6 Jun 2013

CR IP TI ON BS SU

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Workers’ rights pose challenge to Gulf boom

150 FILS NO: 15831

www.kuwaittimes.net

Sharapova survives horror

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RAJAB 27, 1434 AH

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Hashem questions Interior Minister amid crackdown MP Khorafi questions airline deal, warns of Dow-like loss

Max 43º Min 29º High Tide 08:31 & 21:46 Low Tide 02:10 & 15:25

conspiracy theories

Salute you, Safa!

By Badrya Darwish

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

I

salute you, Safa Al-Hashem! Safa, you are the only MP who spoke out and inquired and questioned the Ministry of Interior about what is happening in Kuwait regarding the deportations and detentions of expats. So far I have been waiting for one Member of Parliament to comment and utter a word and ask a small question. Everyone was silent on the topic as if nothing is happening in Kuwait. As if there are no police checkpoints in every corner pulling over cars and passersby at random.

Bless her, Safa questioned the minister. She asked what was on my mind to ask him. She asked about the exact number of deported illegal citizens and about their nationalities. However, the most important question she raised is if there will be any punishment for the kafeels who brought these people into the country. Also, she wanted to know if these are individuals or companies.

I would like to add more - that we are receiving many calls and messages through friends that the detention centre is overcrowded and they are looking at even opening a new one. We have been flooded by readers’ emails that their friends or relatives are detained in crowded detention places.

I have a question: Does the police have the right to check the mobile phone of a person they have detained? I am asking this question because it came to my knowledge that if they detain somebody, they take his mobile phone and check it. There are excuses like why you have Viber and Skype apps? They tell the arrestee that this is illegal. By law, when somebody is suspected and locked up, his personal belongings are kept. Or is it here the story that if someone is Asian, they get curious about his personal communication. You are there to do a job, so do it ethically and professionally.

Do not start downgrading people. There is a difference between humiliation and flexing your muscles at poor laborers. They do not live in luxury villas.

Many of them I am sure hardly got paid for the last few months. Many of them have been harassed by their sponsor who takes their passport on arrival and gives them a salary at his whim, if at all. They work for weeks on end without a day off and live in poor conditions.

I am not in support of illegal residency or any illegal matters. But there are decent ways to apply the law which suits our beautiful and great constitution.

Above all, it suits our beautiful Islamic shariah laws and the manners of our Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

Have a nice weekend and a nice Israa wal Me’raj!

KUWAIT: Cars pass through a police checkpoint on Sahafa Street in Shuwaikh yesterday. — Photos by Joseph Shagra

By B Izzak KUWAIT: MP Safa Al-Hashem yesterday sent a series of questions to Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad AlHumoud Al-Sabah about illegal expatriates who have been rounded up for violating residence rules, saying that security officers have arrested “thousands” of foreigners. The lawmaker asked the Interior Minister for the precise number of expatriates arrested up to date

Saudi bans Viber RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s telecom regulator has banned use of the web-based communication application Viber, which is hard for the state to monitor and deprives licensed telecom companies of revenue from international calls and texts. “The Viber application has been suspended ... and the (regulator) affirms it will take appropriate action against any other applications or services if they fail to comply with regulatory requirements and rules in force in the kingdom,” the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) said in a statement on its website.

Viber allows subscribers to make free calls, send instant messages and share files over the internet. CITC did not explain what regulatory requirements and rules it breached, but the kingdom appears to be pushing for greater control over cyberspace as Internet and smart phone usage soars.

Attempts to use Viber on two different smartphones and to download it onto a computer in Saudi Arabia failed to work yesterday. A message on the Viber website explained the service had been banned in Saudi Arabia. The regulator issued a vaguely worded directive in March warning that such tools as Viber, Whatsapp and Skype broke local laws, without specifying how.

Local media reported at the time that Saudi Arabia’s three main operators Saudi Telecom Co, Etihad Etisalat (Mobily) and Zain Saudi had been Continued on Page 15

Hezbollah-backed troops oust rebels from Qusair Rebels face ‘surrender or death’ QUSAIR: Syrian government forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies seized control of the border town of Qusair yesterday, dealing a major defeat to rebel fighters battling to overthrow President Bashar Al-Assad. Two weeks of heavy fighting reduced many buildings to mounds of twisted concrete, whole blocks flattened by shelling, with glass and rubble littering the streets as tired but delighted Syrian soldiers gathered at the bullet-riddled clock tower.

“We will not hesitate to crush with an iron fist those who attack us. ... Their fate is surrender or death,” the Syrian armed forces command said in statement. “We will continue our string of victories until we regain every inch of Syrian land.” An opposition group from the town said more than 500 rebels had died in two weeks of fighting, with a further 1,000 wounded, leaving just 400 outgunned QUSAIR: A picture shows the bodies of rebel fighters laying in a men struggling to hold onto the town.

Continued on Page 15 southwest neighborhood of the Syrian city of Qusair. — AFP

for not carrying a legal residence permit and what measures the ministry intends to take against those violators.

She also inquired about who pays the air fare for the violators when they are deported and for how long the violators wait until they are sent back home. The lawmaker also asked about the identity of the Kuwaiti sponsors of the residence violators - whether they are individuals or companies and what measures will be

taken against them. She inquired about the nationality of most of the illegals.

The Interior Ministry has been launching campaigns against expatriates staying illegally in the country alongside another campaign to apprehend traffic offenders. The campaigns are believed to have netted thousands of expatriates amid reports that deportation centers are overcrowded with foreigners waiting to be Continued on Page 15

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

LOCAL

Amir honors winners of Kuwait e-Award KUWAIT: Under the auspices and attendance of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, an event was held at Bayan Palace to honor the winners of the third and fourth editions of Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences’ (KFAS) e-Award.

The celebration was also attended by HH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad AlJaber Al-Sabah, Deputy Minister of the Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Jarah Al-Sabah, and senior state officials. After the opening ceremony, KFAS Director General Dr Adnan

Shihab-Eldin delivered a speech praising His Highness the Amir for his sponsorship of the award since its inspection in 2008, affirming that the event had led Kuwaiti youth to utilize their potentials to create and develop within the context of Information Technology (IT).

Using the latest communication devices and software will impact people’s social and economic development; however, the same technologies could be used in a negative manner leading to regression, said the direc-

Interior honors three KUWAIT: The direc tor of specialized training, Colonel Mishaal Mohammad AlZabi, has honored three personswho proved themselves as outstanding and ideal in their work. The honored personnel were Anwar Rashed Al-Dae, Fahad Ayed Al-Hraiji and Amin Abbas.

Al-Zabi congratulated them and conveyed the greetings of the Assistant Undersecretary Lt. General Abdullah AlMuhanna, exhorting them to put in even more effor ts in the ser vice of Kuwait. The ceremony was attended by

Lt Colonel Waleed Al-Khalfan.

Border tour Wafra Area Commander Colonel Salem Al-Azemi toured the entire Western border area next to Saudi Arabian border, from “Jalham Center” in the North up to “Nowaiseeb” in the South. The aim of the tour was to ensure safety of cattle owners and prevent them from going close to the border fence. They were advised to keep a distance of at least two kilometers from the border for their own safety.

tor. Kuwait e-Award focused on global standards to achieve the country’s development goals, said Dr Adnan, noting that an agreement was signed with the World Summit Award (WSA), part of the UN-Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (UN-GAID), to ensure that e-Award was up to such standards.

Dr Adnan stressed that the e -Awards would have not been a success without the involvement of the Kuwaiti leadership. Such

support led to praise from the World Summit for Information Service (WSIS), affirmed Dr Adnan. The Director also lauded His Highness the Amir’s gesture to honor former Director of KFAS, the late Dr. Adnan Al-Aqaeel, saying that such sentiment reflected Sheikh Sabah’s strong desire to honor those who helped in the development of society and the youth.

Under the guidance of His Highness the Amir, KFAS will continue to serve society, said Dr Adnan who added that the foundation current objectives were to technically support

Sabah Al-Ahmad Center for Giftedness and Creativity, the Scientific Center, and Dasman Diabetes Institute.

Dr. Adnan revealed that an agreement was signed between KFAS and the Health Ministry early Tuesday to support operations at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah molecular imaging center, an institute dedicated to diagnosing cancerous and cardiovascular diseases. After the conclusion of the speech, His Highness the Amir proceeded to honor the winners of the Kuwait e-Award.—KUNA

Electricity consumption reaches alarming level Concern as mercury soars to 49 KUWAIT: Electricity consumption recorded its highest level this summer on Tuesday at 10,00 megawatts, leading to heightened c o n c e r n s a s t h e re i s s t i l l a m o n t h t o g o before temperatures rise to their peak summer level.

The highest temperature on Tuesday was 49degreeC, recorded at 2:30 pm, while a Ministry of Electricity and Water insider noted that power consumption has been increasing gradually keeping pace with the rising temperature since mid-April.

Temperatures usually peak during the period between the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August, which is leading to concerns in the country since the holy

month of Ramadan when energy consumption usually increases, falls during the same period. The previous record for electricity consumption was 10,30 MW, recorded on May 26, according to the source who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Meanwhile, the same source noted that water consumption rates have remained stable throughout the last month except for the last few days “when daily consumption rates exceeded production.” While reassuring about the ministry’s preparations to meet the demand for power and water, the insider urged for conserving energy during the summer, especially at the beginning of Ramadan that would fall in the first two weeks of July.—Al-Qabas

Ramadan holiday KUWAIT: Member of Parliament Abdallah Al-Maayouf believes that the last ten days of the month of Ramadan be declared as an official holiday for all the employees working in the government sector.

Al-Maayouf, who submitted a proposal in this regard, said the employees should be given an opportunity to worship and be close to Allah, especially since the Night of Al-Qader (Power) occurs in the last ten days of the month.

KUWAIT: Traffic police check vehicles at the press enclave off Road 55, Shuwaikh in intensified campaign against traffic rules violators yesterday.—Photos by Joseph Shagra

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

LOCAL

Activist suspends sit-in after police assurance KUWAIT: A Kuwaiti activist who had recently called for a sit-in against alleged immoral activities at Jahra cafÈs has agreed to suspend his protest “to give police officers the opportunity to implement the law”, a local daily reported yesterday.

Khalid Al-Subaiei of the Kuwaiti Family Protection Foundation had called for a sit-in on Tuesday, which was supposed to end only after the coffee shops that he claimed to be hosting immoral practices were closed. He made his decision to call

off the sit-in after being summoned

by Jahra Investigations Department for questioning. “I answered all the questions they asked and blamed them for questioning a man who wanted to apply the law that they were required to enforce,” Al-Subai’ei told Al-Rai on Tuesday.

Al-Subai’ei said he gave the authorities, upon their request, “evidence in my possession that could help convict the cafes of suspicious behavior”, adding that he handed over the documents during a four-

hour meeting, which was attended by the head of the Jahra Security Department, Major General Ibrahim Al-Tarrah. He explained that he agreed to suspend the sit-in upon the police’s request “and after Maj Gen Al-Tarrah and [Jahra District Director] Colonel Saleh Al-Daas expressed commitment to tackle the violations”.

There are no details yet about the timeline or the nature of action that the Jahra Security Department may take against the alleged violations.

Panel rejects urgency request KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah received the visiting Commander of US Central Command General Lloyd J Austin and his accompanying delegation in Bayan Palace yesterday. The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Amiri Diwan Affairs Sheikh Ali Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, and the General Chiefof-Staff of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces Lt Gen Sheikh Khalid Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah. —KUNA

9 coffee shop workers rescued from Hawally

KUWAIT: The parliament’s foreign affairs committee refused a parliamentary request to speed up review of a security agreement among the Gulf Cooperation Council countries, citing lack of proper procedures in filing the request.

“With all due respect to the 13 MPs who forwarded the request, the cabinet is the only authority that can make such a request, being the body that forwarded the agreement,” head

of the committee Saleh Ashour told Al-Jarida on Tuesday. He added that the agreement cannot be referred to the parliament without a full report from the committee, which means that it is unlikely to be debated before the end of the current term since the panel “is unlikely to finish its report only by then.”

Meanwhile, MP Hussein Al-Qallaf criticized the agreement which he said was aimed at ultimately protect-

ing the governments of the GCC countries.

“The agreement’s goal is to protect governments, not states, while I, as a legislator, am required to protect the states instead of the governments,” he argued. Al-Qallaf further disputed that Kuwait “is not in need” of the agreement and accused the MPs who made the urgency request of being ‘blind loyalists’ of the government. —Al-Qabas

Filipinas narrate stories of rape, torture

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: The Philippine Embassy, together with personnel from the Ministry of Interior, recently rescued nine workers from a coffee shop in Hawally after receiving a tip-off from a Filipina worker who claimed to have been repeatedly abused by the shop’s owner.

Speaking at a press conference yesterday on the premises of the embassy, Philippine Consul General Raul Dado disclosed that among the nine rescued workers, there were five from the Philippines, three from Nepal and one from Indonesia. Kuwaiti authorities turned over the five Filipinas to the Philippine Embassy, and the others were handed over to their respective missions’ representatives.

The owner of the coffee shop was arrested during the raid and has been detained pending further investigation. Later, presented before the local Filipino press, the five Filipinas shared their individual predicaments.

Leslie (not her real name) was the most mistreated victim among the five Filipinas rescued. She was raped several times by the owner. “I suffered a lot. I wasn’t only raped, but also repeatedly abused physically and verbally by the owner,” said Leslie in between sobs. “If the owner arrived and I didn’t entertain him, he would summon me immediately to his office and beat me up over and over again. Sometimes he used sticks and shoes to beat me,” she lamented. “I sustained many bruises in my body but I could bear the pain because I wanted to live, believing that one day I will be able to leave the coffee shop anyway,” she told the media.

Leslie, 31, is a native of Albay (Bicol) and has four children. She came to Kuwait in 2011. “When he

was abusing me, I even told him to just kill me instead, because I could no longer tolerate the pain. But behind all of it was a painful reality that I have kids who need me anyway,” she said. “So I endured the pain but was fervently praying to be rescued from this hell soon,” Leslie added.

Asked why the five were not able to escape during those painful times, Gloria (real name withheld), another abused victim, said they were heavily guarded by some men - from their workplace through the place where they lived. “There were Arab men guarding our move ments so closely that we could not escape easily. The moment we returned to our accommodation, they would lock the door from outside so we could no longer leave,” Gloria said. “We could not even get some food from the baqala (store).

But one managed to escape and she gave us the contact number of our embassy,” Gloria explained.

Although she was not raped, Gloria admitted that she had suffered the same kind of beating and abuse as Leslie. “I was always at the scene when the owner mistreated my friend. I sympathized with her and I have been enduring physical abuse, too, because I always wanted to help Leslie,” she said.

Another Filipina victim stated that she was also summoned one day by the owner, only to watch him rape one of her colleagues. “ The owner wanted me to join them. But I refused. So he just told me to watch them,” she said.

The five rescued Filipinas came from different recruitment agencies, but the manner in which they were recruited was the same. The Filipinas disclosed they were all taken from their recruitment agencies by a Kuwaiti ‘middleman’ named Abu Khaled.

KUWAIT: Consul General Raul Dado with Labor Attache Dicang, Welfare Officer Lugto at the press conference yesterday.—Photos by Ben Garcia

KUWAIT: The five Filipinas talking to the local Filipino reporters.

According to the Filipinas, Abu Khaled coordinates with the owners of recruitment agencies on domestic helpers willing to work at a coffee shop.If the agency says yes, Abu Khaled takes them from the agency to his safe house. Then, he calls over some coffee shop owners to his safe house in order for them to select candidates for their shops.

Abu Khaled sells ladies at a price of KD600 or above to the coffee shop owner, if they want. “Abu Khaled is the one supplying women to coffee shop workers in Hawally,” a rescued Filipina pointed out. Besides working at a coffee shop, there are other options too. If the girls wanted a “boyfriend”, Abu Khaled’s customer could pay him KD3,000 for the ser vice. “I was offered the same, but I told them that I wanted a real job-so I landed a coffee shop job,” says another victim, who is only 21 years old.

One of them said they were set a quota of KD45 per day. If they failed to earn that amount, they would be beaten up or penalized the owner would usually deduct some money from their small salary. “Most of the time I got only KD30 per month, because of many deductions. Originally, we were supposed to receive KD70. I agreed to work in the coffee shop because at first they said they ’ll give us KD120, but in fact we got only KD70,” she said.

The rescued workers said the coffee shops where they were employed would change hands overnight. “The owner of the coffee shop changes every now and then. In my one year at the coffee shop, I think they changed the owner four times. The last owner was the worst. He started only in November last year, but we suffered a lot. The previous one was almost the same, but the last owner was really sick,” Leslie said. The rest of the girls also said they were mistreated and abused and needed help. “If anyone offers work at a coffee shop, please do not accept the offer. You will be abused, too, just like us. Better to stay in the house of your sponsor because you’ll be safer,” she warned.

Consul Dado said the embassy was able to help and rescue Filipinos through its embassy hotline. “We got a very reliable and accurate information from one of the rescued victims. So, we coordinated with the authorities immediately. After securing the warrant, the police raided the building where they lived. The raid took place on May 30. Two men were apprehended during the raid and nine workers, including five Filipinas, were rescued,” Dado noted. He said cases were already filed and a Kuwaiti lawyer had been appointed to defend the Filipinas.

Dado also called on housemaids to refrain from taking jobs at coffee shops. “If you want a job, please go through the legal channel. They can protect you. But if you are there, please don’t hesitate to call our hotline number, 55952909. We want to protect ever y Filipino, whatever be their predicament,” Dado concluded.

The press conference yesterday was also attended by Philippine Labor Attache to Kuwait and Welfare Officer Norlita Lugto. The two assured the rescued Filipinas that they will be taken care of and justice will be served.

KUWAIT: HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah received yesterday at Bayan Palace the Saudi Royal Diwan Advisor Saad Al-Buraik on the occasion of his visit Kuwait. The meeting was attended by Kuwait’s Minister of Justice and Minister Awqaf and Islamic Affairs Minister Shareeda Abdullah AlMuosherji.— KUNA

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

LOCAL

KUWAIT: The Ambassador of Argentine Republic Jorge O A Biga hosted a reception at Regency hotel to mark the National Day of the country. Top officials, diplomats and media persons attended the reception.

—Photos by Joseph Shagra

Reckless driver bumps into traffic police chief Sulaibiya wife beater in custody KUWAIT: A man thought he was lucky when he drove for nearly two kilometers along a road’s shoulder without a police vehicle in sight, till his luck ran out and he found himself face to face with none other than Kuwait’s traffic police chief. Traffic General Department Director Abdulfattah Al-Ali was driving his civil car off duty when he noticed a reckless driver driving in at a speed far higher than the permissible limit along the road shoulder to avoid becoming stuck in a traffic jam. He intercepted the driver at a point where he tried to come on to the main road. After realizing that he was in serious trouble, the man tried explaining to the Major General that he had a family emergency. Maj Gen Al-Ali turned a deaf ear to his pleadings, however, and ordered that his vehicle be impounded.

Wife beater in custody Sulaibiya police managed to arrest a man just hours before he was to escape the country apparently to avoid facing domestic assault charges. Search for the Gulf national went underway after his Kuwaiti wife filed a case with the Sulaibiya police and forwarded a medical report that showed she suffered a broken nose. The man was eventually tracked down at his parents’ house in AlAndalus, and arrested while he was reportedly packing his luggage to leave for home

in the next few hours.

Mosque damaged Investigations were on to identify and arrest suspects responsible for causing material damage to an Ahmadi mosque on Tuesday.

Police reached the scene shortly after the incident was reported, and examined the mosque whose windows were smashed by hurling stones. Search is on for suspects who could face sectarianism charges.

Maid kidnapped Sabahiya police were trying to identify a domestic worker who was reported to have been k idnapped by her employer.

Investigations went underway after a Kuwaiti man filed the case with the police, saying his Indonesian housemaid called him and said she was being kidnapped before the kidnappers apparently seized her phone and switched it off.

Search for thief Fahaheel police were looking into a case in which a man claimed he was robbed at knifepoint by a man to whom he had sold his cell phone only a few minutes earlier. In his statements to local police, the Kuwaiti man explained that he met a person at a local mall who agreed to buy his custom-made Blackberry for KD400. After the sale was com-

pleted, the man made his way out of the mall only for the buyer to take out a knife, snatch the money he just paid and escape.

Investigations were on.

Fatal crash A man died in an accident reported Tuesday morning at the Salmi Road. Police and paramedics reached the scene of the accident from where a serious collision was reported. The Saudi driver was pronounced dead on the scene and the body was taken to the forensic department after investigators examined the scene. Investigations were on to determine the circumstances behind the accident.

Gulf Disability Society honors ABK KUWAIT: As a gratitude for Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait’s support to the Gulf Disabled Week, the Gulf Disability Society honored the Bank for its heartfelt support and enthusiastic participation in the society’s activities.

Sahar Al-Therban, PR manager at ABK, elaborated, “I would like to thank the Gulf Disability Society for this wonderful honor and for their collaboration with ABK over its activities which in turn benefits the

physically challenged.” She added, “The support of Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait to the Gulf Disabled Week comes under our ongoing corporate social campaign “Our Society, Our Responsibility.” We highly appreciate the efforts undertaken for this event; the society serves a very important segment of society that truly deserves the care. We wish all the members of this society good luck and success in the supremely selfless task they undertake.”

Like father, like son Officers at the Faiha police station arrested a man and his teenage son on charges of assaulting police officers on duty. The incident happened when two patrol officers detained a teenager after he failed to produce an ID or identify himself. The child assaulted a policeman and was put in a cell while officers summoned his father. Soon after arriving at he police station, the father engaged in a quarrel with the police and eventually had to be arrested since he too assaulted a policeman.

The two were being held pending legal procedures.

—Al-Anbaa, Al-Rai, Al-Watan

‘Paradise Lost’ leads to bookshop closure

By Ben Garcia KUWAIT: A bookshop in Salmiya was closed because it was selling John Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost.’ The closure of the bookshop happened after an inspection from the Ministr y of Information in mid-May. Two lady inspectors pretending to be customers walked into a bookshop in Salmiya and started asking about many books which, according to the owner of the bookstore, are banned in Kuwait. When the inspectors finally asked about “Paradise Lost”, the owner told them that it was available.

“So, they asked me if they could have one. After having a look at the book in their hands, they announced that they were from the Ministry of Information and the book in their hands was actually included in the list of banned books in Kuwait,” the owner told this reporter. “I was surprised and shocked,” the owner of the bookstore said. “ The inspectors asked me to show my license. They also asked whether they could get some 100 books randomly from my store. I requested them to reduce the number to 20.

They agreed and gathered 20 books randomly from my store,

including a copy of ‘Paradise Lost’,” the owner recalled. The following day, the owner went to the Ministry of Information to check the situation with regard to the confiscated books.

“I was informed that I have to wait until they check the content of the books which were confiscated, including ‘Paradise Lost’. But I was shocked when they informed me that I have to close down my bookshop until the investigation is completed. I informed my lawyer about it and he advised me to abide by the verbal advice from the Ministry of Information and close down temporarily,” she disclosed.

According to the owner, there are copies of Milton’s “Paradise Lost” at the library of Kuwait University. “How come that book, ‘Paradise Lost’, is available in the state university and we can’t sell it. I took pictures of the books to show that they are available in their own library,” she lamented.

Further, she mentioned about an incident, told to her by her lawyer: A Kuwaiti woman was banned from travelling outside her country because she had ordered a banned book (from Amazon) from outside of Kuwait, despite the fact that she was unaware of the book being banned.

“Some airport personnel called her

one day to inform her about her package. When she went to collect it, she was told by the airport personnel that the book she had ordered was banned in Kuwait. She was slapped with a travel ban. She is a Kuwaiti. She managed to travel outside eventually, but she faced a court case for ordering a banned book,” explained the bookshop owner. “I was frightened with this story, which the lawyer shared with me. But I am an expat, and maybe they are going to do the same. I hope it would not affect my status,” she noted.

She pointed out that there was no freedom of expression in Kuwait, as bookshop owners and even customers were slapped with cases for wishing to read literature. “You have your package in the airport opened. The package was not only opened, but also confiscated. They were able to successfully file a case against her and she was banned from travelling,” the owner said. “We are not talking anything that can be deemed offensive against anyone; we are talking about literature from ‘Paradise Lost’. Besides, if we were informed about it, we would probably not sell it. The problem is we weren’t informed. The idea of banning any book is very offensive to me or to any book-loving person,” she concluded.

KUNA chairman wraps up visit to Italy ROME: Board Chairman and Director General of Kuwait News Agency Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij Al-Sabah yesterday wrapped up a visit to Italy during which he inspected bureau of the national news agency in Rome. Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij, accompanied by KUNA’s head of international relations Isaam Al-Ruwaih departed the Italian capital heading to Berlin on an identical mission.

The chief of the national news agency examined work of the KUNA staff in Rome, namely their coverage of activities by Kuwaiti authorities and associations as well as international organizations based in the European nation.

Sheikh Mubarak, during the visit, stressed on necessity of upgrading work of the staff to cover new developments and serve the message of promoting Kuwait’s status internationally.

He visited headquarters of the Foreign Press Association and the International Media Center, where he got acquainted with facilities given to the foreign media personnel. KUNA, the national news agency of Kuwait, covers local, regional, international news, broadcast reports, features, and analyses. Its services are provided via the Internet, SMSs, and telephone. The news agency was established on October 6, 1979 according to an Amiri Decree to gather news and information for distribution to media institutions and individuals. It had opened offices in most Arab countries, along with bureaus in London, Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, Washington, DC, and many others. —KUNA

ROME: Board Chairman and Director General of Kuwait News Agency Sheikh Mubarak Al-Duaij AlSabah.— KUNA

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

LOCAL

MoI mulls grace period for violators: Official Union leader questions ‘military type’ crackdown

KUWAIT: A delegation of the fire department, headed by Acting Deputy General Director Colonel Waleed Al-Ansari, paid a visit to Sergeant Musarie Al-Hajery at the Al-Adan Hospital to inquire about his well being after he suffered a stroke while on official duty. He hailed the Sergeant’s efforts in performing his duties and his years-long service record besides wishing him a speedy recovery.

6 rescued from burning house

By Hanan Al-Saadoun KUWAIT: Fire fighters rescued six people from a blaze that broke out in a house in Dhahiat Sabah Al-Salem trapping a group of people inside last night.

The fire department received an emergency call at 12.30 past Tuesday midnight about the fire. Personnel from the Mishref and Al-Qurain fire centers rushed to the site, where they found that the fire was in a ground floor room of a two-storey house.

The room was being used for storage and laundr y purposes. Heavy smoke fumes prompted firemen to split themselves into two groups, one to fight the fire and the other to carry out airing of the house and launch a rescue operation to extricate six persons trapped inside.

By the grace of Allah, fire was brought

under control. Two Asian maids who suffered due to suffocation were administered first aid at the site. Investigation was on to find reasons of fire. The fire department urged all citizens and expats to install smoke detectors at their houses as it could sound an initial warning.

Asian held for drug trade Anti-drugs officials arrested an Asian expat for being in illegal possession of 250 grams of marijuana for trading purposes. Earlier, the anti-drugs authorities were tipped off that the expat was actively involved in illegal drugs trade. After the information was verified, legal action was taken to arrest him.

His house was raided, and 250 grams of marijuana were found during the search. He confessed to trading in drugs. The suspect and the drugs were sent to the authorities concerned.

KUWAIT: A senior Interior Ministry official announced that the government was considering granting a grace period to allow residency violators to leave the country, the news coming even as a Kuwaiti unionist questioned whether decisions to prosecute expatriates found in violation went through the right political channels.

Undersecretary Assistant for Citizenship, Passports and Immigration Affairs, Major General Sheikh Faisal Al-Nawaf Al-Sabah, said that the grace period being discussed “would include terms and conditions that were not included in previous grace periods, so that people could derive maximum benefit.”

Maj Gen Al-Sabah spoke to Al-Rai during a crackdown on residency violators in Jleeb AlShuyiukh Tuesday night, and said the campaigns to track down residency permit violators and those violating labor regulations or committing serious traffic violations “will continue as long as there are violators in the country.”

No targeted raids He further refuted speculations that people of certain nationalities were being singled out for deportation, insisting that any violator was being subjected to deportation “even if they were American citizens.”

Meanwhile, a senior Kuwait Trade Union Federation official criticized what he described as ‘issuance of military-type decisions’ by traffic officials against expatriates with a rather peculiar swiftness and success.

“Has any of the decisions made by Interior Ministry officials gone through the correct political channels, or are these personal decisions and a tool by which an official can overpower vulnerable people whenever he desires?” head of the expatriate labor forces office in the KTUF, Abdurrahman Al-Ghanim, said.

Al-Ghanim made his statement in response to recent reports which talked about decisions to lay down a deadline for the expats to pay traffic fines or face travel bans. “Such a step is discriminatory as it lacks basic principles of equality,” he said, before demanding that the officials stop taking decisions “that make expatriates feel oppressed in the country that embraced them and gave them a lot while they have been dedicated to it in return.”

Furthermore, Al-Ghanim condemned deporting expatriates without giving them an opportunity to legalize their status. “The majority of expatriates in violation of residency laws are victims of sponsors’ abuse who demand huge amounts of money unlawfully to renew their visas,” he explained. He further criticized Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Thekra Al-Rashidi for taking ‘sole decisions’ against workers “while ignoring visa traffickers and people with influence who use fake

companies to practice illegal visa trade”.

“The solution does not lie in deporting expatriates, taking pictures of them as if they were criminals or holding them responsible for problems of the disorganized labor market and lack of security,” he said. “Instead, these will hurt Kuwait’s image in countries whose nationals Kuwait is deporting.”

Al-Ghanim also mentioned reports about India inquiring with the Kuwaiti ambassador about the deportation procedures, including incidents in which some Indian nationals were not allowed to even collect their belongings before leaving. “This proves our predictions that the current steps will

were being exposed to unhealthy circumstances in such detention centers due to overcrowding “and the fact that some of the detainees were afflicted with contagious disease.”

The source who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity said that coordination is ongoing to open an 800 people capacity shelter to house the detainees.

In this regard, Maj Gen Al-Sabah told Al-Rai that coordination mechanism was currently in place with an aviation company in order to help in transporting the deportees, a process that is currently being carried out only through the Kuwait

KUWAIT: Gun-toting police officials round up residency violators in Jleeb Al-Shuyouk on Tuesday. go down as a dark chapter in the history of Kuwait’s relationship with other countries,” he said, while also expressing “shame that a Kuwaiti envoy had to go through such a situation.”

Al-Ghanim concluded by reiterating his demand for the cancelation of the sponsorship system, which he said, was hindering the state’s plans to attract foreign investors “who are unlikely to put their fate and the fate of millions of workers they bring in to build a project in Kuwait in the hands of a single Kuwaiti sponsor.”

This comes while a report suggested that detention cells in the Immigration General Department, the Deportation Jail and a number of police stations have become overcrowded with people detained in recent crackdowns pending deportation. According to a security source with knowledge of the case, many of the detainees

Airways. He further clarified that he gave orders to allow detainees to “obtain an official authorization to acquire their dues.”

Kuwait is home to 2.6 million expatriates who form 68 percent of the country’s 3.8 million population. Last March, minister Al-Rashidi announced a plan to deport 100,000 foreigners every year, as part of a strategy to cut the Gulf state’s expatriate community by one million in ten years. Criticism sparked by the lack of details about the proposed plan prompted the minister to later clarify that the plan targets illegal residents who comprise up to 93,000 people as of official statistics released last year. Crackdowns on illegal residents resulted in hundreds of arrests in the past two months, while the Interior Minister deported hundreds others for serious traffic violations detected during simultaneous campaigns. —Al-Rai & Al-Qabas

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

LOCAL In my view

Letters to Badrya

Truth hurts

Islam Phobia

badrya_d@kuwaittimes.net

By Labeed Abdal

labeed@kuwaittimes.net

C

reating a perceived threat from Islam in the media is becoming a wee bit too much by any definition of fairness, logic and reason.

It has become much like the way things were stereotyped in the eighties, when anything was seen through the prism of cold war and every threat was connected to the nuclear missiles held by the two camps. A scare was spread as if one of the presidents will press a red button and the planet will be destroyed in the next 60 seconds.

Islam has become like a headache for many people, who become afflicted with it in so many diverse situations. It has become a phobia at every airport. The ghost of Islam looms large all the time as if it is at the axis of some evil, even though the ground reality has nothing to do with such a perception.

Stories proliferate in the media about killers, bombers and terrorists whose hands are shown dripping with blood and who are equipped with space age weaponry.

The truth is that there are extremists everywhere and they come from all religions - Muslims, Christians and Jews, and every other conceivable faith system.

They bomb their own capital’s buildings, kill innocent school children, shoot at audiences watching a movie in a cinema, assassinate their own presidents or even fire with shotguns at a camp that may include families who were moderate in their views and respected each other.

Needless to say that there are also beautiful examples of so many blessed believers who practice their rituals freely and enjoy the gift of peace blessed by God. This gift was God’s grace to all of His children.

It is truly a matter of worry that during travel, anyone with a Middle Eastern or a distinct Muslim look is made to feel directly guilty for things that he or she has nothing to do with.

Indeed, such communities which are behaving this way need to be taught the true and new meaning of liberty and responsibility. Their young generation needs to be made aware so that they turn out to be more tolerant people.

Certain regional and international powers do seem happy and extremely contented to see extremism growing and bringing them big rewards.

Well, this could be a matter of huge concern and dilemma as the choice of damaging the stability and security of any country could as well turn out to be a double edged sword, and could engulf either side.

We have seen that in many situations, fostering extremists or supporting any destructive forces resulted in dangerous reactions and setbacks for the same powers.

There is nothing better than choosing to live in peace and harmony under the umbrella of all encompassing humanity without differences of racism, religious segregation or so called empowering-radicalization. Any other course will only lead to enriching the foundations of terrorism, a course that the world must avoid.

kuwait digest

The poor millionaires

By Dr Wael Al-Hasawi

C

an you be a millionaire and poor at the same time? Apparently in Kuwait, you can be. A million US dollars is roughly equal to KD300,000. A 400 square meters piece of land in an area like South Surra costs KD400,000, while construction costs can reach at least KD150,000. This means that even a Kuwaiti millionaire by international standards cannot build a house in his own country.

A recent international agency report indicates that millionaires make 11.4 of Kuwaitis’ population, or nearly 130,000 people. But high living costs especially with regards to housing make all of these millionaires poor.

Let us look at the subject from a different angle. A number of students at the college where I teach came to my office the other day requesting for more classes in the summer course because of which their Bachelor’s degree graduation remained pending. I explained to them that the college’s budget did not allow for more classes than what has already been announced, and then clarified when they suggested that the college increase its budget that such a decision can only be made by the Cabinet. I also explained that the Cabinet is constrained to follow a fixed budget. “It is ironic that while the government proudly announces registering more than KD12billion in financial surpluses in one year, we (the students) who are supposed to be the backbone of the future, cannot find classes we need to take and have wait until the first semester next year,” one of my students remarked.

From the previous two examples, we can conclude that having millions in Kuwait is not enough to build a house or provide proper education to your children.

Another perplexing issue is health treatment in Kuwait. Try taking an appointment from a dentist at a local polyclinic in Kuwait. First you have to wait for interminably before the appointment date arrives, and when it finally comes, you would have to jostle with thousands of other patients whose appointments fall on the same day as yours. Once you arrive in time and undergo a check, the doctor gives you a second appointment that may be after weeks or even months. Therefore, we can find that having millions in Kuwait is not enough to build a house, provide proper education to your children, or even receive proper treatment. The only thing that Kuwaiti millionaires can enjoy in their home country is the luxuries of life: they can spend whatever they want in restaurants, or buy brand new cars for themselves and their family members. The results would be more people suffering from obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, as well as more fatalities on the road every day. —Al-Rai

kuwait digest

Let us support state’s civility

By Dr Shamlan Y Al-Essa

T

he legislative and legal committee approved extent to which they are open to the world, and their the cancellation of the gender segregation law acceptance of women’s education. We must not in government and private universities as well remain silent in the face of those who are trying to as in institutions of applied education. distort our country’s bright history. Kuwaiti people We thanked members of the legislative committee opened regular schools for males in 1911, and for for this historic decision which will restore Kuwait’s women in 1938, despite protests from the extremists glory, and end the dominance of political Islam and who came in from the Arabian Peninsula and tribes over the state’s civil declared their rejection of assets forever.

It was proven practically that regular education that It was proven practically taught modern sciences that separating male and separating male and female stu- such as mathematics, geogfemale students is of no use dents is of no use because we at the raphy and foreign language, because we at the university - university - and I speak on the basis while they insisted on teachand I speak on the basis of my of my personal experience - began ing Quran only. personal experience - began We would like to tell the facing a real problem because facing a real problem because of new MPs that Kuwaiti peoof this regressive law imposed this regressive law imposed by ple sent their girls to study by political Islam groups and political Islam groups and certain in universities abroad that certain powers affiliated to powers affiliated to the national have coeducation. These the national and popular facstudents went to universities tion as well as the govern- and popular faction as well as the in Egypt and Lebanon, then ment. The ban was neither government. The ban was neither to Europe and the USA durpractical nor realistic, because practical nor realistic, because it ing the 1990s. Kuwait peoit used to cost a lot to the used to cost a lot to the state’s ple and government opened state’s budget and there are the first coed university in not enough places and class- budget and there are not enough 1966 without facing any es to teach. There are not places and classes to teach. problem and it worked for enough professors to teach more than 30 years. men and women separately. God knows how many The Members of Parliament, who oppose the legtimes we attempted to convince government officials islative committee proposal, should be the last to that this law is a failure, but the government as usual, speak about religion, because some of them are works on a policy of appeasing everyone, trying to bribe takers, trade in religion and manipulate the gain their acceptance and loyalty at the expense of emotions of tribal people by claiming that they repthe state’s civil society, laws and funds. resent their interests, while the truth is that those The funny part of the subject is that some political MPs became rich, influential and real estate owners.

Islam MPs and tribes opposed the legislative commit- It has been all good for them, but do not trade in relitee’s proposals, and this was their right and we gion, and claim to be righteous. respect their opinion, even if we differ with it. What Final word: Where are the youth of the democratic disturbed me was the talk by some individuals who center and national alliance? What are you waiting came across as if they were talking on behalf of all for? Express your views, and do not destroy the counthe Kuwaitis, and that Kuwaiti citizens have rejected try because of your animosity towards the governthe idea of coeducation. I bet that some recently nat- ment and the current assembly. Prove how your ideuralized citizens do not know anything about Kuwaiti ology is credible, if you still have any feeling left for people and their commitment to religion, and the your country. —Al-Watan

Dear Badrya, Kuwait has just become the ‘World’s Most Racist Country’ along with being ‘The Most Hated’. The middle class expats working in Kuwait legally as doctors, nurses, accountants etc are being harassed on a daily basis. Their mobile phones are being searched for VoIP apps (Skype, Tango, Viber etc).

Couples are being detained for not carrying a copy of their marriage certificates. Where in the world is it required for couples to carry around their marriage certificates? Imagine if this happened to you while you were on vacation in Europe or the US or anywhere else. How would you feel? Why are only Asian expats being searched for VoIP apps? Don’t western expats use VoIP apps? What about Kuwaitis? Who doesn’t have Skype these days?

Do you know how difficult it is for an expat to get a driver’s license in Kuwait? Yet people are getting their licenses cancelled for something as mundane as dropping their friends home. This is ridiculous. Arresting for a crime is a norm.

Inventing an excuse to arrest someone is a crime in itself. The police officers doing all this should be sued. Are these guys even human? How do they have the heart to do such things?

For years, I have been reading columnists yapping away about how Islam is a peaceful way of life and how Kuwait, guided by Islam, has superior laws to protect human rights than what the USHRD has been asking for as a minimum. Is this what you guys were talking about? Where is the humanity in all this? I have never seen an Asian expat begging on the street. That means they all have jobs and are contributing to this economy. Kuwait gives absolutely no benefits to expats for free. So expats are not a burden to the country’s exchequer. They provide cheap labor, boost corporate profits. Most of them were rendered illegal due to malpractices in issuing illegal visas by Kuwaitis. Thousands of Kuwaitis made millions of dinars over the years. They caused thousands of expats to become illegal here. And yet, not a single one of them was arrested for this. They are enjoying the millions they have made, living in bliss while the poor taxi driver, working 12-16 hours a day to make ends meet, is arrested.

Where in the world do you hear of people being arrested or deported for minor traffic offenses? How would you feel if you were arrested in Bali while on a vacation for accidentally jumping a red light, and then humiliated and deported after weeks in a jail? How frustrated would you be?

I know Kuwaitis who accumulate a dozen red light crossing and speeding tickets a year. Their fines run into thousands. Yet their licenses are not even suspended for a week.

They pay their fines online and that’s it. But expats are jailed and deported for the very same crime. Which other country in the world has such discriminating laws? People are afraid to step out of their houses now because they don’t know what new excuse will be used to harass them. Most police officers don’t speak English at all. And the ones that can speak English will pretend to not know English just to make it difficult for the expat.

Regards, J Madam Badrya Darwish, God Bless You. You are doing a very good job. I always read your articles on the website Kuwaittimes.net. Madam, I want to tell you something. So many independent visas are issued routinely by employers and they take huge amounts from individuals and allow them to work where ever they want.

Such employers have the right to obtain a certain number of visas, whether they have jobs or not to offer.

I have been in Kuwait for the last 15 years and have very good Kuwaiti friends who always try to help others. But during this crackdown for the last few days, both good and bad things have been happening. The good thing is that they are catching illegal people and the bad thing is that some innocent people are also paying the price.

God help Kuwait and the Muslim world.

Regards, Your well wisher.

kuwait digest

Indoctrination vs education

By Suad Al-Mojel

kuwait digest

Crazy argument

By Ahmad Al-Sarraf

I

never understood why someone would bemoan posedly educated people came out and accused the tyrant regimes by claiming that the local situation governments that came afterwards of being inept. deteriorated after governments of former presi- The truth of the matter is that these governments dents like Saddam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi and had inherited a broken people who were still to Hosni Mubarak were overthrown. While such a feel- break out from the feeling of humiliation they went ing might seem understandable when expressed by through under the previous regimes. Moreover, people who benefited under tyrants’ rule, or poor Saddam and his fellow tyrants wouldn’t have been people who prefer stability even if it was fake or tem- able to stay that long in power if they had not elimiporary, I don’t understand it when educated person- nated everyone who dared to express an opinion difalities express such feelings. How can Saddam’s ferent from theirs.

People lamenting over tyrant regimes need to regime be compared with that of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, for example? Despite all the errors realize that it was an iron fist with which these leadand the mistakes the latter committed in addition to ers ruled their people, and it is this that is responsible the lack of security in Iraq, his regime can still never for the current situation in their respective countries.

How can we believe that be compared to that of Saddam’s.

People lamenting over tyrant Mubarak did not humiliate the Egyptian people when he Putting the past behind us and moving on is a good regimes need to realize that it was had kept his people silenced thing, but how can one for- an iron fist with which these leaders for more than thirty years? get the image of Saddam ruled their people, and it is this that How can we ever believe that Saddam Hussein and Hussein heading the very first Baath Par ty meeting is responsible for the current situa- Muammar Gaddafi were building their countries if it after taking power, and lis- tion in their respective countries. wasn’t for their enemies who tening with a chilling look of did not give them the oppordeath on his face to a list of names of former comrades ordered to be executed? tunity to continue their ‘civilized projects’?

During a recent trip to Athens, Greece, I had an How can we ignore those in whose death he had a hand, and the hundreds of thousands of people who argument with a taxi driver over a misunderstanding. were killed by his secret - and non-secret - services? I tried to explain to him where I thought he was How can we forget Iraq’s elite comprising scientists, wrong, but couldn’t because he couldn’t speak artists, professors and innovators who were put in English and I didn’t speak his language. In the end, I found myself forced to communicate with him wagons to face their dark fate?

It is also hard to ignore the fact that the old through sign language, and could imagine that anyregimes had ruled for decades during which they one from outside looking at us arguing that way never thought about democracy or people’s dignity, would have called us ignorant or crazy. I believe that and went too far in breaking people’s spirit and pride. arguing with people who bemoan tyrant regimes is And when these regimes were overthrown, the sup- only a crazy thing to do. —Al-Qabas

A

recent educational study published by Al-Qabas regarding Islamic studies in Kuwait deserves attention. Details mentioned about excessive religious content in the curricula, education policy delinked from the modern reality, and absence of any criteria to employ religious information to serve the society are features we can sense in the outcome of education.

The argument between education and indoctrination has long been a major issue that educational systems in all third world countries struggle with. Advanced countries have been able to overcome this dilemma, given an atmosphere of freedom, openness, modernity and enforcement of human rights when it comes to choosing a system of education without governmental or ideological restrictions.

In Muslim and Arab societies specifically, education is still in its nascent stages when it was planned as per our prevalent rituals and traditions. Holy Quran memorizing centers across Kuwait still fail to teach students the meaning and goals of the Holy Book, and instead focus on the memorizing process as the sole goal.

Similar thinking is seen in educational facilities in our countries, where indoctrination has become a means and an end despite the fact that it only succeeds in forcing opinions as teachers do not give students any opportunity to comprehend, perceive or question. The teacher’s role here is to become the sole source of knowledge, while the student only has to receive the knowledge without questioning it. According to the study, the Islamic studies’ curricula in Kuwait contain 18 books taught at all stages starting from first to twelfth grade, and having a total of 413 lessons.

The technical question here pertains to the goals sought to be achieved through these lessons. While the textbooks do mention that the curriculum aims at ‘creating a moderate Muslim personality,’ the reality on the ground indicates that this goal has certainly not been achieved.

The main problem facing efforts to correct these errors is that any attempt to criticize the religious studies’ curricula is often met with accusations of blasphemy, being against Sharia and introducing liberal views into the educational system. This happened with me personally when I criticized reducing stress on music and physical education classes in favor of increasing religious studies’ classes.

Knowledge in general would be deficient if it fails to improve an individual’s sense of reason and curiosity to create more information. This is a goal that cannot be achieved by educational facilities that adopt indoctrination instead of teaching as a pedagogical approach and fail to activate the God-given gift of reason. — Al-Qabas

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Saudi remains behind bars after $2m bond posted

Turkey protests swell as angry strikers join demos Page 9

Page 8

ISLAMABAD: New Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif observes the national anthem during a welcoming ceremony at the Prime Minister House yesterday. — AFP

Sharif sworn in as Pakistan PM New premier vows to fix economy, stop drones

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called yesterday for an end to US drone strikes in the country’s northwest, as he took office for an unprecedented third term. Some 13 years after he was deposed in a coup and sent into exile, the 63-yearold was formally chosen by a vote in the National Assembly and later took the oath of office from President Asif Ali Zardari. The country faces a daunting array of problems ranging from crippling power cuts to Taleban militancy, and the new prime minister said citizens should be in no doubt about the challenges ahead. The state of the economy was “beyond imagination”, he told parliament.

Sharif has advocated peace talks with the Taleban, though the powerful military is said to harbour deep scepticism about the idea of doing deals with the militants. He publicly criticised the drone strike that killed Taleban deputy Waliur Rehman last week, echoing long-held Pakistani complaints that the US campaign violates national sovereignty. Yesterday Sharif used his first speech as PM to reiterate his concerns.

“We respect the sovereignty of others and they should also respect our sovereignty and independence. This campaign should come to an end,” he said, calling for a comprehensive strategy to root out extremism.

Missile strikes by unmanned US aircraft have been ver y unpopular in Pakistan, but Washington views them as a vital tool in the fight against

Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants holed up in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.

According to Britain’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIA drone attacks in Pakistan have killed up to 3,587 people since 2004. Ties with Washington will be a key issue in Sharif ’s tenure, particularly as NATO withdraws the bulk of its forces from neighbouring Afghanistan by the end of next year after more than 12 years of war. Sharif has said Pakistan will cooperate with NATO as it pulls out, but has warned that Washington must take Islamabad’s concerns about drone strikes seriously.

On the economic front Pakistan has suffered several years of weak growth and its currency has slid in value while foreign exchange reserves have dwindled. The country is still paying off an $11.3 billion International Monetary Fund loan from 2008. Analysts have said it will need to go back to the lender for more to stave off a balance of payments crisis. Sharif painted a bleak picture of the nation’s finances but said his government was determined to put things right. “People should know that the country’s economy is in a very bad state which is beyond imagination and we have to make payments worth trillions,” he said. “But I will not rest nor will I let any member of my team do so until we are able to improve the economic situation.”

China’s new Premier Li Keqiang met Sharif during a visit to Islamabad a fortnight ago, and linked growth in his

country’s restive western region to that in Pakistan. Yesterday Sharif said they had agreed to develop a road and rail network connecting the western Chinese city of Kashgar to Gwadar, the port in southwest Pakistan recently taken over by China. “This plan will greatly economically benefit Pakistan’s northern areas as well as all the four provinces,” Sharif said.

In yesterday’s National Assembly session, Sharif took 244 votes - beating his nearest rival Amin Faheem, of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) who took 42 and Javed Hashmi of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf party with 31.

The new premier has said tackling energy shortages, which rob the economy of up to four percent of GDP, will be a priority and he has vowed to build new power plants. Years of mismanagement, under-investment and corruption in the power sector have led to blackouts of up to 20 hours a day in the blistering heat of summer, when temperatures reach up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit).

Sharif ’s Pakistan Muslim League-N scored a comfortable win in the May 11 general election as Zardari’s PPP was routed, blamed by voters for five years which saw the hated power shortages worsen and militancy continue almost unabated. But the very fact that the PPP completed its five-year term was seen as important in a country that has suffered three coups and been ruled for more than half of its 65-year history by the military. —AFP

10 killed in Yemen offensive ADEN: The Yemeni army launched an all-out offensive yesterday to recapture villages from Al-Qaeda groups in the southeastern province of Hadramawt, costing 10 lives, security and medical sources said.

Troops backed by tanks and helicopters launched a dawn operation in Ghayl Bawazir, about 30 km east of the port city of Mukalla, a security official said.

Seven Al-Qaeda militants, two civilians and an army officer were killed in the offensive, the sources said.

An army spokesman in Hadramawt, quoted by the defence ministry’s news website 26sep.net, said that Ghaleb Al-Mansoub, a commander in the 27th Mechanised Brigade, was killed during the operation.

Another security official had said earlier yesterday that two army officers were killed in the offensive near Ghayl Bawazir that would continue until the “liberation” of the town and surrounding areas. But the army spokesman reported only one dead officer and five wounded. Medical sources told AFP later that the second officer, admitted to hospital in Mukalla, was “clinically dead”. Medics in Mukalla said two civilians were killed and five others wounded.

Seven Al-Qaeda militants were also killed and “many wounded”, according to the statement on 26sep.net.

The army “destroyed weapon caches and seized explosives and motorbikes used” by the insurgents to carry out attacks, the unnamed spokesman said, quoted by 26sep.net. In the afternoon, “army units and security forces continued to hunt down the terrorists and comb farms and other areas in search of those who had escaped,” he added.

Witnesses said they saw military convoys heading in the direction of Ghayl Bawazir, which officials said

had been seized by Al-Qaeda gunmen last month.

Army forces also targeted Al-Qaeda militants in the nearby town of Shihr and the village of Qara, a security official said.

A convoy of 40 armoured vehicles headed to Shihr while other troops laid siege to Qara, where large numbers of militants are believed to be based, he said. In a letter addressing the army and published by the official Saba news agency, Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi hailed the troops’ “victory” in Hadramawt. “We congratulate you for your non-stop successes in preserving security and stability and your alertness and your steadfast stand against the forces of terror and destruction,” Hadi said. “Our battle with terrorism today is firm and we must fight it no matter how costly the sacrifices.”

Al-Qaeda fighters have been regrouping since June 2012 in areas of Hadramawt after being driven out of the southern province of Abyan where they ruled major towns for about a year. Residents of Ghayl Bawazir told AFP last month the jihadists had taken advantage of an absence of security forces in the area to deploy in strength and had distributed leaflets declaring their rule. In areas of the south they seized in 2011, with a collapse of central government control during 11 months of protests that eventually forced veteran president Ali Abdullah Saleh from power, the militants enforced a strict version of Islamic law. Punishments included public executions and amputations. Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, which is based in Yemen, is considered by Washington as the most dangerous branch of the jihadist network. — AP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

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

Saudi remains behind bars after $2m bond posted WARRENSBURG, Missouri: Ziyad Abid was a university student aspiring to become a pilot like his father back home in Saudi Arabia when he was accused of paying his roommate to kill a local bar owner. The judge set bond at $2 million, completely out of reach for his family - but not for the Saudi government. The money came in. Yet two months later, Abid remains jailed because a judge is refusing to let him out. The judge acknowledged he may be violating the Missouri Constitution, which allows suspects to be held without bond only in capital murder cases.

But the judge won’t budge. Or explain why.

Abid’s lawyers, including a former US attorney for Missouri, have asked a state appeals court to release Abid and remove Circuit Judge Michael Wagner from the case, arguing that he’s biased in part by Abid’s nationality. The court has given Wagner until Monday to respond. Abid was studying aviation at the University of Central Missouri in Warrensburg when his roommate, Reginald Singletary Jr, was accused of k illing popular bar owner Blaine Whitworth in September. Singletary admitted fatally shooting Whitworth in the bar owner’s driveway but claimed Abid paid him to do it, according to court documents.

Prosecutors haven’t disclosed an alleged motive, but defense attorneys said Abid had no personal connection to Whitworth and that Singletary had been fired as the bar’s bouncer. “There’s no indication whatsoever this case has anything to do with any kind of subversive activity or terrorism,” said defense attorney John Osgood, the former federal prosecutor. “This is a plain, old sim-

Ziyad Abid ple murder of a bar owner done by a bouncer who was fired a week before.

