him right now,” Rafter said, according to Australia’s Herald Sun. “But until we get under that pressure situation... we’ll wait and see how everyone goes under these tough circumstances.”

Tomic is likely to face Denis Istomin on Friday, with the winner of the tie advancing to September’s playoffs for a spot in next year’s World Group, the highest tier of the global team competition. Istomin, ranked 46, is Uzbekistan’s only top-200 player with Farrukh Dustov, Sarvar Ikramov and Temur Ismailov not expected to hinder Australia’s progress on the indoor clay of Namangan, a city in Uzbekistan’s east. Meanwhile Go Soeda leads Japan into their second-round tie against South Korea in Tokyo, with the hosts also hotly favored to progress smoothly to the World Group play-offs.

In Group I’s first-round play-offs, where the losers of February’s opening ties are fighting to avoid a relegation fixture in September, India will also try to put internal strife behind them as they face Indonesia. India crashed 4-1 to South Korea in February after losing their best players in a row over pay and conditions, but they will be back to full strength in Bangalore as they seek to extend their 5-0 Davis Cup record against Indonesia.

Somdev Devvarman, the world number 208, and veteran doubles specialist Leander Paes are the leading lights of a team expected to sweep aside an Indonesian outfit featuring three players ranked outside the top 800.”We do have a very good record against them but we can’t afford to take lightly what is a must-win tie for us,” said coach Zeeshan Ali, whose appointment in January was one of the reasons for the row with leading players. “It was a missed opportunity (against South Korea) because we could have won had all the players been available and then we would have played Japan at home for a place in the World Group play-offs,” he added. “But I am glad all the players are back and they are determined to do well.” Doubles specialists Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna were not picked. Last year, they were barred from the Davis Cup until 2014 for refusing to partner Paes at the London Olympics, although a court later suspended the ban. — AFP

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Conca the conqueror inspires Guangzhou rout SINGAPORE: Argentine wizard Dario Conca inspired Guangzhou Evergrande to a 4-0 win over Muangthong United and Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors and Kashiwa Reysol also enjoyed big victories as goals flowed in the AFC Champions League Wednesday. Guangzhou, the Chinese double-winners led by World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi, were matched until the break by the battling Thais before Conca started a second-half rout with a 51st-minute header, and finished it with a coolly taken penalty in injury time. In between, Brazilian forward Muriqui took a return pass on the edge of the box before planting a sublime second goal for Guangzhou, and midfield maestro Conca had a hand in Gao Lin’s well-worked strike on 84 minutes in front of a packed house in southern China.

Guangzhou, the ambitious and deep-pocketed club with designs on becoming China’s first Asian champions since 1998, inch forward to a two-point lead in Group F, ahead of Jeonbuk who rise to second after their 3-1 win

over Urawa Red Diamonds. In a clash of two of the tournament’s former winners, Japan’s Urawa got on the scoresheet early when Genki Haraguchi, capitalising on Tomoaki Makino’s mazy dribble into the box, belted them in front on six minutes.

Haraguchi should have doubled the lead five minutes later, and Brazilian Marcio Richardes rifled just wide and then hit the post, as the home team went on the rampage. Haraguchi was also denied from a close-range header just before the break. Yosuke Kashiwagi put it over the bar early in the second half but Jeonbuk came roaring back into it when Lee Seun-Gi buried a screaming strike, teed up on the edge of the box after a free-kick, on 51 minutes to level the scores at 1-1.

Substitute striker Lee Dong-Gook put the visitors ahead when he arrowed a diving header into the Urawa goal on 64 minutes, and Brazilian midfielder Eninho completed the win when he fired a swerving shot over Urawa’s stranded ‘keeper with 20 minutes to go.

However, Jeonbuk’s flurry of goals was eclipsed in Suwon Bluewings’ game against Kashiwa, where the Korean hosts missed three penalties during a crazy encounter which featured seven second-half goals.

Junya Tanaka put visitors Kashiwa ahead on 16 minutes but the game suddenly came alive in the second half when Dzenan Radoncic’s penalty miss was followed by three goals in quick succession for 3-1. Jong Tae-Se’s fluffed penalty was then followed immediately by Tanaka’s second strike to make it 4-1. Stevica Ristic finally scored a penalty for Suwon to for 4-2, but there was still time for another penalty miss as Ryoichi Kurisawa and Masato Kudo both grabbed their second goals to round off the scoring.

Earlier Australia’s Central Coast Mariners, who had won only one of 14 previous ACL games, had looked set for further heartbreak against China’s Guizhou Renhe after an own goal by goalkeeper Mat Ryan cancelled out Pedj Bojic’s spectacular 50th-minute opener. —AFP

Di Canio could deliver huge blow to old pal Redknapp LONDON: Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp once signed Paolo Di Canio as a player but will hope his friend makes a losing start to his managerial reign at struggling Sunderland as the battle to avoid Premier League relegation hots up. Italian Di Canio, who enjoyed a great relationship with Redknapp at West Ham United between 1999 and 2001, could deliver a huge blow to his old boss’s chances of keeping QPR up if he can inspire Sunderland to a surprise win at Chelsea and Rangers lose at home to Wigan Athletic.

“I know Harry looks back fondly at his time with Paolo.

They still speak and share a love of football,” Redknapp’s son Jamie, the former Liverpool midfielder, wrote in a lively Daily Mail article describing some of Di Canio’s antics. Flamboyant Di Canio often made headlines as a player at West Ham and elsewhere and his appointment has stirred controversy because of his “I am a fascist” remark he made eight years ago.

On Wednesday he rowed back from that stance saying: “I do not support the ideology of fascism. I respect everyone. I am a football man.

