6 May 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

Four dead as B’desh Islamists protest for blasphemy law

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India cements position as pharmacy of the world

Malaysian regime retains 56-year hold on power

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Ten-man Juventus secure 29th Italian title

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Tensions spiking after Israel hits Syria again Raids target Iranian missiles bound for Hezbollah

KUWAIT: Lightning strikes the sky over Salmiya during a thunderstorm early yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Grads preferred to grandmas in US immigration bill WASHINGTON: US immigration authorities would give preference to better-educated and trained visaseekers who can contribute to the American economy under a less-noticed provision of the immigration bill in the US Congress. The bi-partisan bill in the US Senate would rewrite the half-century-old standards that control legal immigration to favor skills over family ties. The winners of this proposed “meritbased” system, experts say, would be primarily from Asia, particularly from India, China and the Philippines, whose citizens are more likely to have attended college or have on-the-job training in skilled occupations such as engineering and technology. The losers are likely to be Mexicans and Central Americans.

The new system, long advocated by economists and politicians who believe the main purpose of immigration laws should be to serve economic growth, would replace one geared mainly to reuniting families. As an example, an engineering graduate from India would have a better chance of immigrating to the United States than the grandmother Continued on Page 13

Max 34º Min 19º High Tide 09:27 & 21:59 Low Tide 03:05 & 15:46

BEIRUT: Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus yesterday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon’s Hezbollah. As Syria’s two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially atomic arena of Iran’s confrontation with Israel and the West over its nuclear program, people were woken in the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into the night sky. “Night turned into day,” one man told Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the targets, the Jamraya military base.

But for all the angry rhetoric in response from Tehran and from the government of Syrian President Bashar AlAssad, it was unclear whether the second such raid in 48 hours would elicit any greater reaction than an Israeli attack in the same area in January, which was followed by little evident change. The Syrian government accused Israel of effectively helping Al-Qaeda Islamist “terrorists” and said the strikes “open the door to all possibilities”; but Israeli officials said that, as in January, they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with a well-armed neighbour while facing defeat at home.

Denying it was weighing in on the rebel side on behalf of Washington - which opposes Assad but is hesitating to intervene - officials said Israel was pursuing its own conflict, not with Syria but with Iran, and was acting to prevent Iran’s Hezbollah allies receiving missiles that might strike Tel Aviv if Israel made good on threats to attack Tehran’s nuclear program. What Israel was not doing, they stressed, was getting drawn into a debate that has raged in the United States lately of whether the alleged use of poison gas by Assad’s forces should prompt the West finally to give military backing to oust him.

Israel was not taking sides in a civil war that has pitted Assad’s government, a dour but mostly toothless adversary for nearly 40 years, against Sunni rebels, some of them Islamist radicals, who might one day turn Syria’s armoury against the Jewish state. It is a mark of how two years of killing in which at least 70,000 Syrians have died has not only inflamed a wider, regional Continued on Page 13

Oppn plans protests until verdict Panel approves early retirement for women

By B Izzak KUWAIT: The opposition held a meeting Saturday night and decided to stage a number of activities including a public rally on the Gulf Road, former opposition MP Khaled Al-Sultan said after the meeting. Sultan described the meeting as the most important for the opposition which prepared a program of protests until June 16 when the constitutional court is scheduled to issue its verdict regarding the single-vote law which was ordered by HH the Amir late last year and triggered one of the most bitter political crisis in Kuwait.

The former lawmaker described the court ruling as “the most decisive event” in Kuwait’s constitutional history, adding that if the court rules in favour of the amendment, it means the death of the constitution. Ahead of the Dec 1 general

election, the government under instructions of the Amir amended the electoral constituency law by reducing the number of votes a Kuwaiti voter can cast from four to one. The opposition has claimed that the amendment allowed the government to elect a rubberstamp Assembly.

Separately, the National Assembly’s financial and economic affairs committee yesterday approved a proposal to allow female Kuwaiti government employees to go on retirement only after 15 years of service without any age restrictions. At present, Kuwaiti women can seek retirement with full benefits after they complete at least 15 years in service provided they reach 40 years of age. The government had in the past rejected similar proposals because of the financial cost as the measure overburdens the country’s pension system which is facing a huge deficit.

The proposal is expected to be rejected

Bomb hits Qatari convoy in Somalia

MOGADISHU: A victim of a suicide attack is on a stretcher yesterday after a suicide attacker rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy at a busy junction yesterday. — AFP

MOGADISHU: Around 11 people were killed in Somalia’s capital yesterday when a suicide attacker from the Al-Qaeda linked Shabab insurgents rammed a car laden with explosives into a convoy carrying officials from Qatar, police said. “Several people have been killed, the blast was big ... the number of those killed is around 11,” police official Mohamed Adan said. Four government officials visiting from Qatar were travelling in armoured vehicles belonging to the interior ministry when the convoy was attacked, but were unharmed.

“The convoy was escorting a delegation from Qatar, the police escorted them to a safe area after they survived the attack,” General Garad Nur, a senior police commander, told reporters.

The blast is the latest in a string of bloody attacks in the seaside capital, where Al-Qaeda linked Shabab insurgents have vowed to topple the government and have set off several bombs and launched guerrilla-style strikes. “The mujahedeen have today carried out the first of a series of attacks,” the Shebab said in a message on Twitter. The car exploded close to a police station at the central K4 roundabout, a busy part of Mogadishu where many people gather to drink tea at roadside stalls. Other police officials said that at least 10 people had been killed.

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again by the government when it goes to the floor for discussion. The government can also reject the move even if MPs pass it in a law.

The committee also approved proposals to increase the salaries of active and retired policemen. Rapporteur of the committee MP Safa Al-Hashem said the committee also discussed a government draft law to tackle the problem of hundreds of stock market dealers who were severely impacted by the 1982 Manakh (secondary stock market) crash. The dealers were included under the landmark difficult debt settlement program law which was passed by the Assembly in 1993.

Thousands of dealers joined the program and repaid their debts but some dealers have failed to pay. Hashem said the government told the committee the interest on the remaining debt is around KD 400 million but added that the government

provided no details about the cost of the draft law.

Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee MP Saleh Ashour said the committee yesterday discussed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) joint security pact which has come under fire from the opposition and even some MPs. Ashour said the committee discussed the agreement in details and decided that certain provisions must be discussed with the interior and foreign ministers and invitations have been sent out to the two ministers. Several opposition members have said certain provisions of the pact are in breach of the constitution. The Assembly’s human rights and bedoons committee yesterday discussed a government-sponsored draft law calling to establish a National Committee for Human Rights and a number of issues relating to bedoons, or stateless people.

Booze and bikinis welcome in Egypt DUBAI: Islamist-ruled Egypt is open to visitors who drink alcohol and wear bikinis as it sets out to boost numbers by at least a fifth this year, the tourism minister said yesterday. Tourism is a pillar of the Egyptian economy but has suffered since a popular uprising toppled President Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and set off two years of periodic rioting and instability. The minister, Hisham Zaazou, said the government had “optimistic goals” for the sector, and played down comments from radical Salafi Muslim groups who have called for a ban on alcohol and women wearing swimsuits.

“Bikinis are welcome in Egypt and booze is still being served,” Zaazou, speaking in English, told a news conference during a visit to the United Arab Emirates. “We had talks with these Salafi groups and now they understand the

importance of the tourism sector, but still you have some individuals that are not from the leadership saying these things,” added the minister, an independent who is not a member of the ruling Muslim Brotherhood. Islamist President Mohamed Morsi’s government increased taxes on alcohol in December but backed down after the move was criticized by the tourism sector and by liberals.

Before the uprising, tourism was worth more than a tenth of Egypt’s economic output. In 2010, 14.7 million visitors came, generating $12.5 billion in earnings, but arrivals slowed to 9.8 million the following year and income to $8.8 billion. According to Zaazou, 2012 saw a recovery as 11.5 million tourists came and revenues rebounded to about $10 billion.

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MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

LOCAL

Free medical check-up, medicines for Sri Lankans Charity event at embassy

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: A charity event organized by the AlRahma Committee for Medical Services, in conjunction with the Embassy of Sri Lanka, was held recently at the embassy compound.

Hundreds of Sri Lankan runaway housemaids and other members of the Sri Lankan community participated in and benefited from this event, in which free medical check-up and medicines were distributed.

Speaking with the Kuwait Times, C.A.H.M. Wijeratne, Sri Lankan Ambassador to Kuwaitstated that 60-70 deaths annually was “a high number ” for a population of 130,000 Sri Lankans in Kuwait, and he attributed the high mortality rate to lack of regular medical checkup. “The problem with us Sri Lankans is that we normally don’t go to the doctors unless we have health complaints,” he said.

He said patients were wary about doctors detecting some dreadful disease. “It’s normal, I think, and not peculiar to people of our nationality. So, such medical outreach is really very beneficial not just for our runaway housemaids at the embassy but also for the entire Sri Lankan community in Kuwait. This one-day charity event has been organised with the help of Indian Youth as well,” Wijeratne added.

The envoy admitted that the Sri Lankan community has the highest mortality rate among all other communities in Kuwait. “We thank them for their generosity and kind assistance. What I know is that their services are not just limited to us or the Sri Lankan community; they are conducting this program for other needy communities as well,” he pointed out.

Besides free medical check-up, the charity organization also distributed some free medicines to their patients, along with free medical consultation. “I appreciate their help and hope that this will not be the last,” Wijeratne said.

Al-Rahma Committee for Medical Services brought along some Kuwaiti, Indian and Sri Lankan doctors and nurses to assist participants of the one-day event. According to Dr Saleh Malallah, Al-Rahma Committee Executive Manager, serious cases will be sent over to the hospital for follow-up treatment.

“While we have doctors here right now, some of the serious cases found here will be sent to government hospitals,” he added. The charity organization holds at least two medical outreach programs per month. These are mostly organised for poor communities, with free check-up and free food provided during a usually one-day event.

Co-education ban to be canceled?

KUWAIT: Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Kuwait C.A.H.M. Wijeratne (right) poses here with one doctor attending to patients at the embassy. —Photos by Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: The government is gradually taking certain steps in cooperation with some MPs to amend the ban on coeducation and tweak certain other controversial laws, a local newspaper reported yesterday quoting a cabinet insider.

Some lawmakers had previously proposed an amendment to the law that mandates that separate schools and university classes must be allocated for male and female students in the public and private sector, said the source who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity.

“The proposal was not forwarded in coordination with the government, which negatively affected the government’s serious attempts to amend the law,” the source added. He also indicated that the majority support that the government enjoys in the parliament should be used to scrap the coeducation ban as soon as possible. Furthermore, the source said that the “current cooperation between the legislative and executive

‘Too much exercise counter-productive’

KUWAIT: Some patients waiting for their turn at the embassy.

KUWAIT: Excessive physical exercise may turn in some cases into obsession and lead to negative physical and psychological effects, experts warn.

The experts advise persons seeking better health and look to resort to balanced diet, moderate exercise and diverse activities. Excessive athletic activity is one form of “addiction that must not be ignored,” said Manar Abdul Nabi, a PhD-level physical exercise teacher.

Motives for practicing sport differ from one person to another. Some desire to shed weight or maintain it and others seek competition. A lot of free time, particularly among teen-agers and failure to invest it in something useful constitute some of the motives for getting involved in some activity in an obsessive manner for a long period of time, such as being glued in front of television for long hours, surfing the Internet aim-

Burgan Bank marks 2012 successful achievements KUWAIT: Burgan Bank recently held its yearly gathering event at the Salwa Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah hall with an objective to recognize the efforts of its employees, and reward them for contributing to the bank over the years. The event was attended by Burgan Bank’s Chairman, Majed Essa Al-Ajeel, staff members, senior executive management, as well as representatives from the bank’s regional subsidiaries.

During the event, employees were engaged by receiving latest updates on the bank’s strategic objectives by the CEO along with the key highlights of the bank’s performance over the course of the year 2012 and general direction in the near future. Burgan Bank Group now includes more than 3,000 employees across a wide network of 216, all of whom are the driving force of the bank’s business .

The event celebrated the diverse cultural range found within Burgan Bank’s local and regional markets, and included a broad

authorities” has brought positive results “including the fact that MPs have not responded to labor strikes and financial demands as opposed to their predecessors, which was in line with the state’s financial directions.”

Meanwhile, Al-Rai reported that the Public Institution for Social Security “cannot accept” parliamentary demands for increasing children allowances, pensions and early retirement pensions due to their projected financial cost. A letter signed by the institution’s General Manager, Fahad Al-Rajhan, and quoted in the report, explains that the proposed early retirement program leads to “actuarial deficit, especially if the retirement age was not determined because that would lead to the fund going bankrupt.”

A study conducted within the institution also indicates that the parliamentary proposal costs KD2.1 billion for 166,000 women under insurance, and KD4.5 billion for 143 million men under insurance.

range of cultural activities from Kuwait, Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia as well as Iraq. During the event, staff members were delighted and entertained to a number of exciting activities, quiz games, as well as raffle draws.

Employee communications is a core component of Burgan Bank’s overall approach. The bank has taken a number of measures that highlight the importance of engaging with its internal audiences, which aim to nurture a culture of open dialogue, harnessing skills, and creating credible brand ambassadors.

Established in 1977, Burgan Bank is the youngest commercial Bank and third largest by assets in Kuwait, with a significant focus on the corporate and financial institutions sectors, as well as having a growing retail and private bank customer base. Burgan Bank has five majority owned subsidiaries, which include Gulf Bank Algeria - AGB (Algeria), Bank of Baghdad -

BOB (Iraq & Lebanon), Jordan Kuwait Bank JKB (Jordan) Tunis International Bank - TIB (Tunisia), and fully owned Burgan Bank Turkey, (collectively known as the “Burgan Bank Group”).

The Bank has continuously improved its performance over the years through an expanded revenue structure, diversified funding sources, and a strong capital base.

The adoption of state-of-the-art services and technology has positioned it as a trendsetter in the domestic market and within the MENA region.

Burgan Bank’s brand has been created on a foundation of real values - of trust, commitment, excellence and progression, to remind us of the high standards to which we aspire. ‘People come first’ is the foundation on which its products and services are developed. Earlier this year, ‘Brand Finance’ - the international brand valuation company- rated Burgan Bank brand as AA with positive outlook. The rating places

Burgan Bank Brand at 2nd amongst the most valuable banking brands in Kuwait.

Excellence is one of the Bank’s four key values and Burgan Bank continually strives to maintain the highest standards in the industry. The Bank was re-certified in 2010 with the ISO 9001:2008 certification in all its banking businesses, making it the first bank in the GCC, and the only bank in Kuwait to receive such accreditation. The Bank also has to its credit the distinction of being the only Bank in Kuwait to have won the JP Morgan Chase Quality Recognition Award for twelve consecutive years.

Burgan Bank won the prestigious “Banking Web Awards” prize in the commercial and corporate Category for Kuwait.

In 2010 Burgan Bank was awarded with the “Best Internet Banking Service award” from Banker Middle East Awards. Burgan Bank was recognized in 2011 as Kuwait’s “Best Private Bank”, by World Finance.

The bank also won, in 2011, the coveted “International Platinum Star for Quality” award from Business Initiative Directions, and “ The Best Technical Award” from Banking Web Awards. In 2012, Global Banking and Finance Review online magazine recognized Burgan Bank as the “Best Banking Group in the MENA” as well as the “Best Corporate Bank in Kuwait”. The bank also won the coveted “Best Bank Branding” award by the Banker Middle East. For the second consecutive year in 2012, Burgan Bank also won World Finance’s “Best Private Bank” award, as well as the “Best Private Bank in Kuwait 2012” award from Capital Finance International. The bank recently won the “Best Bank in Kuwait” award from EMEA Finance.

Burgan Bank, a subsidiary of KIPCO (Kuwait Projects Company), is a strongly positioned regional Bank in the MENA region.

lessly or getting involved in insensible shopping, Dr Abdul Nabi said, advising persons prone to “such addiction” to get involved in diverse activities.

Exercise is good for human health but over-doing it is counter-productive, she said, warning that such “addicts” may suffer from lack of self-esteem, social life as well as turning prone to injury. Normal physical activity should be in the range of three times per week (40-90 minutes each time), and excessive exercise may result in injury to body joints, nausea and fatigue. Citing a tangible example, the expert mentioned that she had tried to help a 17-year-old girl, weighing 140 kg. The girl sought to lose weight with intensive exercise, but the heavy activity nudged her to eat excessively, “Although I had advised her to exercise and eat with moderation and drink a lot of water and abstain from monitoring early results.” — KUNA

Kuwait, Morocco discuss ways to boost bilateral cooperation KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Minister of Information, State Minister for Youth Affairs Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem AlHumoud Al-Sabah yesterday met with Morocco’s exState Minister for Foreign Affairs Mohamed Benaissa and discussed ways to activate and strengthen bilateral cooperation.

During the meeting, Sheikh Salman lauded KuwaitiMoroccan ties and expressed his gratitude to the invitation directed to him by the former Moroccan minister to take part in the Asilah Cultural Forum, to be held in forthcoming July.

For his part, bin Essa expressed his hope for participation by Sheikh Salman in a symposium during the forum, entitled “Media Scene in GCC Countries in light of Changes”, praising at the same time Kuwait’s pioneering democratic and media experience.

Meanwhile, the Minister of information received today Astronomer Dr. Saleh AL-Ajairi and praised his distinctive efforts and role in Kuwait’s renaissance, as well as his creativity and talent in the science of Astronomy.

Also, Sheikh Salman received today with the media coordinator for TV Asia channel, who is visiting the country to prepare a documentary on Kuwait, which is to be aired by the channel in 10 different languages. In addition, he met today with Mwongola Leoni, Editorial Manager at Oxford Business Group in Kuwait, and Carolyn Fung, editor of Report journal who are preparing reports on Kuwait in next editions of their journals.

Meanwhile, President of State Audit Bureau of Kuwait Abdelaziz Al-Adsani held talks with visiting Jordanian counterpart Mustafa Al-Barari over bolstering bilateral cooperation in audit work aiming to control public funds. In a press statement, the State Audit Bureau quoted the Jordanian guest Al-Barari as saying that that an agreement to foster audit cooperation between Jordan and Kuwait is in the pipeline. Al-Barari underlined the importance of strengthening mutual cooperation in public fund control among the audit agencies in the Arab region. He also spoke highly about Kuwait’s presidency of the 11th session of the Arab Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions. — KUNA

Health Ministry plans to hold lecture on AIDS KUWAIT: The Health Ministry will hold a lecture on AIDS next Wednesday, discussing the latest means to counter the disease and how to deal with those infected.

Health Ministry official Dr. Hind Al-Shumar told the press that the lecture would be held under the ministry’s media strategy to spread awareness on AIDS and means to prevent people from getting infected.

The latest treatments and means of prevention will be discussed during the lecture, said the official, adding that pamphlets in both Arabic and English will be distributed during that day to spread awareness amongst the masses.

The Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) is a disease of the human immune system caused by infection with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV).

During the initial infection, a person may experience a brief period of influenza-like illness. This is typically followed by a prolonged period without symptoms. As the illness progresses, it interferes more and more with the immune system, making the person much more likely to get infections, including opportunistic infections and tumors that do not usually affect people who have working immune systems. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Touristic Enterprises Company organized a training program on ‘new methods in auditing and warehouse monitoring’ featuring eight employees, in cooperation with the World Advisors Company for Administrative and Economic Consultations.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

LOCAL

KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Acting Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber AlSabah receive the President of Tanzania Dr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete at the airport yesterday.

Tanzanian president arrives in Kuwait KUWAIT: The President of Tanzania Dr Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete along with his accompanying official delegation arrived here yesterday for a three-day official visit, during which he is to hold official discussions with His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Upon his arrival at the airport, President Kikwete was received by HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber

Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber AlMubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, Deputy National Assembly Speaker Mubarak Al-Khurainij, Acting Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Jaber AlSabah, Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarrah Al-Sabah, senior state officials, and senior army, police, and national guards personnel.

The accompanying mission of honor for President Kikwete is headed by the Advisor at the Amiri Diwan Mohammad Abdullah Abu Al-Hassan.

The official accompanying delegation of the Tanzanian President consisted of MP Bernard Kamillius Membe, Minister for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, MP William Augustao Mgimwa, Minister for Finance and

Economic Affairs, MP Abdallah Omar Kigoda, Minister for Industry and Trade, MP Sospeter Muhongo, Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources, Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, the Zanzibar Minister for Trade, Industry and Marketing, Omar Yussuf Mzee, the Zanzibar Minister in the President’s Office of Finance, Economy and Development Planning, and number of senior officials in the Tanzanian government. — KUNA

Hawally tops list in anti-drug fight

KUWAIT: Dr. Riccardo Cappato, Dr. Mousa Akbar, Dr. Anthonie W.A.Lesing and Dr. Faisal Al-Sayegh — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Kuwait campaign to raise awareness about stroke Bayer unveils oral anti-coagulant

By Nawara Fattahova KUWAIT: Bayer Healthcare launched a campaign in Kuwait to raise awareness about stroke and the latest remedies developed to prevent and cure this lethal disease that kills more people in Europe each year than breast cancer, prostate cancer, HIV/AIDS and road traffic accidents combined.The campaign started with a press conference held at Movenpick-Al Bidaa Hotel on Saturday, where Bayer Healthcare apprised the media about the causes, risk factors and the available healthcare to deal with strokes, besides the economic burden that it places on victim’s families.

Bayer also unveiled a breakthrough oral anti-coagulant, Rivaroxaban, which has been approved and registered by the Kuwaiti Ministry of Health as a treatment for Atrial Fibrillation (AF), a main condition of stroke. The new anticoagulant potentially prevents and treats AFrelated stroke and overcomes the limitations of earlier available treatments, ushering in a new era in the fight against the disease.

Clots are a devastating threat that affects millions globally and protection against dangerous clots is important both for stroke prevention and treatment. “Reports indicate that every 13 seconds, someone in the world suffers an AF-related stroke and that Venous Thrombo embolism ( VTE), another major condition of stroke, is the immediate cause of death of 10% of the patients who die in hospitals,” said Dr. Faisal Al-Sayegh, Associate Professor of Medicine and Head of the Clinical Hematology Unit at Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital during the press conference.

“A majority of patients suffering from a venous blood clot will experience a DVT alone, but in around onethird of the patients, it will progress to a potentially fatal PE. The new generation of oral anti-coagulants provides clinicians and patients with a simple, singledrug approach for treatment of acute DVT and PE,” he added.

During his presentation Dr. Mousa Akbar, Consultant Cardiologist, Head of Cardiology Unit at Al-Sabah Hospital said, “Patients with AF are five times more likely to have a stroke compared with the general population. Reports indicate that one in six strokes occurs in patients with AF, and these are typically more severe than strokes due to other aetiologies, but the good news is that the new anticoagulants have made it possible to protect against AF.” “Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is the third most common cardiovascular

disease worldwide, after ischemic heart disease and stroke, and is the most common avoidable cause of hospital death. VTE encompasses two serious conditions, Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) and Pulmonary Embolism (PE) which is responsible for about a third (34%) of VTE deaths,” he further said.

Xarelto Rivaroxaban is an anti-coagulant drug. “Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT) is a clot in the veins of the legs and the Pulmonary Embolism (PE) is a clot in the lungs. Both are very common and serious conditions, since any clot reaching the lung might be fatal. We

Dr. Anthonie W.A.Lensing need to treat patients who have these conditions with anti-coagulants that dissolve the clot in the legs and in the lungs. This has to be done in therapeutic dosages and it needs to start at the time when the disease is recognized by the doctor. There is no time for waiting.

We have been treating for about five decades patients with these diseases with the anti-coagulant warfarin, which is very effective but had certain disadvantages as it needs weeks for the drug to be effective, and it is strong enough to stop coagulation, but the drug is unreliable as the effect may change by the day,” Dr. Anthonie Lensing, Global Clinical Leader Rivaroxaban, Bayer Healthcare, Germany told the Kuwait Times.

Comparing new anti-coagulants to old ones, he said, “The standard of care for AF-related stroke prevention has relied mainly on VKAs, including warfarin, since the 1950s. Though effective, warfarin comes with a lot of drawbacks, including unpredictable levels of anticoagulation, the need for frequent blood monitoring and dose adjustments, drug interactions and dietary

restrictions.” “This is a lot of work, and patients may have bleeding and new episode of blood clots. So there is a great need for a drug that can be taken orally, if active from the beginning, and does not dissolve on overdosing or under dosing. So we have developed Xarelto, which has a very strong anticoagulant quality.

It is very predictable, and we do not need to check the effect by taking a blood sample and run it through laboratory tests. Compared to an extended healthcare through a combination of warfarin and heparin, the Xarelto has proven itself as effective and associated with major bleedings. It is also associated with less mobility, less bleeding, and takes away the burden of extended healthcare needed for laboratory and monitoring. For instance, if the patient is treated with warfarin for six months, he has to go back to the hospital and give his blood sample. Then the dose is adjusted for each patient to ensure safety,” stressed Dr. Anthonie.

“The new drug, however, brings optimum convenience and control to both patients and doctors; it simplifies protection with a simple fixed once daily dosing, rapid onset of action without the need for routine coagulation monitoring or frequent dose adjustment, low risk of drug-drug interactions and limited potential of dietary restrictions. The drug will be available for more people.

For example, the people who live far from the hospital, and cannot come for monitoring as often as they should will benefit. So this will improve patient care, and make the treatment of the very common disease simple,” added Dr. Lensing. “This disease is very dangerous. For every 1000 inhabitants in Kuwait, we expect one or two to develop this condition,” he concluded.

The new anti-coagulant has so far been registered in 116 countries worldwide, including the UAE, Lebanon and Jordan. It has been developed to prevent and treat dangerous blood clots, and holds a promise for millions of patients around the world who are afflicted with, or are under threat from venous or arterial blood clots. The medicine has been approved by leading international medical agencies such as the Food and Drug Association in the US (FDA) and European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Bayer Healthcare’s awareness campaign in Kuwait will continue for months and will involve several other educational activities targeting the media, the public, medicine students and health professionals.

KUWAIT: Security sources revealed that Hawally governorate security administration arrested suspects in largest number of drug-related cases. A total of 12 cases were sent to the concerned authorities during the past six weeks in which suspects were either using the drugs or intended to sell these. A total of 20 persons hailing from different nationalities, including Kuwaitis and Europeans, were arrested in these cases. Sources said that coordination between Hawally security director Brig. Ghloom Habeen and acting director of operations Col Nasser AlAdwani made the Hawally governorate achieve this distinction.

Sources said that operations director Nasser Al-Adwani reviewed the Hawally area carefully which enabled him to identify certain locations in the governorate frequented by drug dealers and addicts. He also marked certain apartments as suspect. Based on this,

the apartments were kept under watch and surprise inspection campaigns were carried out in the neighborhood which made it easier for security personnel to arrest the drugs dealers and

users alike. Both Brig. Ghloom Habeen and Colonel Nasser Al-Adwani do not accept mediations and all arrested persons are routinely referred to the concerned authorities without exception.

Stage ready for Women’s Games KUWAIT: Chairperson of the Kuwait Women’s Sports Federation Sheikha Naeema Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said she was “optimistic” over the success of the Women’s Games, due on May 9.

The event, which will host several local clubs, is set to include basketball, table tennis and athletics, and Sheikha Naeema regards its organisation, in itself, a major success for women and sports. The games will pit female athletes from six local sports clubs - the Girls’ Club, Al-

Oyoun Club, Salwa Club, Qadsiya SC, Yarmouk SC and Jahra SC - for the local competition, held for the first time. Also, “the games will push forward steps to encourage a well-cultured generation of sports spectators,” in all three sports. Sheikha Naeema proceeded to express gratitude for the efforts of the Information Minister and State Minister for Youth Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem Al-Humoud AlSabah, in supporting women’s sports in the country. —KUNA

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

LOCAL kuwait digest

Local Spotlight

Syria: Where should we stand?

Collapse of foundation

By Waleed Al-Rujaib

S

enior Ministry of Education officials admitted that the level of education in schools in Kuwait is low. There are several reasons for it, including a poor education system and worn-out infrastructure.

Their admissions adding to the worries triggered by TIMSS and PIRLS tests’ results in which Kuwaiti students were ranked 48 out of 50 participants in mathematics and 46 out of 49 in literacy. This further confirmed Kuwait’s status as the worst in education worldwide. Educational services in Kuwait were also described in a recent World Economic Forum report as ‘very poor’. The Global Information Technology Report 2013, meanwhile, ranks Kuwait at 104th out of 144 countries as far as the quality of mathematics and science curricula was concerned, and 102nd out of 144 in the quality of school management.

These low and shameful levels mean the very foundation of development has collapsed, that is if there was ever a true intention to achieve development in Kuwait. We cannot talk about development that is not centered around human beings. The education system is the factory which transforms human beings from being just ‘raw material’ to productive people capable of building civilization and a future for their country.

There are many stories in Kuwait involving parents complaining of mistreatment they say their children are subjected to at the hands of school administrations and teachers. Violence, deviant behavior, poor education services and other problems are things that we come across while dealing with our children’s schools, on a regular basis. The main question here is: Does the government have any serious plans to reform the educational system? I believe that the answer is no, and that this answer also applies to health, electricity, roads and all other public services.

Kuwait has transformed from being a state which provides social security to all, to becoming a state that favors a single class of people with influence who are not interested in seeing the large oil incomes utilized to improve the quality of services. All laws, legislations and behavior of the political administration go in favor of this class of people which seeks to control the wealth and power of the Kuwaiti people. In the meantime, laws are approved against the public interest as people continue to suffer inflation, increased rents and property prices, as well as increasing unemployment rate, while the government is entertaining the idea of enforcing income tax.

This class is not interested in freedom, democracy and a constitution which gives the people the ability to demand better living conditions and using public funds to provide a better life for them and their children. Development costs money that is taken away from the amount that the corrupt class wants to steal.

They don’t care about educational or health services, people’s living conditions, freedoms and the law as long as they can continue stuffing their pockets with money. —Al-Rai

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

I

kuwait digest

Contradiction, improvising

By Dr Shamlan Yousif Al-Essa

W

e are totally convinced now that what has been delaying Kuwait becoming a regional commercial and financial hub are the impulsive government decisions that were neither a result of any study, nor of any scientific insight or vision. These decisions mainly depend on the moods and wishes of the ministers, their advisors and their Diwaniyas.

Before someone jumps to accuse me of being anti-government, let us review a decision made by the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Thekra Al-Rasheedi, to deport one million expatriates over the next ten years, with plans to deport 100,000 expats every year. The minister has not justified her decision, nor explained how she would be able to put it into practice. Also, she still has to explain what kind of labor would be subjected to the decision and why. The minister apparently wants to balance Kuwait’s demography and ensure that Kuwaiti citizens form a majority, or are equal in number to the expat population. On the face of it, it seems an impossible target, considering that citizens form only 31 per cent of the population currently.

What is even more embarrassing is the fact that the citizens form only 15 per cent of the workforce.

Citizens are stacked in unproductive government jobs and offices while the majority of the productive activity happens in the private sector. There are only a few Kuwaitis in the public sector. All the previous governments’ attempts in Kuwait and other GCC states have failed to arrive at an acceptable population mix for one simple and obvious reason: the economies dependent on just a singleresource, oil, have been flourishing without producing enough qualified citizens that the emerging labor market requires. So, the problem is not with the foreigners who the ministry wishes to deport. The problem is that we are short of citizens who are qualified enough to meet the demands of the local labor market. Again, this is simply the result of a poor university system and failure to produce well trained manpower or graduates. Therefore, no one hires Kuwaiti citizens except the public sector and the government, where ‘disguised’ unemployment prevails, thanks to the government and the MPs. The minister’s contradictory policy also advocated a ban on the entry of foreigners on visitor’s visa unless they showed copies of their university degrees. She wanted to restrict the jobs available to expa-

triates to the major discipline in which they are academically qualified. She even linked the renewal of expats’ driving licenses or work permits to degree certificates. What is the point of all this? Will this apply to everyone? What is the relation between a university degree and a driving license? I personally know that Kuwait University has a huge army of employees doing back end service jobs such as in the security services. They are mainly from Egypt and have university degrees while they are in jobs that do not match their qualifications.

Will the law be applied to those and the illiterate and semi-literate citizens working as guards, drivers or even clerks who will then be discarded? Come on, people, have the fear of Allah and spare us such “brilliant” decisions.

Many domestic laborers, largely those from India and the Philippines, have university degrees in certain rare specialties, such as math, science and nursing whereas their government-employed women bosses might not even have a school-leaving certificate.

Why don’t we treat productive and qualified foreigners in a fitting manner instead of in such a shoddy way?

There are major companies which are owned by citizens but all the manpower working there comprises of Arabs or expats from elsewhere. Why should we punish those who work hard and instead reward lazy ones?

The real question is why should we be so strict and shut out people from a certain country even though they are productive? The answer is that the government is incapable of solving economic problems and thus cannot ensure the development we have been talking about for long. The MSAL failed in fighting highly influential visa traffickers and is now letting out its anger against citizens and businessmen. This will render the market short of skilled hands. This way, everyone will be left with no alternative but to hire those brought in by visa traffickers and left astray in local markets.

The minister started her tenure by launching a war against visa traffickers and has now turned towards pursuing technical labor, making university degrees an excuse. All of these merely look like new methods to enhance a culture of bribery and sycophancy and endless armies of corrupt employees. We are back to the same old story. —-Al-Watan

kuwait digest

Violation of constitution

By Nawaf Al-Fuzai

E

veryone in Kuwait, and those in the public sector in particular, love their jobs, and all claim that they really do not want it, and if it were not for the country’s sake, they would have left the jobs and enjoyed life with their families.

In Kuwait, everyone is against negativity and silence, but if someone came forward and took a stand, the conspiracy theory breaks out about the ostensible real reasons behind such a person while no one makes an honest evaluation of his stand, except for a few, and no one attempts to understand. Objectivity sorely lacks in this country. We live with contradictions and adapt to them because we feel that there is a sincere minority in the country, and if it was defeated or gave up, the country would be lost.

The latest crises, and the clear greed displayed by some who are interested in taking over the regime, even if indirectly, is strong evidence of the opportunism of some individuals who were raised and made bigger by the regime in an irresponsible fashion until they started to believe themselves as being actually bigger than the regime. We are talking about a regime whose foundation was laid by Sabah I as the first ruler of the country and which was confirmed by a constitution that all Kuwaitis accepted. As for the talk about encroaching upon the constitution, those who actually did so were the ones raising hue and cry about it.

That is because when he attacks the principle of separation of authorities and demands for the appointment of a popularly elected Prime Minister as head of the executive authority, he is committing that violation of the constitution. Such a premier is not sought to be elected under a party system, but rather through a sectarian system. So, it is a violation of the constitution.

When someone says that he is addressing the authorities, knowing fully well that authorities are not supposed to be addressed except through departments, and when statements are made against the judiciary to influence its ruling, although there is no authority above the judge, that someone is violating the constitutional principles.

When the head of the state exercises his authority, as he deems fit, but they want to decide the level of urgency on their own and want to arrogate that right to themselves instead of recognizing the ruler’s idea of urgency, is that not a violation of the constitution? We are following the efforts of members of the facilities committee to approve the transportation authority law, which will include all those concerned with transportation affairs - starting with the driver’s license all the way to constructing a road - under the umbrella of an independent body fully authorized to come up with solutions to the traffic problem instead of state ministries hurling accusations at each other.

This is an effort to run the country properly, and members of the legislative committee will approve the state council law and boost the administrative judiciary which is among the most crucial cog in any successful government.

As for the housing problem, we think that after the outstanding efforts by the municipal council to allocate huge areas of land, the burden now stands shifted on the public authority for housing.

Shortage of electricity is responsible for slow pace of development and endless corruption was throwing a spanner in the ministry’s wheels. It will not only prevent these new housing cities from coming up, but will affect the entire development plan. The decision must be taken, but what we suggest is that the mega projects authority be restored to ensure the electricity problem is resolved. Let each sector bear its own responsibility.

It is our right to ask about the performance of the most important minister in the development plan. When the housing minister announced the availability of 175,000 housing units, did he ask his colleague, the minister of electricity and the power, to plan for these new 175,000 units? We will not remain silent towards laxity, and will continue to raise a voice that many may find disturbing.

The country was established by men, not by jokes that some clown cracks about an assembly to describe it as “the one vote assembly,” as if the previous assemblies did not include MPs who were taxi drivers. This assembly has engineers, doctors and lawyers. — Al-Watan

t is surely an unpleasant and uncomfortable situation in which the state of Kuwait finds itself right now, along with other Gulf countries, as far as the complex Syrian condition is concerned. The question that we have been facing consistently is whether we as a nation are supposed to be supporting the rebel army or the incumbent regime, and why?

Kuwait borders the Persian Gulf between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. If you travel by air from Syria to Kuwait, it takes approximately two hours. So, we are not as far as some may think. For many years, the two countries have had excellent relationship with nothing that could possibly affect these ties. That was until recently till an opposition group fuelled

by Muslim Brotherhood and inspired by the so called Arab disease - Arab Spring - decided to rebel against the ruling system and called for either the ouster of the president or dared to face the consequences. Worrying reports about the possible use of chemical weapons have added to further worries. What led the situation to this pass and what may happen later should not be our concern but when things go out of control and the news about daily killings on both sides became staple front page headline, the world understood that we are facing a very complicated problem.

Clearly, the international attempts at peace made by the Kofi Annan and Al-Akhdar Al-Ibrahimi , which did not surprise me. I do not know if they ever achieved much in the past when it came to complex missions such as this one. So, who will be the next mediator? Perhaps one of their former staff? I hope not.

I think it is about time we seek out an American leader or a German one. Both have had good ties with Syria for so long and I guess it would make sound sense to find someone who can bring new ideas to the table that can help save lives. Otherwise, we will lose Syria forever and the virus of rebellion and confusion will not remain limited to countries next door like Iraq but will travel further.

Right now, the situation in Iraq is not improving. In fact, far from being more secure, it is becoming more worrying than ever. The question here is that if the situation continued to linger, or worsened even more, are we in Kuwait in a position to receive an unexpected and ill defined, possibly unlimited, number of refugee families fleeing from it? How are we supposed to handle this possible condition? Do we have a plan for that?

We are an open country with more than a million and a half expats of all nationalities. So we have to take into consideration the possible reaction by the many Arab expats here, as also from the bedouns who are originally from Syria or Iraq. Where do we stand on this issue if they rebel or support the chaos?

Kuwait is a very small and peaceful country and there is no way we can afford to become a battlefield, neither should we try to become one. So, the best way out is to call for international intervention, that only the United Nations can do best. No more pleas and no more interviews. What is needed now is action, and a good plan of action can stop the killings. Such a plan should not be a hostage to any hidden agenda of any powers. Is that possible?

I think it is possible and I do not want to see the US rush into a military solution like an air power display or anything like that. That will be a worst case scenario that can happen at this time in this region.

Certainly, we cannot afford another military intervention. I believe this will create a big mess and will open the door for further trouble, particularly if Iran becomes part of this target. The Gulf countries can suffer heavy damages.

I wish the US State department issues lesser number of threats and instead comes up with an action plan to bring on board new allies and lobby for the Syrian case. I think the US can play a role in this to save many lives.

kuwait digest

Give respect to others

By Iqbal Al-Ahmad

M

any people are confused between hate and love, respect and disrespect, as well as immoral behavior during conflicts triggered by people having different opinions and expressing these through words or behavior.

Respect is never an indication of love, nor is lack of love an indication of disrespect. Respect is an indication of good upbringing, first and foremost. Having a different opinion than someone else’s for example does not give me any right to respect him or her any less, let alone resort to offensive language.

A society can never be without its share of people sharing different opinions. In Kuwait, however, difference in opinion has unfortunately turned into a situation where people act in undesirable ways while making a choice of phrases to express disagreements and criticize the opponent’s opinion. Many newspaper columns nowadays contain harsh words that imply skepticism, mockery and contempt towards a certain person or opinion. This is unacceptable for the simple reason that every person should respect the other regardless of their ideas or beliefs, because while you can disagree with another person’s opinion, you certainly cannot reject that person as a human being.

This can also be seen in conversations among the young people, especially on Twitter where some youngsters hide behind fake identities to make harsh comments. Unfortunately, the more disrespectful they are, the more they are regarded as ‘bold’ and ‘influential’.

In reality however, these people ignore the fact that respect is, in the most part, a reflection of one’s upbringing. This is what differentiates a person who expresses a different opinion in an acceptable way, and someone who does that in a provocative manner. Debates can reach very heated levels yet remain respectful, or in some cases cross the line of respect. The difference between the two depends on upbringing and notions of morality.

Criticizing a person does not mean that you hate them, and respecting them does not necessarily mean that you like them. — Al-Qabas

LOCAL

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

NA panel approves pay rise for military, fire service pensioners Gulf security cooperation to be discussed KUWAIT: The Kuwait National Assembly’s Financial and Economic Affairs Committee has approved a draft law proposing an exceptional rise to the pension of armed forces and fire service retirees. “The committee agreed the bill to increase the monthly pension of officers, who served for more than 25 years, by KD 400 and to soldiers by KD 300 at a total cost KD of 3.626 million,” Committee Chairwoman Safaa Al-Hashim said.

Al-Hashim revealed that committee members also discussed a bill on amending the law of insolvency settlement.

As for the early retirement bill, Al-Hashim noted that the government had promised to present the estimates of the total cost of the bill implementation.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman MP Saleh Ashour announced that the committee has sent invitations to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of

Interior Sheikh Ahmad Humoud Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah to attend the coming session to discuss the security cooperation agreement among Gulf Cooperation Council member states.

He pointed out that the committee members seek clarifications about some provisions of the agreements before voting on it.

On the other hand, the Public Utilities Committee decided Sunday to adjourn the deliberations about the establishment of a transport authority.

The decision was taken because the government has no clear vision about the role of the new body, whether it supervisory or executive, Committee Rapporteur Adnan Al-Mutwaa said.

Al-Mutwaa noted that the committee has held a meeting with Minister of Commerce and Industry Anas Al-Saleh to mull pollution

Kuwait charity to offer medical care for Syrian refugees in Jordan AMMAN: The Kuwaiti Al-Islah Society-affiliated Al Rahma International charity is continuing its humanitarian efforts to alleviate the sufferings of Syrians displaced in neighboring Jordan.

In this regard, Al Rahma charity signed an agreement with a Jordanian hospital to rent a whole floor with a capacity of 35 beds and an intensify care section with three beds to offer medical care services to Syrian refugees.

The signing ceremony was attended by Kuwait ambassador in Amman Dr. Hamad Al-Duaij who lauded the Kuwaiti relief organizations’ support to Syrian people in their distress.

In statements to KUNA, Head of Al Rahma charity’s delegation Dr. Musaad Mandani revealed that Al Rahma has also distributed 50,000 Jordanian dinars as cash aid to 350 Syrian families in northern Jordanian cities to help them pay the rent of their residency places.

The charity also distributed books and toys to the displaced children, Al-Mandani added.

Anther Al Rahma team, headed by Abdullah Al-Ajmi, visited the Syrian refugees in the Jordanian capital of Amman.

During its tour, the team distributed 21000 Jordanian dinars as cash aid to 210 Syrian families to help them pay their rents.

The team also donated 100 dinars to 40 injured Syrians.

Head of Al-Islah Society Office in Amman Bassel Shahada said that the charity has also distributed several kinds of relief and humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees.

For their part, the Syrian refugees expressed gratitude for Kuwait’s leadership and people’s non-stop support to them in their plight.

Around two million Syrian refuges currently reside in Jordan as a result of an ongoing political conflict between the government and local opposition in their country that began in March, 2011. —KUNA

of Um Haiman area.

Several studies have recommended the re-distribution of nearby factories to cut pollution in the area, he said.

Meanwhile, National Assembly Human Rights Committee for Illegal Residents discussed yesterday the proposal of performing a local body tasked with human rights.

Chairman of the committee MP Khalid Al-Adwa said in a press release that the meeting aims to performing a national committee that will put an end to the illegal residents situation.

Al-Adwa added that the committee discussed the security restrictions to the category of illegal residents and referred the complaints to the Central Agency of Illegal Residents and to the higher committee for nationalization.

The committee will hold another meeting next Sunday with Zakat House to discuss charity for the illegal residents. —KUNA

Kuwaitis’ properties in Basra ‘in safe hands’ KUWAIT: Kuwaitis were known to own real estate all over the world and despite the danger that their properties could be confiscated by the governments of those countries, or taken over by people during wars and catastrophes, Kuwaitis continued to buy real estate starting with GCC countries and Iraq, in addition to other Arab countries such as Syria, Jordan, Egypt and before that, the Palestine. They also went as far Europe, Asia and the Americas.

Al-Watan local newspaper focused on Kuwaiti property in Iraq estimated by an investor to make up for between eight and twelve percent in Basra governorate , five

to ten percent in Najaf, four to nine in Karbala and one to three percent in Baghdad.

Meanwhile, director of real estate registration in Basra Majeed Hameed said property owned by Kuwaitis was in good hands and very much in the records. He said the city of Basra council arrested several people trying to take advantage of the circumstances to usurp the Kuwaitis’ property by forging ownership contracts.

These scammers were sent to the Iraqi courts for further action. He said the Basra governorate will restore the property to its rightful owners.

League condemns Israel CAIRO: The Arab league yesterday called for ‘immediate action’ from the UN Security Council to stop the Israeli attacks on Syria, a position that was also taken by member nation, Egypt.

Arab League Secretary General Nabil AlAraby was referring to two recent consecutively-conducted attacks on Syria, in a statement.

He warned of ‘severe consequences’ resulting from such actions, which he described as ‘blatant’ and as ‘a dangerous breach of the sovereignty of an Arab nation, which could increase complications in Syria and could put the security and stability of the surrounding region at a grave risk.’

Israel’s direct Arab neighbor, Egypt, was another to condemn the latest escalations.

Egypt’s presidential office mirrored the statements, describing Israel’s actions as ‘a breach of international legitimacy and principles.’

‘Despite its extreme opposition to the bloodshed and the government’s use of military warfare against its own people in Syria, amid its efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis, Egypt rejects any aggression on Syrian interests or any breach of its sovereignty, while making use of its internal struggle for a specific motive - whatever that may be,’ added the statement. —KUNA

KUWAIT: The First Lady of Tanzania Salma Kikwete, along with her accompanying delegation, paid a visit to the Scientific Center of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences yesterday. During the visit, the Tanzanian Frist Lady viewed through facilities of this civilized monument that carries a clear message about spreading knowledge and developing consciousness on importance of environment preservation.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

LOCAL

News

in brief

New residence strategy KUWAIT: Social Affairs and Labor Ministry (SAL) is planning to allow the conversion of domestic help visa into one for employment in the private sector. Informed sources at SAL said a decision has already been taken to that effect, but SAL officials are postponing its implementation until SAL minister Thekra Al-Rashidi declares her new strategy on regulating expat labor, which involves a reduction in their numbers, as well as getting rid of marginal workers, as per the latest labor law rules. The new strategy is also aimed at dealing with a flaw in the population structure in order to better regulate the marketplace.Meanwhile, the same sources pointed out that the number of registered expat workers employed across various sectors in the Kuwaiti labour market reached 1,200,000 last year, down 100,000 from 2010 figures.

NG promotion policy KUWAIT: Sources at the National Guards (NG) revealed that the top brass at the NG has asked the leaders there to prepare a memorandum to be submitted to the Supreme Council of National Guards in the next few days for amending the existing promotion policy.One of the conditions for promotion was that an officer should have spent four years in the same rank, but now the Supreme Council found it better to reduce this period to three years. Thus, it will be ensuring parity with the Army and the Police and adherence to the principle of justice and equality. Sources added that the top leaders at the NG have agreed to the recommendations of the scholarship committee to grant requests from officers to complete their higher studies in recognized universities abroad while drawing full salary during the period of their study.

Govt ‘official spokesperson’ KUWAIT: In a bid to cope with the rapidly developing media world and fast-moving information, which if not handled properly may result in misreporting, the cabinet has approved a proposal to create the position of an “Official Spokesperson”, said well-informed sources. The sources added that the new position’s responsibility and holder would be determined this month. While some suggest that the government’s official spokesperson should report to the cabinet, others suggest that the position should report to the Ministry of State for Cabinet Affairs. Some even suggest that the spokesperson should report either to the information ministry or to Kuwait News Agency. Further, the sources revealed that the names of many academics and media figures had been short-listed for the new post that would be mainly entrusted with responding to various local political incidents.

New MPW projects KUWAIT: Sources at the Ministry of Public Works said that the ministry was handling ten projects including those pertaining to road construction and delivery of services to new residential areas and these projects were currently nearing the phase of delivery and execution. Sources revealed that the projects included the development of sewage system for Mohammad Ben Al-Qasem St. and Airport Road, Saad AlAbdullah and Jaber Al-Ahmad Area. Pointing out that these projects will be completed shortly, he said nearly 75 percent of the work has been finalized. In respect to the roads under construction, he said these included the road stretch between King Fahad Road and Wafra besides one between Subhan Area and Central Jail, in addition to providing services in Al-Mahboula area, South Al-Sabahiya and Abu AlHasayneh.

‘Stray bullets’ send teenager to hospital Woman found dead in cell KUWAIT: A male driver who fired gunshots in Sulaibiya that left a teenager critically wounded was arrested. Police launched efforts to arrest the suspect after two separate complaints of a man firing from a vehicle were reported at the Sulaibiya police station. In the first complaint, a stateless resident claimed that a man driving an American made red SUV showered his vehicle with bullets. The second complaint was by a Syrian man who said his 16-year-old son was hospitalized with gun wounds on his back and left hand. The teenager was rushed to the Jahra Hospital where he underwent an emergency surgery. In the meantime, police managed to arrest the suspect, a Saudi national, and recovered a machine gun from his possession.

Inmate suicide A woman inmate was found dead in her cell on Saturday, with the police classifying the death as a suicide.

Police and crime scene investigators headed to the Central Jail after the suicide was repor ted. The Nepalese

woman was pronounced dead on the scene while preliminary investigations revealed no evidence of foul play. The body was taken to the forensic department after investigators examined the scene. A case was filed.

Meanwhile, an Asian woman committed suicide by j um p i ng f rom a fourth floor apartment in Al-Fahaheel.

According to preliminary investigations, the woman, who worked as a domestic helper, jumped from the apartment’s window. Paramedics pronounced the victim dead on the scene and the body was taken to the coroner after criminal investigators examined the scene. A case was filed for investigations.

‘Friend in need’ A man wh o com m i t te d t he f t i n order to help his friend who was in desperate need of money landed in jail, a case filed recently in Jahra said.

Investigations went underway after a Saudi national filed a case of forgery at the Taima police station when he learned that KD300 have been mysteri-

ously deducted from his bank account.

Investigations eventually revealed that the money was transferred online, and detectives were able to identify the person into whose account it was deposited. The Egyptian man was detained and admitted during investigations that his compatriot gave him the money to help him with his financial troubles. Police verified the suspect’s identity and discovered that he was a coworker of his compatriot. The man was detained and explained that he was able to transfer the money using credit card information that the Saudi man had previously disclosed to him in order to purchase a product online. The man claimed that the money was only a loan as his friend had promised to pay him back after returni ng f rom a t r i p to Egyp t . The m a n remains in custody pending further action. (Rai) Drunk man A drunken man brutally assaulted a man, leaving him critically injured, before he was arrested. The victim was

hospitalized. Police and paramedics rushed to a location in Khaitan where two people were reported fighting, and one attacked the other with a knife. The victim, an Indian man in his forties, was rushed to the Farwaniya Hospital with several stab wounds in the abdomen and thigh. The assailant, a Pakistani man in his thir ties, was reportedly heavily intoxicated and was taken into custody to face charges. A case was filed.

Freak accident I n a freak accident, a man died when he was struck by a diabetic coma while driving at the Kabad Road on Friday morning, and as a result met with an accident. Police and paramedics rushed to the scene of the accident after a minibus and a truck collided. The bus driver, an Indian man, was pronounced dead on the scene while medical tests revealed that he fell unconscious before the accident happened. The body was taken to the forensic department and a case was filed for investigations.

Security raids in Mina Abdullah

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Illegal residents were arrested during security raids at Mina Abdullah scrapyard, Wafra Road, Mina Abdullah Industrial Area and Ali Sabah Al-Salem Area on Saturday. The raids resulted in the arrest of 56 persons, of whom 30 did not have identification, 10 were daily wage laborers, and 16 were found to be in violation of the labor law, who also had been issued 11 traffic citations.

Meanwhile, Farwaniya municipality said raids were carried on vendors at Jleeb Al-Shoyoukh, Reqie, Al-Ardiya Industrial Area, Farwaniya and Khaitan. The raids led to the issuance of 154 cita-

tions, of which 137 were for vendors and 17 for those who illegally occupied road side areas.

Director of cleaning department Bader Al-Qattan said the department has developed a program to trace all violations and enforce rules and regulations in different sectors, with focus on cleaning and illegal occupation of roadsides. Monitoring vendors and tracking violations is a priority for department officials, he added.

Potential suspect An Indian man who reported to the police about a Sri Lankan woman committing self-immolation is currently under suspicion himself, even though he

claimed he was actually the one trying to save the woman and suffered burn injuries in the process.

Security sources said the man informed the police about the suicide but when the police arrived, they found the woman burnt to death on her bed and covered with burnt blankets.

The Indian man, when quizzed by the police, said he tried to rescue her by throwing blankets on her and suffered burn injuries on his arms.

He was rushed to the Babtain Hospital and admitted to its intensive care unit but the police also kept him under watch, and posted a guard over him since he is a potential suspect. Meanwhile, medical examiners were analyzing the woman’s body.

