22 Apr 2013

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7Speaker8admits 18media19 law Rashed meets editors-in-chief of local dailies

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conspiracy theories

Barrakgate

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

H

ave we become the country of chaos? With this question I am referring to the Musallam AlBarrakgate. I am sure all of you are familiar with the historical Watergate event. Although we are a small country we now have our own Barrakgate.

I know I wrote about this before but I keep on discovering new angles. By the way, I am neither proMusallam nor against him. I am criticizing the process.

When somebody anywhere on Earth is sentenced and he is in the country and not on the run, the police go and arrest him. When I say anywhere on Earth, I mean a country with a government and people. We are a country with functioning institutions. Then, he has legal rights to have a lawyer, be bailed out or appeal his verdict, etc. These steps apply to the former honorable gentleman too.

I do not blame him for the current status quo though. He is sitting in his diwan in Andalus and gives interviews all the time. He says he is available and ready to be arrested if the proper documentation is presented to him. Mind you, he says that in the centre of a large group of people who are his supporters. I am not questioning the legality of the arrest order. I am questioning the functioning of the government in this case.

Does that mean that in the future if somebody is sentenced to imprisonment, the government will not be able to step in and detain him for six days because he is surrounded by supporters and followers? Is it his popularity that prevents them from shackling him?

Actually, day by day, the man is becoming more popular. His popularity is stepping outside Kuwait too.

I just landed from a trip abroad where everyone was asking me about the Musallam Al-Barrak’s case. Today is the date of the appeal for Musallam’s case. My prediction is that he will be released. His followers have expressed their support on social media that some of them would be on hand for the hearing in the morning. Actually, his followers announced they would escort him today from his diwan to the Palace of Justice.

How would that make the government look? I would like to have a strong government in my country.

I want them to do what they say they would. If people think that they have a weak government, lawlessness will prevail and chaos will surround us. The stronger will eat the weaker and the rich will eat the poor.

I hope there is a proper explanation from our government about what has been happening in the past week. We would like to feel that there is strict security in the country. We would like to feel safe.

KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Ali Al-Rashed poses for a group photo with editors-in-chief of local dailies yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat called for appointing “new blood” in executive posts

By Dr Ziad Al-Alyan and not to renew terms of employees whose services KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Ali Al-Rashed yes- have exceeded 35 years. The speaker said this parliaterday said the controversial combined media draft law ment has “achieved a record in terms of accomplishhas not been received from the government and if it ments in a period not more than four months”.

The parliament’s studies and research department arrives, it will not be accorded urgency, which means that the bill’s debate may not take place before the next will soon issue a book about governments in Kuwait. term. Speaking to editors-in-chief of local dailies, Rashed The book talks about governments in Kuwait between expected some new grillings will be filed against minis- 1962 and 2013 with a comprehensive analysis over reaters, adding that if the ministers do not perform, the sus- sons behind resignations of cabinets coupled with political conditions, said Rashed. He added the pended grillings are there to be debated.

“After I looked at the draft media law in newspapers, I Assembly intends to launch in the coming weeks a think it needs some amendments,” Rashed said during national project aimed at documenting parliamentary the meeting. He said the Assembly would create a pub- documents via a the house’s website. This project, he lic opinion monitoring unit regarding the law. Rashed said, would be like a parliamentary archive which called for “listening to the views of journalists over the includes a database about legislative activities from the draft media law,” asserting that the parliament “will not Constituent Assembly until the current legislative term.

Rashed said the parliament was also working on a stand in face of freedoms”. He added he would call information ministers, chairpersons of education and media plan aimed at highlighting achievements of the legislative committees at the parliament, editors-in- parliament as well as creating channels with the public. chief and civil society representatives to discuss the This plan, in collaboration with different media in Rashed meets Kuwait Times’ Deputy Editor-in-Chief Kuwait, aims for a daily publication about parliament’s Dr Ziad Al-Alyan. media law.

Rashed, meanwhile, said cooperation between the activities, offering free apps and streaming sessions on value to Kuwait’s foreign policy. On domestic affairs, executive and legislative authorities “will achieve YouTube, he said. The parliament’s Al-Dustoor (constitu- Rashed said the parliament issued a statement last results”, but that did not mean stripping the house of its tion) newspaper’s website will be launched and publica- Thursday rebuffing any offense against HH the Amir and “monitoring role”. “We see indications of cooperation by tions will be sent to the media and Kuwaiti embassies full support for the judiciary. He added MPs would call the prime minister but not from some ministers in the abroad. Rashed said the Assembly was keen on activat- for a special session to discuss the government’s ability government,” said Rashed, not naming any minister. He ing “parliamentary diplomacy” because it is an added to deal with earthquakes or terror attacks.

Increase on services to exclude power, health Barrak to appear before court today

By B Izzak

Heavy security at F1, marathon MANAMA/LONDON: Protesters blocked several roads and police fired teargas at a school in Bahrain yesterday, activists said, as the Gulf state staged a Formula One race promoted by the government as pure sport but seen by the opposition as a public relations stunt.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of runners flowed through the British capital yesterday in the London Marathon, after a solemn 30-second silence at the start for the victims of the bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon barely a week ago.

Scores of police cars and a couple of armoured vehicles stood along the highway from the Bahraini capital Manama to the race circuit, where the Grand Prix, won by Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel, took place without incident. “The number of security in some areas is more than the number of protesters,” Sayed Yousif Al-Muhafda of the Bahrain Centre for Human Rights told Reuters. Witnesses at the Sakhir desert circuit, roughly 30 km southwest of the capital, said there was no sign of unrest in the immediate vicinity.

Asked for comment on the reported clashes, which included more of the near-nightly violence between police and youths in villages near the capital, an Interior Ministry official said only that everything was normal. Protests in the Gulf Arab country - a key Western ally that hosts the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet broke out in 2011, with the Shiite-led opposition drawing thousands of demonstrators demanding Continued on Page 13

SAKHIR, Bahrain: Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany is congratulated by Bahraini Crown Prince Sheikh Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa (left) after he won the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix yesterday. — AP (See Page 20)

KUWAIT: The Finance Ministry yesterday informed the National Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee that proposed increases on public services will not include basic services like electricity, water and health, rapporteur of the committee MP Safa AlHashem said. Hashem said during the meeting attended by Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali to discuss a government-proposed draft to law to increase charges on public services, the government provided extensive details about the bill.

The bill essential aims at giving a free hand to the government to increase charges on public services which have remained frozen for about 20 years when the Assembly passed a law in 1993 stipulating that there will be no increase of charges without a law from the Assembly. But Hashem said the committee is likely to reject the draft law, especially if it seeks to raise charges on services that have not been developed properly. MP Khalil Abdullah also said the Assembly is expected to reject the draft law because it does not want to raise charges on services.

Hashem said the committee demanded some details and explanations about the bill and a meeting will take place next week to discuss the details. She said the committee also discussed a draft law regarding the bad debt settlement program introduced in 1992 to bail out debtors from the crash of the unofficial Al-Manakh stock market in 1982. The lawmaker said the committee asked the government about the cost of the bill.

Meanwhile, the appeals court today holds its first session in the case of opposition figure and former MP Musallam Al-Barrak to review a five-year jail term handed to him by the criminal court last week on charges of insulting HH the Amir.

Continued on Page 13

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

LOCAL

Expat drivers violating traffic laws to be deported 16 expats deported for driving without licence

By Nawara Fattahova

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received yesterday Chief of Staff of the French Army Admiral Edward Guo. The meeting was attended by the Chief of Staff of Kuwait Army General Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah and the French Ambassador to Kuwait. — KUNA

Sheikha Hussah speaks at TEDx conference in Rome ROME: Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah director general Sheikha Hussah Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah participated in TEDx Via Della Conciliazione conference held in Rome yesterday.

Organised in conjunction with the Vatican, the conference focused on an overall theme of “Religious Freedom Today” and drew speakers from around the world and the world’s religion.

Sheikha Hussah spoke on the power of “A collection of art as an imprint in order to understand the identity and human dignity of a civilization.” In her speech she acknowledged that she found the subject difficult. She said “in the process of preparing this presentation, [she] was forced to figure out

what art has meant” in her life and how it coloured her interactions with people from other countries, cultures and religions.

In a presentation that included anecdotes about the launch of the collection, the perilous time when objects in the collection shared living space with a growing family and the part that the DAI’s traveling exhibition “Islamic Ar t and Patronage” played as an ambassdor for Kuwait during the invasion and occupation of the country in 1990 and 1991, she noted that “the true beauty of ar t is in the way it expresses shared values - religious, aesthetic and human values.”

The 17 other speakers, including architect Daniel Libeskind, former NBA star Vlade Divac and Palestine-

based Sister Alicia Vacas, all shared equally heartfelt stories drawn from their lives and their experiences.

The common thread in all the presentations, no matter the route taken - art, sports, religion, education, was the belief that what connects people is greater than what separates them. In what turned out to be a highlight of the conference, Sheikha Hussah concluded with a reading of “My heart has become able to take on all forms” a short poem by 12th century Sufi poet Muhyiddin Ibn Arabi. She explained that Ibn Arabi’s poem beautifully explained, some 800 years ago, both her journey and how “a collection of art is an imprint in order to understand the identity and human dignity of a civilization.”

KUWAIT: Due to various reasons, some people are driving without a license. Such drivers, if they are expats, will be deported. The new head of the traffic department of the Ministr y of Interior, Major General Abdulfatah Al-Ali, recently announced some rules that will be strictly enforced. Drivers who violate those rules and break the traffic laws will be deported.

Such violations include driving a vehicle without a valid license.

Although this decision was announced just a few days ago, 16 expat have already been deported during the past three days for driving without a license. “This [rule] does not apply to those who forgot their license at home, but to those who don’t have one. Violators will be deported even if it’s a first-time offence, as they dared to drive without being authorized to do so,” MG Abdulfatah Al-Ali told the Kuwait Times yesterday.

The new rules identify other violations for which expat drivers can be deported. “Expat drivers will also be deported for serious violations, such as crossing the red light, speeding and transporting more passengers than is legally allowed, among other things. In such cases of violations, we will first check their driving history of violations. If we find that such violators have committed the same violations repeatedly in the past, which means that they are used to do so, then they will be deported,” he further said.

Most of these cases are not direct violations; there is a possibility that the owner of the vehicle is not the one who committed the violation.

“In such cases, we confiscate the vehicle and demand that the owner come and give an explanation. If the owner of the vehicle claims that he does not drive the car frequently and that it is the driver who drives it usually, then we will withdraw the driving license of the driver and release the vehicle, as the family may need it for various everyday purposes. Then, this driver is not allowed to drive - and if we catch him driving again, he will be deported,” explained Al-Ali. The Ministry is planning to conduct more raids in an effort to crack

MG Abulfatah Al-Ali

down on violators. “We are now preparing to carry out raids on garages suspected of repairing cars that had accidents without communicating with the police station, which is an illegal act. We will also seize vehicles that are marked for sale in public places. So, when the owner wants to sell this car, he won’t be able to submit his papers at the traffic department as the car will be locked for two months. This new procedure is done through smart police patrols instead of both-

rude. I was already working on getting a new license. But I didn’t renew it as I was angry. Three years ago, they confiscated my license for some silly violation and later returned it. Then few months later, they withdraw it again. Then I just simply let it be and didn’t bother to bring it back. Recently, when I bought my car, they demanded my license. When I went to collect it back this time, they told me that it’s lost and that they couldn’t find it. So I applied for a duplicate, and after a few days I will have it,” she stated.

“Just two days ago, a police checkpoint stopped me and asked me for my driving license. I told him it was confiscated and they lost it at the station. He said I’m not allowed to drive, so I laughed. He then told me to go and I left,” added Fatma.

Thirty-five-year-old Ahmad is also driving without a license since about seven years ago, when he first came to Kuwait. “I didn’t meet the requirements for a driving license according to local laws, as my salary is below KD 400. But I need to go to work daily, so I had to drive without a license. Over these years, I have already learnt which places to avoid, where there are checkpoints. I also

Traffic jam during morning hours.

ering with policemen with fixing the tire locks,” concluded MG Al-Ali. Fatma, a 29-year-old expat, has been driving without a valid license for more than three years. “I haven’t heard about this new decision of the Ministry. I think it’s terrible and

usually drive along with my wife, so that if the police stop me, I will tell them my wife is sick and we are driving to the hospital. That way, they can let me go. I don’t know how can I solve my problem. I think I need a wasta,” he stated.

Kuwait launches vocational center in Gaza GAZA: In collaboration with Kuwait Awqaf Public Foundation, a Kuwaiti delegation, visiting Gaza Strip, distributed hundreds of food packages to needy Palestinian families on Saturday.

The delegation includes Secretar y of the Social Reform Society Dr. Abdullah Al-Ateeqi, Chairman of Al-Rahma International Charity Bader Burhama and Head of the Charity’s Palestine Office Dr. Waleed Al-Anjari.

Commending Kuwait Awqaf Foundation’s efforts, Al-Anjari said in a statement to KUNA the Foundation was keen on dispensing the Awqaf (Islamic endowment) funds on the legitimate beneficiaries as per the provisions of Sharia (Islamic law).

“Each food package is worth USD 100; they include 13 foodstuffs such as canned beef, beans, lentil, grease, tea and tomatoes,” he revealed.

The aid recipients expressed gratitude to His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah and the government and people of Kuwait for the generous donation and constant support to the Palestinian people.

The delegation, now on a visit to

Kuwait, Oman meet to boost ties KUWAIT: The KuwaitiOmani high cooperation committee will be holding a meeting on April 22-23 to further boost ties between the two counries, Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah said here yesterday.

The meeting will be chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad AlSabah and Oman’s Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, said Al-Jarallah, noting that several Memorandums of understanding and agreements would be signed during the meeting.— KUNA

Gaza Strip, laid the foundation stone of a vocational center.

A ceremony, marking the occasion, gathered Secretary General of Palestinian Government in Gaza Strip Abdulsalam Syam on behalf of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh who is on a visit to Qatar at present.

The Kuwaiti delegation includes Secretar y of the Social Reform Society Dr. Abdullah Al-Ateeqi, Chairman of Al-Rahma International Charity Bader Burhama and Head of the Charity’s Palestine Office Dr. Waleed Al-Anjari.

Addressing the ceremony, Syam welcomed the Kuwaiti delegation and hailed the deep-rooted ties between the Palestinian and Kuwaiti people. He appreciated Kuwait’s relief efforts to the Palestinian people particularly the Gazans, saying: “ The State of Kuwait constantly offers indispensable moral and material assistance for the Gazans to help improve their standard of living.”

Syam promised that the Government of Gaza would do its utmost to facilitate launching the Kuwait-funded development projects including the vocational center.

The center, covering a total area

of 600 sq.m. and located in Tal AlHawa neighborhood, south Gaza City, will cost up to USD one million.

Its five-story building will include four main activities namely; a vocational training program in the field of electronics, a business incubator for small enterprises, a center for providing technical and administrative assistance aiming to build the capacity of young entrepreneurs, and a program for general training according to the needs of the local community.

The center, the first of its kind in Gaza Strip, will work with the vocational training center of the Palestinian Ministry of Education.

Earlier today, the Kuwaiti delegation visited Al-Rantisi Children Hospital where they were welcomed

by Director General of the International Cooperation Department of the Ministr y of Health Dr. Mohammad Al-Kashef and Director of the Hospital Dr. Mustafa Al-Eilah.

Dr. Abdullah Al-Ateeqi thanked the Palestinian officials on the warm reception and promised that Kuwait will continue her humanitarian role in Gaza particularly in the health domain. — KUNA

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

LOCAL

Al-Barrak says political activities to continue KUWAIT: For the sixth straight night, groups of citizens proceeded to the deewan of former MP Mussalam Al-Barrak and many of them blocked the road with their cars to prevent the security men from reaching there to arrest AlBarrak.

In the meantime, Al-Barrak, speaking to Al-Jazeera TV channel, responded to a question - “ This might be your last word for the next five years, so what is your message?”

- by saying that political activities

will continue “even if I am jailed, as these political activities are not limited to individuals. May Allah protect Kuwait and its people.”

Al-Barrak reiterated his commitment to implement the court verdict, though he was convinced that the First Degree Court passed the verdict without allowing him the right to defend himself.

He added that his lawyers withdrew because their demands to call the witnesses were not accepted and no chance was given to the

State Security Department to report about manipulating the CD recording of the seminar in question.

He expressed his readiness to hand himself over whenever he receives a written order to that effect.

Al-Barrak appeared in front of his deewaniya along with a large number of his supporters before meeting the team of lawyers preparing for the next court session scheduled for Monday where he must turn himself in and attend the hearing.

Girl kidnapped at gunpoint Husband beaten by wife, sister-in-law KUWAIT: A call to the police about the kidnapping of a girl at gunpoint also revealed that a party was being held at the camel pens on Seventh Ring Road. The suspect escaped, but three girls and a man were arrested.

A security source called the police and told them that the girl was kidnapped by a man and was taken to the camel pens on 7th Ring Road. The police were able to determine the girl’s location and rushed there. The caller, who was waiting for them, said: “There he [the kidnapper] is, he just escaped.” When they entered the pen, they found three girls and a man, all of whom were then arrested and sent to criminal detectives.

Wife accuses husband of stealing An Arab expat teacher called Salmiya police, accusing her husband of stealing KD 800 before she could send it to her sick father. The teacher told police that she and her colleagues had pooled in KD 800 in order to be sent to her father for his treatment. Meanwhile, her husband denied the accusation, saying that he had no need for money. The police are investigating the case.

Embezzlement case A man who was wanted in connection with an embezzlement case and was thought to be outside the country was found and arrested by police. A security source said Assistant Director of Sentences Execution Department Colonel Nasser AlWuhaib received information that a wanted citizen was in the country.

Records showed that he had left Kuwait for France on May 20, 2012, and had not returned. Orders were given to a task force to arrest him, and he was found at a mall. He was sent to the Civil Implementation Department for financial fraud to the tune of KD 199,000. Investigations are under way to find out how his name was in the departure records, and whether there was any collusion by government officials.

Exorcist arrested Policemen were sent to the Surra area, along with Acting Capital Security Director Brig. Hussein AlShirazi, to investigate the reason behind a traffic jam in the area and the presence of a large crowd at a house there. After reaching there, the policemen were surprised to find the house owner telling them, “Welcome,

I will get the evil spirit out of your chests, and I do treat those who are under a magic spell. Whoever among you feel that there is an evil spirit in him, I will treat him for free.” The police asked the crowd to disperse, but many stayed out to find out the exorcist’s fate. As police tried to arrest him and started procedural formalities, he pushed the policemen away and shut the door in their face. Policemen then returned with a warrant, entered the house and arrested him.

Husband beaten by wife, sister-in-law An Egyptian expat told the police that his wife and her sister beat him up and hurt him. A security source said the expat’s wife, also an Egyptian, was in partnership with a Kuwaiti woman running a salon, and had asked him to take care of the financial affairs. She accused him of embezzling money and manipulating the invoices. The husband, however, denied any wrong doing. When the man stuck to his version, his wife called her sister and both of them beat him up, leaving him injured. The wife confessed to beating her husband but claimed it was in self defence.

Kuwait firemen deserve praise for great sacrifices KUWAIT: Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah AlMubarak Al-Sabah said yesterday everybody has to hold the firemen in high esteem for the great sacrifices they offer for the safety of the society.

“I’ve seen in person the courage of these heroes when I visited some sites of firefighting,” Sheikh Mohammad, also Minister of State for Municipal Affairs, said.

The minister made the press remarks while attending the graduation ceremony of the 12th and the 13th batches of firemen officers at a rank of lieutenant, a batch of Lt. holders of diploma in fire engineering and management at the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate (KFSD).

He voiced hope that the firemen would be able to add to the achievements they made in the past and contribute to the safety and security of the homeland.

On his part, KFSD Director General Maj.Gen. Yusuf Al-Ansari expressed hope that the KFSD would “take a quantum leap forward” due to the graduation of this constellation of distinguished fire officers.

“The KFSD is constantly building the capacity of its personnel through regular training courses on the latest technique of firefighting,” Maj.-Gen. Al-Ansari affirmed.

“The government under the leadership of His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah is keen on providing all necessary financial resources for the KFSD to discharge its mission in keeping with the latest developments in the field of civil protection,” he added.— KUNA

Australia ammends tourist entry visa KUWAIT: The immigration department has announced that the Australian immigration has issued certain important amendments regarding tourism entry visa which have been implemented since March 23.

However, those who were granted visa before this new amendment can

travel on the same till it expires.

The Australian immigration department said the new amendments require those wanting to visit Australia to apply for tourist visa number 600 or new electronic visa 601 or e-visitor visa 651.

People with such tourist visas would be allowed to come to Australia for

tourism purposes or visit their families or for some other activity, but would not be allowed to work.

Those who want to come to Australia for work for a temporary period should obtain a temporary work visa number 400 or any other visa which allows the holder to work.

KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received yesterday the credentials of the newly-appointed Pakistani Ambassador to Kuwait Sayed Abrar Hussain. The ceremony was attended by the foreign ministry senior officials. — KUNA

Third Arab Parliament session kicks off in Cairo

Oil, finance ministries to discuss drop in oil prices

CAIRO: The third session of the first regular meeting for the Arab Parliament was held here yesterday with the chairmanship of its Speaker Ahmed Mohammed Al-Jarwan Al-Shamisi.

Al-Shamisi said during the opening of the session that the Arab Parliament would continue to seek peace and security in the Arab world, boosting efforts to end conflicts in the region namely the Syrian conflict.

He also indicated that the continuous Israeli unjust policies and aggression against the Palestinian people should be put to a permanent halt, noting that actions such as abusing and imprisoning of Palestinians for unclear reasons were against international law and norms.

The current session of the Arab parliament will focus on results that came out of various meetings by the parliament’s social, political, financial, women, and youth committees. The session also will touch on preparations for the upcoming visit by the Arab parliamentary delegation to Washington on April 29 which will touch on issues pertaining to the Syrian conflict and Palestinian situation.

Several parliamentarians from Saudi Arabia, Libya, Mauritania were sworn in during the session.

Kuwait was represented at the meeting by MPs Ahmad Al-Mulaifi, Hashim Al-Bhagli, and Faisal AlKanderi. —KUNA

KUWAIT: In the wake of the drop in the oil prices worldwide and the price of Kuwaiti oil reaching $95 per barrel, the finance and oil ministries prepared a report for the council of ministers to discuss certain procedures to maintain the price level and thus ensure a comfortable life for the citizens.

Sources in the government said it has several alternative plans to ensure a cushy life for its citizens even if oil prices continued to drop. They said the council of ministers will discuss this matter and come up with alternatives and solutions to avoid any problems in the future. They also said the government was expected to announce several measures to boost income from various sources and not to depend on oil only.

On the other hand, the council of ministers has asked the army intelligence to investigate the final list of names of people who are to be given nationality before its final approval. Informed sources said that the army intelligence will check out the names of soldiers in the army and the police, in addition to the names recommended by the Higher Committee for Citizenship. Pointing out that 600 files were ready for approval out of the 4,000 cases up for nationality this year, they said the list was expected to be finalized by the end of summer vacation. Those who will be given nationality this year would be soldiers and those working in the oil sector.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

LOCAL

Letters to Badrya Darwish

The column

Deportation of expatriates

Looming cloud of chaos

Asalam-o-alaikum Dear and respected Badrya Darwish,

M

By Fouad Al-Obaid

fouad@kuwaittimes.net Twitter: @Fouadalobaid

C

an a man be tried, judged, and condemned for merely saying out loud what many think deep inside? Assuming that such a proposition is valid, and for the sake of argument, let us agree that the rule of the law ought to be held in the highest esteem to ensure that we have a properly regulated society where everyone can live and coexist, can one ever be found guilty for speaking out freely? It leads me to ask whether it is a crime to state the issue in public for everyone to consider. Is it a fact that a blatantly expressing a perceived reality is by itself an illegal act? God Almighty through his beloved Prophet (PBUH) asks that we speak the truth, stating; “the greatest Jihad (struggle) is the utterance of the truth to an ‘unfair ruler’.”

This leads us to the question whether the basis of sound governance were to be found in a country that for the better half of last decade has remained marred in a political-deadlock? Nothing seems to be functioning, and infighting is causing a situation that is unbearable for the average citizen. The lack of clear direction by the leadership of this country is responsible for triggering a massive grassroots counter movement that threatens to change the nature of politics, as we know it in Kuwait.

The ruling against former MP Musallam Al-Barrak for a speech he gave, in the opinion of many, is unjustified, both legally and politically. I question the logic of imprisoning a respected national icon who honestly desires reform. Now, he is being sent to prison for saying out his beliefs. Now that many people have publically made the same or similar statements that he had made, and for which he is being sent to jail, will the government prosecute huge sections of population and create giant open-air prisons? If they are not willing to do so, and if the number of people clearly against such an unjustified ruling, is growing by the day, what are we left with?

Historically, repression never lasts. As a political option, repression can only succeed to a limited extent before it comes back to haunt those that impose it. The only possible way forward is a general amnesty to all those who were condemned for committing ‘thought crimes’, and to change the law to ensure that no one can ever be fined for their ideas. Kuwait was always differentiated from the rest of the Arab World for being a beacon of freedom. Any change in this image will only negatively reflect on our country and its interests.

The nature of the conflict, as well as the clear direction in which things are heading, necessitates mature political decisions to ease the tensions and to avoid widening the current gulf. We implore God Almighty to protect Kuwait and its people, to give those in power the wisdom to resolve issues before blood tarnishes any hope of maintaining a status quo. At the end of the day, we are all citizens of one country; our resolve should be to ensure that we all support what is best for our State.

kuwait digest

Kuwait and a tale of two women

By Ahmed Bodostour

A

n old saying stresses that “A full moon is always missed on dark nights.” At a time when a part of the world, namely the Middle East, is witnessing several wars and disputes, it lost a one of a kind political leader who was one of the strongest decision-makers at critical times such as the Falklands War, Kuwait Liberation War, the fall of the Soviet Union and its fragmentation into several states - all of it a part of history that is full of moral lessons.

The late British PM Margaret Thatcher was on a state visit to the USA on August 2nd, 1990 when the Iraqi army invaded Kuwait and decided to wipe it off the world’s map. Hosted by George Bush Sr. at Colorado and seeing that he was hesitant about making a decision to liberate Kuwait, Thatcher was more decisive that the occupation must not be allowed to continue and that Kuwait had to be liberated. It was only a matter of time for her. “If you don’t decide to liberate Kuwait, I’m going to do it alone,” she told Bush. Therefore, she will always be remembered

by Kuwaitis for saving them from a disastrous occupation and throwing out the Iraqi troops after seven-months of occupation.

This ‘Iron Lady’ adopted the cause of Kuwait personally and gave it due care and attention. She never thought twice about freezing Kuwaiti and Iraqi accounts on the first day of the occupation after receiving a phone call from the late Father Amir, Sheikh Saad Al-Abdullah. She also urged Bush to do the same and together they worked on having the UN Security Council authorize the launch of Kuwait Liberation War. Notably, Thatcher was the only female Prime Minister (1979-1990) in Britain’s history and therefore, she was bid farewell in a very well attended state funeral with over 200 world celebrities present. The funeral cost £10 million. Nevertheless, Kuwait TV did not cover the funeral though Al-Jazeera did. Meanwhile, another Iron Lady was standing firmly in Kuwait’s parliament, defying the First Deputy Premier and Interior Minister, Sheikh Ahmed AlHumoud, and threatening to grill him unless he strictly enforced the law and arrested former MP Musallam AlBarrak who was sentenced to five year imprisonment with labour for insulting HH the Amir through a speech he delivered at the determination yard a few months earlier. She also had an argument with fellow-lawmaker Abdul Hameed Dashti, who fiercely defended the minister. She did so because she fears no one when it comes to enforcement of law. She was also behind annulling the 2012 parliament when she filed a law suit and won it.

That lady is MP Safa’ Al-Hashim. Regardless of whether we agree or disagree with her, MP Safa’ Al-Hashim managed to silence the demagogic opposition that had been irritating the Kuwaiti people for a while now and that insulted everyone in the executive and legislature. She is also the first female parliamentary observer and the first woman to preside over a parliamentary session. Both, Thatcher and Al-Hashim, will be known as women who firmly etched their names in Kuwait’s history books.

kuwait digest

Accessing medical treatment

By Abdellatif Al-Duaij

T

here was someone on Twitter asking for help in accessing medical treatment. I have certain reservations about such requests and advertisement, because regardless of the electronic and technological nature shrouding these, it remains like an act of begging, and seeped in mystery. More often than not, such requests lack credibility.

In other words, these should be regulated and taken care of by approved and credible establishments instead of very loose regulations. What really drew my attention was that the request was for help in treatment of a sick child, but while there was no information about the nature of her illness, the cost was mentioned clearly as KD 100,000. It was also made clear that this amount was required for obtaining treatment abroad. What is sad is that we are among the richest countries in the world, and have been for many years, but we still lack, after all this richness, the ability to treat a sick child. Her treatment, as the advertisement claimed, was available in Saudi Arabia, Thailand, India and Egypt. The poorest countries in world and many of them virtually primitive are better than us in medical treatment. As we know, it should be one of the most important signs of development and progress as to how much care the state can afford to treat her sick subjects. Egypt, India, Thailand and Saudi Arabia seem better

placed than us health wise, while we have the most outstanding people in the national assemblies, and wise people in the government, besides wise ministers. Yet, despite all of them, we are still behind Egypt, India, Saudi Arabia and Thailand. This is not all, in fact. I do not have a major problem here because these countries deserve what they have, and it is not difficult for them to develop even more than us as some of them have population more than a million times ours. On the other hand, since our Sheikhs know better, maybe we are supposed to tour the world’s countries for treatment and entertainment.

Who knows, may be our government wants us to have more fun. Things do not stop here because the request for help comes since the girl in the ad was a non-Kuwaiti, but not totally as her mother was said to be a Kuwaiti but her father belonged to the cursed northern tribes which are discriminated against by our society. Now, is this not oppression and discrimination against, and insult of the Kuwaiti citizen? Is it okay for her niece to go abroad for treatment, but not her daughter, as per Kuwaiti policies?

All this is happening in a democratic country while people are shouting and calling for the implementation of the constitution and law. The fact is that all of us forget this law and our constitution when things are related to the rights and lives of others. — Al-Qabas

kuwait digest

Every cloud has a silver lining!

By Mubarak Bin Shafi Al-Hajery

W

hat’s going on in Kuwait?

After he was sentenced to five years in jail, former MP Musallam Al-Barrak went missing and seemed reluctant to turn himself in, a development that has exposed many positive things as well as some negative ones, too.

The most important positive finding is that HH the Amir’s and his government’s view stands emphasized that law should be adhered to and applied equally to everyone without any exception, hesitation or fear.

This strategy proved effective and comforted everyone besides ensuring peace and quiet that helped revive the stock market. This remarkable turn around proved that all sections of the Kuwaiti people fully support the government’s policies, something also underlined by the tribes’ heads declaring their support.

“We’ll even cooperate with the devil to protect Kuwait and its rulers,” said the Awazem tribe leader, Bin Jame’, noting that he would never accept having a non-Sabah Prime Minister. Bin Jame’ also emphasized Al-Awazem’s rejection of demonstrations and clashes with security and riot police.

Dr. Ahmed Al-Khateeb also stressed that some people were taking refuge and hiding behind their tribes without showing any respect to the law. “The state is collapsing because of disrespect to basic principles and laws,” he said, underlining that law must prevail to stop anyone from evading justice by hiding behind protection provided by tribes. Former speaker of the house, Ahmed Al-Sa’doun, called for respecting court orders and verdicts issued in

the name of HH the Amir, especially since the judicial system had been set up by the parliament.

What really hurts and saddens is that some writers, who are liberal and affiliated to national blocs, have been slamming the government, claiming it was behind spreading chaos and crises. They also claim that the government sends opposition members and youth to jail in cases related to freedom of expression and that it has been chasing bloggers. “The government is narrow-minded and focuses on using violent security methods,” said Lama Fareed Al-Othman in her article in Aljarida on Friday, April 19, 2013.

It seems that some people misunderstand and misinterpret the concept of democracy. I have lived for long in the US while studying to get my B.A., Masters and Ph.D. degrees during the 1960s and 1970s when youth and public movements were at their peak due to social changes and demands for civil rights of the blacks and other minorities. The youth also protested against America’s war against Vietnam. I almost took part with my demonstrating colleagues on a daily basis to demand civil rights and condemn the war.

Demonstrations had to be licensed and authorized, organizers identified and location and timing set before hand. It was not allowed, under any circumstances, to venture beyond the pre-determined location nor the demands mentioned in the license. All protests were only allowed during the morning hours and in non-residential areas. On the other hand, what is happening in our country is total chaos and disrespect to the law and the

state’s prestige. Would you accept, dear Lama that it was alright for the protestors to go out into the streets at night in Andalus without prior permission while misled youth stoned and threw fireballs at the security men? Many of the inured security personnel had to be sent to hospitals for treatment. Is this the freedom of expression?

Do you consider setting police patrol vehicles ablaze at dawn or blocking the Fifth Ring Road part of peaceful demonstrations? No, my dear!

Such people only wish to spread chaos in our peaceful country. You know, Lama, that Kuwait is the most stable and luxurious country in the Arab world. There is no match in the Arab world for our press in terms of freedom of expression. You know better than me that those imprisoned had been tried for insulting HH the Amir. It is indeed the right of any writer to criticize the government and the parliament. But none of them have the right to personally insult individuals because they then might be sued for it. So, what if those young people criticized the head of the state whose personality is protected by law and the constitution?

Well, the brightest and most positive thing about the current phase is separating the civil law-abiding state in favour of democracy and freedom from political Islam groups and tribes.

It has been proven that those misled youth had been provoked against the state by political Islam groups (Muslim Brotherhood). So, let’s not be beguiled by mottos they are using; a theological state cannot be accepted in civil state or society.

Save your sisters, Thekra Al-Rasheedi

By Mubarak Bin Shafi Al-Hajery

T

he other day I went to the Ahmadi work department of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour for a visa transfer transaction. After negotiating my way through a lot of red tape and managing to ensure that all my required documents were ready, I was re-directed to go to building number two. In that building, I found a group of female clerks working hard to a serve a large numbers of applicants were having a very hard time to have their transactions done. It was too hot in there and most of the air conditioners were either down or malfunctioning. Having inquired about my transaction, one of the clerks looked for it but unfortunately could not find my original application.

“Excuse me...,” I called her, but she imme-

diately told me that she could not find it.

“I am not asking about the transaction. I want to ask how one can bear with this hot weather. Summer is approaching and it will become even hotter,” I asked, but she ignored my question and asked me to follow her to her manager’s office.

I almost sneezed and thought I had flu as soon as I entered the manager’s office which was very well air-conditioned. I immediately knew that such managers have no answer to my questions, and would also have no solution to the problems suffered by her employees in such a hot weather.

Even as she was trying to apologize to me and come up with a solution to my problem, I politely told the poor clerk not to bother and left the place,

thinking not so much about my failure to carry out the transaction, which happens all the time, but rather about the poor clerks who have to work in these sauna-like offices.

Most of the clerks in that office were veiled and some were even wearing Niqab, which only increased their sufferings in the hot weather and would surely affect their performance.

Therefore, I do urge the mild-mannered Minister for Social Affairs and Labour, Thekra Al-Rasheedi, who I believe will solve many of the MSAL’s problems, to solve this problem also and put an end to the sufferings of these clerks. Dear Minister Al-Rasheedi, save your sisters to help boost their performance and avoid transaction losses.

adam, I am a Pakistani expatriate working in Kuwait for the last four years legally. Since a long time, I have made it a point never to miss your articles. The way you write and see things, many a times I thought that I will write to you, but only today did I really get down to do so.

It will be wrong if I say that I love the way you take positions, but the fact is that I love your articles more than anything else.

If I don’t have time to read your article, then I skip my dinner and spend that time reading your article.

A few days earlier, I read your article about deportation of expatriates and you asked why the expatriates should be deported.

You further asked: Should the government deport all those people who are performing a unique role in the economy of Kuwait?

Should the government deport those who are working on a low salary or low wages?

Pakistanis and Indian tailors are working in small shops and sewing for us dishdasha.

Respected Madam, there were a hundred things in your article which are still abuzz in my mind. I found it amazing that you wrote in such a nice way about the expatriates.

Today I read your article “Justice, Equality and Fairness for all.”

Madam, you really are a person the likes of which are hard to find. You write so well that really, I don’t have enough words to appreciate it.

You also asked today why there are separate rules for expatriates as far as driving rules are concerned.

I don’t know madam why this is happening with us?

As you mentioned, law is law and it must apply to all.

You even quoted our Holy Prophet (PBUH), referring to his last speech, according to which there is no difference between a fair person and one dark skinned, and similarly there cannot be any difference between an expatriate and a local citizen.

Respected Madam, please publish your articles in Arabic newspapers also so that everyone can read these.

Please respond, briefly, so that I am satisfied that you have read my mail.

A reader Salam, I didn’t think anyone will write on this issue in such a way; it was written bravely, and very well put.

I am a Pakistani who loves to stay on the right side of law, but many a times, because of being an expat, I am not given a fair chance by the law enforcers here.

Honestly, I am afraid after hearing so many news reports, I wonder if these are just rumour mills working or are these really true? Life is becoming very tough here.

We are almost living on the edge.

God bless you for writing the truth.

Regards, Muhammad Ahsan Dear Madam Badrya, I would like to thank you primarily for your concern about the expats. I always read your articles published in the Kuwait Times.

I would like to bring to your attention how women are harassed in the buses. As Kuwait always accords primacy and respect to women, I think that respect is gone now. As some seats in the front rows are reserved for women in all public transport buses, but most of the time these seats are occupied by men. Even when a woman tries to claim a seat, they do not bother to get up. Most of the drivers also do not bother to tell the man to get up as they only care about the bus fare and the commission they receive.

If the traffic department really wants to increase its revenue, it would do well to check the buses and fine those men who are found sitting on seats reserved for women. They can be fined KD 50 or 100. Also, the transportation company should put a sticker on the women’s seats, clearly saying that these seats are reserved for women. I hope that you will convey the message to the traffic department to safeguard the women.

Thanks John

In my view

It’s not a man’s world

By Labeed Abdal

local@kuwaittimes.net

W

e often come across women who believe that men always compete with them, get all the jobs and job benefits and are the sole reason behind domestic violence across the world.

We cannot say that such beliefs are baseless; there are some men who really victimise innocent women.

However, recent studies have found that while men can be guilty such crimes in many cases, there are also cases where women instigate them to do so, by uttering offensive words or making provocative gestures.

Although, one cannot generalise, such crimes are extreme examples. Not all men and women have such vices; it is only some men and some women. Even in the Holy Quran, it was mentioned: “Good men are for good women, and good women are for good men.”

Sometimes, however, the reality on the ground can be just the opposite — where you find a very good woman engaged with a rude man, or the vice-versa.

Not all men can live without a caring, responsible and kind woman. In the same way, women also need a good man. Whatever be the gender, we are all equal as human beings. We are only biologically different so we can have families and live in peace.

With this sense of equality, people should act responsibly and must have respect and understanding for each other so all may live in peace forever.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

LOCAL

2013 Kuwait Ibtikar science competition announces winners

KUWAIT: The winners are pictured. (Inset) International designer Zuhair Murad presenting Fashion Designer of the Year Award to Sheikha Souad J A Al-Sabah at Kuwait Arab Woman Awards 2013.

Winners of the first Kuwait Arab woman awards announced Lebanese designer presents award to Sheikha Souad Al-Sabah KUWAIT: The winners of the first Arab Woman Awards Kuwait presented by ITP Consumer were honored at a glittering ceremony yesterday paying tribute to inspirational Arab women in Kuwait. Held at The Sheraton Kuwait Hotel, the glamorous gala dinner welcomed the congregation of renowned judges, nominees and distinguished guests and was hosted by well-known MBC presenter Fadia Al Taweel.

The prestigious event celebrated the achievements of remarkable women who have excelled in the fields of business, entrepreneurship, medicine, charity, art and fashion in Kuwait. The awards paid homage to the ambitious personalities who, through their exceptional determination and self-dedication, provide positive role models for younger generations.

International fashion designer Zuhair Murad attended the event and said: “I am pleased to be the guest of honor at the inaugural Arab Woman Awards Kuwait as I have always admired the style and sophistication of the women here. The awards are a great initiative and I congratulate all the talented winners.”

Zuhair Murad presented the Fashion Designer of the Year accolade to Sheikha Souad J A Al-Sabah who created a new trend by taking and modernizing the traditional Kaftan. She said upon receiving her trophy ‘It’s definitely a moment to remember in my life and an honor to receive such an award’.

The full list of recipients of the 2013 Kuwait awards are: Sarah Akbar, Businesswoman of the Year; Dr Badria Al-Awadi, Education Shurooq Amin, Artist; Farida Sultan, The Arts; Sheikha Bibi Mubarak Al-Sabah & Nouf Faisal AlMotawa, Entrepreneurs; Dr Najma Idris, Literature; Sheikha Souad J A Al-Sabah, Fashion Designer; Sara N Al-Ateeqi, Young Designer; Professor Noura A AlSweih, Medical; Maha Al-Barges, Humanitarian; Faye Sultan, Sportswoman; Lulwa Al-Shamlan, Young Talent; Fareah Al-Saqaf, Inspirational Arab Woman of the Year; Ruqayah Abdulwahab Alqatami, Lifetime Achievement; Sheikha Badriayh Saud Mohamed AlSabah, Special Recognition.

The finale of the event was a special tribute to

Sheikha Badriayh Saud Mohamed Al-Sabah who was awarded posthumously as a pioneer of her time. In 1952 Sheikha Badriayh held the position Director of the Department of Health and developed women’s contribution to the health sector by establishing a medical institute for nurses to encourage women in Kuwait to work in this field.

The youngest winner was 11-year old pianist Lulwa Al-Shalman whose first concert was at the age of five and studied at the world-renowned Wells Music Academy in the UK. Lulwa recently won first place in a piano contest at the Bristol Festival of Music, Speech and Drama against competitors up to 16 years of age.

She was mentored by Fareah Al-Saqaf, Founder, Chairperson and Managing Director of LOYAC, a nonprofit organisation committed to the overall development of youth in Kuwait and winner of this year’s prestigious Inspirational Arab Woman of the Year award.

Fareah Al-Saqaf said ‘When LOYAC was established in 2002 it was our vision to create an environment where we could help nurture and encourage young people to find their sense of purpose, develop their professional skills, unleash their creativity and enhance their own personal growth. During the past eight years I have watched Lulwa grow both in her talent as a musician and as a young person. She has a great future ahead of her and I am so pleased she won this year’s Young Talent of the Year award - it is well deserved.’ On her own nomination Fareah Al-Saqaf said ‘I would like to thank the judges for my award and am truly honored to be named Kuwait’s most inspirational Arab woman 2013.’

Swimmer Faye Sultan who represented Kuwait in the 2012 London Olympics in the Women’s 50m Freestyle Event and is currently in the USA was announced as Sportswoman of the Year. Her mother, Muna Al Mousa, collected her trophy on-stage and said ‘It is my pleasure to receive Faye’s award on her behalf. She is a very special and determined young lady who lets no obstacle stop her in her tracks. Your panel chose a great role model for young women in the region’.

Panel of judges with Zuhair Murad.

Citizen held for possessing drugs

By Hanan Al Saadoun KUWAIT: After a dramatic sequence of events, officers from the Mubarak Al Kabeer Governorate, in cooperation with Special Forces, arrested a Kuwaiti citizen for possessing a cocktail of drugs. The arrest came after the suspect ran from a check point, fired at the police officers and carjacked a patrol vehicle, and then another car. As per the direct instructions of the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Hmoud, and the Undersecretary General, Ghazi Al-Omer, and Assistant Undersecretary Lt General Abdul Hameed Al Awadhi, Ahmadi detectives arrested the suspect within hours after he tried to escape from a check point at Mina Abdullah area and fired at the security men, and then managed to commandeer a patrol car in which he fled. Later, he was able to even snatch a citizen’s car and escape. Police found 890 pills of drugs, a piece of hasheesh and another plant suspected to be a drug, besides a pistol, a gun and a total of 41 bullets and some money from the car.

A check revealed that the suspect had a criminal record and was wanted in drugs trading case. The arrested man and the contraband along with the vehicle were handed to the Mina Abdullah police station and a case was filed. The suspect confessed to his crimes and was sent to the concerned authorities.

Six hurt in car accident Four men and two women were injured in a car accident at the Fifth Ring Road. Except for a 56-year-old Kuwaiti man who suffered a head injury, all others were expats. The injured included a 28-year-old Indian woman who complained of pain in the back, a 27-year-old Indian man who was injured in the chest, a 26-year-old Nepali woman who suffered pain in the neck, a 24year-old Egyptian man who was injured in the shoulder and left leg and a 29-year-old Egyptian man who suffered pain in the left knee. Eight ambulances were rushed to the site carrying 14 technicians. The injured were taken to Sabah, Mubarak and Al Razi hospitals.

Meanwhile, a car accident at the Sixth Ring Road towards the airport left a 54-year-old Pakistani man with multiple injuries. A 34 year old Filipina woman also suffered a direct head injury in the same accident. She was rushed to the Farwaniya Hospital and admitted to its intensive care unit. A car accident at the 7th Ring Road resulted in a 19-year-old Kuwaiti youth suffering multiple injuries. He was taken to the Farwaniya Hospital.

The winners were nominated by a Board of Judges each selected by ITP based on their integrity, their expertise in their particular field and being respected members of society. In order to make their final selection the Board followed the strict criteria provided which included the nominees’ achievements in the past twelve months and the impact of their work to Kuwait.

This year’s esteemed Judges Board was chaired by H.E Sheikh Mubarak Fahed Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Undersecretary for Protocol Affairs Amiri Diwan and included H.E Sheikha Intissar Al-Sabah, Founder & CEO of Lulua Publishing; Dr Moudi Al-Humoud, Rector Arab Open University, Former Minister of Higher Education in Kuwait; Laila Abdullah Alghanim, President of Hyatt Breast Cancer Foundation & CEO of Gulf Trader; Mona Alghanim, Finance Director of Hayatt Breast Cancer Foundation & CEO Al Nafissi Group and Nadine El Chaer, Editor ITP Consumer Publishing.

H.E Sheikh Mubarak Fahed Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Chair of the Judges Board said ‘With this being the first time the awards have been held in Kuwait the judges had to first discover then ascertain the most deserving winners in accordance with the criteria provided for each category. We were pleased by the high quality and caliber of the women nominated which made our task of selecting the overall winner for each award all the more challenging.’

Dr Moudi Al-Humoud, Rector of the Arab Open University and Former Minister of Higher Education in Kuwait said ‘Kuwait has always been proactive in its education of women and educational excellence on all levels. It was wonderful to see such talented, intelligent, skilled women recognized publicly for their accomplishments in areas such as education, medicine and business. Their hard work brings reward not only for themselves but also for Kuwait and its future development. I applaud them and wish them all continued success’.

The sponsors for the evening were luxury jeweler MaximiliaN London, Trafalgar Group, Aigner, Uterque, Al Fares and Tanagra.

Established in 2009, the Arab Woman Awards is a highly respected event which has gained great prominence over the years and is held annually in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and now Kuwait. To-date, the Arab Woman Awards has recognised the achievements of 120 Arab women. Previous winners include notable Abu Dhabi business women H.E. Huda Al Matroushi, H.E. Fatima Al Jaber and Her Highness Sheikha Manal bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Women Establishment, wife of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs.

KUWAIT: Under the patronage of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, and following the vision of Sheikha Fadyah Saad Al Abdullah Al Salem Al Sabah, the 2013 Kuwait Ibtikar Science Competition, the first science competition targeting female high school students, held a press conference yesterday to announce the results of the competition and reveal the winning projects in Kuwait that qualify to compete against their peers participating from other GCC countries.

The press conference was led by Sheikha Fadyah Saad Al Abdullah Al Salem Al Sabah, and the Chair of the Science Committee and judging panel, Dr. Najat Al Mutawaa, in addition to the Science Committee members: Dr Nawal Al Othman, Dr Souad Al Fareeh, Dr Abdul Aziz Al Najjar, Dr Ali Al Kandari, Dr Abd Al Mutawaa, and Ms Budour Al Shebly.

The winning teams announced to represent the state of Kuwait were: Al Fahaheel Girls High School for the ‘Charging Devices without Cables’ project, and Al Hadiya Girls High School for the “Handrail Escalator Sanitizer’ project.

By winning the Kuwait competition, the team members qualified to move onto the GCC finals to be held on May 16, 2013 in Kuwait. Prizes were awarded to other participating teams as a token of encouragement for their participation.

The 2013 Kuwait Ibtikar Science Competition was a great success among students. Online registration reached this year a total of 54 team submissions by female students who all submitted proj-

ect ideas and suggestions, compared to 70 teams last year with only 34 of them submitting project ideas and suggestions.

The Ibtikar competition came to fruition from a memorandum of cooperation signed between the Ministry of Education (MoE) and the Kuwait Ibtikar Science Competition. The competition is supervised by MoE representatives from the department of Student Activities and Public Science Guidance.

The Kuwait Ibtikar Science Competition organizes numerous workshops and training that help raise interest and a better understanding of the importance of providing female students with scientific expertise. This includes instilling the values of teamwork and sound implementation, acquiring effective presentation skills, learning how to write a practical research paper, improving self-motivation skills and exploring internet research tools. It also allows participants to communicate with various members of the six qualifying teams and have their questions answered by the judges who are available to provide them with the guidance and direction they need. The Kuwait Ibtikar Science Competition will provide up to KD 150 to each of the seven teams to assist them in developing their project.

The Kuwait Ibtikar Science Competition is a non-profit corporation dedicated to assisting and increasing access to higher education for talented young female students with interest and passion for scientific research.

Gulf Bank sponsors Hala Expo ‘Hala Ramadan III’ KUWAIT: Gulf Bank is currently supporting the third Hala Ramadan event, entitled Hala Ramadan Expo III, as a lead sponsor and participant. The Expo is being held under the patronage of Sheikha Feryal Al Duaij Al Salman Al Sabah and is taking place at 360 Mall in the 360 Exhibition Hall. The expo is split in two parts, the first part held from 21 to 23 April and the second part held from 28 to 30 April, 2013.

Gulf Bank will be exhibiting its wide range of products and services to the visitors of the Expo throughout the

event. The Bank will also place a Gulf Bank ATM machine, conveniently located at the expo, for customers to withdraw money.

Hala Ramadan Expo III builds on the previous success of the expo and will display products and services during the event that directly revolve around the Holy Month of Ramadan, such as kaftans, jewelry, silverware, foodstuff and home accessories.