This and my family are my focus.” Di Canio will take charge of his first game as a Premier League manager on Sunday hoping to galvanize a side who have slipped into the relegation battle. The fear of demotion to the Championship (second division) is still a threat to the bottom nine clubs from Southampton in 12th place on 34 points down through Stoke City (34), Norwich City (34), Newcastle United (33), Sunderland (31), Wigan (30), Aston Villa (30), QPR (23) and Reading (23).

QPR host perennial relegation escapologists Wigan on Sunday while Di Canio will try and inspire a major upset against fourth-placed Chelsea by ending Sunderland’s run of eight matches without a win-a statistic that cost Martin O’Neill his job. They have shocked Chelsea before in the recent past, winning 3-0 there in Nov. 2010, and while a win is unlikely Chelsea could be tiring with so many games piling on top of one another. Aston Villa, who have been in the top flight since 1988 and are also deep in the mire, cannot afford another slip up at Stoke, who themselves are not clear of danger.

With champions-elect Manchester United not playing the outgoing champions Manchester City until Monday evening (1900GMT), attention will also focus on the continuing race for the Champions League places.

Third-placed Tottenham Hotspur, who like Chelsea and Newcastle United were involved in Europa League action yesterday, host Everton on Sunday, while Arsenal, who are fifth, are at West Bromwich Albion tomorrow.

United and City have a few days of extended rest before they meet at Old Trafford.

Almost a year ago City beat United 1-0 to take a huge stride towards the title but the red half of Manchester enjoy a 15-point lead with eight matches to play and are cruising towards a 20th English league crown. — Reuters

BELO HORIZONTE: Ronaldinho of Brazil’s Atletico Mineiro celebrates after scoring his first goal against Argentina’s Arsenal during a Copa Libertadores soccer match in Belo Horizonte, Brazil on Wednesday, April 3, 2013. —AP

Violence mars Ronaldinho show in Libertadores Cup BUENOS AIRES: Atletico Mineiro’s 5-2 victory over Arsenal in the Libertadores Cup was marred by fighting between members of the Argentine team and Brazilian military police on the pitch at the end of the match on Wednesday. Ronaldinho had inspired Atletico, who had already qualified for the knockout phase, with two goals as they extended their perfect record in South America’s elite club competition to five wins in five Group Three matches.

Atletico, emerging as favorites to win the trophy for the first time, did fellow Brazilian side Sao Paulo a favor since they are vying with Arsenal for the group’s other berth in the round of 16. Sao Paulo and Arsenal have four points apiece but the Brazilians can pull away if they beat Bolivia’s The Strongest at high altitude in La Paz. Brazilian police, who have a reputation of taking to the pitch at the slightest hint of trouble, were quick to use force to control angry Arsenal players who had confronted the match officials at the final whistle, including pointing guns at them.

However, Minas Gerais police lieutenant colonel Cicero defended his men’s actions. “It was criminal conduct, out of place at a football match. (The Argentines) could be arrested,” he was quoted as saying on the Globo internet portal (globoesporte.globo.com).

There was also anger at La Bombonera, where six times South American champions Boca Juniors beat Barcelona 1-0 in Group One, from the Ecuadorean side’s Argentine coach Gustavo Costas, who claimed they were denied a blatant penalty in the dying minutes.

ANGRY COSTAS Boca, who had gone ahead in the ninth minute with a goal from young striker Nicolas Blandi, were lucky the referee waved play on after central defender Matias Caruzzo missed the ball and brought down striker Damian Diaz inside the box. “It’s a disgrace, everyone saw (the penalty),” Costas told reporters.

“We’re leaving with nothing and very angry because the referees are taking us out of the

Cup. They are penalties everyone can see and they’re forgotten because Boca are still in the Cup.” Boca, who lead the group with nine points, will qualify if Uruguay’s Nacional beat Toluca of Mexico in Montevideo. Nacional have seven points, Toluca five and Barcelona three. Holders Corinthians and Mexican debutants Tijuana secured the two qualifying berths in Group Five.

The Brazilians beat Millonarios of Colombia 1-0 in Bogota with a second half goal from Danilo, while Tijuana held San Jose 1-1 in the Bolivian city of Oruro high up on the Andean plateau.

Chilean champions Huachipato, who began the night bottom of Group Eight with four points, climbed back into contention with a 4-0 rout of Caracas FC in the Venezuelan capital.

They now lead the group with seven points, the same number as Fluminense, who face third-placed fellow Brazilian side Gremio, who have six points, away in Porto Alegre next week. — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

Dortmund’s misfiring Goetze rues missed chances DORTMUND: Germany star Mario Goetze admitted being frustrated by his lack of finishing as Borussia Dortmund had to settle for a goalless draw at Malaga in the Champions League quarter-final, first leg. The 20year-old central midfielder squandered two clear chances to grab a valuable away goal on Wednesday night and means there is still all to play for in Tuesday’s second leg in Dortmund.

“We had huge chances, especially for me personally,” fumed Goetze, as Dortmund shaded the total shots on goal with 13, compared to Malaga’s ten. “I definitely should have scored two goals, it clearly wasn’t my day and I could have done more to help the team. “If we had known before the game that it was going to be a 0-0

draw, we’d have taken that, but the way the match went, it’s a bitter result to swallow.” Although Dortmund are now the only team undefeated in this season’s competition, this was their fourth draw in their nine Champions League matches and Borussia boss HansJoachim Watzke admitted they lacked the killer punch.

