31 May 2013

Syria regime ‘has Russian missiles’

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Drone death a blow to Pakistani Taleban

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Li Na crashes out of French Open

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NO: 15825- Friday, May 31, 2013

Saudi illegal workers race to grab amnesty See Page 11

RIYADH: Foreign illegal laborers wait in a long queue outside the Saudi immigration offices at the Al-Isha quarter of the Al-Khazan district, west of Riyadh. — AFP

Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Local Spotlight

Friday holidays GUARDED: A customary scene during raids cracking down on illegal residents, visa violators and criminals in Kuwait. — Photo by Fouad Al-Shaikh

By Muna Al-Fuzai

muna@kuwaittimes.net

I

could not agree more that Friday is the best day during the week for families. Nearly every one has an off. It is seen as a day for shopping, get togethers, fun, visiting friends and seeing the ones we want to. Kuwait is a nice place for families, especially those with large communities where members hail from the same clan. I have seen many Asian communities making their own plans about how to entertain their members and other social acquaintances.

They even plan how to provide medical and social help to them. I think that shows how important social ties are. I think it also helps to ameliorate a feeling of homesickness for new comers and create a comfort zone where they can feel that things are all right and there is nothing to worry about. I agree that moving to a new country can be hard if it means terminating the social ties, especially for those who come from communities where family comes first. So, even if there is a lone family member new in Kuwait, such a gathering of community people on Fridays fulfills a mission.

Also, certain communities here have already made it a tradition to have friendly tournaments on Fridays. I think it helps propagate the feeling that everyone is welcome and can feel involved. There are not many opportunities for entertainment in Kuwait, but families who love open areas can enjoy their time along the beach and sea side. I am only limiting my comments for families with a limited income.

Those with a lot of cash can surely afford a day or two of leisure at some fancy resort or a five star hotel with an Olympic-size pool for everyone, children and adults. I have also seen families who spend their Fridays doing shopping.

I cannot say if it is easy since malls can become very crowded on weekends, but if they can find the time on Friday for this, it does make the children also very happy. The tiny tots love a chance to trundle around the mall with their little trolleys.

I never go to Salheia on Fridays or any of the markets next door because these are very crowded that day. In fact, even Christian expats prefer to have their weekly off on Friday and not Sundays. Just as I said earlier, most people tend to consider Friday as their weekly holiday. These days, the weather is hot and there is no better place than a lovely water body for everyone to enjoy the time. So, summer is not so bad after all. Well, what are you waiting for? All you families out there, just go and have as much fun as you can.

Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Conspiracy Theories

Spare me the ...

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

W

hat pushes people to go to a psychologist (or a shrink in US slang)? Or not even to a psychologist but a motivational speaker for example. Nowadays, I receive many invitations on Twitter, by email and by regular mail to attend seminars that aim to teach me how to cope with life or how to realize my full potential.

Some of these speakers give themselves titles like life-savers, life coaches or inspirational speakers. They rent big halls, hire an agency to market them and then they spam our email accounts, call our telephones or even the good old post with invitations about seminars. I love letters, they make me feel nostalgic.

What is it all about? To me it is about marketing. It is about people selling words. Even words these days can be sold. I tried to get on the phone with some of them to ask what they do. And I must tell you that they take themselves pretty serious that they have

international certificates and have been certified to do this. Certified by whom? Suppose they are certified by the biggest institute on earth, does this organization know the problem of everyone on earth? Can it suggest a solution for Johnny, Maria, Islam or Sherif?

We have different educational backgrounds, religions and way of thinking. Our environments are different. What is it inside us that they will bring outside.

I like when they say that they will make me believe in myself. Is life that simple? They sit in front of me and pour inspirational talk about my achievements and the solution to all my problems. They have the panacea for life. They have a magic wand. So, all my problems were caused by a few words locked inside me that a visiting speaker could unleash out of my body. This speaker comes to me and convinces me that I can do it all.

I noticed that recently, these seminars have been

on the rise. However, now it has expanded on a corporate level. It is very trendy for companies to hold seminars and office workshops with such outsiders who could solve all the problems in the world and motivate our staff. I do not know how many problems they must have solved in their own countries or how many people they have motivated that now they are exporting the know-how. They are also sparing some of it for us in Kuwait. I hope they come and motivate our government and parliament. At least these two can afford the motivational talk.

Have a nice weekend! #badryaD

Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Anglowaiti writer explains her trade

By Nada Faris

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ecently I gave a speech on what I termed ‘Anglowaiti Literature’: fiction, nonfiction, and poetry written by Arabs in English about Kuwait. I explained that Anglowaiti Literature faces three interrelated problems. First, only a small portion of Kuwaitis read English, and those that do, would rather read Western texts than what they call ‘a mediocre facsimile’ of Western literature. In other words, Anglowaiti writers are struggling for an audience.

Second, publishers avoid Anglowaiti projects because the texts lack a captive audience which means there is no guarantee of any financial returns on their investment.

When publishers do not invest in books, there can be no competition among them.

Without the competition, without a drive toward excellence, and a motivation to publish the best book that a writer can write and not just any book, Anglowaiti literature ends

all the printing themselves, and then marketed, distributed, and sold their books on their own. This meant that a majority of Kuwaiti texts written in English are published by Vanity Presses. Once the book is published, it is purchased by the writer’s family, friends, and acquaintances rather than genuine fans.

After the speech, which is available for free on my website at www.nadafaris.com, I launched a series of interviews with Arab writers who publish in English in order to shed light on their work, and to uncover the depth and complexity of this genre.

Anglowaiti literature today is nascent, still crawling out of hefty obstacles, hopeful about wielding a stable foundation in the near future. I believe that Anglowaiti writers should share and cultivate their audience, challenge one another by actively improving the standards of their products, and create enough competition among themselves in order to draw publishers and a steady audience to their texts in the future.

I was particularly thrilled when Shannon A. Thompson, an American author who wrote her first novel when she was 13 or perhaps 15 years old, agreed to answer some of my writing-related questions. Her first novel, November Snow, was published in 2007 under the author T.L. McCownwhile. Then Shannon was only 16 years of age. At the age of 21, Shannon was featured in a poetry col-

Nada talks to Shannon How old were you when you started? ’ve been writing ever since my mother taught me to read. She really encouraged my writing, but her unexpected death pushed me to take writing seriously. I was eleven, but one of the wonderful things about writing is how anyone at any age can begin, so I began in a dedicated way then, and I had my first novel, November Snow, published by the time I was 16-year-old.

I

What is your source of inspiration?

Other than my family, I am inspired every day by my followers, supporters, readers, writers, and dreamers. They allow me to see the promising future I can strive to succeed in. When it comes to young-adult writers, I am mostly inspired

by Meg Cabot, Cassandra Clare, and Lauren Oliver.

How and where did you learn to write?

Firstly, I learnt from my mother, but I also had some wonderful individuals who came into my life and continued the lessons, including my fifth grade teacher Mrs. Metcalf, and the author T.L. McCown.

How did you learn the craft of writing?

I studied the English language my entire life, but I am currently attending the University of Kansas. I will graduate in December, 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in English and a focus on creative writing.

I’ve also taken numerous courses on writing, including poetry, fiction, screenwriting, and nonfiction.

up on the shelves in a terrible state. The books are littered with errors, storylines go nowhere, characters are inconsistent, and even the formatting of the book itself is wanting.

Third, because of the low quality of the final product, a printing press would only acquire Anglowaiti projects if writers paid for

This is why I decided to begin another series of interviews. These interviews will be conducted with Western authors, each emblematic of a particular genre, style, or writing view. I hope that they inspire young writers today who intend to publish in English to aim for excellence and nothing less.

lection titled ‘Poems: a collection of works by twelve young Kansas poets’. Her second novel Minutes Before Sunset was released in May, 2013. Apart from her fiction and poetry, Shannon has also written essays which are available online. She is still at the university, working on a bachelor’s degree in English with a focus on creative writing.

Were you prepared for criticism?

I was. That’s a part of the art, and I can honestly say that I have learnt a lot through criticism; but when I say criticism, I mean to say thoughtful feedback. I try not to look at it negatively. For instance, if someone says “this is good” or “this is bad” I don’t pay much attention to it. It only helps when someone writes: “This was bad, because A, B, & C.” or “This was good, because A, B, and C.” What about your writing process? With everything that goes on around you, your studies, your social life, and so on, how do you manage to complete your work? Do you have a particular time or place to write?

I write whenever I can. I don’t really have a particular place, but I do write in a hookah house quite often. My writing process normally begins with idea sketches. Then, once I have a full plot figured out, I write out the dialogue and only the dialogue. Then I go back and add everything else.

Writing can be a lonely life. Do you belong to a writing circle?

I am a member of the Kansas City Writers Meet-up Group.

Do they help you edit your work?

When it came to Minutes Before Sunset, the novel was first edited by numerous fans and friends. But it was reedited by my publishing team before it was released. I’m currently reading Minutes Before Sunset and finding it a joy and a pleasure. So many things happen, and it has great depth for a young-adult novel. How would you describe it to someone who hasn’t read it yet? Minutes Before Sunset is a paranormal romance darkened by fated war between shades and lights. It’s told from two perspectives, Eric Welborn and Jessica Taylor, and the characters bring both the supernatural and the human life to the table.

How did you come up with the idea?

During a particular dark period in my life, I began having dreams of a boy who would simply visit me at night to talk about my feelings and future. That’s it.

But I believe it saved me then, because my life got better, and, despite this, I missed the regular occurring dreams, and I knew I had to express them by creating a story about them. Although this is a paranormal romance, there is a very true story behind it. No one helped me write it, and it took me two and half years to finish the trilogy.

What are you planning to do next?

Minutes Before Sunset is the first book in A Timely Death trilogy, so my second novel, Seconds Before Sunrise, will be released this winter. I’m excited to move forward with the characters! I’m excited to see what transpires as well! In the meantime, how can your fans contact you? And where might they find you online? I’m on a lot of social media sites, but my blog, ShannonAThompson.com, is perhaps the most helpful if you’re looking for writing and publishing tips. You can also find me on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Shelfari, and LinkedIn. Shannon is a young writer who dedicates her books to people she had loved and lost. She wrote her first novel when she was 13-15 years old, and her second novel when she was 14-15. She is still in university, managing normal life with her writing career. I hope this interview shows that it is never too early or too late to take your writing seriously.

Nada Faris is a Kuwaiti writer who publishes fiction, articles, and poems in English.

For more information, please visit: www.nadafaris.com

Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

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Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

When hobby-turned-business means success

By Nawara Fattahova

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hat happens when you have a passion for something that you decide to turn into a business? This is what three young Kuwaitis share about how they ended up turning their passions into business.

Salem Al-Hatem is a young Kuwaiti businessman who decided to turn his hobby into a business venture - a lucrative one at that. “When I was a student at the university, my class used to start at 8:00 am and I used to wake up early. I loved my car and used to wash it myself at home every morning before going to the college. I wanted my black car to be always clean and shiny when I drove it,” he says.

Slowly, his love for the car turned into a hobby and the hobby became a business. After he graduated, he decided to open a car wash center where he provided car wash, polishing, cleaning, and other features that beautify cars.

“When I was a student, I had a part-time job at my uncle’s company. This helped me save some money. So when I graduated, I launched the carwash facility with my own savings,” added Al-Hatem.

“My first customers were my family members. Soon, friends started driving in their cars to my car wash.

Through word of mouth, news spread about my business.

At the same time, Facebook gained momentum and I used it to expand my business,” he said, explaining that a detailed market study was conducted before he launched his project. “I started making profits from the very first month,” he further said.

Although he started this small business, he says, today it is profitable. However, he is dependent on it completely.

After graduation, Al-Hatem started receiving the National Labor Support Allowance and also took up a temporary job. “With time, I developed the business and started dealing with car companies. Besides, I also started cleaning trucks. I added cleaning motorcycles and other vehicles to my business inventory. Also, I extended my service by providing the same job outdoors,” concluded Al-Hatem.

Yousif Al-Anezi is another young Kuwaiti working as a government employee in a ministry, who also turned his hobby into a profitable business. “When I was a young boy, I used to go with my grandfather to buy misbahs (beads). I inherited this hobby from him, and started collecting the misbahs myself.” With time, he says, he acquired many misbahs which he started selling to friends and other collectors during gatherings in coffee shops. “Those misbahs that I bought in the past in my grandfather’s company were valued very highly, he said.

He saw further potential in his hobby and decided to expand it. He started importing precious stones and send-

Iraq to finish Kuwait reparations ‘in 2015’ BAGHDAD: Iraq estimates that it will complete reparations payments to neighboring Kuwait in 2015 for Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday. Kuwait has so far received around $30 billion in war reparations, out of about $41 billion, a figure decided by a UN body after Iraqi troops were driven out of Kuwait in 1991 following a sevenmonth occupation. Baghdad currently pays five percent of its oil and gas revenue into a special UN fund that pays the compensation.

“If we continue at this pace, I think that in 2015, after paying all the war compensation, Iraq will be completely removed from Chapter 7,” Zebari said at a news conference in Baghdad. He was referring to a section of the UN charter which allows for sanctions ranging from economic measures to an arms embargo. Iraq and Kuwait have in recent months been taking steps to resolve longstanding disagreements, including asking the UN to start repairing border markers and working to reach a settlement on a dispute between the two countries’ state-run airlines. — AFP

ing them to Egypt to sculpt and polish these and make misbahs. The most expensive misbah he sold cost KD 17,000. “It’s more expensive than gold, as its lighter.”

An eye for photography played a role in Mohammed Al-Tbayikh’s life. An employee in the ministry of education, he studied electronic engineering. When he was a student, the software Photoshop became a hit. Tbayikh

registered for a Photoshop course. “Photography was also in at that time, and I got into it. I participated in competitions and won many prizes, not only in Kuwait,” he says. Soon, he was on his way to open a studio at his house. He said, “Now, I am taking photos of people at the studio. Photography was a hobby which now brings me income.”

Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Kuwait’s my business

By helping expats prosper, Kuwait prospers

By John P Hayes

local@kuwaittimes.net

I

magine for a moment that 100 years ago America had treated its immigrants the way Kuwait treats expats today.

Would America be better or worse today? My maternal great-grandfather left Rome, Italy in the early 1900s for a small town in Ohio, which offered him work in a steel mill. He brought with him two teenage daughters to help care for him while he earned money to send home, where he had a wife and several more children. His plan was to save money and then, after several years, reunite with his family in Rome, or perhaps move all of them to the new country. Unfortunately, things didn’t work out for my great-grandfather.

Hard life in the USA At the time, life wasn’t easy for immigrants in the USA. My great-grandfather didn’t speak English, and since Italians were new to this part of Ohio, he was belittled and mistreated by the immigrants who had arrived before him, especially the Germans. His housing was pitiful, and he had to walk everywhere. Fortunately he had a little space to grow vegetables, and his daughters knew how to make pasta and bread; otherwise they would have struggled for food. Other Italians suffered the same indignities in this small town, but they persevered, and during the course of many years the Italian com-

munity blossomed not only throughout Ohio, but across the USA. Unfortunately, one of the daughters who accompanied my great-grandfather died shortly after arriving in Ohio. The second daughter, who would become my maternal grandmother, never returned to Italy again - never saw her mother or most of her siblings again. A third daughter, who would become my Godmother, was sent to Ohio to replace the deceased daughter. The two daughters cared for my greatgrandfather for many years until he, too, died in America without reuniting with his family or ever returning to his homeland.

A home of their own When my great grandfather died, it might have made sense for his daughters to return to Rome, but they didn’t think so. My grandmother was now married to a young man whose family had also arrived from Italy, and they had begun their own family. They bought their own small house with space for a huge garden, which came in handy for feeding the nine children born to them through the years. Those children grew up to become nurses, coaches, and business owners, all to the benefit of Ohio.

A business of their own As for my aunt, she married a young Italian, too, and they also bought their own home, just a few doors away from my grandparents. One day, without much planning, my aunt and uncle decided to convert the first floor of their house into an Italian restaurant. Few restaurants existed at the time - most people enjoyed their meals at home as a family - and there were no Italian restaurants. My aunt and uncle served only

one entrÈe: spaghetti and meatballs, with a side of bread and a salad. People drove from miles around to dine at Ren’s Restaurant, which thrived for about 40 years, contributing to our small town’s economy.

Since moving to Kuwait and observing how expats are treated here, I’ve often thought about how different life would have been had America treated my ancestors similarly.

In spite of many indignities, America gave my ancestors an opportunity to prosper and to belong. The government gave them no money - instead, they paid taxes to the government but America allowed them to own their own home and a business. Otherwise, they most likely would have returned to Italy.

Why would they stay where they would never feel they belonged?

Who built America?

Some people will argue that unlike America, Kuwait doesn’t want to be a melting pot where nationalities come from all parts of the world and build a new world. Why not? Is it fear? Is it arrogance? Keep this in mind: Without the imagination, the brains, the hard work, and the values of immigrants, people wouldn’t be asking today how to move to America. The people who originally occupied America’s land didn’t build America. Nor did their conquerors. Immigrants did. Without them, America would not have advanced in engineering, technology, science, education, commerce, or any other discipline. America doesn’t have all the answers, but it has some. By giving people an opportunity to prosper for their own good, America prospered most of all. How might Kuwait prosper if Kuwait gave the same opportunities to its expats?

Jeeves pampers clothes Eco-friendly dry-cleaning

By Ben Garcia

A

re you in a mood to pamper your branded bag bought from a high-end boutique in New York? Do you want to restore the previous glory of your designer leather boots? Well, Jeeves has the answer to those questions. Purified water, odor-free and chemical-free detergent and attention to detail are just a few of the distinct features of the newly opened franchise of Jeeves laundry based in the United Kingdom, one which is trusted by Prince Charles.

Jeeves, a franchisee brand of London dry clean laundry services, is now in Kuwait offering special experience to customers in Kuwait who have allergies or detergent intolerance. “We are using chemicals that are not harmful to environment or even to people with allergies or sickness,” explained the operations manager Jihad Ahmad Nofal, during a tour of their one and only facility in Al-Rai. Jeeves’ attention to detail and perfection is legendary, having been in the business since 1969 in the United Kingdom. Jeeves uses environment-friendly chemicals which restore the fabric to its original state.

“This is world-class service; you don’t even need to come. You only need to give a call and we’ll send somebody to pick-up your laundry and deliver it back to you, cleaned and fresh,” he said. The shop caters to expatriates but most of their customers are Kuwaitis

whose clothes are not only delicate and sensitive but also expensive.

“There are people who wanted to entrust their clothes to the finest, and we can guarantee that here. You know most of the T-shirts we are dealing with here are very expensive; the gowns for example could range from KD250 to as much as KD1000.

So, extra care is needed to protect these. If you are caring for an expensive gown, you don’t want to ruin it easily. They are paying a higher amount just to be sure that all their clothes are well-cared for by the finest,” Nofal noted. Besides six units of extra-machines which use water and chemicals, Jeeves maintains two of the most expensive washing and drying machines in town. The dry cleaning machine uses only chemicals and hydrocarbon, without normal detergent. The dry clean procedure uses very little water, too.

“The water is about ten percent only. And if we use water, we give it a water treatment in such a way that even the smallest particle or minerals cannot escape through,” he claimed. “We are using purified water, free from anything that could eventually destroy clothes,” Nofal said with a hint of pride. The clothes pass through several cleaning processes, right from evaluation when they are received to the final manual hand inspection before these are re-sealed with plastic covers for protection. “Unlike other laundry shops, Jeeves is absolutely free of chemical odors or any unwanted smelly odor emanating from unwashed clothes/linens. As you may notice here, you

cannot smell anything and it is also not very noisy. So, our staff are also very safe and remain free of anything that can harm their health,” he added.

Founded in 1969, there are currently 12 branches of Jeeves and some 40 years of history in the business. Trusted by Prince Charles, Jeeves dry cleaning services are now available in Kuwait, Al-Rai area.

Jeeves also provides cleaning and restoring signature bags and polishing leather shoes. “We want to cater to people who are trying to maintain, restore their expensive signature garments, bags and leather shoes to their former glory. We can help but it has a price,” Nofal added.

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Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Unlicensed charities raise funds for Syria opposition Money donated for humanitarian help, firearms

By Nawara Fattahova

PURI: Indian sand artist Sudersan Pattnaik gives final touch ups on his sand sculpture on the eve of World No Tobacco Day at Golden Sea Beach in Puri, some 65 kilometers from Bhubaneswar. Governments worldwide must ban all forms of tobacco marketing, not just billboards and TV ads, as companies find new ways to tap the market, the World Health Organization said. —AFP

Kuwait anti-smoking group wants smoke-free country ‘Quit and Win’ contest KUWAIT: Kuwait Society for Anti-Smoking and Cancer has prepared several activities to make Kuwait a smoke-free country as May, 31st marks World No-Tobacco Day, set by World Health Organization (WHO) in 1987 to reduce tobacco consumption for 24 hours. The society prepared the contest “Quit and Win” in collaboration with WHO for the third year in a row, aiming to permanently reduce tobacco consumption, the society’s anti-smoking committee rapporteur, Shatha Al-Fozan said yesterday.

Kuwait is the first country in the Middle East to establish such a competition, in which ten winners are to be given prizes worth of KD 100, said Al-Fozan, noting that the number of winners has been doubled this year as the competition is to be held under the auspices of the Public Authority for Youth and Sports (PAYS), which has decided to honor the non-winner contestants as well throughout the month.

The quitters’ real gain lies in taking care of their health and secondhand smokers, who are exposed to greater harm, she noted, adding that the main aim of the competition is to convey a message to the smokers that “if they can quit smoking for a month, they will be able to quit it for good.”

She said that since the establishment of the society, it has been making people aware of the harmful effects of smoking as not to be dragged behind tobacco companies that promote their products in various ways as the more anti-smoking campaigns are made, the more advertisements and promotional campaigns geared towards youngsters are produced by the tobacco companies. Statistics revealed that in Kuwait, 1,200 second-hand smokers get lung cancer annually, in addition to increased allergies, asthma and skin illnesses, she said, adding that smoking is a major cause of death as about 6 million people around the world die because of it, of which 6,000 lose their lives due to second-hand smoking.

Al-Fozan was bewildered due to the large number of smokers inside hospitals and health centers as they are supposed to be places of treatment and not otherwise, noting that in 2012, the percentage of smokers was the highest in Kuwait amongst other Gulf countries. The society provides medication that help smokers quit as it also provides mobile clinics in the ministries and shopping malls so that they would be accessible as they help increase the number of people wanting to quit at a rate of 130 persons per day.

She called on quitters to exercise, because it helps regenerate lung cells in a period of six months to a year, in addition to exercise’s role in achieving moderation and psychological balance, which is supposedly sought in a cigarette that in fact, increases tension. The society has sought the government’s decision to ban smoking in public places and succeeded in doing so, but it is still not able to carry out this resolution everywhere as several places claim they cannot implement it, she added.

She noted that a number of employees in one of the government agencies have succeeded in applying the law in their workplace after filing a complaint to their seniors, explaining their health problems caused by smokers as they could not perform their jobs sufficiently. Smoking in public places amid people is wrong, AlFozan concluded, stressing the need to take into account the feelings of others around them and not to smoke at the expense of others’ health. —KUNA

KUWAIT: Two Kuwait-based unlicensed charity organizations raising funds for the Syrian opposition have admitted that some of the money was allocated for the purchase of firearms and weapons for the Free Syrian Army. An investigation by the Kuwait Times showed that the two charity organizations, which admittedly said they were not registered with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour, were raising funds for humanitarian help and firearms for the Syrian opposition. Representatives of the organizations told this reporter that they were raising funds for the Syrian opposition.

The Head of the Media Department at the Ministry of Interior, Major Naser Buslaib, noted that collecting donations in such a way was illegal and considered a crime. “The unlicensed organizations are not allowed to raise funds for charity and those behind such activities are liable to be arrested. In fact, it is the duty of the State Security Department, which is in charge of dealing with such initiatives, to take action. These groups may be monitored by the State Security,” he stated. A religious sheikh, co-founder of one of the charities, which advertises their services on social networks, is collecting donations from people. Part of the money, he said in

a telephone interview yesterday, goes towards purchasing firearms.

In the beginning, the organization he co-established was raising funds from employees working in the ministries of Education and Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.

Then the fund-raising extended to various individuals. “Many people donated money for Syria, which we sent in several installments,” the co-founder of the charity organization said. “Although we are operating illegally, we have not faced any problems with the government because this is just a charity organization,” he said, explaining that there are other unregistered charities that advertize on TV about raising funds and collecting weapons and none of those behind these bodies have ever been arrested,” he told the Kuwait Times.

The co-founder explained that his organization supported buying weapons for the Free Syrian Army (FSA). “We are volunteers and we collect the donations here and then give it to Syrian businessmen here in Kuwait whom we trust. They then transfer the money to other businessmen in Syria, who after deducting a small percentage, give the money to the groups affiliated with the FSA. They buy the necessary things, including weapons.

We have to support the ‘Mujahids’ who are defending their families from the

regime’s army. We have transparency in our work and the donors can read the Tweets posted on Twitter by the Syrian people who received the donations and are thanking us. We have courier ‘mandoub’ to go to the donor and collect his donation,” added the religious sheikh.

