CR IP TI ON BS SU
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
Wave of attacks kills at least 86 in Iraq
Obama hosts Myanmar leader in symbolic White House visit
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Yahoo takes big leap with $1.1bn deal for Tumblr
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More heads roll in oil sector shakeup Amir says govt to attend next Assembly session
Max 41º Min 24º High Tide 08:29 & 20:40 Low Tide 01:44 & 14:50
By B Izzak
NABI SHEET, Lebanon: Lebanese mourners carry the coffin of Hezbollah fighter Hassan Faisal Shuker, 18, who was killed in a battle against Syrian rebels in the Syrian town of Qusair, during his funeral procession in his hometown in the eastern Bekaa valley yesterday. — AP
Hezbollah suffers big losses in Syria AMMAN/BEIRUT: About 30 Lebanese Hezbollah fighters and 20 Syrian soldiers and militiamen loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad have been killed in the fiercest fighting this year in the rebel stronghold of Qusair, Syrian activists said yesterday. Sunday’s reported death toll was the highest for Hezbollah in a single day’s conflict in Syria, highlighting the increasing intervention by the guerrilla group originally set up by Iran in the 1980s to fight Israeli occupation troops in south Lebanon. If confirmed, the Hezbollah losses also reflect the extent to which Syria is becoming a proxy conflict between Shiite Iran and Gulf Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which back Assad’s mostly Sunni enemies. Western countries and Russia, an ally of Damascus, back opposing sides in this regional free-for-all which is also sucking in Israel. Three times this year Israeli planes have bombed presumed Iranian weapons destined for Hezbollah. Syrian opposition sources and state media gave widely differing accounts of Sunday’s ferocious clashes in Qusair, long used by rebels as a supply route from the nearby Lebanese border to the provincial capital Homs. Hezbollah has not commented but in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley yesterday, several funeral processions could be seen. Pictures of dead fighters were plastered on to cars and mourners waved yellow Hezbollah flags. Several ambulances were seen on the main Bekaa Valley highway and residents said hospitals had appealed for blood to treat the wounded brought back to Lebanon. The air and tank assault on the strategic town of 30,000 people appeared to be part of a campaign by Assad’s forces to consolidate their grip on Damascus Continued on Page 13
KUWAIT: State-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) yesterday made the biggest ever shakeup in the top positions of its eight subsidiaries and a number of leading posts in KPC itself. The major restructuring replaced the managing directors of all the eight subsidiaries of KPC and appointed new executives for companies like Kuwait Oil Co (KOC), the oil production arm of KPC, Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC), which operates the three refineries for Kuwait, and others. Under the move, KOC managing director Sami AlRasheed, the most veteran oil executive, was among top oil officials who lost their jobs. He was replaced by Hashem Hashem. KNPC managing director Fahad AlAdwah was also among those who were forced to retire and was replaced by Mohammad Al-Mutairi. Maha Mulla Al-Tarkait, the managing director of Petrochemicals Industries Co (PIC), also lost her job to Asaad Al-Saad. Tarkait and several other leading officials at PIC were suspended on Thursday over the $2.2 billion penalty payment to US’ Dow Chemical and the whole issue was referred to the public prosecution. The latest appointments come after the Cabinet on Thursday dismissed KPC chief executive officer Farouq Al-Zanki and appointed Nezar Al-Adasani to replace him. KPC insisted the decisions were not linked to the political crisis over Dow but aim at restructuring the oil sector to be able to cope with current and future challenges and to inject fresh blood in the sector by giving an opportunity to the second generation of executives. KPC also introduced a new system under which a chairman and a managing director are appointed for each oil company instead of a managing director alone. Separately, National Assembly Apeaker Ali Al-Rashed said yesterday that HH the Amir told a group of MPs that the government will attend the May 28 parliamentary session after boycotting two sessions in protest against grillings. Rashed was speaking after he led a 17strong parliamentary team in a meeting with the Amir which reviewed local developments. Continued on Page 13
Israel calls off UNESCO mission to Jerusalem JERUSALEM: Israel said it called off a United Nations investigative mission to Jerusalem’s Old City due to start yesterday because of Palestinian efforts to politicise the visit, as the UN said it was postponed. “Israel has cancelled the delegation,” a foreign ministry official told AFP. “The Palestinians were not respecting the understandings. The visit was supposed to be professional, (but) they were taking measures that showed they were politicising the event and not letting the delegation focus on professional sides of it,” the official said. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), however, said the mission had only been postponed. “The mission is not cancelled, it’s been postponed. There’s no new date for it yet, and I’ve got no other details to give. The mission hasn’t yet arrived,” spokeswoman Sue Williams told AFP. Israel in April agreed that UNESCO could assess the state of the Old City of Jerusalem, the first such monitoring mission since 2004, following pressure from Jordan and the Palestinians, who
became members of the organisation in 2011. But ahead of the start of the delegation’s work, the Palestinians were trying to “politicise” it, Israel said, contrary to understandings reached by the sides, and to change the action plan UNESCO decided upon in 2010. “Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki recently said they considered the mission a ‘commission of inquiry,’” the official said, “and said they would discuss political issues with the mission.” “The Palestinians are also pushing for the delegation to visit the Temple Mount,” which is revered as Judaism’s most sacred place, said the official, using the Israeli term for the complex known to Muslims as Al-Haram Al-Sharif that houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Malki said the Palestinian Authority had expected Israel’s move to block the mission. “We weren’t surprised by this decision because we believed that Israel’s agreement to (allow the mission) was not convincing,” he said. Cultural and religious heritage is a highly politicised issue for Israel and the Palestinians. — AFP
CAIRO: An Egyptian man walks past a shop that sells alcohol on May 16, 2013. — AFP
Egypt faces pressure to end alcohol sales CAIRO: Egypt’s liquor stores are under growing pressure to stop selling alcohol, they say, not from the country’s Islamist government, but from society itself. The shelves of Amir Aziz’s central Cairo premises are stacked with beer, wine and spirits, but they are invisible from the street. Aziz has covered the window with metal sheets to avoid angering conservative
Cairo residents. Like many liquor store owners in Egypt, Aziz says the mood has changed drastically since the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak and brought Islamists to power. “There are no restrictions from the government on the sale of alcohol,” Aziz told AFP. “It’s the people who are giving us trouble.” Continued on Page 13
in the
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KAC flight makes emergency landing KUWAIT: The pilot of a Kuwait Airways aircraft asked Cairo International Airport for permission to make an emergency landing because of a cracked window. The pilot dumped the fuel and landed safely. Meanwhile, chaos dominated the arrivals hall at Kuwait International Airport because of large crowds due to a malfunction in the passport office. Kuwait Airways has signed a deal with Airbus to buy 15 A320neo and 10 A350-900 planes with options for 10 more, five from each category. KAC, a state-owned company that is undergoing privatisation, has received the government’s approval for the deal - which is aimed at replacing the ageing fleet of the state’s national carrier. In addition to modernising its fleet, the loss-making company wants to make the airline profitable before offering a local or foreign investor a 40 percent stake. Kuwait Airways has posted losses in all but one of the past 21 years, amounting to more than $2.7 billion, which have been covered by the government.
US denounces ‘rise’ in anti-Muslim sentiment WASHINGTON: The United States yesterday denounced what it called a spike in anti-Islamic sentiment in Europe and Asia, pointing to restrictions and violence against Muslims including the faith’s minority sects. Releasing a wide-ranging annual report on religious freedom, Secretary of State John Kerry also voiced alarm at what he called rising antiJewish sentiment. The State Department report, which covered 2012, said that “Anti-Muslim rhetoric and actions were clearly on the rise - particularly in Europe and Asia.” In Myanmar, officials allegedly fanned deadly anti-Muslim violence in Rakhine state while in China, authorities showed less tolerance toward the mostly Muslim Uighur community and Tibetans, the report said. It said that Muslims also faced new restrictions in 2012 in countries ranging from Belgium, which banned face-covering religious attire in classrooms, to India where schools in Mangalore restricted headscarves.
Saudis, Manila sign deal to protect maids MANILA: The Philippines said yesterday it had signed a historic agreement with Saudi Arabia that would protect thousands of Filipina maids from being exploited in the Middle Eastern kingdom. The agreement guarantees Filipina maids benefits like a day off each week while preventing their hiring costs from being deducted from their salary among other safeguards, said Labour Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz in a statement. “We are very confident that cases of abuse will be less after this agreement takes effect because the agreement ensures fair and humane treatment of our HSWs (home service workers),” she said. She estimated that 60,000 domestic helpers from among the 670,000 Filipino workers in Saudi Arabia would benefit from the accord which would also attract more Filipinas to work in Saudi Arabia. Under the agreement, Saudi Arabia is committed to set up a 24-hour hotline for labour dispute resolution, the department said.
Vendor in Riyadh dies after self-immolation RIYADH: A street vendor died in Saudi Arabia after setting himself on fire in protest at having his goods confiscated by police, human rights activists reported yesterday. The vendor, Mussa Ahmad Al-Harissi, “tried to end his life on Wednesday evening by pouring petrol over himself and setting himself alight,” the activists said on condition of anonymity. He was protesting the seizure of the fruit and vegetables he was selling without a licence at the Manfuha market in southern Riyadh, witnesses said. He was admitted to the King Saud medical complex in the capital, but died a day later. Harissi’s family has refused to collect his body while they wait for an explanation from the authorities, several sources said. It is unclear is the man was a Saudi or of Yemeni origin. Harissi’s death is reminiscent of that of Mohamed Bou Azizi, the Tunisian vegetable seller who set himself on fire in Sidi Bouzid in Tunisia in Dec 2010.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
LOCAL
Zain voted most famous Arab brand worldwide
KUWAIT: HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received the outgoing ambassador of the Philippines to Kuwait Shulan Primavera on concluding his tenure in Kuwait.
Traffic campaign will continue: Gen Al-Ali Complaints on citations welcome KUWAIT: The General Traffic Department welcomes any complaints forwarded by Kuwaitis or foreigners living in Kuwait regarding traffic tickets issued during the ongoing crackdowns against traffic violations. This was revealed by Undersecretar y Assistant for the Traffic Department in the Interior Ministry, Major General Abdulfattah Al-Ali, who insisted at the same time that a complaint would not be enough to cancel a ticket that has been issued. Maj Gen Al-Ali made these statements during a meeting with owners of offices running
taxis. These owners felt that the recent campaigns have been targeting their vehicles. “The goal behind the ongoing campaign is to enforce the law on the streets,” the senior official said, adding that the crackdowns have revealed that several taxi drivers were involved in illegal activities in which they were using their vehicles. According to Maj Gen Al-Ali, there are nearly 8,000 taxis in Kuwait, operated by around 500 companies. He explained that violations committed by taxi drivers and detected during the
campaigns included failure to produce proper licenses, as well as breaking traffic laws, especially with regards to blocking the traffic. Recent reports indicated that nearly 500 taxis were impounded during the campaigns. Meanwhile, Maj Gen Al-Ali revealed that 26 buses, 53 tankers and 100 tractor trailers were impounded for committing various traffic violations. The senior official had indicated earlier this week that 1,258 expatriates were deported for committing ‘serious violations’ repeatedly in the first four weeks of the campaign.—Al-Qabas
AMMAN: Zain Group, a pioneer in mobile telecommunications in eight markets across the Middle East and North Africa, today announces that it has been ranked as the top Arab brand across all sectors by the Arab Society for Intellectual Property (ASIP) poll. The survey included 200 of the most recognizable Arab trademarks across all Arab countries with over one hundred thousand respondents participating in the questionnaire through ASIP’s website: www.toparabbrands.com The ASIP is a non-profit organization based in Munich established on February 23, 1987 with the purpose of enhancing and developing the protection of the Intellectual Property (IP) system in Arab countries. In November 2012, ASIP opened an online poll requesting participants to select the Arab brands they believed were the most visible and why. The five-month poll was based on an online questionnaire devised by a special committee within ASIP. The polling closed last month and ASIP collated all the information from responses into two lists: one which included the most famous Arab trademarks in general; and a second which contained the most famous Arab trademarks by sector. Zain was identified as the top of all Arab Brands. Scott Gegenheimer, Zain Group CEO said: “We have always been proud to be viewed as a communications provider from the region and for the region, so this widespread endorsement among so many other respectable brands is really gratifying. The fact that respondents from countries in which we do not even operate identified Zain as the leading Arab brand is phenomenal.” Gegenheimer continued: “We will continue to work very hard to epitomize the values of the brand and fulfill our brand promise of a wonderful world.” In order to gather as many opinions as
possible the poll was widely circulated to all communication channels via an independent website, ASIP’s website, news websites, social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn), as well as various other media and direct mailing. Business sectors, chambers of commerce and industry, associations, professional unions and universities in Arab countries were specifically targeted to participate in the poll. Respondents were allowed to log their answers anonymously and only via electronic means. Votes could also only be cast once from an individual e-mail address, limiting the chance of multiple nominations from a single person. To be included in the short-list for the rank of ‘the most famous Arab brand’, a specific minimum number of votes were set in order for a trademark to be considered famous. A trademark also had to obtain votes from at least five different countries in order to qualify. The winning trademarks were then ranked on the basis of the number of votes cast, which was all done electronically and without human intervention. The Zain brand was first launched in September 2007, becoming the master corporate brand for the Group and all its operating companies across the region. Countless advertising and promotional campaigns, matched by modern networks and quality mobile service offerings have contributed to the brand winning this and many other prestigious awards over the years. Notably one of the highlights of the brands short but successful history was the Zain branding of the two Vodafone McLaren Mercedes racing cars and teams at the recent Bahrain Gulf Air Formula 1 Grand Prix that was viewed by a worldwide audience exceeding 100 million.
Al-Adasani takes over at KPC KUWAIT: The new CEO of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC), Nizar AlAdasani, took up office on Sunday to start a new period of change and reform in the oil sector and implement the latest plans of the council of ministers. According to informed sources, AlAdasani did not hold any meeting either with leaders from the oil sector or within the corporation, which was not expected. Instead, he began getting acquainted with
the most important files of the oil sector. Sources said the new management will identify the three most important issues in the oil sector and give priority to files dealing with those issues. One of the most important issues involves privatization of some sectors, because of its implication on the employment situation in the country. Other issues involve restructuring of subsidiary companies and the future of mega projects.
26 violators held from vegetable market By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: On the instructions of Assistant Undersecretary Ministry of Interior Lt General Mahmoud Al-Dawsary, Jahra police, Sulaibiya command, conducted an inspection at the local vegetable market, which resulted in the arrest of 26 violators of the residency law. The ministry’s security department officials emphasized the importance of security in all governorates and said such inspection activities will continue. They urged citizens and expats to cooperate with security officials and not hesitate to call emergency number 112 any time they witnessed a crime or an attempt to violate the law. Meanwhile, continuing with the Kuwait Municipality’s campaign against the vendors, the Farwaniya municipality carried out several inspection drives in the governorate in Farwaniya and Khaitan. The campaign resulted in handing out 137 citations to vendors and 17 citations for illegally encroaching upon the public road. A total of 66 oil tins and two gas cylinders were confiscated in the campaign. Public relations authorities at the Kuwait municipality said that the campaign was aimed at securing the health of citizens and expats and ensuring that no unlawful practice happens on the roads.
KUWAIT: On behalf of the Minister of Education Dr Nayef Al-Hajraf, assistant undersecretary for qualitative education affairs, Bader Al-Fraih yesterday opened a special exhibition of the workshop products made by students with special needs at the special education schools.
Driver held for drug pushing By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Drug enforcement agents arrested a driver, working for a Kuwaiti family, for using the family car to distribute drugs to the addicts. Earlier, information was received that an Asian expat was involved in the drug trade was active in distribution of drugs too. Immediately, a team was formed to collect necessary information and once it was verified and officers were convinced that the man was actively involved in criminal acts, legal precautions were taken. The driver was arrested and a search of his person led to the recovery of 80 grams of heroin. He and the drugs were sent to concerned authorities.
MoE official allays fears over retirement decision
KUWAIT: In collaboration with the ministry of education, the Social Development Office at HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah’s bureau yesterday launched a special campaign to alleviate the stress students face when they sit for examinations. The campaign, headed by Dr Kholoud Al-Jouban, is held under the title of “Tests Are Fun, Not Terror”.
KUWAIT: Education Minister Dr Nayef AlHajraf promised a number of senior ministry officials that he will coordinate with the cabinet regarding their demands to exempt certain senior posts in the ministry from the government’s 30-year retirement cap, a local newspaper reported yesterday. According to a decision released by the Civil Ser vice Commission and approved by the Cabinet recently, public sector employees are required to retire immediately after they complete 30 years in office, while undersecretaries are required to retire after completing 35 years in service. The new stipulation will help the government ‘rejuvenate’ senior positions as well as in stemming the increase in unemployment rate. But the decision has reportedly caused an uproar within the Ministr y of Education, given the large number of senior officials to be affected, as well as the lack of trained employees to be promoted in their place. “While minister Al-Hajraf during a recent meeting said he understood the officials’ concerns, he expressed disappointment about the lack of efforts to prepare officials to replace seniors over the past several years,” Al-Rai reported yes-
terday. According to the report, the decision was going to make the general director’s post in the ministry “even more unappealing for qualified Kuwaitis who prefer opportunities with better financial incentives.” They warned that the entire section which oversees curriculums and teaching plans in both public and private schools in Kuwait “will end up being controlled by expatriate directors” if the retirement decision was to be applied. Moreover, the officials pointed out that the decision was in conflict with a CSC norm which set the retirement age in the Education Ministry at 65 years. In other news, minister Al-Hajraf announced that the Sabah Al-Salem University would be ready for inauguration by 2019 “after all obstacles were removed to help the work process move in the correct path.” He made this statement during a tour last Sunday around the university’s construction site in Shaddadiya, and indicated that six out of the nine faculty premises included in the project were currently under construction. “The first college set to be completed will be the Faculty of Engineering in 2016,” he added.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
LOCAL
British visa on arrival likely for Kuwaitis KUWAIT: The British government is considering waiving the need for Britain-bound Kuwaitis to collect their visa from the British embassy here and allowing them to get it at British airports, in view of a request from Kuwait. Director of Europe Department at the Foreign Ministry Ambassador Waleed Al-Khubaizi confirmed this information, saying that Kuwait and some other countries have submitted joint requests, under the “Gulf Initiative”, to the British government to relieve their citizens of the need to collect entry visas from British embassies. Al-Khubaizi stated that the British government is considering each country’s request separately, and Kuwait is
on top of the list. He said communication between the two countries on the issue will be facilitated through the guidance committee, which is working towards bringing their views together, and the second meeting will be held next month during the visit of the British Minister of State. Al-Khubaizi said the latest developments on the issue will be discussed and the mechanism through which Kuwait can provide all the vital information related to its citizens’ passports, along with other immigration information, will be agreed upon. He added that the British government was very cooperative and was working hard to accept Kuwait’s request.
Amir receives speaker, MPs KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received National Assembly Speaker Ali Fahad AlRashed, MP Mubarak Al-Khurainej and a number of MPs at Seif Palace yesterday. In a statement following the reception, Speaker Al-Rashed said “HH the Amir informed us that the government will attend the next Assembly session on May 28.” AlRashed stressed HH the Amir’s keenness to communicate with the Kuwaiti people’s repre-
sentatives in the parliament in order to listen to their various points of view, noting that the MPs are also keen on listening to HH Sheikh Sabah’s directives. During the meeting, there was “emphasis on the completion of the laws that concern the people of Kuwait for the next stage,” AlRashed noted, adding that HH the Amir “confirmed his follow-up and satisfaction with the great achievements made by the National Assembly.”
“The acclaimed achievements of laws, conventions and decrees in the parliament praised by HH Sheikh Sabah pleased and reassured the MPs,” Al-Rashed added. On whether the meeting with HH the Amir dealt with the repercussion of the Constitutional Court ruling on the singlevote decree, Al-Rashed said “This subject was not addressed as it is up to the Constitutional Court, and people will be bound to respect the court’s decision.” — KUNA
KUWAIT: The Ambassador of Lebanon Dr Khodr Heloui visited Kuwait Times and discussed matters of mutual concern with Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan. — Photo by Joseph Shagra
MP draws flak over segregation proposal ‘Kuwait needs new rules to safeguard tradition’ By Nawara Fattahova
CAIRO: Kuwaiti Ambassador to Cairo Dr Rasheed Al-Hamad yesterday handed over Kuwait’s contribution of $150,000 to complete construction of the Islamic charitable complex project in Minya province south of the capital Cairo. Al-Hamad told (KUNA) that Kuwait’s support of charitable projects in Egypt comes within the framework of the good relations between the two countries in various fields. He also praised the efforts of the Kuwaiti Office for Charitable Projects of Zakat House for the charitable projects that include mosques, hospitals and schools as well as caring for orphans and poor families. — KUNA
KUWAIT: Commercial Bank of Kuwait launched for the second consecutive year the “make it easy for them”, during the summer 2013 season. Public Relations team along with several bank employees distributed water coolants on cleaning and construction workers in the streets, in addition to medical masks to protect them against dust and sand. Hand disinfectants and drinking water bottles were also distributed during the novel campaign which was launched last year during summer and winter.
KUWAIT: Recently, MP Saad Al-Bous suggested adding a new paragraph to the Criminal Law No 16/0960 that will ban men and women from wearing indecent outfits on the beaches, on the islands and at public places. The proposed paragraph also mandates segregating men and women at sports halls, playing grounds, swimming pools at hotels, public and private sports clubs and health clubs. The MP proposed punishing the violators of this law with up to six months’ imprisonment or fines of up to KD500, or both. According to him, the objective of this proposal is to eliminate the negative phenomena and behaviors that are against the local culture and traditions but have become popular at Kuwaiti beaches, islands, yachts and sporting venues. Captain Yasser Dawwy, working as a trainer at a health club, noted that such a proposal is not appropriate. “People are coming to train together at one place. They are coming to practice sports and not to do something bad. Forbidden behavior is practiced under the table and not in the public. I’ve been working in this gym for more than five years and but I have never witnessed any problem or received any harassment complaint from any member,” he told the Kuwait Times yesterday. “Men and women are together everywhere, in schools and at work. However, I agree that there should be rules to regulate their outfits. Thus, segregation is a personal matter, and woman can stop anybody from abusing them. They can also control how people look at them or talk to them,” Dawwy pointed out. He said rules could be put in place to prevent certain types of indecent behavior. “After all, we are in an Arab country, where most people respect the traditions. On the other hand, it’s a
modern country and people are open-minded, so we can’t go back to old primitive times. The modern woman is free to wear whatever she likes. If I wanted to talk to somebody, I can do it far away from people. We can’t ban people from talking to each other,” Dawwy stated. “Even in Saudi Arabia, there are many instances of wrong behavior although the customs and traditions are legally enforced there. In case this law proposal comes into force, the results will be fatal. Bad behaviour exists here as well as elsewhere, but is practiced in secret. Our country is fine, and we don’t need such laws on segregation. Otherwise people may protest,” concluded Dawwy. Abdullah, a father of two children, agrees with the idea of having a dress code in the country but is against the proposed segregation law. “As a Muslim man, I prefer to have set rules for outfits. There should be a decent dress code for public
places and clubs, as there are some visitors who don’t respect our culture and traditions and wear vulgar outfits. On the other hand, I don’t agree with the idea of a gender segregation law, as I have never seen any problems in the club that I visit every week. Also, I’m going to the club with my family. How can I enjoy my time if we are segregated?” he asked. Catherine, 27, criticized the law proposal. “With this law, Kuwait will slowly turn into Saudi Arabia. I wonder why the MP has made this proposal. If he thinks bad things will not happen, he is wrong, as people will do them in secret. This law will not solve the problem; it will just make it worse. I understand having certain rules for public places, but this MP is crossing the line when he is trying to control private places such as clubs, hotels, health clubs and others, which are not under his jurisdiction,” she pointed out.
KUWAIT: A delegation from the department of supply and transport in the Kuwaiti Army paid a visit to logistics division at National Guard yesterday. The visit was in the framework of increasing cooperation and coordination between the two departments and sharing experience with a view to improving performance. The delegation was met by Brig Faleh Shujaa Faleh who welcomed the visitors to National Guard.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
LOCAL
Local Spotlight
Letters to Badrya
Traffic congestion
Kuwaitization badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net Dear Badrya, Today I read your article in the newspaper. It is no doubt a very well-thought-out and factual analysis of the repercussions of what has beendecided by the ministries. I think the Kuwaitization drama, which allegedly has a part to play in this step, is futile - because none of the Kuwaitis will work as Faraash, taxi driver, home driver, Jamia helper or tea boy. Having said that, from what I have observed at offices (please don’t mind), Kuwaitis occupying pivotal positions in various offices confine themselves to signing documents and spend the rest of their official time having a smoke, coffee or on cell phones. At the end of the day, it is the expats who sit late or make efforts to complete the work on time either for their job security or to abide by the instructions of their Kuwaiti seniors, which in turn would ensure continuation of their service. Remember, he has left his home town to earn a better living for his family. He cannot afford to fail in his endeavours. He is not getting a child education/birth allowance, or a stake in any company (few are open to the idea of having an expat as a partner), or an annual grant for groceries or other amenities (the costs of which we all know are huge for a Kuwaiti). I would also like to request you to emphasize a bit on the visa restrictions for certain nationalities (commercial and family visas). I came to Kuwait in search of a safe and better life. Working in the troubled city of Karachi as Assistant Vice President in a reputed bank, I had no financial need to move to Kuwait (till date). It was just safety that was the main concern for me. But the restrictions on visas have ignited a sense of dislike in me for the current system of visas in Kuwait. Even though I am well settled at work with a good enough salary and happy employers, I will go back to my home town if I am asked to sacrifice my family life. Anyways, my point is about the recent surge in crimes in Kuwait (especially sexual), be it illegal marriages or harassment cases. They can be linked to the stress of many expats denied their family visas. Lastly, my request is this: Check everyone before allowing entry into Kuwait and do not allow any criminal to enter this beautiful country. But, please, allow the non-criminal ones to enter after due scrutiny. They will pay tameen to MOH, rent to Kuwaitis, grocery charges to Kuwaitis and school fees to the MoE. What else can they do? My best wishes, heartiest appreciation and regards. Abdullah
By Muna Al-Fuzai
muna@kuwaittimes.net
L kuwait digest
The search for scandals By Dr Abdulmuhsin Al-Moqatei
W
hat kind of a country would any nation such idleness becomes harmful both to them and the become when people would nothing to work society. This is the state of the majority of people who towards, no point to prove? Such a society comprise the Kuwaiti society. We live in a society in which a majority of people are would see the workplace becoming a platform for chatting and wasting time, and would be no place for pro- always eager to listen to rumors, and appreciate those who are capable of crafting and ductivity and improvement. In this society, income would We live in a society in which a spreading rumors. This has allowed for media outlets that be no longer necessary for fulfilling life’s requirements, majority of people are always eager excel in fabricating news and but will be instead used to to listen to rumors, and appreciate spreading them, and we have acquire an even more luxuri- those who are capable of crafting ended up with many unofficial ‘tabloids’ for those in the habit ous lifestyle. Meanwhile, political work would no and spreading rumors. This has of spreading scandals. The problem we have in longer remain a vehicle to allowed for media outlets that excel improve political life and in fabricating news and spreading Kuwait is that the state is gradually falling apart as a result of state management, but would become a tool to them, and we have ended up with mismanagement, deterioration boost one’s popularity or many unofficial ‘tabloids’ for those in the level of political work, absence of state institutions serve personal agendas. in the habit of spreading scandals. and decline in constitutional This diagnosis can be legitimacy. On the other hand, applied in our society where people suffer from a feeling of emptiness because of a the society is disintegrating due to decaying values of sense of irresponsibility, no obligation towards the integrity, honesty, and patriotism. We no more reject country, a lack of financial duties, combined with a sectarianism, tribalism and the spread of rumors. good financial income. A person who does not find a Meanwhile, there are people behind the scenes who need to work and be productive starts living a dull pub- have influence and watch happily even as our society lic life and has no general interest. In the meantime, falls apart in front of their eyes. — Al-Qabas
kuwait digest
Responsibility of the Popular Action Bloc By Dr Hassan Abbas
T
he Popular Action Bloc earned the reputation of being perhaps the ‘loudest’ political movement in Kuwait. They were very vocal when news about Kuwait signing the deal with Dow Chemical hit the headlines, as well as when the government terminated the contract. The bloc put pressure on the government which forced it to unilaterally withdraw from the deal with Dow Chemical - a decision that ultimately cost Kuwait more than two billion dollars. I would like to discuss the subject from different angles. The first angle: what gave the Popular Action Bloc or the parliament in general the right to force the government into making certain executive decisions? Shouldn’t the lawmakers be monitoring the government’s work and holding state officials accountable, instead of taking executive steps? The bloc’s behavior back in 2008 left the state with two options: either cancel the deal or engage in political turmoil. And since it is clear that they interfered in the executive authority’s job, I find it strange that the bloc would still talk about defending the constitution and defend its action of superseding the state’s authorities, etc. While it has emerged as the main reason why Kuwait had to pay that fine, the Popular Action Bloc has the audacity to speak now? The second angle: the quantum of the loss. While Kuwait has lost $2.2 billion paid to Dow Chemical as per the penalty clause in the canceled contract, the country has also lost the amount of profits which the US-based company made in the years after the deal was called off. According to official statistics, Dow Chemical earned $8 billion in the past two years only. Therefore, you can add Kuwait’s share from the operational profits in Dow Chemical to the money lost as a result of the penal fine. The third angle: accountability. We certainly demand that everyone who dragged Kuwait into this situation be held accountable, and their personal accounts and the accounts of their family members be investigated - as recommended by Popular Action Bloc members Musallam Al-Barrak and Ahmad Al-Saadoun. But this also means that the bloc’s members should be held accountable for the state missing the opportunity of investment in the deal. Moreover, the bloc should be held accountable for its role in suspending the mega projects and making accusations without providing evidence. They did so in the deposits case, the 2007 generators case, the North Zoor project, and others. However, they have never been able to retrieve the allegedly stolen funds or expose the culprits in any of these cases. The Popular Action Bloc should be the first to be held accountable for the disastrous affect it had on the public funds, because they claim knowledge of things allegedly happening behind the scenes, and possessing evidence they never come forward with. — Al-Rai
eaving home to go anywhere has really become a nightmare in Kuwait, no matter how early you leave in the morning. One ends up cooped up in the car for an hour or two sometimes to reach a destination not more than half an hour away. Kuwait is a small country, and hence it should not be very difficult to implement any new ideas and find solutions to end the traffic chaos that people have to suffer from every day. Two MPs came with suggestions which may and may not find favour with others. MP Mubarak Al-Orf proposed that the working hours at the ministries and public institutions be skewed so that the opening and closing timings of the two groups are well separated. He said while some of these could work from 7:30 am to 1:30 pm, others could stay open from 9 am to 3 pm. He claimed that this arrangement would reduce the traffic conges-
I think the problem in Kuwait is because of the population increase over the last 20 years and yet there being no additional road length. The highways expansion has been far from satisfactory and the roads are not sufficient, considering the exponential growth in the number of cars. The solutions in the form of skewing office hours or college timings would hardly do much to reduce the traffic jams. tion during morning rush hours. I don’t personally see how it would be any great help since those supposed to start work at 9 am would be leaving home by 8 am to be on the safe side. They may still find some of those who left the house late still stuck on the road. Here in Kuwait, you would find the roads clogged at all times, even at mid-day when children and workers are not on the roads. MP Kamel Al-Awadhi proposed delaying the lecture timings of university students to between 9 or 10 am and 8 pm to ease the traffic congestion in the mornings. That I guess needs to be tested for a semester. If you go anywhere near the college located in Khalidiya area early in the morning, you would see many students racing past you to make it in time to their lectures. I think the problem in Kuwait is because of the population increase over the last 20 years and yet there being no additional road length. The highways expansion has been far from satisfactory and the roads are not sufficient, considering the exponential growth in the number of cars. The solutions in the form of skewing office hours or college timings would hardly do much to reduce the traffic jams. We need to have new roads. How hard is that to understand? A short visit to Dubai would be a lesson in seeing how we need new ideas. Dubai shows us how to help people reach their destination, regardless where they are and at what time of the day. They have constructed subways, something I doubt I will ever see in my life time. But, at least adapting such new ideas instead of just changing timings could help. We need solutions, that should surely be tested, observed, examined and evaluated. Maybe these ideas being proposed would help and we may not need the subways and underground transportation systems. I doubt that but we need to remain open to all ideas. Shouldn’t we? Letter to Muna Al-Fuzai
Hi Muna, There is no country on this planet that has ever implemented or even thought of implementing such a biased and discriminatory law. You are right when you say they should just set a limit or stop giving out work visas or just “weed out” people through attrition. What they are doing is discriminatory at best and criminal at worst. I am sure the international community will eventually intervene and demand that this “silly” practice be stopped. Most of these hard working people deserve better than this. They are not only here to support their families, but are performing critical service related jobs for the public and the citizens of Kuwait. Steve
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
LOCAL
Man dares authorities to deport arrested driver Car thieves in police custody
KUWAIT: The Deputy Head of Mission of the Republic of Kenya Wamunyu Kamau visited Kuwait Times and discussed matters of mutual concern with Editor- in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan.
Kuwait grants $250,000 to Al-Quds Open University AMMAN: Kuwait has granted $250,000 to Al-Quds Open University to complete the branch project in Nablus. Kuwaiti Ambassador to Jordan Dr. Hamad Al-Duaij handed the donation at the Kuwaiti embassy here, to the President of Al Quds Open University Professor Dr. Younis Amro, in the presence of Director of the University’s branch in Nablus Dr Yousef Diab Awwad and Director of the University’s branch in Jordan Rushdi AlQawasmi. Dr. Al-Duaij said this initiative to the university comes as part of the ongoing support to Palestine in various fields. For his part, Dr. Amr thanked Kuwait and its leadership for this donation aimed at the development of university system in Palestine and the Palestinian people as well. He explained that the grant will benefit some 65,000 students. —KUNA
Theft crimes on rise in Kuwait KUWAIT: More than 27,000 moneyrelated crimes, including those involving theft and blackmail, were reported during the past eight years in Kuwait, a local newspaper reported yesterday quoting a Ministry of Justice study. The legal study was carried out by the Information Technology and Statistics Department in the ministry, and covered crimes including thef t - either through mugging,
break ing in or robbed homes blackmail and theft of public funds. It showed that 27,585 such crimes were committed over the past eight years; 14 percent of which were by Kuwaiti citizens. Moreover, the study showed that suspects in a majority of these cases fell in the 40 to 50 years age group. According to the study, 3929 of these crimes were recorded last year. It further predicted an increase in similar crimes in
the next few years, by an average of 4137 expected for 2013, a figure gradually expected to climb to an average of 5050 by 2017. Meanwhile, Al-Qabas quoted legal exper ts who commented on the issue by indicating that at least 40 percent of such cases were shelved due to lack of evidence, noting at the same time that investigations in some cases took years without any evidence coming to the fore.
Banks report hacking into clients’ accounts KUWAIT: Banking sources revealed that accounts of some of the clients at the local banks were hacked two days back by hackers using advanced programs and hi-tech equipments. The sources also said international hackers could be involved in the episode. Sources said the hacking was aimed at some
clients’ accounts, particularly those who made purchases through the internet, or who shared their codes with unlicensed websites. Once any client’s account was hacked, an SMS message was sent to the client’s mobile indicating the amount deducted from his account, though he had not bought anything. Sources added that some clients withdrew their money from banks, lest the hackers laid their hands on their savings. Some clients said they withdrew the money pending a change in their code numbers connected to the accounts. Clients who suffered losses in the hacking attempts have filed complaints with the banks, which have taken on record their remarks and are following it up with the Central Bank.
Kuwait blacklists Iran firms, individuals KUWAIT: The Central Bank of Kuwait informed the local banks, investment firms and currency companies to freeze the assets, accounts and other financial activities of individuals or organizations involved in nuclear and ballistic missile programs in accordance with United Nations Security Council sanctions against Iran. According to a report published by AlQabas yesterday, a letter sent by the Central Bank to local financial firms in this regard included a list of companies and individuals with whom any dealings must be avoided. The Central Bank also requested feedback on procedures followed on in this regard within five days.
KUWAIT: Interior Ministry officials completely barred a Kuwaiti man from hiring any domestic workers in the future after he refused to hand over the passport of his driver who was to be deported. The Asian man was told he will be deported after he was arrested for jumping a red traffic light - a violation that led to the discover y that he had a record 24 violations against his name - including 15 for jumping the red traffic light. After coming to know about the predicament that his driver faced, the employer headed to the office of the General Traffic Department Director and tried to talk Major General Abdulfattah Al-Al into pardoning the driver. Even after his appeal was rejected, the Kuwaiti man refused to cooperate and left while remaining adamant about not handing over his driver’s passport. The driver was eventually referred to the deportation department after Maj Gen Al-Ali obtained necessary travel documents from the embassy of the countr y to which the driver belonged. In the meantime, the Immigration General Depar tment was contacted to blacklist the employer’s name for refusing to hand over his driver’s passport. Officers disciplined Eight policemen were referred to the proper authorities for questioning in the wake of violations detect-
ed during unscheduled crackdowns ordered by Major General Ibrahim Al-Tarrah, the Director of the Jahra and Farwaniya security departments. According to a source familiar with the checks, Maj Gen AlTarrah first stopped by at the AlRehab Police Station and found an officer and four privates smoking inside the officer’s office. After that, he headed to the Saad Al-Abdullah police station and found an officer and two privates smoking cigarettes. The policemen are reportedly being questioned before being referred to the military tribunal. (Rai) Driver without license held A man faces legal action after he told officers at a driving test facility that he had been driving for a yearand-a-half without a license. Officers at the Capital Traffic Department building became suspicious about the Arab man who applied to undergo a driving test after driving down to the facility in his own car. He was arrested after he admitted he had been driving without a license, and his vehicle was impounded. He was referred to the proper authorities for further action. (Rai) Car thieves in custody Jahra police arrested three people responsible for multiple thefts reported by car owners around Kuwait. Following extensive investigations in cases filed by owners of
luxur y cars as well as vehicles offered for sale, Jahra police identified three stateless residents with histor y of criminal behavior as being the main suspects. The three were arrested after detectives nabbed one of them who led the police to the others. They led officers to a place where they had parked the ten stolen vehicles, including seven whose body parts were dismantled to be sold separately. The suspects were referred to the proper authorities to face charges. (Qabas) Kidnappers arrested Three people were arrested while search was on for a fourth suspect following a fight which started after the group unsuccessfully tried to kidnap a teenager in Taima. According to the police report, the suspects beat up the young man after they failed to force him into their vehicle. The youngster rushed to a nearby house and sought shelter with its residents, but his attackers followed him and engaged in a fight with the homeowner. Neighbors eventually joined in the melee before the incident was reported. The suspects escaped before police could reach, but officers learned that they had headed to the Jahra Hospital after sustaining injuries during the fight. Three of the suspects were detained at the hospital while search was on for the fourth.—Al-Rai, Al- Watan, Al-Qabas
Spate of road casualties By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: A car accident at the intersection of the Fourth Ring Road and the AlGhazali Road left a 35- year-old Egyptian expat with multiple injuries and a bleeding nose while a 43-year-old Kuwaiti man complained of dizziness after the same mishap. Both were taken to the AlSabah Hospital. A car accident at Hawally, Hassan AlBasri Street, left a 34-year-old Egyptian expat with facial injuries. He was taken to the Mubarak Hospital. A 39-year-old Indian expat received
multiple injuries in a car accident at the Fifth Ring Road opposite Reqie which also left a 20-year-old expat with facial injuries. Both were taken to the Al-Sabah Hospital. A car accident at Al-Firdous between block 1 and 2 left a 20-year-old Kuwaiti man with fractures in both his feet. He was taken to the Al-Farwaniya Hospital. A car accident at the Fahaheel Expressway at Al-Maseela Bridge resulted in a direct head injury for a man about 60 years of age. He was rushed to the Mubarak Hospital and admitted to its intensive care unit.
A car accident at the Fourth Ring Road opposite Al-Khalidiya left a 33year-old Kuwaiti man with injuries to the chest and neck. He was taken to the Amiri Hospital. Fighting broke out at Hawally, opposite Centrepoint, leaving a 28-year-old Pakistani expat with fractures in both his hands. He was taken to the Mubarak Hospital. Another scuffle happened at Hawally opposite the Khalid Commercial Complex, leaving a 29-year-old Pakistani expat with a head injury. He was taken to the Mubarak Hospital.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
LOCAL
McAfee offers latest cyber security solutions IT security firm holds seminar for partners, customers By Sajeev K Peter KUWAIT: Today’s targeted threats to the IT security call for next generation intrusion prevention controls and only McAfee’s network platform solutions can offer all the required controls for the effective security, said Essam Ahmed, McAfee’s pre-sales manager for security, MENA region. Talking to Kuwait Times on the sidelines of a conference organized by McAfee for its partners and customers at the Courtyard Marriott Hotel yesterday, Ahmed said with the acquisition of Stonesoft, McAfee can address businesses of all sizes with its software-based cyber security solutions that can secure information flow and simplify security management. Stonesoft’s product portfolio of nextgeneration firewalls include evasion prevention systems and SSL VPN solutions. Talking about the persistent cyber attacks in the region despite several security systems in place, especially in the context of the recent attacks in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Ahmed said now the threat perception has changed drastically. “Now the hackers are not going in for big attacks by targeting any single customer or entity. They are now in for targeted attacks by trying to get into the environment,” he said recalling the recent multi-layer attacks. “ This must be a wake -up call for everybody. If an attack takes place today, the next one may happen only after a month and even the next one after another month. The malware here is like a rat trying to reach a piece of cheese,” he elaborated. “This is what is called the Advanced Persistent Threat (APT), using a simple
Winners of Kuwait Prize, Scientific Production Award announced
Essam Ahmed during the event
‘trial and error’ method. And the attacker may be using an email or a social networking platform such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter by sending a malicious file on PDF or a picture. That can be one point of entry,” he explained. Ahmed said McAfee in doing a lot of innovations around technologies today in terms of connecting more technologies together to create more awareness enabling industries to take action at the right time. “For that we need to have real time information, only then you can take appropriate action to prevent malware from penetrating. With Stonesoft, McAfee can block all the multi-factor entry points, remediate them and make sure that your system is secure,” he added. McAfee recently announced the execution of a definitive agreement to initiate a conditional tender offer for the acquisition of Stonesoft, a leading inno-
KUWAIT: Abdul Karim B Yasin (second right), Hazem Al-Said (right) and other McAfee officials during the conference.— Photos by Joseph Shagra
vator in next-generation network firewall products, for an aggregate equity value of approximately $389 million in cash. Abdul Karim B Yasin, Technical Support Manager, IT & Statistics Sector, Ministry of Justice, Kuwait told Kuwait Times that the ministry was the first in Kuwait to implement the McAfee security system to protect its IT environment from threats. Hazem Al-Said, Territory Manager, McAfee, Kuwait and Oman and Kholoud Barakat, Marketing and PR Manager MENA were also present during the interview. McAfeeis has raised the bar on intelligent threat identification with the latest updates to its security management solutions delivering on its recently announced security connected vision. With the announcement of McAfee Real Time for ePolicy Orchestrator software,
the first security management system that lets businesses instantly find information about any computer, deploy products or update configurations in a matter of seconds. McAfee Enterprise Security Manager is now actively connected to the McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator (McAfee ePO) platform, McAfee Vulnerability Manager, and the McAfee Network Security Platform automatically initiating endpoint and network security policy changes based on its powerful correlation capability. Together, these solutions set a new industry standard for time to respond, situational awareness and operational efficiency. McAfee is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel Corporation that seeks to empower businesses, the public sector and home users to safely experience the benefits of the Internet.
Arab Health Council elects Kuwait as executive head
GENEVA: Minister of Health Dr Mohammad Barrak Al-Haifi addresses the 40th session of the Arab Health Ministers’ Council. —KUNA
GENEVA: Kuwaiti Minister of Health Dr Mohammad Barrak Al-Haifi announced here yesterday that Kuwait has been elected Chairman of the Arab Health Ministers Council’s Executive Office. He added in remarks on the sidelines of the 40th session of the council held here as part of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) activities that this presidency is of great honor to Kuwait. Kuwait will exert all possible efforts in dealing with vital health issues concerning the Arab citizen, and at the top of them non-contagious chronic diseases. A large number of patients in the Arab world are suffering from diabetes, obesity, cancer, and respiratory system diseases resulting from smoking. They are of intensive negative impact on the patient and the whole family, and also have immense economic consequences on the country, Al-Haifi affirmed. Kuwait will also fight the smuggling of medications and adulterated
drugs that are of great risk on the lives of our citizens, he added. This phenomenon should be faced strictly in coordination with all relevant parties, the minister said. Kuwait is greatly interested in enhancing the health awareness among the Arab public through the great role it plays in the protection of diseases and elevation of public health care. Al-Haifi hailed the great care offered by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlHamad Al-Sabah in boosting the role of media in spreading health awareness. Kuwait is a pioneer in supporting and encouraging initiatives of Arab expatriate scientists through the implementation of various projects in the field of health and medical sciences, Al-Haifi said. The Arab expatriate doctors and scientists have made great achievements in this field in various countries all over the world, and the Arab world should benefit the best from their expertise. — KUNA
KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah approved the list of nominations for 2012’s Kuwait Prize and S c i e n t i f i c Pro d u c t i o n Aw a rd, K u w a i t Fo u n d a t i o n fo r Ad v a n ce m e n t o f S c i e n ce s announced yesterday. In a press statement, KFAS said that Kuwait Prize is designed to recognize intellectual achievements that serve interest of scientific advancement and suppor t effor ts to raise standards of culture in each of the following f i e l d s : B a s i c S c i e n c e s, A p p l i e d S c i e n c e s, Economic and Social Sciences, Arts and Letters and Arabic and Islamic Scientific Heritage. Dr Yusuf Hannun, Vice Dean of Stony Brook University School of Medicine Cancer Center and Director of the Stony Brook institute for cancer, won prize of the Basic Sciences in the biogenetic category. Dr Salah Muhammad Budair, a professor at the departments of Electrical Engineering and Computer Engineering at North Carolina State U n i ve r s i t y, wo n i n c a t e g o r y o f A p p l i e d Science in the energy field. The award Economic and Social Science in the management field was earned by Dr Ahmed Sakr Ashour, a professor of management at Egypt’s Alexandria University. The Arts and Letters and Arabic and Islamic Scientific H e r i t a g e p r i z e w a s s h a r e d b y D r. A h m a d Dellah from the American University of Beirut (AUB), and the Tunisian researcher Faiza AlAridh who translated into French Al-Khazini’s Book of the Balance of Wisdom (Kitab Mizan Al-Hikmah), on mechanics, hydrostatics and physics. Meanwhile, The Scientific Production Prize, which is intended to encourage the elite of the Kuwaiti scientific community to further pursue research for the benefit of the society, is given in five fields: Physical Sciences and Mathematics, Engineering Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities, Biological Sciences and Medicinal Sciences. The Prize of the Physical Sciences was won by Dr M aytham Hassan Safar from Kuwait U n i v e r s i t y ’s Co m p u t e r Engineering Department. Dr Ahdurlrahman Khalid AlOthman from the College of Technology at the Public Authority for Applied Education and Tra i n i n g ( PA A E T ) e a r n e d t h e E n gi n e e r i n g Sciences Award. D r J a m a l A l - Q a n a i f ro m t h e E n g l i s h L a n g u a g e a n d L i t e r a t u re D e p a r t m e n t a t Kuwait University Faculty of Arts won Social Sciences and Humanities prize, Dr Faiza Yousef Al-Yamani from Department of Aquaculture, Fisheries and Marine Environment at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research took home the Biological Science award, and lastly, Dr Nourah A h m a d S u l a i m a n A l - S u w a i h f ro m K u w a i t U n i ve r s i t y M i c ro b i o l o g y Co l l e g e wo n t h e Medical Sciences prize. —KUNA
Kuwait medical sector seeks greater private sector role KUWAIT: A leading Kuwaiti business-pharmaceutical figure has “prescribed ” remedies for the national economy, namely the medical sector, saying the bureaucrac y must be trimmed, laws amended, and the private sector given a greater role to upgrade work and procedures. M ohammad Al-Ali, the Chairman of the Union of I mpor ters of M edicines and Pharmacy Owners, expressed his views about means that should be resor ted to for upgrading the pharmaceutical and medical fields in an interview with KUNA. Al-Ali, also the Chairman and Managing Director of Safwan Trading and Contracting Company, revealed his opinions as a leading business entrepreneur about steps that should be taken to shore up the national economy. In interview with KUNA, he said the business environment in Kuwait needs a package of incentives to boost it, within the approach of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to transform the country into a lucrative regional financial and commercial hub. For instance, some laws “should be reviewed” to push the domestic economy forward and contribute to efforts for boosting state resources. M entioning some of the most pressing needs, Al-Ali called for tackling bureaucracy, particularly by taking moves in cooperation with the M inistr y of Health to establish speedy work mechanisms and back up the government efforts aimed at developing this sector. The private sector can play a prime role in this respect, hand in
hand with ac tivating the EGovernment project and speeding up paper and procedural work for entrepreneurs. Moreover in this regard, patients should receive better medical services through the insurance that costs the government KD three billion per year. Development at these levels is achievable, provided “a real partnership is established among all the concerned authorities and
Mohammad Al-Ali
parties,” namely the private companies and the Union, he said, noting that such an approach is necessary to back up the government efforts and improve the medical services. Citing an example for major success in the medical sector, AlAli mentioned the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where authorities earmarked a special budget for
ever y large hospital to help in coping with emergencies, upgrading work and helping staff. On some pharmaceutical problems in Kuwait, Al-Ali indicated at timeconsuming bureaucratic procedures among some of the departments namely bet ween the importers of drugs and the contracts department, effects of rapid changes of hard currencies’ rates and their effects on importation of medicines, mainly from Europe and the United States. He also proposed in this regard that the MoH pay 50 percent of value of the imported products, immediately, when the import deals are signed. I mpor ting companies may be compelled to wait for seven months after signing to “get their financial dues, thus endangering their financial status and affecting their future liabilities toward the ministry,” he elaborated. The chairman of the Union further noted that mounting competition prompted many owners of pharmacies to join mega medical groups. He noted that this situation resulted in securing “excellent services for the citizens and residents.” In his defensive approach, Al-Ali called on state authorities to abstain from standing in face of over-the-counter drugs’ business, noting that this system is adopted in many other countries. He downplayed fears over fraud in the drugs’ business in Kuwait, saying “this is trivial ...” considering supervision and inspection, conducted by the custom and health authorities. However, he advised consumers to buy drugs from pharmacies, not any other vendors, and check validity of the product and other necessary specifications. — KUNA
Gulf Bank Sponsors Saleh Al-Shehab High School students’ exhibition KUWAIT: Gulf Bank sponsored a three-day exhibition organized by the Saleh Al-Shehab High School for boys’ in Mishref. Najla Al-Essa, Executive Manager, Consumer Banking at Gulf Bank visited the exhibition to address senior high school students’ enquiries who were interested in the red (tm) account. In addition to informing students about banking basics and saving principles, Al-Essa, along with the Bank’s team, took the opportunity to showcase some of the unique advantages of the red (tm) account, which has been specifically designed by the Bank for university students and young people between the ages of 17 and 24. Gulf Bank is presently offering new red customers a number of joining benefits, including a KD5 pre-paid petrol card as well as
an Alshaya card worth KD5. The red account is designed for college and university students aged between 17 and 24 years. The account
can be opened with no deposit, and is available for both current and savings accounts with monthly interest payments.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
Egypt army boosts forces in Sinai after kidnapping Page 8
Tornadoes level homes in Oklahoma, one dead Page 10
BAGHDAD: An Iraqi woman passes by the scene of a car bomb attack in Kamaliyah neighborhood, a predominantly Shiite area of eastern Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday. A wave of car bombings across Baghdad’s Shiite neighborhoods and in the southern city of Basra killed and wounded dozens of people, police said. — AP
Wave of attacks kills 86 in Iraq Iraq PM to alter security strategy BAGHDAD: Prime Minister Nuri alMaliki said yesterday he will overhaul Iraq’s security strategy as a two-day wave of violence killed 86 people including 24 police, bringing the month’s death toll from unrest to 352. “We are about to make changes in the high and middle positions of those responsible for security, and the security strategy,” Maliki said at a news conference in Baghdad. “We will discuss this matter in the cabinet session tomorrow to take decisions,” Maliki said, without providing further details. “I assure the Iraqi people that they (militants) will not be able to return us to the sectarian conflict” that killed tens of thousands of people in Iraq in past years, he added. A car bomb exploded in Shaab, a Shiite area in north Baghdad, at around the time Maliki spoke, killing 12 people and wounding at least 20, officials said-just one in a wave of bombings yesterday. Two car bombs went off in the main southern port city of Basra, killing 13 people and wounding 48, while a wave of other bombings hit Baghdad, killing at least 11 people and wounding 102. In Balad, north of the capital, a car bomb exploded near a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing eight people and wounding at least 15. Iraq is home to some of the holiest sites in Shiite Islam and is visited by hundreds of thousands of foreign pilgrims every year, most of them from neighbouring Iran. Five Sahwa anti-Al-Qaeda fight-
ers were also killed and 19 wounded in three separate attacks north of Baghdad. The Sahwa are made up of Sunni Arab tribesmen who joined forces with the US military against AlQaeda from late 2006, helping to turn the tide against the insurgency. And a car bomb killed one person and wounded four in Rutba, a town in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, while a roadside bomb in the northern city of Mosul wounded three people. Yesterday’s violence comes after 24 police were killed overnight. Police Lieutenant Colonel Majid al-Jlaybawi said police and soldiers carried out a joint raid to free kidnapped police officers in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, but clashes ensued. Twelve kidnapped policemen were killed and four wounded, although it was not immediately clear if they were caught in crossfire, killed by their abductors, or a combination of the two.Mohammed Hadi, one of the wounded policemen, told AFP they had been abducted on the highway between Baghdad and Jordan on Saturday. In Haditha, a town in Anbar province, gunmen attacked a police station, killing eight police, among them two officers, First Lieutenant Murad al-Hadithi and a doctor said. And gunmen killed four police and wounded three in an attack on another police station in the town of Rawa, also in Anbar, said Qais al-Rawi, head of the area’s local council. Gunmen also killed a shop owner
in Mosul on Sunday. The security situation in Anbar, home to two of the main centres of Sunni anti-government protests that broke out almost five months ago, has deteriorated sharply. On Saturday, security forces tried to arrest Mohammed Khamis Abu Risha, who is wanted in connection with the killing of five Iraqi soldiers near Ramadi, west of the capital. But the bid to arrest Abu Risha, nephew of a powerful tribal sheikh who is a key supporter of Sunni antigovernment protesters in Anbar, sparked clashes with tribesmen in which two of them were killed. Hundreds of gunmen then gathered in the area of the Anbar Operations Command headquarters near Ramadi, but later withdrew, police said. Officials also reported kidnappings of people including security forces in Anbar on Saturday, though they gave differing figures for how many were seized. Tensions are festering between the government of Maliki, a Shiite, and Sunnis who accuse authorities of marginalising and targeting their community, including through wrongful detentions and accusations of involvement in terrorism. While the government has made some concessions aimed at placating the protesters and Iraqi Sunnis in general, such as freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-AlQaeda fighters, underlying issues have yet to be addressed. — AFP
Suicide bomber kills 14 at Afghan province council KABUL: A suicide bomber dressed in a police uniform killed 14 people including a prominent provincial council chief yesterday in northern Afghanistan in an attack outside the council headquarters, authorities said. The Taleban insurgency quickly claimed responsibility. Seeking to weaken the Afghan government, Taleban insurgents have been carrying out attacks and assassinations intended to intimidate both officials and civilians ahead of next year’s withdrawal of most international troops. Baghlan provincial council leader Mohammad Rasoul Mohseni was entering the compound in the morning when the bomber approached on foot detonated his explosives in the provincial capital of Pul-e-Khumri, said Baghlan chief of police Asadullah Sherzad. The attacker was dressed in police uniform and blended with officers at a checkpoint near the council headquarters, then slipped into a group of people surrounding Mohseni and set off his bomb in the crowd, said Baghlan deputy police chief Mohammad Sadeq Muradi. “He was basically waiting for his target, who was Rasoul Mohseni,” Muradi said. Two of Mohseni’s police bodyguards, four checkpoint police and seven civilians were killed in the blast, he said. It was unclear whether the attacker was actually a member of Afghan security forces or an insurgent who bought or stole a uniform.