Carlos Ribeiro, Chief Financial Officer and General Manager Finance Support, Khaled Al-Mutawa, General Manager International Banking and Investments at Gulf Bank, Mona Mansour, Deputy General Manager, Operations at Gulf Bank, Faisal Al-Marzouq, Assistant General Manager, International Banking accepting the award from Deutsche Bank senior representatives.

Gulf Bank receives Deutsche Bank Award KUWAIT: Gulf Bank has announced that it has been awarded Deutsche Bank’s prestigious ‘EURO StraightThrough Processing (STP) Excellence Award’ for 2012 for its swift payments in Euros. This award, which is made annually, highlights the exceptional quality of the Bank’s commercial and treasury payment systems.

This is the four th consecutive year Gulf Bank has won the award, and it confirms that measures taken by the Bank in the payments area have met the recognition of associates such as Deutsche Bank, one of

the world’s largest financial institutions.

Euro Straight-Through Processing (STP) standardizes financial transactions and electronic payments, starting with the transaction initiation and ending with the final settlement.

The award was presented by senior executives from Deutsche Bank, including Wolfgang Wagner - MD & Region Head for CMFI (EEMEA), Sumit Roy, Director - Head of Cash Management Financial Institutions GCC Region, along with Sorab Khan, Direc tor - Cash Management

Financial Institutions - GCC Region.

The award was jointly received by Khaled Al-Mutawa, General Manager, International Bank ing and Investments, Mona Mansour, Deputy General Manager, Operations, Faisal Al-Marzouk , Assistant General Manager, International Banking and Investments and respective senior management at Gulf Bank. Deutsche Bank gives awards annually to banks around the world that pass criteria based on in-depth evaluation of the quality and level of accuracy of specific banking services.

SRS, IHRC record highest charity violations rate KUWAIT: The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor seems helpless when it comes to violations being committed by various charity organizations, the MSAL’s own ninth annual report said.

The report said the violations peak usually as the holy month of Ramadan approaches when charity collection and donations increase (KD 12 million were collected last year). It said despite the

fact that some serious violations were detected, they were either filed or ended up with a ‘gentle warning’ to the violator. According to the report, the Social Reforms Society (SRS) and the Islam Heritage Revival Committee (IHRC) led the violators’ list.

The report that covered the period over the past one year stressed that the SRS, the IHRC, the Social Solidarity

Society, the Fahad Al-Ahmed Humanitarian Society and the International Islamic Charity Organization had repeatedly committed serious violations with regards to collecting donation money without prior authorization or permission. The report also showed that some charities had been using their headquarters for commercial activities.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

30 wounded in blast at Tanzanian church

Malaysians vote in polls for stability or change Page 12

Page 9

RIYADH: In this photo, Mawada Chaballout, a 27-year-old American member of a Saudi female soccer team practices at a secret location in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. — AP

Saudis allow girls’ schools to offer sports Women’s sports remain underground activity RIYADH: Saudi Arabian girls will be allowed to play sports in private schools for the first time, according to a decision announced on Saturday, the latest in a series of incremental changes aimed at slowly increasing women’s rights in the ultraconservative kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s official press agency, SPA, reported that private girls’ schools are now allowed to hold sports activities in accordance with the rules of Shariah, or Islamic law. Students must adhere to “decent dress” codes and Saudi women teachers will be given priority in supervising the activities, according to the Education Ministry’s requirements.

The decision makes sports once again a stage for the push to improve women’s rights, nearly a year after two Saudi female athletes made an unprecedented appearance at the Olympics. “It’s about time,” said Aziza Youssef, a professor at King Saud University. “Everything is being held back in Saudi Arabia as far as women’s rights.”

Youssef said she sees the decision to allow sports for girls in private schools as part of package of wider reforms targeting women, but that continued restrictions on sports is a discrimination that negatively impacts women’s health.

Education Ministry spokesman Mohammed Al-Dakhini was quoted in SPA saying that the decision to allow girls to play sports in private schools “stems from the teachings of our religion, which allow women such activities in accordance with Shariah.”

The government had previously quietly tolerated physical education in some private schools, but there is no set curriculum. The decision, which also orders private girls’ schools to provide appropriate places and equipment for sports, is a monumental step that will likely soon affect public schools and universities, which are also gender segregated, Youssef said.

The Saudi government plays a role in private schools, providing text books and directors. Deputy Minister of Education for Women’s Affairs, Nora alFayez, was quoted in local press saying recently that there is a plan in place to expand sports education in public

schools. It remains unclear if girls would have access to the same level of physical education as boys.

Sports for women in Saudi Arabia have been largely a pastime of elites who can afford expensive health club memberships. They are often attached to hospitals since women’s gyms were closed in 2010 on grounds they were unlicensed.

Saudi Arabia allowed two female athletes to compete in last summer’s Olympics only after the International Olympics Committee had put intense pressure on the kingdom to end its practice of sending only male teams to the games. Their participation was not shown on Saudi TV stations.

Women’s sports remain nearly an underground activity in the kingdom, which is home to Islam’s holiest site in Mecca. Only the largest female university in the kingdom - Princess Nora Bint Abdul Rahman Unviersity - has a swimming pool, tennis court and exercise area for its students. No other university in Saudi Arabia has sports facilities for its female students and staff.

Women are also bound by strict rules when it comes to their attire, so they cannot, for example, be seen by men while jogging in sweat pants. Almost all women in Saudi Arabia cover their face with a veil known as the “niqab,” and even foreigners are obliged to respect local culture and wear a loose black dress known as the “abaya.”

Female athletes cannot register for sports clubs or league competitions.

They are banned from entering national trials, which makes it impossible for them to qualify for international competitions. The government has turned a blind eye, though, to tournaments where all female teams play against one another.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah is seen as pushing for these reforms. Other Saudi rulers have also quietly tried to modernize the country, with King Faisal’s wife opening the first school for girls in the late 1950s. But the monarch is facing edicts from powerful and influential senior Saudi clerics who are against all types of sporting activities for

women. They argue that in order for a woman to remain protected from harassment, she must avoid public roles.

Despite such rhetoric, thousands of women work as doctors and professors in Saudi Arabia. Women will be allowed to run for office and vote for the first time in the 2015 municipal elections.

There have also been a number of incremental and significant changes that have afforded women new roles in recent months.

A law was implemented last year to allow women sales clerks’ jobs, and women now have seats on the country’s top advisory council. A woman was licensed to practice law for the first time last month, and a ban was lifted on allowing women to ride motorbikes and bicycles.

But with each move comes restrictions. Women are only allowed to sell at female apparel outlets, such as lingerie stores. The 30 women who now serve on the country’s Shura Council, which advises the king, were segregated from the 130 men in the chamber, and plans for a proposed barrier that would separate the genders remains under discussion. Moreover, there are no guarantees that women who become licensed lawyers will not face discrimination in the courtroom. Lastly, women may be allowed to ride bikes in parks, but they have to be accompanied by a male relative and dressed in the “abaya.”

In other areas, women’s freedoms are still severely limited. They are not allowed to drive nor are they allowed to travel or attend school without the permission of a male guardian. A 52-page report on women’s sports in Saudi Arabia issued by Human Rights Watch last year urged the government to set benchmarks for physical education, to set a curriculum to follow and to launch a public outreach campaign about girls’ rights to physical education. “Although religious views opposing prohibition on women’s participation in sport are less frequently pronounced than those in favor, government policy is only inching toward realizing women’s right to sport rather than taking bold steps to realize it,” the report said. — AP

Anger in Abyei over dead chief KHARTOUM: Tension and anger yesterday gripped the Abyei region disputed by Sudan and South Sudan after the killing of a tribal chief and at least one peacekeeper, residents said, as the UN boosted security. The Sudanese foreign ministr y condemned the “isolated incident ” which killed Kual Deng Majok, the top Ngok Dink a leader in Abyei.

K har toum said members of the Misseriya tribe, the other dominant group in the area, also died in Saturday’s incident, along with three peacekeepers from the UN Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA).

The United Nations earlier said one Ethiopian peacekeeper died and two other Blue Helmets were seriously wounded in the “attack by a Misseriya assailant on a UNISFA convoy”. The foreign ministry expressed hope that the killings will not affect improving relations with South Sudan, whose army spokesman also condemned the violence. “It looks like Dinka are very angry,” one local resident told AFP. He reported fire burning in Abyei’s town centre, where Misseriya run small shops.

A curfew was in effect, with UNISFA setting up extra checkpoints try-

ing to restrict movement and prevent gatherings, the resident said on condition of anonymity. The resident, who is familiar with the incident, said five M isseriya died in Saturday’s skirmish. “There is high tension and all sides are alert, ready for anything,” but no new fighting occurred yesterday, Mohammed AlAnsari, a Misseriya chief in Abyei, told AFP. The UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan, Toby Lanzer, said on Twitter that UNISFA was “expanding patrols with (the) aim of maintaining calm”. —AFP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

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

Bahrain hands 31 long jail terms over police attack DUBAI: A Bahraini court jailed 31 people for 15 years yesterday after convicting them of attacking a police patrol in the Shiite village of Sitra, a lawyer said. The group was accused of attempted murder and setting a

police car ablaze, in addition to rioting and possessing petrol bombs, said the lawyer who requested anonymity. Fourteen of the defendants remain at large. Another lawyer said the defendants had denied the

charges and claimed that they had been tortured into making confessions.

The interior ministry said in March that police arrested a group of people who attacked a patrol in Sitra with

Molotov cocktails, wounding four officers. Sunni-ruled Bahrain has continued to witness sporadic demonstrations in Shiite-populated villages surrounding the capital Manama after security forces crushed a month-

long protest movement in March 2011. The International Federation for Human Rights says about 80 people have been killed in the Gulf archipelago since the violence first broke out on February 14, 2011.— AFP

Egypt oppn can’t harvest Brotherhood unpopularity Secular parties split on Morsi, elections, IMF

BADIA: An image grab taken from a video uploaded on YouTube yesterday shows a body lying in the Syrian village of Baida, south of the coastal city of Banias, after reports said that the Syrian army and regime militias killed scores of residents. — AFP

Brahimi’s ‘mission impossible’ in Syria BEIRUT: Veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, has insisted throughout his career that there is no “hopeless situation”, but he has not managed to find a magical solution to end Syria’s civil war. And the 79-year-old Brahimi, who took on the job last August after predecessor and former UN chief Kofi Annan threw in the towel, is now ready to give up too. Annan resigned on August 2, frustrated by the division between supporters in the West and the Arab world of those fighting to oust Bashar al-Assad and traditional backers of the Syrian president, principally Russia and China.

“The decision has been taken, but we don’t know when it will be formalised,” one UN diplomat said of Brahimi on Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Earlier in the week, a senior aide to Brahimi told AFP he “thinks of it (resigning) every day” but would not decide until at least the middle of May. “He thinks that every step he takes is countered with 10 steps backwards by the Arab states. And now it looks like the Americans will increase their military support (to the rebels), so he feels that he is useless in his role,” the aide said.

If Brahimi quits, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is unlikely to appoint a replacement quickly and could even take on the job himself, a UN diplomat said on Thursday. Indeed, Brahimi could keep a role as an advisor to Ban on Syria or the Middle East, according to envoys. “He will resign and will remain as a special adviser to the secretary general on the Middle East,” said the UN diplomat. “Ban will not rush to appoint a third person,” added another Security Council diplomat. “You have had Annan, you have had Brahimi-are you going to get someone who can do better than them?” Nikolaos Van Dam, a former Dutch diplomat specialising in the Middle East, told AFP that “Brahimi had the addition-

al advantage of being an Arab personality with enormous political experience”.

“His mission was made a kind of ‘mission impossible’... I do not know of any potential successor to Mr Brahimi who could as yet succeed in this extremely difficult job, certainly not as long as the UN and Arab League parties only theoretically support the Geneva principles, but do not do so in practice,” Van Dam said. The Geneva principles were adopted on June 30, 2012 by the Syria action group made up of the five permanent UN Security Council members, the Arab League, Turkey, the United Nations and the European Union.

They seek an immediate end to the bloodshed in Syria and urge establishment of a transitional governing body, but do not call for Assad to step down.

Brahimi, who played a key role as an Arab League emissary in the 1989 agreement that ended the civil war in Lebanon and has carried out various UN missions around the world, has tried everything to resolve the Syrian conflict. It has been a rough ride for him. Soon after his appointment, the opposition demanded he apologise for saying he did not know if the time had come to demand that Assad resign.

Then, during his third visit to Damascus last Christmas Eve, his talks with the Syrian president broke down when he asked Assad if he intended to run for the presidency in 2014.

Three days later Brahimi drove in the nail.

“Change should not be cosmetic; the Syrian people need and require real change, and everyone understands what that means,” he said. “We need to form a government with all powers... which assumes power during a period of transition. That transition period will end with elections,” Brahimi added. He has faced the wrath of the Syrian press which strongly criticised his efforts, even calling him a “false mediator”. —AFP

CAIRO: It’s harvest time in Egypt but the secular opposition is reaping scant benefit from the Muslim Brotherhood’s difficulties in government, two years after an Arab Spring uprising swept away President Hosni Mubarak. Many Egyptians are looking to the army, or to more radical Salafi Muslim groups, rather than to liberal or leftist parties as Islamist President Mohamed Morsi and his cabinet struggle to revive a sick economy, restore security and build institutions.

Perhaps the greatest threat to Egypt’s faltering transition to democracy may come not from what the Brotherhood’s critics regard as its attempts to grab as many powers as possible, but from the inability of a weak and fragmented secular opposition to offer a coherent alternative. “I recognise that the opposition has not lived up to the expectation of the people,” said Amr Moussa, 76, a former Arab League secretary-general, who is one of the leaders of the opposition National Salvation Front (NSF).

“But I also recognise that there are lots of possibilities for the opposition to rise to the challenge, especially as the government is not really offering much,” the conservative told Reuters in an interview. Six secular parties and a cluster of democracy activists and intellectuals are loosely allied in the Front, created last November to resist a decree issued by Morsi under which he temporarily took sweeping powers to push through an Islamist-tinged constitution.

Like the battered vehicles on Egypt’s roads, the NSF often seems held together by desperation alone. “What keeps us together is the dire situation of Egypt,” said Moussa, a foreign minister under Mubarak for 10 years. Mohamed ElBaradei, leader of the liberal Constitution party, said the Front “doesn’t really have the luxury right now to say ‘this is the left, and this is the centre-left or centre-right’ because what we are opposing is... almost a fascist system”. He sees the NSF as representing a silent majority of 60 to 70 percent of Egyptians who reject Brotherhood rule and are in “a national state of depression”.

“Battle of the egos” Yet the opposition alliance is hobbled by what one NSF aide calls a “battle of the egos” among its leaders, and its component parties agree on few policies. Should the opposition engage and compromise with Morsi for the sake of national unity, or boycott and try to weaken him to make it harder for the Brotherhood to control the country? Should they participate in

parliamentary elections that many believe will be skewed towards the Brotherhood, as they say all post-revolution votes have been, or stay away at the risk of being marginalised and looking like bad losers?

And should they back a proposed loan from the International Monetary Fund as essential to pull the economy out of crisis despite the tough terms that would be attached, or oppose it on grounds of national sovereignty and social justice - or just sit on the fence? Each time it looks as if the Front is about to break up over one of these issues, the Brotherhood makes another move that reunites the opposition in shared indignation. The latest was a clumsy attempt in April to purge the judiciary, which Islamists believe is riddled with corrupt former Mubarak loyalists bent on obstructing elections and laws put forward by elected bodies that the Brotherhood dominates. By trying to force more than 3,000 judges into retirement at a stroke, the Brotherhood galvanised the judiciary, the NSF, the Salafis and most of the media against itself, prompting Morsi to beat a tactical retreat and seek a compromise.

Political analysts say the president could pick the secular opposition apart if only he accepted some of its demands to appoint a national unity government, replace a widely reviled prosecutor general and pass a more even-handed election law. “That would pose a real dilemma for the opposition. But mutual suspicion and the Brotherhood’s feeling of being under siege are so strong that I don’t expect Morsi will do that,” a senior European diplomat said.

Betrayed Many opposition activists feel they gave Morsi decisive help to win the presidency by backing him in a run-off against former Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Shafik last June, only to be shut out of influence by the Brotherhood.

They feel betrayed on issues such as the constitution, the rights of women and religious minorities, judicial independence, and laws regulating elections, demonstrations and non-government organisations. “ We were betrayed by the Muslim Brotherhood, we were cheated by the Muslim Brotherhood. Now they make the same propaganda against us as the old regime did,” said Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the NSF and ElBaradei’s Constitution Party. Aside from the NSF, the opposition also features a range of

PLO slams Israel for ‘countless difficulties’

3 dead as Bangladesh Islamists protest for anti-blasphemy law DHAKA: Hundreds of thousands of hardline Islamists demanding a new blasphemy law blocked highways and fought running battles with police, leaving three people dead in the Bangladeshi capital of Dhaka yesterday. Police officials told AFP that about 200,000 people had marched to central Dhaka, where fierce clashes erupted between thousands of rockthrowing protesters and security officials. “At least 100,000 protesters” blocked the road at Tongi town, which connects Dhaka with the northern region, local police chief Ismail Hossain told AFP. Witnesses said rioting broke out after police tried to intercept stick-wielding protesters, most travelling from remote villages, in front of the country’s largest mosque. Trouble then spread to central districts of Dhaka. “This government does not have faith in Allah. This is an atheist government, we will not allow them to live in Bangladesh. Muslims are brothers, we must protect Islam,” one protester, filmed by AFP, was seen chanting.

Live television footage showed police firing from armoured vehicles at protesters, who in retaliation went on the rampage, torching vehicles and shops, attacking government offices and beating policemen with sticks.

Dozens of small bombs exploded, leaving

smoke hanging in the air around the mosque.

“At least three were killed, including one who was shot,” police inspector Mozammel Haq told AFP, adding almost 100 more had been injured. A senior police officer who declined to be named told AFP between “150,000 and 200,000 demonstrators” marched to Motijheel, Dhaka’s main commercial district, where they rallied until 7 pm (1300 GMT ). Deputy Commissioner of Dhaka police, Sheikh Nazmul Alam, said police fired rubber bullets to disperse unruly demonstrators. The protest was staged as the country was recovering from its worst industrial disaster, which saw at least 620 people killed when a factory building collapsed just outside the capital on April 24.

Hefajat, a newly created radical Islamist group, is demanding the death penalty for all those who defame Islam. It said it staged the mass protest to push a 13-point list of demands, which also include a ban on men and women mixing freely together and the restoration of pledges to Allah in the constitution. Hefajat leaders have threatened to launch a campaign to oust the government unless their demands are met. Marchers blocked highways at Jatrabari and Demra, cutting the city off from the northeast and southeast, including from the main port of Chittagong.—AFP

DHAKA: Civilian people carry an injured Islamist protestor during clashes with police yesterday. — AFP

Islamist parties of different shades, including two ultra-conservative Salafi groups, as well as rebranded survivors of Mubarak’s outlawed former National Democratic Party (NDP).

The Salafi Nour Party appears to be the fastest growing, although its claim to 800,000 members - more than the entire membership of all political parties in Britain or France - sounds optimistic. Nour led an alliance of Islamic purists that won 27.3 percent of the vote in 2011-12 parliamentary elections and has the second largest bloc of lawmakers.

Nader Bakkar, 29, the party’s spokesman who has an MBA degree from Alexandria University, says Egyptians are flocking to Nour because, while it has strict Islamic principles, it does not seek to monopolise power or behave like a closed family. It is also untainted by the burdens of trying to make government work in a chaotic post-revolutionary environment.

Like the Brotherhood, Nour activists run social and medical services for the poor, distributing free or cheap food. That could pay off at election time in a nation where 40 percent of the population lives on less than $2 a day.

But unlike the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, which propelled Morsi to power, Nour supports a national unity government that would include liberal opposition figures. The party has its headquarters in a refurbished Nileside apartment that could be home to an advertising agency but for the Koranic chanting coming from a TV screen on a wall in the soft pink spotlit reception area.

“The most likely probability is that we will run in the elections alone. It is almost decided that we will not ally with the Freedom and Justice Party,” Bakkar said in an interview. He said Nour wanted to avoid a dangerous polarisation on Egyptian streets into Islamists and non-Islamists, and left the door slightly ajar to a pact with some secular parties, although such a marriage of convenience looks improbable. While the Nour party eschews strict public enforcement of Islamic behaviour as contrary to Egyptian tradition, Bakkar drew the line at wishing Coptic Christians a happy Easter. The Copts, who comprise up to 15 percent of the 84 million population, celebrate the most important festival of the Christian calendar on May 5 this year. The NSF’s leaders meet weekly on Wednesdays to try to thrash out their many differences and take joint positions that are sometimes a tortured lowest common denominator. — Reuters

TRIPOLI: Libyan protesters hold placards and banners during a demonstration in support of the “political isolation law” in Libya’s landmark Martyrs Square yesterday. —AFP

Libya Congress debates law amid high tensions TRIPOLI: Libya’s General National Congress met Sunday ahead of a vote on a controversial law to exclude former Gaddafi-era officials from government posts amid pressure from armed militias to pass the bill. “The bill on political exclusion is on today’s (Sunday’s) agenda. Depending on how the sitting goes, we will decide whether the vote goes ahead or not,” independent GNC member Abdelfattah Sheloui told AFP. “They are leaning towards a vote today.” The GNC, Libya’s highest political authority, has been studying proposals for a law that would see top figures from the regime of late dictator Muammar Gaddafi sacked from their posts in government.

Gunmen in Tripoli have encircled the foreign ministry for a week and the justice ministry since Tuesday, to demand the speedy adoption of the bill, stepping up pressure on the GNC. Proposals for the law have caused a stir among Libya’s political elite, as several current senior members of the government could be affected, including Prime Minister Ali Zeidan and president of the GNC Mohamed Megaryef, who were diplomats under Gaddafif before joining the opposition in exile.

According to the text of the law, all those who occupied key official posts from September 1, 1969, when Gaddafi took power, until the fall of the regime in October 2011 would be excluded from government for five years.

Human Rights Watch condemned the way in which the law is being pushed through.

“The GNC should not allow itself to be railroaded into making very bad laws because groups of armed men are demanding it,” Sarah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch said in a statement

Saturday. “Libya’s long-term prospects for peace and security will be seriously diminished if the congress agrees to nod through this law.”

The GNC has debated the law in several sessions, but has failed to reach an agreement, as it proved particularly controversial with the National Forces Alliance, the liberal coalition that dominated elections in July, who feared the law was aimed at their leader, Mahmud Jibril.

Vice president Salah al-Makhzum said a compromise had been reached among the political blocs by adding “exceptions” in the bill in order to retain key individuals. But militia leaders warned that they would not accept any exceptions to the law. In April, under pressure from supporters of the law, the GNC made an amendment to the provisional constitutional declaration exempting the law from judicial review even before it was voted on. Some Libyans have objected to the gunmen’s siege of the ministries pushing for the exclusion law, and on Friday, demonstrators against the militias clashed with a rival protest in support of the law in Tripoli.

Zeidan said Saturday that the government preferred using “patience” and dialogue over force to resolve the sieges. Since the fall of Gaddafi’s regime, militia groups, mostly exrebels, have managed border controls, prisons, strategic facilities in the country and vital institutions. They received salaries and other perks from the authorities, and benefitted from smuggling and extor tion.

Gathered in Tripoli, leaders of the ex-rebel militias said on Saturday that the government had agreed to give five ministries over to their members.—AFP

JERUSALEM: The Palestine Liberation Organisation denounced Israel for causing “countless difficulties” for Palestinian Christians and Muslims to reach their holy sites as Orthodox Christians held the “Holy Fire” ceremony in Jerusalem Saturday on the eve of Orthodox Easter. “It is not only that Israel has isolated our occupied capital from the rest of our country - forcing our people to apply for special military permits to access their families and holy places for religious occasions - but even Palestinians from Jerusalem were beaten when trying to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” said Hanna Amireh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and Head of the Presidential Committee on Church Affairs.

Throngs of Orthodox Christians filled Jerusalem’s ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surrounding streets for the ceremony for which thousands of Israeli police officers were deployed. Police said tens of thousands of faithful gathered in the streets around the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, causing huge delays at dozens of checkpoints.

“The Israeli forces turned a religious occasion into a battle camp scenario,” said Amireh. “This is part of Israel’s plan to turn Jerusalem into an exclusive Jewish city. “Palestinian Christians and Muslims face countless difficulties in order to reach their holy sites and conduct their celebrations, while Jews from anywhere are allowed to freely pray at their holy places.

“It is time for the international community to take real action,” he added. “What was witnessed in Jerusalem was an attempt to cancel a tradition of 700 years. “The Israeli government is doing everything possible in order to achieve its goal of changing Jerusalem’s landscape, by building more settlements, demolishing more Palestinian homes, revoking more IDs and by attempting to prevent the normal celebration of Christian and Muslim religious events...”

The PLO said Israeli police stopped a visit organised by Palestinian Christian groups with foreign diplomats and Adnan Ghaleb Al-Husayni, the governor for Quds (Jerusalem) Governorate, as they tried to enter the Old City of Jerusalem. “Even praying has become an act of resistance for Palestinians,” said Amireh.

Believers hold that a divine fire from heaven ignites candles held by the Greek Orthodox patriarch, in an annual rite dating back to the 4th century AD symbolising the resurrection of Christ. The event, the highlight of the Eastern Christian calendar, was attended by pilgrims from around the world-predominantly Eastern Europe-as well as Arab Israelis, all carrying unlit candles.

Greek Patriarch Theophilos III made his traditional grand entry at the head of a procession of monks, chanters and dignitaries with red and gold banners bearing icons. After circling the shrine in the heart of the church three times, he entered along with the Armenian Patriarch what Orthodox, Roman Catholics and many other Christians believe is Jesus’s burial site, emerging minutes later with a lit candle.

The holy flame was swiftly passed from candle to candle between ecstatic believers, most of whom had waited for several hours for the ceremony which filled the air with light and smoke.— AFP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

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

30 wounded in blast at Tanzanian church Vatican ambassador at church opening

JHANG: In this photograph, a Pakistani man stands beside an electoral poster of former Pakistani member of parliament Sheikh Waqas Akram, the rival of Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi the head of hardline Sunni Muslim party Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ), in Jhang in the central Punjab province. — AFP

Ambitious mullah spotlights Pakistan’s sectarian menace JHANG: Hardline Sunni Muslim cleric Maulana Ahmad Ludhianvi may have been defeated in polls five years ago but he’s confident of winning a seat in Pakistan’s election on Saturday, furthering his bid to oppress Shiites. A terrorist to his enemies, a man of peace to his supporters, Ludhianvi heads the country’s largest anti-Shiite group, which has been described as the political wing of terror group Lashkar-eJhangvi.

He is part of a coalition led by cleric Sami ul-Haq, nicknamed Father of the Taliban, having said he was dumped by election frontrunners the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) in favour of his arch rivals, the local feudal Akram family. Sheikh Waqas Akram narrowly defeated Ludhianvi in 2008 but after he was exposed for faking his degree his father is standing in what will be a tight race between the old power of the feudals and the rising threat of sectarianism.

“At the moment I can raise a voice for my anti-Shiite mission only at a local level and from my local mosque. But when I get the microphone in the assembly, the whole nation and the whole world will listen,” Ludhianvi told AFP. His Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat (ASWJ) movement denies any link to violence, despite being known as the political arm of LeJ, one of the most active terror groups in Pakistan, bent on exterminating the 20 percent Shiite minority.

LeJ claimed responsibility for the two worst bomb attacks so far this year, killing 182 people in Shiite areas of southwestern city Quetta. It is also linked to Al-Qaeda.

Rights groups say attacks on Shiites hit a record high in 2012. Jhang, one of the most important towns in central Punjab province, elects four seats to the national assembly and is the birthplace of the sectarian terror.

LeJ precursor, extremist group Sipah-eSahaba (SSP), was founded in the town in 1985 and the head of ASWJ always lives in Jhang. Ludhianvi was formerly a SSP leader.

PML-N, the biggest party in the province, has long been accused of aligning with hardliners as a way of cementing their power.

The PML-N is tipped to win Saturday’s elections and form a national government.

Ludhianvi says the party has cut him off and backed Akram’s father, Sheikh Muhammad Akram. But PML-N senator

Mushahidullah Khan told AFP: “Ahle Sunnat Wal Jammat has never been our ally. We never wanted to give them tickets. It is all propaganda that they are our allies.”

The narrow streets outside Ludhianvi’s home are filled with posters and graffiti supporting him, exhorting strict Muslim laws and denouncing Shiites. Long-bearded and soft-spoken, Ludhianvi goes nowhere without gun-toting bodyguards clad in black shalwar kamizes.

He calls on religious groups to unite to “save” Pakistan as an Islamic (Sunni) republic. His supporters liken their struggle to that against Ahmadis, a minority community in 1974 declared non-Muslim and stripped of other rights. The Akrams, who made their vast wealth in transportation, talk of a progressive, tolerant Pakistan, of the economy not sectarian hatred.

Although Maulana Azam Tariq, the thenhead of SSP, won the seat in 2002 from jail, when he was assassinated a year later Sheikh Waqas Akram won the by-election.

Waqas, 39, won again in 2008. But both victories were narrow and the constituency remains hotly contested. Waqas claims to have survived 12 assassination attempts in the past 10 years, including four suicide attacks.

He is accompanied everywhere by four to five gunmen. “There are only two types of votes in Jhang: Sipah-e-Sahaba and anti Sipah-e-Sahaba,” Waqas told AFP at his fortress-style home. “I still remember in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s when they were the biggest dons of this area. They used to kill people and string up their bodies on the road to give a message to others. They used to extort money from everybody.

“The only way to put an end to extremism in Pakistan is to exclude these elements from mainstream politics and political influences.” But the competition is tough and analysts say it will be a close race. Zargham Abbas, 35, a former local councillor, said “most sensible” people support the Akram family because of their moderate view.

“There has been peace in this town for the last 10 years,” he said. “People want a balanced society and to get rid of fanaticism”.

But grocer Muhammad Nadeem Qasmi, 43, is a die-hard Ludhianvi supporter. “The agenda of the ASWJ to bring Islamic legislation to defend the dignity of Islamic figures is quite justified. We are hoping for victory,” he said. — AFP

ARUSHA: At least 30 people were injured, three seriously, in a suspected bomb attack yesterday at a packed new Catholic church in the northern Tanzanian city of Arusha, police said. Witnesses said at least one person had been trampled to death in the stampede after the blast. The Vatican’s ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, was attending mass at the church but was not harmed, officials said.

“There have been 30 people wounded, three in a serious condition, and one person has been arrested,” said regional police chief Liberatus Sabas.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion. “This is a sad day, our security forces are mobilised, and the culprits will be arrested and brought to justice,” said Arusha’s commissioner Magesa Mulongo. “For the time being we don’t know if it is a bomb,” he added. However, tensions have been high between Tanzania’s Christian and Muslim communities in recent months, and local member of parliament Godbless Lema condemned the blast as the work of “criminals”.

“Religious fundamentalism is a reality in this country, but the government does nothing,” he said angrily outside the church, as police cordoned off the area and ordered people away from the building. The blast took place outside a Roman Catholic church in Arusha, a town popular with tourists visiting the nearby Serengeti national park and snowcapped Mount Kilimanjaro. The newly built church, in the Olasti district on the outskirts of Arusha town, was celebrating its first ever mass when the blast took place, and people were squeezed into the church building as well as sitting on benches outside.

“When it exploded there was a stampede, people running in all directions, walking on each

ARUSHA: Wounded churchgoers lie on the ground as Roman Catholic nuns run for cover after a blast at the St Joseph Mfanyakazi Roman Catholic Church in Arusha, Tanzania yesterday. — AP other, children were screaming and women crying,” said Viviana, who was helped out of the church by her son. “I saw a dead woman trampled, I think even her two children were killed in the same way,” said a woman, who gave her name only as Mariana. An AFP reporter said that several wounded people were taken to hospital, and that police had closed off roads around the church.

Worshippers angrily accused the police and the government of failing to properly protect them. “There were so many people, the church was full, and the faithful were sitting on benches outside - it was a great day of celebration,” said

Jacob, a motorcycle taxi driver, who had been at the mass. In February, a Catholic priest was shot dead outside his church on the largely Muslim archipelago of Zanzibar, the second such killing in recent months. A church was also set on fire on Zanzibar in February.

Last month, in the far south of Tanzania, police fired tear gas to disperse around 200 Christian rioters attempting to torch a mosque over an argument over who should be allowed to slaughter animals. Tanzanian Foreign Minister Bernard Membe said in a message on Twitter that he was “greatly shocked” at the news of the blast. — AFP

Russian marchers remember bloody anti-Putin protest MOSCOW: About a thousand Muscovites rallied yesterday in memory of a bloody protest one year ago in which more than 400 were detained after showing their frustration with Vladimir Putin’s return to the presidency. The “Spring March of Freedom” was held almost a year to the day since Russian authorities deployed baton-wielding interior ministry troops to disperse a crowd of tens of thousands on the eve of Putin’s May 7 swearing-in ceremony.

Dozens of demonstrators and several police officers ended up in hospital in the ensuing clashes. More than two dozen people now face years in prison on disturbance of order charges. Several have been jailed already.

“I came out to protest against the dictatorship that was installed under the Putin regime and against the political repressions,” a Muscovite named Oleg said as people of all ages around him unfurled banners

reading “Freedom to political prisoners” under the heavy grey sky. But the protest movement has grown fractured since its heyday in the winter of 2011-2012 — a time when discontent was at a peak over what were seen as stacked December 2011 parliamentary elections and Putin’s decision to return to the Kremlin after completing two terms in 2000-2008.

Activists can now barely agree on how they should proceed or reconcile views that range from the far leftsome even openly embracing the late Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin-to those who support a Western-style democracy. Those fissures were embarrassingly laid bare when opposition leaders failed to agree on a date to mark the first anniversary of the now infamous protest. A much smaller group marched yesterday instead of the actual anniversary today because they believed that most of its supporters work during the week. “I am disappointed with

the numbers-I thought there would be more people,” said a 39-year-old woman who identified herself only as Marina. “The opposition has grown more quiet,” she said.

The thousand or so people in attendance were surrounded by what Moscow city authorities said was a police presence of 4,000 officers. Yet a much larger section of the protest movement that includes opposition figureheads such as the corruption fighter Alexei Navalny and novelist Boris Akunin decided to go ahead with their event. Observers say large numbers are expected then amid growing anger over a widening crackdown on dissenting voices in the country. Putin’s thumping March 2012 presidential victory with 63.6 percent of the vote at first seemed to take all the air out of the opposition movement. Some decided to abandon periodic demonstrations altogether in favour of a focus on municipal elections through which they

could build their ranks from the bottom up. But Putin-an ex-KGB spy who spars often with the West and supports a strictly hierarchical political system for Russia in which all major decisions are made by the Kremlinhas once against shown his authoritative streak. He has openly blamed the winter demonstrations before his election on funding from the United States.

That message has been echoed in this year’s campaign against nongovernmental organisations that receive funding from the West. These groups will now be forced to declare themselves as “foreign agents” a derogatory term that in Russian essentially means the group is run by spies. The authorities have also opened a series of trials against opposition leaders that could land people such as the popular Navalnyby far the most dangerous figure from the Kremlin’s perspectivebehind bars for 10 years. —AFP

Nigeria’s civilians bear brunt of Islamist conflict MAIDUGURI: This relic of a medieval African empire, streets that were once lively markets for silk and perfumes now trade gunfire between Islamist insurgents and the Nigerian military. Army checkpoints at intervals of 300 metres choke the roads through parts of Maiduguri, capital of northeast Nigeria’s Borno state and epicentre of Boko Haram’s fight for Islamic rule.

Residents of Borno, for centuries the seat of one of West Africa’s oldest Islamic empires, then called Bornu, feel trapped in the middle, targets for both sides in a more than three year old conflict they fear only a negotiated settlement can end. Along the bullet-pocked slums of Gwange and Kofa Biyu, on Maiduguri’s outskirts, bearded members of Boko Haram hide amongst civilians in rubblestrewn streets that are largely deserted, save a few young children playing on sandy pave-

ments. Grandfather Muazu Kalari said most of the adult males in his family-the ones most at risk of being killed by one side or the otherhad fled since the Islamists moved in. “My three sons abandoned their children and wives, and so I’m left to fend for my grandchildren,” he said, arranging tomatoes on a table for sale on an otherwise empty street.

The unrest has its origins in 2009, when a cleric called Mohammed Yusuf led an uprising against the government, triggering a security crackdown in which 800 people died, including Yusuf, who was in police custody. Far from crushing Boko Haram, it triggered an angry backlash, transforming a clerical movement opposed to Western education into a violent jihadist sect that has since forged ties with AlQaeda-linked groups in the Sahara. Thousands have died in a conflict that has destabilised Africa’s top energy producing nation. The

Islamists, who frequently target the security forces, Christian worshippers or politicians, have shown no sign of giving up and no interest in an amnesty offer floated by President Goodluck Jonathan last month.

In Maiduguri, people say a political settlement may be the only hope. “No one believes that the military with all their big guns can stop Boko Haram attacks,” said Islamic cleric Maha Lawali. “They need to arrange a peace deal with these people.” An army raid two weeks ago killed dozens of people in the market town of Baga, on Lake Chad too the north, prompting calls for an investigation. Western powers, fearing that Nigerian jihadists are tilting more towards targeting their interests, have urged Nigeria to discipline its troops and address the underlying causes of the insurgency, which stem from the north’s economic decline. — Reuters

Burundi media in the cross-hairs of govt BUJUMBURA: Burundi’s journalists are bracing for tough times after parliament passed a restrictive draft media law that rights groups fear is designed to silence critical voices ahead of a general election in two years. The law, prepared amid great secrecy last year, was adopted by parliament last Monday. Giving the government extra powers, it strips from journalists the ability to protect their sources, restricts reporting on topics deemed sensitive and sharply raises the fines courts can impose.

While the legislation must still be passed by the president, journalists are worried. “We are fighting against this bill since we learned about it several months ago,” said Alexander Niyungeko, president of the Burundian Journalists Union. “We sensed from the beginning a desire to rein in the independent press of the country... We now know that this bill was prepared by the ruling party to take revenge on the journalists who are accused of having given their microphone to be the voice of the opposition.” The former secretary general of the ruling party (CNDD-FDD), Gelase Ndabirabe, now a senator, recently said the motivation for the law was to curb the enthusiasm of journalists, who, since the opposition boycotted politics three years ago, have taken on the role of “politicians”. Many opposition leaders have fled the country since their boycott of the 2010 presidential and parliamentary elections. —AFP

MOSCOW: Russia’s opposition supporters take part in a rally in memory of a bloody protest one year ago in which more than 400 were detained after showing their frustration with Vladimir Putin’s return to presidency. — AFP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

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

NYC’s bike share, largest in the country, to begin 6,000 bikes docked at 330 stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn NEW YORK: New York City, with its constant hum of subways, buses, cabs and ferries, has long had one glaring exception to its many transportation options: bicycles for the masses.

But bike sharing is finally coming to the Big Apple, which could help the city overcome its reputation as a commuter obstacle course of speeding cabbies, horn-honking drivers and sharp-elbowed pedestrians who treat crossing signals as a mere suggestion.

City officials say the nation’s largest bikesharing system will begin sometime this month with 6,000 bikes at 330 stations in Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn, with plans to expand

city expects the system to turn a profit, which will be split evenly between the city and the operator.

Thousands of people already have signed up as Citi Bike founding members, paying the $95 annual fee for unlimited rides of 45 minutes.

And supporters say New York has no choice but to join the ranks of cities such as London, Barcelona and Paris, all of which have successful programs. As of last month, there were a total of 534 bike-sharing programs worldwide, according to Russell Meddin, a Philadelphiabased bike-sharing advocate who tracks and maps the programs. (The world’s largest public

NEW YORK: In this photo, docks for a new bike share program stand empty on MacDougal Street in New York. —AP eventually to 10,000 bikes and 600 docking stations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens.

“When you talk about scale, no other US city comes close,” says Jon Orcutt, policy director at the city’s Department of Transportation, which is overseeing the launch of the program.

Officials hope the privately funded bikesharing program, dubbed Citi Bike after a $41 million sponsorship from Citibank and an additional $6.5 million from MasterCard, will add riders to the more than 700 miles of bike lanes throughout New York and will be used by oneway commuters and round-trip tourists alike.

The idea is that bike -sharing programs decrease the number of drivers on the road and encourage healthy lifestyles, a particular policy goal of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The

bike-sharing system is in Hangzhou, China, where it’s estimated there are 69,500 bikes and close to 3,000 docking stations.)

New York’s system, which is designed for short trips, works like this: Riders 16-years-old and up who don’t have a membership can use a credit or debit card to get a multi-digit code to unlock a bike from a station. A $101 hold will be put on the card but not charged. Riders can then purchase a 24-hour pass that costs about $10 - a seven-day pass costs $25 - and allows for an unlimited number of 30-minute trips. Riders can return the bikes to any station.

By renting bike time, a rider is agreeing to the terms of use of the program, consenting to, among other things, taking responsibility for damaging the bright blue, three-gear bikes. The

program recommends helmets but does not require them. General liability, Orcutt says, depends on the situation. If a rider isn’t following city rules, such as riding against traffic, a resulting injury might be his or her fault; if the front wheel is loose during a ride, that might be the bike share’s fault; and if a rider falls into an open pothole, that could well be the city’s fault.

It has been a long road for New York City’s bike share, which has had to overcome the perception that the city’s bustling streets are too dangerous and its residents too uncompromising. (Think Dustin Hoffman’s famous crosswalk retort - “I’m walkin’ here!” - from the movie “Midnight Cowboy.”) But the city has added 300 miles (500 kilometers) of new bike lanes in the past five years, plus 200 more miles (300 more kilometers) of greenways and routes in parks.

Long stretches along the Westside Highway and the Brooklyn waterfront have been redone with bikes in mind. And officials spent nearly two years and had 400 community meetings to pick docking station locations.

Still, many residents are giving voice to notin-my-backyard arguments against the program, taking aim specifically at the large gray docking stations that have sprouted in city neighborhoods in recent weeks, taking up parking spaces and crowding entranceways. At a raucous community board meeting this past week in Greenwich Village, about 200 residents gathered to complain about the stations.

“I don’t care what they do in Paris: I live in New York City,” Deborah Stone said to thunderous applause. The launch of the program has been delayed twice - most recently during Superstorm Sandy, when the storm damaged much of the equipment, including bikes.

Susan Shaheen, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, says research shows bike shares decrease accidents, giving credence to the strength-in-numbers theory pushed by bike share advocates, who suggest drivers adjust their behavior and become more cautious when more bikes are on the road.

Her research has found that bike share operators with more than 1,000 bicycles had an average of 4.33 accidents reported per year - with no fatalities reported. In New York City, there were 369 severe injuries for bicyclists reported in 2011, with 22 fatalities, according to city data.

Washington, DC’s program, which began in 2010, now has 1,100 bikes but also had to overcome some opposition early on, mostly about the docking stations.

“Basically, they just kind of disappear into the landscape,” says DC’s Capital Bike Share project manager Chris Holben. “You know, there’s your bus shelter, there’s your trash can, there’s your bike station.” —AP

Middle-aged suicide rates rise sharply in US

JORK: The new ‘blossom queen’ Carolina Sofia Wolf poses for photographers during a ‘blossom event’ yesterday in Jork, northern Germany. For 30 years, the blossom queen is elected for representative duties of the so called ‘Altes Land’ region which is the biggest contiguous fruit-producing region in Central Europe. —AFP

Venezuela govt slams Obama’s comments CARACAS: Venezuela’s government on Saturday angrily rejected comments made

by US President Barack Obama about the South American country’s political crisis and accused Washington of being behind violence that has followed its recent presidential election. A foreign ministry statement said that Obama’s “fallacious, intemperate and interventionist declaration” will lead toward deteriorating relations between the countries and “confirms to the world the policy of aggression his government maintains against our country.”

The statement read by Foreign Minister Elias Jaua on state television referred to comments the US president made to Spanish-language television network Univision during his trip to Mexico and Costa Rica. In the interview that aired Friday, Obama wouldn’t say if the United States recognizes Nicolas Maduro as Venezuela’s new president following elections that have been disputed by the opposition.

When asked, he replied that it’s up to the people of Venezuela to choose their leaders in legitimate elections. He also said that reports indicate that basic principles of human rights, democracy, press freedom and freedom of assembly were not observed in Venezuela following the election.

“Venezuela rejects with all the force of its Bolivarian dignity the declaration by United States President Barack Obama which again attacks the legitimate Venezuelan government,” the foreign ministry statement said. Maduro, the handpicked successor to late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, narrowly won April 14 presidential elections. But opposition leader Henrique Capriles contends the election was stolen from him and has challenged the result.

Tensions between supporters on both sides remain high, with tens of thousands of Venezuelans protesting in the streets.

Lawmakers even brawled on the floor of the National Assembly last week. In another interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo that’s set to air on Sunday, Obama described as “ridiculous” the idea that an American filmmaker detained by Venezuela’s government is a spy.

Thirty-five-year-old Timothy Tracy, of West Hollywood, California, was formally charged last week with crimes including conspiracy, association for criminal purposes and use of a false document. Obama says Tracy’s case will be handled like every other in which a US citizen gets into a “legal tangle” while abroad. The president also said the US hasn’t tried “in any way” to interfere with Venezuela’s recent Elections —AP

NEW YORK: The suicide rate among middle-aged Americans climbed a startling 28 percent in a decade, a period that included the recession and the mortgage crisis, the government reported Thursday. The trend was most pronounced among white men and women in that age group. Their suicide rate jumped 40 percent between 1999 and 2010. But the rates in younger and older people held steady. And there was little change among middle-aged blacks, Hispanics and most other racial and ethnic groups, the report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Why did so many middle-aged whites - that is, those who are 35 to 64 years old - take their own lives? One theory suggests the recession caused more emotional trauma in whites, who tend not to have the same kind of church support and extended families that blacks and Hispanics do. The economy was in recession from the end of 2007 until mid-2009. Even well afterward, polls showed most Americans remained worried about weak hiring, a depressed housing market and other problems.

Pat Smith, violence-prevention program coordinator for the Michigan Department of Community Health, said the recession - which hit manufacturing-heavy states particularly hard - may have pushed already-troubled people over the brink. Being unable to find a job or settling for one with lower pay or prestige could add “that final weight to a whole chain of events,” she said.

Another theory notes that white baby boomers have always had higher rates of depression and suicide, and that has held true as they’ve hit middle age. During the 11-year period studied, suicide went from the eighth leading cause of death among middle-aged Americans to the fourth, behind cancer, heart disease and accidents.

“Some of us think we’re facing an upsurge as this generation moves into later life,” said Dr Eric Caine, a suicide researcher at the University of Rochester. One more possible contributor is the growing sale and abuse of prescription painkillers over the past decade. Some people commit suicide by overdose. In other cases, abuse of the drugs helps put people in a frame of mind to attempt suicide by other means, said Thomas Simon, one of the authors of the CDC report, which was based on death certificates.

People ages 35 to 64 account for about 57 percent of suicides in the US The report contained surprising information about how middle-aged people kill themselves: During the period studied, hangings overtook drug overdoses in that age group, becoming the No. 2 manner of suicide. But guns remained far in the lead and were the instrument of death in nearly half of all suicides among the middle-aged in 2010.

The CDC does not collect gun ownership statistics and did not look at the relationship between suicide rates and the prevalence of firearms.

For the entire US population, there were 38,350 suicides in 2010, making it the nation’s 10th leading cause of death, the CDC said. The overall national suicide rate climbed from 12 suicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 14 per 100,000 in 2010. That was a 15 percent increase.

For the middle-aged, the rate jumped from about 14 per 100,000 to nearly 18 - a 28 percent increase. Among whites in that age group, it spiked from about 16 to 22. Suicide prevention efforts have tended to concentrate on teenagers and the elderly, but research over the past several years has begun to focus on the middle-aged. The new CDC report is being called the first to show how the trend is playing out nationally and to look in depth at the racial and geographic breakdown. —AP

HOUSTON: A woman tries to sell raffle tickets to win a gun from the “Wall of Guns” during the 2013 NRA Annual Meeting and Exhibits at the George R Brown Convention Center. —AFP

NRA seeks to highlight ‘armed, fabulous’ women HOUSTON: The National Rifle Association is showcasing women members and emphasizing that increasingly it’s not just men who own firearms and oppose guncontrol efforts. Female membership is up, the nation’s leading advocate for gun ownership says, and its revamped website features profiles of “armed and fabulous” women and describes how women are bringing “new energy” to the NRA. “This is the National Rifle Association catering to demand,” NRA spokesman Andrew Arulanandam said. “We’ve seen in the last few years an increase in women buying guns, joining the National Rifle Association, enrolling in personal safety classes and going out and organizing women’s-only hunts.” A number of the 550 vendors at the 142nd NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits this weekend in Houston also have women in mind. Some are selling pink NRA T-shirts, and companies such as Concealed Carrie and Urban Moxy are offering handbags designed for concealed handguns.

Saleswomen for Urban Moxy - which describes itself as “loaded with style” demonstrate how a gun can slide into a purse’s lockable, neoprene-lined pocket.

The meeting of some 70,000 members comes less than a month after the NRA scored a major victory in Congress when it beat back a proposal to expand background checks for gun buyers.

The proposal, which supporters have vowed to revive, is a key part of President Barack Obama’s gun-control effort sparked by the December school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed. An online Reuters/Ipsos poll released in January showed that 86 percent of Americans surveyed favored expanded background checks of all gun buyers. A CBS News/New York Times poll released on Wednesday showed that 88 percent of Americans support background checks for all gun buyers and that 59 percent are disappointed or angry about the recent Senate vote on gun legislation.

Taking away freedoms?

The NRA works assiduously to defend the Second Amendment to the US Constitution that sets out the right to bear arms. NRA member Cindy Chambers of Houston said the background-check proposal targets law-abiding gun owners, not criminals. “We take our freedoms seriously,” said Chambers, who owns a travel company. “I’m just right of center, but when the government decides to take away free-

doms given to us by law, we are re-energized to defend those rights.”

Chambers attended the 7th Annual NRA Women’s Leadership Forum Luncheon & Auction on Friday at River Oaks Country Club. “It was so empowering today to walk into a room full of an array of women with the same mindset,” said another lunch attendee, Houston culinary instructor Molly Fowler.

There was also an NRA Women New Energy Reception on Friday evening, and the NRA this weekend was offering a threeday pistol instructor training course for women. The NRA will not say how many of its 5 million members are women. But Arulanandam said the NRA’s women’s-only hunts had grown from only two or three sparsely attended events each year to dozens across the world. Men typically buy guns for recreational purposes, while women tend to get them for self-protection, then later use them for other purposes, Arulanandam said.

‘Fear and paranoia’ For Fowler, it was an intruder on her property that prompted her to get a concealed handgun license, she said. “Owning guns is made into such a heinous, horrible thing, and it’s not,” Fowler said. “My dad had a gun case that wasn’t locked, but we were educated from an early age. We knew they were dangerous, we knew right from wrong, we knew they weren’t toys.”

Kellye Bowman, co-leader of the Houston chapter of Moms Demand Action, a group formed after the Connecticut school shooting to push for gun control, said the NRA was “trying to terrify women with misinformation about crime.” “They create fear and paranoia,” Bowman said.

This week the NRA Women’s Network announced a new and improved NRA Women website, sponsored by the gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson Corp. “Our mission is to expose the public to the female face of the NRA,” the group said in a Facebook posting.

In a video on the NRA Women site, champion pistol shooter Julie Golob says she has been sending letters and emails to elected officials to tell them gun owners come from all walks of life. The video also features advocate Natalie Foster, who says authorities do not understand what it is like to be a woman who needs protection from an abusive ex-spouse. “I don’t think you can overstate how critical it is for women to get engaged with what’s going on right now,” says Foster, founder of the website Girl’s Guide to Guns. —Reuters

Boston bomb suspect a seemingly ordinary teen NEW YORK: Three weeks after the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, questions linger about 19year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a seemingly normal teenager. His older brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, had raised red flags, including with Russian authorities, over his apparent radicalization. But there never were similar suspicions about Dzhokhar-called “Jahar” by his friends-who remains locked up under strict security at a prison hospital and stands accused of carrying out with his brother the bombings that killed three people and wounded 264 last month.

To his father, he was “an angel.” To those who knew him at school, he was “cool,” “sweet” and “smart.” All signs pointed to the ethnic Chechen teen with the tussled hair being nothing more than an ordinary student. He had a car, liked to listen to loud music, had enough money to take a few trips to New York City with his friends. On scholarship at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Tsarnaev lived on campus and, in addition to attending the gym, he was known for smoking pot, drinking beer and partying. By his own admission, he was not a stellar student: his grades were poor in most subjects. His Twitter feed is a digest of the daily mundanities of student life, recounting sleep-deprivation, videogames and laundry. He wrote that he loves peanut butter and Nutella, that he found Miss America sexy, and, two days before the attack, that he got a haircut.

On Russian social network VKontakte, he described his worldview as “Islam,” but he also said that “career and money” mattered most. He was rarely seen at the mosque. But Dzhokhar admired his older brother, and he seems to have been deeply influenced by his family history. A Muslim of Chechen origin, Dzhokhar was born in Kyrgyzstan, a member of the Chechen diaspora created from deportations in the 1940s under Russian leader Joseph Stalin. He spent his early childhood in Kyrgyzstan before his family moved to Dagestan, and then, when he was eight years old, to the United States, where his

father was a mechanic in the Boston suburb of Cambridge. He was naturalized as an American citizen last year.

A student routine On March 14, 2012, he tweeted, “a decade in America already, I want out.” A month later, he wrote that he was “proud to be from Chechnya.”

