30 May 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

Rise of Al-Qaeda Sahara terrorist

Police snare French ‘Most Wanted’ 6 weeks after jailbreak

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RAJAB 20, 1434 AH

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US accuses currency exchange of laundering $6bn

Federer, Serena show no mercy at French Open

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Nod to laws on prices, investment authority First woman tweeter gets 20-month suspended term

Max 41º Min 28º High Tide 04:12 & 14:55 Low Tide 09:31 & 22:23

By B Izzak

JERUSALEM: A woman holds her son as she reacts while Israeli bulldozers destroy a Palestinian home in the Arab east Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Beit Hanina yesterday. Palestinian homes built without a construction permit are often demolished by order of the Jerusalem municipality. Palestinians claim that it is impossible to obtain permits. — AFP

Nepal marks 60 years since Everest conquest

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KUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday passed a law stipulating to set up a public authority for promoting foreign investment to replace the foreign investment office in a bid to attract more foreign direct investment flow into the country. The authority will be under the ministry of commerce and industry and its main objective is to clear obstacles that hinder foreign investors from doing business in Kuwait, which has the lowest FDI inflow among the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

The assembly also passed a law that allows authorities to monitor and determine the prices of commodities in the country as a means for protecting consumers from artificial increases of prices.

Pressing to complete the study and approval of a series of legislations before parliament goes into summer recess at the end of next month, MPs passed other laws and decided to hold extra sessions and extend the duration to make the Assembly end sessions at 4.00 pm instead of 2.00 pm. MPs passed a law that provides salary and remuneration increases to servicemen who are below officers to equate them in this regard with high ranking officers. They also passed a controversial law for elections at cooperative societies, giving each voter only a single vote despite protests by officials at the cooperative societies and at the cooperative union.

MPs also demanded that the government should suspend appointments made by the resigned oil minister Hani Hussein in the oil sector, but the government used its constitutional right to delay the discussion of the issue for two weeks. The Assembly could not complete the debate on proposed amendments to the Kuwait Airways privatization law due to a lack of quorum.

During the debate, the government rejected calls by MPs that KAC should be given the $500 million Iraq has paid in compensation over damages to the national carrier, with Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali insisting that the compensation has already been deposited with the government.

Shamali however said that the government will pay all the losses incurred by KAC in the past several years and which are estimated at KD 440 million. Under the law, the government is responsible to meet any shortfall in the budgets of state-owned establishments. Meanwhile, the criminal court yesterday sentenced the first female opposition tweeter for 20 months in jail but suspended the implementation of the prison term against the payment of KD 200. The tweeter, Sara Al-Derees, was accused of insulting HH the Amir through remarks on her Twitter account. If the appeals court confirms the conviction, Darees will have to serve the jail term.

US spelling bee starts with a new challenge

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Buddhist mobs attack Muslims in Myanmar

TOKYO: Egyptian-born Osunaarashi raises his arms in joy after becoming the first African to be promoted to the jyuryo, the elite division of Japan’s ancient sport of sumo, at Otake stable yesterday. — AP

Egypt sumo wrestler gets promoted TOKYO: The first professional sumo wrestler from either Africa or the Arab world was given a boost yesterday, winning promotion to the sport’s second highest division in Japan. The Japan Sumo Association promoted 21-year-old Egyptian Abdelrahman Ahmed Shaalan, who goes by the ring name of “Osunaarashi” (Great Sandstorm), to the “jyuryo” division, made of wrestlers ranked between 43rd and 70th. “I am very glad,” Shaalan told reporters in Japanese at his stable in downtown Tokyo. “I will work hard and aim higher still by practising more and more.”

The 189 cm (6 ft 2 in) grappler, who weighs in at 145 kg, made his debut in March last year and has lost only six of his 49 regular matches in seven tournaments since. In the latest tournament, held in Tokyo this month, he won all seven matches. But the going will get tougher from now on, with wrestlers in the top two divisions fighting 15 times in every tournament. A devout Muslim, Shaalan will again fast during this year’s Ramadan, the Islamic holy month when adherents cannot eat or drink in daylight hours. “I’ll be alright. I can handle it,” he said about this year’s Ramadan, which is set to clash with the July tournament.

Shaalan belongs to one of about 40 sumo stables.

His position in the top 70, known as “sekitori”, affords him his own room, having previously shared with other wrestlers.

Continued on Page 15

LASHIO, Myanmar: Religious riots shook eastern Myanmar for a second day yesterday with one man hacked to death and four injured, a top official said, after an orphanage and mosque were burnt down. Police fired warning shots to disperse rioters after the fresh Buddhist-Muslim clashes in the town of Lashio in Shan state, according to presidential spokesman Ye Htut. “ The deceased is a man. He was hacked to death with a knife,” Ye Htut told AFP, adding that the security forces were taking action to halt the unrest. Several episodes of religious violence have exposed deep rifts in the Buddhistmajority country and cast a shadow over widely praised political reforms since military rule ended two years ago.

Residents said Buddhist mobs

armed with sticks were roaming the streets of Lashio looking for Muslims yesterday, while an AFP reporter saw two houses ablaze. A Reuters reporter saw scores of young men and boys on motorbikes and on foot marauding through the city of 130,000 people in a mountainous region about 700 km from the commercial capital Yangon. By early evening, Muslims shops and homes were still burning in one quarter. “I don’t know where the Muslims are. They all ran away,” said Kyaw Soe Win, a Buddhist resident of a mixed neighbourhood where motorbikes and household possessions lay burning in the streets. Nearby, a man with a sword and a stick combed through the remains of one burned-out shop.

Continued on Page 15

LASHIO, Myanmar: People gather around a burning mosque in this city in northern Shan State, late Tuesday. — AP

TUNIS: An activist from the women’s movement Femen is lead away by a Tunisian police officer as she demonstrates in front of the Ministry of Justice to protest against the jailing of a Tunisian member yesterday. — AP

Trio in Arab world’s first topless protest TUNIS: Three young European women with topless protest group Femen were arrested yesterday after baring their breasts in Tunis, a first in the Arab world that sparked scuffles outside the Tunisian capital’s main courthouse. Standing on a wall in front of the railings outside the courthouse, the women, two French and the other German, shouted: “Free Amina,” in support of a young Tunisian woman detained while protesting against hardline Islamists and awaiting trial today.

“Breast Feed Revolution” read graffiti on the women, who wore only denim micro shorts and black shoes, and “Femen Extremist” was daubed on their backs.

The police swiftly arrested them and took them inside the building, before a crowd of journalists. The Femen protest, also intended to highlight the difficulties facing women in socially conservative Tunisia, provoked the anger of onlookers,

some of who tried to cover up the women. A group of lawyers linked to the hostile crowd attacked some of the journalists, accusing them of giving a platform to the topless activists. As the young women were being transferred from one office to another within the court building, the lawyers sang the Tunisian national anthem and shouted “Get out!” a rallying cry during the January 2011 revolution that ignited the Arab Spring.

“An inquiry has been opened and they will be placed under arrest and brought to trial,” justice ministry spokesman Adel Riahi told AFP, without specifying what the women might be charged with.

Indecency in Tunisia is punishable by six months in jail. The French consul in Tunisia, Martine Gambard-Trebucien, told reporters she had met the women Continued on Page 15

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

LOCAL

Crumbling infrastructure blamed for water cut

KUWAIT: Alexander Olshevski Bulgarian ambassador to Kuwait recently visited the Kuwait Times Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan (right). The two sides discussed issues of mutual interest. — Photo by Joseph Shagra

The sources said the production capacity at the water distillation stations has reached 500 million imperial gallons per day, but they do not produce more than 400 million due to the stations’ inability to accept such a huge amount of produced water.

At times, the water production stations are compelled to shut some units off the net work because they produce excess quantities over and above the capacity of that network.

The sources said the water network problem was not new,

KUWAIT: Sources at the Ministry of Electricity and Water blamed the crumbling infrastructure of the old water network as being responsible for the continued water cut offs in certain areas in the country. They said the network cannot cope with the quantity of water produced by the distillation stations or to carr y it to these areas with the required efficiency. The network will clog and choke if the water quantity it receives exceeded the capacity of the pumping stations.

and there were no quick solutions. Instead, it required a thorough change in the network’s infrastructure, something being done by the ministry currently.

The sources said that there is a huge variation in water consumption pattern between northern and southern areas of the country. The South consumes more water due to overcrowded areas.

At the same time, the ministry did not have the choice to transfer production capacity from north to south due to lack of a coordinated network nationwide.

Kuwait honors US troops in Memorial Day Parade Participation reflects deep gratitude for Gulf War WASHINGTON: Kuwait took part in the eighth annual National Memorial Day Parade in Washington on Monday honoring men and women of the armed forces who died in combat. The parade hosted nearly 200 marching bands, military units, civilian groups, and floats from across the country and the world. As many as 300,000 spectators gathered along the mile-long parade route on Constitution Avenue, one of Washington’s most historic thoroughfares, for the 2013 parade.

As part of an annual show of support, two dozen Kuwaiti children participated in the parade.

Marching down Constitution Avenue, several waved Kuwaiti and American flags and a banner that read “Kuwait Remembers” in reference to the US contribution in the liberation of Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm. Behind them, others dressed in traditional costume waved to spectators from atop a decorated float.

Kuwait’s participation reflects the country’s deep gratitude for the sacrifices of American service members killed in the Gulf War. “We Kuwaitis appreciate what you did for us and what you’ve done for my country will always be with us in our hearts and minds,” Kuwait’s Ambassador to the US, Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-

Jaber Al-Sabah, said at the parade.

“For us, the idea behind participating was to express our gratefulness and appreciation for what the US armed forces did for us almost 20 years ago,” he told KUNA in an interview. “Our being here is important for that reason; to remind the Americans that we have not forgotten those who were lost in the first Gulf War. I think it is very important for us to be here on a yearly basis to make that statement to say ‘Thank you and we haven’t forgotten what you’ve done’.” This year’s parade also focused on some major anniversaries: World War II’s 70th, the Korean War’s 60th, and the Vietnam War’s 50th anniversary. The parade is a moving timeline of the country’s military history, paying tribute to those who served in the American Revolution through the most recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In a special message, Defense Department Secretary Chuck Hagel thanked those who have served in the US military. “These are not easy times for our country and for the world, and certainly these are not easy times to be part of our armed forces,” he said. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama hailed the nation’s service members who fell in the battlefield in his speech at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, dedicated to military casu-

alties of war, and deceased veterans.

He noted the war in Afghanistan was winding down but not finished.

“Fewer Americans are making the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan, and that’s progress for which we are profoundly grateful,” Obama said Monday. “And this time next year, we will mark the final Memorial Day of our war in Afghanistan. “But even as we turn the page on a decade of conflict, even as we look forward, let us never forget, as we gather here today, that our nation is still at war.” Obama also marked the 60th anniversary of the end of the fighting in the Korean War; more than 54,000 US service members died in that conflict.

The president also urged Americans to remember the fighting still underway in Afghanistan, where more than 60,000 US troops remain. “Not all Americans may always see or fully grasp the depth of sacrifice, the profound costs that are made in our name - right now, as we speak, every day,” Obama said.

“Our troops and our military families understand this, and they mention to me their concern about whether the country fully appreciates what’s happening.” “Let us never forget to always remember and to be worthy of the sacrifice they make in our name,” he concluded.— KUNA

Photos show the scene of the explosion

Transformer explodes

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Firefighters rushed to Fahad Al-Ahmad area after an explosion in one of the electricity transformers led to fire breaking out there. The explosion was caused by electricity overload during peak hours. A private school in Hawally had to evacuate students and teachers from its classrooms after receiving a threat about a bomb in the school. Such threats have been received several times lately, but no bomb has ever been found. For safety reasons, though, police had to evacuate the school and

comb it - just in case there was anything to be found.

In another development, General Director of Fire Depar tment Lt General Yousuf Al-Ansari received the second group of university graduates at his office in order to congratulate them for earning the rank of colonel.

He also gave them his recommendation so they could be employed at the middle management level, be considered for supervising the planning and implementation of strategies at the highest levels, be aware of laws and regulations, administrative and financial functions, stay in touch

with sub-coordinates and supply them with all the necessary information.

Al-Ansari urged the graduates to put more efforts into their job of protecting citizens, expats and property.

In the end, Al-Ansari presented to the officers a book titled “Laws and Systems of Civil Service”, which was given to the administration by Assistant Undersecretar y Nahla Ibrahim Bin Naji. Al-Ansari thanked the Civil Service Commission for providing regular updates on new laws and decisions concerning the fire department.

Conference on crisis management begins

KUWAIT: Under the auspices of the Minister of Information and Minister of State for Youth Affairs, Sheikh Salman AlHumoud Kuwait’s annual conference on Media Coverage in Crisis Management kicked off yesterday. Speaking on the occasion, the aviation safety manager at Kuwait Aviation Club pilot, Ali Abdullah Ali Hussein said that the conference gained its importance from the fact that the GCC foreign ministers meeting two years earlier had recommended establishing a GCC Crisis Management Center.

“Therefore, this conference is a great

opportunity to meet with GCC specialized media figures so as to exchange expertise on media management”, he underlined, adding that with the growth of international airlines, immediate response emergency and crisis management centers has become so necessary.

Notably, Hussein presented a paper on ‘partnership between the media and aviation during crises and disasters’.

On his part, the head of the organizing committee at Pro-Media International, Jamal Omran said that the conference covers very important crisis-

Bureaucracy ‘a snag in face of development’ AMMAN: A visiting official of Kuwaiti Municipality has shed light on some problems hampering work of the department and other state sectors which includes; the lack of adherence to a development timetable, prevailing bureaucracy and lack of well-planned urban development. Saad Al-Muhailbi, who is in charge of Kuwait Municipality’s department of structural planning listed some obstacles facing coordination among the various state departments, particularly in the sectors of education, health, utility and infrastructure.

Al-Muhailbi underlined the necessity of earmarking the special budgets to cope with mounting population growth in countries of the region. Meanwhile, an activity organized by the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) kicked off in the Jordanian capital on Tuesday. Conferees addressed a host of issues, including cooperation between GCC municipalities with Habitat. Agenda of the deliberations also touches on planned regional construction and development strategies. The Kuwaiti delegation taking part in the three-day workshop is headed by Kuwaiti Municipality Director General Ahmad Al-Sebeeh. —KUNA

related issues, how the media should tackle them, working on preventing them and preparations in case of actual occurrence. Omran said that a number of Arab crisis management experts such as Dr Adel Abdel Ghaffar (Cairo University media professor), Al-Anbaa executive editor, Mohammed Al-Huseini, Redha Ameen (Azhar University media professor), Security strategic expert, Dr Fahad Al-Shulaimi, the head of TV and Radio section at Cairo university’s media college, Howaida Mustafa and captain Hussein would lecture on the conference.

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

LOCAL

Embassies push for deportees’ rights KD500 minimum wage proposed for dependency visa KUWAIT: Two Asian embassies complained to Kuwaiti officials about the “arbitrary actions” taken during the deportation of illegal residents and lawbreakers, who were arrested in a series of crackdowns over the past few weeks across the country, a local daily reported yesterday, quoting sources with knowledge of the case.

Nearly 1,260 people of Arab and Asian nationalities have been deported since Kuwait launched crackdowns on traffic violators late last month. The General Traffic Department stated that deportation was enforced in cases of repeat offenders. Thousands of others have been detained in simultaneous crackdowns targeting people with expired visas or those working in violation of labor regulations. But according to a report published yesterday by Al-Qabas daily, the Ministry of Interior received complaints from the embassies of India and Bangladesh, regarding the swift deportation of a large number of their nationals without them getting the opportunity to receive what they were owed from their employers.

The sources, who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity, said many of the deportees were sent back home through the use of travel documents released by their respective embassies, instead of their original passports that, in most cases, are kept by their sponsors. “The Indian and Bangladeshi embassies are currently taking legal recourse to secure the rights of the deported nationals, including their original passports”, the sources

said.

Many expatriates arrested during the recent traffic crackdowns reportedly remain in custody, as their respective embassies refuse to grant authorities travel documents on the grounds that their visas are still valid. In that regard, the sources revealed the ministry had been trying to reach the employers in order to retrieve the passports of the soon-to-be-deported expatriates.

Meanwhile, a senior Interior Ministry official defended Kuwait’s right to deport illegal residents or foreigners who break the law. “It is the right of every country to deport expatriates who violate its residency laws or its laws in general, or take legal action against them, in order to maintain safety and security, in line with human rights principles,” Assistant Director of the ministry’s General Training Department, Brigadier General Adel Al-Saadoun, was quoted by Al-Jarida yesterday. He made these comments at a workshop on Tuesday, organized by the International Organization for Migration office in Kuwait.

In other news, Undersecretary Assistant for Citizenship and Passports Affairs, Major General Sheikh Faisal AlNawaf Al-Sabah, during a meeting with directors of migration departments in Kuwait, called for “tougher procedures” with regard to the issuance of visitor visas, so marginal labourers would not be able to gain access into the country.

He made the demand amid a discussion on efforts to

address Kuwait’s demographic imbalance, which senior ministry officials described as “a main duty” for his department. “Maj Gen Al-Sabah told the directors that labor forces in countries having internal struggles should not be able to move to Kuwait, and that Kuwait should not become a shelter for them and their problems,” said sources quoted in an Al-Rai report yesterday. Nationals of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen are currently banned from obtaining visas to work in or visit Kuwait. In that regard, Maj Gen Al-Sabah said the lifting of the ban on them in the future must be coupled with controls to regulate their entrance and prevent the country’s demographic imbalance from getting worse, said the sources, who spoke to Al-Rai on the condition of anonymity.

The meeting also discussed other suggestions aimed at reducing the number of expatriate workers in Kuwait, including Maj Gen Al-Sabah’s intentions to “prepare a memorandum about the benefits of raising the minimum cap for foreigners applying for dependency visas for relatives”. Currently, such visas can be obtained as long as a supporter earns a minimum of KD250 a month, but the Undersecretary Assistant reportedly suggested during the meeting that the cap be raised to KD500.

“Maj Gen Al-Sabah questioned the capability of a man who receives KD250 a month to meet the educational, health and living requirements of a family with children,”

the sources explained. They added that the senior official also plans to refer a letter to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, recommending that it suspend issuing work visas to holders of commercial visit visas.

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra Al-Rashidi announced two months ago a plan to deport 100,000 foreigners every year, as part of a strategy to reduce the number of expatriates in the Gulf state by one million over a period of 10 years. Criticism sparked by the lack of details about the proposed plan prompted the minister to later clarify that the plan targeted illegal residents, whose numbers have reached 93,000, as per official statistics released last year. Kuwait is home to 2.6 million expatriates who account for 68 percent of the country’s total population of 3.8 million. Meanwhile, minister Al-Rashidi released an order - with effect from July 1, 2013 - to terminate the services of expatriate employees who have worked for at least 30 years in the Social Affairs and Labor Ministry. According to sources familiar with the issue, the ministry has already started the process to end the services of nearly 70 foreigners by the beginning of July. The decision is in accordance with a government plan that requires forcing Kuwaitis who have held government posts for 30 years, including senior officials, into retirement. According to official statistics, published by AlQabas yesterday, 138 senior officials, including 11 women, will be subjected to this regulation.

750 illegal residents arrested in Benaid Al-Gar

KUWAIT: The field operations team, supervised by the acting MOI undersecretary Lt General Sulaiman Fahad Al-Fahad and led by the Assistant Undersecretary for Citizenship and Passports Lt General Faisal Al-Nawaf recently raided the Benaid Al-Gar area where 750 expats were arrested for violating residency laws. — Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

LOCAL

Authorities hunt ‘handicap parking’ violators KUWAIT: The traffic department carried out a special campaign in Farwaniya to check people parking their cars in the slots reserved for those with special needs, besides cars parked in no parking areas. The campaign resulted in 25 citations being handed out and four cars being confiscated as these were found parked in handicapped persons’ parking lot.

In the capital governorate, 45 citations were handed out and 10 vehicles besides a motorcycle were detained. Traffic department authorities called upon all the citizens and the expats to abide by traffic norms and not park in the handicapped persons’ parking lot. Any car found parked wrongly will attract a fine and may also be detained. He explained that the campaigns will continue and the traffic

department personnel will safeguard the rights of the handicapped.

The Ahmadi security personnel carried out an inspection campaign supervised

by Ahmadi governorate security director Lt General Ayadh Al-Otaibi that resulted in the arrest of 259 persons. Of these, 221 were found without identification or with expired residency permits, 34 turned out to be on the wanted list, two vendors and

two for being in possession of drugs. Eight wanted vehicles were found, besides five other vehicles that were detained. A total of 125 traffic citations were handed out.

In Mubarak Al-Kabeer governorate, a similar campaign was carried out under the supervision of security director Colonel Tawheed Al-Kandari, which resulted in 235 different traffic citations. Tens of vehicles were sent to the detention

garage. Four teenagers were arrested and sent to the concerned authorities. Several check points were set up in the governorate and over speeding vehicles were caught with the help speed-measuring radars. Security media called upon all the citizens and the expats to abide by the law, emphasizing that such campaigns will continue round the clock and wherever the ministry found suitable.

Fugitive held at airport Bid to smuggle baby cheetah foiled reported, and took the girl to the Adan Hospital.

The 14-year-old was diagnosed with multiple fractures and contusions, while doctors described his condition as stable. An investigation was opened into the case. The incident happened only 24 hours after a middle school student died when she was run over in the same area by a school bus.

KUWAIT: A man was arrested at the Kuwait International Airport as soon as he arrived on Tuesday from Thailand where he spent the past six months to escape prosecution in drug-related cases. The Kuwaiti citizen had reportedly approached his country’s embassy in Bangkok and explained that he wanted to return home but his passport had expired. Embassy officials contacted the Kuwaiti Interpol, which discovered that the man was wanted to serve a three and a half years’ jail term since he was sentenced in absentia. Based on these findings, the embassy officials provided the necessary travel documents for the man which were handed over to him at the airport before he boarded the plane back home. The man arrived in Kuwait early Tuesday morning and was placed under arrest immediately before being taken to the proper authorities for further action.

Baby cheetah found Customs officials at the Nuwaiseeb Border Checkpoint foiled an attempt to smuggle a baby cheetah into Kuwait. A Kuwaiti man had arrived at the southern border on Monday night with a cloth-covered cage among his luggage. Officials removed it only to find that the cage contained a baby cheetah. The animal was taken to the relevant authorities after the man failed to provide an official document to transfer the feline.

Student injured after fall A teenager was injured after he fell from the second floor of a middle school in Um AlHaiman Tuesday. Police and paramedics had rushed to the scene after the incident was

Chase ends with arrest A man was arrested for being in possession of drugs after a hot pursuit recently in Sulaibiya.

Patrol officers went after the suspect after he ignored orders to pull over and drove away in his

vehicle which carried no license plates. The driver was eventually caught after his car got stuck in quicksand, but a person who was on the passenger’s seat managed to escape. The suspect was identified as a Gulf national while police found drugs as well as drug paraphernalia from his possession. The man was referred to the proper authorities while search was on way for his accomplice.

Good Samaritan saves woman A man was hailed as a hero in Shuwaikh after he intervened to save a woman from the clutches of a potential rapist and even held on to the suspect until police arrived at the scene. The Yemeni man was reportedly walking by when he spotted a woman struggling to break away from a man who held her in a corner in a dark alley.

The man caught hold of the suspect and overpowered him before calling the police. Security officers arrived shortly afterwards and placed the suspect under arrest. The suspect, an Arab man, was taken to the Shuwaikh police station where the Filipina woman also headed to press attempted rape charges. — Agencies

KUWAIT: The Commercial Bank of Kuwait received a commemorative plaque from management of the Dasmah Co-operative Society in appreciation of the quality services provided at the CBK branch in the area.

Sheikha Fraiha and Khaled Al-Jarrallah stand between African ambassadors. —Photos by Fouad Al-Shaikh

Diplomatic missions celebrate Africa Day

Nigerian ambassador pictured with the embassy staff

Tunisian ambassador, wife and daughter

KUWAIT: The African diplomatic missions in Kuwait celebrated “ The African Day” at the Regency Hotel on Tuesday evening.

Hailemeariam Dessalegn, Prime Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia and Chairperson of the African Union was on hand for the Occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the African Union. Addressing the function he said that the celebration of the Day of Africa this year is indeed special as it marks a significant milestone in the history of “our continental organization.” He said “it was fifty years ago on 25 May 1963, that our Founding Fathers, inspired by the ideals of Pan-Africanism to promote common understanding between the peoples of Africa and foster greater cooperation between African States in a larger unity transcending ethnic and national differences, signed the Charter establishing the Organization of African Unity.”

Dessalegn provided a brief historical background on the When the UAU was established in 1963, there was indeed a lot of euphoria and optimism for Africa’s rejuvenation. He stressed, “Those were the heady days when thirty two African States just started to enjoy their hard won freedom and independence and aspire for a better future. The OAU Charter was the expression of their collective aspirations to promote unity and solidarity amongst themselves as well as to coordinate and intensify their cooperation to achieve a better life for the peoples of Africa.”

He said that the OAU played an invaluable role in the liberation of our continent and, for this, we have to pay tribute to successive generations of African leaders who have bequeathed to us a continent free from the shackles of colonialism IL Lid Apartheid. The OAU has also contributed to the process of integration in our continent and has served as a continental platform for collective action within Africa and interactions with the rest of the world, he enthused.

“We all recognize that Africa’s aspirations for lasting peace and prosperity still remain to be realized and the vision of our Founding Fathers is yet to be fulfilled. We cannot deny the reality that internal problems related to bad governance together with the adverse external environment contributed to Africa’s current politics and socio-economic problems. In the 1960s, although some east Asian countries were economically at par with the newly independent African countries, it is disheartening that they still languish in poverty and underdevelopment while the east Asian countries managed to achieve economic miracles in a span of two or three decades,” he said.

Sheikha Fraiha, Khaled Al-Jarrah cutting the ribbon at the African Day reception on Tuesday.

“At this important juncture, it is therefore incumbent upon us to ask what really went wrong? In spite of our rich historical heritage and abundant natural resources, why, have we not been able transform our societies? We need to do a serious soul searching as we reflect on our past and try to chart our future in a bid to realize a peaceful, prosperous and united Africa.

Previous generations have paid the ultimate sacrifice to liberate our continent from all forms of subjugation and Apartheid. It is up to the current and future generations of Africans to achieve the socio-economic emancipation of our continent,” he said.

He stressed that there has been certain progress over the last decade. “The transformation of the OAU into the African Union has no doubt enabled us to better respond to the challenges facing our continent in the 21st century.

We have also charted an independent path of development through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and started to learn from each other’s experiences on issues of governance by utilizing the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM),” he said.

He further explained that over the last

decade, it was encouraging that several African economies have entered a high growth trajectory. “The number of conflicts ravaging our continent has also slowly subsided if not completely eradicated. Moreover, we are witnessing improved governance with the introduction of a democratic dispensation in many of the African countries. As we move forward, we need to rededicate our efforts to ensure lasting peace and stability, accelerate economic growth and deepen governance reforms with a view to laying a solid foundation for Africa’s socio -economic transformation,” he said.

With a visionary leadership committed to bring about change, a developmental state capable of playing a proactive and dynamic role and the mobilization of all sections of the African people, there is no doubt that we will be able to fully realize our continental agenda in the coming decades. As previous generations were inspired by the ideals of Pan-Africanism to fight for their freedom and dignity, current arid future generations should therefore be guided by the same PanAfrican spirit to struggle for Africa’s socio-economic emancipation and realize the African Renaissance.

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

LOCAL

Kuwait donation helps tsunami-hurt children Mental health care center inaugurated in Japan

Sheikha Sheikha Al-Sabah addressing the audience

Using technology to assist the disabled and elderly KUWAIT: Under the patronage of her Excellency Sheikha Sheikha Al-Abdullah AlSabah, the first conference on “Using technologies in achieving an independent living for people with disability and the elderly”, kicked off yesterday at Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel. During workshops, a number of leading Arab and international specialists discussed the importance and challenges of Independent Living and what the available technologies that provide a more independent lifestyle for people with disabilities and

Ebrahim Al-Kandari, member of the organizing committee.

the elderly. Also the importance of technology in facilitating the lives of disabled people and the elderly, improving their ability to integrate and communicate, developing their talents, and providing additional opportunities for them to care about their health and treatment were discussed. On his part, Ebrahim Al-Kandari, a member of the organizing committee, stated that this conference is essential to discuss new concepts of independent living for disabled and elderly people.

Furthermore, he highlighted the major daily challenges for this targeted groups and the role of technology in making these people more independent similar to people who do not have physical or mental challenges, paving the way for them to live a full meaningful life instead of living in the shadows.

Al-Kandari stressed on the need to improve laws and regulations in the GCC that will be protect the rights of people with disability and the elderly and to provide a clear understanding of the latest technology advancement in the field.

Additionally, he called for training these targeted people on how to utilize these technological tools through the internet, smart phones and other gadgets as platform for these trainings. Al-Kandari concluded by saying that “we are very pleased from the support received from SSAT through its judiciary panels, workshops and awarding participants certificates. We also thank all the sponsors Commercial Bank of Kuwait, Zain, Advanced Technology Company, Al Majd educational company and Genatak.”

MORIOKA: With financial backing from Kuwait, a mental health care center for children who suffered psychological damage in the wake of 2011 earthquake-tsunami disaster was inaugurated in northeastern Japan yesterday. Using a fund generated from Kuwait’s USD two million donation made through the Japanese Red Cross Society, the 800-sq-meter Iwate Children Care Center was built on the premises of Iwate Medical University in Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture.

The grant was announced by His Highness the Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah during his state visit to Tokyo March last year, on top of an initial donation of five million barrels of crude oil worth $500 million in 2011. At a ceremony to unveil a memorial plate for Kuwait-Japan friendship in the care center, Governor of Iwate Prefecture Takuya Tasso stressed on importance of creating a stable support system in the medium and long term for affected children that meets their changing demands as they grow.

Considering 2013 as “Year of Accelerating the Reconstruction,” the governor said his prefecture aims to proceed with the reconstruction faster.

Tasso also shed light on Kuwait’s heart-warming encouragement and unstinting donation following the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami, which left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing in northeastern Japan, with about 6,000 victims in Iwate alone.

“Kuwait’s aid has been used for the establishment of this center, the restoration of the disaster-struck railway and various other reconstruction projects. On behalf of the people of Iwate, I would like to express once again our heartfelt gratitude to Kuwait,” said Tasso. On his part, Kuwaiti Ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman AlOtaibi voiced his pleasure at witnessing Japan taking another significant step on the path towards recovery after the destruction, to which the children of Iwate also fell victim.

“Because these children hold the key to the future of Iwate and Japan, nothing can be more urgent than addressing their needs and providing them with all the special care and support they require,” Al-Otaibi said in his speech. Thus, he lauded the initiative to establish the care center that bears “a tremendous responsibility to help brighten the children’s lives, contribute to their well-being and help them overcome their tragedies in order to aspire for a better future.”

The ambassador stressed that the government and people of Kuwait have committed themselves to standing by the Japanese people

MORIOKA: Kuwaiti ambassador to Japan Abdulrahman Al-Otaibi (center right) pictured with other Japanese officials. in their time of need and in future too, based on the true friendship that binds the two countries, which was reconfirmed by HH the Amir during his visit to Japan last year that came after a generous invitation by the Japanese Emperor. “The donations offered by Kuwait in the aftermath of the disaster were just a small token of appreciation to the people of Japan for their historic stances in supporting Kuwait for more than five decades,” he said.

“When we look back on the recovery efforts made since March 11, 2011, and despite the sadness at the great loss of so many lives and destruction, our hearts are filled with hope that full recovery is now drawing near and that the northeastern region will rise again to become better than it was before,” he added.

Mental care support for children who lost their families and friends in the disaster requires long term commitments. The center in Morioka will serve as a central office for the three local care centers in the prefecture’s disaster-hit coastal areas, where the number of doctors and medical facilities for such support are limited, to treat children mentally hurt by the twin disasters.

According to the Iwate prefectural govern-

ment, as of Februar y this year, about 670 affected children visited regional care centers due to such health issues as uncer tainty, insomnia and psychosomatic symptoms.

Speaking to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) and Kuwait TV after the ceremony, President and CEO of Iwate Medical University Akira Ogawa thanked Kuwait for the assistance for running such a well-equipped facility, saying, “ The memorial plate we unveiled today will be long remembered as a proof of bonds for the future between the peoples of the two countries.”

As a hub of providing comprehensive support to affected children in Iwate, the center is also tasked with organizing training courses for the support staff and related institutions, research for effective treatment as well as enlightenment activities. “We will provide a great deal of mental care to affected children in coping with their growth in the long run while seeking coordination with the regional branches,” said Ogawa. Last month, Al-Otaibi also visited Iwate’s coastal city to attend a ceremony for the re-launch of the tsunami-damaged railway, which was also highly appreciated by the local people and drew large media attention.— KUNA

Burgan Bank supports KACCH

Sheikha Sheikha Al-Sabah and Al Sheikha Ohoud Salem Al Ali (right) pictured during the conference.

KUWAIT: Burgan Bank reiterated its commitment to the community by rendering its support to the Kuwait Association for Care of Children in Hospitals (KACCH). This is an ongoing commitment which is now in its 12th year. The association between Burgan Bank and KACCH was avowed at a special visit to Bait Abdullah building site in Sulaibekhat where Hessa Al-Najadah, Senior Public Relations Officer at Burgan Bank, presented a cheque to KACCH’s Vice President Margaret Al Sayer.

Over the past 11 years, Burgan Bank’s continual contributions helped support the development of healthcare and pediatric facilities in several hospitals which are part of the KACCH, often helping children and their families fund treatment and recovery from fatal and terminal illnesses, as well as providing entertainment. The KACCH is a volunteering organization working under the umbrella

of World Child Care Program that aims to assist children in coping with the stress of being in hospital for treatment. The association pays great efforts to provide a healthy and entertaining environment to the children through the kids clubs that KACCH established in many hospitals in Kuwait. Bait Abdullah serves as a substitute home to children’s hospitals for patients suffering from terminal illnesses and their families, who need support to live a robust life. It is also notable that facilities are available to provide daily care, including recreation and residential facilities for emergency or advanced cases. The Bank’s support to KACCH and to other numerous programs under its Corporate Social Responsibility framework avows its true values, commitment, dedication and belief in the importance of supporting the community and humanitarian causes.

‘Kuwait products are better’ Industrialists urge state to support local product KUWAIT: Officials in a number of industrial companies operating in the country have asserted the Kuwaiti product’s ability to compete with foreign products in quality, variety and prices, calling on consumers to give the national product the confidence needed to encourage and support the local industry.

They said in interviews with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) during their participation in the Kuwait Industries exhibition that local consumer now has a “misplaced conviction most of the time” that the foreign product

always outperforms the domestic one in the specification.

They said the national product now is in dire need to strengthen its presence in the domestic market through consolidating the culture of “The Kuwaiti product is better,” expressing the hope that the State and local businesses offer more support and confidence to spread this culture through media campaigns, advertising and awareness. They added that the national industry in any country has become a key component of the developed state as its development is an important

element of sustainable development. Sales Manager in one of the local companies Tareq Al-Hajj said the state and the companies share the responsibility in the upgrading of the industrial sector, pointing out that the state is responsible for providing the appropriate industrial environment for industrialists. He added that the industrialist seeks to achieve a reasonable profit margin, explaining that this cannot be achieved without existence of laws and regulations that keep pace with developments witnessed by the industrial manufac-

turing sector. The sales representative at a dairy products company Ahmad Al-Ali said that participation in fairs is significant especially in Kuwait Industries Exhibition in order to display the latest products of the company to a large segment of the public at one place and time. Al-Ali added that the exhibition is an opportunity for local companies to make customers acquainted with the latest products and innovations of the industry in the local market as well as a chance for consumers to get the best product offerings at lower prices.— KUNA

Ambassador inaugurates Kuwaiti projects in Cambodia KUALA LUMPUR: The Kuwaiti Ambassador to Cambodia Dherar AlTuwaijri inaugurated several Kuwaiti charity and humanitarian projects in Cambodia’s Takeo Province yesterday, accompanied by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister in charge of the Office of Council of Ministers Sok An. The opening ceremony was attended by officials including the undersecretary for vocational training, undersecretar y of religious affairs, and the Ambassador of Pakistan.

A statement by the Kuwaiti Embassy on the occasion said the projects were funded by Kuwait ’s Social Reform Society in cooperation with Al-Barakah charity in Cambodia, at a total of $185,000. The projects included construction of two mosques, six schools, and seven housing units, and drilling of 34 wells, purchase of four medical

convoys, and distribution of relief supplies to 470 families in need. This was in addition to purchase and distribution of fishing boats, sponsoring 10 students, sponsoring 20 orphans, and paying salaries of three tutors.

The ambassador was honored with a royal medal, as was the representative of Social Reform Society, the statement said, while Al-Barakah Charity chairman was honored with a royal Cambodian order. Another 30 institutions, authorities, and benefactors were also awarded royal orders in appreciation of their support of such projects. Social Reform Society funded many projects in Cambodia in recent years in cooperation with Al-Barakah Charity. The projects included construction of schools and homes and villages for the poor in many areas of the Takeo Province.— KUNA

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

LOCAL

Letters to Muna

kuwait digest

Elections in Iran: Tail risk in 2013

Develop the public transports system

By Francisco Quintana

T

he massive liquidity injections that central banks are pumping into the global financial systems should be enough to keep the world’s economy afloat in 2013. However, in spite of the vast network of monetary instruments in place, the economy remains fragile and could collapse in the event of a shock. This year, politics is and continues to be the likeliest source of shocks: fiscal cliffs and sequesters in the US are weakening growth, elections in Italy or corruption scandals in Spain are preventing measures that have already been agreed upon from being implemented, while the upcoming elections in Germany are paralyzing the design and implementation of any stimulus measure in Europe.

However, a political event that could have a sizeable effect on the world’s economy is not getting many headlines: Iran will elect the substitute for President Ahmadinejad this June 5th. These elections could easily be the most crucial in 2013 for two reasons: first, because of the likelihood of triggering some form of unrest and second, because of the very high impact that unrest in Iran might have on the rest of the world.

The previous election, in 2009, triggered demonstrations in which tens of citizens died. The risk in 2013 is potentially higher for three fundamental changes that took place since then. First, Iran has developed its nuclear technology, spurring tension with both Israel and the Gulf countries. Second, internal conflicts have developed within the political elite.

While in 2009 Ahmadinejad was the only official

However, a political event that could have a sizeable effect on the world’s economy is not getting many headlines: Iran will elect the substitute for President Ahmadinejad this June 5th. These elections could easily be the most crucial in 2013 for two reasons: first, because of the likelihood of triggering some form of unrest and second, because of the very high impact that unrest in Iran might have on the rest of the world. establishment candidate facing a reformist opposition, in 2013 there is no such thing as a consensus candidate representing the status quo. Ahmadinejad has completed two mandates and the Constitution does not allow him to run for a third term, so the President is maneuvering to bring a close ally, his chief of staff Esfandir Mashaei, to power. Meanwhile Ayatollah Khamenei is trying to bring in a candidate through whom a more direct influence can be exerted.

On June 21st the Council of Guardians excluded Mashaei from the official list of candidates.

Ahmadinajad started to put pressure on the Ayatollah to re-examine the “unjust” exclusion. Regardless of the outcome of this fight, the unity that the Iranian political elite exhibited in 2009 is shattered, making the Iranian political outlook uncertain. Finally, and most importantly, since the last election the economic situation in Iran has deteriorated sharply, mostly as a result of the international embargo that the country is suffering.

The Iranian rial is depreciating quickly. In 2011 12,000 rials were enough to buy one euro. In 2012 the rial had depreciated to 27,000 and today it is being changed for around 60,000 rials to the euro.

Consequently, prices have skyrocketed since the sanctions were imposed in June 2012. Over the last year, gas and power became three times more expensive, which in turn has increased the cost of transportation and food; the price of a bread loaf in Teheran tripled to 70,000 rials and rice rose more than 50%, now costing more than 80,000 a kilo. The purchasing power of Iranian wages has therefore deteriorated rapidly.

The salary of a clerk in Tehran hovers around eight million rials per month, less than 150 euro. Salary hikes have been unable to partially offset the impact of a 28% annual official inflation, which in reality must be around twice as large. Civil servants are less affected because their salaries adjust to inflation, at least partly: in 2013 they will receive salary increases of around 18%. However, they only account for 16% of the working population.

The situation for the 84% of workers in the private sector is considerably worse. Salaries adjust following the company’s performance and given that most firms’ sales revenue came down since the sanctions were implemented, many workers have suffered salary cuts even in nominal terms. The unemployment level is much higher than the official 12% and keeps rising as firms that need to buy from or sell to foreign partners get hit by the depreciation of the currency and the trade sanctions.

The dangerous combination of internal political conflict, demand for reforms, and rampant unemployment and poverty could spark unrest either before the elections, amid protests and political struggle following the ban imposed on some candidates, or after, if citizens perceive that the results have been rigged.

This context creates an urge for Iranian authorities to find a scapegoat and divert the attention of its population away from the dire economic situation. Any external conflict, let it be with Israel, USA, Syria or the GCC represents an opportunity to channel domestic frustration towards outside forces and will reduce discontent at home.

The possibility of such tension evolving into a fully fledged conflict is, nevertheless, low, given the limited military and economic capacity of the country at this stage. However, the potential impact of a conflict is substantial: a third of the world’s traded oil crosses the Strait of Hormuz every day. Even a short-lived closure would have a great impact on oil prices. An extended blockage could undermine the efforts of central banks and bring the global economy back into recession in 2013. The elections in Iran are a tail risk worth keeping an eye on.

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

kuwait digest

The blame game

Dear Muna, I have been reading your articles in the Kuwait Times and I am quite impressed with your views on traffic in Kuwait. I was wondering why we do not think about extensive development of public transports. Having metro trains connecting various places like in London, Amsterdam or Milan would help us overcome the traffic problems in Kuwait. Instead of spending time chatting about how people should leave the country to bring down traffic congestion, we should set the ball rolling to construct metro rails. This way we can have the complete train network operational in about six or seven years. Also, we can think about increasing the number of buses plying across the country to bring down the number of cars on the road.

With regards, Bala

By Dr Moudhi Al-Hmoud

F

ormer lawmaker Mubarak Al-Duwailah offered improve the education system.

A majority of the former ministers mentioned by in a recent column his diagnosis of Kuwait’s troubled education sector, saying that all prob- the columnist are open-minded, intellectual and loyal lems in the sector were a result of “the control of liber- to Kuwait. During their tenures, they dealt professional figures over the Ministry of Education”. He men- ally and respectfully with committees and school tioned a number of education ministers, including administrations that have been dominated by Khalid Al-Mas’oud, Saleh Abulmalek, Jassem Al- Islamists for the past 20 years or more. These commitMarzouq, Anwar Al-Nouri, Hassan Al-Ibrahim, Ahmad tees are responsible for putting together curricula, Al-Rab’ie, Musa’ed Al-Haroun, Sulaiman Al-Bader, especially those for religious and social studies.

Perhaps in an attempt Rasheed Al-Hamad, to fish in troubled waters, Yousuf Al-Ibrahim and me.

A majority of the former ministers Mr. Al-Duwailah suggested Al-Duwailah also named a number of liber- mentioned by the columnist are open- that the liberals’ only conal undersecretaries, minded, intellectual and loyal to cern was to adopt coeducation. This is wrong despite the fact that a majority of people who Kuwait. During their tenures, they dealt because it was Islamists held that post in the min- professionally and respectfully with who raised the coeducaistry were not liberals in committees and school administrations tion issue and campaigned to ban it in the Kuwait the same vein as Abdurrahman Al-Khadhari that have been dominated by Islamists University, the Public and Tamadher Al- for the past 20 years or more. These Authority for Applied Sadairawy, who, by the committees are responsible for putting Education and Training, as well as private schools. Out way, are among the most qualified people to serve together curricula, especially those for of respect to the law and regulations, the liberal Kuwait from that post. I religious and social studies. ministers honored the ban do not know exactly why on coeducation despite MAl-Duwailah failed to mention former ministers such as Dr Adel Al- the negative impact it had on the education system Tabtabaei and Ahmad Al-Mulaifi, and current minister over the past years.

While I do respect Al-Duwailah’s right to express Nayef Al-Hajraf. Does he consider them to be conservatives? Or is there a reason why he might have delib- his opinion, I call upon him to respect our intelligence. We have all witnessed the attempts made by erately avoided mentioning their tenures?

There are some facts that all Kuwaitis, including Al- religious movements to take over education and its Duwailah himself, know with regard to the subject he institutions, which has resulted in the situation that brought up. First of all, everyone mentioned by the the sector is living through today. I have deliberately columnist had served for a relatively short period in chosen not to describe them as conservatives, the ministry, as the longest tenure did not exceed two because all liberal lawmakers have been committed years. The average length of their tenures is 18 to maintaining the values of their society and have months, which is the average for all ministries in used their posts to achieve what is best for the counKuwait. Moreover, most of those who introduced try instead of what serves their alliances. In the end, I reform faced grilling sessions, were transferred, or think it is best that we avoid trading blames and were forced to resign - as a result of the strong instead focus on supporting current ministry officials, alliance between the religious movement and the with the hope that they can successfully implement government, which obstructed every attempt to the educational reforms. — Al-Qabas

Hi Muna, I have just read your article “New decision on iqama transfer.” By Allah, it is very disturbing. I just do not understand why the authorities are taking such hasty, unreasonable and impractical decisions? First of all, it amounts to clearly exploiting an employee as the second employer can keep his worker captive at the same pay for as long as he wants. If, however, this rule is to be implemented, then there should also be a rule that binds the employer to grant reasonable annual increments to the employee at least.

Secondly, it is going to badly affect the ministries and the government bodies themselves since many of these are running as per contracts. I will give you my own example. I am working in a ministry (along with another 1000 people on various posts) in an engineering post through a two-year company contract now. Once this two-year period is over, the ministry will announce a tender and if the company that we are working for fails to win the contract and some other company wins, then we will be transferred to that new company. Imagine the same scenario two years further down the road if this new rule comes into effect. None of us would be able to transfer to yet another new company winning the contract. In that case, the new company will have to find about 1000 new employees. Presume that the new company even manages to do so. Still, these new people will be unfamiliar with the Ministry’s system compared to us who would have worked by that time for four years. So the Ministry will be losing experienced people who know the system very well but will be enrolling fresh people who will take time to learn the system. Once they do so, the same cycle will be repeated after four years.

I hope the authorities taking such decisions make an in-depth case study of the things first and then go for it.

Every day a new law is coming into the picture and even a dimwit will be able to see these as unfit and impractical. I don’t understand why people sitting in such responsible positions can take such illogical decisions.

May Allah help us all!

Regards, Iqbal

kuwait digest

Insubstantial justifications

kuwait digest

Rational approach missing

By Dr Shamlan Y Al-Essa

D

It seems that realistic voices and a rational approach espite the fact that Oil Minister Hani Hussein resigned, the criticism of the government and the has gone missing from some of our MPs’ minds as they objections raised against the minister who has are not looking for truth, whether in the Dow Chemicals now quit did not stop. MP Yaqoub Al-Sane said though issue or others. They want to be seen as heroes in front Hani Hussein escaped political grilling, he will not be of the people so they can be re-elected. My humble able to escape legal responsibility and demanded that knowledge of Hani Hussein made me believe that he the council of ministers should review the latest decision was a victim of parliamentary, government and extremists’ personal interests. Eng. taken by him. MP Faisal AlHani Hussein is one of the Kandari said, “We will not be It seems that realistic voices and a few Kuwaitis who are specialsatisfied with the resignation and we will expose rational approach has gone missing ized in the oil field and petrothose who benefitted from from some of our MPs’ minds as they are chemicals and spent most of his life working in this field. his decisions.”

Dr Maasouma Mubarak not looking for truth, whether in the Never did we hear that he said the Oil Minister escap- Dow Chemicals issue or others. They indulged in any corruption, ing from owning up his want to be seen as heroes in front of the or benefited personally or any other such accusations. responsibility in the Dow An evidence of this is that Chemicals catastrophe will people so they can be re-elected. My only expedite in classifying humble knowledge of Hani Hussein the MPs formed a special the controversy as “culprit made me believe that he was a victim of committee to investigate what happened in the Dow unknown”. MP Al-Tamimi said Hani Hussein’s resigna- parliamentary, government and Chemicals issue, and the government also formed a tion was rightly accepted extremists’ personal interests. committee. Both the comand he should be taken to mittees have held several court. MP Saadoun Hammad said the resignation of the Oil Minister amounted to his meetings with officials in the oil sector. So, why all this conviction and will not prevent him and his associates storm of accusations against the minister who has from going after him and sending him to the ministers’ already resigned? Why have we reached a solution that court since a loss worth millions was caused to the pub- he stands convicted even before the committees have finished their work? We are not attempting to defend the lic funds.

MP Adnan Al-Mutawa said, “We will not accept the minister, but the chaos and irresponsible behavior being issue as having been closed until the investigation com- seen in the country along with the display of a lack of mittees finish their work, come up with their recommen- neutrality and credibility is leaving our young ministers dations and send all those involved in violations to the vulnerable to attacks by some MPs. They are equivalent court.” It is not possible to publish all the statements by to those extorting the government by indulging in such National Assembly members and the political innuendos tactics of screaming at and attacking a particular minisinbuilt in these. The real purpose behind these state- ter. The investigation committees will reveal all the misments was not to search for the truth, but rather to take understandings in the Dow row and other issues, but a political stand against the government and its minis- what is the use of all these committees if the man has ters so that these MPs can appear as if they can look the already been convicted and the minister has resigned? government in the eye and that they are the ones who We are living in times when honest people are not being defended.— Al-Watan forced the Oil Minister to resign.

By Abdullatif Al-Duaij

I

think everyone who defended the security agreement among the Gulf Cooperation Council states signed recently failed to come up with convincing arguments.

Maybe their failure stemmed from the fact that it was very difficult to defend the treaty while simultaneously taking into account the peculiar situation that Kuwait faced. I know many people do not like this notion, but Kuwait is different than its sister nations in the Gulf region. Yes, we are all Arabs and have oil, but we are not all Kuwaitis, and not all of us have democracy. These distinctions are living facts which prove as false all claims of there being complete harmony and accord among the GCC countries.

In the meantime, Undersecretary of Kuwait’s Foreign Ministry Khalid Al-Jarallah came up perhaps with the most misleading notion when he suggested that development was hard to achieve without having what he described as a ‘security fence’. It appeared that Al-Jarallah ignored the examples of countries such as Cuba, North Korea and the former Soviet Union which turned out to be among the worst countries when it came to development even though they surrounded themselves with total security protection. These countries’ influence has either faded or there are less and less of such nations as the world entered the third millennium.

Former Secretary General of the GCC Abdullah Bushara drew a link, meanwhile, between the security agreement and incidents such as the Iraq-Iran war. If such threats no longer exist, I think promoting the agreement on that basis today was unjustified. I know most people are going to say that the agreement is needed to thwart potential risks in the region - or the alleged Iranian risk. However, the Iranian intervention is an international issue. It is about armies, satellites and espionage. These things are not covered by the security agreements. Instead, the agreement is intended to provide legal cover to prosecute people, or anyone with a certain position not to the government’s liking.

MP Nabeel Al-Fadhl made an unfortunate attempt to justify signing the agreement as well. In his words, the agreement should be accepted on the basis that it does not require a signatory nation to be bound by its articles. I know it is confusing, but this is an actual quote from the lawmaker himself. According to him, the agreement allows a signatory country to choose against executing articles that were in conflict with its respective regulations. If that was the case, then where was the need to sign it in the first place? —Al-Qabas

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

Iran election takes to TV, Khamenei says play clean

Ethiopia embarks on Blue Nile diversion Page 9

Page 8

HERMEL, Lebanon: A Lebanese man removes debris from his damaged house, hit by rockets fired by Syrian rebels according to villagers, in this town in the northeast of Lebanon yesterday. Shells fired from Syria regularly strike Hermel, a predominantly Shiite town. — AP

Elite troops in battle for Qusair UN rights chief urges halt to flow of arms, fighters to Syria DAMASCUS: Syrian elite troops rushed to bolster a Hezbollah-led offensive against rebels in Qusair yesterday as the UN Human Rights Council condemned the use of foreign fighters in the strategic town. Russia warned a European Union decision to lift its arms embargo on rebels fighting to oust its ally, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, harmed its joint efforts with the United States to end the conflict. Hopes are building for a US-Russian initiative for a peace conference to be held in Geneva next month, but serious obstacles could still scupper the talks - not least divisions within Syria’s opposition.

In Geneva, 36 of the 47 members of the UN rights body voted in favour of a resolution that implicitly refers to the involvement of fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite militant group Hezbollah in the fierce battle for Qusair. The non-binding text put forward by the United States, Turkey and Qatar “condemns the intervention of foreign combatants fighting on behalf of the Syrian regime in Al-Qusair”. It also expressed

“deep concern” that the involvement of the fighters could “further exacerbate the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation”.

UN rights chief Navi Pillay told the council that “the increasing number of foreign fighters crossing Syria’s borders... is further fuelling the sectarian violence. “The situation is beginning to show worrying signs of destabilising the region as a whole,” she warned. Referring to efforts to convene a peace conference in Geneva in coming weeks, she said: “This is an extremely important opportunity for states with influence to pull the parties back from the brink of catastrophe ...

The flow of arms must stop and the process of national dialogue must begin now.”

The United States rejected a statement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the resolution was “unwholesome” and undermined peace efforts. “We don’t see this as... undermining in any way” but rather an effort to put rights abuses on record and work towards a solution, said US ambassador to the council Eileen

Chamberlain Donahoe. On the ground, elite Syrian Republican Guards and Hezbollah fighters rushed to Qusair as government fighter jets pounded rebel areas, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Syrian army said it had seized the disused Dabaa military airfield north of Qusair which had been in rebel hands and that fierce fighting was raging in the area. A military source told AFP the battle for the airfield was fierce and lasted several hours. “The operation led to the liberation of the airport and the deaths of several men who were inside. “There are bodies littering the ground, rebels have been captured and others surrendered. The army is now advancing on the town of Dabaa,” the source added.

The capture of the airfield means that the Syrian army now controls all the roads leading out of Qusair - a serious setback for rebels still entrenched in the north and west of the town.

Control of Qusair is essential for the rebels as it is their principal transit point for weapons and fighters from Lebanon while it helps the army

consolidate its grip on a key road from Damascus to the coast - the heartland of Assad’s Alawite community. Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television showed live images it said were from Dabaa airport taken after the army had recaptured the facility. In Paris, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said there were some 3,000 to 4,000 Hezbollah fighters in Syria, double the 1,700 number previously reported.

“Regarding the Hezbollah militants present in the conflict, numbers vary between 3,000 and 10,000. Our estimate is around 3,000 to 4,000,” Fabius said. Assad, who has clung to power despite Western and Arab calls for him to resign, is to be interviewed on Hezbollah television on Thursday, according to his office.