Gulf Bank continuously seeks such opportunities to recognise and support young Kuwaiti business talent.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

Moroccan adoption law change baffles foreigners

Kerry urges Erdogan to delay Gaza visit

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Boston suspect unable to speak Russia’s Islamist rebels say not at war with Washington BOSTON: The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings remained in serious condition in the hospital yesterday, unable to speak due to injuries to his neck and tongue sustained while on the run from police, officials said. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation still was unable to interview Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told CBS television, and authorities may never be able to speak with him, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said. The suspect was in Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center while US Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the federal prosecutor for the Boston area, was working on filing criminal charges, Davis said.

Tsarnaev was shot in the throat and had tongue damage, said a source close to the investigation, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to question the individual,” Menino told ABC’s “This Week” program. He did not elaborate. Tsarnaev will be defended by the Federal Public Defender Office, which had yet to issue any public statements on the case.

Investigators were seeking a motive for the Boston Marathon bombings and whether others were involved besides the ethnic Chechen brothers they suspect carried out the attacks.

The other identified suspect, older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed during a firefight with police on Friday, in the middle of the dramatic 26 hours between when the FBI released pictures of the two suspects and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capture in the Boston suburbs. Two bombs made in pressure cookers and packed with ball bearings and nails exploded at the Boston Marathon on Monday, killing three people and injuring 176 and setting of a tense week in the United States that culminated in a massive manhunt on Friday with the greater Boston area on lockdown.

The two brothers may have been readying for a second attack at the time of the shootout, Davis told CBS. Early indications were the brothers acted alone, Davis and other officials said. When police were able to move in after the hail of bullets stopped, they found unexploded devices littering the street and one in the carjacked SUV that the brothers had been driving. The devices contained the same type of shrapnel used in the marathon bombs. “There is no doubt that they were made by these two guys,” Davis said.

Police finally found the suspect cowering in a boat in a backyard in Watertown, hours after police went door to door searching for him after he escaped on foot. A man went to check on his boat after the tarp had come loose.

“He saw the suspect, retreated, and called police and we were there instantaneously,” Davis said.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Moscow in Jan 2012 and spent six months in the region, a law enforcement source said. He spent at least a month last summer helping his father renovate his first-floor apartment next door to a dentistry in Makhachkala, a city in the Dagestan region on the Caspian Sea. It was unclear if he could have had contact with militant Islamist groups in southern Russia’s restive Caucasus region. A group leading an Islamist insurgency against Russia said yesterday it was not at war with the United States, distancing itself from last week’s Boston bombing.

A statement from militants operating in Dagestan, where the brothers spent time as children, said the leading insurgency group Caucasus Emirate, led by Russia’s most wanted man Doku Umarov, was not attacking the United States. “We are fighting with Russia, which is responsible not only for the occupation of the Caucasus but for monstrous crimes against Muslims,” the statement said. The insurgency is rooted in two separatist wars that Russian troops waged against Chechen separatists following the fall of the Soviet Union.

The role of the FBI is also being questioned after the agency said it had interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 after Russian security services raised concerns. The FBI said it did not find any “terrorism activity” at that time. The suspect’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who now lives in Russia, told a Russian television station Tamerlan had been under FBI surveillance for years.

The bombings prompted contact between the United States and Russia, and the Kremlin said on Saturday the presidents of both countries agreed by telephone to increase cooperation on counter-terrorism. Ruslan Tsarni, who said he was an uncle of the brothers, told CNN on Saturday he first noticed a change in Tamerlan’s religious views in 2009. He suggested the radicalization of his nephew happened while he was in the United States “in the streets of Cambridge (Massachusetts)”. — Reuters

WATERTOWN, Massachusetts: In this April 19, 2013 photo, ATF and FBI agents check suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for explosives and also give him medical attention after he was apprehended. — AP

Delhi seethes with rage NEW DELHI: The condition of a 5-year-old girl who was allegedly kidnapped, raped and tortured by a man and then left alone in a locked room in India’s capital for two days has improved, a doctor said yesterday, as protests continued over the authorities’ handling of the case. The girl was in critical condition when she was transferred Thursday from a local hospital to the largest government-run hospital in the country. But DK Sharma, medical superintendent of the state-run hospital in New Delhi where the girl was being treated, said yesterday that she was responding well to treatment and that her condition had stabilized.

Police say the girl went missing April 15 and was found two days later by neighbors who heard her crying in a locked room in the same New Delhi building where she lives with her family. The girl was alone when she was found, having been left for dead by the man following the brutal attack, police say.

A 24-year-old man was arrested Saturday in the eastern state of Bihar, about 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from New Delhi, in connection with the incident. After being flown to New Delhi, he was in custody yesterday and was being questioned, police said. The incident came four months after the fatal gang rape of a woman on a New Delhi bus sparked outrage across India about the treatment of women in the country.

For the second consecutive day, hundreds of people protested yesterday outside police headquarters in the capital, angry over allegations that police had ignored complaints by the girl’s parents that she was missing. About

100 supporters of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party protested outside the home of the chief of the ruling Congress Party, Sonia Gandhi, demanding that the government ensure the safety and security of women and girls in the city.

The protesters also demanded that the Delhi police chief be removed from office and that police officials accused of failing to act on the parents’ complaint be dismissed. “Police and other officials that fail to do their jobs and instead engage in abusive behavior should

know that they will be punished,” Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of New Yorkbased Human Rights Watch, said yesterday.

Police said they detained more than 50 protesters when they tried to break down barricades on the road leading to Gandhi’s house.

The protesters were released after a few hours. Police also placed restrictions on the gathering of more than four people on the main avenue in the heart of New Delhi after university students said they planned to hold a demonstration there later yesterday.

NEW DELHI: Indian policemen drag a protestor after detaining him outside Prime Minister’s residence during a protest against the rape of a 5-year-old girl in New Delhi yesterday. — AP

Despite the police order, about 100 students gathered at New Delhi’s iconic India Gate monument and held a peaceful protest late yesterday. Sexual crimes against women and children are reported every day in Indian newspapers, and women often complain about their sense of insecurity when they leave their homes.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called for changes in attitudes toward women in India, where there has been a fierce debate since December’s fatal New Delhi gang rape about the routine mistreatment of females. “The gruesome assault on the little girl a few days back reminds us once again of the need to work collectively to root out this sort of depravity from our society,” Singh said yesterday at a meeting with civil servants. A day earlier, Singh had urged Indian society “to look within and work to root out the evil of rape and other such crimes from our midst.” The fatal beating and gang rape of a young woman aboard a moving New Delhi bus sparked outrage and spurred the government to pass tough laws for crimes against women, including the death penalty for repeat offenders or for rape attacks that lead to the victim’s death. But activists say that merely passing strong laws is not enough, and that the government has to convey its intention to crack down on crimes against women to its officials and the police. “Enacting strong laws are simply a first step, but it needs the government to focus urgently on implementation if it is serious about protecting children and other victims of sexual abuse,” Human Rights Watch’s Ganguly said. — AP

Paramilitaries in Darfur ‘mutiny’ KHARTOUM: Paramilitary forces in Sudan’s Darfur have mutinied, the interior ministry said yesterday, as a United States diplomat expressed concern that security in the western region is worsening. “A small group from the Central Reserve Police started a mutiny,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SUNA news agency. It said the mutineers were from the West Darfur unit of the special police and were based in the state capital El Geneina near the Chadian border. They “started firing their guns in the air”, panicking residents, before fleeing southwest, the ministry said.

It added that there were no casualties and Sudan’s army was in pursuit after the incident, which is unusual despite a decade of unrest in Darfur. SUNA said the mutineers “withdrew from their compound and took with them four Land Cruisers with weapons, and some food”. The town is now calm, SUNA said. The Central Reserve is one of the government forces used against rebels who have been fighting in Darfur since 2003 against the Arab-dominated regime in Khartoum.

Darfuri members of the Reserve formerly belonged to the Janjaweed, a government-backed militia which shocked the world with atrocities against ethnic minority civilians suspected of supporting the rebels. More recently the Central Reserve have been implicated in other abuses. Last week the Salamat tribe accused Central Reserve members of joining fighting in Rahad el Berdi near Umm Dukhun, more than 200 km south of El Geneina. At least 18 people were killed in clashes between the Misseriya and Salamat tribes around Umm Dukhun, a tribal leader said.

A United Nations panel of experts reported in February that eyewitnesses and victims blamed elements of the Central Reserve and other paramilitaries “for acts of harassment and intimidation” in rural areas or inside camps for Darfur’s 1.4 million displaced. While the worst of Darfur’s violence has long passed, instability has been complicated by inter-Arab fighting, kidnappings, carjackings and other crimes, many suspected to be the work of government-linked militia and paramilitary groups. — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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

Ivory Coast local polls boycotted by oppn ABIDJAN: Ivory Coast residents voted yesterday for local officials in the first government organized polls since deadly postelection violence killed thousands two years ago. Yesterday’s polls, however, were boycotted by the opposition party of former President Laurent Gbagbo, highlighting the slow progress of reconciliation in this West African country. Five months of violence erupted after Gbagbo refused to leave office despite having lost the November 2010 runoff vote to current President Alassane Ouattara. The United Nations estimates that more than 3,000 people were killed.

The countr y ’s UN peacekeeping mission said its forces would assist I vorian securit y forces in keeping order yesterday. Albert Koenders, special representative of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said on Friday that the campaign period had been marred by “some regrettable incidents, including unacceptable intimi-

dation in certain constituencies.”

A spokesman for Ouattara’s Rally of the Republicans political party also warned earlier in the week of a “rise in tension,” but voters in the commercial capital of Abidjan said this weekend that the campaign had been conducted peacefully. Turnout appeared to be low yesterday. In a section of Abidjan’s Yopougon district, a bastion of Gbagbo support, workers at one polling station said they had processed only 10 voters more than two hours after doors opened.

Oumar Kone, a 30-year-old voter, said the boycott and general anxiety about the elections may have affected turnout.

“This is an important election for the youth, but some people are keeping in their mind visions from 2010,” he said.

“Also, the Gbagbo supporters do not have candidates representing them, so they have no reason to come out and vote.” President Ouattara voted with his

wife at a school in Abidjan’s Cocody district just before noon. He told reporters he expected the turnout to increase throughout the day. “The local elections are an opportunity to assess and to reassess the will of the people, and to implement the policies and projects that are wanted by the people at the local level,” he said.

Ouattara’s government failed to convince Gbagbo’s Ivorian Popular Front political party to take part in the vote earlier this year. Gbagbo’s party, the FPI, demanded reforms to the electoral commission and amnesty for crimes committed during the postelection conflict, something the government has ruled out. The party had also boycotted UNorganized legislative elections in 2011, and accused Ouattara’s government of failing to foster reconciliation.

The government has been criticized by rights groups for only charging Gbagbo supporters in connection with

the 2010-11 conflict, as well as subjecting Gbagbo supporters to torture and other forms of maltreatment as part of its response to a wave of attacks on security installations by gunmen last year. But Gbagbo’s party has also lacked a coherent strategy for reasserting itself following the 2010-11 conflict, said Rinaldo Depagne, senior West Africa researcher for the International Crisis Group. Without officials in parliament and in local offices, it will be difficult for the party to take part in national debates, he said.

“If you don’t participate in democratic life and political life, what will happen to you? It’s a major risk,” Depagne said.

Across the country, the race featured contests between Ouattara’s RDR and the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast, headed by former President Henri Konan Bedie and the most important partner in Ouattara’s governing coalition. Bedie backed Ouattara in the November 2010

runoff against Gbagbo, helping put him in power. A dispute between lawmakers from the two parties was officially blamed for Ouattara’s decision to dissolve his cabinet last November. But even with their candidates pitted against each other in local races, the two parties were likely to continue cooperating regardless of the results, said Samir Gadio, emerging markets strategist at Standard Bank. “They understand that they need each other to continue to rule the country and that a breakup of the coalition would basically mean that they would eventually. be in a precarious situation,” Gadio said. “There is no political party in Ivory Coast that can win elections on its own.” Nearly 700 candidates are listed for municipal seats, and an additional 84 are running for regional seats. Municipal elections were last held in 2001, while regional elections were last held in 2002. Results were expected to begin coming today. —AP

Kerry urges Erdogan to delay Gaza visit Kerry doubling US non-lethal aid to Syrian oppn

RABAT: Novelist Eric Laurrent (right), 45, and Yassamane Montazami, a 42-year-old psychologist, walk together in Rabat’s Old City. The French couple are in Morocco since last year to adopt a one-year-old Moroccan boy but they are worried a new law on adoption, based on strict Islamic rules, may obstruct their case. — AFP

Moroccan adoption law change baffles foreigners RABAT: For more than a year Yassamane and Eric have been waiting to adopt a child in Morocco. But a decision to tighten the adoption law has thrown the whole process into doubt, leaving dozens of hopeful foreign couples in limbo. Kafala as it is known in Morocco, or “custody” in Arabic, allows Muslims-including converts to Islam-to assume the guardianship of orphans in the North African nation. The same conditions apply in most Muslim countries, where religion is a determining factor in the adoption process.

But last September, Morocco’s government amended the law and barred foreigners from adopting, in order to better protect the children’s interests and identity, according to Justice Minister Mustapha Ramid. Since then, foreign couples who had already begun the process fear it may retroactively be invalidated and their cherished hopes dashed. “I was awarded my child in April 2012. It was the happiest day of my life,” said Yassamane Montazami, who gave up her psychology practice in France and moved to Morocco to complete the kafala process.

“But since that date, the judicial procedure that usually lasts a few months has dragged on for more than a year.” Gabriel Pernau, a Spanish journalist who frequently travels between Madrid and Rabat, is also waiting nervously to see whether the goverment’s ruling will affect his adoption of a 15-monthold boy. “I’m afraid this decision will be applied retroactively,” he said.

More than 100 families-Spanish, French and Americans, as well as Moroccans living in Europe-were awarded children before the adoption laws were changed and are still awaiting a final decision. Around 40 of them are hoping to become the parents of children they found at an orphanage in Rabat, which they are allowed to visit for six hours a day.

Another orphanage, in the southern resort town of Agadir, limits visiting times to one

hour a day. Under Moroccan law, the kafala must be undertaken by “virtuous Muslim couples, both morally and socially responsible, who have sufficient means to support the needs of the child.” Islamic law also stipulates that the adopted children do not have the same inheritance rights as any biological offspring.

“We are not disputing any Moroccan law.

We are simply asking that this new provision not be retroactive,” said Montazami, whose husband, a French novelist, commutes between Paris and Rabat. But Pernau’s hopes are fading. “We have the impression that since the amendment, the judges have pushed back the court hearings indefinitely.”

Last Monday, the family court in Rabat announced a new delay-the sixth since last September-to June 3. “The judge is waiting for the police investigation, which has to be ordered by the public prosecutor. As long as that doesn’t happen, we won’t get the agreement of the judge,” he said. The justice minister denied seeking to impede the work of the judges, when contacted by AFP, saying he had “never interfered in the judicial process.”

Speaking to parliament in November last year, Ramid said the changes to the law were designed to better protect the interests and identity of the child. “We found that there were many foreigners who declare themselves Muslims, stay in a hotel and, when they get their child, they leave the country. How can we be sure that they will respect the law and protect the child?”

The countries of those affected are taking the issue seriously, with 40 couples saying in a statement last week that it was discussed during a high-level meeting in October between the Spanish and Moroccan governments. The couples said they could not bear to be separated from their prospective charges, “who call us ‘mummy’ and ‘daddy’ and cry every time we have to leave the orphanage.” —AFP

Pakistan cleric political ambitions alarm Shiites JHANG: When Maulana Ahmed Ludhianvi greets supporters on the Pakistan election trail, he opens his pitch with the kind of promises to the poor that any other politician might make. But behind the reassuring rhetoric lies what his opponents believe is a dangerous agenda - to gain a foothold in parliament and further his designs to oppress Pakistan’s Shiite minority. Ludhianvi, a radical Sunni cleric, is a hate figure for Shi’ites who accuse him of devoting his decades-long career to fomenting an escalating campaign of gun attacks and suicide bombings targeting their community.

The prospect that he might win a place in the political mainstream at the May 11 vote horrifies Shiites who fear his presence in parliament will give him a much stronger platform to strike out at the sect. And it looks like Ludhianvi may have a better shot than at the last election in 2008 when he came second.

His main rival has been barred from the race and a Reuters visit to his constituency of Jhang, in the heart of populous Punjab province, found no shortage of supporters.

“I cannot bring any change if I am sitting as a layman outside parliament,” Ludhianvi, flanked by bodyguards, said in an interview.

“If I get into parliament, everyone will be listening to what we want.” As he toured Jhang, which served as the cradle of sectarian extremist groups in the 1980s, people in one village after another emerged from their

homes to shower him with rose petals. “If I get into parliament, I will be able to save this entire country from bloodshed,” said Ludhianvi, who wears a thick beard and an embroidered skull cap and projects a commanding presence.

The election is seen as a milestone for Pakistan’s fragile democracy, marking the first time a civilian government has completed a full term in a country which a long history of military meddling in politics. Western powers are hoping the polls might deliver a government capable of grappling with huge domestic challenges and helping the United States bring the Afghan Taliban to the negotiating table ahead of a NATO pullout in 2014. Any triumph by Ludhianvi at the polls could be read as a sign that sectarianism - now seen as a top security threat - has made a troubling new in-road into the political sphere, which could further polarise the nuclear-armed country. Ludhianvi was a leader of Sipah-eSahaba, a sectarian Sunni group which emerged in Jhang in the mid-1980s with the support of Pakistani intelligence and which has since been linked to hundreds of killings of Shiites. The group’s offshoot, Lashkar-eJhangvi (LeJ), evolved into one of Pakistan’s most feared militant groups and has claimed responsibility for many attacks on Shiites, including a series of bombings that killed almost 200 people in the southwestern city of Quetta this year. —Reuters

ISTANBUL: US Secretary of State John Kerry called on Turkey’s prime minister on Sunday to delay a visit to Gaza in talks aimed at putting IsraeliTurkish relations back on track as part of efforts to revive the Middle East peace process. “We have expressed to the prime minister (Recep Tayyip Erdogan) that it would be better to delay,” Kerry told reporters in Istanbul, urging him to wait for the “right conditions”.

Erdogan announced last week that he was planning to visit the impoverished Palestinian territory at the end of next month after a key trip to Washington on May 16. Erdogan said his visit would be aimed at pushing for the lifting of Israel’s embargo on the Gaza Strip but Washington fears such a trip could hurt a fresh US-brokered rapprochement between the former allies after a three-year rift.

Kerry also met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to continue talks “about how to get both sides (the Palestinians and the Israelis) back to the table,” a State Department official said. Kerry is working on a plan to try to boost the Palestinian economy as part of efforts to restore trust between the two sides.

Peace negotiations have been suspended since the latest ground ground to a halt shortly after their resumption in September 2010, largely over Israel’s settlement construction on occupied land. Kerry had warned Wednesday that time was slipping away to reach a peace deal, stressing for the first time that there may only be a year or two left.

The top US diplomat also said he was “confident” Abbas would find a successor to replace his prime minister Salam Fayyad, who resigned earlier this month. Kerry said Fayyad, whose authority was never recog-

ISTANBUL: Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu (left) shows US Secretary of State John Kerry, the skyline of Istanbul before the start of a meeting yesterday.— AFP nised by Hamas, the Islamist rulers of Gaza, was a personal friend and a “good man who has worked incredibly hard” for the development of the Palestinians. “ That said, this initiative, this dream, this effort we are working towards is bigger than one man it does not just depend on one person within a structure,” he said. “President Abbas made very clear that he understands the international concerns about accountability, about transparency,” he added. Kerry’s talks with Erdogan focused mainly on restoring predominantly Muslim Turkey’s onceclose ties with Israel. Israeli and Turkish officials meet on Monday for talks on compensation over a deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid ship, which if successful could put the two countries’ rocky relations back on

sound footing. A State Department official said the United States was “continuing to encourage” attempts at a rapprochement and that efforts needed to be made “one step at a time,” starting with the compensation issue. A strong ally for both Turkey and Israel, Washington has been trying to repair the ties which collapsed after the botched Israeli raid killed nine Turkish activists on the Gazabound flotilla in 2010. After long refusing Ankara’s demand for a formal apology, Israel last month finally made the gesture at the urging of US President Barack Obama. But for the full restoration of ties and reappointment of its ambassador to Israel, Ankara insists the Jewish state pay compensation for the raid victims and lift its punishing restrictions on Gaza. Abbas’s West Bank-based

nationalist Fatah movement, a longtime rival to Hamas, has said Erdogan’s plans to visit Gaza would foster intra-Palestinian divisions.

Kerry was in Istanbul mainly to attend talks among the 11-member core group of the pro-opposition “Friends of Syria”, including the United States, European nations and Arab countries. After more than six hours of talks that ended early yestedray, Kerry said US assistance to the opposition battling President Bashar Al-Assad would double to $250 million (190 million euros). He said the United States would expand deliveries of military equipment to rebel fighters to include new types of “non-lethal supplies”, but ignored opposition demands for weapons and drone strikes on Assad regime positions. —AFP

Ghosts of Gujarat riots haunt Modi’s PM dreams NEW DELHI: He may be the opposition frontrunner for next year’s Indian elections, but the ghosts of the carnage in his fiefdom a decade ago have returned to haunt Narendra Modi’s prime ministerial ambitions. Modi, chief minister of the thriving state of Gujarat for over a decade and favourite to be the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) candidate for the national polls, has been campaigning furiously to paint himself as a pro-business reformist who can revive the fortunes of the world’s largest democracy. But a new court case and an anti-Modi outburst from one of the BJP’s allies have picked at wounds which date back to events 11 years ago, when 2,000 people were killed in religious riots. Most

NEW DELHI: This file photo shows Indian Chief Minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi gesturing during a BJP National Council two-day meeting. — AFP

were Muslims. And for all his efforts to wipe the slate clean, analysts say that his Hindu nationalist party may well conclude that he remains too divisive a figure to steer it to victory over the secular ruling Congress party. “Is Modi capable of leading the party to victory across the country? The BJP could take that kind of risk with (former BJP premier) Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 1996... but with Modi there’s a suspicion that he might polarise the country,” Parsa Venkateshwar Rao, a columnist for the Mumbai-based DNA daily, told AFP. BG Verghese of the Centre for Policy Research, in New Delhi, said Modi’s rivals in the BJP were happy to see him make the running “as they don’t want to reveal their hands” but he ultimately has too many enemies.

“Moderates are suspicious of him and he has many enemies even within the Gujarat BJP itself... They feel he is a divisive force in the party and in the community,” Verghese told AFP. India’s parliamentary arithmetic means the BJP-currently the largest opposition party, with 115 MPs-not only needs to win 200 of the 550 seats up for grabs but must then forge an alliance with regional parties. At the moment, it has an alliance with eight other parties-all of which it needs to keep onside to have a realistic chance of forging the next government.

But the Janata Dal United (JD-U) party, the BJP’s biggest partner with 20 seats, made clear its opposition to Modi last week as the party’s executive accused him of having “failed in discharging his duties” during the riots. Other potential kingmakers have voiced distaste, such as the Samajwadi Party (SP) which is part of the Congress-led coalition but whose leader has made a point of praising another of the BJP’s big guns, LK Advani.

Polls show Modi is the most popular of the BJP’s leaders, in particular drawing strong

support from India’s emerging urban middle class. Gujarat has enjoyed annual growth rates of 10-12 percent since 2007, far outpacing the rest of the country, while its cities have benefited from major development projects such as metro systems.

And as the son of a tea stallholder, Modi’s backstory should serve as an inspiring contrast to that of Rahul Gandhi-the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi ruling dynasty who could well be Congress’s election frontman. But Modi remains toxic in the eyes of India’s Muslim minority which accounts for around 13 percent of the population but is much larger in politically vital states such as northern Uttar Pradesh.

While refusing to apologise for 2002, Modi argues that Gujarat has proven to be a model of “peace, unity and compassion”, telling AFP in an interview in October it would not have prospered “if the poison of religion was present”. All investigations have cleared him of any personal responsibility but one of his former ministers, Maya Kodnani, was jailed for life for instigating the killing of 97 Muslims.

The most high-profile victim was retired Congress MP Ehsan Jafri, burned to death when a mob attacked his home in Gujarat’s main city Ahmedabad. Now a local court is to hear a petition from April 24 by his widow Zakia Jafri challenging the findings of an official inquiry which cleared Modi. In an editorial last week The Economist said there was much to admire in Modi, who was boycotted by the European Union until recently and is still unable to gain a visa for the United States. But it added: “Although Mr Modi may be clean enough to avoid conviction... if he dreams of becoming a leader for all India, including its 177 million Muslims, he must show genuine contrition for the horrors that happened when he was in charge in Gujarat.” — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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

Napolitano re-election good news for new govt Italy’s political world under ‘extreme pressure’

BERLIN: German Labour minister Ursulavon der Leyen arrives for a debate at the German parliament. — AFP

Fiery German minister stands up to Merkel BERLIN: The political wilderness in Germany is filled with once-powerful conservative party barons, overly confident men who dared to challenge Angela Merkel and lost. But never before has the German chancellor had to contend with another woman, a popular member of her own cabinet, standing up to her in public in the way Labour Minister Ursula von der Leyen did last week. The 54-year-old von der Leyen forced Merkel to retreat on, of all things, women’s rights in a riveting public showdown just five months before an election.

“It’s like von der Leyen threw a stick of dynamite into the coalition,” said Gero Neugebauer, political scientist at Berlin’s Free University. “You have to go back to the 1970s to find a minister who stood up to a chancellor. She made Merkel look weak.” Political analysts, conservative party members and German voters are now watching to see if there will be any fallout.

Most believe that von der Leyen, who regularly polls among the most popular politicians in Germany, remains too important to Merkel and the party to dump, especially with the election looming. The showdown may burnish von der Leyen’s image among some voters, even if it has infuriated conservatives in the ruling Christian Democrats (CDU). Just one year ago, Merkel summarily fired her Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen after he bungled an important regional election. Over the past decade, she has found ways to neutralise other potential rivals, from former CDU parliamentary leader Friedrich Merz to state premiers Roland Koch, Guenther Oettinger and Christian Wulff. Von der Leyen, a trained gynaecologist, has a history of pushing her party towards the political centre even if it means poaching ideas from the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD). Her popularity stems from her engaging speaking style, down-to-earth manner and the determined way in which she’s pushed her issues, notably a drive to create more childcare facilities in a country of stay-at-home mothers. Still, her threat last week to break ranks and back an opposition bill to establish quotas for women on company boards was seen as an act of betrayal in some conservative circles.

Mother of seven A mother of seven who was born in Brussels and lived in Britain and the United States, von der Leyen grew up surrounded by politics. Her father, Ernst Albrecht, was a CDU state premier for Lower Saxony from 1976 to 1990. She is a rarity in German politics in that she came to the game late, when she was 42, following a career in medicine. Von der Leyen speaks fluent English and French. She studied at the London School of Economics from 1977 to 1980, but used the pseudonym “Rose Ladson” due to concerns she might be targeted, as the daughter of a prominent politician, by left-wing guerrillas who were active in West Germany at the time.

She graduated from medical school in 1987 and worked as a physician until 1992. While raising her fast-growing family, she lived in California from 1992 to 1996 while her husband Heiko taught at Stanford University. She met him at a university choir in Goettingen. Von der Leyen is resented by some for seeming too perfect. She was once hoisted out of a barrel on German entertainment TV by Hugh Jackman and kissed by George Clooney after handing him an award for promoting peace.

She is admired by others for her ability to juggle a demanding career and family, while skillfully representing Germany on her frequent trips abroad. “Von der Leyen can go to Harvard or the Sorbonne and give big speeches in English and French,” said Markus Kerber, managing director of the BDI industry association, who knows her well. “For me she represents a new generation of Germans who can communicate internationally.” —Reuters

ROME: The re-election of Italy’s 87-year-old president Giorgio Napolitano raised hopes of an end to a two-month impasse on forming a new government but failed to answer calls for change, experts said yesterday. Napolitano had ruled out standing again but changed his mind on Saturday, becoming the first president ever to do so after parliament proved incapable of electing another candidate and rival parties appealed to him for help. “In this context of a failure of politics they see him as the only resource that can overcome this systemic crisis,” said Marzio Breda, a presidential politics expert for the top-selling Corriere della Sera daily.

“Public opinion is becoming ever more distant from traditional politics,” he said, after a rally outside the parliament building in Rome on Saturday drew thousands of people protesting against Napolitano’s re-election.

The parties have been at loggerheads ever since a general election in February that was narrowly won by the centre-left but failed to produce a parliamentary majority. “He can go on for one or two years and then he would resign.

This too would be a first but the pope did it so the president can do it too,” he said. Corriere della Sera editorialist Sergio Romano said: “We have reason to hope that this institutional novelty... will be a spur for the country to shed the pessimism of recent months.”

But Ezio Mauro, editor of La Repubblica daily, said the election showed Italy’s political world and the democratic system itself were under “extreme pressure”. Analysts said Napolitano would most likely move swiftly to set up a short-term government similar to the outgoing one of Mario Monti with a mandate to carry out much-needed reforms, although with a cabinet made up of both party political and “technocratic” ministers.

Early elections would likely still have to be held but the prospect of a vote within months, which had raised concern on the financial markets, would be staved off. It would be “an emergency government”, said Stefano Folli, columnist for business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, which has urged bickering politicians to act fast as Italy endures a painful recession that has triggered a social crisis. “Napolitano’s decision has to be read as an impulse to political forces to act,” Folli said, adding that his election with a sweeping majority showed there was a basis for a government with a “limited but concrete agenda”. Analysts also noted that with his reelection Napolitano had re-gained the power to dissolve parliament and call early elections, since presidents are

prevented from doing so in the last six months of their mandate.

Napolitano “might stay for one or two years. It’s as if the political system has bought time,” said Mario Calabresi, editor of La Stampa daily. “But if this time is used just to stay in this paralysis then the country will be even more angry, tired, exhausted and stuck in one or two years. “This time has to be best used to provide answers to the citizens,” he said.

Il Sole-24 Ore editor-in-chief Roberto Napoletano wrote yesterday: “We fervently hope that (Napolitano’s) re-election is not just a Bandaid on a deep wound, an aspirin to lower the fever, or even worse a way to gain time and put

off solutions.” In a scathing editorial for Il Fatto Quotidiano daily, columnist Peter Gomez said the re-election was an ominous sign.

“Faced with the economic and social decomposition of the country, the political class could only reply with the status quo,” he said, adding that this showed the “comatose delirium of omnipotence” of political parties.

Gomez said Napolitano’s most likely choice for prime minister would be Giuliano Amato, a veteran political operator and former prime minister who is frequently mentioned as a neutral figure who could preside a cross-party deal. “Stay strong. The worst, unfortunately, is yet to come,” Gomez said. — AFP

ROME: Supporters of Beppe Grillo’s Five-Star Movement hold placards reading “The mess is served” to protest against Giorgio Napolitano’s election as president during a rally yesterday. — AFP

Why gay marriage polarised France PARIS: Gay marriage may have passed with barely hitch in many countries, but it has kicked up a huge storm in France, a country often seen as the champion of secularism and notoriously relaxed on issues pertaining to private life. Smelling blood after a bruising first year for President Francois Hollande, right-wing leaders have mobilised a fierce campaign. But sociologists argue that France’s social fabric and identity crisis also helps explain the ferocity of the debate. The cheers and Maori love song that greeted the legalisation of same-

sex union in New Zealand’s parliament Thursday were in stark contrast to the escalating rage a similar bill is causing in France.

In parliament, MPs nearly came to blows this week; gay activists have reported a rise in attacks on homosexuals; and millions of people have taken to the streets to declare their opposition to the bill, vowing to fight to the bitter end. The divisions over gay marriage in France follow political lines, and the opposition has united against the bill, seizing an opportunity to pile pressure on an already embattled administration.

Victory over Japanese at Kohima named Britain’s greatest battle LONDON: The Battle of Imphal/Kohima, when British troops fighting in horrendous jungle conditions turned the tide against the Japanese army in World War II, has been chosen as Britain’s greatest battle. Kohima was picked over the more celebrated battles of D-Day and Waterloo in a contest organised by the National Army Museum. Rorke’s Drift in the 1879 Zulu War and the Battle of Aliwal in the AngloSikh War in Punjab in 1846 brought up the rear. “Great things were at stake in a war with the toughest enemy any British army has had to fight,” historian Robert Lyman said, making the case for Kohima in a debate at the museum.

If Lieutenant General William Slim’s army of British, Indian, Gurkha and African troops had lost, the consequences for the allied cause would have been catastrophic, he said. The contest’s criteria included a battle’s political and historical impact, the challenges the troops faced, and the strategy and tactics employed.

Waterloo had topped an online poll which produced a list of 20 land battles fought since the English Civil War. The top five were debated on Saturday before going to an audience vote.

The winner was something of a surprise given the enduring prominence of Waterloo and D-Day/Normandy in Britain.

Indeed, the troops who fought in India and Burma in World War II called themselves “The Forgotten Army”. The Battle of Imphal/Kohima took place in 1944 in Nagaland when Japanese troops poured over the Burmese border to strike at India. Fought over a vast area of jungle and mountain, it was marked by vicious hand-to-hand fighting. The successful British defence meant they were then able to push into Burma and roll back the Japanese from mainland Asia.

“The victory was of a profound significance because it demonstrated categorically to the Japanese that they were not invincible. This was to be very important in preparing the entire Japanese nation to accept defeat,” Lyman said. He suggested that one reason the battle is relatively unfeted was because Britain itself played it down due to US President Franklin Roosevelt’s opposition to empire.

In fact, Lyman said: “This was the last real battle of British Empire and the first battle of the new India.” The Indian troops “weren’t fighting for the British or the Raj but for a newly emerging and independent India and against the totalitarianism of Japan.” He ranked it with Midway, El Alamein and Stalingrad as the main turn-

ing point battles of World War II. His adversary in debate, former Parachute Regiment Colonel Stuart Tootal, argued a strong case for the D-Day landings and subsequent Battle for Normandy against Hitler’s Germany in 1944.

Although popular culture, including such movies as “Saving Private Ryan”, has highlighted the American role and relegated the British to supporting cast, the operation was under the command of Britain’s Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery. His planning skills and ability to keep the Germans guessing was crucial to its success. The capture of Caen

by British and Canadian troops allowed the Americans to break out, Tootal said.

The victory decided the outcome of World War II, including denying the Russians total control of Berlin. It’s sheer scale and the risk involved made it Britain’s greatest battle, said Tootal, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan . “What would have happened if it had failed? The war would have gone on for two or three more years, killing on a mass scale would have continued. And what would have happened to the Jews? The Nazis would have completed the Holocaust.”

Brilliant Wellington The Duke of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon’s French army at Waterloo in 1815 had gone into the final as favourite but was unseated. Historian Iain Gale said its consequences were immense for Britain and it has “permeated our nation and it’s conscience”. Wellington was a brilliant commander, able to read a battle and adapt as it unfolded. Gale lauded the courage of the British soldiers formed up in squares to hold off the Frecnh cavalry.

But he acknowledged a certain amount of luck was involved and the arrival of General Blucher’s Prussian forces at the height of the battle was crucial.

Waterloo ended decades of conflict with the French across the globe and Napoleon’s attempts to dominate Europe.

“It prepared the way for the British Empire and the modern world as we know it,” Gale said. Rorke’s Drift, when 150 British soldiers fought off 4,000 Zulu warriors, has a cherished place in British popular lore. But it lost out in the contest, possibly because despite the heroism, it was of little ultimate consequence. “No great general, no great strategy, just British soldiers, unready for combat, fighting against overwhelming odds, with no hope of relief,” debater Craig Appleton said. — Reuters

“It was the first chance for the rightwing electorate to express their opposition to Francois Hollande’s presidency and (Prime Minister) Jean-Marc Ayrault’s government,” political analyst Jean-Yves Camus said. After Nicolas Sarkozy’s failed reelection bid and subsequent political retirement left France’s mainstream right in tatters, the opportunity was threefold for his UMP party, Camus said.

“It is now an opposition party and needs fresh momentum. The negative social and economic context favours the spread of discontent, and the president’s ratings are abysmal,” he said. The new law is expected to pass on Tuesday, which would make France the world’s 14th country to legalise same-sex unions. With two days to go, the war of words is still raging between politicians, and riot police are bracing for rival marches on Sunday, with opponents of the bill promising another monster demonstration.

Robert Rochefort, a sociologist and centrist member of the European Parliament, stressed that the furore offered the latest evidence that French society was insecure.

“I think gay marriage is the course of history and will come about in all Western nations... but (French) society is cornered by its own fears,” he said. The issue of national identity was a centrepiece of Sarkozy’s tenure and of his failed reelection campaign and many in France’s ever-growing far-right electorate hope to rekindle the debate.

While the state is fiercely secular, the gay marriage bill showed that a significant section of French society remains staunchly Catholic and conservative. During the string of demonstrations opposing the bill, some of which drew hundreds of thousands of protesters, families marched alongside royalists, fundamentalist Catholics and far-right nationalists.

Opinion polls have routinely indicated that while a majority of French people support gay marriage, a slight majority opposes adoption rights for homosexual couples.

“It was clumsy of the government to initially suggest that the bill would also legalise medically assisted procreation” for homosexual couples, said Michel Wievorka, one of France’s most renowned sociologists.

Jean-Yves Camus argued that the fervour the issue has stirred up in France was “the legacy of a past that still excites passions more than two centuries after the dawn of the republic.” The separation between church and state was a blooddrenched affair in France-and two centuries on, the divisions still remain, Camus argued. Catholic fundamentalists may be a small minority, but they are deeply rooted one. And there are still those on the right who will never accept the legitimacy of a left-wing government. Wievorka however predicted that the bill’s supporters would prevail as the other camp was coming apart at the seams, with protests generally losing steam or being hijacked by radical fringe groups. — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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

For Obama, a trying and emotional week WASHINGTON: For President Barack Obama, one of his most wrenching White House weeks saw the fresh specter of terrorism and the first crushing political defeat of his new term, and the more emotional side of a leader often criticized for appearing clinical or detached. The events presented sharp tests for a president committed to an ambitious agenda in the limited window offered by a second term. There was the challenge to reassure a nervous nation about threats at home and to keep the rest of his legislative goals on track after the Senate rejected gun control measures that had become his top priority.

“This was a tough week,” Obama said late Friday, shortly after authorities captured the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. The Boston Marathon explosions and the gun votes overshadowed other events that would have captivated the country and consumed the White House during almost any other week.

An explosion leveled a Texas fertilizer plant, killing at least 14 people. Letters addressed to Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., were found to contain traces of poisonous ricin in tests, evoking parallels to the anthrax attacks after Sept

11, 2001. “It’s not new,” David Axelrod, the president’s former senior adviser, said of the White House balancing act. “It’s never welcome, but it’s not entirely unexpected.”

The full fallout of the events and their impact on Obama’s presidency remains uncertain. That’s particularly true in Boston, where the motivations of the two brothers accused in the bombing are unknown, as are their connections to any terrorist network. But the capture of the teenager whose older brother was killed attempting to escape police brought closure to Boston and the White House.

Throughout Friday, Obama aides watched coverage of the manhunt on Boston television stations being specially broadcast throughout the White House.

When the search appeared to stall, the president retreated to the residence, but returned quickly to the Oval Office when news reports showed authorities closing in on 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

Shortly before 9 pm, FBI Director Robert Mueller relayed news of his capture to Obama counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco.

“They have him in custody, it is white hat,” Monaco quickly wrote in an email to the president’s chief of staff Denis McDonough, describing the hat the

younger Tsarnaev was wearing in photos released by the FBI. Just one day earlier, Obama had been in Boston to speak at an interfaith service for the three people killed and more than 180 others injured in the blasts at the marathon’s finish line.

Obama balanced sorrow with resolve as he sought to console the grieving city. He said Boston would “run again” and pledged to bring the “small, stunted individuals” responsible for the bombings to justice. His words won him rare praise from some Republicans, including former presidential rival Mitt Romney.

“I thought the president gave a superb address to the people of this city and the state and the nation,” said Romney, a former Massachusetts governor who attended the interfaith service. Previous terrorist attacks in the US have turned into key leadership moments for the men who occupied the Oval Office directly before Obama.

For President Bill Clinton, the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing proved an opportunity to regain stature after his party’s election defeats. For President George W. Bush, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, were a chance for the country to rally around a president elected under controversial circumstances.

Obama’s address in Boston was his second emotional appeal of the week. On Wednesday, he stood stone-faced in the White House Rose Garden after the Senate struck down the gun control measures he pressed for following the December massacre of school children in Newtown, Conn. Flanked by the families of the Newtown victims, Obama let his anger show. He accused senators, including some fellow Democrats, of giving into their fear of the National Rifle Association and called the vote a “shameful day for Washington.”

The White House, as it looks to restore order after a hectic week, has promised to keep fighting for stricter gun laws. But Obama’s path forward is uncertain. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., has shelved the issue indefinitely and Obama almost certainly won’t spend much political capital getting them to do so. Instead, the president probably will focus acutely on immigration. The long-anticipated release of a bipartisan Senate group’s draft bill was largely overshadowed by other events.

Unlike his push on guns, Obama’s immigration efforts have a clearer path to passage. The growing political power of Hispanic voters, who overwhelmingly

sided with Obama in the November election, has led some Republicans to drop their opposition to an immigration bill that could grant citizenship to millions of people living in the US illegally.

Still, obstacles remain, a reality underscored when authorities disclosed that the suspects in the Boston bombings were immigrants. While there was no evidence that the men entered the U.S. illegally, some Republicans seized on the events in Boston to raise questions about the existing immigration system and the proposed changes. Despite the administration’s desire to move on, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said “the smartest thing the White House can do is pause.”

“Events are swirling furiously and they need to give it time and space to let the events settle,” said Fleischer, who served in the White House during the Sept 11 and anthrax attacks. Putting on the brakes could prove difficult for the Obama White House, which began the year with a bold domestic agenda.

Aides know this year is their best chance of getting legislation through a divided Congress, before lawmakers turn their attention to the 2014 elections, then the race to replace Obama. — AP

Oppn, election body differ on Venezuela vote audit Capriles’ team calls for rigorous checks

CLARKSVILLE: Houses are surrounded by floodwater from the Mississippi River. — AP

Crests approach several US towns CLARKSVILLE: An all-too-familiar springtime ritual played out around the nation’s heartland through the weekend as volunteers, National Guardsmen and even prison inmates joined together in an effort to ward off fast-rising floodwaters. Dire flooding situations dotted at least six Midwestern states following torrential rains this past week that dumped up to 7 inches in some locations.

Record flooding was possible in some places as dozens of rivers overflowed their banks.

The floods and flash floods forced evacuations, closed roads, swamped hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and shut down much of the upper Mississippi River to barge traffic. Even two Mississippi River bridges were closed. Several Mississippi River towns north of St. Louis were expected to see crests sometime yesterday, including hard-hit Clarksville, Mo. Volunteers in the tiny community have worked endlessly since Wednesday to build a makeshift sandbag levee that seemed to be holding as the crest- expected to be 11 feet above flood stage - approached. Even prisoners from far-away Jefferson City were brought in to help. After four straight 12hour days of sandbagging, Trish Connelly, 57, was exhausted but optimistic the town would beat back the daunting river. Her plans to open a new fine arts gallery downtown this weekend were on hold “until we know what the river is going to do,” she said.

“This is frustrating for people,” Connelly said.

“This isn’t as bad as 2008, but thank God it stopped raining.” Gov Jay Nixon on Saturday toured the unprotected-by-choice town that was also flooded in 2008, 2001, 1998, 1995 and many times before that. “The water is continuing to rise but it is our full hope and expectation that these walls will hold,” Nixon said of the sandbag levees.

Travel was at a standstill on most of the Mississippi between the Quad Cities and St Louis. The Army Corps of Engineers closed several locks, halting barge traffic.

Recreational traffic was halted, too, including the Mark Twain Riverboat that offers excursions at scenic Hannibal, Mo. Owner and pilot Steve Terry has moored the ship since Thursday, with no end in sight. Just crossing the river was becoming difficult.

One of two bridges at Quincy, Ill, closed Friday, and the narrow two-lane bridge at the Missouri town of Louisiana was shut down Saturday by high water on the Illinois side.

To get across the river, people in the Louisiana, Mo., area either had to drive 35 miles north to Hannibal, Mo., or 50-plus miles south to suburban St Louis. Penny Scranton’s normal 13-minute commute from Rockport, Ill., to the BP convenience store in Louisiana turned into an hour and a half.

“There are others worse off,” she shrugged.

Among those worse off was Louisiana resident Erica Campbell, whose rented home in a low-lying area of the town was flooded for the second time in three years. This time, Campbell said, she’s had enough. Campbell, her husband and their eight kids are packing up. “We’re planning to move to the country - as far away from water as I can get,” Campbell, 35, said.

Mississippi River levels vary greatly but are typically highest in the spring, so minor flooding is not uncommon. But when river levels exceed flood stage by several feet, serious problems can occur. Smaller rivers across the Midwest were swelling, too. In Illinois, heavy equipment manufacturer Caterpillar will shut down its East Peoria, Ill., factory on Sunday as the Illinois River approaches an expected 30-foot crest early next week.

Several Indiana towns were threatened by high water, forcing hundreds of evacuations.

The Wabash River in Tippecanoe County reached more than 14 feet above flood stage on Saturday, the highest level since 1958.

Indiana Gov Mitch Pence took a helicopter tour Saturday of damage in Kokomo, Tipton and Elwood. — AP

Residents return to look at Texas homes after blast WEST: Officials began allowing some residents to return to their homes on Saturday for their first look at the damage three days after a deadly blast at a Texas fertilizer plant flattened sections of a small town. JoAnn Nors, 70, worried about her cat, Princess, who had gone unfed since Nors and her husband, 77-year-old Ernest, fled after the explosion Wednesday night in West, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) south of Dallas.

“I left a pot of stew on the stove,” she said as she waited in a line of cars for 1-1/2 hours to get inside the evacuated area. “I’m sure it smells bad now.” Authorities set a 7 pm CDT curfew for anyone who chose to stay overnight. They warned of broken nails and glass as potential hazards and a limited access to water and electricity.

The announcement came on a day when officials released few new details about the explosion that left a devastated landscape in West, known locally for its Czech heritage and kolache pastries.

Authorities said the death toll remained at

14 in a community of some 2,700 people, with 200 people injured.

“We do not know where the fire started (or) how the fire started, (and) we’re looking at time lines to see when the fire started,” said Assistant State Fire Marshal Kelly Kistner.

The blaze and ensuing explosion at West Fertilizer Co, a privately owned retail facility, gutted a 50-unit apartment complex, demolished about 50 houses and battered a nursing home and several schools.

Dozens more homes were reported to have been damaged.

Most of the confirmed dead were emergency personnel who responded to the fire and likely were killed by the blast, which was so powerful it registered as a magnitude 2.1 earthquake. Officials cautioned it would take time to restore normality. “This is going to be a marathon, not a sprint,” West Mayor Tommy Muska told several hundred people gathered for a town hall meeting. — Reuters

CARACAS: Venezuela’s opposition and electoral authority expressed on Saturday widely differing expectations for an audit of the contested April 14 presidential election, a day after Nicolas Maduro was sworn in to succeed the late Hugo Chavez. Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who says there were thousands of irregularities, wants a manual recount of all ballots cast in the vote, but has accepted the electoral body’s decision to carry out a more limited electronic audit.

That move by the National Electoral Council’s (CNE), the night before Maduro’s inauguration, helped calm tensions after the government said opposition-led protests killed eight people and both sides accused the other of potting more violence.

The opposition said on Saturday that the audit, which is expected to take a month, must examine all aspects of the vote. Official results showed Maduro winning by less than 2 percentage points in a much closer race than had been expected for the presidency of the OPEC nation with the biggest oil reserves in the world.

“This is going to be a long process ... and our people have to stay alert,” Carlos Ocariz, national director of Capriles’ team, told a news conference. “We want to know the truth. Once we see what happened last Sunday, a new phase can begin.” Ocariz said an opinion poll showed a majority of Venezuelans supported the call for a manual vote-by-vote recount, a more comprehensive review than the authorities agreed to conduct.

He also denounced what he said were cases of state employees being persecuted over suspicions they voted for the opposition. Meanwhile, the CNE sought to temper the hopes of Capriles supporters that the audit will produce a different outcome.

“We will not let something that aims to verify whether the system worked be turned into a sort of public impeachment that tries to question the results,” CNE rector Sandra Oblitas told reporters at the council’s headquarters.

“As always, when the CNE announces results to the country, it is because they are irreversible.”

The body’s president, Tibisay Lucena, has also cautioned against anyone raising “false expectations” from the audit. On Thursday, the electoral authority said it would widen to 100 percent an audit of electronic votes from a previous audit on election day that reviewed 54 percent of the machines.

Venezuelans vote electronically, but the

CARACAS: This handout picture shows (left to right) newly sworn-in Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, his Nicaraguan counterpart Daniel Ortega, Nicaraguan first lady Rosario Murillo and her Venezuelan counterpart Cilia Flores visiting the tomb of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in Caracas on April 20, 2013. — AFP machines also print out paper receipts of each vote that are kept in boxes. The audit involves counting the paper ballots at some stations to ensure they are consistent with the machine-tallied results.

Maduro sworn in Maduro, a burly former bus driver whom Chavez named as his preferred successor before dying from cancer last month, was sworn in on Friday at a ceremony in Caracas attended by heads of state including the leaders of Brazil, Argentina, Cuba and Iran. In his first speech as president, Maduro paid homage to his late boss, and at times seemed to reach out to the opposition.

“I’m ready to talk even with the devil,” he said.

At other times, the 50-year-old revived his combative language from the campaign trail, condemning his rivals as fascists who wanted chaos and had tried to unseat him in a coup. As well as welcoming high profile guests such as Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff to his inauguration, Maduro has also received the backing of South America’s Unasur bloc of nations, whose leaders

met in Peru the night before the ceremony.

Among the presidents who flew on to Venezuela after debating the post-election dispute was Argentina’s Cristina Fernandez, who on Saturday visited the hilltop military museum in Caracas where the marble sarcophagus of her close friend and ally Chavez is on display. “I felt a knot in my stomach and my eyes filled with tears,” she said on Twitter, describing how loudspeakers in the museum played a recording of Chavez singing the national anthem.