And on New Year’s Eve, after spending the day with a Muslim convert, he wrote: “my religion is the truth.” Yet in February 2012, he had been in New York, tweeting “NY was rockin’.” A month before the attacks, Tsarnaev bragged to two Kazakh friends that he knew how to make a bomb. The two friends, who have since recounted the events to investigators, did not raise any alarms. Tsarnaev has reportedly told investigators that he watched videos online with his brother of American-born Al-Qaeda preacher Anwar alAwlaki, who was killed in September 2011 by a US drone. The brothers also turned to the Internet for instructions on how to make the bombs they used to attack the marathon finish line. And then, after the attack, Dzhokhar slipped back into his routine, without attracting the least suspicion.

He went back to the gym. He kept tweeting.

“Ain’t no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people,” Tsarnaev wrote the evening after the attack.

And, in his last tweet, on April 17, he declared: “I’m a stress free kind of guy.” So unstressed, or oblivious, that the FBI found the shirt and the hat Tsarnaev wore the day of the attack in his dorm room. He spent the whole evening of the 17th at the home of Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, his Kazakh friends. On the 18th, he went back to his place in Tazhayakov’s car, around 4:00 pm. When the FBI published the photos of the suspected attackers an hour later, Dzhokhar, who had left campus shortly before, responded calmly to text messages from Kadyrbayev: “lol,” “you better not text me” and “come to my room and take whatever you want.” Accused of using a weapon of mass destruction, Tsarnaev faces the death penalty if convicted. -—AFP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

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

Bangladesh building collapse toll tops 600 Bangladesh building owner faces murder complaint

NEW DELHI: Rajesh Kumar Sharma, the founder of a free school for slum children, teaches a class at a free school for impoverished children under a mass transit bridge in New Delhi. — AP

For India’s poor, a school under a railway bridge NEW DELHI: Their classroom is a flattened patch of dirt and rocks under the elevated rail tracks. Their blackboards are rectangles painted on a chipped concrete wall. Their teacher is a shop owner with no formal training, but a conviction that education is their only hope. For some of these dozens of children of poor migrant workers in India’s capital, this makeshift, open-air school under the rumble of mass transit is the only school they have. Others who attend overcrowded and dismal government schools come here as well - to actually learn.

India’s Right To Education Act promising free, compulsory schooling to all children ages 6 to 14 was supposed to take full effect March 31, but millions of children still don’t go to school and many who do are getting only the barest of educations.

So every morning, more than 50 children gather under the bridge for two hours of lessons at Rajesh Kumar’s informal school.

They sweep the dirt flat and roll out foam mats to sit on, just meters (yards) from the bushes were several men had been squatting and defecating minutes earlier.

The students, ages 4 to 14, study everything from basic reading and writing to the Pythagorean Theorem. Those who also attend government schools say classrooms there are packed and that teachers, when they show up, just come in, write a problem on the board, and leave. “They teach much better here,” said Raju, 12, the child of flower pickers. He also attends fifth grade at a government school in a class with 61 other students. There “they hardly teach anything,” he said.

Under the Right to Education Act, passed in 2010, enrollment has increased from 193 million to 199 million, and the government has invested more than $11 billion extra dollars in upgrading the school system. Still, about 3 million children remain out of school, according to the government; Private groups put that number at about 8 million. There also remain at least 700,000 teacher vacancies, and many of those who are employed don’t have the proper training, according to the government.

Despite the new investments, schools appear to be getting worse. According to the 2012 report by the non-profit education group Pratham, nearly 68 percent of third graders in government schools can’t read at a first-grade level, up 10 percent from two years ago. Math proficiency had similarly plummeted, according to the report, which is based on assessments of about 700,000 children across the country.

The government needs to focus not just on hiring new teachers and building new schools but on providing a good education to Indian children, said Rukmini Banerji, a Pratham official. “It looks like we are far from getting there,” she said.

Government officials say their own surveys show some improvement, though overall learning levels remain low.

“The rapid expansion of primary education and introduction of a large number of first-generation learners in the school system has posed a major challenge for learning outcomes,” India’s Human Resource Development Minister M Mangapati Pallam Raju told Parliament last month.

Kumar’s school under a bridge stands as proof of the hunger for learning among those either left out of the system or disappointed by it. One day in 2008, Kumar said, he spotted children playing in the dirt as he walked to the train station and asked their parents why they weren’t in school.

They complained the school was too far and their children would have to cross a dangerous highway to get there. If he was concerned about their education, he should teach them, they said.

The next morning, he came back to teach his first lesson to five excited children. Within six weeks, there were 140, he said. They were the children of construction workers and bicycle rickshaw drivers, of farm laborers and roadside vendors, the poorest of migrant workers who came to the capital because opportunities in their

villages were even worse. Many of the parents were illiterate and couldn’t even sign their names, he said. “To change the future of these children, education is the only weapon,” Kumar said. “If they go anywhere in the world, if they have education, they can achieve anything. And without education, they can do nothing.”

An Indian donor, seeing an Associated Press photo essay on the school, gave the children socks, shoes and Angry Birds backpacks. He hired workers to level the ground under the bridge and bought the foam mats the pupils sit on. On a recent spring day, the kids sat attentively, practicing reading and writing with workbooks.

A second volunteer teacher whom Kumar recruited chalked algebra equations on a blackboard. A college student on break helped tutor the children.

Kumar, 42, who teaches Monday through Saturday and gives no vacations, stood at the blackboard and in a singsong voice led the younger children in math problems. He called students up to the wall to do simple subtraction and gently patted one girl on the cheek when she got an answer right. She ran back to her seat, beaming. Every few minutes a train passed overhead, largely ignored by the school below.

Pammi, a 12-year-old girl who, like many of India’s poor, uses only one name, was illiterate and had never been to school until she came here six months ago. Now, she can read and write, she said. Nishu, 5, went to a government school for one month, but cried all the time and told her family the teacher beat her. Her family, unhappy that the little girl had to cross a highway to get to school, pulled her out, said her grandmother, Rekha, 60, who sells vegetables from a basket she carries on her head.

“My granddaughter is very, very smart,” Rekha said as Nishu practiced writing her ABCs on a slate. “I don’t want her to go anywhere else. I want her to stay and read and write here.” Kumar works to enroll the students in government schools and said he got 130 into the state education system. “They can get a degree there. I can’t give them that,” he said.

But many of those kids come back to study with him as well. Bharat Mandal, 15, wakes up at 3 a.m. to help his parents farm roses for four hours, and he goes to government school in the afternoon, but he still attends Kumar’s school in the morning because “I get to learn,” he said. “I get answers to my questions here. In school there are too many students and the teachers just come and then leave, so my questions aren’t answered,” he said.

Noorbano, 32, had no idea how to register her four children in school when her family moved from the state of Uttar Pradesh to a shack surrounded by a sea of orange marigolds and pink roses near the banks of Delhi’s fetid Yamuna River.

Noorbano, a flower picker, sent them to Kumar’s school in 2008 and a year later he got them into an official school. Their mother was not impressed.

One day, she brought her son to school and the teacher yelled at her for not sending him before. He’s here every day, she responded, it’s you who are never here, Noorbano recounted. She still sends her children to Kumar, and now has dreams almost unthinkable for the offspring of manual laborers attending government schools. One son will be an engineer, another will be a police officer, a third will be a doctor and so will her daughter, she said.

“For my children, there’s God, and there is him,” she said, pointing to Kumar. But Kumar fears his project is precarious. He needs more volunteer teachers because of the mass of students, but doesn’t know where to find them. And his unregistered school is squatting on railroad property.

“Whenever I am asked to leave this place, I will have to,” he said. “Right now, the children are studying. We will take each day as it comes. As long as it remains possible, let’s take advantage of it.” —AP

DHAKA: More than 600 bodies have been recovered from the garment-factory building that collapsed well over a week ago, police said yesterday as the grim recovery work continued in one of the worst industrial accidents ever. Police said yesterday evening that the death t o l l h a d re a c h e d 6 1 0 . M o r e t h a n 2 0 0 b o d i e s h a ve b e e n recovered since Wednesday, when authorities said only 149 people had been listed as missing. The stench of decomposing bodies remains amid the broken concrete of the eightstory Rana Plaza building, and it is anyone’s guess how many v i c t i m s re m a i n to b e re cov ered.

The April 24 disaster is likely t h e wo r s t g a r m e n t - f a c t o r y accident ever, and there have been few industrial accidents of any kind with a higher death toll. It surpassed long-ago garment-industry disasters such a s N e w Yo r k ’s Tr i a n g l e Shirtwaist factory fire, which killed 146 workers in 1911, and more recent tragedies such as a 2012 fire that k illed about 260 people in Pakistan and one in Bangladesh that same year that killed 112.

A n a rc h i t e c t w h o s e f i r m designed the building said yesterday that it had never been designed to handle heavy industrial equipment, let alone the three floors that were later illegally added. The equipment used by the five garment factories that occupied Rana Plaza included huge generators that were turned on shortly before the building crumbled.

Masood Reza, an architect with Vastukalpa Consultants, said the building was designed in 2004 as a shopping mall and not for any industrial purpose.

“We designed the building to have three stories for shops and another two for offices. I don’t know how the additional

Pak forces kill 11 gang members QUETTA: Pakistani security forces killed 11 people yesterday in a gunbattle with a criminal gang in the restive southwest in which two soldiers also died, officials said.

Police and paramilitaries raided a house in Kachhi district, 120 kilometres (75 miles) southeast of Quetta in Baluchistan province, and gunned down gang members including the ringleader, said local administration chief Waheed Shah.

Gang members were wanted in about a dozen cases of highway robbery, abduction, extortion and murder in the southern province of Sindh and the port city of Karachi, he said.

The raid was launched following an intelligence report that they were hiding in Kachhi. “The criminals, who were armed with automatic weapons opened, fire on security forces and killed two soldiers,” said Shah.

Police and paramilitaries retaliated and killed 11 criminals including their leader Gulbahar Mughairy, he said.

Senior government official Asif Durrani confirmed the clash and the casualties. The raid came just days before national and local elections on May 11. The general election will mark the first democratic transfer of power from a civilian government that has served a full term to another one in a country with a history of military coups. Campaigning has been marred by Taleban threats and attacks which have killed 66 people since April 11, according to an AFP tally. — AFP

German death in Afghanistan caps bloody week BERLIN: A member of Germany’s special forces has been killed in Afghanistan, the army said yesterday, the first German soldier to die in the country in almost two years and capping off one of the bloodiest weeks for international troops this year. Violence is intensifying across Afghanistan before the planed withdrawal of foreign combat troops by the end of next year,

and there is growing concern over how Afghan security forces will manage once they leave. In the seven days to Saturday, when the German soldier was k illed by insurgents in Baghlan province, 22 foreign troops died in Afghanistan and three American soldiers died supporting the Afghan mission in Kyrgyzstan.

The toll included the deaths of

seven US soldiers in Afghanistan on Saturday in t wo separate attacks. Almost 4,200 German soldiers are still ser ving in Afghanistan as part of the NATOled I nternational S ecurit y Assistance Force. The latest death brought the number of German soldiers killed in the country to 53.

The last German soldier to die was in June 2011. —Reuters

DHAKA: A woman is comforted as she grieves after identifying the body of her daughter, a victim of the garment factory collapse yesterday. — AP

f l o o r s we re a d d e d a n d h o w factories were allowed on the top floors,” Reza said.

“Don’t ask me anything else.

This is now a sensitive issue,” Reza said before hanging up.

Government officials say substandard building materials, combined with the vibration of the heavy machines used by the fac tories, led to the collapse. The building developed cracks a day before the collapse and the o w n e r, Mohammed Sohel Rana, called engineer Abdur Razzak Khan to inspect it. Khan appeared on television that night and said he told Rana the building should be evacuated.

Police also issued an evacuation order, but witnesses say that hours before the collapse,

Rana told people that the building was safe and garment f a c to r y m a n a g e r s to l d t h e i r workers to go inside. Rana has been arrested is expected to be charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, crimes punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail. Authorities have not said if more serious crimes will be added.

Khan was arrested as well.

Police said he worked as a consultant to Rana when the three illegal floors were added. The government promised to make t h e g a r m e n t i n d u s t r y s a fe r after the November garment factory fire that killed 112 people, saying it would inspec t factories for safety and pull the licenses of those that failed.

That plan has yet to be implemented.

Bangladesh’s $20 billion garment industry supplies retailers around the world and accounts for about 80 percent of the impoverished country’s e x p o r t s. T h e c o l l a p s e h a s r a i s e d s t ro n g d o u b t s a b o u t retailers’ claims that they could ensure worker safety through self-regulation. Bangladesh is popular as a source of clothing largely because of its cheap labor. The minimum wage for a garment worker is $38 a month, after being nearly doubled this year following violent protests by workers. According t o t h e Wo r l d B a n k , t h e p e r capita income in Bangladesh was about $64 a month in 2011.— AP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

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

Australians on Indonesia death row plead for lives SYDNEY: Two Australian drug smugglers on death row in Indonesia have made a desperate plea for their lives, insisting they are reformed characters and deserve a second chance. Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, part of the “Bali Nine”, were convicted and sentenced to death for their role in an attempt to smuggle eight kilograms (18 pounds) of heroin into Australia from the resort

island in 2005.

The rest are serving lengthy sentences, including life terms. Both men have lost their final appeals, with their fate now in the hands of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who can grant clemency. But with Indonesia in February announcing it planned to put to death some convicts for murder and drugs offences in 2013 after not carrying

out an execution for several years, concerns about their fate are growing.

Sukumaran and Chan told Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper they were having nightmares involving being shot dead by a firing squad. “That scenario, being lined up, having a thing tied over your face and seeing these people in front of you with guns. That is the image that comes to my mind,” said Sukumaran, 32.

He said execution would end their lives just when they were achieving good for others, pointing to their part in running computing, English, and art workshops for prisoners in Kerobokan jail. “We are sorry for what we did. We were young and stupid. I would ask, please forgive us and give us a second chance, a chance to make up for what we have done,” he said.

“I want to become a better person

and I want to help everybody else become a better person as well.” Chan also said he was a changed man.

“Sincerely I am sorry for the crime that I did commit and I apologise to the Australian public for that,” he said.

Indonesia has stiff penalties for drug trafficking, including life imprisonment and death. There is no time frame for Yudhoyono to grant clemency. —AFP

Malaysians vote in polls for stability or change Anwar faces last, best shot in Malaysia vote KUALA LUMPUR: Millions of Malaysians voted yesterday with one of the world’s longest-serving governments under serious threat from an upstart opposition that pledges sweeping reform. Eager voters queued at polling stations across the multi-ethnic country, but the process was marred by controversy from the start. Voters took to the Internet in droves to accuse Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government of trying to steal the election, as indelible ink that he touted as a guarantee against voter fraud was found to easily wash off.

The complaints added to other allegations of irregularities that have raised the spectre of a possible disputed result. Polls closed at 5:00 pm (0900 GMT ), with first results expected within hours. The Election Commission estimated about 80 percent of 13 million voters-or more than 10 million people-turned out, which it called a record high. The figure compared to eight million people voting in 2008. Malaysia has a total population of 28 million people.

Until yesterday, the supremacy of the ruling bloc dominated by the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and now led

by Najib, had been unthreatened since independence in 1957. But the diverse Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Pact) opposition alliance captained by charismatic former UMNO star Anwar Ibrahim stunned the country with historic gains in 2008 polls and is gunning for a landmark victory yesterday.

“There is clearly, undeniably, a major ground swell and a major shift among the population across ethnic lines,” Anwar, 65, said after he cast his ballot in a polling centre in his constituency in the northern state of Penang. “Inshallah (God willing), we will win.” Najib’s 13-party Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition is widely given the edge, but Anwar has been feted by massive crowds on the stump and

recent opinion polls have suggested a race too close to predict.

Pakatan has gained traction with pledges to end ruling-party

political reforms but a largely staythe-course vision for the Muslimmajority nation, while touting solid economic growth.

PEKAN: Rosamah Mansor wife of Malaysian Prime MInister Najib Razak shows her inked finger while casting her vote at a polling station in Pekan yesterday. —AFP corruption and authoritarianism, and to reform controversial affirmative-action policies for majority Malays. Anwar says they are abused by a corrupt Malay elite. His back to the wall, Najib has offered limited

The ink was introduced for the first time and touted by Najib and the Election Commission-widely viewed as Barisan-controlled-as proving their commitment to fair polls. It is applied to a person’s fin-

ger to show they have voted. But voters like Halim Mohamad, 77, said the ink, supposed to stain the bearer for several days, washed right off.

“This is cheating. I was shocked when it came off,” he told AFP after voting at the same polling centre as Anwar, showing his cleaned index finger. “I complained to an Election Commission official and he just laughed.” The opposition had already alleged numerous irregularities including a charge that tens of thousands of “dubious” and possibly foreign voters were flown to key constituencies to sway results.

The government has said the flights were part of a voter-turnout drive but has provided no details, while Najib tweeted yesterday that no foreigners were drafted in. “We are committed to a fair election,” he said. But videos, pictures and firsthand accounts of purportedly foreign “voters” being turned away from polling centres went viral online. Anwar was a former deputy premier until his ouster in a 1998 power struggle and six-year jailing on sex charges widely viewed as trumped up.

He later brought his pan-racial appeal to the once-divided opposition, dramatically reversing its fortunes. Najib has warned of chaos and racial strife under the occasionally fractious Pakatan, which includes Anwar’s multi-racial party, one led by ethnic Chinese, and another representing conservative Muslim Malays. Najib’s ethnic Malay-dominated regime retains powerful advantages, including control of traditional media, key institutions and an electoral landscape critics say is biased. “It’s a tight run. But I’m not scared, I’m excited,” retiree H.Y. Ong said of the race before voting in the capital Kuala Lumpur. “ The times have changed, they (the government) need to change. Money politics should be controlled,” he added, while not divulging his voting preference. —AFP

Everest brawl exposes mountaineering’s rifts KATHMANDU: A brawl on Mount Everest last weekend that shocked the mountaineering community stems from tension between elite climbers and growing commercial expeditions on the world’s highest peak, experts say. Italy’s Simone Moro and Ueli Steck of Switzerland, two of the world’s top mountaineers, accompanied by top British alpine photographer Jonathan Griffith, were involved in a fight with a group of Nepalese Sherpas on Saturday.

While there are many views on who was to blame, all agree the spark was a decision by the Europeans to climb the Lhotse Face, a steep ice wall, while the Nepalese guides were rigging up ropes for their commercial clients. Last year, hundreds of commercial climbers were famously photographed as they queued to reach the summit, illustrating the huge number of people who flock to the 8,848-metre (29,029 ft) peak each year.

Expecting similar crowds this season, the Expedition Operators’ Association of Nepal recom-

mended before the start of the 2013 summit season that Sherpas be sent to fix two sets of ropes-one for ascent and one for descent. “This year the tensions occurred while the Sherpas were beginning to implement that plan,” Mohan Krishna Sapkota, a spokesman in the Tourism Ministry, told AFP. Moro, Steck and Griffith say they did not interfere with the rope-rigging and they deny as “highly unlikely” allegations that they dislodged ice that hit the rope-fixing Sherpa team. Other climbers say they were either unaware or did not feel bound by an agreement that no-one else should climb while the Sherpas were busy. “I know that on the day the ropes are fixed, nobody should hang on the fixed ropes,” Moro told National Geographic. “This doesn’t mean that nobody is allowed to climb the mountain.” The spat comes as mountaineers mark the 60th anniversary of the first Everest summit on May 29, 1953, by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. About 10,000 people have attempted to climb the ultimate peak,

MOUNT EVEREST: In this photograph, climbers Ueli Steck (left) of Switzerland and Simone Moro (right) of Italy, accompanied by British alpine photographer Jonathan Griffith are pictured in a tent immediately after an altercation with Nepalese Sherpas took place at the 6,500 metres (21,300 ft) ‘Camp Two’ on Everest. —AFP

almost 4,000 successfully.

Freddie Wilkinson, a US mountaineer and Everest veteran, told AFP that the disagreement highlighted rising friction caused by the competing interests of elite climbers and commercial adventurers. “Elite climbers think ropes detract from the sport. On the other side are the commercial climbing operators who say it’s their right to do business,” he said in an interview. “But the assertion that the route is closed to all climbers while the Sherpas fix the ropes shows a seismic shift in mountaineering etiquette. It means the climbing companies are determining the rules now,” he said. Witnesses say the parties exchanged blows for approximately 20 minutes. While the details of the drama remain murky, the increased crowding on the peak has raised questions about the safetyand meaning-of expeditions. “Something like this has been coming for a long time,” said Sumit Joshi, owner of Himalayan Ascents, who saw the brawl take place.

“For anyone on the mountain, it’s obvious who is working the hardest. It’s the Sherpas doing so much work and they never get any recognition,” he said.

Everest is no stranger to controversy and as technology and ambitions have advanced, crowding on the mountain has increased. The stage was set for this year’s disagreement in some ways by German mountaineer Ralf Dujmovits’ photograph depicting a queue of hundreds of summit hopefuls ascending at once during the 2012 climbing season. In an interview last week with Outside Magazine, Dujmovits said the image may have had the opposite effect of his intent: “People may start thinking, ‘if there are so many people, I can also queue up.’”

Wilkinson told AFP the recent brawl exposed “the socioeconomic reality of what it means to climb Everest”, calling the tension a “symptom of the fundamental Everest conundrum” over commercial climbing. Last Monday all parties signed a peace accord at base camp. But the trio has cancelled their trip and won’t say whether they will ever attempt the world’s highest peak again. Moro said the incident killed his “climbing spirit”, and promises of safe passage from Nepalese authorities did not outweigh the trust the men had lost in Everest and the Sherpas. The tourism ministry in Kathmandu says the government will launch a formal investigation into the incident. But Wilkinson believes any probe will yield few results.

“The common bond among these disparate groups on the mountain may indeed be that they all have a vested interest in sweeping this under the rug so they can continue climbing and working,” he said. —AFP

PEKAN: Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak shows his finger marked with indelible ink after casting his ballot in the general elections at a polling station yesterday. —AP

Malaysia’s election a balancing act for Najib KUALA LUMPUR: Prime Minister Najib Razak has walked a tightrope between voters demanding change and hardliners resisting reform in Malaysia’s decades-old regime, a balancing act that will be tested in elections Sunday. The UK-educated economist with a patrician air took office after the ruling party dumped his predecessor over a 2008 parliamentary election performance that was the government’s worst in its now-56 years in power.

He now confronts a multi-ethnic opposition that smells blood and has gained ground with promises to end rampant corruption and reform controversial policies that favour majority ethnic Malays. The mild-mannered Najib, 59, has the advantages of incumbency, solid personal-approval ratings, control of traditional media, and his own pedigree as he seeks his first mandate from voters.

He is the son of a Malaysian founding father, hails from the Muslim-majority nation’s revered ethnic Malay nobility, and has served three decades in the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the country’s dominant party. With pressure rising for greater political space, the UMNO lifer has sought to cast himself as an agent of change through limited reforms including replacing some security laws widely criticised as tools to stifle dissent.

But these moves are dismissed by the opposition as electoral window-dressing and viewed with distaste by UMNO conservatives. Caught in the middle, Najib has avoided deep reform and opinion polls suggest he has failed to alter his regime’s image as an arrogant, corrupt, statusquo force. “On reforms, he is the emperor without any clothes,” said Bridget Welsh, a Malaysian politics expert at Singapore Management University.

Sunday’s vote pits the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition, one of the world’s longest-serving governments, against a threeparty alliance led by former UMNO star Anwar

Ibrahim. A thin Barisan victory has been widely predicted, but even that could imperil NajibUMNO is used to thumping majorities and is keen to recover ground lost in 2008.

If that fails, analysts and UMNO insiders say Najib could face a party leadership fight just like that which brought him to office in 2009. Najib has seemed destined for Malaysia’s political summit. His father was Razak Hussein, Malaysia’s second prime minister and a key figure in securing independence from Britain in 1957. Najib studied economics in England and in 1976 at age 23 won the parliamentary seat made vacant by his father’s death.

He later took high positions at Malaysia’s central bank, the state oil firm and in the cabinet, including the defence portfolio. He is also currently the finance minister. Najib has moved to water down policies that give Malays advantages in business and education but which irk minorities, and claims to have shielded the economy from the global woes with huge public spending and cash handouts to citizens.

“While some may have voiced concerns, ultimately the party has delivered a bold and wideranging set of reforms, which have expanded civil liberties and made this government the most open and transparent in its history,” Najib said in emailed comments to AFP. But the prime minister’s own reputation has been threatened.

He has been linked to allegations of huge kickbacks in a 2002 purchase of French submarines while defence minister, a case later connected to the gruesome 2006 murder of a beautiful Mongolian woman involved in the deal. Najib denies wrongdoing, but the episode-one of a litany of UMNO graft scandals-has never been fully explained, and an ongoing probe by French justices threatens to revive it. Najib’s wife Rosmah Mansor is also widely seen as a liability, ridiculed for an imperious demeanour, a reputation for meddling in Najib’s work, and allegations of high-ticket overseas shopping forays, which she denies. —AFP

BEIJING: A couple chats at a residential area yesterday. Much of the country has been on holiday the past few days after celebrating Labor Day on May 1. —AFP

NEWS

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

Bulgarians walk with candles near the golden-domed Alexander Nevski cathedral after an Easter service in Sofia yesterday. The Bulgarian Orthodox Church celebrates Easter according to the Julian calendar. — AFP

Grads preferred to grandmas in US ...

Continued from Page 1 of a naturalized US citizen who does not speak English.

The best known provisions of the Senate bill would provide a path to legal status for roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States, reinforce US borders to control the flow of future illegal immigrants, and establish a new system for temporary “guest workers” to meet the needs of employers seeking lowerskilled workers. So far, those are the most controversial elements of the bill, which is scheduled for consideration next week in the Senate Judiciary Committee, the first step in a prolonged debate in the Senate and the US House of Representatives.

The merit-based approach may provoke a fight as well.

Currently, most foreigners can only get a green card - which allows them to stay and work in the United States - if an immediate family member or company sponsors them. Cubans and refugees are admitted under different programs. The bill proposed by four Democrats and four Republicans would make it harder for the siblings and adult children of US citizens to get permanent residence visas, or green cards. The legislation would also eliminate “diversity” green cards, which has helped Africans immigrate to the United States.

But the bill would create another way to get a green card, where immigrants would be awarded the most points based on their level of education, employment experience, entrepreneurship in business, English language proficiency and family ties.

“Our immigration system has been holding us back,” said Lanae Erickson Hatalsky, social policy director with the centrist Third Way think tank. “It has not been set up to make US economic growth our priority and this is a huge step in that direction.”

Foreigners would be awarded 15 points for a doctorate degree and another 10 points if they had a full-time job in the United States, according to the bill. They could also score two points for every year they were lawfully employed in the United States and another 10 points for speaking and writing English fluently. Merit-based visas would go first to applicants with the highest number of points. “People are going to rack up a lot of points through education and employment,” said Jen Smyers, associate director for immigration and refugee policy with humanitarian group Church World Service. “What does that mean for someone who needs their sibling to be here because they are facing trauma? What does it mean for a woman in Iran who does not have education opportunities?” Church World Service, the AFL-CIO union and other groups are urging senators not to reduce family

reunification visas.

If enacted, the bill would align the United States with countries like Canada and Australia that use a points system to attract skilled, educated workers. The Republican administration of George W Bush seized on the idea of using immigration as an economic policy tool. But it failed in 2007 to pass a broad immigration bill that would have provided a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and would have shifted the bulk of future immigrants to a points system. At the time, President Barack Obama, who was then a freshman Democratic senator, said it did not “reflect how much Americans value the family ties that bind people to their brothers and sisters or to their parents”. Obama has so far praised the Senate bill and has not taken a position on the merit-based system.

The last time the US immigration system was changed substantially was in 1986. The legislation legalized the threeto-five million illegal immigrants in the country, the majority from Mexico. But it failed to create new avenues for foreigners to come to United States legally. One concern about the new approach is that the country could find itself unintentionally leaving gaps in low-skilled jobs. By 2020, the US economy will need at least three million additional workers to care for the elderly, do construction jobs, and prepare food, among other lower-skilled jobs, according to data from the Department of Labor.

As the US population ages, demand for home health and personal care aides is expected to increase considerably, the department said in its occupational outlook. “The number of authorized migration slots doesn’t come close to meeting the needs of the economy,” said Michael Clemens, an economist and senior fellow with the Center for Global Development think tank. “Employers will once again be forced to resort to black-market employment to fuel the economy.”

The new system could also favor men over women. “The point system favors people who have had access to education and work in the formal labor sector,” said an analysis by the National Immigration Law Center. “Many women - who are often caregivers and caretakers for family members - and low-wage workers will have difficulty qualifying for a visa.” It is difficult to gauge at this stage the extent to which the merit-based system might complicate passage of the bill.

Industry and organized labor have so far focused most of their attention on guest-worker provisions and increases under the bill in allocations of so-called non-immigrant H-1B visas for specialty occupations. — Reuters

Booze and bikinis welcome in Egypt Continued from Page 1 In the first quarter of 2013 about 3 million tourists visited, a 14.6 percent rise from the same period last year, he said. Egypt’s long term target was to reach 30 million tourists and revenues of $25 billion by 2022.

Zaazou said rebuilding tourism was a national priority. To help meet the goal of increasing visitor numbers by 20 percent this year, his ministry has installed cameras in major resorts which feed live video onto its website. “We want to show people that Egypt is safe, and the best way to show this is by live streaming. The next

step will be to have these images shown on big screens in public squares in Paris or New York.”

Seeking a way into new markets, Egypt tried to open its doors to Iranian tourists this year after 34 years of frozen diplomatic relations. But the move ran into protests from hardline Sunni Islamists in Cairo who accused Iran of trying to spread the Shiite faith, leading to the halting of all commercial flights from Iran in April.

“This is just a temporary halt, tourism will resume again and we are currently in talks with these groups who objected,” said Zaazou, who said he hoped the issue would be resolved within two weeks. — Reuters

Bomb hits Qatari convoy in Somalia Continued from Page 1 “I saw eight bodies including a woman, some of them were burned very badly by the fire from the explosion,” said eyewitness Ali Yusuf. “It was a terrible sight.” An AFP reporter on the scene said that the armoured car hit in the attack had been damaged with its back windows blasted out. Body parts were strewn around the blast site, where fire trucks sprayed water on the smouldering wreckage of the vehicles while several wounded were taken to hospital.

A second bomb hidden by the roadside and remotely detonated was set off around the same time in the Daynille distric t of Mogadishu targeting passing security forces, but injured no one, police added. The attacks come just ahead of a conference in London tomorrow to draw up plans to boost security and increase development in conflicttorn Somalia. More than 50 coun-

tries and organisations are due to take part in the talks, co-hosted by Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

The United Nations special representative to Somalia, Augustine Mahiga condemned the attack as “cowardly and senseless”, but said that such “acts of violence will not undermine the remark able progress Somalia has made in the past months”. The attack comes a day after senior Shabab commander Ahmed Abdi Godane released an audio message in which he urged “the mujahedeen to increase the number of martyrdom operations, so as to permanently cripple the weak apostate regime”.

Last month, the Shabab launched a show of force in a complex coordinated attack, killing at least 34 as suicide commandos stormed the main cour thouse while a car bomb was set off elsewhere in Mogadishu. While riven by infighting and hunted by US

drones, the extremists remain a potent threat, launching car bombs and assassinations, and are still powerful in rural areas as well as reportedly infiltrating the security forces. The insurgents recently released a series of photographs of masked gunmen flying black flags in front of machine guns mounted on trucks around the southern Somali port of Barawe, one of their few remaining strongholds.

The attack yesterday comes after a week-long major security operation in the capital, with police closing down roads and searching cars for explosives. A force of some 17,000 African Union troops are fighting alongside Somali government forces against the Shabab, forcing them from a series of key towns. The AU force has played a key role in propping up the government, viewed by many as the first credible administration in the lawless country since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. — AFP

Tensions spiking after Israel hits Syria again Continued from Page 1 confrontation between Shiite Iran and Sunni Arabs, some of them close Western allies, but have also left Israel and Western powers scrambling to reassess where their interests lie.

Egypt, the most populous Arab state and flagship of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts where elected Islamists have replaced a Western-backed autocrat, has no love for Assad. But yesterday it condemned Israel’s air strikes as a breach of international law that “made the situation more complicated”. A diplomatic source in Beirut told AFP the three sites attacked were the Jamraya military facility, a nearby weapons depot and an anti-aircraft unit in Sabura, west of the capital.

Israel does not confirm such missions explicitly - a policy it says is intended to avoid provoking reprisals.

But an Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the strikes were carried out by its forces, as was a raid early on Friday that US President Barack Obama said had been justified. A Western intelligence source told Reuters: “In last night’s attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah.”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his aim for Israel was to “guarantee its future” - language he has used to warn of a willingness to attack Iran’s nuclear

sites, even in defiance of US advice, as well as to deny Hezbollah heavier weapons. He later flew to China on a scheduled trip, projecting confidence there would be no major escalation - though Israel has reinforced its anti-missile batteries in the north.

Syrian state television said bombing at a military research facility at Jamraya and two other sites caused “many civilian casualties and widespread damage”, but it gave no details. The Jamraya compound was also a target for Israel on Jan 30. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television showed a flattened building spread over the size of a football pitch, with smoke rising from rubble containing shell fragments. It did not identify it. Syrian state television quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the United Nations saying: “The blatant Israeli aggression has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist groups after they failed to control territory.”

Obama defended Israel’s right to block “terrorist organisations like Hezbollah” from acquiring weapons after Friday’s raid, and a White House spokesman said yesterday: “The president many times has talked about his view that Israel, as a sovereign government, has the right to take the actions they feel are necessary to protect their people.” It was unclear that Israel had sought US approval for the strikes, although the White House spokesman said: “The close coordination between the Obama administration, the United States of America, is

ongoing with the Israeli government.”

Obama has in recent years worked to hold back Netanyahu from making good on threats to hit facilities where he says Iran, despite its denials, is working to develop a nuclear weapon. Yesterday, some Israeli officials highlighted Obama’s reluctance to be drawn into new conflict in the Middle East to explain Israel’s need for independent action. Syria restricts access to independent journalists. Its state media said Israeli aircraft struck three places between Damascus and the nearby Lebanese border. The city also lies barely 50 km from Israeli positions on the occupied Golan Heights.

Tehran, which has long backed Assad, whose Alawite minority has religious ties to Shiite Islam, denied the attack was on armaments for Lebanon and called for nations to stand firm against Israel. A senior Iranian commander was quoted, however, as saying Syria’s armed forces were able to defend themselves without their allies, though Iran could help them with training.

Hezbollah, a Shiite movement that says it is defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression, declined immediate comment.

Analysts say the Fateh-110 could put the Tel Aviv metropolis in range of Hezbollah gunners, 100 km to the north, bolstering the arsenal of a group that fired some 4,000 shorter-range rockets into Israel during a month-long war in 2006. “What we want is to ensure

that inside the Syrian chaos we will not see Hezbollah growing stronger,” Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, a confidant of Netanyahu, told Army Radio. “The world is helplessly looking on at events in Syria, the Americans in particular, and this president in particular,” he added of Obama. “He has left Iraq, Afghanistan and has no interest in sending ground troops to Syria ... That is why, as in the past, we are left with our own interests, protecting them with determination and without getting too involved.”

Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by Syrian activists showed a series of blasts. One lit up the skyline of Damascus, while another sent up a tower of flames and secondary blasts. Syrian state news agency SANA said Israeli aircraft struck in three places: northeast of Jamraya; the town of Maysaloun on the Lebanese border; and the nearby Dimas air base. “The sky was red all night,” one man said from Hameh, near Jamraya. “We didn’t sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued through the night.”

Central Damascus was quiet on the first day of the working week, and government checkpoints seemed reinforced. Some opposition activists said they were glad strikes might weaken Assad, even if few Syrians have any liking for Israel: “We don’t care who did it,” Rania Al-Midania said in the capital. “We care that those weapons are no longer there to kill us.” — Agencies

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ANALYSIS

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

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Issues

What does Muslim-West ties mean?

By Michael Young t is a fact that the notion of a clash of civilisations, first popularised by the American academic Samuel Huntington, is more relevant than ever in the minds of many people. Especially when it concerns Muslim-Western relations, there is a view that Muslim and Western values are incompatible. And yet Huntington’s argument that after the Cold War conflict would be defined not by ideology or economics, but by cultural differences, was indeed prophetic since culture has become the principle basis for differentiation, even if culture itself is often viewed in far too static a way.

The reaction to Huntington’s conclusion was generally one of unease. If what he said was true, then the future of the world could be very bleak indeed. Cultural differences would be regarded as sinister rather than as foundations of invigorating diversity. For many, Huntington seemed to be looking at the glass half empty, when the very concept of global interaction, and globalisation in general, imposed a far more heartening reading of the situation.

Both sides had a point. Huntington was prescient for realising that the causes of conflict would shift away from ideological antagonism (though the argument with respect to economics was less persuasive), even if they remained firmly in the realm of ideas. However it is also true that, in his rendering, global relations seemed to reflect an apocalyptic vision - that of perennial discord and enmity. There is nothing wrong with discussing the disparities between Western and Muslim values, but to lend to the discussion unchangeable qualities on both sides is to miss the adaptable nature of culture and the ability of humans to modify cultural reactions in changing environments.

If one wants to question Huntington’s paradigm, it is in the sphere of perceptions where that has to be done. For many people in the West, the Arab uprisings since 2011 have been a case in point. These people have come to believe that what began as a yearning for democracy and freedom has ended up favouring Islamist groups (groups that believe there is a role for Islam in politics) that are neither particularly democratic nor tolerant of freedom, and who have usually sought restrictive legislation against women, a substantial portion of their populations.

But the reality lies in the nuances. For example, in Egypt and Tunisia, the Muslim Brotherhood and Ennadha parties have taken over major state institutions. While they have allowed behaviour unheard of under the old regimes, they have also become increasingly contested as they have retained powers allowing them to restrict certain freedoms, such as freedom of expression, while riding roughshod over representative bodies.

Acknowledging the complex undercurrents of the Arab revolts is necessary in order to grasp what is going on. The notion that there is something irreconcilable between the aspirations of Arab societies and those of western societies is simplistic, and often wrong, just as it is equally naÔve to expect that Arab societies in ebullition will wholeheartedly embrace Western values, such as secularism, the primacy of the individual at the expense of the group, and so on.

To demand such an embrace, no less than declaring it impossible, is to believe that culture talks in absolutes. In the last 12 years since the 9/11 attacks, familiarity has led to a better Western understanding of the complexities in the Muslim world, while far-reaching changes in the Muslim world have undermined a black and white view of the region in the West. When Syrians revolted two years ago, they had no hesitation in asking for Western help, just as the overthrow of pro-Western autocrats was regarded favourably in the United States and Europe.

A Syrian or Egyptian still regards freedom much as a Frenchman or an American does, even if the preferred social contract each will favour to protect those freedoms differs. Perhaps some will want more secularism, others more religion. But if the preferred social contract ends up undermining those same freedoms, then the chances are that new rebellions will occur at some stage.

Huntington was correct in looking toward culture as the boundary between Western and Eastern societies. But boundaries are ever-changing and values cross over between cultures by osmosis. To assume cultures are autarkic and unchanging is as erroneous as to assume that cultural distinctions are invariably resolvable. The truth about culture lies in the middle; values are transposable, which is why identity is most enthralling when they are tethered the least.

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Michael Young is opinion editor of the Daily Star newspaper in Lebanon. — CGNews

All articles appearing on these pages are the personal opinion of the writers. Kuwait Times takes no responsibility for views expressed therein. Kuwait Times invites readers to voice their opinions. Please send submissions via email to: opinion@kuwaittimes.net or via snail mail to PO Box 1301 Safat, Kuwait.

The editor reserves the right to edit any submission as necessary.

Law enforcement and Muslims should partner

By Rabia Chaudry he horrific Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, and the outstanding questions regarding the alleged perpetrators ties to violent extremist movements abroad, is a reminder that the fight against terrorism is on-going.

Introduced in 2010 by President Barack Obama’s Administration, “Countering Violent Extremism” (CVE) is the latest incarnation of this fight against terrorism. Utilising soft and hard power, development, education and other preventative measures, it is a shift from the reactive and militarised response to terrorism in the past decade.

A core aspect of CVE is empowering and partnering with local Muslim communities, as formalised in the White House’s 2011 Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism. Though many experts agree that this strategy will be effective over time, an elephant in the room remains: mistrust and misinformation between Muslim communities and government agencies.

Several US government agencies are working to put into practice the White House’s emphasis on community empowerment and engagement. The Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties actively meets with local Muslim leadership around the nation to build relationships, provide information about government resources and accept feedback or concerns. The Department of Justice employs the Community Relations Service to engage at the local level to address tensions arising from differences of race and national origin. But neither of these agencies have the manpower or resources to connect with the thousands of Muslim communities across the country. It falls

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then to local agencies, specifically local law enforcement, to be that bridge-builder. The gap between law enforcement and Muslims is no joke. According to a research brief by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and the Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland, 89 per cent of state law enforcement agencies agree or strongly agree that “Islamic jihadists” (a problematic term given jihad simply means “struggle” in Arabic) pose a serious threat to the country, while 62 per cent say that “Islamic jihadi groups” exist in their states. On the other hand, Muslim communities themselves are largely suspicious of law enforcement due to the kinds of surveillance tactics used by the New York Police Department (NYPD) as well as reports of officers being trained using bigoted, anti-Muslim materials and trainers. The fear and suspicion on both sides poses a tremendous hurdle for CVE work. A meeting of these two communities has to be predicated on sound information about the other.

Conducting trainings for local law enforcement agencies, I’ve learned that the fear of widespread bigoted training of officers is a misconception. Rather, there is almost no training given to them at all. At least 90 per cent of police officers, including outreach officers, intelligence analysts and correctional officers who attend our trainings say they have never received training - cultural competency or otherwise - on Islam or how to engage Muslims. The lack of formal training is often a result of budget issues.

When questioned about how they get information on Islam and Muslims, one intelligence officer told me she “used Google”. This accounts for the discrepancy between the perception law enforcement has of the danger of Muslim extremism and the actual statistical threat, reflecting a similar mis-

perception among the general public. In Muslim American communities, the only programming that has consistently been given since 9/11 is “know your rights” trainings, which are important in terms of protecting the civil liberties of Muslims, but also reinforce the narrative that Muslims and the government are opposing forces.

There are two simple but effective partial solutions to these issues. First, as part of annual in-service training, a basic introduction to Islam and cultural competency must be implemented for law enforcement in regions where large Muslim populations exist. In-service requirements exist for all law and correctional officers, and including components on working with Muslim communities would help counter existing negative perceptions of officers and officials.

Second, law enforcement leadership must engage in consistent outreach to local communities on a diverse array of issues - this builds a relationship through which Muslim communities can provide resources on Islam and cultural competency to their local law enforcement agencies, overcoming funding issues. In the wake of the attack in Boston and the ensuing suspicion of Muslims reflected in debates on immigration and prosecution policies, the need for consistent engagement between law enforcement and Muslim communities is more important than ever. And while CVE is a relatively new effort that is still being fleshed out, it would be remiss not to fully commit the resources needed to succeed.

NOTE: Rabia Chaudry is an attorney and the President of the Safe Nation Collaborative, a CVE training firm providing resources to law enforcement and Muslim American communities — CGNews

Internet in Egypt: First revolution, now jobs?

By Mohamed El-Sayed oday, well over two years into the Egyptian revolution, increased numbers of Egyptian youth are still struggling to find jobs. With political instability looming large, the economy receives one blow after another. Unemployment has hit new highs - 13 per cent according to the Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics - and businesses have suffered. However, just as the Internet was used to stage the “e-revolution” in which social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter were used as megaphones for young activists, it is now being utilized to unlock Egypt’s untapped markets and youth potential.

E-commerce (buying and selling products using the Internet) is gradually becoming a means to provide new jobs for fresh graduates. According to participants in a regional ecommerce conference held last month in Cairo, Internetbased marketing in Egypt is growing by 25 per cent monthly thanks to increased access to Internet - and social networking sites in particular - since the revolution. Currently around 31 million Egyptians (39 per cent of the population) have access to the Internet according to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Today, websites such as Souq.com, Jumia.com, Nefsak.com and Deal’N’Deal, to name a few, have become familiar names for Egyptian shoppers. A quick glance at the demographics of these companies’ offices in Cairo reveals that the majority of employees are fresh graduates. Many of the young e-commerce specialists have received training upon joining these companies which are looking to grow and keen to help their employees acquire the necessary skills.

To capitalise on this opportunity for growth, Souq.com, the largest Internet-based marketing platform in the Arab world, championed the creation of a training academy for young people working in Internet-based commerce. Established in cooperation with the Education for Egyptian Employment (EFE-Egypt), the academy ran its first e-commerce training program for 120 students in February of this year.

Souq.com officials see the training as a way to address a severe shortage in young, qualified specialists. “The partnership with EFE-Egypt on this strategic initiative will serve as a catalyst for skills development and job creation for the next generation of Egyptian technology professionals,” said Souq.com General Manager Omar Soudodi. The program, in fact, was specifically tailored to address a chronic lack of the skill-sets needed in the Egyptian job market, given that none of the Egyptian universities currently provide specialised ecommerce courses.

“Roughly 80 per cent of Egyptians aged 15 to 29 already suffer from unemployment, while the market is lacking qualified e-commerce specialists,” says EFE-Egypt CEO Shahinaz Ahmed. “The training program is meant to provide qualified ecommerce specialists to cater to the country’s growing appetite for everything online,” she added. The program, explains Ahmed, is “a clear win-win scenario for everyone -

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employers, employees and the Egyptian economy as well.”

Trainees gained expertise in marketing, logistics, Google AdWords, supply chain management, relationship management, social media, order fulfilment and packing. Having obtained the necessary skills through the course, Souq.com hired top students who passed it successfully. Other similar initiatives have recently spread e-commerce learning in different parts of the country. For example, an e-commerce club opened branches under the umbrella of Cairo University in three governorates - Cairo, Alexandria and Assiut - to provide specialised training for fresh university graduates.

“I’m now receiving training at the club so that I can join an Internet-based marketing company,” said Mohamed Shawqi, a fresh university graduate taking specialised courses in the club in the coastal city of Alexandria. “With unemployment

among fresh graduates on the rise, I believe e-commerce will help the economy get back on its feet,” he added. “Since ecommerce is still in its infancy in Egypt, it has a great potential for growth”. For e-commerce to become more established in Egypt, additional training initiatives are needed. According to leading market strategy research firm Euromonitor International, the size of e-commerce in Egypt is expected to hit the $446.4 million mark by 2016. And as the sector grabs more shoppers from the grey market that, according to estimates by business experts, currently makes up 40 per cent of the Egyptian market, Internet-based marketing and expanded trainings for youth to develop required skills could be a springboard for economic growth and development in Egypt.

Mohamed El-Sayed is an Egyptian journalist. — CGNews

Egyptian Christians and Muslims

By Sophie Anmuth and Marwa Nasser lashes in Egypt between Muslims and Copts last month have sparked fears of further sectarian violence for the Egyptian Copt minority, which makes up approximately 10 per cent of Egypt’s population of 90 million. As a foreigner and a native Egyptian living in Cairo, we have both heard first-hand the stereotypes about faith relations in Egypt. For example, the one of us who grew up here remembers being five, in a middle-class neighbourhood in Cairo, and overhearing two schoolmates whispering and pointing at another girl: “She’s Christian”.

They probably didn’t even understand what that word means exactly but they knew it meant different. At the time I didn’t understand why these two girls were doing this. I only understood later. The other one of us, a foreigner, has been told exaggerated narratives on both sides: “in Egypt there is no discrimination and has never been against Copts”, or “there has always been discrimination and Copts are suffering constant abuses”.

Both of us believe that these stereotypes don’t reflect the nuances that exist in the country. Discrimination exists, but so do instances of Muslims and Christians working together to stop it. Egyptian civil society is taking matters into its own hands. One example of this is Salafyo Costa, a group that strives to bring together Egyptians of different faiths, sects and political orientations. Salafyo Costa was originally created to show that Salafis are not the frightening “backward extremists” the media often depicts them as.

Instead they are a broad group of conservative Muslims who have a literal understanding of Islam’s scriptures and seek to emulate the traditions of the earliest followers of Islam. Copts and other Muslim groups also make up a big part of Salafyo Costa membership. In Salafyo Costa,

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Egyptian Muslims and Copts are working together to ease tensions between both groups, through collaborative activities geared at ending misconceptions. A Coptic friend of ours was moved to see Muslim Salafyo Costa members taking to the streets to defend Copts during the tragic events of Maspero 2011, a march for Coptic rights that was crushed by the army. Mohamed Tolba, the co-founder of Salafyo Costa, explains that the group is “a model for Egypt that suits us all no matter what our religion, race or political ideology is”. For Bassem Victor, a Copt and also a co-founder of the group, the main problem causing the tension is ignorance. “Fifty per cent of the Egyptian people cannot read or write. How do you expect them to know what their religious books say? They trust the local priest or sheikh, who might well look for personal or political benefits.”

Egyptian children from some Muslim families might say Christians don’t worship the same God and cannot be their friends, or that it is impure to shake their hands. These attitudes might have been influenced by the rising popularity of extremist preaching on television over the last twenty years. For their part, Copts often view Salafis as hostile to them, their religion and their presence in the country.

But the mere act of getting to know each other is often enough to put a stop to prejudices and fear. In places where such stereotypes are an issue, demonstrating harmonious collaboration between people of different religions can shift attitudes. For example, Salafyo Costa organised a SalafiCopt football match last year. “Participants were wary at first, but ended up as friends, thanks to football,” says Tolba.

“Now we know that it’s wrong to be afraid of each other. We lost our prejudices.” explains Victor.

Sophie Anmuth and Marwa Nasser are freelance journalists in Egypt.— CGNews

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

S P ORTS Whistles for Mourinho, cheers for Casillas

Bravo to lead West Indies MUMBAI: All-rounder Dwayne Bravo has replaced Darren Sammy as West Indies’ one-day international captain and will lead the team in next month’s Champions Trophy in England.

Sammy, who led the Caribbean team to the World Twenty20 title in Sri Lanka last year, would continue to captain the test and T20 teams, the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) said in a statement yesterday.

“Our results in tests and T20s have been showing consistent improvement and Sammy deserves every kudos for the work he has done in leading and moulding the team in these formats,” Clyde Butts, the chairman of selection panel, said. “We remain confident in his leadership in these formats and will recommend that he continues as the captain for test and T20 cricket.

“However, our ODI results have not been as strong and we believe that it is best that we freshen the leadership of the team in this format.” A medium-pace bowler and a hard-hitting batsman down t h e o r d e r, B r a v o, l e d t h e s i d e when Sammy was rested for the home one -dayers against Zimbabwe. —Reuters

MUNICH: Evergreen German Tommy Haas beat defending champion Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets yesterday to win the Munich claycourt title for the first time at the 10th attempt, 13 years after his first appearance in the final.

Haas needed just 82 minutes to seal his 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) win over compatriot Kohlschreiber and pick up the 14th title of his career to become the first 35-year-old to win an ATP tournament since 2008.

Haas in enjoying an Indian summer and today will be ranked 13th in the world, having reached a career-high of second back in 2002. “It means a lot to win here, it’s hard to put it into words, but it’s a great feeling,” Haas, who lives in Florida, but said it had been good to spend some time with his family in Germany this week. “I just came here wanting to play well and try to win the title. “The fact that it has worked out is unbelievable. “I have to pay credit to Philipp, he played really well. He took a few risks and was aggressive, he made it a good fight.”

Having struggled with injuries in recent years, Haas’ is yet to win a Grand Slam, but reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon back in 2009 and beat Roger Federer in last year’s grass-court final at Halle. —AFP

Marlins win over Phillies

MLB results/standings Cleveland 7, Minnesota 3; NY Yankees 4, Oakland 2; Cincinnati 6, Chicago Cubs 4; Seattle 8, Toronto 1; Baltimore 5, LA Angels 4 (10 innings); St. Louis 7, Milwaukee 6; Washington 5, Pittsburgh 4; Miami 2, Philadelphia 0; Kansas City 2, Chicago White Sox 0; Detroit 17, Houston 2; Texas 5, Boston 1; Colorado 9, Tampa Bay 3; Arizona 8, San Diego 1; San Francisco 10, LA Dodgers 9 (10 innings).

American League Eastern Division W L PCT 20 10 .667 Boston NY Yankees 18 11 .621 Baltimore 18 13 .581 Tampa Bay 13 16 .448 Toronto 10 21 .323 Central Division Detroit 18 11 .621 Kansas City 16 10 .615 Cleveland 14 13 .519 Minnesota 12 14 .462 Chicago White Sox 12 16 .429 Western Division Texas 19 11 .633 17 14 .548 Oakland Seattle 15 17 .469 LA Angels 11 19 .367 Houston 8 23 .258 National League Eastern Division Atlanta 17 12 .586 16 15 .516 Washington Philadelphia 14 17 .452 NY Mets 12 15 .444 Miami 9 22 .290 Central Division St. Louis 19 11 .633 Pittsburgh 17 13 .567 Cincinnati 17 14 .548 Milwaukee 14 15 .483 Chicago Cubs 11 19 .367 Western Division Colorado 18 12 .600 18 12 .600 San Francisco Arizona 16 14 .533 LA Dodgers 13 16 .448 San Diego 12 18 .400

MADRID: Real Madrid fans appeared to give their backing to Iker Casillas over Jose Mourinho on Saturday when they cheered their benched goalkeeper and captain and whistled the Portuguese coach before the 4-3 win at home to Real Valladolid in La Liga.