Mohammad Zahier Ghanizada, a member of parliament from Baghlan, said that Mohseni had previously received multiple death threats. A well-known figure in Baghlan, Mohseni was previously a respected commander in the Northern Alliance that fought against the Taliban’s hard-line regime before it was toppled in 2001. He comes from a prominent family in the province, and his brother Azim Mohseni is a member of parliament. Taleban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed in a text message to journalists that an insurgent operative carried out the targeted bombing. “Today at 11 a.m. in front of the Baghlan provincial council office, we have carried out a suicide attack and killed the head of the council,” it said. Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the bombing yesterday. “Such attacks are against all human rights and the principles of Islam,” Karzai said in a statement. “Perpetrators of such attacks are enemies of the Afghan nation and the puppets of foreigners.” Karzai left later yesterday for a two-day state visit to India, where he is expected to request military aid. Both Karzai and the US have sought peace talks with the Taleban and other insurgent factions in preparation for most foreign troops leaving next year after more than 12 years of war, but the efforts have borne little fruit. —AP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
2 Brazilians killed in Turkey balloon crash ANKARA: A hot air balloon collided with another balloon mid-air during a sightseeing tour of volcanic rock formations in Turkey and crashed to the ground yesterday, killing two Brazilian tourists and injuring 23 other people on board, officials said. The accident occurred above central Turkey’s Cappadocia region, when an ascending balloon struck another balloon’s wicker basket above it, causing a tear in the balloon’s fabric and sending it plunging to the ground. The accident - the second fatal one in Cappadocia since operations began more than a decade ago - has put the spotlight on balloon safet y and
Turkey’s civil aviation agency said it had launched an inquiry into the accident. As the tours become increasingly popular, there are questions as to whether too many balloons may be launching over Cappadocia at the same time. In 2009, a British tourist was killed and nine other people were injured when two balloons also collided. The passengers on board the balloon that crashed were mostly tourists from Brazil, Argentina and Spain, according to Abdurrahman Savas, the governor of Nevsehir province. Many had fractured bones and were being treated in hospital around Nevsehir.
A Canada-based American tourist who witnessed the accident from another balloon, said and the crash occurred some 45 minutes after as many as 100 balloons had taken off for the early morning tour. “We could hear the radio chatter and we knew something was happening. There was a frantic urgent transmission: ‘Release your parachute! Release your parachute!” said Ross, whose balloon was some 200 meters (yards) away from the vessel that crashed. “It was probably some 300 meters in the air and it descended increasingly rapidly to the ground,” he said in a
telephone inter view. “ There was a large tear in the fabric, probably some 10 to 15 meters long.” As his balloon flew directly over the crash site, Ross said he saw one person lying on the ground while other passengers were still inside the basket. Several ambulances and trucks were converging on to the scene. Ross, a professor at University of British Columbia in Vancouver, said that he and his wife had commented before the accident that some of the balloons were travelling “quite close to each other.” Halil Uluer, owner of Anatolian Balloons which operated the tour, told
the state-run Anadolu Agency that it appeared that one of the tourists had died of a heart attack. Savas, the governor, said the second person died in hospital. They were aged 71 and 65, Anadolu said. The balloons were flying above scenic canyons and volcanic cones of the Cappadocia region, a popular tourist destination some 300 kilometers (190 m i l e s ) f ro m t h e c a p i t a l, A n k a r a . Cappadocia is famed for its “fair y chimney” volcanic cones and its subterranean cities car ved out of soft stone. In February, a balloon caught fire and crashed in Egypt, killing 19 tourists. — AP
Egypt army boosts forces in Sinai after kidnapping Group wants release of militants jailed last year
TUNIS: Tunisian police fire tear gas as clashes broke out with radical Islamists on May 19, 2013, in Ettadhamen, a poor neighbourhood 15 kilometres (9 miles) west of Tunis, after Salafist movement Ansar Al-Sharia told its followers to gather “in large numbers” near Tunis for its annual congress, defying a government ban. — AFP
Tunisia PM vows action after Islamist unrest TUNIS: Tunisia’s Islamist Prime Minister Ali Larayedh vowed firm action against Ansar Al-Sharia, in remarks published yesterday, after bloody clashes between police and members of the radical Salafist group. But the group’s fugitive leader Abu Iyadh insisted, in a message posted online, that his followers could not be defeated despite their “persecution.” Tunisia has been rocked by waves of violence blamed on militant extremists since the January 2011 revolution, and Larayedh reacted angrily to the latest unrest, in which at least one protester was killed and 15 police hurt. He said 200 members of Ansar al-Sharia had been arrested and vowed firm action against the movement considered close to Al-Qaeda and which he linked for the first time to “terrorism”. “This group is engaged in violence, is opposed to the state and revolts” against the authorities, Larayedh was quoted as saying yesterday by Arabic daily Al-Hayat, while on a visit to Doha. In response, “we will deal with extremism firmly, we will be rigid,” added the former interior minister and stalwart of the ruling Islamist party Ennahda. But Ansar alSharia’s leader, a former Al-Qaeda fighter in Afghanistan whose real name is Saif Allah Bin Hussein, was defiant in his five-minute message, apparently taped before Sunday’s violence. “God knows well that I would like to have been with you at the moment when you opened a shining page in the history of our nation. You have shown the entire world that your efforts cannot be defeated despite the persecution of your leaders,” he said. The audio recording was posted on the group’s Facebook page. Abu Iyadh has
been on the run since September, after an attack by Islamist protesters on the US embassy in Tunis, which he is accused of orchestrating and which left four assailants dead. The Salafists’ third annual congress was to be held on Sunday in the holy city of Kairouan. But the government banned the gathering, saying it posed “a threat to public order,” and deployed a heavy security contingent in Kairouan, prompting Ansar al-Sharia members to gather in the Tunis suburb of Ettadhamen where Sunday’s fighting erupted. A hospital official in Tunis said one protester died of gunshot wounds and the interior ministry confirmed the death, saying in addition three protesters and 15 policeman had been wounded. Ennahda, Tunisia’s moderate Islamist party, has been sharply criticised for failing to prevent Islamist-linked unrest in Tunisia since the uprising that toppled Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and of being too lenient towards the Salafists. But it has hardened its stance since early May, faced with the threat of two armed jihadist groups being hunted along the Algerian border. Abu Iyadh sarcastically thanked the Tunisian authorities for helping the Salafists. “Our religion has taught us to thank the deserving, and you tyrants are the best placed to be thanked as you have committed so many stupidities which have allowed us to spread our teaching without needing publicity.” Salafists advocate an ultra-conservative brand of Sunni Islam. Ansar al-Sharia is considered the most radical of the extremist groups that have emerged in Tunisia since the January 2011 revolution. — AFP
Israel rejects France 2 findings on Dura affair JERUSALEM: Israel has said that a France 2 television report seen worldwide on the death of a Palestinian child in 2000 was “baseless”, following an analysis of the raw footage, drawing an angry reaction yesterday from the boy’s father. The report, bolstering the Israeli political and military stance on the Mohammed alDura affair, comes ahead of a ruling Wednesday in Paris on a defamation case between France 2 reporter Charles Enderlin and Philippe Karsenty, director of watchdog group Media Ratings. Enderlin’s reportage shows the death of 12-year-old Mohammed in the arms of his father Jamal al-Dura on September 30, 2000, after being caught in crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants at the start of the second intifada, or uprising. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the findings of the 40page Israeli report by the ministry of international affairs and strategy on the incident as “truth” that could “prevail over lies.” “It is important to focus on this incident - which has slandered Israel’s reputation,” he said in a statement. “This is a manifestation of the ongoing, mendacious campaign to delegitimize Israel. There is only one way to counter lies, and that is through the truth,” said Netanyahu. “The France 2 report’s central claims and accusations had no basis in the material which the station had in its possession at the time of the report,” reads the report commissioned by Netanyahu in September 2012.
“Contrary to the report’s claim that the boy is killed, the committee’s review of the raw footage showed that in the final scenes, which were not broadcast by France 2, the boy is seen to be alive,” it says. But Mohammed’s father, Jamal Al-Dura, told AFP yesterday that the report was “completely fabricated.” “The Israelis are lying and trying to cover the truth,” he said, adding he had requested the formation of an international commission of inquiry, including his family and the Israelis. “I’m ready... to open up the grave to examine the body and even the bullets that penetrated Mohammed,” he said. Haaretz newspaper on Monday said the report was overdue and pointless, calling it “probably one of the least relevant documents written by the Israeli government in recent years.” “It seems as though the report was written for use within Israel alone. The evidence and arguments that were presented might convince the already convinced, but no more than that.” Israel Hasson, a former head of the internal security agency Shin Bet, also denounced the report. “All this nonsense is so unprofessional, so off-mark, I just can’t understand why they’re dealing with it this way. How can you determine what killed a person, if you don’t have the body, don’t examine it and what hit it?” Hasson said on public radio. France 2 did not provide the original raw footage of the incident, said Yossi Kuperwasser, director general of the ministry of international affairs and strategy who penned the report.—AFP
EL-ARISH: The Egyptian army sent reinforcements into the Sinai Peninsula yesterday after President Mohamed Mursi said there would be no talks with militant Islamists who abducted seven members of the security forces last week. Islamist militants have expanded into a security vacuum in Sinai that the state has struggled to fill since a popular uprising swept autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011. The groups have launched attacks on Israel and targets in North Sinai. The kidnapping has highlighted lawlessness in the peninsula bordering Israel, enraged Egyptian security forces and piled domestic pressure on Mursi to act. Egyptian security forces have blocked border crossings into the Gaza Strip to pressure the government into helping free their colleagues. Witnesses saw armoured personnel carriers moving east yesterday over the Suez Canal towards North Sinai where militants staged the abduction and where gunmen assaulted a police base on Monday. They later arrived in the North Sinai town of El-Arish, accompanied by the commander of Egypt’s second field army. A military official said the extra military forces were dispatched to Sinai after a meeting on Sunday between the army command and Mursi, who has promised not to submit to blackmail by kidnappers demanding the release of jailed Islamists. Presidential spokesman Omar Amer said: “All options are on the table to free the kidnapped soldiers.” The state -run Al-Ahram newspaper said on its website that shipping in the Suez Canal had been briefly halted as the reinforcements crossed the waterway. “Our patience has run out,” AlAhram quoted a military official as saying in its print edition. As security began to unravel in the peninsula later in 2011, Israel agreed to
RAFAH: Egyptian protesters shout slogans while holding pictures of kidnapped soldiers Sayed Maslub (L) and Ahmed Abdelbadi (R) near the gate of the Rafah crossing border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip yesterday during a demonstration calling for the release of Egyptian security forces kidnapped by gunmen. — AFP Al-Masry Al-Youm, an independEgyptian requests to deploy more killed 16 Egyptian border guards. Mursi said on Sunday there ent newspaper, reported that partroops there than allowed by the countries’ 1979 peace treaty. The would be no talks with “the crimi- ents and friends of some of the Israeli defence ministry had no nals” - a reference to militants who men who appeared in the video immediate comment on the new adhere to a more radical school of had confirmed their identities. The Islam than the president’s Muslim video’s authenticity could not be deployment. independently confirmed. The Sinai is mainly a large Brotherhood. “In domestic political terms, The kidnappers are demanding swathe of rugged, thinly populated desert but its Red Sea coast has a the release of militants convicted Mursi is going to be damned if he string of international tourist last year of the attacks that killed does and damned if he doesn’t,” resorts. “Our impression is that the seven people, six of them members said Yasser El-Shimy, Egypt analyst Israelis are eager for Egypt to of the security forces, in 2011. A with the International Crisis Group. “If he negotiates, he will be critiimprove the security situation in video posted online on Sunday the Sinai, and it’s unlikely that they showed seven blindfolded men cised for being too lenient with would object,” said a Western diplo- with their hands bound above their Islamist militants, and if he tries to mat in Cairo. Egyptian security heads. They said they were the wage an operation to free them, forces launched a security opera- hostages, begging Mursi to free which may entail casualties, then tion to re-establish control in Sinai political detainees in Sinai in he is also going to be widely criticised.” —Reuters last August after an attack that exchange for their own release.
Man refused overdraft kills four in Israeli bank JERUSALEM: A gunman shot dead four people execution-style in a bank in Israel yesterday after being refused an overdraft and cash from its automatic teller machine. The assailant, identified by media reports as a former paramilitary border policeman, killed himself after police raided the Bank Hapoalim branch in the southern city of Beersheba to free his hostages. “It appears that we are talking about a lone individual who came to the bank in the morning hours, sought cover for a debt, a loan, and did not get it,” Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said on Army Radio. After finding that he could also not draw cash from the automatic dispenser, the man “came back with a pistol and shot dead four people ... bank employees and customers”, Aharonovitch said. “He took a hostage, held her for close to an hour or more. The moment the police forces burst in, he killed himself - shot himself and committed suicide,” he said, without disclosing the gunman’s identity. Police initially described the incident as a robbery but later said the assailant appeared to have known his victims and shot them without demanding any money. Witnesses quoted by Israeli media said the gunman first killed the bank guard and then shot three people who were lying on the floor, checking the pulse of one of them to make sure he was dead. Police initially announced that two gunmen had entered the bank and that one had been apprehended, but later said they were still investigating whether the second man was an accomplice. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the
BEERSHEVA: A woman hostage is evacuated by Israeli security forces following a bank robbery that escalated into a hostage situation in the Israeli city of Beersheva yesterday. Four people were killed and three others wounded in a botched bank heist in southern Israel which ended when a robber who had held a hostage shot himself dead, police said. — AFP incident a “great tragedy” for Israel, where soldiers carrying weapons are a common sight but gun laws are strict for private individuals. “It is not a common
event in Israel. An attack like this must not (be allowed) to recur,” Netanyahu said at a meeting of his Likud party faction in parliament. — Reuters
Bahrain court jails nine Shiites over ‘terrorist’ cell DUBAI: A Bahraini court sentenced nine Shiites to jail terms ranging between 10 and 15 years yesterday after convicting them of forming a “terrorist” group, a judicial source said. Cleric Ahmed al-Majed and a second defendant were jailed for 15 years, while a third defendant was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The three were the only defendants to appear in court, as the other six remain at large and were sentenced in absentia to 10 years, the source said. The first two were convicted of “forming an illegal group that aimed to jeopar-
dise the rule of law and obstruct state institutions from performing their duties... through using terrorism,” the source said, quoting the list of charges. The other seven defendants were accused of joining the group despite knowing of its “terrorist objectives.” All defendants were convicted for “possessing explosives,” the source added. Scores of Shiites have faced jail terms over accusations of involvement in violence since protests against the regime of the ruling Al-Khalifa Sunni dynasty erupted in February 2011. Despite a heavy-handed crackdown by
security forces in mid-March 2011, supported by Saudi-led Gulf troops, protesters were shortly back in the streets, mainly in Shiite villages, where they frequently clash with police. At least 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since Februar y 2011, according to the International Federation for Human Rights. Strategically located just across the Gulf from Iran, Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is also a major offshore financial and services centre for its Arab neighbours in the oil-rich Gulf. —AFP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
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S Africa officials ‘used Zuma name in wedding jet scandal’ PRETORIA: South African officials used President Jacob Zuma’s name to secure landing rights at a military air base to fly in guests for a lavish wedding hosted by a well-connected Indian family, a report released Sunday showed. The name-dropping was “very bad” and government officials should not have allowed themselves to be “intimidated” into accommodating the Gupta family, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe said as he presented the preliminary findings from an investigation into last month’s incident. The probe found that the family had been denied permission to land their chartered jet carrying guests at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg because it would have
disrupted normal operations. The family then turned to an Indian diplomat who wrongly told his South African government contacts that the wedding party was an official delegation, the report found. The Airbus 330 private jet was then cleared to land at the Waterkloof militar y base near Pretoria “based on false information and abuse of privileges”, according to the panel of ministers tasked with investigating the incident, which has embarrassed the government. The probe found that Zuma himself was not involved in the case but that his name, and those of the defence and transport ministers, had been used to manipulate official procedures. “The issue of name-dropping has been estab-
lished in this investigation,” Radebe said at a press conference in Pretoria, flanked by six ministers including those from defence, state security and foreign affairs. The landing of the plane “following the exercise of undue influence had the potential to compromise the credibility of the government... and could have caused severe reputational damage to the state itself,” he added. The wealthy Gupta family, which has close ties to Zuma and the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party, on Sunday issued a fresh public apology for the scandal. The family “wish to once again reiterate our apology for any embarrassment or inconvenience caused by the landing of the aircraft and
the events that followed.” “Our intention was simply to provide our daughter with a memorable wedding,” said the family in a statement late Sunday. “In the process, perhaps some misjudgments may have been made.” The incident drew widespread condemnation, with Zuma facing allegations of cronyism from political foes and rare public rebukes from his allies. A senior South African diplomat in charge of protocol and several police officers have been suspended for their role in allowing the aircraft to land at the restricted base. Bollywood stars and politicians were among the guests attending the nuptials of Vega Gupta, a niece of the powerful Gupta brothers who own several compa-
nies including Sahara Computers and the pro-government New Age newspaper. Their convoy of 121 vehicles was also granted a full police escort to the Sun City resort for the four-day affair billed as “the wedding of the year”. The report said that some of the cars had false registration numbers and estimated that nearly 200 police officers had been deployed for the convoy. Police are still carrying out further investigations that could lead to sanctions for those implicated in the scandal. International Relations Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane said she would share the probe’s findings with the Indian government, but for now ties between the two countries remained “robust”. — AFP
British PM Cameron faces rebellion over gay marriage Downing Street calls it a ‘wrecking amendment’
KIEV: An activist delivers a speech in front of Ukrainian Interior Ministry in Kiev yesterday, during a demonstration of journalists, organized by Ukrainian Journalists Union, calling for the minister’s resignation and thorough investigation and punishment of those responsible in the beating of journalists last Saturday. — AFP
Cleric Abu Qatada denied bail in Britain LONDON: Jordanian terror suspect Abu Qatada was yesterday denied bail in his latest legal skirmish with British authorities, who have been trying to deport him for a decade. The cleric has been in and out of British prisons since 2002 as he fights successive government attempts to send him to Jordan, where he has been convicted of terror charges in his absence. To ministers’ horror he was released from his latest stint in jail in November, but was arrested again in March for allegedly breaching his bail conditions. A judge at Britain’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC) ruled on Monday that the preacher, once dubbed Osama bin Laden’s right-hand man in Europe, should remain in custody. “There is no doubt about the national security threat which the appellant presents,” judge Stephen Irwin said. “This appellant has in the past fled in order to avoid a court order, equipping himself with a false passport. “He is highly intelligent, has a range of sympathetic and supportive contacts, and his risk to national security is undiminished. “We reject the submission that he can, even now, be relied on to comply with his legal obligations and not to attempt to abscond.” In a surprise move earlier this month, Abu Qatada’s lawyer told the court that the preacher would return to Jordan voluntarily if its parliament ratifies a treaty barring the use of evidence obtained by torture. The issue is at the heart of Britain’s long struggle to deport him to Jordan, where he faces a likely retrial over his alleged involvement in the planning of terrorist attacks. Last year the European Court of Human Rights blocked his deportation due to fears that evidence obtained through torture would be used against him in the new trial. SIAC ruled in November that he could be released despite posing a risk to national security. However, the cleric was sent back to jail in March after a stash of mobile phones, computer memory sticks and other digital devices were found in his home in what Irwin said was a “significant” breach of his bail conditions. Government lawyer Robin Tam said a USB stick found in the bedroom of Abu Qatada’s eldest son had contained schoolwork but also “jihadist files” including references to Al-Qaeda. Abu Qatada had admitted breaching bail conditions which prevent him from turning on mobile phones or possessing other communication devices at his taxpayerfunded home in London. But he claimed that he did not use the phones, several of which belonged to his wife and children. Abu Qatada’s lawyer Daniel Friedman had told SIAC that ahead of his return to Jordan, his client “wants to spend time with his family to prepare to leave the country in a manner that safeguards the dignity and security of all involved”. The preacher “has been deprived of his liberty more than any other non-convicted person in British history”, Friedman claimed. —AFP
LONDON: In this file picture taken on November 13, 2012 terror suspect Abu Qatada arrives at his home in northwest London, after he was released from prison. Jordanian terror suspect Abu Qatada was yesterday denied bail in his latest skirmish with British authorities, who have been trying to deport him for a decade. — AFP
LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron faced new splits within his Conservative Party yesterday as a divisive bill to legalise gay marriage returned to parliament. The bill was approved by a comfortable 225-vote majority when it was last debated despite the opposition of almost half of Conservative lawmakers. But dozens of disgruntled MPs are expected to deliver a blow to Cameron’s agenda by backing an amendment saying that if gay couples are allowed to marry, then heterosexual couples should also be able to have civil partnerships. The main opposition Labour Party, while it backs gay marriage, has hinted that it could join the Conservative rebels, because it argues that the government has failed to make a convincing case against extending civil partnerships. Cameron’s Downing Street office called it a “wrecking amendment” which could delay the passing of the gay marriage bill by up to two years and cost £4 billion ($6 billion, 4.7 billion euros) in pension changes. The delay would come because the government would need to work on the joint implementation of new rights for gay married couples and heterosexual couples in new civil partnerships. Lawmakers are allowed a free vote on gay marriage, meaning they are not required to follow party directions, because it is considered an issue of conscience. While Cameron, several sen-
ior party colleagues and his Liberal Democrat coalition junior partners back the bill legalising gay marriage, large sections of his party are fiercely opposed to the idea. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, warned against attempts to “hijack” proposals to legalise same-sex marriage. It comes at a time when Cameron is already under pressure from a large section of his fractious centre-right party over his stance on a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Grassroots Conservative supporters fear that with a general election two years away, Cameron’s support for gay marriage is driving Tory voters to the UK Independence Party (UKIP), which had its best ever electoral performance last month when it made gains in local elections. A letter signed by more than 30 current and former Conservative local association chairmen and handed to Cameron on Sunday gave an indication of the bitterness felt by some in his party. They accused him of “treating the membership with contempt” over the issue. “You have failed thus far to keep the manifesto promise you made to recognise and incentivise marriage through a tax break for married couples,” it said. “The bill could cost us the election... therefore, prime minister, for the sake of the well-being of the country and the integrity and future success of the party, we urge you not to continue with
your policy of re-defining marriage,” it urged. Culture Minister Maria Miller, who has responsibility for steering the legislation through parliament, has said she wants same-sex couples to be able to marry as early as the middle of next year. But last week, Defence Minister Philip Hammond, a senior Conservative, suggested that the bill was a waste of parliamentary time. “There is a real sense of anger among many people who are married that any government thinks it has the ability to change the definition of an institution like marriage,” Hammond said. The vote comes after a member of Cameron’s inner circle fiercely denied claims that he had branded grassroot party members as “mad, swivel-eyed loons”. Party co-chairman Lord Andrew Feldman, a schoolmate of Cameron’s at the elite Eton College, has strenuously denied rumours linking him with the statement and said he was considering legal action. Conservative backbenchers’ fears over the rise of UKIP prompted around 114 Tory MPs last week to back a motion in parliament expressing regret that the coalition government’s plans for the year contained no guarantee of a referendum on EU membership. France on Saturday became the 14th country to legalise gay marriage when Socialist President Francois Hollande signed it into law, despite fierce protests from the main opposition right-wing UMP party. — AFP
Riots in Stockholm over police shooting STOCKHOLM: Gangs of youth angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb early yesterday, forcing the evacuation of an apartment block.Around 50 youths were involved in the riots in the suburb of Husby, west of Stockholm, police spokesman Lars Bystrom said. The youths set light to a parking garage, compelling police to evacuate residents from an adjacent apartment block, Bystrom said. Residents were allowed to return home after a couple of hours. Husby is one of several neighborhoods of apartment blocks in western Stockholm occupied primarily by immigrants. Bystrom said police responded to calls of burning cars and were met by masked youths hurling rocks at them. Three officers were injured and several cars and buildings were damaged. However, residents said they had gathered to protest against the shooting death
and that police responded with sending in SWAT teams that cordoned off the area. “I understand that people react like this,” said Rami Al-Khamisi from the organization Megafonen, which represents citizens in Stockholm’s suburbs. The organization said police had used excessive violence against the youth and also attacked passers-by with batons and dogs. Police have launched an internal probe to investigate the shooting death on May 13 of a 69-year-old man in Husby . They say they shot the man in self-defense because he had attacked police with a knife when they broke down the door to an apartment, where he had locked himself up with a woman. However, Megafonen has criticized police for initially releasing a faulty report saying the man was taken to hospital. They said residents had seen his dead body being transported from the scene hours after the shooting in a hearse, which police later admitted was correct. —AP
STOCKHOLM: Police officers stand guard in a street during a riot in Stockholm, Sweden, yesterday. Gangs of youth apparently angered by the police shooting death of an elderly man hurled rocks at police and set cars and buildings on fire in a Stockholm suburb, forcing the evacuation of an apartment block. — AP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
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Canadian prime minister heads to Peru, Colombia OTTAWA: Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper heads to Peru and Colombia tomorrow and Thursday, looking to bolster trade with Latin America and beyond. Harper last traveled to Peru in 2008 for an APEC leaders summit, but this will be his first state visit, during which he will meet with President Ollanta Humala and his cabinet. Since a Canada-Peru free trade agreement took effect in August 2009, bilateral trade-largely in agricultural products, machinery, metals and mineral ores-has
doubled to Can$4.2 billion ($4.1 billion). Harper is expected to consult with Humala on bilateral and regional trade possibilities through the emerging Pacific Alliance, before he later meets with the group. The two are set to discuss the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed free trade agreement between Australia, Brunie, Chile, Canada, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. Japan has also expressed interest but is not yet a full negotiating part-
ner. Harper will also attend a leaders’ summit hosted by the Pacific Alliancecomprised of Chile, Colombia, Peru and Mexico-in Cali, Colombia, on Thursday. Bilateral trade between Canada and the four countries totaled Can$39 billion (US$38 billion) last year. Canada became an observer to the alliance in October and Harper is seeking to use the summit to bolster Canadian cooperation with the group. “Canada is committed to increasing trade with the Americas to create eco-
nomic opportunities for Canadians and people throughout the hemisphere,” the prime minister said in a statement. His spokesman Andrew MacDougall noted this would be Harper’s first opportunity to participate in the forum and “see what it has to offer.” The alliance-formed in 2011 — is still in its infancy and hammering out objectives. MacDougall stressed that Canada has “very strong relationships with all four of the founding countries and with many of the observer countries.”
In addition, Canada’s “participation in the meetings is important because it reinforces our strong and growing commercial engagement in both the Americas and the Asia-Pacific region,” he added. Canada is also engaged in trade negotiations with Chile, Mexico and Peru through the Trans-Pacific Partnership that aims to bolster trade between Asia and the Americas. Closed-door talks on the TPP are set to be held in Lima until Friday. But Harper will not join those discussions. — AFP
Tornadoes level homes in Oklahoma, one dead Twisters, hail and winds strike Iowa, Kansas
PHOENIX: Jodi Arias cries as Steven Alexander, brother of murder victim Travis Alexander, makes his “victim impact statement” to the jury in this May 16, 2013 file photo, during the penalty phase of the Jodi Arias trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Arias returned to court yesterday for the continuation of her trial after being convicted of murder in her lover’s killing as jurors consider a life sentence or execution. — AP
Cartel towns pose challenge for immigration reform MATAMOROS: Just across the Rio Grande from Brownsville, Texas, stands a dormitory-style shelter filled with people recently deported from the US and other migrants waiting to cross the border. The long rows of bunk beds offer immigrants a place to rest on their long journey. But the shelter is no safe haven in a town controlled by the Gulf cartel. Armed men once showed up and took away 15 men, who were probably put to work as gunmen, lookouts or human mules hauling bales of marijuana into the United States. As Congress takes up immigration reform, lawmakers may have to confront the reality of this place and others like it, where people say the current system of immigration enforcement and deportation produces a constant flow of people north and south that provides the cartel with a vulnerable labor pool and steady source of revenue. “This vicious circle favors organized crime because the migrant is going to pay ” for safe passage, said the Rev. Francisco Gallardo, who oversees immigrant-assistance efforts for the Matamoros Catholic diocese. If Congress sends more resources to the border, the government will also need to account for shifting patterns in immigrant arrests. The cartel controls who crosses the border and profits from each immigrant by taxing human smugglers. At the shelter, the cartel threat was so alarming that shelter administrators began encouraging immigrants to go into the streets during the day, thinking they would be harder to round up than at the shelter. There have been record numbers of deportations in recent years and tens of thousands landed in Tamaulipas already this year, the state that borders Texas from Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo. Arizona is often singled out as the busiest border crossing for immigrants entering the U.S., but more and more migrants are being caught in the southernmost tip of Texas, in the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley sector. Apprehension statistics are imperfect measures because they only capture a fraction of the real flow, but the arrest numbers are definitely shifting. Arrests in the Tucson, Ariz., sector dropped 3 percent last year, while Rio Grande Valley arrests rose 65 percent. In March alone, the Border Patrol made more than 16,000 immigrant arrests in the Rio Grande Valley sector, a 67 percent increase from the same month last year, according to the agency. Immigrant deaths are also up. The sector reported last month that about 70 bodies were found in the first six months of the fiscal year, more than twice as many as the previous year. The makeup of the immigrants apprehended here is changing, too, driven by people flowing out of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador. The Border Patrol made 94,532 arrests of nonMexican immigrants along the Southwest border last year, more than double the year before. And nearly half of those came in the Rio Grande Valley sector. The Border Patrol is responding by redirecting personnel, including sending most new graduates from its academy to the Rio Grande Valley, according to senior Border Patrol officials. When immigrants from Central America and Mexico arrive in Matamoros ahead of their trip to America, they are met by smugglers who have to pay the cartel tax for every person they take
across the border. Attempts to cross alone are met with violence. Some immigrants are kidnapped and their families extorted by the organization. Reported murders in Tamaulipas, the state that borders Texas from Matamoros to Nuevo Laredo, increased more than 250 percent in the past four years, according to the Mexican government. Official statistics are generally thought to undercount the real toll. Soldiers recently killed six gunmen in a clash in Matamoros. And yet, even with the highdegree of danger for immigrants crossing this part of the border, they keep coming. Central American migrants continue to use the route up the Gulf Coast side of Mexico and through Tamaulipas because it’s the shortest to the US, said Rodolfo Casillas Ramirez, a professor at Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales in Mexico City. The smugglers choose the route, and even if immigrants have heard about the violence in Tamaulipas, “they trust that the premium they’ve paid includes the right of passage,” he said. They continue to leave their home countries for economic reasons. Although the U.S. economy has provided fewer jobs for immigrants during the Great Recession and a long, slow recovery, opportunities south of the border have been even more limited, Casillas said. That’s why the Rev. Alejandro Solalinde, a Roman Catholic priest who founded a shelter for immigrants in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca, said the answer is in regional development, not increased border security. “This situation has grown because ultimately the migrants are merchandise and organized crime profits in volume,” he said during a recent visit to Matamoros. Rep. Filemon Vela, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee whose district includes Brownsville, said the immigration-reform debate has so far left out discussion of the security and economic development in Mexico. “The incentive for people to cross over illegally from Mexico will never subside until these individuals feel safe and until they are able to feed themselves and their families,” Vela said. At the 150-bed shelter, more than half of the immigrants have just been deported from the US, Gallardo said. The others are immigrants preparing to cross. He said shelter workers constantly chase out infiltrators who are paid by smugglers to recruit inside. At Solalinde’s shelter in southern Mexico, threats from organized crime forced them to bring in four state police officers and four federal ones, who have lived at his shelter for the past year as protection. Solalinde now travels with bodyguards after having fled Mexico for a couple of months last year following threats. One immigrant at the Matamoros shelter was a 48-year-old man who would only give his name as “Gordo” because he feared for his safety. He said he had arrived two days earlier after traveling from Copan, Honduras. Gordo said he had lived in Los Angeles for 10 years but had been in Honduras for the past four. He was trying to make it back to California, where he has a 15-year-old daughter. Asked about his prospects for successfully crossing the river, he said: “It’s difficult, not so much for the Border Patrol” but for the cartels. — AP
SHAWNEE: Tornadoes ravaged portions of Oklahoma on Sunday, reducing portions of a mobile home park to rubble and killing a 79-year-old man whose body was found out in the open. The tornado in Shawnee was one of several that touched down in the nation’s midsection Sunday. Twisters, hail and high winds also struck Iowa and Kansas as part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota. “You can see where there’s absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up,” Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said after sur viving damage in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park. “It looks like there’s been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour. “It’s pretty bad. It’s pretty much wiped out,” he said. Across Oklahoma, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Booth said six at Steelman Estates were hurt. Forecasters had been warning of a general storm outbreak since Wednesday, and for Sunday ’s storms some residents had more than a half-hour’s notice that a twister was on the way. Tornado watches and warnings were in
SHAWNEE: A tornado caused extensive damage along I-40 at the junction with US 177 on the west side of Shawnee, Okla, Sunday evening. — AP effect through late Sunday in much of the nation’s midsection. The trailer park was among the hardest-hit areas, and among the hardest to reach, as overturned tractor-trailers forced the closure of a section of a highway and power lines draped across roads to the south. James Hoke lives with his wife and two children in Steelman
Estates. He said the family went into their storm cellar as the storm approached. When they came out, their mobile home had vanished. “It took a dead hit,” Hoke said. A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth “scoured” at the mobile home park - using a term used by storm chasers to describe grass being ripped out by
high winds. Gov. Mary Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties that suffered from severe storms and flooding during the weekend. The declaration lets local governments acquire goods quickly to respond to their residents’ needs and puts the state in line for federal help if it becomes necessary. — AP
Gunmen shoot into California home, 10-year-old killed
WASHINGTON: A group of Muslim protesters demonstrate against Burma’s President Thein Sein’s visit in the US outside the White House in Washington, DC yesterday. Thein Sein will become the first leader of his country to visit the White House in nearly half a century, as Washington offers a strong symbolic gesture to back his reforms. — AFP
Obama hosts Myanmar leader in symbolic visit WASHINGTON: Myanmar President Thein Sein yesterday became the first leader of his country to visit the White House in nearly half a century, as Washington offers a strong symbolic gesture to back his reforms. In a scene that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago, the former general entered the White House and into talks with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office as a small crowd of protesters converged outside. Critics say Obama’s invitation was premature and takes pressure off Myanmar to address abuses such as recent anti-Muslim violence to which security forces allegedly turned a blind eye. Thein Sein, who took office as a nominal civilian in 2011, surprised even cynics by freeing hundreds of political prisoners, easing censorship and letting long-detained opposition icon Aung San Suu Kyi enter parliament. Speaking at the office of Voice of America on Sunday, Thein Sein said he would tell Obama that the reform path is stable but that Myanmar needed economic development - including a complete end to US sanctions. The most critical test of reform will come in 2015, when Myanmar is scheduled to hold elections - testing whether the military and its allies would be willing to cede power, potentially to Suu Kyi. In an interview with the Washington Post published yesterday, Thein Sein would not take a position on whether the Nobel laureate would be allowed to stand - saying the future direction of reform was up to parliament. But he is also not budging on the constitution’s allocation of 25 percent of seats in parliament to the armed forces, saying that the militar y preser ved Myanmar’s independence. Thein Sein told the
Post that the armed forces would “always have a special place” in government and life in Myanmar. The army seized control of the country then known as Burma in 1962, ushering in decades of isolation. Military ruler Ne Win in 1966 was the last leader to visit the White House, where he met president Lyndon Johnson. Obama has made Myanmar a key priority and visited in November. To some, Myanmar represents the biggest success from his pledge in his 2009 inaugural address to reach out to US foes if they “unclench” their fists. Many experts believe that a key motivating factor for Myanmar’s reforms was to ease its reliance on neighboring China, which developed an overwhelming influence in the proudly independent country amid US and European sanctions. In recent weeks, the United States ended sweeping restrictions on visas, and top trade official Demetrios Marantis visited Myanmar to start discussions on economic measures such as offering duty-free access for certain products. But in a signal ahead of Thein Sein’s visit, Representative Joe Crowley, who has long been active on Myanmar, introduced legislation to extend for one year a ban on the country’s gems - a key moneymaker for the military. Crowley, a member of Obama’s Democratic Party from New York, said he was “very concerned” about human rights violations in Myanmar, including “brutal attacks” in recent months against the Muslim minority. A recent Human Rights Watch report accused Myanmar of a “campaign of ethnic cleansing” against the Rohingya, a mostly Muslim minority who are not even considered citizens of the predominantly Buddhist nation.—AFP
SAN FRANCISCO: Authorities were searching for at least two gunmen who walked up to the door of a Nor thern California home and opened fire, killing a 10-year-old girl and injuring her parents. “ Whoever these gunmen were, they were directly outside the front door,” Sacramento County sheriff ’s spokesman Sgt. Jason Ramos said Sunday. “ This was not a drive -by. These gunmen approached the house and shot inside.” Sacramento County sheriff ’s officials suspected that a family member had gang ties. “You have to be hard pressed to think a 10-year-old girl was the intended target,” Ramos said. At least a dozen shots were fired from two guns at the house on Saturday night, killing Elvira Campos and injuring her parents, Ramos said. The names of the parents - both of whom were in their 40s and were expec ted to sur vive - were not released. The girl’s 14-year-old brother was playing video games in a back room and was not hurt. Detectives were canvassing the neighborhood for possible witnesses and forensic units were gathering evidence at the home Sunday, where a cluster of bullet holes marked a front window and more holes were found in the front door and a window frame. The family had lived in the home in an area about 11 miles northeast of downtown Sacramento for less than a year, Ramos said. There were no records of sheriff’s officials being sent there previously, he said. “I can’t even imagine what would bring people to do that,” neighbor James Corbett told The Associated Press. Corbett, who lives about three houses down from where the girl was shot, described the neighborhood as quiet, with a “bunch of young families.” On Sunday morning, about a half dozen grieving relatives arrived at the home, The Sacramento Bee reported. “We have no idea what happened - she was a very happy little girl,” Tony Reys, the uncle of the girl, told the newspaper. Sheriff’s officials were also investigating a separate shooting Sunday morning that took place not far from the home. The victim of that shooting - a 32-year-old man who survived - was “definitely a gang member” and detectives were looking at the possibility the shootings were related, Ramos said. — AP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
I N T E R N AT I O N A L Pakistan army will be watching Sharif’s cosying up to India ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s all-powerful military overthrew Nawaz Sharif 14 years ago and hustled him off into exile in handcuffs. Now he’s back as prime ministerelect, with the army watching his every move, especially steps planned to ease tension with arch-rival India. Sharif ’s Pakistan Muslim LeagueNawaz (PML-N) won 124 of 272 contested seats in this month’s parliamentary election. Its nearest rival, the Pakistan People’s Party, won just 31 in the first democratic handover of power since independence in 1947. But Sharif is inheriting an almostbroke nation that has been ruled by the military for more than half the 66 years since then. It is wracked by a Taliban insurgency, sectarian violence, daily power cuts and spiralling unemployment among its 180 million people. “Pakistan has so many problems that he needs the help and support of everybody, including the army,” said Shazad Chaudhry, a former air vice marshal. The question is: will the army give Sharif the freedom to do what he wants? The top source of potential friction is his aim to boost trade and ties with India. The two nuclear-armed neighbours have fought three wars since both became independent of colonial Britain, two over the still-disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Sharif’s policies towards India will be heavily scrutinised some in the army justify its massive budget on the potential threat from India - but there are signs the military may be slightly more amenable to overtures than in the past. In 1999, the army torpedoed Sharif’s attempts to improve relations by secretly sending soldiers disguised as militants to capture Indian outposts in the heights of Kargil, in the north of Indian Kashmir. When Sharif tried to fire Pervez Musharraf, his then-chief of army staff, Musharraf took power in a coup. Sharif has promised an inquiry into the Kargil invasion. Most officers believe that is a political move aimed mostly at containing Musharraf, who is now under house arrest in the capital, rather than a plan to punish senior officers. Sharif was at pains to absolve the military of blame for his overthrow at a recent news conference. “I never had any trouble with the army. The coup was staged by one single person,” he said. “The rest of the army was not taken into confidence. We have to work together.” Officers say they are watching three things closely: the formation of a commission to investigate the 1999 invasion; who replaces the army chief in November when his term expires; and how Sharif
plans to tackle militants, especially the Pakistan Taliban. The army distinguishes between “good” Taleban - who do not attack Pakistani security forces and fight in Afghanistan - and “bad” Taleban, who have killed tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Pakistan. Sharif favours talks with the Pakistan Taleban. Many in the military believe this could help address sokme individual grievances but they do not want any compromise on things like changing the Pakistani constitution. The army wanted to know if Sharif could unite Pakistan’s four provinces, each most likely headed by a different party, to rein in militancy, said Major General Mahmud Durrani, national security adviser under the previous government. Pakistani militants have previously enjoyed the backing of the army, which used them as a proxy to attack India. That has changed, officers insist, although elements within the military are still sometimes accused of supporting militant groups.India blamed elements of the Pakistani security forces for supporting gunmen who attacked the Indian city of Mumbai in 2008, something Pakistan strongly denied. Durrani said attitudes to India were slowly changing, meaning that top officers are unlikely to stand in the way of Sharif’s outreach this time. “For Pakistan to move ahead, it needs peace with India,” he said. “But the military will not just slink back to (the) barracks. It still has a lot of input on foreign policy and needs to be weaned off that gradually.” The current army chief, Ashfaq Kayani, obliquely refers to India as an “external threat” in speeches but also now mentions the “internal threat” of militancy - a significant change in rhetoric. “The army is now enlightened enough to understand the significance of peace with India,” one high-ranking officer said. “Everybody wants the Kashmir issue to be resolved.” But any changes would need to be slow and be matched with concessions from India, cautioned Durrani and Chaudhry, the former air vice marshal. “It’s a fallacy to imagine that foreign policy can be changed overnight,” Chaudhry said. “Can you wish away the problems with India? Can you wish away the problem of Kashmir?” Sharif may also benefit from divisions between generals over the controversial extension of the term of the chief of army staff, said analyst Ayesha Siddiqua, who has written extensively about the Pakistani military. —Reuters
India, China vow to end border dispute ‘Peace and tranquillity has to be preserved’ NEW DELHI: The Indian and Chinese premiers pledged yesterday to resolve a border dispute that has soured ties for decades, saying good relations between the two Asian giants were key to world peace. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, making his first foreign visit since taking office, said that Beijing was determined to build up trust with New Delhi as he and a team of ministers signed a series of joint agreements with India. His host, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also stressed he regarded a good bilateral relationship as crucial to the wider region’s development. Li’s visit comes after a flare-up last month in a long-running border dispute between the two countries in a remote Himalayan region. New Delhi accused Chinese troops of intruding nearly 20 kilometres (12 miles) into Indianclaimed territory, triggering a three -week standoff that was resolved when troops from both sides pulled back. The Line of Actual Control between the nuclear-armed neighbours has never been formally demarcated, although they have signed accords to maintain peace since the border region saw a brief Indo-Chinese war in 1962. Singh said there was now a mutual desire to resolve the dispute and that a joint working group would be established to reach a lasting agreement. “We agreed that our special representatives will meet soon to continue discussions seeking an early agreement on a framework for a fair, reasonable and mutually acceptable boundary settlement,” Singh said after talks with Li. “Peace and tranquillity on our border has to be preserved,” the Indian leader added at a joint news conference in New Delhi. Li said the border dispute was a historical hangover and that there was a desire on both sides to overcome it. “We have established the principles for settling the question,” Li
Court grants Musharraf bail in Bhutto murder RAWALPINDI: A Pakistani court yesterday granted bail to former military ruler Pervez Musharraf over the murder of Benazir Bhutto, an official said, but the retired general remains under house arrest. Musharraf has been detained in his farmhouse on the edge of Islamabad since April 19 on charges of conspiracy to murder two-time prime minister Bhutto, who was assassinated in a gun and bomb attack in 2007 in Rawalpindi. “General Musharraf’s bail has been confirmed” by an
anti-terrorism court in the garrison town of Rawalpindi, ISLAMABAD: In this Monday, April 15, 2013 photo, Pakistan’s former President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf gestures during a party meeting in Islamabad, Pakistan. Yesterday, a lawyer for Pakistan’s former military ruler says a judge has granted Pervez Musharraf bail in a case related to the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto. — AP
next to Islamabad, court official Mohammad Aslam Joya told AFP. The bail does not mean his automatic release as he also faces legal cases over the sacking of judges when he imposed emergency rule in 2007, and the 2006 death of a Baluch rebel leader. Judge Habibur Rehman has ordered Musharraf, who ruled Pakistan from 1999 to 2008 after seizing power in a coup, to pay two bonds worth one million rupees ($10,000) each, he added. Musharraf’s government blamed Bhutto’s killing on Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who denied any involvement and was killed in a US drone attack in 2009. The 69-year-old returned from exile in March to stand in last week’s general election, vowing to “save” the country from militancy and economic collapse but he was barred from running over charges dating back to his time in power. Taking the former chief of army staff into custody was an unprecedented move in a country ruled for more than half of its life by the military and was seen by many as a challenge to the armed forces’ power. Since Nawaz Sharif, ousted by Musharraf’s coup in 1999, won the May 11 general election there has been speculation a deal would be reached to allow Musharraf to leave Pakistan without facing the courts. But his lawyer Ahmed Raza Kasuri told AFP he would not flee. “He will get free from all cases one by one. He has got bail in Benzair Bhutto murder case today and will get bail from other cases very soon,” he said. “He will stay in the country and won’t go abroad. He will stay very much here. Rumours that he will go abroad before Nawaz Sharif takes charge of the prime minister office are false.” Prosecutor Chaudhry Azhar told AFP he opposed bail for Musharraf, saying there was a risk he would leave the country. The main prosecutor in the case, Chaudhry Zulfiqar, was shot dead on his way to court on May 3. — AFP
Imran Khan’s party wins Karachi election rerun KARACHI: The party of former Pakistani cricket hero Imran Khan secured victory in a repeat election held in one constituency of violenceplagued Karachi, election officials said yesterday. Voting was held under tight security in 43 polling stations on Sunday, a day after a senior official of Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party was shot dead outside her home in the city. Polling was re-run after complaints of ballot-stuffing in the upmarket district of the vast port city, Pakistan’s economic engine, during the May 11 general election. The PTI’s Arif Alvi secured 77,659 votes to beat his closest rival Khushbakht Shujaat of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) who polled 30,365 votes, election commission spokesman Najib Ahmed said giving the unofficial results. Troops, police
and paramilitary rangers backed up by armoured personnel carriers guarded polling stations in the NA250 constituency after PTI provincial vice-president Zahra Shahid Hussain was killed on Saturday night. Her death followed a bloody election campaign marked by more than 150 killings since mid-April. Khan was quick to pin the blame on the MQM and specifically its chief Altaf Hussain, who lives in exile in London, saying he had “openly threatened PTI workers and leaders through public broadcasts”. The outcome was not a surprise as the MQM boycotted Sunday’s partial polls after its demand for repolling in the entire constituency was rejected by the election commission. “Our victory in Karachi marks a
new era of peace, tolerance,” Alvi said. “The people have shown their strong will for a change in the political landscape of this city, which is the backbone of the country in all terms.” The MQM has long dominated in Karachi but lost seats at the election and senior party leader Farooq Sattar rejected the results of what he called the “farcical” re-run poll. The election was won by the Pakistan Muslim League (N) of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is set to serve an unprecedented third term as premier nearly 14 years after he was deposed in a coup. Khan’s party came in third, according to partial official results, behind the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) which led the outgoing coalition government. — AFP
NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, right, applauds as Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, addresses the media during a joint press conference in New Delhi, India, yesterday. Li said yesterday he chose India for his first foreign visit because cooperation between the world’s two most populous nations is crucial to world stability and economic growth. He was visiting India just weeks after the two nations resolved a tense standoff between their troops over the disputed Himalayan border between their two countries. — AP said. “Both sides believe we need to improve the border mechanisms that have been put into place and make them more efficient.. and appropriately resolve our differences. “The two sides should continue to advance the negotiations on the boundar y question and jointly maintain peace and tranquillity in the border area,” he added. Speaking earlier, Li had said that good relations between India and China would “be a true blessing for Asia and the world”. “World peace... cannot be a reality without strategic trust between India and China,” he added. India’s envoy to China later told reporters that the boundary issue was complicated and both countries would study the mechanisms that are currently in place to deal with it. “The two prime ministers
agreed that it (the issue) needed a detailed examination and that is what the special representatives have been charged with,” S. Jaishankar told reporters at a briefing on the visit. The comments followed signing ceremonies on a series of issues ranging from agriculture to tourism and trade. There was also an agreement to resolve a dispute over a Chinese plan to build three more hydropower dams across the crossborder Brahmaputra river, known in China as the Yarlung Tsangpo. Singh said he had raised Indian concerns about the Chinese activities “on the upper reaches of our shared rivers”. Li was also scheduled to meet foreign minister Salman Khurshid, ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and senior figures from the main opposition
Bharatiya Janata Party before heading today to India’s financial hub, Mumbai. China is a key India trading partner, with two-way commerce totalling $66.5 billion last year, and the two countries are hoping that figure will reach $100 billion by 2015. Several major roads in the Indian capital were closed to prevent Tibetan protesters from disrupting Li’s visit, and exile groups complained of heavy-handed policing in their neighbourhoods. Police detained three Tibetan protesters near the luxur y Taj Palace in the Indian capital where the Chinese premier was staying, an AFP photographer said. After wrapping up his visit to India, Li is due to travel to neighbouring Pakistan before heading to Switzerland and Germany. — AFP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
I N T E R N AT I O N A L
Cambodia opposition urges UN, EU help on fair polls PHNOM PENH: About 2,000 Cambodian opposition members yesterday marched through the capital Phnom Penh to appeal for the help of the United Nations and the European Union to ensure free and fair elections. It was the second time in less than a month that the opposition has taken to the streets of the Cambodian capital to demand election reforms and the return
of their leader-in-exile Sam Rainsy to contest polls on July 28. The demonstrators from the recently formed Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) marched with posters that read “Change The National Election Committee” and “No Sam Rainsy, No Free And Fair Election”. They submitted a petition at the EU delegation asking for the bloc’s intervention, and marched to the
United Nations rights office where party leaders briefly met with visiting UN envoy Surya Subedi. “We are seeking their intervention to push for reforms to the National Election Committee to ensure a free and fair election,” said Kem Sokha, deputy head of the CNRP. “We are also demanding that Sam Rainsy be allowed to fight in the election,” he told reporters. Prime Minister Hun Sen has
led the country since 1985 and Rainsy, his main challenger, is barred from running in the polls due to a string of convictions that the opposition says are politically motivated. Rainsy, who lives in exile in France to avoid prison, faces 11 years in jail if he returns, after he was convicted in absentia for charges that included publishing a “false map” of the border with Vietnam.