Fernandez ’s vocal suppor t for Maduro brought a sharp response from Capriles, who says Chavez frittered away Venezuelans’ birthright by “gifting” oil revenue to political allies through subsidized fuel supplies and other aid. “Has Argentina’s president brought a check for the millions of dollars she owes the Venezuelan people?” he asked on Twitter. “It is the people who funded Senora Cristina’s election campaign ... To those who are visiting Venezuela and owe us, we ask you to PAY! Those resources belong to the people.” — Reuters

US academic gang-raped in PNG PORT MORESBY: A US academic says she was gang-raped by an armed mob in Papua New Guinea and wants to publicise her ordeal to raise awareness about rampant violence against women in the desperately poor Pacific country. The attack comes barely a week after an Australian was killed and his friend sexually assaulted by a group of men. There has also been a savage

spate of sorcery-related crimes that have sparked condemnation from the United Nations and undermined Papua New Guinea’s standing as a destination for tourism and investment.

In the latest case, the white academic told AFP that she was attacked on Friday while conducting research on birds and the impact of climate change in a

PORT MORESBY: This photo shows an US academic who was gangraped on April 19 while conducting research on birds and the impact of climate change in a remote forest on the island of Karkar off the coast of Madang in Papua New Guinea. — AFP

remote forest on Karkar Island in Madang province. Police in the capital Port Moresby on Sunday confirmed the attack. “We have taken statements but no arrests have been made yet,” a spokesman told AFP. “This is a very serious incident.”

The 32-year-old was walking along a bush track with her husband and a guide when nine men armed with rifles and knives ambushed them, stripping the husband and guide naked and tying them up, she said.

They then stripped her, bound her hands, cut off her long plaited hair to the scalp at the back of the head, and gang-raped her for about 20 minutes. Something in the forest startled them and they ran away. The guide managed to break free and the three of them fled naked back to the nearest village, several hours away, she said.

The husband and wife returned to Port Moresby on Saturday, where they were met by a photographer working for AFP who helped them file police reports and organise a flight out of the country.

The case was also reported to the US embassy. A duty officer told AFP yesterday that the embassy had no comment to offer. Brutality against women including domestic violence is endemic in Papua New Guinea, but it is rare for a white woman to be targeted, and the academic said she wanted to tell her

story to shine a light on the issue.

“This story should not come out because I am white,” said the woman, who was on her fifth visit to the country since 2010, often staying for up to four months to conduct research.

“It should come out in hopes that it empowers Papua New Guinean women to stand up and say no more violence against women in this country. “I hope my stor y can make a change.” The American’s ordeal comes barely a week after Australian Robert Purdy, 62, was shot dead at Mount Hagen, in PNG’s Western Highlands, and a woman he was with, reportedly from the Philippines, was gangraped by 10 armed men.

PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neill condemned that attack as the “cowardly act of animals”. “This kind of behaviour totally undermines our efforts to make our country a safe destination for investment and tourists,” he said. “We cannot allow the entire nation to suffer because of the behaviour of one or two sick people.” The incidents follow a series of gruesome murders, including a 20-year-old mother who was accused of witchcraft, stripped and burned alive in front of a crowd at a market near Mount Hagen in February. Earlier this month, an elderly woman was beheaded after being accused of sorcery. — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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

Myanmar unrest tests iconic status of Suu Kyi BANGKOK: Aung San Suu Kyi’s refusal to condemn attacks on Muslims in Myanmar has dimmed the Nobel laureate’s lustre among global rights campaigners, but observers say her reticence will do her no harm with voters. Nearly a month after religious riots killed 43 people in central Myanmar, the former political prisoner turned lawmaker finally voiced sympathy for Muslims targeted by violence that saw mosques and homes razed.But Suu Kyi again failed to clearly condemn attacks against Muslims-who represent an estimated four percent of the population-or hate speech by some extremist Buddhist monks.

Instead, as in 2012 when two waves of violence between the stateless Rohingya Muslims and ethnic Rakhine Buddhists caused more than 180 deaths in the west, the opposition leader more indirectly urged respect for the “rule of law”. “They did not feel they belonged anywhere else

and you are just sad for them that they are made to feel they did not belong to our country either,” she said of Myanmar’s Muslims last week during a visit to Japan.

But Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and endured years of house arrest, defended the restrained nature of her remarks and said: “I am sorry if people do not find my comments interesting enough to acknowledge them.” Rights groups say her comments, delivered late and without criticism of the perpetrators of violence, sit uncomfortably with her position as a democracy champion who led a long fight against Myanmar’s former military junta. “I’m glad she is in some ways recognising that these people are facing a very, very difficult situation” but “there has to be more than just her feeling sad,” said Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

“The burden of action here lies with the government, but she is not an ordi-

nary opposition leader either... and this is where some of this moral authority built up over the years needs to be used,” he added.For their part Myanmar’s ethnic minorities harbour suspicions of the Burman majority group-including Suu Kyiand complain that discrimination endures under Myanmar’s civilian-led reformist government.

The Rohingya in particular feel let down by Suu Kyi. Some 800,000 of the minority group, considered by the UN as one of the most persecuted in the world, live in Rakhine State where tens of thousands of people were displaced by the violence last year and still languish in makeshift camps. Human Rights Watch has accused security forces of allowing and in some cases leading assaults against the Rohingya.Abu Tahay from the National Democratic Party for Development, which represents the Rohingya, said Suu Kyi has an “obligation” to intervene given her sta-

tus as daughter of independence hero Aung San and a “democratic icon”. Yet he stepped back from openly criticising the leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) — which is tipped to win general elections in 2015 that could install Suu Kyi as Myanmar’s president.

Suu Kyi’s core constituency in the dominant Burman population sees the Rohingya as worthless illegal immigrants, and any offers of support may haunt her at the elections. “Aung San Suu Kyi has an election to win in 2015. She risks alienating politically potent Buddhist elements among her own supporters if she appears too cosy with the Rohingya, or other Muslims,” said Nicholas Farrelly of the Australian National University.

“Western human rights activists and international opponents of anti-Islamic prejudice will not have a vote in who runs Myanmar in the years ahead,” he said.

More immediately, “The Lady” does not

want to fuel ethnic and religious tensions as the country undergoes its transition from junta rule, according to Win Tin, cofounder of the NLD. “There was some damage to her moral authority because of this situation. Daw Suu also knows about it,” he told AFP, using a Burmese honorific, adding that her caution recognises “things are very fragile politically”. Foreign observers need to take a more realistic view of the democracy leader, a senior diplomat formerly posted to Myanmar told AFP.Critics “need to consider whether their disappointment is a consequence of attributing near-sainthood and infallibility to her during her years under house arrest”, the diplomat said, requesting anonymity. But Chris Lewa, the Bangkokbased director of The Arakan Project, which lobbies for Rohingya rights, said Suu Kyi was failing a vital test of leadership. “She talks a lot about the rule of law, but that is not enough,” she said. —AFP

China rushes relief after quake kills 186 Almost 11,500 injured in worst quake in 3 years LUSHAN: Luo Shiqiang sat near chunks of concrete, bricks and a ripped orange sofa and told how his grandfather was just returning from feeding chickens when their house collapsed and crushed him to death in this weekend’s powerful earthquake in southwestern China. “We lost everything in such a short time,” the 20-year-old college student said yesterday. He said his cousin also was injured in the collapse, but that other members of his family were spared because they were out working in the fields of hard-hit Longmen village in Lushan county.

Saturday’s earthquake in Sichuan province killed at least 186 people, injured more than 11,500 and left nearly two dozen missing, mostly in the rural communities around Ya’an city, along the same fault line where a devastating quake to the north killed more than 90,000 people in Sichuan and neighboring areas five years ago in one of China’s worst natural disasters. The Lushan and Baoxing counties hardest-hit on Saturday had escaped the worst of the damage in the 2008 quake, and residents there said they benefited little from the region’s rebuilding after the disaster, with no special reinforcements made or new evacuation procedures introduced in their remote communities.

Luo said he wished more had been done to make his community’s buildings quake-resistant.

“Maybe the country’s leaders really wanted to help us, but when it comes to the lower levels the officials don’t carry it out,” he said.

Relief teams flew in helicopters and dynamited through landslides yesterday to reach some of the most isolated communities, where rescuers in orange overalls led sniffer dogs through piles of brick, concrete and wood debris to search for survivors.

Many residents complained that although emergency teams were quick to carry away bodies and search for survivors, they had so far done little to distribute aid. “No water, no shelter,” read a hand-written sign held up by children on a roadside in Longmen. “I was working in the field when I heard the

explosions of the earthquake, and I turned around and saw my house simply flatten in front of me,” said Fu Qiuyue, a 70-year-old rapeseed

was the scariest sound I have ever heard,” she said. The quake - measured by China’s earthquake administration at magnitude 7.0 and by

SICHUAN : A mother carries her baby through rubble yesterday after a magnitude of 7.0 earthquake hit Lushan, Sichuan Province. —AFP farmer in Longmen.

Fu sat with her husband, Ren Dehua, in a makeshift shelter of logs and a plastic sheet on a patch of grass near where a helicopter had parked to reach their community of terraced grain and vegetable fields.

She said the collapse of the house had crushed eight pigs to death. “It

the US Geological Survey at 6.6 struck shortly after 8 am on Saturday. Tens of thousands of people moved into tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued to jolt the region. The quake killed at least 186 people, left 21 missing and injured 11,393, the official

Xinhua News Agency quoted the provincial emergency command center as saying. As in most natural disasters, the government mobilized thousands of soldiers and others, sending excavators and other heavy machinery as well as tents, blankets and other emergency supplies. Two soldiers died after their vehicle slid off a road and rolled down a cliff, state media reported.

The Chinese Red Cross said it had deployed relief teams with supplies of food, water, medicine and rescue equipment to the disaster areas. Lushan, where the quake struck, lies where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau and sits atop the Longmenshan fault, where the 2008 quake struck.

The seat of Lushan county has been turned into a large refugee camp, with tents set up on open spaces, and volunteers doling out noodles and boxed meals to survivors from stalls and the backs of vans. A large van with a convertible side served as a mobile bank with an ATM, military medical trucks provided X-rays for people with minor injuries, and military doctors administered basic first aid, applying iodine solution to cuts and examining bruises. Patients with minor ailments were lying in tents in the yard of the local hospital, which was wrecked by the quake, with the most severely injured patients sent to the provincial capital. With a limited water supply and buildings inaccessible, sanitation is a problem for the survivors.

One of the patients receiving care in the hospital’s yard was the son of odd-job laborer Zhou Lin, 22.

The baby boy was born a day before the quake struck. Zhou said he was relieved that his newborn son and wife were safe and healthy but was worried about his 60-year-old father and other relatives who have been unreachable in Baoxing. “I can’t get through on the phone, so I don’t know what’s going on there and they don’t know if we are all right,” he said. Every so often, an aftershock struck, shaking windows of buildings and sending murmurs through the crowds. —AP

North Korea moves two more missile launchers SEOUL: North Korea has moved two short-range missile launchers to its east coast, apparently indicating it is pushing ahead with preparations for a test launch, a South Korean news agency reported yesterday. South Korea and its allies have been expecting some sort of North Korean missile launch during weeks of heightened hostility on the Korean peninsula. An unidentified South Korean military source told the South’s Yonhap news agency that satellite imagery showed that North Korean forces had moved two mobile missile launchers for short-range Scud missiles to South Hamgyeong province. “The military is closely watching the North’s latest preparations for a missile launch,” the source said.

The North moved two mid-range Musudan missiles in early April and placed seven mobile launchers in the same area, Yonhap said. A North Korean show of force could be staged to coincide with the anniversary of the founding of its army on April 25. A South Korean Defence Ministry official said he could not confirm the news report and said there had been no sign of unusual activity in North Korea. North Korea fairly regularly test-fires short-range missiles in the sea off its east coast.

North Korea stepped up its defiance of UN Security Council resolutions in December when it launched a rocket that it said had put a scientific satellite into orbit. Critics said the launch was aimed at

developing technology to deliver a nuclear warhead mounted on a longrange missile. The North followed that in February with its third test of a nuclear weapon. That brought new UN sanctions which in turn led to a dramatic intensification of North Korea’s threats of nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States.

The tension has eased over recent days with the North at least talking about dialogue in response to calls for talks from both the United States and South Korea.

On Saturday, North Korea reiterated that it would not give up its nuclear weapons, rejecting a US condition for talks although it said it was willing to discuss disarmament. —Reuters

China accuses US over ‘woeful’ rights record BEIJING: China yesterday accused the United States of human rights violations through military operations abroad and failing to protect its own citizens from gun violence, in a rejoinder to a US rights report. The report, released by China’s cabinet, the State Council, said Washington has “turned a blind eye to its own woeful human rights situation”, despite styling itself as “the world judge of human rights”. China-which officially includes rising living standards in its definition of human rights-released the report in response to a US report published on Friday that said China’s rights record has worsened over the past year.

The US report highlighted a Chinese crackdown on ethnic minorities, including Tibetans, the detention of political dissidents, as well as the widespread

surveillance of citizens by a huge domestic security apparatus. China responded by blasting US surveillance of its own citizens, and said that political donations have damaged the country’s democracy.

China’s report, culled from a variety of sources, including US media, also accused US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan of causing “massive civilian casualties”.

The report cited “astonishing” casualties that resulted from mass shootings at a movie theatre in the state of Colorado in July and at an elementary school in Connecticut in December. “Americans are the most heavily armed people in the world per capita,” the report said. It added that the United States had “serious” issues with discrimination of a sexual, racial and religious nature. —AFP

SICHUAN: A woman looks over at her destroyed house yesterday. —AP

China quake takes an only son, and all hope LUSHAN: Wu Yong sobs as fellow villagers carry away his teenage boy’s coffin, after a terrifying tremor in the mountains of southwest China robbed him of the only son he is likely ever to have. “I saw my son but I couldn’t save him,” the 42-year-old said, recalling the moment he rushed from the living room to his boy’s bedroom to discover him buried under rubble. “I called him and he answered two times... but I couldn’t save him,” Wu added, his house totally caved in, as friends tried to comfort him.

His 38-year-old wife Yue Yingcui collapsed in the street moments earlier, screaming in grief as neighbours and friends struggled to hold her in their arms. She had just seen villagers remove a live rooster-believed to help the spirit find its home and ward off evilfrom her son’s coffin before it was taken up the street to the crackle of Chinese fireworks.

The scene was played out in front of 100 or so villagers, as the smell of powder from the firecrackers filled the grim air of suffering that has descended on Longmen, a tiny rural community in southwestern Sichuan province.

The life of many in Longmen, and across the wider county of Lushan, changed forever when the devastating earthquake struck on Saturday morning, leaving more than 200 people dead or missing. But the loss of 15year-old Wu Ji, a cherished child in a society that prizes sons far more than daughters, represented a traumatic body-blow for the family of farm workers. In China, rural families are exempt from the country’s one-child policy as parents often rely on support from children in their later years, unlike urban residents, and much of that is provided by sons.

But Wu Ji, who had a sister, was the only son in this close-knit family and his parents, although not old, consider him irreplaceable.

The wider family, which includes grandparents and the deceased boy’s uncle, say they have no hope for the future. For now, the distraught father is thinking only of the tragic present. “From today onwards I do not have a son,” Wu said, stroking his brow and looking towards the floor. “He had so many friends.

He had such a humorous and gentle personality.”

As the funeral procession made its way up the kind of steep and narrow mountain street that gives quake-prone Sichuan its rugged character, nearby residents struggled to come to terms with the devastation. An 88year-old woman surnamed Zhu walked down the rubble-littered Chonglu Road with a two-year-old infant on her back, discussing with neighbours their common ordeal.

“I will stay outside with this child until I am certain that there are no more earthquakes,” she said, breaking off from a conversation with a family making noodles on a makeshift stove on the curbside. With many houses precariously tilted or partially collapsed, locals are staying outside to eat, watch television and sleep.

The area was previously populated with two- or three-story houses. Although simple and basic inside, they lend a certain grandeur to what is actually one of China’s poorest regions. But in one small community that previously consisted of six or seven properties, there lay only rubble, pierced with a flag pole adorned with the red and gold Chinese flag. Standing behind the rubble, residents sat on stones discussing the damage. “Three people died in that building, and no one wants to live in this area anymore because it is too dangerous,” a 45-year-old man, surnamed Yang, told AFP. Another neighbour, speaking quietly under his breath, muttered: “Where else can we go?” —AFP

Japan minister visits Tokyo war shrine TOKYO: A Japanese minister visited Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni war shrine yesterday while Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has dedicated equipment used in rituals in moves likely to anger China and South Korea. The shrine, which honours around 2.5 million war dead-including 14 leading war criminals-is seen by Japan’s Asian neighbours as a symbol of Tokyo’s imperialist past.

Keiji Furuya, the chief of the National Public Safety Commission, visited Yasukuni at the start of its annual spring festival, one of his secretaries and a shrine official said. “It is natural for me as a parliament member to extend my sincere condolences to the sprites of the war dead who had served their lives for this country,” Furuya said after his visit.

Abe did not make a pilgrimage but paid for equipment made of wood and fabric-which bears his name and titlewhich is used to decorate an altar, a shrine official said. Visits to the shrine by government ministers and highprofile figures spark outrage in China and on the Korean peninsula, where many feel Japan has failed to atone for its brutal aggression in the first half of the 20th century.

Liberal politicians tend to stay away but conservative lawmakers have routinely visited to pay respect to the war

dead as well as to demonstrate their ideological stance. Abe visited the shrine last year in his capacity as opposition leader before he took office as prime minister in December, leading to criticism from China’s state-run media.

During his first spell as premier in 2006-7 he stayed away from the shrine

as he tried to mend ties with neighbouring nations strained because of former premier Junichiro Koizumi’s annual pilgrimage. Sino-Japanese ties remain tense after a long-simmering territorial dispute over a group of islands in the East China Sea intensified last year. —AFP

TOKYO: Men in samurai attire engage in a sword fighting to re-enact the Battle of Kawanakajima, a battle five campaigns fought between two forces in the age of Japan’s civil war in mid 16th century, in Fuefuki, Yamanashi Prefecture yesterday. Kawanakajima to Japanese is what Gettysburg or Waterloo is to Americans or French. —AP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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Washington Watch

Napolitano re-election raises hopes

By Dario Thuburn he re-election of Italy’s 87-year-old president Giorgio Napolitano has raised hopes of an end to a two-month impasse on forming a new government but failed to answer calls for change, experts said on Sunday. Napolitano had ruled out standing again but changed his mind on Saturday, becoming the first president ever to do so after parliament proved incapable of electing another candidate and rival parties appealed to him for help. “In this context of a failure of politics they see him as the only resource that can overcome this systemic crisis,” said Marzio Breda, a presidential politics expert for the top-selling Corriere della Sera daily.

“Public opinion is becoming ever more distant from traditional politics,” he said, after a rally outside the parliament building in Rome on Saturday drew thousands of people protesting against Napolitano’s re-election. The parties have been at loggerheads ever since a general election in February that was narrowly won by the centre-left but failed to produce a parliamentary majority. “He can go on for one or two years and then he would resign. This too would be a first but the pope did it so the president can do it too,” he said. Corriere della Sera editorialist Sergio Romano said: “We have reason to hope that this institutional novelty... will be a spur for the country to shed the pessimism of recent months.”

But Beppe Grillo, the leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement that came third in the February polls, on Sunday slammed the presidential re-election as institutional “trickery” concocted by leaders of the other main parties and Napolitano.

“Parliament is an empty shell,” the ex-comedian said at a Rome press conference, predicting that a new government would “not last more than a year” and confirming that his party would be in the opposition.

Analysts said Napolitano would most likely move swiftly to set up a short-term government similar to the outgoing one of Mario Monti with a mandate to carry out much-needed reforms, although with a cabinet made up of both party political and “technocratic” ministers. Early elections would likely still have to be held but the prospect of a vote within months, which had raised concern on the financial markets, would be staved off. It would be “an emergency government”, said Stefano Folli, columnist for business daily Il Sole 24 Ore, which has urged bickering politicians to act fast as Italy endures a painful recession that has triggered a social crisis. “Napolitano’s decision has to be read as an impulse to political forces to act,” Folli said, adding that his election with a sweeping majority showed there was a basis for a government with a “limited but concrete agenda”.

Analysts also noted that with his re-election Napolitano had re-gained the power to dissolve parliament and call early elections, since presidents are prevented from doing so in the last six months of their mandate. Napolitano “might stay for one or two years. It’s as if the political system has bought time,” said Mario Calabresi, editor of La Stampa daily. “But if this time is used just to stay in this paralysis then the country will be even more angry, tired, exhausted and stuck in one or two years. “This time has to be best used to provide answers to the citizens,” he said.

Il Sole-24 Ore editor-in-chief Roberto Napoletano wrote yesterday : “ We fer vently hope that (Napolitano’s) re-election is not just a Bandaid on a deep wound, an aspirin to lower the fever, or even worse a way to gain time and put off solutions.” In a scathing editorial for Il Fatto Quotidiano daily, columnist Peter Gomez said the re-election was an ominous sign. “Faced with the economic and social decomposition of the country ... the political class could only reply with the status quo,” he said, adding that this showed the “comatose delirium of omnipotence” of the political parties.

Gomez said Napolitano’s most likely choice for prime minister would be Giuliano Amato, a veteran political operator and former prime minister who is frequently mentioned as a neutral figure who could preside over a cross-party deal. “Stay strong.

The worst, unfortunately, is yet to come,” Gomez said. — AFP

T

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Across US, a week of chaos, horror and

By Jesse Washington oment after nail-biting moment, the events shoved us through a week that felt like an unremitting series of tragedies: Deadly bombs. Poison letters. A town shattered by a colossal explosion. A violent manhunt that paralyzed a major city, emptying streets of people and filling them with heavily armed police and piercing sirens. Amid the chaos came an emotional Senate gun control vote that inflamed American divisions and evoked memories of the Newtown massacre. And through it all, torrential rain pushed the Mississippi River toward flood levels. “All in all it’s been a tough week,” President Barack Obama said Friday night. “But we’ve seen the character of our country once more.”

America was rocked this week, in rare and frightening ways. We are only beginning to make sense of a series of events that moved so fast, so furiously as to almost defy attempts to figure them out. But beneath the pain, as the weekend arrived, horror was counteracted by hope. “We inhabit a mysterious world,” Rev Roberto Miranda said at a prayer service for the Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people, inflicted life-changing injuries on scores more and shook the sense of security that has slowly returned to America since 9/11. “The dilemma of evil is that even as it carries out its dark, sinister work,” Miranda said, “it always ends up strengthening good.”

That evil arrived Monday when twin bombs exploded near the finish line of the marathon. Not since 9/11 had terror struck so close to home. Although the scale of the Boston attack was far smaller than the destruction of the World Trade Center, a dozen years’ worth of modern media evolution made it reverberate in inescapable ways. In 2001, we could walk away from our televisions. In 2013, bad news follows us everywhere. It’s on our computers at work and home, on our phones when we call our loved ones, on social media when we talk to our friends.

“There’s no place to run, no place to hide,” said Dr Stuart Fischoff, a professor of media psychology at California State University in Los Angeles. “It’s like perpetual shock. There’s no off button. That’s relatively unprecedented. We’re going to have to pay the price for that. We’re dealing with future

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shock on a daily basis,” Fischoff said. Steffen Kaplan, a social media specialist in New Jersey, tried his best to protect his young son from the madness. His television stayed off. He browsed the Internet with caution.

But reality finally intruded at a local pizzeria, where a T V was playing images of the injured in Boston. “What’s going on?” his son asked. “Nothing,” Kaplan replied. “That’s just a movie.”

Kaplan fears the world his son will inherit.

To cope, “I rely on faith in humanity,” he said.

“If we raise our children correctly, somehow, some way, humanity will prevail.” But the present remains difficult, Kaplan said: “It seems to be a spiral of things happening one after the other. It can be inundating on your senses.”

The downward spiral steepened Tuesday morning. As authorities in Boston searched for leads, and the nation debated whether the perpetrators were terrorism or a different type of killer, congressional leaders said a letter containing the poison ricin had been mailed to Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi. It touched off memories of the jumbled days after 9/11, when letters containing anthrax were sent to politicians and media organizations..

On Wednesday, the Secret Service said it had intercepted a ricin letter mailed to President Barack Obama. Tensions immediately rose in Washington, with a half-dozen suspicious packages reported and parts of the Capitol complex shut down. On Wednesday evening, a suspect was arrested in Mississippi. “I think it’s fair to say this entire week we’ve been in pretty direct confrontation with evil,” Secretary of State John Kerry said.

All this happened as the Senate, with high feelings on both sides, voted down legislation that would have banned assault weapons and expanded background checks of gun buyers. The measures, sought for decades, only became possible after 20 children and six others were gunned down at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. The defeat of the bill “brought the whole Sandy Hook thing up again,” said Rachel Allen, a lawyer from suburban Pittsburgh. “There are so many senseless things that go on, and you see how people can come together,” Allen said Friday. She recalled being moved to tears watching the first Boston Bruins hockey game after the

bombing, when the national anthem singer fell silent and let the entire arena roar the song to a finish.

Events in Washington can magnify the sense of chaos, says Fischoff, the psychologist. “Most of our institutions that we use to stabilize ourselves and our country are damaged, crippled,” he said. “What you’re having is a kind of emotional, cognitive anarchy.”

Late Wednesday night, reports emerged of an explosion outside Waco, Texas. As Thursday dawned, the magnitude became clear: A fertilizer plant had blown up with such force, it registered as an earthquake and wrecked homes, apartments, a school and a nursing home. As of Saturday morning, 14 people were dead. “Is this week feeling a little apocalyptic to anyone else?” tweeted Jessica Coen, editor in chief of the Jezebel.com blog. “Boston. Poison.

Explosions. Floods. Tomorrow, locusts.”

Recent Aprils have often been cruel to America. In 1993, dozens died in the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. In 1995, a domestic terrorist killed 168 people in the Oklahoma City federal building bombing. In 1999, two students killed 12 classmates, a teacher and themselves at Columbine High School. In 2007, a student rampage left 32 innocents dead at Virginia Tech. But April 2013’s convergence of events is extremely rare, statisticians say. Such calculations are based on the likelihood of each individual tragedy, said Michael Baron, a professor of statistics at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Baron has no actual data on how often this week’s events have separately occurred throughout history. But he estimated that if a terrorist attack occurs once every four years, a suspicious mailing once per year and an industrial accident twice per year, there is a .000004 probability of them all happening in the same week - “once in 4,808 years”. Such absurd odds were too much for the satirical publication The Onion to resist.

The Onion “report” offered this “quote”: “‘Maybe next time we have a week, they can try not to pack it completely to the (expletive) brim with explosions, mutilations, death, manhunts, lies, weeping, and the utter uselessness of our political system,’ said basically every person in America who isn’t comatose or a complete sociopath.’”

The week was no joke for Mary Helen Gillespie, a bank vice president who lives

near Boston. When she saw news of the Texas explosion, “I got sick to my gut.” “If we were to look at a map of the United States right now - our country is strong and proud and brave and we will win. But if you look at a map, we are bleeding,” Gillespie said. “The world is upside down,” she said. “Facebook can’t keep up with it, TV can’t keep up with it. It’s just overwhelming. What I found was hope in prayer,” Gillespie said. “The more the media started reporting on the stories of hope, the heroes, the first responders, the everyday Americans going out trying to save others. That was my inspiration. It was, OK, this will get better.”

While authorities tried to determine Thursday how many had died in the fertilizer plant explosion - many victims were feared to be first responders who rushed into the inferno - the FBI released photos and videos of two suspects in the marathon attack. “It’s been a rough week for the country,” said House Speaker John Boehner. “It’s been a rough week, but we’re thankful for the blessings of life and the opportunity to live in a country whose people always look out for each other.”

Finally, on Friday morning, the nation awoke to news that one suspect and a police officer had been killed - after the suspects hurled explosives during a car chase and had a shootout in the residential community of Watertown. In Chicago, the cover of the Redeye newspaper on Friday was a giant red RESET button. “That was a rough one. Who’s ready for next week?” the caption said. Jesse Bonelli, a video game artist who lives in locked-down Watertown, stayed inside his house Friday and sharpened a machete - just in case. “It’s something I usually keep hanging on the wall, but it’s the only weapon I have,” he said. “I want to be ready in case anyone bursts into the house.

After everything that happened this week, I keep wondering what’s next.”

All day Friday, Boston was shut down, public transit halted and people ordered to stay in their homes as thousands of police and federal agents chased down the fugitive. He was finally captured on Friday night. “God has not forsaken Boston. God has not forsaken our nation,” Rev Miranda had said a few days earlier, at the prayer service. “He merely weaves a beautiful bright tapestry of goodness that includes a few dark strands.” — AP

Rough start augurs badly for Venezuela

By Andrew Cawthorne bout the only tranquil place in Caracas over the last few days is a hilltop military museum housing the remains of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez. Visitors tip-toe around his marble sarcophagus, reprimanded by guards if their voices rise above whispers. Outside, a shellshocked nation is still reeling both from Chavez’s death from cancer last month and a week of violence and recriminations over the disputed election to succeed him.

Nightly protests - government supporters launch fireworks, opponents bang pots and bans - have been shaking the capital Caracas and most other major cities in the South American nation of 29 million people.

The beginning of Venezuela’s transition into the postChavez era could hardly have been more raucous or controversial. The dispute over Chavez protege Nicolas Maduro’s narrow presidential vote win led to the deaths of at least eight people. It has also deepened the near 50-50 split in a nation polarized by Chavez’s socialist policies, shown the fragility of Maduro’s grip on the “Chavismo” movement, and left a raft of fast-accruing economic and social problems on the back burner. “If we’re at war among ourselves, everyone suffers,” said construction worker Elias Simancas, 61, sitting on a bench in a square where police clashed with masked and rock-throwing protesters during riots after last Sunday’s vote.

“We just want a country in peace,” he said, expressing an oft-repeated sentiment by the less vocal but majority voices on both sides of the country’s political conflict. As well as longing for some quiet and normality after 14 years in the global spotlight under Chavez, Venezuelans also want plenty more tangible things on their street corners.

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First on their wish list is an end to murders, kidnappings and violent robberies that rival the world’s worst crime spots and leave many Venezuelan towns and cities eerily quiet at night.

Beyond that, most Venezuelans of all political creeds want an end to runaway price rises, shortages of basic products, power cuts, potholes, cronyism in politics, and the insulting rhetoric between politically divided neighbors and families. “I’m sick of it. I want out. How can I bring up kids in this country?” said Manuel Pereira, a 39-year-old businessman who has seen his electronics importing company collapse due to lack of access to foreign currency under government controls. Debating Venezuela’s future with middle-class friends on Saturday morning as their children held weekend soccer training - instead of a local league match, canceled due to the unrest - he said he was going to use his Spanish roots to try and emigrate this year. Just as during Chavez’s two-year battle with cancer, his re-election last year, and his death on March 5, ideological disputes rather than grassroots issues fill the headlines and dominate government and opposition agendas.

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles’ decision to contest Maduro’s election victory - by less than 2 percent, or 265,000 of nearly 15 million votes - uncorked passions and resentments built up during Chavez’s rule. The day after the election, Venezuela teetered on the edge of all-out crisis as pro-opposition hard-liners took to the streets in protests that turned violent and, according to the government, killed eight and injured many more.

Capriles publicly distanced himself from the bloodshed - blaming government instigators for the violence and accusing officials of exaggerating and exploiting the trouble - and called off a march in Caracas that may have

turned violent. The election board then agreed to audit the result, helping to take more heat out of the immediate situation. Longer-term, the political standoff remains unresolved. Though safely sworn-in, endorsed by his peers in South America and very unlikely to see his win overturned by the audit, Maduro cannot hide from some obvious conclusions after the vote.

Clearly he failed to replicate Chavez’s popularity despite presenting himself as his devoted “son” and deploying much of the state apparatus at his service for an emotioncharged election just five weeks after Chavez’s death.

Lacking the charisma and iron grip of his mentor, and with a weaker mandate at the polls, Maduro may now struggle to keep the ruling Socialist Party together given its competing interests and factions ranging from socialist ideologues to military chiefs and businessmen.

There have already been a handful of calls from within the movement for a period of soul-searching and for improving social services to win back the more than half-amillion ‘Chavistas’ who defected to Capriles during the election campaign. “Let what needs correcting be corrected and what needs rectifying be rectified,” said Foreign Minister Elias Jaua. Furthermore, though Maduro condemns his opponents as “fascists” and “ultra-right,” almost half of Venezuelans voted against him and question his legitimacy given opposition leaders’ claims of thousands of irregularities on polling day.

Many Venezuelans are deeply frustrated that their OPEC nation is not doing better economically despite being rich in natural resources from abundant rivers for hydropower to the world’s largest oil reserves. Opposition supporters are downhearted at having come so close to the prize but just missed out. — Reuters

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

S P ORTS Crash with wheelchair ends Gelana’s London hopes

O’Sullivan begins title defence

LONDON: Olympic champion and pre-race favourite Tiki Gelana’s hopes of taking the London Marathon title on her debut came to an inglorious end after a collision with a wheelchair athlete yesterday. Gelana, who on paper was the fastest woman in the field, cut across the wheelchair competitors and hit Canadian Josh Cassidy as she attempted to reach a drinks station after 15 km of the 42.195-km race. The Ethiopian, who also suffered a fall on her way to victory at London 2012, picked herself up and continued on her way but by 25km had been dropped by the leading runners and eventually finished down in 16th, 16 minutes and 40 seconds behind winner Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya. Cassidy could be seen hammering his fists down on to the drinks table in frustration after the crash. “It’s something I have mentioned before. I don’t know who’s responsible, but every year we come to overtake the women, there’s 10 chairs going at 20mph and the poor women are scrambling to find their feet,” Cassidy, who holds the world best time in a wheelchair of 1:18.25, told the BBC. “I have a brand new $2,000 pair of wheels that are damaged, who’s going to pay for them?

Things have to change. “The safest thing would be to have the chairs start first because one of these years a woman is going to have a leg broken, a career ruined. “It’s just not worth having this programme if the races are going to suffer.” —Reuters

SHEFFIELD: Ronnie O’Sullivan made a triumphant return to snooker after a year away from the game with a 10-4 first-round win over Marcus Campbell as he opened the defence of his world crown on Saturday.

England’s O’Sullivan has only played once competitively since lifting his fourth world title last May but showed no sign of being rusty as he raced to a 7-2 lead in the first session. O’Sullivan took only 93 minutes of the evening session to wrap up the win over Scotland’s world number 27 Campbell who is ranked one place higher due to his opponent’s lack of matches.

O’Sullivan, 37, will face either Ali Carter, who he beat 18-11 in last year’s final, or world championship debutant Ben Woollaston in the second round next Saturday at the Crucible.

“I was not sure how the match was going to go and not sure how I was going to compete, it was an experiment in some sorts of ways,” O’Sullivan was quoted as saying by the BBC. “In general I wasn’t as slick or as tight as usual. But you’ve got to expect that if you’ve not played for a year, you can only get that through matches.... it’s like trying to get fit for a marathon the day before a marathon starts.”

O’Sullivan played once early in the campaign but announced in November that he would not feature again this season only to change his mind in February. This is his first tournament back. —Reuters

Savea charged with assault WELLINGTON: All Black Julian Savea has been charged with assault following a domestic incident and will appear in court in Wellington today, the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) said.

The 22-year-old winger, who appeared on posters last year in support of a government-led campaign against family violence, was charged in relation to an assault last Sunday, James Te Puni, CEO of Savea’s Super Rugby side Hurricanes, said in a statement issued by the NZRU yesterday.

“Obviously we are disappointed to have this situation emerge, but we must now let the judicial process run its course,” Te Puni said. “The key thing for us is to support the families as they work through what is a very difficult time.

“I have spoken with Julian, who is deeply upset to be in this position and now needs to deal with the situation.” Savea, capped nine times for the All Blacks and a former IRB junior player of the year, tearfully apologised at a media conference in Wellington yesterday.

“Whilst I can’t go into the details because it is now before the courts, I understand that the details will come out in due course,” he said in a prepared statement. —Reuters

Nationals edge Mets

NEW YORK: Rafael Soriano No. 29 of the Washington Nationals pitches against the New York Mets during their game. —AFP

Nationals edge Mets NEW YORK: Bryce Harper launched two long home runs, including a tiebreaking drive in the eighth inning, and also doubled Saturday to lead the Washington Nationals over the New York Mets 7-6.

Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond homered for the Nationals on Bark in the Park day at Citi Field. Fans paid $35 for tickets in the second deck in right field, and brought their dogs for $10.

After the game, Nationals manager Davey Johnson said third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was being placed on the 15day disabled list because of persistent tightness in his left hamstring.

Harper hit a two-run homer to rightcenter in the third. He then hit the first pitch from Josh Edgin (0-1) in the eighth even farther and harder to right-center for his seventh home run. Tyler Clippard (1-0) got four outs for the win and Rafael Soriano closed for his sixth save.

GIANTS 2, PADRES 0 In San Francisco, Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run homer and Tim Lincecum struck out a season-best eight batters. Lincecum (2-0) pitched 6 2-3 scoreless innings, providing a steady presence on the mound after he had allowed four or more runs in a single inning in two of his previous three starts this year.

Sandoval’s third home run of the season landed in the elevated right-field arcade for a 2-0 lead in the fourth that held up. The Giants are 8-1 this season when scoring first.

Sandoval delivered the key hit against Andrew Cashner (0-1) a night after Angel Pagan’s winning, one-out double in the ninth lifted the Giants to a 3-2 win in the series opener.

ROCKIES 4, DIAMONDBACKS 3 In Denver, Jorge De La Rosa pitched six innings of two-hit ball, Michael Cuddyer homered and the Colorado Rockies won their season-high eighth in a row.

De La Rosa (2-1) won for the first time at Coors Field since returning late last year from reconstructive surgery on his pitching (left) elbow. And he resumed his mastery at home of the Diamondbacks, improving to 7-0 with a 1.38 ERA in eight career starts against Arizona at Coors Field.

He struck out four and walked two and didn’t allow a run in a second consecutive six-inning outing as the Rockies ran their home record to 8-0. Colorado is the only team in the majors without a loss at home.

Cuddyer connected for his fourth homer of the season in the sixth, driving the first offering from Trevor Cahill (0-3) into the left field bleachers.

ORIOLES 7, DODGERS 5 In Baltimore, Wei-Yin Chen pitched six innings of three-hit ball, Chris Davis and Manny Machado homered and the Orioles swept the Dodgers.

In the opener, the Orioles rallied from a four-run deficit behind Nolan Reimold, who homered and hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the eighth inning.

Los Angeles has lost six straight, its longest skid since a seven-game slide last June. The Dodgers will complete their first series in Baltimore since 2002 on Sunday, looking to avert a sweep.

Chen (1-2) allowed one run, walked four and struck out two to end a six-game losing streak dating back to Aug. 19, 2012. The Taiwanese left-hander didn’t let a runner get past first base after the first inning and was aided by two double plays. Tommy Hunter pitched the final three innings for his first career save. Davis hit a solo homer in the second inning and the 20-year-old Machado made it 6-1 with a three-run drive off Josh Beckett in the sixth. Beckett (0-3)

has lost five consecutive starts to Baltimore, beginning in 2011 when he was with Boston.

In the opener, Davis hit a one -out, tiebreaking double in the eighth off Paco Rodriguez (0-1) and Ronald Belisario walked J.J. Hardy on four pitches. After a passed ball and an intentional walk loaded the bases, Reimold sliced an opposite-field liner down the right field line. Darren O’Day (2-0) got two outs in the eighth and Jim Johnson worked a perfect ninth for his seventh save.

REDS 3, MARLINS 2 In Cincinnati, Brandon Phillips had a game -ending sacrifice fly in the 13th inning, giving the Reds a victory over the Marlins.

Facing Steve Cishek (1-2), Miami’s seventh pitcher of the game, Shin-Soo Choo led off the 13th with an opposite-field double down the left field line, his sixth time on base in seven plate appearances - he walked three times. Zack Cozart sustained an apparent right-hand injury while trying to bunt, and pinch-hitter Cesar Izturis moved Choo to third with a fly ball to center field. Joey Votto was intentionally walked, and Phillips - on his bobblehead day - lofted the fly to center field. Alfredo Simon (1-1) retired the Marlins in order to get the win.

CARDINALS 5, PHILLIES 0 In Philadelphia, Lance Lynn threw onehit ball for seven innings and Carlos Beltran homered for the third straight game to lead the Cardinals over the Phillies.

Lynn (3-0) did not allow a hit until John Mayberry Jr., led off the fifth with a double.

Lynn struck out eight and walked three in his longest outing of the season.

Trevor Rosenthal and Mitchell Boggs each tossed a scoreless inning to combine for St. Louis’ fourth shutout of the season.

Beltran’s solo shot off Cliff Lee (2-1) in the fifth inning gave him homers in the first three games of the four-game series. Allen Craig had a two-run single in a four-run third for the Cards.

Lee easily had his worst start of the year.

After walking one batter in 23 2-3 innings this year, he walked the bases loaded in the third that led to St. Louis’ big inning.

PIRATES 3, BRAVES 1 In Pittsburgh, James McDonald pitched six dominant inning and Gaby Sanchez hit a tiebreaking two-run homer to lead the Pirates to a victory over Atlanta.

In quite a contrast to his previous start, McDonald (2-2) struck out nine while allowing only one run on two hits. McDonald was tagged for eight runs in 1 2-3 innings on Monday in a loss to St. Louis. Sanchez’s first home run of the season broke a 1-all tie and capped a three-run sixth.

Paul Maholm (3-1) carried a two-hit shutout into the inning and had not allowed a run in 25 1-3 innings this season.

Atlanta (13-4), which has the best record in the major leagues, lost consecutive games for the first this season.

BREWERS 5, CUBS 1 In Milwaukee, Jonathan Lucroy homered, Hiram Burgos pitched five innings in his major league debut and the Milwaukee Brewers took advantage of shoddy fielding by the Chicago Cubs in a 5-1 win Saturday night. Burgos (1-0) held the Cubs to one run and five hits with a strikeout and no walks to help the Brewers win their sixth straight game. The Brewers scored first when Lucroy hit his third home run of the season, a solo shot to left center field in the second inning off Cubs starter Edwin Jackson (0-3). Jackson lost to the Brewers for the second time this season. —AP

John Mayberry Jr., led off the fifth with a double. Lynn struck out eight and walked three in his longest outing of the season.

Trevor Rosenthal and Mitchell Boggs each tossed a scoreless inning to combine for St. Louis’ fourth shutout of the season.

Beltran’s solo shot off Cliff Lee (2-1) in the fifth inning gave him homers in the first three games of the four-game series. Allen Craig had a two-run single in a four-run third for the Cards.

Lee easily had his worst start of the year. After walking one batter in 23 2-3 innings this year, he walked the bases loaded in the third that led to St. Louis’ big inning.

NEW YORK: Bryce Harper launched two long home runs, including a tiebreaking drive in the eighth inning, and also doubled Saturday to lead the Washington Nationals over the New York Mets 7-6.

Adam LaRoche and Ian Desmond homered for the Nationals on Bark in the Park day at Citi Field. Fans paid $35 for tickets in the second deck in right field, and brought their dogs for $10.

After the game, Nationals manager Davey Johnson said third baseman Ryan Zimmerman was being placed on the 15-day disabled list because of persistent tightness in his left hamstring.

Harper hit a two-run homer to right-center in the third. He then hit the first pitch from Josh Edgin (0-1) in the eighth even farther and harder to right-center for his seventh home run.

Tyler Clippard (1-0) got four outs for the win and Rafael Soriano closed for his sixth save.

GIANTS 2, PADRES 0 In San Francisco, Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run homer and Tim Lincecum struck out a season-best eight batters. Lincecum (2-0) pitched 6 2-3 scoreless innings, providing a steady presence on the mound after he had allowed four or more runs in a single inning in two of his previous three starts this year.

Sandoval’s third home run of the season landed in the elevated rightfield arcade for a 2-0 lead in the fourth that held up. The Giants are 8-1 this season when scoring first.

Sandoval delivered the key hit against Andrew Cashner (0-1) a night after Angel Pagan’s winning, one-out double in the ninth lifted the Giants to a 3-2 win in the series opener.

ROCKIES 4, DIAMONDBACKS 3 In Denver, Jorge De La Rosa pitched six innings of two-hit ball, Michael Cuddyer homered and the Colorado Rockies won their seasonhigh eighth in a row.

De La Rosa (2-1) won for the first time at Coors Field since returning late last year from reconstructive surgery on his pitching (left) elbow. And he resumed his mastery at home of the Diamondbacks, improving to 7-0 with a 1.38 ERA in eight career starts against Arizona at Coors Field.

He struck out four and walked two and didn’t allow a run in a second consecutive six-inning outing as the Rockies ran their home record to 8-0.

Colorado is the only team in the majors without a loss at home.

Cuddyer connected for his fourth homer of the season in the sixth, driving the first offering from Trevor Cahill (0-3) into the left field bleachers.

ORIOLES 7, DODGERS 5 In Baltimore, Wei-Yin Chen pitched six innings of three-hit ball, Chris Davis and Manny Machado homered and the Orioles swept the Dodgers.

In the opener, the Orioles rallied from a four-run deficit behind Nolan Reimold, who homered and hit a tiebreaking two-run double in the eighth inning.

Los Angeles has lost six straight, its longest skid since a seven-game slide last June. The Dodgers will complete their first series in Baltimore since 2002 late yesterday, looking to avert a sweep.

Chen (1-2) allowed one run, walked four and struck out two to end a six-game losing streak dating back to Aug. 19, 2012. The Taiwanese left-

PIRATES 3, BRAVES 1 In Pittsburgh, James McDonald pitched six dominant inning and Gaby Sanchez hit a tiebreaking two-run homer to lead the Pirates to a victory over Atlanta.

In quite a contrast to his previous start, McDonald (2-2) struck out nine while allowing only one run on two hits. McDonald was tagged for eight runs in 1 2-3 innings on Monday in a loss to St. Louis. Sanchez’s first home run of the season broke a 1-all tie and capped a three-run sixth.

Paul Maholm (3-1) carried a twohit shutout into the inning and had not allowed a run in 25 1-3 innings this season. Atlanta (13-4), which has the best record in the major leagues, lost consecutive games for the first this season.

BOSTON: Daniel Nava No. 29 of the Boston Red Sox is tagged out by Alcides Escobar No. 2 of the Kansas City Royals in the seventh inning at Fenway Park. —AFP hander didn’t let a runner get past first a game-ending sacrifice fly in the 13th base after the first inning and was aid- inning, giving the Reds a victory over ed by two double plays. Tommy the Marlins.

Facing Steve Cishek (1-2), Miami’s Hunter pitched the final three innings for his first career save. Davis hit a solo seventh pitcher of the game, Shin-Soo homer in the second inning and the Choo led off the 13th with an oppo20-year-old Machado made it 6-1 with site-field double down the left field a three-run drive off Josh Beckett in line, his sixth time on base in seven the sixth. Beckett (0-3) has lost five plate appearances - he walked three consecutive starts to Baltimore, begin- times. Zack Cozart sustained an apparning in 2011 when he was with ent right-hand injury while trying to bunt, and pinch-hitter Cesar Izturis Boston.

In the opener, Davis hit a one-out, moved Choo to third with a fly ball to tiebreaking double in the eighth off center field. Joey Votto was intentionPaco Rodriguez (0-1) and Ronald ally walked, and Phillips - on his bobBelisario walked J.J. Hardy on four blehead day - lofted the fly to center pitches. After a passed ball and an field. Alfredo Simon (1-1) retired the intentional walk loaded the bases, Marlins in order to get the win.

Reimold sliced an opposite-field liner CARDINALS 5, PHILLIES 0 down the right field line. Darren O’Day In Philadelphia, Lance Lynn threw (2-0) got two outs in the eighth and Jim Johnson worked a perfect ninth one-hit ball for seven innings and Carlos Beltran homered for the third for his seventh save. straight game to lead the Cardinals over the Phillies.

REDS 3, MARLINS 2 Lynn (3-0) did not allow a hit until In Cincinnati, Brandon Phillips had

BREWERS 5, CUBS 1 In Milwaukee, Jonathan Lucroy homered, Hiram Burgos pitched five innings in his major league debut and the Milwaukee Brewers took advantage of shoddy fielding by the Chicago Cubs in a 5-1 win Saturday night.

Burgos (1-0) held the Cubs to one run and five hits with a strikeout and no walks to help the Brewers win their sixth straight game.

The Brewers scored first when Lucroy hit his third home run of the season, a solo shot to left center field in the second inning off Cubs starter Edwin Jackson (0-3). Jackson lost to the Brewers for the second time this season. —AP

MLB results/standings Baltimore 7, LA Dodgers 5; NY Yankees 5, Toronto 3 (11 innings); Boston 4, Kansas City 3; Cincinnati 3, Miami 2 (13 innings); LA Angels 10, Detroit 0; Minnesota 2, Chicago White Sox 1 (10 innings); Washington 7, NY Mets 6; Baltimore 6, LA Dodgers 1; St. Louis 5, Philadelphia 0; Pittsburgh 3, Atlanta 1; Milwaukee 5, Chicago Cubs 1; Cleveland 19, Houston 6; Tampa Bay 1, Oakland 0; Texas 5, Seattle 0; Colorado 4, Arizona 3; San Francisco 2, San Diego 0.

Boston NY Yankees Baltimore Tampa Bay Toronto

American League Eastern Division W L 12 4 10 6 10 7 7 10 7 11

PCT .750 .625 .588 .412 .389

GB 2 2.5 5.5 6

Atlanta Washington NY Mets Philadelphia Miami

National League Eastern Division 13 4 10 7 8 8 7 11 4 14 Central Division 10 7 10 8 9 8 8 8 5 11

.588 .556 .529 .500 .313

0.5 1 1.5 4.5

Western Division 13 4 11 7 9 8 7 10 5 12

.765 .611 .529 .412 .294

2.5 4 6 8

Central Division Kansas City 8 7 Detroit 9 8 Minnesota 7 7 Chicago White Sox 7 10 Cleveland 6 10

.533 .529 .500 .412 .375

0.5 2 2.5

St. Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh Milwaukee Chicago Cubs

Western Division 12 6 11 6 6 10 7 12 5 12

.667 .647 .375 .368 .294

0.5 5 5.5 6.5

Colorado San Francisco Arizona LA Dodgers San Diego

Oakland Texas LA Angels Seattle Houston

.765 .588 .500 .389 .222

3 4.5 6.5 9.5

Alvarez tops Trout

Saul Alvarez

SAN ANTONIO: Saul Alvarez unified the 154-pound titles, unanimously outpointing Austin Trout on Saturday night at the Alamodome.

Alvarez (42-0-1) successfully defended his WBC and Ring Magazine super welterweight championships title and won the WBA belt, receiving winning scores of 115112, 116-111 and 118-109. Alvarez’s brother, Rigoberto, lost the WBA title to Trout, from Las Cruces, N.M., in February 2011 in the family’s hometown of Guadalajara.