A hero to Real fans and club captain for more than a decade, Casillas has barely featured since recovering from a broken hand, with Mourinho preferring to stick with Diego Lopez, who was brought in as cover from Sevilla in January. Mourinho has hinted he may leave at the end of the season and he appeared to confirm reports his relationship with Casillas had broken down with a series of barbed comments in a news conference on Friday. He said he regretted not buying Lopez earlier in his three-year stint in the Spanish capital and that he could not work with players who “think they are above the rest”.

Fans at the Bernabeu on Saturday made their feelings clear when Casillas’s name was roundly cheered when it was read out among the list of substitutes, while Mourinho was whistled by a significant section of the crowd. The sense that all is not well at the club following Tuesday’s elimination from the Champions League was heightened after the game when Pepe, Mourinho’s Portuguese compatriot, criticised the coach in a television interview. Pepe’s comments were particularly surprising given that he and Mourinho share the same agent. —Reuters

Haas wins Munich title

GB 1.5 2.5 6.5 10.5 0.5 3 4.5 5.5 2.5 5 8 11.5

2 4 4 9 2 2.5 4.5 8 2 4.5 6

PHILADELPHIA: Jose Fernandez pitched one-hit ball and struck out nine in seven dominant innings, getting his first major league win in the Miami Marlins’ 2-0 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday night.

Marcell Ozuna hit his first career homer and Chris Valaika connected for the first time in three years to stop Cole Hamels (1-4). Fernandez (1-2) allowed just a single by Freddy Galvis up the middle in the first. He then retired the next 17 batters. Fernandez walked Galvis in the seventh, and followed that up by striking out Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Delmon Young. The 20-year-old Fernandez was lifted after throwing 82 pitches. Mike Dunn worked a perfect eighth and Steve Cishek finished off the one-hitter to get his fourth save in five tries.

GIANTS 10, DODGERS 9 In San Francisco, pinch hitter Guillermo Quiroz homered with one out in the 10th inning, lifting San Francisco to its second straight walkoff win.

The Giants blew a 5-0 lead and wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the ninth before Quiroz hit an 0-2 pitch from Dodgers closer Brandon League (0-1) into the left field stands. Quiroz is 4 for 6 this season as a pinch hitter.

The teams combined for 19 runs and 30 hits, and stranded 24 runners in a game that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes. AJ Ellis homered and was one of six Dodgers with two hits as Los Angeles lost for the fifth time in seven games.

It was San Francisco’s fourth straight win over its NL West rival. Buster Posey’s homer lifted the Giants to a 2-1 win Friday night.

NATIONALS 5, PIRATES 4 In Pittsburgh, Stephen Strasburg struck out eight in seven innings and Washington won a game he started for the first time since opening day.

Tyler Moore hit a go-ahead sacrifice fly in the top of the ninth inning off Tony Watson (1-1). Wilson Ramos’ RBI single in the sixth tied the game at 4 after Pittsburgh built a tworun lead. A day after striking out four times upon being activated from the disabled list, Ryan Zimmerman scored three runs. Starling Marte and Clint Barmes each hit tworun homers for the Pirates.

Strasburg remained winless since his first start, allowing four runs and five hits. Tyler Clippard (2-1) pitched a scoreless eighth and Rafael Soriano got his 10th save.

DIAMONDBACKS 8, PADRES 1 In San Diego, Patrick Corbin pitched seven solid innings and Arizona snapped its season-high four-game losing streak. Corbin (4-0) gave up one run and five hits while striking out seven. He walked three while his ERA dropped to 1.80. Corbin has opened the season by pitching at least six innings and allowing two or fewer runs in his six starts all Arizona victories. He lost his shutout bid with two out in the seventh when Chris Denorfia hit his second homer into

PHILADELPHIA: Pitcher Jose Fernandez No. 16 of the Miami Marlins delivers a pitch against the Philadelphia Phillies in an MLB baseball game. —AFP the second deck in left field. Denorfia also had a double.

The D-Backs touched up Padres starter Clayton Richard (04) for six runs on five hits in the second.

CARDINALS 7, BREWERS 6 In Milwaukee, Jon Jay homered and drove in the goahead run in the ninth, and Allen Craig and Daniel Descalso each hit home runs to power St. Louis.

Shane Robinson singled to center off Jim Henderson (21) and took second on center fielder Carlos Gomez’s fielding error. Robinson stole third and scored when Jay singled up the middle. Jay hit a three-run home run in the second, Craig connected for a solo shot in the sixth and Descalso put the Cardinals ahead with a two-run homer in the seventh. The Brewers trailed by one in the eighth when they got one-out singles that put runners on the corners.

Norichika Aoki dropped a perfect bunt as pinch-runner Jeff Bianchi raced home and slid feet first, avoiding catcher Yadier Molina’s tag. Seth Maness (1-0) came on and got the Cardinals out of the jam, getting Jean Segura to hit into a double play.

REDS 6, CUBS 4 In Chicago, Todd Frazier and Devin Mesoraco each had a sacrifice fly in a four-run eighth inning, and Cincinnati rallied for the victory over Chicago.

Cincinnati had just one hit in the decisive rally, but took advantage of another woeful outing by reliever Carlos Marmol to secure its first winning road series of the season.

The Reds held on for a 6-5 victory in the opener on Friday when Darwin Barney struck out with the bases loaded to end the game. Alfonso Soriano hit a pair of two-run homers for the Cubs, who have lost four of five. It was Soriano’s 31st career multihomer game.

Shin-Soo Choo homered on the first pitch of the game.

Jeff Samardzija went on to pitch six effective innings for Chicago. James Russell got three outs before Marmol (2-2) came on to begin the eighth with a 4-2 lead. It was Marmol’s 453rd relief appearance with the Cubs, snapping a tie with Lee Smith for the franchise record.

ROCKIES 9, RAYS 3 In Denver, Carlos Gonzalez hit a go-ahead homer in the fifth and rookie Nolan Arenado added a grand slam, lifting Colorado over Tampa Bay in David Price’s first start since his run-in with umpire Tom Hallion.

Jon Garland (3-2) threw five solid innings and surrendered three runs to help the Rockies snap an 11-game home skid in interleague play.

Arenado broke open a tight game when he lined a curveball from Price (1-3) into the left field seats in the seventh. It was his first career grand slam. Price didn’t

Tigers maul Astros HOUSTON: Miguel Cabrera hit two home runs and tied a career high with six RBIs, leading the Detroit Tigers over the Houston Astros 17-2 on Saturday night. Cabrera went 4 for 4 with a walk.

Last year’s Triple Crown winner is hitting .390 this season. The Tigers have won eight of nine.

Houston has lost five in a row.

Max Scherzer (4-0) gave up one run and three hits while striking out eight in eight innings.

Lucas Harrell (3-3) gave up eight runs in 4 1-3 innings.

CHARLOTTE: Phil Mickelson hits a tee shot during the final round of the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. —AFP

Mickelson, Watney stumble but share Quail Hollow lead CHARLOTTE: Phil Mickelson and Nick Watney survived some late-round misadventures to emerge from Saturday’s third round tied for the lead in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Mickelson topped the leaderboard for most of the day and Watney took his turn alone in first place during the final stretch before both players fell back with doublebogeys to head into Sunday’s final round knotted at eight-under-par 208. Watney shot a one-under 71 and Mickelson a 73.

Fellow-American George McNeil bogeyed the 18th to fall out of a three-way tie for the lead and was alone in third place on seven-under 209. The stumbles by the leaders brought a slew of other contenders into the frame.

Two strokes off the pace at six-underpar 210 were Britons Lee Westwood (72) and David Lynn (71), Australian John Senden (67), Robert Karlsson of Sweden (69) and Americans Ryan Moore (68) and Derek Ernst (72).

Five players were another shot away, including world number two Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland, who struggled with his putter on the way to posting a one-

over 73 for 211. A gamble that backfired, a shanked tee shot and an approach that bounced off the head of a spectator highlighted a comedy of errors over the last holes. Mickelson, the overnight leader by two strokes, led by one shot heading to the par-five 15th.

After a pulling a drive just outside the cart path and behind a tree on the right side of the fairway, the big left-hander decided to steer a metal-wood shot around the tree but it took off straight out of bounds. “The second shot should not have been a problem,” explained Mickelson after the double bogey. “If I had pulled (out) the driver like I did the second time, then it would have cut around, no problem. “But I tried to do it with a threewood and it shot straight and went out of bounds. I thought the driver might go in the bunker and I wanted to play it short.”

A bogey at the par-four 16th cost Mickelson another stroke. Mickelson was set up perfectly in the fairway but hit his second shot left of the green and off the head of a spectator down onto the 17th tee. He tried to run the ball through thick grass over a hill back to the green but got caught in the rough. —Reuters

MARINERS 8, BLUE JAYS 1 In Toronto, Dustin Ackley hit his first career grand slam, Michael Saunders homered twice and the Seattle Mariners roughed up reigning NL Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey, beating the struggling Toronto Blue Jays.

Pitching on an extra day of rest as he tried to overcome neck and back soreness, Dickey (2-5) lost his third straight start. He allowed six hits, including a season-high three home runs.

Saunders homered on Dickey’s second pitch.

The knuckleballer was booed by the crowd of 35,754 after Raul Ibanez hit a one-out triple in the sixth and scored on Kelly Shoppach’s double.

Hisashi Iwakuma (3-1) allowed one run and five hits in seven innings.

inning for his first victory in five starts and the AL West-leading Rangers (19-11) clinched the series against the Red Sox (20-10), who still have the best record in the majors even after losing the first two games.

Ian Kinsler hit the first pitch thrown by John Lackey (1-2) into the left-field seats for his sixth homer this season, and 28th career leadoff shot.

INDIANS 7, TWINS 3 In Cleveland, Scott Kazmir earned his first victory in three seasons, Nick Swisher homered in his first at-bat since missing three games with a sore shoulder and the Cleveland Indians beat Minnesota for their sixth straight victory.

Kazmir (1-1), a two-time AL All-Star who pitched in an independent league last season, allowed two runs in six innings. It was his first win since beating Tampa Bay on Sept. 19, 2010, while with the Angels. The left-hander, who allowed eight earned runs in 8 1-3 innings in his first two starts, struck out seven. Swisher, who hadn’t played since Monday, homered off Kevin Correia (3-2) in the first.

YANKEES 4, ATHLETICS 2 In New York, Phil Hughes pitched eight shutout innings of four-hit ball for his first win of the season, and the New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics.

Chris Stewart and Lyle Overbay homered against Bartolo Colon (3-1), sending the A’s to their only loss in the right-hander’s six starts this year. Hughes (1-2) struck out nine and outpitched his former New York teammate for his first victory since Sept. 20 against Toronto.

Oakland has dropped 10 of 15.

ROYALS 2, WHITE SOX 0 In Kansas City, Jeremy Guthrie ran his unbeaten streak to a club-record 17 consecutive starts with a four-hitter in the Kansas City Royals’ win over the Chicago White Sox. Guthrie is 9-0 in the 17 starts, which started Aug. 8, 2012, against the White Sox. Paul Splittorff held the Royals’ record with 16 straight undefeated starts in 1977-78. It was first shutout and fifth complete game for Guthrie (4-0).

Dylan Axelrod (0-1) gave up a two-run triple to Lorenzo Cain in the first inning. —AP

ORIOLES 5, ANGELS 4 In Anaheim, Steve Pearce’s RBI single with two outs in the 10th inning lifted the Baltimore Orioles over the Los Angeles Angels.

Baltimore also got homers from Manny Machado, J.J. Hardy and Nolan Reimold. Freddy Garcia dazzled in his Orioles’ debut, holding the Angels hitless until Erick Aybar had a leadoff single in the seventh.

Garrett Richards (1-3), making his first relief appearance after five starts in place of the injured Jered Weaver, gave up a leadoff single to Adam Jones. Pearce later singled to right.

Tommy Hunter (1-1) pitched one inning to get the win.

RANGERS 5, RED SOX 1 In Arlington, Craig Gentry had an infield hit that produced two runs and later hit a two-run homer in Texas’ victory over Boston.

The Rangers broke a 1-1 tie and went ahead to stay on the speedy Gentry’s infield hit in the fourth. He added his first homer in the eighth.

Alexi Ogando (3-2) pitched into the seventh

HOUSTON: Matt Dominguez No. 30 of the Houston Astros dives but can’t reach a line drive hit

by Matt Tuiasosopo No. 18 of the Detroit Tigers in the ninth inning. —AFP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

S P ORTS

Williams steers Zimbabwe to victory BULAWAYO: Sean Williams hit a careerbest 78 not out as Zimbabwe beat Bangladesh by six wickets in the second one-day international in Bulawayo yesterday to set up a series decider.

Playing in only his second one-day match since the 2011 World Cup, Williams was aided by Malcolm Waller’s unbeaten 39 as he calmly saw Zimbabwe to their target of 253 with 13 balls to spare.

Abdur Razzak’s maiden half-century in international cricket had hauled Bangladesh to a competitive total as Zimbabwe were made to regret four dropped catches, but Williams’ sensible batting won the day and squared the threematch series at one apiece.

Razzak arrived at the crease with the tourists struggling on 185 for seven in the 44th over after they had been asked to bat first, and duly clubbed a 21-ball fifty to take them to 252 for nine.

The 30-year-old’s previous highest score in ODIs was 35, but the left-hander made the most of a dropped catch to give Bangladesh the impetus at the halfway stage of the match.

Kyle Jarvis was responsible for the drop off his own bowling, and suffered the consequences as he conceded two of Razzak’s five sixes - and 17 runs off the final over of the innings.

“Guys weren’t too happy with the last two or three overs,” said Waller. “We were looking at about 220 and they ended up getting 252, although that was about par

on this wicket so we knew that if we batted properly we should get across the line.”

Vusi Sibanda returned to form with a solid 49 as Zimbabwe made a confident start to their chase, while Sikandar Raza and Brendan Taylor also contributed without going on to a big score.

Taylor’s 73-run partnership with Williams stabilised the innings after Zimbabwe lost both Sibanda and Raza with the score on 94, but when Taylor gifted his wicket away for 37 the match was still in the balance.

However Williams moved to his halfcentury and took on the bulk of the scoring duties while Waller found his feet, and the pair went on to add the remaining 85 runs needed for victory without any unnecessary drama.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Williams, who was named man of the match. “It was tough to lose a few wickets and they had us under the crunch, so I had to keep my composure and bat through the whole innings, which worked out really well for me in the end.”

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim said his team’s total was around 30 runs short. “We did not bat well, a couple of guys got starts. 270-280 would have been a better total,” he said.

“At one stage we were looking at 180 all out, but all credit to Razzak. We took a few wickets, but did not bowl well throughout.”

Bangladesh won the first match of the series by 121 runs on Saturday. The third and final match of the series is at the same Queen’s Club venue on Wednesday. —AFP

BULAWAYO: Zimbabwe’s captain Brendan Taylor bats during the second of the three ODI cricket series matches between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. —AFP

SCOREBOARD Scoreboard at the end of the second one-day international between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh in Bulawayo yesterday: Bangladesh innings Tamim Iqbal c Taylor b Chatara 6 Mohammad Ashraful c Taylor b Jarvis8 M’ Haque c Jarvis b Chigumbura 24 Mushfiqur Rahim lbw b Chigumbura 26 Shakib Al Hasan lbw b Utseya 34 Nasir Hossain c Taylor b Chatara 36 Mahmudullah c Jarvis b Chigumbura 31 Ziaur Rahman c Taylor b S. Masakadza 12 Abdur Razzak not out 53 Shafiul Islam run out 4 Robiul Islam not out 0 Extras (b-4, lb-6, w-7, nb-1) 18 Total (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 252 Fall of wickets: 1-10 2-16 3-60 4-88 5-124 6-160 7-185 8-213 9-224 Bowling: T. Chatara 10-2-33-2 (w1, nb1), K. Jarvis 10-0-52-1, S. Masakadza 10-064-1 (w1), E. Chigumbura 10-0-39-3 (w1), P. Utseya 8-0-47-1 (w3), H. Masakadza 20-7-0.

Zimbabwe innings H. Masakadze b Shafiul Islam 15 V. Sibanda lbw b Shakib Al Hasan 49 Sikandar Raza c Shakib Al Hasan b Shafiul Islam 23 B. Taylor c Mominul Haque b Ziaur Rahman 37 S. Williams not out 78 M. Waller not out 39 Extras (lb-5, w-7) 12 Total (for four wickets, 47.5 overs) 253 Fall of wickets: 1-29 2-94 3-94 4-167 Did not bat: E. Chigumbura, P. Utseya, S. Masakadza, K. Jarvis, T. Chatara Bowling: Shafiul Islam 9-0-51-2 (w2), Robiul Islam 9.5-0-51-0 (w3), Abdur Razzak 9-0-44-0, Ziaur Rahman 7-0-42-1, Shakib Al Hasan 9-0-42-1, Mahmudullah 4-0-18-0.

Result: Zimbabwe won by six wickets Three-match series level at 1-1.

Third ODI in Bulawayo on May 8.

Russia thrash Latvia, US and Canada win STOCKHOLM: Russia’s Ilya Kovalchuk scored one goal and made another as the defending champions hammered Latvia 60 in their opening group game of the ice hockey world championship in Stockholm.

The Russians were ruthless in disposing of the Latvian challenge, scoring three goals in the second period to take a 4-0 lead.

Two further goals in the final period put the champions out of sight and into second place behind Finland with a game in hand.

Finnish goalkeeper Antti Raanta registered a shutout on his international debut as the co-hosts beat a strong Slovakia side 2-0 in Helsinki to top their group on five points after two games.

“I couldn’t have wished for any more,” Raanta told Finnish TV. “The guys did a

great job in front of goal. We improved our play in the second period and Slovakia didn’t get any more good chances.”

Co-hosts Sweden recovered from an embarrassing 3-2 loss to Switzerland in their opening game as they squeezed out Czech Republic 2-1 in the late game in Stockholm.

Canada and the United States got off to winning starts in their group games. The Canadians came back from a goal down to beat Denmark 3-1 in Stockholm, while two goals from Erik Johnson helped a jittery U.S. side overcome Austria 5-3 in Helsinki.

In the day’s other game in Stockholm, Norway took the lead after a minute against Slovenia and never looked back, running out 3-1 winners to join Canada at the top of the group. —Reuters

WASHINGTON: Rick Nash No. 61 of the New York Rangers shoots the puck against John Erskine No. 4 of the Washington Capitals in Game Two of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. —AFP

Capitals sweep Rangers WASHINGTON: Henrik Lundqvist and Braden Holtby kicked, swiped, caught and otherwise kept getting in the way of the puck, matching each other save-for-save for a second shy of 68 minutes, until Mike Green scored the power-play goal in overtime that gave the Washington Capitals a sweep at home to open their playoff series against the New York Rangers.

Green nailed a one-timer from high in the slot on a feed from Mike Ribeiro precisely at the eight-minute mark of the extra period, Holtby made 24 saves for his first career playoff shutout, and the Capitals beat the Rangers 1-0 Saturday to take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

With Rangers defenseman Ryan McDonagh in the penalty box for delay of game, having lifted the puck over the glass in New York’s defensive zone, the Capitals took advantage of their first power play since the first period. Ribeiro faked a slap shot, and then pushed the puck to Green, who beat Lundqvist to the glove side.

Game 3 is today in New York.

Henrik Lundqvist made 37 saves for the Rangers. Holtby has saved 59 of 60 shots in the series, including 35 of 36 in Thursday’s 3-1 victory in Game 1.

MAPLE LEAFS 4, BRUINS 2 In Boston, Joffrey Lupul scored two goals and Toronto got a win over Boston that evened the first-round series at one game.

The Maple Leafs played aggressively from the start after a weak performance in a 4-1 loss in which the Bruins were much more physical. But that changed early in Game 2 as Toronto delivered 22 hits in the first period to just 10 for Boston.

Nathan Horton gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 1:56 of the second period, but Lupul scored at 5:18 on a power play and at 11:56 with the teams at even strength.

Phil Kessel made it 3-1 on a breakaway 53 seconds into the third period. Johnny Boychuk cut the lead at 10:35 before James van Riemsdyk scored for Toronto at 16:53. Game 3 of the bestof-seven playoff series is tonight in Toronto.

DUCKS 4, RED WINGS 0 In Detroit, Nick Bonino scored for Anaheim on a second-period power play - 18 seconds after Detroit’s Justin Abdelkader was ejected for a violent hit on Toni Lydman - and the Ducks went on to a victory to take a 2-1 series lead over the Red Wings in the Western Conference playoffs. Abdelkader appeared to catch Lydman

square in the side of the head with his left shoulder, and he was given a major penalty for charging and a game misconduct with 4:49 remaining in the second.

The Ducks immediately took advantage when Bonino backhanded a shot past goalie Jimmy Howard from point-blank range.

Ryan Getzlaf, Emerson Etem and Matt Beleskey scored in the third period for the Ducks. Jonas Hiller made 23 saves for Anaheim.

KINGS 1, BLUES 0 In Los Angeles, Jonathan Quick made 30 saves in his fifth career playoff shutout, leading Los Angeles over St. Louis, trimming the Blues’ series lead to 2-1.

Slava Voynov scored in the second period for the defending Stanley Cup champions, who got a brilliant performance from their Conn Smythe Trophy-winning goalie in a tight defensive game. Los Angeles will attempt to even the series in Game 4 tonight. After making selfdescribed mistakes that led to both of the Blues’ winning goals in St. Louis, Quick won his duel with Brian Elliott, who stopped 20 shots.

St. Louis has allowed just three goals in the series, but Quick kept the Kings unbeaten at home since March 23. —AP

Pedrosa triumphs in Spain JEREZ: Dani Pedrosa streaked away to win the Spanish MotoGP yesterday but it was rookie Marc Marquez’s aggressive manoeuvre to deny Jorge Lorenzo second place on the last bend which was the main talking point of the race.

In dry, sunny conditions, Honda rider Pedrosa cut inside pole holder Lorenzo with 22 laps to go and steadily pulled clear to win his first race of the season.

The 20-year-old Marquez fought an enthralling battle with Lorenzo for second place, finally braking inside the champion on the newly-named ‘Lorenzo corner’ and barging him out of the way to sneak through. Italy’s Valentino Rossi was fourth, ahead of Britain’s Cal Crutchlow and another Spaniard, Alvaro Bautista.

Spaniard Marquez pulled clear at the top of the world championship with 61 points from three races, ahead of compatriots Pedrosa and Lorenzo who are three and four points behind him respectively. “I’m very tired. It’s been a race right to the limits chasing Jorge and Dani,” Honda’s Marquez told Spanish broadcaster Telecinco, after becoming the youngest debutant to achieve three consecutive podium finishes.

“I tried to give 100 percent and in the last lap I gave it all.” Marquez tried to speak to Lorenzo in the paddock after the race but the champion brushed him away. Later, on the podium, the Yamaha rider congratulated Pedrosa, patting him on the back, but ignored the youngster. “I went to apologise to Jorge, but, well, I think it has been one of things that happens in a race,” Marquez added. “The positive thing is neither of us fell. “It has been a great end to the race for the fans.”

Lorenzo was still fuming when he was asked about the incident. “I prefer not to talk about what happened on the last curve because I am still very angry,” Lorenzo said. “What I would say would be very negative.

“Our race has been very consistent with a lot of focus. With the bike and the tyres we had, it

was a very good race. We have points and a podium finish.”

A number of riders have fallen over the weekend in practice sessions and during the races, with tyres being an issue for many including race-winner Pedrosa.

“Jorge started very quickly in the first few laps. I tried to stay in touch with him. I was able to catch and pass him,” Pedrosa said.

“I didn’t go at it 100 percent to preserve the tyres. I felt comfortable but despite that near the end the bike was slipping a lot. It is magnificent to win again here.”

Spaniards completed a clean sweep in front of their own fans with Esteve Rabat and Maverick Vinales winning the Moto2 and Moto3 races to top the world championships in their respective categories. Rabat rode to a career-first victory from pole position, moving one point ahead of second-placed finisher Scott Redding in the standings. Another Spaniard Pol Espargaro was third.

Vinales won a red-flag interrupted Moto3 race to move ahead of compatriot Luis Salom, who came in second. Germany’s Jonas Folger was third. —Reuters

SPAIN: Yamaha Factory Racing motoGP’s Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo (left) vies ahead of Repsol Honda Team MotoGP’s Spanish rider Marc Marquez during the Spanish Grand Prix at the Jerez racetrack. —AFP

Crusaders stifle high-flying Brumbies CANBERRA: The inconsistent Canterbury Crusaders were back to their efficient best yesterday as they recorded a 30-23 win over the Super Rugby-leading ACT Brumbies in Canberra.

Scrumhalf Andy Ellis, winger Zac Guilford and replacement Israel Dagg grabbed the tries, while Dan Carter was imperious as ever with his kicking as the Crusaders forced numerous turnovers with some tough tackling.

After disappointing losses to the Hurricanes and the Western Force, the Crusaders sixth win in 10 matches this season proving a watershed moment for captain George Whitelock.

“We thought this game would be sea-

son defining and we got there and have done the job so now after 10 rounds we get the bye and can freshen up,” the flanker said in a pitchside interview.

“We knew we had to front up tonight and get physical and I’m pretty pleased with the way the boys did it. “We talked about it all week that that was going to be the winning of the game and the guys got off the line and made some big hits and made the tackles count tonight so that was pretty pleasing.” The Crusaders dominated possession and territory early on but it was the Brumbies who produced the opening points in the seventh minute when flyhalf Matt Toomua intercepted a pass from Carter

just outside his 22 and sprinted clear for a try.

Christian Lealiifano converted and added a penalty before the Crusaders were able to turn their strong start into points, Carter kicking a goal before scrumhalf Andy Ellis sprinted off the back of a five-metre scrum to touchdown for a 21st minute try.

Carter converted from near the touchline to tie the scores at 10-10 with some careless knock-ons and lousy lineouts ensuring neither side added to their total before halftime.

The Brumbies started the second half brightly, going through the phases as they probed for another score but good

pilfering work at the breakdown helped the Crusaders force a turnover and break for a try of their own.

Zac Guilford finding space down the left to scuttle in to the corner after more hard yards were gained by the visitors’ impressive front five.

Carter’s kicking stretched the lead to 23-10 with the conversion and two penalties as Lealiifano was wayward with a penalty of his own.

However, Lealiifano was successful with a 67th minute kick to cut the deficit to 10 and the Brumbies were back in Crusaders territory five minutes but another costly turnover resulted in a third try for the visitors.

Replacement fullback Dagg opted against kicking away the ball near his own tr yline and instead led a swift counter-attack past tired Brumbies forwards which he finished off after good work by centre Robbie Fruean.

Brumbies number eight Ben Mowen eventually found a rare hole in the Crusaders backline to break through for a second try in the 76th minute with a quick conversion from Toomua and a late penalty from Lealiifano ensuring a losing bonus point.

“Our execution was off early and a team like the Crusaders, you give them half chances and they are tries,” skipper Mowen said. —Reuters

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

S P ORTS

Mayweather stops Guerrero

MANNHEIM: Ukrainian Heavyweight Champion Wladimir Klitschko (left) and Italianborn challenger Francesco Pianeta exchange punches during their IBO, IBF, WBO, WBA title fight. —AFP

Klitschko retains titles MANNHEIM: Vladimir Klitschko stopped former sparring partner Francesco Pianeta inside six rounds in Mannheim on Saturday to retain his four world heavyweight title belts.

The Italian-born challenger briefly ruffled the champion by landing a couple of punches in the second round but apart from that appeared out of his depth.

Klitschko twice sent his opponent to the canvas in the fourth round before the referee called a halt to proceedings eight seconds from the end of the sixth as Pianeta took a pounding.

The 37-year-old Ukrainian extended his

unbeaten run to 18 fights, his last defeat coming when he challenged Lamon Brewster for the WBO title in 2004.

Overall, he has won 60 of his 63 fights, including 52 within the distance. Klitschko holds the IBF, IBO, WBO and WBA crown and his older brother Vitali holds the WBC crown. The two have pledged not to fight each other.

Pianeta, who at 1.93 metres is five centimetres shorter than his opponent, was previously undefeated with 28 wins and one draw. “He started well and he tried to take the fight to me, he fought with great courage,” said Klitschko. —Reuters

LAS VEGAS: Floyd Mayweather showed little sign of ring-rust after a year out of the sport as he used sublime defense and a steady parade of right hands to dominate fellow American Robert Guerrero and retain his WBC welterweight championship on Saturday.

One day short of 12 months since his last bout, Mayweather, who also spent two months in jail in 2012 for a domestic abuse offence, landed an astonishing 60 percent of his power punches en route to a unanimous 12-round decision.

All three judges scored the fight 117-111 in favour of the undefeated Mayweather, who admitted that a damaged hand had prevented him from ending the fight early.

“I really was looking for a knockout, but I hurt my right hand,” he revealed. “After that, I just had to box smart. “Robert Guerrero was a tough warrior. He was trying to press the attack. But I got really good work in the gym and I felt comfortable in the ring. My defense was on point.”

After an opening two rounds in which the southpaw Guerrero (31-2-1, 18 KOs) had some success, Mayweather (44-0, 26 KOs) seemed to slip into his comfort zone from the third.

Although the challenger’s game plan seemed to be to back Mayweather to the ropes with his jab and then land punches to the body, the champion repeatedly slipped under his opponent’s left, landed one or more right hands and moved out of danger.

After being hit with several rights in the third, Guerrero appeared more hesitant to commit to his attack, giving Mayweather yet more time to slip in and out of range and land his key punches.

“I thought Floyd did an excellent job tonight,”

LAS VEGAS: World Boxing Council champion Floyd Mayweather (right) and Robert Guerrero exchange punches during their fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. —AFP said the 36-year-old’s father and trainer Floyd Mayweather Sr. “There was nothing he couldn’t do in there tonight. I told him to steal it with the right hand.

That was a punch (Guerrero) couldn’t see and wasn’t expecting each time he threw it.”

By the eighth round, Mayweather was stepping up his assault, landing right hands with greater force and mixing in left hooks as he opened up a cut over a clearly hurt Guerrero’s left eye.

At that stage, it appeared that Mayweather would stop Guerrero inside the distance and although he continued to paint his opponent with right hands and left hooks, the champion remained content to focus on coasting toward the finish.

“Floyd was tricky with his punches,” Guerrero said in a post-fight interview. “He’s a great fighter. He’s slick and he’s quick. He’s better than I thought. He was definitely on his game tonight.” —Reuters

Serena battles past qualifier Li crashes in Madrid MADRID: World number one Serena Williams got her Madrid Open title defence off to a battling start yesterday, beating Kazakh qualifier Yulia Putintseva 7-6 (7/5), 6-1 but China’s Li Na fell at the first hurdle.

Putintseva had come through two rounds of qualifying and seemed to handle the warm conditions better early on in an extremely tight first set.

Both women broke each other once and Putintseva managed to save another three break points to force the set into a tiebreak.

However, the world number 88 finally crumbled at 5-4 in the tie-break as she fired long and Williams served out the set before taking control in the second, breaking four times to close out the match.

“I felt a little sluggish at the beginning, but happily I was able to win,” said the 15time Grand Slam winner. “I know I will need to play better as each match goes on.”

Williams believes the warm conditions in the Spanish capital should be to her advantage as the tournament progresses. “I have been training in Europe for a little more than a week, but long enough. I trained in Paris for a few days and then I came here.

“I think these clay courts are really good, they are a little bit quick which is really good for me and it’s also a lot warmer here so overall its really good.”

China’s world number five Li Na, the 2011 French Open champion, was the biggest name to fall when she was taken apart by American Madison Keys 6-3, 6-2.

Keys had only got into the tournament

as a lucky loser thanks to the withdrawal of Tamira Paszek after being beaten by compatriot Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the qualifiers. But she dominated from the off with her heavy groundstrokes producing a series of errors from the Chinese.

World number 10 Caroline Wozniacki was the other major name to be eliminated as the former world number one was beaten in straight sets by Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan, 6-2, 6-4.

Venus Williams was forced to pull out of the tournament with a back injury. The world number 21 had been due to open play on the main showcourt against Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues.

“I was desperate to play in the Madrid Open this year, but unfortunately due to the pain in my back I cannot compete,” she said in a statement.

Eighth seed Petra Kvitova was forced to go the distance against Yanina Wickmayer.

The world number 36 took the first set 6-4, but former Wimbledon champion Kvitova bounced back to take the next two sets 7-5, 6-4. Sixth seed Angelique Kerber also took three sets to beat Su-Wei Hsieh 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and 16th seed Ana Ivanovic came from a set down too as she overcame MattekSands 6-7 (10/12), 6-3, 6-2.

Agnieszka Radwanska, the fourth seed, had a comfortable afternoon as she saw off Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2, 6-4 to set up a meeting with Britain’s Laura Robson and Marion Bartoli is also safely through after her opponent Elena Vesnina retired with the score 6-3, 3-0 in the Frenchwoman’s favor. —AFP

OEIRAS: Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka (left) and Spain’s David Ferrer pose with their trophies after playing the Portugal Open final tennis match. —AP

Wawrinka clinches Portugal title OEIRAS: Stanislas Wawrinka won his first title since 2011 when he upset top seed David Ferrer 6-1, 6-4 to claim the Portugal Open title yesterday.

The Swiss claimed his fourth career trophy, three of which have come on clay. The 28-yearold last won a tournament at Chennai in January two years ago. Ferrer, ranked fourth in the world, was burdened by 31 unforced errors in the 64minute loss.

The win was the second for Switzerland at the tournament after Roger Federer lifted the 2008 title and played the final two years later.

“I’ll have to tell Roger to come back and play here again, everyone seems to want him to return,” joked Wawrinka. “As for me, I’m happy to be back here, I’ve had a good week on the clay.”

The world number 16 was playing in Portugal for a second straight year after losing in the 2012 semi-finals to Juan Martin Del Potro, the defending champion whom Ferrer replaced in the draw after the South American fell ill with a virus.

“It was the per fect match for me,” said Wawrinka, whose picturebook backhand served him well on a sunny afternoon. “It’s so tough to play David, he’s a big champion.”

Wawrinka used his most lethal stroke to best advantage in an opening set in which he kept Ferrer under the cosh throughout.

The top-seeded Spaniard did not even get onto the scoreboard until the 25th minute of the 29-minute opener but made it more of a contest in the second set.

His rally, however, came to an end as

Wawrinka secured a break for 5-4 and served out the victory a game later. The Swiss won with three breaks of Ferrer while never facing a break point on his own serve. “Stan played a great match, he deserved to win,” said Ferrer.

“There have been a lot of Spanish champions here and I wish I could have been one of them.

“But I still had a good week, especially after coming in on the wild card. It was all positive. I had hoped to win but I still made the final and got matches on the clay.”

Ferrer stood 5-1 on clay against Wawrinka and had beaten the Swiss in February for the Buenos Aires title. Ferrer’s loss still keeps him atop the ATP with 28 match wins this season.

Wawrinka earned his 20th victory of 2013 as he played his 11th career final. —AFP

Federer raring to go after two-month break

MADRID: Serena Williams from US celebrates defeating Yulia Putintseva from Kazakhstan during the Madrid Open tennis tournament. —AP

MADRID: Roger Federer believes his two-month break from competing on the ATP Tour will help him as he prepares for a hectic few months between now and the US Open in September.

The 17-time Grand Slam winner last played in Indian Wells where he was hampered by a back injury as he went out to Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals.

“It took me a little time to get over my back issue from Indian Wells, but at the same time, that clashed with my vacation anyway, which was okay,” he told a press conference yesterday ahead of defending his Madrid Masters title. “Now I feel good. Obviously extremely excited about being back on tour and entering all the tournaments from here through to the US Open really, so it’s going to be a long stretch and you want to be ready for it.”

Federer seemed to be the least affected by the controversial blue clay used at last year ’s event where he went on to win for a record third time in Madrid.

But he welcomed the change back to the traditional red clay and joined Nadal in describing the surfaces at the Caja Magica as the best they have ever been.

“There was a lot of criticism about the colour, about the quality of the court as well, being extremely slippery,” said the world number two.

“I don’t know if that was due to the colour, but this tournament has in the past had issues with the quality of the court. I think through what happened last year with the controversy around the blue clay, it was a big eye opener to have a proper court here now.

“I think this year, from what I’m hearing from the players, it’s a good quality court and the players are happy. In the process, hopefully we’ll see better tennis this year.”

World number one Novak Djokovic joined in the praise of the new courts, but refused to get drawn into a debate over whether he was favourite to lift the title in the Spanish capital or at the

French Open next month.

The Serb dethroned Nadal after an eight-year reign at his last outing in Monte Carlo, prompting many to believe he could complete the career Grand Slam at Roland Garros where his Spanish rival is a record seven-time champion. “The court is great. The one where I practiced is great. I haven’t practiced on the centre court yet, but I’ll try to do that tonight to get a little feel about it,” said Djokovic.

“But also from the opinions of the other players I can hear only positive comments, so it’s great to see that.” First up though Djokovic could face a tricky first round opponent in Grigor Dimitrov who took a set off Nadal before losing in the Monte Carlo quarter-finals last month.

The world number 29 faces Spanish qualifier Javier Marti in the first round, and Djokovic expects a tough test should the Bulgarian get through.

“I’ve played him in Indian Wells and he’s very talented player. He

has the capacity to play at a very, very high level. He’s an all-round player, and he has showed it,” said Djokovic.

“There is an altitude here, 500, 600 meters, which helps the servers and more aggressive players. The ball travels through the air faster, so that can make Dimitrov very dangerous.”

World number three Andy Murray had a disappointing start to his claycourt season in Monte Carlo as he was swept aside by Stanislas Wawrinka in the third round.

“On grass and hard courts I’ve played very well over the last year,” said US Open and Olympic champion Murray, who has never won a claycourt title. “ The clay has been still the most challenging surface for me, but I’ve played some good matches and beaten some tough players; at the French Open I made the second week there a few times; made the semis.

“I feel like I’m a better player now than I was then.” —AFP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

S P ORTS

Orb wins muddy Kentucky Derby LOUISVILLE: Orb, ridden by Joel Rosario and prepared by homebred trainer Shug McGaughey, won the 139th Kentucky Derby at a wet and muddy Churchill Downs on Saturday.

After settling near the rear of the field in the sloppy conditions, Orb steadily worked his way into contention, then pinned back his ears and sprinted to the front at the iconic Twin Spires and kicked clear to win the $2 million, 1-1/4 mile classic.

Golden Soul, a long shot who enjoyed a trouble free journey along the rails, finished gamely to grab second while Revolutionary was third in the 19-horse field.

“It’s awesome, to win the Derby, it’s like a dream,” said Rosario, who had never won the Derby before but won this year’s $10 million Dubai World Cup, the world’s richest race, on Animal Kingdom.

“I was so far behind I just let (Orb) be calm and relaxed, then I steered him to the outside because I didn’t want to get blocked. He did the rest.”

Normandy Invasion finished fourth after leading the field into the final stretch while Mylude was fifth under the guidance of Rosie Napravnik, marking the best finish in the revered race by a female jockey. Orb, who was bred and trained in Kentucky,

emerged as the horse to beat in the annual Run for the Roses after winning his four previous races, including the $1 million Florida Derby, one of the key lead-up events.

He was initially installed as the 7-2 favorite despite drawing gate 16 at Wednesday’s post-position draw but began to drift in the betting as the race approached.

Only a late surge of money saw him retain his place as outright favorite, at odds of 5-1, just a point ahead of Revolutionary, the Louisiana Derby winner. “Obviously it’s a huge, huge thrill for me,” said McGaughey, a 62-year-old trainer who was born and raised in Kentucky.

“It’s a race I’ve always wanted to win, a race I’ve always wanted to compete in if I thought I had the right horse, and finally today we had the right horse.”

McGaughey had already won most of America’s biggest races and been inducted into the Hall of Fame almost a decade ago, but the Kentucky Derby had always eluded him.

“I don’t know what it will be like tomorrow morning when I pinch myself and figure all this out,” he said.

“The way it’s going to change my life is I’m not going to have to worry about it anymore, because I’ve wor-

LOUISVILLE: Joel Rosario atop Orb celebrates with the trophy after winning the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs. —AFP

ried about it for a while.” Rosario, a 28year-old jockey born in Dominican Republic, patiently held his mount back in the early stages of the race, which was held on a track drenched by hours of heavy rain.

He resisted the temptation to look for a shortcut on the fence, opting instead to keep Orb on the outside, where he continued to make ground.

It was a tactic that paid off when the early leaders, who had set off at a cracking pace, started to fade, Orb was perfectly positioned to make his charge.

Orb swept past a dozen rivals on the back straight and was within sight of the leaders round the final turn. As the crowd of 151,616 let out a deafening roar, he made his move, charging down the center of the track and holding off all his challengers.

Golden Soul, a 31-1 chance ridden

by Robby Albarado, also came from behind to take second for his owner, Canadian diamond magnate Charles Fipke.

Revolutionary was one of five runners in the race trained by Todd Pletcher. He was ridden by Calvin Borel, a three -time winner of the Kentucky Derby, who stuck to the fence but could catch the winner. The lone international entrant, Irish galloper Lines of Battle, finished seventh, while Goldencents (7-1), prepared by last year ’s winning trainer Doug O’Neill, weakened badly to cross the line 17th under jockey Kevin Krigger, who was bidding to become the first African-American jockey to win the race in more than a century.

In keeping with tradition, the race was preceded by the singing of “My Old Kentucky Home” as a huge crowd packed into the Louisville course, dressed in an array of outfits and sipping on mint julep drinks. But no sooner had Orb, who paid $12.80 for a $2 bet, been draped in the traditional garland of red roses, than talk turned to the future.

The bay colt now has the chance to win the coveted Triple Crown. The second leg, the Preakness Stakes, will be held at Maryland later this month followed by the Belmont Stakes, in New York in June.

The last horse to win the Triple Crown was Affirmed in 1978. “I still think there’s something more there, I don’t think we’ve bottomed out,” said McGaughey. “I think we’ve got o u r h a n d s o n a p re t t y s p e c i a l horse.” —Reuters

Smith snatches wreck-fest race TALLADEGA: Regan Smith thought he’d won at Talladega before, only to have a NASCAR ruling go against him.

So there was no rush to celebrate Saturday night as Smith waited for NASCAR to review videotape and scoring loops to determine the winner of the crash-filled Nationwide Series race. He thought he was out front when the final caution flew - after all, it was dark enough that he could clearly see the glaring yellow lights - but experience taught Smith to stay calm.

After a few anxious minutes the word came down: Smith was going to Victory Lane. “I was having flashbacks sitting on pit road, I’m not going to lie, when they were making the decision,” said Smith, who crossed the finish line first of the 2008 Sprint Cup race but wasn’t awarded the win because NASCAR said he went below the yellow line to pass Tony Stewart.

“I was thinking ‘Man, I hope we got it. I’m pretty sure we got it when the flag came out and I saw the lights come on.’

I knew we were ahead. I don’t know if it’s vindication, but I definitely wanted to win and it certainly wipes that bad memory away.”

The race was delayed three hours by rain and slowed by seven cautions, and as darkness closed in on Talladega Superspeedway, NASCAR cut the race distance by 10 laps.

Then Joey Coulter brought out a caution one lap shy of the new scheduled finish and NASCAR decided it would make one attempt at a green-white-checkered finish.

At least 10 cars were jockeying for position in packs of two on the final lap when Brian Vickers was spun hard into the outside wall. Smith, Joey Logano and Kasey Kahne raced three-wide all the way to the finish line and Kahne actually crossed it first.

“As soon as they started wrecking, I saw the caution, I still raced to the line. I had a good enough run to get there

and be first there, and I was kind of surprised the caution came out,” Kahne said. “I knew I was third when the caution came out and I knew I was first at the line. I actually thought maybe Joey had won.”

NASCAR needed several minutes to review video to see who won the race. The win went to Smith over Logano under caution with Kahne in third.

“I was really surprised they threw that caution, so many times they wouldn’t in that situation,” Kahne said. “NASCAR always switches it up, you never know what’s going to happen.”

The win moved Smith into the points lead for the first time in his career, and for the first time for JR Motorsports.

Brad Keselowski had the team second in points for nine weeks in 2008, but the team struggled after his departure and team owner Dale Earnhardt Jr. began making wholesale changes last fall that culminated with Smith’s hiring and then the November addition of crew chief Greg Ives, a longtime crew member from Jimmie Johnson’s Cup team.

Smith won the Homestead season finale, and has his first win of the 2013 season. “We’ve been working real hard as a race team to try to get to Victory Lane,” Earnhardt said.

“I’m real happy for Regan and the whole group, really.

They’ve been working so hard, so many late nights, trying to get faster and trying to find that little bit of extra speed, to be as good as they can be. You can really see the effort between Greg and the whole group ... they are trying to gel as fast as they can because they know they’ve got a great opportunity this year.

“This is just a result of all that hard work, a result of all that effort they’ve put in, a result of the talent Regan’s got, the ability he’s got. We’re just thrilled that we’re in this position and we’ve put the pieces of the puzzle together to be able to accomplish this.” —AP

Photo of the day

Red Bull BC One All Stars Lilou and Pelezinho pose for a photo at Al Zumoroda Hall one day before Red Bull BC One Cypher Kuwait. www.redbullcontentpool.com

Puccio in pink at Giro d’Italia ISCHIA: Italian Salvatore Puccio took possession of the Giro d’Italia pink jersey from overnight leader Mark Cavendish yesterday as Team Sky and race favorite Bradley Wiggins claimed their maiden team time trial win on a Grand Tour on the island of Ischia.

Cavendish had sprinted to victory in the opening stage of the three-week race on Saturday to pull on the race leader’s pink jersey for the third time in his career.

But despite their best efforts, Cavendish and his OmegaPharma team were no match for Team Sky over the winding 17.4 km course on the scenic island which sits off the coast of Naples.

Cavendish, a 23-time stage winner on the Tour de France, won his 11th Giro stage on Saturday and said his team would do their best to protect the race lead when the Giro visited Ischia for the first time in 54 years.

However Omega-Pharma could finish only 17th in the 23-team field in a time of 22min 53sec that was 48sec behind Team Sky. “I’m a little disappointed in myelf not to have held on to this beautiful pink jersey,” said Cavendish. “But it was a very technical course.”

Puccio was Team Sky’s best placed rider after the opening stage, handing him the race’s top prize-which team leader Wiggins is hoping to secure at the end of the race on May 26.

Puccio - born and raised in Sicily - admitted that being overall leader had come as something of a surprise. “Today was an incredible result and it is a huge surprise. I could never have thought this morning that I would be pulling on the pink jersey. It is incredible!

“Once again the team showed how strong we are.

Everyone put in a huge effort and it is very satisfying to be part of a big team result like this.

“For an Italian rider the pink jersey is one of the best things that can happen to you.” Team Sky topped the times in 22min 05sec, nine seconds ahead of Movistar and 14 ahead of the Astana team of overall victory contender Vincenzo Nibali.

Nibali has been touted as the man most likely to stand in the way of Wiggins following his 2012 Tour de France triumph with victory in stage racing’s second most prestigious race.

Despite losing time to the Briton, the Sicilian was philosophical about his team’s performance on a “hard and fast” course where he said Astana hit speeds of 70km/h on the small downhill sections.

“For me it was a very good performance,” said Nibali.

We’re not a specialist time trial team, we’re a team composed mainly of climbers.” Astana were far from the worst team containing overall victory contenders. The Garmin team of defending champion Ryder Hesjedal trailed in in seventh place at 25sec behind Sky and Wiggins.

Former Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, is even further off the pace. The Australian was the fourth of the five BMC riders who crossed the finish line in 12th at 37secs behind Sky. BMC’s assistant director Max Sciandri said the team had been let down on the hillier sections. “I think if you look at the winning team, it is more of an imprint of a climber team.

“We had some really good guys who can go on the flats like a regular time trial. But we struggled a little bit with some guys on the climbs. But I don’t think we could have given anything more.”

Evans added: “Thirty-seven seconds is a little bit below what I had hoped or expected, but that’s the way it is. The guys put in everything. Someone like Klaas Lodewyck - he really gave it absolutely everything he had today, so I’m certainly not going to ask anything more of him.” —AFP

ISCHIA: Italian Salvatore Puccio celebrates on the podium after winning the pink jersey on the podium of the second stage of 96th Giro díItalia Team Time Trial. —AFP

O’Sullivan dominates LONDON: Defending champion Ronnie O’Sullivan stormed back against first-time finalist Barry Hawkins to establish a 5-3 lead in the first session of the snooker World Championship final yesterday.

O’Sullivan trailed for the first time in the tournament after Hawkins overcame an unsteady start to the match to move 3-2 ahead. But the four-time champion roared back in stirring style, assembling successive breaks of 76, 113 and 100 to move two frames in front ahead of the second session later yesterday.

Each of O’Sullivan’s centuries took less than nine minutes to construct and took him level with Stephen Hendry’s record of 127 century breaks at the Crucible Theatre in the northern English city of Sheffield. With O’Sullivan having hinted yet again he may retire after the tournament, although on Saturday he suggested he may have to rethink that as he is heavily in debt, the 37-year-old will hope to claim the record outright as the best-of-35 frames match plays out. O’Sullivan is making his comeback after nearly a year out of the sport and is appearing in his fifth World Championship final. —AFP

Loeb bags Rally of Argentina

TALLADEGA: Drivers are involved in a wreck during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Aaron’s 499 at Talladega Superspeedway. —AFP

ARGENTINA: France’s Sebastien Loeb won the Rally of Argentina for the eighth year in a row in a Citroen on Saturday.

The nine-times world champion, who is not defending his title this season as he is competing in only a limited programme of events, beat Volkswagen-driving compatriot Sebastien Ogier into second place by 55 seconds.

Finland’s Jari-Matti Latvala finished third for Volkswagen. Ogier had won the last three rallies but retained the championship lead after five of the 13 rounds with 122 points to Loeb’s 68.

Citroen’s Mikko Hirvonen, Ogier’s closest real rival for the crown, has 57.

“It’s great emotion to win here,” the champion said. “After so many months since my last gravel rally it was difficult to find the feeling in the first stage and to get the car working for me. But it was the perfect drive.”

The rally, based in Villa Carlos Paz near Cordoba to the north of Buenos Aires, was Loeb’s first since Sweden in February, and third of the season, and he will not compete again in the championship until France in October.

The next rally is in Greece at the end of May. Loeb has an unprecedent-

ARGENTINA: French driver Sebastien Loeb jumps with his Citroen DS3 WRC with his co-driver Daniel Elena from Monaco during the Rally of Argentina. —AFP ed career tally of 78 world championship rally wins and Saturday’s was likely to be his last on gravel, with France being an asphalt event.

The official wrc.com website said an estimated 80,000 spectators lined the roadside on the final El Condor stage to see Loeb’s Argentine farewell.

Ogier had won five of the first six stages of the event but handed Loeb

the lead when he went off the road on Friday. “It’s a good result for us,” the title favourite said. “We had a lot of problems this weekend but we’re happy to be at the end ... we had a few problems even this morning.”

Russian driver Evgeny Novikov finished fourth with Belgian Thierry Neuville fifth, both in Ford Fiestas.

Hirvonen was sixth. —Reuters

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

S P ORT S

Chelsea defeat United to close on Champions League Man United 0

Chelsea 1

LONDON: Liverpool’s Daniel Agger (second left) attempt a header on the Everton goal during their English Premier League soccer match at Anfield. —AP

Everton hold Liverpool Liverpool 0

Everton 0

LIVERPOOL: Everton’s winless run at Anfield continued as the Toffees played out a 0-0 draw against Liverpool yesterday to edge closer to ensuring they will finish above their Merseyside rivals in the Premier League.

Sylvain Distin’s disallowed goal was the closest to a breakthrough in the 220th meeting of these sides, but the point ensures Everton remain five points clear of Liverpool with two games remaining.

However, it effectively ends Everton’s hopes of earning a Europa League spot as they sit five points behind fifth-place Tottenham Hotspur, who have played a game less.

Liverpool may have gone into the game five points behind their rivals, but having not lost to their neighbors at home since 1999, they will have still remained confident of ceasing talk of a power shift in the city.

After the Kop displayed a mosaic to thank Everton fans for their support in the bid for justice for the 96 Liverpool supporters killed in the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, the pleasantries were put aside for a feisty start.

Liverpool were the first to create an opening, but Daniel Sturridge failed to get his shot on target after opening space for himself.

Everton responded, but Steven Pienaar also failed to hit the target as the ball sailed into the Kop with Pepe Reina untroubled in the hosts’ goal.

Rumours had circulated before the game that Steven Gerrard might miss out through injury, but those fears proved to be unfounded.

The Liverpool skipper played a delightful 50-yard pass to Sturridge, but he could not get his shot on target. The best chance of the half fell to Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini after Liverpool gave away a needless free-kick on the edge of the area.

Leighton Baines swung in the dead ball and Fellaini stuck a boot out but could not

direct it goalwards, much to the relief of Reina, who looked beaten.

Phil Jagielka then made the first of two very good blocks to deny Liverpool. Jordan Henderson cut the ball back for the onrushing Gerrard, who hit a fierce low effort, but Jagielka managed to get his body in the way, before the Reds captain curled a free-kick just over.

Jagielka was alert again before the break to deny Philippe Coutinho, who was about to fire the ball home after it broke to him in the area, but the Everton defender scrambled to get across and stick his leg out.

After the break it was goalkeeper Tim Howard who came to the Toffees’ rescue, blocking from Sturridge as the Liverpool striker tried to round him after a superb through ball from Coutinho sent him clear.

As the action continued, Coutinho teed up Sturridge again, but this time the England forward fired into the side netting.

The sun was causing problems for the Liverpool defence and Distin rose to head in a Baines corner, but the Everton celebrations were short-lived as referee Michael Oliver had already blown for a free-kick.

The Everton defender had pushed Jamie Carragher in the back when climbing for the ball, while Victor Anichebe also appeared to block Reina.