Hun Sen recently said he would step down as prime minister when he turns 74 having previously said he would serve until 90. The strongman premier has warned that Cambodia risks a return to war if the opposition wins due to Rainsy’s vow to prosecute members of the government for their alleged roles in the Khmer Rouge’s reign of terror in the late 1970s. — AFP
N Korea fires sixth missile in three days Pyongyang angrily rejects criticism
OSAKA: Osaka Mayor and co-leader of the Japan Restoration Party Toru Hashimoto (L) speaks before press at the Osaka city hall in Osaka, western Japan yesterday. A large majority of Japanese people disagree with a high-profile politician who said women forced to provide sex during World War II were a military necessity, polls issued yesterday. — AFP
Majority reject Japan mayor on comfort women: Poll TOKYO: A large majority of Japanese people disagree with a high-profile politician who said women forced to provide sex during World War II were a military necessity, polls issued yesterday said. Up to 200,000 “comfort women” from Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere were forcibly drafted into brothels catering to the Japanese military during WWII, mainstream historians say. Outspoken Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto said last week these women served a “necessary” role keeping battle-stressed soldiers in line, sparking outrage in China and South Korea and inviting US criticism. Two surveys carried out over the weekend indicated that Hashimoto’s opinion is not shared by many, despite regular foreign criticism that the Japanese public has still failed to come to terms with the country’s bellicose past. In a poll of 1,550 Japanese households conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun newspaper, 71 percent of respondents said Hashimoto’s comments were “inappropriate” against 21 percent who said the comments were “appropriate”. In a separate survey among 3,600 households by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper, 75 percent of those who answered said the comments were “problematic”, while 20 percent said they had little or no problem with them. The United States on Thursday condemned Hashimoto’s opinion as “outrageous”. In response, he claimed that American troops abused Japanese women during their seven-year occupation after Japan’s 1945 surrender. China, South Korea and the Philippines have all voiced their disapproval at
Hashimoto’s comments, the latest episode in a decades-long controversy over interpretations of history in East Asia that colours present-day relations. Unbowed, Hashimoto yesterday hit back at the polls, criticising their methodology. “The way the Mainichi did the opinion poll is unfair,” he tweeted. “Even though I have repeatedly said that I didn’t think the comfort women system was necessary, it is ... based on the premise that I believe the comfort women system was necessary.” The embattled mayor has tried to distinguish between forcing women into sexual slavery, which he says was wrong, and allowing troops to have a sexual outlet, which he says was necessary. Hashimoto, a lawyer by training, rose to prominence as an outspoken television talk-show guest. He rode the wave of his popularity into local politics and last year established a national party, becoming its joint leader. He has a reputation for colourful pronouncements that frequently and unapologetically offend. On Sunday he took to Twitter to demand that Tokyo do more to boost women’s rights at a Group of Eight summit taking place in Britain next month. “Japan should play a leadership role in looking at how countries in the world have trampled women’s rights on the battlefield,” he said. “Japan’s comfort women system was wrong. However, militaries in other countries used women. Nevertheless, the world only criticises Japan as it used ‘sex slaves’.” “A sex slave is something completely different from a comfort woman,” he said without elaborating. —AP
SITTWE: Rohingya men construct new barracks at Bawdupah’s Internally Displaced People (IDP) camp on the outskirts of Sittwe on May 18, 2013. Myanmar’s victims of sectarian strife were spared the full force of Cyclone Mahasen, but many are now returning to flimsy tents in flood-prone camps with the monsoon just weeks away. — AFP
After cyclone, Myanmar camps face monsoon threat SITTWE: Myanmar’s victims of sectarian strife were spared the full force of Cyclone Mahasen, but many are now returning to flimsy tents in flood-prone camps with the monsoon just weeks away. Myanmar’s Rakhine state is pockmarked with makeshift settlements for up to 140,000 people-mainly Rohingya Muslimsdisplaced by sectarian unrest last year that claimed about 200 lives and saw whole villages razed. Many were evacuated last week ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, which later veered into neighbouring Bangladesh. But most have now returned, according to Kirsten Mildren of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). “They are actually no better off than where they were last week before the storm,” she said, adding the cyclone was simply a “dress rehearsal” for the rainy season-set to hit in a few weeks. Many of the camps consist of little more than ramshackle bivouacs of bamboo and
tarpaulin flung up in soggy paddy fields. Sanitation is a key concern. Rain last week left standing water in many of the camps and Mildren said water-born diseases such as cholera were a particular fear. “Thousands are sheltering in areas that make them vulnerable and we need to find solutions to this, “ she said. “If one week of rain has done this, imagine what it’s going to be like in a couple of months.” Many Rohingya are completely reliant on humanitarian aid, with an almost total segregation of Buddhist and Muslim communities. A lack of adequate food has also raised fears about malnutrition among children, many of whom have gone without access to education for almost a year. “It makes me sad just to talk about our life here,” 55-year-old Hla Hla Myint told AFP, describing conditions at the Mansi camp near the state capital Sittwe. “Ants, leeches and earthworms come into our tents. We are living in the water. I am so sad. We have no food,” she said. —AFP
SEOUL: North Korea fired a sixth short-range missile into the Sea of Japan yesterday, defying warnings from UN chief Ban Ki-moon and South Korea after a flurry of similar tests at the weekend. The latest firing was confirmed by the South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), who said it was unclear if the North was testing guided missiles or rockets from multiple launchers. “North Korea launched two projectiles yesterday-one in the morning and the other in the afternoon,” a JCS spokesman told AFP. Such drills are not unusual but they come as the Korean peninsula is only just emerging from a period of particularly elevated military tensions triggered by the North’s nuclear test in February. In a statement yesterday, Pyongyang angrily rejected criticism that the missile exercises were a deliberate attempt to kick off a fresh cycle of tensions. “Military training ... is the indisputable right of any sovereign nation,” the North’s Committee for the Peaceful Reunification of Korea said. “Viciously taking issue with our military’s rocket firing training ... is an unacceptable challenge and a wanton provocation,” it said. North Korea fired three short-range guided missiles off its east coast on Saturday and another on Sunday. South Korea had labelled the weekend tests “deplorable”, while UN chief Ban Ki-moon urged Pyongyang to exercise restraint. “It is time for them to resume dialogue and lower the tensions,” Ban said in Moscow on Sunday. North Korea argues that the real provocation is coming from South Korea and the United States, which have carried out a series of small and large-scale joint military drills in recent months. The joint exercises have included the use of nuclear-capable B2 stealth bombers and, most recently, the participation of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Yesterday South Korea’s President Park Geun-Hye’s top security advisor, Kim Jang-Soo, again urged Pyongyang to desist from any more drills. “Whether it’s just a test or a show of force, the North should not get involved in actions that create tension,” Kim said. At one point, North Korea had been primed to test a pair of mediumrange missiles, but US intelligence said the
SEOUL: A mock Scud-B missile of North Korea, center, and other South Korean missiles are displayed at the Korea War Memorial Museum in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday. North Korea fired two more short-range projectiles into its own eastern waters yesterday for a third straight day of such launches, Seoul officials said, as Pyongyang threatened to retaliate against what it calls South Korean and US criticism of its sovereign rockets tests. — AP weapons were removed from their launch pads in early May. The most significant fallout from the recent months of sabre-rattling has been the withdrawal of both sides from the Kaesong joint industrial park which lies 10 kilometres (six miles) over the border in North Korea. Established in 2004 as a rare symbol of interKorean cooperation, Kaesong had come through previous crises on the Korean peninsula unscathed. In early April, however, the North ordered all of its 53,000 laborers working for the 123 South Korean companies in Kaesong not to report to work. Seoul responded by pulling out its personnel soon afterwards. South Korea has proposed formal talks on recovering stockpiles of raw materials and finished goods the South Korean firms left behind, but Pyongyang yesterday suggested any dialogue should focus on the overall future of the
project. “A more pressing issue than removing the finished goods is whether the complex will collapse or not,” said a spokesman for the North side of the management committee that runs Kaesong. Neither of the two Koreas has officially declared the complex closed, and Seoul has continued to supply a minimum amount of electricity. Owners of the South Korean firms in the complex said Monday that they were the victims of a catfight between Seoul and Pyongyang. “Entrepreneurs and company employees are being squeezed by the emotional struggle between the governments of the two Koreas,” an association representing the owners’ interests said in a statement. Some 200 CEOs and managers filed a request Monday to visit the complex, but the South’s Unification Ministry said North Korea would first have to agree to working-level talks. — AFP
China asks North Korea to release fishing boat, crew BEIJING: China is urging North Korea to release a Chinese fishing boat whose owner says it was seized by gun-toting North Koreans earlier this month and held for ransom, in the latest irritant in relations between the neighboring allies. Boat owner Yu Xuejun, who wasn’t aboard, first publicized the seizure on his microblog late Saturday, and yesterday posted that his terrified captain had communicated to him a new deadline to pay a ransom. “My captain gave me the phone. His voice was trembling. Could feel he was very afraid. Told me no later than 5 p.m. today,” Yu wrote on a verified Tencent Weibo account. The tweet was accompanied by photos of the captain and 15 sailors. Yu wrote over the weekend that North Koreans seized his boat May 5 in what he maintained were Chinese waters, and that they demanded a 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom. Yu was quoted by the Southern Metropolis on Sunday as saying the North Korean side had first asked for the ransom to be paid by noon Sunday to a company in Dandong, a city in northeastern China on the North Korean border, or that they would confiscate the boat and repatriate the crew. Yu wrote yesterday that he suspects his crew had been mistreated. The seizure of the Liaoning-based boat adds to China’s frustration with North Korea over its recent tests of nuclear and rocket technologies in defiance of international efforts to curb the country’s nuclear ambitions. In addition, the Chinese government is under intense pressure domestically to ensure the safety of citizens who venture abroad or out to sea to seek their livelihoods. Another abduction by North Koreans of Chinese fishermen about a year ago - along with allegations they were beaten - sparked furious criticism among Chinese online. “Whatever you call North Korea rogue state or whatever - these kind of cases just keep happening,” a Liaoning Maritime and Fishery
Administration official who identified himself only by his surname, Liu, said Monday. “We had such cases last year and the year before. There’s very little we can do to prevent them.” Yu’s post asking for help from Internet users and China’s Foreign Ministry was reposted and commented on more than 13,000 times. In a sign that he was trying to increase pressure on the government, he wrote on Monday afternoon: “We can only hope the country can defend our rights.” “My boat was captured by foreign forces in my country’s own waters. Of course we hope the government will support us fishermen and protect our lives and property,” Yu wrote in response to a posted question on what he wanted the government and military to do. At a routine Chinese Foreign Ministry briefing in Beijing, spokesman Hong Lei declined to answer a question about who China
believed was behind the boat seizure, but made clear it was looking for the North Korean government to deal with it. “China already filed a representation to North Korea through relevant channels, urging North Korea to properly handle the case as soon as possible, and earnestly ensure the fishermen’s legal rights and safety and their property,” he said. The official Xinhua News Agency, in its first report of the incident late Sunday, said Chinese diplomats in the North Korean capital had received a request for help from Yu as early as May 10, and that they had demanded at the time that North Korea release the boat. In an interview with China’s Global Times newspaper, Yu said the kidnappers expertly removed a pair of global positioning systems and confiscated all communication devices after boarding the boat. He also told the paper that he couldn’t
afford the ransom and was concerned that the 20 days’ food supply onboard would run out soon. In May of last year, a North Korean boat hijacked three Chinese boats with 29 fishermen on board, reportedly for a ransom of $190,000. Two weeks later, the fishermen were freed - some of them stripped of everything but their long johns and were widely quoted in Chinese media on their return as saying they had been beaten and starved. A report by the Washington, D.C.based Center for Strategic and International Studies in November last year said that the seizure of Chinese fishing boats by North Koreans to extract a payoff was “not unprecedented.” It said that what was exceptional in last year’s case was the publicity, whipped up by the vessels’ owners and families of the captured sailors who were dissatisfied by the inaction of local officials. —AP
PYONGYANG: Local residents rest on a pier in a fishing village at Dalian Bay fishing port in Dalian, northeast China’s Liaoning province yesterday. China has called on Pyongyang to intervene over North Koreans detaining a Chinese fishing boat from Dalian, authorities said yesterday, after the vessel’s owner said armed hijackers had demanded a ransom for 16 sailors. — AFP
NEWS
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
A picture taken on May 3, 2013, shows Vladimir Kouklatchev performing with a cat during a show in the Moscow Cat Theatre, founded by his father, famous Russian clown Yuri Kouklatchev, shortly before the fall of the USSR. The theatre was recently reopened after a top to bottom renovation. — AFP
Hezbollah suffers big losses in Syria Continued from Page 1 and secure links between the capital and government strongholds in the Alawite coastal heartland via the contested central city of Homs. The government campaign has coincided with efforts by the United States and Russia, despite their differences on Syria, to organise peace talks to end a conflict now in its third year in which more than 80,000 people have been killed. A total of 100 combatants from both sides were killed in Sunday’s offensive, according to opposition sources, including the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Troops have already retaken several villages around Qusair and have attacked increasingly isolated rebel units in Homs. “If Qusair falls, God forbid, the opposition in Homs city will be in grave danger,” said an activist who called himself Abu Jaafar AlMugharbil. State news agency SANA said the army had “restored security and stability to most Qusair neighbourhoods” and was “chasing the remnants of the terrorists in the northern district”. Syrian television also showed footage of what it said was an Israeli military jeep which it said the rebels had been using and which showed the extent of their foreign backing. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the vehicle was decommissioned a decade ago and dismissed the footage as “poor propaganda”. Opposition activists said rebels in Qusair, about 10 km (six
miles) from the Lebanese border, had pushed back most of the attacking forces to their original positions in the east of the town and to the south on Sunday, destroying at least four Syrian army tanks and five light Hezbollah vehicles. The Western-backed leadership of the Free Syrian Army, the loose umbrella group trying to oversee hundreds of disparate rebel brigades, said the Qusair fighters had thwarted Hezbollah with military operations it dubbed “Walls of Death”. Syrian government restrictions on access for independent media make it hard to verify such videos and accounts. The fighting raged as Western nations are seeking to step up pressure on Assad - Britain and France want the European Union to allow arms deliveries to rebels - while preparing for the peace talks brokered by Russia and the United States next month. British Foreign Secretary William Hague said “no option is off the table” over the possible arming of rebels if the Syrian government does not negotiate seriously at the proposed talks. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has shielded Syria from UN Security Council action, said Syrian opposition representatives must take part without precondition, apparently referring to their demands for Assad’s exit before they come to the table. Assad has scorned the idea that the conference expected to convene in Geneva could end a war that is fuelling instability and deepening Sunni-Shiite rifts across the Middle East. “They think a political conference will
Egypt faces pressure to end alcohol sales Continued from Page 1 Since the fall of Mubarak, Islamists long-suppressed by his regime have set up political parties and gained a voice in the media. In June, Mohamed Morsi, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected Egypt’s first civilian president. Consuming alcohol is banned under sharia, Islamic law, which is the main source of legislation according to Egypt’s new constitution. But Aziz was doubtful the government would move to prohibit the sale of alcohol completely. “I don’t think the government will ban alcoholic drinks because they generate a lot of revenue from taxes,” said Aziz, who recently renewed his shop’s alcohol licence without any difficulty. “We have had no problems with the government so far. Our problems are always with the Salafists (ultraconservative Islamists) who harass us, either verbally or with violence,” he told AFP. Earlier in May, gunmen opened fire on a cafe in the north Sinai town of El-Arish that sold alcohol, killing a waiter. Officials from Morsi’s government have made a string of statements in recent months that have raised the spectre of tighter restrictions on alcohol sales. The government doubled beer tax to 200 percent this month, with taxes on other alcoholic drinks rising from 100 percent to 150 percent. In February, the New Urban Communities Authority said it would stop issuing alcohol licences to new housing developments, and in March Aviation Minister Wael Al-Maadawi announced plans to ban alcohol in the duty free shops his ministry runs. But authorities say no formal instructions have been issued banning the sale of alcohol. Sherif, who did not want his last name used, manages Drinkies, an outlet for Al Ahram Beverages, Egypt’s largest liquor store chain. He said they had not had any problems with authorities. “The police give us no trouble, we get our licence renewed,” he said. But he says statements by Islamists, who oppose the sale of alcohol and
drinking on religious grounds, are worrying. “We have hired extra security outside the shops,” Sherif told AFP. Another employee at the store, Samir, said they have to endure insults from passers-by because they sell a product that is prohibited by Islam. “We’re not forcing anyone to buy alcohol,” Samir said. “Drinking alcohol is a personal issue,” said Galal, a customer at Drinkies. “It’s not for anyone to interfere.” Despite the absence of official restrictions, many liquor stores are covering their storefronts because of pressure from society, residents told AFP. At a duty free shop in central Cairo, employees said they would welcome a ban, even though they know it is unlikely because 80 percent of their revenue comes from alcoholic drinks. “I am for a ban because it’s forbidden (in Islam) and it’s against our customs, regardless of the Islamists being in power,” said Shaimaa Hassan. Mohammed Zeidan, a spokesman for the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) - the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood - insists that in Islam “what is allowed is clear, and what is banned is clear”. He said the current laws do not represent the views of the FJP. “The laws that would satisfy us will be drafted by the people through their members of parliament,” said Zeidan. Egypt has been without a parliament for almost a year after a top court declared it unconstitutional for technical reasons. The price of a bottle of beer in Egypt has risen from 7.5 Egyptian pounds (around $1.10) to almost 12 Egyptian pounds. According to the 2013-2014 budget, the government expects tax revenues of around one billion Egyptian pounds ($220 million) from beer alone, six times the amount of the previous budget. “Of course raising taxes on beer can be seen as a restriction but it also leads to more revenue for the government,” said economist Mahmud Negm. “The figures show that the Egyptian government needs Egyptians to drink more beer, and not restrict them,” he said. — AFP
More heads roll in oil sector shakeup Continued from Page 1 The government boycotted the Assembly sessions on May 14 and 15 after five MPs filed two separate requests to grill the oil and interior ministers over alleged violations that included the $2.2 billion payment to Dow. Rashed however insisted that the highly anticipated ruling of the constitutional court on the amendment of the electoral constituency law was not discussed as the issue is totally left to the court and all are obliged to respect its verdict. The speaker also said the Amir told them he is following the great
achievements of the Assembly and is very pleased with the achievements. He said members of the delegation were pleased with the satisfaction of the Amir over the achievements. Meanwhile, Shiite MP Saleh Ashour charged yesterday that some ministers are conspiring against the Assembly with the aim to make it fail. Ashour said that the political situation in the country is unstable and “unfortunately, plots are being hatched against the National Assembly by some ministers in cooperation with some influential people with the aim to make it a failure.” He provided no
names. The lawmaker also criticized the government’s decisions to make key appointments or force senior government bureaucrats who served 30 years and above to retire, adding that the government which has resigned is not allowed to make such important decisions. Ashour also charged that a number of MPs are negotiating with the government to become members in the next Cabinet, describing such moves as a conspiracy. Ashour warned that the government will have to bear the political consequences of continuing to boycott the Assembly sessions.
halt terrorists in the country. That is unrealistic,” he told the Argentine newspaper Clarin, in a reference to Syria’s mainly Sunni rebels. Assad ruled out “dialogue with terrorists”, but it was not clear from his remarks whether he would agree to send delegates to a conference that may in any case falter before it starts due to disagreements between its two main sponsors and their allies. The fractured Syrian opposition is to discuss the proposed peace conference at a meeting due to start in Istanbul on Thursday, during which it will also appoint a new leadership. Attacks by troops and militias loyal to Assad, who inherited
power in Syria from his father in 2000, have put rebels under pressure in several of their strongholds in recent weeks. Assad, from Syria’s minority Alawite sect, has been battling an uprising which began with peaceful protests in March 2011. His violent response eventually prompted rebels to take up arms. Hezbollah has supported Assad throughout the crisis but for months denied reports it was fighting alongside Assad’s troops. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the Hezbollah casualties on Sunday at 28 dead and more than 70 wounded, while 48 rebel fighters and four civilians were also killed. — Reuters
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TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
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What Muslim parents tell their kids By Naazish YarKhan ike all parents, Muslim parents have their fair share of do’s and don’ts for their children. Unlike most parents though, terrorism and how to handle its misguided association with Islam figures in some of our talks. In the wake of the Boston bombings and given that one of the suspects was only a few years older than my own boy, the need for us to talk with Yousuf took on even greater urgency. Conversations usually begin with “most Americans recognise that not all Muslims are violent just because a few are,” and progress to “but I still don’t want you to talk about bombs, guns or shooting, even if it’s a game you’re discussing”. These are tough conversations to have with an 11-year old, but they’re discussions we cannot avoid. As Muslim parents, we recognise just how vulnerable our children are. The harder conversations go something like this: “If you are harassed or teased and called a terrorist, tell a teacher.” When my 11year old insists that is tattling, I explain that even if it makes him look weak, it’s wiser to tell a teacher than to navigate these waters alone. I don’t want him to get into a potential argument because there’s a chance it could escalate. Best-case scenario, my child could put up a brave front, maybe while fighting back tears. Worst-case he could push back and end up suspended. Like the rest of the nation, I feel such regret and sadness that the Boston bombing suspects, both well-liked seemingly well-integrated young men, came to be so terribly misled. As a parent, I also recognise the agony their mother and father must have felt, watching helplessly, from thousands of miles away, as their children were hunted and gunned down. As much as I fear I will alarm him with talk of the bombings in Boston, I take on the subject. “If there are Muslims who try to tell you it’s okay to be violent, remember what your parents have taught you. In Islam, war is between militaries alone - no civilians, women, children, schools, hospitals and other civic amenities can be targets.” A preteen, my son actually listens to me and shares his thoughts and concerns. Shielding him from these difficult discussions today may mean losing an opportunity to imprint the idea that, in Islam, taking an innocent life is tantamount to killing all of humanity. Not talking about this may mean throwing away a chance to warn my child that he needs to be conscious of those who may try to lead him astray. I talk about how terrible the bombings have been for the victims and their families. “If you, as you grow older, have issues with the policies of any nation or differences of opinion, civic involvement is the way to change the status quo, not violence,” I drill into his young mind. I reiterate that there are acceptable and unacceptable ways to address issues and differences of opinions, violence not being an option. I fear there may be a time when we aren’t there to be a sounding board for our kids. As my son takes in every word, I quietly hope I’m not scaring him. Frustrated, my son asks, “Why do some Muslims have to go and mess it up for the rest of us?” “Because, somehow, they’ve come to believe that their actions are justified,” I respond. “But they aren’t,” I am quick to add. But there is more on my mind that I don’t bring up. I don’t get into a tirade about how the media ties this crime to our faith or calls it a return to terrorism to US shores. What about the Sandy Hook murderer who opened fire on little children? Deemed mentally ill, no ties were drawn to an ideology for his actions. Or the white supremacist, who shot and killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin? He was not considered a terrorist by the media. Why are only Muslim suspects’ and criminals’ actions automatically motivated by faith? These thoughts aren’t far from my mind, but I don’t need to add that kind of baggage to this conversation with my 11-year old. He has enough on his plate.
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Naazish YarKhan is a writer, publicist and communications strategist in the Chicago area. — 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.
‘War on mosque By Mohamad Ali Harissi “war on mosques” - deadly attacks by militants on Sunni mosques and Shiite places of worship called husseiniyahs - using weapons ranging from bombs to mortar rounds is raging in Iraq. Dozens of attacks this year have stirred already-simmering sectarian tensions between Iraq’s Sunni minority and Shiite majority, and led some would-be worshippers to stay away. “There is an increase in the frequency of reciprocal attacks targeting Sunni and Shiite mosques,” political analyst Ihsan Al-Shammari told AFP. “It is a war on mosques.” Iraqis have lived with near-daily violence since the 2003 US-led invasion of the country that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, and militants still attack both security forces and civilians almost each day. Now, they have set their sights on mosques as well. In one of the deadliest attacks, two bombs exploded near the Sunni Saria mosque in Baquba, north of Baghdad, after prayers on Friday. One device blew up as worshippers were leaving, and the second went off after people gathered at the scene of the first blast, killing a total of 41 people. The attacks came after a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-rigged belt on Thursday at the entrance to Al-Zahraa husseiniyah, where family members were receiving condolences for victims of violence the day before. That bombing killed 12 people. And there have been many more such attacks. Sheikh Sami Al-Massudi, deputy head of the Shiite endowment which manages Shiite religious sites in Iraq, said that more than 45 mosques and husseiniyahs belonging to the endowment have been targeted this year. And an official from the Sunni endowment said that more than 10 mosques had come under attack in the past month alone. “We are threatened, to the point that we did not go to work last Monday after we received threats,” the official said. It is unclear which group or groups are behind the violence. Sunni militants are almost certainly behind attacks on Shiite places of worship. But Sunni mosques may be attacked by either Shiite militants, or by Sunnis punishing worshippers for not adhering to a hardline interpretation of Islam. Whoever is behind the bombings, they have certainly had an effect on attendance. “I stopped going to pray after the closure of the mosque near our house because of the attacks,” said Ihsan Ahmed, a 25-year-old Sunni. A bomb killed the muezzin, who calls worshippers to prayer, at the mosque about two weeks ago, Ahmed said. “All this happened in front of my eyes. How can I go again? Even my wife and my children prevent me from going,” he said. Ali, a 29-year-old Shiite, said that some people have become afraid to go to husseiniyahs for prayers as well.
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“People have become reluctant to go to husseiniyahs, but I did not stop,” Ali said. On Sunday, Prime Minister Nuri AlMaliki called for joint Shiite-Sunni prayers on Fridays in a major Baghdad mosque. “Those who target mosques are enemies of Sunnis and Shiites alike, and are planning to ignite (sectarian) strife,” he said in a statement. Tensions are festering between the government of Maliki, a Shiite, and Sunnis who accuse authorities of marginalising and targeting their community through wrongful detentions and accusations of involvement in terrorism. Protests broke out in Sunni areas of Iraq almost five months ago. While the government has made some concessions, freeing prisoners and raising the salaries of Sunni anti-Al-Qaeda fighters, the underlying issues have not been addressed. On April 23,
security forces moved against protesters near the town of Hawijah in Kirkuk province, sparking clashes that killed 53 people. Dozens more died in subsequent unrest that included revenge attacks on security forces, raising fears of a return to the all-out sectarian conflict that ravaged the country between 2006 and 2008. The violence has not let up in May, with more than 260 people killed in attacks so far this month. United Nations envoy Martin Kobler has appealed for Iraqi leaders to bring a halt to the violence, including the attacks on mosques. “It is the responsibility of all leaders to stop the bloodshed,” Kobler said. “Small children are burned alive in cars. Worshippers are cut down outside their own mosques. This is beyond unacceptable.” —AFP
An Iraqi security officer stands outside the Sunni 17 Ramadan Mosque in Al-Firdos Square on May 18, 2013 in the Iraqi capital Baghdad. — AFP
Aging Yahoo! faces new Tumblr generation By Rob Lever ahoo! is under two decades old and is already showing signs of age. Tumblr, the cool blogging platform, represents a new generation. This split marks both a challenge and an opportunity for the firms, after the announcement that Yahoo! is buying the six-year-old startup for $1.1 billion, mainly in cash. “Yahoo users are behind the curve, Tumblr users too cool for school,” said Arvind Narayanan, a Princeton University computer scientist, in a tweet. “From this POV (point of view) the acquisition seems ironically appropriate.” Tumblr could be key to Yahoo! because of its popularity with younger Internet users. A survey this year conducted by the online data group Survata found Tumblr more popular than Facebook among those aged 13 to 25. “Yahoo skews toward older demographics. Tumblr is ridiculously strong among Millennials,” said a tweet from Brian Solis, analyst with Altimeter Group. Some comments posted on Tumblr as the news broke highlighted this generation gap, as if their parents were intervening to spoil the party. “YAHOO, CLOSE TUMBLR AND YOU’LL DIE!” one Tumblr user wrote. Another wrote: “Dear Yahoo ... If you change anything, we will show up at your headquarters with fire and pitchforks. Don’t try us.” Still another posted: “Please leave Tumblr alone. You acquired it for the cool factor... Don’t tinker with it; don’t change it ... Leave it alone.”
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Yahoo! chief executive Marissa Mayer, in announcing the deal, pledged to allow Tumblr to remain independent, while integrating technology and advertising opportunities. “Per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business,” Mayer said in a statement. “David Karp will remain
CEO. The product, service and brand will continue to be defined and developed separately with the same Tumblr irreverence, wit, and commitment to empower creators.” Karp echoed those comments, saying in his own blog post: “We’re not turning purple,” in reference to the Yahoo! portal’s signature color. But some analysts it could be hard for
A picture taken yesterday in Paris shows logos of Tumblr and Yahoo! on the screen of tablets. Yahoo! bought the popular blogging platform Tumblr for $1.1 billion. — AFP
Mayer to keep her promise of keeping Tumblr independent while seeking ways to make the deal pay off. “If I’m the CEO of Tumblr I would be concerned,” said Daniel Odio, senior vice president of Californiabased Internet firm Share This, who has been involved in a number of technology startups. “Marissa is promising to keep it independent, but I just don’t buy it. Just looking at history, I would say that the culture that makes Tumblr special is going to change,” Odio told AFP. Roger Kay, analyst with Endpoint Technologies Associates, also was skeptical about integrating the two different firms. “There’s a particular thing in the hacker culture, and it is difficult for a large bureaucratic company like Yahoo! to keep that alive,” Kay said, “Yahoo! once upon a time was an entrepreneurial company with all the spirit that Tumblr has, but they have been though a number of retreads. The best programmers have long since gone to other places.” Kay said the deal also could prompt some of the staff at Tumblr, many of whom will get a big windfall from the deal, to cash out and move elsewhere. “Marissa Mayer might have thought that she was buying a staff, but this is a place where you can least expect people to stick around,” Kay said. “What they are buying is a bunch of code, and the customers and maybe the revenue stream,” he said. “You can’t assume you’re buying the talent. The talent likes to decide which master they want to serve.” — AFP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
S P ORTS
Pistorius rules out return
Sporting appoint new coach
CAPE TOWN: South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius, who is charged with murdering his girlfriend, will not compete in any events this year, local media reported yesterday. The sprinter’s agent had previously said August’s world championships in Moscow were “on the radar” after Pistorius’ bail conditions were relaxed on March 28 and the 26-year-old was granted permission to travel abroad. But the double amputee, nicknamed ‘Blade Runner’, will not return to the track in 2013 according to his coach, Ampie Louw. “We have decided as a team we are not talking any training or athletics. We have postponed (races) for the whole year,” Louw told South Africa’s EyeWitness News. “He is nowhere close to being in a position to train. He just does fitness exercises in the morning with his family.” Pistorius is accused of premeditated murder after shooting Reeva Steenkamp in his Pretoria home on Feb. 14. His next court appearance is scheduled for June 4. After his arrest, Pistorius cancelled scheduled appearances in March, April and May in Australia, Brazil, the United States and Britain.—Reuters
LISBON: Troubled Portuguese soccer club Sporting have appointed Leonardo Jardim as their sixth coach in just over two years of difficulties on and off the pitch. “Leonardo Jardim will coach the senior team next season, with a contract valid until June 2015,” Sporting wrote in a communication to market regulator CMVM (www.cmvm.pt) yesterday. The 38-year-old Jardim, who unexpectedly parted company with Greek club Olympiakos in January even though they were leading the league at the time, replaces Jesualdo Ferreira, who failed to secure the target of a Europa League spot for the Lisbon club. Sporting finished seventh in the championship with 10 defeats and nine draws, in one of their worst seasons. Before his spell in Greece, Jardim led Braga to third place in the 2011-2012 season. Sporting are considered one of Portugal’s big three clubs, along with Porto and Benfica, but have run into financial trouble and been forced to sell several key players, including top Dutch striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel who went to Premier League side Norwich.—Reuters
Vettori joins NZ squad LONDON: Former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori could play his first Test for 10 months after spinner Bruce Martin was ruled out of the rest of the tour of England with a calf injury. “Bruce Martin out of England tour, Dan Vettori to join squad early, BJ Watling making good progress,” New Zealand Cricket tweeted yesterday. Wicketkeeper Watling hurt his knee on Saturday diving to make a run-out and captain Brendon McCullum took over the gloves for the rest of the first Lord’s Test which New Zealand lost by 170 runs. Vettori, who has been struggling with a longterm Achilles injury, was originally included in New Zealand’s one-day squad that will also contest the Champions Trophy in June but not the test side. The second and final Test starts at Headingley in Leeds on Friday. “Daniel’s come over 24 hours earlier for us to have a chance to have a look at him,” New Zealand coach Mike Hesson was quoted as saying by the BBC. “We won’t risk Dan for the sake of a test but, in saying that, it is an important test match for us. “We won’t be pushing Dan if he’s not ready but if he is we’d certainly love to have him.”—Reuters
Rangers tame Tigers
PHILADELPHIA: Joey Votto No. 9 of the Cincinnati Reds throws to first after fielding the ball in the fifth inning of the game against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. —AFP
Phillies edge Reds PHILADELPHIA: Freddy Galvis and Erik Kratz each homered off closer Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth innings Sunday, helping the Philadelphia Phillies secure a stunning 3-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds. Chapman (3-2) blew his second straight save opportunity after converting his first eight chances this season. Antonio Bastardo (2-1) pitched a scoreless ninth inning for Philadelphia. Jay Bruce homered and Homer Bailey tossed seven scoreless innings for the Reds. Joey Votto went 2 for 4 in extending his hitting streak to eight games. He is batting .515 (17 for 33) over the stretch. Chase Utley’s RBI single in the eighth inning snapped the Phillies’ 16 scoreless innings skid. MARLINS 2, DIAMONDBACKS 1 In Miami, Ricky Nolasco struck out 11 as the Marlins stopped a season-high seven-game losing streak by holding off Arizona. The Diamondbacks scored once in the ninth. Mike Dunn, the Marlins’ third pitcher of the inning, got pinch-hitter A.J. Pollock to ground out on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded to end it. Marcell Ozuna broke a scoreless tie with a two-run double in the sixth. Didi Gregorius had three hits for Arizona, which had won four in a row. Nolasco (3-5) was coming off his worst start of the season, allowing six runs in five innings in a loss to Cincinnati on Tuesday. Wade Miley (3-3) gave up two runs and five hits in six innings while striking out six. CARDINALS 4, BREWERS 2 In St. Louis, David Freese had an RBI in a four-run fourth inning to go with big plays at third base, helping the Cardinals beat former teammate Kyle Lohse for the third time this season. John Gast (2-0) won his second straight start in place of the injured Jake Westbrook and fellow rookie Seth Maness escaped a bases-loaded, noneout jam in the seventh to help the Cardinals win for the 14th time in 17 games. Edward Mujica earned his 13th save in 13 chances after a third rookie, Trevor Rosenthal, gave up a hit in the eighth. Lohse (1-5) has lost all three of his starts against St. Louis after going 16-3 for the Cardinals last season and then leaving in free agency when they opted to go with younger players. He gave up four runs in six innings, and is 0-4 overall in his last five starts. Yuniesky Betancourt and Jeff Bianchi each drove in a run and Norichika Aoki had three hits and a walk for the Brewers, who have lost 14 of 17. METS 4, CUBS 3 In Chicago, Daniel Murphy hit a tiebreaking home run in the eighth inning as the Mets beat the Cubs for their first series win at Wrigley Field since 2007. The Mets won two of three on this trip to Chicago. Murphy hit a leadoff shot against reliever Kyuji Fukikawa (1-1). Murphy has homered twice in three games and has an eight-game hitting streak. Mets rookie Juan Lagares hit his first major league homer, a tying, two-run drive in the seventh against Cubs starter Travis Wood. Scott Rice (2-3) pitched two scoreless innings. Bobby Parnell earned his sixth save. Wood hit his first homer of the season and fourth of his career. PADRES 13, NATIONALS 4 In San Diego, Andrew Cashner pitched 6 2-3 strong innings and Kyle Blanks and Will Venable homered off Dan Haren to lead the Padres to a vic-
tory against the Nationals and a split of their fourgame series. Cashner (3-2) allowed three runs and seven hits, struck out six and walked one. The Padres tied their season high in runs and their 15 hits off four Nationals pitchers were two short of their season best. San Diego’s Yonder Alonso homered off Drew Storen leading off the eighth to finish 3 for 4 with two RBIs and three runs scored. It was his sixth homer. The Nationals have lost two straight and six of nine. Haren (4-5) got off to a rough start by allowing three runs in the first inning and was gone after the fourth-run fifth. Haren allowed nine hits while striking out five and walking two. ROCKIES 5, GIANTS 0 In Denver, Juan Nicasio scattered three hits over six innings, Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki each drove in two runs as the Rockies won their first series over San Francisco in two years. Dexter Fowler tied a career high with four hits to help the Rockies take three of four from the reigning World Series champions. Jordan Pacheco also drove in a run for Colorado. Nicasio (4-1) shut down one of the top-hitting teams in baseball, striking out five and allowing only an intentional walk before being lifted for a pinch hitter in the sixth. Barry Zito (3-3) couldn’t get on track as he turned in a second straight ineffective outing. He allowed 11 hits and five runs in 5 2-3 innings.
ARLINGTON: David Murphy put Texas ahead with a three-run home run as the Rangers spoiled a three-homer game from Miguel Cabrera with an 11-8 victory against the Detroit Tigers on Sunday night. Murphy’s shot just over the fence in right field gave Texas an 8-7 lead and answered a bases-loaded double from Prince Fielder that put Detroit up by two in the sixth inning after the Rangers had walked Cabrera intentionally even though first base wasn’t open. Cabrera hit a three-run homer in the third and a solo shot in the fifth off Derek Holland, then went deep again in the eighth against Tanner Scheppers. Cabrera, the 2012 AL Triple Crown winner and this year’s leader in average and RBIs, went 4 for 4 with 5 RBIs and has 11 homers, one off the AL lead. Robbie Ross (2-0) pitched a scoreless seventh inning for the win, and Joe Nathan worked around a leadoff walk in the ninth for his 13th save. He has saved all 36 career chances against Detroit. The Tigers led 4-1 after Cabrera hit a threerun homer over the Texas bullpen in rightcenter field in the third and added a solo shot to center off Holland, who had given up just two homers in 57-plus innings this year after setting a club record by allowing 32 homers last year. The Rangers had wiped out that lead - and another one after Fielder’s double - and were ahead 11-7 when Cabrera hit another solo homer to center off Scheppers. INDIANS 6, MARINERS 0 In Cleveland, Justin Masterson struck out a season-high 11 in seven shutout innings and Michael Brantley homered and drove in four runs off Felix Hernandez as the Cleveland Indians toppled yet another former Cy Young Award winner on Sunday with a 6-0 win over the Seattle Mariners. Brantley hit a three-run homer in the sec-
ond inning off Hernandez (5-3), who failed to go at least six innings for the first time this season. Staked to an early lead, Masterson (7-2) was dominant for the second straight start. He allowed three singles, easily outdueled Hernandez and ran his consecutive scoreless innings streak to 19. He shut out the New York Yankees 1-0 on four hits in his previous outing. The Indians improved to 7-1 against Cy Young recipients, knocking off Hernandez, R.A. Dickey, David Price, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Bartolo Colon and Justin Verlander.
20th anniversary. The game resumed about 80 minutes after the movie ended and many fans moved into the first eight rows behind the dugouts. Lackey (2-4) gave up one unearned run and struck out five before dark skies and heavy rain sent fans running for cover as he was warming up to start the seventh. Lackey ended his three-game losing streak. He didn’t allow a runner until Trevor Plouffe led off the fifth with a double. Plouffe later scored on shortstop Pedro Ciriaco’s throwing error.
RAYS 3, ORIOLES 1 In Baltimore, Matt Moore pitched seven innings of five-hit ball to stay unbeaten, while Luke Scott and Matt Joyce homered as the Rays beat the Orioles for a three-game sweep. Moore (8-0) gave up one run, struck out three and walked one. The left-hander has won nine straight decisions, breaking the franchise record of eight set last year by David Price. The Rays’ ninth win in 11 games put them a season-high three games over .500 (23-20). Adam Jones had two hits, stole two bases and drove in a run for the Orioles, who have dropped five straight - all at home. Chris Tillman (3-2) allowed three runs and five hits in six innings.
ANGELS 6, WHITE SOX 2 In Anaheim, Jason Vargas scattered four hits through seven scoreless innings, while Erick Aybar and Howie Kendrick each hit tworun doubles as the Los Angeles Angels coaxed a pair of bases-loaded walks out of Jake Peavy in the fourth inning of a victory over the White Sox. Vargas (3-3) struck out six and walked three while helping the Angels gain a split of the four-game series. Peavy (5-2) gave up four runs, four hits and five walks over six innings. Alex Rios drove in Chicago’s first run with an eighth-inning double against Dane De La Rosa. It extended Rios’ hitting streak to 14 games, eclipsing his previous best in 2006 with Toronto.
RED SOX 5, TWINS 1 In Minneapolis, John Lackey allowed one hit over six innings before a three-hour rain delay, and Dustin Pedroia and Will Middlebrooks homered as Boston beat Minnesota for its fifth straight win. Fans at Target Field saw more than the Twins lose their fifth in a row. The longest delay ever at the ballpark lasted long enough for the 1993 movie “The Sandlot” to be shown in its entirety on the videoboard. Several cast and crew members were at the stadium to celebrate the film’s
ATHLETICS 4, ROYALS 3 In Oakland, Yoenis Cespedes hit a leadoff home run in the eighth inning as the Athletics beat the Royals to complete a three-game sweep. Cespedes hit his eighth homer, connecting against Kelvin Herrera (2-4). Jerry Blevins (3-0) pitched one scoreless inning. Ryan Cook worked the ninth for his first save of the season. Alex Gordon matched his career high of four hits for Kansas City. The Royals have lost 10 of 13 and fallen back to .500.—AP
BRAVES 4, DODGERS 2 In Atlanta, Ramiro Pena had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in a four-run eighth inning, Jordan Schafer drove in two runs and the Braves rallied against Los Angeles’ beleaguered bullpen for a rain-soaked victory. Kenley Jansen (1-3) was the loser for the second straight game, this time allowing one hit, two runs and a walk while getting just one out in a game twice delayed by rain for a total of 2 hours, 15 minutes. Jansen began the eighth by allowing a single to Freddie Freeman and walking Brian McCann. Dodgers manager Don Mattingly brought in closer Brandon League for the first time in the series, but he fared no better than his teammate. After Atlanta loaded the bases when third baseman Juan Uribe was charged with a fielding error on Andrelton Simmons’ sacrifice bunt attempt, League gave up a tying RBI single to pinch-hitter Gerald Laird to make it 2-all. Pinch-runner B.J. Upton scored Pena’s fly. The Braves added two more runs off League on Chris Johnson’s RBI single and a sacrifice bunt by Schafer. Luis Avilan (2-0) pitched a perfect eighth inning, striking out one. INTERLEAGUE PIRATES 1, ASTROS 0 In Pittsburgh, Jeff Locke allowed three hits over seven innings and Pedro Alvarez homered as the Pirates won for the eighth time in 10 games. Locke (4-1) won his fourth straight decisions and gave up one run or fewer for the fifth time in his past eight outings. He struck out four and walked three. Alvarez’s longball was his second of the series and third in eight games. It was the lone mistake by Astros starter Lucas Harrell (3-5), who lost his third consecutive decision despite allowing four hits and one walk in seven innings. Off to their best 44-game start since 1991, the Pirates (26-18) have the National League’s third-best record. They won despite the absence of outfielder Andrew McCutchen, who was a late scratch because of soreness in his right knee.—AP
MLB results/standings Cleveland 6, Seattle 0; Miami 2, Arizona 1; Tampa Bay 3, Baltimore 1; Atlanta 5, LA Dodgers 2; Philadelphia 3, Cincinnati 2; Pittsburgh 1, Houston 0; Boston 5, Minnesota 1; St. Louis 4, Milwaukee 2; NY Mets 4, Chicago Cubs 3; La Angels 6, Chicago White Sox 2; Oakland 4, Kansas City 3; San Diego 13, Washington 4; Colorado 5, San Francisco 0; Texas 11, Detroit 8.