Another religious sheikh from a different charity Group of Seven also posted an ad on the Instagram, promoting fund raising for Syrians in Al-Qusair and Hums.

The person involved with the charity said the organization worked in two ways-it sends donations for refugees and for Mujahids. “We offer the donor to choose what his donation will be spent on.

Currently, we are focusing more on supporting and financing the Mujahids. We ensure that the donations reach Syria and people can watch it on You Tube videos,” he pointed out.

“I know that our work is illegal and unlicensed but this is a charity for goodwill to support our Muslim brothers in Syria. If we were licensed, the government would not have allowed us to raise any funds. We have been operating our organization for two years now and since the very beginning, we have not faced any problems with the banks or the government,” he said and added, “When we support a Mujahid, it’s as if we went to jihad ourselves.”

SERENITY: The seaside in Kuwait looks tranquil at the start of the summer season. —Photo by Joseph Shagra

Asian woman nabbed for possessing heroin

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Drug enforcement agents recently arrested an Asian woman for possessing 250 grams of heroin and 50 Roach tablets, security sources said. The detectives were tipped off about the woman selling drugs. A search of her residence led the detectives to drugs that were already packed and kept ready for sale. The suspect pleaded guilty of drug trafficking. A verification check revealed that she was deported from Kuwait in 2009 but returned using a fake passport.

Asian woman arrested for drug trafficking

Coastguards rescue swimmer The Coastguards recently rescued a swimmer when he was caught in forceful water currents while swimming off a Gulf road restaurant and drifted too far away into the sea, security sources said. They said it took the Coastguard personnel a three-hour long search operation before they located the man and pulled him out to safety. The Coastguard authorities

urged sea lovers to observe all safety precautions and call them at 1880888 in case of any doubt or emergency.

4 vehicles gutted in a fire Four vehicles were gutted in a fire at block 13, Sabah Al-Salem yesterday, security sources said. While firefighters brought the blaze under control, two German and two Japanese-made vehicles were completely gutted. No casualties were reported. Further investigations were in progress to determine what led to the fire.

Another fire broke out in a Besht (menís cloaks) store in Mubarakiya, security sources said. Firefighters from the city and Al-Hilali brigade rushed to the scene and were able to bring it under control before it could spread to other neighboring stores. No casualties were reported and further investigations were in progress to determine the cause of the fire.

Local FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

MPs want citizenship revoked for breaching security Long-time employees won’t be forced out

By B Izzak KUWAIT: A number of MPs yesterday proposed that Kuwaiti nationality should be withdrawn from naturalized Kuwaitis who abuse the country’s internal security or insult the country’s figures. The lawmakers also proposed that all benefits given to the naturalized person proven to have breached national security should be withdrawn and this measure should include withdrawing the citizenship of other people who gained the citizenship as a result of naturalizing that person.

The proposal also suggests that people who applied for Kuwaiti citizenships and carried out similar

offenses should have their applications rejected even if they fulfilled all the conditions for nationality. To become effective, the proposal must be adopted by the concerned Assembly committees, mainly the legal and legislative and the interior and defense committees and then passed by the National Assembly and eventually accepted by the government. The proposal comes amid protests by opposition activists and former MPs and a crackdown on opposition tweeters - several of whom have received jail terms on charges of insulting the Amir.

Meanwhile, MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan yesterday asked Justice Minister

Sharida Al-Meosharji about implementing a law passed a few months ago to establish the Anti-Corruption Authority. Besides the corruption authority, the legislation also calls for wealth disclosure of ministers, MPs and top government officials.

Duwaisan asked the minister about the steps that have been taken to implement the law and the obstacles facing it. MP Yacoub Al-Sane said yesterday that he was informed by Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak AlSabah that top bureaucrats who served 30 years and above will not be forced to resign as has been published. The lawmaker said he told the premier that forcing such top officials

to step down is “unconstitutional” and the prime minister replied that the government will not force them to resign but will grant them incentives and benefits to encourage them to resign. In the meantime, MP Saud AlHuraiji questioned Finance Minister Mustafa Al-Shamali about the charges collected from expatriates for the health insurance scheme and other charges since applying the law in 1999. Huraiji said that he learned that KD522 million have been collected since that year but the ministry of finance has failed to utilize the funds in proper channels. He asked the minister if the ministry has any plan to spend the funds in the right way.

Gulf countries may place Hezbollah on terror list Ministers to discuss GCC security

KUWAIT: The Leaders Preparation Center at the National Security College yesterday concluded a training course on ‘Organized Crime’. Trainees included senior officials working at the MOI, MOH, MOC, Justice Ministry, Civil Defense and the Investigations Department.

KUWAIT: Gulf Arab states will consider placing Lebanon’s Shiite party Hezbollah, which is openly involved in the Syrian conflict, on its terror list, Al-Rai daily quoted highly placed diplomats yesterday as saying. Bahrain will ask foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council to discuss “placing Hezbollah on the terror list” at a meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the newspaper said. Bahrain currently holds the GCC’s rotating presidency. The paper did not say whether this referred to the party as a whole or just its militia, whose men are

fighting alongside government troops in a fierce battle to retake the Syrian town of Qusayr from rebels.

The ministers will also discuss Gulf security, “continued Iranian threats, especially the busting of Iranian spy rings,” in a number of GCC states. The GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Kuwait has already convicted several Iranians and one of its own citizens for operating a spy ring for Tehran, while Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have said they busted cells working for the

Islamic republic.

On Monday, Bahrain on Monday banned opposition groups from all contact with Hezbollah, a month after branding the movement as a “terrorist organization.”

Hezbollah, like Iran, is a close ally of Syrian President Bashar AlAssad. Gulf states have repeatedly accused Iran of meddling in their affairs, a charge the Islamic republic categorically denies. More than 94,000 people have died in Syria since protests erupted more than two years ago and morphed into an armed conflict after being brutally repressed. — AFP

Taiwan woos Kuwait investors, companies KUWAIT: A Taiwanese delegation has invited Kuwaiti companies to invest in the solar energy industry in Taiwan and create green fuel stations in order to diversify Kuwait’s sources of energy. Dr David Wan, head of the delegation, underscored at a press conference organized by the Taiwan trade office in Kuwait yesterday the importance of closer cooperation between Kuwaiti companies and their Taiwanese counterparts in the field of solar energy.

He added that Kuwait is distinct from many other countries in the world with an excellent environment for this type of energy, where the sun is shining most of the year, adding that his country is the world’s second largest producer of solar cells. He said that his country’s delegation which is currently visiting Kuwait consists of representatives of some 30 Taiwanese government and private companies, claiming that Taiwanese companies are unique in that they produce solar cells and panels of an international quality with, at the same time, competitive prices.

He expressed the aspirations of his country to find a real partnership with public and private sectors in Kuwait for the production of solar energy. For his part, representative of the Taiwan trade office in Kuwait Dr Kuchin Liu said the delegation highlighted the photoelectric industry in the Middle East, especially Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, and the need to expand business opportunities through meetings that took place with representatives of the Kuwaiti companies interested in this field. — KUNA

KUWAIT: MOI Assistant Undersecretary for Operations Affairs Maj General Abdullah Yousif Al-Muhanna recently held a joint meeting with Kuwait Fire Services Directorate (KFSD)’s Director Maj general, Youssif Al-Ansari to coordinate cooperation in civil defense activities.

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Tunisia feminist on trial, topless protesters held

Syria regime ‘has Russian missiles’

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Drone death a blow to Pakistani Taleban

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RIYADH: Foreign illegal laborers wait in a long queue outside the Saudi immigration offices at the Al-Isha quarter of the Al-Khazan district, west of Riyadh. — AFP

Saudi illegal workers grab amnesty Three-month grace period runs out on July 3 RIYADH: Every day, hundreds of illegal foreign workers, mostly South Asians, queue in the scorching heat outside an immigration office in the Saudi capital seeking to benefit from an amnesty to get their papers in order or leave. Earlier this year, the oil-rich kingdom warned that illegal foreign workers risk being slapped with prison sentences and fines after a three-month grace period runs out on July 3.

Saudi Arabia also urged those whose residency permits have expired and those who are sponsored by someone other than their actual employers, in violation of the kingdom’s labor laws, to take advantage of the amnesty without penalty. Tens of thousands of foreigners working illegally in Saudi Arabia or who do not have the right local sponsor are affected.

With the clock ticking and the threat of mass deportations looming, they are desperately trying to regularize their situation.

More than 200,000 people, mostly Asians, have been expelled so far this year due to the new restrictions, immigration officials

said. In Saudi Arabia, like most of the Gulf states, foreigners need to be sponsored by a local business to get entry and work permits.

The practice of sponsoring expatriates has become a lucrative business for many Saudis who sell their sponsorship to foreigners desperate to enter for work. According to official statistics, eight million expatriates work in the kingdom. Economists say there are another two million unregistered foreign workers. Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil exporter, is a goldmine for millions of people from poor Asian and Arab countries that are reeling under high levels of unemployment.

Ibrahim, an Egyptian, is among those now forced to leave a four-year job in the construction sector and return home because his work permit has expired. “I arrived here at four o’clock this morning and I’m still waiting for my turn to obtain an exit permit,” said Ibrahim, as he lined up with some 100 other illegal workers outside the immigration office. His face is drenched in sweat and he is constantly wiping it away. Ibrahim hopes he will obtain the document that allows him to

leave Saudi Arabia without having to pay any penalty or serve jail time. He also hopes he will be able to return to the oil-rich kingdom because he says, “the situation in Egypt is very bad.” The workers have been given a grace period until July 3 to get their affairs in order but many fear that they will miss the deadline because of the long wait outside the immigration office. “I’ve been standing in line since 6:00 am to obtain the exit permit,” said Abdul Azim Shahid, from Bangladesh, who began to lose hope his turn would arrive as the centre’s closing time approached.

The 28-year-old has been working in the kingdom for eight years. “For the first two years I worked as a salesman to make up for the residency” fees payable to his Saudi sponsor, he said.

Mozafar Suleiman, an elderly Indian who works in transportation, hopes to return to Saudi Arabia like Ibrahim and Shahid, but complains of “abuse” of foreign workers in the kingdom.

“Things might improve with the new resi-

dency rules,” he said. Long queues have also been seen outside the embassies of India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines as foreign workers queue to renew expired passports. The new regulations introduced by the labour ministry aim to reduce the number of foreign workers to create jobs for millions of unemployed Saudis.

Although the kingdom has the largest Arab economy, the unemployment rate among Saudis is above 12.5 percent. Saudi Arabia has warned employers who shelter illegal workers that they will be liable to up to two years in prison if they do not toe the line. Bangladeshis, Indians, Pakistanis and Yemenis, who work in low-paid jobs across the kingdom, will be worst affected. Labor Minister Adel Fakih has admitted that “six million foreign workers are employed in menial jobs unfit for Saudis and 68 percent of them are paid less than 1,000 riyals ($270) per month.” The majority of Saudis prefer working in the public sector where they are better paid for shorter working hours and enjoy more holidays. —AFP

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International FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Syria regime ‘has Russian missiles’ Oppn vows to boycott peace talks BEIRUT: Syrian President Bashar Assad said the regime has received the first shipment of sophisticated Russian anti-aircraft missiles, and the main Western-backed opposition group announced yesterday that it will not participate in peace talks - a double blow to international efforts to end the country’s devastating civil war.

Assad’s comment on the arrival of the long-range S-300 air defense missiles in Syria, which was made in an interview with Lebanon’s Hezbollah-owned TV station, could further ratchet up tensions in the region and undermine any efforts to hold any peace talks.

However, American officials said they have no evidence that the Assad regime has received a shipment of S-300s. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter. Israel’s defense chief, Moshe Yaalon, said earlier this week that Russia’s plan to supply Syria with the weapons was a threat and that Israel was prepared to use force to stop the delivery.

“Syria has received the first shipment of Russian anti-aircraft S-300 rockets,” Hezbollah’s Al Manar TV quoted Assad as saying. The Syrian leader added: “All our agreements with Russia will be implemented and parts of them have already been implemented.” The station released Assad’s comments on the Russian missiles in print, through its breaking news service yesterday morning. An official at Al-manar confirmed to The Associated Press that the remarks were from

the exclusive interview the TV was to air in full later Thursday.

The shipment of the missiles, if confirmed, comes just days after the European Union lift-

ed an arms embargo on Syria, paving way for individual countries of the 27-member bloc to send weapons to rebels fighting to topple Assad’s regime.

A picture taken in 1996 shows Russian SS300 air-defense missiles being prepared to be launched at a military training ground in Russia. Russia has delivered sophisticated air defense missiles to Syria, President Bashar Al-Assad has implied in an interview aired yesterday. —AFP

‘Terrorist’ bomb wounds 7 policemen in Bahrain 10 arrested on suspicion DUBAI: A homemade bomb planted by “terrorists” has exploded in a Shiite village outside the Bahraini capital, wounding seven policemen on patrol, police said yesterday.

Among them, one was seriously hurt and two others moderately by the blast in Bani Jamra village on Wednesday night, said Northern Province police chief Ibrahim Al-

Sheeb. Sheeb, quoted by BNA state news agency, said an investigation had been launched into the attack, which he blamed on “terrorists.” Bomb attacks are rare in Bahrain, despite frequent clashes between security forces in the kingdom and protesters from its majority. The interior ministry said on Twitter that 10 people had been arrested on suspicion

TEHRAN: Iranian supporters hold posters featuring Hassan Rowhani, moderate Iranian presidential candidate and former top nuclear negotiator, during one of his an electoral campaign rallies in northern Tehran yesterday. —AFP

of involvement in the explosion.

Witnesses said security forces installed checkpoints at all entries to the village, east of Manama, and stormed some houses in search of suspects. US Ambassador Thomas Krajeski condemned the attack, stressing that dialogue is the only path to reconciliation. “We strongly condemn this attack on police and extend our deepest sympathies to all those injured. All violence is completely unacceptable and unhelpful in efforts to rebuild trust and pursue meaningful reconciliation in Bahrain,” he said in a statement posted on the embassy’s website. “It is incumbent upon all segments of Bahraini society to support and participate in the National Dialogue, condemn acts of violence and incitement, and to contribute to a climate conducive for reconciliation.” At least 80 people have been killed in Bahrain since February 2011, according to the International Federation for Human Rights, when Shiitedominated protests rocked the streets of Manama. Despite a heavy-handed crackdown in March 2011, backed by Saudi-led Gulf troops, demonstrators were soon back on the street. A national dialogue was relaunched in February with the aim of resolving the political deadlock in the country.

Strategically located across the Gulf from Shiite Iran, Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet and is a major offshore financial and services centre for its Arab neighbors in the oilrich Gulf. —AFP

The developments raise fears of an arms race - not just between Assad’s forces and the opposition fighters battling to topple his regime, but also in the wider Middle East.

Israel has carried out several airstrikes in Syria in recent months that are believed to have destroyed weapon shipments bound for Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite group that along with Iran and Russia is a staunch Assad ally. It is not clear whether Israeli warplanes entered Syrian airspace in these attacks. With the Russian missiles in Syria’s possession, the Israeli air force’s ability to strike inside the Arab country could be limited since the S300s would expand Syria’s capabilities, allowing it to counter airstrikes launched from foreign airspace as well.

The S-300s have a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) and the capability to track and strike multiple targets simultaneously.

Syria already possesses Russian-made air defenses, and Israel is believed to have used long-distance bombs fired from Israeli or Lebanese airspace.

It was the regime’s most serious warning to Israel since the beginning of the conflict in March 2011 but it was not clear if there was a link between al-Moallem’s remark and the Russian shipment.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the 26-months-old Syrian conflict that has had increasingly sectarian overtones.

Members of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority dominate the rebel ranks and Assad’s regime is mostly made up of Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam. —AP

Baghdad blasts kill 14 BAGHDAD: Six explosions battered Shiite and Sunni Muslim neighborhoods across Baghdad yesterday, killing at least 14 people and extending a descent into the worst sectarian violence since the civil war five years ago. The bloodletting reflects increasing tensions between Iraq’s majority Shiite political leaders and the Sunni minority, many of whom believe they have been unfairly treated since the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein, a Sunni.

But the civil war in Syria between Sunni rebels and President Bashar Al-Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shiite Islam, has aggravated the strife in Iraq. Sunni and Shiite Iraqi fighters alike have been crossing the border to fight on opposing sides in Syria. No group claimed responsibility for yesterday’s attacks, but Sunni Islamist insurgents and al Qaeda’s Iraqi wing have increased their operations since the beginning of the year as part of a campaign to exacerbate inter-communal tensions. A car bomb exploded in the mainly Sunni district of Binoog in north Baghdad, killing at least four people. Throughout yesterday, five other bombs killed ten people in mainly Shiite and Sunni districts across the capital, police said. A further seven people, including three policemen, were killed in clashes between gunmen and security forces in the northern city of Mosul, officials said.

The surge in violence began in April when Iraqi forces raided a Sunni protest camp in the northern town of Hawija, angering Sunni leaders and triggering clashes that spread across the country.

More than 1,100 people have been killed since then, raising the risk of a relapse into outright sectarian warfare like that which killed thousands of people in 20062007. Security officials blame Islamists and Al-Qaeda’s local wing, the Islamic State of Iraq, for most of the violence. —Reuters

International FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Darfur tribes clash over gum arabic production; 64 killed KHARTOUM: More than 60 people have been killed in clashes between tribes in Sudan’s Darfur region over land producing the gum arabic stabiliser used in soft drinks, the latest incident in a surge in violence over resources this year. The fluid gum cut from the acacia trees that have grown on the land for years is one of Sudan’s most important agricultural export products but part of the output is being smuggled over the border into Chad, where it is sold for hard currency.

Arab tribes, many of which were armed by Khartoum to end an insurgency by mainly non-Arab rebels, have since turned their guns on themselves to seize resources such as the gum arabic, sought by companies such as Coca

Cola, and gold. New clashes broke out between the Bani Halba and Al-Gimir tribes in Katila in South Darfur, state police said late on Wednesday. They have fought several times in the area this year. “A total of 64 people were killed and tens wounded from both sides,” police said in a statement, without giving details.

The Gimir accused the Bani Halba, the tribe of Second Vice President AlHaj Adam Youssef, of having attacked them on Tuesday with more than 30 four-wheel drive vehicles and horses to seize land where the acacia trees and other agricultural products grow. “They are trying to take away the land which we own and where we have been living for more than 300 years,” said Abkar Al-

Tum, a spokesman for the Gimir tribe.

He said uniformed men with government-issued weapons had joined the attack. “The government didn’t stop the clashes,” Tum said. The local authorities and the Bani Halba were not immediately available for comment.

Law and order has collapsed across the arid western region since the mainly non-Arab rebels took up arms against the Arab government in Khartoum in 2003, accusing it of neglecting Darfur.

Violence has surged this year after a peak in 2004-5, and more sporadic incidents in 2011-12.

Some 300,000 people have been displaced since January across Darfur.

More than 500 people were killed in

clashes between two Arab tribes fighting for control of a gold mine in North Darfur in January and February.

Human rights groups and the United Nations estimate hundreds of thousands of people have died in the decade of conflict in Darfur. The government says around 10,000 people were killed.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for Sudanese President Omar Hassan alBashir and some aides to face charges of masterminding war crimes in Darfur. They deny the charges and refuse to recognise the court. Events in Darfur are hard to verify due as Sudan restricts travel by journalists, aid workers and diplomats. —Reuters

Tunisia feminist on trial, topless protesters held Tunisians shocked by ‘rare protest’

CAPE TOWN: Asylum seekers confronting security personnel as they wait to be assisted during a rain storm outside the South African refugee office in Cape Town yesterday. According to South African law the asylum seekers permit given is a temporary permit, pending a decision on the application for refugee status or asylum. This results in asylum seekers waiting in long queues for hours at a time to be assisted. —AP

Nigeria military dismisses Boko Haram ‘propaganda’ ABUJA: Nigeria’s military on Thursday dismissed as “empty propaganda” claims by Boko Haram’s leader that soldiers have retreated during an ongoing offensive, insisting the campaign has heavily damaged the Islamist insurgents.

In a video obtained by AFP on Tuesday, Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau said soldiers have at times “turned and ran” when facing Islamist fighters and rejected military boasting about the success of the operation. “We consider it as empty propaganda,” defense spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade said of the video. “To the best of our understanding, at the moment (the insurgents) are in disarray. They are on the run and so many of them have been captured,” he told AFP. He declined to provide figures of those captured or killed in the operation launched on May 15 after President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states considered Boko Haram strongholds. Shekau’s whereabouts, which cannot be determined in the video, remain unknown. “I don’t know his location but I know that intelligence is trailing him,” Olukolade said. Shekau called on like-minded Islamists in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq to join the fight to create an Islamic state in Nigeria.

Olukolade suggested the plea for foreign assistance implied weakness. “If they are still firmly on ground why does he need help?” The United States and analysts have voiced concern over the prospect of widespread civilian casualties during the operation, with Nigeria’s military having been accused of massive abuses in the past. —AFP

KAIROUAN, Tunisia: A young Tunisian woman with the topless protest group Femen went on trial yesterday for illegal possession of pepper spray, sparking angry Salafist demonstrators to demand she face stiffer charges under Islamic law.

In Tunis, three European members of the group, two French and one German, were due to appear before the public prosecutor after their arrest on Wednesday from baring their breasts outside the central court. Their protest was the first of its kind in the Arab world and shocked many in Tunisia, where hardline Islamists have become increasingly assertive since the country’s January 2011 revolution.

As the trial began of Amina Sboui, known by her pseudonym Tyler, in the city of Kairouan, 150 kilometres (90 miles) south of Tunis, angry residents gathered outside the court building. They shouted insults at the lawyers of the young woman. The demonstrators were joined by dozens of Islamists, notably the spokesman of Tunisia’s main Salafist group Ansar Al-Sharia, who was furious at not being allowed to attend the trial, where extra security was deployed.

“Why shouldn’t I be allowed to attend the trial?” Seifeddine Rais asked, adding that the accused could “go to hell,” while members of his extremist group chanted: “The people want the application of Islamic law”.

Sboui sparked both scandal and a wave of online support in socially conservative Tunisia after she was threatened by radical Islamists for posting topless pictures of herself on Facebook. Arrested on May 19 after painting the word Femen on a wall in Tunisia’s religious capital of Kairouan, where radical Salafists were planning to hold an illegal congress, she told the judge she had carried the pepper spray for two months, for self-

KAIROUAN: Tunisian protestors shout slogans outside the courthouse where Amina Sboui, the Tunisian member of the Ukrainian feminist group Femen, is being put on trial charged with illegal possession of pepper spray yesterday in the central city of Kairouan. — AFP defense. Tensions were also palpable inside the courtroom, where several lawyers claiming to represent residents of Kairouan joined in demands for heavier charges to be brought against her. “There was a desire to sow trouble and sedition in Kairouan and we want the file to be transferred (on this basis) to the public prosecutor. It is not just a case of possessing pepper spray,” said lawyer Hamed El Maghreb.

But her lawyers have asked for Sboui, who is being prosecuted under a law that prohibits the ownership of incendiary or explosive devices, and carries a prison sentence of six months to five years, to be acquitted.

“The judge will probably give his verdict today, in the afternoon,” said

Mokhtar Janene, one of the young woman’s lawyers.

Sboui’s father Mounir Sboui said before the trial opened that he was “proud” of his daughter for her ideological commitment while describing her acts as excessive. “I am proud of my daughter. This case is getting more and more politicized. Her actions were excessive but she defends her ideas,” he said. Her family has described her as someone who suffers from chronic depression and has suicidal tendencies, and for a long time they prevented her from going out, claiming her safety was at risk.

But the young woman accused her relatives of holding her in captivity and beating her, and ran away from home in April. —AFP

International FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Man appears in court over killing of British soldier Case to be tried as terrorist act

YEREVAN: Britain’s Prince Charles (center) visits the residence of the Armenian Apostolic Church leader, Catholicos Garegin II (right), in Etchmiadzin, outside Yerevan, yesterday. Prince Charles is on a private visit to Armenia, the Armenian media reported. — AFP

Guinea poll campaign begins amid protests CONAKRY: The four-week campaign for Guinea’s June 30 parliamentary elections began yesterday despite deadly protests by opposition activists who say the government intends to rig the vote.

A presidential decree setting June 28 as the final date for campaigning was read out just once on public radio late Wednesday but not broadcast on state television at the request of President Alpha Conde, station sources told AFP. The poll, postponed several times in the past two years, has become a hot button issue in Guinea as it tries to move on from decades of dictatorship, coups and political violence.

The opposition has threatened to prevent the vote taking place unless it is delayed and has demanded that the South African company managing the electoral roll is replaced amid suspicions that it is colluding with the government to fix the result. Opposition activists refused to submit lists of candidates and have organised several marches demanding free and fair elections which have ended in deadly clashes with security forces in recent months. Over the last week alone, at least 12 people have been killed and 89 have been wounded in escalating violence, according to the government, which is launching an inquiry into the deaths.