Alvarez knocked down Trout (26-1) once and staggered him several times to the delight of the crowd of 39,247 that continually chanted “Mexico! Mexico!”

“He was better than me,” Trout said. “I have no excuses.”

The fighters stood toe-to-toe for much of the bout, both unwilling to tie up the other at the expense of possible power punches. Referee Laurence Cole only broke up the fighters once, doing so midway through the first round.

Trout was the more active fighter, connecting on 154

of 769 punches compared to 124 of 431, but Alvarez landed 43 percent of his power punches compared to 27 percent for Trout.

Alvarez dropped Trout early in the seventh round, catching the southpaw flush to the chin with a powerful straight punch. Trout staggered a few steps backward before falling front first to the canvas. Alvarez continued to deliver right hooks and jabs to the head, staggering Trout twice more in the round. Both fighters kept their distance early in the opening round, with Trout delivering the first meaningful blow with a right jab to Alvarez’s forehead with 1:52 remaining. Alvarez was able to press the action, stringing together several combinations to win the round.

The action picked up significantly in the second round with Alvarez delivering a series of body blows and Trout’s corner nearly pulling down the ringside camera man because he was obstructing their view. Alvarez dominated the action, taking the second round, too. —AP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

S P ORTS

Penguins get past Bruins

KAPOLEI: Suzann Petersen of Norway poses with the trophy after winning the LPGA LOTTE Championship Presented by J Golf at the Ko Olina Golf Club. —AFP

Suzann wins in Hawaii KAPOLEI: Suzann Pettersen won the LPGA Lotte Championship on Saturday, beating Lizette Salas with a par on the first hole of a playoff after Salas chunked her approach shot into the water.

Pettersen, the leader after the second and third rounds at Ko Olina, bogeyed the final hole of regulation to set up the playoff on the par-4 18th. The 32-year-old Norwegian closed with a 5-under 67, and Salas had a tournament-record 62 to finish at 19-under 269.

“I thought 20 was going to do it,” Pettersen said.

“That would take a fantastic round from anyone behind me, and it would take some good golf from me, but that was kind of the number I was shooting for.” Salas had a double bogey on the playoff hole.

She played a nine-hole stretch in 9 under, birdieing Nos. 8-9, holing out from 169 yards with a 6-iron for eagle on the par-4 10th and adding birdies on Nos. 12-16.

“Chunk is not bad, but if you have water it’s really bad,” Salas said. “But I still had a chance, and that putt didn’t go in. Not everything is going to fall, but I played my butt off today.”

The 23-year-old American was coming off a devastating collapse two weeks ago in the Kraft Nabisco Championship when she closed with a 79 to tie for 25th after beginning the final round three strokes behind playing partner and eventual winner Inbee Park.

“From shooting a 79 at Kraft to shooting a 62 here in Hawaii, like that just - I can’t really describe the feeling, just I feel so proud of myself to put that 79 in the back of my mind and just to go out and play some golf,” Salas said. “I took a big risk in using the short putter, but I felt extremely comfortable. I felt like me again.”

Pettersen won her 11th LPGA Tour title. She had consecutive LPGA Tour victories late last season in South Korea and Taiwan and won a Ladies European Tour event last month in China.

“My game has been feeling great,” Pettersen said. “It’s nice that I have kept kind of the progress that I had from Kraft.”

Pettersen birdied the par-3 12th get to 18 under, three strokes ahead of Salas, then bogeyed the par5 13th after she lost her ball on her drive when she was distracted by a car honk. She birdied Nos. 14, 15 and 17 to reach 20 under, but couldn’t get up and down for par on 18.

“I’ve kind of figured out how I play well, and I play well when I stay aggressive,” Pettersen said. “I hate to play defensive and I hate to play away from the pins, and obviously at times you have to. That’s when the experience comes in. But for me to shy

away and not step on the pedal, that’s not me. If I make an error being too aggressive, I can live with it.

But if I make an error playing defensive trying to protect something, I mean, I wouldn’t shoot myself, but it’s hard for me to accept it.”

Salas has four top-10 finishes in seven starts this year. The daughter of Mexican immigrants, she was introduced to the game when her father, the head mechanic at Azusa Greens Golf Course west of Los Angeles, did some handyman jobs for the club pro and, instead of pay, asked him to teach his daughter to play. She went on to star at the University of Southern California, where she was a four-time AllAmerica selection and helped the Trojans win the 2008 NCAA title.

“My mom is here, everyone has been pulling for me, and I just - baby steps,” Salas said. “I’ve got to just keep working on the things I’m working on, and the good thing is I’m going home tonight to see my family tomorrow for a day, and I’m sure they’re very proud of me.” Pettersen looked up at the leaderboard and was surprised to see Salas’ name up there.

“I birdied 15, and then I think I was aware that she was like 18 under,” Pettersen said. “So I mean, she wasn’t going anywhere, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, where did she start this day? Because I didn’t remember seeing her next to my name on the list yesterday.

“She’s a tough cookie. She’s been playing fantastic. She’s just got to keep putting herself in this position, and she’ll get her win.”

Ariya Jutanugarn, the 17-year-old from Thailand, shot a 66 to finish third at 15 under. The top-ranked Park had a 67 to tie for fourth with I.K. Kim at 13 under. Kim shot 65. “We played one week and I’m still No. 1, so I know I kind of deserve No. 1 spot now,” Park said. “I played very good golf this week.

The first two rounds my putts didn’t really fall, but round three and four it was much better. Very happy with my game at the moment and very confident.”

Lydia Ko, the 15-year-old New Zealand amateur who won the Canadian Open in August to become the youngest LPGA Tour winner, tied for ninth at 10 under after a 6. The South Korea-born Ko has two other pro victories, the New South Wales Open last year and New Zealand Women’s Open this year, and won the US Women’s Amateur last season.

Second-ranked Stacy Lewis also finished at 10 under after a 71. Local favorite Michelle Wie shot a 68, her best round of the tournament, to finish at 5 under. She broke 70 for second straight day and for only the third time in 22 rounds this season. —AP

BOSTON: Hockey returned to Boston after the manhunt following the marathon bombings, and Jarome Iginla scored the tiebreaking goal that gave the Pittsburgh Penguins a 3-2 win over the Bruins on Saturday and home-ice advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The game was pushed back by one day by the manhunt for a suspect, who was captured Friday night.

The postponement was the second of the week for the Bruins.

Their game against the Ottawa Senators last Monday night, scheduled to star t about four hours after the bombings, was rescheduled for April 28. The Bruins returned to their ice to beat Buffalo in a shootout on Thursday.

The Penguins took a nine-point lead in the East over Montreal, which could get just eight more points in its remaining four games.

The Bruins remained in four th place with 57 points, 11 behind the Penguins, with five games to go.

Jussi Jokinen and Kris Letang also scored for Pittsburgh, which won its sixth straight game despite the continued absence of Sidney Crosby, who missed his eighth game with a broken jaw. Brad Marchand and Tyler Seguin scored for Boston.

MAPLE LEAFS 4, SENATORS 1 In Ottawa, James Reimer put in a monstrous effort with 49 saves and Toronto clinched a playoff berth for the first time since 2004 with a win over Ottawa.

James van Riemsdyk scored twice, and Nazem K adri and Joffrey Lupul also had goals for the Leafs, who needed to earn a point and get a little help from the New York Islanders to make the playoffs.

New York briefly pulled into a tie with Toronto for fifth place in the East with a 5-4 shootout win over Winnipeg before the Leafs (55) moved back ahead by two points.

Jakob Silfverberg scored and Craig Anderson stopped 18 shots for the Senators, who trail the Islanders by a point.

COYOTES 3, BLACKHAWKS 2 In Chicago, Mikkel Boedker and David Schlemko scored shootout goals to lift Phoenix and a threegame losing streak and preserving its fading playoff hopes with a win over Chicago.

Schlemko beat Corey Crawford with a high shot in the third round of the tiebreaker to end Chicago’s seven-game win streak. Rostislav Klesla and Radim Vrbata scored in the first period for Phoenix, which trails Columbus by three points for the final playoff spot with four to play.

Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook scored two power-play goals in regulation for his first twogoal game this season and second of his career. Despite the loss, the league-leading Blackhawks have earned a point in 11 straight (90-2).

CAPITALS 5, CANADIENS 1 In Montreal, Troy Brouwer and Alex Ovechkin each scored twice as Washington beat Montreal.

Nicklas Backstrom also scored for the Capitals, who had an eightgame winning streak stopped in

VANCOUVER: Goalie Cory Schneider No. 35 of the Vancouver Canucks stops Justin Abdelkader No. 8 of the Detroit Red Wings while Dan Hamhuis No. 2 of the Vancouver Canucks tries to help defend during the third period in NHL action to defeat the Red Wings. —AFP eliminated with a regulation loss.

Marcel Goc and Brian Campbell scored for the NHL-worst Panthers, who have lost five straight.

Josh Bailey and Matt Martin scored in regulation for the Islanders, who trail Toronto by two points for fifth place in the East.

Kyle Wellwood had two goals and Zach Bogosian also scored for the Jets, who have 49 points and are one back of the eighth-place Rangers.

Ottawa on Thursday but rebounded with their 13th win in 16 games. They stretched their lead over second-place Winnipeg in the Southeast Division to three points with three games to play.

Ovechkin took a step toward a third Rocket Richard Trophy as the NHL’s top goal scorer with his 29th and 30th of the season. He has 20 goals in his last 18 games.

Max Pacioretty scored for Montreal, which has lost five of its last seven but remains solidly in second place in the East.

FLYERS 5, HURRICANES 3 In Raleigh, Wayne Simmonds got his first career hat trick and added an assist to lead Philadelphia to a win over Carolina in a matchup of teams eliminated from playoff contention.

Jakub Voracek and Matt Read also scored for the Flyers, who won for the third time in four games.

Steve Mason, playing his fifth game for the Flyers since being acquired from Columbus, made 26 saves. Simmonds, playing in his 364th career game, also had his first four-point effort. Jeff Skinner, Justin Faulk and Eric Staal scored for the Hurricanes, who lost for the ninth time in their last 10 home games. Both teams were playing for the first time since they were eliminated from playoff contention. —AP

DEVILS 6, PANTHERS 2 In Newark, Patrik Elias scored twice and New Jersey kept its faint playoff hopes alive by rallying from a two-goal deficit for a win over Florida. David Clarkson, whose big check seemed with wake up the Devils after they fell behind 2-0, tallied the go-ahead goal in a game where they welcomed back offensive catalyst Ilya Kovalchuk to the lineup after missing 11 games with a shoulder injury.

Ryan Carter, Stephen Gionta and Dainius Zubrus also scored as New Jersey won its second in a row after a 10-game losing streak (0-64). The Devils would have been

ISLANDERS 5, JETS 4 In Winnipeg, John Tavares scored the winning goal in a shootout to help surging New York put a sent in Winnipeg’s playoff drive. Bryan Little tied the game for Winnipeg 4-4 with 2:01 left in regulation - seven seconds after Islanders defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky was called for interference.

Michael Grabner, Frans Nielsen,

NHL results/standings Pittsburgh 3, Boston 2; New Jersey 6, Florida 2; NY Islanders 5, Winnipeg 4 (SO); Washington 5, Montreal 1; Toronto 4, Ottawa 1; Philadelphia 5, Carolina 3; Phoenix 3, Chicago 2 (SO); Vancouver 2, Detroit 1 (SO).

Pittsburgh NY Islanders NY Rangers New Jersey Philadelphia

Eastern Conference Atlantic Division W L OTL 34 10 0 24 16 5 23 17 4 17 17 10 20 22 3

GF 150 134 116 105 124

GA 108 131 105 117 137

PTS 68 53 50 44 43

Montreal Boston Toronto Ottawa Buffalo

Northeast Division 27 13 5 26 12 5 25 15 5 23 15 6 19 20 6

139 120 138 108 118

120 97 124 96 138

59 57 55 52 44

Washington Winnipeg Tampa Bay Carolina Florida

Southeast Division 25 18 2 23 19 3 17 23 4 17 24 3 13 25 6

140 121 138 115 104

123 134 138 143 159

52 49 38 37 32

Chicago St. Louis Columbus Detroit Nashville

Western Conference Central Division 34 5 5 26 16 2 21 17 7 20 16 8 15 21 9

146 116 110 109 104

94 107 114 112 128

73 54 49 48 39

Vancouver Minnesota Edmonton Calgary Colorado

Northwest Division 25 13 7 24 17 3 17 19 7 18 22 4 14 23 7

121 115 110 119 104

110 115 121 148 139

57 51 41 40 35

Pacific Division Anaheim 27 11 6 128 111 60 Los Angeles 25 14 5 124 108 55 San Jose 24 13 7 115 105 55 Dallas 22 19 3 124 129 47 5. Phoenix 19 17 8 114 118 46 Note: Overtime losses (OTL) are worth one point in the standings and are not included in the loss column (L).

Zimbabwe thrashing highlights Bangladesh woes HILTON HEAD ISLAND: Luke Donald of England hits a tee shot on the first hole during the final round of the RBC Heritage at Harbor Town Golf Links. —AFP

Hoffman surges ahead HILTON HEAD ISLAND: American Charley Hoffman, wielding a red-hot putter, moved a step closer to his third PGA Tour victory as he forged two shots clear in Saturday’s third round of the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

Hoffman, who has not won on the U.S. circuit in almost three years, barely missed a putt on the way to a flawless five-under-par 66 on a mainly overcast day at the picturesque Harbour Town Golf Links.

Wearing sunglasses, the long-haired Californian totalled only 21 putts as he posted an 11-under total of 202, ending the round two ahead of compatriot and US Open champion Webb Simpson, who fired a best-of-the-day 65.

Another American, Kevin Streelman, carded a 69 to sit alone in third at eight under, a stroke better than Zimbabwe’s Brendon de Jonge (67) and Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell (68).

Hoffman, however, was the story of the day as he sank putt after putt on greens softened by overnight rain in his bid to win a first PGA Tour title since the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship.

“This course was gettable today,” the laidback 36-year-old told Golf Channel after a bogey-free display highlighted by five birdies. “The greens were moist and you could get after it.

“I started off good, got some good breaks and made some putts, then I sort of hung on from there on in, didn’t really give myself any opportunity to make birdie. I made a lot of six-to-nine footers to save par.”

Joint leader with Streelman and PGA Tour rookie Steve LeBrun after the second round, Hoffman

made a sizzling start with four birdies in the first five holes to surge two strokes in front of the chasing pack. Out in four-under 32, he did well to save par at the 12th after his drive sailed right into the treeline, coolly sinking a 12-footer to remain at 10 under for the tournament.

Hoffman, who had launched his round with a monster 30-foot birdie putt at the opening hole, eclipsed that at the 588-yard 15th when he rolled in a slick 38-footer to maintain a two-shot advantage.

He then made further clutch putts to save par on the last three holes, signing off with a tricky 10footer on the 18th green to preserve his two-stroke cushion.

“I was able to leave myself underneath the hole because I was chipping all day long, so I had a lot of uphill putts,” Hoffman said of his impressive putting statistics.

“If you’re hitting (longer) iron shots in there, it’s a little tougher because you’re probably leaving yourself downhill sliders (for putts). I gave myself opportunities to make the (par) putts, and I made them today.

“I will go and work on the ball-striking now.

Hopefully I will hit it a little better tomorrow and keep making the putts.”

Journeyman LeBrun, at 34 playing his first season on the PGA Tour after spending most of his time on the satellite circuits, fell back with a run of three bogeys around the turn to end the day with a 71, five shots off the pace. English world number six Luke Donald was a further stroke back, also after a 71. —Reuters

HARARE: When Zimbabwe return to the ICC Test rankings after Thursday’s second Test against Bangladesh, they will enter the table above their opponents regardless of the result.

For Bangladesh, this is a damning indictment on their lack of progress since they entered the Test arena in November 2000, and raises further questions on why a nation of 150 million people has been unable to rise to the level of even the mediocre Test teams.

To put Bangladesh’s woes into context, it is worth pointing out the state of the nation that thrashed them by 335 runs in the first Test on Saturday.

Zimbabwe have just 75 professional cricketers, most of whom are on part-time contracts, and only returned to Test cricket in August 2011 after a six-year exile from the five-day game.

The African side went into the current Test series smarting from a dismal tour of the

Caribbean, where they lost every match against the West Indies, and dispirited after their latest contract dispute with Zimbabwe Cricket, who are laden with debt.

Bangladesh, on the other hand, enjoyed an encouraging tour of Sri Lanka where they amassed their highest ever score in a Test, yet Saturday’s result was a reminder that for every step forward they have managed over the years there seems to have been an equal step back.

While the Harare Sports Club wicket had an even layer of green grass which ensured there was always something in it for the pace bowlers, too often Bangladesh’s batsmen were impatient and contributed to their own demise as they were bowled out for 134 and 147.

“We were expecting difficult conditions and good bowling,” captain Mushfiqur Rahim said afterwards, yet he offered no real answers as to why his side were unable to counter them.

HARARE: Zimbabwe players celebrate their victory over Bangladesh in this file photo. —AFP

The manner of defeat drew heavy criticism from everyone back home, but coach Shane Jurgensen suggested before the series began that what his side needs is a bit of sympathy if they are to handle the regular beatings and move forward.

“It’s a combination of a few things: media, general public, high expectations,” Jurgensen said. “Everyone wants success, but what a lot of people forget sometimes is that we want success as well.

“When we have a bad day, we don’t mean to.

Some people forget the boys are human beings and they are all very young and they have been learning.”

Jurgensen also suggested that many of Bangladesh’s players should make the step up over the coming years as they come into their prime.

“There’s a shift where you’ve got a group of guys hitting their mid-20s and some slightly older guys who are still very young in cricketing age,” he said.

“That’s when sometimes you hit the prime of your career - when your experience and your physical strength all come into one.”

While it is true that the majority of Bangladesh’s team are yet to reach the age at which most cricketers peak, the call for more time is one that the cricket public has heard many times before.

Defeats by more than an innings may have become scarcer over the past five years, yet Bangladesh have still not won a Test since 2009 and that was against a West Indian side who had lost an entire team to a contract crisis.

Test cricket is not healthy enough that it can cast teams aside without concern for its own future, but at some stage Bangladesh’s Test cricketers need to start showing the sort of patience on the field that their prolonged stagnation has demanded from a discouraged public. —AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

S P ORTS

Time for sports to help us heal again NEW YORK: In so many ways, sports can bring out the worst in us. The corruption. The greed. The destructive belief that winning isn’t just the only thing, but something that must be achieved no matter the cost. Then, there are times like these.

While Boston was locked down Friday, as authorities hunted for a suspect in the deadly bombing at what was supposed to be a joyous 26.2-mile run through the city’s streets, we’ve already seen the cathartic effect of something so mundane as a hockey game.

Thousands of strangers, singing along in unison to the national anthem, when the Bruins took the ice only two nights after those cowards killed three innocent people at the Boston Marathon - one of them an 8-year-old child - and ripped off the legs of others.

Did anyone who saw that rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” not, at the very least, dab at their eyes for a moment, a sense of pride and defiance bubbling up in their chest?

Sports gives us our sense of community in times of grief. It’s like our collective couch, helping to soothe our national pain.

“What people look for in sports in a moment of crisis is a sense of security,” said John Smith, who teaches classes on the history of sports and its impact on

society at Georgia Tech. “You’re going to games with people who are going through the same thing you are. There’s kind of a safety there. It feels good to have a sense of normalcy.” We’ve seen it many times before.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, baseball carried on with President Roosevelt’s blessing and helped deflect a nation’s attention from the horrors of World War II. After the 911 terrorist attacks, the games we play sent a resolute message that a nation would not give in to anyone’s despicable agenda.

And now, in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, we’ll again call on sports to help bring out the best in us.

Rest assured, it’s up to the task.

“Sports really are the most visible place where people can come together outside of churches,” Smith said. “And, let’s face it, arenas are bigger than most churches. I can think of no other place where so many people come out to show their support for people who are grieving, who have lost something, who are going through tragedy. The stadium is a place of congregation.”

Boston’s grieving is still in the early stages. That was quite apparent Friday when much of the city was brought to a halt by the successful search for one person.

The Red Sox were forced to postpone the opener of their series the Kansas City Royals because the city’s transportation system was shut down and people were urged to stay home, all in hopes of flushing out the 19-year-old suspect who was captured hiding in a blood-spattered boat parked in a backyard. The Bruins, after playing Wednesday, postponed their contest against the Pittsburgh Penguins, and later rescheduled it for early Saturday afternoon. The Red Sox and Royals will start play a few minutes later.

A city, a nation, a world will be the better for it. “We’re all looking forward to the next home game at Fenway Park,” Smith said. While we’re at it, here’s hoping the impact of this terrible week will be more lasting than past tragedies.

Sports fans - short for fanatics, as we’ve seen far too many times - should use this as another learning moment, an opportunity to permanently tone down the hateful rhetoric that too often rules in our stadiums, on sports talk radio, and throughout the Internet.

There’s nothing wrong with being a passionate supporter of the home team, as long as everyone remembers it’s just a game. Frankly, we’re not holding our breath on that one. Memories fade. The vitriol returns. But maybe, just maybe, the next time a Yankees fan wants to

pour a beer over the head of a Red Sox rival - or vice versa - there will be a flicker of how they came together in the wake of 9-11, how they were united again after the Boston Marathon tragedy.

That’s the most amazing thing about sports. Roosevelt recognized the importance of baseball after America was plunged into a world at war. The easier path would’ve been to shut down, as many of the world’s top sporting events did at the time. The Indianapolis 500 wasn’t held from 1942-45. The Olympics were called off in both 1940 and ‘44. The Masters was canceled the last three years of the war.

But, when baseball Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis went to the president for guidance on what course the national pastime should take, Roosevelt responded with his famous “green light letter.” “I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going,” Roosevelt wrote.

Of course, there have been times when the games should not have gone on. NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle decided to let teams play the Sunday after President Kennedy was assassinated. The decision was roundly criticized as insensitive to a grieving nation and would go down as the worst call of Rozelle’s long, successful career.

In 1972, International Olympic Committee President Avery Brundage thought he was doing the right thing by ordering the Munich Games to carry on after a horrific terrorist attack wiped out the Israeli team. He couldn’t have been more wrong.

But, when handled with sensitivity, the decision on whether to play or not to play can have a profoundly positive impact.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington, the NFL, Major League Baseball and college football all shut down for a week, a call that was undoubtedly influenced by Rozelle’s misstep nearly four decades earlier.

When the games resumed, it wasn’t just the right thing to do, but downright necessary to help the nation start moving forward again.

Ten days after the attack, baseball returned to New York with a poignant game at Shea Stadium. More than 41,000 turned out to watch the Mets beat the Atlanta Braves, essentially thumbing the Big Apple’s nose at the terrorists.

“This is the way life gets back to normalcy,” then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said at the time. “You can’t just concentrate on the tragedy.” Boston has already received a dose of that healing salve. It needs a lot more. We’ll all be the better for it. —AP

China clinches three gold after mixed doubles upset TAIPEI: Badminton powerhouse China clinched three golds in the Badminton Asia Championships yesterday but they fell short of earlier expectations after losing to South Korea in the mixed doubles.

The three golds-in the women’s

biggest upset of the event that drew more than 6,000 fans in Taipei.

“The biggest surprise definitely was China’s loss in the mixed doubles,” an official with the organisers Chinese Taipei Badminton

TAIWAN : Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na of South Korea hit in return against Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei of China in their mixed doubles final of the Badminton Asia Championships. —AFP singles and doubles and men’s singles — compared with five they swept in the 2011 Asian tournament and four in the 2012 event.

Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Ha-Na of South Korea beat Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, the boyfriendgirlfriend partnership who won the mixed doubles gold medals in London, 22-20, 21-17 in the

Association told AFP. “China was relatively weak in the men’s doubles at the games as their London Olympics gold medalists in the men’s doubles skipped the tournament,” he said, referring to Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng. Both of China’s teams lost out in the quarter-finals of men’s doubles, leaving two South

Korean pairs to eventually vie for the top spot.

The first-seeded Ko Sung-Hyun and Lee Yong-Dae saw off thirdseeded Kim Ki-Jung and Kim SaRang 21-13, 22-20.

In the women’s singles, the second-seeded Wang Yihan beat her Chinese compatriot Li Xuerui, the London gold medalist and the first seed of the event, 21-13, 22-20.

In the men’s singles, Du Pengyu, the second seed, overwhelmed Chen Long, China’s bronze medalist in the 2012 Games, 21-17, 2119.

“I should have reduced the number of errors,” Du told reporters, adding that the venue was a little bit windy, which made shuttle control difficult.

Controversial Chinese women’s doubles team Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli saw off their Chinese fellow players Tang Jinhua and Ma Jin 2115, 14-21, 21-15. The duo were booted out of the Olympics in a playing-to-lose scandal that rocked the London Games.

With some of their top Asian rivals skipping the event, Chinese players had a strong chance of replicating their achievement at the Olympics by winning all five titles on offer.

However, Chinese Olympic champion Lin Dan withdrew from the tournament over a shoulder injury on Friday. Lin has won every major title but had been off the scene since the Olympic final last August until this event. —AFP

LIEGE: Ireland’s Daniel Martin of the Garmin-Sharp team (left) is congratulated by the third-placed Spain’s Alejandro Valverde of the Movistar team, on the podium at the end of the 99th edition of the Liege-Bastogne-Liege, a 261,5 km one day cycling race. —AFP

Martin takes Liege classic honours LIEGE: Ireland’s Daniel Martin, riding for Garmin, won yesterday’s LiegeBastogne-Liege classic race, seeing off Spanish pair Joaquim Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde after a gruelling 261.5 kilometres.

Martin, nephew of former Tour de France champion Stephen Roche, attacked just before the final bend to come through and land the 99th edition of the ‘doyenne’ of the Ardennes classics.

Martin’s mother is the sister of Roche, who won the Tour de France in 1987, and the former rolled back the

years for Irish fans as he gave his compatriots a first success in the Liege since Sean Kelly 24 years ago.

Yesterday’s success was the biggest of his career to date for 26-year-old, Birmingham-born Martin, a gritty and talented climber.

He just outlasted Rodriguez by three seconds as they hurtled for the line after the Spaniard made his final push just before the final kilometre, the champion finishing in 6hr 38min 07sec.

Belgian world champion Philippe Gilbert could only trail in seventh,

18sec off the pace. “I can’t believe it,” gasped Martin. “The team protected me all day long to perfection. When I saw Rodriguez attack I had no choiceI’d have preferred to go later but I had to get on with it,” said the Irishman who was second in the 2011 Tour of Lombardy.

Gilbert, who emulated Davide Rebellin when two years ago he won the three Ardennes classics in the same season, meanwhile recognised that. “I was a lacking a few percent today and that made the difference. I didn’t have the legs of a winner today.” —AFP

Hodgson stars for Wolves LONDON: Former West’s Tigers full-back Brett Hodgson racked up a personal haul of 26 points as Warrington Wolves got the defence of their Challenge Cup title off to a flying start with a comfortable fourth-round win.

The Wire saw off Keighley Cougars 74-4, Ryan Atkins running in four of his side’s 13 tries while Hodgson, who made over 100 appearances for the Tigers, added 11 goals and a score himself.

Chris Riley and Rhys Williams both scored twice while Trent Waterhouse, Richie Myler, Gareth O’Brien and Glenn Riley also crossed for the holders in the easy win.

Elsewhere yesterday, Huddersfield Giants edged out Batley Bulldogs 13-4, Shaun Lunt scoring two tries for the Super League side while skipper Danny Brough kicked two goals and a drop goal.

Hull FC ran riot against the Crusaders in a 62-6 win, full-back Jamie Shaul and centre Kirk Yeaman both scoring hat-tricks as they comfortably reached the fifth round.

William Barthau’s hat-trick helped Catalan Dragons to a comfortable 50-12 victory at Championship side

Hunslet Hawks. Super League strugglers Salford City Reds scored 15 tries as they eased to an 82-6 win over Gloucestershire All Golds.

Youngster Jon Ford scored a hat-trick, while Will Hope and Ashley Gibson grabbed two tries apiece for the Reds. And Elliott Whitehead also ran in a hat-trick as Bradford Bulls eased to a 70-10 win over Rochdale Hornets.

On Saturday, Hull KR continued their fine recent record against St Helens to knock Nathan Brown’s side out with a 26-18 win in one of only two all Super League clashes of the fourth round.

The Robins’ job was made a lot easier by the firsthalf dismissal of former New Zealand international Francis Meli for a high tackle on Craig Hall.

Hall was unhurt, however, and dusted himself to run in two tries, Mickey Paea, Greg Eden and Liam Salter also crossing for the home side at while Ade Gardner, Paul Wellens and Mark Percival ran in Saints’ scores.

Elsewhere, Lee Smith collected a personal haul of 26 points as five-time Challenge Cup winners

Wakefield overcame Championship One newcomers Hemel Stags.

Smith scored two tries and kicked nine goals, while Jon Molloy and Liam Kay also crossed twice among the 11 scores as the Wildcats emerged comfortable 66-6 victors. Tony Rea’s London Broncos avoided a scare as they beat Featherstone 24-12 to progress through.

Ian Hardman’s first-half try had Featherstone in front at the break but the Championship side conceded five second-half scores, Kieran Dixon and Luke Dorn both scoring twice in the win.

On Friday Sam Tomkins ran in four tries while Pat Richards claimed a hat-trick as Super League leaders Wigan put Leigh to the sword in a 60-10 success. Leeds Rhinos, runners up last year and the reigning Super League champions, saw off Castleford Tigers 28-12.

Danny McGuire’s double was the difference between the two sides while Kevin Sinfield kicked four goals for the Rhinos, Rangi Chase going over for the Tigers. And Widnes substitute Adam Lawton claimed a hat-trick as the seven-time winners eventually pulled off a fourth round win over Doncaster, 42-28. —AFP

Brett Hodgson

Four NBK MasterCard credit cardholders will enjoy UEFA Champions League semi-final live Three travel packages to the final match will be announced next week KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) offers four NBK MasterCard credit cardholders the opportunity to attend UEFA Champions League semifinal.

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MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

S P ORTS

Djokovic ends Nadal’s reign in Monte Carlo MONACO: Novak Djokovic ended Rafael Nadal’s dreams of a record ninth successive Monte Carlo Masters title with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/1) victory in the final yesterday.

The world number one had been a doubtful starter this week with an injured ankle but played through the pain to lift his first trophy in the principality, the 37th of his career and 14th at the Masters 1000 level. It was also a huge psychological boost ahead of

decision to play or not to play,” admitted Australian Open champion Djokovic.

“If somebody told me 10 days ago I’d be winning the trophy, I wouldn’t think it’s so realistic, to be honest. “I went through pain, I went through a big challenge, mentally, physically, emotionally, and in the end it was getting better as the tournament was going on. I can’t ask for a better start to the clay season.” Nadal, who

MONACO: Spain’s Rafael Nadal (right) and Serbia’s Novak Djokovic (left) pose with their trophies at the end of the Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series tennis Tournament final. —AFP next month’s French Open where Nadal is a record seven-time champion.

Nadal had reigned supreme at the Monte Carlo Country Club since his last loss in 2003, when he was still a teenager, and had won every edition since 2005.

Djokovic, who achieved the win in one hour, 51 minutes, was overwhelmed. “I cannot be happier than I am in this moment knowing what I’ve been through the whole week, actually two weeks, right after the Davis Cup, trying to recover and make a

returned to tennis in February after seven months out with a knee injury, now stands 38-6 in clay finals, losing to only three players- Djokovic (three times) Roger Federer (twice) and Horacio Zeballos (once).

Before the final, the Spaniard had lost only one set all week after playing in his fifth straight final since his return to the circuit.

“What Novak is doing is just amazing,” said the losing finalist, who had won 46 matches in succession in Monte Carlo.

“I like to win more than lose, but

that’s sport, it’s not a tragedy. I lost after eight years without losing herethat’s something.

“For me it was a positive week. I didn’t have the practice in Mallorca, I just practised here before the tournament.“With not much preparation, I was able to play in the final.”

Djokovic ran away to a 5-0 lead at the start of a match delayed for almost an hour by rain. But Nadal would not roll over, saving seven break points-five in the sixth game as he finally got on the scoreboard.

Djokovic earned the set after 47 minutes from a Nadal double-fault in the eighth game.

The Spaniard looked like turning it around with a break in the second set which gave him a 4-2 lead. Djokovic calmly clawed it back with his precision shotmaking, levelling at four game apiece, but losing serve in the 11th game from a backhand wide.

The Serb, who came to the final with titles at the Australian Open and Dubai, broke back for 6-6 through a backhand winner to force the tiebreaker.

He ran away with the decider, seizing the win on the first of five match points with a forehand winner to the corner. Djokovic becomes the first player to beat Nadal three times in a clay court final.

“I knew after yesterday’s match that I had a feeling that I had a big chance to win against Rafa if I was on the top of my game,” added the Serb.

“The first six, seven games, eight games, were unbelievable. It’s the best that I can play on clay. Well, it’s the only way you can win against Rafa.”

He claimed his first Monte Carlo title after losing the 2009 and 2012 finals to the Spaniard. Nadal is far from disheartened as he heads to defend his title in Barcelona next week.

“Five finals in a row-if you told me that four months before, I will be crying with emotion,” he said. “I’m just very happy to be able to play against the best players of the world another time.” —AFP

Preview

Sharapova begins French Open build-up STUTTGART: World number two Maria Sharapova returns to the Stuttgart tournament as title-holder as the Russian number one begins her claycourt preparations ahead of her defence of the French Open.

The 26-year-old has made a bright start to 2013 having reached January’s Australian Open semi-finals and picking up her 28th WTA title in March when she beat Caroline Wozniacki in Indian Wells.

Last year, she defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-1, 6-4 in the final on her debut at Stuttgart’s indoor tournament.

The French Open victory which was to follow gave Sharapova the full set of Grand Slam titles, eight years after she won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old.

The Russian said the foundation of last year’s Roland Garros win was laid in Stuttgart, having once famously compared her movement on clay to “a cow on ice”.

“Looking back, I think it was a really important win for me,” she said. “It ultimately led to my win at the French Open. “For me, to get a win on clay at one of the toughest tournaments of the year, gave me huge confidence.”

Last year she beat Australia’s Sam Stosur and the Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova on her way to the final and similar confident performances would give her

plenty of belief ahead of Roland Garros.

Sharapova said she was looking forward to the Stuttgart tournament where China’s Li Na, who lost this year’s Australia Open final to Azarenka, is the second seed.

“It is always great coming back to a city and tournament where you have had success,” said Sharapova.

“You have those special memories when you step back on the court where you were holding the trophy.

And, of course, there is always room for another Porsche,” she added in reference to the gleaming sports car which accompanies the winner’s cheque.

With eight of the world’s top 10 players in Stuttgart, Li is looking to put her recent ankle injury behind her and recapture her Australian Open form.

The injury in February and March forced her to withdraw from the Doha and Dubai tournaments while she lost in the quarter-finals in Miami to eventual winner Serena Williams.

Stosur, ranked ninth, is the sixth seed. She was runner-up in 2010 to Justine Henin. Former world number one players, Wozniacki of Denmark, plus Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic will also be battling it out in Stuttgart. —AFP

Celtic win Scottish title LONDON: Celtic completed their inevitable procession to the Scottish title yesterday when they beat Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4-1.

The victory, inspired by Gary Hooper’s double, left second-placed Motherwell, who won 3-1 at Dundee United on Friday, 15 points behind the Glasgow club with only four games remaining.

Celtic, who have now amassed 44 Scottish league championships, have coasted to the title more easily than last year given old foes Rangers were demoted to the bottom tier before the season because of financial problems.

Rangers, a world record 54 times Scottish champions, won the fourth tier last month. Celtic have 72 points

from 34 matches and will go into the Champions League qualifying rounds next term hoping to better their achievement of reaching the last 16 this season.

Fans had to wait until the second half to start the party with thirdplaced Inverness stubbornly refusing to bow to their far more illustrious opponents. —Reuters

Ghadban wins KBC Masters Bowling KUWAIT: Within the Bowling tourney organized by the Kuwaiti Banks Club (KBC), the Masters’ championship was recently played with participation of the best 16 players with the highest scores in the preliminary stage.

Each player played six rounds to select the winners of the first four places; Nasser Al-Ghadban (Ahli United Bank),

Fareed Gubrial (Ahli Bank), Tareq Al-Bu’aijan (Central Bank) and Maitham Qassim ( Central Bank) respectively. Notably, Al-Ghadban managed to defeat Qassim and Al-Bu’aijan before qualifying for the final match with Gubrial. The winners were congratulated by KBC’s sport committee chairman, Khalil Al-Boloushi.

Photo of the day

HS Racing Team prepares to change direction in first fleet race of day 2 during America's Cup World Series Regatta.—www.redbullcontentpool.com

Passports should end doping system ‘disaster’: Berdych MONTE CARLO: Current anti-doping measures in tennis are a “disaster” and the introduction of biological passports can only improve matters, world number six Tomas Berdych said.

“The system right now... I don’t know how it works with the others but with me, it does not work at all,” the Czech told Reuters in an interview at the Monte Carlo Masters this week.

“You have to say every single day... where you are. I’ve done this for three or four years already and I had only two tests out of the tournaments,” Berdych said. “So why do I have to do this all the time and then they come twice in four years? It’s just like complete nonsense.”

Under International Tennis Federation (ITF) rules, players must give their location for at least one hour of each day in case they are required for an out-of-competition drugs test, usually by means of a urine sample.

“If some people were hired to think about that and have come up with this kind of idea, if it was me, I would have fired them straight away,” Berdych said.

“This system is a complete disaster.

So whatever they’re going to do differently, it’s going to be good, new or whatever.”

The ITF said last month it would introduce biological passports for players this year, in line with measures adopted in other sports such as cycling.

The new system, under which test results are collated over time to enable testers to track any changes which might indicate doping, would involve more blood tests being done every year, the federation said.

According to their website (www.itftennis.com), the ITF carried out 21 out-of-competition blood tests in professional tennis in 2011.

By comparison, cycling’s world gov-

erning body UCI conducted 3,314 in the same year. Top players, including 17times grand-slam winner Roger Federer, have welcomed the introduction of biological passports in tennis and Berdych added his backing. “Sure, I’m definitely on this side. There should be more tests,” Berdych said.

World number nine Richard Gasquet of France also praised the new system.

“We still have urine tests that are a bit behind the times and we know that potential cheats always are way ahead,” he told Reuters. Urine tests can detect many drugs including EPO, one of several substances taken by disgraced former Tour de France cycling champion Lance Armstrong, but only blood tests can detect human growth hormone.

World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) head John Fahey earlier this year called on tennis officials to increase the number of blood tests. —Reuters

Kvitova keeps Czechs alive as rain delays semi PALERMO: Former Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova defeated Sara Errani 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 to keep defending champions, the Czech Republic alive in their Fed Cup semi-final against Italy yesterday.

Trailing 2-0 overnight on the clay courts of Palermo, the Czechs, who were also champions in 2011, were looking at defeat before Kvitova’s heroics.

With rain having already disrupted play, the decision was then taken to complete the tie on Monday with the eventual winners to face either Russia or Slovakia in November’s final.

Roberta Vinci is due to face Lucie Safarova where a win for the Czech player would see the semi-final decided by the doubles. Safarova and Vinci are tied 1-1 in their previous head to heads, with Vinci winning their only past meeting on clay in Acapulco in 2009.

Flavia Pennetta and Francesa Schiavone are then slated to face Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. But Italy coach Corrado Barrazzutti could opt to select Australian, French and US Open champions Errani and Vinci to play.

In Moscow, Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova pulled Russia level at 2-2 with Slovakia in their Fed Cup semifinal battle yesterday, beating Daniela Hantuchova in a tough three-setter here. Makarova won 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 in two hours 29 minutes to record her first ever win over Hantuchova in three attempts.

“Today I was in control in all three sets but failed to avoid mistakes and lost the second set,” Makarova said. “But I was hoping to clinch my first win over Hantuchova and luckily, I managed to do it. And I still have enough power to play doubles.”

Russia’s left-hander Makarova, who came onto the clay of Moscow’s Krylatskoye Sports Center as a replacement for Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, broke twice in the opening set to take the opening set in 40min.

In the second, Hantuchova, 29, broke her rival’s serve twice to level at one set-all . In the decider, Hantuchova, ranked 75 in the world, broke Makarova’s serve in the first game but her 24-year-old rival broke back twice to win the set and the match sending the tie into the deciding doubles’ clash.

Earlier yesterday, Maria Kirilenko beat Dominika Cibulkova in straight sets 7-5, 6-1 to reduce the arrears to 21. Kirilenko, ranked 13th in the world, made light work of an opponent she has now beaten in three of their four meetings as she triumphed in 1hr 41min.

“After yesterday’s failure I managed to find my tennis today and it was the

key to success in the match,” Kirilenko said.

“I played clinically trying to follow the plan which we worked out together with my coaches and it paid off.” The

Kirilenko won the next six games to claim victory.

On Saturday, Slovakia moved into a commanding 2-0 lead after Cibulkova had battled back from a set down to

PALERMO: Czech Republic’s Petra Kvitova serves to Italy’s Sara Errani during a 2013 World Group Semifinal Fed Cup match. —AFP opponents traded breaks throughout the opening set but the 26-year-old Muscovite prevailed eventually in 1hr 4min.

Despite 23-year-old Cibulkova breaking in the first game of the second set it proved a false dawn as

beat Pavlyuchenkova 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, while Hantuchova saw off Kirilenko 6-2, 6-4.

The winner will face either Italy or reigning champions Czech Republic in the Fed Cup final in November. Italy led the Czechs 2-0 after the opening day of their encounter. —AFP

19

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

SPORTS

Zamalek in danger after home draw JOHANNESBURG: Multiple African football title winners Zamalek of Egypt are facing a fight for CAF Champions League survival after being held 1-1 by Saint George of Ethiopia in Cairo this weekend. Zamalek have won the Champions League five times, the Super Cup three times and the Cup Winners Cup once, making them the second most successful club in African football after 16-trophy neighbours Al-Ahly.

But that pedigree was rarely evident in a last-16, first leg against Saint George at an empty Air Defence stadium with an Egyptian side lacking

injured midfield talisman Ahmed Hassan generally well contained. A careless midfield pass by Salah Soliman just past the hour mark allowed Oumed Oukri to break clear and he held off a challenge before hitting a low drive past goalkeeper Abdelwahed Al-Sayed from outside the box.

It was the first goal conceded by the White Knights in five Champions League matches this season against Gazelle of Chad, Vita Club of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Saint George.

Playing in an eerie atmosphere,

Zamalek pressed for an equaliser and were rewarded eight minutes from time when Burkina Faso-born Abdoulaye Cisse finished off a Mohamed Ibrahim cross.

The struggle to win the final round qualifier and secure a place in the group phase has tilted toward Saint George, who host the return match early May knowing a goalless draw will suffice to see them through. Zamalek had to play behind closed doors after some of the crowd at the Gazelle match in Alexandria-limited to 3,000 because of post-Arab Spring security concerns-

ripped up seats without explanation.

Zambia striker Collins Mbesuma scored twice in the second half to give 1995 champions Orlando Pirates of South Africa a 3-1 win over four-time titleholders TP Mazembe from DR Congo at Orlando Stadium in Soweto.

Mbesuma tucked away a cut-back and converted a stoppage-time penalty after he was fouled by goalkeeper Muteba Kidiaba as a Pirates team lacking many injured regulars exceeded expectations.

Onyekachi Okonkwo, a Champions League winner with Nigerian club

Enyimba, got the Buccaneers off to a perfect start by scoring in the second minute only for Patou Kabangu to level just before half-time.

Esperance, champions once and runners-up twice in the past three Champions League competitions, had a goal ruled out for offside as they forced a 0-0 draw at JSM Bejaia of Algeria.

The Algerians were also held goalless at home by Asante Kotoko of Ghana in the previous round, but forced a score draw in the return match and advanced on the awaygoal rule. — AFP

Spurs stun Man City to rekindle top-four bid Tottenham 3

Man City 1

LONDON: Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez (right) clashes with Chelsea’s Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic (left) after appearing to bite the Chelsea player during the English Premier League football match. — AFP

Suarez saves Reds after ‘biting’ shame Liverpool 2

Chelsea 2

LIVERPOOL: Luis Suarez scored a dramatic late equaliser and controversially bit an opponent as Liverpool twice came from behind to draw 2-2 with Chelsea in a thrilling Premier League match at Anfield yesterday.

The Uruguay striker headed home deep into injury time after Eden Hazard had initially appeared to have secured the points for Rafael Benitez’s side on the Chelsea manager’s return to his former club.

Earlier, Oscar’s opening goal had been equalised by Daniel Sturridge. However, the match was overshadowed by an off-the-ball incident when Suarez appeared to bite Branislav Ivanovic.

Before kick-off there was a minute of applause for Hillsborough campaigner Anne Williams as well as those affected by the Boston Marathon attacks.

Williams, who died last week, lost her 15year-old son Kevin during the Hillsborough tragedy in 1989 and was one of the leading campaigners in the fight for justice over the disaster.

Liverpool carved open a chance in the fifth minute when Suarez slid a clever ball through the Chelsea defence for Glen Johnson to chase but the England right-back poked it wide.

Chelsea started to find their rhythm and shortly afterwards a neat passing move culminated in a shooting opportunity for Oscar who saw his near-post effort saved by Jose Reina. The Liverpool goalkeeper did not look quite as comfortable in the 20th minute when he opted to punch away a speculative long-range effort from Ramires.

Benitez’s side grew in confidence as the half wore on although it was a lapse in concentration from Liverpool defender Jamie

Carragher which allowed Chelsea to take the lead in the 26th minute.

Juan Mata whipped the corner to the near post and veteran centre-back Carragher failed to track the run of Oscar who pulled away from goal to head past Reina.

David Luiz almost increased Chelsea’s advantage two minutes later when Reina fumbled a dipping free-kick only to gather at the second attempt.

The hosts briefly threatened before halftime through Suarez, who tested Petr Cech with a powerful near-post shot which the Chelsea goalkeeper parried.

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers introduced Sturridge, a £12 million signing from Chelsea in January, for Philippe Coutinho at half-time and the striker had an immediate impact.

Sturridge put Steven Gerrard through almost from the restart but the Liverpool captain saw his shot saved by the feet of Cech and then struck the post with a shot of his own a minute later.

Liverpool’s pressure paid off in the 52nd minute when Suarez curled a brilliant ball into the box which left Sturridge with a simple tap-in from close range.

Uruguay international Suarez then gave the initiative back to Chelsea five minutes later when he handled the ball inside the penalty area and Hazard confidently converted the spot-kick.

And shortly afterwards former Ajax striker Suarez, who was once banned for biting an opponent while playing in Holland, was caught by television cameras sinking his teeth into Ivanovic’s arm.

Liverpool dominated possession in the remainder of the half but struggled to penetrate an organised Chelsea backline. Suarez screwed a free-kick wide in the 68th minute and a good opportunity fell to substitute Jonjo Shelvey who shot wide from a good position late on after a brilliant backheel from Sturridge. Inevitably Suarez would turn out to be savior for the home side and he rescued a point deep into injury time when he headed home Sturridge’s cross from close range.— AFP

LONDON: Gareth Bale marked his Tottenham Hotspur return with the final goal in a 3-1 home win over Manchester City yesterday that revived Spurs’ top-four challenge and effectively ended City’s title defence. City had taken the lead through Samir Nasri in the fifth minute but Spurs staged a remarkable late comeback through goals from Clint Dempsey, Jermain Defoe and Bale, who had missed the last two games through injury.

Tottenham remain in fifth place, but are just two points behind third-placed Arsenal with a game in hand. Defeat for City, meanwhile, means Manchester United will reclaim the title from their near neighbors if they beat Aston Villa at Old Trafford today.

This win will provide a major boost for Tottenham, whose bid for a Champions League place had taken a turn for the worse since victory over Arsenal in the north London derby last month had cemented their hold on third place and moved them to within two points of City.

That gap had increased to 10 points ahead of Sunday’s game and, more importantly, Andre VillasBoas’ side had dropped out of the top four. Little wonder, then, that the return of Bale was greeted enthusiastically, after the Wales international missed two games with an ankle injury sustained in the Europa League quarter-final against Basel. Bale wasted little time making his presence felt, quickly firing in a 35-yard effort that brought City goalkeeper Joe Hart into the action. But any optimism generated by Bale’s early contribution soon disappeared when Nasri put the visitors ahead after just five minutes.

City were back in north London seven days after their FA Cup semi-final victory over Chelsea at Wembley and their confidence was clear.

Manager Roberto Mancini had made five changes to the team that beat Wigan Athletic in the mid-week dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final, but there was no sign of any lack of cohesion as the visitors easily unpicked the Tottenham defence.

Carlos Tevez’s powerful run towards the byline on the right stretched the home defence before the

MILAN: Lorenzo Insigne came off the bench to score an injury-time winner as Napoli cemented second place in Serie A with a hard-fought 3-2 win over Cagliari yesterday.

With AC Milan away to Juventus later Sunday Napoli could ill afford to drop points as they look to secure the runner-up spot which offers direct qualification for next season’s Champions League.

However, for over 90 minutes, that looked to be the case as Cagliari stemmed the Napoli tide until Insigne’s deflected shot from 25 metres handed his team all three points in the fourth minute of injury time. Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri admitted: “It seemed like this game was cursed for us.

“We created so many chances without managing to put the ball away. But we have to take our hats off to Cagliari, who had a good match.”

Napoli are now eight points behind Juventus ahead of Sunday’s late game in Turin where AC Milan, in third, will be looking to close their seven-point gap to second

Liverpool 2 (Sturridge 52, Suarez 90+7) Chelsea 2 (Oscar 26, Hazard 57-pen); Tottenham 3 (Dempsey 75, Defoe 79, Bale 82) Manchester City 1 (Nasri 5).

Played Saturday Fulham 0, Arsenal 1 (Mertesacker 43); Norwich 2 (R. Bennett 50, E. Bennett 52) Reading 1 (McCleary 72); QPR 0, Stoke 2 (Crouch 42, Walters 77-pen); Sunderland 1 (Sessegnon 45) Everton 0; Swansea 0, Southampton 0; West Brom 1 (Jones 64) Newcastle 1 (Gouffran 8); West Ham 2 (Jarvis 21, Nolan 80) Wigan 0.