NY Yankees Boston Baltimore Tampa Bay Toronto Cleveland Detroit Kansas City White Sox Minnesota Texas Oakland Seattle LA Angels Houston
American League Eastern Division W L PCT 27 16 .628 27 17 .614 23 20 .535 23 20 .535 17 26 .395 Central Division 25 17 .595 23 19 .548 20 20 .500 19 23 .452 18 22 .450 Western Division 29 15 .659 23 22 .511 20 24 .455 17 27 .386 12 32 .273
GB 0.5 4 4 10
Atlanta Washington Philadelphia NY Mets Miami
2 4 6 6
St. Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs Milwaukee
6.5 9 12 17
Arizona Colorado San Francisco San Diego LA Dodgers
National League Eastern Division 25 18 .581 23 21 .523 21 23 .477 17 24 .415 12 32 .273 Central Division 28 15 .651 26 18 .591 26 18 .591 18 25 .419 17 25 .405 Western Division 25 19 .568 24 20 .545 24 20 .545 20 23 .465 17 25 .405
2.5 4.5 7 13.5 2.5 2.5 10 10.5 1 1 4.5 7
ARLINGTON: Robbie Ross No. 46 of the Texas Rangers throws in the seventh inning against the Detroit Tigers at Rangers Ballpark. —AFP
New wrestling rules used in LA exhibition LOS ANGELES: American Jordan Oliver had a late takedown to beat Russia’s Magomed Kurbanaliev in the opening match Sunday in United 4 Wrestling, a three-team exhibition tournament using new rules approved a day earlier in Moscow in a bid to keep wrestling in the Olympics beyond 2016. Under the changes approved by the sport’s international governing body, matches are now made up out of two 3-minute sessions instead of three 2-minute periods, and scoring is cumulative instead of the previous two-out-of-three system. “We just found out about the
new rules,” Oliver said. “We’ve been training under the old rules. It’s something we have to adjust to.” The International Olympic Committee removed wrestling as one of the core sports in February. It is now one of eight sports competing for an open slot at the 2020 Games. The United States, Russia and Canada competed Sunday, with Canada a late replacement after Iran pulled out Friday. Jon Reader, an NCAA champion out of Iowa State, beat Canada’s Tamerlin Tagziev 12-2. “You’ve got to get used to it,” Reader said. “I love the new rules. In the first four matches, once the wrestlers hit the 5-minute
mark, they were exhausted.” Chris Pendleton, a two-time NCAA champion at Oklahoma State, needing 1:16 to score a technical fall over Canada’s Manjot Sandhu. Opan Sat, a three-time European champion from Russia, said there was some confusion about how points are awarded but was happy to be a part of a movement to save the sport. He won two matches Sunday. “I was shocked (with the IOC decision) because for a lot of people, myself included, wrestling is a way of life,” Sat said through an interpreter. “I like the idea of having to periods because I have time to
execute my moves.” The lack of an Iranian team didn’t seem too disappointing to the few thousand spectators. Wrestling fans happily voiced their approval when actor Tom Arnold stepped to the center of the ring and announced that the Olympics should not “become ‘Dancing with the Stars.” The event featured 13 matches. The United States’ male wrestlers went 3-0 against their Canadian counterparts and finished 2-2 against Russia. The Russian team was 2-0 against Canada. Among female competitors, the United States and Canada split their four matches.—AP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
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Lowe reunited with Hamilton at Mercedes LONDON: Lewis Hamilton will be reunited with Paddy Lowe sooner than expected after Mercedes announced yesterday that the former McLaren technical head was joining their Formula One team next month. Mercedes said in a statement that the Briton had been appointed executive director (technical) and would start on June 3 - the week of the Canadian Grand Prix - after agreement was reached with McLaren for him to be released from the remaining seven months of his contract. Lowe will work closely with team principal Ross Brawn, the man he could one day replace, who retains overall responsibility for technical and sporting matters.
McLaren had already put Lowe on ‘gardening leave’, removing him from sensitive work, with Tim Goss being promoted to the role of technical director. They announced last week that they would switch from Mercedes engines to Honda in 2015. Lowe’s arrival at Mercedes, who signed 2008 world champion Hamilton last year, had been flagged up since January when reports indicated that he was being lined up as Brawn’s replacement. “I am delighted to welcome Paddy to the team and to begin working together. He has an excellent record of success in the sport and would be an asset to any of our rivals in the pit lane,” said Brawn. “It is no secret that every team is facing a signifi-
cant balancing act between this year and next. But it is perhaps less obvious that we will also see major changes for the 2015 and 2016 seasons, as development progresses with the new generation of car design and Power Unit,” he added. “To deliver in these circumstances, a successful team needs strength in depth. Paddy’s arrival will further strengthen our organisation and puts us in a strong position for the future.” The rules are changing significantly next year, with a new 1.6 litre turbocharged V6 engine with energy recovery systems replacing the current 2.4 litre V8 units. Mercedes already have a long list of former team technical directors working
for them, while Toto Wolff is executive director for business and head of Mercedes’ motorsport programme. Brawn, Bob Bell, Geoff Willis and Aldo Costa were all previously technical directors at other teams and Lowe makes it a quintet on a Mercedes payroll that also includes outspoken former champion Niki Lauda as non-executive chairman and shareholder. “The team has already produced probably the fastest car of the 2013 season while the technical challenges of the new regulations for 2014 will give us the opportunity to maximise the synergies available to a works manufacturer,” said Lowe in the team statement. “That is a challenge I am
relishing. I have worked closely with Mercedes-Benz for almost 20 years and deeply admire the company’s phenomenal commitment to Formula One. I look forward to much success together in the years ahead.” Mercedes have been on pole position for the last three races but have had problems managing the tyres and have faded on the Sunday, with Hamilton slipping from second on the grid to 12th at the last race in Spain. Hamilton and German team mate Nico Rosberg will however be among the favourites at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix, where overtaking is tricky and the driver starting on pole has a considerable advantage.—Reuters
Bae wins PGA Tour title
MOBILE: Jennifer Johnson poses with the trophy after winning the Mobile Bay LPGA Classic at the Crossings Course at the Robert Trent Jones Trail at Magnolia Grove. —AFP
Jennifer bags LPGA Classic MOBILE: Jennifer Johnson got a hug and congratulations from the defending Mobile Bay LPGA Classic champion before it even sunk in Sunday that she had won her first tour title. “It was fun there at the end, because Jennifer was making putts and I don’t think she realized what she was doing,” said Stacy Lewis, her playing partner. “I told her when I hugged her, ‘I think you just won yourself a golf tournament.’ And she’s kind of like, ‘What?’ It was really cute.” Johnson’s game was better than cute. The 21-year-old Californian closed with her second straight 7-under 65 for a tournamentrecord 21-under 267 total on The Crossings course at the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail’s Magnolia Grove complex. She birdied four of the final six holes for a one-stroke victory over Jessica Korda and Pornanong Phatlum. A 15-foot birdie putt on the 17th hole secured the win, and not long after Lewis passed the torch from her 2012 victory. “Before I hit my birdie putt on 17, I saw that Pornanong was tied with me at 20 and I didn’t want a playoff so I was like, ‘I’m going to make this thing,’” Johnson said. The former Arizona State star two-putted for par on the final hole, tipped her cap and headed toward the practice range to hit a few balls in case of a playoff. But Phatlum was already done and the lead was safe even with Korda’s closing birdie. Phatlum, a 23-year-old from Thailand, closed with a 63. Her previous best finish was third at the Kia Classic. Johnson had only one previous top-10 finish, an eighth-place tie at the 2011 Navistar LPGA Classic in Prattville, Ala. This time she got a win along with a hug and a “Good job, champ” from her father, Mike. “I’m a little shocked,” Johnson said. “I didn’t even realize I shot 65. The whole back nine, I don’t know what was happening.
“The birdie putt on 17, that’s when I started thinking a little more about winning the tournament. A little bit on the front nine, but you can’t afford to think about that.” She went home after missing her second cut of the year at the Kingsmill Championship and switched to what she calls her “spaceship putter” because of its appearance. Johnson aid that part of her game had been her Achilles heel. “I hit the ball really well. It was like when I missed the cut I felt like I should be playing,” she said. “And I went and saw my coach right away in Florida and worked some things out, I put the spaceship putter in the bag and now the putts are going in.” Johnson made the winning point in the 2010 Curtis Cup and was 3-0-1. She improved 19 strokes from her 45th-place tie in Mobile last year. Between this win and Prattville, she’s thinking maybe the cuisine deserves some credit. “I think the barbecue has something to do with it because I’m a real foodie and like when I eat good, I’m happy,” Johnson said. “And in both these locations I’ve been eating barbecue and good tea and pudding and that has a lot to do with my mindset more than I think.” Phatlum three-putted the opening hole for bogey for the third straight day, but rebounded nicely. “I just concentrate on my game and do what I have to do and try my best,” Phatlum said. “Putting very good today, so like I just didn’t have pressure on myself.” Korda finished with a 68 that included three bogeys and seven birdies. Five players finished two strokes back, including Hall of Famer Karrie Webb and third-round leader Chella Choi, a South Korean who was seeking her first win. Swede Anna Nordqvist followed up a courserecord 61 with a 69. South Korea’s Jiyai Shin shot a 63 and birdied the final three holes, while Thailand’s Ariya Jutanugarn had a 65 to join the group at 19 under.—AP
IRVING: South Korean Bae Sangmoon made a fast start, then overcame strong winds and a mid-round wobble to clinch his maiden PGA Tour title by two shots at the Byron Nelson Championship in Irving, Texas on Sunday. The 26-year-old, an 11-time champion on various professional tours in Asia, held his nerve in difficult conditions on a firm, fastrunning layout to close with a one-under-par 69 at the TPC Four Seasons Resort Las Colinas. Bae, who had charged four strokes clear with 11 holes to play, fell back into a tie for the lead with overnight pacesetter Keegan Bradley after bogeying the 15th but recovered with a birdie on 16 to post a 13-under total of 267. “I am very, very happy,” a smiling Bae told CBS Sports after sinking a three-footer for par on the 18th green and thrusting both arms skywards in jubilation. “I had a great time. “Actually I was a little nervous the last hole but that was not a big thing. I did it. This course was really tough and the winds were very strong but I did very well this week.” American Bradley, the 2011 winner who had led after the first three rounds in pursuit of a fourth PGA Tour victory, had to settle for second place after battling to a 72. “I am disappointed but I will get over it,” said Bradley, who took initial control of the tournament after opening with a blistering course record 60. “There is some good that I can bring out of this but I am happy for Moon. He played really good today.” Former Masters champion Charl Schwartzel of South Africa, who missed several birdie putts from between eight and 15 feet as 40mph (64.37 kph) winds gusted across the course, was a further stroke back at 10 under after closing with a 68.
IRVING: Sang-Moon Bae of South Korea celebrates with the championship trophy after winning the 2013 HP Byron Nelson Championship. —AFP Bae, who topped the 2011 Japan Golf Tour order of merit after winning three times, was a stroke behind Bradley overnight but benefited from a two-shot swing at the third to edge one ahead. While Bradley bogeyed the hole after pushing his tee shot right into water, the South Korean recorded the first of five birdies he piled up on the day as he drained a 26-footer. Bae tightened his grip on the tournament with three consecutive birdies from the fifth, sinking a 22-footer, a five-footer and then two-putting at the par-five seventh to forge four strokes clear at 16 under. However, Bae stumbled badly at the ninth where he pulled his tee shot way left
behind trees before hitting his second into water right of the green on the way to a doublebogey six. Out in two-under 33, he led Bradley by two strokes at 14 under, the American having sunk a 14-footer to save par at the ninth. Bae’s advantage was briefly cut to one after he found the right rough off the tee and a bunker with his approach to bogey the 10th but Bradley faltered with a three-putt bogey at the 11th to slip two behind the Korean. As the gusting crosswinds continued to wreak havoc for the players, Bae succumbed to a twoshot swing at the par-four 15th to drop back into a tie for the lead with Bradley.
The Korean bogeyed the hole after lipping out from five feet after the American had made his only birdie of the day by coaxing in an 18-footer. Bae immediately rebounded with a birdie at the par-five 16th, hitting a spinning wedge to six feet and calmly sinking the putt. Bradley horseshoed out with his birdie attempt from just four feet to hand the Korean a one-stroke advantage. Bradley’s title bid effectively ended at the tricky par-three 17th, where he bogeyed after overshooting the green off the tee. Two ahead playing the difficult par-four 18th, Bae split the fairway with his drive, then struck a brilliant six-iron to 18 feet to set up a rock-solid par.—Reuters
Preview
Brilliant Ashour seeks to end 50-year-old jinx HULL: World number one Ramy Ashour will try to become the first Egyptian to win the British Open in nearly 50 years when the world’s oldest tournament starts in Hull late yesterday. The 25-year-old from Cairo may be a strong favourite to succeed after winning seven successive tournaments during a 36match unbeaten run, but he will be battling a curious jinx which has frustrated some of Egypt’s greatest squash legends. The brilliant Ashour became another of them last year while losing the final to Nick Matthew, who thus became the first home player to win the British Open three times. These two are seeded to contest the final again. Ashour is unclear why so many of his compatriots, especially great ones like Gamal Awad, Ahmed Barada, and Amr Shabana, have failed to land the title ever since Abdelfattah Aboutaleb did so in 1966. “Egyptians have won a lot of other tournaments - it’s just the British Open (that they haven’t),” he said. “It’s not that we don’t want to win it. I don’t know why it is. “There is something,” Ashour added mysteriously.” Every time we came to England we just couldn’t make the best result. It’s simply not gone well here.” His chances will depend on him sorting out this “something”, which in Ashour’s case might be manifested by his physical condition.
He has done much to improve that since early last year when visits to the Aspire centre in Doha helped him repair a body which had been breaking down. This has enabled Ashour to express the full flow of his shot-making genius on a more consistent basis. He did though still have hamstring problems in December while taking away Matthew’s world title, and last week was recovering from a sprained ankle. Ashour knows he also needs to control his wildfire emotions. “ I have to stay myself, to be myself, and do what I have to do,” was how he explained this. “A lot is about always being better every day - whether it’s in training or a match or everywhere. With a 100% effort I will achieve what I can.” This is the first time since 1974 that the British Open has been staged in Yorkshire, brought back there by Assem Allam, the Anglo-Egyptian owner of Hull City football club. The demountable all glass court has been erected inside the Tigers’ stadium. With almost perfect timing Hull were promoted back to the English Premier League a fortnight ago, perhaps encouraging Allam to hope for an ambient connection with plans to elevate the old tournament to new heights. The venue’s location may help Yorkshireman Matthew, who lives only 60 miles away in Sheffield - though he has chosen to base himself in Hull for the week. —AFP
Group photo of winners and officials
KTF under-16 tournament KUWAIT: The Kuwait Tennis Federation Tournament for the under-16 players concluded at Qadisiya Sport Club in the presence of secretary general of KTF Abdelredha AlGhareeb, Assistant Treasurer Ahmad Al-Qallaf, Director of National Teams Abdallah AlAdwani, K azima Club Board Member Abdelaziz Al-Roumi, Tennis Director in Salmiya Club Mahboub Jumaa. Results of the tournament as follows: 1. Dawood Salman - Yarmouk Club 2. Abdelaziz Maayouf - Kazima 3. Rashid Abdelaziz and Tameem Al-Hallaq In the doubles matches 1. Hussein Ali + Ritwik Surat, from Salmiya Club 2. Dawood Hashim + Faisal Buqrais from
Yarmouk Club The final standings of the clubs were as follows: 1. Salmiya Club with 190 points 2. Kazima 176 points 3. Yarmouk 174 points 4. Kuwait 134 points 5. Shabab 40 points 6. Sahel 32 points 7. Sulaibkhat 32 points Secretary General of KTF Abdelredha AlGhareeb congratulated the winners, and thanked Al-Qadisiya Club for hosting the competition which witnessed very strong matches and winners of top places were not determined until the final of the individuals match. Al-Ghareeb wished all clubs success in upcoming events.
Yarmouk Club player Dawood Suleiman
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
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England ponder top-order problems ahead of Ashes LONDON: England secured the convincing victory over New Zealand they demanded in the first Test at Lord’s but question marks remain over the make-up of their team for the Ashes series against Australia starting in July. The fast bowling of James Anderson and Stuart Broad was largely responsible for the 170run win over the New Zealanders who more than held their own for three days of the match against a team ranked six places above them. England openers Alastair Cook and Nick Compton failed to score above 32 in their two innings and with the reliable but limited Jonathan Trott at number three, there is a growing feeling the top order may struggle to lay a solid platform and score quickly enough to put opponents under pressure. One solution might be to promote Joe Root to open, the 22-year-old enhancing his burgeoning reputation with scores of 40 and 71 against New Zealand made with a blend of careful defence and ruthless attacking strokes. Opening with Root would also free up a place in the middle order for Kevin Pietersen if the powerful right-hander recovers from injury in time to face Australia. Former England opener Geoffrey Boycott believes Compton, despite his two test centuries in the recent series in New Zealand, is struggling. “Nick Compton is under pressure for his place because of the ways he got out at Lord’s,” Boycott wrote in the Daily Telegraph yesterday. “His strength is patience, concentration, good defence and the ability to bat for long periods and give England the platform for the stroke players later on.” Compton made 16 in the first innings at Lord’s but, frustrated by the accuracy of the New Zealand bowling, he charged down the wicket to spinner Bruce Martin and sliced a catch into the covers. “It was not smart, did not look good and cost him his wicket,” Boycott said. “We were all thinking what the hell did he do that for?” In the second innings Compton was comprehensively bowled by left-armer Neil Wagner. “He was late on an 80 mph delivery with a
gap between bat and pad you could drive a bus through,” Boycott said. “Nick bats with such intensity, expending so much mental energy and there is a rigidity and stiffness to his batting.” Cook, as the captain and with more than 7,000 test runs to his name and 24 centuries, is in no danger of being dropped but Boycott thinks he has a weakness against left-arm fast bowlers. He was dismissed by Trent Boult in both innings at Lord’s, caught by the wicketkeeper and third slip. “Cook has a problem with left-arm over-the-wicket seamers,” Boycott said. “He does not judge the line of what to play and what to leave very well.” Australia have Mitchell Starc in their squad, a quicker bowler than Boult and one of the best left-arm fast bowlers in the world. “Good footwork is nearly always the key to good batting so he needs to make a bigger stride forward,” Boycott said. “As captain, if the Aussies find a chink in his batting and start getting him out cheaply he will lose confidence. So he needs to sort it out.” Cook was heartened by the form of Anderson and Broad who took 15 wickets between them and bowled New Zealand out for just 68 in their second innings. “Broad has done it on numerous occasions now,” Cook told reporters. “He bowls in the high 80s and from a great height. With the ball swinging it is very hard. I know as an opening batter that if you challenge off stump as much as he does it is very hard. “That hour of Jimmy and Broady bowling was as good as I have seen as an opening spell.” The second Test starts at Headingley, Leeds on Friday and England may consider playing Tim Bresnan on his home ground in place of Steven Finn, who took four wickets in the first innings at Lords’s but struggled for rhythm. Bresnan’s inclusion would also strengthen the lower order batting which failed miserably at Lord’s, with Broad’s unbeaten 26 in the second innings the only double figure score contributed by numbers 7-11 in the England batting line-up.—Reuters
STOCKHOLM: Sweden’s forward Henrik Sedin (right-top) celebrates after scoring against Switzerland’s goalkeeper Martin Gerber during the final match at the 2013 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. —AFP
Sweden thump Switzerland to win world championship STOCKHOLM: Sweden swept aside Switzerland 5-1 in the final to become the first team since 1986 to win the ice hockey world championship on home ice on Sunday. The Swedes’ victory snapped a nine-game winning streak that carried the unfancied Swiss all the way to their first final since 1935. The Swedes were made to work hard in the beginning and fell behind in the fifth minute when tournament MVP Roman Josi cut across the ice before slotting a backhand shot between the legs of Swedish goalie Jhonas Enroth. The Swedes then started to get to grips with the Swiss pressure and equalised through Erik Gustafsson, who fired home in the ninth minute to get the hosts back in the game. The Swiss defensive discipline that was the bedrock of their semi-final victory against United States was sorely lacking in the final, as
LONDON: England’s Steven Finn (left), Stuart Broad, James Anderson (third left), Joe Root and Nick Compton (right) celebrate winning by 170 runs on the fourth day of the first International Test cricket match between England and New Zealand in this file photo. —AFP
India mulls spot-fixing law NEW DELHI: India is mulling a law to deal with the issue of spot-fixing in sport following last week’s arrest of cricketers and bookmakers, government officials said yesterday. Former India test bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth and two other players were arrested along with 11 bookmakers on Thursday on suspicion of spot-fixing in the country’s ongoing Twenty20 league. The cricket board immediately suspended the trio, who have been accused of taking money to concede a certain number of runs in a particular over. Law Minister Kapil Sibal has consulted sports minister Jitendra Singh and the new bill will likely be introduced in the next session of the Indian parliament. “We have been looking at different ways to control and regulate that part of illegal betting,” sports secretary P.K. Deb told Reuters by telephone. “We have been studying how they deal with it in the UK and Australia and the information we have gathered will be shared with the Law Ministry. We are still some distance away from it (the law).” Legal sports betting in India is confined to horse racing while illegal betting syndicates thrive in the absence of a law dealing specifically with such corruption
in sport. Media estimates put the amount gambled on India’s top cricket Twenty20 competition at $427 million in 2009. “We need to have a separate law,” Law Minister Sibal told reporters on Sunday. “I don’t think the Indian Penal Code has matchfixing and spot-fixing as an offence and I don’t think the ‘offence of cheating’ is something that adequately deals with issues of spot-fixing and matchfixing,” the law minister told reporters. “I have requested my ministry to work on such a law ... Once the broad parameters of the law are made out, I’ll hand it over to the sports ministry to take it to the cabinet and hopefully introduce it in the coming session of the parliament.” Spot-fixing is manipulation of individual incidents within a match which may not affect the outcome of the contest, most famously exposed in a London trial and jailing of three Pakistan cricketers in 2011. Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt and team mates Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were jailed in Britain for their role in a spot-fixing scandal relating to a test match against England at Lord’s in August 2010. The International Cricket Council subsequently banned the three players for a minimum of five years.—Reuters
Werner Schlager was crowned in Paris in 2003. The turning point came in the fourth set when Zhang saved four set points to eventually open a 31 lead, giving away the fifth before outplaying the 2009 world champion in the sixth. Earlier yesterday, Li Xiaoxia, the women’s singles world and Olympic champion, won the doubles title with Guo Ye for the third time in succession. China, however, failed to achieve a clean sweep after Kim Hyok Bong and Kim Jong won the mixed doubles title for North Korea last Saturday. The last time China failed to win all the titles at a world championships was in 2003 when Schlager claimed the men’s singles title. China have also won all but one of the Olympic titles since 1996, South Korea’s Ryu Seung Min taking the men’s singles gold in Athens in 2004.—Reuters
fashion a goal, and when a shot from Sedin sailed past Gerber off the skate of Loui Eriksson, the game was all but over as a contest. Sedin then took his tally for the tournament to four goals and five assists as he sent the puck sailing into an empty net with the Swedes shorthanded. With the clock counting down, the Swedes threw gloves and hockey sticks to fans behind the bench and the victory was greeted by an ear-splitting roar from the home support. United States secured the bronze medal earlier in the day as they beat Finland 3-2 after a shootout. Craig Smith and captain Paul Stastny had given the U.S. a first-period lead but Lauri Korpikoski fired in two goals in the middle of the final period for the Finns to force overtime. In the end, Alex Galchenyuk converted two shootout penalties to give the Americans their first medal since 2004.—Reuters
Senators sink Penguins, Bruins roll OTTAWA: Colin Greening scored 7:39 into double overtime as the Ottawa Senators rallied for a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins that cut their series deficit to 2-1 on Sunday night. Tyler Kennedy scored with just over a minute to play in the second period to give the Penguins a 1-0 lead. That goal stood up until Alfredsson Daniel Alfredsson leveled by scoring a short-handed goal for Ottawa with 29 seconds left in regulation, just after the Senators pulled goalie Craig Anderson for an extra skater. Anderson made 49 saves, including 18 after regulation. Tomas Vokoun stopped 46 shots for Pittsburgh and took his first loss (4-1) since taking over for No. 1 Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series will be in Ottawa tomorrow. BRUINS 5, RANGERS 2 In Boston, Johnny Boychuk broke a deadlock midway through the second period, and Boston scored two goals in the third to beat the New York Rangers and take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Boychuk’s third playoff goal made it 3-2 at 12:08 of the second. Brad Marchand, whose overtime goal won the opener, and Milan Lucic stretched the Bruins’ lead in the final period. Boston rookie Torey Krug scored the first goal before Ryan Callahan tied it for the Rangers in the first period. Gregory Campbell made it 2-1, and New York pulled even again on Rick Nash’s goal in the second. Games 3 and 4 of the best-
Zhang Jike wins world title PARIS: Zhang Jike sealed a remarkable hat-trick of major titles when he beat fellow Chinese Wang Hao 4-2 in the men’s final of the world championships at Bercy yesterday. Zhang, who had already beaten Wang in the 2011 world championships final and the Olympic final last year, prevailed 11-7 11-8 6-11 14-12 5-11 11-7 on his first match point. “It was a tough match,” the 25year-old Zhang told French TV Channel L’Equipe 21 after running towards the stands to hug his parents in a rare display of emotion. “I will try to make history. I have won all the titles already and I want to do it again,” he added, confirming he was looking to take part in the 2016 Olympic Games. It is the fifth time in a row that the men’s singles title was won by a Chinese player since Austrian
they racked up a total of 14 minutes in penalties in the first period. Sweden’s Henrik Sedin was on hand to punish that indiscipline when he flipped the puck into the net for a power play goal in the 12th minute to put his team ahead. The second period was a stalemate with chances at a premium as both sides enjoyed periods of dominance. The Swiss started the third period strongly and looked like getting back into the game, but when Julien Vauclair gave away the puck cheaply in his own zone, he left his side with a mountain to climb. His miss allowed Gabriel Landeskog to streak in on goal and though his two efforts rebounded off Gerber, Simon Hjalmarsson made no mistake as he poked home the second rebound. Switzerland put up a tenacious fight but despite exerting serious pressure, they could not
of-seven series will be played in New York. Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, last year’s Vezina Trophy winner, had his second straight tough game after posting consecutive shutouts
in Games 6 and 7 of the first round against the Washington Capitals when the Rangers faced elimination. Tuukka Rask was solid for Boston, stopping 35 shots.—AP
OTTAWA: Paul Martin No. 7 of the Pittsburgh Penguins uses his stick to slow down Jakob Silfverberg No. 33 of the Ottawa Senators in Game Three of the Eastern Conference Semifinals during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs.—AFP
Seven more Al Zarooni horses test positive
FRANCE: China’s Zhang Jike holds his trophy during a ceremony after he won the Men’s Singles of the World Table Tennis Championships. —AFP
LONDON: Seven further horses trained by banned Mahmood Al Zarooni, including 2012 St Leger winner Encke, have tested positive for anabolic steroid stanozolol, the British Horseracing Authority said in a statement yesterday. Godolphin trainer Al Zarooni was handed an eight-year ban by the BHA last month for doping horses with anabolic steroids after 11 tested positive at his stable in Newmarket, England. Al Zarooni, who admitted administering prohibited substances to four others, has appealed against the severity of the ban. Following Al Zarooni’s disciplinary hearing, the BHA conducted tests on all Godolphin-owned horses in training in Newmarket. Blood samples were taken from 391 horses at the stables of Al Zarooni and Saeed bin Suroor, who also trains for Godolphin owner and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum in the town best known as the headquarters of British flat racing. All of the horses under Bin Suroor’s care tested negative, clearing the way for him to take charge of Al Zarooni’s Moulton Paddocks stable, subject to BHA clearance. The BHA said in a
statement that no separate action would be taken “in respect of these additional positive results whilst Mr Al Zarooni’s appeal process is ongoing”. No date has been set for the appeal. “These test results endorse the swift action and measures taken by the BHA in this matter,” said BHA chief executive Paul Bittar. “Whatever the outcome of his appeal before the independent Appeal Board, the gravity and scale of the infringements warranted Mahmood Al Zarooni being removed from control of the yard as quickly as possible.” The scandal has caused serious embarrassment to Sheikh Mohammed. The BHA accused Emirati Zarooni of “deliberately flouting” the rules and a “widespread systematic misuse of illegal substances”. Al Zarooni, appointed Godolphin’s second British-based trainer in 2010, won the Dubai World Cup - the world’s richest horse race - in March last year and followed up by landing the prestigious St Leger with Encke at Doncaster in September. The BHA said Encke, who has not raced since the St Leger, had tested negative after the race. —Reuters
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
S P ORTS
Corinthians win Sao Paulo title SAO PAULO: Corinthians won the Sao Paulo state championship for the 27th time and kept Santos from lifting the trophy for the fourth straight year after a 11 draw in the second leg on Sunday. Corinthians won 3-2 on aggregate to claim its first title since 2009. Led by young Brazil striker Neymar, Santos needed a victor y at its Vila Belmiro Stadium to have a chance of retaining the title. Cicero opened the scoring for Santos in the 26th minute, but Corinthians playmaker Danilo equalized two minutes later to leave his team in position to celebrate winning the title. Corinthians is the most successful club in Sao Paulo state and now it has five more titles than Palmeiras and Sao Paulo, which have 22 each. Santos was trying to win the trophy for the 21st time. It has made the final in every tournament since Neymar started playing regularly in the senior squad in 2009. The title comes as consolation for Corinthians, which was coming off a disappointing home loss to Argentina’s Boca Juniors in the Copa Libertadores, a competition it won last year. “Whether we were going to win or lose here, we knew that we had to come out playing with the same determination as before,” Corinthians coach Tite said. “We were still motivated and it showed.” Needing to win, Santos came out attacking and midfielder Cicero scored with a volley from the penalty spot after the ball was headed across the area by Santos defender Durval following a free kick. Corinthians equalized through Danilo’s close-range shot after goalkeeper Rafael had made a great save off midfielder Paulinho’s shot in front of goal. The ball rebounded to Danilo, who found
the open net. Santos continued to attack but it was Corinthians which had some of the most significant chances the rest of the match, hitting the goal-frame three times. Neymar, reportedly sought after some of Europe’s top clubs, had a lackluster performance in the first leg and couldn’t do enough to help his team overcome the deficit on Sunday. “It’s nice to celebrate a title for the first time since returning to Brazilian football,” said striker Alexandre Pato, who joined Corinthians from AC Milan in the beginning of the year. A few hundred Santos fans got into a confrontation with police outside the stadium before the match, but no serious injuries were reported. In Minas Gerais, former two-time FIFA player of the year Ronaldinho converted a penalty in the 78th to secure the state title for Atletico Mineiro, which won the first leg 3-0 last week. Striker Dagoberto scored twice for Cruzeiro with penalties in the 18th and 34th minutes. It was Atletico’s second straight title win in a row and Ronaldinho’s first at the club. “It’s an important title in my career,” Ronaldinho said. “Hopefully it’s the first of many with this club which has great fans who have embraced me from the start.” Atletico is in the quarterfinals of the Copa Libertadores, Latin America’s most important club competition. In Bahia state, Freddy Adu’s Bahia was not able to erase a 7-3 first-leg loss to rival Vitoria, losing the title 4-8 on aggregate after a 1-1 draw on Sunday. Regional championships are played in the first few months of the year in Brazil, and the national league star ts in May. Clarence Seedorf ’s Botafogo won the Rio de Janeiro state title two weeks ago.—Reuters
BRAZIL: Corinthians’ captain Alessandro holds the Paulista championship Cup after the final match against Santos FC at Vila Belmiro stadium. —AFP
Photo of the day
A flying performance during the Powderdays Europe in Hohenmolsen, Germany. www.redbullcontentpool.com
Next EPL season could be most unpredictable ever MANCHESTER: Get ready for the Premier League like you’ve never seen it before. No Alex Ferguson. No Roberto Mancini. The expected return of Jose Mourinho. The likely influx of more world-class players on the back of a bumper new TV deal. Two Welsh teams for the first time. Don’t forget the introduction of goal line technology, either. The English season only finished on Sunday, yet fans across the globe are already counting down the days to Aug. 17 - when the next campaign begins with a mixture of excitement, trepidation and intrigue. Much of the buzz has been sparked by Ferguson’s decision to step down as Manchester United manager after nearly 27 years. That one decision has grabbed the attention of the world over the past two weeks and its reverberations will be keenly felt next season, and beyond. To many, it signals the end of United’s stranglehold on English football dating back 20 years. The future of the Premier League may have been thrown wide open. Come August, four of this season’s top six United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Everton - will have newly appointed managers in the wake of an unprecedented amount of high-profile coaching upheaval in May. “I was with the chief executive of Liverpool at our reserve game the other night and he told me that Brendan Rodgers, who has not been in the job a year, is the 30th longest-serving manager in the country,” Ferguson said last week. “That’s incredible.” With David Moyes taking control of United, Mourinho set for Chelsea and Manuel Pellegrini - a coach largely unknown to English audiences - heavily tipped for the City hot seat, there will be a new dynamic at the top of the world’s most-watched league. Arsenal cannot be discounted, with the club benefiting from a string of new, lucrative commercial deals and the club once again in the Champions League, while Liverpool and Tottenham appear to be on an upward curve under the forward-thinking stewardship of Rodgers and Andre Villas-Boas. It is anyone’s guess what will happen next season - and the gurus in the Premier League’s marketing department must be licking their lips in delight. In Villas-Boas’ opinion, it could be time for Chelsea to reassert its dominance under Mourinho, who won back-to-back league titles in his first spell at the club from 2004-07. “Chelsea next season will absolutely be the team to beat, bearing in mind the manager change and the manager that we expect to come in,” the Portuguese coach said. “Plus, they will be strengthening an already very good squad.” The likelihood of Mourinho returning to Stamford Bridge is dividing opinion, though. Some feel it is a perfect match, a union that shouldn’t have been broken up in the first place. Frank Lampard and Petr Cech have already spoken out in favor of the return of the “Special One,” giving an adrenalin
shot to the team and the fans after the turbulent - if ultimately successful - tenure of Rafa Benitez. “With him at the helm, we are going to give it a great go,” Lampard said. Others say Mourinho has lost his magic after what he has described as his “worst” season as a coach in the trophyless year at Real Madrid. Also, can his relationship with Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who sacked Mourinho six years ago, be repaired? Whatever happens, it will be an entertaining ride under Mourinho. It will be no less fascinating to see how Moyes gets on at United. Ferguson has urged fans to get behind his fellow Scot but what will be the reaction if United loses its opening two games? How quickly will Moyes be able to gain the respect of his players? Can Ferguson hold himself back from meddling in team affairs from his position up in the director’s box? “He will have his own ideas and that’s good,” Ferguson has predicted. “He will be fine.” Moyes will have to act quickly to sort out the futures of Wayne Rooney and Rio Ferdinand this summer and maybe sign the world-class playmaker many United fans have been craving for years, with Paul Scholes having retired and the team’s central midfield still lacking creativity at times. With Ferguson gone, there hasn’t been such uncertainty swirling around Old Trafford since the late 1980s and opponents will be keen to seize on it. Particularly Man City, which will be desperate to reclaim the Premier League trophy from its neighbor
and rediscover the consistency and attacking spark that was lost in the final 12 months of Mancini’s 3 1/2-year reign. City demonstrated in the way it beat United 2-1 away in the derby last month that, on its day, there is no better team in England. And with Mancini gone, the likelihood is that the cracks which reportedly developed in the squad in recent months should heal. Is Pellegrini the man to restore City’s fortunes, though? He has never coached in the Premier League and was overwhelmed by all the egos in Real Madrid’s squad during his one season at the Spanish giant in 2009-10. Yet, his record at Villarreal and Malaga, his current club, is impressive and has been hailed for his skills in man-management. It is another appointment that could go either way, adding to the intrigue next season. There should be plenty of new faces among the playing squads, too, with the transfer kitties of clubs boosted by a 70 percent increase in TV revenues announced last summer and taking effect from the start of next season. The financial pull of the Premier League has never been so strong, especially with many top clubs in Spain and Italy still suffering from the impact of the economic downturn. The recently completed Premier League campaign had one of the most anticlimactic finishes in years, but Ferguson has just ensured that the new season won’t be short of excitement.—AP
LONDON: Manchester United fans sing after their team scored a goal during the English Premier League football match between West Bromwich Albion and Manchester United at The Hawthorns. English football witnessed the end of an era as Alex Ferguson signed off as Manchester United manager in his 1,500th and final game.—AFP
Prospects for start of the next EPL campaign in 89 days LONDON: A far-from- vintage Premier League season reached its conclusion on Sunday with a flood of goals, a host of retirements and a familiar-looking top four. Following is a brief end-of-term report on the 20 teams in the top flight and, with the most lucrative ever television contract in place for next season, a look ahead to their prospects for the start of the next campaign in 89 days: Manchester United (champions) Signing Robin van Persie proved to be the final masterstroke before Alex Ferguson called time on his 27-year reign at Old Trafford. The Dutchman’s 26 league goals allowed United to romp to the title but there were questions marks about the defence at times and a lack of creativity in central midfield. With Wayne Rooney’s future at the club uncertain, and time running out for underperforming wingers Nani and Ashley Young, new manager David Moyes should be granted a large transfer budget to strengthen his squad. Manchester City (runners-up) - A disappointing fall from grace for City after they won the title the previous year. Failure to upgrade in key areas pre-season, particularly in attack, cost them dear
with no striker reaching 15 goals. With Roberto Mancini sacked and his replacement yet to be named, the next couple of months will be hectic at The Etihad as City attempt to strengthen the team up front and on the flanks. Chelsea (third, Champions League) Began the season on a high under Roberto di Matteo but his sacking, an early exit from the Champions League, a slump in league form and the controversial appointment of Rafa Benitez as interim manager saw the wheels come off. However, Chelsea ended the season full of beans with Frank Lampard becoming the club’s record goalscorer, the Europa League trophy in the bag and Champions League football assured. With Jose Mourinho expected to return as manager and owner Roman Abramovich set to flex his financial muscle, Chelsea will be serious title contenders next season. Arsenal (Champions League playoff) No silverware yet again but Arsenal’s proud record of finishing in the top four continued with a final-day win at Newcastle United sealing a 16th consecutive season in the Champions League, providing they win their playoff tie. The Gunners endured their worst start to
a Premier League season as they tried to recover from the loss of Van Persie but in Santi Cazorla they discovered a midfield gem and Theo Walcott’s scoring contribution inspired a stirring late run. With funds now available, manager Arsene Wenger will be hunting for a worldclass striker, a central defender and a midfield enforcer during the off-season. Tottenham Hotspur (Europa League) Despite their record Premier League points haul of 72, they suffered a second consecutive failure to qualify for the Champions League and the latest near-miss could have a big impact on whether footballer-of-theyear Gareth Bale stays. Bale’s 21 league goals, most of them spectacular, put him on the most-wanted list of Europe’s top clubs and his future is bound to overshadow Tottenham’s preparations for next season. Everton - Another solid season for Everton under David Moyes, finishing above Liverpool. Flirted with a top-four finish despite a lack of spending power. Keeping Belgian midfielder Marouane Fellaini and choosing their next manager wisely will be vital for Everton if they are to progress. Liverpool - Luis Suarez’s 23 goals
masked a disappointing campaign for Liverpool who never recovered from a terrible start. Played some attractive football at times but the jury is out on coach Brendan Rodgers and fans will expect more. West Bromwich Albion - Eighth place for the Midlands club usually battling relegation was no mean achievement. Relied on the goals of on-loan Romelu Lukaku but he may go back to Chelsea next season. Swansea City - Season ran out of steam but Michael Laudrup’s first season in charge was a memorable one with Swansea winning the League Cup. Keeping 18-goal Michu, and juggling the Europa League and Premier League will be the challenge next season. West Ham United - Tipped as relegation strugglers pre-season but manager Sam Allardyce used all his experience to get the Hammers safe. Squad lacks quality and needs strengthening. Norwich City - A topsy-turvy season for Norwich who began badly, then had a great run, then flirted with the drop. Survival will be the priority next season. Fulham - Speculation swirled around Craven Cottage about the future of boss Martin Jol after a poor run of form and he will want assurances that he can reinforce
the squad before next season. Stoke City - Brought virtually nothing to the party and appear to have gone backwards. Vulnerable next season. Southampton - Made a strange decision to sack Nigel Adkins mid-season but new coach Mauricio Pochettino impressed with a notable victory against Manchester City. Aston Villa - Paul Lambert’s young side looked to be careering towards relegation in December but a late flourish steered them away from trouble. Need to add experience. Newcastle United - A dreadful season for the Geordies, slumping from fifth the previous season to within a few points of being relegated. Some serious soul-searching in store for manager Alan Pardew over the coming weeks. Sunderland - Came within a whisker of being relegated and lacked quality throughout the team. Paolo di Canio, who took over as head coach in March, should at least add some passion next season. Wigan Athletic, Reading and Queens Park rangers (relegated) Wigan at least went down with honor, winning the FA Cup, and will be hopeful of a return. QPR have a huge wage bill and little quality and their manager Harry Redknapp has a big job on his hands.—Reuters
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
S P ORT S
Hard work gets Lukas a racing record BALTIMORE: The old guy still gets up crack-of-dawn early. Not because D Wayne Lukas has something left to prove, or anything more to gain. He already has it all: Fame, fortune, a bronze plaque in the Hall of Fame and — after lightly-regarded Oxbow stunned Orb on Saturday at the Preakness — he has the top spot in the Triple Crown trainer’s record book, too, passing “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons with No. 14. “It’s been a while,” Lukas chuckled, “but it never gets old. “I ran last with the first horse I started. The second one doesn’t even finish,” he added a moment later. “What a roller coaster.” Lukas was thoroughbred racing’s first organization man, a former Wisconsin high school basketball coach who brought the principle of “flooding the zone” from the court to the race track. When he cracked the big time with a horse named Codex at the Preakness in 1980, fans of the sport still thought of it as art, but Lukas relied on cold-blood
science. The top trainers at the time were folksy guys like Woody Stephens and wise-cracking Charlie Whittingham, but Lukas was undeniably corporate. The gravel outside his barns was always perfectly raked, his buttoned-down shirts pressed to match. While his more famous rivals focused on one or two quality horses, Lukas overwhelmed the game with quantity, setting up cookiecutter operations in dozens of barns from coast to coast and bringing three, four and sometimes even five mounts to the Kentucky Derby. By the mid-1990s, he perfected the approach, at one point winning six Triple Crown races in a row with four different horses. He shuffled jockeys like a deck of cards and balanced the competing demands of those owners, all the while never taking his eye off the ball or the business. But then rivals like Bob Baffert and disciple Todd Pletcher, who borrowed liberally from Lukas’ playbook, began stealing his thunder. Now 77,
Lukas hadn’t won a Triple Crown race since 2000 and became a sort of eminence grise, holding court regularly outside his barn at the classic races, more charming than competitive. His return to Derby year after year, despite not having a real shot to win it, became a kind of running joke. Just two weeks ago at Churchill Downs, Lukas poked fun at himself on that very topic. When someone reminded him he’d brought 44 horses to the Derby - a race he’d last won with Charismatic in 1999 - he laughed and said, “I lied to you; 35 of ‘em I didn’t want to run.” Yet Lukas never lost his zeal. He’s still the first trainer up on a horse and out on the track in the morning, and every bit as gracious as always. While the entire sport was focused on Orb, trainer Shug McGaughey and the potential to see the sport’s first Triple Crown winner in 36 years, Lukas sidled up to him two mornings ago and said “We got another one on the agenda.” Standing outside
his barn in shirt sleeves, McGaughey told the tale after getting beat, without being entirely sure whether that encouraging bit about another big win was meant for him or for Lukas himself. Either way, McGaughey was hardpressed to think of someone more deserving. That sentiment rippled through the trainers’ ranks. “We were out of it early,” said Baffert, who became a close of pal of Lukas’ over the last few years, “and after it was clear Orb couldn’t win it, we all got behind Wayne and (jockey) Gary Stevens.” That part of this win will go largely unnoticed by some, but not Stevens. At 50, the jockey now has nine Triple Crown wins on his resume - three at each of the classics - but Stevens was out of the sport for seven years. In a nice bit of symmetry, Lukas gave Stevens his first Triple Crown-winning mount with Winning Colors. “Wayne put me on the map,” Stevens recalled. “When you win that first classic,
your phone starts ringing, people want you. ... This is super, super sweet and it happened for the right guy.” Not long after, the “right guy” was asked about his travel plans for Oxbow, who’s likely headed for the Belmont after a stop at Churchill Downs. “4:30 tomorrow morning,” Lukas announced, “if you want to watch him load on that van. My truck driver and I will get in that big old truck, and we’ll head down the road and make about two Wendy’s stops on the way and be in Louisville, Ky., but 5:30 tomorrow night. As a few reporters rolled their eyes, Lukas continued, “Some of us in this great nation get up and get after in the morning. Others sleep in.” None of that would have surprised Baffert, or any of the other members of the fraternity. “Wayne loves it so much, when he goes, I’m pretty sure we’re going to find him lying in the shed row one morning and holler, ‘Hey Wayne, why are you sleeping?’”—AP
Napoli in London to meet Benitez: Reports MILAN: Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis was in London yesterday to meet Rafael Benitez in a bid to lure Chelsea’s interim manager to the Serie A club, according to reports in Italy. Napoli’s runner-up place to Juventus was confirmed when the season ended on Sunday, meaning the Neapolitans have qualified for next season’s Champions League. Napoli’s need to find a new coach is pressing as Walter Mazzarri confirmed on Sunday his departure from the club. “My cycle at Napoli has come to an end. I need a change of scene,” Mazzarri, who has been tipped to replace Aurelio Andreazzoli at Roma, said after Napoli’s 2-1 defeat to the Giallorossi. Several reports in Italy said De Laurentiis was accompanied by the club’s sporting director Riccardo Bigon and another official, Andrea Chiavelli, on the trip. Former Liverpool manager Benitez has
already coached in Italy, taking over from Jose Mourinho after the Portuguese led Inter Milan to a treble of league, Cup and Champions League. After signing a two-year deal, the Spaniard steered the Nerazzurri to victory in the Italian Super Cup and Club World Cup but a run of poor results in the league left his position fragile and after seeing his request for new players turned down he was eventually sacked in December. Benitez took over on an interim basis at Chelsea last November following the sacking of Roberto Di Matteo and led the defending Champions League winners to victory in the Europa League final over Benfica. Benitez’s agent Manuel Quillon is reported to have told Napoli Network the Spaniard’s is keeping his options open. “Napoli is a great club, so we won’t exclude or confirm anything,” said Quillon. “No decision has been made on Benitez’s future, so anything is possible.”—AFP
Chelsea’s Spanish interim manager Rafael Benitez
Cruz Azul meet America in final MALAYSIA: Wong Wing Ki of Hong Kong dives for a return against Lee Dong Keun of South Korea during their match at the 2013 Sudirman Cup world mixed team badminton championships. —AFP
Taiwan thrashes Germany KUALA LUMPUR: Underdogs Taiwan thrashed European champions Germany 5-0 to top Group C of the Sudirman Cup yesterday and sail into the quarter-finals. Former champions I ndonesia also reached the quarter-finals with a comprehensive 4-1 victory over India in Group A. Defending champions China, Denmark , Japan, S outh Korea and Thailand make up the other five quarterfinal contenders with just one last space left-for either Germany or Malaysia. Japan crushed Singapore 5-0 in Group D, a result that ensured Denmark also qualified from the group as the Singaporeans were eliminated. Meanwhile, South Korea beat Hong Kong 4-1 in Group B. But the day ’s biggest surprise was Taiwan, who already upset hosts Malaysia 3-2 on Sunday. The Taiwanese finished all but two matches in two games, stunning the Europeans. Germany will take on Malaysia on Tuesday to decide who will follow the Taiwanese into the quarter-finals to take up the final place there. Indonesia will meet eight-time champions China today to decide the Group A winner, while Japan play Denmark and South Korea take on Thailand to decide who tops in their groups. The top two teams in each group qual-
ify for the quarter-finals. Indonesia team manager Rexy Mainaky, a former world and Olympic champion, tipped the Chinese to win their fifth consecutive Sudirman Cup, but believed that his team could still upset the top seeds. “Maybe we also can beat them 5-0,” Mainaky said with a laugh when told Chinese coach Li Yongbo is confident of beating Indonesia 5-0. “We have a big squad to choose from and everything will be decided on the court.” The 1996 Atlanta Olympic men’s doubles gold medalist has won all the major trophies in badminton except one-the Sudirman Cup. China thrashed India 5-0 on Sunday, but the defending champions were given a tough workout. Mainaky said he had expected to beat India and was pleased with his players, especially women’s singles Lindaweni Fanetri, as she kept calm to defeat P. V. Sindhu. He admitted world number two Saina Nehwal’s absence through injury from the India team made it easier for her. Meanwhile, Kashyap Parupalli who defeated Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka for India’s lone point said losing Nehwal had been a big blow. “If she was in the team, I think we could have stolen a point today and that would have lifted our players’ spirits,” he said.—AFP
MEXICO CITY: Cruz Azul beat nine-man Santos Laguna 2-1 on Sunday with two goals from striker Javier Orozco, setting up a Mexican Clausura championship final against America. Brilliant 3-0 winners in the first leg, Cruz Azul won 5-1 on aggregate to reach the final against the Mexico City giants, who are looking to equal Guadalajara’s record of 11 league titles. Cruz Azul, chasing a ninth league crown of their own, have won eight of their last nine matches and will be pitting their fine form against America’s pedigree. Orozco opened the scoring in the eighth minute of the semifinal second leg after pouncing on a mistake by defender Rafael Figueroa, then put Cruz Azul further ahead with a header in the 25th minute. Striker Andres Renteria pulled one back for Santos, Clausura champions a year ago, in the 36th minute but any hope of a fight back were crushed when they had two players sent off in the space of seven minutes, both for second yellow cards. Darwin Quintero was first to go, in the 51st minute, and defender Felipe Baloy followed him in the 58th. Cruz Azul substitute Alejandro Vela was shown a red card for diving, his second booking, in the last minute and will
miss the final. America secured their place in the final with Saturday’s 2-1 win over Monterrey at the Azteca. They had held CONCACAF champions Monterrey 2-2 in the first leg. “I think a lot of people will watch the final to push for us not to win. We all know you either hate or love this team,” America midfielder Rubens Sambueza said. “People always talk about us, well or badly ... That’s the nicest thing, it means people aren’t indifferent towards us and we have to enjoy (our successes) for those who speak badly,” said defender Miguel Layun. Raul Jimenez put America ahead with a 64th minute penalty after defender Jose Basanta had brought down Sambueza. Striker Cristian Benitez took his tally as the championship’s top scorer to 17 with America’s second goal seven minutes from time after a one-two with Jimenez. Benitez has scored 30 goals in the season, including 13 in the Apertura. Striker Aldo de Nigris pulled one back for Monterrey in added time. La Piedad won promotion to the top flight when they beat Neza 5-3 on penalties in the second division playoff final. They take the place of relegated Queretaro.—Reuters
MEXICO: Javier Orozco (left) of Cruz Azul vies for the ball with Cesar Ibanes (right) of Santos during their Mexican Clausura Tournament semifinal football match. —AFP
Atletico kick off busy Asian summer
DOHA: Barcelona’s Argentinian football player Lionel Messi is seen following a press conference at the Aspire Academy of Sports Excellence, in Doha. —AFP
SINGAPORE: Atletico Madrid kicked off a busy summer of Asian tours by top European football clubs yesterday when they arrived in Singapore fresh from downing city rivals Real to win the Spanish Cup. Atletico, brandishing the trophy they won in dramatic fashion on Friday, are making a whistle -stop visit despite still being involved in Spain’s La Liga, in which they will play their penultimate game this weekend. “The first thing to do is to rest and sleep,” cautioned their manager Diego Simeone, at a packed press conference where he appeared next to the gleaming trophy. “It’s a very good feeling to have the feeling of winning two days ago and here, two days after, in Singapore on a high note,” added the former Argentina international. Atletico will play a Singapore select team on the artificial turf of the wealthy, Southeast Asian city-state’s 8,000-capacity Jalan Besar Stadium on Wednesday. They have enjoyed a heady weekend, after they won 2-1 against Real-whose coach Jose Mourinho and star player Cristiano Ronaldo were both sent off-and went on an open-top bus parade in front of thousands of fans in central Madrid. “It’s a dream come true after such a
good season,” their captain, Gabriel Fernandez, said of the win against Real. Atletico have also secured third place in La Liga behind Barcelona and Real. “The team achieved a good position and this is the best way to end the season, beating our arch-rivals Real Madrid in the King’s (Spanish) Cup. All the players were very happy to finish the season on a high note.” Atletico, whose prolific striker Radamel Falcao is attracting strong interest from other clubs, are at the head of the queue this year as the some of Europe’s best teams head east to bolster their ranks of Asian fans. Barcelona and Manchester United, the champions of Spain and England respectively, and Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal are all expected to draw large crowds to their friendly games and publicity sessions in the coming weeks. Manchester United will play their first games under new coach David Moyes, while Arsenal will break new ground by becoming the first English Premier League team to play in Vietnam. Pre-season tours have become a staple of the big European teams, who are closely followed by Asian fans and draw significant income from the sale of TV rights and merchandise across the region.—AFP
Bae wins PGA Tour title
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
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Napoli in London to meet Benitez: Reports
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?Next EPL season could be most unpredictable ever
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SPAIN: Barcelona’s players celebrate after winning the Spanish League after the soccer match against Valladolid at Camp Nou stadium. — AP
Barcelona toast title with victory BARCELONA: Newly crowned Spanish champion Barcelona celebrated winning the league title in front of its home fans by easing to a 2-1 victory over Valladolid on Sunday. While rain and dropping temperatures threatened to dampen the party in the stands, Barcelona had little trouble keeping alive its bid to equal Real Madrid’s 2012 record haul of 100 points even without the injured Lionel Messi. The weather cleared up in time for Messi to join the rest of his teammates to receive the trophy, which captain Carles Puyol handed over for coach Tito Vilanova and defender Eric Abidal to lift to the cheers of the Camp Nou crowd in recognition of the serious health problems both have come back from this season. “We won the league, but the most important thing is that Eric and Tito are with us,” said Puyol, before adding the traditional battle cry of “Long live Barca! And long live Catalonia!”