A statement released late Wednesday by the opposition put the toll at 18, “most of whom were killed by live rounds”, and said hundreds had been injured. The last legislative elections were held in 2002 under then president Lansana Conte, who ruled the former French colony for 24 years until his death in December 2008, which prompted a disastrous coup marked by extreme police brutality.— AFP

‘Karachi affair’ suspect detained in France PARIS: Police yesterday detained a Franco-Lebanese businessman who is being probed in a high-profile political financing scandal over suspicions he was trying to flee France, a source close to the case said.

Ziad Takieddine, who is banned from leaving France as investigations into the so-called Karachi affair go on, allegedly paid 200,000 euros ($260,000) for a diplomatic passport from the Dominican Republic, the source said. The businessman is embroiled in several scandals in France, some of which allegedly involve former President Nicolas Sarkozy and other high-profile politicians.

He has claimed he has proof Sarkozy received illicit funding from Libya’s ex-dictator Moamer Kadhafi for his successful 2007 presidential campaign, and an official probe into the allegation has been opened. Takieddine is also being investigated for suspected money laundering after he was detained with 1.5 million euros in cash on a private flight out of Libya in March 2011, French judicial sources said late last year.

And he has been charged with corruption in a case centred on commissions he allegedly received in 1994 arms deals that could have been used illegally in ex-prime minister Edouard Balladur’s presidential campaign the next year. The so-called Karachi affair has also embroiled Sarkozy, who was Balladur’s campaign spokesman and budget minister at the time. —AFP

LONDON: Michael Adebowale, 22, appeared in a London court yesterday charged with the killing of a British soldier on a busy London street last week, which the prosecutor said would be tried as a terrorist act. Adebowale was charged late on Wednesday with the murder of Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old serving soldier, in Woolwich in south-east London on May 22. He also faces a charge of possessing a firearm, a 9.4mm revolver, with intent to cause others to believe that violence would be used. Prosecutor Bethan David told the court the alleged offence fell under the scope of terrorism legislation. Looking dazed and limping slightly, Adebowale appeared in handcuffs in the glass-fronted dock at Westminster Magistrates’ Court wearing white trousers and a light grey sweatshirt.

He was flanked by two plainclothes policemen and there were two court security guards in the dock as well. Asked to confirm his name and address in Greenwich in southeast London, he said only “yes”. The two charges were then read out to him during the hearing, which lasted less than five minutes.

He did not enter a plea, as is normal at this stage under British law.

Adebowale was arrested at the scene along with another man, Michael

LONDON: A police van believed to be carrying 22-year-old Michael Adebowale, suspect of the murder of British soldier Lee Rigby, speeds as it leaves the Westminster Magistrates Court in central London, Yesterday.—AP Adebolajo, 28. Both men were shot by police and taken to hospital where they stayed under armed guard. Adebowale was discharged from hospital on Tuesday and has been in police custody since.

Adebolajo remains in hospital. Judge Howard Riddle sent Adebowale’s case to London’s Central Criminal Court, known as the Old Bailey, for trial. Adebowale will appear there for a bail hearing on Monday. A further pre-trial hearing is scheduled for

June 28. Rigby, a veteran of the Afghan war, died at the scene of the attack, which took place in broad daylight. A post-mortem gave the cause of death as “multiple incised wounds”.

Prime Minister David Cameron called the attack “a betrayal of Islam and of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country”, and vowed that Britain would never give in to terrorism in any of its forms. —Reuters

Father of Chechen killed in Boston wants FBI agents tried MOSCOW: The father of a Chechen man shot dead by the FBI during questioning about his links to the Boston Marathon bombers said yesterday he wanted the agents tried for “executing” his son.

Ibragim Todashev, 27, was shot by FBI agents in Florida a week ago during questioning at his home about his links to one of the Tsarnaev brothers alleged to have carried out the April 15 Boston bombings. The FBI said the agents had shot Todashev in self defence after the suspect lunged at them during questioning.

Todashev’s father Abdulbaki showed reporters in Moscow what he said were pictures of his son’s bulletriddled body. The photographs showed at least seven bullet wounds to the body of a young man resembling Ibragim Todashev-including one to the back of the head.

“Today I want justice. I want an investigation, so that these people (the FBI) are sued under US laws,” Todashev’s father said. “These are not FBI agents. These are bandits and they must appear in court.”

Abdulbaki said he had received the photographs of his son by email from Muslims in Florida. Local media initially cited investigators as saying he had attacked an FBI agent with a knife. Yet the Washington Post yesterday quoted a law enforcement official saying Todashev was unarmed. Investigators said Todashev was on the verge of signing a confession that he and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had played a role in an unsolved triple homicide.

The triple murder took place on September 11, 2011 — the 10-year anniversary of the deadly attacks on the United States-in the Boston suburb of Waltham, accord-

ing to local media. All three bodies were found nearly decapitated, covered with marijuana and thousands of dollars in cash. Todashev’s father said he was certain that his son was deliberately killed by the FBI because of the bullet wound to the back of his head. “This is not a shot that you fire when you come under attack. This is a shot you fire to execute someone,” he said.

“Couldn’t they just handcuff him? At the very least, they could have wounded him in the foot or shoulder.

And here he was-killed execution style.” Todashev’s father added that his son must have had information that investigators wanted to keep secret. “So they silenced him,” the father said. —AFP

MOSCOW: Abdulbaki Todashev, father of Ibragim Todashev, shows pictures of his son’s bullet-riddled body during a press conference in Moscow, yesterday.—AFP

International FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Fearful Myanmar Muslims shelter in monastery LASHIO, Myanmar: More than 1,000 Muslims who fled Myanmar’s latest bout of sectarian violence huddled yesterday in a Buddhist monastery guarded by army soldiers as calm returned to this northeastern city, though burnt out buildings leveled by Buddhist rioters still smoldered. The army transported terrified Muslim families by the truckload out of a neighborhood in Lashio where overturned cars and motorcycles that had been charred a day earlier left black scars on the red earth.

“We heard things could get worse, so we waved down soldiers and asked them for help,” said 59-year-old Khin Than, who arrived at the monastery Thursday morning with her four children and sacks of luggage along with several hundred other Muslims. “We left because we’re afraid of being attacked.”

The violence in Lashio this week highlights how anti-Muslim unrest has slowly spread across Myanmar since starting last year in western Rakhine state and hitting the central city of Meikhtila in March. President Thein Sein’s government, which inherited power from the military two years ago, has been heavily criticized for failing to contain the violence.

In Lashio yesterday, Buddhist monks organized meals for the newly arrived refugees, who huddled together in several buildings in the monastery compound.

Although a few Buddhist men could still be seen Thursday riding motorbikes with crude weapons such as sharpened bamboo poles, no new violence was reported. Several banks and shops reopened as residents emerged to look at destroyed Muslim shops. —AP

Muslim families evacuated from recent violence have lunch in temporary shelter at a monastery in Lashio in eastern Myanmar’s Shan state yesterday. — AFP

Drone death a blow to Pakistani Taleban Peace efforts suffer a setback

KABUL: Insurgents suspected of being from the Haqqani network are presented to the media at the intelligence agents of Security (NDS) headquarters in Kabul yesterday. — AP

Karzai slams Taleban for killing countrymen KABUL: Afghanistan’s Taleban are killing Afghans and making a mockery of their claim to be fighting foreign invaders, President Hamid Karzai said yesterday. A series of attacks in different parts of the country, including areas long considered largely free of militant violence, is raising worry about the ability of Afghan forces to maintain security after most foreign troops leave. “It’s clear that the fight is not against foreigners, it’s for foreigners,” Karzai told a news conference at the presidential palace in the capital, Kabul. Karzai did not elaborate on that point though he has long accused neighboring Pakistan of harboring Afghan Taleban leaders and backing their insurgency in a bid to promote Pakistan’s security interests.

Pakistan rejects the accusations.

Karzai, addressing the Taleban, said they were killing an increasing number of members of the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), who were now defending the country.

“Why do you martyr a soldier who protects this country?

You plant a roadside bomb in his way and blow him up,” Karzai said. “In this defense we sacrifice every day. Twenty people, 30 people, 15 people from the ANSF, and these sacrifices are more than the past two or three year,” he said.

Most foreign combat troops will leave by the end of 2014 but Afghanistan and the United States are in talks about a small US force staying on. They have yet to agree on how many will remain and where they will be based.

Karzai appealed for people to be patient, saying there was no need to rush the negotiations. “We want to guarantee Afghanistan’s interests including peace, security, accountability and friendship,” he said.

The Taleban have stepped up attacks in recent weeks after a traditional winter lull. On Wednesday, militants attacked the provincial governor’s compound in the Panjshir Valley, one of the country’s most peaceful provinces and a bastion of anti-Taleban forces, where Taleban violence is virtually unheard of. — Reuters

ISLAMABAD: The killing of the Pakistani Taleban’s deputy leader is a heavy blow to the militants but could also complicate peace efforts due to the loss of a relatively moderate voice, analysts say. Waliur Rehman, second-in-command of the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), was killed in the early hours of Wednesday by a US drone attack in the tribal district of North Waziristan, according to Pakistani security officials.

The TTP has killed thousands in its bloody campaign of gun and bomb attacks in recent years, attacking the Pakistani state for being insufficiently Islamic and for allying itself with the US “war on terror”.

Washington refused to confirm Rehman’s death but said that if true it would mean the TTP had lost its “chief military strategist”, blamed for assaults on US forces in Afghanistan including a suicide attack that killed seven CIA agents. The TTP groups numerous different tribal and militant factions, sometimes competing. Analyst Saifullah Khan Mehsud said the 42-year-old Rehman was the only figure since Baitullah Mehsud, the network’s founder, to inspire respect across the spectrum. “His death is a big blow to the TTP, they have lost their statesman, they have lost a man who had the support of the rank and file and I believe that it will be very difficult for the TTP to replace him,” Mehsud, executive director of the FATA Research Centre, told AFP. “When we look at the current leadership, mid- and high leadership among the TTP, we don’t see anyone who has supposedly the capability to replace Waliur Rehman.” Rehman, who had three wives and was a member of the Mehsud tribe which dominates the TTP, was a key figure in the outfit from its inception in 2007. He came from a religious background and set up a seminary in his native South Waziristan before taking up arms. Pakistan’s incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif has raised the pos-

sibility of talks with the Taleban to try to end the bombings and shootings that plague life on an almost daily basis.

Tribal affairs and security expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said Rehman’s links to the mainstream religious Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Fazl (JUIF) party, seen as a possible go-between in any talks, could have made him a useful interlocutor. “A common perception about Rehman was his political mind-he was considered as a man who believed in talks,” Yusufzai told AFP. “He was close to JUIF and his elimination from the scene would be a great setback to the peace efforts.” TTP supremo Hakimullah Mehsud, himself several times mistakenly reported killed by US drone strikes, is seen as a more hardline militant and Mehsud the analyst said negotiating with him would be difficult.

“He is considered as very volatile and considering his crimes against the Pakistani state, it would be very very difficult for the Pakistani state to come to terms with the fact that will have to talk with someone like him,” he said.

In any event, peace talks look a distant prospect. Sharif has set accepting the constitution and the rule of law as a condition for coming to the table, something the TTP reject.

Moreover, meaningful dialogue could only go ahead with the blessing of the armed forces, Pakistan’s most powerful institution. Last month the military chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani made it clear the militants could not dictate terms for talks. “We sincerely desire that all those who have strayed and have picked up arms against the nation, return to the national fold,” he said in a speech.

“However, this is only possible once they unconditionally submit to the state, its constitution and the rule of law. There is no room for doubts when it comes to dealing with rebellion against the state.”

Yusufzai said the killing could well drive the TTP even further away from the path to peace. “Taleban would take revenge as they had already said that Pakistan military are cooperating with US on drone strikes,” he said. —AFP

MULTAN: Pakistani protesters from the United Citizen Action shout slogans during a protest in Multan yesterday against US drone attacks in Pakistani tribal areas. — AFP

International FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

No charge against Chinese mother of baby in sewer Baby discharged from hospital

BANGKOK: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (left) speaks next to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (right) during a press conference at Government House in Bangkok yesterday. Singh is on two-day visit to Thailand. — AFP

Japan ‘comfort women’ mayor survives censure TOKYO: A Japanese mayor who caused a storm with his comments on wartime “comfort women” survived a censure motion filed by local politicians yesterday. Council members in the western city of Osaka rejected the motion against mayor Toru Hashimoto, who is also joint leader of the national Japan Restoration Party, city officials said.

Hashimoto prompted outrage at home and abroad by suggesting that battle-stressed soldiers during World War II needed the services of up to 200,000 sex slaves from Korea, China, the Philippines and elsewhere who were forcibly drafted into Japanese brothels. The non-binding motion had earlier been expected to be approved. But the New Komeito Party, which holds the balance of power on the council, reversed its earlier stance and voted against it.

Ichiro Matsui, Osaka prefectural governor and a close aide to Hashimoto, earlier hinted that if the motion was passed, Hashimoto would resign to force a mayoral election in which he would seek re-election.

On Tuesday Hashimoto cancelled a trip to the United States after the US denounced his remarks as “outrageous and offensive”. Seeking to contain the fallout from his comments, the former TV pundit said Monday that Tokyo should apologize to former sex slaves. But he insisted that Japan’s soldiers were not unique in brutalizing women. He also retracted advice he gave to US military commanders in Japan, that they should let their troops use licensed sex businesses as part of what he called a crime reduction strategy.

Hashimoto has proved a colourful, if divisive, figure in Japan’s somewhat monochrome political world since he emerged as a force on the local and then the national scene. His plain-speaking iconoclasm and ability brazenly to ride out controversy won him enough admirers to be mentioned at one time as a possible future prime minister.

However, some commentators suggest the backlash this time over his “comfort women” comments may have struck a serious blow to his reputation. —AFP

OSAKA: Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto attends the city’s assembly in Osaka Yesterday. — AP

BEIJING: The mother of a Chinese baby boy who was rescued from a sewer pipe beneath a restroom shortly after birth is unlikely to face criminal charges because authorities concluded he fell into the toilet accidentally, local officials and media reports said yesterday. The baby was released from a hospital to his maternal grandparents late Wednesday, while his 22-year-old mother remains under medical care, the state-run Jinhua Evening News reported, in an account confirmed by a local police official who declined to give his name.

The baby’s stunning, two-hour rescue from a pipe underneath a squat toilet in Zhejiang province’s Pujiang county captivated the world, prompting both horror and an outpouring of charity on his behalf.

The mother initially raised the alarm about the baby when he got stuck Saturday in a pipe just below a squat toilet in a public restroom of a residential building, but she had cleaned the room of signs of a fresh birth and did not immediately come forward as the mother, officials have been quoted as saying. She admitted she was the mother two days later when confronted by police who found baby toys and blood-stained tissues in her apartment, the reports said. Police later concluded that the incident was an accident and that the woman did not initially come forward because she was frightened, but that she later started telling the truth, the Jinhua Evening News and a Pujiang county propaganda official said. The police initially treated the case as a possible attempted homicide, but now are unlikely to file criminal

ZHEJIANG: A Chinese woman and a nurse look at the baby who was rescued after being trapped in a sewage pipe moments after his birth, as he sleeps in an incubator at a hospital in Pujiang county in east China’s Zhejiang province. — AP charges, the newspaper and the official said.A man tracked down by police who is believed to be the baby’s father has requested a paternity test and - if the baby is his - is willing to help support the child, said the Pujiang official, who declined to give his name, as is customary among Chinese officials.

Officials have not publicly released the names of anyone connected with the case, which has raised discussion over China’s lack of proper education about sex, birthing and contraception in many schools. Unwanted pregnancies have been on the rise because of an increasingly lax attitude toward premarital sex. Duan Wanjin, a criminal lawyer based in Xi’an, said local police erred in not prosecuting the mother.

He said she could be charged with attempted homicide for not immediately calling for help after the newborn became stuck.

“The local police may have considered the woman was still young and did not have any malice, and have come to the decision from the human perspective, but it sends a terrible signal to the public,” Duan said.

Sociologist Li Yinhe said the only mistake by the woman was not to immediately admit the baby was hers. “I don’t think that’s a big deal. After all, the child is safe, and it has a happy ending,” Li said. “The Chinese people still lean heavily on the human considerations. Let it be bygones if there’s no serious crime.” —AP

Crocodile eats Indonesian, head found in river KUPANG, Indonesia: A crocodile devoured a man as he fished in an eastern Indonesian river but left his head floating in the water where it was discovered by his distraught family, police said yesterday.

Sam Sem Ledo, a father of 11, set off on Tuesday to go fishing for crabs in the Amabi river in Kupang district on Timor island. But the 53-year-old had not returned home by the following day, so several of his family members accompanied by police began searching for him.

At first they spotted a basket of crabs, his fishing gear and flip-flops-but then came face to face with his head floating in an estuary, said local detective Bonifasius Rumbewas. “We were able to identify him because of the head,” added local police chief Mochammad Slamet, who said that other body parts, including intestines, were also found in the water. Police did not say which of the man’s family members were involved in the search Slamet said Ledo had been killed by a saltwater crocodile, and that the area was infested with them. In the past year and a half, at least five people had been killed by crocodiles in the district, added Slamet. He urged people “to be aware that they are living near a crocodile habitat and take extra care”. The huge Indonesian archipelago is home to a vast array of exotic wildlife, including several species of crocodile. —AFP

This file photo shows a crocodile at an abandoned state-run zoo in Pararawen in Central Kalimantan province located in Indonesia’s Borneo island. — AFP

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International FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

US, China look to strike up alliance at summit Obama, Xi to search for personal chemistry

This National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite image yesterday shows the southern Pacific coastal area in Mexico. Hurricane Barbara made landfall in Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, leaving at least two dead including a 61-year-old US surfer before being downgraded to a tropical depression today. —AFP

Would-be Chicago backpack bomber to be sentenced CHICAGO: The defense depicts Sami Samir Hassoun as a uniquely gullible youth sucked into a terrorist plot during an alcohol-addled stretch of his life by an informant eager to please his FBI handlers.

Prosecutors, though, say the 25-year-old Lebanese immigrant showed enthusiasm and initiative, including by selecting a crowded street near Chicago’s Wrigley Field as the place to plant a backpack he believed held a real bomb. A federal judge will consider those competing portraits Thursday at Hassoun’s sentencing hearing in Chicago.

The one-time bakery worker pleaded guilty last year to two explosives charges. As part of his plea deal with the government, he faces between 20 and 30 years in prison.

The Chicago man’s sentencing comes in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing - a deadly attack that prosecutors could point to as an example of the chaos Hassoun had allegedly hoped to wreak.

At yesterday’s hearing, government attorneys planned to display the fake bomb that undercover agents gave to Hassoun on a September weekend in 2010. It’s a paint can fitted with blasting caps and a timer. They also intend to play a surveillance video of Hassoun dropping the device into a trash bin near the Chicago Cubs’ baseball stadium. FBI agents arrested him moments later.

Before Thursday’s sentencing, Hassoun apologized in a sevenpage letter to his sentencing judge, Robert Gettleman. He also insisted he has worked at becoming a better person, including by doing yoga in jail. Hassoun, who was born in Beirut, also blamed his actions in part on trauma he said stayed with him since his childhood; he was living in Ivory Coast when bloody civil strife broke out in that African nation.

To dampen his emotional pain, he wrote and he drank alcohol “all day, every day” for months before the would-be attack. He favored whole bottles of Johnnie Walker Black, he wrote.

The multilingual Hassoun immigrated with his parents and a younger brother to the US in the late 2000s and once aspired to become a doctor, his attorneys and relatives have said. In a recent presentencing filing, the defense suggested investigators may have entrapped Hassoun - arguing the paid informant egged Hassoun on to acquiesce to ever-more ominous-sounding plots.

Hassoun did waffle about his plans, allegedly talking about profiting monetarily and then broaching the idea of poisoning Lake Michigan or assassinating then-Chicago Mayor Richard M Daley, prosecutors have said. But far from being led on, prosecutors say, Hassoun himself concluded that maximum damage could be inflicted by orchestrating a blast next to the popular Sluggers World Class Sports Bar, just steps from Wrigley Field.

“He selected the day and time at which to strike - midnight on a Saturday night - to maximize the number of prospective casualties,” prosecutors said. He walked away expecting “chaos and carnage.”

Undercover agents also repeatedly asked Hassoun if he wanted to back out, telling him there would be no shame in doing so. But he repeated declined, saying he wanted to press ahead, government filings say. Another point of contention is motive. The defense argues religious fervor did not drive Hassoun, making him less of a long-term threat. But prosecutors say he’s dangerous, no matter the motive. —AP

BEIJING: President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping face weighty issues when they meet at a private estate in California next week, but their most important task may simply be establishing a strong rapport. Tucked away at a mansion with a private golf course on the edge of the Mojave Desert, Obama and Xi will search for the kind of personal chemistry that has eluded their predecessors for the past several decades. With the bilateral relationship growing ever more critical and complex, how well the leaders click matters even more now.

Distrust has grown between the world’s sole superpower and the rising Asian giant. Beijing sees Washington as trying to thwart China’s ascendancy. The US accuses China of widespread computer hacking and unfair trade.

Meanwhile, there’s worry their militaries might be drawn into conflict as China tries to elbow aside US allies Japan and the Philippines over disputed, remote islands.

“There are a lot of problems between China and the US that aren’t going to be easy to solve. The hope, therefore, is that a way can be established so that at the times of crisis, dialogue will prevail based on trust and the personal relationship between the two leaders,” said Zhu Feng, deputy director of the Center for International and Strategic Studies at Peking University.

The June 7-8 get-together at the private Sunnylands estate of late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg is the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents since Obama’s re-election and Xi’s promotion to Communist Party chief last November. Under China’s dual partygovernment system, Xi didn’t officially assume the title of president until March.

The summit comes months before the two leaders had been originally scheduled to meet, highlighting a perception on both sides that the leaders need to refocus on the US-China relationship following their political transitions and amid myriad distractions at home and abroad.

The accelerated timing constitutes “a clear message that China wants to emphasize the importance of US-China relations for the future,” said Cheng Li, a Chinese politics expert at the Brookings

Institution in Washington, DC. It’s not clear yet how big the two delegations will be or whether Xi and Obama will meet one-on-one, something Xi’s stiff and formal predecessor, Hu Jintao, was unwilling to do, Li said.

But there are hopeful signs that the two men will gel. Xi already has a warm relationship with Vice President Joe Biden, whom he accompanied to western China on a visit in 2011. Xi also boasts a greater familiarity with the U.S. than any of his predecessors, having visited

users closely followed her activities during the couple’s first formal state visits to Russia and three African countries earlier this year. “It will be interesting to see how the chemistry will develop. It’s important, because particularly in China, personal relationships always carry a lot of weight in state-to-state relations,” said the Brookings Institution’s Li. Xi has already proved himself a different leader by his pragmatism. With relations edgy, he was willing to forgo the pomp of an official White House visit for

Barack Obama meets with then-Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. —AP file photo frequently and maintained his ties to families he stayed with in Muscatine, Iowa, while a visiting provincial official in 1985. He also sent his daughter to Harvard.

The two men share a love of sports: swimming and football on Xi’s side, basketball and golf on Obama’s. Both are married to glamorous, high-profile wives who have played a strong role in shaping their images.

Xi’s wife, People’s Liberation Army songstress Peng Liyuan, was for many years better known to the public than her husband. Chinese media and Internet

the lower-key meeting in California.

Trust between the countries has dwindled over the decades. After US planes bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia in what Washington says was an accident during the Kosovo war in 1999, angry Chinese protesters nearly breached the US Embassy in Beijing. In the discord, Chinese President Jiang Zemin refused a call from the White House. Two years later, when a Chinese fighter jet collided with a US surveillance plane off southern China, Beijing held the American crew and waited for an acceptable apology from the US. —AP

DOJ report shows spike in reservation crime cases FLAGSTAFF, Arizona: American Indian leaders who criticized the federal government for years over the way authorities handled major crimes on reservations will soon mark progress with the release of newly tracked statistics from the US Justice Department.

Federal prosecutions of cases from Indian Country increased by 54 percent between fiscal years 2009 and 2012, according to a DOJ report obtained by The Associated Press.

“They’ve taken their responsibility much

more seriously than before,” said Brent Leonhard, an attorney with Umatilla tribe in Oregon. The report scheduled for release later marks the first look at government investigations and prosecutions on tribal lands. It comes as a result of the 2010 Tribal Law and Order Act, which requires the Justice Department to publicly release such figures.

Justice officials acknowledge that their work is far from done, but they say the numbers demonstrate the government’s commitment

to combating violent crime on reservations where rates are higher than the national average.

The report also shows that nearly 6,000 Indian reservation cases were referred to the federal government between calendar years 2011 and 2012. Arizona, home to the nation’s largest American Indian reservation, had the highest number with more than 2,000, followed by South Dakota with nearly 1,000 and Montana with more than 500. —AP

Business FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Rare Gulf cash call built on shaky foundations

OPEC shifts trade map after shale PAGE 19

Page 22

MANILA: A vendor sells chilli peppers at a wet market in Manila yesterday. The Philippine economy posted a surprising 7.8 percent growth in the first quarter of 2013, the best performance since President Benigno Aquino took office in 2010. —AFP (See Page 22)

Europeans give up holiday travel Economic austerity bites; Foreign vacation down PARIS: Fewer Europeans are planning to go away for a summer holiday as economic austerity bites, a new study shows, with levels of foreign vacation travel at their lowest for eight years. No more than 54 percent of Europeans are planning to get away for summer holiday this year, according to the Ipsos-Europ Assistance “holiday barometer” published yesterday. Europ Assistance Group CEO Martin Vial said there was “a clear correlation between the intensity of the slump and holiday intentions”.