“Once again, this was 90 minutes when we didn’t manage to score,” said the Dortmund CEO. “We lacked the killer punch, but we have won all our home games in the Champions League so that’s a good omen for Tuesday.” Coach Jurgen Klopp saw matters differently, pointing out that his team showed maturity to stay calm despite the frustration of failing to convert chances into goals. “After we didn’t take our chances, this was a fur-

ther stage in our development to stay calm and take the result,” he said.

“We talked about this during the break, we had our finger on the trigger, played some great football and adjusted to the level of our opponent. “Being under pressure was no problem for Malaga, but we have to live with the result, it was a good game for us against a difficult opponent.” But captain Sebastian Kehl admitted Dortmund’s biggest fear is now conceding an early goal at Signal Iduna Park on Tuesday. “There was more than just a goalless draw, it’s a dangerous result,” said the 33year-old. “An away goal for Malaga would mean that we have to score twice. “At the end of the day 0-0 is okay, we have the chance to correct things at home.”— AFP

Mourinho happy with Real’s professionalism MADRID: Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho said he was delighted with his side’s professionalism as they all but secured their place in the Champions League semi-finals with a 3-0 win over Galatasaray.

Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gonzalo Higuain got the goals for the hosts, but Mourinho said he was just as happy with the defensive side of their performance. “The team has played a serious and well-balanced game,” he told a press conference. “We defended well and counter-attacked with danger. The players knew at this stage of the competition small details can define the games but we played very well.

“Higuain and Benzema have scored a goal and this is good for their confidence.” Indeed, with such a comfortable lead to take to Istanbul next week, the Portuguese admitted his biggest task will be to ensure his troops are not complacent. “They (Galatasaray) need a miracle but there are miracles in football. So why can’t they dream of a miracle?” he said. “I have enough experience to know we have a very good result and will try everything to convince my players that it is not over and try to play with the same mentality as tonight.”

Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso both saw yellow cards in the second-half that will see them miss the second-leg. Mourinho denied the infractions had been pre-planned attempts to ensure the players would be free for the semi-finals, and said their presence will be missed. “They are important absences for the next game. Xabi and Ramos will play on Saturday (against Levante in Madrid) when they weren’t going to do so, but it has complicated my plans for Istanbul,” he said.

Galatasaray boss Fatih Terim meanwhile accepted there was a gulf in class between the sides, but claimed the Turkish champions had been very harshly treated when Norwegian referee Svein Oddvar Moen showed Burak Yilmaz a yellow card for diving rather than awarding a penalty when he was clipped

by Ramos in the second-half. “Maybe the Real Madrid name affected Galatasaray and the referee didn’t have the courage to show a card when he had to,” he said. “I think the referee made many mistakes, the whole stadium could see that Ramos stood on Burak’s foot.

“Many of our players have a lot of experience, it is hard to play in Real Madrid’s stadium in front of so many fans but the difference in quality between both teams is noticeable.” The former AC Milan coach also lamented his side’s defending and inability to take their chances in what was a very open firsthalf. “At this level in these kind of matches you cannot make clear mistakes. The first and the second goals came from basic mistakes,” he said. “Then with (Emmanuel) Eboue and (Didier) Drogba we couldn’t take two clear chances and if we had taken them then it would have been different. “We would need a miracle to change things, but we will try in Istanbul to play well and win the match.”— AFP

Barca contemplate life without Messi

Barcelona’s Argentinean forward Lionel Messi

Depleted Schalke battle for Champions League spot BERLIN: A string of injuries is making life hard for Schalke 04 who travel to Werder Bremen tomorrow (1330 GMT) in their quest to secure at least a Champions League qualifying spot for next season. With Bayern Munich preparing to celebrate their 23rd German league title, and 22nd Bundesliga trophy, against Eintracht Frankfurt, Schalke, who reached the Champions League knockout stage this season, are desperate for a top-four finish.

The Gelsenkirchen club have recovered from their implosion midway through the campaign and their win against Hoffenheim last Saturday lifted them back to the fourth place that leads to the qualifying rounds of the Champions League. With several key players injured going into the last seven games of the season, however, they have got their work cut out. Central defender Kyriakos Papadopoulos underwent another minor operation on his injured knee, delaying further his return to action, and striker Chinedu Obasi also remains on the injury list.

Defenders Christoph Metzelder and Benedikt Hoewedes missed some training this week with minor problems as did midfielder Jermaine Jones, who is nursing an ankle cut while on international duty. Fellow strikers Ibrahim Afellay and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, recovering from injuries, are also still doubtful for the rest of the season. “We know that there are seven finals coming our way,” said midfielder Marco Hoeger. “We have to get as many points out of them (as possible).—Reuters

MADRID: Lionel Messi’s Barcelona team mates will take on the rare challenge of coping without their talismanic World Player of the Year when the La Liga leaders host relegationthreatened Real Mallorca tomorrow. The Argentina forward damaged a hamstring in Tuesday’s 2-2 Champions League draw at Paris St Germain and has been ruled out of the clash at the Nou Camp (2000 GMT) when Barca will seek to protect their 13-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid.

Messi’s importance to the Catalan giants extends beyond his goal-scoring exploits. As well as netting 43 of Barca’s 90 goals in La Liga and eight of 17 in the Champions League this season, he has provided a total of 13 assists in the two competitions, second only to Andres Iniesta, who has one more.

The last time Barca lost Messi to injury was in Nov. 2009 when he was out for a week and missed a Champions League Group F game at home to Inter Milan which Barca won 2-0. It is still unclear how long he will be sidelined this time and Barca have not ruled him out of Wednesday’s return leg against PSG. Fullback Daniel Alves, who provided the exquisite pass that sent Messi clear to score on Tuesday, said the Argentine’s absence was a chance for other players in the squad to step up.