Vilanova underwent surgery in December to remove a second throat tumor in two years, and only returned after receiving further cancer treatment for 10 weeks in New York. He is set to return to New York this week for more tests. Abidal, meanwhile, returned to the pitch recently after having recovered from a liver transplant last year. “From all of us, it is a real pleasure to share this title with you,” Vilanova told the fans. “It was gone for one year, but now it is back.” While Barcelona had trouble in the Champions League and was eliminated from the Copa del Rey with Vilanova absent, the team never faltered in its march toward a 22nd league title as it dethroned Jose Mourinho’s Madrid. “We are proud of this title but we are also proud of (Vilanova and Abidal),” said Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez. “They deserve it for
having fought back to be here.” Messi held baby son Thiago in his arms to watch the firework show alongside his teammates and their children in a subdued celebration for a team that has now won the domestic crown in four of the past five years. Vilanova’s side has 94 points and games left against Espanyol and Malaga to reach the 100-point milestone held by its fierce rivals. “We are happy for the win. It’s a great joy to celebrate the title with our fans,” said Pedro Rodriguez, who scored Barcelona’s first goal. “We wanted to give a good image tonight and we’re happy we were able to do so. “We have the motivation to reach the 100 points, which would be something important for this team.” Barcelona received a guard of honor from Valladolid at the start of the match, and then kept on strolling to the comfortable win as its fans sporadically chanted “champions! champi-
ons!” throughout the match. Valladolid offered little resistance after having long secured a second consecutive season in the top flight. With Messi out after aggravating a hamstring injury, Xavi took charge and played a part in both of Barcelona’s goals. Xavi stole a pass from defender Jesus Rueda and laid the ball off for Pedro to slot it under goalkeeper Jaime Jimenez while sliding to the turf for the 21st minute opener. Valladolid’s Marc Valiente then bumbled Xavi’s corner over his own goal line to double the lead three minutes before halftime. After Barcelona had squandered its chances, Victor Perez scored Valladolid’s consolation goal one minute from time after Barcelona defender Martin Montoya fouled Manucho in the area. Perez rifled his penalty by Victor Valdes, who was making his 500th appearance for Barcelona and possibly one of his last. He has said he won’t
Late Mexes winner saves Milan’s Champs League bid ROME: Frenchman Phillipe Mexes scored a late winner for AC Milan in a 21 comeback victory at Siena on Sunday which saved the Serie A giants’ chances of appearing in next season’s Champions League. Milan were facing a fourth-place finish after falling behind to a 25th minute goal from Claudio Terzi. However, after spurning several chances throughout the match in which both sides finished with 10 men, the seven-time European champions were given a lifeline when Mario Balotelli levelled from the spot in the 84th minute after being fouled in the box. Mexes, one of two defenders at fault when Terzi was allowed space to head home his opener, then bundled the ball home from close range after seeing his initial effort blocked. Milan finished third on 72 points behind second-placed Napoli (78) and recently-crowned champions Juventus, the latter two qualifying automatically for the Champions League. Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri’s job was reportedly in jeopardy if the former European giants failed to clinch a third-place finish. Although Allegri has been linked with a move to Roma, he was given an indication by club CEO Adriano Galliani that his job at the San Siro is safe. “Massimiliano Allegri can rest assured: in the past two years he’s collected more points than Juventus,” said Galliani. Fiorentina were Milan’s sole rivals for third spot, which offers qualification for the competition via a preliminary round. But despite Adem Ljajic scoring a hat-trick in a 5-1 win over alreadyrelegated Pescara, it wasn’t enough to push the Florence-based side up to third. Fiorentina finish fourth, two points adrift of Milan, and earn an automatic Europa League place, in which they will be joined by Udinese following the northerners’ superb 5-2 away win at Inter Milan. Asked if the team were bitter, Fiorentina coach Vincenzo Montella said: “No, we shouldn’t be feeling that. We will be going on holiday feeling proud of what we’ve achieved this season.” Inter’s European hopes faded a month ago after injuries and a series of consequent setbacks left Andrea Stramaccioni’s team out of the running for the European places. Lazio, likewise, finished the season on a low note after succumbing to a 75th minute goal from Cagliari’s Daniele Dessena. Along with Roma’s superb 2-1 win over Napoli, Lazio dropped to seventh place, one place and one point behind their city rivals. Roma midfielder Marquinho opened the scoring for Aurelio Andreazzoli’s men in the 47th minute and striker Mattia Destro doubled the hosts’ lead 11 minutes later. The only silver lining around Napoli’s sixth defeat of the season was the late consolation goal scored by Edinson Cavani, which took the Uruguayan striker’s league-leading tally to 29 in 34 appearances this season.
extend his contract beyond the end of next season, meaning the club may look to sell him in the offseason. Barcelona was without defenders Dani Alves, Adriano, and Abidal due to muscle-related injuries. Defender Javier Mascherano, however, returned for his first game since injuring his right knee on April 2, the same date that Messi picked up his injury that has nagged him ever since. Elsewhere on Sunday, Francisco “Piti” Medina scored a double as Rayo Vallecano won 3-2 at Levante to stay in the hunt for a Europa League berth. Deportivo La Coruna beat visiting Espanyol 2-0 to escape the relegation zone, with Real Zaragoza taking its place after conceding two late goals to fall 2-1 to Athletic Bilbao. After a disappointing season, Bilbao’s comeback victory secured its place in the top flight with two rounds to go. — AP
Mourinho to leave Real at end of the season
ITALY: AC Milan’s Philippe Mexes controls the ball during a Serie A soccer match against Siena. — AP However, it may well have been the Uruguayan’s last goal for the club, who are expected to accept an offer for the striker who has been linked with a move to Real Madrid or England’s Premier League. Napoli coach Walter Mazzarri, meanwhile, had been widely expected to leave the club and he confirmed he will take up a fresh challenge elsewhere. “My cycle at Napoli has come to an end. I need a change of scene,” said Mazzarri, who like Allegri has been tipped to replace Aurelio Andreazzoli. “It’s been four fantastic years, I thank all the lads and everyone who’s been with me.” — AFP
MADRID: Jose Mourinho will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season after a turbulent three-year spell in charge of the Spanish giants, club president Florentino Perez confirmed yesterday. “After the conversations we have had with our coach Jose Mourinho we have arrived at an agreement to end our working relationship at the end of this season,” Perez told a press conference. “The coach and the club agreed this is the right moment. I want to thank Jose Mourinho for the work he has done in the last few years.” Mourinho, who has been strongly linked with a return to Chelsea - a team he managed between 2004 and 2007, has endured a torrid final season in charge of Los Blancos culminating in Friday’s defeat by Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey final that ensured Real end the season without a major trophy. However, Perez denied that Mourinho had been sacked by the club and said they will not have to pay the Portuguese coach compensation despite the fact his current contract runs until 2016. “No one has sacked anyone, it has been a mutual agreement,” Perez said. “It is not nice for anyone to have to leave but it is also true that after three years we both decided it was the right moment to break this relationship.” And despite rumours linking Paris SantGermain boss Carlo Ancelotti with the manager’s job at the Bernabeu, Perez also claimed he has not reached an agreement with any coach to succeed Mourinho. “I want to clarify that we have not established any agreement or pre-contract with any coach. This is a job we have ahead of us in the coming days,” he said. “I want to show my maximum respect to PSG, their president and all the clubs.” The 50year-old Mourinho’s time in charge of the nine-time European champions has been littered with high profile bust-ups with the local media and many of his stellar squad of
world class players, but Perez hailed his demanding standards throughout his time in charge. “He is a very demanding coach, with himself and with the rest and this wears you down,” he said. “The important thing is that we have recovered the level that we didn’t have before.” Mourinho’s time in charge did have its successes as he guided Real to the Spanish title last season and won the club’s first Copa del Rey for 20 years back in 2011. Los Blancos also reached three Champions League semi-finals under Mourinho, but ultimately it was his failure to lead Real to their treasured 10th European title that will mark his legacy in the Spanish capital. The Portuguese was heavily criticised for his overly defensive approach in a number of meetings with eternal rivals Barcelona during his first year in charge as Madrid were humbled 5-0 at the hands of the Catalans and also dumped out of the Champions League by Barca in a bad tempered semifinal. The following season was to prove Mourinho’s best in Spain as Real finally overcame Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side on the domestic front to claim their first title in four years. It was also a title won in style as Real racked up 121 goals and a record 100 points. Mourinho’s generally successful first two years in charge has now been blotted by a disruptive final season when he seemed to be in constant conflict with senior members of his squad. Sergio Ramos and Mesut Ozil were singled out early in the campaign as Real started slowly on the domestic front to hand Barcelona an early advantage in the league which they have never relinquished. Thereafter, club icon Iker Casillas became the subject of the former Chelsea boss’ ire as he was dropped in favor of Diego Lopez and hasn’t played at all since January. — AFP
Business
Don’t wear socks, Pakistanis told amidst huge power crisis Page 22 Middle East should nurture CSR for economic prosperity Page 23
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
BMW posts best ever April sales Page 26 Page 25
Asia shares higher on US gains
BARCELONA: An airplane of the Irish low-cost airline Ryanair takes off from Barcelona’s airport. — AFP
Ryanair’s profits soar high Shares up more than 9%, create new record DUBLIN: A sharp rise in earnings from add-on charges for items such as baggage and pre-assigned seating helped boost Ryanair’s earnings above expectations in the past year, lifting its shares to a record high. Ryanair, which helped pioneer a business model in which low ticket prices are supplemented with charges for extras like printing boarding passes and carrying luggage, flew 5 percent more passengers last year, but earned 20 percent more on extras. That helped lift net profit 13 percent to a record 569 million euros ($730 million) in the year through March, ahead of an average analyst forecast of 558 million in a company poll. Its shares rose more than 9 percent to a 6.90 euros peak. Chief Executive Michael O’Leary said the result was a “testimony to the strength of Ryanair’s ultra-low cost model.” Key to the increase in so called “ancillary” charges was the roll-out of a scheme to allow the advance booking of specific seats across the network, allowing passengers to bypass the sometimes unruly rush to secure good seats on Ryanair flights. Ryanair said the service had proved particularly popular with business people trading down from Europe’s older national carriers, many of which are struggling to deal with high fuel prices and more cost-conscious travellers. Ryanair regularly raises the ire of customers and consumer groups by introducing charges for everything from printing boarding cards to booking flights on its web site. But O’Leary, its outspoken boss, insists the fact Ryanair flies more international passengers than any other airline makes Ryanair the “world’s favourite airline”, a slogan previously used by British Airways. It remains to be seen if Ryanair can sustain the same level of
Saudi to import high diesel volumes SINGAPORE/DUBAI: Saudi Arabia will import near record high diesel volumes this summer, as it gears up to beat the sweltering heat and meet rising travel needs during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, trade sources said. State oil giant Saudi Aramco will import up to 8.9 million barrels of diesel in June, up from an estimated 6.7 to 7.5 million barrels in May, according to the sources, who expect at least the same volume or higher to be booked for July. Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia shipped in record diesel volumes of 8.99 million barrels in July, 2011, up from 8.13 million in June that year, government data published from 2002 through the Joint Organisations Data Initiative showed. “I think this year, the July, 2011 number might be surpassed as Saudi’s diesel demand is growing every year and their new refinery is not expected at least until later this year,” a Gulf-based trader said. Higher overseas purchases by Saudi Arabia should help boost spot premiums and support weak Asian gasoil margins as Aramco imports from countries such as India and Singapore. Aramco relies heavily on imported diesel in summer when demand for electricity peaks with rising use of air conditioning as temperatures soar to a grilling 50 degrees Celsius. To cut its imports, Aramco has planned three new refineries. But the first of these which will produce 176,000 barrels per day of diesel comes online in the second half of 2013, instead of the second quarter as previously expected, traders said. Until the refinery-a joint venture with France’s Total and Saudi Aramco Total Refining and Petrochemicals Co’s (SATORP) Jubail refinery-is at full capacity, Aramco will buy heavily to ensure it is covered for Ramadan, when travel within the region significantly picks up. This year, Ramadan is due to start in early July. “Aramco’s expecting very high demand this summer and they are stocking up before Ramadan. The demand growth is higher compared to previous summers as there are several infrastructure expansion projects ongoing,” one middle distillates trader said. Refinery glitches also led to higher imports, traders said. —Reuters
growth in add-ons. Chief Operating Officer Michael Cawley said in an interview last week it was difficult to predict ancillary revenues in the medium term, saying management had been surprised by the success of reserved seating. He said ancillaries would likely grow a little ahead of passenger growth. Slower growth Total revenue increased 13 percent to 4.9 billion euros as average fares increased by 6 percent. Costs, measured per passenger mile, increased 8 percent, mainly due to an 18 percent increase in the price of fuel. In a relatively downbeat outlook, O’Leary forecast profit would grow by 5 percent at most in the coming year, with prices for fuel and air traffic control eating into profits. Capacity growth will slow to 3 percent from 5 last year as it waits for deliveries to begin on 175 Boeing jets it ordered in March and most of that will come from grounding fewer planes in the traditionally weaker winter months. But Ryanair typically underestimates its performance at the start of the year and Ryanair Chief Financial Officer Howard Millar described the outlook as “cautious.” A year ago Ryanair had forecast net profit of between 400 million euros and 440 million for the year to March 2013. Analyst Stephen Furlong at Davy Stockbrokers said: “It’s not unusual that the guidance is quite cautious, but they are still forecasting higher profits ... Their cash generation remains spectacular.” The company had net cash of 61 million euros at year end despite having returned almost 500 million to shareholders in November. O’Leary added that profit in the first quarter to the end of
Kuwait extends rally MIDEAST STOCKS DUBAI: Kuwait’s bourse extended sharp year-to-date gains in heavy trading yesterday, while profit-taking weighed on bourses in the United Arab Emirates and other markets were mixed. Kuwait’s index rose 1.3 percent to hit a fresh 46-month high, trading 111 million dinars ($387.9 million). Companies owned by one of Kuwait’s largest merchant families rose after a favourable court ruling. Kuwaiti newspaper reports said Libya will have to pay the Kharafi Group $930 million in damages for former leader Muammar Gaddafi’s cancelling of the construction of a vacation resort. Telco Zain gained 2.9 percent, National Industries Group Holding climbed 2 percent and National Investments Company rose 2.4 percent. Most large-caps rose, pushing the bluechip Kuwait 15 index up 13 points. “We expect the market to continue its positive performance and maintain above the 8,000 points level mainly driven by the positive sentiment and the new liquidity channelled to the market,” said Fouad Darwish, head of brokerage at Global Investment House. The index closed at 8,126 points. In Saudi Arabia, shares in developer Dar Al-Arkan halted two sessions of sharp gains after the firm said in a bourse statement it would not be paying a dividend for 2012 as it looks to fund business growth. The stock fell 6.3 percent. The kingdom’s benchmark climbed 0.1 percent, up for a fourth-straight session to hit a fresh one-year high. Bluechips supported gains, with the banking shares measure adding 0.5 percent and the petrochemical sector index up 0.3 percent. “I’m waiting to see if the positive momentum will continue - there aren’t huge risks in the market right now but there also aren’t huge rewards,” said Faisal Al-Othman, portfolio manager at Riyadh-based Arab National Bank. “Sectors relying on local demand will be outperformers this year.” In the United Arab Emirates, profit-taking slowed the recent rally on the two main bourses. Dubai’s Arabtec fell 2.1 percent after thousands of workers at the firm staged a rare strike, demanding higher pay. The emirate’s benchmark snapped a nine-session rally, falling 0.5 percent to trim year-to-date gains to 44.3 percent. Abu Dhabi benchmark slipped off its 54-month high, falling 1.2 percent. Turnover has surged on the two markets as fresh cash is chasing gains following a sentiment revival in the property and banking sectors. “Foreign interest has been holding up markets but there is heavy retail buying now,” said Amer Khan, fund manager at Shuaa Asset Management. “I wouldn’t speculate where the money is coming from - this is a rich country.” Elsewhere, Qatar’s measure gained 0.6 percent after breaching 9,000 points for the first time since January 2011 in the previous session.—Reuters
June will be lower as the busy Easter period fell in the fourth quarter. But bookings on new routes, which include Morocco, the Netherlands and Greece, in the coming summer were ahead of expectations, albeit with fares at modest levels. Profit growth of 5 percent would still be impressive compared with some of Ryanair’s peers. Airlines like British Airwaysowner IAG, Lufthansa and Air France-KLM have been slashing
jobs and shelving growth plans as they grapple with soaring fuel prices and a weak economy. IAG for instance last week posted an operating loss of 278 million euros in the first quarter, traditionally a weak period for airlines. Ryanair’s largest low-cost rival easyJet last week said it expected 4 percent growth in revenue per seat in thenext six months and improved profitability for the full-year. — Reuters
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
BUSINESS
Turkey hopes and fears investment ‘Promotion to investment grade not a game-changer’ LONDON: The coveted investment grade rating has arrived in Turkey and foreign capital may follow - possibly a lot of it. But here’s the multi-million lira question: What kind of cash will it be? What Turkey desperately wants is long-term bricks-and-mortar investment into factories and infrastructure. What it is more likely to get initially is more interest in already booming stock and bond markets - and possibly a fresh battle in its war against currency appreciation. An investment grade rating, which Moody’s gave Turkey on Thursday, potentially opens Turkey to more conservative funds. It could lead to inclusion in global debt indices tracked by trillions of dollars and might cut borrowing costs for the government and companies. “This could bring a whole new investor base to Turkey,” says Tim Ash, head of emerging markets research at Standard Bank. Not surprising then that bond yields tumbled to fresh record lows, stocks hit new all-time highs. Average yields on Turkish sovereign dollar bonds fell to around 3.6 percent, trading for the first time below erstwhile emerging markets darling, Brazil. But compare this to what an investor would receive on “safe” bonds from the United States or Germany or the 4 percent or so that debt-ridden Spain is paying for 10-year euro risk. An investment grade Turkey might well attract that marginal yield-seeking dollar. “Turkey is a great example of an economy ... where the debtto-GDP ratio is shrinking,” said Arvind Rajan, inter-
national chief investment officer in the fixed income division at Pramerica, the asset management arm of Prudential Financial. “With negative real yields showing on most developed market bonds, investors might as well increase exposure to those types of emerging market economies where they are still hugely underweight,” Rajan said. Not game changer But the promotion to investment grade, while welcome, is not a game-changer. Turkey already trades as an investment grade market and despite the latest rally, the move is unlikely to be a significant trigger for more huge inflows, says Angus Halkett, a fund manager at Stone Harbor Investment Partners in London. At last count, Turkey had a record $150 billion in overseas investment in its stock and bond markets. Two-thirds of Istanbul’s equity free float is in foreign hands and Turkey is fund managers’ biggest net overweight in emerging markets, a Bank of America/Merrill Lynch poll showed this month. The proof is also in debt insurance costs that are below those of investment grade peers, Russia and South Agrica, and in bond yields that are negative when adjusted for inflation. “There may be some extra positive impetus, the market is squeezing a bit out today but in terms of price there is not a great deal more juice left in Turkish bonds,” Halkett says. Many argue that the last thing Turkey needs is more portfolio capital, which
GM Gulf wealth funds raising private equity DUBAI: Sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf Arab region are raising their allocations to private equity investments at a faster rate than other types of investment, US fund manager Invesco says in a new study. “Contrary to popular perceptions these vast state funds are not piling into global property and global infrastructure projects,” Nick Tolchard, head of Invesco Middle East said. “As well as a rise in co-investment deals, over and above private equity funds we are seeing an emergence of direct private equity investments coming out of SWFs.” Large sovereign funds have been looking for alternative investments to give better returns than lowyielding staples such as US Treasuries. Average allocations to private equity by the region’s developmental wealth funds have increased in the last 12 months by 33 percent, whereas investment funds have raised their private equity allocations by 13 percent in the same period, the study showed. In comparison Invesco said the percentage rise in other alternative investments such as real estate and infrastructure was only in single-digits. Invesco classifies the funds as “developmental” or “investment” depending on whether they are engaged in investment activities that contribute to the progress of the local economy or aiming to invest for future generations. The Gulf region is home to some of the world’s most prominent sovereign funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), and the Qatar Investment Authority, which are also two of the the most active funds, holding stakes in a range of large European corporates. Funds like Abu Dhabi’s state-owned vehicle Mubdala has as its main mandate to invest to generate employment opportunities for the state and contribute to local economic output, while sovereign funds such as ADIA and Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) invest for future generations. —Reuters
is quick to take fright if the global - or local - backdrop changes and which drives up the lira, forcing tech central bank to cuts rates as it did on Thursday. Turkish authorities are not oblivious to the risks. A central bank paper last year warned that currency appreciation, current account deterioration and higher credit growth usually ensue in emerging markets after promotion to investment grade. And Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek acknowledged at a conference in London a need to manage “implications associated with investment grade.” “Investment grade can lead to excessive build up of risk and we may have to look into that ... we can always step in to stop corporates from borrowing if needed,” he said. What Simsek and his colleagues in government are hoping for is a bonanza of foreign direct investment (FDI) in a country which is still bedevilled by poor infrastructure and poverty. FDI is more desirable than portfolio flows, simply because it is less volatile but it covers less than a fifth of Turkey’s whopping balance of payments deficit. Simon Quijano-Evans, head of emerging markets research at Commerzbank, Turkey, agrees, noting an FDI pickup in Brazil following its ascent to investment grade in mid-2008. “Probably the main positive of the Moody’s move is that it will start to help change the view of foreign direct investors,” he said, noting Turkey currently has the biggest current account deficit of all big emerging economies, if net FDI is included. “This is the one priority area for Turkey.” — Reuters
Oil slips near $104 on demand outlook LONDON: Brent crude oil slipped towards $104 per barrel yesterday, weighed by ample supplies, weaker demand for fuel and a strong dollar, despite gains in equity markets. The dollar was within 0.2 percent of its highest level since July 2010 against a basket of currencies, keeping a lid on a range of commodities prices. A strong dollar tends to depress oil and other commodities that are priced in the US currency on international markets. The fundamental outlook for oil also looked less positive with a weaker demand growth for 2013 as well as higher supply, according to the West’s energy watchdog, the International Energy Agency. Brent crude futures for July were down 50 cents at $104.14 per barrel by 1240 GMT, after three straight sessions of gains. US crude fell 30 cents to $95.72. “The strength of the dollar has been negative for commodities,” said Olivier Jakob, analysts at Swiss energy consultancy Petromatrix. “But short-term the market looks fairly balanced, with Brent trading in a range between $90 and $110 per barrel. It is difficult to see it breaking out of that for a while.” Gold fell for an eighth session to its weakest in over a month as fears the US Federal Reserve may wind back its economic stimulus programme hurt its appeal as a hedge against inflation. Bullion is down 20 percent so far this year. Volumes low World stock markets were close to fiveyear highs yesterday, boosted by optimism over the outlook for global growth. But vol-
umes in most financial markets were low with several countries celebrating religious festivals. Traders awaited the minutes of a US Federal Reserve meeting due to be released on Wednesday to assess the outlook for the oil markets, as any hints of continued monetary easing by the US central bank would be bullish. Analysts at US brokerage Jefferies Bache said they had turned more negative on oil markets and saw the chance of at least $10 more of falls in crude prices from current levels: “We can see a renewed disconnect from the strong equities, especially if the dollar index continues to march higher,” they wrote in a note to clients. “We look for underlying petroleum fundamentals to deteriorate further.” “We have shifted to a bearish stance with particular emphasis on the crude markets,” they added. “Ultimate downside price possibilities in the crudes still exist about $10-$11 below current levels.” But David Hufton, managing director of brokers PVM Oil Associates in London, said Brent may stay above $100 a barrel. “As long as US investors remain bullish and ‘risk on’ there has to be a good chance that Brent will get through the second quarter without dipping below $100.” Oil markets found some support from tension in the Middle East, which raised worries over the security of supply from the biggest producing region. Lebanese Hezbollah militants attacked a Syrian rebel-held town alongside Syrian troops on Sunday, and Israel threatened more attacks on Syria to rein the militia in. — Reuters
KARACHI: Pakistani stockbrokers chat as they watch share prices on a digital screen during a trading session at the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) yesterday. — AFP
Don’t wear socks, Pakistanis told amidst huge power crisis Pakistan says can’t end power blackouts ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has told civil servants not to wear socks as the country turns off air-conditioners amid a chronic power crisis and soaring temperatures. The government has turned off all airconditioning in its offices as the country endures blackouts of up to 20 hours a day in some places. “There shall be no more use of air-conditioners in public offices till such time that substantial improvement in the energy situation takes place,” a cabinet directive said. As part of a new dress code, moccasins or sandals must be worn without socks. The power shortages have sparked violent protests and crippled key industries, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in a country already beset by high unemployment, a failing economy, widespread poverty and a Taleban insurgency. The “load-shedding” means many families cannot pump water, let alone run air-conditioners, with a disastrous knock-on effect on health and domestic life. Frustration over the power cuts contributed to the former ruling party’s poor showing in a May 11 general election. Two ministers in charge of water and power explained what can be done to end power cuts in parts of the country enduring temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and above - absolutely nothing, it seems, except raise prices. Ministers
Musadiq Malik and Sohail Wajahat Siddiqui “expressed their inability to overcome the crisis”, the Daily Times quoted them as telling a news conference in Lahore, where the temperature was 40 C (104 degrees Fahrenheit) yesterday. “ They have termed financial constraints as a major, and incompetence as a minor, hurdle in resolving the issue,” the newspaper said. “Presenting the realistic picture, the ministers announced that they were going to increase the price of electricity and gas for all sectors.” They gave no details but said the problem would get worse before it gets better. About two-thirds of Pakistan’s energy is generated by oil and gas and there are widespread gas shortages, with cars run by CNG, compressed natural gas, queuing up for hours overnight to fill their tanks. Meanwhile, two Pakistani ministers in charge of water and power explained what can be done to end power cuts of up to 20 hours a day in parts of the country enduring temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius and above - absolutely nothing, it seems, except raise prices. The power shortages have sparked violent protests and crippled key industries, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs in a country already beset by high unemployment, a failing economy, widespread poverty and a Taliban insurgency. —Agencies
Qatar sets up $1bn energy fund DOHA: Three Qatari state-backed entities, including the Gulf Arab nation’s acquisitive sovereign wealth fund, are setting up a $1 billion fund to invest in overseas energy infrastructure assets. The new fund will be run by Qatar Holding, Qatar Petroleum International and Qatar Electricity and Water Company (QEWC), a bourse filing from QEWC said yesterday. A country with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world and backed by its huge hydrocarbon wealth, Qatar has been snapping up assets globally. The fund will invest outside Qatar “in the fields of power generation, water desalination and treatment, heating and cooling systems, provision of fuel as well as fuel
loading and unloading equipment,” QEWC said in the statement. The new company, to be called Nebras Power and will be 60 percent owned by QEWC, with 20 percent held by QPI and 20 percent by Qatar Holding, a separate statement issued later yesterday said. “Its initial capital will be $1 billion, with the idea to provide power outside Qatar,” Qatari Energy Minister Mohammed Saleh Al-Sada told a news conference. “We will focus on the Middle East and parts of the Far East, including North Africa, where we feel there are opportunities for investment. This will include both greenfield and existing projects,” QEWC General Manager Fahad Al-Mohannadi said. —Reuters
EXCHANGE RATES Irani Riyal
Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds
.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000
CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES US Dollar/KD .2841000 GB Pound/KD .4338920 Euro .3707360 Swiss francs .3043390 Canadian dollars .2795430 Danish Kroner .0497330 Swedish Kroner .0443660 Australian dlr .2963730 Hong Kong dlr .0365940 Singapore dlr .2291130 Japanese yen .0029600 Indian Rs/KD .0000000 Sri Lanka rupee .0000000 Pakistan rupee .0000000 Bangladesh taka .0000000 UAE dirhams .0773800 Bahraini dinars .7538810 Jordanian dinar .0000000 Saudi Riyal/KD .0757800 Omani riyals .7382100 Philippine Peso .0000000
Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht Malaysian ringgit Irani Riyal
ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.781 5.233 2.912 2.270 3.271 229.640 36.980 3.676 6.970 9.643 94.221 0.271
.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000 .2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870
0.273
Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd
GCC COUNTRIES 76.577 78.903 745.880 762.720 78.194
Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham
ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 40.700 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 40.455 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.340 Tunisian Dinar 174.180 Jordanian Dinar 405.520 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.927 Syrian Lier 3.120 Morocco Dirham 33.771 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 287.050 Euro 372.300 Sterling Pound 439.470 Canadian dollar 281.970 Turkish lira 158.720 Swiss Franc 297.920 US Dollar Buying 285.850 GOLD 298.000 150.000 77.500
20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram
SELL DRAFT 284.76 283.20 301.02 372.39 286.65 439.14 2.85 3.692 5.209 2.272 3.266 2.913 78.11 762.94 40.43 407.96 745.47 78.16 76.57
Selling Rate 286.550 284.780 447.730 371.435 297.210 758.655 77.995 78.655 76.375 403.940 40.620 2.265 5.235 2.904 3.675 6.969 702.930 3.800 9.730 4.095 3.365 95.500
Bahrain Exchange Company CURRENCY
UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal
Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit
SELL CASH 283.000 283.000 299.000 372.000 288.000 438.500 3.300 3.740 5.540 2.460 3.420 2.990 78.800 763.500 40.500 415.000 748.000 79.500 77.000
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
BUY Europe 0.4291864 0.0062562 0.0455761 0.3635893 0.0449829 0.4262578 0.0388967 0.2913289
SELL 0.4381864 0.0182562 0.0505761 0.3710893 0.0501829 0.4337578 0.0438967 0.2983289
Australasia 0.2708190 0.2242488 0.0001139
0.2828190 0.2342488 0.0001139
America 0.2724247 0.0001461 0.2849000
0.2814247 0.0001641 0.2870500
Asia 0.0036408 0.0031854 0.0457455 0.0166033
0.0036958 0.0034154 0.0507455 0.0197033
Guinea Franc Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht
0.0000446 0.0344385 0.0051576 0.0000244 0.0028712 0.0027155 0.0033724 0.0900415 0.0031107 0.0028865 0.0065085 0.0000733 0.2247824 0.0022315 0.0092222
0.0000506 0.0375385 0.0052216 0.0000296 0.0038712 0.0028956 0.0036024 0.0970415 0.0033107 0.0029265 0.0069785 0.0000763 0.2307824 0.0022735 0.0098222
Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal
Arab 0.7549788 0.0384732 0.0129584 0.1459587 0.0000798 0.0001749 0.3993401 1.0000000 0.0001762 0.0216896 0.0012241 0.7345758 0.0781901 0.0760133 0.0466754 0.0031297 0.1722599 0.0767259 0.0012953
0.7634788 0.0405032 0.0194584 0.1477487 0.0000803 0.0002349 0.4068041 1.0000000 0.0001962 0.0456896 0.0018591 0.7455758 0.0789731 0.0766533 0.0472254 0.0033497 0.1782599 0.0781759 0.0013953
Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change
Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 285.700 374.550 440.000 285.150 2.855 5.228 40.550 2.257 3.668 6.933 2.905 760.850 77.850 76.300
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
BUSINESS
Middle East should nurture CSR for economic prosperity By Ramez Shehadi, Salim Ghazaly, Mounira Jamjoom
F
or many years the approach to achieving long-term prosperity and stability in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has been economic growth. That approach has to change. Instead, governments should be pursuing sustainable development. Unlike previous policies, sustainable development is a strategy for economic progress that aims to create jobs, alleviate poverty, provide education, and carefully manage the environment. Companies have a particularly important role to play in the sustainable development through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Many MENA companies are increasing the scale and range of their CSR projects, part of a global trend and an extension of longstanding cultural traditions. Unfortunately, too many companies conduct these initiatives on an ad hoc basis that limits their effectiveness. For maximum impact, companies need to align CSR projects with national develop-
ment goals and coordinate with governments, academia, and civil society. Such a coordinated effort is critical to tackle regional sustainable development, including the main challenge of training and educating young people for jobs. Just keeping employment at 2011 levels will require an additional 75 million jobs by 2020-a 43 percent increase on the number of jobs in 2011, according to the World Economic Forum. Until recently, too many MENA companies consider CSR initiatives an optional extra and define such work too narrowly, and too few governments fully comprehend how CSR can dovetail with national development. One sign that the tide is turning is the number of regional companies that have joined the UN Global Compact-a strategic policy initiative for businesses committed to ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor, environment and anti-corruption. The list of signatories from the MENA region has grown from just three in 2003 to 262 by the end of 2012. As more companies conduct CSR proj-
ects, they are establishing best practices that other companies can follow. These best practices include ensuring high-profile support and engagement of senior leaders, and practicing more transparent corporate governance to encourage candid discussions and create clear guidelines for tackling CSR issues. These CSR leaders also integrate CSR with their operating model by, at the very least, coordinating the activities of their company’s businesses, functional units, and partners. They also focus on a few CSR themes that leverage the company’s expertise; and they tap the credibility and expertise of civil society organizations, public-private partnerships and social business ventures. Finally, these CSR pioneers measure CSR results to assess and refine their initiatives. In tandem with companies aligning their CSR projects with national development goals, governments need to help define these goals and create an environment in which CSR is encouraged and, indeed, expected from companies. Encouragingly, MENA governments have become more active in their promo-
tion of CSR. Almost all Gulf Cooperation Council members now have corporate governance codes or guidelines in place for publicly listed companies. Eventually, when the CSR environment is mature, MENA governments may not need to intervene, except to offer encouragement. For the time being, however, given the region’s substantial development needs and the undeveloped nature of CSR, governments need to play a more active role in setting CSR priorities. At the very least, governments can define and mandate minimum standards for business performance through legislation. Governments can also facilitate CSR by naming a ministry or department to coordinate CSR strategies and policy making. The authorities can also offer incentives for companies to pursue CSR. Governments can provide funding and research around CSR, and can spearhead training and promotional campaigns. The education sector also has an important role to play in shaping the attitudes of future business leaders. Universities and
business schools can influence the mindset of tomorrow’s managers and entrepreneurs by introducing CSR-related concepts into the curriculum. Civil society organizations, for their part, can form partnerships with private companies to lend credibility to CSR initiatives, and can monitor the performance of the private sector on issues ranging from child labor, to fair trade, to community involvement, and environmental protection. While there is an important role for government, and to an extent civil society and academia, the main burden of CSR and sustainable development falls on companies. By aligning their CSR work with national development goals, MENA companies can be good corporate citizens, and by supporting sustainable development can contribute to the betterment of the societies in which they operate. By Ramez Shehadi, Partner, Salim Ghazaly, Principal with Booz & Company, and Mounira Jamjoom, Senior Research Specialist at Booz & Company’s Ideation Center
South African mine wage demands roil shares, rand Threat of mines unrest is headache for ruling ANC
MYANMAR: Workers push sections of a huge bamboo raft as others try to dismantle parts of it yesterday. Workers started to unlash thousands of bamboo poles that they floated down a river for three days at a construction metrical distribution site. — AP
Danone strikes sweet deals to meet Chinese taste for yogurt PARIS: French food industry group Danone is ramping up its presence in the growing Chinese market for dairy products with two deals yesterday to tap sales of yogurt and health foods, the firm said yesterday. Danone said it was investing about 325 million euros ($418 million) to strengthen its place in the potentially vast Chinese market, via two joint ventures in distribution and production. The intention is to build on a joint market share of about one fifth of the Chinese market for dairy products. The two ventures are with arms of the Chinese company COFCO which says it is “the largest supplier of diversified products and services in the agricultural products and food industry in China”. A joint statement said that the strategy targeted “the production and sales of chilled yogurt products in China, combining their respective assets in this category.” The statement said: “Danon’s BIO (Activia) brand will put the new fresh dairy business in a solid position to build its strong leadership in the active health sector.” Danone chief executive Frank Riboud said that the deals “will create the winning combination to unlock the potential of the fresh dairy products category in China. With the support of COFCO’s expertise in the Chinese food industry “our brands will benefit from significantly wider reach to the largest number of Chinese consumers,” he said. COFCO said that it was “devoted to utilising renewable natural resources to provide healthy and nutritious food.” Under the agreements, Danone is to create a venture with COFCO opening the way for a strategic partnership with Mengniu, described as a leading Chinese dairy product company. Initially, Danone will hold 4.0 percent of Mengniu with the intention of increasing this stake in line with future market conditions, the French firm said. The second venture will be linked directly to operating activities. The venture will group assets from the two companies and achieve total sales on the basis of figures for 2012 of 500 million euros. COFCO to develop Chinese
dairy market Danone said this activity would account for an estimated 21.0 percent of the Chinese market and would comprise 13 factories in China. It would benefit from the two brands, Danone and Mengniu. The second venture would also develop synergies by using expertise from Danone in terms of quality and innovation and would benefit from the market leadership and “vast” distribution network operated by Mengniu which would hold 80.0 percent of the new business. Danone is a world leader in the sectors of dairy and health foods, baby food and medical nutrition and the supply of bottled water, the statement said. The company has more than 190 production facilities around the world and employs 102,000 people. Last year it achieved sales of more than 20 billion euros, more than half of which were made in emerging economies. The chairman of COFCO, Frank Ning, said that as the biggest Chinese state-owned company in the food sector, “COFCO has the responsibility to further develop dairy products in China.” — AFP
PARIS: Picture shows French food group Danone chief executive Franck Riboud during the company’s annual general assembly. — AFP
JOHANNESBURG: Big wage hikes demanded by the government-allied trade union in South Africa’s coal and gold industries helped push the rand to a four-year low yesterday, highlighting the ripple effect of the prospect of more turmoil in the industry. The National Union of Mineworkers’ (NUM) call for pay rises of up to 60 percent in a submission to the Chamber of Mines seen by Reuters on Sunday rattled mining investors after wildcat strikes at platinum and gold mines killed 50 people and cost billions in lost output last year. Employers and workers are squaring off for next month’s salary bargaining period against a backdrop of high inflation and shrinking company margins in Africa’s largest economy due to soaring costs and sinking commodity prices. This is making South Africa vulnerable, said George Glynos, managing director at financial consultancy ETM Analytics. “Commodity prices are retreating, you have wage negotiations which look like they are turning pear-shaped even before they have begun, and all that on top of a fragile economy,” he said. Reflecting the jitters over the threat of fresh mines unrest, the South African currency fell to a new 4-year low of 9.4790 to the dollar early yesterday before recovering to 9.4580 by 1228 GMT, still down 0.6 percent on the day. Shares in Africa’s top bullion producer AngloGold Ashanti fell over four percent and rival Gold Fields shed 4 percent to 4-1/2 year lows. On global markets, gold fell for an eighth straight session to its weakest level in over a month, as fears that the US Federal Reserve may wind back its economic stimulus programme hurt the metal’s appeal as a hedge against inflation. A fierce union turf war is roiling labour relations at South African mine shafts, with the NUM fighting an aggressive challenge to its once near monopoly of members from the growing Association of Mineworkers
and Construction Union (AMCU). AMCU has poached tens of thousands of platinum miners from NUM in an increasingly violent struggle at mine sites. The union battle poses a headache for President Jacob Zuma’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), which faces criticism that it mishandled last year’s mines violence. Opponents say it and the mainstream NUM have neglected the rights of workers and sided with mine bosses, a charge they both deny. The ANC’s Secretary General Gwede Mantashe, a former top NUM official, defended the union yesterday, saying that “recent attacks” on it were akin to an attack on the ruling party’s alliance with its labour allies. Last year’s mine violence dented South Africa’s image with investors and led to ratings downgrades for the economy. NUM, a key political ally of the ANC, is seeking an entry-level minimum monthly wage of 7,000 rand ($750) for gold and coal surface workers and 8,000 rand for those underground, according to the submission to the chamber of mines obtained by Reuters. The latter would represent a 60 percent rise from the current minimum wage of 5,000 rand a month. NUM also said it wanted 15 percent increases for “all other wage categories,” meaning more experienced and skilled workers. Wage talks are due to begin next month. South Africa’s Solidarity trade union, which represents mostly skilled workers, said yesterday it was seeking 10 percent pay increases for its members from the country’s gold and coal producers in the upcoming negotiations. Spot gold is currently fetching around $1,350 an ounce, down close to 20 percent so far this year, and South Africa’s mines, the deepest in the world, are hard pressed to turn a profit at these levels. “If you look at the all-in-costs for South African gold miners, including capex (capital expenditure), the break-even costs right now
Strike threats NUM still represents the bulk of the rank and file in the gold and coal sectors and needs to be seen taking a tough line with management to head off the assault from AMCU, which now dominates the platinum sector specifically. AMCU has not yet submitted its wage demands to producers, which negotiate with unions on a companyby-company basis. Anglo American Platinum, the world’s top producer, is planning to cut 6,000 jobs from an initial target of 14,000 as it seeks to restore profits after recording a loss last year. It scaled back its original plan under government pressure, but workers and unions have threatened strike action on the platinum belt if the announced lay-offs go ahead. African Bank Investments, a lender to lowerincome South Africans such as miners, said yesterday many of its debt-laden customers were struggling to pay back their loans. “The knock-on effect from the recent strike activity led to increased debt servicing burdens,” the bank said in announcing its first-half earnings. AMCU’s rise has been built in part on perceptions that NUM’s leaders have grown too close to management and the ANC. The view from the boardroom is somewhat different as NUM has been wringing above inflation wage hikes for its members over the past decade, a huge squeeze on company margins. But even increases above inflation do not go far for workers at the bottom end of the pay scale who on average have eight dependants and are mostly drawn from poor rural areas. Inflation, which is currently running near 6 percent, looks set to accelerate further given the recent weakness in the rand. — Reuters
World stocks rise on signs of US recovery BANGKOK: Evidence of a steady economic recovery in the U.S. helped push world stock markets higher yesterday. A gauge of future economic activity issued Friday rose more than expected, a sign that the world’s biggest economy is improving. Consumer confidence also rose, offsetting several lackluster reports on slowing manufacturing and an increase in applications for unemployment benefits. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.7 percent to 6,735.31. Germany’s DAX gained 0.5 percent to 8,440.38. France’s CAC-40 advanced 0.3 percent to 4,012.55. Wall Street looked set for a flat opening, however. Dow Jones industrial futures were nearly unchanged at 15,316. S&P 500 futures were flat at 1,663.10. Asian stock markets were broadly higher. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.5 percent to 15,360.81. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng surged 1.8 percent to 23,493.03. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 advanced 0.5 percent to 5,209. Benchmarks in mainland China, Taiwan, and Indonesia also rose. South Korea’s Kospi fell 0.2 percent to 1,982.43. Investors will have a slew of data to sift through
this week, including U.S. homes sales and durable goods orders. Analysts are somewhat pessimistic about the strength of China’s recovery but are expecting to see solid improvement in the US. In Washington, remarks by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke to members of Congress on Wednesday will be closely examined for hints about the future direction of the central bank’s monetary policy. The Fed is currently conducting the third round of massive bond purchases known as quantitative easing to help drive down interest rates and spur lending. But recently improving data on the US economy has led to speculation that the Fed might consider winding the program down earlier than expected. “What everyone is watching for is any comment from the Fed chief on asset purchases or any clarification on current thinking,” said Mitul Kotecha of Credit Agricole CIB in Hong Kong. “The timing of any decision on winding down asset purchases is still very much undecided so it seems unlikely Bernanke will be categorical or provide strong timing about a reduction” in
On fleeting Hong Kong trips, Chinese make frugal stylish HONG KONG: Armed with empty suitcases and same-day return tickets, an army of mainland Chinese is descending on suburban outlet shopping malls and international fashion chains in Hong Kong, turning cheap into the new chic as luxury falls out of favour. Wealthy Chinese used to stop over in Hong Kong for a few days to pick up a Louis Vuitton bag or a wristwatch for up to 40 percent less than in Beijing or Shanghai. These well-heeled tourists have now been overtaken by bargain-hunters that stay for a few hours, spend more at shops like Inditex SA’s Zara and malls such as Citygate Outlets, turning Hong Kong into a must-be location for retailers who are braving some of the world’s most expensive commercial rents. “There are more mainland consumers than locals,” said Tsz Chung, a salesman at a Nike Inc store in Citygate, located in the satellite town of Tung Chung near the airport. “Typically, mainland consumers look for cheap goods.” Foreign retailers treat Hong Kong as a gateway to China, which is poised to become the world’s
are anywhere between $1,100 and ounce and $1,400 an ounce,” said David Davis, mining investment analyst with SBG Securities.
biggest consumer market in three years, and how mainland tourists shop is big business. Sluggish sales growth in Europe and the United States also makes China, with its rapidly expanding middle class and rising incomes, especially attractive. Chinese nationals were the largest single group of tourists to Hong Kong last year. Of the 35 million who visited, 20 million came and left the same day, an increase of more than a third on 2011, according to tourism bureau data. Many short-term visitors come by shuttle bus or train from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. They often head straight to Citygate, where more than 80 international brands including Levi’s jeans, Coach Inc, Polo Ralph Lauren and Burberry are offered at steep discounts.“It’s cheaper here and there’s a wide range of options,” said Chen Yunlong, a 29-year-old tourist from the border town of Shenzhen as he strolled through the mall on a recent Saturday. Visitors like Chen, who said he shops in Hong Kong up to three
times a week, made Citygate the best performer among the big malls operated by realtor Swire Properties. First-quarter sales rose 22 percent at the outlet mall, beating a one percent loss at the luxury-focused Pacific Place and a 3.5 percent increase at the mid-tier Cityplaza mall. At the Nike outlet, Chung said all sales staff were now required to be fluent in Mandarin, the most prevalent Chinese dialect. Most Hong Kong residents speak Cantonese. Mass-market retailers muscle in Thrifty Chinese tourists are also proving a boon for New Town Plaza, a shopping mall located in the suburban Sha Tin district and owned by Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. Retail rents at New Town, which is miles away from spots frequented by tourists, are among the city’s highest. Last month, L Brands Inc lingerie chain Victoria’s Secrets chose to locate its first Hong Kong stores at the mall and the prime downtown district of Central. — Reuters
quantitative easing. HSBC’s survey on China’s manufacturing growth, to be released Thursday, is also highly anticipated. Analysts at Credit Agricole are expecting a slight deceleration due to seasonal factors, from 50.4 in April to 50.3 in May. “More signs of weakness will add to global growth worries. I think markets are particularly sensitive to this data release,” Kotecha said. Wall Street stocks again pushed higher Friday after the Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 percent last month after a revised decline of 0.2 percent in March. The index is intended to predict how the economy will be doing in three to six months. Separately, the University of Michigan’s preliminary survey of consumer confidence climbed to 83.7. Economists had predicted that the gauge would climb to 76.8. Benchmark oil for June delivery was down 57 cents at $95.45 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2846 from $1.2829 late Friday in New York. The dollar fell to 102.54 yen from 103.18 yen. —AP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
BUSINESS
Economists predict rise in consumer spending WASHINGTON: Consumer spending is likely to pick up this year, while government spending declines at a faster rate, according to a survey of business economists. The economists predict that the US economy will grow 2.4 percent this year and 3 percent next year. That’s unchanged from their forecast in February. But they are more bullish on consumer spending and housing than they were three months ago, in part because of a more positive view about unemployment. The survey was released yesterday by the National Association for Business Economics, which periodically surveys economists for banks, manufacturers and universities. The 49 economists who were ques-
tioned between April 16 and April 30 predicted that consumer spending will rise 2.3 percent this year, up from a forecast of 1.9 percent in February. They were also more upbeat about auto sales, predicting 15.4 million vehicles sales, an increase of 1 million over 2012. Nayantara Hensel, chair of the NABE survey and a business professor at National Defense University, said consumer spending will get a boost from gains in the stock market, home values and lower unemployment. “Home prices are going up, and with also the improvement in the unemployment rate, people will be more willing to buy,” Hensel said in an interview. The economists predicted that home prices will rise 4.4 percent this year and
4 percent next year. Boosted by new construction, they predict a 15 percent jump in residential housing investment this year. Housing starts hit a 5-year peak in March then fell in April, with most of the decline due to less apartment construction, which can swing wildly from month to month. Applications for building permits hit a 5year high in April, suggesting that the housing market will continue to recover from the recession. A recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders found continued optimism among builders. The NABE economists, who were surveyed before April unemployment was reported at 7.5 percent, predicted that the rate will decline to 7.4 percent in the
fourth quarter and 6.8 percent in late 2014. Corporate profits after taxes are expected to rise 5.3 percent in 2013 and 7.5 percent next year. Both of those are more bullish forecasts than the economists offered in February. While consumers might spend more, the government sector is expected to shrink 2.3 percent this year - sharper than the 1 percent cut that the economists predicted in February, before a series of automatic federal spending cuts kicked in when Congress and the White House failed to reach a deal to avoid them. The economists expect government spending to decline a more modest 0.9 percent in 2014, but Hensel said the forecast could change to a bigger decline if it looks like the automatic
cuts will continue into the next fiscal year. Lower government spending, especially by the military, “has already had a sharp effect on GDP growth,” she said. GDP, or gross domestic product, is the measure of the economy’s total output of goods and services. The NABE survey found little alarm about potential inflation. The economists expect the Consumer Price Index to rise 1.9 percent this year and 2.1 percent in 2014. On Friday, the Conference Board reported that its index of leading economic indicators rose in April after dipping in March. A board economist said the economy was getting a lift from steady job gains and the housing market, offsetting government spending cuts.— AP
China’s hot money triangle flourishes despite regulations ZHUHAI: In an underground mall just a stone’s throw from China’s teeming border with Macau, a row of 30 small shops with identical golden plaques does a brisk, though shadowy trade with mainland Chinese visitors, many of them bound for the gambling hub. “Good rates. Better than the banks,” shout salespeople jostling to usher clients into shops where thick wads of Chinese 100 yuan ($16.31) and HK$1,000 ($130) bank notes change hands and shuffle noisily through electronic cash-counting machines. Licensed as liquor and dry goods stores with stacked shelves of rice wine and cigarettes, many conduct their real business in back rooms - as underground bankers and remittance agents. “It’s very simple,” said one agent surnamed Choi, dressed in sandals and ripped jeans, as he served tea in a back office where larger transactions are typically carried out. “You give me renminbi here. Then we deliver Hong Kong dollars to you in Macau. We can move tens of millions each day,” he said, glancing up at six security camera images of his shop front flickering on a flat-screen TV. As China’s economy and financial markets mature and gain in sophistication, so too does a vast underground banking industry offering swift, cheap and low risk cross-border fund transfers - shifting hundreds of millions of dollars each day. Much of that activity is conducted openly on the streets of southern China’s Guangdong province, where businesses and individuals depend on underground networks to get around strict currency controls - both for legitimate commercial purposes and to safeguard assets beyond the reach of authorities. Beijing is finding it increasingly difficult to stem the tide of speculative and illegal cash. In the decade since China began cracking down on money laundering, the government has amended its criminal laws and strengthened commercial banking rules, but loosening restrictions on capital transfers has made it easier for hot money to be channeled across the border. “China’s financial markets are not that mature,” said Yu Yongding, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and former adviser to the central bank. “There are lots of capital controls that certainly have contributed to these kind of activities, while corruption and money laundering also play an important role.” Underground banking triangle In affluent Guangdong in the Pearl River Delta, cities like Zhuhai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Dongguan are major underground conduits for Chinese hot money. The province, where imports and exports amounted to $984 billion last year - a quarter of China’s foreign trade - has served as a portal for capital flows since China’s economic opening over 30 years ago.