Meanwhile, his divided opponents in the National Coalition were meeting in Istanbul for an unscheduled seventh day under pressure from Turkey and the US to thrash out a common position on the planned Geneva talks. A string of top diplomats arrived yesterday at the meeting in what looked like a last-ditch effort to

break a deadlock in the Coalition. Dissidents say the chaotic meeting has been deadlocked by internal bickering as well as conflicting pressures from key backers of the revolt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, France, Turkey and the United States. Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and a top French diplomat on Syria were at the meeting along with a Saudi intelligence official and a top Qatari diplomat. “The Coalition really is at a make-or-break moment. If we fail to agree after this meeting, I don’t know what will happen to the group,” a Coalition member present at the meeting told AFP on condition of anonymity. Diplomats at the United Nations said yesterday that Britain had informed the UN of “new incidents” of apparent chemical weapons use in Syria. If confirmed, the attacks would heap further pressure on Western governments supporting Syrian rebels to intervene in the conflict, which the Observatory says has claimed more than 94,000 lives. — AFP

Autopsy: UK soldier died from cuts, stab wounds LONDON: An autopsy shows that an offduty soldier killed in a suspected Islamic extremist in London attack last week died from multiple cuts and stab wounds after he was hit by a car, police said yesterday. Lee Rigby, 25, was first struck by a blue Vauxhall Tigra and then attacked by two men near his barracks in southeast London’s Woolwich area, police said.

Images that emerged in the attack’s aftermath showed two men wielding knives and meat cleavers. Police said the autopsy showed Rigby died from “multiple incised wounds”.

Both prime suspects were shot and wounded by police who arrived on the scene roughly 14 minutes after the killing. Suspect Michael Adebolajo, 28, remains hospitalized in stable condition.

Michael Adebowale, 22, was discharged from a hospital Tuesday and is in police custody. With a cause of death established, police said an inquest on Rigby’s death will open Friday at Southwark Coroner’s Court. In Britain, inquests are conducted to establish the circumstances surrounding unexpected or violent deaths. Police asked members of the public to come forward with any information about the case and urged anyone with photos or videos related to the slaying to send them to police on a confiden-

tial basis. London counterterrorism police officers handed out leaflets Wednesday seeking information from pedestrians and bus passengers in a quest for new information. The killing of an off-duty soldier by suspected militants has raised racial enmities in many parts of England, with far-right groups mobilizing to protest.

British prison officers have been warned to be on the lookout after a hostage drama blamed on extremist Muslim inmates, British newspapers reported yestertday. An email circulated to high-security prisons and young offenders’ institutes warned that Sunday’s incident at Full Sutton detention facility in the northern England region of Yorkshire was linked to religious extremism and warned of an increased risk of attacks at other institutions, according to papers including The Yorkshire Post and The Times.

“Three Muslim prisoners took an officer hostage in an office. Their demands indicated they supported radical Islamist extremism,” the letter was quoted as saying. “All staff are reminded to remain vigilant to the increased risk of potential attacks on prison officers inspired by these and last Wednesday’s events.”

The hostage-takers demands have not

been disclosed. Britain’s Ministry of Justice declined to comment on the email and would not spell out any demands made by the prisoners.

The English Defense League, a rightwing group with strong anti-Islam leanings, has mounted a series of protests in the wake of the killing, while Muslim community organizations have reported a surge in attacks and harassment. One mosque in the northern England town of Grimsby was firebombed, while the word “ISLAM” was daubed in big red letters across the Royal Air Force Bomber Command memorial in London’s Green Park, near Buckingham Palace. Two people have been charged over the arson attack. It’s unclear who was responsible for the graffiti.

Hackers have also posted a purported list of English Defense League leaders and supporters to the Web. The list was at least partially genuine, according to English Defense League supporter Glen Warren, 32, whose name and phone number were among those made available online. He said the Anonymous collective of Internet rebels appears to have spliced together old information leaked by a disgruntled supporter with newer information gleaned from Facebook postings and media reports. — AP

LONDON: A British police officer stands guard near some of the thousands of tributes left in honour of murdered 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby near Woolwich Barracks yesterday. — AP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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

Africa plans emergency force, but can it deliver?

NAIROBI: Aware that they have failed to get a fully-fledged peacekeeping force up and running, African leaders now plan a rapid-deployment emergency force, but analysts question whether it can deliver. The African Union’s “African Standby Brigade”, meant to intervene swiftly in regional crises, has made little headway since preparations for a proposed force of 32,500 troops and civilians drawn from the continent’s five regions started a decade ago. Only two of five regional sections are close to becoming operational.

A new emergency force announced this week is intended to bridge the gap pending the full coming into operation of that brigade, AU security chief Ramtane Lamamra said at the organisation’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital. South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia have pledged troops to the interim force.

Funding and troop contributions will

come from member states on a voluntary basis. The AU was criticised for not responding fast enough to crisis in Mali, after soldiers seized power in a coup in March 2012, opening the way for Islamist rebels to take over the country’s north.

However, some analysts are hopeful.

Solomon Ayele Dersso, senior researcher on conflict prevention at South Africa’s Institute for Security Studies, said the emergency force could work since the troops for it will be volunteered by member states with proven military capacity, instead of trying to include soldiers from every member state, as the full Standby Brigade proposes. “One thing that’s different about the new force ... is that it will be based on the principle of military capacity,” he told AFP. He cited Nigeria, Ethiopia, Chad and Kenya as states that have proven their military capacity over the past 18 months or so.

“It’s nice to say all member states are

equal, but we live in an Orwellian world where some states are more equal than others... and not all are in a position to make a contribution to peace and security,” he said. The new force will have to make the best of an ungainly name: the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC). The force will be tasked with “carrying out operations of limited duration and objectives or to contribute to the creation of conducive conditions for the deployment of AU and/or UN peace operations of wider scope,” AU documents said.

Musambayi Katumanga, a political science professor at Nairobi University, said ACIRC will work as a limited measure to contain but not solve crises. “As a short term reactive measure to a rapidly changing situation, in which you say, ‘Let’s try to do something about the situation, but not resolve it’...then you could say it makes a lot of sense - but this is where

the story ends,” Katumanga said. “The fact is that most states in Africa are not viable,” he told AFP, arguing that most countries “are basically in the same situation as Mali, it is just a matter of time.”

Roland Marchal, an analyst with the French research institute CNRS, was also pessimistic, saying AU states would find it tough to agree on when to deploy.

“Already the European Union has difficulties with 25 members.

With 53 or 54 nations it’s even more difficult for the AU,” he noted. “All you have to do is think back over the different crises, and ask yourself if there would have been a majority,” he added. “On Central African Republic, for example, there wouldn’t have been one.”

On top of questions about a common political agenda there are technical problems, he added, notably regarding the capacity of troops from different continental armies to work within a single

force. He noted that Kenya prides itself on having a professional army, even if it first saw active combat in 2011, whereas Uganda and Ethiopia have armies that used to be rebel groups. Some observers argue that the AU has accomplished great things with its intervention force in Somalia, AMISOM, whose 17,700 men from five nations are fighting to claw back territory from Al-Qaeda linked Shebab insurgents.

But Marchal said AMISOM - funded mainly by Western backers - is a model “that hasn’t really succeeded”. “We congratulate ourselves on taking back Mogadishu, but we haven’t solved anything in Somalia,” he said. “The problem with AMISOM is that there is no political strategy to go with the military strategy.”

Instead, the emergency force is “a proposal built on a failure (Mali) when the reasons for that failure have not been analysed”, Marchal added. — AFP

IAEA says may find nothing at Iran base VIENNA: The UN nuclear watchdog acknowledged yesterday it might not find anything if allowed access to an Iranian military facility, in an apparent reference to suspected cleanup work there, diplomats said. Herman Nackaerts, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), made the comment during a closed-door briefing where he showed satellite imagery indicating Iran had now partly paved the site, they said. The picture was the latest sign of what Western officials suspect is an Iranian attempt since early last year to remove or hide any evidence of illicit nuclear-related activity at Parchin, located southeast of the capital Tehran.

In response to a question, “he (Nackaerts) said there is a chance they won’t find anything”, in view of the suspected sanitisation efforts, said one diplomat who was at the meeting.

Nackaerts made no public comment.

The UN agency believes Iran may have carried out explosives tests relevant for nuclear weapons development at Parchin, possibly a decade ago, and has been pressing Tehran for more than a year to be allowed visit the sprawling facility. Iran, which denies Western allegations that it seeking the capability to make nuclear weapons, says Parchin is a conventional military complex and rejects accusations that it is trying to remove any evidence.

The IAEA said in a report to member states last week that Iran had asphalted a “significant proportion” of the specific part of Parchin it wants to inspect. It did not say why Iran may have decided to do this, but one Western official who attended yesterday’s briefing said it could be a bid to cover up any remaining traces there. Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, declined to speak to reporters when he left the meeting room.

The UN agency wants to check Parchin as part of its long-stalled investigation into suspected atomic bomb research by Iran, which says its nuclear program is entirely peaceful. Iran says it first needs to agree with the IAEA on how the broader inquiry is to be conducted before granting access. Citing satellite imagery, Western diplomats earlier this year said that Iran appeared to be rebuilding the site, after previously razing smaller buildings and removing soil.

Experts say that while it may now be difficult to find any evidence, it could still be possible to locate any traces of nuclear materials with the IAEA’s sophisticated equipment. “ The more they (Iran) do, the less likelihood there is of picking up something easily,” one Western envoy said. “(But) I think the chances of wiping out every trace of whatever might have been going on there is very slim.” — Reuters

Iraqi militia warns of sectarian fighting BAGHDAD: A senior member of an Iraqi Shiite militia that once fought the US military warned yesterday that Iraq is heading toward widespread sectarian bloodletting similar to the kind that once pushed the country to the brink of civil war. The head of the political bureau of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq group, Adnan Faihan, also said the militia is preparing to defend itself, but denied the group’s involvement in a spate of attacks targeting Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority.

Iraq has been wracked by a wave of the most sustained violence the country has seen since American troops left in late 2011.

The bloodshed, which includes coordinated car bombings blamed on Sunni militants as well as a string of attacks on Sunni mosques, is raising fears that Iraq is slipping back toward all-out sectarian fighting like that which nearly tore the country apart at its peak in 2006 and 2007.

“We have major concerns. Because what is going on now is the same that led to what happened in 2006,” Faihan told AP. “We are ready for it and we are ready to protect our people.” Faihan made the comments on the sidelines of a press conference it held in Baghdad under heavy guard by camouflage-clad militia members.

During the event, Faihan distanced the group from recent attacks against Sunnis, saying such allegations were the result of a misleading defamation campaign.

He railed against what he called a Turkish-Qatari agenda to create sectarian strife again and to divide Iraq - a reference to Sunni countries many Shiites accuse of backing members of Iraq’s Sunni community who have been holding months of protests against the Shiite-led government.

Years ago, Asaib Ahl al-Haq - or the Band of the Righteous - broke away from radical

Shiite cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr’s political bloc and has been trying to morph into a legitimate political movement. It said in late 2011 it was moving away from armed struggle after US forces left but it has not handed over its weapons. It and the Hezbollah Brigades were among a group of Shiite militias backed by Iran that carried out lethal attacks against US bases in the summer of 2011.

Faihan yesterday also urged the Shiite faithful to defend the Sayida Zeinab shrine in Syria. The holy site outside Damascus has been a rallying point for foreign Shiite militants fighting alongside government troops loyal to President Bashar Al-Assad, whose Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

“Our stance is ... not to interfere in others’ internal affairs. But regarding Sayida Zeinab shrine, we’ve called on Muslims to go and protect it because any attack on the shrine will lead to bloody events in the region. So protecting this shrine is a must,” he said.

Also yesterday, Iraqi officials raised the death toll from attacks the previous day that shook Baghdad and towns north of the capital to 28. Police said the deadliest of Tuesday’s attacks struck the southern Dora neighborhood, where back-to-back bombings killed nine people and wounded 10.

Bombs in the eastern neighborhood of Sadr City and in the northern Shaab area killed 12 and wounded 33. Blasts and shootings in Tarmiyah and Mosul killed seven other people. Medical officials confirmed the casualty figures. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to talk to the media. A relentless wave of violence has edged Iraq closer to all-out internal warfare.

On Monday, attacks killed more than 70 people. More than 450 have died this month. — AP

BAGHDAD: Adnan Faihan, the head of the political bureau of the Asaib Ahl al-Haq group, speaks during a press conference yesterday. — AP

TEHRAN: Female supporters of Iranian presidential candidate and top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili - shown in the poster on the wall - wait for him at a campaign rally yesterday. — AP

Iran election takes to TV, Khamenei says play clean Candidates to hold first of three debates TEHRAN: The eight candidates running for president are to stage a televised debate on Friday, with the ailing economy topping the agenda, as Iran’s spiritual guide Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for a clean vote. Campaigning for the June 14 presidential poll officially kicked off last week after Iran’s electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council, approved the eight including several figures close to Khamenei - from a field of nearly 700 would-be candidates. Two main contenders were disqualified.

The campaign has so far been mostly confined to short provincial tours and appearances on state television and radio, rather than the lively street rallies by supporters of candidates in the 2009 presidential election that gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second four-year term. The Guardians Council has barred moderate ex-president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmadinejad’s close ally Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie. The debate tomorrow, the first of three, is expected to take the form of a Q&A session, with Iran’s ailing and sanctions-hit economy expected to top the agenda.

Plunging oil exports combined with foreign currency curbs have triggered a severe economic crisis, with inflation officially running at more than 30 percent and foreign investments drying up. The run-up to the 2009 election, which led to anti-regime protests over voter fraud charges, produced heated exchanges between Ahmadinejad and his pro-reform opponents, Mir

Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, in live face -to-face debates on state television.

Yesterday, Khamenei warned the candidates against creating tensions. “ The candidates should refrain from tarnishing their opponents and the realities of the society just to attract votes,” he told a group of lawmakers in remarks reported on his website.

This year’s campaign has been low-key. Street rallies are banned, according to security officials, and candidates have yet to roll out election posters or banners, even in major cities. “I have not yet received many orders to print posters or banners for the presidential election,” said Ali, 32, owner of a major printing house in the northeastern city of Mashhad. “ This is probably because there are so many of them. Many will withdraw and do not want to waste their money.”

The eight candidates comprise five conservatives, including top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, two moderates and a reformist. Pre-recorded messages from candidates began to air on Saturday and have already roused controversy.

Mohsen Rezai, former commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards and a conservative, had his speech censored as he spoke of a father who had lost three sons in the 1980s war against Iraq.

Quoting the unnamed man, Rezai criticised raging inflation and high unemployment in the country, saying the father had threatened to commit suicide if the economy was not fixed.

Rezai’s controversial comments on “ethnic discrimination” were also edited out, media reports said.

The debate tomorrow, which could run up to four hours, is expected to provide a glimpse into candidates’ plans for the economy, which has been hit hard by international sanctions targeting Iran’s vital oil income over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

Although the nuclear case is a uniting factor among all candidates, who defend Iran’s “legitimate right” to have a peaceful atomic program, their tactics to resolve a years-long standoff with the West could differ. Boasting his non-compromising stance in nuclear talks with world powers, Jalili has vowed to implement a “resistance economy” in response to sanctions imposed over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions that have led to raging inflation and high unemployment.

Hassan Rowhani, the only cleric in the race, says his experience in leading talks with the socalled P5+1 group - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain plus Germany - could help resolve the nuclear standoff.

All key decisions in the Islamic republic, including the nuclear programme, rest with Khamenei. Former foreign minister Ali Akbar Velayati, another conser vative close to Khamenei, has pledged to curb inflation of more than 30 percent “in 100 days,” and to ease Iran’s international isolation under Ahmadinejad. — AFP

Doubts over Mali plan for nationwide polls BAMAKO: Malians have welcomed news of a July 28 presidential election but serious concerns remain about the possibility of a free and fair vote in Kidal, a key northern city occupied by separatist rebels. Under pressure from its former colonial power France, which has led a military offensive since January against Al Qaeda-linked militants in Mali’s vast desert, the battle-scarred west African nation confirmed the date Monday.

July has always been a goal for the vote, seen as essential to restoring democratic rule after a coup last year paved the way for the Islamist rebels to seize control of Mali’s Saharan cities.

Analysts have argued that the timetable is unrealistic in the still deeply-divided nation, which is emerging from war and an 18-month political crisis which caused 500,000 people to flee to the more stable south or neighbouring countries. But the insistence of France on a July poll and promises of international aid of Ä3.2 billion ($4.1 billion), appear to have won hearts and minds, with virtually all of Mali’s warring political factions accepting the deadline.

“The pressure is understandable because everyone believes that the current government cannot solve the problems,” said Gilles Yabi, of International Crisis Group in Senegalese capital Dakar. “But it appears that the date itself was

more sacred than the holding of credible elections.”

Yabi highlights a number of stumbling blocks to an indisputable result, including the completion of the electoral register and the distribution of new voter cards, and the ongoing uncertainty in Kidal. The desert city, a key regional capital, is occupied by armed ethnic Tuaregs from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) who rose up to fight for independence for the north in Jan 2012. They overwhelmed government troops, leading to the coup which toppled elected president Amadou Toumani Toure. Together with hardline Islamists, they seized key northern cities, but were later chased out by their Islamists allies.

France sent troops in January to block an advance by the extremists on Bamako and pushed them out of the main cities and into desert and mountain hideouts, allowing the MNLA back into Kidal. While French troops control the airport and work with the MNLA in Kidal, the separatists have rejected any suggestion that they should allow Malian military or government into the town.

“Without the presence of the army in Kidal, there will be no elections. This ought to be the leitmotif of every presidential candidate,” an edi-

torial in the Malian newspaper “September 22” noted on Monday. “Even civil servants won’t go there without the army and security forces.”

Mali’s interim cabinet has clearly stated that the election must be held “throughout the territory”, a sentiment underlined by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday in Bamako.

“For France, it is clear that there cannot be two countries within the same country.

Arrangements will be made so that in Kidal, you can vote just the same as anywhere else,” he said.

But he did not specify what those arrangements might be.

Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore is in talks in Ouagadougou with Malian officials and Tuareg leaders from northern Mali to try to clear the way for a country-wide vote.

Meanwhile former Malian prime minister and presidential candidate Sumana Sacko has accused President Francois Hollande of meddling by promising France would ensure Kidal’s residents got to vote.

“Going against the tide of histor y, the anachronistic comments by President Hollande denote a certain paternalism, even a vague desire to transform Kidal, an integral part of Mali, into a French protectorate,” his party said in a statement. — AFP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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

Uganda general says he’s fighting abuse of power

Ethiopia embarks on Blue Nile diversion Sudan, Egypt hold talks in Cairo ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia has begun diverting the Blue Nile as part of a giant dam project, officials said yesterday, prompting talks in Cairo between downstream states Sudan and Egypt. The $4.2 billion Grand Renaissance Dam hydroelectric project had to divert a short section of the river - one of two major tributaries of the Nile - to allow the main dam wall to be built. “To build the dam, the natural course must be dr y,” said Addis Tadele, spokesman for the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo), a day after a formal ceremony at the construction site.

The river is being shifted about 550 m from its natural course, Addis said, but stressed that water levels would not be affected. “There is no problem with the river levels,” he said. The first phase of construction is expected to be complete in three years, with a capacity of 700 megawatts. Once complete, the dam will have a capacity of 6,000 megawatts. Both Sudan and Egypt, arid nations that rely heavily on the Nile for water, particularly for agriculture, are extremely sensitive about projects that could alter the flow.

Sudan’s minister of irrigation, Osama Abdallah Al-Hassan, arrived in Cairo for talks on the Ethiopian move, Egypt’s official MENA news agency said. The Egyptian cabinet also met and issued a statement saying it opposed all projects which could affect the flow of the Nile. It said it had planned “several scenarios” depending on the outcome of an assessment to be conducted by the three governments. In Khartoum, the foreign ministry said Sudan would not be affected by the project, stressing in a statement that there are agreements and consultations between Sudan, Egypt and Ethiopia.

“Sudan respects the agreements to cooperate with those two countries (Egypt and Ethiopia) in matters that concern sharing the waters of the Nile and sharing mutual revenues,” the ministry said. Egypt believes its “historic rights” to the Nile are guaranteed by two treaties

GUBA, Ethiopia: A picture taken on Tuesday shows the Blue Nile during its diversion ceremony. — AFP from 1929 and 1959 which allow it 87 percent of the Nile’s flow and give it veto power over upstream projects. But a new deal was signed in 2010 by other Nile Basin countries, including Ethiopia, allowing them to work on river projects without Cairo’s prior agreement.

EEPCo insists the project will not impact downstream needs, claiming the dam will provide “highly regulated outflows” by reducing floods at peak times and providing

more water during otherwise low flows.

The dam project, in Ethiopia’s northwestern Benishangul-Gumuz region near the border with Sudan, was launched in April 2011 by late prime minister Meles Zenawi.

Funding is being raised publicly, with the state raising funds locally, and no external financing has been provided.

Ethiopia is constructing a series of dams to produce hydroelectric

power for both domestic consumption and export. EEPCo has plans to establish transmission lines to neighbouring countries, including Sudan, Kenya and Djibouti. One of Ethiopia’s deputy prime ministers, Demeke Mekonnen, officially launched the river diversion on Tuesday, alongside EEPCo chief Mihret Dibebe.

When completed, the dam wall will stretch almost 1.8 km in length and 145 m in height. — AFP

KAMPALA: A Ugandan army general who sparked controversy over the presidential succession said yesterday he’s fighting the use of state institutions to keep the country’s long-serving president in power. Gen David Sejusa - who is in London - told AP yesterday that the Ugandan military is a “prison” used by President Yoweri Museveni to sideline ambitious army officers from challenging him for power. Uganda’s military laws bar serving officers and soldiers from participating in electoral politics.

Sejusa warned that “abusing the law and institutions just to keep the current leadership in power ... pretty soon will lead to ceaseless strife” in Uganda, which hasn’t had a single peaceful transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1962.

Sejusa, 58, a four-star general who is a decorated hero of the bush war that brought Museveni to power in 1986, said he’s one of many senior officers whose efforts to retire from the army have been thwarted by the president. Sejusa last month wrote a letter to the internal security service urging an investigation into reports that high-ranking officials are at risk of assassination if they oppose the political rise of Museveni’s son. Details of his letter were published by a local newspaper, the Daily Monitor, whose premises in the capital, Kampala, have since been occupied by police looking for evidence against the general.

Sejusa had travelled to London when details of his letter became public and he has since cancelled a scheduled trip back to Uganda. The general faces arrest when he returns to Uganda, and his lawyer said Sejusa has postponed the trip back home for at least three months. Police deployed heavily at Uganda’s international airport on May 11, the day Sejusa was originally scheduled to return from London.

Joseph Luzige, Sejusa’s attorney in Kampala, said Tuesday that his client has requested - and been granted - the protection of British police after reporting a threat to his life. British officials said they had no comment on Sejusa’s case. Sejusa’s new statement is expected to further estrange him from the Museveni administration that he helped to bring into power nearly three decades ago.

“This is the issue of refusing to retire officers from the army so that they are rendered captive forever, so that none can challenge the regime,” the general said in the statement. “In essence, using (the army) as a prison so that anyone who threatens or is even rumored to have political ambitions is threatened with military law. “I refuse to succumb to perpetual abuse,” he said. “(The president) must set us free and set my suffering comrades free or we shall free ourselves. I speak for those gallant officers who are virtual prisoners in the army but can’t

say a word because they fear to be framed ... or worse. “ Sejusa cited the example of Kizza Besigye, a retired army colonel who went on to become Uganda’s most prominent opposition leader. According to Sejusa, Museveni has been reluctant to see the exit from the army of senior army officers of questionable loyalty. Sejusa himself tried and failed to quit the army in 1996 after accusing its leadership of incompetence in battles against the fugitive warlord Joseph Kony.

The Ugandan military accuses Sejusa, who directs the country’s domestic and foreign spy agencies, of spreading propaganda that encourages rifts within the army.

Army spokesman Lt Col Paddy Ankunda said that “officially an investigation is on about Sejusa’s conduct”. The general is also accused of traveling out of the country without first getting the authorization of the army chief.

Sejusa’s case has riveted many in this East African country that once was prone to violent takeovers of power but which has seen relative stability under Museveni. But the president, in power for 27 years, now faces growing pressure within and outside his party to retire when his current term expires in 2016. Some say Sejusa may be positioning himself to become the leader of those within the military who want to discourage Museveni from hanging onto power. Frank Tumwebaze, a government minister who speaks for Museveni, accused Sejusa of harboring presidential ambitions.

Sejusa said in his statement that it’s “sickening” that “they think it’s a crime” for an army officer to have political ambitions.

With Sejusa away, the newspaper that published his concerns has come under pressure to explain how it obtained a copy of the letter that has exposed a rift among the military elite over the growing influence in the army of Museveni’s son.

Museveni has never said he sees his son as his political heir. But the son, a senior army officer named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been rapidly promoted in recent years, leading many here to believe he is being groomed for high office. Kainerugaba is now a brigadier with full command of the country’s special forces, an elite group within the military that protects the president and guards national assets such as oil fields.

More than two weeks after Sejusa’s letter was leaked, Museveni announced changes in the military that saw the ouster of army chief Gen Aronda Nyakairima and his deputy. Nyakairima, who had been cited in Sejusa’s letter among those opposed to the rise of the first son, was given a civilian post as interior minister. His deputy, Lt Gen Ivan Koreta, was made an ambassador. — AP

Rise of Al-Qaeda Sahara terrorist DAKAR: After years of trying to discipline him, the leaders of Al-Qaeda’s North African branch sent one final letter to their most difficult employee. In page after scathing page, they described how he didn’t answer his phone when they called, failed to turn in his expense reports, ignored meetings and refused time and again to carry out orders. Most of all, they claimed he had failed to carry out a single spectacular operation, despite the resources at his disposal.

The employee, international terrorist Moktar Belmoktar, responded the way talented employees with bruised egos have in corporations the world over: He quit and formed his own competing group. And within months, he carried out two lethal operations that killed 101 people in all: one of the largest hostage-takings in history at a BP-operated gas plant in Algeria in January, and simultaneous bombings at a military base and a French uranium mine in Niger just last week.

The Al-Qaeda letter, found by The Associated Press inside a building formerly occupied by their fighters in Mali, is an intimate window into the ascent of an extremely ambitious terrorist leader, who split off from regional command because he wanted to be directly in touch with Al-Qaeda central. It’s a glimpse into both the inner workings of a highly structured terrorist organization that requires its commanders to file monthly expense reports, and the internal dissent that led to his rise. And it foreshadows a terrorism landscape where charismatic jihadists can carry out attacks directly in Al-Qaeda’s name, regardless of whether they are under its command.

Rudolph Atallah, the former head of counterterrorism for Africa at the Pentagon and one of three experts who authenticated the 10page letter dated Oct. 3, said it helps explain what happened in Algeria and Niger, both attacks that Belmoktar claimed credit for on jihadist forums. “He’s sending a message directly north to his former bosses in Algeria saying, ‘I’m a jihadi. I deserve to be separate from you.’

And he’s also sending a message to Al-Qaeda, saying, ‘See, those bozos in the north are incompetent. You can talk to me directly.’ And in these attacks, he drew a lot of attention to himself,” says Atallah, who recently testified before Congress on Belmoktar’s tactics.

Born in northern Algeria, the 40-something Belmoktar, who is known in Pentagon circles by his initials MBM, traveled to Afghanistan at the age of 19, according to his online biography. He claims he lost an eye in battle and trained in AlQaeda’s camps, forging ties that would allow him two decades later to split off from its regional chapter. Over the years, there have been numerous reports of Belmoktar being sidelined or expelled by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. The letter recovered in Timbuktu, one of thousands of pages of internal documents in Arabic found by the AP earlier this year, shows he stayed loyal to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, until last year, and traces the history of their difficult relationship.

The letter, signed by the group’s 14-member Shura Council, or governing body, describes its relationship with Belmoktar as “a bleeding wound,” and criticizes his proposal to resign and start his own group. “Your letter ... contained some amount of backbiting, name-calling and sneering,” they write. “We refrained from wading into this battle in the past out of a hope that the crooked could be straightened by the easiest and softest means. ... But the wound continued to bleed, and in fact increasingly bled, until your last letter arrived, ending any hope of stanching the wound and healing it.” They go on to compare their group to a towering mountain before raging storms and pounding waves, and say Belmoktar’s plan “threatens to fragment the being of the organization and tear it apart limb by limb.” They then begin enumerating their complaints against Belmoktar in 30 successive bullet points. “Abu Abbas is not willing to follow anyone,” they add, referring to him by his nom de guerre, Khaled Abu Abbas. “He is only willing to be followed and obeyed.”

First and foremost, they quibble over the amount of money raised by the 2008 kidnapping of Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler, the highest-ranking United Nations official in Niger, and his colleague. Belmoktar’s men held both for four months, and in a book he later published, Fowler said he did not know if a ransom was paid. The letter says they referred the case to Al-Qaeda central to force concessions in the US-led war in Afghanistan, a plan stymied when Belmoktar struck his own deal for € 700,000 (about $900,000) for both men. That’s far below the $3 million per hostage that European governments were normally paying, according to global intelligence unit Stratfor.

“Rather than walking alongside us in the plan we outlined, he managed the case as he liked,” they write indignantly. “Here we must ask, who handled this important abduction poorly? ... Does it come from the unilateral behavior along the lines of our brother Abu Abbas, which produced a blatant inadequacy: Trading the weightiest case (Canadian diplomats!!) for the most meager price (€ 700,000)!!”

The complaint reflects how Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, initially considered one of the group’s weaker wings, rose to prominence by bankrolling its operation with an estimated $89 million raised by kidnapping-for-ransom foreign aid workers and tourists. No less than Osama bin Laden endorsed their business model, according to documents retrieved in the terror leader’s hideout in Pakistan.

The letter also confirms for the first time that payments from European governments went directly toward buying arms to carry out attacks against Western targets, as long speculated by experts. The council chides Belmoktar for not following this practice. “(The chapter) gave Abu Abbas a considerable amount of money to buy military material, despite its own great need for money at the time. ... Abu Abbas didn’t participate in stepping up to buy weapons,” the letter says. “So whose performance deserves to be called poor in this case, I wonder?”

The list of slights is long: He would not take their phone calls. He refused to send administrative and financial reports. He ignored a meeting in Timbuktu, calling it “useless”. He even ordered his men to refuse to meet with AlQaeda emissaries. And he aired the organization’s dirty laundry in online jihadist forums, even while refusing to communicate with the chapter via the Internet, claiming it was insecure.

Sounding like managers in any company, the Shura leaders accuse Belmoktar of not being able to get along with his peers. They charge that he recently went to Libya without permission from the chapter, which had assigned the “Libya dossier” to a rival commander called Abou Zeid. And they complain

got bored with.” In another quote, he calls bin Laden and Zawahiri “the leaders of the Islamic nation, not the leaders of an organization alone. We love them and we were convinced by their program. ... So it’s even more now that we are swords in their hands.” To which AQIM replies with more than a hint of sarcasm: “Very lovely words. ... Do you consider it loyalty to them to revolt against their emirs and threaten to tear apart the organization?”

Belmoktar’s defection was a long time in the making, and dates back to his time as a commander of Algeria’s Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, or GSPC. When the Iraq war started in 2003, his ambition created friction between younger Algerian fighters like himself, who wanted to join the global jihad, and an

This undated file image taken from video shows terrorist leader Moktar Belmoktar. — AP that the last unit they sent Belmoktar for backup in the Sahara spent a full three years trying to contact him before giving up. “Why do the successive emirs of the region only have difficulties with you? You in particular every time?

Or are all of them wrong and brother Khaled is right?” they charge. The letter reveals the rifts not only between Belmoktar and his superiors, but also the distance between the local chapter and Al-Qaeda central. The local leaders were infuriated that Belmoktar was essentially going over their heads, saying that even AQIM has had few interactions with the mother brand in Pakistan and Afghanistan, a region they refer to by the ancient name of Khorasan. “The great obstacles between us and the central leadership are not unknown to you. ... For example, since we vowed our allegiance, up until this very day, we have only gotten from our emirs in Khorasan just a few messages, from the two sheiks, bin Laden (God rest his soul) and Ayman (Al-Zawahiri),” they write. “All this, despite our multiple letters to them.”

Belmoktar’s ambition comes through clearly not only in the bitter responses of his bosses, but also in his own words: “Despite great financial resources ... our works were limited to the routine of abductions, which the mujahedeen

older generation whose only goal was to create an Islamic state in Algeria, according to Islamic scholar Mathieu Guidere, a professor at the University of Toulouse. The younger faction won, but Belmoktar felt slighted because his contemporary, Abdelmalek Droukdel, was named emir of the GSPC, instead of him.

Soon after, the group petitioned to join AlQaeda. The terror network announced a “blessed union” on the anniversary of the Sept 11 attacks in 2006. Both Belmoktar and Droukdel wrote “candidacy letters” to bin Laden asking to be emir, according to Guidere’s book on the subject.

Again, Droukdel won. Frustrated, Belmoktar drifted farther south. He set up in the ungoverned dunes of neighboring Mali, took a Malian wife and tapped into the smuggling routes that crisscrossed the Sahara, amassing arms and fiercely loyal fighters who called themselves, “The Masked Brigade.” His fighters killed more than a dozen soldiers at a military garrison in Mauritania in 2005 and gunned down four French tourists there in 2007. On multiple occasions Belmoktar was declared dead, including most recently in March, and each time, he re-emerged to strike again. The sharpest blow in the council’s letter may have

been the accusation that, despite this history of terrorism, Belmoktar and his unit had not pulled off any attack worthy of mention in the Sahara.

“Any observer of the armed actions (carried out) in the Sahara will clearly notice the failure of The Masked Brigade to carry out spectacular operations, despite the region’s vast possibilities there are plenty of mujahedeen, funding is available, weapons are widespread and strategic targets are within reach,” the letter says. “Your brigade did not achieve a single spectacular operation targeting the crusader alliance.” In December, just weeks after receiving the letter, Belmoktar declared in a recorded message that he was leaving the Al-Qaeda chapter to form his own group.

He baptized it, “Those Who Sign in Blood.”

With that name, he announced his global ambition. “Those Who Sign in Blood” was also the name of an Algerian extremist unit that hijacked an Air France flight leaving Algiers in 1994. Though their goal to fly the plane into the Eiffel Tower in Paris was thwarted, the unit foreshadowed the terrorist vision that led to the fall of the Twin Towers in New York.

On Jan 11, French warplanes began bombarding northern Mali, the start of a now 5month-old offensive to flush out the jihadists, including Belmoktar’s brigade. Five days later, suicide bombers took more than 600 hostages in Ain Amenas in far eastern Algeria and killed 37, all but one foreigners, including American, French and British nationals. Belmoktar claimed responsibility in a triumphant recording. It was no accident that he chose Ain Amenas, Guidere said. The area is in the home province of Abou Zeid, Belmoktar’s longtime rival who commanded a different Saharan brigade and was always in step with the Algeria-based emirate.

“It’s a punch in the gut,” Guidere said. “It’s saying, ‘You’ve never been able to do anything even in your native region. Watch me. I’ll carry out the biggest hostage operation ever in that very region. ... Ain Amenas is the illustration of his ability to do a quality operation, when he is under no authority other than his own, when he doesn’t have to turn in expense reports or answer to anybody.”

As if to turn the knife even further, last week Belmoktar also claimed responsibility for a May 23 attack at a French-owned uranium mine in Arlit, Niger. It was in Arlit in 2010 that Abou Zeid carried out his boldest operation and seized seven foreign hostages, including four French nationals who are still in the hands of AQIM. In an apparent attempt to raise the stakes, Belmoktar’s men slipped past a truck entering the mine and detonated explosives inside. More than 100 miles to the south, a different unit of fighters under his command killed 24 soldiers at a military camp, with help from another local AlQaeda off-shoot, called the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa. Jean-Paul Rouiller, the director of the Geneva Center for Training and Analysis of Terrorism, compared the escalation in attacks to a quarrel between a man and a woman in which each tries to have the last word. —AP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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

Police snare French ‘Most Wanted’ after jailbreak PONTAULT-COMBAULT, France: French police yesterday captured the country’s most-wanted man in a hotel outside Paris six weeks after he dynamited his way out of prison in a spectacular jailbreak.

Redoine Faid, a famed 41-year-old career thief who had been serving time for robbery and risked a heavy new sentence over the 2010 death of a policewoman, was arrested in the early hours at a hotel in Pontault-Combault, about 20 km east of central Paris.

Police said he was arrested with a 29year-old accomplice and that weapons were seized in his room and in his car, suggesting Faid may have been preparing another heist. Interior Minister Manuel Valls hailed police for the “thorough and effective” investigation that led to Faid’s capture. Faid was brought before a judge yesterday afternoon in the northern city of Lille, not far from where he escaped.

Officials said they would determine which prison to hold him in now.

Faid used explosives to blast his way out of the Sequedin penitentiary during his April 13 jailbreak and, armed with a pistol, briefly took four guards hostage before escaping in a waiting getaway car.

All the hostages were released unharmed.

The penitentiary was just 15 km from the Belgian border and a Europe-wide arrest warrant was issued as French authorities had believed he may have fled the country. Valls told i-Tele that it appeared Faid had changed locations repeatedly during his time on the run and that he “benefited from the help of a certain number of accomplices”.

Clients at the hotel - a shabby onestorey building with some 50 rooms each costing €60 ($66) a day - reported hearing “a lot of noise” around 3:00 am (0100GMT) when police swooped in. A woman working at the hotel, in an industrial area on the outskirts of Paris, said Faid’s accomplice had paid for the room in cash and that the two men had been there for several days. The woman, who identified herself as Morgane, said Faid and his friend had requested that there be no housekeeping in the room on Sunday.

Christian Lothion, the head of the national judicial police charged with investigating and fighting serious crime, said the force had “tracked him down” on Tuesday evening. “When we were sure that he had returned and was in his room, we decided to strike in the dead of night,” he said. The hotel is located at the entry to

the town, sandwiched between a warehouse and a steak house and is close to a ring road. French officials had warned that Faid, who grew up in tough immigrant suburbs outside Paris, was considered armed and “especially dangerous”.

He had been in prison since mid-2011 for breaking the terms of his parole over past convictions for bank robberies and brazen heists of cash-in-transit vehicles.

He is suspected of masterminding a May 2010 armed robbery that turned into a gunfight in which a policewoman, 26year-old Aurelie Fouquet, was killed. Faid had been released from a previous stint of a decade behind bars after convincing parole officials that he regretted his criminal past and was determined to start afresh. He made several television appearances and co-authored two books about his delinquent youth and rise as a criminal in the Paris suburbs, saying his life of crime was inspired by American films such as “Scarface” and “Heat”. Questions have been raised about how Faid could have escaped, with critics including prison unions noting that he had been moved to a lower-security facility at Sequedin and had been kept among the general prison population. — AFP

PONTAULT-COMBAULT, France: Journalists stand yesterday in front of a hotel near Paris where Redoine Faid - the country’s most-wanted man was captured six weeks after he dynamited his way out of prison in a spectacular jailbreak. —AFP

France holds man in stabbing of soldier Prosecutors say attack religiously motived

SOFIA: Bulgaria’s new centre-left Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski receives greetings in the parliament as his cabinet is sworn in yesterday. — AFP

Oresharski becomes Bulgaria’s new PM SOFIA: Bulgaria’s parliament yesterday confirmed economist Plamen Oresharski as new prime minister to head a Socialistbacked anti-crisis cabinet of technocrats, ending a post-election stalemate in the EU’s poorest country. Oresharski won support from 120 out of the 217 lawmakers present in the divided 240-seat parliament, with 97 opposed. “The country is in a deep institutional crisis, continuing economic depression and worsening disintegration of society,” the 53-year-old finance professor said before the vote confirming his 16member cabinet. He urged “maximum public consensus on the necessary urgent measures for stabilisation, economic recovery, strengthening of the institutions and more solidarity in a society shaken by despair and lack of prospects.”

Oresharski and his cabinet were immediately sworn in after the vote. Massive and sometimes violent anti-poverty street rallies ousted the previous government of conservative premier Boyko Borisov in February. His GERB party won tight snap elections on May 12 but failed to find partners to govern in an extremely polarised legislature, leaving the second-placed Socialists to name a new prime minister.

Oresharski’s cabinet was approved with support from the Socialist BSP and the Turkish minority party MRF, while the ultranationalist Ataka boycotted the vote. Stern non-partisan Oresharski, who served as finance minister in a Socialist-led coalition cabinet between 2005 and 2009, has pledged to ensure fiscal and macroeconomic stability and a low budget deficit and public debt ratio, as well as maintain the Bulgarian lev’s currency peg to the euro. Yesterday, he also promised to battle “stagnating economic and investment activity, dispirited entrepreneurship, thinning reserves and growing debts in the public and corporate sector, quickly growing unemployment and widening poverty.”

Oresharski has named two leftwing fellow economists to help with his program, uni-

versity professor Petar Chobanov, 36, as finance minister and Socialist lawmaker Dragomir Stoynev, 37, as economy and energy minister.

Zinaida Zlatanova, who previously headed the European Commission representation in Bulgaria, will take the sensitive justice ministr y, which has come under repeated criticism from Brussels over lagging reforms, and will also oversee the use of EU aid funds as vice premier. The labour and social policies portfolio will be overseen by MRF lawmaker Hasan Ademov.

European Parliament member Kristian Vigenin and Socialist party spokesman Angel Naydenov will be in charge of foreign affairs and defence, respectively. And a former chief of the state agency for national security, Tsvetlin Yovchev, was named interior minister.

Just one seat short of a majority in the legislature even with the MRF’s support, the Socialists will need to rely on the support of the unpredictable far-right Ataka to pass legislation. This might make its work extremely difficult, analysts said. Most observers predict the cabinet will not fulfil its four-year term, with some saying it might not stay in place more than a year. “It is unclear now how long this government will last,” political analyst Antoniy Todorov wrote in the Sega newspaper yesterday. It might be extremely difficult to oust, however, as this will require an absolute majority of 121 lawmakers, he added. Borisov’s GERB has just 97 seats, while Ataka has 23.

“The risks for the cabinet lie outside parliament, in a society that is now waiting to see what will be accomplished but is ready to mobilise quickly if things take a wrong turn,” Todorov said. Addressing low incomes and high energy bills that sparked the winter rallies, and other problems such as slow judiciary reforms, growing crime and severely underfunded healthcare, was key to win the people’s trust, he added. “If this does not happen, the street lies in wait,” Todorov warned. — AFP

THE HAGUE: (From left) Bosnian Croats Jadranko Prlic, Bruno Stojic, Slobodan Praljak, Milivoj Petkovic, Valentin Coric and Berislav Pusic stand in the courtroom yesterday before their sentencing at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Prosecutors have asked for sentences of up to 40 years for the defendants. — AFP

PARIS: French police arrested a young man yesterday over the weekend stabbing of a soldier in Paris, with prosecutors saying he admitted to the attack and was probably motivated by “religious ideology”. Paris prosecutor Xavier Molins said the man, named as Alexandre D and who turns 22 today, was a convert to Islam who had bought two knives and said a prayer shortly before stabbing Private First Class Cedric Cordiez in the neck on Saturday.

Molins said the man, who was known to police after undergoing an identity check in 2009 for praying on the street, had “admitted to the act” during his arrest in the Yvelines region just west of Paris. The stabbing echoed the grisly killing of a British soldier in London last week and authorities are seeking to determine if the Paris incident was a copycat. “The nature of the acts, the fact they were committed three days after London and the prayer said just before the act took place lead us to believe that he acted in the name of his religious ideology and wanted to attack a representative of the state,” Molins said.

The prosecutor said the suspect had “a fairly clear intent to kill” during the attack, which took place in a busy underground shopping and transpor t hub while Cordiez was on patrol with two colleagues. Cordiez, 23, was wounded but released from hospital on Monday and returned to his unit.

The head of Paris investigative police, Christian Flaesch, said there had been no previous indications of the suspect’s involvement in violent extremism.

“Other than the praying in the street, there were no other elements that could have indicated he was dangerous,” Flaesch said, adding that the man was from a “family that seems completely honourable”. Molins said the suspect had shown an “impressive determination” to carry out the

attack, stabbing the soldier “several times” with a fold-out knife.

He said video footage from the shopping centre showed the suspect buying two knives an hour prior to the attack and praying eight minutes before the stabbing. Molins said the suspect was known to police for various misdemeanours but did not have a criminal record.

He was arrested at the home of a friend, who Molins said was not connected with the crime and did not know that the suspect was being sought. A police source said the suspect did not resist during his arrest at around 6:00 am (0400 GMT) and told officers he had spent three days hiding in an abandoned railcar in the area.

A source close to the investigation earlier said the suspect had been a follower of “traditionalist even radical Islam for the

last three or four years”. Police said he was identified thanks to the video footage and traces of his DNA found on items left at the scene in a plastic bag, including a knife and a bottle. In a statement Interior Minister Manuel Valls said investigators were seeking to know more about the suspect’s “motivation, background and family environment”.

Acquaintances in the La Verriere area where the suspect lived described him as a troubled loner. “People in the neighbourhood found him a bit weird because sometimes we’d see him at the mosque, but on the other hand he drank alcohol. He was lost,” local resident Kader Dahamni said. “He was often alone, walked alone, came home late at night,” Dahamni said. “He seemed like a person who has lost his way, lives from day to

day, there was always drink in his backpack, he’d eat on the hoof...

He seemed a bit like a tramp.”

Valls meanwhile warned of a growing number of young radicals in France similar to Mohamed Merah, the Islamist gunman who killed seven people, including three soldiers, in and around the southwestern city of Toulouse last year. Valls said on French television that there are “several dozen, perhaps several hundred, potential Merahs in our country,” adding that young French Muslims were being “radicalised” on the Internet and by extremist imams.

The key suspect in the London attack, Michael Adebolajo, was captured on video carr ying bloodied knives and a meat cleaver after the attack, saying he had murdered off-duty soldier Lee Rigby because British troops were killing Muslims.— AFP

PARIS: The suspected perpetrator of the May 26, 2013 attack on a soldier in the La Defense business district is escorted by a policeman of the Intervention and Search Brigade (BRI) as he arrives at police headquarters yesterday. — AFP

Ex-adviser warns Cameron leadership is under threat LONDON: British Prime Minister David Cameron’s position is under threat from the mayor of London, who is waiting for him to “fail miserably” at the next election so he can take his job, the leader’s former communications chief has said. In a rare foray into politics, Andy Coulson said he thought Boris Johnson, the British capital’s flamboyant mayor, was playing a waiting game, hoping Cameron would lose the 2015 election so that he could assume his role as leader of the Conservative party.

“Stabbing David, or anyone else for that matter, in the back would be distinctly off brand - just not very Boris,” Coulson wrote in GQ magazine in an article to be published today.

“He would much prefer to see David fail miserably in the election and ride in on his bike to save party and country,” he added, referring to Johnson’s preferred mode of transport. Known for his colourful turn of phrase and unruly mop of blond hair, Johnson, 48, was credited with playing a key role in last year’s successful London Olympics, and supporters say he has the

electoral appeal that cuts across party lines. Cameron, who leads a two-party coalition, is under growing pressure from his own lawmakers over his stance on Britain’s membership of the European Union and his decision to press ahead with gay marriage legislation. Both issues have divided the Conservatives, who trail the opposition Labour party by 10 percentage points in the polls and face a threat from a surging anti-European Union party, the UK Independence Party, which they have so far failed to stifle.

A small group of Conservative lawmakers even want to oust Cameron before the next election, but most deem that unlikely.

Johnson has long been tipped as a potential successor to Cameron and has made no secret of his ambition to succeed him if the position became vacant, while at the same time pledging loyalty to the prime minister. “Grateful as I always am to Andy for career advice, I am backing David Cameron all the way,” Johnson told reporters on Wednesday, saying he was increasingly confident Cameron would win the next

election. However, the intervention of Coulson, a former insider, is likely to resurrect speculation about the strength of Cameron’s position. “Boris Johnson desperately wants to be prime minister and David has known that fact longer than most,” Coulson wrote. “When Boris asked me to pass on the message that he was keen to stand as mayor of London, David responded ‘Well, if he wins, he’ll want my job next’.”

Johnson has been mayor since 2008.

Coulson advised Cameron, 46, to adopt a careful strategy. “Support his good ideas, advise privately on the bad ones, but only engage publicly if absolutely necessary and celebrate Boris’s considerable successes,” he wrote. Coulson resigned from his job as Cameron’s head of communications in 2011 after allegations he had known of phone hacking by journalists at the now defunct News of the World tabloid, of which he was previously editor. Coulson, who denied wrongdoing, is due to stand trial over the matter later this year. He also faces charges related to allegations of bribing public officials. — Reuters

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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

Attorney general signed off on Fox phone records subpoena WASHINGTON: US Attorney General Eric Holder personally approved a decision to subpoena Fox News telephone records as the Justice Department investigated an unauthorized leak regarding North Korea, officials said on Tuesday.

The Justice Department did not mention the subpoena when it issued a statement on Friday describing how Holder had vetted a decision to seek a search warrant for the contents of an email account used by Fox News reporter James Rosen.

The revelation that Holder approved subpoenas that sought Fox News phone records shows that his involvement was broader than the Justice Department had earlier acknowledged publicly, as

details continue to emerge in the controversy. Rosen reported in June 2009 that US intelligence officials believed North Korea would conduct more nuclear tests in response to UN sanctions. Stephen Kim, a former State Department analyst who was Rosen’s alleged source, is scheduled to go on trial as soon as next year on charges that he violated an anti-espionage law. Rosen has not been charged. “In the investigation that led to the indictment of Stephen Kim, the government issued subpoenas, with approval from the attorney general as required by Justice Department guidelines, for toll records for five phone numbers associated with the media over a two-day period,” a

Justice Department official said.

The Obama administration has also been under fire for a separate subpoena of Associated Press phone records as part of a different investigation of an alleged unauthorized leak. Both incidents have sparked an outcry from journalists, but the Fox News case has proved more concerning to some because investigators described Rosen as a suspected “co-conspirator” in the leak of secret government information.

ACCUSED OF INTIMIDATION Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes said in a statement on Thursday that the Obama administration was attempting to intimidate Fox News and its employ-

ees. A law enforcement official said that subpoenas issued for Fox News covered telephone records for two days during 2009. The official said that a certified letter and fax notifying the general counsel of News Corp, parent of Fox News, about the subpoenas was sent on Aug 27, 2010, the day Kim was indicted.

Authorities emailed Rosen at his work address with a similar notification, the official said. News Corp has said that it has found no record of such notifications, though it is not disputing government officials’ accounts. Mark Corallo, a Justice Department spokesman between 2002 and 2005, said that during his tenure, any request from any part of the Justice Department for the issuing

of subpoenas against a news organization had to be submitted to his office for approval. Corallo said that of “dozens” of requests from prosecutors for subpoenas directed against news organizations, he approved only one during his tenure.

President Barack Obama said last week that Holder would begin a review of Justice Department procedures related to media records.

Holder, speaking to reporters on Tuesday, said he hopes to meet this week with media organizations about the review. “We’re going to have a real frank, good conversation about this,” Holder said. “And I think we’re going to make some changes. I’m not satisfied with where we are.”—Reuters

Derailment and blast near Baltimore rattles homes CSX freight train crashes into trash truck

COLORADO: A large sign posted at the entrance of Paradise Firearms in Colorado Springs invites customers to sign a recall petition against Colorado Democratic State Senate President John Morse. In gun-friendly Colorado, gunrights activists with support of the National Rifle Association are seeking Morse’s ouster for his support of new laws that restrict ammunition magazines and expand background checks to private gun sales. — AP

Gun debate overlooks America daily violence LARGO: Florena Carter’s shattered life didn’t make national news. Her son was killed on his 28th birthday in 2009. Carter’s brother pulled the trigger. Her father shot himself soon afterward. The horrifying family tragedy became one more private story in America’s plague of gun violence. That year, 9,146 other people nationwide lost their lives in shootings. The vast majority died in the type of daily gun violence that does not grab national headlines in the same way as the December massacre of 20 young children and six teachers at an elementary school in Connecticut, or the mass shooting last July in a Colorado movie theater that killed 12 people and wounded 70.

Those attacks became the focus of a bitter national debate over guns, which culminated with the defeat in the Senate of several proposals backed by President Barack Obama to tighten gun control laws, including banning military-style assault weapons and expanding background checks to stop criminals and the mentally ill from buying firearms. Often lost in America’s divisive gun control politics are the stories of people whose urban communities suffer the most from shootings every day.

Although violent crime has been declining in the United States, it still far outstrips the rate of other developed countries. FBI figures show 8,583 people were killed by guns in 2011, the last year for which numbers were available.

That is nearly 24 people a day. The figure is far higher when counting the number of people who kill themselves with guns. The federal Centers for Disease Control listed 19,392 gun suicides in the United States in 2010, the latest figures available.

Among the hard-hit places is Prince George’s County, the Washington D.C. suburb where Stefan Carter was killed by his uncle 3 1/2 years ago. The county in the state of Maryland has long suffered under a reputation for violent crime, even though the U.S. Census Bureau lists it as the wealthiest majority African-American county in the country.

Support for gun control tends to run high in places like Prince George’s County. In other parts of the country, particularly states with large rural populations, people say firearms

are essential for hunting and personal safety, a right that has been protected by the Second Amendment of the Constitution for more than 200 years. As the American frontier expanded westward, gun ownership became culturally entrenched, and for many citizens, it remains a way of life. But other Americans believe the Second Amendment, adopted in 1791, no longer makes sense in modern urban settings like Prince George’s County, where shootings tear at society.

Florena Carter, a 24-year veteran police officer, has concerns about the easy access to handguns for civilians. She is convinced that simply owning a gun made her brother more likely to use it. Her son and her brother had been out on the town celebrating Stefan’s birthday. When they were heading home, she said, her son tried to stop her brother from driving because the older man was intoxicated. They fought and Carter’s brother pulled a handgun and shot Stefan. Carter was at a loss to explain how the dispute escalated. The two men had been close; neither was prone to violence, Carter said. “All I can think is that it was the alcohol and that he had a gun,” she said.

That argument goes counter to rhetoric often cited by US gun advocates who say that gun restrictions can’t stop people who are determined to misuse guns. What’s more, they argue, such shootings among family members should not deny law-abiding citizens from owning guns for self-protection. Since the Connecticut school shooting, many gunrights activists have insisted the solution is for more people to own guns, not fewer.