“The fact that we don’t have him is an incentive to prove to everyone that we have enough quality to compete without him and show that we can do it just as well as when he’s here,” Alves told a news conference on Wednesday. As well as dealing with Messi’s absence, coach Tito Vilanova will need to reshuffle his defense for Mallorca’s visit with the injured trio of Carles Puyol, Javier Mascherano and Adriano all unavailable. Vilanova, who returned to Spain at the end of last month after cancer treatment in New York, may opt to drop Sergio Busquets or Alex Song back from midfield to partner Gerard Pique or deploy 22-year-old youth team product Marc Bartra.

SURVIVAL HOPES Alves has also played at centre back in the past and offered his services again if required. “If I remember correctly, I played in that position with Guardiola when we played a back line of three,” he said. “It’s easy for me to adapt. If I’m asked to attack, then I attack; if I’m asked to defend, then I defend, and if I’m asked to do both, I do my best.”

With Champions League quarter-final, second legs to negotiate during the week, Barca, Real and Malaga are all playing tomorrow. Real host mid-table Levante (1600), while Malaga can climb above Real Sociedad into fourth and boost their chances of qualifying for Europe’s elite club competition again for next season if they can beat the Basque club in San Sebastian (1400).

Atletico Madrid, a point behind Real in third, play at another Madrid-based club, Getafe, on Sunday (1700).

Atletico are fully focused on securing third spot and a place in the Champions League after last term’s Europa League winners were knocked out of the competition by Russian side Rubin Kazan in February. At the other end of the table, bottom side Deportivo La Coruna can boost their survival hopes with a win at home to fellow strugglers Real Zaragoza, who are three points above the relegation places in 17th tomorrow (1800). — Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

NL Capsules

Braves beat Phillies ATLANTA: Justin Upton, Jason Heyward and rookie Evan Gattis homered, helping Paul Maholm and the Atlanta Braves beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-2 on Wednesday night. Freddie Freeman had three RBIs as the Braves chased Roy Halladay in the fourth inning. Upton belted a two-run shot in the first to give him a pair of homers in his first two games for Atlanta. Halladay (0-1), who struggled with a sore shoulder last season and had a difficult spring training, gave up five runs and six hits in 3 1-3 innings. The two-time Cy Young Award winner struck out nine, but dropped to 0-4 with an 8.00 ERA in his last seven starts against Atlanta.The game was played in a steady drizzle, but the conditions hardly affected Paul Maholm (1 0), who allowed six hits in 5 2-3 scoreless innings. He struck out six and walked one. Gattis led off the fourth inning of his first major league game with a drive to left. The Phillies were just 1 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

NATIONALS 3, MARLINS 0 Left-hander Gio Gonzalez homered, providing all the offense necessary to back his six scoreless innings, and Washington picked up another win. Gonzalez (1-0), a 21-game winner in 2012 who finished third in NL Cy Young Award voting, allowed only two hits, along with five strikeouts and two walks. His solo shot to left field off Kevin Slowey (0-1) came with one out in the fifth.

Slowey gave up one run and four hits in 5 1-3 innings. After hitting two homers in Game 1, Nationals left fielder Bryce Harper went 2 for 4 with a double. The 2012 NL Rookie of the Year scored on Ryan Zimmermanís single in the eighth off A J Ramos. Rafael Soriano got his second save, completing Washingtonís second straight shutout of the Marlins.

NEW YORK: Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (15) throws to first after New York Yankees’ Francisco Cervelli (not shown) grounded into a force out during the ninth inning of their baseball game at Yankee Stadium in New York. —AP

AL Capsules

Red Sox chill Yanks, 2-0 for first time since 1999 NEW YORK: Clay Buchholz chilled the Yankeesí bats, speedy Jackie Bradley Jr got his first major league hit and the Boston Red Sox beat New York 7-4 on a cold Wednesday night to open a season with consecutive wins for the first time since 1999. Pitcher Hiroki Kuroda became the latest Yankees player to get hurt, leaving in the second inning with a 2-0 deficit, four batters after Shane Victorinoís line drive bruised the middle finger of his pitching hand.

While the Red Sox under new manager John Farrell are off to their best start since going 5-0 in 1999, New York has been outscored 15-6 and outhit 26-15. The Yankees have failed to hold a lead at any point in their opening two games for the first time since 1998. Boston burst ahead 6-0 with a four-run third against Cody Eppley, and the Yankees never challenged. Buchholz (1-0) allowed one run and six hits in seven innings. Joel Hanrahan pitched the ninth for his first save with Boston. New York said Kuroda (0-1) was being sent for X-rays and other tests.

RANGERS 4, ASTROS 0 A day after Yu Darvish came within one out of a perfect game, Alexi Ogando and four Texas relievers shut out Houston again, combining for a five-hitter. Lance Berkman doubled in a run for the Rangers a day after they blanked the Astros 7-0 behind Darvishís nearly historic gem. Ogando (1-0) allowed four hits with a career-high 10 strikeouts in 6 1-3 innings. The young and inexperienced Astros have struck out 43 times in their first three games.

Itís the most strikeouts a pitching staff has combined for in the first three games of a season in major league history, and the most since Cleveland fanned 42 in the first three of the 1966 season.

Philip Humber (0-1) allowed a run and five hits over 5 2-3 innings in his Astros debut.

RAYS 8, ORIOLES 7 Matt Joyce led off the bottom of the ninth inning with a towering home run against Tommy Hunter, giving Tampa Bay the victory. Shelley Duncan hit a three-run homer and Ben Zobrist had a pair of RBI singles for the Rays, who twice came from behind before wasting a late two-run lead. Fernando Rodney (1-0) blew a save opportunity by allowing a run for the first time since last Aug. 18. Brian Robertsí RBI double off Rodney in the ninth made it 7-all.