My client just happened to be his roommate.”

Both men are charged with firstdegree murder, but not capital murder, and armed criminal action. If convicted, they could face up to life in prison.

Johnson County prosecutor Lynn Stoppy declined to comment on case details, but said she agreed with a previous judge’s ruling that Abid should be granted bond. An attorney for Singletary, who remains jailed on $1 million bond, declined comment.

Wagner hasn’t returned messages from AP. David Mitchell, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Law, agreed that Wagner may have “an unconscious bias that might be acting out” about Abid’s nationality. He said the judge likely fears Abid could flee ahead of his Aug 20 trial, noting that the involvement of the Saudi government, a US ally, is especially unusual and has increased that speculation.

“Imagine if this judge grants bail and this person flees. Think of the ramifications,” Mitchell said.

Reginald Singletary Jr Wagner’s predecessor in the case, Johnson County Circuit Judge Jacqueline Cook, initially denied bond in November because she feared Abid would flee or be deported. She said Abid’s revoked student visa - the result of him being expelled from school could open the door for the government to deport him ahead of trial. But two weeks later, she acknowledged Missouri’s constitution required bond and set it at $2 million. That same day, she retired - and handed the case to Wagner.

David A Martin, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law who specializes in immigration issues, said the judge’s concerns weren’t unfounded. “There have been instances of this kind in the past where someone who bonded out from a criminal proceeding moved quickly through the depor tation proceeding and was deported before local law enforcement knew about it,” Martin said. “I know ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was working on better communication in that kind of setting, but these instances have occurred.”

That’s what frightens the slain bar

Blaine Whitworth owner’s mother. Diane Whitworth said she’s afraid Abid would ask to be deported if he’s released from jail. An ICE spokesman declined comment. But one of Abid’s attorneys, Pat Peters, insisted the government rarely deports foreigners in such cases. Peters also said Abid was expelled because he couldn’t attend classes while in jail. But the university ’s associate provost, Corey Bowman, said Abid had violated school policies “not directly related” to his arrest. Bowman said he couldn’t release details, citing privacy laws.

Still, defense attorneys insist Abid isn’t going anywhere, arguing that prosecutors’ case won’t hold up. In a recent cour t motion, they said Singletary gave investigators several stories - including saying a Kansas City gang put him up to the killing, then agreeing with interrogators that the mafia made him do it - before saying Abid was involved. “While there is overwhelming evidence that Singletary killed Whitworth, there is no corroborating or physical evidence suggesting Abid was involved: no DNA, no fingerprints, nothing. There is only the statement of confessed murderer Singletary,”

the attorneys wrote. In unsuccessfully trying to lower his bond, Abid’s attorneys argued it would bankrupt his family to post the 10 percent - or $200,000 that bond companies require before posting bail. Abid’s father, Saudi Airlines pilot Tariq Abid, eventually persuaded the Saudi government to post the $2 million bond, according to cour t records. The younger Abid was equipped with an electronic monitoring device on April 2. His family paid $2,500 for the device and pays $15 per day to have someone monitor it, even though Abid is in jail, his attorneys said.

During a hearing April 5, Wagner told Peters the court would be satisfied if $2 million were deposited in its bank account. The money was wired that day, according to court documents. But a few days later, Wagner reversed himself.

Peters confronted him, according to court transcripts, saying: “I just want to make sure I heard this court just say that despite the law, despite Judge Cook’s order, despite the representations by the prosecutor and defense counsel, you have just said ‘no bond’ in this case.”

It’s not unusual for the Saudi government to help its citizens who get into trouble in the U.S., but Wagner ’s response is far from the norm, said John Leger, an attorney for the Saudi government who handles legal matters for the Saudi consulate overseeing Missouri and 15 other US states. “I’ve been doing this over 40 years, and I’ve never seen this,” Leger said, estimating that about 47,000 Saudi students are in the US. “It’s not whether (Abid) deserves it or does not, or if he’s guilty or not guilty,” he said. “The rules say he’s entitled to a bond.” —AP

14 Iraq border policemen killed at fake checkpoint Iraq marks Shiite ritual as unrest surges

JERUSALEM: Palestinian women hold placards and Palestinian flags during a rally that marks 46 years since the start of the 1967 war with Israel yesterday at the Damascus Gate. — AFP

Palestinians mark Six-Day War, demand 1967 borders JERUSALEM: Palestinian officials marked 46 years since the start of the 1967 war with Israel yesterday by insisting any peace talks must be based on the lines that existed before the Jewish state’s occupation. Chief Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erakat visited three villages in the West Bank whose populations fled the Israeli invasion during the Six-Day War against the armies of Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israeli forces occupied Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem during the conflict, with Palestinians mourning it as the “Naksa” or setback. “The (same) fate of the 5,000 Palestinians who were evicted from these villages” in June 1967 still befalls Palestinians in the West Bank today, he told reporters on a stop in the village of Yalu.

The demolition of Yalu, Imwas and Beit Nuba back then was now being repeated “in Jericho, Nablus and everywhere else” in the West Bank, he lamented, citing the destruction of houses by the Israeli army, which expels hundreds of Palestinian families from their homes in areas under its control each year. “Why did the Israelis evict those people in 1967? Simply because they wanted to declare the borders,” Erakat said. He reiterated Palestinian demands for a halt to Israeli settlement building in Palestinian territories and a return to the pre-war lines as a basis for any peace talks. Israel, for its part, calls for talks “without preconditions” and refuses publicly to freeze settlement building. Peace negotiations stalled in Sept 2010 over the settlements issue.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Executive Committee of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas’s PLO, slammed Israel’s continued settlement building in a statement marking the war’s anniversary. “Forty-six years later, the Israeli occupation of 22 percent of historical Palestine still constitutes a humanitarian and political disaster that dominates and controls the lives of the Palestinian people in Palestine and in exile,” she said. “Our struggle will continue until we... witness the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on 1967 borders with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Ashrawi said, pointing out that Israel’s settlement building is illegal under international law.

Israeli human rights group B’Tselem, in its own report marking the anniversary, slammed Israel’s “de facto annexation of Area C (in the West Bank) and creation of circumstances that will help perpetuate this situation and influence the final status of the area”.

Area C, which covers more than 60 percent of the occupied West Bank, is under full Israeli control. “In theory, Israel retains complete authority only in Area C,” B’Tselem said. “In practice, Israel’s control of Area C adversely affects all Palestinian West Bank residents,” more than 2.5 million people.

The report added that “contrary to international law,” Israel was actively encouraging its citizens to settle in the West Bank. But Israel’s deputy foreign minister Zeev Elkin on Wednesday reiterated Israel’s refusal to return to the pre-June 1967 lines. —AFP

FALLUJAH, Iraq: Militants set up a fake checkpoint in western Iraq and ambushed a convoy of 14 border policemen yesterday, killing all of them and setting fire to the bodies of two of them, officials said. The checkpoint was set up along the main highway connecting Iraq to Saudi Arabia, with the attack taking place near the town of Nukhaib. At about 11:00 am (0800 GMT ), the men were travelling along the highway in three unmarked cars to begin their shifts at various checkpoints, Major General Yasir Assem from the border guards said. They were stopped at the fake checkpoint and gunned down, and two of their bodies set on fire.

A medic at the clinic in Nukhaib, about 200 km west of the Shiite shrine city of Karbala, confirmed the toll. Nukhaib is in Anbar province, but is part of a tract of land claimed by neighbouring Karbala province. It was the site of a brutal attack in Sept 2011 that sent tensions soaring between the two provinces. Militants killed 22 Shiite pilgrims from Karbala aboard a bus bound for Syria.

Anbar province has long been a stronghold of Sunni militants, including those linked to Al-Qaeda.

Many tribal militias turned against Al-Qaeda and joined forces with the US military from late-2006, but they have failed to completely eliminate such attacks, which often target the security forces in a bid to undermine confidence in the authorities. Violence has been on the rise in recent months, with the number of people killed in May the highest since 2008. However, overall deaths remain far below levels registered during the brutal 20062007 sectarian war.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Shiite pilgrims thronged a shrine in Baghdad yesterday for a ritual mourning ceremony amid a surge in violence that has sparked fears of another full-blown sectarian war.

Security forces effectively shut down much of the Iraqi capital, severely limiting road traffic in a bid

BAGHDAD: Shiite pilgrims carry a symbolic coffin at the shrine of Imam Musa Al-Kadhim during the annual commemoration of the saint’s death in the Kadhimiyah district of Baghdad yesterday. — AP to avert car bomb attacks after nationwide violence rose last month to its highest level since 2008. Pilgrims from across the country descended on the shrine, dedicated to a revered Shiite Muslim figure, for the two-day rituals, which culminated yesterday in the northern neighbourhood of Kadhimiyah.

Mourners carried to the shrine a symbolic coffin draped in green cloth inscribed with Quranic passages, marking the 799 AD death of Imam Musa Kadhim, the seventh of 12 revered imams. Organisers said several million pilgrims visited the shrine over the course of the past week, but the figure could not be independently verified. The ceremonies come amid a surge in attacks, coupled with numerous unresolved political disputes and months-long anti-government protests in mainly Sunni Arab areas

of Iraq’s north and west.

That has prompted fears the country could return to the sort of brutal conflict that plagued it in 2006 and 2007. Shiite pilgrims are often targeted by Sunni militants who regard them as apostates, and in past years, multiple attacks have been carried out during the Imam Kadhim commemorations. Last year, two car bombs targeting pilgrims just after the rituals killed 32 people. “The terrorists will not scare us,” said Khaled Naama, a 35-yearold day labourer from the southern city of Samawa. “We will never stop, even if you continue your explosions and your murders, because this is the path to paradise.”

Another mourner, Hmoud Jassim, 41, said the number of pilgrims represented “a challenge to terrorism”. “I hope that the entire Islamic world, and all the terrorists, see that all these people are com-

ing as a challenge to terrorists, to visit Imam Kadhim’s shrine and to mark this painful event,” said Jassim, an official in the state owned South Oil Company Interior ministr y spokesman Brigadier General Saad Maan said no violent incidents had been recorded, while AFP journalists reported tight security on the ground.

Officials and analysts point to a raft of political disputes as the underlying factor behind the latest violence. In a bid to ease tensions, political leaders held a symbolic meeting at the weekend, but no tangible agreements were announced. In particular, analysts say government policies that have disenfranchised Sunnis have given militant groups both fuel and room to manoeuvre among the disillusioned minority that dominated every Iraqi regime before the USled invasion of 2003. —AFP

World powers pressure Iran at IAEA VIENNA: Six world powers engaged in stalled talks with Iran over its nuclear program said yesterday it was “essential and urgent” Tehran cooperates with the UN atomic agency over allegations of bomb research. The US, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany also said they were “deeply concerned”

by Iran’s continued expansion of its activities despite UN Security Council resolutions calling for a suspension. They said that after 10 failed meetings between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran over the past 18 months it was “essential and urgent for Iran to engage with the agency on the substance of its concerns”.

The countries - all permanent UN Security Council members except Germany - said at a meeting of the IAEA board of governors that this included Iran fulfilling “its undertaking to grant access to Parchin,” a military base near Tehran. The IAEA believes Iran constructed a large explosives containment vessel at Parchin in 2000 to conduct experiments that it says would be “strong indicators of possible nuclear weapon development”.

Iran has rejected IAEA requests to visit the site and denies wanting or ever having worked on developing a nuclear weapon. It says that the IAEA’s allegations are based on faulty intelligence provided by Tehran’s enemies. The allegations on Parchin form part of a major report issued by the IAEA in November 2011 summarising information on suspected nuclear weapons research that it had been given, mostly, but not only, by foreign intelligence agencies. IAEA head Yukiya Amano said on Monday that after the 10 meetings, the latest on May 15, with Iran on these allegations, the two sides were “going around in circles”.

The IAEA’s latest quarterly report on Iran, circulated on May 22, showed Iran continuing to build up its capacity to enrich uranium, which in highly purified form could be used in a nuclear weapon.

The IAEA report also detailed advances by Iran building a new reactor at Arak which could provide Tehran with plutonium - an alternative to uranium for a bomb - if the reactor fuel is reprocessed.

Joseph Macmanus, US ambassador to the IAEA, said that Iran has failed to provide the IAEA with detailed design information on the IR-40 reactor at Arak since 2006, calling this a “basic requirement”.

Iran’s ambassador, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said however that Tehran planned to use the reactor to produce mainly medical isotopes and did not intend to reprocess the fuel in order to extract plutonium.

“We have said it again and again. The agency has recorded and reported that we do no have any reprocessing facility.... This reactor is only for producing radioisotopes,” Soltanieh told reporters.

Iran’s advances come in spite of numerous rounds of UN and Western sanctions aimed at cutting off Iran’s access to nuclear technology and which began to cause Tehran economic problems in 2012. The United States this week blacklisted a “major network of front companies” that serve Tehran’s leaders and announced new sanctions focused on the rial currency and the auto sector.

The six powers are also involved in diplomatic efforts parallel to those of the IAEA.— AFP

VIENNA: Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Ali Asghar Soltanieh attends a press conference as part of the Board of Governors meeting at the UN atomic agency headquarters yesterday. — AFP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

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

Niger residents fear spread of ‘war on terror’ NIAMEY: People in Niger have begun to express fears of a “war on terror” in their homeland, after unprecedented suicide attacks in the north and a bloody jailbreak in the capital Niamey staged by armed Islamic extremists. “This terrorism that we heard about elsewhere has thus arrived here,” Niamey taxi driver Moussa said, referring to the Islamist insurgency that divided neighbouring Mali early last year, prompting foreign armed intervention. Since the attacks, the peaceful capital on the shore of the Niger river has almost been placed in a state of siege.

The strengthening of security is especially visible around sensitive sites such as the presidential palace and the airport.

Soldiers and paramilitary police have also stepped up their guard around foreign embassies. “They’re particularly edgy. It’s best to follow orders,” Massaoudou Amadou, a resident who lives close to the US embassy, told AFP.

straints. “We all need to cooperate to fight terrorism. I don’t mind losing some of my freedom if my safety is ensured.”

Idi Hassane, a teacher at the Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, argued that “more than food and water, the security question is becoming a priority in Niger”, a sub-Saharan country which is one of the poorest in the world and prey to chronic food shortages.

Confronted in recent years with attacks carried out by armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda, notably the kidnapping of Westerners, the Nigerien authorities see the latest attacks as a basis to urge people to be more watchful than ever. “We need a national union against terrorism, we ask the population to be vigilant at every moment,” Niamey mayor Oumarou Dogari said in a public television broadcast. “Our habits are going to change,” he added, warning citizens to expect stringent checks by the security

Tensions were raised by twin suicide bombings on May 23 in the north, targeting an army base in Agadez and a uranium mine at Arlit run by French nuclear giant Areva. More than 20 people were killed. Then came Saturday’s jailbreak in the southern capital, when about 20 prisoners escaped, including several “terrorists”, according to the government.

“We’re really afraid, we haven’t slept at night for several days,” Amina said, watching over her two children on her doorstep. This Niamey mother lives close to the prison, where security has been sharply tightened since Saturday’s raid.

For fear of attacks, the interior ministry has cancelled the Baby Fiesta, a children’s festival that marks the final weekend of the school year. Football matches have also been cancelled. At a bus stop, schoolgirl Fati Soumana said she would get used to a new lifestyle with its con-

services. The speaker of the National Assembly, Hama Amadou, took a more belligerent approach, describing the bombings in the north as “a declaration of war” against Niger. “But there’s no question of creating a psychotic atmosphere about security in our country.

Rather, it’s a matter of organising a climate of real insecurity for the enemy and his accomplices.”

Responsibility for both suicide attacks, the first in the history of the west African country, were claimed by armed Islamist groups, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) and Signatories in Blood.

Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar, held to have organised the bombings, has threatened to attack Niger again, together with other countries who have troops in Mali, where a French-led military intervention in January seized back control of northern towns from move-

ments linked to Al-Qaeda.

However, some people in Niger have expressed concern at unwanted sideeffects of the struggle against terrorism.

On Sunday, security forces killed a student when they opened fire on his car because they found his movements suspicious. “We can’t slide into informing (on suspects) and paranoia,” retired civil servant Ali Hassane warned. “All these calls to denounce suspects will increase paranoia among the population,” sociologist Sani Janjouna added. Ahmed Moussa, a watchman in Agadez, the main town in the desert north, warned of potential social strife. “False denunciations could one day raise tensions among communities, notably against Tuaregs and Arabs,” he said, pointing to Mali, where these two communities are sometimes targeted because jihadist fighters came from their ranks. “We really must pay attention.” —AFP

Turkey protests swell as angry strikers join demos Government line softens while Erdogan abroad

This handout picture taken in Feb 2012 reportedly shows MNLA fighters gathering in an undisclosed location in Mali.— AFP

Mali army launches assault on Tuaregs BAMAKO: Malian soldiers launched an assault yesterday on armed Tuareg separatists accused of ethnic cleansing, killing 10, in a bid to dislodge them from a key northern stronghold ahead of national elections.

Troops attacked rebel positions south of the regional capital of Kidal at the start of an operation to recapture it from the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) after a wave of expulsions of black residents. “We counted 10 dead and have captured 28 prisoners,” said Malian army spokesman Souleymane Maiga, adding that two soldiers had been wounded in the clashes in Anefis, a small town 200 km south of Kidal.

The MNLA, which confirmed the fighting, vowed to “advance on all Malian army positions in the territory of Azawad”, the name given by the Tuareg rebellion to northern Mali, and appealed to international forces in the region to keep out of the conflict. “We never wanted to resolve the situation by war but, as this is so, we will defend ourselves until the end,” MNLA vice-president Mahamadou Djeri Maiga told AFP in the Burkina Faso capital Ouagadougou, where he is in talks with Malian officials over the elections.

Colonel Didier Dacko, the commander of military operations in northern Mali, told state television his soldiers had returned fire for two hours after being shot at by militants in Anefis, causing the rebels to retreat.

“Currently, four vehicles have been recovered and one destroyed. We recorded two minor injuries including one who was shot in the neck,” he said. Maiga said the army was continuing its advance on Kidal but he could not confirm if it would take the city by the end of

the day. A regional security source told AFP a battalion led by Colonel Elhaj Ag Gamou, a Tuareg who has remained loyal to the army, was around 35 km from Kidal. “The MNLA have fled the city,” he added.

Former colonial power France voiced its support for the army action and called on the rebels to lay down their weapons. “There can only be one army in Mali, deployed over the whole of the country’s territory,” a foreign ministry spokesman said. The fighting erupted after more than 100 black inhabitants were expelled from Kidal by the lighterskinnned MNLA fighters in an act denounced as “ethnic cleansing” by the government, which says the presence of troops in the city is “non-negotiable”.

The unrest has cast a shadow over the Burkina Faso talks with Malian officials and Tuareg leaders aimed at clearing the way for a presidential election planned for July 28. The MNLA rose up to fight for independence for the north in January last year and overwhelmed government troops, leading frustrated mid-level officers to launch a coup which toppled elected president Amadou Toumani Toure. Together with Al-Qaedalinked militants, they seized key northern cities, but were then chased out by their former Islamist allies.

France sent troops in January to block an advance by the extremists on the capital Bamako, pushing them out of the main cities and into desert and mountain hideouts. The French then let the MNLA back into Kidal, ignoring demands by the Malian military to be allowed into the city and raising fears in Bamako, 1,500 km to the southwest, that Paris wants to let the Tuareg rebels keep Kidal as part of an eventual deal for self-rule. — AFP

ISTANBUL: Thousands of striking workers took to the streets of Turkey’s cities yesterday, loudly joining calls for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down as mass protests against his rule intensified. Bellowing to the din of drums and wailing Turkish pipes, teachers, doctors, bank staff and others marched in a sea of red and yellow labour union flags in the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, where they converged on Taksim Square, the cradle of nearly a week of violent clashes. “Taksim, resist, the workers are coming!” they chanted, demanding the resignation of Erdogan, who has dismissed the protesters as “extremists” and “looters” as he faces down the biggest challenge to his decade in power. Two people have been killed in the six days of unrest, doctors and officials say, and hundreds have been arrested.

Fresh clashes erupted overnight, with police firing tear gas and water cannon on protesters in major cities including Istanbul and reportedly arresting 25 people in Izmir for “misleading and libellous” Twitter posts. “Erdogan needs to apologise, resign and go to court for the things he has done, for the excessive force,” said Tansu Tahincioglu, a 26-year-old web entrepreneur in Istanbul. “Before, people were afraid to express their fear publicly. Even tweets are a problem. But now they are not afraid,” he told AFP. The violent police response to the protests has hardened the movement, drawing in the labour unions that represent hundreds of thousands of Turks. Two major trade union federations, KESK and DISK, launched two-day strikes from Tuesday in solidarity with the street protesters. “ The ordinary workers and the educated are all together to defend a better Turkey, where there is equality and freedom,” said Arhan, a 45-year-old doctor, dressed like other demonstrators in a white shirt and cap.

Marching with his wife to Taksim Square, he said he did not believe Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc

ANKARA: Anti-government protesters demonstrate with Guy Fawkes masks in the center of the capital yesterday. —AFP when he apologised on Tuesday to people injured at the start of the protests. “They play good cop and bad cop, but they have the same aim. They want to tame us,” said Arhan, who would not give his second name for fear of getting in trouble with his employer.

In the capital Ankara, union workers unfurled banners addressing Erdogan, reading: “This nation will not bow to you!” Forced to deal with the unrest wile Erdogan is on an official visit to North Africa, Arinc on Tuesday promised that the government had “learnt its lesson”, but protesters ignored his plea to call off the demonstrations. The premier, who was due in Tunisia yesterday, is accused of seeking to force conservative Islamic values on Turkey, a mainly Muslim but constitutionally secular nation.

In the western city of Izmir, police detained at least 25 people for posting on Twitter, the Anatolia news agency reported early yesterday, after Erdogan accused the microblogging site of spreading

Europeans on trial for topless Tunis protest TUNIS: A Tunis court yesterday adjourned the trial of three European activists with the women’s topless protest group Femen to June 12, ordering that they remain in detention, their lawyers said. “The trial has been adjourned to June 12. The bail request for the three Femen activists was refused,” defence lawyer Souheib Bahri told AFP. Pauline Hillier and Marguerite Stern from France, and Josephine Markmann from Germany arrived in court around 0930 GMT wearing the traditional Tunisian headscarf, or safsari. Judge Karim Chebbi called for a break in the hearing at the end of the morning, after lawyers representing Islamist groups angered by the topless protest asked to participate in the trial as civil parties.

“We are asking for a delay to examine the file and prepare our argument,” said Anouar Ouled Ali, who has previously defended hardline Salafists prosecuted for acts of violence. The defence called for the request to be dismissed, and demanded that the activists, who have been held in custody since

last Wednesday, be released. Earlier in the day, a few dozen people gathered outside the courthouse and shouted abuse at one of the women’s Tunisian lawyers. “How can you defend those women?” one of the people shouted. “You are not Tunisian; you are not Muslim; you don’t have a wife or daughter.”

Patrick Klugman, who came to Tunis to represent the activists from the radical women’s group Femen, said he was optimistic about the trial, calling it “a good sign” that he had been allowed to speak in court. Klugman said the prosecution had decided on a charge of debauchery rather than an attack on public morals, adding that there were no material facts or evidence of intent to back up the charge. “Their bodies were not exhibited to seduce but to convey a political message... which is different than debauchery,” he told AFP. But the women still face a possible six-month prison sentenced if convicted. Klugman said he had come to defend “the freedom of expression of women, of the Femen activists and their message.”

KAIROUAN, Tunisia: Amina Sboui, the Tunisian member of the Ukrainian feminist group Femen, appears handcuffed with a cloth over her head before an investigating judge at the courthouse of this central city yesterday. — AFP

“We will ask that these Femen activists are listened to instead of looked at,” he added. Reflecting the sensitivity of the case in socially conservative Tunisia, which is ruled by a coalition government led by a moderate Islamist party and where hardline Salafists are increasingly assertive, a Ukrainian activist who had come to support the women was expelled on the eve of the trial.

The “sextremist” movement said the deportation, which authorities have not confirmed, was a worrying precedent. “It’s a signal that the court will not base its judgement on the law but that its decision will be political,” Femen’s leader in Paris, Inna Shevchenko, told AFP by telephone. Several Femen activists stripped off and performed prayers outside the Tunisian embassy in the French capital. The three women on trial in Tunis staged the group’s first topless protest in the Arab world, outside the city’s main courthouse on May 29.

They were demonstrating in support of Amina Sboui, a Tunisian activist arrested after painting the word “Femen” on a wall near a cemetery in the Muslim spiritual centre of Kairouan, in an act of protest against radical Islamists. Sboui was also due to appear before an investigating judge yesterday at a closed hearing in the Kairouan court, which was under tight police surveillance, an AFP photographer reported. The Tunisian activist faces possible charges of indecency and desecrating a cemetery.

Ennahda, the moderate Islamist party that heads Tunisia’s coalition government, has yet to comment on the Femen campaign even though it was the group’s first target. Since the 1950s, Tunisia has had the most liberal laws in the Arab world on women’s rights, and the Islamists are often forced to defend themselves against the charge of wanting to roll back those rights. The latest text of a draft constitution, released in April, states that “all male and female citizens have the same rights and duties” and “guarantees equal opportunity to men and women”. This formula, which was negotiated after Ennahda’s failed attempt last year to introduce the concept of gender “complementarity”, appears for now to have won a consensus.— AFP

“lies”. Protesters rely heavily on social media to organise demonstrations. They have complained about a lack of coverage of the crisis by the mainstream media.

In a new bid to ease tensions, the deputy prime minister met yesterday with leaders of civil groups, including the movement whose initial protest sparked the nationwide demonstrations - a campaign to save Istanbul’s Gezi Park from redevelopment. In the meeting, protest representatives urged the government to fire the police chiefs of Istanbul and Ankara and other cities where security forces used excessive force to quell the unrest.

They also demanded Ankara release all the arrested demonstrators and ban police from tear gassing demonstrators.

Two young men have been killed in the clashes so far, officials and medics say, and rights groups say thousands have been injured.

The government puts the figure at around 300. Over 1,700 people have been arrested, according to

the most recent official estimate, with many already released. The United Nations, the United States and other Western partners have voiced concern about reports of heavy-handed police action. NATOmember Turkey is a key regional ally for the United States and has backed it notably in opposing President Bashar Al-Assad in Syria’s civil war.

Sitting at the crossroads of East and West, Turkey has long aspired to join the European Union, which sets strict requirements on human rights for prospective members.

Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) first took power in 2002 and has won three elections in a row. But opponents accuse him of repressing critics and of pushing conservative Islamic policies such as religious education reforms and a law curbing the sale of alcohol.

Erdogan told protesters they should wait to express their views in elections next year, when observers expect him to run for president. — AFP

West silently hopes Turkey protests can bring reform BRUSSELS: Caught off-guard by the massive protests erupting in Turkey, the country’s Western partners have roundly condemned the use of excessive violence while prudently insisting on the need for calm and dialogue in a nation deemed a key regional ally. “The silent hope is that all this will mean a return to commonsense and to a more liberal path in Turkey,” said Jan Techau, director of the Carnegie Europe think tank. “The question is whether this can happen under (Prime Minister Recep Tayyip) Erdogan.”

A member of the 28-nation NATO alliance and longtime EU hopeful, Turkey is a pivotal player in the region at any given time, but currently holds a trump due to its proximity with the conflict tearing Syria apart. So it is hardly surprising that days after simmering anger vented against Erdogan spilled onto the streets, Europe’s governments continue to tread a cautious line, as does Washington. “We are confident that Turkey will overcome this difficult moment, proving itself to be a mature democracy,” said Italy’s Foreign Minister Emma Bonino on Tuesday. “Italy continues to firmly believe in Turkey’s European prospects,” she added, referring to Turkey ’s stalled bid to join the European Union.

Such comments have echoed across EU capitals in the last days. The bloc’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton this week voiced “deep concern” over police violence but pleaded for “a peaceful solution” while Germany urged “de-escalation” reminding Erdogan that freedom of

expression and assembly were “a basic right” in a democratic society. Telling the authorities in Ankara to take an honest look at the reasons behind the protests, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius nonetheless brushed aside all talk of a “Turkish Spring” on the model of the revolutions that swept the Arab world. “This is a government that was democratically elected,” he said.

That was a view also held by visiting Turkish analyst Sinan Ulgen of the EDAM think tank, who discounted comparisons being made with the protests on Cairo’s Tahrir square that swept away Egypt’s Mubarak regime as simply “not correct”.

“Turkey is a democracy and there is no call for regime change like in Egypt. The only overlap with Tahrir remains this immense sense of empowerment and emancipation by ordinary citizens who have seen the impact they can have on the political system,” he added.

Protesters accuse Erdogan of imposing conservative Islamic reforms on the predominantly Muslim but constitutionally secular nation. Turkey’s leadership, from Erdogan to the opposition, needs to readjust their sights to strive for a more consensual style of decision-making in a country of assertive educated people aware of what open societies are about, analysts said. In power since 2002 and often dubbed the most influential leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the father of modern Turkey, Erdogan has won three successive elections, increasing his share of the vote each time.—AFP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

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

Uganda’s long-time ruler changes tune on longevity KAMPALA: Uganda’s president came to power in 1986 as an idealistic former Marxist rebel who denounced power-hungry African leaders. Nearly three decades later, President Yoweri Museveni is now accused by some in the opposition - and others who served prominently under him - of becoming the type of politician he once despised. Museveni travels the world in a private jet paid for by taxpayers and recently added two new Mercedes Benz limousines to his convoy.

Some say he wants to rule for life, while others worry that Museveni, in the style of some other African strongmen, is trying to groom his son as the country’s future leader. That charge was given credence by the defection last month of an army general who urged an investigation into reports of an alleged plot for the first son to succeed his father.

Gen David Sejusa, who is in London and faces arrest if he returns to Uganda, says he is fighting the use of state institutions such as the military to keep Museveni in power.

Sejusa is a member of the army’s high command and a decorated hero of the bush war that brought Museveni to power. His case has focused attention on the political evolution of a president who promised many years ago that his government would bring what he called “fundamental change” to Uganda. “The

problem of Africa in general and Uganda in particular,” Museveni said in a speech in 1986, “is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.”

In “What is Africa’s Problem?” - a collection of Museveni’s early speeches as president he warns against official corruption, saying: “How can we hope to convince anyone of the rightness of our cause if our own people are violating our stated goals, thereby undermining our program? Corruption is a problem which, if not checked, will hinder progress in all sectors of society.” Museveni said at the time that he despised African leaders who wasted taxpayer money on things like luxury cars and he urged public officials to “realize that social property is, in many ways, even more important than private property”.

In 1996, a year after the promulgation of Uganda’s constitution, the country held national elections widely praised as free and fair, boosting Museveni’s growing reputation with Western donors as a reform-minded progressive leader. In 1998, while traveling in Africa, former US President Bill Clinton put Museveni in the club of what he said was a “new breed” of African leader. But some critics now say it’s tough to imagine Museveni giving a passionate speech on corruption. “I

think Museveni’s determined to stay in power at all costs,” said Mwambutsya Ndebesa, a professor of political history at Uganda’s Makerere University. “He genuinely believes that he’s the only one with the vision to run this county. Is this project sustainable? My

Yoweri Museveni answer is no. If he doesn’t change this position he’s taking this country to the cliff.”

Museveni, who is in his late 60s, has now held power in Uganda for 27 years, making him one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. In 2005 he had lawmakers remove term limits so could run again. He has won two elections

marred by irregularities or violence since then. Frank Tumwebaze, a government minister who speaks for the president, said Museveni’s early criticism of long-serving leaders had been taken out of context by activists who fail to acknowledge that elections are held regularly in Uganda. “For us as (the ruling party), we are convinced that if we front Museveni in 2016 he will give us better winning chances than any other person,” he said. “Museveni has been winning elections.

We know where he is popular and why he is popular.”

Museveni, who was last re-elected in 2011, is praised by many here for presiding over a growing economy and restoring political stability after years of dictatorial rule. That view, however, is being disputed by some who say he has slowly transformed Uganda into a quasi-military state. Human Rights Watch, which says the government increasingly harasses civic groups, accused Uganda’s security forces of “using lethal force” to quell anti-corruption riots on the streets of Kampala in April 2011. At least nine people were killed.

“Uganda has had militarism for quite a bit of time,” said Frederick Jjuuko, a political activist and law professor at Uganda’s Makerere University. “But it is this regime that

has perfected it. It handles matters political using military means.” As an example, Jjuuko cited the seizure last month of Uganda’s Daily Monitor newspaper by security officials looking for evidence against Sejusa, whose concerns about an alleged plot to assassinate officials opposed to the rise Museveni’s son had been published by the newspaper. The daily’s printing press was disabled for 10 days.

A government minister said the authorities allowed the newspaper to resume operations after its bosses agreed that security stories are “a no-go area” for its reporters.

Uganda is set to become a major oil producer by 2016, when elections are due. Many here believe Museveni will seek another fiveyear term in office. Some analysts say the country’s unpredictable political transition threatens the oil sector even before the first drops of oil flow, with Museveni exercising tight control of it. Sejusa charges that Museveni is plotting to keep power within his family - the same allegations made over the years by opposition leader Kizza Besigye, a retired army colonel who fell out with Museveni over what he said was the president’s rejection of the ideals for which they fought a guerrilla war. “Typical African story,” Sejusa said in an email. —AP

Ex-Slovenian PM gets two years for bribery Corruption scandals fuel anger over financial crisis LJUBLJANA: Former Slovenian premier Janez Jansa was yesterday sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of giving and receiving backhanders in the eurozone country’s biggest-ever defence deal. Jansa, prime minister until February, was found “guilty on

would appeal, meaning the 54year-old will not be put behind bars for now. “This is a show trial,” Jansa told reporters after the court’s decision. “This verdict is a disgrace for our country.” Via Twitter he vowed to use “all legal means” to contest the decision.

and the verdict “without proof.” SDS parliamentary leader Joze Tanko likened it to something out of Belarus, the autocratic former Soviet republic. Jansa lost a confidence vote after only a year in office after allegations of tax irregularities by the national corruption watchdog and

LJUBLJANA: Former Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa greets his supporters as he exits a court building yesterday. —AP the charges of giving or receiving bribery or bribery promises in the acquisition of armoured vehicles” from Finnish defence firm Patria, judge Barbara Klajnsek ruled. Jansa, who has protested his innocence and has slammed the lengthy trial as a political witch-hunt, said he

Several hundred of his supporters held a demonstration outside the Ljubljana courthouse afterwards, brandishing banners slamming the verdict as “political vengeance”. One woman was seen weeping. Jansa’s centre-right Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS) called the trial a “scandal”

nationwide protests.

The accusation added to public anger about a corrupt political elite just as the country of two million people struggles with recession and fights to avoid becoming the sixth eurozone member to need a bailout. Jansa’s successor Alenka

Bratusek has launched an action plan of privatisations and structural reforms and has secured two more years from Brussels to bring Slovenia’s budget deficit under the eurozone limit. The All-Slovenian Uprising, which organised protests against Jansa’s government, welcomed yesterday’s verdict, calling it a “landmark decision in the process of cleaning the Slovenian political landscape.”

Jansa was also fined Ä37,000 ($48,350) at the end of the 21-month trial together with two other defendants, defence ministry official Tone Krkovic and middle man Ivan Crnkovic, who were given 22 months. The euro 278-million Patria deal signed in 2006 for 135 armoured vehicles was part of Slovenian efforts to modernise its military after joining the NATO alliance in 2004, the same year it become a member of the European Union. Last September the contract fell foul of austerity cuts, with the government slashing the order to just 30 armoured vehicles for euro 74.5 million.

Weeks before 2008 parliamentary elections, a Finnish television report alleged that several high-ranking Slovenian officials, including Jansa, had had their palms greased by Patria. Issuing yesterday’s ruling, judge Klajnsek said Jansa accepted that a commission would be paid to his party once the deal was done and dusted. In April, an Austrian court found Patria middleman Wolfgang Riedl guilty of bribery, attempted fraud and tax evasion for his role in channelling hundreds of thousands of euros to Slovenia.

Another trial was launched in Finland against senior Patria executives suspected to have participated in promising or giving bribes to Slovenian officials. —AFP

Thousands evacuated after Moscow metro fire MOSCOW: Fifteen commuters were hospitalised and thousands evacuated from the Moscow metro yesterday after a high-voltage electric cable caught fire, filling station platforms with smoke at the height of the rush hour, emergency officials said. The fire was extinguished, but the cable again short-circuited when the power was switched back on, adding to the transport chaos and raising fears about the state of the ageing network whose chandeliered Stalin-era stations are one of the city’s top sights. The emergencies ministry said around 4,500 people were evacuated after the fire broke out in a tunnel between the Okhotny Ryad and Biblioteka Imeni Lenina (Lenin

Library) stations close to the Kremlin at around 8:20 am (0420 GMT).

Metro spokesman Pavel Sukharnikov said it was not the first such incident in the system, which is used by about seven million people every day and is one of the world’s busiest. “Cables have smoked before, but simply this time the consequences are more serious,” he told AFP. A total of 59 people sought medical attention, while 15 were hospitalised including three who are in intensive care, health authorities said. The health ministry said those hospitalised were suffering from smoke inhalation, while some of those who asked for medical help were suffering “from a

MOSCOW: People wait yesterday for the reopening of the Komsomolskaya metro station on the red line. —AFP

serious reaction to stress.”

Russian television showed footage shot by witnesses of dense smoke filling the Okhotny Ryad station, one of the system’s oldest, which has exits close to the Kremlin and the Bolshoi Theatre. Crowds built up on the platforms as loudspeakers told passengers the station was closed for a “technical reason”, with many filming the smoke on their cell phones and showing little sign of panic. Passengers exiting the station washed soot from their faces using fire hydrants. “The carriage started filling with smoke. After a while, the driver told us to sit on the floor and cover our mouths and noses with wet tissues,” witness Alexei Suvorov, who was in a train that was halted in a tunnel, told Moskovsky Komsolets daily.

Moscow metro chief Ivan Besedin told the Interfax news agency that the fire started in a “complicated technical junction linked to the contact rail”. The Moscow Investigative Committee said it was looking into the incident. After several hours of closure, the affected stations - major transit hubs were reopened for passengers, only for the cable to start spewing smoke again due to a short-circuit. “The cable started smoking after the electricity was switched on. The electricity was immediately switched off,” said Sukharnikov, the deputy head of the metro. The cable did not burst into flames, the emergency ministry said.

Muscovites complained of transport paralysis, with replacement buses unable to cope with the thousands of extra passengers and crowds gathering outside stations. “In Moscow, you don’t need a war. It’s enough for a cable to burst into flames in a few places and people will crush and stamp on each other,” journalist Maxim Ognenny wrote on Twitter. Line closures are rare on the Moscow metro, which opened in 1935. It was the scene of deadly suicide bombings in 2004 and 2010 that killed more than 80 people. —AFP

MEISSEN, Germany: Rescue workers on a rubber boat make their way through a street flooded by the river Elbe yesterday. —AFP

German, Czech cities brace for flood surge DRESDEN, Germany: German, Czech and Austrian river cities braced for rising flood waters Wednesday, evacuating thousands and boosting defences along the swollen Elbe and Danube, after inundations from heavy rains left at least 12 people dead. The widespread floods, which have turned villages into islands in seas of muddy water, were the worst since 2002 when scores of people were killed and billions of euros worth of infrastructure was damaged. In Germany, the Elbe rose to eight metres, six metres higher than usual, as 40,000 firefighters and 5,000 troops were mobilised and thousands of people told to leave their homes ahead of a flood peak expected today.

In the Czech Republic, where eight people have already perished, some villages in the north were under water and isolated, leaving households without power, gas, phones lines and basic supplies. “People who stayed in their homes are running out of drinking water,” Czech firefighter Jiris Kris said on Germany’s N24 television, adding that rescue workers in the flood zone were exhausted. “We haven’t slept in 40 hours,” he said.

“Only yesterday were we able to rest for three hours, and today we kept going.”

The floods plaguing have also claimed two lives in Austria and one in Switzerland. Slovakia reported its first drowned victim yesterday. A body was found in the Danube river close to the Gabcikovo dam in southern Slovakia, emergency services spokesman Jan Culka told TASR newswire. In Germany, defences were strengthened around the ancient city centre of Dresden, a world heritage site, as well as Magdeburg and Halle, where hundreds of homes in outlying districts were already under water. “We think we’re well-prepared,” said Dresden city spokesman Kai Schulz. “The flood preparations since the ‘century floods’ of 2002 are working. The historic old city has been secured with new flood barriers, which can hold back floods up to 9.40 m. Still, areas to the east of the city are under water. In the past 48 hours alone, more than 1,000 people were evacuated, and there’ll be more.”

Troops were frantically filling sandbags to reinforce a saturated dyke as the Elbe tributary

the Saale rose above eight metres - the highest level in 400 years - threatening the city of Halle. In southern Germany, where the Danube has burst its banks, the Bavarian rural district of Deggendorf was cut off from the outside world, and 6,000 people had been evacuated. “We have a 90-year-old woman who can’t really walk anymore after she had an operation recently. But she has been rescued by fire fighters,” said an emergency official on private television. In Passau, hit by “millenium floods” of 12.9 m this week, waters were receding and hundreds of troops were helping clear tonnes of mud and debris from offices and homes.

In the Czech Republic, police said they had so far caught five people looting in evacuated flood areas. Prague interim mayor Tomas Hudecek has bemoaned “an excessive surge in flood tourists” amid reports some had attempted to dismantle anti-flood defences to take home as souvenirs.

Downstream, the Elbe has spilled into meadows between Melnik, 40 km north of Prague, and Usti nad Labem, an industrial city 30 km from the German border, where some 3,700 have had to leave their homes. The Elbe was also threatening several chemical plants along its banks, and was carrying two empty 12-tonne gas containers from the city of Decin towards Germany.

In Slovakia’s capital Bratislava, sightseers have flocked to the city centre to watch the rising waters of the Danube. Flood defences in the city were protecting the old town, but one district, Devin, has been cut off as the water flooded an access road. In Austria, the Danube peaked midmorning in Vienna at almost eight metres, leaving port areas and riverside restaurants flooded, but the rest of the city was expected to be spared. In the town of Grein, in Upper Austria, flood waters peaked overnight and had begun subsiding. “We were 14 centimetres from a disaster,” the town’s mayor told Austria’s Oe1 public radio. In Austria, heavily pregnant Franziska Doerfel, 20, was rescued from the rising waters just as she was about to give birth, and little Lina Sophie - dubbed the “Hochwasser-Baby” (“flood baby”) - had to be delivered in an ambulance, the Heute daily reported. —AFP

Ex-Murdoch aide hacking charges illegally accessed the voicemail mesLONDON: Rebekah Brooks, former sages of a murdered schoolgirl as chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s well as hundreds of celebrities and British newspaper wing News public figures. Brooks was editor of International, pleaded not guilty on the News of the World between 2000 Wednesday to charges linked to the and 2003 before going on to edit its phone-hacking scandal that sister newspaper The Sun. She brought down his News of the became CEO of News International in World tabloid. Brooks, 45, denied 2009. five charges including conspiracy to She and her personal assistant hack phones, conspiracy to commit Cheryl Carter are accused of trying to misconduct in a public office and conspiracy to pervert the course of Rebekah Brooks remove boxes of evidence from the News International archive in the justice. She appeared in a packed courtroom in London alongside several other for- days before and after the fall of the News of the mer News International staff and her husband World. Like Brooks, former News of the World Charlie Brooks, who are also accused of conspiring news editor James Weatherup and former manto pervert the course of justice by hiding evidence aging editor Stuart Kuttner denied conspiracy to hack phones between 2000 and 2006. relating to the hacking scandal.

All of the defendants denied the charges and Prosecutors claim the other defendants, including were released on bail to face trial later this year. Brooks’ husband, former News International secuAustralian-born media tycoon Murdoch was rity chief Mark Hanna and chauffeur Paul Edwards, forced to shut down the News of the World in July hid documents, computers and other evidence 2011, following a storm of allegations that its staff from police. —AFP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

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

Controversial Brazil evangelical pastor draws ire

GOIANIA: Evangelical minister and president of the House of Deputies’ commission of human rights and minorities, Marco Feliciano, prays during a gathering of the Assembly of God church, in Goiania, Goias State. — AFP

Disappearances ‘crisis’ in Mexico MEXICO CITY: The number of unsolved disappearances in Mexico constitutes a national scandal and a human rights crisis, Amnesty International said yesterday, citing what it called a systematic failure by police and prosecutors to investigate thousands of cases that have piled up since 2006. Rupert Knox, Amnesty ’s Mexico investigator, said relatives are often forced to search for missing loved ones themselves, sometimes at considerable risk.

Adding insult to injury, Knox said police and prosecutors often don’t even bother to use the information that relatives dig up. Instead, police routinely assume that the missing are caught up in Mexico’s drug cartel conflicts. “They are stigmatized, they are treated with disdain, and the typical thing is to say the victims were members of criminal gangs,” Knox said. “That is a demonstration of the negligence that has allowed this problem to grow into a national scandal and a human rights crisis.”

The federal government says some 26,000 people have been reported missing since the government launched an offensive against drug cartels in late 2006, though officials have said the true number is probably lower, because some people reported missing have since been found or accounted for but never taken off the list. Brenda Rangel is the sister of Hector Rangel, who disappeared along with two friends in 2009 after being stopped by police for a traffic violation and was never seen again. She is sure her brother wasn’t involved in criminal activity. A young businessman, he had gone to the northern state of Coahuila, which is a hotbed of the Zetas drug gang, to collect a payment from a client.

Rangel says her brother last called to say he was in police custody, and she said the family has given authorities the number of the squad car, and even the names of the policemen involved in the detention. But she said prosecutors told her the officers were fired from the local police force in Monclova, Coahuila, and couldn’t be located. In Mexico, it is not uncommon for local policemen to work for drug gangs.

Nearing the fourth year in her brother’s disappearance, that kind of shrugging response is driving Rangel and her family to desperation, and into danger, since they can’t let it rest. “We have received death threats,” she said, adding: “I have run risks, I have gone into safe houses, I have had to disguise myself in different ways to look for my brother.”

One by one, other parents and siblings of missing Mexicans stood up and recount-

ed their horror stories: cases in which authorities themselves, police or the military, appear to have been involved in the disappearances.

Mexico’s government announced last week that it is creating a special unit to search for missing people. But the unit has only 12 federal investigators and a group of federal police agents to cover all the cases. Knox said such agencies have been tried before in Mexico but have accomplished little, in part because they have lacked the resources, manpower and authority to really perform their task.

“The authorities have always seen them (the special units) as a way to reduce public pressure and blow off steam,” Knox said.

While Rangel and the other victims’ families maintain faith that their loved ones are still alive, perhaps subjected to forced labor by the drug cartels, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission has received information on 15,921 unidentified bodies that have passed through morgues in Mexico, some of which could belong to the missing. A recent case in Mexico City has highlighted the difficulties surrounded cases of suspected disappearances. On May 26, a group of young people disappeared from a Mexico City after-hours bar just off the city’s main Reforma boulevard, a block and a half from the US Embassy. Relatives had initially indicated 11 people were missing, but authorities raised the number of 12 Tuesday night.

The young people were from the rough-and-tumble Tepito neighborhood and their disappearance only came to light after their parents and other Tepito residents held a protest that blocked a major road. Media reports later said that the fathers of two of the missing young men were suspected former Tepito crime bosses currently doing time in prison. A witness who said he escaped from the abduction said the young people were taken away by gunmen in masks after partying through the night at the bar.

Prosecutors said Tuesday night that surveillance video was found showing the young people entering the bar, but wouldn’t say if there was footage showing them leaving or being abducted. The witness who reported the kidnapping can no longer be found. The bar’s owner also is missing, but prosecutors said Tuesday night that two waiters and a woman had been detained in the case.

The families have put up missing-person posters with photos of their loved ones throughout the area, and say that almost 10 days later they still have not come home.— AP

Kerry makes first Latin America trip in office ANTIGUA: US Secretary of State John Kerry is demanding reforms in the 35-nation Organization of American States as he visits Latin America for the first time since taking office. Leading the US delegation to the annual general assembly of the OAS - an organization he has disparaged as ineffective, inefficient and nearly irrelevant - Kerry will try to convince fellow members of the need for major changes in its bureaucracy and a return to its core mission of promoting human rights, democracy and development.

Officials traveling with Kerry said he also would be making the case against legalization of marijuana at the national level, lobbying for the election of the US candidate for a hemispheric human rights panel and trying to improve badly damaged relations with Venezuela. Kerry arrived Tuesday at the Guatemalan mountain resort of Antigua and began his two-day program with a meeting with Guatemala’s president.

Drugs, US immigration reform and good governance were to top the agenda in those talks, the two men told reporters. The OAS often is criticized in the United States and Kerry wrote a scathing editorial about its failures and need to reform three years ago while he was the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He then introduced legislation in Congress aimed at requiring significant budget reforms in the organization.

Just last year, shortly before he was nominated to be secretary of state, Kerry penned a letter to the OAS permanent council with three

other senators bemoaning that the group “has been forfeiting its effectiveness” with a lack of strategic focus and fiscal recklessness. The State Department said Monday that Kerry believed the bloc was an organization of critical importance to the Americas and that his participation in the general assembly was aimed at helping to strengthen it.

“The fact that he is going to the OAS and he is spending two days there participating sends a clear signal that he thinks this remains the premier multilateral organization in the hemisphere,” department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “In order to assure that the OAS retains that status, it must refocus on its core principles,” she said, stressing democracy, human rights, development and regional security.

“Strengthening it is of course part of (Kerry’s) agenda and part of what he’ll be focused on in the next couple of days.” As a senator in 2010, Kerry made similar, though not as subtle, points in an opinion piece he cowrote with Sen. Robert Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey who succeeded Kerry as head of the Foreign Relations Committee. “Sadly, its culture of consensus has often been the breeding ground of the ideas that reflect the lowest common denominator, rather than the highest ambitions of diplomacy and cooperation,” they wrote in The Miami Herald.

The pair excoriated the OAS for becoming “a pliable tool of inconsistent political agendas” and suggested that they agreed with critics who called the organization “a grazing pasture for third-string diplomats.” —AP

BRASILIA: Provocative, charismatic and ambitious, Brazil’s evangelical pastor and lawmaker Marco Feliciano has become a lightning rod for nationwide criticism over his disparaging remarks about gays and blacks. The affable 40-year-old maverick has proven adept at attracting the evangelical vote, and was elected president of the House of Deputies’ commission of human rights and minorities in March.

But human rights and black groups have blasted him for saying on Twitter that homosexual love leads to “hatred and crime,” and a reference to Noah’s biblical curse on descendants of his son Ham interpreted as a slight to blacks. Feliciano, who bills himself as a “pastor, singer and businessman”, even said that John Lennon died because he offended God by suggesting that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ. “The Bible says God does not let this type of offense go unpunished,” Feliciano said in remarks gleaned from a video of a sermon he made at his church in 2005.

But the controversial pastor, who is married and the father of three daughters, has defiantly rejected steady calls for him to resign in this country of 194 million people, which Pope Francis will visit in July. Feliciano-who is also under investigation for alleged embezzlement within his Pentecostal church-has vehemently denied being anti-gay or racist. And he says he sees himself as a victim of a “gay dictatorship”, insisting that he is only against promiscuity. “Gay activists want to

impose their lifestyle on me. They accuse me of intolerance. But I have received death threats. My family was harassed,” he insisted in an interview with AFP. And he dismissed as “preposterous” charges that he is racist, noting: “My mother and stepfather are black.” For now, he presses on with his message-and tries to tamp down the firestorm that tends to follow him. During a visit to Goiania, 200 kilometers south of the capital Brasilia, Feliciano poses for a picture with a black child on his way to an Assembly of God church. There, he took the stage for a three-hour fiery sermon in front of hundreds of followers, many of them women, who cried, shouted and jumped throughout the proceedings, responding “Hallelujah” to his preachings.

A PRESIDENTIAL FUTURE? Feliciano says he hopes one day, the world’s biggest Catholic country will elect a Pentecostal Christian to the presidency. Within 10 years, “it will be impossible to conduct politics without striking an alliance with evangelicals,” Feliciano says, adding when asked about his own presidential ambitions that he plans to “grow politically.” Part of that growth could include a run for the Senate, Brazil’s upper house, next year. “My name is Feliciano. I am considering running for the Senate.

You know me. I am fighting for the family, I want to defend its sons and grandchildren. If you support abortion, don’t vote for me,” he says.

In 1996, Feliciano founded his own church within Brazil’s Assemblies of God fellowship. And in 2010, he was elected deputy of the conservative Christian Social Democratic Party (PSC) in the state of Sao Paulo. “Feliciano gained visibility. As the standard-bearer of anti-homosexuals who are many in Brazil, he is in a position to win more votes in Sao Paulo,” said Cesar Jacob, author of the book “Religion and societies in Brazilian capitals”.

“But he also inspires strong opposition,” he added.

“I don’t think he can be elected (state) governor, let alone president.”

Yet Feliciano’s election to the human rights panel was seen as a sign of the growing political clout of evangelicals, who have 67 seats in the Congress out of a total 513, along with a media empire and a strong grassroots presence that transcends class. While Catholics have seen their ranks decline from 74 percent of the population in 2000 to 64.6 percent in 2010, the percentage of Protestant evangelicals has soared during that decade from 15.4 percent to 22.2 percent.