Unsurprisingly the countries with the highest unemployment rates were the worst hit. “The scope of the crisis in Spain and Italy is particularly visible in departure plans,” the report said, with fewer than one in two Spaniards planning to leave on holiday this summer and little more than half of Italians. Due to “less tense” economic and social situations the departure plans for Germans and Austrians had stabilized, according to the study.

For the first time since the economic crisis began, the French are particularly affected this year, it said. While 62 percent of them say they want to leave on holiday this year, this is still eight points down on last year and the lowest rate since 2005. At least the stay-at-home French can comfort themselves on remaining in the leading destination chosen by Europeans. The country is set this year to welcome 18 percent of European tourists, the study says, followed closely by Italy with Spain, on 14 percent, in third place.

The Internet and social networks are being used more than ever for vacation preparations, with the British holidaymakers most active on the Internet, followed by the Belgians, French and Germans. The British have also retained their enthusiasm for foreign travel, being the only country studied where the intentions to leave on a summer holiday are going up this year, from 51 percent to 56 percent. Ipsos conducted the study talking to a total of 4,048 Europeans from Austria, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. —AFP

Portugal protests against austerity LISBON: Workers at the Lisbon metro went on strike yesterday and businesses came to a standstill across Portugal to protest government austerity measures aimed at slashing the deficit and meeting the terms of an international bailout. “We anticipate strong participation by workers who will also show their availability for a more general struggle,” said Armenio Carlos, the secretary general of the country’s largest trade union, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), which organized the day of protest.

The CGTP, which is close to the Communist Party, and Portugal’s second-largest union, the more moderate General Union of Workers (UGT) - which is aligned to the main opposition Socialist Party-are discussing staging a general strike next month after organizing two last year, in March and November.

The metro system in the Portuguese capital closed late on Wednesday and will only re-open today morning, forcing thousands of commuters to find an alternative way to get to work or school. “We have total participation by metro workers in the strike,” said Carlos. Walkouts were planned in various companies, while gatherings

were scheduled to be held at workplaces around the capital during business hours, which would slow activity.

The union chose Thursday because it corresponds with the religious feast of Corpus Christi, one of four public holidays the government decided to scrap this year in an effort to improve competitiveness and boost economic activity. “Workers are fighting against the theft of holidays and non-paid work,” said Carlos. The feast of Corpus Christi, which falls 60 days after Easter Sunday, is a major observance in Portugal and is traditionally celebrated with colorful processions.

Portugal’s economy, which has been propped up since May 2011 by a bailout package from the European Union and International Monetary Fund of 78 billion euros ($100 billion), is expected to contract 2.3 percent by the end of the year. Unemployment is forecast to climb to a record 18.2 percent. Under the terms of the bailout agreement, Portugal has had to make sharp spending cuts, including reductions in public-sector wages, and has raised taxes, sparking popular discontent as in other European countries facing austerity measures. —AFP

Business FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Shares under pressure on Fed stimulus jitters Euro inches higher in cautious trade LONDON: World shares were under pressure for a second day yesterday and the dollar slipped against major currencies, in markets beset by doubts over when the US Federal Reserve might slow its stimulus program.

Top European stocks edged up 0.2 percent as they steadied after heavy falls on Wednesday, but another 5 percent dive in Japan’s Nikkei in Asian trading left MSCI’s world index at a three-week low. “The market is being dominated by expectations of Fed tightening,” said Daiwa securities economist Tobias Blattner.

“German government bond yields have gone up quite significantly and after this massive rally equities are correcting to a certain extent.”

Share gains in Europe were underpinned by mining stocks , which rose 1.8 percent as traditional safe-haven investment gold - which has fallen sharply this year as demand for riskier assets has risen - jumped more than 1 percent to a one-week high. The US job market and the economy as a whole may be strong enough in a few months to allow the Fed to pare its bond buying by a small amount, normally dovish Fed policymaker Eric Rosengren said on Wednesday.

Uncertainty over the timing of any shift left the dollar broadly weaker and hovering near a session low of 100.555 against the yen. The softer greenback saw the euro drift up to $1.2974 as it neared a two-week high.

European Commission sentiment data, due at 0900 GMT, will be a focus for investors looking for signs of a pickup following recent patchy surveys.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Francois Hollande also meet ahead of a June EU summit.

In the debt market, German Bund futures recovered some ground after a recent sell-off. But investors were also reluctant to place big bets before a sale

TOKYO: People walk by an electronic stock board of a securities firm in Tokyo yesterday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closed down 737.43 points, or 5.15 percent, at 13,589.03 yesterday as concerns that the Federal Reserve might start scaling back its stimulus program due to improvement in the US economy sent Asian stock markets lower. — AP of 5- and 10-year Italian bonds, amid signs that a 10-month fall in peripheral euro zone borrowing costs could be drawing to a close. Commodity markets were also focused on the uncertain impact a scale-back in Fed support would have on the global economy and its demand for natural resources and for the dollar, which most raw materials are priced in.

London copper dropped to a twoweek low of $7,205.50 bringing its fall

this year to 9 percent, and oil dipped back towards $102, near the bottom of its recent range.

“This (Fed easing stimulus) is a very tricky issue. I don’t think Fed chairman Ben Bernanke really wants to start tapering stimulus, but more and more policymakers are for it,” said Joyce Liu, an investment analyst at Phillip Futures. “It seems that every time there’s a dip, people will start coming to the market to buy,” Liu said about gold. — Reuters

Gold at 1-week high LONDON: Gold rose by around one percent yesterday as the dollar fell to a two-week low against a basket of major currencies yet downside risk remained due to rebounding equities.

Improved US data suggesting the Federal Reserve could decide to scale back the current monthly pace of $85 billion in asset purchases in the next few policy meetings was seen as a catalyst that could take bullion prices lower.

Gold rallied as high as $1,410.51, its highest since May 22. It stood at $1,406.11 at 0951 GMT, up 1 percent. US gold rose 1 percent to $1,405.10 an ounce. Traders said volumes could see wide swings due to the June-August contract rollover on Friday. The dollar index dropped 0.5 percent, mostly due to a stronger yen after Japanese equities took a tumble overnight.

But European stocks reversed Wednesday’s losses as euro zone data showed confidence in the bloc’s economy improved more than anticipated in May. “The fall in equity markets in the past few days shows that there is perhaps some concern that these had moved up too quickly at a time when you also had everyone buying the dollar on expectations of US recovery,” SP Angel analyst Carole Ferguson said.

“I think the reversal of that is what is obviously helping gold and prices could settle not far from here if the $1,400 level is sustained, which will depend on whether investors continue to buy into risk or not.” In bond markets, US 10-year Treasury yields retreated from 13-month highs reached earlier in the week.

As gold has no interest rate, a fall in returns from US bonds and other markets, at least for now, is seen as a positive sign.

The market is turning its attention towards the release of US GDP data for the first quarter and US weekly jobless claims at 1230 GMT, as these could give more cues on the Fed’s future decisions. “The bearish trend remains in place,” ScotiaMocatta said in a note. “However, we are short-term neutral until this consolidation period is resolved ...the base of the consolidation is at the $1,339 low from May 20, resistance is at the top at $1,414, the high from May 22.”

PHYSICAL DEMAND For now, strong premiums for gold bars in Asia have indicated jewelers and retail investors are happy to buy bullion on dips. In Singapore, supply constraints have sent premiums to all time highs at $7 to spot London prices. Holdings in the SPDR Gold Trust, the world’s largest gold-backed exchangetraded fund, rose 0.9 tons to 1,013.15 tons on Wednesday, the first increase since May 9. Silver tracked gold’s gains closely, rising to a one-week high of $22.80 an ounce. Platinum rose 0.7 percent to $1,462.99 an ounce and palladium gained 0.3 percent to $748.97 an ounce, having reached a near-twomonth high of $760.97 on Tuesday. — Reuters

Rare Gulf cash call built on shaky foundations DUBAI: Rights issues are a rarity in Gulf capital markets but the drought is about to end with a flash flood from a single issuer. UAE construction group Arabtec wants to raise $1.3 billion in two stages to fund an aggressive expansion. That is more than twothirds of its market value, and exceeds what the local market has raised through rights issues in the past eight years, according to Thomson Reuters.

Yet the firm which helped raise the world’s tallest tower has built its cash call on shaky foundations.

When companies ask shareholders for cash, they need to provide a robust explanation of how it will be spent.

Arabtec says it needs funds for a fiveyear plan to harness the industry recovery. Over half the fundraising would go on establishing itself in oil and gas projects where margins are higher than

in its core business of affordable housing. The rest will go to expanding existing operations. Even if the strategy makes sense, it lacks sufficient detail.

The contractor talks vaguely about acquisitions, having already picked up a minority stake in interior contractor Depa . It doesn’t provide firm targets for its planned joint venture with Korea’s Samsung Engineering.

There are also questions about the solidity of the management team.

Arabtec’s biggest shareholder, Abu Dhabi state-linked fund Aabar Investments, has used its recently acquired 22 percent stake to lead a shake-up that has seen the founder retire from the chief executive position and given the fund strong influence on the board. The newness of the top team, still without a chief financial officer, heightens execution risk.

The cash call might struggle if this were any other company. But support from Aabar is a critical factor. The fund’s links to oil-rich Abu Dhabi may help win state contracts. The worry for ordinary shareholders is that Aabar may hold too much sway, with the risk that future growth comes at the expense of profitability. While the share sale gives investors pre-emption rights, local rules mean that shareholders cannot sell these separately to their shares. Investors must either accept savage dilution or stump up to travel alongside Aabar. Whatever its flaws, the issue will probably succeed.

Dubai-based contractor Arabtec will open subscription for a $650 million rights issue on June 9. The company will sell 1.57 billion new shares each at a price of 1.5 dirhams, a 26 percent discount to the closing price on May 29.

Arabtec has a market capitalization of around $1.7 billion. Arabtec is planning to raise up to $1.8 billion to fund its expansion drive, from two rights issues and a $450 million bond.

The company replaced its chief executive in February as part of a wider management shake-up led by its largest shareholder Abu Dhabi statelinked fund Aabar Investments. The firm is yet to appoint a chief financial officer. Aabar increased its stake in Arabtec during 2012 and now owns 22 percent. The fund and its related entities have four representatives on the nine-member board, including the chairman.

More than half of the proceeds from the capital raising will fund acquisitions and an agreement to form a joint venture with Korea’s Samsung Engineering in the oil and gas sector. — Reuters

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Business FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Al Sayer Group rewards

KUWAIT: In recognition of its long service employees, Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons Company has organized a special event to honor and reward staff who’ve been working with Al Sayer for up to 45 years. The awards granted to Al Sayer employees came in gratitude of their loyalty and commitment, as well as their considerable achievements and contribution in their respective departments during their service at Al Sayer throughout the years.

Addressing the audience, Faisal Bader Al Sayer, Vice Chairman, Mohamed Naser Al Sayer & Sons Company, said: “We are all thankful for your dedication and significant input to Al Sayer Group which played a key role in overcoming all challenges we faced over the years.

We wouldn’t achieve our growth and leadership in the market for so many years without your valuable contribution and genuine commitment to Al Sayer. We are so proud of each and every one of you and we will spare no effort to ensure your growth and stability within Al Sayer Group.

Being together today is not a coincidence or of the moment, it is the result of the Groups’ attention and care for our employees. It is a clear indicator of the mutual trust between the management and employees and the spirit of employee’s belonging to the management with such solid and firm dedication to service”.

Faisal Al Sayer added: “We recognize our real strength is our people. Our success is due to their high caliber and professionalism.

That’s why, at Al Sayer, we provide regular training and guidance to all our staff to help them acquire the skills and experience needed to develop their career and achieve their

21

Business FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

long service employees

goals, Some of you completed 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 50, and even 55 years in service. If we remember that our group was established 60 years ago, then we would find out that some of you have grown with the Group since its start which is a definite proof of the solid relationship between us.”.

“I promise that as usual we will reciprocate your dedication and loyalty to the Group with appreciation, reward and good treatment. We look forward to achieve more successes with

you whom would never be achieved without you and without the proper work environment which we will always provide you with. Our development of the special training programs and benefits packages are an expression of our desire to reward your achievements with more commitment to providing a prosperous future for all the employees of Al Sayer Group. I wish you more success and continuous progress in our Group, and I look forward to more meetings and events

like this one”, added Mr. Al Sayer.

For over 50 years the Al-Sayer Group has been one of Kuwait’s foremost companies. Its reputation as a leading business has been built up since 1954 when the company was first established to engage in general trading and car imports. Since then the company has been expanding and diversifying and the Group now has a wide range of exciting activities and companies.

Business FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Italy’s debt costs rise Tide turning on peripheral debt MILAN: Italy’s long-term borrowing costs edged up at an auction yesterday for the first time in three months, adding to signs that a 10-month-long rally in vulnerable euro-zone bonds may be faltering. They remained well below levels that triggered concern during the height of the euro-zone debt crisis, however. The rise in long-term yields followed an uptick in Rome’s short-term debt costs on Wednesday and a rise last week in Spanish debt. The moves reflected investors’ concerns the US Federal Reserve may soon begin unwinding its ultra-loose monetary policy program - withdrawing some global liquidity. That has generally lifted bond yields across the board, although bonds in peripheral euro-zone economies have fared worse than those of core Germany.

The impact of the European Central Bank’s pledge to buy bonds of troubled euro-zone economies in certain circumstances may also have run its course in terms of how far down it can push yields, although it is likely to remain a backstop for the market. Analysts said the auction was positive in terms of the current cautious market mood, but some said bond markets could become rough for peripheral countries as investors turn to countries’ economic fundamentals they have long neglected.

“Amid increasing signs that the tide is turning against peripheral euro-zone bond markets... Italy was still able to pull off a strong auction,” said Nicholas Spiro, managing director at Spiro Sovereign Strategy. Rome sold 3 billion euros of 10-year bonds at 4.14 percent, its highest level since March. At a similar sale a month ago, it had paid 3.94 percent, the lowest since October 2010. The treasury also placed 2.75 billion euros of 5-year bonds at 3.01, up from 2.84 percent one month ago.

LONG WAY FROM HIGHS Despite yesterday’s rise, Italy’s 10-year borrowing costs remained well below 6.20 percent posted at an auction at the end of June last year, before the pledge by the ECB to buy bonds of weaker euro-zone countries prompted a rally in peripheral government bonds. “Yields rose but this reflects what we have seen in the secondary market since last week after (Fed Chairman) Ben Bernanke’s speech,” said Luca Cazzulani, fixed income strategist at Unicredit.

Bernanke said last week that the US central bank could decide whether to reduce its $85 billion in asset purchases every month at one of its “next few meetings,” depending on economic data. The day following Bernanke’s speech Spain had to pay higher rates on medium-term debt for the first time since early February at a debt sale. “Italy’s bond market, like its Spanish counterpart, is entering into a much more perilous phase,” said Spiro.

The domestic economy remains in its longest recession since the World War Two, he said, adding Rome has embarked on the difficult task to cut taxes while sticking to the austerity path promised to Brussels. “Investors are start asking themselves whether there will be a recovery in the Italian economy,” said a Milan trader. The possible withdrawal of global liquidity from the financial market would have serious consequences for vulnerable countries that are still fighting to reform themselves and kickstart their economies. Italy, which also sold 50-yr bond via private placement on Wednesday, has already met more than 50 percent of its borrowing target for the whole 2013. — Reuters

Philippines posts 7.8% growth in first quarter MANILA: The Philippines posted surprisingly strong growth of 7.8 percent in the first quarter of the year, official data showed yesterday, cementing its status as one of Asia’s most dynamic economies. The expansion was the fastest since President Benigno Aquino came to power in 2010, and boosted hopes that one of the region’s perennial underachievers had entered a sustained phase of rapid growth. “We may now be moving along a new growth trajectory. Business confidence and consumer optimism fuelled this growth,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Arsenio Balisacan told reporters.

The growth rate for the Philippines from January to March was the fastest in Asia, surpassing even regional powerhouse China, which grew by 7.7 percent in the same period. The Philippine economy had for decades stagnated in comparison with others in Asia, and roughly a quarter of the country’s 100 million people live on the equivalent of 60 cents a day or less. Aquino pledged after winning a landslide election victory three years ago to transform the country’s economy.

Tackling government corruption, boosting infrastructure spending and widening the social safety net were key planks of his agenda. Balisacan said the first-quarter results showed the reform plans were working, with impressive growth seen across all key sectors of the economy. He said average eco-

MANILA: A vendor sells chilli peppers at a wet market in Manila yesterday. — AFP nomic growth of 4.6 percent over the mid-term elections this month helped past decade had been largely driven by boost the economy, but said it was not consumption, fuelled by the vast sums a main driver. of money sent home by the nine milThe Philippine economy grew by 8.9 lion Filipinos working overseas. In con- percent in the second quarter of 2010, trast, Balisacan highlighted that the marking the final few months before industrial sector grew by 10.9 percent the presidential elections when camin the first quarter of this year, with paign spending was far heavier. local manufacturing expanding by 9.7 Balisacan said the government was percent. He also pointed out that the maintaining its target of 6.0-7.0services sector-which includes the percent growth for this year. But folincreasingly important business lowing the first-quarter results, which process outsourcing industry that exceeded analysts’ expectations, he employs more than 600,000 Filipinos- said the government was more configrew by 7.0 percent. dent of achieving its target of 7.0-8.0 Balisacan conceded that heavy cam- percent growth rates by the end of paign spending by politicians ahead of Aquino’s term in 2016. —AP

OPEC shifts trade map after shale VIENNA: OPEC oil exporters yesterday, set to leave output policy unchanged, were weighing the impact of rising supplies of US shale oil that are redrawing the landscape of global oil trade. The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has little room to pump more oil due to the US oil boom that has sparked competition for marketshare in Asia and set off a rivalry between its top two producers Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

At a meeting in Vienna on Friday the 12-member group is expected to stick with its 30 million barrel a day (bpd) output target for the last six months of 2013.

A year ago, OPEC gave shale oil short shrift, but now it is a hot topic. Gulf producers are of the view that OPEC will still be able to pump at least 30 million bpd, provided US shale grows at a moderate pace.

“Shale oil is not a threat, but it changes the dynamics of where the oil is going. There will be more competition in Asia,” said a Gulf OPEC source. Despite the growing supply, oil is comfortably above $100 a barrel, well below the $125 that rang alarms in major consumer countries last year. But triple digit oil has also unlocked vast amounts of US shale oil in North Dakota and Texas - which competes with OPEC crude of similar, light quality from Nigeria and Algeria, rather than heavier Saudi output.

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. Fastgrowing exporter Iraq is also fighting for more Asian market share, competing with regional rival Saudi Arabia. “We are looking to increase our exports and we aim to make our crude more competitive in the market,” Iraq’s Oil Minister Abdul Kareem Luaibi told reporters in Vienna. The United Arab Emirates, also building up capacity, has the region in its sights, but downplayed the prospect for battle.

“I’m not of the view that competition in Asia is going to distort the price,” UAE Oil Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazroui said. Innovative use of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has put the United States in line to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2017, overtaking Saudi Arabia. That is not worrisome for Riyadh, especially when it comes to charting policy for the second half of 2013. And the kingdom holder of most spare capacity in OPEC shows no sign of opening the taps to bring down prices and curtail that output by making it uneconomic.

By the end of last year, the United States had recorded the biggest annual rise in oil output since it first pumped oil in the early 1860s. The 850,000 bpd increment was more than each of OPEC’s two smallest producers, Qatar and Ecuador, pump in total. Surging nonOPEC production has not prompted so much debate in the cartel in more than a decade, but there is no common view. While Saudi’s Naimi welcomes it, his Nigerian counterpart Diezani Alison-Madueke has said it will have a “major impact.”

PRICE WORRY 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. 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. With change in the output ceiling unlikely, short-term market management will be guided by OPEC’s leading producer Saudi Arabia - the only member with significant unused capacity - supported by the UAE and Kuwait.

Saudi Arabia has cut back from a 30-year high reached in 2012 of 10 million bpd, pumping 9.30 million bpd in April. That has helped bring overall OPEC production down to 30.46 million bpd, 460,000 bpd above the target. —Reuters

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

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THE FASCINATING STORY OF THE 99 Baghdad lies in ruins, destroyed by the marauding armies of Hulagu Khan. The brave librarians of the great Dar Al-Hikma rush to save the glory of the ancient world’s accumulated wisdom, little knowing that centuries later their efforts will bear strange fruit. While the Noor Stones were created to save the library, their power

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Opinion FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Israel could overcome Syria’s S-300 killing or wounding Russians helping to install the system. Security sources have put the number of Russian military personnel in Syria at several hundred. “The Russians would react badly to losing their people, and Israel knows that equally,” Hewson said.

Former Israeli defense minister Moshe Arens said Moscow should be mindful of the harm that seeing the S300 defeated in Syria would do to exports of the system elsewhere. Past clients include Cyprus, whose S-300, posted on the Greek island of Crete, may have given Israel’s air force a chance for test runs during manoeuvres over the Mediterranean.

“I’d be very surprised if the Russians deliver this system (to Syria),” Arens told Israel Radio. “It would become apparent that our air force is capable of besting this system, and that would not make for good advertising.” Playing down the strategic challenge that would be posed to Israel by a Syrian S-300, Arens added. “We are not afraid. This would simply change the situation, and we are not interested in the situation being changed to our detriment.”

By Dan Williams

I

srael could overcome advanced S300 anti-aircraft missiles if they were deployed in Syria but any strikes on the system would be difficult and risk alienating its supplier, Russia. Israel has pledged to take preventive action, seeing a future Syrian S-300 as a “game-changing” threat to its own airspace as well as to the relative free rein with which it now overflies its northern foe and neighboring Lebanon.

Experts agree that Israeli sabotage or open force to disrupt delivery by Russia is extremely unlikely - a view seemingly shored up by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s announcement on Thursday that the first missiles had arrived. That leaves Israel lobbying Moscow to slow down the shipment in hopes it would be overtaken and scrapped if Assad fell to a more than two-year-old rebellion, and in parallel preparing countermeasures to neutralize the S-300 on the ground in Syria.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted National Security Adviser Yaakov Amidror as warning European diplomats that Israel would “prevent the S-300 missiles from becoming operational”. That may be achieved by ensuring Assad does not get the full system, experts say, or by disabling it militarily if he does. “The S300 would be the pinnacle of Russiansupplied arms for Syria,” Colonel Zvika Haimovich, a senior Israeli air force officer, told Reuters in an interview.

“Though it would impinge on our operations, we are capable of overcoming it.”

He said Israel’s “red line” on the S300 was “between Syria and others”.

This was a hint Israel might hold off on bombing the batteries as long they did not appear set on shooting down planes within Israeli airspace, of being transferred to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas or to Iran - both staunch allies of Assad and enemies of Israel, or of being looted by Islamist rebels.

MARKETING MOSCOW The Israelis excel in electronic warfare. In 1982, they “blinded” Sovietsupplied Syrian anti-aircraft units in Lebanon, then destroyed 19 of them without Israeli losses. Similar technologies helped Israeli jets destroy a suspected nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and, this year, to hit Syrian targets on at least three occasions to prevent what intelligence sources called attempts to move advanced weaponry to Hezbollah.

A source close to Russia’s defense ministry agreed that the Israelis “likely have a million ways to combat the S300 electronically”. But he questioned their feasibility because they had not been tested in war. “So, whether the S-300 would fail or not cannot be known”. Robert Hewson, an IHS Jane’s air power analyst, predicted Israeli prowess would prevail in Syria while cautioning that the S-300 would be the most formidable air defense system it had ever faced. “Israel has had nasty surprises from these things before,” he said, noting its steep loss-

ASTRAKHAN: A file picture shows an S-300PMU-1 surface-to-air missile is being launched at the shooting range of Kapustin Yar near Astrakhan, 1,150 kms south of Moscow. Russia has delivered sophisticated air defense missiles to Syria. — AFP es to the Soviet anti-aircraft missiles used by Syria and Egypt in the 1973 war.

Hewson felt Israel would prefer to

destroy the S-300 in Syria but may opt instead just to circumvent it as required for missions, especially if there was the risk of inadvertently

HAZY DEPLOYMENT TIMELINE The timeline for the anticipated Syrian deployment of the S-300 remains hazy. Hewson said it could be “up and running within a minimum of a few weeks” once all components were in, and provided qualified Syrian personnel were available. But the Russian defense ministry source said he knew of no Syrians who had already been trained by Moscow, and put the completion of the S-300 delivery at “six to 12 months from now”.

Assuming Assad survives in power, such a lag could provide Israel with

thwarting opportunities. Hewson said the truck-towed S-300 would be physically hard to conceal. Its radar, if activated, would emit a distinctive signal that Israel could easily monitor, he added. Diplomatic alternatives may not have been exhausted, though. Yuval Steinitz, a senior member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet, held on Thursday what political sources described as a discussion of the Syrian S-300 deal with Russian Ambassador Sergei Yakovlev.