Distin showed his defensive skills with 17 minutes to go after Sturridge played in Gerrard. The England skipper rounded Howard, but his scuffed shot allowed Distin the time to get back and clear the ball away. Liverpool came close again when Gerrard swung in a dangerous free-kick, but Daniel Agger’s header whizzed by the post.

Reina was almost caught out by a deflected Anichebe effort that spun high into the air, but the Liverpool goalkeeper managed to palm it onto a post in what was the last chance of the game.—AFP

MANCHESTER: Juan Mata’s dramatic late goal earned Chelsea an unlikely three points in their quest for Champions League football as they secured a 1-0 victory at Premier League champions Manchester United yesterday.

The Chelsea midfielder struck at the end of a rare flowing move in the 87th minute-Ramires’ back-heel finding Oscar, whose pass to Mata allowed his team-mate to drive the ball home via a deflection-to lift his team into third place in the table.

To add to United’s dissatisfaction, substitute Wayne Rooney claimed he had been brought down just outside the Chelsea penalty area in the seconds leading up to the goal.

It was a rare moment of memorable attacking play in an otherwise forgettable contest and a goal that ensured an ill-tempered conclusion to the game, with United defender Rafael da Silva shown a straight red card two minutes later. The Brazilian hacked at the ankles of countryman David Luiz as the pair tussled for the ball near the corner flag, and players from both sides engaged in a subsequent shoving match.

There had been pre-game speculation over whether United manager Alex Ferguson would shake the hand of opposite number Rafael Benitez, with whom he has a frosty relationship, but the veteran manager went out of his way to seek out the Chelsea interim coach on his way to the bench. Ferguson had taken the controversial step of resting key personnel and handed star ts to reser ve goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard and midfielders Anderson and Tom Cleverley.

It was a selection that will have raised eyebrows at Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, the clubs in direct competition with Chelsea for Champions League places.

United’s performance will have done little, therefore, to allay fears that this is a United side that is far from firing on all cylinders.

After just three minutes, Mata picked out Demba Ba at the far post and the forward heading just wide while off-balance.

The Senegalese striker then miskicked horribly from a promising position, the chance created after Lindegaard had flapped at a Mata cross unconvincingly.

Errors by Patrice Evra and Phil Jones then handed the visitors two more promising openings. First, Lindegaard did well to turn a shot from Oscar onto his post before smothering the rebound, then Mata laid the ball off for Victor Moses, whose 18-yard shot rose harmlessly over the United goal.

Robin van Persie just failed to make clean contact as he ghosted in to meet a superb through-ball from Ryan Giggs and shot wide, but moments of quality such as that displayed

LONDON: Manchester United’s Ecuador midfielder Antonio Valencia controls the ball during the English Premier League football match between Manchester United and Chelsea at Old Trafford. —AFP

by United’s Welshman were few and far between. Before the interval, Oscar rifled wide from just inside the area, Giggs volleyed an Antonio Valencia cross over, and Van Persie headed a Nemanja Vidic cross directly at Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech.

The attacking quality scarcely improved after the restart as Ba slid in and turned a Moses cross wide, while Mata won a free-kick in a promising position after being brought down by Evra, but succeeded only in placing the dead ball directly into the wall.

Somehow, the second half produced even fewer chances than the first, with Mata underlining the point when he narrowly avoided connecting with Frank Lampard’s cross from close range after 77 minutes. Branislav Ivanovic, meanwhile, was required to perform a rare piece of defending for Chelsea as he intercepted a dangerous Rafael cross. Belatedly, the game burst to life at the death, with Mata’s shot, which took a deflection off Phil Jones, condemning United to defeat, as the hosts failed to score for the first time in 67 home games.—AFP

EPL results/standings Liverpool 0, Everton 0; Manchester Utd 0, Chelsea 1 (Mata 87).

Played Saturday: Fulham 2 (Ruiz 70, 77) Reading 4 (Robson-Kanu 12-pen, 62, Le Fondre 75, Karacan 83); Norwich 1 (Holt 74-pen) Aston Villa 2 (Agbonlahor 55, 89); QPR 0, Arsenal 1 (Walcott 1); Swansea 0, Manchester City 0; Tottenham 1 (Bale 86) Southampton 0; West Brom 2 (Long 29, McAuley 50) Wigan 3 (Kone 39, McArthur 58, McManaman 80); West Ham 0, Newcastle 0.

English Premier League table after yesterday’s matches (played, won, drawn, lost, goals for, goals against, points): Man Utd

36

27

4

5

79

Man City Chelsea Arsenal Tottenham Everton Liverpool West Brom Swansea West Ham Stoke Fulham

35 35 36 35 36 36 35 35 36 35 36

21 20 19 19 15 14 14 10 11 9 10

9 8 10 8 15 13 6 13 10 13 10

5 7 7 8 6 9 15 12 15 13 16

61 69 67 61 52 67 48 43 41 31 46

37 85 - champions 31 72 35 68 36 67 43 65 38 60 42 55 47 48 44 43 49 43 41 40 57 40

Aston Villa 36 Southampton36 Norwich 36 Newcastle 36 Sunderland 35 Wigan 35 Reading 36

10 9 8 10 9 9 6

10 12 14 8 10 8 10

16 15 14 18 16 18 20

44 47 34 43 39 42 41

65 40 58 39 56 38 66 38 51 37 64 35 67 28 - relegated QPR 36 4 13 19 29 57 25 - relegated Note: Top four teams qualify for Champions League; bottom three clubs relegated

Match on TV (Local Timings)

English Premier League Sunderland v Stoke City Abu Dhabi Sports HD

22:00

Referee punched by player dies MURRAY: A soccer referee who slipped into a coma after being punched by a teenage player during a game a week ago died Saturday night, police said.

Ricardo Portillo, 46, of Salt Lake City passed away at the hospital, where he was being treated following an assault, police said. Police have accused a 17year-old player in a recreational soccer league of punching Portillo after the man called a foul on him and issued him a yellow card.

“The suspect was close to Portillo and punched him once in the face as a result of the call,” spokesman Justin Hoyal said in a press release.

The teen has been booked into juvenile detention on suspicion of aggravated assault. Hoyal said authorities will consider additional charges since Portillo has died. Hoyal said an autopsy is planned. No cause of death was released.

Portillo suffered swelling in his brain and had been listed in critical condition, Dr. Shawn Smith said Thursday at the Intermountain Medical Center in the Salt Lake City suburb of Murray.

The victim’s family, which publicly spoke of Portillo’s plight this past week, has asked for privacy, Hoyal said. Johana Portillo, 26, said last week that she wasn’t at the April 27 game in the Salt Lake City suburb of Taylorsville, but she said she’s been told by witnesses and detectives that the player hit her father in the side of the head.

“When he was writing down his notes, he just came out of nowhere and punched him,” she said. Accounts from a police report, Portillo’s daughter and others further detail what occurred.

The teenager was playing goalie dur-

ing a game at Eisenhower Junior High School in Taylorsville when Ricardo Portillo issued him a yellow card for pushing an opposing forward trying to score a goal. In soccer, a yellow card is given as a warning to a player for an egregious violation of the rules. Two yellow cards lead to a red card and expulsion from the game.

The teenager, quite a bit heavier than Portillo, began arguing with the referee, then punched him in the face. Portillo seemed fine at first, then asked to be held because he felt dizzy. He sat down and started vomiting blood, triggering his friend to call an ambulance.

When police arrived around noon, the teenager was gone and Portillo was laying on the ground in the fetal position.

Through translators, Portillo told emergency workers that his face and back hurt and he felt nauseous. He had no visible injuries and remained conscious. He was considered to be in fair condition when they took him to the Intermountain Medical Center.

But when Portillo arrived to the hospital, he slipped into a coma with swelling in his brain. Johana Portillo called detectives to let them know his condition had worsened. That’s when detectives intensified their search for the goalie. By Saturday evening, the teenager’s father agreed to bring him down to speak with police. Portillo’s family said he had been attacked before, and Johanna Portillo said she and her sisters begged their father to stop refereeing because of the risk from angry players, but he continued because he loved soccer. “It was his passion,” she said. “We could not tell him no.”—AP

AMSTERDAM: Ajax Amsterdam’s players celebrate after winning the Dutch Eredivsie soccer match against Willem II Tilburg in Amsterdam. —AFP

Ajax crowned Dutch champions ROTTERDAM: Ajax Amsterdam clinched their 32nd Dutch soccer league title yesterday after first-half goals by Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and Christian Eriksen set up a comfortable 5-0 home win over bottom side Willem II Tilburg.

With one match remaining, Ajax have 73 points, four more then PSV Eindhoven who stayed on track for a Champions League qualifying berth with a 4-2 win over NEC Nijmegen.

Tilburg were relegated after suffering their 21st defeat. Iceland’s Sigthorsson opened the scoring after 12 minutes with a well-executed diving header following a fine cross from Ryan Babel. A blunder from Tilburg keeper David Meul, who let a long drive from Eriksen slip

through his hands, allowed Ajax to double the lead after 25 minutes.

Viktor Fischer, Siem de Jong and Danny Hoesen scored after the interval as the capacity home crowd of 50,000 celebrated.

“A good result for a championship match though we should have rewarded ourselves earlier as the chances were there already in the first half,” said Ajax coach Frank de Boer.

“We deserved this title despite the fact that we dropped points but we showed the most consistency and also played the best football.”

After a third straight crown Ajax will now want to focus on winning the Champions League, but fear they could lose players such as

De Jong, Eriksen and Toby Alderweireld to foreign clubs. “This feels great but it would be perfect if this team sticks together for another year so we can try to survive the (Champions League) group stage,” said left back Daley Blind, who signed a three-year deal last month.

PSV virtually secured a spot in the Champions League preliminary round when they cruised to victory over NEC Nijmegen to lift their total of goals scored to 102. The win put them three points clear of Feyenoord who suffered a humiliating 2-0 defeat at ADO Den Haag. Feyenoord can still pull level on points with Dick Advocaat’s team but a far inferior goal difference will make it impossible to leapfrog them.—Reuters

Mayweather stops Guerrero

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

17

Loeb bags Rally of Argentina

18

Federer raring to go after two-month break

Page 17

TURIN: Juventus’ midfielder of Chile, Arturo Vidal celebrates after defeating Palermo to win the Scudetto, the Italian Serie A title. — AFP

Vidal fires Juventus to 29th title ISCHIA: Arturo Vidal’s 10th league goal of the season was enough to secure a 1-0 win over Palermo and help ten-man Juventus to their 29th Serie A title yesterday.

Juve, however, courted controversy when several players brandished giant shields in the colours of the Italian flag and adorned with ‘31’.

The number was a reference to Juve’s belief that they have won 31 titles, despite being officially stripped of two league crowns several years ago due to their implication in a matchfixing affair.

“We’ve taken a weight off our shoulders,” said goalkeeper and captain Gianluigi Buffon.

“After winning the title last season, to finish second would have been a huge disappointment.”

Juventus now have a 14-point lead over second-placed Napoli, who, even in the event of a win over Inter Milan later yesterday, cannot overtake the Turin giants in the final three

games of the season.

Juve coach Antonio Conte spent the first four months of the season in the stands serving a ban for his alleged implication in a match-fixing affair at his former club, Siena.

He said all the credit went to the players who, while defending the title, also made it to the quarter-finals of the Champions League where they were ousted by Bayern Munich.

“We are very happy. The credit must go to this extraordinary group of players who endured a tough and tiring season,” Conte told Sky Sport Italia.

“I am proud of them because despite us being favourites, the Champions League added an extra layer of pressure.” Chilean international Vidal had been Juve’s top scorer this season, the attacking midfielder scoring nine in the league and 14 in all competitions prior to Sunday’s encounter at Juventus Stadium. When

the hosts were awarded a penalty just before the hour after midfielder Massimo Donati fouled Bianconeri striker Mirko Vucinic in the area, Vidal stepped up to beat Stefano Sorrentino in the Palermo goal.

Vidal was cautioned for over-exuberant celebrations but the goal sent Juventus Stadium into raptures. Juve’s title celebrations were tinged by the late sending-off of French midfielder Paul Pogba, who saw red seven minutes from the final whistle after spitting at Salvatore Aronica following a shouting match with the defender.

Juventus, who won the title in 2012 after being unbeaten in the league the entire season, have lost only four times this campaign.

The Turin giants have now secured one of two spots in Serie A which offer direct qualification for next season’s Champions League, with Napoli poised to claim the runners-up spot.

AC Milan, currently third, boosted their chances of claiming the last Champions League spot after an 84th-minute winner from Mario Balotelli secured a 1-0 home win over Torino.

Milan now have a four-point lead over Fiorentina with three games remaning. If Napoli lose to Inter, Allegri’s side could realistically hope to close the four-point gap to second. Elsewhere Lazio made up for their rollercoaster end to the season with a 6-0 rout of hapless Bologna, who saw veteran German striker Miroslav Klose hit the net five times to take his tally to 15 for the season.

Lazio remain seventh, two points behind Udinese and three adrift of Roma who occupy the final qualifying spot in the league for next season’s Europa League.

Klose was not the only veteran striker to hit form yesterday. Antonio Di Natale scored a brace for Udinese in a 3-1 win over Sampdoria

Bundesliga relegation battle to go to the wire

Lyon stay on track for Europe PARIS: Lyon remained on track to qualify for next season’s Champions League after cruising past relegation-battling Nancy 3-0 yesterday.

Bafetimbi Gomis struck two second half goals to take his season’s tally to 16, while Yoann Gourcuff was also on target as Lyon recorded their third victory in four to take a three-point lead in the race for the third and final Champions League place.

Nancy remain one point clear of the drop zone with three games remaining after their six-game unbeaten streak came to an end. A relatively uneventful first half in Nancy saw visiting goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, making just his second start in the French top-flight in the absence of long-term injury casualty Remy Vercoutre, produce a smart low save to deny Benjamin Moukandjo on the quarter hour.

Lisandro Lopez then fired just wide from distance for Lyon before Paul Alo’o Efoulou sent an acrobatic effort narrowly over Lopes’ crossbar just prior to halftime.

Gomis replaced Lisandro after the break, making an immediate impact as he escaped Jordan Loties inside the box and drilled past Damien Gregorini from close range three minutes after his introduction.

Yassine Benzia almost doubled Lyon’s advantage as he ran onto Maxime Gonalons’ clever through ball and rounded Gregorini, only for Vincent Muraroti to make a fine sliding intervention to turn the ball behind.

Lopes then made a sharp stop to thwart Moukandjo as Gourcuff eventually put the game beyond Nancy’s reach on 80 minutes as he drilled home Gueida Fofana’s pass from the edge of the box. Gourcuff turned provider for Gomis’ second, Lyon’s third, a minute from time as he picked out the France striker in the area for Gomis to shrug off Sebastien Puygrenier and place a crisp finish beyond Gregorini.

Earlier, Nice strengthened their quest for European football next season, climbing to fourth, three points behind Lyon, following a 3-0 victory at slumping Rennes.

Dario Cvitanich netted two second-half goals, the second of which came from the penalty spot, to take his haul to 17 for the campaign, while Eric Bautheac added a late third for Claude Puel’s side.

Defeat for Rennes means they’ve now just won once their last 11 outings, a slide that has seen the League Cup runners-up drop from fifth down to a disappointing 11th.

Paris Saint-Germain can move to within a point of their first Ligue 1 crown since 1994 later on Sunday if they beat mid-table Valenciennes at the Parc des Princes. — AFP

which boosted the northern side’s Europa League hopes and left him just three goals short of Serie A’s leading scorer Edinson Cavani.

Uruguayan international Cavani has topped the Serie A goal charts since mid-season when he overtook Stephan El Shaarawy of AC Milan.

However, the Napoli striker has been served notice that it could be a duel to the end for the ‘Capocannoniere’ - the league’s top goal scorer’s prize. Gonzalo Bergessio, meanwhile, hit a hattrick for Catania in a 3-0 win over Siena which has left the latter in dire need of points from their last three matches if they are to avoid relegation. That was a fate that basement side Pescara could not avoid, the Adriatic coast side suffering a 4-1 defeat away to Genoa which sent them straight back to Serie B. Pescara are 10 points adrift of Palermo, who are third from bottom and occupy the final relegation place. — AFP

FRANCE: Nancy’s Cameroonian forward Paul Alo’o Efoulou (right) fights for the ball with Lyon’s French defender Samuel Umtiti (left) during their French League football match. — AFP

BERLIN: The battle to stay in the Bundesliga is set to go to the wire after relegation-threatened Augsburg lost 2-0 at Freiburg yesterday.

Augsburg are one of four teams fighting to stay in Germany’s top tier with just two games left. Goals by Congo’s Cedrick Makiadi and Jonathan Schmid left Freiburg sixth, good enough to qualify for next season’s Europa League, but leaves Augsburg deep in the relegation mire.

The Bavarians are 16th in the league, which means a relegation/play-off clash over two legs against the team who finish third in the second division at the end of the season.

Bottom side Greuther Fuerth, who earned a shock 2-0 win at VfB Stuttgart on Saturday, have already been relegated, but will be joined by one more team, either Hoffenheim, Augsburg, Fortuna Duesseldorf or Werder Bremen.

Hoffenheim, second from bottom, are two points from safety after substitute Sven Schipplock scored twice in the last six minutes to rescue a point in the 2-2 draw at Werder Bremen, who are three points above the danger zone.

Duesseldorf, 15th, are level with Augsburg on points after their 3-1 defeat at Eintracht Frankfurt. Augsburg have the unenviable task of playing at Bayern Munich next Saturday, when the champions will lift the Bundesliga shield, before hosting Fuerth.

Next weekend, Hoffenheim host Hamburg, then travel to Dortmund on the final matchday, while Werder are home to Frankfurt, who are bidding for a Champions League place, then travel to Nuremberg. Duesseldorf have arguably the easiest run in as they face midtable opposition in Nuremberg away, then face Hanover 96 at home. Later Hamburg stayed three-points shy of the Europa League places

with a 1-1 draw at home to mid-table Wolfsburg after Heiko Westermann’s first-half header was cancelled out by Wolves’ Japan star Makoto Hasebe on 65 minutes.

On Saturday, Borussia Dortmund ended ten-man Bayern’s 14-match winning streak as the warm-up for the Champions League final ended in a 1-1 draw.

Both sides fielded just a handful of firstchoice players set to start the Wembley final on May 25 — six from Dortmund and four from Bayern. Bayern had already been crowned Bundesliga champions four weeks ago and the point confirmed Dortmund finish second.

An early goal by Dortmund wing Kevin Grosskreutz was cancelled out when Mario Gomez was left unmarked at the far post on 23 minutes and the Germany star headed Munich level. Dortmund had a second-half penalty saved when Robert Lewandowski’s shot was blocked by Manuel Neuer with an hour gone, but Bayern were reduced to 10 men for the final 25 minutes when right-back Rafinha was sent off.

During his tussle down the right with Dortmund midfielder Jakub Blaszczykowski, the Brazilian thrust his elbow up into the Poland captain’s face for a straight red.

Blaszczykowski was also shown a yellow for remonstrating with the referee, while a heated discussion flared up on the sidelines between Bayern’s director of sport Matthias Sammer and Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp.

Third-placed Bayer Leverkusen sealed automatic qualification for the Champions League with a 2-0 win at Nuremberg.

Schalke 04 closed in on the Champions League qualifying rounds with a 1-0 victory at Borussia Moenchengladbach on Friday which kept them fourth. — AFP

Business

Oman plans dollar bond for first time in 17 years Page 22 Stalemated WTO nears choice for new leader

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

India: Pharmacy of the world

Page 23 Al-Mazaya reports 92% rise in net revenues

Page 25

Page 26

BEIJING: People walk past a group of bulbs on display in front of a shopping mall in Beijing yesterday. Manufacturing activity in China slowed slightly in April from the previous month, official data showed on May 1, in a sign of further weakness in the world’s second-biggest economy. —AFP

UAE, Kuwait markets rise, Saudi slips MIDEAST STOCK MARKETS DUBAI: Most Gulf markets rose yesterday as upbeat sentiment in local fundamentals encouraged renewed buying, while Saudi Arabia’s bourse slipped from a three-week high as investors book gains.

UAE bourses rallied, with Dubai’s measure up 1.9 percent to end at a fresh 41month high. The number of shares changing hands - at 547.9 million - is the highest one - day volume on the index in 14 months. Air Arabia and Dubai Investments jumped 5.8 and 5.7 percent respectively.

Sentiment has improved in the emirate as Dubai successfully restructured some of its maturing debts and repaid others, and the two main sectors present on the exchange - real estate and banks - have somewhat recovered from the 2008 financial crisis.

Dubai’s government said yesterday it had fully repaid 3.34 billion dirhams ($909 million) of bonds which were due on April

23. “Despite the rally, valuations in the UAE are still attractive,” said Rami Sidani, head of investment at Schroders Middle East. “Yields are compelling with as much as 5-6 percent in the main Abu Dhabi banks. This will keep driving interest.”

Abu Dhabi’s index advanced 0.8 percent, extending year-to-date gains to 25.7 percent. Energy firm Dana Gas was the main support, rising 7.7 percent on market talk it may spin off operations in Kurdistan into a new listed company. The company denied the speculation.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi shed 2 percent but the stock is still up 28.2 percent in 2013.

JP Morgan cut its rating on NBAD to ‘neutral’ in a May 3 note, saying the share price is trading at a premium level of 10.9times estimated 2013 earnings.

“In the current low yield environment with limited domestic lending growth

opportunities, we believe that the best way ahead for banks like NBAD - with higher than required Tier 1 in our view - to enhance underlying return on equities is by optimizing (the) capital structure,” it said, pointing towards higher dividends, share buybacks and acquisitions as ways to do this. The US investment bank upgraded Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank to overweight and retained its overweight rating on First Gulf Bank, it said in the same note.

Qatar’s bourse gained 0.4 percent to a fresh 11-week high, and Oman’s index rose 0.5 percent. Kuwait’s benchmark climbed 1.6 percent, extending its 2013 advance to 30 percent.

In Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s benchmark slipped 0.1 percent, trimming yearto - date gains to 5.9 percent.

Petrochemical shares declined, with the sector’s index losing 0.3 percent. Saudi

Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the world’s largest chemicals company, dipped 0.5 percent.

“Fund managers and analysts are assessing the first-quarter earnings and I don’t think anyone has taken a strong direction yet,” said Abdullah Alawi, assistant general manager and head of research at Aljazira Capital.

The market is at the mercy of retail speculative trading, he added. Such a trend usually means focus is on small and mid-cap stocks, which can be moved easier for a quick profit.

National Agriculture Marketing Co, one of the smallest stocks on the index by market capitalization, dipped 3.3 percent.

The number of shares changing hands yesterday was the highest in a single session for the firm in over two years.

Egypt’s exchange was closed yesterday due to a public holiday. — Reuters

Banks paint wider targets after early misses LONDON: It has taken banks years to rein in their optimism and start setting targets they have some chance of meeting, finally chastened by conspicuous failure in meeting the unrealistic expectations they touted.

After the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008, industry survivors reacted to the crisis of confidence in the sector by reassuring shaken investors with a raft of promises to show they were ahead of a perilous game. But new research by Cambridge-based consultancy Tricumen shows the capital markets units of eight of the world’s biggest investment banks have, so far at least, met less than a third of the close to 80 targets they have cited in investor presentations since late 2008.

In 2009/10, they promised revenue growth, job cuts, lower cost-income ratios and better profit margins. “I would characterize a lot of those targets as aspirational,” said the CFO of one major bank of its 2009 aims.

A source at another said their financial targets were “swept away by the crisis”, while a third said, “Of course we didn’t make our pretax profit targets. Nobody did.”

Banks met most of their ‘firm’ cost/headcount reductions and funding targets but “largely missed their revenue/profitability targets”, Tricumen said.

The section on Deutsche Bank shows that in late 2009 Germany’s biggest bank unveiled eye-catching 2011 earnings targets for its investment bank, including pretax income of 6.4 billion euros for its corporate banking and securities unit, when analysts had pencilled in 4.5 billion euros. Ultimately, it managed just 2.9 billion euros.

French bank Societe Generale (SocGen) wowed investors with medium-term targets’ for return on equity (ROE) in May 2009, which Tricumen said it missed.

Deutsche Bank and SocGen declined to say why, but for most of the sector it’s no mystery. “Growth recovered in 2009, and management teams were far too bullish - headcount increased in 2010 as investment banks targeted revenue growth, a clear mistake, with hindsight,” said Deutsche Bank analyst Matt Spick, speaking about banks in general, not his own institution.

The quickening pace of regulation also played a part.

Though new Basel III rules on capital requirements don’t fully come into play until 2019, many banks are already being measured against them and so have modified their businesses. “There was a sense of denial about the impact

of Basel III and how quickly it would come,” the CFO said.

Beyond the unpredictable revenue line, which many bankers privately admit they were foolish to target so publicly, progress on absolute costs has also been slow.

Tricumen doesn’t include much detail on banks that missed cost-cutting targets, but equally finds few that clearly met them. This is partly because absolute cost targets were embraced by banks relatively recently, so many stretch beyond 2013.

In the broader universe of European banks, the 39 that Deutsche covers are expected to have 292 billion euros of operating costs this year, almost identical to 2010. Spick said banks faced a major costs challenge as they migrate from traditional to electronic trading. “Going electronic sounds more headcount efficient, but banks initially have to run dual systems,” he said.

“Take cash equities; the majority by volume is electronic execution, yet as an industry we still have 70 percent of the workforce from the old ‘high touch’ business, which has meant that net headcount reductions in cash equities have been far too small to maintain profits.”

“Despite running very fast, banks are standing still,” said Matthieu Lemerle, a London-based par tner at McKinsey, which advises banks on cost cutting. Ajay Rawal, a managing director with Alvarez & Marsal’s financial industry practice, said IT savings often took longer than expected, while staff cuts were “a bit more predictable”.

In a March 2009 presentation Credit Suisse promised it would cut investment banking headcount from 21,300 at end-September 2008 to 17,500 by the end of 2009, which Tricumen says it missed based on detail in Credit Suisse’s 2009 accounts. Credit Suisse says some targets Tricumen shows as missed were achieved but offset by new hires as it invested in IT infrastructure, grew its fixed income sales force and upped numbers in prime services and cash equities. Cost cuts were also obscured by investment, Credit Suisse added.

More recent industry targets are noticeably different.

Several banks, including Switzerland’s UBS, have moved the message away from revenue and net income towards absolute cost reduction, which are more within banks’ control but could take years to show as redundancy and other one-off costs bite. New costs such as regulation and

litigation have also blunted the net effect of even successful cuts programs. Another favorite goal is cutting risk-weighted assets (RWAs), against which a bank’s capital adequacy is measured, by selling assets or changing the business model. “Banks can decide how much asset risk they want to take into the balance sheet quite easily.

It’s hard to control how much revenue they make,” said Spick.

In Barclays February 2013 strategic review management targeted “single digit growth” for its investment bank from 2012 to 2015, said RWA would fall between 27 and 47 billion pounds and the ratio of compensation to income would drop from 39 percent to the “mid 30s”. The 2015 ROE target is 14 to 15 percent, against 13.7 percent in 2012. Others, like SocGen, are moving from hard figures to more general aims. Its latest presentations on corporate and investment banking goals “targeted strategic development” where it will “selectively expand to better serve our clients” and invest “to increase profitability and capture market share”. “We will communicate on financial targets once we have the definitive rules of the game. I think it is premature today,” SocGen CEO Frederic Oudea said in February. Part of the reason the targeting is getting better is that banks are now five years into the costcut cycle, and the low-hanging fruit has long been plucked, peeled and swallowed. The changes banks are contemplating now are far more fundamental, as revenue settles at a ‘new normal’, well below pre-crisis levels.

“It’s not about removing flowers in the lobby or restricting access to cer tain classes of travel,” said McKinsey’s Lemerle. “(For some) the underlying complexity of the platform is too high for the new revenue-generating capability of the platform.”

Some are introducing solutions like LEAN manufacturing techniques to the trading floor so traders work across a wider range of assets and have less slow time in a day.

“The widget I’m selling is a derivative trade. I have to apply industrial discipline to that product,” said Lemerle.

Selling widgets might be lightyears from the self-image of investment bank ing’s erstwhile ‘Masters of the Universe’, but after too many broken promises, the pressure is on to deliver. “We just want to be known as the management team that does what we’ve said we’ll do,” said the CFO.— Reuters

Dubai repays $910m matured bonds: Govt DUBAI: The Dubai government said yesterday it has repaid in full $910 million of maturing bonds, declaring it reflected a commitment of the indebted Gulf emirate to honour its obligations.

“All the outstanding notes were redeemed in full,” upon maturity on April 23, the government said in a statement referring to the bond issue valued at 3.34 billion dirhams ($910 million).

The bonds were issued under the government’s 15billion-dirham Medium Term Note Program dated April 14, 2008, it said, adding repayments included all outstanding notes and accrued interest.

“This repayment reaffirms Dubai government’s commitment to deal with its repayment obligations in a proactive manner,” said Abdulrahman Saleh Al-Saleh, head of the finance department. “It also strengthens the government’s resolve to honor all its financial obligations on time,” he was quoted as saying in the statement. Dubai rocked global markets in 2009 when its largest group Dubai World signalled a need to freeze payments on debt exceeding $26 billion, before getting government help and reaching an agreement with lenders to restructure $14.7 billion.

The emirate’s economy contracted 2.4 percent in 2009, but it has since made a comeback, growing 2.8 percent in 2010 and 3.4 percent in 2011, as tourism, trade and transport keep expanding. — AFP

US economy coming out of its long funk WASHINGTON: A stronger-than-expected April rebound in job creation and recent dramatic discoveries of vast US oil and gas reserves are helping to lift the American economy out its long funk.

The economic good news is also drawing attention to the importance of private-sector innovation rather than government policy in fostering growth. The Labor Department’s report that payrolls expanded by 165,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate declined to a four-year low of 7.5 percent does not represent explosive job growth by any measure.

Yet the report offered a big sigh of relief to President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies in Congress. It also may help blunt Republican criticism of Obama’s policies and make it easier for him to give more attention to other issues on his agenda, including immigration, gun control and global warming. At the same time, it provided the GOP with more support for their call for a smaller government and fewer regulations on business. The recent jobs improvements were mostly driven by private-sector gains independent of action by the president and Congress.

Most legislative fiscal stimulus programs, begun in 2008 under President George W Bush and expanded under Obama, have run their course. The Federal Reserve, however, continues to stimulate the economy by holding down interest rates and effectively printing money to buy government and mortgage-related bonds. In fact, the report showed employer confidence about the economic outlook even in the face of new federal budget cuts. Economists widely agree that job gains would have been bigger were it not for the automatic acrossthe-board cuts that are beginning to take an $85 billion bite out of government spending.—AP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

BUSINESS

News

in brief

ADCB buys back shares DUBAI: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, the United Arab Emirates’ third-largest lender by market value, bought back shares worth 1.15 billion dirhams ($313.1 million) at the end of last week, the bank said in a statement yesterday. The trade of 261.87 million shares represented 4.68 percent of the lender’s total share capital and is by far the largest transaction completed by the bank since the regulator gave it permission in January to purchase up to 10 percent of its share capital. The shares were bought at 4.40 dirhams each, the statement added, equivalent to a 5.6 percent discount to Wednesday’s closing share price. ADCB’s shares hit a 4-1/2 year high on Wednesday; the bank posted a 5 percent increase in first-quarter net profit. United Arab Emirates stocks, in particular banks, have benefited in recent months from renewed optimism toward the local economy. The Abu Dhabi index was up 24.4 percent in the first four months of this year, while ADCB jumped 52.8 percent in the same period.

Dana Gas denies asset sales DUBAI: Speculation that Dana Gas is poised to spin off its assets in the Kurdistan region of Iraq are baseless, the company said in a statement yesterday.

Shares in Abu Dhabi energy firm Dana jumped 8 percent to a 17-month high earlier in the day on market talk that it might spin off its operations in Kurdistan and list them on a stock market. “There is absolutely no basis to rumors of spinning off or selling Kurdistan or any other assets, and the fact that the company has been studying options for an international listing was announced over a year ago,” a spokesman said.

Gulf Capital gets $120m loan for Saudi project ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi-based private equity firm Gulf Capital signed a 450 million riyals ($120 million) loan facility with Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank to finance its first real estate project in the kingdom, it said yesterday.

Gulf Capital announced plans to enter the Saudi property market last year with a $1 billion project in Riyadh to tap growing demand for residential units in the country.

The ten-year loan facility will be used to develop the 650 million riyals first phase of a residential compound comprising 525 units, Gulf Capital said. The remaining 200 million riyals will be raised through equity funding from Gulf Related, the real estate arm of Gulf Capital.

Gulf Related is a joint venture between Gulf Capital and New York-based Related Companies, a privately owned real estate firm. Construction for the project will start next week and completion is scheduled for May 2015. The second phase of the project will be developed after two years.

“The size of our new project in Saudi Arabia and the extent of our financial commitment reflect our strong belief in the residential sector in the Kingdom,” Emile Habib, managing director, Gulf Related, told reporters.

Demand for housing units in Saudi Arabia is projected at 1.3 million residential units over the next seven years, he said. — Reuters

DAMAC to build Trump-branded golf course in Dubai DUBAI: DAMAC Properties, a privately held developer, said yesterday it would work with American real-estate mogul Donald Trump to build a new golf course in Dubai, adding to a growing list of project announcements in the emirate.

Developers in Dubai are reviving stalled projects and announcing new ones as the emirate’s property market recovers gradually after prices tumbled by 50 percent in 2008.

The Trump International Golf Club Dubai will be at the centre of DAMAC’s 28 million square foot development called ‘Akoya by DAMAC’, it said. Construction is already underway and the course will be ready next year. DAMAC said it will be the owner and developer of the property and will use the “Trump” name under the terms of a management agreement.

Oman plans dollar bond for first time in 17 years High oil prices limited need to issue debt MANAMA: Oman is considering whether to issue a US dollar-denominated sovereign bond, its first international bond since 1997 and its second ever, to facilitate debt sales by its private sector, finance minister Darwish AlBalushi told Reuters.

“This year we do not plan but maybe for next year, and this is not because of our immediate borrowing requirements but because we want to pave the way for the private sector,” Balushi said late on Saturday. “We want to establish a benchmark,” he said on the sidelines of a meeting of Gulf Arab finance ministers in Bahrain.

Oman last tapped the international bond market with a $225 million eurobond in March 1997, when oil prices stood at around $20 per barrel. It sold a five-year bond at a premium of just 73 basis points over US Treasuries.

Since then, oil prices have risen sharply, to above $100 at present, so the country - which currently depends on oil for 86 percent of its budget income - has not needed to issue much debt. With the exception of 2009, it has posted budget surpluses every year since 1998.

In recent years it has sold small issues of local currency development bonds, but the ratio of its gross government debt to gross domestic product was just 6.1 percent in 2012, the second lowest in the Gulf after Saudi Arabia, compared to a peak of 38.6 percent in 1998.

Balushi said his ministry had not yet decided on the parameters of the new dollar bond but it would be at least of benchmark size; typically, that means $500 million. “We will see. It should be something reasonable to attract investors because if it is too small, investors will not be (interested) - we want to also attract a variety of investment.”

Since the uprisings elsewhere in the Arab world in 2011, pressure on Oman’s budget has increased as it has spent more to ensure social peace. Balushi estimated in January that the government would need an oil price averaging $104 to balance its budget this year. The International Monetary Fund presented a bleak outlook for Oman’s public finances last month, predicting the budget could slip into a deficit of 3.8 percent of GDP as soon as 2015, with the gap widening to as much as 13.3 percent in 2018.

By reestablishing Oman’s presence in the international bond market, a sovereign issue could pave the way for regular deficit financing through bond issues several years from now.

Balushi said last month that spending policy would

become more conservative in coming years. He insisted on Saturday that any forthcoming sovereign bond issue would not be in response to an urgent need, and he disputed the IMF’s analysis. “This is based on a scenario that oil prices will come down from their level today and expenditure will take the same trend as in 2011, 2012 and 2013,” he said.

“We do not agree with this because we think that the trend of expenditure will not rise, because in 2011, 2012 there was some reason, but this reason will not continue and therefore expenditure will not go at the same level higher going forward.”

To diversify its economy beyond crude oil and gas

production, Oman is spending heavily on industrial projects, including a multibillion-dollar scheme to transform the southern coastal town of Duqm into an industrial centre. Creating a benchmark for Omani corporations to issue bonds could help them finance some of this construction.

In March, partially state-owned Bank Muscat, Oman’s largest lender, priced a $500 million, five-year bond in its first dollar debt issue in nine years. The Omani government has also said it plans its first-ever issue of rialdenominated sukuk (Islamic bonds) next year, and outlined issuance of 200 million rials ($519 million) worth of local currency bonds in its 2013 budget. — Reuters

JALALABAD: Afghan farmers work in a wheat field on the outskirts of Jalalabad yesterday. Only about 15 percent of Afghanistan’s land, mostly in scattered valleys, is suitable for farming with about 6 percent of the land actually cultivated with wheat being the most important crop. — AFP

Gulf economies remain Dynamic, says banker BRUSSELS: There are significant opportunities to serve a growing number of individual and institutional clients in the Middle East, particularly those based in the Gulf states, according to a top European banker. “Despite impact of the global financial crisis and events of the Arab Spring, the Middle East remains a young, vibrant region with dynamic, increasingly diversified national economies, especially in the Gulf,” according to Jacques Peters, Group Chief executive officer at KBL European Private Bankers, a leading Luxembourg-headquartered private banking group with operations in nine European countries.

Last year, KBL European Private Bankers was acquired

by Precision Capital, a Luxembourg company representing the business interests of Qatar.

“We have the skills and expertise to serve those clients, including staff who are specialized in structuring

Sharia-compliant solutions,” he said in an interview with the latest Newsletter of the ‘Luxembourg for Finance,’ the agency for the development of the financial centre in Luxembourg. It published a special edition titled “Luxembourg Meets the Middle East.”

Peters said that like many of the Gulf states, Luxembourg is a diverse country that welcomes anyone from outside its borders who is keen to contribute to economic growth.

“Today, about 40 percent of our total resident population is foreign and that doesn’t include the hundreds of thousands of so-called frontaliers, those who commute here on a daily basis from neighboring countries like Belgium, France and Germany,” he noted.On his part, Rachid Ouaich, head of European operations at Wafra Capital Partners, a company that only offers sharia-compliant products, told the newsletter that most of their

clients are located in Kuwait.

“If you look at the growth of Islamic finance compared to conventional finance in the Middle East or South-East Asia, Islamic Finance is the sector that is growing the fastest,” he said. He said that as an important entry to the Middle Eastern market, Turkey plays a significant role. “ This country has one of the fastest growing economies worldwide. There is a natural link between the Middle East and Turkey, a cultural link”, noted Ouaich.

“People see Turkey as a market with a bright future. Now that the environment is more and more investor friendly they all want to invest there; it’s a natural attraction,” he added. On her part, Valerie Mantot, head of Luxembourg office of the law firm Loyens&Loeff said “most countries of the Middle East are growing rapidly; the key to success is to be able to identify for each of them the value that can be added by Luxembourg.” — KUNA

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

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000

.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000

CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2841000 .4338920 .3707360 .3043390 .2795430 .0497330 .0443660 .2963730 .0365940 .2291130 .0029600 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0773800 .7538810 .0000000 .0757800 .7382100 .0000000

.2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870

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

2.917 5.294 2.892 2.246 3.297 231.870 36.748 3.651 6.927

Thai Baht Malaysian ringgit Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

9.728 94.221 0.271 0.273

Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

740.69 78.59 76.02

743.000 78.500 76.400

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd GCC COUNTRIES Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

76.084 78.395 741.070 757.810 77.690

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash Egyptian Pound - Transfer Yemen Riyal/for 1000 Tunisian Dinar Jordanian Dinar Lebanese Lira/for 1000 Syrian Lier Morocco Dirham

39.950 40.618 1.331 177.970 402.291 1.914 3.100 34.238

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 285.200 Euro 374.750 Sterling Pound 443.340 Canadian dollar 282.940 Turkish lira 158.720 Swiss Franc 306.010 US Dollar Buying 284.000

Rate for Transfer Selling Rate 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

285.000 286.360 444.895 374.265 305.150 754.545 77.570 78.230 75.965 401.755 40.465 2.254 5.294 2.894 3.652 6.952 699.120 3.875 9.680 4.060 3.395 93.855

GOLD 20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

298.000 150.000 77.500

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY SELL DRAFT 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

SELL CASH 299.45 285.97 306.21 376.06 284.60 444.81 2.98 3.675 5.263 2.245 3.313 2.896 77.55 757.78 40.62 405.45

298.000 285.000 307.000 374.500 285.500 449.000 3.300 3.720 5.450 2.430 3.400 2.953 78.000 756.800 40.500 410.000

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY SELL CASH British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Scottish Pound Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Uganda Shilling Canadian Dollar Colombian Peso US Dollars Bangladesh Taka Cape Vrde Escudo Chinese Yuan Eritrea-Nakfa

SELLDRAFT Europe 0.4370972 0.0061567 0.0460968 0.3689556 0.0451451 0.4332070 0.0397769 0.2996574 Australasia 0.2842247 0.2355748 0.0001114 America 0.2758529 0.0001450 0.2829000 Asia 0.0036104 0.0031600 0.0451557 0.0164700

0.4460972 0.0181567 0.0510968 0.3764556 0.0503451 0.4407070 0.0447769 0.3066574 0.2962247 0.2455748 0.0001114 0.2848529 0.0001630 0.2850500 0.0036654 0.0033922 0.0501557 0.0195700

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 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

0.0000442 0.0341806 0.0052168 0.0000243 0.0028477 0.0027972 0.0033500 0.0889109 0.0031537 0.0028706 0.0065243 0.0000728 0.2269659 0.0022139 0.0092294 Arab 0.7496745 0.0385342 0.0128902 0.1483801 0.0000793 0.0001734 0.3964753 1.0000000 0.0001748 0.0220208 0.0012114 0.7293790 0.0776409 0.0754800 0.0463475 0.0031807 0.1754013 0.0761813 0.0012859

0.0000502 0.0372806 0.0052808 0.0000294 0.0038477 0.0029772 0.0035800 0.0959109 0.0033537 0.0029106 0.0069943 0.0000758 0.2329659 0.0022559 0.0098294 0.7581745 0.0405642 0.0193902 0.1501701 0.0000798 0.0002334 0.4039753 1.0000000 0.0001948 0.0460208 0.0018464 0.7403790 0.0784239 0.0761200 0.0468975 0.0034007 0.1814013 0.0776313 0.0013859

Al Mulla Exchange Currency Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 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

284.700 376.250 445.900 284.650 2.950 5.275 40.570 2.252 3.650 6.905 2.893 758.000 77.500 76.000

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

BUSINESS

Dwindling returns jack up race between CBs, SWFs

By Hayder Tawfik

S

igns of more competition between Central banks and Sovereign Wealth Funds are becoming more apparent as they both are chasing investment returns. They both have similar

investment strategies and that is to maximize returns. Central banks usually favorer short dated government bonds i.e. maximum maturity of 5 years. However, with yields falling to way below 1 percent, the pressure is rising on them to look for other assets. They do have the mandate to invest in equities same as Sovereign Wealth Funds.

In recent years more and more central banks have begun to invest in domestic, foreign equities and corporate bonds to enhance their own investment returns.

Some central banks in Asia have started adopting portfolios similar to the Swiss National bank. These central banks have more advantages over the Sovereign wealth Funds. They have the skilled managers and the long experience. The young Sovereign Wealth Funds rely on outside managers to enhance their investment returns. Over the last few years, central banks have raised the hurdle for the Sovereign Wealth Funds needed to compete and to justify further fund transfers from their governments.

This kind of aggressive competition

may lead to investment in the wrong assets or overpaying for some investments. Central banks around the world have $12 trillions of free reserve between them, far more than Sovereign Wealth Funds. For the central banks liquid investments such as bonds and equities are at the top of their investment priorities.

Since 2008 the yields on good quality, liquid bonds have fallen sharply prompting central banks to start looking at investing in equities hence competing with Sovereign Wealth Funds. This may fundamentally alter the investment strategy of central banks and Sovereign Wealth Funds. Rather than competing against one another, that is having increasingly similar investment strategies, they both could have more complementary investment strategies going forward with each specializing in different asset classes. Central banks focusing more on preserving liquidity and security of their assets and Sovereign Wealth Funds concentrating on enhancing investment returns. Unfortunately, I cannot see how they could work together at a time when short and long term interest rates are falling sharply and may end at zero or even negative.

I expect that central banks will move more aggressively into equities and clash head on with Sovereign Wealth Funds.

This will create even more problems for the traditional equity investors such as pension funds, insurance companies, mutual funds and worse retail equity investors. Any move by the central banks into equity investment will benefit big multinational companies that are either listed in their domestic market or abroad.

International companies listed in the US, Japan and Europe will see their equity valuations expanding more than the markets.

This is all good news for international equity investors who have a much longer time horizon and the stamina to stand day-to-day market volatility.

—Hayder Tawfik is Executive Vice President of Asset Management, at Dimah CapitalHT@dimah.com.kw

Weekly commodities update

CB action off-setting sluggish growth data

By Ole Hansen KUWAIT: The cut in interest rates by the European Central Bank to an all-time low, together with the US Federal Reserve maintaining its asset purchase program, has been the main supporting features this week ahead of the monthly US job report. Earlier in the week, a worse-than-

expected manufacturing PMI from China and a record weekly build in US crude inventories had the markets reeling, at least for while. In the agriculture space, wet and cold conditions in the US Midwest have lent support to the price of key crops, especially corn and wheat, as the planting progress is running much behind the normal pace.

As seen below, the laggard was the industrial metal sector, which did not find much to cheer about considering the softness seen in Chinese economic activity. The energy sector also suffered losses primarily driven by natural gas and gasoline. Precious metals continue their tentative recovery, led by palladium but also gold, which, at the time of writing, is on track for its second week of gains as the tug-of-war between buyers in the physical market and sellers in the paper market (Exchange Traded Products and futures) continues.

US corn and wheat futures were the best performing commodities this week as the above mentioned wet spring weather has made it increasingly difficult for growers to get into the fields with their heavy machinery. Any further delay to the corn planting carries the potential of growers switching to soybeans, especially after mid-May, and this could alter the projection for corn inventories this autumn and help support the price further. As a result of this, the ratio between November soybeans and December corn has contracted from 2.31 to 2.16 as soybeans, which have a shorter growing season, could benefit from higher production and see the price lag behind that of corn.

Natural gas is the worst-performing commodity this week after the price dropped the most in nine months on Thursday, at least temporarily halting a

rally that had been ongoing since midFebruary. The 7 percent sell-off was triggered by a bigger-than-expected build in weekly stockpiles following a prolonged period of where consumption often exceeded expectations thereby helping drive the price higher. Momentum, which had been slowing for the past week, turned negative and traders may want to look for support down towards $3.85 per therm from the current level of about $4 per therm.

Crude oil markets recovered strongly from a mid-week sell-off following the biggest weekly build in US crude inventories on record. Increased imports saw oil flood into the Gulf coast area, while the bottleneck problems in the US Midwest around the Cushing, the delivery hub for WTI crude, saw a decent reduction, helping the discount to Brent crude contract further. WTI’s discount to Brent has contracted rapidly since February and this week it reached 8.7 USD/barrel, the lowest level since December 2011. Having once again found support below 100 USD/barrel Brent crude has been looking for resistance and this has the potential of carrying it as high as 106.50 over the coming weeks. Demand is expected to pick up in the autumn and current lowerthan-average price levels are only being maintained by OPEC’s continued production above its stated target of 30 million barrels per day. Any moves below $100, therefore, has the potential of being short-lived.

Gold survived a mid week sell-off and is on track to record a second week of gains following the dramatic sell-off that hit the market back in April. An interest rate cut in Europe and continued asset purchase by the US Federal Reserve together with weak macroeconomic data lend support. Physical buying has been another strong feature lending support, but up against this the world of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) continue to see gold holdings being reduced.

This is probably driven by institutional accounts, which accounts for about half of the investments in the SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest. Hedge funds have also been selling into the recent rally resulting in the second-biggest short position on record as they shift their focus, at least for now, towards other asset classes in the belief that renewed upside is limited.

The combined selling from ETPs and the reduction in net-long futures positions held by hedge funds since the beginning of the year amounts to almost 1,000 tons of gold. Unless we see these two segments return to the buy side, further upside seems limited at this stage.

However, should we manage to reclaim the 1,525 USD/oz area, hedge funds would probably begin to reduce short position and that has the potential of carrying gold higher, potentially as high as 1,585 USD/oz, which we believe could be the near-term peak.— Saxo Bank

Stalemated WTO nears choice for new leader Mexican, Brazilian in race GENEVA: The World Trade Organization has overseen a 12-year stalemate in global trade talks. On Wednesday, it will decide whether an insider or an outsider is better placed to break the deadlock.

In Mexico’s Herminio Blanco and Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo, the WTO has a choice between two highly qualified Latin American trade diplomats who would bring very differing approaches to the job of replacing veteran WTO head Pascal Lamy. Azevedo, Brazil’s WTO ambassador and chief trade negotiator, has been closely involved with the trade body for almost its entire history since its creation in 1995.

Blanco, a former trade minister who negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States and has spent the last 12 years in business, sits on the boards of a Mexican bank and a chemicals firm and advises companies on international trade. The two are the last of a field of nine candidates hoping to succeed Lamy as director general (DG) on Sept 1.

As one of only two non-ministers in the race, Azevedo began as a relatively junior contender. But he was admired for his diplomatic skill, such

as his success in getting the body to discuss currencies as a factor in trade a toxic topic for some because it threatened to throw a slough of new disputes into the WTO, including simmering suspicions of China in Washington and criticisms of the US policy of “quantitative easing”.

Creativity is what the WTO needs from its new chief, trade experts say, because the job comes with little executive power and the director general must be able to make things happen without being able to tell the WTO’s 159 members what to do.

Lamy has been unable to break the impasse in global trade talks during his eight-year tenure.

While Azevedo has pitched himself as a listener who will earn the trust of member countries by understanding their negotiating standpoints, Blanco says an outside force is needed to persuade governments to show flexibility.

The catalyst, he says, is business.

“One of the first targets has to be the United States,” he told Reuters in an interview in February. “The private sector of the United States has to tell the government: You have to move in Geneva ... you have to be more reasonable in your positions, you have to

get to the table and you have to negotiate.”

The global trade talks that began in Doha in 2001 reached deadlock in 2011, forcing the WTO to focus on a far smaller package of trade reforms and prompting many countries to pursue bilateral and regional trade deals instead, such as the US-led TransPacific Partnership (TPP). Even the smaller package of reforms - widely seen as a crucial first step - is proving hard to agree on. At the same time the WTO’s global rules risk getting drowned out by the plethora of regional deals now being negotiated.

“Each candidate must give the impression that Doha is fixable, even though the post they seek can’t deliver that,” said Simon Evenett, professor of international trade at St Gallen University in Switzerland. “Both must will the end without the means.”

Richard Baldwin, a professor at the Graduate Institute of Geneva, said the United States was unlikely to be interested in any Doha deal until it was clear that TPP had either succeeded or failed, which was likely to take years.

“Thus one interesting question is what can the next DG do to keep the lights on in the organization and to

maintain the WTO’s reputation - to avoid it sliding into obscurity and irrelevance for anything other than dispute settlement,” he said. But Blanco believes the attitude towards trade has changed since Doha’s demise and many countries now see it as a lever for economic growth, as shown by the ambitious plan for a transatlantic trade deal unveiled by the European Union and the United States earlier this year.

However such deviations from Doha remain contentious for many countries and if the European Union and United States are seen as backing Blanco, other WTO members are likely to organize in opposition, said Evenett. “My money is on Azevedo winning. Azevedo has marinated in the juices of recent Brazilian protectionism, so can relate better to other WTO foot-draggers,” he said. “Blanco is a true believer in liberalization, which most WTO members give only lip service to.”

But Baldwin said Blanco’s fresh perspectives made him a better candidate. “The WTO needs someone to think outside the box to keep the institution alive while waiting for TPP to finish or die,” he said. —Reuters

Draghi: Negative deposit rates are a possibility NBK MONEY MARKETS REPORT KUWAIT: Two major events took place last week, the FOMC statement, and the highly anticipated European Central Bank press conference. The Federal Reserve said that it would keep buying bonds at a monthly pace, adding that “the Committee is prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases to maintain appropriate policy accommodation as the outlook for the labor market or inflation changes”. On the other side of the Atlantic, the ECB have cut their benchmark interest rate, in order to get credit flowing through the European monetary union. Moreover, Draghi argued that structural reforms are needed, and that inflation risks are balanced, whereas linking some upside risk to commodity prices seems misplaced.

The euro started the week on a positive note, opening at 1.3020, following contradicting data from the manufacturing sector, which pushed the single currency higher against its American counterpart to 1.3116. The euro continued its climb against the US dollar, as bad figures from the US continued to weigh on the greenback. Furthermore, ahead of the FOMC rate decision, the US currency extended its losses against the euro after an industry report showed America’s private employers added fewer jobs in April than forecasted, leaving the euro to peak at 1.3243.

The euro then collapsed after the ECB rate cut, falling to 1.3036. The euro closed the week at 1.3114. Cable opened the week at 1.5473, only to rise following a report that showed that British banks granted more loans for homes in March than analysts expected, adding signs that the economy is improving. The Pound reached a high of 1.5606 as the USD tumbled midweek. The Sterling Pound dropped against the US dollar, following the ECB’s rate cut, and gaining dramatically against the EUR. The Pound closed the week at 1.5574. The Japanese Yen opened the week at 98.05, strengthening against a weaker US dollar throughout the week, to touch a low of 97.01 on Tuesday. The Japanese Yen then weakened against the greenback on Thursday, as the USD strengthens across the board. The JPY closed the week at 98.99.