Feliciano, who says he was raised as a Catholic but later converted to Pentecostalism after falling prey to drugs, remains unrepentant about the controversy that swirls around him. “They sought to label me Brazil’s public enemy number one. But they have turned me into a celebrity, the hero of the Brazilian family,” he said. “ There were 40 demonstrations against me. They could not muster more than 5,000 people. In one service, I can attract 100,000 people.”—AFP

US commanders face tough questions over rape plague Senator slammed for blaming hormones for sexual assaults WASHINGTON: US military chiefs came under fire from lawmakers yesterday over a “plague” of sexual assaults in the ranks, but the top brass argued against plans to strip commanders of authority over criminal cases. A rise in rapes-along with a wave of high-profile scandals in recent weeks-has put military leaders on the defensive. “You need to do more and you need to do it much faster,” Senator Mark Udall told the chiefs at a packed hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The top officers, who made an unusual joint appearance before the panel, seemed intent on heading off proposals in Congress that would alter legal traditions the military holds dear, including rules that allow commanders to decide if a case should go to trial. While vowing to stamp out the “cancer” of sexual assaults, the generals cautioned against taking sexual assaults and other cases out of the hands of commanders. “I understand the credibility of the armed forces, the credibility of the army are at stake,” said General Ray Odierno, the Army’s chief of staff.

“But we cannot simply legislate our way out of this problem.”

Several lawmakers rejected the chiefs’ stance, saying fundamental changes were needed to open the way to more prosecutions of sexual predators. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri sharply criticized the four-star generals, saying the military misunderstood the problemlumping together rape and other crimes with sexual harassment at the work place. “This isn’t about sex. It’s about assaultive domination and violence,” she said.

The force needs to better document sex crimes, ramp up prosecutions and make it easier for rape victims to come forward, she said.

Sexual assault victims in the military are “afraid to report” the crime to commanders who hold sway over their careers, said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

“They think their careers will be over. They fear retaliation. They fear being blamed,” she said. The Democrat is pushing for a bill that would have military prosecutors decide whether a sexual assault or other criminal case should go to trial instead of a unit commander, who she said could lack impartiality. Gillibrand argued that other countries, including some European allies and Israel, have made similar changes to their own

help us correct this crisis,” he said.

Dempsey, however, said the armed forces had been “too complacent” for too long and admitted he himself had failed to grasp the problem in his earlier posts. “I took my eye off the ball in the commands I had,” he said.

The spike in sexual assault cases is so alarming that Republican Senator John McCain, a decorated veteran, said he had recently told a mother he could not give “unqualified support” for her daughter’s decision to join the military. “I cannot overstate my disgust and disappointment over the continued reports of sexual misconduct in our

WASHINGTON: Missouri Democrat Senator Claire McCaskill questions a panel of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and their legal counsels as they testify regarding sexual assaults in the military. — AFP military legal codes with successful results. But General Martin Dempsey, the military’s top-ranking officer, said restricting a commander too severely could undermine an officer’s ability to ensure discipline in a unit. “Our goal should be to hold commanders more accountable, not render them less able to

militar y,” McCain said. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who has called the sexual assaults a “scourge,” has suggested amending the military’s code to prohibit commanders from tossing out verdicts after a trial. Although Hagel initially opposed more far-reaching proposals, he has since said he is open to

discussing all options.

HORMONES BLAMED In another development, a Republican US senator came under fire on Tuesday after blaming youthful hormones, at least in part, for sexual assaults in the militar y.

Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Republican from Georgia, made the comments at a hearing attended by the top uniformed officers of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff was also present.

“The young folks that are coming into each of your services are anywhere from 17 to 22, or 23,” Chambliss said.

“Gee whiz, the level - the hormone level created by nature sets in place the possibility for these types of things to occur,” he said, before admonishing the militar y and Congress itself for failing to stem sexual assaults. At the same hearing, Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri and a former prosecutor who handled sex crimes, said bluntly that “this isn’t about sex.” “My years of experience in this area tell me they are committing crimes of domination and violence,” she said.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, called on Chambliss to apologize. “I think he should think about whether if, God forbid, a sexual assault happens to a daughter of his, would he think it’s OK for a senator to just chalk the assault up to raging hormones,” she told MSNBC television. Chambliss’ comments were also criticized by Mike Turner, a fellow Republican congressman from Ohio and co-chair of the military sexual assault prevention caucus. “It ’s simple; criminals are responsible for sexual assaults, not hormones,” Turner said in a statement.— Agencies

Brazil Charismatic priests try to stem Catholic flight SAO PAULO: In a scene out of a pop music concert, mass at Sao Paulo’s huge Mae de Deus (Mother of God) Church features spirited singing, dancing and shouting led by priests of Brazil’s rising Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement. About 6,000 faithful are seated and thousands more are standing, all waiting for the master of ceremonies and face of the movement - 46-year-old rock star Catholic priest Marcelo Rossi. With his broad smile and movie-actor good looks, the 6’4” (1m90) former gymnast and his musicians warm up the crowd.

Every Thursday evening and Sunday morning, Rossi says mass in this cavernous, 20,000-seat sanctuary inaugurated late last year and which can accommo-

date an overflow crowd of up to 100,000.

His appeal contrasts with a decades-long exodus from the Catholic Church by Brazilians, many of them lured by booming Protestant evangelical churches. Brazil, which will welcome Pope Francis in late July for a major Catholic youth fest, remains the world’s largest Catholic country. But the proportion of those identifying themselves as Catholics has plummeted from almost 92 percent of the population in 1970 to a mere 64.6 percent in 2010.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Protestant evangelicals has soared from 15.4 percent in 2000 to 22.2 percent in 2010.

Sao Paulo-born Rossi, who was ordained in

SAO PAULO: Priest Marcelo Rossi leads a mass at Mae de Deus church in Sao Paulo.

The Catholic sanctuary, Brazil’s biggest, can host about 100,000 faithful. — AFP

1994, is working hard to stem the erosion of the faith. “Father Marcelo is charismatic and humble.

You come once and you keep on coming,” said 72year-old Olga Ribeiro, who has been following him for the past six years.

“It’s a modern, dynamic mass. I had stopped going to church because I was bored,” said 58-yearold Luis Fernando Camentori. In the middle of the service, lights go off and candles are lit. Many of the faithful burst into tears. “God will turn your pain into joy,” Rossi tells the delirious crowd. The wildly popular Rossi has already sold millions of records and books. He has his own radio and television programs, has made movies and is very active on Twitter. He has just criss-crossed the country to promote his latest book “Kairos”. In less than a month, 500,000 copies were already sold. “The Church in Brazil has been in crisis since the 1990s with the decline of leftist liberation theology, and its churches are becoming empty,” said Magali Cunha, a theology professor at Sao Paulo Methodist University.

Charismatic Catholics take page out of Pentecostal book-”Charismatic groups are calling on the Church to renew itself to win back the faithful by following the Pentecostal model,” she added.

Initially known as “Catholic Pentecostalism,” Catholic Charismatic Renewal began making inroads in Brazil in the 1970s and grew into a diverse movement that the Catholic hierarchy monitors from a distance.

While it has so far failed to stop Brazil’s Catholic exodus, “without this type of spirituality, the Catholic Church would have lost even more members,” said Edin Abumansur, head of the religion sciences department at Sao Paulo Catholic University.

And Catholic Charismatic Renewal is resorting to an arsenal of gimmicks to lure followers, including raw emotionalism, masses for cures, blessings to secure jobs or corporal expressions of faith.— AFP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

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

Japan dotcom jailbird back in business TOKYO: Maverick Internet tycoon Takafumi Horie, who was jailed for accounting fraud, said yesterday Japan’s online landscape was prime territory for his aggressive style of business. Horie said he had got involved in around 30 start-ups since being released from prison three months ago, having served nearly two years for hiding losses on the balance sheets of his Internet service provider Livedoor. “Social media such as Facebook and Line has developed tremendously in

the past two years in a way that means I can monetise my intangible human assets and launch various businesses,” the 40year-old said.

Line is a Japanese-developed instant messaging application for smartphones and PCs. Since appearing just two years ago, it has amassed a reported 100 million users. “It has become easy for me to do what I want to do because of the way the Internet’s infrastructure has developed,” Horie told the Foreign Correspondents’

Club of Japan. “I am starting up probably about 30 businesses, some of them are already in place,” he said, citing a rocket development firm and his dream of sending thousands of paying customers into space. The flamboyant and outspoken Horie was sentenced to 30 months’ jail in 2007 for falsely reporting a pre-tax profit of five billion yen ($50 million at today’s rates) to hide losses at Livedoor. A high court appeal the following year was rejected, and the Supreme Court turned him

down again in April 2011. Horie-a Tokyo University graduate who shook up Japan Inc’s often staid ways with his media-savvy persona and hostile takeover bids-has long insisted he was a victim of a hidebound business culture. He emerged from prison in March weighing 30 kilograms (66 pounds) less and vowing to get back in the saddle. Horie, who has nearly a million followers on Twitter, told reporters Wednesday that one of his new projects was to use social media to support prison-

ers seeking rehabilitation after serving their time. The idea came because social media helped him through the bitter first winter in his unheated cell in the mountains of Nagano, where temperatures dropped to minus 15 degrees centigrade (five degrees Fahrenheit). “I mentioned the condition in my online magazine,” he said referring to a publication he kept going while behind bars. “Heating was installed in my second year and I was given one more blanket,” he said.—AFP

US sizes up ‘fast on his feet’ Xi Jinping Cyberattacks top agenda as Xi meets Obama

SYNDEY: A homeless man who polishes shoes for a living sits in the middle of a walkway as he waits for customers in the central business district of Sydney yesterday. — AFP

Homelessness in Australia surges SYDNEY: Homelessness in Australia has surged 17 percent since 2006 mainly due to a spike in migrant numbers, though fewer people are sleeping rough on the streets, a report found yesterday. The National Affordable Housing Agreement report, prepared by the government’s COAG Reform Council, found that overall housing security had declined from 2006 to 2011.

While the number of “rough sleepers”those living on the streets-had fallen six percent to 6,813, the overall amount of people considered homeless had ballooned 17 percent to 105,237. Council chairman John Brumby said Australia was now unlikely to meet its target of reducing homelessness by seven percent this year, blaming growing levels of crowding and temporary housing. “This report defines the many faces of homelessness,” Brumby said.

The rise in the homelessness figure was fuelled by severe crowding, which is defined as a home where there are more than two people sleeping per bedroom and at least three extra bedrooms are required to reduce the burden. Two-thirds of the 41,390 people living in severely crowded homes were born overseas and likely to be recent migrants, the report found. Australia is facing record inflows of asylum-seekers

arriving on people-smuggling boats from Southeast Asia, with numbers expected to top 25,000 in the year to June 30.

To reduce the burden on immigration detention facilities the government has been forced to release thousands of applicants into the community on spartan welfare with a ban on working. Charity groups have been forced to meet the shortfall, providing shelter, food and medicine for refugees struggling to make ends meet.

Aboriginal Australians living in crowded dwellings in the remote Northern Territory account for 11.2 percent of the nation’s homeless.

Aborigines, Australia’s most disadvantaged minority, are 14 times more likely to be homeless than their non-indigenous counterparts, according to the report.

Brumby welcomed the fall in rough sleeping-”what most people think of as homelessness”-as significant. “They are some of the most disadvantaged Australians, those who sleep without a proper bed or shelter, so any fall in the number is welcomed,” he said. The COAG (Council of Australian Governments) Reform Council monitors progress on key government benchmarks including healthcare, education, disability and indigenous reform.—AFP

WASHINGTON: The United States hopes the “fast on his feet” style of China’s new President Xi Jinping will loosen the stifling formality of past summits that did little to ease great power mistrust. Obama will test the proposition that China’s new leader is ready to talk candidly about the many differences between Washington and Beijing at an unusual laid-back meeting tomorrow and Saturday in California.

But a cresting dispute about alleged Chinese cyber espionage, with both sides staking out tough positions, threatens to swamp the narrative adopted by both sides of an informal get-to-know you summit with low expectations. Obama and Xi will have informal chats, a private dinner and a second day of bilateral talks in a freewheeling agenda that is a departure for the normally tightly scripted US-China summits, US officials said.

There are also plans for them to answer several questions from reporters at what will be the first summit since Xi rose to power as China’s supreme leader and Obama embarked on his second White House term. Despite simmering US-China tensions, the agenda shows Washington hopes to move on from what aides have privately described as Obama’s frustrating meetings with Xi’s predecessor Hu Jintao that stuck to talking points. “(Xi) seems to be someone who is fast on his feet, who’s open to engagement,” said a White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity to preview the talks at the Annenberg retreat in sweltering Palm Springs.

Xi also appears “willing to speak directly to Americans and to issues of concern to Americans in a manner that was not the hallmark of some of his predecessors,” the official said. Another White House advisor said that Obama put great store in forging a personal connection with foreign leaders, which could pay off down the line during a time of crisis. “He enjoys interacting with leaders who can be at times more informal, who are direct and candid, can put aside talking points,” the official said. “We have seen indications that President Xi brings a bit more of that type of style than has been the case in the past.” Despite opening up on their hopes for an improved atmosphere in SinoUS summitry, White House aides are downplaying expectations of any clear progress in defusing deep differences between the two sides. The run-

up to the summit has been dominated by successive reports and allegations about alleged Chinese state-sponsored cyber espionage and hacking targeting US military and commercial secrets.

A US official said Obama would tell Xi he must tackle hacking operations based in his nation, after US reports suggested covert Internet based espionage was rampant in China. But China’s ambassador to Washington, Cui Tiankai, made clear that Beijing believed that it was also under threat - from the US mainland. “A huge number of Chinese computers, Chinese companies, and Chinese government agencies have also been attacked by hackers,” Cui told Foreign Affairs magazine in an interview.

“If we trace these attacks, maybe some of them, or even most of them, would come from the United

MEXICO CITY: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto (right) and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping make a toast during an honor dinner at the National Palace in Mexico City. Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday kicked off a three-day visit to Mexico, which is seeking to narrow a huge trade gap with Beijing and attract investment from the world’s number two economy. — AFP

Iowa copes with nitrate surge in drinking water

TOKYO: A protester holds a fan during a protest march against nuclear power plants, following the March 2011 Fukushima meltdown-disasters. — AFP

Another contaminated water leak at Fukushima nuke plant TOKYO: The operator of the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant said it had found another leak of contaminated water yesterday, piling pressure on the utility to curb the problem as it seeks permission to release water to the sea. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant was hit by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami more than two years ago, triggering nuclear reactor meltdowns and explosions. Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, said a worker patrolling the area spotted the leak just after noon, with droplets of contaminated water leaking out between the tank’s circular steel structure.

Shunichiro Tanaka, chief of Japan’s new nuclear regulator, set up after its predecessor was discredited in the 2011 disaster, told a news conference that Tepco should deal with the problem immediately. But he said the regulator did not regard the matter as serious. The latest leak was acknowledged after Tepco said earlier this week it had detected radioactive cesium in groundwater flowing into the plant-overturning an early finding that contamination was negligible.

A spate of similar incidents and power outages plagued the facility in March and April. The incidents represent another setback for the company as it tries to reassure the public and the government that it can manage the problem of tainted water. The

plant’s still precarious state also serves as a reminder of the poor management of the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986 as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government presses ahead with a drive to export Japan’s nuclear technology.

The discovery that groundwater is being contaminated before it enters the damaged reactor buildings complicates efforts to persuade local authorities and fishermen that the groundwater is safe enough to be dumped into the ocean. About 400 tons of groundwater flow daily into the reactor buildings only to be mixed with highly contaminated water that comes from cooling the melted fuel. The government ordered Tepco last week to increase storage capacity of water tanks and construct a wall of frozen earth around the four reactor buildings to stem the flow of groundwater seeping into the plant.

Leaks were found in underground storage pits in April, prompting Tepco to speed up the construction of sturdier aboveground tanks. The leak discovered yesterday was from one of the sturdier tanks.

Tepco is also trying to construct a bypass that would route the water away from the plant and into the ocean. That plan requires the agreement of fishermen who oppose plans to dump 100 tons of groundwater a day from the plant into the sea.— Reuters

DES MOINES: For much of last year, Iowa’s most pressing agricultural problem was a drought that baked farm fields and parched crops, turning them brown and crumbly. Then the skies finally opened up, providing one of the soggiest springs on record. But the rain has created a new, unexpected problem: The deluge is washing fertilizer off the farms and into rivers that provide drinking water to much of the state. Public officials say the problem will pass, but others worry about the potential risks of a compound called nitrate, which has reached levels never seen in Iowa.

“These numbers are so high that they’re not only problematic from an ecological standpoint for the rivers, lakes, ponds, and reservoirs, but they become a real issue for human health,” said Bob Hirsch, a research hydrologist for the US Geological Survey who studies long-term changes in river water quality. Nitrate levels have soared because drought-withered corn plants didn’t suck up all the nitrogen spread on fields last year.

The drought was followed by Iowa’s wettest April in 141 years, and that rain washed unused fertilizer into rivers, the primary source of drinking water for 45 percent of the state’s population. Nitrate in water is an issue throughout the Midwest, but Iowa is especially vulnerable because about 90 percent of the state is dedicated to agriculture.

Corn requires an abundant supply of nitrogen, which must be added to the soil through the application of nitrogen fertilizer or manure.

The Environmental Protection Agency requires nitrate in drinking water be kept at less than 10 milligrams per liter. Above that level can be deadly to infants younger than 6 months because the chemical can reduce the amount of oxygen carried in their blood.

Pregnant women are advised not to drink water above the EPA limit, as well as adults with reduced stomach acidity. Scientists have collected conflicting evidence regarding whether nitrate or nitrites are associated with cancer in adults and older children, the EPA said. The Raccoon River upstream from Des Moines was at a record 24 milligrams of nitrates per liter last month, and the Des Moines River posted a record high reading of 18. “This is the worst we’ve ever seen,” said Bill Stowe, manager of Des Moines Water Works, which serves about 500,000 customers in central Iowa. Both rivers are used as water sources for the Des Moines plant. The agency had asked residents to limit irrigation so it could supply drinking water from reservoirs and other sources and not take it straight from the rivers. The heavy rain eliminated the need for

States,” he said. Mindful that cyber issues could overwhelm the carefully presented agenda for the talks, the two sides have already announced a set of working group talks in July on the issue.

Washington and Beijing are also at odds over a myriad of trade and currency disputes and China is irked by Obama’s military and diplomatic “rebalancing” of US power towards Asia. The Obama administration is meanwhile concerned by an increasingly nationalistic posture by China towards territorial disputes with US allies, including in the South China Sea. Washington also hopes that Beijing will heap more pressure on its nominal ally North Korea over its recent nuclear belligerence. US officials say they have been encouraged by signs that Beijing has tentatively shifted towards the US position on the issue in recent weeks.—AFP

irrigation and lowered water demand, but constant farm runoff continues to elevate nitrate levels, Stowe said.

In Cedar Rapids, officials have had similar problems. The Cedar River reached one of its highest recorded nitrate levels at 18.5 milligrams per liter upstream from the city’s water treatment plant, city spokeswoman Megan Murphy said. By blending river water with water from other sources, the city was delivering tap water at a level of 7.6. If water exceeds the EPA standard, water customers would have to consider other options, such as bottled water. Boiling water does not remove nitrates. Public water suppliers are required to notify the state if nitrate levels top 10 milligrams per liter, and so far none have reached that level, said Shelli Grapp, chief of the Department of Natural Resources Water Quality Bureau. The situation isn’t entirely new. But it’s made worse by last summer’s drought and by drainage tiles that have been installed beneath many farms to channel excess water away from fields and into streams.

“The speeding up of the water runoff means it’s moving quickly from field to stream, which eliminates any opportunity for the system to naturally absorb anything,” said Neil Dubrovsky, a US Geological Survey hydrologist who studies nitrate levels. Iowa and Illinois rivers typically have some of the nation’s highest nitrate levels, but other top corn states also have issues, including Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin and the eastern portions of Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.

Nitrate levels in those states have been rising since the 1950s but leveled off in the 1980s. In the last five years, they’ve been climbing again as high corn prices have driven farmers to plant near-record corn acres, Hirsch said. “In essence what we’re doing is subsidizing cheap food,” paying for it through the high cost of cleaning up our water after it’s contaminated by fertilizer, Dubrovsky said. “There is a price to pay, and the price will go up as the groundwater contamination continues because that’s our alternative water supply.” To keep the nitrate level in check, Des Moines had to switch on a $4 million nitrate-removal system for the first time since 2007. The equipment costs $7,000 a day to run. At least five Minnesota communities have nitrate-removal systems, and they pay a price for the costly equipment. For example, residents of Ellsworth, Minn., pay $5.71 per 1,000 gallons of water, and Clear Lake residents pay more than $4.30.—AP

News

in brief

Taiwan deploys ‘Thunder 2000’ TAIPEI: Taiwan has deployed a powerful multiplelaunch rocket system on an offshore island to guard against any amphibious landing by China, local media reported yesterday. The weapon, called Ray Ting 2000 or “Thunder 2000”, went into service for the first time on Matsu Island and could reach China’s Fujian province across the Taiwan Strait, the United Evening News cited sources as saying. The defense ministry declined to comment. The system can launch 40 rockets in a minute with a range of 45 kilometers, the report said.

“Thunder 2000” is expected to enhance the military’s anti-landing capabilities as it phases out the current rocket system introduced three decades ago, military experts have said. They said the longer range could destroy landing craft before they reach the shore, while the truck-mounted launchers could be combat-ready in eight minutes, less than half the time of the current system. The ministry reportedly plans to produce more than 50 such systems at a cost of Tw$14.5 billion ($483 million).

Indian businessman arrested KOLKATA: Police have arrested a man accused of raping an Irish woman who volunteered at a children’s charity in the Indian city of Kolkata. A police official in the eastern city said the local businessman who was arrested will be produced in court later. The official could not be named because he wasn’t authorized to speak to reporters. He said the man met the woman at a party she hosted to celebrate her 21st birthday late Friday.

The official said the woman went to the man’s house where she drank a cup of tea, passed out and was raped.

Few other details were immediately available. The reported assault comes as other attacks against women have heightened concerns about sexual violence in India.

‘Yellow duck’ searches banned BEIJING: A popular Chinese microblogging service banned searches for “yellow duck” after users circulated a mocked-up image of a famous 1989 Tiananmen square tank protest with the military vehicles replaced by plastic ducks, results yesterday showed. The picture, a parody of the iconic “Tank Man” photograph of a civilian staring down a long row of tanks, circulated Tuesday, the 24th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests’ suppression. A large yellow duck artwork is currently on display in Hong Kong, and imitations have been put up in several mainland cities. Sina Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging site, blocked searches for “yellow duck”, with attempts to do so returning a message reading: “Due to relevant laws and regulations... the search result is not displayed.” Other search terms banned by the service include “1989” and numerical formulae such as “63 + 1”, used to refer to the date of the crackdown”6.4” in US-style date order, which is also blocked.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

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

India accuses Pakistan of fomenting Punjab militancy NEW DELHI: India accused Pakistan’s intelligence agency yesterday of trying to recruit and train militants to carry out attacks across the border in the Indian state of Punjab. Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said Pakistan’s InterServices Intelligence (ISI) agency was pressuring Sikh militant leaders to target Punjab and other parts of India. “There has been some significant development on the Sikh militancy front,” Shinde said in New

Delhi. “Its commanders based in Pakistan are under pressure from ISI to further ISI’s terror plans not only in Punjab but also in other parts of the country,” he said. “The Sikh youths are being trained in ISI facilities in Pakistan.” The minister singled out the threat to the northwestern state during a speech to state chief ministers gathered in the capital for an annual conference on internal security. India has long accused Pakistan of funding and directing

a longstanding insurgency in the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir, which is divided between the two rival nations but claimed by both in full.

India and Pakistan have fought two wars since partition over Kashmir, where pro-Pakistan and pro-independence rebels have battled Indian security forces for two decades in a conflict that has claimed thousands of lives. Shinde said Punjab was also being targeted, with “a large quantity

of arms and ammunition and explosives” seized by police in the last year after being smuggled across the Pakistan border. Sikh youths living in Europe and the United States were also being encouraged to travel to Pakistan to train for terrorist-related attacks, Shinde told the conference.

Tens of thousands of people died in a separatist drive for a Sikh homeland which erupted early in the 1980s in Punjab, but the strength of the militancy has since

waned. Also addressing the conference, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged the state and national governments to work together to curb the “very grave threat” of Maoist insurgents in central India. He has previously described the rebels as the country’s most serious internal security threat. The Maoists last month killed 24 people including local political leaders in an ambush in Chhattisgarh state.— AFP

India university rocked by ‘fake PhDs’ scandal Police arrest four senior officials from CMJ University

MOUNT HAGEN: People watch as a young mother accused of sorcery, is stripped naked, reportedly tortured with a branding iron, tied up, splashed with fuel and set alight on a pile of rubbish topped with car tyres in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. — AFP

Belief in witchcraft growing in Pacific SYDNEY: Belief in sorcery and witchcraft is on the rise in the Pacific, experts warned yesterday after a young woman accused of killing a boy with black magic was burnt alive in Papua New Guinea. Lawrence Foana’ota, formerly the director of the Solomon Islands National Museum, said people were increasingly turning to witchcraft in the Melanesian country. “The reason why it’s growing is because there is some kind of economic benefits people are receiving from these practices,” he told AFP before speaking at a conference in Canberra to tackle the issue.

Unless the problem was addressed quickly, especially amongst the young, “it might end up in the same situation as in Papua New Guinea where they are actually physically killing people”, he said. The brutal killing in February in Papua New Guinea of a 20-yearold mother accused of witchcraft sparked international outrage. The woman was stripped, bound and burned before a crowd of onlookers including schoolchildren. In another attack in April, an elderly woman was beheaded after being accused of black magic.

The February murder helped push Papua New Guinea (PNG) to re-introduce the death penalty for violent crimes including sorcery, a move criticized by rights group Amnesty International and the United Nations.

Reverend Jack Urame, from the Melanesian Institute, said Christian organizations could

do more to stamp out the widespread belief in sorcery in PNG, where many people do not accept natural causes as an explanation for misfortune and death. “There is an alarming comeback of the belief, and I believe there are several factors why the belief is coming back again,” Urame told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

“Because there is a generation gap, the Christian values is not being passed on to the next generation and so I think people are resorting back to the traditional belief as an answer to explain sickness and death.”

Australian National University academic Miranda Forsyth, co-convenor of the conference in Canberra, said the belief in sorcery and witchcraft was widespread in countries such as Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

“These beliefs and practices impede economic development, because people are often afraid to be too successful because they are then accused of sorcery,” she said. “They also impact on understandings of health as people are not inclined to seek medical assistance because they attribute illness to sorcery. “They also lead to increased crime, because women or men who are accused of sorcery are attacked by the population who think that this is the only way to stop a misfortune that has fallen upon their community.”— AFP

SHILLONG: Police are investigating an Indian university suspected of issuing fake PhDs after it awarded more than 400 doctorates in a single year, officers said yesterday.

Police have arrested four senior officials from CMJ University in the northeastern state of Meghalaya on suspicion of fraud and forgery and are hunting for the chancellor, who has fled. “ We are not sure about his whereabouts, as he keeps changing his location frequently,” senior state police official Sunil Kumar

Jain said. The private university, established in 2009 in the state capital Shillong, handed out 434 PhDs during the 2012-13 academic year despite its small faculty, arousing suspicions among local officials who filed a police complaint. A PhD at CMJ University takes between two to five years and costs 127,000 rupees ($2,250), according to its website.

“In good faith, the universities were given permission to operate, but some seem to have taken this for a ride and this is distressing,”

towered over politics since independence in 1957, maintains policies that give Muslim Malays business and educational advantages.

The measures increasingly anger other races and, activists say, have set a tone of racial bias in key government bodies. “ The custodial deaths clearly show the police force is institutionally racist and the Indians are seen as soft targets,” said longtime Indian rights activist P Waythamoorthy, who was recently appointed a deputy minister in a gesture to his community.

Indian rights group Hindraf says nearly a million Indians lost their jobs in plantations due to an influx of cheap foreign labor in recent decades and some 350,000 remain

Monday that PhDs from CMJ were on sale for between $4,000-10,000, with the amount paid determining how quickly the qualification would be granted.

S.P. Sharma, a lawyer for CMJ University chancellor Chandra Mohan Jha, accused the state administration of being “prejudiced” against the university. Anguished CMJ students issued a deadline, set to expire Thursday, to the Meghalaya government to resolve the debacle and give them some clarity about their futures.— AFP

3rd time lucky for Pakistan’s Sharif?

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has assumed the reins of government for a historic third term in what observers describe as a test of his political statesmanship and acumen. The 63-year-old, who was sentenced to life in prison after being deposed in a military coup in 1999, has a power base rooted in Pakistan’s richest and most populous province, where he is known as the Lion of the Punjab. A hugely wealthy steel tycoon, considered strong on the economy but seen by some as soft on the Taleban, he inherits enormous problems of sagging finances and a stifling energy crisis.

He comes across as soft-spoken and shy with international media but earned a reputation for combativeness during his two previous terms as PM, from 1990 to 1993, and from 1997 to 1999. Veteran political analyst Talat Masood said the Sharif of 2013 is a different man from the hothead of the 1990s who riled Pakistan’s powerful military. “I personally think that he has gained a lot in these last several years. He is a far more mature politician, he has understood the dynamics of the civil-military relationship,” Masood said.

“He is a much more mature, balanced and experienced third-time prime minister. He has been seen as a pragmatist in the West but raised eyebrows by calling for peace talks with the Pakistani Taleban, blamed for killing thousands of Pakistanis in the past six years. And on Friday he publicly criticized a US drone strike that killed the militants’ second-incommand in northwest Pakistan as a violation of sovereignty, echoing Islamabad’s longstanding complaint about the controversial missile attacks.

Born on December 25, 1949 into a wealthy family of industrialists in Lahore, the capital of Punjab and the political nerve centre of Pakistan, Sharif took a law degree before joining his father’s steel company. He entered politics and under the patronage of military dictator Zia-ul Haq became first finance minister and then chief minister of Punjab-a post he held for five years from 1985 until he was elected prime minister in 1990. — AFP

Malaysian police under fire over custody deaths KUALA LUMPUR: Truck driver N Dhamendran entered a Malaysian police station on May 11 to record a statement over a scuffle he was involved in, and never came out alive. Ten days later, police produced the 32-year-old’s battered corpse, his ears grotesquely pierced with a stapler, and said he died of a heart attack. The case has brought new focus to a shocking and persistent scandal tarnishing Malaysia’s security forces-routine deaths at the hands of police widely viewed as corrupt and brutal.

More than 160 such deaths have been reported since 2000, three in an 11-day span beginning with Dhamendran’s. “Nowadays, we don’t have to be afraid of gangsters, we must be afraid of them (police),” a distraught M Marry, Dhamendran’s widow said.

Yesterday the government charged three police officers with murder in connection with the death. The dead man’s lawyer N Surendran said it was thought to be the first murder charge since the 1990s in response to a custodial death.

The episode also highlighted the comparatively sorry state of Malaysia’s ethnic Indians, who make up eight percent of the multiracial country’s 28 million people.

Like Dhamendran, those dying in police custody are typically ethnic Indians, in what activists see as a deadly symptom of their marginalization. Imported under British colonial rule since the mid-1800s as plantation workers, Indians have fared poorly relative to majority Malays, who control politics, and the large Chinese minority who dominates the economy.

“Indians, who have the least amount of political and economic power, are dehumanized,” said Michelle Yesudas, of rights group Lawyers for Liberty. The United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the ruling party that has

said Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma. Credentials fraud is a serious problem in India, fuelled by a huge demand for qualifications, endemic corruption and poor regulation of the ultra-competitive and fast-growing education sector. In 2011 a racket in fake airline pilot licences was exposed, while in 2010 police arrested the head of the national body responsible for certifying medical qualifications for allegedly accepting a bribe.

The Times of India repor ted

stateless, lacking proper citizenship documents. Faced with mounting disgust, Prime Minister Najib Razak’s government has announced the formation of a task force led by the national police chief to look into preventative steps-but not to investigate past deaths.

Lawyer Surendran, an ethnic Indian vice president of the opposition People’s Justice Party, called the task force a “complete whitewash”, noting previous pledges to end such custodial deaths fell flat.

Dhamendran’s widow Marry said she faced threats and extortion at two police stations in the capital Kuala Lumpur-handing over food, soft drinks and cigarettes-before

KUALA LUMPUR: Marry Mariaysusay, wife of the late truck driver N Dhamendran, cries during a press conference at the People’s Justice Party headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. — AFP

she was allowed to visit her husband. It was the last time she saw him alive. Police did not respond to AFP requests for detailed comment, or to visit police lock-ups, but officials have vowed action.

“I assure the public that as long as we are entrusted (with resolving the problem), we will not compromise on the issue of deaths in custody,” Home Minister Zahid Hamidi has said. His ministry controls the police. Najib’s government says crime is down sharply but critics allege official data is tampered with to hide police failures, amid widespread public perception of a rising wave of robberies and assaults.

Media reports have said that in the past month even the well-guarded homes of relatives of the national police chief and deputy prime minister were burgled.

Police, meanwhile, aggressively bring charges against the political opposition or activists, prompting allegations of bias. Several people have been charged with sedition after calling for protests against alleged electoral fraud by the coalition in May 5 elections. Malaysian politics is bitterly polarized but the issue of brutality has prompted calls from across the political divide for an independent commission on police misconduct that was recommended by a 2005 Malaysian royal inquiry.

Najib’s Malay-dominated government and police, however, have resisted, saying an existing commission was sufficient. That commission was reported to have one investigator to probe complaints against 19 enforcement bodies.

Surendran, who said he witnessed a beating in a police station eight years ago but was threatened with criminal charges when he lodged a report, expects little real reform. “ They wait until people forget about it and sweep it under the carpet,” he said.— AFP

LAHORE: Supporters of new Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif celebrate with sweets in front of his portrait in Lahore yesterday. — AFP

Myanmar violence spills into Malaysia; Four dead KUALA LUMPUR: Ethnic violence in Myanmar between Muslims and Buddhists appears to have spilled over into Malaysia, police said yesterday, with four killings in recent days suspected to be linked to the religious tension. All the victims, including a man slashed to death by machete-wielding attackers at a car wash in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, this week, were Buddhists from Myanmar, said the city’s deputy police chief Amar Singh Ishar Singh. “We have a feedback that this may be Myanmar Buddhists and Muslims having a spillover here in Kuala Lumpur,” he told Reuters. “In Myanmar, the Muslims are the victims, over here the Buddhists are the victims.”

Singh said the police had set up a special task force to deal with the violence in Kuala Lumpur and had arrested about 60 Myanmar immigrants this week in an attempt to control tensions. Malaysia’s Bernama state news agency said the 20year-old victim was sleeping at the car wash when he was attacked by 10 people. It quoted police as saying a man and a woman also suffered injuries in the attack.

Police did not give details of the other attacks. Anti-Muslim violence in Buddhistdominated Myanmar erupted in western Rakhine State last year and has spread into the central heartlands and areas near the old capital, Yangon, this year. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled from the country to escape the violence and worsening living conditions, many of them making their way by boat or overland to Muslim-majority Malaysia. Malaysia’s has allowed them to stay but without giving them legal status, meaning that most struggle to find work or access to hospitals and schools.

The total number of Myanmar immigrants in Malaysia is estimated at about 400,000. The U.N. refugee agency says about 23,000 Rohingyas are registered as refugees in Malaysia, but groups representing them say the real number of Muslim immigrants is much higher and has surged this year because of the violence. In April, Muslim and Buddhist refugees from Myanmar clashed at a refugee camp in Indonesia in a riot in which eight people were killed and 15 were wounded, media reported. — Reuters

KHANAUNG CHAUNG WA: Villagers walk along paddy land which was confiscated in 1992 by the Myanmar security forces, near Khanaung Chaung Wa village, southeast of Yangon, Myanmar. —AP

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ANALYSIS

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961

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Issues

What next after Syria chemical weapons evidence?

By Cecile Feuillatre rance and Britain have both confirmed for the first time that chemical arms were used in Syria and Paris says a line has been crossed. So what next in a conflict that has cost over 94,000 lives? Not much, experts predict, amid resistance from Syria allies Russia and China and ahead of a proposed peace conference, coupled with painful memories of the Iraq war, which was justified by supposed evidence of weapons of mass destruction that never materialised. Nadim Shehadi, associate fellow at the Chatham House international affairs think-tank’s Middle East and North Africa programme, said the confirmation was only significant “if it leads to some action or intervention.”

“And I think if it does, it’s the worst excuse to use.

Because immediately it will remind people of the Iraq excuse. There is enough reason for intervention with the massacres that the regime is doing,” he said.

“The red line should have been the regime killing its people. We created an artificial red line to say the regime can kill its people as long as it doesn’t use any chemical weapons.” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius on Tuesday announced for the first time that Paris had proof the deadly nerve agent sarin gas had been used in Syria several times. He said in a televised interview that in at least one case, there was “no doubt that it was the regime and its accomplices”, adding that “a line has been indisputably breached.”

Soon after Fabius’s comments, London followed suit, saying it had its own evidence of the use of the odourless, paralysing gas. But the United States remained cautious and said more proof was needed.

“There is no willingness to intervene,” said Obaida al Moufti, spokesman for the Union of Syrian Medical Relief Organizations, which is backed by France and operates covertly in Syria. The organisation estimates some 70 people have been killed by chemical weapons in Syria - small fry compared to the tens of thousands of others who have died since March 2011 when the conflict began.

Paris and London have called for “immediate and unconditional access” to Syria of United Nations investigators - access which has so far been refused.

And a French diplomatic source said there is talk of going to the UN Security Council, where two of the permanent members - Russia and China - have blocked resolutions condemning Assad three times already. However France says Russia is on the same wavelength where chemical weapons are concerned and believes that a “unanimous condemnation would already be very strong”, said the diplomat. The sarin gas confirmation comes as global powers attempt to organise a peace conference on Syria that would bring together members of the regime and opposition in Geneva.

The regime has agreed in principle to participate, but Syria’s main opposition has refused to attend as long as fighters from Iran and the Islamist-militia Hezbollah are fighting in Syria alongside Assad’s forces. “The international community is expecting after all this that the opposition will go to Geneva to accept to talk to Assad. Totally unreal,” said Shehadi.

Ziad Majed, professor at the American University of Paris, said Washington has remained “ambiguous” over whether it wants Assad to stay or leave. “The proof of sarin gas is a way of reminding everyone that he cannot be part of Syria’s future,” he said.

Washington also has painful memories dating back to Feb 2003 when then US Secretary of State Colin Powell brandished a vial at the United Nations supposedly containing Iraqi anthrax, paving the way for the US-led invasion. No stockpiles of chemical, biological or other weapons of mass destruction were ever found. “In some ways, the Syrian people are also paying the price of the war in Iraq and the manipulations at the time,” said Emile Bitar, researcher at France’s Institute of International and Strategic Relations. — AFP

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Putin gambles by taking down strongman

By Alissa de Carbonnel commando raid to detain the man who ran Russia’s most violent big city is one of the boldest gambles in years by President Vladimir Putin to assert control over Dagestan, a region spiralling into organised crime and Islamist insurgency. The mayor of Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala for 15 years, Said Amirov was so powerful - and the Kremlin so determined to show its own muscle - that special forces from Moscow were sent to arrest him with helicopters and armoured personnel carriers. Dagestan, in the spotlight as the place where Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent the first half of 2012, is the main focus of an insurgency by fighters who want to found an Islamic state in Russia’s Caucasus mountains.

By taking down one of his own most feared local strongmen, Putin has made clear that the Kremlin still calls the shots. But he also risks creating a power vacuum, which could prod militants to go on the offensive and gangsters to go to war over turf, less than a year before Russia hosts the winter Olympics on the other side of the mountains. The big fear in the mainly Muslim region is that a mafia-style battle will now erupt over the business and political interests Amirov controlled. “This came as a shock to everyone,” Alexei Malashenko, an expert at the Moscow Carnegie Centre think tank. “To risk this on the eve of the Olympics is dangerous,” he said. “ The Kremlin was tired of dealing with a loyal but unmanageable mayor. He did whatever he wanted ... he ruled a state within a state, and it could not continue any longer.” Russian investigators say Amirov is suspected of murder. His lawyer, Mark Kruter, said Amirov had committed no crime and that his arrest was political revenge by rivals. Rather than trust local authorities to hold the mighty mayor, federal police airlifted him to a secure Moscow jail. Until Saturday, Amirov had seemed untouchable, protected by the Kremlin as the local boss of Putin’s United Russia party. Even the region’s other most power ful man, Dagestan’s newly-appointed

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Kremlin-backed provincial chief, was not informed in advance, finding out the arrest was under way while he was watching a football match: “It was an initiative of the Russian president to carry out a clean up,” Ramazan Abdulatipov said.

Residents of the Capsian Sea city have trouble imagining the mayor behind bars. “Every time I see the latest television news bulletin, I think I’m dreaming,” an accountant at a private company who gave her name as Madina said. “If someone had told me a few days ago this would happen, I would have called him crazy.”

Putin himself rose to power after launching the second of two wars in Chechnya next to Dagestan, and presents himself as the man who restored order in Russia after the chaos that followed the Soviet Union’s collapse.

His main tactic for imposing control over the restive Muslim provinces of the Caucasus has been to provide lavish financial and political backing for handpicked local strongmen, who brook little dissent, wield personal authority over ruthless security forces and maintain business empires.

Dagestan’s economy is about three-quarters subsidised by Moscow. Most people in the region believe the funds go straight into the pockets of local officials who cruise Makhachkala in expensive cars guarded by armed musclemen. In an interview with Reuters at his plush penthouse office a few weeks ago, Amirov boasted he had survived 15 assassination attempts, including one that left him wheelchair-bound in 1993. “Various armed groups wanted to wipe out the mayor, but what can you do? They didn’t succeed. I am stronger,” he said.

Rights groups say police in Dagestan routinely torture their prisoners. But unlike in neighbouring Chechnya, the heavy hand has not broken the back of the insurgency. According to the Caucasus Knot website which tracks the unrest, 67 people were killed and 41 wounded in the first three months of this year. Attacks like a suicide bombing that killed four people in Makhachkala last month are so common residents say they are inured to the violence.

Konstantin Kazenin, a journalist and expert on the North Caucasus, said Amirov ran a “deeply-layered, intricate, totalitarian business empire” whose unravelling could unleash a violent power struggle among his former allies and foes. “For many of the key figures in this empire, Amirov’s position as mayor was key not only to their personal property, but also to their security and freedom,” he said. “So if no special decisions are taken, and no deals are made, the urban economy of Makhachkala may well face great upheaval.”

Federal investigators say Amirov, 59, was arrested with 10 other suspects over the 2011 killing of a senior state detective. They are also looking into accusations of links to drug trafficking and other high-profile crimes for which he could face life in prison. Officials say the murder charges are based on the testimony of the leader of an insurgent group captured after a firefight just last week. However, a spokesman for investigators said the arrest had been under preparation for two years.

Whatever the case’s substance, Amirov’s downfall could not have taken place unless the Kremlin turned against him. “The rules of the game are changing radically,” said Denis Sokolov, head of the RAMCOM Center for Regional Socio-Economic Studies. “It’s a risky game because the mayor of Makhachkala was one of the middleman via whom Moscow ruled the region. People at the top were probably displeased with his methods, but, nevertheless, he was their middleman.” Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Dagestan’s factories have fallen into disrepair. Bribes drive up the cost of state ser vices.

Unemployment is rife. Misery and anger at the local authorities feed the insurgency. “Putin realised that unless measures are taken to improve the quality of governance, the situation countrywide is going to explode.

In Dagestan it is already exploding,” said Ekaterina Sokirianskaya of the International Crisis Group think tank. “The decision was taken in the Kremlin to go after one of the really notorious figures ... If they don’t go after others, it will give the wrong signal that this is just a change in decoration.” — Reuters

Glimmer of hope as Sharif takes over

By Tomasz Janowski akistan’s economy is in its worst shape in nearly a decade and yet there is a sense of hope that the incoming government not only seems to know what is needed to fix it but, for once, may also have enough determination and clout to do it. Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif swept back to power in last month’s election, riding a wave of public anger at rival Pakistan People’s Party’s failure to tackle endemic corruption, power cuts and militant violence. Voters hope that armed with a solid parliamentary majority Sharif, who took office yesterday, has a better shot at fixing the economy than his predecessors, beset by internal strife and strained relations with the powerful military.

Stakes are high not just for Sharif, 63, who won his third chance to lead the 180-million nation largely by making economic revival and fixing government finances the centrepiece of his policy platform.

Economic turnaround is also essential to ensure greater political stability in the nuclear-armed nation, which is a key ally in the US fight against Islamist militancy.

Economists say it will take years to fully revive a longneglected economy starved of power and investment that has seen it slip behind its neighbours including arch rival India. “This is not a country which lives beyond its means. It doesn’t have the means,” says Werner Liepach, country director at Asian Development Bank.

The government must start collecting taxes it is owed and overhaul power companies so they can produce enough electricity and stop draining public funds that have kept them afloat. Less than a million Pakistanis pay income taxes, fiscal deficits run at close to 8 percent of gross domestic product and a big chunk of government revenue is used up subsidising a power sector that covers just over half the country’s needs. Pakistan’s economy will expand 3.5 percent in fiscal 2012/13, the International Monetary Fund says, from a peak of 9 percent in 2004. The rupee, meanwhile, has lost almost 40 percent of its value against the dollar since the last election in 2008. Sagging exports and debt repayments have nearly halved official currency reserves over the past year to $6.5 billion in late May. That is just enough to

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cover five weeks of imports. The ADB estimates that about $500 million flows out of Pakistan every month, meaning that it may not have enough to meet about $5 billion in loan repayments due this year and next.

Economists say Pakistan has vast potential for growth with a location at the crossroads between the Gulf nations, Central Asia, China and India and a young and growing population. But Sharif is also inheriting a country barely in control of its northeastern areas, plagued by militant and sectarian violence. A US drone strike that killed a top militant commander last week further complicates Sharif’s efforts to hold peace talks with the militants.

Yet lenders, economists and ordinary Pakistanis are willing to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt. “The economy was just not on the previous government’s radar,” said Ashfaque Khan, dean of NUST Business School in Islamabad. “But the new government appears very serious about it.” ADB’s Liepach agrees. “If we are talking about whether there is a momentum for reform, I do think there is,” he says. Lenders, rating agencies and commentators also say that Sharif’s economic policy ticks a lot of the right boxes.

There is a promise to revive growth by boosting investment funded by improved tax revenues and subsidy cuts. There is a plan to turn around loss-making stateowned firms including Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Steel Mills and the National Shipping Corporation. There is also a plan to diversify Pakistan’s energy mix to help end 20-hour power cuts and a prom-

ise to bolster business ties with India. Sharif’s team plans to make an emergency cash injection of $5 billion to break a chain of payment arrears that has paralysed the power sector. The money would be raised through the sale of treasury bills.

The administration is also considering taxing heavy electricity users, plugging tax loopholes, cutting the number of ministries and slashing by a third the nondevelopment federal budget.

Sartaj Aziz, set to serve as Sharif’s chief policy adviser, says once reforms are under way the government will discuss a possible loan from the IMF to meet its international obligations. “We’ve encouraged them to develop their own (economic) programme and when they feel ready, we are very eager to work with them,” IMF Deputy Managing Director Nemat Shafik said. Economists warn that time is short, but Aziz says three months should be enough to see the effects of the new policies. Sharif, who was toppled by the military 14 years ago, will be hard pressed for excuses if he fails to deliver. “This is not Japan where we are at the frontiers of economic science,” one international financial analyst said. “The problems that Pakistan is facing are well known and have been already successfully tackled before.” — Reuters

NEWS

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

PHILADELPHIA: Rescue personnel work the scene of a building collapse in downtown Philadelphia yesterday. A four-storey building being demolished collapsed yesterday on the edge of downtown, injuring 12 people and trapping two others, the fire commissioner said. Rescue crews were trying to extricate the two people who were trapped, and the dozen people who were injured were taken to hospitals with minor injuries. — AP

Manning trial shrouded in secrecy, security FORT MEADE: The court-martial of Pfc Bradley Manning, the central figure in a massive leak of government documents, is focused on secrecy and government security. Yet his trial has become a secretive drama that allows the public little insight into what’s going on in the military courtroom. One of the pretrial hearings was closed to the public. Many court documents have been withheld or heavily redacted. Photographers were blocked from getting a good shot of the soldier and even some of Manning’s supporters had to turn their T-shirts inside out. Military law experts say some of it is common for a court-martial, while other restrictions appear tailored to the extraordinary nature of the case.

Manning has garnered an outpouring of support from whistleblowers, activists and others around the world. “I think the judge is very concerned about not turning this trial into a theater, into a spectacle,” said David J R Frakt, a military law expert at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law and a former military prosecutor and defense lawyer.

“I cannot remember a situation where there was such a high degree of civilian interest, people not affiliated with the military, having intense and passionate interest in the outcome of the case.” Manning is charged under federal espionage and computer fraud laws, but the most serious offense the military has accused him of is aiding the enemy, which carries a life sentence. His supporters call him a hero; opponents say he is a traitor for leaking the material the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks.

The trial for the soldier from Crescent, Okla., began Monday under a barrage of heavy restrictions. Manning supporters wearing “truth” T-shirts had to turn them inside out before entering the courtroom. The shirts were made by the Bradley Manning Support Network in early 2012 as an alternative to “Free Bradley Manning” T-shirts banned from early pretrial hearings, spokesman Nathan Fuller said.

The military allowed the shirts Tuesday. Army spokeswoman Col. Michelle Roberts said the earlier decision made “out of a concern for public safety and to remove a potential cause for disturbance among members of the public.” She said leaders assessed the situation and decid-

ed they were OK. Since the case began, reporters covering hearings have been asked to sign a document saying they would withhold the names of spokespeople on-site because the military said some people directly involved in the case had received death threats.

The Associated Press signed the document to be allowed to cover the trial, but the news organization is protesting it. Photographers looking to snap pictures of Manning Monday missed the soldier leaving the courtroom because he was blocked by military police. On Tuesday, Manning was not surrounded. The military also relaxed rules Tuesday about interviewing spectators outside the courtroom. Courts-martial don’t have a roadmap for guaranteeing public access like civilian courts, military law experts said.

The security in the Manning case appears determined to minimize distractions and maintain law-and-order even if that means throwing up roadblocks to a public accustomed to transparency, experts said. “I don’t think it’s good to turn the environs into an armed camp unless it is literally unavoidable,” said Eugene Fidell, who teaches military law at Yale Law School. “People do occasionally act out in courtrooms, both spectators or witnesses or the accused, but I’m sure that the Army knows how to maintain order, and I’m not sure that it’s necessary to do it with as heavy a hand as seems to be implied here.”

Manning, 25, has admitted turning over hundreds of thousands of classified documents. His lawyer has called him a “young, naive but good-intentioned” soldier, but prosecutors say he put secrets directly into the hands of Osama bin Laden. His trial, which is being heard by a judge instead of a jury, is expected to run all summer. Parts of it are expected to be closed. At a pretrial hearing in April, the military judge, Army Col Denise Lind, released written copies of two rulings to reporters. It was the first time since she got the case in February 2012 that she had made her written orders publicly available on a same-day basis.

The lack of public access to rulings and motions is being challenged in federal court by the Center for Constitutional Rights, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

and a handful of journalists. Thirty news organizations, including the AP, plan to file a brief this week supporting the case. In February, the military began releasing Lind’s older rulings amid numerous Freedom of Information Act requests. The court considers some documents so sensitive that they are stored off-site at locations in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. They will remain there, and even any appellate judges would have to travel to locations such as the Central Intelligence Agency to read them.

Philip Cave, a retired Navy judge advocate general, said it’s not uncommon for portions of military trials to be kept away from the public. “Does that automatically mean that there’s a lack of transparency or that there’s kind of hiding the ball going on? I don’t think you can argue that,” said Cave, who is now a military defense lawyer. “Then again,”

he added, “I don’t necessarily believe my government. I do think they over-classify things.” The military released about 550 documents on Tuesday, including a photo of a noose Manning made from a bedsheet while he was being detained in Kuwait shortly after his arrest in May 2010.

The noose was presented as evidence at a hearing in December regarding Manning’s confinement at a Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va, to show why jailers there considered him a suicide threat. For nine months, Manning was held alone in a windowless cell 23 hours a day, sometimes with no clothing. Lind later ruled Manning had been illegally punished and should get 112 days off any prison sentence he receives. Army spokesman George Wright said there was “no specific trigger” for the release of documents, but the military had been working to process as many records as possible. — AP

Hezbollah-backed troops oust rebels from...

Continued from Page 1 Facing determined Hezbollah guerrillas from neighboring Lebanon, who swung the fight Assad’s way, the survivors decided to escape in the night through a corridor that the attackers said they had deliberately left open to encourage flight. Some bodies lay in the street-at least three men, sporting long beards, appeared to have been executed. Qusair lies on a cross-border supply route with Lebanon, and its capture secures an important corridor through the central province of Homs which links Damascus to the coastal heartland of Assad’s minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

Bolstered by his Iranian and Russian backers, Assad’s forces have launched a series of counter-offensives in recent weeks against mainly Sunni Muslim rebels battling to overthrow him and end his minority Alawite family’s four-decade grip on power. A member of a pro-Assad Syrian militia said the military focus may now move to the northern province of Aleppo, which has been largely in rebel hands for the last year.

Assad’s upturn in fortunes could further diminish hopes of concessions at a peace conference the United States and Russia are seeking to convene, with Damascus increasingly confident of success against a ragtag opposition that is short of weapons. “Whoever controls Qusair controls the centre of the country, and whoever controls the centre of the country controls all of Syria,” said Syrian Brigadier-General Yahya Suleiman, speaking to Beirutbased Mayadeen television.

More than 80,000 people have been killed since the Syrian revolt erupted in March 2011, and 1.6 million refugees have fled a conflict which has fuelled sectarian tensions across the Middle East, spilled over into Lebanon and divided world powers. US and Russian officials met the UN-Arab League envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Geneva yesterday to discuss plans for the planned peace conference. Originally set for this month, Russia’s deputy foreign minister said the talks would not take place before July, with some issues still unresolved, including who would take part. Brahimi said the talks may possibly be held next month. The only sticking point was that neither side was ready to attend.