In 2010, following Israeli appeals, Russia scrapped an S-300 sale to Iran. In what may have been a quid pro quo, the Israelis also agreed that year to sell Russia surveillance drones that would narrow its technological military gap with rival Georgia. Russia now has other strategic interests - for example, investment in Israel’s Mediterranean gas fields. Silvan Shalom, another Israeli cabinet minister, told Reuters that Russian President Vladimir Putin mentiond the gas fields while hosting Netanyahu in Sochi on May 14 for talks that focused on Syria.

But Zvi Magen, a former Israeli ambassador to Moscow, was sceptical that Israel could offer anything that would spur Putin to slacken his support for Assad. “There’s too much at stake here for the Russians,” he said. He was alluding to the conflagration’s wider geostrategic dimensions - pitting a Russian preference to keep Syria under Assad’s control to preserve Moscow’s last significant toehold in the Middle East against a Western and Gulf Arab desire for the downfall of Assad to roll back Iranian influence in the region. — Reuters

As Assad shells rebels, Israel on alert

By Dan Williams

I

srael tracks every heavy missile fired in the Syrian civil war, keen to study Damascus’s combat doctrines and deployments and ready to fend off a feared first attack on its turf, a senior Israeli military officer said yesterday. Colonel Zvika Haimovich of the air defence corps said southward launches against Syrian insurgents by President Bashar AlAssad’s forces gave Israel mere seconds in which to determine it was not the true target - a distinction that could prove crucial for warding off an unprecedented regional conflagration.

“Syria’s batteries are in a high state of operability, ready to fire at short notice. All it would take is a few degrees’ change in the flight path to endanger us,” he told Reuters in an interview at his base in Palmachim, south of Tel Aviv. Syrian opposition activists say Assad’s army has fired dozens of devastating Scud-type missiles at rebel-held areas in the last six months, out of a ballistic arsenal believed to number in the hundreds.

Long-range radars feed real-time data on the barrages to Haimovich’s command bunker, where officers brace to activate Arrow II, a US-backed Israeli missile shield that has yet to be tested in battle. The more threatening launches set off sirens across Palmachim, whose warplanes also await orders to scramble. Before the more than two-year-old civil war, Israel enjoyed a stable standoff with Syria for decades. Israeli strategists saw little menace in Syria’s ageing Soviet-supplied military - even from its reputed chemical warheads.

Such complacency is long past. Haimovich said

that although Israel was staying out of the Syrian fighting, he and the rest of the top brass were conducting regular battle assessments, including on Assad’s missiles launches. “We are looking at all aspects, from the performance of the weaponry to the way the Syrians are using it. They have used everything that I am aware exists in their missile and rocket arsenal. They are improving all the time, and so are we, but we need to study this, and to be prepared.”

He would not detail how Israel determines a missile fired in its direction will not cross the border, saying only that the process took “more than a few seconds, but not much more”. Another Israeli expert, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it combined split-second analysis of the strength of the launch with up-to-date intelligence on Assad’s intentions.

Asked about a report on Israel’s Channel 10 television that Assad had used up around half of his Scud stockpile against the rebels, Haimovich said: “That sounds credible.” But he cautioned that Damascus may have been replenished by its foreign allies. Haimovich also oversees the Iron Dome shortrange rocket interceptor, as well as Israeli coordination with US air defense systems. He described Syria as part of a nebulous northern front with Lebanon, whose Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah militants have been fighting for and armed by Assad.

At least three times this year, Israel has bombed Syria to destroy what intelligence sources described as advanced weaponry in transit to Hezbollah, which fired 4,000 missiles at the Jewish state in their 2006 border war. Syria and Hezbollah have hinted at

reprisals, a scenario the Israelis assume could spiral to include missile salvoes from Iran and Palestinians in Gaza.

Under such circumstances, Haimovich said, “the Israeli homefront will be hit, but we won’t be paralyzed - and I believe we will ensure that by keeping the fight short”. He declined to confirm what Arrow designers have described as its 90 percent shootdown rate. But he said Israel had beefed up its deployment to more than four nationwide batteries, to allow for repeated interception of any incoming missiles. “My intention is to ensure that we have at least two opportunities to intercept. We have not yet been called into action on the northern front, but I believe that we will be.”

Pointing out a launching ground in Palmachim’s sand dunes where towering concrete barricades were being erected to protect future Arrow units, he said: “Our job is to withstand any crisis and deliver the necessary defense.” Israel has fielded five batteries of Iron Dome, which has scored around an 80 percent success rate in intercepting Gaza rockets, the kind of weapons that also feature in Hezbollah’s arsenal. Haimovich said a sixth unit would be deployed soon.

A more powerful version of Iron Dome, known as David’s Sling or Magic Wand, performed well in its first field trial in November and prompted some Israeli officers to predict it could be ready for use this year. That would bolster the multi-tier missile defense program. Haimovich said he knew of no such plan but that Iron Dome, Arrow and their US counterparts already provided Israel with an adequate “protective umbrella”.— Reuters

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013 www.kuwaittimes.net

A model wears a design by Maiko Takeda during the Royal College of Art graduate fashion show at the Royal College of Art in London yesterday.— AP

Food FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

More grilling dishes, including recipes for chicken breasts, and salmon patties

BODACIOUS BARBECUED CHICKEN BREASTS Prep: 20 minutes Marinate: 20 minutes Cook: 15-22 minutes Servings: 4 Note: In their latest cookbook, “100 Grilling Recipes You Can’t Live Without” (Harvard Common Press, $16.95), Bill and Cheryl Jamison describe this dish as a “fool-proof version of the all-American backyard classic: juicy chicken coated in sauce with a few charred and chewy edges.” Their secret?

Using boneless, skinless breasts pounded to an even thickness so all portions are cooked through at the same time.

Barbecue sauce: 1 cup ketchup 1\2 cup molasses 2 tablespoons each: packed brown sugar, butter 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons yellow mustard 1 teaspoon onion powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt or coarse sea salt 1\2 teaspoon each: freshly ground black pepper, chili powder 1 cup water 3 to 4 tablespoons bourbon Chicken: 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (6 to 7 ounces each), pounded to 1 inch thick 1 cup Worcestershire sauce 2 teaspoons vegetable oil 1 teaspoon kosher salt or coarse sea salt 1. Combine the ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, butter, Worcestershire, mustard, onion powder, salt, pepper, chili powder and water in a medium saucepan; heat to a boil.

Reduce the heat to a bare simmer; cook, until thickened lightly, 5-10 minutes. Stir in the bourbon; simmer, 2 min-

utes. Remove from the heat; set aside about half of the sauce to serve with the chicken at the table.

2. Place the chicken in a zipper-top plastic bag; pour the Worcestershire over it. Add the oil and salt; seal the bag.

Toss back and forth to coat the chicken evenly. Let sit at room temperature, 20-30 minutes.

3. Fire up the grill, bringing the temperature to medium.

(You can hold your hand over the grill for 4 to 5 seconds.)

4. Drain the chicken, discarding the marinade; blot any moisture on the surface with a paper towel.

5. Grill, uncovered, 10-12 minutes total. Turn three times, rotating the breasts a half turn each time for crisscross grill marks. After each side of the chicken has faced the fire once, begin brushing the sauce over the breasts. The chicken is ready when it is white throughout but still juicy and the sauce is a bit chewy and caramelized in spots. If you wish, leave the chicken on the grill an extra minute or two to get a slightly crusty surface.

6. Serve the breasts whole or thickly sliced and mounded on a platter. Pass the reserved sauce on the side.

Nutrition information: Per serving: 294 calories, 7 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 102 mg cholesterol, 20 g carbohydrates, 35 g protein, 707 mg sodium, 0 g fiber.

SPICY SALMON BURGERS Prep: 15 minutes Chill: 1 hour Cook: 4 minutes Servings: 2 to 4 burgers Note: A recipe from “Everyday Barbecue” (Ballantine, $24),

by Myron Mixon with Kelly Alexander. Mixon, billed as the “winningest man in competitive barbecue” and a judge on the reality television series, “BBQ Pitmasters,” recommends chilling the salmon patties for one hour before grilling for easier handling. “Take special care not to overcook them: Juiciness is the key to a good salmon burger,” he notes.

Ingredients:

1 pound skinless salmon fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces 1 egg, lightly beaten 1 tablespoon each: fresh lemon juice, Dijon mustard 1\2 cup chopped green onions 1 garlic clove, minced 1 teaspoon salt Freshly ground pepper 1/2 cup prepared tartar sauce 1 tablespoon fresh dill 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest, optional 2 to 4 sesame seed rolls, split Red onion slices 4 to 8 Bibb lettuce leaves 1. Place the salmon, egg, lemon juice and mustard in a food processor; pulse until coarsely ground. Transfer the mixture to a bowl; mix in the green onions, garlic, salt and pepper. Gently form into two to four {-inch-thick patties.

Cover; refrigerate, at least 1 hour and up to 4 hours.

2. Heat a charcoal or gas grill to medium-high heat.

Meanwhile, whisk together the tartar sauce, dill and lemon zest in a bowl.

3. Grill the rolls until toasted; transfer to plates. Spread the bottom halves generously with the enhanced tartar sauce.

Grill the salmon patties uncovered until the fish is cooked through, about 2 minutes per side. Place the burgers atop the sauce on the rolls. Top each with onion slices, 2 lettuce leaves and the top half of each roll.

Nutrition information: Per serving (for 4 servings): 609 calories, 27 g fat, 9 g saturated fat, 188 mg cholesterol, 57 g carbohydrates, 31 g protein, 832 mg sodium, 1 g fiber. - MCT

Food FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

W

hether novice or seasoned griller, check out these do’s and don’ts As spring turns into summer, millions of Americans will rush outdoors to light up a grill in celebration. Take some simple steps before, during and after the party to minimize any hangover, gastronomic or otherwise. Here are some simple do’s and don’ts from experts who know how to prevent the most common grilling mishaps.

1. Read or reread the owner’s manual for your grill, says Leslie Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, a trade association based in Arlington, Va. Pay particular attention to the manufacturer’s safety hints.

2. Give the grill a thorough inspection and cleaning. “Make sure the legs are sturdy, that things haven’t rusted out, the vents are working properly and the burners are clean,” Wheeler says. With gas grills, make sure there are no holes or leaks in any hoses, that the hoses are properly hooked up and all connections work properly.

3. Use care in positioning the grill. “Lots of people put the grill outside the back door but, really, is that the best place?” Wheeler asks. Grills need to be out of high-traffic areas so children and pets won’t bump into them. Ideally, the grill should be at least 10 feet away from the house to reduce fire risk. If you live in a condominium or apartment building, make sure grilling is permitted and know what type of grills are allowed.

4. Pay attention lighting the grill. Open the hood before igniting a gas grill to vent any fumes that may be gathering there, Wheeler says. Don’t pour additional lighter fluid on coals after they’re lit; you risk a big flare-up.

5. Watch chicken especially. “People are terrified the chicken will be undercooked, so they leave it on too long or on too high a flame,” says Cheryl Jamison, co-author with her husband, Bill, of “100 Grilling Recipes You Can’t Live Without” (Harvard Common Press, $16.95). “You get a charred surface and chicken sushi inside.” Chicken should be grilled over medium heat, Bill adds.

6. Stay focused: “We get frustrated when we see people not sticking with the food,” Bill Jamison says. “They’re going away, getting a beer, drinking a beer, while the food cooks without them paying any attention to the time or the temperature.”

7. Don’t move the food about. Put it on the grill, let it get a good sear on both sides, then move the food to more moderate heat to cook through, say the Jamisons, who live in Tesuque, N.M., just outside Santa Fe. Searing eliminates the risk of food sticking to the grill, Cheryl Jamison says.

8. Don’t squash the burgers onto the grill. “All the juices will run out,” Cheryl Jamison says.

9. Never sauce too soon. “Most sauces on the market are ketchup based, and there’s sugar in them,” says Myron Mixon, author of “Everyday Barbecue” (Ballantine, $24) and a judge on the reality television series “BBQ Pitmasters.” “The sugars caramelize and

start burning.” He recommends applying sauce to food at the end of the grilling time or serving the sauce in a bowl at the table. If you want to dab something on the food as it cooks, Mixon, who loves in Unadilla, Ga., recommends an old Southern trick, a mop made of vinegar, salt and red pepper flakes. “Use it for basting, for flavor and for keeping the food from burning,” he says.

10. Practice, practice, practice. Mixon says you should try out any unfamiliar grill recipe a few times before adding it to your party lineup. Don’t sweat it if the dish doesn’t debut on Memorial Day; there’s always Independence Day fast approaching.

11. Clean the grill while it’s still hot. The work will go faster, Wheeler says. Use a sturdy brush to get any food residue off the grill rack.

Make sure the gas is turned off before closing the grill lid. Close the grill vents so a charcoal fire dies out quickly; you should be able to reuse some of the coals next time, she says. — MCT

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Desert epiphany: Springtime blooms in the Arizona desert

By Lee Svitak Dean

F

or the past decade, I’ve headed to Arizona in midwinter to visit family and catch a respite from cold weather. Each year, as I leave its warm, dry air to return to my snowy home, I’m told, “You really should come when the desert is in bloom. It’s spectacular.” Each year, in response, I roll my eyes. Why would I visit Arizona when spring is in the air in Minnesota? And how can a desert, by its very nature, be “in bloom”? I claim no grand foresight into this year’s weather; a busy schedule had prompted my later-than-usual, midApril trip to Arizona. I was simply looking for warmth.

What I found was color. For a winter-weary Midwesterner, it was a revelation. Ocotillo brightened the horizon, its spider-like arms topped with luscious red-orange blossoms waving in the periwinkle blue sky.

Hedgehogs flashed their colors over the rocky earth: red, yellow, pink.

Small neon flowers peeked out from the chollas. Prickly pear blossoms burst with stunning hues. All popped into the sepia tones of the desert as though hand-colored to order.

Ahh. Now this was the desert in bloom. These plant names now fall

off my tongue with ease, but not so with my first glimpse of the blossoms.

I was at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, on the outskirts of Tucson, surrounded by more than 1,200 types of plants and 56,000 specimens on 21 acres, on the edge of Saguaro National Park. There was desert, and desert only, as far as the eye could see. Saguaros, the giant cactuses, many with multiple arms, stood like sentries on the horizon. (Its blossoms are the Arizona state flower.) Like a child learning to talk, I pointed at the blossoms and repeated their names, a lesson in the language of Southwest flowers.

There was no better place for my education than the 60-year-old Desert Museum, which puts a new spin on what most of us think of as a museum. Much of what it offers is outside, not inside, and most of it is alive. Very alive, in fact, as anyone careless enough to brush against the barbs of a cholla would discover.

Alive as in rattlesnakes and scorpions.

This isn’t a theme park: A trip down

these paths needs caution. (Leave the toeless sandals at home.) Part arboretum, part zoo (with coyotes, bobcats and pig-like javelinas), part aviary and hummingbird sanctuary, well, you get the drift. Not your usual museum.

I walked carefully along the dusty paths, passing the occasional visitor dressed for the weather: floppy hat and sunglasses, hiking boots, a light scent of eau du sunscreen evident (the museum restrooms have sunscreen dispensers). By serendipity always a traveler’s friend - I had stumbled onto one of the best spring seasons in years. Higher than normal winter rainfall had boosted not only the colors but also the lushness of the blooms. Where only a few flowers would usually appear on a cactus, this year there was blossom-after-blossom, a chaotic extravagance. “It’s a spectacular year, especially for the hedgehogs, cholla and prickly pear,” said George Montgomery, curator of the botany department at the Desert Museum.

Not all the color came from cactus.

The wildflowers - poppies, lupines and the like - were less showy than usual, due to the lateness of the rainfall, though by any standards they were still beautiful. Bright hues spilled out from other desert plants that a casual observer would mistake for the more prickly species. “The cactus have a certain flower structure unique to that family,” said Montgomery, as he offered a brief botany lesson in their differences, and reminded me that cactus, as succulents, store more water than other plants do and rarely have leaves.

Well, that meant my favorite bloom, the ocotillo, was not a cactus.

No matter. It had caught my attention and wouldn’t let go. I’d seen the

plant without flowers on earlier visits and even then I loved the wild nature of its roselike stems. Now its flowers were almost juicy with color, drawing hummingbirds to its tubular flowers, a perfect evolutionary vehicle. “Which makes you wonder which came first,” noted Montgomery, “the plant or the hummingbird?”

As I wandered along the museum path, snapping this picture and that from my iPhone (having forgotten my usual camera on the kitchen counter at home), one plant after another brought a gasp. “Oh,” I would sigh.

“Click,” went the phone camera. “Oh,” I repeated. “Click.” I was so overcome by the beauty of the ocotillo, in particular, that I returned to the museum the next day when it opened at 7:30 a.m. to photograph its wildness in the morning light. En route to the museum, I pulled off the road to snap image after image: ocotillo in fore-

ground, in the background, all against a horizon of saguaros.

By then I’d caught the fever desert bloom fever - and I lit out in the desert neighborhood where I was staying, hunting for color. If a bud wasn’t quite ready one day, I checked it out the next. And the next. Always with my camera in tow. I left too early to see everything bloom. The yellow flowers of the palo verde trees had made a gentle backdrop for the other blossoms, but the saguaro buds still weren’t open, though they were due to start in a few weeks and continue into June. Their story intrigued me.

While many cactus flowers last for several days, the saguaro bloom lasts less than 24 hours. After opening near dusk, its bloom continues through the night and closes at the heat of the day. Next year I’ll be ready. —MCT

Tr a v e l FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

The Frugal Traveler

Columbia offers cool savings for budget travelers

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ith easy access to nature, a crazy collection of cultural offerings and a variety of fun foodie options, Columbia, SC, took me by surprise. From kayaking to cerebral theater screenings, here’s how to make the most of your time in this family-friendly destination. Museums: If you want to experience a bit of culture while cooling off from the heat, Columbia’s museums are the place to do it.

First, in addition to their permanent collections, the Columbia Museum of Art offers a noteworthy rotating exhibit program featuring works one might expect to see at MOMA in New York City. With an adult ticket price of $10 and a student entry fee of $5, it’s an affordable afternoon’s entertainment.

The South Carolina State Museum’s offerings are also of note and include collections celebrating the state’s cultural and natural history. There’s also a South Carolina art section and a science and technology collection featuring a soon-to-be unveiled antique telescope collection. Their ticket prices for adults and children are $7 and $5 respectively, with access to the more extensive temporary exhibits available at an additional charge.

EdVenture is the city’s children’s museum, and offers make-and-take craft sessions, hands-on veterinary activities, a body detective lab and more. The $11.50 ticket price is the same for both adults and children. If you have a full rainy day to kill, that’s a huge bargain. A family of four that only wants to set aside a couple of hours for the experience, on the other hand, may want to visit this particular museum on their regularly-scheduled family night. Held on the second Tuesday of each

month from 5 pm to 8 pm, it features a rock-bottom admission price of a buck per person.

Nature: Roughly 25 minutes from downtown Columbia, vacationers have access to the free natural wonderland that is Congaree National Park. That’s right - free.

The park does not charge for entrance fees, campsites or ranger-led activities such as kayaking, late-night owl prowls and canoeing. It’s important to note that opportunities to sign up for the free guided activities are only available quarterly, and slots fill up fast. This is particularly important for the kayaking and canoeing activities because the park pros don’t recommend solo paddling for novices in deeper water. So if you aren’t familiar with the trail system, call the park ahead of time to see if the water levels are safe for you to venture out on your own.

Of note is the self-guided interpretive nature boardwalk. Visitors can obtain a complimentary brochure at the visitor center and make their way to the numbered stations where the pamphlets will guide them through exactly what they’re seeing.

Active travelers with extra energy may want to tackle the Congaree River Blue Trail, a 50-mile paddling trail that begins in the city of Columbia. Vacationers start with an urban paddling experience and make their way into the national park.

Food: A number of fun foodie establishments are available for hungry tourists to experience. For example, The Oak Table offers great gourmet lunch sandwiches in an earthy modern atmosphere. Value picks include the roasted red pepper pimento cheese with house bacon on grilled marble rye and the marinated portobello sandwich with fresh horseradish aioli on brioche. Both are available for $9 and come with truffle fries and your choice of pasta salad or fresh fruit.

If your idea of the perfect vacation dinner includes a craft-brewed cold one, the Hunter Gatherer Brewery is the place to hit. Located in a funky, antique brick building, it’s a great way to relax after a day of outdoor adventure. Drafts are less than $5 each and four-ounce samples are available for a buck a pop, making it extremely affordable to customize your own tasting flight. Frugal snack options include their hot black bean dip with tortilla chips for $5.95 and their $6 cheese dinner pizza.

For roll-up-your-sleeves, homespun goodness head to Doc’s Barbecue for the $9.95 lunch buffet. Catfish, fried chicken, sassy slaws, traditional Southern barbecue, peach cobbler and more are available in a super casual setting featuring family-style tables and cafeteria lunch trays. Far from a tourist attraction, this place is where the locals go for great grub. It’s the real deal, and an affordable way to sample a wide variety of regional specialties.

Activities: The Riverbanks Zoo and Botanical Garden is a great source of family fun, especially for animal lovers. Cuddly koalas, giant giraffes and zany-looking zebras are all part of the experience. Keeper talks and animal presentations are also offered throughout the day for those who want to maximize the education value of

their visit. Tickets are $11.75 for adults and $9.25 for children. Film fans with discrimination taste will want to check out the Nickelodeon, a nonprofit venue focusing on programming that’s a bit more cerebral. If the concept of a theater for thinkers appeals to you, you can save a buck by catching a morning matinee for a general admission price of $7. If you want to wait until evening when beer and wine are available for purchase, the cost is only one dollar more.

Prefer the open water? One of the coolest values available for vacationers is the exploratory sailing class offered by Lanier Sailing Academy on popular Lake Murray, which is an easy day trip out of town. For $30 on holiday weekends, an instructor will take you out in a sailboat and show you the ropes. Free, self-guided historical walking tours throughout various parts of the city have been developed by the Historic Columbia Foundation. Brochures for each are available to visitors at no charge by visiting the Columbia Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau at 1101 Lincoln Street. — MCT

Health FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

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ears ago, teenagers with acne were told to cut out the potato chips and given a tube of Clearasil. Today, we know far more about the reasons why some people develop acne and how it can most effectively be treated.

All cases of acne are not created equal, and neither are all acne treatments. Although all acne has its roots in the same process-hormonal fluctuations that stimulate oil production-not all acne is equally severe and not all cases of acne will respond to the same types of treatments.

Most cases of acne fit within one of three main categories, says Macrene Alexiades-Armenakas, MD, PhD, an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Yale School of Medicine and a specialist in laser therapy for acne, who practices in New York City: Comedonal acne. This is the kind of mild acne that involves blackheads and whiteheads. It forms because a component of skin oil called sebum, along with old skin cells, block the pores of the skin. Comedonal acne appears most often on the forehead, nose, and chin.

Inflammatory acne. This form of acne occurs when the area just under the “plug” (the blackhead or whitehead) becomes reddened and inflamed.

Cystic acne. The most severe form of acne, cystic acne develops as the result of an actual infection in the area of the outbreak. Cystic acne often runs in families. It’s often very painful and can result in disfiguring, permanent scarring.

The type of treatment that works for you will depend both on the kind of acne you have, and the additional factors that seem to trigger acne outbreaks.

Treating mild to moderate comedonal and inflammatory acne Most cases of mild comedonal acne occur in teenagers and young adults, and these can usually be treated with traditional topical creams and gels.

The most common of these are retinoids, like Retin-A, Differin, Renova, and Tazorac. They work by unblocking clogged pores.

Dermatologists will often combine a topical retinoid with an oral antibiotic, such as doxycycline, tetracycline, minocycline or erythromycin, which kills the bacteria that cause inflammation around the blocked pores.

“This type of treatment is focused on teenagers, who usually have a period of a year to four years when they’re breaking out because of changing hormone levels and increased oil production, and in some cases, genetics,” says Amy Taub, MD, founder and medical director of Advanced Dermatology in Lincolnshire, Ill. Taub is also an assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Each of the antibiotics has its own set of side effects-doxycycline causes sun sensitivity, for example, and tetracycline can cause yellowing of teeth in children-so dermatologists will work with their patients to help choose an antibiotic that works best for them.

Mild to moderate comedonal acne can often be aggravated by external triggers, like hair gels and makeup. “Some of these makeups and gels are so occlusive that when the person stops using them, the acne goes away,” says Macrene Alexiades-Armenakas.

Treating ‘hormonal’ acne Many cases of inflammatory acne are “hormonal” in nature-that is, they occur in teenage girls and women, and are aggravated by hormonal fluctuations like those that occur during the menstrual cycle. For these women, dermatologists often choose to prescribe either oral contraceptive pills or another medication called spironolactone.

There are now three oral contraceptives that

are specifically approved by the FDA for the treatment of acne in women: Yaz, Estrostep, and Ortho Tri-Cyclen. Only pills that combine the female hormone estrogen with the synthetic version of the male hormone progesterone, progestin, can stabilize hormonal fluctuations in a way that can treat acne.