Chris Davis went 4 for 4 for the Orioles, hitting a three-run homer

for the second straight day and driving in four runs. Joyce, who had a bunt single as a pinch hitter in the seventh, won it by homering on a 2-1 pitch from Hunter (0-1).

INDIANS 3, BLUE JAYS 2 Mark Reynolds hit a tiebreaking home run in the 11th inning for Cleveland. Reynolds drilled a leadoff shot into the second deck off Sergio Santos (0-1), the fifth Blue Jays reliever. The homer helped the Indians overcome a blown save by Chris Perez, who surrendered a tying shot by Jose Bautista in the ninth. The overhauled Blue Jays lost their second straight to begin the season.

Torontoís offense has just three runs and nine hits in two games.

Matt Albers (1-0) got one out for the win, and Joe Smith finished for his first save.

WHITE SOX 5, ROYALS 2 Adam Dunn hit one of Chicagoís four homers, leading Jake Peavy and the White Sox to the victory. Tyler Flowers, Dayan Viciedo and Alexei Ramirez also connected, and the White Sox made it two straight wins to start the season after dropping 12 of 18 to Kansas City a year ago. The Royals, full of optimism after posting the majorsí best record in spring training, will try to avoid a season-opening sweep. Peavy (1-0) allowed an earned run and four hits in six innings. Addison Reed worked the ninth for his second save. Ervin Santana (0-1) pitched six innings in his Kansas City debut and was charged with four runs and five hits.

TWINS 3, TIGERS 2 Eduardo Escobarís two-run double with one out in the ninth inning lifted Minnesota to the win. After Joaquin Benoit issued a leadoff walk to Trevor Plouffe, reliever Phil Coke took over. Coke got the first out, but Brian Dozierís single advanced pinch-runner Jamey Carroll to third. Escobar then drove the next pitch from Coke to the deepest part of the park in front of the bullpens in left-center field. Both runners scored easily as the rebuilding Twins enjoyed their first on-field celebration of the season. The AL Central champion Tigers began the season without a set closer after Jose Valverde wasnít brought back. Anibal Sanchez threw five scoreless innings for Detroit. But after a two-up, two-down save on Monday, Coke (01) blew his chance in this one. Glen Perkins (1-0) needed only 10 pitches in a perfect ninth inning for the victory. — AP

METS 8, PADRES 4 Matt Harvey allowed one hit and struck out 10 in seven scoreless innings for his first win at Citi Field, and Lucas Duda hit the first of the Metsí three homers in a whipping wind. John Buck and Ike Davis also connected against Clayton Richard in the Metsí second straight romp over San Diego. They opened the season with an 11-2 win Monday. David Wright added an RBI double in a game that began with a wind chill of 32 degrees. Making his 11th career start and fifth at home, the 24-year-old Harvey (1-0) didnít allow a baserunner until Everth Cabrera singled to center field leading off the fourth. Richard (0-1) gave up eight runs in 4 1-3 innings.

PIRATES 3, CUBS 0 Wandy Rodriguez allowed just two hits over 6 2-3 innings and Pittsburgh earned its first win of the year. Andrew McCutchen smacked an RBI double for the Pirates. Starling Marte and Gaby Sanchez also drove in a run, more than enough for Rodriguez on a frigid night. Jason Grilli, promoted to the closerís role in the offseason, worked the ninth for his first save. Rodriguez (1-0), acquired in a trade deadline deal with Houston last July, struck out six and walked one in a continuation of his strong spring. Edwin Jackson (0-1) gave up two runs in five innings but lost to the Pirates for the first time in seven career starts. The Cubs produced just two singles and only put a runner on third once.

ROCKIES 7, BREWERS 3 Juan Nicasio pitched six effective innings for his first victory in almost a year while Wilin Rosario, Michael Cuddyer and Dexter Fowler homered for Colorado. The Rockies took two of three under new manager Walt Weiss in the season-opening series at Miller Park. Nicasio (1-0) allowed two runs and seven hits for his first win since last April 30, when he beat the Los Angeles Dodgers. Winless in the next five starts, he went down with a season-ending knee injury on June 2. Wily Peralta (0-1) gave up four runs, including Rosarioís two-run homer. Rickie Weeks hit a solo shot for Milwaukee.

INTERLEAGUE REDS 5, ANGELS 4 Brandon Phillips hit a three-run homer in his new role as Cincinnatiís cleanup hitter, and Joey Votto drove in the winning run with a ninth-inning single. The Reds and Angels have split the first two games of the first interleague series to open a season.

Vottoís first hit of the season off left-hander Scott Downs (0-1) deflected off the glove of first baseman Albert Pujols and rolled into the outfield, allowing Shin-Soo Choo to score from second base. Choo reached when he was hit by a pitch and advanced on a sacrifice. Votto had been 0 for 6 heading into the decisive at-bat.