Syrian artillery and aircraft had pounded Qusair in recent days and humanitarian agencies warned earlier this week that as many as 1,500 wounded were trapped in the town. Their fate was not immediately clear. The International Committee of the Red Cross said it hoped to gain access to Qusair to deliver food and medical aid to

civilians. Syrian authorities had told the ICRC this week that its aid workers could enter once military operations were over.

The rebels said in a statement they had pulled out “in face of this huge arsenal and a lack of supplies and the blatant intervention of Hezbollah”. An opposition group called the ‘Qusair Revolution’ posted a statement on Facebook about what it said were the lessons learnt from the battle, accusing political exiles of ignoring them and some militia chiefs of worrying more about money than fighting.

“There are battalion leaders in this revolution whose profession has become profit. They do not move unless they have gotten enough money for their weapons and ammunitions paid for.” A security source with ties to Syrian forces said Assad’s troops had left an escape route into nearby Debaa and the Lebanese border town of Arsal to encourage rebel fighters to quit Qusair, once home to 30,000 people. “We are heading now to crush Debaa,” a Syrian soldier said on the streets of Qusair, which were empty of civilians.

On the road into Qusair, street after street lay in ruins, windows blown out, facades crumbled and the trees all blackened and burnt. The dome of the local mosque was damaged by rocket fire and the walls of a church smashed open. A rebel commander in contact with the brigades that retreated said the decision to withdraw was taken after a day of rocket fire from the Syrian army and Hezbollah that “levelled what had remained” of Qusair. In the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Beirut, residents set off celebratory fireworks as news of Qusair’s fall spread.

In the Lebanese town of Qasr close to Syria, crowds waved Hezbollah and Syrian flags in jubilation. Locals distributed sweets to mark the rebel defeat just across the border. A senior Lebanese political source close to Hezbollah said the victory was a strategic success that would boost the morale of Assad’s allies. He suggested that Hezbollah would not necessarily intervene directly in other battles but might offer indirect help to the Syrian army. “The battle will continue in all regions, but I believe Aleppo (will be) first,” he said.

Underlining a possible further spillover of the conflict into Lebanon, the commander of the rebel Free Syria Army warned that it might target Hezbollah on its home turf. “Hezbollah fighters are invading Syrian territory. And when they continue to do that and the Lebanese authorities don’t take any action to stop them coming to Syria, I think we are allowed to fight Hezbollah fighters inside (Lebanese) territory,” Salim Idriss told the BBC.— Reuters

FORT MEADE: Army Pfc Bradley Manning (front) is escorted out of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md, after the second day of his court martial. Manning is charged with indirectly aiding the enemy by sending troves of classified material to WikiLeaks. He faces up to life in prison. — AP

Hashem questions Interior Minister amid...

Continued from Page 1 deported because the ministry cannot find seats on outgoing flights, particularly on Kuwait Airways.

According to the Interior Ministry, more than 2,000 expats have been arrested and later deported in the past seven weeks for committing grave traffic offences like over speeding, running the red traffic light and using private cars to carry passengers. In addition, thousands others have been arrested for not having legal residence permits and a majority of those are expected to be deported. The campaigns come amid reports that the Interior and Social Affairs and Labor ministries are expected to announce an amnesty for illegal expatriates who will be allowed to leave without preconditions.

In a related development, the National Assembly legal and legislative committee yesterday decided to invite the Interior Minister to a meeting next Tuesday to discuss the grilling against him filed by MPs Youssef Al-Zalzalah and Hashem. Last week, the Assembly agreed overwhelmingly to refer the grilling to the committee to study if it contained elements that breach the constitution as the Interior Minister has told MPs. Head of the committee MP Maasouma Al-Mubarak

said the committee will ask the minister about the memorandum he said he will send to the committee to prove that the grilling is unconstitutional. Mubarak also said the committee will meet with the two MPs on June 16, to hear their views on the issue and will complete its report before the one-month period given by the Assembly.

In another development, MP Adel Al-Khorafi has sent a series of questions to Communications Minister Salem Al-Othaina about the deal that Kuwait Airways has announced recently for buying 25 Airbus aircraft and leasing another 22 aircraft. Khorafi said the value of the purchase deal is around $4 billion. Khorafi inquired from the minister about the final value of the deal with the price of each plane separately, and also demanded a copy of the contract.

He also inquired about the first payment Kuwait Airways will make and if there is any penalty clause that the airline is required to pay in case it decided to scrap the contract in future for any reason. He also asked if the leased planes will be taken from Airbus. Khorafi wants to know names of the team that held the negotiations for the deal and inquired if Airbus has any local agent and if yes- what would be his commission. Khorafi also inquired if the state will finance the deal.

Saudi bans Viber Continued from Page 1 asked to tell CITC if they were able to monitor or block such applications. CITC did not respond to requests for comment yesterday or when the earlier announcement was made in March. Earlier this year, the Interior Ministry’s spokesman complained that Islamist militants were taking advantage of social media to foment unrest. However, in a separate interview with Reuters he argued against imposing stricter controls.

Mobile penetration was 188 percent by the end of 2012, CITC data shows. Saudi now has 15.8 million Internet subscribers and the average user watches three times as many online videos per day as counterparts in the United States, according to YouTube. Conventional international calls and texts are a lucrative earner for telecom operators in Saudi Arabia, which hosts around nine million expatriates. These foreign workers are increasingly using Internetbased applications such as Viber to communicate with relatives in other countries, analysts say. — Reuters

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

S P ORTS

Arshavin leaving Arsenal LONDON: Russian forward Andrei Arshavin will leave Arsenal when his current deal expires at the end of June, the Premier League club said yesterday. Brazilian midfielder Denilson, on loan at his boyhood club Sao Paulo for the past two seasons, and French defender Sebastien Squillaci are also being allowed to leave the north London club at the end of their contracts.

Arshavin made 144 appearances for Arsenal, scoring 31 goals over five seasons including four against Liverpool at Anfield in 2009, but his first team chances have been limited of late.

The 32-year-old former Russia captain joined from Zenit St Petersburg, with whom he spent part of last year on loan, for 15 million pounds ($23.09 million) in 2009 after an impressive Euro 2008 campaign. Squillaci has been at Arsenal for three years, after joining from Sevilla in 2010. A regular in his first season, he has rarely featured since.—Reuters

McLaren supports Perez

Lee seeks track switch

LONDON: McLaren say they are ‘fully behind’ Sergio Perez even if the Mexican’s aggressive driving style has angered some of his Formula One rivals this season.

Lotus’s Kimi Raikkonen, an ex-McLaren driver himself, called Perez an idiot and suggested the youngster needed a punch in the face after a collision between the two at last month’s Monaco Grand Prix. Perez’s team mate Jenson Button spoke of dangerous and ‘dirty’ driving that the 2009 world champion said could have ended the race for both of them after they banged wheels at the Bahrain Grand Prix in April.

McLaren sporting director Sam Michael told reporters yesterday, however, that the team were happy with the 23-year-old’s behavior.

“Ultimately he’s a racing driver and he’s just racing. The moves that he did (in Monaco) are all moves that have been done by all of those other drivers at some point in their careers,” said the Australian. “It was obviously hard racing, but that’s what Formula One is meant to be about.

“He’s a talented driver and the way that he’s racing at the moment, McLaren support what he’s doing,” continued Michael. “We’re fully behind Checo as long as he keeps developing.”—Reuters

SEOUL: Double Olympic short-track speed skating gold medallist Lee Jung-su of South Korea will switch to the long track to keep his 2014 Sochi Games dreams alive, his coach said yesterday.

The 23-year-old, who won the 1,000 and 1,500 metres gold in Vancouver, failed to make the national short track team for Sochi.

“Lee Jung-su said he would like to take on a new challenge,” his coach, Mo Ji-soo, was quoted as saying by Korea’s Yonhap news agency. “Our team is more than willing to offer him full support.”

Mo hoped Lee, who also has three world championship titles to his credit, would be able to make a seamless transition. “We haven’t yet timed Lee (on the long track),” Mo said. “But once his training picks up the pace, I think he should be able to match current national team speed skaters.”—Reuters

Red Sox rout Rangers BOSTON: Jackie Bradley Jr. hit his first career homer and had three RBIs as the Boston Red Sox set season highs for hits and runs in a 175 rout of the Texas Rangers on Tuesday.

Stephen Drew, Mike Carp and Jarrod Saltalamacchia also homered for the Red Sox, who scored at least one run in every inning through the first seven and hit for the cycle as a team in the second. The Red Sox finished with 19 hits, eight of them doubles.

It was an abundance of run support for Ryan Dempster (3-6), who ended a streak of five winless starts with his first victory in a month. He allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings. David Ortiz had three RBIs, driving in one run with a double in the first and then a pair while legging out a rare triple during Boston’s six-run second. Carp also drove in three runs as the Red Sox ended a five-game losing streak against the Rangers.

Five of Boston’s six hits in the second were for extra bases and the Red Sox chased Justin Grimm (5-4) after 60 pitches. The Texas rookie allowed eight runs, all earned, in 1 2-3 innings.

TIGERS 10, RAYS 1 In Detroit, Prince Fielder homered and drove in four runs as Detroit handed Matt Moore his first loss of the season with a victory over Tampa Bay. Fielder also hit a two-run single that capped a four-run second inning for the Tigers. Moore (8-1) got only six outs while allowing six runs, seven hits and six walks. He was pitching on three days’ rest after his previous start in Cleveland was limited to one inning because of rain.

Anibal Sanchez (6-5) allowed a run and four hits in seven innings. He struck out nine with one walk. Omar Infante homered and had three RBIs for Detroit, which won for the second time in seven games. It was Tampa Bay’s second loss in nine.

ANGELS 4, CUBS 3 In Anaheim, Albert Pujols hit a go-ahead homer in the eighth inning and drove in three runs, leading Los Angeles to a victory over Chicago. Pujols’ 484th career homer and ninth of the season not only got Jered Weaver off the hook, but also third baseman Alberto Callaspo, whose third-inning error led to a pair of unearned runs. Cubs starter Scott Feldman took a 3-1 lead into the seventh before former Texas Rangers teammate Josh Hamilton led off with a double and scored on Howie Kendrick’s third single of the game.

Robert Coello (2-1) pitched a scoreless eighth and Ernesto Frieri got his 13th save.

Carlos Villanueva (1-4) took the loss.

YANKEES 4, INDIANS 3 In New York, David Phelps allowed only an infield single in six shutout innings and got

home run help from Mark Teixeira as New York beat Cleveland. Teixeira hit his second homer since coming off the disabled list last Friday. His three-run shot made it 4-0 in the third inning, and came a day after he lined a grand slam against Cleveland.

Drew Stubbs hit a three-run homer for the Indians in the seventh off Joba Chamberlain.

Phelps (4-3) wound up fanning seven with four walks. Scott Kazmir (3-3) breezed through the first two innings, then gave up five straight hits to open the third. Teixeira capped the burst with his homer.

TWINS 3, ROYALS 0 In Kansas City, Ryan Doumit homered and drove in a pair of runs, helping Minnesota send Kansas City to its club-record 11th straight home loss. Samuel Deduno (2-1) allowed four hits over six-plus innings for the Twins, who have rebounded nicely from a 10game losing streak to win eight of their last 10. While the Twins have soared, the Royals have lost 22 of their last 28 games. The way Kansas City has been hitting lately, the game was basically decided when Doumit went deep off Luis Mendoza (1-3) leading off the fourth inning. Glen Perkins pitched a perfect ninth for his 12th save.

MARINERS 7, WHITE SOX 4 In Seattle, Raul Ibanez hit a two-run homer and a two-run double in his first two at-bats, and Felix Hernandez pitched with a comfortable lead as Seattle handed Chicago its eighth straight loss. Seattle scored three times in the first inning and three times in the third to give Hernandez (7-4) a cushion on a night when he wasn’t at his best early.

Hernandez eventually found a groove and he ended up pitching into the eighth inning to win his second straight start.

The anticipated matchup between former Cy Young Award winners Hernandez and Jake Peavy (6-4) never materialized into a pitching showdown. Peavy was knocked around for six earned runs and seven hits in just 2 1-3 innings before leaving with an injury to his ribs.

ORIOLES 4, ASTROS 1 In Houston, Danny Valencia homered, Chris Tillman threw seven solid innings and Baltimore ended Houston’s six-game winning streak. Brandon Barnes had a solo homer in the sixth for the Astros, who came in with the longest winning active streak in the majors.

Tillman (5-3) allowed four hits and a run, and tied a career high with eight strikeouts in seven innings. Jim Johnson struck out two in a scoreless ninth for his 19th save. Houston starter Lucas Harrell (4-7) yielded five hits and two runs - one earned - with a season-high six strikeouts in seven innings.—AP

BOSTON: David Murphy No. 7 of the Texas Rangers, usually an outfielder, throws in relief in the 8th inning against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. —AFP

Sooners clinch 2nd NCAA title OKLAHOMA CITY: With a loaded lineup and the returning national player of the year, Oklahoma breezed through its softball season in dominant fashion.

If it seemed easy at times, it was because the Sooners knew how good they were and didn’t mind showing it. Keilani Ricketts homered and drove in four runs, Michelle Gascoigne pitched a three-hit shutout and the top-seeded Sooners won the NCAA softball championship on Tuesday night, beating Tennessee 4-0 in Game 2 of the Women’s College World Series finals.

Anything less would have been a disappointment. “We knew that we were the favorite all year, and it was cool just because we weren’t able to feel any of that pressure because we were able to go out there and have fun with each other,” said Ricketts, who repeated as national player of the year.

Ricketts drove a 2-1 pitch from Ivy Renfroe (22-5) halfway up the right-field bleachers for a three-run home run in the third inning and tacked on an RBI groundout in the seventh.

Ricketts got the night off in the circle after throwing a career-high 12 innings in Game 1

and moving to 35-1 on the season, but that just put the other half of her well-rounded game on display. She hit her 15th home run of the season and pushed her RBI total to 60.

Seventh-seeded Tennessee (52-12) managed just three singles against Gascoigne (193), who struck out 12 with no walks.

Ricketts, who was the designated player, was the first one charging out of the dugout when Gascoigne struck out pinch-hitter Lexi Overstreet looking to wrap up the Sooners’ second national championship.

Oklahoma (57-4) also won it all in 2000 and was the runner-up to Alabama last season, squandering a 3-0 lead in the finale of the best-of-three series.

“After last year’s national championship game, it definitely gave us one of the most painful feelings I’m sure all of us have ever felt,” said Ricketts, who was chosen as the most outstanding player of the World Series.

“And we just accepted the fact that God didn’t want us to win it that year and it wasn’t our time. “That just gave us so much drive and determination to get back to this moment.”—AP

LOS ANGELES: Jesus Guzman No. 15 of the San Diego Padres slides under catcher Tim Federowicz No. 18 of the Los Angeles Dodgers to score a run as Federowicz jumps for a high throw in the fourth inning at Dodger Stadium.—AFP

Dodgers rally to beat Padres LOS ANGELES: Yasiel Puig homered twice and drove in five runs in his second major league game, helping the Los Angeles Dodgers rally for a 9-7 victory over the San Diego Padres on Tuesday night.

The 22-year-old Cuban defector made a curtain call from the top of the dugout steps after his second homer, a two-run shot with two outs in the sixth, when the Dodgers scored three runs to snap a 6-all tie. JP Howell (2-0) got the win in relief, allowing one run and two hits in 1 2-3 innings, struck out one and walked none.

Brandon League pitched the ninth to earn his 13th save in 16 chances. Tyson Ross (0-2) gave up three runs and four hits in 2 1-3 innings, struck out four and walked one.

PHILLIES 7, MARLINS 3 In Miami, John Mayberry Jr. hit a grand slam with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning after his tying homer in the 10th as Philadelphia beat Miami.

Mayberry tied it off Steve Cishek in the 10th after Juan Pierre scored on a wild pitch in the top of the inning. Domonic Brown reached on a fielding error by pitcher Edgar Olmos (0-1) with one out in the 11th and advanced on pinch-hitter Kyle Kendrick’s sacrifice. After Freddy Galvis was intentionally walked, Erik Kratz walked to load the bases. Mayberry followed with a linedrive homer to left. Michael Stutes (1-0) pitched a scoreless inning for the win.

DIAMONDBACKS 7, CARDINALS 6 In St. Louis, Paul Goldschmidt hit a run-scoring single in the 14th inning to lift the Arizona Diamondbacks over the Cardinals for their third win in four games.

Arizona improved to 7-2 in extra innings.

Louis (38-20), which still has the best record in the majors, has lost all four of its extra-inning games this season.

AJ Pollock hit a three-run homer for Arizona, and Willie Bloomquist had four hits in the 4hour, 53-minute game. Josh Collmenter (2-0) earned the win with four innings of scoreless relief. Heath Bell recorded his 10th save in 12 opportunities.

Allen Craig and Shane Robinson homered for St. Louis, which fell to 4-3 on its nine-game homestand. Goldschmidt drove in Gerardo Parra with a one-out, line-drive single up the middle off Victor Marte (0-1), who walked two batters before the winning hit.

BRAVES 5, PIRATES 4 In Atlanta, Andrelton Simmons hit a gameending double off Mark Melancon in the 10th inning, lifting the Braves to a win over the Pirates.

Melancon (1-1) walked Dan Uggla to open the 10th. B.J. Upton struck out after fouling off an attempted sacrifice bunt. Melancon then hit pinch-hitter Reed Johnson with a pitch, bringing Simmons to the plate. Simmons, who had three hits and a walk, sent a long fly ball to the gap in right-center.

Anthony Vavaro (3-0) pitched a perfect 10th.

Four Braves relievers combined to allow one hit in four scoreless innings in the Braves’ fourth straight win. Upton hit a two-run homer for

Atlanta. Pittsburgh’s Gaby Sanchez and Pedro Alvarez also connected.

(4-1) pitched the top of the ninth to get the victory.

ROCKIES 5, REDS 4 In Cincinnati, Troy Tulowitzki hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning - a call changed after the umpires initially ruled fan interference - and the Rockies held on for a victory that ended their streak of six consecutive losses to the Reds.

A fan with a glove in left field reached and grabbed Tulowitzki’s fly ball off Sam LeCure (1-1).

The umpires initially ruled fan interference, but changed the call and awarded Tulowitzki his 13th homer after reviewing video that showed the ball had cleared the wall.

The Reds took a 4-3 lead in the seventh on Edgmer Escalona’s balk for a third-to-first pickoff fake - a play that was outlawed this season. Josh Outman (2-0) fanned Joey Votto and Jay Bruce to end that rally. The Rockies are 2-6 against the Reds over the last two seasons.

INTERLEAGUE GIANTS 2, BLUE JAYS 1 In San Francisco, Tim Lincecum ended a three-start losing streak, Andres Torres hit a tworun homer and the San Francisco Giants beat Melky Cabrera and the Blue Jays.

Cabrera had two hits in his return to AT&T Park with Toronto for the first time since his 50game suspension for a positive testosterone test last Aug. 15.

Lincecum (4-5) allowed Edwin Encarnacion’s first-inning solo home run, then retired the next 14 Blue Jays in order. Coming off his shortest outing of the year of 4 1-3 innings last Wednesday in a 9-6 loss to Oakland, Lincecum allowed three hits and one run, struck out six and walked one in seven impressive innings. The Giants handed Josh Johnson (0-2) a loss in his return from the disabled list.

NATIONALS 3, METS 2 In Washington, Steve Lombardozzi’s sacrifice fly in the ninth gave the Nationals their first lateinning comeback win of the season, capping a two-run rally for a victory over the Mets.

The Nationals won for the first time this season when trailing after six innings. They snapped a two-game skid and moved back to .500 at 2929.

Against closer Bobby Parnell (4-2), Ryan Zimmerman led off the ninth with a double to right-center, barely beating the tag at second, and then advanced to third on a wild pitch.

Adam LaRoche singled Zimmerman home to tie it. Ian Desmond doubled to left-center and Roger Bernadina was intentionally walked to load the bases with none out for Lombardozzi, whose fly ball down the left-field line was more than sufficient to score LaRoche. Tyler Clippard

BREWERS 4, ATHLETICS 3 In Milwaukee, Carlos Gomez scored from first on Yuniesky Betancourt’s line drive to right-center in the bottom of the 10th inning, lifting the Brewers to a victory over the Athletics.

John Axford (2-3) got the win with a scoreless 10th. He retired Yoenis Cespedes, whose first career multihomer game had given the Athletics a 3-0 lead through seven innings, and after walking Jed Lowrie he struck out Josh Donaldson and got Josh Reddick on a flyout.

Pat Neshek (1-1) took over in the bottom of the 10th and retired Ryan Braun on a grounder to third before Aramis Ramirez blooped an 0-2 pitch into short left and was replaced by pinchrunner Jeff Bianchi. Gomez reached on a fielder’s choice and scored with a head-first slide on Betancourt’s line drive.—AP

MLB results/standings NY Yankees 4, Cleveland 3; Washington 3, NY Mets 2; Philadelphia 7, Miami 3 (11 innings); Detroit 10, Tampa Bay 1; Boston 17, Texas 5; Atlanta 5, Pittsburgh 4 (10 innings); Colorado 5, Cincinnati 4; Minnesota 3, Kansas City 0; Milwaukee 4, Oakland 3 (10 innings); Baltimore 4, Houston 1; Arizona 7, St. Louis 6 (14 innings); LA Angels 4, Chicago Cubs 3; Seattle 7, Chicago White Sox 4; LA Dodgers 9, San Diego 7; San Francisco 2, Toronto 1.

American League Eastern Division W L PCT Boston 36 23 .610 Baltimore 33 25 .569 NY Yankees 33 25 .569 Tampa Bay 31 26 .544 Toronto 24 34 .414 Central Division Detroit 31 25 .554 Cleveland 30 28 .517 Minnesota 26 29 .473 Chicago White Sox 24 32 .429 Kansas City 23 32 .418 Western Division Texas 35 22 .614 Oakland 35 25 .583 LA Angels 26 33 .441 Seattle 26 33 .441 Houston 21 38 .356

GB 2.5 2.5 4 11.5

Atlanta Washington Philadelphia NY Mets Miami

2 4.5 7 7.5

St. Louis Cincinnati Pittsburgh Chicago Cubs Milwaukee

1.5 10 10 15

Arizona San Francisco Colorado San Diego LA Dodgers

National League Eastern Division 36 22 .621 29 29 .500 29 30 .492 22 33 .400 16 43 .271 Central Division 38 20 .655 36 23 .610 35 24 .593 23 33 .411 22 35 .386 Western Division 33 25 .569 31 27 .534 31 28 .525 26 32 .448 25 32 .439

7 7.5 12.5 20.5 2.5 3.5 14 15.5 2 2.5 7 7.5

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

S P ORTS

Season that almost wasn’t ends with a bang NEW YORK: The season that almost wasn’t has turned out better than anyone dared expect. The NHL still ranks fourth among North America’s five major professional sports leagues, but don’t look now - hockey is gaining ground again.

TV ratings for the playoffs are through the roof, relatively speaking, thanks to scintillating games and a final four Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Pittsburgh - that any league would love to have.

Last weekend’s Bruins-Penguins matchup handily beat baseball’s timetested game of the week, Red SoxYankees, in a head-to-head matchup nearly 2-to-1 in the desirable 18-49 age demographic, and that was after a lockout-shortened NHL regular season that already saw ratings climb by 18 percent.

Telecasts in a few towns are setting records and even approaching NFL levels.

What were the odds of that happening last winter, when the league’s owners and players squared off across a bargaining table, hell-bent on driving off fans and sacrificing the schedule to labor strife for the second time in less than 10 years - and the third during commission-

er Gary Bettman’s 20 years in charge? Just as improbable, perhaps, is how they got from there to here.

“After the 2004-05 lockout, hockey changed in lots of important ways,” Sam Flood, executive producer for NBC Sports and the man most responsible for the improved TV product, said Tuesday. “It got faster. There was less clutching and grabbing. The stars became stars again.

Our job was figuring out how to showcase those skills, to make them accessible to even the most casual fan.”

Fifteen years ago, Bill Clinton became the first sitting U.S. president to make it down to the rink by taking in a playoff game between the Buffalo Sabres and his hometown Washington Capitals. During a quick interview, Clinton said he was struck by how much faster, rougher and dramatic the game seemed sitting in the stands than looking in on TV. “I explained that’s no surprise,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said then, “since time after time, our research tells us we’ve got the best in-person experience in sports.”

For the longest time, that was hockey’s greatest strength and its greatest

weakness. The NHL played its games in arenas filled to more than 90 percent of capacity, on average, but almost nobody watched it on TV. There was a perception that despite its national footprint, hockey was a regional game; strong where it’s played and barely a blip on the radar screen everywhere else. Even more troubling was research suggesting that among the NHL’s target audience of 70 million fans in the United States and Canada, more than two-thirds quit watching once their favorite team was eliminated.

Compounding the problem was Bettman’s sometimes-haphazard search for a TV partner. ESPN and FOX both took turns, without much success, and hockey appeared doomed to remain a niche sport. Things were so bad when the league threw in with NBC in 2004 that it received no money up-front and instead agreed to only a revenue-sharing deal.

In hindsight that may turn out to be the smartest deal Bettman made. Last year, the NHL renewed with NBC through 2021, this time for a reported $2 billion in rights fees. Based on early returns, both sides have plenty to like about the deal.

NBC needed live sports programming and it’s given the NHL top-shelf treatment in return, borrowing ideas from other sports and coming up with a few innovations of its own. This year’s best launch was a weekly regular-season game between teams - as Flood put it “that really hated each other.”

For the second year in a row, every playoff game is available nationally - what he calls the “March Madness effect” building momentum and retaining more of the “avid” NHL fans that used to depart once their teams did.

Wider screens, high-definition broadcasts, improved audio and slow-motion replays seem tailor-made for hockey, if only because they’ve made the game easier to follow, even for the most casual fans.

For all that, the innovation Flood considers his best is the in-game segment called “Inside the Glass,” which features analyst Pierre McGuire in a section between the benches, updating viewers in real time with information he’s picked up from that unique vantage point.

“It changed the way the game was perceived at home, offering things we’d

never get from an announcer two decks above the ice,” Flood said. “Coaches barking orders at players, players challenging each other - that kind of access is critical.

“It’s one more piece of the puzzle, like what NASCAR was doing with reporters in the pit, giving fans access to a place they weren’t previously allowed. The feedback’s been great,” Flood chuckled.

“People tell us it’s like being part of a secret club.” It’s been one step forward, two steps back for much of Bettman’s reign.

The Winter Classic outdoor games have been a rousing success and the U.S.Canada rivalry at the Vancouver Olympics in 2010 pulled in fans the sport didn’t know it had. On the flip side, the labor stoppages, ambitious expansion into non-traditional hockey towns and shortage of Canadian teams has handicapped growth.

But for the first time in a while, the sport looks up and sees nothing but clear ice ahead. “We can’t control who reaches the finals,” said Flood, the son of a hockey coach and a fair college player himself, “but nobody’s complaining about the way this one worked out.” —AP

Kings defeat Blackhawks

FRANCE: Stage winner Germany’s Tony Martin celebrates on the podium after winning the 32.5 km time-trial of the 65th edition of the Dauphine Criterium cycling race. —AFP

Martin wins fourth stage FRANCE: German rider Tony Martin won the fourth stage of the Criterium du Dauphine while Christopher Froome dealt a blow to Alberto Contador yesterday ahead of the Tour de France this month. Martin completed the 32.5-kilometer time trial from Villars-les-Dombes to Parc des Oiseaux in just under 37 minutes.

“It was my goal to win this time trial but I wasn’t 100 percent sure that I could do it after being down with stomach problems in the past two days,” Martin said. “Fortunately, I recovered on time.

“It was my first long time trial since the Tour of Algarve in February. I enjoyed the course, even though I enjoy even more when it’s a little bit hillier. I’m happy to give Chris Froome some time because we’ll be the main contenders for the time trials at the Tour de France too.”

Rohan Dennis of Australia took the overall lead from David Veilleux of Canada by finishing second, 47 seconds behind Martin.

Froome wound up third, 2:45 ahead of

Contador. A two-time Tour de France winner, Contador was also overtaken by Australian rider Richie Porte, who started two minutes behind him.

“It was not a good day for me”, Contador told France 3 television. “I didn’t have much energy in the legs, but there is still time before my form reaches the top. I hope to be better and better each stage. For the Tour de France, there’s still time. I knew that Chris Froome was superior in time trialling.”

Froome, the runner-up behind Bradley Wiggins at last year’s Tour, climbed to second place in the overall standings, five seconds behind Dennis.

“Today it was a good exercise and a good test for the form,” Froome said. “I had good legs. I don’t know what is Alberto’s strategy. Maybe he keeps some energy for the mountains.”

Today’s fifth stage is a 139-kilometer trek from Gresy-sur-Aix to Valmorel with four climbs. The weeklong race ends on Sunday. —AP

‘Sorry Usain,’ but Gatlin won’t stop trash talking ROME: The way Justin Gatlin sees it, trash talking is the lifeblood of the most glamorous race on the track. And if that doesn’t go down well with Usain Bolt, well so be it.

The American sprinter, who will face Bolt in the 100 meters at the Golden Gala on Thursday, has been touting himself after posting impressive wins in two of the opening Diamond League meets this year.

Gatlin ran 9.97 seconds in Doha, Qatar, and 9.88 in Eugene, Oregon.

Bolt, the world record-holder who has dominated sprinting for the last five years, narrowly won his only 100 this season in a relatively slow 10.09 in the Cayman Islands a month ago.

Bolt acknowledged on Tuesday that Gatlin “has done a lot this season already,” but noted that he saves his biggest talking for the biggest events.

This year’s highlight will be the world championships in Moscow in August.

Gatlin can’t wait that long, although he did concede that he would address the subject as expediently as possible “so as not to ruffle (Bolt’s) feathers.

“You have to get the crowd excited to come see us,” Gatlin said on Wednesday.

“You see us for nine seconds and then we’re off the track and then we’re gone to the next meet, then you see us for another nine seconds and then we’re gone. So this is the only way you’re going to hear what we say, if you read about it. I like talking about it. I like getting into it. I’m sorry. Sorry, Usain.”

Gatlin will be racing Bolt for the first time since last year’s London Olympics final, which was the fastest final in athletics history. Bolt won in 9.63 - 0.05 off his world record from 2009, Yohan Blake took silver

in 9.75, Gatlin grabbed bronze in 9.79 and Tyson Gay was fourth in 9.80.

It was Gatlin’s first major medal since his promising career was derailed in 2006 by a positive drug test that led to a four-year ban. Gatlin was the reigning Olympic champion when he tested positive, having won the 100 at the 2004 Athens Games.

Gatlin has been reviewing video footage of the Olympic final and has pinpointed the last 20 meters as the area where he needs to improve.

“I’m working on the finish of my race,” he said. “(Bolt and Blake) had extraordinary last 20 meters. So I’ve been working on that.”

Bolt leads 3-0 in head-to-head races with Gatlin and the American had two flights canceled before he arrived in Rome.

Still, Gatlin believes he can win.

“If I didn’t think so I would have definitely gone home after the first canceled flight,” Gatlin said. “My season has been going really good, from Beijing to Shanghai to Doha and hopefully I can keep that streak going.”

But Bolt is feeling better after being slowed by a hamstring injury. “You never know what to expect from a guy with the caliber of Usain Bolt,” Gatlin said. “He can run a 10.0 two weeks before then come out running a 9.7. So you just have to prepare for that 9.5 anytime you run against him.”

No matter the result, Gatlin will take something away from this race. “I like racing the top guys. You get a feel, you get a sense of your opponents’ race strategy, how they prepare for races,” he said. “I would love to race Yohan and Tyson more often, as well as Bolt.”—AP

LOS ANGELES: Slava Voynov scored a goal and set up another as the Los Angeles Kings beat Chicago 3-1 in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday, trimming the Blackhawks’ series lead to 2-1.

Jonathan Quick made 19 saves, Justin Williams also scored and Dwight King added an empty-net goal in the defending Stanley Cup champions’ 15th consecutive home victory since March. The Kings have won eight straight home playoff games, dating to last season’s title clincher, and they never trailed while ending the top-seeded Blackhawks’ five-game postseason winning streak. Game 4 is tonight.

Bryan Bickell scored and Corey Crawford stopped 25 shots for the Blackhawks. The Kings had lost five of their previous seven playoff games before getting back to friendly Staples Center and their sellout crowd. Quick also returned to Conn Smythe Trophy form in Game 3, highlighted by a dazzling late save on Bickell, while his lowscoring teammates generated just enough offense to hold off the Blackhawks, who hadn’t lost since Game 4 of the second round.

Jeff Carter set upo two goals during an inspired effort despite the absence of injured linemate Mike Richards, and Voynov had his fourth multipoint game in a prolific postseason.

The Blackhawks matched their playoff low with just 20 shots, but the Presidents’ Trophy winners were one good bounce away from tying the score in the final minutes.

Brandon Saad nearly had an open net after a cross-ice pass from Viktor Stalberg with 5 minutes left, but couldn’t collect the puck.

Moments later, Keith missed a nearbreakaway at the Kings’ blue line when Chicago went offside - and

Quick set off a frenzy in the crowd when he improbably stopped Bickell’s fine chance late.

The Kings played their second straight game without Richards, their leading postseason scorer heading into Game 3. The veteran center has an apparent concussion

goals in their last seven games, coach Darryl Sutter shook up his lines while facing the prospect of a three-game deficit in the conference finals. Slumping center Anze Kopitar, who might be playing with an injury, was moved back to the third line, while Jarret Stoll moved

finished by Williams, who forced Nick Leddy’s turnover before scoring on a pass from Voynov.

Williams scored two goals in the Kings’ victory over San Jose in Game 7 last week, further burnishing his reputation as an elite postseason performer. The two-time Stanley

LOS ANGELES: Brad Richardson No. 15 of the Los Angeles Kings and Brent Seabrook No. 7 of the Chicago Blackhawks skate to the puck in the second period of Game Three of the Western Conference Final during the 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs. —AFP after a big hit from Dave Bolland in the series opener.

Richards’ absence opened a lineup spot for promising rookie Tyler Toffoli, who has three points in the last two games. The 21-year-old AHL rookie of the year got the primary assist on Voynov’s goal.

After the Kings scored just 11

up to the Kings’ nominal top line between Williams and captain Dustin Brown.

Between the line changes and the desperation necessary in such a situation, the Kings came out with a noticeable edge and improved passing. They took the lead just 3:21 in on a strong sequence started and

Cup winner has six goals in the playoffs - four in the past six games after scoring just 11 in the 48-game regular season.

The Blackhawks hadn’t been at Staples Center since both clubs’ season opener Jan. 19, when Chicago spoiled the Kings’ banner-raising ceremony with a 5-2 victory. —AP

Orb 3-1 favorite for Belmont NEW YORK: Kentucky Derby winner Orb is the horse to beat in the Belmont Stakes. Despite finishing fourth behind Oxbow in the Preakness, Orb was made the 3-1 morning-line favorite in a 14horse field entered Wednesday for the final leg of

the Triple Crown. The colt trained by Shug McGaughey drew the No. 5 post position.

Oxbow, who will leave from the No. 7 post for trainer D. Wayne Lukas, was the third betting choice at 5-1. Revolutionary, one of trainer Todd

ELMONT: Exercise rider Jennifer Patterson aboard Kentucky Derby winner Orb (left) walks off the track with trainer Shug McGaughey (right) following a light workout on the track at Belmont Park. —AFP

Pletcher’s record five horses in the field, is the second choice at 9-2. The field is the largest since 1996.

“I think Shug has established his horse as the favorite today, and that’s right,” said Lukas, who has won a record 14 Triple Crown races, including the Belmont four times. “But I think he knows he has to take care of business in getting us out of the way, too.”

Revolutionary did not run in the Preakness after finishing third in the Derby. Pletcher’s other entries for the 11/2-mile Belmont are the filly Unlimited Budget, Overanalyze, Palice Malice and Midnight Taboo. Unlimited Budget, who will be ridden by Rosie Napravnik, will attempt to become the fourth filly to win the Belmont. Pletcher’s Rags to Riches was the most recent to do it in 2007.

Unlimited Budget, the co-fourth choice with Freedom Child at 8-1, won her first four starts before finishing third in the Kentucky Oaks.

“She’s a big strong filly from a physical standpoint, and she will match up well,” Pletcher said.

“My biggest concern is the mile-and-a-half.”

McGaughey said he’s pleased with the draw, which puts his colt closer to the middle of the pack rather than the rail, which proved to be a problem in the Preakness.

“I’m going to strike a line through the Preakness,” McGaughey said. “It just wasn’t our day.

It was Wayne Lukas and Oxbow’s. And Gary Stevens. We’re going to regroup and hopefully you’ll see the right horse here on Saturday.”

Orb, with Joel Rosario aboard, will try to become the first Derby-Belmont winner since Thunder Gulch in 1995. Oxbow seeks to become the first Preakness-Belmont winner since Afleet Alex in 2005.

The field from the rail out is Frac Daddy (Alan Garcia, 30-1), Freedom Child (Luis Saez, 8-1), Overanalyze (John Velazquez, 12-1), Giant Finish (Edgar Prado, 30-1), Orb (Joel Rosario, 3-1), Incognito (Irad Ortiz, Jr., 20-1), Oxbow (Gary Stevens, 5-1), Midnight Taboo (Garrett Gomez, 301), Revolutionary (Javier Castellano, 9-2), Will Take Charge (Jon Court, 20-1), Vyjack (Julien Leparoux, 20-1), Palace Malice (Mike Smith, 15-1), Unlimited Budget (Rosie Napravnik, 8-1), and Golden Soul (Robby Albarado, 10-1). —AP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

S P ORTS

Familiar foes for Kirsten as South Africa face India CARDIFF: Gary Kirsten begins his final stint as South Africa’s coach against former team India in the Champions Trophy opener in Cardiff today.

The last time the two teams played a one-day international, during the 2011 World Cup, Kirsten was on the other side as India’s coach, plotting their eventual title triumph on home soil.

Former South African opener Kirsten left India after the World Cup to take up the job with his home country, leading Graeme Smith’s side to the top of the world rankings in Test cricket.

The final edition of the Champions Trophy will be the popular 45-year-old’s last assignment with South Africa, before he makes away for his deputy Russell Domingo in order to devote time to his family.

South Africa’s one-day captain, AB de Villiers, hoped his side, often ridiculed as chokers for their failure to win major titles, will give the coach a fitting farewell by winning the eightnation tournament.

“It would be nice to give him a good farewell,” said de Villiers. “He’s been a great coach to us. We’ve learnt a lot from him in the few years that he’s been with us.

“He’s more like a mentor on the team. I find it funny calling him coach because no one calls him coach. He’s almost like one of our friends and a mentor kind of guy.”

Kirsten will be up against an almost

new-look Indian squad with just three players-skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina-having played in the World Cup final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai two years ago.

India go into the tournament as the top-ranked one-day side, but have lost five of their last seven internationals against South Africa, including a threewicket defeat in the World Cup in Nagpur.

The Proteas are often regarded as the best side never to have won cricket’s showpiece, the 50-over World Cup, or the World Twenty20, and de Villiers was desperate to set the record straight. “We represent a very proud cricketing nation, and we’d like to make them proud in this tournament.”

But South Africa’s prospects of making a winning start could be hampered if star fast bowler Dale Steyn is ruled out with the side strain that meant he only bowled five overs in a warm-up match against Pakistan. The Proteas have misfired so often in major events that few can recall their victory in the inaugural ICC knockout tournament in Bangladesh in 1998, an event that later became the Champions Trophy.

Dhoni’s men, meanwhile, will look to draw millions of their fans back to onfield cricket issues following the unsavoury spot-fixing scandal in the Indian Premier League that has hogged the media spotlight for the past fortnight.

Photo of the day

Three IPL players have been arrested, while the powerful Indian cricket chief Narayanswamy Srinivasan stepped down temporarily on Sunday after his son-in-law was also accused of spot-fixing.

The Indian team got a boost ahead of the tournament when it received a shield and a cheque of $175,000 from the International Cricket Council for being the top-ranked one-day side at the annual cut-off date of April 1.

“I am very proud of this huge achievement,” Dhoni said. “Being number one brings with it a certain respect for the game itself and for the way in which we play the game and conduct ourselves on the field.” And there was a fresh boost for India when they hammered Champions Trophy-holders Australia by 243 runs in a warm-up match in Cardiff on Tuesday.

Australia were bowled out for just 65 after India, who were 55 for five themselves, saw Dinesh Karthik (146 not out) and Dhoni (91) take them to 308 for six. But India spinner Ravichandran Ashwin warned against reading too much into the extraordinary result.

“It’s a practice game and it is good to get as much as you can out of it from our point of view rather than looking at what the result is,” he said.

“The day after tomorrow (today) this does not matter and we will have to start again.” —AFP

Dhoni under scrutiny for link to sports firm

NEW DELHI: Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s financial association with a sports management firm has come under media scrutiny despite denials that the India captain had any direct stake in the company.

Pragyan Ojha, and Dhoni’s association with the company raises the question of whether he influenced selection to benefit the firm’s clients.

The Dhoni link comes days after the nation’s cricket chief, Narainswamy

Mahendra Singh Dhoni The spotlight turned on Dhoni amid the focus on conflicts of interest among the country’s cricket elite.

The Times of India yesterday reported on Dhoni’s association with Rhiti Sports chairman Arun Pandey, saying the India captain and Rhiti shared stakes in several organizations.

Rhiti Sports manages cricketers Suresh Raina, Ravindra Jadeja and

Srinivasan, temporarily stood down during investigations of an alleged conflict of interest relating to the Indian Premier League spot-fixing scandal.

Though Pandey said Dhoni had a holding in Rhiti Sports for only a limited period, The Times of India reported Dhoni had a direct stake in another company, Rhiti MSD

Alamode, and indirect interests in a few others, all run by Pandey.

“As on date, MSD holds no shareholding in Rhiti Sports Management (P) Ltd,” Pandey said in his statement.

“However, it is made clear that shareholding was allotted to MSD on 22.03.2013 (March 22) only to secure certain old outstandings which were due for more than one year.”

Pandey claimed Dhoni no longer has a share in the firm. “Further, the payments were cleared in April 2013 and the shareholding was transferred back to promoter of the company on 26.04.2013 (April 26),” Pandey said.

The governance of Indian cricket is in the spotlight after allegations of spot-fixing in the IPL led to the arrest of former test cricketer Shantakumaran Sreesanth plus two other players.

The three cricketers are alleged to have given away a set minimum amount of runs per over in IPL games in return for money from illegal bookmakers.

The trail of arrests of bookmakers led to Srinivasan’s son-in-law, Gurunath Meiyappan, a senior figure at the Chennai Super Kings franchise, who was allegedly in touch with actor Vindoo Randhawa, an alleged conduit between bookmakers and players.

Srinivasan gave in to mounting pressure when he agreed to step aside while Meiyappan’s role in spotfixing is investigated.

Randhawa and Meiyappan were granted bail on Tuesday. Sreesanth and Chandila remain in prison while Chavan was granted interim bail until today as he got married last Sunday. —AP

Bangladesh dismayed by Ashraful fixing scandal DHAKA: Bangladesh cricket fans, players and newspapers reacted with shock and dismay yesterday to the tearful confession by former national captain Mohammad Ashraful that he had been involved in match-fixing.

Ashraful, who became the country’s youngest Test centurion in 2001 at the age of 17, on Tuesday apologised for his wrongdoing and said he had detailed his role in fixing to anti-corruption officials from the International Cricket Council (ICC).

The news made the front pages of all Bangladesh’s national newspapers with The Daily Star’s front page showing a photograph of weeping Ashraful next to a headline that read “People’s prince turns pauper”. Another English daily, New Age, ran a story under the headline “The rise and fall of a superstar”.

Faruque Ahmed, the national chief selector when Ashraful was made captain in 2007, said he was the finest cricketer the country had ever pro-

Bangladeshi cricketer Mohammad Ashraful

duced. “He was the first mega-star for Bangladesh cricket and this is very shocking and sad news, especially when he confessed his involvement in corruption,” Ahmed told AFP. A former coach of the the right-handed big-hitter said he could not understand why Ashraful became involved with fixing.

“I am shocked, hurt with his public confession. I knew him for many years.

I did not see any bad element in him when I coached him” when he was a child, Waheedul Gani told AFP. Legions of the cricketers followers also spoke of their disappointment. “I was a wild fan of Ashraful,” Faozul Kabir, a Dhaka University student told AFP. “Now, no matter how important his contribution was, he should get exemplary punishment so that none could dare follow his path in the future to keep the game clean.”

The 28-year-old apologised shortly after he was suspended by the BCB pending a full investigation by the ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU). ACSU has been probing allegations of match-fixing during the Bangladesh Premier League (BPL), a Twenty20 competition, and is expected to report its findings to Bangladesh authorities within a week.

The alleged fixing involves a match between the Dhaka Gladiators and the Chittagong Kings during the second edition of the BPL. Local media have reported that Ashraful was allegedly paid about one million taka ($12,800) to lose the match on February 2. —AFP

Ines Correia performs a stunt at Red Bull Under My Wing with Ines Correia at Rameshwaram, Tamil Nadu India. —www.redbullcontentpool.com

Lions brush aside Force PERTH: The British and Irish Lions began their tour of Australia with a 69-17 drubbing of an inexperienced Western Force yesterday but the gloss was taken off with prop Cian Healy cited for biting and suffering a suspected ankle ligament injury.

Healy will face a hearing in Brisbane on Thursday evening after Force scrumhalf Brett Sheehan accused the Irish loosehead of biting him at a ruck in the 17th minute of the lop-sided clash in Perth.

The citing commissioner was also looking into accusations that scrumhalf Connor Murray stamped on Force centre Ed Stubbs at a ruck.

But despite the discipline problems, Lions coach Warren Gatland said he was pleased with the display as the tourists did not relent, scoring nine tries at Subiaco Oval with their powerful runners making light work of the Super Rugby outfit.

“At times tonight when we got quick quality ball we looked good,” Gatland told reporters. “There are things for us to work on, our shape... there were a good couple of things defensively that we identified that we need to work on but it was pleasing.”

The Force had been criticised for fielding an under-strength 23, which featured seven players who had not played Super Rugby, but the spirited side managed to score two tries of their own and disrupt a couple of lineouts.

Gatland said he would have preferred to face tougher opposition but was pleased that with the form of a number of his players, many of whom were making their first

appearance on the tour.

One of which was captain Brian O’Driscoll, who scored his first try for the Lions 12 years ago in Perth when they beat Western Australia and crossed for two more in a strong display in the centres along with England’s Manu Tuilagi.

Leigh Halfpenny was given the kicking duties over Irish flyhalf Jonny Sexton and the Welsh fullback repaid that vote of confidence with a supreme display with the boot as he slotted all 11 attempts from difficult positions to surely cement a test berth.

Gatland said Sexton was disappointed not to be kicking the goals but the Leinster flyhalf did get the Lions on the scoreboard with the opening try in the 10th minute of an impressive display with ball in hand. The Force had talked about roughing up the Lions before the game but it was the tourists that were accused of foul play when Sheehan told referee Glen Jackson he had been bitten when defending at a ruck near their own try line. The television match official, though, found no evidence against Healy when reviewing the tape, with both coaches offering little insight on the issue.

The Lions regathered after the halt in play with O’Driscoll scoring his first try after switching passes with Wales winger George North, but the game was again stopped for a lengthy period in the 35th minute when Healy screamed out in pain as his leg twisted in the tackle.

“It’s not broken but they think its ligament damage so we will have to wait 24, 48 hours and see what happens

from that,” Gatland said.

After the prop was taken off on a stretcher, English flanker Tom Croft crossed for another score to send the tourists into halftime 27-3 up.

Impressive Irish number eight Jamie Heaslip added another try at the start of the second half before former Wallaby Richard Brown crossed for the Force after avoiding a tackle by Sean O’Brien.

The Lions roared back, though, and Healy’s replacement Mako Vunipola bulldozed over for another five pointer as the replacements came on to test a weary looking home side.

Tommy Bowe, O’Driscoll and Owen Farrell took advantage of a yellow card for Stubbs to score tries in the last 20 minutes with substitute lock Geoff Parling scoring the ninth in the final moments to inflate the scoreboard.

But Lions second row Alun Wyn Jones saw his night end early with the tourists first yellow card of the trip for a ruck infringement.

The Lions next head to Brisbane to take on the Queensland Reds on Saturday at Lang Park, the venue of the first of the three tests against the Wallabies on June 22 with Force coach Michael Foley purring about their talents.

“Their ability to break tackles, particularly Tuilagi and North, stood out,” the former Wallaby hooker said. “Once that momentum starts... they are very, very hard to stop.

Once one-on-one they have that advantage.” —Reuters

AUSTRALIA : Mako Vunipola (center) from the British and Irish Lions rugby team attempts to break a tackle against Western Force during the tour match in Perth. —AFP

19

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

SPORTS

Russian test delays holiday for Portugal

GENK: Belgium Red Devils’ Eden Hazard kicks a ball during a training session of the Belgium national football team ahead of their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification match against Serbia. —AFP

Belgium out to prove they are a top European side BRUSSELS: Belgium will seek to prove visiting Serbian coach Sinisa Mihajlovic right tomorrow with his view that the hosts are among the three strongest soccer nations in Europe. Much-fancied Belgium have not qualified for a major tournament in more than a decade, but lead European World Cup qualifying group A, albeit only on goal difference from Croatia.

The Belgian camp is not short of confidence after an impressive 4-2 friendly victory over the United States last week and the squad were kept busy taking questions about possible club transfers and Mihajlovic’s comment. “Individually, only Germany and Spain are better than us,” was the view of defender Jan Vertonghen. Coach Marc Wilmots sought to downplay comparisons, saying Croatia, fourth in FIFA’s rankings, could say the same thing, with Belgium only 15th.

“Having ambition is good. Germany and Italy go to every World Cup with the goal of reaching the final. That’s the right spirit,” he said. With four matches remaining, a victory would guarantee Belgium at least second place in the group and a likely spot in the European playoffs for the World Cup finals in Brazil. The nine European group winners qualify directly and the eight best runners-up face home-and-away play-offs for the remaining four spots.

Wilmots’s principal headache is an injury to centre back Thomas Vermaelen, who has played in all of Belgium’s round of qualifiers.

Bayern Munich’s Daniel Van Buyten and Zenit St. Petersburg’s Nicolas Lombaerts are

obvious replacements, although Vertonghen could shift across and open up a spot for Sebastien Pocognoli at left back.

A youthful Serbia have only a slim chance of staying in the hunt for a berth in next year’s tournament in Brazil and their hopes of upsetting Belgium have been dented by the absence of several key players through injury and suspension.

Winger Zoran Tosic has a broken foot, forward Filip Djuricic is out with a fractured rib, midfielder Milos Ninkovic pulled out with a muscle injury and versatile Manchester City defender Matija Nastasic is suspended.

Mihajlovic will be tempted to start uncapped striker Aleksandar Mitrovic after the 18-year-old’s impressive form at Partizan Belgrade, where he scored 15 goals in his first professional season to help the Serbian champions to a record sixth successive league title.

Mihajlovic, however, will also expect better defending than in Serbia’s 3-0 rout by Belgium in the reverse fixture, when he criticised captain Branislav Ivanovic for going too far upfield after his team fell behind. Serbia dominated the start of that match, with Ivanovic telling reporters at their training camp that Serbia should have been 2-0 up after an hour.

“The Belgians enjoyed an emphatic win in the end but they didn’t outplay us and we have learned our lessons from the defeat. It’s going to be a tough task to beat a talented Belgium in Brussels but we never lose hope,” the Chelsea defender said.—Reuters

LISBON: Cristiano Ronaldo and his Portugal team mates must avoid going into holiday mode too soon as they round off a long season with a tricky World Cup qualifier against European Group F leaders Russia tomorrow. Sitting third in the group, level on 11 points with secondplaced Israel and a point behind this week’s visitors who have played two games fewer, Portugal cannot afford another below-par performance like last year’s 1-0 defeat in Moscow.

With Ronaldo having been rested in his club Real Madrid’s final two La Liga games, it would be easy for him to be putting his feet up but Portuguese Football Federation vice-president Humberto Coelho is confident the forward is focused on business. “He always gives it all for the national team. Physically, it’s not the best time of the year to play but other players had long seasons too,” Coelho said.

“Russia are comfortably on top, with two games in hand an one point ahead, but we do not intend to drop the goal of reaching the precious second place, which gives us access to the playoff.” Group winners qualify for next year’s World Cup finals in Brazil, while the eight best runners-up will play off over two legs for the remaining four places.

While the Portugal players are being urged to wait a few more days before enjoying some relaxation, some of Russia’s were shown by Russian media last week to be smoking and drinking together on a night out.

Portuguese media picked up on it widely and when they asked striker Hugo Almeida what he made of the footage, he was pretty sympathetic.

“Sometimes it’s important to

PORTUGAL : Portuguese defender Bruno Alves (center) is teased by teammates after missing to return a ball during a training session. Portugal is holding a training camp in preparation for their upcoming WC 2014 qualifier football match against Russia. —AFP unwind at the end of a long season, after so much effort and constant psychological pressure,” he said.

Portugal coach Paulo Bento said that as well as end-of-season fatigue, another issue making preparations difficult was the fact his players were scattered around Europe with their clubs while most of the Russians play in their domestic league.

“We have players spread around many championships so it’s more difficult for us to prepare,” he said. “It’s a handicap but not an excuse.”

Only seven of Portugal’s 25man squad played for a club of their home nation this season.