Politicians in some states have proposed laws allowing school teachers to carry guns, arguing that shooters will be less likely to target public places where they know people are armed. Supporters argue that restricting firearms rights will only prevent people from defending themselves from criminals who will find a way to get guns no matter what. But in Prince George’s County, Carter doesn’t buy the argument that guns make people safer. Last year, she worked with a county program known as Gift Cards for Guns, which allows people to anonymously turn in their weapons in exchange for a $100 gift card.—AP

UK fund executives go on trial in Cuba HAVANA: The two top executives of a British investment fund in Cuba are scheduled to go on trial in Havana today, according to sources close to the accused men, as part of an unprecedented government crackdown on corruption involving foreign businessmen. In the second trial of foreign executives on the Communist-run Island in a week, Amado Fakhre, a Lebanese-born British citizen and chief executive officer of Coral Capital Group Ltd, faces various bribery charges related mainly to the fund’s import business.

Chief Operating Officer Stephen Purvis, who headed up various investment projects, reportedly faces lesser charges, such as operating outside the bounds of the fund’s license. Fakhre has been jailed since the company’s offices were raided and closed in October 2011. Purvis was arrested and imprisoned in March 2012. “We are providing consular assistance to them and their families and a consular official will attend the trial,” a British diplomat said.

The trial has not been announced to the public or media. Coral Capital was one of only a handful of small foreign investment funds in Cuba. It was caught up in a dragnet of Cuba’s international trading sector, which was part of a broader crackdown on corruption by President Raul Castro, who replaced ailing brother Fidel in 2008. In

September 2011 authorities shut down one of the most important Western trading companies in Cuba, Canada-based Tokmakjian Group, after doing the same in July to another Canadian trading firm, TriStar Caribbean.

The closed trial of Sarkis Yacoubian, originally from Armenia and the owner of Tri-Star Caribbean, was held last week. An associate of Yacoubian, Lebanese citizen Krikor Bayassalian, was a co-defendant.

They were charged with bribery, tax evasion and damaging the economy. If the court affirms their guilt, sentencing is expected within a week or so. “The arrests are aimed at shaking the tree to get to corrupt Cuban officials and purchasers,” a local expert on state-run companies said, asking that his name not be used.

Dozens of Cuban officials and businessmen have reportedly been arrested, tried and sentenced in the anti-corruption sweep. A number of other foreigners and Cubans who worked for the three foreign companies remain free but cannot leave the island because they are considered witnesses in the cases. Cuban officials and lawyers for the defendants could not be reached for comment. Cuba’s state-run media has not yet reported the trials, nor mentioned the arrests and crackdown on foreign trade.—Reuters

ROSEDALE: A CSX freight train crashed into a trash truck and derailed Tuesday in a Baltimore suburb and the explosion that followed rattled homes at least a half-mile away, sending a plume of smoke into the air that could be seen for miles, officials and witnesses said. In the third serious derailment this month, the dozen or so cars went off the tracks at about 2 pm in Rosedale, a Baltimore eastern suburb.

Hazmat teams were on the scene, but Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz said at a news conference that no toxic inhalants were burning. Officials did not order an evacuation. The truck driver was taken to the hospital in serious condition and two CSX workers aboard weren’t hurt, fire officials said.

Dale Walston said he lives about a half-mile away and that he thought he could smell chemicals. “It shook my house pretty violently and knocked things off the shelves,” he said in an email to The Associated Press.

Even an hour after the blast, the thick plume of black smoke drifted across the Baltimore city line and covered the eastern part of the city. The face of one warehouse near the train tracks blew off. Shortly after 6:30 pm, the plume lightened considerably, changing from black to gray, and its intensity diminished. Firefighters had been battling the flames for an hour and a half after initially considering letting the cars burn out.

CSX spokesman Gary Sease said in an email that sodium chlorate is on one of the trains, which the Department of Transportation classifies as a hazardous material. However, Baltimore County Fire Chief John Hohman said the chemical is not in one of the cars that was burning into the evening. The bleaching agent is used in making paper. Nick Materer, an Oklahoma State University chemist and chief science officer at ExploSafe LLC in Stillwater, Okla., said sodium chlorate, when combined with fuel, makes a more volatile mixture. “When you mix them together and add fire they go boom,” he said in a phone interview. Materer said the chemical is usually shipped as a white powder but it can also be in a liquid solution. Either way, he said, the fumes can irritate the lungs if inhaled.

Earlier, fire officials had said buildings had collapsed, but Hohman modified that to say two warehouses were heavily damaged by the explosion and other buildings were harmed, but none collapsed. An Amtrak spokeswoman said its Northeast Corridor service was not affected. Kevin Lindemann, 29, a salesman for industrial pipe supplier Baltimore Windustrial near the tracks, said he and about 10 co-workers felt the ground shake, ran to a window and saw several cars on their sides and flames he estimated were 50 feet high.

“You could feel the heat as soon as you walked out the door,” Lindemann said. “We kind of panicked pretty quick,” he said. “We didn’t wait around to see what was happening. So as soon as we saw the flames I took a quick picture and got in my truck and drove away. I wasn’t sticking around for the explo-

sion.” Everyone left the building and drove several blocks away. Then they heard the explosion, five to 10 minutes after the derailment, he said.

“Even like three blocks away, it was loud. I mean, it just about took you to your knees,” Lindemann said. Exactly what triggered the explosion was being investigated, and Hohman said firefighters were informing residents of about 70 nearby homes that they could leave if they choose and shelter will be provided. However, no one was being forced to evacuate. Derailments have done great damage before in Baltimore, a city with countless train tracks.

Twelve years ago was the derailment and chemical fire in Baltimore’s Howard Street tunnel. Rail cars burned for five days underground in July 2001. Portions of downtown were closed and rail traffic across the US was affected for days. CSX eventually agreed to pay Baltimore $2 million to help defray the city ’s cleanup costs. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Railroad Administration were sending teams to investigate Tuesday’s crash.

Photos showed at least a dozen train cars off the tracks, including at least one tanker car. Sease said four of the cars believed derailed carried terephthalic acid, which is used in the production of plastics and polyester, among other things. He said it is not listed as a hazardous material. One of the cars still burning was carrying terephthalic acid, and another was carrying fluoroacetic acid, Hohman said. Fluoroacetic acid can be used as a pesticide.

Hazardous materials moving through Baltimore and elsewhere in Maryland was the subject of an agreement a few years ago between the state and CSX. After a November

2007 derailment involving a freight train carrying hazardous materials near Camden Yards, CSX agreed to give security officials real-time information about potential harmful cargo moving through the state on freight trains.

Railroads had previously guarded such details as proprietary information. Also hit by a serious derailment this month was Bridgeport, Conn. On May 17, more than 70 people were injured when a commuter train went off the tracks. The eastbound train from New York City derailed during evening rush hour, came to a stop and was struck about 20 seconds later by a westbound train. In Rockview, Mo, on Saturday, a cargo train crash injured seven people and destroyed a highway overpass that could take a year to repair.

Despite the high-profile railroad accidents, the overall number of such crashes has been declining industry wide and for CSX over the past decade. Last year was the safest year on record for the railroad industry, according to the railroad administration. All train accidents are down 43 percent since 2003, and derailments are down 40 percent over the same period, according to data provided by the administration. Freight train derailments specifically are also down 40 percent.

In each of the past five years, CSX has reported more than 100 deaths in accidents and incidents involving the railroad. CSX, based in Jacksonville, Fla, operates over 21,000 miles of track in 23 eastern states and two Canadian provinces. Its shares traded higher Tuesday before the derailment was reported. The shares closed down 20 cents at $25.30. Bertha Pressley and her husband Tom Brown said their townhome in Middle River, about 3 miles away, shook and they initially feared a bomb or natural disaster. “I thought it was terrorism,” Pressley said.— AP

ROSEDALE: A fire burns at the site of a CSX freight train derailment in Rosedale, Md where fire officials say the train crashed into a trash truck, causing an explosion that rattled homes at least a half-mile away and collapsed nearby buildings.— AP

US school-bomb suspect charged CORVALLIS: An Oregon high-school student accused of making bombs and plotting a massacre like that carried out at Columbine High School in Colorado 14 years ago was charged on Tuesday with 19 criminal counts, including attempted murder.

Grant Acord, who according to court documents compared himself to the two attackers who killed 12 fellow students and a teacher and then themselves in the 1999 Columbine attack, was advised of the charges against him during a brief hearing at the Linn County Circuit Court in Corvallis, Oregon.

Acord, 17, was arrested at his mother’s home on Thursday after police got a tip that he had made a bomb and planned to detonate it at West Albany High School, some 70 miles southwest of Portland. A search of the residence in North Albany turned up six home-made explosive devices, including pipe bombs, Molotov cocktails and napalm bombs, under the floorboards of Acord’s bedroom, authorities say.

Acord was not brought into the packed courtroom but appeared via closed-circuit television from a juvenile detention facility.

He spoke only a few words, in response to questions from the judge about his understanding of the proceedings, and at the request of a court-appointed defense attorney did not enter a plea. He was ordered back to court on June 4. In their search of Acord’s home, police also discovered diagrams of his high school, which they say led them to believe he was planning a Columbine-style attack.

According to affidavits filed with the charging documents, police seized journals and notebooks from Acord’s home in which he compared himself to

the Columbine attackers, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and which “contained written and typed plans including diagrams to commit ‘mass murder’ at West Albany High School.” Also found was a list of supplies to bring, which included a “black trench coat, black tactical backpack and medium black duffel bag.” Police said they found a document, titled “The (Loosely Stated) ‘Plan’ AKA Worse case Scenario,”

OREGON: This booking photo shows suspect Grant Acord. A US teenager accused of plotting an explosive attack on his school inspired by the 1999 Columbine massacre suffered from a rare mental disorder, his mother was quoted as saying yesterday. —AFP

in which Acord allegedly describes how he would carry out the attack. “Get gear out of trunk. Carry Duffle in one hand, napalm firebomb in the other, walk towards school with ‘airport stak’ blasting out of car. Drop duffle. Light and throw napalm, unzip bag and begin firing. Cooly state: ‘The Russian grim reaper is here’ (bad boys 2),” the plan says in part. “If 3d exit is blocked by napalm fire, or is locked, run to 1st entrance. In either entrance, throw a smoke bomb prior to walking in. Proceed to enter the school, then shoot and throw bombs throughout the school. Kill myself before S.W.A.T. engages me,” the plan says.

Earlier on Tuesday, Acord’s mother, Marianne Fox, said in a statement through her attorney, Alan Lanker, that her son suffered from a rare form of obsessive-compulsive disorder. “My heart goes out to everyone affected by Grant’s struggle with PANDAS, a rare form of OCD,” Fox said. “I grieve for my son, but understand and support the efforts of law enforcement to keep our beloved community safe.

“This is a challenging and confusing time for everyone who knows Grant,” she said. “I will have no further comment while I wait with the rest of you to see what unfolds.” Lanker said that Acord’s parents were divorced and that the boy lived primarily with his mother. PANDAS, or Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcus, is caused by an immune reaction to strep, and the symptoms are similar to those of childhood obsessive compulsive disorder and tic disorders, according to the website of the International OCD Foundation. —Reuters

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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

Tension mounts near the Filipino shipwreck South China Sea tensions enter new risky era

JAKARTA: Loudspeakers and telecommunication antennas from various telecommunication companies are installed on the minaret of Jami Babus Salam mosque in Jakarta. Indonesian mosques have been ordered to cut down on their use of loudspeakers, an Islamic group said yesterday, a move that may provide some relief to millions who live near the places of worship. — AFP

Indonesia mosques ordered to turn down the volume JAKARTA: Indonesian mosques have been ordered to cut down on their use of loudspeakers, an Islamic group said yesterday, a move that may provide some relief to millions who live near the places of worship.

There are some 800,000 mosques in Indonesia, which has the world’s biggest Muslim population, and many use speakers to blast out the call to prayer as well as fiery Quranic verses, often at high volumes in the early hours.

But now the Indonesian Mosques Council has asked the places of worship to restrict the use of loudspeakers following years of complaints by weary residents. “We must not force something that we believe is good on others who may see it as a disturbance,” said Masdar Masudi, deputy head of the council that groups many of the country’s mosques.

“Even Muslims, such as those who are ill or have insomnia, will definitely get annoyed at the noise.”

Loudspeakers that face into surrounding

neighborhoods should broadcast only the call to prayer, which is often relatively quiet and short, said Masudi. If there are several mosques in the same area, only one should broadcast the call, he said.

For longer and louder readings, speakers can still be used, but they must face into the grounds of the mosque, he said.

Mosques become particularly noisy during the holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims forgo food, drink and sex between dawn and dusk and the loudspeakers blare out Quranic verses almost constantly.

Previous attempts to get mosques to lower their volume have met with extreme opposition. An elderly Indonesian was forced earlier this year to withdraw a legal action against a noisy mosque in the city of Banda Aceh on Sumatra island after an angry mob threatened to kill him.

Nevertheless, he ended up winning a rare victory-the mosque in question turned down the volume significantly after the case. — AFP

Malaysia oppn figures charged with sedition KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian court yesterday charged four people with sedition as part of what critics have decried as a crackdown on accusations that the government cheated to win recent elections. The allegations, repeated in a series of oppositionorganized rallies drawing tens of thousands of people around the country, have added pressure on Prime Minister Najib Razak who was already smarting from a disappointing polls win.

The four men charged yesterday-opposition politicians Tian Chua and Tamrin Ghafar, and two activists-pleaded not guilty in a Kuala Lumpur district court.

Sedition carries a prison term of up to three years. They were charged with making “seditious” statements by calling for protests against the May 5 elections, Chua’s lawyer N Surendran said. Their comments were made during a post-election public forum. “It’s a completely groundless charge.

It seems to be punishing free speech,” said

Surendran, who is also vice-president of the People’s Justice Party headed by Anwar Ibrahim.

Anwar had led a three-party opposition against the Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition that has ruled Malaysia since independence in 1957. “This is part of a wider campaign by the prime minister and the home minister to silence opposition to election fraud,” Surendran added.

The opposition has accused Barisan of illegally enlisting immigrant workers as voters and introducing supposedly indelible inkmeant to prevent multiple voting-that washed off easily, among other allegations.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing. The opposition has since launched a broad campaign to portray Najib as an illegitimate ruler and force substantive electoral reforms, including a complete overhaul of an Election Commission it says is biased.

Another student activist was charged last week with sedition. —AFP

Philippine airline cancels Taiwan flights amid row MANILA: One of the Philippines’ biggest airlines said yesterday it had cancelled the planned launch of a new Taiwan route because of tensions over a Taiwanese fishermen being killed by the Filipino coastguard.

Cebu Pacific had been scheduled to begin flights between Cebu, the Philippines’ second-biggest city, and Taiwan’s capital, Taipei, in July but this week indefinitely suspended the route, an airline spokeswoman said. “It would be a bit difficult to start it with the current tension... some passengers (had) already requested refunds or travel changes” spokeswoman Candice Iyog said.

However she said an existing route between Manila and Taipei would be kept.

Coastguard officers shot dead a 65-yearold Taiwanese man on May 9 who they said was aboard a boat fishing illegally in Philippine waters. Taiwan’s government, which said the incident took place in its exclusive economic zone, reacted with fury,

issuing a “red alert” against travelling to the Philippines and imposing economic sanctions. The zones claimed by the two sides overlap in some areas. It rejected repeated apologies from the Philippine government, and demanded that criminal charges be brought against those responsible for the killing.

Philippine tourism department spokesman Benito Bengzon said the travel alert had started to have an impact, and a strategy was being put into place to try and make up for the fall from Taiwan by attracting tourists from other markets. Budget carrier Zest Airlines said last week it had cancelled flights between Taiwan and Kalibo, a gateway to the popular beach resort of Boracay. Taiwan has also frozen the hiring of overseas Filipino workers, and an invitation for the Philippine national basketball team to play in a regional tournament in Taipei was rescinded. — AFP

TAIPEI: Foreign migrant workers gesture and shout “I love Taiwan” during a gathering in Taipei in a “thank-you” event organized by a group of Taiwanese artists and academics for foreign workers on the island. The gathering came as anti-Manila sentiment has mounted in Taiwan after a 65-year-old Taiwanese fisherman was shot dead earlier this month by Philippine coastguards who claimed his vessel had intruded into their territorial waters. — AFP

MANILA: A wrecked navy transport ship perched on a remote coral reef could be the next flashpoint in the South China Sea, where China and five other claimants bitterly dispute territory. The Philippines is accusing China of encroachment after three Chinese ships, including a naval frigate, converged just 5 nautical miles from an old transport ship that Manila ran aground on a reef in 1999 to mark its territory.

Philippine officials say they fear the Chinese ships will block supplies to about a dozen Filipino marines stationed in abject conditions on the rusting ship, raising tensions over one of Asia’s biggest security issues.

The area, known as Second Thomas Shoal, is a strategic gateway to Reed Bank, believed to be rich in oil and natural gas.

In 2010, Manila awarded an Anglo-Filipino consortium a licence to explore for gas on Reed Bank but drilling stalled last year due to the presence of Chinese ships. Manila says Reed Bank, about 80 nautical miles west of Palawan island at the southwestern end of the Philippine archipelago, is within the country’s 200-nautical mile exclusive economic zone. Beijing says it is part of the Spratlys, a group of 250 uninhabitable islets spread over 165,000 square miles, claimed entirely by China, Taiwan and Vietnam and in part by Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines.

“China should pull out of the area because under international law, they do not have the right to be there,” said Raul Hernandez, a

spokesman for the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs, noting the area’s proximity to Palawan, the country’s largest province. He said the Chinese ships were a “provocation and illegal presence”. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday the Second Thomas Shoal was part of the Spratly Islands, over which China had “indisputable sovereignty”. “It is beyond reproach for Chinese boats to carry out patrols in these waters,” Hong said, adding China called on all parties to “refrain from taking actions that complicate the situation”.

CHINA REPORT WARNS OF CRISIS AHEAD The tension illustrates how a decades-old territorial squabble over the South China Sea is entering a more contentious chapter as claimant nations spread deeper into disputed waters in search of energy supplies, while building up navies and alliances with other nations.

Vietnam this week again accused China of endangering the lives of its fishermen with the ramming of a trawler in the South China Sea. “The actions of the Chinese vessels have seriously violated Vietnam’s sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction in the East Sea, threatening lives and property damage of Vietnam’s fishermen,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Luong Thanh Nghi said in a statement posted on Tuesday.

Vietnam handed a diplomatic note the Chinese Embassy in Hanoi to protest the incident. China said it was merely acting to prevent illegal

fishing in Chinese waters, adding that Vietnam’s accusations “did not accord with the facts”. A report issued on Tuesday by Chinese military think tank the Centre for National Defense Policy said it was the US “pivot” back to Asia which had “shattered” the relative calm of the South China Sea, warning of crisis ahead.

“While the conditions do not yet exist for a large-scale armed clash, the dispute is becoming normalized and long-term ... and ineffective management may lead to a serious crisis,” the report said, according to the China News Service. The tension comes just before US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel meets his Asia-Pacific counterparts at the socalled Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore at the weekend. The South China Sea is on the agenda of the regional security forum. Second Thomas Shoal is one of several possible flashpoints in the South China Sea that could force the United States to intervene in defense of its Southeast Asian allies.

‘CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER’ As of Tuesday, two Chinese marine surveillance ships remained in the area, Philippine navy spokesman Colonel Edgardo Arevalo said, adding the fishing boats and the frigate had left. “The presence of those ships is a clear and present danger,” said another senior Philippine navy officer, who declined to be identified as he is not authorized to speak to media. He said the

Philippines believed China was trying to pressure it to leave the shoal.

“We don’t want to wake up one day with fresh structures sitting near our navy ship there. We have to bite the bullet and strengthen our position there or risk losing the territory.”

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), a 10-nation grouping that includes the Philippines, has been talking to China about a binding code of conduct to ease tension.

But China says it will negotiate “when the time is ripe”.

ASEAN foreign ministers are due to meet in Thailand in August to forge a position on the code of conduct before meeting Chinese officials in late August or early September in Beijing. Zha Daojiong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Peking University, said China was serious about asserting its claims in the South China Sea. “There is now a quiet agreement among different Chinese voices that sometimes you have to act as well as issuing statements,” he said.

Ian Storey, a scholar at Singapore’s Institute of South East Asian Studies, said tension at Second Thomas Shoal could prove more dangerous than last year’s stand-off at unoccupied Scarborough Shoal, given the presence of Filipino troops. “It is hard to imagine China using force to gain full control over Second Thomas, but some kind of blockade to drive out the Philippines’ troops would have to be a possibility,” Storey said. “There is a real chance of escalation or miscalculation.” —Reuters

Bhutan to vote on second ever govt THIMPHU: Voters in the isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan will begin electing their second ever government this week, five years after the country’s Buddhist “dragon kings” gave way to democracy. The electorate of less than 400,000 people will choose from four parties on Friday when the primary round of voting for the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, commences. The two most popular parties will then contest a run-off round on July 13 to form the next government.

Bhutan, which is landlocked by Asian giants India to the south and China to the north, held its first election in 2008 after the monarchy ceded absolute power and actively led the move to a parliamentary democracy. In the 2008 vote, the centre-right Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT), drawn from the country’s traditional elite, won a huge landslide and secured 45 of 47 seats available against the People’s Democratic Party.

This time two new centre-left parties, both led by women, are joining the contest, but the well-established DPT is generally expected to win by a small margin-although opinion polls are banned. A rule that allows only graduates to stand for office has created difficulties for the new parties in their search for recruits, with a fifth party disqualified over its lack of candidates. “I think the DPT will get through because of the (pro-)incumbency factor,” a political analyst in the capital Thimphu said, declining to be named.

He said Bhutan’s huge development under the DPT, especially the building of roads and provision of electricity to rural areas, made the party popular in a nation where more than 40 percent of people depend on agriculture and forestry. Jigmi Y Thinley, the incumbent prime minister, is also the only leading candidate who can speak in Bhutan’s many local dialects, which could help him win more support in remote corners of the country.

The DPT is unlikely to repeat its 2008 landslide win, analysts say, as it faces more competition amid concerns over corruption, youth

unemployment and a rupee liquidity crunch under the party’s watch. Bhutan is heavily dependent on India for aid, investment and the majority of its imports, leading supplies of the Indian rupee to run out last year due to too much demand. Bhutan’s ngultrum currency is also pegged to the rupee.

Political science lecturer Karma Tenzin, 27, said he wanted a new government that would promote more long-term self-sufficiency.

“Dependency on foreign aid is not sustainable,” he said. The economy grew by 7.5 percent in the fiscal year to June 2012, down from 10 percent a year earlier, but is expected to rise to 8.6 percent this year fuelled by hydropower and high-end tourism, according to the Asian Development Bank. The country is better known for measuring

“Gross National Happiness”, a unique yardstick that prioritizes citizens’ well-being and environment-friendly policies.

In April, Bhutan voted for 20 elected seats in the National Council, the upper house of parliament whose members have no party affiliation and monitor the government’s actions, review legislation and advise the king.

Turnout was just 45 percent, down from 53 percent in the last election, but greater interest is expected in the vote on Friday, which has been declared a public holiday. Party leaders kicked off the election season in early May with a televised debate. Bhutan was the last country in the world to introduce TV in 1999 and it remains fiercely protective of its national identity and culture. — AFP

THIMPHU: In this file photograph, Bhutanese residents queue as they wait to cast their votes at a polling station in Thimphu during the second parliamentary elections of Bhutan. — AFP

Inquest: Journalist killed

by Thailand army bullet BANGKOK: An Italian photographer killed while covering the Thai military’s crackdown on anti-government protesters in Bangkok three years ago was shot by a highvelocity bullet like those issued to soldiers, a judge said yesterday. The inquest said it was unknown who fired the bullet and stopped short of outright blaming the military.

Rights groups have repeatedly called for Thailand’s government to hold the powerful army accountable for its part in the violence.

A Bangkok South Criminal Court judge said that the inquest into the death of 48-year-old Fabio Polenghi showed the fatal shot “was fired from the direction of security forces” who were mobilized to quash the demonstration in central Bangkok. It was likely Polenghi was killed by a bullet from the .223 cartridge which was used with M-16 and HK33 rifles issued to soldiers on the ground that day, the inquest said.

The findings were a stark reminder of a battle fought between the Red Shirt protesters and the government under then-

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, which led to at least 91 deaths during the two months of demonstrations on the streets of Bangkok in 2010, and of a political divide that remains in the country. Polenghi was shot as he tried to take pictures of the army’s assault on the Red Shirt encampment. Testimonies from the inquest that began last July showed the bullet went in Polenghi’s back and came through his left chest. The judge said the bullet went through his heart, lung and liver, causing excessive bleeding until he died at the hospital on May 19, 2010.

Born in Italy in 1962, Polenghi had been a fashion photographer for many years but was transitioning to news. Elisabetta Polenghi, 48, his younger sister, was among 13 witnesses who testified in the court case. She was accompanied by her mother and her elder sister to hear the court’s order yesterday. “It was positive but it’s not the solution,” Elisabetta Polenghi said of the inquest’s results. “The solution will come when the responsible will be asked to go out of their duty, away

from position that can hurt people.”

The Polenghi case is the eighth inquest initiated by Thai authorities to seek the cause of deaths of those killed in the violence. The court previously ruled that five people were killed by guns used by military personnel, while two inquests were inconclusive on who committed the killings. Abhisit’s government approved the use of live ammunition under limited conditions and deployed sharpshooters and snipers during the demonstration. The Red Shirtallied government that succeeded Abhisit’s agreed last year to pay compensation to all the victims of violence in order to promote political reconciliation.

Rights groups have repeatedly called for the government to hold the army accountable. “It’s the first step towards achieving justice in this case and we’re encouraged that the judges effectively acknowledged that the bullet came from state security forces,” said Shawn Crispin, a Southeast Asia’s representative of the nonprofit Committee to Protect

Journalists. “It’s clear that the family of Fabio is going to fight this and will effectively try to establish and hold to account those at the highest ranks of the chains of command that ordered soldiers to shoot that day.” Thai authorities have a long history of shielding military personnel from prosecution in political bloodsheds in recent decades.

Polenghi’s lawyer Karom Polpornklang said Wednesday the inquest will be used in a future court case against Abhisit and his then-deputy Suthep Thaugsuban, who controlled a joint government military center that ran the operation ending the protests. “It has to be proven that the orders for the security forces to move in ... came from Mr. Suthep and Mr. Abhisit.

They cannot deny their responsibility and cannot be dismissed in this case,” Karom told reporters. “Or else an incident like this will happen again.” The Department of Special Investigation began a murder investigation of Abhisit and Suthep last year, but charges have not been brought to court. — AP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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

Nepal marks 60 years since Everest summit victory KATHMANDU: Nepal yesterday marked 60 years since the first ascent of Everest, celebrating the pioneering climbers whose bravery spawned an industry that many mountaineers fear is now ruining the world’s highest peak. Four days of ceremonies dubbed the “Everest Diamond Jubilee” ended yesterday with family members of Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, the first summiteers, laying garlands on statues of the legendary pair.

Hillary’s granddaughter and niece joined Italian climbing celebrity Reinhold Messner, Norgay ’s grandson Tashi Tenzing and the last surviving member of the 1953 expedition, Kancha Sherpa, in a horse-drawn chariot procession through Kathmandu. The British-funded trip to the highest point on earth - 8,848 meters above sea level-changed mountaineering forever and turned New Zealander Hillary and Nepalese guide Norgay into household names in many parts of the world.

“Hillary and Tenzing were rock stars of the 1950s and into the 1960s,” Hillary’s son Peter told AFP in an interview. “The biggest thing about 1953 is that they

were going into the unknown. “People didn’t know what was up there, they didn’t know whether or not you could remain conscious, they didn’t know whether they could climb that final summit knife-edged ridge and get up what is now called the Hillary Step.”

A host of famous mountaineering figures attended a gala night at the palace of Nepal’s former royal family. But while the Nepalese government is keen to promote the anniversary- Everest is a major revenue-earner for the impoverished country-many in the climbing community reflected on the dangers of over-commercialisation. Recent photographs showing queues of climbers waiting their turn to reach the summit, as well as growing mounds of rubbish and even a brawl between climbers and porters this year, have highlighted problems on the “roof of the world”.

“Everest has turned into a playground for people with all sorts of interests,” veteran climber Temba Tsheri Sherpa, who runs an expedition company, lamented in an interview with AFP. “All they want is to set new records and they seem to be willing to pay thousands of dollars in order

to fulfill their dreams,” he added. More than 3,500 people have so far reached the peak, according to government figures.

This season alone 540 people reached the summit, including the first female amputee, the first women from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and the first armless man. Nepalese and Japanese octogenarians have faced off to claim the record for the world’s oldest person to reach the summit. But Nepal’s Min Bahadur Sherchan, 81, cancelled his bid yesterday, ceding the record to Yuichiro Miura, 80, who reached the top last week. Kancha Sherpa, now 81, worked as a porter on the maiden expedition, which he remembers as an arduous but ultimately joyous affair-although he regrets that the glory is not more equally shared among the team. “Everyone knew Tenzing and Hillary climbed Everest but nobody knows how hard we worked along the way,” Kancha told AFP. “One thousand, two hundred coolies (porters) were gathered together at Bhaktapur near Kathmandu...”Everyone walked from there because there weren’t any roads, no motor vehicles, no planes. —AFP

KHUMBU: Participants of the Tenzing Hillary Everest Marathon begin their race at the Everest base camp in the Khumbu region of the Nepal Himalayas yesterday. — AP

US drone kills top Pakistani militant First drone strike in Pakistan since election PESHAWAR: A suspected US drone strike killed the No 2 commander of the Pakistani Taleban yesterday, Pakistani intelligence officials said, although the militant group denied he was killed.

If confirmed, the death of Waliur Rehman would be a strong blow to the militant group responsible for hundreds of bombings and shootings across Pakistan.

The United States has a $5 million bounty out on Rehman, who Washington has accused of involvement in the 2009 suicide attack on a US base in Afghanistan that killed seven Americans working for the CIA. Missiles fired by a US drone slammed into a house yesterday in Miran Shah, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region, killing four people including Rehman, three Pakistani officials said.

Two of the officials said their informants in the field saw Rehman’s body, while a third said intelligence authorities had intercepted communications between militants saying Rehman had been killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media. A spokesman for the Pakistani Taleban, however, denied the reports. “This appears to me to be false news. I don’t have any such information,” said Ahsanullah Ahsan, speaking to The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Most of North Waziristan is under militant control, and journalists do not have access to the rugged region near the Afghan border, making it difficult to independently confirm such incidents.

The missile attack was the first since Pakistan’s landmark elections on May 11 in which the American drone program was a hotly debated topic. It was also the first strike in Pakistan since President Barack Obama’s speech last Thursday during which he discussed more restrictive rules he was implementing on the use of the controversial drones in places such as Pakistan and Yemen.

The tribal region in northwestern Pakistan is home to a variety of local and Afghan militant outfits, including Al-Qaeda-linked fighters. The US has often criticized Pakistan, saying it does not vigorously target militants in these areas who then attack American troops in neighboring Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say their military is already overtaxed by fighting militants in both the tribal regions and in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, and that the casualties they’ve already incurred have not been properly recognized.

Washington’s drone program remains deeply unpopular in Pakistan, even though the number of strikes has dropped significantly since the height of the program in 2010. The strikes usually target Al-Qaeda-linked insurgents or other militants who fight in Afghanistan against NATO, although some strikes have killed militants who are at war with the Pakistani government. The

WASHINGTON: Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel will reassure allies in a trip to Asia this week that the United States intends to ‘follow through’ on its promised strategic shift to the Pacific region, officials said. In his first trip to the area since he took over as defense secretar y in February, Hagel was expected to discuss Washington’s “rebalance” towards Asia and recent tensions with North Korea in meetings with his counterparts at a Singapore conference.

“The focus is really follow through this year,” said a senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Last year, we were sharing with the region the new strategic guidance. This year is really about showing that that strategic guidance, the rebalance, is under way,” the official told reporters. President Barack Obama last year unveiled a new security strategy that emphasized a shift towards the Asia region, reflecting worries over China’s growing military power.

But a budget impasse in Washington has triggered automatic cuts to US military spending, raising concerns in Asia that America’s promised rebalance could be derailed. At the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, an annual summit organ-

ized by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, Hagel was due to meet numerous defense ministers from the region and deliver a policy speech on Saturday.

At last year’s Singapore summit, former defense secretary Leon Panetta announced that the majority of the US naval fleet would be gradually shifted to the Pacific region as part of the pivot to Asia. Hagel was scheduled to hold bilateral talks with counterparts from the Phillipines, South Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia as well as Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. He also will hold a trilateral meeting with ministers from Japan and South Korea. “We have a lot to talk about in terms of shared security interests, especially given some recent provocations and provocative rhetoric from North Korea,” the US official said. North Korea reacted to joint US exercises with South Korea in March and April with a new round of bellicose rhetoric, including dire threats of nuclear war from Pyongyang.

The North has since toned down its language in recent weeks and US officials say medium-range missiles were no longer poised for launch. —AFP

6 die as suicide bombers storm governor’s office PESHAWAR: Newly-elected northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assembly members take an oath at the provincial assembly building in Peshawar yesterday. The newly elected members of Pakistan’s southern Sindh and northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assemblies were sworn in for a new term of five years. Pakistan’s national assembly will start its new term on June 1 and will elect the country’s new prime minister the following week. — AFP Pakistani Taleban has been battling government maintained that the drone strikes are counter forces for years in a bid to push them from the productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, tribal regions, cut Pakistan’s ties with the US and have human rights and humanitarian implicaeventually establish their brand of hardline Islam tions and violate the principles of national soveracross Pakistan. Rehman has been on the US eignty, territorial integrity and international law,” radar for years. In 2010, Washington offered $5 the ministry said.Senior civilian and military offimillion for information leading to Rehman under cials are known to have supported some of the their “Rewards for Justice” program. While attacks in the past, but many say that is no longer Rehman was mostly known for his activities in the case. Pakistan has been hit by 355 such Pakistan, the US said in its announcement that he attacks since 2004, according to the New also participated in cross-border attacks in America Foundation, a US-based think tank. The figure does not include yesterday’s strike. Up to Afghanistan against US and NATO personnel.

The US wanted Rehman in connection with 3,336 people have died in the strikes, according his alleged involvement in an attack on a US base to the think tank.

Obama’s speech last Thursday was his most in Khost, Afghanistan in 2009. The attack on Camp Chapman killed seven Americans working extensive comments to date about the secretive for the CIA, a Jordanian intelligence officer and drone program, which has come under increased wounded six other CIA personnel. Pakistan’s criticism for its lack of accountability. The presiincoming Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has dent cast drone strikes against Islamic militants repeatedly said he is against the use of American as crucial to US counterterrorism efforts but drones on Pakistani soil, and Pakistani officials acknowledged that they are not a “cure-all.” The have demanded publicly that the program be president also said he is deeply troubled by civilstopped. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs con- ians unintentionally killed in the strikes and demned the drone strike yesterday but made no announced more restrictive rules governing the attacks - measures that his advisers said would mention of Rehman in their brief statement.

“The Government of Pakistan has consistently effectively limit drone use in the future. — AP

Growing crystal meth use blurs drug-hungry Afghanistan future KABUL: Impoverished Afghanistan, already plagued by insurgency and struggling to contain crippling rates of opium addiction, faces another potential headache with spiraling usage of the synthetic drug crystal methamphetamine. The growing use of the drug, known as crystal meth or ice, comes at a critical time.

Some fear that, with the exit of most foreign troops by the end of next year and dwindling interest and aid from the international community, significant addiction to the relatively new drug could wreak social havoc.

The number of crystal meth samples taken from seizures tripled to 48 in 2012 compared with the year before, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Importantly, however, there are concerns the power vacuum left by the withdrawal of foreign troops could turn Afghanistan into a new route for moving Iranianmade crystal meth to nations in the Pacific, like Thailand and Indonesia,

Pentagon’s Hagel to discuss US ‘rebalance’ towards Asia

through Pakistan. “It’s a potential threat,” a Kabul-based official from the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Small quantities of around half a kilogram are usually seized, said Peter Bottomley, the UNODC’s consultant in Kabul, describing it as a “worrying trend”. “If this country gets addicted to meth, there will be a big problem,” Bottomley said.

Afghanistan is the world’s top producer of opium, from which heroin is made and which helps fund the Taleban’s insurgency, and is heading for a near-record this year, the UNODC has said. Treatment options for Afghanistan’s 1 million heroin addicts, some of whom inject into their groins in broad daylight in central Kabul, are sorely limited.

In the country’s sole, ultra-secretive drugs lab on the outskirts of Kabul, Afghan pharmacists analyse samples from seizures brought in on a daily basis, which are subject to three rounds of testing to identi-

fy the substance and its potency. A sack of transluscent crystals resembling large grains of sea salt sat on one of the lab’s tables - one of the recent seizures of crystal meth. It stood out starkly among the brown hues of heroin, opium, morphine and hashish in tiny bags.

“If only we could get the punishment increased for selling this,” said Mohammad Khalid Nabizada, the head of the lab, which operates under the Interior Ministry ’s Counter Narcotics Police. Prison terms for selling crystal meth are relatively light, with dealers facing up to one year behind bars for 1 kg, compared with up to three years for opium and a maximum of 10 years for the same amount of heroin.

ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR Dubbed “glass” in Afghanistan, crystal meth only appeared in recent years and is made in hightech labs across the border in Iran.

Most of it is consumed in the border provinces of Herat and Nimroz, but

seizures have been scattered across the country. Its street price is about $20, or five times that of heroin, making it relatively expensive in one of the world’s poorest countries, said Ahmad Khalid Mowahid, spokesman for the Criminal Justice Task Force that convicts serious drug offenders. But its rocketing use hints at falling exclusivity. “If glass users are added to our opium addicts, it’ll be a disaster. Meth addicts jump off roofs and punch fists in walls.

Imagine such abnormal behavior here,” Mowahid said. He said Afghanistan does not have the “medicine nor the means” to try to contain a growing meth addiction.

The United States is no stranger to the epidemic of crystal meth, where home-made labs and a booming Mexican trade have consumed small towns. “It has that same look coming out of Iran, of large-scale commercial properties ... And it can become a cancer,” the DEA official said. — Reuters

BAZARAK: Afghan security forces killed six militants who stormed the Panjshir provincial governor’s office yesterday in a brazen assault in one of the country’s most stable areas. Panjshir northeast of Kabul was a bastion of anti-Taleban resistance during the extremists’ 1996-2001 regime, and has been largely peaceful since they were ousted. The attack by a team of would-be suicide bombers will heighten concerns about the militants’ ability to strike in districts where they have little presence or public support. “Six suicide bombers wearing police uniform entered the governor’s office. Our security team responded and all, except one who detonated himself, were brought down,” Abdul Kabir Waseq, the governor’s spokesman said.

One policeman was killed by the suicide bomb in the attack, which started at around 4:00 am and continued for about one hour. The bodies of the attackers were displayed in the front of the burnt-out and bullet-damaged compound as firemen damped down the remains of a blaze that took hold during fighting. The governor was asleep in separate accommodation nearby and was unhurt in the attack, for which the Taleban claimed responsibility.

Waseq said an explosives-packed car that had not been detonated was recovered from the scene in the district of Barazak. The Afghan government immediately hailed the security forces for their actions, with an interior ministr y spokesman saying that they were “more capable than ever”. The attack followed a major assault on Kabul on Friday, when the Taleban launched a suicide and gun strike on an international compound in the city centre and triggered a battle that lasted several hours. All four militants, one police-

man and two civilians died in that attack.

The effectiveness of Afghan security forces is crucial to the government’s ability to defeat the Taleban insurgency as 100,000 NATO-led combat troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014. The police, army and special forces are being trained up by the international coalition, but there are widespread fears that they will not be able to impose security after 12 years of war. The fiercely anti-Taleban Panjshir valley is one of the most scenic places in Afghanistan, and is tightly secured by checkpoints on the main road at the valley entrance. It was previously a stronghold of the Northern Alliance resistance, which successfully held Panjshir against repeated advances by the ruling Taleban forces.

Ahmad Shah Massoud, the Northern Alliance’s leader, was assassinated days before the 9/11 attacks on the United States by militants and is buried at a large tomb in the valley.

In Baghlan province which borders Panjshir, a suicide bomber struck outside government buildings 10 days ago, killing 14 people including a local politician. The insurgents launched their annual “spring offensive” last month, vowing to use suicide blasts to inflict maximum casualties and warning Afghans working for President Hamid Karzai’s regime to distance themselves from the government.

Meanwhile, Britain is holding up to 90 people at its main base in Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Philip Hammond admitted yesterday, as lawyers claimed they were possibly being detained unlawfully. British lawyers representing two of the men being held at Camp Bastion in the southern province of Helmand claim their cases could amount to internment. —Agencies

PANJSHIR: Afghan security forces stand over the dead bodies of insurgents as the damaged provincial governor’s office is seen after a suicide attack in Bazarak district, Panjshir province yesterday. — AFP

14

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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Issues

Rising concern over Yemen arms smuggling

By Abdulrahman Shamlan emen is stepping up its coast guard patrols, seeking to interrupt what has become a full-fledged flood of illegal weapons that is seen as a threat to the nation’s security and stability. According to sources in Yemen, most of the illegal arms originate in Turkey and Iran, underscoring the regional struggle for influence. The Yemeni defense ministry recently announced the seizure of trucks carrying Turkish-made guns in the southern province of Taiz after the shipment cleared the Mokha Port. It was the second time in a month and the sixth time in six months that Turkish-made weapons were seized. The ministry said an investigation into the source of the shipment was underway but gave no further details.

In early May, a Yemeni coast guard vessel situated along the strategic Bab el-Mandeb strait seized a boat carrying 20,000 Turkish-made pistols following a pitched gun battle with the ship’s crew. According to the defense ministry website, the ship’s captain was detained but his crew escaped capture. Iran is also a player in the arms game.

Earlier this year, Yemeni and American forces together seized an Iranian ship carrying sophisticated weapons that included surface-to-air missiles, explosives and rocket-propelled grenades. The arms appear to have been destined for Yemen’s Houthis, a Shiite insurgent group backed by Tehran. The shipment seized was similar to an arms cargo seized last year. As the poorest Arab state with the secondhighest rate of gun ownership after the United States, Yemen is an attractive market for weapons smugglers. Its population of 24 million owns an estimated 60 million firearms. Among Yemen’s security challenges is the presence of what is considered to be the most dangerous franchise of the global Al-Qaeda terrorist organization. As well, experts assert that tribal leaders, government officials and intelligence officers are all involved in the business of gun smuggling.

While Yemen ostensibly acts to halt the gun-smuggling, many believe it’s a case of “too little, too late.” So while Interior Ministry spokesman Mohammed Al-Mawri said naval patrols were increased along Yemen’s coasts, stretching from the Arab Sea, Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, “to secure the country from arms infiltration,” analysts argue that the task was almost impossible. Most seem to agree that the recent seizure of illegal weapons indicates some security vigilance, but the interdictions are also seen as evidence that arms smuggling is increasing and that many illegal arms are being successfully brought in.

“The authorities talk about the arms shipments they have seized, but nobody knows how many shipments managed to make it into the country,” Muaad Al-Maqtari, chairman of the Bab Al-Mandab Center for Studies, a think tank concerned with Yemen’s maritime issues including weapons smuggling, told The Media Line. “We believe that the cargoes captured by the government are very little when compared to those that managed to get in,” he said.

After each weapons seizure the government says it will open investigations, but usually no details emerge, including from where the shipments originated or for whom the shipments are destined. “Yemen has a coastline of about 2,200 kilometers on the Red and Arab seas and this makes the country a volatile area for arms smuggling. This long coastline works in the smugglers’ favor as it makes their job easier,” Al-Maqtari said. “In contrast, it makes the authorities’ job of securing the coasts almost impossible. This is especially true in Yemen’s case, given that the country’s coast guard forces lack basic training and equipment...They don’t even have enough working boats to patrol the territorial waters.”

Retired brigadier general and military analyst Mosheen Khasroof agreed with Al-Maqtari’s assessment that many illegal arms cargoes have probably made it into the country. He said he believes, “organized bodies are behind the recent persistent Turkish and Iranian arms smuggling into Yemen, discounting the notion that regular gun dealers are to blame. “Yemen’s national security is clearly targeted by these smuggled cargoes. If the smuggled weapons were like those widely distributed and owned by Yemenis, there would be no reason for grave concern. But these illegal shipments include pistols and rifles equipped with silencers and night vision scopes, as well as RPGs, etc,” he told The Media Line. “In short, these are assassination instruments aimed at stirring violence and destabilizing the country.” “Obviously, there are domestic and foreign sides standing behind these smuggling operations. Those behind the smuggling are against the reconciliation, and aim to drag the country into violence,” political analyst Mohammed Shamsan told The Media Line. He was referring to the ongoing National Dialogue Conference, where 556 participants are debating Yemen’s future.—Media Line

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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.

Palestinian homes answer knock by women

By Dinah Atallah lients answering the door bell for service personnel in the Palestinian Authority may be in for a bit of a surprise: women doing what used to be considered work for men only as they take advantage of an increasing number of new opportunities to join the workforce. Women are finding position with a growing number of businesses, especially those who send employees on home visits, in some cases allowing the customer to opt for a female over a male technician. The response has been so great that long-established companies in the West Bank are now trying to meet this growing demand with new services.

“For Gemzo female service, press 2,” the voice on the answering machine at Ramallah’s Gemzo Internet Service Company says when you call. “The female support service is what distinguishes us,” the automated voice on the other end tells the company’s prospective clients. While female voices and customer service responses by women on the phone were typical until now, Gemzo offers a service that’s becoming more popular: women actually visiting customers’ homes in order to provide information technology (IT) support services.

Gemzo Internet Services is the only IT company in the West Bank providing this option for women clients: a service it launched in Jan 2013. “Ten percent of the company’s clients signed up for the gender specific services,” says Gemzo General Manager Basel Ghareeb. The GM adds that customer satisfaction has improved, increasing his market share of the Palestinian IT market to 20 percent. Of Gemzo’s total work force of 45, half of the call center employees are women, while two other women perform field visits.

Areej Zeid, a 27-year old Gemzo technician who wears a hijab head-covering but not other traditional women’s garb, says she is specifically requested by clients about twice a week. “Sometimes women say they prefer I visit to resolve the Internet problem they’re having because their husbands are not at home,” Zeid told The Media Line. She says she is happy that more people are confident in her ability to handle IT problems in what

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had traditionally been a male-dominated industry.

“We’re also helping to raise confidence in women working in IT,” Gemzo GM Ghareeb added.

The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) reveals a 2 percent increase in women in the workplace from 14 percent to 16 percent - between 2010 and 2011, noting that one-third of all working women are employed by the Palestinian Authority itself. This, in contrast to in Israel, where 52.6 percent of women are in the work force. Palestinian women have traditionally maintained a stronger presence in the academic sphere where 57 percent of university students were women in 2010-2011. Palestinian colleges graduated almost 11,000 students in the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 2011.

The number of women working in the private sector also varies according to the job description. The overwhelming number of working women is found in hair and cosmetic fields and agriculture; with only 0.9 percent of women in IT and communications. “The majority of women feel comfortable coming to female-only hair salons because it’s not acceptable to take the headscarf off in public if men are around,” said Hameeda Mansour, owner of the Hameeda Hair Salon in the town of El Bireh, near Ramallah. “Only a small number of males have hair salons but they cater to a select group of women who feel it’s an elite thing to go to male hairdressers,” she told The Media Line.

Even in this female-dominated field, bias against women can be found. “I go to male hairdressers because I feel they are more qualified and trained as professional hairdressers compared to women, who are not,” said Riham Mohammad, a 32-year-old accountant. When asked about women in the IT sector, Mohammad added she is not against having female technicians do the work as long as they are qualified.

Gemzo client Amal Shakir, 28, signed up for the women’s only service and said it makes her life easier.

“My father prefers to be at home if a male technician comes to the house. He can’t take time off from work and wait for technicians to be available,” she explained.

Shakir added she knows of other women who also prefer this service because their IT routers are set up in their

bedrooms, making it awkward for the female client to allow a male to enter her private space.

“We usually arrange a time that suits our clients,” Atteyeh Kanan, support service manager at the Call U Internet service company told The Media Line. “Some women have no problem, but others prefer a man to be in the household when we visit. This is why we organize late visits,” he added. There is no additional charge for the specialized women’s only service. “Prices of Internet service providers are fixed, so we try to be special in the services we provide,” said Ghareeb. “I disagree with those who have women restaurants or coffee shops, but in this case it’s different because it’s in a private home rather than a public place,” he told The Media Line.

Ghareeb added that he had received a letter of appreciation from Minister of Telecommunication Safa’ Naser Al Deen. “She said our service encourages more women to join the work force,” Ghareeb said. “We don’t consider this a form of separation but more of customized convenience for Palestinian women,” he concluded.

Cultural norms do create circumstances that require gender separation, however, particularly at weddings.

Women photographers and DJs often are chosen to do such work specifically among women at weddings where men and women sit in separate halls. Ramallah’s Studio Al Amar is one such company that offers a full package for a wedding party providing both cameraman and camerawomen.

Manager Sa’eed Ahmed explains that “this allows any woman to be able to participate in the wedding without wearing the hijab and to be photographed in keeping with the principles of the Islamic faith.” He says Al Amar employs 14 women and 8 men who are photographers “because 80 percent of my clients ask for women.” The company has been offering the special “female service” for 10-years.

However, not all special gender matters have yet been solved by these companies. Ghareeb wanted to put two separate doors at his company - one for men and one for women - but says he “recanted because it felt like segregation. But I want to buy a pink car for the company’s female technicians to use in their field visits.”

Egypt foaming over alcohol consumption

By Sherif Elhelwa he economic and political situations may be serious here, but they ’re not stopping Egyptians from consuming more alcohol or expanding the party scene, partygoers and club owners told The Media Line recently. The increase in booze consumption has boosted revenues for the clubs, bars, and the Egyptian government as well from taxes collected on the brew.

Peter Matta, an Egyptian in his midthirties known for organizing events and parties, was asked by The Media Line whether par ties and drinking have increased since the revolution. “Many!

Way more parties,” he said. “People are crazy. There always are so many parties always going on. We can’t keep up anymore, and I’m very involved in the scene.

There are more local DJs, more parties, more exposure, more international DJs. People are drinking moirÈ now. We all have noticed that.”

Mohammed Fahmy, from Maadi, a Cairo suburb, said his drinking habits have remained the same since the revolution despite soaring prices for alcoholic drinks. “My spending is the same, but prices are more for sure. Despite $15 cocktails, I still go out and have a few drinks,” he told The Media Line. The increase in drinking and partying is a bit easier to explain when you consider that Egypt was the first nation on earth to ferment barley to produce what known today as beer. The tradition of drinking

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beer is well accepted among many Egyptian Muslims and non-Muslims despite the fact that there is a prohibition against drinking intoxicants in the Holy Quran.

While most Egyptians don’t drink alcohol in public, preferring to drink privately at home, there is still a growing demand for alcohol consumption that created a need for more bars and nightclubs in Cairo and Alexandria. Indeed, the large increase in alcohol consumption is a sobering thought considering the tense political and economic situations in Egypt. While some social unrest remains, the volume of beer sales in Egypt rebounded strongly in 2012, reflecting a partial recovery in tourism and more drinking by young Egyptians.

According to statements by the spokesman for the Dutch beer Heineken, alcohol consumption in Egypt increased in 2012 despite the 2011 revolution and drop in the number of tourists. Heineken made over $300 million in profits from beer sales in Egypt last year.

According to an Al-Ahram Beverages statement, “Egypt is the 17th largest beer market in Africa and the Middle East, reaching a demand of roughly 110 million liters annually, of which 690,000 are alcoholic beer.” “My sales grew by 80 percent since the revolution started.

People seem to have a lot to talk about and they come here to ventilate, drink a few beers,” Gamal Gomaa, a partner in Spitfire, an Irish pub in Alexandria, told The Media Line. “People tend to come more often despite the increase in alco-

hol prices due to imposed alcohol taxes.

People are a bit careful in their spending, but they still come and drink,” he said. Egypt puts a 1200 percent to 3000 percent import tax on alcoholic beverages but that also has failed to stem increasing sales and par tying. The Egyptian government collects a hefty tax on cigarettes and alcoholic beverages that amounts to $1.2 billion annually. Alcohol is mostly consumed in restaurants, bars or nightclubs, and hotel lounges which have an alcoholic sales license. The Freedom and Justice Party (Muslim Brotherhood) has occasionally showed support for the tourism industry, and will not prohibit the sale of alcohol to tourists. Beer is sold from anywhere between $1 a bottle at the local beer and wine store to $5 in nightclubs.

Some bars in local areas serve beer for $2 a bottle. Generally, prices for wine and beer at bars and clubs are determined by the location where it is sold.

Tamer Leithy, a DJ and party organizer in Alexandria, says that more youth are now gravitating to Alexandria nightclubs. On the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution, Agami Club House in Alexandria opened to Egyptians in their thirties and above. “I believe these nightclubs cater to the upper middle class and for people who don’t want to be bothered with young crowds,” Leithy told The Media Line. Matta said that the older generation had switched over from going out to more private parties.

“There are certainly selective private parties that I get invited to now. So

there’s more room for newcomers in the nightclubs who started coming in to fill the gap. In addition, more venues opened up so more people star ted going out.”

Five upscale nightclubs have opened since the start of the revolution in Cairo in 2011: Graffiti at the Four Seasons Hotel; O Bar at the Fairmont Hotel; Cavalini and The Roof at the Sunset Mall; and Level in Zamalek, an affluent Cairo neighborhood. “ We have found a demand for drinkers after the revolution.

People are running away from their problems and to a safer environment,” DJ Omar Asmy said.

“Drinking and partying used to be restricted to a certain class of people, but now there is a flood of newcomers from all social classes,” Matta said. Whereas in the past the social scene was a tightly closed circle, now others have begun to mingle. Also, a more diverse type of music was introduced at some nightspots “which attracted a different sector who never went out very much before. Also the younger generation is all over.” he said. In general, Egyptians are now more open about their alcohol consumption than before, as stress from the revolution atmosphere and other uncertainties fuels this kind of rebellion against all that is traditional, even when it comes to a simple bottle of beer. Even Egyptian women are drinking as well, and it’s not just a male-dominated scene.

Matta says, “All my girlfriends drink. New girls in the party scene are also drinking...it’s crazy, really crazy!” —Media Line

NEWS

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

Schoolchildren watch as ‘Inuka’, a male polar bear, swims in its pool enclosure at the Singapore Zoo yesterday. The 22-year-old polar bear, the first one born in the tropics, moved into his new frozen tundra home yesterday in a 2,700 sq m exhibit featuring climate controlled resting areas and an expanded pool. — AFP

US spelling bee starts with a new challenge OXON HILL, Maryland: Sometimes-nervous contestants in the United States’ Scripps National Spelling Bee launched two days of competition yesterday, facing the new challenge of not only having to spell obscure words correctly, but also knowing what they mean. A total of 281 contestants aged 8 to 14 from across the United States and other countries took to the stage for a preliminary spelling round in the spelling bee. The finals are tonight. For the first time since it began in 1927, the contest is requiring young spellers in preliminary and semifinal rounds to take a computerized vocabulary test. Organizers say it is part of the Bee’s commitment to deepening contestants’ command of English.