English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): 33 33 34 33 33 34 34 33 33 34 34

26 20 18 18 18 14 13 13 10 11 10

3 8 9 8 7 14 12 6 12 9 10

4 5 7 7 8 6 9 14 11 14 14

75 59 65 66 58 51 61 43 43 40 44

35 30 35 35 41 38 42 44 42 47 52

81 68 63 62 61 56 51 45 42 42 40

Southampton 34 9 12 13 47 54 39 Norwich 34 8 14 12 33 53 38 Sunderland 34 9 10 15 38 45 37 Stoke 34 8 13 13 30 41 37 Newcastle 34 10 7 17 43 60 37 Aston Villa 33 8 10 15 36 60 34 Wigan 33 8 7 18 37 60 31 QPR 34 4 12 18 29 56 24 Reading 34 5 9 20 37 65 24 Note: Top four clubs qualify for Champions League; bottom three clubs are relegated

forward slipped the ball inside for James Milner.

Milner’s cross picked out Nasri and the former Arsenal man volleyed home from eight yards. Nasri was the focus of attention again three minutes later, this time for a high challenge on Kyle Walker that went unpunished but could easily have earned the France international a red card.

Walker recovered after treatment but the early goal deflated Spurs and their play lost impetus, with Bale operating on the periphery of the action.

A clever pass from Dempsey brought the home side their first real opening, but that was squan-

Matches on TV (Local Timings) English Premier League Man United v Aston Villa - 22:00 Abu Dhabi Sports HD

dered by Kyle Walker.

It was clear Villas-Boas needed to find a way to lift his team, but with Emmanuel Adebayor ineffective in the lone striker role against his former club, Tottenham’s attack lacked bite. The Spurs manager eventually made his move on the hour, introducing Tom Huddlestone and Lewis Holtby, 10 minutes before swapping Adebayor for Defoe.

Tottenham quickly looked a different team and with Bale becoming more influential, momentum shifted their way. The equaliser came in the 75th minute when Bale played a superb cross with the outside of his left boot across the face of the City goal, where Dempsey finished from close range.

Spurs were lifted and, inexplicably, City fell apart.

Four minutes after the leveller, Defoe finished superbly, curling a shot beyond Hart after collecting Holtby’s through ball.

The atmosphere had been completely transformed and Bale capped an impressive recovery with an equally fine finish, clipping the ball over the advancing Hart after being picked out by Huddlestone’s pass. — AFP

Insigne snatches Victory for Napoli

EPL results/standings

Man Utd Man City Arsenal Chelsea Tottenham Everton Liverpool West Brom Swansea West Ham Fulham

LONDON: Tottenham Hotspur’s US midfielder Clint Dempsey (second left) vies with Manchester City’s English goalkeeper Joe Hart (left) and Belgium defender Vincent Kompany (right) during the English Premier League football match. — AFP

NAPLES: Napoli’s forward Edinson Cavani eyes the ball during the Italian Serie A football match against Cagliari at the San Paolo Stadium. — AFP

place, especially after Fiorentina’s 4-3 win over a fiesty Torino.

La Viola remain in fourth spot, now just one point behind Milan and five ahead of Inter, but they were in danger of dropping points until Brazilian midfielder Romulo came off the bench to clinch a late winner for Vincenzo Montella’s side.

Fiorentina had a 3-1 half-time lead after goals from Juan Cuadrado, Alberto Aquilani and a superb free-kick from Adem Ljajic, with Brazilian Paulo Barreto sneaking a goal for the visitors just before the break. Argentinian Mario Santania sparked Torino’s fightback and then it was all square at 3-3 when striker Alessio Cerci beat Emiliano Viviano with a superb drive from 30 metres, Fiorentina’s win was all the more crucial given that Roma, one of several teams chasing a Europa League place, dropped points in a 1-1 draw at home to bottom side Pescara.

Admitting that had been a “bitter” result, Roma coach Aurelio Andreazzoli added: “We can’t afford to drop points in games like this.”

Veteran striker Tommaso Rocchi saved Inter’s blushes with a late strike which secured a 1-0 win over a resilient Parma, a goal which took on even more importance after Roma’s failure to clinch a win that would have allowed the Giallorossi to leapfrog Inter into fifth place.

It was Inter’s first win at home in four attempts, and captain Javier Zanetti admitted: “These are three important points after a run of poor results.

“Now we have five games left. They’ll be tough ones against teams that are fighting for salvation or Europe. “But we have our own goals as well. We hope to get back some players and challenge our upcoming opponents, just as we’ve always done.”

Napoli dominated throughout at the San Paulo. However the hosts were stunned in the 18th minute when Victor Ibarbo opened the scoring for the Sardinians.

Highly-rated Urugayan striker Edinson Cavani, the league’s top scorer, spurned several chances to level and it took an own goal from defender Davide Astori to pull the match level.

Cavani finally got on the scoresheet in the 64th minute, scoring his 23rd goal in 30

appearances this season when he pounced on a rebound to the left of goal.

However, the hosts were pegged back only minutes later when Marco Sau levelled for the visitors. It took a deflection from Insigne’s speculative effort on the left to bag all three points for Walter Mazzarri’s side, who are desperate for the Champions League having missed out after failing to qualify earlier in the season.

“I want to dedicate this goal to my son,” said Insigne. “I’m very happy because these are three really important points for the team.” — AFP

Italian League results/standings Inter Milan 1 (Rocchi 82) Parma 0; Bologna 1 (Gilardino 24) Sampdoria 1 (Sansone 59); Catania 1 (Barrientos 69) Palermo 1 (Ilicic 45+4); Fiorentina 4 (Cuadrado 8, Aquilani 16, Ljajic 33, Romulo 41) Torino 3 (Barreto 45, Santana 56, Cerci 77); Napoli 3 (Astori 48-og, Cavani 64, Insigne 45+4) Cagliari 2 (Ibarbo 18, Sau 71); Roma 1 (Destro 51) Pescara 1 (Caprari 14); Siena 0, Chievo 1 (Pellissier 45).

Played Saturday Genoa 1 (Floro Flores 6) Atalanta 1 (Del Grosso 8); Udinese 1 (Di Natale 19) Lazio 0.

Serie A standings ahead of yesterday’s late match (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Juventus 32 23 5 4 63 20 74 Napoli 33 19 9 5 61 32 66 AC Milan 32 17 8 7 56 35 59 Fiorentina 33 17 7 9 62 42 58 Inter Milan 33 16 5 12 51 45 53 Roma 33 15 7 11 64 54 52 Lazio 33 15 6 12 40 40 51 Udinese 33 13 12 8 45 39 51 Catania 33 13 9 11 41 39 48 Cagliari 33 11 9 13 41 52 42 Bologna 33 10 9 14 43 42 39 Parma 33 10 9 14 39 43 39 Chievo 33 11 6 16 33 48 39 Atalanta 33 11 7 15 35 48 38 Sampdoria 33 10 9 14 38 49 38 Torino 33 8 13 12 43 49 36 Siena 33 9 9 15 34 45 30 Palermo 33 5 14 14 30 46 29 Genoa 33 6 11 16 33 51 29 Pescara 33 6 4 23 25 67 22 Note: Sampdoria (one point), Torino (one point), Atalanta (two points) and Siena (six points) all docked points for involvement in the “Calcioscommesse” illegal betting scandal.

Suarez saves Reds after ‘biting’shame

Djokovic ends Nadal’s reign in Monte Carlo

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MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

Kvitova keeps Czechs alive as rain delays semi

Page 18

LONDON: Men’s elite race winner Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia (second right) and women’s elite race winner Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya (second left) pose with Britain’s Prince Harry (left) and Virgin Group founder and chairman Richard Branson (right) after winning their respective categories in the 2013 London Marathon. —AFP

Kebede, Jeptoo win London Marathon LONDON: Ethiopia’s Tsegaye Kebede and Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya triumphed at a sombre London Marathon yesterday, as runners paid tribute to the victims of the deadly bomb attacks at the Boston Marathon. Kebede hunted down 2011 champion Emmanuel Mutai to win the men’s race, while Jeptoo surged to victory in the women’s event, eight months on from her second-place finish at the London Olympics. The men’s and mass races were preceded by a 30-second silence in memory of the three people killed and around 180 injured in Monday’s bombings in Boston, while competitors donned black ribbons in tribute.

After a frenetic start in the men’s race, Mutai led Stanley Biwott, Feyisha Lilesa and Ayele Abshero past the 30-kilometre mark just 10 seconds outside world-record pace.

Biwott tried to force the issue but Mutai resisted his Kenyan countryman’s efforts to break clear and found himself in the lead.

However, he began to flag badly as he approached the Houses of Parliament and Kebede tore past him to cross the line in a time of 2hr 06min 04sec. Mutai trailed in second, with Abshero third. British Olympic star Mo Farah had helped set the early pace before dropping out, as planned, after an hour. The 5,000 and 10,000 metres champion at last year’s London Games is preparing to compete over the full distance next year and he said he had struggled with some of the specific demands of marathon running.

“The pace is not a problem. The biggest challenge is picking up the right drink and I think I made a mess of it,” Farah said. “I’ve learnt the

biggest lesson of my life, really. If I come here next year and make a mess of it, it’d be hard to deal with, so it’s opened my eyes.”

Jeptoo, who finished third in last year’s race, streaked away from the women’s field to claim victory ahead of compatriot Edna Kiplagat and Yukiko Akaba of Japan.

London Olympic champion Tiki Gelana collided with men’s wheelchair athlete Josh Cassidy at a drinks station after 52 minutes and the Ethiopian’s challenge never recovered.

As Gelana toiled, Jeptoo led a three-woman breakaway that also featured world champion Edna Kiplagat and 2011 Berlin Marathon champion Florence Kiplagat.

Florence Kiplagat slowly fell back and her namesake Edna could not keep pace with Jeptoo either

after the 28-year-old ran the 21st mile in a time of five minutes and 11 seconds.

Jeptoo completed the race’s final stages alone and raised her arms in triumph as she crossed the finish line in front of Buckingham Palace in a time of 2hr 20min 15sec.

“Today I’m very, very happy. I couldn’t believe I could be the winner,” Jeptoo said. “It is a very tough race because everybody who comes here is really prepared.” Australia’s Kurt Fearnley took the honours in the men’s wheelchair race after pipping Marcel Hug of Switzerland in a sprint for the line.

Britain’s David Weir, who was bidding for a seventh London Marathon title, was level with Hug as the leading racers entered the final straight but ultimately finished fifth.

American Tatyana McFadden claimed victory in

Vettel wins without drama in Bahrain MANAMA: Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel won the Bahrain Grand for the second year in a row for Red Bull yesterday to extend his overall lead to 10 points after four races.

In a controversial race that went off without major drama, untroubled by anti-government protests and reported clashes elsewhere in the tiny Gulf kingdom, the German beat Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen by 9.1 seconds. The win, with Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman alKhalifa watching, was Vettel’s second of the season and 28th of his career.

“It was pretty dominant today,” said the 25-year-old, who started on the front row and was so far ahead after 25 of the 57 laps that he could pit and still come out in the lead, after swigging the winner’s rosewater on the podium.

“Certainly we had more pace than we expected.” France’s Romain Grosjean finished third for Lotus, his first podium of the season, to complete the same top three as last year.

Britain’s Paul Di Resta equalled his career-best finish, after leading for three laps, with a fine fourth place for Force India after losing third to Grosjean with six laps to go.

Vettel now has 77 points to 67 for Raikkonen, who chalked up his 21st successive scoring finish and is three races away from equalling the record set by the now-retired Michael Schumacher.

There was bitter disappointment for Mercedes’s Nico Rosberg, who started on pole position but finished ninth, and for Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso who could have expected to be on the podium but for a mechanical failure.

The Spaniard, now fourth overall

with 47 points, finished eighth after having to make an unscheduled pitstop on lap seven - a lap after coming in for his regular stop - with his rearwing DRS system stuck open.

Britain’s Lewis Hamilton moved up to third in the standings, on 50 points, after taking fifth place for Mercedes in a thrilling battle with Red Bull’s Mark Webber over the closing laps of the Australian’s 200th race.

Mexican Sergio Perez was sixth, also passing Webber after a wheel-to-wheel duel with McLaren team mate Jenson Button that saw the newcomer nudge the rear of the 2009 champion’s car.

Button urged the team to ‘calm him down’ but Perez continued to push with Grosjean looming in his mirrors.

Webber finished seventh while Button was 10th, denying Venezuelan Pastor Maldonado a first point of the season for Williams. Rosberg led from the start but held off Vettel for only two laps, with Alonso swiftly moving up to second before his nightmare in the pits.

“I knew it would be crucial to get in the lead if I could because then you have a little bit of an advantage looking after your tyres and managing the race from there,” said Vettel. “I could feel that I was able to pull away.”

Meanwhile, Jenson Button accused Mexican team mate Sergio Perez of dangerous and dirty driving after the McLaren men fought a high speed, wheel-banging duel in the desert at the Bahrain Grand Prix yesterday.

The pair raced side-by-side and nose-to-tail in the searing heat, with Perez kicking up dust as he ran wide while trying to force a way past and making contact with the rear of

the women’s wheelchair event in a course record time to follow up her success in the equivalent race in Boston. Earlier, 35,000 runners bowed their heads and observed a moment of reflection in memory of the victims of Monday’s devastating twin bomb blasts in Boston. Organisers have pledged to donate £2 ($3, 2.30 euros) for every finisher to a fund for the Boston victims. Meanwhile, the police presence along the 26.2-mile (42.2-kilometre) course was increased by 40 percent.

Despite security fears, organisers said 700,000 people had taken to the streets of London to watch the race on a day of blue skies and bright sunshine in the British capital.

US police arrested one suspect in the Boston bombing on Friday after his brother and fellow suspect was killed in a shootout.—AFP

Jericho man braves rain to win Bethlehem marathon

BAHRAIN: Red Bull driver Sebastian Vettel of Germany holds up the first place trophy on the podium after winning the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix in Sakhir. —AP Button’s car. Button, who ended up an hour isn’t normally the way I go rac10th while Perez finished sixth in the ing, but there you go. It’s great for the fourth race of the Formula One season, team that he got some points, but he was not amused after urging his team didn’t go about it in a very clean way I over the radio to calm down the would say.” The 33-year-old Briton, who previously had 2008 champion and Mexican.

“There was a lot of clean racing, compatriot Lewis Hamilton as his team which was good - apart from with my mate and who is also the most experiteam mate,” the 2009 world champion enced driver in the sport, said 23-yearold Perez had some growing up to told reporters at the Sakhir circuit.

“Wheel banging at 300 kilometres do.—Reuters

BETHLEHEM: Hundreds of athletes braved freezing rain yesterday to take part in Bethlehem’s first-ever marathon which was won by a Palestinian runner from the West Bank oasis town of Jericho.

Some 500 runners-half Palestinians and half foreigners-took part in the various formats of the race, which began at 8:00 am (0500 GMT) as the West Bank town was buffeted by cold winds and an unseasonal downpour. There were 100 runners competing in the full marathon (42.2 kilometres/26.1 miles) with Palestinians taking the top three spots.

The winner was Abdel Nasser Awajneh from Jericho who came in first with a time of 3 hours, 9 minutes, 47 seconds. In second place was Bethlehem resident Motaz Masalmeh in 3:23:21 followed by Yahya alJamal in 3:26:00.

“It feels really great,” Awajneh, 34, told AFP after the race. “I spent two months training for this marathon in the mountains near Jericho.”

The 34-year-old said he had taken longer than expected because he had taken a wrong turn and had to double back on himself.

Some 150 people joined the half marathon, while 250 or so joined either the 10-kilometre (six mile) or five-kilometre (three mile) races.

As they ran, some wore the traditional keffiyeh scarf, others carried the Palestinian flag, and some of the women wore headscarves.

Other donned bin liners to keep off the driving rain. “It was a success. I’m really happy,” said Laerke Hein, one of the Danish organisers, saying it had taken 18 months to arrange.

“We set an $85 (65 euro) price for foreigners, while we set a lower price for locals so that they could take part,” she said. Another 22 Palestinian runners from Gaza who had hoped to join the race were not able to run after Israel denied them permission to travel

to the West Bank.

Yesterday’s race, dubbed the “Right to Movement Palestine Marathon,” took runners on a 21-kilometre tour of the hillside city which Christians revere as the birthplace of Jesus, passing through refugee camps and large sections of Israel’s towering West Bank barrier.

Marathon runners had to do two laps of the course after organisers were not able to find an uninterrupted 42-kilometre stretch within Area A, the small portion of the Israelioccupied West Bank which is under full Palestinian control.

Etidal Abdelghani, deputy director general of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, which co-sponsored the event, said the aim of the race-the first West Bank marathon to conform to international standards-was to demonstrate just that. “This is a message that we have the right to move and to have sports events in Palestine without any obstacles,” she said. A runner from London said she decided to take part after the Gaza marathon, which had been due to take place on April 10, was abruptly cancelled by the territory’s Hamas rulers, who said they would not let men and women run together.

“We were supposed to do the Gaza one and then it got cancelled, but we were already training so we looked for something else and this one was perfect,” 34-year-old Komar Nawaz told AFP after running in the 10k. “It is fun to see the world and run,” said a 62-year-old woman from Denmark who gave her name only as Pia. “When you run here, you think a lot about the situation.” Firas alKhatib from Bethlehem, who came second in the 10 km, said he was just excited to be taking part in the first West Bank marathon. “I hope we have more events like this in Palestine,” he grinned.—AFP

Business

S Sudan oil resumption raises sticky questions Page 22 Buyers swarm opening of China auto show

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

Page 25 US hails Japan’s role in trans-Pacific pact

Kuwait Energy reports record results for 2012 Page 26

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SHANGHAI: A model poses next to a Chevrolet Camero on the opening day of the Shanghai auto show yesterday. Chinese buyers swarmed around hundreds of vehicles at the Shanghai auto show at its opening highlighting the importance of the world’s largest car market to manufacturers. —AFP

Finance chiefs endorse anti-poverty plan Poorest must benefit from strong growth: WB WASHINGTON: Global finance officials endorsed a new World Bank goal to end extreme global poverty by 2030 and emphasized that its focus should be on ensuring that the poorest benefit from strong growth and rising prosperity in developing nations.

“For the first time in history we have committed to setting a target to end poverty,” World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said on Saturday following a meeting of the World Bank’s Development Committee. “We are no longer dreaming of a world free of poverty; we have set an expiration date for ex treme poverty,” he added. The goal aimed to reduce extreme poverty to 3 percent globally and targets the bottom 40 percent of people living in each country in the developing world. Developing economies are growing on average about 6 percent annually, lifting millions of people out of poverty and creating a new global middle class, which has also given rise to growing inequali-

ty. “We recognize that sustained economic growth needs a reduction in inequality. Investments that create opportunities for all citizens and promote gender equality are an important end in their own right, as well we being integral to creating prosperity,” the Development Committee said.

The new World Bank target aim to guide the work of the institution, and coincides with efforts by the United Nations to draw up a post-2015 poverty strategy to replace existing goals. New figures released by the World Bank this week show that extreme poverty globally has plunged to 21 percent in 2010, from 43 percent in 1990, with most of the world’s poor now concentrated most heavily in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, as China has successfully slashed extreme poverty. Kim said climate change and the need for more investment in health and education were also discussed by ministers. “As I talked about in several meetings, we

need a plan that is equal to the challenge of a disastrously warming plant,” said Kim, who has made tackling climate change one of his main priorities since taking the reins of the institution 10 months ago. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said there was no better opportunity while developing countries are growing strongly to tackle extreme poverty.

“Timing is everything,” Lagarde said, adding that the global economic recovery was proceeding at a three-speed recovery with strong growth in emerging and developing economies. She said the IMF would step up its policy advice to developing countries on managing natural resources, job creation, financial sector development, and subsidies.

The Development Committee called for a “robust” donor fund-raising campaign by the World Bank’s fund for its poorest borrowers and urged “strong participation” by all countries. Donors

from rich and developing economies gather every three years to pass the hat around to raise funds for the Bank’s International Development Association, or IDA. Traditionally, the United States, Britain and Nordic nations have been the biggest IDA funders, but over the past several years countries such as Brazil, India and China, Chile, Argentina and Peru have also ponied up money.

With belt-tightening across Europe and in the United States, the World Bank will have to show more strenuous oversight of how the money is used and that it does have an impact on the poor.

Kim has said more emphasis should be on helping fragile and conflict-hit countries. “Given the fiscal pressures on donors around the world, we believe that the World Bank can and must do more to maximize the development impac t of each dollar spent,” new Treasury Secretary Jack Lew said in a statement to the Development Committee. —Reuters

Russian billionaire Usmanov tops Britain’s rich list LONDON: Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov has topped an annual “rich list” compiled by Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, with a fortune of £13.3 billion ($20.3 billion).

The 59-year-old tycoon, who started out manufacturing plastic bags, now owns Russia’s biggest iron ore pro-

ducer Metalloinvest and has a nearly 30-percent stake in Arsenal Football Club.

He also has a holding in mail.ru, Russia’s biggest Internet company, and a large stake in London and Moscow listed mobile phone operator MegaFon. Steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who spent eight years at the

YANGON: Workers sort out fish to be sold at the Main Fish Market in Yangon yesterday. Myanmar announced the abolition of its US dollar proxy currency, in the latest step towards economic normalization as the impoverished former pariah opens to the world. — AFP

top of the list, was ousted into fourth place with a wealth of £10 billion-down from £12.7 billion in 2012.

Mittal, whose hold in steelmaking giant ArcelorMittal sank from a peak of £28 billion to £5.95 billion, was the biggest faller in the ranking of Britain and Ireland’s wealthiest.

The combined fortunes of the 1,000 richest totals almost £450 billion, with the fortunes of the top 200 amounting to £318.2 billion, according to the list. In second place, and the highest riser, is Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik, whose wealth rocketed from £3.4 billion last year to £11 billion ($16.8 billion) this year.

The Russian-born media mogul, who now holds United States citizenship, sold his stake in Russian oil and gas giant TNK-BP last month for £2 billion. The 25th annual list, to be published in the British newspaper on Sunday, includes 88 billionaires, an increase from 77 last year and up from just nine when it was first published in 1989.

Queen Elizabeth II was ranked top in the list’s first year when her wealth was valued at £5.2 billion and included all the Crown Estates and the royal art collection. After 1993 she fell from that spot as she was valued only on her personal wealth.

Third on the list this year are brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja, of the London-based international conglomerate Hinduja Group, with a fortune of £10.6 billion.

Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich, who made his fortune in the oil industry, has dropped two places to fifth on the list, with a value of £9.3 billion.

New to the top 20 is Saudi businessman Mohamed Bin Issa Al-Jaber at 15th place with £4.5 billion, ahead of Virgin founder Richard Branson who is ranked at 19 with £3.5 billion.

Earlier this month former Beatle Paul McCartney topped The Sunday Times rich list of musicians for a 25th year running with the £680 million fortune he shares with his third wife Nancy Shevell. —AFP

Gulf stocks quiet before Q1 reports MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Most regional bourses ended higher on Sunday, buoyed by positive global cues, but trading was mostly quiet as many investors awaited first-quarter earnings before committing more funds.

World equity markets and oil prices rebounded on Friday in a relief rally after a sell-off last week that was triggered by signs of sluggish global growth.

Kuwait’s index hit a 29-month closing high yesterday as traders sold blue chips to buy into more liquid small-cap stocks. The benchmark rose 0.6 percent; it is up 26 percent from November’s eightyear low. “Since the beginning of the year, the market has been dominated by day traders and speculators - every little sell-off is inviting new entrants to the market, building it higher,” said Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage at Global Investment House.

Investors’ focus on small-cap companies has created, for now, a virtuous circle for these stocks their high liquidity attracts new investors, which increases liquidity.

“NBK is the only the big stock to have announced Q1 financials and institutions tend to wait for more numbers to come out,” Darwish added.National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) ended unchanged. Kuwait’s biggest listed company reported near-flat first-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

Among losers in Kuwait on Sunday were telecommunications operator Zain and Boubyan Bank, which dropped 1.4 and 1.6 percent.

Meanwhile, Oman’s index suffered its largest decline in three weeks as disappointment over Bank Sohar’s earnings triggered a market-wide selloff.Bank Sohar fell 3.1 percent. Oman’s fifth-largest listed bank posted a 14.1 percent rise in first-quarter profit, not as much as analysts had hoped.

Last week, Bank Muscat and National Bank of Oman both reported below-forecast earnings. Their shares dropped 1.4 and 1.8 percent yesterday.

“Bank Sohar’s results were below expectations and triggered strong selling in the market,” said Adel Nasr, United Securities brokerage manager in Oman. “But this selling was mainly from (individual) traders and we saw accumulation from funds and institutions. Foreign investors are still bullish on Bank Muscat and were continuous buyers despite the stock falling.”

The Omani index fell 0.9 percent, its fourth straight decline. About 15.7 million shares trade, a two-month low.

Saudi Arabia’s index ended nearly flat, reversing its early declines, which were spurred by poor quarterly earnings from blue chip petrochemical firms.

The benchmark added 0.01 percent. Shares in Saudi International Petrochemical Co (Sipchem) slumped 1.1 percent after the company’s first-quarter profit more than halved. Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) ended 1.2 percent lower after the telco’s earnings missed the average forecast of analysts.

Dubai’s index ended higher for an eighth session in 11, climbing 0.5 percent. It is being boosted by a recovering real estate market and signs that the outlook for banks is improving. — Reuters

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

BUSINESS

S Sudan oil resumption raises sticky questions JUBA: Singing and dancing marked South Sudan’s revival of oil production this month, raising hopes the precious resource could finally benefit a nation that fought for decades to gain control of it. But along with the celebrations have come warnings that strict accountability will be needed to thwart corruption when billions of dollars in revenue pour into the world’s youngest country.

“Risks of corruption and mismanagement in the oil sector remain high,” the rights group Global Witness advised.

Resumption of oil production, which previously provided about 98 percent of government revenue for South Sudan, offers an impoverished nation that has been wracked by rebellion and hunger a chance to rebuild.

Crucially, the event offers hope that the fledgling country-which won independence from Sudan in July 2011 following deadly fighting that raged almost continuously for more than 50 years and broke out again last year-can now live in peace with its former foe.

“South Sudan is committed to live in peace with Sudan and to share the benefits of the oil,” South Sudanese oil minister Stephen Dhieu Dau said as he turned production back on.

The two nations almost fell back into allout fighting along their un-demarcated border in April and March 2012 amid a conflict prompted in part by disputes over oil.

Tensions remain high, with both sides accusing the other of backing rebels as proxy forces against the other, despite Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir praising friendly relations on his first visit since South Sudan’s independence earlier this month. After one of Africa’s longest civil wars, landlocked South Sudan split off, retaining roughly 75 percent of the 470,000 barrels per day of crude produced by the formerly unified country, while refinery and

export pipelines run north to the Red Sea through Sudan.

Juba halted crude production in early 2012, accusing Khartoum of theft in a row over export fees that was only resolved earlier this month after a string of deals were signed but not implemented.

leader Lam Akol has warned that the warweary people need to taste “the fruits of peace” and has criticized generous spending on the army at the expense of health or education. Oil economist and former government advisor Kimo Aban Adibo says that 40 percent of revenue is used for paying salaries of a bloated military and civil service, but is hopeful that priorities might change with elections due in 2015.

“Among different government circles...they are really concerned about the way they have been allocating the oil resources to the extent where they were unable to deliver services”, Adibo said. “The next budget will have more money allocated to services such as health and education.”

Deputy Health Minister Yatta Lori Lugor, who admits donors also bought the government’s share of medicine last year when cash ran out, says officials want a fresh approach to ensure oil wealth is not squandered. “I think that people are serious about corruption, and we are going to see that this oil goes for the development of the people”, Lugor said.

Such promises have in the past remained only rhetoric, and the vast majority of South Sudanese live in rural areas where the only visible signs of government are soldiers. In dusty Juba, luxury cars worth more than the salaries of the government officials they belong to bounce down rutted roads between the shacks that most people in the city live in. But in the key oil field of Thar Jath, teenager Nyandyel Tap talks enthusiastically about how things will now change.

“Oil has opened and we will be happy and there will be development”, she says, calling for a school to be built. Until now, the only benefit has been free lifts from cars passing through the oil fields, a dusty expanse dotted by greasy wells around which her family herd their cattle. — AFP

made consistent rhetorical and legal commitments to manage the oil sector transparently and in the best interests of all citizens,” Dana Wilkins of Global Witness told AFP, while asking for clarification of reports of “secretive contract allocations”.

“The recent resumption of production

JUBA: Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir (R) and South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir (L) are pictured at Juba airport in Juba. Singing and dancing marked South Sudan’s revival of oil production this month, raising hopes the precious resource could finally benefit a nation that fought for decades to gain control of it. —AFP Resuming the flow of oil boosts chances for peace, but management of the lucrative resources is a concern, because vast amounts of money were lost through corruption before the shutdown.

Last year, President Salva Kiir wrote to 75 past and present officials asking them to return $4.0 billion in allegedly stolen public money, cash that should have been spent on development.

So far however, no one has been prosecuted and no funds have been retrieved.

“The South Sudanese government has

ENBD says CEO Pudner resigning DUBAI: Rick Pudner, chief executive of Emirates NBD, Dubai’s largest bank, is resigning, the bank said yesterday without giving a reason.

Pudner is expected to stay in the job until the end of this year; “then he will hand over the role to a new leader as part of the succession planning process and the organization’s strategy for change and transformation,” ENBD said in a brief emailed statement. The statement noted that Pudner had joined ENBD over seven years ago and had contributed to all the achievements of the bank.

ENBD is due to report first-quarter earnings on Thursday; the average forecast of three analysts is for the bank to post a 5.4 percent rise in net profit versus the same quarter last year to 676 million dirhams ($184 million). Pudner’s departure comes at a key time for the bank as it embarks on overseas expansion; Pudner told Reuters last November that ENBD aimed for international revenues of around 15-20 percent of its total in five years’ time, up from 5 percent at present. ENBD, 56 percent-owned by state fund Investment Corp of Dubai, is close to completing a $500 million purchase of BNP Paribas’ Egyptian assets.

Pudner joined Emirates Bank as chief executive in early 2006. A year later, the bank merged with National Bank of Dubai in one of the region’s largest tie-ups to form ENBD. Previously, Pudner worked for over 24 years at HSBC. — Reuters

and imminent flood of revenues will be the major test of those commitments,” Wilkins added.

The United Nations warns that a million people are “severely food insecure” with the war-ravaged eastern Jonglei region especially hard hit-and is appealing for more than a billion dollars to address urgent humanitarian needs this year.

While the oil was cut, the country was propped up by donors, and the UN has estimated that aid agencies provide “at least 60 percent” of healthcare. Opposition

IMF ‘will not leave table’ on Egypt loan talks WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund will remain engaged in loan negotiations with Egypt but wants the international community to provide financing, too, IMF chief Christine Lagarde said Saturday.

“It’s a task and we will not give up, we will not leave the table,” Lagarde said at a news conference during the IMF and World Bank spring meetings in Washington. For several months, the IMF and Egypt have been in talks about a multibillion-dollar IMF loan that is contingent on strong support from domestic political actors and a commitment to key reforms.

Last year the IMF reached a deal in principle to provide a $4.8 billion loan to help finance the government while it undertakes reforms. The loan was close to completion in November when political changes in Cairo set it back. Lagarde pledged the IMF would “do everything” possible to reach an agreement. She declined to give a precise timetable for a deal to be struck. But she emphasized that the IMF “cannot be the only one” to help

prop up Egypt’s economy. “It will take international support and international donors to also help Egypt,” she said. Authorities believe the IMF loan will help restore investor confidence

in Egypt where unrest that accompanied the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak hammered revenue from the once -lucrative tourism industry. — AFP

GEMS Education raises $545m loan for expansion DUBAI: GEMS Education, a United Arab Emirates-based education company, has raised a 2 billion dirham ($545 million) loan from local banks for new investments in schools in the region and for refinancing, a company statement said yesterday. The loan, which is a mix of Islamic and conventional financing, was lead-managed by Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, Mashreq, Dubai Islamic Bank and Noor Islamic Bank.

“Recently we announced our intention to build ten new schools in the UAE over the next two years to meet growing demand and the quality targets set by the local authorities. This new bank facility supports this expansion plan,” Dino Varkey, GEMS chief operating officer, said in the statement. In March, sources told Reuters that the firm was in the process of merging its global operations to create a business worth up to $2 billion, and was considering an initial public offer of shares in 2013. Founder and chairman Sunny Varkey said there were no plans for an imminent share listing. GEMS operates popular private schools across the Gulf Arab region, catering to many well-to-do expatriates. — Reuters

Yen devaluation may turn heat on Japan’s trading partners

By Hayder Tawfik KUWAIT: The bank of Japan’s recent announcement of a monthly purchase of $74 billion is a clear policy of devaluing the yen and has been seen as a declaration of currency war in Asia, Europe and not in the US which is very unusual for Japan’s big trading partner. The new policy entitles the Bank of Japan to print unlimited amount of money and use this new money to purchase bonds issued by the government of Japan and its agencies.

If the plan is successful then the new supply of the money should find its way to the real economy and in the pocket of consumers. The policy will run for two years till inflation picks up and reach the targeted 2% level. This kind of policy is called quantitative easing on a big scale and has been implemented by other central banks around the world. When the Federal Reserve pursued same policy a few years ago the Chinese government was not happy for the fear of $ devaluation against the local currency. So, what is the different with Japan doing the same?

The biggest impact of a devalued Yen will be felt mostly in the euro-zone bloc economies in particular in Germany. Yet it may also prove very helpful for the Euro area, forcing Germany to relax its fiscal policy and adopt more domestically lead growth measures.

Because for sure a devalued yen against the euro will lead to deflation in the euro-zone at a time when it is not needed at all. Germany is the only government in the euro-zone that can expand its fiscal deficits without affecting its credibility.

The Japanese currency fell by more than 25 percent against the euro in the past five months. Japan accounts for between 3 percent and 4 percent of Europe’s trade, but that understates the impact a weak yen has. Exports make up about 50 percent of gross domestic product in Germany, the euro-zone’s biggest economy. It is the same for Japan.

More than 50% of Japan’s economy depends on export and here where the problem lies. The biggest German manufacturers such as the automakers compete with their Japanese equivalents around the world and facing a devalued Yen will force them to cut prices to stay competitive. Other euro-zone exporters will face the same dilemma and the consequences will be a wave of deflation sweeping the euro-zone economies.

The problem will be compounded if the German economy slows down sharply ahead of the parliamentary election in September. Unless the German government comes up with a similar policy to the Bank of Japan and start its own Quantitative Easing.

However, the European Central bank will not tolerate such independent policy by any government in the euro-zone. May be the ECB will come to the rescue of Germany by first cutting interest rates and secondly by getting more aggressive with printing money and bond buying. Exactly same as the policies announced by the bank of Japan.

The G20 meeting in Washington should focus their attention on reviving the global economy away from exports and more of domestic growth. Those countries in the G20 that can expand their fiscal deficits should do so without any hesitation and should not talk about competitive currency devaluation. As for Japan’s quantitative easing is way overdue and should have been done 20 years ago. If Germany does not take the initiative to rebalance its economy to favor domestic demand over exports, then a big devaluation of the Yen against the Euro will force it to do so.

— Hayder Tawfik is Executive Vice President of Asset Management at Dimah Capital.

EXCHANGE RATES Irani riyal - cash

Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2841000 GB Pound/KD .4338920 Euro .3707360 Swiss francs .3043390 Canadian dollars .2795430 Danish Kroner .0497330 Swedish Kroner .0443660 Australian dlr .2963730 Hong Kong dlr .0365940 Singapore dlr .2291130 Japanese yen .0029600 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0773800 Bahraini dinars .7538810 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0757800 Omani riyals .7382100 Philippine Peso .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Irani riyal - transfer

ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.902 5.230 2.900 2.273 3.281 232.740 36.776 3.646 6.909 9.847 0.271

.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000 .2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870

0.273

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

GCC COUNTRIES 76.150 78.463 741.720 758.470 77.758

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 39.500 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 41.045 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.332 Tunisian Dinar 180.660 Jordanian Dinar 403.260 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.916 Syrian Lier 3.102 Morocco Dirham 34.186 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 285.450 Euro 377.650 Sterling Pound 441.450 Canadian dollar 284.600 Turkish lira 159.060 Swiss Franc 311.290 US Dollar Buying 284.250 GOLD 298.000 150.000 77.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL DRAFT 299.00 282.51 310.50 378.21 284.35 439.79 2.96 3.662 5.255 2.266 3.310 2.895 77.49 757.12 40.87 405.09 740.04 78.52 76.96

Selling Rate 284.700 282.110 438.745 376.005 308.880 753.750 77.490 78.145 75.885 401.330 40.854 2.269 5.278 2.890 3.649 6.891 698.380 3.890 9.920 4.025 3.390 93.945

Bahrain Exchange Company CURRENCY

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

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

SELL CASH 308.000 283.500 307.000 369.000 286.500 437.000 3.300 3.740 5.400 2.450 3.450 2.975 78.300 757.850 41.300 413.000 740.000 78.500 76.500

British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Scottish Pound Swedish Krona Swiss Franc

BUY Europe 0.4293574 0.0061567 0.0459211 0.3677036 0.0454870 0.4260933 0.0404609 0.3019576

SELL 0.4383574 0.0181567 0.0509211 0.3752036 0.0506870 0.4335933 0.0454609 0.3089579

Australasia 0.2853629 0.2337252 0.0001116

0.2973629 0.2437252 0.0001116

Canadian Dollar Colombian Peso US Dollars

America 0.2719706 0.0001484 0.2829000

0.2809706 0.0001664 0.2850500

Bangladesh Taka Cape Vrde Escudo Chinese Yuan Eritrea-Nakfa

Asia 0.0036081 0.0031622 0.0449693 0.0164700

0.0036631 0.0033922 0.0499693 0.0195700

Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Uganda Shilling

Guinea Franc Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht

0.0000442 0.0341806 0.0051765 0.0000243 0.0028477 0.0028460 0.0033337 0.0892219 0.0031233 0.0028706 0.0064482 0.0000728 0.22663116 0.0019710 0.0094121

0.0000502 0.0372806 0.0052405 0.0000295 0.0038477 0.0030260 0.0035637 0.0962219 0.0033233 0.0029106 0.0069182 0.0000758 0.2323116 0.0022730 0.0100121

Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

Arab 0.7496745 0.0389130 0.0129248 0.1483801 0.0000793 0.0001734 0.3964753 1.0000000 0.0001748 0.0219688 0.0012114 0.7293790 0.0776409 0.0754800 0.0479288 0.0031807 0.1776667 0.0761813 0.0012859

0.7581745 0.0409430 0.0194248 0.1501701 0.0000796 0.0002334 0.4039753 1.0000000 0.0001948 0.0459688 0.0018464 0.7403790 0784239 O.0761200 0.0484788 0.0034007 0.1836667 0.0776313 0.0013859

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

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 285.100 374.950 436.750 280.400 2.910 5.285 40.825 2.264 3.654 6.930 2.898 759.150 77.700 76.150

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Will interest waiver help Kuwait economy?

By Francisco Quintana KUWAIT: The Kuwait parliament recently passed a bill forgiving interest payments on outstanding bank loans for Kuwaiti citizens. Only loans taken between 2002 and 2008 are included. The rationale for this bill argues that banks lured citizens into getting debt and charged abusive interest rates on them. The government will buy outstanding loans and the 47,000 citizens benefiting from the plan will continue the payment of the loan principal to the government, under comfortable terms.

In its first draft, the bill also included a compensation of KD1,000 for the 400,000 Kuwaiti citizens without bank debts. Any debt due by these citizens to the government would be deducted from this compensation. The final draft of the bill released by the National Assembly did not include this grant, but it is unclear whether some form of compensation for citizens will be passed in a separate bill later on. According to the Ministry of Finance, the implementation of this bill will cost KD744 million ($2.6 billion) to the state. Again, it is not clear if this estimate includes the cost of the KD1,000 grant, but, in any case, it implies a substantial fiscal disbursement by the state.

This fiscal pattern is not unique to

Kuwait. Saudi Arabia included loan forgiveness programs in its 2011 budget, and only in 2012, the UAE wrote off citizens’ debt on two occasions.

Over the last few months, the debate about this bill in the parliament has been centered on issues like the inclusion of expats’ loans, the inclusion of loans from Islamic funds, the maximum amount that should be written off or the size of the grant that should be given to those citizens who did not take loans. However, no discussion has been held on the economic impact of this measure on the nation.

Most of the impact of debt reduction or grant programs can generally be seen in consumption levels. In this particular case, it is unlikely that the debt write-off will have any significant impact on consumption. In general, households with higher levels of debt consume less, either because they set a limit on their level of leverage and reduce consumption once that limit is reached, or because banks are less willing to lend to those that already have a lot of debt. But the link between debt and consumption is not very strong. In the last decade consumer spending grew at around 7% every year in Kuwait. In the OECD countries it has been found that a reduction in debt equal to the annual income of an individ-

Commodities weekly report

Stability after rout

By Ole Hansen

T

he dramatic sell-off in gold, which could best be described as a once in a lifetime event, attracted most of the interest over the week. Other commodities also suffered some major setbacks as signs of slowing growth in China and the US and the recession in Europe raised concerns about demand for many key commodities at a time of ample or even growing supply. As the end of the week approached, some price stability returned but nervous trading will continue over the coming weeks during a quarter that has proved to be a difficult one, especially for the energy sector in recent years.

As the table below shows, most sectors were hurt by the risk adversity, which also spread to other asset classes, especially stocks. At one stage, the DAX slumped by 2.7 percent in a matter of minutes on Wednesday, a move that it has yet to recover from. Gold led the rout following the failure to hold onto suppor t at $1,525/oz. Traders and investors are now much divided about the precious metal’s near-term outlook, with the technical picture pointing towards a potential move to as low as $1,150/oz, while others are looking to get involved at levels last seen almost two years ago.

The UBS-Dow Jones index, in which billions of dollars are invested, has seen a slump of 14 percent since its peak in September last year. This move has accelerated during April as economic data deteriorated and the prospect for a bumper crop this summer eroded support for key crops.

Chinese growth in the first quarter of this year ended up lower than expected, which helped to put additional pressure on industrial metals and crude oil. The price of copper, historically a good gauge for global growth and demand but somewhat distorted in recent years given the overreliance on Chinese demand, is currently down by more than 20 percent from its 2012 peak, a level that generally signals it is entering a bear market.

Natural gas jumped to a 21-month high on Thursday following the release of weekly inventory data that showed a smaller than expected built in stockpiles. Colder than normal weather for this time of year, combined with a general higher demand, meant that the first injection of the year following the winter extraction period was lower than expected. This has left overall inventories at 1.7 trillion cubic feet, almost onethird lower than the same time last year. This has helped the price of natural gas to recover strongly in recent months, making it the best performer among the major commodities with a year-to-date gain of more than 30 percent.

O ther positive per forming commodities apart from natural gas were the non-cyclical commodities mostly belonging to the agriculture sector.

These were led by Cocoa, which made a new high for 2013 as demand from Europe and the US has shown signs of recovering, especially in North America where processing rose for a second month. This helped to reduce some of the overhang of supply that up until March had kept the price under pressure. Hot and dry weather earlier in the year in Ghana and the Ivory Coast may have taken its toll on the current cocoa crop, thereby lending additional support.

All metal groups retreating The five worst-performing commodities all belonged to the metal sector,

with industrial, precious and platinum group metals (PGM) all coming under some severe pressure.

Copper dropped below USD 7,000 per ton on the London Metal Exchange and suffered the worst weekly decline since 2011 as global growth worries and the sell-off in neighboring metals removed suppor t. Hedge funds were already, before the latest round of selling, holding the biggest net-short position since at least 2006 and this will undoubtedly have risen further during the week. Silver, which received a double hit from both being an industrial and investment metal, fell to its relative weakest level against gold since September 2010. At current prices one ounce of gold buys 60 ounces of silver, up from 50 ounces at the end of 2012, when the growth outlook was a lot rosier.

Following the historic two-day selloff, which sliced USD 213 of the value, gold spent the rest of the week making some tentative attempts to recover but for now with the multi-year rally behind us, some nervousness will persist that the worst may not be over.

The coming days and weeks will be very important as this has now become a war of ner ves. Will investors in Exchange Traded Products continue to scale back investments, having only begun reducing in Februar y while hedge funds began pulling out back in October? Or will the current slowing economic climate together with a pickup in physical demand trigger some support and eventually provoke hedge funds to reduce short positions? While the technical picture points towards a target of $1,150/oz we look for support eventually to emerge towards 1,300 $/oz while any recovery from here will be met with fierce resistance at the old floor of $1,525/oz.

Brent crude Crude oil weakness has been a feature during April, one month earlier than the previous two years, and once again the selling has been triggered by speculative traders building unsustainable long positions in anticipation of rising demand from elevated growth prospects.

With recent data, especially those from China, having shown signs of weakness oil prices have slumped with no geo-political situation currently posing any danger to supplies. Looking at recent history, the second quarter has posed a challenge for oil prices in both 2011 and 2012 - and 2013 is no exception. There is a general belief that seasonal demand will pick up over the coming month and with OPEC having seen the price of its crude oil basket drop below 100 USD/barrel, for only the third time in three years, some verbal intervention may not be far away.

Oil markets are currently well balanced but only due to OPEC, which continues to produce above its stated daily target of 30 million barrels per day. With Saudi Arabia having been successful in getting oil prices down to USD 100, it they may now switch its focus to avoid any additional weakness from here. Once again, verbal intervention could, if unsuccessful, be followed up by a cut to production, which should go a long way to hold the price close to $100. The geo-political risk premium often associated with oil prices has almost been removed and although no current threats exist, several potential hotspots could quickly change this perception. Negotiations with Iran over its nuclear intentions continue to yield no result and the ongoing destabilization of Syria poses another threat.

ual boosts consumption growth by two to three percentage points. If we apply this rate to the case of Kuwait we find that the impact of the debt write-off on the economy would be very low; around five to KD 10 million.

In the hypothetical case of a cash hand-out of KD1,000 being approved, it would have a larger impact than that of the debt reduction, but it would still not be significant. The 400,000 citizens that would receive the grant would probably spend around half of that money (after having deducted outstanding utility bills) within this year. Overall, we estimate that out of the KD400 million that the government would have spent on grants only, less than 150 million would translate into consumption, increasing gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.3 percent. However, part of that consumption would translate into imports, which must be deducted from GDP, reducing the potential impact even further. It is important to remember that the cost of this bill is also relatively small. In the first ten months of the fiscal year, until the end of January 2013, the budget surplus in Kuwait was KD17.2 billion. Using the Ministry’s estimate, the bill would represent only 4.3 percent of that surplus. As a reference, the 2011s Amiri decree cost twice as much, injecting KD1.4 billion in the economy, but the

impact on GDP was four times larger, around 700 million or 1.6 percent of Kuwait’s GDP in 2011. In summary, the recent bill on debt forgiveness, whether it includes the KD1,000 grant or not, could be considered economically irrelevant. Does that mean that it has no impact at all? No. The issue with this bill is of a different nature. First, it creates a problem of social justice. The bill, in its

current form, benefits a very small percentage of the population; less than 4 percent of Kuwaitis could write off up to KD70,000 per person. The factor that differentiates these individuals from the rest is simply that they decided to take loans.

The bill does not take into account the economic situation of the beneficiaries or whether the loan was taken for basic needs or luxury spending. Second, it creates a situation of moral hazard. Citizens might take further loans now hoping that debt forgiveness will again be in the agenda of the Parliament’s candidates in the next elections. Those citizens who were financially cautious in the past have no incentive to be so in the future. Third, it poses a sustainability problem since constant rising subsidies and bailouts are now widely expected by Kuwaiti citizens.

The funds for this program could have been placed at the Fund for Future Generations but instead they become current spending today. Debt reduction could be a useful instrument in economies crippled with high unemployment and weak consumption. But that is not the case in Kuwait - or anywhere else in the Gulf - where, on the contrary, the costs of the debt reduction probably outweigh the benefits.

— Francisco Quintana is Senior Economist at Asiya Investments.

US hails Japan’s role in trans-Pacific pact Marantis sees great opportunities SURABAYA, Indonesia: Japan’s participation in a massive Pacific trade agreement will create an enormous market for American exports and generate employment, a top US trade official said yesterday.

Acting US trade representative Demetrios Marantis lauded the unanimous decision for Japan’s entry into the US-driven Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a day after Canada softened its resistance and gave the thumbs-up. “The TPP membership was already robust, presenting economic opportunities for the United States and every member country, and the addition of Japan increases its significance and its potential across the board,” he said in a statement.

“Japan’s entry will offer a huge new market for American exports that can support more jobs at home,” he added. Marantis praised the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers’ meeting in the Indonesian city of Surabaya as “a steady march forward” to deepen economic integration and improve opportunities in the region.

The two-day meeting, which ended yesterday, came ahead of the APEC summit in October on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. “For the United States, we look forward to consulting with our Congress and stakeholders further as Japan prepares to join the talks, and to continuing the push for a TPP agreement this year,” he said.

Canada was the only nation among the 11 members which was still opposed to Tokyo’s participation but its Trade Minister Ed Fast on Saturday said “having Japan at the table is going to add additional

SURABAYA: Indonesian Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan (left) speaks to acting US Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis (right) during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers’ meeting in Surabaya yesterday. —AFP value to all of the TPP partners”. With the entry of Japan into the free-trade talks the pact would cover nearly 40 percent of the global economy, making it the biggest free-trade agreement in the world. The bloc is aimed creating a tariff-free zone

with a market of around $25 trillion covering some 800 million people.Japan joins Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam in TPP negotiations. — AFP

Africa’s boom not denting poverty enough: Experts

PHNOM PENH: A Cambodian vendor (left) packages food for a customer at a tourist site on the outskirts of Phnom Penh yesterday. Cambodia’s economic growth accelerated to 7.3 percent in 2012 thanks to buoyant activity in the agricultural, tourism, construction and garment sectors, Prime Minister Hun Sen said on February 20. —AFP

Australians warned of huge hit to revenues SYDNEY: Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan yesterday warned a high dollar and lower terms of trade had led to a Aus$7.5 billion ($7.7 billion) “sledgehammer” hit to budget revenues. Swan is due to hand down his annual budget next month ahead of national elections in September, having only in December abandoned his strident and longheld vow to return it to surplus this year.

He said the country was now facing some of the most challenges circumstances it had seen in decades, describing lower terms of trade-the value of exports measured against imports-and a high dollar as a “unique economic event”. The upshot was a dramatic impact on the profitability of companies and prices more generally in the economy, particularly for Australia’s key mining products. “And as a consequence of that, that’s caused a hit, if you like, a sledgehammer to revenues in the budget since the mid-year update of something like $7.5 billion,” he told ABC television.