The Swiss Franc strengthened against the US Dollar since the beginning of the week. The CHF opened the week at 0.9426, strengthening to a low of 0.9247 against the USD. The Swiss Franc closed the week at 0.9354.

Manufacturing industry in the United States expanded at the slowest pace in 2013 last month, but came better than forecasted; weighing on demand for labor, adding signs that world’s largest economy is in a slow-down. The Institute for Supply Management’s factory index slipped to 50.7 in April, versus 51.3 the previous month. As the number above 50 signals expansion, the index surpassed the expected 50.5.

While factories are pulling back as the need to rebuild fades, higher payroll taxes restrain consumer spending, which counts for 70 percent of the US economy.

Unemployment US private employers added fewer workers than forecasted last month, signaling that the labor market in the world’s largest economy has lost its heat.

American employers added 119,000, well below the expected 150,000, the smallest increase since September. The figure came short of being close to the revised number of March, which came at 131,000. By hiring fewer employees, companies are signaling they expect demand will deteriorate as reductions in the Federal Budget and higher taxes weigh on the US economic expansion.

On the other hand, fewer Americans filed for firsttime claims for unemployment last week to reach the lowest level in more than 5-years, indicating that companies are retaining its employees even as the economy slows. The number of Americans filing applications for unemployment benefits unexpectedly fell by 18,000 to 324,000, the lowest since January 2008. The figure came lower than the expected 345,000. Moreover, the employment rate unexpectedly dropped to a four-year low to 7.5 percent, showing that the budget cuts failed to shake the labor market. US payrolls increased by 165,000, versus a forecasted 146,000, following a revised increase in March by 138,000. The increase in payrolls is projected to cool down this quarter before picking up again as the cuts continue, consumer spending eases and companies pull back.

FOMC The Federal Reserve said that they will keep buying bonds at a monthly pace of $85 billion while standing ready to raise or lower purchases as economic condi-

tions evolve. The Federal Open Market Committee stated that they are “prepared to increase or reduce the pace of its purchases to maintain appropriate policy accommodation as the outlook for the labor market or inflation changes”. The FOMC meeting concluded, “The economic activity has been expanding at a moderate pace,” and that the “labor market conditions have shown some improvement in recent months, but the unemployment rate remains elevated,” as 11.7 million Americans remain jobless. Moreover, the FOMC stated, “housing sector has strengthened further, but fiscal policy is restraining economic growth”.

ECB cut rate The ECB lowered its benchmark interest rate on Thursday by 0.25 percent, as expected, bringing the rate to a record low of 0.50 percent. The euro responded negatively, dropping over a cent on Thursday. European Central Bank President, Mario Draghi, signaled that ECB officials might take further steps to fight the battle against the debt crisis in the euro-zone. Draghi seemed wary of the situation in the European economy, as he indicated that a further cut in the main interest rate is a possibility.

Furthermore, Draghi said that the ECB would consider an unprecedented step of taking the deposit rate to the negative from its current level of zero “with an open mind”. The single currency dropped significantly on the prospect of a negative deposit rate. Draghi said that the ECB “will continue to lend banks as much money as they need at least through 2014”, extending the policy by more than a year. “All the options are still very open here, our thinking is very much in a preliminary stage given the complexity of the issue,” Draghi said at the press conference on Thursday. Moreover, Draghi said “to ensure adequate transmission of monetary policy, it is essential that the fragmentation of Euro-area credit markets continue to decline further”. While the ECB maintained its assessment that risks to the price outlook are broadly balanced, inflation slowed to 1.2 percent in April, well below the central bank’s 2 percent limit.

Italian bond auction Italy’s five and 10-year borrowing costs fell to their

lowest level since October 2010, as new Prime Minister Enrico Letta named a coalition government, ending two months of political gridlock. The treasury sold all of its planned EUR 3 billion ($3.9 billion) of 10year bonds at 3.94 percent, well below the yield of 4.66 percent paid at an auction a month previously.

UK’s manufacturing production contracted less than expected in April, with house prices showing the biggest rise in more than a year, signaling that the an economic recovery is at sight. The manufacturing PMI, which accounts for a tenth of Britain’s GDP, came really close to the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction, at 49.8, against a forecast of 48.6. British construction output, the main constraint on the country’s economic growth, showed the best performance in six months. Construction PMI climbed to 49.4, against an expected 48.0, and way ahead of March’s figure of 47.2. Construction was the biggest hindrance on the country’s GDP in the first quarter of this year.

Kuwait Kuwaiti dinar at 0.28440 The USDKWD opened at 0.28440 yesterday morning.

Al-Tijari announces winners of Najma Account daily draw KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait held the Al-Najma Account Daily draw on 5th May 2013. The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry represented by Abdulaziz Ashkanani.

The winners of the Najma daily draw are: June Mari Almeida -KD 7000, Ahmed Faisal Oqab Al-Mutairi —KD 7000, Mosaed Mansour Marzouq Al-Azmi —KD 7000, Ali Hussain Ramathan Jummah —KD 7000, Meshal Bader AbdulRahman Al-Khuder —KD 7000.

The Commercial Bank of Kuwait announces the biggest daily draw in Kuwait with the launch of the new Najma account.

Customers of the bank can now enjoy a KD7,000 daily prize which is the highest in the country and another 4 mega prizes during the year worth KD100,000 each on different occasions: The National Day, Eid Al-Fitr, Eid Al-Adha and on the 19th of June which is the date of the bank’s establishment.

With a minimum balance of KD500, customers will be eligible for the daily draw

provided that the money is in the account one week prior to the daily draw or 2 months prior to the mega draw. In addition, for ea ch KD2 5 a cu s tomer can g et one chance for winning instead of KD50.

Commercial Bank of Kuwait takes this opportunity to congratulate all lucky winners and also extends appreciation to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry for their effective supervision of the draws which were conducted in an orderly and organized manner.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

BUSINESS

‘Speed money’ puts brakes on India’s retail growth India’s $500bn retail market growing at 20% a year

NEW DELHI: A lady shops at a supermarket in New Delhi. India is the next great frontier for global retailers, a $500 billion market growing at 20 percent a year.

MUMBAI: Hong-Kong entrepreneur Ramesh Tainwala spent 18 months operating branded clothing retail stores in India before deciding it was impossible to succeed without paying bribes.

Tainwala, a 55-year-old expatriate Indian, owns Planet Retail, which held the India franchise rights for US fashion labels Guess and Nautica as well as UK retailers Next and Debenhams. He sold the brands last September to various Indian businesses. “Right now it’s not possible to do business in India without greasing palms, without paying bribes,”

said Tainwala, who is also luggage maker Samsonite’s president for Asia Pacific and West Asia. Tainwala said he himself refused to pay bribes to licensing officials, though that could not be independently confirmed.

India is the next great frontier for global retailers, a $500 billion market growing at 20 percent a year. For now, small shops dominate the sector. Giants from Wal-Mart Stores Inc to IKEA AB have struggled merely for the right to enter, which they finally won last year.

But a daunting array of permits - more than 40 are required for a typical supermarket selling a range of products - force retailers to pay so-called “speed money” through middlemen or local partners to set up shop.

In interviews with middlemen and several retailers, Reuters found the official cost for key licenses is typically accompanied by significant expenses in the form of bribes.The added cost erodes profitability in an industry where margins tend to be razor-thin. It also creates risk for companies by making them complicit in activity that, while commonplace in India and other emerging markets, is nonetheless illegal. That creates a handicap for foreign operators such as USbased Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, and Britain’s Tesco Plc and Marks and Spencer Plc, which must comply with anti-bribery laws in their home countries even while operating abroad.

A Wal-Mart spokesperson said the company is strengthening its compliance programs, part of a global compliance review that has cost more than $35 million over the last 18 months. IKEA, which is awaiting final approval to enter India, has started assessing the market, a spokeswoman said, adding the group has “zero tolerance” for corruption in any form. Retail is especially prone to bribery because stores sell multiple types of merchandise, which in India increases the number of licenses and permits needed a legacy of the so-called “Licence Raj” that was largely dismantled during the country’s early 1990s economic reforms.

The World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business survey ranks India 173rd out of 185 countries when it comes to starting a business, behind Malawi, Niger, Sudan and Guatemala.

Transparency International in 2012 ranked it 94th out of 174 countries on its corruption table a fall from 72nd five years earlier.

“Even for a simple thing like putting up signage in front of your store you are harassed for money,” said Tainwala.

“There are many bodies regulating that and the permits needed to set up one shop are baffling.”

The License Raj, he said, substantially increases costs in a market where sluggish consumer demand, high rentals and a depreciating currency for over a year have made it hard for retailers like him to operate profitably. He plans to return when there is more order in the way business is done.

Ais Kumar, head of the western region for the Food Safety & Standards Authority of India (FSSA), acknowledged that graft exists across government ranks and departments. Many government departments also have staff shortages that cause delays.

“These licenses are required for compliance and safety and not because the government wants to delay or complicate things for anyone. It’s the law of the land and it must be followed,” he said, adding the government is striving to put licensing systems online to streamline the process and make it more transparent. Checks with three retailers, however, showed the online forms still need to be physically delivered to the respective licensing departments.

Permits needed to open a store range from the mundane, such as a trade license, to the petty: lighted shelves require a separate permit, and even a shop window needs a license.

Want to play music in the store? That requires a license. So does selling cosmetics or providing valet parking.

A convenience store that sells basics such as milk, vegetables, cereal, bread, eggs, meat and baby food will require a minimum of 29 licenses from nearly 20 different authorities, according to a list of licenses compiled by the Retailers Association of India and obtained by Reuters. Those include a food license; a license for sale, storage and distribution; a food-handler’s certificate; a license for milk products and another for frozen non-vegetarian food. All those licenses comes from the state-level FSSA, but require separate applications.

But the FSSA does not give permission for operating freezers and chillers.

That requires a separate license from a municipal body. Selling baby food requires a permit from a state Controller of Food and Supply. The state Agriculture

Produce Marketing Committee must give permission to sell vegetables; the central Directorate of Marketing and Inspection gives permission to grade and sort those vegetables; the Controller of Rationing grants licenses for selling essential commodities like rice.

All those licenses need to be renewed, sometimes annually. The Directorate of Marketing and Inspection declined comment, while the other departments were not available. Most of the licenses required can either be done away with completely or combined into one, said Lalit Agarwal, chairman of V-Mart Retail.

“Every day, you have new licenses added to the list, but nothing ever gets deleted.”

It’s not just the red tape of getting those licenses, it’s also the under-thetable money that retailers typically have to pay on top of the official fees.

In Bandra, a high-end suburb of Mumbai, a state-issued trade license for a 10,000-square-foot (930 square-meter) store - very large by Indian standards officially costs 100,000 rupees ($1,825).

But there is an “additional charge” of 1.25 million rupees ($22,800), according to documents obtained by Reuters from the Employee State Insurance, Provident Fund and Industrial Law Practitioners Association of India (EPILPA), which assist retailers in obtaining permits.

EPILPA said their members, who are consultants, collect the “speed money” from retailers and pass it on to the government officials. They act as middlemen who do not take a cut and hence should not be held responsible for the bribes being paid. “In India, you don’t need to ask retailers if you need to pay bribes,” said Punit Agarwal, CEO of Promart, a mid-sized multi-brand clothing retailer.

“It’s known. Here you have a price tag for everything.” He said his company hires middlemen and pays their fees because he knows bribes have to be paid, but does not want his company to get directly involved.

Take the case of British footwear retailer Clarks. It entered India through a partnership with Future Group, which runs the country’s largest listed retail entity, Future Retail . Clarks has hired consultants and, according to one of them, is negotiating with municipal officials for a 365-day license that would allow it to open three of its five stores in Mumbai every day of the year.

For each of the three stores, the company was asked to pay 60,000 rupees ($1,100) per officer for the eight officers involved in its case - a total of 500,000 rupees ($9,100) per store, said Oovesh Sarabhai, of Atlas AVA Consultants, who is working with Clarks to secure the licenses. The official fee is about 6,000 rupees ($110) per store, he said. The government officials involved in issuing the license declined to comment when contacted by Reuters. Future and Clarks declined to comment.

A senior Clarks official, who declined to be identified, confirmed the company had applied for a 365-day license for the three Mumbai stores in January 2012 and received notifications from the government related to this, but has so far failed to receive the licenses. “It’s stuck because of the bureaucracy,” the official said.

No high-level official dealing with licenses ever accepts a bribe directly, said Raichand Jiwani, owner of Emkay Consultancy Services, who is a member of EPILPA and helps several top Indian retailers to procure licenses. Officials use subordinates to collect the money and only from trusted people. The payment is then shared by junior and senior officers and up the bureaucratic chain.

“The nexus runs far deeper than just a few corrupt officials at the local level,” said Jiwani, noting that if a retailer approaches an official directly he will not be told about the bribe, but his papers will take months to be approved.

While India holds vast promise for retailers, with its growing spending power and rising middle class, most local supermarket chains lose money due to low prices, poor supply chains and high rents. Wal-Mart has said it aims to turn a profit in 10 years, something it hasn’t managed in China after 12 years.

Tainwala thinks India offers miniscule retail returns for the massive investment of time and energy that is needed. Fast expansion requires paying speed money, he said. Tainwala recalls he was asked to pay either a 22,000 rupee ($400) monthly fee to have signage outside his store in Mumbai’s plush Atria mall, or a 2,000 rupee ($36) bribe every month to circumvent it. He said he chose to pack up rather than bribe the municipal officials needed to get his signs approved.

“My people said we have to close the stores, and we decided to do that,” he said. “You get excited about the Indian middle class but then you wonder - is it really worth it?” — Reuters

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

BUSINESS

A traditional Indian dance and music troupe welcomes visitors and delegates.

Exhibitors at iPHEX 2013.

India: Pharmacy of the world Exhibitors, buyers and regulators get together to make iPHEX 2013 a grand success

Maharashtra state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, Ministry of Commerce and Industry Additional Secretary Rajeev Kher, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) Dr G N Singh, Pharmexcil Director General Dr P V Appaji and other officials inaugurate iPHEX 2013 on April 24, 2013. —Photos by Shakir Reshamwala

By Shakir Reshamwala MUMBAI: The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the largest exporter of generic formulations in volume terms globally. India is the third largest player in the world with 500 different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and its pharma industry ranks 4th globally in terms of production volumes. The country’s outsized role in providing cheap and effective medicines to the world was highlighted last month at an exposition that brought together Indian pharma companies and international buyers under one roof in the first-of-its-kind event in India, realizing business of over 10 billion rupees.

Around 250 local exhibitors showcased their products at iPHEX 2013, organized by the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil) at the Bombay Exhibition Centre from April 24-26 2013 in Mumbai, and over 500 overseas delegates from 104 countries were invited with the support of the Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry. iPHEX 2013 was held alongside Pharma Pro & Pack Expo 2013, a show for pharmaceutical machinery manufacturers aimed at displaying India’s expertise in the drug manufacturing and machinery sector. To round off this major gathering of the pharma fraternity, over 40 senior regulators from 20 countries were also present.

But while Indian APIs and formulations are exported around the world, the Gulf remains a tough market to crack. Dr P V Appaji, Director General, Pharmexcil, told Kuwait Times the mindset in the region has to change.

“Some vested interests have labeled generics as counterfeit. They cast doubt on the quality of our drugs. But 55 percent of our exports go to highly regulated markets, and 33 percent to the US alone. Most global pharma giants also source their APIs from India. So what is holding them back?” he asked. Abhay Sinha, Regional Director, Pharmexcil, concurred. “Indian drugs comply with all international regulatory standards, and are

Exhibitors at Pharma Pro & Pack Expo.

accessible and affordable too,” he told Kuwait Times, adding that Pharmexcil is focused on the Gulf and the Middle East despite initial setbacks.

There are over 10,500 manufacturing units and over 3,000 pharma companies in India, growing at an exceptional rate. Leamak International, an Indian pharma company, makes brand name cough lozenges and calcium supplements for multinational drug giants. It also markets similar products under its own brands too.

“These branded cough lozenges sell for $5 a pack, while our own brand sells at a tenth of that price for just 50 cents,” Tushar Patel, Director, told Kuwait Times. “Big

companies have big stomachs, while we have small ones,” he guffawed, holding on to his ample waistline.

Finished generics supplied from India account for 20 percent of the global generics market. Nikhil Deva, Sr Manager API Marketing at Ranbaxy, one of India’s largest producers of generics, said business was strong and the effects of the financial recession on the Indian pharma market were minimal. India’s role in supplying cheap drugs around the world was not only motivated by financial gains but had a social impact too, he told Kuwait Times. “There’s no reason why companies and governments in the Gulf shouldn’t buy Indian drugs.”

Earlier, Maharashtra state Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan inaugurated iPHEX 2013 with a call to the pharma sector to display its technology and expertise to the world. “This sector has a huge potential with its export rate currently worth $13 billion, which is expected to double in the next two years. I would like to stress that to further the growth story, Indian companies should also focus on innovation along with expanding their business through exports of generics to make us allrounders,” he said. The Maharashtra government is also planning to create a world class warehousing zone near Mumbai to facilitate the growing needs of the industry.

Rajeev Kher, Additional Secretar y, Ministr y of Commerce and Industry, said the government is taking all the requisite steps to help the industry face the growing challenges of increasing market share in existing and new markets and countering negative publicity.

The Commerce Ministry has launched a Brand Pharma India Campaign through Pharmexcil globally, which Kher stressed was an extremely impor tant event announcing the coming of age of the Indian pharma industry in the global market.

Dr G N Singh, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), reiterated the commitment of the drug regulatory system to ensure that all the drugs manufactured in the country are of the highest quality. “There is a lot of untapped potential in this sector which can be finetuned to ensure growth of the pharma sector. Most importantly, I can assure you that the government is fully committed towards ensuring that all the patients have access to only the highest quality of drugs,” he vowed.

“The kind of response we are getting from the event shows that there is a lot of interest across the business community globally to work closely with the Indian manufacturers. Especially, since we have been successfully able to set up a benchmark for ourselves through our ‘Brand India’ initiative for being manufacturers of highest quality drugs,” added Appaji.

A B2B meet in progress.

at a glance • The Indian pharmaceutical industry is the largest exporter of generic formulations in volume terms globally.

• India is the third largest player in the world with 500 different active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) • India’s pharma industry ranks 4th globally in terms of production volumes.

• There are over 10,500 manufacturing units and over 3,000 pharma companies in India, growing at an exceptional rate.

• Finished generics supplied from India account for 20 percent of the global generics market.

• Fifty-five percent of India’s exports go to highly regulated markets; 33 percent to the US alone.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

BUSINESS

Lexus 2013 - the most trusted brand Kelley Blue Book announces 2013 Brand Image Award winners

K

elly BLUEBOOK has spoken, and the trophies have been engraved: “ With the most proven and celebrated record of dependability and reliability in the entire industry, it would only be a surprise if Lexus didn’t win the award for Most Trusted Luxury Brand”.

The sixth annual Brand Image Awards recognize what KBB.com shoppers perceive to be the most outstanding automakers in a number of categories.

2013 Lexus The Most Trusted Luxury Brand This award, is based on an entire year’s worth of consumer perception data from the company’s Brand Watch study, honor the automotive brands that have most successfully captured positive consumer attention.

The 2013 Brand Image Awards, are based on consumer automotive perception. The key research

vehicle for the Brand Image Awards is Kelley Blue Book Market Intelligence’s Brand Watch study Brand Watch is an online study that taps into tracking study tapping into 12,000+ in-market newvehicle shoppers annually on Kelley Blue Book’s

KBB.com. Those shoppers who do their research at KBB.com. Representing the combined wisdom of the American car-buying public, the Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards recognize automakers’ outstanding achievements in creating and maintaining brand attributes that engender enthusiasm among new-vehicle buyers.

The highly comprehensive Brand Watch study offers insight into in-market new-vehicle shoppers’ perceptions of brands and models, including important factors driving their purchase decisions while they are in the midst of the shopping process. The Kelley Blue Book Brand Image Awards recognize automakers’ outstanding achievements in creating and maintaining brand attributes that capture the attention and enthusiasm of the newvehicle buying public. Award categories are calculated among luxury shoppers, non-luxury shoppers and truck shoppers.

This marks the sixth consecutive year that Kelley Blue Book has presented auto manufacturers with the Brand Image Awards, and this year among luxury shoppers, Lexus leads for the most Trusted Luxury Brand.

Al-Mazaya reports 92% rise in net revenues KD1.3 million Q1 gross profit for 2013 KUWAIT: Dr Hamad Al-Hasawi addresses the Doha Bank Economic summit in Kuwait.

Doha Bank hosts economic summit in Kuwait KUWAIT: Doha Bank, which has a full branch in Kuwait and is one of the leading banks in the region with operations in the GCC, hosted the second of its latest series of summits on Real Estate, Infrastructure And Urban Planning, held at the JW Marriott, Kuwait, on May 1, 2013.

The summit brought together some of the region’s leading consultants and advisory firms in their specific sectors discussing opportunities and trends in Kuwait’s real estate, construction and infrastructure development sectors. The participating presenters were from The Kuwait Banking Association, The Boston Consulting Group, KEO International Consultants, and PKF-TCH Group.

Doha Bank Group CEO Dr R Seetharaman started his inaugural address with insights on the global economy. He said “In April, the IMF said it was lowering its outlook for world economic growth this year to 3.3 percent, down from its forecast in January of 3.5 percent. It expects US economic growth of 1.9 percent this year, down from its January estimate of 2.1 percent. It expects that the combined economy of the 17 euro countries will shrink 0.3 percent in 2013. The recent IMF meeting emphasized policies to boost growth and employment worldwide. Sluggish global economic recovery, increasing energy production in the US and slightly slower growth in China had put pressure on oil prices recently. Gold prices had fallen recently on reports Cyprus could sell a significant volume of gold. Gold and industrial metals fell hard after China reported that economic growth slowed unexpectedly in the first three months of the year.”

Dr Seetharaman also highlighted the trends impacting infrastructure development in the region: “With the implementation of the four-year plan in Kuwait in financial year 20122011, Kuwait is firmly positioned at the business end of completing its current strategic plan which will contribute to meeting the goals and objectives of the vision for 2035.

Government expenditure continued to rise in FY 2011-12, with an increase of 8 per cent according to the IMF. The budget expansion was more than offset by an increase in oil revenue of an estimated 35 per cent. Non-oil growth of the economy in 2011 was calculated by the IMF at around 4.5 per cent with investment and real estate sector firms registering a somewhat subdued period. However real estate transactions recovered in the residential segment, outperforming commercial property. The IMF predicts the government will have a positive approach and expects an increase in government spending of around 15%. Non-oil activity will, as per the same calculations, be around 5.5% in 2012 and fiscal and external surpluses are expected to remain strong for the period. The IMF update issued in April this year forecast 4 per cent growth in non-oil GDP in 2013 as the development plan is expected to be implemented more rapidly.

This is a very positive sign for all players in these markets seeking long-term opportunities in Kuwait.”

Doha Bank Group CEO, Dr R Seetharaman said that one of the key considerations Doha Bank Kuwait Branch makes when establishing partnerships with clients is bringing together a core team of experts as part of knowledge sharing process. This knowledge sharing session will enable our customers to be abreast of the significant developments in property and infrastructure development in the country.

Dr Hamad Al-Hasawi, Secretary General of the Kuwait Banking Association, also spoke at the summit: “Major real estate projects improve the competitiveness of the overall economy, expand the absorptive capacity of the country, create new jobs and increase employment levels. They also increase the value added in the overall economy, support growth in non-oil GDP and improve the over-

all welfare of the society. There are many positive contributing factors that can lead to a positive outlook for real estate and infrastructure projects in Kuwait. These include the structural disequilibrium of the housing sector in Kuwait, high population growth and the abundant liquidity in the market that will promote investment. Hareer City, for example, is primed to house more than 700,000 inhabitants in a 250 sq. km area, with a budget of around KWD 25 billion ($ 88 billion) in direct costs envisioned for this project alone.” Dr AlHasawi also highlighted the need for greater public private partnerships to make such mega projects possible.

Sven P Gade, Group Chief Executive Officer of PKF-The Consulting House, had some interesting insights into project efficiency: “The majority of project failures are due to incomplete development program definitions. We believe in “Business-led Design” which requires a solid Business case first before green lighting any design activities. The business case is best established by independent business advisors covering Highest & Best Land Use Assessments (HBU), a land assessment and destination program, followed by a fully-fledged Market & Financial Feasibility Study (MFFS).To avoid financial failure or failure because of incomplete project definition, sufficient time between HBU and creation of concepts by designers should be allowed.

Based on target markets and product positioning, it is essential to reach a fact based consensus with the designers on development program - including budgets. This should encompass every planned structure and land use intended for the site. The key take away is that designers cannot develop concepts or components without program definition.”

Massoud Bafti, a senior member of KEO’s PMCM International Division who is the Senior Risk and Opportunity Facilitator within the project control department of the consultancy said “ For companies seeking to be competitive and effective in a lucrative and competitive marketplace, it is also imperative to understand and manage risks and opportunities. This can decrease the probability or impact of negative events and increase the probability or impact of positive events. The commitment was essential as risks and opportunities need to be addressed proactively and consistently so that companies can communicate them openly and honestly. This is a multiple stage process and involves planning the risk management process, identifying risk and opportunities, performing specific qualitative and quantitative analysis, followed up by planning risk responses, and live monitoring and administration of controls to manage it properly. In such programs, a standard scoring system is utilized that ranks risk by likelihood and impact to deliver targeted solutions. “ Ganesh Mohan, Partner and Managing Director at the Abu Dhabi office of The Boston Consulting Group who was also present at the summit in Doha said “The secret to superior economic performance is a combination of establishing and building on a sustainable competitive advantage and having a motivated and energized organization that is capable of going beyond the base essentials. Research suggests that benchmarked fortune 1000 companies demonstrate that economic factors contribute just 18% of actual profitability at these companies as opposed to a comparatively large 38% of various organizational factors that contribute directly to company profitability. “ Doha Bank Group CEO, Dr Seethraman concluded the summit by thanking the guests that had attended and by also thanking the guest speakers for demonstrating the key synergies that exist between Doha Bank and their respective organizations that can prove extremely beneficial to Doha Bank’s corporate clients.

KUWAIT: After the meeting of the Al-Mazaya Holding Company Board of Directors held on May 2nd and headed by Chairman Rashid AlNafisi, the company announced its financial results for the 1st quarter of 2013.

Rashid Al-Nafisi said that the company achieved a gross profit of KD1.3 million for the first three months of 2013, a total income of KD7.2 million divided into operating income of KD5.9 million and other income of KD1.3 million, resulted in net profit for the first three months of KD213,800.

Al-Nafisi said that the size of the company’s assets as at end March 2013 reached KD218 million, with a total real estate assets of KD166 million.

With regard to the company’s results, AlNafisi said that 1st quarter profits are the result of a set of operational activities, projects delivery, and adjustment completion, during which the company managed to achieve a leap in project management net revenue of 92%, resulting from managing projects in Dubai and Qatar for the benefits of investors and companies under its management. This came alongside an increase in rental revenue by 49%, which reflects the real growth in the activities of operating income, with the chairman adding that the delivery of residential units in the VILLA projects and the delivery of offices units in the “business avenue” project have had the greatest effect on

Rashid Al-Nafisi increasing the revenue of the company. The AlMazaya plan is moving ahead in executing and delivery of its sold out projects at earlier stages on the blueprints, which will serve as a secure shield in reducing liabilities and increasing revenues.

Al-Nafisi went on to say that the debt of AlMazaya to banks has reached KD47.6 million, and the company is now studying options for rescheduling credit facilities and converting

them into long term facilities, and the company was recently able to sign an agreement to renew the credit limit in the form of “Tawaroq” for 5 million dinar with one of the local Islamic banks, in order to reschedule the repayment of the debt and reducing the rate of profit (cost of funding), which will lead to lower financial expenses in the second quarter of FY 2013, as well as the lowering of short-term obligations of the 5 million dinar, being converted into long-term liabilities.

Al-Nafisi also pointed to one of the most important steps carried out by Al-Mazaya in the 1st quarter of FY 2013, which is the conclusion of a swap deal with National International Holding Company, through the acquiring by AlMazaya Holding Company of a third tower in the Kuwait Business City project in the heart of the capital of Kuwait, in addition to the two new plots under development in “Q point LIWAN” in the emirate of Dubai for the sale of 101,000m2 of office units in Jumaira towers owned by AlMazaya.

Al-Nafisi concluded by saying that Al-Mazaya has managed to maintain its financial entity, operational performance, and its market capitalization within the framework of its careful and well thought-out strategic plan, and conservative policy that were set for the year 2013, and the company took into account the general economic situation, and financial developments in the global markets.

Warba Bank acquires new office building in Oman

Hosam Nasser Al-Muzaiel

KUWAIT: Warba Bank announced yesterday the acquisition of a commercial office building in Oman, as it continued with its strategy of capitalizing on unique investment opportunities in the region and the world. The bank has purchased the Muscat office of Weatherford Middle East, an affiliate of Weatherford International, an oilfield services company with more than 50,000 employees worldwide.

The new property is one of the notable successful investments made by Warba bank in various sectors proving the bank’s investment team ability to grasp regional and international opportunities Warba Bank invested in Muscat through acquiring this high quality, newly built office building ideally located in the north of Azaiba, just a few minutes from Muscat International Airport.

Hosam Nasser Al-Muzaiel, Investment Manager, Warba Bank, said: “The real estate sector in Muscat has seen strong growth since the end of last year, which shows that the investors have overcome the psychological effects of the economic crisis that overshadowed the Omani real estate market post-

2008. Added to this, the latest study issued by the National Statistics Council of the Sultanate of Oman indicated that GDP grew by 13.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2012, which will have a positively impact on the Sultanate’s real estate sector.

Against the backdrop of a recovering real estate market in the region, Warba Bank has acquired a high quality property in Oman, building on a number of recent successful investments by the bank.” .” This property has a several advantages, including its strategic location, strength and solvency of its tenant, high quality of finishing and modern construction, and a 10-year lease in place ensuring stable cash inflow over the long-term,” added AlMuzaiel.

Concluding Al-Muzaiel said: “The bank’s diversified investment strategy looks at a range of geographies and categories to take advantage of distinctive investment opportunities to deliver returns while taking into consideration a relatively conservative approach to risk by adopting global standards and adhering to the well-established principles of Sharia.”

VIVA shares CSR success stories through its new online portal KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s fastest-growing telecom operator, announced yesterday the launch of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) focused portal, a platform within its website at https://www.viva.com.kw/csr that offers a description of each CSR initiative that VIVA has supported, or taken on since its inception. This portal falls in line with VIVA’s commitment to the Kuwaiti community and aims to further enrich it by reporting the company’s ongoing CSR initiatives, which are focused on supporting and developing different areas and segments of the Kuwaiti community such as youth, sports, technology and environment.

Earlier this year, VIVA published its first CSR booklet in which it explained its CSR direction and focuses for 2013, and provided a brief description of the CSR initiatives it took on in 2012. This new booklet is VIVA’s first step towards sharing its CSR success stories with its customers and the general public.

VIVA’s pledge to support the Kuwaiti community has been in action since the company was established in 2008. Since that time it has demonstrated its CSR commitment through a wide range of innovative initiatives, including the VIVA Oasis project; the largest oasis of Buckthorn and Willow trees that was implemented in Nuwaiseeb Desert, South of Kuwait, the distribution of 265 wheelchairs across the different health facilities in Kuwait that were in need of this device in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, and the rewarding act of providing Ramadan Iftar meals every day to fasting

Muslims in the areas of Jahra and Jleeb AlShuyoukh, as part of its Ramadan program.

Other initiatives include VIVA’s two year sponsorship of the Kuwait Dive Team, an agreement to support the environmental initiatives of the team, the honoring of the distinguished memorizers of the Holy Quran competition which was held by the General Secretariat of Awqaf, and VIVA’s sponsorship of Kuwait’s Second International Conference on Learning Difficulties organized by the Kuwaiti

Association for Learning Differences (KALD), which was held to raise awareness of the most effective methods to follow in support of young students with learning difficulties.

VIVA’s most recent initiative has been the sponsorship of the “Guests of the Merciful” Umrah Pilgrimage which was organized by the Kuwaiti Cancer and Anti-Smoking Society. VIVA will continue to offer its support and work towards developing its active role in the society.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

technology

Kaspersky Lab: Ferrari’s Choice for IT Security DUBAI: Kaspersky Lab, an official sponsor of Scuderia Ferrari, is pleased to announce that it is becoming the IT security provider of choice to the world-renowned brand.

Kaspersky Lab has been sponsoring Ferrari since 2010. With each year the partnership has grown, and Kaspersky Lab’s branding has appeared on Ferrari’s F1 cars for three consecutive seasons. 2013brings a new strategic level to the partnership between the two companies: following a new 5-year commercial agreement signed in April 2013, Ferrari is now a customer of Kaspersky Lab, receiving total endpoint IT security from the protection specialists.

In cooperation with the Ferrari ICT department, Kaspersky Lab has tailored an endpoint solution that meets Ferrari’s specific needs. This solution has been devel-

oped after six months of rigorous compliance testing and benchmarking against other IT Security providers. The Kaspersky endpoint solution is being installed on around 4,000 computers and a further installation will be rolled out over the next year to further additional devices to cover in effect, Ferrari’s entire application landscape.

“Although from a very different industry, Kaspersky Lab is linked to Ferrari by two key things - a quest for maximum speed and the drive to find synergies.

We’re like the Ferrari of our field - fast to react to immediate threats and provide solutions to them, and fast to stay ahead of the pack and come up with new and original approaches to the security paradigm in general,” said Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and

co-founder of Kaspersky Lab. “And like the synergies found in Ferrari’s Scuderia racing team, where the best pioneering automotive engineering is combined with the world’s very best Formula One drivers and support teams, we too find synergies in the combination of our world-leading technologies and our elite team of ‘drivers’ - expert developers, analysts and all those who support them.”

The project is a unique benchmark for the industry as Ferrari has special needs in terms of security. The Kaspersky Lab solution will be installed not only on office computers but also on computers controlling production lines as well as on employees’ tablets and smartphones. Ferrari has imposed more stringent IT security requirements to protect its production

processes, and to ensure the safety of its drivers during races. Kaspersky Lab has produced a solution which combines easy manageability with total control over complex systems.

Vittorio Boero, Ferrari Chief Information Officer, commented: “As we look for perfection in all areas of our business, we decided to improve Ferrari’s overall ICT security situation. To protect our sensitive intellectual property we needed a strong technological partner with a complete, cutting-edge IT security solution. We have chosen Kaspersky Lab for the quality of their endpoint product and because they had special customized options that could be developed specifically to meet our needs. We’re looking forward to further develop our partnership in the technologi-

cal field and hope that this 5-year deal is just the first stage.”

Alexander Erofeev, Chief Marketing Officer of Kaspersky Lab, said: “Growth in the B2B sector is currently one of Kaspersky Lab’s key strategic goals.

Kaspersky Lab is developing both its client base and corporate solutions. Thanks to our best of breed technologies and expertise, we have been named B2B market leaders by several highly reputable analytics agencies. Moreover in January 2013 we launched our new flagship B2B solution, Kaspersky Endpoint Security for Business.

This solution provides the industry’s best defense against advanced malware and cybercrime. Its high levels of efficiency and seamless manageability make it an ideal way to protect business-critical data.”

New technology propels ‘old energy’ revolution When looming crisis turns into a boom

PHOENIX: Solar Impulse, the Swiss solar-powered airplane, piloted by Bertrand Piccard (below), is shown at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, early Saturday after completing the first leg of its coast-to-coast flights across the USA. It is the first time that a solar airplane capable of flying day and night without fuel, will attempt to fly across America. —AP

Solar plane lands at night on cross-country US trip MOFFETT AIRFIELD, California: The first-ever manned airplane that can fly by day or night on solar power alone landed in the dark at a major southwestern US airport, a live feed from the organizer’s website showed early Saturday.

Solar Impulse, piloted by Swiss adventurer Bertrand Piccard, touched down at the Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, Arizona at 0730 GMT after departing from California more than 18 hours earlier on the first leg of a crosscountry journey.

A ground crew met the plane as it landed and pushed it to a safe area where Solar Impulse co-founder Andre Borschberg, a Swiss engineer and exfighter pilot, climbed up to the cockpit on a ladder to greet Piccard, who raised his arms in triumph.

“I’m happy to be here, happy to have landed in Phoenix,” a visibly elated Piccard told reporters, as a small crowd assembled on the tarmac cheered his arrival.

Piccard said he was impressed by the scenery as he overflew the western United States, starting in San Francisco and heading south over California, then east over the Arizona desert and his nighttime approach to Phoenix. When he landed he said he still had threequarters of his battery power left.

The US journey is being billed as the plane’s first cross-continent flight.

The plane, which has a slim body and four electric engines attached to an enormous wingspan, flew quietly at an average speed of about 30 miles (49 kilometers) per hour. Energy provided by 12,000 solar cells powered the plane’s propellers. The project aims to showcase what can be accomplished without fossil fuels, and has set its “ultimate goal” as an around-the-world flight in 2015.

The plane can fly at night by reaching a high elevation of 27,000 feet (8,230 meters) and then gently gliding downward, using almost no power through the night until the sun comes up to begin recharging the aircraft’s solar cells.

The US itinerary allows for up to 10 days at each stop in order to showcase the plane’s technology to the public. Other stops are planned for Dallas, Texas, and the US capital Washington, before wrapping up in New York in early July.

That will allow Piccard and Borschberg to share duties and rest between flights.

A dashboard showing the live speed, direction, battery status, solar generator and engine power, along with cockpit cameras of both Piccard and his view from the plane, were online at live.solarimpulse.com.

The aircraft completed its first intercontinental journey from Europe to Africa in June on a jaunt from Madrid to Rabat. Longer trips have already been successfully completed by the plane, which made the world’s first solar 26hour day and night trip in 2010.

However, the cockpit has room for just one pilot, so even though the plane could likely make the entire US journey in three days, Piccard decided it would be easier to rest and exchange flight control with Borschberg at the stops.

Solar Impulse was launched in 2003. The slim plane is particularly sensitive to turbulence and has no room for passengers, but Piccard has insisted that those issues are challenges to be met in the future, rather than setbacks.

“Instead of speaking of the problems, we want to demonstrate solutions,” Piccard said earlier as he was flying toward Phoenix, stressing that renewable technologies already exist and are well known to science.

“Now we need to put them on a big scale everywhere in our daily life.”

The well-funded effort includes a ground crew and logistics teams, a mission control team, and a state-of-the art communications and multimedia team with in-house “reporters” providing live coverage and interviewing the two pilots. Sponsors include the Solvay Chemical Group, Omega watches and the Swiss elevator and escalator company, The Schindler Group. —AFP

NEW YORK: Technology created an energy revolution over the past decade - just not the one we expected. By now, cars were supposed to be running on fuel made from plant waste or algae - or powered by hydrogen or cheap batteries that burned nothing at all. Electricity would be generated with solar panels and wind turbines. When the sun didn’t shine or the wind didn’t blow, power would flow out of batteries the size of tractor-trailers.

Fossil fuels? They were going to be expensive and scarce, relics of an earlier, dirtier age. But in the race to conquer energy technology, Old Energy is winning. Oil companies big and small have used technology to find a bounty of oil and natural gas so large that worries about running out have melted away. New imaging technologies let drillers find oil and gas trapped miles underground and undersea. Oil rigs “walk” from one drill site to the next. And engineers in Houston use remote-controlled equipment to drill for gas in Pennsylvania. The result is an abundance that has put the United States on track to become the world’s largest producer of oil and gas in a few years. As domestic production as soared, oil imports have fallen to a 17-year low, the US government reported on Thursday. And the gushers aren’t limited to Texas, North Dakota and the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Overseas, enormous reserves have been found in East and West Africa, Australia, South America and the Mediterranean.

“Suddenly, out of nowhere, the world seems to be awash in hydrocarbons,” says Michael Greenstone, an environmental economics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The consequences are enormous. A looming energy crisis has turned into a boom. These additional fossil fuels may pose a more acute threat to the earth’s climate.

And for renewable energy sources, the sunny forecast of last decade has turned overcast.

Technological advances drove a revolution no one in the energy industry expected. One that is just beginning. The new century brought deep concerns the world’s oil reserves were increasingly concentrated in the Middle East - and beginning to run out. Energy prices rose to record highs. Climate scientists showed that reliance on fossil fuels was causing troubling changes to the environment. “The general belief was that the end of the oil era was at hand,” says Daniel Yergin, an energy historian and author of “The Quest: Energy, Security and the Remaking of the Modern World.”

As a result, Wall Street, Silicon Valley and governments were pouring money into new companies developing alternative forms of energy that promised to supply the world’s needs without polluting.

But while the national focus was on alternatives, the oil and gas industry was innovating too. New technology allowed drillers to do two crucial things: find more places where oil and gas is hidden and bring it to the surface economically.

Large oil companies such as Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP turned up huge discoveries offshore in ultradeep water with the help of faster

computers and better sensors that allowed them to see once-hidden oil deposits. Onshore, small drillers learned how to pull oil and gas out of previously inaccessible underground rock formations. For most of the oil age, drillers have looked for large underground pools of oil and gas that were easy to tap. These pools had grown over millions of years as oil and gas oozed out of what is known as source rock. Source rock is a wide, thin layer of sedimentary rock - like frosting in the middle of a layer cake that is interspersed with oil and gas.

An engineer named George Mitchell and his company, Mitchell Energy, spent years searching for a

while poring over pictures of rock.

Sections of a 40-foot-long column of source rock had been run through a CT scanner, the same type used to peer into the human body.

He saw something in the source rock sections the rest of the industry didn’t know was there: a network of passageways big enough for oil molecules to pass through. Papa believed the passageways could act like rural roads for the oil to travel through.

Fracking could then create superhighways for the oil to gather and feed into a pipe and up to the surface.

EOG began drilling test wells, and in 2005, Papa got some results from one in North Dakota that made him

iron, but you’d be shocked about what’s inside,” says Art Soucy, president of global products and services at Baker Hughes. When the drilling is done, the rig itself can “walk” a hundred feet or so to another location and start drilling again. In the past, rigs had to be taken down and reassembled, which could take days.

“It has made possible things that were unthinkable 10 years ago,” says Claudi Santiago, managing director at First Reserve Corp., a private-equity firm that invests in energy companies.

Renewable technologies have had their successes. Solar now generates six times more electricity in the U.S. than it did a decade ago, and wind

HOUSTON: Sensors, housings, couplings, and cable are shown at OYO Geospace Company, at company headquarters in Houston. Engineers have developed increasingly sophisticated sensors that follow drill bits and measure physical characteristics of the rocks and fluids underground. —AP way to free natural gas from this source rock. He finally succeeded when he figured how to drill horizontally, into and then along a layer of source rock. That allowed him to access the gas throughout a layer of source rock with a single well. Then he used a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to create tiny cracks in the rock that would allow natural gas to flow into and up the well.

The United States, which was facing a gas shortage five years ago, now has such enormous supplies it is looking to export the fuel in large volumes for the first time. The common wisdom in the industry was that the process Mitchell had invented for natural gas wouldn’t work for oil. Oil molecules are bigger and stickier than gas molecules, so petroleum engineers believed it would be impossible to get them to flow from source rock, even if the rock were cracked by fracking. But Mark Papa, the CEO of a small oil and gas company called EOG Resources, didn’t accept that.

“The numbers were too intriguing, the prize was so big,” he remembered.

He thought there could be as much as a billion barrels of oil within reach in Texas, North Dakota and elsewhere - if only he could squeeze it out. In 2003, he had a “eureka!” moment

realize oil could flow fast enough to pay off. “It was kind of like holy cow,” he says. “My first thought was we need to replicate this, make sure it’s not a freak result.”

It wasn’t. Papa thought the Eagle Ford might hold 500,000 barrels of oil.

The Department of Energy now predicts it holds 3.4 billion. Some even expect 10 billion, which would make it the biggest oil field in US history.

But even after drillers figured out how to find oil and gas deep offshore and in onshore source rock, they still needed to develop technology that would make it economical.

At the tip of every oil or gas drill is a rotating mouth of sharp teeth that chews through rock. In the past, these drill bits could only dig straight down.

Now they are agile enough to find and follow narrow horizontal seams of rock.

And behind the drill bit, attached to a long line of steel known as the “drill string,” is an array of sensors that collect data about the rock and underground fluids. The data, which is sent to engineers via fiber-optic cables, is run through supercomputers as powerful as 30,000 laptops to create a picture of the earth thousands of feet below the surface.

“To the layman, it looks like dumb

produces 18 times more. Most major automakers offer some type of electric vehicle. But the outlook for wind, batteries and biofuels is as dim as it’s been in a decade. Global greenhouse gas agreements have fizzled. Dazzling discoveries have been made in laboratories, and some of these may yet develop into transformative products, but alternative energy technologies haven’t become cheaper or more useful than fossil fuels.

It’s certainly possible the world will change direction again in the next five years. After all, experts didn’t see the oil and gas boom coming five years ago. There are hundreds of companies, including fossil fuel giants, working on renewable-energy projects. And despite growing supplies of oil, prices remain high because developing nations are consuming more. But EOG’s Papa says oil and gas companies will just invest in even more sophisticated technology.

He estimates that current techniques pull only 6 percent of the oil trapped in source rock to the surface. Learning to double that would yield yet another enormous trove of hydrocarbons.

“Now we go into the next phase of technology,” he says. “How are we going to get the rest of it out of the ground?” —AP

Dream of Mars exploration achievable: Experts WASHINGTON: NASA and private sector experts now agree that a man or woman could be sent on a mission to Mars over the next 20 years, despite huge challenges.

The biggest names in space exploration, among them top officials from the US space agency and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, will discuss the latest projects at a three-day conference starting Monday in the US capital. Renewed interest in the red planet has triggered the launch of several initiatives in recent months, including one proposing a simple one-way trip to cut costs.

The American public also favors sending astronauts to Mars, according to a survey by

non-profit group Explore Mars and aerospace giant Boeing. The poll in March of more than a thousand people published in March found that 71 percent of Americans expect that humans will land on Mars by 2033.

Seventy-five percent say NASA’s budget should be doubled to one percent of the federal budget to fund a mission to Mars and other initiatives. NASA receives only 0.5 percent of the US federal budget, compared to four percent during the Apollo project to conquer the moon in the 1960s.

The US space agency’s chief Charles Bolden has stressed that “a human mission to Mars is a priority.” But the US financial crisis is a major

obstacle to such a project. “If we started today, it’s possible to land on Mars in 20 years,” said G Scott Hubbard of Stanford University.

“It doesn’t require miracles, it requires money and a plan to address the technological engineering challenges,” added Hubbard, who served as NASA’s first Mars program director and successfully restructured the entire Mars program in the wake of mission failures.

Placing a mass of 30-40 tons-the amount estimated to be necessary to make a habitat on the red planet-would be one of the greatest challenges, along with the well-known problem of carrying or producing enough fuel to get back, Hubbard stressed.—AFP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

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

Obamacare is on the horizon, but will enough people sign up?

Frustration over lack of details on public outreach

NORTH KOREA: A pharmacist at the Kaeson Clinic in the Moranbong District of Pyongyang, gathers traditional “Koryo” medicine for a patient waiting at the window.—AP

Ginseng, bear bile: North Koreans look to old cures NORTH KOREA: The Man Nyon Pharmacy is lined with rows of colorful packages containing everything from dried bear bile and deer antler elixir to tiger bone paste and ginseng.

But the ancient “Koryo” medicine provided at this popular dispensary isn’t just for minor aches and pains. It has been integrated into the health system from the smallest village clinic all the way up to the nicest showcase hospitals in the privileged capital of Pyongyang. Both modern and traditional styles of healing have long been uniquely intertwined nationwide with doctors from both schools working in tandem under one roof. North Korean physicians say many patients prefer traditional medicine to the Western kind, but it’s difficult to determine the true situation in this closed and impoverished society where access is limited.

Defectors, foreign aid workers and North Koreans agree that many Western drugs are scarce and say villagers still forage for plants in some areas to make their own herbal concoctions. With the UN Security Council imposing its toughest-ever sanctions following North Korea’s third nuclear test in February, patients may become even more dependent on these home-grown remedies in a country of 24 million people where government health spending ranks among the world’s lowest.

“Doctors are more interested in Koryo medicine rather than Western medicine because they can get it more easily,” said Ri Hye Yong, who manages the frigid concrete pharmacy opened by the government nearly three decades ago. “It’s much cheaper.” The latest restrictions are meant to squeeze new young leader Kim Jong Un and the ruling class by clamping down on access to foreign travel and luxury goods. North Korea has responded with tirades that include threatening nuclear attacks against the U.S. and its allies.

The resolution is not supposed to block donor aid to those who need it most, including the two-thirds of the population who don’t have enough to eat. But foreign aid workers say years of limitations have created a maze of red tape and approvals needed to ship in medical supplies and equipment.

Some countries refuse to process payments for anything involving North Korea because of restrictions placed on banks, while some foreign companies and organizations simply do not want to be involved once they learn where the materials are headed. But once the goods arrive, they say the process becomes fairly simple.

“Even though the imposed sanctions clearly exclude humanitarian assistance, a negative impact on the levels of humanitarian funding has been experienced,” the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Pyongyang said in a statement April 29, adding nearly three-quarters of the $147 million needed this year has not been received.

The World Health Organization is lacking an estimated 60 percent of the drugs it needs for at risk kids and pregnant women, while the UN Children’s Fund is struggling to get vaccines and medicines to prevent the biggest killer diseases among children, it said. In addition, the WHO says the process of importing essential equipment and medicine has also grown lengthy at all levels, and those involved have become over cautious in clearing materials to ensure they could not be classified as dual purpose or luxurious items.

International efforts to help boost the country’s ability to produce its own vaccines and medicines were earlier affected when some technology and seed microbes were halted over concerns they could potentially be used by Pyongyang for malicious purposes, WHO said. Despite these challenges, it’s difficult to understand the full picture within North Korea where outsiders are banned from traveling freely and data are lacking or unreliable. Suspicion of the outside world is reinforced by huge hospital propaganda paintings depicting Americans and Japanese as the country’s “sworn enemies.”

Jang Jun Sang, a department director at the Ministry of Public Health, said in an interview in February that sanctions have cut imports of medical equipment and supplies.

But he said North Korea was used to sanctions. “If we receive medical aid, that’s good,” he said. “But if we don’t, that’s fine, too. We’re not worried.” North Korean factories have limited ability to produce pharmaceuticals, and many rural clinics lack electricity, running water and heating. By the government’s own account, more than 80 percent of village clinics suffer from “chronic shortages of medicines and supplies at all levels of the system.”

According to defectors such as Kwon Hyojin, some drugs are smuggled in from neighboring China and marketed while others are taken from hospitals and sold illegally. All

health care is supposed to be free in North Korea. Kwon said he was forced to buy an IV drip as well as antibiotics, painkillers, and other Western medicines from China after suffering bouts of food poisoning and later while hospitalized with a broken leg in 1997 in the northeastern city of Chongjin. He recalled a hospital bed swarming with lice and a tap that spewed muddy water and worms.

The 52-year-old, who defected to South Korea in 2009 and now works at the Seoulbased Committee for the Democratization of North Korea, said he tried to avoid hospitals in the North altogether. Instead, he visited Koryo doctors usually for upset stomach, back pain and insomnia.

Traditional medicine is cheaper and easier to find. Walls of tiny wooden drawers similar to a library card catalog fill one vast room at Pyongyang Medical College, each containing hundreds of tiny paper triangles stuffed with dried herbs. “I think Koryo medicine has mysterious characteristics,” said Dr. Ryu Hwan Su, the hospital’s deputy chief, who proudly displayed a jar filled with a fat ginseng root believed to be more than a century old. “It heals illnesses that Western medicines can’t treat.”

Traditional medicine is used widely in many Asian countries, including China, Japan and South Korea, where there is no shortage of modern treatment and equipment. And while scientific research regarding the benefits of some age-old treatments is lacking, therapies such as massage and acupuncture which can also serve as a local anesthetic - are now widely used in the West. Some North Korean clinics have their own greenhouses, and herbs are harvested every year in the wild to be processed into teas and other concoctions. The government says Koryo medicine is used to treat more than half the patients in rural clinics. But shortages exist too.

Patients are often prescribed a simple herb they are expected to get themselves, said Dr. Byungmook Lim, a professor at South Korea’s Pusan National University School of Korean Medicine, who co-authored a study comparing traditional medicine in the two Koreas.

The country began marrying traditional medicine with modern practice in the 1950s after the Korean War. Doctors were given training in Koryo medicine and each hospital was set up with a department devoted to it, with prevention as the guiding concept behind the socialized health plan. Unlike in other Asian countries where the two practices are typically kept separate, traditional practitioners in North Korea can prescribe modern drugs and assist during surgeries, while Western doctors can use Koryo treatments.

“We kept talking to each other and consulting each other,” said Kim Jie-eun, who graduated from a Koryo school with some modern training, and practiced in North Korea as a pediatrician and internal medicine doctor before defecting in 1999. She now runs a traditional clinic in Bucheon, South Korea, and recalls that even acupuncture needles were reused in the North. She said frequent shortages of antibiotics meant high-level officials got treated first, while ordinary patients struggled to find medicines. “I was really angry.

They were the same human beings,” she said.

“How this could happen?”

But she believes combining the two types of treatment was actually better for patients.

She said Koryo medicine - taken from the old name for Korea - was often used alone or in combination with Western drugs to treat a variety of health problems including stroke, hepatitis, high blood pressure, kidney disorders and diabetes. And it’s still done today. At the new Breast Cancer Research Center at the Pyongyang Maternity Hospital, a showcase institution where The Associated Press was recently taken on a tour, patient Ri Jong Suk said she was set to be released after having a mastectomy and reconstruction surgery.