Centre back Pepe is suspended for the game at the Luz stadium (1945 GMT) while Ronaldo, Nani and Fabio Coentrao, three of the country’s key performers, are all racing to recover from small knocks.

Bento’s side are especially keen to qualify for the World Cup as it is being held in fellow Portuguese-speaking Brazil and know that since they are behind Israel on goal difference with both having played six games, they must avoid any more slipups. “We have to take (the) initiative and command the match for most of the time,” Bento said. “We have no margin of error given the mistakes (we

have already made).” Russia coach Fabio Capello, who will be without injured forward Alexander Kokorin, hailed his team’s good start to the qualifying campaign but said the job was far from done.

“We started well and left our rivals behind. But the qualifying tournament is a long way to go and we have no right to relax until we win our place in the World Cup finals,” the Italian told the Rossiiskaya Gazeta newspaper. “We have played just four matches (out of 10) and the most serious clashes are still ahead. I expect tough opposition in every one of the remaining matches.” —Reuters

Czechs plot Italy ambush PRAGUE: The Czech Republic hope a rousing performance against leaders Italy tomorrow can cheer up a nation hit by serious floods and re-energise their faltering push for World Cup qualification.

Michal Bilek’s side complicated their World Cup hopes after drawing against Bulgaria and losing to Denmark in their last two home games with a 3-0 win in Armenia in March at least keeping them third in Group B. Friday’s match in Prague is expected to go ahead despite floods that have left swathes of the country submerged and threatened parts of the capital’s historic centre.

“We will try to raise the spirit of the people by beating Italy,” goalkeeper Petr Cech told a Czech newspaper. Euro 2012 runners-

up Italy lead the group with 13 points from five games, ahead of Bulgaria on 10 from six and the Czech Republic with eight points from five matches with five more to play.

The top side qualify directly for Brazil 2014 with the runners-up facing a playoff.

“It will not be easy but it all depends on us,” Cech added. “A victory would put us back in the running for qualification for Brazil but one point would also keep us in the hunt. A loss would make things extremely complicated.”

One factor for the Czech team will be whether playmaker Tomas Rosicky can put in a full 90 minutes. The diminutive midfielder spent much of the year injured but came on strong at the end of the season for his English club side Arsenal.

Rosicky’s skills will mean nothing if the Czechs continue to struggle in front of goal with only six goals scored in their five matches so far.

Italy, who have no real surprises in their squad, have knocked in 12 goals in their five matches but are taking nothing for granted in Prague before they head off to the Confederations Cup in Brazil.

“The Czechs are one of those teams you have to go out and beat because they don’t give you anything,” goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon told reporters. “You play a below-par game then you risk losing, if you play only normally then you might be able to grab a point but we want to play a great game to increase our lead at the top of the group.”—Reuters

Martinez inks deal with Everton

Cristiano Ronaldo

Mourinho: Ronaldo thought he knew it all MADRID: Self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho had only one problem with Cristiano Ronaldo when he coached him at Real Madrid-he thought the world’s most expensive player was a bit of a know-it-all.

Ronaldo joined Real from Manchester United for around 90 million euros ($118 million) in 2009 and took his goalscoring exploits to new heights under Mourinho, who left Real Madrid to rejoin Chelsea as manager earlier this week.

Asked in an interview with Spanish television show Punto Pelota why his relationship with Ronaldo had broken down towards the end of last season, Mourinho said the player had not taken criticism well. “I had only one problem with him, very simple, very basic, which was when a coach criticises a player from a tactical viewpoint trying to improve what in my view could have been improved,” he added. “And at that moment he didn’t take it very well because maybe he thinks he knows everything and the coach cannot help him to develop more.

“Cristiano has had three fantastic seasons with me, I don’t know if they were the best of his career because he had some fantastic moments with Manchester United. “I think we created a fantastic situation for him tactically in which he could express all his potential and turn that into records and goals.”

Real’s failure to win major silverware last season and reports of division in the dressing room have prompted speculation Ronaldo, whose contract runs until June 2015, may be seeking a move away from the Spanish capital.

Club President Florentino Perez has said the 28-year-old would stay and help Real win the 10th European crown they have been chasing since their last continental success in 2002.

“Cristiano Ronaldo is priceless,” Perez, who was returned unopposed for another four-year term this week, told an Internet chat organised by El Mundo newspaper on Tuesday. “We will do it (win the 10th European title),” he added.

“And Cristiano will score a goal in the final.”—Reuters

LONDON: Everton named Roberto Martinez as their new manager yesterday with the former Wigan Athletic boss pledging to bring Champions League football to the Premier League club.

Martinez, who has forged a reputation for making the best of limited resources and playing attractive football, has signed a fouryear contract to succeed David Moyes who has taken over from the retired Alex Ferguson at Manchester United.

“It is a real, real special day to come to Everton Football Club and I have this feeling already of excitement, of honor,” Martinez told a news conference at Goodison Park.

The Spaniard is likely to bring a fresh approach to the Merseyside club who are used to Moyes’s more pragmatic style.

Everton came sixth last season and, according to chairman Bill Kenwright, Martinez has set his sights even higher.

“When David (Moyes) first came to see me 11 years ago, we were in a bad state, his first words were: ‘You’re not going down’.

Roberto, almost his first words were: ‘I’ll get you in the Champions League’,” Kenwright told the news conference.

“And that is extraordinary from a man who doesn’t know much about the football club from the inside but (he) had obviously studied the club, looked at what we had been doing over the last few years, has obviously recognised the massive achievement David Moyes has made.”

Martinez arrives at Everton fresh from leading Wigan to FA Cup glory and his new club will hope he can do the same for them after Moyes failed to land a trophy in his 11 years at the helm.

Wigan upset 2012 Premier League champions Manchester City in last month’s FA Cup final at Wembley but Martinez could not prevent them being relegated from the top flight days later.

Despite habitually being involved in a relegation battle with Wigan, Martinez bucked

the trend of struggling coaches by sticking to his principles and playing passing football.

After spending most of his playing days in Britain, Martinez began his managerial career at another of his former clubs Swansea City.

He won plaudits for their free-flowing style of play and guided the Welsh side to the League One (third division) title in his first full season in charge.

He joined Wigan in 2009 replacing Steve Bruce, and had kept them up against the odds

Roberto Martinez

every year until this season.

Martinez was heavily linked with a move to Liverpool last year and was even photographed talking publicly with the club’s owner John W Henry but has now joined their rivals Everton.

It had been an easy decision, Martinez said.

“It’s simple, it came in a natural way,” he said.

“After four seasons it was the right time (to move) and after meeting the chairman I knew Everton was the right football club.”-Reuters

Dhoni under scrutiny for link to sports firm

Martin wins fourth stage

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

18

17

‘Sorry Usain,’ but Gatlin won’t stop trash talking

Page 17

PARIS: Russia’s Maria Sharapova celebrates scoring against Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic in their quarter-final match at the French Open tennis tournament. — AP

Sharapova survives horror show Azarenka reaches French Open semis PARIS: Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka set up a mouthwatering French Open semi-final yesterday with hard-fought wins in their quarter-finals.

The defending champion Russian, seeded second this year, survived a nightmare start to hold on to her crown for at least another day with a 0-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over tough Jelena Jankovic in a compelling quarter-final tie.

World number three Azarenka, meanwhile, reached her first semi-final at Roland Garros when she defeated friend and former doubles partner, Maria Kirilenko of Russia, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2.

Sharapova and Azarenka have played each other 12 times with the Belarusian 7-5 ahead, although it will be their first meeting this year.

The 26-year-old Russian was all over the place for a set and 30 minutes in her match against Jankovic, but with the Roland Garros exit door beckoning, she steadied her nerves enough to apply the firepower needed to derail the Serb’s brave challenge.

“She played such a great match from the beginning and was very aggressive,” Sharapova said of her opponent. “I knew after

the first set that I had to change things around. I just had to erase the chapter and move forward. I still felt I was in the match and I broke her in the first game (of the second).

In what was a matchup of two former world number ones, Jankovic, who has clawed her way back into the world top 20 this year, got off to the prefect start with three straight breaks of serve to take the first set 6-0 in just 29 minutes.

It was just the fourth time in her Grand Slam career that Sharapova had lost a set 6-0, but she could have no complaints, having committed 20 unforced errors to just two from Jankovic.

The Russian started to find some consistency with her groundstrokes at the start of the second set and she also got help from her opponent, who served up her first double fault of the match on break point.

The match suddenly turned on its head with Sharapova dominating rallies with her heavier firepower and she eased out into a 5-1 lead before sealing the win three games later.

Australian Open winner Azarenka hadn’t faced anyone inside the top 30 en route to the last eight and that lack of sharpness

was evident immediately with four breaks in the first four games.

The first set lasted a marathon 76 minutes, but once 23-yearold Azarenka had pocketed that, it was clear that Kirilenko, who needed a medical timeout after the seventh game, simply lacked the armoury to upset her bigger and stronger opponent.

The Belarusian breezed through the second set in half that time, breaking for a 3-1 lead when Kirilenko, who she had also beaten for the bronze medal at the London Olympics last year, served up a fifth double fault of the match.

Azarenka went to two match points in the eighth game and secured victory when Kirilenko hit a forehand long.

“Maria is such a great competitor and it was a really tough start,” said Azarenka. “But I am really happy to get through to my first semi-final in Paris at the third time of asking.”

The women’s semi-finals will be held today with top seed Serena Williams taking on last year’s runner-up Sara Errani in the other match.

Sharapova’s early career struggles on the red clay at Roland Garros are well documented and she once described her move-

Kuwait’s women footballers hope for more local support AMMAN: With the men’s game being the most watched sporting event on earth, international competitive football was for many years inaccessible to women. It was only in 1991 that women were introduced to the fold, with the FIFA Women’s World Cup held for the first time in China.

In the Gulf region, however, steps to introduce women to the foray are recent and funding and attention, for the time being, are somewhat lacking. It is only this year that Kuwait formed its own national team after being approved as a member nation of the women’s international governing body.

The steps were preceded by a local women’s football body, headed and administered by women, but despite this, the general consensus remains to oppose these efforts, attributing these views to the sport being one of contact and being too ‘rough’ for women.

Women football enthusiasts have battled fiercely for the right and now prepare to enter their first Asian nations’ cup qualifiers, content with just the ability to participate as a first step. Shahad Al-Dakheel, 18, says she started playing football at a young age and developed her own skills at school ahead of the achievement of being selected to represent her country by head coach Fahad Kamil.

It was after this, that Al-Dakheel started facing difficulties from the surrounding society, who looked down on her as a player. However, she was supported by her parents, who gave her the confidence to carry on.

“At the beginning it was kind of scary as I was a youngster playing in the midst of older players. But I soon adapted and was able to improve myself through contact and training with those players,” she said. “Developing confidence can only be achieved

Kuwait’s women national team through commitment to continuous training in a family spirit with my teammates.”

Marwa BuRashid, who has been a national team member for a year and a half, joined local women’s club Salwa SC five years ago, and despite the view of society, says she was also backed by her family.

She views that the sport for women needs to be encouraged locally by society and the media, as the team aims to achieve something in the name of their country. “There is a sense of apprehension and hesitation around the camp, but we are confident and have high spirits of representing Kuwait to the best of our ability,” she said.

The team recently conducted several friendlies and have gained some experience, and BuRashid hopes the squad will gain even more from their clashes with their more-experienced Asian counterparts.

“We will only be able to overcome this fear with international competitive participations, and we will only be able to learn from our mistakes after losing. It is after this that we will be able to develop and improve,” she added. “Our participation is in itself a dream come true. To win is also a dream, which will come true one day, maybe not in this tournament.

But we will continue to work hard to achieve this dream I do not see is so far off.” — KUNA

ment on the slippery surface as being “like a cow on ice.”

But the learning process was always in operation and last year she took everyone by surprise by winning the title to complete her Grand Slam set.

In the past Azarenka has been similarly uneasy on clay, saying last year that although she was not married to the surface, she was trying to get to know and understand it better.

Asked after her 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 quarter-final win over Maria Kirilenko if things had improved she replied: “Well I don’t have a ring on my finger yet.

“But I feel like we made a step forward. We are moving in together. That kind of relationship is moving forward and see what happens after.”

Three years younger than Sharapova at 23, Australian Open champion Azarenka enjoys a winning 7-5 head-to-head record against the Russian, although they have not played this year.

Their last encounter on clay was in Stuttgart last year when Sharapova won 6-1, 6-4. Their semi-final, Azarenka said would be “intense”.—AFP

Djokovic and Nadal set-up blockbuster PARIS: World number one Novak Djokovic and seven-time champion Rafael Nadal setup a French Open semi-final blockbuster yesterday after straight-sets wins in their lasteight ties. Top seed Djokovic reached his 12th consecutive Grand Slam semi-final when he defeated gutsy German Tommy Haas 6-3, 7-6 (7/5), 7-5.

Nadal, the second seed, cruised into the last-four with a routine 6-2, 6-3, 6-1 win over Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland as he stepped up his bid to become the first man to win the same Grand Slam title eight times.

Friday’s clash will be the 35th meeting between the two with Nadal holding a 12-3 lead on clay. But Djokovic beat the Spaniard in the Monte Carlo Masters final in April in their most recent meeting.

“I will have to raise my game. Nadal is in great form but the win in Monte Carlo has given me great confidence. I will be positive,” said Djokovic, who lost the 2012 Paris final to Nadal. Nadal’s win over Wawrinka took his Roland Garros career record to 57-1. “I think today I played my best match of this year at the tournament. I was very happy with the conditions on a court that is so emotional for me,” said Nadal who now boasts a 10-0 record against Wawrinka.

“Stan was a little bit tired after his incredible match against Richard (Gasquet) which I thought was the best match of the tournament so far.”

Today’s quarter-final proved a match too far for the 35-year-old Haas who was bidding

to become the oldest semi-finalist at a major since Andre Agassi at the 2005 US Open.

Djokovic, 26, reeled off breaks in the seventh and ninth games that gave him the first set in which Haas won just a single point on the Serb’s serve.

Haas held on for a second set tie-break but Djokovic powered through that as well, finishing it off with a trademark, deep, booming forehand.

The German, a former world number two whose career has been decimated by a series of injuries, slipped 2-1 down in the third before he converted his first break point to level at 2-2.

Back came Djokovic, breaking again for a 4-3 lead before Haas saved a match point in the ninth game. He refused to buckle, breaking Djokovic a further time as he served for the match to level at 5-5.

But the Serb wasn’t to be denied taking victory on his second match point. Wawrinka was far from fresh for his maiden French Open quarter-final.

He had needed treatement for a leg strain during his five-set marathon win over Richard Gasquet in the fourth round when he came back from two sets down.

Nadal broke the Swiss player’s serve in the opening game and then again in the fifth to take the first set 6-2. The champion then jumped out into a 3-1 lead with another break early in the second set before Wawrinka had a glimmer of hope with a break back to get to 3-3. — AFP

Business

Nikkei plunge stokes fears Tokyo market rally is over Page 22 India’s L&T wins $300m gas project in Saudi Page 23

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Reforming Myanmar courts investors at ‘Asia’s Davos’

Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive launches new BMW 5 Series offer Page 23 Page 26

DUBAI: Asian labourers work at the construction site of a new track for the Dubai Metro in this May 22, 2013 file photo. —AFP

Worker rights’ issues challenge Gulf boom Wages not rising despite labour shortage DUBAI: A strike by thousands of migrant workers at Dubai’s biggest builder Arabtec last month may be a harbinger of a new wave of industrial activism that threatens to disrupt the Gulf’s latest construction boom. Gulf nations have relied heavily on the supply of cheap labour from Asia to build their vast housing and infrastructure needs. But their treatment of foreign workers has been criticised repeatedly by rights groups who have demanded that governments repeal oppressive labour laws.

“Any Gulf government that seeks to significantly reform its labour system will face tremendous opposition from its national (employers) who benefit greatly from legal and regulatory shortcomings,” said Nicholas McGeehan, researcher for Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain at Human Rights Watch, a US-based non-governmental research and rights advocacy group.

“This problem is eminently fixable, but as yet no Gulf states have shown the necessary political will and the exploitation of migrant workers is as bad as ever,” he said.

Most blue collar workers in the Gulf Arab states are migrant labourers hired on a contract basis from South Asian countries such as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal, who have come to the Middle East to escape abject poverty in their home country.

Typically employed on low wages, workers are usually housed in camps with basic facilities on the outskirts of cities. They are tied to a Kafala or sponsorship-based employment system which binds them to one employer, and the workers pay heavy recruitment fees to agents, leaving many in debt even before they start work. The lack of workers’ rights coupled with low wage growth are now starting to make the Gulf less attractive to workers from South Asia and elsewhere. That is adding to a labour short-

age that could jeopardise Gulf states’ ambitions to host world events, including Dubai’s bid to host the World Expo in 2020, which governments consider vital to their ambitions to be seen as global cities.

Qatar’s preparations to host the soccer World Cup in 2022 are throwing the spotlight on working conditions there. At the FIFA Congress in the Maldives on Saturday, representatives from the International Trade Union Confederation staged a demonstration criticising the lack of worker rights in Qatar and calling for a re-run of the World Cup bidding process.

Strikes by foreign workers are illegal across the Gulf although protests are more common in Kuwait among public sector workers. Last month more than 1,000 workers at the state-run Oil Sector Services Co went on strike demanding better pay. At Arabtec in Dubai last month the workers downed tools illegally to call for a wage hike of around $50 a month but their demand was eventually refused. About 200 who went on strike left the state after the stoppage of their own accord, police officials said last week. Local media reports, however, said more than 400 workers returned to their home countries.

No wage growth Wage demands are starting to echo a previous building boom in the Gulf in 2006-07 before the global financial crisis and Dubai’s property market collapse. Hundreds of thousands of construction workers protested in Dubai in 200607, sometimes violently, against living conditions and delayed wage payments. The unrest spurred a wave of labour reforms in the UAE, including a wage protection system to ensure salaries are paid on time and the introduction of a three-hour work break during peak summer months.

However, the government ignored calls for minimum wage laws and workers’ salaries remained largely unchanged. The sponsorship system also continued and there has been no move to legalise unions. Human rights groups say governments need to abolish the sponsorship system to allow workers to switch employers, introduce minimum wages, improve workers’ living conditions and allow unions and peaceful protests.

In 2011, more than 130 artists said they would boycott a branch of New York’s Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi, which is being built on Saadiyat Island, due to what they said was exploitation of foreign workers. Arabtec is building a branch of Paris’s Louvre museum on the island.

Despite the global attention unrest is often suppressed.

Gulf authorities are even more wary of protests after the Arab Spring, which toppled rulers in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen and threatened many others. The oil-rich nations of the Gulf have been appeasing their citizens by doling out free housing, employment and even waiving loans. The disparity in wages between local citizens and migrant workers is widening. Mohammed Jindran, managing director of Overseas Labour Supply, a recruitment firm in the UAE, which has about 4 million migrant workers, says unskilled workers in the UAE earn on average around 750 dirhams ($200) a month, the same rate as six years ago.

Skilled workers’ wages are above 900 dirhams.

“Companies have not increased wages. We are feeling the bite while recruiting ... no workers are willing to come to the Gulf on the salaries offered here,” said Jindran. Any increase in wages would mean an increase in project costs that have already been budgeted for and crimp profits.

Dubai will need workers for construction projects if it wins the right to host the World Expo 2020, which is the centre-

NY enjoying luxury real estate boom NEW YORK: While many people scrimp and save to buy their first modest home and others rent for life, New York is seeing a boom in housing construction for the fabulously rich.

Buyers are snapping up high-rise luxury condos before they are even completed, with money gushing in from places like South America, the Middle East, China and Russia, as well as from New York.

The global economic and financial crisis may still linger in many parts of the world, but the Big Apple remains a ferociously bull market for developers. “The luxury market in New York City has rebounded to even higher prices than the last peak market. The stability of the New York market is attractive to many purchasers,” said Jeff Dvorett, project manager of One57, a condo going up in mid-town Manhattan.

Construction started in 2011 and 70 percent of the homes in the building have been sold. When they have all gone, sales are expected to surpass $2 billion, Dvorett said.

One57 is 90 stories high and was designed by the award winning French architect Christian de Portzamparc. Two penthouses there have gone for between $90 million and $100 million, a record for a single dwelling in Manhattan.

Similar dizzying figures come from a building called 56 Leonard in the Tribeca district of lower Manhattan. Seventyfive percent of its 145 condos sold in three months, and once the building is sold out revenue will exceed $1 billion, said

Elizabeth Unger, sales director at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group, the leading New York luxury real estate developer. “The success and velocity of sales at 56 Leonard is record breaking. Within two months, 50 percent of its residences were sold with sales totaling over $600 million. Now, after three months on the market, we are 75 percent sold,” she told AFP. Unger attributed the luxury housing boom to scant supply. “The New York market is in a condition of undersupply, particularly for unique and superior new product,” she said. Furthermore, under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who took office in 2002, New York has experienced unprecedented investment and made major strides in infrastructure and commerce, she added. Ultra luxury condos seem to be popping up everywhere. According to the site CityRealty.com, the number of Manhattan condos with apartments costing more than $15 million has gone from 33 in 2009 to 49 this year.

On 18th Street in the Chelsea district, an edifice built by architect Ralph Walker in 1926 to house a telephone call center has been transformed a 47-unit condo, with the most expensive property due to go on sale soon for $55 million.

Another two-bedroom apartment at Walker Tower with 300 square meters (3,300 square feet) of floor space and a balcony with a view of the Empire State building was recently purchased for $14 million.

Unique views, artistic design Why so expensive? “These prospective buyers are looking for the highest quality; gracious living spaces, luxurious hotel services from the Park Hyatt, and unprecedented views of Central Park and the NYC skyline,” Dvorett, vice president of Extell Development Company, said in allusion to One57.

Unger said she is dealing with “informed and experienced buyers who recognize quality, attention to detail and exceptional construction. She said her buyers also appreciate “modern design and innovative architecture.”

In the case of 56 Leonard, which has 60 stories, part of the appeal lies in collaboration between Indian-British sculptor Anish Kapoor and the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron. The designers’ reputation has lured buyers from France, Britain, Brazil and China, but most are from New York itself.

If you are not already drooling, get this: in this high-end market most buyers pay in cold, hard cash, according to Elliot Joseph, one of the developers of Walker Tower. In the city that doesn’t sleep, the quest to sell eye-popping expensive digs doesn’t either. Another property, 432 Park Avenue in midtown Manhattan, is expected to be at 426 meters (1,400 feet) the tallest residential tower in the Western hemisphere by the time it is complete in 2015. Since its launch in March, the 432 Park Avenue promoters have taken in around $1 billion in condo sales. Prices range from $7 million to $95 million. —AFP

piece of many of its future development plans. The host will be selected in November. The event would draw millions more tourists and, crucially, give Dubai more international prestige.

Rapid growth of Asian economies, however, means workers can now get almost double wage rates on offer in the Gulf back home. Workers from India used to be the biggest group among migrant workers in the Gulf but are now in decline due to better opportunities at home, forcing Gulf employers to look more to other parts of South Asia and to Africa for labourers.

“Companies will have to go back to the drawing board and rethink pricing if they want workers for these projects,” said Jindran. Qatar is rushing to build world class facilities in preparation for hosting the World Cup. Last week it awarded contracts worth $5.4 billion to build a metro system in the capital Doha and is awarding contracts to build stadiums for the soccer tournament.

“The increased real estate activity being witnessed in Dubai in conjunction with World Cup-associated work and infrastructure works in Qatar will put pressure on labour in addition to other things such as supply of materials,” said Duncan Gray, director at consultancy Colliers InternationalMiddle East. Saudi Arabia, the biggest economy in the Gulf, also has projects worth $790 billion in progress or planned.

The kingdom is currently pursuing sweeping labour reforms that aim to tackle domestic unemployment by pushing firms to hire Saudi nationals. A crackdown on illegal employment of foreigners in the country has seen thousands of migrant workers return home, throwing a challenge to the government as it seeks to build to overcome a shortage of 500,000 homes and to meet vast infrastructure needs. —Reuters

Kuwait to drill for heavy oil KUWAIT: Major crude producer Kuwait plans to start drilling for heavy oil so that the Gulf Arab state can produce up to 60,000 barrels per day (bpd) of it by 2017, a local newspaper reported yesterday. OPEC member Kuwait already has a crude oil production capacity of 3 million barrels per day but wants to start drilling for the more viscous substance despite tougher extraction and processing, Kuwait Oil Company executive Hosnia Hashem told the newspaper Al-Rai. “Nearly 1,200 wells will be drilled to produce heavy oil,” the newspaper quoted Hashem, deputy managing director for the northern region at the state-owned company, as saying. She said heavy oil production capacity could reach 270,000 bpd by 2030 under the project, which is part of a longterm plan set out by parent group Kuwait Petroleum Corp.

Each well will cost between 150,000-300,000 dinars ($525,500-$1.05 million) to build, she said. The extraction and manufacturing processes would be difficult, she said, but one of the main concerns was finding experts to work on the project because of a lack of specialists in the field.

The potential demand for the heavy oil was worth the effort and expense, however, she added.

“The global market has changed, and is now seeking heavy oil. We also have customers from India asking for heavy oil as soon as possible,” she said. Kuwait has three refineries and is planning a fourth under a 30 billion dinar economic development plan announced in late 2010. —Reuters

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

BUSINESS

Nikkei plunge stokes fears Tokyo market rally is over Nikkei down 3.83 percent TOKYO: Stomach-churning drops on the Tokyo markets in recent weeks have sparked warnings the good times are over and efforts by Japan’s prime minister to stoke the economy have already run out of steam. By the middle of last month, the benchmark Nikkei 225 index had surged about 80 percent to its highest level in five years, capping a six-month rally that put Japanese equities squarely back on global investors’ radar screens.

But poor Chinese economic data helped spark a confidence crisis among panicky investors who sent the Nikkei plunging 7.32 percent on May 23, the biggest one-day drop since Japan’s quake-tsunami disaster two years ago.

Institutional selling and margin calls for retail investors who borrowed to finance their investment were also cited as reasons for the quick pullback as players cashed in on the market’s steep ascent.

Two weeks of wild volatility has followed, with bigger downs than ups that have lopped about 17 percent off the index, pushing it close to bear market territory. Billions of dollars flowed into the Tokyo market from overseas with much of the trading based more on emotion than company fundamentals, said Norihiro Fujito, investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley. “Until May 23, all the attention was focused on how much the market could rise,” he said in a report this week.

“One week later, people are talking about

how far it could drop.” The Nikkei’s rally was largely powered by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s pledge to reanimate Japan’s lifeless economy with big government spending and aggressive central bank monetary easing, dubbed “Abenomics”. The moves sent the yen into freefall, with the currency losing a third on the dollar since late last year. That boosted the Tokyo market as investors saw better times ahead for exporters who benefit from a weaker currency.

But Abe’s plan has been long on talk and short on detail so far, with scant evidence there is substance enough to put the world’s thirdlargest economy back on track. First-quarter growth figures were upbeat, but Japanese firms are cautious about spending and the economy remains mired in the cycle of falling prices that have held back growth for years.

“People are getting tired of Abenomics,” said Yasuhide Yajima, chief economist at NLI Research Institute. “The government did a good job throwing out rapid-fire measures which kept the market excited. But now they appear to have run out of ammunition. “It it tough to see the market coming back again.” Tetsuro Okada, senior economist at Japan Research Institute, acknowledged that Abe “changed market sentiment and fuelled expectations”.

“But the real economy has yet to catch up.”

Investors are now looking to the third of Abe’s so called “three arrows”-structural reforms-which he outlined in a speech yesterday, with growing

scepticism that he would do enough to cut red tape and lure more women into the workforce.

Markets were unimpressed by the speech, sending the Nikkei down another 3.83 percent by the close yesterday. Abe this week brushed off the market gyrations, saying investors need to get used to his plan and that he would press ahead with growth efforts.

There has been speculation he would hold off an expected doubling in Japan’s sales taxes to 10 percent by 2015 to avoid cutting short his growth plans. But the hikes are seen as crucial to salvaging confidence in a country which has the industrialised world’s biggest national debt at more than twice the size of the economy.

Tax hikes “may well be the most important policy event in the remainder of this year”, said Julian Jessop at London-based Capital Economics. “In terms of the prospects for Japan’s economy and financial markets, the only thing worse than doubling the consumption tax could be a further delay.” Jessop said he expected a tough year ahead for global markets as the US Federal Reserve is likely to unwind its huge monetary easing programme while fears over Chinese growth weigh on sentiment.

He forecast the Nikkei to fall below 13,000 before staging a recovery, adding that the “worst is over” for Tokyo shares as some investors who stood on the sidelines look to pick up bargains.

But for all its falling, the Nikkei remains about 50 percent above mid-November levels. —AFP

Euro-zone recovery proves elusive LONDON: Several economic figures for the 17 EU countries that use the euro all showed the same thing yesterday - there’s no sign of a recovery from recession. Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics office, confirmed that the euro-zone’s economy as a whole shrank 0.2 percent in the first quarter of the year from the previous three-month period, with most sectors declining. Both companies and consumers have shown little willingness to invest and spend as they struggle with high debt, tight credit markets and record unemployment of 12.2 percent across the eurozone. As a result, the bloc’s economy has shrunk for six

Burgan Bank to stay open KUWAIT: Burgan Bank announced that its airport branch will continue to operate on normal working hours during the Al-Esra’a & Me’eraj holiday today. The branch will commence operations from 8:00 am to 10:30 pm, in an effort to accommodate banking requirements for travellers’ during the public holiday.

straight quarters.

Though the performance is not uniform across the eurozone and was slightly better than the previous quarter’s 0.6 percent contraction, Eurostat confirmed that nine of the region’s 17 members have seen their economies shrink for at least two quarters, the common definition of a recession. They are Cyprus, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Spain.

The economy is not likely to improve much in the current quarter, either. In a separate survey, Eurostat said euro-zone retail sales fell by 0.5 percent in April. That’s the third straight monthly drop in a sector that is

key to economic growth.

Separately, a monthly survey of business activity from financial information company Markit pointed to a further drop during May. Though its composite purchasing managers’ index of the manufacturing and services sector rose to 47.7 points from April’s 46.6, the number is still below the 50 mark that would indicate expansion.

The figures paint a grim picture just as the European Central Bank’s governing council prepares to discuss what to do to get the euro-zone economy growing again. It is not, however, expected to announce major new measures at the end of its meeting today. Last month, the

Hyundai inks working agreement KUWAIT: Senior Director for Marketing, Sales and Operations of Hyundai Electronics Shadi Allamah said a new working and cooperation agreement was signed by the exclusive agent to Hyundai Electronics the Arab Standard Company and Danat AlKuwait Electric and Electronics Company.

The new Danat Al-Kuwait showroom was opened in Fahaheel, Nayef Al-Dabous Mall, Dabbous Street. The opening was attended

by Faisal Abdallah Al-Bous and all workers in the establishment, in addition to the Hyundai Electronics team. Faisal Al-Bous said the electronics market in Kuwait requires continued development and modernization, and we must do all that is necessary to gain the customers confidence and satisfaction, because we are sure the customer is always right, and that was realized from our long experience in electronics business in Kuwait.

Meanwhile Shadi Allamah said Danat AlKuwait Establishment is a pioneer in the field of electronics trades, and the oldest in

Kuwait market. He said we are keen on joining Faisal Al-Bous in his future plan and support him for the development of the establishment, and the start of this development came in upgrading Danat Al-Kuwait Showroom, making it among the most beautiful showrooms in Kuwait, and particularly in Fahaheel area, and the most attractive as far as dÈcor and arrangements are concerned, that in addition to his keenness on having a professional sales team that works on meeting customers’ needs, and provide suitable prices while competing in the local market as well as providing finance service.

Shadi Allamah presented Faisal Al-Bous with an appreciation plaque for his efforts to improve performance and provide all that is possible for the customer’s comfort when he make purchases from Danat AlKuwait, also for this confidence in Hyundai Electronics and allowing us to present Hyundai’s collection at best prices and services.

ECB cut its main interest rate to a record low of 0.5 percent.

“There is little in the latest batch of data to suggest that the euro-zone economy is about to pull decisively out of its prolonged recession,” said Jonathan Loynes, chief European economist at Capital Economics.

“Indeed, while our forecast of a 2 percent drop in GDP this year may prove a bit too pessimistic, we still think that the consensus forecast of a 0.5 percent contraction is significantly too optimistic.” Though the euro-zone’s current recession is not nearly as deep as the one it suffered in 2008 9, which ran for five quarters, it is now the longest in the 14-year history of the euro. —AP

Dubai’s Arabtec says project wins to boost 2013 earnings DUBAI: Arabtec Holding expects a series of recent contract wins to boost its 2013 earnings and the Dubai contractor is targeting a dividend payout of at least 10 percent for the year, its chief executive said.

Arabtec, part-owned by Abu Dhabi state fund Aabar, won another project worth 810 million dirhams ($220.5 million) to build a five-star hotel and serviced apartment tower in Dubai, it said in a bourse

statement yesterday. The company, which diversified to other Gulf states amid Dubai’s property downturn, has won several contracts in recent months, especially in oil-rich Abu Dhabi where its top shareholder and state investment firm Aabar is based.

It is currently par t of a consor tium building a $2.9 billion airport terminal in Abu Dhabi and a branch of the famous

Paris Louvre museum. “We are now starting work on several projects, so the company should see a positive impact on earnings towards the end of the year,” Hasan Ismaik, Arabtec’s chief executive officer said in the statement.

A planned dividend payout of at least 10 percent per annum is expected to take effect from 2013, he said. The company did not pay a dividend in 2012. Ismaik was

appointed as CEO in February as part of a management shake-up led by Aabar, which has been tightening its grip on the group.

The new management announced plans for a $1.8 billion capital increase as part of its expansion strategy and also inked a joint venture deal with Korea’s Samsung Engineering Co. The company is set to begin subscription for a $650 million rights issue on June 9. —Reuters

EXCHANGE RATES Malaysian ringgit Irani Riyal Irani Riyal

Commercial Bank of Kuwait US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian Dollar Australian DLR Indian rupees Sri Lanka Rupee UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi riyals Omani riyals Egyptian pounds US Dollar/KD GB Pound/KD Euro Swiss francs Canadian dollars Danish Kroner Swedish Kroner Australian dlr Hong Kong dlr Singapore dlr Japanese yen Indian Rs/KD Sri Lanka rupee Pakistan rupee Bangladesh taka UAE dirhams Bahraini dinars Jordanian dinar Saudi Riyal/KD Omani riyals Philippine Peso

.2770000 .4310000 .3680000 .3020000 .2780000 .2940000 .0040000 .0020000 .0771240 .7513970 .3930000 .0720000 .7366120 .0370000 CUSTOMER TRANSFER RATES .2841000 .4338920 .3707360 .3043390 .2795430 .0497330 .0443660 .2963730 .0365940 .2291130 .0029600 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0000000 .0773800 .7538810 .0000000 .0757800 .7382100 .0000000

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co. Japanese Yen Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Srilankan Rupees Nepali Rupees Singapore Dollar Hongkong Dollar Bangladesh Taka Philippine Peso Thai Baht

ASIAN COUNTRIES 2.868 5.061 2.897 2.257 3.178 228.890 36.853 3.667 6.826 9.386

.2880000 .4470000 .3760000 .3170000 .2920000 .3020000 .0069000 .0035000 .0778990 .7589480 .4110000 .0770000 .7440150 .0440000 .2862000 .4370990 .3734770 .3065880 .2816100 .0501010 .0446940 .2985640 .0368650 .2308060 .0028810 .0052870 .0022880 .0029190 .0036810 .0779520 .7594530 .4048090 .0763400 .7436660 .0069870

Omani Riyal Qatari Riyal Saudi Riyal

94.221 0.271 0.273 GCC COUNTRIES 76.297 78.615 743.150 759.930 77.919

Saudi Riyal Qatari Riyal Omani Riyal Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIES US Dollar Transfer 286.000 Euro 375.380 Sterling Pound 439.440 Canadian dollar 277.670 Turkish lira 152.570 Swiss Franc 303.610 Australian Dollar 276.710 US Dollar Buying 284.800 GOLD 265.000 134.000 70.000

SELL DRAFT 282.37 281.94 306.13 377.03 285.40 441.44 2.92 3.676 5.039 2.252 3.163 2.900 77.77 759.61 40.24 406.18

Rate for Transfer US Dollar Canadian Dollar Sterling Pound Euro Swiss Frank Bahrain Dinar UAE Dirhams Qatari Riyals Saudi Riyals Jordanian Dinar Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupees Indian Rupees Pakistani Rupees Bangladesh Taka Philippines Pesso Cyprus pound Japanese Yen Thai Bhat Syrian Pound Nepalese Rupees Malaysian Ringgit

Selling Rate 286.750 282.465 436.890 370.980 295.860 759.185 78.050 78.710 76.430 404.225 40.419 2.269 5.174 2.908 3.680 6.954 703.420 3.795 9.710 4.095 3.330 94.935

Bahrain Exchange Company COUNTRY

UAE Exchange Centre WLL COUNTRY Australian Dollar Canadian Dollar Swiss Franc Euro US Dollar Sterling Pound Japanese Yen Bangladesh Taka Indian Rupee Sri Lankan Rupee Nepali Rupee Pakistani Rupee UAE Dirhams Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Jordanian Dinar

748.000 79.500 77.000

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

ARAB COUNTRIES Egyptian Pound - Cash 40.200 Egyptian Pound - Transfer 40.268 Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.335 Tunisian Dinar 175.680 Jordanian Dinar 404.040 Lebanese Lira/for 1000 1.919 Syrian Lier 3.108 Morocco Dirham 34.088

20 Gram 10 Gram 5 Gram

742.22 78.81 76.24

SELL CASH 283.000 283.000 299.000 372.000 288.000 438.500 3.300 3.740 5.400 2.460 3.420 2.985 78.800 763.500 40.500 415.000

British Pound Czech Korune Danish Krone Euro Norwegian Krone Scottish Pound Swedish Krona Swiss Franc Australian Dollar New Zealand Dollar Uganda Shilling Canadian Dollar Colombian Peso US Dollars Bangladesh Taka Cape Vrde Escudo Chinese Yuan Eritrea-Nakfa

SELL CASH Europe 0.4278481 0.0062612 0.0457656 0.3664124 0.0452526 0.4235148 0.0392353 0.2939051 Australasia 0.2677639 0.2246165 0.0001140 America 0.2713010 0.0001462 0.2850000 Asia 0.0036421 0.0031866 0.0457618 0.0166100

SELLDRAFT 0.4368481 0.0182612 0.0507656 0.3739124 0.0504526 0.4310418 0.0442353 0.3009051 0.2797639 0.2346165 0.0001140 0.2803010 0.0001642 0.2871500 0.0036971 0.0034166 0.0507618 0.0197100

Guinea Franc Hg Kong Dollar Indian Rupee Indonesian Rupiah Jamaican Dollars Japanese Yen Kenyan Shilling Malaysian Ringgit Nepalese Rupee Pakistan Rupee Philippine Peso Sierra Leone Singapore Dollar Sri Lankan Rupee Thai Baht Bahraini Dinar Egyptian Pound Ethiopeanbirr Ghanaian Cedi Iranian Riyal Iraqi Dinar Jordanian Dinar Kuwaiti Dinar Lebanese Pound Moroccan Dirhams Nigerian Naira Omani Riyal Qatar Riyal Saudi Riyal Sudanese Pounds Syrian Pound Tunisian Dinar UAE Dirhams Yemeni Riyal

0.0000446 0.0344513 0.0051002 0.0000244 0.0028724 0.0027581 0.0033556 0.0896040 0.0030879 0.0028905 0.0064572 0.0000733 0.2231395 0.0022314 0.0092030 Arab 0.7552440 0.0384730 0.0129538 0.1460100 0.0000799 0.0001765 0.3994455 1.0000000 0.0001762 0.0219552 0.0012248 0.7348357 0.0782176 0.0760400 0.0466918 0.0027765 0.1723211 0.0767591 0.0012958

Al Mulla Exchange Currency US Dollar Euro Pound Sterling Canadian Dollar Japanese Yen Indian Rupee Egyptian Pound Sri Lankan Rupee Bangladesh Taka Philippines Peso Pakistan Rupee Bahraini Dinar UAE Dirham Saudi Riyal *Rates are subject to change

Transfer Rate (Per 1000) 285.400 376.100 440.350 278.150 2.890 5.039 40.250 2.256 3.677 6.815 2.900 760.050 77.800 76.250

0.0000506 0.0375513 0.0051642 0.0000295 0.0038724 0.0029381 0.0035856 0.0966040 0.0032879 0.0029305 0.0069272 0.0000763 0.2291395 0.0022734 0.0098030 0.7637440 0.0405030 0.0194538 0.1478000 0.0000804 0.0002365 0.4069455 1.0000000 0.0001962 0.0459552 0.0018598 0.7458357 0.0790006 0.0766800 0.0472418 0.0029965 0.1783211 0.0782031 0.0013958

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

BUSINESS

Reforming Myanmar courts investors at ‘Asia’s Davos’ Forum a chance to ‘market Myanmar’

ISTANBUL: Workers are pictured during the opening ceremony of the third Bosphorus bridge. —AFP

Apple poised for hiring spree in Silicon Valley SAN FRANCISCO: Apple expects to expand its Silicon Valley workforce by nearly 50 percent during the next three years, signaling the company’s faith in its ability to keep coming up with hit products like the iPhone and iPad. The projections detailed in a report released Tuesday envision Apple hiring 7,400 more workers at its Cupertino, California, headquarters between now and the planned completion of a new office complex in 2016.

Apple Inc. now employs about 16,000 people in and around Cupertino, the company’s home town for most of its 37-year history.

That accounts for about one-fifth of Apple’s nearly 73,000 employees worldwide.

Apple submitted the report to Cupertino city officials as part of its effort to win approval to build a new 3.4 million-squarefoot (320,000-square-meter) campus. Former CEO Steve Jobs likened the proposed campus to a spaceship in his final public appearance four months before he died in October 2011 after a long fight with pancreatic cancer. Cupertino so far has been largely supportive of Apple’s plans for the new headquarters, but city officials are still seeking more information to help inform their final decision on the project.

The report commissioned from consulting firm Keyser Marston Associates provides a rare glimpse into the nerve center of Apple’s closely guarded operations. The snapshot doesn’t shed any light on Apple’s upcoming products, but the anticipated need for so many more workers at the company’s headquarters is an indication that management has grand ambitions that will require a lot more engineering prowess.

Investors, though, have begun to question whether Apple’s idea factory has been drying up since Jobs died. Although its revenue is still steadily rising, Apple has been depending on upgrades to the iPhone and iPad instead of releasing another breakthrough product. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Jobs’ hand-picked successor, has hinted that the company may be working on something revolutionary in television sets or a wearable computing device, such as a wristwatch. It hasn’t been enough to allay Wall Street’s fears that Apple is losing its magic touch while facing tougher competition from a list of formidable rivals that includes Google Inc, Samsung Electronics, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.

The persisting concerns have caused

Apple’s stock to fall 36 percent from its alltime high reached last September. The shares closed Tuesday at $449.31. With annual revenue of nearly $157 billion, Apple can still afford to treat the people working at its headquarters extremely well.

The report estimates Apple paid the 16,000 employees working in the Cupertino area a combined $2 billion in salary last year.

That translates into an average salary of $125,000 per Cupertino-area employee.

Apple didn’t provide Keyser Marston with specific salary figures, so the firm used salary data for Silicon Valley software engineers filed with the state government. The numbers represent a “conservative” estimate of the employees’ salaries, according to the report.

Although the report didn’t touch on the subject, Apple probably doesn’t pay the employees working outside its headquarters nearly as well. Nearly 43,000 of Apple’s employees worldwide work in the company’s stores or other jobs in its retail division, according to the company’s annual report.

Apple has also come under blistering criticism for relying on contractors that hire cheap labor in factories in China and other countries to assemble its products.

Not surprisingly, the Keyser Marston report draws a flattering portrait of Apple. It depicts the company as an indispensable cog in Silicon Valley’s economy, a sensitive issue for Apple after coming under fire last month in Washington for legally sheltering a large chunk of its profits overseas to minimize its US tax bill. Apple CEO Tim Cook testified before a Senate subcommittee in an attempt to convince skeptical lawmakers that the company has been doing more than its share to support the US economy.

Much of the Keyser Marston report breaks down the economic benefits that Apple brings to a city with a population of about 58,000 people. Apple will pay $9.2 million in taxes to Cupertino during the current fiscal year ending in June, accounting for about 18 percent of the city’s general fund, according to the report. If the new headquarters is built, the report estimated the Apple’s tax contributions to Cupertino will rise to $13 million annually. Nearly 1,300 of Apple’s 16,000 headquarters workers live in Cupertino. Another 2,100 of the headquarters workers live in the neighboring cities of Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. —AP

South Sudan needs Sudan port for exports KHARTOUM/JUBA: South Sudan will restart oil exports this month but will need at least a year to restore output fully after fighting with Sudan damaged facilities and hit the performance of oilfields, industry sources say. Production is unlikely to get much higher than 230,000 barrels per day this year after the restart in April, the sources say. South Sudan had hoped to have an output of 200,000 bpd in place by mid-April but new tensions with Sudan led to delays.

“There is a possibility that by next year, June, we will have reached the levels we had before the shutdown,” said Henry Odwar, head of the energy and mining committee at South Sudan’s parliament.

The landlocked producer agreed in March with Sudan to resume exporting oil through two cross-border pipelines, ending a shutdown started in January 2012 in a row with Khartoum over pipeline fees.

Oil is the lifeline for both nations, formally one country.

Fields in South Sudan’s Unity state and a treatment plant in Heglig in Sudan were both damaged during border skirmishes between the two countries last year. Two months after turning on wells, these fields near Bentiu produce only between 10,000 bpd and 20,000 bpd, said Odwar. An oil source said production there would not exceed 30,000 bpd in the next months, less than half of previous output.

Engineers have struggled to restart some wells, which were not closed properly when the government rushed operators to turn off the oil in January 2012.

Last month, the oil was briefly halted at Jebelain, a Sudanese processing facility at the border, where it has water removed before continuing through the eastern pipeline to Port Sudan, where it is loaded for shipment.

Sudan said the waxy Dar Blend oil had not yet reached the necessary quality to be sold abroad. But, oil sources say, while there might have been a technical issue, Khartoum also halted flows to warn South

Sudan to sever ties with rebels on Sudanese soil. “We came close to disaster because South Sudan almost had to shut down its output as it lacks storage,” said an oil insider. South Sudan was forced to halve output to 105,000 barrels a day.

Oil officials in Juba were worried the pressure would blow a hole in the pipeline, or wreck oil facilities. After two days of frantic phone calls between the African neighbours and international mediators the oil is back on its way to Port Sudan, but Southern officials are under no illusion that more disruptions might occur.

“Sudan has yet to prove that they are going to be a reliable partner in terms of the oil flow,” Odwar said. “We don’t know what the next surprise will be.” Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir warned last week he would shut down the pipes if Juba kept supporting insurgents operating across the shared border, claims denied by the South.

South Sudan used to put its pre-shutdown output at 350,000 bpd but recently officials have said it was closer to 300,000 bpd. Both governments have made little effort to disclose accurate production figures, wary of corruption charges from critics, said Nhial Bol, editor of South Sudan’s Citizen TV, the country’s only private channel. “There is no transparency about the capacity. This is a government-designed policy,” he said.

Conflict and debts South Sudan’s oil sales are also suffering from surging costs for the operating companies, dominated by China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC), Malaysia’s Petronas and India’s ONCG Videsh. Analysts say the foreign firms are entitled to a share of the oil production but have not been paid much during the shutdown, during which they maintained the fields. Costs have jumped particularly since September when Juba ordered them, after a first oil deal with Sudan, to prepare wells - only to wait another seven months. —Reuters

NAYPYIDAW: Myanmar touted its dramatic postjunta reforms yesterday in a bid to entice foreign investors as hundreds of world leaders and industry chiefs visited the long-isolated nation for Asia’s edition of the World Economic Forum. Some 900 delegates from more than 50 countries gathered in the capital Naypyidaw for the three-day WEF on East Asia-a regional version of the annual gathering of business and political luminaries in the Swiss resort of Davos.

Foreign firms are queuing up to enter the country formerly known as Burma, tantalised by the prospect of a largely untapped market with a potential 60 million new consumers in addition to Myanmar’s pool of cheap labour. They include Coca-Cola, which has returned to Myanmar after an absence of more than 60 years with a new bottling plant, as well as consumer products giant Unilever which will soon start production in the country.

“This event is really going to raise the visibility of Myanmar to the economic community outside of the country,” Heang Chhor, senior partner at global consultancy McKinsey & Co, told AFP. “Beyond the usual suspects such as agriculture, energy and mining and infrastructure most (foreign) companies are still looking at the potential of Myanmar. What are the opportunities lying out there in the next 20 years?” he said.

The interest works both ways, with Myanmar desperately short of jobs, skills and infrastructure to drive an economic revival and lift its people out of poverty. “Our country very much lags behind... we lack contact with the other markets,” said Wah Wah Maung of the national planning and economic development ministry, adding the forum is a chance to “market our nation”.

President Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian government has surprised the world since coming to power two years ago with dramatic political and economic changes that have led to the lifting of most Western sanctions. Hundreds of political prisoners have been freed, democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi has been welcomed into a new parliament and tentative ceasefires have been reached in the country’s multiple ethnic civil wars.

On the eve of the conference, former general Thein Sein said in a radio address to the nation that all remaining prisoners of conscience would soon be freed. Activists say some 200 political prisoners remain in jail and accuse Myanmar of using a series of headline-grabbing amnesties for political gain.

Both Thein Sein and Suu Kyi are scheduled to address the forum today, but many participants are eager for a chance to meet face-to-face. “Many important people are trying to see the president,” a government official told AFP as the WEF got underway. “But of course he cannot meet everyone.”

After years lagging behind its more developed neighbours, Myanmar is now taking steps to revive its impoverished economy. The currency was floated last year, there are moves to give the central bank

that abide by high ethical standards.” The former junta was accused by rights groups of plundering the country’s natural resources for personal gain.

The new government has pledged openness in an effort to reassure investors over corruption concerns. Experts say businesses entering Myanmar also face major hurdles, including an opaque legal framework as well as a lack of basic infrastructure and of government and private-sector expertise.

Several outbreaks of deadly religious violence have

NAYPYITAW: Participants sit at the entrance to Myanmar International Convention Center where the three-day World Economic Forum for East Asia Started yesterday. —AFP more independence and a new foreign investment law has been passed, catching the eye of foreign executives.

At the same time some delegates struck a note of caution for Myanmar as it opens up to the outside world, urging authorities to harvest new knowledge but resist investment that exploits the country.

“Investors need to abide by the standards within the country or world,” Han Thar Myint, a spokesman for Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party, told AFP at the forum. “We have to welcome countries

also cast a shadow over the reform process. The country’s “major challenge” is to persuade companies of the strength of its basic infrastructure and labour force as well as to build faith in its political stability, said Heang Chhor of McKinsey. A handout notice from the forum gives delegates some taste of the business challenges facing the country, noting that there will be no cash machines for international customers, credit cards are not accepted and the 3G network “is not available” for users of BlackBerry and other mobile phones. —AFP

US moves help Iranians get online but hit economy TEHRAN: The United States is making it easier for information-hungry Iranians to get on the Internet and use social media, but has also slapped new sanctions on the economy that could make their lives more painful. Ahead of a June 14 presidential election, during a campaign in which authorities have allegedly tightened Internet access, the US has lifted a ban on selling communications gear and software to Iran.

Last Thursday’s move came just two weeks before the polls, but a senior official insisted that it was not related to the election. “This is a response to their efforts to deprive their citizens of their rights,” the official said. “The timing is really driven by the continued crackdown within Iran.” Users and experts claim the government has been tightening controls on the Internet to forestall the sort of trouble that erupted after the last presidential election in 2009.

Amid widespread claims the re-election of outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was fraudulent, a vigorous social networking campaign fuelled massive street demonstrations that were brutally crushed by the authorities. US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki has said the move would allow Iranians to skirt the government’s “attempts to silence its people” and exercise “the right to freedom of expression.” Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council, cheered the lifting of the 30-year-old ban as a move toward intelligent sanctions.

“We finally put an end to one of the worst examples of sanctions that hurt ordinary Iranians, undermine civil society and human rights, and empower the regime,” Parsi said. The European Union, United States and United Nations have all imposed sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend enriching uranium, which in a highly refined form can be used as the fissile core for an atomic bomb.

Tehran insists that its nuclear programme is for purely peaceful ends.

The council’s Jamal Abdi told AFP: “Iranians seeking to exercise their right to freedom of expression were doing so with one hand tied behind

their backs because of sanctions.

“Thankfully that knot has now been loosened.” In practice, the decision allows US companies to begin selling computers, tablets, mobile phones, software, satellite receivers and other equipment for personal use to Iranians.

It also permits the provision of instant messaging, chat, email, social networking, sharing of photos and movies, web browsing and blogging.

works to appear as if they were online in other countries whose access to American companies such as Apple or Adobe was not restricted. They also had to try to circumvent tough filtering by the regime, which banned access to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and millions of other sites after the 2009 election.

A senior US official said “our hope is... this will help make some hardware

Mashregh News website warned of the “threats” from smart phones.

“Smart phones, as a mobile computer system, can play a very substantial role in social riots,” it said, warning that they could lead to “events even more widespread” than in 2009, given the high interest among young Iranians for the devices. But the upbeat mood could be soured in part by a new round of sanctions Washington slapped on

TEHRAN: Iranian women buy a laptop at a computer shop selling Apple products in northern Tehran. —AFP Light at the end of the tunnel?