“Of course the impact won’t just be in this financial year, it will also be across the forward estimates.

“This is one of the reasons why I made the point at the end of last year that we were unlikely to return to surplus in 2012-13 because of this hit, if you like, to revenue from the high dollar and the lower terms of trade.” With the challenging conditions, Swan reiterated his focus was on protecting jobs-with unemployment climbing to 5.6 percent in March-and supporting growth in the upcoming budget. “If you’ve got this hit to revenue we shouldn’t be seeking to make up for it by savage cuts across the budget,” he said. “ That would not support jobs and growth and it would lead to higher unemployment. “So our approach is very clear-in this budget we will support jobs and growth, we’ll make the smart investments for the future and we’ll do that within the context of a responsible medium-term fiscal policy.” With a slowdown in Chinese economic growth having a knock-on effect for Australia’s crucial commodities sector, the country is also facing a painful transition away from the key mining sector as the investment peak looms. — AFP

JOHANNESBURG: Fast-paced African countries may have growth rates that are the envy of developed economies, but the continent’s boom has failed in recent years to significantly dent poverty levels, economists say. Sub-Saharan Africa is set to grow by 5.6 percent this year, according to latest figures from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with 18 countries hitting at least six percent.

“Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to continue growing at a strong pace during 2013-14, with both resource-rich and lower-income economies benefiting from robust domestic demand,” the IMF said in its latest World Economic Outlook.

According to the World Bank, foreign direct investment inflows rose 5.5 percent in the region last year, against a plunge of 6.6 percent in developing countries worldwide.

The investment-to-GDP ratio is the lowest among developing regions, which the bank likens to pre-boom levels in 1960s China and 1980s India “suggesting increased scope for further expansion in productivity-enhancing investment”.

Africa’s oil and mining wealth means that these sectors dominate the overall flows, but investment has also risen in services such as water, construction, and electricity projects.

States with growing middle classes-such as Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana and Kenya-are also drawing investment to consumer areas such as retail and banking. Consumer spending makes up more than 60 percent of Africa’s GDP, a sector recently highlighted by McKinsey & Company who found urban Africans spent more on clothing and food than those in Brazil, China and India on average. Telecommunications, banking and retail are flourishing, construction is booming and private investment inflows surging.

But the continent’s poor are still not riding the wave.

“More than a decade of strong economic growth has reduced poverty in sub-Saharan Africa - but not by enough,” said the World Bank last week. Growth has been less povertyreducing than elsewhere in the world; and despite the faster growth in resource-rich countries, levels of poverty are falling at a slower rate , it said. While strides have been made in reducing the levels of Africans living on less $1.25 a day, more than a third of the world’s extreme poor still live in subSaharan Africa. And it is still the only region in the world where the number of poor people rose “steadily and dramatically” between 1981 and 2010, according to a recent bank note on poverty. “The poverty rate is not going down at the same rate that the growth rate is going up,” said Soren Ambrose, economist of anti-poverty group ActionAid in Nairobi. “The mining companies were given attractive deals: those companies come in and do their business and as a result the growth rates are up.” But, he added: “Not much remains, the amount that is left in the country is not so much.” This year, only two regional economies, Swaziland and oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, are set to shrink. — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Commodities slump sends slow ripples Consumers to gain slowly but surely LONDON: Lower airfares, cheaper food and rising profit margins are among the benefits that should flow from tumbling oil and commodity prices - but only after a long lead time. Having poured $400 billion into commodities over the past decade, many investors are now selling. Their confidence that risky assets could only float higher on a rising tide of cheap central bank money has crumbled as the global economy fails to respond to the stimulus.

Even China, an important buyer of natural resources, is slowing. Inflation, against which gold in particular is a classic hedge, is falling nearly everywhere. Price pressures will ease further if natural resources keep falling. That is bad news for exporters such as Saudi Arabia and Brazil but good news for net importers. Weaker commodity prices

should be positive for the world economy on average because falling inflation supports consumer spending, said ABN AMRO economist Han de Jong.

Standard and Poor’s Goldman Sachs Commodity Index has fallen 6.6 percent so far this year. But raw materials represent a small part of most firms’ costs, so it is not surprising that some businesses, especially those in very competitive markets, are not getting carried away. “There are thousands of components in a car so the impact might not be that great,” said Cui Liyan with Great Wall Motor Co Ltd, China’s top maker of SUVs and pick-up trucks. “Great Wall has never passed on additional costs to consumers when commodity prices have surged in the past.” For a U.S. economy experiencing slow growth, cheaper energy is a pos-

itive, said Michael Ward, chief executive of CSX Corp, the country’s second-largest railroad. But CSX itself is indifferent because it runs a fuel surcharge program. “Over time, we’re passing the increases or decreases in fuel to the customer,” Ward said. An official at South Korea’s largest food maker, CJ CheilJedang Corp, said it normally takes four to six months before a fall in agricultural futures prices passes through into the firm’s product prices.

Oil moves to watch The lurches in gold, including the sharpest oneday drop in 30 years on Monday, have grabbed the attention, but falling oil prices are of much greater economic significance.

Brent crude is down about 16 percent from the

year’s high at $119.17, hit on Feb 8. Economists at JP Morgan estimate a 15 percent drop in the price of oil, caused by a supply increase, would be enough to lift global economic output this year by 0.2 percentage points. But if the price fall reflects a darkening economic outlook, the same 15 percent decline is consistent with a 0.5 percent downgrade in global growth prospects for the year, the bank calculates.

An executive at Indian engineering company Larsen & Toubro said the broader fall in commodity prices cut both ways. Cheaper materials would help profit margins and, if the trend were sustained, would increase the chances of lower interest rates, he said. But prices were falling for a reason.

“Prices are down today because the investment cycle has slowed and demand for commodities has slowed. If this extends over the long term, it cannot be a good thing for a projects company such as ours,” he said.

Pinpointing the repercussions of the commodity sell off is further complicated because it cannot be seen in isolation. KCE Electronics Pcl, a Thai maker of printed circuit boards, should be sitting pretty because it uses a lot of copper, which is down 12 percent so far in 2013.

But executive director Panja Senadisai said the savings are outweighed by the strength of the Thai baht against the dollar, which hurts KCE’s exports. The story is similar at Tenneco Inc’s Indian subsidiary: the auto components maker is seeing lower prices for steel and rubber - the key Tokyo Commodity Exchange rubber contract has shed more than 8 percent this week - but a weak rupee and high inflation are diluting the benefit.

Currencies also muddy the waters for Japan Airlines Co Ltd , with a weakening yen on balance a negative for the airline, said JAL spokesman Taro Namba. Still, JAL has already responded by announcing a 7.6 percent cut in cargo fuel surcharges from May 1 to 122 yen per kilogram on long-haul international routes. And Korean Air Lines Co Ltd, South Korea’s biggest airline, expects a drop in fuel surcharges to lead to lower passenger ticket prices with a one month’s lag.

Food chain Cheaper food is a particular boon in countries with uncomfortably high inflation. Take Indonesia, where inflation scaled a nearly two-year high of 5.9 percent in March. Thanks to falling prices for everything from rice to meat and shallots, the month-on-month rise in consumer prices will probably be less than 0.1 percent in April, according to deputy central bank governor Perry Warjiyo. Business models differ and not everyone is rushing to pass on cheaper inputs. Danish shipping

group A P Moller - Maersk Group is an example. “Our job is to make sure that the customers understand that they actually have a big value proposition by shipping with us... The customers are willing to pay a bit more. This is not a commodity. There’s more to it than just shipping a box,” said chief executive Nils Anderson.

With global inflation by and large benign, the door is open for leading central banks to provide even more monetary stimulus. St Louis Fed President James Bullard said he would favor increasing the pace of the Federal Reserve’s bond buying if inflation continues to go down. US consumer prices rose just 1.5 percent in the 12 months through March.

Falling commodity prices and slower wage growth give the Bank of England more scope to resume bondbuying to try to galvanise the economy, BOE policymaker Martin Weale argued. Basic wage growth in Britain has slowed to a record low. Even the conservative European Central Bank has hinted that it is open to doing more. With the bank’s economists forecasting an inflation rate of just 1.3 percent in 2014, well short of its target of just under 2 percent, more and more economists expect an interest rate cut next month.

China too has increased policy room. “The drop in global commodity prices is obviously very good news for China, because it will help lessen imported inflationary pressure and leaves Beijing much more scope to expand credit and loosen monetary policy to bolster the domestic economy,” said Yuan Gangming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

India vs Australia India, Asia’s third-largest economy, is hoping that the commodity rout will not only dampen inflation but also reduce its twin deficits. Crude and gold imports contribute nearly 45 percent of India’s total import bill.

“The fall will help us deal with the widening current account deficit, which is the biggest worry for the government,” said a senior official at the ministry of finance in New Delhi.

India spent $169 billion on foreign oil in the fiscal year that ended in March, 9 percent more than the year before. That is a big factor behind a full-year current account deficit likely to have been around 5 percent of GDP - a level the central bank governor has called unsustainable..

And because India heavily subsidizes consumer fuels and fertilizer, the government’s budget deficit for the new fiscal year could well come in below its target of 4.8 percent of GDP if global commodity prices keep declining, the official added. The fall in crude prices could halve the oil subsidy bill. —Reuters

PRAGUE: A sign reading ‘Property For Sale’ stands in the garden of a house in Jesenice village near Prague. The once thrifty Czechs are on a borrowing spree whose ugly side is increasingly showing itself at a time of recession. — AFP

Once thrifty Czechs discover ups and downs of debt PRAGUE: Gone are the days of penny-pinching: the once thrifty Czechs are on a borrowing spree whose ugly side is increasingly showing itself at a time of recession. During the command-economy era of 1948-1989, when former Czechoslovakia was governed by a totalitarian Communist regime, lending was tightly restricted and consumers were taught to save first.

Then the switch to a market economy brought new charms, with cheap loans coupled with massive advertising fuelling a binge on imported western goods. But coupled with negligible financial literacy, it also brought trouble. “People have learnt to take out loans to buy everything: Christmas presents, holidays,” said Tomas Vrana, lawyer and founder of one of the Czech Republic’s largest bailiff services.

“When we were young and wanted to go on holiday, we either saved or went to a Czech resort. But now people take out a loan and go to the Maldives without realizing how much they can lose,” he told AFP. Double-digit lending rates made loans unattractive for borrowers until 1998, when the central bank slashed its key rate to below the psychological level of 10 percent. Five years later it was as low as two percent, and combined with economic growth and low unemployment, it set the scene for a borrowing boom.

In 2003, total Czech household debt stood at 195.7 billion koruna (around 8 billion euros, $10 billion), up from 84.5 billion in 1993. By 2012, it had soared to 1.37 trillion koruna, or roughly one-third of gross domestic product, as Czechs bought houses, cars and consumer goods.

The EU member of 10.5 million people saw more than a quarter of its residents — 2.9 million people-borrow last year, according to official data. “The Czech economy increasingly uses debt and approaches western European countries in this respect,” said David Marek, chief analyst at the Prague-based investment bank Patria Finance.

“But household debt compared to income in the Czech Republic reaches only about half the amount in western Europe,” he told AFP. Yet even that borrowing percentage is turn-

ing out to be toxic, with the country locked in recession for a year now and unemployment rising steadily since last June to near recordhigh levels.

“The probability that a new client will now get in trouble is higher than last year,” said Radek Zenka, consumer loans manager at GE Money bank.

Heavily dependent on car production and exports, the Czech economy contracted by 1.3 percent last year amid headwinds from the crisis-hit euro-zone and thinning household consumption.

The central bank expects business activity to pick up by around 2.1 percent in 2014, but not before the economy contracts by 0.3 percent this year. “Borrowers today are more often people who struggle to get by, and they get in trouble more easily,” said Pavel Mertlik, analyst and former leftist finance minister.

The default rate on consumer loans topped 10 percent last year, forcing cautious lenders to hike the cost of credit. The average commercial rate climbed to over 15 percent-while the central bank’s key lending rate stands at a recordlow 0.05 percent.

Signs advertising debt collection services have become a common sight-hanging down building facades and protruding from fields by the roadside-reminding carefree borrowers that they are courting disaster.

“People don’t realize they should stop. So they take out a loan, then take out another to cover the first one. Then a huge vortex opens up and swallows everything,” Vrana said.

His firm’s logo Exekuce.cz is based on the word for “property seizure”-a term that increasingly provokes anxiety among Czechs. When the firm began plastering its logo on the football jerseys of Czech top-flight side Sigma Olomouc, which it sponsors, fans were not amused. They were at the game to unwind and have fun-not get jolted back to reality with a reminder of their money woes. “They used to grumble, there was some silly talk,” said Vrana, adding that they got used to it over five seasons. “Now they even make fun of it.” — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Commodity drop reflects dollar strength NBK MONEY MARKETS REPORT KUWAIT: Investors have been lacking direction this week with equity markets down and commodity markets taking a large hit today.

Italy’s lawmakers failed to elect a president in the first round, while Italy borrowing cost has continued to drop due to the overwhelming market abundance of liquidity.

In the US, James Bullard, president of St-Louis Federal Reserve noted the Fed should remain focused on inflation and resist putting more weight on its employment mandate. He suggested the Fed should be ready to up QE3 if inflation continues to fall. Narayana Kocherlakota from the Federal Reserve of Minneapolis noted on the other hand that the Federal Reserve’s ultra accommodative policies will inevitably result in financial-market instability for years but such risks are necessary to boost employment and inflation. Low real interest rates will probably be needed for “a number of years to come.” The Beige book had a different message to the market; relating a much more upbeat conclusion drawn from April’s data in comparison to March Beige book.

As expected, the US dollar suffered slightly this week against the majors as the recent economic data casted some doubt about the US recovery.

On the foreign exchange side, currencies closed the week with a slightly stronger Euro but lower Sterling Pound. After reaching a low of 1.5217, the Pound ended the week close to the lowest level seen during the week of 1.5231 after Fitch rating agency downgraded the UK to AA+.

Euro on the other side behaved in a much more volatile way. After dropping to a low of 1.3002 after Mr. Weidman’s comments and a Germany downgrade by Egan Jones, the Euro closed the week higher at 1.3052. In the commodity complex, Gold tumbled in the beginning of the week reaching a low of 1,322, however closed the week almost 6 percent higher at $1,403.

In summary, investors still await further economic data in order to assess whether the US economic recovery is still on track. However, a game changer could be the new message from tumbling commodity prices this week. Indeed, as inflation concerns are moderating globally, this would mark a new phase in 2013, where higher inflation driven currencies are more likely to suffer against the US dollar. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank said its business activity index dropped to 1.3 from 2.0 the month before. Economists’ expectations were for a rise to 3.0. Although this represents a weak

number, any reading above zero indicates an expansion in manufacturing. The breakdown of the data was moderately disappointing, notably a decline in the 6 month outlook, the lowest since November. Softer orders and inventories were also below expectations.

On the other hand, Bloomberg Consumer comfort index reached five years high. It appears that the rebound in real estate prices is helping consumer’s sentiment.

US inflation falls As discussed above, energy prices have been on a continuous decline. The labour department said this week that its consumer price index fell 0.2 per-

cent from February, mainly due to a 4.4 percent drop in gasoline prices. The March energy index fell 2.6 percent in March after a 5.4 percent rise in February. On an annual basis, overall CPI rose 1.5 percent, slower than the 2.0 percent pace of February. Inflation has been tame globally, consequently affecting overall commodity prices. The low level of global growth along with China missing its GDP estimates and high unemployment in the US and the euro-zone have been a major drawdown to global inflation expectations.

Weak euro-zone In an interview with a US newspaper, Jens

Weidman of the Bundesbank signaled that the ECB could reduce interest rates if incoming economic and inflation data suggest it is warranted. However, he warned that such a move would not turn around the Euro bloc’s economic fortunes, instead pinning responsibility on elected leaders to find ways to kick-start growth and channel money to small businesses. Overcoming the crisis and the crisis effects will remain a challenge over the next decade,” he said, in contrast with recent comments from EC President Barroso that the worst of Europe’s crisis is over.

Weidman also endorsed the recent agreement between Cyprus and its international creditors to impose steep losses on large depositors at its

biggest banks. “The Cypriot case shows that it’s possible to wind down banks. “This is in principle a good thing, because it means that taxpayers don’t always have to step in to bail out banks,” he said.

In his final comments, he mentioned the Euro’s current level “reflects that there is confidence in the Euro-zone and finally urged policy makers around the world to respect commitments they have made to refrain from manipulating their exchange rates for economic advantage.

After these comments, the market started pricing a potential interest interest rate cut in the next ECB meeting, causing the Euro to reach a low of 1.3001 during the week.

UK retail sales UK retail sales were weaker than expected in March, with headline sales falling -0.7 percent month on month versus -0.6 percent economists estimates. Ex-auto fuel sales fell -0.8 percent mom versus -0.6 percent consensus. Looking at broader trends sales are up 0.5 percent quarter on quarter in Q1, meanwhile, survey based indicators of sales have been mixed, with the CBI( Confederation of British industry) reporting falls while the BRC (British Retail Consortium) was upbeat. Analysts continue to expect the recovery in sales to continue but also downside risks to real spending if inflation rises.

Asia IMF Lagarde Says Japan Policy Moves Are Not Enough to Ensure Recovery.

Christine Lagarde of the IMF warned this week that an “uneven recovery is also a dangerous one” for the global economy as the IMF downgraded its growth forecasts for 2013, while holding out the prospect of relief late in the year. According to the IMF, the world economy is running at three speeds, with emerging market and developing economies still strong, but the US doing much better than the Euro zone among advanced economies. In the report, the US is expected to grow 1.9 percent this year and 3 percent in 2014, while the Euro zone is expected to contract by 0.3 percent in 2013 and grow only 1.1 percent in 2014. China is expected to grow by 8 percent in 2013 and 8.2 percent in 2014 although significantly lower than the past decade.

Lagarde also praised the Japanese government’s ambitious plans that include aggressive action from the Bank of Japan, calling it “positive.”, however reiterated that the government needs to do more to cut debt.

On a different front, Bank of Japan governor, Kuroda reiterated that the BOJ’s bold easing was not aimed at weakening yen, but was designed to end deflation. On Thursday, the Bank of Japan announced to market participants that it would be making bond purchases approximately 8 times per month as part of its expanded asset purchase program. This will involve gross purchases of JPY 7 trillion.

Kuwait Kuwaiti dinar at 0.28485 The USDKWD opened at 0.28485 yesterday morning.

IMF presses advanced economies to build confidence WASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund urged leading powers to step up growth and reforms to generate jobs, warning that confidence in the global economy was in short supply.

They also warned emerging and smaller economies to shore up their financial defenses in anticipation of turbulence as leading economies charge up growth with extraordinary monetary stimulus and low interest rates. “The world economy still faces a crisis of confidence, as Europe still struggles with recession and its peripheral crises, and the US and Japan still lack credible plans to bring down their huge debt and deficit burdens,” said Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who chairs the IMF’s steering committee.

“The commodity that is in shorter supply now is confidence... Confidence needs to be strengthened by stronger predictability in medium-term fiscal policy.”

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde, in a fresh IMF policy agenda, urged Europe, the United States and Japan to act more resolutely to build up confidence in a future of sustainable growth. “The global economy has avoided the worst, but it is by no means out of the woods, and prospects may be diverging,” she said.

In a “report card” on progress over the past year, she said major calamities had been averted, like the fracture of the euro-zone. But Lagarde still gave the developed economies poor grades.

“US public finances remain unsustainable and a comprehensive and backloaded plan involving higher revenues and entitlement reform is urgently needed,” she said. In Japan, with one of the world’s largest debt loads, short-term fiscal stimulus is heightening risks to state finances, and Tokyo needs to come up with an “ambitious” plan to cut its deficits and sustain growth over the medium term, the IMF chief added.

In Europe, she warned, “the euro area has the clearest need to balance supporting growth with needed reform.” Deep austerity programs demanded of the troubled periphery economies like Greece, Italy and Portugal are leading to “adjustment fatigue” with growing tensions over the fairness of adjustment, according to Lagarde.

At the same time, she questioned whether the breathing space earned by the monetary expansion programs “is being used by advanced economies to make progress on deeper fiscal, financial and structural reforms.”

In a press conference after the International Monetary and Financial Committee meeting, Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s deputy prime minister, linked completing reforms in developed economies to fighting unemployment.

“Monetary policy accompanied by structural reforms that give a chance to young people to get jobs, structural reforms that help companies to upgrade and improved productivity, is much more likely to succeed,” he said.

Growth and jobs was a “strong focus” of two days of IMF meetings with the World Bank in Washington, he said. The IMF chiefs warned meanwhile that with advanced economies pumping out money to stimulate growth, others need to build up buffers to protect themselves from asset market bubbles and other side-effects, including the whiplash that could come when those loose monetary policies are tightened.

“Many emerging market economies are concerned about the possible blow to output and financial system if large inflows of capital reverse rapidly,” Lagarde said in her IMF agenda.

The IMF’s call appeared to be accepted by the finance ministers and central bank chiefs of the G20 leading economies, who in a statement on Friday pledged “ambitious” steps to spur growth and job creation. Some officials at the G20 talks, on the sidelines of the IMF-World Bank spring meetings, said the focus was mostly on Europe. Germany, which has been setting the tone of eurozone reforms and growth efforts, has a “pragmatic” outlook, they said.

However, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble sounded less flexible on pressure to ease the tough austerity programs required of periphery countries. “Nobody should have the misunderstanding that there is an alternative for reducing deficits,” Schaeuble told reporters. “It is not a German position, it is a common position... We are totally united.” — AFP

SHANGHAI: A visitor takes a close look at a VW Polo GTI on the opening day of the Shanghai auto show yesterday. Chinese buyers swarmed around hundreds of vehicles at the Shanghai auto show at its opening highlighting the importance of the world’s largest car market to manufacturers. (Right) Visitors watch a model on a Subaru BRZ racing car on the opening day of the Shanghai auto show.— AFP

Buyers swarm opening of China auto show Largest car market hogs spotlight SHANGHAI: Chinese buyers swarmed around hundreds of vehicles at the Shanghai auto show at its opening yesterday, highlighting the importance of the world’s largest car market to manufacturers.

Chinese and foreign automakers used models dressed as Playboy bunnies and dance performances to capture the eyes of potential customers, while long lines formed to try out driving simulators at one Japanese company. Among the shoppers was entrepreneur Ou Yang, who browsed the sleek black vehicles on offer by luxury German car maker BMW. “Since I enjoy driving very much, I prefer cars with higher maneuverability. As for the appearance, personally I pay more attention to the interior than the exterior,” he said. China’s auto sales reached 19.31 million vehicles last year, a 4.3 percent rise from 2011, according to a Chinese industry group. The country has been the world’s largest auto market since 2009.

Competition has become more intense as sales growth has slowed since 2010 and more companies have piled into the promising market.

“The bar is very high today, compared to five or eight years ago,” said Sha Sha, who leads consultancy McKinsey ’s Automotive & Assembly Practice in Greater China.

But she added: “Given that China is such a sizeable growth market, the game is fair for both incumbent players and really competitive attackers.” Sales of Japanese brands in China have suf-

SHANGHAI: A child walks by an MG display during the opening day of the Shanghai auto show. — AFP fered since last year amid political row over disputed islands that sparked street protests across the country and calls for boycotts. Toyota’s China president, Hiroji Onishi, said he expected sales to recover later this year as the company launched new products, despite the lingering antiJapanese sentiment and more competition. “The market is growing very large. That means compe-

tition is only going to increase among the various players,” he told reporters. Another visitor to the show said he would not buy a Japanese car, after he viewed luxury Cadillacs from US auto giant General Motors. “I would definitely not buy a Japanese car... because of national sentiment,” said the Chinese public servant, who declined to be named. — AFP

Mexico bank reform eases legal hurdles to boost credit MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s government wants to boost lending by making it easier for banks to collect on guarantees for bad loans and by giving new powers to regulators to punish firms that do not lend enough, according to a draft of a new banking reform.

The proposal, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, is due to be announced next week, and is part of a raft of measures designed to ramp up growth in Latin America’s second biggest economy. Thrashed out within a pact made between President Enrique Pena Nieto and the leaders of the main opposition parties, the banking reform

targets Mexico’s conservative banks, which boast high capital levels but lend much less than their foreign peers.

“Granting more loans, under more favorable conditions in terms of interest rates, duration and amounts, is a crucial element to efficiently allocating financial resources to boost national economic growth,” the draft says. To create more legal certainty, it aims to ease the process for banks to take possession of a loan guarantor’s assets in case of default and would streamline the bankruptcy process, which can drag on in Mexico, in part by creating new courts.

Banks would also be subject to periodic lending reviews under the plan, which must be passed by both houses of Congress. In the reform, the banking regulator would get new powers to punish those lenders that fail to channel enough resources into credit - even limiting banks’ securities trading on their own account if lending falls below the required levels.

The finance ministry hopes those measures, combined with a revamp of the development bank, will reduce risk and induce banks to lend more and more cheaply, especially to small businesses. Since taking office in December, Pena

Nieto has passed a major education reform, and lawmakers in his Institutional Revolutionary Party say a sweeping bill to increase competition in the telecommunications sector should be approved this month. Wary after Mexico’s 1994-1995 financial crisis, domestic private sector financing stands at just 26 percent of gross domestic product and private sector credit at 45 percent of bank assets, below Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, and Chile.

Borrowers in Mexico complain of high interest fees, with median credit card interest rates around 29 percent annually, according data from the Mexican central bank.

Small and medium size companies bear the brunt of the credit trickle, generating nearly three quarters of Mexican jobs, but receiving just 15 percent of credit, the finance ministry says.

The reform aims to push the government’s six development banks to boost lending to the sector, by bolstering autonomy, promoting long-term lending, and offering competitive pay.

For example, restrictions on granting mediumterm loans and on the number of short-term loans, plus rules against making multiple loans to one borrower would be lifted for the development bank serving the armed forces. — Reuters

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

BUSINESS

Kuwait Energy reports record results for 2012 Net profit up 29% to $44.9m • Revenue up 26% to $225.3m KUWAIT: Kuwait Energy plc (Kuwait Energy, one of the fastest growing independent oil and gas companies in the Middle East, yesterday announced record results for the year 2012 during its Annual General Meeting of shareholders. The Company achieved a record net profit of $44.9 million in 2012, up 29 percent from 2011, a record operating cash flow of $148.2 million, up 32 percent from 2011, and a record daily average working interest production of 17,966 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd), up 32 percent from 2011.

Speaking to shareholders, Kuwait Energy Executive Chairman, Dr Manssour Aboukhamseen, said: “I am delighted to report that 2012 was another year of financial success and operational progress for Kuwait Energy. The Company achieved record levels in production, profits and revenue, while also consolidating its financial strength through various debt facilities.”

Kuwait Energy also achieved a record year-end exit production of 17,790 barrels of oil production per day (boepd), and an average daily working interest production of 17,966 boepd, a 32 percent year-on-year increase. The increase in production was achieved primarily from exploration successes made in Egypt during 2011, which came on stream in 2012, as well as from increased production from the development activities in Egypt and Oman during 2012.

in Abu Sennan (ASA 1X) and one in Area A (West Ahmad), also in Egypt. These successes added to the excellent exploration success rate for the Company. In the five-year period between 2007 and 2012, the Company has achieved an exploration success rate of 53 percent, with a finding cost for the same period of US$8.73 per barrels of oil equivalent (boe).

Also during the year, Kuwait Energy launched the first phase of operations in the Siba gas field located in the Basra province of Iraq. Kuwait

Energy is the operator and holds a 60 percent working interest in the field.

In addition to organic growth, Kuwait Energy also continued its expansion via selective acquisitions and new licenses awarded. In Yemen, Kuwait Energy completed a successful acquisition of “Block 5”, further adding to reserves and increasing production. In Iraq, a significant milestone was achieved reinforcing Kuwait Energy’s presence in Iraq with the Company winning the exploration contract for Basra’s “Block 9” during Iraq’s fourth

2013 outlook Presenting the Company’s operational outlook to shareholders, Aboukhamseen said: “We expect that 2013 will witness a continuation in Kuwait Energy’s activity with a particular focus on our geographical areas of expertise, the Middle East and North Africa region. We plan to assess potential M&A opportunities in the region that would complement our existing portfolio mix.

We also intend to achieve this by utilizing our vast network of relationships while building on our team’s technical expertise to contribute to the Company’s continued progress to the next phase of its growth.”

Kuwait Energy plans to drill 16 exploration wells and 56 development wells during 2013. In Iraq, the plan is to demine “Block 9” and spud the first exploration well in the Block. In Egypt, an active programme including exploration and development drilling in existing oil and gas assets is planned.

Akbar added: “The mix of robust anticipated organic growth with selective M&A activity, and the widening of the Group’s interests in the Middle East and North Africa region, means 2013 is set to be another exciting year for Kuwait Energy. “

2012 in review The Company continued to be very active operationally with a capital expenditure of $119.8 million that was primarily spent on drilling 49 development wells and spudding seven exploration wells. There were two successful exploration carryover wells, Al Jahraa 1X and Al Salmiya 1X, both in the Abu Sennan concession in Egypt. The Company also saw two additional exploration successes; one

Ci-Net Kuwait selects D& B to develop credit bureau project DUBAI: The Credit Information Network of Kuwait (Ci-Net) has appointed Dun & Bradstreet to develop & implement a new credit bureau system according to the international standards.

Ci-Net’s vision is to progressively develop the bureau so it becomes an economic information center, which draws upon the analytical insights of all the fundamental economic sectors.

The Bureau will be designed to support the growth of credit in the State of Kuwait, relying on customer data and risk-based methodologies. This will enable more individuals, banks and companies to access credit easily. On the other hand, banks and financial institutions will get advanced credit reports and scoring that are easy to use and understand.

Ci-Net’s Chairperson Hana Al-Razzouqi said. “This critical project will make Kuwait credit bureau one of the most advanced credit bureaus in the region with the most advanced functionality for such sys-

tems” Dun & Bradstreet has been awarded the contract to implement the Ci-Net system through a tender process that involved key solution providers of Credit Bureau implementation services.

From supply and system implementation to consultancy, maintenance and support, D&B will be fully in charge of implementing the Ci-Net’s system over the duration of 12 months. “We look forward to build a strong bureau with robust technology and international best practices in Kuwait,” said Miguel Llenas, Executive Vice President, Dun & Bradstreet South Asia Middle East Ltd. While Ci-Net will gain access to the advanced technology and international best practices through D&B, this move will help D&B expand within the GCC and Middle East banking sector, especially with their existing footprint in the MENA Region via bureau partnerships with Central Banks of Oman, Qatar, Libya, Egypt, among others.

Global Finance chooses Boubyan Bank as best Islamic Financial Institution KUWAIT: The international Global Finance Magazine has chosen Boubyan Bank as the Best Up-and-Comer Islamic Financial Institution in the world as part of its list for the best Islamic banks and financial institutions for 2013, whose winners will be honored in Washington on the margins of the IMF and World Bank meetings next October.

Boubyan’s winning of the Global Finance Award came after fervent competition with many other well-known Islamic banks, as the Magazine decided to grant the Award to Boubyan based on the achievements realized over the last three years as well as the promising future in store for it according to its clear strategy.

Adel Al-Majed Commenting on this Award, the Vice Chairman of Boubyan Bank, Adel Abdul-Wahab Al-Majed said: “Our winning of the Best Up-andComer Islamic Financial Institution title proves that the rising journey commenced in the Bank in 2010 is closely noticed by many, whether inside or outside Kuwait, especially considering the successful leaps realized on the level of products and services or the ratios of profitability and other market shares.”

Al-Majed added: “With the Help of Allah, we have commenced the rising and re-launch journey in 2010 based on a clear five-year strategy, whose fruits we started to reap thanks first to Allah, the Almighty, then to our human resources which acted as the key pillar for our strategy since the very beginning, and the central focus out of our belief that any sought success may only be achieved by reliance on these human resources.”

“The awards and choices of Global Finance have a noticeable importance in the world of banks; being one of the biggest 3 international institutions with highest credibility, which chooses the best based on strictly accurate standards and certified reports,” Al-Majed indicated.

Al-Majed stressed that choosing Boubyan

Bank as the Best Up-and-Comer Islamic Financial Institution in the world is a result of a set of factors based on which the international magazine made its decision. Chief among these are the developments witnessed in the Bank since year 2010, as by the end of last year, we have completed the first 3 years of the Bank’s five-year strategy (2010-2014), which we believe to have realized many of its objectives.

Al-Majed added that the key objective among all these was laying the sound and firm foundation for a banking institution that is able to compete in the market in which it operates, and achieve high growth rates, the fact that helped the Bank regain profitability starting from year 2010 and even lately, the distribution of dividends to shareholders, thanks to Allah, the Almighty.

“A set of key factors, mainly represented in the NBK’s entry as a major stakeholder in Boubyan Bank, have contributed to the realization of many of our strategic objectives, key among which is returning to the core banking activities, expansion in the local market through our retail and corporate products and services, and provision of the same in a different and distinguished manner; thus growing our market share and boosting our competiveness,” AlMajed pointed out.

On the other hand, based on figures and statistics, we have an optimistic outlook, as we managed during a short period to uplift our market share to decent ratios, considering the circumstances we faced and the fervent competition in the Kuwaiti market, especially Islamic financial services; as we managed, thanks be to Allah, to boost our market share to 4.7% by the end of year 2012, compared to 2.3% in year 2009, and raise personal finance to 5.7% now, compared to 1.2% for the same period.

On the other hand, Al-Majed emphasized that the Bank continues to implement its FiveYear Strategy (2010-2014) started three years ago, which aims at more expansion in the Kuwaiti market through retail and corporate products and services. During the next two years, the Bank will continue implementation of this strategy in addition to adoption of the new strategy to be implemented during the period from 2015 to 2020 entitled “2020 Strategy”.

“In addition, we take into consideration the operational conditions, which are undoubtedly impacted by the local, regional and international changes, as seen during the two years of 2011 and 2012, in which we witnessed difficult operational conditions in the aftermath of the developments and changes occurring in some countries in the region. However, generally speaking, we have an optimistic outlook stemming from our competitiveness, our being part of NBK Group as well as our optimistic belief that local and regional conditions will improve,” added AlMajed.

licensing round.

The year 2012 was also highlighted with the successful bidding in the second Afghanistan bid round for hydrocarbon exploration licenses for Block I (Sanduqli) and Block IV (Mazar-i-Sharif ), both located in Northern Afghanistan.

The Company closed the year with proven and probable working interest reserves of 221.6 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe), audited by Gaffney, Cline & Associates (GCA).

AGM outcome Shareholders approved all Ordinary and Special Resolutions recommended by the Board.

Jaguar F-type declared 2013 world car design of the year KUWAIT: Ian Callum, Director of Design, Jaguar, said: “No design project has given me greater pleasure than the creation of the F-TYPE. It’s a project I’ve looked forward to from the moment I joined Jaguar, and it’s one that’s given my team and I great satisfaction.

The F-TYPE is a sports car that is true to Jaguar’s design values - beauty of line and purity of form - and I’m honored that the World Car of the Year jury has recognized our work with this award.” Some 43 cars were considered for the award, this selection being reduced to a shortlist by an advisory panel of design experts* before final consideration by the 66 World Car of the Year jury members.

On the F-TYPE, the advisory panel said: “The long wheelbase, short overhangs and flared fenders give this car a good stance. The contour in plan view tapered toward the door emphasizes the muscular rear fender that houses the driven wheels.

“The F-TYPE exterior maintains Jaguar’s own elegance in its horizontal proportion and rounded surfaces, yet it looks very dynamic. But I would like to say the interior design is even more attractive. It is clearly driver-oriented, and a grip bar for the passenger is nicely integrated into the big centre console. The seat design is superb, too.”

The award was collected by Adrian Hallmark, Global Brand Director, Jaguar, at the New York International Auto Show. Commenting from the show, he said: “The F-TYPE is the first full-blooded Jaguar sports car to be launched for more than 50 years. Its architecture and technology are world class, wrapped in an evocative and progressive design that could only be a Jaguar ‘Callum unfiltered’, as we call it in-house. It is as dynamic yet refined as any Jaguar sports car should be, and is a unique proposition from a performance and price perspective. This combination of factors has clearly inspired this year’s

jurors, and we are delighted and honoured to collect this award.”

Commenting on the occasion, Derek Davies, Automotive Director at Al-Zayani said, “The

World markets drop on poor growth data Weekly Dimah Global Market Commentary KUWAIT: Global stock markets dropped last week on the back of bad economic figures coming out of China. China, which has the worldís second largest economy, reported Q1 GDP growth of 7.7 percent, well below the previous quarter growth of 7.9 percent and market estimates of 8 percent. This reaffirmed fears of slowing global growth and demand. The report weighed heavily on virtually all global segments of the market but none more than commodities like oil and basic materials such as metals.

In the US, the broader S&P 500 Index of the largest 500 companies dropped -2.11 percent last week. Consumer Discretionary stocks dropped the most, averaging -4.56 percent returns through Friday; Consumer Staples was the only positive sector with a return of 0.69 percent. Economic reports this week showed a mixed picture with new-home construction rising to the highest level in almost five years, while factory production figures dropped unexpectedly. As it is earnings season some notable companies have released their financial performance for Q1 2013. So far companies have been reporting EPS growth that is ahead of analystsí estimates on revenue that has come slightly short. Of the 103 companies that have reported so far, 72 percent have exceeded analystsí estimates on profits and 51 percent lagged revenue estimates.

European stocks posted their biggest weekly loss in 5 months as economic data from China, US, and Germany missed expectations and the European Central Bank said risks to the Euro areaís recovery remain. In Germany, Europeís biggest economy, investor confidence fell more than forecast. The STOXX 50 Index dropped -2.21 percent for the week, Consumer Staples and Telecommunication stocks were the top performers returning 1.35 percent and 1.29 percent respectively, while Energy and Information Technology were the lagging sectors dropping -3.99 percent and -3.74 percent respectively.

Japanese stocks joined global stocks in the sell-off with the Nikkei 225 dropping -1.25 percent for the week. Health Care and Utility stocks were the bright spots returning 1.72 percent and 1.64 percent respectively, while Energy lagged by far, retuning a negative performance of -5.33 percent. China, which is currently Japanís biggest trading partner, most undoubtedly weighed on Japanese stocks following the Q1 GDP report, fueling concerns over global growth.

Jaguar sports cars have always gained the admiration of a big number of lovers in Kuwait; and with the F-type arriving very soon, we are now ready to receive orders at Al-Zayani.”

Warba Bank promotes Al-Muzaiel as Investment Department Manager KUWAIT: Warba Bank announced yesterday the promotion of Hosam Nasser AlMuzaiel to Investment Department Manager. The new promotion reflects Hosam’s extensive professional qualifications and long experience in both banking and investment sectors.

Al-Muzaiel brings to Warba Bank over sixteen years of experience in investment and banking sectors in both local and global markets. In his new role as an Investment Department Manager, Hosam will be responsible for supervising the department and overseeing its investment operations.

Prior to joining Warba Bank, Al-Muzaiel held numerous leading positions in the investment sector in Kuwait and London, such as, managing the real estate portfolio at the Kuwait Investment Office in London for more than six years, following his role in the Finance Department at the Kuwait Investment Office for two years.

Al-Muzaiel was also the Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Kuwait Global Securities House for almost six years, where he worked on various successful key investments in the US and Europe, including his participation in establishing a bank in London.

Prior to his new role as the Investment Department Manager, Al-Muzaiel was an Investment Manager at the Investment and Treasury Group at Warba Bank, where he took part in completing several successful investments and transactions, which contributed highly towards achieving lucrative returns in a short period of time.

Commenting on his appointment Hosam Al-Muzaiel said: “Praise be to Allah, the Almighty, for the success and bless con-

ferred upon me. Although the bank is still young, it has managed to complete a broad range of successful investments locally and globally, and has already established a strong market presence. We are determined to build on this success, while developing future opportunities.”

Hosam Nasser Al-Muzaiel Warba Bank recently announced that Kuwaitization at the management level has crossed the 75 percent mark. This demonstrates the commitment of Warba Bank to utilize the leadership qualities of Kuwaitis.

Warba Bank has been able to achieve this figure despite a number of challenges. To make up for a lack of Kuwaiti recruits in some sectors, the bank has provided training to highly qualified, young Nationals enabling it to achieve Kuwaitization in departments such as Corporate, Retail and HR of 98 percent. Across its operations, Warba Bank has achieved Kuwaitization of over 60 percent, reflecting its commitment to employ local expertise and talent.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

technology

Venture investments slide in Q1 but software grows NEW YORK: A new report says funding for US startups fell in the first quarter, as venture capitalists raised less capital and spent less money on fewer deals than a year earlier. The software industry was a notable exception, where both the amount funding and the number of deals increased, according to a study set to be released Friday. The MoneyTree study was conducted by PriceWaterHouseCoopers

and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

Total startup investments fell 6 percent to $5.87 billion from $6.27 billion in the first quarter of 2012. There were 863 deals in all, down slightly from 868 a year earlier.

“The venture industry has been raising less capital than it has been investing now for several years, and ultimately this dynamic flows

through and manifests itself in lower investment levels overall,” said John Taylor, head of research for NVCA, in a statement. Capitalintense sectors, including clean technology and life sciences, continued to see declines, as they have in all of 2012. Media and entertainment, along with networking and networking equipment, saw increased funding. The software industry accounted for 40 percent of the

money invested during the quarter. A total of 329 companies in this sector received $2.33 billion in funding during the first quarter, according to the report. That’s up from 276 deals and $1.69 billion in the first quarter of 2012.

Stacey Bishop, partner at VC firm Scale Venture Partners, said she expects more dollars to flow into the software sector over time.

“Software as a service continues to do well,” she added, citing recent successful initial public offerings by Marin Software Inc. and Rally Software Development Corp.

The quarter’s top deal went to Genband Inc., a provider of networking products and services, which raked in $343.5 million.

Pinterest Inc. and Air Watch LLC both received $200 million. —AP

Facial-recognition technology to help track down criminals Humans are still better at it

Apple reveals how long Siri keeps your data SAN FRANCISCO: All of those questions, messages, and stern commands that people have been whispering to Siri are stored on Apple servers for up to two years, Wired can now report.

Yesterday, we raised concerns about some fuzzy disclosures in Siri’s privacy policy. After our story ran, Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller called to explain Apple’s policy, something privacy advocates have been asking for. This is the first time that Apple has said how long it’s keeping Siri data, but according to Nicole Ozer, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer who first brought these Siri privacy questions to our attention, there’s still more that Apple could do.

According to Apple’s Muller, the company takes steps to ensure that the data is anonymized and only collects the Siri voice clips in order to improve Siri itself. “Our customers’ privacy is very important to us,” she says. Here’s what happens. Whenever you speak into Apple’s voice activated personal digital assistant, it ships it off to Apple’s data farm for analysis. Apple generates a random numbers to represent the user and it associates the voice files with that number. This number - not your Apple user ID or email address - represents you as far as Siri’s back-end voice analysis system is concerned.

Once the voice recording is six months old, Apple “disassociates” your user number from the clip, deleting the number from the voice file. But it keeps these disassociated files for up to 18 more months for testing and product improvement purposes.

“Apple may keep anonymized Siri data for up to two years,” Muller says “If a user turns Siri off, both identifiers are deleted immediately along with any associated data.”

But Nicole Ozer says Apple should go further. She’d like to see Apple link to its Siri Privacy policy on its Siri FAQ so that consumers can figure out what’s going on before they buy an Apple product. Right now, you can only find it within the Siri Settings section of your iPad or mobile phone.

“There is no good reason for Apple to not include information about privacy practices on their Siri FAQ page,” Ozer said in an email message.

Also, even if the Siri data is not linked directly to users, people should be careful about what they say to their personal digital assistant. Transcripts “of what you say to Siri could reveal sensitive things about you, your family, or business,” she added.

“Siri works for Apple, so make a note to yourself to really think before you speak.”

Nokia rumored to launch big-screen device Some insiders have been spilling the beans about Nokia’s future hardware plans to the Financial Times, and if the report is accurate, we could see one of the first tablet/smartphone hybrid devices to run Windows Phone from the company later this year. The sources say it’s, “The most innovative” device in Nokia’s 2013 range, and will be a similar size to the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but feature a more advanced specification.

This comes just a few days after we heard about the next version of Windows Phone, currently known as GDR3, where support for 1080p screen resolutions and quad-core processors could be part of its OS enhancements. If Nokia wants to beat the Galaxy Note 2, it will need to add both these features to its challenger, and that’s before we know for sure what the inevitable Galaxy Note 3 will be packing.

There’s no indication when the Nokia phablet will go on sale, but assuming it needs the GDR3 Windows Phone update to compete, it probably won’t be until just before Christmas.

The FT report doesn’t end there though,

as it continues with news on a few Nokia phones we’ve already heard a fair amount about already. First up is that we could see a Lumia phone with a 40-megapixel PureView camera in July. A PureView Windows Phone which rivals the original, Symbian-powered PureView 808 has been discussed for sometime, with a device known as the Nokia EOS most recently linked with the technology.

Next is further confirmation Nokia is at least considering making a lighter version of its Lumia 920 flagship phone. An aluminum-bodied 920, currently known by its Catwalk codename, is also a long-standing rumor, and there’s also a chance we could see it released as the Verizon-bound Lumia 928. Finally, a Lumia 820 replacement may join the revised Lumia 920 in the fall.

While we’ve heard enough about these rumors in the past to make them sound more than just idle speculation, they still refer to unofficial products which may or may not make it to store shelves. If the EOS PureView phone is coming in July though, it may not be long until we find out if at least that one is real.

MASSACHUSETTS: It’s still unclear exactly how law enforcement officials zeroed in on the two figures in surveillance footage suspected of carrying out the deadly bomb attack at Boston Marathon-figures whom officials have identified as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two young brothers from a family of Chechen immigrants.

But it’s likely that investigators used some form of facial-recognition software as part of their effort. These technologies remain in their infancy, but law enforcement is relying on them more and more.

The FBI is rolling out an ambitious, billion-dollar biometric information system that will include iris scans, voice recognition, and facialrecognition software, developed with Lockheed Martin (LMT), IBM (IBM), Accenture (ACN), and BAE Systems (BA/), among others. Law enforcement authorities are uploading mugshots into an image database, which can then be searched against images from crime scenes, like the instantly notorious surveillance camera footage of Boston’s Boylston Street. The program will have 12 million searchable images.

The Next Generation Identification (NGI) program won’t be fully operational until next year, and although the images it uses will be mugshots, the software-think of a more powerful version of Facebook (FB) image search-could be used to match any two images. Civil liberties advocates worry it could be used to track people on the street regardless of whether they’re suspected of a crime. The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) and the NYPD have also expressed interest in more exotic technologies, including one that analyzes people’s gait for clues as to whether they’re carrying a bomb. Programmers are developing machine vision tech-

niques that can link images of the same person across different video cameras or spot behaviors that are out of the ordinary for a certain setting (e.g., leaving a bag unattended in a public place).

Current facial-recognition technology has its limits: As the FBI puts

with. It’s likely that the breakthroughs in the case were made by sharp-eyed investigators: spotting one of the suspects dropping a bag at the site of one of the two bombings in the surveillance footage, then matching the face with an image from the security camera of

sands, perhaps millions, of people following the case are all experiencing some form of the same sensation of recognition that those investigators did. People are suggestible, of course, but being able to recognize faces we’ve seen in other settings is something our brains are particularly

Facial-recognition technologies are still in their infancy, but law enforcement is relying on them more and more today. it in a staff paper posted on the website of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital privacy watchdog group: “The performance of facial matching systems is highly dependent upon the quality of images enrolled in the system.” Thus, the grainy surveillance imagery from Boylston Street might have proven particularly tough to work

the 7-Eleven in Cambridge that was allegedly robbed by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev last night. The robbery, and the match, triggered the wild, rolling shootout and manhunt that continues today.

As more and more images have made their way onto the Web-not just the surveillance footage, but photos like this and this-the thou-

good at-even when certain details are obscured or distorted. The best algorithms have yet to master that.

The ability to instantly recognize the face of an acquaintance, after all, is part of what makes us such a sociable species-it helps cement the sort of fellow feeling that makes attacks like Monday’s so horrifying, inconceivable, and-mercifully-rare.

How vibration could power our wearables NEW YORK: It’s all very well talking about the evolution of wearable computing and the Internet of Things, but something has to power these thin and/or tiny devices. For that reason, it’s a good thing so many ideas are popping up in the field of energy harvesting and storage.

Some of these ideas were on display this week at the Printed Electronics Europe 2013 event in Berlin, which featured a variety of sub-events, including the Energy Harvesting & Storage Europe show. The concepts ranged from the practical to the experimental, so let’s start with the practical.

Perpetuum’s Vibration Energy Harvester (VEH), presented (appropriately) on a model train at the conference, is a wireless sensor that attaches to rotating components, such as wheel bearings, on trains. Cleverly, the device both measures and is powered by mechanical vibration. It also measures temperature and wirelessly transmits the results to the train’s operator so they can immediately spot a failure during its early stages.

It’s a simple, low-maintenance idea (there’s no battery that needs replacing) that promises big savings, as Perpetuum Chief Executive Officer Roy Freeland told me, referring to an unnamed operator: “The user has achieved a very fast payback because the system has enabled him to delay maintenance on the bearings until the fleet was due for a major train overhaul.”

Perpetuum is part of a European Union-funded consortium called Wibrate, which aims to introduce this kind of self-powered vibrationmonitoring technology into a variety of industrial systems.

Meanwhile, a similar principle was at play in Cherry’s energy-harvesting switch. With Cherry’s new product, a light bulb, for example, can be turned on and off wirelessly by a switch that does not require any external powering: The act of pressing the switch creates enough mechanical energy to briefly power its wireless transmission capabilities. This is somewhat preferable to wiring up switches in terms of both effort and flexibility. And who knows? Perhaps the principle could be employed in certain Internet of Things scenarios, too.

Then there’s good old photovoltaic technology, which may soon find itself woven into a new generation of smart fabrics. Powerweave, another EU-funded project, aims to create two kinds of fiber-one for harvesting solar energy, and the other for storing it-that can be blended into one self-contained system. This could theoretically be used to power soft sensors in clothing, but there are far more large-scale applications in store.

According to Christian Dalsgaard, founder of consortium member Ohmatex, the goal is to create a fabric that can generate 10 watts per square

meter. Once that’s achieved, he noted, there are “no limits how big such a fabric can be made,” and a 100m2 piece of fabric would in theory be able to generate a kilowatt of power. Commercial applications could range from flexible roofing, tents, and sun awnings to a new generation of autonomous airships (hot air balloon manufacturer Lindstrand is also in the consortium). The fabric could even be a valuable part of aid packages, Dalsgaard noted: “The end fabric should be foldable, so you can

are working on that idea, too, although problems remain. As Steve Beeby of the University of Southampton said at the conference: “Textiles offer a good opportunity for energy harvesting ... but clothes are designed for [comfort], not to resist your movement.” And don’t forget, any flexible electronics built into the fabric of clothes need to be machine-washable, as well, connectors and all.