Sixteen spellers were eliminated in a first onstage round, with a second round to come for survivors. They stumbled on such words as “sinecure”, a paid job with little work; “weissnichtwo,” an imaginary place; and “yannigan”, player in an individualized baseball game. Some spellers were visibly nervous before advancing to the microphone in the packed auditorium, clutching arms to sides, jiggling feet or crossing themselves. “I felt a little nervous before I got on stage, but once I was on stage I was OK,” said Matthew Griffin, a 12-year-old home schooled eighth grader from Bailey, North Carolina, who correctly spelled “panglossian,” or extreme optimism. “It’s pretty cool. I’ve made a lot of friends,” he said.

Owen Duffy, 13, from Fort Johnson Middle School in Charleston, South Carolina, did not fare as well.

Given “langlauf ” to spell, the seventh grader asked chief pronouncer Jacques Bailly for the pronunciation of the German word for cross-country skiing several times. “Langlauf? Langlauf? Langlauf?” Duffy said slowly. He barely finished spelling it, incorrectly, before his time ran out. Almost all the contestants asked for the origin of the word, the kind of word and a definition, which is allowed as an aid to spelling.

They then wrote it out on the palm of their hands

with a fingertip while spelling aloud.

Since 2002, a written or computer spelling test has been a component that, along with onstage spelling, factored in determining which spellers advanced to the semi-finals. This year, competitors will advance to the semi-finals and finals based on their onstage spelling, as well as computer-based spelling and vocabulary questions. Vocabulary evaluation will count for half of a speller’s overall score.

Contestants said the multiple-choice test taken on Tuesday was fairly easy for them. Amber Born, 14, a home-schooled eighth grader from Marblehead, Massachusetts, said after the first round of spelling that it “was good, it was fun”. Standing next to Born, Katherine Wang, an 11-year-old sixth grader from the Qooco School in Beijing, called it “nerve-wracking”. “It was multiple choice, so you could narrow it down,” Born said. She and Wang had met at last year’s contest and stayed in touch through email. Griffin said the test was “a little hard. I knew how to spell the words but now having to know them makes the challenge a little harder.”

Paige Kimble, the Bee’s executive director who won the competition in 1981, told a news conference the decision to add the vocabulary test had come after about a year and a half of discussion. A key element was support from spellers and their parents who believed that adding the test would increase the tournament’s prestige, she said. The contestants hail from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, US territories and Defense Department schools around the world. Some contestants come from the Bahamas, Canada, China, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and South Korea. The Bee is taking place at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center outside Washington. It is being broadcast by ESPN. The contestants range from third to eighth graders, with 116 speaking more than one language. The group is 52 percent girls and 48 percent boys, organizers said. — Reuters

Egypt sumo wrestler gets promoted Continued from Page 1 Stablemaster Tadahiro Otake said despite Shaalan’s rapid rise through sumo’s ranks, he needed to keep his feet on the ground. “He has not got strong all by himself but with the help of many other people. I hope he will never forget this,” he said. “I want him to draw attention with his brand of sumo, not because he is the first from the African continent.”

Shaalan first tried sumo at the age of 15. He won a bronze medal at the 2008 world junior sumo championships. Sumo has been dominated by Mongolians in recent years. The sport’s two current grand champions, Hakuho and Harumafuji, are both from Mongolia. There hasn’t been a Japanese grand champion since Takanohana retired in 2003 and a Japanese wrestler hasn’t won a major tournament since ozeki Tochiazuma in 2006. — Agencies

Trio in Arab world’s first topless protest Continued from Page 1 held by police and that they were “fine”. After the scuffles outside the courthouse, police intervened and arrested six French and Tunisian journalists, including from Reuters news agency and France’s Canal+ television. They were later released after giving statements to the police about the controversial protest. “It is the first action that we have taken in the Arab world... I prepared this international team in Paris and they were sent yesterday (Tuesday) to Tunis,” Femen’s leader in Paris, Inna Shevchenko, told AFP by phone. “These countries and these totalitarian regimes prey on women. We don’t take any notice of this kind,” she added, referring to the protesters’ risk of being jailed.

An 18-year-old Tunisian known by her pseudonym Amina Tyler was arrested in the city of Kairouan on May 19, the day that Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia planned to hold an illegal congress there, after painting the word “Femen” on a wall near a cemetery. She faces a pepper spray charge which carries a maximum prison sentence of six months. An investigating magistrate is also considering pressing a charge of desecrating a cemetery, punishable by up to two years in jail.

Amina sparked both scandal and a wave of online support

after she was threatened by Tunisia’s increasingly active hardline Islamists for posting topless pictures of herself on Facebook. Her family said that she suffered from chronic depression and had suicidal tendencies, and they prevented her from going out, claiming her safety was at risk. But Amina, who accused her relatives of holding her in captivity and beating her, ran away from home in April and has regularly appeared in public since, although never topless.

The Femen movement, founded in Ukraine and now based in Paris, has flourished since 2010, with feminists around the world stripping off in protest at a wide range of issues linked to the mistreatment of women, but also against dictatorship. Tunisia, whose ruling coalition is headed by Islamist party Ennahda, has the most liberal laws in the Arab world governing women’s rights, although gender equality has yet to be inscribed in the new constitution.

Secular opposition parties and feminist groups frequently accuse Ennahda of seeking to roll back women’s rights, although the Islamist party has opposed enshrining Islamic sharia law in the constitution. But a failed attempt last year to introduce the concept of gender “complementarity” rather than equality into the draft text raised serious doubts about the party’s real intentions. — AFP

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland: Christopher O’Connor of Tucson, Arizona, participates in the round two of the 2013 Scripps National Spelling Bee yesterday at Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center yesterday. — AFP

Buddhist mobs attack Muslims in Myanmar Continued from Page 1 British tourist Stephen Barker, 46, told Reuters he saw a group of about 100 machete and stick-carrying youths rallying around his hotel in the early afternoon, including four or five monks. Police and military moved them on and arrested half a dozen people. “I got a light for my cigarette from one and he told me to kill all Bengalis while waving this 18-inch blade around.” Muslims appeared to have fled a mixed Lashio neighbourhood known as Quarter Number 17.

A local hospital confirmed it had received four injured men, all Buddhists. One of the wounded, 41-year-old Myint Naing, was seen lying in the hospital, wrapped in bandages. The local electricity board worker said he was attacked by a group of around 30 Muslims as he was leaving the town on his motorcycle yesterday. “My friend was able to run away and escape but I couldn’t... I was attacked. They cut my arm off,” he said, adding he was waiting to go into surgery to reattach the limb.

Security forces had imposed an overnight curfew Tuesday after the initial unrest, which authorities said was triggered by an attack on a local Buddhist woman. A 48-year-old Muslim man was arrested over that incident, in which the 24-year-old woman suffered burns but was not in serious condition, according to state broadcaster MRTV. A Muslim orphanage, a mosque and several shops were destroyed by rioters, a different government official said, requesting anonymity.

Ye Htut, who earlier appealed for calm, posted pictures of police making arrests in the town on Wednesday as they tried to quell a second eruption of violence that he said saw “conflict from both sides”. “The security forces are taking action against people who are involved

in the violence in order to stop the fighting in Lashio,” he said. Fear rippled through the streets on Wednesday, with terrified Muslim residents describing a 30-strong group of men with weapons on motorcycles cruising Lashio and shouting anti-Muslim slogans.

The residents said there was not enough security in the town. “Almost all Muslim people are trying to stay in safe places.... we don’t know how we are going to get through the night,” one resident said by telephone, asking not to be named. He said the mob of bikers was threatening to “kill any Muslims they see on the road”.

Religious unrest in the former army-ruled nation has caused global alarm. US President Barack Obama last week voiced “deep concern” about anti-Muslim attacks, during a landmark visit to Washington by President Thein Sein. Nyan Win, a spokesman for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, said the party believed outsiders were whipping up the violence in Lashio. “The people they know that this violence (does) not happen automatically. They know that there’s a third person there,” he said, without elaborating.

In March at least 44 people were killed in sectarian strife in central Myanmar with thousands of homes set ablaze. Some monks - who were among the most vocal pro-democracy supporters during Myanmar’s repressive junta era - have been involved in the violence, while others are spearheading a move to boycott shops owned by Muslims. Wirathu, a monk from Mandalay responsible for some of the most vitriolic anti-Muslim rhetoric, yesterday posted several graphic pictures apparently of the injured Buddhist woman on his Facebook page.

Communal unrest last year in the western state of Rakhine left about 200 people dead and displaced up to 140,000 people, mainly Rohingya Muslims. — Agencies

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

S P ORTS

Braga coach Peseiro leaves

‘BCCI chief should quit’

LISBON: Braga parted company with coach Jose Peseiro yesterday after only one season despite the club winning the League Cup, which was their first trophy in almost 50 years. “Peseiro was part of another page of Braga’s successes over the last few years,” the Portuguese Primera Liga club statement said, adding the decision was by mutual agreement.

The northern club, which has been challenging the dominance of Porto, Benfica and Sporting, finished fourth in the league this season, just failing to qualify for the Champions League.

Braga came bottom of their group in this season’s Champions League with only one win at Galatasaray. Peseiro’s League Cup triumph, a shock 1-0 win over eventual league champions Porto, was the club’s first trophy since 1966.

In 2012 Braga’s then coach Leonardo Jardim also left the club “by mutual consent” after one season in charge having taken them to third place in the league. —Reuters

NEW DELHI: India’s sports ministry said the country’s cricket chief should resign to avoid a conflict of interest, four days after police arrested his son-in-law in connection with an illegal betting scandal in a cricket league.

Pressure has mounted on N Srinivasan, one of the world’s most influential cricket administrators, to quit his position on “moral grounds,” with two of the key members of India’s cricket board having also demanded he stand down earlier yesterday.

“There is a conflict of interest in this inquiry, therefore BCCI president should tender his resignation on moral grounds, pending the outcome of the inquiry,” the sports ministry said in a statement. The ministry does not govern the BCCI but its comments add an official voice to media demands that Srinivasan should step down.

The Indian Premier League (IPL), the sport’s richest tournament, was embroiled in controversy earlier this month when police arrested three cricketers on suspicion of taking money to concede a fixed number of runs and police have intensified investigations to discover the extent of the scandal.

Police arrested Gurunath Meiyappan, Srinivasan’s son-in-law and a management member of the Chennai Super Kings IPL franchise, on Saturday for his alleged involvement in the illegal betting scandal. The BCCI has set up a threemember panel to investigate the allegations. Chennai Super Kings is owned by India Cements, a company headed by Srinivasan. —Reuters

Beckham in quest for MLS team ownership MIAMI: Former England captain David Beckham will visit Miami this week as he steps up his interest in owning a new Major League Soccer (MLS) team. Beckham, who played for L.A. Galaxy in the MLS, has an option to create a new franchise in the North American league. While the exact location is still to be decided, he will be in the Florida city to explore possibilities, according to former Miami mayor Manny Diaz. “Yes, he is coming. My understanding is that it’s very exploratory at this stage,” said Diaz, who took part in the last time a Miami-based MLS team was under discussion in 2009. Then, Spanish giants Barcelona, together with Miami-based Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure, tried to start a team but the project was called off due to “adverse market conditions”.

A supporters group, calling itself MLS Miami Bid, told Reuters that Claure would be one of those meeting Beckham and that the pair planed to watch Miami Heat’s NBA playoff game against the Indiana Pacers today. Julio Caballero, the organiser of MLS Miami Bid, said they would greet Beckham at the Heat’s American Airlines Arena. Caballero said his organisation, which has over 3,000 Facebook members, had been contacted by Claure and was planning a rally to show the Englishman a fan base is already emerging.

Soccer fanatic Claure, who owns Bolivian club Bolivar, was not immediately available and a spokesman for Beckham declined to comment. —Reuters

Phillies and Rays roll BOSTON: Cliff Lee allowed four hits over eight innings and Jonathan Papelbon earned his first save at Fenway Park as a Red Sox opponent on Tuesday, leading the Philadelphia Phillies to a 3-1 victory over Boston. Michael Young and Domonic Brown homered for the Phillies, and Erik Kratz singled in the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning to snap Boston’s four-game winning streak.

Lee (6-2) allowed a first-inning run and then retired 22 of the next 23 batters to win his fourth consecutive decision.

He struck out eight to match his season high and walked none.

Ryan Dempster (2-6) allowed two runs on six hits and three walks, striking out four in seven innings for Boston.

Papelbon pitched a perfect ninth for his 10th save. The Red Sox closer from 200511 - including their 2007 World Series title - he entered to a chorus of boos and without the theme song “Shipping up to Boston” he used for much of his career here.

TORONTO: Thad Weber No. 51 of the Toronto Blue Jays delivers a pitch during inter-league MLB game action against the Atlanta Braves. —AFP

A contentious year in golf DUBLIN: Ernie Els flashed that easy smile when he saw a reporter walking toward the clubhouse at the TPC Sawgrass earlier this month.

“This must be great for you guys,” he said through his laughter. “Come out to the PGA Tour and every week they hand you another story.” And he wasn’t talking about Adam Scott winning the Masters.

The debate over anchored strokes and long putters. Deer antler spray. Rule 33-7. A player cleared of an anti-doping violation on a technicality, and then suing his own tour. Players hiring an attorney over a new rule related to the long putter.

And this was before the public spat between Sergio Garcia and Tiger Woods took an ugly turn that brought overtures of racism back into golf. “It’s been quite a controversial year for golf,” Lee Westwood said.

Woods already has won four times on the PGA Tour going into the Memorial, a tournament he already has won five times in his career. So when someone asked Westwood on Tuesday if there was a sense that the No. 1 player was on the verge of going on a big run, Westwood looked mildly perplexed.

“I think he’s on one, isn’t he?” Westwood said. “How many tournaments has he played this year? He’s won more than 50 percent.”

But any talk of Woods is sure to include the illegal drop he took at the Masters, the two-shot penalty he received the next day, the incorrect scorecard with his signature on it and Augusta National invoking Rule 33-7, which gave it discretion to disregard the penalty of disqualification for the incorrect scorecard. That debate lost steam when Vijay Singh sued the tour the day before The Players Championship began at TPC Sawgrass, where the Fijian spent years honing a game that brought him nearly $70 million in earnings and a spot in the World Golf Hall of Fame. Lawsuits against the tour are rare, but the details of this one were bizarre.

“Nobody has ever sued the tour for being cleared of getting a drug violation,” Padraig Harrington said.

WADA warned against deer antler spray.

Vijay Singh used deer antler spray. The tour proposed a six-month suspension. Singh appealed. WADA said deer antler spray was no longer the same concern. Singh was off the hook. And then Singh sued the tour.

The good news for PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem was the lawsuit was largely forgotten three days later. The bad news for the tour was why it was forgotten.

Singh vs. PGA Tour felt like an undercard compared with Garcia vs. Woods.

The Spaniard opened a slanging match during a rain delay by suggesting Woods was the cause of a commotion in their final group of the third round. Woods fired back by calling out Garcia for his constant complaining, which led Garcia to say Woods wasn’t the nicest guy on tour. And with no interest by either side in a truce, Garcia tried to make a joke about having Woods over for

fried chicken, and he wound up with egg on his face.

Garcia threw out the racial stereotype the same day that the Royal & Ancient Golf Club and U.S. Golf Association introduced Rule 14-1b, effective in 2016, that would ban the anchored stroke used for long putters - like the one Scott used when he won the Masters, or the one Els used at the British Open, and Webb Simpson in the US Open, and the ones used by Tim Clark and Carl Pettersson their entire pro careers. At least three players, including Scott, have retained a lawyer as they wait to see whether the PGA Tour goes along with the new rule. The tour met with its Player Advisory Council on Tuesday at Muirfield Village, the first step toward figuring out which direction it will go.

According to one PAC member at the meeting, there was passion on both sides of the debate, which was not surprising. And there was no consensus, also not surprising.

This was only a conversation, and from all indications, no one called anyone names.

So much for golf’s reputation as a genteel sport. “Is it bad for golf?” Nick Watney said Tuesday afternoon. “It depends on your theory of publicity. If you had the Kardashian feeling that any publicity is good publicity, then it’s good. If you’re a purist in terms of golf, then it’s bad. The lawsuits, the rule change, the little feud going on. My view is that it’s bad. This is supposed to be a gentleman’s game. We’re different from a lot of other pro sports.” This isn’t the first time golf has gone way beyond birdies and bogeys.

There was the lawsuit involving Ping and the square grooves in the 1980s. There was Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, leading the breakaway from the PGA of America to start what is now the PGA Tour at the end of the 1960s. Imagine if Woods and Phil Mickelson did something like that today.

“It’s not a perfect game,” Curtis Strange said. “Some people believe there’s no such thing as bad press, but it seems like we’re still having growing issues. We’re learning how to handle doping issues, although nobody has learned to do that yet. I’m been reading about Lance Armstrong all day.”

It always seemed like some other sport’s problems, and now some of those problems belong to golf. “It’s been great on the golf course - fantastic, really,” Geoff Ogilvy said.

“Tiger has won four times. The Masters was amazing again. Any time golf is in the newspaper, it’s a good thing for us. Obviously, the Sergio-Tiger thing wasn’t good. But it has been a tumultuous year.”

And it’s not anything Finchem can make go away with a wave of his hand.

Considering that golf is a niche sport, maybe that’s not the worst thing.

“Outside the ropes, golf is probably more interesting than it ever has been,” Robert Garrigus said. “I don’t think it’s all that bad if it makes our sport more interesting. There might be a few more people come out to the US Open.” That would be good for golf.

Maybe not so much for Garcia. —AP

RAYS 7, MARLINS 6 In St Petersburg, Desmond Jennings drove in the winning run with a two-out single in the bottom of the ninth inning, lifting the Rays to a victory over the Marlins.

The Rays came back from an early 4-0 deficit and won their third in a row.

Miami lost its seventh straight game.

Kelly Johnson opened the ninth with an infield single and took second on Evan Longoria’s single off Mike Dunn (1-1).

With two outs, Jennings singled against Chad Qualls. Fernando Rodney (2-2) got the win. Jennings, Luke Scott and Yunel Escobar each had three of Tampa Bay’s 16 hits.

REDS 8, INDIANS 2 In Cincinnati, Xavier Paul singled home a pair of runs in the first inning as the Reds completed a two-game home sweep of the Indians.

The intrastate rivals headed to Cleveland for two more games. The Indians lead the all-time series 42-41. The Reds have won 14 of their past 17 games overall, leaving them with the secondbest record in the majors at 33-19. They trail NL Central-leading St. Louis.

Cleveland has dropped five straight matching its season high - and seven of eight. Mat Latos (5-0) handled a slumping lineup, allowing one run in 6 1-3 innings. The Indians have been outscored 33-14 during their losing streak.

The Reds had 18 hits, one shy of their season high. Paul’s two-run single put the Reds ahead 3-0 in the first against Zach McAllister (4-4).

BRAVES 7, BLUE JAYS 6 In Toronto, Brian McCann hit two home runs, including a solo shot in the 10th inning that lifted the Braves over the Blue Jays 7-6.

McCann and rookie Evan Gattis hit back-to-back homers off Ramon Ortiz in the sixth, giving the Braves a 6-5 lead. The Blue Jays tied it on J.P. Arencibia’s RBI double in the seventh.

McCann connected for a leadoff drive in the 10th against Thad Weber (0-1) for his sixth home run. It was McCann’s first multihomer game of the season and the ninth of his career.

Cory Gearrin (2-1) pitched one inning for the win. Craig Kimbrel celebrated his 25th birthday by finishing for his 16th save in 19 chances. Jordan Schafer also homered for the Braves.

ROCKIES 2, ASTROS 1 In Houston, Michael Cuddyer had three hits, including an RBI single in the ninth inning that gave the Colorado Rockies a win over the Astros.

Troy Tulowitzki doubled off Houston closer Jose Veras (0-4) to start the ninth and advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Cuddyer followed with his single, which sailed just out of reach of leaping third baseman Matt Dominguez.

Tulowitzki had an RBI single in the first. Chris Carter tied it in the fourth with an RBI grounder. Matt Belisle (2-2) threw a perfect eighth for the win. Closer Rafael Betancourt struck out two in the ninth for his 11th save.

CARDINALS 4, ROYALS 1 In Kansas City, Carlos Beltran hit a two-run homer against his former team and rookie Tyler Lyons made another dazzling start as the Cardinals beat

ST. PETERSBURG: Outfielder Desmond Jennings No. 8 of the Tampa Bay Rays singles in the 9th inning to drive in the winning run against the Miami Marlins. —AFP Seattle, but will be right back at it on Wednesday in San Diego for two more games.

Gyorko hit a two-run shot in the fourth inning off Seattle starter Brandon Maurer (2-7) and Amarista followed with a solo shot an inning later.

Seattle’s bats got very little done against Volquez (4-5), and its lineup lost its most potent punch after right fielder Michael Morse had to leave the game in the fifth inning with a right quadriceps strain.

1) followed Karns with 1 2-3 innings of perfect relief.

Kansas City for the Royals’ 10th consecutive home defeat.

The only two hits that Lyons (2-0) allowed over seven innings were to Billy Butler - a two-out RBI double in the first inning and a bloop single in the seventh.

Trevor Rosenthal pitched the eighth inning in a driving rain for St. Louis, and Edward Mujica breezed through a perfect ninth for his 16th save of the season.

Matt Carpenter and Matt Holliday added solo homers in the sixth off the Royals’ Ervin Santana (3-5) as the Cardinals (34-17) improved to a major league-best 20-9 on the road.

PIRATES 1, TIGERS 0 In Detroit, Neil Walker ended a lengthy pitching duel with a home run in the 11th inning, lifting the Pirates over the Tigers.

The game was scoreless until Walker the brother-in-law of Tigers center fielder Don Kelly - homered off Jose Ortega (0-2) with one out in the top of the 11th.

Former Tigers reliever Jason Grilli pitched the bottom half for his 21st save in 21 tries, striking out Torii Hunter, Miguel Cabrera and Prince Fielder in succession.

Mark Melanson (1-0) picked up the win with a scoreless 10th inning for Pittsburgh. Pirates starter Jeanmar Gomez and his Tigers counterpart Rick Porcello were dominant, putting up one of the best outings of their respective careers.

Gomez pitched seven scoreless innings before giving way to the bullpen.

Porcello went eight innings and struck out a career-high 11.

METS 2, YANKEES 1 In New York, David Wright and Lucas Duda hit RBI singles off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning as the Mets rallied past the Yankees to beat baseball’s career saves leader only hours after honoring him at Citi Field. Matt Harvey and Hiroki Kuroda locked up in an entertaining pitchers’ duel that went to the ninth with the Yankees leading 1-0 on Lyle Overbay’s run-scoring single. But all three batters to face Rivera (0-1) got hits, handing him the first blown save of his farewell season in 19 chances.

The Yankees have lost three in a row for the first time this year. Scott Rice (3-3) tossed a scoreless inning for the win.

ATHLETICS 6, GIANTS 3 In Oakland, Derek Norris hit a two-run homer in the second inning and Jarrod Parker pitched seven strong innings as the Athletics beat the Giants for their fifth straight victory.

Adam Rosales homered in the eighth for the A’s to snap an 0-for-24 funk since he connected against Kansas City on May 17.

Hunter Pence homered in the ninth and hit an RBI single in the first to give Mike Kickham a lead before he took the mound for his major league debut.

Parker (3-6) reached seven innings for the third straight start. The 24-year-old Kickham (0-1) was tagged for four runs on four hits in 2 1-3 innings with three strikeouts and four walks as the Giants lost for the seventh time in their last eight road games.

DODGERS 3, ANGELS 0 In Los Angeles, Ryu Hyun-jin pitched a two-hitter for his first complete game in the major leagues, Luis Cruz hit his first homer of the season and the Dodgers beat the Angels in the second game of the Freeway Series.

Ryu (6-2) struck out seven and walked none. The left-hander from South Korea retired 19 consecutive batters during one stretch. His six victories lead all rookie pitchers in the majors, while his 71 2-3 innings pitched lead all rookies this season. Joe Blanton (1-8) gave up three runs and seven hits in seven innings. He struck out five and walked none.

NATIONALS 9, ORIOLES 3 In Washington, Adam LaRoche homered twice and drove in four runs as the Nationals enjoyed a rare offensive outburst at the expense of the Orioles.

LaRoche, Tyler Moore and Roger Bernadina connected off Orioles rookie Kevin Gausman (0-2). LaRoche added a solo shot in the eighth off Troy Patton.

It added up to Washington’s highestscoring performance since a 10-3 win over Miami on April 15. Chris Davis hit his major league-leading 17th homer for the Orioles, and J.J. Hardy also went deep.

Nathan Karns, in his major league debut, gave up three runs, five hits and two walks in 4 1-3 innings. Zach Duke (1-

TWINS 6, BREWERS 5 In Milwaukee, pinch-hitter Eduardo Escobar hit a sacrifice fly with one out in the 14th inning, lifting the Twins to a victory over the Brewers. Jean Segura went 6 for 7 - all singles - to raise his batting average to an NL-leading .366 but Milwaukee lost for the fourth straight time and 20th in 25 games.

Ryan Doumit, Josh Willingham and Aaron Hicks homered for the Twins, which have won three of four after dropping 10 straight. Burke Badenhop (0-2) was the loser. Ryan Pressly (2-0) pitched two perfet innings of relief to earn the victory. —AP

PADRES 6, MARINERS 1 In Seattle, Edinson Volquez pitched into the eighth inning and Jedd Gyorko and Alexi Amarista each homered, leading the Padres over the Mariners.

The teams split the two-game set in

MLB results/standings Atlanta 7, Toronto 6 (10 innings); Colorado 2, Houston 1; Washington 9, Baltimore 3; Pittsburgh 1, Detroit 0 (11 innings); Philadelphia 3, Boston 1; Cincinnati 8, Cleveland 2; NY Mets 2, NY Yankees 1; Tampa Bay 7, Miami 6; St. Louis 4, Kansas City 1; Minnesota 6, Milwaukee 5 (14 innings); Oakland 6, San Francisco 3; San Diego 6, Seattle 1; LA Dodgers 3, LA Angels 0.

Boston NY Yankees Baltimore Tampa Bay Toronto

American League Eastern Division W L 32 21 30 21 28 24 27 24 22 30

Central Division Detroit 29 21 Cleveland 27 24 Chicago White Sox 24 25 Kansas City 21 28 Minnesota 21 28

Texas Oakland LA Angels Seattle Houston

Western Division 32 20 30 23 23 29 22 30 15 37

PCT .604 .588 .538 .529 .423

.580 .529 .490 .429 .429

.615 .566 .442 .423 .288

Atlanta Washington Philadelphia NY Mets Miami

National League Eastern Division 31 20 27 25 25 27 20 29 13 39

.608 .519 .481 .408 .250

4.5 6.5 10 18.5

2.5 4.5 7.5 7.5

St. Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs Milwaukee

Central Division 34 17 33 19 32 20 20 30 19 31

.667 .635 .615 .400 .380

1.5 2.5 13.5 14.5

2.5 9 10 17

Arizona Colorado San Francisco San Diego LA Dodgers

Western Division 30 22 28 24 28 24 23 28 22 28

.577 .538 .538 .451 .440

2 2 6.5 7

GB 1 3.5 4 9.5

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

S P ORTS

Squash, baseball, wrestling on 2020 shortlist

Ricky Ponting

Ponting leaves door half ajar to Ashes call-up LONDON: Ricky Ponting has revealed he might not be able to resist the lure of the Ashes if Australia asked him to come out of test retirement.

The combative 38-year-old, who quit the international scene in December, is the most successful captain in test history but lost three Ashes series including the last time the two teams met in 2011 when England won 3-1 away.

The latest five-match battle against England starts at Trent Bridge on July 10 and if an Australian batsman was to break a finger, the Tasmanian would be torn.

“They will have reserve batsmen around should anything like that happen so I don’t think they will be needing me,” Ponting told Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper yesterday.

“You wouldn’t say no, would you, if that call came and I would never say never, but you have to say a call-up like that now is extremely unlikely.” Even if he does not return, his influence may still be felt in the Ashes with Ponting in England playing for county side Surrey.

“If Michael Clarke wants to run anything by me he knows where I am. There’s nothing official in place but I’ll only be down the road,” added the scorer of 13,378 test runs, who is looking forward to his two-month stint in the English game.

“My wife is still asking me when I will be through with all this cricket stuff. I’ve actu-

ally been away from home more than ever.

I know I’ll have to slow down at some point.”

For the first time in many years, Australia go into the Ashes as big underdogs after a 4-0 mauling in India where four players were dropped for “not doing their homework”. Ponting said he did not totally agree with the decision but feels Australia are regaining confidence.

“Our batting is key, if it can stand up to the English bowling then we will be competitive. We have a good, solid number of bowlers and our young quicks are really exciting,” he remarked before turning to England. “(Captain Alistair Cook) is proving he is a worthy successor to Andrew Strauss.

Joe Root looks a good player, Jonny Bairstow has something about him and when Kevin Pietersen is fit England will get a world class player again. They are a quality side.”

There was no word on England’s struggling opener Nick Compton, who scored his first test centuries in New Zealand earlier in the year but has now scored only 54 runs in six innings despite England’s 2-0 home win over the Black Caps.

With Pietersen set to return from injury for the Ashes, Compton could be the man to miss out as England coach Andy Flower piles on the pressure. “He’s got to go away and get back into form, score some heavy runs for Somerset,” Flower told the BBC. —Reuters

ST PETERSBURG: Wrestling, baseball/softball and squash made an International Olympic Committee shortlist for potential inclusion in the 2020 Games with five other sports failing to make the cut, the IOC announced yesterday.

The three sports will now be put to the vote at the International Olympic Committee session in Buenos Aires in September with only one of them winning a place on the 2020 Games programme.

The IOC is eager to revamp its sports programme in a bid to keep the Olympics relevant to a younger generation to attract viewers and sponsors.

Five other sports - karate, wakeboarding, sports climbing, wushu and roller sports - did not make the shortlist, meaning their chances of Olympic inclusion were dashed for at least another four years.

“It was never going to be an easy decision but I feel my colleagues on the (executive) board made a good decision in selecting baseball/softball, squash and wrestling to be put forward in Buenos Aires,” said IOC president Jacques Rogge. For IOC vice president Thomas Bach it was “a good mix between team sports and individual sports.

“Wrestling managed to convincingly present the changes they have undertaken, both on a sporting level as well as in the organisation,” Bach said.

Wrestling was taken off the 2020 Games programme in February in a shock move but Wednesday’s decision threw the sport an Olympic lifeline.

Wrestling, which has featured in every modern Olympics since 1896 apart from the 1900 edition, has frantically scrambled to push through a string of reforms since February in a desperate bid to remain in contention. It made the cut yesterday after only one round, winning a majority eight out of 14 votes. Baseball/softball, which received no votes in the first round, booked their spot next with squash clinching the final place on the shortlist.

Olympic inclusion guarantees sports millions of dollars of revenues while a Games exit can stifle a sport’s global growth.

“All of those who helped us, I want to call on them to help us again because the match is not finished,” said international wrestling federation (FILA) president Nenad Lalovic.

“The second match starts now,” said the Serbian, who jumped up and hugged associates in a packed conference room during the IOC announcement.

Baseball and softball, which in 2005 became the first sports to be taken off the Games pro-

ST PETERSBURG: Franco Carraro, Chairman of the Olympic program commission speaks during a news conference after the IOC presentation of wrestling as a candidate sports for 2020 Olympics at the SportAccord International Convention. —AFP gramme since polo in 1936, united into one federation and the move paid off as they grabbed a spot on the list.

“We got a chance to fight for our dreams,” Don Porter, co-president of the World Baseball Softball Federation, told Reuters.

“We are in the seventh inning, we will now move to the ninth and I guess we need to hit a home run. Our young athletes had dreams and we can now help them get those dreams back.”

For squash, which battled to win a spot at the

Kings advance, edge Sharks LOS ANGELES: Justin Williams scored two goals in the second period to lead the Los Angeles Kings into the Western Conference finals with a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Sharks in Game 7 on Tuesday.

Jonathan Quick made 25 saves as the defending Stanley Cup champions finished off this agonizingly even series with their 14th consecutive home victory over the past two months, including seven straight in the postseason. The home team won all seven games in this thrilling all-California series, and the fifth-seeded Kings barely rode their home-ice advantage to victory in their first potential elimination game in the last two years. Antti Niemi stopped 16 shots, and Dan Boyle scored early in the third period for the Sharks, who fell just short of their third trip to the conference finals in four years. The Kings will face Chicago or Detroit when they attempt to reach the Stanley Cup finals for the third time. The Blackhawks host the Red Wings in Game 7 on Wednesday. Los Angeles has won eight straight home playoff games dating to last season’s Stanley Cup clincher, but this one might have been the toughest. San Jose pressed the action throughout the third period after Williams’ back-to-back goals put the Sharks in a mid-game hole, but Quick and the Kings’ defense hung on for a win in Los Angeles’ first Game 7 at home since 1989. Williams scored on a power-play tap-in and a one-timer 2:57 apart early in the second, putting the Kings on top to stay.

The veteran wing had an eight-game, goal-scoring drought, but the two-time Stanley Cup winner has a knack for Game 7 heroics, scoring nine points in his four career appearances in the decisive game. Quick and Los Angeles’ defense barely held off the Sharks in a frantic third period. Quick showed off his Conn Smythe Trophy form yet again, finishing the seven-game series by allowing just 10 goals.

This series was even from the start, with neither team able to take more than momentary control. The clubs were similarly equal in the regular season, when the Kings’ 3-2 home victory over San Jose in the finale pushed fifth-seeded Los Angeles ahead of the Sharks. That eventually led to the Kings starting a playoff series at home for the first time since 1992. Los Angeles opened with two home victories, stealing Game 2 with a pair of power-play goals in the final minutes for the only major comeback of the series. The Sharks responded with two solid 2-1 victories at home, keeping the Kings’ offense punchless away from Staples Center. —AP

Pakistani umpire Asad Rauf

2016 Olympics but lost out to rugby and golf, it was a long-awaited decision.

“This is a huge milestone in our quest to join the Olympic Programme and I would like to thank the executive board for the faith it has placed in squash,” federation chief N Ramachandran said.

The IOC will elect the 2020 Games host city at its session on Sept. 7 and the new sport to be included in those Games a day later. Tokyo, Madrid and Istanbul are bidding to stage the 2020 Olympics. —Reuters

Swimming and gymnastics get Olympic revenue boost ST. PETERSBURG: Swimming and gymnastics were the big winners yesterday in a new revenue-sharing ranking of Olympic sports, signaling the start of the debate over how to split the money from the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro.

The IOC executive board promoted the international swimming and gymnastics federations into the top tier along with track and field in a list of five groups comprising the 28 summer Olympic sports.

Previously, the International Association of Athletics Federations was ranked alone in the highest of four groups and received the biggest share of the hundreds of millions of dollars generated from television rights and other deals from each Summer Games.

Under a revised formula announced by IOC President Jacques Rogge, swimming body FINA and gymnastics federation FIG join the IAAF in Group A. One of the big losers was modern pentathlon, which dropped into a new Group E, the bottom rung.

The Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, the umbrella group comprising all the sports, asked the IOC to come up with the new groupings.

Now it will be up to ASOIF to figure out how to divvy up the money.

“You are throwing a hot potato in our hands,” Rogge told ASOIF President Francesco Ricci Bitti. “Now I am handing you back the hot potato.”

While the IAAF is now expected to receive less than before, IAAF President Lamine Diack made clear he feels his sport remains the top draw at the Olympics and deserves the greatest share.

“Aquatics is a nice sport. Gymnastics is a nice sport,” Diack said. “But you cannot compare with athletics. We are the only sport which makes the games universal. We filled the stadium in London for nine days. The

games in Rio will start when the athletics starts. The sport that will make the games special is athletics.”

The IAAF is getting about $45 million from the total of $520 million in revenues being shared out among the federations from last year’s London Olympics.

“The IAAF will get less money than in the past,” ASOIF director general Andrew Ryan said. “The groups are very important, but we don’t know yet how the calculations will work for Rio.” The second-tier Group B comprises basketball, cycling, football, tennis and volleyball. Group C has archery, badminton, boxing, judo, rowing, shooting, table tennis and weightlifting.

Group D is made up of canoe/kayaking, equestrian, fencing, handball, field hockey, sailing, taekwondo, triathlon and wrestling.

Group E has modern pentathlon, golf and rugby. Golf and rugby are new sports for Rio and were put in the bottom rung because there is no way to gauge their revenue impact.

According to Ryan, the sports which moved up in the groupings were table tennis, badminton, boxing, judo, archery, shooting and weightlifting. Moving down were equestrian, handball, hockey and modern pentathlon.

Under the previous formula, the federations in Group B received $22 million, with $16 million for Group C and $14 million for Group D. Rogge said the London revenues of $520 million represent a 75 percent increase from the $296 million from the 2008 Beijing Games. The figure was $256 million for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Rogge said the IOC will pay out the last installment of London revenues to the federations within a month once the financial books are closed. —AP

Pakistan umpire denies fixing LAHORE: Pakistan umpire Asad Rauf yesterday denied spot-fixing allegations made against him during the Indian Premier League, as Delhi’s sports ministry urged India’s powerful cricket chief to quit pending an inquiry into the scandal.

Indian media accused Rauf of involvement in the fixing controversy engulfing the megabucks Twenty20 competition and the sport’s governing body pulled him from next month’s Champions Trophy amid reports he was under police investigation.

Media in India alleged Rauf had been in contact with Bollywood actor Vindu Dara Singh Randhawa, arrested on charges of acting as middleman between bookies, players and officials, but the 57-year-old Wednesday insisted he was innocent.

“I vehemently deny allegations of matchfixing, spot-fixing, taking gifts (from bookmakers) and any illegal money,” Rauf said at a press conference in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, his first public statement since news of the scandal broke.

“I am ready to face any inquiry if the ICC’s anti-corruption unit wants to conduct any.”

The investigations started on May 16 when Delhi police arrested three cricketers including Test fast bowler Shanthakumaran Sreesanth, accusing them of deliberately bowling badly in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars during the lucrative IPL.

The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has distanced itself from the controversy, saying Rauf was under ICC control and the event was held in India, but assured action would be taken against him if the governing body ordered it.

Rauf, on the Elite Panel since 2006 with 48 Tests, 98 one-day internationals and 23 Twenty20 internationals to his name, said he had never been interested in fixing or backhanders.

“Fixing, illegal money and gifts have never been my topic, nor my target. These allegations have no truth and this is all,” he said.

Rauf clarified his pull-out from the Champions Trophy, saying he was only withdrawn from the tournament and not removed from the panel of top umpires approved to stand in Tests and one-day internationals. “The ICC took the decision in the best interests of the game and for me, and I accept that,” he said.

Rauf is the second Pakistani umpire to come under scrutiny in fixing after another exinternational panel umpire was banned for four years in April following a sting operation by an Indian channel which showed him agreeing to fix matches. Pakistan has a history of match-fixing controversies. Three of their players-Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Aamer-were banned and jailed in a spot-fixing scandal in 2010. —AFP

Pirelli delay race debut of revised Formula 1 tyres LONDON: Pirelli have shelved plans for Formula One teams to race with newspecification tyres in Canada next week, a company spokeswoman said yesterday.

She said the modified rear tyres would now be used only in Friday practice in Montreal for evaluation purposes, with each team given two sets, with the hope that they could then be used in the race at the British Grand Prix at the end of June.

“The regulations allow us to bring a set of experimental tyres to Friday practice,” explained the spokeswoman. “We decided to do it that way which gives everyone a chance to test them and hopefully all agree.”

Pirelli want to restructure the tyres to incorporate a 2012-style inner belt made of kevlar, rather than steel, after a spate of failures caused by debris.

The supplier is keen to eliminate ‘delaminations’ - where the tread separates from the body of the tyre without it deflating. However any change would have to

be approved by all the teams, unless the governing International Automobile Federation (FIA) orders it on safety grounds - which has not been the case.

Champions Red Bull have been vocal in calling for the 2013 tyres to be made more durable to reduce the number of pitstops and allow drivers to race harder. Others

MONACO: Lotus F1 Team’s French driver Romain Grosjean drives with a damaged tyre during the third practice session at the Circuit de Monaco in this file photo. —AFP

such as Lotus, Ferrari and Force India are against the changes because they have got their cars working well with the compounds.

Pirelli have also come under fire for carrying out a ‘secret’ tyre test in Spain with Mercedes after this month’s Spanish Grand Prix.

The matter has been referred to the FIA, who could pass it on to their international tribunal, after protests by Ferrari and Red Bull at last weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix. Testing is banned during the season, although Pirelli have it written into their contract that they can carry out a number of 1,000-km tests with a representative car.

Red Bull principal Christian Horner said Mercedes, winners in Monaco, had acted in an ‘underhand’ manner by not telling others about the test. He suggested they had gained an advantage by running a current car on tyres to be used later in the season. Pirelli have disputed that, saying Mercedes did not know what they were testing. —Reuters

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

S P ORTS

LeBron gets more attention than he wants NEW YORK: LeBron James likely did himself no favors with the refs by fueling the debate over flopping just ahead of Game 4.

Little more than 12 hours after he breezily labeled the practice “not even a bad thing, you’re just trying to get the advantage,” the Miami Heat star collected his sixth foul and took a seat on the bench with the game on the line and just under a minute left against the Indiana Pacers.

James devoted the rest of his time on the floor, and a few moments in his interview session afterward, to grumbling about the officials’ handiwork.

“I didn’t believe it was an offensive foul,” he said about the last call. “I was going to set a screen, and I felt like I was stationary. ... Lance (Stephenson, the Pacers’ guard) actually ran into me.”

The call was made after James attempted to set a screen for teammate Dwyane Wayne at the top of the key then stuck out his left leg to make it tougher for Stephenson to get around him. For good measure, he also stepped on Stephenson’s foot.

While you rarely see an illegal screen called late in a tight game, when Stephenson stumbled to regain his balance the officials were forced to sort out the damage. Right after the whistle, James put both hands to his head in a gesture that suggested both surprise and disbelief. It was a little late for both. That was his fourth foul in the final 12 minutes, and Indiana’s soon-to-be -cemented 99-92 win marked just the second time he’s fouled out in a playoff game. This one cost the Heat mightily.

James actually had a beef with three more of the six fouls he accumu-

lated, and it wasn’t without some merit. One came with two seconds left in the third quarter, after he collected a loose ball close to Indiana’s basket, then swung both arms to protect it from David West and grazed the Pacers big man with his elbow. The contact in that instance seemed minimal. But when big bodies get bounced around, James knows it’s the refs who have to sort it out.

“It was a couple of calls I didn’t feel were fouls, personal fouls on me,” he said, then tried to temper his complaints. “That’s how the game goes sometimes.”

Yet that’s not the way anyone in the NBA, from commissioner David Stern on down, wants the games to go - ever. Refereeing a sport where the court’s barely big enough to accommodate the ever-larger, moreathletic players that crowd it is tough enough. Too much contact requires too many judgment calls, which results in too much controversy, even when everybody is playing honest.

That’s why the league came up with its anti-flopping policy this season - the same one James called attention to by suggesting, “It hasn’t been a problem for many guys at all.”

In fairness, James was simply answering questions about flopping, which seemed to be the topic du jour at both teams’ Tuesday morning shootarounds. That’s probably because the Heat and Pacers have a history in that regard. Indiana coach Frank Vogel, like his Bulls’ counterpart Tom Thibodeau, is one of the best in the league at drawing up defenses and tailoring them to choke off another team’s attack. They play rough just about every time they meet, even

with considerably less on the line.

Just before they tangled in last season’s Eastern Conference semifinals, Vogel labeled the Heat the “biggest flopping team in the NBA.” “Flopping is a problem in this league,” he continued. “Miami certainly has some guys who do a lot of it. I just don’t think it’s good for the game in general.”

Vogel got slapped with a $15,000 fine from the league, but with the series tied 2-2 heading back to Miami, that’s beginning to look like money well spent. This Heat-Pacers series has been bruising at times, and while not nearly as rugged or contentious as the Heat-Bulls matchup in the last round, it’s kept the referees on their toes.

Wade leveled a forearm at Stephenson’s head in Game 2 that wasn’t whistled at the time, because the refs missed it. The league office reviewed the play, though, and subsequently slapped Wade with a flagrant foul. Pacers fans have apparently been following the back-and-forth almost as intently as the players, since they began chanting “Beat the Floppers” not long after the opening tip.

Indiana raced out to an 11-0 lead, but ultimately prevailed because they played smothering defense (Miami shot just 39 percent for the game), controlled the paint on both ends (building a 50-32 edge in points there) and ran up a 49-30 edge in rebounding. The six extra free-throw attempts they picked up along the way (33-27) didn’t hurt, either.

“We knew we were going to take their punches,” Indiana George Hill.

“And we knew we were going to have to throw punches back.” And trade the Heat flop for flop, as well. —AP

Photo of the day

Michal Navratil of the Czech Republic dives from the 27.5 metre platform on the Saint Nicolas Tower during the opening training session of the first stop of the Red Bull Cliff Diving World Series, La Rochelle, France. —www.redbullcontentpool.com

Meyer feared he had ruined career of Youngs DURBAN: Heyneke Meyer feared he had ruined Tom Youngs’ career when he persuaded the Englishman to switch from centre to hooker. The Springbok coach can probably rest easy now.

Youngs touched down in Hong Kong on Tuesday, one of 37 British and Irish Lions preparing for Saturday’s match against the Barbarians before heading on for the tour of Australia.

His inclusion amongst the elite of the home nations almost certainly would not have happened had Meyer not arrived for a short spell in charge of English club side Leicester in 2008.

Meyer was convinced a move to the middle of the front row would be a better fit, Youngs agreed and both were proved right when the 26-yearold went on to make his England debut in the number two shirt against Fiji last November.

“At first I was worried that I might have wrecked his career because others didn’t necessarily believe in his move to hooker, but Tom never stopped believing and kept on working hard to succeed,” Meyer told Reuters in Durban.

“Although I thought he would be a good centre, I knew he could be a world class hooker, as he has all the attributes to succeed in that position.

“He is mentally tough, a strong ball

carrier, has lots of speed, a great feel for the game and superb defence. “I knew he could make the conversion, because he had the hunger to play at highest level, was willing to listen and to work very hard to achieve his dream.”

Meyer is quick to hand the credit for the success of the move to the hard work put in by Youngs but says he has taken some satisfaction in watching how the player has grown into the role.

“I don’t want to take credit for this, because he was the one who believed in the move and, along with others, made a success of it,” he said.

“However, when he was selected to play for England, I got a letter from his parents thanking me for what I’ve done for him, which was a very special moment in my career as I’ve coached thousands of players and to get a thank you letter like that one, it stood out.

“I’ve moved quite a few players in my career, but what impressed me most about Tom was that he immediately said ‘yes’ when we discussed his move from centre to hooker, because he wanted to play test rugby.

“I was ecstatic when I heard he was selected for the British and Irish Lions to tour Australia and I think it is just reward for a player that never looked

back when he decided to make the change in position. “I think he can achieve a lot more in his career, as he has all the attributes needed to succeed at the top.”

Youngs will be one of three hookers in Australia along with Welshman Richard Hibbard and Ireland’s Rory Best in an evenly matched race for a starting spot in the first test on June 22 in Brisbane.

Son of Nick, a former England scrumhalf, and older brother to Ben, who plays with him at Leicester, England and is also on the Lions tour, Youngs was initially farmed out to lower league club Nottingham to learn the dark arts of the front row.

He returned to Leicester in 2009 and has enjoyed a meteoric rise, named English Premiership Player of the Year earlier this month and helping Leicester to a 10th title last weekend at Twickenham.

Youngs said he never thought twice about following Meyer’s suggestion. “I never ever doubted the wisdom of making the move,” Youngs told the Daily Telegraph last week. “I told my dad that even if it meant that I never went back to Leicester it was still the right thing to do. I’ve enjoyed the whole journey. Mind you, I never thought it would end here with the Lions.” —Reuters

Clarke looks to Champions defence Sergio Parisse

Parisse leads strong side against Lions WELLINGTON: Italy captain Sergio Parisse said he wanted to give the British and Irish Lions an early taste of pressure after being named to lead the Barbarians side in Saturday ’s encounter in Hong Kong yesterday.

The inspirational number eight will lead the iconic invitational side which has been stacked with internationals, headlined by the likes of former All Blacks winger Joe Rokocoko and flyhalf Nick Evans. Coach Dai Young, three times a Lions tourist and a series winner in Australia in 1989 and South Africa in 1997, has selected Italy prop Martin Castrogiovanni in the front row along with Wales loosehead Paul James.

Former Lions utility back James Hook, who had held out a slim hope that he might make the party for the tour of Australia, was named on the Barbarians bench.

Former England centre Mike Tindall, who missed the 2005 Lions tour to New Zealand because of injury, is also on the bench, while former Wallabies lock Dean Mumm will be out to strike an early blow or two for Australia.

“I played two years ago for the Baa-

baas and it is a big honour to be back again,” Parisse told reporters in Hong Kong on Tuesday.

“For any player, especially from Italy, it is a great opportunity and I know we have enough talent and skill among this group of players to put the Lions under pressure.”

Saracens hooker Schalk Brits was also named to play Warren Gatland’s side, four years after he missed an opportunity to play the Lions in his native South Africa.

“The year I joined Sarries in 2009 was the year that the Lions toured South Africa so hopefully now I’ll have that chance to play against them,” he told his club’s website, before adding he hoped to be facing club colleagues Mako Vunipola and Matt Stevens in the front row on Saturday.

“Hopefully they’ll give me an easy ride but, let’s be honest, I don’t think that will happen!” The Barbarians, who traditionally name an uncapped player, have named three for the match at Hong Kong Stadium with Ulster’s Jared Payne at fullback behind centre Elliot Daly and his Wasps team mate Sam Jones at openside flanker.

Young did not include Hong Kong’s

Rowan Varty in his 23-man match day squad after he played in the Barbarians 40-12 loss to England at Twickenham last Saturday.

Barbarians: 15-Jared Payne (Ulster), 14-Joe Rokocoko (Bayonne and New Zealand), 13-Elliot Daly (London Wasps), 12-Casey Laulala (Munster and New Zealand), 11-Takudzwa Ngwenya (Biarritz and USA), 10-Nick Evans (Harlequins and New Zealand), 9Dimitri Yachvili (Biarritz and France), 8Sergio Parisse (Stade Francais and Italy), 7-Sam Jones (London Wasps), 6Samu Manoa (Northampton and USA), 5-Dean Mumm (Exeter Chiefs and Australia), 4-Marco Wentzel (London Wasps and South Africa), 3-Martin Castrogiovanni (Leicester and Italy), 2Schalk Brits (Saracens and South Africa), 1-Paul James (Bath and Wales).

Replacements: 16-Duncan Jones (Ospreys and Wales), 17-Leonardo Ghiraldini (Treviso and Italy), 18-Jim Hamilton (Gloucester and Scotland), 19-Imanol Harinordoquy (Biarritz and France), 20-Andrea Lo Cicero (Racing Metro and Italy), 21-Kahn Fotuali’i (Ospreys and Samoa), 22-James Hook (Perpignan and Wales), 23-Mike Tindall (Gloucester and England). —Reuters

CARDIFF: Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke said yesterday should his side successfully defend their Champions Trophy one day title it would give them a huge boost ahead of taking England on in the Ashes series which follows.

The 32-year-old is seeking a pick me up ahead of the Ashes next month after a humiliating 4-0 test series loss to India which was also marked by serious splits in the squad which resulted in disciplinary action being taken against several players.

Clarke - who is bidding to regain the Ashes after two successive losses says all his energies and his team’s will be focussed on retaining the one day title they won in South Africa four years ago.

The tournament runs from June 623 in England and Wales while the five-Test Ashes series is in July-August.

“I don’t think we as a team are focused on the Ashes at all at this stage,” said Clarke, who is leading a largely inexperienced test side.

“No doubt there’s a lot of build-up in regards to media and the public back home. “I’m sure it’s the same here in England. I certainly have no problems in speaking about it and hearing about the Ashes because it’s a fantastic series that every Australian cricketer looks forward to.”

Clarke also played down any fears England would be better prepared for the Ashes, thanks to beating an outclassed New Zealand side 2-0 in a home test series which came to a climax on Tuesday.

“I think if we win the Champions Trophy it’ll be more than enough

Michael Clarke (experience of English conditions),” said Clarke.

“That’s the best preparation possible. Like I say, my focus is having success in this tournament right now. I’m not too concerned about the Ashes right now.” Clarke said that he was no longer dwelling on the India debacle.

“I certainly don’t want to look back (at the tour),” said Clarke. “I think I’ve had enough time over the past eight weeks to look back. It’s about looking forward. We’re here for a completely different tour, obviously a one-day tournament as opposed to Test

matches that we just played in India.

This group is very focused on what’s in front of us.

“We know how tough the Champions Trophy tournament is and how tough international one-day cricket is around the world these days with teams being so close together.

“You know, it’s going to be a tough tournament, there’s no doubt about it.

We know we’re going to have to be at our best and at this stage we’re certainly very focused on making sure we’re as prepared as we can be for that first game.” —AFP

McQuaid calls on Armstrong to tell all to UCI ST. PETERSBURG: Cycling federation president Pat McQuaid is waiting for a visit and an apology from Lance Armstrong. McQuaid said Armstrong should travel to UCI headquarters in Switzerland to tell all about his doping history and offer to help clean up the sport.

“He should jump on his private plane, come to Switzerland and say, ‘What should I do?’” McQuaid told reporters. “He still hasn’t apologized to the sport of cycling. If he has information that is valuable to the sport he

should come forward.”

McQuaid said Armstrong should also meet with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency and World Anti-Doping Agency to provide full details on how he cheated to win the Tour de France seven times. The American was stripped of all the titles last year after admitting to doping.

“Everyone accepts he has not come clean,” McQuaid said. “He should sit down and work with us.” McQuaid and the UCI have come under fire for failing to catch Armstrong and

the federation has been accused of complicity and cover-ups in his cheating.

But, in a wide-ranging interview with reporters on the sideline of the SportAccord Convention, McQuaid repeatedly defended himself, the UCI and former president Hein Verbruggen.

“I do not think the UCI made mistakes,” the Irish official said. “The facts show the UCI was always the most advanced federation in the fight against doping. The problem was the products that couldn’t be tested for at the

time. There were no tests available for the products. The UCI was not to blame.

“Ten or 15 years ago, the armory was much weaker. Today we are spending 7.5 million euros ($9.6 million) a year on testing. We are not spending 7.5 million euros ($9.6 million) to let cheats get away.”

McQuaid said the UCI tested Armstrong 200 times between 1999 and 2005, while USADA tested him 12 times during that period.

“All the blame has been put on the UCI,” he

said. “Maybe USADA and WADA should also take some responsibility.” McQuaid said he has invited USADA chief executive Travis Tygart for talks in Switzerland. Tygart, who has been one of the UCI’s harshest critics, has accepted and a date for the meeting is being arranged, McQuaid said.