Ehsan is a 32-year-old laptop salesman at Paytakht, one of several tech centres in Tehran where Apple products, Windows-based laptops and cracked software are available in abundance. “This gesture, along with any other that would help us connect to the modern world, is most welcome,” Ehsan said. IPhone seller Nima, 25, praised the lifting of the ban. “I don’t want to jump the gun and say it’ll be all over soon but, for the first time, I am seeing some light at the end of this tunnel,” he said of the sanctions regimes.

Previously, web surfers had to use proxy servers or virtual private net-

and software, including things like antivirus software or software that helps protect from malware, more available to them and make them more able to protect themselves against government hackers.” While welcoming “this smart move,” Delphine Hagland, US director of Reporters Without Borders, said “we have to be careful that this... will not open the door for US companies to sell filtering technology to the Iranian authorities.”

That was a reference to the regime’s ability in the past to buy US technology that allowed them to censor the Internet and spy on citizens’ online activities. Tehran has yet to react to the US move, but the ultra-conservative

Tehran on Monday. The country’s vital oil industry and access to global banking are already under painful sanctions.

The latest measures, authorise sanctions on foreign banks that make transactions in the Iranian currency, the already heavily depreciated rial. That could weaken the rial further, making imports more expensive, and also make it more difficult to acquire imports. They will also penalise anyone involved in selling goods or services to Iran’s auto industry, the country’s second-largest employer. In the end, tech-savvy 26year-old Ramin said “sanctions have created problems for the government but it will always be the people who pay the real price.” —AFP

India’s L&T wins $300m gas project in Saudi NEW DELHI: Larsen & Toubro Ltd (L&T) won an infrastructure contract worth nearly $300 million from Saudi Aramco as India’s biggest construction and engineering firm chases overseas projects to offset a slowdown at home. L&T has steadily expanded its global footprint, recently winning a construction project at the Abu Dhabi airport. The firm is further bidding for about $3 billion worth of projects in the region, including more construction work for Aramco and an oil refinery in Oman, its CEO told Reuters.

“International competition is tough, but we’ll see,” said CEO and Managing Director Krishnamurthi

Venkataramanan by phone yesterday. India’s economy, the third largest in Asia, has struggled to recover from its worst slowdown in a decade, hitting infrastructure projects. Local firms such as L&T and Tata Power Co Ltd have been scouting for growth opportunities abroad, particularly in the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. “Right now, with the present situation in India where the economy is a little slower, we’re not starting from zero,” he said. “We’re already well-positioned. And obviously there is a higher motivation to accelerate that effort because the market is bigger there rather than here at this point of time.” In the Aramco project, L&T will build a

plant with a daily capacity to process 75 million standard cubic feet (scfd) of gas and 4,500 barrels of condensate, the company said yesterday.

L&T, whose interests span shipbuilding to railways, has forecast growth in net sales of as much as 17 percent in the fiscal year which started in April. It also sees new orders growing by about a fifth. The Mumbai-based company’s profit fell about 7 percent in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year as existing infrastructure projects struggled to get off the ground. Shares in L&T rose about 0.6 percent as of 0755 GMT in a Mumbai market that was up 0.1 percent. —Reuters

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

BUSINESS

Rush to lightweight cars boosts adhesive makers Glue amount used in cars to rise 50%: Audi BERLIN/FRANKFURT: From Pritt stick in school bags to Audi sports cars, adhesives have come a long way since natural gums and resins, and new high-tech variations are currently top of the list for carmakers as they seek ways to make cars lighter and tougher. For auto suppliers like Henkel and PPG providing tailor-made adhesives that can absorb the shock of a crash and reduce rattles allows them to push for higher prices - and make more profits.

Stricter emissions rules in major markets mean cars have to become more fuel-efficient and less polluting, which in most cases means they will have to be lighter than last year’s aver-

age weight of 1,400 kg. Companies like VW, Daimler, and PSA Peugeot Citroen are therefore using more aluminium and exotic composites, which cannot be welded together but have to be glued with adhesives that will not lose their strength and can hold together parts even at top speeds and high pressure.

That puts industrial adhesives - made up of chemicals like the polyolefins that are used in Croc shoes and tennis racket strings - at the top of carmakers’ shopping lists. “Those who can demonstrate that their glue has something different to offer, and that it can be easily integrated into production processes, will achieve good

margins,” said Fabrice Roghe, a partner specialising in industrial goods at Boston Consulting Group in Dusseldorf.

Henkel, the world’s largest maker of adhesives, is selling off divisions that deal with simpler industrial glues to focus on more complex and specialist products used on cars, airplanes or mobile phones. The margin for its adhesive technologies division stood at 16.5 percent in the first quarter, outperforming the group as a whole, which had a margin of 14.9 percent.

New ideas Although European car sales are this year

headed for a sixth straight annual decline as government austerity and persistent unemployment hurt demand, global auto sales may surge 28 percent to 102 million cars by 2018, fuelled by growth in Asia and North America, according to research firm IHS Automotive. The 2-3 billioneuro ($2.6 billion-$3.9 billion) market for automotive adhesives currently accounts for less than 10 percent of the global adhesives market, but industry experts forecast the amount of glue used in an average car may grow by at least a third over the next 5-10 years, from around 15 kg now.

As well as sealants that fill in tiny gaps in the various joints of a car, stronger structural adhesives can now be used to hold together and stiffen load-bearing parts and components like doors, bumpers and struts. Audi’s $147,700 topof-the-line R8, for example, is in large part fastened by advanced structural adhesives which have also been developed to withstand racetrack vibrations and fierce heat.

“We don’t buy glues off the peg but work very closely together with manufacturers on complex specific adhesive applications,” said Michael Zuern, head of materials engineering at Mercedes-Benz at Mercedes-Benz. Sweden’s Atlas Copco entered the auto adhesives segment in 2011 through the acquisition of German company SCA-Schucker and provides equipment for applying the glues. “It’s one of the product areas with the strongest growth since it’s driven by new techniques all the time, and the car makers’ new ideas,” said Mats Rahmstrom, head of the group’s business area Industrial Technique.

Losing weight “Adding power makes you faster on the straights, subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere,” Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus cars, used to say. But whereas it was once the preserve of race cars, lightweight is becoming more mainstream. Producers like Alcoa expect to more than triple sales of aluminium sheet to carmakers by 2015 as they opt for that over steel for doors, bumpers and cylinder heads.

Bernd Mlekusch, head of technology development at Audi, said the proliferation of lightweight composites may cause the amount of glue used in an Audi vehicle, which is often illustrated by carmakers in the total length of bonding substance used rather than weight, to swell to a length of 150 metres in coming years from 100 metres currently.

Because adhesive bonding increases the stiffness of the body shell, the vehicle can better absorb bumps and in-car noise is dampened, Mercedes’ Zuern told Reuters. It also makes for better handling and helps absorb the impact of a crash. GM’s new CTS sedan uses 118 metres of structural adhesives, more than the length of a soccer field, helping to make the vehicle 40 percent stiffer than its predecessor.

Using aluminium for the doors of the CTS shaves 25 kg off the weight of the car, GM said.

Andrew Christie, a product manager at PPG’s engineered material solutions division in Germany, said there were fracture-toughened adhesives on the market which could absorb the energy of an impact far more efficiently than standard adhesives or even spot welds.

“One of the key things to surviving a crash is that the structure should absorb the impact and not you or I,” he said. Still, adhesives aren’t without flaws. In 2010, Fiat’s Ferrari brand recalled 1,248 458 Italia supercar models after determining that a special adhesive used to attach a heat shield inside the wheel-arch was prone to melting and had caused several cars to burst into flames. Ferrari subsequently replaced the glued sections of the heat-shield with metal rivets.

Carmakers and adhesive suppliers work with research institutes like Fraunhofer in Germany to see how they can cure glues at lower temperatures and make sure they can be dispensed accurately by robots. “Initially, automakers didn’t have the courage to admit that certain parts and sectors of the car require bonding. That’s well and truly over now,” said Manfred Peschka, an expert on adhesives at Fraunhofer ’s facility in Bremen. — Reuters

Ford’s use of recycled material furthers industry-changing efforts DUBAI: Ford is serious about sustainability, and is taking great strides to spearhead the industry with its green actions, achieving efficiencies that are leading to waste reduction and using recycled material. Take for example, the new Ford Fusion. It is the first global vehicle program from any automaker to use seat fabric made from recycled material, with the potential to recycle enough plastic bottles and post-industrial waste to make 1.5 million yards of fabric annually.

That’s equivalent to between 800,000 and 900,000 yards in North America when Fusion is in full production.

Fusion is the latest example of the Ford commitment to use recycled material whenever possible. In North America, for instance, Ford has increased use of recycled yarns from zero in 2007 to nearly 66 percent of vehicle programs for 2013. Overall, Ford uses 41 fabrics across 15 vehicle lines globally - from Mustang and Fiesta to F150 and Taurus.

“The fabric being used in Fusion truly illustrates Ford’s commitment to sustainability, regardless of any geographical borders,” says Robert Brown, vice president, sustainability, environment and safety engineering. “Anytime we can connect our supply and suppliers with sustainability, we’re headed in the right direction on our commitment to help better the world.”

Ford’s use of sustainable fabrics is growing as the company continues adding global vehicle programs, implementing sustainable material standards on new vehicles, and identifying quality global recycled yarn suppliers, says Carol Kordich, Ford lead designer of sustainable materials. She says the idea is one day to have all Ford fabrics consist of recycled material.

The global launch of the all-new Fusion shows the goal is attainable and that Ford is all-in on an eco-conscious way of doing business.

Since the 2009 model year, any new seat fabric used in Ford vehicles must contain at least 25 percent recycled material.

“As new ideas and technologies emerge, processes evolve and volumes increase with other automakers following Ford’s lead, the costs of developing sustainable fabrics will likely drop,” Kordich says. “When that happens, Ford will likely consider requiring an even higher percentage of recycled material content in its fabric.”

Some of Ford’s most advanced vehicles already have fabrics with as much as 100 percent recycled content as Ford extends the eco-conscious aspects of such vehicles beyond their powertrains.

Serious about sustainability Still, high costs remained an issue. Kordich worked with suppliers Unifi and Sage on a plan: Unifi would provide REPREVE to Sage, which would use the yarn to make seat fabric and sell any waste (trimmings, bad dye lots, etc.) back to Unifi for reprocessing. Ford would also help collect clear, plastic water bottles and send them back to the REPREVE Recycling Center. Ford is in the midst of a campaign to help collect and send 2 million plastic bottles to Unifi. Each Fusion contains the equivalent of up to about 40 clear, plastic bottles.

Kordich’s solution closed the waste loop, kept costs neutral, and gave Ford a competitive advantage by offering a product that supported its commitment to quality.

Fusion leads the way Ford uses a total of 41 fabrics from a handful of various suppliers across 15 vehicle programs that vary by pattern, level of recycled content and purpose. The amount of recycled material in each vehicle varies depending on region. In North America, 100 percent of the seat fabric in Fusion Hybrid contains recycled material.

“We are off to a good start,” Kordich says.” But it’s only the beginning of our corporate vision.”

“It is exciting to see Ford take a leadership position in the use of sustainable materials, supporting the efforts of supplier design and development teams to use more recycled materials,” said Larry Prein, Ford Middle East’s managing director. “In the Middle East region, Ford takes this a bit further by actively supporting sustainable projects through the Ford Motor Company Conservation and Environmental Grants. Again, for this year, we are making a total of $100,000 available as grants to help fund grass-root level initiatives from non-profit organisations based in the GCC, Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq. In its 14th consecutive year, this programme has so far helped develop over 150 projects with a total of $1.3m granted to date.”

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

BUSINESS

Bank of England chief King set for final rate meeting LONDON: Bank of England Governor Mervyn King presides over his final policy meeting this week with analysts expecting him to again call for more cash stimulus to support Britain’s fragile economic recovery. The two-day gathering of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) starting yesterday precedes King’s departure as head of the British central bank at the end of June. King, who has led the Bank of England for a decade, will make way for Mark Carney who last week stepped down as governor of the Bank of Canada.

The Bank of England has kept its main interest rate at a record-low 0.50 percent-and has pumped £375 billion ($573 billion, 439 billion euros) into Britain’s economy under quantitative easing-since early 2009. “It would seem strange if the Committee were to embark on a radical departure from its current course just ahead of Mark Carney taking over the helm at the Bank of England in July,” said Philip

Shaw, an economist at Investec financial group.

“The asset purchase target looks set to remain at £375 billion and the bank rate at 0.50 percent” when the Committee announces its decisions on Thursday, he added. Under quantitative easing (QE), the Bank of England creates cash that is used to purchase assets such as government and corporate bonds with the aim of boosting lending and in turn economic activity. QE can stoke inflation however as it is tantamount to printing money and although the British economy escaped a return to recession in the first quarter, the country stands a long way from producing strong growth according to market watchers. Britain expanded by 0.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, recent official data showed, returning to growth and avoiding its third recession since the 2008 global financial crisis. Gross domestic product (GDP) grew in the January-March period, after falling by 0.3 percent in the final three months

of 2012. That still left the economy essentially flat over the past six months, but it did avoid entering recession-which is defined as two consecutive quarters of shrinking economic activity.

“With June’s meeting representing Mervyn King’s last hurrah as governor, other Committee members may be half-minded to support his recent desire for more stimulus as a parting gift,” noted Martin Beck at the Capital Economics research group. “However, economic developments since the MPC’s last (monthly) meeting and the prospect of a pick-up in inflation over the next few months are likely to quell any charitable leanings in that direction,” added the economist.

King in May called for £25 billion more QE stimulus cash at his penultimate meeting, but was outvoted for the fourth month in a row, minutes showed. The Bank of England’s principal task is to use monetary policy as a tool to keep annual infla-

tion close to a government-set target level of 2.0 percent, in order to preserve the value of money.

British 12-month inflation slowed to 2.4 percent in April, hitting a seven-month low point on the back of falling transport costs and oil prices, official data showed. The Bank of England has meanwhile forecast that the British economy is set to grow faster than expected in the coming months, while stressing the weak nature of the recovery.

The International Monetary Fund last month said that Britain was a long way from a “sustainable recovery”, and called for the government to boost infrastructure spending to accelerate economic growth and offset austerity. The ConservativeLiberal Democrat government, led by Prime Minister David Cameron, insists that its steep cuts to state spending are needed to drive down a record budget deficit inherited from the previous Labour administration in 2010. — AFP

Australian economy grows slower than forecast in Q1 Commodities-linked currency falls 6.5%

NEW YORK: In this file photo, trader Robert Moran (right) works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. — AP

Wall St set to open lower NEW YORK: Wall Street was set to open lower yesterday amid lingering concern that the Federal Reserve may slow the pace of its economic stimulus program. A private sector jobs report showed companies picked up the pace of hiring in May, though job growth remained sluggish. The data, ahead of the crucial nonfarm payrolls report Friday, had little impact on stock futures trading.

“The market is overlooking this disappointing number, and putting greater emphasis on the nonfarm payrolls for better clues on what the Fed is going to do,” said Andrew Wilkinson chief economic strategist at Miller Tabak & Co. LLC. A separate report showed a gauge of US laborrelated costs fell in the first quarter by the most in four years, although the reading appeared distorted by a shift in employee compensation during the prior period to avoid a tax hike.

S&P 500 futures fell 6.8 points and were below fair value on Wednesday, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures lost 45 points and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 9 points.

Trading has been volatile over the past few weeks amid a slew of economic reports and comments from Fed officials that hinted on when the Fed may start reducing its stimulus efforts, which have powered this year’s stock market rally.

The market is expected to continue to

be volatile this week, with intraday swings of more than 1 percent in either direction during a single trading session. After the market opens, factory orders and the ISM non-manufacturing index are due at 10:00 am. EDT. The Fed’s beige book, a report on economic conditions of the Federal Open Market Committee, is due at 2:00 pm EDT. Investors will peruse it for clues on the Fed’s bond-buying program.

“The Fed is likely to say we are in for moderate growth and I don’t think anything will be significantly different from previous months,” Wilkinson said. American International Group Inc said Tuesday a proposed $8.5 billion settlement between Bank of America Corp BAC.N and investors of Countrywide Financial Corp mortgagebacked securities was not big enough. AIG shares were down 0.6 percent in premarket trading.

The US Treasury Department said it will begin another round of sales of the General Motors Co stock it acquired during the government’s bailout of the US auto sector. The stock was down 0.5 percent in premarket trading. Japan’s Nikkei share average sagged to a two-month low Wednesday, weighing down global shares. European shares fell on concerns about a possible tapering of US economic stimulus measures. US stocks ended lower on Tuesday, resuming a recent decline as investors sold growth-oriented sectors on speculation the Federal Reserve may slow the pace of its economic stimulus. — Reuters

Thai government to clarify rice cost after Moody’s warning BANGKOK: Thailand’s prime minister has told her commerce minister to clarify the cost of the government’s rice intervention scheme, after a warning this week that mounting losses could affect the country’s credit rating. The government buys from farmers at prices that have made Thai rice uncompetitive on world markets, leading to growing stockpiles funded from the state budget and costing Thailand its spot as the world’s number one exporter. It said last week it would extend the politically popular intervention for a third year.

A newspaper report last week put losses from the scheme in the 2011/12 harvest year at 200 billion baht ($6.6 billion), prompting the warning from rating agency Moody’s, and a finance ministry official said the losses continue to rise. “Those losses are as of January 31.

The real figure must be higher than that now,” Supa Piyajitti, a deputy permanent secretary at the ministry, told Reuters.

Supa said the overall losses took into account the price paid, storage costs and value lost through rice going rotten after being kept in warehouses since the scheme started in October 2011. Supa looked after the accounts for the scheme, but said she was transferred to another job in the ministry this week.

At 200 billion baht, the losses would be equivalent to around 8 percent of the total government budget for the year to endSeptember. The Nation newspaper on Wednesday put the loss at 260bn baht, citing a finance ministry report. “The prime minister has given the Commerce Ministry the job of making all the figures clear and the commerce minister is expected to hold a press briefing over the next few days,” Niwatthamrong Bunsongphaisan, a minister without portfolio, told reporters.

Yingluck came to power in 2011 helped by an election promise to pay farmers 15,000

baht ($490) a tonne for rice, way above the market price at the time. The intervention scheme has forced up the prices offered by private exporters, with 5 percent broken rice quoted at $540 a tonne on Wednesday, around $150-$170 a tonne higher than the same grade from India, Pakistan and Vietnam.

In April, Moody’s said the outlook for Thailand’s credit rating of Baa1 was stable, based on a “high degree of government financial strength” among other factors, although it noted that “populist measures” were a risk to financial discipline.

On Monday, reacting to the reported 200 billion baht in losses, it said: “These recent losses, and any further losses from the unmodified rice-buying scheme, increase the difficulty of the government’s task of reaching its goal of a balanced budget by 2017, and are credit negative for the Thai sovereign.” Somchai Sajjapong, chief of the Finance Ministry’s fiscal policy office (FPO), told reporters that Moody’s had used “incorrect” information. The FPO was collecting the proper data and would explain that to the agency, he said.

In 2011, the government said it had allocated 410 billion baht to buy rice, making that amount available in tranches to the stateowned Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives (BAAC), which runs the scheme.

It aimed to get its money back by selling the rice on the market, but its plans were dashed when India re-entered the export market in September 2011 with its cheaper grain, and the funds have now run out.

Thai exports tumbled to 6.9 million tonnes in 2012, down from a record high of 10.6 million tonnes in 2011, and exporters forecast shipments of just 6 million tonnes this year.

“The government has to figure out where it will get money from as we have used up all of the 410 billion baht loan set for the scheme,” Supat Eauchai, a BAAC vice-president, told Reuters. — Reuters

SYDNEY: Australia’s economy grew slower-thanexpected in the first three months of the year as the commodities-powered nation faces a painful transition away from its reliance on the mining sector. The Australian Bureau of Statistics said the economy expanded 0.6 percent on quarter and 2.5 percent on year-short of the estimated 0.7 percent and 2.7 percent, suggesting a decade-long mining investment boom is unwinding. Though a surge in commodity exports was one of the key drivers of the March quarter performance as years of spending on projects finally comes online, Treasurer Wayne Swan said the data confirmed investment in the key sector “is near its peak”.

“We have an economy in transition, we have a high dollar which is making that transition hard,” Swan told reporters. “Either this year or next we are at the peak of mining investment, I think everyone agrees on that.” New private business investment fell 4.3 percent as resources spending slowed and capital imports, covering items such as mining equipment, dropped 12.3 percent.

In Western Australia-the epicentre of the mining industry-the economy contracted 3.9 percent in the quarter, wiping 0.6 percentage points from national GDP. The central bank cut interest rates to a record low 2.75 percent in May seeking to stimulate non-mining areas of the economy as the investment peak looms. The rate cut was also aimed at Australia’s stubbornly robust dollar, which had-until recently-traded at or above parity with the greenback for about two-and-a-half years, squeezing local industries.

The commodities-linked currency has fallen 6.5 percent since early April, helped by the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) cuts. Swan said the economy remained a “standout in terms of the developed world”, despite the challenges of economic reform and the dollar. He added that half of all advanced economies that had released March quarter data had seen a contraction over the year; by comparison Australia had grown at three times the OECD average.

But analysts said the subdued data confirmed RBA forecasts of below-average growth this year, with risks to the downside. “Over the last few quarters the economy has been growing at a sub-2.5 percent pace-this is as low as policymakers have thought we were going to go,” said Macquarie economist Brian Redican.

“Given that we are losing the previous growth drivers it does point to risk.” Capital Economics said the “big picture is still that the years of rapidly expanding mining investment are past”. “Other drivers of growth will be needed if Australia is to avoid a significant slowdown,” the firm said in a memo to investors.”We are sceptical that the household sector can take up much slack, given that it is struggling with high levels of debt.” The RBA scaled back its outlook last month, warning of muted 2.5 percent

SYDNEY: A man walks in front of a shop displaying items on sale yesterday. — AFP

Sydney Airport passengers set to top 74m by 2033 SYDNEY: Sydney Airport yesterday released a draft master plan to allow Australia’s biggest airport to handle more than 74 million passengers a year by 2033 without the need for new runways or the lifting of a night curfew. The plan comes amid renewed calls for a second airport in the city to complement Kingsford Smith, which is only eight kilometres (five miles) from the city centre and in 2012 handled 36.9 million travellers.

The proposed plan reconfigures buildings to integrate international and domestic terminals, which are currently separated, and improve traffic flow on the ground through new roads and facilities to encourage the use of public transport. “It will vastly improve the experience for passengers transferring between international and domestic services, many of whom will be able to transfer under one roof,” Sydney Airport chief executive Kerrie Mather said.

“Sydney Airport is Australia’s gateway airport. This concept plan provides the flexibility to meet the evolving needs of the aviation market.” Mather said the proposed traffic changes, including a new one-way

growth for the year ended December 31 as the economy embarks on an “uncertain” diversification programme.

The conservatives, on track to win the September 14 national election in a landslide according to opinion polls, said yesterday’s figures showed the economy was “losing momentum”. Swan said exports had expanded 8.1 percent in the past 12 months-the second-fastest annual growth on record-helped by a boom in coal and iron ore volumes as years of investment finally come online. Mining production increased 1.5 percent in the quarter. Consumer spending also increased modestly in the quarter, contributing to growth. The Australian dollar fell to 96.12 US cents on the data, from a day high of 96.55 cents, with the figures seen as increasing the chances of further rate cuts. — AFP

ring road for two terminals, would increase “green light” time at key intersections by up to 33 percent. “Numerous government studies have shown that while we have runway and apron capacity for several decades to come, it is ground access to the airport that is impacting on customers,” she said.

Sydney Airport is the nation’s most significant transport and tourism infrastructure, generating an economic contribution of Aus$27.6 billion (US$26.5 billion) a year.

With demand for air travel expected to rise over the next 20 years, passenger numbers are forecast to gradually increase from 36.9 million in 2012 to 74.3 million in 2033.

Aircraft numbers are also forecast to rise from 321,700 to 409,500 and air freight from 615,378 tonnes to 1,011,312 tonnes over the same time period. Industry group Tourism and Transport Forum said the plan was sensible but did not mean that a second airport was not needed. “What we need is to get more out of our existing airport but also invest in a new airport,” chief executive Ken Morrison told state broadcaster ABC.— AFP

SYDNEY: A file photo shows a Qantas Boeing 747 taking-off at Sydney Airport. — AFP

Puma to join B’desh garment safety pact FRANKFURT: German sportswear giant Puma said yesterday it has decided to sign up to a new safety pact for Bangladesh’s disaster-hit garment factories amid calls for Western brands to help improve workers’ conditions. Puma said it will sign the Bangladesh safety agreement set up by global trade union IndustryAll and ensure that its six supplier factories in Bangladesh “adhere to high standards of social and working conditions, ensuring the safety and health of its workers”.

By signing the agreement, Puma’s supplier factories will have to undergo independent safety inspections and audit reports will be made public. Carrying out repairs and renovations that result from the independent inspections are mandatory for the supplier.

While European brands such as H&M, Zara, Marks & Spencer and major supermarket buyers have committed to the agreement and its fire and building inspection regime in the wake of the Bangladesh garment factory tragedy in April, US retailers such as Gap and Walmart have refused to sign up.

“The agreement requires Puma to underwrite the costs and to cut off business with any factory that refuses to make necessary safety upgrades. It gives workers and their unions a role in the process according to the non-profit Worker Rights Consortium,” said chief commercial officer Stefano Caroti said. Puma sources 11 percent of its apparel products from six supplier factories in Bangladesh.

More than 1,100 workers were killed when a building housing several factories collapsed in Savar just outside the capital in April, highlighting the poor safety record of the world’s second-biggest garment exporter after China. International workers’ associations such as Swiss-based UNI and IndustriALL Global Union have pressured Western retailers to sign up to the legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, which represents 4,500 garment factories, has welcomed the agreement as “a reflection of Western retailers’ long term commitment to Bangladesh”. It says retailers accounting for about half of the country’s $20 billion apparel sales have now signed up. Walmart, which accounts for 10 percent of orders in Bangladesh, is the most significant player to opt out. — AFP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

BUSINESS

Two weeks left for NBK’s ongoing summer campaign KUWAIT: National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) will announce the first six winners of its annual summer campaign on Tuesday, June 16, 2013. The winners will be reimbursed for all their spending using NBK Cards up to KD 10,000.

NBK’s summer campaign offer customers the chance to win an astonishing Azimut 40 Flybridge Yacht as well as up to KD 180,000 in cash prizes. NBK cardholders still have the chance to participate in the promotion and earn unlimited chances in the three draws throughout the summer until 15 September 2013. In addition to the grand prize draw for the Azimut 40 Yacht, 18 winners spread in to three draws will be reimbursed for all their spending using NBK Cards up to KD 10,000.

For every cumulative KD 20 spent in

Kuwait with NBK credit or prepaid cards, cardholders will earn a chance to enter the draws. Cardholders will triple their chances by using their NBK credit, prepaid and Debit Card abroad or by shopping on international sites.

Last summer NBK gave away a McLaren MP4-12C. This year, NBK is giving away the Azimut Yacht. NBK Summer Campaign is the biggest promotion. All NBK Cardholders can use their Cards during the summer to enjoy this exclusive promotion. The Azimut 40 Flybridge is one of the most luxurious yachts designed by Azimut-Benetti, the world renowned yacht manufacturers, combining elegance and comfort. Seas & Deserts Group is the exclusive Azimut Yachts dealer in Kuwait.

GCC advertising revenues grow by 5 percent MARKAZ REPORT KUWAIT: Kuwait Financial Centre “Markaz” recently published the executive summary of their GCC Media report. In this research note, Markaz analyses the GCC media industry dynamics, identifies its revenue components and ad-spending trends. The report also discusses the key drivers of demand, identifies emerging trends and characterizes the challenges in the GCC media industry.

With the onset of financial and economic crisis in the later part of 2008, the media and advertising industry faced many challenges and recorded declining revenues.

However, the GCC region was not as badly hurt by the economic downturn as the western economies. Since the latter half of 2010, the media industry in the region started to show promising signs again.

Presently, the companies in the region have begun to increase their media spending budget as economies seem to come out of its hiatus. In 2012, the advertising revenues in the GCC grew by 5 percent Y-OY to reach $4.8 billion. The UAE and Saudi Arabia have the largest share of ad spending with 33 percent and 30 percent respectively; followed by Kuwait with 20 percent share.

At the same time, the media industry landscape is also changing rapidly as a consequence of technological advancements and changing consumers’ habits. The digital media is growing in influence and effectiveness. Presently, the digital media captures 18 percent of global media share of ad spending, which is expected to grow to 20 percent by 2014. However, in the GCC, print media is still going strong with 71 percent share of overall ad-spending. The digital media is still in its infancy in the region but growing at a brisk pace. Social

networking and use of social media sites have been on the rise in the GCC. Of all the social media sites, Facebook has the highest penetration in the GCC (about 40 percent in the UAE and 35 percent in Kuwait), distantly followed by LinkedIn and Twitter.

Kuwait has the highest Twitter penetration of 13 percent in the Arab world, compared to 3 percent each in Saudi Arabia, UAE and Qatar.

Globally, the print media is struggling as a result of dwindling circulation figures - especially in American and European regions. In 2011, the N America recorded 4.3 percent decline in newspaper circulation and in Europe it declined by 3.4 percent. On the contrary, in the MENA region the newspaper circulation clocked the highest worldwide growth rate of 4.8 percent and it grew by 3.5 percent in Asia.

The changing media consumption habits of consumers are driving ad-spending away from traditional print and towards the digital platforms. In the GCC, the print media is still considered more trustworthy and hence grew at a CAGR of about 3.5 percent between 2007 and 2011.

However, in the GCC, the readers’ preferences are gradually shifting towards the digital media.

The television market in the Middle East has undergone radical changes in the recent past. The free-to-air market continues to be a dominant segment in the region. The ad-revenues from Television media stood at $693 million accounting for 14 percent of total ad-revenues in 2012 in the GCC. The media industry in the GCC has brighter prospects because of improving literacy rates, favorable young demographics, higher income levels and technological advancements.

Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive launches new BMW 5 Series offer KUWAIT: In line with its commitment to outstanding customer service and due to the vehicle’s ongoing popularity in Kuwait, Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive has launched a special offer on purchases of all new BMW 5 Series models.

Set to make owning one of BMW Group’s bestselling models even more joyful, the official importer for BMW Group vehicles in Kuwait will give customers who purchase a BMW 5 Series free warranty for up to five years or 150,000 km (whichever comes first) and a four-year free servicing package, valid up to 84,000 km. In addition, all registration costs will be paid by the BMW Group importer, giving customers a convenient and hassle-free start to their BMW ownership.

This offer signals Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive’s commitment to providing additional value to its customers by helping to reduce the purchasing costs and putting their minds at ease in order to enjoy ‘no worry’ ownership for their new BMW vehicle - from the moment they decide to purchase the car, covering the major servicing for the first five years.

“The BMW 5 Series is continuously among our best performing models here in Kuwait. In fact, its sales grew by 23 percent in the first five months of this year compared to the same period in 2012,” said Yousef Al-Qatami, General Manager of Ali Alghanim & Sons Automotive.

“This vehicle marks the epitome of aesthetic design and supreme driving pleasure in the upper midrange segment. With its sporty yet elegant design, excellent comfort and the highest standard in efficiency in its class, this vehicle

is always a popular choice amongst our customers.

“We are delighted to offer our customers this unique ownership opportunity and are confident that the BMW 5 Series will remain a leader in its segment and will add another chapter to its success story here in Kuwait.” The BMW 5 Series has the longest wheelbase in the segment, a long and sleek engine compartment lid, short overhangs front and rear and a coupÈ-like roofline. The interior has a stylish and modern design with exciting lines that create a generous and harmonious ambience. High quality materials and superior craftsmanship underline the premium feel.

The BMW 5 Series Sedan range features two four-cylinder engines and Two six-cylinder engines with BMW TwinPower Turbo technolo-

gy, while the top-of-the-line model, the BMW 550i features a V8 engine. Some of the wide range of sophisticated driving and comfort features offered in the BMW 5 Series include Active Drive Control with four modes: comfort, normal, sport and sport +; Comfort Start; Head-Up Display; Multi-Channel Audio System, Rear Seat Entertainment; Four-Zone Automatic Air Conditioning and BMW iDrive control.

BMW ConnectedDrive also offers a unique range of optional driver-assist technology functions for enhanced comfort and safety, such as a Parking Assistant, an optional feature that facilitates the process of parking; Active Cruise Control, Surround View and Rear View Camera, Lane Depar ture Warning, Lane Change Warning and BMW Night Vision with pedestrian recognition.

Etihad Airways and Red Crescent join to increase breast cancer screening in UAE Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates, has donated an ultrasound machine to the Red Crescent to assist the organisation’s nation-wide efforts in programs to promote early detection and treatment of breast cancer among Emirati women.

Ray Gammell, the airline’s Chief People and Performance Officer, Aubrey Tiedt, Vice President of Guest Services, and Dr Nadia Bastaki, Senior Medical Officer/Clinical Lead Aviation, presented the machine to Rashed Mubarak Al Mansouri, Deputy Secretary General for Local Affairs of the Red Crescent and the Red Crescent delegation, at a ceremony held at the Etihad Training Academy yesterday.

“Etihad Airways strongly believes in its responsibility to support our local community,” said Ray Gammell. “Our goal in working with the Red Crescent is to ensure that women throughout the UAE will have access to a potentially lifesaving service.”

The Etihad Airways Medical Centre marks global breast cancer awareness month in October each year with a program to raise awareness of breast cancer among the staff and the community, focusing on the importance of early detection through regular self-examinations and screenings. The program includes panel discussions with holistic practitioners, doctors, patients and families.

In 2012, for the second consecutive year, the medical centre sponsored a mobile mammography unit, operated by Burjeel Hospital, which provided free mammograms to the airline’s female staff and at malls in Abu Dhabi.

Last year, the Etihad Airways breast cancer awareness campaign raised over AED 68,000 through the sale of pink ribbon pins and bracelets, donations from staff, and bake sales by the cabin crew.

The airline decided to allocate the donations to support the Red Crescent’s Rosary Campaign for Breast Cancer Exploration, a mobile clinic providing breast cancer screening and mammographies to women in the remote areas of Abu Dhabi, Al-Ain and Sharjah. To date, the mobile clinic has assisted over 800 women, age 40 and above, in areas such as Alqua, Delma Island, Al Marfa and Ghantoot. The new ultrasound machine will allow the mobile clinic to screen younger women between the ages of 20 and 39, providing a much needed service to an estimated 15,000 women annually.

Rashed Mubarak Al Mansouri said: “I would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to Etihad Airways for its support of our efforts to raise awareness of breast cancer. We consider Etihad Airways as our strategic partner in humanitarian efforts and socially responsible projects, and the donation of this machine that

works toward the early detection of breast cancer will help us to reach those who are in remote areas of the country and do not have immediate access to these kinds of vital healthcare services.”

Dr Nadia Bastaki said: “Breast cancer is one of the leading causes of death for women in the UAE, and unfortunately it is usually caught in the late stages. But if we can raise awareness throughout the community and encourage women to be screened at an earlier age, we can start to change those statistics.”

According to the UAE Ministry of Health, cancer is the second-leading cause of death for women in the UAE, with breast cancer as the most common denominator. The Etihad Airways CSR program encourages staff members to be actively involved in promoting activities at the headquarters and throughout the community to raise awareness of the disease.

“The Etihad Airways Guest Services team is always willing to work for socially responsible causes and we are very pleased and excited to see the result of our efforts in helping the Red Crescent,” said Aubrey Tiedt. “Early detection of breast cancer is essential to survival. It is our hope that this new ultrasound machine will be of significant benefit to younger women in this region and that it will help in raising awareness of this life-threatening disease.”

IKEA recalls LYDA jumbo cup due to burn hazard KUWAIT: IKEA kindly asks customers who have a LYDA jumbo cup to stop using the cup immediately and bring back to any IKEA store for a full refund. The cups can break when hot liquid is poured into them, creating a burn hazard. IKEA has received twenty reports of cups breaking in use, including ten reports of injury. The affected cups were sold between August 2012 and May 2013. No other IKEA cups are affected by this recall.

(From left to right) Dr Nadia Bastaki, Senior Medical Officer/Clinical Lead — Aviation; Aubrey Tiedt, Vice President of Guest Services; Ray Gammell, Chief People and Performance Officer; Rashed Mubarak Al-Mansouri, Deputy Secretary General for Local Affairs for Red Crescent; Nasser Al-Dhaheri, Acting Manager of Local Affairs for Red Crescent and Etihad Airways’ staff.

Ghana fuel subsidy cut is quick fix in deficit fight ACCRA: Ghana’s removal of fuel subsidies last week was designed to reassure investors ahead of a $1 billion Eurobond in July but it carries risks and more action will be needed to tackle a large budget deficit, analysts say. Ghana one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies - began producing oil in 2010 and ranks as the world’s number two cocoa producer and Africa’s second biggest gold miner. Though popular with investors, the government has seen its fiscal management criticised amid big wage demands from restive civil servants. Ghana’s creditworthiness was hit by a 2012 budget deficit of 12.1 percent, more than double the official target, analysts say. The announcement last month of a plan to issue a Eurobond in July to finance debt and capital projects has added to the pressure to curb the deficit.

A 3-year bond auction last week, though oversubscribed, sounded a warning when yields climbed to 19.2 percent, up from 16.9 percent in March. It signalled that investors fear the government is failing in its attempt to pare the deficit to 9 percent this year and scrapping fuel subsidies is a response, the analysts said.

Friday’s announcement has so far not sparked the strong opposition that has often greeted decisions to remove subsidies elsewhere in Africa. There was no immediate reaction from the opposition National Patriotic Party or from unions, and there were no signs of street protests. “There is definitely a positive on the fiscal front. The government will now be able to get some savings by not subsiding fuel,” said Edward Al-Hussainy, a sovereign risk analyst with Moodys ratings agency in New York. “The flip side is that it tells us that the government is having a tough time meeting its fiscal target,” he said.

No opposition reaction Looking ahead, the risk of higher inflation from the removal of subsidies could leave the government vulnerable to renewed militancy by public sector unions over wages.

Inflation stood at 10.6 percent in April. Ghana saw a weekslong strike by doctors and other civil servants in March and April in a dispute over how to implement a salary structure the government inherited from its predecessors. That struc-

ture saw some civil servants’ salaries jump by 240 percent and the overall public sector wage bill rise by 47 percent in 2012. The impact on prices will be further exacerbated as a decision in February to partially remove fuel subsidies filters through to the economy, according to Razia Khan, regional head of research at Standard Chartered. “There is no fiscal room for manoeuvre especially with the public sector pay bill and some of those subsidies should have gone some time back,” Khan said.

“It would have been better if there were gradual adjustment to prices. But having left it too late and having seen overruns in other areas the authorities have little choice but to implement more dramatic action now,” she said. The International Monetary Fund said in April the ballooning wage bill threatens the economy’s health, though public servants argue they have historically been underpaid and point to wasteful spending by politicians as a cause of their militancy.

Questions for investors The nation of 25 million presents a paradox to investors.

By some measures, it has the fourth biggest economy in sub-Saharan Africa and GDP growth in 2012 stood at 8 percent, making it one of the hottest economies on the continent. Oil production allows Ghana to join an elite group: an African state with petroleum, peace, stable democracy and a reputation for good governance. The deficit plus a current account balance clouds the picture. It is further darkened by international reserves which stand at just three months of imports as of the end of April.

One key question facing Ghana is how far the deficit will weigh on investor confidence. “I do hope that Ghanaians will understand that we really cannot afford the large deficit,” said Joe Abbey, executive director of the Centre for Policy Analysis think-tank in Accra. Shortly after Ghana announced that its budget deficit last year overshot its 6.7 percent target, Fitch ratings agency reduced the country’s outlook to negative from stable. Carmen Altenkirch, a director at Fitch, said on Monday the removal of subsidies was the kind of action the government should be taking to combat high borrowing costs. —Reuters

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

technology

EBay to open ‘shoppable windows’ in New York

TAIPEI: A staff displays TCB International Corp’s new products, the “Health Bracelet” and its APP “Blood Management Your (BMY)”, during the 2013 Computex yesterday. Computex is Asia’s biggest annual IT trade fair, which opened on June 4. — AFP

Microsoft unveils operating system update TAIPEI: Software giant Microsoft has unveiled the updated version of its touch enabled Windows 8 operating system at the world’s second largest computer show in Taipei.

Tami Reller, chief financial and marketing officer of the company’s Windows Division, said that Windows 8.1 would be available on both PCs and tablets later this year.

Speaking at the Computex show yesterday, Reller said the 8.1 update took into account input from consumers on the Windows 8 system, which has received only lukewarm reviews.

“Windows 8.1 furthers the bold vision of Windows 8 by responding to customer feedback and adding new features and

functionality that advance the touch experience and mobile computing’s potential,” she said.

Antoine Leblond, corporate vice president of Windows Program Management, demonstrated the upgraded system, which included enhancements in areas including platform personalization and search. Once the most substantial presence in the computer industry, Microsoft Corp. has been working hard over the past two years to cope with the rise of tablet computing, and the resulting erosion in PC sales.

Microsoft’s own tablets have a 4 percent market share, far behind that of industry leader Apple. They have been available for seven months.—AP

SAN FRANCISCO: EBay Inc is launching virtual stores called “shoppable windows” this month that the e-commerce company hopes will help retailers generate more sales from their existing physical store networks.

The first four of these screens will open from June 8 through July 7 in busy parts of New York City, such as the lower east side and Soho. They will sell 30 items from Kate Spade Saturday, a new fashion brand launched this year by apparel retailer Fifth & Pacific Companies Inc. EBay set up a window display in New York City in late 2011, but those storefronts did not let shoppers order products on the screen.

The new screens measure about 9 feet (2.7 meters) across and 2 feet (0.6 meter) high and will appear on the front windows of closed stores.

Shoppers will be able to touch the screens to order and have products delivered to them within an hour via courier. Payment will be accepted by the couriers through PayPal Here, a mobile payment service developed by eBay. This is the latest effort by eBay to work more closely with large retailers that are looking to reach more online and mobile shoppers. The company has attracted some large retailers, such as Target Corp, to its online marketplace, while developing mobile shopping technology for other retailers such as Macy’s Inc. EBay’s “shoppable windows” are an extension of the shift to mobile shopping, according to Steve Yankovich, head of the company’s Innovation and New Ventures group, which developed the technology. “ This extends the boundary of the store.

Suddenly the physical store, by virtue of online technology, extends to any space that’s interesting to use,” Yankovich said.

For Fifth & Pacific, the windows will help launch its new Kate Spade Saturday brand without opening new physical stores, at least initially, according to Chief Executive William McComb.

However, the company also plans to use the technology in existing stores of its other brands, such as Juicy Couture and Kate Spade New York, he added.

“This gives us the ability to produce more from our retail space,” McComb said. “My nickname for it is the Wall as a Mall.”

McComb said he is considering putting shoppable windows in small Juicy Couture stores that will offer about 200 different shoes to buy.

The company may also use the windows in Kate Spade New York stores to sell home furnishings, bedding, linens and towels. “We would never be able to fit all those products in a store in the traditional way,” McComb said. “These things would typically require an extra 10,000 square feet of store space. But through partnerships like this eBay one we could do this through stores that are 2,000 square feet.”—Reuters

SAN MATEO: In this photo taken Wednesday, May 15, 2013 Wayne Losey, co-founder of Dynamo DevLabs, speaks about 3D printing during the Hardware Innovation Workshop in San Mateo, Calif. With the printers users make whatever they like, iPad stands, guitars, jewelry, someone even made a rifle. About the size of a microwave oven, the printers usually extrude plastic, layer upon layer, to create objects. Sales are projected to jump from about $1.7 billion in 2011 to $3.7 billion in 2015.—AP

Amazon launches online shopping site in India NEW DELHI: Online retail giant Amazon launched a new Internet shopping site in India yesterday, stoking already fierce competition in the fast-expanding “e-tailing” market.

Amazon.in will offer books, movies and TV shows via third parties to sidestep Indian government rules banning foreign multi-brand online retailers from selling products directly to customers. However, the US giant, which cannot match its hugely successful retail model in India due to the restrictions, will in some cases sell goods directly.

The idea is to create a “marketplace” which is a “very well accepted concept in India”, spokeswoman Meenu Handa told AFP. Amazon made its first foray into India early last year with Junglee.com, which allows customers to search for different products and

compare prices, but not buy. The world’s biggest online retailer wants to establish a strong profile in India with the e-commerce business set to boom as incomes and consumer demand climb in the country of 1.2 billion people, analysts say.

Amazon’s biggest rival is Flipkart, founded by two ex-Amazon employees in 2007. “We’re excited to get started in India,” said Amazon vice-president Greg Greeley in a statement. Last year, New Delhi eased legislation to allow foreign multi-brand retailers such as US supermarket giant Walmart to set up in India and sell directly to consumers, but online retailers were left out. India has just over 50 million active Internet users of whom around 40 percent have made purchases online, according to industry figures.—AFP

Online, at a price: Cubans get public Internet spots TAIWAN: People visit the Microsoft booth during the 2013 Computex in Taipei. Computex is Asia’s biggest annual IT trade fair. —AFP

US panel backs Samsung, bans older Apple devices WASHINGTON: Samsung won a round in its long-running patent battle with Apple on Tuesday when a US trade panel banned the import and sale of some older models of the iPhone and iPad. The quasi-judicial International Trade Commission said it issued a “limited exclusion order” for certain devices made

by Apple, in a victory for the South Korean firm after a huge loss in a court fight with its US rival last year.

The loss dealt to Apple by the ITC could make the Cupertino, Californiabased company more amenable to negotiating settlements on some of the many legal fronts where it is waging patent war with Samsung.

“Up to now, Apple has been winning the big judgments, which means there was no reason to come to the table,” said independent Silicon Valley analyst Rob Enderle.

“It looked like Apple held all the cards,” he said. “But if this holds up and both companies have something to lose, you can get negotiation.”

Tuesday’s victory could be largely symbolic because the ban covers devices that are no longer actively sold in the US market-the AT&T iPhone 4 and iPhone 3 and 3GS, as well as the iPad 3G and iPad 2 3G, also sold by AT&T. But it is likely that Samsung will explore the feasibility of launching similar legal attacks at newer products from the company, according to Enderle.

“Typically, once you win something like this you try to apply it to the new products,” the analyst said. “This may put enough risk on Apple to get them more open to talking with Samsung.”

The ITC ruling is a final order but may be appealed in the US Court of Appeals or reversed by presidential order. “We believe the ITC’s final determination has confirmed Apple’s history of free-riding on Samsung’s technological innovations,” a Samsung statement said.

“Our decades of research and development in mobile technologies will continue, and we will continue to offer innovative products to consumers in the United States.”

Apple did not immediately respond to

an AFP request for comment. The case was filed in August 2011 amid a flurry of litigation between the two rivals over patents in the hot market for tablets and smartphones.

In a separate patent fight in US federal court, Samsung was ordered last August to pay more than $1 billion for patent infringement, which also opens the door to a ban on some Samsung devices.

A judge later slashed the award to $598.9 million. Apple has been seeking to ban some of the newer 4G phones from Samsung’s Galaxy line, as well as the Droid Charge sold through Verizon in that case, which is being appealed. The news came on the same day the White House moved to crack down on abuses of the patent system, responding to mounting concern among technology companies over a flood of litigation that some say stifles innovation.

The White House said new action is needed in the face of a flood of recent patent litigation, particularly in the smartphone sector, and because “several major companies spend more on patent litigation and defensive acquisition than on research and development.”

The latest moves target so-called “patent trolls” which, according to the White House, “hijack” ideas and take other companies to court with an eye to collecting license or royalty fees.

Meanwhile, Apple has asked a federal judge in Silicon Valley to add Samsung’s new flagship Galaxy smartphone to the list of devices targeted in a patent lawsuit involving Siri personal assistant software.

The motion to amend the lawsuit to include the Galaxy S4 will be on the agenda of a June 25 hearing before US District Court Judge Paul Grewal in the California city of San Jose.

The trial is not expected to begin until early next year. After years of following and refining the iPhone’s pioneering innovations a strategy that resulted in bitter patent battles with Apple Samsung has dethroned its rival to become the world’s top smartphone maker.—AFP

HAVANA: Cubans barred from logging onto the Internet at home on Tuesday flocked to newly opened public access spots to surf an uncensored World Wide Web-if they could afford the high prices. “I was able to get onto Facebook, download some music ... and I was able to chat with my family in Italy,” said Luis Alonso, an 18-year-old student who paid to use communist Cuba’s 118 newly expanded public access web offices.

Cuba, the Americas’ only one -party Communist ruled nation for five decades, has one of the lowest Internet use rates in all of Latin America: 2.6 million in 2011 out of a population of 11.1 million, official data show.

Only doctors, journalists and certain other professionals are allowed to connect to the Web from home. Dissidents have said the government’s goal has been to control access to information and that restricting Internet access is just another form of censorship in a country where all media outlets are state-controlled.

The government long claimed it was unable to join undersea fiber-optic cable networks due to the US embargo in effect since 1962, forcing it to connect to the web via slower satellites hookups.

And the government in the past blamed limited bandwidth for restrictions on Web access, saying it is forced to “prioritize” it for “social use” purposes, with universities, companies and research centers given preference.

But now that may be changing, at least for Cuba’s financially well off. Having secured an

HAVANA: Cubans gather at a cyber place in Havana.— AFP

HAVANA: Cubans line up at a cyber place in Havana. The government opened 118 places with full internet access in 334 computers with a cost of 4.50 dollars per hour.

This is the first time that Cubans have full access to internet.—AFP undersea fiber-optic cable from Venezuela, Cuba opened the public access sites at offices of the state phone company Etesca.

The public can access the Web for $4.50 an hour, down from the previous $6.00 an hour, or check their email for an unchanged $1.50 an hour. With almost all Cubans-from doctors to street sweepers-earning around $20 a month, even the reduced rate will likely only appeal to those receiving money from abroad or earning hard currency tips in the tourism industry.

“As low as the (access fees) may seem, they are still high in comparison with salaries we earn,” Tania Molina, a doctor, said. “So we’ll just continue as before.” But a few of the more fortunate gave it a go with the World Wide Web. “The hardest thing for me was to upload photos on Facebook; I guess the size of the files was too large,” Alonso told AFP. He was among a group of people logging on to check out Twitter, Facebook, other social media and international media at one of the new access points in Havana’s landmark Focsa Building.

Yoeldis Rodriguez, 34 and an employee at the government’s Cuban Institute of Radio and TV, said the price tag meant she would just check her email, or use the Cuban-media only intranet.

“I know the government said it needs to recoup on its investment... but the price is astronomical,” she said. “For the average Cuban, it just cannot be paid, especially international access.”

“It is a step forward in the sense that before, you did not even have this,” she said, adding: “How big of a step forward may be debatable.”

Some people said they felt intimidated because they had to show their government ID cards to get their web surfing passes.

Yet once they were online, they were surfing censorship-free, even to sites virulently opposed to Cuba’s government, AFP observed. There was a lot of bottled-up demand for Internet access in many of Cuba’s provinces.

In Holguin, in the east, a line of 15 people snaked outside one of the new web-access spots, one new web surfer told AFP. At one spot in Cienfuegos, a line of 20 people backed up waiting to log on, an employee said. Just last week a senior official had denied that public access to the Internet was being limited in Cuba for political reasons, insisting it was due to “technological and financial” considerations. “At this moment, it’s not possible to immediately generalize access to the Internet,” Cuban deputy communications minister Wilfredo Gonzalez told the state newspaper Granma. Opposition blogger Yoani Sanchez, better known outside Cuba than within the country due to state media control, urged Cubans to use the access they have.“Despite the high cost, which is the small print on this contract, and our not being allowed to have Internet access at home, we have to move into these little cracks in the wall,” she wrote.—AFP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

War-scarred Liberia battles its ‘demons’ Epilepsy seen as work of witchcraft

NEBRASKA CITY: An artist’s impression shows Barbatuex Morrisoni ‘Morrison’s bearded King’ named after Jim Morrison, the singer of the Doors whose nickname was the Lizard King.— AFP

Lizard King: Giant reptile named after Jim Morrison PARIS: A giant lizard that lived 40 million years ago at a time when Earth was a hothouse has been named in honor of rock singer Jim Morrison, palaeontologists said yesterday.

Around 1.80m (six feet) from snout to tail and tipping the scales at up to 27 kilos (60 pounds), the plant-eating reptile is one of the biggest-known lizards ever to have lived on land. It competed with mammals for food in the humid tropical forests of Southeast Asia. A fossil of the beast, found in sediment in Sagaing district in Myanmar, has been dated to the late-middle Eocene period, when Earth was so hot there was no ice at its poles.

“We think the warm climate during that period of time allowed the evolution of a large body size and the ability of plant-eat-

ing lizards to successfully compete in mammal faunas,” said Jason Head of the University of Nebraska at Lincoln who led the analysis. The palaeontologists have named the long-extinct species Barbaturex morrisoni. “Barbaturex” means “bearded king,” after the team found ridges on the underside of the jaw that give lizards a beard-like appearance. “Morrisoni” is in tribute to Doors frontman Morrison, famed for his fascination with reptiles and shamanism. “I was listening to The Doors quite a bit during research,” said Head. “Some of their musical imagery includes reptiles and ancient places, and Jim Morrison was of course the Lizard King, so it kind of came together.” The study appears in the British scientific journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.—AFP

Sebelius says she talked to health firms on Obamacare outreach WASHINGTON: US Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said on Tuesday that she talked to three healthcare companies about a private nonprofit group helping to implement healthcare reform, but she denied asking for donations. In her first public comments on an issue Republicans have sought to portray as a scandal, Sebelius vigorously defended her efforts to rally private support for a summer outreach campaign to persuade uninsured Americans to sign up for subsidized health coverage through new online state insurance marketplaces. Republicans in the House of Representatives have launched a probe of her fundraising efforts, while party members in both the House and Senate have asked for outside probes to determine whether the secretary was illegally trying to circumvent Congress or violated ethics rules by seeking funds from companies she regulates. In testimony before the House Education and the Workplace Committee, President Barack Obama’s top healthcare adviser said her actions were sanctioned by long-standing health law and match steps taken by her predecessors to promote new program rollouts in the past, including Medicare drug benefits. “I could legally solicit funds from anybody regulated by our office. I chose not to do that. But promoting a public-private partnership? You bet,” Sebelius said.

Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is expected to extend health coverage to well over 25 million uninsured Americans during the next decade through subsidized marketplaces and an expansion of the Medicaid program for the poor.

But as administration officials have raced to implement the law by Jan. 1, Republicans have repeatedly blocked public money for the effort and now accuse Sebelius of seeking private support for implementation in an attempt to circumvent them. The Department of Health and Human Services has said that since March, Sebelius phoned

the nonprofit Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and tax adviser H&R Block to seek financial assistance for Enroll America, which will serve as a private sector flagship for a campaign coordinated with outreach efforts by states and the federal government.

“Those are the only two conversations I’ve had about contributing resources,” she told lawmakers. Neither the foundation nor H&R Block is regulated by HHS. But Sebelius disclosed on Tuesday that she also phoned medical products maker Johnson & Johnson, Catholic health system Ascension Health and private healthcare system Kaiser Permanente to talk about Enroll America. All three are regulated by HHS, but the secretary said she asked none for money. Johnson & Johnson spokesman Ernie Knewitz said Sebelius talked to the company in April and that it has made no contribution to Enroll America. Ascension Health and Kaiser Permanente had no immediate comment. Representative Tom Price, a Georgia Republican, asked about media reports that she solicited funds from the healthcare industry. “No, sir. That is not true,” she replied. Representative Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, wanted to know what she would say if healthcare executives felt pressured to contribute money: “Your response would be what?

That they’re just too easily pressured or that they misunderstood the conversation?” “I can’t answer what they felt,” Sebelius said. “I have had conversations with people all across this country including insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and others using the statutory authority that is clearly given to the secretary of health.”

In tense questioning, Gowdy pressed Sebelius to identify who in the administration she consulted in planning the fundraising phone calls: “I’m looking for a name. Can I get a name? I’m looking for a name and you said ‘we’. Who’s we? Did you ever discuss it with anyone at the White House?” he asked. “No, sir,” she replied.— Reuters

MONROVIA: Elijah Rufus was 10 years old when a spiritual healer in the Liberian capital Monrovia doused him with chicken’s blood and declared that his frequent convulsions were the result of demonic possession. A doctor could have told the scared young boy he had epilepsy, but instead he was subjected to years of spiritual healing, prolonged prayer sessions and fasting as his health declined.

“Elijah was always falling over and often saliva would spill out of his mouth. He was always convulsing,” said his aunt Korpo Moiseemah, recalling the onset of his symptoms in 2009.

Moiseemah recalled how she took Elijah, now 14, to a traditional healer who killed a chicken and then spilled the blood in a bucket of water and used it to bathe the boy, pronouncing that he was possessed by demons. The healer told her to buy him a goat to sacrifice and pay $200 (150 euros) in cash.

“I bought the goat and presented it to him. He killed it and used the blood to bathe Elijah like he did the first time when he killed the chicken,” Moiseemah told AFP. “He gave (Elijah) a liquid concoction mixed with all sorts of things for the boy to drink. With this blood sacrifice, he said Elijah was freed. After using the blood for his ritual, he then cooked the goat and ate it.” As time went on, Elijah’s condition deteriorated. A number of other healers were consulted in the following years-always to no avail.

He went from one witch doctor to the other in his mother’s home county of Lofa, in northern Liberia, as well as Christian churches in Monrovia, where he lives with his aunt.

Volunteers watched over him as he was forced into long sessions of fasting and prayer for weeks at a time. Elijah’s story is all too common in deeply superstitious Liberia, where epilepsy, a neurological condition which causes seizures, is often perceived as the work of witchcraft or evil spirits.

The Carter Center, a global human rights organization, estimates that less than one percent of Liberians have access to mental or neurological health services, with most preferring to consult traditional healers.

The country of four million people has one practicing psychiatrist, University of Liberia professor Benjamin Harris; one dedicated treatment centre and fewer than 100 clinicians working in neurology and mental health. “Many people here have a misunderstanding of what seizure disorder or epilepsy is. People think that epilepsy is something that has to do with witchcraft or possession by demons or some contagious disease,” Harris told AFP “And so, initiatives for treatment are based on the conceptual beliefs of these peo-

MONROVIA: Elijah Rufus (right), 14, poses with his aunt Karpo Moiseemah at his home in the Zubah Town area of Monrovia, Liberia, where he is recovering from years of seizures caused by epilepsy. Rufus was 10 years old when a spiritual healer in Monrovia doused him with chicken’s blood and declared that his frequent convulsions were the result of demonic possession. — AFP ple.” But epilepsy isn’t the only mental health Chinese clinic in town, he was diagnosed as havissue plaguing Liberia, a country traumatised by ing epilepsy and placed in treatment,” his aunt a civil war spanning three decades which left said. The clinic, a practitioner of modern Western 250,000 dead and many more psychologically medicine, prescribed him phenobarbital, a comdamaged by the time a fragile peace arrived in mon anti-convulsive, and he quickly began to improve. Yet even after his diagnosis, Elijah was 2003.

The Carter Center says around 40 percent of shocked to find he was shunned by friends and Liberians suffer from depression while a similar neighbors who believed epilepsy was a far scarinumber have post-traumatic stress disorders er prospect than demonic possession.

“I still had a few friends coming around even related to atrocities perpetrated during the conflict. Harris said he had carried out a study several when they heard that I was possessed but soon years ago revealing that 75 percent of people those few friends stopped coming when they with mental health issues or neurological condi- heard I was diagnosed as being epileptic,” he tions would go to a traditional healer. “It is still said. “The general feeling was that they could happening. Lots of people still seek traditional or come into contact with the disease if they kept religious interventions before going to hospital coming around me.” The Carter Center says it is raising awareness of the causes of neurological for a check-up,” he told AFP. Harris said that while many Liberians prac- conditions in Liberia, attacking the stigma surtised psychiatry abroad, few would give up lucra- rounding mental health problems and helping tive careers overseas to return to Liberia, one of the country to develop policies to combat disthe world’s poorest countries where the average crimination.

“The stigma against people with mental illwage is less than $700 a year.

Lawmakers are considering legislation to pro- ness is high in Liberia and all over the world,” said mote the rights of people with mental or neuro- Janice Cooper, the organization’s mental health logical disorders, outlaw discrimination and pre- project leader in Liberia.

“We know that many people believe that vent thousands of treatable patients from falling mental illness is a result of witchcraft or spoiled through the net each year.

Elijah was one of Liberia’s lucky few who even- medicine or may be contagious. These are all tually got help. “When we finally took Elijah to a things that are misconceptions,” she said. — AFP

Mystery deepens over US GM wheat CHIC AGO/K ANSAS CIT Y: The Oregon field in which a farmer found sprouts of unauthorized genetically modified wheat was never used to study altered varieties, a lawyer for the grower said on Tuesday. The farmer has “no idea” how the altered wheat made it into his 125-acre field, said Tim Bernasek, a partner at the Portland law firm Dunn Carney.

The disclosures heightened the mystery that has swirled around the farm since the US Department of Agriculture said last week that the strain, modified by seed giant M onsanto Co to tolerate treatments of weed killer, was found.

Monsanto said it had ended its research into the “Roundup Ready” spring wheat nine years ago. At the time, there was broad opposition from international buyers who threatened to boycott the US market. Genetically modified wheat is still not approved for cultivation anywhere in the world.

Buyers in Asia and Europe immediately shunned US wheat purchases after the USDA revealed the discovery of the rogue wheat in Oregon.

South Korea and Japan have suspended some US wheat purchases, while the European Union said it would step up testing. The

USDA and Monsanto are investigating but say they do not know how widespread the presence of the unapproved wheat is. The genetically modified wheat was found on about 1 percent of the farmer’s field and was not concentrated in a single area, Bernasek said.

It was discovered after unwanted “volunteer” seedlings survived when sprayed with the weed killer glyphosate, which led to tests that identified the wheat as a Monsanto strain. The field was planted with two varieties of seeds, called WB528 and Rod, that were also used on other fields that have tested negative for the unauthorized strain, Bernasek said.

WB-528 is a variet y of sof t white winter wheat sold by WestBred, which was bought by Monsanto in 2009. Rod is a variety of sof t white wheat that was released by Washington State University in 1992.

The farmer does not want to talk to the media about his discover y because of USDA’s ongoing investigation, according to his lawyer. “He’s confident that he did the right thing,” Bernasek said.

“He’s doing everything he can to work with USDA.” As investigators probe the

issue, some $9 billion in US wheat exports hang in the balance. The United States, the world’s largest farm exporter, exports nearly half of its wheat crop.

Heavy criticism has already hit Monsanto, including a lawsuit filed M onday by a US farmer who is alleging the seed company was negligent in allowing its experimental seed to escape its control.

Monsanto countered that its wheat development program was “government-directed, rigorous and well-documented and audited.” The field trials were conducted under a streamlined system known as “notification,” which is more lenient than the tightly controlled permitting process.

Under the permit process, companies must establish buffer areas around field trial sites to help avoid contamination of neighboring fields; to use only dedicated machinery and storage facilities for GMO material; and train personnel.

Annual inspections are required.

Under the notification process, there are fewer field inspections and regulators rely largely on developers like Monsanto for evaluating and reporting the adequacy of their controls.

Over time, more and more field trials have come under the notifi-

cation process and it now accounts for the vast majority of field trials on biotech crops.

I n light of the discover y in Oregon, USDA should assess its review process, said US Sen Jeff Merkley of Oregon. “This incident underscores the need for an agenc y review of field-testing prac tices to determine how to avoid this situation in the future,” he said.

Foreign distrust of biotech crops and US regulators’ ability to keep them separate from conventional crops has a long histor y.

When Monsanto was moving to bring its biotech wheat to market nine years ago, foreign buyers threatened to boycott all US wheat purchases rather than risk getting shipments that contained genetic modification.

US Wheat Associates, the industry organization that markets US wheat to international buyers, claims as its slogan “ The world’s most reliable choice,” and has worked for more than a decade to try to assure world buyers that any release of genetically modified wheat will be well regulated and controlled. But the contamination issue undermines that effort, said Dawn Forsythe, former director of public affairs for US Wheat.—Reuters

Endangered elephant killings rising in Indonesia JAKARTA: Poisoning or shooting killed many of the 129 critically endangered elephants that have died on Indonesia’s Sumatra island in less than a decade, highlighting weak enforcement of laws against poaching, an environmental group says.

WWF Indonesia said killings of Sumatran elephants are on the rise, with 29 either shot or poisoned last year, including 14 in Aceh province. The group said Tuesday that no one has been convicted or jailed in the deaths that were counted in Riau province since 2004.

The report came three days after two dead Sumatran elephants were found near a paper plantation in Riau, allegedly poisoned by poachers. Another elephant was killed last month near Tesso Nilo national park and its tusks were hacked off. An autopsy found a plastic detergent wrapper in its belly filled with poison.

The group said 59 percent of the dead

elephants were definitely poisoned, 13 percent were suspected to have been poisoned, and 5 percent were killed by gunshots. Others died from illness or other causes, or the reason for their death was unknown.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature listed the animals as “critically endangered” after their numbers dropped to between 2,400 and 2,800 from an estimated 5,000 in 1985.

Environmentalists say the elephants could be extinct within three decades unless they are protected. The decline is largely due to destruction of their habitat. Forests across Sumatra are being logged for timber, palm oil, and pulp and paper. Sumatra has some of the most significant populations of Asian elephants outside of India and Sri Lanka and is also home to tigers, orangutans and rhinos.

“Effective action on the ground

should be taken immediately to protect Sumatran elephants from extinction, especially in Riau,” the report said. There are about 300 elephants left in Riau, which is part of Sumatra island. Achmad Saeroji, head of the government conservation agency in Riau, denied the allegation of lax law enforcement, saying at least eight cases have been handled by authorities recently.

“We always investigate every case of elephants found dead,” he said. “But it is hard to capture the perpetrators, either because of late reports or the fear of people to report the poachers, who work in a network.”

Indonesia’s elephants sometimes venture into populated areas searching for food. They destroy crops or attack humans, making them unpopular with villagers. Some are shot or poisoned with cyanide-laced fruit, while others are killed by poachers for their ivory. — AP

Reporters take pictures of a dead Sumatran elephants allegedly poisoned by poachers for its tusks, in Bireum Bayeun, Aceh province, Indonesia. — AP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

H E A LT H & S C I E N C E

Health, tax issues stir controversy in US WASHINGTON: Health benefits and taxes for undocumented foreigners emerged on Tuesday as thorny issues in the US immigration debate as the Senate prepared to consider changes to a sweeping bill next week. A bipartisan group of senators are courting Republicans in hopes of reaching the minimum of 60 votes needed for passage. The centerpiece of the bill is a provision to grant legal status and a 13-year path to citizenship for the roughly 11 million undocumented immigrants, provided they pay fines totaling $2,000 and back taxes the government says they owe. The legislation would also spend billions to bolster security along the southern border with Mexico.

It would expand the number of visas available for high-skilled workers and create new visa programs for low-skilled workers such as janitors, construction workers and farm workers.

But some Republicans, including Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, have indicated that the price of their vote might be tougher provisions for those seeking legal status. This poses a dilemma for the bipartisan Gang of Eight, which wrote the bill, and sought to achieve a balance between Democrats who want to ensure that the route to legalization is workable and Republicans who want to make sure that it is not overly lenient. Hatch said his proposed changes to the bill would make it more “palatable” to those who object to its current form. “This bill isn’t going to pass without some of those amendments and some additional ones,” he told reporters. “I want to get the bill so that it will pass so that it will have broad bipartisan

support.” One of Hatch’s amendments would require workers to show that they have paid taxes for all work they did from the time they entered the country. The bill would allow undocumented immigrants to gain temporary legal status within six months.

After 10 years, they would be eligible for permanent legal status and could gain citizenship after another three. Its current provisions would require that people applying for legal status pay any back taxes that the Internal Revenue Service, the tax-collection agency, says they owe.

Hatch’s amendment would shift the burden for calculating back taxes from the IRS to the worker. In the current bill, newly legalized immigrants would need to wait a minimum of 10 years to be eligible for federal subsidies to help them purchase health insurance under President Barack Obama’s 2010 health law. One of Hatch’s amendments would delay eligibility for another five years. “You might as well not pass this bill,” David Leopold, general counsel for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said of Hatch’s proposals. He said the requirement on back taxes would prevent many people from gaining legal status. Calculating the taxes would be difficult because many employers would have little incentive to help workers compile their records. “It cuts right into the whole purpose of this legalization program, and that’s to give these people a tough but reasonable way to earn lawful permanent residency and compliance with the law,” Leopold said. At least one Republican author of the Senate bill, Senator Lindsey

Graham of South Carolina, was sympathetic to that view. “I want anybody that owes back taxes to pay them. But when you are talking about a system where a lot of people got paid under the table with cash, it could be problematic,” Graham said. It could cost more to enforce such a law, he said, than it would generate in tax revenue.

But another Gang of Eight Republican, Senator John McCain of Arizona, said the back-taxes provision might not be too high a hurdle for those who want to become citizens. “I think it will be difficult and I think it should be difficult to become a citizen of the United States,” he told reporters.

Graham said he did think there were the votes to pass the Senate bill. “Yeah, we have 60, I’m sure,” he said. Democratic leaders in the Senate are aiming to pass legislation before the July 4 holiday. It is unclear when or whether the House of Representatives will introduce a comprehensive immigration bill. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte predicted that the lower chamber could pass immigration legislation by August but did not provide specifics on what kind of bill. Goodlatte’s committee, which oversees immigration, has avoided dealing with the 11 million illegal immigrants and is considering a series of individual bills to increase work visas and require employers to electronically verify the immigration status of potential employees.

The Senate and House must pass identical bills before President Barack Obama can sign one into law. — Reuters

More proof needed for weight-loss surgery WASHINGTON: A gastric bypass or other type of weight-loss surgery can help diabetics who are moderately obese but more proof is needed before promoting them on a wider scale, a study said Tuesday. “Bariatric surgery for diabetic people who are not severely obese has shown promising results in controlling glucose,” said Melinda Maggard-Gibbons, the study’s lead author and a surgeon at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“However, we need more information about the long-term benefits and risks before recommending bariatric surgery over nonsurgical weight-loss treatment for these individuals.”

The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is based on a review of evidence supporting the use of bariatric surgery to treat people who are diabetic and who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30 to 35 —

considered on the low end of the obesity spectrum.

It found that diabetics with moderate obesity lost more weight and had better glucose control over two years if they got such surgery rather than opting for nonsurgical treatment like dieting and drugs.

Patients who had a gastric bypass saw better results-more short term weight loss and better control of blood sugar levels-than those who underwent gastric banding.

But the researchers said the findings stem from a relatively small number of trials and that more studies are neededincluding on how patients did after two or more years, as well as complication rates and side effects. The US Food and Drug Administration has approved gastric banding for people with a BMI of 30 to 35 who have an illness linked to obesity. — AFP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

AUK announces winners of ‘President’s Exhibition’ competition

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hat’s more fun than clicking a beautiful picture? Sharing it with others! Let other people see the way you see Kuwait - through your lens. Friday Times will feature snapshots of Kuwait through Instagram feeds. If you want to share your Instagram photos, email us at instagram@kuwaittimes.net

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bdellatif Sharaa is proud of his grandson who completed his 8th month. Saleh who lives in Buffalo, N.Y with his parents enjoys the outdoors life, and that is evident in this photo in a Supermarket...May Allah bless him.

Announcement Raghav Juyal show tomorrow he Dancing Divas is organizing its 5th Annual Jubilation on the 7th of June 2013 at Cambridge School, Mangaf, between 6:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. The program will be attended by Raghav Juyal (Dance India Dance Fame) who will be judging the show as well as entertaining the audience with his dance performances. Another highlight of the show is the presence of Raja Sagoo (Comedy Circus Fame) who will be anchor for the event. Raghav will also be conducting a dance workshop on the 8th of June at the Salmiya Model School. Workshop will be for participants within the age group of 8 and 30 and will be open for registration till the 30th of May.

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he American University of Kuwait announced the winners of the student competition for the Spring 2013 President’s Exhibition. The winning artwork was selected fromthe “best of the best” student class work from the previous semester. All entries were submitted to the competition by the AUK ART and Graphic Design professors. The Exhibition includes painting, drawing, graphic design, cut paper, and photography work juried for creativity, originality, and technique.

The student work chosen for the current exhibition was made in classes taught by AUK Art and Graphic Design professors Sharon Orleans Lawrence, Maryam Hosseinnia,George Bauer, and William Andersen. In addition, there was work included in the exhibition that was created by Professors Sharon Orleans Lawrence, Maryam Hosseinnia, and Antonia Stamos.

The 19 students with winning artwork are: Aisha Jiran, Manal Adra, Batoul Al Mesri, May Yassin, Aya Kandel,Maitha AlJassmi, Dalal Al-Mahdi, Sayed Hashim Altabtabai, Abdulrahman ben Essa, AssemMalallah, Fajer Al-Tifouni, Hassan Abdozzahraei, Noor Al Hamad, AeshaBorahma, Anwar Behbehani, Noor Al-Sabah, Moustafa El Khashab, Nadia Abdullah, and Rawan Al-Hussaini Winners received certificates signed

by AUK Interim President and Provost, Dr Nizar Hamzeh.They and their parents were honored at a reception, where Dr Hamzeh delivered hisopening remarks, stressing the importance of holding these gatherings that bring the president, the students and their parents together in a family atmosphere to celebrate the work of the talented students.

The current exhibition will be displayed in the president’s office for six months, on view for the University, as well as dignitaries and other honored visitors to the

University. “As always, it is a pleasure to present the best work of the previous semester in the Art and Graphic Design Department. The President’s Exhibition is especially close to my heart, because the faculty chooses the best work from their classes to enter in the competition; often the students don’t even know their work

is being considered until they are notified that they have won. It’s always good to honor students who excel, and we appreciate the enthusiastic support we have received from Interim President Nizar Hamzeh,” said Professor Sharon Orleans Lawrence, Chair of the Art and Graphic Design Department

The AUK President’s Exhibition is an excellent opportunity for students, increasing student pride in execution, rewarding excellent work, and providing a valuable accomplishment on student resumes as they graduate and go from AUK to graduate school or the workplace.

IMAX

IMAX film program Thursday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 5:30pm, 8:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 11:30am Tornado Alley 3D 12:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 6:30pm Friday: Fires of Kuwait Tornado Alley 3D3:30pm, 5:30pm, 8:30pm To The Arctic 3D 4:30pm, 7:30pm Flight of Butterflies 3D Born to be Wild 3D

2:30pm

6:30pm 9:30pm

Saturday: ** 9:30am Showtime Available for Groups Flight of Butterflies 3D 10:30am, 1:30pm, 8:30pm Tornado Alley 3D11:30am, 2:30pm, 5:30pm, 7:30pm, 9:30pm To The Arctic 3D 12:30pm, 6:30pm Born to be Wild 3D 3:30pm Journey to Mecca 4:30pm

KSNA Kuwait to hold theatre festival

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erala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi’s Kuwait Chapter proposes to hold a theatre festival of amateur troupes for Malayali theatre artists in Kuwait in December this year. ‘Pravasi Theatre Awards’ instituted by the Akademi will be given to the winners of the drama competition to be conducted in tandem with other KSNA chapters across the Gulf zone.

The festival will be held in two or three days depending on the number of entries. Announcing the theatre festival at a press conference in Kuwait on Tuesday, KSNA Kuwait Chapter Chairman Pancily Varkey said, the chapter would like to invite entries from various amateur Malayali theatre groups in Kuwait.

“The script must be original and written by a

Malayali living in Kuwait and the duration of the play must be 90-minute,” Varkey further said. “We all know there are many theatre groups in Kuwait. We request all our Malayali theatre lovers in Kuwait to make this initiative a success,” he added.

Well-known filmmaker and KSNA central committee member Joshy Mathew said the judging panel will be sent from Kerala who will adjudge the best pravasi theatre artists. “Sangeetha Nataka Akademi is keen on promoting and recognizing pravasi artists. This theatre festival is its first initiative,” Joshy Mathew, who is also in charge of Kuwait and Bahrain Chapters of the KSNA said.

Earlier, KSNA Kuwait Chapter Coordinator Sajeev K Peter, in his introductory remarks, gave an overview of

the KSNA Kuwait. Other members of the KSNA Kuwait Ad-Hoc committee Thomas Mathew Kadavil, B S Pillai, Babuji Batheri, Adv Johney Kunnil and K K Sehemj Kumar were also present during the press conference.

The Ad-Hoc committee for the KSNA Kuwait Chapter was constituted on March 14, 2013 at a meeting presided over by KSNA Chairman Soorya Krishnamoorthy.

The chapter was formed with a view to identifying and recognizing pravasi artists in the fields of theatre and music. Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi, founded on 26 April 1958 under the Department of Culture, nourishes and encourages various forms of dance, music, drama and folk arts of Kerala.

Notes: All films are in Arabic. For English, headsets are available upon request.

“Fires of Kuwait” is in English. Arabic headsets are available upon request.

Film schedule is subject to changes without notice.

Write to us Send to What’s On upcoming events, birthdays or celebrations by email: local@kuwaittimes.net Fax: 24835619 / 20

Kottayam paurasamithi (citizen forum) gave a reception to the visiting Kerala Home Minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan and cine director Joshy Mathew. The minister also inaugurated Gulf Pravasi Cultural Congress office in Abbassiya in another function.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

W H AT ’ S O N

Embassy Information EMBASSY OF AUSTRALIA The Australian Embassy Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visas and immigration matters in conducted by The Australian Consulate-General in Dubai. Email: info.ausdxb@vfshelpline.com (VFS) immigration.dubai@dfat.gov.au (Visa Office); Tel: +971 4 355 1958 (VFS) - +971 4 508 7200 (Visa Office); Fax: +971 4 355 0708 (Visa Office). In Kuwait applications can be lodged at the Australian Visa Application Centre 4B 1st Floor, Al-Banwan Building Al-Qibla Area, Ali Al-Salem Street, opposite the Central Bank of Kuwait, Kuwait City, Kuwait.

Working hours and days: 09:30 - 17:30; Sunday Thursday. Or visit their website www.vfs-au-gcccom for more information. Kuwait citizens can apply for tourist visas on-line at www.immi.gov.au/e visa/e676.htm.

GUST staff, students represent Kuwait at 3rd Regional Conference for Public Relations

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EMBASSY OF CANADA The Embassy of Canada in Kuwait does not have a visa or immigration department. All processing of visa and immigration matters including enquiries is conducted by the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, UAE. Individuals who are interested in working, studying, visiting or immigrating to Canada should contact the Canadian Embassy in Abu Dhabi, website: www.UAE.gc.ca or www.goingtocanada.gc.ca, Email: abdbi-im-enquiry@international.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is located at Villa 24, AlMutawakei St, Block 4 in Da’aiyah. Please visit our website at www.Kuwait.gc.ca. The Embassy of Canada is open from 07:30 to 15:30 Sunday through Thursday. The reception is open from 07:30 to 12:30. Consular services for Canadian citizens are provided from 09:00 until 12:00, Sunday through Wednesday. nnnnnnn

G

ulf University for Science and Technology (GUST) staff: Joanne Al-Abduljalil, Ibrahim AlMutawa and Ahmad Ali along with students: Rawan Al-Sharif and Bedour Al-Bedaiwi attended the 3rd Public Relations Regional Conference held and hosted in Doha, Qatar as representatives for Kuwait and GUST. Under the sponsorship of Wataniya Telecom, the representatives spent three days in Qatar attending conference seminars with its various workshops during the day, and later visiting Doha’s diverse sites in the evening.

Conference President and Head Organizer, Jassim Fakhro, greeted all new-comers on the first day with his opening speech and talked about the role of public relations in the society and how it reflects the vital and essential role of public relations in development efforts and achieving the vision of GCC countries for a better future. The conference gathered various industry leaders in the field of Public Relations and Communications from various countries in the Arab region. Its main objective was for attendees to exchange ideas and

EMBASSY OF US Parents of Kuwaiti citizen children may drop off their sons’ and daughters’ visa applications - completely free of an interview or a trip inside the Embassy. The children must be under 14 years of age, and additional requirements do apply, but the service means parents will no longer have to schedule individual appointments for their children, nor come inside the Embassy (unless they are applying for themselves). The service is only available for children holding Kuwaiti passports. To take advantage, parents must drop off the following documents: Child Visa Drop-off cover sheet, available on the Embassy website (http://kuwait.usembassy.gov/child_visas.htm) - Child’s passport; The Child’s previous passport, if it contains a valid US visa; 5x5cm photo of child with eyes open (if uploaded into DS160, photos must be a .jpg between 600x600 and 1200x1200 pixels, less than 240kb, and cannot be digitally altered); A completed DS160 form; Visa Fee Receipt from Burgan Bank; A copy of the valid visa of at least one parent. If one parent will not travel, provide a visa copy for the traveling parent, and a passport copy from the non-traveling parent with a letter stating no objection to the child’s travel. - For children of students (F2): a copy of the child’s I20.

Children born in the US (with very few exceptions) are US citizens and would not be eligible for a visa. Parents may drop off the application packet at Window 2 at the Embassy from 1:00 to 3:00 PM, Monday to Wednesday, excluding holidays. More information is available on the U.S. Embassy website: kuwait.usembassy.gov/child_visas.html

experiences on the latest trends and challenges and solutions for PR in theGulf region.

The second day of the conference consisted of workshops where each delegate was given the opportunity to choose which workshop to participate in.

GUST staff and students were some of the workshops’ most active participants as each delegate was eager to lead their group and speak publically to present the final campaigns they came up with. The conference ended with a closing ceremony with various business leaders, including the President of the International PR Association, and PR instructors sharing their experiences in the field.

The conference was an enjoyable and educational experience for all attendees. Delegates left having learned new lessons about public relations and developed better communication skills and techniques. The sessions and workshops of the conference were carefully selected to provide a platform for the best experts of public relations regionally, globally, and from the Arab world.

IMWA convenes Edumeet 2013

EMBASSY GREECE The Embassy of Greece in Kuwait has the pleasure to announce that visa applications must be submitted to Schengen Visa Application Centre (VFS office) located at 12th floor, Al-Naser Tower, Fahad Al-Salem Street, AlQibla area, Kuwait City, (Parking at Souk Watia). For information please call 22281046 from 08:30 to 17:00 (Sunday to Thursday). Working hours: Submission from 08:30 to 15:30. Passport collection from 16:00 to 17:00. For visa applications please visit the following website www.mfa.gr/kuwait.

I

ndian Muslims Welfare Association (IMWA) Edumeet 2013 was conducted at Salmiya Indian Model School on May 24, 2013. EDUMEET is an opportunity for Indian students to demonstrate their talents in the arena of public speaking and essay writing. The hall was filled with enthusiastic students, parents, teachers and IMWA members. The program was hosted by Mr. Mohammed Khalid and Mr. Mir Abrar Ali. The event comprised of essay writing competition and extempore inter-school debate competition. The event started by the recitation of the Holy Quran by Master Mohammed Adeel and the English translation by Aijaz Ahmed. This was followed by the essay writing competition. Essay writing participants were divided into three groups i.e. Group A (Class VII - VIII), Group B (Class IX - X) and Group C (Class XI - XII). Each group was given a separate topic with a time limit of 30 minutes and maximum 250 words. A panel of six eminent judges was given the tough task of selecting the winners from each group.

Next was the extempore debate competition. Nine teams from Indian schools participated in the debate. Two talented participants were nominated by each school. The debate topics were drawn at the venue by the participants themselves and then were given 45 minutes to prepare before they presented their arguments to the audience one for and the other against the topic.

A panel of four eminent adjudicators, Dr Sabiha Bilgrami from Kuwait University, Aslam Imadi from KOC, Toastmaster Anil Lobo and Toastmaster Bobby Hoxit evaluated the participants’ performance simultaneously. The evaluation was processed online with the data entered by the judges transmitted live to the moderators, Dr Nazish Mohiuddin

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and Mohammad Zahid.

Extempore debate is a challenge even for seasoned orators but the eighteen debate participants took up this challenge and demonstrated their public speaking skills. Their confidence, oratory talent, stage presence was a treat to watch. They had the audience spellbound by convincingly expressing their point of view and citing excellent examples.

IMWA President Mohammed Manshauddin in his speech mentioned the difference this year was the debate format which was extempore. He reminded the participants that all of them were very lucky to be able to participate and showcase their speaking skills in events such as the Edumeet.

Lastly, he congratulated each participant for their interest, dedication and contribution.

The President of FIMA Mukhtar Marouf was the next to give a speech. He

said that the debate competition is very useful for preparing students for their future career. He explained that a good debate is one in which you put your visions and views in a very clear perspective, without having any controversies or contradictions in it. He concluded his speech by congratulating all the participants, and encouraged them by saying that every participant is a winner.

The Indian Ambassador to Kuwait Satish Mehta graced the occasion as chief guest. In his speech, Satish Mehta encouraged the participants to continue grabbing opportunities for improving their talents. He mentioned that IMWA should also continue conducting such events that can help students a lot. He concluded by congratulating all the winners and participants.

The judges of the extempore debate competition were also asked to say a few words. Bobby Hobbit said she had truly enjoyed listening to all the students who

had participated in the debate. She sincerely thanked IMWA for inviting her. Dr Sabiha Bilgrami said that each contestant had done an admirable job, as it takes a lot of guts to deliver a speech.

She said she firmly believed that every participant is a winner. Mr. Anil Lobo said that all of the 18 students from the 9 schools had done a marvelous job, and had indeed entertained and educated him. He felt that it shouldn’t be the adults educating the children, but the children educating the adults. Aslam Imadi said he was surprised by the great score of intelligence, knowledge and ideas that the students possess. He hoped for India to have a very bright future coming up.

The results of both the essay writing and debate competition were declared immediately after the event and certificates and prizes were distributed to the winners by the Indian Ambassador Satish Mehta.

EMBASSY OF SOUTH KOREA The Embassy of the Republic of Korea in Kuwait will organize 2013 K-POP Contest on Thursday, June 6, 2013 at 6:00 pm. The aim of the contest is to provide an opportunity to the participants to showcase their exciting talents to the audience. Everyone is encouraged to participate in the contest. Application forms can be downloaded from the Embassy’s website: http://kwt.mofa.go.kr (Select English from the menu at the top of the page then Bilateral Relations) or visit the “Korean Culture Diwaniya” Facebook Group. Interested applicants must send their application forms to Kuwait@mofa.go.kr by 24 May 2013. nnnnnnn

EMBASSY OF SOUTH AFRICA On the occasion of Al-Esra Wa Al-Meraj, the South African Embassy will be closed on Thursday, 6 June 2013. The Embassy will resume its normal working hours on Sunday, 9 June 2013, from Sunday to Thursday. Please note that the Working hours will be from 8 to 4 & the Consular Section operation hours will from 8-30 to 12-30.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

TV PROGRAMS 01:00 The Hollow Crown 02:00 Switched At Birth 14:35 15:05 15:30 16:00 16:55 17:50 18:45 19:40 20:05 20:35 21:00 21:30 22:25 23:20 00:15 01:10

14:50 15:45 16:40 17:35 18:00 18:25 19:20 20:10 21:05 22:00 22:55 23:50 00:45 01:10 01:35

14:20 14:45 15:10 16:00 16:55 17:45 18:35 19:00 19:30 19:55 20:20 21:10 21:35 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:40 00:05 00:30 01:00 01:50

Border Security Auction Hunters Auction Kings Fast N’ Loud Gold Rush Mythbusters Sons Of Guns How Stuff Works How It’s Made Auction Hunters Storage Hunters Sons Of Guns Amish Mafia Hellriders Sons Of Guns Amish Mafia

Combat Countdown Animal Armageddon HMS Ark Royal Chasing Classic Cars Chasing Classic Cars Surviving Extreme Weather American Car Prospector Tattoo Hunter Trashopolis American Car Prospector Jack The Ripper In America LA: City Of Demons Chasing Classic Cars Chasing Classic Cars American Car Prospector

Food Factory Food Factory Scrapheap Challenge Future Weapons Robotica Voyage Dans L’espace-Temps The Gadget Show The Tech Show Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger Finding Bigfoot Food Factory Food Factory Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger Bigger, Better, Faster, Stronger Colony Food Factory Food Factory Sci-Fi Science Finding Bigfoot Colony

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Storage Wars Storage Wars Storage Wars WWII: Secret Army Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens Counting Cars Counting Cars American Restoration American Restoration Pawn Stars Storage Wars Ancient Aliens Counting Cars

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C.S.I. Kyle XY Emmerdale Coronation Street The Ellen DeGeneres Show C.S.I. Switched At Birth Fairly Legal Suits The Hollow Crown Breaking Bad Kyle XY

03:00 Ben And Kate 03:30 The Simpsons 04:00 Seinfeld 04:30 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 05:30 Hope & Faith 06:00 All Of Us 06:30 Brothers 07:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 08:00 Seinfeld 08:30 Hope & Faith 09:00 Ben And Kate 09:30 Modern Family 10:00 The Mindy Project 10:30 Brothers 11:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 12:00 All Of Us 12:30 Seinfeld 13:00 Hope & Faith 13:30 Brothers 14:00 The Simpsons 14:30 The Mindy Project 15:00 Modern Family 15:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 16:00 The Colbert Report 16:30 All Of Us 17:00 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 18:00 New Girl 18:30 Family Tools 19:00 Community 19:30 Parks And Recreation 20:00 The Tonight Show With Jay Leno 21:00 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 21:30 The Colbert Report 22:00 The League 22:30 Entourage 23:00 The Big C 23:30 Late Night With Jimmy Fallon 00:30 The Daily Show With Jon Stewart 01:00 The Colbert Report 01:30 The League 02:00 Entourage 02:30 The Big C

05:15 05:35 06:00 06:25 06:45 07:10 07:35 07:55 08:20 08:45 09:05 09:30 09:55 10:15 10:40 11:05 11:25 11:50 12:15 12:35 13:00 13:25 13:45 14:10 14:35 15:00 15:25 15:50 16:10 16:35 17:00 17:20 17:45 18:10 18:30 18:55 19:20 19:40 20:05 20:30 20:50

Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Prankstars Suite Life On Deck Shake It Up A.N.T Farm Jessie Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Doc McStuffins Mickey Mouse Clubhouse A.N.T. Farm A.N.T. Farm Jessie Jessie Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Shake It Up Shake It Up Austin And Ally A.N.T. Farm Jessie Shake It Up Gravity Falls Good Luck Charlie Good Luck Charlie Jessie Shake It Up A.N.T Farm Austin And Ally Gravity Falls Suite Life On Deck Good Luck Charlie That’s So Raven Austin And Ally Jessie Gravity Falls A.N.T. Farm Good Luck Charlie Suite Life On Deck

21:15 21:40 22:00 22:25 22:50 23:10 23:35 00:00 00:20 00:45 01:05 01:30 01:50 02:15 02:35

Austin And Ally That’s So Raven Shake It Up A.N.T. Farm Austin And Ally Wizards Of Waverly Place Wizards Of Waverly Place Hannah Montana Hannah Montana Brandy & Mr Whiskers Brandy & Mr Whiskers Emperor’s New School Emperor’s New School Replacements Replacements

14:30 15:00 York 16:00 York 17:00 17:30 18:00 19:00 20:00 21:00 21:30 22:30 23:30 00:00 00:55 01:25

Style Star Kourtney & Kim Take New Kourtney & Kim Take New Ice Loves Coco Ice Loves Coco E! News THS Kourtney And Kim Take Miami Married To Jonas Fashion Police E! News Chelsea Lately Scouted Style Star THS

03:05 Mitch And Matt’s Big Fish 03:30 Gok’s Clothes Roadshow 04:15 Bargain Hunt 05:00 House Swap 05:45 Cash In The Attic 06:30 Mitch And Matt’s Big Fish 07:00 Food Poker 07:45 Food & Drink 08:10 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 09:05 Bargain Hunt 09:50 Antiques Roadshow 10:45 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 11:25 MasterChef Australia 12:40 Come Dine With Me 13:30 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 13:55 Bargain Hunt 14:40 Cash In The Attic 15:25 Antiques Roadshow 16:15 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 17:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 17:55 Baking Mad With Eric Lanlard 18:20 The Roux Legacy 18:55 The Hairy Bikers USA 19:20 New Scandinavian Cooking With Andreas Viestad 19:45 Come Dine With Me 20:35 Extreme Makeover: Home Edition 21:20 Antiques Roadshow 22:15 Bargain Hunt 23:00 Phil Spencer - Secret Agent 23:55 Food Poker 00:40 Come Dine With Me 01:30 MasterChef Australia 02:40 Cash In The Attic

03:00 03:25 03:50 04:15 04:40 05:30 06:10 07:00 07:25 07:50 08:15 08:40 09:05 09:30 10:45 11:10 11:35

Unique Sweets Food Wars Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives Unique Eats Chopped Iron Chef America Food Network Challenge Guy’s Big Bite Guy’s Big Bite Andy Bates Street Feasts Unique Sweets United Tastes Of America Barefoot Contessa The Next Food Network Star Kid In A Candy Store Charly’s Cake Angels Unique Sweets

12:00 Amazing Wedding Cakes 12:50 Have Cake, Will Travel 13:15 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 13:40 Barefoot Contessa - Back To Basics 14:05 Food Wars 14:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 14:55 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 15:20 Guy’s Big Bite 15:45 Chopped 16:35 Barefoot Contessa 17:00 Barefoot Contessa 17:25 Food Wars 17:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 18:40 Charly’s Cake Angels 19:05 Unique Sweets 19:30 Amazing Wedding Cakes 20:20 Chopped 21:10 Chopped 22:00 Food Network Challenge 22:50 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:15 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 23:40 Food Wars 00:05 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:30 Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives 00:55 Unwrapped 01:20 Unwrapped 01:45 Food Network Challenge

03:00 The Help-PG15 05:30 Arthur Christmas-PG 07:30 Marion Jones: Press PausePG15 09:00 Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted-PG 10:45 Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon-PG15 13:15 American Girl: McKenna Shoots For The Stars-PG 15:00 Last Holiday-PG15 17:00 Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted-PG 19:00 Tower Heist-PG15 21:00 Ted-18 23:00 Violet & Daisy-18 01:00 The Ides Of March-PG15 02:45 Michael Jackson: The Life Of An Icon-PG15

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WWE NXT European Tour Weekly Champions Tour Highlights Inside The PGA Tour Live PGA Tour

00:00 Golfing World 01:00 ITU Triathlon Highlights 02:00 Champions Tour Highlights 03:00 Futbol Mundial 03:30 NRL Full Time 04:00 World Pool Masters 05:00 World Cup Of Pool 06:00 Trans World Sport 07:00 Golfing World 08:00 IRB Junior World Championship 10:00 Total Rugby 10:30 World Pool Masters 11:30 World Cup Of Pool 12:30 IRB Junior World Championship 14:30 IRB Junior World Championship 16:30 IRB Junior World Championship 18:30 Total Rugby 19:00 Golfing World 20:00 AFL Highlights 21:00 IRB Junior World Championship 23:00 Marathon

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NHL Motor Sports 2013 Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL WWE Smackdown Ping Pong World US Bass Fishing NHL WWE Vintage Collection WWE Bottom Line European Le Mans Series UIM Powerboat Champs UIM Powerboat Champs UFC The Ultimate Fighter UFC NHL

A HEARTBEAT AWAY ON OSN CINEMA

Twins Mission-PG15 My Own Love Song-PG15 The Terminal-PG15 Love Finds A Home-PG15 Killer Mountain-PG15 A Heartbeat Away-PG15 Shelter-PG15 A Dangerous Method-18 A Little Bit Of Heaven-18 A Heartbeat Away-PG15

04:00 Green Lantern: Emerald Knights-PG15 06:00 Do No Harm-PG15 08:00 The Muppets-PG 10:00 Sinbad: Legend Of The Seven Seas-FAM 12:00 The Makeover-PG15 14:00 Charlie’s Angels: Full ThrottlePG15 16:00 The Muppets-PG 18:00 Think Like A Man-PG15 20:02 Rabbit Hole-PG15 22:00 Snow White And The Huntsman-PG15 00:15 The Muppets-PG 02:00 Think Like A Man-PG15

04:00 The Scorpion King 3: Battle For Redemption-PG15 06:00 Ip Man 2-PG15 08:00 Fast Five-PG15 10:15 Batman: Year One-PG15 12:00 The Speed Of Thought-PG15 14:00 Fast Five-PG15 16:15 Killer Mountain-PG15 18:00 The Speed Of Thought-PG15 20:00 Imago Mortis-PG15 22:00 The Corruptor-18 00:30 The Godfather III-18

08:00 Mrs. Miracle-PG15 10:00 Brewster’s Millions-PG 12:00 Lying To Be Perfect-PG15 14:00 The Wish List-PG15 16:00 Brewster’s Millions-PG 18:00 Sorority Wars-PG15 20:00 Detroit Rock City-18 22:00 The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard-18 00:00 Friends With Benefits-18 02:00 Detroit Rock City-18

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ob Edwards was born before the first Model T rolled out of Henry Ford’s factory in Detroit. He learned to drive in a French car that had a lever instead of a steering wheel. And he’s still on the road, only now in a red four-wheel-drive Mitsubishi. The oldest licensed driver in New Zealand, and one of the oldest in the world, has been driving for 88 of his 105 years and has no plans to give it up, just as he intends to keep working out every morning in his home gym, and to keep regularly cooking meals for himself and his wife, who’s 91. “In fact, I don’t think I’m old,” Edwards says.

“Not really.”

He’s been involved in just one crash in his life and has gotten just one speeding ticket, a citation that still gets him riled up years later. When he broke his left hip three years ago, his doctors said to stop driving for six weeks but he didn’t pay them much mind. After all, he says, he drives an automatic and only needs his right leg for that. In New Zealand, drivers older than 80 must have their health and vision tested every two years to stay on the road. Many countries in Europe and US states have similar requirements.

While stories about elderly drivers making mistakes or causing crashes often make headlines, it’s young drivers who tend to cause the most damage. “Older drivers, on a per-kilometer-driven basis, are involved in far fewer crashes than younger drivers,” said Andy Knackstedt, a spokesman for the New Zealand Transport Agency, which oversees driver testing. He said that for many elderly people, retaining a license helps them maintain their independence, mobility and dignity. “Our job is really to balance that with the need to make sure our roads are safe,” he says.

According to Guinness World Records, the world’s oldest driver was American Fred Hale Sr who was on the road until his 108th birthday in 1998. Edwards drives three times a week to the store 15 kilometers (9 miles) down the road. He picks up groceries on Sundays and the newspapers on other days. Occasionally, he says, he’ll drive farther afield, to a medical appointment or to visit friends. He grew up in England and he learned to drive in his uncle’s car, a De Dion Bouton. “It was something new. Cars were just coming in,” Edwards says. “I mean, it was just marvelous.”

He got his first license in 1925 at age 17. Two years later, he saw a Salvation Army ad seeking young men to work on the farms of England’s colonies. “They told me Canada was very cold, Australia was very hot, but New Zealand, they said, was just right,” Edwards says. “So I

picked New Zealand.” He eventually bought a Dodge car, converted it into a truck and started transporting the fossilized gum of native kauri trees from Snells Beach in the north to the city of Auckland. Soon he was working 16-hour days and transporting butter, groceries and gas; he bought new trucks and employed a couple of drivers.

Gas rationing during World War II effectively ended his business. For much of the rest of his working life, he captained tourist and car ferries, fibbing about his age so he could work beyond what was then the mandatory retirement age of 60. His wife, Lesley, stopped driving about 30 years ago. Her husband always took the wheel, anyway, and he will stay with it as long as he can. “As far as I’m concerned, driving is a part of me,” he says. “I mean, that was me. I was a driver. And I could drive anything. Anything at all.”— AP

New Zealand’s oldest driver Bob Edwards works out on his treadmill at his home in Ngataki, New Zealand.

Edwards, 105 yeays-old, got his first license 88 years ago and has no plans to stop driving, just as he intends to keep working out every morning in his home gym.

The First Grader-PG15 Raggedy Man-PG15 Thorne: Sleepyhead-PG15 Neverland-PG15 Water For Elephants-PG15 Troy-18 Gardens Of The Night-18

00:00 British & Irish Lions 03:00 PGA European Tour Weekly 03:30 Inside The PGA Tour 04:00 Trans World Sport 05:00 IRB Junior World Championship 07:00 British & Irish Lions 10:00 Rugby League State of Origin 12:30 ITU Triathlon Highlights 13:30 Champions Tour Highlights 14:30 PGA European Tour Weekly 15:00 Live PGA European Tour 19:00 British & Irish Lions 21:00 Live UK Open Darts

VIOLET & DAISY ON OSN MOVIES HD

00:00 02:30 05:00 05:30 06:30 07:00 14:00 17:00 18:00

Rugby League State Of Origin ITU World Triathlon Inside The PGA Tour Trans World Sport ICC Cricket 360 Cricket One Day International British and Irish Lions Tour Super Rugby Highlights Trans World Sport

Photo shows the first license of New Zealand’s oldest driver Bob Edwards. — AP photos

Classifieds THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

Kuwait SHARQIA-1 AFTER EARTH (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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KNCC PROGRAMME FROM THURSDAY TO WEDNESDAY (06/06/2013 TO 12/06/2013)

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FANAR-3 YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI12:30 PM DISCONNECT (DIG) 3:30 PM DISCONNECT (DIG) 5:30 PM YAMLA PAGLA DEEWANA 2 (HINDI) (DIG) 7:30 PM DISCONNECT (DIG) 10:30 PM DISCONNECT (DIG) 12:45 AM NO SUN+ TUE+WED MARINA-1 DISCONNECT (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) NOW YOU SEE ME (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) NOW YOU SEE ME (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) NOW YOU SEE ME (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED MARINA-2 AFTER EARTH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) NO SUN+ TUE+WED

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AVENUES-2 TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

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1:00 PM 3:15 PM 5:30 PM 7:45 PM 10:00 PM 12:15 AM

360ยบ 2 DISCONNECT (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG)

2:15 PM 4:30 PM 6:45 PM 9:00 PM 11:15 PM 1:15 AM

360ยบ 3 THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG)

1:45 PM 4:00 PM 6:15 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM 1:00 AM

AL-KOUT.1 AFTER EARTH (DIG) EPIC (DIG-3D) AFTER EARTH (DIG) THE HANGOVER PART III (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG)

1:30 PM 4:00 PM 6:30 PM 9:00 PM 11:30 PM

1:45 PM 4:30 PM 7:15 PM 10:00 PM 12:45 AM

1:30 PM 3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:00 PM 10:15 PM 12:30 AM

AL-KOUT.2 TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

12:30 PM 2:45 PM 5:00 PM 7:30 PM 10:00 PM 12:45 AM

AL-KOUT.3 FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NOW YOU SEE ME (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NOW YOU SEE ME (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) NOW YOU SEE ME (DIG)

1:00 PM 3:30 PM 5:45 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM 1:00 AM

BAIRAQ-1 EPIC (DIG-3D)

1:30 PM

EPIC (DIG-3D) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG)

3:45 PM 6:00 PM 8:45 PM 11:30 PM

BAIRAQ-2 TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

12:30 PM 3:00 PM 5:30 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM 1:00 AM

BAIRAQ-3 AFTER EARTH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) DISCONNECT (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG)

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

PLAZA TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

5:45 PM 8:00 PM 10:30 PM

LAILA FAST & FURIOUS 6 (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) AFTER EARTH (DIG)

6:00 PM 8:30 PM 10:45 PM

AJIAL.1 IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG) IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG)

6:45 PM 9:45 PM

CHANGE OF NAME

AJIAL.2 MUMBAI POLICE (DIG) KUTTI PULI (DIG) (TAMIL)

I, Murtaza Rehmat Ali Tamatiya, have changed my name from Murtaza to Murtaza Rehmat Ali Tamatiya. (C 4431) 1-6-2013 FOR SALE

6:30 PM 9:30 PM

AJIAL.3 YEH JAWANI HAI DEEWANI6:45 PM YAMLA PAGLA DEEWANA 2 9:45 PM AJIAL.4 TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG) TATTAH (DIG)

I, Milagrina Vales resident of H.No. 281, Baixo de Igreja, Agassaim Ilhas Goa has changed my name from Milagrina Gracias to Malagrina Vales. Hereafter in all my dealings and documents I will be known as Milagrina Vales. (C 4434) 5-6-2013

Fully furnished flat for sale in Burj Behbehani building opposite to Salmiya Garden. Big hall, 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom, big

kitchen. Swimming pool, Gym facility, underground parking and round the clock security available.

Contact: 50701181.