Oral contraceptives are a very effective treatment for acne in many women, but you have to give them time to work, says Bethanee Schlosser, MD, assistant professor and director of the women’s skin health program in the department of dermatology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “I ask patients to give the pills at least three months of use before judging their impact. That’s when the studies found a notable difference between placebos and oral contraceptives. Many patients went on to get further benefit at about six months out. This is not an overnight process.”

Some women may prefer not to use oral con-

traceptives, or should not take them because they are smokers or otherwise at high risk. These women, as well as those who only get partial acne relief from contraceptives, are often prescribed a drug called spironolactone.

This medication is a diuretic-that is, a “water pill” that causes frequent urination. It also blocks receptors for male hormones, which modulates the hormonal surges that can stimulate oil production, causing acne. Spironolactone isn’t approved by the FDA to treat acne and probably won’t be, Schlosser says, because as a generic drug there’s little motivation for a manufacturer to pay for the trials needed to go through the approval process.

But most dermatologists agree that it works well as an acne treatment.

Treating severe inflammatory or cystic acne When acne does not respond to the standard one-two punch of topical retinoids and oral antibi-

otics, patients have two other choices: the drug isotretinoin, or Accutane, or one of several procedure-based treatments for acne that involve using laser or light treatment to reduce inflammation and kill acne-causing bacteria.

Accutane is an extremely powerful treatment for acne, often clearing up severe, scarring breakouts that had not responded to any other treatments within a matter of a few months.

But it also carries with it a host of risks and side effects, including inflammatory bowel disease, ulcerative colitis, liver damage, bony malformations, depression, and a virtual certainty of severe birth defects for the babies of women who take Accutane while pregnant. www.webmd.com

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Purbrook Bowmen prepare to fire a volley of fire arrows from Southsea Castle into The Solent towards where the 16th century Tudor warship Mary Rose sank in 1545 in Portsmouth, southern England yesterday. — AFP photos

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he relics from the Mary Rose, the flagship of England’s navy when it sank in 1545 as a heartbroken king Henry VIII watched from the shore, have finally been reunited with the famous wreck in a new museum offering a view of life in Tudor times. Skeletons, longbows, tankards, gold coins and even nit combs are going on display alongside the remains of the pride of Henry’s fleet. Thousands of the 19,000 artefacts excavated from beneath the seabed can be seen in the new £27 million ($41 million, 32 million euro) Mary Rose Museum in Portsmouth on England’s south coast, which opens on Friday.

Historians have dubbed the treasure trove the “English Pompeii”: a fragment of the past perfectly frozen in time. “The objects are beautifully preserved because they were buried under the mud, and it’s that silt that actually preserved the objects,” said archaeologist Christopher Dobbs, one of the original salvage team members. Built in the very dockyard where the new museum sits, the wooden ship was launched in 1511. The Mary Rose fought three wars with the French but mysteriously keeled over and sank off Portsmouth on July 19, 1545, while fighting off a French invasion fleet.

Around 500 men were killed, with no more than 35 surviving, as Henry looked on from the shore as it slipped below the waters of the Solent. After a six-year search, the legendary ship was definitively identified in 1971.

Following years of painstaking work, the wreck was at last raised in 1982, n a spectacular operation watched live by millions on television.

Around a third of the wooden warship, which was almost completely buried under the sea bed, had survived, the exposed parts having eroded away. Now thousands of articles removed from the decks are being exhibited alongside the wreck, which had previously been on show in a more modest museum in Portsmouth since 1983.

Wooden gun carriages, cooking pots, scalpels, leather book covers, syringes, fiddles, whistles, weapons, navigation devices and furniture are among the items on display. The new museum, part of a £35 million heritage project, is a three-tiered, ellipse-shaped building made of black-stained timber. Visitors walk through the galleries encircling the ship’s carcass in the near-darkness that is essential to preserve the objects, but it also evokes the conditions the crew would have experienced below deck, with the sound of wind, waves and creaking wood.

‘Not just a warship’ Day-to-day items recovered from the deep

help to tell the story of the sailors’ lives. “There is, we believe, nothing like this as an insight into life and death 500 years ago anywhere in the world,” Mary Rose Trust chief executive John Lippiett told AFP. “It isn’t just a warship: it’s what they wore, their clothes, their food, what they drank out of, their spoons. “It is the most extraordinary collection of artefacts and from that we can know better than anything what it was like in those days. “From the human remains we can tell what a dreadful life they led, what injury and illness they had.”

Remains of around 45 percent of the crew were found. Using the skeletons, experts have reconstructed the faces of seven crew members, their roles determined by where they were found, the objects around them and analysis of their bone structure. They believe the faces are those of an archer, a carpenter, a cook, a gentleman, a master gunner, an officer and a purser.

The extraction of DNA from bones found on board is ongoing.

The crew were prone to nits, as proved by the number of fine-tooth combs found-with the centuries-old lice still trapped in them. An early backgammon board, violins and leather book covers give an insight into the leisure pursuits on board. Meanwhile, beef and pork bones survived in the mud, as did the skeletons of the ship’s dog and the rats she chased. More surprising was the discovery of rosary beads for prayer.

They were not yet banned but their use was condemned following Henry’s split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1534.

The museum’s centrepiece, the surviving section of the Mary Rose, is drying out in the “hotbox” behind sealed glass. Since it was raised, the hulk-more than 100 feet (30 meters) long and 40 feet (12 meters) high-has been sprayed with water and polyethylene glycol solution to prevent it from disintegrating.

Around 100 tons of liquid now need to be sweated out, which could take up to five years.

Then the glass barrier will be removed, allowing visitors to see the world’s only 16th-century warship on display, in all its glory. Lippiett said: “We’re just starting, in very many ways, the story of the Mary Rose.”—AFP

Able Seaman 1st Class Luke Checkley and crew members of HMS Duncan, the latest Type 45 destroyer, throws a wreath from the deck of WWII seaplane tender during a ceremony.

Able Seaman Fiona MacLennan and Able Seaman Megan Ryan pose for a photograph beside the original bell of the 16th century Tudor warship Mary Rose.

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or centuries, there’s been no official French word for the sloppy Gallic export “to French kiss” - though that certainly hasn’t stopped any citizen from doing so.

Now the oversight has been rectified. The one-word verb “galocher” - to kiss with tongues - is among new entries added to the “Petit Robert” 2014 French dictionary, which hit the shops yesterday. It may surprise many that France - a country famed for its amorous exploits and which gave the world sex-symbol Brigitte Bardot, romantic photographer Robert Doiseau and even scandal-hit former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn - is only just linguistically embracing the popular pastime.

Yet Laurence Laporte of the Robert publishing house says that it’s just the way language evolves. “We always had many expressions to describe ‘French-kissing,’ like ‘kissing at length in the mouth,’ but it’s true, we’ve never had one single word,” she said. The term “French kiss” - once also called a

“Florentine kiss” - is popularly considered to have been brought back to the English-speaking world by soldiers returning from Europe after World War I. At the time, the French had a reputation for more adventurous sexual practices.

Laporte said “galocher” was a slang term that’s been around for a while “but only now is it being officially recognized in a French dictionary.” “La galoche” is an ice-skating boot, so the new term riffs evocatively on the idea of sliding around the ice. The word expert added a caveat about the power of language.

The lack of a specific term “never stopped us from doing it,” Laporte noted. — AP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Photo shows fans of South Korean K-pop singer Heo Young Saeng watch his video play in a viewing area inside a shopping mall in Lima, Peru. — AP photos

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eenagers throughout Latin America have long looked north for pop music inspiration. Now the East is rising, with a large and enthusiastic cult of fans in some countries following the K-pop music from Korea. It’s a movement especially strong in Peru and Chile, and it goes far beyond Psy and “Gangnam Style.” Some 13,000 fans attended an April concert in Lima by the group Super Junior. Another group, Big Bang, drew 14,000 in November. They’ve drawn similar crowds in neighboring Chile. Hundreds of fans such as Araceli Galan gather each week in a downtown park in Lima to dance to the energetic music. Some dress up as Korean comic book characters.

“I’ve liked K-pop since I was 10,” said Galan, now a 16-year-old student at a local university. “I learned everything from the Internet because here in Peru you don’t find much on radio or television.” She’s amassed a collection of posters, bracelets, T-shirts and records of her favorite, Kim Hyun Joong, who was met by thousands of fans when he arrived at the airport in Peru’s capital in February. “Although you won’t believe it, in Peru the K-pop groups are starting to be more popular than Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga or Demi Lovato,” said Diana Rodriguez, who is capitalizing on the trend by organizing Korean dance contests throughout Peru.

While there’s little hard data on that, there’s no questioning the fervor of the fans who turn up at Ramon Castilla Park each Saturday and emulate the dances of K-pop bands. “We start at 10 in the morning and we stay until 6 in the afternoon,” Galan said. A bus trip away is the small Arenales shopping center where entire floors are dedicated to South Korean music, clothes and food. “I like the ‘sujebi’ soup and another dish that combines a sweet and salty flavor that I can’t remember the name of,” Galan said. Some try to solve the language problem by having the songs translated into Spanish and posting them on the Internet. “The lyrics are pretty. It’s not as eroticized as reggaeton. It’s more romantic,” said Pamela Diaz, a 26-year-old fan.

“It’s made me want to learn Korean,” said her 14-year-old sister, Sabrina. The trend has surprised Peruvian parents, just as the onslaught of rock-and-roll once alarmed an earlier generation.

“My father listens to rock in English; he doesn’t like K-pop at all,” Galan said. “He tells me, ‘Why do you listen to that music if you don’t know Korean?’ And I tell him that he doesn’t know how to speak English either. Music you only need to feel.” — AP

A fan of South Korean singer Hyun Joong shows her picture of him as she sits with other fans as they celebrate the singer’s birthday.

Figures of South Korean comic book characters stand for sale.

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The body of Indian film director Rituparno Ghosh is carried for cremation in Kolkata, India, yesterday. — AP

ndian filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, known for his sensitive portrayal of interpersonal relationships, died in Kolkata yesterday of a heart attack. He was 49. Ghosh first caught the attention of cinema lovers in the 1990s with a clutch of films made in his native Bengali language. His work, often showcased on the Western film festival circuit, resonated with global audiences with memorable and strong women characters.

Mainstream Bollywood stars such as Amitabh Bachchan, Aishwarya Rai and Ajay Devgn featured in some of his later films.

“Shocked and deeply grieved ... loss of a great creative mind,” Bachchan told Reuters in a text message. Bachchan, who worked with Ghosh in the 2007 English-language film “The Last Lear”, said he had spoken to the director recently about a new film they were planning. Born in 1963, Ghosh started his career in advertising and made his movie debut with a children’s film “Hirer Angti” (The Diamond Ring).

Ghosh won a dozen national film awards, including the best feature film honour for

“Unishe April” (19 April) in 1995 that explored the nuances of a mother-daughter relationship.

His film “Chokher Bali” (Sand in the Eye), starring Aishwarya Rai, was nominated for the Golden Leopard, the top prize at the Locarno Film Festival in 2003.

“No one understood women better than Rituparno,” said actress Raima Sen, who was cast in several of his films. “It is a personal loss to me.” Ghosh, who flaunted his sexuality and often dressed in women’s clothing, also played gay characters in some of his last films. The filmmaker tweeted on Tuesday he had wrapped up shooting for his new movie “Satyanweshi” (The Truth Seeker), a crime thriller about the popular fictional Bengali detective Byomkesh Bakshi. —Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Lebanese singer Haifa Wehbe and Iraqi singer Hatim al-Iraqi pose following a press conference before their performance in the northern Iraqi Kurdish city of Arbil on May 29, 2013. — AFP

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(From Left)Indian Bollywood actors Akshay Kumar and Imraan Khan pose with actress Sonakshi Sinha during the launch for the forthcoming Hindi Film ‘Once Upon A Time in Mumbai Again2’ directed by Milan Luthria and produced by Ekta and Shobha Kapoor in Mumbai late May 29, 2013. — AFP

hen Elvis Costello and The Roots teamed up for a new album, they knew their pairing was unlikely and unconventional, so they secretly recorded music without the approval of their record labels. “Sometimes if you ... get the record company involved, then people have ambition rather than starting to play, so we started to play,” Costello said in a recent interview.

“We did it without a label or deadline pressure,” said Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson as he sat next to Costello.

“This absolutely was a passion project.” They began recording “Wise Up Ghost,” which will be released Sept.

17, two years ago. It’s a moody, 12-track album that features both new songs and others borrowed from Costello’s catalog, including the drum-filled “Sugar Won’t Work,” which samples from “You Left Me in the Dark,” and the soft and simple “Tripwire,” which takes from “Satellite.”

The Roots first collaborated with Costello on NBC’s “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” where the hip-hop

group is the house band. They also worked with the 58year-old British rocker at a Prince tribute concert in March. “This is like our dream - that’s all I can say,” a smiling Questlove said. “This is the first project at ‘Fallon’ where I’m making my musical dreams come true.”

Longtime Roots collaborator Steven Mandel co-produced “Wise Up Ghost” with Questlove and Costello.

“The thing I like most of all, the drums are really loud,” Costello said. “I’m singing quite close, not having to yell to get it over.” The Roots released a collaborative album with John Legend in 2010. A year later, they released an album with Betty Wright. Questlove says working alongside Costello, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was scary. “I was worried in case it didn’t work. I knew I’d be the bad guy,” he said. — AP

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a fraction of the top price in other countries on the band’s “Because We Can” European tour. Lead singer Jon Bon Jovi, 51, told newspaper El Mundo the economic conditions in Spain, where millions are unemployed and spending less, had threatened to knock the country off the tour list.

So as not to disappoint fans, he said the band agreed to play for free with ticket revenues covering the cost of staging the show and hiring the venue, which is home to Atletico Madrid football club. “Bon Jovi want to change the trend of exorbitant prices that stop fans from coming to many big concerts,” the concert’s organizers said, announcing the special ticket prices.

“Rock ‘n’ roll has always been for the people, and that means for everyone.” The fluffy-haired singer and his band, known for hits such “Livin’ On A Prayer” and “You Give Love a Bad Name”, launch the Europe leg of their tour in Copenhagen on June 6. They will be playing songs from their recent album, “What About Now”. — AFP

S rock supergroup Bon Jovi will waive their fee for playing a concert in recession-hit Spain next month, media reported yesterday, with special low-price tickets for Spaniards struggling in the crisis.

Tickets for the gig in the giant Vicente Calderon football stadium in Madrid are capped at 39 euros ($50) —

File photo shows Bon Jovi’s lead singer Jon Bon Jovi performs during the Rock in Rio music festival in Arganda del Rey on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. — AP

From left, English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello poses for a portrait with drummer Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson of ‘The Roots,’ in promotion of their upcoming album ‘Wise Up Ghost,’ in New York.óAP

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irector Brett Ratner is donating $1 million to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to help build its new museum, the Academy announced Wednesday. “Brett has a sincere love of movies and film history, and we are excited to welcome him to our group of supporters,” said Bill Kramer, the museum’s managing director of development.

The Academy launched the Museum’s capital campaign in 2012 and has already secured more than half of the campaign’s $300 million goal in commitments. The campaign is chaired by Walt Disney Co. president and chief executive Bob IgerBob Iger and co-chaired by Annette Bening and Tom Hanks.

“Thanks to the generosity of founding supporters like Brett, we are now able to realize the long-held dream of the Academy and that of the global film community to build a museum dedicated to the history and future of the movies,” said Iger. “I feel blessed to be part of such a magnificent museum. I was blown away by the recent (Stanley) Kubrick exhibit at LACMA, which the Academy co-sponsored. I couldn’t be more excited that our Academy will finally have its own museum that will preserve and exhibit cinema’s greatest work,” said Ratner.

The director and the Academy made headlines two years ago, when he made an early exit as producer of the Oscar ceremony in the wake of an antigay slur made while promoting a movie prior to the show. He aplogized, and has since been recognized for his efforts in promoting equality by the Gay and Lesbian Alliance against Defamation, for whom he produced several public service announcements. — Reuters

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

A Taxi Nile boat pilot waits for passengers ahead of a ride on the Nile river.

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hatever their social or political differences, Cairo’s residents agree on one thing: the traffic is a nightmare.

Increasingly desperate to escape the gridlock and pollution of the Egyptian capital, more people are now using the Nile for their daily commute to work. A new taxi service that uses speed boats to whizz passengers up and down the river has proven the most exciting alternative for many a stressed-out Egyptian.

It’s fast, it’s fun and most of all, it gives passengers a quick break from Cairo’s commotion. “I get to work relaxed-I’m not stressed, I’m not nervous,” says Ahmed Amin, 43, a father of two who used to spend nearly four hours a day getting to work and back before discovering Nile Taxi. A 20-minute ride from the taxi’s southernmost stop in Maadi to Ramlet Boulaq further north, shoots past office towers and Renaissance-style villas-too fast to dwell on the murky river’s flotsam or the dilapidated shacks dotting its banks.

At 30 Egyptian pounds ($4.3) for a one-way ticket, the service is beyond the reach of many Egyptians, 25 percent of whom live in poverty according to government figures. But it is a relief for those used to taking road taxis at roughly the same price, or those tired of driving their own cars through traffic. Amin, who works in the finance department of a Cairo-based international organisation, says the boat trips have cut short his commute by about 30 percent, “not to mention the effect it has had on my mood”.

“My performance at work is better than when I was driving,” he says. From the boat, Cairo-a city of more than 18 million people-feels green,

orderly and breezy. But just a few steps from the makeshift boat jetties, the traffic is so bad and the heat so stifling that motorbikes take to the pavement and taxi drivers switch their engines off. “Let them ride boats. Frankly I’d be happier with fewer customers if the streets were less congested,” says cab driver Sayyed Ali. “On many days, I just go home after two or three hours because I can’t take these conditions any more,” he tells AFP. ‘A very big highway that hasn’t[ been used’ Nile Taxi is the brainchild of Magdi Kirollos Ghali and Amr Aboul Seoud. The pair saw a business opportunity in the ancient waterway that would respond to the frustration of commuters while eventually easing traffic and alleviating pollution in parts of the capital. “We have a very big highway that hasn’t been used for years and years and years,” says Ghali. The Nile, which rises from sources in Ethiopia and Uganda and flows into the Mediterranean, is Egypt’s pumping heart, supplying the country with water and irrigating its banks.

Today in Cairo, the Nile is a hive of activity where Pharaonic-themed dinner boats glide and neon-lit party boats pinball around the water.

The waterway has been used for fishing, for tourism, and even for watersports, but its potential for passenger transport has been underutilized, says Ghali. The idea for Nile Taxi came about six years ago when the pair drew up plans for a comprehensive new transport system on the river.

Their vision included the reinvigoration of the current government-run Nile Bus which has

A Taxi Nile boat ferries passengers along the waters of the Nile river in the Egyptian capital, Cairo.

—AFP photos been operating since the 1960s. It is cheap and there are many stops, but the boats are old and the routes not always reliable, passengers say.

Ghali, who has worked in the maritime business since 2001, says he and Aboul Seoud commissioned studies on Cairo’s transport, traffic, and pollution and travelled around world to acquire the know-how to set up their business.

They were just about to start designing their solar-powered boats when the 2011 revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak brought their plans, and many new business ventures in the country, to a dead stop. The aftermath of the uprising ushered in an era of lawlessness, political turmoil, government reshuffles, insecurity and violence. “We didn’t know who to call or what to do,” Ghali tells AFP. But when things became “too unbearable” on the roads, they decided to go ahead with a modified version of their original plan, using three motorboats they already owned.

“The boat’s route avoids the most congested part of Cairo which is Downtown. If this takes off, it would really ease traffic in Cairo,” Sherif Youssef says as he tests out the new shuttle service. By July, the company plans to launch a new tailor-made fleet of low-emission boats, carrying 15 passengers each. The ultimate goal is to have 30 boats in two years, carrying 15,000 passengers a day. “According to our studies, that would relieve central Cairo of three percent of vehicles,” says Ghali.”That may not sound like a lot in terms of percentages, but just think how many fewer cars that would be,” he adds. — AFP

Lifestyle FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Lindiwe Mngomezulu, holds her pet snake named ‘Simba’ a Burmese python as an unidentified young boy reacts while touching the reptile.

Lindiwe Mngomezulu, right, holds an albino pythons as visitors touch the reptile at her home in Soweto.

ourists have long flocked to the home-turned-museum of former President Nelson Mandela on Vilakazi Street, a lively strip of restaurants, curio sellers and street performers in the South African township of Soweto. Now the area has a growing attraction: big snakes, and lots of them. Resident Lindiwe Mngomezulu allows curiosity-seekers to get a close-up look at the non-venomous snakes she keeps in her home, and she drapes them over tourists’ shoulders for a small fee. She and her 19-year-old daughter, Nolwandle Duma, started raising snakes three years ago after going to see a snake show and coming away impressed.

Mngomezulu, 55, has two albino pythons, a Burmese python, a boa constrictor, an anaconda and a corn snake. It costs about $30 a week to feed them. She and Duma also own a bearded dragon lizard and two spiders. They show off their snakes in their Vilakazi Street home, where tourists and local schoolchildren have become regulars. Mngomezulu said many have since overcome their fear of reptiles, which she described as harmless if handled with care. She urged people not to think of snakes as a menace.

“People are killing snakes every day,” Mngomezulu said.

“That’s not right.” Her smallest snake, the corn snake, measures

T

1.2 meters (3.9 feet). The Burmese python is 3 meters (9.8 feet) long and, at 30 kilograms (66 pounds), is her heaviest snake.

Mngomezulu said her goal is to expand her snake show beyond Soweto. She is awaiting a permit that would allow her to take her snakes to non-residential areas and hopes money raised can help her to buy more snakes and get formal training from a recognized association. She is registered with the West Rand Herpetological Association, a local club for reptile lovers.

Andre Lourens, the association’s chairman, said Mngomezulu’s show has been instrumental in dispelling the false notion that all snakes are dangerous. “They are no more dangerous than any dogs running down the streets, if you take into consideration the amount of dog bites here in South Africa or number of people hit by lightning,” Lourens said.

Duma is saving money for university, where she plans to study zoology or psychology. She said she hopes her experience interacting with the reptiles and educating people about them could lead to a long-term career working with animals. — AP

Holtgreive says the course, led by Northwestern University Professor of Dance Billy Siegenfeld (SEE’-gen-feld), is teaching students known for left-brain thinking to use more of the right side of their brains. The students include biomedical, mechanical and chemical engineering majors who say they’re learning more than dance. They say the class is teaching them to

think on their feet and work collaboratively with dance partners - skills they say will help make them better engineers.

Lindiwe Mngomezulu, right, with her daughter Nolwandle Duma, left, lift up ‘Simba’ a Burmese python, inside their home.

Nolwandle Duma with ‘Landi’ a Boa Constrictor snake draped around her neck outside the home she shares with her mother in Soweto, South Africa. — AP

E

ngineering students at Northwestern University are getting a leg up on the competition. They’re learning to swing dance in a for-credit class called Whole Body Thinking. Joe Holtgreive (HOHLT’-greev), an assistant dean at the McCormick School of Engineering, started the class to help future engineers break outside their comfort zone.

Photo shows Jeremy Halpern, center, a civil engineering major, swing dances with Ali Lamens during a Northwestern University class called Whole Body Thinking. — AP photos

Billy Siegenfeld, Northwestern University Professor of Dance, center right, and dance instructor Jordan Kahl demonstrate swing dance steps for engineering students.

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Hospitals Sabah Hospital Amiri Hospital Maternity Hospital Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital Chest Hospital Farwaniya Hospital Adan Hospital Ibn Sina Hospital Al-Razi Hospital Physiotherapy Hospital

ACCOMMODATION

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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

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28-5-2013

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CHANGE OF NAME 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.

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KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (30/05/2013 TO 05/06/2013)

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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

THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) HUMMINGBIRD (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

8:30 PM 10:30 PM 12:30 AM

THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

8:00 PM 10:00 PM 12:05 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

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12:45 PM 3:00 PM 5:15 PM 7:30 PM 9:45 PM 12:05 AM

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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

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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)

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM

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)

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM

39 Pe t s

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Therapy Dogs ease stress for students

Lauren Tillotson says hello to Fluffy, a therapy dog with The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dog group, in front of the law library at Chapman University Law School for some stress relief during finals week. —MCT photos

Jasime Lee talks to Fluffy, a member of The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dog group.

‘The dogs will be poked, have their tails pulled, their paws petted, their noses stroked and more by people meeting them’

P

urses, backpacks and textbooks are piled up on the floor, benches and any available surface, completely forgotten.

Instead, students fill their hands and laps with four-legged friends. The Orange County, Calif., chapter of The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs paid a visit to Chapman University School of Law’s Donald P. Kennedy Hall just before finals, as a courtesy to the students. Jayne Kacer, associate dean of student affairs for the law school, said the dogs help relieve the stress of taking final exams in the law school.

“Yes, it is stressful. But it is manageable, with things like therapy dogs and good preparation, of course,” said Kacer. The law school is three years of study, with up to two weeks of finals each year for some students.

The typical first-year law student will have around five exams, one every other day for the course of a one- to two-week period. Each exam is about three hours long.