Phillips moved into the cleanup spot because of Ryan Ludwickís injury and hit the Redsí first homer of the season. He connected for a three-run shot against C.J. Wilson in the fourth inning. Lefthander Aroldis Chapman (1-0) walked one in the ninth, throwing a 99 mph pitch that hit the backstop screen. — AP

Sports FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

NHL results/standings NY Rangers 6, Pittsburgh 1; Philadelphia 5, Montreal 3; Edmonton 8, Calgary 2; Anaheim 5, Dallas 2; San Jose 4, Minnesota 2.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL GF GA PTS Pittsburgh 28 10 0 125 94 56 NY Rangers 18 15 3 88 87 39 New Jersey 15 12 9 89 100 39 NY Islanders 18 16 3 108 115 39 Philadelphia 16 17 3 100 111 35 Northeast Division Montreal 23 8 5 114 89 51 Boston 23 8 4 100 77 50 Toronto 20 12 4 112 100 44 Ottawa 19 11 6 91 79 44 Buffalo 14 17 6 98 114 34 Southeast Division Winnipeg 18 18 2 93 115 38 Washington 17 17 2 107 104 36 Carolina 16 17 2 96 106 34 Tampa Bay 15 18 2 112 106 32 Florida 12 19 6 91 127 30 Western Conference Central Division Chicago 27 5 3 119 76 57 Detroit 18 13 5 94 94 41 St. Louis 18 14 2 98 94 38 Nashville 15 14 8 92 100 38 Columbus 15 14 7 87 97 37 Northwest Division Minnesota 21 13 2 100 94 44 Vancouver 19 11 6 94 93 44 Edmonton 16 13 7 99 98 39 Calgary 13 18 4 96 126 30 Colorado 12 20 4 87 114 28 Pacific Division Anaheim 25 7 5 116 92 55 San Jose 19 11 6 92 88 44 Los Angeles 20 13 3 104 91 43 Phoenix 15 15 6 97 102 36 Dallas 16 17 3 96 112 35 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L).

Indian star takes dope test after heroin charge NEW DELHI: Indian Olympic bronze-medalist boxer Vijender Singh has undergone dope tests as ordered by the government after police accused him of consuming heroin, officials said. Vijender, who won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, gave his blood and urine samples to the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) on Wednesday, sports minister Jitender Singh said.

The boxer had earlier refused to be tested by Punjab Police, who while investigating his links to an alleged dealer in a $24 million drug haul last month said Vijender had taken heroin 12 times. The minister, who had on Monday requested NADA to carry out immediate tests on Vijender, said late Wednesday that the tests were carried out successfully on blood and urine samples.

“I will wait for the results before deciding on any action. I don’t want to speculate. But... if Vijender has made a mistake, he should of course be punished or penalized,” the minister was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.

NADA officials declined to comment or say when the test results will be declared. Police seized 26 kilograms of heroin with a street value of 1.3 billion rupees ($24 million) in March in Punjab. The alleged dealer was arrested along with five others. Vijender, himself a police officer in the neighboring state of Haryana, was linked to the haul after a car belonging to his wife was found outside the residence of the alleged dealer near Chandigarh. The 27-year-old boxer, who became a household name in India after winning the Olympic medal, has strongly denied any link to the drug dealer and has slammed as “ridiculous” the allegations against him. The high-profile sportsman has not been seen in public for the past few weeks, but his close friend and sparring partner Ram Singh was arrested by the Punjab Police on Wednesday for what they said was “custodial interrogation”. The Punjab Police had on Monday announced that Vijender had taken heroin 12 times and Ram Singh five times, but did not specify how they had reached this conclusion.— AFP

NEW YORK: New York Rangers’ Arron Asham (45) and Pittsburgh Penguins’ Tanner Glass (15) fight during the third period of an NHL hockey game on Wednesday, April 3, 2013, in New York.—AP

Oilers rout of Flames 8-2 Rangers overpower Penguins 6-1 NEW YORK: Ryane Clowe, Derick Brassard and John Moore injected instant offense just hours after being acquired by the Rangers, and New York scored a season-high three power-play goals in a surprisingly dominant 6-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Wednesday night. Clowe came to New York on Tuesday night in a trade with San Jose, and Brassard was part of the package New York received on Wednesday in the deal that sent star forward Marian Gaborik to Columbus right before the NHL trade deadline.

Clowe scored two goals - after netting none for the Sharks in 28 games this season - and added an assist, and Brassard had a goal and three assists for the Rangers, who scored three times in the first period and never looked back. Brian Boyle and defenseman Ryan McDonagh added goals, and Henrik Lundqvist stopped 26 shots in the Rangers’ highest-scoring game of the season. The Rangers won their second straight home game, scoring a combined 10 goals in the victories after a pair of shutout losses, and moved into a tie with the New Jersey Devils and New York Islanders with 39 points at the bottom of the Eastern Conference playoff race. Pascal Dupuis scored in the second period for the Penguins, who lost for the second consecutive night after 15 consecutive victories, two shy of tying the NHL record for longest winning streak.

FLYERS 5, MONTREAL 3 Wayne Simmonds and Erik Gustafsson scored goals late in the third period and Philadelphia won a

third straight game for the first time this season as it makes a push for a playoff spot. The Flyers had been 1-11 when trailing after two periods. With the Flyers trailing 3-2, Simmonds tipped in the puck from the crease for the tying goal. Less than 2 minutes later, Gustafsson’s pass for Matt Read went off a defenseman and into the net past a stunned Carey Price for his 10th goal and a 4-3 lead. Jakub Voracek scored an empty-netter with 39 seconds left. Sean Couturier and Simon Gagne also scored for the Flyers.

Alexei Emelin, Brandon Prust and David Desharnais scored for Montreal.

DUCKS 5, STARS 2 Captain Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and two assists, and Teemu Selanne scored his 673rd career goal in Anaheim’s victory over Dallas. Viktor Fasth made 23 saves and Radek Dvorak scored his first goal for Anaheim in the second of three straight meetings in five days between the Pacific Division-leading Ducks and the last place Stars, who lost 4-0 in Dallas on Monday. Lane MacDermid scored his first NHL goal in his Dallas debut, and Kari Lehtonen stopped 22 shots in the Stars’ first game since trading Jaromir Jagr to Boston and Derek Roy to Vancouver.