And finally, a less technically interesting but nonetheless worthwhile little gadget that was on

fold a large fabric-100m2-into a package. It’s not enough to roll it up. ... The requirement is to fold it, put it in a package, and drop it from an airplane.”

Powerweave isn’t quite there yet, though.

While a lot of progress has been made on the solar cell and storage fibers, “the challenge is to ensure the solar fibers are on top of the fabric and battery fibers are beneath, and that there is a supporting layer to provide strength,” Dalsgaard added.

But what about fabrics that can harvest energy from movement rather than light? Yep, people

display at Printed Electronics Europe 2013: the Clicc.

These dinky little solar panels can be clipped into tiny units that store the captured energy and use it to charge mobile devices-I wouldn’t expect vast amounts of charge, but it’s handy in a pinchor they can be chained together to increase the total amount of energy captured. Unfortunately the firm behind them, Sonnenrepublik, hasn’t yet come up with a unit to store and output that aggregated power, but it’s still a nice thought. In the end, all ideas that take us closer to sustainable energy use are welcome.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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

BANGALORE: Indian philanthropist, cardiac surgeon and founder of Narayana Hrudayalaya, Devi Prasad Shetty gestures during an interview at the cardiac-care hospital.-—AFP photos

BANGALORE: Carers of patients buy medicine at the pharmacy of the Narayana Hrudayalaya cardiac-care hospital.

In India, ‘no frills’ hospitals offer $800 heart surgery BANGALORE: What if hospitals were run like a mix of Wal-Mart and a low-cost airline? The result might be something like the chain of “no-frills” Narayana Hrudayalaya clinics in southern India. Using pre-fabricated buildings, stripping out air-conditioning and even training visitors to help with post-operative care, the group believes it can cut the cost of heart surgery to an astonishing 800 dollars.

“Today healthcare has got phenomenal services to offer. Almost every disease can be cured and if you can’t cure patients, you can give them meaningful life,” says company founder Devi Shetty, one of the world’s most famous heart surgeons.

“But what percentage of the people of this planet can afford it? A hundred years after the first heart surgery, less than 10 percent of the world’s population can,” he told AFP from his office in hi-tech hub Bangalore. Already famous for his “heart factory” in Bangalore, which does the highest number of cardiac operations in the world, the latest Narayana Hrudayalaya (“Temple of the Heart”) projects are ultra low-cost facilities. The first is a singlestorey hospital in Mysore, two hours drive

from Bangalore, which was built for about 400 million rupees (7.4 million dollars) in only 10 months and recently opened its doors.

Set amid palm trees and with five operating theatres for cardiac, brain and kidney procedures, Shetty boasts how it was built at a fraction of the cost of equivalents in the rich world. “Near Stanford (in the US), they are building a 200-300 bed hospital.

They are likely to spend over 600 million dollars,” he said. “There is a hospital coming up in London. They are likely to spend over a billion pounds,” added the father of four, who has a large print of mother Teresa on his wallone of his most famous patients. “Our target is to build and equip a hospital for six million dollars and build it in six months.”

The Mysore facility represents his vision for the future of healthcare in India-and a model likely to burnish India’s reputation as a centre for low-cost innovation in the developing world. Air-conditioning is restricted to operating theatres and intensive care units.

Ventilation comes from large windows on the wards. Relatives or friends visiting in-patients undergo a four-hour nursing course and are

expected to change bandages and do other simple tasks. In its architecture, Shetty rejected the generic multi-storey model, which requires costly foundations and steel reinforcements as well as lifts and complex fire safety equipment. Much of the building was pre-fabricated off site and then quickly assembled.

Roll-out plans The Mysore facility will be followed by others in the cities of Bhubaneswar and Siliguri.

Each will owe its existence to Shetty’s original success story, his pioneering cardiac hospital in Bangalore which opened in 2001. About 30 heart surgeries are performed there daily, the highest in the world, at a break-even cost of 1,800 dollars. Most patients are charged more than this, but some of the poorest are treated for free. Its success has made Shetty a wealthy man and earned him international renown.

Al-Jazeera recently broadcast a six-part series on the hospital whose wards are packed with low-income farmers and labourers. In the crammed waiting room, families from across South Asia wait for appointments with the

boss who juggles them between stints in theatre. “We saw him on T V recently and we could see his commitment to poor people and middle class people like us,” said Ranjan Bhattachar ya, a civil ser vant, who had brought his ill wife 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles) by train from northeast India.

In its dealings with suppliers, the hospital group works like a large supermarket, buying expensive items such as heart valves in bulk.

By running the operating theatres from early morning to late at night, six days a week, it is inspired by low-cost airlines which keep their planes in the air as much as possible. The British-trained surgeon sniffs at the output of Western counterparts who might do a handful of operations a week. Each of his surgeons does up to four a day on a fraction of the wages of those in the West. “Essentially we realized that as you do more numbers, your results get better and your cost goes down,” he said.

Systemic ‘collapse’ Public spending on health in India amounts to just four percent of GDP, less than

Afghanistan, according to the World Health Organization. A lack of private insurance and a public system that has “collapsed” according to the country’s rural development minister means an estimated 70 percent of healthcare spending is borne by Indians out of their own pockets. So is Shetty a sharp-witted businessman who has spotted a gap in the market or a philanthropist? “We believe that charity is not scalable. If you give anything free of cost, it is a matter of time before you run out of money, and people are not asking for anything free,” he said.

His first foreign venture is a hospital on the Cayman Islands, targeting locals who would normally travel to the US for expensive treatment, and he says he would love to expand into Africa. From 6,000 beds now in 17 clinics, he aims to expand privately-run Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospitals to a group with 30,000 beds in the next five years. “The current regulatory structures, the current policies and business strategies (for healthcare) that we have are wrong. If they were right, we should have reached 90 percent of the world’s population,” he said. —AFP

Safety rules limited for small fertilizer plants

GREECE: Mothers feed their newborns in the nursery of a maternity hospital in Athens. —AFP photos

Low-birth Greece takes a further hit from crisis ATHENS: In a nursery of a private maternity hospital in Athens, three mothers feed their newborns while another three babies nap nearby. The room has only a few cots, and yet a number lie empty. Sunk in recession for the past six years and struggling to steer its economy through painful austerity cuts, Greece now faces a fertility crisis as well. “Benefits have been cut, the cost of living has risen, wages are down and there is great uncertainty,” says Leonidas Papadopoulos, managing director of the Leto hospital and a veteran obstetrician.

“Couples think twice nowadays, not only for a second child but even for their first... It looks like there will be 10,000 fewer births next year,” he adds, citing estimates drawn from state and private studies.

According to state statistics agency Elstat, the fertility rate in Greece has fallen from 2.33 children per woman in 1975 to 1.4 in 2011. The replacement rate, the number of births at which the population remains stable, is 2.07 children.

Papadopoulos also cites a recent study by the University of Athens which found that the rate of miscarriages has doubled to four percent in the last two years. And births have gone from 118,000 in 2008 to 101,000 last year, he notes. “At this rate, Greece will be much smaller in a few years,” Papadopoulos says.

The European Union fertility leader is Ireland with 2.05 births in 2012, followed

by France with 2.01 children. In one of its projected scenarios, Elstat sees the population of Greece dropping to 9.7 million in 2050 from 11.29 million in 2012. A jobless rate of over 27 percent-and over 30 percent among women-compounds the difficulty facing couples today. “Policies to protect maternity are easier to apply in good (economic) periods,” says a high-ranking state welfare official who declined to be named. “In the private sector, mothers very frequently do not make use of their rights because unemployment is very high,” the official added.

In Greece’s more easy-going civil service, staff can take up to 14 months in fully paid maternity leave-and have been known to obtain extra time for difficult pregnancies. In the private sector, mothers can on paper claim up to 15 months of

non-consecutive maternity leave-four of them unpaid-not including holidays. In reality, however, employees rarely push to obtain full maternity leave for fear of losing their job, officials note. The Greek ombudsman’s office highlights the problem in its latest report for 2012.

“Women who are pregnant or just back from maternity leave, run higher risks of...unemployment and precarious employment,” the report said. “In many cases they accept a violation of their labor rights to avoid losing their job,” it noted, adding that having children was also likely to adversely affect a woman’s pay and career prospects within a company. “We even have extreme examples of couples who have been trying to have a child for years, undergo costly treatment and then want to have an abortion because the husband just lost his job,” Papadopoulos said.

The ‘money is so little that it cannot even cover bread and milk for the children’Paradoxically, the axe has fallen the hardest on large families. Until last year, mothers could claim a lump sum of 2,000 euros ($2,618) upon the birth of their third child, and the same amount for each child thereafter. Then there were additional child support benefits of up to 4,700 euros a year, depending on income and the number of children, which were accessible to even moderately wealthy families.

These were eliminated in 2012 and replaced with a new, means-tested system.

From January 1, families are theoretically eligible for child support benefits of up to 5,880 euros-but they would need to have six children and be on the verge of starvation to claim it. Spain is a similar example of a once-generous welfare gone for good-a 2,500-euro handout per baby was eliminated in 2011. In Germany, parents receive 184 euros per month for their first two children. For the third child, the state pays 190 euros and for additional children 215 euros. In Greece, even for couples who are not in dire straits, supporting a large family is tough. “We cannot meet the needs of our three children and our parents are having to contribute from their pensions,” says Georgia Kitsaki, an unemployed hotel worker from Thessaloniki. — AFP

TEXAS: There were no sprinklers. No firewalls. No water deluge systems.

Safety inspections were rare at the fertilizer company in West, Texas that exploded and killed at least 14 people this week. This is not unusual. Small fertilizer plants nationwide fall under the purview of several government agencies, each with a specific concern and none required to coordinate with others on what they have found. The small distributors - there are as many of 1,150 in Texas alone - are part of a regulatory system that focuses on large installations and industries, though many of the small plants contain enough agricultural chemicals to fuel a major explosion.

The plant in West had ammonium nitrate, the chemical used to build the bomb that blew up the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.

According to a document filed in 2012 with the Texas Department of State Health Services, the maximum amount of this “extremely hazardous substance” the plant had on hand at any time was 90 tons. It was also authorized to handle up to 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, a substance the Texas environmental agency considers flammable and potentially toxic.

“This type of facility is a minor source of air emissions,” Ramiro Garcia, the head of enforcement and compliance at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, told The Associated Press. “So the inspections are complaint driven. We usually look at more of the major facilities.” No federal agency determines how close a facility handling potentially dangerous substances can be to population centers, and in many states, including Texas, many of these decisions are left up to local zoning authorities. And in Texas, the state’s minimal approach to zoning puts plants just yards away from schools, houses and other popu-

lated areas, as was the case in West.

That plant received a special permit because it was less than 3,000 feet from a school. The damage from the blast destroyed an apartment complex, nursing home and houses in a four-block area. State and federal investigators have not yet determined the cause of the disaster, which occurred Wednesday night after a fire broke out at the site after work hours. The explosion that followed could be heard miles away and was so powerful it registered as a small earthquake. The West Fertilizer Co. stored, distributed and blended fertilizers for use by farmers around the Central Texas community. The plant opened in 1962 outside the rural town of 2,800, but development gradually crept closer.

Wednesday night, residents and rescue workers tried to evacuate the area as the fire consumed the plant.

Donald Adair, the plant’s owner, said in a statement Friday he was cooperating with the investigation and expressed sympathy for the victims.

He has not returned phone calls seeking comment. Over the years, the fertilizer company was fined and cited for violations by federal and state agencies. Last summer, the US Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration assessed a $10,000 fine against West Fertilizer for improperly labeling storage tanks and preparing to transfer chemicals without a security plan. The company paid $5,250 after reporting it had corrected the problems.

The US Environmental Protection Agency also cited the plant for not having an up-to-date risk management plan. That problem was also resolved, and the company submitted a new plan in 2011. That plan, however, said the company did not believe it was storing or handling any flammable substances and didn’t list fire or an explosion as a danger. David

UNITED STATES: This yesterday’s NASA handout image shows the Orbital Sciences Corporation Antares rocket at sun rise on the MidAtlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) Pad-0A at the NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. —AFP Gray, an EPA spokesman in Dallas, said the company’s plan identified a worst-case scenario as an accidental release of all 54,000 pounds of anhydrous ammonia, which at room temperature is a gas.

“This scenario is a plausible worsecase scenario as gaseous anhydrous ammonia can be lethal,” Gray said. The risk management plan also did not

cite a possible explosion of ammonium nitrate, the solid granular fertilizer stored at the site. But that would not be unusual, he said, because ammonium nitrate is not regulated under the Clean Air Act. The plant’s plan said there was no risk of fire or explosion and noted they had no sprinklers, water deluge or other safety mechanisms installed. — AP

China and Taiwan cooperate on bird flu research

TAIWAN: This handout photo taken and released by the Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on April 20, 2013 and received yesterday shows health experts in full protective gear displaying H7N9 viral specimens from China, at the National Influenza Center in Taipei. —AFP

TAIPEI: Taiwan has received specimens of the H7N9 avian flu virus from China to help research the new strain, in what an official described yesterday as a landmark move in health cooperation. The virus samples were taken from China’s eastern Anhui province and transported to Taiwan on Saturday, according to the Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “The virus could be used in producing vaccines and diagnosis,” Liu Shih-hao of CDC, told AFP. “This will help sustain health of people from the two sides ... It is a milestone in the joint prevention and treatment of epidemic by the two sides.”

Taiwan and China were split at the end of a civil war in 1949, but ties have

improved markedly since 2008 when Ma Ying-jeou of the China-friendly Kuomintang party came to power. He was re-elected in January 2012. Taiwan, separated from the Chinese mainland by a 180kilometre (111.6-mile) strait, has made a number of moves to protect itself from the outbreak, which has killed 18 and infected dozens on the mainland.

Taipei has stepped up temperature checks at airports on passenger arrivals from several Chinese cities where infections have been reported. Earlier this month Taiwanese authorities destroyed more than 100 birds smuggled from the mainland and seized by the coastguard in a fishing port in northern Taiwan. — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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GUST showcases Mass Communication students’ work SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

Palestine handicrafts exhibition

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he Palestinian Culture Center in cooperation with Bayt Lothan, invites you to its spring exhibition.

This is held under the patronage of Rami Ihsan Tahboub, Ambassador of the state of Palestine in Kuwait.

The exhibition aims to preserve Palestinian handicrafts, to reaffirm the Palestinian national identity as well as empowering refugee women in the camps.

We display classic designs intertwined with modern uses, colors, and motifs to showcase some of the creativity of the Palestinian women. Items on sale include: cushions, scarves, shawls, long traditional dresses as well as smaller items. We also have handmade ceramics from Palestine, books, music, and movies.

There will be a bake sale of traditional foods on Thursday and in the evening childrenís activities. ìDabkahî our Folkdance will be on Monday and Thursday at 6:30 Evening. Venue: Bayt Lothan, Salmiya, next to Marina Mall Dates: Monday, April 22 to Thursday, April 25, 2013 Hours: Mornings: 10:00 am 1:30 pm - Evenings: 4:30 pm - 8:30 pm.

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he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) Mass Communications Department faculty organized a showcase of student work from the its department. The aim of the event was to showcase the students’ work to see the talent and potential of the students and identify which areas need to be improved.

Antonia Jolic, Instructor in the Mass Communications Department, introduced a segment called the Entrepreneurial Challenge, where her students were required to create an idea for a new business with its proposal, name, logo and an integrated advertising campaign. Students were put into groups of 4-6 people and once they decided the name and nature of their business, they were taken through an extensive logo creation process. Once the brand was developed the students embarked on conceptualizing a creative theme for their advertising campaign and applied their

graphic design skills in its development. Jolic showcased seven of the sixteen student projects, “What’s good with our students is that they seek ways to engage one media tool with another ensuring an integrated approach.”

Carl Nestor, Instructor in the Mass Communication Department, showcased his students’ work through a website they created with him called “Oh my GUST.” Everything that he does with his students in class, from digital animation to web design, is featured on the website, including comic creation, interviews, interactive websites of their friends’ businesses. “Oh My GUST is a great tool to motivate and showcase our students’ work as it is done.” Finally, Dr Jamshid Malekpour, Assistant Professor in the Mass Communications Department, showcased the work of three of his students from his Introduction to Cinema class; three different students, with different

styles and subject matter. “It’s only the beginning of the road for these students, but there is great potential.” The MCM Department at GUST continually

encourages its students to use these classes and others as an outlet to express themselves and grow, as people and as future professionals.

Announcements

Malabar Group celebrates 20th eversary

Konkani musical show nited Friends Club - Kuwait presents Kuwait Trio’s Konkani Songit Sanz (a Konkani musical evening) with fun filled comedy and songs, starring: Gracy Rodrigues, Clemmie Pereira, Irene Vaz, Lucy Aranha, Espy Crasto, Bab. Agnel, Katty de Navelim, Salu Faleiro, Gasper Crasto, Braz de Parra, Anthony D’Silva, Agnelo Fernandes, Seby & Seby, Zeferino Mendes, Lopes Bros., Comedian Nelson, Laurente Pereira & Cajetan de Sanvordem-Michael D’Silva-Mario de Majorda (Kuwait Trio). The show will be held on Friday, 10th May 2013 at 4 pm at the Indian Community School (Senior), Salmiya, Kuwait. Music will be provided by Maestro Shahu.

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KALA-Balakalamela registeration alakalamela-2013, the art and cultural competition for Indian students in Kuwait, organized yearly by KALA-Kuwait is scheduled to be conducted on 3 May 2013 at Indian Public school, Salmiya. The completions are open for Indian students from Class 1 to 12 categorized as Sub Juniors (Class 1~4), Juniors (Class 5~8) and Seniors (912). The completions will be held for Bharathanatyam, Mohiniyattam, Folk Dance, Group Dance, Light Music, Classical Music, Fancy Dress, Elocution (English & Malayalam), Essay (English & Malayalam), Recitation (English & Malayalam) in 6 different stages in the venue.

The registrations can be done through schools or directly through KALA web site ‘www.kalaonweb.com’ or directly handed over to any of the nearest KALA-units, or to sent to our e-mail ‘kalabalakalamela@gmail.com’ on or before 20 April 2013.

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AUK holds 9th annual career fair tudents at the American University of Kuwait (AUK) will have a fantastic opportunity to meet and speak with representatives from more than 25 reputed companies in Kuwait at the 9th Annual AUK Career Fair, organized by AUK Career Services and the Wellness Center of AUK. This event, exclusively for AUK students and graduates, is sponsored by the Platinum sponsors Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) and Gulf Bank, the Gold sponsors: KIPCO Asset Management, 4Fest and 4Films Printing Group, and Ahli United Bank; and the Silver sponsors Al-Homaizi Ltd. IKEA, Hyundai Green Industries (HGI), United Real Estate Company, Al Ghanim Industries, and Commercial Bank of Kuwait (CBK). During the event, AUK students and graduates will have the opportunity to meet and speak with a variety of corporate representatives at this event, which will enable them to investigate their career paths. The event will be held on April 23rd 2013.

“Our students have great employment opportunities this year with leading companies in Kuwait. I hope this will provide them with a wide scope of prospects to develop their skills and achieve their career goals,” said Abir Itani, Career and Personal Counselor at the Career and Wellness Center at AUK.

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British Carnival and Massive Car Boot Sale

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here will be a British Carnival and Massive Car Boot Sale on Saturday 27th April 2013 (0830-1800) at the PGA Everton Academy Sports Ground (Bayan Block 7, Street 302, adjacent to Abdullah Al-Rujaib High School). This family fun day will include a football tournament (for all registered players) for all age groups, bouncy castles, cartoon characters, face painting, displays, exhibitions, stalls, games and competitions, fun races, basketball shoot out, penalty competition, giveaways, BBQ, food, drinks. Everyone is invited to come along and join in the fun! Register in advance for the Car Boot Sale vendors space - KD10.

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t was in 1993 that Malabar Group made a modest start in Kozhikode.

Right from the very inception we had been actively engaging in corporate social responsibility activities. And we believe this is what helped us to become one of the best jewelleries in India as well as in six overseas countries.

Malabar Group consists of nearly 1,600 investors, 6,000 management members, along with millions of satisfied customers. It is the success of this team that, within a short time, helped us to become a group with a turnover of 12,000 crores. Malabar Group has nearly 110 companies in India and abroad in the fields of jewellery, infrastructure as well as domestic and commercial building sectors. On this occasion of the 20th year celebrations, even as we had ensured reasonable income for investors, decent remuneration for the management members and cent per-

cent fulfillment of the promises made to customer, we are aware that there is a large chunk of people who are incapable of buying even one gram of gold. The reason why we decided to earmark 10 percent of our profits for the benefit of these people so as to incorporate them too as a part of Malabar Group.

As part of this we are aiming at programs laying more stress on areas like building houses for the homeless, environment conservation, women empowerment as also on the medical and educational sectors. We consider it a rare privilege that these programs will be officially announced by the honorable Chief Minister of Kerala. Our aim is to become one of the socially responsible and value based groups in the world within the next five years. We dream of becoming the worldís best Indian jewellery brand that makes available value added gifts articles in the form of gold,

diamond and platinum ornaments, that are presented to dear ones as a token of love and recognition. Accordingly we are planning to open in August, our 100th showroom in Kolkata. We thank from our heart all the customers, building

labourers, management team members, political social and religious leaders, those from the fields of art, culture and media and to all those who encouraged us and who keep on leading us towards this goal.

Discover great tastes of the world at Courtyard by Marriott Hotel

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uests can now explore a food escapade inspired by tastes around the world in a week within the engaging ambience at The Atrium restaurant in the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel Kuwait City. Courtyard’s world-class chefs re-create signature dishes derived from different cultures in an effort to cater to a wide range of tastes, with each night offering a new theme to intrigue the guests.

Crafted by the hotels’ international team of chefs at the international buffet restaurant located in the heart of the breathtaking eight-story high panoramic lobby of the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel Kuwait City, each

signature dish represents an unforgettable flavor from the Middle East, Europe and Asia that guests can look forward to, from Sunday to Thursday between 7 pm and 11 pm.

Guests could enjoy a truly Asian experience of traditional flavors including Nasi Goreng, Malay Coconut Rice, Mongolian Barbeque Lamb and much more of Japanese, Chinese and Indian cuisines every Sunday. On Mondays and Wednesdays, a live display of fresh fish and exquisite dishes of the sea brings about the perfect Seafood nights. A selection of authentic Arabic sweets and exciting European delicacies are also available to

ensure the night ends with a scrumptious dessert. The exciting Mediterranean experience is also celebrated with exotic platters, salads, soups, main courses served in unique Tajin bowls, live shawerma and pasta stations and many more to delight in with family and friends on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Guests can avail of Marriott’s Executive Card to obtain exclusive privileges offered at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel Kuwait City. The Card is now much sought after as it offers its members generous discounts on dining, health club and massage services, hotel stays, laundry and more for a whole year.

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

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isit the Children’s Fun & Fitness Carnival on Friday, April 26 and Saturday, April 27. There will be games and competitions for children ages 2-12 including bouncy castles, balance beam, basketball hoops, goal kicks, hula hoops, hopscotch, bowling, penalty competition, food, soft drinks, displays and exhibitions, a car boot sale and raffle draws and prizes and much more. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/TarEvents: PGA Grounds, Bayan, Blk 7, St 302/Masjid Al-Aqsa Street next to Fahaheel (the 30) Expressway.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

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Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department.

All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

(From left) Faisal Al-Farraj, Saba Al-Mutairi and Fatma Al-Attar

AIS students appeal for more rights for disabled

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ello, we are students at American International School of Kuwait and are writing to you about our project on the disabled. We want to share with you about the rights of the disabled, the challenges they face in their daily lives and how disabilities affect people’s lives.

People with disabilities deserve equal rights. They should have rights just like us. They should have the right to a proper education. Our society needs ensure that the disabled all have access to special schools, such as for the visually impaired, hearing impaired as well as quality schools for students with mental disabilities. By giving them access to a quality education, we are treating them equally. Another right disabled deserve is an equal opportunity to work. Society need to be more considerate and respectful to their abilities as employees.

They should be able to open their own business and work like everyone else.

The disabled deserve equal rights.

There are many challenges that disabled face daily. Some of the challenges include not having many accessible tools and their feelings are affected emotionally. Tools aren’t always set around the community which creates challenges.

Some of the accessible tools that should be set around the community are ramps, rails, and brail in all buildings. By providing these tools it will make life easier for them. Another challenge they face is some people in society do not respect them which causes their feelings to be affected emotionally. One thing that we noticed is that people intend to stare at them. We feel it is very rude and disrespectful to the disabled. These are some challenges they face daily.

When a person becomes disabled everyone around them gets affected.

One way family and care providers are affected is the amount of time they spend to ensure person with disability is safe and comfortable. When faced with disabilities they have to adjust their

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

lifestyle. If exercising or walking is a big part of their lives it can be difficult to adjust to their new lives. Some people go through a depression stage. Also the cost of living will increase because they will need to purchase more tools and equipment to help their daily lives. If a person has a partner, they might have to quit their job in order to take care of them.

These are some of the affects disabilities have on people.

The Government of Kuwait is helping and supporting to take care of the disabled by providing some special schools, equipment plus helping them with funding to provide medication, nursing care and hospitals. This is very positive and this help needs to be provided by governments around the world. Society needs to ensure they are treating the disabled with respect and providing them with equal rights. Thank you for your time. Yours sincerely, Fatma Al-Attar, Faisal Al-Farraj, and Saba Al-Mutairi.

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Sebamed goes Instagram

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e are glad to inform you that we launched our site on instagram.

Follow us on @sebamedkuwait and (hashtag) #sebamedkuwait.

We plan to launch a contest about the daily life with sebamed involving all family members, so follow us for more details, for the weekly contest and prizes.

New, exclusive gym brings more benefits to guests of The Regency

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oday more and more business executives see the need to incorporate health and fitness into their busy travel schedules. Recent industry reports have highlighted how hotel guests now prioritize hotels with superior fitness facilities. With this is mind The Regency is delighted to announce the opening of a new and expanded gymnasium to provide its in-house guests with more opportunities to stay healthy.

Located on the top floor of the five storey hotel this beautifully designed 200 square metre facility will feature a range of the latest equipment by Precor so whether a guest is looking to improve his or her cardio-vascular performance, burn calories or tone muscles there will be plenty of choice, not forgetting free weights for those who seek to perfect the body beautiful.

Open 24 hours a day, the facility will be segregated to allow men and women complete privacy while working out. Each section is flanked by adjoining marble wash-

rooms with luxurious amenities. The sweeping reception desk with its golden marble backdrop will form the impressive entry, pastel walls, tall mirrors and spotlights will enhance the guests’ work out experience.

General Manager, Aurelio Giraudo spoke of his pride in creating yet another high-end facility for The Regency ’s esteemed guests: “We recognize our inhouse guests require top-of-the-line exercise facilities and we are therefore delighted to provide them with a brand new and expanded gymnasium, exclusively for their use. To retain exclusivity memberships will not be extended to outside guests. This is just one a number of enhancements we shall be seeing over the next months designed to offer our guests an all-round, international five-star experience”. The Regency gym will be overseen by qualified male and female personal trainers to ensure optimum benefit and personal safety.

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

Frontliners ‘Indian Achievers’ book release, cultural show

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ndian Frontliners proudly announces “Indian Achievers” Part 17 book release Function on May 3, 2013, at 6 pm Friday at Kuwait Medical Association hall, Jabriya. Satish C Mehta, Indian ambassador to Kuwait will grace the function. The chief guests for the function are the prominent and dynamic Indian personalities Justice AR Lakshmanan - Former Supreme Court Judge and Dr R Seetharaman - CEO, Doha Bank Group, Qatar.

Justice Dr. AR. Lakshman: Justice Dr AR Lakshman, former judge of the Supreme Court of India served the Indian judiciary in various capacities for over four decades.

He serves as Judge at Madras High Court, Kerala High Court and then Chief Justice at High Courts of Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh and he retired as a Supreme Court Judge in 2007. He was appointed then as Chairman of the 18th Law Commission of India.

He is a prolific reader and writer who has authored many books in Tamil and English. He is the recipient of numerous

EMBASSY OF CYPRUS In its capacity as EU Local Presidency in the State of Kuwait, the Embassy of the Republic of Cyprus, on behalf of the Member States of the EU and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, would like to announce that as from 2nd October 2012 all Schengen States’ Consulates in Kuwait will use the Visa Information System (VIS). The VIS is a central database for the exchange of data on shortstay (up to three months) visas between Schengen States. The main objectives of the VIS are to facilitate visa application procedures and checks at external border as well as to enhance security. The VIS will contain all the Schengen visa applications lodged by an applicant over five years and the decisions taken by any Schengen State’s consulate. This will allow applicants to establish more easily the lawful use of previous visas and their bona fide status. For the purpose of the VIS, applicants will be required to provide their biometric data (fingerprints and digital photos) when applying for a Schengen visa. It is a simple and discreet procedure that only takes a few minutes. Biometric data, along with the data provided in the Schengen visa application form, will be recorded in the VIS central database. Therefore, as from 2nd October 2012, first-time applicants will have to appear in person when lodging the application, in order to provide their fingerprints. For subsequent applications within 5 years the fingerprints can be copied from the previous application file in the VIS. The Cypriot Presidency would like to assure the people of Kuwait and all its permanent citizens that the Member States and associated States participating in the Schengen cooperation, have taken all necessary technical measures to facilitate the rapid examination and the efficient processing of visa applications and to ensure a quick and discreet procedure for the implementation of the new VIS.

EMBASSY OF MEXICO The Embassy of Mexico to Kuwait has the pleasure to announce the opening of its Consular Section where visa applications are already being handled. The Consular Section is open to the public from Sundays-Thursdays 09.00-12.00 hrs. at Cliffs Complex in Salmiya, Villa No. 6 (3rd floor). nnnnnnn

EMBASSY GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, Al-Qibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday).

Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. nnnnnnn

awards including “Vijay Shree”, “Dynamic Indian of the Decade”, “Life Time Achievement”. He is a down to earth human being with a booming stature and a pleasing personality.

Dynamic and dashing Dr R Seetharaman: Dr R Seetharaman is the Group CEO of the Doha Bank, Qatar, who is a dynamic and dashing Indian taking the financial world by storm. He introduced many novel concepts in banking including kick starting driving DOHA Bank

mobile ATM vans to people. He works throughout the day with short breaks and his staff is used to his 24 hours round the clock work style, any time, any day from around the Globe.

He is an authority on the economy and finance of Qatar and world at large and his biggest achievement is building the global brand “Doha Bank”. With Qatar hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament, Doha Bank is positioned for a spectacular if not superlative growth

under double doctorate, Dr Seetharaman.

The popular cine TV artistes Nethran, Jennifer, Swetha, Dharshini and Sujeetha are performing at the National Integration Grand variety entertainment show.

Indian Frontliners fixed a breakfast meeting with these dynamic stalwarts AR Lakshman and Dr R Seetharaman on Friday, May 3 at 9:30 am “Law Makers & Law Breakers!” &”Where Goes World & Indian Economy?”. All are welcome for the interaction section.

EMBASSY OF ALBANIA The Embassy of the Republic of Albania to the State of Kuwait would like to inform that on 03.04.2013, the new Albanian Ambassador, Kujtim Morina presented credential letters to His Highness, the Amir of the State of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber AlSabah. The address of the embassy is the same: Al - Zahra, Block 8, Street 802, Villa 169, Kuwait,P.O.BOX 3090, Safat 13131. The ebassy offers consular services as well. Working hours are from 9:00 to 14:00, Sunday through Thursday.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

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

Killer Jellyfish Animal Airport Wildest Latin America Wild Appalachia Into The Pride Animal Airport Animal Airport Wildest Latin America Wildlife SOS The Really Wild Show My Cat From Hell Dogs 101: Specials Growing Up...

Wildest Latin America Animal Cops Houston Call Of The Wildman Wildlife SOS Wild Africa Rescue Wild Africa Rescue Animal Precinct Wildest Latin America Orangutan Island The Really Wild Show Dogs 101: Specials Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild Must Love Cats Monkey Life Rescue Vet Call Of The Wildman Orangutan Island Wildest Islands Ned Bruha: Skunk Whisperer My Cat From Hell Animal Cops Phoenix

00:25 Cash In The Attic 01:15 Gok’s Fashion Fix 02:05 DIY SOS 02:30 Daily Cooks Challenge 03:00 Come Dine With Me: Supersize 04:30 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 05:15 DIY SOS 05:40 Antiques Roadshow 06:30 Daily Cooks Challenge 07:00 DIY SOS 07:25 Cash In The Attic 08:20 Homes Under The Hammer 09:10 Bargain Hunt 09:55 Antiques Roadshow 10:45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:25 Come Dine With Me: Supersize 13:00 Come Dine With Me 13:50 Gok’s Fashion Fix 14:40 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 15:25 Antiques Roadshow 16:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:00 Homes Under The Hammer 17:55 The Good Cook 18:20 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 19:10 New Scandinavian Cooking 19:40 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Homes Under The Hammer 23:55 Cash In The Attic

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

Duck Dodgers Wacky Races What’s New Scooby-Doo? What’s New Scooby-Doo? The Flintstones Tom & Jerry Tales What’s New Scooby-Doo? Taz-Mania The Looney Tunes Show Tom & Jerry Tales Johnny Bravo Bananas In Pyjamas Jelly Jamm Ha Ha Hairies Bananas In Pyjamas Lazytown Krypto: The Super Dog Baby Looney Tunes Gerald McBoing Boing

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

Cartoonito Tales Lazy Town Baby Looney Tunes Krypto: The Super Dog Cartoonito Tales Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Lazy Town Jelly Jamm Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Moomins Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tiny Toon Adventures The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo Taz-Mania Tom & Jerry Tales Moomins The Garfield Show The Looney Tunes Show Tiny Toon Adventures Taz-Mania Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo Pink Panther And Pals The Looney Tunes Show Taz-Mania Puppy In My Pocket What’s New Scooby-Doo? Looney Tunes Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Tales Pink Panther And Pals Moomins

00:30 Grim Adventures Of...

01:20 Johnny Test 02:10 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 03:00 The Amazing World Of Gumball 03:25 Regular Show 03:50 Ben 10: Omniverse 04:15 Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated 04:40 Powerpuff Girls 05:05 Evil Con Carne 05:30 Cow & Chicken 06:00 Casper’s Scare School 06:30 Angelo Rules 07:00 Dreamworks Dragons: Riders Of Berk 07:25 The Amazing World Of Gumball 07:45 Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated 08:10 Evil Con Carne 08:55 Adventure Time 09:45 Regular Show 10:35 Angelo Rules 11:25 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 12:15 Hero 108 13:05 Mucha Lucha !

13:30 Angelo Rules 14:20 Evil Con Carne 15:10 Ben 10 16:00 Johnny Test 16:35 Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated 17:00 Ben 10 Omniverse 17:25 Dreamworks Dragons: Riders Of Berk

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

Superhuman Showdown Mythbusters Soul Food Family American Chopper Border Security Auction Hunters Baggage Battles How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Crash Course Crash Course Overhaulin’ 2012 Fifth Gear Border Security Auction Hunters Baggage Battles Moonshiners American Chopper Mythbusters Sons Of Guns How Do They Do It? How It’s Made Auction Hunters Baggage Battles

21:30 Gold Rush 22:25 Jungle Gold 23:20 One Car Too Far

00:05 The Tech Show 00:30 Weird Connections 01:00 Nextworld 05:15 Gadget Show - World Tour 05:40 The Tech Show 06:05 Storm Chasers 07:00 X-Machines 07:50 Things That Move 08:15 Things That Move 08:40 Gadget Show - World Tour 09:05 The Tech Show 09:30 Smash Lab 10:25 Nextworld 11:15 Robocar 12:05 Moon Machines 13:00 Things That Move 13:50 Weird Connections 14:20 Gadget Show - World Tour 14:45 The Tech Show 15:10 X-Machines 16:00 Smash Lab 16:55 Nextworld 17:45 Kings Of Construction 18:35 The World’s Strangest UFO Stories 19:30 X-Machines 20:20 Things That Move 20:45 Things That Move 21:10 Gadget Show - World Tour 21:35 The Tech Show 22:00 X-Machines 22:50 Weird Or What?

23:40 Gadget Show - World Tour

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

Stitch A Kind Of Magic Replacements Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Replacements Emperor’s New School A Kind Of Magic Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Doc McStuffins Hannah Montana A.N.T. Farm Jessie Good Luck Charlie Austin And Ally Shake It Up Suite Life On Deck Hannah Montana Wizards Of Waverly Place Jessie A.N.T. Farm Hannah Montana Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Suite Life On Deck Minnie And You Suite Life On Deck A.N.T Farm Minnie And You A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Jessie Wizards Of Waverly Place Phil Of The Future Hannah Montana Jonas Los Angeles Sonny With A Chance

06:00 Kid vs Kat 06:10 American Dragon 06:35 Iron Man Armored Adventures 07:00 Kickin It 07:25 Phineas And Ferb 08:15 Almost Naked Animals 08:40 Slugterra 09:05 Scaredy Squirrel 09:30 Ultimate Spider-Man 09:55 Zeke & Luther 10:20 Kick Buttowski 10:45 I’m In The Band 11:10 Pokemon: BW Rival Destinies

IP MAN 2 ON OSN CINEMA

11:35 Rated A For Awesome 12:00 Mr. Young 12:25 American Dragon 12:50 Kick Buttowski 13:20 Pair Of Kings 13:45 Zeke & Luther 14:10 Rekkit Rabbit 14:35 I’m In The Band 15:00 Phineas And Ferb 15:25 Almost Naked Animals 15:50 Rekkit Rabbit 16:15 Pair Of Kings 16:40 Mr. Young 17:05 Crash & Bernstein 17:30 Max Steel 18:00 Phineas And Ferb 18:25 Randy Cunningham: 9th Grade Ninja 18:50 Phineas And Ferb 19:40 Mr. Young 20:05 Pair Of Kings 20:30 Zeke & Luther 20:55 I’m In The Band 21:20 Rated A For Awesome 21:45 Rekkit Rabbit 22:10 Phineas And Ferb 22:35 Scaredy Squirrel 23:00 Programmes Start At 6:00am KSA

00:30 01:25 04:10 05:05 06:00 07:50 08:20 09:15 10:15 12:05 13:05 14:05 York 14:30 York 15:00 15:30 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00 23:00

Scouted E! Investigates THS Extreme Close-Up THS Style Star E! News Married To Jonas THS Ice Loves Coco Giuliana & Bill Kourtney & Kim Take New Kourtney & Kim Take New Style Star E!es Extreme Close-Up Fashion Police E! News THS Ice Loves Coco Chasing The Saturdays Kourtney And Kim Take Miami E!es

00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Heat Seekers 00:55 Outrageous Food 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Iron Chef America 03:25 Unique Eats 03:50 Food Crafters 04:15 United Tastes Of America 04:40 Chopped 05:30 Iron Chef America 06:10 Unwrapped 07:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 07:50 Unique Eats 08:15 Andy Bates Street Feasts 08:40 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 The Next Iron Chef 10:20 Extra Virgin 11:10 Everyday Italian 11:35 Unwrapped 12:00 Staten Island Cakes 12:50 Have Cake, Will Travel 13:15 Barefoot Contessa 14:05 Extra Virgin 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:15 Symon’s Suppers 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Tyler’s Ultimate 19:30 Chopped 21:10 Iron Chef America 22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:50 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives

00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Heat Seekers 00:55 Outrageous Food 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Iron Chef America 03:25 Unique Eats 03:50 Food Crafters 04:15 United Tastes Of America 04:40 Chopped 05:30 Iron Chef America 06:10 Unwrapped 07:00 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 07:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 07:50 Unique Eats 08:15 Andy Bates Street Feasts 08:40 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 The Next Iron Chef 10:20 Extra Virgin 10:45 Extra Virgin 11:10 Everyday Italian 11:35 Unwrapped 12:00 Staten Island Cakes 12:50 Have Cake, Will Travel 13:15 Barefoot Contessa 13:40 Barefoot Contessa 14:05 Extra Virgin 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 14:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:15 Symon’s Suppers 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Tyler’s Ultimate 19:30 Chopped 20:20 Chopped 21:10 Iron Chef America 22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:25 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:50 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:40 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives

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

The Haunted Dr G: Medical Examiner Who On Earth...

Couples Who Kill Scorned: Crimes Of Passion The Haunted Dr G: Medical Examiner Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn FBI Case Files Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Real Emergency Calls Disappeared FBI Case Files Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill Deadly Sins Who On Earth...

I Almost Got Away With It

00:00 BBC World News 01:00 Newsday 01:30 Our World 02:00 Newsday 02:30 Asia Business Report 02:45 Sport Today 03:00 Newsday 03:30 India Business Report 04:00 BBC World News 04:30 Asia Business Report 04:45 Sport Today 05:00 BBC World News 05:30 Asia Business Report 05:45 Sport Today 06:00 BBC World News 06:30 Hardtalk 07:00 BBC World News 07:30 World Business Report 07:45 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 BBC World News 11:30 Hardtalk 12:00 BBC World News 12:30 World Business Report 12:45 Sport Today 13:00 BBC World News 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 Hardtalk 18:00 Global With John Sopel 19:30 World Business Report 19:45 Sport Today 20:00 BBC World News 20:30 BBC Focus On Africa 21:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 23:30 Hardtalk

00:15 Red And White Wine Goes Green 00:45 Meet The Mongolians 01:10 Wild Wild East 01:40 Gone to save the planet, 8 02:05 Gone to save the planet, 9 02:35 Brazil 03:00 South Africa 03:30 Afghan Willie 03:55 4 Men And A Dog 04:25 On The Shores of The Caribbean 05:20 City Chase Rome, 4 06:15 Prembrokeshire 06:40 Mexico 07:10 Route 62: The Longest Wine Route In The World Cont 07:35 Red And White Wine Goes Green 08:05 Meet The Mongolians 08:30 Wild Wild East 09:00 Gone to save the planet, 8 09:25 Gone to save the planet, 9 09:55 Brazil 10:20 South Africa 10:50 Afghan Willie 11:15 4 Men And A Dog 11:45 On The Shores of The Caribbean 12:40 Russia: The Bull Of Winter 13:35 Fez,Morocco 14:00 England 14:30 The Black Diamonds 14:55 The Journey Begins Again 15:25 Secret In The Lake 15:50 Steppe Fever 16:20 Gone to save the planet, 10 16:45 To Russia With Love 17:15 Papua New Guinea 17:40 Czech Republic 18:10 Barrier Reef 18:35 Balkan Beat Box 19:05 Amazon Labyrinth 20:00 The Black Diamonds

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

Monster Croc Hunt World’s Weirdest Fish Warrior Ultimate Animal Countdown Monster Crocs Shark Men Big Cat Odyssey Fish Warrior Ultimate Animal Countdown Monster Crocs Built For The Kill World’s Weirdest Predator CSI Dangerous Encounters Planet Carnivore Ultimate Animal Countdown When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs Built For The Kill World’s Weirdest Predator CSI Planet Carnivore Ultimate Animal Countdown

FOUR BROTHERS ON OSN ACTION HD 21:00 When Crocs Ate Dinosaurs 22:00 Built For The Kill 23:00 World’s Weirdest

00:00 RoboCop 2-PG15 02:15 Ronin-18 04:30 RoboCop 3-PG15 06:15 Mission: Impossible II-PG15 08:30 Four Brothers-PG15 10:30 True Justice: Violence Of Action-PG15 14:00 Four Brothers-PG15 16:00 Deadly Hope-PG15 20:00 AVP: Alien vs Predator-PG15 21:45 Bunraku-18

01:00 Ip Man 2-PG15 03:00 Jane Eyre-PG15 05:00 Bobby Jones: Stroke Of Genius-PG 07:15 Certain Prey-PG15 09:00 Ip Man 2-PG15 11:00 Golden Christmas 3-PG15 13:00 Marley & Me: The Puppy Years-PG 15:00 Larry Crowne-PG15 17:00 Madea’s Big Happy FamilyPG15 19:00 When Love Is Not EnoughPG15 21:00 Hesher-18 23:00 The Raven-18

00:00 The Cleveland Show 03:00 Hot In Cleveland 03:30 1600 Penn 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Hope & Faith 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:30 Hope & Faith 09:00 Hot In Cleveland 09:30 Two And A Half Men 10:00 The Office 13:00 Hope & Faith 14:00 1600 Penn 14:30 The Office 15:00 Two And A Half Men 18:00 Hot In Cleveland 18:30 Malibu Country 20:00 Don’t Trust The B In Apt. 23 21:00 The Daily Show Global Edition 21:30 The Colbert Report Global Edition 22:30 Louie 23:00 Girls 23:30 Veep

19:00 Alphas 21:00 Once Upon A Time

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

Supernatural Scandal Grimm Greek Necessary Roughness Grimm Supernatural Emmerdale Coronation Street The Closer Scandal Burn Notice Necessary Roughness Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Closer Supernatural Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Closer Alphas Once Upon A Time Game Of Thrones Greek

00:15 02:00 04:15 06:30 08:15 10:30

Striking Distance RoboCop 2 Ronin RoboCop 3 Mission: Impossible II Four Brothers

12:30 True Justice: Violence Of Action 16:00 Four Brothers 18:00 Deadly Hope 22:00 AVP: Alien vs Predator 23:45 Bunraku

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

Slums Of Beverly Hills-PG15 Vampire In Brooklyn-PG15 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 Bushwhacked-PG Wayne’s World-PG15 Elf-PG Wayne’s World-PG15 3 Holiday Tails-PG15 Caddyshack-18 Slums Of Beverly Hills-PG15

00:30 Vincere-18 02:30 The Most Fun You Can Have Dying-PG15 04:15 Nixon-18 07:15 The Tree Of Life-PG15 09:30 The Conspirator-PG15 11:30 The Terminal-PG15 13:45 Swing Kids-PG15 15:45 The Conspirator-PG15 17:45 B-Girl-PG15 19:15 Oscar-PG15 21:15 Ironclad-18 23:15 Wuthering Heights-18

01:00 Wild Girl-PG15 03:00 Christmas Comes Home To Canaan-PG15 05:00 Ghost Machine-PG15 07:00 Spooky Buddies-PG 09:00 Captain America: The First Avenger-PG15 11:15 The Dragon Chronicles: Fire & Ice-PG15 13:00 Rio-FAM 14:45 Win Win-PG15 16:45 Captain America: The First Avenger-PG15 19:00 We Bought A Zoo-PG 21:15 The Grey-18 23:15 The Hangover 2-18

01:00 02:45 04:30 06:00 08:00 10:00 Rules 11:45 13:15 14:30 16:00 18:00 Rules 20:00 22:00 23:30

Freddy Frogface Everyone’s Hero Crab Island Battle For Terra Tommy & Oscar Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Barnyard Wheelers Crab Island Hop Diary Of A Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Cheaper By The Dozen Wheelers Hop

00:00 Tomorrow, When The War Began-PG15 02:00 The Avengers-PG15 04:22 A View From Here-PG15 06:00 Into The Wind-PG15 08:00 The Borrowers-PG 10:00 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 12:00 The Avengers-PG15 14:22 Brave-PG 16:02 The Borrowers-PG 18:00 Tower Heist-PG15 20:00 HappythankyoumorepleasePG15 22:00 Columbus Circle-PG15

01:00 05:30 06:30 07:00 11:00 12:00 16:00 16:30 20:00 21:00

PGA Tour Trans World Sport ICC Cricket 360 Snooker Trans World Sport Live Snooker Futbol Mundial Live Snooker Super Rugby Highlights Live Snooker

01:00 London Marathon 04:00 WWE Bottom Line 05:00 Rep Rugby League 07:00 PGA Tour 12:00 PGA European Tour 16:30 ICC Cricket 360 17:00 Trans World Sport 18:00 PGA Tour Highlights 19:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 20:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 21:00 UFC Countdown 22:00 NHL

01:00 01:30 04:00 06:30 07:00 08:00 08:30 11:30 12:00 13:00 14:00 14:30 17:00 18:00 20:00 20:30 21:00

Futbol Mundial AFL Premiership ITU World Triathlon Total Rugby Golfing World Top 14 Highlights London Marathon Futbol Mundial World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool ICC Cricket 360 ITU World Triathlon Golfing World Super Rugby Futbol Mundial ICC Cricket 360 London Marathon

01:00 UAE National Race Day Series 02:00 Triahlon UK 03:00 Adventure Challenge 04:00 US Bass Fishing 05:00 NHL 07:00 WWE Bottom Line 08:00 WWE Experience 09:00 Ping Pong World Championships 10:00 US Bass Fishing 11:00 NHL 13:00 UAE National Race Day Series 14:00 WWE NXT 15:00 WWE SmackDown 17:00 Ping Pong World Championships 18:00 US Bass Fishing 19:00 UFC Prelims 22:00 UFC

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

Banger Boys Cajun Pawn Stars Shipping Wars Storage Wars The Men Who Built America Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Cajun Pawn Stars Cajun Pawn Stars Ancient Aliens Pawn Stars Storage Wars Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Pawn Stars American Restoration Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens Shipping Wars Storage Wars Banger Boys Pawn Stars American Restoration Soviet Storm: WWII In The East Shipping Wars Storage Wars Banger Boys Pawn Stars American Restoration Soviet Storm: WWII In The East

01:30 02:45 07:00 08:55 FAM 10:35 12:10 13:55 15:30 17:00 19:30 21:05

The Golden Arrow-FAM Gone With The Wind-PG Old Acquaintance-FAM The Shop Around The CornerDay Of The Evil Gun-PG Yolanda And The Thief-U Blossoms In The Dust-PG Postman’s Knock-FAM How The West Was Won-PG Agatha-PG Ride Him, Cowboy-FAM

Classifieds MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) IT TAKES A MAN AND A WOMAN (DIG) (FILIPINO) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 KON-TIKI (DIG) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 SHARQIA-2 SKY FORCE (DIG-3D) SKY FORCE (DIG-3D) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) SHARQIA-3 OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) MUHALAB-1 DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 GET LUCKY (DIG) KON-TIKI (DIG) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 MUHALAB-2 FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) MUHALAB-3 THE HOST (DIG) SKY FORCE (DIG-3D) THE HOST (DIG) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) FANAR-1 OBLIVION (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) IT TAKES A MAN AND A WOMAN (DIG) (FILIPINO) OBLIVION (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FANAR-2 KON-TIKI (DIG) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 KON-TIKI (DIG) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 FANAR-3 GET LUCKY (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) GET LUCKY (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) MARINA-1 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 GET LUCKY (DIG)

12:45 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:30 AM 1:00 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM 1:15 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM 12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM 1:15 PM 3:15 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM 1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM 1:45 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM 1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM 12:45 PM 2:45 PM 5:15 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM 1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:15 PM

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (18/04/2013 TO 24/04/2013) KON-TIKI (DIG) THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 MARINA-2 OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) MARINA-3 SKY FORCE (DIG-3D) THE CROODS (DIG-3D) THE HOST (DIG) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) AVENUES-1 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 AVENUES-2 KON-TIKI (DIG) DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) KON-TIKI (DIG) DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) KON-TIKI (DIG) DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) AVENUES-3 THE CROODS (DIG-3D) THE CROODS (DIG-3D) THE CROODS (DIG-3D) GET LUCKY (DIG) GET LUCKY (DIG) GET LUCKY (DIG) 360ยบ- 1 THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) THE HOST (DIG) 360ยบ- 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 360ยบ- 3 THE CROODS (DIG-3D) THE CROODS (DIG-3D) OZ THE GREAT AND POWERFUL (DIG-3D) SNITCH (DIG) SNITCH (DIG) AL-KOUT.1 SKY FORCE (DIG-3D) SKY FORCE (DIG-3D) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) AL-KOUT.2 THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2

8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM 12:45 PM 3:15 PM 5:15 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM 12:15 AM 1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM 1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM 12:45 PM 3:15 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM 1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM 1:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:45 PM 9:15 PM 11:45 PM 2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:45 PM 11:00 PM 1:15 AM 2:15 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM 1:30 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 11:45 PM 1:00 PM

DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) 3:15 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 5:30 PM KON-TIKI (DIG) 7:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 10:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 12:45 AM AL-KOUT.3 OBLIVION (DIG) 2:00 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 4:30 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 7:00 PM IT TAKES A MAN AND A WOMAN (DIG) (FILIPINO) 9:30 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 12:15 AM BAIRAQ-1 THE CROODS (DIG-3D) 12:45 PM FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) 3:00 PM THE CROODS (DIG-3D) 5:15 PM G.I. JOE: RETALIATION (DIG-3D) 7:30 PM FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) 9:45 PM FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) 12:05 AM BAIRAQ-2 THE HOST (DIG) 1:00 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 3:30 PM THE HOST (DIG) 5:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 8:00 PM THE HOST (DIG) 10:15 PM THE HOST (DIG) 12:45 AM NO SUN+ TUE+WED BAIRAQ-3 OBLIVION (DIG) 1:30 PM DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) 4:00 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 6:30 PM KON-TIKI (DIG) 9:00 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 11:30 PM NO SUN+ TUE+WED PLAZA FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) 6:00 PM DEAD MAN DOWN (DIG) 8:00 PM FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) 10:30 PM LAILA THE HOST (DIG) 5:45 PM THE HOST (DIG) 8:15 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 10:45 PM AJIAL.1 GUNDE JAARI GALLANTHAYYINDE (DIG) (TELUGU) 3:30 PM GUNDE JAARI GALLANTHAYYINDE (DIG) (TELUGU) 6:30 PM GUNDE JAARI GALLANTHAYYINDE (DIG) (TELUGU) 9:30 PM AJIAL.2 EK THI DAAYAN (DIG) (HINDI) 6:15 PM EK THI DAAYAN (DIG) (HINDI) 9:15 PM AJIAL.3 AMEN (DIG) (MALAYALAM) 3:45 PM AMEN (DIG) (MALAYALAM) 6:45 PM AMEN (DIG) (MALAYALAM) 9:45 PM AJIAL.4 UDHAYAM NH4 (DIG) (TAMIL) 4:00 PM UDHAYAM NH4 (DIG) (TAMIL) 7:00 PM UDHAYAM NH4 (DIG) (TAMIL) 10:00 PM METRO-1 GUNDE JAARI GALLANTHAYYINDE (DIG) (TELUGU) 3:45 PM GUNDE JAARI GALLANTHAYYINDE (DIG) (TELUGU) 6:45 PM GUNDE JAARI GALLANTHAYYINDE (DIG) (TELUGU) 10:00 PM METRO-2 UDHAYAM NH4 (DIG) (TAMIL) 3:30 PM AMEN (DIG) (MALAYALAM) 6:30 PM UDHAYAM NH4 (DIG) (TAMIL) 9:30 PM

MATRIMONIAL American male looking for a good wife. Serious people only please! ibngrant2000@hotmail.com (C 4385) 22-4-2013 SITUATION WANTED Job wanted for Project/ Technical/ Sales Engineer with 3-1/2 year experience, have GCC driving license, familiar with Primavera & Autocad.