“In many instances the final exam constitutes their entire grade for the course,” said Kacer. The school is taking extra steps to help students with the stress of the final exams.

Days without classes or tests prior to finals are combined with free snacks, chair massages, pancakes cooked by professors - and the canines.

“During finals you have so much to do and you feel like you don’t have enough time to do it in,” said Alex Iorfino, who stopped and played with Shih Tzu therapy dog Nico. “With law finals, everything you did all semester comes down to three hours in an exam.”

Although law students may not need therapy in the tradition sense, a break from stress might be needed, said Kacer.

Shari Stack from The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs Inc, said their dogs have been

Beverly Jacobsen’s dog, Pookie, says hello to Blaise Vanderhorst, a student at Chapman University.

getting more calls for “de-stress days” at colleges. Therapy dogs do much more than help with pre-test stress. They’ve been brought to disaster sites, most recently to the aftermath of the Boston Marathon, Stack said.

The Bright and Beautiful Therapy Dogs are recognized by the American Kennel Club and make up a nationwide network of 5,000 active handlers and dogs that volunteer time, always free of charge, to bring therapy on all fours, one tail wag at a time. They are emotional comfort dogs, not service dogs, and they have their own set regulations and skills. For a dog and handler to be certified for their therapy classification, they must pass a combination test with basic obedience, situational contact and social responses in medical settings.

“The dogs need to respond properly to commands such as sit and stay and they need to come when called. The dogs can’t be jumpers, barkers, and they have to like to be touched, because they are going to be touched. A lot,” said Stack. The dogs will be poked, have their tails pulled, their paws petted, their noses stroked and more by people meeting them. There is also environmental sensory stimulation with loud noises. The dogs are approached with wheelchairs, walkers, crutches and intravenous medicine stands. “They can’t at all be flustered by that.

You can’t have them bark or be afraid of these things, or especially not run at the IV line and get tangled up in it,” said Stack.

Stack said that the dogs offer something beyond recreational time or a visit: unconditional love. The dogs give company to the lonely, self-esteem to the sad and a welcome distraction to the tired or overworked, said Stack. “The dogs will take people out of their realm of stress and to somewhere kinder,” said Stack. —MCT

Stars

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Aries (March 21-April 19)

You've been focused on where you are going, which is smart -but today it's time to get back to the present and start living in the moment. Keeping your gaze fixed so far into the future has created some distance between you and someone who cares a lot about you -- it's time for you to get back in touch with them. So go through this day slowly, and take in the world around you. Don't just think about tomorrow, or you will totally miss out on today.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

There has been one too many misunderstandings going on in your social life lately, and it could be holding you back from getting closer to someone. You have two choices today: You can either get face-to-face with the person who is confusing you and finally get to the bottom of things, or you can move on to a different set of social partners for a while. Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with taking a break from people who are rubbing you the wrong way.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Your modesty isn't going to do you any good, so ditch it today and step into the spotlight! Get yourself noticed, and you'll inject your mood with brightness and sass. If you have been feeling blue, today is the perfect time to turn that mood around -- all you need to do is make eye contact with that cutie and they'll be falling all over themselves to sit next to you. You are projecting an irresistible energy and you need to learn how to start wielding it more effectively.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Your bank statement may not be as healthy as it used to be, but that doesn't mean that you can't be as happy as you used to be! You need to stop letting money control your mood and start realizing that you are so lucky to have the life you have. To help you get back into a sunnier mood, why not call up some friends and make a date for some casual group fun? Play some games together or just shoot the breeze. You all don't have to spend money to have a wonderful time.

Leo (July 23-August 22)

The best way to approach a problem today is education. Teach yourself by researching every aspect of the forces and people around you. When you know what motivates them, you'll know how to motivate them -- and the power will be in your hands. Interestingly enough, the reverse is also true -- the more they know about your motivations, the more they can influence you. You get to decide whether or not you want to keep the playing field level, so be as open as you want.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

The many layers of your personality make you a richer, more evolved person -- but each layer isn't getting the amount of attention it deserves. Today, it's time to reorganize the elements of yourself and bring some of the aspects of yourself that are deep beneath the surface up to the top of the pile. Let the world see the part of yourself that you never get to reveal.

Take your biggest insecurities and let them all hang out. Be proud of your imperfections.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

A huge wave of creativity hits you today. This could be the beginning of a very productive period, so get cracking early in the day. Concentrate on output -- quantity is more important and quality. Resist the temptation to edit yourself, because the nuttier the idea, the more likely it will spawn another, more do-able plan. A family member may have a request you don't want to fulfill, but is this a battle you really want to fight?

Give them what they need.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

When was the last time that you had some good old-fashioned fun? It's time to work hard at having a good time in your life -- and yes, it does take work! Do whatever it takes to get in a few belly laughs today -- rent a funny movie, check out a funny blog, or pay a visit to your funniest friend. The bottom line is that you need to stop taking your life so seriously. And poking fun at some of the problems you're having is a good place to start.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

This is not the best day to start trying to push a relationship to a deeper level. You know something they don't know, but if you use this secret to connect with someone, you will be sorry. Not only is it dishonest, it's short-sighted. If you want to get closer to someone, you have to be true to who you are and honest about what you want. Don't use information to make a good impression on someone. Just be yourself -- that is going to be more than enough.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

Something big is coming, and it might come before you are completely ready for it! So preparation is the big theme for you today, and you'd be wise to double check your finances.

Look for opportunities to travel -- do you have all your shots? Is your passport valid? There are clues dropping regarding all things romantic, and by the end of the day you will probably have enough information to make an educated guess. Things are going to start getting exciting!

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)

Socially, you might not be the one making all the plans and driving all the action right now, but you will definitely be the person everyone wants to sit next to! You've got the sass, the energy and frankly the brilliance to carry on unique conversations with people from all walks of life, and your ability to listen to what people say is much appreciated. Your intense popularity will remind you how valuable you are to other people and leave you smiling all day long.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Pinning all of your hopes on one person is not a wise idea right now, so try not to be unrealistic about your expectations. This person might be as awesome as you think, but they are not capable of delivering what you want -- and they aren't comfortable with you thinking that they are. Give them space and leave them alone today, as any undue pressure you put upon them will only make them tense and distracted. Things are working just fine as they are, so relax.

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

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

L e i s u re

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Word Search

Yesterdayʼs Solution

C R O S S W O R D 2 0 6

ACROSS 1. The 7th letter of the Greek alphabet.

4. Brush turkeys.

12. A rotating disk shaped to convert circular into linear motion.

15. A light touch or stroke.

16. (anatomy) Of or relating to or associated with the parietal bones in the cranium.

17. A condition (mostly in boys) characterized by behavioral and learning disorders.

18. A metric unit of volume or capacity equal to 10 liters.

19. A translucent quartz spangled with bits of mica or other minerals.

20. A woolen cap of Scottish origin.

21. Any unsaturated aliphatic hydrocarbon.

23. Genus of American of east Asian perennial herbs with yellow to orange or red flower rays.

25. United States writer (born in Poland) who wrote in Yiddish (1880-1957).

28. A progressive disease of the central nervous system marked by increasing lack of coordination and advancing to paralysis and death within a year of the appearance of symptoms.

31. (Akkadian) God of wisdom.

32. A group of islands in the southeastern West Indies.

35. (Hindu) A manner of sitting (as in the practice of Yoga).

37. Generalized edema with accumulation of serum in subcutaneous connective tissue.

38. A small lump or protuberance.

39. The seventh month of the Moslem calendar.

42. A bluish-white lustrous metallic element.

43. The wood of the sabicu which resembles mahogany.

45. A unit of magnetomotive force equal to 0.7958 ampere-turns.

48. Surveying instrument consisting of the upper movable part of a theodolite including the telescope and its attachments.

49. Type genus of the Hylidae.

52. A constellation in the southern hemisphere near Telescopium and Norma.

54. A city in northern India.

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

57. A Loloish language.

60. A Mid-Atlantic state.

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

64. Any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples.

65. Formerly a term of respect for important white Europeans in colonial India.

68. Type genus of the Alcidae comprising solely the razorbill.

71. A white linen liturgical vestment with sleeves.

75. A river in north central Switzerland that runs northeast into the Rhine.

76. Narrow wood or metal or plastic runners used for gliding over snow.

77. Diverge from the expected.

78. The use of nuclear magnetic resonance of protons to produce proton density images.

79. Take in solid food.

80. Of or relating to the stars or constellations.

81. A Turkish unit of weight equal to about 2.75 pounds.

2. An official language of the Republic of South Africa.

3. (usually followed by `to') Having the necessary means or skill or know-how or authority to do something.

4. A domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church.

5. Very small silvery eellike schooling fishes that burrow into sandy beaches.

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

7. (computer science) A kind of computer architecture that has a large number of instructions hard coded into the cpu chip.

8. Vietnamese New Year.

9. Pertaining to or resembling Utopia.

10. Elongate very slender water scorpions.

11. A genus of Carangidae.

12. Someone who provides food and service (as for a party).

13. The sixth month of the civil year.

14. Designer drug designed to have the effects of amphetamines (it floods the brain with serotonin) but to avoid the drug laws.

22. Ancient Italian deity in human shape, with horns, pointed ears and a goat's tail.

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

26. (astronomy) The angular distance of a celestial point measured westward along the celestial equator from the zenith crossing.

27. Covered with scabs.

29. Occurring or encountered or experienced or observed frequently or in accordance with regular practice or procedure.

30. Spiritual leader of a Jewish congregation.

33. Generic term for inflammatory conditions of the skin.

34. A shoe consisting of a sole fastened by straps to the foot.

36. Type genus of the family Arcidae.

40. Wild sheep of northern Africa.

41. Title for a civil or military leader (especially in Turkey).

44. Conforming to an ultimate standard of perfection or excellence.

46. A flexible container with a single opening.

47. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali earth group.

50. Gull family.

51. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

53. Seed again or anew.

55. An intensely radioactive metallic element that occurs in minute amounts in uranium ores.

58. The Mongol people living the the central and eastern parts of Outer Mongolia.

59. An established custom.

61. Make a vibrant noise, of grasshoppers or cicadas.

63. The mission in San Antonio where in 1836 Mexican forces under Santa Anna besieged and massacred American rebels who were fighting to make Texas independent of Mexico.

66. A unit of area (4840 square yards) used in English-speaking countries.

67. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

69. Disturb in mind or make uneasy or cause to be worried or alarmed.

70. An elaborate song for solo voice.

72. An associate degree in applied science.

73. A run that is the result of the batter's performance.

74. The fatty flesh of eel.

Yesterdayʼs Solution

DOWN 1. Edible starchy tuberous root of taro plants.

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

Sports FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Orioles rally past Nationals BALTIMORE: Chris Davis hit two home runs among his four hits as the Baltimore Orioles overcame three homers by Ryan Zimmerman to beat the Washington Nationals 9-6 in interleague play Wednesday. In a wild game before 39,129 fans, each team slugged four home runs as the Orioles rallied from a four-run deficit.

Zimmerman hit solo homers in the first and fourth innings before adding a tworun drive in the fifth, all off Chris Tillman.

He got a chance at a fourth homer but struck out in the seventh. Davis hit a solo drive in the fourth and capped a six-run seventh with his major league-leading 19th homer, a two-run shot off Tyler Clippard.

At Chicago Dioner Navarro had the first three-homer game of his career, connecting from both sides of the plate at Wrigley Field to lead the Cubs over the White Sox 9-3. Navarro had never homered more than once in a game, but he got his swing going while driving in a career-high six runs and scoring four times. He hit a solo homer in the second to break a 1-all tie and added a two-run shot off John Danks (0-1) in the fourth. He then sent a towering shot to the street beyond the right-field bleachers for a three-run homer off Brian Omogrosso in the seventh.

St. Louis pinch hitter Daniel Descalso hit a two-run single with the bases loaded to break an eighth-inning deadlock and help St. Louis rally past scuffling Kansas City 5-3.

Luis Mendoza got his first career hit and RBI and held the Cardinals to a run in 5 2-3 innings before the bullpen failed for the Royals, who have lost a season-worst eight in a row. Matt Holliday and Carlos Beltran homered for the Cardinals, who have won seven of eight and lead the majors with a 35-17 record.

At New York, slumping infielders Ike Davis and Ruben Tejada sparked a five-run first inning that kept the Mets sailing along in this surprising Subway Series with a 9-4 victory over the Yankees.

Tejada hit a leadoff single, Davis drove in two runs and the Mets won with Jeremy Hefner (1-5) on the mound for the first time all season. They’ve taken three in a row from their crosstown rivals for their first four-game winning streak of the year.

Jered Weaver pitched six strong innings for the Angels in his first start in nearly eight weeks and Mark Trumbo hit a goahead two-run homer in a 4-2 victory over the Dodgers.

Weaver (1-1) allowed one run and five hits, struck out seven and walked none in his first home start of the season and 100th of his career at Angel Stadium.

The Pittsburgh Pirates downed the Detroit Tigers 5-3 after Pedro Alvarez hit a two-run double to spark a seventh-inning rally, while Domonic Brown hit a pair of homers, and Erik Kratz and Ryan Howard also had solo shots to lead the Philadelphia Phillies past the Boston Red Sox 4-3.

BALTIMORE: Pitcher Chris Tillman No. 30 of the Baltimore Orioles works the first inning against the Washington Nationals during an interleague game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. —AFP Toronto’s Melky Cabrera had three hits, including a two-run single in the Blue Jays’ 3-0 shutout of the Atlanta Braves, Aaron Hicks homered again and made another run-saving catch as the Minnesota Twins beat the Milwaukee Brewers 4-1 and Roberto Hernandez pitched the Tampa Bay Rays past Miami 3-1 for the Marlines

slumped to their season-worst eighth straight loss.

In other games, the Cleveland Indians defeated the Cincinnati Reds 5-2, the San Diego Padres edged the Seattle Mariners 3-2 over 10 innings, the Houston Astros beat the Rockies 6-3 and the Oakland Athletics downed the San Francisco Giants 9-6. —AP

Blackhawks clip Red Wings

CHICAGO: Marian Hossa No. 81 of the Chicago Blackhawks tries to get off a shot under pressure from Kyle Quincey No. 27 and Henrik Zetterberg No. 40 of the Detroit Red Wings in Game Seven of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. —AFP

CHICAGO: Brent Seabrook sent a wrist shot past goalie Jimmy Howard’s glove 3:35 into overtime to give the Chicago Blackhawks a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in Game 7 of their secondround playoff series on Wednesday.

The Blackhawks, who had the best record in the NHL regular season, rallied from a 3-1 series deficit to reach the Western Conference finals against the defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings. For just the second time in NHL history, the final four teams remaining in the playoffs are the four most recent Stanley Cup winners. Chicago captured the Cup in 2010.

Seabrook picked up a loose puck and skated in on Howard through the middle of the ice, with Detroit defenseman Niklas Kronwall in front of him. His shot hit Kronwall’s leg before it sailed into the left side of the net for the defenseman’s first goal of the postseason. “I was just trying to step up,” Seabrook said. “The coaches have been on me all year to get up and jump into the play.” The sellout crowd of 22,103 roared as Seabrook skated over to the boards and was mobbed by his delirious teammates. Howard put his arm around Kronwall, who was down on one knee, and tried to console him while the Blackhawks celebrated.

It was quite a change from the end of the third period, when the Blackhawks thought they had scored the go-ahead goal. But it was waved off with less than 2 minutes remaining by referee Stephen Walkom, who called a pair of penalties

behind the play. Henrik Zetterberg scored the equalizing goal in the third period for Detroit, which beat second-seeded Anaheim in seven games in the first round.

Howard finished with 33 saves.

Pavel Datsyuk was held without a point, closing out an ineffective series for the Russian star. Chicago made it to the conference finals for the first time since it won the title in 2010 and will host Los Angeles in Game 1 on Saturday night. The Kings advanced with a 2-1 victory over San Jose in Game 7 on Tuesday night.

Pittsburgh will host Boston in the opener of the East finals on Saturday. Chicago was one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup when the playoffs began, storming to the Presidents’ Trophy during the lockoutshortened season.

The Blackhawks then boosted their credentials with a five-game win over Minnesota in the first round and a convincing 4-1 victory against the Red Wings in the series opener. But Howard and Detroit responded with three straight victories, pushing Chicago to the edge of elimination. The frustrated Blackhawks held a team meeting the day after Game 4, where the seeds were planted for their improbable comeback.

They felt one win would turn it around, and they were right. Three victories later in which the Blackhawks outscored the Red Wings 10-5 after managing just two goals in Games 2-4 - made them the 25th team to win a series after trailing 3-1. It was the first time in franchise history they have made such a comeback. —AP

43

Sports FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Woods seeks to put Garcia spat behind him DUBLIN: Tiger Woods said Wednesday he has not spoken to Sergio Garcia and has no plans to do so a week after the golfers got into a spat that was sparked by racially-tinged comments from the Spaniard.

Speaking at the Memorial Tournament, Woods said he does not expect to broach the subject when the two compete at the US Open in two weeks’ time.

“That’s already done with,” said world number one Woods, the day before he tees it up to try and defend his title at the Muirfield Village Golf Club.

Garcia got himself into trouble during

a dinner in England when he attempted a joke in which he quipped about spending time with Woods at the US Open.

“We will have him round every night.

We will serve fried chicken,” he said. The Spaniard’s remarks drew comparisons with a controversy in the late 1990s in which former PGA golfer Fuzzy Zoeller was accused of racism after suggesting that Woods would serve “fried chicken” at a Masters champions dinner. The Spaniard later apologised at a press conference and was clearly embarrassed by the furore he had caused.

His comments came on the back of an earlier clash with Woods in the third

round of the Players Championship earlier this month-the latest in a line of disagreements between the two players over the last decade.

At the Players the two were grouped together and locked in a tight battle when Garcia said he was distracted by crowd noise after Woods pulled a club out of his bag, in what he said was deliberate gamesmanship from the American.

The two players have rarely seen eye to eye and Garcia tried to explain his position last week in England. “You can’t like everybody.

He doesn’t need me in his life and I don’t need him in mine. Let’s move on

and keep doing what we are doing.”

Woods had tweeted in response to the “fried chicken” remarks: “The comment that was made wasn’t silly. It was wrong, hurtful and clearly inappropriate ... it’s long past time to move on and talk about golf.” Jack Nicklaus, host of the Memorial Tournament, weighed in on the topic on Wednesday, calling the incident “stupid” and taking a shot at the media for keeping the row going.

“Nobody needs that. And I think both finally said it’s enough. Let’s move on,” the 18-time major winner said. Dealing with racial stereotypes is nothing new to Woods. —AFP

Lions face heat and Barbarians

Arno Botha

Bulls face Cheetahs to decide SA dominance WELLINGTON: South Africa’s Bulls can follow New Zealand side the Chiefs in cementing their regional dominance in Super Rugby with a win over nearest rivals the Cheetahs in the last match of the 16th round tomorrow. The Hamilton-based Chiefs beat the Christchurch-based Crusaders last weekend to stretch their lead to 10 points in the New Zealand conference of the southern hemisphere tournament.

If the Pretoria-based Bulls can beat the Cheetahs at Bloemfontein tomorrow they could establish a lead of similar magnitude in South Africa, leaving only the Australian region in dispute as the tournament nears its break for June internationals. The ACT Brumbies currently enjoy a five point break over the Queensland Reds in the Australian conference, a gap which depends on the outcome of matches this weekend between the Brumbies and Wellington-based Hurricanes and the Reds and Melbourne Rebels.

Behind the three conference leaders the contest for places in the top-six playoffs zone has become more tense, given urgency by the approach of the test window. The Cheetahs are currently in fourth place with 45 points, ahead of the Reds - also on 45 points - and the Crusaders with 42 points.

The Auckland-based Blues, in seventh place, also have 42 points and lead the New South Wales Waratahs (39), the Wellington-based Hurricanes (38) and the Durban-based Sharks and Cape Town-based Stormers, both with 34.

Four rounds remain in the regular season, including next weekend’s all-Australian round, scheduled to make room for the impending tour of Australia by the British and Irish Lions. In last year’s 17-round regular season, the Sharks claimed the last topsix place with 59 championship points and a similar number may be necessary to seal a playoffs spot this season.

That equation suggests the playoffs may be beyond the reach of the Hurricanes, Sharks and Stormers who would have to win all of their remaining matches with bonus points to be certain of finishing among the top-six teams. Their playoffs chances will also depend on the results of other games. —AP

HONG KONG: After six months’ planning and three weeks’ training, coach Warren Gatland finally begins his British and Irish Lions adventure in earnest tomorrow with what should be a gentle opening match against the Barbarians to open the 125th anniversary tour.

Ahead of three tests and six provincial games in Australia, the Lions are making their first appearance in Hong Kong, where the city’s intense heat and humidity will play a key factor.

Gatland, whose selection options were severely limited by the late arrival of more than a dozen players involved in domestic cup finals last weekend, will be anxious to see how the new combinations gel but is more concerned about getting the tour off to a successful start.

“I don’t really care about style as long as we win, to be honest,” he told a news conference yesterday. That should not be a problem, despite the Lions’ limited preparation time, particularly if the Barbarians offer as little resistance as they did in last Sunday’s 40-12 defeat by a fledgling England selection at Twickenham.

Only four starters remain, however, from that team and, with Italian Sergio Parisse captaining a far stronger-looking side from number eight, the Lions will have to work hard for their points and concentrate on their newly-learned defensive patterns.

“We are not going to shy away from the fact that we all felt let down afterwards,” said Barbarians coach and former Lions prop Dai Young. “We didn’t play anything like we expected and we know we are going to have to be a lot better.”

An indication of how seriously the Barbarians are taking the game is the news that the players have agreed to an alcohol ban until after the match.

In the absence of captain Sam Warburton, who is nursing a knee injury, Irish lock Paul O’Connell, captain in South Africa four years ago, will again lead the Lions.

Three of Warburton’s Welsh compatriots will fill the back row, with another six players from the Six Nations champions in the starting XV. “Obviously I’m disappointed for Sam but there’s no better man to captain the side than Paul O’Connell,” said Dan Lydiate, who will play on the blindside flank on Saturday.

Owen Farrell will start at flyhalf, out-

side Mike Phillips, one of the stand-out performers of the 2009 tour. All three Scots in the touring party get an early opportunity to impress, with Stuart Hogg at fullback, Sean Maitland on the left wing and Richie Gray in the second row.

Temperatures are expected to hit 33 degrees Celsius, with relative humidity

in the 65-90 percent range on Saturday, according to the Hong Kong observatory.

“We’re getting used to it already,” O’Connell said of the heat and humidity.

“It’s never as bad as you think it’s going to be. We both have to deal with it and hopefully we can deal with it better than they can.” —Reuters

Sergio Parisse

Sports FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Li Na crashes out of French Open PARIS: China’s Li Na crashed out of the French Open yesterday losing 5-7, 6-3, 6-2 to Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States in a second round tie badly disrupted by rain.

It was the first time the 2011 champion had gone out at such an early stage of the tournament in seven appearances and wrecked her hopes of a second straight Grand Slam final appearance after Australia in January.

As she did in the first round against Anabel Medina Garrigues, sixth-seeded Li got off to a strong start winning the first four games before the stocky American rallied to win the next four.

Mattek-Sands then promptly undid all her hard work with a poor service game at 5-5 and Li took full advantage to take the opening set.

With dark clouds hovering over Court 1, Mattek-Sands broke early in the second set to lead 4-1 before the rain came down to suspend play for one hour 45 minutes.

They made a brief reappearance for 10 minutes during which Li pulled back to 4-3 with her serve to come before they were sent scurrying for cover once again as the heavens opened.

Another 90 minutes transpired before further play was possible and on the resumption, Mattek-Sands levelled the set scores by winning the next two games.

That appeared to sap all the confidence out of Li and she meekly surrendered the deciding set as the rain started to fall once again. In the third round Mattek-Sands will play Argentina’s Paula Ormaechea who defeated Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-4, 7-6 (8/6). Shvedova was the player who ended Li’s French Open reign last year with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 upset fourth round win.

Meanwhile, former finalist Samantha Stosur and three-time semi-finalist Jelena Jankovic beat torrential Paris rain to reach the French Open third round yesterday.

After a one hour, 40 minute halt had left ninth-seeded Stosur a set and 4-1 up on France’s Kristina Mladenovic, the Australian then took advantage of a 20-minute window on their return to Court Philippe Chatrier to complete a 64, 6-3 win.

The 2011 US Open champion will face Serb 18th seed Jelena Jankovic for a place in the last 16. Jankovic, a semi-finalist in 2007, 2008 and 2010, beat Spain’s Garbine Muguruza 6-3, 6-0. “I think she’s a great up and coming player. She hits the ball very hard, very flat,” said Jankovic of the Spaniard. “And especially in the beginning of the match she gave me a lot of trouble. It was not easy playing against such a player.”

China’s Zheng Jie also reached the last 32 with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Melanie Oudin of the United States. Kazakh 27th seed Yaroslava Shvedova, who made the quarter-finals last year, was knocked out by Argentine qualifier Paula Ormaechea, 6-4, 7-6 (8/6).

German men’s 16th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber reached the third round without hitting a ball when Taiwan opponent Lu YenHsun withdrew with an ankle injury.