Collectively, the cities form part of a giant, unregulated underground banking triangle between China, the world’s gambling capital of Macau and the global financial hub of Hong Kong. In Zhuhai alone, over 1 billion yuan ($163 million) is transferred daily through underground networks, according to a straw poll of six agents who spoke to Reuters - part of a tight-knit group of 100 operating in the border area. “Our business has gone up some 30 percent in the past three years,” said one who gave his name as Li. Besides retail-level agents clustered around the borders at Zhuhai and nearby Shenzhen, another deep-rooted echelon of shadow bankers exists across Guangdong out of public view, often working from secret offices, with deals conducted between trusted, well connected parties, often with just a phone call. “I went to see a friend in this business once. It was just a tiny 100 square foot room filled with banknotes. Can you imagine how much money there was?” said a Hong Kong businessman surnamed Chan who has run a factory in Guangdong for over 20 years. “They’re everywhere. In every village, town and city.” The Washington-based Global Financial Integrity group estimated about $2.83 trillion flowed illicitly out of China from 2005 to 2011, with Hong Kong the largest recipient. “The enormity of money laundering right now is a problem,” said a senior law enforcement official in Hong Kong, who asked not to be named given the politically sensitive nature of his comments as a public official. “Chinese banks in Hong Kong are basically a black hole, even now.”—Reuters
SHANGHAI: Greece’s Prime Minister Antonis Samaras delivers his speech at a Greece-China Business gala dinner. Samaras is seeking investment and trade deals to help revive his country’s recession-battered†economy. — AP
Mercedes-Benz Kuwait beats the heat with Service Week Kuwait: A.R. Albisher and Z. Alkazemi Co the exclusive general distributor for Mercedes-Benz in Kuwait - is performing a complementary pre-summer service checkup for all Mercedes-Benz passenger cars to ensure they stay cool and comfortable in the blazing desert heat. The ‘Service Week’ will start from Saturday, May 18 till Thursday, May 23, 2013 at all MercedesBenz service centres. Mercedes-Benz vehicle owners are eligible for a free comprehensive A/C system check combined with a visual vehicle check performed by Mercedes-Benz trained specialists, as well as a 30% discount on original parts. Mercedes-Benz is also offering competitively priced A/C maintenance packages starting from KD 21. “The harsh weather conditions that are typical of the region’s summer season make it a must for our customers to conduct annual check-ups together with regular servicing,” said Michael Ruehle, General Manager, Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Co. “Our Service Week is also a great opportunity for Mercedes-Benz drivers to take advantage of the packages and discounts we are offering. This is a reliable Mercedes-Benz service that promises to deliver only the very best to our customers.” Customers can also browse through the latest collection of lifestyle items and acces-
sories available for their car, enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi at the service centres. Mercedes-Benz owners can book their appointment for free vehicle check during the service week by calling the A.R. Albisher and Z. Alkazemi Co.’s Service centres. For more information on Mercedes-Benz products and services in Kuwait, please visit us online at www.mercedes-benz.com.kw or become a friend on Facebook: www.facebook.com/MercedesBenzKuwait or follow us on twitter at: @MercedesBenzKWT You can also download the iPhone application for Abdul Rahman Albisher & Zaid Alkazemi Co. by searching for ‘MBKuwait’ in the Apple app store for free.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
BUSINESS
Mobiles offer financial lifeline to Asian migrants BANGKOK: Asia’s mobile revolution is set to transform the region’s financial services industry, offering a cheap way for millions of migrant workers to send money home to their families, a report said yesterday. Nearly 60 million migrant workers from the Asia-Pacific region sent almost $260 billion home to their families in 2012, according to the study, co-authored by the World Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development.An estimated 70 million Asian households-one in 10 — benefit from these flows. Yet most Asian households receiving remittances
had to travel long distances to a bank or other payout locations to receive their money in cash. But technological advances mean that these days “mobile wallets” can be used to receive and store money for future use. Some mobile devices also allow customers to receive money from ATMs without a bank card as well as to pay for goods and services at retail locations, even if such services are in the early stages. In the past workers sending money home to families in rural areas faced higher remittance charges, but that is also changing. The cost of mobile transactions is also about
still “live outside the world’s financial system”, particularly those from rural areas, with limited access to savings accounts, the report said. “Mobile telephony offer the prospect of cheaply connecting hundreds of millions of unbanked rural and low-income people to financial services,” it added. Asia is the fastest-growing market on the planet for mobile financial services, which now reach almost every town and village, enabling people to send money, transfer funds between accounts and pay bills, the report said. Traditionally rural recipients of remittances
two percent of that of branch banking, and 60 percent of leading remittance service providers now offer mobile transfers. “The promise of low-cost, instantaneous transfers of funds over large distances directly through mobile phones is one of the most exciting prospects in the industry today,” the report said. But the authors also sounded a note of caution about mobile banking, saying its long-term success depended on the development of economically sustainable business models, which they warned “remains a challenge”. — AFP
Asia shares higher on US gains Chinese shares rise over property bargains
MOUNTAIN VIEW: In this photo, bottles of Heinz organic tomato ketchup are on display inside Costco in Mountain View, Calif. — AP
consumer demands aid organic industry sway WASHINGTON: The organic food industry is gaining influence on Capitol Hill, prompted by its entry into traditional farm states and by increasing consumer demand. That’s not going over well with everyone in Congress. Tensions between conventional and organic agriculture boiled over this week during a late-night House Agriculture Committee debate on farm legislation that for decades has propped up traditional crops and largely ignored organics. When Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore, a former organic farmer, offered an amendment to make it easier for organic companies to organize industry-wide promotional campaigns, there was swift backlash from some farm-state Republicans. One lawmaker said he didn’t want to see the industry get a free ride and a second complained about organics’ “continued assault on agriculture.” “That’s one of the things that has caught me and raises my concerns, is that industry’s lack of respect for traditional agriculture,” said Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga. He was referring to some organic companies’ efforts to reduce the number of genetically modified crops in the marketplace. At the same time, Scott acknowledged that he and his wife buy organic foods. Growing consumer interest in organics has proved tough for some Republicans on the committee to ignore. Eight Republicans, most of them newer members of the committee, joined with all of the committee’s Democrats in supporting the amendment, which was adopted 29-17. Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Missouri Republican who owns a farm equipment business and a corn and soybean farm, said she supported the amendment not only because helping organics is good for agriculture but because many of her constituents eat organic foods. “Organics are a niche market in agriculture with a growing market share, so it makes sense for me to allow farmers to invest some of their own funds to promote their products,” she said. The amendment would allow the organic industry to organize and pay for a unified industry promotional campaign called a “check-off ” that is facilitated by the Agriculture Department but is no cost to the government. These promotional programs have traditionally been limited to individual commodities or crops, producing familiar campaigns like “Got Milk?” and “Beef: It’s What’s for Dinner.” The amendment would not set up such a program for organics, but it would allow USDA to approve an organic pro-
motional campaign if the industry decided it wanted one. Laura Batcha of the Organic Trade Association says one reason the industry would approve a campaign is that many organic producers are concerned that consumers don’t understand that products labeled “natural” aren’t necessarily organic, which requires certification. The organic industry has exploded in the past decade, with $35 billion in sales and 10 percent growth just last year. There are more than 17,000 certified organic businesses in the country. Producers of organic crops and conventional crops long have been at odds as organic products have grabbed market share and the industry has advertised organic foods as healthier than other foods. That share was more than 4 percent of food and beverage sales in 2011. Organic products are required to be certified by the USDA and are grown without pesticides and genetically modified ingredients, mainstays of traditional agriculture. Government-managed promotional check-off programs such as the one that would be allowed under the amendment are required to be positive and not disparage other products. Some lawmakers seemed wary that such a campaign would be possible. “How do I present organic pork without disparaging non-organic pork?” asked the House committee chairman, Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Okla., who opposed the amendment. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, took issue with part of the amendment that would allow the organic producers to opt out of other commodity campaigns, an option that isn’t given to conventional producers. “Looks to me like they have a free ride on this thing,” Conaway said, in an at times angry exchange with Schrader. Despite the rancor, the chances that the amendment will become law are good, as the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee added the same amendment to its version of the farm bill. Schrader told his colleagues that embracing organics is essential to appealing to consumers in a time when big farms are often demonized by popular culture. He said that many young people are coming back to farms because of nontraditional agriculture. “American agriculture is under siege,” he said. “Urban folks do not understand where their food and fiber comes from. The point here is to hopefully position American agriculture where we’re not always trying to catch up to what the American consumer wants.” — AP
HONG KONG: Asian shares rose yesterday reflecting a bullish mood on Wall Street and extending their two-week rally, buoyed by better-than-expected US data. Tokyo stocks were up 1.47 percent, or 222.69 points, to 15,360.81, and Sydney gained 0.54 percent, or 28.2 points, to close at 5,209.0. Hong Kong ended 1.78 percent higher, or 410.35 points, to end at 23,493.03, as Shanghai closed up 0.75 percent, or 17.12 points, to 2,299.99, and Seoul finished flat at 0.22 percent, or 4.38 points, to 1,982.43. Chinese shares were up as investors hunted for bargains in property and banking stocks, dealers said. “Fund managers are buying property developers and banks, both of which are trading at low price-to-earnings ratios,” Soochow Securities analyst Deng Wenyuan told Dow Jones Newswires. Tokyo stocks were buoyed by gains in overseas stock markets last week, as a Japanese minister said the recent correction against the yen was nearly over. “Bullish equities markets and the progressively weaker yen should help drive the market to a fresh multi-year high after much profit-taking in the last several sessions,” said Hiroichi Nishi, general manager of equities at SMBC Nikko Securities.
US stocks had closed another week of record highs Friday as investors focused on the positive side of mixed economic news and corporate earnings. Global stocks have rallied over the past four weeks, bringing up market capitalisation by $2.3 trillion. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 0.80 percent to 15,354.40 while the the broad-based
S&P 500 rose 0.95 percent to 1,666.12. A pair of better-than-expected US reports Friday-on consumer confidence and the economic outlook-drove a rally that pushed the Dow and S&P 500 to end-of-the-week all-time highs for the third straight week. The dollar was changing hands at 102.69 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, down from 103.19 yen
TOKYO: Pedestrians pass before a share prices board in Tokyo yesterday. — AFP
EU law key to ending ‘too big to fail’ banks LONDON/STRASBOURG: A European Union law up for a vote yesterday will only fully shield taxpayers from bailing out troubled banks if there is a global framework as well, a top UK regulator said on Monday. Bank of England Deputy Governor Paul Tucker said the EU law on bank recovery and resolution would be a milestone towards a global system and help convince markets that governments were no longer willing to rescue “too big to fail” lenders. Since governments had to shore up banks during the 2007-09 financial crisis, regulators have wanted to stop markets assuming big banks would not be allowed to go out of business. The European Parliament’s economic affairs committee holds a first vote in Strasbourg, France at 1830 GMT. It has joint say with EU states on the law that gives regulators powers to impose losses on creditors, replace management and take other steps when a bank gets into trouble. In a speech in the Netherlands, Tucker said there had been “marked convergence” recently on a global approach to winding down banks which typically have operations in many countries. But more political impetus was needed as it would still be a “nightmare” to wind down a big bank, he added. The EU law will have powers to force big banks to hold a cushion of bonds that can be converted into equity to shore itself
up without taxpayer cash. Tucker said a discussion on such a cushion at the global level was still needed. This “loss-absorbing” cushion should be equivalent to the amount of capital a lender holds in its capital buffer with an added margin for safety, he said. The biggest banks will have to hold a core capital cushion of up to 9.5 percent by 2019 though many are already at or above this level due to market and supervisory pressures. Banks should not hold large amounts of bonds of other banks and nor should insurers hold chunks of bank debt, Tucker said. He backed EU consensus that depositors with up to 100,000 euros ($128,000) in their account should not suffer losses in a bail-out, a step Monday’s vote is expected to confirm. There was also case for some uninsured depositors, such as small businesses and charities to be shielded also, he added. EU finance ministers agreed last week that large, uninsured depositors should be subject to losses and the vote on Monday is expected to back this, on condition that any losses are imposed only after the bank’s bondholders have been tapped first. Even with an EU system in place, many banks will still need to restructure themselves to be wound up easily, Tucker said. The EU’s financial services chief Michel Barnier will say in the autumn whether big banks should be broken up. — Reuters
LISBON: Vitor Goncalves greases a printing press as he works in his printing house. Goncalves, who started running his own business in 1986, claimed he had three employees on the payroll three years ago but nowadays he mostly runs the company alone due to the drop in orders. — AP
in New York late Friday but still up from the lower 102-yen range seen before the Tokyo market closed on Friday. The dollar dipped early yesterday after Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Akira Amari on Sunday suggested the Japanese government may not want the yen to weaken further. Responding to a question on how far the unit should fall, Amari said: “It’s being said that the correction of the strong yen is largely completed. If the yen keeps on weakening a lot more, it will have a negative impact on peoples’ lives (by pushing up import costs).” His comment came after the dollar rose past the 103-yen mark for the first time in more than four years late Friday, making a three-percent gain in the past week alone and a 30-percent rise since mid-November. The euro was quoted at $1.2841 and 131.86 yen against $1.2834 and 132.44 yen in US trade. Oil was down in Asian trade with the US benchmark contract, West Texas Intermediate for June delivery, was down 19 cents at $95.83 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude for delivery in July dropping five cents to $104.59. Gold was at $1,355.55 at 1100 GMT from $1,379.02 late on Friday and just above a two-year low. — AFP
Goldman Sachs to invest in Japan green energy TOKYO: US investment banking giant Goldman Sachs said yesterday it will start investing in Japanese renewable energy projects, with a reported $2.9 billion outlay over the next five years. The injection comes after Japan’s government stepped into the green power market to set minimum prices in a bid to encourage the sector as the country seeks to rebalance its postFukushima energy mix. A wholly owned unit in Tokyo said it will invest in a solar power generation project in Ibaraki prefecture on the outskirts of Tokyo, which is due to start operation in January 2015. The firm, Japan Renewable Energy, will put some 13 billion yen into the project, its first, which will have power generation capacity of 40 megawatt, a company spokesman said. The Ibaraki project is just one of a number of ventures involving wind or solar that Japan Renewable Energy is part of in Japan, it said, with the business daily Nikkei saying it would pour up to 300 billion yen ($2.9 billion) into the sector over coming years. Electricity generated at the Ibaraki facility will be supplied to major utility Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) — the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plantover an expected span of about 20 years, it said. Goldman Sachs has already invested in renewable energy firms in the United States and India. Last year the government introduced a scheme that guaranteed generating companies a premium for the electricity produced from renewable sources and forced the country’s power monopolies to buy whatever was on sale over 20 years. The move was part of a plan to dramatically increase the amount of electricity from renewables, up from its current less-than 2 percent, and reduce Japan’s reliance on expensive imported fossil fuels. Until the tsunami-sparked disaster at Fukushima, more than 50 atomic reactors produced around a third of Japan’s electricity, but public nervousness about nuclear power has left all but two units offline. The premium for firms producing energy from solar, wind, hydro-electric and bio-gas is part-funded by a 100 yen ($0.98) monthly levy on consumers’ bills. In recent years, Japanese firms from a range of industries-including mobile phone operator Softbank, a joint venture led by Mitsui Chemicals, and ship- and plantbuilding firm IHI, have entered the renewable energy business. In the last fiscal year to March, at least 1.39 million kilowatt of renewable energy generation capacity was created in Japan, most of it solar power generation, according to the industry ministry. — AFP
Thai economy contracts in first quarter BANGKOK: Thailand’s economy shrank 2.2 percent in the three months to March from the previous quarterthe first contraction in more than a year-as manufacturing output fell, official data showed yesterday. The decline followed a blistering year-long recovery from devastating floods in late 2011 that hit major factories north of the capital Bangkok and caused a double-digit drop in gross domestic product (GDP). On a year-on-year basis, GDP expanded by 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, the government’s National Economic and Social Development Board (NESDB)
reported. That marked a sharp slowdown from the fourth quarter of 2012, when growth hit a record high of 19.1 percent, according to an updated estimate. “The main drivers were domestic consumption and tourism,” NESDB secretary general Arkhom Termpittayapaisith said of the most recent quarter. Growth in those sectors helped to offset a 5.9 percent quarter-on-quarter slump in manufacturing, which had expanded rapidly last year, helped by a government scheme to encourage people to buy new cars. “The expiry of a subsidy scheme for first-time car pur-
chases appears to have hurt car sales in January and February,” said Daniel Martin, Asia economist at the Capital Economics consultancy firm. “However, the effect has been shortlived-sales were back to a record high in March. Consumer confidence remains buoyant, while hikes in minimum wages at the start of this year should support spending,” he added. The NESDB reduced its forecasts for 2013 economic growth to 4.2-5.2 percent, from a previous projection of 4.5-5.5 percent, because of the weaker-than-expected first quarter performance.
Arkhom said growth would be affected by a weakerthan-anticipated economic recovery in the United States, Europe and Asia. The Thai government has urged the central bank to reduce its key interest rate-now at 2.75 percent-to rein in a rising baht, which is bad news for exporters. The Bank of Thailand last cut rates in October 2012 to help manufacturers. Martin said the Bank was “unlikely to risk undermining its credibility” by taking action when it meets next week, predicting that the policy rate would be left at its current level for the rest of the year. — Reuters
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
BUSINESS
Jet Airways celebrates 20 years of excellence MUMBAI: Jet Airways, India’s premier international airline, yesterday celebrated the completion of two decades of service excellence in the skies, since it began operations as an Air Taxi Operator on May 5, 1993. The mission at Jet Airways, even 20 years ago was simple, the airline wanted to widen connectivity within India and overseas and facilitate the movement of people, encouraging both tourism and trade, while contributing in tandem to the development of the Indian economy. Thus, when the Jet Airways took delivery of its first aircraft at Mumbai in the presence of J R D Tata, the father of Indian Civil Aviation, it marked the beginning of a glorious new chapter for civil aviation in the country. The airline has since then emerged as the first private airline to introduce the Indian air traveller to the reliability, safety and comfort of new technologies - a paradigm that Jet Airways has pioneered throughout the past two decades. Undeterred by its humble beginnings, Jet Airways even in its formative years challenged and changed the concept of guest satisfaction, constantly evolving and continuously innovating to create the legend of India’s most preferred domestic airline. Benchmarking itself with the best, not in the country but inter-
nationally, both in terms of inducting the latest technology in terms of new aircraft and also service, both on the ground and in the air. Thus, enabling its staff to deliver a new and superior air travel experience, ensuring that guests truly experienced the ‘Joy of Flying’. Following Jet Airways’ domestic success story and growing liberalisation, the airline then embarked on a phase of international expansion in March 2004 with a flight between Chennai and Colombo. Jet Airways then opened new international routes initially within the SAARC region and then onto Singapore, Bangkok, and London. Once again became the first private Indian airline to fly to international destinations. Little wonder than that Jet Airways has today emerged as India’s premier international airline and one of the few iconic Indian service brands to successfully create a name for itself globally. The airline, today, with over 105 aircraft, offers customers in India and abroad a schedule of over 600 flights daily, spanning 20 international destinations across the globe and over 52 destinations pan-India. Thus, it has been Jet Airways Indian roots, coupled with its legendary service, that have helped the airline emerge as one
of the few iconic Indian service brands to successfully create a name for itself globally. Looking ahead to the future, Jet Airway’s will continue to afford its guests significant benefits through an expanded international network and enhanced codeshares. The airline will also attempt to connect guests from 23 cities across India seamlessly through its primary home hubs of New Delhi and Mumbai onto the US, Europe, Africa Middles East in the West and the SAARC and South East Asian markets in the East. Speaking on the occasion of its 20th Anniversary, Naresh Goyal, Chairman, Jet Airways’ Group - said, “The Jet Airway’s Group is justifiably proud to celebrate over two decades of service excellence and imparting the Joy of Flying amongst our most valued guests. What has made this important milestone possible, has been the unstinted support, trust and confidence of the millions of guests who have flown and loved our services, and our partners who have imbibed the values of adhering to the strict quality standards of the airline, of that I have no doubt. Lastly, I would like to thank each and every single member of our staff across all departments and at all levels, for their unstinting support, commitment and belief in a dream, which
has evolved into a beautiful journey of twenty years. To each and everyone that has been a part of the Jet Airways journey over these past two glorious decades I say thank you for giving us the self belief and strength to spread our wings and soar..... Goyal further added, “As India’s premier airline, we are committed to offering our guests the very best travel experience both in the skies and on the ground. As we set our sights firmly on the future with even bigger goals for the years ahead, together with all of my staff at Jet Airways, we re-dedicate ourselves to ensuring that the flying experience of all our guests, will always be nothing but the best, with a truly world-class inflight product and the very same warm service that has made Jet Airways - India’s premier international airline. The Jet Airways family looks forward to welcoming all our guests on board now and in the future and we hope our guests truly partake of the Joy of Flying with us.” To celebrate the airlines 20th anniversary and its commitment to service excellence over two decades, Jet Airways has outlined a program of festivities, on ground and in the skies to thank all its guests for their continued patronage, support and trust.
BMW posts best ever April sales Strong gains in Asia and the Americas
ABK sponsors retirement ceremony financial support that was handed to Ahmad Baroun. Ali Ibrahim Al-Baghli, Assistant PR Manager at ABK stated: “ABK is keen to support sport and values the immense contribution of athletes, our sponsorship for Ahmad Baroun’s retirement ceremony comes in recognitionof hisexcellent achievements in Kuwait’s water polo field.” International retired player Ahmad Baroun thanked ABK for their kind support and generosity, and hoped ABK would continue to honor meritorious athletes of the future.
KUWAIT: As part of its corporate social responsibility that encompasses support of youth and sport activities, in accordance with its ongoing CSR Campaign “Our Society... Our Responsibility”, Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait was pleased to support the retirement ceremony of renowned player Ahmad Baroun, belonging to Kuwait’s Water Polo national team and a member of Al-Arabi Sporting Club. At the occasion ABK’s Public Relations team attended the felicitation ceremony and presented
MUNICH: The BMW Group continued on its successful course in April with an increase of 6.8 percent in sales. A total of 155,419 (prev.yr. 145,541) BMW, MINI and Rolls-Royce vehicles were sold worldwide last month. Over the past four months the number of deliveries climbed 5.7 percent to a new all-time high of 603,619 vehicles (prev.yr. 571,084). “We have achieved our most successful April worldwide sales ever, despite the current weakness of some car markets in Europe. We reported a growth of 2.8 percent in Europe last month and made strong gains in Asia and the Americas. This momentum in worldwide sales will continue as we add new vehicles throughout the year to our very attractive product line-up, such as the new BMW 3 Series Gran Turismo”, said Ian Robertson, Member of the Board of Management, Sales and Marketing BMW, in Munich on Monday. Worldwide sales of BMW brand vehicles climbed 7.5 percent to 130,598 (prev.yr. 121,507) in the month under review. Demand for the BMW X1 remained strong with 11,837 vehicles delivered in April, an increase of 14.8 percent over the same month last year (10,310). The BMW 3 Series also reported strong gains with a total of 38,491 vehicles delivered to customers, an increase of 16.0 percent compared to last year (33,192). The BMW 3 Series Touring contributed to this growth, with 8,358 units delivered last month, an increase of 104.6 percent on the previous year (4,085). The BMW 5 Series reaffirmed its position as segment leader, with 29,955 units delivered last month (prev.yr. 26,770/ +11.9 percent). Growth was further driven by the BMW 6 Series which was delivered to 2,200 customers worldwide in April (prev.yr.1,559/ +41.1 percent). A total of 512,000 BMW vehicles (prev.yr. 478,069) have been delivered to customers worldwide since the start of the year - an increase of 7.1 percent. MINI: With 24,581 vehicles delivered in April, worldwide sales for MINI increased by 3.3 percent (prev. yr. 23,794). In the month under review, MINI achieved solid growth in retail sales in some of its key markets such as Great Britain/Ireland (3,393/ +43.6 percent), and China (2,038/ +7.0 percent). The new MINI Paceman has had a successful start
with around 1,500 vehicles delivered to customers since its launch in mid-March. Year-to-date, MINI sales are around last year’s level with 90,737 units sold in the first four months (prev.yr.92,005/ -1.4 percent). BMW Motorrad also achieved an increase in sales in April. Deliveries climbed 11.5 percent to reach a total of 14,587 (prev.yr.13,088) vehicles. Year-to-date, 39,319 BMW motorcycles have been delivered, an increase of 5.0 percent (prev.yr.37,461). The BMW Group made gains on nearly all continents in the month under review. The company achieved robust sales in Asia with 43,872 vehicles delivered (prev. yr. 39,769/ +10.3 percent). China accounted for 30,311 deliveries, an increase of 11.4 percent over the same month last year (prev.yr.27,197) in China. Sales were solid in The Americas with 36,547 vehicles delivered in April (prev.yr.32,705/ +11.7 percent). In the U.S., 29,011 vehicles were delivered in April which reflects an increase of +8.3 percent over the same month last year (26,793). In Europe, sales increased by 2.8 percent to 69,957 vehicles (prev. yr. 68,070). Several markets attained solid growth in April, for example Belgium/Luxembourg (4,499/ +13.9 percent) and Russia (3,489/ +7.5 percent).
APICORP gains record annual profit for third consecutive year in 2012 Easa Husain Al-Yousifi & Sons Company unveils Panasonic camera KUWAIT: Panasonic is proud to introduce a new Digital Single Lens Mirror less Camera DMC-GF6 from the stylish, most compact GF series of LUMIX G. The new 16.00megapixel Live MOS Sensor achieves high-resolution, high sensitivity image recording. The Venus Engine is also newly developed for DMC-GF6 to attain high-performance signal processing and the advanced noise reduction system minimizes noise and even achieves shooting at max. ISO 25600(Extended) high sensitivity taking best advantage of the new sensor. The DMC-GF6 boasts high-speed, high precision Light Speed AF system including practical full-time AF and tracking AF is available in video recording. Newly integrated Low Light AF enables quick, accurate focusing on the target subject even in low-lit situations. Getting ready to shoot in only 0.5 sec after start-up, the DMC-GF6 never misses fleeting shooting opportunities. “The GF series is designed for those who want better image quality compared to the point and shoot cameras without the size and weight of the DSLR. We have one of the best Auto modes in the industry and several features that allow the users to express their creativity very easily. And with the 4 different color variations that the GF6 comes in, I am sure that ladies would love to have the GF6 in their hand-bags at all times, for capturing those unexpected special moments and uploading to sites via their smartphones,” Commented Wael Deeb , General Manager of sales dept at Al-Yousifi. The DMC-GF6 is not just an interchangeable lens camera but a creative magic box full of wide-ranging attractive features including the new Self Shot, Creative Panorama and Stop Motion Animation in addition to the popular Creative Control mode with a total of 19 fascinating filter effects. The Stop Motion Animation allows producing unique stop motion
video and the Clear Retouch function enables to erase unwanted part of a picture after shooting - both operations completes with stunning ease in camera. With the Wi-Fi connectivity featuring NFC (Near Field Communication) technology, users can connect the camera to their smartphone/tablet anywhere at one-touch, which makes sharing images much easier. It is also possible to use a smartphone/tablet as a multi-capable remote shutter with a monitor. With the Instant Transfer function, photos are automatically sent to the smartphone/tablet right after shooting. On the other hand, both photo and video can be archived to the registered digital equipment such as PC automatically via the wireless access point (router) at home. The DMC-GF6 records 1920 x 1080 at 50i (PAL) full-HD video in AVCHD with high quality stereo sound. The P/A/S/M mode in video recording is also available for more expressive creation of motion picture footage. Despite its sleek, compact profile, the DMC-GF6 is a practically reliable digital camera with a built-in flash and 3.0inch large approximately 180 degree tiltable monitor. Dressed in stylish colors - black, white, brown and red, the DMC-GF6 brings new opportunities to enjoy shooting higher quality image with cutting-edge digital technologies. Furthermore, the optimum design of newly adopted Detail Reproduction Filter Process enhances the limit resolution by maximum 3 percent and the contrast of middle to high range, by a maximum 5 percent. Plus, the advanced Intelligent D-range Control offers wider dynamic range while maintaining the smooth gradation thanks to the higher-precision signal processing performed by the redesigned signal processing circuit. Suppressing both blocked shadows and blown highlights, every part of an image - from dark to bright - is faithfully reproduced.
KUWAIT: The Arab Petroleum Investments Corporation (APICORP), the multilateral development bank owned by the 10 members of the Organisation of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), the government of Kuwait owns a 17 percent stake in APICORP announced net profits of $109 million for 2012, the highest-ever in the organisation’s 37-year history. The 2012 record profits represent a growth of over 3 percent from the previous year and further highlight APICORP’s successful track record in generating sustainable returns while effectively supporting the Arab energy industry. APICORP’s total assets rose to over $5 billion, an increase of 9.6 percent from 2011 while net asset value per share jumped over 7 percent to $1,744. Ahmad Bin Hamad AlNuaimi, Chief Executive and General Manager of APICORP said:”We are delighted to have achieved record financial results for a third year in a row. APICORP has a successful history in facilitating the availability of capital for the Arab energy sector, and despite the continued economic headwinds in 2012, it has continued to play a strong counter-cyclical role in supporting its clients across the Arab world. APICORP remains committed to driving efficiency, innovation, enterprise and value creation in the Arab energy industry and these robust set of results have come in a year in which we further increased our investment in supporting the industry’s development.” APICORP’s strong fundamentals were endorsed by Moody’s upgrade of the multilateral development bank’s issuer and senior unsecured rating from A1 to Aa3 in October 2012. At a time when substantial credit upgrades for financial institutions remain rare, the upgrade distinguished APICORP as a
strong performer in the global banking sector. “APICORP has continued to maintain a very high asset quality and ensure sustainable growth through continued diversification of its business streams and funding portfolios, while also ensuring continued discipline around maintaining strong banking fundamentals. In 2012, we were able to reduce our funding costs, while at the same time increase our lending activity,” said Al-Nuaimi.
Ahmad Bin Hamad Al-Nuaimi APICORP maintained strong focus on diversifying its funding composition and expanding its services for clients in 2012. In February last year, it closed a three-year SAR 2.5 billion ($667 million) syndicated Shariah-compliant facility aimed at increasing its medium term funding while in October, it partnered with JP Morgan to widen its energy trade finance services. Another key strategic focus in 2012 was the development of specialised investment funds in vital energy sectors, a strategy that resulted in the establishment of the landmark
$150 million APICORP Petroleum Shipping Fund aimed at leveraging growth opportunities in the petroleum product tanker charter market. Co-managed by Tufton Oceanic, the Fund is the first investment fund to be established by APICORP and the first fund in the region aimed at a specific vessel category. “In 2013, APICORP remains committed to building on its track record of successfully catalysing value creation in the Arab energy industry and to contributing to the economic development of Arab countries. As part of our current five-year strategy, we will continue to investigate opportunities to diversify our investment and financing portfolios into new oil and gas and utility sectors. We are particularly looking at supporting projects that will boost the region’s midstream and downstream capabilities, which are crucial for Arab countries to maximize economic benefits from energy resources,” Al-Nuaimi further said. “APICORP is particularly keen to support cross border projects that facilitate collaboration between Arab countries. In the immediate pipeline are a number of opportunities including acquisitions and joint ventures. Though APICORP has traditionally invested largely with governments and their National Oil Companies, we are also seeking to significantly broaden our exposure with the private sector,” he added. Over the last 37 years, APICORP has invested, as an equity owner, in a total of 22 oil and gas joint venture projects worth in excess of $16 billion. APICORP has also participated in direct and syndicated energy finance transactions worth in excess of $130 billion. APICORP’s aggregate commitments in these transactions, both in equity and debt, are valued in excess of $11 billion.
Private equity focus shifts to western hemisphere Private equity (PE) investment activity in the Americas is positioned for a solid year, while markets in Europe and Asia-Pacific tread water; this according to the fourth annual edition of the bellwether report on the state of the industry, released recently by Bain & Company, the world’s leading advisor to PE investors. Bain finds that North America enters 2013 with favorable winds at its back: •
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Private equity showed clear signs of strength in North America and Brazil, South America’s largest market, in 2012. Buyout deal value in North America was up 23 per cent in 2012, while deal activity in Europe and Asia-Pacific fell. General partners (GPs) are optimistic that deal activity in North America will continue to increase into 2013 -majority of GPs surveyed expect investment activity to be up in North America in this year. Debt markets are once again open for business.
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Investors are hungry for yield wherever they can find it in today’s climate of sustained nearzero interest rates. With capital pouring into collateralized loan obligations and loan mutual funds, the availability and cost of debt rival what they had been during the boom years. Helped by robust credit markets, conditions have become more favorable for public-to-private deals, which powered the 2006-2007 boom. It only takes a few large deals to move the needle on buyout deal value. Based on a screening of all US publicly-traded companies with a total enterprise value in the range of $3 billion to $50 billion, Bain finds that approximately six per cent of companies have the potential to be attractive public-to-private targets. GPs are more motivated than ever to sell the growing backlog of investments, many of which were made during the during the boom years. But with the “exit overhang” now at more than $2 trillion, the industry will be counting on an
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improvement in the three major exit channels: Sponsor-to sponsor (“secondary”) deals will broaden and deepen: Bain finds that returns on sponsor-to-sponsor deals are comparable to other deal types but are significantly less risky The rising tide of corporate M&A may create new paths to exit, as strategic acquirers look for new targets Brightest signs of life on the IPO front are in the US, where the strong run-up in the public equity markets has lifted stock prices to the pre-crisis peak, boding well for the mega-buyouts that will likely need to return to the public markets for liquidity Limited partners (LPs) increase PE asset allocations and exposure: The average target allocation to private equity for US public pension funds increased from 7.5 percent to 8.3 percent over the course of 2012 They recognize that, on average, returns from PE have outpaced other asset classes (i.e. fixed income, real estate, listed equities) over the
long term and will continue to do so going forward • The pressure for LPs to boost returns and the need for GPs to secure capital is leading the two parties to experiment with a range of new models - including separate accounts, non-traditional fund models, and direct investment programs. “In a world economy that remains prone to macro shocks, North America continues to be one of the most attractive markets to PE investors,” said Hugh MacArthur, head of Bain’s Global Private Equity Practice and lead author of the report.” Alexander De Mol, Bain Partner in Dubai, said: “The new findings of Bain & Company’s Global Private Equity Report provide invaluable insights that have benefited key market players worldwide. This strongly demonstrates the value we bring to investors and businesses, particularly here in the Middle East where Bain is committed to help clients broaden their reach and optimize their investment potential across global markets.”
Alexander De Mol
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
technology
Yahoo takes big leap with $1.1bh deal for Tumblr Tumblr’s young founder now a multimillionaire
Dan Smith
Xerox: Repositioning the brand for transformation
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t Xerox, we continue to take pride in being ranked as one of Fortune Magazine’s World’s Most Admired Companies, and recently The Ethisphere Institute recognized Xerox as one of The World’s Most Ethical Companies. While we celebrate these rankings, the analysis that goes into them gives us a glimpse of how our reputation is perceived by the business and investment community - making it a good time to reflect on how our brand positioning influences overall perception. Two and a half years ago, Xerox launched a campaign that put our customers in the spotlight, giving us the opportunity to talk about how we’re behind the scenes helping them be successful. It was well-regarded creative, featuring Procter & Gamble, Michelin, Marriott and Virgin America to name a few. Many other clients reached out asking if they could be in the campaign. It was awardwinning, clever, memorable creative that cut-through traditionally dull B2B marketing. But it was a story told in chapters. And to get the entire plot, you really needed to absorb the entire book. You see, Xerox is going through a huge transformation. After acquiring Affiliated Computer Services-the largest diversified outsourcing company in the world and likely one of the biggest companies you’ve never heard of-in 2010, we quickly shifted from the document company to one that generates more than half its revenue from business services, like operating call centers, processing insurance claims, handling automated toll payments, like EZ Pass, and more. To start challenging the perception of Xerox as just a printer and copier company, we changed the message using the phenomenal clients who outsource their back-office functions to us. There’s an ad about how Virgin America trusts Xerox to manage its call center operations, another about how Michelin depends on Xerox for assistance with finance processing. Solid messages deliv-
ered through clever creative, making them memorable. It was different, creative, memorable but we were still challenged to help customers (and potential customers) make sense of why Xerox-a brand we all think we know so well-was talking about call centers. It became clear that we needed to draw the connection between who we were and who we are. We needed to get back to the basics of explaining our purpose and giving people a reason to believe that the copier company could stand for so much more than copies. That’s why our latest campaign, which broke in February, acknowledges our past, even embraces it, while helping people connect the dots to today’s Xerox. It’s a nononsense, straight-talk effort. One 30-second spot from Young & Rubicam opens with a woman standing in front of-yes! — a copying machine. “When I say Xerox, I know what you’re thinking,” she says, then prints an image of a transit map. “Transit fares, as in the 37 billion transit fares we help collect each year.” Another commercial features the same woman proclaiming that revolutionizing an industry is a hard act to follow, and then explaining some of the breadth and scale of services offered by Xerox. Our new approach is to stop resisting the strong perceptions around our copy/print business, and to start embracing it and-through our latest ads-start leading with it. Chester Carlson, the patent attorney who invented the first Xerox Model A photocopier, did it because he wanted to make the laborious task of filling out patent applications easier. The connection between Xerox then and Xerox now is simplicity-making complicated processes easier. We’re just getting started, but we’re working much harder than before to share the big picture in simple, believable ways. The lesson for us-now featured in our storytelling-is that acknowledging our purpose makes it OK to give a nod to our heritage even as we grow beyond it.
Review: Toshiba brings high-res screen to Windows NEW YORK: Last year, Apple added a visually stunning option to its MacBooks: screens with ultra-high resolution. These “Retina” displays reveal four times as much detail as any Windows laptop screen ... until now. Toshiba just released a new laptop line with a Retina-level display. Does this mean Windows users can let go of MacBook envy? Sort of. The jump in resolution with the Toshiba Kirabook comes with significant compromises, however: Most notably, it’s LOUD. If you tax the processor on the machine by firing up, for instance, a 3-D game, the cooling fan at the bottom starts revving up like a jet plane about to take off. Not only is it distracting to the user, it can be heard across an office landscape. Having a private jet confers status; sounding like one does not. The loud fan probably has something to do with how Toshiba has jammed a powerful Intel processor into a slim body. Small fans tend to be whiny when cooling a hot chip. Like supermodel turned rapper, the Kirabook sounds bad but looks good. It’s beautifully done in magnesium, a tougher metal than the aluminum found in MacBooks and some other laptops. Magnesium is rarely used in consumer electronics, but when it is, the results can be spectacular: I had a magnesium-bodied point-and-shoot camera that didn’t show a scratch after 10 years of use. The Kirabook starts at $1,600 for a model with a mid-range i5 processor and a non-touch screen (a comparable
MacBook Pro with Retina costs $1,700). Two hundred dollars more gets you a touch screen. For $2,000, you get a touch screen and a top-line i7 processor. All come with 256 gigabytes of solidstate storage. The model I tested was the most expensive one. The Kirabook has a screen that measures 13.3 inches diagonally, just like the “13-inch” MacBook with Retina display, but the screen is actually slightly wider, shorter and smaller overall. The resolution is 2,560 by 1,440 pixels, compared with the MacBook’s 2,560 by 1,600 pixels. In other words, you can fit 10 percent less detail vertically on the Kirabook’s screen, but images look just as crisp and smooth as on the Retina screen. The big deal with the Retina, and now the Kirabook, is that its individual pixels are so small that they blend together imperceptibly. It doesn’t sound like a big deal until you try it. After that, other screens look coarse and barbaric. The Kirabook screen is excellent in other ways, too: It looks good from almost any angle. One of the sample units loaned to me suffered from uneven brightness, but this was rarely an issue. The problem with quadrupling the resolution of the laptop screen is that you have to make sure that you’re not shrinking the size of everything that’s shown on the screen. A character that’s 28 pixels high on a regular screen is a quarter of an inch high - easily legible. If you show a 28-pixel character on the Kirabook screen, it’s one-eighth of an inch high, or practically illegible. —AP
SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo is buying online blogging forum Tumblr for $1.1 billion as CEO Marissa Mayer tries to rejuvenate an Internet icon that had fallen behind the times. The deal announced yesterday represents Mayer’s boldest move yet since she left Google 10 months ago to lead Yahoo’s latest comeback attempt. It marks Yahoo’s most expensive acquisition since the Sunnyvale, Calif., company bought online search engine Overture a decade ago for $1.3 billion in cash and stock. Yahoo is paying all cash for Tumblr, dipping into some of its remaining stash from a $7.6 billion windfall reaped last year from selling about half of its stake in Chinese Internet Company Alibaba Holdings Group. Taking over Tumblr will devour about one-fifth of the $5.4 billion in cash that Yahoo had in its accounts at the end of March. Yahoo also says that “per the agreement and our promise not to screw it up, Tumblr will be independently operated as a separate business” with David Karp staying on as CEO. Tumblr, a service started six years by Karp, a high school dropout, now figures to play a pivotal role in Mayer’s attempt to reshape Yahoo. To take on the challenge, Mayer ended a highly successful 13-year career at Google, which she helped surpass Yahoo as the Internet’s most influential company. Since coming to Yahoo, Mayer has concentrated on improving employee morale, redesigning services and bringing in more engineering talent through a series of small acquisitions that have collectively cost less than $50 million. Her efforts have been well-received on Wall Street so far, although most of the 69 percent surge in Yahoo’s stock price under Mayer’s leadership has been driven by the rising value of Yahoo’s remaining 24 percent in Alibaba. When Alibaba goes public within the next few years, analysts have estimated Yahoo could collect another $10 billion to $20 billion by selling the rest of its Alibaba stock. If this deal pays off the way Mayer envisions, Tumbler could help Yahoo finally get its stock price to $33. That would be a major coup because many investors soured on Yahoo after a previous regime led by co-founder Jerry Yang squandered an opportunity five years ago to sell the entire company to Microsoft for $33 per share. The stock spent more than four years trading below $20 before the recent surge that lifted the price to $26.52 through last week. The deal could backfire though if Yahoo’s effort to make more money alienate a Tumblr user base that so far has been subjected to hardly any advertising during the service’s six-year history. “Yahoo has to manage this acquisition in a way that keeps Tumblr’s user base while trying to add advertising, which historically tends to turn off a lot of people,” said Forrester Research analyst Zachary Reiss-Davis. Mayer is betting that Tumblr will provide Yahoo with a captivating hook to reel in more traffic and advertisers on smartphones and tablet computers. That rapidly growing market is expected to become even more important during the next decade as people increasingly consume digital content on mobile devices instead of laptop and desktop machines. Besides offering one of the top mobile apps, Tumblr also runs one of the world’s busiest websites, featuring 75 million daily posts about everything from politics to pets. Advertising has been a missing ingredient so far as Tumblr, like many online services in
their early stages, focused on building a loyal audience before turning its attention to making money. Tumblr will remain based in New York and led by Karp, 26, who may now have a mentor in Mayer, 37. The startup has about 175 employees. The deal also has some symbolic significance for Yahoo, an 18-year-old company that had spent much of the past decade aimlessly drifting under different management teams while Google Inc overtook it in terms of size and influence. At the same time, newcomers such as Facebook Inc and Twitter began to command the attention of people who found themselves spending less and less time on Yahoo. Part of Yahoo’s problems stemmed from missed chances to improve its service and technology. Yahoo flirted with potential acquisitions of Google and Facebook in those two companies’ early days, only to have the talks unravel because Yahoo wasn’t prepared to pay asking prices that were far below the current market values of Google ($300 billion) and Facebook ($63 billion). Yahoo also considered buying YouTube in 2006, only to be outbid by Google, which snapped up the world’s leading online service for $1.76 billion - a price that now looks like a bargain. Even when Yahoo did pull off deals, the company has been criticized for mismanaging a list of acquired services that includes photo-sharing Flickr, online help-wanted service HotJobs and content-sharing service Del.icio.us. Yahoo ended up selling HotJobs and Del.icio.us, but Mayer has been looking at ways to spruce up Flickr and blend its photos into more of Yahoo’s other services. Mayer is expected to discuss more changes for Flickr at an event in New York last evening. Tumblr could help Yahoo recapture some of its cachet with teens and adults in their early 20s, a demographic that has become tougher for Yahoo to reach in recent years as it fell behind the technological curve and struggled to develop compelling services. While Facebook has turned into a mainstream social network where even grandparents now connect family and
friends, Tumblr has become one of the places where the cool kids hang out. Tumblr emerged has a trendy online hangout by providing a service that makes it easy to share blog posts, photos, video and other content in an enthralling mosaic. The service says it has amassed more than 50 billion posts from 108 million blogs. Tumblr users rely on a dashboard to pinpoint the kinds of blogs that they want to track and also have tools to pass along the posts that interest them. That wealth of content could be interwoven into Yahoo’s other services that provide coverage of general news, sports, finance and entertainment. Tumblr also will fill Yahoo’s gaping void in the realm of social media. Yahoo so far has had to connect its services to Facebook and Twitter to give its users a social networking outlet. Having its own social networking service will also give Yahoo more insights into the things that people like - a key to distributing ads to consumers most likely to be interested in specific products. That data, in turn, should help Yahoo sell more ads and accelerate its revenue growth. After three successive years of declines, Yahoo’s revenue rose slightly last year, but lagged far behind the growth at Google and Facebook. Mayer has vowed to bring Yahoo’s revenue growth back to at least the level of the overall Internet ad market. Yahoo’s acquisition will deliver a jackpot to Karp, who dropped out of high school to concentrate on computer programming. He ended up being home schooled while taking classes in Japanese and working on gambling software. Later, he became a product executive at a parenting website called UrbanBaby. After CNet bought the site in 2006, Karp set up his own a development service called “Davidville” before deciding to create an outlet for personal expression - an endeavor that hatched Tumblr. Karp’s cut from the Yahoo deal is about $275 million. Most of the rest of the money will be paid to the venture capitalists that invested about $125 million into Tumblr. That list includes Spark Capital, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Union Square Ventures and Insight Venture Partners. —AP
NEW YORK: A news headline about the Tumblr sale to Yahoo scrolls on a building in New York’s Times Square, yesterday. —AP
EMC Syncplicity adds policy-driven hybrid cloud, EMC ViPR and EMC VNX support DUBAI: At EMC World 2013, EMC announced increased storage flexibility and control for EMC Syncplicity enterprise file sync and sharing solution. Available in 2H2013, EMC Syncplicity policy-driven hybrid cloud will allow customers to utilize both private and public clouds simultaneously, automatically optimize storage utilization and performance, and adhere to security and regulatory compliance requirements based on user and content types. In addition, Syncplicity will expand its supported storage options by providing native support for EMC VNX storage in 2H2013 and utilize EMC ViPR software defined storage to give users even greater flexibility in their choice of storage solutions. File sync and sharing gives end users an easy way to access their files across all their devices and share with colleagues inside and outside the firewall. However, not all content is created equal, and enterprises require different cloud deployment models to optimize costs and performance while still adhering to strict security and compliance requirements. Today, Syncplicity offers unprecedented storage deployment options by allowing organizations to choose a private cloud deployment through EMC Isilon Scale-out NAS or EMC Atmos object-based storage, or a public cloud option to store user files and version history and sync them across all their devices. Policy-driven hybrid cloud highlights: Syncplicity’s strategy is to provide a policy-driven hybrid cloud, which gives IT the ability to set rules which automate how different content within the enterprise should be handled. As part of the file sync and sharing process: l Non-sensitive documents might be stored in a public cloud to optimize costs l Regulated content that is dis-
tributed from systems like EMC Documentum, or files with data residency requirements, might go to on premise storage solutions in specific data centers l Other files like large videos that are part of a global marketing launch or CAD diagrams from engineering might need to be geographically distributed on premise to optimize performance. The policy-driven hybrid cloud approach is critical because enterprises need a way to utilize different cloud deployment models to optimize storage utilization based on the file security and user requirements. At the same time, users should be able to work with their files as easily as they use consumer applications, without being exposed to the underlying storage approach deployed by IT. EMC VNX highlights: EMC VNX will be added as a Syncplicity on-premise storage option in 2H2013. EMC VNX support gives customers a simple, efficient, and powerful storage platform for on-premise, private cloud deployments and can be easily configured to utilize existing storage capacity. Support for EMC VNX complements EMC Syncplicity’s existing support for EMC Isilon, the industryleading Scale-Out NAS solution, and EMC Atmos’ object storage solution and supports EMC Syncplicity’s strategy of providing choice and flexibility for users on both their approach to cloud deployment, and use of differing storage solutions based on overall storage solution requirements. ViPR highlights: Syncplicity will be the first file sync and sharing solution to utilize software-defined storage from EMC’s ViPR platform. Support for ViPR will allow Syncplicity to: l Support hybrid cloud deployments while decoupling the devel-
opment effort of the policy engine from the access methods and features of each individual storage solution l Eliminate the need to certify with new storage layers
l Provide a consistent set of features (e.g., geo-replication) across multiple storage solutions, even if the native storage solution does not support that feature.