Contact: 60374540. (C 4384) 22-4-2013

FOR SALE

CHANGE OF NAME

Fully furnished flat for sale in Burj Behbehani building opposite to Salmiya Garden. Big hall, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, big kitchen. Swimming pool, Gym facility, underground parking and round the clock security available.

Contact: 50701181.

(C 4381) Mitsubishi Galant 2013, white color, excellent condition, 6,000km, price KD 3,100/-. Contact: 50994848.

I, Pallemeera Mutterahamath, holder of Indian Passport No: E5586374 issued at Hyderabad on 13-06-2003, change my name to Pa Pallemeera Mukthiyar.

(C 4386) 22-4-2013 I, Badham Shobha Rani of Indian Passport No. E8988357 embraced Islam, hence changed my name to Maseera Fatima.

(C 4380) 20-4-2013

Ministry of Interior

Need a job in Kuwait, having master degree in business, K. Suresh Kumar (MBA) Mobile: 00919440707761. Relative in Kuwait contact Mr. Balu: 66195135. (C 4383) 21-4-2013

website: www.moi.gov.kw

112

No: 15786

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines QTR JZR JZR THY ETH GFA AFG UAE ETD FDB MSR RBG QTR THY DHX FDB KAC BAW KAC JZR FDB KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB ETD KAC KAC GFA IRC MEA JZR MSC JZR KAC UAE MSR THY QTR FDB MPH KAC SVA KNE OMA KAC RJA KAC JZR

Arrival Flights on Monday 22/4/2013 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 416 JEDDAH 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 555 ALEXANDRIA 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 412 MANILA/BANGKOK 157 LONDON 206 ISLAMABAD 503 LUXOR 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 344 CHENNAI 352 COCHIN 213 BAHRAIN 6521 LAMERD 404 BEIRUT 165 DUBAI 403 ASSIUT 561 SOHAG 284 DHAKA 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 93 AMSTERDAM 546 ALEXANDRIA 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 645 MUSCAT 788 JEDDAH 640 AMMAN 118 NEW YORK 535 CAIRO

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

QTR ETD FDB UAE ABY GFA SVA UAL JZR JZR KAC QTR KAC KAC FDB GFA KAC MSC KAC KAC KAC JAI FDB OMA ABY MEA MSR AXB MSC ALK UAE ETD QTR GFA QTR DHX QTR FDB AIC JZR JZR UAL TAR JZR DLH PIA JAI KLM THY

134 303 71 857 127 215 510 982 177 777 542 144 786 104 63 219 618 405 674 774 742 572 61 647 129 402 618 489 401 229 859 307 136 217 146 372 146 59 975 239 185 981 327 135 636 205 574 411 772

DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI DUBAI SHARJAH BAHRAIN RIYADH WASHINGTON DC DULLES DUBAI JEDDAH CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH LONDON DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA SOHAG DUBAI RIYADH DAMMAM MUMBAI DUBAI MUSCAT SHARJAH BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA COCHIN/MANGALORE ALEXANDRIA COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI/GOA AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN TUNIS BAHRAIN FRANKFURT LAHORE/PESHAWER MUMBAI AMSTERDAM/DAMMAM ISTANBUL

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

Airlines AIC JAI UAL DLH PIA JZR THY THY ETH AFG UAE FDB RBG MSR ETD QTR QTR JZR FDB GFA THY KAC JZR BAW FDB JZR ABY KAC UAE FDB QTR ETD GFA KAC KAC IRC MEA JZR KAC MSC KAC JZR MSR THY UAE FDB QTR

Departure Flights on Monday 22/4/2013 Flt Route 982 AHMEDABAD/AHMEDABAD 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 206 PESHAWER/LAHORE 502 LUXOR 773 ISTANBUL 765 SABIHA 621 ADDIS ABABA 416 KABUL 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 70 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 545 ALEXANDRIA 164 DUBAI 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 534 CAIRO 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 302 ABU DHABI 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME/PARIS 6522 LAMERD 405 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 103 LONDON 406 SOHAG 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 767 ISTANBUL 872 DUBAI 58 DUBAI 141 DOHA

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

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

KAC MPH KNE OMA SVA KAC KAC KAC RJA JZR QTR ETD FDB ABY UAE SVA GFA JZR UAL JZR QTR FDB GFA JZR MSC JAI FDB ABY KAC OMA KAC MEA MSR DHX MSC ETD ALK UAE QTR KAC GFA DHX FDB KAC QTR KAC KAC TAR

673 93 473 646 501 617 773 741 641 238 135 304 72 128 858 511 216 184 982 266 145 64 220 134 404 571 62 120 331 648 351 403 619 171 402 308 230 860 137 301 218 373 60 205 147 411 283 328

DUBAI AL MAKTOUM/HONG KONG JEDDAH MUSCAT JEDDAH DOHA RIYADH DAMMAM AMMAN AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN ASSIUT MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT COCHIN BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD DOHA BANGKOK/MANILA DHAKA DUBAI/TUNIS

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

34

s ta rs CROSSWORD 167

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) ARIES Be on the lookout today, It’s easy for everyone to get too wound up in their feelings and you could find yourself caught up in more dramas than you ever anticipated when you woke up this morning. Diminishing returns can tire everyone out, turn hope to disappointment, and cause general confusion today, so if it looks like it’s a loss to start out with let it go! Riled-up emotions can stir up harsh words, so watch your tone and vocabulary and think before you speak. It’s easy to get into a pointless arguments today, so when in doubt, agree to disagree if at all possible. Don’t let annoying disagreements get you into an emotional upset, do your best to act like a saint and meditate on the things that make you happy.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Taking care of business will be the focus of your attention today. Money, possessions, paying bills and other economic matters are the strong focus. If you’re a little too generous with your resources, today you could prove to be even more excessively so. If you’re struggling to make ends meet you should be cautious? (there really is a light at the end of the tunnel coming soon). Romance blooms in many ways, and for you today it is likely to blossom in a very primal, lusty manner. Physical needs should be allowed to take the forefront. The more spiritual aspects of love will have there moments, but today a wild, uninhibited frolic is in order. Have fun!

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. A bachelor's degree in theology.

4. The father of your father or mother.

12. A unit of pressure.

15. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

16. (Italian cookery) Squid prepared as food.

17. A unit of length of thread or yarn.

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

20. A cephalosporin antibiotic (trade name Ultracef).

22. A former copper coin of Pakistan.

25. Small terrestrial lizard of warm regions of the Old World.

26. City in Sudan.

27. United States writer (born in Poland) who wrote in Yiddish (1880-1957).

29. Gully or streambed in North Africa and the Middle East that remains dry except during rainy season.

32. An official prosecutor for a judicial district.

34. A domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church.

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

39. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

42. Temporary military shelter.

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

45. A woman of refinement.

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

48. Being one more than ninety.

49. An Iranian language spoken in Pakistan and Iran and Afghanistan and Russia and the Persian gulf.

50. An upholstered seat for more than one person.

52. A switch made from the stems of the rattan palms.

55. Concerning those not members of the clergy.

56. A colorless explosive liquid that is volatile and poisonous and foul-smelling.

57. The cry made by sheep.

60. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 10 liters.

67. A state in northwestern North America.

69. Straightened out.

70. Sea breams.

73. A republic in northeastern Europe on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. 74. Water frozen in the solid state.

75. Physicist born in Germany who formulated the special theory of relativity and the general theory of relativity.

78. A defensive missile designed to shoot down incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles.

79. A port in southwestern Scotland.

80. A spread consisting of capers and black olives and anchovies made into a puree with olive oil.

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

DOWN 1. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.

2. German chemist who was co-discoverer with

Lise Meitner of nuclear fission (1879-1968).

3. Broken husks of the seeds of cereal grains that are separated from the flour by sifting.

4. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar.

5. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

6. Of or relating to alga.

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

8. A doctor's degree in music.

9. Indigo bush.

10. The products of human creativity.

11. English theoretical physicist who applied relativity theory to quantum mechanics and predicted the existence of antimatter and the positron (1902-1984).

12. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

13. Be teeming, be abuzz.

14. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

19. Wildly disordered.

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

23. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.

24. A genus of Ploceidae.

28. A man who serves as a sailor.

30. French writer who generalized surrealism to literature (1897-1982).

31. Coffee with the caffeine removed.

33. A resource.

35. Type genus of the Phocidae.

36. (Japanese) Rice (with raw fish) wrapped in seaweed.

37. The principles of right and wrong that are accepted by an individual or a social group.

40. An independent ruler or chieftain (especially in Africa or Arabia).

41. A clique that seeks power usually through intrigue.

44. An edge tool with a heavy bladed head mounted across a handle.

46. Small bulb or bulb-shaped growth arising from the leaf axil or in the place of flowers.

51. Lower in esteem.

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

54. An official language of the Republic of South Africa.

58. A shoe for a child or woman that has a strap around the ankle.

59. A port city in southwestern Turkey on the Gulf of Antalya.

61. Infusion of e.g. dried or fresh flowers or leaves.

62. An athlete who plays basketball.

63. Of definite shape and volume.

64. (trademark) An alloy of iron and nickel having a low coefficient of thermal expansion.

65. Tropical American trees with palmately compound leaves and showy bell-shaped flowers.

66. American Revolutionary patriot.

68. Made of or resembling lace.

71. A transuranic element that has not been found in nature.

72. The compass point midway between south and southeast.

76. A state in east central United States.

77. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

How today’s astrological influence affects you can vary enormously. You feel much older and more mature now, and you view much of your earlier life as a more carefree, perhaps childish, stage of development. As you view the past, you certainly can see things you would have done differently, which is a positive sign that experience has indeed made you wiser. Emotional intensity is very appealing to you now. Relationships can deepen and grow as well as penetrate to a very personal level. This process is sometimes initiated by you and sometimes initiated by the other person, but in either case it leads to a much deeper understanding and bond between you.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Accepting quiet support is the key to getting your way without forcing the issue. Spread the burden, share the load, and lead the way. You know you’re right, so others follow as a matter of course, simply because they agree. Even if final goals are not shared, methods are, helping all to move in step. Relationships are very satisfying and loving, and you may also wish to invite company into your home.

The role of gracious host or hostess suits you very well right now. Throw a party or just invite some friends over to watch a movie and munch on popcorn. It’s a kick back type of mood.

Leo (July 23-August 22) The itch to break away from the normal path and do something radical may have to be resisted but it shouldn’t be ignored. Perhaps it’s just what’s needed, but only if you do it with decisiveness and clarity, as you probably won’t be able to take it back. A peek into the unusual can be both entertaining and edifying. It’s a good day for agreements and generally patting each other on the back — or, maybe, for scratching each other’s backs. You can draw a lot of strength and satisfaction from your family and roots now, but if all is not well in this area, you will clearly see any difficulties or shortcomings at this time. It may be time to mend some fences or get in contact with those you were once close to.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) Taking things (and people) for granted can be an easy slip-up during this period. Longstanding friends and situations should not be allowed to become simply a backdrop, but rather reinvigorated, separating the wheat from the chaff. That also means not allowing yourself to become backstage to others who may have forgotten your importance, so it may be a good time to sort things out. Problems most likely come from individuals (yourself included) thinking more about personal ends than personal friends. It’s time to get personal again and play it like you mean it — a sure recipe for heart and hand alike.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) A cycle of nostalgia and domesticity begins now emphasizing a need for security and a sense of roots. Family, home, relatives, and real estate play a bigger part in your life. You want to belong on a private, intimate, personal level... to be needed, and to feel its okay to have needs. This is a good time to speak up and clear the air of any grievances you have been holding on to for some time. Personal subjects are the topic of discussion now and it’s time to let go of issues that have been holding you back from really achieving the peace and harmony you know you deserve and desire.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You should be preparing for some very positive changes in your life. A friend or associate will go out of their way to help you reach your goals. Be ready to take advantage of unforeseen opportunities that come your way. You are more distressed than usual over any the uneasy energy in your environment or personal relationships, and you are inclined to avoid serious discussions or real disagreements with others. Also, challenging mental work and concentration is difficult for you now. Take a break if possible and just chill out for the day.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) You could be assuming too much negativity about someone you work with or who lives close-by. Be aware that if you commit to doing more hours or to take on a larger workload, you’ll be biting off more than you can chew. Be open to giving up a bad habit. This is a time you could be more distressed than usual over any dissonance in your environment or personal relationships, and you are inclined to avoid serious discussions or real disagreements with others. Also, challenging mental work and concentration is difficult for you now. Take a step back if possible and realize tomorrow will be here soon enough.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) Your way of thinking at present can be affected by tension or radical changes in your immediate surroundings. You will change your way of thinking by freeing yourself from taboos or other unconscious beliefs that could exist deep inside you. Your ideas won’t be totally understood nor accepted by people around you, and they could provoke disagreements and changes in the way you communicate.

Change the WAY in which you say what you need to say today. Choose your words and tone carefully to avoid setbacks. There’s a good chance of great emotional harmony and support in your life now.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Exciting developments in your career make this time period a very positive one. A jolt of enthusiasm and vitality into your work picks up your spirits and gives you much to be excited about. Now is the time to seek out more creative outlets, more exciting and interesting work. Your feelings, friends, and females especially figure prominently in your life now. You realize how much you appreciate and need their love and support, and you are particularly affectionate now. You may also initiate a relationship in which you take care of, support, and admire someone you’ve been hoping to get closer to.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) What a perfect day to get that shopping spree on the go, because there are items you need to buy that could change the whole energy level of your home and personage. While you are at it, don’t delay getting in touch with people who have drifted away from your social circle. Your passions are strong and compelling at this time, and you tend to be very demanding of a lover’s energy and affection. Tensions may erupt in close relationships because one of you feels that you have been giving more, and not receiving enough in return, or one of you is more amorous than the other.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

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22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

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22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

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25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

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25388462

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25381200

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22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

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24775066

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24775992

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24311795

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24884079

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24892674

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24719048

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24710044

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23900322

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Kaizen center 25716707

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Dr. Salem soso

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

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36

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Bowen jealous of Vergara

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he ‘Modern Family’ actress is envious of her co-star’s natural grace and femininity, and admits she feels like a tomboy next to the super confident and seductive Latina star. She explained: “Sofia is just so comfortable with herself. She knows who she is and she has accepted it full. “I’ve always felt like I’ve straddled this line between being a tomboy and I guess if you dress me up just right and put on the right bra I can sort of look girly, but I always feel like I’m playing dress up.

“Sofia’s one of the first women I’ve spent a lot of time with who’s just so female and so completely at ease with herself and the power that comes with that and the money she’s made with it.” During awards season, the cast members all submit themselves for the Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories instead of Leading, and Julie confessed she was devastated when she won in 2012 and Sofia didn’t. She told Britain’s Stylist magazine: “When I won the Emmy the first year, I came over to her and was about to cry because I thought she should have it and she said, ‘Now you listen to me, you do not apologize for this, this is yours, you take it. Next year its mine, but now it’s yours.’ I love that person.”

Bieber’s forgotten family reaches out

Spears fell for David with golf game

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ritney Spears fell for her new boyfriend when he taught her how to play golf. The ‘Piece of Me’ hitmaker - who split from her fiancÈ Jason Trawick in January - is currently dating David ‘Lucky’ Lucado after being set up by her father Jamie Spears and the pair instantly clicked as he gave her a personal lesson in the putting sport. David’s friend Caroline Harrison told America’s Star magazine: “They first met when Lucky gave her a golf lesson. They totally hit it off which I’m not surprised by, everyone loves him. He got her number and asked her on a date and the rest is history. “He treats her like any other person and is really special. As corny as it sounds he really cares and is such a good person.” While Britney - who has sons Sean Preston, seven, and Jayden James, six, with her ex-husband Kevin Federline - is smitten with her new man, her father, who is co-conservator of her affairs, initially had him undergo a background check and sign a non-disclosure contract as a matter of precaution. A source said recently: “Before David started spending time with Brit, he had to undergo a background check, and sign a confidentiality agreement, all arranged

by Papa Spears. David had absolutely no problem with it, and completely understood why it was being done.”

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ustin Bieber’s poverty-stricken grandfather thinks the singer “has forgotten” his family.

George, 61, cannot work because of a painful back problem and he has revealed he and his wife Kathy - Justin’s step-grandmother - have received no support from his superstar grandson. The lack of help comes despite the ‘Beauty and the Beat’ singer’s grandparents having very limited income and living in difficult conditions - a hole in the roof caused by a falling tree goes unfixed. George said: “Justin has just got too big for his britches. He never calls us and now I sometimes think he doesn’t care ... [He] seems to be getting caught up in this lavish lifestyle and has forgotten us. “When I hear about his recent behavior I just wonder who on earth is looking after him as, believe me, this is not the loving little boy we always knew. “It’s like we now live on different planets.” As his grandparents continue to struggle, the 19-year-old pop star recently endured a difficult and controversial UK trip including a confrontation with a photographer and turning up two hours late for a show. And he is apparently able to help his maternal grandmother and her second husband, which upsets George. He told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: “For them nothing seems to be too much trouble. He buys them new houses, cars, luxury holidays - anything they want. But for us - nothing. “I would love a new house as now I cannot even make it upstairs, my back is so bad. But I guess that is not on the cards for us.” He admitted their situation is becoming “desperate” and he can’t grasp the level of wealth his grandson now enjoys. He added: “Justin might be worth £70 million but we certainly have never seen a penny of it. It does make me sad, as right now our life is pretty desperate. “It’s hard to imagine the money Justin has, as it’s about as far removed from our life as you could get.”

Minogue‘very much in love’

Butler terrified of losing mum

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ylie Minogue is “very much in love” with Andres Velencoso. The ‘All the Lovers’ hitmaker is smitten with the Spanish model - who she has been with for almost five years - and her friend Mathew Horne thinks they’d love to have a family together. Mathew who has worked with Kylie five times - said: “He would totally emasculate me due to his height and exceptional good looks. I’ve heard he’s lovely. “They are very much in love. I think she wants to [have kids]. Andres is obviously the guy for her. I don’t think it’s a secret that she would like children.” The Australian singer and the ‘Gavin & Stacey’ star first met on the set of TV special ‘The Kylie Show’ in 2007, and like to catch up over dinner whenever they’re in the same country, though it isn’t always easy.

He said: “She’s always off jet-setting, but we talk on the phone. And we got for dinner, but she has to go out in disguise and hide behind vases of flowers in bars, otherwise she gets mobbed.” The pair star together in ‘Hey Diddly Dee’, which is part of Sky Arts’ second series of Playhouse Presents original drama, and Mathew revealed he encouraged Kylie to sign up. He explained to Britain’s HELLO! magazine: “The guys at Sky actually got me to approach her because we’ve known each other a long time and she listens to me. I think she trusts my judgment about what’s worth doing.”

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erard Butler is terrified of losing his mum.

The ‘Olympus Has Fallen’ actor - who was brought up by his mother after his dad walked out when he was a child before later reuniting with him - says not knowing his father for 14 years had a big impact on his life and left him hugely dependent on his parent. He said: “It made me very dependent on my mother, in a good way, as I do have an amazing mother. “I always had this terror of losing her. I used to have nightmares about it all the time. I was often on a beach, kneeling on some board and the board wouldn’t move, and my mother would be calling me, and I couldn’t get to her.” The Scottish star admits his unsettled childhood caused him to be an attention seeker and he says he was always desperate for his mother to say she loved him more than his two older siblings. He said: “It caused me to be an attention seeker. I was the youngest and would always say to my mum, ‘Just tell me you love me more’ and she’d always say, ‘I love you all the same’ and I’d say, ‘I know you have to say that but, just admit it, you love me more.’”

Friel shops for daughter

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Tori Spelling loves outdoors

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ori Spelling has a “new appreciation” for nature. The former ‘Beverly Hills 90210’ actress feels more in touch with the great outdoors after spending the last four months of her pregnancy in and out of hospital and on bed rest before giving birth to her son Finn Davey in August and now treasures spending time with her children. Tori - who also has children, Liam, six, Stella, four, and Hattie, 19 months, with her husband Dean McDermott - said: “I was never an outdoors girl but I spent so much time in bed the past year I have a new appreciation for nature. Working out is not my specialty but walking or hiking with my kids is sacred to me. “I do physical stuff with my kids all the time. Every day I’m like, ‘What do you want to do?’ and they’ll be like, ‘Let’s play soccer’ Besides that we go on walks. We have a lake near our home so we don’t even go to a trail. “I put the babies in a double wide stroller and bring an extra for when Liam or Stella gets tired. We walk two or three miles.” The 39year-old star was excited to interact with her kids again after recovering from giving birth to Finn, especially their fun pillow fights. She added to Us Weekly magazine: “What I looked forward to after recovery was the first day I could lift Hattie out of her crib in the morning, since I barely held her the first year of her life. “It still hurts to hold her but it’s worth it. She’s such a mama’s girl now. And Liam and Stella couldn’t wait until I could have pillow fights.

I’m happy to say I can officially have pillow fights again.”

nna Friel is saving all her clothes for her daughter. The 36-year-old actress’ little girl Gracie, seven, is fascinated by all her outfits and accessories, and the ‘Look of Love’ star - who is now dating Rhys Ifans, but had her child with former partner David Thewlis - says she is the reason behind her shopping.

She said: “Gracie is getting to the point where she’ll go and look in my closet and she loves rooting through my jewellery boxes. She likes anything shiny. “I want to save all of my clothes and shoes for her.

That’s the point of it and makes it all worthwhile.” And Gracie could stand to inherit quite a collection as Anna makes shopping for vintage items a priority wherever she goes. She added to Grazia magazine: “I adore vintage. The first thing I do when I arrive in a city is Google vintage stores. “My first ever piece was an Edwardian lace dress that I still have. Rhys and I went to Bath recently and I was on this maple syrup cleanse, so I could only drink herbal tea, but there was a vintage shop so it made me feel better about being deprived.” —Bang Showbiz

37

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

LIFESTYLE F e a t u r e s

Jessica Simpson has bought Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne’s home in Hidden Hills, California. —MCT photos

Hot Property: Jessica Simpson buys Osbourne home

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n a multimillion-dollar twist on celebrity musical chairs, singer-actress Jessica Simpson has bought Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne’s estate in Hidden Hills for $11.5 million, public records show. The Cape Cod-inspired mansion, built in 2001, sits on a 2.5-acre promontory off a cul-desac in the gated community. It features a paneled study with fireplace, a home theater and studio area, six en suite bedrooms and a guest apartment with kitch-

enette. The family room of the 11,000square-foot home has sliding barn doors and a reclaimed brick fireplace.

The grounds include a swimming pool, spa and barbecue island. In addition to her work on reality TV, Simpson, 32, starred in the films “Major Movie Star” (2008), “Blonde Ambition” (2007) and “The Dukes of Hazzard” (2005). Sharon Osbourne, 60, is a co-host on “The Talk” (2010-present) and has been a judge on

“America’s Got Talent” and “The X Factor.”

She also is the manager of Ozzy Osbourne, 64, who made his mark as the lead singer of Black Sabbath. The pioneering heavy metal group continues to tour.

The couple paid nearly $12.4 million for the estate in 2007, public records show. Jonah Wilson of Hilton & Hyland and Tomer Fridman of Ewing & Associates Sotheby’s were the listing agents. Jory Burton of Sotheby’s Beverly Hills office represented Simpson.

‘Supernatural’ star bags a buyer “Supernatural” star Jensen Ackles has sold his house in Brentwood for $3 million. The Mediterranean home, built in 1947 and recently renovated, sits on a walled site of about a third of an acre. The 3,554 square feet of living space features high ceilings, a loft library, three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The 900square-foot guesthouse has a gated entrance. Outdoor amenities include a swimming pool with spa, a kitchen, a lawn and fruit trees.

Ackles, 35, has been on “Supernatural” since it started in 2005. He starred in the horror film “My Bloody Valentine” (2009) and appeared on “Days of Our Lives” from 1997 to 2000. Public records show the actor bought the property in 2009 for $2.435 million. Chris Carlson and Sandy Carlson of Keller Williams’ Studio City office were the listing agents.

Moguls makes deal in Malibu Producer Jerry Weintraub has sold his longtime Malibu compound, and the paper trail leads to apparel mogul Serge Azria as the buyer. Ownership of the 7acre spread transferred early this year, but public records do not include a sales

price. The beachfront/bluff-top compound had been listed at $42.5 million to $75 million over a span of six years.

Beyond its panoramic ocean views, the lot boasts a road down to the beach should the new owner want to use a golf cart rather than walk. But that’s just for starters. There’s the main house, two guesthouses, a guardhouse, video security, two barns/stables, a riding ring, a gym, a swimming pool and a tennis court. The 11,810 square feet of living space includes seven bedrooms and 11 bathrooms. Weintraub, 75, produced such hits as the “Karate Kid” and “Ocean’s” movies.

Azria, 64, owns the Joie, Equipment and Current/Elliott fashion lines, among others, serving in such roles as chief executive and creative director. Christopher Cortazzo of Coldwell Banker’s Malibu West office was Weintraub’s listing agent.

Manse was on tv doc’s rounds If you haven’t swooned over Dr Joe Gannon of “Medical Center” then you haven’t lived ... through the early 1970s, that is. The estate of actor Chad Everett, whose name became synonymous with the dashing doctor, and his actress wife, Shelby Grant, has come on the market in Westlake Village at $3.795 million.

The custom-built Mediterranean sits amid redwoods on a cul-de-sac surrounded by a golf course. The single-story estate features 1.78 acres of park-like grounds, a long circular driveway, a swimming pool and a four-car garage. The 7,161-squarefoot house’s amenities include an oversized foyer, floor-to-ceiling windows, a bar, a den, two kitchen islands, a breakfast room and a porch. There are five bedrooms and six bathrooms.

Everett, who died last year at 75, starred in “Medical Center” from 1969 to 1976 and continued to work in film and television throughout his life. His recent credits include the series “Chemistry” (2011) and “Castle” (2012). Grant died in 2011 at 74. She appeared in “Medical Center” as well as the films “Our Man Flint” (1966) and “Fantastic Voyage” (1966). The couple bought the property in 1993 for $1.94 million, public records show. Stacy

ment, and he used his as a getaway, according to “Mr S: My Life With Frank Sinatra,” written by George Jacobs, his valet at the time.

The three units in the gated compound share a courtyard and patio space. The main unit features floor-toceiling glass doors in the living room, high ceilings, five fireplaces and two bedrooms. The above-garage studio has a fireplace, a kitchenette and terrace

Richardson of Dilbeck Real Estate is the listing agent.

The tenants have been stellar Beverly Coburn, actor James Coburn’s first wife, has sold a West Hollywood triplex with a history of stellar tenants for $3.72 million. The building has counted film star Marilyn Monroe and singer Frank Sinatra among its residents.

Monroe’s and Sinatra’s tenancies overlapped in 1961. She lived in her apart-

space. A one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit with an office includes an atrium garden. There are a total of four bedrooms and six bathrooms in 5,637 square feet of living space. Beverly Coburn bought the building in 1989 for $1.643 million. Steven Levine and Jennifer N. Levine of Hilton & Hyland were the listing agents. Rayni Romito and Branden Williams of the same office represented the buyer. —MCT

ICONIC introduces its Spring Summer ‘13 collection

S

hrug of those winter blues and bask in the fervent features of Spring Summer as fashion and lifestyle destination ICONIC launches its season collection which takes you on a global expedition featuring key trends like pastels, floral and nautical among others. With Retro being influenced by the 60’s, the collection sees the use of vibrant colours of vermillion orange and sunshine yellow mixed with bold geometric and floral prints.

Taking the form of A-line dress or a full circle skirt key pieces also include embellished jackets and blouses. Embrace the return of polka dots and pastels like mint green, pink dogwood and pale banana.

Add some sizzle to your wardrobe with kimono jackets, lamp shade skirts, bell sleeve dresses and box pleat shorts in either moss crepe or cotton.

Fluid and relaxed shapes of shift dresses and soft tailored blazers come in handy for a last minute luncheon with the girls and can be overlayed with florals and organza’s which provide a unique concept to any outfit. Spring sends a

clear message as see-through clutches and bags make a comeback along with fringe detailed clutches. And don’t forget this season’s biggest trend of colour blocking, black and white acces-

sories, every fashionista must-have! Bright ceramics also make a statement through necklaces and earrings while pearls and milky stone hint at a very feminine story in pastel palettes.

From platforms to wedges, kitten heels to stilettos, ICONIC’S footwear this season sees a

collection of oriental silk printed wedges, crystal embellishments, glitter and 50’s inspired patent court shoes in pastels. So what are the stylish men sporting this season! With the authentic sailor look of heritage nautical the trend can be taken a notch higher with the addition of bright colours such as vibrant blue and alert orange. If you’re aiming for a laidback resort look, the perfect ensemble includes chino shorts or pants with a rope belt, stripe tee and a relaxed blazer.

Get the kids inspired with ICONIC this season as little girls get to experience a princess fairytale with baby pink inspired tweed jackets and tutu skirts, followed by the lollipop colours, mint candy and summer floral trends guaranteed to brighten any kids wardrobe. Naughty nautical sets the mood for boys with baby blues and stripes lending a contemporary sailor boy look.

Head over to ICONIC and shop the latest SpringSummer collection available at The Avenues, The Mall, Level 1. Sport ‘Fashion Different’ and be fashion savvy in your own special way.

Trainers Steve Martin, left, and Chris Edrington coax grey wolf Shadow to perform a scene in front of a green screen at Hollywood Center Studios in Hollywood, California. —MCT

Stock footage provider Green Screen touts its animal instincts

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he star trotted toward a small pad in the middle of the 80-foot stage and stopped on his mark. “Look at the camera!” veteran animal trainer Steve Martin commanded.

Like a true pro, Shadow, a gray wolf who has made appearances on HBO’s “True Blood” series, turned his head and fixed his piercing yellow eyes at the camera operator. “Good boy,” another trainer said, tossing him a morsel of meat. The shot was among several animal scenes filmed on the giant green-screen stage at Hollywood Center Studios last week, where a leopard, a lion, a monkey, an elephant and even two grizzly bears performed simple tasks on the empty stage as a film crew captured their movements, snarls, roars and grunts.

The entire GreenScreen Animals production cost nearly $100,000. The Santa Monica company specializes in selling hard-to-get stock footage of animals against the backdrop of green screens that can represent any background desired-a forest, a mountain, a parking lot or a school crosswalk. “The vampire genre is huge right now, so that’s why we’re shooting wolves,” Mark Shockley, co-owner of GreenScreen Animals, said in a break between filming last week.

His company has created a library of some 3,000 animal clips for television shows, commercials, movie trailers, talk shows and video games. GreenScreen Animals retains the rights

to the clips, which it sells for between $500 and $4,000 each, depending on the type of production. Although the growing use of digital effects has reduced demand for animals on sets, many producers around the world who can’t afford to film animal scenes or hire a visual effects firm to create one on a computer use GreenScreen Animals’ stock footage to digitally insert an animal into a commercial, a sitcom or a movie trailer.

The privately owned company does not disclose its financials but said sales have jumped nearly 300 percent over the last five years. “Animals never go out of fashion,” Shockley says. “Our footage is only going to grow in value.” Green Screen Animals’ diverse clients have included “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno, an A&E nature documentary, the Disney Channel shows “Austin & Ally” and “Good Luck Charlie,” the interactive book series JibJab.com, and various movie trailers, including one for 20th Century Fox’s “We Bought a Zoo.” Commercials also are a big source of business for GreenScreen. Last year the business filmed a commercial for Sprint that featured a cat driving a car. The cat was actually filmed while perched on an apple cart and pawing a steering wheel prop. Another spot for Free Credit Report.com showed a monkey popping out of a shopping bag. —MCT

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

lifestyle F E A T U R E S

Sandy Point on the island of St Croix in the US Virgin Islands is the main nesting beach in the northern Caribbean for leatherneck sea turtles. It offers two continuous miles of white sand, deep-water access and no reefs.— MCT photos

St isCroix beach refuge for sea turtles

By Bob Downing

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andy Point is one of the prettiest beaches in the Caribbean. It is also home to endangered sea turtles that come ashore from March to June to lay eggs in the powdery white sand on the island’s southwest corner. In fact, the refuge has been called a maternity ward for sea turtles. It was a recent stop on a 12-mile bicycle tour of western St Croix, a tropical American territory with Danish roots and hundreds of historic old sugar cane plantations.

The Sandy Point National Wildlife Refuge is the principal nesting beach for leatherback turtles in the northern Caribbean. It is also one of the most-studied turtle populations in the world. The refuge also gets hawksbill turtles, another endangered species, plus the green turtle, a threatened species. Loggerhead turtles are sometime visitors.

The preserve, established in 1984, covers 383 acres. It offers two miles of continuous sand (the longest beach in the Virgin Islands), deep water access and no nearby offshore reefs. It is ideal for sea turtles. The refuge is closed during peak turtle-breeding season from late April to August. It is open 10 am to 4 pm weekends and on cruise ship-docking days the rest of the year. It gets about 11,000 visitors a year.

Typically, between 18 and 55 female turtles will come ashore at Sandy Point to lay eggs in a given year. Since 1981, 342 leatherback turtles have been tagged with microchips by refuge staffers and partnering conservation groups and volunteers. That includes AAG322, who was tagged in 1981 and is still a regular visitor.

The female turtles return every two to three years from the North Atlantic to the beach where they were hatched to lay eggs.

The leatherback is the largest sea turtle, 4 to 8 feet long and weighing 500 to 2,000 pounds.

It is also the deepest diving, most migratory and widest-ranging sea turtle on the globe.

Each female can produce 8 to 11 clutches of eggs per season. Each clutch contains 50 to 80 eggs that are the size of billiard balls. The eggs are buried in sand and will hatch in about 60 days. The hatchlings are 2 inches long.

Adult males never leave the water and wait

offshore near nesting sites to copulate randomly with females. In 2009, a record year, 202 females produced more than 1,100 nests in the refuge with at least 37,000 hatchling turtles.

That is a big jump from the early 1980s when perhaps 2,000 hatchlings emerged at Sandy Point.

The biggest threats have been poaching and sand erosion that exposes the unhatched eggs. Today the beach is protected, and nests threatened by erosion are relocated by a US Fish and Wildlife Service overnight beach patrol from April through mid-July. About onethird of turtle nests get relocated.

Typically, each nest will produce 60 to 70 hatchlings, after 60 days in the sand. They instinctively leave the nest at night and head for the lightest horizon to find the water line, and then swim in a frenzy to the open sea.

They can become disoriented by bright lights ashore. The refuge volunteers do what they can to assist the hatchlings getting to the ocean. There are also nocturnal turtle watches that are open to the public.

The Sandy Point beach has even had its Hollywood moment. In the film “ The Shawshank Redemption,” Red (Morgan Freeman) walks along a Mexican beach. The scene was actually shot at Sandy Point. Much of the film, which also starred Tim Robbins, was shot in and around Mansfield, Ohio. Another stop on the bike tour, run by Freedom City Cycles, was the ruins of Estate Butler Bay, a sugar cane plantation, on the island’s northwest coast. It’s not far from pretty beaches and had a tree filled with iguanas sunning themselves.

The one-time plantation is off the Northwest Coastal Road (Route 63) and about 2 miles north of sleepy Frederiksted with its 3,700 residents on the island’s northwest coast.

The stone ruins of the old factory date to 1787.

The stonework is flanked by giant baobab trees that came from Africa with slaves that worked the sugar cane. Above Estate Butler Bay on the hillside are the stone remains of an old windmill that once powered a second plantation.

Butler Bay is one of 15 stops along the 72mile St Croix Heritage Trail. The site is managed by the St Croix Landmarks Society, a grassroots group, and public access is limited. Estate

St Patrickís Catholic Church in Frederiksted on St Croix is made of cut limestone with a mortar made of conch and molasses.

Butler Bay was also reportedly the home of General Buddhoe, the leader of the 1848 slave uprising on St Croix. Buddhoe, whose given name was Moses Gottlieb, was not a slave but a free black man working at the estate.

An 1847 reform from Denmark’s King Christian VIII ordered that slave babies born after July 28, 1847, would be free, but slavery would not be abolished for 12 years. The slaves on St Croix were angry. Meetings were held and Buddhoe was a key figure. On July 3, 1848, about 8,000 slaves marched on Frederiksted demanding their freedom. They destroyed several estates. The governor, Peter von Scholten, decreed the immediate emancipation of all slaves in the Danish West Indies. Buddhoe was deported and told he would be executed if he ever returned.

The bike tour also passed Fort Frederik in Frederiksted (the structure dates to 1760) and a Catholic church, St Patrick’s. It is made of cut limestone with a mortar made of conch and molasses.

St Croix was one of the richest sugar islands in the West Indies from 1760 to 1820 when production was high and sugar prices were stable. In 1803, St Croix’s population was 30,000, of whom 26,500 were slaves who plant-

Islands. St Thomas and St John are the other two islands, 40 miles to the northeast. St Croix covers 84 square miles and has about 52,000 residents. The western part of the island is a rain forest; the eastern end is rocky and arid.

The island is celebrated for its laid-back attitude and its funky beach bars. It’s hard not to like a place where the average high temperature is 82 degrees and the water temperature is 80 degrees. Its western shore is known for sterling sunsets. There are more than 50 dive sites.

It is also a rum-making island. In 1493, Christopher Columbus landed at Salt River on the north-central coast. He was greeted with spears and arrows from the native Caribs. It is now a historic site.

Colorful Christiansted on the north coast is one of the largest cities. It features a historic district with more than 100 buildings that date to the 18th and 19th centuries, one of the bestpreserved towns in the Caribbean. At its center is Fort Christiansvaern. It was completed by the

Fort Frederik dates to 1760 and was built by the Danish in Frederiksted on the west coast of St Croix, now part of the US Virgin Islands. ed, harvested and processed sugar cane on Danes in 1749 to protect the island from nearly 220 plantations. Most were 75 to 750 pirates, privateers, invaders and slave uprisacres. The ruins of about 50 plantations remain, ings. English is the language, the dollar is the although public access is limited. St Croix is the currency but Crucians drive on the left, not the largest and least developed of the US Virgin right. —MCT

Europe cheese firms hope time is ripe for China

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hina has already become Bordeaux’s largest export client after a recent wine boom-now European cheese producers are hoping Chinese consumers will indulge in a slice of fromage with their glass of red.

Leading cheese makers from Europe gathered in Hong Kong from Thursday for the city ’s International Cheese Festival, with 120 high-quality products on show and master classes from experts, including how to match cheese and wine. While dairy is not a traditional feature of Chinese cuisine, leading French producer Philippe Marchand said cheese is not just the preserve of the West.

“Historically you have to know that cheese has always existed since antiquity,” he told AFP. “We even find traces of cheese in China. It’s not a purely French, Dutch or Italian product. Cheese is a universal delicacy.” Inspired by Japan, which already receives imports of his cheese, Marchand has created a fresh goat cheese combined with the heat of wasabi-the fiery flavored condiment often used in sushi. The festival at the luxury Hullett House Hotel also saw prospective cheese converts sampling the likes of Sardinian Pecorino, Remeker Puur from the Netherlands and

Visitors taste different types of cheese during a festival in Hong Kong yesterday. —AFP photos Barwheys cheddar from Scotland.

In its third year, the event is growing in popularity with 10,000 visitors expected over the four-day festival, which ends today. Tricia Bey, founder of Barwheys Dairy, said the attending foodies were open to new flavors. “We found the Asian people very open and very interested in all kinds of cheeses,” she said. “So in some sense, it’s maybe a more open market for us. Perhaps in

Europe where we come from, people are more tied in their own traditions, and therefore a bit more certain about the cheeses that they like.” For Hong Kong lawyer Tina Li, who attended the show, it has taken a while to come round to the flavors of fromage, but now she is a fan.

“It took me quite a few years to actually warm up to this particular food item, because I never grew up eating it.

But I tried it in Canada and I’ve had a lot of it when I was living abroad. So now I love it.” Hong Kong insurance worker Kenny Chen said eating cheese is a nostalgia trip for him. “It always brings me good memories. I’ve been to a cheese farm in the Netherlands, Amsterdam.

And I loved the environment of making cheese, I loved the people telling stories about cheese, from the goat or the cow.”

European producers are hoping to repli-

cate China’s conversion to wine in the past 10 years to become one of the largest consumers and importers in the world.

In 2012 China (including Hong Kong) was the third-largest consumer of French wine, behind the United States and Britain. Analysts have predicted that China will become the world’s largest wine-consuming nation within 20 years, overtaking the US. — AFP

MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

lifestyle F E A T U R E S

‘Charlie Brown’

to become animated 3D movie from Fox

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harlie Brown, the beloved comic-book character, will be coming to the big screen in a 3D animated version in 2015, 20th Century Fox announced at the CinemaCon movie convention in Las Vegas on Thursday. The rights to the iconic comic book character have long been unavailable. Charles Schulz, who died in 2000, had always been reluctant to grant movie rights to his characters, and his family has zealously guarded his copyright.

“This will forever change the face of animation,” Fox Chairman Jim Gianopulos quipped to the crowd of a few thousand exhibitors, as he unveiled a huge 3D image of Charlie Brown’s familiar face - the first image of the film that’s being created by Blue Sky Studios, Fox’s animation partner. “Prepare to have your minds blown.” For more than four decades Charlie Brown and his friends in the Peanuts cartoon were among the most popular and beloved comic strips in American daily newspapers.

Steve Martino (“Ice Age: Continental Drift”) will direct, according to a studio spokesman, who also said it was a two-year process to convince the Schulz family to give Fox and Blue Sky the rights. The “Peanuts” film will be released in 2015. — Reuters

Ferrell, Black play Tag

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ill Ferrell and Jack Black are attached to star in “ Tag Brothers,” a pitch based on a recent Wall Street Journal article that was just snapped up in a major bidding war by New Line Cinema.

The comedy duo shared a single (albeit memorable) scene together in “Anchorman,” but this project would represent their first substantial pairing should the script come together. Back in February, Todd Garner ’s Broken Road banner acquired life rights to the “ Tag Brothers,” a group of former classmates from Spokane, Washington whose long-running game of Tag garnered national attention following a feature story in the Wall Street Journal.

Now in their 40s, the group spends the month of February chasing each other across the country to avoid being “It,” all while balancing their personal and professional obligations. The shenanigans are pretty serious, with friends breaking into each other’s homes and offices to score that crucial physical contact.

Ferrell and Black’s future involvement is contingent on the screenplay, which will be written by Mark Steilen, who previously directed “Wieners” and “The Settlement.”

Garner will produce with Steilen, though Ferrell’s Gary Sanchez banner and Black’s Electric Dynamite banner may become involved in producing or executive producing capacities should they approve of the script, which will feature two other male leads, making the project a four-hander (no pun intended). Steilen previously wrote the family comedy “ Time Share” for Sony and Will Smith’s company Overbrook Entertainment, as well as the rock ‘n roll movie “Born to Rock,” which is in active development at Paramount.

Black is coming off some of the best reviews of his career for his eccentric performance in Richard Linklater’s “Bernie,” while Ferrell is currently filming the highly-anticipated sequel to “Anchorman,” which Paramount will release on Dec. 20.

Ferrell is repped by CAA and Mosaic, which also reps Steilen along with ICM Partners. Black is repped by WME. — Reuters

St Croix beach is refuge for sea turtles

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MONDAY, APRIL 22, 2013

Reem Acra 2014 Bridal Spring/Summer collection

Models walk the runway during the Reem Acra 2014 Bridal Spring/Summer collection show on April 20, 2013 in New York City. — AFP photos

11 things you shouldn’t do on your big day Y

our wedding day is the single, most important day of your life.

You’ve waited for it ever since you were a little girl, you’ve dreamt about it the moment you got engaged, and you’ve probably been planning it for at least a couple of months now. With all the stress, endless to-do lists, and apartment decorating, the bride always feels tired and consumed.

If you’re planning on looking and feeling your best on that day, we recommend you follow these tips:

1. Do not watch TV. Coming across a news channel the day before or on the day of the wedding can KILL your mood. Whether it’s a volcano erupting somewhere or a massive car pile-

up on the highway, you won’t be able to help feeling down all day long.

2. Do not cry. The day before the wedding, lying in your childhood bed one last time can of course bring you into tears therefore leaving you with puffy eyes the next morning.

Whenever possible, please control your tears and sobbing to avoid puffiness.

3. Do not try new food. Eating at a new restaurant down the road, trying fish for the first time (and discovering you had an allergy all along), or out for Sushi with friends, are all big NoNo’s. A day before your wedding is not the time to go out and explore the world’s offerings.

4. Do not worry. Whatever it is that’ll stress you out, just don’t do it. If it’s something that needs to be done, have a sister or one of your bridesmaids do it. We don’t want you to show up at the wedding with half your hair pulled out.

5. Do not check the weather forecast.

Why you ask? See point 4!

6. Do not have a cat fight one week before the wedding. Women have a great memory and are sometimes very vengeful humans. A cat fight that lasts more than a week will probably affect your overall mood that day. Stay away from people that’re known to give you high blood pressure by just talking to them.

7. Do not assume your corset will han-

dle it. Many brides consciously put on weight, assuming that their corset will magically put everything in place. Well, they got that wrong.

Avoid foods that’ll bloat you like broccoli, cauliflower, beans, and corn. Anything that makes you gassy should be avoided 3 days prior to your wedding.

8. Do not TRY. Trying a new facial, hair removal technique, spray tan, teeth whitening, or even a new makeup artist on your wedding day, is something you do NOT want to do. All of these things can be tried out in trial sessions a month before the event so don’t risk it and book your trial session to be safe.

9. Do not be responsible for anything

that day. As a bride all you have to worry about is your hair, makeup, and beauty sleep. Bridesmaids and immediate family members are there to help so don’t be afraid to ask.

10. Do not drift far off schedule. Being even 30 minutes late will throw off your whole evening, leaving you with a shorter wedding party. Stick to schedule and make sure everyone else does by having your bridesmaids sending out texts or calls to notify people when the wedding will start.

11. Do not forget to have fun. Just be yourself, have fun, relax, and enjoy that wonderful day because when you look back at the pictures (don’t forget to take LOTS), you’ll want it back!