Erik Cole also scored for the Stars. Kyle Palmieri snapped a 13-game goal drought and Andrew Cogliano scored an empty-net goal as the Pacific Division-leading Ducks improved the NHL’s third-best record to 25-7-5.

SHARKS 4, WILD 2 Dan Boyle scored on a spectacular

end-to-end rush with a two-man advantage to help San Jose win its sixth straight game.

Marty Havlat got the scoring started for San Jose and Joe Thornton broke a tie with a goal off the skate of a Minnesota defender late in the second period. TJ Galiardi also scored and Antti Niemi made 31 saves to help the Sharks move into a tie for fourth place in the Western Conference. Charlie Coyle and Dany Heatley scored for the Wild, who lost for the third time in four games following a seven-game winning streak.

Niklas Backstrom made 29 saves as Minnesota lost consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 12-14 to fall into a tie for the Northwest Division lead with Vancouver.

OILERS 8, FLAMES 2 Taylor Hall had a goal and four assists in helping Edmonton win its fifth straight with the rout of reeling Calgary. With 12 games to go, Edmonton sits eighth in the West, one point up on the St Louis Blues and the Nashville Predators.

The Columbus Blue Jackets are two points back. Jordan Eberle and Nail Yakupov scored two goals apiece, and Sam Gagner, Ryan Whitney and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins had one goal each for Edmonton. Matt Stajan had both goals for Calgary. The Flames have lost seven of their last nine to remain second from the bottom in the West and 28th overall. Winless in its last 11 road games, Calgary begins a three-game road trip Friday in San Jose.—AP

Sports FRIDAY,APRIL 5, 2013

Knicks down Atlanta Hawks 95-82 Warriors shake off slow start, beat Hornets ATLANTA: Carmelo Anthony scored 40 points - giving him 90 in two games - and Raymond Felton had three straight baskets in a key spurt, helping the New York Knicks beat the Atlanta Hawks 95-82 on Wednesday night for their 10th straight victory. Anthony, coming off a 50-point effort in a win over Miami on Tuesday, scored 24 points in the first half. He shot 17 of 27 from the field and was 5 for 6 from the free throw line. Felton sparked a 12-2 run that turned a tie game into an 84-74 lead for the Knicks. He scored eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter to help the Knicks move into sole possession of second place in the Eastern Conference. Atlanta missed an opportunity to move into a tie for fourth in the East and wasted a 25point effort by Kyle Korver, who came up two points short of his season high.

CLIPPERS 126, SUNS 101 DeAndre Jordan had 20 points and 12 rebounds, Chris Paul added 14 points and 12 assists, and Los Angeles beat Phoenix for its franchise-record 50th win. Willie Green and Caron Butler scored 15 points each, and Blake Griffin had nine points, seven assists and five rebounds to help the Clippers end a three-game skid with their secondhighest scoring total of the season.

They improved to 50-26 overall, bettering the single-season record for wins set in 1974-75 when the team was in Buffalo. They’re 29-9 at home.

Wesley Johnson scored 20 points and Jermaine O’Neal added 18 for the last-place Suns, who have lost seven straight overall.

SPURS 98, MAGIC 84 Danny Green scored 20 points and Gary Neal added 16 to pace depleted San Antonio to a victory over Orlando. A 14-2 run that included a pair of 3-pointers by Green midway through the fourth finally allowed the Spurs to take control. Before the run, San Antonio appeared sluggish and unable to pull away from the Magic, who trailed 74-70 with 10:37 remaining.

Already without Manu Ginobili, the Spurs rested Tony Parker and Kawhi Leonard, and used Tim Duncan for only 14 minutes. Maurice Harkless scored 18 points for Orlando.

NUGGETS 113, JAZZ 96 Danilo Gallinari scored 21 points, including nine straight in the fourth quarter, and Denver ended Utah’s winning streak at five. Utah fell a half-game behind the idle Lakers for the eighth playoff spot in the West.

Kenneth Faried added 19 points for the Nuggets, who won three of four against Utah this season and are in third place in the West, two games ahead of the Clippers. Gordon Hayward led the Jazz with 18 points, while Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap scored 16 apiece for Utah, which made 19 3-pointers in two

previous games but was just 6 of 20 from beyond the arc in this one.

NETS 113, CAVALIERS 95 Deron Williams scored 24 points and Brooklyn ended an eight-game road trip by crushing Cleveland, giving the Nets a record for road wins in a season. The Nets shot 83 percent (15 of 18) in the second quarter, when they outscored the Cavs 38-16 and opened a 30-point lead without much of a fight. Brooklyn’s 21 road wins are the most for the franchise, which moved to the New York City borough from New Jersey this season. MarShon Brooks made his first 10 shots and finished with a career-high 27 points for the Nets, who haven’t played at home since March 17 because the circus is at Barclays Center. Kyrie Irving scored 16 points for the Cavs, who have lost 10 straight.

GRIZZLIES 94, TRAIL BLAZERS 76 Mike Conley scored 20 points and Memphis set a franchise record for wins in a season with a victory over Portland. With four straight wins, the Grizzlies improved to 5124, surpassing their 50-win season in 2003-04. The Grizzlies have already clinched a spot in the playoffs and are jockeying for homecourt advantage in the first round.

Former Blazer Zach Randolph, who played his first six seasons in Portland from 2001-07, added 17 points and eight rebounds for Memphis. Damian Lillard and JJ Hickson led the Blazers with 17 points apiece.