Shakespeare’s sonnets come to life in new app TORONTO: A new app launched yesterday aims to bring William Shakespeare’s sonnets to the masses with the help of short films starring stage actors performing them in front of New York landmarks. The Sonnet Project is a free app for the iPhone and iPad that showcases the bard’s poetry through films of up to two minutes and performances by Tony-Award winning actors Joanna Gleason and Cady Huffman, among others. “Shakespeare gets a bad rap. A lot of people say ‘I don’t like Shakespeare, he’s over my head,’ or ‘Shakespeare is boring,’” said Ross Williams, the artistic director of the New York Shakespeare Exchange, the non-profit organization behind The Sonnet Project. “I wondered what happens if we share Shakespeare in really easily digestible chunks so people can get used to having him in their lives?” he added. Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, first published in 1609 explore themes such as the love, beauty, and death. Different locations across New York were selected for each sonnet, including the World Trade Center Memorial and the Brooklyn Bridge. Actors and directors and text coaches helped to interpret the themes. To mark the launch of the app, 10 short films was released yesterday, and a new one every few days after that. About 75 more films have been completed or are in the works. Users can receive notifications with the iPhone app when a new one is released. Another iPad app released last year called The Sonnets by William Shakespeare includes performances by actress Kim Cattrall, of “Sex and the City” fame, Patrick Stewart of “Star Trek” and British actor Stephen Fry. Created by Britain’s Touch Press, it also features commentary and information about the sonnets. The app, which costs $6.99, also includes a replica of the original sonnets, and interviews with scholars and Shakespeare experts. Cambridge University Press also launched two new iPad apps for Shakespeare lovers in February as part of their “Explore Shakespeare” series, including the plays “Twelfth Night” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Other plays in the series include “Macbeth” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Each cost $13.99 and feature audio performances, commentary and other interactive content. Williams said the New York Shakespeare Exchange’s mission is to bring Shakespeare to the masses. He hopes that by introducing Shakespeare’s sonnets in small bites people will appreciate and understand the works. “When you hear those words something just moves, shifts inside of you,” he explained. “There is simplicity of spirit within the poetry and I think that’s why people can connect to it in such an amazing way.” —Reuters
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
H E A LT H & S C I E N C E
Measles surges in UK years after flawed research LONDON: More than a decade ago, British parents refused to give measles shots to at least a million children because of now discredited research that linked the vaccine to autism. Now, health officials are scrambling to catch up and stop a growing epidemic of the contagious disease. This year, the UK has had more than 1,200 cases of measles, after a record number of nearly 2,000 cases last year. The country once recorded only several dozen cases every year. It now ranks second in Europe, behind only Romania. Last month, emergency vaccination clinics were held every weekend in Wales, the epicenter of the outbreak. Immunization drives have also started elsewhere in the country, with officials aiming to reach 1 million children aged 10 to 16. “ This is the legacy of the Wakefield scare,” said Dr David Elliman, spokesman for the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, referring to a paper published in 1998 by Andrew Wakefield and colleagues that is widely rejected by scientists. That work suggested a link between autism and the combined childhood vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, called the MMR. Several large scientific studies failed to find any connection, the theory was rejected by at least a dozen major UK medical groups and the paper was eventually retracted by the journal
that published it. Britain’s top medical board stripped Wakefield of the right to practice medicine in the UK, ruling that he and two of his colleagues showed a “callous disregard” for the children in the study, subjecting them to unnecessary, invasive tests. As part of his research, Wakefield took blood samples from children at his son’s birthday party, paying them about 5 pounds each ($7.60), and later joked about the incident. Still, MMR immunization rates plummeted across the UK as fearful parents abandoned the vaccine - from rates over 90 percent to 54 percent. Wakefield has won support from parents suspicious of vaccines, including Hollywood celebrities like Jenny McCarthy, who has an autistic son. Nearly 15 years later, the rumors about MMR are still having an impact. Now there’s “this group of older children who have never been immunized who are a large pool of infections,” Elliman said. The majority of those getting sick in the UK - including a significant number of older children and teens - had never been vaccinated. Almost 20 of the more than 100 seriously ill children have been hospitalized and 15 have suffered complications including pneumonia and meningitis. One adult with measles has died, though it’s unclear if it was the disease that killed him. The first measles vaccines were introduced in the 1960s,
which dramatically cut cases of the rashcausing illness. Since 2001, measles deaths have dropped by about 70 percent worldwide; Cambodia recently marked more than a year without a single case. Globally, though, measles is still one of the leading causes of death in children under 5 and kills more than 150,000 people every year, mostly in developing countries. Measles is highly contagious and is spread by coughing, sneezing and close personal contact with infected people; symptoms include a fever, cough, and a rash on the face. Across the UK, about 90 percent of children under 5 are vaccinated against measles and have received the necessary two doses of the vaccine. But among children now aged 10 to 16, the vaccination rate is slightly below 50 percent in some regions. To stop measles outbreaks, more than 95 percent of children need to be fully immunized. In some parts of the UK, the rate is still below 80 percent. Unlike in the United States, where most states require children to be vaccinated against measles before starting school, no such regulations exist in Britain. Parents are advised to have their children immunized, but Britain’s Department of Health said it had no plans to consider introducing mandatory vaccination. Last year, there were 55 reported cases of measles in the United
TEESSIDE, England: In this April 25, 2013 photo, Lucy Butler,15, gets ready to have her measles jab at All Saints School in Ingleby Barwick as a national vaccination catch-up campaign has been launched to curb a rise in measles cases in England. — AP States, where the measles vaccination Wales. “They see what’s happening in rate is above 90 percent. So far this year, Wales, so some of them are now sensible there have been 22 cases, including three enough to come in and get their children that were traced to Britain. In previous vaccinated,” she said. Clinic patient Ellen years, the UK has sometimes exported Christensen, mother of an infant son, more cases of measles to the US than acknowledged she had previously had some “irrational qualms” about the MMR some countries in Africa. Portia Ncube, a health worker at an vaccine. “But after reading more about it, East London clinic, said the struggle to I know now that immunization is not convince parents to get the MMR shot is only good for your own child, it’s good being helped by the measles epidemic in for everyone,” she said. — AP
Malaysia hydropower meet to open amid controversy
CHIANG MAI, Thailand: Leaders pose for a photo at the 2nd Asia-Pacific water summit yesterday. — AFP
Asia-Pacific leaders warn of water conflict threat Efforts to secure water have sparked tensions CHIANG MAI, Thailand: Fierce competition for water could trigger conflict unless nations cooperate to share the diminishing resource, leaders from Asia-Pacific nations warned yesterday. From Central to Southeast Asia, regional efforts to secure water have sparked tensions between neighbours reliant on rivers to sustain booming populations. Breakneck urbanisation, climate change and surging demand from agriculture have heaped pressure on scarce water supplies, while the majority of people in Asia-Pacific still lack access to safe water despite strong economic growth. “ There could be a fight over resources,” Thailand’s Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra cautioned in an address to a regional water security forum in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. “No country in this region can handle these challenges alone,” she said, hailing forums such as the Asia-Pacific Water Summit as the route to satisfying countries’ thirst peacefully. A Thai firm is behind a controversial dam over the Mekong river in Laos, a project decried by downstream
countries Vietnam and Cambodia which fear it could ruin their farming and fishing industries. Delegates yesterday adopted a sweeping “Chiang Mai declaration” pledging to build regional resilience to natural disasters, share technical skill on management of the resource and push water security to the top of the agenda. Asian nations need to plough an estimated $380 billion into water and sanitation systems in the decade to 2020 if they are to achieve water security, Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah warned the forum. The “vital undertaking” comes against a backdrop of competition that “could lead to international disputes”, he cautioned. One such row is between Uzbekistan and its neighbours Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan which want to build two of the world’s biggest hydro-electric power stations. Speaking at the conference on Sunday, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon defended his country’s right to exploit its natural resources but pledged to pursue a “peaceful solution” to the dispute which has seen angry rhetoric soar over recent months. Bangladeshi
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina cited a water-sharing treaty between her nation and India over the Ganges river as an example of successful water diplomacy. “Only judicious management of access to water resources” will prevent conflict, she said, adding that low-lying Bangladesh has around 30 million people exposed to rising sea levels. The Asian Development Bank last month warned that nearly two-thirds of people in AsiaPacific have no clean, piped water at home despite the region’s strong growth, blaming poor management and a lack of investment in infrastructure. Climate change and environmental damage are also posing unpredictable threats to the region’s water supply, with glaciers that feed rivers in retreat and once-pristine waterways polluted with waste. The region must co-operate to tackle the “new reality”, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said. “Things are happening that have never happened before” because of climate change, he warned. “There’s no place for conflict there.” — AFP
What do we eat? New food map will tell us CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina: Do your kids love chocolate milk? It may have more calories on average than you thought. Same goes for soda. Until now, the only way to find out what people in the United States eat and how many calories they consume has been government data, which can lag behind the rapidly expanding and changing food marketplace. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are trying to change that by creating a gargantuan map of what foods Americans
are buying and eating. Part of the uniqueness of the database is its ability to sort one product into what it really is - thousands of brands and variations. Take the chocolate milk. The government long has long classified chocolate milk with 2 percent fat as one item. But the UNC researchers, using scanner data from grocery stores and other commercial data, found thousands of different brands and variations of 2 percent chocolate milk and averaged them out. The results show
CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina: In this photo taken April 3, 2013, nutrition scholar Prof Barry Popkin, head of the University of North Carolina Food Research Program, points to an ingredient label while discussing his study, what foods Americans are purchasing in stores and eating, in his office at UNC-Chapel Hill. — AP
that chocolate milk has about 11 calories per cup more than the government thought. The researchers led by professor Barry Popkin at the UNC School of Public Health, are figuring out that chocolate milk equation over and over, with every single item in the grocery store. It’s a massive project that could be the first evidence of how rapidly the marketplace is changing, and the best data yet on what exact ingredients and nutrients people are consuming. That kind of information could be used to better target nutritional guidelines, push companies to cut down on certain ingredients and even help with disease research. Just call it “mapping the food genome”. “ The country needs something like this, given all of the questions about our food supply,” says Popkin, the head of the UNC Food Research Program. “We’re interested in improving the public’s health and it really takes this kind of knowledge.” The project first came together in 2010 after a group of 16 major food companies pledged, as part of first lady Michelle Obama’s campaign to combat obesity, to reduce the calories they sell to the public by 1.5 trillion. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation agreed to fund a study to hold the companies account-
able, eventually turning to UNC with grants totaling $6.7 million. Aided by supercomputers on campus, Popkin and his team have taken existing commercial databases of food items in stores and people’s homes, including the store-based scanner data of 600,000 different foods, and matched that information with the nutrition facts panels on the back of packages and government data on individuals’ dietary intake. The result is an enormous database that has taken almost three years so far to construct and includes more detail than researchers have ever had on grocery store items - their individual nutritional content, who is buying them and their part in consumers’ diets. The study will fill gaps in current data about the choices available to consumers and whether they are healthy, says Susan Krebs-Smith, who researches diet and other risk factors related to cancer at the National Cancer Institute. Government data, long the only source of information about American eating habits, can have a lag of several years and neglect entire categories of new types of products - Greek yogurt or energy drinks, for example. With those significant gaps, the government information fails to account for the rapid change now seen in the marketplace. —AP
KUCHING, Malaysia: The world hydroelectric industr y ’s decision to meet in a Malaysian state where dams have uprooted rainforests and native peoples is drawing bitter fire from environmental and tribal groups. The International Hydropower Association’s (IHA) four-day biennial meeting to push “sustainable hydropower ” opens Tuesday in Kuching, the languid capital of Sarawak state on Borneo island, and a highly contentious choice. Sarawak’s powerful boss is widely accused of felling huge swathes of rainforest in a much-criticised dam-building drive. Opponents of Taib Mahmud Sarawak’s chief minister for 42 years - plan to hold their own “parallel congress” in Kuching and other protests, bringing to the capital a resistance campaign previously confined to the interior. “The Taib government is using the IHA name to ‘greenwash’ all the damage it has done,” said Peter Kallang, head of Save Sarawak Rivers, a coalition of local NGOs and tribal groups. “The IHA also will promote dams and get more business. It’s scandalous.” Malaysia’s largest state, yet one of its poorest, Sarawak was a vast jungle wilderness of mighty rivers and hunter-gatherer tribes. But activists say 95 percent of primary forest has been destroyed, accusing Taib of profiting through his grip on land and timber concessions. Swiss-based forest-protection group Bruno Manser Fund (BMF) estimates his worth at $15 billion, based on financial and corporate records, which would make him Malaysia’s richest man. Taib, 76, is regularly cited by anti-graft groups as the prime example of endemic
corruption, which watchdogs say bleeds Malaysia of billions of dollars annually. Yet Malaysian authorities have failed to act against Taib, whose political party is vital to keeping the 56-year ruling coalition in power. “He is basically untouchable,” said BMF head Lukas Straumann. Taib’s office did not respond to requests for comment. He has previously denied wrongdoing and defended his policies as necessary to develop Sarawak. Prime Minister Najib Razak’s office declined comment. “IHA is pleased to be convening its congress where hydropower is under focus, and where we can share knowledge and experience,” IHA President Richard Taylor said in emailed comments to AFP, adding the congress will hear “alternative” voices. But Kallang said those voices will be chosen by Taib, and that poor native stakeholders are excluded by high delegate fees. The IHA board includes the head of Sarawak’s Taib-linked energy firm, which Kallang said raises questions about how Kuching was chosen. Activists say Taib and his family, through control of some of Sarawak’s biggest companies, pocket huge kickbacks for illadvised big projects. Malaysia’s biggest dam, Sarawak’s Bakun hydroelectric facility, has been called a “monument to corruption” by Transparency International (TI), displacing more than 10,000 people, many now living in squalid resettlements. Officials admit Bakun will produce twice as much energy as Sarawak needs, yet plans for up to a dozen more dams have been mooted. Construction has begun at one, sparking native protests last year. —AFP
Hydropower frenzy threatens Carpathians BUCHAREST: The frenzy to build hydropower stations across the Carpathian mountains poses an “imminent” threat to biodiversity in Eastern Europe, conservationist group WWF warned yesterday. “The planned construction of thousands of hydropower stations across the Carpathian mountains presents an imminent threat to hundreds of streams and rivers”, the WWF said in a press release, ten years after seven Eastern European countries signed a convention to protect the unique mountain range. “Romania and Ukraine are particularly at risk from planned small-scale hydropower stations”, Konstantin Ivanov, the head of communication for the Danube-Carpathian program, told AFP. Small-scale hydro generally does not involve the construction of a dam. Instead, part of the flow is diverted through a pipe to a downstream turbine which generates the electricity. In theory, this should not have a big impact on the environment. But in many cases pipes have been installed in the bed of the stream and diverted water amounts to as much as 80 percent of the flow, posing lasting threats to biodiversity,
environmentalists say. “In Romania, two EUprotected Natura 2000 sites in the Fagaras Mountains, one of which designated for the protection of endangered species such as otters and different species of fish, invertebrates and amphibians, have been ‘invaded’ by more than 50 small hydropower installations, causing destruction of mountain rivers and species”, Ivanov said. More than 430 hydro power stations are currently planned in Romania, over a quarter of them in or near protected areas, WWF says. The construction of major infrastructure for transportation is another source of concerns as it could lead to dramatic habitat fragmentation for bears and large carnivores. In western Romania, the planned Deva-Lugoj motorway could bisect a major corridor for bears and other wildlife, WWF told AFP. The Carpathian mountains are home to Europe’s largest populations of bears, wolves and lynx. On May 22, 2003, seven countries - Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, signed the Convention for the protection and sustainable development of the Carpathians. — AFP
CURTEA DE ARGES, Romania: This photo taken on Nov 2, 2011 shows an excavator working in to the bed of a stream in a protected area of the European network Natura 2000 in the Fagaras mountains, 200 km northwest from Bucharest, to make room for a water pipe. — AFP
H E A LT H & S C I E N C E
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
Dar Al Shifa conducts training for pharmacists KUWAIT: Dar Al Shifa Hospital recently held a training course on quality and accreditation management, led by Ghada Welwel Strategy and Business Development Executive at Dar Al Shifa Hospital. The training, which took place for three consecutive days May 7th, 8th, and 9th, was attended by pharmacists from the Ministry of Health (MOH) and primary healthcare centers along with pharmacists from the Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC). In her lecture, Welwel highlighted importance of quality concepts and ensuring consistently good quality is delivered by the healthcare staff, while also introducing pharmacists to the fundamentals of accreditation to healthcare organizations. Ms. Welwel also came to educate them on medication management standards. Commenting on this training, Welwel said: “It was a pleasure to meet with a great group of enthusiastic and determined pharmacists at both a personal and professional level. After this 3-day training program, I believe they will become very effective contributors, with an excellent reputation at their place of work. Having led such an event, with the collaboration of Mr
Mavala Scientifique for nails like diamonds
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Saleh Ibrahim, Training Center Manager, I realized the significance of educating our community’s healthcare specialists on ways to elevate the bar in quality healthcare services in their respective work places, and how this will affect the society as a whole.” Welwel concluded, “I would like to thank you for being here and be assured that we will always support you in every possible way, to achieve the best results for our beloved Kuwait and its community”. Ibrahim, on the other hand, introduced the Qmentum Accreditation Program, a new accreditation program under Accreditation Canada, which
emphasizes health system performance, risk prevention planning, client safety, performance measurement, and governance. Accreditation Canada has been committed to improving quality and safety in health services through accreditation, wherein Ibrahim trained the attendees on how to integrate these health service standards into the clinical sector in Kuwait. Ibrahim said: “One of the most important courses delivered to clinical staff is the quality and accreditation program. This 3-day course highlights the essentials of practicing with safe and qualityfocused approaches in order to meet international healthcare standards.
ails are an essential part in women’s elegant look, yet some women suffer from soft, fragile and even breaking nails. This common problem has became an obsession for housewives as well as working women. It may be due to heredity aspects or the exposure to water and cleaning detergents. Science has proved that the tip of the nail is the most fragile and exposed part of the nail. Therefore, it must be strengthened. Mavala laboratories, the Swiss Company specialized in hand and foot care, studied different types of nails and came up with Mavala Scientifique, which is the key solution to nails’ problems that allows the nail to regain healthy and long-lasting growth. Mavala Scientifique is considered the only nourishing and nail hardener product which penetrates the nail surface, bonds the three layers of the nail together and reinforces the tip to allow it to regain natural growth. One or two weekly applications of Mavala Scientifique allow soft, flaking or splitting nails to become healthy and strong. Once reaching satisfying and guaranteed results, twice or three times a month
would be enough to maintain solid and healthy nails. As additional to the regular package, Mavala Scientifique comes in “Applicator Pen” that is easy to use and to carry around. Al-Jothen Company, the exclusive distributer of Mavala Swiss products, provides Mavala Scientifique as well as full nails solutions at all Al-Jothen gallery showrooms in-addition to some salons and pharmacies such as Al-Shamiya Pharmacy, Keifan Pharmacy, Granada Pharmacy, Khuzama Pharmacy, Al-Mutakamela Pharmacy.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
W H AT ’ S O N
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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 Classical music at AUK he Department of Music and Drama is hosting a demonstration/ masterclass with the German classical guitarist Friedemann at the American University of Kuwait (AUK), 28 May 3 pm, Liberal Arts Building, room 205. Wuttke is a gifted performer, having played with major ensembles and orchestras. Besides various concerts in Germany, he has toured in the United States and South East Asia, as well as several European metropolises. This, his first visit to the Gulf region, has been realized with the support of the German Embassy in Kuwait, in cooperation with the Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah. The AUK performance is free and open to the public.
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AIP shaam-e ghazal he Association of Indian Professionals (AIP), Kuwait, forthcoming event has been scheduled for the evening of May 25, 2013 at 6 pm at the auditorium of Indian Community Senior School, Salmiya and is titled as AIP Shaam-e-Ghazal. We have invited Raghuram Krishnan, a Ghazal singer from Cochin, India to make this evening more melodious and vibrant. He will be supported by few local musicians also. Ambassador of India, Satish C. Mehta will be the Chief Guest. Admission is by invitation and children below 10 years of age will not be allowed.
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Inter School Quiz - KQ Matters Prelims at IES
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he preliminary round of the fourth edition of the prestigious KQ Matters, the only Interschool Quiz Competition organized by an Indian school in Kuwait, was held on Saturday, May 18, 2013 at IES. Leaving it open to all the students of all the Indian Schools and Bilingual Schools in Kuwait Bhavans has manifested its vision of imparting equal opportunities to every student alike. The ensuing rush of entries and the receipt of sonorous plaudits stand testimony to the virtue of Bhavans, raising a challenging platform for young enthusiastic minds breaking the barriers of rigid selection and elimination. The Student Council of IES accorded a warm welcome and escorted the participants and the escorting teachers to the IES auditorium. The events of the day began with the blessings of the Almighty. Head Girl of IES, Alishba Tanya John delivered the welcome address.
Head Boy, Revanth Vishnuvajhala elucidated the rules and regulations of the preliminary round and enlightened the audience on the benchmark to appear for the preliminary round and to enter the final round of KQ Matters 2013-2014. More than 80 erudite participants from 11 renowned schools appeared for the preliminary written test round. With a marginal distinction in scores, 6 teams comprising 2 members qualified for the final round of KQ Matters. Drizzling ease to the anxious palpitations in the IES auditorium, Principal T Premkumar announced the names of the six qualifying schools, namely FAIPS, Gulf Indian School, United Indian School, Indian English Academy School, Indian Educational School and Salmiya Indian Model School. He congratulated the winners and extended his gratitude to the principals of the Indian Schools in Kuwait who with their support and healthy participation and
competitive spirit stand by Bhavans always in all its ventures. He eulogized the escorting teachers for their efforts and support to their students and for making it to Bhavans and also appreciated the solidarity of Sunil Kumar Menon (HoD, Sanskrit), Chief Coordinator, KQ Matters and his team for the smooth conduct of the preliminary round of KQ Matters 2013-2014. The Cultural Secretary of IES, Ashita George proposed the vote of thanks. Sam Mathew Tharichan and Sakina Juzer Bankoda were the masters of the ceremony. The grand finale of KQ Matters 2013-2014 will be held at IES after the summer break. Bhavans has in store for the winners thundering applause and a booming cash prize coupled with a memento and a certificate and for the public unique questions, sundry rounds and thought provoking segments that cap entertainment and information.
Carmel School holds felicitation for academic excellence
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.
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Photography exhibition
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he Embassy of India, Kuwait in association with National Council of Arts, Culture & Letters is organizing an exhibition of photographs of Islamic monuments of India by Benoy K Behl, Art - Historian & Photographer at Al-Edwani Hall, Dahiyat Abdullah AlSalem. The exhibition is being inaugurated at 1900 hrs tomorrow 21 May, 2013. The exhibition shall be kept open till 27 May 2013 from 0900 hrs to 1230 hrs and 1700 hrs to 2100 hrs. All are cordially invited to the exhibition.
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IMAX film program 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 3D11:30am, 6:30pm, 9:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm Journey to Mecca 5:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 8:30pm Thursday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 5:30pm, 8:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 11:30am Tornado Alley 3D12:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 6:30pm
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armel School held its annual felicitation for academic excellence and overall performance on the 2nd, 7th and 9th May 2013 respectively. Presiding over the programmes was Garnet Andrade, Executive manager- Group Risk NBK and Mrs. Andrea Andrade (Primary school); Dr. Umair Farooq, Project Manager, Fluor Kuwait (Middle school) and Dr. Mrs Kamlesh Kumari, Chemistry Dept-Kuwait University (High school). They all applauded the children and congratulated the teachers and parents for being there, every
step of the way. They advised the children that motivation, hard work, consistence and perseverance are needed for the climb to success. The curtain went up to a thought provoking backdrop of ‘The Climb’- One that successful people took with diligence and a faith undaunted. Beginning with a prayer song the Carmelites entertained the audience with music, song and dance that brought home laurels in interschool competitions over the year and a pantomime that displayed the values engrained at Carmel.
The chief guests felicitated the high achievers with medals, plaques, trophies and certificates. The heads of the different sections emphasized the fact that the climb is hard but when you reach the top the view is amazing. She hoped that more Carmelites aim high and continue the climb. Every year Carmel raises the bar and gives us moments to cherish. Climb on Carmelites and stay on “The Top of the world”.
Friday: Fires of Kuwait 2:30pm Tornado Alley 3D3:30pm, 5:30pm, 8:30pm To The Arctic 3D 4:30pm, 7:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D 6:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 9:30pm Saturday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 1:30pm, 8:30pm Tornado Alley 3D 11:30am, 2:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 6:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 3:30pm Journey to Mecca 4:30pm
Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20
Fund board chairman Al-Abder with the winners.
Three winners receive congratulations.
MOE Social Fund runs supplementary elections
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he Social Fund of MOE employees recently conduc ted its supplementar y board elections where three new members were selected from among six candidates running the elections.
Following a general assembly meeting, the election process was done under the supervision of the social fund board chairman, Waleed Abdul Rahman Al-Bader and MOE’s legal affairs department manager, Salem Al-Shemmari.
Winners, Tareq Ragheb (won 183 votes), Salah Zohni (won 167 votes) and Ahmed Abo Taleb ( won 159 votes), received congratulations from everybody wishing them all the best in serving fellowcolleagues working for MOE and fund members.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
W H AT ’ S O N
Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait. Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday - Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcc-com for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.
Arab Planning Institute seminar
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he Arab Planning institute organized a seminar recently in cooperation with the Kuwait Forum for Small and Medium Projects, to discuss the role of these projects in Kuwait’s development process. During the event which saw large attendance and wide media coverage,
the speakers discussed various topics and focused mainly on the law pertaining with a national fund set up by the government to sponsor small projects. Kuwait Forum member Abdullah Buwair spoke during the event about “the need to increase investment opportunities for Kuwaitis in the com-
mercial field”, arguing that “government support” has allowed foreigners to control investment in the commercial and store markets while resulting in Kuwaiti partners to having limited roles in their own investments.
Congratulations Suganya for your job at Kuwait Hayatt Hotel .. I hope your career ladder flies high. All the best from Sherif Ismail
Marriott executives in Kuwait to showcase see the world on global sales mission
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arriott International executives from across the globe have arrived in Kuwait as part of a Global Sales Mission taking place across the Middle East this month, showcasing the company’s “See The World” campaign. The initiative highlights Marriott International’s global spread of hotels with senior executives from London, China, Paris, the US and other destinations joining the mission. Vladimir Dabbah, Vice President Global Sales, Middle East and Africa at Marriott International, said: “The exclusive Global Sales Mission concept epitomises the innovative way of doing business at Marriott International. This unique approach helps to maximise the sales efforts and reflects the company’s proactive strategy to strengthen relationships with key customers. It is also a step towards, further enhancing our long-term strategic customer relationships in the region - the cornerstone of success at Marriott International whilst demonstrating the company’s commitment to the region”. Marriott International manages and operates over 3,800 hotels under 18 brands around the world, including JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels and Resorts, Renaissance, Autograph Collection, Courtyard by Marriott, Gaylord and Moxy, the company’s latest introduction. In the Middle East and Africa, the company currently has a regional presence consisting of 42 properties in 12 countries - including five properties in the Kingdom - offering 12,237 rooms and spanning seven lodging brands, including JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels & Resorts and Residence Inn by Marriott to name a few. There are a further 48 announced properties scheduled to join Marriott International’s portfolio in the region through 2017, eight of which are in Saudi Arabia, adding 11,567 rooms to the Marriott
International system. On an international level, executives will be promoting the global portfolio, including: Autograph Collection, whereby each property is selected for its bold originality, rich character and uncommon details; and Renaissance Hotels, the brand that speaks to passionate travellers in search of local authentic experiences. The mission will also highlight the 2013 introductions of both Gaylord, a destination focused heritage hotel brand and Moxy, which combines contemporary stylish design with an affordable price point. On a regional level, focus points for discussion and promotion will be the company’s expansion in the
Extended Stay segment, with its Residence Inn by Marriott and Marriott Executive Apartments (MEA) brands. A key discussion point will be the 2013 opening of the 83-unit Residence Inn by Marriott Jazan. Marriott International views Extended Stay as a key
area for expansion due to the increasing number of mid-term visitors to the region, be it for business or for pleasure. The mission is also looking forward to discussing the 2013 opening of the Renaissance Cairo Mirage City, Dubai Marriott Zabeel and MEA Zabeel Dubai. According to Kuwait Infrastructure Report Q22 The Kuwait Infrastructure sector continues to perform well driven by strong oil revenues. The government has been providing stability and stimulus for the sector. As a result, growth remains positive for 2013, with a forecast of 3.6% year on year (y-o-y). This will take the industry value to US$3.2bn this year, rising to US$6.6bn by 2022. This factor, along with the expansion of numerous airports across the GCC including the Kuwait International Airport, and the 11.4 percent increase in visitors to the GCC3, positions Kuwait and the region as a key area in terms of growth in passenger numbers and ultimately hotel occupancy rates. The comprehensive two-week programme kicked off in Abu Dhabi on May 5, and will culminate in Kuwait on May 21 seeking to empower the company’s sales force and develop strategic customer relationships across the region. Coinciding with the Arabian Travel Market, this mission provides a platform to bring senior executives closer to customers for a unique networking opportunity, while updating them on the various events and promotions from Marriott International. During this road show, executives visited Jeddah, Riyadh, Al Khobar, Bahrain, Doha and are now ending their mission in Kuwait, all in order to strengthen Marriott’s strategic relationships and grow Marriott International’s sales force.
AMX picks 6 winners in Abassiya Branch promotion
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EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-imenquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday. nnnnnnn
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 SOUTH AFRICA
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l Mulla International Exchange (AMX), the premier exchange company in Kuwait, announced the six lucky winners from the draw held last week at their Abbasiya branch. A total of six prizes were given away which included the 1st prize of KD 1000 and 5 prizes of KD 500 each. The winners from the draw are as follows, Faraj Salah Amien Elsayed won
KD 1000 for his transaction with Al Mulla International Exchange, Mr. Muhammad Asif So Zahoor Hussain, Mohammad Jabed, Santi C Sreedharan, Varghese Paul Kannampuzha and Taba Mahboub won KD 500 each. The promotion period which lasted from Feb 14 to May 14 and was open to all nationalities. The promotion was conducted as a part of Al Mulla
Exchange’s commitment to its valued customers. The exchange continues to strive in order to make money transfer a quick, safe and relaxed experience for customers, including the facility to send money from the comfort of one’s home or office through their online service at www.amxremit.com
AAW supports healthy living through “Eat Healthy Q8” initiative
The Embassy of the Republic of South Africa will be closed on Tuesday, 28 May 2013, for an official event. The Embassy will resume it’s normal working hours on Wednesday, 29 May 2013, from Sunday to Thursday. Please note that the Working hours will be from 8h00 to 16h00 & the Consular Section operation hours will be from 8h30 to 12h30, for any emergencies please contact: 94924895. nnnnnnn
A
li Abdulwahab Al Mutawa Commercial Co. (AAW) yesterday announced a partnership with the Public Administration for Private Education at the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and Diet Center in a two-month drive to help students adopt healthier lifestyles through nutrition and fitness. AAW supported 30 students across ten schools in the “Eat Healthy Q8” initiative during their four-week program and awarded all the students in a finale event held on Thursday, including first and second place winners NawafKhater and Mariam Al Kandari, who respectively received top-of-line sports footwear from Reebok and a three-month membership at Curves For Women. Head of Retail Operations at AAW, Malik Saad said:”The results of the initiative have been reassuring, especially when witnessing first-hand the investment and commitment these youngsters have taken towards a healthier lifestyle. At AAW, we have a long-standing commitment in supporting health and fitness initiatives like Eat Healthy Q8 and we will continue to do so for the
community’s benefit. “We hope the awards from our fitness brands will encourage the winners to continue in their journey towards healthy living. We are very proud of all the students and hope they become future ambassadors of healthy living in Kuwait.” There are various local research data including the latest report by Kuwait University Professor Dr. Mustafa Hayat that indicates eighty percent of Kuwaiti children are overweight. Through this initiative, each participating student entered a four-week diet and fitness plan and was monitored on a weekly basis by top-of-the-line nutritionists in Kuwait. AAW provided fullsupport to the initiative, as well as encouragement to the students. AAW has an on-going commitment in supporting and encouraging youth, athletic and sports activities in Kuwait. Last year, AAW and Nike came together to sponsor the Kuwait Charity Run that gathered thousands of athletes and running enthusiasts in a 10-kilometer and 20-kilometer race. The company also sponsors Aymstrong athlete YousefAlQenai and Inspire Gym.
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. nnnnnnn
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.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
TV PROGRAMS
00:45 01:35 02:25 02:50 03:15 03:40 04:05 04:55 05:20 05:45 06:10 06:35 07:00 07:25 08:15 09:10 09:35 10:05 10:30 11:00 11:55 12:20 12:50 13:15 13:45 14:40 15:05 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:25 17:50 18:20 18:45 19:15 19:40 20:10 20:35 21:05 21:30 22:00 22:55 23:50
Beast Lands I’m Alive Safari Vet School Safari Vet School Karina: Wild On Safari Karina: Wild On Safari My Cat From Hell Shamwari: A Wild Life Cheetah Kingdom Clinically Wild: Alaska Clinically Wild: Alaska Wildlife SOS The Really Wild Show Must Love Cats Dogs 101 Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild Dick ‘n’ Dom Go Wild Safari Vet School Safari Vet School Animal Cops Phoenix Shamwari: A Wild Life Wildlife SOS Dolphin Days Dolphin Days Animal Precinct Safari Vet School Safari Vet School Cheetah Kingdom The Really Wild Show Dogs 101 Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife Chris Humfrey’s Wildlife Karina: Wild On Safari Karina: Wild On Safari Escape To Chimp Eden Bondi Vet Shamwari: A Wild Life Cheetah Kingdom Safari Vet School Safari Vet School Gator Boys World Wild Vet Animal Cops Houston
00:40 Come Dine With Me 01:30 Masterchef: The Professionals 02:15 Gok’s Fashion Fix 03:05 Coastal Kitchen 03:30 Cash In The Attic 04:15 Bargain Hunt 05:00 Holmes On Homes 05:45 Gok’s Fashion Fix 06:35 Coastal Kitchen 07:00 Food And Drink 07:25 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 07:50 Homes Under The Hammer 08:45 Bargain Hunt 09:30 Antiques Roadshow 10:25 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:05 Masterchef: The Professionals 11:55 Come Dine With Me 12:45 Food And Drink 13:10 Food Poker 13:55 Bargain Hunt 14:40 Cash In The Attic 15:25 Antiques Roadshow 16:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:00 Homes Under The Hammer 17:55 The Roux Legacy 18:30 Nigel Slater’s Simple Cooking 19:00 The Hairy Bikers USA 19:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 19:50 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Homes Under The Hammer 23:55 Cash In The Attic
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BBC World News America BBC World News America Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday
03:30 Asia Business Report 03:45 Sport Today 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 08:00 BBC World News 08:30 World Business Report 08:45 BBC World News 09:00 BBC World News 09:30 World Business Report 09:45 BBC World News 10:00 BBC World News 10:30 World Business Report 10:45 BBC World News 11:00 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 13:30 BBC World News 14:00 GMT With George Alagiah 14:30 GMT With George Alagiah 15:00 BBC World News 15:30 World Business Report 15:45 Sport Today 16:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 16:30 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:00 Impact With Mishal Husain 17:30 Hardtalk 18:00 Global With John Sopel 18:30 Global With John Sopel 19:00 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 21:30 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:00 World News Today With Zeinab Badawi 22:30 World Business Report 22:45 Sport Today 23:00 Business Edition With Tanya Beckett 23:30 Hardtalk
00:45 01:35 02:00 02:25 02:50 03:00 03:30 03:55 04:20 04:45 05:00 05:25 05:45 06:00 06:25 06:50 07:15 07:40 08:05 08:30 08:55 09:20 09:45 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
Wacky Races Duck Dodgers Duck Dodgers Dastardly And Muttley Dastardly And Muttley Dexter’s Laboratory Wacky Races Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries Tom & Jerry The Garfield Show Bananas In Pyjamas Gerald McBoing Boing 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 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
18:05 18:30 Ring 19:30 19:40 19:45 20:10 20:35 21:00 21:25 21:50 22:15 23:05 23:30
The Garfield Show Tom And Jerry: The Magic Tom And Jerry Tales Tom And Jerry Tales What’s New Scooby Doo Tiny Toon Adventures Puppy In My Pocket What’s New Scooby-Doo? Looney Tunes Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Tales Pink Panther And Pals Pink Panther And Pals
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 Johnny Test 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 11:50 Ben 10: Alien Force 12:15 Hero 108 12:40 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 Island 19:30 Total Drama Island 19:55 Mucha Lucha ! 20:20 Ben 10: Omniverse 20:45 The Amazing World Of Gumball 21:10 Adventure Time 21:35 Regular Show 22:00 Ben 10 22:25 Ben 10 22:50 Mucha Lucha ! 23:15 Mucha Lucha ! 23:40 Powerpuff Girls
00:00 Amanpour 00:30 World Sport 01:00 Piers Morgan Live 02:00 CNN Newsroom Live From Hong Kong 03:00 Anderson Cooper 360 04:00 Piers Morgan Live 05:00 Quest Means Business 06:00 The Situation Room 07:00 World Sport 07:30 African Voices 08:00 World Report 09:00 World Report 10:00 World Sport 10:30 Talk Asia 11:00 World Business Today 12:00 World One 12:30 News Special 13:00 Amanpour 13:30 CNN Newscenter 14:00 Piers Morgan Live 15:00 News Stream 16:00 World Business Today
SHADOW ON OSN ACTION HD
17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 19:00 World Sport 19:30 News Special 20:00 International Desk 21:00 Quest Means Business 22:00 Amanpour 22:30 CNN Newscenter 23:00 Connect The World With Becky Anderson
00:15 Gold Divers: Under The Ice 01:10 Alaska: The Last Frontier 02:05 Flying Wild Alaska 03:00 Mythbusters 03:55 Border Security - Series 6 Specials 04:20 Auction Hunters 04:50 Storage Hunters 05:15 How Machines Work 05:40 How Stuff’s Made 06:05 Sons Of Guns 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 Robson Green’s Extreme Fishing Challenge 08:45 Gold Rush 09:40 Border Security - Series 6 Specials 10:05 Auction Hunters 10:30 Auction Kings 10:55 How Machines Work 11:25 How It’s Made 11:50 Gold Divers: Under The Ice 12:45 Alaska: The Last Frontier 13:40 Flying Wild Alaska 14:35 Border Security - Series 6 Specials 15:05 Auction Hunters 15:30 Auction Kings 16:00 Ultimate Survival 16:55 Gold Rush 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Sons Of Guns 19:40 How Machines Work 20:05 How It’s Made 20:35 Auction Hunters 21:00 Storage Hunters 21:30 Dual Survival 22:25 Yukon Men 23:20 Moonshiners
00:05 00:30 01:00 01:25 01:50 02:45 03:35 04:00 04:25 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 Sci-Fi Science Things That Move Things That Move Sport Science X-Machines Things That Move Things That Move Superships The Gadget Show How Tech Works Meteorite Men Unchained Reaction Prototype This The Gadget Show How Tech Works Da Vinci’s Machines What’s That About? Superships Prophets Of Science Fiction Prototype This Sci-Fi Science The Gadget Show How Tech Works Unchained Reaction Scrapheap Challenge Future Weapons Superships Meteorite Men Unchained Reaction Prototype This The Gadget Show How Tech Works Unchained Reaction Sport Science The Gadget Show
00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50 02:15 02:35 03:00 03:20 03:45 04:05 04:30 04:50 05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:35 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:05 11:25 11:50 12:15 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 14:55 15:20 15:45 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:20 17:45 18:10 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:50 21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35
Hannah Montana Hannah Montana Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Prankstars Suite Life On Deck Cory In The House A.N.T. Farm Austin And Ally Jessie Good Luck Charlie Doc McStuffins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse A.N.T Farm Jonas So Random Hannah Montana Sonny With A Chance Kim Possible Shake It Up Shake It Up Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Jessie A.N.T Farm Suite Life On Deck So Random Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck Cory In The House Wizards Of Waverly Place That’s So Raven A.N.T. Farm Good Luck Charlie Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place So Random Hannah Montana Jonas Sonny With A Chance Sonny With A Chance Suite Life On Deck Suite Life On Deck
00:00 Dirty Soap 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E! Investigates 03:15 Style Star 03:40 Extreme Close-Up 04:10 THS 05:05 E!es 06:00 THS 07:50 Style Star 08:20 E! News 09:15 Fashion Police 10:15 THS 12:05 E! News 13:05 Ice Loves Coco 13:35 Ice Loves Coco 14:05 Kourtney & Kim Take New York 15:00 Style Star 15:30 THS 16:30 Extreme Close-Up 17:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 18:00 Keeping Up With The Kardashians 19:00 THS 20:00 Married To Jonas 20:30 Playing With Fire 21:30 Playing With Fire 22:30 Fashion Police 23:30 Chelsea Lately
00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Unwrapped 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Reza’s African Kitchen 02:10 Reza’s African Kitchen 02:35 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 03:00 Andy Bates American Street Feasts 03:25 Food Wars 03:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 04:15 Unique Eats 04:40 Chopped 05:30 Iron Chef America 06:10 Food Network Challenge 07:00 Guy’s Big Bite 07:25 Guy’s Big Bite 07:50 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 08:15 Kid In A Candy Store 08:40 Unique Sweets 09:05 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 09:30 Food Network Star 10:20 Extra Virgin 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 14:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:00 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 17:25 Food Wars 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Guy’s Big Bite 19:05 Reza, Spice Prince Of India 19:30 Chopped 20:20 Chopped 21:10 Food Network Caters Your Wedding 22:00 Food Wars 22:25 Food Wars 22:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:40 Food Wars
00:30 01:20 02:05 02:55 03:45 04:30 05:20 06:10 07:00 07:50 08:15 08:40 09:05 09:30 10:20 11:10 12:00 12:50 13:15 13:40 14:30 15:20 15:45 16:10 17:00 17:50 18:40 19:30 20:20 21:10 22:00 22:50 23:40
Dr G: Medical Examiner A Haunting Deadly Sins Blood Relatives I Almost Got Away With It Dr G: Medical Examiner A Haunting Nightmare Next Door Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol Street Patrol Real Emergency Calls Who On Earth Did I Marry? On The Case With Paula Zahn Murder Shift Disappeared Mystery Diagnosis Street Patrol 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 Couples Who Kill Deadly Women I Almost Got Away With It
00:15 Earth Tripping 00:45 Ultimate Traveller 01:40 Perilous Journeys 02:35 Chasing Time 03:00 First Ascent 03:30 A World Apart 04:25 By Any Means 05:20 Long Way Down 06:15 Graham’s World 06:40 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 07:10 Earth Tripping 07:35 Earth Tripping 08:05 Ultimate Traveller 09:00 Perilous Journeys 09:55 Chasing Time 10:20 First Ascent 10:50 A World Apart 11:45 By Any Means 12:40 Long Way Down 13:35 Graham’s World 14:00 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 14:30 Earth Tripping 14:55 Earth Tripping 15:25 Ultimate Traveller
CEREMONY ON OSN CINEMA 16:20 Perilous Journeys 17:15 Chasing Time 17:40 First Ascent 18:10 A World Apart 19:05 By Any Means 20:00 Earth Tripping 20:30 Earth Tripping 21:00 Graham’s World 21:30 My Sri Lanka With Peter Kuruvita 22:00 Long Way Down 22:55 Graham’s World 23:20 Maverick Chef 23:50 Delinquent Gourmet
00:00 02:15 04:00 06:00 08:00 PG15 10:00 12:00 14:00 PG15 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00
End Of Days-18 Mad Max-18 Season Of The Witch-PG15 Thor-PG15 Interview With A Hitman-
01:00 03:00 05:15 07:00 09:00 11:00 13:00 15:00 17:00 19:00 21:00 23:00
Teen Spirit-PG15 The Way-PG15 Call Of The Wild-PG15 Ghost Machine-PG15 Teen Spirit-PG15 The Darkest Hour-PG15 Ties That Bind-PG15 Ceremony-PG15 33 Postcards-PG15 This Means War-PG15 Bel Ami-18 Dirty Girl-18
Goal!-PG15 Rage Of The Yeti-PG15 Interview With A HitmanSoldiers Of Fortune-PG15 Rage Of The Yeti-PG15 Shadow-PG15 Broken Path-PG15
00:00 Brickleberry 00:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 01:00 The Colbert Report Global Edition 01:30 Family Guy 02:00 Louie 02:30 Girls 03:00 Breaking In 03:30 Malibu Country 04:00 Seinfeld 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Hope & Faith 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 Hope & Faith 09:00 Breaking In 09:30 How I Met Your Mother 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 Arrested Development 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Hope & Faith 14:00 Malibu Country 15:00 How I Met Your Mother 15:30 The Daily Show Global Edition 16:00 The Colbert Report Global Edition 16:30 Arrested Development 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 Last Man Standing 18:30 Friends 19:30 Men At Work 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 The New Normal 22:30 Out There 23:00 The Big C 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon
00:00 01:00 02:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00
Eureka Game Of Thrones Once Upon A Time Alphas Top Gear (US) Eureka Emmerdale Coronation Street C.S.I. New York Once Upon A Time Top Gear (US) Alphas
12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 20:00 21:00 22:00
Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York Eureka Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. New York House Of Cards The Americans American Horror Story
00:00 02:00 04:15 06:00 08:00 10:00 12:00 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00
Hustle And Flow End Of Days Mad Max Season Of The Witch Thor Interview With A Hitman Goal! Rage Of The Yeti Interview With A Hitman Soldiers Of Fortune Rage Of The Yeti Shadow
00:00 Spread-R 02:00 The Hangover 2-18 04:00 I Think I Do-PG15 06:00 Good Boy!-PG 08:00 Cheaper By The Dozen-PG 10:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 12:00 I Think I Do-PG15 14:00 Cheaper By The Dozen 2-PG 16:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 18:00 Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell Of Fear-PG15 20:00 A Few Best Men-18 22:00 Spread-R
01:15 03:45 06:00 07:45 09:30 11:30 13:30 15:15 17:15 18:45 21:00 23:30
Any Given Sunday-18 The People vs Larry Flynt-R The Wild Hunt-PG15 Love Finds A Home-PG15 I’ve Loved You So Long-PG15 Water For Elephants-PG15 Love Takes Wing-PG15 I’ve Loved You So Long-PG15 Certain Prey-PG15 The Terminal-PG15 Hemingway & Gellhorn-18 Gardens Of The Night-18
01:00 One Angry Juror-PG15 03:00 Johnny English Reborn-PG15 05:00 The Way-PG15 07:30 Tim Richmond: To The LimitPG15 09:00 Glee: The Concert MoviePG15 11:00 Happy Feet Two-PG 13:00 The Tree Of Life-PG15 15:15 Jack And Jill-PG15 17:00 Glee: The Concert MoviePG15 18:45 Why Did I Get Married Too?PG15 21:00 The Woman In Black-PG15 22:45 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo-R
01:15 The Three Bears: The Amazing Adventurers 02:45 Rh+ The Vampire Of Seville 04:15 Turtle Hero: Part II 06:00 Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax 08:00 The Ugly Duckling Goes On Holiday 10:00 Adventures Of Sharkboy And Lavagirl 11:30 Easter Egg Escapade 13:15 The Nimbols: Part I 14:30 Rh+ The Vampire Of Seville 16:00 The Wild Thornberrys Movie 18:00 Adventures Of Sharkboy And Lavagirl 20:00 Cher Ami 22:00 The Nimbols: Part I 23:30 The Wild Thornberrys Movie
00:00 02:00 04:00 06:00
Attack The Block-PG15 Big Miracle-PG Outlaw Country-PG15 Jesse Stone: Innocents Lost-
PG15 08:00 American Girl: McKenna Shoots For The Stars-PG 10:00 Justice League: Doom-PG15 12:00 A Thousand Words-PG15 14:00 Perfect Plan-PG15 16:00 American Girl: McKenna Shoots For The Stars-PG 18:00 The Big Year-PG 20:00 Hanna-PG15 22:00 Think Like A Man-PG15
00:00 01:00 07:00 08:30 10:30 11:00 12:00 15:30 16:30 18:00 19:00 21:00 21:30 22:00 23:00
Super Rugby Highlights Cricket Super League NRL Premiership ICC Cricket 360 AFL Premiership Highlights Premier League Darts Super Rugby Highlights Super League AFL Premiership Highlights NRL Premiership NRL Full Time Futbol Mundial Trans World Sport Super Rugby
01:30 Inside The PGA Tour 02:00 PGA Tour 07:00 Super Rugby 08:00 AFL Premiership Highlights 09:00 PGA Tour Highlights 10:00 PGA European Tour Highlights 11:00 Super League 12:30 Futbol Mundial 13:00 European Challenge Cup 15:30 Trans World Sport 16:30 Champions Tour 17:30 Premier League Darts 21:00 PGA Tour Highlights 22:00 WWE SmackDown
00:00 02:00 04:00 05:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 14:00 16:30 18:30 19:30 20:30 23:00
Champions Tour NRL Premiership World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool Trans World Sport Golfing World Super Rugby World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool ICC Cricket 360 Top 14 Highlights Golfing World AFL Premiership Top 14 World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool AFL Premiership Super League
01:00 02:00 05:00 07:00 08:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:30 18:30 20:30 21:00
UFC Countdown Prizefighter NHL WWE NXT Prizefighter NHL Mass Participation Ironman Mass Participation Ironman UIM Powerboat Champs UIM Aquabike Champs UIM F1H2O Nations Cup European Le Mans Series US Bass Fishing NHL Mobil 1 The Grid UFC Prelims
00:25 02:15 04:40 07:00 08:25 10:15 12:00 13:55 16:00 17:55 20:10 22:00
Something Of Value-PG The Fixer Julius Caesar-FAM Captain Sindbad-FAM East Of Eden-PG Come Fly With Me-FAM Johnny Eager-PG Julius Caesar-FAM Grand Hotel-PG Friendly Persuasion-FAM Green Mansions-FAM Travels With My Aunt-PG
Classifieds TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
Kuwait SHARQIA-1 PHANTOM (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG)
12:45 PM 2:45 PM 5:30 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 1:00 AM
SHARQIA-2 THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D)
1:45 PM 4:30 PM 7:15 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM
SHARQIA-3 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)
1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM
MUHALAB-1 THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG)
1:45 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM
MUHALAB-2 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)
1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM
MUHALAB-3 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D)
1:30 PM 4:15 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM
FANAR-1 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)
1:15 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 2:15 AM
FANAR-2 PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) FANAR-3 JAVA HEAT (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) AURANGZEB (DIG) (HINDI) JAVA HEAT (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) MARINA-1 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED MARINA-2 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)
2:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:00 PM 7:00 PM 9:00 PM 11:00 PM 1:00 AM 1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 12:45 AM 1:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 9:15 PM 12:05 AM
1:30 PM 3:45 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM
KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (16/05/2013 TO 22/05/2013) PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
10:15 PM 12:30 AM
MARINA-3 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
1:45 PM 4:15 PM 6:45 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM
AVENUES-1 JAVA HEAT (DIG) RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:45 PM 11:00 PM 1:15 AM
AVENUES-2 WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:15 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM
AVENUES-3 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 11:45 PM
360º- 1 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM
360º- 2 WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED 360º- 3 JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM
1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM
AL-KOUT.1 IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) 2:00 PM STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) 4:30 PM STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) 7:15 PM IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) 10:00 PM STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) 12:30 AM NO SUN+ TUE+WED AL-KOUT.2 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) WELCOME TO THE PUNCH (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)
1:15 PM 3:30 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM
SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)
12:45 AM
AL-KOUT.3 THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) JAVA HEAT (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED
1:30 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM
BAIRAQ-1 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D) IRON MAN 3 (DIG-3D) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG-3D)
12:45 PM 3:30 PM 6:15 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 PM
BAIRAQ-2 PHANTOM (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG) THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) PHANTOM (DIG)
12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM
BAIRAQ-3 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE CALL (DIG)
2:00 PM 4:15 PM 6:30 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM
PLAZA STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG)
5:30 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM
LAILA IRON MAN 3 (DIG) NO WED THE GREAT GATSBY (DIG) NO WED STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS (DIG) NO WED AJIAL.1 EMMANUEL (DIG) (MALAYALAM) EMMANUEL (DIG) (MALAYALAM) AJIAL.2 TADAKHA (DIG) (TELUGU) THU+FRI SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO THU+FRI SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) NO THU+FRI SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG)
5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:45 PM
FOR SALE 6:30 PM 9:30 PM 6:45 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM
AJIAL.3 NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL) NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL)
7:00 PM 10:00 PM
AJIAL.4 AURANGZEB (DIG) (HINDI) AURANGZEB (DIG) (HINDI)
6:45 PM 9:45 PM
METRO-1 NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL) NERAM (DIG) (TAMIL)
6:30 PM 9:30 PM
METRO-2 TADAKHA (DIG) (TELUGU) THU+FRI EMMANUEL (DIG) (MALAYALAM) NO THU+FRI TADAKHA (DIG) (TELUGU)
6:45 PM 6:45 PM 10:00 PM
Mitsubishi Jeep Pajero, model 2012, engine v6 3.5L, brown color, done km 19,000, registration till 15-215, alloy rim, fog lamp, CD, wooden interior, shaded roof sahallah etc. (installment possible). Cash price KD 5,250/-. Contact: 66507741 (C 4421) 21-5-2013
nently after retirement. All households including fridge, electrical items, jogging machine, furniture etc or full flat on sale. Contact: 99798432. (C 4418) 19-5-2013 MATRIMONIAL
Chevrolet Captiva (LT ) Jeep, black color, model 2008, very good condition, 135,000 km, price KD 2,600/-. Contact: 50994848. (C 4419) Mazda Zoom (6), model 2011, white color, 40,000 km, excellent condition, price KD 2,800/-. Contact: 66729295. (C 4420) 20-5-2013 Leaving Kuwait perma-
I am an American Muslim man looking for a Muslim woman from ages of 23 to 33. Please only Muslim woman reply. My email is: ibngrant2000@hotmail.com (C 4417) 18-5-2013 LOST Original document Policy
No. 633002599 of LIAQAT ALI by the state Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, Gulf Zone is reported to have been lost. Anyone finding the same or claiming any interest in it should communicate with the Manager, Kuwait State Life office - Ph: 22452208. (C 4424)
SITUATION VACANT Required English speaking nanny / maid. Contact: 99824597. (C 4422) 21-5-2013
Original document Policy No. 633004170-3 of MR. MOHAMMAD ATIF SULTAN by the state Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan, Gulf Zone is reported to have been lost. Anyone finding the same or claiming any interest in it should communicate with the Manager, Kuwait State Life office - Ph: 22452208. (C 4425) 21-5-2013
Prayer timings
Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:
03:22 04:53 11:44 15:20 18:36 20:05
DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION
Airlines QTR JZR PIA THY ETH JZR BBC GFA UAE ETD FDB RJA RBG MSR OMA QTR THY DHX FDB BAW FDB KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR UAE ABY QTR FDB IRA ETD GFA MEA TMA UAE MSR QTR FDB SVA KNE KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR QTR
Arrival Flights on Tuesday 21/5/2013 Flt Route 148 DOHA 267 BEIRUT 239 SIALKOT 764 SABIHA 620 ADDIS ABABA 539 CAIRO 43 MUSCAT 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 642 AMMAN 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 643 MUSCAT 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 53 DUBAI 302 MUMBAI 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 416 JAKARTA 503 LUXOR 855 DUBAI 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 55 DUBAI 605 ISFAHAN 301 ABU DHABI 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 213 BEIRUT 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 562 AMMAN 352 COCHIN 284 DHAKA 514 TEHRAN 546 ALEXANDRIA 332 TRIVANDRUM 561 SOHAG 165 DUBAI 134 DOHA
Time 00:15 00:20 01:05 01:40 01:45 00:40 02:00 01:55 02:25 02:30 03:10 03:10 03:15 03:15 03:20 03:30 04:35 05:10 05:50 06:30 07:45 07:50 06:15 07:25 06:35 07:40 08:25 08:50 09:00 09:15 09:20 09:30 10:40 10:55 12:00 12:45 13:00 13:45 13:50 14:30 14:35 14:40 8:05 12:05 13:40 14:15 7:55 12:00 11:35 15:45
SYR RJA ETD UAE ABY SVA GFA UAL QTR QTR FDB GFA AXB JAI RBG OMA FDB ABY MEA IRA MSR KLM ALK UAE ETD QTR GFA QTR FDB AIC UAL DLH UAE KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JAI THY
341 640 303 857 127 510 215 982 6130 144 63 219 393 572 553 647 61 129 402 679 618 415 229 859 307 136 217 146 59 981 981 636 4965 542 104 674 786 774 166 678 742 618 325 777 135 177 185 239 574 772
DAMASCUS AMMAN ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH RIYADH BAHRAIN WASHINGTON DC DULLES DOHA DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA MUSCAT DUBAI SHARJAH BEIRUT LAR ALEXANDRIA AMSTERDAM COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA DUBAI CHENNAI BAHRAIN FRANKFURT DUBAI CAIRO LONDON DUBAI JEDDAH RIYADH PARIS MUSCAT DAMMAM DOHA NAJAF JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI DUBAI AMMAN MUMBAI ISTANBUL
15:50 15:55 16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:25 17:50 18:25 18:55 19:05 19:15 19:35 19:40 20:00 20:00 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:30 21:05 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:45 22:00 22:20 22:25 22:40 23:10 22:25 18:15 18:45 19:25 18:30 19:25 18:40 19:35 19:30 19:10 16:15 17:50 23:00 17:30 22:40 22:30 23:20 23:45
Airlines AIC PIA AXB JAI UAL DLH KLM JZR THY PIA THY ETH BBC UAE FDB RBG MSR OMA ETD QTR QTR JZR FDB RJA GFA THY KAC JZR BAW FDB KAC KAC ABY UAE FDB ETD IRA QTR KAC GFA KAC KAC MEA JZR JZR KAC KAC JZR TMA MSR UAE
Departure Flights on Tuesday 21/5/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 206 LAHORE 490 MANGALORE 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 411 AMSTERDAM 502 LUXOR 773 ISTANBUL 240 SIALKOT 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 44 DHAKA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 644 MUSCAT 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 70 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 545 ALEXANDRIA 164 DUBAI 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 513 IMAM KHOMEINI 561 AMMAN 126 SHARJAH 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 302 ABU DHABI 604 ISFAHAN 133 DOHA 101 LONDON 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 405 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 324 AL NAJAF 677 MUSCAT 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 223 DUBAI 611 CAIRO 872 DUBAI
Time 00:05 00:15 00:15 00:20 00:25 00:30 00:55 01:30 02:20 02:20 02:40 02:45 03:30 03:45 03:50 03:55 04:15 04:20 04:20 04:25 05:15 05:35 06:30 06:35 07:00 07:10 07:20 07:25 08:25 08:25 09:15 09:25 09:30 09:50 09:55 10:15 10:20 10:25 10:25 11:25 11:30 11:45 11:55 12:25 13:00 13:00 13:00 13:20 13:45 14:00 14:15
Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)
FDB QTR KAC KNE SVA KAC KAC KAC SYR RJA JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE SVA GFA JZR JZR UAL QTR QTR FDB GFA JZR AXB RBG JAI FDB ABY OMA KAC KAC MEA IRA MSR DHX KLM ETD ALK UAE KAC QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC QTR KAC KAC JZR UAE
58 141 673 473 501 617 773 741 342 641 238 135 304 538 128 858 511 216 184 266 982 6131 145 64 220 134 394 554 571 62 120 648 343 351 403 618 607 171 415 308 230 860 381 137 301 218 60 205 147 411 283 528 4965
DUBAI DOHA DUBAI JEDDAH JEDDAH DOHA RIYADH DAMMAM DAMASCUS AMMAN AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI RIYADH BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN DOHA DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH MUSCAT CHENNAI KOCHI BEIRUT LAR LUXOR BAHRAIN DAMMAM ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DELHI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD DOHA BANGKOK DHAKA ASSIUT DUBAI
14:30 14:55 15:05 15:30 15:45 15:45 16:00 16:30 16:50 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:20 17:40 17:50 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:40 19:20 19:25 19:35 19:50 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:45 20:55 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:20 21:30 21:50 22:05 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:30 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:00 23:15 23:40 23:45 23:55 23:55
34
stars CROSSWORD 196
STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) This day is full of interesting dialogues. There is recognition of your career accomplishments. You may be too concerned with making your own point, but in listening to the views of others, you will open the door for others to listen to you. Fortunately, any dispute you find today will cause little delay in the art of problem solving. This could be a mentally draining day. You are more open-minded and creative in your thinking at this time. You have many things going in your favor and that includes positive thinking, mental stability, good feelings, relaxation and opportunity. This is a good time to make long-range plans, take advantage of further education, take a long-distance trip or take up religious studies. It is a mentally stimulating time.