The UCI head claimed he never suspected Armstrong was cheating during his dominance of the Tour de France, saying he had been inspired by the rider’s comeback from cancer. —AP

19

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

SPORTS

Relegation no obstacle to new Premier League job LONDON: Having a relegation on your CV might not seem the best thing for the employment prospects of aspiring Premier League managers but it does not seem to be hampering their chances of a plum job.

Roberto Martinez is being courted by high-flying Everton despite presiding over Wigan Athletic’s drop to the second tier after they conceded a jointworst 73 goals in 38 league games.

They have won plaudits for their attacking play and lifted their first major trophy with an FA Cup triumph over Manchester City but Martinez being so sought after has bemused some Wigan fans, who have taken to social media to celebrate his exit.

“Martinez sent us down and left.

Good riddance,” wrote one fan on Twitter after the Spaniard asked to leave on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old, who turned down Aston Villa two years ago, had engineered a series of relegation escapes

since he took over in 2009 but having a manager who eventually lost a dropzone dog fight is not exactly what sixth-placed Everton covet.

The Liverpool-based side, who have lost long-term manager David Moyes to Manchester United after Alex Ferguson’s retirement, are keen to push on for the top four and the Champions League places next term on a limited budget.

Martinez’s emphasis on an attractive passing game and his eye for a transfer bargain in far flung corners of the world like Central America are likely to be plus points for Everton.

“I will speak with Roberto in the next 48 hours,” Everton chairman Bill Kenwright told Sky Sports News yesterday. “He is on the list. No more than on the list. “There’s no way I or anyone can say we will get it right.”

It is not just Martinez who could be rewarded despite failure in the Premier League. Mark Hughes is favorite for

the vacant Stoke City job despite failing spectacularly at Queens Park Rangers on a big budget, getting sacked in November and leaving such a mess that even experienced hand Harry Redknapp could not stop relegation. Former Wales manager Hughes was previously fired by Manchester City in 2009 and left mid-table Fulham in 2011 because he said they did not meet his ambition.

Stoke had become a solid if mostly dour top-flight outfit under Tony Pulis before his seven-year reign ended last week with the board wanting to take a different direction.

Cynical fans are hoping the club’s new direction if Hughes is handed the job won’t be down. They have already been protesting against the Welshman’s possible appointment, with one supporter parking his van with a giant “Hughes out” sign in the Britannia Stadium car park.

Bookmakers William Hill have cut

the odds on Stoke being relegated next season to 3-1 fifth favorites.

“That’s the shortest price for relegation since their first season back in the top flight. The Hughes rumour has hardly set the market alight,” William Hill’s Joe Crilly told Reuters. “Given what happened at QPR, the Stoke fans would be on his back straight away.”

Experience of the English top flight or a similarly high-pressured European league seems the most important factor when boards are assessing candidates, with young up-and-coming coaches from the lower divisions rarely considered.

Indeed, appointing a manager whose most recent record is dire is not a new development in the Premier League. Many Villa fans were aghast when the club named Alex McLeish as their new boss in 2011 despite his having led local rivals Birmingham City to relegation from the top flight weeks earlier. “That was just a bizarre deci-

sion,” Crilly added. Villa sacked him a year later after flirting with the drop.

Premier League boards rarely seem to look at trophy cabinets these days when selecting new coaches.

Rafael Benitez was only ever seen as an interim appointment at Chelsea despite a European Cup, Club World Cup, two Spanish titles, an FA Cup and a UEFA Cup on his rÈsumÈ before landing the Europa League with the Blues and then leaving for Napoli.

Moyes excelled by keeping Everton in the upper echelons of the Premier League for much of his 11 years in charge but did not win any silverware, in stark contrast to new employers Manchester United.

Moyes’ original appointment at Everton, where he was plucked from English second tier side Preston North End after modest success, is unlikely to be mirrored any time soon if the recycling of Premier League managers remains in vogue.—Reuters

Porto thrive in big-money moves LISBON: Many European clubs will envy Porto’s track record over the last decade, during which they have reaped more than half a billion euros ($650 million) from player transfers while keeping their competitive edge sharp.

Porto’s sales of Joao Moutinho and James Rodriguez to Monaco for 70 million euros last week were the latest in a long series of bigmoney moves and few in Portugal were surprised by their scale.

“We are used to seeing this from Porto in the last 10 years or so: excellence in elevating players’ quality,” Portuguese League boss Mario Figueiredo told Reuters.

Figueiredo said Portugal was, between 2001 and 2011, the only European Union country with a positive net balance in player trade, with sales of some one billion euros and a 400-million-euro surplus. “We have become a stepping stone for talent from several South American countries, not just from Brazil but also Colombia and Argentina,” Figueiredo said.

Debt-laden Portugal wants to export its way out its economic crisis and its football clubs, at least, seem to have listened.

If you deduct what Porto paid for their later resold players, they pocketed some 400 million euros in transfer gains over the decade, Expresso weekly reported, and did so while winning the league almost every year.

Porto have been champions in eight of the last 10 seasons and also won the Champions

League and Europa League. One of their first sales of the decade was Portugal striker Helder Postiga to Tottenham for nine million euros in 2003.

Postiga failed to thrive in London but Porto were undaunted. They sold Anderson to Manchester United for some 30 million euros, Colombian striker Falcao to Atletico Madrid and Brazilian Hulk to Zenit St. Petersburg for 40 million euros each, to name just a few.

Porto have dug into the South American pool of talent in particular, carefully picking talent, developing it and then collecting the profit.

“The secret for a small country like us to stay up there with the very best is to be highly professional and nurture talent,” said Figueiredo.

Behind the success lay basic economic reasoning: buy low and sell high. “This happens all throughout the value chain, not just with Porto and Benfica but also with clubs like Braga and Maritimo and in the lower leagues.”

The rise of big-spending Russian oligarchs such as Chelsea’s Roman Abramovich and now Monaco’s Dmitry Rybolovlev has also helped clubs such as Porto to find demand for their shiny talent.

In 2004 alone, Abramovich spent more than 60 million euros on three players Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira and Tiago who moved from Porto to Stamford Bridge with coach Jose Mourinho. — Reuters

BOGOTA: Colombia’s Santa Fe player Wilder Medina (right) vies for the ball with Peru’s Garcilaso player Rolando Bogado during their Copa Libertadores 2013 football match. —AFP

Santa Fe rout Garcilaso BUENOS AIRES: Striker Jefferson Cuero scored with a brilliant lob as Independiente Santa Fe advanced to their second Libertadores Cup semi-final with a 2-0 win over debutants Real Garcilaso in Bogota on Tuesday.

The Colombian side, whose only previous semi-final was in 1961, completed a 5-1 aggregate quarter-final victory over the Peruvians at their El Campin home after virtuPORT LOUIS: The President of FIFA, Sepp Blatter (left) is received by Mauritius Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam. Blatter is in Mauritius to attend the 63rd FIFA Congress which takes place today. —AFP

FIFA highlights reforms, Blatter salary a secret PORT LOUIS: FIFA President Sepp Blatter’s salary remained a secret yesterday while the money-spinning world football body still backed its reform process and insisted it was becoming more financially transparent.

A day after FIFA said a debate over restricting the age and number of terms of officials would be put off until at least next year, the earnings of its leaders were also still off limits ahead of the annual congress in Mauritius on Thursday and Friday.

Domenico Scala, a Swiss industrialist brought in to be FIFA’s top financial watchdog and lead its new audit and compliance committee, said he knew how much money Blatter made but would not reveal it.

“It is not my role to disclose it,” Scala said at a beachside hotel on the Indian Ocean island.

“The decision to disclose salaries is part of the process we have ... and part of the role of the FIFA executive committee. You will definitely not get the salary from me. You will have to get the salary from him.”

Blatter has reportedly referred questions over his earnings and bonuses to Scala, and hinted in the past that it was just over $1 million. It’s believed to be much more than that.

Making public earnings of top FIFA officials especially the decision-making executive committee - was one of the recommendations of law professor Mark Pieth’s expert panel after those advisers were brought in by FIFA after recent scandals involving corruption and financial misconduct.

FIFA said “key management personnel” shared $33.5 million in bonuses and perks in 2012, and Pieth’s reformers have pushed for more openness over remuneration of top figures as one of three key reforms that won’t now be adopted at the annual congress in Mauritius.

Scala also described as “horrible” an ethics report from CONCACAF into alleged long-running corruption by United States official Chuck Blazer and disgraced former CONCACAF president Jack Warner of Trinidad and Tobago.

“It doesn’t say anything positive,” he added.

“Whatever Jack Warner and Chuck Blazer are saying to me now is worthless because they have obviously over an extended period of time abused the system.”

Blazer, a former secretary general of CONCACAF and FIFA’s most senior American official for years before he left his position on the executive this month, has been temporarily banned from all football amid accusations he embezzled at least $21 million. Warner resigned in 2011 after being accused - by whistle-blower Blazer - of trying to bribe people to vote for another disgraced official, Mohamed bin Hammam, in that year’s leadership contest against Blatter.

Yet with its stories of high-powered corruption, FIFA, which has an annual income of over $1 billion, is still listed as a nonprofit organization, leading critics to insist the earnings and any bonuses of its executive and directors should be made public. Scala, who has been praised for his work in reforming some of FIFA’s financial processes in the past year, said reality dictated that FIFA was less comparable to other nonprofits.

“It is an association, I agree, but it has an economic reality,” Scala said. “We are talking about billions. You know that.”

As well as remuneration transparency, FIFA also hasn’t apparently made any progress on calls for independent advisers to be allowed to sit on its executive committee, while limiting the age and number of terms for top officials was effectively dropped from the congress agenda on Tuesday by the executive committee, which said the limits would be debated again in 2014. In comparison, the IOC has age and term limits and its president, Jacques Rogge, doesn’t draw a salary. Despite the absence of those three principles at world football’s ruling body, FIFA and Scala say some of the work since the troubled 2011 congress and World Cup hosting votes should be praised, especially the strengthening of FIFA’s own ethics committee. Scala said FIFA needed time to change. —AP

ally settling the tie with a 3-1 win in last week’s first leg in Cusco.

Cuero caught Garcilaso goalkeeper Diego Carranza off his line in the seventh minute with a lob from 25 metres that went in off the underside of the crossbar to snuff out any hope the Peruvian side had of turning the tie their way.

Midfielder John Valencia added Santa Fe’s second goal in the 66th minute and Garcilaso

defender Ivan Santillan was sent off in the 75th.

Garcilaso, founded only four years ago, had earned a surprise place in the quarterfinals by eliminating former champions Nacional of Uruguay on penalties in the last 16.

The semi-finals and final will be played in July after a break for the Confederations Cup in Brazil next month.—Reuters

Bid to solve Palestinian sports dispute with Israel PORT LOUIS: FIFA president Sepp Blatter promised Palestinians yesterday that soccer’s world governing body would help put an end to the long-running problems with Israel that severely restrict sport in the territories.

Blatter, who went to the region two years ago to try to help improve the relationship between the Palestinians and Israel, was applauded by delegates at a conference of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) in Mauritius before FIFA’s Congress starting today.

Blatter told AFC delegates he was aware of what he called “this touchy problem”, adding: “I can confirm I will help, FIFA will help. It’s a problem of football. We will help you and this will be done. It’s not a promise it’s a will — and where there’s a will there’s way.” The tensions between the neighbours have been exacerbated as the start of UEFA’s European Under-21 Championship, being staged in four Israeli cities next month, approaches.

Last week UEFA general secretary Gianni Infantino said after its Congress in London that European soccer’s governing body was within its rights to award the tournament to Israel and would not consider moving it. But Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestine FA and Palestine Olympic Committee, said the situation had worsened since Blatter and International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge visited the region on separate occasions in 2011 and 2010. At Rajoub’s request there will be an open debate on the situation at the FIFA Congress on Friday.

Palestinians are angry that Israel’s security forces, who control movement between Gaza and the West Bank, frequently prevent athletes from travelling freely between the two areas.

The situation is not restricted to Palestinians. As a full member of FIFA and the AFC, the Palestine FA has started to hold more regional tournaments but the Israelis are stopping athletes from third countries entering the West Bank.

Recently two teenagers from Myanmar were stuck in Jordan for a week awaiting clearance so they could play in an Under-17 tournament before eventually been granted access to the Palestinian territories. After yesterday’s meeting, Rajoub told Reuters: “It’s crazy what the Israelis are doing.

They should be asked either to respect and accept the statutes or pay the price. I am talking about free access and free movement for both athletes and sports instructors and experts from abroad.

“We just want to enjoy sport like the rest of the associations.” Asked whether IOC and FIFA intervention had helped, he said: “No. The situation is deteriorating. They have to recognise reality on the ground and Palestine is a member of both FIFA and the IOC and accepts all of the standards and statutes of FIFA.” —Reuters

BRAZIL: Brazilian national football team players Neymar (right) and David Luz take part in a training session at the military school in Rio de Janeiro. Brazil will face England in a friendly match on June 2. —AFP

Neymar admits to nerves ahead of joining Barcelona RIO DE JANEIRO: Barcelona-bound Brazil forward Neymar has been feeling nervous ahead of his blockbuster transfer to the Spanish champions once he has finished playing in the Confederations Cup in June. The 21-yearold, who is leaving Santos, juggled a ball briefly under a spotlight in a darkened warehouse by the port of Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday and then talked about his future after a long, fitful courtship with several European suitors.

Before Barca finally clinched a deal last weekend, other major European teams, had for the past two years sought to lure him away from the Brazilian club where he started his career.

“What I feel are chills in my stomach,” the gazelle-like forward said referring to his impending move before adding that the nerves would not distract him from the Confederations Cup. The tournament being played in six cities in his home nation is a warm-up before Brazil hosts the World Cup finals next year.

“Right now the focus is the

Confederations Cup,” said Neymar who will have to live up to a price tag estimated at about 74 million Brazilian Real ($35.82 million) by local media.

“That’s what’s most important - winning Brazil that title,” added Brazil’s World Cup hope, donning new orange boots being unveiled by Nike for reporters.

A Brazilian soccer federation spokesman said Neymar was expected to fly to Spain early next week for his official presentation with Barca before returning by midweek to train with Brazil in preparation for the Confederations Cup. Despite Neymar’s success at Santos, where his speed and skills have attracted global attention, he has yet to perform consistently at the same high level on the international stage.

He needs to find his best form at the Confederations Cup to help dispel concerns about his ability to play under pressure and to encourage local fans hoping Brazil can improve on recent lacklustre performances as they prepare for the World Cup. —Reuters

FIFA highlights reforms, Blatter salary a secret

Phillies and Rays roll

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Squash, baseball, wrestling on 2020 shortlist

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MADRID: Spanish matador Daniel Luque performs a pass on a bull during a bullfight of the San Isidro Feria at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid. — AFP

Federer, Serena show no mercy PARIS: Roger Federer won his 56th French Open match while Serena Williams racked up a 26th consecutive win as the former champions showed no mercy to hapless opponents at Roland Garros yesterday. Federer, the second seed, trounced Indian qualifier Somdev Devvarman, ranked 188 in the world, 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 and next faces France’s Julien Benneteau.

It was Federer’s most one-sided win in Paris since he beat Belgium’s Kristof Vliegen in the first round in 2004, also for the loss of just four games.

The Swiss great’s latest French Open victory took him to 56, just two behind the tournament record held jointly by Guillermo Vilas and Nicola Pietrangeli.

“It’s great that all the work is paying off and I hope to keep experiencing this as long as possible,” said the 2009 champion. Women’s top seed Williams cruised to a 6-1, 6-2 win over French teenager Caroline Garcia, conceding just seven points on her serve.

The 31-year-old American, who will face Romania’s Sorana Cristea, the 26th seed, for a place in the last 16, has dropped just four games in two rounds.

“I felt I was doing well, being serious and getting the job done,” said Williams. “I like the clay here, I like to slide.”

Her 26th consecutive win in 2013 is only nine behind the record of 35 set by sister Venus in 2000. In stark contrast, Danish 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki, a former world number one, went down 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 to Serbian world number 47 Bojana Jovanovski, who had defeated her in Rome two weeks ago.

Wozniacki had only snapped a five-match losing streak in the first round in Paris when she beat Britain’s Laura Robson. “It hasn’t been the best clay season this year,” she admitted.

“I guess it’s good that it’s the last tournament.” Sixthseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, cruised past Finnish veteran Jarkko Nieminen, 7-6 (8/6), 6-4, 6-3 as he continues his campaign to become France’s first men’s champion in 30 years.

Tsonga, a quarter-finalist last year when he squandered four match points against Novak Djokovic, next faces compatriot Jeremy Chardy.

“I’m French, it’s in France, and of course there may be a bit more pressure, but for me it’s positive,” said Tsonga.

Compatriot Gael Monfils, a semi-finalist in 2008, won a thrilling contest against in-form but unpredictable Latvian Ernests Gulbis, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 and next faces Spanish veteran Tommy Robredo.

Wildcard Monfils was playing his 12th match in 17 days after reaching the final in Nice last weekend. “I don’t think about fatigue, I just hope to be ready for my next match,” said the 26-year-old who hit 29 winners and 33 unforced errors.

Gulbis finished with 52 winners but an ugly 69 errors. In a match played in a fine spirit, Monfils even whipped his mobile phone from his bag at the end of the third set to film the crowd giving him a standing ovation after he had

recovered from squandering five set points in the ninth game.

Spanish men’s fourth seed David Ferrer, a semi-finalist in 2012, also made the third round, beating compatriot Albert Montanes, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3.

In the women’s event, double Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka cruised into the second round. Thirdseeded Azarenka clinched a 6-1, 6-4 win over Elena Vesnina-her fifth win in five matches against the experienced Russian — and will next face German 19-year-old Annika Beck, the 2012 junior champion, for a place in the third round.

Roland Garros has been Azarenka’s least successful Grand Slam. Having reached at least the semi-finals of the other three majors, the 23-year-old’s best run in Paris saw her make the last eight in 2009 and 2011.

But she was relatively untroubled on Wednesday against Vesnina, with whom she reached the final of the women’s doubles in 2009.

“It felt good to be on the court after getting cancelled yesterday,” said Azarenka in reference to Tuesday’s rain-hit schedule.

Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanksa, who has never got beyond the fourth round, eased past Mallory Burdette of the United States 6-3, 6-2.

She had been scheduled to tackle her sister for a place in the last 16, but Urszula Radwanska, who put out Venus Williams in the first round, crashed out 6-3, 6-3 to German qualifier Dinah Pfizenmaier, the world number 127.

Former champions, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanovic also went into the third round. Kuznetsova saw off Magdalena Rybarikova, 1-6, 6-2, 6-2 while Ivanovic beat Mathilde Johansson, 6-2, 6-2. — AFP

PARIS: Switzerland’s Roger Federer stretches to hit the ball against India’s Somdev Devvarman during their French Tennis Open match at the Roland Garros stadium. — AFP

Pacers leave it late to see off Heat INDIANAPOLIS: Roy Hibbert had 23 points and 12 rebounds as the Indiana Pacers charged back late to beat the Miami Heat 99-92 on Tuesday and level the Eastern Conference finals at 2-2.

LeBron James led the Heat with 24 points before fouling out with 56 seconds to go. Mario Chalmers had 20 points on a night the defending NBA champs failed to take command of the series. The Heat will host Game 5 today.

“We’re not going anywhere. We’re going back down to Miami to go out there and fight again,” Hibbert said. Lance Stephenson added 20 points for the Pacers, who started fast and spent the rest of the night trying to fend off Miami’s continual comebacks.

But with Indiana leading 81-72 early in the fourth, Miami answered with a 14-2 run that gave the Heat an 86-83 lead. Indiana leveled the score with Paul George’s threepoint play and erased the Miami lead by closing the game on a 16-6 run. Indiana was desperate — and it showed.

Bodies crashed to the ground all night.

An angry George uncharacteristically smacked the floor after being called for a foul in the third quarter, leading to a technical foul on coach Frank Vogel. And the defense did a far better job against James and his high-scoring teammates. James finished 8 of 18 from the field. But the Pacers did not get rattled.

Instead, they answered every challenge

Miami posed as they had in the first two games of this series. When Miami used a 9-0 run to take a 60-54 lead early in the third quarter, Indiana answered immediately with a 10-0 run to regain the lead. When James committed an offensive foul with 2 seconds left in the third quarter, his first turnover since the end of Game 2, the Pacers got a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Stephenson to make it 77-70.

Even as the Heat rallied in the fourth, charging back from an 81-72 deficit to take an 86-83 lead, the Pacers answered. George tied the score on a three-point play on which James committed his fourth foul. Ray Allen broke the deadlock with a 3 from the left wing, but after corralling rebound after

rebound, Indiana went on a 7-0 run to retake the lead and Miami never tied it again. This was not the same Miami team that dominated Indiana in Game 3. Nor was it the same Pacers defense that got overrun

by James and his teammates two nights earlier.

Miami struggled to score early, Dwyane Wade was limping noticeably in the first half and forward Chris Bosh hurt his right knee in the first half and his right ankle in the second. The Big Three combined to go just 14 of 39 from the field.

Indiana, meanwhile, reverted to its more traditional style. The Pacers had a 49-30 rebounding advantage and outscored Miami in the paint 50-32. — AP

Business

China’s fresh graduates enter tight job market Page 25 Switzerland frees banks to settle US tax evasion cases Page 23

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

Europe remains threat to world economy: OECD

Xerox encourages regional businesses to ‘Drive for Digital’ Page 22 Page 26

TOKYO: Some 2,500 members of the Japan Fisheries Cooperatives (JF) raise their fists in the air to protest against rising fuel prices caused by weak Japanese yen, at a rally yesterday.— AFP

Liberty Reserve ‘bank of choice for criminal underworld’ $6bn fraud probe targets digital currency NEW YORK: Calling it perhaps the biggest money laundering scheme in US history, federal prosecutors charged seven people Tuesday with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank that handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe. The case was aimed at Liberty Reserve, a currency transfer and payment processing company based in Costa Rica that authorities say allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the Internet with almost no questions asked.

US officials said the enterprise was staggering in scope: Over roughly seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the US. The network “became the bank of choice for the criminal underworld,” US Attorney Preet Bharara said in announcing the unsealing of an indictment against the defendants, including Liber ty Revenue founder Ar thur Budovsky, an American who renounced his US citizenship after deciding to set up in Costa Rica.

Liberty Reserve allowed users to open accounts using fictitious names, including “Russian Hacker” and “Hacker Account.” An undercover investigator was able to register using the name “Joe Bogus” and the address “123 Fake Main Street ” in

“Completely Made Up City, New York,” and then conduct transactions he recorded as “ATM skimming network” and “for the cocaine.” “ The coin of the realm was anonymity,” Bharara said. “It was the opposite of a know-your-customer policy.”

The network charged a 1 percent fee on transactions through middlemen known as exchangers, who converted real currency into virtual funds and then back into cash. In the indictment, prosecutors called the network “one of the principal means by which cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder proceeds of their illegal activity ... including credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography and narcotics trafficking.”

Bharara said it was possibly “the largest international money laundering case ever brought by the United States.” Budovsky and another defendant, identified as Azzeddine el Amine, were arrested Friday at a Madrid airport while trying to return to Costa Rica, according to a Spanish court official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court policy forbids him from speaking on the record. They were ordered jailed while they await a hearing on extradition to the US. Two other men, including Liber ty Reserve co-founder Vladimir Kats, were arrested last week in New York City. There

was no public record of their arraignments on Friday night, and there was no immediate response to phone messages left Tuesday with their attorneys. Of the three remaining defendants, one was in custody in Costa Rica and the others were at large there.

A notice pasted across Liberty Reserve’s website Tuesday morning said the domain “has been seized by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team.” Attempts to reach Liberty Reserve by phone and email were unsuccessful. Budovsky and Kats have previous convictions on state charges related to an unlicensed money transmitting business, according to court papers.

After that case, they decided to move their operation to Costa Rica, the papers said.

In an online chat captured by law enforcement, Kats admitted Liber ty Reserve was illegal and noted that authorities in the United States knew it was “a money-laundering operation that hackers use.” While authorities described Liberty Reserve as being rife with criminals, the site’s ease of use, low fees and irreversible transactions that deterred fraud also attracted legitimate users.

Mitchell Rossetti, whose Houston-based ePayCards.com was one of several mainstream merchants that accepted Liberty Reserve’s online-only currency, said his business still had about $28,000 tied up in

Liberty Reserve accounts. “The irony of this is I went to them because of the security,” Rossetti said. “All sales were final.”

Liberty Reserve appears to have played an important role in laundering proceeds from the recent theft of some $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks, according to documents made public by US authorities earlier this month. In that scheme, thieves stole debit card information and then used it to drain cash from thousands of ATMs around the world in a matter of hours.

As part of the Liberty Reserve investigation, authorities raided 14 places in Panama, Switzerland, the US, Sweden and Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, investigators recovered five luxury cars, including three Rolls-Royces. Bharara said authorities also seized Liberty’s computer servers in Costa Rica and Switzerland.

The businesses that were raided in Costa Rica on Friday as part of the investigation into Liberty Reserve are dedicated to Web hosting services, website development and Internet business consulting. In Costa Rica, all online businesses are legal and there aren’t any laws regulating them, so the country has been attracting entrepreneurs setting up Internet-based companies that do everything from e-commerce to gambling banned in other countries. — AP

UAE says oil price fair for all VIENNA: OPEC, enjoying oil at just over $100 a barrel, looks set to keep its output policy on a steady course for 2013. Saudi Arabia, its top oil producer, has already set the stage for a swift and easy deal when oil ministers meet on Friday and are expected to retain a 30-million barrel-a-day output target. “Let me tell you this, this is the best environment for the market. Supplies are plentiful, demand is

great, balanced -inventories are balanced,” influential Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Tuesday.

And while the price of oil by historical standards is expensive, it is well below the $125 that rang alarms in major consumer countries last year. “The current price is fair and reasonable,” UAE Oil Minister Suhail Bin Mohammed Al-Mazroui told Reuters yester-

US fines Total $398m over bribes in Iran WASHINGTON: French oil giant Total has been fined $398.2 million to resolve charges it bribed officials in Iran to secure oil and gas concessions, US authorities announced yesterday. Total was fined $245.2 million by the Department of Justice for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), while the Securities and Exchange Commission penalized it another $153 million in disgorgement and interest in the case. The charges stemmed from some $60 million in bribes that Total intermediaries paid Iranian officials between 1995 and 2004 to obtain the rights to develop several oil and gas fields, the Justice Department said. US authorities worked together with French officials in the

lengthy probe, and in tandem Wednesday French authorities recommended that Total, the company’s chairman and chief executive be prosecuted for violating French bribery laws, the department said. Total agreed to pay the fines under a deferred prosecution agreement which requires the company over the next three years to retain an independent corporate compliance monitor and to implement controls to prevent violations of the FCPA. “ Today ’s deferred prosecution agreement, with both its punitive and forward-looking compliance provisions, dovetails with our goals of bringing violators to justice and preventing future misconduct,” said US Attorney Neil MacBride. — AFP

day. “It’s been sustained for some time without impacting the economics of the producers and the countries that are buying the crude. It also encourages investment in future supply,” said Mazroui, attending his first meeting of OPEC. Triple digit oil has also encouraged development of US shale oil, some of which is among the most costly in the world to produce and competes with OPEC’s crude. But Saudi Arabia - holder of most spare capacity in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries - shows no sign of opening the taps to bring down prices and curtail that output by making it uneconomic.

OPEC, which dismissed it as of little concern a year ago, does not hold a common position on shale. While Saudi’s Naimi welcomes it, his Nigerian counterpart Diezani Alison-Madueke has said it will have a “major impact.” Nigeria, along with Algeria, has already felt the heat from the US oil boom, losing ground in its most lucrative export market and diverting sales to Asia. Fast-growing exporter Iraq is also fighting for more Asian market share, undercutting regional rival Saudi Arabia.

The United Arab Emirates is the only other OPEC member with significant growth plans. It has the ability to pump 3 million barrels per day (bpd) and plans to increase capacity to 3.5 million bpd by 2017, said Mazroui. But the minister brushed off any

concern of a looming market share battle in Asia. Saudi Arabia and the UAE were first to arrive in Vienna, with Iraq, Ecuador and Venezuela expected later yesterday. The remaining ministers are due today.

Some within OPEC are concerned about the potential for both slow global growth and a dramatic rise in US shale oil to send prices tumbling. The International Energy Agency forecast this month US shale oil supply will help meet most of the world’s new demand in the next five years, leaving little space for OPEC to lift output without risking lower prices. “We’re heading for a problem in 2014 and we’ll probably have to make a supply cut,” said a senior OPEC source. “And if OPEC were proactive, we’d start to look seriously at individual production allocations.” But the group that pumps a third of the world’s oil is not known for contingency plans. OPEC delegates now say this meeting will not be electing a new secretary general - stuck in a logjam of competing candidates from Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia - but will merely approve the criteria for prospective candidates to come forward. And unable for several years to agree individual output quotas, it may need to allocate them if required to cut back heavily and share out reductions. Until then, Saudi Arabia has assumed the role of market manager deftly trimming back or raising supply to keep markets in balance and oil at around $100 a barrel.— Reuters

Bluechips lift Qatar to new 28-mth high MIDEAST STOCK MARKET DUBAI: Qatar’s bluechips helped lift the bourse to a new 28-month high yesteerday, while most other Gulf markets also gained. Doha’s index climbed 1 percent to its highest close since January 2011. The market is up 9.6 percent in 2013, underperforming other regional bourses. “Qatar has been lagging the region and a catch up play is in order,” said Ahmed Shehada, head of trading at Qatar National Bank Financial Services.

Dubai’s measure is up 44 percent and Abu Dhabi has gained 34 percent in 2013. Kuwait is so far the second-best regional performer with 2013 gains at 41.7 percent. Doha’s developer of The Pearl project, United Development (UDC) jumped 6.9 percent, extending year-to-date gains to 21.9 percent.

“UDC will be mandated for a lot of infrastructure and government jobs. With the pension fund coming in as a partner, the company is now under the close monitoring of the government,” Shehada added. UDC sold shares worth 1.6 billion riyals ($439.41 million) to General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority last year, making it a strategic partner.

Qatar National Bank rose 1.9 percent to an alltime high of 146 riyals and Gulf International Services climbed 4.5 percent, back at June 2008 levels. In Dubai, the measure climbed 0.7 percent, up for a third consecutive session. The market failed to break last week’s 43-month peak.

Builder Arabtec jumped 7.7 percent to 2 dirhams per share after an announcement by the company that its shares are trading ex-rights from yesterday eased dilution worries among investors.

Shareholders as of end of May 30 will be eligible for a June rights issue subscription, which aims to raise capital by $650 million.

“A lot of speculative investors were waiting for the time they don’t have to be committed to the rights issue and not face the risk of dilution,” said Fadi Al-Said, head of investments at ING Investment Management. “The pent up demand is catching up, especially since Arabtec was underperforming other stocks in Dubai.” Some analysts say the stock is catching up to an adjusted fair value price on the stock of 2.24 dirhams.

Abu Dhabi’s benchmark rose 1.2 percent. In Saudi Arabia, dairy firm Almarai surged 5.7 percent to an eight-month high after the firm said it plans to raise its capital by 50 percent to 6 billion riyals ($1.6 billion) through a bonus share issue.

The company will distribute a bonus share for every two shares already held. Samba Financial Group rose 3.2 percent, helping lift the banking index by 1.1 percent. Banks are expected to post strong earnings growth in the second quarter. The kingdom’s benchmark climbed 0.4 percent to hit a fresh one-year high. Elsewhere, Kuwait’s measure declined 0.3 percent, easing off Tuesday’s 53-month high. In Egypt, the main benchmark lost 1.3 percent, halting a two-session gain as local investors sold shares. — Reuters

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

BUSINESS

Europe remains threat to world economy: OECD

Japan bullet train deal to crown India sales package TOKYO: India is seen set to use Japanese bullet train technology for a high-speed connection between Mumbai and Ahmedabad, a report said yesterday, the centrepiece of a huge package of infrastructure sales. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh will issue a joint statement at a summit later in the day giving details on a feasibility study for the railway, the Nikkei newspaper said.

Abe is to offer a sweetener in the form of 101.7 billion yen ($1.0 billion) in yenbased loans to India, the Nikkei said, as Tokyo fights off competition from nations such as France, which has the TGV high-speed rail network. Japan under Abe is embarking on a renewed drive to sell roads, rail and power stations to emerging nations, including India, in a bid to offset lassitude in the domestic economy that has left it treading water.

Earlier this month Abe pledged he would travel the world on behalf of Japan Inc and said he wanted to treble sales of Japan’s well-respected infrastructure projects to 30 trillion yen a year. The Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail line would stretch 500 kilometres (312 miles) at a cost of up to one trillion yen, the Nikkei said, adding the two governments plan to finish technological reviews and costings by March 2014.

Abe was also expected to offer around 17.7 billion yen to India to build a conference hall and other facilities at the Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad, along with around 13 billion yen for the Tamil Nadu state government, the Nikkei

OECD slashes forecast again PARIS: The recession in Europe risks threatening the world’s economic recovery, a leading international body warned yesterday. In its half-yearly update, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said that protracted economic weakness in

lic debt financing requirements and exit risks.”

Meanwhile, the euro-zone’s 12.1 percent unemployment “is likely to continue to rise further ... stabilizing at a very high level only in 2014,” the OECD said. The OECD report pre-

the euro-zone in its report six months ago - and this time last year, it forecast growth of nearly 1 percent for 2013.

The US economy will continue to outpace Europe, the OECD said, with growth of 1.9 percent in 2013 and 2.8 percent in 2014. For global

PARIS: OECD Secretary General Angel Gurria (left) talks as Norway Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg (center) and OECD Chief Economist Pier Carlo Padoan listen during the presentation of the Economic Outlook during the OECD Week at the OECD headquarters yesterday. —AFP Europe “could evolve into stagnation with negative implications for the global economy.” The OECD again slashed its forecast for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro, saying it will shrink by 0.6 percent this year, after 0.5 percent drop in 2012. The OECD had predicted a 0.1 percent decline for

dicts unemployment will reach 28 percent in Spain next year and 28.4 percent in Greece. The euro-zone economy shrank 0.2 percent in the January-March period, the sixth consecutive quarterly decline, making it the euro-zone’s longest ever recession.

gross domestic product, the OECD forecasts an increase of 3.1 per cent for this year and by 4 percent for 2014. Noting that euro-zone policymakers have “often been behind the curve,” the OECD warned that Europe was still beset by “weakly capitalized banks, pub-

Austerity measures have inflicted severe economic pain and sparked social unrest across the continent.

Europe’s young people are especially suffering, with unemployment of around 50 percent in some of the hardest-hit euro-zone countries such as Spain and Greece. But OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria also noted that the tough reforms that those countries - to loosen their labor markets and make their public administrations more efficient - will soon bear fruit.

“In the periphery in particular, which was hardest hit by the crisis, that is where the reforms are taking place at the faster pace and where things eventually are, I believe, going to be looking better faster once we go through the acute stage of the crisis,” Gurria told reporters.

With a population of more than half a billion people, the EU is the world’s largest export market. If it remains stuck in reverse, companies in the US and Asia will be hit.

Last month, US-based Ford Motor Co. lost $462 million in Europe and called the outlook there “uncertain.” Other major economies have faltered this year but none are in recession, like Europe. The US economy grew 2.2 percent last year and China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is growing around 8 percent a year.

The OECD urged Europe to bolster its efforts to support economic recovery. While the European Central Bank’s loose monetary policy has helped, “more can be done through further non-conventional measures” and the establishment of a Europe-wide banking union, the organization said. In the US, the organization urged politicians to soften automatic across-the-board budget spending cuts to make them less harmful to growth, and said “a credible long-term fiscal plan needs to be put in place.” —AP

Oil slips back on economy uncertainty LONDON: Brent crude oil futures retreated yesterday, on worries that the Federal Reserve could phase out its stimulus package, and an uncertain demand outlook for the global economy following weak growth forecasts for China. Upbeat US housing and consumer confidence data sparked expectations of improved demand from the world’s top consumer and saw prices rise sharply the previous session.

However, there are fears that the stronger US data means the Federal Reserve will scale back its quantitative easing programme, and this could derail a hesitant recovery. The International Monetary Fund cut its growth forecast for China this year to 7.75 percent from 8 percent, citing a weak world economy and exports, while the OECD cut its forecast to 7.8 percent from 8.5 percent. Front-month Brent futures slipped 28 cents to $103.95 per barrel by 0947 GMT, after rising more than $2 in the previ-

ous session to its highest since May 21.

US crude shed 50 cents to $94.53. “The market expected a pickup of the global economy this year, but it looks like there will only be a gradual restart to acceleration in the second half, so it seems the tipping point is moving further into the future,” said Andy Sommer, analyst at EGL in Dietikon, Switzerland.

Data on Tuesday showed US home prices accelerated in March by the most in nearly seven years as spring buying gave the sector traction, while surging consumer confidence pointed to a resilient recovery. However fears that this strong data will make it more likely that the stimulus will be withdrawn, combined with weak Chinese manufacturing data for May prevented oil strengthening further.

Brent is down more than 12 percent from this year’s high of over $119 in February, while US crude has lost more than 3 percent from its

January high above $98. Acting as a support for prices, the worsening conflict in Syria has kept concerns simmering over supply from the Middle East.

Britain and France said on Tuesday they did not have to wait until Aug 1 to arm rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, and Russia said it would not scrap plans to deliver an air defence system to the conflict-ridden nation.

US oil prices may also be supported by crude inventory data that is likely to show commercial crude stockpiles fell for a third consecutive week on lower imports and higher refinery activity.

The American Petroleum Institute releases inventory numbers yesterday, with figures from the Energy Information Agency due on Thursday. Technical indicators point to a drop for oil. Brent is expected to retrace to $103.29, while US crude may drop to $94.07 per barrel, said Reuters technical analyst Wang Tao. —Reuters

said.

The pledges will come on top of a March offer of a 71 billion yen loan towards the construction of an underground rail network in Mumbai.

Japanese media have said the two sides will agree on drafting a master plan for new infrastructure in southern India, which could see Japanese know-how used to build a power grid, roads, railways and ports around Bangalore and Chennai.

The sales boom comes as the two countries-both democracies-eye the rise of China with increasing unease as Beijing presses territorial claims with growing insistence. Singh on Tuesday called for the shoring up of military and security ties, Kyodo News said, stressing the commonalities between Tokyo and Delhi.

“We should intensify our political dialogue and expand our strategic consultations on... issues of mutual interest,” Singh said in a speech, adding that defence and security dialogue, military exercises and defence technology collaboration should also grow between the two countries, according to Kyodo.

Singh stressed that Japan is the only country with which India has held a “twoplus-two” meeting of foreign and defence ministers, Kyodo said. Media reports earlier this week said Japan was expected to sell amphibious planes to India in what would be the first sale of hardware used by the Japanese military since a weapons export ban was imposed in the 1960s. —AFP

Asia gold demand to hit quarterly record LONDON: Asian gold demand from this April to June will reach a quarterly record as bullion consumers in the region take possession of supply freed up by selling from exchange-traded funds (ETFs), the World Gold Council (WGC) said yesterday.

Gold prices fell to their lowest in more than two years at $1,321.35 an ounce in midApril on signs of economic improvement in main markets and fears that central banks around the world could start to curtail their bullion-friendly policy measures.

The move scared investors in the West, triggering a sharp liquidation of speculative and ETF positions. But lower prices also prompted strong physical demand from price-sensitive countries such as India and China, which together account for more than 50 percent of consumer demand for bullion.

“Asian markets will see record quarterly totals of gold demand in the second quarter of 2013,” WGC Managing Director Marcus Grubb said. “Even if ETF outflows continue in the United States, it is quite likely that the gold previously held in ETFs will find a ready market among Indian, Chinese and Middle Eastern consumers who are taking a long-term view on the prospects for gold.”

The council expects Indian gold imports to reach 350-400 tonnes in the second quarter, 200 percent higher than a year earlier and almost half of last year’s total imports. This also compares to imports of 256 tonnes in the first quarter of 2013. “We now definitely expect Indian demand to come in at the upper end of the 865 tonnes to 965 tonnes range that we had previously forecast for 2013 because of the effect of

what happened in April,” Grubb said.

Grubb said as net imports of gold into China reached around 160-170 tonnes in April alone and physical demand shows no sign of abating, total offtake this year could reach more than 880 tonnes. This compares to a previous forecast of 780-880 tonnes. Chinese coin and bar demand hit a quarterly record of 109.5 tonnes in the first quarter, up 22 percent, and jewellery consumption rose to 185 tonnes. India’s bar and coin investment rose 52 percent to 97 tonnes over the period, while jewellery demand reached 160 tonnes, the WGC said in a recent report. The council will publish its second-quarter demand trends report in mid-August.

Western investment Gold investment in the West, however, plunged this year as a brighter view of the US economy prompted investors to favour other assets such as stocks over bullion. As of the end of April, ETF holdings had fallen by 13 percent, or 350 tonnes, with half the outflows recorded over the past month.

Holdings in the world’s largest goldbacked ETF, SPDR Gold Trust, have lost 74 tonnes since the start of April, compared with outflows of around 120 tonnes in the first quarter.

These investment vehicles, which issue securities backed by physical metal, had proved a popular way to gain exposure to the gold price since the start of the financial crisis. “We don’t expect to see anything like the same exit of gold from the ETFs that we’ve seen in the first four months of the year ... the pace of redemptions is flattening out now,” Grubb said. —Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2841000 .4338920 .3707360 .3043390 .2795430 .0497330 .0443660 .2963730 .0365940 .2291130 .0029600 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0773800 .7538810 .0000000 .0757800 .7382100 .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

ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.823 5.105 2.913 2.268 3.231 227.150 37.013 3.684 6.792 9.543

.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

Malaysian ringgit Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

94.221 0.271 0.273

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 39.850 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 40.468 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.341 Tunisian Dinar 174.520 Jordanian Dinar 405.950 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.929 Syrian Lier 3.123 Morocco Dirham 33.886 EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 273.350 Euro 371.400 Sterling Pound 434.040 Canadian dollar 276.960 Turkish lira 158.750 Swiss Franc 296.700 US Dollar Buying 286.150 GOLD 262.000 131.000 69.500

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

SELL DRAFT 282.25 281.89 300.90 374.24 286.35 436.82 2.87 3.688 5.125 2.262 3.215 2.910 78.03 762.14 40.38 407.53

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

Selling Rate 286.750 282.465 436.890 370.980 295.860 759.185 78.050 78.710 76.430 404.225 40.419 2.269 5.174 2.908 3.680 6.954 703.420 3.795 9.710 4.095 3.330 94.935

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY

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

748.000 79.500 77.000

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

GCC COUNTRIES 76.657 78.986 746.650 763.520 78.286

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

744.69 79.07 76.49

SELL CASH 283.000 283.000 299.000 372.000 288.000 438.500 3.300 3.740 5.400 2.460 3.420 2.985 78.800 763.500 40.500 415.000

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

SELL CASH Europe 0.4278481 0.0062612 0.0457656 0.3664124 0.0452526 0.4235148 0.0392353 0.2939051 Australasia 0.2677639 0.2246165 0.0001140 America 0.2713010 0.0001462 0.2850000 Asia 0.0036421 0.0031866 0.0457618 0.0166100

SELLDRAFT 0.4368481 0.0182612 0.0507656 0.3739124 0.0504526 0.4310418 0.0442353 0.3009051 0.2797639 0.2346165 0.0001140 0.2803010 0.0001642 0.2871500 0.0036971 0.0034166 0.0507618 0.0197100

Guinea Franc Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

0.0000446 0.0344513 0.0051002 0.0000244 0.0028724 0.0027581 0.0033556 0.0896040 0.0030879 0.0028905 0.0064572 0.0000733 0.2231395 0.0022314 0.0092030 Arab 0.7552440 0.0384730 0.0129538 0.1460100 0.0000799 0.0001765 0.3994455 1.0000000 0.0001762 0.0219552 0.0012248 0.7348357 0.0782176 0.0760400 0.0466918 0.0027765 0.1723211 0.0767591 0.0012958

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) 286.750 374.250 435.050 277.750 2.875 5.107 40.465 2.266 3.685 6.790 2.914 763.600 78.100 76.550

0.0000506 0.0375513 0.0051642 0.0000295 0.0038724 0.0029381 0.0035856 0.0966040 0.0032879 0.0029305 0.0069272 0.0000763 0.2291395 0.0022734 0.0098030 0.7637440 0.0405030 0.0194538 0.1478000 0.0000804 0.0002365 0.4069455 1.0000000 0.0001962 0.0459552 0.0018598 0.7458357 0.0790006 0.0766800 0.0472418 0.0029965 0.1783211 0.0782031 0.0013958

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

BUSINESS

Cold weather chills German job market Analysts blame large number of public holidays

JAKARTA: Soft drink and water bottles filled with petrol are offered for sale to passing motorists along a street yesterday. Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in late April gave the clearest sign yet the government wants to hike the price of petrol, which is one of the cheapest in Asia, but cautioned it would only happen once parliament approved compensation for those likely to be affected. —AFP

Switzerland frees banks to settle US tax evasion cases ZURICH: Switzerland aims to save its banks from heavier punishment in the United States for helping wealthy tax cheats by sidestepping its own famed secrecy laws to let bankers disclose data to U.S. prosecutors. A government bill put to parliament yesterday would let Swiss banks hand over internal information to US authorities in the hope of avoiding threatened criminal charges - though the banks still face fines likely to total billions of dollars.

Bankers welcomed the prospect of an exit from years of legal wrangling that has already cost them dear and driven one bank out of business but were disappointed ministers failed to win more clarity from Washington on what settlements they might now expect.

Opposition in parliament could yet block the measure.

Five months after US action over tax evasion led to the closure of the country’s oldest private bank, and with formal investigations under way into some of its biggest institutions, the Swiss government urgently wants a compromise to end threats of criminal charges that have hurt a vital national industry.

It insists banks will still not be allowed to hand over client names - protected by its treasured secrecy law of 1934. But the new proposal, valid for a year only, would allow them to hand over so much information on customers’ behaviour that US officials should be able to identify Americans who have used Swiss bank accounts to evade their taxes.

“If banks were not authorised to cooperate with the US authorities, the initiation of further criminal investigations or charges concerning banking institutions could not be ruled out,” the Swiss finance department said in a statement.

Swiss analysts were divided: some called it a sensible way out of a problem that meant banks, which are mostly now pulling out of the US private client business, found themselves barred by Swiss law from cooperating with US prosecutors; others condemned the blow to secrecy as “blackmail” by Washington.

The country’s biggest bank UBS was forced in 2009 to pay a fine of $780 million and deliver the names of more than 4,000 clients to avoid indictment, giving the US authorities information that allowed them to then pursue other Swiss banks. Switzerland’s tradition of bank secrecy has helped make it the world’s biggest offshore financial centre, with $2 trillion in assets. But that tradition has come under heavy fire since the financial crisis as cash-strapped governments around the world have clamped down on tax evasion, with authorities probing Swiss banks in Germany and France as well as the United States.

Banks under formal US investigation include Credit Suisse , Julius Baer, British bank HSBC’s Swiss arm, privately held Pictet in Geneva and smaller players such as LLB’s Swiss arm and local government-backed Zuercher Kantonalbank and Basler Kantonalbank. A Credit Suisse spokesman welcomed the legal

framework, but declined to comment on when it might reach a settlement with U.S. authorities.

Umbrella deal abandoned Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf said the government wanted to rush the legislation through parliament in June for fear that US authorities could bring criminal charges against large banks and open new investigations into many more banks. She said the US Department of Justice would only start offering individual settlements with banks once the Swiss parliament had approved the legal framework.

The biggest party in parliament, the rightwing Swiss People’s Party (SVP), said it would reject the proposal, as did the left-wing Social Democrats (SP). However, that does not mean that the legislation will not ultimately pass in some form. The government has been negotiating with US authorities for two years to try to resolve the tax dispute, but has abandoned an attempt to reach an umbrella settlement deal for the whole financial industry due to secrecy laws as well as squabbling among the country’s banks as to who should pay what.

The Swiss Bankers Association said it welcomed a deal to clean up the historic problem in the United States but was “alienated” by the lack of detail offered by the Swiss government on what penalties they will face if they now hand over information to negotiate settlements with U.S. prosecutors.

Reaction among banking experts were divided. Peter V Kunz, a professor at Berne University said the deal was good for Switzerland and for its banks. But others were much less positive: “In my opinion it’s just pure blackmailing by the US government,” said Martin Janssen, professor of finance at Zurich University.

“You cannot even estimate what the costs will be,” he said. “The US government will just try and find out what the willingness is of the Swiss banks to pay.” Sources have said fines for the industry might amount to $10 billion but minister Widmer-Schlumpf said the government had not discussed a total sum for fines and would not offer financial assistance for banks as they seek individual settlements.

The finance department said the bill proposed by the cabinet yesterday would allow banks to hand over information about asset transfers, such as when accounts were closed and where money was transferred, as well as details of third parties who had business relationships with US clients, such as tax lawyers.

Widmer-Schlumpf said that for the United States to get at more client names, the US Senate must now ratify a new, wider doubletaxation agreement that Switzerland agreed in 2009 but which has languished in Washington.

Switzerland’s oldest private bank, Wegelin & Co, said in January it was closing down after pleading guilty to helping Americans evade taxes. It was fined nearly $58 million. —Reuters

Bain & Company appoints new Dubai partner DUBAI: Bain & Company, the global business consulting firm, has appointed Grégory Garnier as its new Partner in Dubai. A specialist in the telecommunications and technology sectors as well as in consulting private equity firms that invest in these industries, Garnier joins Bain’s Dubai office with a mission to develop Bain Middle East’s activity with telecom players in the region.

Garnier, who graduated from Ecole Polytechnique Engineering School and ENSTA, also holds a Masters Degree in Financial

Grégory Garnier

Mathematics from La Sorbonne University. In his new role he will leverage his extensive experience of working with leading telecom and technology companies on their strategy as well as transformation programs. Prior to his move to Dubai, Garnier was working in the Bain French office since 2003.

Luc J Luyten, Managing Director of Bain & Company Middle East, said: “The Middle East has emerged as a hotbed of technology initiatives given the aggressive modernization projects being undertaken across the region. The appointment of GrÈgory Garnier is an important strategic move that will strengthen Bain’s presence in the technology sector, particularly among major telecom players in the region.”

Grégory Garnier said: “Bain Middle East has been gaining significant inroads in the region and I look forward to contributing to its continued success as the consulting firm of choice among business leaders and multinationals.

There is a particularly robust outlook for the telecom and technology sectors and my role will be to bring the best of Bain Telecom & Technology experience to our Middle East clients.”

Bain & Company has been making a series of strategic appointments to enhance its organizational performance and market productivity.

The company has maintained a strong presence in the Middle East since the early 1990s, managing activities in the GCC area, Egypt and Turkey.

FRANKFURT: The German labour market, which has so far held up well in face of the euro-zone debt crisis, took a knock in May, but largely due to the high number of public holidays and the cold weather, analysts said yesterday. On the face of it, headline unemployment fell this month, but the drop was solely due to seasonal factors, monthly data compiled by the Federal Labour Office showed.

The raw or unadjusted jobless total fell by 83,360 to 2.937 million and the jobless rate-which measures the number of unemployed as a proportion of the working population as a whole-fell to 6.8 percent in May from 7.1 percent in April.

In seasonally-adjusted terms, however, the jobless total-which irons out seasonal fluctuations-increased by 21,000 to 2.963 million the agency said, faster than analysts’ expectations. And the seasonally-adjusted jobless rate was unchanged at 6.9 percent. Labour office chief FrankJuergen Weise insisted that the job market was “fundamentally sound and is developing solidly in a difficult economic environment”.

But he noted that the usual spring upturn was weaker than usual this year. Analysts blamed that on the large number of public holidays in May, as well as the unseasonably cold and wet weather-which usually affects employment in outdoor sectors such as construction. “The nonseasonally adjusted drop was the weakest May performance since 2005,” said ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski.

“To some, this is a clear warning that the debt crisis is finally taking its toll on the German labour market. In our view, however, the weak spring

revival can also be explained by the relatively high number of public holidays in May and the still cold weather,” he said. “It is far too premature to start singing swan songs on the labour market,” Brzeski said.

Berenberg Bank economist

believed employers were keeping cautious after the concerns about Italy and Cyprus and the long and harsh winter.

With private consumption growing and healthy wage increases boosting purchasing power, stronger

to the depressed economic conditions”.

“All in all, we expect the German unemployment rate to remain close to a post-reunification low at 6.9 percent in 2013,” he said. Newedge Strategy analyst Annalisa Piazza was

LANDSHUT-SALZDORF: Theresa (left) and Anita pose during a photo shoot press event for the new “Bavarian and Austrian farmer wife’s calendar” 2014 at a farm in Landshut-Salzdorf southern Germany yesterday. —AFP Christian Schulz agreed. The rise in seasonally-adjusted data “is likely to remain a minor temporary setback,” he said. “The strong increase in sentiment indicators such as the Ifo index points to resuming growth. The underlying fundamentals are very favourable,” the expert argued. He

Jaguar Land Rover helps India’s Tata top forecasts MUMBAI: India’s biggest carmaker by revenue Tata Motors Ltd posted a smaller-than-expected drop in fourth-quarter net profit as Chinese demand for luxury motors helped to compensate for sliding domestic sales.

Tata, which bought the upmarket Jaguar Land Rover Ltd (JLR) for $2.3 billion in 2008, said yesterday JLR’s profit margin rose to 16.9 percent in the three months ended March 31 from 14.6 percent in the same period the year before, helped by a favourable exchange rate and record quarterly sales.

Tata had previously announced that sales of Britainmade Jaguar saloons and Land Rover sport utility vehicles (SUV) rose 18 percent to 115,504 units in the quarter. Key to that was a 21 percent rise in sales in China, JLR’s fastest growing market. JLR accounts for more than three quarters of Tata Motors’ group revenue.

The lacklustre performance at Tata Motors’ India business, due to high interest rates and slowing economic growth, however, remains a worry for India’s biggest truck manufacturer and the maker of the Nano, dubbed the world’s cheapest car. “We see the external environment and overall economic scenario very, very challenging and (it) will remain stressed,” said Tata Motors’ Chief Financial Officer C Ramakrishnan, adding this would have an impact on demand for its products.

Car sales in India are forecast by the automakers’ association to grow by 3-5 percent in this financial year, a rebound from the first drop in sales in a decade in 2012/13. Tata Motors, part of the salt-to-steel Tata conglomerate, said net profit for the January-March quarter was 39.45 billion rupees ($705 million), down 36.7 percent on the same time the year before, with revenue up 10 percent to 560 billion rupees.

A one-off tax gain had contributed to a significantly higher net profit in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts had on average expected a profit of 28.86 billion rupees on revenues of 518.51 billion, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine. JLR’s operating margins for the full fiscal year was 15.2 percent, and Ramakrishnan said the margin was expected to remain in the range of 14-15 percent for this financial year.