CELTICS 98, PISTONS 93 Jeff Green scored 34 points, including a 3-pointer with 45 seconds left to snap Boston’s twominute scoring drought, and the Celtics clinched a playoff berth by beating Detroit. Paul Pierce and Brandon Bass scored 17 points apiece for the Celtics, who had lost two in a row and seven of their previous nine. But the victory, coupled with Philadelphia’s 88-83 loss to the Charlotte Bobcats, left Boston 81/2 games ahead of the 76ers with eight to play. It’s the sixth consecutive season Boston has reached the playoffs since the New Big Three was assembled in the summer of 2007. Greg Monroe had 24 points and 17 rebounds and Rodney Stuckey scored 22 for the Pistons.

WARRIORS 98, HORNETS 88 David Lee had 23 points and 16 rebounds, Stephen Curry added 20 points and nine assists, and Golden State shook off a slow start to ease past New Orleans. Reserve Jarrett Jack finished with 19 points and eight assists against his former team to keep the Warriors in sixth place in the West. Golden State remains one game ahead of Houston, which won 112-102 at Sacramento. The Rockets own the tiebreaker after going 3-1 in the season series. Eric Gordon scored

21 points and Robin Lopez had 17 points and seven rebounds for the Hornets, who were swept 4-0 by the Warriors this season. New Orleans led by 11 points in the second quarter before the Warriors surged ahead for good.

ROCKETS 112, KINGS 102 Chandler Parsons scored 29 points and James Harden added 21 to lead Houston to a win over Sacramento. Parsons and Harden, the team’s two leading scorers, returned to the lineup to help the Rockets win their third straight and eighth in 11 games. Parsons, who made 12 of 18 shots, had missed the previous game with food poisoning, while Harden had been nursing a foot injury. Omer Asik had 19 points and 10 rebounds, Jeremy Lin had 15 points and 10 assists for Houston, which sits in seventh place in the West. Tyreke Evans scored 22 points and Marcus Thornton had 21 for the Kings.

TIMBERWOLVES 107, BUCKS 98 Nikola Pekovic scored 27 points and Ricky Rubio added 18 points, 12 assists and eight steals to lead Minnesota past Milwaukee. Pekovic made 11 of 14 shots from the field and also had eight rebounds. Rubio connected on five of his six attempts from 3-point range for the Timberwolves, who went 8-of-13 from beyond the arc as a team and led most of the game. Ersan Ilyasova had 29 points and 12 rebounds, Monta Ellis scored 18 points and Mike Dunleavy added 15 for Milwaukee, which holds a six-game lead on Philadelphia for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

BOBCATS 88, 76ERS 83 Gerald Henderson scored 24 points, Kemba Walker had 17 points, 10 assists and five steals, and Charlotte snapped Philadelphia’s three-game winning streak. Henderson had a crucial steal late in the game and scored four points in the final minute to help the Bobcats end a three-game skid. Josh McRoberts added 12 points and 16 rebounds for Charlotte. Damien Wilkins had 20 points and nine rebounds for the 76ers, who were dealt a big blow to their already thin playoff hopes.

Philadelphia came in six games behind Milwaukee for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East with nine games left. Jrue Holliday had a miserable shooting night for the Sixers, going 2 of 24 from the field and finishing with five points.

RAPTORS 88, WIZARDS 78 Jonas Valanciunas scored a career-high 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead Toronto over Washington. Valanciunas went 16 of 18 at the free throw line and DeMar DeRozan had 25 points for Toronto, which snapped a twogame skid after being eliminated

CALIFORNIA: Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans (right) goes to the basket against Houston Rockets forward Francisco Garcia during the fourth quarter of an NBA basketball game in Sacramento. The Rockets won 112-102.— AP from the playoff chase. John Wall had 20 points for the short-handed Wizards (28-47), who announced before the game that rookie standout Bradley Beal will miss the remainder of the season with a

right leg injury. The Raptors are second in the NBA in free throw shooting percentage since the All-Star break at 81 percent. They hit 75 percent (27 of 36) against the Wizards.—AP

NBA results/standings Toronto 88, Washington 78; Charlotte 88, Philadelphia 83; NY Knicks 95, Atlanta 82; Brooklyn 113, Cleveland 95; Boston 98, Detroit 93; Minnesota 107, Milwaukee 98; San Antonio 98, Orlando 84; Denver 113, Utah 96; Houston 112, Sacramento 102; Memphis 94, Portland 76; LA Clippers 126, Phoenix 101; Golden State 98, New Orleans 88.

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L PCT NY Knicks 48 26 .649 Brooklyn 43 31 .581 Boston 39 36 .520 Philadelphia 30 44 .405 Toronto 28 47 .373 Central Division Indiana 48 27 .640 Chicago 40 33 .548 Milwaukee 36 38 .486 Detroit 25 51 .329 Cleveland 22 52 .297 Southeast Division Miami 58 16 .784 Atlanta 42 34 .553 Washington 28 47 .373 Orlando 19 57 .250 Charlotte 18 57 .240

GB 5 9.5 18 20.5 7 11.5 23.5 25.5 17 30.5 40 40.5

Western Conference Northwest Division Oklahoma City54 20 .730 Denver 51 24 .680 Utah 39 37 .513 Portland 33 42 .440 Minnesota 28 46 .378 Pacific Division LA Clippers 50 26 .658 Golden State 43 32 .573 LA Lakers 39 36 .520 Sacramento 27 48 .360 Phoenix 23 52 .307 Southwest Division San Antonio 56 19 .747 Memphis 51 24 .680 Houston 42 33 .560 Dallas 36 38 .486 New Orleans 26 49 .347

3.5 16 21.5 26 6.5 10.5 22.5 26.5 5 14 19.5 30

FRIDAY, APRIL 5, 2013

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Knicks down Hawks PAGE 47