Taurus (April 20-May 20) Your career can end up at right angles to your own inner sensitivities and need for growth and change. Emotional material wells up from within you and may challenge and threaten the current path you travel. Stop and consider your next step with care. If you think that you might lose your mind under the current mental pressure—probably not. However, you will be intensely examining ideas, thoughts and concepts—with an eye to getting rid of unwanted ideas. Searching, research and detective work are likely. You are in a planning mood and are very clearheaded. Go ahead and make those decisions. You can see the road ahead and will make the right choices. You may find yourself serving to guide someone younger than you in matters of importance.
Gemini (May 21-June 20)
ACROSS 1. Inquire about. 4. A line drawn on a map connecting points having the same numerical value of some variable. 12. A syndrome that occurs in many women from 2 to 14 days before the onset of menstruation. 15. Aircraft landing in bad weather in which the pilot is talked down by ground control using precision approach radar. 16. A Spanish island in the Atlantic off the northwestern coast of Africa. 17. Resinlike substance secreted by certain lac insects. 18. Thigh of a hog (usually smoked). 19. Valuable source of caviar and isinglass. 20. A woody climbing usually tropical plant. 22. (Babylonian) A demigod or first man. 24. A state in New England. 25. Breathing during sleep with harsh noises caused by vibration of the uvula or soft palate. 27. Swedish oceanographer who recognized the role of the Coriolis effect on ocean currents (1874-1954). 29. Having come or been brought to a conclusion. 30. The French-speaking part of the Canadian Maritime Provinces. 36. (New Testament) The sages who visited Jesus and Mary and Joseph shortly after Jesus was born. 37. 100 ngwee equal 1 kwacha. 39. A roll of tobacco for smoking. 41. Thick heavy expensive material with a raised pattern. 43. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders. 45. A medicine or therapy that cures disease or relieve pain. 46. A sheet or band of tough fibrous tissue connecting bones or cartilages or supporting muscles or organs. 48. A radioactive element of the actinide series. 49. A unit of length of thread or yarn. 50. An international organization of European countries formed after World War II to reduce trade barriers and increase cooperation among its members. 51. Worn or shabby from overuse or (of pages) from having corners turned down. 55. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material. 59. A member of a North American Plains people (now living in Oklahoma and Wyoming). 61. (old-fashioned) At or from or to a great distance. 63. The syllable naming the fourth (subdominant) note of the diatonic scale in solmization. 64. A trivalent metallic element of the rare earth group. 65. (Akkadian) God of wisdom. 67. Work hastily or carelessly. 74. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike. 76. An unwholesome atmosphere. 79. (Babylonian) God of wisdom and agriculture and patron of scribes and schools. 80. A port in southwestern Scotland. 83. (Irish) The sea personified. 84. In or of the month preceding the present one. 85. Moths whose larvae are cutworms. 86. An agency of the United Nations affiliated with the World Bank. DOWN 1. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).
2. Any of a number of fishes of the family Carangidae. 3. God of love and erotic desire. 4. A Greek island west of Greece. 5. Relating to or characteristic of or occurring on the sea or ships. 6. Frogs, toads, tree toads. 7. Any of a class of solid or semisolid viscous substances obtained either as exudations from certain plants or prepared by polymerization of simple molecules. 8. A strong emotion. 9. Glittering with gold or silver. 10. A gray tetravalent metallic element that resembles zirconium chemically and is found in zirconium minerals. 11. Containing or constituting or characterized by pleasing melody. 12. A cloth having a crisscross design. 13. United States educator who introduced reforms that significantly altered the system of public education (1796-1859). 14. A narcotic that is considered a hard drug. 21. Conducive to peace. 23. A tricycle (usually propelled by pedalling). 26. The compass point that is midway between north and northeast. 28. A group of African languages in the NigerCongo group spoken from Senegal east as far as the Ivory Coast. 31. Type genus of the Caricaceae. 32. Highly excited. 33. Large brownish-green New Zealand parrot. 34. Italian sociologist and economist whose theories influenced the development of fascism in Italy (1848-1923). 35. An angular shape made by folding. 38. French diplomat who in 1793 tried to draw the United States into the war between France and England (1763-1834). 40. A narrow gorge with a stream running through it. 42. Before noon. 44. An informal term for a father. 47. A hard gray lustrous metallic element that is highly corrosion-resistant. 52. The airforce of Great Britain. 53. A period marked by distinctive character or reckoned from a fixed point or event. 54. American professional baseball player who hit more home runs than Babe Ruth (born in 1934). 56. An official prosecutor for a judicial district. 57. Consisting of or made of wood of the oak tree. 58. A Ukrainian peninsula between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. 60. Seed of a pea plant. 62. A federally chartered savings bank. 66. Any group or radical of the form RCOwhere R is an organic group. 68. The (prehensile) extremity of the superior limb. 69. (obstetrics) The number of live-born children a woman has delivered. 70. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples. 71. An island in Indonesia east of Java. 72. In bed. 73. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad. 75. The products of human creativity. 77. An enclosed space. 78. Type genus of the family Myacidae. 81. Date used in reckoning dates before the supposed year Christ was born. 82. A white soft metallic element that tarnishes readily.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
You may be very forceful in what you say and think at this time. With all of this passion, you could speak to a crowd or simply communicate very well. Proud, you have an inner need to express feelings and emotions to others. You can be self-centered and are driven to leadership positions by a sense of your own inner worth. However, you have compassion and perhaps you are a good listener to those that are in need. You have the mental drive to get much accomplished and there are very few interruptions this day. Heed a warning you may hear today from an older person—do not take roads that go nowhere just for the ride. Pay attention to your dreams—you could have real insight and vision into some successful future event.
Cancer (June 21-July 22) This is the perfect time to take risks and dare to be a little unconventional. A seemingly magical talent will have everyone enthralled. You enjoy interactions that involve anything progressive, inventive and independent with regard to viewpoints. If you are around people that are involved with an original and creative idea, you are appropriately attentive. Events make it easy for you to have breakthroughs and find new solutions to old problems. You may find yourself able to implement your ideas and put them into practice. This afternoon is a good time for surrounding yourself with friends and young people and for having a good time. You appreciate your particular situation and enjoy the support of loved ones.
Leo (July 23-August 22) In the workplace you could expand your thinking and share your ideas. If you are not working, you will be celebrating the love of family, fresh air and beautiful surroundings. You enjoy a bit of game playing and may enjoy partaking in some guidance for organizing children and children’s games in the community. Competition is fun wherever you decided to involve your energies—your energies match the challenges. Put your visions and dreams to work. You can be intense, passionate and very personal. Your imagination drives you to make your dreams and inner vision a reality. Your desires are strong and you will want to enjoy yourself. Family, creativity and the ability to interact and understand each other well are very important.
Virgo (August 23-September 22) Career choices may appear to go against you or challenge you beyond your idea of how you would be working as an adult. Stop and consider what you wanted as an end result and weigh the options. There is more than one way to achieve your goals. You may have become concerned about being able to achieve your end result. Do you realize that this is only a competition with yourself perhaps you have overshot the mark, so to speak. Now is a good time to obtain an employment guide at a nearby university to gain some information of your best talent and a few job hunting strategies with tips and advice. You must not work all your life in a profession that is unsatisfying. Find your peace—act, refocus and merge in some positive upbeat pastimes.
Word Search
Libra (September 23-October 22) You should take advantage of the opportunities available today for furthering your professional aims. You are at your most appealing and can have the greatest impact on those at work who pass out the raises and promotions. If you have been out of work, try particularly hard during this time to find the kind of job you really want. You have fluency in communication—your intellect is sharp. You will be curious, talkative and adept at solving any problems just now. You will find today full of productive conversations. This afternoon you may want to contact a friend or family member that has moved far away. There is ardent passion that manifests itself in art and creative pastimes. This evening is a good time for planning a future social event.
Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Perhaps this is a good time to think and study—you have a real appreciation for ideas and thoughts. You may find yourself enjoying a long conversation, writing a letter, or making a special phone call. Others value you for your ability to make practical decisions concerning group issues. Sales, lectures, presentations of all sorts can be successfully experienced. Clear decisions affecting others could be made now. This evening you could be especially witty and eccentric. You may have insights or breakthroughs in regard to your living situation or life circumstances and find yourself communicating these ideas to others. Others value you for your independence and unique qualities. This is a time when you can expect a little recognition.
Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Good eye-hand coordination and a sustained effort make almost any task run well. These are the days you may feel more like ignoring responsibilities and doing some social visiting. Realities may creep in and bring your attention back to the responsibilities for the day. If you are at home today, interruptions can make it difficult to concentrate on your project. Agree to visit or be with the family in the afternoon if they will allow you the morning to accomplish some needed work—you will have better cooperation. You could find that you are appreciated or valued for your feelings or your ability to act and get things done. You may feel like getting outside this afternoon. A friend or relative that has been estranged will soon become reacquainted.
Capricorn (December 22-January 19) CAPRICORN You are at your most practical when it comes to dealing and working with others. You know just what to do and can act without haste and emotion. You are called on to make decisions pertaining to customer satisfaction today. You are able to make good use of your natural abilities and common sense. A need to be respected is an emotionally charged issue in your life at this time. You develop a sense of ambition and practicality and may strive for achievement. There is also a need to communicate and experience the exchange of ideas. Contact with others in the home today brings feelings of security. A landline will work well but a cell phone can be used from every room. You may find yourself shopping in a bookstore later this evening.
Aquarius (January 20- February 18) Pleasant attitudes are created in the home or the workplace. Communal activities that take place at this time should be both well attended and successful. A need for emotional security is accented and you should not pressure a partner into doing things just to please you. You have an increased tendency to partake in working partnerships or group activities. Mental stimulation is the key for you right now and it is a good idea to make every effort to cooperate and compromise with others. Any project begun today should be very successful. This is a time where you might find a deepening of a love relationship. If you have no love relationship, this could be a time in which you will meet that special person.
Pisces (February 19-March 20) You are happiest when your goals for the day are understood. People that are honest and straightforward have a special place in your heart. It is easiest to work under a boss that has clear expectations and makes clear demands. Revising or reassessing your work responsibilities and scheduling may take up most of the day. You could be helping to change several procedures just now. In-depth discussions and inquisitive conversations find you at your rational best. Your investigative abilities are at a high point. There are some fun surprises today that will have you planning a vacation for this summer that you have always dreamed about. If your goal is to lose weight before this takes place, you will be wise to pace yourself.
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TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
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TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
lifestyle F e a t u r e s
Theatre director Yukio Ninagawa watches the stage rehearsal of ‘Karasu yo, Oretachi wa Tama o Komeru (Crows, we will load bullets)‘ at the Saitama Arts Theater in Saitama, a northern suburb of Tokyo.— AFP photos
Theatre director Yukio Ninagawa instructs during the stage rehearsal.
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hen amateur actress Etsuko Shigemoto walks out in front of a Paris audience in an all-Japanese production this month she will forget about being 87 years old. “I have weak hearing and poor sight. I have problems all over my body,” she said. “But I am still young in spirit.” Shigemoto is one of a troupe of elderly actors-average age 74 — under the tutelage of world-renowned director Yukio Ninagawa. “I have already reached the afternoon of my life, but it’s wonderful to spend my last days with the company,” Shigemoto told AFP at a recent rehearsal in Saitama, near Tokyo. “I really like acting. This is what I live for.” Ninagawa, whose directorial prowess has taken him to some of the world’s finest theatres, founded the Saitama Gold Theatre seven years ago and made a rule of auditioning only people aged over 55. Acting experience is not required. He said he began the “experiment” to create a new style of theatre that would see older people take roles not usually open to them-like the leads in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. “To ordinary theatre people, it is an unconventional group,” said Ninagawa, himself 77 years old. For him, the company is the antithesis of the visually-arresting and vividly-staged works that have given him a global reputation, in which young actors take on huge roles. The elderly players he directs have proved something of a revelation to Ninagawa, who says they are capable of bringing a huge range of emotions to bear, sometimes simply by
Theatre director Yukio Ninagawa instructs during the stage rehearsal. nature of their deeper wrinkles or their sagging cheeks. “You can’t obtain such expressions before you are 60,” the veteran director said. “It is meaningless for youngsters to pretend to have that.” “With this company, I can feel a sense of excitement,” Ninagawa told AFP. “Without this I’m afraid I could be stuck where I am.”
After five successful productions in Japan, Ninagawa is taking his troupe abroad, with Paris as the first destination and hopes for other countries in Asia in the future. The Maison de la culture du Japon a Paris will play host to the avant-garde “Ravens, we shall load bullets!” from May 30 to June 1, a play he first directed in the 1970s which tells the story of the sometimes violent struggle in Japan against societal repression in the aftermath of World War II. In the play by Japanese author Kunio Shimizu, old ladies occupy a courtroom where they sentence a judge, a prosecutor and their grandsons to death before a spectacular clash with riot police brings the whole protest to a brutal climax. Ninagawa said the play that he presents to Parisian audiences, which will be in Japanese with French subtitles, will be a challenge to them. “I don’t want to produce a carbon-copy of a European drama,” he said, adding that he has no plan to change his style of direction or the staging from that he has used in Japan. “I don’t expect the whole of the audience will appreciate it,” he said. “I only hope that people in Paris will say: ‘Hey, grandmas and grandpas have come from the Far East as a group and did what they called drama, but it’s inspiring’.” The company is also his attempt to cast a spotlight on the issue of ageing in Japan, where people aged 65 or over make up around a quarter of the 128 million-strong population. The figure, already one of the highest proportions in the
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world, is expected to rise to around 40 percent over coming decades, putting a strain on health and welfare services as the wages of relatively few young people need to be spread ever further. “The ageing issue is one of the most pressing problems Japan is facing,” said Ninagawa. “With this company I can examine this issue and can highlight the difficulties with the present situation using this play.” As well as providing social commentary, the company is also a font of inspiration and fulfillment for participants-a key challenge for a greying society. Actor Kiyoshi Takahashi, 85, said the stage had given him a new zest for life. “Drama makes me vigorous. I’m too busy to get senile,” he said. “I still feel as if I were 20 years old and now my dream is to become a good actor.” Ninagawa, who underwent a heart operation in January, says although he sometimes forgets his own age, working with a group of older actors feels very appropriate. “As you get older, you fluff lines and sometimes forget about your entrances and exits,” he said. “But acting gives everyone vigour and is proof that people can grow at any time in their lives. “This company gives me the energy to keep going and hang on in there.”— AFP
wo microscope slides bearing the blood of former Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi are going on sale in London today and are expected to fetch from 10,000 pounds to 15,000 pounds ($15,200-$22,800). The slides were obtained in 1924 when the father of the Indian independence movement was recovering from an appendectomy near Mumbai. He was thought to have donated the blood to the family he was staying with at the time. “To Gandhi devotees, it has the same status as a sacred relic to a Christian,” said Richard Westwood-Brookes, a historical documents expert at Mullock’s auctioneers which is selling the item.
Revelers dressed as Neytiri from the movie Avatar pose during the Carnival Of Cultures parade in Berlin, Germany, yesterday. Some 75 groups representing different countries from all over the world take part in the parade and tens of thousands of spectators gather along the streets. — AP
F
or summer 2013, Armani Exchange takes inspiration from the tropics and its natural environment. The mood for summer 2013 is relaxed and romantic with new silhouettes, colors and fabrications. The collection takes a bold approach as silhouettes shift from sophisticated to sporty. Combining relaxed resort style and sophisticated city attitude, the collection includes tailored pieces with a twist; utility details, bold prints and bright colors add a touch of the unexpected to classic suiting styles. The juxtaposition of soft patterns and motifs create a tropical feel while contrast color blocking completes the collection with urban edge. Seasonal neutrals like indigo, black, sand, heather grey, and chalk white balance the palette of fiery red, turquoise, tangerine and hot pink. The collection also includes key essentials consisting of chic separates and dramatic denim. The overall look is cool, modern and edgy, embodying Giorgio Armani’s signature elements of design.
“It is an artefact which is revered by disciples of Gandhi, particularly in India and therefore that is the sort of person who would go for it,” he added. The slides are part of a larger collection of items obtained by Mullock’s, which include the former leader’s sandals, shawl and bed linen. Demand for Gandhi memorabilia has been steadily growing since Mullock’s sold soil samples and blades of bloody grass purportedly from the spot where Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, for 10,000 pounds ($15,200) last year.—Reuters
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he head of Azerbaijan’s state broadcaster has questioned the vote tally in Saturday’s Eurovision Song Contest where it embarrassingly gave “nul points” to the entry from neighboring Russia, claiming votes for Russia were apparently not taken into account. “It is of serious concern and surprise that at the final count of votes from Azerbaijan, Russia was not given any points,” director Camil Guliyev said in a statement yesterday. In fact, Russia’s entry by singer Dina Garipova received the second highest number of votes submitted via cell phone text messages and high marks from the country’s professional jury, he claimed, hinting at vote violations. “We sincerely hope that this incident, possibly initiated by certain interest groups, will not cast a shadow over the brotherly relations of the Russian and Azerbaijani peoples,” he said, without blaming anyone specifically. Russia, which has a large Azerbaijani diaspora, gave the maximum 12 points to Azerbaijan’s entry, a schmaltzy ballad from crooner Farid Mammadov, which eventually
came second behind Danish winner Emmelie de Forest. Garipova, who was chosen to represent Russia at the glitzy event in Sweden after winning a national talent show, finished in fifth position. Once known for politicised voting, Eurovision has sparked its fair share of boycotts, bitterness and international backbiting. Last year Azerbaijan-which was hosting the event-squabbled with neighboring Iran after Tehran alleged the country was hosting a gay pride event under the cover of the contest. That spat came after Azerbaijan’s arch-foe Armenia decided not to participate in the competition. Relations between oil-rich Azerbaijan and Russia have cooled in recent times with strongman President Ilham Aliyev determined to turn the former Soviet state into an alternative gas supplier for Europe.—AFP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
lifestyle M u s i c
U
nashamedly escapist, with wafer-thin plots and cheesy dialogue, all punctuated by exuberant song and dance routines, Bollywood musicals are beloved by millions despite the critics’ reservations. But India’s biggest star Amitabh Bachchan, in Cannes this week for a celebration of Indian cinema at the Riviera film fest, admitted he prefers not to use the word “Bollywood”. “I just feel that the Indian film industry has its own identity... so I’d rather call it ‘the Indian film industry’, especially now we celebrate 100 years of the Indian film industry this year,” the actor known as the “Big B” said in Cannes. In fact, Bachchan was articulating an increasingly common view among actors and directors-that there is a lot more to Indian film than Bollywood potboiler musicals. They argue that just as India has changed rapidly over the past 15 years, so too have the sort of films being made and the people making them. Four members of India’s new generation of filmmakers on Sunday appeared on the red carpet at Cannes for a gala screening of their film “Bombay Talkies”, an anthology to which each contributed one short film. India is the guest country at Cannes this year and the event was timed to coincide with the nation of one billion’s celebration of a century of cinema. “There are a lot of directors who started directing movies in the early 2000s... they kind of took mainstream Bollywood films, big sets, stars and narratives and gave them a very new tilt which reflects the urban India of today,” Dibakar Banerjee, one of the four, told AFP. Banerjee, 43, said the transformations brought about by economic growth had “created a new generation of filmmakers and a new generation of actors and stars”. They were working in a number of Indian states, not just in Bollywood, the name given to the film industry in the Maharashtra state, of which Mumbai is the capital. His own short film tells the story of a theatre actor who has been out of work for years and suddenly lands a part. “There were a lot of filmmakers who were not from the film fraternity, who came from outside-like me or Anurag Kashyap-who came in and started making films about non-traditional
subjects with non-traditional narratives and structures.” In southern states in particular there had been huge changes to the way films were made. “In the south they have led the way in terms of how to make completely new narratives, new kinds of films and smash box office records. Bollywood has started taking narratives from them,” he said. Fellow “Bombay Talkie” director Karan Johar’s short film about a gay relationship is an example of the risks some directors are now willing to take with the subject they choose. Johar, 40, is one of India’s highest-profile directors and a darling of the masses for films starring some of the biggest names in Bollywood such as Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Hrithik Roshan. His short film focuses not just on a gay relationship, an enormously taboo subject in India, but also on the theme of denial. Johar had broken “away from his earlier narrative and structures and subjects”, Banerjee said. “He has completely discarded his comfort zone and tried to say something absolutely new to the extent that his film has become the most controversial film in India,” he said. Karan told AFP it had been important to him to grasp the opportunity offered to explore a difficult subject. “I took it up as a challenge because I knew that if I didn’t do it in a concept like this then I wouldn’t be justifying my presence,” he said. “I just felt it was very critical for me to take on a theme that I felt very passionate about, a story that I felt I needed to tell. “It needed to be done and addressed. Normally everyone is pussyfooting around it... but this one is making no bones about it and it’s in your face and out there for everyone to see and judge or diss depending on how they look at it,” he said. The director, also known as the host of a popular TV celebrity chat show, said Indian society was still “not very accepting of homosexuality” and that “levels of homophobia are quite high”. The film would probably not “start a movement” but it was “definitely a first” in terms of tackling the subject on film, he said. Kashyap’s film, meanwhile, tells the story of a boy sent to Mumbai to get Bachchan to taste the pickle his father sells in his shop. The 40-year-old “Gangs Of Wasseypur” director’s kidnap thriller “Ugly”, explor-
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M o v i e s
(From left) US singer Lana del Rey, British singer Florence Welch, Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan, British-Australian actress Isla Fisher, Australian actress Elizabeth Debicki, British actress Carey Mulligan, US actors Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio, Australian director Baz Luhrmann, Australian actor Joel Edgerton (3rdR) and Australian production designer Catherine Martin pose as they arrive for the screening of their film ‘The Great Gatsby’ ahead of the opening of the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. — AFP ing the subject of child abduction, got a warm reception when it was shown at Cannes in the Directors Fortnight last week. The other “Bombay Talkies” film by Zoya Akhtar focuses on a young boy who dreams of becoming a dancer even though his father wants him to be a footballer. Akhtar, 39, said Indian film was changing to accommodate new sub-
jects. But she said there would always be a place for the traditional Bollywood musical even if some features evolved. —AFP
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Dutch-Palestinian film director Hany Abu-Assad waves as he arrives with the cast of his film ‘Omar’ for the screening of the film ‘Borgman’ presented in Competition at the 66th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes. Cannes, one of the world’s top film festivals, opened on May 15 and will climax on May 26 with awards selected by a jury headed this year by Hollywood legend Steven Spielberg. — AFP
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he tensions of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation exploded onto the screen at Cannes yesterday, where a tale of love and betrayal won a five-minute standing ovation. “Omar” is the new work by Hany Abu-Assad, who shot to prominence in 2006 with “Paradise Now,” which won a Golden Globe and, in the race for best foreign-language film, became the first-ever Palestinian film to be tipped for an Oscar. Abu-Assad dips into the conceptual source of Palestinians who take up arms, just as “Paradise Now” recounted the tale of two men preparing for a suicide attack in Tel Aviv. The new story, though, is darker and more complex-a political drama interwoven with a story of lovers caught in a vice, with Israel’s secret police on one side and Palestinian gunmen on the other. Both are equally ruthless. At its centre is a young baker, Omar, who falls in love with Nadia, the sister of an old friend, Tarek, who runs a resistance cell in the occupied territories. To visit Nadia, Omar must clamber over the occupation wall built by Israel that divides the territories-an act that is fraught with risk. Arrested one day after scaling the wall, Omar is humiliated and beaten up by police, prompting him in anger to join Tarek and another friend, Amjad, in an operation to kill an Israeli soldier. From then on, Omar’s life goes into a spiral. Picked up and interrogated by the Israelis, who learn of his love for Nadia, he is under pressure to betray his comrades. Just as he is fingered as a traitor, he begins to doubt whether Nadia has been true to him as she avows, or whether she has yielded to the wooing of Amjad. The dramatic denouement led to huge applause at a press screening in Cannes, where “Omar” is in the “Certain Regard” section-a closelywatched category for provocative
films or follow-up works by emerging directors. Abu-Assad told AFP he was “very nervous at first but then I was amazed” at the audience’s reception. “They were involved in it, and it was good to see that, especially as this public, in Cannes, is the most critical public you can get,” he said. The Nazareth-born 41-year-old DutchPalestinian studied airplane engineering before dipping his toes in film-making, emerging with his first feature, “Curfew,” in 1994. Of the five principals, three of them are making their feature-film debut: Adam Bakri as Omar, a graduate from New York’s Lee Strasberg Institute; Samer Bisharat as Amjad, a 16-year-old high school student; and Nazareth-born Leem Lubany, another 16-year-old school pupil, who is superb as Nadia. Filming took place in Nablus, Nazareth and Bisan, but there were no problems at all with the Israelis. “There was no opposition to us shooting anywhere,” said AbuAssad. “We managed to get permission for all of the places, even the wall. For the wall, we had permission to climb up to a certain height and then, for the moments at the top, we used a fake wall on a set in Nazareth.” “Omar” cost $2 million-less than one-fiftieth of a Hollywood blockbuster and all of it came from individual Palestinians and Palestinian businesses, said Abu-Assad proudly. “For the first time, we have convinced businessmen from Palestine to invest in their (film) industry. It’s incredible,” he said. Asked which audience he targeted, he said: “My first audience, honestly, are the Palestinians and Arabs. I hope from the bottom of my heart that they will be engaged with it, that they will love it. — AFP
blood-soaked vengeance tale from Japan drew the biggest boos in the race for the Cannes Film Festival’s top prize yesterday, with critics savaging a “risible” parade of cliches. Controversial Japanese director Takashi Miike unveiled “Shield of Straw” (Wara No Tate) about a nationwide bounty hunt for a child rapist who murders the seven-year-old granddaughter of a billionaire politician. The man offers a one-billion-yen ($9.7-million) reward for the criminal’s capture and killing. The offer touches off a frenzy in the country, sending hordes of would-be vigilantes on the chase for the murderer. Fearing for his life, the paedophile turns himself in and a team of cops-a widower whose wife was killed by a drunk driver and a single mother-see it as their duty to protect him at all costs despite his vile crimes. But they must fend off all manner of armed assailants-some driven by greed for the reward and others, crime victims themselves who feel let down by the system, by a desire for a delayed sense of justice. The picture, one of 20 vying for the Palme d’Or award, got off to a promising start with impromptu applause for a spectacular ambush scene executed with military precision. But reviewers said the film went off the rails during a bullet-train scene in which the cops deliver long speeches about their personal motivations and reflections on the moral quandary they face over risking their lives to guard a remorseless killer, only pausing to brutally dispatch blood-thirsty bounty-hunters. British critic Geoff Andrew took to Twitter to deride “risibly overacted, overemphatic nonsense that constantly states the obvious cliche”. Movie magazine CineVue posted a review within minutes giving the picture one star out of five and calling it a “stone-cold dud” while cult film watcher Electric Sheep said it went “down like a lead balloon”. The Irish Times reviewer, however, had a few kind words for the “classy action sequences” and predicted a big-budget Hollywood remake. “Few
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scar winner Marion Cotillard and her partner, French actor and director Guillaume Canet, teamed up for the all-star “Blood Ties” premiering Monday in Cannes but faced audiences’ stony silence after high hopes for the picture. The film features one of the most high-wattage casts of the festival including Clive Owen, James Caan, Billy Crudup, Zoe Saldana, Mila Kunis and Lili Taylor. And the hard-boiled screenplay by Canet and New Yorkbased director James Gray, another Cannes favourite who will unveil “The Immigrant” starring
(From left) Japanese director Takashi Miike and actors Nanako Matsushima and Takao Osawa pose yesterday during a photocall for their film ‘Wara No Tate’ (Shield of Straw). — AFP action movies have been so dedicated to the cause of liberal democracy and trial by jury. Shield of Straw is the anti-Dirty Harry,” it wrote, referring to the iconic Clint Eastwood franchise. Miike, a remarkably prolific director whose work has been banned in some countries for excessive gore, lamented that the Japanese cinema industry was turning its back on what he called a proud tradition of blockbuster action movies. “It’s not the viewers who don’t want to see these films, it’s the professionals, the people who make films,” he told reporters. “Some of the scenes, particularly the high-speed train, we weren’t able to make in Japan so we did them in Taiwan,” he
Cotillard in the competition, sparked major buzz in the run-up to the event. “Blood Ties” is a remake of a 2008 French film in which Canet also starred, with the action transposed to the mean streets of 1970s pre-gentrification Brooklyn. It tells the story of Frank (Crudup), a cop whose brother Chris (Owen) has just been released from prison after 12 years on a murder rap. Chris aims to get back on the straight-and-narrow but is quickly sucked back in to the life of crime. Cash starts running low when his new wife (Kunis)
French director Guillaume Canet poses yesterday with French actress Marion Cotillard and US actress Zoe Saldana during a photocall for the film ‘Blood Ties’. — AFP
said, noting that Japanese authorities had objected on security grounds. Miike admitted that his film was unlikely to capture the top prize when jury president Steven Spielberg announces the winner Sunday. “I don’t really think that this is a film that’s made for the Palme d’Or but I’m happy a different class of film has been allowed in the official competition,” he said. “If the film can stimulate audiences I’d be delighted.” A Japanese film has not won at Cannes since “The Ballad of Narayama” by Shohei Imamura two decades ago. — AFP
becomes pregnant and the mother of his two other children (Cotillard), spirals into drugs and prostitution. Chris plots a bank-truck heist and when Frank catches wind of it, he must choose between his family loyalties and his police badge. A press preview of the two-and-a-half-hour-long picture met with crushing indifference and reviewers blasted a clunky story with uneven performances. Canet, who became the youngest director to capture a Cesar, France’s Oscar, for the 2006 thriller “Tell No One”, said he found inspiration from the movies of Martin Scorsese and John Cassavetes. “I got a lot of offers from Hollywood after ‘Tell No One’ and it gave me the desire to make a film in English with Englishspeaking actors,” he said. “I didn’t want it to be a studio-type film, I found it difficult to work on a film with a lot of pressure on me. I wanted a project that I’d be in charge of myself.” Cotillard said working with Canet in the United States instead of Europe had been a bit odd for the couple. “He knows how to work with actors and he has a great respect for them,” she said of Canet. “It was rather strange because we’d often speak in English together but we really fed off the energy of the American experience.” Owen’s performance drew more positive reviews than the film itself. “For me the thing that was really great was the complexity of all the relationships in the movie and there was something I was really attracted to about the idea that these two brothers were inextricably linked together and however difficult things got it was very, very hard for them to pull apart,” he said. —AFP
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
lifestyle
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Taylor Swift poses backstage with her awards at the Billboard Music Awards at the MGM Grand Garden Arena on Sunday in Las Vegas. —AP photos
Madonna poses in the press room with the Top Touring Artist Award.
nother day, another domination for Taylor Swift: She was the red hot winner at the Billboard Music Awards. Swift won eight of 11 awards, including top artist and top Billboard 200 album for “Red.” She told the crowd: “You are the longest and best relationship I ever had.” She also had a colorful performance of her hit “22” starting backstage and working her way to the main stage on the back of a bike with help from a dozen background dancers and a flurry of red balloons. Justin Bieber also performed - twice - and was also a multiple winner with three awards, including top male artist, social artist and the fanvoted milestone award, beating out Swift and Bruno Mars. When accepting the latter - where boos were heard - he alluded to the tumultuous weeks he’s had in the public eye. “I’m 19 years old; I think I’m doing a pretty good job. And basically from my heart I really just want to say it should really be about the music, it should be about the craft that I’m making. This is not a gimmick,” he said. “I’m an artist and I should be taken seriously and all this other bull should not be spoken.” Bieber performed with will.i.am and solo when he sang “Take You” in leather pants, a leather vest and a black shirt that had one sleeve, as blue laser lights beamed. Miguel, too, had a show-stopping performance, though he seemed to kick a fan when he jumped over the crowd while singing his hit “Adorn.” The R&B singer seemed to have landed part of his body on one woman, who walked away, and kicked another, who held her head low.
Musician Justin Bieber accepts the award for “Top Male Artist”.
Contest Winner Shaniece Cole, Musician CeeLo Green and ‘Milestone Award’ Winner Justin Bieber onstage.
Singer Miley Cyrus speaks onstage.
Presenters Kelly Rowland and Austin Mahone
Singer Taylor Swift performs. (above , below).
Justin Bieber performs.
DJ David Guetta performs.
Christina Aguilera, right, and Pitbull perform.
Singer Shania Twain presents the award for ìTop Rap Artistî to rapper Nicki Minaj.
Chris Brown, center, performs.
Tracy Morgan, left, and Psy participate in a ‘dance-off’.
TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
lifestyle
Singer Jennifer Lopez performs.
Singer Carly Rae Jepsen accepts the award for “Top Digital Song”.
Maroon 5 and fun. were also nominated for 11 awards and walked away with one win each in pre-telecast announcements. Gotye and Rihanna had the second-most wins with four awards each. But the awards show, airing live from MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on ABC, is less about the trophies - which reflect success on the Billboard charts - and more about the performances. Selena Gomez sang her seductive new hit, “Come & Get It,” while Chris Brown danced around the stage to his latest single, “Fine China,” though his voice began to crack during the performance. Duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis also performed their massive hit, “Thrift Shop,” which won top rap song. “First and foremost, gotta thank Goodwill, gotta thank Value Village,” Macklemore said to laughs. Kid Rock, who presented the award, sparked controversy when he told the crowd, “Let’s give it up for people lip-synching under prerecorded music.” Mars and his band kicked off the show in silky red suits that matched their silky dance moves, with bright gold disco balls hanging above them during a performance of the upbeat and old-school flavored “Treasure.” Nicki Minaj won the first award in the live telecast for top rap artist, beating out Drake, Flo Rida, Pitbull and Psy. “I definitely did not expect this one,” she said, wearing a bright red dress. She later performed “High School” with Lil Wayne and gave the rapper a provocative lap dance onstage. Prince, who received the icon award, closed the awards show with a melody of his jams in a turquoise and purple ensemble. He sang, dance and rocked on the guitar. Madonna won top touring artist, dance artist and dance album for “MDNA.” “Thank you for supporting me for three decades. Without you I truly wouldn’t be here,” she said. Pitbull made two appearances, one with Jennifer Lopez and another with Christina Aguilera. His hit with Aguilera, “Feel This Moment,” samples A-Ha’s “Take On Me” and Morten Harket came out to sing a line from the song. Comedian-actor Tracy Morgan was the show’s host, and he dressed as Psy in a bright yellow suit when the rappersinger was onstage to present an award. They had a dance battle to Psy’s new single, “Gentleman.” — AP
Selena Gomez performs.
Musician Prince performs.
Justin Bieber performs.
Presenters Erykah Badu and Janelle Monae
Singer Miguel performs.
DJ David Guetta accepts the award for ‘Dance Artist of the Year’.
Host Tracy Morgan performs
Musician Will.i.am performs.
Singer Kid Rock performs.
The Band Perry performs.
Singer Bruno Mars performs.
Alyssa Milano, left, and Avril Lavigne present the award for top digital song.
Swift wins 8 trophies at Billboard Awards
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TUESDAY, MAY 21, 2013
Ibrahim Rauza Complex, Bijapur, Karnataka, 17th century
Taj Mahal in Agra, 17th century
Jama Masjid, Junagarh, Sourashtra, Gujarat, 13th century
By Sajeev K Peter
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Agra Fort, Agra
Qutb Minar, Delhi, early 13th century
Charminar, built by Sultan Muhammed Quli Qutub Shah, Hyderabad
he Mughal monuments have been well-known and the Taj Mahal is the best recognized Islamic monument of the world. However, there is a fascinating richness of Islamic architectural heritage in other parts of the country, especially in the South, which has not been recognized very well,” said Benoy K Behl, renowned Indian art historian and photographer. Talking to Kuwait Times in an interview, Behl said India has a vast, rich and varied heritage of Islamic architecture. “These monuments are a great treasure of India’s culture and are of particular value as they reflect India’s artistic and cultural links with many countries around the world,” he said. Behl arrived in Kuwait on Sunday to put on display his photographs at an exhibition titled, ‘Islamic Monuments of India’ today (May 21) evening at Al-Edwani Hall Dahiyat Abdullah Al-Salem, Kuwait. The exhibition, jointly organized by the Embassy of India, Kuwait and National Council for Arts, Culture and Letters (NCACL), Kuwait, give a kaleidoscopic view of India’s rich Islamic heritage through the eyes of Behl. The exhibition will continue till May 27. “The vastness of India’s Islamic architectural heritage is astonishing. India has more beautiful medieval Islamic monuments than any other country,” Behl said, who is also a film-maker known for his tireless and prolific output of work over the past 35 years. He has taken over 36,000 photographs of Asian monuments and art heritage and made a hundred documentaries on art history. His exhibitions have been warmly received in 29 countries around the world. “I have been to every corner of India many times. In my travels across the length and breadth of India, I’ve found out that the country has an absolutely vast Islamic heritage. I don’t think any other country in the world has even a fraction of the number of Islamic monuments that India has,” Behl said, who holds a few world records of having exhibited his photographs in more than 32 countries by over 250 major institutions. He also has been recognized by Limca Book of Records as the ‘most travelled photographer.’ Besides the well-known Mughal monuments, this exhibition presents the exquisite mosques and dargahs of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kashmir and other parts of India.
The confluence of local talent with inspirations from Iran, Arabia, and Central Asia resulted in mausoleums, mosques, Madrassas, palaces and fortresses that were unique in the history of Islamic architecture,” he said. The architecture of Islamic mosques and tombs is an invaluable treasure of world heritage. Many countries have taken inspiration from this tradition. In fact, surface decoration with tiles and the making of arches and domes in the European countries and in India are only some of the obvious Islamic influences. South India “What is not known is that the Deccan in India has a very large number of beautiful Islamic monuments, in fact much more than the north of India has. The Deccan and the extreme south of India were a meeting place of cultures,” Behl argued. The earliest mosque in India was built in Kodungallur, Kerala, which is probably the second or third oldest mosque in the world
Benoy K Behl
World heritage According to Behl, India is an enchanted land, watered by streams of compassionate philosophies since ancient times. “There are flourishing communities such as the Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs, Islam, Christians, Zoroastrians and Jews in India. And there is a great cosmopolitan heritage of India’s culture and art,” he pointed out. From the 12th century onwards, Islamic dynasties were set up in different places across India. The Mughal monuments of North India are very beautiful and are well known. There were, however, many other important centers in which distinctive idioms in architecture were created. “In the cosmopolitan environment that developed across India, many architectural innovations were seen. Guilds of craftsmen, who had hitherto worked on Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monuments, now utilized their talent and skills to serve the new Muslim patrons,” he elaborated.
after the holy Makkah. And by the 12th and 13th century, there were three or four mosques that were built on the coast of Tamil Nadu. “So, it is really the south in India which first received Islamic influences. This followed a wonderful confluence of cultures which took place in the Deccan,” he explained. “There are marvelous monuments in Bidar in Gulbarga, Bijapur. Bijapur has the largest dome in the entire Islamic world, the Gol Gumbaz which is second in size only to St Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Similarly, a madrasa in Bijapur resembles a typical structure in Uzbekistan. “As a matter of fact, many of the Sultans, who once ruled the Deccan, were direct descendants of people from the other Islamic countries. There were even descendants from the Ottomans. So there was a rich meeting of cultures,” he pointed out. The Deccan, not the north was the center of Arabic learning in India. To begin with, it was Kerala and Tamil Nadu and then the Deccan, he argued. Behl has documented four mosques on the coast of Tamil Nadu and many others in Kerala that are believed to have built in the 12th or 13th Century. “Because the British interest was confined only to North India, the real history has been forgotten,” he said.
Gol Gumbaz, Bijapur, Karnataka, 17th century
Buland Darwaza, Fatehpur Sikri, near Agra
Global view “There is a range of Islamic architecture that came from different Islamic countries. There is a very rich blend of influences,” he pointed out. “Unfortunately, it has not been recognized well enough that the monuments of Islam have been the most notable contributions to the architecture in the world,” he pointed out. In addition to documenting Islamic monuments across India, Benoy K Behl has also documented Islamic monuments in Samarkand and Kuva in Uzbekistan, in Esfahan in Iran, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. “I’m doing a project where I am photographing Islamic monuments in 42 countries of the world which will include the Grand Mosque in Kuwait,” he said. He is also planning to document other major Islamic monuments in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Pakistan, Mali, Spain and Romania. “I’m keen on making the Islamic world aware of this wonderful contribution of theirs and also the whole world to recognize that we are talking about one of the most sophisticated, thoughtful and kindest cultures of our times,” he mentioned. “What the world does not recognize or speak enough about these days is that when it comes to monuments, for instance in Europe, the Roman arch has been completely forgotten. “We tend to forget that the Greek philosophers were introduced to medieval Europe through Arabic translations. The Western Europe did not know the names of Aristotle, Socrates or Plato until the Arab translations from the Greek and Arab commentaries of the Greek came out. The Renaissance in Europe was borne out of the concepts of science and arts, which were taken to Europe through the translations and writings of Islamic Spain (Al-Andalus). Europe learnt mathematics and astronomy from the Arabs,” he said. His films, including 26 documentaries on ‘The Paintings of India’ and 26 documentaries on ‘The Sculpture of India’ have been nationally telecast on prime time in India, as well as repeat telecasts. Behl has also done works on Buddhist heritage, Hindu heritage, Christian heritage and his exhibition of the churches in Goa have been presented all over the world. Behl said he is quite excited about the exhibition in Kuwait. “I’m hoping that the Islamic world, through this exhibition in Kuwait may become a little aware of my project. Because there is a coming together of peoples here, and a significant step in the coming together of humankind, towards which all of us are working. All my work is to convey the warmth, beauty and dedication of those people whose exquisite works can really move people and help think of something that is beyond the materialistic side of life,” Behl said.
Turkash Mahal, Bidar Fort, Bidar, Karnataka, 15th -16th century