Quarterly revenues for the Indian business fell 32.5 percent to 110.68 billion rupees, as sales of its vehicles plunged 30 percent year-on-year to 184,942 units. The profit margin dropped to 3.6 percent from 9.5 percent a year earlier. Shares in Tata Motors closed 2.7 percent higher at 303.80 rupees before the quarterly numbers were released. The main Mumbai market index fell 0.1 percent and the auto sector index rose 0.3 percent. —Reuters

domestic demand should “offset the temporarily clouded export outlook and allow Germany’s economy to return to trend growth rates over the course of 2013,” Schulz said. Natixis economist Paul Beaumont said he was also confident that the German labour market would remain “resilient

more cautious. She predicted that, despite rising business confidence, “we still expect the labour market to show signs of slow moderation as the German economy is still running below potential and companies are unlikely to revise their hiring plans near term.” —AFP

Drake & Scull International gets AED158m contract in Amman Drake & Scull International PJSC (DSI), a regional market leader in the integrated design, engineering and construction disciplines of General Contracting, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing (MEP), Water and Power, Rail and Oil and Gas, announced that on the sidelines of the recently held World Economic Forum 2013 in Jordan, Arabtec Construction LLC the main contractor of the St Regis Hotel and Residences project in Amman appointed DSI to execute the project’s entire mechanical electrical and plumbing works for a contract value of AED158 million.

St Regis Residences Amman comprises two towers connected through an external faÁade and offers 79 residential units and stunning sky villas, in addition to a swimming pool, state-of-the-art fitness centre, reception lounge, business centre facilities, playgrounds, multifunctional executive lounge, cinema theatre and dedicated conference and meeting rooms. On the other hand, St Regis Hotel Amman includes a 17storey tower offering 260 units and 4 restaurants and cafes, in addition to a swimming pool, fitness centre and spa, spacious conference rooms, business centre facilities and retail stores.

Having partnered with some of the world’s leading hotel operators, Drake & Scull International has acquired extensive expertise in the hospitality industry, positioning itself firmly at the forefront of hospitality and tourism construction sector. The company has completed several projects in the UAE, including Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Wafi Mall expansion, Twin Towers in Dubai and Baynunah Tower in Abu Dhabi, along with other hotel projects in Sharm El-Sheikh and the Nile Corniche in Egypt and other countries in the region.

Khaldoun Tabari, CEO of Drake & Scull International, said: “Winning this contract is a major step forward towards strengthening our presence in Jordan where the King Hussein Medical City was one of our key breakthroughs. The new contract underscores our successful history in offering specialized MEP services and reinforces our position as the preferred provider of inte-

Khaldoun Tabari grated engineering services across the regional hospitality sector. We are keen to maintain the highest levels of quality, sustainability and safety while delivering an integrated and comprehensive engineering offering to address the current and future needs of the growing hospitality industry in Jordan which has positioned itself as an attractive destination for investment and tourism.”

Drake & Scull continues to enhance and strengthen its services offering with unmatched vertical integration and global footprint. The collaborative capabilities of the Engineering services (MEP and Water and Power), General Contracting, Oil and Gas, Rail and Infrastructure development continue to deliver strong performance quality work on project sites. Armed with a multicultural workforce, inherent financial strength and solid regional experience, the company’s outlook remains positive in terms of realising greater profitability and improving productivity across MENA, South Asia and Europe.

UBP snags Lloyds intl private banking arm ZURICH/LONDON: Union Bancaire Privee (UBP) is buying Lloyds Banking Group Plc’s international private banking arm, as the bailed-out British lender focuses on its domestic market and the Swiss wealth manager builds on a recent acquisition spree. Genevabased UBP has struck several deals in the past two years to rebuild an asset base which almost halved through the financial crisis from its peak of 135 billion Swiss francs ($138 billion) in 2007.

The deal will lift UBP’s assets under management - which totalled some 83 billion francs at the end of April - by more than 10 billion francs, the bank said. Lloyds, 39 percent-owned

by British taxpayers and under pressure from lawmakers and regulators to slim down and focus on lending to British households and businesses, said the sale fitted its strategy to simplify its business.

The business being sold has assets under management of 7.2 billion pounds, 500 staff and branches in Geneva, Zurich, Monaco and Gibraltar. The bank’s private banking opera-

tions in Britain were not included in the sale.

Lloyds said it would receive 100 million pounds for the business, comprising an initial 65 million followed by a further 35 million depending on performance in the next two years.

Lloyds also said yesterday it would sell its private banking business in Miami to Spain’s Banco Sabadell, close its business in Dubai and intended to withdraw from South Africa.

Sabadell will pay Lloyds up to 8 million pounds for the Miami business, which has assets under management of 800 million pounds.

More assets Recent acquisitions by UBP include ABN AMRO’s private banking arm, Paris-based asset manager Nexar and a portfolio of assets from Spanish bank Santander’s Swiss asset management arm. “ The acquisition adds more assets in Zurich and Geneva and allows us to open a booking centre in Monaco, which is a growing centre for tax-compliant money, family offices and very high networth individuals and families,” UBP Chief

Executive Guy de Picciotto told Reuters.

The purchase comes at a time when Switzerland’s private banks sweat over the effects of potential deals between Switzerland and governments in the United States and Europe to root out untaxed money from Swiss banks.

“It is true everyone is waiting to see what happens, but meantime there are clients to be served,” said de Picciotto. “We saw a nice client book and good managers, so for us it was a nobrainer,” he added. “Switzerland is a stable country with a solid currency and no debt, so it is still attracting tax-compliant money.”

Lloyds has been looking to sell assets to boost capital and last week raised 450 million pounds from the sale of a 15 percent stake in wealth manager St James Place.

Lloyds was rescued by a 20.5 billion pound government bailout in the 2008 financial crisis. After a prolonged slump, shares in the bank recently hit a price that would allow the government to break even on its investment if it sold. —Reuters

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

BUSINESS

Brazil set to hike interest rate again Q1 GDP data could be key in rate decision BRASILIA: Brazil was likely to hike interest rates for the second straight meeting yesterday, but the market remains divided on whether policymakers will maintain the pace of tightening during a timid recovery or accelerate it to curb high inflation. A slight majority of analysts are betting that Brazil’s central bank will be more aggressive and hike its benchmark Selic rate to 8 percent from 7.5 percent, according to a Reuters poll.

The rest believe policymakers will opt for a cau-

tious 25-basis-point increase to 7.75 percent, repeating the dose from April’s monetary policy meeting.

It is a difficult choice for central bank chief Alexandre Tombini, who is under pressure to act more decisively to anchor high inflation expectations. At the same time, though, Tombini must administer the rate hikes with caution to avoid tripping up an economy on the rebound. The magnitude of yesterday’s rate hike will most like-

ly hinge on economic growth data from the first quarter due out earlier in the day. Weak economic expansion will raise pressure on policymakers to maintain the pace of tightening.

Stronger growth will give them room for a steeper increase.

The economy likely grew 0.9 percent in the quarter from the previous one, according to a Reuters poll of 31 economists. Tombini has signaled he may step up the tightening cycle, drop-

ping previous references to “cautious” rate hikes and instead adopting more incisive language, saying the central bank will “do what is necessary, in a timely manner” to slow inflation.

“If the central bank is indeed concerned about reining in inflation expectations, the pattern of dovish surprises has to end someday and now seems to be the appropriate time,” Mario Mesquita, a former central bank director who is now chief economist at local investment bank Brasil Plural, wrote in a research note.

Others, however, interpreted Tombini’s recent comments as a mere reiteration of his pledges to tame inflation, citing the last rate decision, when markets erroneously expected the bank to opt for a more aggressive rate increase. That hesitation is also mirrored in the bets of market traders with the yields of interest rate future contracts pricing a 56 percent chance of a half percentage rate hike versus 44 percent for a 25-basis-points increase, according to Thomson Reuters calculations.

Brazil is one of the few major world economies currently raising interest rates as strong demand, high production costs and infrastructure bottlenecks keep inflation closer to the upper end of an already high official target range.

After slashing a staggering 525 basis points off the Selic in just over a year to record lows, the central bank decided in April to change tack in a bid to ease a surge of inflation that pierced the target’s ceiling that month. Naggingly high inflation threatens to foil President Dilma Rousseff’s crusade to shore up the once-booming Brazilian economy before she is up for reelection next year.

Annual inflation slowed to 6.46 percent in the month to mid-May, just a shade below the target range ceiling of 6.5 percent but way above the bank’s self-proclaimed goal of 4.5 percent. Even as inflation in Brazil remains resilient, the central bank cited the sluggish global economy and weaker commodity prices as reasons behind the smaller rate hike in April.

Two of the eight members of the bank’s monetary policy committee, known as Copom, voted to keep rates steady at its April 17 meeting citing slow global growth as positive for local price dynamics. “We believe the Copom’s strategy remains that of delivering the smallest possible tightening cycle that would anchor inflation expectations within the upper bound of the target range,” economists at Barclays Capital said in a research note that calls for a 25-basis-points rate hike. — Reuters

COSTA MESA: In this photo, two shoppers are reflected in the mirror at a shopping mall in Costa Mesa, Calif. — AP

Economic gains boost US confidence to 5-year high WASHINGTON: Home prices are surging, job growth is strengthening and stocks are setting record highs. All of which explains why Americans are more hopeful about the economy than at any other point in five years. Investors on Tuesday celebrated the latest buoyant reports on consumer confidence and housing prices, which together suggest that growth could accelerate in the second half of 2013.

Greater confidence could spur people to spend more and help offset tax increases and federal spending cuts. And the fastest rise in home prices in seven years might lead more Americans to put houses on the market, easing supply shortages that have kept the housing recovery from taking off.

Tuesday’s report from the Conference Board, a private research group, showed that consumer confidence jumped in May to a reading of 76.2, up from 69 in April.

That’s the highest level since February 2008, two months after the Great Recession officially began.

A separate report showed that US home prices jumped nearly 11 percent in March compared with a year ago, the sharpest 12month increase since April 2006. Prices rose year over year in all 20 cities in the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller home price index. The economic news helped send the Dow Jones industrial average up 106 points to close at a record. The Dow has rocketed nearly 18 percent this year. And the Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index is on track for its seventh straight monthly gain, the longest winning streak since 2009.

Surging stock prices and steady homeprice increases have allowed Americans to regain the $16 trillion in wealth they lost to the Great Recession. Higher wealth tends to embolden people to spend more. Some economists have said the increase in home prices alone could boost consumer spending enough to offset a Social Security tax increase that has reduced paychecks for most Americans this year.

The Conference Board survey said consumers are also more optimistic about the next six months. That should translate into greater consumer spending, substantial growth in hiring and faster economic growth in the second half of 2013, said Thomas Feltmate, an economist with TD Economics. Michael Quintos, head of a Chicago advertising agency that helps small businesses market themselves through social media, sees more optimism at work and among friends and relatives.

“A year ago, I had more friends asking me if I knew anybody who was hiring,” Quintos said. “Now I have more people who are hiring asking me if I know anyone looking for a job.” At work, Quintos is finding it easier to land customers. In the past couple of months, businesses that have asked about his services have been more likely to follow through and hire him. A year ago, most were wary. “I’ve had more work than I can handle,” Quintos said. As a result, his firm hired a web designer last week. The Conference Board found that optimism is growing mostly among those earning more than the median household income of roughly $50,000. For those households, the

confidence index jumped to 95.1 from 85.3.

Among most other income groups, confidence either rose more slowly or fell. For those earning $15,000 to $24,999, for example, the confidence index rose modestly, from 52.6 to 55.9. And for those earning $25,000 to $34,999, it slipped from 59.8 to 57.9. Economists say the disparity points to the gain in stock prices, which mostly benefits more affluent Americans.

Consumers’ outlook on the job market also improved last month. The percentage who said jobs are plentiful rose, and the percentage who said they’re hard to find declined. Economists say the shift suggests that the pace of hiring could pick up. The economy has added an average of 208,000 jobs a month since November. That’s well above the monthly average of 138,000 during the previous six months. The job growth has helped reduce the unemployment rate to a four-year low of 7.5 percent.

Some of the decline in unemployment is due to fewer people looking for work. The government counts people as unemployed only if they’re actively searching for a job.

The economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the January-March quarter, up from a rate of just 0.4 percent in the October-December quarter. The fastest expansion in consumer spending in more than two years drove the economy’s growth. Many economists think growth is slowing slightly in the April-June quarter to an annual rate between 2 percent and 2.5 percent. But lots of analysts say growth should strengthen in the second half of the year, boosted by the gains in housing and employment.

A key reason the Case-Shiller index of home prices jumped in March was that a growing number of buyers were bidding on a tight supply of homes. In Phoenix, prices rose by 22.5 percent over the past 12 months, the biggest gain among cities. That was followed by San Francisco (22.2 percent) and Las Vegas (20.6 percent). “Rising home prices may begin to alleviate a lack of housing inventory ... by encouraging more homeowners to put their properties on the market,” Maninder Sibia, an economist with Economic Advisory Service, said in a research note.

Builders are responding to the supply shortage by ramping up construction.

Applications for building permits rose in April to the highest level in nearly five years.

The supply of available homes jumped in April but was still 14 percent below its level a year earlier. Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow, a real estate data provider, said the increase in the Case-Shiller index has been skewed higher by cities such as Phoenix and San Francisco. Fewer homes are available in those areas because many homeowners still owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. That makes it difficult to sell. Yet even excluding those markets, prices are rising steadily nationwide, Humphries said. The increases are “certainly confirmation that the housing market is experiencing a brisk recovery,” he adds. Rising prices typically encourage more would-be buyers to purchase homes before prices rise further. —AP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

BUSINESS

Accountants should quiz banks more: UK watchdog FRC report adds to doubts over bank loss provisions

PRAGUE: A homeless person sleeps on a bench near the banks of the river Vltava early morning yesterday in Prague. — AFP

Malaysia Airlines back in red in Q1 KUALA LUMPUR: Struggling flag carrier Malaysia Airlines said today it slipped back into the red in the first quarter due to a foreign exchange loss after two quarters of profits. The airline said in a filing to the stock exchange that it posted a net loss of 278.6 million ringgit ($91.8 million) for the three months ending March 31, compared to a net loss of 171.3 million ringgit in the same quarter last year.

It said in a statement that the quarter’s loss was mainly due to “an unrealised forex loss of 21 million ringgit”, compared to a forex gain of 200 million ringgit in the previous year. Higher financing costs for its fleet renewal programme also impacted the bottom line, it said, with deliveries of new fuel-efficient aircraft. “The continued high jet fuel prices, added capacity in the market and increased competition, put pressure on our yields,” group chief executive officer Ahmad Jauhari Yahya said. “The business environment is tough, but Malaysia Airlines is now able to

respond faster to changes in the market.”

Revenue for the quarter increased 14 percent to 3.55 billion ringgit from 3.11 billion ringgit year-on-year. The airline said it saw a 17 percent increase in passenger traffic. Last year, the carrier admitted it was in “crisis”, forcing it to implement a cost-cutting campaign centred on slashing routes and other measures, which saw it record two consecutive quarters of net profit for the last six months of 2012.

This left it with a 433 million ringgit net loss for the 2012 financial year, a marked improvement from a record 2.5 billion loss the previous year. Analysts have blamed a combination of stiff competition, poor management, change-resistant unions, government interference and other factors for the carrier’s poor performance. Its domestic rival, Asia’s largest low-cost carrier AirAsia, said last week that its first-quarter net profit fell 39 percent year-on-year due to a foreign exchange loss on borrowings to 104.79 million ringgit.—AFP

MANILA: A man gives food to a beggar at a street yesterday. The Philippines has failed to make headway in cutting rampant poverty, with more than one in four citizens deemed poor despite the country’s economic growth, according to census figures released. — AFP

Russian crude prices soar MOSCOW: Russian state-controlled oil company Rosneft has cut off supplies of crude to small Russian refiners since its acquisition of TNK-BP, traders say, stifling local plants by driving domestic prices above world rates. Rosneft has refused to comment on the move, widely reported by market participants, many of whom speculate its aim is to force small refiners who had bloomed on the back of trade with TNK-BP eventually to sell out or disappear.

For now, the cutting off of supply to those plants has prompted other Russian producers, such as Lukoil, to step in to fill the gap, reducing exports of crude to multi-year lows. Domestic crude prices have risen over 20 percent for June delivery versus May and are now more attractive than the alternative of exporting, traders say. That in turn will add to downward pressure on world oil prices that are already falling.

Traders said quotes for spot delivery in June on the Russian market had reached a nine-month high after deals with TNKBP were not honoured and Rosneft’s offers, which traditionally made up a third of total volume on the market, dried up.

Rosneft did still supply large volumes to several plants including Afipsky and Khabarovsk but exports have also faltered as other suppliers take up the slack apparent at others.

“Before we bought oil from TNK-BP. But Rosneft said it won’t give us anything.

We have to find other ways and seek other suppliers,” a trader at a local refinery said. The fall in exports reduces revenue to the government of President Vladimir Putin, who is struggling to boost a faltering economy and keep inflation in check, especially on fuel in a country obsessed with cars.

Rosneft, led by Putin ally Igor Sechin, declined repeated requests by Reuters for comment. It acquired TNK-BP earlier this year from a consortium of Russian billion-

aires and British oil company BP making it the world’s largest listed oil company. But the buy-out caused conflict within TNKBP, which, insiders say, was not used to the state company’s tough management techniques and dozens left. The world’s top listed crude producer appointed new managers last week, including BP veteran Marcus Cooper to take charge of Rosneft’s trading department.

Suffering While the market debates Rosneft’s reasons, the domestic spot market, estimated at around 3.5 million tonnes (25.7 million barrels) of crude per month, is suffering, leaving small producers and firms that lack refining capacity struggling to cover their needs. Prices at West Siberian metering points for June jumped to 12,600-13,200 roubles ($400-420) per tonne from 10,500-10,900 roubles in May and highest since September.

This is more than the exporting netback via Baltic Sea port Primorsk - the price excluding transportation costs and export duty - for Urals of 11.350-11.900 roubles, according to Reuters calculations, reflecting lower global crude prices.

Rosneft sold a 100,000 tonnes parcel of oil from the Republic of Udmurtia for 12,830-12,900 roubles per tonne, 20 percent higher than in the previous month, traders said.

“It is a pure madness to buy for such a price with Brent falling. Margins are close to zero, it’s better to halt the plant for maintenance,” a trader said. Rising domestic oil prices have also contributed into thin Russia’s exporting volumes, with shipments via Baltic ports dwindling down to its lowest since 2004. Leonid Fedun, deputy head of Russia’s No.2 crude producer Lukoil, said on Tuesday his company would cut seaborne exports, mainly via the Black Sea, due to high margins - up to $200 per tonne - on the domestic market. — Reuters

LONDON: Accountants still fail to question banks properly over how they make provisions for poorly performing loans on their books, Britain’s auditing policeman said yesterday. The criticism goes to the heart of regulatory efforts since the 2007-09 financial crisis to restore investor confidence in the figures lenders publish about their health. The Financial Reporting Council (FRC) said in its annual report it was concerned and disappointed there had been no significant improvement in auditing loan-loss provisions at banks and building societies in Britain.

There was “insufficient challenge” to the key assumptions used to determine provisions, inadequate corroboration of management’s explanations, and insufficient verification of supporting calculations, the watchdog added. Accounting firms were accused of being too cosy with their banking clients and giving them a clean bill of health just before many had to be shored up by taxpayers in the crisis.

This prompted world leaders to call for reforms to make banks book provisions much earlier. “Insufficient evidence demonstrating the

completeness of information in respect of forbearance arrangements and the implications for both provisioning and disclosures was also of concern in a number of audits,” the FRC said.

The watchdog has passed on its findings to the Bank of England’s prudential regulation authority, as it normally does. Four accounting firms dominate auditing in the UK: PwC, KPMG, Ernst & Young, and Deloitte. KPMG said it worked and invested continuously to improve the quality of its audits and the FRC’s report and specific observations were an important part of that process. E&Y declined to comment. PwC and Deloitte had no immediate comment.

“Not sufficiently engaged” The Bank of England has said expected losses on bank loans were in some cases greater than current provisions and worried that delays in recognising losses and making provisions lead to a wrong impression of asset values at banks.

Accounting rules are being changed to make banks recognise losses sooner from around 2016 and for now the FRC is trying to tighten how the

current rule is applied. It said UK auditors must also take a stronger lead in checking mining and other companies whose registered “letterbox” in Britain but nearly all of the activity is abroad.

More audits were given the poorest rating in the past year partly because of issues relating to “letterbox” company audits relying heavily on sign offs from accountants outside Britain.

“We don’t believe that in all cases the UK group auditor is sufficiently engaged in the work of the group’s main components,” FRC executive director Paul George told Reuters. The FRC is also looking at how some audit partners have sought bonuses or promotion for winning advisory work from the company whose books they are checking. “Audit partners and staff cannot be incentivised to sell non-audit services to clients,” George said. The FRC report saw an overall improvement in audit work, especially at the top 350 listed companies, though accountants still needed to question what clients were telling them. The report is based on a review of 85 sample companies, of which 33 were from the top listings.— Reuters

China’s fresh graduates enter tight job market BEIJING: Chemistry student Jiang Wenying graduated three years ago and decided the job market was so tough she might as well go back to school for a graduate degree. Now she’s finding it even worse, in what looks to be China’s tightest market ever for job-seeking graduates. Jiang says she has sent out more than 1,000 job applications, netting no more than 10 interviews and not a single job offer. Jiang, who received her graduate degree in chemical industry from the Harbin University of Science and Technology this year, recently traveled to Beijing to try her luck at a university campus job fair, but found no firm prospects there either.

“The job market has been getting worse by the year,” said the young woman, who looked dejected as she slouched against a column at the end of the job fair. She spoke just loud enough to be audible above the din of workers dismantling booths.

“There are far more chemical industry students than needed,” she said. While the job market in China is still much better than in many other parts of the world, 2013 is being billed locally as the worst for young graduates. A record number of them - about 7 million - are leaving universities and graduate schools to seek their first employment at a time when companies are hiring fewer people.

Women appear to be faring worse than men.

The stunning economic growth of the past dozen years is slowing, and gone are the days when graduates were assigned jobs in their respective industries - a system dismantled in the 1990s in China’s fast-changing economy. The issue is politically sensitive because China’s urban, educated class has become outspoken about government shortcomings in dealing with ills ranging from endemic corruption to polluted air, and the tight job market could leave many among them disgruntled after more than a decade of economic expansion and rising expectations.

This year’s biggest-ever graduating class is the fruit of many years of government policy to boost enrollment, but the number of jobs for new hires has declined about 15 percent compared with the previous year, said Yang Xiong, director of the Youth Research Center in Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

“With those two factors, you end up with the toughest job market this year,” Yang said. “The global economy is not faring well, and China is part of the globalization. With closure of many exportoriented businesses and appreciation of the Chinese currency, employers have to slash on personnel.” Preliminary data reported in state media show about a third of the 2013 class had signed employment contracts by May, compared to more than 40 percent a year ago. The number of students applying for graduate schools has reached a new high of 1.76 million.

The notion that education provides the promise of success has ancient, Confucian roots in China. It continues today, perhaps even more so because of family planning policies that often put the burden of a family’s future on a single child. The country’s policy-makers - aware that a lack of jobs for the young and educated could be seen as a failure to uphold the social contract - have been urging that every measure be taken to help newly minted graduates gain employment, including creating more community-level jobs, reducing paperwork, recruiting for the military and promoting entrepreneurship. “ The employment of the graduating class

affects economic development, improvement to living standards, and social stability,” said a central government document issued in mid-May when the issue was on the agenda of a state council meeting presided by Premier Li Keqiang. Education Ministry spokeswoman Xu Mei told state media that the ministry and local education bureaus would offer more job fairs and online job-seeking services. “All sides are making efforts to ensure the employment rate of this year’s class won’t get lower,” she said. AP’s request for an interview with a ministry official on the issue was not immediately answered.

Some job seekers are lowering their expectations. Wang Yuan, an industrial design major at southern China’s Hunan Industrial University, thought a design job would be waiting for her after graduation. But nothing has become of the two dozen job applications she has sent out since last fall. “They were like stones sinking into the sea,” said Wang, 23. She has since changed her tack. “Any job will do, and choosiness will have to come later,” she said.

Lynn Lee, a 21-year-old law undergraduate student at Huaiyin Normal College in Jiangsu province, tried to find work in legal affairs, media, sales and executive assistance before finally landing a job as a bank teller near her hometown. Her job search included nearly 100 applications and several out-of-town trips. “There were rounds of interviews, and many candidates had impressive academic credentials,” she said. “I was so nervous I couldn’t sleep at night, and now I’m left with a

be choosy.

China’s job market is notoriously discriminating.

Employers have openly snubbed women, out-oftown job applicants and graduates from less prestigious institutions. This year, the Chinese State Council has demanded that employers make no requirement on gender, ethnicity, age, residence and type of school when hiring graduates of higher education, but the directive is unlikely to be followed.

When compared with elsewhere, China’s economy is still doing relatively well, with an overall urban unemployment rate of only 4.1 percent in 2012. That compared with unemployment rates ranging from 4.7 percent to more than 27 percent in European countries; the U.S. rate was 7.5 percent last month. However, a large share of China’s population is in the countryside, and urban data only cover a portion of China’s workforce.

Luo Xiaoming, editor-in-chief of the Chineselanguage financial news site Caixun.com, said China’s economic growth of 7.7 percent for the first quarter should be able to absorb the increase in job seekers, but the challenge in the job market reflects a flaw in China’s investment-driven economy, which is expanding without job growth. “This economic model has misled the market, resulting in excessive production capacity, and its lack of openness to the private sector has stifled innovation and entrepreneurship,” Luo said in explaining the lack of jobs in China. “Economic transformation has been stagnant.”

Some lay the blame on China’s education sys-

BEIJING: This photo shows Chinese job seekers visit a job fair held at the China International Exhibition Center in Beijing. —AP migraine.” Lu Feng, an electronics senior at Xidian University in central Chinese city of Xi’an, said he was shocked to see a room filled with more than 1,000 applicants when he showed up for an interview with a technology firm from southern China recruiting for 20 jobs in his city. He got hired, and the job hunt took him only a couple of weeks. Lu and several other male job seekers interviewed by The Associated Press said they feel they have better job prospects than females, and can even afford to

tem, which they say is a mismatch to China’s job market. Many jobs require only a polytechnical education, and perhaps China is currently producing too many university graduates, including doctoral-level students, said Yang, the youth research center director. That means many graduates end up with lower-level jobs that have little to do with their areas of study. “Why would they want to take basic jobs? If they don’t, they become unemployed,” Yang said.— AP

S Sudan, Sudan resume cross-border oil flows KHARTOUM: South Sudan expects its first oil to arrive in Sudan’s export port in mid-June as both countries are continuing to implement oil and trade deals despite Khartoum’s renewed accusations over rebel support, Juba’s ambassador to Sudan said. The neighbours, which fought one of Africa’s longest civil wars, agreed in March to resume cross-border oil flows and end tensions plaguing them since the south seceded in 2011.

South Sudan has started since then to pipe oil to two treatment plants in Sudan to be readied for exports, the first time since the landlocked new nation shut down its production of 350,000 barrels a day in January 2012 in a row over export fees. On Monday, Sudan’s President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir

threatened to close the export pipelines if South Sudan supported insurgents operating on Sudanese soil, claims long denied

by Juba.

But South Sudan’s ambassador to Sudan, Mayan Dut Wol, said he was relaxed about Bashir’s speech, describing it as “emotional” outburst of the president he has got used to since growing up in Khartoum. “I am not shocked,” said Wol in an interview. “We know the president, we know him,” he said, laughing. He said bilateral meetings have been going on normally since the speech for both sides to work out details on oil, trade and border security deals signed in March.

“The oil is flowing... We expect it to arrive on the 13th, 14th or 15th

in Port Sudan,” he said late on Tuesday, adding it would be loaded on vessels around June 20.

The neighbours have fixed a technical problem at a pumping station at a Sudanese export facility, which forced South Sudan last week to halve production to 105,000 barrels a day, he said. Oil is the lifeline for both countries struggling with high inflation, weakening currencies and high unemployment.

Bank deal On trade cooperation, Sudan’s central bank granted this week a first South Sudanese bank - Jubabased Ivory Bank owned by local businessmen - a licence to open a branch in Khartoum, Wol said. A central bank official confirmed

this. Both countries also planned to increase direct flights with a third carrier getting ready to operate, said Wol. Around 41,000 South Sudanese, who were unable to afford air tickets, were waiting in Sudan for both countries to reopen the land border to return home, said Wol. The frontier was closed around the time of southern secession in July 2011. While praising bilateral ties, Wol switched one time during the interview to a defiant tone to say he was not bothered at all if Sudan closed the pipelines as threatened by Bashir.

“I want to say that our oil was not shut down by Sudan. We shut it down and now it’s one and a half years later and people are living,” he said. “We can survive without oil.” — Reuters

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

BUSINESS

Xerox encourages regional businesses to ‘Drive for Digital’ KUWAIT: Xerox - the leading global enterprise enabling workplaces with services, technology and expertise - will embark on an intensive Middle East Customer Innovation Tour from May 13 to 24, 2013 across the region. The event will be in Kuwait City on Wednesday, May 22, at The Regency Hotel from 5 pm. Industry experts will be available all day to provide valuable insights and advice to the graphic arts, commercial print and banking, as well as to businesses across other industry verticals.

At a time of intense regional and global competition and rapidly changing technology, Xerox understands that organizations need more support than ever before.

Xerox firmly believes that the most successful businesses will be those that innovate to help people be more efficient in the management of information and communication of ideas, and reduce the complications of working in a digital world.

However, understanding innovation and the challenges it presents is not easy.

Hence Xerox is launching a series of free ‘Drive for Digital’ workshops to help make

sense of the changing dynamics of technology and provide insights into lucrative opportunities to grow business as well as add value to customers. These workshops will help organisations increase profits, reduce inefficiencies, and expand product and services capabilities.

John Paul Teti, Manager, Production Technology, Xerox Middle East and Africa, elaborated: “Xerox understands the diversity of challenges associated with the Middle East region, which is why we are taking our ‘Drive for Digital’ workshops to several major markets in the region to help our customers better understand the lucrative opportunities available in our segment of the technology industry. We want to demonstrate that Xerox has the broadest offering of technology and services as well as the most robust infrastructure to be able to consistently deliver value to our customers. Our deliverables around process automation, customized communications across different digital media platforms, colour management, technical support, experience levels and innovation are the strongest in the region.”

Peter Muir, President of Bizucate Inc, will conduct a workshop at the event on “The Six Focus Areas of a More Successful Business”. With over 15 years of educational design and business coaching experience, Peter is well known within the graphic communications industry as a source of information and inspiration. “The management of a business directly impacts its profitability. By highlighting main focus areas, businesses can work to create a wellrounded, workable model for success,” advised Peter Muir. “While technology is important, so is understanding how to use it to maximize its value to an organization.

This involves understanding business requirements, market trends, customers, workflow, sales, products and much more,” he added.

The workshops at the Xerox Middle East Customer Innovation Tour 2013 will encourage participants to drive positive change in their business. During the event, Xerox will highlight new applications, production efficiencies, higher value products and services, in addition to new markets for growth in which their customers can

focus on in order to enhance productivity and drive improved profit performances.

Xerox will underline the importance of technology for business, as well as support a well-rounded approach that looks at driving genuine business growth and efficiencies. “The workshops will elaborate on Xerox’s workflow automation, business development consultancy, colour management, industry best technology, depth of offerings as well as staff experience levels,” said John Paul Teti. “Customers from a variety of different market segments including graphic arts, commercial print, financial services, education and government, to name a few, have the opportunity to learn how to better expand their businesses and increase their ROI.” The Xerox Customer Innovation Tour is an opportunity to interact and learn from some of the industry’s foremost consultants and thought leaders. Attendees will also have a more comprehensive understanding of technology trends and how best to position themselves and their organizations to take advantage of these trends.

Kyrgyz protesters step up pressure on Centerra Gold Kyrgyz ‘mob rule’ scares off strategic investors

KUWAIT: The father of Zaid Wael Naeem receives the prize from Mohammed AlOthman, NBK’s Executive Manager, Consumer Banking Group.

Wael Naeem wins KD 125,000 in NBK’s Al-Jawhara draw KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) announces the winner for May ’s KD 125,000 Al-Jawhara monthly prize, minor Zaid Wael Naeem. The draw was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

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

Minor Zaid Wael Naeem, the winner of May’s KD 125,000 draw and his family expressed their happiness in winning AlJawhara monthly prize. “ Winning KD 125,000 came as a complete surprise. We truly thank NBK for its great services and offers and for always being number one in

the market,” they said.

Al-Jawhara account offers numerous benefits to NBK customers. Not only is it an interest-free account with regular deposit and withdrawal privileges, but also entitles account holders to enter the weekly, monthly and quarterly Al-Jawhara draws.

Each KD 50 in an Al-Jawhara account entitles the customer to one chance in any of the draws.

All prizes are automatically credited to the winners’ accounts the day after the draw. The more money held in your AlJawhara account, the greater your chances of winning. Al-Jawhara accounts are available to both Kuwaitis and expats and can be opened at any one of NBK’s branches around Kuwait.

VIVA announces Lamborghini Gallardo draw winner today KUWAIT: VIVA, Kuwait’s fastest-growing telecom operator, will be holding its Postpaid Lamborghini Gallardo Draw today at the Avenues Mall, the Grand Avenues, at 7 pm where the lucky winner of the brand new 2013 Lamborghini Gallardo, will be announced.

VIVA invites all its customers and the wider Kuwaiti public to attend this highly anticipated event, and share the

excitement while drawing for the lucking winner. The draw, which was launched on the March 3, was open to all VIVA postpaid customers and is one of the most exciting campaigns launched to date by VIVA! VIVA wishes all its customers the best of luck and looks forward to witnessing the ground breaking moment that will certainly be life changing to the lucky winner.

Al-Mulla Exchange announces Egyptian promotion winners KUWAIT: Al-Mulla International Exchange, the premier exchange company in Kuwait, announced seven lucky winners in the Egyptian Promotion which began on May 16, 2013 and ran through May 22, 2013.

Winners were picked at the end of each day from all transactions done at any branch of Al Mulla Exchange.

The winner of the draw held on May 16 was Sabri Farghali Abdul Haleem for his transaction made at Jahara 1 Branch, Ashraf Ahmed Ashraf Ahmed Saleem was picked as the winner for May 17 from Abbasiya 1 Branch, Mohammad Alam Aldeen Ahmed Abu Alhasan was the winner for May 18 from Salmiya 4 Branch, Mhd Abdu Tawfiq Abdul Kareem was the winner on May 19 from Hawally 1 Branch, Abdul Alftah Saad Ebrahim was the winner on

May 20 from Farwaniya 3 Branch, Mohammed Magday Mohamed Abdelazez was the winner for May 21 from Salmiya 4 Branch, Ez Al Din Mustafa Ahmad was the winner for May 22 from Hawally 1 Branch.

Each of the seven winners won a Mobile Samsung S3 Mini.

The various promotions conducted by Al-Mulla EXchange are yet another reason for customers to remit their money through Al-Mulla Exchange which offers, free insurance and loyalty points on every transaction, as well as SMS confirmation on delivery of remittances. Besides making money transfer a quick, safe and relaxed experience for customers, Kuwait’s premier exchange also offers the facility to send money from the comfort of one’s home or office through their online service.

BISHKEK: Hundreds of villagers blocked the only road to Centerra Gold Inc’s flagship gold venture high in Kyrgyzstan’s Tien Shan mountains yesterday, threatening to move in on the mine unless the government tears up its agreement with the investor. The Kumtor mine, set some 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) above sea level, has long been the focus of infighting among political forces and regional clans in a nation that has seen two presidents toppled since 2005.

Nationalist deputies and groups are calling for the nationalisation of the mine and parliament has set a deadline of June 1 for the government to renegotiate - or repudiate - a deal struck in 2009 with Toronto-listed Centerra to operate the mine. A state commission said Centerra has been paying too little to run Kumtor and accused it of environmental damage leading to $457 million in fines. The gold mine is the largest operated in Central Asia by a Western company and alone worth roughly 12 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s economic output.

“The main demand is to cancel this agreement. If it is not done today, the protesters will start moving up to block the mine,” Naris Kalchayev, a local youth leader and an organiser of the road block, told Reuters by telephone. Several Kyrgyz parliamentarians told Reuters that the government was unlikely to meet the June 1 deadline, because it needed

a few more weeks to work closely with its legal consultants before making a final decision. Centerra said its operations at Kumtor had so far not been affected by the protest which began on Tuesday but warned gold production and its results would be hit if the road block was not removed soon. “Kumtor shall work regardless of anything, because if its production stops just for a day, it will be a blow to the country’s entire economy,” Prime Minister Zhantoro Satybaldiyev was quoted by his press service as saying later yesterday.

Ice movement in Kumtor’s open pit cut output by 46 percent to 315,238 ounces in 2012, but the company expects production to rebound to between 550,000 and 600,000 ounces this year.

“Mob power” in action A Kumtor worker, who declined to be named, said he had seen some 300 protesters blocking a bridge at a gorge near Kumtor.

“Many of them are aggressive and in an agitated mood,” he told Reuters by telephone from the area near the Chinese border. He said they had laid out five traditional yurt felt tents and were guarded by two dozen men on horseback. “These are mainly residents of four local villages, and their number is growing. Locals bring them food,” he said. “They demand that the prime minister should come and meet them.” Satybaldiyev was elected

prime minister by parliament last September, pledging to fight corruption and alleviate widespread poverty in the mainly Muslim nation of 5.5 million, which hosts both Russian and US military air bases. The mountainous nation, where gross domestic product per head is less than a tenth of that in oilrich neighbour Kazakhstan, holds ample reserves of precious and rare earth metals and mercury discovered by Soviet geologists.

But vested interests of powerful local clans, which often defy the authority of central government, have kept strategic investors away.

“There are those interested in destabilising the situation in the country,” Satybaldiyev said, commenting on the road block. He did not elaborate. Earlier this month, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said “mob rule” had wrecked the sale of Jerooy, the country’s second-largest gold field. He said local clans had tripled the asking price for Jerooy to a hefty $300 million, scaring off investors. In Centerra’s case, those blocking its only supply route have also put for ward additional demands to the investor, which vary from building new roads, water pipelines, sport gyms and a kindergarten in local villages to providing long-term loans and Kumtor jobs to their residents. “They are crying for the moon,” the Kumtor worker said. “What they want is actually the prerogative of the government, not Kumtor.” — Reuters

Who are the winners in a multi-polar world?

Miguel S Lobo

W

hether it was the Roman Empire, the Caliphates, the British Empire or, most recently, what has been called the American Century, history records long cycles when a dominant economic center defined much about the world. In such times, a hub-and-spoke pattern of trade develops, and from the hub a dominant business culture, even a dominant language, set the norms to which others default. But, when looking back, we tend to pay less attention to what happens during the intervals between periods of hegemony, which is unfortunate on two counts. First, these interregnums can last a very long time indeed and, for those living in them, they are not an interregnum but simply the way the world is.

Second, we are entering such a time.

In East Asia, Japan, China and South Korea have already risen to contest the 20th century’s western economic center, and others will soon follow, likely including the usual suspects, India, Russia and Brazil. Africa will too, maybe sooner than most anyone expects. Who are the winners in a multipolar world? The answer can be everyone.

Such periods have often been a time of great creativity and development, even if the lack of a hegemon means there will be no hagiographic cultural production to memorialize the age. But some benefit more than others. As patterns of trade shift from huband-spoke to a more complex network structure, these are times when being at the cross-roads, able to create a bridge between many others, becomes a more valuable asset. The transitions that challenge the small Gulf countries also define these countries’ potential. While oil and gas have been the drivers of growth and wealth, trans-

portation and logistics have already become central to these economies. The Gulf is a natural waypoint between Europe and East Asia, as well as between Africa and Central and East Asia. This geographical reality reaches further than the present logistical advantages it confers. A tradition that comes from being in this position, a cross-roads for sea trade and desert routes, has allowed for cultures that are open to outsiders, with an understanding that we can work with those who are different from us without having to become like them or expecting them to become like us.

The Gulf does have many challenges to overcome in order to fully capture the value from being a link between many places in a multi-polar world. The greatest economic opportunities come from the ability, geographically and culturally, to bridge East and West. However, while cultural and economic links to Pakistan and India run deep, ties are much weaker when looking further East.

When, beginning in the 1960s, the region was racing to catch up, its development took place in a world where the West, especially the USA, had uncontested dominance. This made the West the default choice not just for technology and business practices, but also for education. In the education received by the native-born as well as in the national makeup of highly skilled expatriates in the Gulf, this imbalance is evident. Government and private business can now be expected to look for balance, cultivating economic and educational ties to China and Asia more broadly.

It wasn’t inevitable that a hub would develop in the Gulf, and competition between the small Gulf states has played a key role. In the UAE, this dynamic extents to Emirate-level governments that have sub-

stantial autonomy. The diversity allows for experimentation, innovation, and emulation.

In the race to be the broker, logistically and financially, between Europe, Asia, and Africa, all Gulf countries have similar geographic advantages. Good legal and regulatory frameworks are then the key competitive advantages. Relatedly, for many private businesses the stability of the cosmopolitan talent that the region has attracted and nurtured is still a concern. Short-term visa regimes create uncertainty about the longterm commitment of staff, which reduces incentives to invest in training and development, putting at risk the ability to remain competitive. This particular piece of the legal framework is unlikely to change, as it reflects the reality that government policy operates within the rigid constraints defined by political legitimacy and social stability.

Will such concerns remain just constraints, or will they come to dominate policy? With the end of American hegemony, the security envelope it provided continuesto erode. Recognition of the strategic security risks in the region has been a central motivation for the leadership of small Gulf countries to create an environment conducive to growth and attractive to international investors. Economic development is, rightly so, seen as a pre-condition for longterm security and political autonomy. Since the strategic realities of the Middle East are unlikely to change for some time, this pragmatic motivation will remain. We can expect governments of the small Gulf statesto continue to build on the advantages of geography and openness to the world to drive economic growth.

Miguel S. Lobo is the Associate Professor of Decision Sciences and Director of the Abu Dhabi Campus.

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

technology

Microsoft Kuwait partners with MoE in a Master Teacher Training Program KUWAIT: In line with its commitment to broaden digital inclusion and promote technology in education, Microsoft and the Kuwaiti Ministry of Education have recently collaborated to organize a Master Teacher Training Program. More than 100 educators which included Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti teachers from across Kuwait attended a workshop which took place from May 12th till the 28th where all educators were certified to become Master Teachers.

The Master Teacher Training Program is designed to actively increase access to technology and improve its use in the education sector through several training sessions using the latest Microsoft technologies and software. The aim of the program is to improve creativity and innovation in the classroom while finding effective ways to share information among educators across the country. After the completion of the program, the master teachers will have the opportunity to share their newly acquired skills with their peers by organizing similar sessions within their schools.

Ehab Mostafa, Country Manager of Microsoft Kuwait said, “At Microsoft, we believe that education is the most important investment to ensure a bet-

ter future for individuals, communities and nations and the world as a whole.

The master teacher training program represents a continuation of our commitment to cooperate with Kuwait Ministry of Education to contribute to the economic and social development and advance efforts to build a knowledge based society.

Through the Train the Trainer methodology, we are seeking to help schools gain better access to technology and for educators to

explore the benefits it can bring to the classroom. These training sessions aim at providing education leaders in Kuwait with the tools to envision, implement and manage change.”

Commenting on the program, Dr. Khaled Al-Rasheed - Assistant Undersecretary for Planning & Information from the Ministry of Education said “ The Master teacher training program is in line with the Ministry’s efforts to reach out to educators across the country and help them acquire

new skills. This program is an example of our strong partnership with Microsoft and we look forward to a continuous longterm association to further educators in Kuwait.”

The Teacher Training program is part of Microsoft’s Innovative Educator Program. The program, which is implemented globally, aims at helping educators across the world to collaborate and improve education through integration of ICT. The trained teachers are invit-

Ehab Mostafa MSFT Kuwait GM

Khaled Al Rushaid

ed to participate in a competition in which the teachers have to design a Virtual Classroom Tour (VCT) project using the tools and information acquired through the course. The competition will be open to all Kuwaiti teachers.

The top projects will have the chance to represent the country at the annual Global Partners in Learning Forum 2014.

At the Global Forum, we are expecting to welcome around 500 innovative educators from the entire world in order to share ideas and experience in successfully integrating ICT in education.

Out of the 500 participants only

20 will be selected as winners and recognized internationally.

The four day forum will include workshops and an exhibition of all the participating schools and educators projects, as well as executive speeches from Microsoft and education specialists.

The Global Forum is the culmination of a series of country-level events that took place throughout the year. Teachers competed to receive one of twelve innovative teaching awards in four key categories, and they had already been chosen as winners in their local events.

Crystal IS wins top honor BlueTech Water Technology

CUBA: People reflected in the window line up at a post office as they wait to use the Internet service in Havana. Cuba announced Tuesday that it will offer more access to the Internet starting June 4, at navigation sites around the country for $4.50 an hour. The average salary in Cuba is $15 per month. —AP

Cuba to offer public Internet at salons islandwide HAVANA: Cuban authorities said Tuesday that they will begin offering public Internet access at more than 100 cyber-salons across the island, though home Web service remains greatly restricted.

Starting June 4, people can sign up with state telecom Etecsa for temporary or permanent accounts to use one of the 118 centers, according to a measure enacted with its publication in the government’s Official Gazette. “New areas for (Internet) navigation will gradually be incorporated,” official newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported.

Until now, the Internet has been limited to places such as tourist hotels that charge $8 an hour for creaky Wi-Fi, foreign-run companies and some sectors of Cuban business and government.

Residential dial-up accounts are rare and restricted.

According to government statistics, only 2.9 percent of Cubans said they had access to the Worldwide Web - though outside observers put the likely figure at 5 to 10 percent, taking underreporting into account. About 16 percent were able to go partway online via a domestic Intranet and

email, often through workplace or school hookups or places such as computer clubs and post offices.

“Great! I knew this was coming,” said Camila Delgado, a 44-year-old shop worker in Havana, though she added that “there’s still a ways to go to be like everywhere else on the planet. We don’t have access at home and the prices are prohibitive.”

Indeed, some scoffed at the new cyber-centers’ price tag of $4.50 an hour, a stiff fee for islanders whose state salaries average about $20 per month plus an array of subsidized goods and services.

“It’s a real bargain,” snarked a user on state news website Cuba Si who gave the name Osvaldo Ulloa. “I mean, I work for a week and then I can get online for hour - fabulous.”

Even for those who are already able to access the wider Internet, some sites are censored for things including pornography or politically objectionable content. It was not clear whether the new service will block such pages, and neither the Gazette nor Juventud

Rebelde mentioned the issue.

The Internet is a highly politicized issue on the island, with critics pointing to restrictions as an example of infringement upon freedom.

Authorities say that the limitations are due more to technical reasons and that Cuba has the obligation to prioritize its limited capacity for things that benefit the public good, such as research and work centers or universities.

Earlier this year, Cuba began sending and receiving data traffic through a fiber-optic cable strung from Venezuela in 2011 that provided the island’s first hard-wired Internet connection to the outside world.

Expanding connectivity options for Cubans “is consistent with Cuba’s stated strategy of continuing to facilitate more and more access to new technologies, depending on the availability of resources and with a focus that favors social use,” Juventud Rebelde said. The paper added that the new service is possible thanks to the Venezuela cable. —AP

GREEN ISLAND: Crystal IS yesterday announced its win of the Disrupt-oMeter(tm) Award at the 2013 BlueTech Forum in Amsterdam. Crystal IS was selected from a range of participants for the water sector award honoring innovative, industryrevolutionizing technology.

“We are thrilled to be recognized by this global forum composed of water industry leaders, market experts and our peers,” said Therese Jordan, SVP of Business Development at Crystal IS. “This honor signifies the global market’s confidence in our technology and its future impact.”

BlueTech Research monitors the global water market for companies with innovative and disruptive technologies and a strong goto-market strategy. The Disrupt-o-Meter Award is given to the water technology company that has the highest potential to not only influence existing markets, but open up new markets because of its ability to be used in various applications.

Additionally, the award analyzes the company’s business model and the quality of serv-

ice provided with the technology. “BlueTech Research has long been tracking and analyzing the market potential for innovative and disruptive water technologies.

We believe that the technology presented

by Crystal IS represents one of the strongest opportunities in the technical space in the next 5 to 10 years, and are excited about the potential for LEDs in the market, particularly within the water space. UV LEDs represent one of the top five potentially disruptive water technologies, with the global UV water disinfection market worth $1.1Bn. UV LEDs have the potential to disrupt this market and access market share, and equally importantly, to open up new applications and markets previously inaccessible to conventional UV lamp technology,” stated Paul O’Callaghan, CEO of BlueTech Research.

Crystal IS reported record outputs of greater than 60mW for their UVC LEDs earlier this year. As part of this award, Crystal IS will have the opportunity to showcase their products in the 2013 WEFTEC Innovation Pavilion at the conference in Chicago, IL this October.

Mobile apps to report racism in English football LONDON: English football’s main antiracism organization is working on creating a mobile phone application for players to report abuse.

Kick It Out released details Wednesday of an app for fans to lodge complaints about racist abuse at matches from the start of the new season in August.

In a survey of 5,463 fans by Kick It Out, 75 percent said that discriminatory language and behavior among supporters is still a problem at matches in Britain. Work is also underway with the Professional Footballers’ Association to develop a more secure app just for players.

There also has been a resurgence of racism among players at matches in England in recent years, notably with bans for Chelsea captain John Terr y and Liverpool striker Luis Suarez.

Almost half of fans reported hearing racist or homophobic aimed directed at players or match officials, with 73 percent

calling for better stewarding at matches.

“The majority of football fans have told Kick It Out they want action to get rid of discrimination at all levels of the game,” Kick It Out director Roisin Wood said.

“These new reporting tools will allow fans to help clubs and the relevant authorities target instances of discriminatory behavior more consistently while maintaining healthy and vocal rivalries.

“Over the past 20 years, the campaign has stayed at the forefront of tackling discrimination with innovative campaigns and we have made real progress, but there is still plenty to do. This will go some way in helping responsible fans work with us to make further progress.”

The app will be free on iPhone and Android devices, and the reports are sent to the clubs and English Football Association. Fans who make complaints can do so anonymously or chose to be updated on an investigation. —AP

Singaporean online community angered by new media rule SINGAPORE: Singapore’s feisty online community reacted angrily yesterday to an announcement that news websites including one operated by Yahoo! will have to obtain licences subjecting them to rules governing traditional media.

“It is obvious that the new rules are to set and control the tone of discourse online, a concern which the government has had for a while now,” said Andrew Loh, the editor of socio-political website Publichouse.sg.

“The rise of social media, as an increasing number of Singaporeans get their news online, has now prompted the government to let go of its promised ‘light touch’ on the Internet,” he wrote on the site. Singapore is one of Asia’s wealthiest and most wired nations but

also one of the most regimented. Its traditional media are widely seen to be progovernment, giving rise to alternative sources of news online amid growing discontent with the ruling party and its policies.

The popular news site of Yahoo!

Singapore was included Tuesday on a list of 10 websites that will have to obtain annual licences starting Saturday-all the nine others are sites run by mainstream Singapore media groups.

The Media Development Authority (MDA), the official media watchdog, said websites that have at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore every month and publish at least one local news article a week fall under the new rules.

Websites granted a licence will have to remove “prohibited content” such as articles that undermine racial or religious harmony” within 24 hours of being notified by the MDA. International media watchdog Reporters Sans Frontieres ranked Singapore 149th globally in press freedom this year, down 14 places from 2012 and below neighbours such as Malaysia and Indonesia.

Yahoo! Singapore, which has a team of reporters doing independent coverage, has become a magnet for anti-government comments posted by readers in reaction to local news stories.

Executives at Yahoo! Singapore told AFP they would not comment until they see details of the licensing rules. “It cer-

tainly looks like there’s political motivation behind this new licensing framework, and the motivation seems to be to rein in Yahoo! Singapore,” wrote prominent blogger Ravi Philemon.

Others questioned what they called the arbitrary nature of the MDA’s decision to require Yahoo! to obtain a licence under the new regulatory regime while leaving untouched volunteer-run blogs also popular among Singaporeans.

“MDA’s failure to explain how its new policy is to be applied at present suggest that the manner in which it is being introduced is opaque and arbitrary,” wrote the editors of socio-political website The Online Citizen.

There was no immediate reaction from the MDA to the criticism. In its

announcement Tuesday, it said it expected “no change in content standards” since websites already must comply with content restrictions, citing in particular the need to curb “content that underlines racial or religious harmony” in the multi-ethnic society.

Traditional media outlets, owned by Singapore Press Holdings and statelinked broadcasting group Mediacorp, are subject to licences that can be revoked at any time by the authorities.

The People’s Action Party, in power for more than 50 years, suffered its worst ever electoral performance in May 2011, getting an all-time low of 60 percent of the popular vote after the opposition and its supporters relied heavily on social media for campaigning. —AFP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Healthy quintuplets born in Salt Lake hospital SALT LAKE CITY: A Utah woman gave birth to a healthy set of quintuplets over the weekend with help from a team of eight doctors, one anesthesiologist and dozens of nurses ensuring the mother and the tiny babies survived. Guillermina and Fernando Garcia’s five babies - three girls and two boys - weigh between 2 to 3 pounds each and are expected to have to stay at the University of Utah hospital in Salt Lake City for another six weeks. Doctors predict they will grow up completely healthy. Guillermina Garcia, 34, carried the babies until 31 1/2 weeks - seven weeks shorter than most single-birth pregnancies but about three weeks longer than most quintuplet mothers. The extra time in the womb helped their lungs develop more than other quintuplets, said Dr. Elizabeth O’Brien, of the newborn intensive care unit.

“They are all doing remarkably well,” O’Brien said.

It was the first set of quintuplets ever born at the hospital. Less than 10 quintuplet sets are born each year in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 37 babies who were born as part of a set of five or more in 2010. “We feel like we’re dreaming,” said Fernando Garcia in Spanish at a Monday afternoon news conference. “It’s incredible that we have five.”

The Utah couple used fertility drugs, which increases the odds of a woman having multiple births. They found out early in the pregnancy they were having quintuplets, and Guillermina Garcia had been in the hospital on bed rest since early April. All five babies were born by cesarean section - coming out within two minutes. A team of five, including one doctor and two nurses, was waiting for each baby. Their names are Esmeralda, Fatima, Marissa, Fernando and Jordan. “I was excited to see them and

see that they were ok, that everything turned out normally,” she said in Spanish. The largest is baby Fernando, who weighed 3 pounds, 14 ounces. The two baby boys are still using breathing tubes, while the girls are breathing on their own. Dr Tracy Manuck served as Guillermina Garcia’s doctor at the hospital and called the mother an extraordinary person who never complained, despite suffering from high blood pressure and severe pre-eclampsia during the pregnancy. The doctors also complimented her husband’s support throughout the pregnancy including in the operating room Sunday morning.