She said during her one-month stay she was given Western medicine along with Koryo treatment, including massage and acupuncture, to help strengthen her immune system, decrease swelling and circulate blood after surgery. The Health Ministry also cites hot springs, mineral water and mud among successful treatments. Cupping is another popular therapy believed to stimulate blood flow by using heated glass jars to create a vacuum on the skin.

Many of these healing techniques are also commonly used in South Korea, which is rooted in the same ancient traditional medicine as its northern counterpart. But in that country, modern and traditional medicines typically operate independently, each with its own licensing and education system. North Korea was once dependent on the Soviet Union to keep its medical system running. —AP

WASHINGTON: Healthcare reform should be the signature Democratic achievement of President Barack Obama’s presidency. But with “Obamacare” five months from show time, Democrats are worried about whether enough Americans will sign up to make the sweeping healthcare overhaul a success - and what failure might mean for Congress heading into the 2016 presidential race. Some of the law’s main advocates fear that not enough of America’s 49 million uninsured will know about health coverage offered in their own states. Even if they do, new insurance plans may not be attractive to young, healthy consumers needed to offset an expected influx of older and sicker patients.

Only a handful of states are beginning campaigns to promote the online health insurance marketplaces created by the law. Known as exchanges, the markets will offer private coverage at federally subsidized rates to individuals and families with low-to-moderate incomes, with enrollment set to begin Oct 1. The federal government has kept quiet about its promotion plans, which are expected to begin in earnest over the summer.

While Obama and his administration say they are working nonstop on reform, analysts believe a poor performance could make the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act a big enough campaign issue in 2014 to jeopardize Democratic control of the Senate - particularly if insurance costs rise sharply. “There is reason to be very concerned about what’s going to happen with young people. If their (insurance) premiums shoot up, I can tell you, that is going to wash into the United States Senate in a hurry,” said Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat.

Some Democrats are frustrated about the lack of details surrounding administration plans to promote the exchanges. Senator Max Baucus, a chief architect of the reform law, said federal outreach efforts deserve a failing grade so far and could be heading for a “huge train wreck.” He criticized Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius for the scant information her department has provided.

Funding embargo “Why in late April can’t they show us any of what they’ve got planned? The rollout plan should already be in existence,” an exasperated Democratic Senate aide said separately. The law is expected to cover 15 million Americans next year through the exchanges and an expansion of Medicaid. The overall number is forecast to jump to 38 million by 2022.

Reform is facing challenges on several fronts.

Big insurers appear wary of participating, raising questions about how competitive the exchanges will be. Businesses are mounting a new legal effort to stop the use of federal subsidies in exchanges run by Washington. And most states have balked at the exchanges and the Medicaid expansion.

Meanwhile, the enrollment effort is under threat from months of delay, a congressional Republican embargo on new funding and worries about how affordable the new plans will be, according to analysts, lawmakers, congressional aides and former officials.

“I don’t see how what they’re planning to do is going to be adequate. The resources are too limit-

ed, the (law’s) penalties are too weak and elite opposition in much of the country will undermine” enrollment, said Paul Starr, a Princeton professor and former health adviser to President Bill Clinton.

Add to that the challenge of reaching a public that is highly skeptical and often misinformed about the most complex social legislation since Medicare and Medicaid in the mid-1960s.

A Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that 77 percent of Americans know little or nothing about exchanges, while 40 percent erroneously think reforms create a government panel to make end-

lic outreach this month, while California, Maryland and the District of Columbia will hold off until later in the year. For the federal exchanges, HHS has a contract worth at least $8 million with public relations firm Weber Shandwick and $54 million to train and pay “navigators,” or counselors who will help consumers choose a health plan. It also has a $28 million contract with General Dynamics to set up a call center and will make its Healthcare.gov website consumer-oriented. The administration is seeking help from major U.S. insurance providers to market aggressively to consumers on the feder-

CHICAGO: File photo shows members of Progressive Change Campaign Committee upset over potential cuts to Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security walk to President Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago, to deliver 200,000 signatures from people who are refusing to donate or volunteer for his re-election campaign if Obama cuts entitlement programs.—AP of-life decisions for people on Medicare. An April survey of 1,003 people by HealthPocket, an online company that helps consumers find insurance, also found that the law’s penalty for not buying coverage would not induce most 25-to-34-year-olds or 18-to-24-year-olds to purchase it.

Glitches and bumps Obama this week defended the pace of implementation, telling reporters that the government was working hard to “make sure that we’re hitting all the deadlines and the benchmarks” even with the challenge of building the new online exchanges. “That’s still a big, complicated piece of business,” Obama said, adding the task was made harder by a dedicated Republican opposition still determined to block the law’s implementation.

“Even if we do everything perfectly, there’ll still be, you know, glitches and bumps,” he said. The administration is building exchanges in 33 states that are unwilling or unable to do so on their own, and has limited funds for marketing. The remaining 17 states are building their own and have received sizable budgets for outreach. Among states taking the lead, Vermont has launched radio advertising to raise public awareness. Colorado begins its pub-

ally run exchanges and help convince healthy citizens between 26 to 45 to pay for insurance instead of a first-year penalty amounting to $95 per person or 1 percent of household income.

Blowing up But reform advocates worry that the HHS budget is too small and the spigot for new funding from Congress is shut off by partisan politics. The “navigator” program allocates just $600,000 each for 13 states including Delaware, Iowa, Kansas and New Hampshire. “There’s a limited amount of money that should be increased. But that’s subject to appropriations and Congress is not likely to appropriate additional money,” said Ron Pollack of the advocacy group Families USA. “It’s going to require a very robust effort in the private sector.”

Analysts say reform could be as big an issue in next year’s congressional midterm elections as it was in 2010, when dislike for the law among senior citizens helped install a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. This time, failed implementation could end Democratic hopes of recapturing the House and leave enough Senate Democrats vulnerable to give Republicans an edge in that chamber. —AP

Feds: Hepatitis B no barrier to health practice NEW YORK: Peter Nguyen was a promising medical student when his school learned that he had tested positive for the hepatitis B virus.

He said he was blackballed by school administrators and forced to halt his studies. “I knew the stigma” that came with a hepatitis diagnosis, Nguyen said. But he thought that a medical school, of all places, would understand. “I came there expecting help. Instead, I was greeted with discrimination.”

Nguyen’s prospects of becoming a physician are a lot brighter today. The US Department of Justice recently declared in a legal settlement that hepatitis B patients are protected by federal disability law. And, separately, federal health officials have issued a revised set of guidelines that make it clear that health care workers and students who carry the hepatitis B virus - HBV for short - generally pose little or no risk to patients. Taken together, advocates say, the new health guidelines and the Justice Department settlement remove barriers to practice, handing HBV-positive health professionals and students a pair of powerful tools to combat discrimination. “It gives us so much more leverage. We no longer have to wring our hands,” said Joan Block, executive director and co-founder of the Hepatitis B Foundation, a nonprofit in

Doylestown, Pa. She said Nguyen was among several students who contacted the foundation in 2011 to report they’d either been forced out of school, or had their admissions rescinded, because of an HBV diagnosis.

Hepatitis B is a contagious and potentially fatal liver disease spread through blood and other bodily fluids. The virus that causes it is most commonly transmitted through unprotected sex. Intravenous drug use is another major risk factor. It can also be passed from an infected mother to her baby at birth, which is how Nguyen contracted it. Even though he’d been vaccinated as a child, the virus was already in his body. As many as 1.4 million Americans have chronic hepatitis B. It’s not clear how many of them are health practitioners. But some 25 percent of medical and dental students - and many practicing doctors, surgeons and dentists - were born to mothers from countries in Asia and other regions of the world where the virus is endemic, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC last issued guidelines for management of health workers and students with hepatitis B in 1991. A lot had changed in two decades. Universal infant vaccination had slashed the number of new cases by more than

MUMBAI: Indian women attend a laughter yoga session at a park during a World Laughter Day event yesterday. World Laughter Day which is celebrated on the first Sunday of May was the brainchild and created in 1998 by Indian physician Dr Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. The first World Laughter Day gathering took place in Mumbai, in 1998 with close to 10,000 people coming together in a mega laughter session.—AFP

80 percent. New drug therapies had proved effective at reducing the amount of virus in a carrier’s blood to very low or undetectable levels, greatly minimizing the risk of transmission.

And there had been only a single case of hepatitis B transmission from a health provider to a patient at least since 1991 - an orthopedic surgeon who was unaware of his hepatitis infection and had a very high amount of the virus in his body. He infected two to eight patients, according to the CDC. While the old guidelines stated that a hepatitis B diagnosis by itself shouldn’t preclude doctors, dentists, nurses and other health professionals from seeing patients, “we were concerned that with a 20-year-old set of guidance, it was not really considered as relevant as it could be,” said Dr. John Ward, director of the CDC’s Division of Viral Hepatitis. He said the new guidelines offer a “powerful message that in the great majority of clinical encounters between a health care provider and a patient, there is minimal or no risk of hepatitis B virus transmission.”

Released last summer, the updated CDC guidelines were cited by the Justice Department in March as the agency announced a settlement with a New Jersey medical school over claims it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by excluding two applicants with hepatitis B. While the state-run University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey denied liability, it agreed to admit qualified HBV-positive students and provide training to staff.

It was the first case in which the Justice Department pursued an ADA complaint on behalf of people with hepatitis B. “This is a historic decision,” Block said. “We can now pull out the DOJ settlement and really guide these people: ‘What you’re facing is discrimination, and here are the tools to help.’ That’s powerful.”

Nguyen said he had no idea he was a carrier until he started medical school. That’s when he began to feel persistently tired and lost the ability to concentrate. Given a family history of liver cancer - of which hepatitis is the leading cause his doctor had him tested. It came back positive.

Nguyen alerted the school and said he was told by an administrator that he would never be able to complete the required surgical rotation because “no operating room in the country will let you in.” “That’s when I started almost panicking,” Nguyen said. “To this point I had been a good student. All the sudden my world was crashing, with all this debt and all the things I had worked for in jeopardy.” He said the school began making life more difficult for him, to the point where he felt he had no choice but to leave.—AP

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

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

Debate over morning-after pill for 15-year-olds NEW YORK: Allison Guarino understands the controversy over new rules allowing 15-year-olds to buy the morning-after pill without a prescription. But as someone who teaches pregnancy prevention to ninth-graders in Boston, she thinks lowering the age will “help the girls who need the help the most.” “Some girls might not have a good relationship with their parents,” she said, “or they had unprotected sex and they don’t know what to do.”

On the other side of the issue are folks like Brenda Velasco Ross, who says the new rules infringe on her rights as a parent. “It breaks my heart and saddens me and really angers me,” said Ross, stepmom of four, including 12- and 13-yearolds in Fullerton, Calif. “If you have to buy Sudafed, you have to show ID. When I buy spray paint for a project for my daughter, I have to show my ID. It just baffles me that, with this, which has to do with pregnancy and being sexually active, I don’t have to be involved. That to me just violates my rights as a parent to have guidelines and parameters for my children.”

The two opinions reflect some of the

issues in the debate over new rules issued last week by the US Food and Drug Administration, which lowered the age for buying the drug without a prescription from 17 to 15. In April, a federal judge, Edward Korman, said there should be no age restrictions at all. The Obama administration said it wants to maintain the prescription requirement for those under 15 and will appeal the judge’s ruling.

Guarino, 19, a college freshman majoring in public health and political science at Boston University, said she encounters a lot of ignorance on issues related to sex and pregnancy. “I would encourage any young person to go talk to their parents or a doctor, but that’s not the reality,” she said. Jennifer Morgan, 18, a native of Somerville, Mass., who attends college in Pennsylvania, said she’s not sure she supports eliminating the age limit entirely, but “I think it’s fine for a 15-year-old. Not every girl has the privilege of being able to go talk to her mother in a crisis like that. Because time is of the essence, and if a girl in that situation and that age doesn’t have any other support, I feel like it’s OK.” Morgan

recently completed a stint on a leadership team for the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and added that while abstinence is an ideal, “not every teen is going to stay abstinent.” Samantha Bailey-Loomis, 16, who recently founded a Students For Life chapter at her high school in Branford, Conn., opposes the concept of the morning-after pill in the same way that she opposes abortion. “My mom had me when she was 17,” she said. “If this was available when she was young, I wouldn’t exist. I wouldn’t be able to make the difference I am in the community today.” Loomis said girls who are worried they might be pregnant should talk to their parents about it, and if they can’t, should seek help from organizations that can provide the support they need. Dianne Sikel, who volunteers in a juvenile probation program in Phoenix, said dropping the age limit is “a move in the right direction.” She added that it’s easy to tell kids to use condoms, “but it doesn’t always work out that way.”

“These pills being available to teens are far better of an option than having a young couple being forced to become

parents, for a young girl, who made a bad choice one evening, who may be forced to abort, or ultimately having to give up a child for adoption,” said Sikel, a parent of two boys, 13 and 16.

Sophia Martin, who teaches at a high school in Northern California where many students continue their education after being expelled from other schools, said she “can understand how upsetting it is to think your kid might engage in unprotected sex and then get the morning after pill without your knowledge.

But to me the core reason to abolish any kind of age limit is that there are young people who are in situations in their families where they can’t turn to their parents.” Martin said some girls become “pregnant not because they chose to have sex. It’s such a hard situation for them to talk about.” But Andrew Bay, 19, who’s finishing up his freshman year at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla, says he thinks making the morning-after pill so easily available “almost encourages even younger children to have unprotected sex.” If he had to put an age limit on getting the drug without a prescription, “It should probably be 18.

At least at 18 you’re considered mature enough to make medical decisions on your own.”

Denny Pattyn, founder of Silver Ring Thing, which promotes chastity until marriage and encourages young people to wear purity rings to symbolize their commitments, said he worries that allowing younger teens to get the morningafter pill without a doctor or parent’s knowledge is going to increase the incidence of sexually transmitted diseases.

“It’s incredibly irresponsible,” he said.

“These kids are getting these diseases and they don’t even know they’re getting them.” Dr Cora Breuner of the American Academy of Pediatrics said headlines about the age limit have prompted some families to broach the topic of safe sex. Even if parents don’t bring it up, teens are hearing about it via social media. “I know this in my own practice, there are a lot more conversations between parents and their children about this decision,” said Breuner, an adolescent health specialist at Seattle Children’s Hospital. “This will prompt a conversation nationally that can help at so many levels.”—AP

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

FAIPS expedition to NASA: A euphoric mission 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

Announcements The TIES Center’s ‘trip’ he TIES Center cordially invites those who are interested in its trip to the Historical, Vintage and Classic Car Museum, which is the first museum in Kuwait specializing in old cars on May 30th at 6:00 pm.

Revisit past memories or learn something new. If you love cars then this is the trip for you. Even if you don’t love cars, come anyway; you will enjoy the trip. For more information/registration, log onto: www.tiescenter.net.

GRAMOLSAV on May 10 ottayam Association, Kuwait is conducting Malayalam Arts competitions - Gramolsav’ 2013 on 10th May 2013 at United Indian School by 4:00pm. The winners of this prestigious competition will be awarded with trophies and medals. The competitions are for Solo Nadan Pattu, Poetry Recitation and Kadaprasamgam. The competitions are meant for children as well as adults. The group is divided as SubJunior, Junior, senior and Super Senior where as Kadaprasamgam is only for Junior and Senior groups.

The closing date of receiving entry forms is 7th May, 2013. For entry forms please email to gramolsav2013@gmail.com and the entry forms are available at Family Super Market and Al-Watan Restaurant, Abbassiya.

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NAFO ‘Samanwayam’ he 10th anniversary of NAFO Kuwait will be celebrated on May 10 at the American International School Auditorium from 6pm onwards. Indian Ambassador Satish C Mehta will inaugurate the event. Former Indian Ambassador to the US and the United Nations T P Sreenivasan and NSS Director Board Member Pandalam Sivankutty will be guests of honor. NAFO will also present an eclectic dance drama ‘Krishna’ which is conceived and choreographed by Padmashri Shobana. She will be accompanied by a 15-member troupe from Kalarpana Chennai and supported

by Oscar winner Rasool Pookkutty. It has voiceovers in English by film personalities such as Irrfan Khan, Konkonasen, Shabaana Azmi, John Abraham, Prakash Raj, Stephen Devassy and P Rajeevan.

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he education value of travel is undisputable!! Once a wise man said, “the pulse of learning in another world creates appreciation in a way a book cannot...”Keeping this ideology as a backdrop, on April 1, 2013, a group of 25 students from Fahaheel AlWataneih Indian Private School set out on their much coveted expedition-NASAKennedy Space Centre, Florida, USA under the able guidance of their teachers- Theo Rodrigues and Sindhu John.

This stimulating tour offered an opportunity for a rich immersion experience and a tremendous way to facilitate contemporary learning. The students had a chance to experience a culture first hand, connecting with the people and place on a much deeper level than they ever could in the classroom! Their innovative minds, during the 3 day camp, under the guidance of a team of NASA engineers build parachutes, bridges and launched a self-designed paper rocket to name a few. The students also experienced firsthand an exposure to simula-

tors and zero gravity, a small taste of the rigorous training astronauts go through before being launched into space.

The students had the privilege to dine, interact and have a photograph with Sky-Lab Astronaut, Ed Gibson. These enriching, informative sessions opened the eyes of the children, who were hitherto ignorant about the intense training, teamwork, sacrifice, single minded devotion and focus that goes into becoming an astronaut. It opened their minds to one of life’s irrefutable fact that, one needs to go beyond the comfort zone to follow a passion.

The FAIPS students were applauded for being the most disciplined team at NASA Camp. A definite feather in their cap! The educational tour also included Disney World, Universal Studios and Sea World in Orlando, Florida. Besides learning the students also gained in self-confidence and being responsibly independent. This group travel enhanced the communication skill for even the most introvert student... they were not only learn-

ing facts, but alongside, also learning life skills. The children grew as individuals and receive a global education that is increasingly more important in the connected world of today. Such experiences have a huge impact on a student’s life by

expanding their horizons and changing the way they see the world.

Over the years, FAIPS under the able guidance of the school Principal Anju Dheman have grown beyond the boundaries of the classroom.

GUST welcomes and supports Dinarain Project

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 SanvordemMichael 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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IMAX

T IMAX film program Monday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 8:30pm Tornado Alley 3D11:30am, 5:30pm, 7:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 9:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 6:30pm Tuesday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Tornado Alley 3D10:30am, 6:30pm, 8:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 11:30am, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 5:30pm Wednesday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups To The Arctic 3D 10:30am Tornado Alley 3D 11:30am, 6:30pm, 9:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm Journey to Mecca 5:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 8:30pm

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

he Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) opened the Dinarain Project on its campus in collaboration with the International Islamic Charitable Organization, with the official opening attended by theHead of the Board of Trustees at GUST, Dr Abdulrahman Al-Muhailan, where he noted that GUST actively supports projects like Dinarain because, like Kuwait, it believes in the solidarity among its people about the work of goodness and charity.

Al-Muhailan added during his speech at the open-

ing that the aim of this project is to supportand try to instill values ??of volunteering and charitable work and giving to others within the GUST community and encouraging projects like this is is part of the continuity of the university’s community outreach programs and helping in the success of these projects as was done in last year’s trip to China to implement a range of projects and charity programs for the Muslims of China’s most prominent educational centers and orphanages in the name of Kuwait and its people.

In his turn, the Director General of the International Islamic Charitable Dr Suleiman Shams Al-Din noted that the upcoming project has received greater attention with increasedyouth presence than last year,where 44 young men and women laid the foundation stone for two schools for orphans. The next trip is being planned to Uganda and Kenya, where help will be directed towards African countries and Muslims there and laying the foundation for an educational project development.

Get well soon: India rolls out red carpet for foreign patients

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rom cutting edge surgeries and routine ones to traditional therapies like Ayurveda and yoga for all-round wellness, the Indian healthcare system offers it all at a fraction of what it would cost in many countries. Little wonder then that India has emerged as a leading healthcare destination with thousands of ‘medical tourists’ reaching its hospitals for complex surgeries and not-so-major treatments.

With some of the most skilled doctors in the world and the most modern medical equipment, hospitals, both government and privately owned, provide comprehensive packages at one-tenth of the cost anywhere abroad. Industry estimates peg the market size of medical tourism in India, which is growing at over 25 percent annually, at over $2.5 billion with over 100,000 foreign patients coming to the country each year. India’s choice as a preferred destination for medical tourism has been helped by the government offering the special ‘M’ visa to medical tourists - the visas can be issued up to a maximum duration of one year. Visas can also be issued to attendants (maximum 2) for accompanying the medical tourist.

India’s efforts to promote medical tourism took off in late 2002, when the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) produced a study on the country’s medical tourism sector, which outlined immense potential for the sector.

The following year, then finance minister Jaswant Singh urged measures such as

improvements in airport infrastructure to ensure smooth arrival and departure of medical tourists. Analysing the reasons for India’s popularity as a medical destination, leading cardiac surgeon Naresh Trehan says India has the ability to provide the best in western and eastern healthcare systems.

“People are skilled in India and there is no waiting queue for patients in the hospitals. India provides value for money and the cost of treatment is lower,” added Trehan, managing director of Medanta-The Medicity hospital in Gurgaon, adjoining the Indian capital New Delhi.

There is almost no waiting time for surgeries in India, a boon for patients from countries like the US and Britain where the queues are long. Though the maximum medical tourists to India are from the US, Africa is catching up fast. In 2011, for instance, more than 30,000 patients came from Kenya and about 10,000 from Tanzania.

Costs are a key factor. Stem cell transplant, a process by which new cells are introduced into damaged tissue in order to treat diseases or injuries, has shown promise in treating various kinds of diseases, including some cancers.

Outside India, a stem cell transplant could cost up to Rs.1 crore (approx $223,000) abroad, depending on the type of procedure, and the patient is asked to deposit the full amount before the procedure. In India the same procedure in a private hospital would cost between Rs.10-20

lakh (approx $18,500-37,000) in private hospitals. Canadian Doug Antoniak, who underwent a successful spinal surgery in 2007 in the south Indian city of Chennai, was amongst those who benefited.

Recounting his ordeal, he had said: “I had two failed surgeries in Canada, but my pain didn’t go. It was getting worse all the time.”

The Apollo Hospital in Chennai came to his help. The package was $40,000 for the surgery, airfare, five-star accommodation and 45-day after-care.

“Had we gone to the US, it would have cost us $250,000. We got world-class medical care for a lot less. I will go to India in a minute,” Antoniak’s wife Cathy said.

Uniquely Indian treatments like ayurveda and yoga for rejuvenation and wellness are helping states like India’s southern Kerala state, famed for its Kerala massages.

According to a CII-McKinsey report, the medical tourism industry in Kerala is expected to be worth $4 billion by 2017.

There are other treatments too. Like a comprehensive rehab policy for ‘narcoticsinduced psychotics’. A recent group in New Delhi included people from the US, Canada, Oman as well as from Southeast Asia. The three-month work-up at the Tulasi Healthcare Centre includes intense group discussions after weeks of detoxification and psychiatric treatment and costs about $3,500-5,500.

“In Bangkok, a 28-day treatment programme costs $10,000,” Gorav Gupta, senior psychiatrist and the force behind Tulasi, told

IANS. With these competitive prices, growth is the only way to go. Though Thailand is at present dominating the medical tourism market in Asia followed by Singapore, India is expected to substantially increase its medical tourism share.

With the promise being shown by the medical tourism sector, hospitals are also cashing in on the trend sprucing up facilities available on their premises. A fullfledged movie lounge, a spa, a gym and fast food outlets are just some of the facilities on offer for patients and their attendants at corporate hospitals in Indian cities.

The Gurgaon-based Fortis, for instance, has a huge shopping arcade, a bakery, a spa, gym, a host of fast food outlets and also a 36-seater movie theatre to screen free film shows for the patients and their attendants. “During long surgeries, the stressed out attendants of patients don’t wish to leave the premises of the hospital and at that moment watching a movie or having some good food without having to step out can be a positive distraction,” said Dilpreet Brar, regional director of Fortis Hospital in Gurgaon. Then, Columbia Asia Hospital in Gurgaon has started its own chain of cafes rather than giving space to an outsider. The sprawling Columbia Cafe at the Columbia Asia Hospital also conducts cooking classes and regular food festivals along with food promotion activities. Get healthy, the Indian way, is what the medical fraternity and the government seem to be telling patients the world over. And many are listening.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy

IKEA Kuwait celebrates Earth Day

Sebamed on Instagram

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s observed every year, IKEA Kuwait, in collaboration with the Junior Engineer Academy recently celebrated ‘Earth Day’ with its customers to highlight the importance of preserving the planets ecosystem and well-being. In an effort to strengthen the brands resolution to be environmentally responsible, a series of green initiatives were held in-store to enlighten the customers on ways to protect

and nurture the Earth. IKEA Kuwait and worldwide stores offer a wide range of environmentally friendly products that include solar lights, recycled bags and much more that are affordable to the many.

Through such initiatives, IKEA is urging its shoppers to participate, learn more, and have a positive effect on the earth in their own little ways.

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e are glad to inform you that we launched our site on instagram.

Follow us on @sebamedkuwait and (hashtag)#sebamedkuwait and send us your shots involving all family members and be the lucky winner of a valuable prize from Sebamed products.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts opens first Four Points by Sheraton in Saudi Arabia

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tarwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc yesterday announces the debut of the Four Points by Sheraton brand in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the new Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh Khaldia. Owned by Khaldia Towers Company, a partnership between AlJedaie Group and Al-Hokair Group, the hotel is conveniently located 20 minutes from Riyadh’s business district and 45 minutes from the King Khalid International Airport, making it an ideal choice for today’s business traveller.

“We are delighted to partner with Khaldia Towers Company as we mark the entry of the Four Points by Sheraton brand into Saudi Arabia,” said Roeland Vos, President Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Europe, Africa & Middle East. “This project further underlines our commitment to continued expansion in Saudi Arabia, an important business and outbound travel destination.”

Othman S Abahussain, General Manager of Khaldia Towers Company continued, “We are excited about the opening of the Four Points by Sheraton Khaldia in partnership with Starwood.

Four Points by Sheraton is a solid brand and we believe Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh Khaldia will be the ideal destination for business travellers in Riyadh.” Starwood’s Four Points by Sheraton brand’s ‘best for business’

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. nnnnnnn

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. nnnnnnn

approach provides travellers with everything that matters the most with stylish design and an uncomplicated friendly approach to hospitality and service - all at a great value.

Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh Khaldia will feature 376 guest rooms including 138 suites, all fitted with the brand’s signature Four Comfort Bed and modern bathrooms with a separate walk-in shower. The suites are equipped with extra space, including a large sitting area and separate kitchenette. For guests who want to relax and refresh, the hotel will feature a ful-

ly- equipped fitness centre and spa, both available later this year.

Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh Khaldia currently operates two convenient dining venues, including AlNakheel, the hotels all-day dining restaurant serving international cuisine and Khaldia Lounge, offering refreshments and snacks in the lobby area. Early 2014, the hotel will open Panorama which will serve the finest local flavours and offer spectacular views over Riyadh from the 26th floor.

The hotel features all of the brand’s defining elements, including free Wi-Fi

in all public areas, reflecting the brand’s promise and insight into the needs of today’s traveller. To cater to business travellers, Four Points by Sheraton Riyadh Khaldia also offers ultra-modern meeting and event space, including 18 purpose-built meeting rooms.

Starwood today operates close to 50 hotels and resorts across the Middle East under eight of the company’s nine distinct lifestyle brands including: The Luxury Collection, St Regis, Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, Le MÈridien, Four Points by Sheraton and Aloft.

GUST IFC concludes Certificate of Islamic Banking Course

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Information

he student-run Islamic Finance Club at the Gulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) concluded a training course in Certificate of Islamic Banking (CIB) in cooperation with Raqaba for Islamic Financial Consultations.

The goal of this course was upgrading the knowledge and capabilities of the financial system and Islamic banking staff. This certificate is available to

all employees working at banks, financial companies and Islamic investment professional at various levels. This certificate represents the core of the work in these institutions which are identified as Certified Islamic Banks.

Certificate of Islamic Banking is not limited to workers in banks and financial institutions, but also it is one of the best basic certificates that help

graduates to enroll in these institutions in a much better way. One of the best features in the Certificate of Islamic Banker that it is characterized by a certificate approved from the General Council for Islamic Banks and Financial Institutions (CIBAFI) and is an international professional body non-profit organization, represents the umbrella for all the official Islamic financial institutions in the world.

HSBC staff volunteers support in beach clean-up

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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF VATICAN The Apostolic Nunciature (Embassy of the Holy See, Vatican in Kuwait presents its compliments to Kuwait Times Newspaper, and has the honor to inform the same that the Apostolic Nunciature has moved to a new location in Kuwait City. Please find below the new address: Yarmouk, Block 1, Street 2, Villa No: 1. P.O.Box 29724, Safat 13158, Kuwait. Tel: 965 25337767, Fax: 965 25342066.

Email: nuntiuskuwait@gmail.com 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, AlQibla 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.

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SBC staff volunteers recently teamed up with Al-Yaal, a marine conservation program developed

by The en.v Initiative (en.v) and implemented byte Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH), to clean Sulaibikhat beach.

More than 200 kgs of waste was collected in two hours by 16 HSBC staff volunteers and their families, together with representatives from the two civil society organisations. This was the first event of the year and will be followed by a similar activity later in the year.

Simon Vaughan Johnson said: “HSBC in Kuwait has partnered with Al-Yaal for the

second consecutive year in the drive to clean some of the most important beaches and water areas in the country. As part of our corporate citizenship we recognise that we have responsibilities not only towards our customers, employees and shareholders but also to the countries and communities in which we operate. Our staff volunteers take pride in these activities and we were very encouraged to see the positive impact that this initiative has had on Sulaibikhat beach over the past 12 months.”

Before taking part in the beach cleanup, HSBC staff volunteers attended an educational presentation on marine con-

servation and waste management to gain a better understanding of how human activity can damage the environment.

Armed with this understanding, they are further committed to implementing best practices in their daily activities.

“We value and appreciate the support we receive from international corporates such as HSBC. With the assistance of volunteers from the local community, we have been able to restore some of the natural habitats in Kuwait - witnessing new plant life in areas we have cleared from waste that had accumulated over the years,” said Zahed Sultan, Managing Director of The en.v Initiative.

The Al-Yaal marine conservation program was first launched by en.v in April 2011,in collaboration with its implementing partner K’SPATH. Al-Yaal’s main objectives are to preserve Kuwait’s coastal habitats and marine ecosystems, promote environmental awareness amongst the country’s youth and foster the development of a new generation of Kuwaitis who have a thorough understanding of sustainable practices and environmental responsibility. To date, Al-Yaal has engaged over 1,000 volunteers and partners for a total of 80 beach clean-ups, educated over 3000 students and has removed over 19 tons of waste from Kuwait’s shores.

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EMBASSY OF SOUTH KOREA The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kuwait will organize 2013 K-POP Contest on Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 6:00 pm. The aim of the contest is to provide an opportunity to the participants to showcase their exciting talents to the audience. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the contest. Application forms can be downloaded from the Embassy’s website: http://kwt.mofa.go.kr (Select English from the menu at the top of the page then Bilateral Relations) or visit the “Korean Culture Diwaniya” Facebook Group. Interested applicants must send their application forms to Kuwait@mofa.go.kr by 24 May 2013.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

00:45 Tigers Attack 01:35 Animal Cops Philadelphia 02:25 Wildest Arctic 03:15 Wildest Islands 04:05 Into The Pride 04:55 Animal Cops Philadelphia 05:45 Wildest Arctic 06:35 Wildlife SOS 07:00 The Really Wild Show 07:25 My Cat From Hell 08:15 Dogs 101 09:10 Panda Adventures With Nigel Marven 10:05 Animal Cops Houston 11:00 Wildest Africa 11:55 Call Of The Wildman 12:20 Wildlife SOS 12:50 Wild Africa Rescue 13:15 Wild Africa Rescue 13:45 Animal Precinct 14:40 Wildest Africa 15:30 Baboons With Bill Bailey 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Cats 101 17:25 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 17:50 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild 18:20 Must Love Cats 19:15 Monkey Life 19:40 Rescue Vet 20:10 Call Of The Wildman 20:35 Cheetah Kingdom 21:05 Roaring With Pride 22:00 Karina: Wild On Safari 22:55 My Cat From Hell

00:20 Cash In The Attic 01:10 Gok’s Fashion Fix 02:00 DIY SOS 02:25 Daily Cooks Challenge 03:20 Celebrity MasterChef 04:15 Vacation Vacation Vacation 04:40 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 05:25 DIY SOS 05:50 Antiques Roadshow 06:45 Daily Cooks Challenge 07:15 DIY SOS 07:40 Cash In The Attic 08:30 Homes Under The Hammer 09:25 Bargain Hunt 10:10 Antiques Roadshow 11:00 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:40 Celebrity MasterChef 12:35 Vacation Vacation Vacation 13:00 Come Dine With Me 13:50 Bargain Hunt: Famous Finds 14:40 Gok’s Fashion Fix 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

00:15 00:45 01:30 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 08:30 08:55 09:20 09:45

Duck Dodgers Wacky Races 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 Cartoonito Tales Ha Ha Hairies Lazytown Baby Looney Tunes

10:10 10:35 11:00 11:25 11:50 12:15 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

Krypto: The Super Dog Cartoonito Tales Jelly Jamm Gerald McBoing Boing Lazytown Baby Looney Tunes Jelly Jamm Tom & Jerry Kids A Pup Named Scooby-Doo Moomins Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The Looney Tunes Show The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo Taz-Mania Tiny Toon Adventures Moomins Tom And Jerry Tales What’s New Scooby Doo The Looney Tunes Show The Garfield Show Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo Tom And Jerry Tales What’s New Scooby Doo Tiny Toon Adventures Puppy In My Pocket

00:30 Grim Adventures Of...

01:20 Johnny Test 02:10 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 02:35 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: Alien Force 12:15 Hero 108 13:05 Mucha Lucha !

13:30 Angelo Rules 14:20 Evil Con Carne 15:10 The Amazing World Of Gumball 15:35 Adventure Time 16:00 Regular Show 16:30 Johnny Test 17:00 Ben 10 Omniverse 17:25 Dreamworks Dragons: Riders Of Berk 17:50 Gormiti New 18:15 Young Justice 18:40 Ben 10: Ultimate Alien 19:05 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 19:30 Total Drama: Revenge Of The Island 19:55 Mucha Lucha !

20:20 Ben 10: Omniverse

00:15 Crash Course 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 Soul Food Family 08:45 Flying Wild Alaska 09:40 Border Security 10:05 Auction Hunters 10:30 Auction Kings 10:55 How Do They Do It? 11:25 How It’s Made 11:50 Crash Course - Season 2 Special 12:45 Overhaulin’ 2012 13:40 Fifth Gear 14:35 Border Security 15:05 Auction Hunters 15:30 Auction Kings 16:00 Robson Green’s Extreme Fishing Challenge 16:55 Flying Wild Alaska 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Sons Of Guns 19:40 How Do They Do It?

20:05 20:35 21:30 22:25 23:20

How It’s Made Auction Hunters Gold Rush - Season 3 Specials Jungle Gold One Car Too Far

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

How Tech Works Patent Bending Ecopolis The Gadget Show How Tech Works Storm Chasers X-Machines Things That Move The Gadget Show How Tech Works Punkin Chunkin 2010 Ecopolis Man-Made Marvels Asia Race To Mars Things That Move Patent Bending The Gadget Show How Tech Works X-Machines Da Vinci’s Machines Ecopolis Superships Prophets Of Science Fiction X-Machines Things That Move The Gadget Show How Tech Works X-Machines The Colony The Gadget Show

00:00 Stitch 00:35 A Kind Of Magic 01:25 Replacements 02:15 Emperor’s New School 03:05 A Kind Of Magic 03:55 Replacements 04:45 Emperor’s New School 05:35 A Kind Of Magic 06:00 Prankstars 06:25 Suite Life On Deck 06:45 Cory In The House 07:10 A.N.T. Farm 07:35 Austin And Ally 07:55 Jessie 08:20 Good Luck Charlie 08:45 Doc McStuffins 09:05 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 09:30 A.N.T. Farm 09:55 Jonas 10:15 So Random 10:40 Hannah Montana 11:05 Sonny With A Chance 11:25 Kim Possible 11:50 Shake It Up 12:35 Wizards Of Waverly Place 13:25 Austin And Ally 13:45 Jessie 14:10 A.N.T. Farm 14:35 So Random 14:55 The Adventures Of Disney Fairies 15:20 Good Luck Charlie 15:45 Jessie 16:10 Shake It Up 16:35 A.N.T. Farm 17:00 Austin And Ally 17:20 Suite Life On Deck 18:10 Cory In The House 18:30 Jonas

00:00 Special Agent Oso 00:15 Imagination Movers 00:40 Jungle Junction 01:10 Handy Manny 01:30 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 01:54 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 02:00 Little Einsteins 02:25 Special Agent Oso 02:50 Imagination Movers 03:20 Handy Manny 03:40 Special Agent Oso 04:00 Timmy Time 04:10 Imagination Movers 04:35 Little Einsteins 05:00 Jungle Junction

SAVING PRIVATE RYAN ON OSN ACTION HD

05:15 Jungle Junction 05:30 Little Einsteins 05:50 Special Agent Oso 06:15 Jungle Junction 06:45 Handy Manny 07:00 Special Agent Oso 07:15 Higglytown Heroes 07:45 Handy Manny 08:00 The Hive 08:10 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 08:35 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 09:05 Doc McStuffins 09:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 10:00 Art Attack 10:30 Mouk 10:45 Art Attack 11:10 Imagination Movers 11:35 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 12:00 Winnie The Pooh: Tales Of Friendship 12:10 Doc McStuffins 12:40 Higglytown Heroes 12:55 Timmy Time 13:05 The Hive 13:15 Mouk 13:30 Little Einsteins 13:55 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 14:20 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 14:45 Jake & The Neverland Pirates 15:00 The Little Mermaid 15:25 Doc McStuffins 15:40 Higglytown Heroes 15:55 Zou 16:05 Zou 16:20 Art Attack S1 16:45 Doc McStuffins 17:00 Art Attack S1 17:25 Doc McStuffins 17:40 Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 18:05 Art Attack 18:35 New Adventures Of Winnie The Pooh 19:00 Animated Stories 19:05 Timmy Time 19:15 Pajanimals 19:25 Doc McStuffins

00:00 Chelsea Lately 00:30 Opening Act 01:25 E! Investigates 04:10 THS 05:05 Extreme Close-Up 06:00 THS 07:50 Style Star 08:20 E! News 09:15 Married To Jonas 10:15 THS 12:05 Ice Loves Coco 13:05 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 15:00 Style Star 15:30 THS 16:30 Extreme Close-Up 17:00 Fashion Police 18:00 E! News 19:00 THS 20:00 Ice Loves Coco 21:00 Chasing The Saturdays 22:00 Kourtney And Kim Take Miami 23:00 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 Guy’s Big Bite 07:50 Reza’s African Kitchen 08:15 Kid In A Candy Store 08:40 Unique Sweets 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 The Next Food Network Star 10:45 Extra Virgin 11:10 Cooking For Real 11:35 Food Crafters 12:00 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 12:50 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 14:05 Food Wars 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Food Wars 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Reza’s African Kitchen 19:30 Chopped 21:10 Amazing Wedding Cakes 22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:50 Andy Bates American Street Feasts

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 Guy’s Big Bite 07:50 Reza’s African Kitchen 08:15 Kid In A Candy Store 08:40 Unique Sweets 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 The Next Food Network Star 10:45 Extra Virgin 11:10 Cooking For Real 11:35 Food Crafters 12:00 Ultimate Recipe Showdown 12:50 Grill It! With Bobby Flay 13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 14:05 Food Wars 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Food Wars 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Reza’s African Kitchen 19:30 Chopped 21:10 Amazing Wedding Cakes 22:00 Reza’s African Kitchen 22:50 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 23:15 Andy Bates American Street Feasts

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

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 Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

On The Case With Paula Zahn Murder Shift Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry?

Disappeared Murder Shift Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill Deadly Sins

00:00 BBC World News 00:10 Indian Ocean With Simon Reeve 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

00:15 Market Values 00:45 Finding Genghis 01:40 Wild Rides 02:35 Travel Madness 03:30 Travel Oz 03:55 Geo Sessions 04:25 A World Apart 05:20 Departures 06:15 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 06:40 Food School 07:10 Market Values 08:05 Finding Genghis 09:00 Wild Rides 09:55 Travel Madness 10:50 Travel Oz 11:15 Geo Sessions 11:45 A World Apart 12:40 Departures 13:35 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 14:00 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 14:30 Market Values 15:25 Living With The Amish 16:20 Wild Rides 16:45 Into The Drink 17:15 Travel Madness 18:10 Travel Oz 18:35 Deadliest Journeys 19:05 A World Apart 20:00 Market Values 21:00 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 21:30 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 22:00 Departures 22:55 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet 23:20 Food School 23:50 Food Lover’s Guide To The Planet

00:00 Ultimate Animal Countdown 01:00 World’s Weirdest 01:55 Monster Fish 02:50 Ultimate Animal Countdown 03:45 Amazonia’s Giant Jaws 04:40 World’s Deadliest 05:35 The Real Serengeti 06:30 Monster Fish 07:25 Ultimate Animal Countdown 08:20 Amazonia’s Giant Jaws 09:15 Built For The Kill 10:10 World’s Weirdest 11:05 Predator CSI 12:00 I, Predator 13:00 Monster Fish 14:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 15:00 Built For The Kill 5 16:00 Fish Warrior 17:00 Salmon Wars 18:00 World’s Weirdest 19:00 Monster Fish 20:00 Dangerous Encounters With Brady Barr 21:00 Built For The Kill 5 22:00 Fish Warrior 23:00 Salmon Wars

BATTLE FOR TERRA ON OSN CINEMA

01:30 04:15 06:00 07:45 09:45 12:00 13:45 15:45 17:15 18:45 21:45

Saving Private Ryan-18 True Justice: Lethal Justice Secret Window-PG15 The Stool Pigeon-PG15 X-Men: First Class-PG15 Legendary Assassin-PG15 The Stool Pigeon-PG15 Justice League: Doom-PG15 Legendary Assassin-PG15 Covert One: The Hades Factor Nowhere To Run-18

01:00 Ceremony-PG15 03:00 Madea’s Big Happy Family 05:00 Once Brothers-PG15 06:45 Battle For Terra-PG 09:00 Ceremony-PG15 11:00 Madea’s Big Happy Family 13:00 No Surrender-PG15 15:00 B-Girl-PG15 17:00 The Game Of Their Lives-PG15 18:45 The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel-PG15

00:00 The Cleveland Show 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Saturday Night Live 02:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 03:00 Guys With Kids 03:30 1600 Penn 04:00 Seinfeld 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Til Death 06:00 Arrested Development 06:30 Samantha Who? 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 Til Death 09:00 Guys With Kids 09:30 Two And A Half Men 10:00 The Office 10:30 Samantha Who? 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Arrested Development 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Til Death 13:30 Samantha Who? 14:00 1600 Penn 14:30 The Office

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 20:00

Breakout Kings Scandal Grimm Treme Necessary Roughness Grimm Breakout Kings Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. New York Scandal Burn Notice Necessary Roughness Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York Breakout Kings Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York Alphas Revenge

00:00 01:45 03:30 06:15 08:00 09:45 11:45 14:00 15:45 17:45

Paintball Botched Saving Private Ryan True Justice: Lethal Justice Secret Window The Stool Pigeon X-Men: First Class Legendary Assassin The Stool Pigeon Justice League: Doom

00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00

Old School-18 The Janky Promoters-18 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 Just Crazy Enough-PG15

08:00 Elf-PG 10:00 Men In Black-PG15 12:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 14:00 Police Academy 3: Back In Training-PG15 16:00 Men In Black-PG15 18:00 The Winning Season-PG15 20:00 Dazed And Confused-PG15

01:15 03:00 05:15 07:15 09:15 10:45 13:00 15:30 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:15

Dead Again-PG15 Vincere-18 Route Irish-PG15 I’ve Loved You So Long-PG15 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 Terms Of Endearment-PG15 Tora! Tora! Tora!-PG15 Every Jack Has A Jill-PG15 Honey 2-PG15 Yelling To The Sky-PG15 Money For Nothing-PG15 Shadows & Lies-18

01:00 The People vs George Lucas 03:00 Outlaw Country-PG15 05:00 Flower Girl-PG15 07:00 Black Forest-PG15 09:00 I Don’t Know How She Does It-PG15 11:00 Tower Heist-PG15 13:00 Perfect Plan-PG15 15:00 Rising Stars-PG15 17:00 I Don’t Know How She Does It-PG15 19:00 What’s Your Number?-PG15 20:45 Margaret-18

01:00 Easter Egg Escapade 02:45 Supertramps 04:30 Problem Child 06:00 Free Birds 08:00 Princess Sydney: The Legend Of The Blue Rabbit 09:30 Rio 11:15 Alpha And Omega 12:45 Zathura: A Space Adventure 14:45 Free Birds 16:15 Princess Sydney: The Three Gold Coins 18:00 Rio 20:00 Hugo 22:15 Zathura: A Space Adventure

00:00 Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost 02:00 Why Did I Get Married Too? 04:00 The Pirates! Band Of Misfits 06:00 12 Dates Of Christmas-PG15 08:00 Last Holiday-PG15 10:00 Dead Lines-PG15 12:00 Why Did I Get Married Too? 14:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked-PG 16:00 Last Holiday-PG15 18:00 Seeking Justice-PG15

01:00 Futbol Mundial 01:30 ICC Cricket 360 02:00 PGA Tour 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Snooker World Championship 11:00 Futbol Mundial 11:30 ICC Cricket 360 12:00 Live NRL Premiership 14:00 WWE Bottom Line 15:00 Trans World Sport 16:00 Live Snooker World Championship 19:30 ICC Cricket 360 20:00 Super Rugby Highlights

01:00 Super League 02:30 Snooker World Championship 06:30 ICC Cricket 360 07:00 PGA Tour 12:00 Futbol Mundial 12:30 Trans World Sport 13:30 PGA European Tour 18:00 PGA Tour Highlights 19:00 PGA Tour Players Champions 20:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 21:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 22:00 NRL Premiership

01:30 NRL Premiership 03:30 NRL Premiership 05:30 Super League 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 Top 14 Highlights 08:30 Super Rugby 10:30 World Pool Masters 11:30 World Cup Of Pool 12:30 Golfing World 13:30 Top 14 Highlights 14:00 Premier League Darts 17:30 NRL Premiership 19:30 Super League 21:00 ICC Cricket 360 21:30 Golfing World 22:30 PGA Tour Highlights 23:30 PGA European Highlights

Tour

01:00 02:00 03:00 03:30 04:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:30 15:00 17:00 18:00 19:00 22:00

UAE National Race Day Series European Le Mans Series UIM Powerboat Champs UIM Aquabike Champs US Bass Fishing NHL WWE Bottom Line WWE Experience Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL Mass Participation Ironman Mobil 1 The Grid WWE SmackDown Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing UFC UFC

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

Big Rich Texas Fashion Police Big Rich Texas Videofashion Daily Videofashion Specials Videofashion News Videofashion Collections Open House Videofashion News Videofashion Daily Open House Dress My Nest Built Tia And Tamera Kimora: Life In The Fab Lane Videofashion Specials Videofashion Collections Chicagolicious How Do I Look?

Giuliana & Bill Tia And Tamera Kimora: House Of Fab Built Tia And Tamera

00:00 World Report 00:30 Mainsail 01:00 CNN Newsroom Live From Hong Kong 02:00 CNN Newsroom Live From Hong Kong 03:00 Backstory 03:30 Talk Asia 04:00 Fareed Zakaria GPS 05:00 CNN Newsroom 06:00 Business Traveller 06:30 News Special 07:00 World Sport 07:30 Inside Africa 08:00 World Report 10:00 World Sport 10:30 News Special 11:00 World Business Today 12:00 World One 12:30 African Voices 13:00 Backstory 13:30 CNN Newscenter 14:00 Fareed Zakaria GPS 15:00 News Stream 16:00 World Business Today 17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 19:00 World Sport 19:30 African Voices 20:00 International Desk 21:00 Quest Means Business 22:00 Amanpour 22:30 CNN Newscenter

Classifieds MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

Kuwait

SHARQIA-1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

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

SHARQIA-2 TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) SPIDERS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

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

SHARQIA-3 OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG)

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

MUHALAB-1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 8:45 PM 10:45 PM

MUHALAB-2 THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

2:00 PM 4:00 PM 4:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM

MUHALAB-3 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) FANAR-1 THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG)

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 1:30 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 AM

FANAR-2 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 12:45 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 2:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 4:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 6:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 8:00 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 9:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 11:45 PM FANAR-3 THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) THE COMPANY YOU KEEP (DIG)

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

MARINA-1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 1:30 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 3:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG)

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (02/05/2013 TO 08/05/2013) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

5:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

7:15 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 12:45 AM

MARINA-2 THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

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

MARINA-3 TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

2:00 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 PM

AL-KOUT.3 OBLIVION (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)

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

AVENUES-1 WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG)

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

BAIRAQ-1 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM 12:05 AM

AVENUES-2 OBLIVION (DIG) 12:45 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 3:15 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 5:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 8:15 PM OBLIVION (DIG) 10:30 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 1:15 AM AVENUES-3 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

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

360ยบ 1 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) NO TELL MOTEL (DIG)

1:15 PM 3:15 PM 5:15 PM 7:15 PM 9:15 PM 11:15 PM 1:15 AM

360ยบ 2 FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG) FIRE WITH FIRE (DIG)

2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:30 PM

360ยบ 3 EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG) EMPEROR (DIG)

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

AL-KOUT.1 TAD, THE LOST EXPLORER (DIG-3D) SPIDERS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)

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

AL-KOUT.2 NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 12:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 2:45 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 4:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 6:30 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 8:30 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 10:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 12:15 AM NO SUN+ TUE+WED

BAIRAQ-2 WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) 12:45 PM THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT 2 (DIG) 3:00 PM WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) 5:15 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 7:30 PM WINTER OF DISCONTENT (DIG) 9:30 PM NO TELL MOTEL (DIG) 11:30 PM BAIRAQ-3 THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) OBLIVION (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) PLAZA SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU) SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU) GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) NO THU GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) LAILA IRON MAN 3 (DIG) NO MON+TUE+WED IRON MAN 3 (DIG) NO MON+TUE+WED IRON MAN 3 (DIG) NO MON+TUE+WED

1:45 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM 7:00 PM 10:00 PM 4:00 PM 7:00 PM 10:00 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:45 PM

AJIAL.1 SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU) SHADOW (DIG) (TELUGU) GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU) GREEKU VEERUDU (DIG) (TELUGU)

6:45 PM 9:45 PM 3:45 PM 6:45 PM 9:45 PM

AJIAL.2 SOODHU KAVVUM (DIG) (TAMIL) SOODHU KAVVUM (DIG) (TAMIL)

6:00 PM 9:00 PM

AJIAL.3 ETHIR NEECHAL (DIG) (TAMIL) FRI+MON ETHIR NEECHAL (DIG) (TAMIL) ETHIR NEECHAL (DIG) (TAMIL)

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

FOR SALE Nissan Infiniti G37, 2009 model, 6 cylinder, automatic, 6 CD changer, mobile connectivity, rear view camera, sunroof, sand color, GPS, excellent condition, 60,000 Kms. KD 7,000.

Contact: 99742340.