(C 4432) 1-6-2013 Doctor owned cars - Toyota Yaris 2009 (hatchback) and Nissan Murano (2006), low mileage, going cheap and well maintained. Contact: 97202594. (C 4429)

Prayer timings Fajr:

03:14

Shorook

04:48

Duhr:

11:47

Asr:

15:21

Maghrib:

18:45

Isha:

20:16

No: 15831

6:00 PM 8:15 PM 10:30 PM

METRO-1 MUMBAI POLICE (DIG) KUTTI PULI (DIG) (TAMIL) NO FRI IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG)

9:30 PM

METRO-2 IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG) IDDARAMMAYILATHO (DIG)

6:45 PM 10:00 PM

6:30 PM 9:30 PM

DIAL 161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Airlines BBC QTR SAI THY JZR JZR ETH GFA UAE ETD FDB RJA RBG MSR QTR THY DHX FDB BAW FDB JZR JZR JZR MEA KAC KAC KAC UAE IRA IZG ABY QTR IRA FDB ETD SYR GFA MEA MSC UAE MSR THY JZR JZR JZR UAE KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KNE QTR FDB ABY SVA KNE OMA KNE NIA RJA QTR

Arrival Flights on Thursday 6/6/2013 Flt Route 43 DHAKA 148 DOHA 441 LAHORE 764 SABIHA 267 BEIRUT 539 CAIRO 620 ADDIS ABABA 211 BAHRAIN 853 DUBAI 305 ABU DHABI 67 DUBAI 642 AMMAN 555 ALEXANDRIA 612 CAIRO 138 DOHA 770 ISTANBUL 170 BAHRAIN 69 DUBAI 157 LONDON 53 DUBAI 555 ALEXANDRIA 503 LUXOR 529 ASSIUT 406 BEIRUT 412 MANILA 382 DELHI 206 ISLAMABAD 855 DUBAI 605 ISFAHAN 4161 MASHAD 125 SHARJAH 132 DOHA 617 AHWAZ 55 DUBAI 301 ABU DHABI 341 DAMASCUS 213 BAHRAIN 404 BEIRUT 403 ASSIUT 871 DUBAI 610 CAIRO 766 ISTANBUL 165 DUBAI 561 SOHAG 241 AMMAN 4987 DUBAI 284 DHAKA 352 COCHIN 332 TRIVANDRUM 362 COLOMBO 302 MUMBAI 480 TAIF 140 DOHA 57 DUBAI 121 SHARJAH 500 JEDDAH 472 JEDDAH 645 MUSCAT 470 JEDDAH 251 ALEXANDRIA 640 AMMAN 134 DOHA

Time 00:05 00:05 01:30 01:40 00:20 00:40 01:45 01:55 02:25 02:30 03:10 03:10 03:15 03:15 03:30 04:35 05:10 05:50 06:30 07:45 06:20 07:40 06:40 07:30 06:15 07:30 07:25 08:25 08:40 08:45 08:50 09:00 09:10 09:15 09:30 10:10 10:40 10:55 12:40 12:45 13:00 13:10 11:35 12:20 12:35 10:35 08:15 08:05 07:55 08:45 07:50 13:20 13:45 13:50 14:25 14:30 14:35 14:40 15:05 15:50 15:55 16:15

ETD UAE ABY GFA SVA UAL TAR QTR FDB GFA AXB JAI RBG OMA KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR JZR FDB ABY MEA AFG MSC MSR KNE MSC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC KAC JZR JZR JZR JZR ALK UAE ETD QTR GFA QTR JAI THY FDB AIC UAL DLH JAI MSR KLM THY

303 857 127 215 510 982 327 144 63 219 393 572 553 647 502 777 125 177 257 269 787 535 189 61 129 402 415 405 618 474 401 672 542 118 104 788 786 546 176 774 562 618 674 614 185 239 135 513 229 859 307 136 217 146 576 6512 59 981 981 636 574 614 411 772

ABU DHABI DUBAI SHARJAH BAHRAIN RIYADH WASHINGTON DC DULLES TUNIS DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN KOZHIKODE MUMBAI ALEXANDRIA MUSCAT BEIRUT JEDDAH BAHRAIN DUBAI BEIRUT BEIRUT RIYADH CAIRO DUBAI DUBAI SHARJAH BEIRUT KABUL SOHAG ALEXANDRIA JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA DUBAI CAIRO NEW YORK LONDON JEDDAH JEDDAH ALEXANDRIA GENEVA RIYADH AMMAN DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI AMMAN BAHRAIN SHARM EL SHEIKH COLOMBO DUBAI ABU DHABI DOHA BAHRAIN DOHA COCHIN ISTANBUL DUBAI AHMEDABAD BAHRAIN FRANKFURT MUMBAI CAIRO AMSTERDAM ISTANBUL

16:35 16:55 17:10 17:20 17:20 17:25 18:00 18:25 18:55 19:05 19:15 19:35 19:40 20:00 18:50 17:50 16:25 17:30 14:30 19:15 16:15 16:10 20:10 20:00 20:05 20:15 20:20 20:25 20:30 20:50 21:05 13:40 18:15 16:00 18:45 15:00 18:30 14:15 17:45 19:25 14:40 19:10 19:25 19:35 22:40 22:30 23:00 23:20 21:10 21:15 21:30 21:35 21:45 22:00 22:05 22:20 22:20 22:25 22:40 23:10 23:20 23:30 23:40 23:45

Airlines AIC AXB JAI UAL DLH MSR BBC JZR THY SAI THY ETH UAE FDB RBG MSR ETD QTR QTR JZR FDB RJA GFA THY JZR KAC JZR BAW FDB MEA JZR JZR KAC KAC ABY KAC IRA IZG UAE FDB QTR IRA ETD KAC KAC SYR UAE GFA KAC KAC MEA JZR JZR KAC JZR JZR JZR MSC MSR THY KNE UAE

Departure Flights on Thursday 6/6/2013 Flt Route 976 GOA/CHENNAI 490 MANGALORE 573 MUMBAI 981 WASHINGTON 637 FRANKFURT 615 CAIRO 44 DHAKA 502 LUXOR 773 ISTANBUL 442 LAHORE 765 ISTANBUL 621 ADDIS ABABA 854 DUBAI 68 DUBAI 556 ALEXANDRIA 613 CAIRO 306 ABU DHABI 139 DOHA 149 DOHA 560 SOHAG 70 DUBAI 643 AMMAN 212 BAHRAIN 771 ISTANBUL 240 AMMAN 545 ALEXANDRIA 164 DUBAI 156 LONDON 54 DUBAI 407 BEIRUT 256 BEIRUT 534 CAIRO 561 AMMAN 671 DUBAI 126 SHARJAH 787 JEDDAH 606 MASHHAD 4162 MASHHAD 856 DUBAI 56 DUBAI 133 DOHA 616 AHWAZ 302 ABU DHABI 101 LONDON 501 BEIRUT 342 DAMASCUS 4987 BEIRUT 214 BAHRAIN 541 CAIRO 165 ROME 405 BEIRUT 776 JEDDAH 786 RIYADH 785 JEDDAH 176 DUBAI 124 BAHRAIN 268 BEIRUT 406 SOHAG 611 CAIRO 767 ISTANBUL 481 TAIF 872 DUBAI

Time 00:05 00:15 00:20 00:25 00:30 00:30 01:30 01:30 02:20 02:30 02:40 02:45 03:45 03:50 03:55 04:15 04:20 04:25 05:15 05:55 06:30 06:35 07:00 07:10 07:10 07:20 07:25 08:25 08:25 08:30 08:50 09:10 09:25 09:25 09:30 09:35 09:40 09:45 09:50 09:55 10:00 10:10 10:15 10:25 11:10 11:10 11:20 11:25 11:30 11:45 11:55 12:25 12:50 13:00 13:20 13:30 13:35 13:40 14:00 14:10 14:10 14:15

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

FDB QTR ABY KAC KNE OMA KAC KAC JZR KNE SVA KAC NIA RJA JZR JZR QTR ETD JZR ABY UAE GFA SVA JZR UAL JZR TAR QTR FDB GFA JZR JZR KAC AXB RBG JAI FDB ABY KAC KAC OMA KAC MEA AFG MSC MSR KAC KNE DHX MSC ETD ALK UAE QTR KAC GFA FDB KAC QTR JAI JZR JZR KAC KAC JZR

58 141 122 673 473 646 617 773 188 471 505 613 252 641 238 512 135 304 538 128 858 216 511 184 982 266 328 145 64 220 134 134 283 394 554 571 62 120 331 343 648 351 403 415 404 619 543 475 171 402 308 230 860 137 301 218 60 205 147 575 554 1540 411 415 528

DUBAI DOHA SHARJAH DUBAI JEDDAH MUSCAT DOHA RIYADH DUBAI JEDDAH JEDDAH BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA AMMAN AMMAN SHARM EL SHEIKH DOHA ABU DHABI CAIRO SHARJAH DUBAI BAHRAIN RIYADH DUBAI BAHRAIN BEIRUT TUNIS DOHA DUBAI BAHRAIN BAHRAIN BAHRAIN DHAKA KOZHIKODE ALEXANDRIA MUMBAI DUBAI SHARJAH TRIVANDRUM CHENNAI MUSCAT KOCHI BEIRUT JEDDAH ASSIUT ALEXANDRIA CAIRO JEDDAH BAHRAIN ALEXANDRIA ABU DHABI COLOMBO DUBAI DOHA MUMBAI BAHRAIN DUBAI ISLAMABAD DOHA ABU DHABI ALEXANDRIA CAIRO BANGKOK KUALA LUMPUR ASSIUT

14:30 14:55 15:05 15:05 15:30 15:40 15:45 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:00 16:35 16:50 16:55 17:05 17:15 17:20 17:20 17:40 17:50 18:15 18:20 18:20 18:30 18:40 18:40 18:50 19:25 19:35 19:50 20:05 20:05 20:15 20:15 20:20 20:35 20:40 20:45 20:50 20:55 20:55 21:05 21:15 21:20 21:25 21:30 21:30 21:45 21:50 22:05 22:15 22:20 22:25 22:35 22:40 22:45 23:00 23:00 23:05 23:05 23:20 23:25 23:40 23:50 23:55

34

stars CROSSWORD 212

STAR TRACK Aries (March 21-April 19) You may find that both your personal growth and your career depend on how you can handle some difficult task today. You may feel the need to ask many questions; however, you find ways to accomplish difficult tasks on your own. You will benefit from analytical insights, getting to the heart of things. Things are happening and your future depends on your own ambition and drive, which are strong now. You are able to use good common sense and make the right choices. Growth and success could be tied to the way you respond to the various ideas and impulses operating in your life now. Sounds in the neighborhood or your home may not be as pleasant as you like and you may enjoy a headphone full of music this evening.

Taurus (April 20-May 20) Even if you feel that you might lose your mind under the current mental pressure, you will not. You will want to examine ideas, thoughts and concepts in order to eliminate the things that do not work. Searching, research and detective work may be what is necessary now. You may find that both your personal growth and your career may depend upon how you can handle the very sensitive material that may be coming up now. You will benefit from analytical insights, getting to the heart of things. This is a real time to strengthen your career. Circumstances may enhance and stimulate appreciation and enjoyment of your life situation. Your system of values may deepen, providing you with a better sense of discrimination and good taste.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

ACROSS 1. Airtight sealed metal container for food or drink or paint etc..

4. Type genus of the Ascaphidae.

12. (British) Sleep.

15. South American wood sorrel cultivated for its edible tubers.

16. (Judaism) Jewish holy day celebrated on the sixth of Sivan to celebrate Moses receiving the Ten Commandments.

17. The compass point that is midway between north and northeast.

18. Affectedly trendy.

20. Essential oil or perfume obtained from flowers.

21. (informal) Of the highest quality.

22. An Indian nursemaid who looks after children.

23. A soft silvery metallic element of the alkali metal group.

25. (astronomy) A measure of time defined by Earth's orbital motion.

26. A resident of Iowa.

28. A deep bow.

30. A linen tape used for trimming as a decoration.

32. A very poisonous metallic element that has three allotropic forms.

34. Empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk.

35. A small hard fruit.

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

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

43. A river in central Europe that arises in northwestern Czechoslovakia and flows northward through Germany to empty into the North Sea. 45. A member of a Mayan people of southwestern Guatemala.

48. An onerous or difficult concern.

50. (Scotland) A slope or hillside.

52. School of Mahayana Buddhism asserting that enlightenment can come through meditation and intuition rather than faith.

53. (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation) Optical device that produces an intense monochromatic beam of coherent light.

55. (Scottish) Bluish-black or gray-blue.

58. A public promotion of some product or service.

59. An amino acid that is found in the central nervous system.

62. Produce ankylosis by surgery.

65. A Chadic language spoken south of Lake Chad.

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

70. Of or relating to or characteristic of the Republic of Chad or its people or language.

74. A white linen liturgical vestment with sleeves.

79. A zodiacal constellation in northern hemisphere between Cancer and Virgo.

80. A cut of pork ribs with much of the meat trimmed off.

82. Having leadership guidance.

83. A young woman making her debut into society.

84. Low stingless nettle of Central and South America having velvety brownish-green toothed leaves and clusters of small green flowers.

85. A federal agency established to regulate the release of new foods and health-related products.

DOWN 1. A South American shrub whose leaves are

chewed by natives of the Andes.

2. Causing a dull and steady pain.

3. Sole genus of the family Naiadaceae.

4. The residue that remains when something is burned.

5. A city in central southwestern Iran.

6. A white metallic element that burns with a brilliant light.

7. A dark-skinned member of a race of people living in Australia when Europeans arrived.

8. Hitting a golf ball on the putting surface with a putter.

9. Somewhat hot.

10. A reptile genus of Iguanidae.

11. Any of numerous Old World birds having a strong hooked bill that feed on smaller animals.

12. Widely distributed low-growing Eurasian herb having narrow leaves and inconspicuous green flowers.

13. A ruler of the Inca Empire (or a member of his family).

14. The part of a hammerhead opposite the flat striking surface (may have various shapes).

19. Largest crested screamer.

24. A shop where a variety of goods are sold.

27. Of time long past.

29. A workplace for the conduct of scientific research.

31. A colorless odorless gaseous element that give a red glow in a vacuum tube.

33. The upper house of the parliament of the Republic of Ireland.

36. Haunt like a ghost.

37. A meeting of spiritualists.

39. A bachelor's degree in music.

41. Someone who works (or provides workers) during a strike.

42. A Hindu disciple of a swami.

44. An ancient region of west central Italy (southeast of Rome) on the Tyrrhenian Sea. 46. A small pellet fired from an air rifle or BB gun.

47. The blood group whose red cells carry both the A and B antigens.

49. United States sculptor (born in 1924).

51. The process of gradually becoming inferior.

54. A unit of absorbed ionizing radiation equal to 100 ergs per gram of irradiated material.

56. (Norse mythology) A dwarf who possessed a treasure that was stolen by Loki.

57. A sharp abrupt noise as if two objects hit together.

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

61. The branch of computer science that deal with writing computer programs that can solve problems creatively.

63. A soft silvery metallic element.

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

67. On or toward the lee.

68. A genus of Mustelidae.

69. A recurring sleep state during which rapid eye movements do not occur and dreaming does not occur.

71. Consisting of one of two equivalent parts in value or quantity.

72. In bed.

73. An informal term for a father.

75. Of southern Europe.

76. An accountant certified by the state.

77. Imperial dynasty that ruled China (most of the time) from 206 BC to 221 and expanded its boundaries and developed its bureaucracy.

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

81. Being nine more than ninety.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

This is a great time, when good fortune is most promising. It is easy for you to make correct decisions, find the right path and move forward where career and success are concerned. Life’s problems seem manageable. The state of your affairs just now may stimulate appreciation of your life situation. Your system of values may deepen, providing you with a better sense of discrimination and good taste. Purchasing that particular item you have been wanting may be a possibility soon. This is a time when you are open to the new and unexpected things that are happening in your living situation or surroundings. There could be talk of an address change. There are opportunities to pick your entertainment this evening.

Cancer (June 21-July 22) With your professional life running along fairly well, you may feel more like entertaining or being entertained. Known as the life of the party, you are able to loosen up even the most sober, day or night. You are great at bringing out the best qualities of others and discovering hidden talents. Take this day to think about using those talents of yours to influence and encourage teammates. If you are not in charge, you might suggest to the one that is in charge, to have a reward sort of challenge that will encourage enthusiastic and productive employees to excel. New and innovative ideas regarding the social scene are available to you now. You are a free spirit when it comes to friends, lovers and tastes. Family situations are in a state of growth.

Leo (July 23-August 22) You may have some trouble accepting responsibilities that are not of your own making. Set a fair time limit, considering the circumstances, and find a time to let higherups know that you would prefer quality over quantity; then be patient. As you complete the requested tasks, you will be able to seek out some way to relax in the afternoon. It could very well be that some form of exercise will help you to relieve any lingering stress from the usual workday. There is an opportunity later today to enjoy the company of a new friend or to chat with a new neighbor. It is extremely smart to reinforce all your relationships. Poetry and art may be possible this evening. All forms of healthy fun could prove most enjoyable.

Virgo (August 23-September 22) You have a way of being most persuasive with others. Some situation or some desire has threatened to overwhelm your mind. Any of us can become overly involved in a particular subject. Find a way to excuse yourself for a short while, perhaps to take a break and give some thought to moving forward. If possible, get away from any negative and create a new, positive atmosphere. This could be a walk around a building or a run up and down a few stairs or any number of distractions. When you return to whatever subject has you frustrated, you will have some positive answers or a new insight. Your workday ends successfully and you are appreciative and grateful for many things. Your evening is relaxing.

Word Search

Libra (September 23-October 22) Some of your expectations are too high with regard to some of your business goals. One step at a time may get you where you want to go much faster than stumbling through your goals without a plan. All is good—you will soon be on the right track—patience.

You are in a strong position to make long-term commitments in the business world. You are very competitive—even pushy—when it comes to partners and other people. You may enjoy working in a group or with close friends. Your own independence and sense of personal freedom may challenge authorities—pace yourself. You are most original when concentrating on areas of family—especially when you feel secure. Close relationships may take on more depth that is emotional, powerful and important.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21) Your career and life direction are putting a little pressure on your home life.

Obviously, you cannot live without both, so some kind of self-control on your part is indicated. You can relate to almost all types of people with equal ease and should not have any trouble in settling problems, however. All things pale beside your basic drive and the emotions you so freely exhibit. Your world revolves around feelings and the meaning you give to things. The way you feel about something is crucial and if someone does not have the right atmosphere or feel right to you, that person might have difficulty getting your attention. Take care in giving yourself and others the time to think through desired outcomes. A loved one brings joyful news tonight.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21) Keep moving forward by making a list of three things that you can do now to help you toward your goals. You love the working world and if someone suggested another opportunity to work a second job, you would probably jump in with both feet.

Your talents are many and you are able to take on many tasks. Make sure these additional jobs are temporary, as you will want to turn your attention to travel or talents or family within a few short years. You may discover news about a special sale or an estate auction and you make your plans. Take notes today, you may find a special talent you can build upon later that will always bring in a little extra income. You are conservative and will not exceed a certain budget. Smile, your finances will multiply.

Capricorn (December 22-January 19) CAPRICORN You have a sunny disposition and when you are not smiling and sharing your good attitude, you are the first to feel the push or the need for change. Get outside and enjoy some fresh air—enjoy a joke or two with friends at the noon break. You may be moved to discover and appreciate the beauty in your life and in those around you. At the same time, everything could take on added value and importance. Be careful that you do not overspend or indulge too much just now as a financial offer that sounds too good to be true may very well be . . . Too good to be true. Family energy seems to flow smoothly this afternoon.

A new idea for dinner and a few candles can be quite fun; be creative. Enjoy some leisure time along with a little romance this evening.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18) You could be seen by others as just the person to be put in charge of some project. Work will go much better today and a sense of accomplishment can be felt by workday’s end. Marriage and other close relationships give rise to great expectations as a new cycle gets underway in your life. This is a time to enjoy and appreciate your ties to others and to seek and promote harmony between people. Someone may bring your attention to some sort of social work—and you are interested in helping others. You have a love of what is beyond the surface: religion, psychology and mysticism. Intuitive and sensitive to emotions and sympathetic, you are always giving of self. You and your loved one will give each other support in life.

Pisces (February 19-March 20) You can be the perfect manager at this time: conservative and professional. It may be time to let higher-ups know of your potential—perhaps through a written request. Your career is all-important. You have learned to think in practical ways and this is most important for the job market. You are quick to get the outline of a project and see how things work. You could excel in a career that involves understanding and self-sacrifice.

Psychology, counseling—encouraging and guiding others may be a specialty of yours.

Work with mental patients, prison inmates, etc., is possible. You are born lucky! A natural when it comes to finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow—very generous with others. You have an urge to spread good cheer.

Yesterday’s Solution

Yesterday’s Solution

Daily SuDoku

Yesterday’s Solution

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

i n f o r m at i o n For labor-related inquiries and complaints: Call MSAL hotline 128 GOVERNORATE Sabah Hospital

24812000

Amiri Hospital

22450005

Maternity Hospital

24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital

25312700

Chest Hospital

24849400

Farwaniya Hospital

24892010

Adan Hospital

23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital

24840300

Al-Razi Hospital

24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital

24874330/9

Kaizen center

25716707

Rawda

22517733

PHARMACY

ADDRESS

PHONE

Ahmadi

Sama Safwan Abu Halaifa Danat Al-Sultan

Fahaeel Makka St Abu Halaifa-Coastal Rd Mahboula Block 1, Coastal Rd

23915883 23715414 23726558

Jahra

Modern Jahra Madina Munawara

Jahra-Block 3 Lot 1 Jahra-Block 92

24575518 24566622

Capital

Ahlam Khaldiya Coop

Fahad Al-Salem St Khaldiya Coop

22436184 24833967

Farwaniya

New Shifa Ferdous Coop Modern Safwan

Farwaniya Block 40 Ferdous Coop Old Kheitan Block 11

24734000 24881201 24726638

Hawally

Tariq Hana Ikhlas Hawally & Rawdha Ghadeer Kindy Ibn Al-Nafis Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Salmiya-Amman St Hawally-Beirut St Hawally & Rawdha Coop Jabriya-Block 1A Jabriya-Block 3B Salmiya-Hamad Mubarak St Mishrif Coop Salwa Coop

25726265 25647075 22625999 22564549 25340559 25326554 25721264 25380581 25628241

Al-Madeena

22418714

Al-Shuhada

22545171

Al-Shuwaikh

24810598

Al-Nuzha

22545171

Sabhan

24742838

Al-Helaly

22434853

Al-Faiha

22545051

Al-Farwaniya

24711433

Al-Sulaibikhat

24316983

Al-Fahaheel

23927002

Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh

24316983

Ahmadi

23980088

Al-Mangaf

23711183

Al-Shuaiba

23262845 25610011 25616368

Adaliya

22517144

Al-Jahra

Khaldiya

24848075

Al-Salmiya

Kaifan

24849807

Shamiya

24848913

Shuwaikh

24814507

Abdullah Salem

22549134

Nuzha

22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh

24814764

Qadsiya

22515088

Dasmah

22532265

Bneid Al-Gar

22531908

Shaab

22518752

Qibla

22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla

22451082

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THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

lifestyle G o s s i p

George Clooney, Damon spotted at a public gym

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he Hollywood A-listers are shooting their new movie ‘The Monuments Men’ at the Imperial War Museum in nearby Duxford, Cambridgeshire and they stunned regulars at the council run Kelsey Kerridge Sports Centre this past weekend when they casually took advantage of the facilities - which were free for the weekend as part of a promotional offer. ‘Bourne Identity’ star Matt first used the fitness centre on Saturday for an hour-long weight training session and returned the next day with his Oscar-winning co-star. Centre manager Liane Shadrack told BBC News: “We got a call on Saturday night to say

Matt Damon wanted to come along in about five minutes’ time to work out in gym. So we just let him in, and he got on with it.” The 42-year-old actor appeared to enjoy his time at the gym so much he booked a second session for Sunday, this time with George, 52, for a friendly game of basketball.

T

he ‘Fashion Police’ star has been left grief-stricken by the passing of her sibling, lawyer Barbara Waxler, and has cancelled her 80th birthday celebrations following the bereavement. Rivers had planned a party for 300 people at the Metropolitan Club in New York to celebrate her reaching the milestone age, but has postponed the bash, the New York Post newspaper reports. Joan - who turns 80 on Saturday - has previously praised her family for encouraging her sense of humor, particularly noting how comical her sister was despite her highpressure job. She said: “My father [Meyer C Molinsky] was a doctor and he was so funny people would laugh until they died.

And my sister is a lawyer but she has great humour. And my grandson [Edgar] is funny and Melissa. You learn to see things crooked. When the whole family laughs at funny things it makes a big difference.”

T

T

he 49-year-old singer has escaped a fine for failing to have his seatbelt fastened when he tumbled out of a Range Rover at 70mph on the busy M1 in Hertfordshire, south east England, last month, which led to him spending 13 days in hospital being treated for head injuries. A spokeswoman for Hertfordshire police told the Daily Mirror newspaper: “All witnesses have been spoken to and no further action will be taken.” However, it is an offence for motorists and passengers not to wear seatbelts if fitted. A spokesman for British motoring association the AA added: “Seatbelts protect those in the car and others who could potentially become involved in accidents while trying to avoid people falling from vehicles.” Cars were forced to brake to swerve and brake to avoid the former Wham! Star and one motorist, Ben Quince, who was driving behind the Range Rover, later revealed how he almost accidentally “killed” the singer.

T

he singer was arrested along with the 34year-old rapper yesterday (05.06.13) on suspicion of supplying Class A drugs after allegedly facilitating the sale of £800 worth of cocaine last week, but Mike believes the former N-Dubz star will bounce back from the scandal, which could cost her over £1 million in lost endorsements. Tulisa, 24, was reportedly filmed admitting she could arrange for cocaine and

cannabis - which she refers to as “white sweets” and “green sweets” - to be delivered to an undercover reporter before her pal, Mike, was recorded delivering the drugs to the Dorchester Hotel, boasting that the cocaine was “top of the line.”

After the pair were bailed last night, pending further police inquiries, Mike was adamant the footage had been” taken out of context” and insists the truth will come out eventually.

he Beady Eye frontman squared up to the ‘The Wire’ star at London’s Ivy Club following the NME Awards in February and pulled Idris’ red bobble hat off his head, and Liam has now opened up about the real reason behind the altercation for the first time - the actor had ruffled his perfectly coiffed hairdo. He told British station Absolute Radio: “I didn’t steal Idris’ hat, or grab it. I don’t go grabbing anyone.

He messed my f***ing hair up, so I pulled his hat off and booted it across the room, and that’s it.” Reports at the time claimed Idris - who was accompanied by his ‘Luther’

Speaking outside Belgravia police station, he explained: “Anyone can edit or chop things together on video.

co-star and former World Thai boxing champion Warren Brown at the bash - was in a good mood and let it drop without things getting physical. However, infamous wildman Liam sees things differently, insisting he had every right to go ballistic because you should never mess with someone’s haircut.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

lifestyle G o s s i p

‘T

he Lone Ranger’ actress refuses to film on location for more than two weeks at a time because she hates being away from Billy, nine, and five-year-old Nell, her children with director partner Tim Burton. She told the UK edition of Vogue magazine: “Since I had Bill that has been the maximum amount of time I’ve been away. Just long enough to catch up on some sleep but not too long that I miss them and get suffocated by guilt.” The 47-year-old star splits parenting duties with Tim, 54, who says Helena can be “insecure” about being a working mother, but insists it’s important for her to strike a balance. He

said: “Like every mother, she can get insecure about not doing enough or being there enough. But I tell her that work is what feeds a person, that it’s important to be creative.” The ‘Les Miserables’ star now feels being a parent is her main occupation and doesn’t feel pressure to care as much about her acting although, ironically, she feels her acting skills have got better as a result of letting go.

T

he 40-year-old actress, who called a truce with the 27-year-old ‘Easy A’ star last month after an argument on Twitter, thinks that Amanda could be suffering from a mental illness and needs help. Jenny opened up about their recent feud on ‘The View’ on Tuesday saying: “At night you know how you repeat stories you read? So I repeated that the police were at Amanda Bynes’ house. “I guess Amanda Bynes responded to me saying I was an ugly 80-year-old bleep. I just went ‘Oh no.’ “I immediately said ‘sorry girl, just looking out for you.’ And the backlash between her fans and my mommy warriors was a war going on for three hours.” Asked if she was “scared” when Amanda lashed out at her, Jenny said: “Yes it did. That’s somebody that I’m not going to start a war with.”

‘T

he Great Gatsby’ star has admitted if she hadn’t become an actress, she would have become a full time writer and after mastering the art of performing, she’s now ready to try her luck at a screenplay. The 37-year-old star has teamed up with her mother, Elspeth Reid - who helped her publish two teen novels, ‘Bewitched’ and ‘Seduced by Fame’ when she was 18 years old - to create a film, which she claims has been challenging, but amusing.

Speaking in an interview with Britain’s Cosmopolitan magazine, Isla said: “My mum and I have actually been writing a script for a thriller together. It’s really fun.

She doesn’t understand the rules of screenwriting, so I’m often like, ‘What?! Mum, you can’t kill off the protagonist on page 10!’ She breaks all the rules, which makes it original at least. We’ve had a scream doing it.”

Australian Isla - who is married to Sacha Baron Cohen - may have made it in Hollywood, but admits it has been a hard journey, with her first agent in the US firing her.

T

he 38-year-old star - who announced his retirement from the sport last month - has been approached about joining a new franchisebased league of eight teams, which would run from January 14 to March 13, and experts believe he could earn £1 million for two months’ work. A source told The Sun newspaper: “Basically Becks can charge whatever he wants. What he would do for the league in terms of international interest and publicity is priceless.” The former England captain has been approached about playing in the Indian super league - a soccer version of the IPL cricket league - alongside his former England teammate Michael Owen and Spanish star Raul. Since hanging up his boots last month following the end of the season with French champions Paris Saint Germain, David has been linked to a number of new careers, with movie mogul Harvey Weinstein tipping the soccer star to be a hit in Hollywood. He said: “David can be anything he wants, including becoming a movie star. He doesn’t need any advice from me, he can do anything he wants.

T

he 19-year-old singer, who has an on/off relationship with Selena Gomez, was surrounded by a huge group of girls after arriving at Mansion nightclub for its Hot Excess Mondays hiphop party at 3.45 am with a huge entourage. A source told People.com: “Justin arrived at 3:45 am with three SUVs of friends, including Young Money artist Lil Twist. “Bieber was surrounded by an evergrowing group of girls, talking to one unknown girl in particular, but also spent time texting and enjoying the music on stage. “He stayed until the lights came on at 5 am, closing Mansion down.” The group spent the night in the VIP area, where the underage singer sipped water and watched live performances by Rocko, Pleasure P and Flo Rida, who was shouting out at the crowd and celebrating Miami Heat’s victory over the Indiana Pacers, which saw them win the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals in Game 7 on Monday evening.

T

he former ‘The Hills’ star - who is set to marry Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler on July 13 - gathered with a group of her female pals at The London hotel hotspot in West Hollywood to toast her upcoming nuptials. The 26-year-old shoe designer posted several pictures of herself enjoying the low-key bash, during which she sipped vodka cocktails sponsored by Ciroc and wore a veil with a huge tiara, on Instagram.

She also paid tribute to her friends for hosting her special event, writing: “Thanks for a fun wedding shower.” The blonde beauty recently revealed she isn’t inviting any of her former castmates from ‘ The Hills’ to her wedding. She previously said: “It’s going to be family and really close friends. If the wedding were bigger, I would have loved to invite Audrina, Stephanie and Heidi.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

lifestyle

J

oyalukkas, the world’s favorite jeweler has been recognized as a Superbrand for the 4th time. The world renowned jeweler retail chain is the only jeweler to have been awarded this status for 4 consecutive years ie 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2013. The announcement was made at the prestigious Superbrands Tribute Event, a high profile, premier marketing occasion attended by the media and peers alike. The award was accepted by John Paul Joy Alukkas, Executive Director on behalf of the Joyalukkas Group. The brand will also once again be featured in the 2013 edition of the Superbrands UAE book.

The Superbrands organization is acclaimed worldwide as being an independent authority and arbiter of branding excellence and is committed to paying tribute to exceptional brands and promoting the discipline of branding.

I

conic British designer John Galliano, sacked by Dior in 2011 for making drunken racist tirades, says he is “grateful” for his fall from grace because it forced him to confront his drug and alcohol demons. In what was billed as the designer’s first sober interview since the career-shattering scandal that saw him ousted from the French fashion powerhouse, Galliano told Vanity Fair he had been in denial about his substance abuse for years. “It sounds a bit bizarre, but I am so grateful for what did happen,” Galliano told the magazine in an interview published Tuesday on its website.

“I have learned so much about myself. I have re-discovered that little boy who had the hunger to create, which I think I had lost. I am alive.” The 52-year-old was hit with suspended fines totaling 6,000 euros ($8,400) after being found guilty of making anti-Semitic insults in public-an offense under French law-following separate incidents in 2010 and 2011. Galliano underwent treatment at an Arizona rehabilitation center in the wake of the scandal, which broke after the emergence of a video capturing his anti-Jewish rant towards fellow patrons in a Parisian bar.

“When I saw it, I threw up,” Galliano said of the damning video evidence. “The feeling was like I was about to take a step out onto the street and a bus or truck whooshed past me and the blood was drained from my legs.” “I was paralyzed from the fear.” Galliano told Vanity Fair he remained baffled by the nature of his remarks, insisting he “didn’t mean” what he said. “It’s the worst thing I have said in my life, but I didn’t mean it ... I have been trying to find out why that anger was directed at this race,” he said. “I now realize I was so ... angry and so discontent with myself that I just said the most spiteful thing I could.”

Galliano meanwhile painted a picture of a life that had spiraled out of control shortly before the scandal, believing

Only brands that achieve the level of recognition set by the independent Superbrands Council are eligible for inclusion in the Superbrands UAE book, which traces the history, achievements and acceptance of each of the brands.

“We are honored to be recognized with the Superbrand status for the 4th time. This only means we are continuing to meet our valued customer expectation and delight them at all times. I take this opportunity to convey our sincere gratitude to our customers for their valued patronage, my fantastic team for their commitment and effort and also Superbrand and its esteemed panel of judges for this recognition. Our valued customer is what keeps us going and me and my team will continue to take every effort in delighting them at every occasion”. Said Joy Alukkas, Chairman & MD, Joyalukkas Group.

From its inception with a single jewelry showroom to its current status of a multi-billion dollar global conglomerate with 85 jewelry showrooms world-wide, Joyalukkas has revolutionized the jewelry retail industry through innovative schemes as well as a distinct offering. In the short span of around 2 decades, Joyalukkas has transformed the way the world looks at jewelry and made itself a household name. Today the global retail chain operates across 9 countries and has a loyal customer base of over 10 million customers.

Joyalukkas has set a benchmark in jewelry, by offering customers a wide range of contemporary, ethno-contemporary and ethnic jewelry in all types of jewelry i.e. gold, diamonds, precious stones, platinum and pearls.

Customers get to chose from over one million designs in branded and generic versions at Joyalukkas.

John Paul Joy Alukkas, Executive Director of Joyalukkas Group said “We are the first and only jeweler to receive this recognition 4 years in a row, this only means we take this recognition as motivation to strive harder to meet each and every expectation of our valued customers. I once again take this recognition as inspiration to reach higher and greater and ensure we consistently innovate in terms of products and services to meet all the needs and desires of our customers at all times. On behalf of the Joyalukkas Group I would like to thank all our valued customers and the prestigious Superbrand body for this valuable recognition” The global conglomerate, Joyalukkas’s current business interest includes Jewellery, Fashion & Silks, Money Exchange, Luxury Air Charter, Malls & Realty. The jewellery business of Joyalukkas is one of the most awarded and recognized jewelry retailing chain. Joyalukkas is also the first jeweler to be awarded the ISO 9001: 2008 and 140001:2004 certifications. Joyalukkas has been recognized under the Dubai Quality Appreciation Program for strong adherence to quality across all its departments.

he would have ended up “in a mental asylum or six feet under” if he hadn’t changed his lifestyle. “I never drank in order to be creative, or to do the research,” he said. “I didn’t need alcohol for any of that. At first alcohol was like a crutch outside of Dior. Then I would use it to crash after the collections.”

“I’d take a couple of days to get over it, like everyone.

But with more collections, the crash happened more often, and then I was a slave to it.” “Then the pills kicked in because I couldn’t sleep. Then the other pills kicked in because I couldn’t stop shaking. I would also have these huge bottles of liquor that people got for me. Towards the end, it was whatever I could get my hands on.”

“Vodka, or vodka-and-tonic. Wine, in the belief it would help me sleep. Wrong. I did manage to stop the voices. I had all these voices in my head, asking so many questions, but I never for one second would admit I was an alcoholic. I thought I could control it.” Galliano, who spent nearly 15 years at Dior, is widely considered to be one of the most brilliant fashion minds of his generation. However, his rehabilitation following the racism scandal has been difficult. Last month, New York’s Parsons School of Design canceled a workshop he had been set to give at the prestigious fashion college. — AFP

British fashion designer John Galliano

G

iordano, the fashion retailer for everyday essential wardrobe, has rolled out its new collection for summer 2013. Made using natural fabrics, the new Linen collection features a variety of styles perfect to create your complete summer look. “The collection was designed keeping in mind the Middle East as we strive to make our customers feel good and comfortable when wearing our products. The Giordano Linen collection is what you need to beat the sweat and enjoy the summer season,” commented Ishwar Chugani, Managing Director of Giordano Middle East FZE and Executive Director of Giordano International.

Linen is a natural material valued for its coolness and freshness; it is also renowned for its excellent absorbing qualities. In hot weather those dressed in linen are found to show the skin temperature 3º - 4ºC below that of their silk or cotton-

wearing friends. According to a study person wearing linen perspires 1.5 times less than when dressed in cotton and twice less than when dressed in viscose clothes.

MEN SUMMER COLLECTION For the fashionable man, Giordano suggests a summer look that focuses on natural colours and relaxed shapes. Made from 100 per cent linen shirts in natural shades like White, Black, Navy Blue, Bleeched Blue, Pastel Pink and Natural. Also available are cotton-linen shirts in stripe and checks with details like roll-up sleeves and band collar are suggested for the top wear. Shirts can be paired with heavy washed linen trousers available in White, Black, Navy and Natural shades and linencotton washed & weathered blazers available in Natural, Grey, Khaki and Bleeched Blue shades.

WOMEN SUMMER COLLECTION White, black, pink and pastel yellow and bright shades of pink and berry are the key colours this summer according to Giordano. Shirts in 100 per cent linen and tops with natural base & Drapy linen cotton tops are available for this campaign; these can be well coordinated with Women’s drawstring Linen trousers made of 100 per cent Linen available in White, Khaki, and Natural and Black shades made of Cotton Linen. The new GIORDANO Linen collection is available in Giordano stores until the end of July. Customers can also enjoy exceptional offers and great values this DSS at Giordano, from June 7th to Sept 7th 2013.

Ben Tucker performs during his 80th birthday celebration

M

usician Ben Tucker performed with stars from Quincy Jones to Peggy Lee before he settled in the 1970s in Savannah, where the jazz bassist became one of the Georgia city’s best-known working musicians. He was killed in a car crash Tuesday at age 82. Tucker was driving a golf cart across a road on Hutchinson Island when a car slammed into him at high speed, said Savannah-Chatham County police spokesman Julian Miller. Tucker was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The driver of the car that struck him was charged with vehicular homicide and other criminal counts.

The news stunned musicians and jazz enthusiasts in Savannah, where Tucker had been a musical fixture for roughly four decades. Tucker made his living playing upright bass - an instrument he’d named Bertha and claimed was 240 years old in all sorts of settings from jazz festivals to wedding receptions, from nightclub gigs to bar mitzvahs. “One of the most interesting things about playing with Ben was he was so beloved by so many people in Savannah who had met him at his club or whose weddings he had played,” said Howard Paul, a jazz guitarist and president/CEO of Benedetto Guitars who played and recorded with Tucker for more than 20 years.

“You could count on being interrupted at least three times in a song because Savannahians would walk up and shake his hand while we were playing.” Before he moved to the Georgia coast, Tucker had some success as a songwriter - perhaps most notably with “Comin’ Home Baby,” a song co-written with jazz vocalist Bob Dorough, which was recorded by Mel Torme, Herbie Mann and more recently Michael Buble. By the end of the 1960s, he had toured with Lee and performed and recorded with jazz greats such as Dexter Gordon, Buddy Rich and Jones.

Paul was a young Army lieutenant scheduled to deploy to Operation Desert Storm when he arrived in Savannah 22 years ago. A friend sent him to a nightclub Tucker operated at the time, and the bassist invited him on stage to play that night and all week. “He was on the music scene for so many years and performed with many of the greatest names in jazz, yet he spent so much time with local musicians and children as well,” Paul said.

“I think he grew up in an era of jazz musicians where they felt obligated to give back.” The Savannah Morning News reported Tucker was also a former owner of radio stations WSOK-AM and WLVH-FM. Police said the crash that killed Tucker, who was also an avid golfer, remained under investigation. The driver of the car that hit Tucker’s golf cart, identified as 52-year-old Robert William Martin of Spicewood, Texas, was being held without bond in the Chatham County jail on charges of vehicular homicide, racing and reckless driving. It was not immediately known Tuesday if Martin had an attorney.

Julius “Boo” Hornstein, a Savannah psychotherapist and jazz writer, befriended Tucker and worked with him for years in the Coastal Jazz Association, which organizes the Savannah Jazz Festival. Hornstein said Tucker took excellent care of himself for a man in his 80s and kept a steady gig playing Sunday brunch at a Savannah hotel, where he had been scheduled to perform the night of his death. “He was a working musician right to the end,” Hornstein said. “He was so instrumental in the music life of Savannah.”— AP

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

lifestyle

P

ersil Abaya Shampoo, a German technology product from Henkel, yesterday announced a unique campaign with the leading Abaya brands across the GCC. As part of the campaign, consumers buying Persil Abaya Shampoo have the opportunity to win one of the 13 beautiful Abayas made with Swarovski Elements. Consumers will also receive a 25% discount coupon on selected Abayas made with Swarovski Elements to be redeemed at the above Abaya retailers across the GCC region. With this new initiative, Henkel is offering its consumers not only the perfect cleanliness and care to their abayas but also the

chance to win sparkling abayas made with Swarovksi Elements.

Consumers have to scan the 2-dimensional barcode (QR) using their smart phones to enter the competition and increase their chances of winning by accumulating points at various touch points. This new campaign is launched across GCC targeting 200 Persil Abaya Shampoo retail outlets & 83 Abaya retail stores in the GCC. The campaign will be promoted with traditional below the line advertising, as well as social media and digital support.

More information can found through Persil Abaya

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British actress Kate Winslet and boyfriend Ned Rocknroll seen at the presentation ceremony for the 2,000-metre Longines Hong Kong Cup race at the Hong Kong International Races. — AFP

W

omen’s prison workshops across Italy are joining up under a new commercial fashion brand they hope will help encourage more detainees to learn the trade and give them hope for a future on the outside.

The Sigillo (Seal) brand unveiled by the justice ministry this year will be available in the shops within months-a unique experiment that has given new energy to places like a handbag workshop at Rebibbia prison in Rome.

“When I get out I want to have a more normal, a calmer life. With this job I’m sure everything will be okay with me.

I’ve learnt a lot here,” said Kalu Uwaezuoke Chinedum Ike, a Nigerian facing drug trafficking charges. The 40-year-old works three afternoons a week in a room with sewing machines, cutting tables and bars on the windows. Rows of blue-doored cells can be seen from the workshop in what is Italy’s biggest women’s prison with more than 700 detainees.

After more than three years inside as she awaits the conclusion of her trial, Kalu has acquired a knack for stitching and beading. “I’ve always been a person who likes dressing well, even when I didn’t have enough to eat,” she said, adding: “I have a real passion for it!” Prisons in Italy are notoriously overcrowded, and funding has been repeatedly cut in recent years, making for what Justice Minister Annamaria Cancellieri recently called a penal system “that is not worthy of a civilized country”.

There are a few exceptions-innovative projects like a theatre workshop, also at Rebibbia, whose performance of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” became the award-winning film “Caesar Must Die” released two years ago. After three years of bureaucratic hurdles, promoters of Sigillo hope the project-which has 400,000 euros ($520,000) in funding from the justice ministry and 400,000 euros from charitieswill be a similar success.

“The aim of the project is to give female detainees the tools to be in the marketplace once they are released,” said Nanda Roscioli, a former justice ministry employee and consultant who has been involved from the start. Roscioli said it is also a way of countering a prison system oriented towards male detainees in which women are a “subordinate” minority. “This makes conditions for female detainees harsher, more barbaric,” Roscioli said.

“As far as I know this program is unique,” she said.

Daniela Arronenzi, head of the Rebibbia workshop charity, said she signed up to the non-profit project because it would give prison-made garments access to a wider retail network and something resembling an actual fashion business. “Of course, prison is a place of problems. There is

Shampoo Facebook page on https://www.facebook.com /persilabayaworld “Each of these 13 beautiful Abayas embellished with Swarovski Elements are one of a kind pieces that pay homage to Abaya fashion. Consumers can download the application for the campaign through multiple touch points Facebook page of Persil Abaya Shampoo as well as Swarovski Elements, at participating Abaya retail outlets or on Persil Abaya Shampoo bottle”, said Lisa Tohme, Senior Brand Manager - Laundry Care GCC at Henkel Arabia. Persil Abaya Shampoo offers the ultimate level of Abaya cleanli-

scar-winning British actress Kate Winslet is expecting her first child with third husband Ned Rocknroll, whom she married last year, a spokeswoman said Tuesday. “Kate and Ned are delighted” at the news, a publicist told Hollywood celebrity magazine People, while another spokeswoman confirmed the information to AFP but made no comment. The 37-year-old married Rocknroll-a nephew of British tycoon Richard Branson-last December.

She was given away by her “Titanic” co-star Leonardo DiCaprio at an intimate service in New York. Her new 34-year-old husband, who changed his name from Abel Smith, works parttime for his uncle’s space venture Virgin Galactic.

He began dating Winslet in 2011.

ness and black colour retention with its revolutionary German technology ‘black colour lock’, protecting the blackness of the Abaya and keeps as good as new after every wash, besides safeguarding the fabric feel and leaves the Abaya with a long lasting fragrance.

Winslet first married in 1998 to Jim Threapleton, who was assistant director on “Hideous Kinky” in which she starred. They had a daughter, Mia Honey, in 2000 but split up the following year. Husband number two was Sam Mendes, the Oscar-winning British director of “American Beauty”. They married in a ceremony on the Caribbean island of Anguilla in May 2003 and their son Joe Alfie was born seven months later, but they announced an amicable split in 2010. Winslet won her best actress Academy Award in 2009 for “The Reader.”— AFP Juliana Redding

overcrowding, there are budget cuts, but then there is also this,” she said. The initial plan is to hire 10 female detainees from workshops across the country and train 40 more who will produce under the Sigillo brand for big fashion names, as well as filling special orders for corporate marketing products.

The handbags made in Rebibbia sell for up to 40 euros each. Supporters say the project is not exploitative because detainees will receive a regular part-time salary of 600 euros a month-comparable to their counterparts on the outside-and participation is voluntary. Chinedum Ike

For 33-year-old Natalya, who has been inside for three years, making handbags has little to do with glitzy catwalks or commercial success. “For a time, we feel psychologically that we are not inside these walls. That’s the reason for programs like this. To switch off,” said Natalya, who is also a proficient guitarist and pianist who plays at Sunday mass in the chapel. “Sigillo is also about personal satisfaction. When we create things and they are sold, are appreciated, then we enjoy our work,” Natalya said. She added: “When I get out of here, I would like to open a shop.”— AFP

and another member of the Rebibbia cooperative, Ukrainian detainee Natalya, currently receive around 150 euros, which they can send to family or spend on food and hygiene products in the prison. The initiative is supported

by Silvia Venturini Fendi, heiress of the Fendi fashion business, which is owned by French luxury giant LVMH.

Detainee Kalu Uwaezuoke Chinedum Ike (2nd left) listens to explanations from a mentor as she works on handbags inside a workshop of the Rebibbia prison in Rome. — AFP

C

ries and screams erupted in a Los Angeles courtroom as family and friends of an aspiring model heard a jury’s verdict acquitting the 47-year-old woman accused of strangling her. Onlookers in the courtroom who knew victim Juliana Redding shouted obscenities and called defendant Kelly Soo Park a murderer. They appeared ready to pounce on Park - who prosecutors had described as a killer-for-hire and were held back by deputies as she turned and was led through a rear entrance.

Jurors had been escorted out a back way before the outburst. Park wept when the final verdict was announced.

Redding’s family left the courthouse without comment. District Attorney Jackie Lacey later issued a statement saying prosecutors believed in the strength of the evidence and had fought hard and fair in court. “Although we disagree with the verdict, we respect our system of justice,” Lacey said. Prosecutors had depicted Park as a hired killer who strangled Redding with her bare hands on instructions from the model’s former boyfriend.

The panel returned two separate verdicts in the case after struggling with legal definitions and receiving additional instructions. The panel initially found Park not guilty of firstdegree murder. After hearing more arguments from lawyers, jurors deliberated further and came back with an acquittal on the lesser included offense of second-degree murder. They had reported on Monday that they were deadlocked on the seconddegree murder charge with two jurors in disagreement. They asked for clarification of the difference between first- and second-degree murder.

The judge allowed attorneys for both sides to address the panel briefly with additional arguments. Deputy District Attorney Stacy Okun-Wiese explained the legal requirements to convict Park. Park’s lawyer, George Buehler, told the panel: “There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what happened in the apartment.” Redding was killed in Santa Monica in 2008. Prosecutors alleged that Park strangled her with her bare hands and left overwhelming DNA evidence on the body and around the apartment.

They say a doctor who had dated Redding gave Park a six-figure payment to kill her after a business deal soured with Redding’s father. During the trial, there was testimony from the father that he heard the boyfriend refer to Park as a female James Bond. He did not elaborate. Defense attorneys say Park lacked the brutal, evil intent the crime required, and she wasn’t there when Redding was killed. Attorney Mark Kasabian said the defense was gratified with the outcome of the trial, but it was a tragic case. He said the Redding family had lost a daughter in a terrible crime. “I hope they find who killed her,” he said.— AP

Abayas up for grabs at Persil Abaya Shampoo

THURSDAY, JUNE 6, 2013

39

A picture shows the Musee du Quai Branly museum in Paris. From today, a massively enlarged version of a work by Australian Aboriginal artist Lena Nyadbi will adorn the roof of the multimedia library at the French capital’s Musee du Quai Branly on the banks of the Seine. — AFP

M

ove over Mona Lisa! Paris is about to unveil a new work of art that, just like Leonardo da Vinci’s masterpiece, will be seen by millions of visitors every year. From Thursday, a massively enlarged version of a work by Australian Aboriginal artist Lena Nyadbi will adorn the roof of the multimedia library at the French capital’s Musee du Quai Branly on the banks of the Seine.

Created by stencils and with the same kind of rubberised paint used for traffic signs, the 700-square-metre (7,500 sq. ft) installation has been designed to be visible from several different levels of the nearby Eiffel Tower, which draws in around seven million visitors every year.

The enlarged version of Dayiwul Lirlmim (Barramundi Scales), a black and white abstract work, is 46 times bigger than the ochre and charcoal original created by Nyadbi.

The piece is a visual representation of a dreaming story from the Gija people of Western Australia in which three women try to catch a barramundi. The fish escapes them but, in the process, it scatters its scales across the territory of the Gija in the East Kimberley region of Western Australia. In Aboriginal culture, dreaming stories often provide an account of creation. In the case of the Dayiwul Lirlmim, the scattered scales explain the presence of diamonds in an area that is now home to the world’s largest diamond mine.

Opened in 2006, the Quai Branly museum showcases non-European art and houses more than 3,000 pieces and artefacts from Oceania, including hundreds of Aboriginal weapons, boomerangs, tools and sculptures. The museum recently hosted an exhibition of the largest collection of

modern Aboriginal paintings to have gone on display outside of Australia. “The Sources of Aborigine Painting”, was a major hit, drawing 133,716 visitors over the course of three months in which Paris was also hosting blockbuster collections of the works of Edward Hopper and Salvador Dali.

Nyadbi’s work is already a permanent fixture in the museum as she created a mural, Jimbirla and Gemerre (spearheads and scarifications) that adorns one of the external walls, which can be seen from the capital’s Rue de l’Universite. Works by seven other Australian Aboriginal artists are featured on ceilings throughout the museum.

The popularity of these works inspired the museum to think about what it could do with the roof, which the building’s acclaimed architect, Jean Nouvel, was reluctant to leave as a dull, monotone grey.

Now in her late 70s, Nyadbi is expected to attend Thursday’s inauguration of her rooftop work and a parallel exhibition of eight Gija artists which will be on display at the nearby Australian embassy. The trip to Paris represents the latest stage in a remarkable life journey for a woman who worked on cattle farms before starting her career as an artist under the auspices of the Warmun Art Centre.— AFP

By Chidi Emmanuel

YOSH’s ‘M’ series was introduced in 2012. The ‘M’ collection represents a departure from Han’s signature ethereal fragrances and instead debuts an exploration of fragrances that can evoke our primal nature. SombreNegra (or black shadow) is the debut scent in the new ‘M’ Series. “It is at once omnipresent and ghostly with an arousing intrigue. Its multi-faceted scent reveals sumptuous forest notes of vetiver and torchwood with brooding undertones of patchouli, smoked cedar and spicy cumin,” she explained. “Han’s fragrances are the ultimate fashion accessory that any fashionista would obsess over. Delve into any one of fragrances and open up a world where you can set moods and ignite your inner radiance,” Han added. The 7 perfumes of Yoshs’ own fragrance collection are YOSH Evanescent Collection White Flowers 1.41; YOSH Evanescent Collection Sottile 1.61; YOSH Evanescent Collection U4EAHH 2.43; YOSH Evanescent

Collection Ginger Ciao 2.27; YOSH Evanescent Collection Stargazer 7.71; YOSH Evanescent Collection Omniscent 0.96 and YOSH Evanescent Collection Sombre Negra M:001.

I

Olfactory artist Yosh Han unveils her fragrance portfolio collections for the first time in the Middle East in Kuwait yesterday. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

n a world that has been bombarded with scents and fragrances from all corners of the globe, YOSH Evanescent Collection stands distinct from all others. “It is all about bringing out the you in you,” Olfactory artist Yosh Han said during an exclusive interview with Kuwait Times as she unveiled her fragrance portfolio for the first time in the Middle East.

Exclusively showcased at the Parfumeried’ exception, the YOSH Evanescent Collection and its ‘M’ series comprise an artisanal portfolio of perfumes created by Yosh Han, the widely recognized San Francisco-born custom perfumer, whose fragrance line is fast becoming a perfume of choice for anyone and everyone in the know. The evanescent collection is a fragrance concept that has been grasped in all six of the multi-faceted fragrances.

“I just wanted to create a perfume that reflects the inner and the external emotions. Each one has been crafted with the finest ingredients from all over the world and with an intuitive approach, they all embrace subtle energies as a way to more fully enjoy the vibrational power of perfume,” Han explained, adding that the fragrance accessories are the true eau de perfumes that have an almost cult-like oomph and are loved by celebrities such as Kate Hudson, Naomi Watts and Michelle Pfeiffer.

THE UNIQUENESS “The Evanescent collection is much more than a sampling of scents; it is a full wardrobe of perfumes that can be worn throughout winter and summer. The collections are attuned to offer their own trans-aromatic experience, so that as the senses are transported by the scent, you are also transformed. They have the power to do more than just respond to changing climates. When soft sensitive moments call for a fragrance evocative of dreamy landscapes, the graceful and feminine Sottile will transport you there and capture the understated essence of your inward beauty. Whereas flirty, playful whims demand a scent like Ginger Ciao that is magnetic and seductive and will propel you into the limelight,” Han said.

ABOUT YOSH HAN Yosh Han is Taiwanese American. She grew up with a botanical background - her mother was a trained ikebana - Japanese art of floral arrangements - master. Han began her perfume career in 1994 as an apprentice to a perfumer in Aspen Colorado. She learned how to identify and combine essential healing oils and perfume essences. She blends in her own modern practice of ancient art of perfumery, creating signature scents that entice the senses and fascinate the mind and enchant the soul. Today she uses these elixirs in her own modern practice of the ancient art of perfumery.