Seven-time champion Rafael Nadal and world number one Novak Djokovic, who are seeded to meet in the semi-finals, were due on court late yesterday, rain permitting.

Nadal, bidding to become the first man to win the same major eight times, faces Slovakia’s Martin Klizan for a place in the last 32. Nadal, the third seed and 11-time Grand Slam winner, was

FRANCE: USA’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands celebrates after winning against China’s Li Na during a French tennis Open second round match at the Roland Garros stadium. —AFP given a major fright in the first round against Daniel Brands.

The German took the first set and was a 3/0 up in the second set tiebreaker before the champion rallied to take his Paris record to 53 wins in 54 matches. Should Nadal prevail, he could then face Lukas Rosol, the man who shocked him in the Wimbledon second round last year.

That defeat sent the Spaniard off the tour for seven months to rest his injured knee, an

absence which ruled him out of the Olympics as well as the US and Australian Opens.

Top seed Djokovic, beaten by Nadal in the 2012 final, and needing a French Open title to become just the eighth man to complete the career Grand Slam, faces Argentina’s Guido Pella, the world number 83. In the women’s tournament, defending champion Maria Sharapova takes on Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard, the junior Wimbledon champion.—AFP

Semenya targets world championships CAPE TOWN: Olympic silver medallist Caster Semenya says she is still keen to compete in this year’s athletics world championships but her coach says the 800 metres specialist might have to considering giving up on the season.

The mixed messages from the Semenya camp came a week after the 22-year-old was removed from the list of elite athletes who are funded by South Africa’s Olympic committee because she was allegedly not training.

Semenya, laid low in recent months by trouble with her left knee, said she had been working towards another tilt at the world title when the championships are hosted in Moscow in August. “I’m back in training. I just need a couple of weeks to qualify. It’s my dream to win my title back. That is what I’m planning with the coach,” she said on South African television on Wednesday. However, her coach Maria Mutola said Semenya was still some way off being competitive and a decision on possibly calling off the rest of season might have to be made in the next weeks.

“We might have to call off the season. I think that her wellbeing comes first. So in the next coming weeks we will sit down and make a decision,” said the former Mozambican runner who was a dominant force in the 800m in her career.

“We have to consider if she can run good times. It would be unfair to expect her to run with some of the best athletes while she’s not 100 percent,” Mutola told South African media on Thursday. “As far as her progress is concerned, we are a little bit behind, and we just have to see how things go.” Mutola was critical of the decision to cut Semenya’s funding and contradicted the Olympic Committee’s assertion that she was not training. “She trains three times a week with me so I don’t understand what they mean by that. I think I’m content with her progress especially considering her injury problems,” said Mutola.

Semenya said of the funding cut: “Maybe it was because I did not run the South African season because of my injury. But being in a programme or not, I will still be the same athlete.”

It is the latest controversy around Semenya, whose rise from rural obscurity to world champion in 2009 catapulted her into an often uncomfortable spotlight. She was forced to undergo gender testing after her 2009 world championships triumph and last year accused of not trying hard enough at the Olympics in London, where she finished second.—Reuters

ST. PETERSBURG: The gold, silver and bronze paralympic medals are displayed for journalists during presentation of Sochi 2014 medals at the SportAccord International Convention. —AP

Sochi unveils medals for 2014 Winter Olympics ST. PETERSBURG: Sochi organizers unveiled the medals for the 2014 Winter Olympics yesterday - and now hope to make sure most of them stay in Russia to make up for the miserable medal performance at the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Organizers presented the medals featuring a “patchwork quilt” design representing the different regions of Russia, which will be hosting its first Winter Games next February in the Black Sea resort. One of the first to get a close up look at the medals was Russian President Vladimir Putin, who inspected them during a visit to the SportAccord conference and a lunch meeting with International Olympic Committee officials.

A record 1,300 medals are being manufactured for the Olympics and Paralympics. The medals depict the sun’s rays reflecting through a prism of snowy mountains and sandy beaches. The medals are 10 millimeters (0.4 inches) thick and 100 millimeters (4 inches) in diameter. The Olympic gold medals weigh 460 grams (16 ounces). A total of 3 kilograms (6.6 pounds) of gold was used to make the medals, which are gold-plated.

“We’ll try to keep all these medals in Russia, especially the gold ones,” Sochi organizing committee chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said. Russia wants no repeat on home turf of what happened in Vancouver, where it recorded its worst ever performance at the Winter Games. In Canada, Russia won only 15 medals and finished 11th in the table. The results led to the ouster of four key execu-

tives in the nation’s Olympic program.

Medals in Sochi will be a matter of national pride for Russia and Putin, who is directly involved in overseeing preparations for the games. The Russians are working on their own version of Canada’s “Own the Podium” program, a $117 million initiative that resulted in 14 golds for the Canadians - more than any country at a Winter Games. Chernyshenko said Russia’s medal performance will be crucial to the success of the games. “We refrain from making medal forecasts, but the atmosphere of the games will be affected by the performance of the team,” he told reporters.

The Sochi Games will feature 12 new medal events, including snowboard and ski slopestyle, ski halfpipe, snowboard parallel special slalom, womens’ ski jumping, figure skating team event, luge relay and biathlon mixed relay.

The front of Sochi’s medals features the Olympic rings. The reverse side has the name of the competition in English and the Sochi logo. The official name of the games in Russian, English and French is engraved on the medal’s rim.

The Paralympic medals were designed in the same style. One side features the Paralympic symbol, the reverse has the logo of the games and the name of the competition in English. The medals also contain inscriptions in Braille for the visually impaired.—AP

Sports FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Hughes takes over at Stoke

Eric Abidal

Tearful Abidal leaving Barca MADRID: Popular former France defender Eric Abidal fought back tears yesterday as he announced he would be ending his six-year spell with Barcelona when his contract expires at the end of the season.

“I would have liked to have stayed and played on at Barcelona but the club saw it differently and I have to respect their decision,” he told a news conference while struggling to control his voice. “I am going but I will surely return.”

The 33-year-old left back, who fought his way back into the squad after having a liver transplant last year, was joined by club president Sandro Rosell and sports director Andoni Zubizarreta who praised him for his bravery in adversity.

“He has won our hearts because you can never write him off,” Rosell said. “He has had the strength to overcome all types of difficulties - he has taught us life lessons we will never forget.

“We are not saying goodbye, only ‘until we meet again’. When he wants to hang up his boots Barca will open their doors for him to come back and be technical director of the youth academy.

“It’s what we want and what we think he would want. If he thinks he can help us in another way we will work on that option,” added Rosell.

Abidal was supported at the event by the Barca coaching staff and squad including players in the front row such as Gerard Pique, Carles Puyol, Xavi and Victor Valdes who is also set to announce on Friday he will leave the club. “The truth is I am very sad,” the Frenchman said, wiping his eyes. “I was thinking of continuing because I have fought hard to return to play here. “In the end there are two roads, to continue or leave and I will take the latter. I want to continue playing but I have to finish my contract,” added Abidal. “I don’t have any offers but I have time to think about that. The important thing is going to be the last game and to see if the boss (Tito Vilanova) puts me on for the last few minutes at the Nou Camp.”

Champions Barca finish their campaign at home to Malaga on Saturday when a victory would see them match La Liga’s record of 100 points.

“I think I can play for one or two more seasons,” said Abidal. “The doctors haven’t told me to stop playing because it puts my life at risk - if they had done I would have stopped.” — Reuters

LONDON: Mark Hughes took over as Stoke City manager on a three-year contract yesterday, saying he wanted to prove critics wrong and restore his reputation after being fired by Queens Park Rangers last year.

The former Manchester United striker replaces fellow Welshman Tony Pulis who left the Premier League club by mutual consent last week after seven years in charge.

“I’m really grateful...they’ve looked maybe beyond my last position and taken my career as a manager as a whole,” Hughes told a news conference at the club’s Clayton Wood training ground.

“Mistakes were made (at QPR) and certainly I made mistakes which I will learn from,” added the 49-year-old. “I have had something like 270 games at Premier League level and people in recent months possibly have wanted to define my managerial career on the basis of 12 months of last season...maybe it gives me more motivation to prove people wrong.”

Hughes was sacked by QPR in November, departing after a miserable start to the season with the west Londoners, at that point the only club in England’s four professional divisions not to have recorded a win.

In total, he won only eight of his 34 games in charge at Loftus Road. The former Blackburn Rovers, Manchester City, Fulham and Wales manager was replaced at QPR by Harry Redknapp who failed to stave off relegation.

Hughes said he had kept quiet for the past six months but had listened to what people had said and would use that positively at Stoke. “My inten-

tion is to take this club and team itself forward and make sure we are successful in the future,” he said.

“The success Tony had enables me to have a better chance because I’m following somebody who has put in place things that enable the club to be stable and has created an environment that is conducive to being successful in the Premier League.”

Stoke chairman Peter Coates would not be drawn on how much spending money Hughes would have and said the club wanted to be “sustainable”.

“It’s a great blot on the Premier League that there is so much debt when there’s so much money,” added Coates. “We want to have a sustainable model, we can do that and still provide funds for the manager.”

Coates said Hughes was the right fit for Stoke, with a record that spoke for itself. “We also understand that whoever we choose, some people will dis-

agree and I don’t have a problem with that,” he said.

“Those who focus on QPR, that’s fair enough, but they should look at the bigger picture and see what he has achieved throughout his career.”.

Stoke, who finished 13th in the 20team league last season, parted company with Pulis after the abrasive style of football he oversaw led to some disgruntlement from fans.

Hughes said the club had a strong squad and he would not come in and “wipe away all the hard work that’s been put in place in previous seasons.

“What I will look to do is hopefully make them a little bit more offensive and I’d like to think the teams I’ve been involved in have always scored a good level of goals,” he added. “But we’re not going to chuck the baby out with the bath water. It’s about steady progress, making sure we do it at the correct speed.” —Reuters

Mark Hughes

FIFA reforms set for Congress green light PORT LOUIS: Sepp Blatter’s two-year campaign to change the public perception of FIFA as a corrupt organisation run by self-interested old men, reaches its moment of truth at the governing body’s annual Congress in Mauritius today.

While the FIFA president may be 77 and contemplating staying in office into his 80s, his attempts at widespread reform have already produced a different looking organisation than the one engulfed in scandal and crisis two years ago.

Dominico Scala, the Swiss industrialist brought in last year to head the powerful Audit and Compliance Committee and oversee the reform roadmap has been given a free hand by Blatter to do what it takes to modernise the 109-year old organisation.

In a rare press briefing this week he said: “You have to give FIFA some credit for trying to change and I do not think it is widely appreciated how much it is changing.

“A third of the executive committee has been replaced in the last 18 months, which is almost unheard of in public companies or organisations like FIFA. Of course there is some way to go, but the changes that have been made are considerable.

“The public may or may not appreciate them, but as a working organisation, I think FIFA have moved on a lot from where it was when this process started.”

Criticism does remain, however, with anti-corruption organisation Trace International president Alexandra Wrage explaining that the governing body steered clear of the reforms she proposed before resigning from her post at the FIFA-installed Independent Governance Committee.

“It was a frustrating process because FIFA has been resistant to fundamental government changes,” she told reporters recently. “FIFA does not fully understand the extent of reputational damage that they were trying to repair.” Not all of the reforms due to be on Friday’s agenda will be put before Congress.

The most obvious omission is a proposal aimed at limiting the age and number of terms top officials can serve on their national confederation or FIFA bodies, but Blatter told an Asian Football Confederation conference on Wednesday he expected it to be on the agenda next year. A member of the executive committee who supports the limitations but cannot be named told Reuters: “If we had presented the proposal to Congress in the form it was in, it would have failed and could not have been on the agenda next year.

“In any case, we do not have elections for another two years so if we wait a year, it is not so bad. Different criteria operate in FIFA’s 209 countries and this is something we have to get right.”

Two other reforms have yet to be implemented. One detailing what Blatter and top FIFA officials earn and another allowing independent observers into FIFA Executive committee meetings.

By contrast, the powerful new Ethics Committee, split into investigative and adjudicatory chambers, is up and running and has already had an impact with its power to suspend anyone suspected of wrongdoing.

Vernon Manilal Fernando of Sri Lanka was suspended and then banned from soccer for eight years last month after an investigation into his activities was completed by the Ethics Committee. —Reuters

Sports FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

Photo of the day

Bayern Munich’s French midfielder Franck Ribery

Treble-chasing Bayern take tilt at ‘immortality’ GERMANY: Having smashed a plethora of records left and steam-rollered the likes of Barcelona and Juventus, all-conquering Bayern Munich can crown their season by becoming the first side to win the Bundesliga, Cup and Champions League treble tomorrow. Saturday’s Cup final opponents VfB Stuttgart, who finished in the lower half of the Bundesliga after their familiar winter slump, are all that stand between Bayern and what chief executive Karl-Heinz Rummenigge described as “immortality”.

The match at Berlin’s Olympic stadium will be the last for Bayern’s 68-year-old Jupp Heynckes before he makes way for Pep Guardiola, who could not have a more difficult act to follow.

The numbers speak for themselves. Bayern won the Bundesliga with a record 91 points from 34 games, including only one defeat. They clinched the title with an unprecedented six matches to spare and finished 25 points clear of Borussia Dortmund, another best.

They also set records for the number of wins (29), number of away wins (13), fewest goals conceded (18) and best goal difference (an astonishing plus 80). In the Champions League, they won 10 out of 13 games and lost two, beating Juventus 4-0 on aggregate in the quarter-finals, Barcelona 7-0 in the semis and Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in Saturday’s final at Wembley.

Their cup form has been equally emphatic with five wins in as many games, 17 goals scored and only one conceded, conquering last season’s double winners and great rivals Dortmund along the way. Stuttgart, on the other hand, finished 12th in the Bundesliga, with 43 points, a disappointing 18 of them in the second half of the season, and faced one Bundesliga side in their cup run. They were one of six teams to concede six games or more in a game against Bayern, alongside Werder Bremen, Lille, VfL Wolfsburg, Hanover 96 and Hamburg SV. Coach Bruno Labbadia admitted the gulf was enormous but still held out hope.

“Anything is possible in a single game,” he told German media. “There are days when a team can win a match despite not having the quality of their opponents. We’re hoping for one of those days.” He added: “I think that two titles in a season is enough.” Bayern, however, see the game as far more than an epilogue to their season.

“This team has already entered the history books, but they can make themselves immortal now,” Rummenigge said on the club website (www.fcbayern.telekom.de).

“Even the most successful Bayern team of all time, the generation including Franz Beckenbauer, Gerhard Mueller and Sepp Meier in the 1970s, never managed to win the lot.

“The only mistake we could make, and it’s doing the rounds in the media at the moment, is to think we’re approaching the easiest part and we’ll easily beat VfB Stuttgart.” Thomas Mueller added: “We’re all hungry, we want to go downas immortal, we want to win the treble” Bayern would become the seventh European team to complete a league, Champions League and cup treble following Inter Milan (2010), Barcelona (2009), Manchester United (1999), PSV Eindhoven (1988), Ajax Amsterdam (1972) and Celtic (1967).

Teams outside Europe to have won the equivalent competitions include Defence Force (Trinidad & Tobago), Englebert (former Zaire), Hearts of Oak (Ghana), Al-Ahly (Egypt) and Cruz Azul (Mexico).

Pele’s Santos won a treble in 1962 although Brazil did not have a national league at the time and their main domestic competition was instead the Paulista (Sao Paulo state) championship.

The Bundesliga and Cup double has been won 11 times before, eight by Bayern and one each by Cologne, Werder Bremen and Borussia Dortmund last season. —Reuters

Red Bull BC One All Stars Taisuke from Japan poses for a portrait, 3 days before judging Red Bull BC One Cypher Jordan at Jabal al-Qal'a, home to the Temple of Hercules, in Amman, Jordan.

—www.redbullcontentpool.com

Newell’s, Olimpia reach Libertadores Cup semis BUENOS AIRES: Newell’s Old Boys edged six times champions Boca Juniors 10-9 in a marathon penalty shootout to advance to the Libertadores Cup semi-finals following a tight all-Argentine encounter in Rosario on Wednesday.

Paraguayan former champions Olimpia also reached the last four of South America’s elite club competition with a controversial 2-1 victory over Brazil’s Fluminense in Asuncion, Uruguayan striker Juan Manuel Silgueiro scoring both goals.

With the aggregate score over two legs locked at 0-0 and no extra time in the competition, Newell’s and Boca went into a shootout which began with Boca playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme missing the opening spot kick.

However, his miss was soon forgotten in an absorbing duel that ended when Newell’s goalkeeper Nahuel Guzman stopped Juan Manuel Martinez’s effort before winger Maxi Rodriguez converted his to spark wild celebrations at the Marcelo Bielsa stadium. Boca, who lost their 10th final to Corinthians of Brazil last year, had pinned all their hopes for the season on the competition while languishing near the bottom of the domestic championship.

Newell’s, by contrast, are leading the Argentine Clausura standings and now look forward to a semi-final showdown against Brazilian favourites Atletico Mineiro or Mexico’s Tijuana, who meet in Belo Horizonte on Thursday with their tie locked at 2-2. Olimpia, who held Fluminense 0-0 in last week’s first leg in Rio de Janiero, go up against Colombia’s Independiente Santa Fe in July’s semi-finals after the tournament takes a break for the Confederations Cup in Brazil next month.

Newell’s coach Gerardo Martino hit out at the poor organisation of the tournament, given that it continues deep into the offseason. “There are four (Newell’s) players whose contracts end (in June). I don’t think it’s fair not to be able to count on them (for the semi-finals),” he told reporters.

“Nor do I think it fair that they should not be able to emigrate.

This is due to bad organisation of the tournament.”

Boca had a good chance early in the second half but striker Nicolas Blandi’s diving header was cleared off the line by defender Milton Casco. Boca then had Argentina left back Clemente Rodriguez sent off in the 56th minute for bringing down his namesake Maxi as the winger bore down on goal.

Riquelme was not too generous towards Newell’s, claiming they had been lucky to win, forgetting Boca were very fortunate to beat Corinthians in the last 16 when they benefited from some poor refereeing. “We faced the best team in the country, as everyone says, and we had the clearest chances,” he told reporters.

Newell’s came closest one minute from the end when Maxi Rodriguez broke through on the right and passed to Paraguay right back Marcos Caceres, whose deflected shot was somehow turned away by goalkeeper Agustin Orion.

At the Defensores del Chaco in Asuncion, Fluminense took an

early lead through midfielder Rhayner, who latched onto a poor back pass by Olimpia defender Julio Cesar Manzur meant for goalkeeper Martin Silva.

Salgueiro equalised with a free kick in the 35th minute, which he told reporters had been meant as a cross but “luckily went into the top corner”. Five minutes later, Uruguayan referee Daniel Fedorsuck awarded Olimpia a penalty for a foul that looked inconclusive in television replays by defender Diagao on Salgueiro, which the striker converted for the winner.

“We played a good first half but we had five silly minutes.

Those five minutes put us out of the Libertadores,” Flu’s Thiago Neves told reporters.—Reuters

SANTA FE: Argentina’s Boca Juniors forward Nicolas Blandi (center) vies for the ball with Argentina’s Newell’s Old Boys midfielder Diego Mateo (right) while teammate midfielder Lucas Bernardi (left) looks on during their Copa Libertadores 2013 quarterfinal second leg football match. —AFP

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Sports FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

England held by Ireland in Wembley friendly LONDON: England drew 1-1 with Ireland for the fourth time in a row in an entertaining friendly at Wembley on Wednesday. Shane Long gave Ireland an early lead but Frank Lampard quickly equalised and although England dominated possession they failed to conjure up another goal in the teams’ first meeting since their 1995 friendly in Dublin was abandoned due to crowd trouble.

Ashley Cole captained England in honour of his recent 100th cap but the left back had a quiet match before leaving the field to warm applause after being substituted in the second half.

“I didn’t expect to get 100 caps and the reception I got when I got 100 caps, once again I’d like to thank the fans for the reception I got, I didn’t expect it,” Cole told ITV. “I’m very proud.” England manager Roy Hodgson was happy with the performance if not the result. “I thought we played well enough, the quality was good,” Hodgson told a news conference. “But Ireland were very, very competitive, they worked their socks off. “I am disappointed with the result but I take a lot of positives from the way we played. I knew it would be a tough test. Ireland were firing on all cylinders.” After a lively start by both teams, Ireland took the lead in the 13th minute with an excellent goal. Right back Seamus Coleman swung in a teasing cross from the right and Long climbed above Glen Johnson to flick a firm header into the far corner of the net from 10 metres out.

The Ireland fans celebrated wildly and green smoke drifted across the pitch but England equalised 10 minutes later.

Daniel Sturridge held up possession on the left and waited for Lampard to make a trademark late run into the box and the prolific midfielder controlled the ball before flicking it low into the net from six metres. England have not beaten Ireland since 1985 and they struggled to break down Giovanni Trapattoni’s fiercely committed and well organised side.

Theo Walcott made a couple of jinking runs down England’s right and tested Ireland goalkeeper David Forde with a rasping shot after 65 minutes. Cole nearly got on the end of another dangerous Walcott cross but the Irish defence scrambled the ball away. “It was a great pass from Theo and I tried my luck and thought I could get on the end of it but it was great defending from the guy,” Cole said. “I had my celebration ready but it wasn’t to be.”

Both managers made several substitutions but Ireland looked dangerous on the break and England should have snatched the winner six minutes from time, Forde doing well to smother Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s shot with the goal at the winger’s mercy. “I have reason to be happy with the way we played,” Trapattoni said. “England had more possession but we knew this. England is one of the three or four strongest countries in the world. This draw for me is good. In 90 minutes the result is right.” Trapattoni was delighted by the performances of his younger players, singling out Long, Coleman and James McCarthy.

“They needed this experience and they will learn from it,” the Italian said. England travel to Rio de Janeiro to play Brazil in a friendly on Sunday when Ireland host Georgia. —Reuters

LONDON: Republic of Ireland striker Shane Long tries to climb over England defender Gary Cahill during the international friendly football match between England and Republic of Ireland at Wembley Stadium. —AFP

Belgium outclass US CLEVELAND: Substitute Christian Benteke scored twice as the United States were beaten 4-2 by an impressive Belgium side in a friendly international in Cleveland on Wednesday.

The game was a warm-up for both sides ahead of vital World Cup qualifiers, with Belgium facing Serbia in Brussels on June 7 while Juergen Klinsmann’s US side have three qualifiers next month for the 2014 finals in Brazil.

Pellegrini says he has a verbal deal with City MADRID: Departing Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini has said he has a verbal agreement to coach Manchester City in an interview with Spanish radio station Onda Cero on Wednesday.

“I have a commitment to make Manchester City my priority. I have a verbal agreement with them and I hope it is carried out,” the Chilean said.

Last week, the 59-year-old former Villarreal and Real Madrid boss said he was leaving the Costa del Sol club at the end of the season.

He has been linked with a move to Manchester City since the sacking of Roberto Mancini earlier this month. “I am motivated a great deal by a project as exciting as the one at Malaga,” he added.

“To be able to build up a club, this is as important as going to an institution where you will be able to win titles. “Until things have been signed, you cannot say everything is completely done.”

Malaga are sixth in La Liga and visit champions Barcelona in their final game on Saturday. They are on course for a place in the Europa League next season, but they will not be able to take it up unless a UEFA ban, imposed because of delays in payments to creditors, is overturned. —Reuters

CLEVELAND: Eddie Johnson No. 18 of the US Men’s National Team passes the ball by Toby Alderweireld No. 2 of Belgium during their international friendly match at FirstEnergy Stadium. —AFP

Belgium grabbed the lead in the sixth minute when US keeper Tim Howard dived at the feet of Romelu Lukaku but the ball fell to Kevin Mirallas who coolly chipped over his Everton team-mate and into the net.

The US drew level 17 minutes later when a Brad Davis cross from a short corner was headed back across the penalty area and defender Geoff Cameron headed in from close range.

The dangerous Lukaku then had an effort ruled out for offside and forced Howard into a fine diving save as the teams went in level at the break. But it was all Belgium in the second half.

Kevin De Bruyne took advantage of some careless defending from Omar Gonzalez and slipped the ball to Benteke for a simple finish in the 56th before Marouane Fellaini powered in a header to make it 3-1 after the US failed to properly clear a corner.

Benteke added his second and Belgium’s fourth when he ran on to a Steven Defour pass and beat the advancing substitute keeper Brad Guzan.

The US were able to make the scoreline more respectable 10 minutes from the end when Toby Alderweireld was harshly ruled to have handled an Eddie Johnson cross and captain Clint Dempsey converted the penalty.

The US play Germany in Washington on Sunday in a friendly to celebrate the centenary of the US Soccer Federation, before World Cup qualifiers in June against Jamaica, Panama and Honduras. Belgium lead Europe’s Group A on goal difference over Croatia on 16 points, while the US are third on four points in the tightly contested six-team final round of CONCACAF qualifying. —Reuters

FRIDAY, MAY 31, 2013

England held

by Ireland in Wembley friendly Page 47

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PARIS: A picture shows an official ball of the French tennis Open rebounding on the tarpaulin covering the center court during heavy rainfall over the Roland Garros stadium. — AFP