“He did not become a patient, which is a good thing,” Manuck said.

Though the hospital had never had quintuplets before, they’ve had many women give birth to triplets and quadruplets and drew on those experiences to help them Sunday, Manuck said. The beaming couple, originally from Guanajuato, Mexico, now begins a future sure to be filled with droves of dirty diapers, endless hours of trying to calm crying babies and enough bottles and binkies to fill a sink.

They also have a 1-year-old girl, Julietta. They said they have sisters who live in the area who will help

SALT LAKE CITY: This undated photo provided by the University of Utah Hospital shows one of the quintuplets born over Memorial Day weekend to Salt Lake City couple Guillermina and Fernando Garcia at University of Utah Hospital.

them. Fernando Garcia’s bosses have told him to take as much time off as he needs from his work as a welder at a local factory.

The family has health insurance, but the Utah Doula Association has setup an account where people can donate to help with the costs of having five babies. When asked how she plans to care for all five babies, Guillermina Garcia shrugged her shoulders, laughed and said simply: “I don’t know.” Her husband smiled and gave a more confident answer: “Now that they’re here, we’ll find a way,” he said. “We’re through the hardest part.” — AP

SALT LAKE CITY: Dr Tracy Manuck, left, gives a baby present to Guillermina and Fernando Garcia after a news conference at the University of Utah hospital. — AP photos

WHO urges action against obesity as poor nations get fatter Obesity levels doubled between 1980 - 2008

TEXAS: In this May 10, 2013 handout photo provided by Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch, Nakato, a male twin giraffe, gets mom, Carol’s attention shortly after birth in New Braunfels. — AP

Rare twin giraffes born in Central Texas NEW BRAUNFELS: Officials with a Central Texas wildlife refuge say twin giraffes have been born, marking just the second time such a birth has occurred in the US Female calf Wasswa was born first May 10, followed by brother Nakato. Officials with the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch waited until Tuesday to announce the births to ensure the calves would survive.

Ranch spokeswoman Melissa Welch says Wasswa and Nakato are the only set of living giraffe twins in the US A previous set was born in 1988 but have since died.

Welch says most twin giraffes are stillborn or have to be aborted. Wasswa and Nakato are reticulated giraffes, one of the most common species. They’ll stay at the privately owned ranch outside New Braunfels for public viewing. — AP

GENEVA: Alarmed at expanding waistlines around the world, the UN’s health agency has urged countries to get serious about reining in a ballooning obesity crisis, proposing an action plan that includes taxing unhealthy snacks and rules against marketing junk food to children. Once considered only a problem in highincome countries like the United States, where nearly 70 percent of the adult population is overweight, obesity is now growing fastest in developing nations in Africa and Latin America, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

As the urgency to tackle the crisis grows, member countries of the UN body late on Monday adopted a 2013-2020 action plan to fight against diseases like cardiovascular illness, cancer, and chronic diabetes. “The cost of inaction far outweighs the cost of taking action,” the body said. The plan, which targets risky lifestyle choices such as smoking, alcohol consumption and an unhealthy diet, includes a goal to halt the rise in global obesity levels by 2020. “The fight against obesity is... one of the most important factors in fighting no communicable diseases,” Francesco Branca, WHO’s head of nutrition for health and development, told reporters in Geneva.

Obesity levels nearly doubled between 1980 and 2008, when at least one in three adults worldwide was overweight and around one in 10 was considered obese, according to the WHO. At least 2.8 million adults die each year as a result of being overweight or obese, not counting the large percentages of diabetes, heart

disease and cancer cases attributable to overweight, according to the UN agency’s numbers. The world’s fattest country is the tiny South Pacific island nation of Nauru, where 71 percent of the population is considered obese, WHO figures show.

The newly adopted plan “is extremely important in addressing one of the most devastating health crises of our time,” said John Stewart of the watchdog Corporate Accountability International, describing obesity as “an epidemic”. Since foods high in fat, sugar and salt are often cheaper than healthier alternatives, the battle against the bulge is increasingly spreading to poorer nations, observers say. “In many high-income countries the problem is leveling off, but the worst problems we see are in low- and middle-income countries where the rate of obesity... is increasing at a very fast pace,” Godfrey Xuereb, a WHO expert on the issue, told AFP. The new WHO plan calls for a range of measures to stymy obesity’s upward trend, including urging food and beverage companies to cut levels of salt and sugar in their products, replace saturated and trans-fats with unsaturated fats, and reduce portion sizes. And in a world where more than 40 million children under the age of five are overweight, it also calls on countries to strictly control the marketing of unhealthy foods and drinks to children. Taking on marketing aimed at youngsters was “incredibly important,” Stewart told AFP, insisting that food and beverage corporations for too long have been “taking advantage of children’s inherent vulnerabilities by marketing them unhealthy food that

UN call to financial arms for new war on poverty UNITED NATIONS: Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent battling extreme poverty and disease since 2000 and now the United Nations is lining up a new war on the social distress still suffered by huge numbers around the world. Ideas on targets to follow the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and how to pay will be in a report to be handed over by Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to UN leader Ban Ki-moon.

Yudhoyono, Liberia’s President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson and Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron drew up the report with 24 other ministers, business representatives and experts.

The UN now has less than 1,000 days to meet the existing eight Millennium goals and decide how they should be followed. When the MDGs were agreed at a UN summit in 2000, experts predicted the goals-ranging from halving numbers living on less than $1.25 a day, to cutting mortality among under fives by two thirds and halting the spread of AIDS-would cost about $60 billion dollars. The UN says the poverty target has already been reached, mainly because China’s economic miracle has created so much new wealth.

Progress on the other targets has been steady, but Ban’s panel has agreed that helping the remaining 1.5 billion chronically poor-increasingly entrenched in sub-Saharan Africa-remains the priority. The UN could face a battle on how to carry out the renewed vow, though. Experts are reluctant to estimate how much has been spent on the MDGS so far.” Western donors have spent hundreds of billions of dollars in aid since the Millennium goals were agreed in 2000,” said Simon Scott, head of the statistics and development finance division at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris.

“In fact, annual aid flows have increased by half in real terms since then. Most donors orient their aid towards achieving the goals,” Scott said. But the financial crisis has badly hit donor payments in the past five years and Cameron said on a recent visit to New York that there had to be a “transformational shift” in the way development goals are reached.

Private enterprise must be “at the heart of our agenda” of economic change. The new targets had to build on the MDGs but all had agreed that goals “weren’t perfect,” Cameron added. “Rich countries meeting their aid commitments is important, but it will not be enough on its own. And our report will make clear that we need to tackle the causes of poverty, not just the symptoms,” said the prime minister.

Cameron said “the importance of good governance (and) lack of corruption” would be a key new element of the new goals. East Timor’s Finance Minister Emilia Pires, a member of the panel, stressed the need to eradicate conflict to help the poorest countries. “The lack of peace was one of the major obstacles for achieving the MDGs,” Pires told AFP in an interview. “If people are scared, children do not attend schools, they do not go to hospitals.”

There have to be targets for all countries, not just for the poorest, she said, and some of the existing goals have to be refined. “We must make sure we do not leave behind all those people who have already been left behind with the first goals.”

East Timor is emerging from its own instability which needed a UN peacekeeping force and is now saving toward a sovereign wealth fund from the discovery of valuable gas and oil reserves. Pires said better financial management in the target countries could help pay for the new goals. “A lot of the poor countries, countries with a lot of poor people, especially those in conflict, are actually very rich in terms of mineral wealth, oil and gas. The problem is that the resources are not well managed,” she said.

“If we make sure that our resources are well managed, that revenues goes into some sort of sovereign wealth fund, we can fund out our own needs,” she said. But small countries need help with good governance and to haggle with multinational companies to get the best deal for resources. “They have lawyers, they have all these negotiators. You are sitting there like David and Goliath and then you sign off on contractors that later you regret,” she said. “But it is too late and all the revenues have left the country.”— AFP

makes them sick.”

The industry itself has welcomed most of the WHO proposals, claiming it had already made strides both in “reformulating” existing products to make them healthier and in voluntarily reining in the advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks to youngsters. The recommended actions “are ones we support and have been implementing on a voluntary basis since 2004,” said Jane Reid of the International Food an Beverage Alliance, which represents the world’s largest food and drink corporations, including Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and Nestle.

The organization, which maintains that voluntary action and self-regulation by companies is the answer to the obesity problem, was less supportive of the WHO plan’s call for countries to consider taxing unhealthy foods and subsidizing healthier choices in a bid to impact eating habits. “Fiscal measures aimed specifically to change behavior are complex to design and enforce,” Reid wrote in an email to AFP, adding there was little proof such taxes would help improve eating habits.

And, she maintained, a food tax “would be felt hardest by low-income families,” who might “compensate for unanticipated budget shortfalls by buying more energy-dense, lower-nutrient foods.”

Stewart meanwhile cautioned against giving the industry players widely blamed for the obesity epidemic too much say in how to solve the problem. “What we really need are statutory regulations that are binding and make a real impact on kids’ health,” he said. — AFP

New vaccine protects kids against hand, foot and mouth disease LONDON: Chinese scientists have developed the first vaccine to protect children against a virus called enterovirus 71, or EV71, that causes the common and sometimes deadly hand, foot and mouth disease. The new inactivated EV71 vaccine, made by Beijing Vigoo Biological, was developed for use in the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for most of the serious cases of the disease that can cause potentially fatal meningitis and encephalitis. Since its discovery in 1969, EV71 has caused major outbreaks of hand foot and mouth disease around the world, affecting mostly children. According to the World Health Organization, outbreaks of HFMD occur every few years in different parts of the world. But in recent years these have occurred more in Asia. Places with recent large increases in the number of reported cases include China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

A large outbreak of HFMD infected about 35,000 people and killed 17 in China’s Hunan province in June 2012. Symptoms of the disease include mouth sores, skin rashes and fever. Until now, there have been no effective vaccines against EV71. But in trial data published in The Lancet medical journal on Tuesday, researchers said Beijing Vigoo’s vaccine gave 90 percent protection against EV71-associated hand, food and mouth disease, with 80.4 percent protection for at least 12 months. The trial took place at four sites across China - three in Jiangsu province and one in Beijin. It involved 10,245 babies and children aged 6 to 35 months who were randomly assigned to get two doses of the vaccine, or two doses of a placebo. Commenting on the results, Nigel Crawford and Steve Graham from the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Australia said “the gains made in (this) trial need to be shared internationally.” This should include an assessment of potential cross-protection for other types of EV71 prevalent in other epidemic countries such as Singapore, Malaysia and Japan, they added. The Chinese researchers, led by Feng-Cai Zhu of the Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control, said the vaccine was safe and well-tolerated and side-effects were similar in both the vaccine and placebo groups.

But they cautioned that there was no evidence the vaccine would cross-protect against another virus called coxsackievirus A 16, which is often found circulating with EV71 and also causes hand foot and mouth disease. This and several other viruses can cause hand foot and mouth disease, they added, so using a vaccine against only EV71, even if it is highly effective, may have only a minimal impact on reducing the overall number of cases of the disease. — Reuters

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

JOHANNESBURG: (Left) A child selects a play item from a shelf at a toy library run by Cotlands, a local non-profit organization that promotes early learning opportunities for children. (Center) A child tumbles in a tube and (right) Children play with hula hoops.—AP photos

South Africa: Children learn by playing JOHANNESBURG: Hundreds of South African children celebrated what some children’s advocates call World Play Day on Tuesday, romping with toys at two Johannesburg centers run by a non-profit organization. The Cotlands organization campaigns for improvement in early education in South Africa, where a 2010 general household survey released by a government-backed statistics agency showed only 32 percent of children under 5 had access to early childhood development programs.

The biggest challenge for the organization is convincing families that it wants to introduce children to early learning skills, and is not a haven for neglected or abused

kids, said Lois Moodley, Cotlands’ marketing manager. It runs a child care unit that houses abandoned children up for adoption, and coordinates with child welfare services run by the state.

Individuals and day cares with no access to play areas partner with the center, which provides a twohour morning lesson, meal, playtime and access to a nurse and social worker at no additional cost. It costs the center R25 (about $2.50) daily to provide for each child, which it funds through corporate and private donations. The doors remain open for after-school play activities.

World Play Day is in its 14th year and is commemorated on May 28 as part of an advocacy campaign for early childhood education. It was started by a non-profit group, The International Toy Library Association. Cotlands used to run an HIV hospice in 1996 to address the increasing problem of children born with the virus that causes AIDS in South Africa, which claimed 98 children at the non-profit group in 2002. The state later stepped up funding for anti-retroviral drugs, and infection rates have dropped. At the peak of the AIDS crisis, the disease killed a child in the organization’s care every week, Moodley said. In the last three years, she said, “we haven’t had a single child die.”—AP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

SEND US YOUR INSTAGRAM PICS

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

IKEA Kuwait opens doors to Kuwait University interns

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KEA Kuwait recently sponsored the graduation ceremony of students from the Industrial and Management Systems Engineering department of Kuwait University that interned at the IKEA store, in Costa Del Sol Hotel. The internship program served as a platform for students to

acquire hands-on knowledge of key functions across IKEA Kuwait’s business divisions.

The students were divided into four groups in which each group examined a different department of the company for possible areas of improvement and feasible solution keeping IKEA’s

concept in focus. The groups focused on four departments ranging from Supply Chain and Logistics, Customer Service and Self-Serve, Delivery and Assembly, and Return, Exchange and Recovery.

Recognized as a global leader in its field, IKEA Kuwait is a socially respon-

sible organization that supports the community in which it operates and youth development initiatives such as the summer training programs, sports tournaments and so on, as a testimony of gratitude to the people of Kuwait for their trust in IKEA for over 28 years.

GUST recognizes honor students in College of Business Administration Muna with the daughter of the King of Swaziland during the Day of Africa reception, at the Regency, Tuesday.

Announcement Legal awareness camp ichar Bharathi Kuwait in association with the Indian Lawyers Forum will hold a ‘Legal Awareness Camp’ on May 31 at the United Indian School from 10am to 1230pm. The program will be inaugurated by Adv Labeed Abdal who will also will join our experts panel. The participating lawyers from Indian Lawyers Forum are Adv. Thomas Panicker, Adv Sumod MK, Adv Mohammed Basheer, Adv Thomas Stephen. The function will be organized in three sessions, as follows. Subject presentation by the Lawyers Panel, on the following topics: Creating expatriate awareness on basic Kuwait Labor/Civil/Criminal Laws. And creating expatriate awareness on basic Indian Civil/Criminal Laws.

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he Gulf University for Science and Technology, under the Platinum sponsorship of Boubyan Bank recognized all the outstanding undergraduate students in the College of Business Administration. Faculty, staff, students, family and friends joined in the celebration and recognition of the hard work of these students.

An honor student is distinguished by maintaining a GPA of 3.8 and above in their major. Dr Ahmad Al-Galfy introduced all the speakers, noting that this is the 4th consecutive year of hosting this award ceremony only now it includes all the CBA students, not just some majors. Dr. Khaled Kisswani then spoke, telling the students: “You’ve made us all very happy and very proud.” He thanked the parents especially, noting that their support at home and environment made it easier for the students to thrive. Dr Sabah Qaddoumi, Vice President for Academic Services, spoke next: “We are all here to celebrate your success, hard work, and your family and teacher’s commitment to you. We know you made a good choice in choosing GUST as the location of your studies with the renowned faculty who care about your success.” Dr Qaddoumi was followed by a few words from Dr Lee Caldwell, the Dean of the GUST CBA, who thanked Boubyan for their great community spirit and spoke of his pride about the students and his belief that they would’ve been top students at any university in the world.

Adel Al-Hammad, General Manager -

Human Resources Group in Boubyan gave a few words as well, noting that Boubyan was proud to sponsor such an event and because of the bank’s investment and interest in expanding the knowledge environment and elevating the education in the banking industry, they chose GUST as their academic partner and hope to have a fruitful partnership for a long time. Student, Ashveen Sethi, spoke on behalf of her fellow honorees, thanking her professors and friends for their support and last but not least, her family for always being there for her, “I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for your support.”

Congratulations to Economics and Finance Honor Students: Aisha Al-Muhailan, Fajer Al-Refai, Khalid Houran, Mariam Beidas, Adnan Mohammad Ali, Rubab Fatima Karamdeen, Tahreer Mohamed, Noor Abd Elqader and Dalal Souyan; to Business Administration Honor Students: Nour Esmaeel, Noor Abou Seido, Fatma AlShuraian, Elias Karam, Ali Arzouniand Yasmeen Jaafar; to Accounting and MIS Honor Students: Sindhuvasavi Srinivasan, AshveenSethi, Faisal Al-Shatti, Anwar AlZalzalah, Omar Mohammad, Reem Houran, Madiha Najem, Fatimah Faour, Abdullah AlBaghli and Yasmin Al-Dari. GUST wishes its students continued success in all their fields and thanks the faculty involved in putting together this event, with Special thanks to Dr Fida Karam, Assistant Professor, Economics & Finance, the main organizer of the event.

Enjoy Sensational Summer Savings at The Regency!

IMAX

IMAX film program 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 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 6:30pm

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Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

rom now until August 8, 2013, The Regency is inviting sun lovers of any age to make the most of its spectacular beachside location, three full size pools and award-winning luxury with huge savings for everyone.

For a limited period only, guests may benefit from an exclusive value-added offer. Based on two persons sharing a Superior Room, the rate includes full buffet breakfast on top of which, there will be a free transfer to Avenues Mall, Marina Mall and The Scientific Centre on a scheduled timetable.

All guests enjoy free access to the beautiful beachside swimming pools, where young guests can enjoy a range of inflatable toys. There is of course complimentary Wi-Fi access throughout the hotel. Ladies may avail themselves of the exclusive private Ladies’

Lounge, where from 9:00 am to 7:00 pm they can enjoy a private beach and sun terrace with plenty of sun loungers as well as a delightful cafE and swimming pool with power jets.

“This summer sees a host of exceptional events at The Regenc y ”, commented Russell Loughland, Director of Sales and Marketing. “We are planning to launch the Regency Gourmet cake shop and delicatessen in the next weeks and with the arrival of our new Italian Executive Sous Chef, Carmine de Filippo, we have introduced an Italian gastronomic menu at Silk Road for a limited period only. Of course we also have Ramadan and Eid offers plus amazing discounts on suites, in addition to terrific culinary promotions during this season’s biggest holiday.

In addition to the unbeatable room offers and

exceptional dining, The Regency offers a weekly calendar of incredible culinary events: enjoy an array of fresh seafood on Tuesdays, spectacular Indian cuisine on Wednesdays and Lebanese delicacies on Thursdays. This is not forgetting the Royal Brunch which has been proved so popular every Friday since its inception.

In June, The Regency’s four Master Chefs from Italy, Canada, France and Malta will be bringing a new lunch buffet to the Regency’s Silk Road in which they will be showcasing the finest cuisines of their related countries.

“This just goes to prove that summer in Kuwait offers myriad opportunities and plenty of added-value offers” commented General Manager Aurelio Giraudo.

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

BSK celebrates success with International Award Scheme

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. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, E-mail: abdbi-imenquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, Al-Mutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday.

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t has been another extremely busy, yet rewarding year at The British School of Kuwait (BSK) for all students involved in the International Award (IA). With over 125 students from more than 30 countries currently taking part in the program, and over 90 of those receiving an award this evening, it is wonderful to see young adults fulfilling their personal challenges. The community has benefited in many ways with our young adults’ involvement in the IA. A significant development to the program this year has been community service. This drive saw IA students raise nearly KD1400. The Silver participants spent KD500 on building materials in order to renovate a new classroom in a local school in the Tawal region, Nepal. The Gold students raised KD900. They then built a new canteen in a local school in the Northern region of Ban Thaton, Thailand. Both of these initiatives were hard work, yet thoroughly rewarding. The continued success of encouraging alumni participants to take ownership and responsibility of the Award, both in training sessions and on expedition, continues to be very popular.

This has allowed students at the completion stages of the Award to use their skills to accept a leadership role.

Whether it was giving advice, helping to build life skills or lending practical help, this role has certainly become a coveted one. The three final expeditions were challenging but thoroughly rewarding, taking students to amazing destinations worldwide. At the Bronze level BSK offered an overseas final expedition to Oman. The Silver participants’ practice expedition

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consisted of a 42km trek over three days and nights, to prepare for the final expedition; five days trekking in the Tawal region of Nepal. The goal was to reach the village of Tawal for some community work. The Gold award group undertook a residential project building a new school canteen and caring for orphaned and underprivileged children in Ban Thaton, Northern Thailand. For the Gold expedition, 27 students and staff had the biggest challenge, ten days walking the famous Giants Cup Trail in the Drakensberg mountains, South Africa. The demanding trek covered 68km in five days at altitudes of up to 2200metres. Of course, no trip to South Africa is complete without a Safari in

Mfolozi Nature Reserve. The International Award is tough, but it is about individual challenge, not about reaching specific standards set by someone else. The students at BSK have to be responsible for designing their own Award Program, setting their own goals and recording their own progress. The only people they compete against are themselves, giving them the opportunity to find out more about themselves, their abilities, their personal skills and their leadership potential. It has been wonderful for parents and teachers to witness the young adults of BSK rise to these challenges and be an exemplar for future participants.

‘Wonder Girl’ visits GIS

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reelakshmi Suresh, youngest web designer & CEO of eDesign Technologies who was on a visit to Kuwait was invited to Gulf Indian School on 15.05.2013 to have an “Interactive Session” with the senior students.

Sreelakshmi has been credited with several national and international awards for her excellence in web designing.

She was welcomed warmly by Ayisha Noha Jamal of class X. Adhipa Sreekumar of class IX presented her with a bouquet of flowers. Sreelakshmi briefly outlined her success story that started at the tender age of eight with designing web site

for her school. Soon after her speech, the house was open for the question and answer session. An array of questions ranging from web designing to managing her business interests flooded the floor. Sreelakshmi was quite impressed with the lively and spontaneous questions that she said, “I feel quite at home standing here among you”. The Principal S Divakaran honoured her with a memento on behalf of the GIS fraternity.

GIS thanks Sreelakshmi Suresh and Mohandoss, Founder and Co-ordinator of Frontliners for making this event possible.

KALA-Balakalamela Bharathiya Vidhyabhavan topper 2013

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harathiya Vidhyabhavan School topped the prestigious KALA-Balakalamela 2013, the art and cultural competitions held at Indian Public School on May 3, 2013. BVS scored 78 points stood first for the 4th consecutive year while Delhi Public School with 45 points stood second and Gulf Indian School with 38 points at third position. More than 1000 students of different Indian Schools participated in the unique platform of KALA-Balakalamela-2013.

Vijay Krishnan of DPS with highest individual score is titled as ‘KALA Prathibha’ for boys while Parvathi S Nair of United Indian School and Chandana Ravikumar of Gulf Indian School shared the title of KALA Thilakam’.

Renowned Malayalam poet Prof K Sachithanandan will distribute the prizes for the winning schools and individual prizes for the winners from 11:00 am at the inaugural function of the grand event of KAKA-Kuwait named as ‘Samtha-2013’ scheduled to be held tomorrow, May 31, 2013 at Indian Community School, Khaitan. Selected winning items of KALA-Balakalamela2013 will be staged as the part of Samata-2013 on Friday at the same venue.

BKRS holds dua and prayer mehfil

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n the memory of saver Rana Plaza tragedy on April 24, 2013 Bangladesh Kuwait Recruiting Samity (BKRS) held a dua and prayer mehfil for the deceased workers at Gulshan Hotel, Kuwait city on May 11, 2013 seeking salvation of the departed soul. The search for the dead ended on May 13. Prayer mehfil was presided by Convener Of BKRS Abdul Khader Mulla and conducted by lqbal Hussain. It is considered to be the deadliest garment-factory accident in history, as well as the deadliest structural failure in modern human history (excluding the collapse of the World Trade Center, which was the aftermath of a deliberate act of violence). In the discussion Convener Abdul Khader Mulla castigated Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir. Khader Mulla said, “A highly educated minister like him has said this. How low will you stoop?

Don’t stoop so low. Quit power if you believe that BNP has such power.”

Also In the discussion invitee guest mentioned that regrettable, democracy

and state institutions have not flourished in the way that we would have liked for which the blame must lie with current Awami league Government under the leadership of current Prime Minister of Sheikh Hasina Wazed. Unfortunately, current regime of impunity has hindered effectiveness of the rule of law and most current minister engaged various kind of corruption that has multiplied the capitalism. Distinguished personalities representative from Bangladesh community writer reporter/professional, poet, along with Member of Convener Committee (BKRS) Monir Husain, Mukbul Hussain, Karim, Anwar Swapan, Abdul Latif, Abdul Awal, Moebul Ahmed , said Chowdhury, Salauddin, BUIBUI. This program was concluded by prayer for the demises and injured in this man made accident and peace and prosperity for the people of Kuwait and Bangladesh as well as whole mankind followed by lavish dinner and dua mahfil conducted by Sheikh Abu bakkar Siddque.

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 ITALY The Board of the Kuwait Italian Business Group (KIBG), will unveil the KIBG website on 28 May 2013. The event starts at 18:00 with registration and socialization and includes a welcome address at 19:00 by the Ambassador of Italy to Kuwait followed by the formal presentation of the KIBG website. The event will end at 20.00. Event Location Italian Embassy Jabriya Block 9 Street 1 Villa 84. Valet service will be provided . No mobiles nor equivalent devices are allowed in the Embassy. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, AlQibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait. 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.

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

TV PROGRAMS

00:45 Your Worst Animal Nightmares 01:35 I’m Alive 02:25 Charles & Jessica: A Chimp Tale 03:15 Wildest Africa 04:05 Galapagos 04:55 Shamwari: A Wild Life 05:20 Echo And The Elephants Of Amboseli 05:45 SSPCA: On The Wildside 06:10 SSPCA: On The Wildside 06:35 Wildlife SOS 07:00 The Really Wild Show 07:25 Groomer Has It 08:15 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 09:10 Weird Creatures With Nick Baker 10:05 Charles & Jessica: A Chimp Tale 11:00 Animal Cops Phoenix 11:55 Shamwari: A Wild Life 12:20 Wildlife SOS 12:50 Safari Vet School 13:15 Safari Vet School 13:45 Animal Precinct 14:40 Charles & Jessica: A Chimp Tale 15:30 Echo And The Elephants Of Amboseli 16:00 The Really Wild Show 16:30 Dogs/Cats/Pets 101 17:25 Your Pet Wants This, Too! 18:20 America’s Cutest Pet 19:15 Escape To Chimp Eden 19:40 Bondi Vet 20:10 Shamwari: A Wild Life 20:35 Echo And The Elephants Of Amboseli 21:05 Charles & Jessica: A Chimp Tale 22:00 Biggest And Baddest

00:40 Come Dine With Me 01:30 MasterChef Australia 02:15 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 03:05 Mitch And Matt’s Big Fish 03:30 Cash In The Attic 04:15 Bargain Hunt 05:00 House Swap 05:45 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 06:35 Mitch And Matt’s Big Fish 07:05 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 07:35 Food And Drink 08:05 Homes Under The Hammer 09:00 Bargain Hunt 09:45 Antiques Roadshow 10:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:20 MasterChef Australia 12:10 Come Dine With Me 13:00 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 13:25 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 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 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 18:20 The Roux Legacy 19:00 The Hairy Bikers USA 19:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 19:45 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Homes Under The Hammer

00:00 00:30 01:00 01:30 01:45 02:00 02:30 02:45 03:00 03:30

BBC World News America BBC World News America Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday Asia Business Report Sport Today Newsday 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 18:05

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 The Garfield Show

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

Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo Tom And Jerry Tales What’s New Scooby Doo Tiny Toon Adventures Puppy In My Pocket What’s New Scooby-Doo? Looney Tunes Dexter’s Laboratory Tom & Jerry Tales 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 Action 19:30 Total Drama Action 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 Talk Asia 08:00 World Report 09:00 World Report 10:00 World Sport 10:30 News Special 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 17:00 International Desk 18:00 Global Exchange 18:45 CNN Marketplace Middle East 19:00 CNN Football Club

GREEN LANTERN ON OSN ACTION HD

19:30 20:00 21:00 21:45 22:00 22:30

News Special International Desk Quest Means Business CNN Marketplace Europe Amanpour CNN Newscenter

00:15 Unchained Reaction 01:10 James May’s Man Lab 02:05 Mythbusters 03:00 Mythbusters 03:55 Border Security - Series 6 Specials 04:20 Auction Hunters 04:50 Storage Hunters 05:15 How Stuff Works 05:40 How Stuff’s Made 06:05 Sons Of Guns 07:00 Mythbusters 07:50 Jesse James: Outlaw Garage 08:45 Gold Rush 09:40 Border Security - Series 6 Specials 10:05 Auction Hunters 10:30 Auction Kings 10:55 How Stuff Works 11:25 How It’s Made 11:50 Unchained Reaction 12:45 James May’s Man Lab 13:40 Mythbusters 14:35 Border Security - Series 6 Specials 15:05 Auction Hunters 15:30 Auction Kings 16:00 Fast N’ Loud 16:55 Gold Rush 17:50 Mythbusters 18:45 Sons Of Guns 19:40 How Stuff Works 20:05 How It’s Made 20:35 Auction Hunters 21:00 Storage Hunters 21:30 Sons Of Guns 22:25 Amish Mafia 23:20 Hellriders

00:05 The Tech Show 00:30 Sci-Fi Science 01:00 Bad Universe 01:50 Sport Science 02:45 Stephen Hawking’s Grand Design 03:35 Bad Universe 04:25 Engineered 05:15 The Gadget Show 05:40 The Tech Show 06:05 Voyage Dans L’espace-Temps 07:00 James May’s 20th Century 07:25 James May’s 20th Century 07:50 Finding Bigfoot 08:40 The Gadget Show 09:05 The Tech Show 09:30 Scrapheap Challenge 10:25 Future Weapons 11:20 Engineered 12:10 Meteorite Men 13:00 Finding Bigfoot 13:50 Sci-Fi Science 14:20 The Gadget Show 14:45 The Tech Show 15:10 James May’s 20th Century 15:35 James May’s 20th Century 16:00 Scrapheap Challenge 16:55 Future Weapons 17:45 Engineered 18:35 Voyage Dans L’espace-Temps 19:30 James May’s 20th Century 19:55 James May’s 20th Century 20:20 Finding Bigfoot 21:10 The Gadget Show 21:35 The Tech Show 22:00 James May’s 20th Century

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 20:25 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 That’s So Raven Austin And Ally Dog With A Blog A.N.T. Farm Suite Life On Deck So Random Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Dog With A Blog Suite Life On Deck Cory In The House Wizards Of Waverly Place That’s So Raven A.N.T. Farm Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm So Random Hannah Montana Jonas Los Angeles Sonny With A Chance Sonny With A Chance Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place

00:00 Opening Act 00:55 Style Star 01:25 E!es

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

THS Style Star Extreme Close-Up THS E!es THS Style Star E! News Ice Loves Coco Ice Loves Coco 30 Best & Worst Beach Bodies E! News Chasing The Saturdays Chasing The Saturdays Kourtney & Kim Take New Style Star E!es Extreme Close-Up Playing With Fire E! News THS Kourtney And Kim Take Miami Chasing The Saturdays Fashion Police E! News Chelsea Lately

00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Unwrapped 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Charly’s Cake Angels 02:10 Charly’s Cake Angels 02:35 Unique Sweets 03:00 Unique Sweets 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 Unique Sweets 08:40 Kid In A Candy Store 09:05 Barefoot Contessa 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 17:00 Barefoot Contessa 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 Amazing Wedding Cakes 22:00 Food Network Challenge 22:50 Fantasy Weddings 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 Nightmare Next Door Nightmare Next Door 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 Undercover: Double Life 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 Undercover: Double Life Forensic Detectives On The Case With Paula Zahn Disappeared Nightmare Next Door Couples Who Kill On The Case With Paula Zahn I Escaped Death I Almost Got Away With It

00:45 Around The World For Free 01:40 Deadliest Journeys 02:05 The Best Job In The World 02:35 Bondi Rescue 03:00 Bondi Rescue 03:30 Danger Beach 03:55 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 04:25 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 05:20 Long Way Down 06:15 Gone to save the planet 06:40 Market Values 07:10 The Frankincense Trail 08:05 Around The World For Free 09:00 Deadliest Journeys 09:25 The Best Job In The World 09:55 Bondi Rescue 10:20 Bondi Rescue 10:50 Danger Beach 11:15 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 11:45 Lonely Planet: Roads Less Travelled 12:40 Travel Oz 13:05 Travel Oz 13:35 Gone to save the planet 14:00 Market Values 14:30 Walking The World 15:25 Around The World For Free 16:20 Deadliest Journeys 16:45 The Best Job In The World 17:15 Bondi Rescue 17:40 Bondi Rescue 18:10 Danger Beach 18:35 The Ride: Alaska To Patagonia 19:05 Don’t Tell My Mother 20:00 Walking The World 21:00 Gone to save the planet 21:30 Market Values 22:00 Long Way Down 22:55 Gone to save the planet 23:20 David Rocco‚Äôs Dolce Vita 23:50 David Rocco‚Äôs Dolce Vita

THE TOURIST ON OSN CINEMA

01:15 7 Below-18 03:00 Transformers: Dark Of The Moon-PG15 06:00 True Justice: Dead Drop-PG15 07:45 Goal!-PG15 09:45 X-Men: First Class-PG15 12:00 Mission To Mars-PG15 14:00 Goal!-PG15 16:00 Green Lantern-PG15 18:00 Mission To Mars-PG15 20:00 Beneath The Darkness-PG15 22:00 Boogeyman-18

02:00 Something Borrowed-PG15 04:15 Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close-PG 07:00 A Dog Named Duke-PG15 09:00 Something Borrowed-PG15 11:00 Arrietty-FAM 13:00 What’s Wrong With VirginiaPG15 15:00 Ghost Machine-PG15 17:00 The Tourist-PG15 19:00 How I Spent My Summer Vacation-PG15 21:00 Hemingway & Gellhorn-18 23:30 The Disappearance Of Alice Creed-18

00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 Weeds 02:00 It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia 02:30 The Ricky Gervais Show 03:00 Ben And Kate 03:30 The Simpsons 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 Ben And Kate 09:30 Modern Family 10:00 The Mindy Project 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Hope & Faith 14:00 The Simpsons 14:30 The Mindy Project 15:00 Modern Family 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 New Girl 18:30 Friends 19:00 Community 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 The League 23:00 The Ricky Gervais Show 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon

01:00 02:00 04:00 05:00 07:00 07:30 08:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 12:00 12:30 13:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 22:00

The Client List Castle Bones Castle Emmerdale Coronation Street The Finder Bones Castle Touch Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show The Finder Switched At Birth Fairly Legal Suits The Hollow Crown

01:30 Wrong Turn 4: Bloody Beginnings

03:15 05:00 Moon 08:00 09:45 11:45 14:00 16:00 18:00 20:00 22:00

7 Below Transformers: Dark Of The True Justice: Dead Drop Goal!

X-Men: First Class Mission To Mars Goal!

Green Lantern Mission To Mars Beneath The Darkness

00:00 Hard Breakers-18 02:00 Take Me Home Tonight-18 04:00 The Winning Season-PG15 06:00 The Waterboy-PG15 08:00 Police Academy 6: City Under Siege-PG15 10:00 12 Dates Of Christmas-PG15 12:00 The Winning Season-PG15 14:00 A Heartbeat Away-PG15 16:00 12 Dates Of Christmas-PG15 18:00 Turner & Hooch-PG15 20:00 Bridesmaids-18 22:15 Hard Breakers-18

01:00 03:00 05:00 07:15 PG15 09:00 11:00 12:30 14:30 16:30 18:30 21:00 23:30

Arc-18 White Irish Drinkers-PG15 Oscar And Lucinda-PG15 Taken Back: Finding HaleyA Woman-PG15 Black Forest-PG15 Mutum-PG15 A Woman-PG15 Honey 2-PG15 The Help-PG15 Biutiful-18 Awaydays-18

01:00 Shelter-PG15 03:00 Taken From Me: The Tiffany Rubin Story-PG 05:00 Certain Prey-PG15 07:00 A Mother’s Choice-PG15 09:00 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked-PG 11:00 Hugo-PG 13:15 A View From Here-PG15 15:00 According To Greta-PG15 16:45 Alvin And The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked-PG 18:30 The Avengers-PG15 21:00 The Lucky One-PG15 23:00 After Life-18

01:00 Maroons 02:45 Olentzero Christmas Tale 04:30 Kong Return To The Jungle 06:00 Little Einsteins: Rocket’s Firebird Rescue 08:00 The Happy Cricket 10:00 Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 11:30 The Tooth Fairy 2 13:00 Twigson 14:30 Olentzero Christmas Tale 16:00 Arthur’s Missing Pal 18:00 Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 20:00 Rebound 22:00 Twigson 23:30 Arthur’s Missing Pal

00:00 MSNBC Hardball With Chris Matthews 01:00 MSNBC Politicsnation 02:00 Live NBC Nightly News 02:30 ABC World News With Diane Sawyer 03:00 MSNBC All In With Chris Hayes 04:00 MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 05:00 MSNBC The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell 06:00 NBC Nightly News 06:30 ABC World News With Diane Sawyer 07:00 Live NBC Nightly News 07:39 ABC Nightline 08:06 Live MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 09:00 MSNBC The Last Word With Lawrence O’Donnell 10:00 ABC World News Now 10:30 Live ABC World News Now

11:00 NBC Early Today 11:30 ABC America This Morning 12:30 Live ABC America This Morning 13:30 MSNBC First Look 14:00 Live NBC Today Show 17:57 Live MSNBC Hardball With Chris Matthews 18:38 Live MSNBC The Ed Show 19:19 Live MSNBC The Rachel Maddow Show 20:00 MSNBC Andrea Mitchell Reports 21:00 MSNBC Newsnation 22:00 MSNBC The Cycle 23:00 MSNBC Martin Bashir

00:30 PGA PGA European Tour Weekly 01:00 HSBC Sevens World Series 04:00 Ladies European Tour Highlights 05:00 NRL Premiership 07:00 HSBC Sevens World Series 10:00 Inside The PGA Tour 10:30 PGA European Tour Highlights 11:30 PGA PGA European Tour Weekly 12:00 Top 14 14:00 Super League 15:30 Super Rugby Highlights 16:30 HSBC Sevens World Series 19:30 PGA PGA European Tour Weekly 20:00 PGA Tour Highlights 21:00 Inside The PGA Tour 21:30 Live PGA Tour

00:00 Inside The PGA Tour 00:30 Super League 02:00 NRL Full Time 02:30 Futbol Mundial 03:00 PGA European Tour Weekly 03:30 AFL Premiership 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Futbol Mundial 07:30 Super League 09:00 Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters 12:30 Futbol Mundial 13:00 Trans World Sport 14:00 NRL Full Time 14:30 PGA European Tour Weekly 15:00 Live PGA European Tour 19:00 WWE NXT 20:00 Dubai Duty Free Darts Masters 23:30 Trans World Sport

00:00 01:00 02:00 03:00 04:00 06:00 07:00 08:00 08:30 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 13:30 14:30 17:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30

Mass Participation Ironman Golfing World World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool Super Rugby Trans World Sport Golfing World PGA European Tour Weekly Total Rugby World Pool Masters World Cup Of Pool Super Rugby Total Rugby Trans World Sport Marathon Total Rugby AFL Premiership Highlights Trans World Sport Super Rugby Highlights ICC Cricket 360 Pro 12

01:30 03:30 04:00 05:00 07:00 09:00 10:00 11:00 13:00 14:00 15:00 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 20:30 23:30

NHL Mass Participation Ironman US Bass Fishing NHL WWE SmackDown Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL WWE Vintage Collection WWE Bottom Line European Le Mans Series UIM Powerboat Champs UIM Aquabike Champs UIM F1H2O Nations Cup UFC Prizefighter NHL

Classifieds THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

Kuwait SHARQIA-1 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) SARA 3 AL AHEBA (DIG) AT ANY PRICE (DIG) SARA 3 AL AHEBA (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:00 PM 11:30 PM

SHARQIA-2 DINO TIME (DIG-3D) EPIC (DIG-3D) EPIC (DIG-3D) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:05 AM

SHARQIA-3 THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED MUHALAB-1 HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) FRI EPIC (DIG) THU+SAT+MON HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) EPIC (DIG) AT ANY PRICE (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) MUHALAB-2 THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) MUHALAB-3 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) DINO TIME (DIG-3D) THU IDDARAMMAYILATHO (TELUGU) FRI+SAT FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO THU+FRI+SAT IDDARAMMAYILATHO (TELUGU) THU FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO THU FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FANAR-1 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SARA 3 AL AHEBA (DIG) SARA 3 AL AHEBA (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED FANAR-2 THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG)

KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (30/05/2013 TO 05/06/2013) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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

FANAR-3 ABDUCTED (DIG) 12:45 PM YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI (DIG) (HINDI) 2:45 PM YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI (DIG) (HINDI) 5:45 PM AT ANY PRICE (DIG) 8:45 PM ABDUCTED (DIG) 10:45 PM ABDUCTED (DIG) 12:45 AM NO SUN+ TUE+WED MARINA-1 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) SARA 3 AL AHEBA (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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

MARINA-2 SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:15 PM 7:45 PM 10:15 PM 12:45 AM

MARINA-3 EPIC (DIG-3D) EPIC (DIG-3D) EPIC (DIG-3D) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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

AVENUES-1 ABDUCTED (DIG) ABDUCTED (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) ABDUCTED (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) ABDUCTED (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

AVENUES-2 AT ANY PRICE (DIG) AT ANY PRICE (DIG) AT ANY PRICE (DIG) AT ANY PRICE (DIG) AT ANY PRICE (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

2:30 PM 4:45 PM 7:00 PM 9:15 PM 11:30 PM

1:30 PM 1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 9:45 PM 1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:15 PM 2:00 PM 4:30 PM 4:30 PM 4:30 PM 6:30 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 12:45 PM 3:15 PM 5:45 PM 8:00 PM 9:30 PM 11:30 PM

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

AVENUES-3 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:45 PM 3:30 PM 6:15 PM 9:00 PM 11:45 PM

360ยบ- 1 THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 12:45 AM

360ยบ- 2 ABDUCTED (DIG) ABDUCTED (DIG)

12:45 PM 3:00 PM

ABDUCTED (DIG) ABDUCTED (DIG) ABDUCTED (DIG) ABDUCTED (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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

360ยบ- 3 DINO TIME (DIG-3D) DINO TIME (DIG-3D) DINO TIME (DIG-3D) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:45 PM 2:45 PM 4:45 PM 6:45 PM 9:00 PM 11:15 PM 1:15 AM

AL-KOUT.1 EPIC (DIG-3D) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) EPIC (DIG-3D) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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

AL-KOUT.2 SARA 3 AL AHEBA (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) SAMEER ABOO ELNEEL (DIG) SARA 3 AL AHEBA (DIG) AT ANY PRICE (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:45 PM 2:30 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:15 PM 11:45 PM

AL-KOUT.3 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:45 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM 9:30 PM 12:15 AM

BAIRAQ-1 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

1:30 PM 4:15 PM 7:00 PM 9:45 PM 12:30 AM

BAIRAQ-2 EPIC (DIG) EPIC (DIG) EPIC (DIG) EPIC (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:15 PM 9:30 PM 11:30 PM

BAIRAQ-3 THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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

ACCOMMODATION Sharing accommodation for only Indians, family or executive bachelors only, in Salmiya, Block - 12, AlMughera bin Shoba Street.

Contact: 97202594.

(C 4430) 30-5-2013 Fully furnished 2 bedroom, 2 bath, salah with satellite, internet, telephone, sea view closet, near Burger King, Blagat Street, from 016-2013 to 20-08-2013, rent KD 270. Contact: 50687350.

28-5-2013 FOR SALE

PLAZA IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG) (TELUGU) 3:30 PM FRI+SAT+MON IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG) (TELUGU) 6:30 PM IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG) (TELUGU) 9:30 PM THU+FRI+SAT FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) 9:30 PM

Doctor owned cars - Toyota Yaris 2009 (hatchback) and Nissan Murano (2006), low mileage, going cheap and well maintained. Contact: 97202594. (C 4429) 30-5-2013

For sale Honda model 2001, gold color, good condition, price KD 750/-. Contact: 50952218. (C 4426) For sale Mercedes Benz C300, model 2009, mileage 54,000km, body kit AMG, Price KD 7,500/-. Contact: 97479763.

28-5-2013

MATRIMONIAL Inviting proposals for daughter Dr. Pharmacy, Age 27, tall, smart, Kuwait working Muslim Pakistani family, from seasonable same status boys through parents. Contact: decent9343@gmail.com (C 4428) 30-5-2013

CHANGE OF NAME

Prayer timings I, Moidin Kunhi Badiyar Husan, S/o Husan Kunhi Urmene Moidin holder of Indian Passport No. F4932532 have changed my name to Mohammed Mohideen for all purposes.

(C 4427) 26-5-2013

Fajr: Shorook Duhr: Asr: Maghrib: Isha:

03:16 04:49 11:45 15:20 18:42 20:12

112

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines BBC QTR SAI THY JZR JZR ETH GFA UAE ETD FDB MSR RBG QTR KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC THY DHX FDB BAW FDB JZR JZR JZR QTR UAE KAC KAC KAC KAC UAE IRA IZG ABY QTR IRA FDB ETD SYR GFA MEA MSC UAE MSR THY KNE QTR FDB ABY JZR JZR ABY MEA AFG MSC MSR

Arrival Flights on Thursday 30/5/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 148 DOHA 441 LAHORE 764 SABIHA 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 612 CAIRO 555 ALEXANDRIA 138 DOHA 302 MUMBAI 352 COCHIN 412 MANILA 206 ISLAMABAD 382 DELHI 332 TRIVANDRUM 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 53 DUBAI 555 ALEXANDRIA 503 LUXOR 529 ASSIUT 130 DOHA 4987 DUBAI 362 COLOMBO 284 DHAKA 672 DUBAI 546 ALEXANDRIA 855 DUBAI 605 ISFAHAN 4161 MASHAD 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 617 AHWAZ 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 341 DAMASCUS 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 403 ASSIUT 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 480 TAIF 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 121 SHARJAH 241 AMMAN 165 DUBAI 129 SHARJAH 402 BEIRUT 415 KABUL 405 SOHAG 618 CAIRO

Time 00:05 00:15 01:30 01:40 00:20 00:40 01:45 01:55 02:25 02:30 03:10 03:15 03:15 03:30 07:50 08:05 06:15 07:25 07:30 07:55 04:35 05:10 05:50 06:30 07:45 06:20 07:40 06:40 09:50 10:35 8:45 12:05 13:40 14:15 8:25 8:40 8:45 8:50 9:00 9:10 9:15 9:30 10:10 10:40 10:55 12:40 12:45 13:00 13:10 13:20 13:45 13:50 14:25 12:35 11:35 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:25 20:30

KNE MSC ALK UAE ETD QTR GFA QTR JAI FDB FDB ABY KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC SVA KNE OMA KNE NIA RJA QTR ETD UAE ABY GFA SVA UAL TAR QTR FDB GFA AXB JAI RBG OMA FDB JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR THY AIC UAL DLH JAI KLM THY JZR JZR JZR

474 401 229 859 307 136 217 146 576 59 8057 123 118 786 562 176 788 542 614 674 104 774 618 502 500 472 645 470 251 640 134 303 857 127 215 510 982 327 144 63 219 393 572 553 647 61 535 787 177 125 257 777 189 6512 981 981 636 574 411 772 239 185 513

JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA COCHIN DUBAI DUBAI SHARJAH NEW YORK JEDDAH AMMAN GENEVA JEDDAH CAIRO BAHRAIN DUBAI LONDON RIYADH DOHA BEIRUT JEDDAH JEDDAH MUSCAT JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA AMMAN DOHA ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH BAHRAIN RIYADH WASHINGTON DC DULLES TUNIS DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA MUSCAT DUBAI CAIRO RIYADH DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT JEDDAH DUBAI ISTANBUL CHENNAI BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI AMSTERDAM ISTANBUL AMMAN DUBAI SHARM EL SHEIKH

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

Airlines AIC AXB JAI UAL DLH BBC JZR THY SAI THY ETH UAE FDB RBG MSR ETD QTR QTR FDB GFA THY JZR KAC JZR BAW FDB JZR JZR KAC KAC ABY KAC IRA IZG UAE FDB QTR IRA ETD KAC SYR KAC QTR GFA KAC UAE KAC MEA JZR JZR KAC JZR JZR MSC MSR THY KNE UAE FDB QTR

Departure Flights on Thursday 30/5/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 490 MANGALORE 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON DC DULLES 637 FRANKFURT 44 DHAKA 502 LUXOR 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 70 DUBAI 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 240 AMMAN 545 ALEXANDRIA 164 DUBAI 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 256 BEIRUT 534 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH 606 MASHHAD 4162 MASHHAD 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 616 AHWAZ 302 ABU DHABI 101 LONDON 342 DAMASCUS 501 BEIRUT 131 DOHA 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 4987 BEIRUT 165 ROME 405 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 786 RIYADH 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 124 BAHRAIN 406 SOHAG 611 CAIRO 767 ISTANBUL 481 TAIF 872 DUBAI 58 DUBAI 141 DOHA

Time 00:05 00:15 00:20 00:25 00:30 01:30 01:30 02:20 02:30 02:40 02:45 03:45 03:50 03:55 04:15 04:20 04:25 05:15 06:30 07:00 07:10 07:10 07:20 07:25 08:25 08:25 08:50 09:10 09:25 09:25 09:30 09:35 09:40 09:45 09:50 09:55 10:00 10:10 10:15 10:25 11:10 11:10 11:20 11:25 11:30 11:35 11:45 11:55 12:25 12:50 13:00 13:20 13:30 13:40 14:00 14:10 14:10 14:15 14:30 14:55

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

ABY KAC ABY KNE OMA KAC KAC KNE SVA JZR KAC FDB NIA RJA JZR JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE GFA SVA JZR JZR UAL TAR QTR FDB GFA AXB RBG JAI FDB ABY KAC KAC OMA KAC MEA AFG MSC MSR KAC KNE DHX MSC ETD ALK UAE QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC QTR JAI JZR KAC KAC KAC JZR

122 673 124 473 646 617 773 471 505 188 613 8058 252 641 238 512 135 304 538 128 858 216 511 184 266 982 328 145 64 220 394 554 571 62 120 331 343 648 351 403 415 404 619 543 475 171 402 308 230 860 137 301 218 60 205 147 575 554 411 283 415 528

SHARJAH DUBAI SHARJAH JEDDAH MUSCAT DOHA RIYADH JEDDAH JEDDAH DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ALEXANDRIA AMMAN AMMAN SHARM EL SHEIKH DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI BEIRUT BAHRAIN TUNIS DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH TRIVANDRUM CHENNAI MUSCAT KOCHI BEIRUT JEDDAH ASSIUT ALEXANDRIA CAIRO JEDDAH BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD DOHA KOCHI ALEXANDRIA BANGKOK DHAKA KUALA LUMPUR ASSIUT

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

34

stars CROSSWORD 205

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) This is one of your better days this month. The balance is shifting and you are less likely to ignore business situations. You have a lot of interests that can be focused to help you find the many answers you seek. You are socially active, confident, successful with investors’ or other people’s money and much less assertive. Take nothing for granted. Check and recheck to make sure you were understood and that you understand instructions. You could feel great support from those around you. You are most persuasive with others and eloquent in your communication skills. The situation is a natural for self-expression. Cooperation, support and harmony makes this time successful, favorable and happy.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) You have a natural aptitude for describing the most sensitive areas of the human psyche; you are a practical psychologist of the first order. You may enjoy working with young people that need special guidance. You can manage and work with touchy issues that others will not attempt. You may find yourself looking forward to any problem challenge that may occur. This afternoon is a good time to buy clothes, join a club, give a party, buy property, collect debts and have a spa treatment. You have a new incentive and some new ideas that will help to lighten your load in the future. You have a sense of value and valuing that may find you lavishing affection on those near you. You enjoy the company of someone your senior this evening.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

5. Firmly fastened or secured against opening.

12. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

15. A town and port in northwestern Israel in the eastern Mediterranean.

16. An ancient jar with two handles and a narrow neck.

17. A unit of pain intensity.

18. Lacking excess flesh.

19. Characterized by action or forcefulness or force of personality.

20. Cleaning implement consisting of absorbent material fastened to a handle.

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

22. Marked by intense agitation or emotion.

24. A highly unstable radioactive element (the heaviest of the halogen series).

25. Little known Kamarupan languages.

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

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

31. A quantity of no importance.

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

37. The smallest multiple that is exactly divisible by every member of a set of numbers.

40. A loose cloak with a hood.

44. A very light colorless element that is one of the six inert gasses.

45. A collection of resources.

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

49. A rosid dicot genus that includes moon carrots.

50. Chief port of Yemen.

51. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

53. Very close in friendship or affection.

55. Neckwear consisting of a long narrow piece of material worn (mostly by men) under a collar and tied in knot at the front.

57. Someone who engages in arbitrage (who purchases securities in one market for immediate resale in another in the hope of profiting from the price differential).

60. According to the Old Testament he was a pagan king of Israel and husband of Jezebel (9th century BC).

61. (astronomy) A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.

62. Submerged aquatic plant having narrow leaves and small flowers.

64. Being six more than ninety.

69. A material effigy that is worshipped as a god.

71. A spoon-shaped vessel with a long handle.

72. Informal terms for a mother.

73. Absence of the pupil in an eye.

75. Type genus of the Hylidae.

76. (Greek mythology) Greek god of war.

77. Gasoline jelled with aluminum soaps.

78. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian mythology.

DOWN 1. One of several parallel sloping beams that

support a roof.

2. Widely cultivated in tropical and subtropical regions for its fragrant flowers and colorful fruits.

3. Jordan's port.

4. Covered with dense cottony hairs or hairlike filaments.

5. A boy or man.

6. An almond-shaped neural structure in the anterior part of the temporal lobe of the cerebrum.

7. Administration of a nutritionally adequate solution through a catheter into the vena cava.

8. Material consisting of seed coverings and small pieces of stem or leaves that have been separated from the seeds.

9. Industrial city of Belarus southeast of Minsk.

10. Capital of Armenia.

11. Small European freshwater fish with a slender bluish-green body.

12. The supreme commander of a fleet.

13. Web-footed long-necked typically gregarious migratory aquatic birds usually larger and less aquatic than ducks.

14. First in order of importance.

23. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

26. An ester of adenosine that is converted to ATP for energy storage.

29. Large west African tree having large palmately lobed leaves and axillary cymose panicles of small white flowers and one-winged seeds.