(C 4394) 4-5-2013 For sale car Corolla model 2000, price KD 700/-. Contact: 99017342. (C 4402) 2-5-2013

MATRIMONIAL Proposals invited for a Jacobite Christian girl, 27 years, 160cm, massager in occupational therapy, from parents of professionally qualified boys working in India or Abroad. Contact: lalu@kic.com.kw (C 4404) 5-5-2013 27 year Roman Catholic girl, 158cms, BSN MOH invites proposals for a suitable groom - Male nurses expetional. Email: rosammaantony72@gmail.com (C 4400) 2-5-2013

112 Prayer timings Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:36 05:02 11:45 15:20 18:26 19:51

CHANGE OF NAME Rajaraman Sundarraj son of Sundarraj and Janaki bearing an Indian Passport No. K2091792 and having an address No. 4A-1, Moongikollai Street, Kumbakonam PO, Tanjore DT, Tamilnadu 612001 had embraced Islam and changed the name as Raja Mohammed. (C 4401) 4-5-2013

No: 15800

SITUATION WANTED Storekeeper, experience 4 years, Civil ID expir y 4/8/2013. Contact: sanalkumartm12@gmail.com / 69966306. (C 4403)

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines QTR JZR JZR THY ETH GFA AFG UAE ETD FDB RBG MSR QTR DHX THY FDB KAC BAW KAC JZR FDB KAC UAE ABY QTR FDB ETD KAC KAC GFA IRC MEA MSC JZR JZR KAC UAE MSR THY KNE KAC QTR FDB KAC SVA KNE OMA

Arrival Flights on Monday 6/5/2013 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 416 JEDDAH 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 170 BAHRAIN 770 ISTANBUL 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 403 ASSIUT 165 DUBAI 561 SOHAG 284 DHAKA 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 480 TAIF 672 DUBAI 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 546 ALEXANDRIA 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 645 MUSCAT

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 04:20 04:35 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 13:25 13:40 13:45 13:50 14:15 14:30 14:35 14:40

KAC RJA KAC QTR ETD UAE ABY GFA SVA UAL JZR JZR KAC QTR KAC KAC FDB GFA KAC MSC KAC KAC KAC JAI OMA FDB ABY MEA MSR AXB MSC ALK UAE ETD QTR GFA QTR FDB AIC JZR JZR UAL TAR JZR DLH PIA JAI KLM THY

788 640 118 134 303 857 127 215 510 982 177 777 542 144 786 104 63 219 618 405 774 674 742 572 647 61 129 402 618 489 401 229 859 307 136 217 146 59 975 239 185 981 327 135 636 205 574 411 772

JEDDAH AMMAN NEW YORK DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH BAHRAIN RIYADH WASHINGTON DC DULLES DUBAI JEDDAH CAIRO DOHA JEDDAH LONDON DUBAI BAHRAIN DOHA SOHAG RIYADH DUBAI DAMMAM MUMBAI MUSCAT DUBAI SHARJAH BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA COCHIN/MANGALORE ALEXANDRIA COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI/GOA AMMAN DUBAI BAHRAIN TUNIS BAHRAIN FRANKFURT LAHORE/PESHAWER MUMBAI AMSTERDAM/DAMMAM ISTANBUL

15:00 15:55 16:00 16:15 16:35 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 22:20 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 KAC ABY KAC UAE FDB QTR ETD GFA KAC KAC IRC MEA JZR KAC MSC KAC JZR MSR THY KNE UAE FDB

Departure Flights on Monday 6/5/2013 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 671 DUBAI 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 481 TAIF 872 DUBAI 58 DUBAI

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 09:25 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 14:15 14:30

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

QTR KAC KNE OMA KAC SVA KAC KAC RJA JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE GFA SVA JZR JZR UAL QTR FDB GFA JZR MSC JAI FDB ABY KAC OMA KAC MEA MSR DHX MSC ETD ALK UAE QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC DHX QTR KAC TAR KAC

141 673 473 646 617 501 773 741 641 238 135 304 538 128 858 216 511 184 266 982 145 64 220 134 404 571 62 120 331 648 351 403 619 171 402 308 230 860 137 301 218 60 205 373 147 411 328 283

DOHA DUBAI JEDDAH MUSCAT DOHA JEDDAH RIYADH DAMMAM AMMAN AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN ASSIUT MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH TRIVANDRUM MUSCAT COCHIN BEIRUT ALEXANDRIA BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD BAHRAIN DOHA BANGKOK/MANILA DUBAI/TUNIS DHAKA

14:55 15:05 15:30 15:40 15:45 15:45 16:00 16:30 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:20 17:40 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

stars CROSSWORD 181

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) Early this morning, your mind tends to settle on issues of security—home, family and such. You may have decided on an alarm system and a variety of options are available. You may be happier with the end result if you could talk to people that have an alarm system. Review a few reports on alarm systems before you talk to any of the owners of alarm companies. You are driven to excel in some creative expression this evening— sports, theatrics, arts and crafts, whatever. This urge to express yourself, to speak out and be heard, propels you into some wonderful interaction with others. Remember, it is important to nourish those that depend on you so that a trust in you is strong. If you made a promise, you must make good on that promise.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You have a natural aptitude for describing the most sensitive areas of the mind—a practical psychologist of the first order. Now you must use this talent in your own life. If you find your time is no longer your own, particularly if you are in your own business, work to bring a balance to the way you use your time. Your ambitions go hand in hand with your communication skills and using the mind. Someone complains of physical pain and it is important to encourage him or her to see a physician. Start a dream diary and encourage others in your family to do the same. You will find some interesting conversations along the spiritual lines today. You and a group of your friends may enjoy dinner away from home this evening.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS

1. An early form of modern jazz (originating around 1940).

4. Cocked hat with the brim turned up to form three points.

11. Make anew.

15. A flat wing-shaped process or winglike part of an organism.

16. Evergreen shrubs with intricately twisted wiry stems that in summer are smothered in small yellow flowers.

17. The twelfth month of the civil year.

18. A summary that repeats the substance of a longer discussion.

20. A manner of speaking that is natural to native speakers of a language.

21. Flat surface that rotates and pushes against air or water.

22. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

23. Any place of complete bliss and delight and peace.

24. Any plant of the genus Eryngium.

26. A state in midwestern United States.

28. Red pear-shaped tropical fruit with poisonous seeds.

30. Resembling or characteristic of or appropriate to an elegy.

34. United States historian (born in 1908).

38. Distinctive and stylish elegance.

40. (used informally) Very small.

41. A unit of power equal to 1 joule per second.

42. A gradual decline (in size or strength or power or number).

44. (Babylonian) A demigod or first man.

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

50. To go back over again, as of a route or steps.

52. Point of contact between two objects or parts.

53. Depressing in character or appearance.

55. The fifth day of the week.

56. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

57. Having or resembling a lobe or lobes.

61. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling).

65. Make use of.

68. A port city in southwestern Iran.

71. A column of light (as from a beacon).

72. A former monetary unit in Great Britain.

73. The amount of electromagnetic radiation leaving or arriving at a point on a surface.

75. An independent agency of the United States government responsible for collecting and coordinating intelligence and counterintelligence activities abroad in the national interest.

76. (Irish) Mother of the ancient Irish gods.

77. A fibrous amphibole.

78. Thickening of tissue in the motor tracts of the lateral columns and anterior horns of the spinal cord.

DOWN 1. An aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect.

2. Evergreen trees and shrubs having oily

one-seeded fruits.

3. Large burrowing rodent of South and Central America.

4. A protocol developed for the internet to get data from one network device to another.

5. An artificial language for international use that rejects rejects all existing words and is based instead on an abstract analysis of ideas.

6. Of or containing iridium.

7. A set of rules or principles or laws especially written ones.

8. The largest island of the central Ryukyu Islands.

9. The former capital and 2nd largest city of Brazil.

10. One of the most important fungi cultivated in Japan.

11. A new appraisal or evaluation.

12. A feeling of strong eagerness (usually in favor of a person or cause).

13. Fecal matter of animals.

14. A spread made chiefly from vegetable oils and used as a substitute for butter.

19. Lighted up by or as by fire or flame.

25. A draft for the amount of a dishonored draft plus the costs and charges of drafting again.

27. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

29. An informal conversation.

31. (South African) A camp defended by a circular formation of wagons.

32. Everything you own.

33. An administrative unit of government.

35. (sometimes followed by `of') Having or showing realization or perception.

36. Turn away from sin or do penitence.

37. A severe shortage (especially a shortage of food).

39. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or BB gun.

43. A fatal disease of cattle that affects the central nervous system.

45. A young unmarried woman.

47. Any of various long-legged carrioneating hawks of South and Central America.

48. A city in east central Texas.

49. A member of the Mayan people of the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico.

51. Marked by excessive enthusiasm for and intense devotion to a cause or idea.

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

58. Ruined by overcooking.

59. The circumstances and ideas of the present age.

60. Deciduous shrub of North America.

62. Very dark black.

63. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

64. Type genus of the Anatidae.

66. A large piece of fabric (as canvas) by means of which wind is used to propel a sailing vessel.

67. An unfledged or nestling hawk.

69. Step on it.

70. An associate degree in applied science.

74. A logarithmic unit of sound intensity.

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

You are intense, passionate and very personal today. You will find yourself rushing past the superficial—right to the heart of any subject. Careful, not everyone likes to have someone ask all the questions that you can ask. Communication is high and you may enjoy some good solid gossip. Home, family and security have been on your mind lately and you may find yourself teaching young people about fairness, evenhandedness, goals, roots and the importance of family. You have clearheaded and practical insight for most anything you choose to do. This is a time of good fortune when things open up in a very natural way. You may find yourself most intrigued with the things that come to your attention at this time.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) Your mind may be very clear now and your thoughts brought into sharp focus. It will be wise to create a list of things you want to accomplish. Your analytical powers are superb and you will enjoy finding new avenues of inner growth. Remembering a class which you would like to retake or review may call for you digging around to find your notes or the class book. A friend or family member may be taking this class soon—memories. Close personal friendships bring satisfaction for you. Friends, group projects and community concerns play a key role in this day. In particular, you will do well in activities that include children, young people and your home and surroundings. A choir may be made up of the above people, making beautiful sounds.

Leo (July 23-August 22) An important luncheon is successful and more enjoyable that you thought it would be. This could mean you are meeting new people or reuniting with old friends. You may find yourself more than a little eager while you are out shopping later today. Your current appreciation for just about everything may lead you to indulge too much. You will eventually make some good choices but it will take time to think through your options. An important relationship, perhaps with a young person or someone in your near environment, may come into focus this evening. You may gain a better understanding of how he or she came to believe some of the things he or she believes. This also may require some flexibility and patience on your part.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You will find that your mind and thoughts will be focused this morning. There could be a lot of pressure to make decisions and you do not like regrets. You are sensitive and may be careful before expressing yourself. After you give an answer, do not go back and forth questioning yourself. This is the perfect time to let go and trust in the positive. Periods of intense creativity enable you to go through changes and inner growth. Give yourself time to think and plan. This creative intensity may take the form of music, poetry or art. Your friends, partners and close associates mean a lot to you. You are indeed a social being and will no doubt weave this fact into your lifestyle. Let peace follow you wherever you go.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) Religion, philosophy and higher knowledge will be the base of most conversations today. You are mentally and physically willing to meet the demands that this day holds. You are helpful to all who need your assistance. You are able to be adaptable to another person’s moods and may find yourself moving to music this evening. This is a good time to begin to think of ways to expand your social circle. Networking will help you in business, but communication with neighbors and others will help enlarge your support group and give you a good foundation for the future. Social windfalls will be coming your way during this time.

Reach out to make the contacts, instead of waiting for others to come to you. Your home is a great place to relax.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Your vanity and your pride may come between clear understandings between friends today. Think before becoming too involved in some sort of bragging competition. Create a feeling of self-confidence and people will follow you anywhere. This can make a big difference when you want support in accomplishing a group project. Positive interaction with neighbors is hopeful for future gatherings. You may be thinking about a fishing trip that could supply the food for a fun backyard gathering. A young person may need your guidance this afternoon. This young person will know the right answer—you can encourage him or her to think independently. There is a chance to understand those around you and to have a special time with someone you love.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Orange is a wonderful color this spring. Look . . . The color matches most everything else you have. You may find an orange sundial or orange stepping stones or of course . . . Marigolds. Take time to present yourself to the world this morning—you will enjoy a leisure morning under the orange sun. You have a fruitful imagination that can be helpful in many circumstances, particularly with children, which means you may be babysitting this afternoon. You enjoy this because you feel that you have some act in the shaping and molding of someone’s future. This evening is a good time to relax and be with loved ones and friends. A variety of conversations help to guide your understanding and appreciation in the thinking of others.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) CAPRICORN You are ready to begin a home project or to help someone with his or her errands. Your energies continue to support you throughout the day and you may be encouraged to just relax sometime this afternoon. Your attention moves to friends or family. You could find yourself solving puzzles and problems, finding solutions, etc. You feel a love of order and law—an appreciation for responsibilities and duty. To you, problems may be valued for the lessons they represent, rather than perceived as obstacles.

Sympathy and understanding are emotional qualities that take on greater importance.

Your creative skills count this evening. You may quickly invent a method to make life easier for an elderly person tonight.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) If you attend a spiritual gathering today, you will enjoy the emotional satisfaction as well as the communication with others. After a noon meal you and a friend or neighbor may get outside to walk or bicycle. Later, being lazy is important. You may want to catch up on reading and just soak in the good energies that are present. Rest and relaxation along with the importance of some personal quiet time are good. Law, politics, education, travel, religion or perhaps a good story may be where your interest is later today. Tonight you may enjoy communicating with family members. Clear thoughts about the past may also be flowing in this day. You express your optimism to people and they in turn become optimistic.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) If you attend a spiritual gathering this morning, you will find some in-depth discussions that may cause you to think about your beliefs and urge your contribution in a group discussion. You may find yourself enjoying an afternoon book signing, art show or a small gathering of friends. You will have a grasp for the abstract and will be able to express your views to others. Obtaining and exchanging information takes on more emotional significance for you. This could all mean a very busy day involved in some convention or group session.

Being more involved with neighbors this evening satisfies that need to be up-to-date with the happenings around you. Others could seek you out for your insight and understanding concerning an animal.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

MONDAY, MAY 6, 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

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

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

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

Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677

MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

lifestyle

Knightley says oui to rocker Righton

Aerosmith cancels Jakarta concert U

S rock band Aerosmith has cancelled a concert scheduled this week in Jakarta on safety concerns, a concert promoter said yesterday, following threats to bomb the Myanmar embassy in the Indonesian capital. “We received the official confirmation yesterday from the Aerosmith management cancelling the May 11 concert in Jakarta over safety concerns,” said Sarah Deshita, spokeswoman for co-promoter Ismaya Live.

Shakira

worries about regaining figure

“They gave no specific reasons for the cancellation. We are sad and disappointed over the decision. We did all we could to ensure security was tight and even engaged the marines but it’s not enough,” she told AFP. She said 85 percent of the 15,000 tickets to the concert had been sold. The band had apologized in the letter of cancellation, which was posted on the promoter’s website.

“Aersomith have been forced to cancel concert... due to

safety concerns,” the statement said. “We want to apologise to all our fans who were expecting to see us and hope that one day we can make it up to them,” it added.

Officials on Friday said two Indonesians have been detained over a plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta as radicals rallying in the city called for “jihad in Myanmar” to avenge the death of Muslims in clashes with Buddhists.

A

French mayor says Oscar-nominated actress Keira Knightley has said “oui” to rocker James Righton in a small wedding ceremony in southern France. Aime Navello said yesterday that the couple followed French tradition when he married them at the Mazan town hall Saturday. Navello read the service in French and the couple responded in French and English. He said about 10 people were present. Righton is keyboard player for the rock group Klaxons. He and Knightley got engaged a year ago. Knightley first won notice for her role as a soccer-playing teenager in “Bend It Like Beckham.” She went on to star in the first three “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies and was nominated for an Oscar for playing Elizabeth Bennet in an adaptation of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice.”

Payne splits from Peazer

L

iam Payne has split from his long-term girlfriend Danielle Peazer. The One Direction heart throb had been in a relationship with the dancer-and-model since the met on ‘The X Factor’ UK in 2010, but his increasing work load put a strain on their romance. This comes after they broke up in September because of the difficulties of a long-distance relationship, although they reconciled in December before mutually agreeing it was over after a two-hour chat last month. An insider revealed: “They have been trying for months to make it work but it just hasn’t.

“They had a big chat last month and decided

there wasn’t any point dragging it out. “Liam’s on tour until November and Danielle’s very busy so they basically never see each other.” The break up is said to be “amicable” and there is still a possibility she could feature in One Direction’s upcoming 3D film. The source told The Sun on Sunday newspaper: “It was extremely amicable ... which is good because there’s a strong chance Danielle will still be in the lads’ upcoming 3D film. “The boys are still filming it and editing is going to go right down to the wire. “But she’s been there for most of the filming so it’ll be tough to cut her out, and Liam wouldn’t want that anyway.”

Prince Harry reveals gender of William and Kate’s baby

Gemma Arterton keeps fit via Skype

P

rince Harry has reportedly revealed the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will welcome a baby boy into the world. The British royal couple are expecting their first child - due in July - and although they are remaining tight-lipped about its gender, William’s brother is said to be openly “thrilled” Kate Middleton will give birth to his first nephew. An insider told the Sunday People newspaper: “Harry has been telling everyone Wills and Kate are having a boy and how thrilled he is at the prospect of having a little nephew. “He said the whole family were excited about it. Apparently Kate has always wanted a boy ... The close inner circle all know that it’s a boy and they’re busily buying girls with a boy theme.” Kate and William are staying tight-lipped about the gender - as well as any potential baby names, although it is reported they have one “sorted”. The source added: “They’re really working hard on baby names now and think they have it sorted. “But they won’t reveal anything to anyone - not even Harry.

Of course, Harry’s been making up crazy suggestions and winding them up too.”

Saldana snooted by shooting Z

S

hakira worries about getting her pre-pregnancy figure back. The ‘Voice’ coach welcomed son, Milan, in January with soccer star Gerard Pique and while she loves being a mom, admits she has fears about losing her baby weight. She told Us Weekly magazine: “You wonder if you’ll ever get your body back. I’m still a few pounds over. But I do Zumba. Even during pregnancy, I did it almost to the end. But now with ‘The Voice’, I don’t have time. When I have a day off I want to be with Milan.” The ‘Underneath Your Clothes’ singer added she is finding motherhood tough but loves the challenge. She said: “Nobody told me it would be this hard. It takes a lot of energy but I love it. There’s a lot of joy and fear. “Being a mother is surreal. It’s a whole new experience to me, and I’m just discovering it second by second. “And having him here, it’s great, it’s a new thing, it’s another part of me and my loved one. He’s accompanying me so I don’t feel alone.”

oe Saldana finds shooting a gun “very soothing”. The ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ actress enjoys the power kick she gets from holding a lethal weapon and loves how spot on her aiming is at the shooting range. She said: “It’s very soothing. You’re releasing a lot of power. But it’s also... You’re testing yourself because you’re holding in your hand something that’s so powerful it can end anything in seconds and you want to know you are OK to handle it. “And, as a woman, I like knowing that I have a good aim.” Alongside her risque comments, Zoe - who previously dated her ‘The Words’ co-star Bradley Cooper - has attracted controversy after it was claimed she wasn’t black enough to play the late singing legend Nina Simone in an upcoming biopic. She added to InStyle magazine: “In order for me to be darker or lighter than anything, I would need to be comparing myself to that and I don’t compare myself. I am me. “There’s only one of me in this universe. Why I am I going to spend the only 60 years I have on this earth comparing myself to a blonde girl or a black woman?”

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he 27-year-old actress underwent exercise routines with a personal trainer over the internet video communications software six days a week while shooting forthcoming film ‘Byzantium’ because she can’t bear to set foot inside a gym. She said: “It’s the new thing, we’ve decided, because I was filming in Ireland. I hate working out in gyms, and I don’t like the way they make your body look.” While Gemma was keen to get in shape for the movie - in which she plays Clara, a vampire prostitute and mother who is protective of her daughter, played by Saoirse Ronan - she insists too many “intelligent actresses” are slimming down in excess. She added to Marie Claire magazine: “I saw an actress I know and she’s lost so much weight. She’s gone from a size 12 to a size four within two months. “There are so many good, intelligent actresses doing this, and I just think, ‘Why does that go hand in hand with the acting profession?’ It shouldn’t. It lets the side down. It lets down team woman.”

Minaj is planning children

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icki Minaj wants to have kids “in five years”.

The ‘Super Bass’ hitmaker - who is dating rapper Safaree ‘SB’ Samuels - loves the idea of motherhood and would like to have two or three little ones in the future. She said: “In five years, perhaps, I’d like to have children. I love children - I’m a children freak. I’d like two, maybe three.” While the 30-year-old singer has set her sights on starting a family, she is also keen to ensure she career as a musician continues and she has more hits. She explained to Marie Claire magazine: “I can’t predict my life, but there’s always more left to achieve. More albums, outdoing your own expectations, but, most of all, proving to yourself that no one else can box in.” Despite the ‘Starships’ singer’s ambition, she enjoys having some time off now and again, when she stays in and looks “really horrible”. —Agencies

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LIFESTYLE F e a t u r e s

This July 13, 2010 shows Stephanie Lesire, of Albany, smelling a rose as she walks through the International Rose Test Garden in Portland, Ore. —AP photos

People perusing books in the Rose Room at Powell’s Bookstore in downtown Portland.

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wo decades ago, the city of Portland’s Yellow Bike Project put hundreds of canary-colored two-wheelers on the streets for public use. It was an earnest effort, utterly without bashfulness or diffidence. Then, of course, human nature took over and the bikes were variously vandalized, stolen whole or chopped up and sold for parts.

Today - earnest, still - the city is making plans to relaunch a version of the bike-share program. In the meantime, you’ll have to shell out as much as $25 per day to wheel around Stumptown (one of Portland’s nicknames, evoking a bygone era of rapid land development and tree-cutting), but don’t fear. There’s much to do on the cheap in a city where living thrifty is living well.

A large pile of carrots on display at the farmers market.

A window-shopper looking at merchandise on display in a store on Hawthorne Boulevard.

Hotel, a reputed brothel. The highlight is the antique 30foot (9-meter) cherry wood bar, made in the late 1800s and shipped around most of two continents to arrive in the Pacific Northwest.

Stuff other people used to own Buffalo Exchange, the used clothing store chain? At THOSE prices? Never. The most Portland part of Portland,

Farmers markets For the daring, the curious and the shameless, Portland’s farmers markets mean one thing: Free tastes. Perhaps it’s the Rogue River Blue Cheese at the Thursday market in Northwest. Or perhaps the carnivores in your group will make for the beef and chicken of Viridian Farms, darlings of the local restaurant scene. Samples of almost everything are made bite-sized and jammed on a toothpick, and markets can be found nearly every day of the week, anchored by the massive Saturday Market downtown. For a city that prizes that which is made nearby and without a lot of chemical help, the farmers markets spread through all four quadrants are the heart of Portland.

Powell’s city of books Step back into the foggy mists of yesteryear - OK, maybe just a decade or two - when bookstores were still a viable enterprise. If Portland, as television’s “Portlandia” suggests, does keep alive the dream of the ‘90s, then Powell’s is its muse. People-watch, browse away or curl up in one of the comfy chairs: The staff is too busy, the store too massive to worry about lingering readers. Color-coded by room, the block-long bookstore is a mainstay on tourism guides, and with good reason. It’s a haven for used, out-of-print, rare or autographed books. And if you end up looking for that collection of Salman Rushdie essays on post-colonialism, they probably know which stack and shelf.

The farmers market in Portland, Ore.

actually part of the Tualatin Mountains. And the park does its own self-preservation: The silt-basalt soil creates a foundation that’s too unstable to build on, thwarting any number of development plans. Only a short drive away is Washington Park, home to the International Rose Test Garden, with more than 10,000 rose plants. Peak blooming season is late spring through early fall and there’s a great view of the city from the garden on clear days.

Forest park Five thousand acres (2,023 hectares) of rolling hills, fire lanes and the simple stillness of the Oregon wild are within city limits, less than a 10-minute drive from downtown Portland. Sure, you’ll see committed joggers pounding up hills, rain or shine, but the park is best enjoyed by a slow amble up the Wildwood trail, with creeks bubbling and chipmunks chittering under a shady conifer canopy. There are pioneer ghost stories, a species of cutthroat trout only found here and occasionally stunning views from what is

This undated image provided by Travel Portland shows the Pioneer Courthouse in Portland, Ore., lit up at night during a free movie screening event called Flicks on the Bricks.

Old west With all the flannel, unicycles and pour-over coffee (made by hand instead of a machine), it’s easy to forget that Portland was once an Old West town, a fact reflected in its architecture if you’re willing to look hard enough. The best example is the Pioneer Courthouse downtown, the oldest federal building in the Pacific Northwest. The dark wood of its halls, constructed in 1869, make it a quiet refuge from the busy, adjacent courthouse square. Six blocks east bring you to The Lotus, opened as a “soda bar” during Prohibition (yeah, right) built underneath the Lotus

the one that inspires the jokes, is on Hawthorne Boulevard, where you’ll find House of Vintage, Red Light Clothing Exchange and half a dozen others. But it’s not just recycled clothing that sets this city apart. Looking for a 1920s antique black glass door knob? Hippo Hardware.

Eyeglass frames from Season Four of Mad Men? Hollywood Vintage. You won’t necessarily find the cheapest options here - because if it’s not low-cost, it is, at least, weirdly authentic. But you don’t have to spend anything to take in the scene: Browsing is free and people-watching is a sport. —AP

Owners of world’s top restaurant in Spain look to mum’s cooking

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hree brothers in Spain’s northeastern Catalonia region who snatched the title for the world’s best restaurant, the Celler de Can Roca, humbly trace their inspiration to their mum’s cooking. The Roca brothers, Joan, Jordi, and Josep, had already wowed critics and diners worldwide with a cutting edge technique and cooking rooted in Spanish and Catalan traditions, earning them three Michelin stars. But four years after fellow Catalan restaurant El Bulli, since closed, was recognized as the best in the world, their Celler de Can Roca this week took the same spot in a vote of food critics and industry leaders organized by British magazine Restaurant.

“The best restaurant in the world does not exist, each one has its own thing, so you have to look at it with a bit of perspective,” said Joan Roca, the 49year-old chef who founded Celler 26 years ago, in an interview with AFP after returning from the awards in London.

Joan has worked for the past 16 years with his brothers, 35-year-old pastry and desert chef Jordi, who is renowned for surrealist culinary creations, and 47year-old Josep, chief sommelier in charge of a cellar of 35,000 bottles sheltering behind a facade of wooden drinks crates.

The three make a “formidable team”, Restaurant magazine said. The brothers’ restaurant, with its clean lines and large glass walls, boasts a vast kitchen where 35 cooks from around the world prepare dishes for 45 diners. The tantalising menus on offer come in at 135 euros and 165 euros ($175 and $215), accompanied by drinks at 55 euros and 85

euros. But it is nestled in a working-class district of Girona just down the road from the Can Roca restaurant-bar run by their parents Josep Roca and Montserrat

Fontane, both pensioners, where the brothers first learned their trade. There, a handful of staff cook up a menu of the day for just 10 euros.

“Cooking will be good if it comes from the heart. At the end of the day what my mother does is not so different from what we do,” said Joan, wearing his

Chefs Joan Roca, Jordi Roca and Josep Roca’s mother Montserrat Fontane talks with employees of ‘El-Cellerde-Can Roca’ in the restaurant’s kitchen in Girona. —AFP

white chef’s tunic. The difference between the two establishments is the “complexity”, he said. “People come here to live experiences,” Jordi added. “It is a cuisine that aims to pay homage to this land but which is also open to dialogue with science, technologies,” he said of El Celler’s cooking, which is famously based on perfumes. In the kitchen, a glass apparatus containing earth from a nearby forest is extracting the “active aromas” for a dish of morel mushrooms.

Meanwhile pastry chef Jordi tastes each of his team’s plates before serving: tiny Bergamot orange macaroons, limescented apples, and cocoa and ginger biscuits. On his workbench you can see flasks of the perfumes the brothers use as inspiration, including the scent Shalimar de Guerlain, which produced a tea, rose and fruity mix, and a lemon perfume, which forms the base of his star desert, Lemon Cloud, made with Bergamot orange cream, lemon and madeleine cakes. “We created it thinking of children, of the family,” Jordi said.

It is this mix of culinary daring and family tradition that has won over critics worldwide.

“El Celler believes in free-style cooking, with a commitment to the avantgarde, but remaining faithful to the memory of different generations of the family’s ancestors, all dedicated to feeding people,” the contest organisers said in announcing the restaurant’s world number-one spot after two years as runners-up. “Its philosophy is one of ‘emotional cuisine’, with ingredients chosen to take diners back to childhood memories and a specific place in their past,” they said. —AFP

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Fats Domino’s Katrina-damaged grand piano restored

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CEO of ‘ABBA’ The Museum’ Mattias Hansson and the curator, Ingmarie Halling pose with items from the exhibit. — AFP

white Steinway grand piano salvaged from musician Fats Domino’s home after Hurricane Katrina has had its classic looks restored and will be the centerpiece of an exhibit in New Orleans’ French Quarter. The piano was damaged after water poured through a broken levee during the August 2005 storm, flooding Domino’s home in the Lower 9th Ward. Its restoration came through $30,000 donated to the Louisiana Museum Foundation. The largest gift of $18,000 came from Allan Slaight, a retired music producer in

In this two-picture combination, a heavily damaged Steinway grand piano is moved from the destroyed home of legendary musician Fats Domino, on March 14, 2006 after Hurricane Katrina, left, and the newly restored piano is prepared before its unveiling at the Old US Mint in the French Quarter. — AP photos

Dancing Queens rejoice: First ABBA museum to open in Sweden

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he world’s first museum dedicated to Sweden’s iconic disco group ABBA is set to open in Stockholm tomorrow, offering visitors a chance to get up close and personal with the 1970s foursome with a little help from modern technology. Fans have been eagerly awaiting the opening, with many sharing their excitement on the museum’s Facebook page: “I’ll be there,” vowed Bea Schroeer of Berlin, while Alexander Kossovsky of Saint Petersburg wrote: “Can’t wait to go!! Hurray! After all this time!!”

In Stockholm, rental bikes and cars brandishing the museum’s logo have been criss-crossing the city for weeks.

Ads have been running in newspapers and on television, and some of the band’s costumes are even on display at Stockholm’s Arlanda airport arrivals hall to promote the capital’s newest cultural institution. At “ABBA - The Museum”-a wink to the title of the 1977 film “ABBA - The Movie”-visitors can pretend to be the fifth member of the band, appearing on stage with the quartet and recording a song with them thanks to a computer simulation.

Another room dedicated to the song “Ring, Ring” features a 1970s telephone, to which only four people have the phone number: ABBA members Agnetha Faeltskog, AnniFrid (Frida) Lyngstad, Benny Andersson and Bjoern Ulvaeus.

They are expected to occasionally call to speak live with museum visitors. The group dominated the 1970s disco scene with their glitzy costumes, kitsch dance routines and catchy melodies such as “Voulez Vous”, “Dancing Queen” and “Waterloo”, the song that won the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and thrust the band onto the international scene. They have sold some 378 million albums worldwide, outdone only by Elvis Presley and the Beatles. Their popularity has continued to grow over the years, with the 1999 hit musical “Mamma Mia” and the 2008 film of the same name starring Meryl Streep bringing their music to a whole new generation of fans. ABBA aficionados are not expected to tour the museum to hear the band’s songs, which most of them know by heart, though there will of course be plenty of music on offer.

Rather, the focus will be on letting visitors “experience

how the ABBA members’ lived their lives”, museum curator Ingmarie Halling, who was the band’s stylist from 1976 to 1980, told AFP in a recent interview. The four will recount their stories in the museum’s audio guide. All the band members participated in the creation of the museum, donating items and working closely with Halling. Ulvaeus, 68, has been the most active, serving as financial guarantor for the project and as chairman of the board. “I had my doubts about becoming a museum relic before my death... but now I understand that... together we created a lot,” he told reporters in October when plans for the museum were revealed.

“This is a Cinderella story worth telling.”In an interview with Kupe magazine this month, he added: “I said to myself: why not? Who is better placed to make this come true, if not me!” Today, the museum will be unveiled to the press and officially opened by Ulvaeus, Lyngstad and Anderssonor Bjoern, Frida and Benny, as they’re better known. The doors will open to the public from tomorrow. Agnetha Faeltskog told Swedish television SVT recently that she will be in London promoting her latest solo album and will not attend the opening. ABBA last appeared on stage in 1982, and split a year later. While they have appeared in public together on rare occasions, they have never reunited to perform as a group, and have vowed that won’t ever happen.” There is simply no motivation to regroup. Money is not a factor and we would like people to remember us as we were,” Ulvaeus said in a 2008 interview. The museum will feature five floors of band memorabilia, including costumes, instruments, gold records and recreations of their recording studios and dressing rooms. The state-of-the-art museum, located on Stockholm’s leafy island of Djurgaarden, will be cashless, requiring visitors to pay for purchases by credit or debit card. “‘Money, Money, Money’ is what the headlines are going to read,” laughed Ulvaeus in an interview with daily Aftonbladet, citing the title of one of the band’s biggest hits. The museum says it expects to attract a quarter of a million visitors in 2013, who it hopes will “walk in and dance out”. — AFP

Crosby, Stills and Nash get jazzy with Marsalis

A white Steinway grand piano is salvaged from the flooded Lower 9th Ward home of legendary musician Fats Domino after Hurricane Katrina.

Workers set up a white Steinway grand piano, salvaged from the flooded Lower 9th Ward home of legendary musician Fats Domino.

Miami. Other donations came from Sir Paul McCartney, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Tipitina’s Foundation.

Greg Lambousy, director of collections for the Louisiana State Museum, described the restoration of Domino’s piano as “painstaking” and a years-long process. “It was in really bad shape,” he said. “It had been submerged in water for

weeks.” The piano was unveiled Thursday at the Old US Mint, now a museum in the French Quarter. It will be part of the Louisiana State Museum’s music exhibition opening in 2014 but separately will go on display at the Mint in June.

A second Steinway piano belonging to Domino is on permanent display at the Presbytere museum in the exhibition “Living with

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rosby, Stills and Nash surprised the audience with a new look when they walked onstage dressed in dark gray Brooks Brothers suits for a benefit concert with Wynton Marsalis’ Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. “If you laugh at our suits, you’re getting thrown out of here,” quipped Graham Nash. “My first pair of grown-up shoes,” David Crosby added, without skipping a beat. “They have laces and everything.” Nash admitted to some uncertainty about whether the languages of rock and jazz “would blend” at Friday night’s concert in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theater.

But such concerns were quickly dispelled once the folk-rock trio’s trademark intricate vocal harmonies and acoustic and electric guitar parts were enhanced by the JLCO’s tight ensemble playing and skilled soloists such as saxophonists Sherman Irby, trumpeter Marcus Printup and trombonist Vincent Gardner. The jazz arrangements, mostly written by JLCO members, reimagined a dozen tunes from the Crosby, Stills and Nash songbook, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers were clearly thrilled with the results on songs such as “Love the One You’re With.”

“It’s like getting to play with the bigger kids,” Crosby said. He later added that they were having so much fun it felt “like three children being let loose in NASA.” The jazz orchestra added a chugging rhythm to “Marrakesh Express” from CSN’s 1969 debut album, while the anti-war tune “Military Madness” got a big-band swing arrangement that opened with a brassy fanfare and closed with a military-style drum roll and the trumpets playing “Taps.”

The rock trio drew inspiration from the jazz orchestra’s soloists. Stephen Stills played a hot acoustic guitar solo in “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” even quoting Beatle George Harrison’s

“Within You Without You.” And Nash couldn’t resist throwing in a harmonica solo on “Deja Vu.” Another highlight came when Marsalis, playing a muted trumpet, went to the front of the stage to play alongside Crosby and Nash on a tender, intimate trio version of Crosby’s folk ballad “Guinnevere,” which trumpeter Miles Davis covered in a 1970 recording.

Marsalis, JLCO’s music director, said he was impressed by the amount of time the rock trio spent rehearsing the complex arrangements in order to master material outside their comfort zone. “They embody the spirit of collaboration because it’s easy to just say, ‘Here, I’m used to doing stuff a certain way and you have to do it this way,’” Marsalis told the audience. “They came here and were dealing with swing grooves, all kinds of changes, and things coming in on different beats.” Marc Quinones of the Allman Brothers Band made a guest appearance to play Latin percussion on several numbers.

Crosby’s son, James Raymond, who plays keyboards in the CSN band, conducted the performance. On Wednesday, Crosby, Stills and Nash performed with the jazz orchestra at a private gala. The two performances were the latest in an annual series of benefit concerts with pop-rock performers to support Jazz at Lincoln Center, which in previous years has featured Eric Clapton, Willie Nelson and Paul Simon. After Crosby declared, “We need you to sing, not just rattle your jewelry,” the concert closed with a sing-along version of “Teach Your Children,” which was followed by an extended standing ovation until the trio reappeared onstage. Instead of an encore, Marsalis and other members of the JLCO returned to usher Crosby, Stills and Nash offstage in a lively New Orleans-style Second Line march. — AP

Antoinette Smith, daughter of legendary musician Fats Domino, poses with a white Steinway grand piano.

Sigourney Weaver having T

In this June 27, 2010 file photo, Stephen Stills, from left, David Crosby and Graham Nash, from the band Crosby, Stills and Nash perform in Hyde Park, London. —AP

Hurricanes: Katrina and Beyond.” The white Steinway has been restored to look as close to its original shape as possible, Lambousy said. However, neither of the Domino pianos is playable. Still, Lambousy said, they’re important to have. “Fats Domino is a seminal figure in American music, and he will have a prominent place in the coming Louisiana music exhibit,” said Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne, who oversees the Louisiana State Museum. “His beautiful grand piano, fully restored, will serve as the perfect symbol for Louisiana’s resilient nature and everevolving musical heritage.”

Born in New Orleans in 1928, the pianist, singer and songwriter sold more than 65 million records between 1950 and 1963, made Billboard’s pop chart 77 times and its rhythm and blues chart 61 times.

Katrina tore into Louisiana and Mississippi on Aug. 29, 2005.

Flooding from storm surge and broken levees washed over an estimated 80 percent of New Orleans. — AP

he good news for Sigourney Weaver was that her friend, the playwright Christopher Durang, had a juicy part for her in a new play. It wouldn’t even be too much of a stretch she’d be playing a movie star. The sticky part: This movie star was overindulgent, self-centered and unaware she’s on the decline. She also at one point dons an unflattering old Disneyinspired Snow White costume and insists her friends dress as dwarfs to complement it.

It gets worse: Durang had Weaver in mind when he wrote it. Perhaps only a friendship and collaboration that has lasted more than 40 years could result in Weaver happily playing Masha these days in the brilliant “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” on Broadway, a play likely to score at least a few Tony Award nominations next week. Weaver, 63, never hesitated about doing the role: “I didn’t,” she says laughing over coffee at a midtown cafe. “I guess I thought I was different enough from Masha, that I would be fine. And I’m very fond of her.”

The play, which played off-Broadway last year and recently made the jump to the Golden Theatre, centers on three middle-aged siblings.

Two of them - Vanya, played by David Hyde Pierce, and Sonia, portrayed by Kristine Nielsen have been sitting around their Pennsylvania home and bickering for years. The sibling who escaped, Masha, has become an insufferable movie star and has returned with a 29-year-old boy-toy - that would be Spike - to sell the house and pitch her siblings out onto the street.

“Sweetest Vanya, dearest Sonia,” Masha says to them when she arrives, looking great, of course. “How I’ve missed you. You both look the same. Older. Sadder. But the same.” Masha had initially wanted to become the American Judi Dench but got waylaid in a lucrative franchise playing a nymphomaniac serial killer and went through several husbands. “I’m talented, charming, successful - and yet they leave me. They must be insane,” she muses. Masha, whom Weaver calls a “great peacock of a person,” needs to be taken down a few pegs and it finally happens, with Weaver slowly coming to the realization that her fussy Hollywood queen act can’t last forever.

“It has to be over-the-top at the beginning.

It’s a performance that she utterly believes,” she says. “I feel like an exhausted bird. I think it takes a lot of effort to manifest that kind of persona.

When she gives it up, I think she feels better.”

Durang, by phone from his Pennsylvania home, quickly makes it clear that Masha was written with Weaver in mind - Masha’s franchise “Sexy Killer” is a joke on Weaver’s “Alien” movies - but is not based on the actress. He just hoped she’d be

Sigourney Weaver available. “I thought that if, for any reason, Sigourney was free, it would be fun to have her play this self-centered actress,” he says. “She doesn’t always get to play these grandiose roles.

She has such a sense of intelligence to her.”

Durang and Weaver met in the fall of 1971 as they entered the Yale School of Drama, he as a playwright who sometimes acted and she as an actress. They had lunch together often, and she appeared in one of his first plays “Better Dead Than Sorry.” “I found that Sigourney in my early stuff tended to be very simple with it,” Durang says.

“Sometimes it would be very funny because she would say something very sincerely as if it was the most normal thing in the world, but the

line would be shocking.” Both graduated in 1974 and two years later reunited for his one-act play “Titanic,” with Weaver playing the Captain’s daughter. When it moved off-Broadway, the hourlong work was augmented by a cabaret act per formed by Durang and Weaver, “Das Lusitania Songspiel,” which parodied plays and movies in the style of Bertolt Brecht.

The cabaret on its own became a cult hit and was revived in 1980. In 1986, when Weaver was invited to host “Saturday Night Live,” she requested that Durang co-host and they did a little of the cabaret act at the end of the show. “It is fun to have a friendship that has lasted so long,” he says. She’s also been in his play “Beyond Therapy,” and they combined to send up selfcongratulatory celebrity interviews in an Esquire story in the 1980s that has some kernels of what would later become Masha in “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.”

“He’s such a wonderful, sweet, funny man, and we hit it off right away,” says Weaver. “I’m very grateful to Chris. I always love doing his plays, I understood them, and I’ve felt he had such a distinctive voice.” That might explain why Weaver would jump at playing Masha, who says onstage at one point, with a straight face, “I feel the public doesn’t know how heartbreaking I can be. Oh, missed opportunities! Regret, regret, regret!” “It’s so light but it’s very demanding,” says Weaver of the role. “It’s a high-wire act. It’s very good for you as an actor but somewhat terrifying.” — AP

HK director Wong Kar-wai gets top French honor

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ong Kong film director Wong Kar-wai has been given France’s highest cultural honor.

Wong was named a Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius yesterday. Fabius bestowed the medal on Wong in a ceremony at the French consul-general’s official residence in the southern Chinese city. The filmmaker said the award is “in a way, a tribute to Hong Kong cinema,” and that France is cinema’s “spirit home.”

Fabius said French artist Jean Cocteau might have called Wong Kar-wai “the calligrapher of light.”

Wong’s movies include “Chungking Express” and “In The Mood For Love.” His most recent film, “The Grandmaster,” was released this year. It recounts the life story of Chinese martial arts legend Ip Man, famous for having trained Bruce Lee. — AP

Chinese film director Wong Kar Wai poses with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius in Hong Kong yesterday. — AFP

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Karen Fairchild, right, and Kimberly Schlapman, members of the band Little Big Town, perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans, Saturday. — AP photos

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Members of the Brazilian dance group Male Dembale perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.

Little Big Town, Fleetwood Mac at Jazz Fest L

ittle Big Town says that some networking they did is paying off with a chance to cross a couple of items off their “bucket list.” After playing Bayou Country SuperFest in Baton Rouge last year, group member Karen Fairchild said they talked to festival producer Quint Davis about other things they hoped to accomplish. They mentioned that they’d one day like to perform at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. Davis was in a position to help since he also produces Jazz Fest.

Known for its trademark four-part harmonies, Little Big Town performed in New Orleans on Saturday.

“Can you believe we’re opening for Fleetwood Mac?” said Kimberly Schlapman, another group member. “We’ve wanted to play Jazz Fest forever and now we’re opening for Fleetwood Mac and can mark off two big things from our list.” Schlapman said early in their career they had the chance to meet Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, which she described as an “amazing harmony band.”

“Being able to share a stage with them is one of our greatest wishes,” she said. Fairchild said they’ve watched Jazz Fest from afar for years. “The who’s who of music shows up year after year at the festival. Who wouldn’t want to play there?” Flags flying amid a cool breeze, music fans packed the festival grounds by the stage where Little Big Town and Fleetwood Mac performed. Some put down tarps over the muddy infield. Others sat in chairs, wore rubber boots or stood barefoot to hear the bands. “Once you’re in it, it kind of feels good,” said Mary Kathryn Gatlin, of Greenville, S.C., who danced shoeless in the mud, the muck covering her feet past the ankles.

Gatlin was taking in her first Jazz Fest with her sister, Frances Gatlin. The pair had been at the stage since noon, about an hour after the gates opened. “We love country, bluegrass, just easy-listening music that’s fun to dance to,” Gatlin said. Many danced as Fleetwood Mac per formed such hits as “Dreams,” “Rhiannon,” “Gypsy,” “Tusk” and “Landslide,”

recently won two Academy of Country Music awards for their latest album “Tornado.” They go on tour with Keith Urban in July. “I like them,” said Monique Powell, of Lafayette.

“They’ve got three big hits out right now, ‘Tornado,’ ‘Pontoon,’ and ‘Little White Church.’

We came in to hear Maroon 5 yesterday. This is just a bonus.”

Powell and her friend, Matt Chaisson, also of Lafayette, said Saturday’s sunny weather made the trip worthwhile. “Even though it’s nasty out here with all the mud, we’re making the best of it,” she said, adding that she should have packed her rain boots. “I should know better,” she said, laughing. “I’m from here!” The festival ends Sunday, with closing performances by Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue,

Little Big Town performs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans. which drew huge roars from the crowd when Stevie Nicks introduced it. Nicks also delivered her tribute to the host city, singing a portion of her song, “New Orleans,” which she said she wrote after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. “I wanna get a room in New Orleans, I wanna sing in the streets of the French Quarter,” she sang. The band also performed a new song, “Sad Angel,” testing it out with the crowd. Toward the end of their set, they played an old favorite, “Go Your Own Way ” at the end of which

After ratings drop; Cites Lopez in Tweet

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drenched by rain in previous days. Despite the mud, the field in front of the festival’s largest stage was packed hours before Fleetwood Mac’s performance. Little Big Town’s Fairchild said she hoped their festival appearance would help boost their fan base.

“This is a great chance for longtime fans to come out and see our set and a chance for us to discover and be introduced to new fans,” she said. Phillip Sweet and Jimi Westbrook make up the rest of Little Big Town, which

Willie Nelson performs at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in New Orleans.

Aaron Neville, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, and Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra with special guest Dee Dee Bridgewater. — AP

Idol contestant Sanchez is not idle post-show

Minaj rips Carey

Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey s the ratings for “American Idol” fall, it seems the animosity between “Idol” judges Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey increases. Minaj ripped open the scab on her feud with Carey on Thursday, referring to her television cohort as “insecure” and “bitter,” after Carey tweaked Minaj over her lack of No. 1 singles on Wednesday night’s “Idol.” The spat was also revived, coincidentally or not, after hitting a Wednesday night low in the advertiser-coveted 18-49 demographic.

The latest chapter in Nicki and Mariah’s Big Book of Suspect Controversies was written during Wednesday night’s episode, when Carey took a not-terribly-veiled poke at Minaj while critiquing a contestant.

“Again, back to the Billboard Hot 100, No. 1 song, which you just performed - which is difficult to get; not everybody has that,” Carey cracked, with her talons extended in Minaj’s general direction.

Responding to a post on gossip website PerezHilton on Thursday morning - which declared “Mariah Carey BURNS Nicki Minaj on ‘Idol’” - “Starships” singer Minaj tweeted to the site’s namesake, “Bwaha! Burn? Shes sad i tied her record for Hot 100 entries in only 3 years of being in the game. Yep, a black female rapper @perezhilton.”

And then it got real - or manufactured, depending on one’s viewpoint - as Minaj wrote Carey off as insecure and bitter. “What u SHOULD be doing is asking why a woman SO successful at her age, is still so INSECURE, and bitter @perezhilton,” Minaj tweeted.

So there you have it: Mariah Carey is insecure and bitter.

Also, according to Nicki Minaj, Perez Hilton apparently has a messy backside. Minaj also used former “American Idol” judge Jennifer Lopez who producers reportedly tried to woo back to the show, in light of this season’s low ratings - as a crowbar with which to further bludgeon Carey’s dented ego. “All dem #1s but JLo phone ringin? Lol. I guess having a personality, being a secure woman, and giving genuine critique still trumps that,” Minaj wrote. — Reuters

Buckingham shouted to the crowd, “New Orleans, we love you!”

They left the stage briefly before returning for an encore performance of “The World Keep On Turning,” a song from their self-titled first album released in 1968 and “Don’t Stop.” Other Saturday headliners included Phoenix, Frank Ocean, Los Lobos, Terence Blanchard, Davell Crawford and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band.

Sunshine and blue skies were welcomed by fans of the outdoor festival, which had been

etite powerhouse Jessica Sanchez enjoyed singing ballads on last season’s “American Idol,” where she placed second. But the 17-year-old says ballads aren’t her only interest: Sanchez is hoping to capture a new - and younger - audience with her debut album, “Me, You & the Music,” released this week. “People don’t know me as the Jessica that I want to show. They know me as balladeer Jessica, which is shy, sweet, just like standing-there Jessica,” she said. “And now I have to really make a mark and show people that I have fun and I’m 17 and I’m ready to be out there and just, you know, be young.”

Sanchez lost to bluesy guitar player Phillip Phillips on the 11th season of the Fox singing competition, but many doors have since opened for the California native. In a recent interview with The Associated Press, the singer discussed life after “Idol,” her debut album, performing with Ne-Yo and landing a guest role on “Glee.”

AP: Talk about mixing the sound that helped you excel on “Idol” with a more playful one on your album.

Sanchez: Music, it just runs in my blood and I love music. So I’m trying to bring the tone of my voice and trying to mix it with the genre, the generation of music now.

So that you get the feel of the real voice, the real grittiness that you got back in the day, and bring it to the pop-club mix.

AP: What was it like when you returned to the “Idol” stage recently to perform with Ne-Yo? Sanchez: Seeing the stage, it was like my second home,

and it’s like I’ve been away from home for so long. That’s where I experienced everything - the stress, the love, the tears, everything with the other nine people that I spent the year with. And it all came back to me and it hit me and I was like, ‘I don’t want to be here right now!’ I was like tearing up and everything, but it was so much fun, and it was a big difference going onstage and performing with Ne-Yo. AP: What were your first thoughts when you were offered a role on “Glee”?

Sanchez: Oh, I freaked out. Ryan Murphy called me in for a meeting ... and he asked me, ‘Have you ever acted before?’ And I said, ‘No. I’ve never acted before. I’m not going to lie to you, I’ve never acted.’ I walked out and then a couple days later I get a call from my manager and she said that ‘he wants you to be in the show,’ and I’m like, ‘What? I’ve never acted before. That’s crazy!’ But ever since then, and that was like right after (‘Idol’), I’ve been taking acting classes and I’ve been really, really working on it. So hopefully it all pays off.

AP: You’re of Mexican and Filipino descent. What’s your fan following like in those countries?

Sanchez: Being on the show I had so much support from the Filipino crowd and the Latin crowd. Going to the Philippines was insane. I am like J.Lo over there! Like, I got off the plane and (security) were like, ‘No, you have to come over here.’ And I had to stay in a room because people were trying to take pictures, there was paparazzi. I was like, ‘What the heck? This is weird.’

Singaporean singer JJ Lin, right, US actor Jaden Smith, second right, and their trade copartners, from center to left, Moises Arias, Mateo Arias and Brandon Chang pose for the media during a promotion event of their casual wear in Taipei, Taiwan, yesterday.

(Left) US actor and MSFTS REP brand founder Jaden Smith sings. —AP photos

AP: As a young person in the entertainment industry, do you worry about falling into the wrong crowd or getting involved with drugs or partying?

Sanchez: I’ve had bad influences. I’ve had friends that backstabbed me. I’ve had no friends at all at certain times. I mean, I’ve been offered substances of drugs and I just told myself it’s not worth it because in the future I have so many bright things ahead of me. ... I’ve always said ‘no’ and I’ve always stuck my mind to family, school, music and just what I love and what’s positive. — AP

Dancing Queens rejoice: first ABBA museum to open in Sweden

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MONDAY, MAY 6, 2013

People look at an art installation displayed during a “Le Vieux Port entre flammes et flots” (The Old-Port, between flames and waves) lighting night on May 3, 2013, at the Port of Marseille as part of the MarseilleProvence 2013 European capital of culture. The entire Vieux-Port will be under the spell, illuminated as if by candles and presenting a mobile sequence of living flames on both harbor and quayside.—AFP

Soutine, Cezanne to star at New York auctions W

orks by Soutine, Cezanne, Picasso and Modigliani were expected to shine this week at red-hot spring auctions of Impressionist and Modern art in New York. Rivals Christie’s and Sotheby’s say the market, long recovered from the

“Les Pommes” by Paul Cezanne is on display during a preview of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York.

tomorrow, with an estimated value of $165 million. “Les Pommes,” a landmark still life of apples on a table, is estimated to fetch between $25-35 million.

“Les Pommes is one of Cezanne’s most perfect still lifes” said Charles Moffett, vice chairman of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art. “These moving compositions, which explore the paradoxes of forms in space, inspired the Cubism of Picasso and Braque and signal the birth of modern art.” Modigliani’s “L’Amazone,” estimated at $20-30 million, was painted early in his career in 1909 and shows the glamorous Baroness Marguerite de Hasse de Villers.

The works are from the collection of philanthropists Alex and Elisabeth Lewyt and will fund a foundation set up in their honor, with a focus on animal welfare and others of their favored causes. Picasso’s statue “Sylvette,” estimated at $12-18 million, is expected to get attention, given what Simon Shaw, head of the Impressionist and Modern department, called the “increasing sophistication of sculptures buyers.” It’s Picasso’s interpretation of his young

neighbor in Vallauris, in the south of France, in 1954 and is made of metal.

Sotheby’s will also be selling three Rodin bronzes, including a version of “Le Penseur,” or “The Thinker,” estimated at $8-12 million. The Christie’s sale on Wednesday will be led by Soutine’s “Le Petit Patissier,” (“The Little Pastry Chef”), estimated at $16-22 million, and Andre Derain’s 1905 “Portrait de Madame Matisse au kimono,” estimated at $15-20 million. Christie’s says it hopes Soutine’s pastry chef, the sixth of a renowned series, will set an auction record for the Russian-born French artist. Derain’s painting of Matisse’s wife is “the most important portrait” ever auctioned by the cofounder of Fauvism, said Brooke Lampley, head of the Impressionist and Modern department at Christie’s.

“To have a large-scale portrait of this exceptional caliber and with such a celebrated muse as its subject makes this an unparalleled collecting opportunity for fine art connoisseurs worldwide,” she said. Christie’s will feature some 50 works, including 11 Picassos, and Chagall’s unusual “Three Acrobats.” —AFP

“Buste d’homme” by Pablo Picasso is on display.

“Sylvette”

“L’Amazone” by Amedeo Modigliani is on display during a preview of Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art sales in New York. post-2008 financial crisis slump, is in better than buoyant mood. Last year, Sotheby’s Modern and Impressionist auction notched up a record-setting $119.9 million sale of a version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.” This time, the main stars are expected to be Paul Cezanne’s “Les Pommes,” along with Amedeo Modigliani’s “L’Amazone,” and sculptures by Rodin and Picasso.

A total of 70 works are up for sale

“Sylvette” by Pablo Picasso is on display.

“Le Penseur” by Auguste Rodin is on display. —AFP photos