30. Characteristic of a baby.

32. A former copper coin of Pakistan.

34. Voluntary contributions to aid the poor.

35. A gathering of passengers sufficient to fill an automobile.

36. (Babylonian) God of storms and wind.

38. An African river that flows northwest into Lake Chad.

39. A noisy riotous fight.

41. United States physiologist (born in Germany) who did research on parthenogenesis (18591924).

42. (of complexion) Blemished by imperfections of the skin.

43. Any of various strong liquors distilled from the fermented sap of toddy palms or from fermented molasses.

46. Chop cut from a lamb.

47. A person employed to watch for something to happen.

52. A simple type of jet engine.

54. A city of southeastern Mexico.

56. A New England state.

58. Measuring instrument in which the echo of a pulse of microwave radiation is used to detect and locate distant objects.

59. A major biotic community characterized by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate.

63. By bad luck.

65. A Spanish unit of length (about a yard) having different values in different localities.

66. A member of the Siouan people formerly living in the Missouri river valley in NE Nebraska.

67. Leaf or strip from a leaf of the talipot palm used in India for writing paper.

68. A large quantity of written matter.

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

74. Before noon.

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

You are very passionate and personal. You rush past superficialities and right to the heart of most matters. You will see the results of your hard work today.

Given to clearheaded thinking and practical insight and vision, you take a distant perspective and a cool appraisal with most opportunities. This permits you to make good choices most of the time and limits your risk-taking to a minimum. You may find yourself analyzing some new projects—take your time. Today you will be able to tackle tasks that require real organization skills. You will find yourself in a very practical mood and working with, instead of against, yourself. You may have some serious or contemplative moments. Your confidence and willingness to help others is evident.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) If you give your best efforts at work now, great strides can be taken. This is a positive result sort of day and good for working in groups. You may be sought after as just the person to be added to a team or to head your own team. Your intuition is sharp and you may have insights about the future stability of your company. Welcome the trials of a new financial venture. You have the mental insight today to chase down an unusual opportunity. While out with your friends this afternoon—be slow to criticize. There is one who may grind on your nerves. Romance is available in the workplace—however, it would be a good idea to practice discretion. This evening is a great time to enjoy a new book, neighbor or friend.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You may find that you are able to bring more imagination to your goals and ambitions at this time. You are able to cut through the red tape and get to what is behind most situations that others feel have no remedy. This is a time when you can make a real difference in the workplace and help the profits of the company for which you work.

There is support and recognition from those around you. You might find your ideals taking a more spiritual turn, thus involving you more in community and religious projects. This is a time when philosophical ideas—religion, psychology and such—really take a hold on you. You will be very idealistic during this time, able to see the unity that binds, so to speak. Romance is possible this evening.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) This morning a co-worker or higher-up has a lot to say and may have the opportunity to assert a little power—they may seem controlling. This time will pass easily enough, especially if you just continue on with your work and what you know is set aside as your responsibility today. Express your creative side at home this evening.

Perhaps you will enjoy this time to think and study, for you have a real appreciation for ideas and thoughts. Also, this evening is a good time to just sit back and enjoy what you have. Your health gets better all during this year; keep it that way through structured and programmed exercise and smart eating. You could find yourself enjoying a long conversation, writing a letter, or making a special phone call this evening.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) A difficult project in the workplace may call for your investigation before you tackle the problem. As usual, you can work out the best way to come up with the most creative and successful way to solve a problem or tackle a project. This afternoon you may not appreciate someone’s unrealistic approach to a particular situation. General fogginess and an impractical attitude may find you or others in a quandary. Speak the facts, if needed, and then move forward with your own plans. Technical work helps balance your energies. You are likely to reach out to a loved one this evening—consider cooking the evening meal yourself—surprising and pleasing someone. Keep conversations light and enjoy an after dinner walk among the stars.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) You make a strong effort to organize your workplace. Focus could be difficult—especially if you are in designing or an advertising type of business. For some reason, completing unfinished business is important just now. You are a good speaker with a nice voice, and may be called to teach others the finer points of some technical program. This afternoon you may find that a love relationship needs some attention. Concentrate on communicating to each other what you really feel so that you can bring about a better understanding of how your lives fit together. People that are close to you in friendship and as loved ones, draw close to you. Being appreciated and admired for your gifts and talents are powerful needs.

Positive growth is yours.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) This is a busy day but you dive in as though the hours were all connected from one day to another. Interesting travel experiences can be shared with coworkers during the noon break. There are some special travel deals that sound most interesting to you and you might want to write down some internet sites and check them out. An older person or someone in authority may deem it necessary to give you advice today. Be grateful for this input—it will soon make a big difference in your earning power. You draw emotional sustenance and a sense of security from ideals, friends and social involvement. This may mean regular get-togethers with co-workers or friends for a short while after the workday to visit and bond. You are the optimist.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) CAPRICORN If your attitude toward challenges is positive, you will do well. There may be a test of sorts to see which person would best fit at a particular job identity. A current situation may demand some time for research but you may be ready for a little time to gather information from the back shelf of some library or other resource. A busy but quiet afternoon finds you gathering all the information you need in order to succeed at some project.

Your ambition and drive are strong. You are able to use good common sense and can make all the right moves that will get you where you want to go. Position, career and emotional bonds are in the forecast now. You want to demonstrate your appreciation for someone special in your life this evening.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You are at your most practical when it comes to dealing and working with others. Today, your ability to solve problems is important and you have a lot of talent for working things out in positive ways. Some difficult customer seems to enjoy making life complex. Your compassion and influence are at a high point—it won’t take long to get positive results from a difficult situation. Luck also visits you today; your financial situation increases. You will be extremely busy. This evening a cycle of nostalgia and domesticity begins, emphasizing a need for security and a sense of roots. Family, home, relatives and real estate play a big part in your life. You want to belong on a private, intimate, personal level—you like being needed.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) This is a good day to work and communicate with the opposite sex.

Staying away from competitive challenges is a good thing. A need to be respected is important to you and it comes easily when you show respect for another person. You develop a knack for organizing things and people—a sense of ambition and practicality takes hold. Work, achievement and ambition take priority. Because your thoughts and energies are more focused on your work, it may not the best time to try to shop, even over the internet. You may not find much support for your particular tastes and values just now. There is plenty of enthusiasm today, enabling you to work or play at accelerated paces. Physical activity, especially sports, is a good way to be expressive.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Hawally

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

25610011

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

25616368

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

Mirqab

22456536

Sharq

22465401

Salmiya

25746401

Jabriya

25316254

Maidan Hawally

25623444

Bayan

25388462

Mishref

25381200

W Hawally

22630786

Sabah

24810221

Jahra

24770319

New Jahra

24575755

West Jahra

24772608

South Jahra

24775066

North Jahra

24775992

North Jleeb

24311795

Ardhiya

24884079

Firdous

24892674

Omariya

24719048

N Khaitan

24710044

Fintas

23900322

INTERNATIONAL CALLS

PRIVATE CLINICS Ophthalmologists Dr. Abidallah Al-Mansoor 25622444 Dr. Samy Al-Rabeea 25752222 Dr. Masoma Habeeb 25321171 Dr. Mubarak Al-Ajmy 25739999 Dr. Mohsen Abel 25757700 Dr Adnan Hasan Alwayl 25732223 Dr. Abdallah Al-Baghly 25732223 Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) Dr. Ahmed Fouad Mouner 24555050 Ext 510 Dr. Abdallah Al-Ali 25644660 Dr. Abd Al-Hameed Al-Taweel 25646478 Dr. Sanad Al-Fathalah 25311996 Dr. Mohammad Al-Daaory 25731988 Dr. Ismail Al-Fodary 22620166 Dr. Mahmoud Al-Booz 25651426 General Practitioners Dr. Mohamme Y Majidi 24555050 Ext 123 Dr. Yousef Al-Omar 24719312 Dr. Tarek Al-Mikhazeem 23926920 Dr. Kathem Maarafi 25730465 Dr. Abdallah Ahmad Eyadah 25655528 Dr. Nabeel Al-Ayoobi 24577781 Dr. Dina Abidallah Al-Refae 25333501 Urologists Dr. Ali Naser Al-Serfy 22641534 Dr. Fawzi Taher Abul 22639955 Dr. Khaleel Abidallah Al-Awadi 22616660 Dr. Adel Al-Hunayan FRCS (C) 25313120 Dr. Leons Joseph 66703427 Psychologists /Psychotherapists

Paediatricians

Plastic Surgeons Dr. Mohammad Al-Khalaf

22547272

Dr. Khaled Hamadi

Dr. Abdal-Redha Lari

22617700

Dr. Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rashed

Dr. Abdel Quttainah

25625030/60

Family Doctor Dr Divya Damodar

23729596/23729581

Psychiatrists Dr. Esam Al-Ansari

22635047

Dr Eisa M. Al-Balhan

22613623/0

Gynaecologists & Obstetricians DrAdrian arbe

23729596/23729581

Dr. Verginia s.Marin

2572-6666 ext 8321

Endocrinologist

25665898 25340300

Dr. Zahra Qabazard

25710444

Dr. Sohail Qamar

22621099

Dr. Snaa Maaroof

25713514

Dr. Pradip Gujare

23713100

Dr. Zacharias Mathew

24334282

(1) Ear, Nose and Throat (2) Plastic Surgeon Dr. Abdul Mohsin Jafar, FRCS (Canada)

25655535

Dentists

Dr. Fozeya Ali Al-Qatan

22655539

Dr. Majeda Khalefa Aliytami

25343406

Dr. Shamah Al-Matar

22641071/2

Dr. Ahmad Al-Khooly

25739272

Dr. Anesah Al-Rasheed

22562226

22618787

Dr. Abidallah Al-Amer

22561444

Dr. Faysal Al-Fozan

22619557

Dr. Abdallateef Al-Katrash

22525888

Dr. Abidallah Al-Duweisan

25653755

Dr. Bader Al-Ansari

25620111

General Surgeons Dr. Amer Zawaz Al-Amer

22610044

Dr. Mohammad Yousef Basher

25327148

Internists, Chest & Heart Dr. Adnan Ebil Dr. Latefa Al-Duweisan

22666300 25728004

Dr. Nadem Al-Ghabra

25355515

Dr. Mobarak Aldoub

24726446

Dr Nasser Behbehani

25654300/3

Soor Center Tel: 2290-1677 Fax: 2290 1688

Neurologists

22639939

Dr. Mousa Khadada

info@soorcenter.com www.soorcenter.com

3729596/3729581

Dr. Sohal Najem Al-Shemeri

25633324

Dr. Jasem Mola Hassan

25345875

Gastrologists Dr. Sami Aman

22636464

Dr. Mohammad Al-Shamaly

25322030

Dr. Foad Abidallah Al-Ali

22633135

Kaizen center 25716707

25339330

Dr. Ahmad Al-Ansari 25658888 Dr. Kamal Al-Shomr 25329924 Physiotherapists & VD Dr. Deyaa Shehab

25722291

Dr. Musaed Faraj Khamees

22666288

Rheumatologists: Dr. Adel Al-Awadi

Dr Anil Thomas

Dr. Salem soso

Dr. Abd Al-Naser Al-Othman

25330060

Dr. Khaled Al-Jarallah

25722290

Internist, Chest & Heart DR.Mohammes Akkad

24555050 Ext 210

Dr. Mohammad Zubaid MB, ChB, FRCPC, PACC Assistant Professor Of Medicine Head, Division of Cardiology Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital Consultant Cardiologist Dr. Farida Al-Habib MD, PH.D, FACC Inaya German Medical Center Te: 2575077 Fax: 25723123

2611555-2622555

William Schuilenberg, RPC 2290-1677 Zaina Al Zabin, M.Sc. 2290-1677

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

Iran 0098 Iraq 00964 Ireland 00353 Italy 0039 Ivory Coast 00225 Jamaica 001876 Japan 0081 Jordan 00962 Kazakhstan 007 Kenya 00254 Kiribati 00686 Kuwait 00965 Kyrgyzstan 00996 Laos 00856 Latvia 00371 Lebanon 00961 Liberia 00231 Libya 00218 Lithuania 00370 Luxembourg 00352 Macau 00853 Macedonia 00389 Madagascar 00261 Majorca 0034 Malawi 00265 Malaysia 0060 Maldives 00960 Mali 00223 Malta 00356 Marshall Islands 00692 Martinique 00596 Mauritania 00222 Mauritius 00230 Mayotte 00269 Mexico 0052 Micronesia 00691 Moldova 00373 Monaco 00377 Mongolia 00976 Montserrat 001664 Morocco 00212 Mozambique 00258 Myanmar (Burma) 0095 Namibia 00264 Nepal 00977 Netherlands (Holland) 0031 Netherlands Antilles 00599 New Caledonia 00687 New Zealand 0064 Nicaragua 00505 Nigar 00227 Nigeria 00234 Niue 00683 Norfolk Island 00672 Northern Ireland (UK) 0044 North Korea 00850 Norway 0047 Oman 00968 Pakistan 0092 Palau 00680 Panama 00507 Papua New Guinea 00675 Paraguay 00595 Peru 0051 Philippines 0063 Poland 0048 Portugal 00351 Puerto Rico 001787 Qatar 00974 Romania 0040 Russian Federation 007 Rwanda 00250 Saint Helena 00290 Saint Kitts 001869 Saint Lucia 001758 Saint Pierre 00508 Saint Vincent 001784 Samoa US 00684 Samoa West 00685 San Marino 00378 Sao Tone 00239 Saudi Arabia 00966 Scotland (UK) 0044 Senegal 00221 Seychelles 00284 Sierra Leone 00232 Singapore 0065 Slovakia 00421 Slovenia 00386 Solomon Islands 00677

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THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

LIFESTYLE G o s s i p

Lovato misses Spears on ‘X factor D

emi Lovato is missing Britney Spears on ‘The X Factor’ USA. The ‘Heart Attack’ singer formed close “bonds” with the ‘Hold It Against Me’ hitmaker and fellow judge LA. Reid when they worked together on the hit singing competition last year, but she is excited to work with new judges Kelly Rowland and Paulina Rubio, who will replace on the show this year. Speaking to Digital Spy, she said: “I do miss them. We spent a lot of time together and we’d formed those bonds, but it’s a new chapter now and I’m excited to start a new experience with new people.”

Britney, 31, signed a sensational $15 million deal to appear on the show but left after just one season on the judging panel alongside Simon Cowell, Demi and LA. Meanwhile, Reid, 56, quit his role on the show after two seasons to concentrate on running his Epic Records music label. Although Demi misses her former colleagues, the 20-year-old star has already hit it off with former Destiny’s Child star Kelly, 32, after filming auditions for the new season last week, and says they had “instant” chemistry. She said: “Kelly is so much fun to work with. She’s got a great energy about her and we connect really well. It was just an instant, off-the-bat kinda thing.” Demi also praised Latin singer Paulina, 41, adding: “Paulina is doing great as well - she’s really, really huge in South America and I’m glad the show is representing that side of things more.”

Johar

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Khan undergoes surgery

keen to adopt baby

ollywood filmmaker Karan Johar, who is not married, says he wants to adopt a baby. Johar said in an interview in Wednesday’s Hindustan Times that adopting a child is “on top of my mind at present.” The 41year-old filmmaker said he had the full support of his mother, Hiroo Johar, with whom he lives.

He said he was confident that he and his mom

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ollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan has undergone surgery for a shoulder injury suffered while doing stunts for his new movie “Chennai Express.” Sanjay Desai, his doctor, said Khan’s surgery in a Mumbai hospital on Tuesday was successful but he will need to rest for two months. He refused to use body doubles and performed his own stunts for the movie, the Press Trust of India news agency said. The 47-year-old is expected to leave the hospital this weekend. Khan is one of Bollywood’s biggest stars in India. He has acted in more than 70 films in a career spanning more than two decades.

would bring up the child wonderfully. He said, “Tell me, who does not want to have a family to extend himself or herself?” Johar, whose father is the late Bollywood producer Yash Johar, is known for directing and producing some of Bollywood’s highest-grossing films, starting from his directorial debut hit film “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” (“Something Happens”) in 1998.

Miller to join Wahlberg in ‘Transformers 4’

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omedian T.J. Miller is set to join Mark Wahlberg in Michael Bay’s “Transformers 4,” TheWrap has learned.

The Paramount sequel reboots the live-action cast of the franchise, with Walhberg and rising stars Nicola Peltz (“Bates Motel”) and Jack Reynor (“What Richard Did”) taking the reins from Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and Rosie Huntington-Whitely. Miller will play a blue-collar mechanic who is a longtime friend of Wahlberg’s character. Ehren Kruger wrote the script for the big-budget blockbuster, which will co-star Kelsey Grammar and Sophia Myles.

Lorenzo di Bonaventura is producing with Ian Bryce, Tom DeSanto and Don Murphy. Miller, who is currently filming Universal and Gold Circle’s comedy “Search Party,” previously starred in “Yogi Bear” and “She’s Out of My League.”

He’s repped by WME, 3 Arts Entertainment and attorney Karl R. Austen.

David and Harper appear on on KissCam

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avid Beckham and Harper were caught on KissCam at a ice hockey game on Tuesday. The retired soccer star was at the NHL playoffs game between the LA Kings and San Jose Sharks at the Staples Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday when the camera picked him out of the crowd and zoomed in on him holding his 23-monthold daughter. When the athlete - who announced he was retiring from professional soccer earlier this month - realized he was up on the big screen, he planted a big kiss on the adorable toddler’s cheek. As the crowd erupted into choruses of, ‘Awww’, David proudly smiled and laughed, while Harper giggled gleefully as she pointed to her image on the screen. David’s fashion designer wife Victoria, and their sons Brooklyn, 14, Romeo, 10, and Cruz, eight, also accompanied them to watch the match. Meanwhile, fellow A-lister and family friend Tom Cruise was also in the crowd, watching the game with his son Connor, 18. The ‘Oblivion’ actor was sitting one row in front of the Beckham family, and was spotted chuckling to himself as he watched the tender moment unfold. David, 38, flew out to Los Angeles to join his family last week, and is thought to be heading to Miami next in order to discuss the possibility of owning a stake in a new Major League Soccer team.

Watson feels ‘inadequate’ about acting skills Ronan is ready for independence

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aoirse Ronan is ready to be more independent. The ‘Byzantium’ star has been acting since the age of 10 and is usually chaperoned on location by her parents, but for her latest role in ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’, the headstrong 19-year-old decided it was time to embrace adulthood and venture to the set alone. She said: “I want to be able to look after myself. I felt strongly about making my own food and doing my own washing. I wouldn’t go down the route of having an assistant. I don’t want to be like that. I want to be normal.” Growing up in the movie industry, the Irish beauty - who shot to fame starring in ‘Atonement’ alongside Keira Knightley - admits she is “more comfortable” around adults but has never lost her youthful, playful nature. She explained to Stylist magazine: “I’ve always been quite mature because of the way my parents brought me up. They were very good at talking to me like a person rather than a baby and I was around so many actors and directors from such a young age because my dad is an actor. I was more comfortable with adults rather than actually being an adult child. “I don’t think I ever lost that child-like quality. I was never one of those kids, and I’ve seen them, who act like an adult on set. I don’t want to be that kind of person. I enjoyed it too much to be that serious.” —Agencies

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mma Watson constantly feels “inadequate” as an actress. The 23-year-old actress lacks confidence when it comes to her abilities and always worries about being labeled a “fraud”, despite finding success as Hermione Granger in the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise and then acclaim for other roles, most recently ‘The Bling Ring’. She told Rookie magazine: “It’s called the impostor syndrome.

It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, ‘Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved.’ “I can’t possibly live up to what everyone thinks I am and what everyone’s expectations of me are.” Emma credits ‘The Perks of Being a Wallflower’ director Stephen Chbosky for giving her confidence by casting her in the coming-of-age movie and helping her shake off the good girl stereotype she gained playing Hermione from the tender age of nine. She added: “After ‘Harry Potter’ I didn’t feel very confident in myself as an actor. It’s lucky that I’ve improved that now, but back then I needed someone to believe in me, and Stephen really did.” Emma - who studied English literature at Brown University in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, but is yet to complete her studies - has ambitions to write a book but she thinks she would have to use a pen name so people could approach it without any prejudices. She said: “I almost feel like I would have to publish it under another name - just because there’s a definition of me out there that feels kind of stuck in the moment when it was formed. I was 15 or 16 then, and I’m now 23. “I’m not complaining, because people really have given me permission to evolve and have been very supportive of my work outside of ‘Harry Potter’. So I don’t feel too suffocated in that sense. But sometimes I’ve felt a little constrained by that idea of who I’m meant to be.”

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

lifestyle M u s i c

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os Angeles County Sheriff’s detectives are investigating Justin Bieber for reckless driving after witnesses - including former National Football League star Keyshawn Johnson - complained about the pop-star’s alleged freeway speeds in their gated community in north Los Angeles County. At about 8 pm Monday, Bieber allegedly drove his white Ferrari at freeway speeds in what is a 25 mph (40 kph) zone, Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

Johnson was outside with his 3-year-old daughter who was preparing to get into a small electric car when Bieber zoomed by. Johnson was upset and got into his Prius, following Bieber to his nearby home. As the garage door was closing, Johnson put out his arm and stopped it, telling Bieber he wanted to talk about his reckless driving. Whitmore said Bieber

File photo shows Justin Bieber performing during the ’I Believe Tour ‘ at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida.

—AP

“F

ast & Furious 6” raced to the top of a recordbreaking weekend at North American movie theaters, and the sixth installment in the street-racing franchise delivered a turbo-charged performance overseas. The film debuted atop the holiday weekend box office, collecting $117 million domestically and $158 million internationally - the biggest opening yet for a Universal Pictures release.

Ticket tallies over the four-day weekend also set a Memorial Day record with $314.2 million. “This just obliterated the 2011 record, which was $276.75 million,” said box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Hollywood.com.

More than a third of the take belonged to “Fast & Furious 6” which stars Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Michelle Rodriguez and Dwayne Johnson, along with an international supporting cast. The film follows the musclecar crew as they join with police in a worldwide hunt for a terrorist, battling a plane and a tank along the way. The film’s international cast and settings contributed to its appeal. “It’s no coincidence that the movie takes place overseas,” said Dave Karger, chief correspondent for movie site Fandango.com. “That was, I’m sure, a very calculated decision.”

Though a proven box-office winner, with its six films cumulatively collecting $1.9 billion so far, the “Fast & Furious” series hasn’t quite reached the level of other powerhouse action franchises such as “Harry Potter,” “Transformers” and “Iron Man.” The five Potter films have earned $7.7 billion worldwide. The three

M o v i e s

Transformers films have a worldwide gross of $2.67 billion. The third “Iron Man” film was released last month, and the franchise has claimed $2.36 billion worldwide so far. The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday by Hollywood.com, are: 1.”Fast & Furious 6,” Universal, $117,036,995, 3,658 locations, $26,620 average, $117,036,995, one week.

2.” The Hangover Part III,” Warner Bros., $50,262,366, 3,555 locations, $11,722 average, $62,051,829, one week.

3.”Star Trek: Into Darkness,” Paramount, $47,187,313, 3,907 locations, $9,545 average, $83,701,981, two weeks.

4.”Epic,” Fox, $42,820,971, 3,882 locations, $8,638 average, $42,820,971, one week.

5.”Iron Man 3,” Disney, $24,693,407, 3,424 locations, $5,644 average, $337,661,977, four weeks.

6.”The Great Gatsby,” Warner Bros., $17,027,318, 3,090 locations, $4,383 average, $90,682,832, three weeks.

7.”Mud,” Roadside Attractions, $2,508,660, 712 locations, $2,727 average, $11,656,971, five weeks.

8.”42,” Warner Bros, $1,709,316, 915 locations, $1,376 average, $88,816,627, seven weeks.

9.”The Croods,” Fox $1,634,258, 1,008 locations, $1,210 average, $177,024,785, 10 weeks.

10.”Oblivion,” Universal, $1,038,730, 572 locations, $1,521 average, $85,588,010, six weeks.

11.”Oz the Great and Powerful,” Disney, $853,079, 401 locations, $1,625 average, $231,351,161, 12 weeks.

12.”Pain & Gain,” Paramount, $787,933, 1,003 locations, $641 average, $46,712,183, five weeks.

13.”Frances Ha,” IFC, $684,211, 60 locations, $9,163 average, $137,398, two weeks.

14.”G.I. Joe: Retaliation,” Paramount, $548,675, 346 locations, $1,272 average, $120,522,043, nine weeks.

15.” The Iceman,” Millennium Entertainment, $479,120, 258 locations, $1,425 average, $762,885, four weeks.

16.”Tyler Perry Presents: Peeples,” Lionsgate, $419,911, 485 locations, $644 average, $7,867,757, three weeks.

17.”Escape from Planet Earth,” Weinstein Co., $336,059, 346 locations, $735 average, $55,612,398, 15 weeks.

18.”Before Midnight,” Sony Pictures Classics, $305,975, 5 locations, $49,383 average, $$305,975, one week.

19.”The Big Wedding,” Lionsgate, $282,842, 265 locations, $861 average, $20,308,188, five weeks.

20.”Love Is All You Need,” Sony Pictures Classics, $272,163, 63 locations, $3,450 average, $477,134, four weeks. — AP

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John Fogerty

scurried into his home without speaking. The Los Angeles County Sheriff ’s Department received two calls and responded to the location. When they tried to talk to Bieber, however, they were also turned away. “His security detail said he declined to talk to us based on the advice of counsel,” Whitmore said. Deputies interviewed two witnesses, including Johnson, and wrote up their report. They handed that off to detectives who are continuing to investigate the incident.

“Their eyewitness testimony to our deputies was definitive - not only the speed, not only the vehicle, but Mr Bieber was sitting and driving in the driver’s side seat,” Whitmore said. Deputies plan to send a reckless driving report to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to consider filing misdemeanor charges in the

ormer “Supernanny” star Jo Frost traded in the bun and the suit for her new TLC series debuting Tuesday, but that doesn’t mean she’s lightened up. Frost takes on some very challenging family problems on “Family S.O.S.,” which meant changing up her approach. “I knew that I wanted to create a format that was looser, one that would help show the whole family receiving the help,” Frost told TheWrap.

“I knew I had to say goodbye to one format in order to open up the opportunity for another. So, it was a very conscious decision for me to say goodbye to the ‘Supernanny’ show, so I can make ‘Family S.O.S.’” After seven seasons of working with countless misbehaving toddlers, misinformed parents, and even having her ACL replaced, Frost’s new show has her dealing with the entire family over a minimum of four 17-hour days. Tough work, said Stone, and certainly not the retirement that some believed she was embarking on at the end of “Supernanny’s” run.

“There were articles out there saying, ‘Supernanny’s’ quit.

She’s gone on to get married, to have a baby,’ as if I was whisking off into the sunset,” she said. “By no means was I whisking off into the sunset to have babies and get married, this sort of picturesque nanny walking into the sunset.”

The 90-minute premiere episode of “Family S.O.S.” should

next week or two. Bieber’s publicist did not immediately return a call for comment. Johnson declined to comment via ESPN, where he now works as a TV commentator.

Prosecutors are also looking at whether to charge Bieber for battery in a separate incident involving a neighbor, who complained the popstar attacked and threatened him. “We take this very seriously and if this actually did occur, which it appears that it did, it is unacceptable behavior from anybody, anywhere, anytime,” Whitmore said. — AP

This film publicity image released by Universal Pictures shows Dwayne Johnson, left, Vin Diesel, center, and Paul Walker in a scene from ‘Fast & Furious 6.’—AP

prove to viewers that Frost had no intention of kicking up her heels and retiring. It places her in the cross hairs of a blended family, which is everything but united. “‘Family S.O.S.’ is more raw,” Stone explained of her show. “Certainly, there were circumstances that were unexpected. A child loses a close friend who was also involved with using alcohol and drugs.

You don’t get any realer than that, you know? We continue to reach out to families who have difficulty with adoption and relationship issues, people who have come into marriages, teenagers who are hurt and upset.”

“I’m incredibly proud of the six families and the work that they did,” she continued. “I think they’re really representative of the families that are out there. It’s real.” Stone calls her brand of reality TV, “factuality.” “From what I gather from being here for nine years in this country, reality seems to be very much produced and scripted. I deal with real people and real issues.”— Reuters

Jo Frost

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he new John Fogerty album features the former Creedence Clearwater Revival singer teaming up with top names in country and rock music, along with some R&B flavor, for a fresh take on his most popular songs. Fogerty, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his Creedence band mates in 1993, told Reuters his wife came up with the collaborative concept behind “Wrote a Song for Everyone,” which was released Tuesday on Fogerty’s 68th birthday.

“She suggested getting all my favorite artists to do various songs, and it seemed like a great idea - to do fresh arrangements and interpretations of them,” Fogerty said. The 14-track album, Fogerty’s ninth solo studio album and first since 2009’s “The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again,” revamps some of his biggest hits from both Creedence Clearwater Revival and his solo work, along with some new tracks.

The album includes collaborations with rockers Foo Fighters, country singers Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley and R&B singer Jennifer Hudson, who was accompanied by blues musician Allen Toussaint on one of Fogerty’s best known hits, 1969’s “Proud Mary.” “Wrote a Song for Everyone” took Fogerty, who also served as producer, two years to complete, and he compared the logistics to lining up so many guests to a “military-style operation.”

“It’s remarkably hard to get 14 different artists organized, as they’re all busy with their own careers, touring and recording,” Fogerty said. “Everyone wanted to do it but I had no idea it’d be so difficult.” The hardest artist to pin down was country singer Alan Jackson, who ended up on the 1971 track “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?”

‘The music still sounds good’ “I was very happily surprised when he said yes,” Fogerty said. “Some of the artists who I know, like Bob Seger, I could just call up and get an answer right away. But even if you’re friends, you don’t want to put anyone on the spot. So you put the idea out there and let it simmer for a while.” Fogerty let his guest artists select the song they wanted to record with him and spin their own interpretation of it.

The album was recorded at studios in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Nashville, Tennessee. Creedence’s 1969 Vietnam War-era anthem “Fortunate Son” was recorded with Foo Fighters at their 606 studio in Los Angeles, which was the subject of recent documentary, “Sound City.” Along with gearing up for the album’s release, Fogerty found time to join the Rolling Stones on a rendition of “It’s All Over Now” at their May 8 San Jose show.—Reuters

U

sher and Darius Rucker have been added to the lineup of performers set to hit the stage for yesterday’s “Healing in the Heartland: Relief Benefit Concert,” NBC announced Monday. The show has been organized and will be headlined by Blake Shelton. Others set to perform include Luke Bryan, Rascal Flatts and Ryan Tedder of OneRepublic, as well as Grammy Award-winning artists Miranda Lambert, Reba and Vince Gill.

Usher is a coach alongside Shelton on NBC’s “ The Voice” and is a multi-platinum recording artist. He’s been ranked by the Recording Industry Assn. of America as one of the best-selling artists in American music history, having sold over 44 million albums worldwide. He has won numerous awards including eight Grammy Awards.

Rucke, who has been the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish since the band was formed in 1986, is now a certified country performer. His latest album, “True Believers,” included the release of single “Wagon Wheels,” which hit No. 1 on Billboard’s Hot Country Chart. Tickets for the concert went on sale Saturday morning and sold out in under five minutes. The event will take place at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.

The concert will be televised live at 9 pm ET/PT on NBC. It will also air on cable networks Style, G4, Bravo, E! and CMT on either a live or delayed basis. “Everyone has their way to help, and mine as an entertainer is to perform to help raise money and awareness for this tragedy,” Shelton said. “This is why I want to do this special and

especially hold it in Oklahoma City, which is near ground zero.”

The event will raise funds for the United Way of Central Oklahoma May Tornadoes Relief Fund. Working with their local community par tners, United Way of Central Oklahoma will use the Fund for immediate, intermediate and long-term recover y and rebuilding effor ts in Oklahoma following the tornadoes that devastated Moore earlier this week. —Reuters

Top Songs 1. “Can’t Hold Us (feat. Ray Dalton),” Ryan Lewis, Macklemore 2. “Blurred Lines (feat. T.I. & Pharrell), Robin Thicke 3. “Just Give Me a Reason (feat. Nate Ruess),” P!nk 4. “Come & Get It,” Selena Gomez 5. “Clouds,” Zach Sobiech 6. “Get Lucky (Radio Edit) (feat. Pharrell Williams),” Daft Punk 7. “Radioactive,” Imagine Dragons 8. “Mirrors,” Justin Timberlake 9. “I Love It (feat. Charli XCX),” Icona Pop 10. “Cruise (Remix) (feat. Nelly),” Florida Georgia Line

This May 20, 2013 file photo shows Ben Haggerty, better known as Macklemore of Macklemore and Ryan Lewis performing during the Rolling Stone hosted Bacardi Rebels Concert Event on Cuban Independence Day in New York. — AP

Top Albums 1. “Random Access Memories,” Daft Punk 2. “The Great Gatsby (Music from Baz Luhrmann’s Film),” Various Artists 3. “Trouble Will Find Me,” The National 4. “True Believers,” Darius Rucker 5. “Excuse My French,” French Montana 6. “Modern Vampires of the City,” Vampire Weekend 7. “The 20/20 Experience,” Justin Timberlake 8. “Fix Me Up (feat. Zach Sobiech & Sammy Brown),” A Firm Handshake 9. “Night Visions,” Imagine Dragons 10. “LOVE LUST FAITH + DREAMS,” Thirty Seconds to Mars — AP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

lifestyle F e a t u r e s

In this 2007 photo provided by the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, a light designed by sculptor Isamu Noguchi hangs in the dining room of the home and studio where artist Georgia O’Keeffe lived and worked in Abiquiu, NM. Noguchi’s lighting sculptures were inspired by Japanese lanterns used for ancestor worship and they became widely imitated classics of mid-20th century home design.

A visitor relaxing in the cafe and gift shop at the Noguchi Museum.

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he round, white, paper light shades sold at Ikea for $5 are a familiar item in contemporary interior design. But these inexpensive lanterns are knockoffs of light sculptures created by the renowned artist Isamu Noguchi in the early 1950s.

The Noguchi lamps - called akari, the Japanese word for light - were inspired by traditional Japanese lanterns used in ancestor worship. Over the decades, the akari became classics of mid-20th century modern home decor.

A lighting sculpture for sale in the gift shop at the Isamu Noguchi Museum.

Noguchi’s original designs are still handmade in Japan; they come in a variety of colors and dozens of geometric designs - including the widely imitated white sphere - and range in price from $100 to $1,000. And they pop up in some pretty cool places, from painter Georgia O’Keeffe’s home in New Mexico to Tony Stark’s bedroom in “Iron Man 3.”

The story of how the late Noguchi came to create akari is rooted in the recovery of Japan’s post-World War II economy and the cross-cultural currents that influenced his spare, bold, modernist aesthetics.

Noguchi’s mother was American; his father Japanese.

They never married. Born in 1904, Noguchi spent years in both countries during his youth. After World War II, he was greatly admired by the art and design community in Japan, and at some point met the mayor of the town of Gifu, where local industry centered around making lanterns for ancestry worship, using paper from mulberry trees.

“The mayor asked Noguchi, ‘Can you help us resurrect our lantern business?’” said Jenny Dixon, director of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, NY. “That’s how the akari were first produced. They were exported as an economic product and were wellreceived by the design community.” She added that Noguchi “papered them sculpturally. He didn’t call them lanterns or lamps; he called them light sculptures.” Noguchi’s concept “stood in sharp contrast to

1950s contemporary, modern, efficient lighting trends,” said Peter Barna, provost of Pratt Institute, the art and design college in Brooklyn, NY. Popular lighting options of the day included track lights, adjustable desk lamps and “pole lamps with conical shades,” added Barna, a former president of an international lighting design firm. Noguchi’s designs were radically different, “a sculptor’s memory of the soft magic of material and light,” said Barna.

Eventually, Noguchi developed a relationship with one family of lantern makers. The same family still produces his designs today. “They’re all handmade, each one, individually, from molds. They’re not massproduced,” Dixon said. “We’re now working with the third generation there, filling our orders. ... Our biggest challenge is meeting the demand.”

Depending on which lamp is ordered, “you might hit the jackpot and get a lamp right away or you can wait three to six months.” She added: “We lose a lot of business” from customers who don’t want to wait.

Each lamp has bamboo ribbing and standard wiring, and can accommodate incandescent or compact fluorescent bulbs (45 watts for small lamps, 75 watts for large). Designs range from spheres, discs and cylinders to triangles, boxes, trapezoids, and other geometric shapes and combinations. Most shades are white, but some are decorated in orange, green or black; a few bear abstract designs.

There are hanging lamps, as well as table lamps and floor lamps with metal legs or small black circular bases. Many appear breathtakingly elegant; others have a whimsical, futuristic look. A large selection of akari can be seen at the Noguchi Museum, located in the studio where he worked for decades in Long Island City, an industrial neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens. A few lamps are displayed amid Noguchi’s sculptures, but the best place to see them is in the cafe and gift shop, where they line bookshelves, hang over the cash register, and decorate a small area where visitors can relax, using a Noguchi coffee table to put their snacks on.

Danielle Berman, the production designer for “Iron Man 3,” chose a tall Noguchi lamp in a stacked box design to illuminate Tony Stark’s bedroom. “It was such a modernist home,” she explained. “It had a lot of very round, organic lines. I immediately thought of that lamp because it was such a geometric contrast.”

Stark, played by Robert Downey Jr., is a superhero billionaire. Berman said she imagined his girlfriend, “the Gwyneth Paltrow character, putting the lights around Tony’s house when she redecorated. She’s a lover of design and art.” Berman has also used Noguchi lamps on many other sets, from the TV show “House” to the first film in the “Hangover” series.

Noguchi’s “understanding of space,” she said, is “very organic. He uses all these natural materials. It’s the simplicity, yet it’s very complex. You light it and the paper gives this beautiful glow. It’s a beautiful element to have on any set. I try to use them whenever I can.” Fans of the 20th century modernist painter Georgia O’Keeffe will find Noguchi’s classic white

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File photo shows a sign encouraging Walt Disney World guests to participate in the ‘Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom’ game is displayed at the Magic Kingdom theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. — AP photos

A sign encouraging Walt Disney World guests to participate in the ‘Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure’ game is displayed at the Epcot theme park in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

This photo provided by The Isamu Noguchi Foundation and Garden Museum shows Noguchi, the late modernist sculptor, in his studio in Long Island City, NY, in the 1960s, surrounded by his lighting sculptures. — AP photos

sphere lantern on a tour of her home and studio in Abiquiu, N.M. Noguchi “sent Miss O’Keeffe several lanterns as gifts with his sister,” explained Judy Lopez, director of Abiquiu Historic Properties for the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. “She decided to place this large one in her dining room.”

The lamp hangs from a wooden ceiling in the inviting, white-walled space, over a simple table and chairs. Cheap imitations of Noguchi lamps - especially the white sphere - have become so ubiquitous that they’re almost a cliche of outdoor party decor and a somewhat bohemian style. But why spend hundreds on an original when you can get a knockoff for a fraction of the price? Aside from the difference in workmanship and materials, Berman points out that “the knockoffs aren’t quite his designs.” Dixon also notes, “Noguchi made these lamps so that people could buy them and live with his sculpture. It was the idea that you, too, the every man, for $100, a modest amount of money, could own an artwork by a prominent person.” One downside: The paper is vulnerable to damp climates, though it does well in dry locations like O’Keeffe’s. And what if you don’t live in a home defined by modernist aesthetics? Would a Noguchi lamp work with flowered curtains, an overstuffed sofa and patterned wallpaper?

Berman thinks “antiques and modernist pieces can work well together.” But whether you mix the lamp in with a jumble of interesting objects or set it off as a special piece, she said, consider its shape. In a room with lots of square and rectangular lines, go for a rounded lamp; in a room with curves in furniture and decor, go for a linear lamp. Barna agreed that the lamps can work with any style, but noted they “were conceived as sculptures that delicately stand as warm friends in an interior space. They glow, so will probably be the dominant focus in any space they are in.”— AP

Two lighting sculptures on display at the Isamu Noguchi Museum.

Lamps designed by the late sculptor Isamu Noguchi are displayed on shelves at the gift shop of the Noguchi Museum in Long Island City, NY.

he Disney universe is populated by a countless array of heroes and villains. Think Simba and Scar, Peter Pan and Captain Hook, Cruella De Vil and the 101 Dalmatians.

They’re the stars of screen, stage and page, and it has been in those venues that Disney-philes traditionally have come into contact with the characters they most loved or loved to hate.

But the Mouse House is taking it a step further these days, affording Walt Disney World visitors not only the opportunity to see their favorite characters but to interact with them in new and unique ways. The latest generation of Disney theme park-goers - young and technologically savvy - wants more than just to be in Disney World.

They want to be in Disney’s world. And Disney in recent years has been more than happy to accommodate that desire.

It introduced a pair of problem-solving contests at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom and Epcot parks; added new interactive queues to a number of popular existing attractions, among them “Dumbo the Flying Elephant,” “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” and the “Haunted Mansion”; began offering the “My Disney Experience” mobile application; and amped up the pin and Vinylmation offerings and trading opportunities throughout the parks.

“The trend is very much to creating a much more interactive experience, because that’s what young kids want,” said Lou Mongello, a Disney World expert who hosts the weekly “WDW Radio Show” podcast. “They don’t want to sit back and watch a show.”“I think we are at the very early stages of a huge

shift in guests’ experience,” Mongello said, standing in Epcot’s UK pavilion, only steps from where a handful of kids and their families were playing the “Agent P’s World Showcase Adventure” game.

Featuring characters from the popular Disney Channel animated series, “Phineas & Ferb,” the “Agent P” game transforms participants into secret agents, provides them with a “hightech secret agent device” - basically a cellphone - and asks them to scour the World Showcase section of the park for clues as they try to help the heroic Agent P defeat his nemesis, the evil Dr Doofenshmirtz. Like its Epcot counterpart, “Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom” also is part high-tech scavenger hunt, part problem-solving contest.

Participants become apprentice sorcerers and, armed with special spell cards, do battle with some of Disney’s most famous animated villains - Jafar from “Aladdin” and Ursula from “The Little Mermaid” among them - who show up on LED screens scattered across the park. “What you’re seeing is video-game style immersion and depth, but now applied to” the Disney parks, said Jonathan Ackley, a member of the Walt Disney Imagineering team that developed the games. Ackley joined Disney from LucasArts, where he developed adventure-style video games.—AP

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

lifestyle F e a t u r e s

This image released by Seaworld Orlando shows guests visiting the new attraction, Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin, at SeaWorld Orlando in Orlando, Fla.

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The image of Mike Wazowski, a character from the upcoming Disney-Pixar animated film ‘Monsters University,’ is projected on the exterior of the Spaceship Earth attraction at Epcot in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

An empty train during a test run above a new main entrance area on Cedar Point’s new GateKeeper roller coaster in Sandusky, Ohio.

f there’s ever been a summer to visit a theme park - or two, or three - this is it. High speed wooden roller coasters?

Thrilling, sense-assaulting rides? Penguins? Yes, yes and most definitely. In Orlando alone, four of the area’s big parks Disney, Universal, Legoland and SeaWorld - have opened, or are about to open, new attractions. Cedar Point in Ohio unveiled a new roller coaster a few weeks ago and in Las Vegas, a $50 million water park debuted on Memorial Day weekend. In California, visitors to Disneyland can meet all of the Disney Princesses in one place. Elsewhere in the Golden State, four different parks boast new roller coasters.

“Wherever you live, that park is likely to have something new,” said Jeremy Schoolfield, the senior editor of Funworld Magazine, the trade publication for the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA).

“There’s lots of innovations, what we call immersive experiences.” There’s been an onslaught of new attractions in Orlando in recent months.

Back in December, Disney World opened a newly expanded Fantasyland, the largest project in the park’s 41-year history. There are two sections: Enchanted Forest, where visitors will find Belle from “Beauty and the Beast” and Ariel from “The Little Mermaid,” and Storybook Circus, which is inspired by the Disney film “Dumbo.”

A new ride called Under the Sea-Journey of the Little Mermaid and Enchanted Tales With Belle, a walk-through experience that features a magical mirror and costumed characters, will impress movie lovers. And the popular Dumbo attraction is now a little less crowded, because Disney built a second, identical ride.

The new spaces are built on what was once the site of the 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea experience, and the expansion doubles the size of the original Fantasyland. George Kalogridis, president of the Walt Disney World Resort, said that if he were bringing his family to the park on a summer day, he would begin with the Enchanted Tales with Belle experience, then check out the new Doc McStuffins segment at Disney Junior-Live on Stage at Hollywood Studios.

Hollywood Studios is also the place to find costumed characters from the Disney-Pixar movie Monsters University.

“Something new in every park makes it easy to satisfy everybody in the family,” he said. Over at Universal Orlando, a 3-D theme park ride based on the Transformers toy and film brand will open June 20; a similar ride is already open at Universal’s parks in California and Singapore.

The park describes the ride as an interactive, “larger than life battle” between the Autobots and Decepticons. It uses flight simulator technology, along with wind, heat and smoke to make the riders feel immersed in the experience. At SeaWorld Orlando, the Antarctica - Empire of the Penguin attraction opened on May 24.

With a ride, restaurants and the penguin habitat, it’s the largest expansion in the park’s history. The ride takes visitors through a queue, themed around a fictional penguin named Puck. As visitors make their way through the queue and ride, the temperature keeps dropping - until visitors are in 30degree temperatures.

The ride ends at the penguin habitat, where more than 250 birds live. Visitors can watch the birds frolic on shore or underwater. Park executive said that in doing research for a new attraction, penguins are a big draw at parks.

“As we developed this attraction, we found that adults like penguins just as much as kids, and we’ve seen adults act just like kids when they’re around them,” said Terry Prather, the vice president of park operations at SeaWorld Orlando. Busch Gardens in Tampa has two new offerings: the Madagascar Live show and three just-born rare Malayan tiger cubs.

Over at Legoland Florida, the park is expanding to include a new ride and interactive play area based on the company’s popular Legends of Chima product line. The section, which is scheduled to open July 3, will include an interactive water ride called The Quest for Chi, a Lego-building challenge, a 4-D movie and a meet-and-greet with costumed characters.

Legoland also has a Carlsbad, Calif., outpost and in April, opened a 250-room Legoland hotel there. Visitors are greeted by a fire-breathing dragon made of 400,000 Lego bricks. Guest

This photo illustration released by Universal Orlando Resort shows an image promoting the Transformers: The Ride, an attraction that will officially open on June 20, 2013 at Universal Studios Florida.

This undated photo supplied by Wet’n’Wild Las Vegas shows a view of the water park before it opened Memorial Day weekend from atop the Desert Racers slides with the Las Vegas Strip in the distance. — AP photos

rooms are decorated in pirate, adventure or kingdom themes, and most items in the rooms appear as if they are built of Legos. Not to be outdone by Florida, California’s theme parks also have new offerings - mostly in the form of thrill rides.

At Disneyland, the new Fantasy Faire offers all of the Disney Princesses in one place - the intricately detailed Royal Hall. Also at Disneyland, “Mickey and the Magical Map” is the new show at the Fantasyland Theater this summer.

Great America in Santa Clara will have the Gold Striker, a wooden coaster that soars to 108 feet at 54 mph, opening this summer. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk’s new Undertow roller coaster will replace the Hurricane coaster in June; it’s described a spinning roller coaster. At Six Flags Magic Mountain, the Full Throttle is billed as “the world’s tallest vertical loop” at 160 feet; that coaster will open later in the summer. Knotts Berry Farm debuts the Coast Rider this summer with 1,339 feet of track, the company says it “gives guests the feeling of riding the California coast.”

Non-coastal residents also have new offerings at regional parks. Dollywood in Tennessee has opened RiverRush in the Splash Country part of the park. In the Nevada desert, a water park called Wet ‘n’ Wild has opened in Las Vegas. A Wet ‘n’ Wild had been on the Strip for 20 years but shut down in 2004. The new, $50 million Water Park opened to passholders on Memorial Day weekend and is open to everyone on June 3.

There are 25 water slides.

And in Ohio at Cedar Point, thrill-seekers will be treated to a new, $30 million roller coaster. Called The GateKeeper, the 4,164-foot track soars over the park’s entrance and winds

through the park. It’s the longest winged coaster in the world, industry analysts say - which means that riders sit on either side of the track, with nothing above their heads or below their feet.

The two-minute, 40-second ride features rolling flyover maneuvers, 360-degree flips, drops, spirals and a gut-churning 170-foot drop. Each vehicle has four riders and each one can move independently and snake through elements,” said Schoolfield. “What’s exciting about this coaster is that it’s very maneuverable.”— AP

This undated image supplied by Busch Gardens Tampa shows a performance from ‘Madgascar Live!’ which is a stage show at the theme park inspired by the animated ‘Madgascar’ movie.

This undated publicity image released Legoland California Resort shows a Bellhop made of Legos greeting guests in front of Legoland Hotel at Legoland California Resort kin Carlsbad, Calif.

In this image released by Disney, the Moore family, Nick, back left, Stacie, background right, Adrian,11, and Hannah, 9, from Seminary, Miss, as they pose in front of Cinderella Castle before sunrise in the Magic Kingdom park in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.

This rendering supplied by California’s Great America theme park depicts Gold Striker, a roller coaster opening at the Santa Clara, Calif, park this summer.

Justin Bieber investigated for reckless driving

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2013

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Photso show views of the Garden of Ninfa near Cisterna Di Latina. — AFP photos

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An artist works on a botanic painting in the Garden of Ninfa.

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he world’s oldest complete Torah scroll has been found in a university archive in Bologna, according to an Italian professor who said the text could be from the 12th century. The precious lambskin scroll had been classified by the university library as being from the 17th century and was named simply “Scroll Number Two”. But Hebrew Studies professor Mauro Perani told AFP yesterday he noticed that the text did not conform to key changes in Torah writing brought about starting from the 12th century.

“I immediately thought it was much older,” he said, adding that it contained letters and symbols that were banned by Jewish scholar and philosopher Moses Maimonides. The Torah was among around 30 Jewish manuscripts in the university library that Perani began to catalogue in February of this year. “The scroll is very rare because when the manuscripts spoil they lose their holiness and can no longer be used. They are then buried,” he said.

“The state of conservation is excellent.” Tens of thousands of Torah scrolls were also destroyed by

are plants, enchanting ruins and the tinkle of waterfalls: the English-style botanical oasis of Ninfa near Rome is a secret idyll billed as “the world’s most romantic garden”. The exquisite garden dates back to the late 19th century when the aristocratic Caetani family took over lands deserted for centuries including Ninfa, a town that was abandoned in the Middle Ages. The town once had 150 homes and seven churches-a stopping off point for pilgrims and merchants on the ancient Roman Appian Waybut was ravaged by a civil war before becoming an artistic haven.

“Ninfa is not just a garden, it is a long cultural history,” said Lauro Marchetti, head of the Roffredo Caetani Foundation, which manages the garden some 70 kilometers (44 miles) from Rome. Caetani’s mother, an Englishwoman named Ada Wilbraham, was the founder of the garden. Caetani, a musician and a protege of Hungarian composer Frantz Liszt, came up with the streams and waterfalls to create bewitching melodies. “At night in the spot that we call ‘of the nightingales’, there is a real concert with the birdsong and the water,” Marchetti said.

Caetani’s American wife Marguerite Chapin added roses, irises, peonies and a bamboo pavilion to the garden and invited her literary friends. Virginia Woolf, Tennessee Williams, Truman Capote all visited, as well as Italian writer Alberto Moravia and cult filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini. Many were inspired by the ruins of the Roman bridge, the former customs house and waters teeming with rare trout and filled with aquatic flora. Under the arched vault of the customs house-where reflections of the water dance on the walls-Italian author Giorgio Bassani wrote his famous novel “The Garden of the Finzi-Continis”.

“Shortly before his death, he came back here one last time. He was very ill and he told me with a heavy sigh: ‘Now I can die’”, Marchetti said. The arrangement of plants from around the world is sophisticated but natural-looking, with 1,300 different species in total. Among the rarities on display are giant rhubarbs from Brazil, witch-hazel from the Alborz mountains in Iran and cedar trees North Africa.

Banana trees, American tulips and Japanese maple can also be seen, along with a climbing rose wrapped 21 metres (69 feet) up a cypress tree. Borders of the garden are in flower between April and November and were created by Lelia, the daughter of Roffredo and Marguerite Caetani, an impressionist-style painter who died in 1977. Lelia was the last of the Caetanis and she passed on to Marchetti the challenge of safeguarding Ninfa and its rules on organic gardening.

the Nazis in Germany and central Europe and by the fascists in Italy. “There was an incredible destruction in the 20th century,” Perani said, adding that some Torah scrolls were even cut up and used to bind books. The oldest previously known scroll dates from the late 13th century, although a biblical codex-which has a book form instead of being rolled up exists in St Petersburg that dates from 1008.

Carbon dating in Italy and the United States confirmed his findings, placing the manuscript between the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The intact scroll is 36 meters (118 feet) long and 64 centimeters wide and the report said it had been mislabeled by an archivist in 1889. “He said the text looked awkward and contained uncommon annotations. He was completely wrong, it is a splendid manuscript,” Perani said. The professor said the scroll came to Bologna University from a Dominican monastery in the city, most likely after Napoleon disbanded religious orders in the country in the 19th century.

It was “completely normal” that Dominican friars would have an ancient Torah as there was close col-

“This garden is one of the glories of Italy.

It is very well kept, a true symphony between nature and the capacity of man to cultivate a place like this,” said Patrick Hennessy, the Irish ambassador to Rome, during a recent visit to the site. The Australian envoy David Ritchie is a regular. “I love sitting down, listening to the birds singing and the sound of the waterfalls,” he said. “It is so romantic with the water, the roses and the ruins. In Australia, we have aquatic plants, acacias and eucalyptuses like here but there is nothing like this,” he said.

In order to preserve it, the foundation only organizes guided visits between April and November. There are usually around 55,000 visitors a year. “We have to respect the tranquility of the birds and the butterflies,” Marchetti said. The garden had a one-day record this year of 3,972 visitors, even though it does not do publicity and is only known about “by word of mouth”, he said.

Ticket sales help pay the salaries of five gardeners but there is no question of it ever becoming a mass market business. Marchetti sneered: “Ninfa can never be a commercial place filled with Coca-Cola cans, plastic bags and cigarette butts.”— AFP

laboration between Christian and Jewish scholars in the early Middle Ages, Perani said. The city of Bologna has long had a large Jewish community and the university first began teaching Hebrew studies in the 15th century. Fragments of the Torah have been found from as far back as the 7th or 8th centuries-much older than the presumed date of the Bologna scroll.

“This is the oldest complete one,” Perani said. He said very few Torah scrolls exist from before the 14th century since they were buried. Torah scrolls are not dated under Jewish tradition, complicating the work of researchers. The scroll was exhibited briefly on Tuesday and Perani said he hoped there could be a more permanent display in the near future.—AFP

Another artist works on a botanic painting in the Garden of Ninfa.

This handout photo provided by the University of Bologna shows the oldest complete scroll of the Torah.—AFP